Teaching Racial Tolerance to Their Peers : Local Commission Honors Initiative of Six Students Who Addressed Ethnic Issues

If the future belongs to the young, then relations between various ethnic groups in a changing America ultimately will be in the hands of today’s students. Recognizing this, and mindful that even now high schools in Orange County have within their walls the potential for a host of social problems, cultural conflicts and racial hostility, the Orange County Human Relations Commission wisely has recognized the contributions of some students.

At its 24th annual banquet last weekend, the commission honored six youths who in their own ways have led the effort to improve the atmosphere of tolerance in their school communities. For example, E. J. Liao, an immigrant from Taiwan who goes to Marina High School in Huntington Beach, was honored along with classmate Ann Kernan. The two founded the Student Human Relations Committee at their school after concluding that students needed a safe environment in which to sit down and talk about issues that might create misunderstanding if left unaddressed.

At Irvine High, Andrea Zelinko and classmate Ming Hsu received awards for their work in bringing diverse groups of students, parents and teachers together. They had noticed that integration and interracial harmony were affected by the way groups separated at lunchtime, and that this created what Zelinko described as “an atmosphere of intimidation.”

Christina Gonzales of Saddleback High in Santa Ana was honored for volunteer work after the shooting deaths of friends, and Carah Reed, a student at Chapman University in Orange, was honored for work as a conflict mediator and for setting up a mentorship program for black high school students.

Congratulations to these and all the others honored by the commission for doing the important work of helping us all get along.