Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
May 20 2004
Students consider landmark ruling
GUSD history classes debate 50-year-old desegregation ruling on Brown
vs. Board of Education.
By Gary Moskowitz, News-Press
GLENDALE – The city’s public schools are not legally segregated,
but blonde-haired, blue-eyed Katelyn Murphy knows she would probably
take flak from her peers if she dated a boy who is a minority.
In an Advanced Placement American government class discussion on school
segregation Wednesday at Crescenta Valley High School, Katelyn said
students integrate more freely in the classroom than they do out on
the courtyard at lunch.
“I think it’s kind of sad in a way,” said Katelyn, 16. “At CV,
it’s like taboo to hang out with or date someone of a different
background. In class, it’s easier, because we’re all sitting next to
each other. But we should be trying to integrate more.”
This week, high school government classes throughout the Glendale
Unified School District have been discussing the 50-year anniversary
of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case and its role in
the civil rights movement.
The case revolved around Oliver Brown, a black man who tried to enroll
his daughter, Linda, in a white elementary school that was seven blocks
away from their Topeka, Kan., home. The school refused Brown’s request.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that
separate schools are inherently unequal. In 1954, Glendale Unified
was predominantly white, with some “scattered” minority students,
officials said. In 2004, about 40% of the district’s students speak
a primary language other than English.
Edgar Shaghoulian, a Glendale High School senior, was one of many
students who said Wednesday that despite desegregation, students of
various ethnic backgrounds often flock together in social situations
outside of class.
“I think Armenians are the most noticeable, because there is such
a big population here,” said Shaghoulian, 17. “But in high school,
most people just want to fit in, so it’s only natural for students
to stick to what they know. If it’s not forced segregation, I think
it can be a good thing sometimes. But the message forced segregation
sends to society to me is morally a horrible message.”
In the 2002-03 school year, Glendale Unified’s black student
population was about 1% of its 29,000 — or about 320 — students,
officials said. Statistics for the 2003-04 school year were not
available Wednesday.
Many students and teachers in the district said the issue of
segregation and racism is not a “black-and-white” issue in Glendale,
but for Wanda Dorn, it is.
Dorn is the advisor for Glendale High School’s Black Student Union,
which has about 20 members. About half of the club’s members are
black students, but the other half are students from other ethnic
backgrounds, Dorn said.
“In this country it remains a black-and-white issue in many ways,
because there wouldn’t be any civil rights on the books had blacks
not fought and died for them,” Dorn said. “Even though we have been
here longer and fought harder, other groups benefit from it. The black
students are just here, in a way. They don’t have the kind of safety
in numbers that other minority groups have in Glendale.”
Kayla Alexander said she often feels frustrated as a black student
at Glendale High because she doesn’t receive enough guidance or
counseling.
“The African-American students here seem kind of lost, because there
aren’t enough people of authority who support us,” said Kayla, 17. “A
lot of times, we can fall through the cracks because we can’t rely
on other people to guide us toward what we need to succeed. But being
here has been positive for me, overall.
“I never would have been exposed to the Armenian culture if I hadn’t
moved here from Arizona. If we were segregated, people would only
know their own kind and wouldn’t learn about each other.”