Trying to Get Over a Wall

South Gate High School is severely overcrowded. One mile away in Watts, Jordan High School has 600 vacant seats. In theory, the simple answer is to change the boundary to send some South Gate students to Jordan. In reality, that is also the right answer. But the problem is far more complicated and fraught with historic animosities. As the Los Angeles Board of Education acts today to change that boundary, as it must do, it should do so with every consideration for the feelings of the students at both schools.

Alameda Street has long been a virtual wall between the two communities. Twenty-two years ago Mary Ellen Crawford wanted to attend school in South Gate. She was black; South Gate was all white. Her parents filed the suit that led to the court finding that the Los Angeles Unified School District was segregated. Now South Gate High School is 95% Latino; Jordan is mostly black, but has a substantial Latino population as well.

Built for 1,800 students, South Gate now has 3,000 students. The school is on a year-round schedule, with only two-thirds of its students on campus at any one time. They receive only 163 days of instruction because of the way their schedules must be staggered, while students on the regular calendar get 180. Another 300 students from South Gate are bused every day to the San Fernando Valley. There are plans for a new high school in the southeast area as well as new classrooms, but it will be at least three years before much relief comes. The school district is hard pressed to get money from the state for the new school facilities, with empty desks only blocks away.

Under the proposal, eighth-graders living in the area between Alameda Street and Long Beach Boulevard would go to Jordan, as would any students who move into the area. The proposal has caused a community uproar, because Jordan has a reputation as a violent school. Aware of that, the school district has recently replaced the administration at Jordan. It brought in as vice principal a Latino educator who formerly was at South Gate Junior High School. Larry Gonzalez, the board member sponsoring the change, points out that Jordan has a lower rate of reported vandalism, assaults or robberies than South Gate has, and that 125 South Gate students voluntarily attend Jordan already.

Gonzalez has demonstrated both foresight and fortitude by tackling an unpopular issue head on. He deserves the support of all board members to strengthen the community’s will to make the shift work.