Parent to parent: Second thoughts about protests

By Jeff Hudson

"Dad, I’m thinking about going to that protest they’re planning on campus tomorrow."

I heard that from my son Stephen, then a sophomore, last March, when UC Davis students planned a rally to participate in a statewide protest to vent their frustration over recent tuition hikes.

His declaration kind of put me on the hot seat.

I attended anti-war events in the early 1970s, as well as a few stadium-sized political rallies at UC Santa Barbara later that decade, a time when the memory of the 1970 Isla Vista riots was still fresh.

And while my son’s declaration gave me a flash of parental concern, to see some glimmers of political awareness and activism coming from him sort of made me happy, too. But I did feel the need to remind him that some recent protests on or near other UC campuses have turned violent.

My son replied that he wouldn’t be going to Mrak Hall, the main administration building, to be in the main protest. He wanted to tell the protesters that while he shared their opposition to recent tuition hikes of 32 percent, he felt they were registering their objections with the wrong people. "Take it to the governor, take it to the legislature," he felt.

I responded with the observation that when things get out of hand, and the police start arresting people, they sometimes pick up bystanders. I encouraged him to be careful — and to get out of harm’s way if things started getting crazy. In 1970, a student bystander trying to put out a fire that rioters started in Isla Vista, near UC Santa Barbara, was killed by a law officer’s stray bullet.

On the March 4 statewide "Day of Action" to defend public education in my son’s sophomore year, protesters blocked a traffic intersection in Berkeley, and after protesters barricaded the Santa Cruz campus, UCSC officials warned students, staff and faculty to stay away. At UC Davis, more than 120 law enforcement officers were forced to use their batons and fire pepper balls to repel a crowd of some 300 protesters who were attempting to march onto Interstate 80 and block the busy freeway; one student was arrested for allegedly inciting a riot and resisting arrest.

In the end, my son didn’t go to the March protest — though last month, he told me that now he wishes that he had. He made the admission on the morning after about 200 demonstrators from across the political spectrum, including students and labor union activists, gathered outside the Mondavi Center in conjunction with the Sept. 28 gubernatorial debate at UC Davis. Outside the hall, there was some elbowing and shoving, but the UC Davis Police Department reported no injuries or arrests. My son missed that protest as well, due to an orchestra rehearsal.

Protesting is a topic I’ll probably be discussing with my son again — and you may have a similar conversation with your kid. If the subject comes up, it’s probably best to offer quiet advice, rather than draw some kind of line in the sand.

And try to remember that there is probably more than one factor motivating your son or daughter — college students are still peer-group conscious, and if your kid knows several other people going to the protest, the desire to "be there" can exert a pull that’s unlikely to be countered by parental logic.

By way of preparation, you might look at the recent article from UC Davis Magazine examining protests at UC Davis through the decades — it’s a detailed, impartial account, and the perspective might come in handy.