Student Safety

Hoover High School junior Christopher Chung learned while scrolling through Facebook that his school was monitoring students' online activities. Christopher saw an article posted by a friend about the Glendale Unified School District hiring a company to screen students' social media posts. The school district had been doing so for about a year. "I heard rumors that GUSD was doing a little bit of monitoring - but nothing as official as this," he said. "The only way students were finding out about it was through social media.

An outside investigator has been brought in to examine a classroom altercation between a teacher and student that resulted in the Santa Monica High School instructor being placed on leave and the pupil's arrest. Supt. Sandra Lyon said the report is expected by the end of spring break next week. Lyon has come under fire for her remarks after a cellphone video of the classroom fight went viral. The superintendent was sharply critical of the teacher, and pledged support to the student's family.

Walton Intermediate School will host a safety forum for parents and students on Thursday. During the meeting, which starts at 7 p.m., police and school officials will discuss strategies for keeping children safe, provide security tips and answer questions from the audience, said Alan Trudell, spokesman for the Garden Grove Unified School District. The forum is sponsored by Walton Intermediate PTA, and free child care will be provided.

SAN FRANCISCO - An attorney is vowing to appeal a federal court ruling that a Northern California high school that asked students to remove American flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo acted reasonably to avoid igniting ethnic tensions. The ruling stemmed from a 2010 incident that provoked angry commentary across the country and a lawsuit by students claiming their constitutional rights had been violated. An attorney for three students who sued said he would ask a larger panel of the 9th Circuit to overturn the ruling.

It took exactly one week for nearly 300 students at Roosevelt High School to hack through security so they could surf the Web on their new school-issued iPads, raising new concerns about a plan to distribute the devices to all students in the district. Similar problems emerged at two other high schools as well, although the hacking was not as widespread. Officials at the Los Angeles Unified School District have immediately halted home use of the Apple tablets until further notice.

SAN FRANCISCO - An attorney is vowing to appeal a federal court ruling that a Northern California high school that asked students to remove American flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo acted reasonably to avoid igniting ethnic tensions. The ruling stemmed from a 2010 incident that provoked angry commentary across the country and a lawsuit by students claiming their constitutional rights had been violated. An attorney for three students who sued said he would ask a larger panel of the 9th Circuit to overturn the ruling.

A state legislative committee on Wednesday rejected a proposal to allow school districts to train teachers and administrators to use guns to protect campuses against armed intruders. Only one member of the seven-member Assembly Education Committee voted for the bill introduced by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks) in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. “What we're talking about is protecting kids,” Donnelly told the committee regarding AB 202. Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo)

Scores of Brea-Olinda High School students walked off campus Thursday and staged a sit-down strike in the middle of a busy street to protest the cancellation of a popular spirit rally. School officials said about 200 students took part, though police said about one-third that number blocked traffic. The demonstration on Wild Cat Way was broken up by about 40 officers and school officials, who described the teens as unruly. No one was injured or arrested.

Senior citizens and runners are calling on the Laguna Beach Board of Education to reconsider its ban on public use of a high school track during school hours. For as long as many residents can remember, Laguna Beach High has opened its track to the public during and after school. But six months ago the board voted to bar non-students from using the grounds during instructional hours, citing safety concerns. At a board meeting last week, about 10 residents spoke against the closure, citing health and emotional reasons as well as the need for the community to congregate.

Following news that students at a Los Angeles high school had hacked district-issued iPads and were using them for personal use, district officials have halted home use of the Apple tablets until further notice. It took exactly one week for nearly 300 students at Theodore Roosevelt High School to hack through security so they could surf the Web on their new school-issued iPads, raising new concerns about a plan to distribute the devices to all students in   the district . "Outside of the district's network ... a user is free to download content and applications and browse the Internet without restriction," two senior administrators said in a memo to the Board of education and L.A. schools Supt.

