Royal High Opts to Stay Away From Annual Summer Event : L.A. Games: School officials cite safety concerns in wake of rioting triggered by verdicts in police-brutality trial in Simi Valley.

Royal High will not participate in next month’s L.A. Watts Summer Games, citing safety concerns in the wake of inner-city rioting that followed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating trial.

Royal administrators said participation in the games, scheduled to begin June 21, would place the schools’ coaches, athletes and their parents at risk.

Royal Principal Dave Jackson said since the King beating trial concluded in a Simi Valley courtroom last month, members of the school have been the target of threats.

“We hear statements made to our kids when we’re in different areas,” Jackson said. “We made the decision a couple of weeks ago not to go. I’m a real advocate of the Watts Games, but at this point I’m not willing to risk any kind of problem.”

Royal normally sends the school’s boys’ and girls’ soccer and volleyball teams, Jackson said.

Simi Valley High is unlikely to send any teams to the games, although Simi Valley Principal Dave Ellis said the decision was made irrespective of the riots.

“We are probably not going to go,” he said. “But not because of anything going on (in the inner city).”

He said the school’s boys’ and girls’ soccer teams are the only squads under consideration to compete. And those teams are unlikely to participate because they are scheduled to play in a tournament in Oregon at the same time, he said.

The games were originated in 1967--after the Watts riots of 1965--to promote better relations among Southern California’s ethnic communities through athletics.