annenberg slideshow pdf

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

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


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


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


http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt009nc73h/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4




“Detroit of the West” — Chevrolet plant, East Oakland,

1917

Photo from collection of the Oakland History Room at californiaimages.blogspot.com


Mother’s Cookies factory, 2006

Photo courtesy of Darin Marshall at Wikipedia Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_factory.jpg


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_factory.jpg




And now: Castlemont campus of small schools, 2011

Photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune


“Killside” Street, one block west of Castlemont

photo by Beatrice Motamedi


photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland TribuneMain entrance, Castlemont Business and

Information Technology School


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


Oakland Youth Homicide Study, Oakland Unified

School District, May 2011


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)


• “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

what students wrote


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)


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9635069?dopt=Abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9635069?dopt=Abstract

http://www.liftchildren.org/admin/upload/The%2520Adverse%2520Childhood%2520Experiences%2520(ACE)%2520Study%2520-%2520Felitti,%2520Anda,%2520et%2520al.%2520(American%2520Journal%2520of%2520Preventive%2520Medicine,%25201998).pdf

http://www.liftchildren.org/admin/upload/The%2520Adverse%2520Childhood%2520Experiences%2520(ACE)%2520Study%2520-%2520Felitti,%2520Anda,%2520et%2520al.%2520(American%2520Journal%2520of%2520Preventive%2520Medicine,%25201998).pdf

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1003890107


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1783123/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1783123/



http://www.iasa-dmm.org/images/uploads/Seija%2520Sandberg

http://www.iasa-dmm.org/images/uploads/Seija%2520Sandberg

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%


http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/cape_00_health_accities_fullrpt.pdf

http://www.acphd.org/AXBYCZ/Admin/DataReports/cape_00_health_accities_fullrpt.pdf

sample/student work: discussion prompt/writing


Place Matters lesson plan archive

Unnatural Causes lesson plans


sample/student work: neighborhood report cards


An edition of the

BAY AREA NEWS GROUP – SERVING 2.7 MILLION READERS WEEKLY IN PRINT AND ONLINE

Download Bay Area News to your iPadand iPhone for news from the region

BAY AREA NEWS APPS

INTRODUCING

By Lisa Vorderbrueggenlvorderbrueggen@

bayareanewsgroup.com

East Bay jails have beds but nocash to take on the hundreds of in-mates the state is expected to divert to counties as California tries to meet court-ordered prison popula-tion reductions.

“Counties have been promised

money from the state before and have not always received the money as promised,” said Alameda CountySheriff Greg Ahern. “We are looking for full funding and constitutionalguarantees of continued funding.”

Sheriffs are “literally meeting every week with (Gov. Jerry Brown) and his staff to make sure there is going to be adequate funding to

absorb these prisoners into the lo-cal jails,” said Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston.

Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision launched Ahern and Liv-ingston, who oversee a combined6,700 jail beds, into the front line of accelerated talks over how Califor-nia will resolve its pernicious prisonovercrowding problem.

The justices ruled that the state’s glutted prisons constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Brown this year introduced

what he called “realignment,” shift-ing responsibility from the state to counties starting July 1 to jail and monitor low-level, nonviolent felons to save the state money and to ease prison overpopulation.

Counties could also receive some offenders in state custody. The state must shed 33,000 inmates over the next two years in order to meet the court ruling.

The Legislature adopted realign-ment as part of the state budget. But without highly disputed exten-

sions of the vehicle license fee and sales tax, there will be no money toimplement it.

Without a constitutional guar-antee of funding, the next Legisla-ture faced with defi cits could raid the realignment account and leave counties paying for hundreds or thousands of inmates.

That’s the sticking point for sher-iffs such as Livingston and Ahern.

Without money, they cannot

Counties brace for inmate influxEAST BAY SHERIFFS say jails have the space to takein state prisoners, but they don’t have the money

By Paul [email protected]

ANTIOCH — Shirley Mar-chetti chatted with a probationofficer in the courtyard of the REACH Project center one after-noon when she received a long-awaited gift.

An 18-year-old Brentwoodman handed her a camoufl age-patterned T-shirt that read “Be 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 at Antioch Junior High School in 1968.

REACH Project Inc., co-founded by Marchetti and then-Antioch police Sgt. Leon LeRoy

Her reachstretches into livesof youthsAntioch woman has been using tough loveto fight drugs for morethan four decades

HOMETOWN HERO

President Barack Obama greets residents of Joplin, Mo., during a visit Sunday to the tornado-ravaged com-munity. “I promise you your country will be there with you every single step of the way,” he said as he pledged federal aid to all storm-bat-tered parts of the nation.

