June 2011 - School of Journalism

Electric
cars in
Oro Valley
Ancient
artifacts
preserved
Tucson Padres’
season in full
swing
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Pg. 3
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June 2011 • junio 2011
Ex-prostitute shines
light on child sex trade
By Corina Gallardo
When April 22 arrives each
spring, Carolyn Jean Jones celebrates her anniversary. The date
does not mark her birthday, a marriage, or the birth of her daughter.
Instead, it marks the day she
left the grim street corners of
Phoenix, leaving the abusive life
of prostitution, drug use and
despair she had lived since the age
of 13.
Jones was once one of the thousands of young girls each year who
are lured, then trapped within
America’s hidden illegal sex trade.
Jones’ parents divorced when
she was 5 years old, leaving her
feeling “torn in two.”
The divorce left her shocked,
confused and feeling like she had
to act differently around each new
family her parents formed. If a
problem occurred at one house,
she would run to her other parent’s
house.
“Every time conflicts came or
emotions came, or confusion
came, I just ran,” she said.
At the age of 13 Jones was sexually molested. She felt dirty,
ashamed.
“Here I was already not feeling
good about myself,” she said. “My
body had been violated.”
She began self-medicating with
alcohol. Eventually, she turned to
marijuana to “cover up all the sadness.”
Jones’ mother worked long
hours, often working two jobs at a
time. Her stepfather and brother’s
frequent violent arguments often
led to the drawing of guns. Jones,
the middle child, was forced to
take on the motherly role in her
family, taking care of food and
cleaning.
Despite her mother’s absence,
Jones said, “My mom did everything she could, so I didn’t have to
become the girl I eventually
became anyway.”
Her life took another turn at 15,
when Jones ran away from all her
troubles and traded in her home for
the street life of Phoenix. “The
streets welcomed me, “ she said.
“The men were telling me how
pretty I looked. “
She heard the words she wished
her father had said. For the first
time, she felt special.
“One day a man told me if I
(would) go up to a motel with him,
he would give me $100,” Jones
said. She was still 15 years old at
the time. She accepted, and when
they arrived at the hotel the man
explained exactly what he wanted
her to do in order to earn that $100.
With no place to stay and
nowhere to go, Jones traded her
body for the man’s money, beginning her life as a prostitute.
Jones’ plight is not uncommon.
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked for sex each
year, according to The United
Nations Children’s Fund.
‘Sex Trafficking’/see page 4
More about Streetlight Phoenix
http://streetlightphx.com
Photo
Four students and two teachers
from a Tucson middle school
returned this month from a twoweek excursion to South Korea as
part of an exchange program. They
ate Korean cuisine, studied Korean
curriculum, and learned the
Korean way of life.
The group was the first to make
the trip as a part of Tucson Unified
Photo Courtesy Margaret Pasquet
Middle school students at airport after
arriving back home from South Korea.
School District’s Tucson Korea
Ambassador Program. An initiative of TUSD’s Asian Pacific
American Studies Department, this
program aims to create memorable
cross-cultural experiences for
Tucson students.
For the past three years, the
program has brought Korean students to come and live in America
with host families for one month.
They eat American food, go to
American schools, and see American
sights. But, for the first time, members from a local Tucson school were
able to go to South Korea. They spent
a week in Ulleungdo, and then another week in Seoul.
The island, Ulleungdo, was so
small that participant Leslie
Kenney saw all of it by tour bus in
only one hour. The community was
so tightly knit, and everybody was
so comfortable with one another,
that the few police officers sta-
Chandler longbons
Second year of city pool closures
By Chandler Longbons
Swimmers and pool staff are feeling a ripple effect
this summer after budget cuts led to the closing of 17
of the city’s 27 pools.
The cuts made in January 2010, which reduced the
$3 million Parks and Recreation’s aquatics budget by
half and required 17 pools to close for two consecutive summers, continue to affect swimmers, families
and lifeguards.
Billy Sassi, the Parks and Recreation Aquatics
program manager, says that his department is among
the most costly and was one of the first considered for
budget cuts.
As a result, the number of staff that could be hired
was also cut in half, from 350 to 175 employees. The
lifeguard staff at pools around the city are feeling the
aftermath of the closures.
Though cuts have reduced the number of available
job positions, Sassi says he has trouble finding young
people who want to work as lifeguards. The lack of
stability in lifeguard jobs is driving some applicants
away, Sassi said.
“I think kids are realizing that the pools, there
aren’t as many open and so they aren’t going to waste
their time to go get the lifeguard training, and first aid,
and CPR, they are going to go somewhere else where
they can go and be sure and get a job, that’s what we
are seeing,” Sassi said.
Stephanie Elias has worked at various Tucson city
pools for the past six years and is now a lifeguard at
Archer Pool, 1665 S. La Cholla Blvd. Getting a job as
a lifeguard is much less competitive than in previous
years, when those who were hired had five or six
years of experience, Elias said. With these veteran
lifeguards no longer interested in working for the
pools, more first-year lifeguards are being hired.
The biggest issue the lifeguards say they deal with,
though, is complaints.
“A lot of people complain to us that a lot of the
pools are closed and they have to drive really far just
‘Pools’/see page 4
Local students return from ‘amazing’ S. Korea trip
By Demetrius Kent
by
Children participate in swim lessons at Catalina Pool, one of the city pools remaining open this summer.
tioned there were often relaxed,
conversing with the locals, she
said.
Ulleungdo is a remote island,
75 miles east of the Korean
Peninsula. “The fact that we’re
sending kids there from Tucson is
unheard of,” said Margaret
Pasquet, director of the Asian
American Studies Department.
Rick Stancliffe, whose daughter
Hope was on the trip, says that
experiences like these don’t come
often. For this reason, these students’ parents were eager to have
them go.
“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” Stancliffe said.
Kenney’s father, who is also
named Leslie Kenney, spoke of
how willing he was to let his
daughter visit a foreign country.
He felt that this program would
open his daughter’s eyes to a culture that she had never seen before.
“My wife was kind of, you
know, ‘Oh my god, she’s going
across the ocean,’ and I was like
‘go,’” he said.
Leslie Kenney can describe her
time in Ulleungdo in one word:
amazing.
From learning that Koreans
throw their toilet paper away rather
than flushing it, to getting used to
kneeling and sitting on the floor
instead of lounging on couches, she
and fellow students were introduced to customs that they had
never been before, Kenney said.
Deanna Campos, a teacher who
accompanied the students to
Korea, said that the students’
immersion into Korean culture
gave them a broader understanding
of the world around them. The
experience will have an everlasting
impact.
“It has changed their lives,” she
said.
Online Extras
Mercado San Agustín
Video by Martha Gallardo
Plus
VIDEO: Meet Me Downtown 5K
Walk/Run in honor of
Gabe Zimmerman
STORY: Brain injuries
STORY: UA Hillel center
expands
myhsj.org/thechronicle
Page 2 • Página 2
THE CHRONICLE • myhsj.org/thechronicle
June 2011 • junio 2011
THE
An oil-free Oro Valley, one plug at a time
CHRONICLE
The EV Project In Numbers
Pre-Project
$115 million
Grant from the U.S. Department
of Energy
myhsj.org/thechronicle
The Chronicle is a publication of
the Journalism Diversity
Workshop for Arizona High
School Students, a program of
the University of Arizona
School of Journalism
journalism.arizona.edu
$115 million
Investment from private partners
During Project
14,000
Blink charging stations installed
8,300
Electric vehicles released
2010 Robert P. Knight
Multicultural Recruitment Award
Winner
7
Host states
Director
Lisa Button
18
Major cities involved
Assistant Director
Veronica M. Cruz
12/2012
End of the EV Project
Mentors
Brittine Bahena, Kristina Bui,
Andrés Domínguez, Devlin
Houser, Matt Lechuga, Shannon
Maule, Josh Morgan, Lucy
Valencia
Editor in Chief
Corina Gallardo
Assistant Editors
Shane Weinstein, Kristy Westgard
Reporters
Alexis Lopez, Lacey Tewanema
Design Chief
Adam Carrillo
Designers
Jessica Gonzalez, Lizzy Sesteaga
Multimedia Editor
Halli Lomayaktewa
Photo Editor
Christina Rucker
Spanish Editor
Martha Gallardo
Copy Editors
Demetrius Kent, Chandler
Longbons
Online Editor
Jessica Gonzalez
Assistant Online Editor
Kimberly Linn
Distribution Manager
Kimberly Linn
Special Thanks
Stephen Ceasar, Nicole Santa
Cruz, Carina Enriquez, Nate
Olivarez-Giles, Chelo Grub, Matt
Felix, Matt Lewis, Sal Quijada,
Casey Sapio
The workshop administration and
participants thank the Dow Jones
News Fund, our primary sponsor,
Wick Communications, Concerned
Media Professionals, University of
Arizona Student Affairs, Hopi
Education Endowment Fund and
Hopi Foundation for their support.
