CAMPUS HATE CRIMES ON RISE COUNTYWIDE.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Hate crimes in schools in Los Angeles County increased last year despite an overall drop in such offenses, the county Human Relations Commission reported Tuesday.

With concern heightened by the recent Colorado school massacre, authorities warned that hate crimes often go unreported and that much more needs to be done to make students more aware and respectful of each other.

``The sharp increase in race hate crimes in our schools at a time when hate crimes generally are decreasing is an indicator of the need for everyone to focus on our youth and their attitudes toward students of other races and ethnicities,'' said Ron Wakabayashi, the commission's chairman. ``I wish that we had one bullet that could take care of all of these things, but it's far more difficult than that.''

Taking the county's hate crime temperature, the commission's annual report showed 769 hate crimes reported in 1998 compared with 820 in 1997, a 6.2 percent decline.

Hate crimes at schools, however, increased from 40 to 46 - a 15 percent increase - over the same period. The number of crimes motivated by race increased more alarmingly, from 19 to 29, a 53 percent increase.

In all categories, the three leading hate crime offenses were assault and battery, criminal threats and vandalism, and the victims primarily were African-Americans, gay men and Latinos.

District Attorney Gil Garcetti said juveniles are responsible for more than 50 percent of all county hate crimes, and that his office is responding with an intervention program in the Antelope Valley schools that will receive $150,000 in federal funding and could be expanded.

``It gives us an opportunity not just to prosecute kids, but to turn kids around,'' he said.

Garcetti noted that the two teens who shot to death 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., are a glaring example that hate crimes can happen in schools anywhere.

But he contended that hate crimes on campus have to be reported for law enforcement to help battle the problem.

``We want to see those rates continue to come down. But our fear is there are a tremendous number of hate crimes that go on at schools that are unreported,'' Garcetti said.

California schools are not required to report hate crimes on annual crime forms the state has mandated the past three years, officials said.

The Los Angeles Unified School District and some other districts have adopted formal policies for reporting crimes to law enforcement agencies and dealing with less serious incidents within the campus community.

Even the 4-year-old LAUSD policy, however, has been slow to take hold, district officials said.

``While this policy is being enforced, there's a need for greater awareness of the policy and the need for reporting,'' said Dan Isaacs, LAUSD assistant superintendent for school operations. ``There's a need to enhance sensitivity to address hate incidents.''

Isaacs said the district's Office of Intergroup Relations has been training every principal and at least a lead teacher at every campus in the hate crime policy. ``And I think as this filters through the system, we will see a greater number of hate crimes reported.''

Under the district's policy, examples of hate-motivated incidents that would be handled on campus include acts or expressions of hostility because of the victim's real or perceived race, religion, disability, gender, nationality or sexual orientation. Acts include insults, taunts or slurs, and distributing or posting hate group literature or posters.

Hate-motivated crimes that must be reported to police are defined in the state penal code and include threatening phone calls, hate mail, physical assault, vandalism, cross burnings and other destruction of religious symbols.

The district's Office of Intergroup Relations was established five years ago to help prevent hate crimes, and one approach has been developing classroom programs to deal with potential bias, hatred or prejudice.

The newest efforts include requiring ninth-graders to complete a semester-long course beginning in the 2000-2001 school year focusing on intergroup relations, tolerance, respect and community service. A similar class also is planned for sixth-graders the following school year, Isaacs said.

The program between the district attorney and the Antelope Valley schools is called JOLT - Juvenile Offenders Learning Tolerance. It is designed to teach and promote diversity and keep students in school short of expulsion, said Carla Aranaga, who heads the District Attorney's Office's Hate Crimes Unit.

The need for a program was determined based on reports from the FBI civil rights office in Lancaster, juvenile crime cases and incidents reported on campuses, Aranaga said.

``We know our youth, our children, are not born to hate. It comes from someplace. We have a duty to give them options and choices through education,'' she said.

Countywide, racial hate crimes were by far the leading category. One victim was a Torrance electrical engineer who described a July incident at the commission's news conference Tuesday.

Hernando Arauco, a Latino, said a white man chased him down in his car after Arauco honked his car's horn at the man. The man rammed the back of Arauco's car, ran at Arauco outside the car yelling racial insults and attacked him.

``Physically, I was battered and had to undergo medical rehabilitation, including surgery, to regain the normal movement of my arms and legs,'' he said. ``Psychologically, I find myself scarred for life, chasing ghosts in my own home, not knowing if this stranger would come looking for me and my family after his arrest and release.''

The man pleaded no contest to battery and received a 90-day suspended jail sentence, officials said.

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Chart: A human condition

A new report shows that hate crime in Los Angeles County schools increase between 1997 and 1998, while crimes overall in the county decreased.