Area Students Rally Against Cutbacks

Over 100 high school students from Boston and Cambridge gathered in front of the Massachussetts State House yesterday to protest Proposition 2 1/2 and the effect it will have on public education.

"Proposition 2 1/2 is an absolute disaster and will destroy our public school system." State Sen. Alan D. Sisitsky told the crowd, adding. 'We have to stop the effects of 2 1/2 before Massachussetts becomes a state like Appalachia"

The rally was organized by the Boston Area Coalition, a group of local high school students working without help from teachers or administrators.

Thief

"We don't have the education and experience adults do, so Governor King has nothing to fear in taking things away from us," Clark H. Warner, a student at Cambridge Ringe and Latin, told the crowd. "But we will be heard and won't stand around while our education is being threatened," he added.

Message

"Some of us have gotten the message that if government is responsible for anything, it is responsible for taking care of people who cannot take care of themselves," State Sen. George Bachrach said, adding, "The Governor seems to have forgotten that."

Bachrach later added that he hoped the legislature would come up with $350 million in additional local aid by July 1.

Sisitsky said there is not enough public support to rescind Proposition 2 1/2. "We need time and events to let it sink in and let the people feel the effects," he said, adding that pressure from cuts in police and fire protection would "force events."

Students on the Common said they thought the demonstration was good because it brought together the different races in the area over a common issue.

School's Out

Cambridge students received permission to march from the Cambridge School Committee several weeks ago, providing they had parental consent to attend the demonstration. Rindge and Latin officials said they would take attendence twice to see who had left without permission. Boston Latin School students who rallied yesterday will be suspended from school for two days.

State Rep. Mel King told the students they "were a great sight," adding "the issues are money and power." He urged them to go out and persuade their friends and their parents to use their votes to make the government "put money into human development."

"It moves me to see so many students taking their destinies into their own hands," the Rev. Earl Jackson, of the Mass. Ave. Baptist Church, told the crowd. "God is on your side," he added.

Warren G. Ferzoco, a teacher at Rindge and Latin, said he thought the protest was good. "Kids see things happening and they organize on their own," he said.