AGOURA HILLS : Racist Flyers Stuffed Into School Lockers

Dozens of Agoura High School students found racist hate flyers stuffed into their lockers this week, school administrators said Thursday.

The vitriolic hate messages on the more than 75 flyers found at the school are similar or identical to those found in a rash of like incidents in San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley stores in the past several weeks, police said. The messages have been stamped on notebooks and library books as well as tucked into soda 12-packs, popcorn packages and pantyhose containers.

“These are the same flyers going all over the Valley,” said Sgt. Dean Winters of the Lost Hills sheriff’s station. “We are concerned about it, but the problem is, it’s not really a crime.”

Winters said there will be no formal investigation of the incident because the flyer activity at the school, by itself, is not illegal. He added that officers plan to assist the Las Virgenes School District in determining whether the act violated an education code.

The principal of Agoura High School, James Christianson, said administrators, teachers and students were sickened by the flyers, which contain hateful messages saying that Los Angeles and the nation are being overrun by immigrants. He said he immediately spoke to students over the public address system to condemn the act.

“We were all very incensed,” Christianson said. “This is very hateful material. Nobody likes this type of thought.”

Christianson said a student reported seeing a man stuffing the lockers at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The student was on campus to retrieve a book from his locker.

The Las Virgenes School District has offered a $500 reward for information leading to the identification and apprehension of the individual involved, according to school officials.

“We will do anything we can within the constraints of the law to bring an end to this type of behavior,” said Albert Marley, the district superintendent.

“It is something that hurts all of us as a society.”