Clovis high school students who stormed in a horn-honking cavalacade through city streets in a burst of lobbying activities Friday afternoon face a blue Monday meeting with Principal Harlan Beasley.

Six of them do, anyway. They will be delegates for 150 others who jammed into one cattle truck and two autos to protest school policy on lunch hours, report card systems, student assemblies, pep rallies, and especially a dislike for a ruling requiring that parents must sign all excuses for tardiness or absences from school.

The method of handing out “excused” and “unexcused” tardiness slips and absence slips by the assistant principal was one of the big targets of the protestors. They also wanted a better explanation of school policies by officials.

The pep rally Friday afternoon drew no applause from downtown residents or police who halted the stop sign running, horn blowing and enthusiastic comments from the juvenile participants.

Children should be seen in school, not heard on streets, police ruled.

They were picked up by Detective Captain Russell Miller and Patrolman Lee Williams while assembling near the city park and brought in a caravan to the courtroom in City Hall.

Police Chief Bob Whitley called Assistant District Attorney Reuben Nieves and Beasley to the courtroom.

Nieves was not amused, either. He warned the students to keep their school spirit in school during hours or face truancy action from county officials.

Beasley refused to comment on the school’s stand on the walkout after noon Friday when nearly 200 failed to return to classrooms after the lunch period was over.

But the principal agreed to meet with a committee named by the truants. Members of the committee are Larry Holland and Ernestine Stanford, sophomores, Jimmy Fuller and Carolyn Duckett, juniors and Von Bingham and Roy Gentry, seniors.

The Clovis high school principal refused to tell the “strikers” what was in store for them Monday morning when they returned to school. He would not say whether the students would be given excused or unexcused absences for Friday’s actions.

Nieves told the students that the method of handling the absences was a matter of school policy. “The only action I can take is to bring you before the juvenile judge if you are not back in school Monday.” he added.

The assistant district attorney took charge of the meeting shortly after arrival in city courtroom and served as moderator in which each of the truant students were allowed to speak their piece or lodge a complaint.

Apparently many of the students didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation as they continued to cheer each individual speaker at the top of their lungs.

But toward the end many students began to realize the folly of their unorganized walkout but continued to stick to their six main objections to school activities.

The students said moving into their new high school two years ago had dealt a telling blow against school spirit. Assemblies and pep rallies, which they maintained should be held weekly during football and basketball season, had been reduced.

Pep rallies, when held are conducted in Marshall Auditorium, an eight-block distance away, and must be held at night when a lot of the parents will not let them attend. This, students told Nieves, called for a 20-minute reduction in class time weekly. “Traveling time,” till an auditorium can be added to the new high school so that students may attend pep rallies and assemblies, was one of the demands of the students.

Students also said they wanted a number rating on report cards instead of the alphabetical scoring.

The students said that “500 cars on the campus” jammed the streets during noon hour and that the 45-minutes allowed for lunch was not sufficient. They want one hour for lunch in order that they may have plenty of time to go home or to town to eat.

Another target of the group was the cutting of a high school club’s initiation period from one week of festivity to one night.

The students told Nieves that Beasley told them they could stay but added that one initiation night would be long enough.

They said Beasley promised them that he would try to secure a sponsor for the KES club, but had failed to come through. Neither did he attend the meeting, they added.

The students also felt that the student Council was weak and did not represent the students. Many expressed views that the council was afraid to act in fear of action from the faculty members.

Earlier Nieves pointed out to the 156 that “you are all old enough to know why you are in school. The main purpose is to get an education,” he continued. “I don’t know of the school policies or how the school system is set up, but I do know there are certain requirements set down by the school board which govern the operation of the school. The rules have to be abided by and school principals, teachers and students must follow them to the letter,” Nieves stated.

“I don’t think that you can accomplish anything by mob rule such as you have displayed this afternoon. For the time being we will go along with your gripes and let you each speak your piece,” Nieves added as he turned the meeting over to student leaders.

After most of the large group had told of “grievances,” Nieves told them that he was “at a loss to find justification for the action” in which citizens reported to police that the students drove through the streets from 40 to 60 miles an hour, running stop signs and making all types of noises including the horn blowing.

There are certain city ordinances and state laws that all citizens must abide by, he pointed out. Running a stop light is not a major law violation but could be serious if the loss of life or property was involved.

Captain Miller pointed out to the students that all fatalities on Clovis streets during the past two years were caused because someone ran a stop light or stop sign.

The meeting adjourned after a two-hour session with the committee meeting with press and radio reporters for a brief time afterwards in which they discussed some of the matters which led to the walkout.

Friday night many of the truant students were among the near capacity crowd who attended the Roswell-Clovis high school basketball game at Clovis JHS gym. The Clovis student body displayed more school spirit Friday night at the game than any time in the last two years, many school officials agreed despite the fact that they cheered vainly and loudly for a losing team. Roswell won, 52-41.