Crash Course in Violence
Latest arrest underscores unanswered questions in two high school killings
Two high school killings in the past year have rocked Los Angeles, where race, poverty, and violence often form an alarming alliance with the gangs infesting many campuses. The police investigations are nearing an end, but the wounds opened by these gang-related (and, in one case, possibly race-related) acts, remain. They are wounds that some argue the communities ignore at their own peril.
Two weeks ago the third, and police believe final, suspect in the killing of Venice High School student Augustine Contreras, 17, was arrested. Contreras was gunned down as he leapt to protect his younger brother, Alejo, from thieves trying to steal his jewelry in the school parking lot on June 6, 2006. Remone Smith, 18, was arraigned on September 6 and joined Cymone Turner, 22, and Wayman Thompson, 17, in custody. All three are charged with murder and attempted robbery. Alejo and his brother, both students at the school and Latino, were not believed to be gang members; the three suspects are black and allegedly affiliated with gangs.
In South L.A., the young man suspected of stabbing to death Alex Contreras-Rodriguez, 17, as school let out at Washington Preparatory High School on March 23, 2007, has been in jail since the day after the killing. Jesse McDonald, 17, has been charged with murder. No date has been set for his preliminary hearing.
The stabbing occurred during a fight at school. At some point a third student joined the fight, and McDonald pulled a knife and fatally stabbed Contreras-Rodriguez, said Cynthia Barnes, the deputy D.A. handling the case. McDonald and Contreras-Rodriguez, both Latinos, are believed to have been involved in gangs; prosecutors will allege that McDonald was a gang member.
When these two campus killings highlighted the safety concerns that many schools face, especially those in poorer, more violent areas, changes soon began, provoked by an outcry from parents and city officials.
After the Venice High School shooting, the school received $41,000 to hire Latino and black members from Venice 2000, a gang-intervention organization, to provide "safe passage" for students coming to and from the school in the mornings and afternoons. But the money ran out this semester, said Stan Muhammad, executive director of Venice 2000. He noted that a possibly gang-related melee outside a Taco Bell near the school last Friday could have been avoided by intervention specialists.
Venice High Principal Jan Davis said they did a good job, calling them "extra eyes at dismissal and before school." Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Venice High School, says finding money for the program remains a priority.
Over at Washington Prep, Assistant Principal John Ausbon said that the school is "fully recovered," and that initiatives involving school police, gang units, and the Sheriff's Department are in place to discourage trouble, though he noted that they still have problems with gangs.
"We are taking it one step at a time," he said. "We have a school collaborative that meets regularly, on a monthly basis, to discuss issues of safety."
With both murders believed to be gang-related, and one of them occurring along racial lines, many community activists have tried to address the problem of violence in schools, especially the often related, explosive issue of race. However, with the LAPD denying that race played a factor in the Venice High School incident, some activists believe opportunities are being missed to address a growing problem.
"People can say it's not race-related, but anytime that you have black and Latino youth shooting and killing each other, how is it not race-related?" asked Oscar de la Torre of the Pico Youth and Family Center. "There has been a pretty long history of racial violence in West Los Angeles, and it's been like a silent killer of our youth - nobody really talks about it."
Other community activists concur with de la Torre, arguing that ignoring these crimes does a disservice to the community.
"I disagree with people trying to push this potentially explosive issue under the carpet," said Najee Ali, founder of the civil rights organization Project Islamic H.O.P.E. "Until we have the courage and conviction as a society to force our political leaders to have the will [to confront the issue], we're going to continue to see an upsurge in race-related murders."
While school officials and police have been quick to say that these and similar incidents are random occurrences of students being in the wrong place at the wrong time, de la Torre urges the community to deal with the root causes of the violence.
"If you're black and Latino in a low-income neighborhood, you're in the wrong place all the time," he said. "The problems of the community spill over into the school, and vice-versa ... . If you have racial or gang conflict in the community, it's unavoidable that the school's going to be impacted by it. People need to realize you can't have strong schools and weak communities."
Published: 09/13/2007
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