The 2011 Chronicle staff thanks the
school for its continued support and
sponsorship.
The Journalism Diversity
Workshop for Arizona High School
Students is an annual program and
welcomes high school students from
all over Arizona to participate in a
nine-day, intensive journalism program. For more information, please
contact Lisa Button at
[email protected].
The Chronicle was printed with
funding from Wick Communications.
University of Arizona
School of Journalism
P.O. Box 210158B
Tucson, AZ 85721
© 2011 University of Arizona
School of Journalism
Photo
by
Kristy Westgard
Bookmans’ new electric charger makes it easy for customers to charge up as they browse the used bookstore.
Ecotality uses electric cars to
maintain the environment
By Kristy Westgard
For the two months Jason Trible
has owned a fully electric Nissan
Leaf, the experience has been
smooth riding in nearly every
aspect. A major roadblock he and
other electric vehicle drivers have
come across is the lack of charging
stations. With the planned installation of more than 200 charging stations in Oro Valley, electric vehicle
owners like Trible will no longer
come across this all too common
issue.
“I definitely am looking forward to having more stations
because I have a little bit of concern about distance,” Trible said.
In an attempt to increase sustainability in Oro Valley, four electric vehicle charging stations will
be installed in the Town Hall parking lot for electric vehicle owners
to park and plug-in for free.
These four charging stations are
coming at no charge to Oro Valley
via the Electric Vehicle (EV)
Project, a program of Ecotality, a
San Francisco company originally
based in Tempe. Ecotality received
$230 million in grants from the
U.S. Department of Energy and
private investors.
The EV Project’s goal is “to
pave the way and build up the right
infrastructure plan for the next
wave of electric vehicles that are
going to be coming out in the next
couple
years,”
said
Marc
Sobelman, EV Project area manager of Arizona, referring to the
Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt.
Trible made the switch to electric after previously driving a
Mazda Miata. He says he enjoys
the Nissan Leaf he’s driven for two
months.
“It doesn’t idle or shake, it just
sits there. In a regular car you’ve
got the noise of the engine revving
and you’ve got the shifting. In an
electric car it’s just there, it feels
like it’s effortless to accelerate,” he
said.
Another goal of the EV Project
is to determine the behavioral
aspects of electric vehicle locations. When the installed charging
stations are used, data concerning
the vehicle and the charger are collected and sent to University of
California-Davis for analysis.
From here, certain questions such
as: “Why did this location work
better than that one?” can be
answered, Sobelman said.
Oro Valley is just one of sever-
al host cities chosen by Ecotality
who considered Arizona a good
choice for adopting the electric
vehicle. The University of Arizona
also offers stations in a few parking garages.
“We’ve got a few requests from
people who wonder, if they needed to
plug in, where they could do that,”
said David Heineking, the school’s
Parking and Transportation Services
director.
Heineking said he realizes that
the demand for electric vehicles
is not great enough to require
more stations. Typical buyers of
electric cars are “people who are
really environmentally conscious
or are predicting an even higher
cost of gas,” he said. Heineking
said the purchase of more stations would be considered “as the
need arises.”
Interest in electric vehicles on
the UA campus is evident through
the UA car-sharing program whose
fleet of rentable campus vehicles
now includes an electric Nissan
Leaf.
Bookmans, a used bookstore
on 1930 E. Grant Road, houses one
of the sleek new charging stations
and offers the service for free.
“People that don’t even have electric cars come in and ask about it,”
said facility manager Michael
Olivares. “It’s bringing awareness
that there’s a growing (electric
vehicle) community in Tucson –
Post- Project
240
Electric vehicle charging stations
planned for installment in Oro
Valley.
5 million
Electric vehicles
on the market
small, but growing.”
Bookmans previously had an
older version of the electric charger that Olivares said proved very
complicated. But nearly two years
ago, it was revamped and the
newer, more user-friendly Blink
charger took its place.
Olivares said the new charger
attracts more electric vehicle drivers, and attributes this growth partially to an increase in the community’s awareness of the vehicles.
“With the new EV charger, there
was a lot of hype about it, which
was valid because it is very easy to
use and it’s free,” he said.
But there still aren’t many in
the Tucson area.
“I hate to mention it,” Trible
said, “but inherent to any electric
car, you have, of course, the limited range and, at this point, the limited places to fill up.”
When the EV Project ends in
December 2012, Sobelman said
Ecotality will hand over the charging stations to the host cities for
free. Then the cities will decide
whether to keep the stations or
remove them. If Oro Valley
decides to keep these stations, Oro
Valley Town Hall’s four free stations will likely begin charging –
money, that is.
Fire danger stops girls from scouting
By Jessica Gonzalez
Girl Scouts won’t build campfires on Mt. Lemmon this summer
— or at least not any time soon.
Officials closed the Coronado
National Forest June 9 because of
fire danger, forcing the Girl Scouts
of Southern Arizona to cancel their
anticipated Mt. Lemmon camping
trip.
“At first it seemed very sad and
disappointing, but the girls’ safety
is the top priority,” said Courtney
Shelton, 15. Shelton has been in Girl
Scouts for 11 years and was going to
be a helper at the camp.
About 490 girls, ages 7 to 17,
will have to find different summer
plans after the cancellation of
crafts, backpacking, archery, theater, dance, engineering, science
and sports at Whispering Pines.
The Girl Scout camps at Mt.
Lemmon were to begin on June 13
and continue through the end of July.
“Summer camp is something
that the girls look forward to and
plan on, year round. Girls are able
to sell Girl Scout cookies to earn
money for camp, so many girls
have been planning on this since
last year,” said Kristi Pallack,
Mission to Market coordinator for
Girl Scouts of Southern ArizonaSahuaro.
Emma Fickett, an 8-year-old
Brownie, said that her troop went
to a practice camp to prepare.
“We went hiking, and made
bracelets and stuff,” Emma said.
“Girl Scouts is a way for girls to
learn and experience things people
wouldn’t normally learn,” Shelton
said. “It really opens a new world
of opportunities that people usual-
ly don’t get to see.”
The cancellation of the camps
has not dampened the spirits of the
Girl Scouts, Shelton said.
The Girl Scouts hope to
reschedule the camps for July,
Pallack said.
Although
Reesa
Fickett,
Emma’s mother, said her daughter
was disappointed not to go to camp
now, they have made family plans
to make up for it.
“She was very disappointed.
She didn’t cry, but she was very
bummed,” Fickett said. “We go
camping as a family every summer
and that’s what we’re doing
instead of (Girl Scout) camp.”
The Girl Scouts motto is to
help girls “discover the fun,
friendship, and power of girls
together,” according to the organization’s website. Girls typical-
ly meet once a week during the
school year and participate in
leadership activities, character
building exercises, and having
fun with arts and crafts.
Each group works together to
obtain badges, which stand for different skill-building accomplishments. After obtaining a set
amount of patches, members can
move up to higher rankings.
Scouts begin in Daisies and can be
promoted to Brownies, Juniors,
and eventually become a Cadet
Girl Scout.
The scouts are staying positive
and hoping for rain, so that the forest service can re-open Mt.
Lemmon, Pallack said.
“The girls that I have spoken
with are very sad, but they all seem
to understand why it must be
done,” she added.
June 2011 • junio 2011
Journalism Diversity Workshop for arizona high school stuDents
Page 3 • Página 3
ArizonA HistoricAl society/tucson AHs 2911
Residents of 1885 Tucson walk along Congress Street, one of many areas in which the “Best Fest” will take place. The celebration is being planned by the Arizona Centennial Commission.
Arizona prepares to celebrate its centennial
By Shane Weinstein
Arizonans rejoiced in the streets, firing
their revolvers into the air and spooking
horses. The moment was one to celebrate.
It was Feb. 14, 1912, and President William
Taft had just given Arizona its statehood, making it the 48th state to join the nation.
Now, nearly a century later, Arizonans
are again celebrating that momentous day ––
this time, with eight months’ worth of festivals, parades, rodeos and raffles.
