Uniform Approach Helping to Lessen Tensions on Campus

There’s been an outbreak of uniformity at George Washington Elementary School in Burbank, and a lot of parents across the Valley think it’s a pretty good idea.

Many of Washington’s kids have given up the baggy pants and long-shirt look and are sporting outfits of red, white and blue.

The new school uniform is not a case of sudden patriotism, although Principal Joan Baca mentions that patriotism would be a natural for a school named Washington located on Lincoln Street.

The uniforms reflect the wishes of the majority of the school’s parents, according to Baca, who made that judgment following a survey to decide what the look would be and how much it should cost.

Baca says last year she started thinking about the possible benefits of adopting a uniform.

“Actually, we call it a school outfit because uniform has negative connotations to a segment of our parents,” she says.

In the fall a questionnaire was sent to the 500 school families. Of the 400 who responded, only 36 were opposed to uniforms, Baca says.

Some of those opposed thought uniforms restricted self-expression, and some parents of graduating fifth-graders felt it was too costly. And some of the students complained about regimentation.

Still, the general consensus was that the idea was cool.

The administration, working with parents and student advisory groups, chose red sweat shirts, white polo shirts and blue pants, skirts, culottes or shorts. The shirts have the school logo sewn on them.

The cost of an outfit is about $30, and Baca says there is money available for parents who want their children in school outfits but cannot afford them.

Christy Atkins says her daughter, Jamie, a fifth-grader, was initially reluctant to get a uniform.

But once Jamie saw the outfits modeled at a fashion show for the students, she told her mother to go ahead and order them.

Atkins, who is active in several parent groups at Washington, says she has heard from teachers that the uniforms bring a calming influence to the students, although she is not sure why.

Baca says she too is getting feedback that indicates there is a lessening of tension on campus following the adoption of uniforms. “I don’t know if that’s because there is less of a gang look, or because there is not so much competitiveness, or because it tends to put students on a more equal footing. I’m just not sure why,” Baca says.

Maria Hernandez, a school aide whose 7-year-old son, Cord, attends Washington, says she also has noticed a lessening of tension. But Hernandez thinks she knows exactly why that’s happening. “Kids are not making comments about the way other kids are dressing, saying so-and-so looks cool but someone else does not.”

Hernandez says uniforms take the attitude out of some kids who threatened others with their gang look and implied menace.

“When the kids are all wearing red sweat shirts, it’s hard to advertise how tough you think you are,” Hernandez adds.

Baca says about 80% of the school’s students are wearing uniforms, including almost all of the children in bilingual classes.

Baca says the inspiration for the outfits came from a pilot program at San Fernando Elementary School.

San Fernando Principal Candida Fernandez-Ghoneim reports their blue-and-white school uniforms were ready for purchase in October and a majority of her students now are wearing them.

Fernandez-Ghoneim says she ran into a small pocket of resistance from parents who bemoaned the lack of clothing choice for their children, adding that many of those children favor the baggy-pants look.

“Some of those kids will turn into gangbangers,” says a frustrated Fernandez-Ghoneim, “and their parents will wonder how all that got started.”

Both principals say that the uniforms have been a success and that they are fielding many questions from parent groups throughout the Valley about how to institute a similar program at other schools.

Baca’s best tip is to get the parents and students involved.

These Bikers Steer Others Onto the Road to Conversion

They look like guys who would take a chain saw to your leather upholstery if they didn’t happen to like the way you make a lane change.

Just seeing a group of these bikers in your rearview mirror can bring on an auto-neurotic experience.

Some bikers, however, want to convert you, not hurt you, like the J. C. Riders in the San Fernando Valley and the Antelope Valley Riders of the Cross. Many of the members formerly belonged to outlaw bike groups, including the Hell’s Angels, but now they are riding for Jesus.

Take Ron Pierson, formerly of the Valley group, now president of the Antelope Valley chapter of the Christian Motorcycle Assn. Pierson, 62, grew up in San Fernando and got his first bike, an Indian, when he was 14. He says he became a proper outlaw.

“We’d take a chain to the headlights of anyone who got in our way,” Pierson says.

For years he rode with groups that were not as good as they could be. Then, he began to question the path he had taken.

“Well, actually I was living in two worlds. I would take our four kids to church where I taught Sunday school. Then I would get on my bike and go riding with the gang,” he says.

The split personality wasn’t a problem until 1963 when he became a minister. “I was taken to a church ministerial meeting and asked to accept a ministry,” he says.

Pierson says he served as assistant pastor at several churches but didn’t feel that was his real calling.

“Then on a day trip to Santa Barbara, two would-be rowdies told me they were going to beat the crap out of me,” Pierson says. “I ended up preaching the gospel to them and drew a crowd in doing it.”

A street corner preacher was born.

“By that time I had changed my affiliation to the Christian Motorcycle Assn., which had been founded in Hatfield, Ark., in the mid-’70s and spread across the country,” he says. “As a minister and biker it was just the right place for me to be.”

He says he likes talking to people about Christ, informally. After all, that’s the way Jesus used to do it.

He and his band of about 40 bikers in the Antelope Valley not only ride together but do the community some good.

“We go to biker rallies and help set up things like child care, and we collect clothing for the needy,” Pierson says. “If people ask about our organization, we tell them. If they want to hear about our beliefs, we witness for Jesus, but we don’t force our ideas on anyone. That would be out of place.”

Victorian House Lovers Keep Phones Ringing Off the Hook

Last week there was a Chronicle item about a restored Victorian house and bed and breakfast in the Lake Hughes area. The item did not give information about how to get in touch with the folks there.

Big mistake.

With apologies to those who have been driving the folks at the local chamber of commerce crazy, the Victorian is called Willowbrook and the number there is (805) 724-1076.

Overheard

“I stopped giving him money when I realized how many dollar bills I had given him and that if I asked him to return one, because I really needed it, he would laugh in my face.”

Woman to companion in car driving through Calabasas about a man with a sign saying “will work for food.”