SABRE SPRINGS - A group of black parents and students asked trustees in the Poway Unified School District on Monday night to crack down on racial discrimination and hate with stronger discipline, accountability and a zero-tolerance policy for students and staff.

More than 50 people - many representing the nonprofit minority community group Concerned Parents Alliance - attended the board's monthly meeting Monday to discuss a proposed revision to Poway Unified's "Harassment and Hate Behavior" policy and raise awareness about racial discrimination in the district.

Their primary concern, they said, is that racial discrimination is not being dealt with seriously enough and that the consequences for such behavior need to be more clearly defined. Similar to the district's policies on alcohol and drug use or sexual harassment, parents said, there should be no question as to the penalties for discrimination.

It was the third such meeting where parents have addressed the board on the topic.

"Board members, we have a problem in our school district and it requires immediate attention," Darlene Willis, the president and found of Concerned Parents Alliance, said to the board. "You must require the staff to work with the stakeholders and develop a comprehensive hate behavior policy with discipline for staff, students, reporting and detailed accountability."

The policy revision with the input of community members came in the wake of three racially related incidents on separate high school campuses in the recent months.

Last month, a noose and racial slurs were found in the Rancho Bernardo High School theater, district officials said. In October, another noose was found hung inside a boy's bathroom stall at Poway High School and a student at Westview wore a Halloween costume that administrators said resembled a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

Before presenting the policy to the board Monday night, Superintendent Don Phillips said the revisions were an attempt to strengthen the district's stance against hate behavior and send a message to the community that such behavior would not be tolerated.

Included in the new policy were annual tolerance training sessions for students and staff; counseling and support services for victims of discrimination and students exhibiting hate behavior; and a process for reporting incidents of intolerance.

Still, parents, students and the board members agreed that the terminology and the disciplinary actions and procedures were not necessary outlined to the extent that they should be.

In comments follow public discussion, several board members said they shared the public's concerns.

"It's just like a gun, it's just like drinking. Our students, all of them, have a right to go to school and feel safe," board member Penny Ranftle said. "We have some head turning going on that absolutely needs to be stopped."

Some of the recommendations by the board were to consider more extensive diversity training for staff and to intensify the district's efforts to hire a staff that better reflects the ethnic and racial makeup of the community.

Phillips said that staff would take the recommendations into consideration and revise the policy again before coming to the board for a final vote in January.

In other action, the board accepted an annual audit of its Prop. U $198 million bond and appointed Julie Lerner as the new principal of Midland Elementary School. Lerner, who is currently the assistant principal at Sage Canyon School in the Del Mar Union School District, is taking over for Marylou Wilson, who left the district earlier this fall. She will start in her new position Jan. 7.

- Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.