SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Racist Flyers Upset Students at 2 Schools

Marco F. Forster Middle School was flooded this week with flyers containing racist remarks, on the same day identical flyers were found at Laguna Beach High School.

Sheriff’s deputies and representatives from the Orange County Human Relations Commission were called to both campuses after students found the flyers in their lockers when they arrived Tuesday morning, school officials said.

All 1,200 of the lockers at Marco Forster contained flyers, said Jacqueline Price, a spokeswoman for the Capistrano Unified School District. About 300 flyers were found on the Laguna Beach High School campus, said Principal Barbara Callard.

Officials from both campuses said the flyers shocked and “deeply offended” the students who saw them.

“The kids were pretty upset,” Price said of the 1,125 seventh- and eighth-grade students at Marco Forster. “During the second period, the principal apologized to the students on the public-address system for what happened. He reiterated that the school does not tolerate this activity.”

The flyers were discovered by students who attend what the district calls Zero Period, a class period that starts at 7:20 a.m., before the actual school day begins, Price said. The flyers were recovered and turned over to police before most of the students arrived, she said.

At Laguna Beach, a meeting was held Wednesday night that gave Callard “a chance to have some contact with parents right away.” But she intends to send a letter to all parents explaining the flyer situation, Callard said Thursday.

Extra police patrols will watch the campus for a few days, she said.

The flyers contained a telephone number of a taped message from a San Diego County-based group called WAR--the White Aryan Resistance.