Walkouts Continue For 2nd Day; Students Converge On Downtown EP
EL PASO, TX. – Hundreds of students walked out of at least7 area high schools, with a large group converging on San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso just before 2pm Thursday.
As of late Thursday afternoon, students from El Paso High, Hanks High and Eastwood High had all tried to stage walkouts of their own. Reports into ABC-7 had the turnout at the Hanks walkout at less than 50, with even less attempting the walkout at Eastwood.
The day started with students at Canutillo High walking out of class shortly after 9am. Estimates had the number of students walking out between 100 to 250.
That group of students then walked southbound by I-10, followed by EPPD cruisers, headed toward San Jacinto Plaza in Downtown El Paso. ABC-7’s Martin Bartlett reported that students at the Plaza were from several schools throughout the area.
Students at Socorro High had planned a morning walk out, however the campus was locked down. According to our ABC-7 crew, non-Socorro ISD students attempted to enter the campus and were detained by police.
The school was briefly placed under lockdown, then they were released to lunch, and then some 300 students then staged the walkout. (full story here )
According to police scanner traffic, students at Socorro ISD’s El Dorado High School staged a walkout shortly before 10am.
There had been a rumor thatMontwood High students walked out only to find Socorro PD and El Paso PDunits. According to SISD, those students did not leave the classroom.
ABC-7 can also confirm students at Irvin attempted a walk out, but were quickly returned to class. According to witnesses, Irvin students again left campus shortly before noon.
Police scanner traffic indicated that students at EPISD’s Austin high school were walked out of class shortly after 10:30am.That group of students was estimated to be between 200 to 250 strong.
This is the second day of walkouts in the El Paso area,following Wednesday’s walk out of students from 5 high schools.
