Complaints Will Be Received the Second Tuesday of Next Week

Since my last blog, three things have occupied my time. One is Lucas.

Lucas has four days left in his Junior year of high school. This has not been the easiest year. And he has not been as excited about going to high school in California as, lets say, Davis has. Today, Lucas says, "I have not learned one thing this year. Well , maybe one thing - don't let school get in the way of your education - Mark Twain said that. And the ends justify the means - Machiavelli said that."

Lucas has had an interesting high school experience. He attended HJ Robbins for a year on Grand Turk, in the British West Indies, where among other things he played in the steel drum band. He attended Ft. Hayes Arts and Academic High School, in Columbus, Ohio, for two years. And he is just about finished with his Junior year at Southwest High School where he is in the Southwest Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (SAVAPA) program doing visual arts. He has passed the state graduation exams in both Ohio and California.

You can say he has had a high school experience that was full of diversity, but he will tell you that is not true, there was no diversity. On Grand Turk he was one of two Caucasian students in the whole school (the other was his brother), the student body at Southwest is 86% Hispanic, and Ft. Hayes was a very urban pubic school. Lucas has complained a lot this year, especially about having to take another state graduation test, but when you write this down, it really seems quite remarkable. And given all that, he has risen to the challenge of moving somewhere new, and he has excelled. This month we have had to go to a half a dozen awards banquets. Lucas received an award for having the highest score in the county for his Mock Trial character. He received the Shining Star award for being the second best art student in the SAVAPA program. And after placing second in the Sub-regional and Regional, Lucas came in second at the Rotary District 5340 4-way Test Speech Contest, the highest anyone from Imperial County has ever placed. 

 

On Thursday, we had a big Rotary event at the museum. I stood up and gave a talk about everything that was going on. At the end I asked if anyone had any questions. No joke, someone raised their hand and said, "Tell us about Lucas."