Jefferson High School

Henry Ramirez, meet Kyle Gosselin. We thought you should be introduced, at least virtually, because you have some things in common. You're a couple of low-key, low-drama, low-maintenance 17-year-olds who have just navigated 11th grade at large public high schools. Both of you are planning to go to college. Both thinking about careers in medicine. Both willing to work hard (but not insanely hard). Both smart (but not gunning to be No. 1). Yet how different two young lives can be.

A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs. The troubled campus in South Los Angeles was locked down after the fight broke out at 12:55 p.m., as students returned from lunch to their fifth-period classes.

The state's 2nd District Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision that vindicated the Los Angeles Unified School District in a case against a former principal. In the wake of a series of racially motivated brawls at Jefferson High School in 2005, Principal Norm Morrow agreed to step down amid criticism over how he handled the incidents. He later filed suit, claiming invasion of privacy and defamation over comments made to The Times by then-Supt.

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer threw a wrench into a charter school's plans to take over troubled Jefferson High School by offering his own proposal at a special board meeting Tuesday. Romer said his plan includes getting the year-round school back on a traditional calendar by September and reducing the number of students there by at least 1,000 from about 3,800.

A former high school principal who was unceremoniously replaced after a series of racially motivated melees on his campus last spring has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, saying he was unfairly blamed for the brawls. Norman K. Morrow was removed after fights between Latino and African American students at Jefferson High School in April and May, leading Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to describe the school as "out of control."

For weeks, Lionel Kelly studied the shy girl sitting a row ahead of him instead of his earth science lessons. As any 14-year-old boy would, he first noticed how cute she was. Her smooth skin, pink as seashells. Black hair dyed the color of applesauce, curls sprayed stiff, twisted into a long ponytail. It did not matter that he was black and she was a Latina, even on this Jefferson High School campus scarred by last year's violent student clashes that cut through black and brown like barbed wire.

A Jefferson High School senior learned during a student assembly Wednesday that she had won a $10,000 college scholarship, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said. The award to Jeannette Juarez, given by the Sallie Mae Fund as part of an effort to urge students to go to college, was presented by former professional football player Vince Papale. Papale, whose story is told in the movie "Invincible," is also a former teacher.

Lowe's Cos. posted fiscal third-quarter profit that met analysts' estimates. Net income fell to $344 million, or 23 cents a share, from $488 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier, the home-improvement retailer said. Excluding a write-down in the value of some stores and a tax benefit, earnings totaled 24 cents a share, in line with analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue declined 3% to $11.4 billion in the three months that ended Oct. 30.

Three Jefferson High School students suffered minor injuries Thursday in a lunchtime brawl involving more than 100 Latinos and blacks, authorities said. The melee erupted in and around the cafeteria about 1 p.m. when a male Latino student threw something at two black females who were fighting. The melee, which occurred after an annual evacuation drill, lasted about 15 minutes before it was broken up by police and school officials.

Two Jefferson High School students were arrested and another broke his hip Monday in the second melee on the campus in less than a week, authorities said. More than 100 black and Latino students were involved in what administrators say was a racially and gang-motivated brawl. Officials said school police used pepper spray to defend themselves and quell the melee. The incident occurred near the cafeteria at 12:15 p.m., when the two groups began gathering separately, officials said.