On August 8, 2024, the Culver City Unified School District and the LA County Commission on Human Relations held a joint press conference to address recent racial and homophobic hate crime at El Marino Language School. The broken windows and spray-painted slurs under investigation by the Culver City Police Department have already seen two suspects – both minors – arrested and released to their parents. But the rest of the community is taking responsibility as well, and the afternoon press conference drew a powerful group of speakers together under the leadership of Culver City School Board member Triston Ezidore.
“This is what community looks like, this is what organizing looks like. We are all here today to say one clear message – hate has no place in our schools. We are all in alignment, that we need to take on the big things, and we are all here to do that together.” Ezidore went on to introduce Robin Toma, Executive Director LA County Commission on Human Relations.
Toma offered that “This special school was subjected to something ugly, and turning something ugly like this into something beautiful like this [gathering] …is powerful. This is not an isolated incident. We know because we collect all the hate crime reports in Los Angeles County, and we read them. With the support of our LA County Board of Supervisors, [you] can not only report a hate crime, but can get help, 24/7. We are in a period of culture change, and we are calling upon all of us, all of LA County, where we need everyone to step up and take part.”
Toma then introduced Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who touched on the importance of intersectionality, “All of us are more than one thing…Hate is a learned behavior; children are not born racist. Learning does not start when you enter the school system, and we all have to confront and acknowledge white supremacist ideology. We have to call it out and name it, every chance we get. We all have a role to play, to call it out, and to create safe spaces …where we can unlearn that behavior and replace it with better knowledge. It’s a learned behavior that must be unlearned.”
Mitchell handed the podium off to California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, who noted “We support our students, and we think that schools are an important part of the [teaching] of acceptance and support. We are all impacted by hate, and we all need to have those courageous conversations.”
Also addressing the crowd were Culver City Council member Freddy Puza, El Marino parent Nancy Barba,Paul Kim, a Hate Crimes Prosecutor, representing the LADA’s Office, and Benicio Mora-Fattorini, a CCUSD Student who is both a member of the Culver City Equity and Human Relations Advisory Committee and CCUSD Student Board Member at Large.
You can report a hate crime in Los Angeles County by calling 211.
Judith Martin-Straw
