Students walk out of class for rally

Today around 125 Salt Lake high school students may face detention, suspension and maybe even a few tongue-lashings for ditching class to protest at the City-County Building.

But some parents and even Mayor Rocky Anderson said at their age he would have been right there with them.

East, West, Rowland Hall and Judge Memorial high school students marched to the City-County Building Tuesday morning to protest the Iraq war, No Child Left Behind and the marriage amendment.

Students toted signs that read "No Child Left Us Behind," "Peace for Pride" and "No Child Left a Dime."

The protest was two weeks in the making as leaders from school clubs such as the Young Democrats and Alternative Thinkers and Political Activists made contacts at the four schools and got the word out.

Leaving school Tuesday, kids said they dodged security guards, hall monitors and disciplinary threats as they walked out the doors.

"They tried to scare us — there were people trying to get us to go back inside, but it really was a show of strength to unite and stay together and stick with the mobilization of standing up for our rights and our opinions," said Tyler Bugden, 18, one of the protest leaders.

"We may face suspension, but it is an act of civil disobedience and that's what happens — you take the consequences for the actions you engage in, but this was so important to us that it doesn't matter."

According to Bugden, this wasn't just a group of common truants.

He said many were Advanced Placement and honors students, and some were even part of the International Baccalaureate program.

"What this is really showing is that these kids are willing to walk out of class, miss class, take a truancy, possibly suspension because they feel that their morals are so much more important to them than an hour of school," said Bugden. "We may not make a huge change, but we are thinking globally and acting locally."

The hubbub caught the attention of Anderson, who paid the students a visit amid the constant cheering and honking cars.

"It's young people that usually make the difference," Anderson told protesters. "It was young people that started the environmental movement, it was young people who I think helped bring an end to the Vietnamese War, and I think it is going to be young people that put an end to what's become, I think, a very tragic situation in Iraq."