Page 168 – Good Times

Newborn Program Trains Monterey Bay Fishermen to Prevent Disaster

News

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August 15, 2023

Newborn Program Trains Monterey Bay Fishermen to Prevent Disaster

Don’t let the amputated thumb distract you.

Not from the dangerous deck conditions brought on by heavy seas. Not from your spiking heart rate. Not from the hidden foot wound that might kill the fisherman missing the finger.

These are some of the mantras soaked up by local fishermen who participated in the first annual Fisherman First Aid and Safety Training this summer. The training is hosted by Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust in partnership with California and Oregon Sea Grant.

“Commercial fishing is a dangerous and challenging occupation,” the introduction reads. “The risk of injury is always present.”

As one of the attending fishermen, Wesley Williams, puts it, noting that a fish spine in his foot has already sent him to the hospital: “Commercial fishing is not a joke. It’s the hardest job I’ve had in my life.”

During the 20-year period 2000–2019, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health tallied 141 deaths due to traumatic injury occurred in West Coast fisheries. Drowning, blunt force trauma and embolism were the three most common causes of fatalities, in that order. Meanwhile, the annual number of fatalities has generally declined over those two decades.

“Commercial fishing is particularly dangerous because it combines long, physically demanding labor operating heavy equipment in harsh conditions,” Palinkas says. “Oftentimes being far away from emergency care.”

And safety regulations are challenging to apply.

“What rules that are in place are difficult if not impossible to always enforce due to the remote nature of being far out at sea,” she says.

California Sea Grant (CSG) organized the two-day session, which was held at the Santa Cruz Harbor’s Public Meeting Room, with simulated drills aboard the FV Classic Lady, one of Santa Cruz’s resident commercial fishing vessels. (Its captain, Doug Gilbert, was among those who attended.)

It’s a unique organization whose partnership unites the resources of the federal government (including NOAA Fisheries), the State of California and dozens of universities across it to benefit the economy and the environment. It was built upon a similar land grant program to support the agriculture industry through science, research and innovation.

CSG Marine Research Associate Ashleigh Palinkas oversaw the affair, and the slate of activities proved brisk. One morning alone included training and simulation drills around evacuations, hypothermia/frostbite, abdominal injuries, how to move wounded crew, drowning epidemiology and prevention and more.

“This is targeted survival skills, with more realistic scenarios that would be likely to happen on a boat, removing the assumption you can get someone to the hospital within minutes or even hours. It’s the best safety training fishermen can get besides wilderness first responder,” she says.

On top of that, the weekend workshop was provided free of charge, with breakfast and lunch included. (Wilderness first responder classes, meanwhile, can take up to eight days and run $2,400.)

No death by PowerPoint here: Fishermen took turns playing the impaled, knocked out or otherwise bruised and bleeding victims while the Sea Grant team led them through the ways to navigate the trauma.

“It sounds bleak, but once you start thinking about what can go wrong [out there], you realize how much really can!” Palinkas says. “It’s heavy information and we do a lot of repetition, so when they find themselves in the scenario, it removes a lot of decision-making under stress, creating a controlled response rather than a frantic reaction.”

At one point a fisherman pantomimes the loss of a finger and his colleagues run through stages of assessment, including vital signs with the help of checklists like AVPU (alertness, verbal response, pain response, unresponsiveness).

“Don’t rush! Do the same assessment every time and it’s easy!” Doerr says. “Don’t let the amputated thumb distract you from other issues!”

Completing the course means fisher folk can meet the U.S. Coast Guard requirement that one or more crew on board be first aid- and CPR-trained. It also provides powerful capabilities and the peace of mind that comes with it—and, by the way, a free first aid kit filled with equipment they spent the class days learning how to use.Find additional resources at Fishermen Led Injury Prevention Program. A version of this piece originally appeared on nonprofit Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust’s website.

The Horse Therapy Tales

Cover Stories

Richard Stockton

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August 15, 2023

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For humans, a horse may be the greatest bio-feedback tool on earth

In Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, a therapist uses a horse as the emotional barometer to get you to a moment when what you feel on the inside is what you project. You may be able to bullshit your therapist, you can certainly bullshit yourself, but you cannot bullshit a horse. Horses have many times the number of mirror neurons as humans, and they fire when it acts, and when it observes the same action in you. Call it empathy.

Here are five tales of equine assisted psychotherapy.

The Comedian’s Tale—My Story

It’s day one of lockdown, March 15, 2020, my comedy performance career just shut down and I am unemployed for the first time in thirty years.

Cat Glass gives me a job taking care of nine Arabian horses on the Corralitos farm where I live in my Airstream trailer. I know nothing about horses, but it is a good job, a stable job.

I’ve had the job for three days and tonight I’ve finally gotten most of the horse manure out from under my toenails. I’d prefer to clean the stalls with shoes that didn’t have holes in the toes, but the stores are closed and to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, “You shovel shit with the sneakers you have.”

I was afraid of Moose the moment I met him. He took one look at me and turned away. Cat says that he indeed can be a shit, looking down on everyone.

In fact, Moose does look down on everyone, he is a 1,200 pound Arabian with chiseled muscles that flex and roll with every step. He rules the herd of nine Arabians on the farm and suffers most humans, like me, with skepticism.

I meet Moose with fragmented energy, it is a fearful time. I wonder if the end of my species floats through the air. I’m terrified of not being able to work.

I focus on the idea that we are spirits having a human experience, and I pace the floor, repeating, “I’m not broke, I’m having an out-of-money experience.”

