“When the Moon Is Up,” released last May, is a collection of essays and interviews reflecting on the lives of 61 students at Alain Leroy Locke High School in South Los Angeles.
Each year, 826 LA partners with one Los Angeles Unified School District high school to give students an opportunity to create a collection of student writings. The book is 826 LA’s 14th Young Author’s Book Project publication and revolves around the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riot.
“All of our work is centered around helping students find their voice, own their words and write about their own stories and experiences, and the Young Authors’ Book Project does just that; give voice to a population that isn’t always heard,” said LaTesha Adolphus, 826 LA’s in-schools program coordinator.
Inside the book, the students look back at the history of their community, describe their experiences today, and look toward what the future may hold. Each chapter includes a student’s personal narrative and an interview with a community leader, writer or art historian who offers a perspective on the history that shaped their neighborhood.
Some of the Locke High School students who contributed to ‘When the Moon Is Up,’ 826 LA’s 14th Young Author’s Book Project. (Courtesy photo)
Students in Kate Rowley’s and Grace McCormack’s English classes used Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” as their principal source, in addition to interviews from scholars, writers, and community leaders like Aqeela Sherrills.
“Our community and our history has been shaped by other people’s telling of our stories,” Rowley said. “For me, it was really important that their truths were told and that their voices were the voices describing what the future of this community looks like.”
826LA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
“When the Moon Is Up” is available for purchase online at 826LA.org/young-authors-book-project/.
Lafawn Morris
Los Angeles
“No, I don’t think that teachers should have a gun inside a class full of a lot of children … or in the school environment. … But they could have it inside their cars.”
Schelaundye Blake
Atlanta
“Yes. I think so because [teachers] need to be able to protect themselves as well as their students. … As long as they’re responsible adults, I think they should still be able to carry guns in order to protect themselves … if someone is trying to come into the classroom like the shooting we just had.”
“No. Guns … aren’t going to help. The only way to help is to control the guns. That’s it.”
Brian West
Los Angeles
“No, because it wouldn’t be safe for children because you never know.”
Gordon Rudy
Chicago
“No. No one should have guns in schools. Guns have no business anywhere near a school. … There shouldn’t be armed security guards, either. … The direction is less guns, not more guns.”
The Connecticut Education Association does not endorse the idea that teachers should bring guns into the classroom.
Teachers must focus on educating students. Asking teachers to be armed, paramilitary operatives as a result of the inability of Congress to pass gun violence prevention legislation is madness. We place enough mandates on our teachers—Congress needs to take action to keep our schools safe.
After the 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook, Connecticut passed historic gun, mental health and school safety laws—some of the toughest in the nation—to help keep our children, our families, our schools, and our communities safe from gun violence. Republicans and Democrats worked together.
Congress must take action to protect all students in every school in America.
CEA is helping to coordinate school activities and early-morning Walk-Ins For Safe Schools on Thursday, March 14. School communities can stand in solidarity, and walk-in to school together to support the changes needed to make every school and every child safe.
Washington, DC – The DC State Board of Education (SBOE) announces its next High School Graduation Requirements Task Force meeting on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 1114 at 441 4th Street NW. During this meeting, the task force will discuss options for improving the preparedness of students for high school coursework, college, and career and talk about potential technical adjustments to the graduation requirements themselves.
This task force marks an historic citywide effort to review, analyze and, as necessary, make thoughtful, implementable recommendations to adjust DC’s high school graduation requirements for all DCPS and public charter school students. Under the leadership of Ward 1 representative Laura Wilson Phelan and Ward 8 representative Markus Batchelor, the members of the task force mirror our school-aged population, with half of the task force members living or working East of the Anacostia River.
All task force meetings are open to the public. However, individuals and representatives of organizations are not permitted to speak or participate during task force sessions. District residents may stay involved and provide input throughout this process in a variety of ways. Individuals and representatives of organizations may submit written testimony or information for consideration by the task force by emailing sboe@dc.gov or by filling out this online form. Members of the public can also request to join our discussion group here to share input regarding the work of the task force.
The DC State Board of Education is an independent agency within the executive branch of the Government of the District of Columbia which works to advise the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), which is the District’s state education agency. The Board approves education policies, sets academic standards, and determines teacher qualifications. The State Board views its role in the achievement of this mission as one of shared responsibility, whereby it engages families, students, educators, community members, elected officials and business leaders to play a vital role in preparing every child for college and/or career success.
