SoCal parents tell the story of the daughter they lost to distracted driving, why diverse college heads are important, Mexican Americans respond to immigration issues through song.
How the shooting of Stephon Clark has sparked a movement within a community
The shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man in Sacramento, has galvanized the community of Sacramento. Clark was just 22 years old when he was shot and killed by two police officers in his grandmother's backyard. Clark was holding a cellphone that police officers mistook for a gun.
The effect the event has had on the Sacramento community is palpable. "Really, every day in the streets we've seen protesters from Black Lives Matter and other local groups protesting outside the District Attorney's office, or in the downtown area, around the basketball arena, on the freeway," said Benjy Egle, a Sacramento Bee reporter who has been following the case. "When you're driving home from work nowadays, you look at the news and you try to figure out where the protests are...and if you're going to miss them on the ride home."
Likewise, the city's professional sports teams have come together. Matt Barnes, a former NBA player who played for the Sacramento Kings and grew up in the area, has taken on a leadership role. Also, the Kings basketball team has announced a partnership with Black Lives Matter -- an extraordinary move for a major pro sports team.
Through this, Clark's family remains at the forefront, as well. "I think they're hoping that the officers who shot [Stephon Clark] will be prosecuted by the District Attorney's office, " Egle said. "Beyond that, they're pushing for more investment in African American neighborhoods in Sacramento and other minority neighborhoods."
A distracted driver killed their daughter. Now, her parents are raising awareness
We've all seen it: drivers who are talking on their cell phones, or texting, behind the wheel. Despite laws in many states that prohibit drivers from using handheld mobile devices, distracted driving kills nine people every day in the United States and injures 1,000 more.
So today, as part of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, the Auto Club of Southern California is launching a new, multi-year initiative. The goal is to make texting while driving as socially unacceptable as alcohol-impaired driving.
Dawn and Howard Mauer, of Orange County, have personally experienced the devastating consequences of distracted driving. They lost their daughter Deanna to a crash on the 405 freeway on April 27, 2011. They're part of the new Auto Club campaign. Here's their story.
"Deanna was a special girl," Dawn Mauer said. "She loved to make jokes and make people laugh. She played softball since she was in T-ball all the way through college. She was coaching girls and she loved coaching. She'd get out on the field with them and she'd run right with them and do their laps. She was looking forward to going back to school and becoming a university coach for softball."
"She called me," Dawn continued. "She was off work, and I said, 'What are you going to do?' And she said, 'I'm going to go have fun.' And I said, 'OK, I love you,' and that was it. That was the last thing we said to each other."
"This nurse just said that they had somebody that wasn't speaking. I said, 'Why are you asking me this?' And she said we needed some identification, so I told her about Deanna's tattoos and they said that's her and I had a feeling it was bad. I was at work and Howard, my husband, was at work as well, so I just called him and said Deanna's in the hospital. We've got to go."
"She called me screaming that day, so I knew we had to get down to UCI Medical Center," Howard Mauer said. "The California Highway Patrol officer met us outside with Deanna's purse and blatantly told us that her cell phone was in her purse. She wasn't on her cell phone."
"We went up to the floor she was on and thereafter Identified her as our daughter," Howard continued. "We thought they were going to take her into surgery, but they told us she was brain dead. She was hit really hard from behind, and it did severe damage to her and we knew at that point that she couldn't be saved."
"They tried to explain what was wrong," Dawn said. "I didn't understand what they were saying. I wasn't getting it. I was in shock and not really understanding anything. I went in and saw her and I just knew it was bad and never got a chance to talk to her or anything."
"Everything was happening so fast," Howard added." It was really hard to comprehend that she was here. I talked to her that morning and she was completely gone. I almost felt like she was erased from this earth."
"We learned that the traffic was stopped on the 405 freeway in Westminster, and she was rear ended. We learned this lady had been on her phone. This is what was told to us from people on the scene. She was injured from rear ending our daughter and was crawling on her hands and knees to try and get back into her car to put her phone back together."
"They pulled the black box from her car, so they could tell what the throttle was set at. She was going over 87 mph. She didn't steer to the left or right, and they knew she never hit the brakes," Howard continued. "I was very mad at her for not coming forth and telling the truth in the beginning. It was determined through Sprint that there were 14 text messages sent between her and another person up until impact. It was her boyfriend. It took us two trials and four years to go through this. She was texting while driving."
"What has happened to Deanna can't be changed, but it can be relayed to others this can happen to you. We learn to live with life now. It's not the same, but every day. Every day she's in my mind. I think of her 24/7."
"I miss her voice every day coming through the day saying, 'Hi mom. I'm home,' Dawn said. "She was my light."
Here's what you need to know about where DACA stands
Overprescription of psychotropics for foster kids drops in California
Life for children in the foster care system can be tough. Not only is there a lot of moving around between homes, facilities and schools, there's the emotional impact of being separated from family and siblings.
That instability and childhood trauma can lead to kids acting out in ways that are tough for caregivers to handle. An investigation in 2014 revealed that an inordinate number of kids in the foster system were prescribed strong psychotropics not recommended for young children, often in dangerous combinations. Coupled with a lack of supervision from doctors or caregivers, the investigation found taht too many children in foster care were inappropriately medicated causing considerable, and sometimes permanent, side effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=UyRX_W0h1rc
“They felt like zombies. They had lifelong side effects from being given dangerous combinations of medications," says Anna Johnson with the National Center for Youth Law. "When they refused to take the medications, particularly in group home settings, they were… punished, put into isolation when really they were trying to say that this wasn’t working for them.”
