Students Protest War by Walking Out

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

(03/20/07-- CHAPEL HILL) (WTVD) -- To date, more than 3000 soldiers have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than 23,000 are injured. As the war enters its 5th year, students at UNC Chapel Hill say enough is enough.

They walked out of class and across campus to get their message across Tuesday.

A similar scene played out at N.C. State. Students gathered at the Bell Tower to shout out their concerns. And in the crowd was several high school students.

Some of the students were just 15. They can't vote for three more years, but they say they want to be heard now.

Their message is simple. "Troops home now. Troops home now."
Their reasons vary. Valerie Dudley, a senior at Southeast Raleigh High School explains.
"I have cousins and I have an uncle in Iraq. I feel like the war has been long over and it was very purposeless in the beginning."

Brooke, a 10th grader from Enloe adds, "My uncle just got back from Iraq so it's not like we're against the troops or anything we're just against the war."

This is Pagan Lenz's first protest. It could end up being the first time she's suspended from school as well.
"I really don't care what they do to me at school because this is what I believe in," Lenz said.

Her parents don't mind either. Her father, Henry Lenz, served with the 82nd Airborne. "I'm proud of her for it. This is a war we should have never been in," he said.

Some of the high school protestors don't have their parent's permission to walk out of class. That's why some of them stood behind a banner and keeping their face away from our camera.

Meanwhile, police on horseback stayed back to let the rally for peace play out.

Eyewitness News called Wake County Schools and they tell us if the students had protested on their own campuses and disrupted the school day, then they would have been suspended.

Instead they'll just have to make up the work they missed.