Saying Her Leadership Style Evolves Around the Kids, the New Principal of San Pedro High School Spends Her First Day Meeting Students, Learning Names and Opening Her First Piece of Mail- a Post From Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn Expressing Council Support;

In a Short Stop-over at the Local School, Jeanette Stevens Will Bid Adieu to Her Former Staff and Students at John Leicthy Middle School Next Week and Will Return To Stay at San Pedro in Mid-August;

Her Main Goals Includes Helping Students Define Their Skills, Their Identities and – Their Futures – and Yes, They Should be Taught How to Stand Up For Their Rights at the Correct Time and Place

By Diana L. Chapman

Coming from creating a progressive and entirely new middle school campus in downtown Los Angeles – a school she and her team built from the ground up, Jeanette Stevens stopped on her first short day at San Pedro High School, greeting summer school students and shaking hands with a handful of staff.


The spunky, 41-year-old San Pedro resident – having already read the school’s dismal accreditation report – reassured the community that “we are going to be O.K.” and that she will work closely with lead teachers to improve academics, channel students interest at the school and make sure they leave prepared for their futures.

“We are going to make it work and it’s an exciting time to do that,” Stevens explained, whose father and grandmother both attended San Pedro High. “I’ve read the accreditation reports and the test scores, but I know there are good, dedicated people here. Our students will walk out of here in four years with the tools that they need and we will be well prepared to make that happen.


“We are going to work on building a team and our goal will be focused on our students.” With a team effort, Stevens -- who appears to have a refreshing approach when it comes to education and who has headed two of Los Angeles inner-city middle schools – tried out new tactics and reform to get both students and parents involved with their campus, which was divided into four small learning communities.

Students were considered like family and embraced into the culture, so they felt comfortable in a mass of 3,000 students.

During a two hour interview, Stevens talked incessantly about students and their needs and is the third principal courageous enough to take up the reigns of San Pedro High in less than three years.

Hard economic times for the district and the worst year in her profession was last year, Stevens said, when 75 percent of her Leichty teaching staff faced dismissal due to budget cuts. Students, angered by the potential loss of their teaches, were allowed to protest in a variety of ways from tying pink ribbons to the school fences and “chalk-talk” where students were allowed to write their feelings on the campus grounds, she said. Teachers were also encouraged to hold classroom discussions.


However, when a band of students stood up during their eighth grade graduation ceremony in June and turned their back on the guest speaker – an interruption of LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia – Stevens said the moment was “confusing” and brought Garcia’s speech to an abrupt halt.


At first, Stevens explained, she and Garcia both thought a student was sick or that some other emergency had happened. After the event, the students who were part of the protest, were asked to explain their actions before receiving their certificates in the following days. Some agreed to write apologies to Garcia, she said.

The students were angry with Garcia for voting for the cuts. However, Garcia was a “friend” of the school’s and was responsible for bringing many gifts to the campus, such as Astroturf for campus’ year round soccer club, Stevens said.


“When it’s your turn to shine,” Stevens said about the event, “turn the light on. It was really unexpected. It was a time to celebrate and the kids missed their chance to shine. If they weren’t happy and they told me, I could have gotten a different guest speaker.


“I felt really bad that the students felt that way and that somewhere along the line, we hadn’t done our job.”


Despite the controversy, Linda Del Cueto who heads the region in which San Pedro High resides, hand-picked Stevens for the job. She was impressed with Steven’s progressive ideas and sharp abilities to roll out successful collaborations repeatedly.


For the past several years, San Pedro High has had difficulties keeping its leadership in tact, suffered from extensive overcrowding issues and a received a poor accreditation report that some educators consider similar to getting a D grade.


Steven’s extensive math background, her ability to start a new school from the ground up and lead another inner-city middle school, Del Cueto said, made her a prime target for the job.
She was also encouraged that Stevens lived in San Pedro and understood many of the issues the community and the high school face, including an annex campus being built at Fort MacArthur’s Upper Reservation at Angel’s Gate.


