No Bias Found Against Filipino Students : But Committee Says Gang Activity Exists in Poway School District

A special committee charged with probing bias against Filipino students in the Poway Unified School District found evidence of gang activity throughout the school district but no discrimination by school officials.

But the two Filipino members of the five-person committee dissented from those conclusions, contending there was no evidence of Filipino gang activity.

Elly Aguilar, a member of the Filipino District Advisory Council, and Jay Ruiz, a member of the Council of Filipino American Organizations, also urged in their minority reports that further steps be taken to resolve the perceptions by the Filipino community that school officials were biased against their children.

The majority report, presented to Poway school board members Monday night, found no bias in the treatment of Filipino students in Poway schools. Recommendations of the majority included the hiring of more Filipino teachers and staff members, better communication between the school district and parents, and other actions designed to break through cultural and language barriers.

District Supt. Bob Reeves hailed the majority report as helpful, saying that about 75% of the committee’s recommendations had “already been acted upon,” and pledging to implement the remainder quickly.

Protested Exclusion of Proposal

Ruiz, in his minority report, protested the exclusion of his proposal for creating a position of ombudsman to act as a liaison between school officials and Filipino parents and students.

Ruiz said the investigation indicated there was “a major communication breakdown, be it a problem with the English language or a cultural insensitivity” serious enough to require a mediator. The investigative group turned down the proposal by a 3-2 vote.

He also protested the group’s finding that there is gang activity within the Poway school district and, in particular, at Mt. Carmel High School in Rancho Penasquitos.

“I strongly believe that one of the reasons why the majority of the panel wanted this to be a finding” was to strengthen the “picture painted to this investigative panel that the gang activity at MCHS involves only Filipinos,” Ruiz said.

Aguilar charged that school staff members committed “discriminatory practices” against Filipino students and their parents. She said that alleged gang activities by Filipino students “do not justify the continual harassment and unfair treatment against them.”

Further Investigation Urged

She protested the exclusion of evidence of discrimination by “aggrieved students and parents” from the committee’s deliberations and urged further investigation into their complaints.

The team, headed by Bill Cunningham, a former education adviser to Gov. George Deukmejian, was formed in May after several clashes involving Filipino youths, chiefly at Mt. Carmel.

In January, several Filipino students were expelled after a fight with a rival Mira Mesa group. After the expulsions, parents of the teen-agers protested that district officials had not followed their own rules in the disciplinary actions.

Reeves said Tuesday that there was a discrepancy between the written rules and the custom that had been followed for several years regarding student disciplinary actions. Since the incident, he said, “we have gone strictly by the book.”

The 1,488 Filipino students represent the largest minority group, 6.7%, within the Poway school system’s student population of 22,300.

Major Clashes

Reeves said the major clashes appeared to be between Filipino youths in Rancho Penasquitos and others attending Mira Mesa schools, a turf war based on the higher economic status of Filipino families living in Rancho Penasquitos.

Some of the charges of discrimination from Filipino students and parents stem from different standards of discipline between the San Diego and Poway school districts, Reeves said. Students transferring into the Poway schools from Mira Mesa High, which is in the San Diego school district, “tend to feel that they can get away with more than they can,” Reeves said, “and they can’t.”

However, he added, the emergence of suburban gang activity is a new and serious matter found throughout the country, “which deserves serious attention by school district officials.”