22 minute read
Back to School
Jasmine Richards “the Hood” organizer BLM Pasadena speaking with kids from the program.
Freedom School gives positive options for youth
Some people recognize the problems that a community faces and sincerely hope things improve.
For the youth of Northwest Pasadena, Jasmine Abdullah Richards is someone who can’t wait for the powers that be to make changes.
The Black Lives Matter Pasadena founder knows very well the challenges that lie ahead.
“The school-to-prison pipeline works very well and they want to keep it going. These kids in school aren’t making them enough money, but these kids in jail and prison will make them all the dollars they need,” Richards explained.
The 2012 Pasadena Police murder of Kendrec McDade, an unarmed 19-year-old Black athlete, with no criminal record, was the impetus for Richards to begin a Pasadena chapter of Black Lives Matter.
Richards gained national attention in 2016 for being the first African American woman convicted of “lynching” by a Pasadena jury. She was sentenced by Judge Elaine Lu for rushing to the aid of an unknown African American woman who was accused of not paying for her meal. She said she thought the person was being handled roughly by Pasadena Police.
According to the California Penal Code, “lynching” was the act of helping to release another person from the custody of a police officer by means of a “riot.” Gov. Jerry Brown removed the term from the criminal code in 2015, and it became more appropriately known as “attempting to unlawfully remove a suspect from police officers.”
In 2017, Richards began a free youth summer program, the BLM Pasadena Freedom School. The Freedom School is designed to develop a positive sense of self and community, as
Mariah Geary , Maliq greathouse , Lucas Martinez , Jasmine Richards “the Hood” organizer BLM Pasadena founder, Olivia grant , Camora Shamburger, Vicky Ruelas, Kaylen Moya
well as learn about the vast contributions made by African Americans.
They talk about life values using examples that are familiar to them. On Mondays they give back by doing community service and feeding those who are unhoused. Wednesdays and Fridays they head out on field trips to broaden their life experiences and enjoy summer activities. The school actively raises funds and awareness to help the students. To donate, visit https:// gofund.me/93784b68
“Jasmine is a brave and resilient member of this community,” said teacher Steven Sneed, who donated Freedom School T-shirts.
Sneed is also the director of the documentary “Pasadena: Exploring Solutions to Reduce Gang Violence.”
The BLM Pasadena Freedom School, which meets at Jackie Robinson Park, is 100% community organized and funded. BLM Pasadena also holds meetings at La Pintoresca Park at 4 p.m. Sundays. They feed everyone who attends, and they hold discussions on Black love, Black rage, programs that are needed in the school system and the injustices that they see and experience constantly.
Freedom School volunteer Adriana Bautista deemed it important to volunteer for the organization.
“I volunteer because I’ve met youth who’ve participated in the program and I heard from them how much they loved it,” Bautista said.
This year, for the first time, BLM Pasadena Freedom School hired two paid mentors, Emoni Waiters and Amari Stewart, both of whom are former BLM Pasadena youth. “Jasmine looks out for the kids, even after the program finishes,” Bautista said. “They are excited to see her and give her honest updates on their lives. There aren’t enough accessible opportunities for kids in Northwest Pasadena, so sustaining Freedom School by volunteering and donating does make an impact.”
Like-minded individuals support Richards as well.
“Freedom School for the youth is amazing,” Abernathy said.
Florence Annang, Thrive Learning Lab director, added, “I think Jasmine’s Freedom School is so empowering for the youth of the Northwest and investing in their future.”
2021
VOTED BEST PRIVATE SCHOOL FOR 2019, 2020 AND 2021
Pasadena charity gives school supplies, self-confidence
By Allison Brown Pasadena Weekly Staff Writer
Neighborhood Survants will host their third annual backpack drive Sunday, Aug. 8, at Robinson Park with free supplies and resources.
The hope is to leave a lasting footprint, one that will help today’s youth and have a ripple effect on future generations.
“That day we will be giving out backpacks filled with school supplies, and we’ll be providing haircuts and braids,” said Michelle White, the charity’s president and co-founder.
“Also, right now we’re at 20 vendors that are all kid related, so you could look at it kind of as a farmers market of youth resources. There’s karate, gymnastics, tutoring, football and cheerleading signups. We’re going to have some arts and crafts. There will be a three-on-three kind of basketball tournament. We’re raffling off a couple pairs of unique Jordan shoes and we’re going to give away some goodies and some T-shirts. It’s just six hours of trying to give our youth what they need to go back to school.”
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., while supplies last and, while everything is free, students must register to participate.
