Quayle’s Morality Debate: Day 2 : Visit: Remarks on one-parent families anger some L.A. students.

Vice President Dan Quayle’s attempt to place morality and family values at the center of the debate over urban policy in post-riot Los Angeles ran into a snag Wednesday during a visit to a South-Central junior high school.

Before an audience that included many youngsters being raised by single mothers, Quayle told 100 Latino and black students at Bret Harte Middle School that there are “too many children born out of wedlock.”

“We should promote the idea of marriage,” the vice president said during an “Ask Dan Quayle” session. “If you are considering having children, think of marriage. That is the preferred way. And I think the child is going to be better off.”

Although Quayle also took pains to praise the “heroic” efforts of single-parent families, his remarks drew some angry and cynical responses from the students.

“I don’t understand why he would say something like that when most people here have single mothers,” said Jermario Jordan, 14, himself a member of a single-parent family.

“What would you prefer?,” 14-year-old Vanessa Martinez asked rhetorically after the vice president had departed. “A single mom, or a dad who gets drunk and beats your mom?”

Quayle’s statements came after sixth-grader Janae Burris, the student-body treasurer, asked him to expand upon his remarks about the “Murphy Brown” television series, in which the title character chose to bear a child out of wedlock.

Quayle first commented on the television program Tuesday in San Francisco, arguing that the “lawless social anarchy” of the Los Angeles riots was the result of a “poverty of values” epitomized by “Murphy Brown.”

On Wednesday, the vice president continued to criticize the television program.

“My complaint is that Hollywood thinks it’s cute to glamorize illegitimacy,” Quayle told reporters outside the South-Central Los Angeles school, which is located in a community ravaged in the recent rioting. “Hollywood just doesn’t get it. . . . They’re out there in the world of comfort. They ought to be with me where the real America is.”

His “Murphy Brown” comments did not find a particularly receptive audience at Bret Harte.

“I don’t think a lot of thought was given to his statement,” said school counselor Irma Primus. “A lot of the kids were upset. We think our mothers are doing good jobs. . . . It’s not easy. I’m a single parent. I’m speaking from personal experience.”

Asked later whether he knew that many of Bret Harte’s students are from single-parent families, Quayle responded that he had great admiration for women who raise children on their own.

“I know there are one-parent families,” Quayle said. “I have the greatest respect for single-parent families raising children. They are heroes and an inspiration. They are going against the odds.”

Quayle sat on a stool as he spoke to the students, who formed a large circle around him in the school library. They peppered him with questions about the riots, school budget cuts and other issues.

Perhaps the toughest question came from 14-year-old Shirley Kennedy. She asked the vice president how he would feel--and what he would do--if he were a young black male living on welfare in South-Central Los Angeles.

“I would hope he would have the attitude that, ‘I can do it if I stick to it, if I stay in school,’ ” Quayle said. “Stay off of drugs, stay away from crime, stay away from the gang activities.”

Although the Bret Harte students were polite and respectful to Quayle while he visited their school, they felt free to criticize him after he left.

“He seems like an average type of man,” said Vanessa Martinez when asked about her impressions of the vice president. “He’s not, like, smart. I’m not trying to bag on him or anything, but he has the same mentality I have--and I’m in the eighth grade.”

His session with the students completed, Quayle moved on to a meeting with Principal Catherine Sumpter and a small group of teachers and parents. The discussion quickly moved to the underlying social problems behind the riots.

“None of us in this room condone the violence,” Sumpter told Quayle. “However, there is a very basic problem that has not been addressed and that is institutional racism.”

Sumpter said residents of South Los Angeles need jobs and suggested that the Bush Administration spend $7 billion on aid to the cities instead of sending new aid to the former Soviet republics.

“I take what you’re saying is we need a massive commitment to education,” Quayle said.

Two dozen parents and teachers joined the principal in answering: “Yes!”

Quayle responded: “It’s got to be more than that.”

“That’s a start,” Sumpter said.

The visit to Bret Harte was one stop in an 18-hour visit to Los Angeles that included a meeting with the South-Central Korean Merchants Assn. and an afternoon meeting for the Bush reelection campaign.

Quayle also attended a breakfast meeting to discuss relief efforts for Los Angeles with Mayor Tom Bradley, Supervisor Deane Dana and Peter Ueberroth, who is heading Rebuild L.A., the task force channeling aid to riot-torn neighborhoods.

Most of the meeting focused on a White House initiative to encourage local officials to sell Los Angeles International Airport to raise money for urban renewal.

Bradley told the vice president he was concerned that the proposal might result in a reduction of federal support for LAX and also lead to increased airline ticket prices.

Quayle told the mayor that the city would not be forced to sell LAX.

“It was reassuring to find out that the federal government is not trying to mandate the city of Los Angeles to sell its airport,” Bradley said. “Nor is there any retreat from the promises already made to offer federal assistance.”

Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this story.