SPECIAL REPORT * With black parents accusing Westside school of institutional racism and some teachers saying criticisms are unfair . . . Mediators Attempt to Ease Escalating Racial Tensions

On the stately red brick campus of Hamilton High School, administrators are struggling to defuse tensions between African American parents who have accused the school of institutional racism and teachers who say they have been unfairly attacked.

Two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District dispatched mediators to resolve the disputes at Hamilton, where the delicate balance of interracial coexistence has been upset.

“We’re in the middle of trying to solve a complex, emotional and volatile situation,” Principal David Winter said. “I’m looking at all the information I can get and trying to find the right path.”

The parents are blaming the Westside school for black students’ generally low standardized test scores, and questioning why black students are suspended more often than others. They also are upset with teachers they believe have been trying to turn students against their efforts to promote a better educational atmosphere for African American students.

Stuart Bernstein, administrator for the cluster of schools that includes Hamilton, said the campus’ ability to address the various issues could have important implications for the entire school district.

“Resolving these issues will require a willingness to admit we have blind spots,” Bernstein said. “Yes, black kids are not achieving. That’s not the blacks’ problem, it’s all of our problem. The question now is what are people of good intentions going to do about it?”

Tensions escalated last month when the African American Parent Coalition for Educational Equity circulated a letter among Hamilton teachers in which they accused unnamed teachers of using “race as a criteria for determining the quality of education that they choose to provide to their students.”

The letter also said those same teachers were slandering some parents and “creating an intolerable atmosphere of hostility, divisiveness, vindictiveness and retaliation towards students.”

That “Call to Action” was written by businessman Wil C. Wade, whose daughter attends Hamilton’s music magnet. Wade said the coalition was angry that at least one teacher had discussed in the classroom the motives of certain black parents and teachers who were involved in efforts to improve programs for African American students.

But the coalition is even more concerned about students’ grades.

“I really think that the real issue gets down to racism in the classroom,” Wade said in an interview. “Our group was formed by extremely concerned parents who have found that within the Los Angeles Unified School District, and specifically at certain schools, there is a pervasive pattern of educational inequity particularly for children of color.”

Some parents called his letter inflammatory. Some teachers said the letter was intimidating and a potential infringement on their authority to conduct classes as they see fit. Two weeks ago, students, many of them African American, launched a letter-writing campaign in support of the targeted teachers.

“The trouble started with adults, but the bad news is that it’s starting to trickle down to students,” said 17-year-old senior Nefertiti Takla. “I want there to be an end to all this.”

Located on Robertson Boulevard just north of the Santa Monica Freeway, Hamilton is a complex of three schools. Besides the main community school, which is predominantly black and Latino, it includes nationally acclaimed music and humanities magnet schools, each of which is about 40% white.

The conflict has forced school officials to face tough, racially charged issues, and has created an emotionally charged atmosphere in which relationships are strained by suspicion.

“Teachers are fearful that they can’t speak freely to a friend, a student, a parent or colleague,” said one teacher, who asked that his name not be used. “If they anger a student, there might be bizarre consequences like being labeled a racist. If they talk to a parent, they might be accused of racism.”

The issues have caught school officials off guard.

“When there’s an earthquake, we know what to do, we have a plan. But this is different,” said Assistant Principal Michelle King, who is African American. “This is about things that are emotional, deep-seated, even taboo. When issues of race come up on campus, it makes people uncomfortable.”

Still, parents are demanding to know why in a school where African Americans make up 42% of the student body, more than half of the students suspended each year are black. Of the 75 students suspended last month, for example, five were white, 29 were Latino and 41 were African American. During the same period the year before, 99 students were suspended--six of them white, 37 Latino and 56 African American.

King, who is responsible for disciplinary issues at Hamilton, defended the numbers.

“Any student who is tardy seven times, or fights, will be suspended,” she said. “Our black students are tardy more often--and get in more fights--than other students. I don’t know why.”

The conflict over black students’ generally poor test results is more complicated.

Principal Winter said parents have alleged in meetings with him that black students are not doing as well as whites because of inequities in the quality of their education. They suggest, he said, that teachers generally have lower expectations of blacks, which translates into poor achievement.

Recent Stanford 9 test scores showed that black students in Hamilton’s community school were 15 percentile points behind white students in reading, and 24 percentile points behind them in mathematics. The gaps are even greater at the magnet schools.

Similar disparities exist between standardized test scores for Latinos and those of whites, although so far they are not part of the dispute at Hamilton.

Those disparities mirror national trends in which the average African American scores below 75% of whites on most standardized tests. There are a variety of theories for the gap.

