City Government

McClymonds Fights to Save Mentoring Program for Student Athletes

Published

8 years ago

March 23, 2017

The McClymonds High School community – including parents and students – took over the school board meeting Wednesday evening demanding the board hear their pleas to save an afterschool tutoring and mentoring program.

Parents and students had just learned that Student Program for Academic & Athletic Transitioning (SPAAT) would lose its funding at the end of the school year.

Chanting “We want SPAAT! We want SPAAT,” Mack supporters shut down the meeting after waiting two hours for a chance to speak and being told by Board President James Harris that they would only have one minute each to address the board.

Harris apologized and allowed the students – a number of them members of Mack’s championship winning football team – to speak for the large group that came to the meeting.

“You taking away SPAAT is like breaking into my house,” said Thurmal Felise, a 9th grader, who said his grade point went up this year from 0.8 to 3.8.

SPAAT is a non-profit organization that “empowers socially and economically disadvantaged high school student-athletes by providing them with academic, community and athletic support services to increase the number of student-athletes prepared for college, careers and life after sports,” according to the program’s webpage.

Day’Marr Johnson, an 11^th grader, asked the board not to take away the sports afterschool program.

“Our school is so small because you try to cut it down so much. You are trying to take our teachers away from us. I am a McClymonds Warrior,” he said.

“This school means more to us than anything. We brought you something you never had before – a state (football) championship,” said Jamiana Akinjo, 11^th grader. “(But) you are cutting so many things, it seems like Mack doesn’t mean a thing to you,” she said. “I’ve seen so many teachers leave, (and) we’ve had three or four principals since I’ve been there.”

“You spend too much money on things that are irrelevant and not enough on the things that are important.”

On Thursday, Mack students walked out of school and marched to OUSD district headquarters at 1000 Broadway to protest the shutting down of the SPAAT program and other issues including the loss of teachers and the disruption of the school leadership.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

4 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.