Pledge to helpMissouri town

IN MORNING REPORT

OVERFLOWING PRISONS

First of three partsBy Beatrice Motamedi

Correspondent

It was at the funeral of theboy he wanted to graduate withthat Torrance Hampton fi nallycracked.

Standing near the altar, hethought hard about what tosay. Both seniors, Torrance and Marquis Woolfolk had bonded

instantly in September, sharinglaughs 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-fi ves after turning in assignments that earned them three credits each

toward graduation.“Man,” Marquis had said, “I

think we’re going make it.”Two days later, he was one of

four boys shot as they stood on the porch of an East Oakland house. The other two were treated at Highland Hospital. Marquis died in the ambulance.

OLDER THAN THEIR YEARS

GROWING UP IN OAKLAND

TUESDAYPart Two: Weatheringadolescence — stressorsthat jeopardize teen health.

Constant threat of violence makes teensRAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Torrance Hampton, 19, lost his friend Marquis Woolfolk to violence when Marquis was shot and killed in November in East Oakland.

“I was happy to make 19 (yearsold). ... Young black men likeme need some role models …because we don’t ever know if we’re going to make it throughto 20.”

— Torrance Hampton, Oakland resident

See HERO, Page 13

JOE RAEDLE/BLOOMBERG

See INFLUX, Page 13

TIMEOUTTRIPS ON THE BAY THAT WILL FLOATANYONE’S BOAT See it. Share it. Buy it now.

GotDailyDeals.com

DEAL OF THE DAYSuper Sightseeing Tours

San Francisco Bay to the ocean

50% off$25 for $50 3.5-hour

ultimate San Francisco tour

SPORTSDAN WHELDONWINS INDY 500ON FINAL TURN

See THREAT, Page 13

WEATHERPartly sunnyH: 60sL: 50sPAGE AA12

INDEXAsk Amy ..................D10Classified ............AA8-9Comics .................... D11

Crossword ................ D9Lottery .................... AA2Movies ...................... D2Obituaries ................ D4

Opinion .................... A11People ...................... A2Scores ..................... B11Television ................D12

A NEWSPAPERCopyright ©2011 Bay Area News Group-East Bay

USPS 07453841

LOCAL NEWS • PAGE A3

New Jonestownmemorial plaquesformally unveiled

Youth homicides Teenagers, ages 13 to 18, killed in Oakland since 2001

2001 20062002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010

27

1216 15 16

106

12116

Source: Oakland Unified School District BAYAREANEWS GROUP

75 cents plus taxVolume 137, No. 99

501

Serving Oakland for 137 yearsMonday I May 30, 2011 oaklandtribune.com

Day 1: the science of teen stress

• The link between early exposure to stress and adult health = the long arm of childhood

• “Young black men like me need role models, someone to get me through the next 5 years, because we don’t ever know if we’re going to make it to 20.”

• “I would estimate that 100% of our students are impacted by violence in some way or form .... There’s no way you can not be, in our community.”


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


Oakland Trib story on Marquis’ death, 11/22/2010


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

Op-ed on Marquis, 12/4/10


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

Two boys, two stories, one lede


An edition of the


WEATHERCloudyH: 60sL: 50sPAGE AA8

INDEXAsk Amy ................... C8Classified ............... AA4Comics ..................... C9

Crossword ................ C7Gary Bogue .............. A2Lottery .................... AA2Movies ...................... C3

Obituaries ................ C4Opinion ..................... A8People ...................... A2Television ................C10


BAY AREA NEWS APPS

INTRODUCING MORNING REPORT

Hospitals huntfor substitutes as drug shortages riseto record levels

BART SH0OTING

By Paul T. [email protected]

OAKLAND — A year after fac-ing a lifetime in prison for killing an unarmed BART passenger, former transit police Offi cer Jo-hannes Mehserle will be released from jail in a cou-ple of weeks.

With creditsfor time served and the leniency of a Los Angeles County judge,Mehserle will be set free after serv-ing 11 months of a two-year sentence issued after the 29-year-old was found guiltyof involuntary manslaughter in the killing of Hayward resident Oscar Grant III.

Mehserle’s release from Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, most likely in the middle

Mehserlewill bereleasedin weeksFamily of slain man ‘totally let down’ by punishment given to former transit officer


Second of three partsBy Beatrice Motamedi

Correspondent

It’s a Monday morning, and Christina Cruz is al-ready tired.

“I’m glad you’re here, be-cause I need to talk aboutthis,” the 17-year-old tells a visitor. “I stayed up all night talking to my mom.”

