L.A. Digest
Staff and Wire Reports
TORRANCE — An educator with more than 23 years of experience in instruction, student services and administration in California community colleges will take the helm at El Camino College on July 1, it was announced this week.
The five-member El Camino Community College District Board of Trustees named Brenda Thames as the next superintendent/president of the Torrance campus during its May board meeting.
She will succeed Dena P. Maloney, who is retiring when her current contract ends at the conclusion of the 2020-21 academic year in June. Maloney began her tenure at El Camino in February 2016.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve in the leadership role of a community college as distinguished and reputable as El Camino College,” Thames said in a statement released by the school. “El Camino College is known and recognized for the college’s deep commitment to equity and student success.”
Thames currently serves as the president of West Hills College in Coalinga.
Official seeks
fireworks crackdown
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — With temperatures rising, the Fourth of July holiday around the corner, and raising concerns that Los Angeles is poised to experience one of the worst fire seasons ever, City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas has introduced a motion that seeks to curb the use of illegal fireworks. The motion directs the fire and police departments to report back on setting up a system to track and respond to fireworks complaints through a mobile application that would issue automatic violations. A similar program has been established in San Bernardino County.
“The bottom line has to be safety,” Ridley-Thomas said. “The use of illegal fireworks poses a threat to Angelenos, whether you are housed or unhoused. We must get creative and we must make it easy to identify illegal uses and establish sufficient repercussions to curb this activity.
“Too many of our neighbors are literally playing with fire, and the results can be lethal,” Ridley-Thomas added.
Virtual graduation
celebration planned
LOS ANGELES — A group of entertainment industry figures are lending their names and support to a virtual live graduation event that will take place June 4.
Television actor, Kel Mitchell, “Blackish” star Marcus Scribner, television star Yolanda “Yo Yo” Whitaker, actor Trevor Jackson and model and actress Crystal Westbrooks will join the Black College Expo and the Los Angeles Urban League to present “2021 Black High School Graduation: Rites of Passage,” at 4 p.m. June 4.
The virtual live graduation will involve hundreds of thousands of high school students from around the country.
The 90-minute ceremony recognizes the variety of Black experience and richness of Black talent. The nationwide event will also celebrate students for their accomplishments, aspirations and academic excellence.
Visit https://laul.org/2021blackhsgrad/ to register for this event.
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