VENTURA : Blacks Cite Need for More School Safety

Black high school students and community activists complained to the Ventura school board Tuesday night, saying a lack of security at Ventura High School led to a racially motivated attack on a black student last week.

Backed by about 50 concerned students and parents, Zaylore Stout, 17, told the board of the Ventura Unified School District that he was struck on the face Thursday by a 21-year-old former student.

Zaylore was leaving school at the end of the day when he was accosted by the man, who yelled a racial slur, got out of a car and slugged him, Zaylore said.

“I personally don’t feel at all safe on campus,” said Zaylore, who is president of the Black Student Union. “There are so many students that don’t even go to this school on campus.”

The group asked for full-time Ventura police patrols at the school, and said they wanted to increase awareness of racial tension that is brewing on campus.

“Who’s going to be responsible for our kids at school?” John R. Hatcher III, president of the Ventura County NAACP, asked the board.

Board member John Walker said that the board would make a formal request for help from the police and that a task force would be formed to investigate racial tension.

Parents of about 20 students took them out of school early on Friday because the teen-agers were afraid to leave school unescorted. About 30 of the school’s 1,820 students are African-American, school officials said.

Ventura High Principal Jerry Barshay told the school board that the school has stepped up security and has begun “extra-vigilant” patrols on campus.