Graduations Are Free of Recent Racial Discord

Leuzinger High School looked like a picture-perfect model of racial integration as its Latino, black, Anglo and Asian students, all in caps and gowns, walked shoulder to shoulder onto Olympian Field to receive their diplomas Wednesday afternoon.

That graduation, and one that took place two hours later at Hawthorne High School, brought a peaceful end to a year of turmoil and racial division in the Centinela Valley Union High School District.

Although Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and Hawthorne police were on hand at both schools Wednesday, no disturbances were reported. Teachers at Hawthorne High frisked male seniors for concealed weapons as they arrived for graduation, but reportedly found none.

The calm of the commencement ceremonies was in stark contrast to the discord that strained relations among students, teachers, parents and administrators in the past two years.

In March, 1990, when these graduating seniors were nearing the end of their junior year, 2,500 students from Leuzinger and Hawthorne high schools boycotted classes during two days of demonstrations to protest allegations of racism against blacks.

In the next year, racial tensions mounted as black parents complained that their concerns were being ignored by the predominantly Latino school board, and 13 black employees filed discrimination complaints with state and federal agencies. Although the school board has denied the allegations, an atmosphere of anger and distrust persisted, engulfing administrators, teachers, students and parents.

Two months ago, the tensions again exploded at Leuzinger High as dozens of black and Latino students fought along racial lines in the wake of a confrontation between two girls, one a black, the other a Latina.

And last week, Hawthorne High became the site of another racially tinged melee that involved dozens of students after a Latino youth struck a black student in the head with a pipe.

The fistfights of the previous week, however, seemed a distant memory during the festivities Wednesday as proud parents bedecked their children with balloons and flowers and videotaped them tossing beach balls and coordinating their own versions of “The Wave.”

Leuzinger High’s seniors sat quietly as their classmates with the highest grade-point averages gave speeches that warmly referred to the school as a “second home.” And Hawthorne valedictorian Susana Franco received loud applause at the conclusion of her address, which she delivered in both English and Spanish.

Many students and parents at both schools said the district’s racial problems had been overplayed by the media and its achievements had been ignored.

“Basically, I think people underestimate this school because all they see is the riots on the press, while there are schools that are worse,” said Leuzinger honor student Jay O’Balles, who plans to study physics at UC Irvine.

Some students and parents, however, admitted that the disruptions had taken their toll. Teachers were forced to delay lessons and school theatrical productions were postponed.

As he sat with his wife in the bleachers Wednesday, Chuck Rundle said he was relieved that his 17-year-old daughter, Jalaine, was finally graduating from Leuzinger. “I’m glad she’s getting out of the school because of the tensions,” he said.

Quinn Tang, 19, a Leuzinger honor student who plans to enroll at UCLA in the premedical program, said the student walkouts and fights “caused a lot of distractions to the students who want to learn and the teachers who want to teach.”

He said he was surprised by the race riots because “most of the people associate with each other pretty well, no matter what their race or color.” But he added that he was able to stay out of trouble by burying himself in his books and by joining clubs and organizations.

For many other students at Leuzinger, the strategy apparently worked.

Despite the turmoil of the last two years, more than 100 Leuzinger seniors, or 20% of the students who received diplomas, graduated with grade-point averages of 3.0 or more on a 4.0 scale. The school’s top 10 students had grade-point averages that ranged from 3.87 to 3.97.

Of Leuzinger’s 500 graduates, 184 said they plan to attend college, with letters of acceptance coming from schools ranging from El Camino College to Stanford University. Although many of the students plan to enroll in trade institutes, 22 will go to University of California campuses and 15 to schools in the Cal State system.

One student, Leah Fuller, who qualified as a “seal bearer” by earning A’s or Bs in at least five academic classes during six of her eight semesters in high school, won a full scholarship to Stanford. Another seal bearer, Truong Michael Vo, won a scholarship to Notre Dame University. And Joo H. Lee, a seal bearer who earned all A’s on his fall, 1990, report card, was welcomed by both Harvard University and the University of Florida at Miami.

As the final names were called and the ceremony marking the students’ first major rite of passage wound to a close, it became clear that the district’s troubles had left at least some of its graduates with a maturity beyond their years.

“In a way, I’ll miss it,” O’Balles said, “because I did a lot of growing up here.”