The Arizona Centennial Commission is
sponsoring more than a dozen activities in
the next eight months.
“Embrace it and celebrate it because it
will surely be a unique experience,” said
Maryfrances Krumwiede, projects manager
for the Centennial Commission. “We want
people to rejoice and make a big deal over
this special day.”
One of the largest upcoming events is the
“Best Fest.”
It is “a celebration of the best of the state
in every genre,” Krumwiede said.
The “Best Fest” will take place in Tucson
from Nov. 11 to 13. The festival will be the
largest of any kind to be held in the history
of the state.
“Each festival will be held in the hosting
city’s downtown area and they will all be
unique to the city they are being held in,”
Krumwiede said. “Tucson’s festival will
have a lot of Southwestern themes and flavors incorporated.”
As part of the Centennial Penny Drive,
50 elementary schools from all over the state
collected pennies in February to clean and
shine the dome on the capitol building in
Phoenix. According to Krumwiede, the
dome has not been washed in over 20 years.
Estes Elementary in Marana won the competition after gathering over 130,000 pennies.
Charles Jones, former chief justice of the
Arizona Supreme Court and honorary cochair for the commission, is excited about
the raffling of the Copper Chopper, a motorcycle made of copper.
“The Copper Chopper is truly exquisite,”
said Jones. “Absolutely do not miss it.”
The bike features many fine details, including the centennial celebration’s logo. The bike
will be touring the state, including a stop in
Sept. 30 in Willcox, before finally being raf-
fled in February at a celebration in Phoenix.
Other events, while not planned by the
commission, have their “seal of approval,”
Krumwiede said.
Other events range from the 2012 Tucson
Rodeo Parade and the La Fiesta De Los
Vaqueros to the Silver Spike Festival in
March, a celebration and re-enactment of
when the railroad came to Tucson, and
Wings Over Willcox, a January bird watching and nature festival in Willcox.
Planners expect the centennial celebration to spread a message of state pride across
the Grand Canyon State.
“The state’s 100th birthday is a big deal,”
Jones said. “It is one that should be celebrated loud and proud and really show that
Arizonans care about their state.”
Cultural finds land at Arizona State Museum
By Halli Lomayaktewa
In the 1970s laws and attitudes started
changing about archaeological artifacts found at
construction sites. In 1979, the Archaeological
Resource Protection Act was passed.
According to the law, developers who
pick a site that could have artifacts must go
through a special process. When developers
are doing a “ground disturbance,” the company or the contractor must hire an archaeologist to do the excavations. And they have
to arrange for a repository to store the material they find so that it is available for future
research, said Arthur Vokes, curator of the
archaeological repository collection at the
Arizona State Museum.
“Whether it’s developers putting up
houses or archeologists removing their
finds, materials are destroyed, but at least we
are trying to record it,” Vokes said.
The museum, located on the University
of Arizona campus in Tucson, is the default
repository for the state and is the largest
nonfederal repository in the country.
There are state and federal guidelines on
what materials qualify.
Desert Archaeology, Inc. is one of the
companies that brings collections to the
museum. Desert Archaeology surveys land
for developers, said Desert Archaeology
Laboratory Director Lisa Eppley. When
companies like Desert Archaeology find
artifacts, they tell the museum.
“If we can’t find anything, we give the
OK for the company to go ahead and do the
construction site. But if we do find something, we recommend to them things on
what can be done,” Eppley said.
The Arizona State Museum stores salvaged
artifacts including arrowheads and pottery
sherds from construction sites in Tucson.
There are 25,000 boxes of artifacts in the
archaeological repository at the museum,
according to Theah Erickson, an assistant
curator.
“Recently, the museum was given a garnet gem from the 1800s that was found in
downtown Tucson,” Erickson said.
The National Association Grave
Protection Reparation Act is a federal law
that went into effect in the 1990s. It governs
human remains and associated artifacts.
“That material never comes here automatically. Instead, they go to the tribes that have
already been selected to get it,” Vokes said.
The museum sometimes gets items from
projects started as far back as a decade ago,
Erickson said.
Mike Jacobs is the curator of the archaeological collection at the museum. His main
job is cataloging and researching information about the artifacts.
Jacobs said if developers are caught skip-
Arizona State Museum houses finds from urban excavation sites.
ping the excavation process, they face legal
consequences.
“The law is enforcing that the developers
have to go through the process of archeology,” Jacobs said. Fines for violations can
reach up to thousands of dollars, he said.
PHoto
by
cHristinA rucker
Other repositories in Arizona include the
Museum of Northern Arizona, Sharlot Hall
Museum and Arizona State University.
“It’s your cultural heritage that you’re talking about,” Vokes said. “Once you excavate, it’s
gone. There is no way to get it back.”
Page 4 • Página 4
SEX TRAFFICKING
Continued from page 1
Oftentimes, children as young
as 5 are brought into the sex industry and forced to perform sexual
acts against their will. The average
age of a child prostitute is 13,
according to the Department of
Justice.
About 450,000 children in the
United States run away from home
each year, one third of whom are
lured into sex slavery within 48
hours of leaving home, according
to a study by the Department of
Justice.
At the age of 16, Jones learned
she was pregnant by her emotionally and physically abusive
boyfriend.
After losing custody of her
child, Jones progressed to using
crack cocaine to “numb the pain”
while continuing with her use of
marijuana and alcohol. She continued to prostitute herself and began
selling drugs to support her crack
cocaine addiction.
She was arrested for selling
drugs 11 years later and sentenced
to 18 months at a drug rehabilitation center.
“I told (the judge) I didn’t have
a problem selling drugs. My problem was I used drugs,” Jones said.
“If he could help me and send me
to rehab, I could get myself together.”
After the program, Jones stayed
clean for 10 years. She got married
and her daughter was returned to her.
Jones even purchased a house.
But before long, her life began
to unravel.
The marriage had fallen apart
and the long hours she worked at
local churches began taking their
toll. Feeling overwhelmed, she
returned to her life on the street.
POOLS
Continued from page 1
to get here,” says Ashley Doyle, a
lifeguard for three years at Archer
Pool.
Elias also notices the complaints of parents, specifically
when dealing with swim lessons.
Like with the staff numbers and
the budget, spots for swim lessons
have been halved from 8,000 to
4,000 since the first cut.
“A lot of parents are kind of
upset because they have to pay $15
up front and then even then you
don’t get a for-sure spot (at your
pool of choice),” Elias says about
the Parks and Recreations’ lottery
system that decides where children
are enrolled in lessons.
This process has parents select
their top three choices of pools to
take their kids to lessons. Parks
and Recreation selects the pool
based on the abilities and skill
level of the children.
Not being able to go to their
pool of choice creates a problem for some parents who want
their children to learn pool
safety. Maha al-Khateev has
had difficulties enrolling her
two children.
“If they have a space, I can’t
come because it is too far,” said
al-Khateev, who had to apply to
three other pools before finding
a spot at Catalina Pool, 2004 N.
Dodge Blvd, which is near her
home.
Wendy
Weeks,
another
mother whose two young children take lessons at Catalina
Pool, says she has not gone
through the same hassle of
finding an opening at Catalina
Pool.
“At some of the other pools I
think it is harder, and when you do
THE CHRONICLE • myhsj.org/thechronicle
“I became a failure all over
again,” Jones said.
Soon after, her sister was killed
during a rash of prostitute killings
in Garfield, a historic district of
Phoenix.
Corey Morris, then 24, was
convicted of several murders in the
area. Morris lured prostitutes to
his home with drugs and alcohol.
There, he would kill them, and
then dump the bodies in the
Garfield area behind his uncle’s
property.
Four of the women who were
found dead were Jones’ close
friends.
Investigating sex trafficking
crimes presents a uniquely emotional task for law enforcement.
“The biggest campaign is education, and then working aggressively when it is suspected that
trafficking has occurred,” said
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement Deputy Special
Agent Rick Crocker.
He recalled a case in Memphis,
where a prostitution ring trafficking young Latino females was
identified.
A 14-year-old girl was rescued
from this ring, after being smuggled into the U.S. “It was a very
emotional experience, and there
was not a dry eye in the room,”
Crocker said.
Jones reached her tipping point
at a Phoenix bus stop. The feeling
she had nothing left to live for consumed her, she said.
“I cried out to God and said,
‘Please get me out of this, I don’t
want to live like this. Give me a
chance to live again, a chance to
get my life back… I’ll do whatever you say,’” Jones said.
Her resurgence into life away
from the streets may have come
when she was bit by a poisonous
spider.
