League Revamping Plan Criticized for Racial Overtones

It was doodled on a scrap of paper at a kitchen table after a late-night meeting and has become a difficult issue with racial overtones that has polarized 21 high schools.

The proposed releaguing of athletic teams at Southeast Los Angeles County’s public high schools has drawn criticism from an alliance of black, white and Latino administrators who fear it will isolate minority schools.

The releaguing plan, which would take place in the fall of 1988, was passed by a one-vote margin in February by the 21 high school principals who make up the San Gabriel Valley division of the CIF Southern Section. It breaks the current Whitmont, San Gabriel Valley and Suburban leagues into four new groupings. The plan has antagonized some people because of its racial mixture.

The Paramount Unified School District was the first public agency to vote to appeal the proposal to the Southern Section CIF, saying Paramount was being “segregated.”

Other school boards are discussing similar action. Larry Tripplett, principal of Lynwood High School, which is predominantly black, said: “ . . . race is the underlying problem with this proposal.”

Scheduling Problems Foreseen

The proposal has been criticized for other reasons. There have been complaints that the method by which the proposal was brought to a vote was improper, if not illegal. Coaches also have complained that there will be severe scheduling problems, because three of the four new leagues would have five teams each, and two schools have accused another district of trying to withhold a survey that allegedly supports keeping the league lineups unchanged.

Supporters say the releaguing plan means a better level of competition and more teams reaching post-season play. That could translate into additional revenue for the schools.

But it is the racial conflict that threatens to turn school board rooms into arenas.

The racial agenda was highlighted at a Paramount district board meeting by Bill Carpenter, a white member of the school board. Carpenter complained that his racially mixed school would play in a league that is “8% Caucasian, 88% black/brown.”

“It’s not fair to our kids or to the community,” he said. “We’ve worked to improve Paramount High’s reputation. Now they’re putting us right back with them. The four schools taken out (of our league) were white schools.”

He said that under the releaguing plan it is as if the teams in the “new” San Gabriel Valley League are saying: “Us white boys are going to play together.”

Tripplett agrees with Carpenter on the central issue. “Its obvious to me,” he said. I’ve been here two years. I read about (racism) before I came here. Now I’m seeing it.”

Counters Whittier’s Michelle Lawrence, chairman of the releaguing committee: “That’s a crock. I am a Mexican. The majority of the schools in the San Gabriel Valley area are minority.”

This is the first major attempt at releaguing the area in a decade.

“Whenever there is change, there is necessary trauma,” said Principal Mara Clisby of Gahr High School in Cerritos, who voted for the proposal. “This is only for two years. At the end of two years we can make some adjustments. At least we have broken out and talked about doing something. The way it was, we were locked in and none of the schools were going to get out of the old configuration.”

A ‘Cozy’ Argument

Principal Frances M. Riley of Bell Gardens High School, an opponent, calls that argument “cozy.”

“Only two years and change?” Riley said. “Now that they have the lions locked up in the cage they’re not going to let them out.”

Placed in a “cage,” according to Riley, are the predominantly Latino schools of Paramount, El Rancho and Bell Gardens with the largely black schools of Lynwood and Dominguez. They would form a new league.

Other changes have Montebello High remaining in the Whitmont League with five schools from the Whittier Union High School District, which has a majority of Latino and white students.

Artesia High would leave the Suburban League and join Downey, Warren, Gahr and Cerritos in the San Gabriel Valley League. According to a study used by the Paramount board in its appeal, whites are the largest ethnic group in those schools.

La Mirada, John Glenn, Bellflower, Mayfair and Norwalk would remain in the Suburban League.

“I don’t think the releaguing committee took into account one important factor--ethnic breakdown,” Paramount Supt. Dr. Richard Caldwell said. “I don’t think they realized, in essence, that they segregated some schools.”

Late-Night Scribbling

Ironically, the plan was initiated by Paramount Principal Douglas Rozelle at the Feb. 20 meeting of the releaguing committee.

The night before he had been an observer at a meeting of the South Bay releaguing committee, where several five-team alignments had been discussed. When he returned home, Rozelle sat down at his kitchen table and devised a plan on a scrap of paper.

“It was late. I kind of scribbled out what it would be like in our area,” he said.

Coaches say his scribbling has given them a dilemma. Scheduling football games, for example, in a five-team league is difficult because at mid-season the greater number of even-team leagues have begun to play each other. A five-team league would need to pick up a sixth preseason game, but would have few opponents to choose from.

Besides issue raised by the coaches, the timing of Rozelle’s initiative and the way it was handled by Lawrence has chaffed others. Minority opponents of the plan charge that the chairperson violated her own letter, which set the agenda for the releaguing meeting.

‘No Additional Proposals’

In that Feb. 3 letter to the principals, Lawrence wrote: “Any proposal to be considered Feb. 20 must be in my office by the close of school on Feb. 11 . . . No additional proposals will be considered after Wednesday, Feb. 11, nor accepted from the floor on the 20th.”

The words “no additional” were underlined. Nevertheless, Rozelle’s proposal was heard at the Feb. 20 meeting.

“I don’t like the fact that the original vote was taken to stay status quo and then they pulled this hocus-pocus and came up with more proposals,” said Lynwood’s Tripplett. “We made an agreement before and all of a sudden they changed the rules.”

Opponents also point to an informal survey conducted by Whittier Athletic Director Rich Boline that appears to show a competitive balance among Whitmont League schools. They charge that the Whittier schools hid the survey so they could argue to the contrary. Whittier Union officials say they never conducted a survey. Boline said he undertook the project on his own and that it is “not real accurate.”

Riley of Bell Gardens sees a conspiracy: “They had a game plan. They lumped us together. They planned this thing in advance. It wasn’t just the Whittier schools, either.”

Opponents say the letter served as an agenda for the meeting, and, as a public body functioning under California’s Brown Act, could not be changed to include additional items. Lawrence disputes that.

Vote Was ‘Overwhelming’

“The committee as a body agreed to change the rules through parliamentary procedure,” said Lawrence, who added that the vote to do so was “overwhelming, at least 2 to 1.”

Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas said the change was “appropriately done.”

“This proposal was not something someone tried to ram through,” he said.

Thomas said he is sure the releaguing issue will be reviewed May 20 by a Southern Section appeals committee.

He said it would be improper for the appeals committee to reverse the decision if the opponents based their arguments on ethnic criteria or alleged segregation.

“It may be that the releaguing committee will send the proposal back to the principals . . . It may be that it could be sent back for further review. That might be an appropriate thing for our review committee to say.”

Times staff writer Beth Uyehara contributed to this story. THE RELEAGUING PROPOSAL Current Leagues: SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Cerritos

* Dominguez

Downey

Gahr

* Lynwood

* Paramount

Warren SUBURBAN

* Artesia

Bellflower

John Glenn

La Mirada

Mayfair

Norwalk WHITMONT

* Bell Gardens

California

* El Rancho

La Serna

Montebello

Pioneer

Santa Fe

Whittier

Proposed Leagues: SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Artesia

Cerritos

Downey

Gahr

Warren SUBURBAN

Bellflower

John Glenn

La Mirada

Mayfair

Norwalk WHITMONT

California

La Serna

Montebello

Pioneer

Santa Fe

Whittier NEW LEAGUE

Bell Gardens

Dominguez

El Rancho

Lynwood

Paramount

Revised leagues would begin play in the fall of 1988.

Italics and asterisk (*) indicate teams that would move to another league.