School and police officials expressed outrage and disappointment on Friday over allegations that Los Angeles School Police Department Officer Jeff Stenroos lied about being shot by an assailant outside El Camino Real High School last week.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines issued an apology, noting that the shooting case caused thousands of students to be under lockdown for hours.

"On behalf of the thousands of dedicated professionals that comprise the Los Angeles Unified School District, I would like to apologize to the public for the hoax that was perpetrated by a rogue officer of the Los Angeles School Police," Cortines said in a statement. "Thousands of people were inconvenienced by the actions of this one man. I want to again apologize to everyone who was alarmed, who worked long hours and who were adversely affected by his actions."

Cortines said the LAUSD has relieved Stenroos of duty and begun the process of firing him.

"Although Jeff Stenroos was an eight-year veteran of the Los Angeles School Police, his actions in no way reflect the professionalism and integrity of the men and women who protect and serve this District every day," he added.

Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said Stenroos was a "disgrace."

"The law enforcement community is disgusted," Weber said in a statement. "While Mr. Stenroos is a disgrace to the badge, his individual and dangerous actions should not reflect on the hard-working men and women in law enforcement."

Police announced Thursday that Stenross' story of being shot was a concocted. Stenroos has been booked on a felony charge of filing a false police report, and was released on $20,000 bail Friday morning.

Police had said Stenroos was shot in the chest Jan. 19 after he confronted a man who was attempting to break into vehicles near the eastern boundary of the El Camino Real High School campus. Stenroos' bulletproof vest absorbed the impact of a single gunshot, which Los Angeles Police Department officials said could easily have killed the officer.

The incident sparked a massive police response that inconvenienced thousands of people for the day as officers blocked roads, locked down schools and refused to let people in or out of a 7-square-mile area.

Authorities arrested Stenroos after he allegedly admitted to fabricating the story, a senior LAPD official close to the investigation told The Times.

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Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum commissioners may consider bringing back the Electric Daisy Carnival rave in June, according to an agenda of next week's meeting.

The joint state, county and city commission is scheduled to hear a report by Patrick Lynch, the general manager of the Coliseum and Sports Arena, on a “Review of Plans for June 24 & 25, 2011 Electric Daisy Festival.” The agenda said the commission could take action on the plans.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at the Coliseum Commission meeting room on the eastern edge of the Coliseum, near Gate 33-A.

At last year’s Electric Daisy Carnival rave, a 15-year-old girl, Sasha Rodriguez, overdosed on Ecstasy, fell into a coma at a hospital and died two days later.

Sasha's parents have filed a $5 million claim against the Coliseum Commission.

In November, commissioners lifted a moratorium on raves that was imposed after Sasha’s death. The moratorium had no practical effect on raves at the facility, which includes the Sports Arena, as raves that had already been planned for August, October, and New Year’s Eve were permitted to continue as scheduled.

On Wednesday, USC President C.L. Max Nikias sent a letter to students, warning them not to attend raves, saying use of the illegal drug Ecstasy at the massive dance parties "can create a ripple effect of dangers that lead to catastrophic consequences."

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A nonprofit that examines the authorization of charter schools gave good marks Thursday to the Los Angeles Unified School District -- a finding that may surprise some local charter school operators who have long battled the school system.

The thumbs-up comes from the Chicago-based National Assn. of Charter School Authorizers, which is “devoted exclusively to improving public education by improving the policies and practices of the organizations responsible for authorizing charter schools.” The organization is regarded as pro-charter schools; in fact, its board chair, James Peyser, is a partner in the NewSchools Venture Fund, which has provided funding to propel the growth of charters.

Charter schools are free, publicly funded schools that are managed independently of the education agencies that allow them to open.

The researchers noted that L.A. Unified, the nation’s second-largest school system, has authorized more charter schools than any other school district.

The largest five authorizers in the nation are, in order, the Texas Education Agency, the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Chicago Public Schools and the North Carolina Department of Education, according to the report. All told, these five agencies oversee 26% of all charter schools. 

The commendation for L.A. Unified goes beyond just allowing charters to operate.

Free workshops and advice about financial aid for college will be offered at 29 high schools across the Los Angeles region this Saturday.

