A Sweltering, Exciting and Scary First Day of School

“Are you lost? Are you frightened? Know where you’re headed?”

These questions could be heard directed to lost-looking students throughout the quad and halls of Ernest Lawrence Middle School in
Chatsworth on Wednesday, the first day of school, where temperatures reached 91 degrees by 1 p.m.

Close to the end of lunch, students were running to get to class on time, schedules in their hands, and a panic look on their faces.

Four 6^th-grade students from Superior Elementary School, but now at the Home of the Lions, huddled under the shade of a tree and met up during lunch time.

“I’m afraid of being late. I was looking for Room 2 and I couldn’t find it,” said Ruben Arellano, 11. “I saw the principal and asked him, and he point right behind me. I passed it five times. I passed it five times.”

Ruben attributed his dilemma to the fact that the classroom door was open and it covered the room number.

His cousin, Anthony Arellano, 10, said the first day as a middle school student was fun.

“(Physical Education) will be my best memory of the first day. We got to play basketball,” Anthony said.

Friend Danny Rodriguez, 11, said he was luckier than his friends, because he had the same teacher for two classes making it one less room to find.

Danny Zepeda, 11, and his friend, Leonardo Landverde, 10, said they were excited to be at Lawrence.

“It’s not what I expected. It’s big,” said Danny. “And, there are a lot of people.”

Leonardo agreed, adding he liked it better than elementary school.

Sixth-grader Abby McBride, 11, said the highlight of her first day at a middle school was meeting her teachers.

“The teachers are better here,” Abby said.

Her friend Claudia, 11, agreed and said she thought the teachers were stricter, but that was okay.

Seventh-graders Alfred Bartell, 11, and Brandon Chong, 12, said they wanted to make good impressions on their teachers.

“They’ll give you good cooperation points,” both boys agreed, adding that those points could help boost their grades.

Eighth-graders and leadership students Mandeep Chase and Laila Cans, both 13, strolled hand-in-hand on campus. The couple has been dating since the beginning of the summer.

“It’s great. I like my new math teacher,” Laila said.

Mandeep said part of his role on Wednesday was to help show new students the way to their classrooms.

There are an estimated 1,700 students at Lawrence.

Principal Dan Schar said enrollment this year exceeded district expectations by 25 students. Schar said that was unusual. Typically, enrollment is down 100 or so students.

He said he expects to hire an extra teacher as a result and will probably hire a second teacher to accommodate the extra students if more students show up in the upcoming days.

The halls of Lawrence were relatively calm on Wednesday in light of it being the first day of school.

Schar said having orientation days prior to the first day helped to alleviate chaos.

Representatives from Lawrence attended a breakfast last week sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Department Devonshire Area Station.

The breakfast is an annual event.

Lawrence said LAPD and school police officers wanted school officials to know that they were in their corner and had their backs covered when it comes to protecting students at all of the schools.

At the end of last school year, five female Lawrence students were victimized by a man who is accused of impersonating a police officer and fondling them off campus. Joseph Reyes Rogero, 24, of Van Nuys, was arrested.

Rogero worked at a Chatsworth martial arts studio. Police nabbed him quickly. He is being held in lieu of $5.5 million at the Twin Towers
Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.