Compton Will Upgrade Classrooms for Disabled

Compton Unified School District officials said Thursday that they will pay to upgrade classrooms for disabled children at Centennial High School after parents protested what they dubbed “Third World” conditions on the campus.

Dhyan Lal, the district’s state-appointed administrator, pledged to pay for “necessary” improvements in the three classrooms reserved for disabled and special education students. Parents and teachers said the classrooms did not have adequate facilities for cleaning the children--at least one room had no bathroom, no sink or running water, and nothing but a hard wooden table for changing students’ diapers.

“The school knows it’s not up to standards,” said Ethel Jackson, a mother of three whose youngest daughter, Danielle, is in a special education class at the school. “It’s just not right.”

Administrators from the county Office of Education, which runs the special education program in Compton, planned to meet today to review the situation at Centennial, a county spokesman said. The county administers such programs for many school districts across Los Angeles--serving 10,000 disabled children.

But Lal said the district will cover the costs of repairing and upgrading the classrooms. He estimated that it would cost $15,000 to install a bathroom, a sink and make other improvements. He said he expected the work to begin next week.

“I’ve seen examples of poor conditions throughout the district,” said Lal, who was appointed to oversee the 28,000-student school system last month. “We’ve prioritized, and it will be taken care of.”

Led by Saul E. Lankster, the president of the Compton school board, 10 parents marched on the campus lawn Thursday, carrying placards that read “Help! Handicapped children have no toilets. No running water.”

Lankster and the school board have little authority to make any changes at the district after they were stripped of their power when the school system fell into state receivership in 1993.

Assistant Principal Cardell Manning initially attempted to lock the school gates to prevent parents and journalists from entering the campus, but later allowed them to visit two of the school’s special education classrooms, housed in trailers on the edge of school grounds.

In one, teacher Lydia Macali and an aide played with eight students, half of whom were in wheelchairs. The room had a clean carpet and colorfully decorated walls, but no toilet and no sink. A diaper-changing table and a fraying fabric partition sat in one corner. The only water supply--for cleaning, washing hands or drinking--was a 2.5-gallon container of distilled water purchased from the supermarket.

In a second trailer, teacher Margie Ashley has a classroom sink, but she is still waiting for the new changing table she asked for before Christmas.

The parents’ tour was cut short when Roscoe Cook, an assistant principal who helps administer the county program in Compton, drove his sports car onto the grass behind the trailer and asked the press to leave. He refused to answer questions, but said, “We’re not opposed to changes for the kids.”