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My Neighborhood

Every time February comes around, the kids have to write a little essay about their neighborhood. The essays always shock me, scare me, and make me unspeakably sad. Here are the essays from this year:

"Lamar":
Out side at 12:00 o'clock a person comes and gets a gun out his pocket and shoot in the air. And at 1:00 o'clock in the morning it will be so quiet in my dad's house. Out side it look clean and dirty. I n my room it's so so clean. And my couch smells so grate. In a restawrant the food is delishes."
"Deja":
I here guns popping at night. I here babys crying at night. There little girls outside at night time. Little girls getting raped. I here dogs geting kilt. I here that man geting shot in the back.
"Ashley":
My neighborhood is dirty and it looks like a jungle. My neighborhood sounds like gunshots and fireworks there and sounds like music singing and loud. Sometimes
at everybody neighborhood feels like thunder and rain. My neighborhood is like mean and touf.
"Steven":
My neiborhood smells like smoke, food, and musty armpits. It looks messy, juicy, and dirty. It looks nasty, old, and clean. My neiborhood sounds like gun shots, people yelling and babie crying. It smells like acahol. My neiborhood smells like cigerits and gas from everyone's cars. My neiborhood sounds like people driving and it sound like rain dropping. My neiborhood sounds like people smoking.
"Ruby":
In my neiborhood is a very ungood but the odor smell very stinky like sweaty people, wet dogs, and nast sweaty sock. It sounds like cars going down the street. I don't have any friends in my neiborhood because I just moved in there so people don't really know me. Some people roll their eyes at me.
"Ali":
About My Neighborhood.
Sound: Music, loud.
Smells like: Meat, good, cake, pizza.
Good things: The good thing is that there's a police is watching our apartment
Bad things: They shoot, fight.
"Amani":
This is my neighborhood. People are not very nice. Out by my neighborhood. Boys and girls are getting raped at night. It smells like nasty liquid. I have a neighboor next door, and a huge backyard. It looks nasty because it has bottols an food in the sidewalks are in the streets. I hear guns, fights, car acsidents, barking dog, chrildren. The nebiorhood is not so clean because people dont clean up after their selfs. People usally around my house are getto. When my mon walk out of the house there are a lot of thugs on crack. People are crazy and my house is not really quiet.
"Tatania":
About my neighborhood. They be shooting in my neighborhood. The police be chasing them and they go to jail sometimes. The park smell stank. Some people be
outside looking. I be like can't they run somewere. I be like how can they stay outside.
"Kobe":
My neighborhood is not nice. First time my friend got raped and people die and have heart atak. I want everything to change. And my mom got diabetes and I want it to go away and I want the nieghbohood to change. Then all kids always get raped and killed and I want that to change to.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi there,
Thanks for posting these heart breaking essays. I'm quite familiar with East Oakland and live in central/east oakland. What neighborhoods are these kids writing about? thanks.
Bronwyn said…
Near international and 66th.

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