Ensign students not so pretty in pink

Marisa O’Neil

Ensign Middle School was calm on Monday after a fashion statement

last week turned some students into fashion victims.

Hundreds of students wore pink in protest on Friday, the day after

six boys were excluded from a school photo because they were wearing

the pastel hue. Principal Ed Wong made the call because he feared

their attire might have been associated with a gang or party crew,

district spokeswoman Jane Garland said.

“This was not just pink shirts,” Garland said. “They came wearing

pink armbands, pink shoelaces and black shoes. Those are known to be

the colors of a party crew -- not that they necessarily are in a

party crew. But they all dressed like that and wanted to stand

together, and that’s not appropriate for a school picture.”

Wong, who was out of town, could not be reached for comment.

About 12 boys wore pink for the pictures on Thursday, Garland

said, and were told they could remain in the picture if they took off

the color. Half of them obliged, she said, but more students walked

out of the photo session in protest.

On Friday, hundreds of students showed their support by wearing

the color.

“Only a few people weren’t wearing pink,” 13-year-old Alyssa Lee

said.

Alyssa, who said she is friends with the boys in question, worried

that the incident was racially motivated. The students excluded from

the photograph are Latino and not in a gang or party crew, she said.

Few students wore pink to school on Monday, but others also

worried that the boys had been singled out wrongly because they were

Latino.

“They probably thought it was gang-related,” 14-year-old Riley

Parker said.

Kate Schnaitmann, 13, and Sadie Sampier, 12, said that they had

heard of a party crew called G-Unit that wore pink.

Party crews are groups of teenagers who hang out together and

might take part in some petty crimes such as underage drinking and

tagging, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Tim Schennum said. Sometimes, that

activity can progress to full-blown gang-style crimes.

Most gang members today are savvy, he said, and don’t draw

attention to themselves by wearing a particular color that could

incriminate them if arrested. But members of party crews do often

label themselves and dress alike.

School officials are considering holding an open forum for

students to discuss concerns about the incident, Assistant Principal

Thomas Shiskovsky said.