Neighbors Wish School Would Give Lessons in Keeping Quiet

The Battle of Bull Horn. Or: Pipe down while doing those push-ups.

The retired residents of the Santa Fe Hermosa development in eastern Oceanside say they’ve got nothing against nearby Roosevelt Middle School. They just wish the students and teachers would stick to the three R’s and muffle the noise.

At issue is the use of battery-operated bullhorns by teachers to maintain order on the playground. And the

military-like cadence counting done by students during physical education classes.

“The noise is piercing,” said Chris Marasovich, 66, a retired truck driver. “My home is a quarter-mile away but I can’t get any quiet even if I shut all the windows. It sounds more like a Marine Corps boot camp than a school.”

Marasovich and his neighbors complained to the Vista school board and extracted a promise to reduce the use of the bullhorns. But school officials also noted that the bullhorns are an effective communications tool in a school with 700 students.

“We’ve already had one teacher who needed throat treatment after he tried to communicate with kids on the playground in a normal tone of voice,” said assistant principal Bill Hatch.

As for the P.E. chanting, Hatch said the students love it. Still, teachers have been asked to move the calisthenics to a spot further away from homes.

“It’s a good way for kids to cut loose after being inside for most of the day,” he said. “It builds esprit de corps , unity and teamwork.”

Marasovich doesn’t mean to be grumpy but he figures education must have changed a lot since he was in school.

“As I remember it, one thing we were supposed to learn was how to behave ourselves,” he said. “Now they say these kids have to scream and holler for their well-being.”

Law Firm Unloved by Press

There may be no more reviled phrase in newspaper newsrooms than King & Ballow, the law firm that has gained an unsavory reputation while representing management during contract negotiations.

The Nashville-based firm represents the management of several hundred newspapers, including the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Negotiations at the U-T have been long, bitter and fruitless. As a result, 1,000 employees have not not a salary increase in two years, while the amount taken from their paychecks for health insurance has increased by $81 a month.

Newspaper guild members have accused King & Ballow attorneys of being high-handed and contemptuous during the 46 negotiating sessions.

One of management’s early demands was for a contract clause allowing employees to be punished, even fired, for speaking ill of the newspaper’s ownership. Guild negotiators resisted and said that the clause violates the First Amendment.

Now, King & Ballow has announced a seminar on The Media and The First Amendment in California, to be held Nov. 17 at the Hyatt Islandia in Mission Beach. Five K&B; attorneys will speak.

K&B; spokeswoman Sherie Johnson said the firm has held similar seminars across the country as a public service and a sign that the firm is interested in a variety of journalistic matters other than labor relations.

U-T employees received circulars last week inviting them to attend at a cost of $50 per. Reaction was swift: the seminar is a mix of P.R. and B.S.

Don’t look for many from the working press to attend, except as pickets.

‘Rocky Horror’ Show May Return

All-natural ingredients.

* Attention cultists: “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” is returning for midnight showings at La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas.

The classic spoof had been dropped because of declining patronage and rising rowdiness. But the theater’s new owner wants it back as a good-will gesture.

He’s setting down rules, though: no rice, squirt guns, forks or confetti.

* Someone is swiping the palm trees of North County.

Palms have disappeared from nurseries and homes in Vista, Fallbrook and Rancho Bernardo. So far, there are no suspects in the foliage filching.

“No one wants to go out on a limb, or bark up the wrong tree,” said Sheriff’s Deputy John Mander.