Harvard Westlake School

Harvard School for boys, widely considered among the most prestigious private schools in Los Angeles, has decided to give up an 89-year tradition and merge with Westlake School for girls, a private institution in Holmby Hills. The 800-student Harvard School, in North Hollywood, is a one-time military academy that is affiliated with the Los Angeles diocese of the Episcopal Church. Both Harvard and the 680-student Westlake School send virtually all graduates to four-year colleges.

NBA center and Harvard-Westlake School graduate Jason Collins came out Monday as the first active gay athlete in a major professional sport. The 34-year-old Los Angeles native who helped lead Harvard-Westlake to two state championships in the 1990s with his twin brother, announced his sexual orientation in the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated . “I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, 'I'm different,' ”...

The school's nickname is new, the cafeteria features a daily salad bar to accommodate new appetites and students are on the lookout for any hint of gender-stereotyping in the classroom now that two of Los Angeles' most prestigious private single-sex schools are one. But there have been few of the wrenching changes and painful adjustments that opponents predicted when the merger of the Westlake School for Girls in Holmby Hills and the Harvard School for boys in Studio City was announced in 1989.

The story of James Lee, a sixth-grade student at St. James' Episcopal School in Koreatown, isn't an easy one to write. Three years ago, James' mother died of cancer. And before the loss could settle in, his father's clothing sales company lost a major retail contract, and the business went under. Then in January, James complained of a headache and seemed disoriented at school. He ended up at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and the diagnosis was devastating. The bright, shy young boy — who had hoped to get into Harvard-Westlake School this fall — had a malignant, inoperable brain stem tumor.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Friday refused to grant an injunction blocking the merger of two of Los Angeles' most prestigious private schools, Harvard School and Westlake School for Girls. The decision by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam A. Vogel was a major setback for a group of Westlake parents and alumnae who had filed suit in an effort to preserve the independence and single-sex tradition of the school, whose graduates include actress Candice Bergen and astronaut Sally Ride.

As headmaster of Harvard-Westlake School, Thomas Hudnut oversees what might easily be likened to a successful corporation. With an annual budget of $25 million, the school enrolls about 1,550 students in grades seven through 12 on its two campuses--the high school in Studio City and the middle school in West Los Angeles.

L'Tanya Robnett is carrying on the family business, punching the clock and assaulting the scoreboard. The Harvard-Westlake High senior is the latest in a long line of prolific basketball scorers. Her father, George, was an All-American at Cal State Northridge in the 1970s and still holds the school's single-season scoring record. NBA stars Tracy Murray and Lamond Murray and former college standout Cameron Murray are among Robnett's cousins.

A 21-year-old college student from Encino and former scholar-athlete at Harvard-Westlake School is one of 32 Americans chosen to be next year's Rhodes Scholars. Jordan Krall, a chemistry major at Amherst College, is writing his senior thesis on creating a synthetic protein that will block replication of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Krall, a varsity baseball player for Amherst, foreshadowed his academic and athletic prowess while a student at Harvard-Westlake.

The dismantling of Bruce McNall's empire continued on Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court when billionaire Ronald O. Perelman outbid Harvard-Westlake School for the Holmby Hills estate once owned by the former King president and majority owner. Perelman, the chairman of Revlon, did not appear and was not named in court papers as the buyer of the five-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot house, which was sold for $4,738,750. The purchaser was listed as 924 Bel Aire Corp.

Randi Shockley-Gray's classroom is bigger than her house. The 1,700-square-foot biology lab at the private Harvard-Westlake School is the science teacher's dream--from its sheer size to the extraordinary amenities. Two huge saltwater aquariums line one wall, filled with perch, a Dover sole, shrimp, a baby octopus and a halibut. All were collected by her biology students on a research trip.

The 1st Amendment doesn't protect hostile Internet banter among teenagers if the messages can be taken as genuine threats of harm, a California appeals court has ruled in a case that more clearly defines when free expression crosses a line into cyber-bullying. The 2-1 ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal will allow a lawsuit to go forward that was brought by the father of a 15-year-old student at the elite Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City. The father's lawsuit accuses six of his son's classmates and their parents of hate crimes, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress caused by their posting of death threats and anti-gay diatribes against the boy on his website.

Six sophomores were expelled and more than a dozen other students faced suspensions Tuesday in a cheating scandal that has rocked Harvard-Westlake, a top-tier Los Angeles private school with a national reputation for its academics. Administrators said students conspired to steal Spanish and history tests by distracting teachers in their classrooms. The tests were then shown to several other students before midterm exams last month, said Harvard-Westlake President Thomas Hudnut.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office on Wednesday moved to try a 17-year-old Harvard-Westlake School student as an adult in the highly publicized beating last month of a female classmate. In a felony complaint filed in Van Nuys Superior Court, prosecutors charged Rupert Tumin Ditsworth of Beverly Hills with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly beating Elizabeth Barcay, 18, with a claw hammer.

An attempted murder case in which a Harvard-Westlake School student attacked a classmate with a hammer has roiled the exclusive college preparatory campus nestled in Coldwater Canyon and raised questions about whether more could have been done to prevent it. Parents said they were pressing administrators to explain what system was in place to identify troubled students and whether red flags about this particular 17-year-old's behavior were taken seriously.

A 17-year-old Harvard-Westlake student was hospitalized and receiving psychiatric treatment Wednesday after allegedly beating a female classmate with a hammer and trying to choke her while they were parked in a car near the private campus in Studio City. Attorney Patrick Smith, who is representing the boy's family, said the student returned to his Beverly Hills home immediately after the alleged assault, which occurred about 5 p.m. Monday.

A 17-year-old Harvard-Westlake School student was being sought Tuesday by Los Angeles police after he allegedly beat a female classmate with a hammer before trying to choke her, a department spokeswoman said. The 16-year-old girl was treated at a hospital for a broken leg and nose, said LAPD spokeswoman April Harding. The boy, who drove off in a beige 2000 four-door Jaguar, had not been apprehended.

A Harvard-Westlake School maintenance worker fired in self-defense when he shot a suspected teenage burglar who confronted him in a dark hallway outside the school's computer lab, Headmaster Tom Hudnut said Monday. The employee, who lives in a school-owned house near the private school's campus on Coldwater Canyon Avenue, tried to protect himself when the masked teenager surprised him and fought with him early Saturday morning, Hudnut said.

It's not that extra incentive is needed. But if Harvard-Westlake defeats San Jose Del Mar High in the State Division III girls' volleyball final today, it will win the first state championship in any sport in school history. And the Wolverines also will win a day off from school. For the entire student body. An unwritten--and as-yet untested--school policy dictates a day off for everyone if a Wolverine sports team wins a state title.

Students from Harvard-Westlake School, an elite private campus in North Hollywood, turned in a remarkable performance on the 2005 Advanced Placement exams. That's hardly surprising, but whether it's a good thing depends in large part on where one comes down in the growing debate over AP courses.

Ellie Wen is a juggernaut. Sure, she's only 17 and stands a mere 5 feet 5 inches, but just try to stop this Harvard-Westlake senior from doing what she sets out to do. She won an award for top overall achievement by a junior at her school last year, was the president of her class and is now co-president of the student body. She writes, acts, sings and studies French, Spanish and Chinese at high levels. She also fences and is, naturally, co-captain of the team.