Fight Sparks Effort to Reduce Racial Tensions : Oxnard: Confrontation between blacks and Latinos at high school brings to the surface problems that have been simmering for years.

A violent confrontation between black and Latino students during a rainy lunch period at Oxnard High School in February is a symptom of racial tension that has been simmering for years, some parents and students say.

But a multiracial group of parents is determined to turn the incident into an instrument for good.

Downplaying racial problems, the parents want to help make the school safer and then turn to other improvements at the 2,278-student school. They have plans to spruce up the campus, beef up support for the PTA and push for a curriculum that teaches students about different ethnic groups and fosters an attitude of understanding.

Some parents and students say tension between blacks and Latinos at the school has escalated in recent years. The February incident, they say, was just the most recent--and the most publicized.

The fight “snowballed from something that’s been going on ever since my son has been at this school,” said Joanne Traylor. Her son, a senior, was not involved in the conflict, she said.

Principal Ruperto Cisneros said he could not comment on Traylor’s assertion specifically but said that “if any parent comes to us with problems, we try to be responsive.”

Some black parents, particularly those with sons attending the school, contend that their children are persecuted and unfairly labeled as gang members because they are black.

“My son gets along well with Hispanics--most of his friends are Mexican,” said parent Ronald Hemphill Sr. But he said his son, who was expelled after the fight, has been taunted by some Latino students and unjustly called a gang member.

“My son doesn’t belong to a gang. He gets along with anybody. But when a person keeps bullying you, calling you racial names, sooner or later you have to fight back.”

About 20 students were involved in the fight, according to some students. Eight students have been expelled, including one who has been charged in court with inciting a riot. Ten more were suspended from school, and two of those face possible expulsion later this month.

Officials declined to identify any of the students involved, but said those who were expelled carried weapons including pipes and chains, attacked other students or defied orders from school officials.

Ronald Hemphill Jr. was expelled for carrying a dog chain, he said. But he said someone placed it in his jacket pocket.

“Black kids were on one half of the gym, and Hispanic kids were on the other side,” the 17-year-old senior said. “There was a lot of tension. We were yelling back and forth across the gym. . . . One member from our group hit someone from the other group. . . . It got out of hand real fast.”

Another senior who faces expulsion said: “I told one Mexican kid, ‘We don’t want to fight,’ but while I was telling him that, someone threw a soda can at my head.”

The youth, who asked not to be named, said he threw a table at another student during the fight to protect a friend who was being attacked.

Student Joe Robles, 18, interviewed the day after the fight, said, “We just all started rumbling with the black guys. It just happened.” Other Latino students involved in the fight were not available for comment.

Most of the students who were expelled had previous disciplinary problems, Supt. Ian Kirkpatrick said. One student acknowledged in an interview that he was suspended for fighting earlier this school year.

The violence galvanized parents and members of the community to improve conditions at the school.

Since the fight, concerned parents have met weekly in the school library. About 125 parents attended the first two meetings, but the numbers have since dropped.

Twenty parents have volunteered to patrol the campus during lunch and before and after school to monitor students and keep outsiders off the campus. Jim Middleton, a spokesman for the parent group, said they are encouraged by the district’s response.

An Oxnard Union High School District employee has been charged with overseeing campus security. Jackets and badges have been purchased for security guards and the parent volunteers.

Kirkpatrick said officials also may increase security at the district’s other five campuses.

El Concilio, an Oxnard-based Latino rights advocacy group, has requested that a community task force be formed to advise the school board on ways to prevent further clashes between students of different races.

El Concilio officials and other Latino community leaders have also expressed support for the principal, urging that Cisneros not be reprimanded for the incident.

Members of El Concilio and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People have met to address possible problems between blacks and Latinos on the campus. But El Concilio executive director Marcos Vargas said the problems are not always divided along racial lines.

“This shouldn’t be painted as a black-brown problem because I don’t think it is,” Vargas said. “There’s a pervasive problem with youth violence in the community.”

Some students who witnessed the fight said it was gang-related, with members of a Latino gang called the Colonia Chiques battling a black gang called the Young Black Mafia.

However, school officials said there was no evidence of gangs.

“There was a specific group of black students and Hispanic students that had had a problem out in the community and unfortunately it spilled onto the campus,” Cisneros said.

Oxnard Police Detective Jim Seitz said there have been no reports of problems from a gang called the Young Black Mafia. Although police saw the initials YBM spray-painted in the area near the school last year, the graffiti have not appeared this year, he said.

Of 300 possible gang members identified citywide under a new police program, about 20 are black, police said. Those 20 have claimed association with a variety of gangs including the Crips, the Bloods and the Young Black Mafia, police said. Most of the rest of the 300 gang members are Latino, police said.

The Oxnard fight “could happen at any school,” said Seitz, the department’s youth services officer who visits each of the district’s high schools daily. “I don’t know what set it off, but I don’t think it’s an ongoing thing. I don’t think there’s any more racial prejudice at that school than at any other school.”

According to district figures, the school is 57% Latino, 29% white, 6% black, 3% Asian-American, 3% Filipino-American and the remainder other minorities.

“There’s always a rivalry going on, between blacks and Hispanics, blacks and whites--you can’t stop that,” said junior J. T. Skidmore. “But the school is controlling things pretty good.”

“The school has taken care of it very well,” said junior Matthew Escalante, president-elect of the Associated Student Body for next school year. “They’re prepared for anything.”

Traylor, Hemphill Sr. and other black parents said they suspected that most of the students expelled are black, but Kirkpatrick said close to half the students expelled so far are Latino.

“We have a discipline code that works for everyone,” Kirkpatrick said. “Color has no place in that. We deal with students who don’t obey the law.”

Kirkpatrick said he had followed all the disciplinary hearings “from beginning to end, and I feel very comfortable with our decisions.”

Over the course of a typical year, 15 to 20 students are expelled from the 11,000-student, six-school district. However, this incident was unusual because of the large number of expulsions stemming from one incident, Kirkpatrick said.

Board member Janet Lindgren said that although incidents at Oxnard High are more highly publicized, “there have been potential problems that have come up at each of our campuses over the years.”

“It would be nice if we could all live peacefully in the world, but unfortunately we don’t,” Lindgren said. “Our campuses do reflect problems of society at large.”