Mass Student March 2006
By Scott Martindale
Thousands of students marched through the streets of downtown Los Angeles on April 15 to protest immigration reform measures currently before Congress. They traveled the same route as 500,000 demonstrators three weeks earlier in one of the biggest marches in Los Angeles history.
The students, who protested the proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration, also worked to dispel stereotypical portrayals of young people as uninformed, indifferent and lacking the passion and energy of past generations.
“The media’s sort of vilified young people and played them as these ignorant kids who just want to run around the streets and act crazy,” said Iliana Carter-RamÃrez, 22, the emcee of the two-hour rally that followed the march. “I really think that students are smarter than we give them credit for.”
About 30 students helped organize the march as part of a group called the Coalition of United Students. The organization — which includes middle and high school students, college students and recent graduates — was formed at the March 25 demonstration in downtown Los Angeles.
A group of students who met at the march decided they could become a vocal influence in the immigration debate.
“It makes me really proud that we were able to show the media and the government that we were able to do a good job,” organizer Yecica Garcia, 18, said during the march.
The students dedicated to the march to the memory of 14-year-old Anthony Soltero, an Ontario eighth grader who committed suicide March 30 after a school administrator allegedly threatened him with fines and prison time for participating in a student walk out.
“It could have been any of us,” said organizer Sara Kozameh, 22. “No one should face that pressure. Demonstrating is a First Amendment right.”
