I had heard about this kind of thing happening to high school girls, which is horrible enough. But the idea of such young children being dehumanized by their classmates, humiliated and sexualized in one of the places they’re supposed to feel safe, and knowing those images could be indelible and worldwide, turned my stomach.

I’m not a technophobe and have, in the past, been somewhat skeptical about the outsize negative impact of social media on teen girls. And while I still think the subject is complicated, and that the research doesn’t always conclude that there are unfavorable mental health effects of social media use on all groups of young people, the increasing reach of artificial intelligence adds a new wrinkle that has the potential to cause all sorts of damage. The possibilities are especially frightening when the technology is used by teens and tweens, groups with notoriously iffy judgment about the permanence of their actions.

I have to admit that my gut reaction to the Beverly Hills story was rage — I wanted the book thrown at the kids who made those fakes. But I wanted to hear from someone with more experience talking to teens and thinking deeply about the adolescent relationship with privacy and technology. So I called Devorah Heitner, the author of “Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World,” to help me step back a bit from my punitive fury.

Heitner pointed out that although artificial intelligence adds a new dimension, kids have been passing around digital sexual images without consent for years. According to a 2018 meta-analysis from JAMA Pediatrics, among children in the 12 to 17 age range, “The prevalence of forwarding a sext without consent was 12.0 percent,” and “and the prevalence of having a sext forwarded without consent was 8.4 percent.”

In her book, Heitner offers an example in which an eighth-grade girl sends a topless photo to her boyfriend, who circulates it to his friends without her permission. After they broke up, but without her knowledge, “her picture kept circulating, passing from classmate to classmate throughout their middle school,” and then “one afternoon, she opened her school email to find a video with her image with sound effects from a porn video playing with it.”

That kind of situation is already sickening, but the creation of fake nude images adds another layer of transgression. In the Beverly Hills case, according to NBC News, not only were middle schoolers sexualizing their peers without consent by creating the fakes, they shared the images, which can only compound the pain.

“If you’re creating an image of someone else and doing it without their consent,” Heitner told me, “whether it’s real or fake, you are violating that person and violating their privacy, violating their safety.” In these situations, she said, girls may feel that their sense of social acceptance has been lost. They may feel a sense of torturous humiliation from not knowing who among their peers has seen these types of images and who hasn’t. In her book, Heitner describes situations in which girls stop going to school altogether.

But Heitner also cautioned against over-punishing the perpetrators when they are younger children. “It’s important to understand that a 12- or 13-year-old is developmentally different than an adult,” she said. While it may be appropriate to suspend that child or move them to a different school if their victims no longer want to be around them, they shouldn’t be indefinitely barred from all participation in school or cast out of society. They are redeemable; they can make amends and become adults who know better. (It should be noted that in the Beverly Hills case, according to NBC News, the superintendent of schools said that the students responsible could face suspension to expulsion, depending on how involved they were in creating and sharing the images.)

Kids need to be better educated, starting in elementary school, about technology and consent before things like this happen. If you think grammar school is too young to learn about such things, remember that these days it’s typical for kids to get their own cellphones at around 11 or 12, and many kids even younger than that have access to a family iPad with image creation and sharing capabilities. As Heitner writes in her book:

“Teach your child the importance of never sharing an explicit message or photograph of another person — especially without that person’s consent. Explain to them that regardless of how they came across the explicit image or message, passing it on to someone else is unethical, perpetuates that person’s violation, and is very likely illegal in their state (especially if the image is of a minor).”

The relevant laws apply most directly to real photos, though. In some states, A.I.-generated nudes exist in more of a legal gray area. There is no federal law that protects victims of deepfakes, and, according to reporting by Tenbarge and Melissa Chan, “Politicians and legal experts say there are few, if any, pathways to recourse for victims of A.I.-generated and deepfake pornography” — almost all of whom are women, according to a 2019 study. School districts and our legal system need to move quickly to come up with policies that deal with these issues, because they are not going away and they are only going to become more pervasive as technology evolves and proliferates.