Jones was taken to a hospital
for treatment. The bite forced her
to stay in an extended care rest
home for a month to recover.
Once she left, she knew she could
not return to the streets again. Instead
of going home, she returned to a rehabilitation center for three months
before working at a separate center
where she eventually became a manager.
She worked in that position for
eight years before joining a program in Phoenix called Streetlight.
The faith-based nonprofit organization, is funded solely by donations. The organization recently
opened a chapter in Tucson. Its
2009 income was $1.13 million,
according to tax documents.
The program’s focus, along
with awareness and prevention, is
to bring relief and direct services
to girls between ages 11 and 17,
who have been prostituted or trafficked.
Melody Bosna, a residential
director at Streetlight, deals with
the direct care and management of
the girls, who average around the
age of 15. The girls come to
Streetlight either through FBI and
law enforcement, or on their own.
“I think one of the things that
just stands out to me with working
with this population is how amazingly resilient these children are,”
Bosna said. “People tend to think
these girls are simply deviant
girls.”
Today, Jones focuses on shining
light upon the dark street corners,
where young girls continue to sell
their bodies.
She speaks at schools, churches
or anywhere else she can stop
someone to trumpet her cause.
And to the young, invisible victims of sex trafficking, her message is simple.
“It is not about how they start,
but how they finish,” Jones said.
“Never give up hope.”
the lottery you don’t know what
pool you’re going to get,” said
Weeks.
All children who are registered
are guaranteed a spot at one of the
open pools, Sassi said.
Distance is another factor for
parents when deciding not to make
the trip to another pool, and so is
the loss of community that was
established at their neighborhood
pools.
“What I know happened is a lot
of people just opted out completely,” said Michelle Kinnison. Her
two daughters, ages 10 and 12,
were enrolled in a swim team at
Himmel Pool, 1000 N. Tucson
Blvd, before it closed. “So of
course there are places with spots
available because they know a lot
of people went to the private sector,” she said.
Waking up every morning and
swimming was part of the
Kinnison childrens’ daily routine
each summer. But since the closing
of Himmel Pool, Kinnison’s children have not joined another team
because of the distance they would
have to travel each morning for
practice.
“We met a lot of people through
swim team,” she said. Her 5-yearold daughter, Rosemary, has
recently joined swim lessons at the
University of Arizona.
Now that the neighborhood
pools are closed, some people are
changing their habits by choosing
not to swim or to make a longer
drive.
Kinnison said she hopes the
community pools will reopen in
the near future, even if it means
increasing the admission fee.
“We used that pool. We really,
really loved having that pool
open,” she said.
June 2011 • junio 2011
Photo Courtesy
of
NAsA/GsfC/the uNiversity
of
ArizoNA
OSIRIS-REx provides University of Arizona students with unique opportunities.
UA faculty, students to
take part in $800M
NASA asteroid project
By Kimberly Linn
The University of Arizona
recently began preparations for an
$800 million space program sponsored by NASA.
OSIRIS-REx, short for OriginsSpectral Interpretation-Resource
Identification-Security-Regolith
Explorer, an unmanned spacecraft,
is expected to depart in September
2016 from Kennedy Space center
and approach an Earth-hazardous
asteroid to take a sample of its surface. One hundred UA undergraduate students will assist with the
program.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is
expected to reach the asteroid in
October 2019. The spacecraft will
return at the Utah Test Range north
and west of Salt Lake City at 8
a.m. Sept. 23, 2023, said Michael
Drake, head of the UA department
of Planetary Sciences.
“We have identified the
OSIRIS-Rex project as the most
exciting and compelling and necessary next project in planetary
science,” said Paul Hertz, chief
scientist for NASA’s Science
Mission Directorate.
Throughout the entire mission,
the UA will allow undergraduate
students to help work the mission.
These students will earn a decent
salary, Drake said.
Drake will not be particular
when assigning students to work
on the mission. Students simply
have to show an interest and offer
We feel very strongly
that there is not a distinction between
research and teaching.
something useful.
Students who show interest in
continuing to lend their services to
this program after graduation
could conceivably be put on staff
as full-time employees, according
to Drake. They can build a career
while simultaneously getting an
education.
“We feel very strongly that
there is not a distinction between
research and teaching, they are
kind of seamlessly integrated,"
Drake said.
Along with giving students a
unique opportunity, the project
will give scientists a better understanding of one of Earth’s biggest
threats. The asteroid it will study,
is the “most accessible carbonaceous asteroid and the most potentially Earth-hazardous asteroid
known,” according to NASA.
For more information,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?me
dia_id=90571421
Learn about Spacefest, the largest gathering of
space enthusiasts, and see an interview with
Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart online.
Photo
Budget cuts leave Himmel Pool in central Tucson empty.
by ChANdler loNGboNs
www.myhsj.org/thechronicle
Journalism Diversity Workshop for arizona high school stuDents
June 2011 • junio 2011
Page 5 • Página 5
Students talk about Japan’s triple disaster
By Kristy Westgard
Initial media coverage in
Japan following the earthquake,
tsunami and nuclear crisis left the
impression that much of the country was completely destroyed.
Cameras rarely ventured beyond
the destroyed coastline to the
areas that survived.
The Chronicle interviewed
two foreign students attending
the Sendai Language School
(SLS) of Sendai, Japan, and the
school’s director about the triple
disaster that struck Japan on
March 11. SLS is a school centered in Sendai’s downtown district, about 10 miles from the
coast where major destruction
occurred.
Iranian Reza Jahaneakhsha,
27, went “by (his) own charge” to
study Japanese at SLS. At his former job at Nissan, he worked
with many Japanese co-workers.
During
the
earthquake,
Jahaneakhsha was instructed to
crawl underneath a desk to avoid
falling objects.
Nestor Isaza, from Bogota,
Colombia, has been in Japan for
six months working toward his
master’s degree in architecture.
He attends SLS to “learn the
culture through the language.”
At the time of the earthquake,
Isaza and his roommate were in
their apartment. As the building
shook harder the electricity went
out for about seven minutes,
Isaza said.
Miyuki Shiratori, SLS director and a Japanese native, also
shared her personal experience.
When the earthquake struck,
Shiratori was meeting with a
Russian exchange student at the
time of the earthquake. The two
went under a desk when the foreign exchange student realized
the earthquake was going to be
bigger than normal.
Q: What did it sound like
during the earthquake?
Isaza: The sound is pretty different. It’s hard to describe
because it’s just a black sound.
When you turn on the TV and
you have no signal, that’s black
sound. It sounds like someone is
beating a drum.
Q: How did the younger students take the earthquake?
Shiratori: All of them were
very shocked but some students
seemed to be a little bit…I don’t
know, enjoying it because it’s
shaking, but after the earthquake
finished and they noticed the
electricity power was off and the
water stopped, they realized that
the situation was really bad.
Q: What did you feel when
you heard about the tsunami?
Isaza: Well, I was really surprised because the downtown of
the city was perfect, well not perfect but was OK. But I was really
shocked to know that the beach
area of the city was over
(destroyed) and the airport as
well. I saw the news, and my
family (in Colombia) saw the
news. The news said that Sendai
Miyuki Shiratori, at Sendai Language School in Japan,
Skypes with Chronicle staff in Tucson during the Journalism
Diversity Workshop.
Left: The LA Times front page the day after the tsunami and
earthquake hit Japan. Courtesy Newseum.org.
was erased from Japan so my
family was very worried. But the
reality you see on the news and
the reality you see here is very,
very different. They only show
the really damaged part of the
city but the west side of the city
is not like that, it’s OK.
Q: Did you ever visit the epicenter of the earthquake?
Isaza: Last week I went to do
some
volunteer
work
at
Ishinomaki. It’s about one hour
from here, but the city was really
damaged.
We did a very good job cleaning the streets and pulling away
the garbage, but you can still see
the boats on the street and the
cars damaged,
that kind of
thing. You can see houses, how
they went out, fell down, and the
smell is really strong, like a fishy
smell.
Q: How do you think that
this disaster has reshaped
Japan?
Jahaneakhsha: It was a
unique experience that I had
in Japan. I didn’t see anyone
pass a red light in the street.
People here really respect the
law and they respect each
other even in the worst situations. It was really amazing.
When I came back to my
country I explained to almost
everyone what I saw here.
People treat each other the
same way; you think that
nothing really happened here,
and it was really amazing.
Q: What would you like the
U.S. and other countries to
know about your area in
Japan?
