GMHS Lasso Online News Story

60+ Students Cut Class, Join March Against Pending Immigration Bills

Snee Offers Two-Pronged Amnesty

(April 1, 2006)

Over 60 Mason students walked out of school Thursday to join with hundreds of other Northern Virginia high school students who were intent on protesting certain immigration bills in front of Congress that they felt would be overly punitive toward immigrants.

The students left school shortly after 9 a.m. during nutrition break so as not to unduly disrupt classes. About 100 students initially left school, but nearly 30 of them “got cold feet” as one participant put it and returned to school.

The other 60 proceeded on their trek toward Clarendon and eventually, some six miles later, met up with other students near Ballston Metro and walked to Courthouse Plaza in Arlington for a rally.

The local protests followed many others that have been staged across the country, beginning with over 500,000 people who marched peacefully in Los Angeles last weekend. Since then many smaller college and high school protests have sprung up around the nation, all focused on certain Congressional immigration bills.

Friday morning Mason principal Bob Snee met with the nearly 60 students who left school without any prior permission on Thursday and offered them an amnesty of sorts. These students had left school without prior permission from their parents, a clear violation of school policy.

Principal Bob Snee, foreground, met with the nearly 60 students who left school on Thursday to protest certain immigration bills pending in Congress. Snee offered an amnesty to any students who left school without parental permission. He told them that they had to provide a note from their parents excusing the absence and that they had to provide him a copy of the letter they sent to their congressman explaining their views on immigration. Successful completion of these two requirements would result in their earning “excused absence” status. (Photo by Bjorn Westergard)

Snee told the protesters that for them to move from their current condition of illegal absences to excused absences, they needed to do two things by Monday afternoon. First, they needed to submit a note from their parents excusing their absences for the march and, second, they needed to write a letter to their congressman (Rep. Jim Moran) or United States Senator explaining their views on the immigration laws currently under consideration in Congress. Students were to mail their letters to Congress and provide Snee with a copy. Snee went so far as to provide all students with Moran’s congressional and local addresses. Snee made it clear that any students who do not comply with these two requirements would be considered “absent unexcused” and would suffer any resultant consequences.