On [...]]]>
Editor’s note: Last month, Richmond Pulse contributor Yasmine Elsafy traveled to Washington, D.C., as a member of a youth delegation sponsored by The California Endowment, a private health foundation. The purpose of their trip was to gain a broader understanding of how government works, and to learn about advances in education technology.

On my first day in Washington, D.C., our group attended an event at Microsoft where we learned about Glass Lab, a project that applies gaming to education in new and innovative ways. Glass Lab’s mission is to create quality video games that help kids learn and perform better in the classroom, with a focus on engagement, problem solving and teamwork.

Glass Lab’s work runs counter to a rising dissent among many parents and teachers who claim that video games only foster violence and contribute to children having low attention spans, which leads to underperformance at school.

Our group heard from a number of speakers associated with Glass Lab, including students. One was a 7th grader who spoke about how video games can actually help hold attention by engaging students and teaching them relevant information in different subject areas. Later in the day, we spoke to various professionals about video game design, education advocacy and emerging technology fields.

By the end of the day, I’d come to see much more potential in the video game industry as a creative and beneficial platform for educating young people.

The following day, we had a series of exciting meetings with representatives from the White House. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but we had many valuable conversations and I came away with a lot of useful information.

Among the speakers we heard from were Stephanie Valencia and Ronnie Cho from the Office of Public Engagement, Laura Andersen and Katie Dowd who do work on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) issues, Roberto Rodriguez who is a senior advisor to the president on education matters, and Sam Kass, the senior policy advisor on nutrition.

We spoke about issues affecting our communities — health, immigration, education, inclusion of women and minorities in the STEM fields, and youth outreach. Valencia spoke about a program called Youth Jobs Plus, an initiative for young people to have access to resources that will help them find summer jobs, internships, and other development opportunities. Andersen and Dowd spoke about President Obama’s efforts to reward students excelling in STEM fields, as well as involving professionals in these fields to volunteer as mentors to create more opportunities young women and students of color. All the speakers were passionate and optimistic about their respective projects and efforts to reach out to different communities.

We also visited Senator Diane Feinstein’s office and heard personal testimonies from individuals who are now working professionals. Hearing how they struggled as young people was inspiring because I could relate. Hearing about how they overcame personal challenges to become prominent members in their professional fields gave me hope. Their experiences reinforced how important it is to work hard and not be discouraged by failures, but to keep going.

I was also lucky enough to get to do some sightseeing and explore the nation’s Capitol. We were able to visit the major monuments and memorials, including the Lincoln Memorial and the Martin Luther King Memorial. It was humbling to be at the site of so much history and to consider all the major events and movements that took place in the area.

I left D.C. with a reinforced sense of motivation and inspiration. I feel more determined now than ever before to push myself past my comfort zone and exceed people’s expectations of me. Making connections and being part of a talented and promising group of young people was so rewarding, and provided me the opportunity to see firsthand just how much is possible when you combine a solid work ethic with the motivation to succeed.

RICHMOND, Calif. – At the West County Detention Facility, inmates can pay upwards of $20 for a five-minute phone call to friends, relatives or lawyers. While the high rates are a cash cow for the prison, for detainees they have become a [...]]]> News Report • Donny Lumpkins and Peter Schurmann • Richmond Pulse/New America Media

RICHMOND, Calif. – At the West County Detention Facility, inmates can pay upwards of $20 for a five-minute phone call to friends, relatives or lawyers. While the high rates are a cash cow for the prison, for detainees they have become a major hurdle to staying in touch with the outside.

For immigrant detainees and their families, the high phone rates can lead to total isolation.

“$50 gets about 15 minutes of actual talk time,” said Roberto dela Rosa, whose mother is currently being held at WCDF. Dela Rosa noted that with repeated dropped calls and reconnection fees, the cost of a single conversation rivals a single families’ monthly phone bill.

Dela Rosa was among a group of some 30 activists, former inmates and family members who gathered last Friday outside the prison, located about 30 miles east of San Francisco. Representing a cross-section of local civic, religious and legal organizations, protestors carried signs that read, “Detained mothers have the right to call home.”