It was an unusual move to reassign a principal from another district region, but Del Cueto believed the campus needed someone more invested in the community and was pleased that Stevens two young girls attended Park Western Avenue Elementary School.


“Superintendent Ramon Cortines agreed with me she’d be a perfect fit for San Pedro High,” Del Cueto explained. “I knew of her work at two schools and some of her experiences you couldn’t find anywhere. She’s a true collaborator. She brings out the best in people and she motivates.”
Stevens replaces Bob DiPietro, who retired after two years due to family issues, but not before admitting that he was frustrated with the campus entrenchment making it difficult to make changes.


However, Stevens goal to clean up San Pedro High, she said, are personal as well professional as she wants both her daughters, Teel, a 6-year-old first grader, and Taylor, 8, a third grader, to attend the high school.


The new principal said her philosophy circles around her students, their needs and what they desire to be provided for their futures, including college.

As the leader of a brand new middle school, in the Pico Rivera District, where poverty was often a way of life, her team, two-thirds full of brand new teachers, believed their job was to help students find their identity and a place where they fit into the large campus of 3,000 students.


To do so, they broke the school into four mini-campuses and named all of them after sharks. Students kept the same teams of teachers to work with through 6th and 7th grade children to help them form bonds with the school’s adults. By 8th grade, they added new teachers to give the students an idea of the workings of high school, she said.


The students responded favorably to their houses – nicknamed Silver Tip, Mako, Spear Tooth and Blue, and helped pull together the identity of each house – which was more culturally driven then academic so the students could fit into the structure of such a large middle school. Each campus, Stevens said, was expected to operate “like a family.”


Also a big proponent of having an extremely active after school program, Stevens ran assorted clubs from a year round soccer club to photography at Leichty to keep kids at school and in safe environment .


About 250 students attended after school and the program was growing.


Stevens attended Mary Star High School and moved to San Pedro when she married about 20 years ago. She began her career as a math teacher at Gomper’s Middle School in 1990 and continued up the ladder, first as an assistant principal, before landing the principal role at Berendo Middle School.


She was then sought after to start the brand new school, Leichty, and she brought along six of her teachers who were interested in making big reforms and starting from scratch. Asked if it wouldn’t be hard to work with entrenched teachers – since most of her teachers at Leichty were new instructors – Stevens said her experiences at Berendo gave her ample opportunity to understand how LAUSD and public schools operate.

Now on her eighth year as a top school administrator, Stevens was Berendo's principal for five years and assistant principal for three.


At Leichty, her teaching team was able to work up a vision – which included making the students understand they are part of a family – and the new teachers that came aboard knew the school was based on “what the kids need.”


“I’ve definitely have experience in terms of leading and I feel I’m connected to the (San Pedro) community,” Stevens explained, as teachers rapped on the main office door eager to meet her. “We need our parents to come back and support us. And we have to acknowledge that there’s growth here. Teachers come here and work hard daily.


“ It’s time we’ve shined."

CHARTER SCHOOLS: ARE THEY THE ANSWER AND ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS TO WATCH OUT FOR? YOU BET THERE IS; JUST LIKE ANY PUBLIC SCHOOL OR PRIVATE CAMPUS FOR THAT MATTER

By Diana L. Chapman

I have a sickening and increasing fear of the new educational revolution that has charter schools popping up everywhere in Los Angeles– especially now that our mayor has endorsed this as the gateway to fixing public schools.

It stems from scary stories like this:

• High School senior, Aurora Ponce, a class president, straight A student headed for a UC university, sat in a silent protest regarding enlarging class sizes and the elimination of college prep courses at her charter campus. After she did so, the Accelerate School (several South Los Angeles charters) suspended her for two days and tried to bar her from giving a valedictorian speech.

Scores of protests forced the charter to allow her the opportunity – she deserved.

• Two teachers, during Black History Month, put together a program to remember 14-year-old Emmett Till, hanged in 1955 in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. The program included placing a wreath down for Emmett at Celerity Nascent charters.