Nowhere is safe, there is evil in the air, we are afraid of breathing. I floss every time I eat. I think I see Trump rising out of the sidewalk but when I get closer I see it’s a safety cone buried in gravel. I’m fragmented. To pay my rent I shovel shit.

There is no time clock, my day starts at dawn. I push my cart piled high with hay and grain to Moose’s pen. Moose does not like to wait, and as he paws the ground, I feel the earth shake.

While the outside human world descends into madness to fight over masks on their faces to prevent infection of their lungs, it’s my job to put fly masks on the horses’ faces to prevent infection of their eyes. The horses can see through their eye masks, but it is still an intimate maneuver for me to reach under their necks and lift the masks over their faces, adjust it over their eyes and fasten it with Velcro.

I am terrified of Moose. You could put a half dollar in his nostril. A few years ago, Moose was abused by a man and injured. Moose is not mean, but when I come through the gate his eyes go wild, ears go back and he runs in circles, kicking and snorting. He is as freaked out by our encounter as I am.

Cat says, “Moose is mirroring your fear. He can’t understand why you are afraid of him and it’s making him afraid. Lean into him, closer is better, he will trust you. He wants to make you a member of his herd.” Wow, 50 Shades of Hay.

“He is non-judgmental, he senses how you feel and responds with empathy.”

“What do I do?”

“Tell him what you want.”

Sure. My breath shakes.

“Moose. I’m putting this mask on your face to keep flies off your eyes.”

He looks at me with one eye and turns his head to look at me with the other. I deflate, my shoulders slump.

“Moose. We are putting this mask on to protect you.”

He sniffs the air around my head. All I have left is to level with him.

“Moose. Man, I just want to protect your eyes from these goddamn flies.”

He lowers his nose to mine; I feel the powerful suction as he inhales me. He puts a nostril over my nose and blows air into my lungs. He lets me scratch his neck and lifts his head with pleasure. He leans into my hands so I will scratch him harder, and it nearly knocks me down. Then he lowers his head to receive the mask.

At a time when I worry my breath will kill someone, Moose teaches me how to breathe again. At first I think this magic must be unique to Moose and me, but I learn that horses have been healing humans for five thousand years.

The Warrior’s Tale

Joe Rodriguez served in the Marine Corp for eight years and did two tours in Iraq. He was in the 4^th Armored Light Reconnaissance Battalion in tactical combat—nuclear, biological, chemical defense. Joe is certifiably bad ass. Joe tells his story:

I checked myself into rehab last February. After thirteen years of drinking, doing drugs, I had a really bad night, firearms were involved. With Cat’s help, I checked into the VA psych ward in Palo Alto. I was so glad to be there, on the ride there I was really drunk. You should never go to rehab sober.

My buddy and I were lit. I got busted trying to smuggle in my vape pen. Nope, strip search. That place is no fun at all. I call it Prisoneyland. There are no ledges, no place you can hang yourself on. The desks are heavy, you can’t pick them up and throw them.

But then I got lucky, a doctor told us about a program called Foundations of Recovery (FOR). Me and my buddy made it in. I knew that if I went back to drinking I would kill myself or somebody else.

We got to go to one called Equine Therapy. Really, what it is, horses aren’t full of shit (apparently Joe has never been a stall cleaner, but I get his point.) They don’t want you to be freaky and weird around them; you gotta be cool, then they’ll be cool. It’s a horse, so I can let my guard down.

When I walk up to a horse, it is inspecting me, and if my energy is off, the horse will not get near me, it’s not going to trust me. As addicts, we all have our little twitches, and I have to let that go. Horses are a gateway to getting in the moment.

I saw my buddy hang on one horse for forty minutes. You could see them breathe together. And that’s it, you learn how to breathe through the hectic moment, like when things get hectic in my classes at Cabrillo or even talking to you right now. I know what it is to get in the moment, because with a horse, you can feel it.

Everything gets calm. I used to be nervous, I’d hear voices and see people on rooftops all day long. I wanted to be concealed, have cover and evade. Drinking gave me the courage to fight those feelings. Now I trust Cat’s horse Faith, and I don’t want to drink.

The Artist’s Tale

Julianna Zito is an artist who paints how she feels. Her paintings are complex and represent how she sees what is going on in her brain at a given moment. In her early 30s she had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and got on a heavy cocktail of psych meds. Julianna tells her story:

I was trying to analyze my way to peace and going over and over things in the past. The schism puts me at war with myself and I make bad decisions.

At 40, I started working with Sandy, a psychotherapist, and her horse Toby. A live bio-feedback machine is what Toby is for me, he takes a reading on whether my inner and outer self are aligned. If I am congruent, truly calm and peaceful, Toby will turn an ear toward me. Maybe he’ll turn his body toward me.

Rejection is my most vulnerable place; if I feel rejected it triggers panic. I was terrified of being rejected by the horse, and after six months of looking for Toby’s acceptance, I came in crying. I was a ragged, jagged mess and I knew that Toby was not going to have anything to do with me. And he didn’t, Toby moved to the other side of the stall.

I said, “Oh Sandy, Toby’s not going to want to have anything to do with me today. What a waste, I feel so dark and angry and sad.”

I had my sketch book with me and one thing I can do is draw how I feel.

Sandy said, “Share with me what you drew.”

Still crying, I sat down and started talking about the artwork that represented how messed up I am and that’s when Toby came over to me and laid his head on my shoulder. That’s when I discovered what it felt like to be seen, heard and felt when my inside self and outside self were the same.

Toby was telling me, “You are real now, we are both safe now.”