The rally was part of a national Mother’s Day action led by the national Campaign for Prison Phone Justice. A fact sheet released by the group notes most Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees are either in deportation proceedings or have petitions for asylum pending, and that affordable phone access is critical to their effective legal representation.

Dela Rosa’s mother has been held in detention for close to two years, and was brought to WCDF in 2012 after nearly a year of being shuffled between centers. Her son says the constant moving and high phone rates have made staying in touch difficult.

“I’ve really only been in touch with her for the last four months,” he explained. Having recently lost his job and with persistent health problems, he says the added expense of maintaining communication with his mom, on top of rent and groceries “has really taken a toll on the family.”

WCDF houses some 1100 inmates, including those held by the county as well as candidates for realignment — a state-led initiative to transfer low-level offenders from state to county supervision. In the fiscal year ending in 2012, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the Richmond facility, was paid more than $3 million by the federal government to hold ICE detainees.

Christina Mansfield is co-founder of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), which recently launched a national campaign to bring attention to the high cost of prison phone calls. She was at Friday’s rally, where she described immigrant detainees as “a captive market … The high cost of phone calls creates additional and unnecessary suffering for families, and privileges profit over the right of families to remain in contact.”

Unlike state and federal penitentiaries, which are required by law to contract to the lowest bidder, counties are not subject to the same regulation. “Most county jails go with the companies that get them the most profit,” explained Mansfield.

The issue first gained prominence in 2000, after a class action lawsuit was filed by Washington, DC resident Martha Wright against the prison phone companies for charges related to calls made from her grandson, who spent 18 years behind bars. She later sued the Federal Communications Commission, and this past April her case was taken up by the Congressional Black Caucus.

The phone system at WCDF is run by Alabama-based Global Tel* Link. The company paid $75,000 for the contract with Contra Costa County, which receives 57 percent of all profits made from the phone calls. The contract is due to expire in June 2013.

Last year, the company saw profits from calls made within WCDF nearing $700,000, according to documents obtained via a public request act filed with the Sheriffs office by CIVIC.

Global Tel* Link declined to comment for this story.

A call from inside WCDF includes a $3.25 connection fee regardless of the duration, with per-minute rates running as high as 25 cents for interstate calls and an additional 30 cents when phoning out-of-state. Inmates in county jails like WCDF pay higher rates than those in either state or federal penitentiaries.

Dela Rosa said that with calls routinely dropped, he often has to pay the connection fee more than once in a single conversation.

Reverend Deborah Lee is Director of the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, one of the organizers of Friday’s rally. Gripping a stack of flyers with slogans that read “Justice” or “Happy Mothers Day – Affordable Phone Calls,” Lee described the rates as “exploitative,” saying they inhibited inmates ability to maintain family ties and stay up to date on their legal cases.

Prison reform advocates have long argued that maintaining connections to family and friends on the outside is critical to reducing recidivism and ensuring a smoother transition once inmates are released.

“Families are being overcharged for the most basic things,” she said, “like telling relatives you love them, or speaking with their attorneys about their cases.” Inmates’ relatives often pay anywhere from $25-$50 for two or three brief calls. “It’s cruel and inhuman,” said Lee, “the stories we hear are heartbreaking.”

One of those stories is that of Abesulom Taye, who was released from WCDF last week after a seven-month stint on a technicality stemming from charges dating back to 1998 for marijuana possession. Taye was among those at the Friday rally.

“It happened so fast,” he recalled of his arrest, saying it was unexpected as he had been granted asylum by a judge in 2010. A father, Taye said while he was detained he often had to “decide whether I wanted to talk to my son or have food that day.” The high costs meant that calls went from every other day to once a week. Eventually he racked up phone bills totaling $2000.

Lee’s group has joined with CIVIC in seeking a fair and open process for Contra Costa County to negotiate a new contract that would comply with ICE standards in going with the lowest cost provider.

“We shouldn’t be trying to balance our budgets on the backs of people trying to talk to their kids,” she said.

