Phillip Wright, 16, didn’t even have a chance to open the door. Police said the gunman at his family’s doorstep didn’t seem to care who it was on the other side.

The Oakland High School junior died yesterday evening, his grandfather cradling him in his arms, Trib reporter Harry Harris reported today.

I just don’t get it.

At an Oakland school board meeting last night, while Jody London spoke of the need to strengthen ties with the city, it was announced that the new schools chief, Tony Smith, would join the city’s even newer police chief, Anthony Batts, and Mayor Dellums at a town hall meeting Monday night at Prescott school in West Oakland.

Given the number of shootings — fatal and non-fatal — that Oakland public schoolchildren have suffered since August, and the tragic death of 11-year-old Alana Williams, who was struck by a car Oct. 16 while she was in a crosswalk right by her school, it seemed like a good start.

Smith speaks often about the need for everyone to come together to solve Oakland’s seemingly intractable problems, including the perils facing children and families in some neighborhoods. So who better to work with — at least, outside of the district — than Batts?

Maybe that will eventually come to pass.  Read the rest of this entry »

Extrapolating from research on the effect of high school graduation on incarceration, researchers from the California Dropout Research Project present us with a bold guesstimate: If Oakland cut its dropout rate in half, the city would have 805 fewer homicides and aggravated assaults each year.

The report also projects that the drop in dropout rate would give the city an extra $144 million in “lifetime economic benefits.” You can find the one-page city profile here, and info for 16 other cities including Berkeley and San Francisco here.

Oakland’s dropout rate, according to the latest estimates by the California Department of Education, is about 36 percent. What would it take to cut that in half?

image from kimberlyfaye’s site on flickr.com/creativecommons

OPD thinks so. At 5:30 p.m. tonight, the City of Oakland’s Public Safety Committee hears a proposal to keep kids under 18 off the streets between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. on school nights, and between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on weekends.

Tribune file photo by Ray Chavez

You can read a detailed report in support of the “Youth Protection Curfew” here.

Some community organizations plan to protest the proposal, saying it “criminalizes youth, parents and businesses.” The following release is circulating from a group called Critical Resistance: Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: OASES, an organization that works with Lincoln Elementary, is coordinating volunteer efforts. Those interested in lending a hand or donating replacement materials may contact Nhi Chau at nhi@oases.org, or at 510.891.9928 ext. 10. I’ve attached the school’s wish list here.

Imagine arriving at your classroom one morning and seeing this.

Two portable classrooms and the teacher’s lounge were badly vandalized over the weekend at Lincoln Elementary School, a California Distinguished School in Oakland’s Chinatown. Little was stolen aside from a TV set and some emergency food supplies, said Nhi Chau, a program coordinator with Oakland Asian Students Educational Services (OASES).

“They splattered paint all over the classrooms. Everything went upside down,” she said. Read the rest of this entry »

2008 file photo by Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group staff

More than a year has passed since a stray bullet paralyzed Chris Rodriguez during an after-school piano lesson in North Oakland. Chris, now 11 and ever-poised, told his story to the jury today during the trial of 25-year-old Jared Adams. You can find the Tribune report of the trial here.

Last year, a group of Claremont Middle School’s super-parents raised money for a digital media lab so that kids could learn professional video editing and animation software. They lent a good amount of creativity and elbow grease to the project, devoting weekend days before the start of school.

photo courtesy of Mike Mages

Mike Mages, one of the dads who spearheaded the project, was there when the lab opened this fall. And last month, he came running to the scene after a major break-in. Mages said thieves ripped off four of the school’s 20 new iMacs, a projector and a 52-inch LCD display just before winter break.

The thing that really bothers Mages, though, is that the theft might have been prevented. He said school administrators had requested deadbolts months before the burglary, and that they never came — well, at least until after the damage had been done. Read the rest of this entry »

OUSD Police Chief Art Michel is leaving his post, and I think today Thursday is his last day. I wouldn’t have known about it, had it not been for the farewell salutes that went out over the police radio this afternoon. Michel (pronounced Mitchell), a retired OPD sergeant, has led the resurrected OUSD police force since January 2008.

I’m told the chief is leaving because of compensation issues — he came out of retirement to head the school police force and was likely receiving retirement benefits – and not necessarily because of a controversy last fall in which he detained Tribune photographer/videographer Jane Tyska during a student protest. (I called him this afternoon. Let’s just say he didn’t want to talk about his departure, or anything else.)

I understand. Despite his long career, Michel might be remembered for this:

It’s a good thing that a case manager at Oakland Community Day School took seriously a 14-year-old student’s threats to her life and others yesterday. Shortly thereafter, police went to the student’s house and found seven loaded weapons in an unlocked cabinet near his bedroom. Seven! The boy was arrested.

Here’s a letter that Community Day School Principal Sam Pasarow sent to families, assuring them of the safety of their children and giving credit to staff for responding quickly (Like most of the alternative schools, Community Day does have an extensive search process, but still).

But that wasn’t the only weapons-related incident to shake Oakland schools yesterday. Another 14-year-old boy, who had been expelled from Madison Middle School, showed up to the campus and pointed a fake gun at two kids participating in an after-school program. The kids, of course, thought it was a real firearm. Read the rest of this entry »

This Associated Press photo, from 1998, shows a weapons check at a public elementary school in Indianapolis.

When Cole Middle School students return Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, they’ll no longer be able to breeze through the front door. The West Oakland school has decided to adopt baggage inspections and metal detection “wanding” on a trial basis in response to an incident last week in which a gun fired in a classroom, hitting a radiator.

Here is a letter that went out to Cole families about the new safety precautions.

Such security measures are rare in Oakland, with the exception of some of the district’s alternative schools — and, more recently, sporting events. But OUSD might eventually adopt those precautions at other schools as well, said district spokesman Troy Flint. Read the rest of this entry »