Youth Opinion : Latino-Black Violence at L.A. Schools

The racial makeup of several high schools in the Los Angeles area continues to shift from majority African American to majority Latino immigrant. The changeover has brought friction, and last week there were black-Latino fights at Locke and Leuzinger high schools and at schools in Gardena and Carson. MARY REESE BOYKIN interviewed students at three of these schools.

Most said they felt they needed more help from school administrators to discourage racial separation in classes, lunchrooms and after-school activities, and to help African American and Latino students understand each others’ cultures. Some also mentioned the dearth of Latino teachers at their schools.

MARTHA SANDOVAL

12th Grade, Locke High School

I see the problem as a lack of communication between blacks and Hispanics. I am second vice-president of student council at Locke and we are trying to figure out how to get both groups attend the same dances. There are dances attended mostly by blacks and other dances attended mostly by Hispanics. Blacks only dance to black music, and Hispanic only to Hispanic music.

There are no Hispanic teachers and administrators at Locke, only Hispanic teachers’ aides. Since this is how it is, I am OK. But I would like to see more Hispanics in teaching and administrative positions.

An advantage would be that those who don’t know English well would have somebody to talk with them.

I like being a student at Locke. The principal, Annie Webb, is helpful and always tries to get to the problem and see what can be done to solve it. Locke is not as bad as the media make it seem. Just a regular school with regular students.

ANITA CARVIN

9th Grade, Leuzinger High School

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I was in the cafeteria looking out of the window when I saw a gang of Hispanics and blacks running toward the cafeteria. I picked up my backpack and walked to class. I was shocked. This is my first year in high school. I had never seen anything like it before.

My teacher was out trying to break things up. He told us to stay in class because we were on lock-down.

Earlier that day, you could tell something was going to happen by the way the blacks and Hispanics looked at each other. Security gathered the people who stuck together in their groups and put them in a room and talked to them. But as soon as they were let out for lunch, it was like, Riot! Riot!

When my teacher asked me, “How do you feel?” I told him that I didn’t understand. One day we are communicating. The next day we are like out of it.

I have big dreams. You know there is talk now about women’s professional basketball teams. I plan to play pro basketball one day. I come to school to learn. Maybe there should be a place for students who don’t come to school to learn.

SAMIYAH WILLIAMS

12th Grade, Locke High School

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I feel we needed an assembly to discuss things. The only thing they did was to have us checked for weapons on the following days. But most of those who started the fight didn’t come back.

We need to work on bringing the races together. Blacks are on one side of the classroom or the campus. Hispanics are on the other. Even in the classroom when we are put together for group work, there is not much openness. This incident happened during Black History month. During the Cinco de Mayo assembly, many blacks show no respect.

KATHY SANTOS

11th Grade, Leuzinger High School

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One thing that causes problems is that groups make fun of each other’s differences: We don’t speak the same language, don’t dress the same way, don’t listen to the same type of music.

But like my teacher said, we should put our differences to good use and view our differences as something beautiful and special.

I think that administrators should have more multicultural activities, like a food-from-each-culture event. They should encourage us to be open-minded about the music, clothing, and manners of other cultures. It’s not just a black-Latino thing--I am Asian. It affects all races.

CARLOS RODRIGUEZ

11th Grade, Leuzinger High School

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I was walking through the quad in the front when my friend asked, “You want to join the riot?” I asked, “Why is it necessary?” I stayed in class after the lunch bell. I didn’t want to get hit or get into trouble. People ran all over the school. But there was no need for what happened. It was stupid kids who wanted to start trouble.

I think the administrators should invite Power 106 Radio to Leuzinger with the station’s “Stop the violence; increase the peace” program. In the classroom, seats should be assigned so that the same races are not always sitting together. We also need more undercover security to watch out for kids and protect them from drugs and gangs. And I think the teachers shouldn’t be scared to talk to anybody because most of the time one little problem starts everything.

ERIC THOMPSON

12th grade, Gardena High School

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I think that the fight between blacks and Latinos at Gardena was a reaction, really, a mimic, of what happened at Leuzinger.

It occurred about 12:30. The blacks chased the Latinos. Gardena has more blacks. The bells rang while fighting occurred, but nobody stopped. The police came and sectioned the school off. We went back to class at 1:30.

I was ready to go home because I didn’t want to be at school if the Latinos called friends who would come on campus to retaliate. But I had no way home.

I went to fifth period. As the teacher was outside gathering students into class, we [students] talked about what happened. Our teacher told us to settle down and that nobody could leave and that we would be in his class until the school day ended.

But we didn’t talk about what happened. He showed us the movie “Jumanji.” I know that he wanted to calm us down, but it was one of those times when we needed to talk, since the fight was on everybody’s mind. Sometimes, we should talk about race relations with our friends.