WILLISTON -- Thirteen demonstrators were arrested and cited for trespassing Friday at a Vermont Army National Guard recruiting office as dozens more protesters surrounded the building, opposing military recruiting in schools.

The protests grew from a campaign by students at Mount Mansfield Union High School in Jericho who object to military recruiters in their school and the requirement that high schools hand over student contact information to the recruiters.

Many of the protesters were taken to the Chittenden County Sheriff's Office, where they were to be processed and cited for trespassing Friday evening, Williston Police Chief James Dimmick said. Three juveniles were cited and released, he said.

The high school students organized Friday's demonstration, and other groups opposed to the war in Iraq joined the cause.

At mid-afternoon, groups of demonstrators showed up in front of the Williston Military Recruitment Office in Maple Tree Place, but personnel there were apparently aware of the upcoming protest and closed for the day.

The demonstrators then marched across a lawn to the National Guard offices, where about 40 people entered the building, with a few dozen sign-waving protesters remaining outside.

Authorities asked the people to leave the building, and about 30 did so, Dimmick said. The others remained inside.

Reached by cell phone while he was inside the Guard offices, Matt Howard of Iraq Veterans Against the War said he would remain until the office closed for the day or police drove him out of the building. "Our mission is to shut down recruiting. Every minute this office is shut down a life is saved," he said.

Howard said the military was deceiving young people to join the military, only to serve in an unjust, deadly war. Asked whether military recruiters had a First Amendment right to discuss the military with students, Howard said the recruiters were deceiving students, and that is improper.

Police, Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan and others were also in the Guard offices, trying to persuade the group to leave. Outside, demonstrators waved signs and chanted slogans such as, "Education, not occupation, military out of our schools."

The demonstrators also pressed themselves against the Guard office's storefront windows to watch the activity inside. Shortly before 5 p.m. police began dragging the protesters out of the Guard office into a back room and into an enclosed loading dock. They were placed in a Chittenden County Sheriff's van.

Demonstrators ran to the back of the building, where a phalanx of police officers urged the group to get out of the way. The demonstrators obliged as the large garage doors slowly opened and the van pulled out. The protesters yelled cheers and encouragement to the arrested demonstrators, invisible in a windowless portion of the vehicle. A few people thumped their hands on the van's side while others took pictures and videos of the scene.

Dottye Ricks of Military Families Speak Out looked on with pride at the mostly youthful protesters. She said the Mount Mansfield students did almost all the legwork and spread the word for the protest. She said high school students are increasingly engaged in the opposition to the Iraq war, which makes her hopeful.

Ricks said she didn't blame the recruiters for the war and the recruiting in the schools, but rather the political leaders who were behind it.

Mount Mansfield student Phoebe Pritchett, 16, said she was at the demonstration to oppose the recruitment. "We want the military recruiters out of our schools," said Pritchett, who was outside the Guard offices and not cited.

Dimmick said to his knowledge no Mount Mansfield students were cited. Some initially entered the building but eventually left when asked to. He said those arrested belong to groups who learned of the high school students' protest and decided to join them. Dimmick said nobody was hurt Friday afternoon and no property was damaged.

After the van drove away, the demonstration quickly broke up.

Some said they would go to the Sheriff's South Burlington office to continue demonstrating. One woman collected signs and put them in a shopping cart to take away. Guard members quietly shut off the lights to their offices and went home for the day.

Contact Matt Sutkoski at 660-1846 or msutkosk@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.