For the latest updates on the work of the task force, please visit sboe.dc.gov/gradreqs.
First Choice by Select Health of South Carolina is offering two scholarships to qualified applicants who are furthering their education or pursuing a second career in 2018. The 8th annual First Choice member scholarship program is open to all First Choice members. Applications are due by March 5, 2018. Select Health offers the First Choice Medicaid health plan to South Carolina residents and is part of the AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Companies.
The First Choice member scholarship program began in 2010 when Select Health pledged $200,000 over 10 years through its Caring10 initiative. Applications and complete information about this scholarship program are available at www.selecthealthofsc.com/community/member-scholarship.aspx.
“Helping just one person pursue a college education can uplift an entire family, or even a community,” said Rebecca Engelman, market president at Select Health. “We’re always excited to receive scholarship applications because there are so many First Choice members excelling in school and doing wonderful things in life.”
Eleven individual recipients have benefited from this scholarship, including several repeat winners. Four winners have hailed from Columbia, with one each from Boiling Springs, Gaffney, Kingstree, Simpsonville, Summerville, Sumter and Timmonsville. Winning applicants have attended schools including Charleston Southern University, Claflin University, Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University, Emmanuel College, Francis Marion University, Limestone College, the University of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina-Aiken and Winthrop University.
In addition to this collegiate scholarship program, First Choice by Select Health also supports education through its summer internship program for qualifying college students as well as its new General Education Development (GED) and Reading Assistance programs for First Choice plan members.
The Dallas ISD School (Dallas ISD) board met Feb. 22 in their first meeting in the wake of the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. The issue of school safety and security was a primary concern addressed by parents, Dallas ISD staff and the board.
“Our hearts are heavy with our brethren in Broward County, Florida,” said Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa. “Our hearts go out to them.”
Gail Perry, a librarian at Thomas Jefferson High School, speaking on behalf of The National Education Association (NEA) of Dallas addressed the issue of school security during the public forum.
“Columbine changed education in America forever,” Perry said. “There had been school shootings before including here in Dallas, but never had there been a mass shooting in a school before that horrible day.”
Perry asked the board to take security measures to the next level after this recent school shooting asking the board and the Dallas Police Department to work together to ensure each school has the best safety plan.
Superintendent Hinojosa provided an overview of the current and upcoming plans for protecting students and staff. There are no plans to arm Dallas ISD teachers. Arming teachers is a suggestion floated by President Donald Trump following a listening session with students and parents who have lost friends and loved ones in school shootings going back to Columbine and including the recent Parkland tragedy.
Hinojosa addressed the existing security plans for students, applauding the Dallas Police Department (Dallas PD). The Dallas PD provides with 100 sworn peace officers to protect the students of Dallas ISD and to patrol the campuses. Building security has increased in Dallas ISD since the Sandy Hook campus shooting. There are camera systems everywhere, and any visitors to the schools must go through the Raptor check-in system.
“Despite all those safety measures, we cannot legislate behavior,” said Hinojosa. “We need to be vigilant, we need to do everything in our power, and I’m very proud of the people and our principals who share information with us and with each other on these matters.”
Plans include reviewing the campus security plan individually to address their specific security needs, and to look at teacher training for emergency situations. They also want to make sure the campus metal detectors are in good working condition and ensure someone is consistently monitoring them.
“It’s a difficult problem, we can’t make schools perfectly safe, but we’ve got to try to make them safer,” said Dallas ISD Trustee and Board President Dan Micciche.
Renée Watson, author of Piecing Me Together, and Ekua Holmes, illustrator of Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, are the winners of the 2018 Coretta Scott King Book Awards honoring African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults. David Barclay Moore, author of The Stars Beneath Our Feet, and Charly Palmer, illustrator of Mama Africa! How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song, are the winners of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. The awards were announced at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits, held Feb. 9-13, 2018, in Denver, Colorado, and presented in New Orleans at the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition in June.
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee of the ALAs Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) to encourage the artistic expression of the African American experience via literature and the graphic arts; to promote an understanding and appreciation of the Black culture and experience, and to commemorate the life and legacy of Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination in supporting the work of her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for peace and world brotherhood.
