First lady visits Las Vegas

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Oct. 16, 1998 | 4:14 a.m.

Hillary Clinton stopped in Las Vegas Friday to campaign for gubernatorial candidate Jan Jones, who is mayor of Las Vegas, and several other Nevada Democrats, using a local elementary school as her stump.

"If (Jones) is elected, she'll be the first woman governor in Nevada and I think that's wonderful," the first lady said to the applause of hundreds of Halle Hewetson Elementary School pupils assembled on the school lawn.

Clinton was steered to Hewetson by Jones' friend, Priscilla Rocha, a fourth-grade teacher at the school and a candidate for the state Board of Education.

Clinton was greeted by students and then quickly shuttled to three classrooms, where she chatted briefly with students. Close in tow were Jones and fellow Democrats Shelley Berkley, who is running for Congress, and Sen. Richard Bryan, who is not in an election race this year.

"This was pretty cool," said Laurie Drentlaw, a teacher in a first-grade classroom where the politicians stopped. "There was a lot of hoopla leading up to this. It was a lot calmer than we thought it would be."

Clinton then addressed the entire school in an outdoor assembly. Fifth-grader Alex Marshall presented the first lady with a gift basket. Clinton repaid the gift with a hug.

Clinton told the children to encourage their parents to vote.

The first lady then took her message inside to a crowd of 300 jammed into the school's multi-purpose room. The school had distributed 150 tickets to the event. The politicians distributed the rest.

The friendly crowd interrupted her speech several times with applause. She said she was "deeply honored and personally delighted" to be at the school. Clinton's talk focused almost entirely on the importance of education and education funding.

"I wanted to come here and talk about education, particularly in the context of some important decisions the people in Nevada are going to make in the next few weeks," Clinton said.

Clinton said she supported using federal money for school construction, a concept Congress has rejected. She said smaller classrooms mean teachers pay more attention to students. Smaller classes are also safer, she said.

Clinton also stressed the importance of putting more teachers in the classroom and spending more money on schools. She spoke specifically of meeting the needs of Spanish-speaking students. Hewetson, the district's second largest elementary school with roughly 1,200 pupils, also has one of the highest percentages of Spanish-speaking students -- roughly 70 percent.

"There are children, not just Spanish speakers, who come to school with many more needs than children used to," Clinton said.

Clinton had high praise for Berkley and Jones. Among Jones' education plans are hiring a state "dropout czar."

"Jan wants schools to have the teachers, the tools and the technology to do the job," Clinton said.

Clinton did not take questions from the tightly controlled media.

Clinton had an unpleasant reception from more than 100 protesters across the street from the school. The chanting group objected to the recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to void the work permits of thousands of aliens who face possible deportation.

"They want to stay here," said Miguel Rodriguez, a friend of some who face deportation. "They are victims."

Before leaving Las Vegas, Clinton attended a fund-raiser at Chins restaurant, where she raised about $100,000 for Jones at a 150-person luncheon.