Recently in EVENTS Category

Like a highly contested political campaign entering its final hours, the nationwide contest to have President Obama speak at graduation ceremonies is heating up.

As the voting deadline nears for the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, students from the six schools across the country selected to compete - including Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School - are urging the public to vote. There have been YouTube videos and Facebook pages, mass e-mails, newspaper articles, even billboards.

Now come the celebrity and political endorsements.

Michigan's Kalamazoo Central High School has two high-profile alums - Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees and Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers - campaigning for the school to host President Obama.

Clark Montessori in Ohio has the state's governor, Ted Strickland, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus urging Ohioans to vote. Even former Cincinnati Mayor and congressman David Mann - he has a granddaughter at the school - has sent a letter to Obama highlighting the school's accomplishments.

But tiny Environmental Charter is bringing its own star power.

On Monday, actress Rosario Dawson was at the campus, urging the public to cast their vote.

"These kids are innovative, strong," said Dawson, a noted environmental advocate, shortly before submitting her vote online. "What they're doing at ECHS right now can be implemented across the country. They're a model not only for California, but for the world."

Dawson played Ruby in Larry Clark's 1995 cult classic Kids, and appeared more recently in Eagle Eye, Seven Pounds and the film version of Rent.

And in the wake of Dawson's endorsement, ECHS has received more celebrity backing.

Shaquille O'Neal, current center for the Cleveland Cavaliers and former star for the Los Angeles Lakers, had this to say on his Twitter account, The_Real_Shaq: Slam Dunk! Only 1 Green school in final 6 to win Pres. Obama speech at grduation. DO This: VOTE.

Then there's American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who tweeted: Tweeps! Help me help LA's Environmental Charter High...theyre in running for @barackobama to speak at graduation! Vote!

Even Chaske Spencer (of Twilight fame) tweeted his endorsement.

The school has also received support from a number of other celebs and high-profile organizations, including Virgin founder Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra and - perhaps not surprisingly - the Surfrider Foundation.

With the help of producers from MTV, students at each school submitted a three-minute video to the White House, which was posted online. Voters are encouraged to rate each school's video on a one-to-five scale.

Obama will personally select the winner from the three receiving the most votes and speak at the winning school's graduation ceremonies. In a conference call with reporters earlier this week, White House officials said Obama's choice will not be political, rather it will be based on the school's academic merits and overall quality of education it provides students.

Voting ends Thursday (4/29) at 9 p.m. A winner will be announced May 4. You can cast your vote here.

Photo courtesy of Ilona Peterson

Local students have jumped into action to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti, organizing fundraising drives and reaching out to the local community for food and clothing donations.

At Billy Mitchell Elementary School in Lawndale, third grade students recently organized a "Pennies for Haiti" drive. Students, parents and staff members donated what they could - pennies, dimes and quarters. Together, they raised $1,052.08. The money was donated to the Three Angels Children's Relief organization, which runs an orphanage and school in Haiti.

"When there is a need, our students are right there and give as much as they can. Now there is a big need, and once again the children stepped up and helped a cause," said third-grade teacher Ilona Peterson.

A bone marrow drive will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in the cafeteria at Birney Elementary school in Redondo Beach.

Organizers are hoping to find a tissue match for 4-year-old Maya Chamberlin, who was diagnosed with HLH, a rare blood disease, in September. Volunteers will be asked to fill out a short survey and a sample of cheek cells will be taken.

The drive is being organized by parents from the Birney Elementary PTA. The school is located at 1600 Green Lane.

Potential donors can also join an online registry at http://join.marrow.org/maya.

The Cristina Chiappe Foundation will be holding a kick-off party at 12:30
p.m. Sunday in Lawndale.

The foundation, a certified non-profit, works to promote health, education and cultural diversity across the globe. Chiappe is a member of the Hawthorne school board and a faculty member at the Centinela Valley Adult Education School.

The event will be held at Hanks Bistro, located at 14406 S. Hawthorne
Boulevard.

Little Company of Mary Hospitals have partnered with the Lunada Bay Elementary School in Palos Verdes Estates to support "Red Ribbon Week", which takes place October 20 through October 24.

"Red Ribbon Week" is a PTA-sponsored campaign throughout schools across the country to prevent drug use. In the Lunada Bay Elementary School the initiative is focused on teaching the young children to make good choices in many areas of their life. Supporting the health aspect of the initiative, Little Company of Mary has donated specially-ordered jump ropes for each student at Lunada Bay Elementary School.

Two new exhibits focusing on Asia and the Pacific Islands are now open to the public at the El Camino College Anthropology Museum. One exhibit depict modern Chinese life in cities such as Beijing. Another exhibit displays photos and artifacts from Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga and Hawaii. The museum is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Information: 310-660-3580.

For all you HBO subscribers: The network tonight is premiering a documentary about a troubled Baltimore high school that is having more than a little trouble meeting the benchmarks laid out in the No Child Left Behind Act.

