Posted on 05/07/2005 10:36:06 AM PDT by BenLurkin
LANCASTER - The calls started early in the week: Violence was brewing. Mexican students would target African Americans at high schools around the Valley, around Southern California - some said around the country. By Thursday, the unofficial Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, the rumors had become self-perpetuating, and some students added fuel to the fire, calling in threats and passing the word of shootings, stabbings, beatings and other mayhem.
Thursday was another unofficial holiday in the Antelope Valley Union High School District: Senior Ditch Day.
"You know, 05/05/05 for the Class of '05," said Donita Winn, a parent and school board member. "A lot of seniors, I was informed, had opted to take this day off. I didn't know - I had made my daughter, a senior, go to school."
But Tim Azevedo, assistant superintendent of personnel, said attendance was lower than he would have expected for the end-of-high-school rite.
Richie Romero, a vice principal at Antelope Valley High, was more direct: "Our school was a ghost town yesterday."
Attendance was down 40%, or about 1,000 students out of 2,700, at AV High, the only school with data available Friday. Palmdale High reported 75 to 100 students were pulled out of school during the day, about twice as many as normal.
The Associated Press reported that 51,000 students stayed home in the Los Angeles Unified School District, or about 18% of the population.
Some students were genuinely scared to go to school Wednesday because of the rumors. One student was arrested after he was found with a gun on Third Street East and Avenue I near Antelope Valley High School.
"He told deputies he had brought the gun because of all the threats," sheriff's Lt. Wallace Fullerton said.
Sheriff's officials bolstered their presence around high school campuses Wednesday as a result of the rumors, which started early in the week. The sheriff's stations and school district office were flooded with phone calls from concerned parents.
Sheriff's officials say a prank phone call helped feed the rumors in some circles. The man who allegedly placed the call, Norman Mangram, 46, was arrested Wednesday after deputies used caller ID to track him to a Lancaster address.
Mangram allegedly left a voice mail message at 8 a.m. for the parent of a Lancaster High School student saying that the Mexican Mafia was planning to shoot black students at the school. The parent promptly called authorities and kept her child home from school.
When questioned by deputies, Mangram said he had made the call as a joke hoping to have black students kept home from school. Mangram, who is black, disguised his voice using a Spanish accent when he left the message, Fullerton said. His family is acquainted with the woman he called.
Mangram was booked on suspicion of terrorist threats and was being held without bail because he is on parole for assault with a deadly weapon.
"That call definitely added to the hysteria at the time," Fullerton said. "We were getting calls all day long, and the rumors kept getting bigger all the time. Parents really need to take with a grain of salt what their kids are saying."
Fullerton added, "It could be that students were taking advantage of the situation, playing up fears to their parents."
The schools won't lose money from the mass absence, since the average daily attendance that school funding is based on was reported in March, according to Larry Freise, director of enrollment for the high school district.
"Even though this is an event that kept a lot of kids out of school, it won't affect the money we get from the state," he said.
"The only thing we've lost is the education they would have gotten that day, and that's something they can never get back."
Students will not face punishment for missing school if parents call to excuse the absence, Freise added.
"If they really felt a panic, we're not going to penalize them for that," he said. "Unfortunately, sometimes the media makes a big deal out of certain events, and they don't always realize the effect it has on the kids."
Palmdale principal Brent Woodard said Thursday was "probably the calmest day we've had all year" and reminded parents that their children were likely safer on campus.
"We don't just tell kids, 'OK, go home,' " he said. "We're responsible for every child on this campus, and we can't just turn 'em loose."
Nothing against Latinos, but chico de mayo is now on my list of banned holidays b.c my cinco de mayo sucked. Called watching your dreams slipping away despite all that hard work kinda pisses me off.
There have been a series of recent Latin on black race riots recently in a hnadful of L.A. High Schools but I think it is more gang related that race related.
If handled correctly I'm hopeful this will NOT recur next year.
But...but I thought the celebration of diversity is a GOOD thing?
I wonder how much in dollars this represents as losses to the school district?
I went to high school in the Antelope Valley. Every Cinco de Mayo, the same rumor went around. I remember one large brawl in four years. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Many have wondered why the surrender of the first Frenh guy gets all the attention and the surrender of the second gets none. Alas, I have no answer. Some say that all the Mexicans fought over the first Frenchy's unused bar of soap, thereby, making Mexican on Mexican fights part of the tradition. They second Frenchy didn't know about soap and carried none so there was no fight. It is a mystery.
If I heard such a rumor here in Silicon Valley I'd take it as 100% gospel and act accordingly. There is ALWAYS some kind of riot somewhere in Silicon Valley on the fake holiday called Cinco De Mayo.
Yet another hate crime hoax. These really are the rule and not the exception nowadays.
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