West High School

For the fifth year running, West High School of Torrance has won the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon. The nine-member team of three A students, three B students and three C students beat out Diamond Bar High School, which came in second, and Peninsula High School, which placed third. At the state decathlon in March, West will face about 45 other high schools, including Marshall High School, winner of the Los Angeles Unified School District Decathlon.

Michelle Suter-Unthank had never heard her son sound so poised, so mature. On a Friday evening in May, Marine Pfc. Jake Suter,18, called his mother and stepfather at their Stevenson Ranch home. For about six months, Suter had been stationed at the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Two days later, he would be deployed to Afghanistan. That night, he spoke to his parents for 2 1/2 hours. "We had a work-up on the Afghani people, and they're really nice people, they're very respectful people," his mother quoted him as saying.

Titters filled the West High School library as students twisted in their chairs, casting questioning glances at classmates on the sidelines who were decked out in fancy costumes that glistened with color. Their giggles gave way to admiring smiles as two Hungarian students twirled through a traditional folk dance.

Marshall High School beat out 63 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the annual Academic Decathlon, district officials announced Thursday night. Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic was the highest-scoring individual student, with 8,933 points. The decathlon tests students' knowledge in a variety of areas, including history. This year's focus was the French Revolution. Marshall first won a national championship in 1987. Since then, the district has won 15 state and 10 national competitions.

The banquet room, filled with friends and family of the 67 county academic decathlon teams, was abuzz with anticipation in the moments before the new county champion was announced. At a table in front of the stage, the nine-member team from West High School in Torrance sat quietly, their jaws clenched. Their coach, George Floratos, nervously wiped his palms with a cloth napkin while a parent seated behind him crossed her fingers on both hands.

Like any coach, George Floratos gives his team pep talks before competition. But when he prepares the team, he doesn't use the traditional X's and O's familiar to football strategists. Instead, his chalkboard is covered with the names of musical masterpieces and chemistry formulas--the game plans for this team's success. Floratos coaches Torrance's West High School Academic Decathlon team.

Question: What could be harder than spending a Saturday wrangling with some of Los Angeles County's best and brightest in a battle of the brains? Answer: Entering the fray only one year after your school's team won the county championship. Last year's academic decathlon team from Torrance's West High School basked in the glory, and this year's team has inherited the expectations. "The pressure's on us," acknowledged Gene Chuang, 17. "We know we can win.

West High School senior Cameron Vilhauer is a C student. So are classmates Michal Simek and John Mangan. But this weekend they will be among the top scholars competing for one of the most prized academic honors in the state. The Torrance trio, along with three B and three A students from West High, will compete against 500 students from 45 campuses at the California Academic Decathlon. The winner will compete in next month's national contest.

For the third consecutive year, Torrance's West High School won Los Angeles County's Academic Decathlon and will be one of two schools representing the county to compete in the state championship. West High School scored 44,752 points out of 60,000 possible, according to results announced at an awards banquet at the Quiet Cannon Country Club in Montebello on Thursday.

Dozens of Torrance students have been suspended in the wake of walkouts in support of their teachers' contract negotiations. Several North High School students who were suspended said they were informed that they could not return to school for two days. As many as 35 or 40 suspensions have occurred at North High after a Tuesday walkout, they estimated. School Board President David Sargent said he has been told that "at least 20" students were suspended at North High.

For the third consecutive year, Torrance's West High School won Los Angeles County's Academic Decathlon and will be one of two schools representing the county to compete in the state championship. West High School scored 44,752 points out of 60,000 possible, according to results announced at an awards banquet at the Quiet Cannon Country Club in Montebello on Thursday.

Students from the Los Angeles Unified School District's Taft High School and Los Angeles County's West High School will advance to the next level in the grueling Academic Decathlon scholastic competition, officials announced Thursday. Taft High students erupted in cheers when they heard at a banquet Thursday evening that their school had won the district competition. "Now we have the motivation we need to study and do well in the state [competition]," said Dean Schaffer, a junior at Taft.

These are exciting times for Courtney LaVere, and not just because the Buena High School senior has been named to the first-ever McDonald's All American girls' basketball team. Morning radio show personalities are set to visit her Ventura high school today for interviews. She's headed to a Lakers game Tuesday, where she and other All Americans will be introduced at halftime.

Torrance's West High School walked away with top honors Friday in the Academic Decathlon for Los Angeles County, the brain-exercising scholarly competition for public schools not in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Adding to West's big day, a junior from that campus snagged the medal for the highest individual scores. West, along with second placer, Burbank High School, will advance to the state competition in March, when a winner will be selected to advance to the national finals.

Juli Hartnell of Cornerstone Christian High is best known for her pitching. But the hard-throwing Hartnell, who as a freshman pitched the Eagles to a Southern Section Division VI title in 1998, did the job outside the circle Thursday. Hartnell hit a run-scoring single in the third inning to give the West a 1-0 victory over the East in the Ventura County Coaches Assn. senior all-star game at Borchard Park in Newbury Park. "I was a bit surprised," Hartnell said. "I'm not used to being the hitter."

Six high school football players were suspended this week in Torrance and are under criminal investigation in an alleged attack last month on a younger player who taunted them with racial slurs, according to school officials. The West High School varsity football players reportedly tied up a player on the freshman team and poked him in the buttocks area with a broomstick, said John Schmitt, an assistant superintendent of the Torrance Unified School District.

Several hundred students at three Torrance high schools walked out of their classes Tuesday morning in what they described as a show of support for their teachers, who have been working since June without contracts. It was the second time in five days that students in the Torrance Unified School District have demonstrated in support of teachers.

The Super Quiz, the last contest of the ninth Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon, attracted the most attention because it was the only part of the event open to the public. Saturday's contest at the Gahr High School gymnasium in Cerritos attracted crowds of screaming parents and well-wishers. The winning Super Quiz team gets a trophy and bragging rights regardless of how well it scores in the overall competition. The Super Quiz works this way: One student from each team goes to the gym floor.

A West High School senior has received a 1600 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test, the first student from the campus to obtain a perfect score in the Torrance school's 36-year history, officials announced Wednesday. Zachary Fornaca, 17, obtained the perfect score without preparing beforehand. It was the first time he took the test. "It was quite a surprise," said Fornaca, who hopes to attend Pomona College. "I did nothing to prepare for it, I've never taken one of the classes. . . .

The simulation of a slave auction in a classroom at West High School was done in the context of a serious history lesson and was a part of an entire unit of study on the period of U.S. history leading up to the Civil War. This unit also included the works of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth as well as information on Nat Turner and other important African Americans of the era.