They talk about it. They use conflict management. After last spring's tension at Skyline, Youth Together organized mediation sessions between Asian Americans and blacks and helped Castlemont students launch their proposal for a Student Unity Center that they hope will provide peer counseling, mentoring, and mental health services. That's still on the wish list, though Alameda County Supervisor Mary King pledged last week to house a teen health center in a county-owned building adjacent to Castlemont High. Such programs are especially needed in low-income neighborhoods like Castlemont's, Lin said.
Young people come to school ready to explode.
Advocates said the friction might be due more to the rate of change than to the diversity itself. Castlemont has six times as many Latinos as in the late '80s and three times as many APIs. Lin said perceived disparities in the administration's treatment toward one group can create widespread resentment. At Castlemont, she said, African American students believed that teachers were favoring Asian Americans by putting large numbers of them in honors classes. People know that in a very guttural sense.