On Thursday, May 9th, nearly 400 Richmond riders joined the entire East Bay for the 19th annual Bike To Work Day. The City of Richmond partnered with the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, 511 Contra Costa, Building Blocks for Kids Collaborative, SunPower, the Richmond Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Rich [...]]]> Photo Essay • Richmond Health and Environment

On Thursday, May 9th, nearly 400 Richmond riders joined the entire East Bay for the 19th annual Bike To Work Day. The City of Richmond partnered with the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, 511 Contra Costa, Building Blocks for Kids Collaborative, SunPower, the Richmond Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Rich City RIDES, and Urban Tilth to celebrate biking as an efficient, viable and cost effective form of transportation. Between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM, Energizer Stations provided riders with water, reusable water bottles, coffee, snacks, prizes, a Bike To Work tote bag and more. Stations were set up throughout Richmond at Macdonald Ave. & San Pablo Ave., the Richmond Greenway, Marina Bay Park and Richmond BART. Over 200 Energizer Stations were located along local bike commute routes in all nine Bay Area counties.

Mental health has emerged as a central theme in the national conversation about how to prevent another Sandy Hook incident, and as a result a number of new bills have been introduced that would provide more therapeutic services to teens. But with such a wide array of mental health options available – [...]]]> by Nicole Hudley

Mental health has emerged as a central theme in the national conversation about how to prevent another Sandy Hook incident, and as a result a number of new bills have been introduced that would provide more therapeutic services to teens. But with such a wide array of mental health options available – they include antipsychotic drugs, individual counseling, group therapy, and youth development programming – which approach will prove the most effective with young people?

In California, lawmakers are proposing big changes. SB 544 would create a whole new agency, the California Violence Prevention Authority (CVPA), which would operate within the Department of Public Health (DPH). Its function would be to coordinate funding for violence prevention and intervention programs, including youth specific programs. Another bill, AB 174, would provide state funding to school-based health centers (SBHCs) that among other health services would offer “trauma-informed” mental health care on school campuses. The bill would also fund training for teachers to identify students that may be in need of mental health services. Sponsors of AB 174 say the impact of trauma on adolescents is a surprisingly common yet very serious problem in many low-income communities with high rates of violence.

Getting youth the mental health care they need is certainly a laudable goal, but if passed, could these laws turn out to be a double-edged sword for teens?

With an increase in diagnoses for mental health disorders among teens that could result from these bills, it seems safe to assume that there will likely also be a correlating increase in the number of youth being prescribed pharmaceutical drugs to treat those disorders. And increasingly, there is concern that low-income families are not being informed enough about the strengths and weaknesses of certain medications that might otherwise influence them to consider safer alternatives.

A recent study found that youth covered under public insurance programs are given pharmaceutical drugs for behavioral and psychological disorders, such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Bipolar Disorder, at rates higher than other minors. Furthermore, the rate of antipsychotic drug prescriptions increased by 7-12 percent between 1997 and 2006 in the survey of 500,000 minors who received their insurance through Medicaid and Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program). The study also found a disproportionate increase in pharmaceutical drug usage among Hispanic and African American youth, compared to their white counterparts.

While the over-prescription of antipsychotic drugs is a concern for some, others say that antipsychotic drugs can be a long overdue and immediate remedy, and a viable alternative to costly talk-therapy, which also requires a significant commitment to the process on the part of the patient (and in the case of children, their adult guardians).

Meanwhile, some youth advocates are suggesting the answer lies in a young person’s ability to choose the approach that works best for them. Last year, a group of foster youth represented by California Youth Connection sponsored a Mental Health Bill of Rights. The state bill would have given youth the power to decide for themselves whether or not they would begin a treatment of antipsychotic drugs, in addition to the right to choose their therapists, and the right to refuse mental health treatment. These rights would have been afforded to all foster youth except those deemed a danger to him or herself, or others.

The Mental Health Bill of Rights failed to pass the Legislature, and no similar legislation has emerged since. Perhaps the bill went too far. Whatever the case, it seems California lawmakers would do well to consider the wishes and opinions of young people, as they go about crafting policies that seek to address the types of horrific violence committed by mentally and emotionally disturbed teens that we’ve seen in the past year.

