Mira Costa Students Share a Holiday Tradition With Homeless

CLASS PICNIC: About 25 Mira Costa High School students cooked hamburgers, served coffee and shared holiday cheer last week with nearly 100 homeless people at Alondra Park in Torrance.

For the past six years Paul Flahive, a special education teacher at Mira Costa, has been hosting the Christmas barbecue at the park. Student council members, Flahive’s special education students and a few staffers from the school were on hand. Flahive provided some of the food, while students donated canned food and clothing to the homeless.

While he considers helping others a valuable experience for all students, Flahive said his special education students probably gained the most.

“They’re always having things handed to them,” he said. Helping out at the barbecue, the teacher said, provides the students a lesson in following directions while feeling good about doing something important.

Roger Sheler, 53, who has lived in Alondra Park for 10 years, has attended all of Flahive’s holiday parties. He enjoys the students and gives them advice.

“I tell them, ‘Don’t quit school, and pray things will change.’ ”

CHEVRON DONATION: The El Segundo Unified School District got a $20,000 donation last week from the Chevron Cos.

The money will be used to help finance a computer lab at El Segundo High School. The lab, which opened last spring, contains 36 Apple Macintosh computers and two laser printers. Students use the computers for science and math classwork and to produce the student newspaper. Principal William Watkins said Chevron also assisted when the computer lab was set up.

Chevron earlier this year repaved parking lots and playgrounds at the high school. In August, 120 volunteers from Chevron, along with local residents, painted and did carpentry and electrical work at El Segundo Middle School.

SCHOOL LAWS: During the 1993-94 legislative session four school-related bills have been signed into law by Gov. Pete Wilson. Taking effect Jan. 1, 1994 are:

AB980: School Dress Codes--

Establishes school dress codes and declares that gang-related apparel is hazardous to the health and safety of the school environment. The bill establishes a statewide dress code that would prohibit pupils from wearing “gang-related apparel,” which would be defined by administrators at each school based on information from police and community groups.

AB342: Expulsion--Requires the principal or superintendent of schools to immediately suspend any student found in possession of a firearm, knife, or explosive while at school or at an off-campus school activity.

AB1714: Pupil Discipline--

Authorizes the school principal or superintendent to require students to perform community service on school grounds in place of expulsion.

SB1130: School Crimes--

Prohibits students who have been expelled for causing serious injury to another student, possessing a weapon, selling drugs or committing a robbery from enrolling in any school or school district other than a juvenile court school or a continuation school.

Items for the weekly Class Notes column can be mailed to The Times South Bay office, 23133 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 200, Torrance 90505, or faxed to (310) 373-5753 to the attention of staff writer Carol Chastang.