EAST COBB - Wheeler High School hosted a large rally at the end of the school day Friday, with almost 400 students showing support for their teachers with signs and chants along Holt Road in front of the school.

Cobb County School District high school students have decided to take the recent teacher layoffs, which they see as detrimental to their education and unfair to the teachers, into their own hands.

This week has played host to several student-organized rallies across the county with Osborne High School students conducting one Wednesday. Students at Allatoona High School conducted peaceful rallies on Thursday and Friday on the school's campus to show their support of teachers and coaches being fired by the school board because of budget cuts. An unruly protest broke out at Pebblebrook High School on Thursday when students began pulling fire alarms and rushing the hallways, leading to a lockdown. Campbell High School students also held a rally Friday.

At Wheeler, A box was set up with markers and papers to give students opportunities to write hand-written notes of support to the let-go teachers. Some students taped their mouths to show a silent protest of the teacher cuts, while others wore pink t-shirts to denote the pink slips given or t-shirts with messages of support.

Almost 20 teachers at the school were told this week that their contracts would not be renewed for the 2010-2011 school year, unless they are reinstated some time later in the summer. Many of those teachers taught science, math and technology, and a Wheeler parent said some of the subjects cannot be taught by just any teacher from the county.

"Some of these teachers taught very high-level classes like aerospace engineering and advanced genetics. You can't just pull teachers from another school to teach those. We need those teachers, badly, to keep the program highly successful," said Rochelle Smith, whose son is a freshman at Wheeler. "We know the county is having to make some tough decisions because, well, we really feel the money is just unfairly being held by the state. But these teachers are being sent into a state of panic across the county, teachers who devote 12 and 14 hours a day to making sure our students are learning everything they need to. We just want these teachers to know we support them, and for everyone else to understand the gravity of what is happening."

A Wheeler assistant principal watching over the crowd, who did not wish to be named, said the students were behaving and that he was happy to see teachers, students and parents working together to get their message across, peacefully.

"We support the teachers too, no one wants to see this happen. But doing this the right way, outspoken and peacefully, I think gets their message across the best way possible," he said.

Taydeman Jarrez, 18, a senior at Wheeler, said many of the teachers cut were "like family to us."

"We just wanted to show these teachers we really do care. If they keep these cuts and put 40 kids in one classroom, I just can't imagine what I would have done. I have ADD and need to be able to focus and have that relationship with my teachers, and if you've got 40 kids talking, the teacher has too many kids to keep up with to keep the classroom in order and really give that individualized attention to the students, it will just be a nightmare for everyone," Jarrez said.

Jarrez said word of the protest was spread through the social networking site Facebook and discussions at school this week with classmates.

Bernadette Privateer, a freshman at Kennesaw State University and 2009 graduate of Wheeler, said she was extremely sad to see some of her favorite teachers let go.

"Some of these teachers have been here their entire careers, devoted their whole professional lives to this school and its students. Coach (David) McDonald cuts the grass on the baseball field every morning. Ms. (Suzanne) Yates is the head of the art department and always made me a better artist, would take us to ceramic festivals, I just don't see how teachers like these could just be dismissed like they have been," Privateer said. "This is home to the students, home to the teachers. Without them, Wheeler won't even be close to the same."