State Study Finds No Threat From Gangs at Jordan High

Jordan High School in Watts, which for months has been in the middle of a dispute over the safety of its students, is “a well-run inner-city high school with students who have great pride in their school” and not threatened by neighborhood street gangs, according to a brief state Department of Education study.

The study, compiled during a recent visit to the school by officials of the state attorney general’s office and the Department of Education, is a rebuke to a women’s group that has charged that tension between rival gangs makes it unsafe for children from the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts to walk to Jordan.

Study Called a ‘Whitewash’

Leslie Dutton, president of the politically conservative American Assn. of Women’s Los Angeles office, on Tuesday called the state study a “whitewash.”

Dutton’s group earlier this year filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, complaining that many children from the housing project have stopped going to Jordan because of “life-threatening and dangerous conditions in the classrooms, on the campus and in surrounding neighborhoods.”

School officials have called the charges overstated and dismissed them as a personal vendetta against Jordan by one of the association’s officers, Ezola Foster, a former Jordan teacher.

According to a letter sent to the association two weeks ago by state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, “street gangs do not pose a clear and present danger to the operation of the school or its students.”

Students Feel the Same

Similar sentiments were voiced last month by more than 1,000 Jordan students at a school pride rally attended by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

In his letter, Honig said that staff members visited Jordan, observed several classes, interviewed several students and met with Principal Grace Strauther. Neither Honig nor Jordan officials were available for comment Tuesday.

Dutton, who said her organization was not aware of the study until it received Honig’s letter, said it was “ludicrous” for the state to reach any conclusions without interviewing any of the parents who have complained about Jordan’s safety.

Dutton’s group contends that the rivalry between one gang of Crips in the Imperial Courts housing project and another Crips gang in the Jordan Downs project next to Jordan High has resulted in attacks on Imperial Courts students. About 150 Imperial Courts residents attend Jordan.

While Honig’s letter spoke glowingly of Jordan High, it did not address the core issue of the safety of students who walk to and from the school from Imperial Courts.

“It would appear the state Department of Education is nothing more than an accomplice in a whitewash of the true facts surrounding Jordan High School,” Dutton and Foster wrote in a letter mailed last week to Honig. “This is an adequate reason to substantiate our need to call on the federal government to launch a thorough and complete investigation of all allegations.”

Honig’s letter noted that “very few, if any, teachers have requested to transfer out of Jordan for safety reasons.”

The reason for that, the association replied in its letter, is that “most teachers will not come forward due to fear for their jobs.”

In the wake of the group’s complaint to the Office for Civil Rights, Los Angeles school district officials said any Imperial Courts students who wanted to transfer to other schools would be permitted to do so. Dutton’s group says that about two dozen students have transferred.

The association earlier this month filed a second complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, charging that the school district “illegally retaliated” against the students who complained. The district has denied the charges.

School board member Warren Furutani, whose district includes Watts, said he had not seen Honig’s letter but said, “I appreciate their comments because they actually went and looked.”