Granada Hills High School

Re "Denying Easy Diplomas Won't Solve the Problem," June 20. I also teach English in a large (3,500 students) public high school in Los Angeles Unified School District, and in my 20 years of teaching, I have never encountered a class like the one Doug Lasken described. I too have had my share of unmotivated, unskilled and disaffected teenagers, as have my colleagues. However, I have always believed it is the teacher's responsibility to establish and maintain classroom control and to create curriculum that is interesting, meaningful and productive for students.

A teenager should not have to face the moral dilemma pitcher Kameron Loe of Granada Hills High assumed on Tuesday in the opening round of the City Section baseball playoffs. Loe told Coach Steve Thompson on Monday night he would not be able to pitch against Grant because of a sore right arm. Loe and his teammates had fought hard all season for the right to earn a chance to make it to Dodger Stadium. Now, on the eve of the most crucial part of the season, Loe was benching himself.

A Granada Hills High School junior critically injured in a Mother's Day auto accident died after a nearly weeklong struggle to live, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday. Emily Pilkinton, 17, was pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m. Saturday, said Tiffani Duval, spokeswoman for Providence Holy Cross Hospital. Pilkinton was hospitalized after suffering massive head injuries when the car she was riding in slammed into a parked moving van May 9 on the Wilbur Avenue bridge over the 118 Freeway.

In more sexual allegations involving school personnel and students, a substitute teacher pleaded not guilty Friday to charges she allegedly molested two 17-year-old boys at a drug treatment center, and a teacher's aide at Granada Hills High School was charged with molesting and sexually battering a 15-year-old special education student.

A fire that damaged a portion of the Granada Hills High School gym Friday morning added to the anxiety felt by some students and parents since the Columbine High School tragedy and rumors of threats on the north Valley campus. The fire began about 8:45 a.m. underneath a basketball gym floor that was under construction, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Tim McDonell. Firefighters put rthe fire out in about 20 minutes, he said.

Rackets and sling shots in hand, Granada Hills High is ready to take on the Goliath of City Section boys' tennis. The Highlanders, seeded No. 3, will play perennial champion and top-seeded Palisades in the final match of the City Championships today at noon at Meridian's Tennis L.A. in Los Angeles. Van Nuys, the two-time defending City 3-A Division champion, returns to another final. The No. 7-seeded Wolves (11-5) will play No. 4 Hamilton in the City Division title match at noon at Meridian's.

A Granada Hills High School English teacher pleaded guilty Tuesday to having sex with an underage, runaway student and was sentenced to six months in jail. Florine Maria Strimel, 35, had faced up to nine years in prison on seven felony charges stemming from what authorities have described as a monthlong affair with a 17-year-old special-education student.

A high school English teacher pleaded guilty Tuesday to having sex with an underage, runaway student and was sentenced to six months in jail. Florine Maria Strimel, 35, had faced nine years in prison on seven felony charges stemming from what authorities have described as a monthlong affair with a 17-year-old boy who was one of her special education students at Granada Hills High School.

Denver, Stanford and Pullman, Wash., all claim John Elway as one of their own, but it was his days as a San Fernando Valley teenager that propelled him to athletic stardom. From the moment Elway arrived in the summer of 1976, it was as if he inhaled pixie dust instead of Southern California smog. His powerful right arm was immediately identified as a mutation, for no one had seen a teenager hurl spirals, fastballs or even oranges with such velocity and accuracy.

The Granada Hills High School marching band will strut its stuff in a TV biopic about basketball great Michael Jordan set to air Sunday on the Fox Family Channel. The Highlanders play the part of the pep band at a high school basketball game, said band director Al Nelson. The television appearance is not the band's first, Nelson said.