Crowding at School Protested

South Gate High School is bursting at the seams.

Many classes are packed with up to 40 students at this campus in southeast Los Angeles County. Teenagers push through the jammed hallways to make it to class on time. Students can barely get through the lunch line before the bell rings to go back to class--let alone find time to get to the bathroom.

As enrollment outpaces school construction in the Los Angeles Unified School District, South Gate High is one of many schools trying to cope with an influx of students with no additional space.

This year, the Mediterranean-style high school, originally built for 1,700 students, is used by 2,700 students a day--at least 340 more than what administrators say they can accommodate.

“We’re bumper-to-bumper, elbow-to-elbow,” Principal Anthony Sandoval said. “I think this is the tip of the iceberg in southeast Los Angeles County. People want their children to be educated at South Gate. If you send them out . . . you don’t know where they’ll travel to. They could drop out. But you get to a saturation point where nobody is learning the way they should be. I think we’re at that point.”

The frustration bubbled over Wednesday when about 85 teachers picketed in front of the school before and after classes, warning parents and passersby that overcrowding is eroding student achievement.

Walking in groups of twos and threes, the teachers paced in front of the school carrying handmade white signs that read “Overcrowding = Unsafe School.” A handful of parents and two South Gate city councilmen joined the picketing as cars driving by on Firestone Boulevard honked in support. “When you have more than 35 students, how can you give a student individual attention?” said English teacher Nancy Wolfe as she marched in front of the campus. “The rest of the class goes crazy. This is a really serious situation.”

Some students arriving at school at 7 a.m. were surprised to see the orderly picket line.

“Hey, cool!” yelled one boy. “What are we protesting?”

But most students took the picketing seriously, saying they have felt the brunt of overcrowding.

“We can’t learn,” said sophomore Imelda Villarobles, one of the students who gathered on the front steps to watch the early morning action. “The teachers don’t have time to pay attention to each person.”

On many high school campuses in the district, classes of 35 students or more are common, even though the district’s average class size is 29.8, according to state education officials. That is close to the California average of 29.5. The district’s enrollment has grown 26% since 1981, forcing heavily populated areas like South Gate to absorb more students than ever before.

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Principal Sandoval said the school had not broken down its average class size but acknowledged many classes had 35 or more students. The campus’ problem has been exacerbated by a 1996 consent decree in which the district promised to educate more disabled students on regular campuses. As a result, this year South Gate had to convert five classrooms into special-education classes housing 15 students each.

“The population is growing at a dramatic rate,” Sandoval said, “and [the teachers] are just one of the groups that has recognized the problem is challenging, if not insurmountable.”

Although South Gate went to a year-round schedule 16 years ago, the school is still packed with a total enrollment of 4,200 students.

When the two largest tracks returned Monday, most of the teachers started a shuffling ritual they endure throughout the year. Rather than staying in the same classroom while students move about, teachers are also asked to change classrooms for better space allocation. At the end of each period, they gather their materials and rush through the crowded hallways to another room.

“It’s like musical chairs--every single space is being utilized,” said Rena Patton, an English teacher and chairwoman of South Gate’s United Teachers-Los Angeles chapter. “With such large numbers, it’s very easy to get lost in the crowd here.”

Freshman Rosa Villegas said she was overwhelmed during her first week at the teeming campus.

“I looked around and thought, ‘Wow!’ ” said Rosa, who has to lug her books around because there are not enough lockers for incoming students. “There were so many people, I couldn’t believe it. . . . Many students don’t have enough time to get to class--you have to push through the stairwell.”

It’s not just the hallways. Physical education classes have about 65 students per teacher, and counselors juggle 700 students each.

The district has promised South Gate 10 new bungalow classrooms this year, but they may not arrive for months.

The worst is yet to come.

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The current sixth-grade classes that eventually feed into South Gate are some of the largest ever in the area. Already, 27 school buses pick up hundreds of local students in front of the school every morning to transport them to other high schools. Some travel as long as an hour and a half to get to class. And now those schools are reaching their capacities.

The only solution, say teachers and community members, is a new high school, but no one knows where the money is going to come from. Throughout Los Angeles, the district is searching for land for new schools--a difficult and contentious job in dense urban areas.

Meanwhile, teachers and students are bracing for their cramped quarters to grow even more crowded--a prospect no one relishes.

“We don’t want to see the ship sink, but if they keep putting more students in here, that’s what’s going to happen,” Patton said. “Students are going to wash out of the system.”