History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Redefining education for students who need more than academics
- 11-10-2009
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By Joe Piasecki/Intersections L.A.
At 15, Jasmine Hernandez figured her life was pretty much over. “I used to be in a gang. I used to run around with people I wasn’t supposed to,” says Hernandez, whose early involvement with substance abuse and petty theft took her from her South Los Angeles single-parent home to multiple stints in juvenile hall, probation camps and group foster homes. The isolation and anonymity of life in L.A. County’s juvenile justice system kept her off the streets but seemed to nurture only a growing sense of hopelessness. “You feel like you’re trapped in a hole and you’re never going to get out. When you’re locked up, your whole spirit dies,“ she recalls. “You’re just a dead person walking. You feel like you don’t want to live anymore.” (more...)
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