By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
More than 100 Princeton High School students huddled around a platform in front of the school Wednesday to protest the war in Iraq.
Led by a student speaking into a megaphone, the demonstrators shouted anti-war chant after chant.
A few pro-Iraq war activists also gathered outside of the school building, remaining on the paved patio adjacent to the building, on this fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led military coalition’s invasion of Iraq.
That group didn’t remain outside long as their voices were soon drowned by, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, imperial war has got to go,” “Step back, Get Out of Iraq,” and “No More Dumb War.”
The hour-long protest, which stretched through almost two class periods and began with a walkout from the school building, included students with varying degrees of passion regarding the war. Some of the participants cut classes, accepting the consequences of disobeying their teachers, while others stopped by during a free period.
Sophomore Maya Chhabra, who cut both her chemistry and gym classes to participate in the protest, was the first student to join the demonstration leaders on the platform to share her thoughts on the war.
”A lot of people say a walkout is stupid because it’s not going to have any real effect,” she told her fellow protesters. “Many of the people in the government are not even talking about how to get out of Iraq. There are nearly 4,000 people dead and that’s 4,000 people with families and it’s ridiculous that the government has not pulled out yet.”
Another student that stepped up to the platform broke into tears while speaking about Iraqi children that have been killed by U.S soldiers since the war began.
Other students decided to participate in the protest because of the war’s impact on their way of life.
”It’s not helping us personally,” said 10th-grader Wilson Urias. “It’s just raising taxes and gas prices.”
Both Wilson and ninth-grader Laura Vasquez agreed that the U.S. has wasted too much time fighting in Iraq.
”It was maybe OK when we were there for just a little while, but now it’s gotten out of hand,” Ms. Vasquez said.
Although school district administrators were not pleased that students skipped classes that afternoon, they admitted to feeling proud about what the young activists were doing.
”It’s good to see the students that go here have these convictions,” said Lewis Goldstein, assistant superintendent for the district’s human resources, public information and community relations.
Principal Gary R. Snyder said he was happy that all participants handled themselves appropriately.
”We would obviously have preferred for students to have been in class, but given the circumstances and everything else, the students who did leave class left class respectfully and expressed themselves in appropriate ways.
”The students who chose to stay in class made a good decision on their part and I’m proud of that, but on both sides of the issues students who made a choice to leave class made a good choice,” he added. “They understood they would receive a detention and that really isn’t the focus of what happened yesterday. Ultimately, a lot of learning went on.”
The protest was organized by members of the New Jersey Students for Peace, an affiliate of the Coalition for Peace Action that has held the event in years past. The most recent March 19 anti-Iraq War demonstration at the high school occurred two years ago, according to Mr. Goldstein.
