A student protest Friday morning at Huntley Middle School has sparked somewhat of a desired response for the nearly 75 students who walked out of classes.

The students were outraged at a science fair project created by two of their classmates that they charge stereotyped some physical characteristics of blacks. The project sat in the school’s media for five days before it was removed.

Saturday, Huntley Principal Del Brouwer released a statement from the unnamed project creators apologizing for the work. But student protesters Friday were wary of written apologies, often wondering whether Brouwer had written the apology himself and demanding face-to-face apologies.

Problems began early Friday morning before 9 a.m. when the largest amount of students filled the lawn. The protesters moved to the cafeteria to air their grievances but many soon returned to the campus where they began blocking traffic at the corner of Taylor and Seventh Streets and shouting at passing motorists.

Armed with picket signs, some reading “Prejudice No” and “God Created All Men Equal … Now and Forever … Why Should We Stop?,” some were convinced to return to classes while others decided to go home.

Student Deborah Smith, a 14-year-old eighth grader, was one who decided to leave. “I am not (interested in) going to a prejudiced school,” Smith said.

No students were suspended. Greg Romaneck, director of Special Education for the DeKalb School District, was on hand to keep the protest under control and said school officials decided the most disciplinary action the school would take against the students, if any, would be the standard punishment for skipping classes.

Student and protest organizer Tim Lewis, 14, gave administrators a list of demands for resolving the conflict, including:

Actions against the students who presented the project.

A three-week study on black history.

Equal representation between blacks and whites among DeKalb School District counselors.

Although statistics on the numbers of counselors were not available, of the district’s 3,593 students, 86.1 percent are white while 5.7 percent are black, according to 1989-90 figures. At Huntley, 86.2 percent of the 535 students are white as compared to a 5.8 percent black population.

A public meeting will be held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the school’s gymnasium to address a growing amount of public concern.