BY PATRICIA GUTIÉRREZ AND ANA CHÁVEZ 
LOS ANGELES — Students at Fremont High School here walked out September 10 demanding to be heard and calling for their right to an education. Approximately 3,000 students — 90 percent according to school officials — took to the streets, alongside parents who protested in solidarity. Their demands were raised not only for Fremont students, but for all students fighting for their rights, and for all those opposed to the lack of equal education in society today.

A leaflet drafted by Students of Fremont High School includes such demands as:

• Teachers (not substitutes) in all classes,

• A security that respects us and does not search without probable cause (TARDY is not a probable cause),

• Lockers are a right, not a privilege. Students should be given lockers without conditions, and

• A librarian.

For weeks the library had been closed because there was no librarian, and students did not have space within the school to study.

Students who organized the walkout said all their faxes, letters, and calls to the superintendent were ignored. They responded by deciding to take the next step and walk out.

As of the day of the walkout, 17 positions were still not filled with full-time teachers. The school was short on staff, and substitutes were on call every day. That's why permanent teachers was a central demand.

As a result of the walkout, the Los Angeles Unified School District felt pressured to take some actions on what the students were demanding. Seven hundred new lockers have been ordered so that every student can have one, the library was reopened, and the school security has modified its searching policies, student leader Jesus Najera reported. Several student leaders have been included in the process of interviewing new teachers to fill the vacancies.

One week after the protest, the students who organized the action demanded an assembly, which was granted to them. The assembly informed all the students about changes that would be happening within the next weeks and months to address some of their concerns. A student organization was formed shortly before the walkout and strengthened as a result of the student-led action, the Student Organizer for a Better Fremont. It consists of members who are in grades 9-12.

While meeting with the students who were part of the walkout, Luis Ortega, a leader of the organization, said, "I never expected all this media attention towards us." He and co-organizer Najera expressed their determination to continue the fight for a better education in working-class communities such as South-Central Los Angeles, even after they graduate.  
 
 
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