Middle school can be a rough environment, with social cliques and the insecurities that come with growing independence. In middle school, special education students are ignored at best and taunted at worst; at least this is how it was when my son went from Juan Cabrillo Elementary School to Malibu Middle School in 1997.
Henry Stern started a mentoring program in Malibu in 1999, and his first mentor was my son who has Asperger syndrome. Stern included my son in every activity as his peer, bringing him to football games, dances and eating lunch with my special son and other special needs students. Stern changed not only the course of my son’s school experience, but the experiences of special needs students since that day at Malibu High School by making it okay to have friends who are different. Such was the success of Stern’s inclusion that my son went on to become the first special education student to run for and become president of Malibu Middle School in 2000.
Friends and neighbors, will we allow a campaign smear that suggests living in Malibu makes you less of a person? Are our children less for living in Malibu? Do we let this ridiculousness go unchallenged? And, since when are my friends and the residents of Agoura, Woodland Hills, Moorpark, Encino, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and the other communities of District 27 considered separate from the residents of Malibu?
We have all worked hard, driven far, stood together against fire, floods and hard times, and yes, all of us in District 27 are privileged and lucky to live here. We are a great community. We should stand together, and it pains me to hear untrue and negative slights against one of our own. Do your research — Stern has dedicated his adult life to service not only those with special needs, but the environment and the underprivileged of our state.
Get out there and vote for clean water, restoration of the LA river bed, better schools and a fairer, more productive state. Vote Stern.
Corki Corman