School Officials Try to Quell Fears, Some Parents Remain Skeptical

By Ann Williams
Special to The Lookout

April 19 -- In the aftermath of last week’s violent interracial clash, Santa Monica High School was in full damage control mode Monday night as the school’s principal and the district superintendent sought to allay fears and quell rumors at a hastily convened parents meeting.

Aside from a few bloody noses there were no injuries, and despite persistent rumors, there was no evidence of weapons in Friday’s lunch-time melee, school officials told some 500 parents, students and local TV news crews crowded into Barnum Hall.

Some students became very defiant and were handcuffed and “set down to cool off,” but no arrests were made, said head Principal Dr. Ilene Straus.

The 12 students who were involved in the fights were suspended for five days, Straus said, as were students who became defiant.

Police cars will be parked at the three school entrances, and roving police officers will continue to patrol the school -- traditionally known more for high student achievement than interracial violence -- at least for the next several days, she said.

The official account of the violence that led to a lockdown last Friday seemed to play down a report in The Lookout, as well as video tapes aired on local newscasts Monday night. ("Race Fights Break Out at Samohi," April 15, 2005)

Straus and School Superintendent Dr. John Deasy summarized Friday’s events, shared their ideas for reducing the underlying tensions that ignited them and reviewed school rules.

SAMOHI Principal Dr. Ilene Straus and School Superintendent Dr. John Deasy address some 500 parents and students at Monday night's meeting. (Photos by Ann Williams)

Both referred repeatedly to various efforts to teach cultural understanding and good citizenship through “talking points” and formal instruction, including Freshman Seminar, and called for the need to include the community.

Dr. Straus promised ongoing meetings with parent, faculty and student groups, including MEChA and the Black Student Union.

Making it clear that this was an informational meeting and not a community forum, Straus launched into a rapid fire defense of her actions Friday as audience members listened intently, tension written on their faces.

Describing SAMOHI as a “safe, nonviolent environment where all students do their best to learn,” Straus added that “our job is to help learn from the incidences, and that’s what happened on Friday.”

Straus blamed a growing mob of onlookers for the incident, noting that if they had not joined the 12 students fighting, order would have been relatively easy to restore.

Straus also played down reports that the incident only involved black and Latino students.

“Let me be really clear,” she said, “this was not an issue of Latino or African-American kids. This was an issue of all kids, white kids too who were on their cell phones saying, ‘Oh my goodness, this is so exciting. ”’

Straus and Deasy returned to this point repeatedly.

“Egging on students to resolve conflict by violence is not a nonviolent act,” said Deasy. “You don’t have to throw a punch and step away and say, ‘I was not involved and nonviolent.’ Absolutely not.”

Straus gave a detailed account of the events that led up to the lockdown.

Once it became clear that the students weren’t going to disperse, she decided to end lunch to get the students back to class, but they ignored her directions given on the intercom, Straus said.

The police then used their bullhorn and ordered the students to disperse, declaring the mob an “unlawful assembly.” The students also ignored them.

Straus said she then went back on the intercom, threatening the students with arrest if they didn’t follow directions.

It took another 30 minutes to get the students back in class, she said. After all 3,500 students were back in class, she decided to call a lockdown in order to avoid the same problem between class periods, Straus said.

Deasy backed up his principal, reassuring parents that “we’ll always err on the side of extreme caution.”

He shared his conversations “around the kitchen table” with his own SAMOHI children and urged parents to play a proactive role teaching and modeling nonviolent conflict resolution in the home.

Straus and Deasy then fielded questions from the audience in an attempt to clear the air, invite community input and provide authoritative information.

Index cards were passed out and parents were exhorted to pass along any information to school officials or police for investigation.

Deasy lectured on the need for community dialogue and interethnic understanding as the parents and students at the historic auditorium waited eagerly for their turn to participate in the conversation. When the time came for questions, they were ready to talk.

