Principal Reassigned Despite School Protests in His Behalf : Education: Allegations of racism surrounded the controversy when word leaked out that DeMille Middle School’s Zeff Dena might lose his job. The new principal is also Latino.

A school principal whose rumored demotion sparked two days of student protests and other unrest has been transferred to an administrative position in the school district office.

Zeff Dena, principal at DeMille Middle School, has accepted a job revising curriculum guides and handbooks, the district announced last week. Fred Navarro, an assistant principal at Millikan High School, has become the new principal at DeMille.

Long Beach school officials said they are making the change in an effort to calm unrest originally sparked by reports that Dena might lose his job.

“The situation was not good, and the concern was that the school needs to have a change of leadership,” district spokesman Richard Van Der Laan said. “The question was when, and (administrators) felt it was better sooner than later.”

In the wake of the demonstrations supporting Dena, who is Latino, some students and parents have accused district officials, employees and each other of racism. Officials directed one teacher to stay home while it investigates allegations that he used racial taunts and unnecessary roughness while dealing with protesting Latino students.

District officials and some teachers disputed charges that serious racial tensions existed at the school. They insisted that the school environment is safe and that the students and staff appreciate ethnic diversity.

DeMille sits in a largely Anglo, largely blue-collar neighborhood of northeast Long Beach, but it has a diverse enrollment as a result of busing. About 44% of the 1,170 students are bused in. The student body is 46% Latino, 33% Anglo, 15% black, 4% Asian and 2% other ethnicities.

The district sent a letter home with each student Thursday to notify parents of the change in principals.

Dena was on sick leave late last week and could not be reached for comment, but sources close to the school said his job change was not voluntary.

Parent Jill Stern called the transfer hasty. She said it was not clear that Dena was to blame for the school’s problems.

Parent Letisia Ortiz said the transfer angered her. “I think it’s a cop-out,” Ortiz said. “They figure that if the students and parents see they have brought in another Hispanic person, everything is fine.”

Ortiz is among the parent organizers of a petition drive to keep Dena at the school. Parents and students began their efforts before news of the transfer. Students gathered about 1,000 signatures last week from DeMille alone, Ortiz said.

“The students at DeMille, just as students everywhere else, always need someone they can look up to, someone who will listen to them,” she said. “Someone who will give them respect also. This man happened to be Dena.”

Students organized the first demonstration after Dena received official notice that he might be demoted next year. The notices do not assure a demotion, but officials rarely send them unless they are seriously considering a change. District officials have never said specifically why they sent Dena the letter. In an earlier interview, Dena said he did not know how news of the letter reached students.

After hearing rumors that Dena might lose his job, hundreds of students refused to return to class after lunch March 19. They chanted the principal’s name and shouted, “We love Dena!” and “Dena is Number 1!” Other students wandered through the campus or milled about watching the more vocal protesters, who included many Latino students.

School officials summoned district security, Long Beach police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, and sent students home an hour early. Many parents later complained to Dena that they could not quickly locate their children because of the early release.

Students staged another brief protest the following morning for Dena, a first-year principal who worked previously in the Santa Ana Unified School District as an assistant director of curriculum and an assistant principal.

The demonstrations took place without arrest or major injury. But some students told their parents and reporters that they were threatened or punched in confrontations with other students.

“There were no confirmed reports of anybody being hit or knocked down,” the district’s Van Der Laan insisted. “We’re looking into every single one of the items that is a concern about student safety.”

Officials pleaded for calm and patience during two school meetings with parents and students. At a Tuesday gathering in the school auditorium, more than 400 parents and students spoke for three hours on issues ranging from alleged racism on campus to the academic progress of students. Officials have formed a parents committee to address these concerns.

New Principal Navarro, a former DeMille teacher, took over Thursday and visited every classroom. “I told students I expect them to make good choices, to be in class and to go about their business as students,” he said. “My agenda is real simple. I just want to come here and focus on the safety of the kids, make sure everything is orderly.

“I know the issues are complex,” he added. “I told the kids that things have changed as much for me as for you.”

Times community correspondents Kirsten Lee Swartz and Sarah M. Brown contributed to this story.