On Saturday April 27, over 450 people attended Healthy Kids Day at the Hilltop YMCA. Healthy Kids Day, a national initiative of the YMCA to improve the health and well being of kids, is filled with fun, active play and educational activities that will help parents improve their kids’ lifestyles [...]]]> Photo Essay, Gallen.Neilly & Associates

On Saturday April 27, over 450 people attended Healthy Kids Day at the Hilltop YMCA. Healthy Kids Day, a national initiative of the YMCA to improve the health and well being of kids, is filled with fun, active play and educational activities that will help parents improve their kids’ lifestyles for the long term. Attendees participated in a variety of classes and events like the Move-A-Thon circuit course, which included lunges, jumping jacks, push-ups and sit-ups. A new circuit was added this year that included knowledge about recycling and fitness at the same time. The day also involved sports challenges, swimming, hula hooping, a recycle relay, West Cat Bus and lots of fun. Miss Richmond, Alexis Pickins, who has become a ‘Let’s Move’ Community Ambassador, participated in the activities and led a comprehensive initiative class launched by the First Lady herself. 

Over 250 people participated in YMCA classes during Healthy Kids Day and collectively burned over 93,500 calories.

Civic Center Plaza provided a beautiful backdrop for the fourth annual Richmond Tales Fest on Saturday, April 20. The event is based on the book “Richmond Tales” by Summer Brenner, has grown to become one of the more enjoyable family events in the Bay Area. With its message of [...]]]> News Report • Malcolm Marshall

Civic Center Plaza provided a beautiful backdrop for the fourth annual Richmond Tales Fest on Saturday, April 20. The event is based on the book “Richmond Tales” by Summer Brenner, has grown to become one of the more enjoyable family events in the Bay Area. With its message of literacy and health, it’s also one of the most positive.

Numerous community organizations were on hand with booths, where they spoke to community members and handed out information about healthy living.

One of those organizations, West County Reads, distributed 5,000 books in both English and Spanish, including English/Spanish dictionaries, for free. All of the books were donated, many of them brand new. Children and parents alike took advantage of the giveaway.

The day’s lineup of local entertainers featured youth poets, a gospel choir, and dance routines by Zumba, traditional Mexican, Laotian and Native-American performers.

Kids laughed and played, with many taking advantage of the free face painting and hula hooping.

Richmond’s own Liberty Ship Cafe gave out free fresh food — mini chicken sandwiches, kale salads and empanadas.

At least 1500 people attended the festival, according to Tana Montero, community liaison for Richmond College Prep Schools and one the event organizers. The theme of this year’s event, she said, was inspired by the book, “Richmond Tales,” a novel that deals with many of the same themes event organizers sought to highlight.

“It’s about Mario and Myesha, two kids from Richmond who go back in time and learn about the history of Richmond,” Montero explained. “They also get to see a glimpse of the future of what they’re doing. Myesha’s… an urban gardener [and] Mario has a family neighborhood clinic. Everything we wanted to showcase here was literacy, health, eating healthy, growing your own [food], family, and showcasing the kids.”

Now in its fourth year, Tales Fest has grown from its initial beginnings as an event catering to the Richmond College Prep community in the Nystrom-Lincoln-Coronado area, to now serving the entire city and beyond. A contribution from Kaiser Permanente of $5,000 helped with the expansion. “When we were able to get that kind of seed money, we were like, we can invite all of Richmond, all the Title 1 schools, Richmond and San Pablo,” said Montero.

Glenda Monterroza, Community Benefits Specialist at Kaiser and a member of the planning committee, has seen the event grow over the last several years. “It’s an event that attracts a lot of different families,” said Monterroza. “We’ve partnered with West Contra Costa Unified School District so that they can help spread the word. A lot of different community partners came together for this event.” Over 30 community based organizations participated in this year’s festival.

Eddie Davis, 10, of Richmond, and his mother Nicole attended Tales Fest for the first time. “It’s cool because it gives the kids something to do plus there’s a lot of information out here — like the Rosie the Riveter museums that are in Richmond. I had no idea. It’s a nice day out for the kids and the grown ups.”