Christina’s mother is anx-ious about Christina and her twin, Catherine. Seniors at the Castlemont Business and Infor-mation Technology School, both have failed the math portion of the California High School ExitExam, or CAHSEE. Until theypass, the graduation party thattheir big Samoan family wantsto throw for them is on hold.

To graduate, seniors must

pass the exit exam, earn the required number of creditsand present a senior research project. An outgoing girl with a big smile, Christina passed the English portion of the exam but missed math by 19 points.

“If it’s not the CAHSEE, it’s the credits. If it’s not the credits, it’s the senior project,” Christina says. “(My mother) thinks that if I don’t graduate, I’m going to give up, just like that. But I’m not.”

Interviews with and writ-ings by nearly 100 students at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools reveal three ma-jor stressors jeopardize their health: academic anxiety, lack of healthy food and an environmentthat limits their freedom and imprisons them indoors. Even

Hazards to their healthAcademic, nutritional, environmental stress combines, creating health problems that can become hereditary

WEDNESDAY • PART THREESurviving and thriving: What works to make teens more resilient.

“The Castle looks very peaceful and healthy. I would never feelunsafe or at risk in the Castle. I wish it still was a castle.”

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

With a tough college-prep curriculum, Castlemont High School once was the neighborhood jewel. But like its East Oakland neighborhood, which was hit especially hard by the crack epidemic of the 1980s, the school has fallen on hard times.

DEEBA YAVROM/STAFF

Gese Siaki, center, helps adjust the headband of Catherine Cruz before going on stage for a Polynesian dance performance May 19 at Castlemont High School.

Mehserle

By Mike [email protected]

Customers of the East Bay’slargest water utility are likely to see their bills rise more than antici-pated this summer and again next year as the utility tries to combatdeclining revenues and rising heath

care, pension and borrowing costs.The East Bay Municipal Utility

District may adopt 6 percent rate increase for this year and next — or possibly lower rate increases — when its board of directors meets June 14.

If approved, the district that

serves 1.4 million East Bay resi-dents would be on track by 2013 to increase rates by one-third over what they were two years ago. The first rate increases would go into ef-fect July 1.

Some critics are not convinced that the district has done every-thing possible to keep rates down.

After all, other governmentagencies that rely on taxes instead of fees, which are much easier to

raise, have been forced to more drastic measures.

“It seems too easy for them to simply pass it on to customers,” said Mary Horton, a former mayor of Pi-nole who has been voicing questionsabout the plan. “I’m not necessarilyagainst the increase, but I think itshould be delayed until they maketheir case.”

Two years ago, the district an-ticipated that it would need to raise

rates by 5 percent this year and next, but the board of directors de-cided to pursue higher rates out of concern that service levels woulddecline and the district’s credit rat-ing might take a hit, which could in-crease borrowing costs.

In order to keep rate increases at 5 percent, the district would have had to hold 50 jobs open as work-

EBMUD’S PROPOSAL calls for a 6 percent increasein water charges this year — and another for 2012

Anger greets plan to raise ratesPUBLIC UTILITIES

See it. Share it. Buy it now.GotDailyDeals.com

DEAL OF THE DAYInternational Food Market

50% off$10 for $20 of ethnic food

and deli sandwiches

BUSINESSGIVINGSCIENCEITS DAY

SPORTS: NBA FINALS

LeBRON IN LIMELIGHT

IN MORNING REPORT

President Barack Obama introduces Army Gen. Martin Dempsey during a news con-ference Monday at the White House. In nominating Dempsey to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff,Obama lauded him as “one ofour nation’s most respected and combat-tested generals.”

Obama taps new leader for Joint Chiefs

J. DAVID AKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

See WATER, Page 9

See MEHSERLE, Page 9

See HEALTH, Page 9


USPS 07453841


501

Serving Oakland for 137 yearsTuesday I May 31, 2011 oaklandtribune.com

Day 2: typical teen stressors

• The Cruz sisters and the graduation trifecta (credits, CAHSEE, senior project)

• Mayo, shreds of lettuce and pickles — four liquor stores bracket campus, but soup machine = broken for 2 years

• "I’m not really a good person to ask about the neighborhood, because I don’t really go outside of my house once I get home .... We hear a lot of shooting all the time and everyone in my community is divided.”


An edition of the


To see a slide show of photos from Tuesday’s verdict, go to InsideBayArea.com.

