Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 115

DETROIT FREE PRESSSUNDAY, APR. 27, 1986 5L FORDSON HIGH: An American Experience Hands that struck blows reach out in friendship SiSftftili 7 i complaints as they get older and learn to adjust." Hartshorn says Arab students do the same thing. "When they're having a problem with a teacher, they'll say, 'He doesn't like How much they really believe it, I'm not sure." FOR HIS PART, Shamey, a 1967 Fordson graduate, is a tireless middleman among students, parents and teachers in an effort to straighten out misunderstandings and defuse tensions. "Look, I have never denied that there are problems," says Shamey, who grew up in Dearborn's South End. "Some of the Arab kids are over-aggressive.

Some misunderstand discipline in the school for prejudice. When there is a fight, they stick up for each other that's the way they've been brought up. "But they are not bad kids," he says. "When you sit down and show these kids you like them, they are very cooperative and understanding." Liaison director Tom Shamey a symptom of immaturity and the inherent difficulties of adjusting to life in a large urban high school. "They really don't know what's bothering them, so they say it's the Arabs.

It seems reasonable. It's something they hear in the community all the time. You don't hear as many Free Press Photos bv PATRICIA BECK Hussein Jaafar, left, and Huss Moukled attend one of the twice-monthly meetings of Arab and non-Arab male students, held to air grievances, discuss problems and get to know each other and their respective cultures. Mid-America meets Mideast Smiles for mom! By TOM HUNDLEY Free Press Staff Writer At the beginning of the school year, they were at each other's throats. By April, they were deciding whether they wanted to spend the weekend with each other camping or canoeing.

About 20 boys, Arabs and non-Arabs, with a propensity for settling disputes with their fists, now sit down a couple of times a month to air their grievances, talk about problems and generally get to know each other and their respective cultures. The architects of this truce are Tom Shamey, an Arab-American teacher hired by the school system as community liaison director after the 1984 fights between Arab and non-Arab students, and Ralph Hartshorn, a social worker for the city's public school system. By bringing potential antagonists together and breaking down barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding, Shamey and Hartshorn hoped to prevent future incidents. "We didn't turn them into fast friends," says Hartshorn, "but I think it's helped." AT A RECENT session, seniors Chris Schwartz, 18, and Hisham Bey-doun, 18, tried to figure out why Arabs and non-Arabs got into so many scrapes. "It's their beliefs," said Chris.

"A lot of Arab kids here, they go along with Khadafy. They hear about Marines being killed, and they say it's OK. If you're living here, how come you want Americans killed?" Hisham says politics has nothing to do with it: "It's prejudice, that's all it is." Chris agrees: "Yeah, that's what it basically is. Somebody not liking the way somebody else looks or the way they talk. I admit it; I am prejudiced.

If I'm going to be in a fight it's going to be with Arabs. "You've got to admit it: They won't fight one-on-one; they've all got to jump in. Individually, they're not so bad. It's when they're all in a group. Hartshorn acknowledges that prejudice is a problem at Fordson, and that non-Arab students frequently complain to him that the Arabs are taking over the school.

But Hartshorn says complaining about Arabs, particularly among younger students, is most often FREE Parent Child fillip 8x10 Portrait with Mix 'n Match Portrait Package $25 minimum portrait purchase Offer valid at time of sitting with this coupon May not be used with any other offer Limit on special per family 8 VI tBl Expires May 10, 1986. 1b.yb Portrait Package FORDSON, from Page 4 As they prospered, the Arabs sought better housing in other parts of Dearborn. Many settled in solidly suburban northeast Dearborn. Today an estimated 15 to 20 percent of Dearborn's 90,000 residents are of Arab origin. Fewer than half live in the South End.

Ish Ahmed, Fordson 1966, grew up in the South End and today lives in northeast Dearborn. "There were some rich kids at Fordson, but mostly it was working class. We thought Dearborn High was for rich kids. We called them cake-eaters. At Fordson, we were the working class, what you'd call greaser kids.

