Koocher asked the group for suggestions, and Lannon invited students to air their grievances in meetings with teachers.

"The first thing to do is to try to get these people to discuss a clear agenda for what is going to happen now and to do it in a neutral area," Lannon said later. He called for a meeting this morning at 9 a.m. in East Cambridge's Kennedy School which he termed a "secure area for those parents and students."

Shortly after the stabbing, city leaders set up a hot line (498-9011) in the city manager's office to quell rumors. Flynn said a few residents called with news of the fight, but that most simply wanted information about school schedules and security.

"A lot of people have volunteered to help in the schools when they open again," Flynn said last night. "Everybody seems to be pulling together," he added.

School officials said city public schools had not been plagued by racial troubles in recent months.

"The police chief has said positively that there is no reason to believe the stabbing was racially motivated, and in light of all the positive things that have gone on in this school in recent months, I think it is reasonable to believe that statement will stand," Richard Woodward, assistant superintendant of schools for instruction, said last night.

Wolf said there was no evidence the incident was racial, but added, "Cambridge is an urban area, and there are tensions. To say some of them aren't racial would be foolish.

"We have to show that this incident can be handled in a humane and constructive way," Wolf said.

"For the last four or five years, we have had very little of the spillover from Boston's racial problems," assistant city manager Robert Healy said last night. Neighboring Boston has been sharply divided by court-ordered busing to achieve racial integration in the schools. A black student, Darryl Williams, was shot in the city last fall.

Several of the parents and students at the East Cambridge meeting said that racial problems divided the high school.

One student at the East Cambridge meeting reported "at least six" racial incidents in the school this fall, and others told of repeated fights between white and black students.

They also asked that the city pay for Colosimo's funeral and wake. City solicitor Russell Higley said last night that such expenses might be covered under a state program for victims of violent crime