About
Zerohour initiatives at Gardena HS for the 2008-2009 school year include:
Thursday human relations sessions as part of the Peer Health mentoring class
curriculum. The class is sponsored by the UCLA-Harbor Medical Center Department of Family
Medicine and Healthy Start. Thursday sessions are taught by staff member Sikivu Hutchinson.
These sessions focus on gender roles, male/female identity formation, sexuality, HIV/AIDS
awareness, sexual assault awareness, and mental health and wellness for young women of color.
Fall recruitment for the 2008-2009 Women's Leadership Project cohort began in
September. The program was created in 2006 and targets 9-12 grade girls. The
program focuses on leadership building, feminism, civic engagement, cultural
identity, self-esteem, college preparation, media literacy and fostering collaboration
between women of color. Students receive service learning credit for graduation for
participating in the program. The program is run in partnership with Beyond the
Bell/Healthy Start and community intern Diane Arellano.
Life Skills class sessions featuring HR curriculum which focuses on introducing
9th grade students to peer and relationship building exercises including
political issues debate, prejudice and discrimination and intergroup stereotyping,
team-building, peer interviews, role play activities and whole class discussion
on race/gender, community and identity. The classes culminate in a student facilitated
day of dialogue at the end of the semester and will feature presentations by resource
providers. This year’s initiative focuses on newly created 9th grade “Houses” and
will feature recruitment of students for a zerohour taskforce. Students will receive
credit for participating in the taskforce.
Parent outreach featuring training will be provided by EMG (Educate Motivate Graduate)
Enterprises, an affiliate of the Dorsey High School Parent Center. EMG will
work with the HRC to craft involvement opportunities for parents in
conjunction with the zerohour taskforce.
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Cultural Proficiency staff development series featuring faculty/administrator dialogue and activities around cultural relevance, prejudice, achievement gap dynamics and differential access, classroom management and faculty relationships.
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News/Events
June 4th Youth Media Education Symposium
On June 4th 2009 130 students and adults from Gardena, Crenshaw, Dorsey and King-Drew Medical Magnet High Schools, in addition to Audubon and Horace Mann Middle School participated in a Youth Media Education Symposium sponsored and supported by the Women of Color Media Justice Initiative, the California Women’s Foundation and the Gardena High School Healthy Start Collaborative. The event was held at California State Dominguez Hills’ Loker Student Union. Students and youth advocates gave presentations on media literacy and advocacy which focused on analyzing media representations of young women and men of color, addressing violence against women of color in music and video, developing positive images of masculinity and male responsibility, and dissecting media stereotypes of LGBT communities of color. Women’s Leadership Project students presented a workshop that examined the similarities in the history of media imagery of African American women and Latinas. Representatives from Peace Over Violence, Mother’s Day Radio and the LACHRC also gave presentations. Artist and musician Nailah Porter provided inspirational words and songs on socially responsible music for the closing debrief session.
Women’s Leadership Project 2008-2009
This year’s cohort of the Women’s Leadership Project (WLP) has been involved in organizing around health literacy, media literacy and women’s rights. Highlights include taking the lead on launching Mix It Up Day for cultural diversity, organizing a Day of Remembrance for youth, attending an HIV/AIDS awareness conference for women and girls and educating GHS students and adults about sexual assault and sexual harassment through meetings with administrators, workshops and Denim Day outreach. WLP president Clay Wesley is also a foster care youth advocate who has traveled to Sacramento to lobby for foster care legislation and a participant in the Women of Color Media Justice Initiative’s radio production training at KPFK radio.
A Day of Remembrance
On March 31st, the Women’s Leadership Project (WLP) and Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) held a Day of Remembrance commemorating youth lost to gang violence, HIV/AIDS, hate crime and domestic abuse. The event featured an assembly with original GSA and WLP skits, music, poetry readings and dedications to loved ones. Speaker Isaiah Whiteside gave a moving talk about being HIV positive and reflected on the risk factors/challenges of living with HIV for youth of color. The students gathered in the quad during lunch time for a celebration in which reflections and letters from audience participants were collected, tied to balloons and released from the quad stage in a “Letters to Heaven” ceremony. The students passed out grief and mental health resource information and did peace/love face painting for participants. A mural with all of the contributions was mounted in the main hall of the school.