A recent New York Times review of "Hard Times At Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card" says that the controversial legislation doesn't actually figure that heavily in the film that "isn't really asking whether No Child Left Behind can help Douglass. It's asking whether anything can."

More from Neil Genzlinger's preview: "[Sixty-six] percent of the Douglass educators are not certified, we're told. The school is running on substitutes and other emergency fill-ins.

And that is the bottom line for schools like this. Bureaucrats can make all the rules and set all the benchmarks they want, but none of it will change anything if no one can be found to do the hands-on work of teaching. As seen in this film, it's not just a thankless job; it looks disconcertingly as if it might be an impossible one."

Wow. I know what I'm watching tonight.

Whew!

I say that collectively on behalf of all our area grads and parents and school peeps, who after all the hype and excitement and planning and actually commencing are no doubt relaxing now that graduation season has come to close.

And I say it too for our very own Daily Breeze staff of writers and photographers -- especially photographers -- who busted their you-know-whats to cover as many local commencements as possible and give South Bay students a little love in our pages.

Congrats to all and good luck wherever you're headed next.

But in the meantime, you can revisit the glory of your graduation day -- or that of your friends or family or whoever -- by checking out the Breeze's compendium of grad photos and related stories.

Last week we got an email from a reader wondering why no local news agencies had reported that Manhattan Beach's Mira Costa High School had suffered one or more fatalities (he wasn't sure the number) and seen one of its own students arrested in relation with whatever incident caused the death.

We hadn't heard anything about it, so I called over to Manhattan Beach PD, who quickly cleared it up: The day our worried reader heard of this hubub on his scanner was the very day local agencies and the school had teamed up on a drill run meant to hammer home what awfulness can result from drunk driving by simulating such a tragedy on campus.

The drill is called Every 15 Minutes and has become a popular program on high schools across the country. We ended up running a short "Ask Us" column wherein I informed the aforementioned reader and anyone else who may have been worried that the "fatality" was faux and the student was "arrested" for show.

Apparently the same sort-of recent event went too far down in Oceanside, where in El Camino High School's spin on the program many kids didn't know ahead of time that it was a simulation and positively freaked when police came on campus to report the drunk-diving deaths of a few of their peers.

A short chunk from an Associated Press story on the controversy:

"Classmates wept. Some became hysterical."

"A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax, a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving."

"As seniors prepare for graduation parties Friday, school officials in the largely prosperous San Diego, California, suburb are defending themselves against allegations that they went too far."

"At school assemblies, some students held posters that read, "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."

What do you think? Did they go too far or is shock and temporary trauma an effective way to teach the lesson without kids actually having to learn it the true hard way?

Write me anytime with your thoughts.

Teacher and parent demands for the ouster of Dolores Street Elementary School (LAUSD/Carson) Principal Anna Barraza are continuing this week, with a public rally and protest scheduled for Wednesday at Scott Park.

The Daily Breeze two weeks ago covered the first official activity against Barraza, who's being called a "lemon principal" by United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing LAUSD educators.

Barraza has twice before been the subject of such outcries at prior campuses where she's worked -- the Riordan Primary Center and Dena Elementary.

UTLA says it's filed a combined 16 grievances and 2 interventions against her on behalf of those schools, but Barraza has never officially run the gauntlet of LAUSD's grievance procedure.

The principal herself previously told the Daily Breeze that it's common for principals to move campuses as they continue their careers and claimed that complaints about her -- "a belligerent management style, a seeming indifference to student safety and an unhderhanded and uncooperative attitude toward school stakeholders," says UTLA -- are just sour grapes from teachers resistant to change.

The Wednesday-scheduled (6:30 p.m.), UTLA-led "rally to remove" Barraza will be held at Scott Park, 23410 Catskill Avenue, in Carson. The union wants her bounced from Dolores before the school year ends next week.

In case you're interested but have missed the previous two such special board meetings, Torrance Unified suits and trustees will convene again tonight, in just about 40 minutes actually (at 7 p.m.), at J.H. Hull @ Levy school, to review for attendees the bond measures as proposed and, ideally, to get residents' input and feedback.

The district is considering going for two bonds at once in November, hoping to at last get voters to greenlight a large enough influx of cash to fix the myriad, well-known problems (rusting pipes and rotting ceilings and broken-down heating systems et al) that existence in ever-larger numbers at nearly all its campuses.

Well, they're set to run around a track anyway!

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade members of Torrance Unified's running club for middle schoolers (middle schools here don't have track teams) on Tuesday night are having their annual fun run, giving them a taste of competition to help prepare them for the real thing come high-school time.

Starting at 5 p.m., the some 100 young runners will compete in various relays and other races, with the top three in each category to receive medals of recognition.

The public event costs just $1 dollar for admission, should you want to check it out. It's being held on the track at West High, 20401 Victor St., in Torrance.

