Presentation for the 2011 National Health Journalism Fellowship on "Growing Up In Oakland: The Long Arm of Childhood," a three-part series in the Oakland Tribune by Beatrice Motamedi, published May/June 2011.
Mixin Classes in Odoo 17 How to Extend Models Using Mixin Classes
Annenberg slideshow pdf
1. Growing up in Oakland: the long arm of
childhood
Three-part series published in the Oakland Tribune, May 31, June 1 and June 2, 2011, by Beatrice Motamedi. A project for The California
Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern
California. Photo of Torrance Hampton, 19, of East Oakland, by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
2. background and (brief!) bio
• midcareer turn into teaching - 20 years as a reporter, then OUSD
• four years in OUSD, many examples of kids, trauma, resilience; just couldn’t
stop thinking about Jamari
• constructivist model; not what you learn alone, but what you build together
• the authentic voice: how kids sound, what they say, what they can teach you,
when they have the opportunity to exercise their right to self-expression
Thursday, July 14, 2011
3. The series: the goals
• Stay in place — focus on
Castlemont campus (3 schools)
• Be real — get to know the kids;
be accountable; no “one-offs”
• Spend time — one full year, one
full cycle of change, growth
• Connect the dots — from
Jamari to the big picture. How
does trauma weather teens?
• Give kids voice — let them tell
a part of the story Alizhey Black,15, student at East Oakland
School of the Arts. Photo by Esmerelda Argueta
Thursday, July 14, 2011
4. Castlemont, then: East
Oakland High School, 1927 Photo in Oakland Tribune archives; also online at the Oakland Public
Library at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt009nc73h/?
layout=metadata&brand=oac4
Thursday, July 14, 2011
5. “Detroit of the West” —
Chevrolet plant, East Oakland, Photo from collection of the Oakland History Room at
californiaimages.blogspot.com
1917
Thursday, July 14, 2011
6. Mother’s Cookies Photo courtesy of Darin Marshall at Wikipedia Commons, http://
factory, 2006
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_factory.jpg
Thursday, July 14, 2011
7. And now: Castlemont campus
of small schools, 2011
Photo by Jane Tyska/
Oakland Tribune
Thursday, July 14, 2011
8. “Killside” Street, one block photo by Beatrice Motamedi
west of Castlemont
Thursday, July 14, 2011
9. Main entrance, Castlemont Business and photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune
Information Technology School
Thursday, July 14, 2011
10. three troubling stats
for teens
• Dropout rates = 78.2% at
Leadership Preparatory High
School, 55.9% at Castlemont
Business and Information
Technology School and 43.2% at
the East Oakland School of the
Arts.
• An area of nearly 35 square miles
with 121,000 residents, 63,000 in
the so-called "Castlemont
Corridor," and 21,000 of them
teenagers, East Oakland does not
have a full-service supermarket.
• The stat kids suggested I use
Thursday, July 14, 2011
11. Oakland Youth Homicide
Study, Oakland Unified
School District, May 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
12. Oakland Youth Homicide
Study, Oakland Unified
School District, May 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
13. what I started hearing
•Academic anxiety — am I going to graduate? How do I
move on? Where’s my hope? (Len Syme)
•Lack of healthy food — “what’s a farmer’s market? what
do you mean by ‘thriving retail’?” taking medicine with
food “is a problem” (Su Park)
•Random violence and unsafe streets — spike in student
homicides; “my mama never let us come out the house;”
feeling “caged” (Kevnisha)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
14. what students wrote
• “You would think that you would be safe around here, but death is around the side. And
when you turn left, you see violence, and when you turn right, you see your future is
running away from you. I have a little niece that (has) grown up in a good environment
but when she moved to Oakland, I could see how fast the environment changed her
around.” —Tevita, 17
• “I can tell when I’m stress(ed) because my stomach starts to hurt, my hands get sweaty
and my body feels funny. This affects me mentally because it make me think about it all
day long, causing a big damage.” —Perla, 17
• "I say food makes me happy, and it’s true, because after eating, I feel full and I (forget)
about all the things that cause me to be stressful. But then again after two hours, I eat
more and more." —Luz, 17
• “I feel like I want to punch something so hard ... I can’t concentrate at school or
