Students Struggle to Ease Racial Tensions : Schools: Actor Olmos counsels youths at North Hollywood. Students at Gardena High offer lessons from their experience last year.

While actor Edward James Olmos counseled youths who clashed earlier this week at North Hollywood High School, student leaders at Gardena High offered a few words of wisdom Wednesday to their peers across town.

“Don’t show your ignorance by fighting. It’s not worth it,” said Gardena High senior class President Cerissa Stein. “In the end you only hurt yourselves.”

After two days of scattered incidents of racially motivated violence, which prompted an unusual directive from the district superintendent to improve relations, students at schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District gathered in large and small groups to discuss how to keep the peace on campus.

“If you are going to judge me by the color of my skin, then you lose,” Olmos said at North Hollywood High. “If you are going to judge me by the person I am, then you win.”

Several hundred black and Latino students at North Hollywood High clashed in a lunchtime brawl Monday that was quelled by Los Angeles police officers. On Tuesday a much smaller fight erupted between blacks and Latinos at Hamilton High Schools Complex. And large groups of students at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar sparred in a shouting match.

At Hamilton High, which was nearly deserted Wednesday because of a “pupil-free” planning day for teachers, the talk centered on how to deal with students when they return today. After the fight, teacher Sandra Goldman said, Latino students in one of her classes scrawled racial epithets on the chalkboard when she stepped out. She hopes the day off will cool their anger.

Olmos, who has emerged as a role model for youths and others after he organized a post-riot cleanup campaign, said the discussions he led at North Hollywood High were “far more volatile” than he expected.

He called on black and Latino students--who sat in separate clusters--to air their feelings about prejudice and the incidents of the past several days.

At first, the students were clearly on edge. Latino and black speakers applauded their own and booed members of the other ethnic group who rose to speak.

“How many people here think they can’t forgive what happened?” Olmos asked as 12 students raised their hands. He pointed out that bitterness will result if they do not forgive their classmates and will only serve to harm them emotionally in other relationships.

By the end, the boos had subsided, and some students rushed to the center of the gym to support speakers from the other side of the room, shaking hands and hugging.

Reviews among students, however, were mixed.

“I think it helped,” said student Oshonda Posey, who is black. “Because if it didn’t we would be getting jumped right now.”

Some black students said they felt left out at first, when Olmos used Spanish expressions to talk to the Latino students. Others from both groups said they could forgive but not forget the feelings roused when black and Latino students fought.

Still, the students said, they felt more optimistic than when the day began.

“The majority was clapping at the end,” said student Theresa Turner. “There was a lot of tension at the beginning, but at the end everybody was hugging and holding hands.”

Almost exactly a year ago, Gardena High erupted in fights involving hundreds of African-American and Latino students after a cultural awareness and entertainment program. The disturbance doused school spirit and damaged its reputation. Counselors and psychologists converged on classrooms there.

On Wednesday, about 400 Gardena seniors assembled to listen to both encouraging news and warnings from fellow students and their principal.

“I want you to be the leadership of the school, the senior class that stands out,” said Principal John Howard. “This school is improving. This school can improve; you must be role models for others.”

At the 2,700-student school--whose population is 40% black, 37% Latino, 14% Asian and 5% white--student leaders said it took time and a change in school administration to begin to heal their tensions.

In a discussion with several of the school’s student leaders, who reflected the racial diversity of the campus, the youths said the most important factor in alleviating tensions has been open communication with Howard and with Wendell Greer, their vice principal. Howard took over from Catherine Lum, who was reassigned to North Hollywood this year.

Also, they said, student leaders at other troubled schools should find ways to sponsor activities that are sensitive to the enjoyment of all students. Music at dances, for instance, must reflect a variety of tastes.

“We’re all frustrated about the way things are going,” said Angali Iyer, 17. “A lot of us don’t know how to react because there are so many different cultures around. But we are not as different as we think we are. It’s all a matter of respect.”