I was blown away that this beautiful creature wanted to be close to me, even when I was my imperfect, ragged self. I’ve tried a lot of different therapies, and it took six months with Sandy and Toby to get here, but I can’t imagine anything else getting me to this place of awareness like I have with Toby. I go to Sandy and Toby one hour a week, I know I’m not bi-polar and don’t take psych meds.

The Healer’s Tale

Charlie Jenks did two combat tours in Afghanistan. In 2006 he moved his family to Hawaii and started having panic attacks when public speaking. It got worse and he searched far and wide for effective treatment. He retired from the military in 2016 and his attacks became debilitating. Charlie tells his story:

I masked it all. I didn’t look for mental health help, that was for other people. My symptoms were that my lower back would sweat, profusely. Doctors would prescribe pills for my panic, but I’m not about that.

It snowballed. It got to the point, people could ask me questions, I felt cornered and it triggered the panic. I was good at masking it, but when I retired from the army

I started interviewing at companies with HR people and they’d say, “So, tell me about yourself.” It was like a big spotlight came on me and I felt like I was back in my vehicle in Afghanistan, when the vehicle in front of us blew up. The panic comes from holding the fear of this happening again, and I stayed in a state of readiness. I’d wear multiple shirts to absorb the sweat, and I discovered that drinking alcohol helped.

With my PTSD buddies, I kept drinking more and more. I knew I had to do something, and I knew that I’ve always felt good around horses. I found The Horse Whisperer, Monty Roberts, whose class Horse Sense and Healing establishes a trusting relationship with the horse without the use of dominance or force. The idea was to get the horse to come to me untethered, just because it wanted to be with me.

I didn’t get it until the third class and then the horse woke me up, the horse is just a mirror of me! Monty teaches diaphragmatic breathing to calm down, and the horse calmed down. I was blaming everybody else for my problems, and the horse showed me that it was me. It changed my life. Then I incorporated my own Qigong practice and started my own healing horse meditation class.

Now my symptoms are gone, no sweat. My dream is to show this to others, my combination of breathwork and horses. That’s why we do the Friday morning horse meditations, where the horses end up leading us. And this is not just for Vets, we offer this to everyone.

You can learn more about Charlie Jenk’s healing work at https://connectingveterenswithhorses.com.

The Horsewoman’s Tale

Cat Glass is the owner of the nine Arabians on the farm where my Airstream trailer sits. Her horses are family. Cat tells her story:

When my cancer had me doing chemo, I was losing hope and just wanted it all to end. Moose would walk up to me, sniff me all over and nuzzle me until I would burst out crying and throw my arms around his neck and hang onto him and we would cry together. Moose saved my life. I was ready to give up, but Moose gave me hope; faith that someday I will be back out in the corrals, taking care of my horses.

Moose has to be in tune with his herd, we have mountain lions. He includes me in his herd. If I’m scared, he feels scared too. Moose has moments where he can be really tough, he’s dealing with PTSD of his own. He came so far to wrap his long neck around me, support me, to hold me. He knew I hurt, and from his towering intensity, he took it all the way down to the gentlest, kindest Moose there is, and it healed both of us. He met me where I was.

In these five tales of horse therapy, they all found a horse-human bio-feedback loop. A horse can hear your heartbeat from four feet away. A horse can smell when you’re afraid, sad or mad. If your inside feeling is a different story from what you are projecting on the outside, a horse will have nothing to do with you. More people every day are discovering that this interspecies feedback loop can be a way to self-discovery. A horse will synchronize their heartbeat to the other horses in their herd. A horse will synchronize their heartbeat to yours.

When Santa Cruz songwriter Keith Greeninger sings in “Glorious Peasant”:

Don’t matter where you been

I love you for the shape you’re in

Poems draped across your skin

The gift you bring to me …

I hear that all I need is to have the poems on my skin match the story I’m running through my head. I remember just how easy it is to bring those two stories together when I’m out breathing with Moose, when I feel safe to be in his herd.

Richard Stockton’s latest book of personal short stories, Love at the In-N-Out Burger, is available at Bookshop Santa Cruz and at Amazon.com.

The Editor’s Desk

Letters to the Editor

Brad Kava

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August 15, 2023

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Our editor’s note, readers’ letters, and the quote, photo and good things of the week

Editorial Note

Santa Cruz California editor of good times news media print and web — Brad Kava | Good Times Editor

For most people the “Dog Days of Summer” refers to the heat and humidity of July and August, but there’s another meaning for journalists. With schools and government closed and so many people on vacation, we are hard pressed to find hard news. And that’s when the animal stories come out.

We avoided dogs this issue, but we’ve got a couple of four-legged stories, including a truly amazing one about how horses can help cure serious mental problems. This is one that will really blow your mind. Writer Richard Stockton talks to people who have had amazing life-changing experiences with half-ton equine friends. I promise you will never look at a horse the same way after reading it.

And I thought Mr. Ed was fiction.

Our second beastly bash by the ever brilliant Mat Weir is about how climate change is affecting the people who try and save animals. It’s scary and sad, as is everything about climate change. I know we wish we could put our heads in the sand and wish it away, but every day we see the evidence that we are on a scathingly slippery slope toward horror.

Sorry to ruin your mellow. But on the positive side, at least there are people who care and are working to help give sanctuary to endangered animals. We salute them. Take a good read and let us know what you think.

Read on, MacDuff, and thanks for sharing the news with us.

