The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to rename the new South Region Elementary School No. 1, located at 89th and Main streets, the Dr. Owen Knox Elementary School. Knox, who has an Ed.D., has been an educator for more than 58 years and his commitment to educating children in Los Angeles and his contributions to education have received local and national recognition. He was first an elementary school teacher, then a school principal, then the LAUSD’s superintendent of instruction, then the assistant superintendent of personnel and then the superintendent of administrative areas 9, 8 and K. He directed the Jordan Educational Complex, a sub-system of elementary, secondary and adult schools in Watts, which served the community and served as a prototype of urban decentralization. Knox was an adjunct professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and an assistant professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education. He has received numerous accolades and commendations from all kinds of people and entities, as he was always extremely active in civil rights, social service, community and educational organizations.

And you know what else he was? He was my sixth grade teacher at 79th Street School. When I was a sixth-grader, Mr. Knox (which is what he was called then) was the first person to tell me I was a good writer. To which I replied, “Oh.” When I graduated from 79th Street School (which is named something else now, as the district is notorious about changing the names of things), Mr. Knox presented me the first award I ever received. It was a gold-looking naked man — sort of like the movies’ Oscar — standing on a base on which was inscribed “Best Writer — Betty Pleasant.” I was the proudest 11-year-old on the planet when he gave me that thing. I took it home and put it in my room with my dolls. My mother said: "Oh no, this is special. It has to be in the front room where everybody can see it.” And it has been in my mother’s front room in all three of her houses all my life — whether I’m in them or not (mostly not). Thank you, Mr. Knox and congratulations for an honor you richly deserve.

CALLING ALL FEDS — The Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant sent an appeal Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting its intervention in the trial of ex-BART police officer Johannes Mehserle to “protect the civil rights of Oscar Grant’s family, the Oakland community and all of California.” The letter, addressed to both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, points out that this trial is the first in state history in which a police officer is charged with murder for line-of-duty homicide. The coalition describes how the trial was moved from Oakland — where the cop killed Grant — to Los Angeles, where it was assigned to Judge Robert Perry, whom many regard as having whitewashed the infamous LAPD Rampart Scandal in the late 1990s, and tried before a jury from which all Black residents had been excluded. The coalition decried the fact that Perry allowed the victim’s (Grant’s) prior criminal record to be admitted into evidence during the trial, but he ruled that the killer cop’s disciplinary police record was irrelevant and inadmissible, proving once again the inability of Los Angeles’ courts to ensure justice and protect the civil rights of its residents.

Speaking of Oscar Grant, my good buddy Anthony Asadullah Samad will moderate a panel discussion on his murder and his murderer’s trial at Friday’s Urban Issues Breakfast Forum at the Regency West in Leimert Park from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Admission and the breakfast are free, and the forum is expected to include Grant’s family members, Keith Muhammad, minister of Oakland Mosque 26 and Thandisizwe Chimurenga, Oakland journalist who has come to our fair city to cover Mehserle’s trial.

JOBS FOR KIDS! — Para Los Ninos, which has a Crenshaw-area program site, is currently recruiting teens, ages 14 to 19, for the Summer Youth Employment  Program. They are recruiting kids for summer jobs in a dozen agencies and companies around the city that will provide up to 180 hours of work experience that will earn a youngster up to $1,440 for the summer. Eligible youth must live in the city of Los Angeles, must reside in households receiving TANF (CalWORKS) or reside in households receiving food stamps. Those interested in this program must call (213) 623-8446, ext. 243 for instructions and additional information. DO NOT CALL ME!! I know nothing more about this than what I’ve written here!! (If you — or your mamas — call me, I will stop telling you stuff.)

HERE WE GO AGAIN — The Los Angeles Unified School District is accepting applications for the next round of school giveaways, which the district calls its School Choice Initiative. Letters of intent for this thing are due into the LAUSD on June 30. Let us hope that this time around the district will be fair and give a public school to the Culture and Language Academy of Success (CLAS), a Black-operated charter school founded in 2003 that has become a popular choice for Black parents throughout L.A. County. Parents say their preference for it is due, in general, to the better academic results obtained there as opposed to most LAUSD schools and the welcoming environment to Black families, in particular. CLAS’ proposal to operate the struggling Hyde Park Elementary School during the first round of giveaways was rejected. CLAS’ was the only proposal made by African-Americans in the entire process, giving rise to speculation that the LAUSD was either not ready or unwilling to support a Black-led educational reform proposal — just white ones and Latino ones.

DATEBOOK — Sports writer/sportscaster Brad Pye Jr. will be inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame at the Sportsman’s Lodge Saturday at 11 a.m. In honor of the occasion, Councilwoman Janice Hahn presented Brad one of those big fancy certificates in City Council last week. In addition to his writing and broadcasting, Brad has served for many years on the California State Athletic, the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the Los Angeles City Recreation and Parks commissions.

Retiring Rep. Diane Watson will be honored by Educating Young Minds’ 12 annual scholarship awards gala Saturday at 5 p.m. at the LAX Marriott Hotel. The event will benefit graduating EYM scholars and academic achievement tutorial programs for deserving students in need of supplemental academic support and training.

INGLEWOOD REPORT — Kenneth Crowe, the assistant superintendent of the Inglewood Unified School District, is retiring from the job at the end of month after 20 years. Crowe is one of the good guys: honest, capable and qualified. In fact, he was a principal in Hawthorne in the 1980s before he set foot in Inglewood. When the bad guys took control of the Inglewood district, they tried to demote Crowe and make him the principal of Crozier Junior High, but Crowe stopped the idiots on the school board by filing a lawsuit against them. Godspeed, Dr. Crowe. … The bad guys are setting up Michael Dennis for dismissal. Dennis was principal at Lane Elementary School, but Tuesday he was forced into becoming assistant principal at Inglewood High School where he would work under the supervision of principal Debbie Tate. They say this woman hates men. My sources say she has the reputation of not wanting men in her school and of giving them a hard time and bad evaluations. Any man assigned to Tate, I’m told, can just kiss his job goodbye.