Malibu High School

Al Valdez, a junior at Malibu High School, has been named winner of the "Freedom, Our Most Precious Heritage" award by the Optimist Club of Malibu. Valdez, whose essay was among 143 entries, addressed the value of freedom and its importance in a democratic society. "Freedom is a commodity we take for granted, yet our ancestors were willing to give their lives to obtain it. . . .

Marty Biegel, who took over as Fairfax High School's head basketball coach in 1969 at a time of racial tension in Los Angeles and united players and students both in the classroom and on the court, died Tuesday. He was 90. Biegel, who taught history in Los Angeles schools for more than 30 years, died at an assisted-living facility in Los Angeles. His death was confirmed by the Los Angeles County coroner's office. When the pint-size Biegel became the varsity basketball coach, Fairfax High was a mostly white, Jewish school near Hollywood that was strong in academics, not sports.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to spend as much as $100,000 over seven years to rebuild the pool at Malibu High School. Working with Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District representatives, a council subcommittee will explore the feasibility of upgrading the pool to state standards for interscholastic sports and adding a second pool for community residents to use.

Surfers in Malibu are used to sharing the waves with paddleboards, sailboats and the occasional Russian billionaire's 390-foot yacht. On Friday they were startled to see a 505-foot Navy destroyer anchored off Surfrider Beach near the Malibu Pier. The destroyer John Paul Jones was making the Navy's first-ever port call in Malibu and giving its 270-member crew shore leave there for the weekend. The community-organized Navy Days is offering sailors free shuttle rides up and down the 26-mile-long city, beach volleyball and kayak excursions, and discounts at shops and restaurants Saturday and Sunday.

Marty Biegel, who took over as Fairfax High School's head basketball coach in 1969 at a time of racial tension in Los Angeles and united players and students both in the classroom and on the court, died Tuesday. He was 90. Biegel, who taught history in Los Angeles schools for more than 30 years, died at an assisted-living facility in Los Angeles. His death was confirmed by the Los Angeles County coroner's office. When the pint-size Biegel became the varsity basketball coach, Fairfax High was a mostly white, Jewish school near Hollywood that was strong in academics, not sports.

* Shelters Agoura High School, 28545 W. Drive Ave., Agoura (818) 889-1262 Malibu High School, 30215 Morning View Drive (310) 457-6801 Michael Landon Community Center, Malibu Bluffs Park, 24250 Pacific Coast Highway (213) 850-0199 or (805) 491-3124 * American Red Cross: (213) 739-5200 * L.A.

The superintendent of schools threw his support behind a new Malibu High School this week, announcing his recommendations to a crowd of about 200 people. Eugene Tucker, superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, read his 18-page, single-spaced report Tuesday night to a restless crowd at the McKinley Elementary School auditorium. The school board is expected to make a final decision on the school March 25.

Surfers in Malibu are used to sharing the waves with paddleboards, sailboats and the occasional Russian billionaire's 390-foot yacht. On Friday they were startled to see a 505-foot Navy destroyer anchored off Surfrider Beach near the Malibu Pier. The destroyer John Paul Jones was making the Navy's first-ever port call in Malibu and giving its 270-member crew shore leave there for the weekend. The community-organized Navy Days is offering sailors free shuttle rides up and down the 26-mile-long city, beach volleyball and kayak excursions, and discounts at shops and restaurants Saturday and Sunday.

A college preparatory school in Malibu for grades seven through 12 could help relieve the district's financial woes by attracting students who would otherwise go to private schools, said a report presented Monday to the Santa Monica-Malibu school board. The report by the Malibu High School Study Committee said 30% to 40% of school-age children in Malibu go to private schools, compared to a statewide average of about 11%.

It was rare for Louis Leithold to miss a day at Malibu High School, where he taught Advanced Placement calculus for the past several years. He had been pounding theorems and proofs into the heads of his teenage charges for eight months straight. He had humored them into a homework load -- two hours a night -- that could incite rebellion in most other classrooms. He made them memorize and recite complicated rules of calculus until the theorems ruled their brains.

