Jacob Tenenbaum
Leroy Thomas III wants students to learn when they take his class, but it won’t help them toward a degree. Leroy Thomas teaches traffic school.
Thomas’ class runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every other Saturday on the Pierce College campus in bungalow 391 and its 20 seats are usually all full.
“Other teachers, they just want to get through the day,” said Thomas, explaining his philosophy on teaching.
“My goal is to make sure they have so much fun they don’t want to leave,” he said.
A data center manager at Hughes Aircraft for 14 years, Thomas, 58, lost his job when the aerospace industry began to leave Southern California.
After “kicking around” for a few years, he decided to open a traffic school of his own, but needed 500 hours of teaching time first, so he began at one of the comedy traffic schools, similar to this traffic school san francisco.
After about three years, Thomas began to work as a real estate appraiser, but he has continued to teach four sessions of traffic school every month, two at Pierce and two nearer his home in Inglewood.
As to why, he says simply ” I do it because I like it.”
Although traffic school is seen by most as something to dread, Thomas seems to have gotten a handle on keeping his students interested.
“He keeps you on the edge of your seat, like you don’t know when he’s serious or when he’s not serious,” said Brett Keller,.
He attended recentl because of a speeding ticket.
“Leroy’s a great instructor,” said 71-year-old student Larry Beals. “He’s right, good and to the point, and he makes sure you see the options.”
Each Saturday class costs $28. For more information or to enroll, call (818) 719-6425.