Vergil Weeks works with Richmond’s LEAP (Literacy for Every Adult Project). Weeks said LEAP is happy to promote the event every year because it emphasizes reading. “The community will be stronger if its level of literacy is high,” said Weeks. Furthermore, said Weeks, there will be job growth in Richmond “when we have a workforce that can understand and function within a modern system.”

In the 15 years Weeks has worked for LEAP, he said the organization’s clientele has gotten younger, while the level of literacy has gotten lower. “We have to go back to the basics. It’s about teaching them how to learn before I can teach them something. The manual learning and getting them back to the discipline of learning is what’s the key here. It’s not something that can be instantly obtained.”

The Richmond Tales Fest also served as the kick-off of Screen Free Week – a national celebration where families, schools, and communities turn off their TV screens and other media for seven days to promote healthy alternatives to televisions and video games. “We know that families that tend to do something active like walking together… tend to be healthier,” said Monterroza. “Specifically [in] the African American and Latino populations, obesity is a big problem. Hopefully they will realize that TV is not the only way to something fun together.”

The spirit of community was out in full force for this year’s event. Author Summer Brenner and actors from the cast of the stage version of “Richmond Tales” perfomed readings from the book. Mothers, fathers and children all had smiles on their faces. The weather was perfect and everyone felt safe. Families went home with big bags of books, and many people signed up for library cards. It was, said Monterroza, “the best Tales Fest yet.”

Richmond Pulse: The recent allegation that Sgt. Michael Wang took bribes and tipped off drug dealers plays into a public perception in certain parts of the community that police in Richmond are dirty. If the allegations are true, is this just a case of a few bad apples or is it [...]]]> Q&A, RP Editors

Richmond Pulse: The recent allegation that Sgt. Michael Wang took bribes and tipped off drug dealers plays into a public perception in certain parts of the community that police in Richmond are dirty. If the allegations are true, is this just a case of a few bad apples or is it something endemic? What are you doing about dirty cops in the department?

Chief Magnus: As I understand it the allegations are being made by at least one individual who has already had considerable criminal involvement in the system. That said, allegations that in general terms involve corruption and misconduct are things we take seriously. As we became aware of those allegations, which was a considerable period of time before they hit the media, we began the process of an investigation, first internally and then involving the federal authorities to get to the bottom of what’s potentially going on.
At this point, whether the allegations are valid or not, I don’t know because the investigation is ongoing. Whenever we have allegations of serious misconduct that involve a member of the police department our practice is to open an internal investigation and if the allegations are criminal in nature we work with usually another agency to help us investigate those allegations. Depending on the seriousness of the allegations, and this would be one of those cases, we put that individual or individuals on what we call administrative leave with pay. That way they’re not interacting directly with the public. They don’t have police authority during that time period, but they are still being paid… it’s just like anybody else, you start with the presumption of innocence and then we have to prove that the person was actually engaged in what’s alleged.

We’re very fortunate that, especially considering the size of our department, we have very few allegations of serious misconduct and when they do come in we handle them very aggressively because we really want to maintain the public’s trust. It’s to our advantage and the community’s advantage to thoroughly look at these situations and make a determination. It’s always a balancing act because we need to protect the rights of the officer, and in fact officers have a whole series of rights under the Police Officer Bill of Rights, which was enacted through state legislation a number of years ago, and that entitles officers to certain protections and due process when allegations are made.
We’ll get to the bottom of it and then we have number of options…We can require additional training or we can use discipline. The discipline ranges from written reprimand that goes in an officer’s file, all the way to termination, depending on the seriousness of what’s alleged, and we have in fact terminated officers for misconduct in the past.
Engagement with the community is very important to the great majority of our officers. I mean they work hard to build strong relationships. Even if people, particularly in some neighborhoods or from some backgrounds, have negative perceptions of the police overall, we would like to get to the point where at least they feel they have a good relationship with at least one police officer, whether that’s the officer that patrols their neighborhood or an officer in the schools or wherever it might be. You build trust one relationship at a time and we’re trying to do that within the police department.
Obviously, when allegations like this are made it does reflect in a poor way on the department and that does concern everybody who works here because trust is something that takes a long time to build and it can be quickly eroded.