Isaza: Well, there are a lot
of people helping. The government has done a wonderful
job cleaning, and helping people. There’s a lot of help coming from everywhere in the
world and the Japanese people
are working and studying,
doing their thing, and they’re
not giving up. So that’s a good
thing to show instead of
buildings destroyed. I know
newspapers have to put things
out, but not that way.
A survivor among us: When politics get personal
By Lacey Tewanema
As she walked in the room to speak with
The Chronicle staff, 6-foot-4-inch Abigail
Hungwe commanded the attention of the
room. She spoke slowly and deliberately,
with a wide smile on her face.
Surrounded by political unrest, Hungwe
fled her home country for the United States
in February 2008.
Born and raised in Zvishavane,
Zimbabwe, Hungwe left her family to travel
on a student visa to pursue a degree in building management at Pima Community
College in Tucson.
“There is a lot of instability in
Zimbabwe,” Hungwe said. “And there is a
so-called democracy, but you don’t have a
say. The politics caused quite a bit of panic
and a lot of violence.”
Hungwe said she emigrated because of
the changes Zimbabwe was going through
and the dangers that she faced living there.
“In Zimbabwe, a lot of things happen. A
lot of people disappear because of their
views or the ideology that they abide to.
Being a young, active person in Zimbabwe
at the time was not OK,” Hungwe said.
When asked what might have happened if
she had not left her home country, she
paused and said, “I might be dead.”
When she moved to the U.S. at the age of
22, Hungwe’s immigration lawyer, Rachel
Wilson, introduced her to The Owl and
Panther Project, which is sponsored by The
Hopi Foundation.
The Owl and Panther Project provides
activities for families who have been
through traumatic experiences. The project
helps find “a refuge within a refuge,”
according to the organization’s website. Owl
and Panther was first organized in 1995
when refugee parents wanted their children
to have special support like tutoring and
summer school.
Marge Pellegrino, program coordinator
for The Owl and Panther Project, has known
Hungwe since she started participating in
2008.
“When Abby first started with us, she
didn’t think she could write a poem, didn’t
think she’d like to photograph, and she has
Where on Earth is Zimbabwe? done both well,” Pellegrino said. “Abby is
now a faithful volunteer who helps drive
families and helps with the workshops, and
offers her gentle encouragement to our families and to me.”
Hungwe applied to colleges in the U.S.
and Pima Community College was the first
to reply. To finance the move, Hungwe’s
mother, Chipo Mampokolo, “had to make
quite a few sacrifices,” Hungwe said.
Mampokolo sold cows to raise the money
to send Hungwe to the U.S. In Zimbabwe,
cows hold great cultural significance.
Hungwe said she has since paid her mother
back.
The biggest struggle for Hungwe in
adapting to life in America was living on her
own, she said. In Zimbabwe, she was used to
having family around her all the time.
Hungwe earned a degree in building
management, and now wants to go to
Northern Arizona University for her bachelor of science degree.
“I’ve always been fascinated with buildings,” she said.
Hungwe said the U.S. offers many more
resources that give her the opportunity to
reach her goals. Zimbabwe doesn’t have the
computer access and Internet resources that
U.S. schools offer.
“My academic goals have been easier to
meet here than they were in Zimbabwe,” she
said.
Hungwe said that in the future, she wants
to continue her education.
“Five years from now, I will be still having fun and I’ll have met my education
goals,” she said.
Hungwe said another positive aspect of
U.S. living is the numerous activities she
and her friends can do in their free time.
Hungwe said she enjoys going on hikes,
visiting museums and going out to clubs.
She traveled to Northern Arizona to the
Hopi Reservation through the Owl and
Panther Project. Hungwe spent the night at
the Hopi Reservation and said it was a
Photo
by
halli lomayaktewa
remarkable experience.
“The Hopi culture is similar to ours in
Zimbabwe,” she said.
Hopi culture and Hungwe’s culture are
similar through use of the totem, Hungwe
said. A totem is a title that is passed from
parent to child at birth. The Zimbabwean
totem follows the father’s clan. The Hopi
totem follows the mother’s clan.
She toured the different mesas, villages,
ruins and other historical areas. She said she
enjoyed her time there and that if she were
invited to the reservation again, she would
like to go back.
Hungwe continues to be involved with
Owl and Panther as a volunteer, working
with other refugees.
“When I was in Zimbabwe, the thought
of having a major impact in a stranger’s life
never occurred to me,” Hungwe said. “There
is nothing like watching how grateful somebody is that you spent time teaching them
how to write a sentence in English or showing them how to draw.”
Page 6 • Página 6
THE CHRONICLE • myhsj.org/thechronicle
June 2011 • junio 2011
Looking out for box turtles
Arizona Game
and Fish tracks
turtles with
public’s help
By Lizzy Sesteaga
Turtles need your help.
The Ornate Box Turtle population is declining in Arizona, and
the Arizona Game and Fish
Department is asking the public for
assistance.
In September 2009, Project
Biologist Audrey Owens and
Project Coordinator Cristina Jones
of the Game and Fish Department
established the Ornate Box Turtle
Watch. The project was created to
locate turtles, to learn more about
their habits and behaviors and help
sustain the population.
Owens and Jones are trying to
collect information to understand
what area the turtles generally live
in. By locating an area where many
turtles live, biologists can study
the natural habitats and learn more
from watching the turtles in their
environment.
The project coordinators don’t
know exactly how many of these
turtles live in Arizona, but people
have not spotted them as often as
before.
Although Owens and Jones are
stationed near Phoenix, the project
was created to “reach out to people
who spend time in southeastern
Arizona, where native Ornate Box
Turtles occur,” Jones said.
Little information is needed
when someone comes across a turtle. The individual fills out a simple form describing the location,
surrounding environment and the
turtle.
“We hope that it will give us a
good database on factual locations
throughout the range of southeastern Arizona,” Owens said.
Owens and Jones have limited
data about the characteristics of the
turtles. According to the Game and
Fish Department website, “box
turtles are secretive and difficult to
find.”
The department is collecting
material to further understand why
turtles hide.
Jones said she thinks the pro-
Photo By t.r. Jones,
gram has been effective. In the
past two years she and Owens
have received just over 80
reports.
In most cases the turtles have
been spotted after a monsoon.
Jones said she has no expectations for this long-term project, but
she does hope to alert people about
the lack of understanding about the
turtles.
“The whole reason this Box
Turtle Watch Project exists is
because they’re hard to see,” said
Cecil Schwalbe, assistant professor at the University of Arizona
College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences. “I think it’s an excellent
way to try and bring citizens into
the scientific process.”
Schwalbe actually has a box
turtle of his own. “Someone got
tired of keeping it and they gave it
to me. Tilly the turtle, he’s great.”
Tucsonans can register to learn
more about this project at a presentation on June 25 at Brandi Fenton
Memorial Park. The presentation
will be given by Owens and
offered through the Pima County
Parks and Recreation Department.
Visit http://www.azgfd.gov/
w_c/boxturtlewatch.shtml to participate in the program.
courtesy of
arizona Game
and
fish dePartment
the Game and fish department asks "citizen scientists" to document box turtle sightings, like this male found in southeastern
arizona.
Photo
courtesy
chrystal carPenter
Items were placed on the UMC lawn for recovering Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
and in honor of the other victims of the Jan. 8 shootings.
Memory keeper tasked
with Jan. 8 tributes
By Adam Carrillo
It was a sunny Saturday morning on Jan. 8 when a young man
wearing a hoodie arrived via taxi at
a Safeway grocery store in Tucson
where Congresswoman Gabrielle
Giffords was hosting a community
event. Shortly after, she and 12
others were wounded and six were
killed. Jared Lee Loughner, 22,
was arrested at the scene after
being tackled by bystanders.
For the next few weeks, the
lawn at University Medical Center
where Giffords was being treated
served as a refuge for grieving and
healing. People left cards, posters,
balloons, stuffed animals, candles,
flowers, drawings and gifts to support and honor the victims. The
site of the shooting and the congresswoman’s office also had
memorial sites.
Once Giffords was relocated to
a different hospital and victims’
conditions improved enough for
them to return home, the media
and the public’s visits to the
memorial became less frequent. It
was at this time that Chrystal
Carpenter, an archivist at the
University of Arizona library, was
chosen to pick up the pieces from
the memorial sites.
“We would like the public to
know we are honored to have (the
memorial) and we’re taking good
care of it until the community
decides what they would like to be
done with it,” said UMC spokeswoman Katie Riley.