All backpacks and school supplies come from donations, and all vendors, including local barbers who will do haircuts and braids, are volunteers.
Kyle Grant, White’s son and co-founder of Neighborhood Survants, said the idea came from wanting to help better the community, specifically youth. He said kids shouldn’t have to worry about finances, and the charity tries to ease that burden as much as possible. It’s not only about handing out free stuff, though.
“It also worked in a way that we could provide students with self-esteem and self-confidence when going back to school where they don’t have to worry so much about the financial stressors that come with a lot of the kids we serve,” Grant said.
The organization’s goal is to get 5,000 backpacks with about 10,000 school supplies, but White said they aren’t even close and they are hoping community partners will help out.
Grant said they are still in need of about 1,500 to 2,000 backpacks.
“I think another 1,500 or 2,000 would be great just to really have the impact that we would like to have within the community. Last year, we did this with the pandemic, but we did it all through drive thru, and we gave out 1,750 (backpacks),” Grant said. “We’re thinking that with the kids now having an opportunity to go back to school in person, we’re thinking our numbers are going to double.”
To donate, contact White at m.white@neighborhoodsurvants.com for drop-off locations or go to neighborhoodsurvants.com/donate for monetary donation.
To register, visit tinyurl.com/t4my23k.
“Everything for the community is complimentary. That’s the whole point is for the kids to be able to come to a place where everything is provided to them at no charge,” Grant said. “It’s all just about celebrating our youth in the city, and that’s something we pride ourselves on is that you don’t have to come (to events) with anything. You just leave with a lot of love and a lot of supplies.”
Pasadena Backpack Drive WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8 WHERE: Robinson Park Recreation Center 1081 N. Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena COST: Free, registration required INFO: neighborhoodsurvants.com
Muir Garden master Jill McArthur teaches teenage men how to properly set tomato plant.
MPYD’s Muir Garden crew prepares irrigation for tomato and squash which will be planted.
With students allowed to return campus after a full year of remote learning, MPYD opened doors for the teenage men of John Muir High School to access resources such as study hall/tutoring, college application assistance, and one-on-one mentoring.
Mentors help Muir students achieve their fullest potential
In 2002, with the state and local school authorities breathing down her neck, Dr. Eddie Newman recognized she needed others to help her steer her students in the right direction.
She recruited the help of Tecumseh Shackelford and others to clamp down on her male students after many believed their behavior led to low academic scores, violence and truancy.
MPYD, short for Mentoring and Partnership for Youth Development, began as a group of men hoping to teach young men, predominantly students of color, how to focus on respect, academic success and communication. Approaching its 20th anniversary, MPYD has grown into a larger organization but continues to focus on promoting growth and academic success to young men.
Its success has garnered praise and admiration from politicians such as Congresswoman Judy Chu and Assembly Member Chris Holden, as well as Pasadena Unified School District officials such as Superintendent Dr. Brian McDonald and board president Scott Phelps.
MPYD’s mission is to provide support in students’ academic, personal, social and professional lives.
Through mentoring and its Academics for Success program, MPYD tries to help students excel in school by holding to higher standards and promoting competition. The organization monitors its students’ academics, requiring all students to maintain a minimum of a 2.0-grade point average. They also offer an afterschool study hall with peer-to-peer tutoring.
When Dorsey first transferred to Muir, he said he did not prioritize school or grades over most other things in his life. However, after learning about MPYD and enrolling in the program, the competition drove him to succeed academically.
In addition to Academics for Success, MPYD invites guest speakers for its Lunch with a Future program. Students learned a multitude of topics from managing finances to simply learning about different careers to help them find their calling.
Lunch with a Future allowed Spencer to connect with a CEO of an architecture firm, something in which he had a deep interest. It also helped Dorsey to speak with people he would never interact with outside of the program. He conversed with a Pasadena Police official, something he otherwise would have thought outlandish.
The program also has students volunteer around Pasadena doing campus beautification, working with kids or other activities.
Throughout the years, MPYD has helped over 1,500 male students and has a 96% graduation rate. MPYD works tirelessly to empower their students and to push to the next step in their lives.
A Catholic, Independent, College Preparatory School For Girls Grades 6-12
Superintendent Brian McDonald announces back-to-school plans and policies.
Safety and learning are the new norms
By Brian McDonald, Ed.D. Superintendent Pasadena Unified School District
The first day of school in the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) is Thursday, Aug. 12. Classes will be full-time and in-person, five days a week on campus, and PUSD staff is very excited to begin our school year with new initiatives.
With the academic, safety and social-emotional well-being of our students and staff as our guides, we are opening the new school year with a focus on the whole person. We’re preparing students for the future by inspiring the joy of learning in every child every day.
