NAMING AUDITORIA: JAIME ESCALANTE & MICHAEL JACKSON

Garfield High auditorium to be named for Escalante by Jason Song | LA Times March 31, 2010 |  6:30 pm -- The auditorium at the high school where famed math teacher Jaime Escalante taught for 15 years will be named in his honor, Los Angeles school district officials announced late Wednesday. The auditorium at Garfield High School, which was badly damaged by a fire in 2007, is under construction and is scheduled to be completed in 2012. A 17-year-old Garfield student was convicted of setting the blaze, sentenced to juvenile camp and ordered to pay restitution. The fire caused an estimated $30-million in damage. Escalante began working at the East Los Angeles campus in 1974 and gained fame for his success in  teaching math to scores of inner city, largely minority students and helping them pass Advanced Placement calculus classes. He was portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the 1988 movie "Stand and Deliver" and was widely called the best teacher in America. Escalante left Garfield in 1991 and taught in Sacramento and then his native Bolivia. He was diagnosed with bladder cancer and died Tuesday. _______________________ Garfield High plans tribute to Jaime Escalante The prominent former math teacher died Tuesday at age 79. LA Times/LA Now blog April 1, 2010 -- Garfield High will pay tribute to prominent former math teacher Jaime Escalante on Thursday at the East L.A. campus with a gathering of the school's ROTC, leadership students, band and drill team, administrators, staff and current and former students. The memorial service for Escalante, who died Tuesday at age 79, is planned from 7 to 7:20 a.m. at 5101 E. 6th St.

Fans want Michael Jackson's name returned to L.A. school auditorium by Shelby Grad |  Los Angeles Times March 31, 2010 |  5:01 pm -- In 2003, officials at Gardner Street Elementary School in Hollywood covered up Michael Jackson's name on the auditorium. They took the action soon after Jackson was arrested on suspicion of child molestation, and the principal at the time said parents requested that the name be removed. Now some people want Jackson's name restored to the building. The supporters have created a Facebook page to rally their cause. The backers argue that because Jackson was acquitted of criminal charges, the Los Angeles Unified School District must put the pop star's name back on the auditorium. "This cannot be allowed to continue," they said in a statement. "Please help us convince the school district to take down the covers and reveal his name once more to the public." In 1989, the Gardner faculty named the auditorium after the singer. He attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 11, 1989, where the school's choir sang, "We Are the World," a tune Jackson co-wrote. Jackson donated money to the school at the time. An illustration of Jackson's face was posted in the auditorium in 1989, and another depicting the singer surrounded by children was mounted in the main office. But the auditorium drawing was removed several years ago because it kept falling down. The picture in the office also was removed a while ago to make room for a new intercom system. LAist reports that the group is asking supporters to download and sign a letter to L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. Photo: Jackson at the auditorium. Credit: Associated Press