Loretto Parents, Students Vow to Save School : Archdiocese Warned Again: ‘We Will Fight’

On Tuesday, after news arrived that their school would close, some of the girls at Our Lady of Loretto High School cried.

But by Wednesday afternoon, most of the watery eyes gave way to a steely resolve not to allow the small school to be shut down without a fight.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced that the 249-student girls’ school would be shut down because of declining enrollment. On Wednesday, about 100 uniformed, banner-carrying students staged a boisterous, emotional demonstration on the front steps of the Lake Street campus southwest of Echo Park.

Gathering as school let out, the girls chanted “We will fight” and “Save Loretto,” then loudly and proudly bellowed out their school song. Parents who had arrived to collect their daughters blared their car horns in support.

“We Are a Family” said one large banner. “We are going to protest and try to get this decision changed. It’s not fair at all,” said teary-eyed junior Alina Jenie. “They don’t realize how much they are hurting us.”

Later, at an impromptu meeting in the school auditorium, Yvette Carreon, a senior and cheerleader, took the stage to help organize protests, including a march on the archdiocese headquarters. “This school has taught me how to stand up for what I believe,” she told the audience. “I’m not willing to quit now.”

The outpouring of pride and anger at the 40-year-old Loretto was similar to demonstrations Catholic officials have encountered elsewhere as they have tried to close inner-city high schools with shrinking enrollments.

Protests led the archdiocese in December, 1985, to abandon plans to close Cathedral High School near downtown. And on Tuesday, in announcing the Loretto decision, the archdiocese also said it had changed its plans to close Bishop Conaty High School, the oldest high school in the archdiocese. Earlier this year, students, alumni and parents of Conaty had organized a letter-writing campaign and demonstrated to save their school.

New School Name

The decision to close Our Lady of Loretto was a compromise intended to allow Conaty to remain open. Students from the two schools would be consolidated in September on Conaty’s campus on Pico Boulevard west of downtown. That would create expanded opportunities for students to have art, science and honors programs, archdiocese officials said. New facilities also would be built at the Conaty campus and, to soften the blow for transferring Loretto students, the consolidated school will be given a new name.

The Loretto campus, valued at more than $1 million, would be sold to help defray the costs of the improvements at Conaty, archdiocese spokesman Bill Rivera said.

The enrollment decline is a result both of poorer families moving into the areas around many schools and increased tuitions, archdiocese officials say.

Both Conaty and Loretto, which draw students mainly from low-income families, are heavily subsidized by the archdiocese. Rivera said the decision to consolidate the schools would not save the church a significant amount of money because subsidies would continue at the new school.

Rivera said the decision to close Loretto appears to be final.

Neighborhood Atmosphere

Students and parents at the school insisted that they will not give up. They cited the neighborhood atmosphere of the school as one of its greatest assets.

“It doesn’t matter if we have a gym,” said sophomore Marylou Rodriguez, citing one of the improvements that would be made at the Conaty campus. “What’s important is education and friends.”

Adding to the sting of moving to Conaty is the fact that it is Loretto’s chief sports rival. Some parents of Loretto students have said they are worried about the crime and drug problems in the area around the Conaty campus. “The parents are very upset,” said Irma Venegas, vice president of Loretto’s Parents’ Guild.