Heitner also emphasized the importance of getting to the root of this kind of behavior. “We actually need to lean into teaching kids about empathy and respecting one another’s humanity,” she said, and also look at “the misogyny and homophobia in society that seems to be giving these kids license to bully along these very sort of gendered lines and police one another’s bodies.”

I regularly hear from people who say they’re perplexed that young women still feel so disempowered, given the fact that they’re earning the majority of college degrees and doing better than their male counterparts by several metrics. At a certain level, it’s not that complicated: Girls frequently feel less-than because they know that some of their peers have the impression that they’re allowed to be thoughtlessly degrading. And further, they know that a portion of society values them only as objects. They walk through the world with that weight on their shoulders, and it’s up to all of us to help lift it.

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FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — The gunman who killed three people and wounded six others as he fired randomly while roaming his northwestern New Mexico neighborhood was a local high school student and his victims include a 97-year-old woman and her daughter, police said Tuesday.

Investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the attack by Beau Wilson, 18, in the Farmington neighborhood where he lived. They say he opened fire Monday, killing Gwendolyn Schofield, her 73-year-old daughter, Melody Ivie, and 79-year-old Shirley Voita.

Witnesses and police say Wilson walked through the neighborhood a short drive from downtown Farmington spraying bullets until police arrived within minutes and fatally shot him. Two police officers were among the wounded.

“The amount of violence and brutality that these people faced is unconscionable to me,” Deputy Police Chief Kyle Dowdy said. “I don’t care what age you are, I don’t care what else is going on in your life, to kill three innocent elderly women that were just absolutely in no position to defend themselves is always going to be a tragedy.”

Deputy Police Chief Baric Crum said Wilson was indiscriminately shooting at vehicles, but that some rounds also hit homes.

Dowdy said investigators do not believe Wilson knew anyone he shot.

“We’ve discovered nothing that leads us to believe that the suspect knew” the victims, he said. “We’re pretty confident in that this was completely random.”

In November, after he turned 18, Wilson legally purchased at least one gun used Monday, police said. He carried three firearms in the attack, including an assault-style weapon.

Four officers fired a total of 16 rounds at Wilson, including one of the wounded officers, said San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari.

Mayor Nate Duckett said Tuesday that the Farmington officer and state police officer were treated for their wounds and released from a hospital.

Authorities began receiving reports of gunshots at 10:57 a.m. and the first officer arrived at 11:02 a.m., police Chief Steve Hebbe said Monday in a video statement. Three minutes later, the gunman had been killed.

Joseph Robledo, a 32-year-old tree trimmer, said he rushed home after learning that his wife, Jolene, and their year-old daughter had sought shelter in the laundry room when gunshots rang out. A bullet went through his daughter’s window, without hitting anyone.

Jolene Robledo said they had just finished breakfast when she heard “pop, pop, pop, pop,” which she first thought was a car backfiring. She said they were going to run out the back door until she heard a man curse right outside, so she quietly shut the door and hid with her daughter between the washing machine and dryer.

“I mean it was crazy. I called my husband and he could hear the gunshots over the phone,” she said. “He was freaking out and I was like, ‘don’t hang up, don’t hang up!’”

Joseph Robledo said he jumped a fence to get in through the back door. Out front, he found an older woman in the street who had been wounded while driving by. She appeared to have fallen out of her car, which kept rolling without her, he said.

“I went out to see because the lady was just lying in the road, and to figure just what the heck was going on,” Robledo said. He and others began to administer first aid.

Neighbors directed a police officer toward the suspect.

“We were telling (the officer), ‘He’s down there.’ … The cop just went straight into action,” Robledo said.

Robledo’s own family car was perforated with bullets.

“We’ve been doing yard work all last week. I just thank God that nobody was outside in front,” he said. “Obviously, elderly people — he didn’t have no sympathy for them.”

