Point Vicente School Celebrates Diversity

CULTURAL EXCHANGE: Point Vicente Elementary School in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District celebrated its ethnic diversity last week by staging “International Day,” a parent-sponsored annual fair that gives students a chance to share their cultural heritage with others.

To start the day, students and their parents, many of them dressed in traditional costumes, watched a presentation that featured a Japanese tea ceremony,

a tae kwon do demon-

stration, a Mexican guitar player and a Chinese lion dance.

During the lunch break, they sampled foods from such countries as Brazil, Mexico, Russia and regions of the United States. There also were booths where students learned how to write their names in Chinese or Japanese.

About half of the school’s 355 students are white, 40% are Asian, 6% are Latino and 2% are black.

“Our teachers really emphasize that being diverse is good and that we’re lucky to have all these people and all the knowledge they bring,” Principal Megan Scannel said. “The kids really appreciate each other and this is one way to showcase that.”

GUN CONTROL: Torrance Unified School District trustees have expelled three eighth-graders at Calle Mayor Middle School who school authorities say handled .38-caliber handgun on campus last month.

The incident was the first of its kind this year in the district, officials said.

The gun was brought to school by a male student on March 12 and was handled during the day by two others, a boy and a girl. The students apparently showed the gun to fellow students, who reported them to school authorities. School officials later confiscated the gun, which was not loaded, and a clip of bullets.

The expulsions were ordered in accordance with a new state law that requires school boards to expel students who are found to be in possession of weapons on school grounds, Assistant Supt. Carol Riley said.

School authorities said they were encouraged that fellow students were “responsible enough” to report the gun to school officials. They expect to send parents a letter in the next couple of weeks encouraging them to talk with their children about the incident.

“It has certainly opened some eyes,” Riley said of the incident. “The sense has been . . . that we have a lot of things happening around Torrance, but that’s other people--it’s not really us. But it seems to me . . . (the incident) has brought the awareness level up that we’re all responsible for everybody’s safety here and that if you see something that’s potentially dangerous, you need to share that with an administrator so we can take steps to negate that before anything happens.”

MERIT SCHOLARS: Three South Bay seniors were among more than 1,000 students nationwide who won corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships, awards that bring recipients prestige and cash.

The winners include: Kevin D. Jeu, a student at Narbonne High School of the Los Angeles Unified School District; Brian D. Algra, a student at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, and Nikhil K. Chanani, a student at West High in the Torrance Unified School District.

Jeu, winner of the advanced placement scholar award and national science bowl, received his scholarship from Rockwell International.

Algra, a recipient of the National Council of Teachers English Achievement Award in writing, won his scholarship from FHP, a managed health-care services company based in Fountain Valley.

Chanani, co-president of the National Honor Society and editor-in-chief of the school’s yearbook, received his award from American Medical International, a health-care company that owns and operates 35 acute-care hospitals nationwide.

Most Merit Scholarships provide annual stipends of $1,700 for four years. More than 1 million students in thousands of high schools nationwide entered the 1993 scholarship program by taking a preparatory college placement exam. The top 15,000 scorers were designated semifinalists. Judges considered scores on a second test, as well as other activities and interests to choose finalists for the awards.

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