CENTINELA VALLEY PROTEST: A SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND : Heated Debate Continues in Wake of Student Walkouts

In the wake of this month’s student protests in the Centinela Valley Union High School District, there has been heated debate about the racial tensions underlying the unrest and how to ease them.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times conducted a series of interviews in an attempt to explore this debate, talking with teachers, district officials, parents and a student leader. Their comments begin below and continue on B8.

As the interviews illustrate, there is still sharp disagreement on the problems facing the district but a common concern about their impact on teachers and students.

For nearly two years, the district has been plagued by race-related incidents, ranging from anonymous notes and offensive cartoons targeting black administrators to the confiscation in October at Hawthorne High School of a mannequin designed to look like a dead black man.

Michael Gold, the English teacher who used the one-time movie prop in the school’s “Film as Literature” class to illustrate the power of special effects, has insisted that the mannequin was not intended to be racist.

One of the incidents that has been repeatedly cited involved Nancy Nuesseler, president of the Centinela Valley Secondary Teachers Assn. Last September, Nuesseler, who is white, referred to Supt. McKinley Nash, who is black, as a “Stepin Fetchit” for state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig. She has since publicly apologized for the remark.

The incidents have taken place against a backdrop of dramatic racial change in the district. In 1980, 45.6% of the student body was white, 33.7% Latino and 12.1% black. By 1988, Latinos accounted for 52.4% of students, 18.7% were white and 17.2% black. The district’s faculty is overwhelmingly white, and about 31% of the district’s administrators, including Nash and two principals, are black.

Tensions in the 6,000-student district came to a head on March 5, a Monday, when students from Leuzinger High School marched across town to Hawthorne High to protest alleged racism and the resignation March 1 of that school’s black principal, Ken Crowe. At one point, about 2,000 students marched through the Hawthorne campus.

Many students said they had heard rumors that the school board members--four Latinos and an Anglo--wanted to fire all black teachers and administrators. Demonstrations were smaller on the following day and ended after a brief sit-in at Leuzinger on Wednesday.

When Crowe announced that he was resigning, effective at the end of the school year, he said the school board had not supported his efforts to resolve racial tensions. He later said he resigned after the board had told him that he would be reassigned but gave him no reason for the decision. On the second day of the demonstrations, Crowe said he would ask the board to rescind his resignation.

On Friday of that week, 27 community leaders, including law-enforcement officials and educators, gathered at a hastily called meeting organized by state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles). They emerged four hours later with a 10-point plan to address the unrest, including recommendations for programs to improve understanding among various ethnic groups. Those suggestions are likely to be discussed when the school board meets on Tuesday.

On March 15, the state Department of Education’s Intergroup Relations Office sent a team of educators and an attorney to begin assessing the district’s racial climate. After interviewing parents, students, teachers and administrators, the team will draft a set of recommendations for the school board.

ETHNIC MAKEUP OF CENTINELA SCHOOLS

STUDENTS

1980-81 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 Whites 45.6 30.7 28.5 18.7 Latino 33.7 38.7 43.9 52.4 Black 12.1 16.4 15.3 17.2 Asian/Pacific Islander 6.3 11.0 9.9 9.9 American Indian 1.4 0.5 0.5 0.4 Filipino 0.9 2.7 1.9 1.5

TEACHERS

1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 Whites 86.8 83.6 83.5 Latino 4.8 4.9 4.3 Black 4.8 7.5 7.8 Asian/Pacific Islander 3.1 3.5 3.9 American Indian 0.4 0.4 0.4 Filipino 0 0 0

ADMINISTRATORS

1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 Whites 56.3 53.3 62.5 Latino 6.3 6.7 6.3 Black 31.3 33.3 31.3 Asian/Pacific Islander 6.3 6.7 0 American Indian 0 0 0 Filipino 0 0 0

Sources: State Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau and Centinela Valley Union High School District