Protest at Van Nuys Continuation School : Principal’s Rules Spark Student Boycott

One-third of the students at a small special high school in Van Nuys boycotted classes Monday in protest over a new principal’s determination to run the school, as she put it, “by the book.”

The school, Jack London High, is one of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 43 continuation high schools.

These schools are housed in separate buildings near or on the campus of a conventional high school. Jack London is near Ulysses S. Grant High School and has 75 students, the maximum allowed at continuation schools. They offer alternative, four-hour-a-day education programs to students who have repeatedly been suspended from regular high school, are pregnant minors or have children, or otherwise do not fit in regular classes.

Because the mission of the continuation school is to tailor the academic program to each student’s learning and personal needs, administrators of the special schools have wide leeway in running them.

In the past, life at Jack London was casual and informal, students and administrators said.

A flexible starting time had some students beginning classes at 7:30 a.m. and others as late as 9:30 a.m. Tapes of television programs were used as teaching aids. A catering truck pulled up to the gate so students could buy food and beverages. Some classrooms were furnished with old couches and murals.

Things changed when Norma Cappello, an 18-year veteran administrator with the district, became principal in September. She replaced Roger Smith, who took her place as principal of Owensmouth Continuation High School in Canoga Park.

“By my standards, I found a very loosely structured school . . . a place much different in philosophy than what I have for a continuation school,” Cappello said. “Different administrators have different leadership styles. My style may be different than my predecessors. My style is to do it by the book.”

One of the first rules Cappello instituted was that all students had to start school at the same time.

“I do not believe that students should show up at school any time they want,” she said. “I think we are here to prepare young people for the working in the real world. In the real world, you cannot show up for work any time you want.”

When a videotape of the television movie “Helter Skelter,” which chronicles the crimes and punishment of the Manson family, was shown in a law-enforcement class, Cappello found the content of the movie “questionable.” She ordered that only programs broadcast or taped by the school district’s television station be used in class rooms.

“I think the district could be held liable under copyright guidelines for programs taped at home by faculty members and then shown at school,” she said.

Continuation students are not allowed on neighboring Grant High’s campus for mid-morning snacks or for lunch. A catering truck had provided food and beverages.

Cappello, saying that district policy prohibits catering trucks from coming onto school grounds, banished it. Students who want food during the 20-minute morning break must place orders during their first-period class.

While these and other changes were being made, Cappello began to get the school prepared for district-ordered painting and refurbishing. A tour of the classrooms found a set of lockers in the art room. Since the district did not own the lockers and since the lockers were not attached to a wall, Cappello said, she gave the teacher the alternative of bringing the lockers into conformance with district regulations or having them removed.

The lockers were removed.

A couch in another classroom was deemed by maintenance men to be a fire hazard. It was removed, and desks and chairs were put in its place.

Finally, the classroom doors--many decorated with student-designed murals--were inspected. Some were found riddled with dry rot, and others were weather-beaten and worn. Cappello agreed that the doors should be replaced. The students complained to school board member Roberta Weintraub, who asked that the doors not be removed until the issue was investigated.

“Those doors mean a lot to us,” said Mike Keesling, one of the students who boycotted Jack London. “I don’t understand why they had to be removed. So we went to the school board, and the doors are still here.”

On Monday, the 25 students marched and carried picket signs on a grassy strip about 500 yards from their campus. While some visited the school grounds earlier in the day, none attended classes. Many of them talked about how angry and confused they are about the new school rules.

“She’s very difficult to talk to,” one of the protesters said of Cappello. “She keeps herself unavailable. We have to put in written requests just to see her. It used to be that we could just go in and talk to the principal any time we wanted.”

Last week Cappello and five students representing the Jack London student body met to discuss the changes at the schools. In an interview Monday, Cappello said it was up to those students to disseminate the results of the meeting to fellow students. But, after a moment’s hesitation, she added that it might be time for her to meet with the entire student body and discuss the new direction at Jack London.

As for the protesters, Deborah Callahan, a representative of the district’s senior high options division, said that as long as the students did not disrupt classes with their demonstration and return to classes today, there probably would be no action taken against them.