The 7^th grade math teacher, Marisol Alba, and co-teacher, Sean Strauss, were both fired. School officials declared that telling Emmett’s story was too horrific for young students.

I signed the petition to rehire those teachers. This is the type of program I don’t only expect – but demand from good teachers.

These Los Angeles stories, and many others like them around the nation, bother me deeply that we are murdering our public educational system and leaving behind our American values as individuals; the right to protest, the right to speech, the right to learn about tolerance – which we’ve always learned at schools. And more so, the right to learn our history.

During my junior high school years, I learned about Native American Indians living on reservations, the brutality of the Civil Rights Movement and about the Klu Klux Klan. Not once did I believe these stories were too much for me to learn. In fact, it helped shape me and taught me tolerance.

I want our children – our future – to be analytical and to know our history – no matter how dark it is. If we avoid the Emmett Till story, will we ignore slavery too? How about the Lincoln assassination? Should we discuss JFK then? What about the Holocaust?

Even when charter test scores are high, I wonder what we eliminate: perhaps we destroy the concept of students thinking for themselves.

I gagged when I read about the American Indian Public Charter schools up in Oakland.

These students live with strict military-style discipline at the school and achieved some of the highest test scores in the state – 976 – out of a 1000 on the API (Academic Performance Index). Mostly, strict academics are part of the structure such as math.

But my question is: at what costs? While public schools are teaching to the tests as well, teachers are often chagrined by this and continue their attempts to instill values, tolerance --- and our history. Maybe then we won’t repeat some of the same ugly mistakes we’ve already made.

As a parent, I took a short dip in and out of a charter school in San Pedro for my son, Ryan. It definitely was not the school for us for a variety of reasons, but in particular odd discipline policies and the amount of control the principal and executive director had was bothersome.

After that, the only recourse was to go to the board. And students were not encouraged to speak up.

We didn’t make it past the first semester, especially after Ryan was disciplined for an eight hour in-house suspension for wearing the wrong shirt to school. At this point, I decided this campus just didn’t fit us. It did, however, suit other students who blossomed and flourished at the smaller school.

Still, what I fear most coming out of charters is the cookie-cutter approach to teaching, especially at charters that are wedded to the basics, and want to squash what their students say out loud.

It’s almost a dumbing-down of students, intimidating them to not speak out vocally or become the way most of us are as Americans: believing we have the right to speak.

Jose Cole-Gutierrez, heads all 156 charter schools for Los Angeles Unified which currently serve 60,000 students.

In the end, charters have wound up operating similar to public schools – some are excellent, some are average and some have failed.

What they did offer the school district is a need for competition, Cole-Gutierrez explained and parents -- options.

The school district does not, in essence, manage day-to-day operations, Cole-Gutierrez said, but what has come out of the charter movement – which this district has the highest number of than any other in the nation – is offering choice to parents.

The district now offers magnet, pilot and smaller learning communities to its students and the district now has “the competition we need at all schools. We need to compete and give better choices,” he explained.

“We continue to be committed to high quality choices, providing charter schools with the autonomy allowed under the law and the accountability for which they are responsible,” the administrator emailed me.

David Kooper, the chief of staff for LAUSD Board Member Richard Vladovic, agreed and said the district will move toward forming small schools to compete against charters.

The small schools, which may reside on currently large campuses, will house its own counseling office and administration.

“We’ve decided to go with smaller schools and help them establish their own identity,”

This is good news – because like anything, charters are only a part of the solution.

Despite Coping With Noonan Syndrome, This Boy Can Whip Up A Satisfactory Tale in Fifteen Minutes That’s Organized and Structured As Long As He’s Given Room to Create Safely – Like Most of Us

Meet Casey Mezin, an Exceptional 12-year-old, Who Shaped a Story Called Yellow Bird from a Sticker; Don’t Miss This Amazing Piece Where he Prods Adults to Take Notice of the Beautiful Blooms in Their Lives

By Diana L. Chapman

I can’t resist when I meet a kid like Casey Mezin, who tackles more difficulties than most of us will in our lifetimes.

