Defense Top Priority for Dorsey Game : Athletics: School plays at home tonight for first time since rival Banning forfeited due to fears of gang violence. Strict security will be in force.

Dorsey High School will try to put the past behind it starting tonight, when it plays its first home game since rival football powerhouse Banning High School refused to play at Dorsey Nov. 1, citing fears of gang violence in the Southwest Los Angeles neighborhood.

School officials have implemented an assortment of security measures at Jackie Robinson Stadium to ensure that its first-round playoff game with Westchester High School unfolds without incident.

As many as 30 uniformed city and school district police officers will be on duty in and around the stadium, and students attending the game will be searched for weapons.

“Safety is our top priority,” said Dorsey Principal Jerelene D. Wells. “And there are always concerns after the kind of negative publicity we have had. . . . We want to make sure it is not a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

But three weeks after the Banning forfeit, people at Dorsey--administrators, teachers, students and parents--are still smarting from what they regard as a smear on their community.

“It’s ridiculous for anyone to think that our administrators or security would allow anything to happen to their children,” said Ava Shah, whose son plays for Dorsey. “Violence is not a Dorsey problem, it’s a city problem that stretches from the desert to the sea.”

Shah and others contend that the underlying problem in the dispute with Banning has less to do with the safety of the neighborhood than with the bitterness that has permeated the rivalry between the two schools.

Both sides are still angry from the 1990 football game, which Banning won on a disputed referee’s call in the final minutes, and which was followed by a melee.

School district athletic officials reprimanded the Dorsey team and suspended four players, but Banning’s coaches and parents felt the punishment should have been more severe. As far back as January, Banning parents were asking that the game be switched to a neutral site, but school district officials decided that was unnecessary.

District officials made several attempts to get representatives from both schools together to talk and try to ease tensions, but with little results. At one point, administrators from the two schools arranged a meeting in October, but Banning officials backed out because of a scheduling conflict.

Then came the shootings. Three students were wounded in two separate shootings near Dorsey--including one during an afternoon game against Crenshaw High School.

To a group of Banning parents, the incidents confirmed their fears that the Dorsey neighborhood was unsafe. And no assurances of adequate security from school district officials, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and others would sway them.

Officials at Dorsey said they were further irked that they did not learn of Banning’s decision to forfeit the game until after it was announced in the media.

“That’s not the kind of environment that helps resolve a problem,” said Richard L. Browning, assistant superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The school district has placed Banning on probation for the 1992 season. If the school does not agree to play its 1992 contest with Dorsey at Dorsey’s home field, it will be barred from the city championship playoffs. Banning officials say they will appeal.

In the meantime, the school district has set in motion a series of meetings aimed at ironing out any differences between the two schools. Officials say there is some urgency because Dorsey and Banning could face each other again this season--at a neutral site--if both teams make it to the finals in the city playoffs.

Besides, added Browning, “These teams don’t just play each other in football. . . . They compete in a whole range of sports--track, basketball and baseball.”

Administrators at Dorsey and Banning have already met twice, and on Monday, parents and community representatives from both schools will meet at Dorsey. Eventually, students will be brought into the gatherings.

But the rift still appears wide, judging from the comments of people at the two schools.

“The decision (to forfeit) was not up to me--it was up to the players and their parents,” said Joe Dominguez, Banning’s head coach. “But if I had my way, we would play the game elsewhere. We should pick a spot that both sides will be happy with. And then in a year or two or three, if there is no major incident, we could come back.”

Dominguez said he was disturbed that the district in issuing a penalty took into account the money Dorsey lost on the forfeited game. “It seems like the dollar is more important that the safety of our kids,” he said.

Christine Padilla, whose son Robert, 17, is a linebacker for Banning, agreed.

“We aren’t trying to say anything bad about their community,” she said. “We just want a neutral site because our concern is safety.”

Dorsey supporters say that Banning, which has its own gang problems, is simply trying to discredit a team which has emerged in recent years as a formidable football power, breaking into the elite ranks that Banning and Carson high schools have dominated in recent years.

Some even say the conflict has racial overtones. The majority of students at Banning are Latino, while Dorsey’s student body is predominantly African-American.

But while Banning has been reluctant to travel to Dorsey’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, the coach at Westchester High School sees the game as a great opportunity.

“We are planning one of the great upsets,” said Larry Wein, whose Westchester Comets are regarded as underdogs against the Dorsey Dons.

With all the added security, Wein added, “That game will probably be one of the safest places in town.”