Promoting tolerance on campus

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Edison High School students hosted a candlelight

vigil in the Edison Bowl on Wednesday as a means of promoting tolerance.

The vigil was a push toward a better understanding of getting along as

a way to avoid hate crimes and discrimination on high school campuses,

Vice Principal John Elliott said.

“It’s an overall general view that we need to be a little more

tolerant of one another,” he said.

The event was spearheaded by the Edison Cultural Diversity Group and

included speakers and live music by the students. Students dedicated the

vigil to all the victims of the violent school tragedies.

“After the shooting [at Santana High School], it really caught our

eyes because it was closer to our area,” said Edison student Annie Yea,

who is also the student representative for the district.

School officials around the Huntington Beach Union High School

District hope that events such as this as well as heightened security

will prevent any outbursts of violence at local schools.

“We ask everybody in the office to be out and about all the time,”

Elliott said.

Since the fall, each school has had a school resource officer.

Lock-down drills, such as the one at Marina High School on Tuesday, have

also been practiced.

“To us it’s sad that it’s gotten to the point, but I feel safer

because of what’s been going on,” Yea said.At the beginning of the school

year, several schools had a lock-down practice, district trustee Susan

Henry said.

At Fountain Valley High School, police conducted practice drills

during the summer.

Dances have also had heightened security. For years, purses have been

searched, and doors have been locked at a certain time on some campuses.

At the recent districtwide dance at Knott’s Berry Farm, students were

checked with a metal detector.

“A couple weeks after the shooting we were careful and alert of what

people said,” Yea said. “We need to continue doing that because you never

know when it could happen.”