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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters. \u003c/em>\u003cem>Lea esta historia en \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/calmatters-en-espanol/2025/03/departamento-educacion-investigacion-cal-state-san-bernardino-programa/\">Español.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal State San Bernardino is one of more than 50 universities under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, even as President Donald Trump \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/03/education-department/\">attempts to unravel\u003c/a> the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A statement from the department’s Office for Civil Rights listed three California campuses — Cal State San Bernardino, Cal Poly Humboldt and UC Berkeley — among universities it says violated Title VI of the education code. That’s the section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits organizations that get federal funds from discriminating based on race, color or national origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigations aim to “ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cal State University system is reviewing the claim and will cooperate in the investigation, said Amy Bentley-Smith, a Cal State spokesperson said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The CSU continues to comply with longstanding applicable federal and state laws and CSU policies and does not discriminate or provide preferences on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A UC Berkeley official said the campus also is responding to the federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley has an unwavering commitment to having a campus free of discrimination,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0\">\u003cu>Department of Education\u003c/u>\u003c/a> claims the three California universities violated civil rights laws by partnering with The PhD Project, which it describes as “an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12030322 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20230822-SFSU-45-JY_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The PhD Project describes its mission as developing business school faculty and said this year it’s open to all applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other, through networking, mentorship, and unique events,” it said in a statement . “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahlam Muhtaseb, a professor of media studies at Cal State San Bernardino, said the federal complaint doesn’t make sense, because the university doesn’t offer a doctorate in business. It does offer a doctorate in educational leadership, and Muhtaseb believes that’s what the Department of Education is targeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frivolous because they are saying that we are infringing on the rights of white students because we have admitted 90% students of color,” into the educational leadership program, she said. “That is a ridiculous allegation because we are a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/05/hispanic-serving-institutions-programs-funding/\">Hispanic-serving institution\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 70% of students at Cal State San Bernardino are Latino, 10% are White, 6% are Asian and 5% are Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So this is natural that this is the community that we serve,” Muhtaseb said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation, she said, “has a chilling impact. I see it as an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/03/uc-diversity-statement/\">attack on our marginalized communities.\u003c/a>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not clear how the Department of Education will conduct the investigation, however, because the Trump Administration is trying to eliminate the department.[aside postID=news_12031468 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-2-1020x681.jpg']On March 11, the department announced it was cutting its own staff by half. On March 14 it announced it would investigate the universities for alleged civil rights violations. Last Friday Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Education did not respond to an email from CalMatters, and the phone line for its press information office had an automated message stating that it was temporarily closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, a coalition of advocacy groups and state leaders, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued to block the elimination of the department and the mass firing of its employees, arguing it would impair the administration of student loans, disability services and other functions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed out that Congress created the department and has sole authority to close it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faculty at campuses targeted by the investigation said it has already lost its original purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Department of Education has been more or less dismantled in terms of its civil rights and student aid, but has now been turned against the institutions it was designed to support,” said Ryder Dschida, a history professor at Cal Poly Humboldt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/03/cal-state-san-bernardino-investigation/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Cal State San Bernardino is among several dozen universities under federal scrutiny for programs that have targeted disadvantaged groups of students.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters. \u003c/em>\u003cem>Lea esta historia en \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/calmatters-en-espanol/2025/03/departamento-educacion-investigacion-cal-state-san-bernardino-programa/\">Español.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal State San Bernardino is one of more than 50 universities under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, even as President Donald Trump \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/03/education-department/\">attempts to unravel\u003c/a> the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A statement from the department’s Office for Civil Rights listed three California campuses — Cal State San Bernardino, Cal Poly Humboldt and UC Berkeley — among universities it says violated Title VI of the education code. That’s the section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits organizations that get federal funds from discriminating based on race, color or national origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigations aim to “ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cal State University system is reviewing the claim and will cooperate in the investigation, said Amy Bentley-Smith, a Cal State spokesperson said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The CSU continues to comply with longstanding applicable federal and state laws and CSU policies and does not discriminate or provide preferences on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A UC Berkeley official said the campus also is responding to the federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley has an unwavering commitment to having a campus free of discrimination,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0\">\u003cu>Department of Education\u003c/u>\u003c/a> claims the three California universities violated civil rights laws by partnering with The PhD Project, which it describes as “an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The PhD Project describes its mission as developing business school faculty and said this year it’s open to all applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other, through networking, mentorship, and unique events,” it said in a statement . “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahlam Muhtaseb, a professor of media studies at Cal State San Bernardino, said the federal complaint doesn’t make sense, because the university doesn’t offer a doctorate in business. It does offer a doctorate in educational leadership, and Muhtaseb believes that’s what the Department of Education is targeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frivolous because they are saying that we are infringing on the rights of white students because we have admitted 90% students of color,” into the educational leadership program, she said. “That is a ridiculous allegation because we are a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/05/hispanic-serving-institutions-programs-funding/\">Hispanic-serving institution\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 70% of students at Cal State San Bernardino are Latino, 10% are White, 6% are Asian and 5% are Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So this is natural that this is the community that we serve,” Muhtaseb said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation, she said, “has a chilling impact. I see it as an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/03/uc-diversity-statement/\">attack on our marginalized communities.\u003c/a>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not clear how the Department of Education will conduct the investigation, however, because the Trump Administration is trying to eliminate the department.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On March 11, the department announced it was cutting its own staff by half. On March 14 it announced it would investigate the universities for alleged civil rights violations. Last Friday Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Education did not respond to an email from CalMatters, and the phone line for its press information office had an automated message stating that it was temporarily closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, a coalition of advocacy groups and state leaders, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued to block the elimination of the department and the mass firing of its employees, arguing it would impair the administration of student loans, disability services and other functions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed out that Congress created the department and has sole authority to close it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faculty at campuses targeted by the investigation said it has already lost its original purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Department of Education has been more or less dismantled in terms of its civil rights and student aid, but has now been turned against the institutions it was designed to support,” said Ryder Dschida, a history professor at Cal Poly Humboldt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/03/cal-state-san-bernardino-investigation/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-banned-bilingual-education-for-almost-20-years-it-still-hasnt-recovered",
"title": "California Banned Bilingual Education for Almost 20 Years. It Still Hasn’t Recovered",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n 1953, Bárbara Flores entered kindergarten at Washington Elementary School in Madera, California, a small city in the Central Valley surrounded by farm fields. Her mother and grandmother had talked it up: You’re going to learn a lot. You’re going to like it. She believed them. A little girl who would one day become a teacher, Flores was excited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But only until she got there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I walked out,” Flores recalled recently. She got to her grandmother’s house a few blocks away, furious. “Son mentirosas,” she said. “No entiendo nada. Y jamas voy a regresar.” \u003cem>You’re liars. I don’t understand anything. And I’m never going back\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores only spoke Spanish. As the grandchild of Mexican immigrants, she didn’t find her language or culture welcome in the school. But little Bárbara didn’t get her way. And after depositing her daughter back in the classroom, Flores’ mother asked the teacher a question: \u003cem>Aren’t you paying attention? My daughter walked out\u003c/em>. The answer felt like a slap and became a part of family lore. \u003cem>All these little Mexican girls look alike. I didn’t notice\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores returned to her old school this fall; the building she walked out of still stands, but almost everything else has changed. Now, students speak Spanish because their teachers require them to. Little Mexican girls see their culture celebrated on the walls of every classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Washington students will graduate knowing how to speak, read and write in both Spanish and English, joining a growing number of “dual-language immersion” schools in California. Flores’ eyes open wide as she describes the about-face her alma mater has taken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were punished for speaking Spanish,” she said. “We were hit with rulers, pinched, our braids were pulled. Now the whole school is dual-language.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A family photograph of Bárbara Flores and her sister in their backyard in 1953. The path has not been linear. When Flores was a child, California still had an English-only law on the books from the 1800s. As governor, Ronald Reagan signed a bill eliminating it. Then, the Civil Rights Movement ushered in a new era of bilingual education, and the California Legislature went further, requiring the model for students still learning English from 1976 until the anti-immigrant backlash of the 1990s. Voters banned it again in 1998, only reversing the latest prohibition in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers have found bilingual education helps students learn English faster and can boost their standardized test scores, increase graduation rates, better prepare them for college and much more. California has removed the official barriers to offering this type of instruction since 2016, and the state now champions bilingualism and biliteracy, encouraging all students to strive for both. But eight years after repeal, California schools have yet to recover. A decades-long enrollment slump in bilingual-teacher prep programs has led to a decimated teacher pipeline. And underinvestment by the Legislature, paired with a hamstrung state Education Department, has limited the pace of bilingual education’s comeback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result? A rare case in which Californians can say Texas is inspiring. Both states enroll more than 1 million students still learning English — but last year, the Lone Star State put 40% of them in bilingual classrooms. California managed that for just 10%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1987, Flores didn’t think state policy would go this way. At the time, both states required bilingual education. She was a professor, helping build a bilingual-education teacher prep program at Cal State San Bernardino. Her home state could have kept pace with Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The English-only years: 1998 to 2016\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By 1998, the bilingual-teacher prep program was flourishing. Flores helped aspiring teachers understand how students learn to read and write in two languages, sending them off into classrooms with binders full of instructional tips. Her daughter, then 10, was learning both English and Spanish through bilingual classes in the San Bernardino City Unified School District. Flores was on a parent committee organizing broader support for such programs in the face of a statewide campaign to get rid of them, bankrolled by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017259\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017259\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children’s books in Spanish and English line the wall of a classroom at Washington Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 29, 2024. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Proposition 227, which passed with 61% of the vote, required schools to teach only in English with students who were still learning the language, something that may sound like a good idea but often ends up unnecessarily putting students’ grade-level learning of other subjects on pause while they master English. Flores saw the impact immediately. Faculty on campus called for the elimination of her program, an effort that ultimately failed but showed, she said, “the intensity of the discrimination and language racism that was prevalent.” Enrollment in bilingual-teacher prep programs across the state plummeted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores also watched local school districts respond. “I was shocked at superintendents in the area,” she said. “They just made everybody throw away their Spanish books. It was horrendous.” As she recalls, every single school district in the Inland Empire got rid of its bilingual programs except San Bernardino City Unified, where parent activism helped ensure the district took advantage of an exception to the new law.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Dual-language students outperform their peers in San Bernardino City Unified\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AiGqM/5/\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, student achievement data from San Bernardino City Unified had shown that bilingual programs were helping kids succeed. And over the next two decades, researchers studying programs across the United States released a steady stream of evidence about the benefits of bilingual education, especially a version called “dual language.” Traditional bilingual education essentially lets students use their first language while they learn English. Once students become fluent, their schools shift entirely to English instruction, which was the goal all along. Dual-language programs, by contrast, set bilingualism as the goal. Students continue to take courses in Spanish or another language for about half of the school day until they leave the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While dual-language programs often stop after elementary school, the “\u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/language-minority-students/bilingual-education-and-americas-future-evidence-and-pathways/bilingual-biliteracy-ed_06132023-082923-copyright.pdf\">bilingual advantage\u003c/a>” stretches through students’ K-12 years and into their working lives. Dual-language students have been found to score higher than their peers on both \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED566267.pdf\">math\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED577026.pdf\">English language arts\u003c/a> exams by middle school. They also get higher scores \u003ca href=\"https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1229260\">on the ACT\u003c/a> in high school, setting them up to be more competitive in college admissions. And importantly, a team at Stanford found that native Spanish speakers were more likely to test out of English-learner services \u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/reclassification-patterns-among-latino-english-learner-students-bilingual-dual-immersion-and-english-immersion-classrooms\">if they took bilingual classes\u003c/a>, a coveted goal because of how well “former English learners” do. University of Chicago researchers just released data showing that Chicago high schoolers in this group had \u003ca href=\"https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/english-learners-in-chicago-public-schools-a-spotlight-on-high-school-students?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=A%20new%20study%20out%20today&utm_campaign=EL%202024%20Report%20Release\">higher-than-average\u003c/a> GPAs and SAT scores, high school graduation rates, and community college enrollment and persistence rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patricia Gándara co-directs the UCLA Civil Rights Project, which has published similar findings and has spent decades of her career cataloging the bilingual advantage. She laments the narrow value placed on bilingual education in the U.S., where it has historically been pursued as a way to help kids who don’t speak English learn the language more quickly and then succeed in English-only classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a very shortsighted view,” Gándara said, “particularly from the research that we’ve done that shows kids who get a strong bilingual education are more likely to go to college, they’re more likely to complete college, they’re more likely to have better jobs and better opportunities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017260\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017260\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk through campus at Madison Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 30, 2024. The school opened a dual language program in 2017. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yet while policymakers didn’t catch on right away, well-off and well-educated white parents did, seeing the economic benefits of bilingualism for their children very clearly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glendale Unified School District launched its first Spanish-English dual-language program in 2003, going on to add programs in six other languages while official state policy was to ban them. Last year, 85% of the students enrolled were fluent English speakers, according to program director Nancy Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigrant families, weighed down by the pressure to speak English and make sure their children do too, have been hard to recruit. Hong said immigrant parents have long been concerned that letting their children spend half the school day or more hearing their home language will get in the way of learning English, even though research has shown it can make the whole process go faster. “The goal is to dismantle those myths and misperceptions,” she said. However, even though about 20% of students districtwide are English learners, only about 10% of them are in dual-language programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many immigrant families, however, have become strong advocates for the programs. José Sanjas, a Mexican-born father in Madera Unified School District, takes his 6-year-old daughter past her neighborhood school every day en route to one of the district’s dual-language programs. He and his wife want to preserve their native language as their daughter grows up here, but the draw isn’t only personal; Sanjas also sees how bilingualism will benefit his daughter in the workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She can help more people in the future,” Sanjas said. “Professionally, she’ll be able to serve everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017258\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017258\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bárbara Flores stands inside her old kindergarten classroom at Washington Elementary. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Spurred on by support like his, a diverse coalition of school leaders in Madera Unified had, by 2016, come to see dual-language education as key to turning around the district’s chronically low performance, especially among the children of immigrants. Flores had helped make the case, inviting school board members to the annual conference of the California Association for Bilingual Education. And in Flores’ hometown, U.S.-born, white families were among those speaking up in support of the programs, knowing even if the immigrant students’ test scores had the most room to grow, their children could benefit too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, public opinion had swung in the other direction; that November, about 74% of California voters said yes to Proposition 58, officially allowing bilingual education back in California classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a relief we [could] finally move forward for our children,” Flores said. “We lost a whole generation of kids — quite a few generations, really — because of English-only.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next generation, however, is still waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A limping recovery: 2016 to 2024\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Flores spent 40 years training future teachers before retiring in 2019. Across three institutions and 32 years at Cal State San Bernardino, she likely taught 10,000 students, many of whom remain sprinkled throughout the state’s bilingual-education system. But if anything defines the legacy of Prop. 227, it is the shattered teacher pipeline it left in its wake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gándara, of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, said the current state of affairs is “one of those stories of ‘I told you so.’ … I could see what the problem was going to be: that when people came back to their senses and realized what a mistake this was, the big fallout was going to be that we didn’t have the teachers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California colleges are not producing nearly enough teachers to meet the state’s bilingual-education goals. During the 2022-23 school year, the state commission on teacher credentialing only authorized 1,011 new bilingual teachers — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/commission/reports/data/other-teacher-supply-bilingual-authorizations\">across all languages\u003c/a>. Only seven went to teachers who speak Vietnamese, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/cefelfacts.asp\">second-most-common language\u003c/a> in California schools that year. And it actually gave out fewer credentials to Spanish-speaking teachers that year than in the three years prior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature has not ignored this problem entirely. In 2017, it funded six grants, totaling $20 million, to help districts coach up bilingual staffers and prepare them to lead bilingual classrooms. But Edgar Lampkin, CEO of the California Association for Bilingual Education, said seeding such “grow your own” programs falls far short of addressing the statewide need. “That’s not systemic,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the National Resource Center for Asian Languages, based at Cal State Fullerton, got state money to train 200 teachers over five years. They’re on track, and the center’s director, Natalie Tran, is proud that their programs are not only increasing the number of teachers certified to teach in Asian languages but also diversifying the languages they speak. She expects to certify teachers who speak Tagalog, Hmong and Khmer this school year. Still, she said, the state needs to do more to train additional teachers of Asian languages, including the less common ones. “We’re going to need help from policymakers to make this happen,” Tran said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She isn’t the only one calling on lawmakers to be part of the solution. Anya Hurwitz is executive director of SEAL, a nonprofit that got its start as an initiative of the Sobrato Family Foundation to address achievement gaps between immigrant and native-born children in Silicon Valley. She says the state underfunds education, which gets in the way of doing what’s best for kids who don’t speak English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the last year for which \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/econ/school-finances/secondary-education-finance.html\">federal census data\u003c/a> is available, New York spent almost $30,000 per student. California spent about $17,000. And besides its support for teacher training, the Legislature has only given districts \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r28/dlig21result.asp\">$10 million\u003c/a> extra to start or expand dual-language programs. In Massachusetts, home to about one-tenth the number of kids still learning English, the Legislature disbursed $11.8 million for the same work, kicking off its own recovery from an English-only law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Funding is not the solution to everything in and of itself,” Hurwitz said, “but at the same time, we can’t build capacity without funding and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students pay attention during a class in Spanish at Madison Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in Flores’ hometown, Madera administrators have been able to use state and federal money earmarked for their sizable number of immigrant families and those living in poverty to achieve their dual-language goals. However, startup costs for dual-language programs are expensive. Teacher preparation programs, Superintendent Todd Lile said, are not producing graduates who are ready to do this work, leaving districts like his with steep professional development costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A residency program with Cal State Fresno has given Madera a solid pipeline of teachers, but the recent grads have to clear all the usual hurdles of being new to the profession while also adapting to using Spanish in the classroom. While these new hires at Washington Elementary School grew up bilingual, they went to school through the Prop. 227 years, meaning most of them didn’t develop an academic vocabulary in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viviana Valerio, a kindergarten teacher, said that history made bilingual education an intimidating proposition. “I commonly speak Spanish at home, but then when I was thinking about teaching, I was thinking, ‘OK, academic terms, I don’t know how to translate that,’ or ‘Parents ask me a question and I can’t think of it, I’m going to want to transition into English,’” she said. “For me, that was the scary part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas, too, lacks bilingual-education teachers, echoing a shortage present in much of the country, but the state is far ahead of California; many districts are able to recruit their own alumni because their programs have been around so long. Texas also continues to invest in bilingual education, helping districts comply with state mandates to offer it. Like California, Texas gives districts more per-pupil funding for every student still learning English; unlike California, Texas offers an additional premium for each of them enrolled in a dual-language program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an extra incentive to start and maintain these programs, Texas has started bumping up funding for the native English speakers enrolled too. Research shows the programs work better when classes are evenly split between native English speakers and speakers of the program’s second language. Then, not only are students learning their second language from the teacher but from their peers as well. Conveniently, this also makes for more integrated classrooms, something Gándara said California needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t been able to take advantage of that, in large part because people don’t pay attention to that as a major issue and also because we don’t have the teachers to pull it off,” Gándara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017256\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12017256 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on multiplication problems during a Spanish language math class at Madison Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"background-color: transparent\">Indeed, districts across the state cite staffing as a major barrier to starting or expanding their programs. Some have gone abroad to recruit. Others have been forced to scrap their plans entirely. Newark Unified School District, in the Bay Area, got rid of its dual-language program this year because it couldn’t find teachers to staff it. “We tried everything,” said Karen Allard, assistant superintendent of education services.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than a decade now, the state’s Education Department has tried to champion bilingual programs. Students who can prove their fluency in two languages before graduation get a special seal on their diplomas. The department also implores schools to help the children of immigrants maintain their home language while learning English, building that recommendation into its 2017 \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ml/roadmap.asp\">English Learner Roadmap\u003c/a>. By 2030, it wants half of California students on a path to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ml/documents/globalca2030.pdf\">becoming bilingual\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet all of this largely amounts to cheerleading. The department is \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2018/california-department-of-education-limited-in-ability-to-help-districts-improve-report-says/603168\">minimally funded and staffed\u003c/a>, a result of the state’s commitment to sending almost all K-12 funding directly to school districts, and its support for bilingual education has not come with any firm demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conor Williams, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., recently found himself — a self-described “professional lefty” — in the surprising position of \u003ca href=\"https://tcf.org/content/report/moving-from-vision-to-reality-establishing-california-as-a-national-bilingual-education-and-dual-language-immersion-leader/\">celebrating Texas’ policy over California’s\u003c/a>. Besides following Texas’ lead on funding, he said, California should rethink teacher licensing. The state requires college graduates to pass a suite of tests to become teachers, but Williams points out the tests don’t lead to better instruction and can keep good teachers from classrooms. Getting rid of the requirement could bring more bilingual adults into the profession and expand the teacher pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hard to overcome, however, is California’s shift toward more local control over schooling. Williams doesn’t always agree with what the Texas education department does with its power, but the state’s centralized approach means it has “enough power and muscle and will to set rules and hold districts to them,” he said. California’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2024/03/school-finance/\">Local Control Funding Formula\u003c/a> is widely popular and has ensured districts get more state money to serve students still learning English as well as those in foster care and low-income households. However, Williams points out that local control has its limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t win civil rights battles by leaving it up to local school boards,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017264\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12017264 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A native Farsi speaker works on a Spanish language assignment at Washington Elementary School in Madera. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, districts like Madera are moving ahead on their own. In 2020, Flores’ alma mater, Washington Elementary, became Madera Unified’s second dual-language school, welcoming its first class of kindergartners who are expected to leave proficient in both English and Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mateo Diaz Zanjas was one of them. He’s now a fourth-grader and speaks in easy Spanish about the school and his long-term dream of going to Harvard. Upon hearing that he and his peers speak very good Spanish, he eagerly replies: “We also speak good English.” And he proves it, going on to answer questions in English about his favorite subjects and the languages he speaks with certain friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrators, however, are still waiting for the data to show that their bet on bilingual education will pay off in student achievement gains. The pandemic interrupted their early years and set them back, and the oldest students aren’t doing as well as district leaders would have hoped. Commitment to the programs, however, has not wavered. Students’ overall test scores remain low, but their growth scores — or how much they learn over the course of the year — are high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is helping students learn English more quickly, too, meaning they are becoming “former English learners” faster with the newer supports and joining the district’s highest-performing student group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Madera teachers are using bilingual education to give Spanish speakers grade-level material, knowing that once they sharpen their English skills, all that information will transfer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kids can learn math in Spanish; it’s still math,” Lile said. “They can learn social studies in Spanish; it’s still history and geography. These subject matters don’t exist only in English.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Flores’ recent visit to Madera Unified, she heard Lile describe his long-term goals for the district, including higher graduation rates and better college readiness for the children of immigrants. She looked on proudly, sure her hometown district was finally getting it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An uncertain future: 2024 and beyond\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A few years ago, Flores introduced Lile to Margarita Machado-Casas, a professor at San Diego State’s Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education, which has long been a top producer of the state’s bilingual teachers. Machado-Casas is helping the district figure out what concrete steps teachers and administrators should take to follow the high-level recommendations of the state’s English Learner Roadmap. They started out with “Principle 1,” which asks school and district staffers to see immigrant students’ language and culture as assets rather than seeing their lack of English proficiency as a deficit. Pointing to Madera’s long and painful history of discriminating against immigrant students, including Flores, Machado-Casas said this principle unexpectedly took the entire first year, requiring “courageous conversations” — including asking staffers to think deeply about whether they believed in the work enough to stay in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017267\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12017267 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bárbara Flores sits by a tree at Washington Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 29, 2024. As a child in the 1950s, Flores played Ring Around the Rosie here. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Machado-Casas is helping educators in Madera understand both how to help immigrant students tackle grade-level material and convince them that the students can handle it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores hopes the work ends up being a playbook for the entire state — which could soon need one. Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab2074?slug=CA_202320240AB2074&_gl=1*1vfy6nl*_gcl_au*Nzk3MzE2MDMuMTczMTAyMjU2Mg..*_ga*Mjk2NjI4MjAxLjE3MzEwMjI1NjI.*_ga_5TKXNLE5NK*MTczMzc2NzIyMC4xNS4xLjE3MzM3Njg3MDcuNTYuMC4w*_ga_DX0K9PCWYH*MTczMzc2NzIyMC4xNS4xLjE3MzM3Njc5NDAuMC4wLjA.*_ga_GNY4L81DZE*MTczMzc2NzIyMC4xNS4xLjE3MzM3Njc5NDAuMC4wLjA.\">signed a bill\u003c/a> this year requiring the Education Department to come up with a statewide plan for helping districts adopt the road map’s guidelines and report on their progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This planning process guarantees California will be over a decade into its recovery from the English-only years before the state even considers holding schools accountable for changing their practices. When New York passed a blueprint for how to serve English learners in 2014, it followed it up with new state regulations that same year, creating stricter policies for serving students who were still learning English, including a broader mandate for bilingual education, which had already been required for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag='education' label='More Education Coverage']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alesha Moreno-Ramirez leads the California Education Department’s multilingual support division. She said state budget limitations have gotten in the way of implementing the English Learner Roadmap and said any call to require bilingual education, like Texas or New York, would have to come from the Legislature, not the department. “That said, we would enthusiastically support the movement toward requiring bilingual education,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates caution such a mandate would have to come with enough funding to help districts create high-quality programs, but many agree it would be a win for California students. Children from immigrant families speak \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/cefelfacts.asp\">108 different languages\u003c/a>, according to the Education Department, but 93% of them speak one of 10. To require bilingual programs, the Legislature would likely tweak the current law, which says if the parents of 30 or more students in a single school request a language acquisition program, the school has to offer it “to the extent possible.” Texas, Illinois and New York have similar laws, but instead of requiring bilingual programs in response to parent advocacy, they do so based solely on enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores thinks the state is at least moving in the right direction. And Madera Unified gives her hope. During her recent visit, she was flooded with memories: She saw the tree she and her friends used to circle while playing “Ring Around the Rosie.” She visited the classroom she walked out of as a 5-year-old, where the walls are now decorated with vocabulary in Spanish as well as English. She suffered in that room 70 years ago. Now, little Mexican girls do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t stop,” she said. “We keep plugging away. That’s our tenacity. That’s our grit. And our motivation, of course, is for our children.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California has a tortured history with bilingual education in public schools, but state leaders won’t do what it takes to repair the damage.",
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"title": "California Banned Bilingual Education for Almost 20 Years. It Still Hasn’t Recovered | KQED",
"description": "California has a tortured history with bilingual education in public schools, but state leaders won’t do what it takes to repair the damage.",
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"headline": "California Banned Bilingual Education for Almost 20 Years. It Still Hasn’t Recovered",
