O.C. Latino Students, Police Clash : Protest: Officers use pepper spray and batons when hundreds of college and high school marchers demanding Chicano studies block traffic near Fullerton College. Six demonstrators are jailed and several hurt.

FULLERTON —  About 300 high school and college students clashed with police Thursday near Fullerton College when a demonstration demanding more Chicano studies in the schools turned violent, causing slight injuries to several students and leading to six arrests.

Police officers, some in riot gear, used pepper spray to quell the crowd of students, who had been using the Mexican Independence Day observance as a symbolic springboard for their protest.

The clash occurred after a couple hundred students from several Orange County high schools staged an orchestrated walkout and marched to the two-year junior college.

Police said the demonstration at the college grew unruly about 1:30 p.m., when the protesters decided to take to the streets and blocked traffic on Lemon Street, a few blocks from the campus. The marching students ignored orders from Fullerton officers to disperse, authorities said.

A short time later, about 60 backup officers from Anaheim, La Habra, Placentia and Buena Park arrived to help Fullerton officers, who arrested several students considered the “instigators” of the disturbance, police said.

Fullerton police spokeswoman Sylvia Palmer Mudrick said the students, angered by the arrests, started yelling and threatening the officers.

“Rather than use deadly force, our officers used pepper spray to control the situation,” Mudrick said. “They did the smart thing.” She said the officers avoided spraying students in the face and did not strike them with batons.

The protesters said they were not looking for a confrontation and contended that they were only trying to follow the officers’ orders when they were attacked. They also said police did hit some marchers with batons.

“We were just marching by the street and an army of policemen swarmed us,” said Rosa Romero, 19, a Fullerton College student. “They started Macing people and hitting them with their sticks. I saw one girl get Maced right in the eyes and people were stepping on her.”

Several of the students had bloodstains on their clothing and were still coughing and rubbing their eyes shortly after the confrontation in reaction to the spray, which is similar to tear gas.

David Rojas, 21, of Fullerton, said the students “made it clear we didn’t want any violence.”

“When we saw the police forming, we began to lock arms and march slowly,” he said. “One (officer) tried to grab one of the guys, but we locked arms and they pulled so hard that several of us fell down and they began Macing us and hitting us with their sticks. There were no power blows, but they did a lot of jabbing with their sticks.”

Marisela Alvarez, a 14-year-old high school student from Anaheim, said the police confused the protesters with their orders.

“The cops . . . misled us into walking one way, and then told us to walk another way,” Alvarez said. “They pushed one of my friends. She was arguing with one of the police . . . and they pushed her down and hit her with the sticks.”

Anaheim High student David Luna, 15, claimed that police were focusing their attacks on the organizers of the event, who were wearing brown shirts. He said he and several others immediately shed their shirts and threw them on the ground.

“We didn’t want the cops hitting us with their sticks,” he said.

The day’s events began when about 270 high school students from several Orange County schools, including Anaheim High and Sonora High in La Habra, staged walkouts to demand Latino teachers and classes on Chicano subjects.

The walkouts were part of a nationwide effort to recognize the “neglect of Chicano students educationally,” spokesman Seferino Garcia said. Walkouts were planned simultaneously in Denver and at several local colleges including UC Riverside, UCLA, Cal State Fullerton and Fullerton College.

At UC Berkeley, a noon rally in support of a Chicano Studies program and in oppostition to Gov. Pete Wilson’s immigration proposals ended when protesting students broke a window and set off fire alarms in one campus building. That was one of 31 student demonstrations at schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, organized to bring attention to Wilson’s recent proposal to remove immigrants’ children from schools.

In Orange County, high school students who walked off their campuses marched to Fullerton College to join a rally commemorating Mexican Independence Day, with ancient Aztec dances, music and speeches. One of the speakers suggested that the crowd march around the streets near the campus, witnesses said.

Richard Nunez, 22, of Yorba Linda, who called himself a leader of the college rally and was later arrested, said the march was not part of the day’s planned activities.

He said those at the rally heard that students from Anaheim High School were not being allowed off campus and that many had climbed fences and were walking on Harbor Boulevard to the college.

“We decided to meet them halfway,” Nunez said. “It was a reaction, a spontaneous thing. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Fullerton College Public Safety Officer Phil Montano said that, until then, the event had been orderly.

“People were voicing their opinions and everything was fine,” he said. “The reason why this happened is they left the campus and blocked the street. It’s not because they’re Mexican. It’s not because they’re green, they’re white, or black or have purple stripes. . . . They got in trouble because they went on the street.”

The students marched for about half a mile, blocking traffic on Chapman Avenue, Harbor Boulevard and Lemon Street, where police intervened, authorities said.

John Lee, 22, who works in a grocery store, said the marchers were chanting “Viva Mexico!” when they passed his store moments before the disturbance began. He said police warned the marchers to disperse.

“The cops were making them get in one big circle,” Lee said, “and that’s when the violence started getting up, and the cops started with their pepper spray.”

Bill McIntosh, who works at a garage across the street from Lee, said the marchers “were making faces at the police and shoving signs in their faces. It was just typical of kids who are demonstrating. You just knew that sooner or later there was going to be trouble, and there was.”

Six people were arrested, Mudrick said. Nunez; Alfred Chavez, 36, of Arleta and Gabriel Castaneda, 20, of Alhambra were booked on suspicion of creating a public nuisance by blocking a street, a misdemeanor. Two 17-year-olds were arrested on suspicion of interfering with a police officer and were expected to be released to their parents. Jesus N. Dominguez, 21, of Fullerton, who was not a part of the original march but later joined it in his car, was arrested on suspicion of disturbing the peace and evading a police officer.

Fullerton College President Philip Borst said news of the melee took him by surprise.

“I think it’s unfortunate when anything of this sort loses its focus,” Borst said. “As far as what happened on campus, I was perfectly pleased. It’s what happened off campus.”

Adela G. Lopez, chair of Fullerton College’s Ethnic Studies Department, said the marchers “wanted to catch the eye, to catch the ear, to get somebody to listen. I wonder if anybody would have even heard about our event if it had not turned out with arrests and unrest.”

Fullerton Mayor Molly McClanahan said she was dismayed by the march down the middle of Harbor Boulevard.

“You can’t have people interfering with traffic,” she said. “They need to talk with the administration (about the Chicano studies). I just hope that whatever issues they have, they can deal with them in an adult way.”

Nunez admitted that the march probably was ill-advised, but he was critical of police.

“The Mace wasn’t necessary,” he said. “The kids were scared. Then they bring out these big sticks. There’s 200 people and you can’t get everyone in one spot.”

Despite the arrests, Nunez said he has no regrets.

“I would do it again,” he said. “I see that the only way you get things done is by acting. If we’re free to act, then we have to act to be free.”

Times correspondents Terry Spencer, Willson Cummer, Mimi Ko and Jon Nalick and staff writer Greg Hernandez contributed to this story.