Then within Fordson, there were the kids from the South End. "The real nucleus of the school came out of the South End. When I went to school, there was already an established generation of Arab-Americans who had gone through Fordson. When 1 came through, even southeast Dearborn had not become a totally Arabic neighborhood. Then it was maybe 30 percent Arabic.

It wasn't so much that you were Arabic, but that you were from the South End. 'Factory they used to call us," Ahmed said. "Back then, in the psyche of America, Arabs were just another ethnic group. Somehow, prior to the 1967 (Arab-Israeli) war, there wasn't this special negative identification with being Arabic." Suzanne Sareini, who graduated from Fordson in 1969 and last year made a bid to become the first Arab-American to serve on Dearborn's city council, has similar recollections of growing up in the South End: "Being an Arab was no different from being an Italian or a Romanian or anything else. Arabs were only about 10 percent of the school then.

I never experienced any kind of discrimination because I was an Arab when I was going to school. I could not imagine anyone not liking me because I was an Arab. "I never felt any anti-Arab prejudice until eight or nine years ago, when the situation in the Middle East became 2-8x10s, 2-5x7s, 8 wallet size Offer from any two poses of your choice from original portrait envelope 95e deposit applied to portrait purchase Offer valid at time of sitting with this coupon May not be used with any other offer One special per family $1 for each aadi- burjieu in porirai, N223T Nawal Sareini, right, shown with parents Suzanne and Toufic Sareini, is president of the junior class. Her mother is a 1969 Fordson graduate. more tense and Dearborn began getting a lot more immigrants." But for Sareini's daughter, Nawal, going to Fordson today presents a far different set of circumstances.

Nawal is president of the junior class. She is popular among Arabs and non-Arabs alike, but often finds herself caught in the middle when conflicts happen. "When they say the Arabs at Fordson are causing trouble, I feel they are talking about me," she says. JCPenney Offer valid at permanent studios thru May 10, 1986. Permanent studios art located at: Eastland Southland i i Fairlane Oakland Westland Lakeside Bnarwood in Ann Arbor Although she speaks Arabic, Nawal teels that well-assimilated second- and third-generation Arab-Americans like herself have more in common with non-Arab students.

Yet she still feels a strong identification with the new arrivals. "When you see the new kids the kids who have just come from Lebanon and you see the hurt and frustration in their eyes, you can understand that sometimes things just build up and they go a little crazy." 12 PRICE rzTTJ Del Mar Custom Verticals TAKE KOWZ Alone, these sleek blinds add a clean, contemporary OUR FABR5C Staff members for the series Free Press staff members who developed the series, "Fordson High: An American Experience," were: Tom Hundley, 35, a reporter at the Free Press for six years, writes fre TREASURES TODAY! quently on Detroit's Arab Plus Save 20 Now on Custom Labor for Draperies and Window and Bedspreads! Limited time Only so HURRY! Now at Calico Corners a magnificent collection of thousands of home decorating fabrics from the top designersl Jewel tones, florals, solids, paisleys, and morel community. In 1982 and 1984, he was on assignment for the paper in the Middle East. A native New Yorker, he is a 1972 graduate of Helpful Professional Advice finest Quality Decorator Fabrics Expert Custom Workmanship Hundley Georgetown University and holds an advanced de All You Add Is Your Own Good Taste! III AT gree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. Jocelyne Zablit, 23, has been a general assignment reporter at the 'iimSr Decorative Fabrics look.

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She earned a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's deeree in jour i iV I ft mmmmn Zablit a $MMf nalism from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Patricia Beck, 32, has been a Free Press photographer since 1977. A De 1 troit-area native, she graduated in 1975 from Ohio University with a bachelor of science degree in journalism, with a major in photojournalism. In 1984, she spent 10'A months JK jJr USE THE "EARLY MORNING tor Beck SaweDay FREE PRESS Montgomery Ward Call today to schedule your free home appointment Detroit area residents call toll free 1-800-462-3513 traveling and studying in France and eight other European countries. Ann' Olson, assistant editor in The Way We Live since February 1985, edited the series, i VANT AD RESULTS Eg.