CENTINELA VALLEY PROTEST: A SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND : All Sides Speak Out on Centinela Schools’ Racial Tension

Neil Minami, Hawthorne Teacher

Neil Minami, vice president of the Centinela Valley Secondary Teachers Assn., has been at Hawthorne High School for almost 22 years and has taught driver’s education and social studies. He is of Japanese ancestry.

Q: What do you think has been the cause of the racial tensions and student unrest in the district?

A: I think the consensus of most of the teachers, and I would say a pretty large majority, is that it’s been caused by a few adults and obviously I can’t name them. It seems to most of us that they’ve been using the community, they’ve been using students and they’ve used teachers to stir up some type of trouble in the district. And for what reasons other than maybe personal gain, I don’t know. . . . We are hoping an investigation will take place and maybe we’ll find out after that.

Q: What evidence do you have that adults were involved?

A: During the walkout at Leuzinger . . . the gates were left open. Leuzinger is a closed campus. How can all the gates be left open on one specific day? . . . We have recorded evidence that the (campus security) guards told them: “Come on, let’s go. Follow the group and get off campus.” That I assume will come up in an investigation if they do it.

Q: Some people have said that the mannequin and the anonymous notes and cartoons indicate that there is racism among the white teaching staff.

A: That mannequin has been on campus for nine or 10 years and has been used in that class all this time. So, I don’t know. It might have just been bad timing. . . . If you know Dr. (Michael) Gold (the teacher who used the mannequin in a lesson on special effects), you know there is no racial intent in that. He’s far from being a racist. And obviously these people don’t know Dr. Gold that well. I’ve worked with him for probably 14 or 15 years and there is no way, no way, he is a racist. . . .

So, I think a lot of these things are really blown out of proportion and I think it’s really sad that they have to blame it on racism. . . . Ken Crowe has always said there is a small group of white teachers that are racist. He’s never named them. We would like to know because I think there are a lot of white teachers . . . that are very upset about being grouped in with this possible small group of racists. . . . But I’ll tell you I’ve been here 21 years, and I haven’t met a racist yet. You know, I mean a true racist bigot. . . . There are some great people in this school and it’s really sad they’ve labeled our faculty as being racist.

Q: How effectively have the school board, administrators and teachers responded to the situation?

A: I think the (new school board) has held in there outstandingly because the pressures that they’re getting from all these antagonists makes it hard to run a school board when you are trying to battle the (allegations). . . . They’ve always been open to discussion and listening.

Q: How about the administration?

A: There haven’t been any multiracial in-service meetings . . . for teachers to understand different cultures and different races. . . . So, I guess administratively they haven’t done anything. . . . (During the protest) why didn’t the administration call us and say: “Hey there are a group of kids coming over to Hawthorne. Close your doors.” I mean, they had plenty of time. They called a couple rooms or a couple buildings and that’s it. There are a lot of questions that have never been answered.

Q: What do you think should be done to address the problems?

A: When there is property damage and kids leaving school, there’s a chance of them getting hit on the street by cars . . . and up until this time (Supt. McKinley Nash) has called for no investigations. . . . I think that’s why the teachers got a petition to request an investigation. We got 90-plus signatures at Hawthorne and 77 at Leuzinger. We want a full investigation. Who would investigate this? I don’t know, but we sure would like to know who’s at the bottom of this.

Q: Some people would say you should let bygones be bygones and concentrate on education.

A: Too many harsh words have already been said to hurt a lot of people and I don’t know if (teachers) are willing to say let’s let bygones be bygones. I mean, when you accuse people of being a racist . . . I don’t think they are going to forget those things. I think they are going to want answers. . . .

Unless you were there (during the protests) you can’t believe the terror that some of these women teachers faced. I’ve never seen women teachers upset before like that. I mean, we have had meetings and for the most part most of the women don’t say anything. But when we had our meeting with Ken Crowe (after the protests) they were (criticizing) him and I mean some of them were almost at tears.

Q: Has any good come from the controversy?

A: I tried to find something good from all of this. . . . The only good that I can see is that we’ve experienced something that most people will never go through. I think as a group, as a faculty, we’ve become stronger. . . . If you’re talking about things that are good, maybe . . . it’s been a learning experience, and I think we have probably grown in that respect and we know we can hang in there together.