OPINION
March 6, 2012
The allegations of sexual molestation involving two teachers at Miramonte Elementary School have rightly rocked the Los Angeles Unified School District. Now that the alarm has been raised and the need to watch for and report suspicious behavior is better understood, more reports have arisen at other schools of possible abuses. And though it was an extreme move, we also supported the shifting and temporary replacement of the entire staff of Miramonte until the investigation has been completed, to ensure that students are protected.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 21, 2010 | By Jason Song, Jason Felch and Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times
Five families from across the San Fernando Valley set up camp for three nights by the front door of Wilbur Avenue Elementary School in 2009, intent on getting a spot for their children in one of the best-regarded schools in Los Angeles. Others hired someone to hold their place in line. This spring, the school in affluent Tarzana began using a lottery for applicants from outside the neighborhood. Within hours, more than a dozen children were on the list. What these determined families could not have known is that Wilbur's record was among the worst in Los Angeles for boosting student performance in math and English.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 22, 2005 | Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writer
This little Northern California farm town is blissfully unaccustomed to turmoil. But recent weeks dished up a hopper of dissent. It started with a girl who went home from junior high saying she felt like an orange. Lauren Tatro, 13, told her parents the plain facts. Every student at Brittan Elementary School had to wear a badge the size of an index card with their name, grade, photo -- and a tiny radio identification tag. The purpose was to test a new high-tech attendance system.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 10, 2004 | Joel Rubin, Times Staff Writer
Like the other Marine reservists in his platoon, Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Bera was exhausted last May as he moved north through the Iraqi desert. Temperatures pushed above 110 degrees each day, desert sand blew relentlessly, he was in the middle of a war and he missed his life back home. Then the letters arrived. Bera received an envelope addressed to him from Andrew Andrade, a Garden Grove fifth-grader.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 28, 2002 | ERIKA HAYASAKI, TIMES STAFF WRITER
It struck 8-year-old Shelby Cottey as she practiced writing cursive and capital Gs for an assignment Wednesday at La Ballona Elementary School in Culver City. "The words started to get all mixed up and I felt dizzy," she said. "My head started to hurt." Shelby was the last in her family to catch a late-season flu bug. Her 1-year-old sister was the first, and within days both parents and all five children in the family were coughing and struggling with upset stomachs.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 27, 2000 | KATE FOLMAR, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The boxy Fullerton classroom resembles any other--rules posted on the wall and kids' sketches displayed prominently--until you read the students' goals for the year. Written in wobbly print and hung for all to see, the aspirations sound nothing like regular elementary school fodder--no dreams here of becoming a fireman or owning a puppy.