Please send comments, ideas and opinions to le*****@go*******.sc

Good Idea

Dental Dignity

Dientes is celebrating National Health Center Week by honoring those providing oral health for disadvantaged residents. Only 1 in 3 low-income residents receiving Medi-Cal can access the dentist, according to the organization. As the largest dental provider in the county, Dientes is working to address the issue and has opened two new clinics in Harvey West and Live Oak. They are expecting to serve 16,000 patients this year, a 30% growth over last year.

Good Work

Pool Pups

The 8^th annual Parks & Rex Pool Party Fundraiser takes place Saturday Aug. 19 from 11am to 4pm at the Simpkins Family Swim Center. The event celebrates the deep bond between people and pets, providing an opportunity for dogs to enjoy the water in a safe environment. Proceeds will go to Santa Cruz County initiatives such as free veterinary care for underserved pet owners and scholarship support for youth recreation programs and services.

Photo Contest

SAND SCULPTING — Aerial perspective to commemorate Woodies on the Wharf on June 24. Photograph by Craig Ferguson.

Quote of the Week

“If you want to change the world,
change education.”
— Nelson Mandela —

Letters

EDUCATION FEARS

As our country emerges from the grips of the pandemic, our kids and communities still have needs to be met. And yet, with all this in mind, Republican extremists in the House of Representatives are working to slash funding as part of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies funding bill. Now is the time to address our kids’ challenges, not ignore them.

If their bill passes, it would cut funding to $63.8 billion dollars from education, slash Title 1 grants by 80% and cut billions from programs assisting English language learners, Head Start, IDEA and more, devastating millions of students who attend these schools.

Make no mistake: These cuts are a wholesale attack on public schools—the schools that 90% of our country’s children attend.

But the cuts won’t stop there. The House bill would decimate funding for job training, cancer research, health initiatives for mental health, opioid use, HIV/Aids and more. It would continue the Republican party’s attacks on women’s health by cutting programs to support maternal health, eliminating programs that provide contraception and health services and would add amendments to push their draconian agenda on banning abortion and making reproductive healthcare harder to access.

The education, health and economic opportunity of our nation are of the utmost importance. The fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill should be growing investments in these areas, not making draconian cuts that decimate the public services our students, families and communities rely on. I strongly urge our lawmakers to reject this bill.

Sincerely,
Patrice Wallace

SAFE CROSSING NEEDED

I’m reaching out for a little help. I’m a mom of two young kids who lives in Pleasure Point. We frequent the two-six beach and have watched multiple precarious situations arise due to this crossing area of East Cliff near Moran Lake Beach. Cars whip around the curve at racing speeds with little time to stop while people, kids and dogs are on the road. Further, the crosswalk itself is not painted in the area people are crossing.

I’ve contacted Manu, Parks & Rec and also FEMA only to learn there are no funds for an upgrade. However, I’ve been approved by Parks & Rec to fundraise and they’ve guaranteed to use the funds to re-paint the crosswalk and add a flashing beacon. Save Pleasure Point has been helpful getting my message out and the Point Market generously let me post a fundraiser sign in their window.

Other than that, I am just a one mama show going door to door, putting flyers in mailboxes and spreading the message on my dog walks. I’ve raised $6k towards my $20k goal and am wondering if you’d do a story on this or post the situation on your Instagram account. I don’t have much social media presence but really need a platform to spread the word.

It’s unfortunate the county doesn’t have the funds, but if I can get 400 people to donate $50 then we can make a huge difference. Maybe even save a life. This means a lot to me and I’d really appreciate your help.

Donations can be made via GoFundMe

Thanks for your consideration,

Vanessa Young

Eliminating the need to “prepare for the worst.”

I am a local educator with 30+ years of experience in public schools K-graduate school. My career has seen the rise of school shootings in the USA from 63 total school shooting incidents in the decade of the 80s to 261 incidents in the 2010s. The 2020s are poised to outstrip the previous decade with 141 school shooting incidents so far since 2020. (source: Wikipedia)

I respect and appreciate our local law enforcement and public safety agencies working together to try to “prepare for the worst” at our schools. My response is in no way meant as a criticism of these agencies. I know that they are doing their best to address a violent and dangerous social and cultural phenomenon and to try to protect our communities.

At the same time, as a parent and an educator I find the very fact that this type of drill is necessary to be the problem. Over the past decade or so I have been in many real “code red” lockdown situations at various school sites in PVUSD. I have been through several different versions of teacher training to prepare for a school shooting. If you have ever been locked alone in a room for an hour with 26 terrified 6-year-olds, or in a room with 50 terrified middle schoolers lying on the floor in the dark, you would know that drills are not the answer.

Our school sites are not equipped with some of the basic facilities needed to provide real protection. A few examples: Lack of perimeter fencing OR lack of ability for staff to open that fencing if they needed to flee. Inoperable windows that cannot be opened or broken if an escape is needed, or that are too high or too small to use as escape routes. Poor cell service hindering communication. The list goes on. Add to this the fact that most school staff are NOT first responders, not physically or psychologically inclined, or capable of suddenly possessing the skills and knowledge of trained military or police. Nor should we be. Finally, the drills and photos/news like the one in your story, only serve to traumatize students, while doing little to nothing to truly keep them safe.

The ONLY sensible and effective way to reduce school shootings is to eliminate the need to “prepare for the worst.” How? Enact reasonable gun control laws. Reinstate or grow, comprehensive, affordable public health/mental health programs and place school counselors and nurses full time at every school site. Focus on preventing the incidents in the first place.

The reality is this: There is no way to “prepare for the worst,” as incidents have shown us again and again. We are deluding ourselves, and normalizing school shootings to boot, if we think otherwise.

