Bulletproof Windows Are Given to School
Windows tested to withstand a bullet fired from a .357 magnum firearm at close range were installed on the ground floor of a South-Central Los Angeles elementary school where a teacher was critically wounded by a stray bullet in February.
On Saturday, apprentice volunteers from a local carpenter’s union installed the bulletproof windows at Figueroa Street Elementary School, the site of the Feb. 22 shooting that wounded teacher Alfredo Perez. This weekend, windows will be installed on the second floor.
After the shooting, Mayor Richard Riordan announced that he would pay for the windows, and then actor and community activist Edward James Olmos got involved.
“When I heard the mayor was going to pay for the windows, I wanted to help out,” Olmos said. “I placed phone calls to several movie studios, and they all agreed to help pitch in.”
In addition to Riordan and Olmos, Ralphs/Food for Less, King World Productions, MCA/Universal, Dreamworks, Paramount Pictures, Disney Studios, Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox helped pay for the windows. They were purchased from Geisler’s Contract Glazing in Granada Hills, which sold the $80,000 worth of windows for $66,000.
At Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center, Perez continued to make small improvements Monday. Doctors are hoping to release Perez to a rehabilitation facility by Friday.
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