ESL moms team up to challenge housing authority fees
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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited MARCH 22 – 28, 2018
COMPLIMENTARY
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‘Still a chance to change the world’ Parkland, Florida and North County teens connect over school shooting
After the school massacre in Parkland, Florida, the surviving students began a viral movement on social media to pressure elected officials to pass stronger gun control legislation. Kenidra Woods, a Riverview Gardens High School junior in North County, helped organize a school walkout to stand in solidarity with the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and teachers were murdered in a school shooting on February 14. The St. Louis action made national news when the students
By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Two black high-school juniors – one in North St. Louis County and one in Parkland, Florida – kept sharing similar views on Twitter. So they exchanged numbers. Both had become vocal that the #NeverAgain movement to end gun violence needed to be more inclusive of all voices – especially the black youth whose cries for change have long been met with silence.
Vol. 89 No. 52
Kyrah Simon
Kenidra Woods
See TEENS, A6
‘I always wanted to serve’ Dr. Garey Lynn Clifford Watkins is Lifetime Achiever in Health Care By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Debra Cannamore Lee woke up with a headache that would not go away one Sunday morning in 1986. The pain became so unbearable that she went to the emergency room at Deaconess Hospital. The doctors sent Lee home with some migraine medication that did not help. The next day she went to another hospital, Central Medical Center, where they ordered more X-rays but still could not find the cause. Lee started to lose her vision, and the puzzled treating physician called in ophthalmologist Dr. Garey Dr. Garey Lynn Clifford Watkins. Lynn Clifford “As soon as he looked into Watkins my eyes, Dr. Watkins saw that the vision loss had been caused by bleeding of a blood vessel – a leak somewhere in my brain,” Lee wrote in her memoir titled “Grandma Debbie: the Cradle of Life.” Dr. Watkins rushed her to St. Louis University Hospital and alerted her family that she had a
See WATKINS, A7
Photo by Wiley Price
At Moline Elementary School in the Riverview Gardens School District, teacher Melissa Caldwell shows her 4th grade students Corey Dixon, Jamaria Greer, Jameka McMillan, Keeon Scott-Woods, Yariah Morris and Kevin Norfleet how to use the newspaper to read about current topics.
Prop R on April 3 ballot for Riverview Gardens schools By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Kenidra Woods, a junior at Riverview Gardens High School, was among about 200 students who walked out of school for gun violence awareness on February 27, in solidarity with the students in Parkland, Florida. The next day, Woods and about six of the action’s leaders met with their school’s principal, Darius Kirk and the district’s head of security, Warren Newton, to relay their demands. “We asked about the outside doors,” Woods said. “When we get off the bus, the side door there is not locked. People can just walk in there. Most of the problems, they said it was a money issue. It’s not just one door. It’s multiple doors that need to be fixed.” The students asked about several other
n “When we get off the bus, the side door there is not locked. People can just walk in there. Most of the problems, they said it was a money issue. It’s not just one door. It’s multiple doors that need to be fixed.” – Kenidra Woods, a junior at Riverview Gardens High School
security upgrades, including tinting the windows, fixing interior locks on doors and more cameras. In that meeting, Kirk and Newton talked to the students about Proposition R, which is a bond issue on the ballot in the
Tuesday, April 3 general municipal election. If it passes with 57.14 percent in approval, the Riverview Gardens School District expects that it would generate $11.7 million. This would go towards upgrades for security, technology and a variety of maintenance needs in the district’s facilities, most of which are more than 50 years old. The predominately African-American school district serves more than 5,700 preK-12 students in the surrounding areas of Bellefontaine Neighbors, Castle Point, Dellwood, Glasgow Village, Moline Acres, Riverview and portions of Ferguson, Jennings and unincorporated St. Louis County. “The principal said that they had a choice between more security and more books in school,” Woods said. “And they had to pick books over school security. If this passes,
See PROP R, A6
Photo by Lenny Jones/SEIU Healt
Employees at Christian Care Home go back to work Monday March 19, following a 104-day strike regarding labor practices, wages, insurance provision and seniority.
Christian Care Home workers back on the job Strike ends after 104 days, union gets wage increases, insurance provisions, seniority protection By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American Workers are off the picket lines and back at work at Christian Care Home in Ferguson. Workers went back to the job on Monday, March 19, following a 104-day strike. The new two-year contract agreement provides wage increases connected to the minimum wage, beginning next year. Christian Care Home agreed to pay the increase in health insurance rates for 2018, and to pay half of any increases to insurance rates for 2019 and 2020. The contract agreement also calls for prompt payouts for a number of
See CHRISTIAN, A7