Educators, Students Hammer Prop. 187 at ‘Teach-In’ : Activism: Speakers condemn the measure during Irvine Valley College gathering. Those attending are asked to sign ‘unity pledge’ not to comply with the law.

A noon-hour Proposition 187 “teach-in” Tuesday attracted educators, activists and some 300 students to Irvine Valley College, where the law was condemned for dividing students along racial lines and credited with bringing them together in a renewal of campus activism.

Jess Craig, acting student services director at Irvine Valley College, opened the nearly two-hour-long string of speeches with a caveat: “This is an educational event--not a political event.” But the energies of the speakers, who included a nun and a former vice president of the United Farm Workers, were directed against the ballot measure. And those who attended the teach-in were asked to sign a “unity pledge” to refuse to comply with the law.

Angel Cervantes, 22, said the law cynically exploits people’s fears about immigration. “We want to change the way people look at immigration,” said Cervantes, a leader of the newly formed Four Winds Student Movement and a history major at Claremont Graduate School. “This is more of a human rights issue than a legal issue.”

Advance notice of the teach-in generated some criticism of the administration at the 10,287-student campus.

“We did get some phone calls from supporters of the proposition who were kind of questioning why we were sponsoring this,” said Irvine Valley College spokesman George McCrory. “This was something the students organized. It’s not like the college is protesting Proposition 187.”

The 107-campus California Community Colleges system will remain officially neutral on Proposition 187 until the issue is revolved by the courts, according to McCrory.

Irvine Valley College history professor Richard Prystowski told students that Proposition 187 is an effort to find a scapegoat for a sense of “malaise” in the community. He encouraged the audience to have tolerance for supporters of the initiative, which was approved by 67.4% of Orange County voters and 59% statewide.

“We should be careful not to victimize or callously judge the characters of those who voted for this proposition,” said Prystowski, the organizer of a Holocaust studies group on campus.

Student leaders from UC Irvine, Chapman University, Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges spoke against the proposition, saying the law has heightened racial tensions on and off their campuses.

“Under the terms of Proposition 187, I am now a suspect in the state of California,” said Alicia Basurto, a spokeswoman for the UC Irvine chapter of MEChA, a Latino student organization. She said Latino students like herself who are legal residents feel intimidated by the law.

Demonstrating the change in ethnic relations caused by the passage of Proposition 187, Irvine Valley College history professor Francisco Marmolejo said a white student asked him if he now felt under suspicion of being an illegal immigrant because he is Latino. Marmolejo replied by asking the student if he felt under suspicion of having voted for the proposition.

Passage of the law was fueled by “a residual and somewhat subtle form of racism in the electorate,” he said

But Ron Prince, a Tustin accountant who is co-author of Proposition 187, said in a telephone interview that opponents are falsely finding racist motives behind it.

“This is nothing more than political exploitation by grasping demagogues,” Prince said. “The purpose of Proposition 187 is to ensure that all public-funded benefits go to those people who are legally entitled to those benefits.”