Students Using Words to Heal Wounds From Riots

Pain laced the handwritten poster messages of some of the 300 young people who gathered at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center on Tuesday to take up a piece of unfinished school business--their lingering feelings and fears about the Los Angeles riots. “All kinds of stereotypes are now being placed on my people because of the uprising,” read one. “I keep praying the people in the city will understand each other,” said another. “L.A. has gone nuts. Helicopters overhead. Drive-bys. What a place!” proclaimed a third.

At a daylong seminar sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Pediatrics Department of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine, the high school students wrote their feelings, gathered in small clusters and--for the most part somberly--talked about the pervasive feelings of sadness and frustration that they have been unable to shake since April 29.

Summer vacation, many said, did little to ease racial conflicts on campus. At the same time, students said they wanted to keep alive--in their classrooms and in schoolyard conversations--the social issues that led to the upheaval.

“No one wants to forget what happened,” said Elise Leahy, 17, of Long Beach Polytechnic High School. “Some of the teachers want to go on like nothing has happened, like the riot is over. But we don’t want to go back to normal. We have to talk about this, deal with it.”

A number of students said that it has been doubly demoralizing to return to school in the midst of another crisis--this one brought on by unprecedented Los Angeles Unified School District budget cuts that have led to supply shortages, pared-down activities and angry teachers.

“L.A. is junk right now. Everyone is still feeling saddened by it all. You still see the burned buildings. Teacher are being laid off,” said Scott Miles, a 17-year-old senior at Dorsey High School, as he spoke with other students. “It’s the poorest place to be. And now even our education is falling apart around us.”

Students in nearly every discussion group said they felt let down by politicians and government and wished they were old enough to voice their anger in a voting booth.

“People are very selfish right now. Politicians are pleasing the people who have the money, and to do that, you have to take from the poor,” Leahy said.

“It’s like reverse Robin Hood in government right now,” another student said.

Students from outside areas where looting and burning erupted complained that school counselors and teachers were not paying enough attention to the riots.

“Maybe the stores around us didn’t burn down, but we have been emotionally affected. We are scared,” said Oscar Rivera, a student at South Gate High School. “Everybody in every school in Los Angeles needs to still be talking about the riots.”

Others said tensions between racial groups has only increased over the summer--and that crowded classrooms, a shortage of books and the lack of after-school programs only shorten tempers.

“I’m just seeing more and people people being careful about what they have to say to each other. Pretty soon no one will be talking,” said one Latino girl from Gardena High School overheard in a small-group conversation. “You can’t even accidentally bump into someone now without them thinking you want to fight.”

Yet the discussions, led by Drew University medical students and National Conference of Christians and Jews staff, did not spiral into hopelessness. Although many students said “reality” dictates that racial cliques on campus cannot be broken, most agreed that in small ways they could begin to ease campus tensions.

Miles said that he wants to get involved in tutoring younger classmates. Some Latino and black students said that they would be willing to organize joint meetings between their cultural clubs. Students from another school said that they would petition their administration to expand a peer counseling program for students who have been in campus fights.

For Juan Cardenas, 15, of Gardena High School, the workshop provided the opportunity to begin turning around a cycle of racial conflict that ensnared him last year. For months, he said, he has regretted jumping into a fight between Latino and black students.

“Sometimes you say things--you do things--you regret because you have too much pride for your race, you know,” Cardenas said. “But you get tired of the fighting and screaming. At first you think it’s fun. But then it gets you down.”