Gates Fails to Sway School on Forfeiture

Cradling a football in his arms, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Thursday he would deploy hundreds of officers--and even brave a bullet himself--to allay the concerns of Banning High School officials, who have refused to let their team play against Dorsey High because of gang violence in the Southwest Los Angeles neighborhood.

“We will make that place the safest place in the city,” Gates vowed at a packed press conference with City Councilman Nate Holden, whose district includes Dorsey High School.

“We should never give in to terrorism and that is what is happening here,” the chief said, disclosing that he called Banning High Principal Augustine Herrera to personally promise that he will take every safety measure possible.

But despite the chief’s assurances, Herrera said the school stands behind its decision to forfeit the game, which was scheduled for this afternoon at Dorsey’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, located down the street from the campus on Rodeo Road.

Banning team members and parents said their concerns stem not only from gangs but from a rivalry between the two schools that has become increasingly bitter and intense. Last year, Dorsey players and fans, angered by a referee’s call that gave Banning the win, streamed onto the field, confronting Banning players and fans.

“The parents and the community-support people are not grandstanding,” said Herrera, who favored playing the game. “There is a concern about safety.”

For Gates and Holden, the flap seems to have become a matter of civic pride in a city where gang violence has intruded into many facets of daily life and is now threatening interscholastic athletics.

“If we can’t take a school and some kids and make them feel safe then we are in deep trouble,” Gates said. He added that if the department could protect the 1984 Summer Olympic Games from terrorism, then it could surely provide security at a high school stadium.

Holden said the widely publicized controversy is damaging the city’s image--already suffering because of the police beating of Rodney G. King.

“Can you imagine,” Holden said, “people saying that they don’t want to come into Los Angeles because of the gangs? The whole city is hurt by this.”

Holden and Gates rejected suggestions that the game be played at a neutral location, saying that changing the venue would be tantamount to giving in to terrorist demands.

“What (the public) will remember is that we gave in to those miserable little, and that is all they are, is miserable little terrorists,” Gates said.

At one point, the chief said with a smile that he would be willing to “stand in the middle of the field and let people take a shot” at him to prove his commitment to making the game safe for players and spectators.

Asked why he would not take such dramatic steps to protect citizens in Watts and other high-crime areas, Gates said he would like to but has been criticized in the past for his massive gang sweeps and the use of battering rams on fortified drug houses.

Officials at Banning High, which is located in Wilmington, voted Tuesday to forfeit the game after meeting with parents who expressed fears of gang violence at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

In the closing minutes of an Oct. 4 game at Dorsey High against Crenshaw High, gunfire erupted between rival gangs, wounding two students and sending spectators and players scurrying for cover. This week, a 16-year-old Dorsey student, who is a purported gang member, was shot once in the head while standing near the school’s athletic field.

While some Los Angeles Unified School District officials have called the decision to forfeit the game “irrational” and “unfair,” Banning students and administrators adamantly defend the decision.

“We’re not paranoid,” said team quarterback Vaimagalo (Andre) Faavi-Tua’au. “It’s just that our coaches and our families know we’re in danger because of what happened last year and this year.”

Shellena Henry, a 17-year-old Watts resident who attends Banning, said her mother will not let her go to a game at Dorsey. “It’s just too many kids there at once,” said the teen-ager’s mother, Shelly Allen. “You’ve got different gangs going to see the game. . . . I’d rather keep her home and be safe than sorry.”

Even before the forfeiture decision, the Banning band had decided not to make the trip. While administrators said the decision was a financial one, band members said it was made out of a concern for the safety of band members.