Riots and Kidneys

Luckily the riots that I am referring to have nothing to do with Richmond High. On Friday the big news was the court's ruling for the subway officer who shot and killed a black man at a station about a mile down the road from our apartment in Oakland. The man's sentence was two years in prison, which leaves only 7 months remaining, since the event happened January 2009. Considering the history in Oakland of the relationship between law enforcement and black citizens, it was no surprise to come home on Friday to six helicopters with searchlights flying overhead. Things didn't get too crazy, but since we live close enough to downtown Oakland, we were able to see the hundreds of protesters a block away, and we were witness to the whole jumping on cars routine. Mob mentality is a scary thing.

Ignorance is a scary thing too. I have multiple times now talked about the poor nutrition that my students get, both at school and at home, but it never crossed my mind that I would have to be the one to tell my students the importance of drinking water. I just figured that when people get thirsty, what sounds better than a glass of water? I found out this weekend however, that one of my students got sent to the hospital on Friday for what turned out to be kidney failure. And you know why her kidneys failed? Because she does not drink water at all. Literally the only thing that she drinks is Arizona Iced Tea. The ignorance of these kids in being able to connect their bodily functions to the very things they put into their body is utterly mind-blowing. I have an entirely new take on the term "common knowledge."