Los Angeles’ T-shirt-and-shorts weather is expected to continue through the weekend, the National Weather Service says.

But forecasters warned beachgoers about the potential Tuesday for “very strong currents and dangerous swimming conditions” along the Orange and San Diego county coasts. Dangerous rip-current conditions have persisted since Saturday along parts of the Pacific Coast.

Highs in the L.A. area will continue peaking in the 70s for the rest of the week, with a chance of temperatures hitting the low 80s on Thursday, forecasters said. Skies are expected to remain clear.

Daytime temperatures will remain mostly above normal, the weather service said.

Temperatures Monday were pleasant across the region, with Long Beach and Laguna Beach topping out at 69; Redondo Beach, 72; Burbank and Santa Monica, 74; downtown L.A. and Pasadena, 75; San Gabriel, 76; UCLA and Woodland Hills, 77; Northridge, 78; and Chatsworth, 80. Riverside and Fillmore recorded the highest temperatures in the nation, with the mercury hitting 82. The lowest temperature Monday was in Saranac Lake, N.Y., in the Adriondack Mountain range, with 36 degrees below zero.

The pleasant weather in Southern California is being caused by strong high pressure in the Great Basin in the Nevada area, which is pushing air into Southern California and bringing with it clear skies and warmer temperatures. Santa Ana winds are forecast to pick up beginning Wednesday night and into Thursday.

The weather is less pleasant in the Central Valley. Thick, dense fog, with visibility less than 500 feet, was expected to persist until 1 p.m. Tuesday. Known as tule fog, the pea-soup conditions are common in the Central Valley in winter months and hazardous for motorists.

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-- Rong-Gong Lin II

Hawthorne police said Friday that they were shocked by a bizarre incident that began with a fatal hit-and-run accident and ended with a mob of people turning its anger on another driver.

"This one had us scratching our heads," said Capt. Mike Ishi. "It's such a tragedy. It's in a league of its own."

The series of events unfolded at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on a busy stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard near the 105 Freeway.

It started when a minivan struck a man crossing the street. The driver sped away. Moments later, a second vehicle ran over the man, who was sprawled in the middle of the street. That driver also sped away without stopping, police said.

A fatal hit-and-run in Hawthorne left one man dead, a good Samaritan injured by another car when she attempted to help, and the motorist who stopped to check on her after allegedly striking her beaten and robbed by a mob of bystanders.

The bizarre chain of events unfolded about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on a busy stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard near the 105 Freeway when a southbound driver struck a pedestrian walking across the street outside the crosswalk.

Hawthorne Police Lt. Gary Tomatoni said the driver of a white or gray minivan fled the scene and as the injured pedestrian lay in the street, a second vehicle ran over the man. That driver also failed to stop and provide aid.

Several pedestrians who saw the two cars hit the man ran to him to try to help. One of the good Samaritans was running across Crenshaw Boulevard toward the victim when she was hit by another motorist traveling southbound.

Prosecutors on Thursday declined to file criminal charges against two Gardena High School students accused of aiding a 17-year-old student suspected of carrying a handgun that discharged, striking two students and critically wounding one.

The students, a 16-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy, were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of aiding the suspected gunman after he fled the classroom. Authorities said the girl took the suspect's backpack and the boy gave him his sweatshirt and money for bus fare to flee the campus.

Ultimately, prosecutors determined that there was not enough evidence to charge the students, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The decision came the same day as the student suspected of carrying the handgun was charged with two felonies: possessing a firearm in a school zone and discharging a firearm in a school zone.

The suspect, whose name is being withheld because of his age, was on probation for a misdemeanor battery charge, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Joanne Baeza. Prosecutors have filed a motion to have the minor tried as an adult.

The teenager allegedly carried a loaded 9-millimeter Beretta in his backpack to school Tuesday. When he reached inside the backpack to get something to eat, the gun discharged a single round in a classroom about 10:40 a.m., authorities said.

The bullet struck a 15-year-old boy in the neck before hitting a 15-year-old girl in the side of the head, officials said.

The girl remains in critical condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with a skull fracture and brain trauma. A spokeswoman for the hospital said she has been able to respond to basic commands.

The male victim was released from the hospital late Wednesday.

-- Andrew Blankstein

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Urinating in a bucket is a tough go for students when a school is in lockdown because of a dangerous situation, as El Camino Real and Gardena high schools experienced this week in the wake of shootings.

Although students described using a trash can or empty paper cup in which to urinate during Wednesday's lockdown at El Camino Real, it turns out the bucket is part of a "lockdown kit" that is supposed to be in every Los Angeles Unified School District classroom.

The lockdown kit includes a 5-gallon bucket or pail with a removable lid “solely for the purpose of this kind of situation,” said district spokesman Robert Alaniz.

He said the kits should have been in every classroom at both schools, and it appeared some students made use of them at El Camino Real High in Woodland Hills, where a school police officer was wounded off campus, and at Gardena High, where two students were injured Tuesday when a gun accidentally discharged in class.

Law enforcement-ordered lockdowns kept students in classrooms and gyms for hours.

A Manhattan beach police officer pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a hit-and-run charge, authorities said.

