San Clemente High Celebrates School Diversity

There was hip-hop and line dancing in the morning, karaoke at lunch and Ballet Folklorico in the afternoon. Students made rings with African beads, while others wrote their names in Hebrew, viewed artifacts from the Pacific Islands and snacked on churros.

It may have been gray and cold outside, but inside the Triton Center at San Clemente High School there was color and warmth Thursday as students celebrated their annual Cultural Fair, a welcome break in a year marked by tragedy.

“It’s a full, complete all-around cultural experience for everyone,” said Ambreen Chak, a junior and president of the campus AWARE club, dedicated to promoting tolerance and cultural understanding. “It’s needed everywhere. People really need to learn about one another.”

The all-day event, organized under the banner “Passport to America,” comes at a time of healing at the 2,000-student campus, which like other schools in the county has experienced racial tensions.

The campus was also stunned last semester when two students, senior Steve Woods and sophomore Angela Wagner, were killed in unrelated off-campus homicides. Although authorities say racial motives weren’t behind the slayings, emotions ran high as suspects in the cases, some of whom attended the school, were identified as alleged members or associates of a local gang.

But the tragedies did much to galvanize the seaside community of 43,000 people and boosted efforts already underway to curb gang and youth violence.

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“It’s just a real positive day,” said parent coordinator Judy Bailey. “I don’t think even the rain can dampen everyone’s spirits.

“The entire community came through for this,” she continued. “Everyone really has rallied around this school.”

Added student Charlotte Laster, a freshman from Camp Pendleton: “It’s a lot of fun. It’s good for everyone to be together.”

About a 100 parents, students and teachers have been working since August to plan the fair, the second to be held at the campus. All students had a chance to participate in the fair during their English classes.

The high school was the first in the Capistrano Unified School District to hold such a fair, or form a club like AWARE. The campus is among the most diverse of the four comprehensive high schools in the district, with a student body that is 82% white, 14% Latino, 2% Asian and 2% African American, according to district officials.

The school’s growing diversity was well illustrated at the Cultural Fair, which has been connected to ongoing classroom lessons. Several students dressed in traditional costumes from such countries as China and Pakistan. There was a karate demonstration, a song about Nelson Mandela from the school choir and trunks of loaned artifacts representing several countries, including Mexico and Vietnam.

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Hands-on activities included origami, beadwork, quilt-making and the tracing of ancestry on a large world map. While most students traced their ancestry to Europe and Mexico, dots marked countries throughout all hemispheres.

“The whole idea is to show how our country is made of these different groups,” said Tim Reece, the school activities director. “About everyone in America is from somewhere else, just so they realize that. ‘I’m American, but I also have this heritage.’ That’s what makes us a great country.”

Math teacher Barbara Byers, adviser for the Aware Club, said she hoped students would leave the fair with a greater awareness and understanding of other cultures.

“I hope they don’t come and say, ‘Oh, great, it’s time out from class and I get to eat,’ ” she said. “I hope they take away that there are different cultures.”