Clinton Also Won Lawndale School District Mock Elections

EARLY BALLOTING: Bill Clinton won the presidential race in a mock election at schools in the Lawndale School District on Tuesday, receiving electoral votes from all but one of the district’s seven schools.

About 5,000 students participated in the election organized by Dixie Sack, eighth-grade teacher at Will Rogers Intermediate School, to introduce children to the electoral process.

As much as possible, the mock election was made to resemble the real thing. The students registered to vote last month, received sample ballots and cast their votes privately. Each class represented a state and received the appropriate electoral votes.

The majority of electoral votes were for George Bush at Jane Addams Elementary School because the kindergarten class, which was representing California, voted Republican, giving the state’s mother lode of 54 electoral votes to the President, Sack said.

But districtwide, Sack said, Clinton received 342 electoral votes, Bush 193 and Perot four. Clinton received 51% of the popular vote, Bush 32% and Perot 17%.

Dajuan Neal, a fourth-grader at William Anderson Elementary School, said he voted for Clinton because “Bush is going to spend more money on weapons and not on schools.”

John Castillo, a seventh-grader at Will Rogers, said he would not vote for Bush because, “when he said, ‘Read my lips,’ he lied.”

Fifth-grader Mary Holakeitua at Anderson school said she preferred Bush for President because “he’s sensitive and doesn’t lie. He treats people the way that they should be treated.”

But her classmate, Sarah Koszty, said she voted for Ross Perot because “he won’t ruin the economy like Bush did.”

After tabulating the votes, the students colored a map of the United States in red and blue depending on how the classes voted. They will compare the map with the way the country voted and discuss the results in their classes, Sack said.

EASING TENSION: Stressed, worried and over-worked parents of students in Lawndale schools are finding relief at a four-week class designed to teach parents how to keep their children from pushing their negative buttons.

The new program, Positivity*Responsibility*Influence*Consequences*Encouragement, or PRICE, is a state-funded program designed to help parents send clear messages to their children, deal with children who misbehave to get attention and find alternatives to punishment.

“It’s an attempt to help parents of at-risk students to better deal with their children and give them success at school,” said Cynthia Stoll, program facilitator.

The problems parents are discussing range from children’s normal emotional ups and downs to poor school attendance, gangs and drugs.

Stoll, who has signed up for the class, said her 14-year-old daughter is pleased that her mother is taking the class. “(She) said it was a good thing because I will know what she is feeling,” Stoll said.

KUDOS: Rene Makoto Oda, a senior at Torrance High School, was selected by the McDonald’s Operators’ Assn. of Southern California as one of five Asian Pacific Youth Leaders in the greater Los Angeles area.

He was awarded $1,000 to apply toward his college education. He also chose to give an additional $500 donation from the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership to the South Bay Japanese American Citizens League.

Oda, 17, organized and currently directs the local “Adopt-a-Grandparent” program, assists the local KidSafe program and is a member of the Torrance-Kashiwa Sister City Assn.

Items for the weekly Class Notes column can be mailed to The Times South Bay office, 23133 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 200, Torrance 90505, or faxed to (310) 373-5753 to the attention of staff reporter Lorna Fernandes.