Parents, Teachers Demonstrate at Intersection Where Boy Was Injured

DANGER CROSSING: Parents and teachers at Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes staged a demonstration this week at a busy intersection near the school where a student was critically injured in a car accident earlier this month.

Holding signs saying “Please Protect Our Children,” the demonstrators spent Monday morning

at Western Avenue and Avenida Aprenda, where 12-year-old Raul Henson darted into traffic and was struck by a car April 6. Henson has been on life-support systems at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center since the accident.

It was the second serious accident involving a student at the intersection in 15 months. In October, 1992, Aaron Padillo, 12, was killed while crossing the same street.

After Aaron’s death, Caltrans officials lowered the speed limit at the intersection from 45 m.p.h. to 35 m.p.h. But after Raul’s accident, parents began lobbying to lower it even further. They also want a pedestrian walkway installed at the intersection, as well as guards, signs and a left turn signal.

“It’s very upsetting when something like this happens,” said Assistant Principal David Legacki. “It’s a really dangerous intersection. And even though (Henson) shouldn’t have run across the street, kids don’t think about responsibility. The mentality of children is (where is) the shortest distance between two points.”

Dodson is a seventh-through-ninth-grade school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The 1,400-student school is located in the Eastview section of Rancho Palos Verdes.

ODOR IDENTIFIED: A strong odor that felled 61 students and five adults at Harbor City Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District last month apparently came from the Unocal oil refinery in Wilmington, district officials have announced.

The students and adults were hospitalized March 11 after complaining of nausea caused by an unidentified odor. Investigators with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and health agencies determined that refinery flare gas was the likely culprit for their symptoms.

Health officials say the gas, which is used in the oil refining process, generally has no long-term health effects. Most of the victims, except those with histories of asthma or other conditions, fully recovered from the incident, according to a press release from board member Warren T. Furutani.

Air quality officials cited Unocal for creating a public nuisance with the emissions.

SOBER PROM: Mothers Against Drunk Driving co-sponsored a fashion show at the Galleria at South Bay in Redondo Beach this weekend to encourage students to avoid alcohol at their upcoming proms.

Twenty juniors and seniors from several South Bay high schools modeled formal prom attire during the noon fashion show, which was hosted by disc jockey Tami Heidi of KROQ-FM radio.

Nationwide, more than 1.2 million teen-agers between the ages of 12 and 17 drink alcohol once a week or more, MADD statistics show. In 1991, more than 2,000 California teen-agers were involved in alcohol-related crashes, 66 of whom were killed.

SALUTING EXCELLENCE: Parras Middle School in the Redondo Beach City School District was among 40 schools statewide nominated for the prestigious National Blue Ribbon Schools Program.

The award honors schools that have created academically excellent and innovative programs that can serve as a showcase for other schools.

Parras Middle School, which has 440 students in the seventh and eighth grades, has a comprehensive educational program that allows students a choice of elective courses in everything from journalism to oceanography to art.

School officials will find out next month if it made the grade.

Other South Bay schools recently recognized for excellence include Hermosa Valley School in the Hermosa Beach City School District, Pacific School in the Manhattan Beach City School District, Mira Catalina Elementary School in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District and Victor Elementary in the Torrance Unified School District.

Those four schools were among 25 in Los Angeles County nominated for the 1993 California School Recognition Program, which this year recognizes outstanding elementary schools. Winners will be named next month.

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