Hate Crimes in Public Schools

We commend The Times for its front-page coverage (Oct. 26) of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission’s survey on hate crimes in the county’s schools. Public awareness of this pressing issue is a very important step in developing appropriate response mechanisms to address it effectively.

While the survey is important in counting and publicizing hate incidents, it did not--could not--gauge the increase in racial prejudice and interracial tensions that underlie the incidents. Indeed, these attitudes are nearly impossible to measure in a scientific manner, such as incidents and behavior are.

Our own programmatic efforts to reduce prejudice and interracial tensions are conducted in response to “felt needs” expressed by campus administration, faculty and, sometimes, students. The school campuses with which we work in our human relations camps and on-campus Project Brotherhood/Sisterhood all report tensions between individuals and all racial and ethnic groups. The point is that intergroup tensions may well be even deeper and more widespread than even the report documents.

Proactive programs to reduce prejudice and intergroup tensions must be put at the forefront of our public policy agenda and not just on school campuses.

Must we wait for Los Angeles to experience its own Bensonhursts before our community and its public policy-makers see that racial tensions must be addressed in a systematic proactive manner?

JERRY FREEDMAN HABUSH

National Conference of Christians

and Jews, Los Angeles