District OKs Transfers for 8 White Students

Eight white students were granted transfers Monday from Huntington Beach’s Ocean View High School, but the mother of one of those students said she still plans to challenge what she sees as a race-based district policy.

The eight were among 32 white students denied transfers to other schools under a Huntington Beach Union High School District policy designed to regulate the ethnic balance of students within the district’s eight high schools.

“I feel relieved,” said Susan Prescott, whose son Nicholas was granted a transfer. “But we’re not dropping it. We’re still going to sue for his civil rights. I have two more children . . . and I don’t want to go through it again. He was discriminated against, and there are still 24 more kids that didn’t get [transfers].”

The transfers came as Marian Bergeson, state secretary of Child Development and Education, warned the district that its policy “could violate the Constitution’s prohibition against discrimination or preferential treatment” on the basis of race.

Bergeson also said in a letter to the district last week that, contrary to the district’s belief, state education codes do not mandate that students be barred from transfer based on race.

District officials, though, said state laws that supersede the education code require the district to maintain ethnic balance.

Assistant Supt. John Myers said the district was preparing a response to Bergeson’s letter and would review the policy this fall as part of a regular policy analysis.

No other response, he said, was planned.

The transfers were granted after eight new white students enrolled at Ocean View, which means the departure of eight other white students would not affect the ethnic mix of the student population, Myers said.

The names of the 32 students requesting transfers were dropped in a hat Monday morning and eight names were drawn, Myers said. More students could be granted transfers if additional white students enroll at Ocean View, he said.

Myers said the policy began five years ago after district administrators concluded that state law required them to monitor and maintain ethnic diversity in the schools to avoid racially segregated campuses.

The districtwide student population is about 51% white, according to statistics compiled in October 1997. Individual schools, though, range from 72% white at Pacific Coast High School to a low of 18% at Westminster High School.

The predominant minority groups at Westminster are Asian, 42%, and Latino, 33%. At Ocean View, the predominant minority groups are Latino, 29%, and Asian, 21%. Districtwide, the predominant minority groups are Asian, 23%, and Latino, 18%.

Myers said the district first enacted the transfer policy at Westminster five years ago.

Last year, he said, it was applied to Ocean View after district officials determined that enrollment of white students was dropping by 3% a year, a faster decline than the districtwide pace of 1%.

About 20 transfer requests from white students were denied that year, Myers said. Parents and students initially were upset, but at the end of the year only three of those students still wanted to transfer, he said.

Prescott said family considerations led them to seek a transfer for her son. The family’s youngest child is autistic and requires treatment in locations ranging from San Diego to UCLA.

With the eldest child, Nicholas, entering high school, Prescott said they feared he would be unable to participate in extracurricular activities because of transportation problems stemming from the care required by his younger brother. By transferring to Huntington Beach High School, she said, Nicholas would be able to car-pool with neighbors who also attend that school.

“What I’d really like is for all of this to be changed,” Prescott said after learning her son would be allowed to transfer. “What I would like is to make it fair, not basing anything on a child’s skin color. . . .

“I understand they don’t want segregated schools. I can see their point. But I also understand that you can’t [discriminate] based on skin color.”

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School Racial Mix

Huntington Beach Union High School District abides by a policy of “balanced racial mix,” which is being challenged. Here is the ethnicity at the district’s high schools as of October 1997.

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Am. Filipino/ Indian Black Asian Pac. Isle. Latino White Edison 8% 1% 12% 2% 9% 68% Fountain Valley 3% 1% 31% 3% 11% 51% Huntington Beach 7% 1% 8% 2% 14% 68% Marina 7% 1% 18% 3% 11% 60% Ocean View 3% 3% 21% 3% 29% 41% Westminster 4% 1% 42% 3% 33% 18% Valley Vista 9% 0% 11% 1% 23% 58% Pacific Coast 8% 1% 4% 1% 14% 72% DISTRICTWIDE 5% 1% 23% 2% 18% 51%

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Note: Some percentages do not total 100% because of rounding.

Source: Huntington Beach Union High School District