Parents Turn In Petitions to Force Changes at LA Elementary School

Another application of "parent-trigger" laws

A high-spirited group of nearly 100 parents descended on the Los Angeles Unified School District office Thursday and turned in petitions demanding sweeping changes at their failing school in the first use of the controversial parent trigger law in the city.

But parents at 24th Street Elementary School in the West Adams neighborhood got a strikingly different reception in L.A. Unified than their counterparts in Compton and the High Desert city of Adelanto, where parent trigger campaigns sparked long legal battles and bitter conflict.

L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy welcomed them into the school board meeting room with greetings in Spanish. After accepting the petitions signed by 358 parents, who represent 68% of the students, he pledged to work for "fundamental and dramatic change" at the school. The campus is one of the district's lowest performing elementary schools, with two-thirds of students unable to read or do math at grade level.