Crenshaw alum: Teacher suspension shed light on LAUSD teacher jail

October 1, 2014 By 1 Comment


Iris Stevenson arrives at Crenshaw High after being released from "teacher jail." | Amanda Scurlock

Iris Stevenson arrives at Crenshaw High after being released from “teacher jail.” Scroll below for video of Stevenson’s return. | Amanda Scurlock

At Crenshaw High School in South Los Angeles, the 2014-2015 school year almost began without one of the campus’s most beloved teachers. The Los Angeles Unified School District announced in August that music instructor Iris Stevenson had been restored to her post. However, questions about her several-month-long absence remain. The case has shed light on “teacher jail,” the unofficial nickname for a sort of institutional purgatory for district teachers, which until recently meted out a virtually secret form of punishment.

The LAUSD removed Stevenson from her classroom in December 2013, shortly after she returned from a performing trip with the Crenshaw Elite Choir to Washington, D.C. and Paris. Of the 20 participants, only three were enrolled Crenshaw students. The rest of the group consisted of alumni, chaperones and musicians from around Los Angeles. Upon their return, district authorities reassigned Stevenson, and did not explain why to students and families. She had worked at Crenshaw since 1985.

“Her case, which is a confidential, personnel matter, remains under investigation,” the district said in a statement last month. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Crenshaw, Education, More on Intersections Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

College journal: Swapping cardinal and gold for orange

September 22, 2014 By Leave a Comment


Jesus Vargas and Luis Moctezuma recently said goodbye to South Los Angeles and hello to college — far off at Syracuse University in New York. Both had learned digital skills through classes at South L.A.’s TxT (formerly URBAN TxT), a nonprofit that works with inner-city boys to develop tomorrow’s technology leaders, and hope to one day bring change to their communities. To do that, they’re first going across the country. (And now rooting for the Syracuse Orange football team instead of cardinal-and-gold USC Trojans.)  Check back for updates from Vargas and Moctezuma’s journal chronicling the challenges and rewards of attending college far from home.

Oscar

Oscar Menjivar, in orange, accompanied Jesus and Luis to get settled at Syracuse.

Thoughts before arrival

Jesus: The closer I got to college, the more people wanted to talk about it. Everyone wanted to know if I was ready, excited or nervous. My generic response was, “Yes, I’m excited.” But the truth is that I wasn’t really thinking about school. When I graduated from high school I felt as if I had just taken a deep breath after completing a tedious task; the last thing I wanted to think about was the next step of my educational journey. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community Contributor, Education, More on Intersections Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Teen tech leaders compete in Demo Day 2014

August 2, 2014 By Leave a Comment


URBAN TxT Demo Day 2014

URBAN TxT Demo Day 2014 | Willa Seidenberg

“South L.A. is a tech desert, but URBAN TxT is changing that,” proclaimed Oscar Menjivar, founder of Urban TxT (Teens Exploring Technology) at the organization’s Demo Day 2014, held Saturday at the University of Southern California’s Salvatori Hall.

URBAN TxT, which announced it is rebranding itself as TxT, is a non-profit that works with inner-city boys to develop tomorrow’s technology leaders and to bring change to their communities. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business, Community, Education, More on Intersections, Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

From Watts to Walla Walla: The burdens and the blessings of my college education

July 28, 2014 By 3 Comments


Alisha Agarde (l) and author Ashley Hansack (r) at a First Generation Mentorship Program Dinner at Whitman College in 2013

Ashley Hansack (right) with a fellow student at a First Generation Mentorship Program Dinner at Whitman College in 2013. | Ashley Hansack

During the fall of 2010, I applied to eighteen colleges and universities across the United States. As a first-generation, working-class, Latina applicant, college counselors prompted me to highlight my diversity in my college essays.

“You are different,” they would say. “Use that to your advantage,” their smiles would imply. Essay upon essay, I would highlight characteristics about my family, my school, and my community that seemed trivial and unimportant to my identity. Yes, my blood runs with 100% Mexican heritage. Yes, my mom raised my four sisters and me on her own under a housekeeper’s salary. Yes, I grew up living in the ghetto streets of communities like Watts and Compton. Yes, unemployment and food security were at the forefront of many family discussions. I would be praised by my mentors and counselors, who urged, add more details here, a little more pity there, and girl, you have yourself an award-winning essay. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community Contributor, Education, More on Intersections, Opinion Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

South LA’s Southern California Library keeps social justice history alive

June 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment


SoCalLibrary-StephanieCase-Slider

A wall of the library’s exterior features an Olmec statue. | Stephanie Case

It’s been fifty years since Emil Freed—son of anarchists, a Communist Party member, and staunch activist—founded the Southern California Library to save materials at risk of being destroyed amid fear of McCarthyism. A lot has changed in South L.A. since then: the 1992 riots rocked the city, workers’ unions grew stronger, and race, class and sexuality have been at the forefront of political battles. And today, more people than ever are using the social justice library.

“Maybe less than 200 people would come through the door in a year” in 2002, said communications director Michele Welsing. “Now, we’ve seen those numbers go up to as much as 10,000. And for researchers, we’re getting as many people now in one month as we would get in an entire year.”

Take an audio tour of the library with reporter Stephanie Case:

Freed’s small collection of leftist papers has blossomed into more than 400 archives, including vinyl records, film reels and shelves upon shelves of political pamphlets. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community, Education, More on Intersections Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

First person: College isn’t for us?