The 12-year-old San Pedro boy has a genetic disorder, Noonan syndrome, which prevents him from developing normally. For his age, his heart is enlarged (and much bigger and thoughtful than most people I know), his frame is thinner and much tinier for most children his age – especially for a boy.

He has big, buggy eyes (that I consider beautiful), a curly mop of hair and yes, difficulties putting together his thoughts – which sometimes make it seems like he stutters.

Those who don’t know him, probably don’t stop and think about it much. Or they might not understand that in his life time, he will likely face having a heart transplant and that his condition won’t ever allow him to grow physically the way most children flourish.

Sometimes, it makes other kids not want to play with him, but that’s because they don’t know what they are missing.

He seems t full of weird wisdom, such as when his mother, Kim Kromas, and his sister, Keli, 9, were have spats.

“He says sometimes: ‘Mom, Keli is very young and she doesn’t mean what she says,” explained his mother, Kim Kromas, a San Pedro chiropractor. “ I want you to visualize something else when you’re mad, something beautiful.”

Now when the two have a fight, Casey will wander by his mom’s room and with his fingers fluttering up and down, he’ll say: “Mom, remember: the flower garden. ..the flower garden. Think of the flower garden.”

That makes his mom laugh.

It seems like we all need Casey’s in our lives to as a daily reminder that life is beautiful and spending time being angry isn’t worth it.

My relationship with Casey, and his sister, Keli, 9, started after Kim asked me if I’d work with her children on their writing at the Corner Store on 37th Street, a great neighborhood hangout.

I suggested that we get a handful more children, which Kim did, because kids work better at helping each other in a safe and nurturing environment.

Keli, of course, a natural writer, quickly reduced her run on lines and shortened up her work in neat packages with a bow on them.

I really wasn’t sure how Casey would do. But somewhere along the line, Casey had some darn good teachers, because I was dumbfounded by his ability to write with such an organized structure and rhythm.

When I gave the students all stickers one afternoon and asked them to write about it, Casey wound up with a yellow bird. And this is the tale he spun:

Yellow Bird

By Casey Mezin

My character’s name is Yellow Bird.

I name it that because she is yellow and it is a bird. She carries her crayon to keep herself healthy and rubs it all over her body. She does it every week. But if she loses her crayon, she will get sick in a week.

If weeks pass, then she wouldn’t be able to fly. And when months pass, she better find her crayon…and fast!

She is kind and loyal to people. When she sings to people, they completely forget why they were sad, scared, hurt or angry.

At Yellow Bird's first day of school, she was excited because she knew that she would make new friends. She had at least 13 kids in her class.

Some of their names were: Key Train, Beef Neck, Chris Cross, Bacon Head, Sausage Teeth, Egg Eyes, Face Change and Night Hair.

Yellow Bird couldn't believe how many kids there were. Their teacher's name was Ms. Dawn. What they did the first day was learn their ABC's, build clay, make dolls, learn addition and subtraction, sing songs. They did a lot of stuff.

The teacher asked Yellow Bird to sing for them and even Beef Neck loved her voice. What a first day of school. Once, Yellow Bird and her class had a week of camp. She couldn’t wait to go.

She packed all her clothes: PJ's, food, and all sorts of other things. It took two hours to get to the camp. First, they learned how to fly faster, and better in case cats tried to eat you.

Next, they learned how to turn, and hover. Yellow Bird wasn't the best or the worst at hovering. Everyone has trouble hovering on their first try. Then, they learned how to glide in for worms when they are trying to escape. Finally, they tried to practice their signaling in case they ever got lost or trapped.

One of the kids got scared and started to cry, but Yellow Bird sang to him to make feel better, so he stopped crying. His name was Egg Eyes and after he stopped crying, he told everybody why he was scared.

