Band’s Early Rehearsals Strike Sour Note : A Compromise Should Be Worked Out Between El Dorado High and Its Neighbors

Cities generate a variety of noises. Children hollering and screaming at noon are fine--unless you work at night and try to sleep during the day. Neighbors having loud 3 a.m. parties are definitely nuisances. School bands too may not be music to everyone’s ears at all hours of the day. Witness the lawsuit pitting Paul and Barbara Evans against El Dorado High School.

The Evanses have lived in their Placentia home for 24 years and have put three children through the high school, which is separated from their Brower Avenue residence by the school football field. One of their children, Janet, won swimming gold medals in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, but no longer lives at home.

The Evanses said they put up with morning band practice for many years. But last year, after the city amended its noise ordinance, the band practices were changed from 8:45 a.m. to 7 a.m. The Evanses said drums beating 17 feet from the house so early were unbearable. When they couldn’t reach agreement, they sued the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, the city and the band’s director and booster club. A hearing on the suit against the city is scheduled for this week.

It is unfortunate that this matter wound up in court. It is not the sort of topic on which most people would want to have judges spend a great deal of time. The school should try again to change the band’s practice time or move the trumpets and drums farther from the Evanses’ house.

The Evanses said measurements showed the band is louder than a vacuum cleaner--a guaranteed conversation-stopper--and nearly as loud as an airliner taking off from John Wayne Airport, itself the focus of years of fights over noise.

The band members should be encouraged to keep playing well. Extracurricular activities are an important part of school life, but it ought to be possible to compromise to avoid disrupting routines.