Hamilton Protest and Responsibility

Re “300 Students, Parents Say Many of School’s Teachers Are Racists,” April 17: As an LAUSD teacher who taught for eight years in an inner-city elementary school, I believe that Wil Wade and the students at Hamilton High School who protested the supposed “racist teachers” are terribly misguided and irresponsible.

Children’s educational success has much more to do with determination, hard work and the involvement of parents than skin color or any degree of racism that may exist in the school system. The parents, school administrators and government officials who cater to the mistaken beliefs of the protesters are doing great harm to the children of this district by teaching them to blame others for their lack of academic success. This “race card rhetoric” not only harms the children, it increases racial tensions and divisions that already exist. Maybe Wade and the protesting students should read 11-year-old Catherine Nicklen’s essay (Voices) on student responsibility that appeared in the paper the very same day.

KAREN LISTICK

Pacific Palisades

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Nicklen displays more wisdom in “Students Should Take Responsibility” than all the Board of Education members of the L.A. Unified School District and all of their administrators put together!

They can pour billions into that school district or many others, too--but until students begin to get the kind of guidance and support from their own parents--and develop the responsibilities Catherine speaks of--very little improvement can be made.

HOWARD E. CARMEAN

San Bernardino