"datePublished": "2024-12-09T14:00:38-08:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n 1953, Bárbara Flores entered kindergarten at Washington Elementary School in Madera, California, a small city in the Central Valley surrounded by farm fields. Her mother and grandmother had talked it up: You’re going to learn a lot. You’re going to like it. She believed them. A little girl who would one day become a teacher, Flores was excited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But only until she got there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I walked out,” Flores recalled recently. She got to her grandmother’s house a few blocks away, furious. “Son mentirosas,” she said. “No entiendo nada. Y jamas voy a regresar.” \u003cem>You’re liars. I don’t understand anything. And I’m never going back\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores only spoke Spanish. As the grandchild of Mexican immigrants, she didn’t find her language or culture welcome in the school. But little Bárbara didn’t get her way. And after depositing her daughter back in the classroom, Flores’ mother asked the teacher a question: \u003cem>Aren’t you paying attention? My daughter walked out\u003c/em>. The answer felt like a slap and became a part of family lore. \u003cem>All these little Mexican girls look alike. I didn’t notice\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores returned to her old school this fall; the building she walked out of still stands, but almost everything else has changed. Now, students speak Spanish because their teachers require them to. Little Mexican girls see their culture celebrated on the walls of every classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Washington students will graduate knowing how to speak, read and write in both Spanish and English, joining a growing number of “dual-language immersion” schools in California. Flores’ eyes open wide as she describes the about-face her alma mater has taken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were punished for speaking Spanish,” she said. “We were hit with rulers, pinched, our braids were pulled. Now the whole school is dual-language.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A family photograph of Bárbara Flores and her sister in their backyard in 1953. The path has not been linear. When Flores was a child, California still had an English-only law on the books from the 1800s. As governor, Ronald Reagan signed a bill eliminating it. Then, the Civil Rights Movement ushered in a new era of bilingual education, and the California Legislature went further, requiring the model for students still learning English from 1976 until the anti-immigrant backlash of the 1990s. Voters banned it again in 1998, only reversing the latest prohibition in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers have found bilingual education helps students learn English faster and can boost their standardized test scores, increase graduation rates, better prepare them for college and much more. California has removed the official barriers to offering this type of instruction since 2016, and the state now champions bilingualism and biliteracy, encouraging all students to strive for both. But eight years after repeal, California schools have yet to recover. A decades-long enrollment slump in bilingual-teacher prep programs has led to a decimated teacher pipeline. And underinvestment by the Legislature, paired with a hamstrung state Education Department, has limited the pace of bilingual education’s comeback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result? A rare case in which Californians can say Texas is inspiring. Both states enroll more than 1 million students still learning English — but last year, the Lone Star State put 40% of them in bilingual classrooms. California managed that for just 10%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1987, Flores didn’t think state policy would go this way. At the time, both states required bilingual education. She was a professor, helping build a bilingual-education teacher prep program at Cal State San Bernardino. Her home state could have kept pace with Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The English-only years: 1998 to 2016\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By 1998, the bilingual-teacher prep program was flourishing. Flores helped aspiring teachers understand how students learn to read and write in two languages, sending them off into classrooms with binders full of instructional tips. Her daughter, then 10, was learning both English and Spanish through bilingual classes in the San Bernardino City Unified School District. Flores was on a parent committee organizing broader support for such programs in the face of a statewide campaign to get rid of them, bankrolled by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017259\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017259\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_4-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children’s books in Spanish and English line the wall of a classroom at Washington Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 29, 2024. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Proposition 227, which passed with 61% of the vote, required schools to teach only in English with students who were still learning the language, something that may sound like a good idea but often ends up unnecessarily putting students’ grade-level learning of other subjects on pause while they master English. Flores saw the impact immediately. Faculty on campus called for the elimination of her program, an effort that ultimately failed but showed, she said, “the intensity of the discrimination and language racism that was prevalent.” Enrollment in bilingual-teacher prep programs across the state plummeted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores also watched local school districts respond. “I was shocked at superintendents in the area,” she said. “They just made everybody throw away their Spanish books. It was horrendous.” As she recalls, every single school district in the Inland Empire got rid of its bilingual programs except San Bernardino City Unified, where parent activism helped ensure the district took advantage of an exception to the new law.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Dual-language students outperform their peers in San Bernardino City Unified\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AiGqM/5/\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, student achievement data from San Bernardino City Unified had shown that bilingual programs were helping kids succeed. And over the next two decades, researchers studying programs across the United States released a steady stream of evidence about the benefits of bilingual education, especially a version called “dual language.” Traditional bilingual education essentially lets students use their first language while they learn English. Once students become fluent, their schools shift entirely to English instruction, which was the goal all along. Dual-language programs, by contrast, set bilingualism as the goal. Students continue to take courses in Spanish or another language for about half of the school day until they leave the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While dual-language programs often stop after elementary school, the “\u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/language-minority-students/bilingual-education-and-americas-future-evidence-and-pathways/bilingual-biliteracy-ed_06132023-082923-copyright.pdf\">bilingual advantage\u003c/a>” stretches through students’ K-12 years and into their working lives. Dual-language students have been found to score higher than their peers on both \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED566267.pdf\">math\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED577026.pdf\">English language arts\u003c/a> exams by middle school. They also get higher scores \u003ca href=\"https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1229260\">on the ACT\u003c/a> in high school, setting them up to be more competitive in college admissions. And importantly, a team at Stanford found that native Spanish speakers were more likely to test out of English-learner services \u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/reclassification-patterns-among-latino-english-learner-students-bilingual-dual-immersion-and-english-immersion-classrooms\">if they took bilingual classes\u003c/a>, a coveted goal because of how well “former English learners” do. University of Chicago researchers just released data showing that Chicago high schoolers in this group had \u003ca href=\"https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/english-learners-in-chicago-public-schools-a-spotlight-on-high-school-students?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=A%20new%20study%20out%20today&utm_campaign=EL%202024%20Report%20Release\">higher-than-average\u003c/a> GPAs and SAT scores, high school graduation rates, and community college enrollment and persistence rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patricia Gándara co-directs the UCLA Civil Rights Project, which has published similar findings and has spent decades of her career cataloging the bilingual advantage. She laments the narrow value placed on bilingual education in the U.S., where it has historically been pursued as a way to help kids who don’t speak English learn the language more quickly and then succeed in English-only classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a very shortsighted view,” Gándara said, “particularly from the research that we’ve done that shows kids who get a strong bilingual education are more likely to go to college, they’re more likely to complete college, they’re more likely to have better jobs and better opportunities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017260\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017260\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_5-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk through campus at Madison Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 30, 2024. The school opened a dual language program in 2017. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yet while policymakers didn’t catch on right away, well-off and well-educated white parents did, seeing the economic benefits of bilingualism for their children very clearly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glendale Unified School District launched its first Spanish-English dual-language program in 2003, going on to add programs in six other languages while official state policy was to ban them. Last year, 85% of the students enrolled were fluent English speakers, according to program director Nancy Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigrant families, weighed down by the pressure to speak English and make sure their children do too, have been hard to recruit. Hong said immigrant parents have long been concerned that letting their children spend half the school day or more hearing their home language will get in the way of learning English, even though research has shown it can make the whole process go faster. “The goal is to dismantle those myths and misperceptions,” she said. However, even though about 20% of students districtwide are English learners, only about 10% of them are in dual-language programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many immigrant families, however, have become strong advocates for the programs. José Sanjas, a Mexican-born father in Madera Unified School District, takes his 6-year-old daughter past her neighborhood school every day en route to one of the district’s dual-language programs. He and his wife want to preserve their native language as their daughter grows up here, but the draw isn’t only personal; Sanjas also sees how bilingualism will benefit his daughter in the workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She can help more people in the future,” Sanjas said. “Professionally, she’ll be able to serve everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017258\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017258\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_3-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bárbara Flores stands inside her old kindergarten classroom at Washington Elementary. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Spurred on by support like his, a diverse coalition of school leaders in Madera Unified had, by 2016, come to see dual-language education as key to turning around the district’s chronically low performance, especially among the children of immigrants. Flores had helped make the case, inviting school board members to the annual conference of the California Association for Bilingual Education. And in Flores’ hometown, U.S.-born, white families were among those speaking up in support of the programs, knowing even if the immigrant students’ test scores had the most room to grow, their children could benefit too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, public opinion had swung in the other direction; that November, about 74% of California voters said yes to Proposition 58, officially allowing bilingual education back in California classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a relief we [could] finally move forward for our children,” Flores said. “We lost a whole generation of kids — quite a few generations, really — because of English-only.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next generation, however, is still waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A limping recovery: 2016 to 2024\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Flores spent 40 years training future teachers before retiring in 2019. Across three institutions and 32 years at Cal State San Bernardino, she likely taught 10,000 students, many of whom remain sprinkled throughout the state’s bilingual-education system. But if anything defines the legacy of Prop. 227, it is the shattered teacher pipeline it left in its wake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gándara, of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, said the current state of affairs is “one of those stories of ‘I told you so.’ … I could see what the problem was going to be: that when people came back to their senses and realized what a mistake this was, the big fallout was going to be that we didn’t have the teachers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California colleges are not producing nearly enough teachers to meet the state’s bilingual-education goals. During the 2022-23 school year, the state commission on teacher credentialing only authorized 1,011 new bilingual teachers — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/commission/reports/data/other-teacher-supply-bilingual-authorizations\">across all languages\u003c/a>. Only seven went to teachers who speak Vietnamese, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/cefelfacts.asp\">second-most-common language\u003c/a> in California schools that year. And it actually gave out fewer credentials to Spanish-speaking teachers that year than in the three years prior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature has not ignored this problem entirely. In 2017, it funded six grants, totaling $20 million, to help districts coach up bilingual staffers and prepare them to lead bilingual classrooms. But Edgar Lampkin, CEO of the California Association for Bilingual Education, said seeding such “grow your own” programs falls far short of addressing the statewide need. “That’s not systemic,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the National Resource Center for Asian Languages, based at Cal State Fullerton, got state money to train 200 teachers over five years. They’re on track, and the center’s director, Natalie Tran, is proud that their programs are not only increasing the number of teachers certified to teach in Asian languages but also diversifying the languages they speak. She expects to certify teachers who speak Tagalog, Hmong and Khmer this school year. Still, she said, the state needs to do more to train additional teachers of Asian languages, including the less common ones. “We’re going to need help from policymakers to make this happen,” Tran said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She isn’t the only one calling on lawmakers to be part of the solution. Anya Hurwitz is executive director of SEAL, a nonprofit that got its start as an initiative of the Sobrato Family Foundation to address achievement gaps between immigrant and native-born children in Silicon Valley. She says the state underfunds education, which gets in the way of doing what’s best for kids who don’t speak English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the last year for which \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/econ/school-finances/secondary-education-finance.html\">federal census data\u003c/a> is available, New York spent almost $30,000 per student. California spent about $17,000. And besides its support for teacher training, the Legislature has only given districts \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r28/dlig21result.asp\">$10 million\u003c/a> extra to start or expand dual-language programs. In Massachusetts, home to about one-tenth the number of kids still learning English, the Legislature disbursed $11.8 million for the same work, kicking off its own recovery from an English-only law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Funding is not the solution to everything in and of itself,” Hurwitz said, “but at the same time, we can’t build capacity without funding and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_8-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students pay attention during a class in Spanish at Madison Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in Flores’ hometown, Madera administrators have been able to use state and federal money earmarked for their sizable number of immigrant families and those living in poverty to achieve their dual-language goals. However, startup costs for dual-language programs are expensive. Teacher preparation programs, Superintendent Todd Lile said, are not producing graduates who are ready to do this work, leaving districts like his with steep professional development costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A residency program with Cal State Fresno has given Madera a solid pipeline of teachers, but the recent grads have to clear all the usual hurdles of being new to the profession while also adapting to using Spanish in the classroom. While these new hires at Washington Elementary School grew up bilingual, they went to school through the Prop. 227 years, meaning most of them didn’t develop an academic vocabulary in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viviana Valerio, a kindergarten teacher, said that history made bilingual education an intimidating proposition. “I commonly speak Spanish at home, but then when I was thinking about teaching, I was thinking, ‘OK, academic terms, I don’t know how to translate that,’ or ‘Parents ask me a question and I can’t think of it, I’m going to want to transition into English,’” she said. “For me, that was the scary part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas, too, lacks bilingual-education teachers, echoing a shortage present in much of the country, but the state is far ahead of California; many districts are able to recruit their own alumni because their programs have been around so long. Texas also continues to invest in bilingual education, helping districts comply with state mandates to offer it. Like California, Texas gives districts more per-pupil funding for every student still learning English; unlike California, Texas offers an additional premium for each of them enrolled in a dual-language program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an extra incentive to start and maintain these programs, Texas has started bumping up funding for the native English speakers enrolled too. Research shows the programs work better when classes are evenly split between native English speakers and speakers of the program’s second language. Then, not only are students learning their second language from the teacher but from their peers as well. Conveniently, this also makes for more integrated classrooms, something Gándara said California needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t been able to take advantage of that, in large part because people don’t pay attention to that as a major issue and also because we don’t have the teachers to pull it off,” Gándara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017256\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12017256 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924_BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_CM_9-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students work on multiplication problems during a Spanish language math class at Madison Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"background-color: transparent\">Indeed, districts across the state cite staffing as a major barrier to starting or expanding their programs. Some have gone abroad to recruit. Others have been forced to scrap their plans entirely. Newark Unified School District, in the Bay Area, got rid of its dual-language program this year because it couldn’t find teachers to staff it. “We tried everything,” said Karen Allard, assistant superintendent of education services.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than a decade now, the state’s Education Department has tried to champion bilingual programs. Students who can prove their fluency in two languages before graduation get a special seal on their diplomas. The department also implores schools to help the children of immigrants maintain their home language while learning English, building that recommendation into its 2017 \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ml/roadmap.asp\">English Learner Roadmap\u003c/a>. By 2030, it wants half of California students on a path to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ml/documents/globalca2030.pdf\">becoming bilingual\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet all of this largely amounts to cheerleading. The department is \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2018/california-department-of-education-limited-in-ability-to-help-districts-improve-report-says/603168\">minimally funded and staffed\u003c/a>, a result of the state’s commitment to sending almost all K-12 funding directly to school districts, and its support for bilingual education has not come with any firm demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conor Williams, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., recently found himself — a self-described “professional lefty” — in the surprising position of \u003ca href=\"https://tcf.org/content/report/moving-from-vision-to-reality-establishing-california-as-a-national-bilingual-education-and-dual-language-immersion-leader/\">celebrating Texas’ policy over California’s\u003c/a>. Besides following Texas’ lead on funding, he said, California should rethink teacher licensing. The state requires college graduates to pass a suite of tests to become teachers, but Williams points out the tests don’t lead to better instruction and can keep good teachers from classrooms. Getting rid of the requirement could bring more bilingual adults into the profession and expand the teacher pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hard to overcome, however, is California’s shift toward more local control over schooling. Williams doesn’t always agree with what the Texas education department does with its power, but the state’s centralized approach means it has “enough power and muscle and will to set rules and hold districts to them,” he said. California’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2024/03/school-finance/\">Local Control Funding Formula\u003c/a> is widely popular and has ensured districts get more state money to serve students still learning English as well as those in foster care and low-income households. However, Williams points out that local control has its limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t win civil rights battles by leaving it up to local school boards,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017264\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12017264 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_10-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A native Farsi speaker works on a Spanish language assignment at Washington Elementary School in Madera. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, districts like Madera are moving ahead on their own. In 2020, Flores’ alma mater, Washington Elementary, became Madera Unified’s second dual-language school, welcoming its first class of kindergartners who are expected to leave proficient in both English and Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mateo Diaz Zanjas was one of them. He’s now a fourth-grader and speaks in easy Spanish about the school and his long-term dream of going to Harvard. Upon hearing that he and his peers speak very good Spanish, he eagerly replies: “We also speak good English.” And he proves it, going on to answer questions in English about his favorite subjects and the languages he speaks with certain friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrators, however, are still waiting for the data to show that their bet on bilingual education will pay off in student achievement gains. The pandemic interrupted their early years and set them back, and the oldest students aren’t doing as well as district leaders would have hoped. Commitment to the programs, however, has not wavered. Students’ overall test scores remain low, but their growth scores — or how much they learn over the course of the year — are high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is helping students learn English more quickly, too, meaning they are becoming “former English learners” faster with the newer supports and joining the district’s highest-performing student group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Madera teachers are using bilingual education to give Spanish speakers grade-level material, knowing that once they sharpen their English skills, all that information will transfer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kids can learn math in Spanish; it’s still math,” Lile said. “They can learn social studies in Spanish; it’s still history and geography. These subject matters don’t exist only in English.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Flores’ recent visit to Madera Unified, she heard Lile describe his long-term goals for the district, including higher graduation rates and better college readiness for the children of immigrants. She looked on proudly, sure her hometown district was finally getting it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An uncertain future: 2024 and beyond\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A few years ago, Flores introduced Lile to Margarita Machado-Casas, a professor at San Diego State’s Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education, which has long been a top producer of the state’s bilingual teachers. Machado-Casas is helping the district figure out what concrete steps teachers and administrators should take to follow the high-level recommendations of the state’s English Learner Roadmap. They started out with “Principle 1,” which asks school and district staffers to see immigrant students’ language and culture as assets rather than seeing their lack of English proficiency as a deficit. Pointing to Madera’s long and painful history of discriminating against immigrant students, including Flores, Machado-Casas said this principle unexpectedly took the entire first year, requiring “courageous conversations” — including asking staffers to think deeply about whether they believed in the work enough to stay in the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017267\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12017267 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/102924-BILINGUAL-RECOVERY-LV_12-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bárbara Flores sits by a tree at Washington Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 29, 2024. As a child in the 1950s, Flores played Ring Around the Rosie here. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Machado-Casas is helping educators in Madera understand both how to help immigrant students tackle grade-level material and convince them that the students can handle it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores hopes the work ends up being a playbook for the entire state — which could soon need one. Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab2074?slug=CA_202320240AB2074&_gl=1*1vfy6nl*_gcl_au*Nzk3MzE2MDMuMTczMTAyMjU2Mg..*_ga*Mjk2NjI4MjAxLjE3MzEwMjI1NjI.*_ga_5TKXNLE5NK*MTczMzc2NzIyMC4xNS4xLjE3MzM3Njg3MDcuNTYuMC4w*_ga_DX0K9PCWYH*MTczMzc2NzIyMC4xNS4xLjE3MzM3Njc5NDAuMC4wLjA.*_ga_GNY4L81DZE*MTczMzc2NzIyMC4xNS4xLjE3MzM3Njc5NDAuMC4wLjA.\">signed a bill\u003c/a> this year requiring the Education Department to come up with a statewide plan for helping districts adopt the road map’s guidelines and report on their progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This planning process guarantees California will be over a decade into its recovery from the English-only years before the state even considers holding schools accountable for changing their practices. When New York passed a blueprint for how to serve English learners in 2014, it followed it up with new state regulations that same year, creating stricter policies for serving students who were still learning English, including a broader mandate for bilingual education, which had already been required for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alesha Moreno-Ramirez leads the California Education Department’s multilingual support division. She said state budget limitations have gotten in the way of implementing the English Learner Roadmap and said any call to require bilingual education, like Texas or New York, would have to come from the Legislature, not the department. “That said, we would enthusiastically support the movement toward requiring bilingual education,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates caution such a mandate would have to come with enough funding to help districts create high-quality programs, but many agree it would be a win for California students. Children from immigrant families speak \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/cefelfacts.asp\">108 different languages\u003c/a>, according to the Education Department, but 93% of them speak one of 10. To require bilingual programs, the Legislature would likely tweak the current law, which says if the parents of 30 or more students in a single school request a language acquisition program, the school has to offer it “to the extent possible.” Texas, Illinois and New York have similar laws, but instead of requiring bilingual programs in response to parent advocacy, they do so based solely on enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores thinks the state is at least moving in the right direction. And Madera Unified gives her hope. During her recent visit, she was flooded with memories: She saw the tree she and her friends used to circle while playing “Ring Around the Rosie.” She visited the classroom she walked out of as a 5-year-old, where the walls are now decorated with vocabulary in Spanish as well as English. She suffered in that room 70 years ago. Now, little Mexican girls do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t stop,” she said. “We keep plugging away. That’s our tenacity. That’s our grit. And our motivation, of course, is for our children.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-prisons-fail-to-uphold-transgender-rights-despite-state-law",
"title": "California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law",
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"headTitle": "California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: There are descriptions of physical and sexual violence in this piece. Also, where legal names and chosen names differ, we’re using chosen names.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]yiaah Skylit had been stuck in solitary confinement at a maximum-security men’s prison for months when, in the fall of 2020, she got the news that gave her hope: Gov. Gavin Newsom had signed the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB132\">Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the law requires California prison staff to use the chosen pronouns of incarcerated people who are intersex or identify as nonbinary or transgender, as Skylit does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It allows those incarcerated people to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/prea/sb-132-faqs/\">select a gender preference for the guards who search them\u003c/a>. Most significantly, it mandates that prison officials, under most circumstances, honor requests to be housed at the type of facility — male or female — that aligns with the incarcerated person’s gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For six years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation bounced Skylit from one men’s prison to another. At each, safety proved elusive. By 2020, she was isolated in a cell for her own protection after brutal attacks by people she was incarcerated with and, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">a lawsuit alleges (PDF)\u003c/a>, by guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prospect of serving out her remaining sentence in a women’s facility seemed nothing short of a miracle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, what it felt like was a sanctuary,” she said in one of several dozen interviews with KQED over the course of a year. “A place to be who you were meant to be without any retaliation, without any violence, without any judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades have passed since simply \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917624/how-a-young-gay-man-survived-one-of-the-darkest-eras-in-california-queer-history\">being LGBTQ+ was considered a crime and a mental illness\u003c/a>. But bias and marginalization still lead to high rates of criminalization, especially for \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/NTDS_Report.pdf\">Black trans women (PDF)\u003c/a> like Skylit. Once incarcerated, harsh prison conditions take a serious toll on mental health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/0/1149/files/2013/06/BulletinVol2Issue2.pdf\">Studies (PDF)\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf\">surveys (PDF)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/pdca15.pdf\">federal data (PDF)\u003c/a> show that trans women held in men’s prisons are sexually and physically assaulted at rates as much as 13 times higher than cisgender men. When they report assaults or fears for their safety, they’re often met with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">staff retaliation (PDF)\u003c/a>. It’s not uncommon for trans women to harm themselves — just to get to the safety of a prison mental health bed. Skylit had lived that, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘For me, what it felt like was a sanctuary. A place to be who you were meant to be without any retaliation, without any violence, without any judgment.’[/pullquote]The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act promised an end to those nightmares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No more having to hide in fear,” Skylit said. “No more having to be quiet about who I really am. I was excited. I couldn’t wait.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story is a result of a year-long investigation into the effectiveness of the legislation that aimed to reduce the trauma of transgender women in California’s prisons. KQED’s reporters interviewed a dozen incarcerated people and reviewed data along with several hundred pages of prison grievances, disciplinary records and legal filings. The reporting revealed that trans women like Skylit and many others transferred to a women’s prison under the new law have not found the sanctuary they were seeking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Skylit, the nightmares have only gotten worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Living with secrets\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit grew up in Compton. When she was 5, she and her siblings entered the foster care system after their mother suffered a mental health break. When Skylit was 14, her mother died by apparent suicide, and the following year, she said, “I tried to kill myself by running in front of a moving train.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was physically uninjured but sent to a psychiatric hospital. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d tried to take her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964099\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"949\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1020x1210.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-160x190.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1295x1536.jpg 1295w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED.jpg 1686w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In August 2020, as Syiaah Skylit sat in solitary confinement at Kern Valley State Prison for her own protection, transgender advocates launched a Change.org campaign urging clemency for her. She helped with the design of the artwork. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit, Micah Bazant and Freddie Francis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Skylit is a slight 5 feet, 5 inches tall with a big, dimpled smile. As a teen and living as a boy, she was bullied for being a flashy dresser, for the way she carried herself. She experimented with a gay relationship, but it left her feeling “confused.” The adults in her life were religious and viewed LGBTQ+ people as sinners. Her brothers were gang members. She did what they asked of her, she said, because “I didn’t want to look weak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t come out and be myself around people like my family and my friends that I grew up with,” Skylit said. “I grew up in a hard-ass neighborhood. That ain’t about to fly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she harbored a secret she never shared with her brothers, one even she didn’t fully comprehend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would dress up. I would put makeup on. All I understood as a person was, ‘Hey, I like this,’” she said. “So if I like this, why is it so bad? Am I a bad person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A stint in juvenile detention didn’t stop Skylit from setting her sights on a bright future. She finished high school on time, enrolled in community college, worked multiple jobs and, for a while, paid her rent. But anxiety, depression and drug use interrupted her stability. She’d already been homeless once when, facing eviction in 2012, she and a friend robbed a convenience store in San Bernardino County. It yielded little, so they robbed a Los Angeles County jewelry store — and got caught.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 22, Skylit was facing criminal trials in both counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘I couldn’t come out and be myself around people like my family and my friends that I grew up with. I grew up in a hard-ass neighborhood. That ain’t about to fly.’[/pullquote]Her first stop was a San Bernardino County jail, where she came out as gay to get to the relative safety of what was then called the “alternative lifestyles tank.” According to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23999484-syiaah2015sanbernardinocolawsuit\">class-action lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a>, the conditions were distressing: discrimination by staff and denial of basic services. Skylit, under her legal name, was among the named plaintiffs. A settlement led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002812-sanbernardinoinjunctiverelief\">significant reforms (DOC)\u003c/a>. It was in that jail, she said, where she first learned to advocate for her rights, even in the face of retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also where she first encountered openly transgender women and was blown away by their courage and joyful confidence. In their midst, Skylit said, she at last felt free of judgment, open to self-acceptance. Her next stop — a stint in the segregated LGBTQ+ tank at the Los Angeles County jail — only reinforced those feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I got a taste of all the ‘T’ and I was just living it,” she said of the ‘T’ for Transgender in the alphabet soup of LGBTQ+. “It was like discovering myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was sentenced to 16 years in prison. It may seem paradoxical, but incarceration gave Skylit breathing room to explore her gender identity. In court, she apologized to her robbery victims. Then, she made a promise to herself to use “every second, every minute” of her time inside “to really find out who I am. I mean, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I felt I had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit entered California’s prison system for men in December 2015. Soon, she chose her new name. “Syiaah” is an acronym — sexy, young, intelligent, ambitious, authentic and heroic. She picked “Sky” as “an inspiration to reach higher limits.” And “lit” is a nod to her hip-hop Compton roots “to be vibrant, live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Put it together, it’s ‘I keep the sky lit’,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with the up-to-date \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002874-ama-medical-spectrum-of-gender-d-295312\">medical (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients\">psychiatric\u003c/a> understanding of gender identity, the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act doesn’t require incarcerated people to be on hormone replacement therapy or to be interested in gender-affirming surgeries to be transferred to housing that aligns with their sense of safety. During Skylit’s early years in prison, that wasn’t the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11957664 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/110822-KernValleyPrison-LV_CM_04-1020x680.jpg']The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation \u003cem>did\u003c/em> consider such transfer requests. The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act had since 2012 \u003ca href=\"https://www.prearesourcecenter.org/frequently-asked-questions/does-policy-houses-transgender-or-intersex-inmates-based-exclusively\">forbidden\u003c/a> the department from housing prisoners based solely on external genital anatomy. But the CDCR did it on a case-by-case basis, and the tiny number granted all happened to be for trans women who’d had gender-affirming genital surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everybody wants that. Gender identity and gender transition are deeply personal. Skylit’s records show she declared her transgender identity on a special CDCR form about a year after arrival — and soon after started \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018578-skylit-2019-housing-complaint\">asking to be transferred to a women’s prison (DOC)\u003c/a>. That went nowhere. So Skylit worked to stay true to her transition, even as she was funneled through a series of men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I tapped into it, despite the long time I was facing, I was happy,” she said. “But that happiness turned into survival real fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Met by violence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Almost immediately, Skylit’s gender identity and small stature made her a target. On several occasions, she said, correctional officers placed her in cells with large men who specifically requested her and then pressured her for sex. When she filed grievances in an attempt to switch cells or responded to physical assaults by fighting, she said, staff responded with Rule Violation Reports, known as RVRs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more I would push back,” she said, “the more they would attack me with RVRs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Skylit pressed on. She requested hormone replacement therapy, and by the time those treatments started, in 2018, she’d been moved to Mule Creek State Prison near the small Sierra foothills town of Ione. It’s one of a dozen or so facilities in the state designated as “transgender hubs.” That means, medical and mental services for trans prisoners are concentrated there, as are prison commissary items unavailable elsewhere, such as sports bras and makeup for trans women, and boxer shorts for trans men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit could finally stop MacGyvering her fashion looks. She could style her hair, wear makeup and earrings. On the prison yard, she said she found a sense of belonging with her trans sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were out there,” she said. “Having fun, protecting each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even at men’s prisons designated as transgender hubs, trans women were mixed with cisgender men in common areas and their assigned cells. The truer Skylit felt to herself, she said, the greater the danger she experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, it’s OK to come out and you got a nice little outfit on, but guess what you just did?” she said. “You just called attention to yourself and now you have certain people who are making sexual advances towards you, and some of them don’t stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of her trans sisters exchanged sex for safety. But even that was no guarantee of safety. Skylit wept while recounting how a close friend staggered out of her cell “with a huge gash in her skull, busted lip, trying to get out of the room that she placed herself in because she wanted to be \u003cem>herself\u003c/em>. And she couldn’t complain to the officers, because they’re not gonna do anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘Either I’m gonna be who I wanna be or I’m gonna end up dead. Girl, I can’t be dead and be myself at the same time.’[/pullquote]So Skylit found herself facing a soul-crushing choice between her safety and her identity. Skylit drew a line against assault. That meant more fights and more disciplinary write-ups. The hormone treatments caused muscle weakness, so she made another compromise. She began stopping and starting the medications depending on the danger she was facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Either I’m gonna be who I wanna be or I’m gonna end up dead,” she said. “Girl, I can’t be dead and be myself at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a survival strategy it made sense, but abruptly going on and off hormones brings on acute mood swings. It also heightens \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis\">gender dysphoria\u003c/a>, a mental health diagnosis associated with distress a person can feel at being a gender other than the one assigned at birth. Skylit had experienced that for most of her life, as she hid her true gender identity, and it caused depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Skylit juggled these stressors, prison officials transferred her again — this time to Kern Valley State Prison, a maximum-security facility in the Central Valley town of Delano that houses some of the state’s most violent offenders. Among them, transgender advocates \u003ca href=\"https://prisonhealth.news/2021/10/29/lgbtq-prison-testimonies-dakota-rose-in-california/\">note\u003c/a>, are gang members known to target LGBTQ+ people in prisons. That’s where she \u003ca href=\"https://sfbayview.com/2021/05/trans-woman-seeks-release-from-cdcr-custody-after-attacks/\">hit a new low\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">lawsuit filed on her behalf (DOC),\u003c/a> she was assaulted twice by incarcerated men and witnessed gruesome attacks on two other trans women. Terrified, she says she asked to speak to a sergeant about her safety concerns. Instead, she alleges, two officers followed her into her cell. One pulled down her pants, ran a baton along her bottom and threatened to rape her with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m just sitting there like this can’t be real,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11954055 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230626-CALIFORNIA-PRISONERS-AP-RP-KQED-1020x735.jpg']That night, she drank from a bottle of laundry detergent in a desperate attempt to get sent to a mental health crisis unit. An officer stripped her of her clothes and left her lying naked in her cell next to the empty bottle. The next day, an officer pepper sprayed her at close range. Others beat her with batons. CDCR does not comment on active litigation. In legal filings, the named officers have denied wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, Skylit said, a sergeant agreed to isolate her for her protection. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.vera.org/news/violence-torture-and-isolation-what-its-like-to-be-trans-in-prison\">a common fate for trans women\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sad to be thankful for complete solitary confinement, isolation,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She would stay there for seven months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit had sought help from various attorneys. One responded. Jen Orthwein is a forensic psychologist who once treated transgender clients behind prison walls. They later co-founded a queer-owned law firm to challenge the harsh conditions they’d witnessed. Orthwein worked with other transgender advocates to launch a \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/gavin-newsom-call-for-the-immediate-release-of-syiaah-skylit-from-cdcr-custody-blacktranslivesmatter?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=cc830240-3ea3-11e9-a4df-e5579d49cec9\">petition\u003c/a> for clemency on Skylit’s behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, with colored pencils and paper, Skylit got to work crafting a series of illustrated \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018571-its-a-colorful-world-by-syiaah-skylit\">children’s books (DOC)\u003c/a> featuring gender-non-conforming characters. Among them is a rainbow-colored kid named Unique, who is fully embraced by loving parents but bullied on the playground for delighting in toys conventionally meant for both boys and girls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project helped Skylit reimagine her traumatic past. She also hoped her books might make their way into the world and change the mindset of young readers “to where they’re not growing into hatred, but actually out of it.” She finished two, got started on a third. And that’s where she was when Orthewin gave her the good news. The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964104\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Scans of two pages of drawing and text from a hand written book.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excerpts from ‘It’s a Colorful World.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was like a prayer had been answered,” Skylit said. “Like, ‘This is it!’ This is going to be the beginning of Syiaah Skylit at her best, at completely being herself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New perils\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s bill was years in the making, and he’s quick to note that top CDCR officials were on board. They welcomed advocates to join a working group to brainstorm solutions to unsafe conditions and sought input directly from incarcerated transgender people. The Office of Inspector General detailed in \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Special-Review-Incarcerated-Transgender-Nonbinary-Intersex-Individuals.pdf\">a 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> the painful responses to those surveys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laws in \u003ca href=\"https://www.acluct.