Rodney King School Visit
I’m Jewish and I live in Northridge. My hope and prayer is that the African-American community doesn’t feel the rage that I do over the response of school officials and parents at Tustin High School because of Rodney King’s appearance at Tustin High School.
Through Principal Duffy Clark’s eyes, Rodney King is not a role model and that is true. He is not a Clarence Thomas or a Quincy Jones. And according to Tustin Supt. David Andrews, he is “infamous and controversial.” I don’t get it. Here is a man almost beaten to death by four policemen, and he is judged controversial and infamous.
What I do get is a man trying to be a role model for what not to be.
By urging students not to drop out of high school as he did and “paying less attention to clothes and romances and other matters like fights,” he is turning a negative role model into a positive role model and hopefully those who hear him talk won’t end up parolees almost beaten to death by four policemen even though they didn’t know anything about him.
Why can’t we get along?
JEANNE LONDE
Northridge
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