Lynwood Parents, Students Picket, Present Petition to School Board

About 30 students and parents picketed the Lynwood Unified School Board of Education last week to complain about overcrowded classes, a shortage of teachers and books and the lack of a cafeteria at the high school.

Carrying signs that included demands for “Smaller Class Sizes,” and “More Qualified Teachers,” the students, parents and their supporters marched in front of the district administration building before the board’s regular meeting.

Students complained about dirty bathrooms and a lack of qualified substitute teachers to the five members of the board during the Tuesday meeting.

The protesting students presented the board with petitions bearing 600 student signatures demanding that school officials correct the problems.

Parents and students claimed there were as many as 50 students in classrooms.

“If you don’t get to class early, you have to stand because there are no seats,” said Elizabeth Arias, a 15-year-old freshman at Lynwood High School.

Most of the students were from Lynwood High School, the district’s only regular high school. The enrollment is nearly 3,000 at the 30-year-old school, which was built to accommodate 1,000 students.

Lynwood High School Principal Mickey Cureton said school officials are trying to relieve the overcrowded conditions.

Cureton said the school library is being used for some classes and three portable trailers have been ordered. The trailers, which probably will not arrive before early next year, will accommodate about 200 students, Cureton said.

Cureton said the school still needs an additional six teachers and one counselor. He said the district administration is attempting to hire the teachers and counselor.

Statement by Williams

Board members made no reply to the students during the regular meeting. However, school board member Thelma Williams said in a prepared statement: “The district is aware that our high school is overcrowded. The Lynwood board is attempting to eliminate that problem by building a new high school on Imperial Highway.”

The district has been attempting to build a new high school for more than five years, and is now in court with the owners of the land.

This is the second time since school began Sept. 11 that protesters have picketed the school district to complain about school conditions.

Board President Richard Armstrong said he questioned whether the demonstrations were politically motivated because two candidates for the Lynwood school board participated.

The candidates, Cynthia Green-Geter and Margaret Araujo, said they marched because they are concerned parents.

Some of the protesting students were also from the district’s elementary schools and its junior high school. They also complained of overcrowded classes and dirty campuses.

State officials recently fined the school district $360,000 for consistently violating the state’s limit on class sizes during the 1988-89 school year. The violations were all in the elementary grades.

State officials also found that the district allowed students from different grades to be placed in the same classes, rather than hiring separate teachers and substitutes.