He was homesick, but Yellow Bird’s singing made him happy again.

And so, Yellow Bird and her class went home on the last day of Camp. She slept soundly knowing she made new friends, who loved her voice and gave her thirteen more good reasons not to lose her yellow crayon.

Despite Coping With Noonan Syndrome, This Boy Can Whip Up A Satisfactory Tale in Fifteen Minutes That’s Organized and Structured As Long As He’s Given Room to Create Safely – Like Most of Us

Meet Casey Mezin, an Exceptional 12-year-old, Who Shaped a Story Called Yellow Bird from a Sticker; Don’t Miss This Marvelo0us Piece Where he Prods Adults to Take Notice of the Beautiful Blooms in Their Lives

By Diana L. Chapman

I can’t resist when I meet a kid like Casey Mezin, who tackles more difficulties than most of us will in our lifetimes.

The 12-year-old San Pedro boy has a genetic disorder, Noonan syndrome, which prevents him from developing normally.

For his age, his heart is enlarged (which is much bigger and thoughtful than most people I know). His frame is thinner and much tinier for most children his age – especially for a boy. He has big, buggy eyes (that I consider beautiful), a curly mop of hair and yes, difficulties putting together his thoughts – which sometimes make it seems like he stutters.

Those who don’t know him, probably don’t stop and think about it much.

Or they might not understand that in his life time, he will likely face having a heart transplant and that his condition won’t ever allow him to grow physically the way most children flourish. Sometimes, it makes other kids not want to play with him, but that’s because they don’t know what they are missing.

He seems full of weird wisdom, such as when his mother, Kim Kromas, and his sister, Keli, 9, have spats.

“He says sometimes: ‘Mom, Keli is very young and she doesn’t mean what she says,” explained his mother, Kim Kromas, a San Pedro chiropractor. “"I want you to visualize something else when you’re mad, something beautiful.”"

Now when the two have a fight, Casey will wander by his mom’s room and with his fingers fluttering up and down, he’ll say: “Mom, remember: the flower garden. ..the flower garden. Think of the flower garden.”

That makes his mom laugh. It seems like we all need Casey’s in our lives as a daily reminder that life is beautiful and spending time being angry isn’t worth it.

My relationship with Casey, and his sister, Keli, 9, started after Kim asked me if I’d work with her children on their writing at the Corner Store on 37^th Street, a great neighborhood hangout. I suggested that we get a handful more children, which Kim did, because kids work better at helping each other in a safe and nurturing environment.

Keli, of course, a natural writer, quickly reduced her run on lines and shortened up her work in neat packages with a bow on them.

I really wasn’t sure how Casey would do. But somewhere along the line, Casey had some darn good teachers, because I was dumbfounded by his ability to write with such an organized structure and rhythm.

When I gave the students all stickers one afternoon and asked them to write about it, Casey wound up with a yellow bird. And this is the tale he spun:

Yellow Bird

By Casey Mezin

My character’s name is Yellow Bird. I name it that because she is yellow and it is a bird.

She carries her crayon to keep herself healthy and rubs it all over her body. She does it every week. But if she loses her crayon, she will get sick in a week. If weeks pass, then she wouldn’t be able to fly. And when months pass, she better find her crayon…and fast!

She is kind and loyal to people. When she sings to people, they completely forget why they were sad, scared, hurt or angry.

At Yellow Bird's first day of school, she was excited because

she knew that she would make new friends.

She had at least thirteen kids in her class. Some of their names were: Key Train, Beef Neck, Chris Cross, Bacon Head, Sausage Teeth, Egg Eyes, Face Change and Night Hair.

Yellow Bird couldn't believe how many kids there were. Their teacher's

name was Ms. Dawn.

What they did the first day was learn their ABC's, build clay, make dolls, learn addition and subtraction and sing songs. They did a lot of stuff.

The teacher asked Yellow Bird to sing for them and she was surprised when even Beef Neck loved her voice. What a first day of school.

