Students Walk Out to Protest Conditions at Morningside

More than 500 students streamed out of Morningside High School on Friday morning and then marched and drove three miles to Inglewood Unified School District headquarters to protest what they said were substandard classroom conditions.

Complaining of textbook shortages in some classes, unclean bathrooms, unqualified substitute teachers and rampant gang activity at the school, the student demonstrators vowed to stage daily protests outside the district offices until changes are made.

Blanca Vega, one of the organizers of the protest, said a substitute teacher turned a radio on during her English class and allowed students to dance for the entire period. “Is that education?” she asked.

“The bathrooms are a mess,” said Derrick Potts, an 11th-grader who participated in the walkout. “There are gopher holes in the field. We have substitutes in most of our classes. You really have to go to this school to see what’s going on.”

District Supt. George McKenna pleaded with the students throughout the day to return to their classes and at one point used a loudspeaker mounted on a police car to urge a group of several hundred demonstrators to leave the district headquarters.

In an interview during the demonstrations, McKenna acknowledged that the students raised valid concerns. But McKenna and other district officials said that budget constraints make immediate remedies to all the school’s problems impossible. Officials contend that the district is $1 million over budget this year and deep in contentious contract negotiations with teachers.

In an afternoon meeting with student leaders, McKenna outlined district plans to curb gang activity and improve classroom conditions for the school’s 1,300 students. McKenna said he will also seek more textbooks for the school and ensure that substitutes are more closely monitored.

When told about students dancing in an English class, McKenna responded: “That’s unacceptable. That’s immoral. Something will be done.”

Morningside High has been dogged by controversy since the start of classes last fall. Throughout the first semester, angry parents, teachers and students complained at school board meetings about scheduling problems that kept dozens of students out of their classes. Patricia Richardson, a biology teacher, called that semester the most “chaotic” she has experienced in 17 years at the school.

Earlier this week, the school board voted in closed session to transfer Morningside Principal Art Murray, who was in his first year at the helm of the school, to an unspecified position in the district.

While district officials have declined to comment on the personnel action until it becomes official next week, Murray has said that his transfer is an attempt by the school district to blame him for long-standing problems at the school. Murray did not report to work Friday morning.

Student protesters said that scheduling problems, decaying school facilities and now the mid-year change of the school administration have all disrupted their education. “We’re not going to take it anymore,” said Vega, a senior who plans to attend college this fall. “We are going to protest every day until we get some changes.”

Controversy also arose after a group of community leaders, led by school board member Zyra McCloud, videotaped the school’s facilities last fall to document what they called “deplorable” physical conditions at Morningside. After the videotape was shown at a PTA meeting, other residents complained of unsanitary bathrooms, graffiti and a lack of school supplies.

McCloud, who was the only board member to show up at the protest Friday, told cheering students that the district should either clean up the school or close it. McCloud, who has two daughters who recently transferred from Morningside to the district’s other high school, has repeatedly criticized McKenna’s handling of the school’s troubles.

McKenna was a principal at Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles before taking the Inglewood job in 1988. His efforts in inner-city education won him nationwide praise and were the subject of a television movie on his leadership style.

The district superintendent said the protest took him by surprise because he met with about 100 students for four hours earlier this week to hear their concerns. The student protesters, however, said they were not satisfied by simply delivering their message.

“We’re tired of people writing down our concerns and not getting back to us,” said 16-year-old Katrina Hamilton. “We’re tired of people saying, ‘I heard you. I heard you.’ We want something done.”