Downtown Farmington, a short drive from the neighborhood, has undergone a transformation of sorts in recent years, with cafes and breweries cropping up alongside decades-old businesses that trade in Native American crafts from silver jewelry to wool weavings.

Nick Akins, a middle school teacher and resident, said it’s a great place to live, with a mix of homes, short-term rental apartments and churches.

“You never think it’s going to happen here, and all of a sudden, in a tiny little town, it comes here,” Akins said.

On Tuesday, orange circles of spray paint still marked the ground where police had collected evidence. Authorities were using metal detectors to search the grass in front of one of the churches along the street where gunfire erupted.

As night approached Monday, dozens of people gathered at Hills Church, a few miles (kilometers) from the attack scene, to pray at the base of a tall metal cross. Lead pastor Matt Mizell talked about living in a “dark and broken world” but told the crowd there was still hope and asked God to provide them strength.

Politicians also weighed in about the attack.

Duckett said in a statement that the shooting “has left us reeling in anguish and disbelief.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement that she was praying for the families of those killed and that it “serves at yet another reminder of how gun violence destroys lives in our state and our country every single day.”

New Mexico enacted a red-flag law in 2020 that can be used to seize guns from people who pose a danger to others or themselves. Dowdy said relatives expressed concern about Wilson’s mental health when interviewed by police but that he didn’t have enough information at this time to further elaborate.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat who represents the area in Congress, said in a Facebook post that “our beautiful Nuevo Mexico is not immune to the mass shootings that occur across the country — Every. Single. Day.”

“I praise the heroes who drove to danger to stop the violence. I pray for the quick recovery of the wounded and for the families of those we lost,” she said.

___

Lee reported from Santa Fe and Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writer Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed.

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Thanks to support from the California State Library, adults can earn an accredited high school diploma with Career Online High School through their public library.

“As everyone’s considering New Year’s resolutions, we encourage them to earn a high school diploma and career certificate for free through their public library,” said Dr. Howard Liebman, Superintendent of Schools, Smart Horizons Career Online Education.

Anyone who is interested should visit CA.CareerOnlineHS.org.

Participating libraries offer the nationally accredited high school program, which includes a 24/7 online classroom, personal academic coaches, and real-world career training.

The following California libraries are offering scholarships for this program:

• Alameda County Library
• Altadena Library District
• Amador County Library
• Azusa City Library
• Banning Library District
• Beaumont Library District
• Blanchard Community Library
• Butte County Library
• Carlsbad City Library
• Chula Vista Public Library
• City of Inglewood Public Library
• Coalinga-Huron Library District
• Colusa County Free Library
• Contra Costa County Library
• Corona Public Library
• Del Norte County Library District
• El Dorado County Library
• Fresno County Public Library
• Hayward Public Library
• Huntington Beach Public Library
• Imperial County Free Library
• Kern County Library
• Kings County Library
• LA County Library
• Livermore Public Library
• Long Beach Public Library
• Los Angeles Public Library
• Marin County Free Library
• Mission Viejo Library
• Monterey County Free Libraries
• Mountain View Public Library
• Napa County Library
• Nevada County Library
• Newport Beach Public Library
• OC Public Libraries
• Oceanside Public Library
• Palm Springs Public Library
• Porterville Library
• Rancho Cucamonga Public Library
• Redwood City Public Library
• Richmond Public Library
• Riverside County Library System
• Sacramento Public Library
• San Bernardino County Library
• San Diego Public Library
• San Francisco Public Library
• San José Public Library
• San Leandro Public Library
• San Mateo County Library
• Santa Ana Public Library
• Santa Barbara Public Library
• Santa Clara City Library
• Santa Clara County Library District
• Santa Cruz Public Library
• Santa Fe Springs City Library
• Santa Monica Public Library
• Simi Valley Public Library
• Solano County Library
• Sonoma County Library
• Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library
• Sunnyvale Public Library
• Tulare County Free Library
• Tulare Public Library
• Ventura County Library
• Victorville City Library
• Woodland Public Library

Career Online High School is part of Smart Horizons Career Online Education, the world’s first private accredited online school district. Visit shcoe.org.