Caitlin Johnston

Felton

Capitola Police Investigating Hoax Bomb Threat At New Brighton

Breaking News

Todd Guild

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August 10, 2023

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Capitola Police Investigating Hoax Bomb Threat At New Brighton

Capitola Police are investigating after someone called in a false bomb threat to New Brighton Middle School, which prompted an evacuation of all students and the cancellation of classes on the first day back from summer break.

Police found no devices during a sweep of the school, the agency stated in a press release.

Students were back on a modified schedule Thursday morning.

The Investigations Unit are looking into leads on the caller who left the voicemail, police said.

Soquel Union Elementary School District Superintendent Scott Turnbull says that NBMS office staff on Wednesday morning found a voicemail indicating a possible bomb threat that was left the night before.

Students and staff were immediately evacuated from all campus buildings to the field.

Police closed off all streets leading to the school, as parents were directed to nearby Shore Life Church to pick up their children.

Every room and building on the campus was checked and cleared by law enforcement K9 units specially trained to seek out and locate explosive devices.

School counselors are available to support students and families.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Capitola Police Department at 475.4242.

Bomb Threat Ends First Day At New Brighton Middle School

Todd Guild

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August 9, 2023

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Bomb Threat Ends First Day At New Brighton Middle School

New Brighton Middle School has evacuated all its students after a bomb threat that came in late Wednesday morning.

Little information was available Wednesday afternoon. Capitola Police officers have cordoned off the roads leading to the school, and parents have been instructed via email and text message to pick their children at nearby Shorelife Church.

Monterey Avenue is closed.

This story will be updated.

Murder Suspect Arrested After Standoff

Breaking News

Todd Guild

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August 9, 2023

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Watsonville Police on Tuesday arrested a murder suspect after an hours-long standoff in a strawberry field near Trafton and McGowan roads, just outside Pájaro.

Hector Rocha, 44, of Watsonville, has been charged with first-degree murder. He was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail, where he is being held without bail, jail records showed.

At about 8:45pm on Monday, officers responded to the 100 block of West Beach Street for reports of a shooting. They found a 42-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds. He died at the scene despite lifesaving efforts.

Detectives identified Rocha as the suspect, and his green 1967 Chevrolet single-cab truck, with rust throughout the body and a white roof.

On Tuesday morning, a community member reported that they saw the truck in an agricultural field. Officers responded to the area before noon and found Rocha inside.

He refused to come out of the truck for more than four hours, and during that time, crisis negotiators remained in contact with the suspect and eventually convinced him to surrender.

Watsonville Police were assisted by Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Cruz Police Department, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team and Santa Cruz Auto Theft Reduction and Enforcement Task Force.

Schools Grappling With Declining Enrollment, Absenteeism

News

Todd Guild

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August 9, 2023

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Schools Grappling With Declining Enrollment, Absenteeism

As students across the state prepare to return to the classroom from their summer break, school districts are faced with a vexing problem: declining enrollment and chronic absenteeism—both of which have been growing every year—are combining to take a bite out of annual revenues, forcing school officials to adjust their programs and services and look for ways to keep students coming to class.

According to Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools, Faris Sabbah, school districts have seen a 2% drop in enrollment every year for the past three years. Last year, that number reached 2.24%.

This has amounted to a loss of roughly 2,000 students countywide, Sabbah says.

“From my point of view that’s a significant drop,” he says. “The impact of these reductions is in the millions of dollars of funding that does not come into our schools.”

When a student is absent, or when they leave a school, it takes a bite out of the per-pupil amount that school districts receive under the state’s average daily attendance (ADA) formula.

This number varies based on grade level and other factors, but in general, districts count on roughly $20,000 per student every year. But state officials reduce this amount they give districts when students are absent.

From 2020-2022, daily attendance in Pajaro Valley Unified School District dropped from 16,657 to 14,664. Santa Cruz City Schools saw their numbers drop from 1,649 to 1,548 during that time, while Scotts Valley School District went from 2,353 to 2,039, Sabbah says.

The declines are part of a national trend that education officials were seeing before the COVID-19 pandemic, and which grew worse after it had receded. The same trend can be seen nationwide, particularly in large urban centers in California, New York and Michigan, according to the California Department of Education.

Students are still reeling from the year of distance-learning mandated under the pandemic, with many facing stress and other mental health challenges. This is impacting the number of students who are coming to school, Sabbah says.

According to Sabbah, the number of students who miss 10% or more of their school days—known as chronically absent—rose from 11% in 2020 to 27% last year.

The best thing families can do, he says, is to send their struggling student to school, where they will have the resources to help them.

“We want to bring awareness to parents and families about this, and we want to put some positive incentives for students to improve their attendance,” he said. “We want to ensure families that if they are struggling with getting their kids to go to school or the students are struggling with mental health challenges, the schools are the places where they are going to get those additional services and resources and support.”

Pajaro Valley Unified School District Director of Student Services Ivan Alcaraz said that a total of 42.6% of students were considered chronically absent in the 2021/22 school year. That number decreased to 32% last year, he said.

Still, PVUSD officials are trying to solve the problem.

The district recently applied for a grant that would help officials address the reasons for the absences.

The more insidious and hard-to-solve problem for school districts throughout California is declining enrollment, which is driven almost entirely by the high cost of living.

“It’s statewide, it’s countywide,” says Santa Cruz City Schools (SCCS) spokesman Sam Rolens. “It’s hard to raise kids in California, and school districts are feeling that crunch.”

The problem has prompted district officials to convene Vision 2030, a task force whose members will talk about the potential funding losses and how to adjust resources accordingly over the next decade.

