Seattle high schoolers join Ferguson protests

SEATTLE – About 1,300 high school students who walked out of classes helped swell the ranks of Seattle demonstrators protesting the grand jury decision in Missouri not to indict a Ferguson police officer who fatally shot a black teenager.

Seattle Public Schools told parents that roughly 1,300 students walked out of Roosevelt and Garfield high schools Tuesday to peacefully protest the decision. They joined ranks with other marchers.

The Seattle Times reports that organizers of a noon march to the downtown federal courthouse included representatives of the Seattle King County NAACP and United Black Christian Clergy.

The march was peaceful. Demonstrators carried signs with such messages as “Jail Killer Cops” and “America Hates Black People.”

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole briefly joined the demonstrators.

In the state capital of Olympia, demonstrators also marched to City Hall, where they stopped for a silent tribute to Brown.

The protest came a day after demonstrators threw canned food, bottles and rocks, and police responded with pepper spray and flash-bang grenades. Five people were arrested.

In Portland, police used pepper spray and arrested several people as more than 1,000 demonstrators roamed the city and blocked traffic Tuesday night.

Officers finally used loudspeakers to tell the crowd to disperse. Protesters trying to get away from police met more officers, and the main protest dispersed by 8 p.m. A smaller group of about 300 people marched across a major Willamette River bridge into east Portland after the downtown rally and march wound down.