Plea for Peace : Thousands Rally for ‘Safe Schools, Safe Streets, Safe Communities’

Several thousand Los Angeles residents came together Saturday to take a stand in opposition to violence--particularly against kids--at a City Hall rally timed to coincide with the “Stand for Children” March in Washington, D.C.

“Violence in our community has gone way too far,” said Virginia Perez, a third-grade teacher. “Unless we do something, you could be the next victim tomorrow or you could be the next victim tonight,” she said.

On Feb. 22, Perez’s husband, Alfredo, a well-respected teacher at Figueroa Street Elementary School in South-Central Los Angeles, was seriously wounded by a stray bullet in the worst campus assault on a teacher in the history of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Perez is still in an acute care hospital and hopes to return to teaching. His shooting served as a catalyst for the creation of the anti-violence coalition that organized the rally, according to Los Angeles Unified School District board member David Tokofsky.

The demonstration was intended to build a movement for “safe schools, safe streets and safe communities,” and numerous speakers used that phrase.

At the end of her moving address, Perez asked the racially diverse crowd to repeat after her--in English or Spanish--a “pledge to make every effort to decrease violence in my heart, home and community.”

The rally had a broad array of sponsors, including the mayor’s office, the school district, United Teachers-Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Office of Education, City of Los Angeles Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families, L.A. Violence Prevention Coalition and AmeriCorps, the national service program President Clinton launched in 1994. Speakers from those organizations and others all decried the spread of fear and violence.

Robert M. Sainz, a veteran probation officer who is vice chairman of the Violence Prevention Coalition, urged parents and children to take responsibility for their own actions and declared that “education, not incarceration,” is the solution. Actress Rhea Perlman urged people to help out in their schools, churches and neighborhoods. Interracial unity was stressed by Ruben Zacarias, deputy superintendent of L.A. Unified.

But neither demands nor a formal political agenda were presented.

For example, despite all the talk of carnage, only state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and teachers union President Helen Bernstein referred to gun control in their speeches.

“We have the power to turn back powerful lobbies that put more guns on the street. We have the power to oust those politicians who would criminalize poverty. We have the power to create life where today there is such a deep lack of hope for children,” Bernstein said.

Hayden made a more explicit appeal to the crowd to hold accountable those politicians who sanction the proliferation of weapons. He was cheered lustily when he chided Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole for his position on gun control and declared, “We have to tell President Clinton to tell the Chinese to stop exporting AK-47s into California.”

The audience also responded with gusto when Hayden accused Gov. Pete Wilson of hypocritically “patting kids on the head” while supporting measures that would result in more crowded classrooms. He closed by making a plaintive plea for civic leaders to work harder on securing a meaningful gang truce, saying, “We need a peace movement against this war in L.A.”

Students offered some significant smaller scale solutions of their own. Jasmin Medel, a junior at John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, described an anti-prejudice, anti-violence curriculum that she and five other students developed with the help of their teachers.

“Ignorance and fear equal violence. Education and tolerance equal peace,” she said.

Simultaneously, her classmates held up display boards explaining the curriculum, including a quote from a school official that said, “Almost every fight that comes into my office is related to racial tension.” Medel said it was “hard to keep peace” at a school where students speak 27 languages, but she added that progress is being made.

Later, four students from Franklin High School in Highland Park strikingly evoked the central issue of the Los Angeles demonstration when they read poems about violence by their classmates, written anonymously, said a teacher, because they are so personal. Maria Nunez, 16, read one titled “I Remember the Time”:

I remember the time when it wasn’t so dangerous

When I could still buy gum for a penny and

I felt happy afterwards

Now I am locked in my own home.

I remember the time

When I could go to the corner store

without checking my back

When I could play in the streets and not worry

about getting shot in a drive-by

Now I am locked in my own home.

I remember the time

When I could stay out late and not worry

about making it back home

When I could walk next to a stranger and

not be afraid

Now I am locked in my own home.

What happened to my neighborhood?

The violence has gotten out of control

and now we can’t fix it.

Now we are all locked in our own homes.