Search of Black Christian Youths at Park Decried

Nine black members of a Christian youth organization on an outing to Six Flags Magic Mountain were singled out by guards from a crowd of predominantly white teen-agers and searched for weapons and drugs before being admitted to the amusement park.

Dan Monteverde, director of the San Diego chapter of Youth For Christ, a nationwide Christian group, said Thursday that eight black teen-age boys and a 29-year-old black counselor were subjected to “humiliating acts of blatant racial discrimination” during the search by two guards last Saturday at the popular Valencia amusement park.

Courtney Brown, a Magic Mountain spokeswoman, denied Thursday that the search was racially motivated. The youths and counselor were wearing “known gang identifiers,” she said.

Jose DeSosa, state president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, decried the incident as “deplorable” and said the NAACP will take immediate action, including filing a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations.

DeSosa said the organization “will not stand for any more of this conduct,” referring to a January case in which Magic Mountain officials agreed to a $35,000 settlement to a black family that sued the park after an employee shouted profane racial insults at them.

Brown refused to say what articles of clothing suggested gang affiliation because it would “compromise the effectiveness” of security. Magic Mountain security officials work with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials to determine what types of gang insignia to look for and routinely search people whose clothes indicate gang membership, she said.

Monteverde said he, four staff members and 16 teen-agers had disembarked from a parking lot tram and were headed toward the ticket booth when they were stopped by uniformed security guards and told that they would have to be searched if they wanted to enter the park.

Monteverde said he asked the guards why they were selected and was told only that the youths met “certain criteria.” Group members said they reluctantly agreed to the search because they had traveled 3 1/2 hours from San Diego and did not want to turn back.

During this time, hundreds of other youths, most of them white, where being allowed into the park without question, Monteverde and other group members said. Eleven members of the church group were black, seven were white, two were Latino, one was Asian.

“I believe we were chosen solely because we were the only blacks around at the time,” said James Patton, 29, a black Christian counselor who was included in the search group. “We got off with a whole tram of white people and they only selected every black male in the group.” The two black females in the group were not searched.

One of the youths said the search made him feel like he had “just been arrested for bank robbery.”

“They made us feel like hoodlums or something,” said Mickey Reed, 15. “They had me spread my legs and they were patting me down everywhere. It was very embarrassing.”

Brown said the guards acted in accordance with strict park security regulations intended to protect all guests from gang violence and people who attempt to enter the facility with weapons, drugs and alcohol.

The tight measures, which can include questioning and searches, were enacted in 1985 after a parking lot gang fight ended in the stabbing of six people and assaults on two guards.

“The screening is voluntary. They were not forced, they had a choice” between being searched or being denied admittance to the park, Brown said. “It is unfortunate that a few innocent people also have to go through screening in order to find those who pose a threat to other park guests.”

None of the teen-agers or the counselor were carrying weapons or drugs and were permitted to enter the park, Brown said. The search took place in a semi-private area near the entrance.

The youths and their Christian counselors were at a loss to explain what type of “gang identifiers” they could have been wearing.

The youths were wearing all colors--red, green and blue--”just like every kid at the park was wearing colors,” Monteverde said.