Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Santa Clarita to Create Panel to Address Racial Issues

Faced with a flurry of recent racially motivated incidents, City Council members this week authorized creation of a Cultural Diversity Task Force.

Organizers hope to model it after Santa Clarita’s existing Anti-Gang Task Force, created in 1991. That group has been boosted by strong citizen participation and has successfully pushed for city ordinances establishing curfews for youths and a reward program for information about taggers.

“If we do that same type of thing, get a better indication of the issue and educate people. . . . I think it can be successful,” said City Manager George Caravalho, who has the responsibility of creating the group.

The group is being formed in response to calls for action from local residents in the wake of two brawls between students and alleged white supremacists in May.

The exact format of the task force is undetermined. Caravalho said he will first meet informally with community members for ideas.

He said he hopes to have the group operating by the fall.

“I think it’s a hands-on kind of thing. I don’t see it as a group of adults standing around and talking about issues,” said Councilwoman Jan Heidt. “I’m envisioning the group as an idea provider, and I would solicit suggestions from the kids and the parents.”

The fights at Canyon High were the latest in a string of racially motivated incidents that have plagued Santa Clarita in recent months. More than 200 students at the school there signed a petition and billboard-sized poster, both denouncing racism, that they presented to the council.

“The sad truth will come after the violence,” wrote one student. “When we look at the cuts and . . . realize that we are all the same color on the inside.”

“Wouldn’t it be boring if everyone was the same?” wrote another.

Hate literature has appeared intermittently in Santa Clarita, beginning in December with a few anti-Latino leaflets tucked into grocery store products. Then in March, more than 1,000 of the anti-Latino flyers were stuffed into student lockers at Placerita Junior High School.