harrison-51
The movie "Walkout" tells only a view that looks positively on the accomplishments of Mexican-American student organizers and one Mexican-American teacher who helped orchestrate it. I will tell you another view noticed during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s, as a student and Math Teacher in L.A.In 1968, Mexican and Black gang student hoodlums lead a group of mostly 200 Mexican students to walk out of Berendo Jr High while the Principal, Vice-Principal, Counselors, and other school administrators blocked the front doors with their bodies. Only 1/3 of the students participated in this walkout. Asians and Anglo students didn't take part. The same at Belmont High from 1970 to 1973.I remember that students were hit with a ruler across the palm of their hand in the early 1960s at 10th St Elementary, and being swatted in the butt (shorts were pulled down) by PE coaches at Berendo Jr High in 1967 and 1968, but students were not punished for speaking Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, or Spanish at 10th St Elementary, Berendo Jr High and Belmont High from the years that I was a student there from 1960 to 1973. These public schools are all located in downtown L.A.Restrooms were always open at 10th St Elementary, Berendo Jr High, and Belmont High. At Berendo Jr High, Mexican gang students and a few Black gang students hanged out at the boy's restroom smoking and bothering others who needed to use the restroom, with school administrators not doing anything about it.Fighting was nearly a daily occurrence at Berendo Jr High from 1967 to 1969 between individuals, Mexican gangs, and/or Mexican and Black gangs. Individual students fought with their fist. Mexicans gangs fought with their fist and sticks. When the Mexican gangs (Clanton, 18th St) fought with the Black gangs, Mexicans came with fist and sticks, but the Black gangs pulled out guns, rifles, and machine-guns out of trunks of cars parked nearby. Its TRUE! Fights between Mexican gangs (18th St, Clanton) involved about 500 students between the ages of 12 yrs to 16 yrs old, and it looked like just a huge cloud of dust with small views through the dust of student's fist hitting another student, and sticks flying in the air! The cloud of student's fighting would slowly move across the street causing a traffic jam. This fight that I described occurred at the corner of Vermont and Pico! That was my school, Berendo Jr High!Fighting was not common at Belmont High from 1970 to 1973, but when it occurred, it was mostly between either the Mexican 18th St and a group of Filipinos, or individual fights between a Mexican and a Black. Other Asians races and Anglos didn't get into a situation of fighting at Belmont High.In the 1990s, I was a Math Teacher at Fremont High, which is near the corner of San Pedro and Florence. "NR" standing for "No Respecto" was the slogan carved on the walls and desks at Fremont High. During nutrition time and lunch time, buildings were "locked" down, meaning no students were allowed in the buildings. School clubs were not offered during lunch time (opposite of what it was at Belmont High during the early 1970s) because the students could not be trusted to walk in the hallways. Fremont High is 75% Mexican and 25% Blacks. Yet the real leaders in my math classes were the Black students, who bullied and yelled at the Mexican students to keep quiet. In each math class, about 60% of the students received "F"s with 1 or 2 students getting "A"s, and these "A"s were mostly Blacks, and most of these Blacks were school athletes in football or basketball. Rarely did a Mexican student get an "A". Walkouts occurred yearly while I was there. Having a yearly "Walk-out" seems to be a non-spoken school tradition at LAUSD for the Mexican students. When Central-American students didn't walkout with the Mexican students, they were questioned by fellow Mexican students on loyalty to "La Raza" pride. What irritated me most was for Mexican students to pulled down the American flag during class time and put up the Mexican flag or march the Mexican flag and wave it proudly in class!In 1970, Belmont High had a variety of clubs and students. Students were made up of about 35% Latinos (Mostly Mexicans, some Central Americans), 20% Blacks, 10% Anglos, 35% Asians (Mostly Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and some Koreans, Thais, and Malaysians) and about 5 American Indians. Students would freely walk the hallways talking or going to their clubs, as Pre-Med, 10th grade - 11th grade - 12th grade honors club, Spanish club, French club, Chinese club, Pan-American club, and Chess club.Today, 2006, LAUSD is worser than it was in the 1960s. Today the drop-out rate hovers between 47-52%, and graduates have about an 8th grade education and 4th grade ability in math. Educationally, the situation for Mexicans is worser than it was compared during the 1960s! Restrooms are open (and most were open in the early 1960s) but are extremely filthy. Going into the boy's restroom is like having a nightmare. Who would want to go to a restroom that has graffiti on the ceiling, walls, and corners (spider-web graffiti), and having polished aluminum sheets as mirrors, because once a glass mirror is installed, it would always be hit and destroyed. Also, L.A. school officials let Mexican walkout student organizers use their L.A. school buses to attend walkout rallies for the cause of Mexican illegals working in the U.S. and wave Mexican flags at the rally. Today, school officials don't control the schools, the students do.The "walkouts' have had only one cause through the decades, to advance Mexican educational or political interests but not other racial (Blacks, American Indian, Asian) concerns. I noticed Black students didn't respect Edward Olmos because his cause was for Mexicans, not for Black-Americans!
