John Muir High Today

After being involved with our local government for a while now I'm beginning to see many issues that I was not aware of before. Like many of you I willingly sat in the background and grumbled only when things personally affected me.

From an onlooker's position most are willing to leave the problems of others a safe distance away. It's not that we don't have compassion for our fellow humans, but would instead rather not put their stuff on our own plates. Most probably think that dealing with their issues is enough to satiate their own compassionate nerve appetites.

A while back I had a conversation with Sheryl Orange, the current principal of John Muir High School. For years we have been hearing rumors about how badly this school is doing. There was even a threat of possibly having the government take over the school because of how poorly it was operating.

According to Orange, "When I became principal the students wondered why there weren't stacks of boxes in her office because the previous predecessors were in and out so fast like a revolving door."

Muir has a long legacy in our neighborhood. Most of our Westside children attended Muir or know of those who did. My wife, our son and daughter are all Muir graduates.  For a long time Muir was the pride of the people over here. That is no longer the case.

In the last eight years there have been at least seven principals. Currently a large part of the student population consists of homeless, parolees, children from group homes, broken homes, single parent homes, and other dysfunctional conditions. In fact finding a child from a home with a stable, two-parent family is a rarity, according to Orange.

It appears that most of the kids with high potential find their way into better schools, leaving the least promising at Muir. Yet still this principal, in spite of her very deep compassion for her student population has to bear the blame for the school's poor performance relative to other schools in the district.

I visited the school with a group who wanted to know first hand the situation there at Muir. Each one of us was totally shocked with the information Orange shared with us. We had no awareness of the reality she was dealing with.

I don't think most of the public knows the facts about Muir. Even if they did I wonder if the community would get involved in helping Orange overcome the almost insurmountable obstacles and saving a few of our kids.  When and where do we draw a line in the sand and say "that's far enough!"

A few local groups try to pitch in and do little things, but the problem is so deep that it is like taking a cup of water and endeavoring to put out a raging forest fire. Unless we get the entire community engaged we will probably lose this school.

With Muir's impressive site location, size, and amenities, many would love to see an upscale charter school come in and cap off the Lincoln Corridor. From the 210 freeways all the way up to the La Vina Estates this would be an impressive patch of real estate.

But, what would happen to all our kids that live in this neighborhood? If we do nothing to save their school while we have a chance, certainly we would do even less once they are out of sight and out of mind.

Good people of West Altadena, is there anything that will rile you up enough to get you to become actively involved in saving our neighborhood schools and thereby saving our children?

We did very little when PUSD suggested closing three Altadena Schools. Why don't the people from the Westside stand up and fight? If we don't draw the line when it concerns our future generations, then I guess our fate will be a dark one indeed! 

We are literally digging the graves for our children with our lackadaisical uncaring attitudes. That may seem a bit of a harsh statement, but I want you to get mad.

But I also want you to turn that anger energy into something that we can use constructively in order to save our children.

Where is the church and clergy in this fight? Why don't the NAACP and other local organizations jump on top of this? Where are our elite Black and Hispanic professionals? Where do the alumni stand on this issue?

Muir needs our help. The principal and teachers down there can't save the school alone. Those are our neighborhood children. If we don't save them, no one will! When and where do we draw a line and say, "THAT'S FAR ENOUGH?"