According to Carpenter, a committee will decide on the final
location where the archived items
will be stored.
Carpenter, who graduated from
the UA with a master’s degree in
Library Science, said she was
“humbled” when chosen for the
job. “It was kind of by chance that
Giffords’ office found me, but I
feel honored to be able to do this,”
she said.
One boy set out his lunch
money on UMC’s lawn in hopes of
aiding the recovering congresswoman. “It was so heartwarming
to see what people had set out, but
at the same time it was very tragic,” Carpenter said.
“I have to zone out. Otherwise
it is very emotional and difficult to
complete what I am doing.”
Carpenter worked alongside 20
to 30 people to collect and pack up
the items from the three sites.
They began by drying off and
wrapping some of the items.
It is too early in the archiving
process to estimate when the job
will be completed, Carpenter said.
For now, everything has been
boxed and stored at UMC for her
to archive.
Remembering Sgt. Nance, ‘one of the best’
By Halli Lomayaketewa
On Sept. 19,
2010, I lost one of
the best teachers I
have ever had. His
name
was
Sergeant Kevin
Lee Nance, also
known to the cadets as Sergeant. I
was one of his cadets in the Junior
Reserve Officer Training Corps.
I knew Sgt. Nance for two years.
He died in a car accident. Because I
didn’t have a dad, Sgt. Nance was
like a father I got to see every day.
What I remember the most is him
smiling at everyone no matter what
kind of mood he was in.
On the day of Sgt. Nance’s
death, I was in journalism class.
The intercom came on and the
principal asked for all the Junior
Reserve Officer Training Corps
cadets to report to the classroom. I
remember walking over and the
room was so full that some of the
cadets had to sit on the floor.
I was past devastated. I didn't know what to
think. I knew it was true but at the same time I
didn't want to believe it.
Halli Lomayaktewa
When we were all there, our
other instructor, Major Phillip S.
Taylor, came out. After him was
Sgt. Nance’s wife, Patricia.
Maj. Taylor announced to the
cadets that Sgt. Nance had passed
on. When the cadets heard this,
they were all devastated.
I was past devastated. I didn't
know what to think. I knew it was
true but at the same time I didn't
want to believe it. Then Sgt.
Nance’s wife started to cry and I
knew it was true. I started to cry;
so did everyone else. When I saw
Mrs. Nance crying, I got up and
went to her and hugged her. I cried
with her.
I didn't want to leave the class-
room, but Maj. Taylor told me to
go to class and that it would be all
right. By then it was already fifth
hour. So I went to class, and then
we went home. All day, I couldn’t
stop thinking about Sgt. Nance.
The one person who knew me the
most and helped me in my time of
need was gone.
On Sept. 22 at Hopi Junior
Senior High School a memorial
service was held. I went to honor
Sgt. Nance.
During the ceremony I tried to
say some words to honor him but
when I got to the podium I couldn't
say a word. All that I could say was
that he was like a father to me, and
a tear rolled down my face. The
tears showed that I loved him like
he was really my own father. I
couldn't say any more so I ran off
the stage in tears.
I cried until I got outside. When
I tried to get air, it seemed like I
couldn't. I was actually in the fetal
position, crying. I got so lightheaded that I had to hold someone. I
just couldn't stop crying. My three
friends tried to calm me, I just didn’t want to stop till my boyfriend
came to me and held me so tight
that I relaxed and stopped my crying. I left early because I couldn't
handle it anymore.
Sgt. Nance was born on Dec. 6,
1953, and was only 57 years old
when he died. The Tanner Chapel
AME Church held his funeral service Sept. 27.
He was the sixth child in his
family. He had two children of his
own, a boy named Karlton Lavelle
and a girl named Kalei Ana.
He once lived in Chester, Pa.,
and was a member of the National
Guard. He worked as the physical
director at the YMCA in downtown Phoenix. He also got his
bachelor of arts from Excelsior
College in New York.
He was given the National
Defense Medal, the Army
Meritorious Volunteer Service
Award,
the
H.B.
Daniels
Community Service Award and the
U.S. Army Good Conduct Medal.
He was an army instructor for
seven years at my high school.
Sgt. Nance was there for me
every day when my actual dad
wasn’t. He was the best instructor
because he would talk to me when
I was down, and ask what was
going on at my house.
Kevin L. Nance will never be
forgotten in my and his wife’s
heart. We will always miss him
and his smiles, his courageous
words, his hugs, his weird jokes
and, most importantly, him.
No matter what, he will be with
me in mind, body and soul.
Page 7 • Página 7
THE CHRONICLE • myhsj.org/thechronicle
June 2011 • junio 2011
Ex-prostituta alza el velo que cubre el
tráfico de prostitutas juveniles en EU
Por Corina Gallardo
Traducido por Lauren McElroy Herrera
Cada año cuando llega el día 22 de abril,
Carolyn Jean Jones celebra su aniversario.
Esta fecha no marca su cumpleaños, ni un
casamiento, ni el nacimiento de su hija.
No. En cambio, marca el día en que ella
dejó las esquinas siniestras de las calles de
Phoenix, dejando atrás la vida de abuso que
había vivido desde los 13 años, una vida de
prostitución, uso de drogas y desespero.
Jones una vez fue una de las miles de
muchachas jóvenes que cada año son
engañadas y luego atrapadas dentro del sistema oculto del tráfico ilegal de sexo en los
Estados Unidos.
Los padres de Jones se divorciaron cuando ella tenía 5 años, lo que la dejo sientiéndose como si hubiera sido “partida en dos.”
El divorcio la dejó en estado de choque,
confundida, y con la sensación de tener que
actuar de una manera diferente en cada una
de las nueva familias formadas por sus
padres. Si ocurría un problema en la casa de
su madre, se iba corriendo a la de su padre,
y vice versa.
“Cada vez que había un conflicto o yo
empezaba a sentir alguna emoción o a sentir
confusión, simplemente me echaba a correr,” dijo.
A la edad de 13 años fue molestada sexualmente. Se sentía sucia, avergonzada.
“Ya tenía bastante baja la autoestima”
dijo. “Mi cuerpo había sido violado.”
Empezó a automedicarse con el acohol.
Eventualmente, empezó a usar la marijuana
para “cubrir toda la tristeza.”
La madre de Jones trabajaba muchas
horas al día, y con frecuencia mantenía dos
trabajos. Los argumentos frecuentes y violentos entre su padrastro y su hermano
muchas veces terminaban con pistolas
sacadas. Jones, la hija del medio, se vio
forzada a tomar el papel de madre en su
familia, encargada de la preparación de la
comida y la limpieza.
A pesar de la ausencia de su madre, Jones
dijo, “My mamá hizo todo lo posible para que
yo no me convirtiera en la muchacha que de
todas formas eventualmente llegué a ser.”
Su vida cambió de dirección otra vez a
los quince años cuando quiso huir de todos
sus problemas, cambiando la vida del hogar
por la de las calles de Phoenix. “Lavida de la
calle me recibió con los brazos abiertos,“
dijo. “Los hombres me comentaban lo bonita que me veía. “
Oyó las palabras que hubiera querido
escuchar de los labios de su padre. Por primera
vez se sintió como si fuera alguien especial.
“Un día me dijo un hombre que si yo me
fuera con él a un hotel me daría $100,” dijo
Jones. Todavía tenía sólo 15 años. Aceptó, y
cuando llegaron al hotel el hombre le
“Clamé a Dios, diciendo, ‘Por
favor sácame de esto. No quiero
vivir así. Por favor, dame la oportunidad de vivir de nuevo, de recuperar mi vida…”
explicó exactamente lo que quería que ella
hiciera para ganarse los $100.
Sin tener dónde dormir ni a dónde ir,
Jones cambió el uso de su cuerpo por el
dinero de aquel hombre, empezando así su
vida de prostituta.
El aprieto de Jones no se trata de una
situación fuera de lo común.
Se estima que 1,2 millones de niños son
traficados cada año para ser explotados sexualmente, según la organización United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Con frecuencia niños con tan sólo 5 años
de edad son incorporados a la industria del
sexo para cometer actos sexuales contra su
voluntad. La edad mediana de una prostituta
infantil es de 13 años, según el Departamento
de la Justicia.
En los Estados Unidos más o menos
450.000 niños se escapan de casa cada año.
Antes de que hayan pasado 48 horas desde
haber dejado sus hogares, la tercera parte de
entre ellos ha sido engañada para incorporarse a la esclavitud sexual, según el
Departamento de la Justicia.
