Students Give Their Side

Up until now, we, the students at Hollywood High, have been too busy with our studies and our extracurricular activities to address the atrocities and gross misrepresentations you saw to fit to print about our school in your recent series of articles. The last article, however, was so offensive that we felt compelled to respond.

Lolita Buckner Inniss really hit the nail on the head in her letter (April 28) when she said, “The articles are so blatantly racist and class-conscious as to raise serious doubts about the integrity of the entire journal.” In reviewing your articles we are not only questioning your integrity, but your journalistic intent.

Your depiction of Hollywood High was much more like a distorted caricature than an accurate description. And we would like to set the record straight. We like our school. We like each other. We are learning a lot. We think the ethnic and cultural diversity of our school adds to our educational experience. Collectively, we think your articles were unfair, uninformed and inaccurate.

As for the nostalgic teachers and administrators who continue to whine and bemoan the lack of “Anglos”: If they have not or cannot learn to cope with the students they are paid to teach, maybe it is time for them to retire. When they do retire, it is our hope that they enjoy their generous pensions and keep their prejudices to themselves (unlike the copiously quoted Mr. Majors).

The above letter was signed by more than 160 students at Hollywood High School who indicated that they represent backgrounds including black, white, Latino, Armenian, Brazilian, Mexican, Jewish, Salvadoran, Vietnamese, Nicaraguan, German, Irish, Indian, Filipino, Korean, Lebanese, Spanish, Arabic, Canadian, Welsh, Puerto Rican, Pacific Islander, Italian, Chinese, French, Iranian, Guatemalan, Laotian and Honduran.