Teachers Seeing Double at Ladera Elementary : Thousand Oaks: The school is accustomed to twins. But this year there are five sets in one class, bringing the total to 12.

The first day of school is an ordeal for any parent, but several whose children started kindergarten at Ladera Elementary School in Thousand Oaks on Thursday will tell you they had it twice as bad--and they will be right.

The Thousand Oaks parents came to school Thursday with five sets of twins, all bound for kindergarten.

For these parents, the first day of school meant two new sets of clothes, two backpacks, two school lunches--and two sets of tugging hands and anxious eyes.

For the twins, all fraternal, which means they look alike, but not exactly alike, the first day brought new experiences and the chance to split up and make new friends.

School officials said they gasped when they began looking at their registry, first finding two sets, then three, four and finally five.

They are accustomed to twins at Ladera. There are 12 sets among the 600 students enrolled this year.

But five in one class?

“We couldn’t believe it,” said Kristine White, Ladera principal. “I mean, what are the odds?”

In the United States, about one in every 100 births results in twins. For parents at Ladera Elementary, the figure appears to be closer to one birth in 50. And for parents of Ladera 5-year-olds, it’s down to one in 15.

So what caused this surge in twins in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood served by Ladera?

“I think maybe there’s something in the water,” said Tobin Wangerin, mother of 5-year-olds Brad and Molly. “It seems pretty unusual.”

City officials in Thousand Oaks said residents should not be alarmed.

“There’s nothing I can think of that would link the water supply to something like that,” said Tim Freeman, a city environmental specialist. “I think it has a little more to do with genetics than water.”

Actually, the case has a parallel at the opposite end of the county. In addition to the numerous sets of twins at Ladera, a Ventura school boasts the presence of two sets of triplets this year.

Joshua, Jessica and Shelby Drake will start kindergarten at Juanamaria School this year, joining their next-door neighbors Sarah, Samantha and Katelyn Anderson, said Principal Bonnie Switack.

Whatever the cause of the multiple births, officials at both schools said they are ready for the challenge.

Ladera kindergarten teacher Susan Girard said she has taught plenty of twins in her 10 years at the school.

“Pretty quickly, at least with the fraternal twins, people forget that they’re related,” she said. “They all seem to split off and find their own circle of friends. But if one of them is in trouble, the other one is right there to help out.”

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Although parents can keep their children together, officials at the school said they recommend parents place the twins in different classrooms.

Four of the five sets who enrolled Thursday will be split up. White said that dividing up the twins helps each child attain his or her own identity.

Fifth-grade fraternal twins Ashley and Lindsay Griffin agreed with the policy.

“When we were split up, people stopped referring to us as ‘the twins,’ ” Ashley said. “People started using our normal names and stopped treating us like we were one person.”

Identical twins Adam and Joshua Skevington, also fifth-graders, said if they were in the same class, they would be spending more time fighting than studying.

But the youngest twins to start school, 5-year-olds Trevor and Halie Van Uden, seemed intent on sticking together.

The twins, who will be together in the school’s afternoon session, held hands as they headed into class.

“Even when they were babies, they talked to each other like they had their own language,” said their mother, Pam Van Uden. “They really have a tight bond.”