‘Serra Men’ Take New Freshmen in Stride--Even When They’re Girls

Traditions die hard in the big city. Sometimes in Gardena too.

Yet when it came time for the first wave of girls to enter the hallowed, and heretofore all-male, halls at Junipero Serra High School on Thursday, hardly an eyebrow or hand was raised.

After 41 years of turning out thousands of “Serra men,” the school has gone coeducational--half of the freshman class that began school last week is female. And the boys and girls seemed at least as happy about the end of single-sex education as they were about the announcement that Shakey’s Pizza will provide the cafeteria service.

“I’m looking forward to it,” freshman Brian Adams said. “There are girls here and it’s a new experience for all of us. It’s going to be nice.”

Even the few upperclassmen who were on hand to hawk their used textbooks seemed pleased by Serra’s newest recruits.

“It’s definitely a change for the better,” senior Antoyne Hutcherson said. “The older students, especially, will want to set a good example for the girls.”

On the surface, it appears that time has mostly stood still since the high school opened in 1950. A statue of Father Junipero Serra still dominates the central courtyard, the same brick walls adorn the classrooms, and the same mascot--a lance-carrying Cavalier--still covers the gymnasium wall.

But since the school administrators decided to go coeducational, change has been almost constant. The girls have their own locker and shower rooms. Romance novels have been added to the library. A new gym floor was added to accommodate the new girls athletic programs. And the curriculum has been expanded to again include French.

Principal James Crowell said there has been little resistance to the recent break from Serra’s male-only tradition. Crowell should know: He graduated from Serra in 1970 and has been a teacher there for 17 years.

“A single-sex school locks out a certain segment of society by definition,” he said. “And a lot of people don’t believe that is a good thing, especially in education.”

Still, it was financial realities as much as lofty educational goals that prompted the shift at Serra. Declining enrollments in Catholic high schools across the nation have forced more and more schools to abandon the single-sex format. So Crowell pushed for the addition of girls after it became clear that Serra was losing potential students to coeducational parochial schools in Torrance and Playa del Rey.

From 1986 to 1990, Serra’s enrollment dropped from 520 students to an all-time low of 266. But with the addition of the 230-member freshman class, the size of the school will nearly double.

“I think it would be safe to say that the community has accepted it, because we had to turn down 160 applicants this year,” Crowell said. “We’re calling it a new school with 40 years of tradition.”

The school plans to phase in females in freshman classes over the next four years. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles put up $400,000 for renovations at the school, which has a capacity of 900 students. The current influx of freshman girls mirrors the school’s overall ethnic mix, which is predominantly black and Latino, with Anglos representing only about 5% of the students.

“I think we’ll be the center of attention for a while because it’s new to the boys,” said Melissa Ramos, a member of the incoming freshman class. “But the only thing different for most of us is that it’s a new school.”

Among other things, the population change will allow the school to have its own cheerleaders for the first time. Girls from three all-girl schools in the area had served as cheerleaders, but except for games, they were only on campus for school dances.

The change might also provide additional incentive for athletes, including members of the football team, which has been a perennial power in the Southland.

“I’m sure they’ll play harder than ever,” joked Cordelia Thomas, first vice president of Serra’s parent-teacher organization. “Because now they’ll have somebody to look good for.”