High school students work toward King’s dream

Newport Harbor High commemorates Martin Luther King Day with week of events bringing human rights to the fore.NEWPORT BEACH -- The shirts line the chain-link fence at Newport Harbor High School, a grim clothesline with a name, age and place painted on each garment:

Alex Perry, 15, Treadwell High School, Memphis, Tenn.

Conroy Robinson, 18, Norland High School, Miami, Fla.

Sheila Lorta, 16, Paramount High School, Paramount, Calif.

Each shirt on the fence represents a student or teacher who died as a result of school violence -- with some of the locations chillingly close to Orange County.

This week at Newport Harbor, students are honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday with a number of events concerning violence, oppression and human rights. As the display outside the administration trailers proves, schools have had their share of grief as well.

“It’s building on the theme of Martin Luther King’s message, but ... [the display shows] just how it’s germane to high schools and how it’s been widespread across the country,” said Assistant Principal Dave Martinez.

The shirts, which will remain on view through Friday, are the centerpiece of the annual Week of Nonviolence at Newport Harbor. Orange County Human Relations, a nonprofit group that sponsors humanitarian projects, lends the shirts to different schools for a week at a time. Newport Harbor has hung them each of the last two years as part of the campus’ Bridges Program.

This week, along with the shirts, the Bridges Program has posted fliers on campus and inserted quotes from King into the school’s morning announcements. The student club, overseen by Orange County Human Relations at numerous local schools, conducts workshops and seminars throughout the year to spread the message of nonviolence.

On Wednesday, the Newport Harbor group met to discuss its Monday trip to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Nine students, on a school holiday, accompanied a group from Corona del Mar High School to meet a Holocaust survivor and take an interactive tour of the museum.

Among the Bridges Program’s other events this year were the Day of Silence, in which participating students wore ribbons and abstained from speaking for one day, and Walk in My Shoes, a daylong program of seminars.

“The people in this room are the people who really care, and we spread that through campus,” said senior Sophia Barton, 18, the club’s president.20060119itbhctncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)T-shirts bearing the names of victim’s of school violence line a fence near Newport Harbor High School. The display is part of the school’s annual Week of Nonviolence, which coincides with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.