Students Seek More Teachers, Counselors

More than 100 students protested at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Tuesday afternoon demanding more teachers and counselors at Fremont High School.

The students complained of being assigned to classes that they already had taken, having too many classes with substitute teachers and of being unable to see a counselor for weeks to get the proper class assignments at the start of a school year.

Supt. Ruben Zacarias left a Board of Education meeting to promise the protesters that district officials would meet with their leaders Oct. 7.

“We work for you,” Zacarias said, standing on a bench amid the youths. “You are our No. 1 customers.”

Marqueece Dawson of the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, which organized the rally, said, “We got a partial victory today.”

Dawson said the coalition learned by surveying students at the year-round school that a high percentage of those on the summer track began school in July with disorganized schedules and no idea what courses they needed to graduate.

Last year, 300 students were unable to graduate because they lacked required courses, Dawson said.

He demanded an immediate academic assessment for every Fremont student so that juniors and seniors could get the right classes or, if it is too late, leave school and begin work on a general education degree.

Of those responding to the survey, about 40% were assigned to classes that they already had taken and passed, 56% did not have the textbooks and materials they needed, 23% did not have a teacher for every class, and 81% had never talked to a college counselor. The written survey was answered by 1,062 students.