AGOURA HILLS : Schools Launch Tolerance Programs

Agoura Hills High School senior Cristin Dorgelo vividly recalls the disturbing surprises that awaited her and other students on several mornings last year when they opened their lockers.

Inside were pamphlets apparently distributed by white supremacist groups that contained inflammatory diatribes against minorities.

“I was incredibly angry because our school is our home, five days a week, and nobody likes criminals to come into our homes,” Cristin said. “Our school has always been a place of security.”

School district officials, teachers and students quickly denounced the literature and those responsible for it and vowed to make a concerted effort to fight racism on campuses, said Albert D. Marley, superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

“Our district is home to over 50 languages,” he said in a statement. “Our population is changing and we as educators must do everything we can to promote understanding and better relationships between the cultures.”

As a result, the district this year launched a program in which 10th-graders at Agoura Hills and Calabasas high schools participate in classroom study and visit the Museum of Tolerance in West Los Angeles.

Last year, 60,000 students from various schools visited the museum, which depicts the horrors of racism and genocide, said Gerald Margolis, director of the museum.

The interactive exhibits, he said, are designed to make people examine their own attitudes.

“One of the first signs you see when you come in, says, “The potential for violence is within all of us,’ ” said Margolis.

“The exhibits challenge you, they are in your face, and the kids like that.”

Marley said the district plans to foot the cost of transporting 794 students to the museum, but hopes eventually to find a corporate sponsor.

“Our school has always been one that encourages tolerance and acceptance of everyone,” Cristin said.