REUNION PLANNED; LATINOS TO HONOR TEACHERS OF THEIR SEGREGATED CLASSES.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

When Sunny Aris began researching her late father's life back in 1996 when her son joined the Army, she was mostly interested in his military career and service in World War II.

But her search led her instead to Frank Delgado's childhood in Simi Valley and the discovery that her father was among hundreds of Latino grade-school pupils separated from their white peers at school.

The Ventura woman's research will now bring together two of her father's early teachers, Florence Johnston and Elizabeth Gerard, with some of the many students they taught at Simi Elementary School from the late 1920s to the 1950s for a reunion Saturday at Strathearn Historical Park and Museum. The reunion will be sponsored by the Simi Valley Historical Society.

``I wish I could bring my dad to this reunion and watch him say thank you to (Johnston) for making him feel special and letting him know he mattered in this world,'' Aris, 45, said Tuesday. ``I'm so glad I can help others say thank you to these exceptional women.''

One of those others is Manuel Banaga Jr., a lifelong Simi Valley resident who was a student in Gerard's preprimary class.

He said he has no negative thoughts about that time of his life and the segregation, thanks to the influence of a few teachers and his parents.

``I assumed we were all happy kids,'' said Banaga, 72. ``At least I was because my mother always told us that I was American, of Mexican decent. And I was proud of my heritage.

``The segregation, I saw it as ignorance,'' he added. ``The teachers taught us all the same. They taught us the Constitution of the United States, the Pledge of Allegiance.''

Frank Delgado was born in Simi Valley in 1926, one of two boys in a family of seven children. His father had immigrated from Mexico many years earlier and had settled to work for the Tapo Citrus Association, his daughter said.

From 1928 to the mid-1940s at the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade Simi Elementary School, white students attended classes on campus and Latino students, whether they spoke English or not, were taught in two utility sheds down the street.

Since neither Johnston, who taught first and second grade, nor Gerard, who taught kindergarten, had ever had children of their own, their students became as close as their family, Aris learned. So the memories and mementos of the children were precious - and plenty.

The two teachers both liked to take pictures of their students, many of whom could not afford to have professional photographs taken. The women lent Aris hundreds of their photographs, including several of the Delgado children, for her research.

Aris said when her father's classmates, now in their 60s and 70s, saw the photographs for the first time recently, they picked out many of their fellow students but could not see themselves among the bright faces.

``I realized that they'd never seen pictures of themselves as children so they didn't know what they looked like,'' Aris said. ``Literally, in most cases, the only photographs that exist as children were those the teachers took.''

Johnston, whose motto Aris said was ``Every teacher should know every lump in every student's couch,'' visited her pupils at home, giving out report cards in person so that she could meet and talk with parents.

In 1941, Johnston was dismissed when the district was making teaching positions available for single women, Aris said. Now 97, Johnston eventually became a poet and took over her husband's photography business, taking pictures all over the country until she finally retired in 1986.

Gerard, now 93, was spared her job because she was one of those who'd never married. When she arrived in Simi Valley, she boarded with a prominent family during the week and would take the train back to her parents' home in Pasadena on weekends for several years until the district was able to find housing for teachers.

As a result, Aris said Gerard didn't feel like she'd become a part of the community, but she made a home for herself and the students in the classroom by putting up curtains at the windows.

``That's the dedication that they brought to these children who had no light in their lives,'' Aris said. ``The dearest wish of both of these women is that they see these kids one last time.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) A photo of pupils at Simi Elementary School in 1933 features Sunny Aris' dad, Frank ``Kiko'' Delgado, in the back row, far left.

(2) Jessie Burgos and Louise Ozeata with one of their favorite dolls at Simi Elementary School, circa 1933-34.