Students protest school cutbacks in N.J.

Students staged walkouts at high schools around New Jersey today to protest Gov. Christopher J. Christie's education cuts.

Among the schools where students protested where Camden High School, Rancocas Regional High School in Mount Holly and both high schools in Cherry Hill.

Other walkouts were reported in North Jersey.

The actual number of schools affected is not known.

The protests were organized through a Facebook site set up by a college freshman who was educated in New Jersey.

Gov. Christie issued a statement saying, "students belong in the classroom, and we hope all efforts were made to curtail student walkouts.:

"It is also our firm hope that the students were motivated by youthful rebellion or spring fever – and not by encouragement from any one-sided view of the current budget crisis in New Jersey," he said. "Students would be better served if they were given a full, impartial understanding of the problems that got us here in the first place and why dramatic action was needed."

About 250 to 300 students gathered, as classes were beginning, on the front lawn of Cherry Hill High School East, according to John Crowe, 17, a junior.

The protest was disorganized. "It kind of got out of hand, Crowe said. "Kids started throwing trash, yelling."

Crowe was upset about cutbacks, like the elimination of freshman sports, he said.

Administrators invited the students to take their protest to the auditorium, and about 100 joined Principal John O'Breza in a session of sharing information sharing and discussion, according to district spokeswoman Susan Bastnagel.

Another 100 students stayed out of classes at Cherry Hill High School West in a protest that lasted about 15 minutes, she said.