WEATHERShowersHighs: 60sLows: 50sPAGE AA6

INDEXAsk Amy ................... D4Classified ................. C5Comics ..................... D5

Crossword ................ C7Gary Bogue .............. A2Lottery .................... AA2Movies ...................... D2

Obituaries ................ C3Opinion ....................A14Scores ...................... B5Television ................. D6


USPS 07453841


BAY AREA NEWS APPS

INTRODUCING INSIDE • PAGE A4

Scientists pointto possible linkbetween cancer,cellphone use


Last of three partsBy Beatrice Motamedi

Correspondent

It’s third period at Castlemont Business and Information Tech-nology School in East Oakland. A visitor begins a discussion about poverty, bad food and crime. Tough times? Tough streets?These high school students aren’t stressing.

In this class, the vibe is to thrive: At a school where the dropout rate

is one in two, most are ready to gradu-ate. Gary WilliamsJr., senior classpresident, has anathletic scholarshipto the University ofSan Francisco.

“Trying to getgood grades, play basketball and get

ready for college can be reallystressful,” he says. “I handle my stress by working out or going toplay basketball.”

It’s a big contrast to fi rst pe-riod, where students are tired andworried.

“When I am expected to do things, I get stressed,” admits se-nior Alejandra Munoz.

Moses Nervis, a self-described“budding cartoonist,” has trou-ble handling multiple demands: “(S)chool, my cartoons and some program my Mom got me in — it’stoo much.”

Tevita Lanivia can’t wait to move to Utah, where his sisters live.

“You would think that youwould be safe around (Oakland)but death is around the side,” he

To thrive, resiliency is keySurviving adversityhelps to make teensstronger, and thoseskills can be taught

‘Pop pop pop there go another young man shot …Follow your heart because this world is falling apart …

Life in Oakland is a living hell.’

By Paul T. [email protected]

OAKLAND — Asmerom Gebre-selassie and his brother Tewodros will spend the rest of their lives inprison after a jury decided Tuesdayboth successfully planned and car-ried out the killings of their sister-in-law, her mother and her brother on Thanksgiving Day 2006.

After deliberating for about seven days, the jury of 10 women andtwo men found the Gebreselassie brothers guilty of all 14 charges filed

against them, including killing three people, kidnapping a 2-year-oldnephew and attempting to kill one other person.

The jury also found that both were guilty of two special circumstancecrimes: killing multiple people and killing during the course of a kidnap-ping. As a result, the Gebreselassie brothers will be sentenced in August to life in prison without the possibil-ity of parole.

“For what they did, they deserve this,” said Merhawi Mehari, who

witnessed the Gebreselassie broth-ers gun down his sister, mother and brother during a Thanksgiving Day dinner. “I’m happy but I also have loss. It’s painful, I will never get my family back.”

Asmerom Gebreselassie, 47, and his brother Tewodros, 43, were ac-cused of killing their sister-in-law, Winta Mehari, 28, her mother,Regbe Bahrengasi, 50, and her brother, Yonas Mehari, 17, in what a

Brothers found guilty of murderPair will spend rest of their lives in prisonfor shooting three in Oakland apartment

GEBRESELASSIE SLAYING TRIAL

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools, shows herpoems in East Oakland. The school, which is divided into several smaller schools, offersservices to help students deal with the stress of living in an urban environment.

By Peter [email protected]

ALAMEDA — City offi cialsare investigating why police and firefighters remained on a beach and watched as a 52-year-old man stood in the surf and apparently killed himself on Memorial Day.

The officers and fi refi ghters — who later said they are not trained in land-water rescue — remained on the beach as a passer-by waded into the water and pulled the man’s body to shore after he drowned.

“We are absolutely going to do an investigation,” Mayor MarieGilmore said. “And we are plan-ning to do it in as transparent a way as possible.”

Raymond Zack paced back and forth along the shore for several minutes before he waded into the waves about 11:30 a.m. on a stretch of Robert Crown Memo-rial State Beach along Shoreline Drive near Willow Street in Al-ameda, witnesses said.

For nearly an hour, Zack stood in the neck-deep water — some-times raising his arms above the surface — before he eventually

City askswhy man allowed to drownAlameda firefighters,police stood on beach as man killed himself

LAURA A. ODA/STAFF

Yosef Mehari, brother and son of the victims, receives a hugTuesday after brothers Asmerom and Tewodros Gebreselassiewere found guilty of killing three people in 2006 in Oakland. TheGebreselassies will spend their lives in prison without parole.

BEACH DEATH

ONLINETo read the otherparts of the“Growing UpIn Oakland”series, go toInsideBay-Area.com.