A la edad de 16 años, Jones aprendió que
estaba embarazada y que el padre de su bebé
era su novio quien la abusaba emocional y
fisicamente.
Después de haber perdido la tutela de su
hija, Jones progresó al uso del crack para
“ya no sentir más el dolor” mientras continuaba el uso de la marijuana y el alcohol.
Continuaba a prostituirse y empezó a vender
drogas para mantener su adicción al crack.
Once años más tarde fue detenida por la
policia por vender drogas, y recibió una
pena de 18 meses en un centro de rehabilitación de drogas.
“Le dije al juez que mi problema no era
el que vendiera las drogas, sino que las
tomaba,” Jones dijo. “Y que si él me ayudara, mandándome a un centro de rehabilitación, yo me podría recomponer la vida.”
Después de terminar el programa de
rehabilitación, Jones permaneció 10 años sin
consumir drogas. Se casó y su hija le fue
devuelta. Hasta compró una casa.
Pero antes de pasar mucho tiempo, su
vida empezó a deshacerse.
Su matrimonio ya se había desecho y las
largas horas que trabajaba en las iglesias
locales empezaron a hacer estragos en ella.
Sintiéndose abrumada, volvió de nuevo a la
vida en la calle.
“Volví a ser un fracaso, una vez más,”
dijo Jones.
Poco después, su hermana fue asesinada
durante un brote de asesinatos de prostitutas
en Garfield, un distrito histórico de Phoenix.
Corey Morris, de 24 años, fue hallado
culpable de varios asesinatos en la zona.
Morris engañaba a las prostitutas,
prometiéndolas drogas y alcohol para que
vinieran a su casa. Una vez en la casa las
mataba y botaba sus cuerpos en la zona de
Garfield, detrás de la propiedad de su tío.
Cuatro de las mujeres cuyos cuerpos
fueron encontrados habían sido amigas íntimas de Jones.
La investigación de los crímenes relacionados al tráfico de sexo representa una labor
excepcionalmente conmovedora para la policia.
“La parte más importante de la campaña
es la educación, seguido por el trabajo agresivo cuando se sopecha que se trata de tráfico de sexo,” dijo Rick Crocker, un agente
diputado especial de la agencia gubernamental Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Recordó un caso en Memphis, donde se
identificó una banda de prostitución que
traficaba jóvenes muchachas latinas.
Una niña de 14 años fue rescatada
después de haber sido traída clandestinamente a los Estados Unidos por esta organización criminal. “Fue una experiencia muy
conmovedora. Todos teníamos lágrimas en
los ojos,” dijo Crocker.
Para Jones todo se desequilibró en una
parada de autobus en Phoenix. Se sintió con-
sumida por el sentimiento de que ya no le
quedaba nada más en la vida, que no valía la
pena seguir viviendo, dijo.
“Clamé a Dios, diciendo, ‘Por favor
sácame de esto. No quiero vivir así. Por
favor, dame la oportunidad de vivir de
nuevo, de recuperar mi vida… Haré
cualquier cosa que me digas,’” dijo Jones.
Tal vez haya sido la picadura de una araña
venenosa lo que le provocó su renacimiento en
una vida que no fuera la de la calle.
La llevaron al hospital para recibir
tratamiento. Debido a la picadura tuvo que
quedarse en una institución de cuidado
extendido durante un mes para recuperarse.
Una vez dada de alta, sabía que no podía
volver de nuevo a la calle. En vez de hacer
así, volvió a un centro de rehabilitación
durante tres meses. Luego empezó a trabajar
en otro centro, donde eventualmente obtuvo
el puesto de gerente.
Trabajó en ese puesto durante ocho años
antes de unirse a un programa en Phoenix llamado “Streetlight”. Streetlight es una organización religiosa sin fines de lucro cuyos fondos
consisten de donaciones. En el año 2009 tuvo
ingresos de $1,13 millones, según su
declaración de impuestos. La organización
recientemente abrió una división en Tucson.
El enfoque del programa, además de la
concientización y la prevención, es de traer
ayuda y servicios directos a las niñas de
entre 11 y 17 años de edad quienes han sido
prostituidas o traficadas.
Melody Bosna, una directora residencial
de Streetlight, se encarga del cuidado de las
niñas, cuya edad mediana es de 15 años.
Vienen a Streetlight por medio de la FBI y la
policia, o por su propia cuenta.
“Una de las cosas que más me llama la
atención al trabajar con estas niñas es su
capacidad asombrosa de recuperarse de sus
experiencias tan difíciles,” dijo Bosna. “La
gente tiende a pensar que estas niñas no son
nada más que niñas pervertidas.”
Hoy en día Jones se enfoca en traer la luz
a las esquinas oscuras donde niñas jóvenes
continúan a vender sus cuerpos.
Da pláticas en las escuelas, las iglesias y
cualquier otro lugar donde le permiten promulgar su causa.
Y a las víctimas jóvenes e invisibles del
tráfico sexual, su mensaje es sencillo.
“No es cuestión de como empezaron,
sino de como terminan,” dijo Jones. “Nunca
pierdas la esperanza.”
Recortes presupuestarios cierran piscinas
By Chandler Longbons
Traducido por Nohemi Ramirez
Nadadores y trabajadores de piscinas
están sintiendo el efecto de ola este verano
después de que los recortes presupuestarios
de la ciudad han resultado en el cierre de 17
de las 27 piscinas de la ciudad.
Los recortes hechos en enero de 2010, los
cuales redujeron los $3 millones del presupuesto de los deportes acuáticos de
Parques y Recreación por la mitad y
pidieron que 17 piscinas se cerraran por dos
veranos consecutivos, continua afectando a
nadadores, familias y salvavidas.
Billy Sassi, gerente del programa de
deportes acuáticos de Parques y Recreación,
dice que su departamento es uno de los más
costosos y fue uno de los primeros elegidos
para los recortes de presupuesto.
Como resultado, el número de empleados
que podrían ser contratados también se ha
cortado por la mitad, de 350 a 175 empleados. El número de salvavidas en piscinas de
la ciudad están sintiendo el resultado de las
clausuras.
Aunque los recortes han reducido el
número de trabajo disponible, Sassi dice que
a él le cuesta trabajo encontrar a gente joven
que quiera trabajar como salvavidas. La
falta de estabilidad en los trabajos de salvavidas ha ahuyentado a los solicitantes,
dijo Sassi.
“Yo pienso que los jóvenes se están
dando cuenta de que las piscinas, no hay tan-
tas abiertas así que no van a perder su tiempo en hacer el entrenamiento de salvavidas y
primeros auxilios, y RCP, ellos van a ir a
otro lugar donde estén seguros de poder conseguir un trabajo, eso es lo que están viendo”, Sassi dijo.
Stephanie Elias ha trabajado en varias
piscinas de la ciudad de Tucsón por los últimos seis años y ahora es salvavidas de
Archer Pool, 1665 S. La Cholla Blvd.
Conseguir un trabajo como salvavidas es
menos competitivo de lo que era en años
pasados cuando esos que eran contratados
tenían cinco o seis años de experiencia, dijo
Elias. Con estos salvavidas veteranos que
ya no están interesados en trabajar para
piscinas, más salvavidas de primer año son
contratados.
Pero el problema más grande al que los salvavidas dicen que se enfrentan es a las quejas.
“Mucha gente se queja con nosotros
porque muchas piscinas están cerradas y
tienen que conducir muy lejos para llegar
hasta acá”, dijo Ashley Doyle, una salvavidas que ha trabajado tres años en Archer
Pool.
Elias también nota quejas de padres,
especialmente cuando se trata de clases de
natación.
Así como los números de trabajadores y
de presupuesto, los lugares para clases de
natación se han reducido a la mitad, de 8,000
a 4,000 desde el primer recorte.
“Muchos padres están algo enojados
porque tienen que pagar $15 por adelantado
y no están seguros de tener un lugar” en la piscina preferida, Elias dice sobre el sistema de sorteo de Parques y Recreación que decide donde
serán inscritos los niños en las clases.
Este proceso, también llamado lotería,
hace que padres de familia elijan tres piscinas de su preferencia para llevar a sus hijos
a clases. Parques y Recreación elige la
piscina basada en la habilidad y experiencia
de los niños.
Al no poder ir a la piscina que quieran
crea un problema para algunos padres que
quieren que sus hijos aprendan sobre seguridad en la piscina.
Maha al-Khateev ha tenido dificultades
inscribiendo a sus dos hijos.
