School Nurse

A 16-year-old Pacoima youth stopped breathing on a school bus Monday morning and was pronounced dead an hour later at a hospital, authorities said. Jose Vitela, a sophomore at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, had muscular dystrophy and was in declining health, according to his uncle Enrique Garcia. The bus was en route to the Sun Valley school when the driver noticed that Jose wasn't breathing.

A 15-year-old Van Nuys High School student who was the father of a 6-month-old baby collapsed and died Tuesday in front of fellow students as he was changing into his gym uniform, authorities said. Ricardo Martinez fell off a locker room bench shortly before the gym class, which was to begin at 7:40 a.m., said Bob Collins, a superintendent for the southwest Valley area of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Regarding the Birds & Bees column April 30 ("Don't Let TV Be Your Teenager's Main Source of Sex Education"): I am a school nurse in Orange County and have a business called the Birds & Bees Connection. Our mission statement is to decrease teen pregnancy through parent-child education. As a sex educator for the past 20 years, I've become increasingly concerned about the material our children are exposed to on a regular basis. In each class I teach, I find especially the boys are becoming more and more sex-obsessed.

Sandra G. Henry was named the Orange County School Nurse of the Year by her peers Wednesday at a dinner celebrating National School Health Week. Henry, an Irvine Unified School District nurse, was selected by the Orange County School Nurses Organization for "being the epitome of our profession," said school nurse Norma Yockel, who nominated Henry.

Five times a week, Donna Grieshaber's pager buzzes at lunch time. A number flashes, and she either breathes a sigh of relief or grabs the phone and dials Santiago Elementary School in Lake Forest. Grieshaber's daughter, Alycia, is diabetic, and the first-grader must prick her finger with a small needle before eating lunch to test her blood-sugar level. A school aide watches Alycia in the office and sends the test result to Grieshaber by pager.

Since January, Colroy Gordon's second-grade education has consisted of a few hours each week with a visiting teacher at his home. Colroy's mother is too fearful to send the Hawthorne boy to a school with no full-time nurse. Nikki Marquez attends morning kindergarten in Los Angeles, but her mother hovers within five minutes of the classroom in case of an emergency. Both Colroy and Nikki have Type 1 diabetes.

A group of sign-toting parents and students called Wednesday morning for the ouster of Hart Street Elementary School Principal Dorothy Padilla, accusing her of neglecting medical emergencies involving students with broken bones.

Sign-toting parents and students at Hart Street Elementary School called Wednesday morning for the ouster of Principal Dorothy Padilla, accusing her of neglecting medical emergencies involving students with broken bones.

The symptoms are often clear: youngsters squinting and rubbing their eyes, looking confused during a classroom exercise, bumping into things, putting books too close to their faces, refusing to read. The causes, of course, are eyesight problems. And if left untreated, they can be serious obstacles to reading and learning. Many people think that sight troubles are easily discovered and corrected.

A high school nurse who seduced a 17-year-old student with an attention deficit disorder has been sentenced to three years probation at the West Los Angeles Municipal Court. Janet Mukai, 43, pleaded no contest in February to one count of having unlawful sex with a minor. The parents of the teenager, who attended Alexander Hamilton High School, found out about the affair when the boy left a love letter from the nurse in the pocket of a jacket that he borrowed from his brother.