Our approach this year is to reset, reengage and reignite. Through a lens of diversity, equity and inclusion, we’re working through the impacts of the pandemic by accelerating learning in our classrooms and magnifying students’ growth in the new school year.
PUSD students can progress faster and further with innovative academic programs and “whole-person” (cognitive, emotional, social) support.
According to the CDC, state and local public health authorities, in-person instruction can occur safely when prevention strategies are implemented. PUSD has a robust set of safety measures already in place and will fully comply with the State’s public health requirements for schools. • Masks are required at all times when indoors for everyone on campus, unless exempted. Schools will provide masks for students who don’t have them. • For the health and safety of all members of our school communities, we encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated as soon as possible. PUSD Health Programs staff are continuing to work with the Pasadena Public Health Department and the L.A. County Department of Public Health to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to PUSD students and staff. For information regarding upcoming clinics, please see myturn.ca.gov or email healthprograms@pusd.us.
After being off-campus for so long, students may experience some issues in returning to in-person learning. To support students’ mental health as they return to learning on campus, our schools have comprehensive, integrated and culturally sensitive learning activities and services to help students not only cope with life’s challenges — but also to thrive. When students return to school, they will engage in social-emotional learning exercises to boost their confidence and communication skills. Teachers and students can access online “wellness studios” with resources, guides and activities. We’re also prepared to quickly identify warning signs and trigger early intervention and prevention strategies to ensure that our students build resilience and are able to thrive with a sense of safety.
To mitigate the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are improving access to and equity in the delivery of services, expanding participation in academic programs, and improving outcomes for students and families through two initiatives: the Superintendent’s Student Success Schools and Community Schools. These initiatives target intensive services at schools with significantly higher numbers of students furthest from opportunity and address barriers to educational outcomes.
In an early adoption of new state law, PUSD middle and high schools will start the school day later. Middle schools will start at 8:15 a.m. and high schools at 8:30 a.m. Elementary schools will return to pre-pandemic schedules of 7:50 or 8:45 a.m., depending on the school, with complete information at 2021-2022 School Schedules at pusd.us.
State guidance is still in development about independent study policies and options. In anticipation of final guidance, we’re working on a virtual independent study option for students who may prefer to remain at home in the fall. We will share more information with you as soon as the guidelines are finalized. Visit pusd.us/backtoschool for the latest updates.
As we continue to navigate through changing circumstances, our commitment is clear: to educate and serve our students with an approach that honors each child’s wellness.
We’re looking forward to welcoming students, employees and families to the new school year!
“Educating the Hearts & Minds of Young Women Since 1906” 5515 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90028 (323) 461-3651 ♥ www.immaculateheart.org
PUSD Board President Scott Phelps and Superintendent Dr. Brian McDonald at the PUSD graduation in the Rose Bowl.
Board president looking forward to first full in-person school year
After two school years afflicted by the novel coronavirus, Pasadena Unified board president Scott Phelps is excited for the first full in-person school year since 2019. A strong advocate of bringing students back into the classroom as soon as possible, he hopes the preparations that the district has made will make people comfortable enough to send their children back to school. Phelps taught at John Muir High School for 14 years before joining the school board.
What are the steps PUSD is taking to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff?
Well, you have to back up a little way to when PUSD was aggressively hosting vaccination clinics in the winter and spring. That’s the most important thing, most of our employees are vaccinated and 80% of Pasadena has had two shots and 88% have had one shot. It’s really high. In addition, we purchased air purifiers that will remove 99% of particles and upgraded the ventilation. Everybody will be masked — students and adults. We’ll have rigorous cleaning that will happen. But in general, what’s protecting us is just the very high vaccination rate.
How will PUSD handle home study? Will there be an independent study program?
Yes, but It’s not a question of how we’ll do it. We have to follow the state guidelines. They specify, by grade level, the amount of in-person contact that has to happen each week and the amount of synchronous online instruction. We’ll have all that ready, as you know we’ve been teaching online for well over a year.
How will the district accommodate the social and emotional well-being of students considering everything that has happened in the past year? Are there plans to hire more mental health professionals?
We had a big town meeting in the spring about our expanded learning opportunity funds and a lot of suggestions were made by the public. We are hiring more counseling services. In addition, we have this community schools effort that the neediest schools, like Madison, the two Washington schools and Eliot — the ones in sort of the urban core of Pasadena — we will have wraparound services, like a health center at each one of those campuses. That was a big focus of the board in the spring and that was the number one focus for the superintendent — serving the neediest students. Getting people to access it is a bit of a challenge because of the stigma, but the services are available.
