Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy and school students say a fight that took place in April was not motivated by race.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
Although Santa Monica High School officials and students say last month’s brawl was not racially motivated, the incident infuriated many black and Hispanic parents who criticize the school’s administration and faculty for their acknowledged failure to reach out to minorities.
A four-hour public hearing at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s board meeting Thursday gave the public a chance to vent, and gave district officials a chance to explain what happened and to detail steps being taken to address black and Hispanic students.
The meeting also saw board member Oscar de la Torre apologize for having brought two men, described by police as active gang members, onto the campus after the fight that erupted between six students on April 15. De la Torre, a 1990 Santa Monica High graduate, said the men were ex-gangsters that he truly thought would demonstrate a peaceful alternative to gangs.
District Superintendent John Deasy told board members one of the six fighting students was drunk that Friday morning. The six brawlers, and another six pupils who would not obey teacher and police directions, have all served suspensions, attended a group counseling session and are back in school.
“That incident was not racially motivated, that’s what all the kids involved say,” Deasy said at the meeting.
But that assertion was contradicted by minority parent after minority parent, including some who serve as leaders in the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association.
“Since April 15, many persons have told me of their feelings of anger, of fear and of frustration,” said PTSA president Karen Dickerson. “The fighting incident has proven to be less significant than its role as a convergence point for other issues in the community.”
But other parents disagreed. “This fight happened not because of an individual disagreement, but because of administration negligence … and the boiling pot exploded,” said parent Ana G. Jara.
The contradiction left some board members confused, including student board member Kitty Smith of Malibu High. “The report says it was not racial, but the parents feel it has to do with race,” she said.
Santa Monica High principal Eileen Strauss took public blame for not having spent enough time listening to minority student complaints and warnings about their dissatisfaction with the curriculum. “I regret seriously not having spent as much time listening to the students in the past few years as I did in the past few weeks,” she said.
Strauss noted that calm has been restored to the 3,555-student school, and teachers have used the racially oriented fights as a basis for students to write essays about the cultural differences that lie underneath student disagreements. She said she was most proud that black and Hispanic student groups had gotten together and issued a joint plan to stem simmering resentments and hostilities.
All 12 suspended teens have returned to campus after completing a group mediation session with counselors, Deasy said. The district has drastically tightened security, locked most gates and required students to carry newly issued identification cards at all times.
Closed circuit video cameras were installed, but removed after some students discovered they were not connected to anything and vandalized them, Deasy said. He asked the board to fund the security camera system and hire two additional security officers to add to the existing staff of six.
Parents at Malibu High have been asking for additional security officers to assist the one guard on duty there.
“I would make this recommendation knowing that every school in the district has a request for more security,” the superintendent said.
Deasy presented a lengthy report for lessening the Santa Monica High tensions, including resurrecting a peer mediation program that was dropped in cost-cutting moves four years ago. He will meet with a “Unity Coalition” of minority parents in two weeks, and said he will incorporate their recommendations into a final plan.
Meanwhile, De la Torre said he had brought the two former gang members to school to give Hispanic gang members evidence that they could turn their lives around. De la Torre said Santa Monica police overreacted when they misidentified the men as current gangsters fingering out black students for retribution.
In a separate interview, De la Torre also acknowledged that he should have responded differently to Santa Monica police when they asked to talk to him at the school. Police officials said De la Torre “nearly caused a riot” when he brought the men on campus without notifying them or the school principal.
But on the dais, De la Torre said the incident shows that a “cultural hegemony” cleaves the district, with too much emphasis being given by teachers to established majority culture.
“I would suggest renaming John Adams Middle School to Martin Luther King-Cesar Chavez Middle School,” De la Torre proposed.