Some L.A. Schools Still Await Quake Repairs

By Robert C. Johnston

Every few weeks, the cracks in the John F. Kennedy High School gym in Los Angeles are a little bigger and its doors get a bit more out of whack.

The damaged building is a reminder of the earthquake that rocked Southern California on Jan. 17, 1994. It is also among the major repairs tied up in negotiations between local and federal officials nearly three years later.

"It brought the community together because we were all in the same boat," Pete Fries, the assistant principal at Kennedy High, said of the quake. "But as time goes on, you can put up with the dust and debris...