Anti Violence

On the heels of a fatal stabbing last month in which a high school girl was allegedly attacked by her ex-boyfriend, the Los Angeles Board of Education is expected to consider a proposal Tuesday that will take on teen dating violence by teaching students to recognize when a relationship is becoming abusive. Board member Steve Zimmer, who called for the board action, said the Sept. 30 incident at South East High School "punctuates the urgency" for expanding anti-dating violence programs districtwide.

Fifth-graders in the Garden Grove Unified School District will receive special instruction in violence prevention by police officers this fall. The program is similar to the district's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program and will be taught by officers from the Garden Grove Police Department in 45-minute segments each day for six weeks.

The African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party, South Africa's rival main black groups, signed an agreement in Johannesburg aimed at preventing violence when they commemorate the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Today is the 33rd anniversary of the massacre, when police opened fire on an unarmed crowd in the township south of Johannesburg, killing 69 people.

The school district has been awarded a $50,000 federal grant to begin a violence prevention program in conjunction with the Police Department and athletic organizations. The program is aimed at reducing neighborhood violence by providing alternatives for children and teaching them how to resolve differences peacefully, said Tracy Painter, the district's special projects coordinator.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. To focus attention on the issue, Liz Claiborne and Elisabeth stores (South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa) will donate profits from sales of specially designed handbags and T-shirts to local groups that help victims of domestic violence. The linings of the $25 handbags bear the message "Love is not abuse." Long-sleeved cotton T-shirts, $12, display anti-violence messages. After October, the products will be available by phone, (800) 449-STOP.

Responding to what he calls a siege from crime, Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris has outlined a program that includes provisions ranging from the benign (increased job training) to the Draconian (mandatory jail sentences for parents of juveniles who use guns). Harris is hardly a reactionary. He was a liberal Democratic member of the state Assembly for 12 years.

Disraely Ramirez was angry and sad when he heard a news story that a young boy had been killed by a stray bullet. The 17-year-old junior at Belmont High School in Los Angeles took matters into his own hands by creating an anti-gun-violence message for a billboard on Canoga Avenue near Roscoe Boulevard. Disraely's design is one of six billboards created by teens in the Visualizing Violence LA project, which provides young artists with a platform to explore gun violence.

The dreadful murder of a 14-year-old in Tustin last month, and the arrest of four youths little older than the victim, has again shocked Orange County with an especially graphic incident of violence among teen-agers. The killing seems even more senseless than most: Police say the dispute involved the return of a $2,500 portable sound system. Carl Dan Claes lived with his grandfather while his mother worked in Northern California.

WASHINGTON - More than 6,000 hate crimes were reported to U.S. law enforcement agencies in 2011 - a 6% decrease from 2010, the FBI said Monday. But crimes based on the victim's sexual orientation increased slightly. Nearly half of the 6,222 hate crimes reported in 2011 were racially motivated, the FBI said, with nearly three-fourths directed at African Americans. More than 16% were motivated by anti-white bias. About 59% of the known offenders for all reported hate crimes were white, and 21% were black, the agency said.

Shots fired at a carload of partygoers killed three people and wounded another on Detroit's west side. The shootings occurred on the eve of a planned citywide day of prayer against violence. A 22-year-old man, 22-year-old woman and 21-year-old woman died. The survivor, a 21-year-old woman, was taken to a hospital and was in serious condition. Homicides in Detroit fell from 615 in 1991 to 361 in 2003.