Legislation was created to reduce overprescription and mandate proper oversight for children who are taking medications. Laws encouraged providing treatment for trauma or abuse outside of medication.
By effect, California has reduced the number of foster kids on serious psychiatric drugs by about half since 2014. That's a reduction Johnson says is unprecedented in the country.
Drugging Our Kids: Big drop in drugged foster kids in California https://t.co/sJOu7NMd5M pic.twitter.com/Zw6pARnLYQ
— Mercury News (@mercnews) April 1, 2018
Some doctors have complained that the policies now make it too difficult to prescribe for kids who truly need medication. Johnson says there's a state-funded structure in place to aid with added paper work. "Public health nurses who will assist the doctors with getting the paperwork, getting the foster care records and histories of medical treatment, so they can not be prescribing in the dark, " Johnson says. "We think that its very reasonable to ask a doctor to fill out a piece of paper before taking a psychotropic medication in a child’s body when they have not been studied on children."
Faculty diversity at California colleges is improving, but there's a long way to go
Whittier College recently selected a new president who will be the first person of color to lead the school. Cal State is also hitting a benchmark, as a majority of the universities' presidents will soon be women.
The diversity of college faculties has ramifications for the future of the state as a whole, says Estela Bensimon, who directs the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California.
As California grows more diverse, the state and its economy will increasingly depend on students of color, particularly Latino students, so making sure they succeed is in everyone's best interest, she said. Increasing the diversity of college faculty can help students of color succeed.
There are empirical studies that show that Latinx and also African-American students and Asian-American students benefit when they have same-race, same-ethnicity faculty members because those faculty members are able to see in their students future leaders, future scholars, future lawyers.
Bensimon said faculty of color can also have increased empathy for the experiences of minority students.
They're able to understand that classrooms as well as colleges are radicalized spaces where students might experience micro agressions, stereotypes, threats and they're able to safeguard for that, whereas white faculty members often think of themselves as color blind. Being color blind also means that you may not notice that students of color are having a different educational experience.
To improve diversity on college campuses, Bensimon said the main issue is not qualified candidates; that's a myth. The hiring process for new faculty members is one area where key changes can be made.
You have to change the job announcement so that it signals very clearly that we are looking for faculty members who have experience and know how to work with first generation, Latino students, black students. Just say that. The second thing is you have to ask candidates that enable them to speak about their competence in creating successful outcomes for marginalized student populations.
Having more diversity in college leadership could help increase faculty diversity overall, but there isn't a simple fix, Bensimon said. The state still has a long way to go.
In the community colleges here in California, 45% of the student body is Latinx, yet 60% of the faculty are white. Only 15% of the faculty are Latinx. For me, equity in the faculty would be if 44% of the students in California's community colleges are Latino, 44% would be Latinos.
There are specific cases that are giving Bensimon hope, including California Lutheran University, a small private school with a large Latino student population. After changing their hiring practices to focus on diversity, more than half of Cal Lutheran's new hires in their most recent hiring period were people of color. This signals colleges are seeing diversity as an important issue. Realizing this is a problem that needs to be fixed is the first step, she said.
Mexican American musicians tackle the Dreamer debate through song
This week on Tuesday Reviewsday, Justino Aguila shares some of his favorite new releases from Latino rockers paying homage to their musical roots. His selections include a band from L.A. that weaves political commentary into their ranchero/alternative style.
Artist: The Mexican Standoff
Song: “Muro”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SY-M7xMWlo
Justino says:
The Mexican Standoff’s song "Muro" criticizes the wall proposed by President Donald Trump and tells the story of one dreamer in this ranchero alternative band’s performance. They recently performed in Tijuana where the border meets the sea. The Mexican Standoff is a socially conscious L.A. band with a comedic undertone that's part of the L.A. Latin alternative scene. They sing in English and Spanish and play folk music from the border. The members of the Mexican Standoff are accomplished musicians. Last year they headlined the opening night of Spaceland in the Levitt Pavillion Summer Series, and Echo Park Rising.
Here are some of Justino's other favorites...
Artist: Centavrvs
Album: Somos Uno
Songs: “Somos Uno"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df0OxdWDctc
"Debilidad"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRfsUviTNUY
Justino says:
Mexico City's Centavrvs fuse electronica with traditional Latin rhythms and pop. The Grammy-nominated band's new album, Somos Uno (We Are One), features their latest single "Debilidad," which references the big band sounds of Mexico's traditional dance halls. Centavrvs formed in 2010 during the Bicentennial celebrations of the Mexican Revolution. The band's original sound reinterpreted regional Mexican music with electronica experimentation.
Artist: Zoë
Album: TBA
Songs: "Temor y Temblor” (Fear and Trembling)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOodgCGPI_I
Justino says:
Zoë, the Grammy award-winning Mexican rock band, is back with a 2018 U.S. tour to commemorate 20 years in music. Their latest single is "Temor y Temblor" from their upcoming album that has yet to be announced, but due this month (April). Their tour will take them to the U.S., Mexico, South America and Spain. Zoe has performed at the most important festivals and stages around the world such as Vive Latino (Mexico City), Lollapalooza (Argentina and Chile), Estéreo Festival (Colombia), Rock in Rio (Spain), Austin City Limits (USA), and Coachella (USA).