One of these methods, aimed at boosting teacher retention, is the creation of 80 units of employee housing on Swift Street, which are being funded by Measures K and L, passed by voters in November.

“It’s a drop in the bucket, but it’s a way in which we’re trying to do our part to alleviate the housing stress across the whole district,” Rolens said.

PVUSD Chief Business Officer Clint Rucker has been sounding the alarm bells for several months, warning about the declining number of students and how it might affect the services and programs.

According to Rucker, the state is projecting an 8.2% reduction over the next decade, while in Santa Cruz County—which has some of the highest rental rates in the U.S.—that number is double.

In the last school year, PVUSD saw a $3.3 million loss, Rucker said. Next year that number will grow to an estimated $6 million, and to $9 million in 2024/25.

Rucker says that PVUSD strives to keep any reductions away from staff and the classroom, instead relying on attrition, or not filling certain positions when employees resign or retire.

This has already affected the district’s Visual and Performing Arts program, where a reduced number of art teachers will split their time between two schools.

“That impacts Pajaro Valley and the other schools in Santa Cruz County quite a bit more, because we’re losing more than the average, which impacts us more because we’re going to lose more funding,” he said.

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has released a community survey to help officials with their efforts to address these issues.

To participate:

• English: sccoe.link/familysurvey• Spanish: sccoe.link/encuestafamiliar

Boardwalk Plans New Ferris Wheel

News

Erik Chalhoub

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August 9, 2023

0

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk plans to bring back an iconic attraction, but it first must seek approval from the city’s planning commission.

Five years after the park removed its Ferris wheel due to age, plans are in the works to construct a new, 68-foot version of the ride.

Manufactured by Kansas-based Chance Rides, the new Ferris wheel will feature 15 gondolas, each able to seat four adults or six children. It will be across from the Giant Dipper and replace Rock & Roll, a spinning ride located in the spot since 2002.

The Boardwalk’s previous Ferris wheel, which opened in 1959, last operated in 2017. In early 2018, as the ride was undergoing its annual winter maintenance, Boardwalk officials determined that the attraction had reached the end of its useful life. The 67-foot-tall ride had spun around four million riders since 1986. It was originally located near the Cocoanut Grove before it was moved in the 1980s.

The Boardwalk’s permit for the new ride was scheduled for consideration by the planning commission on Aug. 3. However, only four of the seven commissioners were present, and Commissioner Timerie Gordon excused herself as her design firm works for the park’s owner, Santa Cruz Seaside Company. Four votes are needed to pass items.

The ride is expected to be considered at the commission’s Aug. 17 meeting.

Students Suffering Writers Strike

News

Ryan Loyola

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August 9, 2023

0

With the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild on strike, Hollywood has shut down. As workers demand fair compensation and regulation over the use of artificial intelligence, college students hoping to break into the entertainment industry are caught up in the historic moment.

UC Santa Cruz third-year student Tieran Harvey aspires to be a Writers Guild member working in writers’ rooms in the future. This summer Harvey is interning for an independent film currently in pre-production, a project allowed to continue since the film’s production company doesn’t have a contract with a major film studio impacted by the strike. Although she is not allowed to be in contact with any actors and scriptwriters due to the strike, she is able to continue her work in production.

She said she’s grateful these strikes are happening before she graduates and that the negotiations are giving her inspiration to be a stronger advocate for industry professionals.

“I just want to support and be an ally, because people deserve to be paid their worth,” Harvey said.

She said the strikes made her lose a sense of romance about the industry, seeing how many people are struggling to make a living wage.

“It really made me realize that not everyone is rooting for you,” Harvey said. “We go into acting knowing there’s risks and knowing it’s hard to be successful, but we don’t want to be on the street because we’re pursuing a career.”

When the Writers Guild of America strike started May 2, midway through Teddy Alvarez-Nissen’s internship for a production company in Burbank, fewer scripts started coming in and his work as a reader slowed. As the strike went on, the third-year film student at the University of Southern California became curious about the specific terms that were being negotiated. When he looked at the fine print, he discovered the union was fighting for what was, in his mind, the bare minimum—standards he thought were already in place.

“That does scare me as somebody going into the industry,” said Alvarez-Nissen, who’s graduating in 2025. “I think we’ve all known about the stereotype of the studio that takes advantage of people or the producers that just want to get as much money as possible. It’s an illustration of how much worse the problem is than we thought it was and why it is important to be striking.”

Fighting for increased compensation and regulation over the use of artificial intelligence, both unions representing writers and actors are on strike for the first time in 63 years, effectively shutting down much of the entertainment industry.

Internships and fellowships at major production companies are on pause and current negotiations are exposing wide pay disparities in the cutthroat world of entertainment. But there’s a silver lining for some students, who hope the strikes will lay the foundation for better work conditions in the future.

“Even if the strike makes it more difficult for me to do an internship and find work out of college and start my career, I think that’s very miniscule compared to the benefits of a successful strike and getting those terms met,” Alvarez-Nissen said.

Students expect livable wages once they head into the industry but the rise of streaming services, which often produce shorter seasons and have different compensation structures, already have workers struggling. Unregulated artificial intelligence has writers and actors worried that it will eliminate valued positions from writers rooms and background roles.

Stephen Galloway, Dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, said the strikes come at a time when the industry is already laying off thousands and freezing hiring for recent college graduates.

“It’s not just people who want to write or be actors. It’s all the people who service them—management, marketing, publicity, accounting and catering companies,” Galloway said. “There’s this extraordinary ripple effect for all these companies who hire young people.”

