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Lincoln High is spinning.
The school that serves neighborhoods of southeast San Diego has low test scores and enrollment rates, high numbers of dropouts and suspensions, eruptions of violence and unsteady leadership.
Those deep-rooted problems didn’t materialize overnight.
VOSD’s Mario Koran takes a detailed look at what’s happened in the nearly 10 years since the high school underwent a $129 million rebuild. The issues can be traced back to the 1970s, when a judge determined a number of San Diego schools — Lincoln included — were so intensely segregated, they deprived students of their right to an equal education.
“But for just as long, Lincoln has also been a source of identity and neighborhood pride. The history of the school is entwined with the struggle of the black community,” Koran writes.
More recently, the school has seen four principals and four superintendents pass through, each bringing new reforms. The school is so under-enrolled that entire rows of classrooms sit empty.
Lincoln will get yet another new permanent principal in the coming months, and San Diegans will vote on the next school board member to represent schools in southeastern San Diego in November.
One of the school’s former principals tells Koran he hopes the school’s newest round of leaders stick around long enough to see through substantial changes.
Alfred Olango’s Funeral Doesn’t Bury Questions
On Saturday, Alfred Olango was buried. The 38-year-old Ugandan refugee was shot and killed by police in El Cajon last month. (Union-Tribune)
One of the officers who approached Olango had a Taser drawn, the other had a gun. When Olango pulled his hands out of his pockets and assumed what looked like a shooting stance, he was simultaneously shot by one officer and stunned by the other.
The Associated Press talks to civil rights advocates who say the different responses by officers facing the same suspect proves there’s a big problem when it come to how police officers are trained
Law enforcement experts disagree and say the officers could’ve had different information walking into the situation, or could have seen different things depending on where they were standing.
D9 Candidate Doesn’t Dig Measures C and D
San Diego needs better streetlights, roads and sidewalks. If the city is going to spend energy and billions of dollars on anything, it should be fixing those things, writes Ricardo Flores, one of the candidates for City Council District 9.
In an op-ed, Flores makes a case for voting against Measure C, the Chargers’ proposal to fund a new East Village convadium, and Measure D, the measure that would makes changes to the city’s hotel-room tax, among other things.
Flores says he thinks the city should be coming up with ways to fund fixing the city’s infrastructure instead.
“Real leadership sometime means saying no to your friends – be they environmental groups, like those that support the Citizens Initiative, or businesses like the Chargers – and instead standing up for all San Diegans,” Flores writes.
Weekend News Roundup
• Reuters checks in on the Haitian immigration crisis that’s been flaring up at the Tijuana border over the past year and reports that the damage done to Haiti by Hurricane Matthew has only strengthened many people’s resolve to get to the United States. Many are not aware, though, of the new U.S. policy to deport Haitians back to Haiti.
• A tweet by San Diego Padries pitcher Brandon Morrow made the AP’ roudup of outrage about the comments Donald Trump made about women that were made public Friday.
VOSD managing editor Sara Libby is also upset by the Trump sitch, but she’s more maddened by the fact that it took this long for people to believe the things lots of women have been saying about the guy all along.
• A big binational rock concert is planned for Oct. 15. (The Huffington Post)
The concert is in an airport terminal and 390-foot bridge that leads to the Tijuana Airport. We covered the decades of planning it took to make that binational bridge a reality.
• Measure J seemed noncontroversial when it was initially rolled out. It’s meant to speed up improvements at Mission Bay Park and in other regional parks like Balboa Park. But the proposal does have some critics who say it could also result in more commercial development of Mission Bay. (U-T)
VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt has covered the opposition to Measure J, and she recently explained it and another park-related measure that will be appearing on the totally bananas ballot in November.
• A local foundation that works to benefit the region’s LGBT community is being investigated for its potential misappropriation of funds. (San Diego Gay & Lesbian News)
• The new lifeguard tower at La Jolla Children’s Pool beach sure looks nice, but issues stemming from alleged design flaws and faulty construction have forced the city to temporarily close it only a few months after it opened. (U-T)
• San Diego attorney Bryan Pease, who’s previously run for city attorney and City Council, is part of a legal campaign to stop the slaughtering of chickens during a traditional Jewish ceremony. (Associated Press)
• The controversial casino that’s been in the works for decades is opening in Jamul Monday. (Times of San Diego)
Social Media Moments
• This is one way to advertise pumpkin spice-flavored food.
• Last Friday’s sunset was epic. I must’ve seen about 20 different versions of this photo.
• The San Diego Twitterati brought up the connections between Mayor Bob Filner and Donald Trump in light of their treatment of women.