Students Won't Leave Until GOP Answers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}About 85 students remained holed up inside the library at Boulder High School (search) early Friday, saying they're concerned about the direction the country is headed and refusing to leave until they've met with leaders from the Republican Party.
Some of the students involved in the protest, organized after President Bush (search) won re-election to a second term on Tuesday, placed calls to Republican politicians and left messages.
"We want them to reassure us that our fears are misguided and that the government is doing everything in its power to prevent our futures from being destroyed," said senior Brian Martens.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The students said they were not protesting this week's election, but said they were worried about the huge national debt run up during the first four years of the Bush administration, along with military recruitment in schools and other issues.
The students, who brought sleeping bags and enough food to last through the weekend if needed, said they wanted to talk to representatives of GOP Gov. Bill Owens (search) and 4th District Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, who sponsored the failed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
Students began their protest on Thursday. Boulder police verified with school security officials that the students were allowed to stay overnight and into Friday. Representatives of 2nd District Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, and U.S. Senator-elect Ken Salazar, D-Denver, are expected to visit them sometime during the day.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Boulder High teacher James Vacca expressed pride in the students for staging the protest.
"In an age where narcissistic college students riot in an inarticulate drunken stupor, you have students here at Boulder High School, principled, thoughtful and yet scared of four more years of pre-emptive war, the Patriot Act (search) and an increase in militarism at school through the No Child Left Behind Act," he said.