Simi Schools Debate Need for Program on Race Relations

Moved by a recent vandalism attack on the home of a black family, a Simi Valley school board member has proposed that the district develop a special race relations program to be taught on a regular basis in elementary schools.

“I’d like to see us develop a program for elementary-age students because that’s an age when children are very open, not much tainted by the racial attitudes of their parents,” board member Diane Collins said Thursday.

Collins raised the issue Tuesday at the board’s regular meeting and was told by school district officials that race relations and prejudice were already included in the curriculum--in social studies and English classes at the junior and senior high school levels, and as part of citizenship in elementary schools.

But Collins said Thursday that she wasn’t satisfied and believes that the district was being too complacent--”particularly after what happened in town.”

A black Northridge Junior High School teacher and his family returned from a trip Aug. 14 to find the inside of their home heavily vandalized and defaced by racial epithets. Every room was affected, and almost all of the family’s belongings had been destroyed, police said.

Incident Unsolved

The incident, under investigation by the FBI as well as the Police Department, remains unsolved. Simi Valley Police Sgt. Kenneth Tacke, supervisor of detectives, said investigators are hoping for a break now that school has resumed.

“If young people are involved, it’s likely they’ll talk about such an event and the information will find its way back to us through either the kids themselves or their parents or teacher,” Tacke said.

Collins noted that a synagogue in the city was defaced by swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans in May. That act of vandalism and the more recent attack on the teacher’s home “tells us maybe we’re not doing enough,” she said.

She said she especially was shaken by last month’s attack because “I happen to live in that neighborhood. It was very shocking to me.” Collins said she would push for a special program despite the efforts described by Assistant Supt. Allen Jacobs.

Jacobs, who oversees instruction and curriculum, said Thursday that the district was about to review its social studies program and will pay particular attention to race relations and prejudice as it chooses textbooks and redesigns courses.

Program on Prejudice

The 18,000-student district may also introduce in its junior high school social studies classes a program on prejudice that was developed by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. At least one junior high school teacher and Lewis Roth, school board president, are planning to attend a two-day workshop on the program next month.

The program, called “A World of Difference,” is designed to increase awareness about racial, ethnic and religious diversity, said Angela Antenore, the Anti-Defamation League’s education coordinator for Southern California. It started in 1985 in Boston in response to ethnic and racial tension there, and has since been copied in 22 cities nationwide. The program injects human relations material and discussions into classes, and trains instructors to confront their own prejudices and help students confront theirs.

Roth said the district is ripe for such a program because “in Simi Valley, we find now as opposed to 10 or even five years ago that we have a much more diversified population . . . a broader population that needs to understand one another.”

The district decided in May to explore the Anti-Defamation League program.

Roth said that while he agrees with Collins that race relations and learning how to deal with “different people” should be taught in schools, he doesn’t believe that a special course, especially for elementary schools, is the right approach.

He said he believes that good citizenship and self-esteem discussions are the appropriate forums to address race relations.

“I don’t feel a special class would be appropriate because it singles the issue out,” Roth said. “It’s an everyday kind of thing that needs to be incorporated into everyday life.”