Thousands of students around the country walked out of class Wednesday to protest a war with Iraq, joining rallies that ranged from a few quiet demonstrators to crowds that erupted into shouting matches.

Manon Terrell, a 19-year-old sophomore, missed three classes to take part in a rally at Stanford University attended by about 300 people carrying signs with such slogans as “It’s the Middle East, not the Wild West.”

“This is a personal thing for me because my friends are going to fight this war,” said Terrell, a civil engineering major. “It’s not going to be Bush and his cronies in business suits on the front lines. They’re going to take people of color and poor people.”

It could not be determined Wednesday night how many students participated across the nation, and the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition had no immediate estimate.

The group said earlier that tens of thousands of students at more than 350 high schools, colleges and universities had pledged to join.

“If we don’t come out, then our opinion isn’t heard by the White House, by anyone,” said 10th-grader Bernard Mantel, 16, who gathered with classmates at Union Square in New York City.

Thousands of students also rallied for peace in Britain, Sweden, Spain, Australia and other countries. The U.S. protests were also geared to call attention to the effects of a war on education, health care and the economy.

Students attended by the hundreds at some campuses around the nation; at others, attendance was light. Some were met by groups calling for support of the Bush administration.

Dozens of Stanford professors endorsed the rally there, either by telling students there would be no penalties for leaving class or by canceling class. Nearby in Oakland, at least three people were arrested at a demonstration held downtown.

Lyman Memorial High School students Justin Long; his sister Rachel Long; Kelly Holden and Kassy Schaeffer, from left, protest a possible war with Iraq near The Thread City Crossing Bridge in Willimantic, Conn. They were among thousands of high school and college students protesting Wednesday against a possible war with Iraq.

In Los Angeles, 18 demonstrators were arrested for blocking an intersection during an interfaith protest as several hundred people cheered. Hundreds of students at Santa Monica City College rallied and about 500 Venice High School students left class for a protest on the school’s front lawn, waving signs and chanting “No more war, no more war.”

At the University at Buffalo in Amherst, N.Y., a group calling itself the Radical Cheerleaders led raucous anti-war chants.

In Washington, peace activists clad in pink and bearing flowers held quiet rallies at the embassies of France, Russia, Turkey, Mexico and Chile to thank them for opposing a U.S. war with Iraq.

A protest in the Canoga Park section of Los Angeles turned into chaos when of students allegedly vandalized a Mobil station and ran off with shoplifted loot.