Media Contact: media@shcoe.org

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As we all know during the past year, just about everything worthwhile has been shut down due to the COVID 19 pandemic. And that includes all local Senior Proms for last year and this year coming up.

Adrien, the upcoming genius that he is, decided to do something about it. With the assistance of his girlfriend, Marlene Valesco, he set out on a mission to correct the inconvenience. Believe this: He is producing his own Senior Prom for all local graduates in the past two years.

He reasons, “Why should we be deprived of one of the great blessings of graduation?”

And right he is. After 12 years of El-Hi, the senior prom is the cherry on top of the education that precedes adulthood, higher education and entering the workforce. It is an opportunity to dress and do it up, Vanilla, if you will, including tux, gowns, limos and no curfew. Every kid who manages to rid him or herself of the shackles of childhood and reaching out to the world as an adult. Prom night is the gateway to the future.

“I want to include all the high schools in the local area, Hemet, West Valley, Tahquitz, Academy of Intervention as well as San Jacinto and any I might not think of right now. It is our chance to celebrate and we should have the right to one of the most-remembered nights of our lives.”

What he had in mind soon exploded into something much larger than a backyard experience. He began to scrape and forage for a place to hold his big event and finally called Jesse Vivanco at the Wheelhouse Skate House, which can house several hundred for such an event. “We are nowhere near that number right now, but word is spreading.”

He has created a flyer that gives all the details, a copy of which accompanies this article. The date is Friday, May 21st, from eight to midnight. He is asking $25 per ticket and will probably need financial help. The evening will include music, food, a photo booth, desserts and more.

To say this young man isn’t headed for adulthood the right way would be a misnomer. If famous rock bands can start out in a garage, imagine what his mentality could accomplish as an adult. He is a young man on a mission and should not be ignored. Remember one thing for sure. Young people like him will be running our community one day and we should support them.

He’s seeking donations toward the rental and putting on the event, so this is a good time for some local philanthropies and corporations who like to support good causes to step up for a something worthy of their investment. Anyone interested in helping finance this enterprise can get in touch with this reporter or call the Wheelhouse at 951-334-8782 or Adrien Hanes at 951-350-9474.

This reporter is not in the habit of tooting horns, but this sounds like something someone would like to support.

Just sayin’ rustystrait@gmail.com

Rusty Strait • Senior Reporter

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Spring Baseball is around the corner for High School Athletes

Spring sports are around the corner and you know what that means: baseball season is here. Let’s take a look at how the teams finished last year, and make some way-to-early-but-interesting predictions on how they may place this season. Last year Tahquitz finished at the top of the league with a 17-8-1 record. They outscored their opponents 147 runs to 74. They made it into the playoffs but lost in the first round against Santa Margarita 7-1. Tahquitz graduated six seniors at the end of the season including their catcher and four pitchers. This means that coming into this season they will have an entirely new pitching staff as well as a new catcher. It will be interesting to see how Coach Savage was able to fill those spots and rebuild his roster. Last year Dylan Plutner, Ezra Farmer and Jacob Hyde are the only returning pitchers from last year’s CIF roster. This season’s Tahquitz roster is carrying seven seniors, so there is definitely veteran leadership, especially from Travis Booth who comes from the football team. 

Citrus Hill also made it into the playoffs last year with a 17-11 record, but there glory was short-lived: they had a first round exit against Moreno Valley. They graduated six seniors of their 25 man roster which means they have plenty of new talent on this season’s team. Expect them to be very competitive against the other teams in the league. 

