Students

Re "Applying to UC? Don't fib," Feb. 18 Checking to make sure students aren't lying on their applications to the University of California is a great idea. Imagine: accountability for making statements that will bring you substantial value and advantage. I would like to see every institution of higher learning invest in fact-checking, because the stakes are so high. There is a great cost to honest students when liars are rewarded with an admission letter. Our legal system, our political system and our economic system depend on personal integrity.

A group of students from North Hollywood High School argued their way to two first place awards in the Duke Moot Court competition held at Duke University in Durham, N.C., over the weekend. The annual constitutional law debate tournament, organized by a Duke undergraduate student group, challenges students to argue both sides of a legal issue using only past Supreme Court decisions for research. This year's issue was the use of affirmative action in education, said North Hollywood coach Paul Landau.

Re "Schools pulling the plug on classroom coffeepots, fridges," March 3 On the surface, the Glendale Unified School District's plan to save $60,000 might seem like a pretty good idea, until one realizes that the ban will only be hurting students. My wife teaches in a nearby district. Her lunchtime is always spent in her classroom. A handful of students are ever present asking for help, using the computers or catching up on homework. Access to refrigerated food and drinks allows her to spend the entire day, including her lunch break and many hours of her own time after school, helping students in her classroom.

An Anaheim high school student was stabbed with a screwdriver Friday while another was assaulted with some type of club-style weapon, police said. The students were on lunch break at Magnolia High School when two juveniles who are not students at the school made their way onto campus and assaulted them, said Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez. "They somehow blended in with the students, and one of the suspects immediately hit one student on the back of the head with an object like a club or a broomstick," Martinez said.

Re "Cal State L.A. may switch to semesters," March 25 I was on the Cal State L.A. faculty from 1958 to 1992, and taught under both quarter and semester calendars. For six years, I served as a dean responsible for undergraduate curriculum management. With a 10-week quarter system, there is a lag in mastery, and students run out of time to catch up. It borders on sadism to subject students to a midterm in five weeks. Term papers, if assignable at all, are superficial. There is a further problem with a quarter-system curriculum.

After two threatening messages were found in a boys' bathroom at Hamilton High School, officials increased security Friday at the campus. The first message was found Wednesday when students saw a note scribbled on the wall warning that students would be injured on "4/24," said Earl Perkins, assistant superintendent of school operations for the Los Angeles Unified School District. "We immediately began an investigation into the matter," Perkins said. "Our first priority is our students . . . and staff."

An end-of-the-year block party at Kent State University went out of control as police fired pellets and used pepper spray to break up hundreds of students who set a string of street fires. Video posted on the Internet shows students hurling furniture and street signs into the flames Saturday night as a SWAT team in riot gear converged on the crowd. Kent police said the party grew violent after one reveler was arrested and students began pelting officers with debris. At least 64 students were arrested.

Khadijah Williams stepped into chemistry class and instantly tuned out the commotion. She walked past students laughing, gossiping, napping and combing one another's hair. Past a cellphone blaring rap songs. And past a substitute teacher sitting in a near-daze. Quietly, the 18-year-old settled into an empty table, flipped open her physics book and focused. Nothing mattered now except homework. "No wonder you're going to Harvard," a girl teased her. Around here, Khadijah is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago. What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.

Banks column: Sandy Banks' column in the July 12 California section referred to students attending Drew Middle School as "Compton middle school students." The school is in unincorporated Los Angeles County and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, though many students live in Compton.