In Piecing Me Together, published by Bloomsbury,Jade is a likable protagonist who is easy to root for. There are many stories that shape who we are as peopleand Jade helps others express their feelings and thoughts about the world around them. Watson provides a multi-layered, yet necessary look at Black womanhood.
Renée Watson is an author, educator, and activist from Portland, Oregon, who now lives in New York City. Watson has taught creative writing and theater in public schools and community centers throughout the U.S. for over twenty years. She often focuses on the lived experiences of Black girls and women.
Watson brings us a coming-of-age tale that eloquently explores the many facets of Jade, a brilliant and creative teen on the brink of young adulthood, said Coretta Scott King Book Awards Jury Chair Sam Bloom.
In Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, written by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth and published by Candlewick Press, Ekua Holmess mixed-media collage images balance the tone and tenor of the new poems created by the authors, while paying homage to each of the featured poets in the subtle details extracted from various aspects.
“Holmes expertly infuses the multilayered poetry with the richness of the Black art aesthetic in her original, evocative, vibrantly colored compositions,” said Coretta Scott King Book Awards Jury Chair Sam Bloom.
Ekua Holmes is a native and current resident of Boston, Massachusetts, who has worked as an artist, curator, and active member of Bostons art community. She was influenced by the need to fill the void of what she perceived as an absence of positive Black images in her childhood neighborhoods.
The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent affirms new talent and offers visibility for excellence in writing and/or illustration at the beginning of a career as a published African American creator of childrens books. This years winners are author David Barclay Moore for The Stars Beneath Our Feet, published by Alfred A. Knopf, and illustrator Charly Palmer for Mama Africa! How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song, published by Farrar Straus Giroux.
The Stars Beneath Our Feet provides a realistic lens on the Black American experience and infuses it with heart, soul, and imagination. Moore plays with language, culture, stereotypes, and reality to create an engaging book that will resonate with youth in urban communities everywhere searching for positive survival techniques.
Mama Africa! How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song visually tells the story of the singers career through the use of vibrant, colorful illustrations that juxtapose her rise in fame in comparison to the South African peoples civil rights struggle with apartheid. Palmers bold illustrations expertly complement the text in a riveting duet.
Three King Author Honor Books were selected:
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James, and published by Bolden, an Agate Imprint, a Denene Millner Book.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, published by Atheneum, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division, a Caitlyn Dlouhy Book.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Two King Illustrator Honor Books were selected:
Crown: an Ode to the Fresh Cut, illustrated by Gordon C. James, written by Derrick Barnes,and published by Bolden, an Agate Imprint, a Denene Millner Book.
Before She Was Harriet:The Story of Harriet Tubman, illustrated by James E. Ransome, written by Lesa Cline-Ransome, and published by Holiday House.
For information on the Coretta Scott King Book Awards and other ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit www.ala.org/yma.
Coastal Carolina University will host the 39th annual Dr. Subhash C. Saxena High School Math Contest on Friday, March 2, from 9:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the James J. Johnson Auditorium of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration. The purpose of this event is to stimulate and promote interest in mathematics among high school students. Eighteen South Carolina high schools will compete for awards, prizes and scholarships in two levels of competition.
The following high schools will participate: A.C. Flora, Columbia; Academic Magnet, North Charleston; Aynor; Ben Lippen, Columbia; Bishop England, Charleston; Carver’s Bay; Georgetown; Early College, Conway; Georgetown; Green Sea Floyds; Hammond School, Columbia; Lake View; Mullins; Scholars Academy, Conway; South Florence; Spring Valley; West Florence; and Williston-Elko.
Coastal Carolina University offers a Coastal Scholars Award to the highest scoring Horry County senior on the Level II test. The Level II test is an assessment of junior and senior students who have taken algebra I and II and geometry.
In addition to the competitions, Coastal Carolina University professor Daniel Abel, Ph.D., will give a presentation titled “Math for a Sustainable Future: Econumeracy and Shark Conservation.” Abel, a professor of marine science, earned a master’s degree from the College of Charleston and a doctorate degree from the University of California – San Diego Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
Tara Craig will be presenting the “Afternoon Brainteaser” activity. Craig, an assistant professor of mathematics at CCU, earned her master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Texas.
