Santa Monica High

The City Council this week urged the Santa Monica/Malibu Board of Education to consider how a proposed high school in Malibu would affect Santa Monica High School. The proposed school has some Santa Monica parents worried that it would take away Santa Monica High School's status as a college prep school, drain Santa Monica's educational resources and create an ethnic imbalance, with mostly Anglo students attending the new high school. Some urged the council, which this year is giving $1.

Santa Monica police are investigating an alleged racial incident at Santa Monica High School in which an African American student said fellow members of the wrestling team chained him to a locker and hung a noose around a brown wrestling dummy. He also told police that those teammates made racially charged remarks. Although the incident allegedly happened more than a month ago, it was reported to the Santa Monica Police Department on June 21 by the student and his mother, Victoria Gray.

A large parking lot will open Monday at Santa Monica High School. The 420-space lot is at the northeast corner of the school grounds, off Olympic Boulevard. It replaces a lot at 7th Street and Michigan Avenue, where 21 portable classrooms have been placed. The classrooms will be used during the reconstruction of the science and technology buildings.

Over months of Friday mornings, the teenagers dug holes for kale and eggplant. They staked and tied vines heavy with tomatoes and pulled out the plants when the season was done. Working alongside them on a narrow strip of schoolyard outside Olympic High in Santa Monica was Ray Garcia, the executive chef at the swanky restaurant Fig in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, who came each week to the school to teach and to learn and to try to open the teenagers' eyes and palates. Quietly, he urged them along, talking about the plants and his work.

Santa Monica High School, representing the United States, took third place at an international youth music competition in Vienna, it was announced Thursday. The 85-member symphony orchestra and the school's smaller chamber orchestra won honors for selections such as Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture," Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 2 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

The Santa Monica High School Symphony Orchestra will leave for Spain next week to perform in a series of international music festivals. The 83-member group will first play at the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Valencia. From there, they will travel to other cities in Spain to perform in festivals in which professional musicians play. The invitations themselves are an honor, said Jeff Edmons, director and conductor of the high school orchestra.

A committee of parents, teachers, administrators, students and community members will be set up to examine the curriculum, student population and other aspects of Santa Monica High School. The board of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District this week gave its preliminary approval for the committee.

The Santa Monica High School students craned their necks Friday as they walked past the nurse's office, curiously eyeing two boxes with signs that said "Take One." Some almost fell over backward, while others returned for a closer look. A few discreetly dipped a hand into one of the boxes and pulled out a packet without missing a step.

Susan Wilson walked into the cafeteria at Santa Monica High a few weeks ago and finally saw the product of a year's work. She scanned the room, table after table, observing loud teenagers free from teachers and lectures. There was nothing different about this lunch period, except for what she saw as she was about to walk out the door. "It was one of our basketball players," she said. "It was one of the players who had had some trouble in class and had been academically ineligible before.

Former Santa Monica High receiver Michael Jackson tore ligaments in his right knee during a July 20 practice for the 43rd annual California Shrine All-Star Football Classic. Jackson, who was among 64 of the state's best recently graduated high school players selected to play in the game, underwent surgery July 27 and is expected to be sidelined seven to eight months. Jackson, who will attend Washington State on a scholarship, is expected to apply for a redshirt freshman season.

Police and school officials questioned Monday why a seemingly upbeat and well-liked freshman at Santa Monica High School bolted from baseball practice, climbed to the 10th floor of a hotel and leaped to his death. Matthew Mezza, 14, was reportedly practicing with teammates about 5 p.m. Friday when he abruptly ran from the group, crossed the street to the Sheraton-Delfina Hotel and jumped from the upper floor as his horrified teammates looked on, said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Jay Trisler.

Edgar Andres caught the movie bug when he was 16 years old, after a filmmaker came to his high school to talk about the craft. Soon after, the teen joined a couple of programs, the Urban Oasis Film Academy and Inner City Filmmakers, which teach urban youth the basics of filmmaking. For Andres, who prefers classics such as "Casablanca" and "The Godfather," the programs were a chance to see how movies were put together. He was so eager to get started on his career that when he graduated from Santa Monica High in 2009 he decided to look for work immediately.

The color scheme in the Katz household has undergone a radical change. Out is powder blue and gold ? what were they thinking? ? and in are orange-and-black patterns. A short drive from the UCLA campus, the home where Ryan Katz was raised has become Corvallis, Ore., South. Katz, Oregon State's quarterback, on Saturday returns to the Rose Bowl, where he and his family used to root for UCLA. Now? You could say they are all eager Beavers. "There are going to be quite a few family members and friends there, maybe 100," said Katz, a redshirt sophomore who graduated from Santa Monica High School.

Harold Connolly, who at the 1956 Olympics captured the gold medal in the hammer throw as well as the attention of the world for his Cold War romance with the discus champion from Czechoslovakia, died Wednesday. He was 79. Connolly, who was one of the greatest ever to compete in his event, was exercising on a stationary bicycle at a gym in Catonsville, Md., when he fainted and hit his head on the floor. He died of brain trauma from a concussion, his family said. A four-time Olympian, Connolly broke the American record for the hammer throw 12 times and the world record seven times.

Norm Lacy Championship coach in Santa Monica Norm Lacy, 56, who coached Santa Monica and St. Monica Catholic high schools to Southern Section football championships and was serving as the athletic director at Santa Monica, died Saturday at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio after suffering a heart attack while on vacation. Lacy coached St. Monica to a Southern Section football championship in 1998 and Santa Monica to a championship in 2001. He also coached wrestling and golf but gave up coaching in 2003 and continued as athletic director.

To those who suggest, as many do, that my brain doesn't seem to function very effectively at times, I know exactly what's wrong with me. And I blame my parents. Never during my upbringing did I hear the words that so many millions of children dread: "You're going to take piano lessons, and you're going to like them." My parents never played any instruments, and the only music in my house was TV-show theme songs. Sure, there were music classes in my Northern California schools, but with no encouragement or curiosity, I missed the boat.

The school's hotshot junior varsity wrestler prefers to play Bach on the viola. A baseball player belts out a mean Mozart on the clarinet. And one of the campus eccentrics, known as "the guy with the blue hair," gives a brilliant performance on the bass. Welcome to Santa Monica High School, where the coolest clique on campus is the school's symphony orchestra.

The term student-athlete is a misnomer much of the time, but not in the cases of Rick Heineman and Zack Nishimura. Heineman, a Culver City High senior, and Nishimura, a Santa Monica High junior, play varsity football and baseball. Like many other high school athletes, they would like to earn athletic scholarships to universities, and they dream of playing professional sports one day. But neither dwells in his dreams.

Homecomings manifest themselves in various ways. For conductor David Robertson, his latest return to the Golden State will be the musical equivalent of a ticker-tape parade. Born in Malibu, Robertson graduated from Santa Monica High School before a long period of European education and employment. But in 2005 he firmly reoriented his career stateside by assuming the music directorship of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, a battered if venerable ensemble that had known better days and needed his combination of technical skill, musical intelligence and infectious enthusiasm.

Julian Ayala tells anyone who will listen that the Pico Youth & Family Center pulled him from the grip of substance abuse and street gangs. "It was the root of my transformation as a human being," said Ayala, 19. A year ago, Ayala, then a high school senior, hesitantly stood before the Santa Monica City Council. "I can't do this," he said at one point, stepping down from the microphone. But, after he was questioned by a council member, Ayala settled down.