Child’s play
HIV/AIDS performance educates and entertains
Locke High School will play host to a National Black HIV AIDS Awareness event Feb. 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. that will include an interactive educational theatrical performance called “What Goes Around.”
Members of the Kaiser Educational Theater will perform in the play which is designed to raise awareness about HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and help young people understand what are the best choices to make and how to do so.
In addition to the performance of What Goes Around, free testing and counseling for HIV/STDS will be offered on campus from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The program at Locke is a partnership between the students and teachers, the National Black HIV AIDS Awareness Day Coalition of Los Angeles and the Kaiser Educational Theater Group.
The program is part of the National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day that is recognized each year on Feb. 7. This is a national mobilization effort that encourages African Americans nationwide to get educated, tested and treated. It also urges people to get involved in community advocacy against a disease in which people of African descent in America represent half of all HIV and AIDS cases.
Five years after Green Dot Public Schools made history by becoming the first outside organization to assume control of a low-performing high school (Alain Leroy Locke High) in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the organization’s agreement is up for renewal and the matter will be taken up by the school board at its Feb. 12 meeting.
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.—The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation announced a petition drive today to get a city ordinance on the June ballot that would require porn actors to wear condoms.
“At present, animals working in film and TV productions in Los Angeles enjoy more safety and health protections than adult film performers do,” according to Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “There are laws and state statutes to protect adult performers, but there is no real enforcement.”
Students from the final class enrolled in Locke High School when the Los Angeles Unified School District ran the campus were among the 484 seniors who celebrated their graduation from the South Los Angeles school, now operated by Green Dot Public Schools. Green Dot assumed control of Locke in 2008, after the majority of the school’s teachers voted to go with the charter operator. Among the improvements Green Dot says have been made is an increased number of students graduating with the college-prep A-G courses, from 85 to 264.
Students from Locke High School, shown above making their presentation on developing organic leaders, were part of a panel of young experts presenting original research on inner city education.
Called the Council of Youth Research, the program is operated by UCLA’S Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, and gives high school students the training and opportunity to produce university-level research. Locke was joined by teams from Crenshaw, Manual Arts, Roosevelt and Wilson.
A team of Locke High School students, above, present their findings on developing organic leaders during the annual youth research presentations held by the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access. They were joined by their counterparts at Crenshaw, Manual Arts, Roosevelt and Wilson, and they all made presentations on the state of Education in California under the auspices of the Council of Youth Research. This is an organization that gives high school youngsters the training and opportunity to conduct university-level research.