SAN FRANCISCO - A Northern California high school that asked students to remove American flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo acted reasonably to avoid igniting ethnic tensions, a federal appeals court ruled unanimously Thursday. The ruling stemmed from a 2010 incident that provoked angry commentary across the country and a lawsuit by students claiming their constitutional rights had been violated. In siding with the Morgan Hill Unified School District, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said administrators at Live Oak School had reason to fear the flag attire might spark a potentially violent race-related disturbance during the school-sanctioned celebration of the Mexican holiday.

SAN FRANCISCO - A high school's decision to prevent students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco De Mayo forced a federal appeals court Thursday to consider the friction between free speech and pupil safety. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, meeting here for arguments, appeared inclined to accept that school officials in a Northern California district had reason to be concerned about racial tensions when several boys showed up in U.S. flag shirts on a day set aside to celebrate Mexican heritage.

Following news that students at a Los Angeles high school had hacked district-issued iPads and were using them for personal use, district officials have halted home use of the Apple tablets until further notice. It took exactly one week for nearly 300 students at Theodore Roosevelt High School to hack through security so they could surf the Web on their new school-issued iPads, raising new concerns about a plan to distribute the devices to all students in   the district . "Outside of the district's network ... a user is free to download content and applications and browse the Internet without restriction," two senior administrators said in a memo to the Board of education and L.A. schools Supt.

It took exactly one week for nearly 300 students at Roosevelt High School to hack through security so they could surf the Web on their new school-issued iPads, raising new concerns about a plan to distribute the devices to all students in the district. Similar problems emerged at two other high schools as well, although the hacking was not as widespread. Officials at the Los Angeles Unified School District have immediately halted home use of the Apple tablets until further notice.

Hoover High School junior Christopher Chung learned while scrolling through Facebook that his school was monitoring students' online activities. Christopher saw an article posted by a friend about the Glendale Unified School District hiring a company to screen students' social media posts. The school district had been doing so for about a year. "I heard rumors that GUSD was doing a little bit of monitoring - but nothing as official as this," he said. "The only way students were finding out about it was through social media.

A state legislative committee on Wednesday rejected a proposal to allow school districts to train teachers and administrators to use guns to protect campuses against armed intruders. Only one member of the seven-member Assembly Education Committee voted for the bill introduced by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks) in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. “What we're talking about is protecting kids,” Donnelly told the committee regarding AB 202. Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo)

SAN FRANCISCO - A Northern California high school that asked students to remove American flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo acted reasonably to avoid igniting ethnic tensions, a federal appeals court ruled unanimously Thursday. The ruling stemmed from a 2010 incident that provoked angry commentary across the country and a lawsuit by students claiming their constitutional rights had been violated. In siding with the Morgan Hill Unified School District, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said administrators at Live Oak School had reason to fear the flag attire might spark a potentially violent race-related disturbance during the school-sanctioned celebration of the Mexican holiday.

SAN FRANCISCO - A high school's decision to prevent students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco De Mayo forced a federal appeals court Thursday to consider the friction between free speech and pupil safety. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, meeting here for arguments, appeared inclined to accept that school officials in a Northern California district had reason to be concerned about racial tensions when several boys showed up in U.S. flag shirts on a day set aside to celebrate Mexican heritage.

In the wake of last week's shooting on campus, USC on Tuesday announced heightened security measures that will restrict late-night entrance to the university and require identification checks for all visitors between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. In addition, outside promoters will be banned from working on USC social events at campus facilities or on nearby Fraternity Row, according to USC President C. L. Max Nikias. The shooting, in which four people were wounded — none of them USC students — occurred outside a Halloween party promoted by a non-USC firm that invited people from across the city.

Memories of molestations by Roman Catholic priests are fresh in the public's mind, along with the cover-ups of those crimes by church leaders. Less remembered is the McMartin Pre-School case of the late 1980s. The accusations of sexual abuse and satanic rituals at that family-run preschool in Manhattan Beach panicked a generation of parents. But the case eventually fell apart because some of the allegations were proved untrue, and no one was ever convicted. Which one of these more closely resembles the situation at Miramonte Elementary School, where the entire staff will be replaced on Thursday?