Once, Yellow Bird and her class had a week of camp. She couldn’t wait

to go. She packed all her clothes: PJ's, food, and all sorts of other things.

It took two hours to get to the camp.

First, they learned how to fly faster, and better in case cats tried to eat you.

Next, they learned how to turn, and hover. Yellow Bird wasn't the best or the worst at hovering.

Everyone has trouble hovering on their first try.

Then, they learned how to glide in for worms when they are trying to

escape. Finally, they tried to practice their signaling in case they ever got

lost or trapped.

One of the kids got scared and started to cry, but Yellow Bird sang to him to make feel better, so he stopped crying. His name was Egg Eyes and after he stopped crying, he told everybody why he was scared.

He was homesick, but Yellow Bird’s singing made him happy again.

And so, Yellow Bird and her class went home on the last day of

Camp.

She slept soundly knowing she made new friends, who loved her voice and gave her thirteen more good reasons not to lose her yellow crayon.

A SAN PEDRO RESIDENT, WHO CURRENTLY PRESIDES OVER A LARGE LOS ANGELES INNER CITY MIDDLE SCHOOL AND IS NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY, OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED THE POST TO HEAD SAN PEDRO HIGH SCHOOL THIS WEEK – THE FOURTH PRINCIPAL TO AGREE TO TAKE CHARGE OF THE AILING SCHOOL;

SCHOOL OFFICIALS PROMISE THIS TIME THE HARBOR AREA CAMPUS WON’T BE USED AS A PATHWAY TO RETIREMENT SINCE IT'S LOST THREE PRINCIPALS THAT WAY IN LESS THAN THREE YEARS

By Diana L. Chapman

Delighted school officials announced Tuesday that a San Pedro woman – who headed the helm of two giant middle schools in Los Angeles’ inner city sanctum and was embroiled in controversy in June, will return from vacation and take the reins of ailing San Pedro High School at the end of the month.

Calling her a collaborator, school officials seemed unconcerned with the controversy that flared at John Liechty Middle School’s graduation ceremony where Jeanette Stevens – as the top administrator – refused to give 15 protesting students their diplomas on graduation day.

During the ceremony, apparently 15 students stood and turned their backs on guest speaker, Los Angeles Unified School Board president, Monica Garcia, to show their anger regarding upcoming layoffs and increased class sizes at their school, which had just marked the tender age of two and was considered a progressive campus.

As those students crossed the stage, Stevens refused to hand them their diplomas, because she considered their behavior during the ceremony disrespectful. Parents and students were infuriated by Steven’s decision and demanded an apology – which she did not give. The students did receive their diplomas later.

A release sent out by LAUSD school administrators afterward showed support for Steven's decision. She had earlier lamented the layoffs herself in a National Public Radio broadcast.

The radio piece earlier this year discussed how Stevens had built a team of fresh-budded teachers at the school – only two years old- to work together to enhance student curriculum and to make it more enticing to students.

During that NPR interview, Stevens called the layoffs devastating and said “I have to be hopeful, because I can’t imagine the school beyond Sept. 9.”

When the announcement of cuts came, Stevens still demanded respect from her students at the graduation ceremony – even though she herself called the layoffs “devastating.”

Stevens, who lives in town and whose children attend an undisclosed Los Angeles Unified district elementary school in San Pedro, will be the fourth principal who agreed to step into the position -- a post embroiled with issues that three other principals walked away from.
Stevens was out of town this week and could not be reached for comment, but administrators lauded her pick with enthusiasm.

David Kooper, the chief of staff for Los Angeles Unified School Board Member Richard Vladovic, said that his office applauds the hiring of Stevens, who was sought after for the job because she’s a “team builder.”

“We’re very excited to have someone of her caliber,” he explained. “Jeanette Stevens, we believe, has all the tools for this job. We picked somebody not too close to retirement, who can see through change and bridge the gaps.
“She’s motivated and can get people to do things without arguing.”