anywhere. I feel tired and my whole body and sometimes my head hurts so bad.” —
Alejandra, 17
Thursday, July 14, 2011
15. what the research suggests
• teens who are exposed to significant stress have higher adult rates of asthma, obesity and Type
2 diabetes, are at higher risk for some cancers and stroke (Felitti/Anda)
• stressed teens = reduced ability to regulate key hormones that restore equilibrium after stress
(the SAM/HPA axis) — similar to insulin resistance (Taylor)
• stress = increase in inflammatory proteins, putting immune system on permanent alert and
worsening both the risk and the symptoms of illnesses that include inflammation, from asthma
and eczema to diabetes and heart disease (the Dunedin child abuse study/Danese)
• repeated activation of stress systems impairs their functioning over time and destroys neurons
in the hippocampus, where complex reasoning develops (Taylor)
• increased asthma risk: early parental stress doubled the risk of asthma by age 6 (Sandberg)
• memory loss, inability to focus or to manage time: violence/death is “normalized” and “you get
very focused on the present” (McClung/OUSD mental health coordinator)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
16. what the data show
• Homicide, unintentional injury and suicide are leading causes/death for AlaCo
teens; homicide/injury = 2/3 of all teen deaths
• Only 1 in 5 AlaCo teens has the recommended daily serving of fruits/veggies,
compared with 1 in 2 adults; children aged 2-11 are “over twice as likely” to
consume the fruits/veggies they need. AlaCo has the fourth-highest % of kids
statewide who are overweight (29.1%)
• AlaCo adults who don’t complete high school are twice as likely to have diabetes
than those with a h.s. diploma or higher
• 14.4% of AlaCo teens received psychological counseling in 2008, compared with
8.8% statewide (California Health Interview Survey data)
• In the Bay Area, AlaCo has the highest % of kids living in poverty — 13.8%
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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OVERFLOWING PRISONS
teen stress Counties brace for inmate influx
EAST BAY SHERIFFS say jails have the space to take absorb these prisoners into the lo-
cal jails,” said Contra Costa County
what he called “realignment,” shift-
ing responsibility from the state to
sions of the vehicle license fee and
sales tax, there will be no money to
in state prisoners, but they don’t have the money Sheriff David Livingston. counties starting July 1 to jail and implement it.
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court monitor low-level, nonviolent felons Without a constitutional guar-
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen money from the state before and decision launched Ahern and Liv- to save the state money and to ease antee of funding, the next Legisla-
lvorderbrueggen@ have not always received the money ingston, who oversee a combined prison overpopulation. ture faced with deficits could raid
bayareanewsgroup.com as promised,” said Alameda County 6,700 jail beds, into the front line of Counties could also receive some the realignment account and leave
East Bay jails have beds but no Sheriff Greg Ahern. “We are looking accelerated talks over how Califor- offenders in state custody. The state counties paying for hundreds or
• The link between early exposure
cash to take on the hundreds of in- for full funding and constitutional nia will resolve its pernicious prison must shed 33,000 inmates over the thousands of inmates.
mates the state is expected to divert guarantees of continued funding.” overcrowding problem. next two years in order to meet the That’s the sticking point for sher-
to counties as California tries to Sheriffs are “literally meeting The justices ruled that the state’s court ruling. iffs such as Livingston and Ahern.
meet court-ordered prison popula- every week with (Gov. Jerry Brown) glutted prisons constitute cruel and The Legislature adopted realign- Without money, they cannot
tion reductions. and his staff to make sure there is unusual punishment. ment as part of the state budget.
to stress and adult health = the
“Counties have been promised going to be adequate funding to Brown this year introduced But without highly disputed exten- See INFLUX, Page 13
GROWING UP IN OAKLAND HOMETOWN HERO
long arm of childhood Her reach
stretches
into lives
“I was happy to make 19 (years
old). ... Young black men like
of youths
me need some role models …
because we don’t ever know if
we’re going to make it through
• “Young black men like me need to 20.”
