Thursday, January 26, 2006
Page 3
LAUSD Renames School in Honor of Johnnie Cochran
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education has unanimously approved the renaming of Mount Vernon Middle School as Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Middle School.
Cochran, who died last year, was a civil rights attorney and attended the school in the 1950s.
“We’ve had meetings with community groups, teachers, students and parents and the consensus would be to change the name in honor of Mr. Cochran,’’ Mount Vernon Assistant Principal Gwen Lisboa told the MetNews yesterday.
Lisboa said the school, which is located at 4066 W. 17th St., in the mid-city area near Crenshaw Blvd., expects the school signage to reflect the change in a short time.
“In the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing when we will change [the signs and other materials],’’ Lisboa said, adding that a celebration of the change will take place once that is done.
Lisboa said that Cochran’s family played a key role in the school’s name change. “They were in some of the initial meetings and they were all present [Tuesday],’’ Lisboa said.
Cochran, who represented former football star O.J. Simpson and singer Michael Jackson among others, is survived by his father, Johnnie L. Cochran Sr., his widow, Dale Cochran, and sisters Martha Cochran Sherrard and Pearl Cochran Baker.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company