School Not to Blame for Hate Crime

* As the parent of a child who attends Aliso Niguel High School and as the PTA president of one of the two elementary schools located in the community of Aliso Viejo, I take strong exception to the letter “Campus Hate Crime Demands Attention” (May 28), by Tyson Reyes.

Mr. Reyes describes himself as being angry, fearful, “sickened and outraged” that a racial disturbance could have taken place at our community high school.

What Mr. Reyes fails to note is that the May 19 incident that took place at Aliso Niguel High School was actually an outgrowth of a disturbance that occurred during the previous weekend at a fast-food restaurant in a neighborhood shopping mall. The outrage he directs at the high school and school district to solve the problems of racial intolerance and youth violence should be more appropriately directed at Mr. Reyes himself, his neighbors and all of us who live in Aliso Viejo.

We expect our schools to solve all of society’s problems, even if the origins of a problem (such as the May 19 school fight ) take place in the community and not at school.

As many longtime residents have observed, the demographics of South Orange County are changing rapidly. It is essential that the parents of children in our relatively new and growing community simply teach our children to get along with each other.

To place the entire blame for Aliso Viejo’s inability to resolve racial intolerance and gang problems on schools is both unrealistic and unfair. The responsibility for addressing and correcting the kind of incident that occurred over the weekend at a fast-food restaurant and then spilled into the school environment, belongs to all of us. Rather than trying to fix blame and criticize others, Mr. Reyes should exercise leadership himself, along with others in Aliso Viejo, to help resolve our community problems.

The schools have a major part to play and, commendably, Principal Denise Danne has structured mediation sessions with the aid of community agencies such as the Orange County Human Relations Commission and the Community Services Program.

However, it is up to all of us to work together to resolve the racial intolerance in our community so that we do not see a repetition of what occurred.

LORI WIEDEMAN

Aliso Viejo