ONLINE

LOCAL NEWS • PAGE A3

The snowpack in the Sierrais two to three times its normaldepth, thanks to a wet winterand cool spring. But hot summerweather could turn a gradualthaw into flooding.

Snow meltcould spell trouble

See VERDICT, Page 15

See DROWNING, Page 15

See SOLUTIONS, Page 15

— Poem by Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools


501

Serving Oakland for 137 yearsWednesday I June 1, 2011 oaklandtribune.com

BUSINESSALIBABA.COMOPENS DOORSFOR SMALL FIRMS

CHEFS FINDINSPIRATIONIN THE GARDEN See it. Share it. Buy it now.

GotDailyDeals.com

DEAL OF THE DAY

50% off$25 for $50 of French fusion

cuisine and drinks

Bijou Restaurant and BarHayward

FOOD & WINEDay 3: resilience.

What works?

• “The middle-class kids have already learned that if you fail, the world is not at an end .... Minority poor kids really have some catching up to do." (Len Syme)

• role models and mentors; outside support (YU, clinic): even one adult can make a lasting difference

• control and agency, e.g., Kevnisha’s poems; Ali’s “dream” story; Enrique and “The Boost” and “Slum Kids Lifestyle”


An edition of the

BAY AREA NEWS GROUP – SERVING 2.7 MILLION READERS WEEKLY IN PRINT AND ONLINEVolume 137, No. 96

“This was one of the most precious students you wouldever want to meet — very quiet, respectful, focused.”

By Katy Murphy and Beatrice Motamedi

Bay Area News Group

OAKLAND — Ditiyan Frank-lin was a B student with college aspirations and a big, dimpled smile. Just last week he went to his senior prom, dressed in an impeccable white suit — a memory stored in a key chainphoto his father now carries inhis pocket.

Had he lived another month,Franklin would have experi-enced another rite of passage: high school graduation. But onWednesday, gunfire cut his fu-ture short.

“He was on his way out there to pave his life,” said his father,Twon Robinson, who said hesprinted to the scene as soonas he heard about the shooting.“He had two weeks to go. I wish

he could have made it.”Franklin, 17, was killed in

broad daylight Wednesday by Arroyo Viejo Park, just blocksfrom his house. Robinson said his son had been riding a bike when the shooting started, and that he was hit in the back as he tried to run away.

Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Holly Joshi said investigators believe the teen

was the intended target, but that they haven’t determined a motive for the shooting or iden-tified a suspect. The teen was not armed, and no shootout oc-curred, Joshi said.

Students at Castlemont’s Leadership Preparatory HighSchool sobbed openly Thursday morning after learning of the

Castlemont Highsenior killed in broaddaylight was weeksfrom graduating,dreamed of college

OPINION: OAKLAND COMMUNITY MUST COME TOGETHER TO STOP THE VIOLENCE. PAGE A7

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

Castlemont Leadership Preparatory High School students signa poster Thursday for Franklin. He was set to graduate June 17.

WEATHERPartly cloudyHighs: 60sLows: 50sPAGE B8

INDEXClassified ................. C6Comics .................... C11Crossword ................ C9

Gary Bogue .............. A2Lottery .................... AA2Movies ...................... TOObituaries ................ C4

Opinion ......................A7People ...................... A2Scores ...................... B5Television ................C12


BAY AREA NEWS APPS

INTRODUCING IN MORNING REPORT

Serbian generalarrested, chargedwith orderingdeaths of thousands

Futureunfulfilled

COURTESY OF THE FAMILY

Ditiyan Franklin, 17, attended his seniorprom last week. The Castlemont High student was fatally shot Wednesdayin Oakland, blocks from his house.

By Dana [email protected]

SAN JOSE — State regulatorson Thursday approved the mostsignificant electricity rate changes for PG&E’s residential customers in a decade, effectively lowering rates

for households that consume the most electricity while slightly rais-ing them for everyone else.

The new rates, which have been under intense debate and discussionfor more than a year, are expected to go into effect by the end of June.

While approving a break for

heavy users, the California Pub-lic Utilities Commission rejected PG&E’s request to add a $3-per-month service charge to every household’s bill over concerns that the fees would violate state law.

“It is a huge victory to defeat thecustomer service charge,” said Matt Freedman, staff attorney with the consumer advocacy group TURN, The Utility Reform Network. “But the change in electric rates is a big

change that will benefi t high-usagecustomers.”

PG&E uses a complex electrical rate plan with four levels, or tiers, of billing. Tier 1, or “baseline” custom-ers, use a minimum level of electric-ity when judged by regional and sea-sonal averages. Customers are then charged an increasingly higher rate as their electricity use rises above the baseline level through Tiers 2, 3 and 4. The more electricity you use,

the higher rate you pay — a system designed to reward energy conser-vation.