The Cash for College program will provide experts to help students and their families complete the federal and state applications for college financial aid between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. that day. Attendees are urged to bring along their family’s financial and tax documents, including 2009 tax returns and the most current W-2 forms.

The nearest locations for what are called Super Saturday workshops and for subsequent ones through March 2 can be found by zip code on this website.

Undocumented students will have a chance to explore alternative sources of grants even though government aid is barred to them. And all students who participate and complete the required forms and aid applications will be eligible to win in a random drawing for more than 100 scholarships, worth $1,000 each, officials said.

Cash for College is a program aiming to boost college attendance. Among its sponsors are the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Los Angeles Community College District and the United Way.

-- Larry Gordon

Students at Dwyer Middle School have knocked on doors, designed fliers and canvassed their Huntington Beach neighborhood -- and they've even sacrificed 30 precious minutes of sleep on school days to protest solar panels planned for the front lawn of the school.

Thirteen-year-old Katie Cason is one of the students. For the last week, she's been protesting in the mornings before class by holding signs, urging drivers to honk horns, and cheering. She said the panels are infringing on a popular grassy area used for socializing.

"It won't be the same at all," she said Thursday morning before class. Cason and a group of students and parents will also be protesting outside the school at 1:30 Thursday, a culmination of months of complaints. Though the students plan to protest at the school, if they are told to leave, they will move to Lake Park, where attorney Gloria Allred is scheduled to hold a news conference.

Parents say they were not properly informed of an $8-million district plan to install solar panels on the front lawn of the middle school. Feasibility studies began in June 2008, but various parents say they didn't know about the panels until October 2010. A contract with Chevron Energy Solutions was signed in April 2010 and includes four other schools.

The district superintendent, Kathy Kessler, acknowledged a breakdown in communication at Dwyer, but she said the school board has weighed all options. The panels are expected to save the district about $75,000 in energy costs annually. Construction costs are to be offset by rebates, savings and other incentives.

The football team from View Park Preparatory High School in Hyde Park has earned this year’s honor as the top football team -- academically -- among 72 local teams, a sports league official confirmed Thursday.

The 43-member team achieved a grade point average of 3.3 and finished as the California Interscholastic Federation, L.A. City Section, Division 3 champion, said Jo Ann Heller, who oversees the academic award for the Los Angeles area.

Division 3 is for small-school teams such as View Park, which is a public charter school. But the competition is among all varsity teams in the Los Angeles Unified School District and independently run charter schools in that region; 22 teams entered the academic competition this year.

View Park Head Coach Robert Ambers enforced and led mandatory 1 1/2-hour study hall sessions every other day for all football players and “visited the main office weekly to check the grades of players, who also had to submit weekly progress reports,” according to a spokesperson for ICEF Public Schools, the nonprofit that operates View Park.

“Students know that success in the classroom comes first, and I have no doubt that has led to our success on the field,” Ambers said in a statement.

The players and coach are scheduled to be honored Friday at the Los Angeles City Council.

-- Howard Blume

Philanthropist Eli Broad and three other donors announced Thursday a $100-million endowment to make Teach for America a permanent teacher-training program.

Broad's foundation pledged $25 million to the endowment, spurring three other matching donations from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Robertson Foundation and philanthropists Steve and Sue Mandel, officials said.

Education-reform efforts are a major thrust of the Southern California-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Teach for America, which has a local regional office, currently has 270 teachers working in the Los Angeles area.

Teach for America typically draws from the brightest recent college grads, sending more than 28,000 recruits over the past 20 years to teach for two years in some of the nation’s most challenging urban schools.

Two-thirds of alumni continue to work full time in education, half of them as classroom teachers, according to the organization. More than 550 have become school principals or district superintendents.

Others hold influential positions in other fields, including journalism, public-policy foundations and government. A primary aim of founder Wendy Kopp was to draw talent and public interest to the challenge of supporting and improving public education.

“Under Wendy Kopp’s leadership, Teach for America has quickly evolved from an innovative idea into what has become nothing less than an enduring American institution that has forever changed the landscape of public education,” Broad said in a statement.

Among the most high-profile alums is outspoken former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, a heroine to many school reformers and a bête noire to many teachers and teacher unions. Her stormy tenure included a much-watched initiative linking teacher evaluations to student performance on standardized tests. The results contributed to scores of teacher firings.