Some of the Writers Guild’s main demands include regulating artificial intelligence in writers rooms. Additionally, part of the Actors Guild’s demands include establishing provisions protecting human-created work and requiring consent and compensation when a performer’s voice, likeness or performance is used or changed using artificial intelligence.

Franz Kurfess, a computer science professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said that while artificial intelligence may be used as a tool for writers, it might also replace them.

“The danger in my view is that the tasks of writers will not be completely eliminated, but the amount of work that is available for writers will be less and the tasks that they are expected to do will also shift to some degree,” said Kurfess. “Given that there most likely will be fewer opportunities, there will be some writers who essentially will lose their job.”

Student Alvarez-Nissen said he’s used artificial intelligence software before with creative projects. In a scene he filmed with a room full of paintings, he plugged a prompt into Midjourney and created the artwork he needed. Previously he would have paid someone to paint it for him, so artificial intelligence eliminated an expense he needed for his small school project.

While it helped him in that case, Alavarez-Nissen says billion-dollar studios also think the same way the broke college filmmaker does: if there’s any possible avenue to save money, they’re going to take it.

“A reason that this strike is so important is because they’re addressing AI so vehemently,” Alvarez-Nissen said. “If they lose this battle, that trickles down to almost everybody who works in the industry.”

This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.

Growing For Your Health Right At Home

Cover Stories

Jillian Steinberger-Foster

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August 9, 2023

2

Start getting healthy right outside your door

Plant medicine is no longer just for hippies, and Santa Cruz is a backyard-medicinal-herb-growing heaven. People from every class, culture, political affiliation and neighborhood are seeking out traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Western Herbalism and other traditions.

Plant medicines can be effective yet gentle, and address all aspects of the human body from developing hair and skin to resolving kidney problems to uplifting the soul.

I came to herbs by a long and winding road—basically, at the end of the day, a lifestyle choice.

I was raised in Beverly Hills and Sherman Oaks. I was a wild child from the start. At 16, I loved zipping around in my Ford Pinto (yikes, they later turned out to explode, and were discontinued) all over L.A., from downtown to the beach—Santa Monica, Malibu, Leo Carrillo and Venice felt like home.

But I got out of L.A. as soon as I could. Although I wore makeup and blow-dried my hair every morning (does anyone remember feathers?), I always felt like beauty came from within. That if you are healthy and vital, you will also be beautiful.

When you garden obsessively, you start bringing things inside. Maybe it’s flowers. I had the instinct to garden ecologically from the outset. If you stick with it, many of us start growing edibles. Then mixing pollinators in with edibles.

At that time I made green juices every day, so I started a juicing garden, growing lots of cucumbers and greens. And always, there was parsley and cilantro around—both are very healthful and medicinal. Calendula was pretty in the garden, and so was chamomile. Then I got into edible weeds. And soon I was into native plants, and ethnobotanical uses of them. And the sage family plants really turned me on. Soon I was bringing in leaves, learning to eat flowers and the rest is history.

Plants give you grace, and people who like plants tend to be awesome. Ethical, kind and connected to nature. I encourage anyone who has an inkling that they’d like to work outside, but were raised to have a desk job, to go for it!

HERBAL CONVERSATIONS

Herbal topics are endless and fascinating. There are drought tolerant native plants for health like white sage and yarrow; common culinary herbs that are also medicinal like rosemary, oregano and thyme; Chinese herbs that grow here such as burdock and plantain; and you can forage (ethically) for local wild herbs for an all-star like nettles.

There are medicinal herbs and herb flowers you can eat fresh in salad mixes, like lemon balm leaves and calendula petals. And there are flowers to add to your cocktail—like violets.

There are also invasive plants we weed out as invasives like the powerhouse, cleavers and plantain. (Put them in a basket, not your green bin!)

You can even design an herbal hedgerow with flowering shrubs like elderberry, vitex and ceanothus. (Enjoy these plants as you walk to the front door.)

Culturally, there are herbs you can plant that are cited in the Bible, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Bhagavad Gita, the Torah and the Koran. Not to mention herbs from Celtic, Yoruban and Andean traditions. And so on. And certainly, the ethnobotany of the First Peoples, who tended the wild.

Ecologically, most of these plants are beneficial for garden pollinators, including a tremendous variety of bees and butterflies.

Some herbs don’t even need cultivation, or even regular water. Maybe that’s the place to start. Some are even ready for harvesting in the greater Santa Cruz area, now.

NOW HERBS

There’s a lot you can say about the herbs that we can grow in our Medicineshed—our part of the Central Coast. But the “low hanging fruit” of our herb world, that takes the least work, are self-seeding herbs and flowers that don’t grow too aggressively and need little to no tending, like chamomile, calendula, lemon balm and catnip. They also have the benefit of adding color and aroma to your garden.

YES, WE CAN—DEVELOPING A HEALTHY HABIT

The easiest way to use your herbs is to clip a handful in the morning, or whenever you have the time, and use them fresh that day. This can be habit forming—and it’s a good habit. It’s also a practice, like Qi Gong or Yoga. It’s effortless to toss a few sprigs of freshly picked lemon balm and put them in your water bottle before running out the door. This will keep you hydrated. Or make an infusion—a fancy word for tea—with fresh or dried lemon balm, calendula, chamomile and a little catnip—and maybe some lavender for color and to round out the aroma.