Consumers can fi nd out howmuch electricity they use each month, and the charges for it, on page four of their monthly PG&E bill, under the area marked “Elec-tric Account Detail.”

PG&E serves customers from

PG&E billing is about to changeHOUSEHOLDS that use the most electricity will see rates lowered; everyone else will pay a bit more

POWER STRUCTURE

FESTIVALSEASONIN FULLBLOOM

May 27, 2011TimeOut Weekend

What to do:NativeAmerica

n

celebration kicks

off new-lookEthnic Dance F

est

What to see:

WoodyAllen does

Paris in newromantic come

dy

starring OwenWilson

What to eat:

Celebrating 3East Bay eateri

es

where food isn’t

fancy, just delicious

FeelingFeelingfestive?Aguide toBayArea

fairs and fun stu!Aguide toBayArea

fairs and fun stu!

SPORTS

POSEY OUT FOR SEASON?FRACTURED FIBULA, THREE TORN ANKLE LIGAMENTS

BUSINESSBAYER CUTS540 JOBS INEMERYVILLE

Super Sightseeing ToursSan Francisco Bay to the ocean

See it. Share it. Buy it now.GotDailyDeals.com

DEAL OF THE DAY

50% off$25 for $50 3.5-hour

ultimate San Francisco tour

By Denis [email protected]

BART directors vowed Thurs-day to stop holding secret closed-door committee meetings.

Responding to a Bay Area News Group editorial that said the meet-ings violated California’s open meeting law, the BART board called for an overhaul of its com-mittee meeting procedures as soon as possible.

“We need to change the way wedo business immediately,” BART Director Joel Keller, of Brentwood, said during the meeting in Oak-land.

Other board members agreed,

and called for a staff report in two weeks with details on how to cor-rect the problem.

In the interim, all unnoticed board committee meetings are canceled immediately, BARTBoard President Bob Franklin an-nounced.

The transit system provides public notice for some regular committee meetings that are held concurrently with board meetings; the board meets twice a month on Thursdays.

But BART gives no public ac-cess or notice of closed-door meet-

BART promises end to secret meetingsTransit agency boardcalls for an overhaul ofcommittee procedures

By Matt O’[email protected]

Salvadoran-Americans are now the fourth-largest Latino group in the United States, according to 2010 census fi gures released Thursday.

Those whose roots extend to El Salvador, one of the smallest and densest countries in the Western Hemisphere, now number more than 1.6 million in the United States, and about 35 percent reside in California. The latest tally means

that Salvadoran-Americans have surpassed Dominican-Americansin number and are swiftly gaining on Cuban-Americans.

Those who hope the higher numbers translate into the political and economic infl uence reached by Mexican-Americans in California and Caribbean Latinos elsewhere say they still have work to do.

“Numbers give you a certainkind of power, but of course, you

Salvadoran-Americansfind strength in numbersData show communitynow the fourth-largestLatino group in U.S.

PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY

2010 CENSUS

ONLINEFor live traffic updates, gas prices,transportation news and more, go to InsideBayArea.com/traffic.

ONLINETo read about the Bay Area’s changing demographics, viewinteractive maps and more, go toInsideBayArea.com/census.

JIM STEVENS/STAFF

Sonia Garcia, owner of La Pupusa House, a Salvadoran restaurant in Livermore, serves Tom and Vicki Harland, of Sunol, on Thursday. Garcia moved to the Bay Area from El Salvador in the 1980s.

See PG&E, Page 9

See BART, Page 9

See TEEN, Page 9

See CENSUS, Page 9


USPS 07453841

75 cents plus tax

501

Serving Oakland for 137 yearsFriday I May 27, 2011 oaklandtribune.com

one week before pub date: an unexpected time hook

Ditiyan Franklin, 17, was shot and killed at 2:30 p.m. on May 25 as he was riding his bicycle near the Castlemont campus and his home.The next day, Castlemont held its annual health fair for staff and students.

@ reporting on health: No more time hooks, please


http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/no-more-time-hooks-please-0




Memorial for “Tang,” May 26, 2011



Olive Street, May 26, 2011



What if you redesigned a school and nobody liked it?

Students at the East Oakland School of the Arts (EOSA) are talking about the type of school they’d like to see, following news earlier this year that the Oakland Unified School District will consolidate the three schools at the Castlemont campus beginning in the fall of 2012 ...

