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The "Power and Privilege" Workshop conducted by Taft High School

Student participants point to others who hold more assets and privilege during the "Power and Privilege" Workshop conducted by the Taft Campus Action Team...More

Queen promotes tolerance, acceptance at Los Angeles high school

AMMAN (JT) - Her Majesty Queen Rania on Wednesday visited the William Howard Taft High School in Los Angeles to support its integration programmes and promote her message of tolerance and acceptance.

Five years ago, Taft High piloted an innovative and bold programme to eradicate prejudice and intolerance among its students. Since its inception, the Zerohour campaign has successfully fought to tackle those problems and promote multicultural inclusion. ..More

About

ZEROHOUR SCHOOL:
William Taft High School, Woodland Hills, CA
By Cherylynn Hoff, Senior Intergroup Relations Specialist

On May 18, 2005, two weeks after Cinco de Mayo, Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) Taft High School in Woodland Hills experienced campus disruption that eventually led to a campus-wide shut down. Unfortunately, the intergroup conflict that occurred at Taft High School is not unique but in fact an example of a phenomenon occurring in schools throughout Los Angeles County. Last year alone saw major intergroup conflicts at 13 other LA County High Schools.

There are many speculative reasons as to the cause of increased intergroup tensions both on high school campuses and in general, but due to budget cuts and a lack of trained personnel, schools are often unprepared to address these tensions and incidents without additional support. This is why the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission (County Human Relation) has made it the goal of its youth campaign to support schools facing intergroup crisis or tensions with crisis prevention and intervention services.

Central to L.A. County Human Relations' strategy on reducing school conflict is the belief that such crisis need be addressed by more than just suppression; suppression tactics must be complemented by the development of human relations programming that works to create a campus environment in which all student and adult stakeholders can feel safe and respected, and that boosts the overall morale and academic performance on campus.

With this in mind, in the aftermath of the Taft High School conflict, County Human Relations helped establish and convene a Taft High School Human Relations/Safe School Collaborative to develop and implement a Taft High Human Relations Strategy for the '05/'06 school year towards the goal of creating sustainable reform at the school. The collaborative accomplished the following outcomes:

TAFT HIGH SCHOOL HUMAN RELATIONS/SAFE SCHOOL COLLABORATIVE '05/'06 SCHOOL YEAR OUTCOMES

Taft Human Relations Collaborative met on a monthly basis to plan and implement Taft's '05/'06 human relations strategy including teacher, student and parent assessments and trainings.

County Human Relations partnered with the Department of Justice Community Relations Service (DOJ-CRS) to implement the SPIRIT (Student Problem Identification, Resolution and Improvement Team) Assessment Process wherein a cadre of 90 student leaders, both elected and "natural," truly representative of Taft's diversity, engaged in a two day retreat where they identified, and recommended solutions to, the issues impeding student safety and learning on campus (Taft SPIRIT Report.)

Out of the SPIRIT process, a council is elected from participating students to ensure that student-conceived solutions to identified school issues are successfully implemented. In the case of Taft, County Human Relations and DOJ-CRS worked with the school administration to establish a 5 unit human relations class allowing the SPIRIT Council the time, and giving them credit, to implement the student-driven solutions to campus safety and inclusiveness. This SPIRIT class is in its second year and is the school's Zerohour Campus Action Team. The SPIRIT class boasts a litany of accomplishments with regards to their activities affecting campus change.

A Student Center was also established as a result of the SPIRIT process.

Collaborative members planned and conducted three campus-based "retreats" throughout the year that brought together SPIRIT/Campus Action Team students, Peer Mediation students, and HEART program students to define their missions, plan their actions, and coordinate their human relations efforts.

The LA City Commission on Human Relations conducted a 30 hour Conflict Management and Human Relations Training for Teachers and Administrators for 30 teachers who received three Continuing Education Unit credits through California State Dominguez Hills University Extended Education.

Conflict Management and Human Relations Parent Trainings were conducted that addressed the topics: How to Deal with Behavioral Issues; Active Listening and Communication Skills; and The Mediation Process.

County Human Relations sponsored a fieldtrip to Museum of Tolerance's 'Finding our Families' exhibit for the 90 students in the three campus-based student human relations groups (SPIRIT/Campus Action Team, Peer Mediation, HEART/Blue Ribbon Committee) and then conducted a post-exhibit workshop on Multiple Identity.

County Human Relations sponsored a Year-End Human Relations BBQ that celebrated the work and successes of the students in the three campus-based human relations groups for the '05/ '06 school year.


