More than 800 Los Angeles high school students walked out of their campus Wednesday as part of a nationwide protest against President George W. Bush, who was reelected exactly a year ago.

    Adults accompanied groups of students "in all cases" as they left from 10 high schools across the sprawling city, according to Dan Isaacs, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

    "Our issue ... was safety, and I think we fulfilled our mission,frankly," Isaacs said.

    He said that the district sent staff, school police and youth relations personnel to walk with the teenagers and made buses available to take the students back to school when they got tired.

    However, one of the protest organizers, Edith Lagos, of the New York-based World Can't Wait, claimed that police prevented students at two high schools from joining the event.

    The group asked adults and children to walk out of office and class Wednesday -- the anniversary of Bush's re-election -- and gather along Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles.

    Meanwhile, several hundred protestors gathered Wednesday in downtown Seattle to protest the Iraq war and the Bush administration's stance on everything from Supreme Court nomination to reproductive rights, a report said.

    High school and college students walked out of class to join the rally, which was organized by the local chapter of World Can'tWait, the group that started in New York in June and has since spread to more than 60 major US cities, organizers said.

    Seattle police officers reportedly monitored the scene from cruisers, bicycles and on horses.

    Organizers said that a candlelight rally and march planned for Wednesday night at Seattle Central Community College would go on despite the lack of a city permit.