Posada, by the way, fled his native El Salvador in 1980 because of the violence there. He recalls walking past dead bodies on the way to school. Now he sees his staff and students talking about the risks of just getting to and from school safely.
Monte Vista lost funding this year for a counselor who focused on at-risk kids and their families. Hard to believe in a country where mismanaged financial companies received taxpayer bailouts, with millions in bonuses for their executives.
Posada said that when shots are heard, or helicopters appear overhead, the school bell rings for an extra-long time, signaling a lockdown in which all students are to go immediately to their classrooms, with teachers instructed to lock the doors.
"I've lost track of how many we've had," Amodeo said, but there were several last week and two in one day alone, when a rock thrown at an unmarked police car brought screeching sirens and a swarm of helicopters to the neighborhood.
"I work in lockdown city," Amodeo wrote in a recent entry on her Facebook page. "One time I was in my classroom after school, and I heard gunshots on the street. My classroom is right on the playground, so I opened my door to let kids in to safety. You know what? Not one kid came to my room. They were running -- running for cover."
Amodeo said it's easy to love the children of Monte Vista and cheer the progress they've made despite great challenges -- 96% of the kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch because of low family income. Test scores are up, there's a new music program and students are designing a garden in Griffith Park.
But then comes another threat, and everyone stops, drops and flattens like a pancake.
As teacher Jutti Marsh wrote in her journal: "One thing I never envisioned was teaching from the floor . . . Singing is good. It calms the children and helps pass the time. Minutes pass like hours when you are under your tables in the dark."
There's lots of writing going on these days at Monte Vista.
"Teachers cannot teach, nor students learn under these increasingly dangerous and frightening circumstances," teachers union rep Sonya Hamilton wrote in a letter to Los Angeles Unified School District officials and other local officials. "We believe we need a heightened level of security at and around the Monte Vista campus."
But the most powerful words were penned by fifth-grade students writing to city and national officials.