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-trans-people-who-are-incarcerated-connecticut\">Connecticut\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991974-952-management-of-gender-diverse-and-intersex-inmates-final-version\">Rhode Island (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://lgbtqbar.org/bar-news/tiproject/ma/\">Massachusetts\u003c/a> call for similar reforms, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu-nj.org/en/press-releases/settlement-nj-civil-rights-suit-promises-necessary-reform-affirming-transgender\">New Jersey\u003c/a> has made comparable policy changes in response to litigation. But advocates who helped craft California’s law say it is the most expansive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said in an interview that he knew at the start that the magnitude of changes mandated by the law required patience and that it would take time to implement. More recently, though, he’s grown deeply concerned about the way his legislation has played out on the ground. Because, he said, even with senior CDCR management on board, “the culture in the individual prisons is just so challenging that it doesn’t translate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964100\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg\" alt='A group of people, most wearing the same uniform of blue shirts and pants, stand together holding signs and joined by a person wearing a suit helping to hold a banner reading \"trans lives matter.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"539\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1536x1035.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1920x1294.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) attends CDCR’s first Transgender Remembrance Day in 2019, organized jointly by trans and cisgender incarcerated people. Wiener had already authored the bill that would become the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, with buy-in from top CDCR officials. \u003ccite>(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials chose the Central California Women’s Facility, or CCWF, in Chowchilla as the prison where all the trans women would go first. It’s a facility with a \u003ca href=\"https://prisonlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/16.08.18-Prison-Law-Office-report-on-CCWF.pdf\">troubled history (PDF)\u003c/a> when it comes to staff accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of a dozen CCWF prisoners interviewed by KQED, all said they heard correctional staff express hostility to the new law even before the transfers began, warning the cisgender population that fakers and sexual predators were heading their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasha Brown, a cisgender woman, said she heard guards say, “The doors were going to be open for people to come in to violate us, to rape us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomas Green, a transgender man, said he heard guards “telling women here that the trans women were men and that they were gonna get raped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11936438 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/1920px-CentralCaliforniaWomensFacility-1020x816.jpeg']Alexanne Danis, a cisgender woman, said she heard a lieutenant openly state that the transfers “don’t belong here, that they have to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officers and fellow cisgender incarcerated people, Danis said, also spoke about driving the new transfers out, “saying that they were gonna stage stuff and that they were gonna make it sound worse than it was if anything did happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Calvin was one of the first transgender women to arrive at CCWF. She helped work on Wiener’s legislation and has since transferred to the lower-security California Institution for Women. She heard the characterizations by staff that trans women were “gonna come over here and rape y’all and beat y’all up and take y’all stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The power to reverse the law, she heard officers tell incarcerated people, rested in their hands: “Take your house back. Take your prison back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates who helped craft the law were well aware of this toxic environment. They say they pressed officials to allow them to hold a town hall at the women’s prison to defuse these narratives before the transfers began. It never happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the trans women who began arriving in the first half of 2021 had no idea what they were stepping into.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orthwein, Skylit’s attorney, was part of the working group that informed the new law and said key CDCR decisions around implementation proved harmful. The new arrivals were held in segregation for their first month. There, they were issued new prison identification numbers beginning with a distinctive two-letter combination. Instead of “some semblance of privacy about their transgender status,” which advocates had pressed for, this immediately outed them, feeding hostility and rejection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF houses people in dorms, as many as eight to a room. Without exception, the trans women interviewed by KQED said they have been refused entry to dorms by prisoners who viewed them as “men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Skylit’s first day in the general population, in mid-July 2021, guards started writing her up for minor violations. Within a month, she was in solitary confinement, accused of having a consensual relationship with her cisgender female bunkmate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sex is against prison rules systemwide, but every CCWF prisoner interviewed for this piece said it’s extremely common, especially in women’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Tomas Green, transgender man in California prison\"]‘At the end of the day, we’re humans. I’m not saying every relationship in here is just peachy perfect, no. You have a lot of relationships in here that are toxic — fight, argue. But that’s life in the free world.’[/pullquote]“Yes, you’re not supposed to have sex but it happens. It’s natural and there’s nothing that’s gonna stop it from happening,” said Giovanni Gonzales, a transgender man who runs a group to educate peers about gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relationships form quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, we’re humans,” Green said. “I’m not saying every relationship in here is just peachy perfect, no. You have a lot of relationships in here that are toxic — fight, argue. But that’s life in the free world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, while sex and intimacy may be universal, punishment is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales and Green said staff often turn a blind eye to cisgender women who couple up, especially if they express their gender in stereotypically feminine ways. If a transgender man is caught being amorous, they said, a rule violation is more likely. As for the trans women who were just arriving at CCWF, a harsher set of unwritten rules seemed to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One cisgender couple in Skylit’s dorm had been having regular sex without consequence, she said. As Skylit was handcuffed and written up for her relationship, she asked an officer why she was going to isolation and the bunkmate wasn’t. He replied, “Because you’re a man and she’s a woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing to discuss her situation, records show that Acting Warden Michael Pallares told her he would push to send her back to men’s prison. She claimed he was hostile, “calling me a predator, saying that I’m preying on women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit had lived in constant fear of sexual assault. Now \u003cem>she \u003c/em>was cast as a sexual predator. Her disciplinary paperwork relied on “confidential sources” to suggest she was faking her status because she “displays very masculine behavior when with the inmate population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In isolation, according to grievances and a government claim filed by Orthwein, Skylit’s gender identity was undermined. She had trouble accessing her hormones and was denied a razor for 40 days straight. She grew a full beard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People screaming at me, yelling at me, calling me a man, and I need to go back to the men’s prison,” she said. “‘Look at the hair on yo’ face.’ [I was] pleading, pleading, pleading, ‘Please give me a razor, please give me a razor,’ and denied every time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A psychologist misgendered Skylit in a report, yet \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018435-psychologist-note-razors-clothing\">noted (DOC)\u003c/a> that an extended stay in isolation would likely increase her mental health symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the months that followed, Skylit was sent multiple times to a mental health unit for being suicidal. She was bumped up to a more intensive level of mental health care. Yet she remained in solitary confinement for eight months. Then, without explanation, Pallares released her to the general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her freedom wouldn’t last.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘What did you all do to our homegirl?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s time in isolation had taken a toll. On the yard, she said she made enemies when she responded to threats and harassment with aggressive posturing and language. She said she tried not to engage, hanging out and playing cards every day with a couple of other trans women and one cisgender woman who was sweet on her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would hold hands,” she said. “We would hug, we would kiss.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials aren’t supposed to penalize trans women more harshly for breaking rules that cisgender prisoners also break, like the one forbidding any behavior that could lead to sex. But the atmosphere around these relationships, interviews and records reveal, was tense and complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some cisgender women feared or lashed out at the new arrivals, others were eager to partner with them. Of a half-dozen transgender women at CCWF who were interviewed by KQED, the five who have not had gender-affirming genital surgery, said they’ve been subject to sexual advances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11955680 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/GettyImages-180517172-1020x680.jpg']Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">a report (DOC)\u003c/a> on the implementation of the new law commissioned by CDCR found that a “sexualized environment, including being sexually pressured or pursued,” was among the reasons given by transgender women who voluntarily returned to men’s prison. Other reasons included “hostile reception from staff or incarcerated individuals,” “false allegations to be removed from room” and “issues with getting hygiene items, such as razors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit said, consensual sex generally went unpunished. That made it hard for her to imagine just how much the bond with her new “bestie” would cost her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 19, 2022, Skylit and her friends were on the yard drinking prison-made wine, disciplinary records show. Skylit and her girlfriend were kissing. A few minutes after Skylit went to use the porta-potty, she said, the girlfriend followed her in and started throwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said she was holding her hair back when Calvin, one of the trans friends she played cards with, let her know a guard was approaching. Skylit stepped out and asked a couple of other people to check on the girlfriend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They “opened the door and they say, ‘What did you all do to our homegirl? We don’t know what you two doing, we don’t know what’s going on over here,’” Skylit recounted. “And I said, ‘We just been drinking and she was in the thing throwing up.’ But now, it’s a commotion. It’s a crowd coming up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and two other witnesses, the girlfriend came out, and the guard scolded them. “She was like, ‘I’m OK bestie, I love you so much,’ and I hugged her and I walked away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rumors about a rape started circulating. Skylit said she heard it “from like one or two people. It wasn’t \u003cem>big\u003c/em> until the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘They were surrounding me and pushing me and spitting on me and swinging at me.’[/pullquote]By then, a fictional narrative had taken shape: In those few moments inside the porta-potty, Skylit had committed rape, while Calvin stood guard. To be clear, prison officials never accused her of rape or sexual assault. The girlfriend told them — and KQED — that it never happened. Still, the rumors proved to be Skylit’s undoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That next day, according to Skylit and five witnesses, as she was returning from a mental health appointment, she was roughed up on the yard by 12 to 15 incarcerated people who called her “nothing but a rapist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were surrounding me and pushing me and spitting on me and swinging at me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED obtained video of the incident through a public records request. There’s no audio, but the grainy image shows Skylit, who had a pass to be on the yard, doing an about-face as a group of incarcerated people in civilian clothes approached her. One appears to throw liquid at her. A few shove and punch her. She gets agitated. At one point, it’s clear that she’s yelling. But she mostly keeps her arms crossed. She never hits back. Still, she is the only one punished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/nS5qpi-NXfE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>As Syiaah Skylit, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt under her prison blues, walked through the yard at Central California Women’s Facility in May 2022, she was accosted by incarcerated people who accused her of being a rapist. Courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’d been out of solitary confinement for just four weeks. She went right back in — and she hasn’t come out in more than a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sergeant who, the video shows, does not walk out to the yard until Skylit is handcuffed, wrote her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018553-referring-to-sexual-intercourse-through-rape\">rule violation report (DOC)\u003c/a>. He states that he heard her yell, “I’m gonna f- you bitches,” and a few variations on that theme. Then, using her legal name, he adds an editorial aside: “It should be known that when [Skylit] mentioned f-, [Skylit] was referring to sexual intercourse through rape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF initially accused Skylit of “threatening the life of a prisoner,” and referred her to the local district attorney for felony prosecution. It didn’t stick. Ultimately, her writeup was reduced to “behavior which could lead to violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘It’s sad to be thankful for complete solitary confinement, isolation.’[/pullquote]In her defense, Skylit pointed to the video as evidence that she wasn’t the aggressor and that others had committed violence against \u003cem>her.\u003c/em> Records show that the senior hearing officer called the video “irrelevant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR does not comment on specific incarcerated people. Asked to respond to the behavior of the sergeant, it said state regulations forbid discrimination by staff and grant incarcerated people the right to be treated “respectfully, impartially, and fairly by all employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit was far from alone in experiencing false allegations. Of the trans women at CCWF interviewed by KQED, each said they had been similarly targeted by others who were incarcerated and even by staff. Most were sent to solitary confinement pending investigations. Some were already there when they said they were framed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fancy Lipsey, records show, spent seven months in isolation after she was physically assaulted by other incarcerated people. As soon as she got out, a cisgender woman “went over to the officers and told them that I touched her vagina and her breasts in the dayroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They reviewed the video on the spot “and saw that I was nowhere near this woman.” Still, they told Lipsey they were taking her back to solitary confinement. That’s when she cut her wrists, ending up on suicide watch instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calvin said she was punished after a roommate “went up to the program office and said I supposedly choked” another cisgender woman in their dorm in the middle of the night. The allegation came days after the alleged assault, which no one witnessed or reported at the time. Calvin said it took months to clear her name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tremayne Carroll, a trans woman who uses a wheelchair, said that after she rebuffed sexual advances from a cisgender woman, that woman yelled to guards that Carroll had sexually assaulted her. When that went nowhere, the woman changed her story and said the two had had consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freddy Fox, an intersex prisoner who identifies as a trans woman and goes by “Foxy,” said she landed in solitary confinement after being assaulted. Alone in her cell in the weeks that followed, she was verbally harassed and accused of sexual impropriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would allege that I had exposed myself, then I’d have to go to the cameras to show that I did not expose myself,” Foxy said. The officers would then reduce the write-up to a lesser violation, she said, “but it’s still a sexual misconduct! That was the go-to thing in 2021 when we first arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Porta-potty rapist’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s case stands out in one crucial way: The false rape allegation went viral. Her chosen and legal names ended up all \u003ca href=\"https://reduxx.info/exclusive-female-inmate-reports-rape-occurred-in-california-womens-prison/\">over the internet.\u003c/a> One outlet called her the perpetrator of a “\u003ca href=\"https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/alleged-port-potty-rape-throws-harsh-glare-california-coed-prison-law-after\">port-a-potty rape\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, as soon as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act went into effect, an anti-trans organization called the Women’s Liberation Front started working to roll it back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November 2021, it filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276203-chandlervcdcrcomplaint\">a lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> in federal court alleging the law violates the constitutional rights of cisgender women by forcing them to be housed with trans women who still have male genitalia. Simply having them there, the pending suit alleges, “substantially” increases the risk “of sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and physical violence, and to psychological fear of such harms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Women’s Liberation Front was looking for a villain. The rumors about Skylit fit its narrative perfectly. Even though there were no eyewitnesses, no prison investigation and a girlfriend who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276218-43-3-asia-davis-declaration\">said the rape never happened (DOC)\u003c/a>, attorneys for the organization gathered hearsay declarations. The attorney handed them over to anti-trans websites and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276220-decl-of-plaintiff-supporter-mimi-lee-alleging-rape-of-ad-in-opposition-to-dismissal-033113109979\">attached them to a motion in the legal docket (DOC)\u003c/a>, making the declarations public record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the tier in solitary confinement, the taunts of “porta-potty rapist” have been endless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More on LGBTQI+ Rights' tag='transgender-rights']“I tell people, stop calling me that,” Skylit said. “Then, I’m a problem because I say things like, ‘Well, if I’m a rapist, then you a rapist,’ and then it’s like, ‘Oh, now he’s a threat, he’s arguing, he’s aggressive.’ I’m in a cage. By myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said cisgender incarcerated people have threatened to stab her, even chop off her penis. They’ve done it in front of officers without consequence. Yet just about every time she has erupted with verbal threats, she is written up. Prison officials have used the outbursts, and the enemies she’s made, as justification to keep her in solitary confinement, labeling her a “threat to the management and security of the institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some prisoners in solitary confinement — what CDCR calls restricted housing — are allowed cellmates for company. Skylit has had to cell alone. Some are allowed onto an open yard. But Skylit was designated a potential threat to others, so she has had to exercise in a cage that’s about 12-by-8 feet, often surrounded by other incarcerated people who insult her. When she attends her mental health groups, she is among those who must sit in a cage the size of a telephone booth called a “therapeutic module.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6987940/\">studies \u003c/a>confirm how damaging long-term solitary confinement is to mental health. So it’s no surprise that Skylit has struggled. Records show she has harmed herself on several occasions, once punching the wall until her hand bled. After that incident, for a few weeks in August 2022, she was medicated against her will with high doses of antipsychotic drugs. Too drugged to mount a defense, she was found guilty of multiple rule violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A judge determined the prison violated her civil rights by force-medicating her. For Skylit, it was an important victory. But the whole experience eroded her faith in the prison mental health system. As the months ticked by, she went off all her medications — not just the hormones, but also the ones that treat depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shattered trust\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s important to note that many cisgender incarcerated people at CCWF with histories of sexual victimization were truly scared of the newly arriving transgender women. Some still are. The fear-mongering from staff and outside anti-trans groups has not helped. But those fears appear to be unfounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED requested discipline data from CCWF. In the two years after the new law took effect, staff did not issue a single rule violation for physical or sexual violence to the trans women who came over from men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, write-ups for violence were common in the rest of the prison population, including for fighting, assault and battery on prisoners and staff, and even inciting a riot. The data also show that the new arrivals under the law were six times more likely than other CCWF prisoners to be punished for behavior that could lead to consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it happens, there was a violent predator at CCWF. Allegedly, there was more than one and they weren’t transgender women. They were cisgender men, employees of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May 2023, as Skylit struggled to hold onto herself in her solitary cell, she heard the news that Gregory Rodriguez, a longtime guard at CCWF, was facing a 96-count criminal complaint for allegedly sexually assaulting more than a dozen incarcerated women over the course of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d been allowed to retire in August 2022 while under investigation. In addition to those charges, six women filed lawsuits under Jane Roe or Jane Doe pseudonyms against Rodriguez in federal court, contending he lured them to a suite of offices where there are no cameras and forcibly raped them. One of these alleged assaults took place on May 20, 2022, the same day that the crowd surrounded Skylit and called \u003cem>her\u003c/em> a rapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article280162624.html\">settled those suits\u003c/a> earlier this month for $3.7 million. More lawsuits have been filed alleging sexual assaults by CCWF employees. Four of the named victims are transgender women, Skylit among them. Her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018568-skylitsexabusecomplaintaug14_2023\">lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> contends that Rodriguez and Pallares, the warden who called her a predator, each demanded sexual favors from her in the spring of 2022 “for the purpose of humiliating, degrading and demeaning” her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him to have me come into that room, it’s just so dirty,” Skylit said. “I feel dirty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pallares was demoted in January after the Rodriguez scandal broke. Currently, an associate warden at Pleasant Valley State Prison, he declined comment. Prison officials wouldn’t say whether Pallares was under investigation. But in a statement, officials said CDCR investigates all sexual assault allegations, and “resolutely condemns any staff member who violates their oath and shatters the trust of the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘I don’t even understand who I am anymore. I’m full of anger. Hatred, ooh, hatred is huge for me right now. I’m lost, I’m completely lost.’[/pullquote]The totality of Skylit’s experience has left \u003cem>her \u003c/em>shattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They come to my door every day asking me if I want to take my hormones. No, I don’t want to take no hormones,” she told KQED in March after 10 months of isolation. “I don’t even understand who I am anymore. I’m full of anger. Hatred, ooh, hatred is huge for me right now. I’m lost, I’m completely lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spending more than two years in solitary confinement means she hasn’t had access to the kind of programming that would earn her good-time credits and earlier release, like school, work and vocational training. She has never laid a finger on another prisoner or an officer, but her disciplinary write-ups have nevertheless added more than a year to her original 16-year sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials are again recommending that Skylit be returned to a men’s prison. It requires a hearing that’s already been postponed for 17 months. She’s flip-flopped on whether to go back voluntarily. Being stuck in a box is destroying her, she said, and getting back into the general population may help her get out sooner. But with being falsely labeled a rapist, she’s terrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will kill me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she does end up back in men’s prison, she shared in an emotional phone call, she plans to keep her gender identity secret. To prepare for the possibility, she started working out so she could fight for her life. She sold her earrings. And she cut off all her hair. She’d been growing it out for more than eight years, ever since those trans women in county jail lit a fire inside her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making herself “bald-headed” as she said, was a painful act of surrender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit also threw away the trans-friendly children’s books she’d worked so hard to bring to life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I told myself, I’m not gonna get emotional or emo with this stuff no more,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path forward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s law was meant to protect transgender women, but the culture at CCWF and rising anti-trans fervor all over the country have exposed them to new traumas. Implementation has been slow. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Special-Review-No.-22-01.pdf\">report (PDF)\u003c/a> issued in late August by the current inspector general noted a “significant backlog” in transfer requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of nearly 400 incarcerated people who’ve requested housing transfers under the law — the vast majority transgender women asking to move to women’s prison — more than 300 are still waiting for a committee to hear their case. Many live in daily fear of sexual and physical assault, said A.D. Lewis, an attorney who runs Trans Beyond Bars, a project for the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A transgender man, Lewis regularly communicates with trans-incarcerated people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three dozen or so trans women who made it to CCWF — most during the first six months of implementation — are the vanguard. Many, like Skylit, have suffered. A small number have been transferred to the California Institution for Women, a lower security prison in San Bernardino County, where they say conditions are slightly better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jen Orthwein, forensic psychologist, co-founder of Medina Orthwein LLP\"]‘These systems are so built to destroy people, and if they survive and get out, they’re not better and they’re often much worse.’[/pullquote]In a statement, CDCR said it is working to implement some of the changes \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">recommended by outside consultants (DOC)\u003c/a> earlier this year and is committed to providing “a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people, including the transgender, non-binary and intersex community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates acknowledge that the cycles of harm continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of respecting trans people’s self-determination and prioritizing their safety, as the law requires,” Lewis said, correctional staff and other incarcerated people have used it “to put a target on trans peoples’ back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after prison officials received KQED’s questions for this story in September, CCWF revoked all phone privileges for Skylit and others in solitary confinement. In an email to KQED after the initial publication of this story, a CDCR official said the revocation of phone privileges was a policy change ending what had been a temporary, more liberal phone privileges policy instituted in the early days of the COVID pandemic. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s attorney worries about the impact of the trauma on her future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These systems are so built to destroy people, and if they survive and get out, they’re not better and they’re often much worse,” Orthwein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter sent in July 2023 to Newsom, nearly two-dozen advocacy and legal organizations pressing for better treatment for transgender, nonbinary and intersex prisoners \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">urged clemency (DOC)\u003c/a> for those who have experienced harm in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, meanwhile, expressed deep frustration with the pace of implementation. In response to KQED’s findings, he said he was “horrified to hear how trans women are being treated in women’s prison, both by the prisons and by other inmates. The fact that they’re being treated harshly and slandered, called rapists when they’re not, it’s terrifying and we’re not going to just let this go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lee Romney is a longtime journalist who spent 23 years at the \u003c/em>Los Angeles Times\u003cem>. Jennifer Johnson is a former career public defender who helped launch San Francisco’s Behavioral Health Court. This reporting, supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the California Health Care Foundation, is part of a forthcoming podcast they’re co-creating. Called \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.novemberinmysoul.com/\">\u003cem>November In My Soul\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, it explores the way bias makes its way into our intertwined mental health and criminal legal systems.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: There are descriptions of physical and sexual violence in this piece. Also, where legal names and chosen names differ, we’re using chosen names.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>yiaah Skylit had been stuck in solitary confinement at a maximum-security men’s prison for months when, in the fall of 2020, she got the news that gave her hope: Gov. Gavin Newsom had signed the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB132\">Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the law requires California prison staff to use the chosen pronouns of incarcerated people who are intersex or identify as nonbinary or transgender, as Skylit does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It allows those incarcerated people to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/prea/sb-132-faqs/\">select a gender preference for the guards who search them\u003c/a>. Most significantly, it mandates that prison officials, under most circumstances, honor requests to be housed at the type of facility — male or female — that aligns with the incarcerated person’s gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For six years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation bounced Skylit from one men’s prison to another. At each, safety proved elusive. By 2020, she was isolated in a cell for her own protection after brutal attacks by people she was incarcerated with and, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">a lawsuit alleges (PDF)\u003c/a>, by guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prospect of serving out her remaining sentence in a women’s facility seemed nothing short of a miracle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, what it felt like was a sanctuary,” she said in one of several dozen interviews with KQED over the course of a year. “A place to be who you were meant to be without any retaliation, without any violence, without any judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades have passed since simply \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917624/how-a-young-gay-man-survived-one-of-the-darkest-eras-in-california-queer-history\">being LGBTQ+ was considered a crime and a mental illness\u003c/a>. But bias and marginalization still lead to high rates of criminalization, especially for \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/NTDS_Report.pdf\">Black trans women (PDF)\u003c/a> like Skylit. Once incarcerated, harsh prison conditions take a serious toll on mental health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/0/1149/files/2013/06/BulletinVol2Issue2.pdf\">Studies (PDF)\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf\">surveys (PDF)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/pdca15.pdf\">federal data (PDF)\u003c/a> show that trans women held in men’s prisons are sexually and physically assaulted at rates as much as 13 times higher than cisgender men. When they report assaults or fears for their safety, they’re often met with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">staff retaliation (PDF)\u003c/a>. It’s not uncommon for trans women to harm themselves — just to get to the safety of a prison mental health bed. Skylit had lived that, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act promised an end to those nightmares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No more having to hide in fear,” Skylit said. “No more having to be quiet about who I really am. I was excited. I couldn’t wait.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story is a result of a year-long investigation into the effectiveness of the legislation that aimed to reduce the trauma of transgender women in California’s prisons. KQED’s reporters interviewed a dozen incarcerated people and reviewed data along with several hundred pages of prison grievances, disciplinary records and legal filings. The reporting revealed that trans women like Skylit and many others transferred to a women’s prison under the new law have not found the sanctuary they were seeking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Skylit, the nightmares have only gotten worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Living with secrets\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit grew up in Compton. When she was 5, she and her siblings entered the foster care system after their mother suffered a mental health break. When Skylit was 14, her mother died by apparent suicide, and the following year, she said, “I tried to kill myself by running in front of a moving train.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was physically uninjured but sent to a psychiatric hospital. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d tried to take her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964099\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"949\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1020x1210.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-160x190.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1295x1536.jpg 1295w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED.jpg 1686w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In August 2020, as Syiaah Skylit sat in solitary confinement at Kern Valley State Prison for her own protection, transgender advocates launched a Change.org campaign urging clemency for her. She helped with the design of the artwork. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit, Micah Bazant and Freddie Francis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Skylit is a slight 5 feet, 5 inches tall with a big, dimpled smile. As a teen and living as a boy, she was bullied for being a flashy dresser, for the way she carried herself. She experimented with a gay relationship, but it left her feeling “confused.” The adults in her life were religious and viewed LGBTQ+ people as sinners. Her brothers were gang members. She did what they asked of her, she said, because “I didn’t want to look weak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t come out and be myself around people like my family and my friends that I grew up with,” Skylit said. “I grew up in a hard-ass neighborhood. That ain’t about to fly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she harbored a secret she never shared with her brothers, one even she didn’t fully comprehend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would dress up. I would put makeup on. All I understood as a person was, ‘Hey, I like this,’” she said. “So if I like this, why is it so bad? Am I a bad person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A stint in juvenile detention didn’t stop Skylit from setting her sights on a bright future. She finished high school on time, enrolled in community college, worked multiple jobs and, for a while, paid her rent. But anxiety, depression and drug use interrupted her stability. She’d already been homeless once when, facing eviction in 2012, she and a friend robbed a convenience store in San Bernardino County. It yielded little, so they robbed a Los Angeles County jewelry store — and got caught.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 22, Skylit was facing criminal trials in both counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Her first stop was a San Bernardino County jail, where she came out as gay to get to the relative safety of what was then called the “alternative lifestyles tank.” According to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23999484-syiaah2015sanbernardinocolawsuit\">class-action lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a>, the conditions were distressing: discrimination by staff and denial of basic services. Skylit, under her legal name, was among the named plaintiffs. A settlement led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002812-sanbernardinoinjunctiverelief\">significant reforms (DOC)\u003c/a>. It was in that jail, she said, where she first learned to advocate for her rights, even in the face of retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also where she first encountered openly transgender women and was blown away by their courage and joyful confidence. In their midst, Skylit said, she at last felt free of judgment, open to self-acceptance. Her next stop — a stint in the segregated LGBTQ+ tank at the Los Angeles County jail — only reinforced those feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I got a taste of all the ‘T’ and I was just living it,” she said of the ‘T’ for Transgender in the alphabet soup of LGBTQ+. “It was like discovering myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was sentenced to 16 years in prison. It may seem paradoxical, but incarceration gave Skylit breathing room to explore her gender identity. In court, she apologized to her robbery victims. Then, she made a promise to herself to use “every second, every minute” of her time inside “to really find out who I am. I mean, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I felt I had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit entered California’s prison system for men in December 2015. Soon, she chose her new name. “Syiaah” is an acronym — sexy, young, intelligent, ambitious, authentic and heroic. She picked “Sky” as “an inspiration to reach higher limits.” And “lit” is a nod to her hip-hop Compton roots “to be vibrant, live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Put it together, it’s ‘I keep the sky lit’,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with the up-to-date \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002874-ama-medical-spectrum-of-gender-d-295312\">medical (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients\">psychiatric\u003c/a> understanding of gender identity, the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act doesn’t require incarcerated people to be on hormone replacement therapy or to be interested in gender-affirming surgeries to be transferred to housing that aligns with their sense of safety. During Skylit’s early years in prison, that wasn’t the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation \u003cem>did\u003c/em> consider such transfer requests. The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act had since 2012 \u003ca href=\"https://www.prearesourcecenter.org/frequently-asked-questions/does-policy-houses-transgender-or-intersex-inmates-based-exclusively\">forbidden\u003c/a> the department from housing prisoners based solely on external genital anatomy. But the CDCR did it on a case-by-case basis, and the tiny number granted all happened to be for trans women who’d had gender-affirming genital surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everybody wants that. Gender identity and gender transition are deeply personal. Skylit’s records show she declared her transgender identity on a special CDCR form about a year after arrival — and soon after started \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018578-skylit-2019-housing-complaint\">asking to be transferred to a women’s prison (DOC)\u003c/a>. That went nowhere. So Skylit worked to stay true to her transition, even as she was funneled through a series of men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I tapped into it, despite the long time I was facing, I was happy,” she said. “But that happiness turned into survival real fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Met by violence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Almost immediately, Skylit’s gender identity and small stature made her a target. On several occasions, she said, correctional officers placed her in cells with large men who specifically requested her and then pressured her for sex. When she filed grievances in an attempt to switch cells or responded to physical assaults by fighting, she said, staff responded with Rule Violation Reports, known as RVRs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more I would push back,” she said, “the more they would attack me with RVRs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Skylit pressed on. She requested hormone replacement therapy, and by the time those treatments started, in 2018, she’d been moved to Mule Creek State Prison near the small Sierra foothills town of Ione. It’s one of a dozen or so facilities in the state designated as “transgender hubs.” That means, medical and mental services for trans prisoners are concentrated there, as are prison commissary items unavailable elsewhere, such as sports bras and makeup for trans women, and boxer shorts for trans men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit could finally stop MacGyvering her fashion looks. She could style her hair, wear makeup and earrings. On the prison yard, she said she found a sense of belonging with her trans sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were out there,” she said. “Having fun, protecting each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even at men’s prisons designated as transgender hubs, trans women were mixed with cisgender men in common areas and their assigned cells. The truer Skylit felt to herself, she said, the greater the danger she experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, it’s OK to come out and you got a nice little outfit on, but guess what you just did?” she said. “You just called attention to yourself and now you have certain people who are making sexual advances towards you, and some of them don’t stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of her trans sisters exchanged sex for safety. But even that was no guarantee of safety. Skylit wept while recounting how a close friend staggered out of her cell “with a huge gash in her skull, busted lip, trying to get out of the room that she placed herself in because she wanted to be \u003cem>herself\u003c/em>. And she couldn’t complain to the officers, because they’re not gonna do anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>So Skylit found herself facing a soul-crushing choice between her safety and her identity. Skylit drew a line against assault. That meant more fights and more disciplinary write-ups. The hormone treatments caused muscle weakness, so she made another compromise. She began stopping and starting the medications depending on the danger she was facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Either I’m gonna be who I wanna be or I’m gonna end up dead,” she said. “Girl, I can’t be dead and be myself at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a survival strategy it made sense, but abruptly going on and off hormones brings on acute mood swings. It also heightens \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis\">gender dysphoria\u003c/a>, a mental health diagnosis associated with distress a person can feel at being a gender other than the one assigned at birth. Skylit had experienced that for most of her life, as she hid her true gender identity, and it caused depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Skylit juggled these stressors, prison officials transferred her again — this time to Kern Valley State Prison, a maximum-security facility in the Central Valley town of Delano that houses some of the state’s most violent offenders. Among them, transgender advocates \u003ca href=\"https://prisonhealth.news/2021/10/29/lgbtq-prison-testimonies-dakota-rose-in-california/\">note\u003c/a>, are gang members known to target LGBTQ+ people in prisons. That’s where she \u003ca href=\"https://sfbayview.com/2021/05/trans-woman-seeks-release-from-cdcr-custody-after-attacks/\">hit a new low\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">lawsuit filed on her behalf (DOC),\u003c/a> she was assaulted twice by incarcerated men and witnessed gruesome attacks on two other trans women. Terrified, she says she asked to speak to a sergeant about her safety concerns. Instead, she alleges, two officers followed her into her cell. One pulled down her pants, ran a baton along her bottom and threatened to rape her with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m just sitting there like this can’t be real,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That night, she drank from a bottle of laundry detergent in a desperate attempt to get sent to a mental health crisis unit. An officer stripped her of her clothes and left her lying naked in her cell next to the empty bottle. The next day, an officer pepper sprayed her at close range. Others beat her with batons. CDCR does not comment on active litigation. In legal filings, the named officers have denied wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, Skylit said, a sergeant agreed to isolate her for her protection. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.vera.org/news/violence-torture-and-isolation-what-its-like-to-be-trans-in-prison\">a common fate for trans women\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sad to be thankful for complete solitary confinement, isolation,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She would stay there for seven months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit had sought help from various attorneys. One responded. Jen Orthwein is a forensic psychologist who once treated transgender clients behind prison walls. They later co-founded a queer-owned law firm to challenge the harsh conditions they’d witnessed. Orthwein worked with other transgender advocates to launch a \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/gavin-newsom-call-for-the-immediate-release-of-syiaah-skylit-from-cdcr-custody-blacktranslivesmatter?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=cc830240-3ea3-11e9-a4df-e5579d49cec9\">petition\u003c/a> for clemency on Skylit’s behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, with colored pencils and paper, Skylit got to work crafting a series of illustrated \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018571-its-a-colorful-world-by-syiaah-skylit\">children’s books (DOC)\u003c/a> featuring gender-non-conforming characters. Among them is a rainbow-colored kid named Unique, who is fully embraced by loving parents but bullied on the playground for delighting in toys conventionally meant for both boys and girls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project helped Skylit reimagine her traumatic past. She also hoped her books might make their way into the world and change the mindset of young readers “to where they’re not growing into hatred, but actually out of it.” She finished two, got started on a third. And that’s where she was when Orthewin gave her the good news. The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964104\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Scans of two pages of drawing and text from a hand written book.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excerpts from ‘It’s a Colorful World.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was like a prayer had been answered,” Skylit said. “Like, ‘This is it!’ This is going to be the beginning of Syiaah Skylit at her best, at completely being herself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New perils\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s bill was years in the making, and he’s quick to note that top CDCR officials were on board. They welcomed advocates to join a working group to brainstorm solutions to unsafe conditions and sought input directly from incarcerated transgender people. The Office of Inspector General detailed in \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Special-Review-Incarcerated-Transgender-Nonbinary-Intersex-Individuals.pdf\">a 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> the painful responses to those surveys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laws in \u003ca href=\"https://www.acluct.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-trans-people-who-are-incarcerated-connecticut\">Connecticut\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991974-952-management-of-gender-diverse-and-intersex-inmates-final-version\">Rhode Island (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://lgbtqbar.org/bar-news/tiproject/ma/\">Massachusetts\u003c/a> call for similar reforms, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu-nj.org/en/press-releases/settlement-nj-civil-rights-suit-promises-necessary-reform-affirming-transgender\">New Jersey\u003c/a> has made comparable policy changes in response to litigation. But advocates who helped craft California’s law say it is the most expansive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said in an interview that he knew at the start that the magnitude of changes mandated by the law required patience and that it would take time to implement. More recently, though, he’s grown deeply concerned about the way his legislation has played out on the ground. Because, he said, even with senior CDCR management on board, “the culture in the individual prisons is just so challenging that it doesn’t translate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964100\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg\" alt='A group of people, most wearing the same uniform of blue shirts and pants, stand together holding signs and joined by a person wearing a suit helping to hold a banner reading \"trans lives matter.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"539\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1536x1035.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1920x1294.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) attends CDCR’s first Transgender Remembrance Day in 2019, organized jointly by trans and cisgender incarcerated people. Wiener had already authored the bill that would become the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, with buy-in from top CDCR officials. \u003ccite>(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials chose the Central California Women’s Facility, or CCWF, in Chowchilla as the prison where all the trans women would go first. It’s a facility with a \u003ca href=\"https://prisonlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/16.08.18-Prison-Law-Office-report-on-CCWF.pdf\">troubled history (PDF)\u003c/a> when it comes to staff accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of a dozen CCWF prisoners interviewed by KQED, all said they heard correctional staff express hostility to the new law even before the transfers began, warning the cisgender population that fakers and sexual predators were heading their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasha Brown, a cisgender woman, said she heard guards say, “The doors were going to be open for people to come in to violate us, to rape us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomas Green, a transgender man, said he heard guards “telling women here that the trans women were men and that they were gonna get raped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Alexanne Danis, a cisgender woman, said she heard a lieutenant openly state that the transfers “don’t belong here, that they have to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officers and fellow cisgender incarcerated people, Danis said, also spoke about driving the new transfers out, “saying that they were gonna stage stuff and that they were gonna make it sound worse than it was if anything did happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Calvin was one of the first transgender women to arrive at CCWF. She helped work on Wiener’s legislation and has since transferred to the lower-security California Institution for Women. She heard the characterizations by staff that trans women were “gonna come over here and rape y’all and beat y’all up and take y’all stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The power to reverse the law, she heard officers tell incarcerated people, rested in their hands: “Take your house back. Take your prison back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates who helped craft the law were well aware of this toxic environment. They say they pressed officials to allow them to hold a town hall at the women’s prison to defuse these narratives before the transfers began. It never happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the trans women who began arriving in the first half of 2021 had no idea what they were stepping into.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orthwein, Skylit’s attorney, was part of the working group that informed the new law and said key CDCR decisions around implementation proved harmful. The new arrivals were held in segregation for their first month. There, they were issued new prison identification numbers beginning with a distinctive two-letter combination. Instead of “some semblance of privacy about their transgender status,” which advocates had pressed for, this immediately outed them, feeding hostility and rejection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF houses people in dorms, as many as eight to a room. Without exception, the trans women interviewed by KQED said they have been refused entry to dorms by prisoners who viewed them as “men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Skylit’s first day in the general population, in mid-July 2021, guards started writing her up for minor violations. Within a month, she was in solitary confinement, accused of having a consensual relationship with her cisgender female bunkmate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sex is against prison rules systemwide, but every CCWF prisoner interviewed for this piece said it’s extremely common, especially in women’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Yes, you’re not supposed to have sex but it happens. It’s natural and there’s nothing that’s gonna stop it from happening,” said Giovanni Gonzales, a transgender man who runs a group to educate peers about gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relationships form quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, we’re humans,” Green said. “I’m not saying every relationship in here is just peachy perfect, no. You have a lot of relationships in here that are toxic — fight, argue. But that’s life in the free world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, while sex and intimacy may be universal, punishment is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales and Green said staff often turn a blind eye to cisgender women who couple up, especially if they express their gender in stereotypically feminine ways. If a transgender man is caught being amorous, they said, a rule violation is more likely. As for the trans women who were just arriving at CCWF, a harsher set of unwritten rules seemed to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One cisgender couple in Skylit’s dorm had been having regular sex without consequence, she said. As Skylit was handcuffed and written up for her relationship, she asked an officer why she was going to isolation and the bunkmate wasn’t. He replied, “Because you’re a man and she’s a woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing to discuss her situation, records show that Acting Warden Michael Pallares told her he would push to send her back to men’s prison. She claimed he was hostile, “calling me a predator, saying that I’m preying on women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit had lived in constant fear of sexual assault. Now \u003cem>she \u003c/em>was cast as a sexual predator. Her disciplinary paperwork relied on “confidential sources” to suggest she was faking her status because she “displays very masculine behavior when with the inmate population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In isolation, according to grievances and a government claim filed by Orthwein, Skylit’s gender identity was undermined. She had trouble accessing her hormones and was denied a razor for 40 days straight. She grew a full beard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People screaming at me, yelling at me, calling me a man, and I need to go back to the men’s prison,” she said. “‘Look at the hair on yo’ face.’ [I was] pleading, pleading, pleading, ‘Please give me a razor, please give me a razor,’ and denied every time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A psychologist misgendered Skylit in a report, yet \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018435-psychologist-note-razors-clothing\">noted (DOC)\u003c/a> that an extended stay in isolation would likely increase her mental health symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the months that followed, Skylit was sent multiple times to a mental health unit for being suicidal. She was bumped up to a more intensive level of mental health care. Yet she remained in solitary confinement for eight months. Then, without explanation, Pallares released her to the general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her freedom wouldn’t last.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘What did you all do to our homegirl?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s time in isolation had taken a toll. On the yard, she said she made enemies when she responded to threats and harassment with aggressive posturing and language. She said she tried not to engage, hanging out and playing cards every day with a couple of other trans women and one cisgender woman who was sweet on her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would hold hands,” she said. “We would hug, we would kiss.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials aren’t supposed to penalize trans women more harshly for breaking rules that cisgender prisoners also break, like the one forbidding any behavior that could lead to sex. But the atmosphere around these relationships, interviews and records reveal, was tense and complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some cisgender women feared or lashed out at the new arrivals, others were eager to partner with them. Of a half-dozen transgender women at CCWF who were interviewed by KQED, the five who have not had gender-affirming genital surgery, said they’ve been subject to sexual advances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">a report (DOC)\u003c/a> on the implementation of the new law commissioned by CDCR found that a “sexualized environment, including being sexually pressured or pursued,” was among the reasons given by transgender women who voluntarily returned to men’s prison. Other reasons included “hostile reception from staff or incarcerated individuals,” “false allegations to be removed from room” and “issues with getting hygiene items, such as razors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit said, consensual sex generally went unpunished. That made it hard for her to imagine just how much the bond with her new “bestie” would cost her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 19, 2022, Skylit and her friends were on the yard drinking prison-made wine, disciplinary records show. Skylit and her girlfriend were kissing. A few minutes after Skylit went to use the porta-potty, she said, the girlfriend followed her in and started throwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said she was holding her hair back when Calvin, one of the trans friends she played cards with, let her know a guard was approaching. Skylit stepped out and asked a couple of other people to check on the girlfriend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They “opened the door and they say, ‘What did you all do to our homegirl? We don’t know what you two doing, we don’t know what’s going on over here,’” Skylit recounted. “And I said, ‘We just been drinking and she was in the thing throwing up.’ But now, it’s a commotion. It’s a crowd coming up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and two other witnesses, the girlfriend came out, and the guard scolded them. “She was like, ‘I’m OK bestie, I love you so much,’ and I hugged her and I walked away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rumors about a rape started circulating. Skylit said she heard it “from like one or two people. It wasn’t \u003cem>big\u003c/em> until the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>By then, a fictional narrative had taken shape: In those few moments inside the porta-potty, Skylit had committed rape, while Calvin stood guard. To be clear, prison officials never accused her of rape or sexual assault. The girlfriend told them — and KQED — that it never happened. Still, the rumors proved to be Skylit’s undoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That next day, according to Skylit and five witnesses, as she was returning from a mental health appointment, she was roughed up on the yard by 12 to 15 incarcerated people who called her “nothing but a rapist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were surrounding me and pushing me and spitting on me and swinging at me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED obtained video of the incident through a public records request. There’s no audio, but the grainy image shows Skylit, who had a pass to be on the yard, doing an about-face as a group of incarcerated people in civilian clothes approached her. One appears to throw liquid at her. A few shove and punch her. She gets agitated. At one point, it’s clear that she’s yelling. But she mostly keeps her arms crossed. She never hits back. Still, she is the only one punished.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/nS5qpi-NXfE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/nS5qpi-NXfE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>As Syiaah Skylit, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt under her prison blues, walked through the yard at Central California Women’s Facility in May 2022, she was accosted by incarcerated people who accused her of being a rapist. Courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’d been out of solitary confinement for just four weeks. She went right back in — and she hasn’t come out in more than a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sergeant who, the video shows, does not walk out to the yard until Skylit is handcuffed, wrote her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018553-referring-to-sexual-intercourse-through-rape\">rule violation report (DOC)\u003c/a>. He states that he heard her yell, “I’m gonna f- you bitches,” and a few variations on that theme. Then, using her legal name, he adds an editorial aside: “It should be known that when [Skylit] mentioned f-, [Skylit] was referring to sexual intercourse through rape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF initially accused Skylit of “threatening the life of a prisoner,” and referred her to the local district attorney for felony prosecution. It didn’t stick. Ultimately, her writeup was reduced to “behavior which could lead to violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In her defense, Skylit pointed to the video as evidence that she wasn’t the aggressor and that others had committed violence against \u003cem>her.\u003c/em> Records show that the senior hearing officer called the video “irrelevant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR does not comment on specific incarcerated people. Asked to respond to the behavior of the sergeant, it said state regulations forbid discrimination by staff and grant incarcerated people the right to be treated “respectfully, impartially, and fairly by all employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit was far from alone in experiencing false allegations. Of the trans women at CCWF interviewed by KQED, each said they had been similarly targeted by others who were incarcerated and even by staff. Most were sent to solitary confinement pending investigations. Some were already there when they said they were framed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fancy Lipsey, records show, spent seven months in isolation after she was physically assaulted by other incarcerated people. As soon as she got out, a cisgender woman “went over to the officers and told them that I touched her vagina and her breasts in the dayroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They reviewed the video on the spot “and saw that I was nowhere near this woman.” Still, they told Lipsey they were taking her back to solitary confinement. That’s when she cut her wrists, ending up on suicide watch instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calvin said she was punished after a roommate “went up to the program office and said I supposedly choked” another cisgender woman in their dorm in the middle of the night. The allegation came days after the alleged assault, which no one witnessed or reported at the time. Calvin said it took months to clear her name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tremayne Carroll, a trans woman who uses a wheelchair, said that after she rebuffed sexual advances from a cisgender woman, that woman yelled to guards that Carroll had sexually assaulted her. When that went nowhere, the woman changed her story and said the two had had consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freddy Fox, an intersex prisoner who identifies as a trans woman and goes by “Foxy,” said she landed in solitary confinement after being assaulted. Alone in her cell in the weeks that followed, she was verbally harassed and accused of sexual impropriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would allege that I had exposed myself, then I’d have to go to the cameras to show that I did not expose myself,” Foxy said. The officers would then reduce the write-up to a lesser violation, she said, “but it’s still a sexual misconduct! That was the go-to thing in 2021 when we first arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Porta-potty rapist’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s case stands out in one crucial way: The false rape allegation went viral. Her chosen and legal names ended up all \u003ca href=\"https://reduxx.info/exclusive-female-inmate-reports-rape-occurred-in-california-womens-prison/\">over the internet.\u003c/a> One outlet called her the perpetrator of a “\u003ca href=\"https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/alleged-port-potty-rape-throws-harsh-glare-california-coed-prison-law-after\">port-a-potty rape\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, as soon as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act went into effect, an anti-trans organization called the Women’s Liberation Front started working to roll it back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November 2021, it filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276203-chandlervcdcrcomplaint\">a lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> in federal court alleging the law violates the constitutional rights of cisgender women by forcing them to be housed with trans women who still have male genitalia. Simply having them there, the pending suit alleges, “substantially” increases the risk “of sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and physical violence, and to psychological fear of such harms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Women’s Liberation Front was looking for a villain. The rumors about Skylit fit its narrative perfectly. Even though there were no eyewitnesses, no prison investigation and a girlfriend who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276218-43-3-asia-davis-declaration\">said the rape never happened (DOC)\u003c/a>, attorneys for the organization gathered hearsay declarations. The attorney handed them over to anti-trans websites and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276220-decl-of-plaintiff-supporter-mimi-lee-alleging-rape-of-ad-in-opposition-to-dismissal-033113109979\">attached them to a motion in the legal docket (DOC)\u003c/a>, making the declarations public record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the tier in solitary confinement, the taunts of “porta-potty rapist” have been endless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I tell people, stop calling me that,” Skylit said. “Then, I’m a problem because I say things like, ‘Well, if I’m a rapist, then you a rapist,’ and then it’s like, ‘Oh, now he’s a threat, he’s arguing, he’s aggressive.’ I’m in a cage. By myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said cisgender incarcerated people have threatened to stab her, even chop off her penis. They’ve done it in front of officers without consequence. Yet just about every time she has erupted with verbal threats, she is written up. Prison officials have used the outbursts, and the enemies she’s made, as justification to keep her in solitary confinement, labeling her a “threat to the management and security of the institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some prisoners in solitary confinement — what CDCR calls restricted housing — are allowed cellmates for company. Skylit has had to cell alone. Some are allowed onto an open yard. But Skylit was designated a potential threat to others, so she has had to exercise in a cage that’s about 12-by-8 feet, often surrounded by other incarcerated people who insult her. When she attends her mental health groups, she is among those who must sit in a cage the size of a telephone booth called a “therapeutic module.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6987940/\">studies \u003c/a>confirm how damaging long-term solitary confinement is to mental health. So it’s no surprise that Skylit has struggled. Records show she has harmed herself on several occasions, once punching the wall until her hand bled. After that incident, for a few weeks in August 2022, she was medicated against her will with high doses of antipsychotic drugs. Too drugged to mount a defense, she was found guilty of multiple rule violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A judge determined the prison violated her civil rights by force-medicating her. For Skylit, it was an important victory. But the whole experience eroded her faith in the prison mental health system. As the months ticked by, she went off all her medications — not just the hormones, but also the ones that treat depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shattered trust\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s important to note that many cisgender incarcerated people at CCWF with histories of sexual victimization were truly scared of the newly arriving transgender women. Some still are. The fear-mongering from staff and outside anti-trans groups has not helped. But those fears appear to be unfounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED requested discipline data from CCWF. In the two years after the new law took effect, staff did not issue a single rule violation for physical or sexual violence to the trans women who came over from men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, write-ups for violence were common in the rest of the prison population, including for fighting, assault and battery on prisoners and staff, and even inciting a riot. The data also show that the new arrivals under the law were six times more likely than other CCWF prisoners to be punished for behavior that could lead to consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it happens, there was a violent predator at CCWF. Allegedly, there was more than one and they weren’t transgender women. They were cisgender men, employees of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May 2023, as Skylit struggled to hold onto herself in her solitary cell, she heard the news that Gregory Rodriguez, a longtime guard at CCWF, was facing a 96-count criminal complaint for allegedly sexually assaulting more than a dozen incarcerated women over the course of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d been allowed to retire in August 2022 while under investigation. In addition to those charges, six women filed lawsuits under Jane Roe or Jane Doe pseudonyms against Rodriguez in federal court, contending he lured them to a suite of offices where there are no cameras and forcibly raped them. One of these alleged assaults took place on May 20, 2022, the same day that the crowd surrounded Skylit and called \u003cem>her\u003c/em> a rapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article280162624.html\">settled those suits\u003c/a> earlier this month for $3.7 million. More lawsuits have been filed alleging sexual assaults by CCWF employees. Four of the named victims are transgender women, Skylit among them. Her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018568-skylitsexabusecomplaintaug14_2023\">lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> contends that Rodriguez and Pallares, the warden who called her a predator, each demanded sexual favors from her in the spring of 2022 “for the purpose of humiliating, degrading and demeaning” her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him to have me come into that room, it’s just so dirty,” Skylit said. “I feel dirty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pallares was demoted in January after the Rodriguez scandal broke. Currently, an associate warden at Pleasant Valley State Prison, he declined comment. Prison officials wouldn’t say whether Pallares was under investigation. But in a statement, officials said CDCR investigates all sexual assault allegations, and “resolutely condemns any staff member who violates their oath and shatters the trust of the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The totality of Skylit’s experience has left \u003cem>her \u003c/em>shattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They come to my door every day asking me if I want to take my hormones. No, I don’t want to take no hormones,” she told KQED in March after 10 months of isolation. “I don’t even understand who I am anymore. I’m full of anger. Hatred, ooh, hatred is huge for me right now. I’m lost, I’m completely lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spending more than two years in solitary confinement means she hasn’t had access to the kind of programming that would earn her good-time credits and earlier release, like school, work and vocational training. She has never laid a finger on another prisoner or an officer, but her disciplinary write-ups have nevertheless added more than a year to her original 16-year sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials are again recommending that Skylit be returned to a men’s prison. It requires a hearing that’s already been postponed for 17 months. She’s flip-flopped on whether to go back voluntarily. Being stuck in a box is destroying her, she said, and getting back into the general population may help her get out sooner. But with being falsely labeled a rapist, she’s terrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will kill me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she does end up back in men’s prison, she shared in an emotional phone call, she plans to keep her gender identity secret. To prepare for the possibility, she started working out so she could fight for her life. She sold her earrings. And she cut off all her hair. She’d been growing it out for more than eight years, ever since those trans women in county jail lit a fire inside her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making herself “bald-headed” as she said, was a painful act of surrender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit also threw away the trans-friendly children’s books she’d worked so hard to bring to life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I told myself, I’m not gonna get emotional or emo with this stuff no more,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path forward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s law was meant to protect transgender women, but the culture at CCWF and rising anti-trans fervor all over the country have exposed them to new traumas. Implementation has been slow. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Special-Review-No.-22-01.pdf\">report (PDF)\u003c/a> issued in late August by the current inspector general noted a “significant backlog” in transfer requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of nearly 400 incarcerated people who’ve requested housing transfers under the law — the vast majority transgender women asking to move to women’s prison — more than 300 are still waiting for a committee to hear their case. Many live in daily fear of sexual and physical assault, said A.D. Lewis, an attorney who runs Trans Beyond Bars, a project for the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A transgender man, Lewis regularly communicates with trans-incarcerated people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three dozen or so trans women who made it to CCWF — most during the first six months of implementation — are the vanguard. Many, like Skylit, have suffered. A small number have been transferred to the California Institution for Women, a lower security prison in San Bernardino County, where they say conditions are slightly better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a statement, CDCR said it is working to implement some of the changes \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">recommended by outside consultants (DOC)\u003c/a> earlier this year and is committed to providing “a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people, including the transgender, non-binary and intersex community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates acknowledge that the cycles of harm continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of respecting trans people’s self-determination and prioritizing their safety, as the law requires,” Lewis said, correctional staff and other incarcerated people have used it “to put a target on trans peoples’ back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after prison officials received KQED’s questions for this story in September, CCWF revoked all phone privileges for Skylit and others in solitary confinement. In an email to KQED after the initial publication of this story, a CDCR official said the revocation of phone privileges was a policy change ending what had been a temporary, more liberal phone privileges policy instituted in the early days of the COVID pandemic. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s attorney worries about the impact of the trauma on her future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These systems are so built to destroy people, and if they survive and get out, they’re not better and they’re often much worse,” Orthwein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter sent in July 2023 to Newsom, nearly two-dozen advocacy and legal organizations pressing for better treatment for transgender, nonbinary and intersex prisoners \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">urged clemency (DOC)\u003c/a> for those who have experienced harm in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, meanwhile, expressed deep frustration with the pace of implementation. In response to KQED’s findings, he said he was “horrified to hear how trans women are being treated in women’s prison, both by the prisons and by other inmates. The fact that they’re being treated harshly and slandered, called rapists when they’re not, it’s terrifying and we’re not going to just let this go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lee Romney is a longtime journalist who spent 23 years at the \u003c/em>Los Angeles Times\u003cem>. Jennifer Johnson is a former career public defender who helped launch San Francisco’s Behavioral Health Court. This reporting, supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the California Health Care Foundation, is part of a forthcoming podcast they’re co-creating. Called \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.novemberinmysoul.com/\">\u003cem>November In My Soul\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, it explores the way bias makes its way into our intertwined mental health and criminal legal systems.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When California’s top education official, Tony Thurmond, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11959851/tony-thurmond-on-culture-wars-in-california-schools\">showed up at a local school board meeting in Chino\u003c/a> this summer, he was ready for a fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this conservative school board was ready, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like dozens of local school board candidates across the state, their president and other members were backed by both local religious leaders and national far-right groups. Frustrated by the domination of California Democrats in Sacramento and around the state, those groups have focused not on electing state lawmakers or even local city leaders, but instead on \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-29/despite-statewide-losses-california-conservatives-say-school-board-wars-arent-over\">putting conservative majorities\u003c/a> on local school boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chino, that resulted in a ban on the pride flag and then, this summer, a policy to require teachers and school staff to alert parents if a student requests to be “identified or treated” as a gender other than the one listed on their birth certificate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some supporters argue the policy is necessary to keep parents abreast of what their kids are doing at school, while others have gone further to suggest that teachers are pushing students to change their gender identities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Thurmond, who this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11962489/california-education-chief-tony-thurmond-announces-run-for-governor-in-2026-race\">announced his bid for governor\u003c/a> in the 2026 race, showed up to the board meeting in San Bernardino County to voice his opposition to the notification proposal, he was berated by board president Sonja Shaw. That evening, Chino Valley Unified School District passed the transgender reporting policy, which has now been adopted by a half-dozen districts across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Democrats are grappling with how to respond. While party leaders like Thurmond have spoken out strongly against the transgender notification policies — and the state attorney general is suing the district over its policy — the state Legislature recently ended its annual session without any concrete action on the parental notification issue. Lawmakers have also acknowledged the challenge of crafting responses on a fast-moving issue largely playing out on the local level. When recently asked if he thinks Democrats were caught off guard by the push, Thurmond was blunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962595\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"California Superintendent Tony Thurmond is pictured speaking from a wooden podium. He has a business suit and black face mask on. It's daytime.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Superintendent Tony Thurmond told KQED that Democrats and progressives need to come up with ways to counter what some are calling anti-trans policies throughout California that focus on LGBTQ students. Thurmond recently showed up to a school board meeting in San Bernardino County to voice his opposition to a transgender reporting policy, which has now been adopted by a half-dozen districts across California. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the short answer is yes,” he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11959851/tony-thurmond-on-culture-wars-in-california-schools\">said on KQED’s Political Breakdown\u003c/a>. “This is a scripted playbook. It is a nationally driven playbook by groups that have been losing at the ballot box in congressional races, and [for] the White House and in state legislatures. And they’ve made a decision that they’re going to wage war at the local level, at the school district level and the school board. And so, Democrats and progressives and others need to come back with ways to counter this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But countering what backers frame not as anti-trans policies, but simply “parental rights” is proving to be a more politically fraught conversation for Democrats than other conservative culture crusades, such as banning books or restricting abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond\"]‘It is a nationally driven playbook by groups that have been losing at the ballot box. … They’re going to wage war at the local level, at the school district level and the school board. And so, Democrats and progressives and others need to come back with ways to counter this.’[/pullquote]And Gov. Gavin Newsom — who normally relishes his role publicly baiting Republicans for issues he sees as politically expedient for the left — has acknowledged the political minefield that issues involving transgender students present for Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While broadly defending transgender kids, the governor has also, at times, acknowledged the nuance of an issue that intersects with not one, but two, thorny political questions: One, the public’s general uneasiness with transgender issues, which were not even part of the broader political debate a few years ago. And two, the public support for including parents in conversations about their kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last week, Newsom signed a bill requiring all public schools to have at least one gender-neutral bathroom, but vetoed legislation requiring courts to consider a parent’s affirmation of their child’s gender identity in custody and visitation decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a recent onstage interview with Politico, Newsom mocked Republican leaders for focusing on transgender kids over issues like academics and for obsessively talking about a group that makes up just a tiny fraction of the population. But he also said, that after talking to parents, he gets why they’re angry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I totally understand why you were out there. If I were told those things, I would’ve been out there too,” he said. “People are being ginned up. And so, I’m not here to criticize them, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding, misrepresentation out there because people are weaponizing these grievances against vulnerable communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pictured speaking from a podium inside a conference room.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Newsom signed Senate Bill 760 on Saturday, Sept. 23, that requires all public schools to have at least 1 gender-neutral bathroom. Newsom later vetoed legislation requiring courts to consider a parent’s affirmation of their child’s gender identity in custody and visitation decisions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the state Capitol, Democrats lambasted the transgender reporting policies as an affront to student privacy that will potentially endanger kids and thrust teachers into the middle of delicate family conversations. A direct legislative response, however, was constrained by both the Capitol calendar and the power local governments have over decision-making in California schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Temecula Valley Unified School District in Riverside County voted earlier this year to ban curriculum materials that referenced gay rights leader Harvey Milk, the state Legislature fired back, passing a bill to prevent book banning in the state. Newsom signed that bill Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gov. Gavin Newsom\"]‘People are being ginned up. And so, I’m not here to criticize them, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding, misrepresentation out there because people are weaponizing these grievances against vulnerable communities.’[/pullquote]But that legislation was the product of months of compromise — which led to the removal of language placing tougher restrictions on districts, in the face of opposition from the group representing California school boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the transgender reporting policies began to proliferate this summer, Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San José) said his colleagues in the Legislative LGBTQ caucus had conversations with fellow Democrats and the Newsom administration about a legislative response, but decided that more time was needed to craft a bill that could pass legal muster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really playing kind of a whack-a-mole approach to it — when they come up with new ways to hurt LGBTQ families and kids, we have to make sure we are approaching it with much more sensitivity and much more nuance,” Lee said. “So, there is more time and delay when we’re coming up with [a] new policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee vowed “quick, decisive action” on the issue when the Legislature reconvenes in January, though he acknowledged a political response on the local level will be critical as LGBTQ rights debates continue to serve as flashpoints in districts up and down the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More on LGBTQ Students’ Rights' tag='lgbtq-students']“I really hope that folks will take that to heart and really get involved in local school districts,” Lee added. “Local control does matter, so it really matters who actually runs for school board, who’s involved in that process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chino, the board was swung toward a conservative majority in last year’s election \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922860/california-republicans-are-betting-big-on-local-school-board-races\">through the organizing work of the California Republican Party\u003c/a> and Real Impact, a political group run by local pastor Jack Hibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chino’s transgender reporting policy followed a ban on the display of certain flags, including the LGBTQ pride flag. The moves came after a series of tense meetings marked by personal attacks and heightened rhetoric. On both issues, the lone dissenting vote on the five-member board was cast by Donald Bridge, the former president of the local teachers union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the policies pushed by the board majority worry this year’s raucous debates could stymie efforts to reverse the political balance of the board in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When potential candidates look at what he’s going through, are they going to jump in? I wouldn’t,” said Brenda Walker, current president of the Associated Chino Teachers union. “So, yes, it’s going to be difficult to find candidates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walker said her members have already noticed a chilling effect on both students and teachers compared to last school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the concerns are moot: A superior court judge in San Bernardino County has put Chino’s transgender notification policy on hold after California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit arguing the policy violates the privacy rights of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But supporters of similar policies are hoping to expand their campaign beyond this initial series of local skirmishes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two dozen conservative and religious groups, including Real Impact, have formed the Coalition for Parental Rights, to encourage more California school districts to adopt transgender reporting policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of that group are also attempting to qualify three statewide initiatives for the November ballot: a transgender notification law, a ban on transgender students from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity, and a ban on puberty blockers and sexual reassignment surgery for minors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Friday, who heads the group Our Duty, and who is sponsoring the notification ballot measure, said she’s turning to California voters after a similar policy was blocked by the state Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re ignoring [us] and saying that we’re right-wing bigots,” Friday said. “And that’s just not true. We’re parents who are safeguarding the bodily integrity of our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Rob Stutzman, GOP consultant\"]‘If voters are presented with a specific question about, you know, ‘Should parents be notified if their minor child identifies as transgender?’ I think that’s likely to pass.’[/pullquote]If the transgender reporting law qualifies for the ballot, progressives would be wise to define the effort as an attack on LGBTQ children, said GOP consultant Rob Stutzman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To the extent that it starts to become a backlash to LGBTQ citizens, that’s not going to fly in California,” Stutzman said. “But if voters are presented with a specific question about, you know, ‘Should parents be notified if their minor child identifies as transgender?’ I think that’s likely to pass. Now, the people running the campaign could be distasteful enough that it clouds out the actual policy question before them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who have been involved in education leadership say that while the details of the current dustup are new, the broad contours are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11936552 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/122622-Eli-Erlick-TH-01-CM-1020x680.jpg']Camille Maben served on the Rocklin School Board for nearly 30 years, starting in the early 1990s. She recalled a debate 20 years ago over sex education curriculum at the board that also made national headlines. The conservative majority at the time, she said, voted to institute an “abstinence only” curriculum — and were promptly voted out of power in the next election. The new board repealed the abstinence-only class in lieu of a more “well-rounded” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What it did really was kind of reset our community’s look at education … and work to have a board that was balanced, that put students first always,” she said. “When an issue takes off and becomes part of a bigger conversation or agenda … it’s easy to lose sight of … you’re locally elected to serve the people within your community and do your best for those people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maben said the current debate seems strikingly similar. Rocklin’s new conservative majority recently passed a policy nearly identical to the Chino Hills one, also requiring school staff to notify parents of a change to a kid’s gender status. Teachers and others are already planning to sue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mabel said in any community, school board members would do well to listen to the entire community — not just their allies. If they don’t, she said, each community has recourse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>The process we have in place, not only locally, but as a country, is if you really don’t like it, no matter what side you’re on, then when it comes time for election, you change that. And you elect someone else. That’s the process we have. That’s how democracy works,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "With some school districts passing anti-LGBTQ policies and conservative groups threatening ballot measures, KQED looks at how Democrats are responding and the political dilemma it presents.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When California’s top education official, Tony Thurmond, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11959851/tony-thurmond-on-culture-wars-in-california-schools\">showed up at a local school board meeting in Chino\u003c/a> this summer, he was ready for a fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this conservative school board was ready, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like dozens of local school board candidates across the state, their president and other members were backed by both local religious leaders and national far-right groups. Frustrated by the domination of California Democrats in Sacramento and around the state, those groups have focused not on electing state lawmakers or even local city leaders, but instead on \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-29/despite-statewide-losses-california-conservatives-say-school-board-wars-arent-over\">putting conservative majorities\u003c/a> on local school boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chino, that resulted in a ban on the pride flag and then, this summer, a policy to require teachers and school staff to alert parents if a student requests to be “identified or treated” as a gender other than the one listed on their birth certificate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some supporters argue the policy is necessary to keep parents abreast of what their kids are doing at school, while others have gone further to suggest that teachers are pushing students to change their gender identities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Thurmond, who this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11962489/california-education-chief-tony-thurmond-announces-run-for-governor-in-2026-race\">announced his bid for governor\u003c/a> in the 2026 race, showed up to the board meeting in San Bernardino County to voice his opposition to the notification proposal, he was berated by board president Sonja Shaw. That evening, Chino Valley Unified School District passed the transgender reporting policy, which has now been adopted by a half-dozen districts across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Democrats are grappling with how to respond. While party leaders like Thurmond have spoken out strongly against the transgender notification policies — and the state attorney general is suing the district over its policy — the state Legislature recently ended its annual session without any concrete action on the parental notification issue. Lawmakers have also acknowledged the challenge of crafting responses on a fast-moving issue largely playing out on the local level. When recently asked if he thinks Democrats were caught off guard by the push, Thurmond was blunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962595\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"California Superintendent Tony Thurmond is pictured speaking from a wooden podium. He has a business suit and black face mask on. It's daytime.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/022_ElSobrante_BettyReidSoskinMiddleSchool_09222021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Superintendent Tony Thurmond told KQED that Democrats and progressives need to come up with ways to counter what some are calling anti-trans policies throughout California that focus on LGBTQ students. Thurmond recently showed up to a school board meeting in San Bernardino County to voice his opposition to a transgender reporting policy, which has now been adopted by a half-dozen districts across California. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think the short answer is yes,” he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11959851/tony-thurmond-on-culture-wars-in-california-schools\">said on KQED’s Political Breakdown\u003c/a>. “This is a scripted playbook. It is a nationally driven playbook by groups that have been losing at the ballot box in congressional races, and [for] the White House and in state legislatures. And they’ve made a decision that they’re going to wage war at the local level, at the school district level and the school board. And so, Democrats and progressives and others need to come back with ways to counter this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But countering what backers frame not as anti-trans policies, but simply “parental rights” is proving to be a more politically fraught conversation for Democrats than other conservative culture crusades, such as banning books or restricting abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘It is a nationally driven playbook by groups that have been losing at the ballot box. … They’re going to wage war at the local level, at the school district level and the school board. And so, Democrats and progressives and others need to come back with ways to counter this.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And Gov. Gavin Newsom — who normally relishes his role publicly baiting Republicans for issues he sees as politically expedient for the left — has acknowledged the political minefield that issues involving transgender students present for Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While broadly defending transgender kids, the governor has also, at times, acknowledged the nuance of an issue that intersects with not one, but two, thorny political questions: One, the public’s general uneasiness with transgender issues, which were not even part of the broader political debate a few years ago. And two, the public support for including parents in conversations about their kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last week, Newsom signed a bill requiring all public schools to have at least one gender-neutral bathroom, but vetoed legislation requiring courts to consider a parent’s affirmation of their child’s gender identity in custody and visitation decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a recent onstage interview with Politico, Newsom mocked Republican leaders for focusing on transgender kids over issues like academics and for obsessively talking about a group that makes up just a tiny fraction of the population. But he also said, that after talking to parents, he gets why they’re angry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I totally understand why you were out there. If I were told those things, I would’ve been out there too,” he said. “People are being ginned up. And so, I’m not here to criticize them, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding, misrepresentation out there because people are weaponizing these grievances against vulnerable communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11962596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11962596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pictured speaking from a podium inside a conference room.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/003_SanFrancisco_NewsomRecallEvent_09142021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Newsom signed Senate Bill 760 on Saturday, Sept. 23, that requires all public schools to have at least 1 gender-neutral bathroom. Newsom later vetoed legislation requiring courts to consider a parent’s affirmation of their child’s gender identity in custody and visitation decisions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the state Capitol, Democrats lambasted the transgender reporting policies as an affront to student privacy that will potentially endanger kids and thrust teachers into the middle of delicate family conversations. A direct legislative response, however, was constrained by both the Capitol calendar and the power local governments have over decision-making in California schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Temecula Valley Unified School District in Riverside County voted earlier this year to ban curriculum materials that referenced gay rights leader Harvey Milk, the state Legislature fired back, passing a bill to prevent book banning in the state. Newsom signed that bill Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But that legislation was the product of months of compromise — which led to the removal of language placing tougher restrictions on districts, in the face of opposition from the group representing California school boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the transgender reporting policies began to proliferate this summer, Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San José) said his colleagues in the Legislative LGBTQ caucus had conversations with fellow Democrats and the Newsom administration about a legislative response, but decided that more time was needed to craft a bill that could pass legal muster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really playing kind of a whack-a-mole approach to it — when they come up with new ways to hurt LGBTQ families and kids, we have to make sure we are approaching it with much more sensitivity and much more nuance,” Lee said. “So, there is more time and delay when we’re coming up with [a] new policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee vowed “quick, decisive action” on the issue when the Legislature reconvenes in January, though he acknowledged a political response on the local level will be critical as LGBTQ rights debates continue to serve as flashpoints in districts up and down the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I really hope that folks will take that to heart and really get involved in local school districts,” Lee added. “Local control does matter, so it really matters who actually runs for school board, who’s involved in that process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chino, the board was swung toward a conservative majority in last year’s election \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922860/california-republicans-are-betting-big-on-local-school-board-races\">through the organizing work of the California Republican Party\u003c/a> and Real Impact, a political group run by local pastor Jack Hibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chino’s transgender reporting policy followed a ban on the display of certain flags, including the LGBTQ pride flag. The moves came after a series of tense meetings marked by personal attacks and heightened rhetoric. On both issues, the lone dissenting vote on the five-member board was cast by Donald Bridge, the former president of the local teachers union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the policies pushed by the board majority worry this year’s raucous debates could stymie efforts to reverse the political balance of the board in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When potential candidates look at what he’s going through, are they going to jump in? I wouldn’t,” said Brenda Walker, current president of the Associated Chino Teachers union. “So, yes, it’s going to be difficult to find candidates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walker said her members have already noticed a chilling effect on both students and teachers compared to last school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the concerns are moot: A superior court judge in San Bernardino County has put Chino’s transgender notification policy on hold after California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit arguing the policy violates the privacy rights of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But supporters of similar policies are hoping to expand their campaign beyond this initial series of local skirmishes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two dozen conservative and religious groups, including Real Impact, have formed the Coalition for Parental Rights, to encourage more California school districts to adopt transgender reporting policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of that group are also attempting to qualify three statewide initiatives for the November ballot: a transgender notification law, a ban on transgender students from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity, and a ban on puberty blockers and sexual reassignment surgery for minors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Friday, who heads the group Our Duty, and who is sponsoring the notification ballot measure, said she’s turning to California voters after a similar policy was blocked by the state Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re ignoring [us] and saying that we’re right-wing bigots,” Friday said. “And that’s just not true. We’re parents who are safeguarding the bodily integrity of our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If voters are presented with a specific question about, you know, ‘Should parents be notified if their minor child identifies as transgender?’ I think that’s likely to pass.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>If the transgender reporting law qualifies for the ballot, progressives would be wise to define the effort as an attack on LGBTQ children, said GOP consultant Rob Stutzman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To the extent that it starts to become a backlash to LGBTQ citizens, that’s not going to fly in California,” Stutzman said. “But if voters are presented with a specific question about, you know, ‘Should parents be notified if their minor child identifies as transgender?’ I think that’s likely to pass. Now, the people running the campaign could be distasteful enough that it clouds out the actual policy question before them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who have been involved in education leadership say that while the details of the current dustup are new, the broad contours are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Camille Maben served on the Rocklin School Board for nearly 30 years, starting in the early 1990s. She recalled a debate 20 years ago over sex education curriculum at the board that also made national headlines. The conservative majority at the time, she said, voted to institute an “abstinence only” curriculum — and were promptly voted out of power in the next election. The new board repealed the abstinence-only class in lieu of a more “well-rounded” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What it did really was kind of reset our community’s look at education … and work to have a board that was balanced, that put students first always,” she said. “When an issue takes off and becomes part of a bigger conversation or agenda … it’s easy to lose sight of … you’re locally elected to serve the people within your community and do your best for those people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maben said the current debate seems strikingly similar. Rocklin’s new conservative majority recently passed a policy nearly identical to the Chino Hills one, also requiring school staff to notify parents of a change to a kid’s gender status. Teachers and others are already planning to sue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mabel said in any community, school board members would do well to listen to the entire community — not just their allies. If they don’t, she said, each community has recourse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>The process we have in place, not only locally, but as a country, is if you really don’t like it, no matter what side you’re on, then when it comes time for election, you change that. And you elect someone else. That’s the process we have. That’s how democracy works,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "San Bernardino Police Involved in Fatal Rob Adams Shooting Both Have Histories of Alleged Excessive Force",
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"headTitle": "San Bernardino Police Involved in Fatal Rob Adams Shooting Both Have Histories of Alleged Excessive Force | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last July, San Bernardino police shot and killed a 23-year-old Black man as he ran from them while allegedly holding a gun. The police killing of Rob Adams drew protests and demands for accountability — and is the subject of a $100 million lawsuit filed on behalf of his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, nine months after Adams was killed, San Bernardino city officials have confirmed to KVCR and The California Newsroom the identities of the officers involved: Michael Yeun and Sgt. Imran Ahmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for police transparency say state laws make it clear the public has a right to know the circumstances and details when serious force is used — which raises questions about what took so long for the names to be available in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947601\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1881px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947601\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image.png\" alt=\"A still shot from police dash cam footage shows a police vehicle with red and blue lights flashing as it answers a call in a neighborhood in Southern California.\" width=\"1881\" height=\"1006\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image.png 1881w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-800x428.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-1020x546.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-160x86.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-1536x821.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1881px) 100vw, 1881px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Bernardino police respond to the shooting of Rob Marquise Adams on July 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Bernardino Police Department)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yeun fired the shots that killed Adams, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaULaHDvxic&t=30s\">body camera footage\u003c/a> released by the San Bernardino Police Department. The footage shows that the shots were fired seconds after the officers arrived in an unmarked car. Both officers were uniformed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Bernardino County coroner’s office has not released a report on Adams’ death, but an independent autopsy commissioned by the victim’s family revealed that he was shot seven times. One shot entered Adams’ back, and four entered the backs of his legs, right arm and left shoulder, according to a diagram provided to KVCR and The California Newsroom by Bradley Gage, an attorney who has filed a $100 million federal lawsuit on behalf of the Adams family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gage said a sixth bullet entered the side of Adams’ left leg and a seventh grazed the front of his right thigh. Gage is working as co-counsel with national civil rights attorney Ben Crump; Crump’s clients include the families of George Floyd and Tyre Nichols, who were killed by police in Minneapolis and Nashville, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sgt. Ahmed, who was holding another man at gunpoint, did not fire his weapon, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjGO6nREmOs&t=2s\">body camera footage\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The officers were responding to a call from a “citizen informant” about a Black man with a gun “in the parking lot of an illegal online gambling business,” according to the San Bernardino Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statements issued by SBPD did not say whether the man had committed a crime before officers received the tip, or did so when they arrived at the scene in the unmarked vehicle. According to an SBPD statement:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>As officers arrived, they spotted two males. One of the males, later identified as 23-year-old Rob Marquise Adams of San Bernardino, pulled a gun from his waistband, and began walking towards the officers’ vehicle. The officers exited their vehicle and attempted to give Adams verbal commands, but Adams ran away, towards two cars, still carrying the gun. Officers briefly chased Adams, but seeing that he had no outlet, they believed he intended to use the vehicles as cover to shoot at them. The officer saw Adams look over his left shoulder with the gun still in his right hand. Fearing that bystanders’ or the officers’ lives were in danger, one of the officers fired his gun, striking Adams.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>It is unclear whether Adams knew they were police officers before they exited the vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947605\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947605\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7.jpg\" alt=\"A mother stands center with her grown son and daughter on either side of her as they smile for the camera.\" width=\"1125\" height=\"1238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7-800x880.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7-1020x1122.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7-160x176.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rob Marquise Adams with his mother, Tamika DeAvila King, and his sister, Renisha Adams. Adams was shot while running away from San Bernardino police on July 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Renisha Adams)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yeun and Ahmed could not be directly reached for comment. Attorneys for the officers either declined to comment or did not respond to calls and emails. SBPD declined to make Yeun or Ahmed available and did not answer a long list of questions sent by email about their work histories and other matters related to this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When contacted by KVCR and The California Newsroom with information about the officers’ identities, Rob Adams’ father, Robert Adams, said that he and his family had been unable to learn the names of the officers involved until reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me they’re trying to throw everything up under the rug,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get the officers’ names. We’ve been on the city’s webpages, social pages — nothing. It’s been excuse after excuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Robert Adams, Rob Adams’ father\"]‘To me they’re trying to throw everything up under the rug. We’ve been trying to get the officers’ names. We’ve been on the city’s webpages, social pages — nothing. It’s been excuse after excuse.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gage also expressed frustration with what he believed to be a lack of transparency by SBPD. Like Adams, he had been unable to confirm the officers’ identities, despite submitting multiple public records requests, until reached by reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One has to ask, ‘Why would the department do that?'” Gage said. “I am confident that as we dive into the backgrounds of these officers, we will find that they were either involved in other questionable shootings, other complaints of excessive force, cover-ups of that force or all three.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police records obtained by The California Reporting Project, a collaboration of news organizations that has spent years fighting for public records on police misconduct and use of force, show that Gage’s concerns may be well-founded.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Before Rob Adams shooting, Yeun chased and shot 15-year-old\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Around 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2020, Yeun shot an unnamed minor who had fled from a vehicle that SBPD officers pulled over for a traffic violation, according to statements made by officials after the shooting. In body camera footage, Yeun got out of the passenger side of a police vehicle and began chasing the minor through the grounds of an apartment complex where several pedestrians were present. Yeun radioed to fellow officers that the suspect was “still grabbing his waistband.” Yeun yelled, “Get on the ground or I’ll fuckin’ shoot you, dude.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeun closed in and yelled, “Get on the ground,” two more times, according to his bodycam footage. The minor appeared to trip or kneel next to a bush, facing away from Yeun. He then looked over his shoulder toward Yeun, his hand obscured by the bush, when Yeun fired. It is unclear, based on the bodycam footage, whether he was holding a gun at the moment he was shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In police files, the minor, who survived, is quoted as saying, “I didn’t point my gun at the cop, I was going to throw it in the bushes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The minor “suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including to the lower back, leg, and arm,” according to a civil suit filed by his family in U.S. District Court against the city of San Bernardino, Yeun and nine unnamed officers. Police files confirm the minor was shot three times, and noted that he required surgery to remove a projectile from his back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeun and his fellow officers also “failed to summon medical assistance” as the minor “lay bleeding on the ground,” according to the lawsuit. Police dispatch audio shows that medical assistance did not arrive for at least 15 minutes. Yeun’s bodycam footage shows several other officers arriving at the scene moments after the shooting. The minor was turned onto his stomach and handcuffed. Two officers can be seen wearing or putting on latex gloves, but the redacted video makes it unclear whether they were providing aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case has been investigated by SBPD and is now under review with the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"San Bernardino City Council member Ben Reynoso\"]‘We’re tired of having to use taxpayer money for police misconduct. It feels like we’re just bleeding dry.’[/pullquote]Dale Galipo, attorney for the minor, did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case was settled in March 2023, for $500,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re tired of having to use taxpayer money for police misconduct. It feels like we’re just bleeding dry,” said San Bernardino City Council member Ben Reynoso. “It’s clear to me we haven’t done enough internally to weed out the bad apples.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeun has been with SBPD since 2015, according to data available from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST. On the Dec. 7, 2021, episode of \u003ca href=\"https://sanbernardinopdbriefingroom.buzzsprout.com/1740482/9677046-the-san-bernardino-swat-team\">the department’s podcast, San Bernardino PD Briefing Room\u003c/a>, Yeun told the hosts he’d been with the elite SWAT team for almost three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-scaled.jpg\" alt='A group of people gathered with signs that read, \"Justice 4 Rob.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A press conference held by national civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Los Angeles attorney Bradley Gage, held on Aug. 19, 2022, showing results of an independent autopsy commissioned by Adams’ family. The family has filed a $100 million federal lawsuit. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Jonathan Linden)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Sgt. Ahmed’s history of use of force and lawsuits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2009, six months after Ahmed joined the San Bernardino Police Department, he and at least one other officer responded to a call from a woman experiencing mental illness. She alleged her husband, who is Black, was verbally, although not physically, abusing her, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit the man filed against Ahmed, other SBPD officers and the city of San Bernardino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit claims that police denied the woman a ride to the hospital for her “mental condition.” Court documents say that moments later, despite following police commands to exit the home, the unarmed husband was thrown to the ground by Ahmed and another officer and beaten “with closed fists about the head, face, chest, back and applied pressure by knees to [his] elbow, legs and back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident was among no fewer than seven federal lawsuits in which Ahmed has been named as a defendant for numerous allegations, including assault, battery, conspiracy to violate civil rights, denial of medical care, excessive force, false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, racial bias and unreasonable search and seizure, according to court records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Details of allegations in the other federal lawsuits in which Ahmed has been a defendant include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Supervising and participating in the beating of a man who had run from police but was face down on the ground following orders, and later pressuring the suspect to lie about how he sustained his injuries, which required surgery. Police files reviewed by KVCR and The California Newsroom do not indicate the man had a weapon.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pulling his patrol car over and beating a recently arrested suspect, who was handcuffed in the back seat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tasering and beating a suspect who had fled on foot during a traffic stop and hidden in a trash can. As a result of the beating, the suspect suffered “multiple fractures to his face and right hand, as well as bruising, taser burns, and lacerations” and had to undergo facial surgery.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Participating in the beating of a car-theft suspect who claims to have not been resisting. The lawsuit alleges that officers dislocated his elbow, kicked him in the back and dragged his face across a driveway.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Five cases were settled, costing the city of San Bernardino $539,000. Two cases are still open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FSanBernardinoPD%2Fvideos%2F361352575795177%2F&show_text=false&width=476&t=0\" width=\"476\" height=\"476\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmed joined the department after four years with the nearby Upland Police Department, according to data available from POST. Appearing on the same 2021 podcast episode as Yeun, Ahmed told the hosts that he had been a member of SWAT for nine years and was in his second year as “one of the team leaders.” Previously, Ahmed was with the gang unit, and worked as an officer, a robbery detective and a field trainer, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to being named as a defendant in the federal lawsuits, Ahmed has been the subject of no fewer than nine use-of-force incidents since 2016, according to records obtained by The California Reporting Project. The use-of-force cases include three officer-involved shootings, which were ruled as justified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the non-shooting incidents released to CPR involving Ahmed include suspects being beaten, having their bones broken and sometimes landing in the hospital, requiring surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former law enforcement officers and legal experts are quick to point out that looking at the number of use-of-force cases and lawsuits alone sometimes misses the nuance needed to assess an officer’s record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Intuitively it sounds like a lot,” said Greg Meyer, a retired captain with the Los Angeles Police Department who now works as an expert witness. “But it depends on what assignment the person has and what part of town: high crime area, dealing with gang members, etcetera.” Ahmed has spent significant time working as a gang officer, according to officer-involved-shooting investigation interviews and witness testimony he has given.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947603\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1350px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947603\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT.jpg\" alt=\"A police SWAT team poses in front of an Army green armored vehicle holding weapons.\" width=\"1350\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT.jpg 1350w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT-160x128.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1350px) 100vw, 1350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sgt. Imran Ahmed (center right), pictured on May 1, 2022, with fellow San Bernardino Police Department SWAT members. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SBPD Facebook page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meyer said that in addition to risks posed by an officer’s assignments, it’s crucial to understand how one officer’s use-of-force history compares to others in the department who performed similar roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Drooyan, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission and court-appointed monitor for LA County jails, which are staffed by the LA County Sheriff’s Department, agreed. “You’re always going to have some officers who are going to accumulate more of these instances,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nevertheless,” he continued, when told about the number of lawsuits against, and use-of-force cases involving, Ahmed, “I think that the number you’re talking about seems to be very, very high. I don’t recall experiencing that — in my review of the Los Angeles Police Department or the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department — where a particular officer or officers [have] accumulated that number of complaints.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those numbers are also concerning to local advocates and community members. Mary Texeira, sociology professor at California State University, San Bernardino, has helped facilitate conversations with students, faculty and residents in the region around race and policing over the last three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you go into a community and you act like a storm trooper, that just doesn’t work,” said Texeira. “You cannot be an enemy in a community that you’re supposedly protecting and serving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fighting for police transparency\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After Yeun shot and killed Rob Adams, San Bernardino city officials spent months concealing his and Ahmed’s names. In response to multiple public records requests, they cited privacy concerns and an ongoing investigation. That’s despite a 2014 California \u003ca href=\"https://casetext.com/case/long-beach-police-officers-assn-v-city-of-long-beach-1\">Supreme Court decision\u003c/a> that found that, with limited exceptions, “the balance tips strongly in favor of identity disclosure and against the personal privacy interests of the officers involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Bibring, senior counsel at the ACLU of Southern California, noted two California laws, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1421\">SB 1421\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB16\">SB 16\u003c/a>, which were written to increase police transparency. “The Legislature has been very clear that absent a very strong reason to withhold information, the public has a right to know about serious uses of force.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing officers’ identities, he said, helps the public “understand how officers use the power we give them to employ deadly force and to understand how departments deal with and manage issues around force.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also provides a clearer picture for departments — and the public — of possible patterns of misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you hide the individual identity of an officer, you lose that element of accountability that connects this incident potentially to other incidents,” said Seth Stoughton, law professor at the University of South Carolina and a former officer with the Tallahassee Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SBPD spokesperson Lt. Jennifer Kohrell disputed the idea that the department has not been forthcoming with Yeun’s and Ahmed’s names. “We made it public,” she said. Kohrell then forwarded an email she claims to have sent to media contacts going into the Christmas weekend, time-stamped Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, at 8:50 p.m. The email’s subject line, “Press Release Update,” did not mention the Adams shooting. Yeun’s and Ahmed’s names were at the bottom of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23787507-press-release-update?responsive=1&title=1\">attached PDF\u003c/a>, with no specific details about who shot Adams. Kohrell refused to provide a list of who received the email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sending an email the Friday before Christmas in the dark of night — that is not public disclosure,” Bibring said. “Giving it to a small handful of people is not releasing it to the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/23787648-screenshot-sbpd-email/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1\" title=\"Screenshot SBPD Email (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" width=\"700\" height=\"905\" style=\"border: 1px solid #aaa; width: 100%; height: 800px; height: calc(100vh - 100px);\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The press release included links to Yeun’s and Ahmed’s body camera footage, which were both posted to YouTube the same night. Titles and descriptions of the footage did not indicate that the videos were related to the Adams shooting. The footage was heavily redacted and did not reveal their full names.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is still unclear whether Yeun’s or Ahmed’s names were ever put online. From the time of the shooting until as recently as April 24, the updated press release could not be found on the city’s website. When questioned, Kohrell said, “I think we did,” but added that “some things got lost” due to technical issues “and that [press] release might have been one of them.” When asked to provide a definitive answer, Kohrell refused. “I’m not going to jump through hoops for you,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It starts to look like every single one of those steps is probably an intentional effort to minimize the access to information rather than facilitate the access to information,” Stoughton said. “And that’s not the way this government is supposed to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoughton said that releasing an officer’s name within 72 hours — or up to a few weeks after — an incident is standard across most police departments. “I would have a hard time justifying their delay,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Reynoso said he — like Rob Adams’ family and the family’s attorneys — was unaware of Yeun’s and Ahmed’s identities, or their use-of-force histories, until reached for comment.” As a council, we’ve faced the same walls as you have, as reporters,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynoso added that a lack of transparency “cements distrust” in the police among community members. “The community has a right to know who is policing them,” he said. “When an officer is on the street, armed, in a patrol car, I want to know if they have a record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by The California Newsroom, a collaboration of public radio stations, and The California Reporting Project, a coalition of 40 news organizations across the state. Bella Arnold of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, Leila Barghouty of Stanford Journalism’s Big Local News and Lisa Pickoff-White of Big Local News and KQED contributed to this report. Former KVCR reporter Jonathan Linden also contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Last July, San Bernardino police shot and killed a 23-year-old Black man as he ran from them while allegedly holding a gun. The killing of Rob Adams drew protests and demands for accountability. Now, nine months later, San Bernardino city officials have confirmed to KVCR and The California Newsroom the identities of the officers involved.",
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"title": "San Bernardino Police Involved in Fatal Rob Adams Shooting Both Have Histories of Alleged Excessive Force | KQED",
