Taking Right Tack on Minority Concerns : * School Reacts With Sensitivity to Parents’ Claims That Children Were Mistreated

New ships put to sea for shakedown cruises to spot problems and solve them. New schools can undergo similar turbulence, as Aliso Viejo Middle School is learning.

So far the Capistrano Unified School District appears to be taking the proper steps to meet the concerns of some parents about treatment of their children.

The school opened in October. A month later, a group of African American and Latino parents complained that minority students had been harassed, falsely accused of being gang members and ridiculed by teachers in front of classmates.

District officials wisely responded by assigning a committee to investigate. A founder of a group called African American Parents and Concerned Citizens of Orange County, which led the call for an investigation, took the right tack in saying the organization was not looking to “make everything in this world a black/white issue.” She said parents were merely concerned about their children, which is understandable.

The school’s 800-student population is 87% white, 6% Latino, 4% Asian and 3% black. The principal, Cheryl Lampe, was brought in from Hawthorne Intermediate School in Los Angeles County, where the student population is nearly 80% black and Latino and where she received high marks from minority parents.

Last month a group of Aliso Viejo parents expressed support for Lampe. But one backer of the principal wisely suggested that if district policies can be misunderstood they should be revised.

This month the district superintendent, James A. Fleming, said the investigating committee’s report led him to conclude that there was no evidence of racism or discriminatory treatment at the school. But Fleming did not stop there.

He said better communication might have prevented misunderstandings and in some instances more sensitivity could have been shown. The district also plans to hire a mediator to bring Lampe, teachers, staff and concerned parents together to talk over their differences. Fleming said he had asked countywide minority organizations to advise the district on how to improve relations among ethnic groups. Lampe plans on getting students from Hawthorne together with their counterparts from Aliso Viejo.

Those are all good ideas, and reflect the right recognition that Orange County is becoming more diverse. Those changes can cause problems that must be overcome to reap the benefits of diversity.