Anti-war sentiment at Paly spilled into the street yesterday when students started an anti-war protest during third and fourth period.

According to 16-year-old sophomore Mike Appuhn, 20 students used their third period class, which was a prep for some, to make signs and protest at the intersection of El Camino and Embarcadero roads. There were nine student protesters left by fourth period, and the crowd eventually subsided at the beginning of lunch, although many students gathered again at a Stanford protest later in the day.

Students held up home-made signs, predominantly "Honk for peace". The mood among the protesters was light as they urged stopped cars to honk. "C’mon you know you wanna," one student said to a man and some kids in a car. The protesters cheered when the grinning man honked as he rounded the curb.

Not everyone reacted positively to the signs however. Two men in a van shouted invectives at the students protesting. "Get back to class [expletive deleted]!" the man in the van said. "Does your mommy know you’re on the street?".

A student responding to the man in the van said, "Why doesn’t he go fight,"

Midway through fourth period, another student drove up with his truck and a "Dumbek" drum and two horns. Soon the drum and the horns added to the honks that the protesters received.
More than half the students present during fourth period were cutting their classes. Most students said their parents were against the war in Iraq, but no parents would clear their students’ truancy.

"I would say that my mom… she would support me expressing what I believe," Paly Sophomore Gabrielle Ault-Riché said.
Senior Leigh Atkins said. "My mom is not all for me cutting school. She will not clear cuts."

Protesters emphasized the importance of speaking out about what they believe in, even if it does not change the immediate reality of the war in Iraq.

"I don’t think that our signs are going to stop the bombs but we can’t just go to school and act as if this is a regular day because it isn’t," Ault-Riché said. "It’s because we’re living our cozy lives we’re the ones who have to stand up for those who aren’t."

When not exhorting drivers, whooping, or blowing horns, the protesting students talked about protesting and quoted slogans. One was the Skateboarding Company Sector Nine catchphrase "Bomb hills not countries," Paly student Mark Carilli said. "If they weren’t spending money on bombs they could spend money on teachers," Carilli said.

Appuhn and Leigh were concerned about possible stereotyping of student protesters. "It’s not just a bunch of people who want to cut class and smoke weed," sophomore Mike Appuhn said.

The protest leaders started planning the protest on Tuesday, March 18, before the war officially started. The two had been to protests organized by other groups. The protest leaders decided to gather people and make signs as soon as the bombing started

——————————–
Rebecca Yang also contributed to this story