Principal Points to Strides at Gompers

Gompers Secondary School Principal Marie Thornton on Wednesday asked parents and students not to let a student demonstration in support of a teacher last Friday overshadow what she said are continuing academic gains at the long-troubled Southeast San Diego school.

During an afternoon press conference, Thornton also said her action in transferring business education teacher Rhoenna Armster involuntarily to Lincoln High School was not in retribution for Armster’s outspoken opposition to changes in curriculum at the math-science-computer magnet school.

Thornton and top San Diego Unified School District administrators say that state law, and the threat of legal action by Armster, prohibit discussion of specific reasons for the transfer. Armster has also declined comment on specifics, although she has said that Thornton acted out of retribution. School Supt. Tom Payzant said Tuesday night that he and school board members back the transfer.

The demonstration by students provoked a police response of more than 30 units, including trained dogs, a police helicopter and riot-equipped police, which Payzant and trustees believe may have fanned the planned demonstration into a larger news story than it otherwise would have been.

Thornton, who remained in her office dealing with telephone calls and other matters during the demonstration, declined comment on the police action, saying that she would await results of separate district and Police Department investigations into why so many officers were dispatched to the campus.

But the school’s African-American male pupil advocate, teacher Douglas Williams, said he believes the “media circus” on Friday would not have occurred if police had not responded in such force.

Thornton has been criticized by some parents and administrators for not being publicly visible during the demonstration. But Thornton rejected those charges, saying that she “could not be everywhere” and that a sufficient number of administrators handled the demonstration.

Thornton said she has been an effective leader at Gompers, pointing to improvements in the school’s physical appearance and student achievement under a year-old program to extend the high-powered curriculum to all of the overwhelmingly nonwhite neighborhood students who attend the seventh- through 12th-grade school.