LA names new school for teacher honored in film

[March 28, 2011]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Los Angeles-area school has been named for late calculus teacher Jaime Escalante, whose story about pushing underachieving students to succeed was chronicled in the 1988 hit movie "Stand and Deliver."

A ceremony to name the new kindergarten to sixth-grade facility the Jaime Escalante Elementary School was held on Saturday.

The school is a new facility that serves 600 pupils in Cudahy, a suburb southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

The family of Escalante, who died a year ago of cancer, attended the ceremony, along with several of his former students.

The Bolivian-born Escalante taught math at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles from 1974 to 1991. He is remembered for his philosophy that every student is capable of high achievement, regardless of their circumstances.

[Associated Press]

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