Students Riot at Hawthorne High School : Racism Is Alleged as Teen-Agers Loot Stores, Damage Cars

Hundreds of unruly teen-agers invaded Hawthorne High School today, vandalizing and looting the school, stores and cars in a march to protest alleged racism at the school, authorities said.

“During the march, the students became unruly and began rioting,” Police Sgt. John Beerling said after officers in riot gear were called in from several police agencies.

“They looted, damaged automobiles and committed other acts of vandalism and swarmed onto the campus,” Beerling said.

The rampage was still out of control more than two hours after the demonstration began. No injuries were reported.

“There have been a lot of arrests, but I don’t know how many. It still isn’t under control,” Beerling said at 12:30 p.m.

Officers from Hawthorne, Lawndale, Inglewood, Gardena, Torrance and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to the school, 15 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.

About 400 students walked out of classes at 10 a.m. at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale and headed for the Hawthorne campus a few miles away, said a secretary in Leuzinger Principal Sonya Davis’ office.

“It was very peaceful. There was no trouble here,” she said. The disturbance created by their departure was brief and largely unnoticed by most of the school’s 3,000 students.

“They walked out and they haven’t returned,” she said. “Some were hollering and some carried placards that said, ‘Be fair to all minorities.’ It was unexpected by us. We don’t really know what it was all about.”

The students were angry over what they claimed were racist hiring policies at both schools, the largest campuses within the Centinela Valley School District.

Resident Mark Reise said he was driving by Hawthorne High School about 10:30 a.m. when the Leuzinger students arrived.

“They were rowdy, yelling and screaming. But it looked like it was a staged affair. I think it’s the old political stuff that’s been going on at Hawthorne High School for years,” Reise said.

The protest came three months after a heated election for the Centinela Valley school board, in which several candidates lodged allegations of racist policies within the district.