How will the school district handle the learning gap that developed last year? Will you allow students to repeat grades or is there a program to help students catch up?
Our approach is accelerated learning; that’s the districtwide approach that our assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction, Helen Chan Hill, is leading the effort on. There’ll be afterschool options throughout the year to make up courses that students didn’t pass. We have summer institutes going on where the teachers are learning to teach in a way that can accelerate and get students caught up from the learning loss from the pandemic. I’ve been a big proponent of tutoring, like massive amounts of tutoring. I certainly would support assigning a tutor to every low-performing student.
How will the district utilize the funds it might receive from state and federal programs?
We used a significant amount of it to pay for employee expenses, such as custodians and others that would qualify because the custodians were doing deep cleaning and other things. We started with the expanded learning opportunities funding to expand the number of staff and services at the various schools, especially the ones I mentioned. There’s a large amount of one-time money. We have to figure out what to do with it. Of course, it will result in more services for kids, whether it’s tutors, nurses, counselors, social workers or technology. It’s a broad set of things, actually.
Are there plans to increase the wages of teachers?
Raises will happen but it will also be part of strategic budgeting where we try to establish a small number of priorities and then look at what we have to cut or reduce. Declining enrollment means you have rising costs but not rising revenue, so it creates a problem. But that’s the board’s priority to raise total compensation.
Are you excited for this upcoming school year?
I’m excited more for people to come back and feel safer. That leads to all of the in-person dynamics of larger groups, all the things people enjoy about school, like groups, clubs, sports teams, dances, extracurriculars and hanging out in the courtyard. I hope people feel safe enough so that large numbers will come back and they will get to experience that vitality.
• NEWS •
PASADENA | ALHAMBRA | ALTADENA | ARCADIA | EAGLE ROCK | GLENDALE | LA CAÑADA | MONTROSE | SAN MARINO | SIERRA MADRE | SOUTH PASADENA
Trojan Affiliates to participate in ‘SCervice’
By Pasadena Weekly Staff
USC Trojan Affiliates will participate in the annual “USC Day of SCervice” on Saturday, Aug. 7, supporting Foothill Unity Center, 790 W. Chestnut, Monrovia.
Community members are invited to contribute personal hygiene items, cleaning supplies and nonperishables to benefit families in need — especially those who have been affected during our recent period of uncertainty.
Items are collected at a drive-thru event at the Foothill Unity Center from 9 to 10:30 a.m. daily.
Community members wishing to participate can sign up at alumni.usc.edu/scervice.
Needed items include: • Personal hygiene (travel and regular size): toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, body lotion, hand sanitizer, body wash or bar soap • Cleaning supplies: liquid dish soap, laundry detergent, Pine Sol, Ajax or Comet • Cleaning sprays: Windex, Lysol, etc., bleach, paper towels • Nonperishables: canned meats, fruits, vegetables, cereal, granola bars, rice, pasta, potatoes, stuffing, soups, sauces, etc., pop top or pouch items, cookies, chips, ramen, Cup of Noodles (individual sizes)
For further information on dropping off items, contact Day of SCervice chair Terry Leahy at terry.leahy17@gmail.com.
USC Trojan Affiliates, a women’s organization located in the San Gabriel Valley, supports the University of Southern California and welcomes all interested women to attend its meetings and events.
All women, parents, alumni and friends of USC are encouraged to join. A woman does not need to be a graduate of USC to be a member of Trojan Affiliates. During normal times the group meets five times a year at various homes and locations within the San Gabriel Valley and hosts additional social and cultural events while raising needed scholarship funds for USC students. It supports 10 students who attended local San Gabriel Valley high schools.
USC Trojan Affiliates is in its sixth year of contributing money to its first scholarship endowment fund of $100,000, (now well over the initial funded amount) using these dollars to support its scholars. Money is also raised from selling unique USC products like jewelry, scarves, clothing, tablecloths, towels, aprons and handmade signs.
Members also volunteer at the Pasadena Showcase House to earn funds and participate in the USC Supper, “USC Day of SCervice,” USC Homecoming, Swim with Mike, San Marino Motor Classic and other programs to support the university and its students. It also has hosted a Holiday Boutique the past two years.
Community members interested in being a speaker at a Trojan Affiliates meeting, should contact program chair Jacqueline Goodman, at jtgoodman@aol.com.
Ann Palmer of Sierra Madre is serving in her first year as president. For information regarding membership, contact Trojan Affiliates membership chair Kandi Wopschall at wopschall@earthlink.net