RP: In the last two months residents have endured a number of brazen daytime shootings, some fatal. Has Richmond lost the momentum it had in reducing gun violence? Is the homicide trend now going in the other direction?

CM: Well the trend is still down. Richmond, as I think most people understand, has violence that really becomes cyclical, it doesn’t go in a straight line down. We have our ups and downs and we’re making progress overall but obviously in the last month, we’ve struggled with some shootings.

I don’t think there is any one reason why gun violence has decreased overall in Richmond or why the homicides have gone down. I think some things that we’re doing have certainly contributed to that, but I think it really takes an overall community effort. Programs like Project Ceasefire are very important and the community is a major partner in that effort. The role of the faith community in doing night walks and being more engaged with a lot of these young men in particular areas of the city has been very helpful. An increasing number of groups that are reaching out to the shooters and trying to engage them in alternatives to crime, such as Men and Women of Purpose, Men and Women of Valor, One Richmond. There’s a number of community groups that I think are doing good things that are helping our efforts, and then I think we have better communication within the police department, between officers and detectives and our gang units, where we’re sharing information. Because it’s relatively a small number of folks that are doing these kinds of shootings… we’re trying to be really strategic about who we go after. We’re working with the other police agencies in the area, with the FBI, ATF and DEA and we’re working with our local probation and our state parole partners, so it really takes a combined effort of folks working together.

RP: You said that you will begin enforcing the daytime curfew for youth. Why is the curfew necessary and how can the curfew affect violence and homicides in the city?

CM: The daytime curfew is really designed to make sure that young people who should be in school, who are school age, are not out on the streets or in areas open to the public during school hours. A lot of the young people that are out on the streets may be both committing crimes or become victims of crime.
What we want to do isn’t just pick up a bunch of kids and either take them back to school or take them home but rather… we pick up kids and we take them over to our Police Activities League, and then we try to do a thorough assessment of what’s going on in the lives of these young people that would cause them not to be in school. In some cases they’ve fallen behind academically. In other cases it might be bullying or some kind of problem they were having with their peers or an instructor. In some cases it may be cultural, maybe there is a language barrier or they’re having trouble at home. There may be physical abuse involved. There could be a whole host of reasons, even a medical problem, why a young person isn’t in school.
We want to try to figure that out and then we require the young person and their parents or guardian to appear before the court. We have a special judge who works with us on the daytime curfew program. And the really great thing about her involvement, Judge Hiramoto, is that this is done outside of the formal juvenile justice system, so there is no petition that goes through Martinez, there is no criminal record involved for these young people. The judge is very engaged in talking to the family… then she orders specific services that they want the family to take advantage of. It could be an anger management program. It could be counseling services. It could be academic support. It could be any of a number of programs, maybe involving the RYSE Center, involving a whole host of different programs, and then there is a date set, usually in a month, where the young person comes back and we get a progress report as to what’s going on. The really cool thing about this is that we’re seeing that the recidivism rate among these kids, the likelihood of them continuing to be absent from school and out in the community is very, very low.
So, that’s kind of the idea behind the program… instead of just taking kids back to school or dropping them off at home and writing a $50.00 ticket that somebody just has to show up in court and pay. The focus here is really to understand why the young person is absent in the first place, and how we can work together with them and the family to deal with those problems.

Put Molly all in the champagne. She ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoy that. She ain’t even know it.
- Lyics from U.O.E.N.O. by Rick Ross

I haven’t yet heard the song “U.O.E.N.O.” but Miami rapper Rick Ross is a pig for saying what [...]]]> By Karina Guadalupe

Put Molly all in the champagne. She ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoy that. She ain’t even know it.
- Lyics from U.O.E.N.O. by Rick Ross

I haven’t yet heard the song “U.O.E.N.O.” but Miami rapper Rick Ross is a pig for saying what he did. When I read about his lyrics, the story of Canadian teen Rehtaeh Parsons came to mind — she committed suicide after she was gang-raped, photographed and bullied as the rape went viral on youtube. I also thought about15-year-old Audrie Pott, who hanged herself after allegedly being sexually battered while passed out at a party.

