Stephen Strachan

Re "Success? That's not an elective," Column One, Nov. 2 My heart was racing as I read this article. Jordan High School Principal Stephen Strachan's unapologetic and innovative approach to raising education standards is courageous and necessary. Strachan makes it clear that if inner-city children are to be successful, they need a quality education, a support system and higher standards. These children simply need a sustained community of dedicated people to make a moral investment in their lives.

Los Angeles city school officials were caught off guard this week by the Church of Scientology's role in an upcoming event at a South Los Angeles high school, which, while not illegal, is considered unusual. On Monday, teenagers from about 25 countries are expected to meet with students at Jordan High School in Watts for a conference on human rights.

The head of the Los Angeles teachers union was among 39 people arrested Friday during a sit-in outside the school district headquarters, one among dozens of peaceful protests around the city by teachers and students outraged by plans for deep cuts in education spending. "Don't raise class size!" the protesters chanted before Los Angeles Police Department officers moved in to break up the demonstration. United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J.

A series of violent confrontations over the last two weeks between black and Latino students at three South Los Angeles high schools has taken authorities by surprise, raising fears of widening clashes. Police and school officials have responded with stepped-up patrols in and around Crenshaw, Manual Arts and Jordan high schools.

The election Tuesday was unlike any other. At stake was no candidate, no law, no taxes, no bond issue -- only a promise by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to make seven Los Angeles schools a lot richer and a lot better. To vote, a participant didn't need to be a citizen. And some got more than one vote. And another oddity: There was no organized opposition.

You can blame the failure of Los Angeles' latest school superintendent on racial politics, an incompetent school board or a bureaucracy impervious to reform. But you can't sell that to Stephen Strachan. Strachan is the principal at Jordan High in Watts. Like Supt. David Brewer, Strachan thinks big and is brimming with self-confidence. But unlike Brewer, Strachan has managed to move beyond summits and slogans to remake a high school long considered one of the district's worst.

In last Saturday's column, I relied on teenagers at Richmond High to help me understand how gang rape became a spectator sport on their San Francisco Bay area campus. They explained that bystanders who watched the assault on a 15-year-old girl outside their homecoming dance last month may have been too afraid to intervene. Or they didn't feel compelled to help because the victim wasn't in their clique. Or they were simply paralyzed by shock, fixated as if the violent scene was a snippet from a reality TV show.

A survey of 6,008 South Los Angeles high school students shows that many are frightened by violence in school, deeply dissatisfied with their choices of college preparatory classes, and -- perhaps most striking -- exhibit symptoms of clinical depression. "A lot of students are depressed because of the conditions in their school," said Anna Exiga, a junior at Jordan High School who was one of the organizers of the survey.

Students and fellow educators are rallying behind a fired Jordan High School teacher they say was sacked for encouraging political activism among her students. About 60 students rallied Wednesday at the Watts campus, while a colleague of the fired teacher said he and 15 other instructors planned to resign or transfer to other schools to protest the dismissal of Karen Salazar, a second-year English teacher. The dust-up has gone digital as well.

IN his first year as principal of Jordan High School in Watts, Stephen Strachan ordered 743 suspensions -- 600 more than the principal the year before -- to punish students for fighting, defying authority, defacing the campus and disrupting classes. His second year, he suspended students 596 times. Strachan lost 30 teachers -- almost one-third of his staff -- to other schools and different jobs at the end of that first year, and 16 more the next.