Linda Del Cueto, who heads this area’s schools for LAUSD and was responsible for Steven's hiring,, said in a released statement: “I am confident that her collaborative style will be an asset to the community.”

An Open House featuring the new principal will be held in August, but the time and location had not been selected.

Earlier this week, officials decided not to announce Steven’s hiring until it was considered “official,” Kooper said, after residents were excited by the hiring of Linda Kay, 57, who decided later to not take the job.

Kay headed Narbonne High School and cleaned up problems with that campus, such as accountability issues and the running of a two-tiered school. But shortly after she accepted the San Pedro job, the former principal and director of several intermediate schools decided to retire instead.

Therefore, Stevens will replace former principal Bob DiPietro, who remained for two years at San Pedro when family crises led to his decision to resign. He took over for Diana Gelb, who quit and went into retirement after one year.

San Pedro High has been plagued with a series of problems from teacher and administrative entrenchment, intense overcrowding, a 50 percent dropout rate – and worse, a score in accreditation that rates at comparable or less than that of several of the district’s inner city schools.

The campus received a two rating out of ten which some educators consider similar to a D grade. Stevens also headed Berendo Middle School prior to taking her new job at Liechty.

A LOCAL CHIROPRACTOR HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT BACK PACKS AND KIDS: HERE ARE TIPS ON HOW TO STOP YOUR CHILD FROM GETTING "BACK PACK SYNDROME" WHICH CAN HURT NOW AND IN THE FUTURE

BackPack Syndrome

Kim Kromas, DC, PhD

I remember the end of every summer when I was a kid. I was so excited to pick out my new backpack for school. I picked out a pattern that was really cute or cool at the time. Who cared how sturdy it was or how much weight it had to hold? I had a locker to keep my books in and I only took home what I needed. This started in 7^th grade.

Time continues to alter the necessities of life. Our kids now need backpacks that hold sometimes as much as 40% their own weight. This starts in 1^st grade.

Complaints and concerns about the weight of student’s backpacks comes from parents and students. This situation is common for me, a Chiropractor for the past 22 years.

Does the weight that a child or teenager needs to carry in their backpack affect their growing spine? Absolutely. As the spine is growing, specific curves in the spine need to be maintained. The weight of books and accordion folders forces the shoulders to hunch forward and downward, putting more pressure on the necks and middle back of our children. This eventually affects their lower backs. Symptoms of “backpack overload” are headaches, neck pain, midback pain and low back pain.

I interviewed four girls going into the 3^rd and 4^th graders about their experiences with backpacks:

1. Leilani – The weight of the “normal” backpack with two straps makes her lean forward. This causes her back pain.

2. Jackie - She carries her backpack on one shoulder and she feels pressure on her right shoulder and left hip.

3. Keli –Her over-the-shoulder backpack puts pressure on her neck, hip and shoulders.

4. Lily – Her rolling backpack really works for her. She does have to leave it at the bottom of the stairs if her class in on the second floor.

What to look for in a backpack:

1. Thicker shoulder straps

2. Be sure the top of the backpack is as high as possible (close to the shoulders)

3. The smallest backpack with the most pockets inside the shell (not outside)

What is the best backpack?

Airpack backpacks are the best alternative to traditional backpacks I have found. They have a pouch that is filled up with air located at the lower back. This pouch redistributes the weight of the books and takes the weight off of the shoulders. Air backpacks have thicker shoulder straps and decrease the weight on your spine by up to 50%.

What is the cost of an Airpack?

Look on-line at Amazon or E-bay for an Airpack. We have not been able to find a reduced price for Air-packs, but if we do, we will let you know. The cost is anywhere between $35.00 and $70.00, depending on what you need it for.

-- Kim Kromas has 22 years of chiropractic experience. You can reach her at:

Chiropractic and Nutrition Center

302 W. 5th Street, #101

San Pedro, CA 90731

(310) 832-5818

www.kromaschiropractic.com

kimkromasdc@cox.net