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Colton Unified School District Suffers Student Death Some Blame PBIS

14 Apr 2016 3 Comments

Yesterday KTLA Channel 5 reported on the death of a Colton Unified School District Student.

“The parents of a 12-year-old boy who died after playing soccer Tuesday during a physical education class at an elementary school in Colton said Wednesday that a school bully stomped on their son’s chest before he lost consciousness.

School officials told him that Dominick had fallen and lost consciousness after running into another student, Gallegos told KTLA on Wednesday.

Katie Orloff, a spokeswoman for the Colton Joint Unified School District confirmed that a student had died and said a crisis team was at the school Wednesday. She did not provide any details of what had occurred.

“Everybody here is trying to do their best to support each other and work through it as the community that we are.” Orloff said.

Detectives were sent to the hospital and ruled out any type of assault or physical injury that may have happened at the school, according to Colton Police Department Officer Todd Smith, the school’s resource officer.

However, Dominick’s father talked to his son’s friends who witnessed the incident and believes his son was kicked by another student.

The students told Gallegos that Dominick slipped when he went to pick up a soccer ball and another student, who Gallegos said has a reputation for being a school bully, stomped on his son’s chest twice and Dominick lost consciousness.

“I guess the kid thought he was playing around. He started shaking him to wake up,” Gallegos said.

But that’s when the bell ending to school day rang and the boy just took off, Gallegos said.

“I don’t know where the teachers were,” said Gallegos, who felt his son should have been better supervised during the class. “Someone should have been watching those kids.”

Gallegos and the boy’s mother both said their son had no health problems and recently had a physical.”

See the full story from channel 5 here: http://ktla.com/2016/04/13/bully-stomped-on-chest-of-colton-6th-grader-who-died-boys-parents-say/

Now here is our issue with this story. According to Colton Police Officer Todd Smith “there was no proof that someone caused the student to die.” So how does Colton PD explain the witness reports? How can a School Resource officer feel confident that he can examine a dead body and rule out physical contact? Colton Unified has a long history of ignoring bully complaints and lying to parents, community, press and law enforcement.

This death reminds us of the bully case in 2014 where Jewlie Serna’s son had a bully give him death threats. This student was a known bully with issues and was labeled a special education student. Mrs Serna went round and round with the school and district and in a last ditch effort to get help she went to Social Media. Once she posted her sons issue on Facebook the stories of other students that were bullied and never helped came flooding in.

What made matters worse is when Mrs Serna brought a parent-child advocate and bully prevention professionals to a Colton Unified School Board meeting in an effort to get the school board to act the school and principal came out in force not to stand by Mrs Sernas son but to stand up for the administration that had been caught lying to police, community and parents.

We reached out to Mrs Serna to see if she wanted to make a statement on this horrible incident.

“I am so sickened to hear about this young boy’s death, I have been trying for about two years to change something with the CJUSD policies regarding bullying to no avail. The lack of truth and transparency was a large hurdle to over come in my sons case but though an attorney and a judge that was sick of the schools/ districts doing nothing I was able to protect my son through a restraining order. The schools and districts all point fingers the other way, no one is accountable.”

The popular thing we hear from people who work in education is that they are here for the children. But even louder than that old tag line is their actions. Covering up abuse, squabbling over money and work load and standing up for bad administrators instead of the kids who we claim to care for speak louder than your tired catch phrases.

We titled this article Colton Unified School District Suffers Student Death Some Blame PBIS because it is Positive Behavior Intervention Support that Colton and other IE School Districts are hiding behind to excuse the lack of accountability when it comes to punishing bad student behavior. How can we send our children to California Public Schools without worrying for their safety?

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NFL Hall Of Fame Football Player Ronnie Lott Comes Home

14 Apr 2016 1 Comment

by rialto-now in Ca, City of Rialto, davidsMarketing, Ed palmer, Flores Park, Inland Empire, local homes 4u, Rialto, rialto unified school district, youth Tags: eisenhower high school

On May 9th Hall of Fame Football Player Ronnie Lott will be coming back to Eisenhower High School for a special Hall of fame assembly and to talk about Football and his storied career in professional sports. Ronnie Lott can also offer Eisenhower students another thing, he can inspire them to be great.

You don’t have to come from an expensive private school or come from a wealthy family to be great or successful. Greatness comes from within, with hard work and dedication every student can be great.

Ronnie Lott was one of three former NFL players to come from Eisenhower High School and play in at least one Superbowl.

Eisenhower High School principal Scott Sparks said this about the Ronnie Lott assembly “Yes, Mr. Lott coming out to honor Eisenhower with the Hall of Fame Plaque will inspire our students. They can believe that coming from Rialto and going to school at Eisenhower is about having hope and dreams that can come true with hard work and grit.”

Local Documentary Producer Shows Off Local Political Knowledge

13 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

We have all watched those questions on the street videos from cities like Newport Beach, Los Angels and New York. We all laugh and say those people are so ________ and go about our day. What if one of those videos were shot here locally, closer to home would our local community fare any better? As someone who has attended local schools even college I did not have a mountain of faith that our community was plugged into what is really going on here and in our nation. The mere fact that a Socialist like Bernie Sanders has garnered so much support proves people have ZERO idea what makes this country survive and thrive.

People who are seen as leaders locally like Leticia Chavez, Tim Prince, Joe Baca, Curt Hagman and Janice Ruthaford know very little about how to do the will of the people or even teach people how government works and allow those people to form their own opinions. These people and many others that hang on their every word and action use hate and division to force people into lining up with them so that they can line their own pockets.

Last year local film maker Miles Orlenas filmed people in the city of Fontana and asked them a series of questions looking to see how much REAL knowledge they had about the American Government. Watch, enjoy and SHARE………..

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12 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

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Rialto City Council Approves Plans To Destroy A Majority Of The Last Standing Historic Orange Grove

12 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

On an early Tuesday morning our staff decided to take a look at the agenda for today’s city council meeting. Once we opened the agenda packet we were both glad and sad at the same time. The agenda includes nine proclomations, fifteen consent calander items and eleven tab items. The highlight of the agenda is the Proclamation-Mary McCombs 100th Year Birthday. You may not know Mrs McCombs but she is one of the last living Woman Veterans from World War II (you can see her in a video below).

One very sad side of tonight’s agenda is the approval of destroying 7.5 acres of historic orange grove to build high end condos with no private yards in an area already struggling with crime issues. The area has had 92 different crimes in the first four months of this year and most of them were drug or property crimes. Adams Acres owner John Adams told us that the Orange grove and farm has been operating at a loss since 1960 but his family kept running it to keep the historical monument and orange trees part of the Rialto landscape. The property in total is ruffly 9.5 acres and Mr. Adams is selling off 7.5 of those acres and keeping 2 acres of fruit trees and vegetable gardening land. The main portion of the trees on the land that is being sold to the developer of Crestwood Communities is Valencia Oranges that are mainly used for juice and don’t carry a high price in the market. There will be over 600 fruit tress on the remaining 2 acres containing 200 varieties of fruit. Mr. Adams has other off site gardens where they grow vegtables at other locations in the city of Rialto, but nothing with so much historical importance.

I bet you said to your self recently we don’t have enough tire shops in Rialto, right? No your probalby tired of Rialto holding the record for having the most indoor swapmeets, Mc Donalds and Tire Shops. Well if you liked to hand car-wash on Foothill near Eucalytus because the city in all it infinite wisdom has approved yet another tire shop that will run from the corner of Eucalytus all the way to the Exudoz Car Dealership.

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San Bernardino Schools Student Discipline & Citations Discussion

11 Apr 2016 1 Comment

by rialto-now in 100 Black Men, AFL-CIO, Assemblymember-Elect Cheryl Brown, Ca, Congressman Pete Aguilar, Crime, Currupt, Inland Empire, Marijuana, Medical Marijuana, pete aguilar, Public Safety, San Bernardino, San Bernardino PD, San Bernardino Police, SB Sun, youth

About 120 people from San Bernardino Unified School District, School Police, School Board members and various ethnic based organizations from throughout the San Bernardino area met at the San Bernardino Club and Events center to go over sweeping changes to student discipline that many in the community see as adding to the dangers that exist within the city of San Bernardino. Out of the 120 plus people in attendance we only count nine parents. Most of the people in attendance are people that are advocating and receiving funding for the sweeping changes in student citations.

Both Pete Aguilar and Cheryl Brown had people from their office here in attendance. On top of that we had four San Bernardino School District Board Members a clear violation of the Brown act. The violation is that out of the seven members that sit on the board Scott Wyatt, Barbara Flores, Abigail Medina and Mike Gallo are here creating a quorum. Apparently this isn’t the first time San Bernardino School Board has had a quorum without putting out the public notice of the meeting. School Board Sup Dale Mardsen said that since they have four board members at the meeting they now have to fly this as a public meeting after the fact. We asked board member Barbara Flores about this and she said “who cares this is important what are they (DA Ramos and his public integrity unit) going to do slap our hands? I’m ok with that!” To make matters worse later on into the meeting another Board Member (that makes five) came into the meeting Board Member Rogers. It was clear that these board members have no respect for the laws that govern them.

Dr. Harold Vollkommer and Superintendent Marsden worked hand in hand to control the conversation of the meeting leaving ZERO room for real questions or allowing people to speak their minds. It was so bad that Student Parent advocate Steven Figueroa said so in his comments publicly. The only people for this failed plan to remove consequences for the very things most parents work so hard to protect their children from were the people who stood to make money off of implementing the programs. From the mess of switching from different colored paper that was all out of order, poor time management and having the wrong information in the packets this meeting was a mess.

Another key person that stood out to us here is that Rialto School Board Member Dina Walker who was in favor of these horrible ideas making us wonder if Rialto Schools safety is now in jeopardy? Why would a Rialto School Board member attend a meeting like this, speak favorably of it and not have plans for using it in Rialto? Also Mrs. Walker was not there in another capacity alone she self identified as a Rialto School Baord Member and Dale Marsden also introduced her solely in her title as Rialto School Board Member.

Parents spoke about how the district is making parent involvement extremely difficult in this process and in attending this meeting. They are right this whole process has been made out to be as secret and behind closed doors as possible. San Bernardino School District is paying 1,500 a day for an upland based attorney to oversee this process. When this plan was launched it was done in a district employee eyes only email and employees were told they would find trouble with the district if they shared the information that is within.

Dale Marsden told us that no decision has been made and that this DRAFT proposal and that the School Board still has to approve it. The only problem is that Five board members are there all speaking privately about the Draft Proposal and they all are in favor of the proposal.

12th Annual Puttin’ on the Ritz Fine Arts Gala

07 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

The highly anticipated Youth Talent Showcase for the Students of Rialto Unified School District is upon us once again. This event is not only a showcase of Rialtos awesome young talent but a fundraiser for Fine Arts in the District. It also serves as one of the largest collections of the Who’s Who of Rialto. One of this years talent is Sarah Urbieta the Current Youth Chair of the Rialto Community Coalition and an all around awesome young lady. See her preform last year at the Positive Images Conference held at Bob Murphy High School.

12th Annual Puttin’ on the Ritz Fine Arts Gala are now open! This year’s impressive lineup of talented student performers is sure to leave attendees in awe:

2016 Ritz Talent

Owen Knapper, Jr., 6th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Aimee Monge, 5th Grade – Simpson Elementary School

Aubrey Stevenson, 3rd Grade – Fitzgerald Elementary School

Angelica Gonzales, 6th Grade – Rialto Middle School

Jalen Adams, 7th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Chiana Hedgeman, 12th Grade – Eisenhower High School

Kiarissa Ortega, 11th Grade – Eisenhower High School

Luis Vidana, 5th Grade – Casey Elementary School

Alyssa Edwards, 8th Grade – Kolb Middle School

Jocelyn Vega, 10th Grade – Carter High School

Sarah Urbieta, 6th Grade – Kucera Middle School

Casey Ballet Folklorico, 3^rd and 4^th Grade – Casey Elementary School

Rialto Royalz (Dance Team), 8th Grade – Rialto Middle School

Noted as the largest fine arts, student based Gala in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the Ritz has raised over $420,000, benefiting RUSD classroom students and teachers. Since the Ritz’ inception, over 300 students have shared their incredible talents on stage with more than 7,000 audience members throughout the event’s lifetime.

This year, we are proud to welcome esteemed guest emcee, Frank Pine, Executive Editor of the Los Angeles News Group (LANG), which encompasses The San Bernardino Sun and Daily Bulletin. We are also excited to welcome back, as co-emcee, the talented and entertaining 96.7 KCAL Rocks Radio Personality, Jimbo.

Tickets can be purchased by contacting Lana Kosh at (909) 820-7700 ext. 2140 or online by clicking the link HERE

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Rialto High School Finishes 1st Place at Nationals

26 Mar 2016 1 Comment

The photo above is from the Rialto Knights Twitter account. The picture shows the waiting moments of waiting for the results on their first place finish at Nationals In Anahiem on Sunday. Well a picture is worth a thousand words and this picture tells it all.

Well if the 1st place finish at the USA Spirit State Championships wasn’t enough your Rialto High School Cheer Team has now finished 1st at the USA Spirit Nationals. The Rialto Cheer team division had nine teams for preliminaries on March 19th and three teams for finals on March 20th. Thousand Oaks placed third and Temple City placed second behind your Rialto Knights!!!!!! See the video of the winning cheer Below:

The AWESOME team of girls took over the stage at the Anaheim Convention Center and owned their performance. The Inland Empire was well represented with teams from Fontana, Rialto, Chino Hills and Beaumont all competing for a win on the National Stage. Were super excited to see this team representing not only the Inland Empire but Rialto in a big way. It’s awesome to see that they were sent off by their classmates in the best way possible to get they big win.

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Rialto City Council Meeting Tonight

22 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

Well after a month between meetings we are back from Washington and ready to get back to the business of spending your money. This agenda is super top heavy with lots of Proclamations and Awards for all types of things. One that stands out to us is:

5 16-180 Proclamation-National Public Safety Telecommunications Week Mayor Deborah Robertson

What are we Proclaiming here? With wait times on the phone being as much as 30 minutes and residents reporting that they have called dispatch only to get a recorded message. Yes we know their job isn’t easy but when do we get off that excuse and ask the Police Department to get dispatch under control?

Vice President Gonzalez said something about the West Valley Water Board agendas that makes sense all over especially in Rialto. Millions of dollars is hidden and spent in the Consent Calendar. As you can see below the three we highlighted below are all things that should be examined individually not all at once hidden is a blanket motion. Here is how we break each one down:

E.6 – Request City Council to Approve Amendment No. 1 to the Exclusive Right to Negotiate Agreement with Fernando Acosta for the Development of Approximately 8 Acres of Property Located at the Northeast Corner of Ayala Drive and Renaissance Parkway.

Fernando Acosta is being given exclusive right to negotiate on the cities behalf on a portion of land that has 3 major owners and one that fell under our scrutiny when Cal Trans was using it as a construction storage facility and was full of blight and graffiti. Why is Fernando being given Exclusive Right to Negotiate? Is it because Ed Scott has majority power on the council right now and he is a donor to Ed Scott’s Campaign? Fernando live in the Flores Park Community but is never seen participating in the community efforts and his businesses only help organizations that are close to the Baca Foundation. Even local schools that are struggling to provide for low income kids cant get Fernando’s support. But were giving him access to what would be a multi million dollar deal?

E.10 – Request City Council to Approve an Increase to the Purchase Orders for Fritz Ford for Vehicle Parts in the Amount of $5,000, for a Total Not to Exceed Amount of $20,000.

Pay close attention to how staff spelled FRITTS FORD. We pay these people a lot of money and they can’t even spell the name of a business right especially a business that is Outside of the city of Rialto and is getting $20,000 of our tax money.

E.12 – Request City Council to Authorize an Increase to the Purchase Order with the Daily Journal for Advertising Services in the amount of $15,000 for a total amount of $30,000 in the 2015-2016 Fiscal Year

This one steams me how much are we paying for a subscription to a legal paper? This paper is just a news site for the legal world. Isn’t this something our well paid city attorney should be signing up for? The city claims it has no money for youth development and enrichment and the mayor is attacking groups like the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce all while wasting $30,000 a year on a digital newspaper subscription?

TAB 5 – Request City Council/Rialto Utility Authority to Approve a Third Amendment to the Agreement with West Valley Water District for Operation and Maintenance of Groundwater Contamination Treatment Systems for the 2015/16 Fiscal Year in the Amount of $68,381.69.

This final item is an TAB item (what the items above should be on) and what makes it stand out is the fact that the current President and Vice President of West Valley Water Board spent months telling us that their Groundwater Contamination Treatment Systems are not functioning properly in an effort to damage former General Manager Butch Ariza’s reputation. So the question is are we paying over $68,000 for treatment systems that are not functioning?

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Major Power Outage Kicks Off Rialto Students Spring Break

21 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Uncategorized

Thanks to the lazy way Southern California Edison maintains the power equipment over 1,024 rialto homes are spending the early afternoon without power. Rialto Unified School District kicked off their spring break last Friday but today is the first day of the week off and now they have to spend it without power. Edison is unsure what equipment failed or how long it will take to restore power. All through the streets of Flores Park one of the main communities effected you can see people spilling out of their homes and into the streets for light and information.