LA for Youth holds concert at City Hall

April 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment


On April Fool’s Day, the L.A. for Youth campaign gathered for a concert outside of City Hall to make a statement about what they call “foolish” safety policies in schools in Los Angeles. image

Performances included dancers, bands, musicians, and spoken word artists.

They hope to end violence in schools. However, they want to offer more positive solutions other than just sending police officers into schools.

“What we need to start doing is look into all these alternatives to incarceration and all these alternatives to school discipline, getting rid of zero tolerance policies and willful defiance and other terms that are aimed at criminalizing youth,” said Julio Marquez, L.A. for Youth representative.

The event hoped to show a more positive portrayal of school and community, one without guns and violence.

According to the LA Times, The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has hired 750 security aides since the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December.

No one from LAUSD was available to comment.

Henry Sandoval, an LA For Youth campaign member shared his own story of the public school system. 

For years he was pushed out of school and onto the streets. His school finalized him three times, meaning he automatically failed all his classes. image

“It came to a point where all my friends got finalized and kicked out to the streets,” Sandoval said. “We saw it as something really cool. We saw it as an early vacation.”

Now at age 21, his perspective has changed. He finally got off the streets and graduated.

Then just four months ago, a gunman with no apparent motive shot Sandoval in the chest. He says he harbors no harsh feelings towards his attacker.

“Everybody needs help, and the people who need the most help are getting pushed out and getting kicked out into the streets,” he said.

Jasmine Jauregui, youth organizer for LA for Youth, also shared her story.

Her father is serving time in prison and she wants to make sure that others don’t end up there as well. For her, the event meant a call for action.

“I want young people to get involved and wake up to the reality. We need to fix what’s not right,” she said.

LA for Youth’s larger goal is to raise enough money to open 500 community centers throughout Los Angeles.

“Community answers and community resources are the end to this violence,” Sandoval said.

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Manual Arts High School students explore abuse and violence

November 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment


This is the last write-up from freshman students at Manual Arts High School. Some participated in weeks-long projects about animal abuse, drugs, gangs, prostitution and racism. Part of their projects included surveys they created for their communities. After they gathered information, all of the groups presented their findings at a school presentation. Two days later, each group wrote about their experiences during an Intersections: The South Los Angeles Report mentoring and writing workshop.

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Child Abuse and Violence

By: Nicolas Arevalo and Juan Luis

We chose violence because it is something that exists inside every single human being. It is an important issue because people suffer through violence, including child abuse and domestic violence. We learned that there are many forms of abuse, and there are also ways that we can help people who have experienced abuse in their lives.

Human beings are not the only ones who suffer through violence because animals get treated badly, too. They get hurt and are pushed around, and that is also known as animal abuse.

Our group also learned that people who usually have been treated badly and have been suppressed are the ones who might do the same thing to others that happened to them.

We discovered all of this information after we conducted about 370 surveys on how to stop violence in communities, and if there is violence around and inside us. People who have gone through violence have had a hard time recovering from it.

For example, have you ever seen someone get shot right in front of you? Some people in our group have, and they have seen one friend get shot right around the block. It was a terrible experience because that is the first time the group member has seen someone on the floor, full of blood. You could see the rounds on the ground, cartridges on the floor and the helpless body.

That is one of the reasons why violence is not such a good idea. It is also another reason why people should not get involved in it.

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Exploring the meaning of violence

October 27, 2010 By 2 Comments


This is the fourth of eight write-ups from freshman students at Manual Arts High School. Some participated in weeks-long projects about animal abuse, drugs, gangs, prostitution and racism. Part of their projects included surveys they created for their communities. After they gathered information, all of the groups presented their findings at a school presentation. Two days later, each group wrote about their experiences during an Intersections: The South Los Angeles Report mentoring and writing workshop.

Violence

By: Hugo Castaneda and Christian Garcia

We chose violence because we had overall topics that we wanted to talk about. We thought about animal abuse, domestic abuse and gang violence, and they all fell into the category of violence. This led us to our inquiry question, which was, “How can we stop violence in our community when we see violence within us and all around us?”

