Probe of Racial Incidents Sought

The Centinela Valley Union High School District Board of Trustees has told Supt. McKinley Nash to ask the state Department of Education to help investigate a spate of race-related incidents and allegations of racial insensitivity in the district.

The action, proposed Tuesday by Trustee Pam Sturgeon and supported by the rest of the board, followed several complaints from parents and NAACP members who say the board has been slow to respond to incidents ranging from an alleged racial slur by a teachers union official to the confiscation of a mannequin designed to resemble a dead black male.

In an interview last week, Reuben Burton, director of the state education department’s Intergroup Relations Office, said his agency could conduct an investigation if the district requested it and then suggest ways to solve the problem.

Jose De Sosa, president of the state conference of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said his organization began monitoring racial tensions in the district last month, when Sturgeon first proposed an investigation during a school board meeting.