BREA : Schools Outlaw Discrimination

In an effort to curtail a rise in racial and ethnic discrimination among students in Brea Olinda Unified School District, trustees this week implemented a policy outlawing such behavior.

Under the policy, any student who displays or distributes flyers or any kind of hate material, including stickers and buttons, will face suspension or expulsion.

In addition, students will be prohibited from name-calling and from discriminating, harassing, teasing, abusing or assaulting other students because of handicap or a difference in background, ability, religion, culture, race, ethnicity, language, tradition or gender.

Supt. Edgar Z. Seal said the administration made the recommendation following parents’ pleas, which were sparked by a recent incident at Brea Junior High School. A student at the school found a swastika in a book she checked out of the campus library, then displayed the swastika, while making derogatory remarks to other students. As a result of the incident, the student was suspended for four days, Seal said.

The incident was reminiscent of one last June, when three students were suspended for making “racial slurs.” Two of the students, who went to Brea Junior High, were suspended for four days, while a Brea Olinda High School student was suspended for five days.

Racial discrimination among students is not new but the suspensions were the first in the district’s history, Seal said.

Until last year, principals would call parents and counsel students who discriminated against their classmates. Now, principals report such problems to the district, Seal said.

“We noticed the incidents were taking place and we felt (the policy) was needed because our student population is becoming more and more diverse,” he said. “We need to celebrate our cultures, not denigrate them.”

Currently, 68% of the district’s students are Anglo, 18% are Latino, 8% are Asian and 2% are black. By the year 2020, officials expect Caucasian students to be in the minority.