Saxena, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, endowed the fund for the annual math contest. He taught mathematics at CCU from 1973 until his retirement in 2001, serving as department chair from 1987-1993.
The first High School Math Contest was held in 1979 and had more than 100 student participants. Over the past few years, the contest has attracted more than 500 students from Horry, Georgetown, Williamsburg, Charleston, Richland, Florence, Berkeley, Dorchester, Marion, Sumter, Barnwell and Clarendon counties.
For more information, contact Coastal Carolina University’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics at 843-349-4074 or visit coastal.edu/math.
Since 1837, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been educating and preparing, primarily, but far from exclusively, African American students – nearly a quarter of HBCU students are non-Black – to contribute to the American experience. These institutions help fill the nation’s dual pipeline of productivity: providing diversely talented employees and creating employment opportunities. They consistently add both workers and job-creation to their state and local economies.
Despite being historically under-resourced, in 2014, the nation’s 101 accredited HBCUs injected $14.8 billion in direct spending impact to the national economy, adding more than 134,000 jobs, on- and off-campus, according to a recently published landmark study, HBCUs Make America Strong: The Positive Economic Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, commissioned by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).
The study sheds an important light on HBCUs in the modern era. The institutions, spanning 19 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, disproportionately take on the challenge of providing first-generation, low-income, minority, rural and inner-city students the opportunity to earn college degrees.
Impressively, for example, HBCUs comprise just three percent of all nonprofit colleges and universities, but enroll 10 percent of African American college students, and are responsible for 17 percent of African Americans earning their bachelor’s degrees and 24 percent of African Americans earning their credentials in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. The UNCF study is a wonderful contribution – a foundation stone on which we can pursue new areas of exploration to develop enduring strategies and attract commensurate investment to increase the all too often unheralded or overlooked value of America’s HBCUs.
Connecting to Innovation Ecosystems
To build on our nation’s leadership position in the global economy, over the past half-century, America has invested heavily in developing the world’s most advanced countrywide network of regional innovation ecosystems to support talent development, creativity, research, commercialization, entrepreneurship and job creation. Unfortunately, the government, philanthropic, business and community leaders who have led the rise of – and maintain stewardship within – these fantastic ecosystems have not been successful connecting these forward-looking investments to HBCUs and the populations and communities they principally serve. This undermines prospects to grow and equip a deep and diverse enough pool of Americans to power national prosperity for generations to come.
The absence of inclusive and diverse innovation ecosystems demands the development and adoption of frameworks and strategies embedded with the magnificent contributions of HBCUs. The ROI: HBCUs can help more Americans improve their connectivity to and productivity within the 21st century economy.
Endgame: More Talent to Fuel U.S. Competitive Advantage
For most of the 20th century, those principally served by HBCUs were not able to contribute their full talent to the national economy. Yet, in those days, America could economically lead the globe with proverbially one hand tied behind her back.
In other words, back then, U.S. economic competitiveness was assured even without optimal productivity from large swaths of our population. This is no longer the case.
In today’s economy, where relentless global competition for jobs and opportunity is the new normal, the immutable laws of economic prosperity do not allow America to sustain global leadership without greater contributions from more Americans – especially the latent and untapped abilities of those principally served by HBCUs.
In January, President Trump attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Of note, Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum, may have put it best when he said, “Capital is being superseded by creativity and the ability to innovate – and therefore by human talents – as the most important factors of production. If talent is becoming the decisive factor, we can be confident in stating that capitalism is being replaced by talentism.”
In the age of “talentism,” awakening the dormant abilities of more Americans and connecting them to the economy is the most promising path to new wealth generation, greater new job-creation and increased business output. These enhancements will improve our national economic competitiveness and quality of life for Americans, and, importantly, strengthen our national security.
Quite simply, the American economy grows more competitive when educational access is widely available. Our nation’s HBCUs broaden education access, and their positive impact on the country is undeniable. The White House Initiative on HBCUs is excited to partner across the federal government and with the private sector to foster investment in HBCUs to grow their contributions to America; as such, contributions are vital to the competitiveness of the United States.
In Bob Marley’s iconic anthem of conscience, “Redemption Song,” he asked, “How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?”
Florida now joins that ugly tragic club of states that have seen their children sacrificed to the false god of gun obsession. Too many are hiding behind the Second Amendment and refusing to come to some common sense solutions that would at least make it harder for crazy people to kill us.