Junior Jabari West, 17, is concerned that “if the schools get bigger, then there will be more fights and riots.”

Other students are more hopeful. Sophomore Jashilin Hampton, 16, believes that Castlemont can become a “dream school” and pledges to help turn it around.

“Yeah, I’ll help make … the dream, because it’s our school,” said Hampton, adding that she hopes to change Castlemont’s reputation as “always the underdog of all of the rest of the schools.” by Esmeralda Argueta, Alihzey Black, Esther Gamez, Monique

Hatcher, Maria V. Muniz, Lee Simmons, Lilybeth Villasenor and Erick Zamudio

Oaktown Teen Times

Oakland's Teen Newspaper

June 2011 Volume 4, Issue 4News & Views of Youth in Oakland, California

Judge to ruleon injunction;protests grow

OHigh garden's fate unclear

See GANG page 2

Oakland students won hon-ors, listened to prominent journalists and learned the ins and outs of writing and editing at the National

Scholastic Press Association high school journalism convention in Anaheim, Calif.

Students from Media Academy at the Fremont Federation of High Schools, and the East Oakland School of the Arts,

attended the three-day convention, which included more than 5,000 student journal-ists and teachers from around the country.

An Oakland Teen Times travel scholar-ship paid for one of the attendees, Kim Mejia-Cuellar of Media Academy.

Mejia-Cuellar earned an "excellent" rating in a newswriting contest based on a presentation by guest speakers debat-ing the pros and cons of "parent trigger" laws, which allow parents to force major reforms at low-performing schools.

Her twin sister, Gloria "Jack" Mejia-Cuellar, received an honorable mention in editorial writing in a contest based on the same topic.

The Mejia-Cuellars' newspaper, the Green & Gold, won fourth place for

See FATE page 4

– page 4 & 5

HOW OUR GARDENS GROW AN OTT

SPECIAL SECTION

Imagine walking through the campus of Oakland High School. As you pass by the parking lot, you begin to feel curious about what lies beyond the portable classrooms. Glancing to your left, you are disappointed by the sight of a trashed school

garden, and a picket sign that reads, “parking lot under construction.”

It’s a fate that Oakland High students and teachers hope to avoid.

What will happen to Oakland High's school garden, the subject of a yearlong project by students and teachers to create a memorial garden in honor of a slain student, is up

Oakland students honored, get to learn at national journalism convention

KIM MEJIA-CUELLAR, CESAR SANCHEZ & BERENICE VEGA-CONTRERAS

Oaktown Teen Times

in the air, pending the completion of a Measure B-funded

"I can't tell what will happen to the back area until the buildings are done," said Principal Alicia Romero. “Maybe (the garden) will stay, maybe it will move."

In a separate interview with reporters from Oakland High's newspaper, the Aegis, Assistant Principal Anisa Rasheed said it is possible that the garden could be ex-panded.

“It’s my understanding that it’s supposed to expand,” said Rasheed. “The portables (in front of the garden) are going to be demolished this summer. Once the portables are taken away, there will be even more space. Part of it will revert to parking, but not all of it. The garden will actually be a little larger than it is now.”

The garden, about the size of a classroom, with several

TENDING PHILLIP'S GARDEN Kevin Davis, 18, a senior at Oakland High School, waters lettuce planted in the Oakland High School garden. Davis was a close friend of Phillip Wright, an Oakland High student who was murdered in Novem-ber 2009. The garden, including a gingko tree, is dedicated to Wright's memory.

Money for gang injunctions, not education.

That’s the attitude that some Oakland students who attend

toward the proposed Fruitvale anti-gang injunction.The controversial injunction would restrict the

activity of 40 members of the Norteños gang. A de-scription of the gang by Oakland police on the city attorney's website calls the Norteños "the biggest, most well-organized, and the most violent" of the gangs present in Oakland.

"Of all the gangs, they care more about pure vio-lence rather than maintaining a drug trade or other occupation," the description says.

The so-called safety zone in which gang mem-bers would be prohibited from gathering would stretch from 21st Street to High Street and from Brookdale Avenue to Glascock Street.

A small pocket east of High Street is also part of the proposed safety zone. This area contains the Fremont Federation of High Schools.

Many thought Oakland would stop pursuing the Fruitvale injunction when City Attorney John Russo, the injunction’s main supporter, announced his resignation in May. Russo took a job as city at-torney for Alameda.

-mined to go forth with the injunction.

The Oakland Tribune reported on May 17 that the City Council decided in a 4-3 vote to continue funding the city’s injunctions, including the North Oakland gang injunction against 17 North Side gang members. That injunction went into effect last June.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman, who issued the North Side injunction, is reviewing the proposed Fruitvale injunction. He is expected to issue a ruling in the next few weeks.

