News Digest News Digest (October 13, 2004)

Gunn student beaten at party Gunn student beaten at party (October 13, 2004)

A Gunn High School student was hospitalized after he was badly beaten at a party late Saturday night, police said.

The student, who may require facial surgery, was not identified by police because he is a minor. A second Gunn student, who is also a minor, was arrested.

The incident happened between 11 p.m. and midnight at a home near the high school. About 10-15 young people were at a party and drinking was involved, said Agent Dan Ryan of the Palo Alto Police Department. He said some students may have been drinking heavily.

"All were juveniles," he said.

The boy who was injured suffered a broken nose and a concussion. Doctors first feared he also had a fractural orbital bone.

The injured boy had gotten into a fight with another boy at the party, which was subsequently broken up. But "one or two" boys then took the victim into a back room, where he was beaten unconscious and remained so for about 45 minutes.

Ryan and other officers spent much of Monday interviewing other teens who were at the party to determine who was involved in beating the injured boy, so more arrests may be forthcoming.

-- Don Kazak
Escondido Elementary School seeks solar energy

With the help of a challenge grant from the Morgan Family Foundation, the local school district is on its way toward raising funds for a large, 20-kilowatt photovoltaic system for Escondido Elementary School.

The system will be used as a demonstration model to teach students throughout the district about science, math and ecology. The proposed system would be capable of providing about 16 percent of Escondido's electrical needs, saving the school district about $7,000 per year at the current utilities rates. The foundation recently donated $25,000 toward the system to stimulate others to support the project, said foundation Pesident Becky Morgan.

The estimated cost of the system is more than $200,000, however. The California Energy Commission has offered a $130,000 rebate if the school district can raise the funds.

"We have built an excellent foundation with our current energy science curricula in the elementary and secondary schools in Palo Alto," said Lisa Benatar, a science teacher at Escondido. "With the new photovoltaic system, we can build on this foundation ... "

For more information, call Walt Hays, chairman of the Sustainable Schools Committee, at 424-9633 or e-mail him at wkhays@igc.org

-- Alexandria Rocha
Police arrest second solicitor

Police arrested John Edward Davis, 24, last week in connection with outstanding warrants for sex offenses in Arkansas after a sharp-eyed Palo Alto officer noticed a man going door-to-door without a solicitor's license.

Nine Palo Alto and Santa Clara police officers arrested Davis without incident at a Santa Clara motel Oct. 7 after Arkansas authorities said they wanted to extradite the .

Davis was working for the same solicitation company that employed a 19-year-old man arrested in Palo Alto Wednesday night after sexually assaulting an 80-year-old woman in Menlo Park. As the Weekly went to press, the woman's condition was listed as "improving."

"Residents are reminded that the city of Palo Alto requires solicitors to have permits to solicit for sales in our community," Detective Kara Apple saod. She added that residents should always be cautious when opening their doors to people they don't know. -- Don Kazak
Contract worker injured at SLAC

A contract worker was injured at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Oct. 11 by an arc of electricity while installing some equipment, according to a center spokesman.

The worker was injured shortly after 11:15 a.m. and his clothes briefly caught fire from the 480-volt arc of electricity, according to center spokesman Neil Calder.

"He is conscious. He has been sent now to Valley Medical Center," Calder said. He was sent to Valley Medical Center because it has the only burn unit in the county. Center officials are investigating what caused the arc, but the center's operations are not expected to be affected, Calder said.

The center conducts research in high-energy physics and other areas of science using a 2-mile-long particle accelerator buried underground. The accident occurred in an above-ground building.

-- Bay City News Service

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