Most recently, Meredith Phillips, an assistant professor of policy studies at UCLA, and Christopher Jencks, a Harvard professor of social policy, suggested in their book, “The Black-White Test Score Gap,” that the differences are tied to home life. They ruled out schooling, segregation, income, wealth, single-parent homes and genetics as determining factors.

Genethia Hayes, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a candidate for the school board, has been helping the parents group learn to analyze the test scores and other data. Hayes said the group has about 40 members.

“This is simply an attempt by African American parents to raise questions they should be raising. Educational outcomes are disparate, and these folks want to know why that is,” she said.

Winter said he welcomes the parents’ involvement.

“We’re trying to raise the achievement levels of the community school to the levels of our magnets,” he said. “I’m hopeful the parents will be willing to work with us in looking at the data so that we can make improvements where we need to.”

The black parents coalition formed in May after members of a committee in charge of school improvement funds tussled over an allotment for the gospel choir. African Americans were angry that some white members wanted to reduce support for the program. Resentment deepened when teacher Alan Kaplan later turned the squabble into a lesson for his U.S. history class.

Coalition members first took their complaints to Winter in June, alleging that Kaplan and other unnamed teachers were racially insensitive. Soon after they raised their concerns about test scores and discipline.

Separate investigations conducted by Winter and the district found that allegations against the teachers were baseless.

Nonetheless, Winter said, he has asked two teachers to participate in mediation with the parents. Those teachers were reluctant to meet with parents unless Winter signed a document stating that no personnel actions would be taken as a result of anything said by teachers during mediation. So far, black parents have refused to meet with mediators.

In the meantime, the district has decided to hire the nonprofit Achievement Council to help analyze Hamilton data with a goal of improving student achievement. In addition to hiring outside mediators, the district has sent to Hamilton its own counselors with expertise in race relations.

But those efforts have done little to assuage either the parents group or the teachers who say they have been unfairly criticized.

One white teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “This is a crazy situation, and it should never have been allowed to get this far. But [the coalition] is not going to tell us how to do our job.

“Unless things change dramatically for the better, the game’s over at this school,” he said. “Reforms are going to fall apart at Hamilton if everything is based on suspicion and political games.”

Winter said he is more optimistic.

“We’re working our butts off to create an equitable school here,” Winter said. “We’re going to use this so-called crisis as a point from which to move forward in a positive way.”

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Performance Gap in Test Scores

Hamilton High School has a student population of 2,748, and includes magnets for the humanities and music. A major concern of one parents group is the difference in academic achievement between black and white students. Teh 1996-97 Stanford 9 scores for the three largest ethnic groups are listed below.

HAMILTON SENIOR HIGH

READING

Grade 9

Black: 23

Latino: 19

White: 38

Grade 10

Black: 20

Latino: 13

White: 38 N/A

*

MATHEMATICS

Grade 9

Black: 22

Latino: 26

White: 46

Grade 10

Black: 17

Latino: 16

White: N/A

*

LANGUAGE

Grade 9

Black: 29

Latino: 25

White: 54

Grade 10

Black: 23

Latino: 22

White: N/A

*

HUMANITIES MAGNET

READING

Grade 9

Black: 48

Latino: N/A

White: 84

Grade 10

Black: 66

Latino: N/A

White: 80

*

MATHEMATICS

Grade 9

Black: 55

Latino: N/A

White: 93

Grade 10

Black: 60

Latino: N/A

White: 81

*

LANGUAGE

Grade 9

Black: 53

Latino: N/A

White: 81

Grade 10

Black: 55

Latino: N/A

White: 74

*

MUSIC ACADEMY MAGNET

READING

Grade 9

Black: 40

Latino: 35

White: 82

Grade 10

Black: 29

Latino: 33

White: 81

*

MATHEMATICS

Grade 9

Black: 35

Latino: 48

White: 83

Grade 10

Black: 25

Latino: 26

White: 82

*

LANGUAGE

Grade 9

Black: 44

Latino: 44

White: 78

Grade 10

Black: 35

Latino: 42

White: 79

Ethnic Breakdown*

Hamilton High: 1,571 students

White: 6.6%

Black: 42.6%

Latino: 44.9%

Other: 5.9%

*

Music Academy: 859

White: 39.9%

Black: 35.6%

Latino: 15.9%

Other: 8.4%

*

Humanities Magnet: 318 students

White: 37.1%

Black: 35.2%

Latino: 22.6%

Other: 4.9%

*Numbers may not total 100 because of rounding.

Source: Los Angeles Unified School District.