Honors Student

A man who witnessed last month's fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old honors student confirmed that the teenager drove at — and struck — a plainclothes deputy but disputed that the young man had sped toward the deputy as authorities contended. The shooting in a Studio City parking lot sparked outrage and disbelief among family and friends who described the recent Granada Hills Charter High School graduate as a "band geek" and the last person they would have expected to intentionally run down an officer.

It happened again this semester. A student came to my office and asked me to close the door. After going through this drill so many times before, I knew what would come next. In a process akin to "coming out of the closet," these students reveal to me their terrible secret: They are undocumented immigrants. I am a community college professor. In addition to teaching, my role includes mentoring students, helping them achieve their academic and career goals, and identifying the brightest ones to become role models, tutors and peer mentors.

The mystery surrounding the death of a Compton College honors student found in the trunk of a car parked in downtown San Diego deepened Thursday as a coroner's investigation determined she did not die of a cocaine overdose, as San Diego police had suggested. But court records in Los Angeles County show that Lina Dolores Aldridge, 19, was undergoing drug-rehabilitation counseling for cocaine possession in the year leading up to her death.

A man who witnessed last month's fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old honors student confirmed that the teenager drove at — and struck — a plainclothes deputy but disputed that the young man had sped toward the deputy as authorities contended. The shooting in a Studio City parking lot sparked outrage and disbelief among family and friends who described the recent Granada Hills Charter High School graduate as a "band geek" and the last person they would have expected to intentionally run down an officer.

Erika Elaine Sifrit, a onetime honors student and college basketball player, was found guilty of murdering two Ocean City tourists last year -- a crime prosecutors say she committed with her husband "for fun." The jury in Frederick deliberated just over four hours before pronouncing Sifrit, 25, guilty of first-degree murder for killing mortgage banker Joshua Ford, 32, and second-degree murder in the slaying of his girlfriend, insurance executive Martha Crutchley, 51, both of Fairfax, Va.

A 14-year-old honors student at Belmont High School near downtown Los Angeles was killed on the way to classes Monday morning when she was hit by one hit-and-run motorist and run over by another, police said. Khanh Ngo, 14, was crossing Beverly Boulevard at Bonnie Brae Street at 7:15 a.m. when she was struck by one eastbound auto whose driver then left the scene, Police Detective Arvin Turner said.

A high school senior whose entrepreneurial energies led her to start her own gift business has been honored by a major accounting and consulting firm, officials said Thursday. Yadira Cisneros, a Roosevelt High School student, is the recipient of the special Junior Achievement Entrepreneur of the Year award presented by Ernst & Young, said Jim Freer, area managing partner for the firm.

The teen-age mastermind of one of Orange County's most shocking murders was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the slaying of a 17-year-old honors student. Robert Chan, 19, a onetime high school valedictorian candidate, sat impassively as the judge pronounced the sentencing for the 1992 New Year's Eve killing of Stuart A. Tay of Orange.

A Cal State Fullerton honors student from Watts, fatally shot by two men outside a fast-food restaurant as his sister and fiancee looked on, was buried Friday in the cap and gown he was to have worn to his graduation later this month. Keith Solomon, 22, died early last Sunday at Martin Luther King Hospital. Police are still searching for his killer.

A high school honors student in Union, Ky., killed his parents and two sisters and then calmly went to trigonometry class. He showed the teacher and classmates his gun and surrendered, saying: "I've had a bad day," authorities reported. Clay Shrout, 17, was being held in the Kenton County Jail, charged with four counts of murder.

Students and teachers at Wilson High School in Long Beach were shaken by a new development in the case of Melody Ross, an honors student who was gunned down in a gang attack outside a homecoming football game last fall. Two Wilson students now stand accused of trying to intimidate witnesses scheduled to testify against the alleged assailants. On Friday, Long Beach police arrested a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl, accusing them of making "verbal and nonverbal" threats and intimidation of key witnesses inside and outside of the courtroom.

In August 2008, three months after graduating from UC Berkeley, I accepted the only job that I was offered after two months of applying: legal assistant at a tiny immigration law firm in San Francisco. It wasn't my dream job, but with the economy starting to falter, I was overjoyed at the prospect of anything. Things, as they tend to do, went downhill from there. My perennially stressed lawyer boss, who happened to be the only other person at the firm, blew up because I used a comma instead of a colon in the salutation of a business letter.

A once-promising high school football star accused of fatally shooting the mother of a young woman who was expected to testify against him in a robbery case was convicted Tuesday of attempting to intimidate a witness, but the jury deadlocked on the more serious charges against him. Tyquan Knox, 21, was charged with robbing Khristina Henry and her boyfriend three years ago, then killing Henry's mother, Pamela Lark, in an effort to dissuade the...

Police say the fatal shooting of a Wilson High School honors student apparently occurred when two rival groups of gang members got into a confrontation at the school's homecoming dance. Two reputed gang members were arrested Wednesday in connection with the shooting, which occurred Oct. 30 outside the school. Police said they are looking for other suspects. Melody Ross, who also was a track athlete, was gunned down as she and her friends were leaving a football game, police said.

Mourning students at Long Beach's Wilson High School gathered Monday by the pavement where classmate Melody Ross was shot after the homecoming football game. Leaving handwritten notes to Melody and her family, the teenagers lit candles and shed tears as they remembered the bubbly 16-year-old. "Why her?" asked sophomore Micah Mathis, 15, who took French with Melody, an honors student. "That's what I want to know." The mood at the coastal campus was somber as students, teachers and administrators struggled to comprehend what occurred Friday, when someone fired into a crowd of students leaving the game, striking three people, including Melody, who was fatally wounded.

Reporting from Long Beach Ben Bolch and Los Angeles -- The "Supergirl" Halloween costume that 16-year-old Melody Ross wore to the Wilson High School football game was befitting of her promising resume: honors student, pole vaulter and athlete, positive attitude, aspirations to attend UCLA. Those were the attributes that Melody's friends and family recalled Saturday as they gathered near the stadium gates at the Long Beach campus. They placed flowers and votive candles at the spot where she was fatally shot Friday night as she and her friends were leaving the Wilson homecoming game against Polytechnic High School.

A teen-ager who shot and killed a Paramount High School honors student during a robbery attempt at a fast-food restaurant was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Compton Superior Court Judge Steven Suzukawa sentenced Francisco Perez, 18, who was convicted in July of first-degree murder and attempted robbery for the June 17, 1992, slaying of Alfred Clark. Six years were added for the attempted robbery count.

A high school honors student was killed early Saturday when gunmen looking for rival gang members crashed a party and fought with a number of guests, police said. The name of the 17-year-old student, who attended Cathedral High School in Los Angeles, was not released. The violence erupted at midnight when a number of street thugs crashed a party at a home in the 5800 block of Bey Street, said Los Angeles police Detective Bernardo Lovato of the Hollenbeck station.

The Supreme Court gave a skeptical hearing Tuesday to lawyers for a girl who was strip-searched in school when she was 13 on suspicion that she had extra-strength ibuprofen in her underwear. Instead, most of the justices voiced concern about drugs, such as heroin and crack cocaine, and said they were wary of limiting officials' authority to search students for any drugs. "How is a school administrator supposed to know?" Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked.

Contraband candy has led to big trouble for an eighth-grade honors student. Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate. School spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo said the New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy. Supt. Reginald Mayo said he would review the decision to suspend the boy.