San Jacinto was in third place in the Mountain Pass League with a 15-11 record. They were outscored by their opponents 125-109 and went on a horrendous five game losing streak to close out the season. They only graduated five seniors. Even being third in the league, they still made it into the playoffs, but lost in the first round against Ramona. The Tigers will be aiming to finish the season in the top three again this year. They have their work cut out for them. 

The Bulldogs went 12-13-1 on the season and missed a CIF berth. They only graduated four seniors, so they have virtually the same exact team coming back, but with the addition of four new players. Best case scenario is that the Bulldogs will experience addition by subtraction this season and the four replacement players will come in and play better than the four they lost. Otherwise the Bulldogs are looking at a similar finish as last year hovering around .500. 

West Valley finished their season last year with a 9-13 record, what is odd is they outscored their opponents 107 runs to 83. The runs just didn’t come at the right time. They have a new coach this season and some new faces on the team. They only graduated two seniors last season. This season they will dress nine seniors. 

Beaumont finished the season 9-17 last season, they graduated six seniors. Don’t expect much to change from the Cougars, unless they have a secret weapon they have been hiding in their farm system (JV/Freshman Teams). 

Notable Returning Players According To The Numbers:    Last season’s best hitter, Marty Munoz (Citrus Hills) will return.  He posted a .447 BA on the year. Jacob Mcmillon and Ethan Leonard from Hemet were both top five in home runs last season at 59 & 58 respectively, and they are ready to lead the Bulldogs offense this year. West Valley returns the two leaders in steals from last season Gabe Castro (12) and Issac Sandoval (11). Issac Sandoval is also last year’s strikeout leader (68) and banked in one no hitter. 

Our “Way-to-early-but-intersting”  power rankings:
1-Citrus Hill

2-Tahquitz

3-Hemet

4-San Jacinto

5- West Valley

6- Beaumont

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Mt. San Jacinto College’s School of Nursing and Allied Health hosted its 4th annual Health Occupations Discovery Camp for local high school students on Jan. 7 and 8, 2020, at the college’s Menifee Valley Campus.

More than 200 high school students worked with about 60 MSJC nursing students in hands-on workshops that showcased careers in nursing and allied health. The two-day event was organized by the MSJC School of Nursing and Allied Health and the Inland Health Professions Coalition-Reach Out.

“The camp was designed to inspire the next generation of healthcare professionals,” said Dr. Peter Zografos, director of School of Nursing and Allied Health at MSJC.

The students participated in activities that gave them a taste of careers in healthcare, including registered nurses, nursing assistants, emergency medical technicians, diagnostic medical sonography and other related careers.

Mia Roberts, a senior at Paloma Valley High School in Menifee, is in the biomedical science program at the school.

“It’s so neat to get the hands-on experience,” she said Tuesday. “I was so excited to come here today.”

Christopher Alog, a Paloma Valley High senior, looks forward to a career in nursing.

“My family had told me to consider nursing, so it’s always been in the back of my mind,” said Alog, who is also in Paloma Valley High’s biomedical science program. “Today has been great. It’s totally different hearing the sounds. It’s just so hands-on here.”

Lena Servin, a 2008 MSJC Nursing alumnus, has worked as a flight nurse for REACH Air Medical Services for the past four years. She flew in via the REACH helicopter that students interacted with on Tuesday.

“I love it,” Servin said of the high-flying career. “You get to practice a lot of autonomy. It gives a wider scope of practice than you do in a hospital. But working in an (intensive care unit) is good preparation for taking care of the types of patients we take care of.”

For more information on MSJC’s Nursing and Allied Health program, please visit www.msjc.edu/Nursingandalliedhealth

Mt. San Jacinto College serves about 27,000 students in a district covering 1,700 square miles from the San Gorgonio Pass to Temecula, with campuses in San Jacinto, Menifee, Banning and Temecula.

In May 2019, Mt. San Jacinto College awarded a record-breaking 3,338 degrees and certificates to 1,723 graduates.

Have a wonderful day and please follow MSJC on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about the college at www.msjc.edu.

