Ethnic Backgrounds in the Foreground : Diversity: Multicultural groups at El Toro and Trabuco Hills High schools aim to address tensions that may arise as campus populations become more mixed.

Shayla Mitchell is black. Her ethnic heritage is an international mix of Panamanian, Jamaican and African-American cultures, something her friends at Trabuco Hills High School learned only recently.

An increased awareness among students of their peers’ ethnic background has been one of the benefits of two new multicultural groups emerging at El Toro and Trabuco Hills high schools in the Saddleback Valley.

“People see a color and they think that’s the color and that’s it,” said Mitchell, 15, a sophomore and the treasurer of the new Multicultural Club. “But my mother is Panamanian, her mother was Jamaican, and my father is a black from Georgia. People need to talk and ask questions to learn about each other.”

As the once predominantly white South County grows through the 1990s and becomes more racially diverse, high schools in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District are reaching out to address potential tensions on campus.

Any doubts about the need for such actions were quashed a little more than a year ago when the ugly, spray-painted slogans of a Whittier white supremacist gang created outrage not only through the halls of Trabuco Hills High, but throughout the entire district.

“We were hit with something that opened our eyes and told us we could not be exempt from racism,” said Principal William Brand, emphasizing that none of his students were responsible. “What we did from that was start a process, and I think a very positive process.”

At El Toro High School, a new Multicultural Student Union, or MSU as it is called, is also helping students to build pride in the diversity of the school.

“It’s just to promote understanding--that’s our purpose,” said senior Julie Nguyen, a Vietnamese and board member of the MSU. “It brings people the feeling that it’s OK to be different. They don’t have to hide their backgrounds.”

While multicultural campus groups are nothing new in other parts of the county, they have only formed at South County campuses within the last year, said Tina Fernandez, a specialist with the County Human Relations Commission. El Toro and Trabuco Hills high schools are taking the lead and similar efforts are also underway at Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills high schools.

Farther south in the Capistrano Unified School District, officials are considering expanding a less formal ethnic/cultural relations advisory committee at San Clemente High School to other campuses.

As has been learned elsewhere in the county, a key element in the success of these groups is broad participation, Fernandez said. For the groups to work best and actually provide a unifying force for students, it is important that representatives of all campus ethnic groups, as well as administrators, teachers and parents, take part, Fernandez said.

“These organizations are open to everyone,” Fernandez said. “It’s not just a minority-student effort.”

Enticing members of all ethnic backgrounds to join is sometimes a difficult hurdle, as the students at Trabuco Hills have found. There, the whites have been hesitant, although most members are confident they will eventually join.

“A lot of people think it’s not for them, it’s for the minorities, so they stay on the sidelines,” said Cliff Mosley, 18, president of the student body at Trabuco Hills. “But that’s not true.”

At El Toro, the district’s oldest high school and the first district school to start a multicultural group, whites are already taking part. It is the school’s Latino students who are sometimes holding back.

“We won’t get anywhere if we don’t talk about things,” said Lindsay Guerra, an El Toro High senior who is partly Puerto Rican.

No one questions that schools have become more diverse, particularly El Toro and Trabuco Hills, where student populations are drawn from the new, planned communities of Foothill Ranch, Rancho Santa Margarita and Portola Hills.

This year, at El Toro, about 76% of the school’s 2,200 students are white, 10% are Asian, 9.5% are Latino and about 2% are African-American. At the 1,700-student Trabuco Hills, the numbers are similar.

Such a diversity naturally brings tensions, however subtle, students say.

“It’s hard for the teachers and administrators to see, but if you are around campus, you can feel the tensions,” said Rosie A. Manning, a 16-year-old junior who is president of the Trabuco Hills club. “It’s there and we want to do something about it.”

Formed last February, El Toro’s MSU has more than 100 members and the encouragement of a vocal group of parents. The parents agree that the time is right to address diversity.

“If we don’t start addressing some of the issues that plagued our generation, we’re never going to go anywhere,” said Abby Bethel, an African-American parent whose son attends El Toro High School.

Students say one of the immediate issues that emerge on an increasingly multiracial campus is the need to be sensitive and aware of words and phrases that can offend or stereotype others. Students are curious, but can often be ignorant of how easily they can hurt others, they say.

As a result, the minority students get some crazy questions. Like the African-American girl who was asked if all black people roll their heads when they talk, or the Lebanese students who are asked if they are Mexicans because they have dark skin and long black hair, or the Asian students who are asked why they take off their shoes when they walk in the house.

“Sometimes all you can do is just look at them and think, ‘Are you serious?’ ” Trabuco Hills student Mosley said.

Through the multicultural groups, students have an opportunity to talk to each other, dispel stereotypes and find out how they can be more sensitive.

It already seems to be working, said students and administrators at both campuses.

“People are really aware of what’s going on,” said Jennifer Wolinsky, an El Toro senior and MSU president. “People are watching what they say and realizing what they say can affect others.”

Wolinsky, who is Jewish, said she has experienced her share of insensitive remarks, although in most cases students were totally unaware their words were hurting her.

For instance, Wolinsky, a member of the campus color guard, said she was troubled for some time about the practice of describing a routine drill formation used by the group as a “swastika.” The formation, which involves the way color guard members cross their legs, is now called a pinwheel.

“I don’t think racism is a big problem at my school, but I do hear people joking around, throwing around terms,” she said. “They’re not really thinking about what they’re saying.”

There have also been lessons for teachers and administrators. After one of the first MSU meetings, El Toro administrators learned a major source of tension for African-American students involved a campus golf cart used to patrol the school.

For years, administrators had been parking the cart--known to students as the “Dean Mobile”--near the campus snack bar during breaks, a central location that also offered them quick response to nearby parking lots. The location also happened to be a hangout for some African-American students.

“They felt like they were totally being watched, that they were being singled out,” said Marilyn McDowell, assistant vice principal. “The principal had no clue this was an issue. None of us did.”

The problem was easy enough to solve. The dean simply moved the cart.

“I definitely think the students involved in MSU feel much more comfortable with the administration,” McDowell said. “They’ve had an opportunity to know us personally. . . . They really had a lot of issues. They are able to get those issues discussed and get some things resolved.”

Both campus groups aim to foster better understanding and then promote that understanding throughout the rest of the campus. Last spring, in a campuswide assembly, El Toro’s MSU students staged scenarios dealing with ethnic stereotypes and shared personal stories involving racism.

Fellow students, administrators and parents agreed it was a hit, and MSU members are already working on plans for another presentation next semester.

“We had a couple kids crying on us, telling us: ‘Thank you,’ ” Guerra said. “They hadn’t felt that anyone understood. That presentation helped bring a lot of people together. Everyone goes through these kinds of things.”

Both campuses have also had speakers address both students and faculty about multicultural issues, and Trabuco Hills officials recently added a multicultural commissioner position to the student council.

Students say they realize they won’t change people overnight, and might not change some at all. But they believe they have taken the first step necessary to make their schools better for everyone.

They say they also realize some degree of self-segregation on campus will always exist, whether it be members of the football team hanging out together or a group of Latino students having lunch.

“What we need to strive for on this campus is respect, respect for everyone and their cultures, beliefs and preferences,” Tiffani Chin, a founding member of the El Toro group, wrote in a campus newspaper opinion article last year. “As long as we understand each other, we are allowed to be different.”