A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Today’s Agenda

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As adults always say, to the disgust of teen-agers, “When I was a kid . . . “ The story usually involves going five miles on foot through deep snow to school. But today, the story might continue . . . “We never had police at school, we never worried about gunfire and we never had a teachers’ strike.”

Kids shouldn’t have to contend with danger at school, but it’s a reality. In today’s Youth column, students at North Hollywood and Hamilton high schools, the focus of recent racially tinged violence, talk about it.

“It’s been at a boiling point for a long time here,” says Gerardo Herrera, a junior at North Hollywood.

Freshman Preston Moreen says, “We (blacks) are only trying to protect ourselves.”

Statements like this seem to indicate that the problem is deeper and of longer standing than administrators comprehend. Keeping police on campuses is no long-term answer--but encouraging communication should be high on the school system’s list.

Los Angeles schools also face labor strife. “Everyone is of a consensus that (a strike) is really hard on parents, teachers and kids. But it’s really necessary,” says Jeannine Mendoza, a teacher at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School, in Platform. The district faces steep budget cuts and the issue is where the money will come from. It’s not at all clear that either side can stop the strike juggernaut. And who will take it on the chin? Student Sarah Warren says this: “Students are mad. We feel cheated that (the teachers are) getting cheated. We’re really worried about college applications.”

Getting students to the point where they can hold a job and go to college is the goal of a YMCA profiled in Making a Difference. The Teen LEAD program starts with self-image, fitness, nutrition counseling, communication and social skills. The premise is that there’s no point in having a job if you’re not able to keep it.

Latinos are expected to vote Tuesday in record numbers, continuing a trend that has tripled the number of Latino elected officials in a little more than a decade. Antonio Gonzales of the Southwest Voter Research Institute cautions in Community Essay that Latinos, once in power, need to establish a balance between the common good and honoring their roots. The battle over whether a black or a Latino will head the L.A. schools is destructive, he warns, and so is the hostility of some Mexican-Americans to newer arrivals.

What to do if you threw out the ballot pamphlet that had your polling place address? In Getting Answers, we list numbers to call in six counties for that information.

How do Russian Jewish immigrants view the American electoral system? Conservatively, says the Russian-language publication Panorama. Also in Second Opinion, a last look at how some ethnic publications view the election, plus an excerpt from a political piece in the archdiocese magazine that’s causing a stir in the Southern California’s Roman Catholic community.