COUNTY PANEL TO HONOR TEACHER WHO FORMED TOLERANCE TASK FORCE.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez / Daily News Staff Writer

Gary Mast, a government teacher at Valencia High School, had sensed racial tensions in the community before, but after a stabbing at an area campus a few years ago, he decided something needed to be done.

Figuring the best way to show the city that the Canyon High School fight wasn't just a school problem - but a community problem - Mast petitioned the City Council to advocate more understanding of diversity.

At that 1994 meeting, the council rewarded Mast's effort by approving $25,000 for a Santa Clarita Human Relations Forum. In October, Mast's effort will be rewarded again.

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations will honor Mast with its John Anson Ford Award. The presentation will be made at an Oct. 28 reception at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

It's an award that Mast, who was also named Teacher of the Year for the William S. Hart High School District last year, has certainly earned, said Dianna Boone, community services supervisor for the city.

``When I asked Gary what motivated him to do this work, he said he had seen the pain in his students, for how they were treated for the differences they had, and couldn't stand it,'' Boone said. ``He doesn't just talk it - that's how he lives. A lot of people don't know the work he puts in.''

Through the Human Relations Forum, Mast created Operation US, which trains high school students about diversity and conflict resolution, and then sends them to local elementary schools to teach sixth-grade students about the importance of respecting people's differences.

The payoff, for Mast, is seeing the teen-agers' effect on the young students.

``The sixth-graders' response is phenomenal. They make commitments to get involved. We tell them that if they don't speak out, they're condoning racial comments or racial jokes,'' Mast said. ``And when they hear stories from others, they really listen. It touches them, to hear a kid in a wheelchair saying, `I'm tired of being teased.' ''

More than 400 students at most of the city's high schools and 2,000 sixth-graders have participated in Operation US, Mast said.

Thanks to the city's contribution of $15,000 this year, the Hart district can hire substitutes so that teachers such as Mast can accompany their student trainees to the workshops at elementary schools.

Mast, 48, a father of two children and a teacher for 25 years in Santa Clarita, said he knows adults must teach by example. Perhaps, he said, the lessons will reach children's homes.

``The children's attitudes reflect the same attitudes as their parents. We have kids who are very prejudiced and kids who would do anything for the program,'' Mast said. ``It's the kids who really make things go. We want to show them that diversity is an asset to the community.''

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PHOTO (color) ``It's the kids who really make things go. We want to show them that diversity is an asset to the community.''

-- Gary Mast, teacher

Shaun Dyer / Special to the Daily News