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Education:

Students skip school to protest education cuts

Students Rally on the Strip

Justin M. Bowen

Rachel Levy holds a sign as she yells in front of the Bellagio while Clark County high school students rally Friday, April 29, 2011, in protest of cuts to the education budget.

Students Rally on the Strip

Jaynie Connor holds a sign in front of the Bellagio as Clark County high school students rally Friday, April 29, 2011, in protest of cuts to the education budget. Launch slideshow »

Student protest

KSNV coverage of protest by valley high school students over proposed education budget cuts, April 29, 2011.

Like many second-semester seniors, Anthony Arroyo took a “senior cut day” on Friday.

But instead of heading to California for a weekend at the beach, the 17-year-old showed up on the Las Vegas Strip to protest some $400 million in proposed budget cuts to the Clark County School District next year.

Arroyo, a 17-year-old aspiring chemical engineer, was among a few hundred high school students from across the valley who gathered Friday morning in front of Caesars Palace and the Bellagio to call attention to the ramifications of slashing education funding.

Unlike previous budget cut protests, such as those at Bonanza and Chaparral high schools, students attending the “Don’t Gamble With Our Education” rally wanted to get their message out beyond their school campuses to a broader audience.

Students yelled “Save our education” as cars whizzed by, some heeding the calls of signs that said “Honk for education.” They urged passersby, many of them tourists, to sign a petition pleading for more school funding.

Steaven Rojas, 18, was one of the main organizers of the rally. As the student body president at Desert Oasis High School, he contacted students at other valley high schools, encouraging them to skip school and take to the streets on Friday.

“We didn’t just miss school to miss school,” Rojas said, adding that the students were told to inform their teachers and get permission from their parents to attend the rally. “There is no better reason to miss school than to save education.”

Ellen Spears, 48, was one of a few parents who attended the rally. She said she drove five students to the rally, including her 16-year-old daughter, Savanna Spears, a junior at Desert Oasis.

“I’m here to support my daughter,” she said. “The most important thing, duty, this country has is developing our youth. How are they going to correct all of our problems without an education?”

Spears defended her decision to allow her daughter to miss school for the protest.

“Doing the right thing takes hard work and sacrifice,” she said. “These kids are sacrificing a day of school so their voices can be heard. I’m so proud of them, because a complacent society is a dying society.”

As classical music blared over the loudspeakers near the Bellagio fountains, 17-year-old Jacob Merriam lamented the cuts being contemplated in the music department at Desert Oasis High School.

A violin player with his school orchestra, Merriam said he worries about the fate of smaller electives, such as choir. School administrators and teachers have said that after-school clubs and sports, such as softball and wrestling, might also be cut, the senior said.

“They’re going to cut so many programs, it’s not even funny,” Merriam said.

At Desert Oasis, there are as many as 45 students in some classes, said Christina Walling, a 16-year-old junior. Because of the crowding, Nevada’s already low education ranking might sink even further, she said.

“It hinders our chances at college,” Walling said. “Even if we have the same grades, they know Nevada students are (ranked) lower.”

Palo Verde High School senior Hillary Willson’s main concern is teacher layoffs. Both of Willson’s parents are teachers facing pay cuts, she said.

“I think that teachers are teaching our future,” she said. “Teachers need to be paid more because they help everybody.”

Willson, 18, will attend the University of Kansas next year to study broadcast journalism. But she said she felt it was important to attend the rally, even though her school days here are almost finished.

“I came because I have a younger brother going to Palo Verde next year and three younger cousins in first- and second-grades,” she said. “They should have the same education and opportunities I got.”

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