Through a series of highly dramatic recent emails -- "for the first tme EVER in the
history of Mankind!" -- I've learned about an event tomorrow that I'll pass on to you.

It's the arrival at Long Beach Airport of the Wings of Freedom tour, a traveling display of six rare war planes (all from World War II era, three are bombers and three are fighter jets) that will settle in locally for five days and be available for up-close tours and, for a more than nominal fee, actual in-the-sky rides.

"This is an event of historical proportions," declares the nonprofit Collings Foundation, which sponsors the gig.

Starting tomorrow and through next Tuesday, visitors can check out the B-24 Liberator, B-25 Mitchell and B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, plus the P-38 Lightning and two P-51 Mustang fighter crafts.

It costs $6 for kids and $12 for adults to take an on-ground look. If you want to fly, however, fees are thus: $425 per person for the B-17 or B-24; $400 for the front fuselage and $325 for the waist gun section of the B-25. P-51 flights are $2,200 for a half hour and $3,200 for a full hour. For reservations and information on flight experiences call 800-568-8924.

"The WINGS OF FREEDOM tour is one of the most extraordinary and unique
interactive traveling historical displays of its kind."

Wahoo!

More info is here.

California's "Superintendent of Instruction" Jack O'Connell will be in Long Beach tomorrow, making a rare public appearance.

I kid, I kid! That man makes more public appearances than you can shake a stick at; you wouldn't believe how many emails I get (sometimes several in one day) announcing his many speaking engagements.

Nonetheless, he will be in Long Beach on Thursday, when those of you participating in the annual state PTA convention will be treated to what are promised to be "brief remarks" from O'Connell.

If I had to wager on what topics he may tackle, I'd say the budget crisis and the achievement gap will rank right up there.

This very minute cheerleaders of Redondo Union High School are assembling outside school district headquarters on Inglewood Boulvard, planning to speak their mind during the 6:30 p.m. scheduled school board meeting.

Apparently their beloved coach, Cathy Horzen, was recently fired -- or forced into resigning, I'm still trying to determine details -- and the girls are not pleased. They plan to say so to school board members in hopes, I'm guessing, of somehow swaying this decision the other way.

Word is they were outside the administration building on campus early this morning, before school started, doing a similar thing, picketing with signs decrying their affection for Horzen and pleading that she be reinstated.

If you want to join in, or hear what they have to say, get down to RBUSD HQ post haste! The address is 1401 Inglewood, across from the Pacific Crest Cemetery. The board room is upstairs.

Rock Around the Block, an annual fundraiser of the Wiseburn Education Foundation, the body that itself raises funds to help support programs of the Wiseburn School District, is ready to roll for tomorrow.

Being held this year at the brand-new Dana Middle School campus, at 5330 W. 135th St., in Hawthorne, the events offers a smorgasbord of family fun, from train rides and face painting and a live Nintendo Wii competition to live music, bingo and food.

The festivities start at 9 a.m. and run until 2 p.m. Enjoy!

Awww... this is cute stuff.

The San Francisco Chronicle today has a copy block and some great wild art -- a few photos plus a video -- of local school kids there (well, at Edna Maguire Elementary in Mill Valley, to be exact) releasing 120,000 ladybugs into their campus garden. There's one great shot of a little boy smiling big, with the adorable red insects all over his sweatshirt and in his hair.

Just something sweet to look at over lunch on this lovely Friday (yay!).

Al Adams, the beloved former band leader of Mira Costa High School -- he retired in 2003 to much fanfare in his honor, 15 years after first joining the Manhattan Beach Campus -- has died. He was 66.

I have the story in today's Daily Breeze, replete with details about tonight's informal memorial on Manhattan Beach Pier, starting at 6:55 p.m. and running until 10 p.m. It's been prganized by former students, who ask those interested in attending to bring their memories, stories, even instruments, to pay tribute to the "proverbial music man" as a colleague described him.

From the many students and parents I talked to yesterday, it sounds like Adams was a really wonderful guy. Rest in peace.

There's an e-waste collection event tomorrow in Hermosa Beach, which will benefit the city's schools.

Run by 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, any electronics you want to trash will be accepted -- from your old computers and TV sets to cell phones, printers and more.

The group will collect the goods from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or until it fills two trucks with said e-waste, on Saturday. You can find them in the parking lot at Valley School, 1645 Valley Drive in Hermosa.

Half of the net proceeds will be donated to the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation, which helps fund programs of the local district.

Just don't toss out your Commodore 64s. Those are collector's items now, people!

LAUSD is hosting an "international cultural fair" tomorrow, Saturday, in Gardena, inviting community members to a day full of music, food and family activities including face painting, arts and crafts and more, at 186th Street School.

A collaboration with the Harbor Gateway Task Force, the event will also highlight a student-made "peace mural" that will be unveiled during the festivities.

Set to run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the official ceremonies will begin at high noon.

186th Street School is located at 1581 186th St., Gardena, 90248.

Sounds look good family fun for your Saturday, oui?