South Gate High School

Arraignment was postponed Tuesday for a South Gate high school student accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death on campus. Abraham Lopez, an 18-year-old senior at South East High School, appeared in a Downey courthouse Tuesday to have his arraignment rescheduled for Oct. 25. He remained in custody in lieu of $1.26-million bail. Lopez was stoic throughout the court proceeding, turning a few times to look at friends, relatives and his mother, who sobbed quietly in the back.

More than 25 years after it was envisioned, a new South Gate high school is set to open this week on property that became known for toxic contamination, contributed to the downfall of the school district's top official and then slipped from public attention. South Region High School No. 9 sparkles these days, with compact, understated modern buildings atop tons of clean, imported soil. There's hardly a reminder of the toxic legacy - until one glances across the street to the south side of the 36-acre property.

South Gate High School students have been taught that dental appointments and colds are no excuse to miss school. Apparently neither is a 6.8 earthquake. When the 3,970-student school reopened one week after last month's devastating temblor, 93% of the students reported to class. Within three days the attendance rate was 97%, said Jim Alther, the assistant principal who oversees attendance.

Arraignment was postponed Tuesday for a South Gate high school student accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death on campus. Abraham Lopez, an 18-year-old senior at South East High School, appeared in a Downey courthouse Tuesday to have his arraignment rescheduled for Oct. 25. He remained in custody in lieu of $1.26-million bail. Lopez was stoic throughout the court proceeding, turning a few times to look at friends, relatives and his mother, who sobbed quietly in the back.

South Gate High School's aggressive efforts to keep students in class have earned the school the best attendance record and the lowest dropout rate among all 49 Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. In the first three months of this school year, more than 95% of students were in class every day. And just 6% of students dropped out in 1990-91, the latest year for which figures are available, compared to 14.7% districtwide.

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy criticized police for never notifying school officials about potential danger from a student accused of fatally stabbing his former girlfriend Friday at a South Gate high school. Abraham Lopez, 18, was charged Monday with 10 criminal counts, including fatally stabbing 17-year-old Cindi Santana, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. Lopez, a South Gate resident, also faces counts for bringing weapons onto school grounds and assault charges for fighting and stabbing a student, a dean and a school police officer who rushed to Santana's aid. Their wounds are not life-threatening.

Administrators of the campus environment program of the Los Angeles Unified School District have presented two awards to South Gate High School. One plaque, sponsored in part by Los Angeles Beautiful, is for first place in the Southeast area for campus painting and cleanup. The other plaque is an outstanding achievement award for having won top-ranking beautification awards for several years.

More than 4,500 students plan to march Friday in an anti-drug and anti-gang rally sponsored by the South Gate Commission on Youth. The march will start at 9:15 a.m. at South Gate Junior High School, 4100 Firestone Blvd., and proceed to South Gate Park, 4900 Southern Ave., about a mile away. At the park, students will view display booths showing alternative activities to gang and drug involvement. These will include bands, drill teams, football and soccer teams and folkloric groups.

The City Council has voted unanimously to oppose busing South Gate students to Watts. At a Monday meeting, the council voted 5-0 to oppose redrawing of boundary lines for South Gate High School to send 250 city freshmen to Jordan High School in Watts. The proposal, made last month by the Los Angeles Unified School District, would have a "serious destablizing effect" on the community, council members said.

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy criticized police for never notifying school officials about potential danger from a student accused of fatally stabbing his former girlfriend Friday at a South Gate high school. Abraham Lopez, 18, was charged Monday with 10 criminal counts, including fatally stabbing 17-year-old Cindi Santana, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. Lopez, a South Gate resident, also faces counts for bringing weapons onto school grounds and assault charges for fighting and stabbing a student, a dean and a school police officer who rushed to Santana's aid. Their wounds are not life-threatening.

They fought through fevers, colds, torn ligaments, dislocated shoulders and lazy mornings when their parents had to drag them out of bed. Still, they showed up — every school day, from kindergarten to senior year. Ten students from South Gate Senior High School will graduate this week with 13 years of perfect attendance. That's rare, both locally and nationally. Most schools have only one or two by senior year. The classmates recognized this week for their flawless records began grade school in 1997.

Los Angeles school officials are starting over on a high school project in Maywood because the preferred site is so contaminated by industrial chemicals that it would cost at least $22 million to clean up, which would delay construction by as much as six years. The cancellation, announced last week, means that the Los Angeles Unified School District will be forced to break its long-standing pledge to take all schools off year-round operation by 2012.

Every day, the Los Angeles Unified School District fails its tens of thousands of ambitious students, dedicated teachers and hardworking principals in so many ways that it's difficult to imagine how its elephantine bureaucracy could shamble into some new outrage. Difficult, but not impossible, because the LAUSD runs this city's schools about like the generals run Myanmar.

For the second day in a row, students at South Gate High School boycotted classes Friday to protest a lack of teachers, books and classes. This time, they were met by administrators, district officials and a school board member who laid out a plan to satisfy some of those concerns. District officials said they took seriously the students' complaints and that they are moving fast to remedy them.

Nearly 500 South Gate High School students held a peaceful sit-in on the campus football field Thursday to demand more teachers, courses and books in classrooms that have been strained since the school returned to a traditional September-June calendar this fall. South Gate High has been struggling since it switched from a controversial year-round schedule to the regular calendar this year.

Nearly 500 South Gate High School students held a peaceful sit-in on the campus football field Thursday to demand more teachers, courses and books in classrooms that have been strained since the school returned to a traditional September-June calendar this fall. South Gate High has been struggling since it switched from a controversial year-round schedule to the regular calendar this year.

Inside one South Gate High School classroom on Wednesday, students chatted and strolled in and out while their substitute teacher sat, engrossed in a novel. In another class of 40 students, a boy held his backpack while searching for a seat among 38 desks. Last week, a senior algebra class -- also staffed by a substitute -- watched the comedy "Big Daddy."

South Gate city officials had a dream: to build shopping centers -- not schools -- on every parcel of undeveloped land to capture the millions of dollars the city believes it loses when residents shop elsewhere. But when the Los Angeles Unified School District embarked on a $14-billion school construction program, city officials were brought back to reality.