Black Teacher’s Home Target of Racial Attack

A black Northridge Junior High School teacher and his family returned from a cross-country trip early Monday to find their Simi Valley home heavily vandalized and defaced by racial epithets, police said Tuesday.

A swastika and the word “skinheads” were spray-painted on the inside walls of the Niles Street house, and a racial epithet was carved into the dining-room table, Simi Valley Police Detective Anthony Anzilotti said. The apparent targets of the attack--Louis Boss; his wife, Ontee, and their four children, ages 3 to 16--have rented the home for about two years.

“Just about every room in the house was hit,” Anzilotti said, describing overturned drawers, shattered dishes and appliances, clothing and toys strewn about and brown paint poured into a clothes dryer and piano.

“They had all their belongings just piled up everywhere,” Anzilotti said. “The house was completely ransacked.”

The family arrived home at 3:30 a.m., after driving for two days from Mississippi, where they attended the funeral of Boss’ grandfather and the wedding of his wife’s brother.

“We saw some things like we hadn’t left them, and we knew something was wrong,” Boss said Tuesday. “Then we saw some of the writings on the wall.”

Boss, 36, teaches English and reading full-time at Northridge Junior High and English as a second language at the North Hollywood Community Adult School in the evenings. This summer, he was a playground supervisor at the Youth Services Center in Van Nuys.

“They’re wonderful people,” said their landlord’s son, who asked that his family’s name be withheld.

Screened Applicants

“They’re ideal tenants,” he said, adding that his parents chose the Boss family after screening many applicants to rent the house.

Police said they have no leads but are combing the house for fingerprints and other evidence and have been interviewing neighbors. Boss said he knew of no possible suspects. He said his family had not experienced any prejudice since living there.

“Most people have been pretty nice. I don’t know if it’s because they know I’m a teacher,” Boss said.

Lt. Robert Klamser said the police are aware of skinheads in Simi Valley but have had no problems previously.

Several neighbors expressed surprise and horror over the incident, but a black resident who lives around the corner from the Bosses complained of racism in the neighborhood and in Simi Valley. The city’s population is 1.1% black, according to census figures.

“I know there’s lots of prejudice here in Simi Valley,” said the woman, who has lived in the city 10 years and asked that her name not be used. She said that her son had been called names in the neighborhood when he was a boy and that she and her daughter had experienced prejudice at work.

Neighbors Norma and Barry Frazier, who are white, said they did not think racism was prevalent in the neighborhood, but they suspect the vandals live there.

“Anyone else wouldn’t have known someone was not home,” said Norma Frazier, as she tended a flower bed.

Papered Drawers

Around the corner, Victoria Bolt papered freshly painted drawers and said she was “disgusted.

“Surprised is like an understatement,” said the 24-year-old aspiring stunt woman. “I just can’t believe it happened.”

Bolt said she and several neighbors want to help the Bosses, who are staying at an undisclosed location with relatives, clean and repair the house once police have finished their investigation.

“We don’t want them going anywhere or anything,” she said.

Boss said Tuesday: “For right now we have no plans to leave. We’re not on the run. No, we’re not running.”