THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : Latching Onto a Fresh Story at Dorsey High School

It took the O.J. Simpson murder trial to draw the media to Dorsey High for a story about the positive side of a school that has seen four students shot in the past two years.

Reading and viewing stories of such violence, many people don’t know that Dorsey sends 60% of its students to college, and has a number of innovative educational programs.

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Simpson’s chief lawyer, was at the school on behalf of one of these programs, and his appearance was the draw. Cochran was speaking at the dedication of a new courtroom for Dorsey’s Law and Public Services Magnet Center, which helps prepare students for careers in the legal field. Cochran’s law firm and the State Bar sponsor the center.

At least half a dozen television camera crews had come Friday afternoon to the Dorsey campus, located in a largely African American neighborhood near La Brea Avenue and Rodeo Road, south of the Santa Monica Freeway. Parked outside were their tall antenna trucks, ready to broadcast from the site.

Anyone who knows the news business understood that the crews wouldn’t have been there except for the slim possibility of the cautious Cochran popping off about the Simpson trial. Instead they got a good news story from a school that badly needs one.

*

The students in the courtyard mirrored the Dorsey student body--74% African American, 24% Latino and the rest from other ethnic groups. They listened to students Peanut C. Jackson and Nadelle Handy speak with pride about attending Dorsey. They cheered when school board member Barbara Boudreaux introduced Cochran by saying, “Everyone in that incredible dream team are models for all of us.”

The law unit is one of two magnets at Dorsey. The first, specializing in math and science, sends 90% of its graduates on to college. In addition, Dorsey students work with preschoolers and parents at a learning center that the Mattel toy company has equipped with computers. And the school is setting up a commercial-style kitchen for catering classes, where chefs come in to teach.

Principal Jerelene Wells conceived of the law magnet two years ago to fulfill a need in a community that has long felt abused by the Los Angeles Police Department and the courts.

“The kids didn’t understand the system and they needed to know how it works,” she told me later. “During the riot, people felt totally defeated, with no jobs and nobody working for them.

“I wanted them [the students] to understand that the law isn’t just automatically against them. A lot of people feel any time they get caught into the judicial system they are going to lose. Sometimes I think this is ignorance of the law. I want our students to understand how the judicial system works. Once they understand how it works, they can use the system to work for them rather than against them.”

After the ceremony, I walked over to the new courtroom. With its wood-paneled walls and bench, the room is far more imposing than the one where Simpson is being tried. Students will use it for mock trials and for sessions of the Teen Court. This is an innovative program, sponsored by the State Bar and the local courts, in which some first time young offenders are tried by their teen-age peers, who also recommend punishment.

I talked to some Dorsey students about the quality of justice in their community. “It’s moving in a good direction,” said John Brumley, 17. “People aren’t getting off as easy as they would have before,” said Donte Glover, also 17. Yet, things needed improvement. Brumley said his goal was to “bring justice to our community and other communities.”

They were skeptical of L.A.’s politics and government. Politicians take from the community, but don’t give. Minorities are particular victims, they said.

The skepticism extended to the Simpson case. “I understand the law,” said Glover. “But they’re dragging it out. They should get to the point. They need to find a good jury. The jury is not stable.”

I asked whether they thought Simpson did it. “I think he has to be innocent,” Brumley said. “If he did it, he isn’t very bright.” Glover agreed.

*

Principal Wells said she wasn’t surprised at the students’ reaction. “Isn’t a person innocent until proven guilty? And that is what many of our students feel,” she said. “This matter of a person being automatically assumed guilty is wrong. The feeling is that a lot of times that happens with minorities. We are saying, ‘Look, he has to go through the system and be proven guilty, and [people] can’t just assume he’s guilty.’ ”

In other words, the students in the law magnet are being taught to think, just as they are in other areas of Dorsey. Generations of students will head to college imbued with old principles of constitutional rights and new ideas of science.

We in the media went to Dorsey for a Friday afternoon Simpson fix. We left with a story that, in the long run, will mean much more to L.A. than O.J.’s trial.