Category: News

On Sunday March 15, special guest Evelyn Knight spoke at the Long Beach Art Theater’s viewing of Selma. 
 At the event the 81 year old Evelyn Knight, a participant in the Selma marches, recounted her experience walking to Montgomery alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Knight, a Long Beach resident, left her home and job to join other activists in the march from Selma to Montgomery, a nonviolent fight for African American voting rights. Having been born and raised in Alabama, Knight shared her experience with segregation in the South and the police brutality she witnessed in Selma. 
 Although Selma marchers fought voting discrimination back in 1965, it is still a pressing issue today. 
 “Under the guise of limiting voting fraud, many people are working hard at restricting voting rights through voter ID laws, restrictions on the types of ID that can be used, and even restrictions on registration and where people can vote. This is scary since it is a certain type of voter: minority, poor, young college students, people who move a lot, et cetera, who are having their rights restricted, and it seems like this battle has already been fought,” event organizer Mr. Adler said. 
 Knight’s experience encourages students to become active in making a positive change. Knight should also be remembered for her activism in helping to organize a program that reunited homeless children with their families. Knight said, “I remember one time I had a caseload of children–very young children, and also older children. The older children had no family and there was never going to be anybody. I looked for and found adoptive families for them.” Adler has additional voter registration awareness events planned for later in the school year.

Two Long Beach Poly High School teachers, Danielle Sawyer and Julie McMann, represented Poly at a conference to learn how to make the school safer for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students on March 10. The five hour meeting held at the TRC (a teacher training center)  included information as well as training on how to handle real-life situations in their classrooms.

According to transgenderlawcenter.org, “California’s safe school laws prohibit discrimination and harassment based on gender identity and expression.” This conference worked toward educating teachers on laws like this one, and making sure that everyone is safe in California public schools.

“I would hope that, regardless of a teacher’s beliefs, they would never allow mental or emotional harm to a student” said Ms. Sawyer, Poly’s health and AVID teacher.

The conference also covered the higher prevalence of bullying of LGBT students and how to properly address this and the issues that may come with it. Teachers had to work together to come up with solutions to classroom problems that may arise based on a student’s sexuality. They also recieved training on how to help students going through a process like gender transitioning.

“We want our students to feel safer at school, and this is an important step in creating a more accepting and compassionate environment at Poly,” said Ms. McMann.

The two men that ran the meeting were Joel Gemino and Dan Ditre, both from the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach. The LGBTQ Center not only helps to provide services like this one to the community, but also provides  resources like career counseling, HIV testing, and a legal clinic. “The Center and GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) are so incredibly proud of the partnerships we have created with LBUSD and we know that LBUSD educators are an example of progressive education for other schools across the nation,” said Gemino.

“I think it’s important because it can be harmful when teachers assume that everyone is straight.” said senior Annie Howitt. She felt that being sensitive, even to the pronouns used when addressing an LGBT student, can really make a difference. “It can really validate their identity by using the right pronouns.”

This training was only the first of many: another follow up training day will be available in April and it will  focus more on the inclusion of  LGBT history and other issues in the curriculum.

Japanese exchange students came to Poly on Friday, March 20 and Monday, March 23, from the Happy Science Academy Kansai, Junior and Senior High School in Shiga, Japan. Coming from a total high school/middle school population of 500 people, many were surprised by not only the size of the student population, but the size of the school itself.

“It’s always fun when Japanese students come to Poly, “ said Senior Tanya Nguyen, “We get to talk about how different our school lives are–though some things, like how much we hate homework, don’t change.”

Though the students were only here for two days, they were able to experience our Intercultural Faire, in which they were able to watch various performances and try a diverse array of food.

“I love how every little thing, whether it was something as small as walking in between classes to watching the dances performed on the rally stage, made the students really excited,” said junior Michaela Vazquez. “I just thought that was really cute.”

Many students within the Japanese department were given the opportunity to have a Japanese shadow for a day.”It was great having shadows from Japan,” said freshman Timothy Haneji, a native speaker currently in Japanese 5-6 Honors. “It was also a nice experience being able to speak and converse in Japanese- I’m looking forward to having them come next year!”

Despite the obvious language barrier, students taking Japanese from all levels tried their hardest to not only communicate with but befriend the Japanese students. Though both sometimes struggled to understand one another, many were able to get their points across.

“The thing I like best about our exchange programs is that both sets of kids benefit from it,” said Japanese 3-4, 5-6 Honors, and AP teacher Susan Watson. “While the Japanese students are able to experience ‘typical’ American high schools and ‘typical’ American students, our students are able to experience what it’s like to talk to a real Japanese people,” added Watson.

On Monday, the Japanese  students played dodgeball in the field with Kawasaki Sensei’s Japanese 5-6 students, which was an exciting bonding experience between the two groups. “Kawasaki Sensei said that dodgeball was really popular in Japan, and when I saw them, I could see what she meant; they were really good!” said junior Azalia Avellan.

Sophomore Shuusei Yoshida, another 5-6 Honors student and native speaker said,“When all of the Japanese shadows came to Poly, it reminded me so much of Japan and it made me feel like I was back home.”

When asked about our schools exchange programs, Watson said, “These kinds of exchange programs are rewarding and are experiences of a lifetime!”

Last Monday, March 16, fifteen year old Cabrillo student Kershawn Brooks was stabbed walking home from school just outside Stephens Middle School. An eighteen year old suspect, allegedly approached Brooks, grabbing his backpack in an attempt at robbery.

A struggle ensued, and Brooks was stabbed in front of the middle school. As the school day was ending, the parents and students rushed to help him. He was taken to the hospital where he later died from his injuries; he was only fifteen years old. The suspect was later arrested at his house for the attack.  In a news interview, Brooks’ father made it very clear that his son was not involved with gang activity- he said this was a robbery and murder, not a gang rivalry issue.

Cabrillo held a memorial rally for Brooks last Thursday at their school. Many Activities Directors in the Long Beach district attended, including Poly’s own Ngoc Nguyen.

“It was a devastating loss, and there’s a lot of tension in the Cabrillo and Long Beach community.”

Kershawn Brooks’ tragic death was a hard hit to the Long Beach family and community—he  will never be forgotten.