Elementary School Students

At the private Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, the admissions committee faced a dilemma over a weak candidate for first grade: the child's current school wasn't known for its academic preparation and she could barely read. But an older sister applying for a fourth-grade spot was a good candidate for admittance.

A substitute teacher's alleged tool for shushing kindergartners -- clothespins -- doesn't wash with school officials. Four boys said clothespins were placed on their lips for talking in class, Amanda-Clearcreek Primary School Principal Mike Johnsen wrote in a letter to parents. He said the substitute, Ruth Ann Stoneburner, would no longer work at the school.

You know how hard it can be to say no. But our tendency to accept what we're offered may have positive value when it comes to encouraging children to choose -- and eat -- healthier food at school. A new report suggests that there's a simple, low-cost approach: Just offer it to them. That's the conclusion of a pilot program in Guilford, Conn., where school cafeteria servers were trained to ask elementary school students, "Would you like fruit or juice with your lunch?"

ALL music teacher Tresa Waggoner wanted to do was broaden the artistic horizons of her Bennett, Colo., elementary school students. But she got into a devil of a mess a few weeks ago when a video selection she played for them, 12 minutes from a 33-year-old series called "Who's Afraid of Opera?," contained scenes from Gounod's 1859 "Faust."

A 12-year-old girl admitted Monday that she lied about being raped at knifepoint last week in the restroom of a Buena Park elementary school. The girl, whose name was withheld, confessed after investigators found inconsistencies in her story, said Gary Worrall, a Buena Park police spokesman. She could be charged with making a false police report, which is a misdemeanor, he said.

Jazmani Busby has learned things in her nine years that no child should have to learn. She has learned to drop to the floor at the sound of a gunshot. She has learned what an AK-47 looks like. She has learned that, all too often, the people around her die young. Jazmani, a lifelong resident of the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts, doesn't like to talk about these things.

It was a good photo op. To think it would lead to anything more seemed unrealistic, a sure path to disappointment. Lennox Lewis, world heavyweight champion and a devoted chess player, was in town to fight Mike Tyson. Through Will Herenton, the mayor of Memphis, a meeting with a local chess club from Oakhaven Elementary School was arranged. During a Lewis-Tyson news conference across the state line in nearby Tunica, Miss.

Hours after Monroe Elementary School students have gone home in this immigrant Santa Ana neighborhood, there's commotion in a portable classroom on the playground. "Down with soda. Down with sweetbread," cries Francesca Leal as she leads 40 overweight parents and children in leg lifts, abdominal exercises and light aerobics. "\o7Si, se puede. Vamos. \f7(Yes, we can. Come on.) \o7Uno, dos, tres\f7," she continues in Spanish. The trailer shakes as they all move to Latin music.

At La Pluma Elementary School in La Mirada, Larry Kaupang enjoys the reaction of his fifth-grade students when they get to dissect frogs. "Some of them are squeamish, but most are excited," he said. By afternoon, Kaupang switches to serious mode, arriving at nearby La Mirada High, where he's the head coach for the 25-3 boys' basketball team. "Somebody passes gas in practice and they're laughing, and I mention that's something my fifth-graders would do," he said.

After several years of marked gains, most public elementary schools in California posted lower scores or showed no improvement this year on standardized English and math tests, according to data released Monday. State officials tried to make the best of the disappointing results, pointing out that scores remained significantly higher than they did at the beginning of the current testing program four years ago.