June 11, 2014 By Leave a Comment


IMG_5453

Skylar and Randall playing in her backyard | 1998

This Reporter Corps story published Oct. 13, 2013 recently aired on KCRW as a radio piece produced by Kerstin Kilm and Skylar Endsley Myers. Fast forward to 8:10 to hear Myers talk with her childhood friend Randall about why the two pals ended up taking different paths. 

I opened the door to see my best friend from childhood, Randall, chewing on a pen top, facing me in his baggy jeans. We hadn’t seen each other for nearly a decade. As kids our lives seemed like mirror images and we were inseparable skateboarding, biking and playing basketball on our block of South Central Los Angeles. But something changed in middle school. In eighth grade, while I was worrying about which private high school would give me a scholarship, he was getting arrested for the first time.

How was it that my ace homie growing up–the one who I would run the streets with for hours–ended up on the fast track to prison while I sped toward opportunities? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community, Education, Inglewood, Leimert Park, Neighborhood, Neighborhoods, Public Safety, Reporter Corps, South Central LA Tagged With: , ,

First person: City Year tutor in Watts encourages others to mentor

May 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment


Vanessa Gonzalez with Superintendent John Deasy and Allison Graff-Weisner | City Year LA

Vanessa Gonzalez with LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and Allison Graff-Weisner, executive director of City Year LA | City Year LA

By Vanessa Gonzalez

Growing up, I was a shy, self-conscious, but studious girl. I was afraid that I might become involved in gangs—a common occurrence in my neighborhood. My parents tried their best to help with schoolwork, but their limited education and language barriers were challenging for all of us. The lack of books and computers also made it difficult for me to learn.

I struggled with my self-confidence and circumstances, until one person changed my whole perspective. My amazing high school science teacher, Ms. Tam, told me that she genuinely believed in me and that I was capable of accomplishing anything I put my mind to. From that moment on, I was excited about the future and ready to show the world all that I could offer. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community Contributor, Education, More on Intersections, Opinion Tagged With: , , ,

South LA tribute to Gabriel García Márquez

April 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment


El coronel necesitó setenta y cinco años — los setenta y cinco años de su vida, minuto a minuto –para llegar a ese instante. Se sintió puro, explicito, invencible, en el momento de responder.

“Mierda.”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez at | Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara

Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 2009 | Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara

I laughed out loud to myself as I finished reading “El coronel no tiene quien le escriba.”

“Shit.”

This is the answer that took the colonel seventy-five years of his life to provide in response to his wife as she pestered him about what they were going to eat.

“No One Writes to the Colonel” is the second novel I read by Gabriel García Márquez. It is one of my favorite books written by him, with one of the best endings that I have ever read. It is sad that Latin America has lost one of its most prized writers. But to me, he lives on in his stories and in the love of people who want change.

I discovered Márquez — also called El Gabo, a diminutive of affection among his friends and fans — in my first English class in community college two years ago when I read the “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.” In this short story Márquez transforms the life of an isolated village when its residents become enamored of a dead man who washes up on their shore. Gabo gives life to a drowned man with his magical realism in stunning, straightforward prose. Instantly, I added him to my list of must-read authors, venturing to learn still more about El Gabo and his art. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Arts, Education, Reporter Corps Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

El Camino College Compton Center opens library after seven year delay

April 17, 2014 By Leave a Comment


The first floor of the new library at El Camino College Compton Center | Mona Khalifeh

The first floor of the new library at El Camino College Compton Center | Mona Khalifeh

Cutting a crimson ribbon often heralds a new building. For El Camino College Compton Center, it also represents a new beginning.

Visible from Artesia Boulevard, the two-story Library-Student Success Center that opened in March towers over the comparatively flat classroom buildings. A grand opening on Tuesday featured building tours and speeches by officials and community members to celebrate the addition. The glass building has already become the college’s focal point.

The building is spacious and high-tech with chrome embellishments and a clean white interior that matches the futuristic gleaming glass. Some parts of the building even boast floor-to-ceiling windows. The first floor serves as an art gallery and library, while the Student Success Center with four drop-in tutoring centers occupies the second floor along with a writing lab with 100 computers and conference rooms for supplemental programs open to students and faculty.

The opening is especially significant because the Library-Student Success Center has sat lifeless for years.

The building was slated to open in 2007, but building code violations kept it closed. The $25 million needed for upgrades finally came from 2002’s Measure CC general obligation bond and State Capital Outlay funding – but only after Compton’s four councilmembers lobbied full throttle for funds for the 44th Congressional District, which includes Compton.

Read more about the building code violations in the Los Angeles Times: Compton Community College library opens seven years later than planned

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Compton, Education, More on Intersections Tagged With: , , , , , ,

South LA gets a taste of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

April 17, 2014 By Leave a Comment


The wellness and diabetes group from the Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center has climbed on board to take part in celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s food revolution.

The lesson today, “Fish Made Easy,” included a basic red sauce sautéed with garlic, olives, and basil baked over a white fish and served with what the cooks called “brilliant broccoli.”

Caroline Snow, one of the instructors giving free lessons to community members out of the Big Rig Mobile Teaching Kitchen parked on East 120th Street in front of the medical center, offered simple directions: “We’re using the canned tomatoes sauce here on the rig, but you can use fresh tomatoes and with the summer season coming and growing new gardens its great to pick your own tomatoes, puree them, and use that. Then we’re making the sauce, putting the fish with it and baking it for a few minutes.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Community, Education, Environment, Health, Inglewood, More on Intersections, Neighborhood, Neighborhoods Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
«Previous Page
Next Page»