Carson High School Newspaper Publishes Racial Comments in November Issue

LOS ANGELES, CA (KNX)  -- The Carson High School Student newspaper, the Trailblazer, published an article that has said to be ''racially insensitive,'' causing Black community leaders to call for a racial sensitivity forum.

The November 21 issue of the paper, refers to the behavior of African- American students a at a nearby Taco Bell restaurant, as '' a pack of monkeys''and says they should be put "into a cage."

Los Angeles activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said he presented a proposal to new Superintendent David Brewer to implement regular forum discussions about race and ethnicity in January.

A district spokesman said the district has offered diversity training to the school.

The articles headline read, ''Looks like the circus is in town,'' it appeared on the paper's editorial page without a byline.

According to the school faculty journalism adviser Gregory Vieira, the publication of the article was an oversight.

"I'm embarrassed that I didn't see it," Vieira said. "When I saw it, I was horrified. And she was horrified when she read it. She was not thinking."

The ethnic background of the female student who wrote the article was not released. Attempts to reach the student have been unsuccessful.

Carson City Councilman Mike Gipson, also a United Teachers Los Angeles organizer, credited Principal Kenneth Keener with collecting copies of the offending article. He compared the article to a recent incident in which comedian Michael Richards spewed a racist tirade at some hecklers.

"It's an isolated incident," Gipson said. "I believe we still live in a society where race is still an issue. It may be covert, but it's still out there."

Kenner sent home a letter explaining the situation, as well as posting it on the school's website.

"The article included insensitive and racially derogatory comments, was inflammatory and heightened tensions on campus. I assure you that appropriate steps will be taken so that this does not happen again," Principle Kenner wrote.

African Americans a nearby Taco Bell told the Daily Breeze, they were offended by the article, but agreed that the restaurant is often a setting for rowdy behavior. Two fights broke out there Tuesday after school, resulting in the arrests of three juveniles, sheriff's Sgt. Bryan Beardsley said.

Trashon Fant, an 11th-grader said, ''It's the way they said it, putting us in cages.''

''You could have said it in a proper way... so disrespectful, " said Deon Anthony, an 11th-grader.

Teachers at the school used the article's publication as an opportunity to teach their students lessons about tolerance.

Mayor Jim Dear said the article's author was "falling into the trap that many adults fall into in that she judges people as members of a group instead of judging people as individuals."

The Carson Human Relations Commission was working to schedule a diversity forum for February, before the incident occurred.

"The fact that our youth commissioners asked us to address the issue many months ago is indicative that there are problems there that need to be addressed," said commission member Geneva Phillips-Beaver. "They're living it. I think it's an area that we need to do a lot more work."