A couple hundred students from metro-area high schools skipped classes Thursday to gather at the state Capitol and protest the Iraq war.

The students met at the Auraria Campus at 10 a.m., then marched to the west steps of the Capitol, where they decried the U.S. presence in Iraq, saying that the money spent on the war should be used to fund schools and college scholarships.

"By walking out, we have taken the initiative to get noticed," said 17-year-old Lalito Pacheco, a student at Thornton High School.

The students, some of whom were middle-schoolers, held signs while they cheered on the speakers. Some of the slogans read, "Books not guns," "Impeach Bush" and "They have money for war but they can't educate the poor."

"It's an imperialist war based on manifest destiny," said Julio Tapia, a student at Emily Griffith Opportunity school.

He said the money used to fund the war should instead be used to put students through college.

"We want to be doctors; we want to be congressmen," he said.

Police and Colorado State Patrol troopers estimated that more than 200 students participated in the protest. Organizers said that up to 500 took part.

About 100 were from Escuela Tlatelolco, 2949 N. Federal Boulevard, said TroyLynn Yellow Wood, a teacher at the school.

Pacheco said that students from at least nine high schools took part in the protest.

Pacheco said he had hoped that about 2,000 students would show up, but that schools were on lockdown to keep students from participation.

Christopher Lee, a Denver Public Schools spokesman, said that wasn't true.

morenoi@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2895