"description": "Last July, San Bernardino police shot and killed a 23-year-old Black man as he ran from them while allegedly holding a gun. The killing of Rob Adams drew protests and demands for accountability. Now, nine months later, San Bernardino city officials have confirmed to KVCR and The California Newsroom the identities of the officers involved.",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/msolomon\">Molly Solomon\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/mikeskessler\">Mike Kessler\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvcrnews.org/people/madison-aument\">Madison Aument\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last July, San Bernardino police shot and killed a 23-year-old Black man as he ran from them while allegedly holding a gun. The police killing of Rob Adams drew protests and demands for accountability — and is the subject of a $100 million lawsuit filed on behalf of his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, nine months after Adams was killed, San Bernardino city officials have confirmed to KVCR and The California Newsroom the identities of the officers involved: Michael Yeun and Sgt. Imran Ahmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for police transparency say state laws make it clear the public has a right to know the circumstances and details when serious force is used — which raises questions about what took so long for the names to be available in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947601\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1881px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947601\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image.png\" alt=\"A still shot from police dash cam footage shows a police vehicle with red and blue lights flashing as it answers a call in a neighborhood in Southern California.\" width=\"1881\" height=\"1006\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image.png 1881w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-800x428.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-1020x546.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-160x86.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Lead-Image-1536x821.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1881px) 100vw, 1881px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Bernardino police respond to the shooting of Rob Marquise Adams on July 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Bernardino Police Department)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yeun fired the shots that killed Adams, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaULaHDvxic&t=30s\">body camera footage\u003c/a> released by the San Bernardino Police Department. The footage shows that the shots were fired seconds after the officers arrived in an unmarked car. Both officers were uniformed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Bernardino County coroner’s office has not released a report on Adams’ death, but an independent autopsy commissioned by the victim’s family revealed that he was shot seven times. One shot entered Adams’ back, and four entered the backs of his legs, right arm and left shoulder, according to a diagram provided to KVCR and The California Newsroom by Bradley Gage, an attorney who has filed a $100 million federal lawsuit on behalf of the Adams family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gage said a sixth bullet entered the side of Adams’ left leg and a seventh grazed the front of his right thigh. Gage is working as co-counsel with national civil rights attorney Ben Crump; Crump’s clients include the families of George Floyd and Tyre Nichols, who were killed by police in Minneapolis and Nashville, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sgt. Ahmed, who was holding another man at gunpoint, did not fire his weapon, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjGO6nREmOs&t=2s\">body camera footage\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The officers were responding to a call from a “citizen informant” about a Black man with a gun “in the parking lot of an illegal online gambling business,” according to the San Bernardino Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statements issued by SBPD did not say whether the man had committed a crime before officers received the tip, or did so when they arrived at the scene in the unmarked vehicle. According to an SBPD statement:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>As officers arrived, they spotted two males. One of the males, later identified as 23-year-old Rob Marquise Adams of San Bernardino, pulled a gun from his waistband, and began walking towards the officers’ vehicle. The officers exited their vehicle and attempted to give Adams verbal commands, but Adams ran away, towards two cars, still carrying the gun. Officers briefly chased Adams, but seeing that he had no outlet, they believed he intended to use the vehicles as cover to shoot at them. The officer saw Adams look over his left shoulder with the gun still in his right hand. Fearing that bystanders’ or the officers’ lives were in danger, one of the officers fired his gun, striking Adams.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>It is unclear whether Adams knew they were police officers before they exited the vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947605\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947605\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7.jpg\" alt=\"A mother stands center with her grown son and daughter on either side of her as they smile for the camera.\" width=\"1125\" height=\"1238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7-800x880.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7-1020x1122.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-7-160x176.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rob Marquise Adams with his mother, Tamika DeAvila King, and his sister, Renisha Adams. Adams was shot while running away from San Bernardino police on July 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Renisha Adams)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yeun and Ahmed could not be directly reached for comment. Attorneys for the officers either declined to comment or did not respond to calls and emails. SBPD declined to make Yeun or Ahmed available and did not answer a long list of questions sent by email about their work histories and other matters related to this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When contacted by KVCR and The California Newsroom with information about the officers’ identities, Rob Adams’ father, Robert Adams, said that he and his family had been unable to learn the names of the officers involved until reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me they’re trying to throw everything up under the rug,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get the officers’ names. We’ve been on the city’s webpages, social pages — nothing. It’s been excuse after excuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘To me they’re trying to throw everything up under the rug. We’ve been trying to get the officers’ names. We’ve been on the city’s webpages, social pages — nothing. It’s been excuse after excuse.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gage also expressed frustration with what he believed to be a lack of transparency by SBPD. Like Adams, he had been unable to confirm the officers’ identities, despite submitting multiple public records requests, until reached by reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One has to ask, ‘Why would the department do that?'” Gage said. “I am confident that as we dive into the backgrounds of these officers, we will find that they were either involved in other questionable shootings, other complaints of excessive force, cover-ups of that force or all three.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police records obtained by The California Reporting Project, a collaboration of news organizations that has spent years fighting for public records on police misconduct and use of force, show that Gage’s concerns may be well-founded.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Before Rob Adams shooting, Yeun chased and shot 15-year-old\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Around 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2020, Yeun shot an unnamed minor who had fled from a vehicle that SBPD officers pulled over for a traffic violation, according to statements made by officials after the shooting. In body camera footage, Yeun got out of the passenger side of a police vehicle and began chasing the minor through the grounds of an apartment complex where several pedestrians were present. Yeun radioed to fellow officers that the suspect was “still grabbing his waistband.” Yeun yelled, “Get on the ground or I’ll fuckin’ shoot you, dude.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeun closed in and yelled, “Get on the ground,” two more times, according to his bodycam footage. The minor appeared to trip or kneel next to a bush, facing away from Yeun. He then looked over his shoulder toward Yeun, his hand obscured by the bush, when Yeun fired. It is unclear, based on the bodycam footage, whether he was holding a gun at the moment he was shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In police files, the minor, who survived, is quoted as saying, “I didn’t point my gun at the cop, I was going to throw it in the bushes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The minor “suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including to the lower back, leg, and arm,” according to a civil suit filed by his family in U.S. District Court against the city of San Bernardino, Yeun and nine unnamed officers. Police files confirm the minor was shot three times, and noted that he required surgery to remove a projectile from his back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeun and his fellow officers also “failed to summon medical assistance” as the minor “lay bleeding on the ground,” according to the lawsuit. Police dispatch audio shows that medical assistance did not arrive for at least 15 minutes. Yeun’s bodycam footage shows several other officers arriving at the scene moments after the shooting. The minor was turned onto his stomach and handcuffed. Two officers can be seen wearing or putting on latex gloves, but the redacted video makes it unclear whether they were providing aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case has been investigated by SBPD and is now under review with the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We’re tired of having to use taxpayer money for police misconduct. It feels like we’re just bleeding dry.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dale Galipo, attorney for the minor, did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case was settled in March 2023, for $500,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re tired of having to use taxpayer money for police misconduct. It feels like we’re just bleeding dry,” said San Bernardino City Council member Ben Reynoso. “It’s clear to me we haven’t done enough internally to weed out the bad apples.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeun has been with SBPD since 2015, according to data available from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST. On the Dec. 7, 2021, episode of \u003ca href=\"https://sanbernardinopdbriefingroom.buzzsprout.com/1740482/9677046-the-san-bernardino-swat-team\">the department’s podcast, San Bernardino PD Briefing Room\u003c/a>, Yeun told the hosts he’d been with the elite SWAT team for almost three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-scaled.jpg\" alt='A group of people gathered with signs that read, \"Justice 4 Rob.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Rob-Adams-Autopsy-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A press conference held by national civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Los Angeles attorney Bradley Gage, held on Aug. 19, 2022, showing results of an independent autopsy commissioned by Adams’ family. The family has filed a $100 million federal lawsuit. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Jonathan Linden)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Sgt. Ahmed’s history of use of force and lawsuits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2009, six months after Ahmed joined the San Bernardino Police Department, he and at least one other officer responded to a call from a woman experiencing mental illness. She alleged her husband, who is Black, was verbally, although not physically, abusing her, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit the man filed against Ahmed, other SBPD officers and the city of San Bernardino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit claims that police denied the woman a ride to the hospital for her “mental condition.” Court documents say that moments later, despite following police commands to exit the home, the unarmed husband was thrown to the ground by Ahmed and another officer and beaten “with closed fists about the head, face, chest, back and applied pressure by knees to [his] elbow, legs and back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident was among no fewer than seven federal lawsuits in which Ahmed has been named as a defendant for numerous allegations, including assault, battery, conspiracy to violate civil rights, denial of medical care, excessive force, false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, racial bias and unreasonable search and seizure, according to court records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Details of allegations in the other federal lawsuits in which Ahmed has been a defendant include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Supervising and participating in the beating of a man who had run from police but was face down on the ground following orders, and later pressuring the suspect to lie about how he sustained his injuries, which required surgery. Police files reviewed by KVCR and The California Newsroom do not indicate the man had a weapon.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pulling his patrol car over and beating a recently arrested suspect, who was handcuffed in the back seat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tasering and beating a suspect who had fled on foot during a traffic stop and hidden in a trash can. As a result of the beating, the suspect suffered “multiple fractures to his face and right hand, as well as bruising, taser burns, and lacerations” and had to undergo facial surgery.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Participating in the beating of a car-theft suspect who claims to have not been resisting. The lawsuit alleges that officers dislocated his elbow, kicked him in the back and dragged his face across a driveway.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Five cases were settled, costing the city of San Bernardino $539,000. Two cases are still open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FSanBernardinoPD%2Fvideos%2F361352575795177%2F&show_text=false&width=476&t=0\" width=\"476\" height=\"476\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmed joined the department after four years with the nearby Upland Police Department, according to data available from POST. Appearing on the same 2021 podcast episode as Yeun, Ahmed told the hosts that he had been a member of SWAT for nine years and was in his second year as “one of the team leaders.” Previously, Ahmed was with the gang unit, and worked as an officer, a robbery detective and a field trainer, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to being named as a defendant in the federal lawsuits, Ahmed has been the subject of no fewer than nine use-of-force incidents since 2016, according to records obtained by The California Reporting Project. The use-of-force cases include three officer-involved shootings, which were ruled as justified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the non-shooting incidents released to CPR involving Ahmed include suspects being beaten, having their bones broken and sometimes landing in the hospital, requiring surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former law enforcement officers and legal experts are quick to point out that looking at the number of use-of-force cases and lawsuits alone sometimes misses the nuance needed to assess an officer’s record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Intuitively it sounds like a lot,” said Greg Meyer, a retired captain with the Los Angeles Police Department who now works as an expert witness. “But it depends on what assignment the person has and what part of town: high crime area, dealing with gang members, etcetera.” Ahmed has spent significant time working as a gang officer, according to officer-involved-shooting investigation interviews and witness testimony he has given.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11947603\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1350px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11947603\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT.jpg\" alt=\"A police SWAT team poses in front of an Army green armored vehicle holding weapons.\" width=\"1350\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT.jpg 1350w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/Ahmed-SWAT-160x128.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1350px) 100vw, 1350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sgt. Imran Ahmed (center right), pictured on May 1, 2022, with fellow San Bernardino Police Department SWAT members. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SBPD Facebook page)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meyer said that in addition to risks posed by an officer’s assignments, it’s crucial to understand how one officer’s use-of-force history compares to others in the department who performed similar roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Drooyan, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission and court-appointed monitor for LA County jails, which are staffed by the LA County Sheriff’s Department, agreed. “You’re always going to have some officers who are going to accumulate more of these instances,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nevertheless,” he continued, when told about the number of lawsuits against, and use-of-force cases involving, Ahmed, “I think that the number you’re talking about seems to be very, very high. I don’t recall experiencing that — in my review of the Los Angeles Police Department or the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department — where a particular officer or officers [have] accumulated that number of complaints.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those numbers are also concerning to local advocates and community members. Mary Texeira, sociology professor at California State University, San Bernardino, has helped facilitate conversations with students, faculty and residents in the region around race and policing over the last three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you go into a community and you act like a storm trooper, that just doesn’t work,” said Texeira. “You cannot be an enemy in a community that you’re supposedly protecting and serving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fighting for police transparency\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After Yeun shot and killed Rob Adams, San Bernardino city officials spent months concealing his and Ahmed’s names. In response to multiple public records requests, they cited privacy concerns and an ongoing investigation. That’s despite a 2014 California \u003ca href=\"https://casetext.com/case/long-beach-police-officers-assn-v-city-of-long-beach-1\">Supreme Court decision\u003c/a> that found that, with limited exceptions, “the balance tips strongly in favor of identity disclosure and against the personal privacy interests of the officers involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Bibring, senior counsel at the ACLU of Southern California, noted two California laws, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1421\">SB 1421\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB16\">SB 16\u003c/a>, which were written to increase police transparency. “The Legislature has been very clear that absent a very strong reason to withhold information, the public has a right to know about serious uses of force.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing officers’ identities, he said, helps the public “understand how officers use the power we give them to employ deadly force and to understand how departments deal with and manage issues around force.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also provides a clearer picture for departments — and the public — of possible patterns of misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you hide the individual identity of an officer, you lose that element of accountability that connects this incident potentially to other incidents,” said Seth Stoughton, law professor at the University of South Carolina and a former officer with the Tallahassee Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SBPD spokesperson Lt. Jennifer Kohrell disputed the idea that the department has not been forthcoming with Yeun’s and Ahmed’s names. “We made it public,” she said. Kohrell then forwarded an email she claims to have sent to media contacts going into the Christmas weekend, time-stamped Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, at 8:50 p.m. The email’s subject line, “Press Release Update,” did not mention the Adams shooting. Yeun’s and Ahmed’s names were at the bottom of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23787507-press-release-update?responsive=1&title=1\">attached PDF\u003c/a>, with no specific details about who shot Adams. Kohrell refused to provide a list of who received the email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sending an email the Friday before Christmas in the dark of night — that is not public disclosure,” Bibring said. “Giving it to a small handful of people is not releasing it to the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/23787648-screenshot-sbpd-email/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1\" title=\"Screenshot SBPD Email (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" width=\"700\" height=\"905\" style=\"border: 1px solid #aaa; width: 100%; height: 800px; height: calc(100vh - 100px);\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The press release included links to Yeun’s and Ahmed’s body camera footage, which were both posted to YouTube the same night. Titles and descriptions of the footage did not indicate that the videos were related to the Adams shooting. The footage was heavily redacted and did not reveal their full names.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is still unclear whether Yeun’s or Ahmed’s names were ever put online. From the time of the shooting until as recently as April 24, the updated press release could not be found on the city’s website. When questioned, Kohrell said, “I think we did,” but added that “some things got lost” due to technical issues “and that [press] release might have been one of them.” When asked to provide a definitive answer, Kohrell refused. “I’m not going to jump through hoops for you,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It starts to look like every single one of those steps is probably an intentional effort to minimize the access to information rather than facilitate the access to information,” Stoughton said. “And that’s not the way this government is supposed to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoughton said that releasing an officer’s name within 72 hours — or up to a few weeks after — an incident is standard across most police departments. “I would have a hard time justifying their delay,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Reynoso said he — like Rob Adams’ family and the family’s attorneys — was unaware of Yeun’s and Ahmed’s identities, or their use-of-force histories, until reached for comment.” As a council, we’ve faced the same walls as you have, as reporters,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynoso added that a lack of transparency “cements distrust” in the police among community members. “The community has a right to know who is policing them,” he said. “When an officer is on the street, armed, in a patrol car, I want to know if they have a record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by The California Newsroom, a collaboration of public radio stations, and The California Reporting Project, a coalition of 40 news organizations across the state. Bella Arnold of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, Leila Barghouty of Stanford Journalism’s Big Local News and Lisa Pickoff-White of Big Local News and KQED contributed to this report. Former KVCR reporter Jonathan Linden also contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Mom, ER Worker and Mentor to Native Youth: A Family Remembers Sylvia Morton",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>More than 60,000 Californians have died from COVID-19, and \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\">The California Report Magazine\u003c/a> has launched a series to remember some of them. This week, we have a tribute to Sylvia Morton. She worked in the emergency department at Riverside Community Hospital before contracting COVID-19. She died on Jan. 8, 2021 at the age of 61, shortly after losing her son Carlos Jr. to the virus.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/sylvia-morton-burial-expenses-support-needed?utm_campaign=p_cp_url&utm_medium=os&utm_source=customer\">Sylvia Morton\u003c/a> was working a shift at the hospital, you would know it. Her penetrating voice was loud and joyful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870886\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 315px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11870886\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-800x1201.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"315\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-800x1201.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-1020x1531.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-1023x1536.jpeg 1023w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091.jpeg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sylvia, Marlene “Turtle” and Yolie at Marlene’s baby shower in 2001. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When she was at work she had to wear a button that said, ‘I am loud,’ so that elders knew that she wasn’t trying to talk at them,’ ” said Morton’s daughter, Yolanda Ballesteros, or “Yolie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton was famous around Riverside Community Hospital for her big hair, hand-beaded earrings and her love of Hello Kitty. She wore a Hello Kitty sweater over her scrubs, along with her bedazzled face mask and shield. Her colleagues could often hear Tejano music star Selena blasting from Morton’s office — especially favorites like “Como La Flor” and “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She would start dancing and singing and flipping her hair back and forth like she was on stage,” Ballesteros said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton’s youngest daughter, Marlene Morton, said her mother loved the artist so much that she changed the name on her hospital badge to Selena. “And she told them, ‘OK, my name is Selena. Everybody has to call me Selena,’ ” Marlene said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was always happy,” Ballesteros added. “Even at sad times she would always find the silver lining. She was very uplifting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Overcoming a Difficult Childhood\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Sylvia Morton was born in San Bernardino on May 31,1959. She was a proud member of the Cahuilla Tribe and grew up just south of the San Manuel Indian Reservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mother died when she was just 3 years old. Her father was an alcoholic, so Morton spent her childhood shuttling between relatives’ homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every single day they had beans,” said Ballesteros. “There was always a pot of beans made. And everyone had a ration. And if you were not home in time, then if it was gone, it was gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton told her daughters about wearing hand-me-downs and borrowing her friends’ dolls. In the absence of the nurturing family she craved, she escaped by watching sitcoms like “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Partridge Family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She would sing and be a part of the ‘Partridge Family,’ ” said Ballesteros. “It was someplace happy for her, to be somewhere other than stuck in her reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870870\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870870 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-800x712.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"712\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-800x712.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-1020x908.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-160x142.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-1536x1367.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473.jpeg 1619w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carlos and Sylvia Morton on April 17, 1975. The newlyweds had just returned from Mexico and were celebrating with family. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In junior high school, Morton took refuge at friends’ homes, where she met a tall, green-eyed goofball named Carlos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From the moment she met him, she said they would laugh and talk,” said Ballesteros. “She said he was so handsome and funny. She was drawn to him like a magnet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was drawn to her deep dimples and long black hair. Carlos, who lived with his grandmother, invited Morton for breakfast almost every day so she’d have something to eat before school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mother always said that my dad rescued her,” said Ballesteros. “When she was 12 she decided that he was the love of her life and she was going to marry him. And at 15, she did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Becoming ‘Mom’ at 15\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>With her dad’s blessing, the pair married in Mexico and began growing their family immediately. Morton became a young mom at the age of 15. They had five children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We kind of grew up together,” said Ballesteros, whose mother had her at 17. She remembered sitting on Morton’s longboard and holding onto her leg while skating downtown for snow cones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember when I was about 4 years old, my mom taught me how to do backflips in our front yard,” said Ballesteros. “And she didn’t instruct me. She actually showed me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as a young mom, Morton was committed to providing her children with more than she had had. Her daughters remember Morton “lining us up like little soldiers” to comb their hair and ensure their clothes were clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On weekends, the family would pack into their dad’s ’51 Chevy Deluxe lowrider, which he built with Carlos Jr. They would cruise around while blasting oldies like Brenton Wood, Morton’s favorite.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Leaning Into Ambition\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>At 26, Morton decided to have another baby, “this time as an adult,” said Ballesteros. A few months after giving birth to her baby girl, Marlene, Morton decided to become a certified medical assistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She wanted us to be educated, to have good careers, to be self-sufficient, to take care of ourselves,” said Ballesteros. “And she showed us by example how to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton’s transition back to school wasn’t always easy on the family. Especially for 8-year-old Yolie, who had been the youngest child up until recently. Now, she had to help her dad care for baby Marlene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During the graduation ceremony she called me up onstage and she gave me the rose that was given with her certificate,” said Ballesteros, crying. “She told me I earned it as much as she did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the years after, Morton rose through the ranks from certified medical assistant to radiology technician. In 1996, she moved the family to Riverside after landing a job at Parkview Community Hospital. She became the director of emergency room admissions within a few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout her career, Morton encouraged young people in the Native American community to dream big, too. A master beader, she learned from the elders around her, and taught weekly art and music classes at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sobobatanf.org/\">Soboba Tribal TANF\u003c/a>. Ballesteros recalled her mother packing the auditorium when talking to students from the local Sherman Indian High School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She would let them know that getting your diploma is great and it’s a necessity to move further in life, but there’s more,” said Ballesteros. “Push yourself to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 738px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870871 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_4295.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"738\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_4295.jpeg 738w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_4295-160x120.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carlos Sr. and Sylvia attending their son Carlos Jr.’s graduation from Pacific High in San Bernardino in June 1994. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Morton mentored Native students and hired them whenever she could. Her ambition rubbed off on her own children, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just knew that she was always happy going to work. She would not ever call off. She always went. If there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Marlene Morton. “Like, in the middle of the night she’d be on call. We would be on a family dinner and my mom would tell my dad, ‘OK, I’m on call. I need to go.’ I wanted to be like my mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost all of Morton’s family got into the medical field. The baby of the family, Marlene, eventually inherited her mom’s job heading up the ER billing and coding for Parkview Community Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now I’m doing a job that my mom created,” said the younger Morton. “I didn’t notice until a few years ago that I actually followed my mom’s footsteps. We do exactly the same thing for work. It feels amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Working on the Front Lines During the COVID-19 Pandemic \u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Morton started planning for the COVID-19 pandemic before the outbreaks in California. She and Yolie got to work early sewing masks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’d wear her N95 mask and then she’d wear a bedazzled mask on top of that,” said Ballesteros. “I bought her a shield. She bedazzled the shield.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton also moved her Native American art classes to YouTube in a series she called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcCOB0hJQUTFRmGOJ7zbT6w\">Sylvia Morton’s Native Notions\u003c/a>.” Morton enlisted each of her grandchildren to help make the videos. She squeezed in filming sessions between long, grueling nights in the emergency department at Riverside Community Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughters begged her to take time off from work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At that time that she got COVID, it was like wildfire,” said Ballesteros. “I kept telling her, ‘You have PTO. Use your time off.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton insisted on working, explaining that she had a responsibility to help during the COVID-19 crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt a little selfish because I was like, ‘Your responsibility is us, your family,’ ” said Ballesteros. “But she continued to go to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The entire family gathered together for the last time on Thanksgiving. Soon after, Morton tested positive for COVID-19. Her son, Carlos Jr., who had also recently started working at the hospital, tested positive, too. Ballesteros said her mother and brother were extremely close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was 15 when she had him,” Ballesteros said. “He was a natural-born leader. He really picked that up from my mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton and Carlos Jr. were treated alongside one another in Room #15 at Parkview Community Hospital. Marlene Morton, who was on staff there, rang in the New Year with them. Carlos Jr. died on Jan. 1, just a few hours later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel that it was God giving my mom the last few hours with her son,” said Marlene Morton. “I think my brother felt comfort the moment he saw my mom and knew that she was in the bed next to him. There didn’t have to be words. They could just look at each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton was moved out of the room just hours before her son passed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She said she knew within her body and her heart [that he had died],” said Marlene Morton. “She said she knew from her motherly instincts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton’s health declined rapidly after her son passed away. She died a week later on Jan. 8, 2021, at age 61.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870869\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870869 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Morton family attends Marlene Morton’s son Fernando’s graduation in May 2019. ‘We are a very loving, supporting and passionate family,’ said Yolanda Ballesteros. ‘We love each other endlessly.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since then, Marlene Morton and Ballesteros say their parents’ house feels too quiet. They miss family traditions, like packing the entire family into several cars and caravaning an hour away just to get tacos. But looking back at their mother’s life, there’s one thing her daughters know she’d be proud of: her family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sylvia Morton is survived by her husband, four children, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was an amazing mother for not being able to have her mother growing up,” said Marlene Morton. “You would not believe that this woman could create such a beautiful family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Mom, ER Worker and Mentor to Native Youth: A Family Remembers Sylvia Morton | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>More than 60,000 Californians have died from COVID-19, and \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\">The California Report Magazine\u003c/a> has launched a series to remember some of them. This week, we have a tribute to Sylvia Morton. She worked in the emergency department at Riverside Community Hospital before contracting COVID-19. She died on Jan. 8, 2021 at the age of 61, shortly after losing her son Carlos Jr. to the virus.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/sylvia-morton-burial-expenses-support-needed?utm_campaign=p_cp_url&utm_medium=os&utm_source=customer\">Sylvia Morton\u003c/a> was working a shift at the hospital, you would know it. Her penetrating voice was loud and joyful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870886\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 315px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11870886\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-800x1201.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"315\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-800x1201.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-1020x1531.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091-1023x1536.jpeg 1023w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_3091.jpeg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sylvia, Marlene “Turtle” and Yolie at Marlene’s baby shower in 2001. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When she was at work she had to wear a button that said, ‘I am loud,’ so that elders knew that she wasn’t trying to talk at them,’ ” said Morton’s daughter, Yolanda Ballesteros, or “Yolie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton was famous around Riverside Community Hospital for her big hair, hand-beaded earrings and her love of Hello Kitty. She wore a Hello Kitty sweater over her scrubs, along with her bedazzled face mask and shield. Her colleagues could often hear Tejano music star Selena blasting from Morton’s office — especially favorites like “Como La Flor” and “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She would start dancing and singing and flipping her hair back and forth like she was on stage,” Ballesteros said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton’s youngest daughter, Marlene Morton, said her mother loved the artist so much that she changed the name on her hospital badge to Selena. “And she told them, ‘OK, my name is Selena. Everybody has to call me Selena,’ ” Marlene said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was always happy,” Ballesteros added. “Even at sad times she would always find the silver lining. She was very uplifting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Overcoming a Difficult Childhood\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Sylvia Morton was born in San Bernardino on May 31,1959. She was a proud member of the Cahuilla Tribe and grew up just south of the San Manuel Indian Reservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mother died when she was just 3 years old. Her father was an alcoholic, so Morton spent her childhood shuttling between relatives’ homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every single day they had beans,” said Ballesteros. “There was always a pot of beans made. And everyone had a ration. And if you were not home in time, then if it was gone, it was gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton told her daughters about wearing hand-me-downs and borrowing her friends’ dolls. In the absence of the nurturing family she craved, she escaped by watching sitcoms like “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Partridge Family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She would sing and be a part of the ‘Partridge Family,’ ” said Ballesteros. “It was someplace happy for her, to be somewhere other than stuck in her reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870870\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870870 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-800x712.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"712\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-800x712.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-1020x908.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-160x142.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473-1536x1367.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_0430-e1619194664473.jpeg 1619w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carlos and Sylvia Morton on April 17, 1975. The newlyweds had just returned from Mexico and were celebrating with family. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In junior high school, Morton took refuge at friends’ homes, where she met a tall, green-eyed goofball named Carlos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From the moment she met him, she said they would laugh and talk,” said Ballesteros. “She said he was so handsome and funny. She was drawn to him like a magnet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was drawn to her deep dimples and long black hair. Carlos, who lived with his grandmother, invited Morton for breakfast almost every day so she’d have something to eat before school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mother always said that my dad rescued her,” said Ballesteros. “When she was 12 she decided that he was the love of her life and she was going to marry him. And at 15, she did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Becoming ‘Mom’ at 15\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>With her dad’s blessing, the pair married in Mexico and began growing their family immediately. Morton became a young mom at the age of 15. They had five children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We kind of grew up together,” said Ballesteros, whose mother had her at 17. She remembered sitting on Morton’s longboard and holding onto her leg while skating downtown for snow cones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember when I was about 4 years old, my mom taught me how to do backflips in our front yard,” said Ballesteros. “And she didn’t instruct me. She actually showed me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as a young mom, Morton was committed to providing her children with more than she had had. Her daughters remember Morton “lining us up like little soldiers” to comb their hair and ensure their clothes were clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On weekends, the family would pack into their dad’s ’51 Chevy Deluxe lowrider, which he built with Carlos Jr. They would cruise around while blasting oldies like Brenton Wood, Morton’s favorite.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Leaning Into Ambition\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>At 26, Morton decided to have another baby, “this time as an adult,” said Ballesteros. A few months after giving birth to her baby girl, Marlene, Morton decided to become a certified medical assistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She wanted us to be educated, to have good careers, to be self-sufficient, to take care of ourselves,” said Ballesteros. “And she showed us by example how to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton’s transition back to school wasn’t always easy on the family. Especially for 8-year-old Yolie, who had been the youngest child up until recently. Now, she had to help her dad care for baby Marlene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During the graduation ceremony she called me up onstage and she gave me the rose that was given with her certificate,” said Ballesteros, crying. “She told me I earned it as much as she did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the years after, Morton rose through the ranks from certified medical assistant to radiology technician. In 1996, she moved the family to Riverside after landing a job at Parkview Community Hospital. She became the director of emergency room admissions within a few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout her career, Morton encouraged young people in the Native American community to dream big, too. A master beader, she learned from the elders around her, and taught weekly art and music classes at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sobobatanf.org/\">Soboba Tribal TANF\u003c/a>. Ballesteros recalled her mother packing the auditorium when talking to students from the local Sherman Indian High School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She would let them know that getting your diploma is great and it’s a necessity to move further in life, but there’s more,” said Ballesteros. “Push yourself to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 738px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870871 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_4295.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"738\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_4295.jpeg 738w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_4295-160x120.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carlos Sr. and Sylvia attending their son Carlos Jr.’s graduation from Pacific High in San Bernardino in June 1994. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Morton mentored Native students and hired them whenever she could. Her ambition rubbed off on her own children, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just knew that she was always happy going to work. She would not ever call off. She always went. If there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Marlene Morton. “Like, in the middle of the night she’d be on call. We would be on a family dinner and my mom would tell my dad, ‘OK, I’m on call. I need to go.’ I wanted to be like my mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost all of Morton’s family got into the medical field. The baby of the family, Marlene, eventually inherited her mom’s job heading up the ER billing and coding for Parkview Community Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now I’m doing a job that my mom created,” said the younger Morton. “I didn’t notice until a few years ago that I actually followed my mom’s footsteps. We do exactly the same thing for work. It feels amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Working on the Front Lines During the COVID-19 Pandemic \u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Morton started planning for the COVID-19 pandemic before the outbreaks in California. She and Yolie got to work early sewing masks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’d wear her N95 mask and then she’d wear a bedazzled mask on top of that,” said Ballesteros. “I bought her a shield. She bedazzled the shield.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton also moved her Native American art classes to YouTube in a series she called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcCOB0hJQUTFRmGOJ7zbT6w\">Sylvia Morton’s Native Notions\u003c/a>.” Morton enlisted each of her grandchildren to help make the videos. She squeezed in filming sessions between long, grueling nights in the emergency department at Riverside Community Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughters begged her to take time off from work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At that time that she got COVID, it was like wildfire,” said Ballesteros. “I kept telling her, ‘You have PTO. Use your time off.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton insisted on working, explaining that she had a responsibility to help during the COVID-19 crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt a little selfish because I was like, ‘Your responsibility is us, your family,’ ” said Ballesteros. “But she continued to go to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The entire family gathered together for the last time on Thanksgiving. Soon after, Morton tested positive for COVID-19. Her son, Carlos Jr., who had also recently started working at the hospital, tested positive, too. Ballesteros said her mother and brother were extremely close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was 15 when she had him,” Ballesteros said. “He was a natural-born leader. He really picked that up from my mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton and Carlos Jr. were treated alongside one another in Room #15 at Parkview Community Hospital. Marlene Morton, who was on staff there, rang in the New Year with them. Carlos Jr. died on Jan. 1, just a few hours later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel that it was God giving my mom the last few hours with her son,” said Marlene Morton. “I think my brother felt comfort the moment he saw my mom and knew that she was in the bed next to him. There didn’t have to be words. They could just look at each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton was moved out of the room just hours before her son passed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She said she knew within her body and her heart [that he had died],” said Marlene Morton. “She said she knew from her motherly instincts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morton’s health declined rapidly after her son passed away. She died a week later on Jan. 8, 2021, at age 61.