King Discusses Beating With Students : Schools: Motorist says the four LAPD officers charged in the case deserve punishment. More public talks stressing education are planned, his lawyer says.

TUSTIN —  In a rare public appearance, Rodney G. King told students at Tustin High School on Wednesday night that the four LAPD officers involved in his 1991 beating must be convicted at their upcoming trial to help restore “decency” for blacks nationwide.

“We can’t just let them get away like this,” King said. “These thug police officers ought to be held responsible for their actions.”

King’s 90-minute appearance before an African-American student group marked a sharp contrast from his past aversion to public exposure since his March, 1991, beating sparked a national debate on racism and police brutality and led to the spring riots in Los Angeles.

The 27-year-old King said he was nervous talking with the 75 students, most of whom were black. But he and his new attorney, Milton C. Grimes of Santa Ana, said he will begin to make more public appearances--particularly in schools--to counter the image of him as a “monster,” an image they allege has been perpetuated by the media.

One student asked him how he planned to change his image.

“I’m here today,” he said.

No television news stations were told of the event because Grimes said he wanted to avoid controversy and focus King’s appearance “on the kids.” Indeed, the students were told they were going to hear Grimes talk, and most said they did not know King would be there.

From the moment Grimes walked into the high school classroom with his most famous client, whispers filled the air. “That’s not Rodney King!” one student whispered. “It is too!” her classmate shot back.

King occasionally fumbled for words and wandered from one idea to the next, but several students said they were surprised to see how articulate he was as he gave relaxed, often confident answers to their questions.

Grimes and King both sought to focus the evening on the importance of education in the black community, urging students to stay in school and pay less attention to such matters as clothes and romances.

King, an 11th-grade dropout, told the students that he was often distracted in school by other matters--like fights.

“I was pretty much a big guy in high schools,” he said. “Guys wanna try you when you got a little size on you--you know, beat the giant. . . . I wasn’t gonna take no butt-whooping.”

But as much as King tried to talk about school, most of the students wanted to ask him about the 1991 beating and the tense months that followed.

Grimes would not allow discussion of some issues because of the pending trial of the four officers in federal court and King’s civil lawsuit. But King did speak openly about his emotions during that time.

For instance, when he first heard about the Simi Valley jury’s not guilty verdicts last April in the trial of the four officers, King said: “I felt like the world was caved in, was closed in on all of us as a whole. I couldn’t believe that they came back with that kind of a verdict.

“It put me back about 200 years--I could imagine what slaves felt like to be stripped of their decency,” he said.

He was “so mad,” King said, that he “went tearing up my car,” pulling out the vehicle’s dashboard.

He’s not sure the emotional wound will ever heal, he said. “I’ve been trying to get my trust back in (police), but it’s hard. That’ll take a while,” King said.

Later, he added: “There won’t be any forgiveness.”