Teachers

For a fleeting moment in her underdog campaign, Monica Ratliff faltered. The candidate for the Los Angeles school board stood outside her chief fundraiser's home and balked at the task of asking people for money. Then, she said, she thought of three struggling students in her fifth-grade class at San Pedro Street Elementary, located in a gritty downtown Los Angeles neighborhood. She thought of the vocational programs, better training for teachers and other ideas she could push for as a board member to keep her students from falling off track.

MOORE, Okla. - Preston and Nikki McCurtain are exhausted. It's been a week since a massive tornado tore through this Oklahoma City suburb, leaving thousands homeless and 24 dead, including 10 children. Seven were students at Plaza Towers Elementary School, where Nikki McCurtain was about to finish her first year as a fourth-grade teacher. As Nikki grieves - one of her 26 students lost a sibling, and she knows the children who died - her husband helps others with their pain. He manages Moore Funeral and Cremation in this wounded city.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Sixteen children and a teacher were killed Saturday when their school van burst into flames in eastern Pakistan, apparently due to a short circuit. President Asif Ali Zardari expressed "deep shock" over the tragedy and ordered authorities to investigate the incident. Pakistani media quoted police officials as saying the van was moving through eastern Punjab province when a short circuit ignited gasoline leaking from the fuel tank. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the van was carrying 24 children.

Third-grade teacher Kate Lewis said Irma Cobian is the best principal she's had in nine years at Weigand Avenue Elementary School in Watts. Joseph Shamel called Cobian a "godsend" who has used her mastery of special education to show him how to craft effective learning plans for his students. Los Angeles Unified Supt. John Deasy praised a plan developed by Cobian and her team to turn around the struggling campus - where most students test below grade level in reading and math - calling it a "well-organized program for accelerated student achievement.

Re "Oklahoma twister 'was a monster,'" May 21 It is heartbreaking to read of homes destroyed, lives upended, children killed and hundreds left homeless. We know that, without effective action to combat climate change, these events will become more frequent. And yet the political leaders of Oklahoma are right-wing ideologues who either reject the idea of global warming or question its effects on weather catastrophes. What will it take to get them to realize that their inaction will lead to more disasters?

The race for an open seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education was close in early returns with Monica Ratliff ahead despite financial support and union backing that made her opponent, Antonio Sanchez, a heavy favorite. In the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees election, incumbent Nancy Pearlman was leading challenger David Vela, according to returns. Sanchez, 31, had the benefit of the combined clout of labor unions along with a deep-pocketed political-action committee spearheaded by outgoing L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, which amassed more than $1 million on his behalf for the runoff.

On its face, the election this week of a Los Angeles fifth-grade teacher to the Board of Education was a stunner. Monica Ratliff's low-budget effort included her boyfriend, a film school instructor, as her campaign manager. She had no paid staff and no meaningful help from her own politically active teachers union. Her strategy to achieve some name recognition was to mail out refrigerator magnets, which cost $5,000 in scarce campaign funds. Ten to 20 faithful volunteers knocked on doors every weekend.

"The English Teacher" is a tragedy masquerading as a comedy and doing a disservice to both. The same could be said for the film's normally fine cast. Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane and Michael Angarano have all had better days. The movie begins with a stereotype. Linda Sinclair (Moore) is the teacher of the title. Middle-aged, single with cats, she teaches high school English in a small Pennsylvania town. Her passion is saved for her students and the literary greats whose writing she loves most of all. Only a taste of her classroom fire makes it into the movie, not nearly enough to put Linda in league with Robin Williams in "Dead Poets Society" or Richard Dreyfuss in "Mr. Holland's Opus.

SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego teacher pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of possessing child pornography, which could bring a prison sentence between 35 years and life. Timothy James Hensley, 39, a science teacher at Bell Middle School, pleaded guilty to receiving images of a 10-year-old girl and other minors "in sexually explicit conduct. " No evidence suggests the images were those of his students, according to court documents. Hensley is set to be sentenced Aug. 12 in San Diego federal court.

A former Los Angeles Unified School District teacher was ordered to stand trial on 14 charges of sexually assaulting nine students and a relative, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in Long Beach ruled Monday that Robert Pimentel, 57, must stand trial on multiple charges of continuous sexual abuse and molestation, two days after testimony by his alleged victims during his preliminary hearing. The judge also dismissed two charges against Pimentel.