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870869\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11870869 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/IMG_1641.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Morton family attends Marlene Morton’s son Fernando’s graduation in May 2019. ‘We are a very loving, supporting and passionate family,’ said Yolanda Ballesteros. ‘We love each other endlessly.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Yolanda Ballesteros)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since then, Marlene Morton and Ballesteros say their parents’ house feels too quiet. They miss family traditions, like packing the entire family into several cars and caravaning an hour away just to get tacos. But looking back at their mother’s life, there’s one thing her daughters know she’d be proud of: her family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sylvia Morton is survived by her husband, four children, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was an amazing mother for not being able to have her mother growing up,” said Marlene Morton. “You would not believe that this woman could create such a beautiful family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In November, I was sent to a survival training in the San Bernadino Mountains. It was a weekend-long camp in the woods designed to learn essential skills in wilderness survival from ex-military personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I learned a wide array of skills over the course of my weekend in the woods: how to make fire, emergency signaling, navigation by both the stars and the sun, building my own shelter, first aid, finding and using medicinal plants, making rope and flotation devices from reeds, and what bugs you should and shouldn’t eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11713638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11713638 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"I learned how to make a rope out of river reeds.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During my training, I learned multiple new skills. Including how to make a rope out of river reeds. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.californiasurvivaltraining.com/\">Thomas Coyne Survival School\u003c/a> has trained many branches of the military and law enforcement. But it also trains just normal, everyday people who want to learn to survive in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“There's so many problem-solving steps that go into it. I mean, you have to be a geologist. You have to be a botanist. You have to be an engineer! You know, all these different things come into just being alive. It’s amazing!”\u003ccite>Joe Hernandez \u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Joe Hernandez is a tech sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at the Los Angeles Air Force Base. He was one of the course instructors and became my adventure buddy for the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so many other lessons that you can learn from survival and survival classes, because it's not just about what kind of bugs you can eat, or what kind of plants you can eat, or knowing how to build a shelter,” said Hernandez, as he cut into a dead log with his large knife, looking for bugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There's so many problem-solving steps that go into it. I mean, you have to be a geologist. You have to be a botanist. You have to be an engineer! You know, all these different things come into just being alive. It’s amazing!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11713634\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11713634 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Instructors Denny Salisbury and Joe Hernandez demonstrate how to build shelter.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Instructors Denny Salisbury and Joe Hernandez demonstrate how to build shelter. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Part of why I did the training, besides \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jsepulvado\">John Sepulvado\u003c/a> thinking it would be funny for me to eat bugs, was that I was fascinated by what it’s like to survive in the wilderness or in enemy territory on the nutrition of insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“There’s a rule that we use: Red, black and yellow, keep away fellow. Green, white, or brown, wolf it down.\u003ccite>Joe Hernandez\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Now, according to Hernandez, bugs show warning signs. Their colors will tell you if you can or can’t eat them. In general, you should try to eat the larvae or eggs of bugs, because they are high in fat and protein, and probably don't have any parasites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parasites are a big factor in why you can eat some bugs and their larvae raw, but not others. Crickets get a large parasitic worm called the Horsehair Worm. So you want to cook them whenever possible. Roly-polies are actually a crustacean and should be boiled just like a tiny lobster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some bugs have a natural defense built into them in the form of maybe a poison or a toxin or some claws, or they have bright colors, or something like that. We don't want to eat them,” said Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a rule that we use: Red, black and yellow, keep away fellow. Green, white or brown, wolf it down. So what that means is bugs have warning colors. So a bumblebee is yellow and black, just like a caution sign that we use for road construction. Or anything that's red. It's a warning color like a stop sign. So stay away from things with bright colors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11713635\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11713635 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Survival training attendees head into the woods to learn how to build their own structures.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Survival training attendees head into the woods to learn how to build their own structures. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hernandez set out with me to show me how you find bugs, which ones you eat, how you prepare them, how nutritious they are, and what bugs taste like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>7,000 feet up in the mountains in the Fall, the bugs proved hard to find. But we finally found some worms at \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sbnf/recarea/?recid=26537\">Jenks Lake \u003c/a>and ate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And... they really weren’t that bad! A bit rubbery, kind of gritty. Sort of like a flavorless gummy worm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2004/07/eating-bugs-cultural-cuisine/\">many people in different countries around the world eat bugs.\u003c/a> Researchers agree that insects have incredible nutritional value and could even help solve environmental problems because of their low cost and minimal carbon footprint. But the majority of people in the U.S. just haven’t gotten on board.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“Startup companies have been developed based on this idea that insects are going to be the future protein source for humans.I don't see that happening any time soon.” \u003ccite>Mark Hoddle\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://entomology.ucr.edu/faculty/hoddle.html\">Dr. Mark Hoddle\u003c/a>, entomologist at the University of California Riverside, says farming these micro-livestock as our future meat source just isn’t that likely. In the U.S., eating insects is a fringe market. In part because Americans think bugs are gross.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Startup companies have been developed based on this idea that insects are going to be the future protein source for humans,” said Hoddle. “I don't see that happening any time soon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says scaling up production to produce tons and tons of insects on bug farms could have unintended consequences. Farm workers could develop allergies, or production could be wiped out if farmed bugs contract an insect disease. There aren’t any vaccines you can give to bugs yet.\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay, so maybe people in the U.S. aren’t going to swap eating steaks for beetle larvae anytime soon. But now I can tell you, if I get lost in the woods and have to eat bugs, they really aren’t that bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11714257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11714257 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8398-1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">I learned to make a friction fire with a spindle and fireboard I cut from a willow tree. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In November, I was sent to a survival training in the San Bernadino Mountains. It was a weekend-long camp in the woods designed to learn essential skills in wilderness survival from ex-military personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I learned a wide array of skills over the course of my weekend in the woods: how to make fire, emergency signaling, navigation by both the stars and the sun, building my own shelter, first aid, finding and using medicinal plants, making rope and flotation devices from reeds, and what bugs you should and shouldn’t eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11713638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11713638 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"I learned how to make a rope out of river reeds.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8479-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During my training, I learned multiple new skills. Including how to make a rope out of river reeds. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.californiasurvivaltraining.com/\">Thomas Coyne Survival School\u003c/a> has trained many branches of the military and law enforcement. But it also trains just normal, everyday people who want to learn to survive in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“There's so many problem-solving steps that go into it. I mean, you have to be a geologist. You have to be a botanist. You have to be an engineer! You know, all these different things come into just being alive. It’s amazing!”\u003ccite>Joe Hernandez \u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Joe Hernandez is a tech sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at the Los Angeles Air Force Base. He was one of the course instructors and became my adventure buddy for the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so many other lessons that you can learn from survival and survival classes, because it's not just about what kind of bugs you can eat, or what kind of plants you can eat, or knowing how to build a shelter,” said Hernandez, as he cut into a dead log with his large knife, looking for bugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There's so many problem-solving steps that go into it. I mean, you have to be a geologist. You have to be a botanist. You have to be an engineer! You know, all these different things come into just being alive. It’s amazing!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11713634\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11713634 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Instructors Denny Salisbury and Joe Hernandez demonstrate how to build shelter.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8387-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Instructors Denny Salisbury and Joe Hernandez demonstrate how to build shelter. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Part of why I did the training, besides \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jsepulvado\">John Sepulvado\u003c/a> thinking it would be funny for me to eat bugs, was that I was fascinated by what it’s like to survive in the wilderness or in enemy territory on the nutrition of insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“There’s a rule that we use: Red, black and yellow, keep away fellow. Green, white, or brown, wolf it down.\u003ccite>Joe Hernandez\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Now, according to Hernandez, bugs show warning signs. Their colors will tell you if you can or can’t eat them. In general, you should try to eat the larvae or eggs of bugs, because they are high in fat and protein, and probably don't have any parasites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parasites are a big factor in why you can eat some bugs and their larvae raw, but not others. Crickets get a large parasitic worm called the Horsehair Worm. So you want to cook them whenever possible. Roly-polies are actually a crustacean and should be boiled just like a tiny lobster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some bugs have a natural defense built into them in the form of maybe a poison or a toxin or some claws, or they have bright colors, or something like that. We don't want to eat them,” said Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a rule that we use: Red, black and yellow, keep away fellow. Green, white or brown, wolf it down. So what that means is bugs have warning colors. So a bumblebee is yellow and black, just like a caution sign that we use for road construction. Or anything that's red. It's a warning color like a stop sign. So stay away from things with bright colors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11713635\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11713635 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Survival training attendees head into the woods to learn how to build their own structures.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8384-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Survival training attendees head into the woods to learn how to build their own structures. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hernandez set out with me to show me how you find bugs, which ones you eat, how you prepare them, how nutritious they are, and what bugs taste like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>7,000 feet up in the mountains in the Fall, the bugs proved hard to find. But we finally found some worms at \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sbnf/recarea/?recid=26537\">Jenks Lake \u003c/a>and ate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And... they really weren’t that bad! A bit rubbery, kind of gritty. Sort of like a flavorless gummy worm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2004/07/eating-bugs-cultural-cuisine/\">many people in different countries around the world eat bugs.\u003c/a> Researchers agree that insects have incredible nutritional value and could even help solve environmental problems because of their low cost and minimal carbon footprint. But the majority of people in the U.S. just haven’t gotten on board.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“Startup companies have been developed based on this idea that insects are going to be the future protein source for humans.I don't see that happening any time soon.” \u003ccite>Mark Hoddle\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://entomology.ucr.edu/faculty/hoddle.html\">Dr. Mark Hoddle\u003c/a>, entomologist at the University of California Riverside, says farming these micro-livestock as our future meat source just isn’t that likely. In the U.S., eating insects is a fringe market. In part because Americans think bugs are gross.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Startup companies have been developed based on this idea that insects are going to be the future protein source for humans,” said Hoddle. “I don't see that happening any time soon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says scaling up production to produce tons and tons of insects on bug farms could have unintended consequences. Farm workers could develop allergies, or production could be wiped out if farmed bugs contract an insect disease. There aren’t any vaccines you can give to bugs yet.\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay, so maybe people in the U.S. aren’t going to swap eating steaks for beetle larvae anytime soon. But now I can tell you, if I get lost in the woods and have to eat bugs, they really aren’t that bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11714257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11714257 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/IMG_8398-1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">I learned to make a friction fire with a spindle and fireboard I cut from a willow tree. \u003ccite>(Hope McKenney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Trump administration is opening more than 1 million acres of desert lands in Southern California to possible new mining claims. The lands had formerly been set aside for conservation, and the move comes as the economy of the rural West is becoming less dependent on extracting natural resources and more on tourism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the federal lands affected are in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4405501-DRECP-Mine-Map.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">and some directly border Joshua Tree National Park\u003c/a>, an increasingly important economic driver for surrounding communities. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s crazy the timing,” said Breanne Dusastre, director of marketing at the 29 Palms Inn, just outside the park. “We in these little rural communities have built up these powerful economies, and yet there seems to be proposals for actions to be taken that would harm that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655015\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-800x593.jpg\" alt=\"Breanne Dusastre of the 29 Palms Inn stands in front of a billboard she and other business leaders had installed along Highway 62 in Twentynine Palms, California, showing their support for national monuments and other protected lands.\" width=\"800\" height=\"593\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655015\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-800x593.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-1020x756.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-960x712.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-240x178.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-375x278.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-520x385.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Breanne Dusastre of the 29 Palms Inn stands in front of a billboard she and other business leaders had installed along Highway 62 in Twentynine Palms, California, showing their support for national monuments and other protected lands. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like many national parks, Joshua Tree had its busiest year ever in 2017. More than 2.8 million people wandered the boulder strewn trails, taking selfies in front of Joshua Trees, cholla and other desert plants. Visitorship is more than double what it was five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when they weren’t hiking, the National Park Service says visitors \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/news/tourism-to-joshua-tree-national-park-creates-millions-in-economic-benefit.htm\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spent more than $120 million annually\u003c/a> on lodging and food in nearby communities like Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the number of tourism-related jobs in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties grew by 70 percent between 1998 and 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11655016\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, mining’s importance to the regional economy shrank. In that same time period, the number of mining jobs in the two counties decreased by 14 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not only in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Nationally, the Commerce Department reports the outdoor recreation industry was valued at \u003ca href=\"https://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/industry/orsa/orsanewsrelease.htm\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$373 billion\u003c/a> in 2016. Mining was nearly four times smaller: \u003ca href=\"https://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=51&step=1#reqid=51&step=51&isuri=1&5114=a&5102=15\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$99 billion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These numbers make Ray Rasker, who heads the non-partisan, Montana-based research group \u003ca href=\"https://headwaterseconomics.org/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Headwaters Economics\u003c/a>, question the logic behind the Trump Administration’s decision to allow mining on once-protected public lands near a national park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Finding a community or a county in the West that is heavily reliant on natural resource development is a rare thing,” he said. “So why would you devise policy based on the exception to the rule and ignore where most of the economy is headed?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-800x484.jpg\" alt=\"The Mitsubishi Cement Corporation mines limestone to make cement in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains. The mine employs 150 people, a quarter of which live in the town of Lucerne Valley.\" width=\"800\" height=\"484\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655017\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-800x484.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-1020x617.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-960x580.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-240x145.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-375x227.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-520x314.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mitsubishi Cement Corporation mines limestone to make cement in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains. The mine employs 150 people, a quarter of which live in the town of Lucerne Valley. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bureau of Land Management staff say they are following the president’s executive orders to \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-promoting-energy-independence-economic-growth/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unencumber energy production\u003c/a> on federal lands and ensure a domestic supply of \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-federal-strategy-ensure-secure-reliable-supplies-critical-minerals/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">critical minerals\u003c/a>. They also aren’t expecting that many new mining claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, the Obama Administration banned new mining claims on 1.3 million acres of National Conservation Lands in the California desert, considered the among most pristine of all BLM lands. But Jerry Perez, the BLM State Director for California, said after subsequent analysis, there wasn’t much interest in mining on the conservation lands. Just 19,500 acres are suitable for mining. So instead of banning it outright on all 1.3 million acres, BLM is going to take applications on a case-by-case basis, he said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655018\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Chuck Bell with the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association sits in a conference room above the town's only grocery store, where the owners still display a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush. Bell supports expanding mining in the California desert.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655018\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-520x390.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chuck Bell with the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association sits in a conference room above the town’s only grocery store, where the owners still display a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush. Bell supports expanding mining in the California desert. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chuck Bell, head of the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association, supports opening the land to mining claims. He said it’s a matter of national security. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We as a nation have to be able to produce our basic stuff here just in case,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Lucerne Valley, the economy is still visibly connected to mining. Ten miles outside of town, the Mitsubishi Cement Corporation carves limestone out of a large open pit mine and heats it with aluminum and iron ore, creating fine cement powder. The mine employs 150 people, pays $1.2 million in property taxes to the county, and gives scholarships to local kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That mining is critical,” Bell said. “We would be nothing without them. Absolutely nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655019\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-800x602.jpg\" alt='A \"Make Mining Great Again\" bumper sticker is visible on a pick-up truck outside a public meeting in Joshua Tree, California, on March 1, 2018, regarding a proposal to allow more mining and solar development in the desert. ' width=\"800\" height=\"602\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655019\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-1020x767.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-960x722.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-375x282.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-520x391.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “Make Mining Great Again” bumper sticker is visible on a pick-up truck outside a public meeting in Joshua Tree, California, on March 1, 2018, regarding a proposal to allow more mining and solar development in the desert. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there just aren’t that many places like Lucerne Valley left in rural Southern California. The Trump Administration’s decision to allow new mining claims on conservation lands could be seen as a way to turn back the clock. This sentiment is visible on bumper stickers that say “Make Mining Great Again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see them on pick-up trucks around the town of Joshua Tree, at a time when its coffee shops and yoga studios increasingly cater to tourists.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Tourism Is Booming in California's Desert. So Why Is Trump Opening it Up to Mining? | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.scpr.org/about/people/staff/emily-guerin\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Guerin\u003c/a>\u003c/br> KPCC",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Trump administration is opening more than 1 million acres of desert lands in Southern California to possible new mining claims. The lands had formerly been set aside for conservation, and the move comes as the economy of the rural West is becoming less dependent on extracting natural resources and more on tourism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the federal lands affected are in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4405501-DRECP-Mine-Map.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">and some directly border Joshua Tree National Park\u003c/a>, an increasingly important economic driver for surrounding communities. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s crazy the timing,” said Breanne Dusastre, director of marketing at the 29 Palms Inn, just outside the park. “We in these little rural communities have built up these powerful economies, and yet there seems to be proposals for actions to be taken that would harm that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655015\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-800x593.jpg\" alt=\"Breanne Dusastre of the 29 Palms Inn stands in front of a billboard she and other business leaders had installed along Highway 62 in Twentynine Palms, California, showing their support for national monuments and other protected lands.\" width=\"800\" height=\"593\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655015\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-800x593.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-1020x756.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-960x712.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-240x178.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-375x278.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full-520x385.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198311-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Breanne Dusastre of the 29 Palms Inn stands in front of a billboard she and other business leaders had installed along Highway 62 in Twentynine Palms, California, showing their support for national monuments and other protected lands. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like many national parks, Joshua Tree had its busiest year ever in 2017. More than 2.8 million people wandered the boulder strewn trails, taking selfies in front of Joshua Trees, cholla and other desert plants. Visitorship is more than double what it was five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when they weren’t hiking, the National Park Service says visitors \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/news/tourism-to-joshua-tree-national-park-creates-millions-in-economic-benefit.htm\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spent more than $120 million annually\u003c/a> on lodging and food in nearby communities like Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the number of tourism-related jobs in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties grew by 70 percent between 1998 and 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11655016\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198380-full-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, mining’s importance to the regional economy shrank. In that same time period, the number of mining jobs in the two counties decreased by 14 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not only in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Nationally, the Commerce Department reports the outdoor recreation industry was valued at \u003ca href=\"https://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/industry/orsa/orsanewsrelease.htm\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$373 billion\u003c/a> in 2016. Mining was nearly four times smaller: \u003ca href=\"https://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=51&step=1#reqid=51&step=51&isuri=1&5114=a&5102=15\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$99 billion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These numbers make Ray Rasker, who heads the non-partisan, Montana-based research group \u003ca href=\"https://headwaterseconomics.org/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Headwaters Economics\u003c/a>, question the logic behind the Trump Administration’s decision to allow mining on once-protected public lands near a national park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Finding a community or a county in the West that is heavily reliant on natural resource development is a rare thing,” he said. “So why would you devise policy based on the exception to the rule and ignore where most of the economy is headed?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-800x484.jpg\" alt=\"The Mitsubishi Cement Corporation mines limestone to make cement in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains. The mine employs 150 people, a quarter of which live in the town of Lucerne Valley.\" width=\"800\" height=\"484\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655017\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-800x484.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-1020x617.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-960x580.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-240x145.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-375x227.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full-520x314.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198314-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mitsubishi Cement Corporation mines limestone to make cement in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains. The mine employs 150 people, a quarter of which live in the town of Lucerne Valley. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bureau of Land Management staff say they are following the president’s executive orders to \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-promoting-energy-independence-economic-growth/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unencumber energy production\u003c/a> on federal lands and ensure a domestic supply of \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-federal-strategy-ensure-secure-reliable-supplies-critical-minerals/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">critical minerals\u003c/a>. They also aren’t expecting that many new mining claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2016, the Obama Administration banned new mining claims on 1.3 million acres of National Conservation Lands in the California desert, considered the among most pristine of all BLM lands. But Jerry Perez, the BLM State Director for California, said after subsequent analysis, there wasn’t much interest in mining on the conservation lands. Just 19,500 acres are suitable for mining. So instead of banning it outright on all 1.3 million acres, BLM is going to take applications on a case-by-case basis, he said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655018\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Chuck Bell with the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association sits in a conference room above the town's only grocery store, where the owners still display a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush. Bell supports expanding mining in the California desert.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655018\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full-520x390.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198410-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chuck Bell with the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association sits in a conference room above the town’s only grocery store, where the owners still display a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush. Bell supports expanding mining in the California desert. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chuck Bell, head of the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association, supports opening the land to mining claims. He said it’s a matter of national security. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We as a nation have to be able to produce our basic stuff here just in case,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Lucerne Valley, the economy is still visibly connected to mining. Ten miles outside of town, the Mitsubishi Cement Corporation carves limestone out of a large open pit mine and heats it with aluminum and iron ore, creating fine cement powder. The mine employs 150 people, pays $1.2 million in property taxes to the county, and gives scholarships to local kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That mining is critical,” Bell said. “We would be nothing without them. Absolutely nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11655019\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-800x602.jpg\" alt='A \"Make Mining Great Again\" bumper sticker is visible on a pick-up truck outside a public meeting in Joshua Tree, California, on March 1, 2018, regarding a proposal to allow more mining and solar development in the desert. ' width=\"800\" height=\"602\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11655019\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-1020x767.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-960x722.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-375x282.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full-520x391.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/03/198317-full.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “Make Mining Great Again” bumper sticker is visible on a pick-up truck outside a public meeting in Joshua Tree, California, on March 1, 2018, regarding a proposal to allow more mining and solar development in the desert. \u003ccite>(EMILY GUERIN/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there just aren’t that many places like Lucerne Valley left in rural Southern California. The Trump Administration’s decision to allow new mining claims on conservation lands could be seen as a way to turn back the clock. This sentiment is visible on bumper stickers that say “Make Mining Great Again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see them on pick-up trucks around the town of Joshua Tree, at a time when its coffee shops and yoga studios increasingly cater to tourists.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Is the Trump Effect Keeping California Gun Sales Lower?",
"title": "Is the Trump Effect Keeping California Gun Sales Lower?",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>In the week following October's \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/06/what-we-know-about-california-victims-of-the-las-vegas-shooting/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mass shooting in Las Vegas\u003c/a>, the deadliest such shooting in recent American history, gun sales in California ticked up. But they didn't skyrocket, breaking a cycle of spiking gun sales in the state following mass shootings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians purchased 17,226 firearms in the week after the Las Vegas shooting, according to data obtained by KPCC from the California Bureau of Firearms. That was a 12 percent jump from the previous week, but represented only the fifth-highest week of gun sales this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last year, \u003ca href=\"http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/08/15/63411/californians-on-pace-to-buy-1-million-guns-in-2016/\">firearms sales jumped 45 percent the following week\u003c/a> in California, setting the highest weekly total of the year to that point. Similar spikes followed other mass shootings, including the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/12/02/san-bernardino-shootings-signs-have-faded-but-memories-remain-piercing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2015 incident in San Bernardino\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"R0rO2WM8YTHPLprU4LVohYFF2LVC3M4A\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gun trend experts say the modest sales in response to a mass shooting are a sign that gun enthusiasts are less worried about gun control measures with Trump and Republicans dominating the federal government. The spikes following the Orlando and San Bernardino shootings occurred while Democrat Barack Obama was in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Gun sales have started to decline since the election of Donald Trump,\" said UCLA law professor Adam Winkler. \"People feel less need to run out and buy guns.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As president, Obama routinely made calls for gun control following mass shootings. That sent many Americans scrambling to buy firearms they feared might become illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things are different with Trump in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's not the urgency or urgent need because the window of opportunity is not closing,\" said Craig DeLuz, a lobbyist with the Sacramento-based Firearms Policy Coalition, which advocates for gun rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump issued no call for gun control after the Las Vegas massacre, instead pointing to mental health issues. And the national debate over so-called bump stocks is moot in California, as the devices are already illegal in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationwide, gun retailers \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-gun-sales-in-america-stopped-spiking-after-mass-shootings/\">reported fewer background checks after the Las Vegas shooting\u003c/a>, as compared to the periods following incidents in San Bernardino, Sandy Hook and Orlando. Background checks are considered the best proxy for gun sales at the federal level, where gun sales data are not available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"1IUKgvUo231nlD15THXsAUCLCNEujF5t\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Californians shattered records for gun sales, \u003ca href=\"http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/03/15/69644/california-gun-sales-shattered-records-last-year-w/\">snapping up more than a million firearms\u003c/a> for the first time ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We saw just an overwhelming number of firearms sales,\" DeLuz said. He cited California's assault weapons ban as a driver of sales, as enthusiasts bought soon-to-be-banned models while they were still on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this year, sales are more sluggish -- 2017 firearms sales are on pace to dip to around 800,000, which would be the lowest total since 2011. That's according to the state data, which capture sales through Nov. 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of sales in California could pick up after Black Friday sales are factored in. Early reports indicate that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/26/566607006/black-friday-background-checks-reportedly-shoot-up-to-record-high\">background checks were up this year\u003c/a> across the country.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Gun experts say modest sales after the Las Vegas mass shooting indicate gun enthusiasts are less worried about gun control with Trump and Republicans dominating the government.",
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"nprByline": "\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.scpr.org/about/people/staff/aaron-mendelson\">Aaron Mendelson\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the week following October's \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/06/what-we-know-about-california-victims-of-the-las-vegas-shooting/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mass shooting in Las Vegas\u003c/a>, the deadliest such shooting in recent American history, gun sales in California ticked up. But they didn't skyrocket, breaking a cycle of spiking gun sales in the state following mass shootings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians purchased 17,226 firearms in the week after the Las Vegas shooting, according to data obtained by KPCC from the California Bureau of Firearms. That was a 12 percent jump from the previous week, but represented only the fifth-highest week of gun sales this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last year, \u003ca href=\"http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/08/15/63411/californians-on-pace-to-buy-1-million-guns-in-2016/\">firearms sales jumped 45 percent the following week\u003c/a> in California, setting the highest weekly total of the year to that point. Similar spikes followed other mass shootings, including the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/12/02/san-bernardino-shootings-signs-have-faded-but-memories-remain-piercing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2015 incident in San Bernardino\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gun trend experts say the modest sales in response to a mass shooting are a sign that gun enthusiasts are less worried about gun control measures with Trump and Republicans dominating the federal government. The spikes following the Orlando and San Bernardino shootings occurred while Democrat Barack Obama was in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Gun sales have started to decline since the election of Donald Trump,\" said UCLA law professor Adam Winkler. \"People feel less need to run out and buy guns.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As president, Obama routinely made calls for gun control following mass shootings. That sent many Americans scrambling to buy firearms they feared might become illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things are different with Trump in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's not the urgency or urgent need because the window of opportunity is not closing,\" said Craig DeLuz, a lobbyist with the Sacramento-based Firearms Policy Coalition, which advocates for gun rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump issued no call for gun control after the Las Vegas massacre, instead pointing to mental health issues. And the national debate over so-called bump stocks is moot in California, as the devices are already illegal in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationwide, gun retailers \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-gun-sales-in-america-stopped-spiking-after-mass-shootings/\">reported fewer background checks after the Las Vegas shooting\u003c/a>, as compared to the periods following incidents in San Bernardino, Sandy Hook and Orlando. Background checks are considered the best proxy for gun sales at the federal level, where gun sales data are not available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Californians shattered records for gun sales, \u003ca href=\"http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/03/15/69644/california-gun-sales-shattered-records-last-year-w/\">snapping up more than a million firearms\u003c/a> for the first time ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We saw just an overwhelming number of firearms sales,\" DeLuz said. He cited California's assault weapons ban as a driver of sales, as enthusiasts bought soon-to-be-banned models while they were still on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this year, sales are more sluggish -- 2017 firearms sales are on pace to dip to around 800,000, which would be the lowest total since 2011. That's according to the state data, which capture sales through Nov. 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of sales in California could pick up after Black Friday sales are factored in. Early reports indicate that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/26/566607006/black-friday-background-checks-reportedly-shoot-up-to-record-high\">background checks were up this year\u003c/a> across the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "More Than Half Las Vegas Massacre Victims from California; SoCal Coroner Assists",
