Twelve Years Gone, Remembering Melody Ross

+ Twelve Years Gone, Remembering Melody Ross

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Editorial

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who would?No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report.

LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. Support independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.

(Oct. 30, 2021, 11:15 a.m.) -- Twelve years ago tonight (Oct. 30) Wilson High Honor Student Melody Ross, age 16, was attending her school's "homecoming" celebration.

As she stood in a crowd on the street alongside the school, she was killed by a gangmember's gunfire aimed at someone else.

Today Ms. Ross might be a Ph.D, perhaps married with children. Instead, she lies in her grave while her killer received what Ms. Ross was denied: a high school diploma (in prison.)

A court sentenced and resentenced the shooter to 130 years in prison but because he was a juvenile at the time of the killing, he'll be eligible for parole a few years from now.

Twelve years ago, a candlelight vigil was held for Ms. Ross.

A Facebook page initially surfaced in her memory but it appears to have drawn little recent traffic.

An annual scholarship/award was created in Ms. Ross' name, a beautiful act we hope still continues, but we couldn't find any mention of it or other ceremonies on Wilson High's website to mark the anniversary of Ms. Ross' death.

Twelve years after the gang member ended Ms. Ross' life, LBUSD's incumbent School Boardmembers haven't seriously prioritized ridding their campuses and the neighborhoods from a continuing gang presence.

[Scroll down for further.]

Just days ago, the Washington Middle School neighborhood had another shooting -- a homicide -- about a block of north of campus (CD 1/Zendejas, LBREPORT.com coverage here.)

What message does it send students and parents when they see elected School Board members and Councilmembers (the latter charged with public safety in surrounding neighborhoods) have visibly failed to protect them from gang violence? Gang impacted campuses and nearby neighborhoods get police sirens, helicopters above, crime scene tape and blocked streets, while students in more affluent parts of LB safely walk to their neighborhood library or attend school events. They can focus on their school work in ways students across town can't, beset by continuing threats to their safety.

In 2006, a Cabrillo student was shot to death just outside the school. In 2015, Cabrillo High student Keshawn Brooks, 15 (not a gang member) was stabbed to death in a gang-related robbery as he walked home from school. In 2019, video documented a gang-related beating just outside Poly High, symptomatic of gang activity about which Poly High parents had complained for years.

It's overdue for some reform minded LBUSD school board candidate(s) to make this an issue in LBUSD 2022 elections in which three incumbents -- Benitez, Kerr and Craighead -- are up for re-election.

Over at City Hall, a former LB City Council that included then-Vice Mayor/CD1 Councilman Robert Garcia infamously defunded LBPD's former field anti-gang unit, which now-Mayor Garcia hasn't recommended restoring and Council incumbents -- five up for re-reelection in 2022 -- haven't changed.

Has the criminal justice system improved? The shooter (age 16 at the time of the shooting) was tried as an adult, but current LA County DA George Gascón refuses to charge most juveniles as adults. CA voters passed Prop 57 (2016) letting juvenile court judges decide if those aged fourteen and above should be prosecuted and sentenced as adults (prosecutors previously had sole authority to decide.) The shooter was convicted with two gang enhancements, but Sacramento lawmakers just passed a law making this more difficult (LBREPORT.com coverage here.

What do you suppose Melody Ross would recommend if she could speak now?

LBREPORT.com hasn't forgotten Ms. Ross, and we will not remain silent as others pursue policies we consider misguided and deserve correction at the ballot box.

Opinions expressed by LBREPORT.com, our contributors and/or our readers are not necessarily those of our advertisers. We welcome our readers' comments/opinions 24/7 via Disqus, Facebook and moderate length letters and longer-form op-ed pieces submitted to us at mail@LBReport.com.

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Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.

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