Is There Discrimination at South Gate?

South Gate Middle School, with just 16 African American students in a student body of 4,000 and two dozen black teachers, has become the target of allegations of racism. Three teachers and the family of an 11-year-old former student recently filed suit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, claiming it has failed to halt chronic discrimination at the majority-Latino school.

The boy, one of the teachers who filed suit and Supt. Ruben Zacarias talked to AMY PYLE about their perceptions of the problems brewing at South Gate. The school’s principal did not return telephone calls.

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EMILY GIBSON

Lead plaintiff; teaches English and English as a second language at South Gate Middle School

The violence at South Gate has been swept under the rug and when racism comes out, they just shove it under the rug a little further.

The problems that I went to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about were problems of persecution and harassment, which began from the time I became chair of the Alliance of African American Educators.

I’m a former mentor teacher and never had an evaluation that was less than outstanding. But after I took the chair, I was evaluated and given one negative mark, in the area of how the teacher relates to students. I had just filed grievances against the previous principal for allegedly calling an African American teacher a liar. This was clearly retaliation.

Every year for seven years I asked to teach an eighth-grade gifted English class and every year I’ve been told no. The person who has been given the job usually has had an elementary school credential. I have a master’s degree in English and experience teaching at the college level and the high school level.

I had my child enrolled at South Gate. Six years ago, he was the only African American in gym. He was running the track and a group of Latino boys slapped him upside the head each time he passed. Two of the boys were transferred, three were suspended. But that misses the point. When you mete out only punitive measures, you don’t change the behaviors.

Do we reach out to the African American students? Yes, we do. But in the course of a day, I never see an African American student. In the eight years I’ve been there, I’ve only taught three African American children.

African American children come to us because in a sea of strangers, they seek out a face that is like their own. Once a teacher brought to my classroom a girl who had had her hair pulled in gym. I put my arms around her. I made a spot in the back of my classroom for her. I told her to write down what had happened. You know what happened to me? I was written up by the administration for illegally keeping a student out of another teacher’s class.

Between December of 1996 and March of 1997 I was the victim of a whole rash of incidents of violence. Someone threw a substance that resembled vomit on my classroom door. Obscenities were written on my classroom door.

I didn’t want to sue, but I finally decided to because we had struggled and struggled. We have talked with this administration. But you cannot solve a problem until you recognize you have it. This is not a black-brown thing. This is an absolute abuse of power. What we want is equal treatment on that campus.

I do not see a lawsuit as a solution to anything. Even if we won tomorrow and got beaucoup dollars, I would not feel that justice had been done as long as that campus is not safe for people of color.

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MICHAEL COLLINS

11, began sixth grade at South Gate Middle School in July 1996; now attends a program for severely emotionally disturbed children at Elizabeth Street Learning Center in Cudahy

That first day of school, we walked on the campus and some Latino kids called me [the n-word], said I didn’t belong there. I said, “Mom, let’s go home.” She said, “Why don’t we stay through the day?” My mom went to a meeting and it was all in Spanish. She asked to have it translated and they did for a few minutes and then went back to Spanish. They got mad at her.

Things cooled down for awhile, then got bad again. Kids threw erasers at me, paper clips, staples. I got in a fight and I got sent home. At first my mom didn’t believe me, because it was so cruel.

I talked to the counselor and the deans. The counselor said I should get used to being called [that epithet]. She said when she was growing up, they called her yellow teeth. I told her she could help that, but I couldn’t. I was born this way.

I was placed on half-day schedule [as punishment]. I skate home from school, because it’s faster. Outside the school after lunch, some students tripped me with a stick with a rusty nail. They took turns kicking me in the back and they hit me in the butt with the rusty nail part. I was crying. I was three blocks from my house. My stepdad took me to a doctor for a tetanus shot and another doctor for an Ace bandage and a special vest. I got two ribs broken.

Each day the school would call and ask my mom what was happening. She said I wouldn’t be there for a month. But they kept calling.

I went to the Cudahy school this year. They have handicapped classes and SED [severely emotionally disturbed] classes. There are seven to eight people in our class and most of them are seriously emotionally disturbed.

The other kids, they show that they’re SED, they act it out. But kids don’t mess with me like they did at South Gate Middle School. There’s no racism at this school, whether you’re black or Latino, they just care about what’s in your brain. It’s safer and I don’t have to worry about getting beat up.

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RUBEN ZACARIAS

Superintendent, LAUSD

I know that there have been some issues raised at South Gate Middle School regarding racial or ethnic discrimination. Whether they are real or perceived, they need to be addressed. It’s important that we have harmony among our students and adults. A lot of times, these issues are adult-oriented, but ultimately it’s the students, the young people, who are affected.

I’ve asked [Assistant Supt.] Angie Stockwell to play an active role in helping to resolve whatever misunderstandings or ill feelings exist. I’ve also asked her to enlist the assistance of outside community and human relations groups.

Schools are simply a reflection of the surrounding neighborhood and community. Whenever you have changing demographics and a changing community, tensions will rise.

Over the years, we’ve also enlisted the help of outside agencies. At meetings with parent organizations, I’ve repeatedly called for the need for us, the adults, to be the role models for the youngsters, who basically reflect our feelings and actions; the need for us to stress our commonalities, not our differences.

I set up the adult ESL [English as a second language] programs in the Florence-Firestone area in 1970. At that time, Fremont High had just the opposite, 10-16 Latino students. Look at it today--the vast majority are Latino. It’s a reflection of the changing demographics.

I met some of the [South Gate] teachers at a community meeting in South-Central recently, and I committed to address the situation, bring in resources. My doors are open.

At that same event, that young child [Michael Collins] made some very serious allegations. I could hardly wait for Monday morning. I came back and brought in some senior staff. I said I want our police and legal people to go check out these allegations. I want to verify that these things happened, and if they did, we need to deal with that.

It’s being taken very seriously. You can’t have people make allegations like that and not take them seriously.