"title": "More Than Half Las Vegas Massacre Victims from California; SoCal Coroner Assists",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>More than half of those killed in Las Vegas Sunday night are \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/las-vegas-shooting-victims-names-latest-list/\">reportedly from California\u003c/a> -- KQED has confirmed at least 32 either lived in the state or were native Californians. Of those, a majority called Southern California home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocky Shaw, lead supervising deputy coroner investigator for the \u003ca href=\"http://cms.sbcounty.gov/sheriff/MediaCenter/CoronerPressReleases.aspx\">San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department\u003c/a>, was in touch with Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg in Las Vegas just over an hour after the shooting began Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"qTRn2ZB1AvFJgU0HlnWrVl33e7G4ZoQ7\"]“I spoke to John Fudenberg the night it occurred, probably about 11:30 p.m., even before he knew what his needs were,” says Shaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By early Monday morning, a four-person coroner investigator team was en route from San Bernardino to Las Vegas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They take DNA samples, get everything pertinent to body descriptions; any scars, any tattoos, what kind of jewelry, just all of those things just that help make that identification,” says Shaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three of the investigators are also members of the federal \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20080206200905/http://www.hhs.gov/aspr/opeo/ndms/teams/dmort.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team \u003c/a>that specializes in mass casualty events, both natural and man-made. One team member recently returned from Texas after assisting in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Members of the team were also part of the response to the terrorist attack in San Bernardino in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw says they are uniquely skilled in arguably the toughest job of all -- delivering the worst news imaginable to a spouse, sibling or parent: a confirmation of death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are very well-versed in that, they do that almost every day,” says Shaw. “So they're very good at it, they truly are. They are very compassionate people, in addition to being excellent investigators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of Nevada’s close proximity to San Bernardino County, authorities on both sides of the border often work together on everything from illegal fireworks smuggling to murder investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. At least 58 people were killed, excluding the gunman, who also died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11621180\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11621180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-520x390.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1.jpg 1632w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An American flag flies at half-staff on the edge of the Mandalay Bay hotel complex on the Las Vegas strip. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The San Bernardino County coroner investigators are working out of a 24-hour family assistance center at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It’s where relatives go if they still can’t find a loved one who attended Sunday’s \u003ca href=\"http://rt91harvest.com/splash-page/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Route 91 Harvest Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw says he’s been checking in with San Bernardino County team members daily. His colleagues are the only out-of-state coroner team called upon to assist the Clark County Coroner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw spoke with team leader Jon Kroeker Wednesday as he worked at the family assistance center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He felt overwhelmed a bit by the sheer number of people that had come in inquiring,” says Shaw. \"And I understand that because looking back at 9/11, which was my first large mass casualty incident, we had a family assistance center for weeks and it seems like it never ended.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Coroners from San Bernardino County are helping identify victims of Sunday's mass shooting, many of whom were from the Golden State.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than half of those killed in Las Vegas Sunday night are \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/las-vegas-shooting-victims-names-latest-list/\">reportedly from California\u003c/a> -- KQED has confirmed at least 32 either lived in the state or were native Californians. Of those, a majority called Southern California home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocky Shaw, lead supervising deputy coroner investigator for the \u003ca href=\"http://cms.sbcounty.gov/sheriff/MediaCenter/CoronerPressReleases.aspx\">San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department\u003c/a>, was in touch with Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg in Las Vegas just over an hour after the shooting began Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>“I spoke to John Fudenberg the night it occurred, probably about 11:30 p.m., even before he knew what his needs were,” says Shaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By early Monday morning, a four-person coroner investigator team was en route from San Bernardino to Las Vegas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They take DNA samples, get everything pertinent to body descriptions; any scars, any tattoos, what kind of jewelry, just all of those things just that help make that identification,” says Shaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three of the investigators are also members of the federal \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20080206200905/http://www.hhs.gov/aspr/opeo/ndms/teams/dmort.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team \u003c/a>that specializes in mass casualty events, both natural and man-made. One team member recently returned from Texas after assisting in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Members of the team were also part of the response to the terrorist attack in San Bernardino in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw says they are uniquely skilled in arguably the toughest job of all -- delivering the worst news imaginable to a spouse, sibling or parent: a confirmation of death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are very well-versed in that, they do that almost every day,” says Shaw. “So they're very good at it, they truly are. They are very compassionate people, in addition to being excellent investigators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of Nevada’s close proximity to San Bernardino County, authorities on both sides of the border often work together on everything from illegal fireworks smuggling to murder investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. At least 58 people were killed, excluding the gunman, who also died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11621180\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11621180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1-520x390.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/VEGAS-FLAG-HALF-STAFF-NYNY-1.jpg 1632w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An American flag flies at half-staff on the edge of the Mandalay Bay hotel complex on the Las Vegas strip. \u003ccite>(Steven Cuevas / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The San Bernardino County coroner investigators are working out of a 24-hour family assistance center at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It’s where relatives go if they still can’t find a loved one who attended Sunday’s \u003ca href=\"http://rt91harvest.com/splash-page/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Route 91 Harvest Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw says he’s been checking in with San Bernardino County team members daily. His colleagues are the only out-of-state coroner team called upon to assist the Clark County Coroner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shaw spoke with team leader Jon Kroeker Wednesday as he worked at the family assistance center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He felt overwhelmed a bit by the sheer number of people that had come in inquiring,” says Shaw. \"And I understand that because looking back at 9/11, which was my first large mass casualty incident, we had a family assistance center for weeks and it seems like it never ended.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Victims' Families Sue Tech Companies Over San Bernardino Shooting",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Gregory Clayborn heard that his daughter, Sierra, had been one of 14 people killed in a \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/12/02/san-bernardino-shootings-signs-have-faded-but-memories-remain-piercing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mass shooting in San Bernardino\u003c/a> on Dec. 2, 2015, he says he was filled with rage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"But I decided to channel that rage into something positive to try and bring about a change so that this won't have to happen again,\" Clayborn says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Clayborn, that change is getting digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google to prevent terrorist organizations like ISIS from using their websites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed along with the families of two other victims, Clayborn claims the technology companies know ISIS is using their platforms to recruit followers and plan attacks, and that they aren't doing enough to prevent it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"5OVB837ZvVN0YZfypNWOtfWraqqQZDNC\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For years, Defendants have knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits,\" alleges the lawsuit, which was \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/04/526830849/san-bernardino-victims-families-accuse-tech-giants-of-enabling-isis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">filed in federal district court \u003c/a>in Los Angeles on May 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tashfeen Malik, who opened fire at the Inland Regional Center along with her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, on Dec. 2, 2015, \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-malik-facebook-messages-jihad-20151214-story.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pledged allegiance to ISIS\u003c/a> on her Facebook page the day of the attack and had exchanged messages on the platform about her desire to carry out an attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit details numerous other examples of terrorist organizations' active presence on social media sites and their use of those sites to recruit and radicalize individuals who go on to commit acts of terror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11450383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11450383\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-800x503.jpg\" alt=\"Investigators survey the SUV driven by Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik after their Dec. 2, 2015, attack in San Bernardino.\" width=\"800\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-800x503.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-160x101.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-1020x641.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-1180x741.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-960x603.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-240x151.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-375x236.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-520x327.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Investigators survey the SUV driven by Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik after their Dec. 2, 2015, attack in San Bernardino. \u003ccite>(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The suit is the latest chapter in what has become an ongoing legal battle to force companies to take a more active role in preventing terrorists from using their platforms. A similar suit was filed against the same three companies in connection with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/brinkmann-on-business/os-bz-pulse-twitter-isis-20170403-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 12, 2016, massacre\u003c/a> at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Current law\u003c/a> offers digital platforms broad protections from liability for content posted by users, which would protect companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google from these types of suits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clayborn's attorneys argue this law doesn't protect them because they are making money by putting advertisements on ISIS posts and pages. They say this creates new content that the companies should be held responsible for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Their bottom line is making money,\" Clayborn says about Facebook, Google and Twitter. \"They don't really care about anything else. If they did, they'd have algorithms to stop this and monitor this type of activity. They know how to do it, but they won't do it because of the money involved.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clayborn wants the sites to shut down any accounts connected with terrorists or terrorist organizations, but some worry that could lead to regular users having their content censored as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"vVAYBAhT2oHlQU1ffueVRGuUebsSovKx\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Generally, we find the more you do to prevent criminals and terrorists from using the internet, the more you're going to be preventing legitimate internet users from doing the same things,\" says Jeremy Malcolm, a senior global policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malcolm says the voices pushing for more content regulation have gained steam after concerns over the proliferation of \"fake news\" during the 2016 presidential campaign and terror attacks in the United States and abroad. But he says it's not reasonable to expect terrorists not to use social media any more than one could expect them not to use roads or the post office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, he advocates for empowering users to call out and report dangerous content like they would on a subway or at an airport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think that's the best approach rather than requiring platforms to proactively seek out and remove information, because they're going to make mistakes if that happens,\" he says. \"That's just going to lead to unnecessary censorship.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clayborn says that argument doesn't work when you've lost a child to an act of terror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Where would you be if you were the parent of that child? Would you still be talking about limiting the censoring of the internet? Or would you be pursuing a way so that this wouldn't happen to anyone else?\" he asks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Facebook spokesperson said in an email, \"There is no place on Facebook for groups that engage in terrorist activity or for content that expresses support for such activity, and we take swift action to remove this content when it’s reported to us.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment, and Google did not respond to KQED's request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Gregory Clayborn heard that his daughter, Sierra, had been one of 14 people killed in a \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/12/02/san-bernardino-shootings-signs-have-faded-but-memories-remain-piercing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mass shooting in San Bernardino\u003c/a> on Dec. 2, 2015, he says he was filled with rage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"But I decided to channel that rage into something positive to try and bring about a change so that this won't have to happen again,\" Clayborn says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Clayborn, that change is getting digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google to prevent terrorist organizations like ISIS from using their websites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed along with the families of two other victims, Clayborn claims the technology companies know ISIS is using their platforms to recruit followers and plan attacks, and that they aren't doing enough to prevent it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For years, Defendants have knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits,\" alleges the lawsuit, which was \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/04/526830849/san-bernardino-victims-families-accuse-tech-giants-of-enabling-isis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">filed in federal district court \u003c/a>in Los Angeles on May 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tashfeen Malik, who opened fire at the Inland Regional Center along with her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, on Dec. 2, 2015, \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-malik-facebook-messages-jihad-20151214-story.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pledged allegiance to ISIS\u003c/a> on her Facebook page the day of the attack and had exchanged messages on the platform about her desire to carry out an attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit details numerous other examples of terrorist organizations' active presence on social media sites and their use of those sites to recruit and radicalize individuals who go on to commit acts of terror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11450383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11450383\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-800x503.jpg\" alt=\"Investigators survey the SUV driven by Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik after their Dec. 2, 2015, attack in San Bernardino.\" width=\"800\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-800x503.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-160x101.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-1020x641.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-1180x741.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-960x603.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-240x151.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-375x236.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/SBShootingTruck-520x327.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Investigators survey the SUV driven by Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik after their Dec. 2, 2015, attack in San Bernardino. \u003ccite>(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The suit is the latest chapter in what has become an ongoing legal battle to force companies to take a more active role in preventing terrorists from using their platforms. A similar suit was filed against the same three companies in connection with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/brinkmann-on-business/os-bz-pulse-twitter-isis-20170403-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 12, 2016, massacre\u003c/a> at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Current law\u003c/a> offers digital platforms broad protections from liability for content posted by users, which would protect companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google from these types of suits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clayborn's attorneys argue this law doesn't protect them because they are making money by putting advertisements on ISIS posts and pages. They say this creates new content that the companies should be held responsible for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Their bottom line is making money,\" Clayborn says about Facebook, Google and Twitter. \"They don't really care about anything else. If they did, they'd have algorithms to stop this and monitor this type of activity. They know how to do it, but they won't do it because of the money involved.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clayborn wants the sites to shut down any accounts connected with terrorists or terrorist organizations, but some worry that could lead to regular users having their content censored as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Generally, we find the more you do to prevent criminals and terrorists from using the internet, the more you're going to be preventing legitimate internet users from doing the same things,\" says Jeremy Malcolm, a senior global policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malcolm says the voices pushing for more content regulation have gained steam after concerns over the proliferation of \"fake news\" during the 2016 presidential campaign and terror attacks in the United States and abroad. But he says it's not reasonable to expect terrorists not to use social media any more than one could expect them not to use roads or the post office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, he advocates for empowering users to call out and report dangerous content like they would on a subway or at an airport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think that's the best approach rather than requiring platforms to proactively seek out and remove information, because they're going to make mistakes if that happens,\" he says. \"That's just going to lead to unnecessary censorship.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clayborn says that argument doesn't work when you've lost a child to an act of terror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Where would you be if you were the parent of that child? Would you still be talking about limiting the censoring of the internet? Or would you be pursuing a way so that this wouldn't happen to anyone else?\" he asks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Facebook spokesperson said in an email, \"There is no place on Facebook for groups that engage in terrorist activity or for content that expresses support for such activity, and we take swift action to remove this content when it’s reported to us.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment, and Google did not respond to KQED's request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>“Buy a Home, 1% Down, Free Recorded Message,” reads a sign at the edge of a vacant lot in the scrappy working-class town of Bloomington near Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a tempting pitch. But it sounds a little suspicious to those who remember subprime lenders and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/subprime_mortgage_crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mortgage meltdown.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inland Southern California became something of a poster child for the housing crisis that sunk scores of homeowners, wiped out a booming construction sector, shredded city and county budgets, and contributed to a spectacular \u003ca href=\"http://www.cacb.uscourts.gov/case-of-interest/city-san-bernardino\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">municipal bankruptcy\u003c/a> in San Bernardino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I called the phone number on the sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hi, this is Emily your friendly real estate professional,” chirps a pre-recorded message. “Buying a home has never been easier. Here’s how it works. You put down 1 percent and your lender 2 percent toward your down payment, which puts you on your way to home ownership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t leave a message. But somehow I get a call back anyway from a broker based in L.A. who says he’s authorized to sell these new 1 percent down home loans through \u003ca href=\"https://www.uwm.com/mortgage-products/conventional-loans/1-percent-down\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Wholesale Mortgage.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a licensed private lender in Michigan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I tell him I’m just fishing for information and not looking for a new mortgage, he’s reluctant to say much more. So I pay a visit to the storefront mortgage company of veteran broker \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/tims.teresa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Theresa Tims\u003c/a> in the leafy business district of Upland, about 30 minutes outside L.A.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The social media-savvy Tims has produced video explainers about 1 percent down and other loan programs \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2fXzz9yozD3LK2Secfa9Zg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on her YouTube channel\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBGpZeqnpoY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I specialize in these low down loan type of programs and they fit our area perfectly,” Tims tells me during an interview her assistant simultaneously webcasts on Facebook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tims does a lot of business in the Riverside-San Bernardino area, the Inland Empire, where median home prices are still comparatively cheap: about $300,000 for a basic three- or even four-bedroom home. That’s less than half the \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/orange-county-ca/home-values/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">median price\u003c/a> in neighboring Orange County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now one of the only feasible programs is the 1 percent down with equity boost,” says Tims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has been offering 1 percent down conventional loans since late last year, when they first became available through \u003ca href=\"https://www.uwm.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Wholesale Mortgage\u003c/a> and its Detroit-based rival \u003ca href=\"https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/quicken-loans-offers-1-down-payment-option\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quicken Loans.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11425240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11425240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Inland Southern California’s foreclosure crisis has led cities like San Bernardino to become largely a city of renters. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-1180x886.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-960x721.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inland Southern California’s foreclosure crisis has led cities like San Bernardino to become largely a city of renters. \u003ccite>(Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The basic arithmetic is pretty straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Say you’re buying a $400,000 house in Riverside. You put down $4,000 — that’s the 1 percent. The lender kicks in $8,000 — that’s the 2 percent “grant.’ And that gets you to the 3 percent threshold required to qualify for federally backed mortgage insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loans are typically marketed to mid-income borrowers without a lot of cash on hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very common for somebody to be able to come up with $4,000 or $5,000 [for a down payment]… $8,000 to $10,000 is a little bit of a push,” says Tims. “Unless they get some kind of inheritance or they’ve been saving since like age 13.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Now we’re not just throwing the money up in the air.’\u003ccite>Abraham Bustillos, new homeowner\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Right around Christmas, Abraham Bustillos moved his wife and three kids into a 1,300-square-foot home in Riverside with one of these 1 percent down conventional loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were thinking we were going to need at least $15,000 to $20,000,” Bustillos tells me. “So to go from that to just $6,000 [down payment], we were able to move into the home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The balance on Bustillos’ loan is around $350,000 stretched over a 30-year fixed mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, it is a little bit more than we were paying as renters,” says Bustillos, a FedEx delivery driver. “But at the same time, now we’re not just throwing the money up in the air or paying the owner’s mortgage for him. You know, money is going into us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One advantage to these 1 percent down loans is that traditional bank lenders may require heftier minimum down payments, higher minimum incomes and flawless credit scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big non-bank lenders like United Wholesale and Quicken are filling the vacuum and scooping up customers who may not have cash for the more traditional 20 percent down payment — or maybe just have good but not golden credit scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Wholesale Mortgage declined to comment for this story over concerns it might make 1 percent down loans look risky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But housing finance expert \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/scholar/edward-j-pinto/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Edward Pinto\u003c/a> at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/policy/economics/housing-finance/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Enterprise Institute\u003c/a> in Washington, D.C., says they can be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless you have reliable house price increases, you’re going to be in trouble for many years,” says Pinto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trouble as in your monthly payments will be pretty steep and it’ll take awhile to build up equity in your property. If real estate doesn’t work for you, you may consider investing in gold assets from \u003ca href=\"https://citygoldbullion.com.au/buy-gold-brisbane/\">https://citygoldbullion.com.au/buy-gold-brisbane/\u003c/a> instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘If anything happens like they lose their job, they have no cushion to fall back on.’\u003ccite>Edward Pinto, housing finance expert\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Within California, the most volatile metropolitan area for housing is Riverside-San Bernardino,” Pinto explains. “And so if you’re buying a home in one of these areas with a very low down payment and then other risk factors are present, if anything happens like they lose their job, they have no cushion to fall back on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pinto says a bigger appetite for risk has led to problems for some non-bank lenders dealing in low down payment loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-files-lawsuit-alleging-quicken-loans-improperly-originated-and-underwrote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued both Quicken Loans \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mortgage-settlement-20170410-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Shore Financial Services\u003c/a>, the parent company of United Wholesale Mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors say between 2006 and 2012, the companies wrongly certified hundreds of low down payment loan applications insured through a Federal Housing Administration program (different from the 1 percent down conventional loans Quicken and United began offering last year). The government alleges that when the loans went bad, taxpayers were on the hook for millions of dollars in losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-shore-financial-services-llc-agrees-pay-48-million-resolve-alleged-false-claims-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">settled\u003c/a> its case last year after paying a $48 million penalty. \u003ca href=\"http://www.mortgageorb.com/quicken-loans-small-victory-might-not-small\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quicken is fighting\u003c/a> the charges in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the lawsuits were filed, then-\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7QbXrCWf4g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quicken CEO Bill Emerson told Fox Business\u003c/a> the government actions would stifle affordable loan programs targeting mid- and low-income borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11425179\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11425179\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"For sale signs dot neighborhoods across San Bernardino. Despite comparatively low prices, home ownership remains out of reach for many locals. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For-sale signs dot neighborhoods across San Bernardino. Despite comparatively low prices, home ownership remains out of reach for many locals. \u003ccite>(Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s absolutely driven a lot of financial institutions away from the FHA program for sure,” said Emerson. “And you know who suffers from that. It’s the American consumer, the middle class who depend on the FHA program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing risk expert Ed Pinto says these days, the majority of people buying a home for the first time in the U.S. are using FHA, 1 percent down and other types of low down payment programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And this group of low down payment loans is growing very rapidly,” says Pinto. “Seventy percent of all first-time homebuyers today have down payments of \u003ca href=\"https://themortgagereports.com/22592/ellie-mae-report-home-buyers-making-smaller-mortgage-down-payments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">less than 5 percent\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the potential drawbacks, these loans remain the last best option in places like San Bernardino, a city still clawing its way back from a crushing foreclosure crisis and that municipal bankruptcy. It’s also a city where home ownership remains far below the national average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of being in a mobile home park, we said let’s go and be homeowners,” says Isabel Montanez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I met her with her two young sons outside her modest two-bedroom San Bernardino home abutting a pair of auto repair shops. The single mom just purchased the home after qualifying for a low down payment FHA loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I signed the documents April 5, and before June I’ll be in,” she says proudly, before explaining how she plans to expand the home and move in a couple of relatives to help offset mortgage payments and other costs associated with home ownership.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“Buy a Home, 1% Down, Free Recorded Message,” reads a sign at the edge of a vacant lot in the scrappy working-class town of Bloomington near Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a tempting pitch. But it sounds a little suspicious to those who remember subprime lenders and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/subprime_mortgage_crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mortgage meltdown.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inland Southern California became something of a poster child for the housing crisis that sunk scores of homeowners, wiped out a booming construction sector, shredded city and county budgets, and contributed to a spectacular \u003ca href=\"http://www.cacb.uscourts.gov/case-of-interest/city-san-bernardino\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">municipal bankruptcy\u003c/a> in San Bernardino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I called the phone number on the sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hi, this is Emily your friendly real estate professional,” chirps a pre-recorded message. “Buying a home has never been easier. Here’s how it works. You put down 1 percent and your lender 2 percent toward your down payment, which puts you on your way to home ownership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t leave a message. But somehow I get a call back anyway from a broker based in L.A. who says he’s authorized to sell these new 1 percent down home loans through \u003ca href=\"https://www.uwm.com/mortgage-products/conventional-loans/1-percent-down\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Wholesale Mortgage.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a licensed private lender in Michigan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I tell him I’m just fishing for information and not looking for a new mortgage, he’s reluctant to say much more. So I pay a visit to the storefront mortgage company of veteran broker \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/tims.teresa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Theresa Tims\u003c/a> in the leafy business district of Upland, about 30 minutes outside L.A.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The social media-savvy Tims has produced video explainers about 1 percent down and other loan programs \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2fXzz9yozD3LK2Secfa9Zg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on her YouTube channel\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wBGpZeqnpoY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wBGpZeqnpoY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“I specialize in these low down loan type of programs and they fit our area perfectly,” Tims tells me during an interview her assistant simultaneously webcasts on Facebook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tims does a lot of business in the Riverside-San Bernardino area, the Inland Empire, where median home prices are still comparatively cheap: about $300,000 for a basic three- or even four-bedroom home. That’s less than half the \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/orange-county-ca/home-values/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">median price\u003c/a> in neighboring Orange County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now one of the only feasible programs is the 1 percent down with equity boost,” says Tims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has been offering 1 percent down conventional loans since late last year, when they first became available through \u003ca href=\"https://www.uwm.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Wholesale Mortgage\u003c/a> and its Detroit-based rival \u003ca href=\"https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/quicken-loans-offers-1-down-payment-option\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quicken Loans.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11425240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11425240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Inland Southern California’s foreclosure crisis has led cities like San Bernardino to become largely a city of renters. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-1180x886.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-960x721.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-rent-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inland Southern California’s foreclosure crisis has led cities like San Bernardino to become largely a city of renters. \u003ccite>(Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The basic arithmetic is pretty straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Say you’re buying a $400,000 house in Riverside. You put down $4,000 — that’s the 1 percent. The lender kicks in $8,000 — that’s the 2 percent “grant.’ And that gets you to the 3 percent threshold required to qualify for federally backed mortgage insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loans are typically marketed to mid-income borrowers without a lot of cash on hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very common for somebody to be able to come up with $4,000 or $5,000 [for a down payment]… $8,000 to $10,000 is a little bit of a push,” says Tims. “Unless they get some kind of inheritance or they’ve been saving since like age 13.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Now we’re not just throwing the money up in the air.’\u003ccite>Abraham Bustillos, new homeowner\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Right around Christmas, Abraham Bustillos moved his wife and three kids into a 1,300-square-foot home in Riverside with one of these 1 percent down conventional loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were thinking we were going to need at least $15,000 to $20,000,” Bustillos tells me. “So to go from that to just $6,000 [down payment], we were able to move into the home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The balance on Bustillos’ loan is around $350,000 stretched over a 30-year fixed mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, it is a little bit more than we were paying as renters,” says Bustillos, a FedEx delivery driver. “But at the same time, now we’re not just throwing the money up in the air or paying the owner’s mortgage for him. You know, money is going into us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One advantage to these 1 percent down loans is that traditional bank lenders may require heftier minimum down payments, higher minimum incomes and flawless credit scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big non-bank lenders like United Wholesale and Quicken are filling the vacuum and scooping up customers who may not have cash for the more traditional 20 percent down payment — or maybe just have good but not golden credit scores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Wholesale Mortgage declined to comment for this story over concerns it might make 1 percent down loans look risky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But housing finance expert \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/scholar/edward-j-pinto/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Edward Pinto\u003c/a> at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/policy/economics/housing-finance/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Enterprise Institute\u003c/a> in Washington, D.C., says they can be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless you have reliable house price increases, you’re going to be in trouble for many years,” says Pinto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trouble as in your monthly payments will be pretty steep and it’ll take awhile to build up equity in your property. If real estate doesn’t work for you, you may consider investing in gold assets from \u003ca href=\"https://citygoldbullion.com.au/buy-gold-brisbane/\">https://citygoldbullion.com.au/buy-gold-brisbane/\u003c/a> instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘If anything happens like they lose their job, they have no cushion to fall back on.’\u003ccite>Edward Pinto, housing finance expert\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Within California, the most volatile metropolitan area for housing is Riverside-San Bernardino,” Pinto explains. “And so if you’re buying a home in one of these areas with a very low down payment and then other risk factors are present, if anything happens like they lose their job, they have no cushion to fall back on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pinto says a bigger appetite for risk has led to problems for some non-bank lenders dealing in low down payment loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-files-lawsuit-alleging-quicken-loans-improperly-originated-and-underwrote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued both Quicken Loans \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mortgage-settlement-20170410-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Shore Financial Services\u003c/a>, the parent company of United Wholesale Mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors say between 2006 and 2012, the companies wrongly certified hundreds of low down payment loan applications insured through a Federal Housing Administration program (different from the 1 percent down conventional loans Quicken and United began offering last year). The government alleges that when the loans went bad, taxpayers were on the hook for millions of dollars in losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-shore-financial-services-llc-agrees-pay-48-million-resolve-alleged-false-claims-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">settled\u003c/a> its case last year after paying a $48 million penalty. \u003ca href=\"http://www.mortgageorb.com/quicken-loans-small-victory-might-not-small\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quicken is fighting\u003c/a> the charges in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the lawsuits were filed, then-\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7QbXrCWf4g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quicken CEO Bill Emerson told Fox Business\u003c/a> the government actions would stifle affordable loan programs targeting mid- and low-income borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11425179\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11425179\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"For sale signs dot neighborhoods across San Bernardino. Despite comparatively low prices, home ownership remains out of reach for many locals. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/DREAM-2-house-sale-close-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For-sale signs dot neighborhoods across San Bernardino. Despite comparatively low prices, home ownership remains out of reach for many locals. \u003ccite>(Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s absolutely driven a lot of financial institutions away from the FHA program for sure,” said Emerson. “And you know who suffers from that. It’s the American consumer, the middle class who depend on the FHA program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing risk expert Ed Pinto says these days, the majority of people buying a home for the first time in the U.S. are using FHA, 1 percent down and other types of low down payment programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And this group of low down payment loans is growing very rapidly,” says Pinto. “Seventy percent of all first-time homebuyers today have down payments of \u003ca href=\"https://themortgagereports.com/22592/ellie-mae-report-home-buyers-making-smaller-mortgage-down-payments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">less than 5 percent\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the potential drawbacks, these loans remain the last best option in places like San Bernardino, a city still clawing its way back from a crushing foreclosure crisis and that municipal bankruptcy. It’s also a city where home ownership remains far below the national average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of being in a mobile home park, we said let’s go and be homeowners,” says Isabel Montanez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I met her with her two young sons outside her modest two-bedroom San Bernardino home abutting a pair of auto repair shops. The single mom just purchased the home after qualifying for a low down payment FHA loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
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"order": 14
},
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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