INCREASING THE PEACE ACTRESS DELIVERS MESSAGE OF TOLERANCE.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

LITTLEROCK - Actress Patricia Arquette encouraged Littlerock High School students to be true to themselves and not give into peer pressure when it comes to teasing or discriminating against others.

The star of ``Bringing Out The Dead'' and ``Stigmata'' visited the school as part of the kickoff to Increase the Peace Day, a 3-year-old annual event created in response to the Columbine High School massacre.

``Don't go the way other people go. Go your own way,'' said Arquette to the packed school theater. ``You're almost adults and have to decide, who am I?''

Wearing blue jeans, wedge-soled cowboy boots and a ruffled blue shirt, Arquette told the teen-agers she grew up with friends who were drug addicts, gangsters and punk rockers who picked fights with anyone different or who they thought showed disrespect for them.

At age 19, she had a baby and had to decide what she really wanted to do with her life, she said.

Now at 30, she says most of those friends have died and a few of them have even named their children after people they used to pick on because they now feel so much guilt over what they did.

Others just wondered why they behaved the way they had when they were younger, Arquette said.

Arquette was brought to Littlerock High School by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

``(Arquette) approached the county and the county approached us because they knew of the work we were doing here. They thought it worked hand in hand and they knew there was a need in the Antelope Valley to hear a message such as this,'' teacher Bruce Galler said.

He believes the Increase the Peace Days, held first at Challenger Middle School in 2000 on the Columbine shooting anniversary, have had a positive impact on students.

``I see them believing that they do have the power to make a difference, but the issues that are confronting us with society are so large it will take a lot more than one day of increasing the peace to make the difference we would all like to see,'' Galler said.

The third annual Increase the Peace Day from 9 to 11:45 a.m. April 19 will pack JetHawk Stadium with 5,000 teen-agers. Three thousand attended the 2001 event at Antelope Valley College.

Arquette, who was raised in Los Angeles by a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, said Sept. 11 and the resulting backlash brought her to contact the Human Rights Commission and volunteer to help.

Growing up, Arquette said she was looked down upon because her family was poor. Blue-eyed and blond, she said people often told her racist jokes, not realizing she was Jewish and that her father was Muslim.

``I don't look Jewish or Islamic. If there is such a thing, any kind of stereotype. If anything, it was really interesting because people would say blatantly racist things in front of me, thinking that I was Aryan or something. And I would have to say to them, 'Well, actually I'm Jewish or my father is Islamic,' they would be blown away. I was sort of like a secret spy into the world of hearing people's racist thoughts,'' Arquette said.

Of her visit to Littlerock High, Arquette said: ``I think whenever adults come out and open themselves to kids and talk to kids and care what kids have to say and what kids are going through, that's always effective for them. And if something happens and they look at you on film, you're like from this other world, this world they can't touch, this world that just seems glamorous and happy and everything is fine. So, it's kind of nice to talk to them about your own struggles with these issues and your own struggles with growing up and fitting in.''

The students in the audience seemed to react positively to Arquette's message.

``I thought that it was interesting...I guess I don't perceive actors as being intelligent, and she seemed to know what she was talking about. It just kind of made me think about before judging people to think about where you're really coming from and not to discriminate against people,'' 16- year-old Amber Lee Milliken said.

Nichole Mendonca, 16, agreed. ``I think she had a very strong word and I think by her coming to the school made it seem like not only men can be heard but women can be heard too. It made me feel like women have a strong word too now. She made me feel good,'' Mendonca said.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Actress Patricia Arquette prepares to talk with students at Littlerock High School in a kickoff to Increase the Peace Day.

(2 -- color) Former Challenger Middle School students who wrote the Increase the Peace pledge and petition are introduced at Wednesday's assembly at Littlerock High School.

(3 -- color) Patricia Arquette talks with students about growing up as the daughter of a Jewish mother and Muslim father.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer