Latino students protested proposed immigration laws all over the country this week. They walked out of class in large numbers, mostly in an orderly manner. This was the first significant political protest movement conducted by middle and high school students and organized by cell phone and internet messages. Caucasian students responded with a backlash of protests of their own, waving American flags and wearing camouflage to school, but mostly, this movement was without incident.

In LA, thousands of kids clogged the streets and freeways and were joined by adults, even some of their teachers. Their protests made big news, and some are saying this political movement is the birth of possible Latino leadership that could make a significant difference in American politics. Since Latinas are the fastest growing ethnic group, it’s a segment of the population that could have huge voting power, and when the immigrant laws settle into place, Latino candidates and issues will have a significant impact.

That all sounds promising, but a closer look at Latino teenagers offers cause for concern. Latinas have the highest rate of teen pregnancy of any ethnic group, and Latino teenagers are more likely to develop aids than other teens. The dropout rate nationwide for all Latinas is twice that of the general population, and among first generation Latino teens, only 23% are enrolled in school. Latino teens are 6 times as likely to commit murder as teens in the general population and 53 of the 85 thousand gang members nationwide are Latino.

This week the LA students, thousands strong, skipped class to protest the possible crack down on illegal immigrants. Each truant student costs the LA schools 30 dollars per student per day since the state of California funds through attendance. These same teens cost the city of LA 82 million dollars last year in intervention for gang related activity.

Immigration laws and teen protest are the news this week, but under the news is a huge population of teenage first and second generation immigrants who are at risk and who will cost American taxpayers millions in intervention and aid. The Latino teens who want the United States to give them greater opportunity and privilege should use myspace.com and their cell phones to get themselves back into school since 60% of the LA teens demonstrating this week will drop out of high school before they graduate.