Inyo County Sheriff

LAKE ELSINORE — In the 10 days since a campus melee and fights erupted at Temescal Canyon High School, the racial and ethnic divides separating many students have grown even wider, more than a dozen students said last week.

Several parents say that the racial tensions and the fights have them very concerned that even greater violence may lie ahead.

On May 12, two fights broke out between Latino and white students in the lunch area and hundreds of students then were caught up in a melee, with many throwing bottles, cans and food at one another. Twelve sheriff’s deputies and school officials dispersed the crowd.

The following day — even with 18 deputies patrolling campus — two more fights broke out, as racial slurs flew between Latino and white students. As a result of the two days of fighting, 18 students have been suspended and eight of them are facing expulsion. No one was arrested on either of the two days, but sheriff’s officials said they would be asking the district attorney’s office to file battery charges against three boys and possibly against two girls.

Although no additional fights were reported in the ensuing days, many students said last week that they and others are avoiding contact with classmates of different ethnic groups. Some Latino and white students say they have even stopped speaking with longtime friends whose skin is a different color than their own, and many said they have no hope that things will improve.

“I have friends that are white and Mexican, but I had to take a side,” said Jessica Martinez, 17, “If I would have went and talked to white people, Latino students would have thought I was betraying them.”

Another student, Carlos Garcia, described a similar situation.

“I have friends who are white (at school), but after all this, I don’t even talk to them anymore,” he said.

The polarization of students also was apparent in comments by some white students.

Ryan Canada, 16, was hanging out with a group of other white students during the first of two lunch periods last week. Canada sports close-cropped hair and on Wednesday was wearing a T-shirt with a logo based on the German Iron Cross emblazoned on the front. He said that since the fights, more white students are changing their dress habits as an expression of solidarity with other white students.

“A lot of people are starting to wear (T-shirts with) Iron Crosses and shave their heads,” he said. First used as a military decoration in Prussia in the early 1800s, Adolf Hitler restored the award in 1939. Some Latino students say they associate the Iron Cross with white-power groups on campus.

Canada’s friend Nathan Hudson, 17, was also wearing a T-shirt with an Iron Cross logo. He agreed that more students — Latinos and whites — are gravitating toward groups of their own race or ethnicity.

“There’s a lot more whites by themselves and Hispanics by themselves,” he said.

But wearing Iron Crosses doesn’t mean that he and others are racist, Hudson said.

“Some people may take it like I’m trying to start something, but I’m not,” he said, adding that he’s not concerned with the way others may interpret the use of such symbols.

“To me, I don’t see it as racist,” he said, adding that it’s just a fashion.

Parents worried

A series of interviews with parents last week, showed just how concerned they are for their children’s safety.

Wildomar resident Alice Underdown was waiting Thursday to pick up her daughter in front of the school’s gate.

“I’m worried about my daughter coming out of class and getting shot,” she said.

Another parent expressed similar fears.

“I’m worried it’s going to escalate into knives and guns,” said Horsethief Canyon resident Laurieanne Zandbergen.

Although many parents have called the school district reporting rumors that students may be bringing weapons to school, Lake Elsinore Unified School District Superintendent Sharron Lindsay said Friday that sheriff’s officials have not confiscated a single weapon on campus since the fights began.

Lake Elsinore resident Nita Balajadi has three children who are Temescal Canyon students.

“My daughter doesn’t want to come to school because of the racial thing that’s going on,” she said.

Like many high schools in Southern California, many Temescal Canyon students hang out with classmates of the same race or ethnicity. At lunchtime on any given day, one will see pockets of Latino students here and white or black students there. And experts say there is nothing unusual nor ominous about that behavior.

Deeper divisions

However, at Temescal Canyon High School and Elsinore High School, the racial and ethnic divisions have been deeper than that for years, students say. Racial slurs have long been commonplace, many of them say.

Last September, racial conflict erupted at Elsinore High School when a group of white students carried an American flag onto campus on a pole with inscriptions of swastikas and marki