The walkout is part of a nationwide protest organized by Youth Against War and Racism. In Minnesota, students are to gather at the University of Minnesota's Coffman Memorial Union plaza for a rally at noon, followed by a march to a nearby military recruiting station and a teach-in.

About 20 students walked out of Bloomington Kennedy High School at 10:30 a.m. Most said they had excused absences; a couple said they didn't have excuses but were going anyway.

At Minneapolis South, about 100 students walked out.

Kennedy Principal Ron Simmons said that today was the second day of end-of-quarter tests at Kennedy. Any student who walked out without permission would not be able to make up work they miss today and their grades would be affected, he said.

Simmons estimated that about 20 parents had called to excuse their students, but he wasn't not sure how many of those calls were related to the protest.

Andrew O'Brien, 17, a senior and one of the school's walkout organizers, was disappointed that more students weren't participating. He said the timing of the protest during the testing period was a problem. In addition, he said it's been difficult to get Kennedy students interested in the issue. Students are apathetic about politics in general and about the war specifically, he said.

Ty Moore, an organizer of the Twin Cities protest, said he expected from 1,000 to 2,000 high school students to walk out today to protest the war, military recruiting in high schools and inadequate education spending.

He said he'd heard from students at 36 metro area high schools who said they would participate in the walkout. The strongest support is from schools in the Bloomington, Minneapolis and Robbinsdale school districts, he said.

Last week, Moore and other protest supporters accused some schools of threatening students who walked out with failing grades. Most schools responded that they would follow their normal policies for absences: If students are excused by a parent, they will be allowed to make up work they miss.

Moore said his group would mount a "pressure campaign" against schools if students are disciplined or are not allowed to make up work as a result of the walkout.