DUNCANVILLE Hundreds of students staged a sit-in in the hallways of Duncanville High School Thursday afternoon.
Police were called to the scene and the students were forced outside. Students were then ushered back into the school.
The protest came after more students were sent home Thursday morning after about 170 students were suspended the day before.
'I walk into the school and they tell me to walk out because I have the black shirt on,' said Enrique Delgado, a sophomore.
The teen estimated about 50 students were sent home Thursday. Tammy Kuykendall, a spokeswoman with the Duncanville Independent School District, said she wasn't aware of a large number of students being turned away and called Thursday a 'normal day.'
'This is something that should have been enforced since the beginning,' said Veronique Maston, a mother of a Duncanville Student. 'But, because administration wakes up one day and decides, 'We're going to enforce this,' when the kids have been allowed to do something for so long, both of them kind of own it.'
Maston said social media has spurred more problems as students have gone to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the school's actions.
'It is definitely adding fuel to the fire,' she said. 'And I think they are responding in a way they think is appropriate, though it is not. But I also think that booting them out because they are choosing now to enforce this is also not good.'
Wednesday, video taken in the school's cafeteria showed students chanting after they were told to leave the campus due to dress code violations.
The principal at the school said the sweep that was made Wednesday are similar to ones done three to four times a year. It's part of a zero-tolerance policy that was started in 2003. That year, about 700 students were sent home during a two-month period.
The administration said they would not offer interviews Thursday and they stand behind Wednesday's statements.
E-mail: srobertson@wfaa.com
