Parents Assail ‘Terrorist’ Conditions : Transfers Demanded for Students at Jordan High

Residents of Imperial Courts Housing Project in Watts, some of whom have been keeping their children home for months from Jordan High School because of what they describe as unabated “terrorist” conditions there, went public Friday with a broad attack on the school district.

Contending that gang tensions make it impossible for Imperial Courts children to attend Jordan safely, the parents demanded that the Los Angeles Unified School District arrange for immediate transfer of the students to safe schools and provide the necessary transportation.

The parents also announced that they have filed a formal complaint against the Jordan administrators and the school district with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

In their complaint, the parents said their children “will remain absent from school because there exist life-threatening and dangerous conditions in the classrooms, on the campus and in surrounding neighborhoods.” Gang members from the nearby Jordan Downs housing project have threatened the children’s lives with guns, knives and other weapons “both at school and while traveling to and from the campus,” the complaint said.

It requests an “emergency investigation” of conditions at the high school.

John Palomino, director of the Education Department agency’s regional office in San Francisco, said he received the complaint Friday morning and was evaluating it to see if it falls under his jurisdiction. He declined to make further comment about it.

Parents and school officials gave differing accounts of how many Imperial Courts students are staying out of school. The parents said the majority of the 100 or so students from the project were being kept home, but school officials, without being specific, said the number was much lower.

In response to the parents’ concerns, Assemblywoman Maxine Waters and school board member Warren Furutani met with about 25 Imperial Courts residents Friday afternoon. They were joined by Jordan High Principal Grace Strauther and school district security officers.

Furutani, whose district includes Watts, said he welcomes any investigation of Jordan High because the worst charges leveled by the parents are not true.

‘Good Staff’ Cited

“I would love to have people come in,” Furutani said. “Yes, there are problems, but we also have a good staff and dedicated teachers.”

Furutani also indicated a willingness by the district to arrange for bus transportation between Jordan and Imperial Courts for any students who are fearful of being attacked, and for transfer permits for anyone who would rather leave the school. The school is at 103rd and Alameda streets, about 12 blocks from Imperial Courts.

Waters told the parents at the meeting that she would prefer that they try to work out their problems at Jordan High rather than “running away” from them.

At a press conference called earlier in the day to announce the civil rights complaint, about a dozen parents said that frustration at the lack of response from school officials had led them to seek help last month from an ultraconservative Santa Monica-based group called the American Assn. of Women.

The organization is best known for its opposition to government support of AIDS prevention programs. AAW officers, including Ezola Foster, a former Jordan High teacher and unsuccessful candidate in 1986 for Waters’ Assembly seat, were prominent figures at the Friday morning press conference.

Waters said she suspected that Foster and the AAW were “whipping up” Imperial Courts residents to further the organization’s own political agenda, but the parents defended the group.

Attack by Teacher Alleged

“Before they began helping us,” said parent Gwen Johnson, “nobody else would pay any attention to what we were saying.” Johnson is chairwoman of what she described as a 40-member AAW advisory group of Imperial Courts residents.

Johnson said Jordan High administrators and school district officials ignored their complaints and failed to report to police and other authorities incidents of violence, including a rape and a stabbing on the campus last year. In one case, they said, a student was attacked by a teacher.

A meeting arranged by the AAW last week between parents and Jordan administrators lasted three minutes, Johnson said, because Principal Strauther objected to the meeting being taped.

“We’re so afraid for our kids,” said Johnson, who has kept her 15-year-old son, Abdul Gaston, home from Jordan since Jan. 3. “They are getting terrorized by kids who are pulling guns inside the class and outside the class.”

The problems with Jordan Downs students began the first day of school in September and have not let up, Johnson said.

“The Jordan Downs kids don’t want the Imperial Courts kids going to Jordan, it’s as simple as that,” she said. “I don’t want my son killed up there. His life has been threatened.”

Attack Confirmed

She said her concern that school employees were also part of the violence problem was confirmed last fall when a teacher physically attacked her son after the youth accidentally knocked over a trash can outside a classroom. The youth said the teacher threw him against a wall and dug fingernails into his neck.

(Strauther confirmed Friday that the incident occurred but disputed Johnson’s contention that the mother had not been notified of it immediately. Strauther said the teacher, whom she did not name, no longer works at Jordan. She would not say whether his leaving had anything to do with the attack. The incident was isolated and not a norm at the school, she said.)

Johnson said that when she tried to get her son bused to school, she was told by administrators that it was too late in the school year. When she saw a boy with a gun on the school grounds and asked if her son could be transferred, she said, she was told he could not.

Similar complaints were made at the news conference by at least half a dozen parents or other relatives of students, some of whom said they had not sent their children to school since a week after classes began in September.

Lillie Stevenson said she had kept her grandson, Henry Davis, 14, home since November because he repeatedly had to “fight his way out of school.”

Stevenson said that all of her attempts to get a home tutor for her grandson have failed because tutors won’t come into the housing project.

Detailed crime statistics for Jordan High School were not immediately available Friday. But district officials insisted that, while the campus has its share of problems, it is basically safe.

“Categorically, I deny that there is a serious safety issue at Jordan High School,” said Associate Supt. Sidney Thompson. “We don’t believe there is any chaotic environment at that school.”

Herbert Graham, an administrator who oversees the school district police force, said there were 20 arrests last school year at Jordan for various crimes, about half of them assaults. There have been nine arrests so far this year. “If you compare it to other schools of the same size and locale, it’s no different,” he said. “If you compare it to the surrounding community, you’ll find the campus is extremely safe.”

Like most inner-city schools, Jordan has two full-time, plainclothes police officers. It also employs six unsworn campus security aides.

Officials said they will investigate and review the parents’ complaints. But Graham said there is no evidence that crime on the 1,900-student campus is under-reported.

While it is relatively common in Los Angeles for parents to keep children home for a few days after a shooting or gang fight, school district officials said Friday that they could not recall a previous situation in which an organized group of parents had refused to send students to school out of fear for their safety.

School Officials Criticized

But the questions raised Friday by the Imperial Courts parents were by no means the first dealing with the safety of Los Angeles schools and whether the district is meeting its obligation to protect students.

Three months ago, the Little Hoover Commission, the state’s government watchdog panel, criticized Los Angeles school officials for not fully reporting campus crime. The commission contended that the district “only includes incidents in its reports that lead to involvement by law enforcement agencies. Actions that result in suspensions or expulsions, even though they may fit a category in the (state’s school crime) report are not included if the school itself handles the incident.”

The district disputed the charges and insisted that it reports all incidents required by the state.