Protest and Rally Mark Start of St. Louis Schools

Opening-day attendance at St. Louis public schools was the highest in at least five years, despite calls for a boycott to protest the closing of 16 schools as a budget-cutting move, school officials said.

After a morning rally, more than 100 protesters marched to school board headquarters chanting, “Shut it down!” and then to City Hall in a mock funeral procession. Some children carried plywood tombstones bearing the names of closed schools.

But according to figures released later in the day, the attendance rate was 76.4% of enrolled students, two percentage points higher than last year’s first day.