EDITORIAL DAMAGE DONE JENA CASE CAPTURES NATION'S ATTENTION.

STUDENTS in Los Angeles high schools walked out of classes. Hundreds of people rallied across the region. Candlelight vigils and teach-ins have been held.

What has captured the attention of so many Angelenos -- along with the rest of the nation -- is a case thousands of miles away in a small Louisiana town, Jena: the trial of six black high-school students arrested and originally charged with attempted murder for beating up a white classmate.

The beating was the culmination of months of tension between the black and white populations of this tiny town, starting when one black student tried to step over a racial divide that was represented by a tree where the white students hung out. His transgression was met with the oldest of racial threats; three nooses were hanging from the tree the next morning.

In the next month, there were altercations between Jena's white and black populations. And it seems from an outsiders' perspective that the punishments were not meted out fairly.

In one case, during a fight between students at a convenience store, a white student got a shotgun from his truck. When he confronted black students, they took it away -- and then were charged with theft of a firearm while the white student was not charged with anything.

Neither side is particularly heroic in this ugly case of mutual racial violence. However, the young black students -- the Jena Six -- were dealt much harsher punishment than the white students.

Since then, their charges have been reduced, but the damage to the town -- and to the country's collective belief in racial equality -- has already been done.