Now the students are getting tired of watching the grown people do little to protect them and are planning a march on Washington March 24. As students are confronting terror, our president is blaming the FBI and everything but the fact that military weapons bought legally are mowing down people in the church, in movie theaters and in our schools.
Days after the public execution of President John F. Kennedy, a solemn Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. spoke words that ring true still today:
Our late President was assassinated by a morally inclement climate. It is a climate filled with heavy torrents of false accusation, jostling winds of hatred, and raging storms of violence.
It is a climate where men cannot disagree without being disagreeable, and where they express dissent through violence and murder. It is the same climate that murdered Medgar Evers in Mississippi and six innocent Negro children in Birmingham, Ala.
So in a sense, we are all participants in that horrible act that tarnished the image of our nation. By our silence, by our willingness to compromise principle, by our constant attempt to cure the cancer of racial injustice with the Vaseline of gradualism, by our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim, by allowing our movie and television screens to teach our children that the hero is one who masters the art of shooting and the technique of killing, by allowing all these developments, we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes. – Martin L. King Jr. 1963
King also said that we lived in a “10-day country” where the anger and passion will give way to business as usual. President Obama lamented after yet another mass murder that our responses have become “too routine.”
The question is do we care to do anything other than pray and feel sorry about this? I don’t think the people losing loved ones are so nonchalant. Maybe this time the Florida school children will do what no one else has been able to…demand that politicians do something about mental health and weapons of mass murders.
The student’s march on Washington will not be about liberal and conservative; it will not be about red Republican or blue Democrats and it will not be about race. This march is in fact about how easy it is to obtain guns more lethal than what was used in Vietnam. These weapons are not aimed at terrorist or the Viet Cong, but at unarmed men, women and children running for their lives while others hide behind worn out excuses.
The murderers who slaughtered in Las Vegas, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Orlando and now Parkland, obtained these weapons legally. Not pistols or shotguns to protect their homes but military-style weapons to spread horror.
Spare me that crap about if you take guns away only criminals will have them! You think that there are no criminals in Japan or Germany? Is there no mentally unstable in Canada or Australia? Of course, there are!
What is different is that it is much harder to get an assault weapon in those countries! Do not blame diversity either because Britain and France have multicultural societies but not as many mass murders as we have. Even in this country, there are fewer murders in states that have stricter gun control.
No one is asking America to give up her guns and have no means of protection. That is the bold-faced lie the gun people yell out to keep from having a sane conversation about common sense machine gun control.
The NRA will tell you that the problem is that we have enough laws and all that is needed is to enforce the ones we have. Alright well, what is the NRA doing about that? They are pretty good about lining the pockets of mostly Republican politicians who in return go nowhere near any real gun control, even though the majority of the American public says it wants something done!
Yes, even gun owners say they would like stricter background checks and fewer assault weapons on the streets but Republicans conveniently ignore those wishes in favor of money from the NRA.
Where was the NRA when Philando Castile was killed after telling the policeman he had a legally registered gun and what Republican stood up for the Marissa Alexander who went to jail for firing a warning shot under the Stand Your Ground law? Both just happened to be black and frankly, race is a fuel that drives many of the gun nuts.
The Second Amendment was made when there were no police and no machine guns. It also talks about a well-regulated Militia, which to me suggest that people be well trained to use their guns. No one wants to stop people from protecting their family but you don’t need weapons made for warfare.
Donald Trump attempted to deflect attention from his “Putin love” by suggesting that the FBI could have done more to prevent the Florida murders as if there were not enough agents to investigate Russian attacks on our democracy and domestic threats. He talks about mental health instead of his NRA masters as being the problem while he tries to take money away from health care.
What good is a wall when children cannot feel safe in school or grandma cannot go to church? He is not the first president to endure mass murders but when was the last time you heard President Obama or even President Bush being accused by teenagers for using their classmate’s death for his own personal benefit?
Dr. King was once asked why he risked his life and spent so much time away from his own families. He looked around and said, “For the children.”
Now there is another march planned in Washington by children not for civil rights but for their lives. I hope that the spirit of Dr. King will be there with them.
By Jazlyn Mercer, NDG Contributing Writer
Dear Editor: