youth | rialtonow

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?

Video by rialto-now

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………..

Image by rialto-now

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

Video by rialto-now

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.

Video by rialto-now

Rialto Mayor Goes After Rotary & Chamber of Commerce

13 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

Money and the way it is spent has been a hot topic over the last few council meetings. Reports of the mayors spending coming under possible investigation have led Mayor Robertson and Councilman Ed Scott to attack the events that have been a part of the fabric of Rialto for years.

Councilman Ed Scott was more subtle in his attacks on events and the city of Rialto. Councilman Scott attacked the very development firm that is tasked with bringing the dream of retail/restaurant/entertainment zone to where the Airport once stood. He seems to praise the warehouse developers (except for the Target cold storage facility) and do everything he can to shoot down the development the city really wants to see. It is dangerous to have Mr. Scott on the Economic Development Committee and the Sub Committee that is overseeing the projects under development in the old Airport zone. Looking at Mr. Scott’s Campaign Contributions it makes you wonder what is really going on here. Also Mr. Scott who last Council meeting took issue with the fact that the people in Las Colinas collected food and toys for the less fortunate. Now he is trying to drag the city of Rialto into looking to go to districts rather than an at large council? He claims that South Rialto is under represented where is his proof?

Mayor Deborah Robertson’s attack wasn’t so subtle. She called out to have organizations that hold events in the city of Rialto pay back the money that the city has contributed to the private events being held on city property. Mayor Robertson called out two organizations in particular the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. In the video below Mayor Robertson chooses to attack the organization that helps school children (Rotary) and the Chamber of Commerce an organization that strives to create a healthy environment for business to thrive in Rialto. It is dangerous for the mayor to attack the Chambers Taste of Rialto event because it has been the event that shows off the different business owners that are bringing the different food options to the customers of Rialto.

It sounds as though the Mayor is still trying to make her possible misuse of public funds from the General Fund over the last few years ok. The problem is the events she brought up are community interest events and the funds the city applies are pre-approved via the special events committee where the city provides services like street closures and other services that the event can’t hire out privately. The mayors event attached a PRIVATE TRUST FUND to the cities GENERAL FUND and then failed to report the trust fund and cost the city thousands in lost dollars in fines and penalties. Some on the Council called this floating loans from the General Fund. Also the Mayor claims the State of the Woman event comes at an annual cost to the city of only $9,000. We wish she could explain the $22,000 plus dollar figure that this event cost the city in 2013 when the city made repairs to a private building’s roof and bathrooms and spent thousands on special media equipment and staff time to make this location work.

Mayor Robertson would like to make this out as an attack on the State of the Woman event but it isn’t that at all it is and always was about the gross waste of money. When the voters approved the cities extra tax on the tank farms the voters were promised that the city would be wise with the money entrusted to them. Well from the looks of things not everyone was or is on board with this promise.

Video by rialto-now

New Vocal Sensation Jessica Avila

29 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

Check out the hottest voice to hit the vocal scene this year Jessica Avila introduces the IE to her new song on the Let’s Talk Community radio show.

To see the entire interview click here

Video by rialto-now

Are New School Policies Putting Your Child In Danger

17 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy, Assemblymember-Elect Cheryl Brown, Ca, Colton, Crime, Edgar Montes, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Inland Empire, joseph williams, Rialto, San Bernardino, youth

Local schools in the Inland Empire are adopting some dangerous new rules when it comes to students meeting appropriate consequences for actions that dangerous in nature.

All over the Inland Empire schools seem to be rolling over and removing the consequences that help our students develop a sense of right and wrong that is vital to being a healthy adult. If it wasn’t for the chance of a speeding ticket many more people would speed and drive reckless.

Steven Chapman of Highland told us “consequences now help our young people weigh the cost bad choices, learn the lesson now when your young rather than when your older and the consquences are much worse”.

Check back next week when we will cover some of the local school districts implementing these very dangerous new rules.

Rialto High Cheerleaders Honored At Rialto City Hall

10 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

On Tuesday night the Rialto High School Cheer Squad received recognition for finishing number one for the 4th year in a row at City Hall during the Council Meeting. Rialto High Cheer just placed first at the CheerPros State Championships at the Citizens Bank Arena. They also won a full paid bid to the “Best of the West” Invitational in Long Beach. The Best of the West is on March 6th at CSULB and Nationals is March 18-20th at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Cheer Team was recognized for their skill and dedication by Mayor Pro Tem Joe Baca Jr.

Most of the players were called up one at a time to receive their individual awards of recognition. There was a bit of an uncomfortable moment as Mayor Pro Tem left out four players who the awards were not printed.