It’s true that in a police lineup...

It’s true that in a police lineup of dogs, Petey might appear to be a suspicious-looking character. After all, he’s part pit bull. But then so was the playful critter in the old “Our Gang” films. And Petey is said to be just as lovable.

So when it was reported Wednesday that Los Angeles County Fire Station 14 had been told by the brass that it couldn’t keep Petey as its mascot because he might scare people, the kitty litter really hit the fan.

“We got more than 50 protests from the public,” Battalion Chief Gordon Pearson said.

The most important of the calls was placed by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who frequently drops in to see Petey at the station, just east of Inglewood.

“Kenny’s petted him many times, and he still has both hands,” Hahn spokesman Dan Wolf observed.

On Wednesday afternoon, acting Fire Chief Earl Fordham heeded Hahn’s protest and reversed the decision, which had been made by an assistant chief.

Pearson said the ultimate tribute is the fact that the station’s 21 firefighters all have been caring for Petey in the three years since they found him lying injured in a park.

“Anytime you can get 21 firefighters to agree on anything, including when to eat lunch,” Pearson said, “it’s pretty incredible.”

From sit-in to lock-out:

Upset over the dispute between the teachers union and the school district, 16 Bancroft Junior High School students showed up at district headquarters Wednesday intending to stage a sit-in. They were met by the Bancroft dean of attendance who sent them back to their Hollywood-area school.

“We found a nice big yellow bus for them,” a district spokeswoman said.

Once back at Bancroft, the students were briefed on the current negotiations. They discussed what could be done to improve the quality of education.

Then they were suspended for two days for leaving campus without authorization.

The Hyatt in the City of Commerce was bought out by the Radisson Hotel the other day, but it’ll be epigrams as usual on the building’s 20-year-old marquee by the Santa Ana Freeway.

Well, not quite as usual. The maxims will be more tightly edited, says Beth Elkins, the Radisson’s newly appointed billboard poet.

“There were some complaints about a couple of the messages,” Elkins said, “so they will all be done under the discretion of the (hotel) general manager. In the past, we were a bit looser.”

Elkins said one maxim, “Mothers Are Not Always Right,”’ drew an angry phone call and letter from a mother. Another, “Girls Can Be Sweet When They Want To,” sparked several complaints by women.

The board’s most colorful goof of last year drew mostly laughs though. It was supposed to be a quote from the German poet Goethe: “Life is the Childhood of our Immortality.”

Only the marquee said, “Imorality.”