— Torrance Hampton, Oakland resident Antioch woman has
been using tough love
role models, someone to get me to fight drugs for more
than four decades
By Paul Burgarino
through the next 5 years,
pburgarino@bayareanewsgroup.com
ANTIOCH — Shirley Mar-
chetti chatted with a probation
officer in the courtyard of the
REACH Project center one after-
because we don’t ever know if
noon when she received a long-
awaited gift.
An 18-year-old Brentwood
man handed her a camouflage-
patterned T-shirt that read “Be
we’re going to make it to 20.”
All That You Can Be: Be Drug
Free.”
“I think this is pretty much the
greatest gift ever,” Marchetti, 76,
told him, holding up the shirt to
see whether it would fit.
Marchetti has worked to coun-
sel troubled teens in East Contra
Costa County since her oldest son
was offered drugs while a student
RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF
at Antioch Junior High School in
Constant threat of violence makes teens
Torrance Hampton, 19, lost his friend Marquis Woolfolk to violence when Marquis was shot and killed in November in East Oakland. 1968.
REACH Project Inc., co-
• “I would estimate that 100% of
founded by Marchetti and then-
Antioch police Sgt. Leon LeRoy
See HERO, Page 13
our students are impacted by OLDER THAN THEIR YEARS IN MORNING REPORT
First of three parts Now both were determined to toward graduation.
By Beatrice Motamedi TUESDAY graduate. “Man,” Marquis had said, “I
violence in some way or form ....
Correspondent Part Two: Weathering For three months, they stayed think we’re going make it.”
It was at the funeral of the adolescence — stressors after school, working hard to Two days later, he was one of
boy he wanted to graduate with that jeopardize teen health. make up the classes they’d four boys shot as they stood on the
that Torrance Hampton finally missed. porch of an East Oakland house.
There’s no way you can not be,
cracked. instantly in September, sharing In fact, the Friday before The other two were treated at
Standing near the altar, he Thanksgiving, Torrance and Highland Hospital. Marquis died
laughs and stories and hopes. Marquis had traded high-fives
thought hard about what to in the ambulance.
say. Both seniors, Torrance and Both had survived wild times and after turning in assignments that
Marquis Woolfolk had bonded poor choices. earned them three credits each See THREAT, Page 13
in our community.”
JOE RAEDLE/BLOOMBERG
27 Pledge to help
Missouri town
Youth homicides
Teenagers, ages 13 to 18, killed in Oakland since 2001 16 15 16 President Barack Obama
greets residents of Joplin,
11 12 12
10 Mo., during a visit Sunday
to the tornado-ravaged com-
6 6 munity. “I promise you your
country will be there with
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 you every single step of the
way,” he said as he pledged
Source: Oakland Unified School District BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
federal aid to all storm-bat-
tered parts of the nation.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
21. Backstory to story
“The reporters had a lot of concern
about this (rebar) .... They were
wondering. would the Bay Bridge
open in time, because the
engineers said this one problem
could tie the bridge down longer.
“The engineers told everyone not to
worry, that they were already
working on the problem.They kept it
calm and that’s what made me
want to become a civil engineer, to
be the kind of person who can
solve problems ...”
From “A Sky-High, Real-Life Education,” by Marquis Woolfolk,
Oaktown Teen Times, October 2009
Photo of Margena Wade and Marquis
Woolfolk, Sept 2009/ courtesy of Margena
Wade, CalTrans
Thursday, July 14, 2011
22. Oakland Trib story on Marquis’ death,
11/22/2010
Thursday, July 14, 2011
23. Op-ed on Marquis, 12/4/10
Marquis and I spent maybe two hours outside as
one period ended and another began, hammering
out what he wanted to say, noun by noun, verb by
verb. At one point the fire alarm went off, and we
had to move to an interior courtyard where there
were no tables or chairs, only a concrete wall near
a raised bed of ivy. I gave Marquis my laptop and
I said what I usually say — go ahead, you can’t
break anything — even though we both knew he
could. Marquis set the computer on his knees, his
slender, ashy fingers fluttering nervously over the
keyboard as he searched for the right letters. I did
the thing that works best in these situations. Now
that he knew his story, I shut up and let him tell it
again.
