John Muir High School

With each click of his mouse, Sam Picture wondered if John Muir High School was a good career move. Stories of high dropout rates, low test scores and violence popped on his screen when he researched the 55-acre campus in northwest Pasadena in January 2008. He didn't see it as a deterrent, but rather, a challenge. Picture, now the school's athletic director, is one of the many teachers, administrators and counselors hired to turn around the troubled high school, which since 2001 has cycled through five principals.

With each click of his mouse, Sam Picture wondered if John Muir High School was a good career move. Stories of high dropout rates, low test scores and violence popped on his screen when he researched the 55-acre campus in northwest Pasadena in January 2008. He didn't see it as a deterrent, but rather, a challenge. Picture, now the school's athletic director, is one of the many teachers, administrators and counselors hired to turn around the troubled high school, which since 2001 has cycled through five principals.

Several other young men have told detectives they were sexually abused as teenagers by Clyde Ezra Turner, the renowned high school track coach arrested this week on suspicion of molesting a 15-year-old boy, Pasadena police said Wednesday. "We've had several phone calls--some of them relating experiences from a long time ago--allegations similar to the original incident," said Pasadena Police Lt. Keith Jones.

Re "To improve, Muir High blazes a trail," March 31 John Muir High School has struggled since the Pasadena Unified School District redrew district boundaries, concentrating the city's poorest and most marginalized students at Muir while allowing more-affluent schools to cherry-pick some of Muir's most ambitious students. Meanwhile, the district allowed five principals to shuffle through the school in six years. Pasadena has basically implemented a policy of separate and unequal schools, and who gets the blame -- the teachers.

Four bullets were fired Monday at a patrol car driven by a Pasadena school police officer. She was not injured, and authorities were searching for the assailant in the northwest part of the city. One bullet hit the right mirror of the cruiser but the other three missed, Pasadena Unified School District Police Chief Jaredo Blue said. "This was an attempt to murder a police officer," Blue said. "This is a very dangerous person."

Several hundred students at Pasadena's John Muir High School left classes Wednesday to protest overcrowded conditions and a dearth of teachers. When the bell sounded at 9 a.m., the students poured out of their classrooms, waving banners and yelling. "I just wanted to say that right now we're all crowded in our classrooms," one student bellowed through a loudspeaker. "We've got 48 people in our classroom. How crowded are we going to get?" The protest lasted about two hours. Dr.

A judge Wednesday ordered John Muir High School track coach Clyde Turner, who has been charged with molesting two male athletes, to stay away from that school, a middle school and track meets. Turner, 43, appeared in Pasadena Municipal Court, but his preliminary hearing on three felony counts and a misdemeanor was postponed to June 8. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A 22-year-old former student at John Muir High School has been arrested in the double slaying of the school's most popular teacher and a 17-year-old student, Pasadena police said today. Robert Gregg Butler of Azusa was arrested late Monday night at his home and booked into Pasadena City Jail on suspicion of murder in the Dec. 13 shooting deaths of social science teacher Robert Jones, 47, and Ronald McClendon, a junior varsity basketball player at John Muir, Officer Mike Guerin said.

Felony charges were filed Friday against two mathematics teachers at a Pasadena high school, alleging they had sex with two students who were minors at the time, authorities said. Cyrus Javaheri and Tina Louise Dezerne, both of Pasadena, are charged in a 19-count criminal complaint that accuses the two of sexual contact with the girls over a two-year-period, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The statistics at John Muir High School are alarming: five principals in six years and test scores so dismal that the state has been monitoring the Pasadena school for four years. To turn around the troubled school, administrators, teachers and community members are undertaking an ambitious -- and unusual -- effort that includes requiring all teachers and staff to reapply for their jobs.

It had been a regular sort of evening until the man in the bright yellow blazer showed up. The varsity football players from John Muir High in Pasadena had gathered for their annual season-ending banquet at a country club beside the Rose Bowl. Dinner was served. Speeches were made and trophies handed out. Exactly the way high school football banquets are supposed to go. Then came the man in yellow.

Pasadena, a city of 135,000, has nearly 100 neighborhood organizations. Although many are older and most are wealthier, few are as active as NATHA, a neighborhood in transition in the city's northwest area. Neighborhood mission Originally, three separate associations (Navarro, Tremont and Howard) made up the area.

Felony charges were filed Friday against two mathematics teachers at a Pasadena high school, alleging they had sex with two students who were minors at the time, authorities said. Cyrus Javaheri and Tina Louise Dezerne, both of Pasadena, are charged in a 19-count criminal complaint that accuses the two of sexual contact with the girls over a two-year-period, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The Pasadena Board of Education has agreed to pay $355,000 over the next 12 years to a teenage boy who was molested and sexually abused by former track coach Clyde Turner, according to a settlement agreement released Friday. The boy's family sued the district last April, saying that he would never have been molested if school officials had disclosed complaints about alleged molestation against the former coach at John Muir High School.

Four bullets were fired Monday at a patrol car driven by a Pasadena school police officer. She was not injured, and authorities were searching for the assailant in the northwest part of the city. One bullet hit the right mirror of the cruiser but the other three missed, Pasadena Unified School District Police Chief Jaredo Blue said. "This was an attempt to murder a police officer," Blue said. "This is a very dangerous person."

The Pasadena Board of Education has agreed to pay $355,000 over the next 12 years to a teenage boy who was molested and sexually abused by former track coach Clyde Turner, according to a settlement agreement released Friday. The boy's family sued the district last April, saying that he would never have been molested if school officials had disclosed complaints about alleged molestation against the former coach at John Muir High School.

A judge Wednesday ordered John Muir High School track coach Clyde Turner, who has been charged with molesting two male athletes, to stay away from that school, a middle school and track meets. Turner, 43, appeared in Pasadena Municipal Court, but his preliminary hearing on three felony counts and a misdemeanor was postponed to June 8. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A renowned Pasadena track coach was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of "annoying or molesting" a second minor and bail was set at $1 million, one day after he had posted bail in a similar case, police said Wednesday. Clyde Ezra Turner was booked on two charges including, "annoying or molesting a child under 18," police said. Turner was arrested Wednesday after several other young men told detectives they were sexually abused by him when they were teenagers.