Quality of Education in LAUSD by: Miani Giron

After watching Walkout, I realized that not much has changed since the 60's. Based on my personal experience, attending a public school in Los Angeles Unified School District has not been very enriching. I have attended local LAUSD schools since elementary. These schools have always been over populated. The class sizes are over crowded, which makes individual attention and instruction impossible. Schools in affluent neighborhoods mandate smaller class sizes, I feel that we (students of LAUSD) deserve quality education too. I can't help but wonder if theses differences in education have anything to do with ethnicity.

Students in LAUSD are not expected nor encouraged to attend four year universities- this is evident in the classes offered. Our classes are not preparing us to attend universities. In my high school, at representative from a local community college comes several times a week to help prospect students enroll, I'm not saying this is a bad thing but why don't representatives from universities come onto our campus? I've notice that AP classes in our district are extremely limited while students attending public schools in other districts are offered a wide variety of advanced college- prep classes. We are capable of taking rigorous college- prep courses but how can we exhibit our full potential if we are not given the opportunity or encouraged to do so?

-Miani Giron

Gardena High School Women’s History Month Forum

On March 24th students from the Women’s Leadership Project and Leadership of Diversity club collaborated on a Women’s History Month Forum. The forum was attended by Social Studies, Health, English and Government classes in the Social Hall. The event featured spoken word narratives on female historical figures like Sojourner Truth, Dolores Huerta, Shirley Chisholm, Luisa Moreno and Ida B. Wells. The forum was designed to introduce Gardena students to little known social history on communities of color. Students also developed a role reversal skit that highlighted women’s everyday experiences with sexual harassment, workplace discrimination and the double burden of domestic work and caregiving in the home. The forum concluded with a spirited student debate on a woman’s right to choose, featuring pro-choice and anti-choice perspectives and questions from the audience.

California Women’s Conference

On October 22nd thirteen Women’s Leadership Project students attended the Governor’s Women’s Conference with 500 invited high school students from across the state. Speakers included Condoleeza Rice, journalist Christiane Amanpour and civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman. Students who participated were required to complete thirty hours of community service and send in an evaluation of their outreach to the California Women’s Foundation