Slowly, the paragraphs stacked up, one by one,
and like the bridge, the story took shape. Marquis,
whose grade point wasn’t at the point where he
would be able to graduate, let alone apply to
college, wrote about wanting to study harder and
pursue an engineering degree. ”I would have to
stay in school and work on my math and science,”
Marquis wrote. “I know that it’s going to be hard
work but if I put my mind on it, I will be able to
be up on a bridge again.”
From “Marquis Woolfolk’s story should’ve been very different,”
Beatrice Motamedi, the Oakland Tribune, 12/4/10
Thursday, July 14, 2011
24. Two boys, two stories, one lede
It was at the funeral of the boy he wanted to graduate with that Torrance Hampton finally cracked.
Standing near the altar, he thought hard about what to say. Both seniors, Torrance and Marquis Woolfolk had bonded
instantly in September, sharing laughs and stories and hopes. Both had survived wild times and poor choices. Now both were
determined to graduate.
For three months, they stayed after school, working hard to make up the classes they’d missed. In fact, the Friday before
Thanksgiving, Torrance and Marquis had traded high-fives after turning in assignments that earned them three credits each
toward graduation.
"Man," Marquis had said, "I think we’re gonna make it." Two days later, he was one of three boys shot as they stood on the
porch of an East Oakland house. The other two were treated at Highland Hospital. Marquis died on the way there, in the
ambulance.
***
Torrance’s experience is typical of a traumatized teen. Speaking at his friend’s funeral, the words went past in a blur. Then it
was over, and Torrance was walking back to his pew when it hit him: I am exactly like Marquis. I am Marquis. I am 17, the
child of a single mother, a young black man. It could have been me.
Torrance ran out of the funeral home at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. He started crying and
waving his arms, black parka flying. He stumbled over the curb and into the street. People began shouting from the sidewalk.
But Torrance didn’t respond: he raved and waved his arms and walked in circles and then he fell down and he stayed there, in
the middle of the street on a bright fall morning, rocking and moaning to himself as the cars sped by, horns blaring.
Finally a teacher got Torrance back onto the sidewalk and hugged him hard until he stopped moving. "What do they want
from us?" Torrance cried, rage subsiding into anger and anger melting into tears. "This is the sixth person I know who died.
The sixth person; I shook his hand. What do they want from us? What do they want from a black man? I’m scared. I’m
scared."
From “The long arm of childhood,” Beatrice Motamedi, the Oakland Tribune, 5/31/11
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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Day 2: typical teen LIMELIGHT
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ITS DAY
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PUBLIC UTILITIES
stressors Anger greets plan to raise rates
EBMUD’S PROPOSAL calls for a 6 percent increase serves 1.4 million East Bay resi-
dents would be on track by 2013 to
raise, have been forced to more
drastic measures.
rates by 5 percent this year and
next, but the board of directors de-
in water charges this year — and another for 2012 increase rates by one-third over “It seems too easy for them to cided to pursue higher rates out of
what they were two years ago. The simply pass it on to customers,” said concern that service levels would
By Mike Taugher care, pension and borrowing costs. first rate increases would go into ef- Mary Horton, a former mayor of Pi- decline and the district’s credit rat-
mtaugher@bayareanewsgroup.com The East Bay Municipal Utility fect July 1. nole who has been voicing questions ing might take a hit, which could in-
Customers of the East Bay’s District may adopt 6 percent rate Some critics are not convinced about the plan. “I’m not necessarily crease borrowing costs.
• The Cruz sisters and the
largest water utility are likely to increase for this year and next — or that the district has done every- against the increase, but I think it In order to keep rate increases
see their bills rise more than antici- possibly lower rate increases — thing possible to keep rates down. should be delayed until they make at 5 percent, the district would have
pated this summer and again next when its board of directors meets After all, other government their case.” had to hold 50 jobs open as work-
year as the utility tries to combat June 14. agencies that rely on taxes instead Two years ago, the district an-
declining revenues and rising heath If approved, the district that of fees, which are much easier to ticipated that it would need to raise See WATER, Page 9
graduation trifecta (credits, GROWING UP IN OAKLAND BART SH0OTING
CAHSEE, senior project) “The Castle looks very peaceful and healthy. I would never feel
unsafe or at risk in the Castle. I wish it still was a castle.” Mehserle
will be
released
in weeks
• Mayo, shreds of lettuce and Family of slain man
‘totally let down’ by
pickles — four liquor stores punishment given to
former transit officer
By Paul T. Rosynsky
bracket campus, but soup
prosynsky@bayareanewsgroup.com
OAKLAND — A year after fac-
ing a lifetime in prison for killing
an unarmed BART passenger,
former transit police Officer Jo-
machine = broken for 2 years
hannes Mehserle
will be released
from jail in a cou-
ple of weeks.
