Friday, May 27, 2011
Page 3
D.A.’s Office Awards Scholarships to High School Students
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office yesterday presented $5,000 in scholarships to nine students who have demonstrated serious interest in the environment.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who is a candidate to become the county’s top prosecutor next year, presided over the ceremony at Pioneer High School in Whittier.
Since 1991, the District Attorney’s Office has presented more than $250,000 in scholarships to 376 students under the Environmental Scholarship Program, a spokesperson said.
Lacey said the program “affirms our commitment to our young people and our schools,” insisting that “[w]e must join with our schools and communities to encourage and empower our children to protect and preserve our environment.”
The program is funded by a 1990 settlement the District Attorney’s Office reached with Grow Group Inc., a manufacturer of chemical products used in swimming pools, following an explosion at a Grow Group facility which injured 12 and spawned a toxic cloud 1,000 feet high and a mile long.
Grow Group pled no contest to one felony count of illegal disposal of hazardous waste and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful storage of hazardous waste. The company paid a fine of nearly $270,000 to be used for college scholarships for students from schools in the area affected by the explosion.
This year’s scholarship recipients were graduating seniors from El Rancho, Montebello, Bell Gardens, Schurr and Pioneer high schools.
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company