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SJHS Girls off to a fast start

Soccer season has started for high school boys and girls in the valley and there is a lot to dive into. In the boy’s division competition is stiff. All of the teams in the Mountain Pass League are tied with three wins so far, with the exception of West Valley who only has one win on the season. San Jacinto is leading the way with eleven goals on the season, but that isn’t their only claim to fame: they have also held opposing teams to only four goals so far. That’s the best Goal Scored vs Scored Against ratio in the league. Tahquitz’s soccer team has been great at scoring goals, however, they haven’t been the best at defending: they have scored 15 goals but have had 19 scored against them.

At this point, it looks like San Jacinto is on the fast track to compete in the playoffs. Hemet has a good team with a lot of potential but seems to be struggling on the offensive side of the ball. They’ve only scored eight goals in seven games. Their opponents have scored twelve goals. SJ needs to button up their defense and offense if they want to get back to where they finished last year. Hemet finished last year with 55 goals and only 36 against and made a deep playoff push. 

In the girl’s division, San Jacinto is leading the way with a 7-1 record. They have been blowing by opponents with 39 goals scored already and only nine against. Hemet has a 3-2-1 record and has scored 20 goals against their opponents this season. They have only been scored against eight times. Both teams seem built to make deep playoff runs this year. This is especially true of Hemet who has five very impressive Freshmen on their team. These five young up-and-comers play on the Legends FC club team and just returned from an impressive showing in a tournament held on the East Coast. They will be looking to lead Hemet into the playoffs this season and will be dangerous in the future. They already have the chemistry, trust, and sisterhood that usually takes years to build. 

West Valley and Tahquitz are at the bottom of the girl’s division. Tahquitz has a 0-4 record with only two goals scored and 12 scored against him. West Valley has a 1-7 record they have scored 11 goals but have been scored on 21 times. Last year Tahquitz finished 3rd in the league. It doesn’t look like they will be in that same position when this season is over, but there is a lot of soccer left to play. Stay on the lookout for future updates about the soccer in the valley.

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An old tradition that has been forgotten

I remember growing up the idea of having to complete community service to graduate high school was passed around by classmates. My Mom told me that all of the volunteer work I did at the church we attended counted, and I logged those hours and turned them into my school. When I graduated, I was honored with an award and acknowledged as the “Riverside County Golden Citizen” award. It was cool to know that all of my volunteer work meant something. Come to find out it wasn’t a requirement that I had to do community service, it was more of a suggestion, but I learned a lot from it. Passing out toys to the less fortunate at Christmas time, turkey during Thanksgiving, Community Clean up days where we just walked around the town picking up trash, volunteering in children’s ministries and so much more. They taught me the value of helping people and to always respect where other people come from because not everyone has the same struggle.

Community service requirements date back to the late 70’s various school districts have approached it differently over the years, and nothing has seemed to stick. Is requiring students to complete a certain amount of hours of community service to graduate a dated idea? Or do you think it could be beneficial to our community? In our last Question For The Community, we had an excellent response and conversations with many of you! This will become a bi-weekly article. In between weeks, we will print answers from the community about the previous week’s questions. So don’t be shy, let your opinion be heard. The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle cares about your opinion and would love to print some of the answers if you would like your response printed, please email VCsportsKyle@gmail.com

I think that community service should be a requirement to graduate. However, I feel like the school should regulate it. How would this work? I feel like kids these days would benefit in a two-semester elective course called Life Skills/Community Outreach in semester one they would learn about things like Paying Taxes, How To Register A Vehicle, How To Make A Resume and other things that will help prepare you for life after High School. In semester two, the class will plan and organize a community service project. This project can be big or small. Students will be graded on attendance and participation. I feel like a class like this will help prepare students for life after school and help show them the benefit of giving back to the community. The position of the classes could even be flipped if the school district felt like that was a better idea. Either way, our community and students at the local high schools could benefit from the idea of a community service class.

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