Besides the health benefits of getting up and outdoors, pulling yourself away from a screen and the physical benefits of the herbs themselves, some people get a feeling of abundance—of being rich or wealthy—when they harvest from the garden and bring it inside. You know it if you feel it. And, feeling a sense of abundance and gratitude is definitely good for you.

CHAMOMILE (Matricaria chamomilla)

Chamomile is a go-to herb for everyone, with a unique aroma. It is often sipped as tea at night, before bed. Blondes can also use it as a hair rinse. For the crafter, witch or budding herbalist, you might have the wherewithal to step it up. For example, one exuberant chamomile plant can produce enough flowers to dry and fill a pint size mason jar. Where there is one chamomile plant, there are more; they are gentle(ish) re-seeders. That means there’s enough for a bigger harvest—enough to share. You can dry them, put them in jars and add them to your home apothecary or give them as gifts. Not to mention that chamomile is lovely and long-lasting in a bouquet.

LEMON BALM (Melissa officinalis)

Lemon Balm is well-loved and for good reason. Its beautiful lemon scent is relaxing yet uplifting. It’s a good herb every day. It’s the kind of herb you can keep dry in a jar on the counter if you can’t use it fresh, and drink it to gently raise your spirits. Leave it on the counter for a couple days on a towel, and there’s your dried tea. As a tea, it is soothing and anti-inflammatory. It cools the thyroid, they say. As a garden plant, it requires no care. It will choose its own spot to grow, popping up where it wants. In the ground, it may never need watering. Harvest the stems any time of year but definitely before they flower.

CALENDULA (Calendula officinalis)

Calendula fights inflammation. You can brew tea with it and drink it; remove the soaked petals, squeeze out the liquid (but save it) and put it as an unblended poultice under tired eyes while you have a short rest. You can use the same preparation on skin afflictions like dermatitis or eczema, sunburn or a tick or mosquito bite. Place a small handful of soaked petals on the inflamed area. It will cool the heat of an infection. It is said to fight against bacteria. This gentle and soothing herb is added to skin care products, such as salves and under eye creams.

Calendula is very easy to harvest. All you do is clip off a few gorgeous flowerheads in all their glory, and pull (yank) off the petals all at once. Toss them fresh over a salad, or add them to a salad mix. Or dry them and make tea—put them in a pretty tea blend with lavender, chamomile, lemon balm and lavender in a glass jar. (Not surprisingly, Calendula—a beautiful and radiant flower—is also used in natural dyes.)

CATNIP (Nepeta cataria)

Other beings benefit from medicinal herbs, too. Your cats will love fresh catnip, of course—but the dried seed heads of the flowers will really drive them crazy. You’ll see their wild animal side. (Kitty psychedelia.) You may get videos of them doing hilarious and entertaining things. So, if there’s catnip in your garden, there is no need to buy dried catnip or toys. It is also one of the topmost bee magnets. And little garden birds will eat the dried seeds in winter, while standing on a flower. It is profuse in the garden and self-seeds, but is easy to pull if it travels too much. Like the other herbs here, it is good to add to your tea mix. It is calming and cheering. It is also in the mint family, and has a fresh, strong, minty aroma that will put a smile on your face. Hang a bouquet upside down in the kitchen to freshen the air and chase away moths.

As the world is increasingly paved over, plants seem more and more precious, and their value stands out in relief. This awareness has spread beyond an inner circle such that now—in the 2020s—echinacea and elderberry are no longer remedies for people on the “fringe,” they’re for everybody.

Power to the plants! Perhaps they will culture us, as we culture them.

LOCAL RESOURCES:

Look for local companies Renee’s Garden Seeds and Green Planet Organics seedlings at local nurseries and natural food grocery stores, especially Staff of Life. The best selection of starts and seeds is at San Lorenzo Garden Center. Other places you’ll find them are Mountain Farm & Feed, The Garden Company, Far West Nursery and Dig Gardens. Also peruse our local farmers markets, where local growers offer fresh and beautiful starts.

A Medicineshed is a place-based concept. It is an area of land, or a bioregion, where useful herbs grow that are suited to that region. Every area on earth has a Medicineshed—except places with no plants, like vast sand dunes! Even the beach has medicinal plants. These plants may be native to the area, or brought in from other lands around the world. They can be found in natural areas, or in home gardens, or in the cracks of sidewalks!

MEDICINAL HERBS THAT ARE REALLY EASY TO GROW & VERY SAFE TO USE:

Calendula

Catnip

Chamomile

Lemon balm

TIPS:

COMPOST YOUR HERBS

After using your tea herbs, don’t throw them out! Your garden soil will love them. Just put them anywhere, anywhere at all, and they will break quickly down rapidly and add their benefits to the soil.

FOR HOMESPUN CRAFTING

Include any of the plants here as aromatherapeutic wreaths, or upside-down bouquets tied with twine and hung on the wall or from the ceiling.

FOR THE SKIN

After your fresh chamomile or calendula tea has cooled, splash your face with it over the sink for a refreshing pick-me-up. Or make a hydrosol to spray on your face to freshen, soothe and moisten the skin when it feels dry. Keep that in your purse.

Jillian Steinberger-Foster co-owns Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping. She has been landscaping and gardening since 2004. She has three rescue dogs—a Schipperke mix, a Catahoula mix and a Chow Chow mix, and loves Its Beach. She enjoys going on botanical field trips to see plants in their natural landscapes, and she lives and gardens on the Westside of Santa Cruz.

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Start getting healthy right outside your door

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YES, WE CAN—DEVELOPING A HEALTHY HABIT

TIPS:

COMPOST YOUR HERBS

FOR HOMESPUN CRAFTING

FOR THE SKIN