“Si tienen un espacio, no puedo venir
porque esta muy lejos”, dijo al-Khateev,
quien tuvo que aplicar a otras tres piscinas
antes de encontrar un lugar en Catalina Pool,
2004 N. Dodge Blvd, la cual esta cerca de
casa.
Wendy Weeks, otra madre cuyos dos
hijos han tomado clases en la Catalina Pool,
dice que ella no ha pasado por el mismo
problema de encontrar un espacio en
Catalina Pool.
“En algunas de las otras piscinas yo creo
que es más difícil, y cuando haces la lotería
uno no sabe que piscina le va a tocar”, dijo
Weeks.
De acuerdo con Sassi, todos los niños que
son inscritos tienen garantizado un lugar en
alguna de las piscinas abiertas.
La distancia es otro factor para los padres
cuando deciden no hacer un viaje a otra
piscina, y también es la perdida de comunidad que se ha establecido en piscinas de
sus barrios.
“Lo que yo se que paso es que mucha
gente solo opto por completo”, dijo Michelle
Kinnison cuyas dos hijas, de 10 y 12, fueron
inscritas en un equipo de natación en
Himmel Pool, 1000 N. Tucson Blvd, antes
que se cerrara.
“Entonces por su puesto que hay lugares
con espacios disponibles porque ellos saben
que mucha gente se fue al sector privado”.
Despertarse todas las mañanas y nadar
era parte de la rutina diaria de los niños de
Kinnison cada verano.
Pero desde que se cerro Himmel Pool, los
niños de Kinnison no se han unido a otro
equipo por la distancia que tendrían que
transcurrir cada mañana para ir a practicar.
“Conocimos a mucha gente por el equipo
de natación”, ella dijo. Su hija de cinco
años, Rosemary, recientemente se inscribió a
clases de natación en la UA.
Ahora que las piscinas comunitarias
están cerradas, la gente está cambiando sus
costumbres al elegir no nadar o no conducir
tan lejos.
Los padres como Kinnison esperan que
las piscinas comunitarias se abran de nuevo
en un futuro cercano, aunque esto quiera
decir que aumente el costo de admisión.
“Nosotros usamos esa piscina. Nosotros
realmente, realmente amábamos tener esa
piscina abierta”, ella dijo.
Page 8 • Página 8
THE CHRONICLE • myhsj.org/thechronicle
June 2011 • Junio 2011
Indoor
soccer’s
a kick
Owner shares lifelong
love of soccer with
adopted country
By Christina Rucker
Photo
by
Christina ruCKer
a player for the las Vegas 51s has no luck at bat as the tucson Padres shut out the 51s 6-0. see the Chronicle’s website, myhsj.org/thechronicle, for
a replay of live blogging of the game. the Padres’ schedule is available online at http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t549
Summer sports in
the Old Pueblo
BMX superstar signs autographs
Manzanita BMX Raceway in Tucson has races twice a week—but the
race on June 4 was special. Corben Sharrah, one of the most talented BMX riders in the country, came to ride with some of Tucson’s local
kids. While most toddlers were still learning to walk, Sharrah was pedaling away on his first bike. At the age of 5, he began BMX (Bicycle
Motocross) racing. He says the thrill of riding led him to turn a hobby
into a career. Fourteen years later, he won the Supercross World Cup
for BMX racing. Sharrah’s career has led him to South Africa, Japan,
Canada, Australia, Denmark and Holland. Saturday’s event drew
dozens of BMX fans. By signing autographs and speaking with the
locals, Sharrah hopes that he can inspire younger riders. Sharrah says
in five years he sees himself still riding bikes and working toward a
degree from Pima Community College. –– Photo and text by Lacey
Tewanema
Catch The Chronicle’s interview with UA baseball player
Vincent Littleman
www.myhsj.org/thechronicle
Youth activists unite to fight for ethnic studies
By Alexis Lopez
Early this year, students and
others came together to protect
ethnic studies courses in Tucson
Unified School District.
The group, called the United
Non-Discriminatory Individuals
Demanding
Our
Studies
(UNIDOS), believes that ethnic
studies courses are an essential
part of education and should not be
converted to electives, which the
TUSD board has proposed.
“Our main focus is to help the
youth protect their education,” said
Elisa Meza, a UNIDOS member
and University of Arizona student.
The courses focus on the history and literature of Mexican
American, African American and
Native American communities and
discuss the contributions to history
each culture has made. They are
currently counted as traditional
history or literature class credits.
The group formed after Gov.
Jan Brewer signed House Bill
2281 into law last year. The law
“prohibits a school from including in its program of instruction
any course or classes that are
designed primarily for pupils of a
particular ethnicity or promotes
resentment towards a race or
class of people.”
The bill does not acknowledge
the roles that Hispanics have
played in history, said Daniel
Montoya, an 18-year-old Rincon
High School graduate and member
of UNIDOS.
“It was like a slap to the face
when people say these ethnic studies classes should be electives.”
Meza said there are about 15
members, including students,
alumni, and concerned members of
the community.
Mark Stegeman, the Tucson
Unified School District Board
President, described how the
courses have inspired students to
score highly in Arizona’s high
school exit exam.
The group’s purpose is to protect student education, Meza said.
The students who are involved in
the group organize non-violent
protests thanks to the help they
receive from adult organizers.
“Ethnic studies helps educate
the community,” said UNIDOS
member Erin Cain-Hodge, a
University of Arizona student who
took Mexican American history
and literature classes while at
Tucson High School. Cain-Hodge
said the group is fighting to protect
the ethnic studies programs
because the classes offer more
opportunities.
UNIDOS has protested at several TUSD board meetings this
past year. On April 26, nine people
chained themselves to the governing board members’ chairs to disrupt the meeting.
“I was surprised at their actions
and I feel they went beyond what
was appropriate,” Stegeman said.
Stegeman released a proposal in
January stating TUSD’s position
on the ethnic studies program and
how it wishes to improve the
courses.
“The main idea is to get the ethnic studies course involved with
the entire history courses offered at
the schools,” Stegeman said.
“Most of the courses in the district
have room for improvements, so
the purpose of the proposal was to
make the program stronger.”
The group and TUSD have spoken with one another about the
matter, but little common ground
has been found. Stegeman said he
has tried to meet with UNIDOS,
but legal issues have kept the
group from meeting with the entire
board at one time.
“UNIDOS has become the new
face of what activists are, as these
students come together to protect
their cultures in the system of education,” Montoya said.
Mladin Kozak’s grandfather put
a soccer ball in front of the toddler
as soon as he started walking. By
the time Kozak was 4 years old, he
was already playing soccer with
his grandfather, a player
on the national soccer team
of Yugoslavia,
and his father,
who
also
played professionally.
“My family has played Mladin KozaK
soccer
for
generations. My brother played
professionally in Switzerland. All
my cousins and everyone I know,
all the males they’ve played soccer,” Kozak said.
He came to Tucson when he
was 13 because his country was
going through political turmoil.
“When the war started in
Yugoslavia in the early ’90s, we
went to Croatia and then
Switzerland. We lived there as
refugees for five and a half years,”
Kozak said.
At the end of 1998 Kozak and
his family moved to Tucson as part
of a refugee program. He said he
had family in the U.S., making it
easier to settle.
Now 34 years old, Kozak and
his brother run an indoor soccer
field called Maracana at 555 E.
18th St. near downtown Tucson.
On most nights, there are
between 50 to 200 people in the
building. Upon walking in you can
smell the plastic artificial grass and
sweat of players working hard to
win. The sound of kids yelling,
parents calling to the ref on the
sidelines, and the piercing sound
of whistles creates an exciting
atmosphere that attracts players.
When the complex first opened
last August, 16 teams participated
in leagues there, but now there are
more than 80 teams. There are also
ultimate Frisbee and lacrosse
leagues. The field is open every
weeknight from 5 p.m. to midnight.
Krystal Richards, 19, who plays
in a league at Maracana, enjoys
playing there because Kozak is
flexible with scheduling and
always treats his players kindly.
Minh Vu, 20, enjoys playing on
the artificial turf at Maracana
because it is safer to play on than
the tile floors at another indoor
soccer complex in town.
“Outdoor soccer is more serious and competitive,” he said.
Kozak plans to add another field
and a snack bar.
“Any kind of sport makes you fit,
and have more energy,” Kozak said.
If you go
Maracana soccer
555 E. 18th St.
520-235-7094
http://www.maracanaisa.com/