Thousands of students, teachers, janitors and other school employees crowded campuses, civic centers and roads Thursday in a massive show of force against education budget cuts.
The mostly peaceful gatherings brought to the streets people who had experienced the state cuts in a variety of ways: layoffs, student-fee hikes, an inability to get into classes. The protests, billed as a Day of Action, also were staged in other states.
In a break from the relatively uneventful rallies, more than 150 protesters were arrested after they marched onto Interstate 880 in downtown Oakland as the evening commute was beginning, shutting the roadway in both directions. One person was hospitalized after falling from a tree near the freeway; his name and condition were not immediately known.
After holding a midday rally that blocked the intersection of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue near UC Berkeley, about 1,000 demonstrators walked nearly five miles from the campus to Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, in front of Oakland City Hall. There, they joined with at least 200 community-college and high-school students and employees to rail against legislators, school administrators, the media and a variety of other groups.
State and school leaders are "morally bankrupt," UC Berkeley librarian Jason Schultz told the Oakland crowd.
"It's messed up, folks," he shouted. "Let's reclaim this university."
Protesters blocked the main entrance of Oakland City Hall with a large banner reading, "Fight
Back."Despite the late arrests, school officials and authorities expressed relief at the mostly quiet protests. Police had admitted some apprehension about the protests, especially after last week's overnight UC Berkeley rally, which led to vandalism to campus buildings and nearby businesses.
In Concord, more than 300 students and parents walked off the Mt. Diablo High School campus just after 1 p.m., eliciting compliments from administrators and police for their behavior.
"They did a good job," School Resource Officer Todd Stroud said. "There were no problems."
The protests followed months of growing unrest throughout the state's educational institutions, including violent clashes between demonstrators and police at UC Berkeley in the fall