SPIRIT/Campus Action Team Students, Peer Mediation Students and HEART Program Students Receive Certificates of Recognition for their Human Relations Work at Taft High

Zerohour Campus Action Teams

Campus Action Teams (CATs) are the cornerstone of the Zerohour program. CATs demonstrate a core tenant of Zerohour: that student leaders are key in effecting change in campus culture; that campus adults cannot effect greater safety and improved campus culture without engaging the students themselves in the process, for often it is students who hold crucial understanding of the factors underlying intergroup tensions, threats to safety and lack of inclusiveness on campus. Students, if engaged, also hold creative, youth friendly solutions to these problems that, if tapped, can provide key insight that is often overlooked. Campus Action Teams are most successful if they reflect all the aspects of diversity on a campus with regard to race, culture, language, religion, student cliques, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic status, and leadership abilities (i.e., natural leaders and elected leaders.) Taft's Campus Action Team is a five unit class, now in its second year, taught by Bridget Brownell and comprised of 30 diverse student leaders from all grade levels and cultural backgrounds. Students are recommended by teachers, administration, and current student members.

Speak Theatre Arts Performs "NWC: The Race Play" for Taft Students, organized by Taft's Campus Action Team

Campus Action Team Successes for '05/'06:

In the first year of the class, students worked on four major topics: Stereotypes, Bathrooms, Food, and Dress code, and accomplished the following:

Stereotypes:

Received regular trainings on human relations topics from County Human Relations and presentations from education and advocacy organizations representing different identity groups such as the Gay Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgender (GBLT) Community.

Organized field trip to the Museum of Tolerance for themselves and their peers.

Arranged for "The Race Play" on stereotype and race to be performed at their school with facilitated post-performance dialogue.

Viewed various movies that address themes of stereotyping and facilitated post-viewing discussions

Dress Code:

Met with LAUSD gang interventionist to help recommend changes to the dress code that ensures student expression while at the same time does not promote gang affiliations.

Advocated for more consistent and equal enforcement of code

Bathrooms:

Worked with admin to get tampon dispensers, mirrors, and better soap in bathrooms.

Organized student monitoring of bathrooms for increased safety

Worked with custodian to ensure bathrooms are open, available and cleaned on a consistent schedule

Food:

Meet with school cafeteria supervisor and district personnel to get healthier, more affordable food in the cafeteria and in the school vending machines

Also

Promoted the SPIRIT Class by creating and distributing SPIRIT lanyards

Painted the "Student Union"

Assisted in the tabulation of the school-wide safety survey

Attended LA City Youth Mediation Summit

Campus Action Team Successes for '06/'07:

The Taft SPIRIT class met for its second year continuing to function as the campus's Zerohour Campus Action Team. During the year students were educated in human relations and gained skills in facilitation, advocacy, promotion, fundraising, editorial writing, and communication. They accomplished the following.

Received trainings from County Human Relations on human relations topics

Received presentations from protected class advocacy groups recommended by County HRC

Facilitated human relations workshops to other campus student groups

Participated in a 2 1/2 day Peer-to-Peer Training from the Anti-Defamation League , arranged by County Human Relations, in which students were trained to teach anti-bias workshops to their peers

Conducted fund-raising events such as Booster Club Pancake Breakfast

Created and distributed SPIRIT lanyards to promote the work of the SPIRIT class

Continued to work with school and district personnel to ensure greater variety of healthy, appealing foods in the cafeteria (Met with LAUSD Food Services Manager, contacted new vending machine companies, taste tested healthier pizzas

Create a cafeteria display case that provides educational information on food ingredients and fat and calorie contents.

Continued to monitor bathrooms for safety and accessibility and to work with school custodial staff to work with school custodial staff to ensure both

Continued to set up Student Center beautifying and securing supplies for it.

Participated in School Site Council (SSC) meetings and Booster Meetings

Sponsored '07 Denim Day campus activities promoting sexual violence education and awareness

Established, promoted and conducted Brown Bag Lunches with the Principal inviting students to discuss campus issues with the Principal

Conceived and conducted "Befriend an Upper Classman" conducted activities promoting alliance between incoming Sophomores and Seniors.

Peer Mediation

Key to Taft's Human Relations Strategy is supporting not only SPIRIT, Taft's Campus Action Team, but also supporting the other human relations efforts on campus and ensuring that these efforts are coordinated for a comprehensive human relations effort on campus. Hence, Taft's Human Relations Collaborative effort included support of the school's Peer Mediation program. Under the direction of Josh Mayesh, Taft began developing a comprehensive Peer Mediation Program almost two years ago and today 50 student mediators meet regularly in their five unit class. In November 2005, the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center received a substantial grant to assist Taft High School in coordinating their existing Peer Mediation Program. Students are trained in mediation skills and then mediate student-student conflict referred to them. In both '05/'06 and '06/'07, peer mediations students worked to increase mediation referrals by students, teachers and school administration by ensuring all on campus were aware of the referrals process, by making the referrals process easy and accessible, and by promoting campus-wide awareness of the program through such means as Peer Mediation Awareness week featuring a culture food fair and other lunchtime activities.

