King Attorney Hits Response to School Visit

Rodney G. King’s attorney and local black leaders lashed out Friday at school officials who condemned King’s surprise visit to Tustin High School this week, saying that King meant only to bring positive messages to black youths.

Flanked by local black educators in an evening news conference at Second Baptist Church, attorney Milton C. Grimes took specific aim at Tustin schools Supt. David Andrews, who had derided King’s appearance as an attempt to win public support in a pending legal fight.

“I regret that some people not present felt that it was a bad thing or a trick by me to get publicity,” Grimes said. “It was neither a bad thing nor a trick by me.”

Grimes said King’s presentation Wednesday night to about 75 members of the African-American Student Alliance Club and some adults was “the most profound address to a young black audience I’ve ever participated in.”

The controversy erupted Thursday after school district officials and local parents read news accounts of King’s surprise appearance, during which he promoted education and talked about his experiences. By Thursday afternoon, the district was deluged with telephone calls, which school officials said were mostly critical of the visit.

Grimes had been scheduled to speak to the class alone, but later decided to bring King. Grimes said Thursday night that the visit was an attempt to turn around his client’s public image. But on Friday he said he brought King because he felt the young audience could relate to King’s experiences.

Students, some of whom were present at the Friday news conference, and club adviser Judy Sampson said they were pleasantly surprised by the guest speaker.

Grimes is representing King in a pending civil lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Rodney King is a very important role model,” said UC Irvine psychologist Thomas A. Parham, who joined Grimes and others at the church news conference. “He is a symbol of determination to fight in the face of overwhelming odds.

“What is distressing is that the comments (from school officials) I read in the paper represent a level of insensitivity unbecoming an educator. It is a dramatic example of how racism permeates our most senior levels of education.”

Supt. Andrews had said on Thursday that King “is too controversial for a school district to deal with. . . . His name is infamous.” Andrews said he had no idea the visit had been planned and would not have supported it with advance notice.

The superintendent could not be reached for comment Friday, but a secretary in his office said the district was continuing to get telephone calls in support of Andrews.

By late Friday morning, Andrews’ secretary, Ann Morgan, said the district had received more than 50 calls from within and outside the Tustin Unified School District, most offering encouragement for Andrews’ position.

But Grimes, too, said his office was swamped with supportive calls from schools throughout the Southland, some inviting King to speak to their school groups. Grimes said the most recent calls came from schools in Inglewood, Diamond Bar and Los Angeles.

Despite the rancor caused by the Tustin visit, Grimes said King has continued to express interest in talking about his experiences to young people.

“I have to hold him back,” Grimes said. “He’s been sitting around the house for a year and a half now. He wants to do something. I don’t think Rodney King is a controversial figure. I see him as delivering a message that people in society are begging for. We need to give the message to young people to get out of the criminal justice system and get into the education system.”

Brenda Henson, an adviser to Diamond Bar High School’s Black Student Union, said she called Grimes’ office Friday to invite King to speak to her students.

“We bring prisoners to schools. We take ballplayers with AIDS and make them celebrities. But if children are going to formulate intelligent opinions, they have to be exposed to all sides of issues,” she said. “I don’t see Rodney King as being a threat.”

Judy Sampson, adviser to Tustin’s African-American student club, said she was still “pretty much in shock” over the district’s response.

“This was all done in a very positive vein,” Sampson said after the news conference. “We were all pleasantly surprised when (Grimes and King) entered. (King) talked about education and respect for police. He even encouraged some of the students to pursue careers in law enforcement. It’s something the students will never, ever forget. But I am truly saddened how it turned out.”

Grimes and Sampson said they blamed the media’s coverage of the event for confusing King’s message and not dwelling enough on the positive elements of his presentation.

“He just came to talk to us about staying in school,” said 16-year-old Tustin High sophomore Leah Dozier. “It was a very positive thing he did for us. He’s not an animal. He wanted us to know that and not to give up on ourselves.”

In addition to the criticism leveled at Friday’s news conference, the Los Angeles-based Congress of Racial Equality issued a written statement also expressing displeasure with the school district’s response.

The statement, written by Celes King III (no relation to Rodney King), the group’s state chairman, accused school officials of spreading “closet racism” in a county that has become uncomfortable with its growing racial diversity, he said.

“I am sure these people would not have acted the same if one of several well known Orange County white-collar criminals had spoken on campus,” King said.