Security Tight at Jefferson High

[The Bobster]

16

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-04190...l=la-home-local

Security Tight at Jefferson High
Relative calm follows two melees in less than a week that left several students injured.


By Cara DiMassa and Nicholas Shields, Times Staff Writers


Classes were tense but orderly at Jefferson High School today after unrest that attracted extraordinary security and the city's top political and education officials.

To enhance safety, entry was limited and security officers with wands checked students for weapons. A total of 44 school and Los Angeles Police Department officers patrolled the campus today.

Officials also barred gang paraphernalia and provided bag lunches, in part to avoid concentration of students in the cafeteria, the fla
sh point of several melees.

Officials estimated that school attendanc
e was down by 1,400 students.

The relative calm today followed two melees on the campus on East 41st Street in less than a week. Several students were injured.

"There's violence in society, and schools aren't immune," Mayor James K. Hahn told reporters this morning.

Hahn, locked in a tight battle for reelection, declared that the South Los Angeles campus is "for learning."

"I am going to be fighting for the students who want to learn," Hahn said.

Early today, some 400 parents met with Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy E. Romer to discuss events.

More than 100 black and Latino students were involved in what administrators said was a racially and gang-motivated brawl Monday. Officials said school police used pepper spray to defend themselves and quell the melee. Six students were arrested and another suffered a broken hip.

The incident oc
curred near the cafeteria about 12:15 p.m., when the two groups began gathering separately, officials said.

"Despite efforts to keep ev
erybody apart, there was this intent to fight," said Alan Kerstein, chief of the Los Angeles School Police Department.

Kerstein said six students were detained and two were arrested on suspicion of battery on a police officer. He said students tossed rocks at officers and one student broke his hip as he attempted to flee police.

Officials said 16 school and LAPD officers had been on campus since the first brawl Thursday, which also involved about 100 black and Latino students.

After Monday's brawl, many Jefferson students said they feared that the racial tension at the school would only intensify. "Maybe tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday -- it's going to get even worse," said Jorge Santizo, 19.

The left side of Dayson Sinclair's head was noticeably swollen Monday, three hours after the melee. He sa
id the bruise came from the brawl. "I can't even enjoy school," Sinclair, 18, said. "We need metal detectors in there."

Los Angeles Unified District 5 Supt. Rowena Lagrosa said she
didn't know what has caused the increase in racial tension but said gang activity was spilling into the school.

 

[Expose Them All]

16

Nation of Islam may intervene at Jefferson High
L.A. school scene of black/brown racial violence

(What I want to know is what are we, as African Americans going to do about it? asked Mary Washington, the BSU president. We are dying at Jefferson High School. Six percent there are [black] and 94.6 percent are Latinos.)

- - -

Wave Newspapers,
Gene Johnson Jr., Apr 28, 2005

SOUTH LOS ANGELES --During a forum this week on racially motivated violence at Jefferson High School, the president of the school's Black Student Union said that she, like a number of other African-American students, was considering leaving the school for good out of fear of being jumped.

Meanwhile, Minister Tony Muhammad of the Nation of Islam pledged protection to students who feel threatened by what is described as a growing, palpable tension between blacks and Latinos on the campus.<b
r>
Those were just
two of the latest developments as parents, students, educators and the community at large continues to grapple with a series of incidents that have received wide attention and drew more than 100 attendees to a Tuesday night forum at Bethel AME Church.

Because of several recent altercations at Jefferson High School, officials have seen attendance drop by more than 50 percent on some days. For example, following an April 14 brawl 1,346 students were absent. After another scrape on April 18, nearly 1,100 missed school the next day.

What I want to know is what are we, as African Americans going to do about it? asked Mary Washington, the BSU president. We are dying at Jefferson High School. Six percent there are [black] and 94.6 percent are Latinos. [School officials] threatened to take away my scholarship if I don't sit down and shut up. And I won't.

Fifteen-year-old Stephanie Alonzo, who saw a friend knocked down and kicked several times during one of the brawls, be
lieves that black
s and Latino should be separated when they aren't in class. The police let us fight, said another teenager at the forum who declined to give her name. "'m telling you the truth. What you hear on the news is a lie. They let us fight.

While forum organizers said both candidates for L.A. mayor were invited to participate in the forum, Mayor Jim Hahn was not in attendance. Aides later insisted he had not received an invitation.

However, the challenger in next month's election, Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, did show up. He said the city needs to form a black-Latino task force to address growing tension between African-American and Latino youth.

We need to model for these young people black and brown unity, he said. They need to see two brothers working together ... and we need to demand that the school district protect our kids and have enough security personnel to do that. We don't address conflict with a fight and make it worse. You talk it through. You try to figu
re
out what's going on and find a solution to it.

For their part, school administrators have began enforcing a new campus ban on heavy belt buckles and white T-shirts --both of which can be used to signal gang affiliation, with the buckles also viewed as potential weapons. Teachers are continuing to conduct days of dialogue with their students.

Although security in and around Jefferson High has been beefed up in recent weeks, many parents and students insist it isn't enough. Until the school district employs or utilizes more security, Muhammad --who organized the forum along with Bethel senior pastor Lewis E. Logan --told Washington and other black students that his organization would provide them with escorts to and from Jefferson High.

We'll be there [on Wednesday] and you'll be under the Nation of Islam escort, Muhammad said. We're going to walk with you and anybody else, you won't have to worry. You give us a day and a time and we'll be there.

Re
lated Articles

Los
Angeles School Brawls Expose Black-Latino Tension

Blacks in L.A. Reach Boiling Point Over Racial Attacks

L.A. Becoming a Human Relations Model

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_articl...447d11fbc7ae630

 

[The Bobster]

16

Now the niggers know how we felt when they invaded our schools. And we weren't allowed to have Klan escorts.