Jordan High paper strikes back with survey

Jordan High School's student newspaper, the Bulldog Times, has an article in this month's edition taking issue with an article in that other Times -- um, this one. Student Evelyn Garcia, writing for the Jordan paper, is critical of a story reporting on the findings of a recent survey conducted by a youth organization, South Central Youth Empowered Thru Action, whose findings included the contention that many students in South L.A. high schools are depressed. Not so! says Garcia, whose newspaper conducted a survey of its own among Jordan students.

She quotes senior Steven Hubbard as saying: “I don’t know where they got these results from. From what the L.A. Times article said being lazy and tired means that you’re clinically depressed. If that’s true, then everyone I know is clinically depressed, including the teachers and the president of the United States!!! Where do they get off saying that anyway? I’m always happy, and so are the people that I hang with!”

For the full article, click on read more below.

--Mitchell Landsberg

JORDAN STUDENT’S NEITHER FRIGHTENED NOR DEPRESSED!
By Evelyn Garcia
A recent L.A Times article referred to Jordan High School students as frightened and clinically depressed. This article was published and read by thousands of people on April 26. It was also recently placed on the Internet through the ASCD educational website to be viewed worldwide. The article stated, “many students in South L.A., in particular Jordan High School, were frightened and clinically depressed.” What exactly is clinical depression?
Clinical depression is a serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think, and how you act. People that suffer from clinical depression often lose interest in activities that were once enjoyable to them. They feel sad all the time, everything seems to anger them and they often feel hopeless. Clinical depression might even lead a person to attempt suicide. People who are clinically depressed do not usually crawl into a corner and hold everything in; every symptom usually kicks in through changing eating habits, and interaction with others. This illness usually lasts for weeks, months, and sometimes even years at times. People of all ages, genders, ethnicities, cultures, and religions can suffer from this illness. So why exactly did the L.A. Times article claim that Jordan students suffered from this illness?
Jordan students were surveyed earlier this school year. The students were asked many questions; it contained 13 questions only asking them how they felt around their community, school, their teachers, and college prep classes. For example, students were asked if they felt safer at school than they do in the community.
According to the survey results released by the South Central Youth Empowered Thru Action (SCYEA) organization, the school system was “pushing” the students out because schools were in poor condition. The results also stated “Jordan students felt frightened to be at school because it’s so dangerous and full of violence.” Their survey results showed one quarter of the students felt safe at school and 35 percent say they did not. Just under half said the school was preparing them for college or high paying job, and 93 percent believed the school should offer college prep classes.
“I don’t know where they got these results from. From what the L.A. Times article said being lazy and tired means that you’re clinically depressed. If that’s true, then everyone I know is clinically depressed, including the teachers and the president of the United States!!! Where do they get off saying that anyway? I’m always happy, and so are the people that I hang with!” said Steven Hubbard, a senior in the Starr Academy.
Recently, the Bulldog Times conducted a similar survey to that of the SCYEA’s. Students from all the SLC’s including the Ninth Graders were surveyed. The survey results showed that 66 percent of students felt safer at school than they do in the community. About 76 percent said they feel safe on campus compared to the results from the SCYEA’s survey. Only 5 percent said the school is NOT preparing them for college or a high paying job. 81 percent of the students said their teachers and counselors have high expectations of them. Unlike the SCYEA’s survey the Bulldog Time survey found the majority of students feel safe and have confidence in Jordan teachers and staff. The result numbers of the SCYEA’s compared to the ones from the Bulldog Times are very different. The percentages are in fact lower than the ones of the SCYEA’s.
It is true that the students in South L.A. “live in a poor environment, but do they really feel helpless, and hopeless?” a student who wishes to remain anonymous added “Not only did the students disagree with these false assumptions, but teachers did as well. Just knowing that only a few students spoke for the entire school wasn’t fair.” The Bulldog Times survey of over 10 percent of the students in school yielded much different results, most students did not show symptoms of clinical depression.
Alice Rubenstien, a clinical psychologist in Rochester, N.Y., was asked about her comments in the L.A. Times article. When asked whether the community affects the development of clinical depression in students, Rubenstein commented “being clinically depressed does not have much to do with the environment. Clinical depression is bio-chemically and so it runs in the family.” She added, “The students here are not guaranteed a safe place due to the unsafe community that surrounds them, leading to situational depression. Anxiety leads to depression.” But do most Jordan students have it? “Although not everyone is clinically depressed, everyone feels depressed sometimes. It just depends on how long.” Her comments are in a way contradicting the original survey, because she is not saying that the students are frightened and clinically depressed because of their surroundings. She is saying that everyone feels depressed at some period in time.
Dr. Strachan, Jordan principal, also shared his feelings about the L.A. Times article. He said “most of the information in the article was all perception and not consistent data, it was subjective.” He added “the survey did accurately paint the picture of the Jordan community. Jordan students have accomplished a lot and invited critics to visit the campus.” When asked whether he believed students were clinically depressed, Strachan said, “I am no psychologist but the smiles on the students faces at the end of the day send a very different message."

Comments

[Mariela Martinez]

I'm a student involved in SCYEA. We were not surprised to see that Jordan would respond this way. Dr. Strachan has been an interesting character to work with. He has countless times tried to slander and defeat the organizing work we do on his campus or example by firing allied teacher or suspending students he thinks are "threatening" him. He even denied us from distributing surveys and fliers on campus- a direct violation of our rights as students. Me along with the rest of SCYEA read this article and i am we have decided to write to the Bulldog times in an attempt to clarify the misunderstandings they have. It is also clear that their school news paper or their writer do not practice fair and journalistic writing; it sounds more like a propaganda newspaper. Oppression exists; its an everyday struggle. this is just another obstacle we have to deal with in the fight for a quality education!