School Blocks Transfer of White Students

HUNTINGTON BEACH — School officials are refusing to grant transfer requests from 32 high school students because they are white, despite a warning from the governor’s office that the policy may violate constitutional prohibitions against racial discrimination.

Officials of the Huntington Beach Union High School District have blocked the transfers from Ocean View High, saying the students’ departure would upset the campus’ ethnic balance.

John Myers, assistant superintendent, said that state law requires the district to maintain racial and ethnic balance in their schools. Allowing those white students to transfer would cause Ocean View “to become ethnically isolated. . . . That’s segregated,” Myers said.

But Gov. Pete Wilson’s education advisor, Marian Bergeson, sent a letter to district officials urging them to reconsider. Despite their assertions, the letter said, the state education code does not mandate discrimination to maintain racial and ethnic balance in schools.