A Cal State Northridge math professor has been charged with urinating on a colleague's office door during a dispute between the two men.

Tihomir Petrov, 43, is facing two misdemeanor counts of urinating in a public place, according to a copy of a complaint filed in Superior Court.

Petrov is expected to be arraigned Thursday in San Fernando, authorities said. The case stems from a dispute that Petrov allegedly had with another professor in the school's math department, authorities said.

Petrov was allegedly captured in early December on videotape urinating on the door of another professor's office in Santa Susana Hall, according to authorities. School officials had concealed a camera nearby after discovering puddles of what they thought was urine at the professor's door.

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USC president urges students to skip raves because of drugs

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-- Robert J. Lopez

The president of USC is warning students not to attend raves, saying that a drug commonly used at the all-night dance parties, Ecstasy, “can create a ripple effect of dangers that lead to catastrophic consequences.”

“I wish to warn you about a specific danger that has become increasingly prevalent in the city of Los Angeles: raves. Occasionally, these are held close to our campuses, often at the Coliseum or the Shrine, and they present serious risks to all who attend,” USC President C.L. Max Nikias wrote in the letter, first reported by the Neon Tommy website.

"Ecstasy, which is common at raves, produces a number of adverse reactions that may include disorientation, anxiety, paranoia, panic attacks and hallucinations. These reactions, even in mild forms, can create a ripple effect of dangers that lead to catastrophic consequences,” Nikias wrote. “Therefore, with the collective support of the university’s senior administration -- and as the father of two USC students -- I strongly discourage your participation at rave events.”

DOCUMENT: Read the letter from USC President C.L. Max Nikias warning students about raves

[Updated at 6:15 p.m.: Pasquale Rotella, the owner of Insomniac Inc., one of two companies that hold raves at the Los Angeles Coliseum and Sports Arena, issued a statement in response to the USC president’s letter:

"USC offers great courses in electronic music taught by respected and accomplished professors. Given this support and USC’s dedication to the arts in general, the president’s advice to the students is surprising. Students can walk to our events that combine every aspect of the performing arts, including dance, music, art, costumes, lighting and production design. Insomniac’s events aim to cultivate and enrich the human mind and spirit through the arts -- a goal that is perfectly in tune with USC’s own mission statement. We are eager to meet with President Nikias to provide more information to him and to address his concerns. We value the support of USC’s students as well as the administration."]

The letter by Nikias, dated Wednesday, was released a week before the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission will meet, where it might discuss whether to bring back the Electric Daisy Carnival rave in June. A 15-year-old girl, Sasha Rodriguez, overdosed on Ecstasy at that rave last year, fell into a coma and subsequently died.

The letter also came about two months after an 18-year-old USC freshman who had been partying at a rave at the Shrine Auditorium later fell six stories from his USC dorm room. The student, who appeared to have consumed alcohol, marijuana, and Ecstasy, suffered multiple broken bones and internal injuries and was hospitalized in critical condition after the fall.

USC is in negotiations with the state of California to buy the land on which the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena sit, which would make the university the landlord of the Coliseum Commission.

The next meeting of the Coliseum Commission will be held Feb. 2 at 2:30 p.m. at the commission meeting room near Gate 33-A on the eastern edge of the Coliseum. An agenda for that meeting has not yet been posted.

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[Updated at 11:26 p.m.: Full story: USC president urges students to not attend raves]

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El Camino High Real High School and Hale Middle School in Woodland Hills were briefly placed on lockdown Wednesday after a man with a gun was reported in the El Camino faculty parking lot, Los Angeles police and school district officials said.

The incident was reported at 2:42 p.m. at the campus at Valley Circle and Burbank boulevards, said LAPD spokeswoman Norma Eisenman.  The sighting was reported near the end of the school day and it was not immediately clear how many students were kept in their classrooms.

By 3:15 p.m., a student had been detained by police and officers were reopening the campuses, Officer Sara Faden said.

Wednesday's lockdown comes one week after a school police officer was shot outside El Camino. The officer survived and police launched a massive manhunt that shut down seven square miles of the west San Fernando Valley and kept nine schools in the area under lockdown for several hours.

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