Bullying at CHS

Dear Editor:

As reported in the October 13 COURIER, Claremont High School is falling short of academic proficiency goals. In the same article, a school board member was quoted as being “delighted” with the decrease in reported cases of bullying. 

According to the article, “Just 18.4 percent of students reported being bullied last year.” This is apparently considered to be quite an accomplishment since the schools bullying goal is 25 percent.

The 18.4 percent equates to about 450 students who reported being bullied. These students are not a mere statistic to be reviewed in meetings. These are 450 boys and girls, actual people, children of our community.  We have 450 students whose high school experience is being tainted or ruined.

Many kids who suffer bullying wake, every morning, dreading going to school. Some of them just stop going to school.

Does the school board consider that there might be a correlation between failing academics and one in five students suffering bullying? Worse, bullying is known to lead to school violence and student suicide.

How can a school board be “delighted” that one in five of the students they are responsible for suffer bullying in their high school? What happened to zero tolerance for bullying? Why is the goal not zero percent?  

Jack Sultze

Claremont

Indian offensive

Dear Editor:

If one finds the word ‘indian’ offensive in naming a street, there are bigger fish. One could change the name of the city Indian Wells or, for that matter, the state Indiana. Good morning, snowflake. What offends you today?

Hugh Avery

Claremont

Indian Hill

Dear Editor:

Jackie Mahoney’s letter published on October 13 hoped that our council might consider renaming Indian Hill Boulevard to something more sensitive to diversity issues.

While I am all for diversity sensitivity and have a couple published books on indigenous people in the American West, I can’t agree with her about our boulevard. When I came to Claremont in 1961, the boulevard south of the I-10 freeway was called “Alexander” in Pomona all the way down to Holt.

Indian Hill Boulevard in Claremont referred to “Indian Hill” itself, a small hill (still quite visible) on the east side of the boulevard north of Foothill, including the now-abandoned golf course and portions of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

I have read that “Indians” lived on the hill in the 1870s and possibly into the 1880s. It is likely they were Serrano people rather than the Tongva, who were the main original inhabitants of the Inland Empire all the way down into the Long Beach area. In other words, the “hill” is an essential part of the name and somehow “Indigenous People’s Hill Boulevard” just doesn’t ring for me.

While we have the city council’s ear, however, I do wish they would rename “Cahuilla Park” to something more appropriate.

The Cahuilla people never inhabited this area but were, instead, occupants of the Palm Springs region. The only connection between Claremont and the Cahuilla is that David Prescott Barrows—who was an early resident of our town at Indian Hill and Harrison and a Pomona College student—often visited his grandparents in Idyllwild and used to go down into the canyon north of the mountains to visit Cahuilla villages and listen to their songs and dances.

Mr. Barrows wrote the infamous Pomona College song that echoes Cahuilla music. Incidentally, after Pomona, Mr. Barrows went to the University of Chicago to study anthropology, wrote a thesis on the ethnobotany of the Cahuilla people (1900), and was, I believe, the first American PhD in anthropology. If anything, it should be named “Tongva Park.”

Tad Beckman

Claremont

Sanfords

Dear Editor:

Sandy and Betty Sanford acquired Griswold’s and Mark Peck’s businesses on 222 and 226 W. Foothill Boulevard sometime  in the 1950s.

They soon started up a Swedish bakery on the premises, followed by the Swedish smorgasbord. Both became very succesfull and the Sanfords needed larger quarters, so they bought the Oxford Inn, added an extension on the east side and moved the whole operation over there. The building is now occupied by Bucca di  Beppo.

The motel was built and the Old Schoolhouse was bought and developed. Mr. Griswold had no part in this venture. The Sanfords were the movers and shakers in the community in the 1960s and ‘70s. I remember them fondly and wanted them to get the credit they deserve.

John Schwartz

Claremont

Some truths about love

Dear Editor:

Living in Pilgrim Place and Claremont since just prior to 9/11, I’ve learned much about admirable local citizens helping others, striving for peace and justice. I have also learned that sometimes our grandchildren and great grandchildren are exciting sources of amazing wisdom. Ask them: What is real love?

Bobby (age 5):?“If you want to love better, you should start with a friend you hate.”

Rebecca (age 8): “When someone loves you, the way they say your name                                                                                     is different. You know your name is safe in their mouth.”  

Noelle (age 7): “Love is like a little old man with a little old woman who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”

Nikka (age 6): “There are two kinds of love. Our love, God’s love. But God makes both kinds of them.”

Billy (age 4):?“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on cologne and they go out and smell each other.”

Chris (age 8):?“Love is when your puppy licks your face, even after you have left him alone all day.”

Jenny (age 4):?“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt and he wears it every day.”

Jean (age 8): “When my grandmother got arthritis she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore so my grandfather did it for her all the time. Even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”

Karen (age 7): “You shouldn’t say I love you unless you mean it. But if you do mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”

Jim Lamb

Claremont