Girl Returns to School After Racial Threats : Ojai: Shuwana Stanford draws cheers at Matilija Junior High graduation. However, some students may not welcome her back.

A 13-year-old black girl returned Thursday to graduate from the Ojai school that she left six months ago after being the target of threats and racial slurs.

Amid cheers and applause from her classmates, Shuwana Stanford smiled as she walked to the podium at Matilija Junior High School when her name was called.

“It was fun,” Shuwana, known to friends and family as Swan, said after the commencement ceremony. “I’m glad that I did it.”

Shuwana decided to participate in the graduation ceremony several weeks ago, before her family’s Oak View home was destroyed by a fire last week that is still under investigation.

Members of the Stanford family contend that their home was deliberately torched. However, fire investigators said this week that the blaze was not arson but some kind of accident. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Shuwana was one of three family members injured in the fire, suffering first- and second-degree burns to her face. Her wounds were visible Thursday as she accepted her graduation certificate.

Although there was some lingering tension at a rehearsal ceremony Wednesday, many students said they were glad Shuwana decided to come back, closing an uncomfortable chapter in the school’s history.

“I think it’s cool,” said Joy Shedlosky, 13. “She’s taking a stand in a way--standing up to the people who drove her out.”

Seventh-grader Jesse Clark agreed.

“I think it’s good that she’s not letting people back her down from what she wants,” the 13-year-old boy said.

On Thursday, many of Shuwana’s classmates said she had as much of a right as any other student to attend the ceremony.

“She was here in the first place,” said 14-year-old Kim Downard, a friend of Shuwana’s who visited her in the hospital last week.

*

She added, however, “There are some people who don’t want her to come back.”

The trouble started late last year when a group of girls made derisive remarks to Shuwana verbally and in notes. Then, someone wrote an epithet on her locker and later drew a swastika near it.

Administrators at the school, whose student body is 88% white, investigated the incidents but were unable to determine who was responsible. Shuwana’s grandparents decided to take her out of school and put her in a home-schooling program.

At the graduation rehearsal and at the ceremony, some students went out of their way to make Shuwana feel welcome.

“I wanted to go up and say something--and I did,” said 13-year-old Laura Underwood. “I’m glad she came back. I just think it takes a lot of courage. We all do welcome her.”

Some Matilija students said the incidents were unfortunate, caused by a small clique who reflect negatively on the student body at large.

“She got hurt, and in a way the rest of the school got hurt, too,” said Elisa Clay, 14. “There are just a few people who are bad citizens.”

But one student, who asked not to be named, said Shuwana clashed with some students and was herself partly to blame for triggering the problems.

“It wasn’t her color, they just didn’t like her,” the student said. “We have other blacks at school, and they’ve never had a problem.”

*

Matilija Principal Jim Berube said the incidents were blown out of proportion by the media.

“The young people here, as far as I’m concerned, are very tolerant,” Berube said. “Yes, we have our daily adolescent problems, but they are in hand. . . . (Matilija) is a good school and a good place to learn.”

After the ceremony, Shuwana’s grandfather, Lonnie Stanford, protectively shepherded her through the crowd. He said his granddaughter’s decision to get her certificate was a good choice.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Stanford said. “She needs to put this behind her and go on.”