[Flashback] CWC makes Stoner parent a target, parent received threats from CWC/CxC, CWC gets tagged

In my dealings with the CWC Mar Vista community, I have found that they have been less willing to talk about real issues and more inclined to engage in personal attacks and scapegoating, and as such make targets out of people who voice any concerns about the charter school. This post is about how the CWC community made a target of my family for raising concerns about the co-location, and how CWC end up raising the ire of the local gang.

   On Friday, February 7, three members (shown in the pictures above) of the Citizens of the World Charter School Mar Vista community were seen in front of Stoner ES handing out out fliers containing a CWC logo that responded to the petition and 187 letters sent to CWC and LAUSD from the Stoner ES community. As you can see in highlighted section of the flier, CWC minimizes the complaints of the entire community and places the blame for all the problems on "the neighbor...who is a the preschool parent organizing the Stoner parents against CWC because he doesn't want traffic on his street.. "

   After handing out their fliers, the three CWC members were seen at the CWC entrance on Lindblade fraternizing with the CWC principal and other CWC community members. In an email response to questions about this flier, the executive director denied that these people were affiliated with CWC.
    Unless there is another neighbor that I am not aware of who has a daughter who is in pre-k and who lives on Stoner, Lindblade or Wagner, then they could only be talking about your humble blogger here. Why was it necessary to mention that my daughter was in pre-K and thus making her a target. After that CWC flier went out is when we started receiving anonymous threats from the CWC community.

  A few days after the CWC flier was circulated, I received an email threat from someone representing themselves as from the CWC community and part of the Culver City gang (we'll have more on this in an upcoming FLASHBACK), basically, saying that if we didn't cut out what I was doing, they were going to organize "los del jarin" (Mar Vista Gardens) against us. There is only one way that I know of that gangs organize and that's not for a petition signing, protest or cupcake sale.
   I was scared. I have lived in this neighborhood my whole life. I know these people don't joke around. I took this threat very seriously. We took the threat to the police, but they said they couldn't do anything because there was no direct threat. Yes, there was an implied threat, kind of like if the mafia showed up at your house and said "That's very nice family you have there. It'd be a shame if anything happened to them." There is no direct threat to your family, but you know what was meant.
   We installed security cameras and upgraded all our locks, but we still did not feel safe with this threat hanging over our head. For the next month, we tried to stay out of our house as much as possible. When we were home, we stayed in doors with all doors and windows locked or in the backyard. I even considered pulling my child out of school and moving my family out of Del Rey.
   Scared and not knowing where to turn, we reached out to the local community and let them know about the threat. These gangstas are people in our neighborhood. They are brothers, cousins, neighbors, former classmates, and people we go to church with, and while we do not love the sin, we still love the sinner. These people are part of our community. So, people who know people who know people who know people asked around about the threat. We eventually heard back that no, this threat was not from the gang. However, now, the gang was aware that the CWC community was using their reputation to menace and intimidate local residents and community activist who are working for the good of their neighborhood.

    When the first tag went up, I freaked. Sometimes gangs will tag to show what is their turf. Was the message that CxC stood with CWC? Should I leave with my family and never return?
     The next set of tags went up and I still didn't know what to make of it. When the third and worst set of tags went up, I thought oh no, but at the same time, I breathed a sigh of relief to see the messages "F--- you" with a tag of "CxC MVG" (Mar Vista Gardens). This, hopefully, meant that the threat against my family was not real, but sadly and unfortunately, this also meant that danger the CWC created was real, and that is not good for either school or the local community.
     After having experienced over a month of insecurity, fear and doubt in my own home, I would not wish this upon anyone.  My sympathies go out to the CWC students and families who have had to face this.

Enlightening conversation with CWC parent last night

Informational flier on car

Yesterday, evening I had a very enlightening conversation on Stoner Avenue with a CWC parent who was volunteering for an open house that night.

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    Early in the evening my family started noticing traffic on our residential street. Car were speeding, driving erratically, driving in the middle of the road, make fast U turns in driveways. When you see this kind of dangerous driving on our street, it can only mean there was a Citizens of the World Charter Mar Vista event going on. I pulled my daughters inside the house and told them they would not be able to play outside that evening like we usually do because of the traffic danger.
    I went to see what the activity was all about and saw CWC was having yet another open house. I decided to distribute some informational fliers to those attending so that they could have a broader understanding of what was going on with this co-location.
   As I was distributing fliers, a CWC parent called out to me "You are only hurting the children!" Oh on, I thought. Anytime a CWC parent has talked to me on the street, it ends with them yelling at me. I responded with a question "What about our children and what your school is doing to them?"
   I reached out my hand and introduced myself. "Hi, I'm A--- Benitez. I live where those palm trees are." She gave a look of surprise like she had just seen the devil. She obviously knew who I was. So, I continued, "Yes, I'm that neighbor. The one CWC is placing all the blame on for the problems. I'm the only one with a yard sign. I'm the only one who signed a petition. I'm the only one who was present at all the demonstrations. The only one who is causing problem. I'm that neighbor." I took a breath and calmed down.
  I told her I was well aware of what was being said about me and my family by the CWC community, and told her that the CWC community had made my family a target and that we had received gang threats and threats from the CWC community because of this.
   She was surprised "Wait, I thought we [CWC] were the ones receiving gang threats." I explained to her the threat I received from some one who was representing themselves as part of the CWC community and the Culver City street gang. I explained how that threat from their community ultimately resulted in the graffiti on their school fence. She had no idea of any of this. I told her to check out my blog. I hope she's reading this right now. (Hi! Thanks for the conversation.)
   We continued to talk about other issues with the co-location including the competition for resources on campus, the separate entrances, the parents in the bathroom, the spikes left by the CWC parents and a few other issues.  It seemed like this was the first time she was hearing any of this. She didn't believe the spikes and I told that I could probably point one out right now. We walked a few feet before we found a spike inside campus under a CWC lunch table. I told her about the ordeal with the spikes.

   The more we talked, the more I realized that the CWC community is not being told the truth.  They are receiving a whitewashed, varnished version of the truth where anyone who brings up a problem is made a scapegoat for bringing up their concerns and this is exacerbating the problem with the co-location. Just like the April 8th CWC communication about the gang activity and traffic problems minimizes both problems and places the blame for the traffic problem on "A resident", CWC is sending a distorted message to their community about what is really going on and is trying to shift blame on to others. This is helping to fuel the tensions between the communities and is creating more problems for both communities.

   

Traffic & safety woes continue at CWC Mar Vista

Yesterday after school, my wife, infant daughter and nephew, who attends CWC, were almost run over in a crosswalk when a CWC parent drove in reverse out of the Lindblade Place cul da sac and continued in reverse through the pedestrian crosswalk on Lindblade Street. The car came so close to them that my wife hit the car’s trunk with her hand to alert the driver to stop. The driver stopped and turned around with an annoyed look. When he realized what happened, he gave an embarrassed shrug before speeding off.

Embarrassed? Really? What is wrong with these citizens? Yes, how embarrassing would it be to have run over my wife, infant daughter and nephew in a crosswalk while driving reverse? When you almost run over someone because of your recklessness, a shrug is not the correct response. A mea culpa for this dangerous behavior should have been in order, but this shameless behavior from the CWC community is not surprising.

CWC has a culture of entitlement that manifests itself as disrespect to the community and a flouting of the law when they are in our neighborhood. During drop off and pick up times our quiet residential street turns into a lawless land where people do whatever they want: drive in the middle of the street, park in the red, block driveways and even drive in reverse down the street among other offenses. It’s not surprising that we are still seeing traffic issues on Lindblade and that the problems are becoming worse.

 Let’s look at few examples from just yesterday:

• Here is a CWC car parked at 7:43 AM in the bus loading zone which begins at 7 AM*

*The CWC father and child entered campus through the Stoner gate and not the CWC entrance.

• Here we have a CWC car parked in front of a driveway

• …and the worst one:

Below is a video sent to me today by a community member, that shows almost the exact same behavior that scared my wife yesterday afternoon, but this incident happened earlier that same day at another intersection. In the video a CWC community member:

• Doesn’t stop at stop sign going south on Stoner Ave.
• Parks in red zone in front of fire hydrant
• Reverses into an intersection
• Drives through a cross walk
• Does not stop at stop sign going west on Lindblade St.*
(*This may not be illegal since he was technically never behind the stop sign because he drove through the crosswalk…oh, right.)

What makes this most infuriating is that this citizen is illegally parked just few feet away from the loading zone that was created for CWC and that upset local residents by taking away parking spot from the community. Why would someone feel so entitled and exempt from the law that they think that this behavior was acceptable? Is this how these worldly citizens behave in their own neighborhood or just ours?

The traffic safety has been an on-going issue with this colocation. On October 16 2013, the Argonaut ran a story on the traffic problems caused by the colocation of Citizens of the World Mar Vista on the Stoner Avenue Elementary campus. It’s been 5 months and just like most all the other complaints against CWC, the situation has only gotten worse.

What can be done about this charter school’s community lack of basic citizenship and the safety problems that it causes? We don’t want to wait until we have a tragedy on the street like happened at CWC Hollywood until something is done about the safety in the neighborhood.

Yesterday, I was very lucky that my family was not hurt or worse. If CWC’s community behavior continues, someone else might not be so lucky.