With credits
for time served
and the leniency
of a Los Angeles
County judge,
Mehserle will be Mehserle
set free after serv-
ing 11 months of
• "I’m not really a good person to ask
a two-year sentence issued after
JANE TYSKA/STAFF
the 29-year-old was found guilty
With a tough college-prep curriculum, Castlemont High School once was the neighborhood jewel. But like its East Oakland of involuntary manslaughter in
neighborhood, which was hit especially hard by the crack epidemic of the 1980s, the school has fallen on hard times. the killing of Hayward resident
Oscar Grant III.
about the neighborhood, because I Hazards to their health
Mehserle’s release from Los
Angeles County Men’s Central
Jail, most likely in the middle
See MEHSERLE, Page 9
don’t really go outside of my house Academic, nutritional, environmental stress combines,
IN MORNING REPORT
creating health problems that can become hereditary
once I get home .... We hear a lot of Second of three parts
By Beatrice Motamedi
pass the exit exam, earn the
required number of credits
shooting all the time and everyone
Correspondent and present a senior research
I
project. An outgoing girl with a
t’s a Monday morning, big smile, Christina passed the
and Christina Cruz is al- English portion of the exam but
ready tired. missed math by 19 points.
in my community is divided.”
“I’m glad you’re here, be- “If it’s not the CAHSEE, it’s
cause I need to talk about the credits. If it’s not the credits, J. DAVID AKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
this,” the 17-year-old tells a it’s the senior project,” Christina
visitor. “I stayed up all night
talking to my mom.”
says. “(My mother) thinks that
if I don’t graduate, I’m going to Obama taps
new leader for
give up, just like that. But I’m
Christina’s mother is anx- not.”
ious about Christina and her Interviews with and writ-
twin, Catherine. Seniors at the
Castlemont Business and Infor- DEEBA YAVROM/STAFF
ings by nearly 100 students
at the Castlemont Campus of
Joint Chiefs
mation Technology School, both Gese Siaki, center, helps adjust the headband of Catherine Small Schools reveal three ma-
have failed the math portion of Cruz before going on stage for a Polynesian dance jor stressors jeopardize their President Barack Obama
the California High School Exit performance May 19 at Castlemont High School. health: academic anxiety, lack of introduces Army Gen. Martin
Exam, or CAHSEE. Until they healthy food and an environment Dempsey during a news con-
pass, the graduation party that that limits their freedom and ference Monday at the White
their big Samoan family wants WEDNESDAY • PART THREE imprisons them indoors. Even House. In nominating Dempsey
to throw for them is on hold. Surviving and thriving: What works to make teens more resilient.
to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
To graduate, seniors must See HEALTH, Page 9 Obama lauded him as “one of
our nation’s most respected and
combat-tested generals.”
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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GEBRESELASSIE SLAYING TRIAL
What works? Brothers found guilty of murder
Pair will spend rest of their lives in prison
for shooting three in Oakland apartment
By Paul T. Rosynsky against them, including killing three witnessed the Gebreselassie broth-
prosynsky@bayareanewsgroup.com people, kidnapping a 2-year-old ers gun down his sister, mother and
OAKLAND — Asmerom Gebre- nephew and attempting to kill one brother during a Thanksgiving Day
• “The middle-class kids have already selassie and his brother Tewodros other person. dinner. “I’m happy but I also have
will spend the rest of their lives in The jury also found that both were loss. It’s painful, I will never get my
prison after a jury decided Tuesday guilty of two special circumstance family back.”
