2 Schools to Join Anti-Bias Program

To ease racial tension, school officials in Inglewood have enlisted the help of the U.S. Department of Justice to start a conflict-resolution program.

The program, called Student Problem Identifying and Resolving It Together, or SPIRIT, will begin this fall at Inglewood and Morningside high schools. It is aimed at getting students to talk about problems before they resort to violence.

District officials say community leaders, including local police, leaders of youth groups and clergy, will learn a six-step method for solving problems.

Those leaders work with school administrators and student representatives from the ethnic groups on campus to determine problems and solve them, Supt. McKinley Nash said.

The students are initially separated by ethnic group to allow them to freely discuss problems, racial and other. Once the problems are identified, all the groups meet to discuss their findings, said Stephen N. Thom, a Justice Department meditator.

“Many students find the racial divide ends, and that they share common problems,” Thom said.

How those problems are solved is left up to administrators and students at each school. Some options include a peer mediation team and a student advisory panel that meets with district and community leaders throughout the semester, Thom said.

More than 50 Western schools participate in the program. Leuzinger High School in Hawthorne took part in a similar Justice Department program last year after a number of fights between Latinos and blacks.