Media Literacy and Advocacy
During the spring semester of 2009 the Women of Color Media Justice Initiative (WCMJI) partnered with GHS and two other high schools to train students on media literacy and media advocacy with an emphasis on gender politics. February-March trainings featured students from GHS Life Skills, Peer Health and Government classes in addition to King-Drew Medical Magnet’s after school program. WCMJI partners Ida B. Wells Institute, Mother’s Day Radio, the City Commission on the Status of Women and the Women’s Leadership Project has received funding from the California Women’s Foundation to do training and education on media education. WCMJI has recruited and trained Cal State Los Angeles students to work with its high schools on deconstructing racism and sexism in the media, challenging mainstream media-influenced gender roles and examining the gender/racial politics of hip hop representation. Students who participate in the program will be involved in letter writing, drafting editorials and contacting music industry corporations and media outlets to advocate for socially responsible images in hip hop, rap and other music genres.
California Women’s Conference
On October 22nd thirteen Women’s Leadership Project students attended the Governor’s Women’s Conference with 500 invited high school students from across the state. Speakers included Condoleeza Rice, journalist Christiane Amanpour and civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman. Students who participated were required to complete thirty hours of community service and send in an evaluation of their outreach to the California Women’s Foundation.
zerohour Election Forum
On Monday, November 3rd over 200 Gardena seniors took part in a zerohour election forum. Students from the Women’s Leadership Project (WLP), Gay/Straight Alliance, Peer Health and Government classes presented and debated on the California Ballot Propositions and issues from the presidential campaign. Students had lively discussion on the Same-Sex Marriage Initiative (Prop 8), the Parental Notification Initiative (Prop 4) and the Drug-Rehabilitation Initiative for non-violent offenders (Prop 5). Students arguing for Team Obama and Team McCain debated on education policy, a woman’s right to choose and the Iraq war. WLP students presented on two key policy issues that were important to women in the election. Prior to the forum during the month of October, Women’s Leadership Project students conducted class- to-class voter registration targeting 12th graders and mailed completed registration forms. Special thanks are due to History teacher Saul Lankster and Health teacher Debbie Wallace for their support in helping coordinate the election forum presentations.
 Media Literacy Education: Sexism, Misogyny, Masculinity, Homophobia and Youth of Color
On February 28th GHS Life Skills and Peer Health Mentor
students began the first in class session of Mother’s
Day Radio’s (MDR) media literacy training on hip hop
imagery with founder Shaunelle Curry. The session featured
an introduction to MDR’s national socially responsible
hip hop campaign (in collaboration with the hip hop
collective Take Back the Mic), viewing of Byron Hurt’s
documentary Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes and recruitment
of youth for involvement in community advocacy efforts
with radio stations and record companies. Students explored
such themes as mainstream definitions of manhood and
their relationship to violence in pop culture and social
acceptance of the objectification of women of color.
MDR will return to GHS in late March to train Women’s
Leadership Project, BSU, MECHA and GSA students with
college student facilitators and mentors.
 Black History Month Program
On February 29th GHS student groups, including the Women’s
Leadership Project (WLP), participated in the school’s
black history month program with an audience of over
300 students. WLP students did a dramatic reading of
Sojourner Truth’s 1851 “Ain’t I a Woman” speech, which
focuses on the complexities of the lives of enslaved
black women and their role in the fight for human rights
in the women’s and abolitionist movements. The reading
was part of a narrative students collaborated on about
the past 300 years of African American civil rights
history from the plantation era to the present.
 World AIDS Day 2007
On November 30, students from Gardena
High’s Peer Health mentoring class and the Women’s Leadership
Project gave presentations to Health and Life Skills
classes for World AIDS Day, which is commemorated on
December 1. Students distributed posters and pamphlets
that they prepared with bullet points debunking myths
and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS contraction and facilitated
discussion with students on relationship communication,
the “down low” phenomenon in black/brown communities,
and the culturally specific challenges that black and
Latina women face around safe sex practices. Students
were joined by doctors from UCLA/Harbor Medical Center
for an in depth presentation on quality of life issues
HIV/AIDS patients encounter after their diagnoses.
 GHS Life Skills
On December 13th GHS Life Skills classes participated
in a day of dialogue on campus conditions. The sessions
were lead by seven student facilitators. The facilitators
lead students through an icebreaker, survey and discussion
on such topics as intergroup relations between young
people of different racial and cultural groups, youth-adult
relations, discipline, campus safety and cleanliness
and sexual harassment. Approximately two-hundred 9-11th
grade students participated in the activity. Survey
results will be used to develop an agenda for Healthy
Start’s new youth commission in January.
More
2007 Archive News and Events
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