Some suspended students also face the threat of expulsion after staging a sit-in against the Iraq war in the Morton West High School cafeteria on Nov. 1.

"There was no fighting, no bullets, no blood," the Rev. Gregory Livingston of Rainbow Push said at a news conference in the school parking lot Monday morning. He was accompanied by about 40 others, including parents and 11 suspended students. "This was just young people with a high consciousness, trying to say we need to save lives."

Livingston said PUSH would file a suit by week's end if the possible expulsions aren't rescinded and the students' records expunged.

Dan Proft, spokesman for School District 201, said the district wouldn't negotiate with PUSH: "We won't engage these demagogues," Proft said. "We'll engage the parents."

Proft said final decisions about the suspensions and possible expulsions will be made by Friday. Most students received 10- day suspensions and are due back in school Monday.

The suspended students say they staged a peaceful protest. They insist school officials told them they would face only minor punishments if they moved their protest to another location in the school building and they complied.

"I thought the school would support us," said Joshua Rodriguez, a suspended senior. "They teach us civil rights but then they pummel us down."

Students also accuse school officials of going easy on top students and athletes who were protesting and of failing to give them their homework during their suspension.

District 201 Supt. Ben Nowakowski has denied the favoritism charge and cited the students with "gross disobedience." He has said a group of 25 students severely disrupted the school day. When asked to move, the students locked arms, he said. All classes were locked down until the protesters moved from the cafeteria.

"I understand people want to make this about the war in Iraq and the First Amendment - it's not," Proft said. "It is solely an issue of children disrupting the school day."

-- CIMC note: Dan Proft, identified here as the spokeperson for District 201 is also a Republican radio commentator, neo-con columnist for the conservative journal "Human Events" and a ferverent supporter of the Bush Administration and the Iraq war.

Proft is the principal of Urquhart Media LLC, a Chicago-based conservative P.R. firm and frequently appears on the Don Wade and Roma Morning Show (WLS-AM 890). He may be best known for helping to recruit Alan Keyes to run for the US Senate.