These kinds of stories happen all the time. When he first apologized Ross said that he never used the word rape and his lyrics were misunderstood. The fact that he said his lyrics were “interpreted as rape” is complete BS to me. How can you misinterpret what he said for anything other than what it really is? It’s disgusting and it seems to celebrate rape. What he said bothers me because it seems like he is taking everything really lightly. There are a lot of weak-minded people out there that take what “famous” people say to heart and might think it’s okay to do something like that.

Date rape is an issue everywhere, definitely among my friends. I usually feel safe when I go out with my friends, though, because we look after each other. Whenever we go out we make sure to take the normal precautions I believe everyone should take: Never leave your drink unattended, don’t take drinks from people you don’t know and if you drink, don’t drink to get drunk. I feel like you should only drink if you feel comfortable with the environment you are in and have people around that you know and trust to have your back in case anything went wrong. But with pigs like this, you can never be too careful.

I was never a Rick Ross fan but I did listen to a few of his songs. However, after hearing something so low, desperate, pathetic and disgusting, I will definitely stop listening to his music. I don’t think the issue of rape is taken seriously. I’ve heard that different artists and people have tried to defend Rick Ross by saying it’s freedom of speech. Maybe, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that what he said was inappropriate. Just like he had the freedom to say something so disgusting, everyone else has the right to let him know how ignorant and stupid his lyrics have made him look.

It’s sad that Hip Hop and rap has come to this. I wonder if people are gonna be so brain dead to believe Ross’s apology. And yes, there have been other artists sing or rap about worse things than Ross – but that doesn’t make his lyrics OK.

I heard on the radio that Reebok has dropped Rick Ross because of public pressure and the rapper has issued a formal apology to women who have “felt the sting of abuse” and to young men for setting a regrettable example. I hope he really means it. In general, rappers talk about sex and drugs because it sells. But Ross is the latest example of how artists have taken it to a whole new level of disrespect.

When I finished high school, I was adamant that I wasn’t going to college. I didn’t have good relationships with my teachers and I wanted nothing more to do with school. However, once I started regularly attending Omega Boys Club in San Francisco, my “bad teacher relationships” changed. At the club I [...]]]> Commentary, Alicia Marie

When I finished high school, I was adamant that I wasn’t going to college. I didn’t have good relationships with my teachers and I wanted nothing more to do with school. However, once I started regularly attending Omega Boys Club in San Francisco, my “bad teacher relationships” changed. At the club I was taught how to create and stick to a budget, how to choose my friends, and how to survive in college. With all this training, I felt confident to go off to school. With the support of Omega Boys Club, I was able to go study in Hawai’i at the University of Hawai’i Maui College.

Once I got there, my teachers were the first ones to become like my family. They were amazed at my work ethic and how much I wanted to learn. I spent much time after class with them learning and talking about my life in San Francisco. They saw my expressions when I learned something new and congratulated me when I did something right. If it weren’t for my teachers taking the extra personal time to physically meet with me somewhere to learn, I wouldn’t have done well in college.

However, everything changed my junior year. I finished all the courses on Maui that I needed in order to transfer to University of Hawai’i West O’ahu, the school that actually offered the degree in Public Administration that I wanted. I would be on O’ahu for the next 2 years, but there was one catch –all of the classes would be online.

At first I thought online classes would make things simpler — I could work on my own time. As I quickly learned, however, that wasn’t the case.

Due to the fact I wasn’t in class with my teachers, learning and asking questions on a regular basis, I felt as if I wasn’t learning anything. I was just doing the assignments, but not retaining any information. I felt so discouraged. So much was going on in my personal life and I was so used to going to my teachers and talking to them about it. Now I couldn’t, because the teacher was just there to post a grade, not really to have a conversation or explain in detail how the assignment was to go. It really took the whole “school” aspect away. I wanted to physically go to class but it wasn’t possible.

I hate to think that soon all schools will be online. Without a teacher that is physically accessable, school will become automated and future students will miss out on having a great experience. Teachers are there to be family and teach you. A computer lacks that emotional connection. I hope the schools realize that students need teachers to be successful.