Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Can the different ethnic groups at Los Angeles schools learn to get along? Earlier this year, the white principal of Panorama City’s Burton Street Elementary School was beaten by assailants who allegedly told him that he was not wanted at the predominantly Latino school because of his race. Before the attack, parents at the school had been working to oust Principal Norman Bernstein, who does not speak Spanish. At Inglewood High School, special celebrations in honor of Black History Month and Cinco de Mayo in the past have resulted in fights and tension between racial or ethnic groups. RACHEL FISCHER asked local high school students about the state of race relations on campuses.

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LEILANI WAYNE

17, senior, Beverly Hills High School

Ican understand Latinos at Burton Elementary wanting to have someone in charge who represents them, someone who reflects the community. But would those same people feel comfortable not allowing a Latino principal at a white school just because of his race? That’s a strange thought.

Problems like this have to do with ignorance and fear: Some people look in the mirror in the morning and the first thing they see is not who they really are but their color.

People have to have a sense of self, a sense of character before color. I’m a big mixture of colors: Filipino, European Jewish and some other things. When I see myself in the mirror, I see everything I am. My culture is just a small part of who I am. A lot of kids just see what they look like and haven’t really discovered themselves.

At Beverly, there isn’t much racial tension, but people do congregate with those who have the same types of opinions, beliefs and ideals. There is a bit of a cultural divide; different groups stay in their different areas at lunch. It definitely could be more integrated. It’s sad to think that Black History Month or Cinco de Mayo would be canceled at any school, but at the same time, what about the mixes like me who never get to celebrate all of what we are?

Considering that the world is getting so international and cultures are blending, people have to be open or they’ll be left in the dust.

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CASEY BIEDERMAN

14, freshman, North Hollywood High School

If schools recognized each ethnic group and had a celebration for each of them, no one would get mad. It’s good to have ethnic celebrations. If you don’t, kids don’t know anything about other cultures and they’ll hate them. If you don’t know about something, you end up afraid of it.

By learning about different cultures, kids won’t grow up to think bad things about other people.

There are definitely a lot of these problems at schools these days. At least at North Hollywood, we had an assembly on black history.

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OLIVIA PEREZ

Fairfax High School

There are all kinds of races at Fairfax, and we celebrate Black History Month here, no problem. We have student unions for all the different groups.

We also celebrate Cinco de Mayo without any problems. Usually, we’ll bring tacos and sell them and stuff. People here seem open to other cultures. I say hello to all the different groups, but stay with my friends who are mostly Latino. You just have more in common with people who are like you. I like to go to parties where there’s Spanish music, and so I tend to meet other Latinos. But then again, there are plenty of white kids who like hip-hop and go to hip-hop clubs with black friends.

The principal in a Spanish-speaking school should definitely be able to speak Spanish. But it was wrong to beat the guy up.