Students said that the emphasis on injunctions is misplaced.

“Instead of creating a safety zone, the city of Oakland should worry about the education of chil-dren, so that when they grow up they won’t commit crimes,” said Media Academy junior Jazmin Garcia.

Many students think the injunction would waste money that could fund Oakland schools instead.

The East Bay Express reported on Feb. 15 that the Fruitvale and North Oakland gang injunctions have cost $761,128 so far, at a time when the Oak-

2011-2012 school year. In addition to the district budget cuts, schools

at Fremont Federation have also been asked to cut their budgets, forcing them to lay off teachers.

“The safety zone is pointless because it doesn’t -

cia.She might be right. The North Side Oakland gang injunction has

not shown promising results. According to the Bay

injunction was enacted, shootings in the zone have doubled.

GLORIA 'JACK' MEJIA-CUELLAR

McClymonds HighPAMELA TAPIA

photo by Lisa Shafer / Media Academy

CLEARING THE AIR Darrynne Vance, a student in the

of an Environmental Protection Agency panel about West Oakland ozone levels in November 2009 with classmate Deven Scott-King.

There will be no Law Academy at McCly-monds next year.

The news came in late March, by means

of a form letter from Principal Kevin Taylor to Ina Bendich, who has been director of the Law Academy for 10 years.

“I knew that enrollment was down and that the academy would likely be closed. With approximately 230 students, and two academies that both require

Law Academy closing at McClymonds

See ACADEMY page 3

See ANAHEIM page 2

Oakland HighMINDY NGUYEN

90 students to remain solvent, it seemed inevitable that one would be forced out,” said Bendich, add-ing, “I hoped that the tradition of political action in West Oakland would keep us open.”

A total of 45 students are enrolled in the Law Academy, which focuses on legal issues and environmental justice. Among the programs and activities sponsored by the academy are a news blog, a debate team, a mock trial, an annual Yosemite trip, summer internships, a restorative justice program that offers alternatives to suspensions and expulsions, a youth court program and a partner-ship with the Rose Foundation,

GETTING FEEDBACK Sophomore Katelyn Bauzon listens to reaction about a music review in Media Academy's newspaper from critique judge Randy Hamm at a national journalism convention in April.

photo by Laura Lem / Media Academy

photo by Pamela Tapia / McClymonds

Media Academy

newspapers from nine to 12 pages in size in the Best of Show competition on April 16.

“It was somewhat surprising that we made it to fourth place,” said Editor-in-Chief Cesar Sanchez. “I am proud that our school's newspaper made it so far.”

Green & Gold was critiqued by Randy Hamm, journalism adviser at East Ba-

paper for not shying away from "painful stories," such as shootings, and for doing a good job covering all three schools on the Fremont Federation of High Schools campus.

In addition to going to the convention,

THE NEXT'PEANUTS'CREATOR?

– page 6

photo by Steven Phan / Oakland High

Ali’s “dream” story


Feedback

• “That’s not a very good picture of me but my mom is hella proud and I’m okay with it.” —Kevnisha

• “I read your article today about teens and stress in East Oakland and it moved me. I am a Castlemont alum, and still live and work in this neighborhood. It is difficult to explain the conditions we live in to those on the outside looking in .... To this day I struggle with the effects of past and current violence in ways that no one can imagine. Your words on the written page help calm that all-too-familiar ache. I thank you deeply.” — Maribel C., Oakland

• Thank you for the article on “Growing up in Oakland.” You may hear this from others: we have read a lot of articles like this. A request: the article that we haven't seen a lot of (is) the stories of the men who have done or who are doing the shooting. What goes on in the minds of the men/boys who do the killing? Maybe if we know we can work with THESE young men to get them to stop the killing.” — Stephen F., Oakland


Closing quote: John’ta Christmas, 16, Leadership

"My stomping ground reminds me of a man-made eco-system that plants many seeds but harvests (few)," observes John'ta Christmas, a Leadership junior who unexpectedly placed third in Oakland's Martin Luther King Jr., oratorical contest after Rhynes pushed him to enter.

Yet "my life has been placed in harm's way less than others would think. Though this place has forced me to eat meals I would later resent and think of things that I would later realize (are) ignorant or foolish, with some bad (has) come some good as well.

"I have been taught things that others from foreign lands would never know, and (I) mature faster than my peers."


Castlemont slideshow


http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_18181874?source=pkg

http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_18181874?source=pkg