Update: Neighboring students join Forest Grove High in walk out over 'build a wall' banner

Updated at 11:15 a.m.: Hundreds of students walked out of class and marched down Main Street in Forest Grove. They walked through Forest Grove to the Forest Grove school district offices, and school officials spoke with the students. Students from at least five other high schools -- Beaverton, Hillsboro, Aloha, Liberty and Glencoe -- joined the protest, which has concluded. Groups of students continue to talk in the area and are gathered on A Street, but most students are leaving.

Some Forest Grove High School students demonstrated Thursday in protest of a banner hung briefly in the school hallway this week that read "build a wall."

Connie Potter, chief of staff for the Forest Grove School District, said the sign was put up Wednesday. She described it as a "very brief incident" that prompted a quick response by staff at the school, where about half of the student body is Latino.

Forest Grove High School protest 82 Gallery: Forest Grove High School protest

The school district has a greater percentage of Latino students than any other district in Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties, according to Oregon Department of Education data.

Potter said the incident occurred on the heels of Unity Week. She said students had hung "unity-type signs." The "build the wall" sign was hung over one of those posters.

She said school staff either saw the banner or were alerted to it.

"It was immediately taken down, within literally a minute or two, and the students who hung it have been disciplined," she said.

She did not know how many students were disciplined.

Building a wall between the United States and Mexico is a centerpiece of Donald Trump's immigration reform proposal. Trump is the Republican frontrunner in the presidential race.

Earlier this year, a black teacher at the school was called a racist slur by a student outside of her classroom. The teacher, Meysha Harville, is one of only two black staff members at the high school. Principal Karen O'Neill said the student who uttered the slur was "immediately" disciplined, and the school takes a strong stance against harassment.

Meanwhile, many students offended by the banner are organizing a demonstration and have taken to Twitter and Instagram to express their anger using the hashtag, #standupFG.

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184; @noellecrombie