Our team conducted research by distributing surveys and giving interviews to multiple people. Facts that we got from the surveys are: many students think violence comes from school, and most students would like to stop violence, but they are too scared to try. Also, students do not see other ways to solve problems because most students see violence in themselves. Victims of violence include everyone from children to elders and from pets to farm animals. Men and women also experience verbal to sexual abuse, and the entire world is full of violence. Everyone is a victim. Violence is found in our homes, the media, video games, television shows, schools and movies.

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Exploring the meaning of racism

October 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment


This is the second of eight write-ups from freshman students at Manual Arts High School. Some participated in weeks-long projects about animal abuse, drugs, gangs, prostitution and racism. Part of their projects included surveys they created for their communities. After they gathered information, all of the groups presented their findings at a school presentation. Two days later, each group wrote about their experiences during an Intersections: The South Los Angeles Report mentoring and writing workshop.

Racism

By: Anahi Acevado, Daniel Aguilar, Ana Gonzales, Dillon Rivas and Darwin Vicente

We chose racism because it is very interesting to us. It is an issue and problem we wanted to discuss and look up. We studied and searched websites, articles and documents. We found and discovered many things.

Our group learned that racism is very familiar to people and it exists in our community. We surveyed many classes and students, and we interviewed five people, including an English teacher, a physical education teacher, a coordinator and an assistant dean.

Everyone we interviewed felt the same way we did. We all feel that racism is a problem that needs to be dealt with. This problem will not change or stop if we do not work together to make a difference. We think that if everyone works together and resolves their issues, we will succeed.

Our group also thinks racism most likely comes from pure ignorance. Ignorance is the cause of racism because people who are racist do not realize that racism just brings more problems and violence in our community and world.

Racism can negatively affect you and everyone around it. It can start problems and create violence. Race itself can stop you from getting or keeping a job. We believe you should earn your job based on your hard work, experience and loyalty, rather than your race. Most importantly, race can keep you from having a nice, soothing and joyful life, but that is not okay.

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Report claims gang-related crime has dropped

July 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment


The mayor’s office received some good news today: it looks like anti-gang strategies like the Summer Night Lights program are working. City Controller Wendy Greuel shared the results of a report that indicated a reduction in gang-related crime in the areas designated to be hubs of gang activity.

The lengthily-titled report, Semi-Annual Follow-up of the Controller’s Blueprint for a Comprehensive Citywide Anti-Gang Strategy, states that gang-related crime has dropped 10.7 percent in the two years since the Gang Reduction and Youth Development program started.

“Controller Greuel’s findings show significant progress on one of our most important initiatives,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as quoted in a press release. “Now is the time to take that next step in evaluating exactly what programs and what services are causing the drop in gang violence.”

According to the mayor’s office, the Urban Institute has been monitoring the city’s anti-gang efforts for over a year, and will release their findings in a series of reports beginning next month. Greuel, however, has expressed criticism over the amount of tax-payer money dedicated to the Urban Institute and their yet-to-be-published reports. A total of $525,000 has been spent on the evaluation of the GRYD program.

“Our goal is to keep our children out of gangs and onto the right path to a bright future,” said Villaraigosa. “Our GRYD programs are reducing gang violence, radically changing the culture and bureaucracy at City Hall, preventing more people from joining gangs and providing an exit strategy for those already involved. We’re working together to stop the cycle of gang violence that has plagued our city for too long.”

View the designated zones of the GRYD program:

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LISTEN: Interview With Author About The Homicide Epidemic And Its Victims

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment


During Dr. John Rich’s work at a Boston City Hospital during a violent period in the 1990s, he began noticing a disproportionate amount of young Black men showing up on hospital beds. At first, he and many of his colleagues felt that the men must have been criminals in order to end up in the emergency room, but after some in-depth interviews, Rich discovered that many of these victims of violence were just that, victims. Now, as a professor and Chair of Department of Health Management and Policy at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he has a program to aid people suffering from the physical and emotional wounds of violence. His book, “Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men,” compiles the stories of the men he talked to about their experiences. Annenberg Radio News host Heather Hope spoke with him:

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