Richard William Hatten II, 35, is charged with one misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. An attorney entered the plea on behalf of Hatten, who is expected to be booked Thursday at the East Los Angeles sheriff's station.

The charges stem from an incident last January that resulted in four officers being placed on leave after allegedly failing to report a hit-and-run accident caused by a vehicle registered to Hatten.

Officers arrived at the accident scene and found that the driver suspected of causing the crash had fled. The driver's unoccupied vehicle was found later at a nearby gasoline station, the Manhattan Beach Police Department said in a statement issued shortly after the incident.

The officers conducted a registration check, which showed that the owner was a Manhattan Beach police officer. No report was taken and no arrests were made, the department said.

On Wednesday, the district attorney's office released a charge-evaluation worksheet saying that two officers were passengers in Hatten's car.  The officers violated no laws and did nothing to encourage Hatten to leave his vehicle, according to the report.

"Therefore," the report said, "we are declining to file charges against these individuals."

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-- Robert J. Lopez

Two Gardena High School students have been arrested for allegedly aiding a classmate who brought a gun to school Tuesday that discharged, injuring two, police say.

The two students allegedly helped the classmate hide after the gun accidentally went off in a classroom, according to a law-enforcement source. The 17-year-old who brought the gun to school hid for about an hour after the gun discharged. He was then taken into custody. The source said those arrested were 15 and 16 years old.

Tim Anderson, deputy chief of the Los Angeles School Police Department, confirmed the arrests but would not provide details.

Incoming LAUSD Supt. John Deasy said earlier that Garden High School had violated school-district policy because it did not conduct random weapons searches every day.

Deasy said a review by district administrators showed school-district policy required random weapons searches daily.

At Gardena High School, Deasy said, "that did not occur."

The Gardena High School student who police believe accidentally discharged a gun and wounded two other students had brought a weapon to campus “a couple times” before, one of his friends said Tuesday.

Andrea Tibbs, who described herself as a “good friend” of the student, said that he started bringing the gun to campus to protect himself after he had been in a fight outside of school –- an incident, she said, that made him fear for his safety.

Imami Moses, another classmate who knows the student, said, “I saw him today. It was just a normal day. He’s always been nice to me. He’s always been cool.”

The two students were injured when the gun discharged about 10:40 a.m. One girl was shot in the head, and is in grave condition at a hospital. The other victim, a boy, was wounded in the neck. [Updated 2:50 p.m. Tuesday: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the boy was wounded in the shoulder.] According to Robert Alaniz, an LAUSD spokesman, the gun discharged when a 10^th grade boy either dropped or bumped the backpack containing the weapon.

Sources told The Times that after the gun went off, the student who brought it to school apologized to his classmates before running out of the classroom.

He surrendered to police in a dramatic end to a standoff.

Officials let students out of the high school, at 1301 W. 182nd St., around 2 p.m.

L.A. Unified Police Chief Steve Zipperman said, “It appears to be a possible accidental discharge.” He thinks the gun could have accidentally gone off. When asked about how the gun could have gotten past the school’s metal detectors, Zipperman said officials were looking into how the backpack got into the school. [Updated, 3:45 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified Zipperman as an LAPD captain.]

Tibbs, the student, said that more needs to be done to make Gardena High safer.

“This school is crazy,” she said. “It’s just too much. Honestly, we should have searches all the time. There are a couple students here who come here with guns.”

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Two Gardena High School students were injured when a gun in a student’s backpack accidentally discharged about 10:40 a.m.

One girl was shot in the head, and is in grave condition at a hospital. The other victim, a boy, was wounded in the shoulder. According to Robert Alaniz, an LAUSD spokesman, the gun discharged when a 10^th grade boy either dropped or bumped the backpack containing the weapon.

Sources told The Times that after the gun went off, the student who brought it to school apologized to his classmates before running out of the classroom.

He surrendered to police in a dramatic end to a standoff after two fellow students were shot at Gardena High School. Initial reports had said that three students had been shot.

The shooting occurred about 10:30 a.m. on the campus at 1301 W. 182nd St.

LAPD Captain Steve Zipperman said, “It appears to be a possible accidental discharge.” He thinks the gun could have accidentally gone off. When asked about how the gun could’ve gotten past the school’s metal detectors, Zipperman said officials were looking into how the backpack got into the school.

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Photo: Police talk with a handcuffed youth in front of Gardena High School. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Parents waited anxiously Tuesday morning at a police parameter set up at 182nd Street and Vermont Avenue about three blocks from the Gardena High School campus for word on their children who attend the school where two students were shot.

Cathleen Orranthia, whose 14-year-old daughter, Alex Orranthia, attends the school, was at her job as a saleswoman for an apparel company near the school when she heard about the shooting.

“My work is five minutes from here and they said, 'Go, go!' ” said Orranthia, who graduated from Gardena High in 1975. “Progressively, it’s gone downhill. Apparently, they don’t check people who walk into the school. It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 or 25, they let you in.”

Alexandra Torres, who has a 15-year-old son at the school, said she had taken time off from her work Tuesday as a real estate loan processor to go to a doctor’s appointment when she received a text from her son about the shooting.

“I got chills,” Torres said. “He’s OK, though.”