High School Student Lived in Hide-Out Above Stage

An 18-year-old high school student lived for the past three months in a secret makeshift apartment above his school’s auditorium in Sun Valley, improvising a carpeted home with a bed, a VCR, a microwave oven and a telephone, authorities said Friday.

Robert Davis used his talents as a stage-set designer for the drama class at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School to create a refuge from his parents in an attic-like area above the stage, said the school’s principal, Virginia Holt.

“Believe me, it was very, very surprising to all of us that a student could do this. But if a student is creative and enterprising enough, he can do anything he wants,” Holt said.

Davis was arrested at the school Tuesday morning on suspicion of trespassing after campus police discovered his hide-out when they apprehended three companions the night before, Holt and police said. Davis is free on $2,500 bail, said Detective Oscar Caraballo.

Holt, who gave reporters a tour of the garret Friday, said Davis took up residence there during Christmas vacation, apparently because of trouble with his parents.

“He had problems at home with his parents and needed a place to stay,” the principal said.

Davis and his parents could not be reached for comment.

Davis attended classes as usual while he lived above the stage, the principal said.

Holt said the high school on Roscoe Boulevard has more than 2,300 students enrolled in day classes and about 1,200 in night school.

The principal declined to discuss Davis’ academic record in detail but said that “he was a rather creative kid” who was involved in the school drama club and enrolled in a stage-crew class, where he excelled at designing lighting, sound, props and other technical systems.

Because of his school involvement, Davis was entrusted with a key to the auditorium, and he made at least two duplicates, Holt said.

The small, triangular room he occupied was among several crannies in an attic space above the school stage.

Davis painted the room’s bare, concrete walls white and installed wall-to-wall, khaki-colored carpeting. He built a loft space to sleep in and installed a mattress, couch and chair. He hooked up a telephone to the school’s system, Holt said.

The microwave, and some of the other items Davis used, were taken from the school, according to Holt. A narrow metal ladder offers the only entry to the room, so Davis must have installed his furniture and appliances by hoisting them up, Holt said.

Holt said Davis changed the lock on the room’s door, confusing school custodians who tried to enter and who apparently assumed that the administration was responsible for the change.

Holt said she had not decided whether to take administrative action against Davis. A spokesman for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to file any criminal charges, said Davis’ case had not been reviewed.