Devendra Banhart and Lauren Dukoff walk around the Space 15 Twenty gallery in Hollywood, giggling. Friends since they met at Malibu High School 10 years ago, the pair, who call each other Obi (Banhart's middle name) and Lo, are also artistic collaborators: Dukoff has been photographing the indie folkie-turned-major-label-star since Banhart was spending his afternoons practicing piano in the high school music room. The photos collected in her new book, "Family," offer an intimate glimpse into the lives of Banhart and an ever-widening creative tribe that has formed here in L.A. (An exhibition at Space 15 Twenty, up through Aug. 16, features a selection of the images, along with original artwork by Banhart and others.

If Nancy Drew attended Malibu High School, she'd have a doozy of a deepening mystery on her hands. Call it the Case of the Purloined Palms. Two Saturdays ago, several individuals in two white trucks dug up 80 or so tropical queen palm trees that parent volunteers had planted on the campus over Thanksgiving weekend. Now, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detectives are investigating, and parents who planted the trees are left feeling outraged. "I'm basically heartbroken and traumatized," said parent Jill Berliner.

The parents had the best of intentions. They planted 80 palm trees to spruce up a forlorn hillside at Malibu High School, between the athletic field and the asphalt parking lot. A number of volunteers spent two days over the Thanksgiving weekend putting in the tropical Queen palms. Now, it looks as if they are going to remove them after a raft of Malibu Park neighbors weighed in with complaints about obscured views and fire danger.

The names were scrawled on a single tile in a boy's restroom at Malibu High School, all seven of them male African American students. Written next to them was the note, "On April 14th . . . boom." The vandalism has shaken nerves on the 1,300-student campus, where fewer than three dozen students are black. The tagging was discovered by campus security last week. Principal Mark Kelly recognized the April 14 date as the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's assassination and immediately called authorities, concerned that the message was a threat of violence.

The videos started popping up last month on YouTube. In one, secretly videotaped by a student, a teacher at Malibu High School loses control of the class and raises his voice while students laugh at him. In another, teenagers make fun of fellow students, who also appear to be taped without their knowledge. The videos have roiled the high school and sparked a debate among students, parents and administrators about what to do.

When Louis Leithold, an 80-year-old math instructor at Malibu High School, died of natural causes in April, just days before his class was to take the Advanced Placement calculus exam, his students were devastated. But they vowed to make him proud, and the results were better than they or school officials could have imagined. According to Malibu High Principal Mark Kelly, Leithold's 16 students in BC, or advanced, calculus attained an average score of 4.

Malibu High School Principal Bob Donahue was forced to resign abruptly last week, leaving parents, teachers and students shaken and unsure about the future of the fledgling institution. Donahue is the second high school principal in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to resign this year at the direction of Supt. Neil Schmidt, himself only on the job a year. Santa Monica High School Principal Bernard (Nardy) Samuels submitted his resignation in February.

Malibu High School has lifted its enrollment limit to make room for 30 more ninth-graders next fall because of a strong response from the community. Administrators had originally intended to launch the school with 90 students, with at least 35% minorities. But so many students applied that the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education approved increasing the enrollment limit by one third, to 120 students.

It was rare for Louis Leithold to miss a day at Malibu High School, where he taught Advanced Placement calculus for the past several years. He had been pounding theorems and proofs into the heads of his teenage charges for eight months straight. He had humored them into a homework load -- two hours a night -- that could incite rebellion in most other classrooms. He made them memorize and recite complicated rules of calculus until the theorems ruled their brains.

Four weeks ago, few students at Malibu High School would have known it was the start of Black History Month. There were no kick-off events and no guest speakers. Then, a handful of African American students on campus decided to make a change. For the first time, the predominantly white Malibu High commemorated the event with weekly lessons on Madam C.J. Walker, Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman.