SF Chronicle packing its bags…
Email This Post
This was an interesting week for three reasons. First, the San Francisco Chronicle, who has brought the Bay Area news for 144 years, announced it may be closing up shop. After losing more than three million dollars per month for the last year, Hearst Corp says it’s either time to close up, or sell. Prospects for a sale aren’t exactly great, for in these days there’s not much upside to buying a newspaper. This announcement came just days after Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., operator of the two largest Philladelphia dailies, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
The second reason this was an interesting week was because Rosie Spinks, journalist for City on a Hill Press, published an article about the Cournalist. She was shrewd enough to recognize the fact that a significant shift in daily local news is now occuring in Santa Cruz, and we’re at the cusp of it. So, she sat down with us to see what our plans were to maintain the inheritance.
Overall Spinks did a good job in her coverage, but I do have a few points of contention, starting with her opening statement. “Being a cournalist is a full time job,” is how Spinks starts her article. And yet already, right here, she has lost the idea of being a Cournalist. Being a Cournalist is not a full time job. In fact, every cournalist we have is either a full-time student or full-time employee with a your run of the mill dayjob. Being a “Journalist” is a full time job, but being a “Cournalist” is neither full time, nor is it a job. Being a Cournalist is about finding spare time to research and write about something you care about, and share it with the community. Cournalists do this with as much frequency as they feel like, and are rewarded not fiscally but by the audience and readership their contributions are given.
Second, Spinks states that “The site is based on citizen journalism, the idea that any informed citizen who is engaged in the community can and should have a platform for their voice to be heard — no journalism training required.” While technically this is true, that you don’t need training to publish on the Cournalist, I feel like she puts off the wrong idea. This isn’t amateur hour, and Daniel and myself informally train our Cournalists over a coffe, a burrito or a beer. We teach them about getting multiple sources, recording quotes, identifying personal bias and source bias, and structuring their pieces effectively. Training might not be required, but is an ongoing supplement to all cournalists, and is not optional.
Aside from those few points, Spinks’ was right on.
Moving on to the third thing that made this an interesting week, I must relate a presentation Daniel and myself gave at Cabrillo college today, to a class of journalism students. As the editors of the only true community focused Citizen Journal in Santa Cruz, Daniel and myself take it upon ourselves to talk to local students. It’s part of our job.
And why shouldn’t it be? Journalism students are the future of the field. They are in the preparatory stages to launching their careers in journalism and based on this fact you’d think that they would then be interested in how the landscape of journalism is changing. After all, once they’re done spending thousands of dollars for a degree in journalism, the logical thing to do would be to try to get a job in journalism, right? You’d think interest in this emerging piece of the pie would be high.
But this is not what I saw today. After presenting to a class of twenty or so journalism students, not a single one of them had a question. We briefly highlighted the problem, that newspapers are going out of business and that something needs to fill their shoes. We elaborated on the worse-case scenario of a community out of touch with itself. We talked about how we’re hoping to change this, and the success we’ve had so far. And then we fielded questions. Only there weren’t any. Not one single question.
It pains me to walk into a room of journalism students, amidst the collapse of the entire newspaper industry, to talk about what’s coming next and not one person has a question.
I told Spinks that the Sentinel, the Good Times, and the Metro are not our competitors. I told her that apathy is our only competitor, and that we lose when people just don’t care. She quotes me on this at the end of her article, and it is something I believe with all my heart. The only obstacle, the only barrier to citizen journalism, is apathy. Furthermore I always expected to run into apathy on this journey. but I wasn’t prepared to face it coming from college-level journalism students.
Because it’s going to take young, energetic people who actually care in order to make citizen journalism work (and when I say “work” I mean work up to a standard that it will be considered an acceptable replacement to the dying newspaper). Unfortunately, it seems that young energetic people who actually care about local news and communities enough to do something are in short supply.
Newspapers are dying and if college students don’t care, I see a bad moon on the rise.
Response to Squire’s Article in the Sentinel
Email This Post
Jennifer,
Read your article this morning. You seem to have access to police records that ordinary mortals are denied.
Why not look over:
a. The tickets issued for violations of the Downtown Ordinances specifically: MC 5.43 (Forbidden Zones for display devices for musicians and political tablers), MC 5.43.020(2) (the Move-Along law for those display devices), MC 9.10 (Panhandling), MC 9.36 (Noise Ordinance used against musicians), MC 9.50.011 (Lying down on the sidewalk), & MC 9.50.020 (Forbidden Zones for Sitting).
Compare them from the years 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2008–since the major harshening of the laws happened in Sept 2002/February 2003 and then again early this year. Was there a rise or a drop in the number of citations? The point of this is to get a sense of whether these laws “worked” to reduce “bad behavior”, where the number of citations might indicate the “bad behavior”.
It would also be helpful in the future to get a breakdown of the citations to find out how many were written for ACTUAL bad behavior rather than innocent behavior redefined as bad behavior because it happens at a certain time or in a certain zone. Actual bad behavior would be under MC 9.10.040–coming within 3′ of a person with an unwanted requested, blocking someone’s path, following a person who walks away, using abusive language, or soliciting under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The other ordinances are all about technical violations of Forbidden Zones and such–innocent behavior which make the merchants nervous or annoyed.
b . The % of these citations written to those with “transient”, “homeless” or “115 Coral St.” addresses. The point of this is to see whether the ticketing mainly impacts (and perhaps targets) homeless people.
It would also be relevant to actually talk to some actual live homeless people, such as the people you savage in your article (Larson and Brown). Did you do that?
Do you know the difference between “drunk in public” and “open container”? Did you research how many of these citations were actually a function of specific complaints, and how many generated by the PD? Did you get the victim’s side of the story on these citations and how certain officers use these laws punitively to punish “bad attitudes”?
Did you ask how many of these people actually were allowed to take a Breathalyzer test to determine if they actually met the legal definition of “unable to take care of themselves”?
Did you ask them how many were released at 3 AM in the morning without their property or bedding, and told to check the police station in a few days during the 1 1/2 hours per day that the property room is open (on weekdays)?
Have you researched what kind of drug and alcohol programs actually exist in town as alternatives?
Are you aware that two counts of any of these offenses has been–for decades–a misdemeanor already when the chapter is cited for twice within 6 months ? You don’t have to wait until the tickets are ignored or torn up. The second citation is an automatic misdemeanor with misdemeanor penalties. MC 5.43.040 and MC 9.10.060 provide for misdemeanor charges for the second charge within 6 months for display device, and panhandling in the wrong place at the wrong time. MC9.50.070 provides similar penalties for repeating a violation twice within 30 days.
The same now already applies to sitting on a bench for more than an hour, sitting and/or spare changing within 14′ of a directory, trash compactor, or public bench–under the new ordinances. You don’t need three offenses, just two.
The difference, of course, is that a sleeping ticket (previously an infraction) is now made a misdemeanor offense if not “taken care of” and and three citations for which you don’t pay bail or “community service fees” from anywhere in the entire municipal code can land you in jail for up to six months (MC 4.04.010).
At the January 27th City Council hearing on the worsened Downtown Ordinances, Vice-Mayor Rotkin repeatedly ignored or falsified this fact at City Council in what seems in my opinion to be a cheap attempt to pander to a mob merchant hysteria mentality (and not address real bad behavior at all—which the Forbidden Zone expansions and increasing penalties does not).
After paragraphs of police and merchant PR, you write “The homeless say they’ve been unfairly targeted…” Don’t you think that would be a pertinent fact, if true? Instead of any exploration, you sound like you grant the fact (“and police acknowledge the problem is limited to a relatively small number of recidivists.”) but suggest that there is no targeting of the homeless just of “recidivists”.
For you to have an honest and unbiased understanding and convey that to the public, you really need to do more research and talk with a broader range of folks.
You might also be unaware that the last time there were truly open hearings around the issue of Downtown Problems (2002), Sentinel reporter Dan White reported that “police harassment” and “selective enforcement” were the top two contenders: (“Odds Stack Up Against Downtown Committee” 7/3/02“)
You have been enlisted as part of a PR campaign which heightens tensions downtown, scapegoats poor people, and does nothing to resolve real problems.
Sort of like drug or prostitute sweeps before elections.
Except this kind of “get tough on the poor” creates ever-more real problems for real poor people, generates more vigilante hostility, and does nothing to bring together the folks who need to be talking with each other to solve these problems.
Take a step back.
Please let me know the results of your investigation into the actual citations.
It might also be interesting to know how many times merchants have actually used existing laws to affect citizen arrests (i.e. call the cops, sign a ticket, and take it to court). This might be an actual measure of how serious they are about the ‘bad behavior’ involved. As an establishment journalist, you have more access to these records than ordinary folks do. It might make you sleep a little easier while others are getting humiliated, fined, arrested, and jailed for what you are allowed to do every night in the comfort of your own home.
Experiments In Print
Email This Post
Feb 11 – March 14, 2009
Gallery Hours are Wednesday – Sunday, noon – 6 p.m.
Curators Julie Erreca and Anouk Johanna
An exhibition of artists’ work in monoprint/monotype celebrating the unique characteristics of this printing process– energy, gesture, impulse, chance…and poetry!
Jane Gregorius judged the show with awards for outstanding work including, “Absolutely Awesome!” and “How Did They Do This?”
Visit www.MountainArtCenter.org for more information.
Part of the County wide collaboration of Assemblage, Collage & Construction
Through the Museum of Art & History
http://www.accsantacruz.org
Gallery Exhibition at the Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center, Ben Lomond
Capitola Call to Service Meet-up
Email This Post
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28
10am-noon
CAPITOLA COMMUNITY CENTER @JADE STREET PARK
What can we do, in these challenging times, to make Capitola an even better community?
Join us for a conversation about Capitola Call to Service
We are hosting a brainstorming session where we will discuss how we can make it easier for neighbors to help neighbors, citizens to help their community.
We have been inspired to begin community organizing in Capitola, working to create a pilot program. It’s best described as a “craigslist of community service.” A place where community members, using online tools, can find opportunities for micro-service. Please join us, Saturday February 28th at 10am to give your input about this plan & let us know any ideas you may have.
For more information contact: capitolacalltoservice@gmail.com
Bike Park Will Move to Depot Park
Email This Post
The Fun Spot has found a new home.
The temporary bike park located on the corner of Front St. and Beach St. will move to an underused area of Depot Park to make way for the new Marine Sanctuary Visitors Center. If all goes to plan, the new park will open on June 1.
The city council unanimously approved the move yesterday afternoon in front of a cheering crowd of bike enthusiasts.
“Not everybody wants to play baseball or football anymore,” said a representative from the Bicycle Trip, a bike shop in Santa Cruz that donated $25,000 in 2007 to build the temporary park.
The Fun Spot has been temporarily located at the site of an old skate park to stem the unauthorized use of bikes at Ken Wormhoudt Skate Park, a park designed for skaters and skateboarders.
“We didn’t want bikes and skateboards in the same area,” said Dannettee Shoemaker, the director of the City of Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation.
In early 2008, Parks & Recreation began vetting potential sights for a permanent bike park. In light of the city’s severe budget deficit, the department wanted to take advantage of existing city property.
“We don’t have enough money to buy new property, so we’re looking into ways to use underutilized areas we all ready own,” Shoemaker said.
They settled on a 11,000-foot spot of Depot Park currently used as a picnic area.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Ryan Coonerty, a councilmember. “I think Santa Cruz is going to be known internationally not only for skaters and surfers but jumpers as well.”
Dozens of bike enthusiasts of all ages turned out to the meeting in support of the measure. Mark, a 6-year-old biker, stood on a footstool to address the council.
“This city needs a bike park… Any questions?” He said with a frown planted on his face.
Other teenagers cited the bike park as the reason they’d stayed away from drugs and trouble. They said biking was a healthy and fun alternative to drinking and drug use.
Most of the ramps and parts needed for the new park will be recycled from the previous one. Residents have already begun building some of the ramps in a local warehouse.
BMX, or freestyle biking, has been growing fast in the area. The sport will see its first Olympic competition in 2012.
Contact the author at tangerinemichaels@gmail.com. Bryce Shaw provided the photography for this story.
UCSC Ballroom Team Compete at Berkeley Ballroom Classic
Email This Post
Tangroupe's choreographers, Brett Griswold and Jennifer Small, with the troupe's first place trophy
There is something unique about the look in a dancers eye after their tenth consecutive competition event, wild with adrenaline and the extreme physical exhaustion. At the UC Berkeley Ballroom Classic 2009, dancers from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCSC battled in dances such as Pasa Dolbe, Cha Cha, Foxtrot, Waltz, Tango, and many others, to prove their skill and the prowess of their competitive teams.
Each dance is divided into three sections: bronze, silver, and gold. Within these sections, there is a syllabus for the dance moves that can be done. For example, in a bronze level of a dance, there may be 20 dance moves allowed without automatically disqualifying you from the competition, in silver level there might be 30 moves allowed, and in gold there might be 40 moves allowed. Staying within the syllabus of moves for each level is key, because even the best dancers will be disqualified for using moves not designated beforehand.
UCSC, as they usually do, showed up with unorthodox training and two groups: the expected Ballroom Competitive Team and Tangroupe, the Argentinean Tango troupe. Throughout the competition, it was clear to this cournalist that while UCSC had a relatively small group, there was no question as to the enthusiasm and fervor of their support for their fellow UCSC dancers.
Throughout the 14-hour event, UCSC remained competitive, placing in the finals of most dances they participated in. Unlike what is known as the “Berkeley Army”, speaking on their massive competitive dance team of over 100 people, UCSC ‘s dancers all placed throughout the day, showing that UCSC’s team contains more than just a few all-stars.
While this was the Ballroom Classic competition, one cannot forget the small but spunky Tangroupe. One must not forget, that while most of this troupe does not participate in ballroom, it was Tangroupe that at this point was the reining formation champion, placing first the year prior. For hours they cheered their ballroom counterparts, waiting for their moment to compete.
Then bad news spread across the little tango troupe. The other teams that they had planned on competing against had canceled last minute. They would be unable to make it to the competition. Most teams would be excited, for they had just been given a 1st place position no matter what. However, this was not the reaction amongst the troupe. All the dancers were disappointed like a boxer, gloves on and in the ring, only to hear that the other boxer decided to not show. Essentially, the dancers in Tangroupe wanted to be challenged. Despite their disappointment, excitement for performing settled in and all thoughts of the competition faded. In their eyes, they were competing against themselves to prove their effort and their talent.
As the troupe did what they do best, the audience applauded, but not nearly as much as they showed reactions of surprise and excitement. President of Tangroupe, Matthew Grabowski spoke with the Cournalist afterward, stating, “I was really proud of our team. The competition was exhausting and everyone really pulled together and gave it their all. Our performance for the judges was the best I can remember giving. We were able to feed off the excitement of an audience of dancers, and their roaring reaction was a testament to our intense efforts.”
Following the formation competition, the troupe dominated the Argentinean Tango competition with Tangroupe couples placing first through first place out of six couples.
Suffice to say, Tangroupe may have won first of only one, but their performance demonstrated a serious reality for any team daring enough to challenge their 2-year hold on the UC Berkeley Ballroom Competition.
There are several video’s available of the performance. Here is one link: Tangroupe Formation Routine
UCSC Ballroom classes are from 8-10 p.m. on Mondays at the multi-purpose room of the East Field House. Tangroupe classes are 1-3 p.m. on Sundays at the same place.
Contact the author at sdharris@ucsc.edu.
________________________________________________
DISCLOSURE: Shawn Harris is a member of the UCSC ballroom team.
Local entrepreneur chronicles stabbings in Santa Cruz, cleans up streets
Email This Post
Helbard Alkhassadeh is one part entrepreneur, one part neighborhood watchdog and one part historian. When he’s not shooting product photos for local businesses, he’s tipping off the cops in an ongoing effort to clean up lower Broadway. Somewhere in between all that, he presides over StabSantaCruz.com -a website intended to raise awareness about the stabbings happening here in Santa Cruz. On his site, you’ll find links to all the recent headlines, as well has his famous Stab-O-Meter which shows visitors how many days it has been since someone was stabbed in Santa Cruz county. It currently reads “2.”
At first this might seem like some sort of sick joke. After all, people getting stabbed is no laughing matter, especially when its happening in higher frequencies and in places that we thought were safe, like schools. But Helbard feels that the only way to attract an audience online is to take a more cynical approach, even with such heady subject matter as local stabbings.
“No one’s going to go to Santa Cruz Stabbing Dilemma dot com. No one’s going to go to that,” Helbard tells me. Immediately when logging on to the site, you see an enormous knife stuck into the sand at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. And then you see links and excerpts to all the recent local stabbing news.
I asked Helbard if people ever email him, upset that he’s making light of a very serious situation. “I’ve got the why are you making fun of it, the why are you making light of it, and I come back to them and ask, what am I making fun of? And they’ll say, oh well you make jokes in your polls. But then I tell them that if they go back, and they read it, I’m really not making fun of it. Like the most recent poll, about 24 hour fitness. One of the answers is ‘Haven’t been to the gym in 12 years’ -that’s not a joke.”
Helbard set up StabSantaCruz.com in December. Since then, 8 days is the longest Santa Cruz County has gone without a stabbing. He’s been asked to set up a yearly count, but he isn’t interested. “There are a lot of stabbings going unreported. It wouldn’t be accurate.”
Helbard has fast become the unofficial chronicler of stabbings in Santa Cruz. In fact, whenever a stabbing is reported in Santa Cruz, he tells me his blackberry starts lighting up with calls and text messages and cries to reset the stab-o-meter. In addition, his email list of people who want to be updated on stabbings has grown substantially, though he won’t divulge the exact number of subscribers.
One thing many poeple might not realize is that the roots of the StabSantaCruz.com project lie in a different project altogether: a collective of neighbors dedicated to cleaning up lower Broadway. He relates to me the story of how the whole thing started:
“It all began when I was growing sunflowers in my front yard. They grew to be about eight feet tall. My neighbors came and knocked on my door, and told me in broken English that someone had taken my sunflower. I said yeah, you know, I’m not surprised. But then they told me, they’re down the street right now, causing chaos. This person had literally broken off the thick prickly stalk, and went down the street hitting people and things with my sunflower. I saw him hitting this van, and yelling things like ‘get out of here spic, go get a green card.’
So we called the cops. They came and arrested him. Then they questioned us, because we were witnesses. When we got to the part about the racial slurs he was yelling, the cops said oh, that’s a hate crime. He’s going away for a while. Then all the neighbors started talking and exchanging ideas and stories. We became friends. And this was a neighborhood where previously, neighbors didn’t talk to each other at all.
But from that day, there was a synergy in the neighborhood where we started talking to each other. We decided as a neighborhood that we actually like living there. It’s actually a cool place to live. It’s close to downtown, the beach, a bunch of stores. Why should we be letting the neighborhood slip?”
That, according to Helbard, is what started a neighborhood initiative to depend on each other to create the neighborhood they wanted to see. They kept a watchful eye on the activities going on around them, and reported any suspicious activity to the police.
“Now every time someone new moves in, we talk to them and get them involved. And you know what? The people who don’t get involved, who just don’t get into it, it’s always turned out that they were up to something. We’ve had crack dealers, meth dealers and heroin dealers who were busted, prostitutes too. You name it. We realized if we just call the cops and give them information, eventually the problem disappears. Because most of the time, you know who the drug dealer is on the street. You know which house is that house. People are visiting for five minutes, all day long. So you just write down license plates and descriptions and give it all to the cops. Within a month or two, that house is empty. Now there isn’t a single person living on my street who I wouldn’t want there.”
Helbard has recently launched a new website, to help connect the people of his neighborhood. It’s called thelowerbroadway.com and its a mix between a community focused news site and a mailing list. Everyone in the lower Broadway neighborhood is encouraged to join, which will enable instant email notifications is suspicious, dangerous or violent things are happening on lower Broadway.
At the end of the day, Helbard is driven by a desire to do good and to create a positive community. And that has driven him to create the StabSantaCruz.com website. Because to him, it’s not a joke. It’s about doing what he can. “Once you see a nice change, once you see people feeling good about living here, and not wanting to leave… and then you see this rash of stabbings, and people start labeling and saying things like ‘come to Santa Cruz and get stabbed,’ it becomes hard not to do something about it.”
“It’s a disease of wanting to do good. You get sick of wanting to do good.”
Fake Vitamins
Email This Post
Let’s say you want to buy a car. If somebody gave you something that looks and sounds just like a car, but doesn’t drive, you would feel pretty ripped off. Yet here we are consuming basically useless synthetic vitamins in our processed foods and supplements, thinking it’s the real thing.
Vitamins are great. They are required by our cells to maintain general health. Some vitamins are fat soluble, so they stick around for a while, and others are water soluble, meaning they need to be replaced regularly.
In an ideal world, we would all be eating minimally processed whole foods from which we would obtain all the vitamins we need. In the real world, we often need to take special precautions to make sure we get enough vitamins. We try to eat vitamin rich foods and often supplement with a multivitamin. Inadequate vitamin levels have been linked to heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and other diseases in a number of studies.
So why am I so angry about something as banal as vitamins?
Whole foods have tons of vitamins. Be it an orange or a whole grain, whole foods are chock full of the good stuff. Unfortunately, processing foods can do a lot of damage to these vitamins. When you mash up oranges and expose the insides to air, the vitamins oxidize and become mostly useless. Yes, you’d better get your vitamin C from an orange, not from orange juice. Heat can also destroy vitamin molecules. During processing, grains are broken down such that the flour ends up with virtually no vitamins whatsoever. If you’re going to eat bread, you’d better make it whole grain bread.
When processing leads to the depletion of vitamins, food processors often decide to add synthetic vitamins back in, either because of government regulations or marketing reasons. Synthetic vitamins are added to everything. Read your labels and look for “enriched” flours. Many of the strange and difficult to pronounce ingredients in processed foods are in fact added vitamins.
Sadly, synthetic vitamins are basically a sham. As if they didn’t understand what low quality these vitamins really are, food processors often market their products on the very basis of the health these vitamins are supposed to provide. If you look at the packaging for garbage foods from Cheeto’s to Frosted Flakes, you hardly get the idea that eating them might kill you some day.
Why are synthetic vitamins bad?
Synthetic vitamins were first created in the 1930s by the pharmaceutical industry, and are generally derived from “coal tars and artificial colorings, preservatives, disintegrents, coating materials, and other additives” (Randall Fitzgerald, The Hundred-Year Lie 136-137). For example, vitamin e is a byproduct of the film manufacturing process, and vitamin c is “derived from cornstarch, corn sugar, and volatile acids mixed in a fermentation process” (137). Synthetic vitamins look the same as vitamins found in nature, but “they don’t assimilate the same way in the human body. Studies of vitamin c and vitamin e show that the naturally occurring forms are more absorbable by the body and more biologically active than synthetics” (137).
Research confirming the superiority of whole foods vitamins have been published in numerous journals. One example: “In a 1996 study at Oregon State University six volunteers were given 150-milligram doses of synthetic vitamin e and later the same dose of vitamin e from natural sources. Urine tests showed conclusively that the human body prefers natural vitamin e by its retention of it and by how quickly it excretes the synthetic version” (137).
What about multivitamins? A recent government-funded study supposedly proved that there was no benefit to taking a daily multivitamin. This is very telling, especially considering the fact that the authors of the study as well as the writers who covered it seemed not to care about vitamin quality. In my view, it is only natural that synthetic multivitamins would fail to offer benefits, and I would very much like to see a study on quality multivitamins produced from whole foods.
It’s about time for a conclusion and a little bit of advice. The fact that we have been coaxed into consuming fake vitamins is not surprising, but it would be unfortunate if readers of an article like this continued to do so. It’s time to move on to whole foods and vitamins derived from them. Whole foods vitamins come from food; in a way, they are food. Supplementing with a whole foods multivitamin and a high quality fish oil is a great idea; try asking around at your local health food store.
Sam Fritzsche is the editor of The New Food View. Email him at antskua@aol.com.
Email announcement from Curt Coleman, Principal of Costanoa
Email This Post
After the recent stabbing of a student by another student at Costanoa High School in Santa Cruz, Principal Curt Coleman issued this email to the parents, students, faculty and staff:
Dear BSSC Community,
The Branciforte Small Schools Campus is a learning community. There are
lessons to be learned as taught by teachers, by parents, by students, by
staff, by community members, and now — by violence. A stabbing
occurred last week on an otherwise normal Tuesday morning at Costanoa
High School.
*What have I learned?* I have learned that our staff is well prepared
to respond to a crisis. Emergency responders — police, fire,
paramedics — are quick and competent. Our families are kind and
generous of spirit. The community is supportive and caring.
*And what of our students?* Students are strongly connected and loyal
to their school and their teachers. Costanoa students are feeling all
the emotions: sadness, fear, confusion, indifference. Our peaceful
campus was violated. Sadly, for some of our students, violence feels
familiar. There is no mistaking that violence is pervasive in American
culture. We are sharply reminded of this again and again whenever a
school campus is jolted by physical force.
*Does it make sense to have all four schools together on one campus?
*The four schools at BSSC (five, if you count Head Start) are schools of
choice. People chose to enroll in these schools knowing of our
configuration. I tell parents at our annual Monarch prospective parent
orientations that we came together here at BSSC with the /intention/ to
create a configuration of schools that collaborate and share and support
one another. I want families who embrace the concept and support each
school. In many ways we are a microcosm of society. We celebrate our
successes and we support one another in times of need. A Costanoa
student was overheard saying that he hoped the Monarch students hadn’t
seen the stabbing. The Costanoa students are protective of the Monarch
students. The Monarch students are thankful for the help of Costanoa
students. All four schools have the privilege of sharing our beautiful
facility. On any day our Multipurpose Room may host a BSSC blood drive,
a Costanoa-Monarch mock presidential election, an AFE play practice, or
an Ark student photo shoot. Students from all four schools learn to
create pottery in the Clay Studio and use Photoshop in the Computer
Lab. We are richer as a united campus than we were as separate schools.**
*Who are the Costanoa students? *I don’t use the term “at risk youth”.
This is a label that promotes fear and division. It seems to assume,
predict, and even expect dangerous behavior. For all of us, to live
means to be at risk. Danger is inherent in daily life. We are all at
risk of accident, of bad luck, of poor decision making, of any number of
random occurrences. We can generalize and say that youth are more at
risk of danger than others because adolescents, due to their
developmental nature, are programmed to take risks. But /taking risks/
is different from the notion of being /at risk/, of being an
unpredictable, scary threat. **
Some Costanoa students have faced very challenging life experiences.
Many Costanoa students have not found success or happiness at
comprehensive high schools. Most Costanoa students have fallen behind
on credits towards graduation, for as many reasons as there are
students. Some Costanoa students have made immature, uninformed, or
impulsive decisions.
Costanoa students are children of mothers and fathers, are members of
loving extended families. Costanoa students want their families to be
proud of them. Costanoa students want to feel like they belong.
Costanoa students want to learn English. Costanoa students want to be
accepted by their peer group. Costanoa students work to help support
their families. Costanoa students want more than anything else to earn
that great American promise — a high school diploma.
*What is done to create safety at Costanoa? *My priorities and those of
all staff since we created this campus five years ago are these, in
order: safety, relationships, success. Students are able to learn and
be successful when they feel safe and when they have positive
relationships with their teachers and fellow students. **
At Costanoa we work on safety and relationships much more than other
schools do. New students who are screened and approved for enrollment
participate in a thorough probationary period during which they receive
orientation and we assess their learning needs and their suitability for
our campus. Some probationary students do not earn the privilege to
remain at Costanoa. A handful of previously expelled students do
qualify to enroll at Costanoa, as they do at other high schools, but
only after they have fulfilled the requirements of their expulsion
order. Student behavior history is not held back from teachers, in
fact, California Education Code provides that teachers be informed
regarding any student history of school violence. All visitors and
community volunteers are required to check in at the office. We have a
strict and consistently enforced set of student rules. As at any
American school, we search students when we have reasonable suspicion as
defined by law. We provide ongoing individual and group counseling,
crisis counseling, and dispute mediation. We refer students and
families to community support services. We conference with families a
minimum of three times yearly. We phone families regularly. We provide
awards for excellent behavior. We make action plans for students and
write them on behavior contracts. Costanoa students volunteer to work
as tutors at Monarch and Head Start. We encourage students and families
to share information that will keep our school safe (and they do). We
receive assistance from the School Resource Officers assigned by the
Santa Cruz Police Department. Most importantly, we genuinely accept and
respect each student as a person. Ultimately, we do exit (to smaller
and more closely supervised schools) students who cannot or will not
follow school rules.
Costanoa, like the other schools at BSSC, is a member of the Coalition
of Essential Schools (CES), an international educational organization
that promotes small schools and authentic learning. A hallmark of CES
schools is the focus on developing useful habits: use your mind well, do
the right thing, work hard. These are the habits that bring students to
success.
Feeling safe, having positive relationships, and performing successfully
are one thing, supervising for safety is another. We have 3 staff
members plus the principal and two part time assistant principals who
concentrate on supervising the campus. Any of the 45 other BSSC staff
members are charged with supervision as needed as they move about the
campus. During brunch break students are either in or on their way to
the Multipurpose Room, a classroom, or the playground. All of these
areas are supervised. The campus and the immediate neighborhood are
supervised before and after school. Our friendly neighbors keep an eye
on our students and notify us if they have any concerns. Costanoa is a
closed campus, except for students who earn awards and the privilege of
an off campus pass.
*How could this happen given all the precautions, interventions, and
supervision? *This particular event occurred outside during class time
between just two students — one was arriving late to class and the
other had been on his way to the restroom. They stood near several
classrooms. There were a teacher and a class of PE students nearby. A
teacher came on the scene moments after the injury had been inflicted.**
At BSSC we preach that powerful learning comes by doing. *What are the
opportunities for learning through action that result from this
experience of a stabbing on our playground?* Yes, THERE WAS A STABBING
ON OUR PLAYGROUND! We can’t deny that it happened. We can’t wait for
others to solve the problems. We also can’t accept that this is
normal. We should be outraged!
Perhaps the most important question to be answered: *What will we do to
prevent violence and promote peace in our community?* I need help with
this answer. With your help we can put our energy, passion, and
expertise together to create positive change in the community. Please
join me not only in outrage but in action. We can unite together and
take action. We have a tentative date — _Saturday, March 14_ – to meet
together and take positive steps to promote peace on our campus and in
our community. Please save the date. More details will be forthcoming.
Curt Coleman
Principal
Media Dinosaurs Continue Death Cry
Email This Post
ANOTHER NEWSPAPER FAILS TO COME TO GRIPS WITH THE END OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA
Some people just never learn.
In an editorial this past week, the Chicago Sun-Times touted its unraveling of Sen. Roland Burris’s shadowy fundraising for ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich as proof that traditional newspapers will endure.
The facts report a much different story. Newspapers in their current form are dangerously close to extinction. A perfect storm of paralyzed housing and car markets and a volatile economy have destroyed advertising revenue for papers across the country. The wild success of Internet companies like Ebay and Craigslist have only contributed to the mess. Newspaper ad revenue fell 14 percent in the first half of 2008, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Future outlooks aren’t so optimistic.
In response to this disaster, papers have been forced into massive editorial layoffs, required furloughs for those remaining and other cutbacks. Many cities that have traditionally housed two dailies now have one. Some of these cities fear they’ll soon have zero.
Here in Santa Cruz, the storm has been just as visible over the last few years. The Sentinel has scrapped its printing press, relocated to Scotts Valley and slashed its editorial staff. Because of these cutbacks, Editor Don Miller recently found himself trumpeting the paper’s first investigative piece “in a few years.”
Still, the Chicago Sun-Times thought it reasonable to attack the emergence of alternative news sources like nonprofit papers, blogs and citizen journals.
“No army of bloggers, no TV or radio station, no nonprofit journalism collective, no foundation-supported task force of political and government reporters will ever do the job so well,” they wrote.
Maybe so. But that same army of “bloggers in pajamas” — as the paper later referred to them —broke news that the head of NASA had lied on his resume, banking lobbyists were trying to payoff members of Congress and the police chief in San Diego was lying about crime statistics to cover up the city’s failing police department.
In reality, these fresh news sources are necessary to fill a growing void. That’s not to say professional journalists have no role in the future reporting of news. To the contrary, trained writers are essential in deciphering the nuances of the country’s daily news. But there’s no question that as the void grows we’ll need new and innovative ways to cover the news.
The Chicago Sun-Times and other media dinosaurs must face these facts. The age of the traditional newspaper is coming to an end, and the dawn of a more diversified media is at hand. The papers who accept this fact will survive and the ones who don’t will be lamenting the good ole’ years over unemployment.
Ironically, the Chicago Sun-Times said it best when it wrote, “Competition brings out the best in everybody.” Surely they’re not afraid of a little competition from the people who were previously confined to reading the papers.
In reality, I sense these graying dinosaurs are finally coming to grips with the fact that they might one day be the “bloggers in pajamas,” they so dubiously referred too. My advice to the editors of the Chicago Sun-Times: Best hit the local Wal-Mart for a new onesie before they’ve sold out!
|
|
FROM THE EDITORS » |
|
Writing Contest Reminder PVUSD Will Announce Cutbacks, Layoffs Tonight Writing Contest! Experiments In Print Capitola Call to Service Meet-up