both successfully planned and car- crimes: killing multiple people and Asmerom Gebreselassie, 47, and
learned that if you fail, the world is
ried out the killings of their sister-in- killing during the course of a kidnap- his brother Tewodros, 43, were ac-
law, her mother and her brother on ping. As a result, the Gebreselassie cused of killing their sister-in-law,
Thanksgiving Day 2006. brothers will be sentenced in August Winta Mehari, 28, her mother,
After deliberating for about to life in prison without the possibil- Regbe Bahrengasi, 50, and her
seven days, the jury of 10 women and ity of parole. brother, Yonas Mehari, 17, in what a
not at an end .... Minority poor kids
two men found the Gebreselassie “For what they did, they deserve LAURA A. ODA/STAFF
brothers guilty of all 14 charges filed this,” said Merhawi Mehari, who See VERDICT, Page 15 Yosef Mehari, brother and son of the victims, receives a hug
Tuesday after brothers Asmerom and Tewodros Gebreselassie
were found guilty of killing three people in 2006 in Oakland. The
ONLINE To see a slide show of photos from Tuesday’s verdict, go to InsideBayArea.com.
really have some catching up to
Gebreselassies will spend their lives in prison without parole.
GROWING UP IN OAKLAND BEACH DEATH
do." (Len Syme) ‘Pop pop pop there go another young man shot … City asks
Follow your heart because this world is falling apart …
Life in Oakland is a living hell.’ why man
— Poem by Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools
allowed
• role models and mentors; outside To thrive, resiliency is key to drown
Alameda firefighters,
Surviving adversity
support (YU, clinic): even one adult helps to make teens
stronger, and those
police stood on beach
as man killed himself
can make a lasting difference
By Peter Hegarty
skills can be taught phegarty@bayareanewsgroup.com
ALAMEDA — City officials
are investigating why police and
Last of three parts firefighters remained on a beach
By Beatrice Motamedi and watched as a 52-year-old man
Correspondent
stood in the surf and apparently
It’s third period at Castlemont killed himself on Memorial Day.
Business and Information Tech- The officers and firefighters —
nology School in East Oakland. A who later said they are not trained
visitor begins a discussion about in land-water rescue — remained
poverty, bad food and crime. on the beach as a passer-by
Tough times? Tough streets? waded into the water and pulled
• control and agency, e.g., Kevnisha’s
These high school students aren’t the man’s body to shore after he
stressing. drowned.
In this class, the vibe is to thrive: “We are absolutely going to do
At a school where the dropout rate an investigation,” Mayor Marie
poems; Ali’s “dream” story; Enrique
is one in two, most Gilmore said. “And we are plan-
ONLINE are ready to gradu- ning to do it in as transparent a
To read ate. Gary Williams way as possible.”
the other Jr., senior class Raymond Zack paced back
parts of the president, has an and forth along the shore for
and “The Boost” and “Slum Kids
“Growing Up athletic scholarship several minutes before he waded
In Oakland” to the University of into the waves about 11:30 a.m. on
series, go to San Francisco. a stretch of Robert Crown Memo-
InsideBay- “Trying to get rial State Beach along Shoreline
good grades, play
Lifestyle”
Area.com. Drive near Willow Street in Al-
basketball and get ameda, witnesses said.
ready for college can be really For nearly an hour, Zack stood
stressful,” he says. “I handle my in the neck-deep water — some-
stress by working out or going to times raising his arms above the
play basketball.” surface — before he eventually
It’s a big contrast to first pe-
riod, where students are tired and See DROWNING, Page 15
worried.
“When I am expected to do
things, I get stressed,” admits se-
nior Alejandra Munoz. LOCAL NEWS • PAGE A3
Moses Nervis, a self-described
“budding cartoonist,” has trou-
ble handling multiple demands:
“(S)chool, my cartoons and some
Snow melt
program my Mom got me in — it’s
too much.”
Tevita Lanivia can’t wait to
could spell
move to Utah, where his sisters
live.
“You would think that you
trouble
would be safe around (Oakland) JANE TYSKA/STAFF The snowpack in the Sierra
but death is around the side,” he Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools, shows her is two to three times its normal
poems in East Oakland. The school, which is divided into several smaller schools, offers depth, thanks to a wet winter
See SOLUTIONS, Page 15 services to help students deal with the stress of living in an urban environment. and cool spring. But hot summer
weather could turn a gradual
thaw into flooding.
Thursday, July 14, 2011