LAUSD's HEART Program

LAUSD's Youth Relations Unit runs its HEART program - a student group mediation process inclusive of both natural and elected leaders from diverse backgrounds- with 30 students who meet weekly with campus sponsor Dean Barbara Haskins. In their weekly sessions, students learn skills in human relations, anti-street violence and conflict management. Heart Program Students have accomplished the following:

Participated in Blue Ribbon Committee Summits each semester where they were brought together with other student leaders from throughout their local district to attend trainings in human relations and conflict resolution and to share best practices

Assisted in averting several potential conflicts between youth groups on campus and school walkouts by engaging students in dialogue about immigration issues instead

Organized activities promoting peace among students for Live Violence Free Day

Student Center where the three students human relations groups can coordinate their effort, conduct their work, have meetings, provide services to other students, hold peer mediations, and invite parents for parent meetings.

Campus Disruption

Just following a 9th grade assembly in May, 2005 several fights occurred. As a result of the fights, five students were opportunity transferred to other schools. When the school went into lockdown, there were significant delays in reuniting students with their parents who had come to take their children out of school, concerned for their safety. There were several accounts of the fights that occurred that day, but many reports corroborated that they were kicked off by two different fights between African American and Latina girls. By the time the second fight between an African American and a Latino girl had started, over 100 students had become engaged in watching the action and the group was pepper sprayed by campus police. Several campus staff interviewed suggested that the skirmishes were fomented when several hundred freshman students were occupied in the auditorium while the other grades were engaged in day-long state standardized testing. One girl supposedly threw a piece of paper at another girl and racial slurs ensued. Other fights ensued during nutrition following the auditorium incident until over 100 students were involved. Students were pepper sprayed, LAPD helicopters arrived at the scene, and parents began arriving at the school to get their children out of school, having been contacted by their children via cell phones.

These conflicts occurred against a backdrop in which several hundred students are bussed to Taft High School in Woodland Hills from South Central Los Angeles, some willingly for Taft's magnet program and other's reluctantly due to over capacity at their home schools, Manual Arts and Jefferson High Schools. Both students and administration reported that there is a perception among some students, parents and teachers that the students bussed in are the cause of much of the trouble that happens on the Taft Campus.

Cause of Increased Intergroup Tensions

In actuality, it is a wonder that more intergroup tensions and conflicts don't occur in a county of 10 million residents that is one of the most diverse regions in the world attracting large populations of people from all over the globe. In fact, LA County is home to several ethnic communities who have their largest populations outside their native countries within Los Angeles County. However, in times of economic recession competition for jobs, housing, and educational resources increases and intergroup tensions are likely to escalate. Changing demographics in which large numbers of one cultural group move into neighborhoods historically home to those of another cultural group evokes a real or perceived sense of competition between members of the group. Finally, increased gang activity throughout the County translates into greater incidents of racialized gang violence that in some cases affects tensions on high school campuses.

Intergroup tensions can lead to violence which results in injuries, property damage, and loss of life. In fact, each such incidents on a high school campus costs school districts and cities hundreds to thousands of dollars in escalated security, police response, teacher turnover, and the loss of state and federal funds caused by pupil absenteeism. For example, below is a snapshot of the costs incurred by one high school that experienced intergroup conflict in '05:

1. Law enforcement response costs

Security and Law Enforcement during conflict (20 patrol officers 4 youth services officers, 6 motorcycle patrol officers at $50 per officer = $1,500.00)

One helicopter at $300 per hour for two hours = $600.00

Security in days after the conflict (6 patrol officers, 2 youth services officers at $50 per officer = $300.00)

2. Lost attendance revenues: State funds to schools based on student average daily attendance (ADA) is $37.93 per student. Normal

attendance is 3,183. The day after the conflict attendance was 2,691. Lost ADA = 492 less students x $37.93 = $18,661.00

3. Injury estimates: 5 students sent to emergency x $577 average emergency room visit = 8,655

4. Arrests estimates: 20 students sent to Juvenile Hall at a cost of $16.42 per day = $2,885.00

It should be noted that revenues to schools have also decreased due to home schooling and truancy attributed to fear of harassment, bullying, intergroup violence and other safety issues on high school campuses. For example in 2004-05, 25 students countywide were home-schooled due to racial tensions, bullying or harassment due to membership in a protected class. At $37.93 a day times 180 school days per school year calendar, this translated into $170,685 lost in ADA by the school and district.