The father of one of the suspended students, who claimed his son had just been trying to stop the fight, turned around and addressed the audience.

“It shouldn’t be that way, where blacks are fighting Hispanics, Hispanics are fighting blacks, and so on,” he said. “We’re the lowest on the totem pole. Why fight?”

The audience erupted in cheers and applause.

In answer to a question about the cause of Friday’s fights, Dr. Straus acknowledged a “historical” tension between Latinos and black students that had been building throughout the year.

Both Straus and Deasy were adamant that it would be a serious mistake to assume gangs were involved just because the participants were students of color.

A member of the SAMOHI black parent’s group called for Latino and black support groups to come together.

“I think this is a systemic problem,” the parent said. “It’s been going on a long time not only at Santa Monica High, but throughout the high schools throughout the city.”

SAMOHI senior Nicole Barnes addresses the school officials.

Nicole Barnes, a black senior, took issue with the administration’s lack of responsiveness.

“I’ve noticed that there has always been tension here on campus,” Barnes said. “It’s something that needs to be addressed, I mean, I know there’s politics here in Santa Monica, but it is a serious issue, and if you don’t address it it’s going to get worse.”

The audience cheered Barnes.

Straus responded testily that there’s not much she can do if parents choose not to meet with her.

Communication, a Hispanic mother complained, is a two-way street.

“Our concern is what are you doing, and what can we do to help you?” the parent said. “But if you don’t communicate with us, it’s hard to do that… A lot of these parents that are here never got the message about the meeting here today.”

Straus said she had tried to send out an automated phone message, but it didn’t work.

Over the weekend she had sent an email in English and Spanish to parents with computers, inviting them to the meet with her at 7:30 Monday night, Straus said. (The meeting itself was simultaneously translated into Spanish.)

After the meeting, SAMOHI parents Sue Lamb and Kathryn Hewitt, said they felt officials were whitewashing Friday’s violence.

Children’s book author Hewitt called it “patronizing, sugarcoating” and said their “agenda is to keep everything looking like it’s under control.”

Lamb, a librarian in a South Central school, called the presentation “disingenuous.”

“You can’t not confront this issue,” Lamb said. “This is organized crime moving in. They aren’t leveling with us.”

School Board Vice President Julia Brownley was kinder, calling the meeting “informative” and agreeing with Deasy’s call for the community to come together.

Brownley cautioned that it would take many more “honest and truthful” conversations to relieve the tensions.

Melissa Oberon-Levoff, a Santa Monica parent and a member of the Education Foundation for eight years was simply disappointed that “it’s happened here.”

“I remember doing conflict resolution at the middle school,” she said.

Meanwhile, journalists who covered the meeting said they felt as if they were being held in information lockdown, after district employees declined to be interviewed.

“We’re not allowed to speak to the media,” said a SAMOHI security officer. “When the media get here she (Straus) says direct them all to her.”

A portly gray-haired employee declined to even give her name.

A Hispanic TV news team said they had visited the campus twice, once Friday and again last night, and couldn’t get any staff except Straus to talk with them.

A photographer for a local newspaper expressed outrage that Deasy, in his capacity as a public official, had angrily ordered her twice not to take his picture.

In fact Deasy prefaced his remarks at the meeting by scolding the media.

“We missed you last Friday weekend when we had our festival for the arts, and also I’m struck by how frequently we invite you to come to our awards ceremony, but you don’t tend to make that, but hopefully this year you’ll come to that as well,” he said.

Deasy’s remarks were greeted with appreciative laughter and applause from the audience.

At the end of the evening, parents were reluctant to leave. They gathered and talked in small groups for at least half hour in Barnum Hall’s redecorated foyer and in the main quad, where earnest conversation replaced last Friday’s fights.

Parents who were unable to attend last night’s meeting are encouraged to share any information with their students’ house principals. Straus has promised to continue to provide updates on the school’s Web site www.samohi.smmusd.org