Some students and their parents said Monday the suspensions were unfair because students at other Sonoma County high schools who also staged protest walkouts were not suspended.

Petaluma school officials did not make the decision "lightly or capriciously," said Tom Joynt, director of alternative education and child welfare and attendance.

"It's the obligation of the principal to ensure compliance with attendance rules," he said.

"I am heartened that young people are learning the responsibility of being a citizen, which often means dissent from popular opinion," Joynt said.

But he said the protesters also learned another lesson: "Civil disobedience can have a consequence, such as in this case suspension."

Allowing students to walk out without consequences would set a bad precedent, he said.

Petaluma High officials said they provided other opportunities for the protesters to express their views, but they have an obligation to maintain order at the 1,540-student campus.

"I don't think we should have been suspended," said Rosie Heartte, 17, one of the protesters. "One of our main purposes was to educate students about the issue and we did that."

"If we go to war, it's absolute that innocent civilians are going to die and that young Americans will be sent over to fight," she said. "We need to explore other options, continue to make use of the U.N."

The walkout occurred at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, a half-hour before a rally organized by school officials in the school's open-air quadrangle to give students a chance to express their views on Iraq.

Students who walked out of their classes early were guided by school officials to the multipurpose room, where they listened peacefully to several speakers.

On Thursday, the students who had walked out were summoned by school officials and told they would be be suspended for one day Monday.

"What is very sad ... is that these are young adults who attempted to negotiate with the administration prior to walking out and they were completely shut down," said Rachelle Heartte, Rosie's mother.

Petaluma High Principal Michael Simpson said he made every attempt to offer students an alternative to the walkout and to urge them to remain in class.

He spoke to students that morning over the school's intercom system as part of the daily announcements.

"I did tell them that if they walked, there would be consequences," he said.

In addition to arranging for the lunchtime rally Wednesday, Simpson is providing a forum today for the expression of views on Iraq.

About 150 students from Santa Rosa High walked out of classes at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and marched to a downtown rally in Old Courthouse Square, administrators said. None of those students was suspended, Assistant Principal Bill Blackerby said.

He said that the students were given unexcused absences and that officials never considered suspending the protesters.

None of the estimated 60 to 70 students who walked out of classes at Analy High School in Sebastopol was suspended, officials there said.

The walkouts and rallies were part of a national Student Day of Resistance initiated by Not in Our Name, an anti-war group founded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to protest U.S. foreign policy.

Carl Wong, former superintendent of Petaluma city schools and the superintendent-elect of Sonoma County schools, said school districts across the county were notified by students of their intentions to stage the anti-war protests.

He said students were warned that if they participated in the walkouts, there would be a range of possible consequences for leaving class without an excuse.

Wong said some teachers used the coming protest as a "teachable moment," talking about the protest and asking students to consider their choices.

Rosie Steffy, 17, one of the Petaluma walkout organizers, said suspension was a price she was willing to pay to bring attention to an issue she considers vitally important.

Without the suspensions, the issue would not have received as much attention from the press, she said.

"I do think (the suspensions are) reasonable," she said. "But I can't help wondering why the other schools didn't see it the same way."