Published: March 30, 2006 02:11 am         

Rumors of school-day walkout prove to be not true

GREENVILLE — While there was a small student protest rally at the Hunt County Courthouse Wednesday, no students in the Greenville Independent School District actually walked out of classes over immigration policy as occurred in Dallas and other cities the past two days.

GISD spokesman Brad Press said rumors that such a walkout would occur did not prove to be true.

“We did have information today that walkouts similar to those might occur at the middle school and the high school, but nothing materialized,” Press said. “We were present at those two campuses and monitored the situation very closely, but to our knowledge nothing occurred during school hours.”

Rallies were held Monday and Tuesday across Texas, with thousands of students walking out of class in Dallas, Fort Worth and several suburbs, according to the Associated Press.

Several school districts were reported to be taking tough disciplinary action against students who continued to walk out of class Wednesday in protest of proposed changes to immigration law.

On Wednesday students also participated in smaller marches in Houston-area districts of Alvin, Katy, Baytown and Galena Park.

Press praised both GISD staff and students for exercising restraint.

“I know the principals and teachers on those two campuses have, for the last two days, spent a lot of time talking with the students about this,” Press said.

“Students were not asked to give up their right to protest, but were encouraged to have any type of planned protest occur after school hours to preserve the instructional day. I know at the middle school specifically, several of the students involved worked directly with the school administration to keep any type of protest restricted to after school. The students are to be commended for that.”