Prose Exercise #7 - Rio Americano High School

I have searched all over the net looking for a picture of my high school, Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, CA. This was the closest thing I could find, some construction work going on in the track behind the school. But it looks like the school to me. The gyms in the background, at the time, the big gym was the Boy's Gym and the smaller one of the left was the Girl's Gym. The fenced area behind the truck was the outdoor swimming pool. The flat land, the bright light, some trees in the background.

Amazing that I have never kept up with that school, my view at that time was when I graduated, I was GONE, I did not look back. Quite a long while ago, 37 years (we were the class of 1970). Dennis and I visited back 12 years ago in 1995, we kind of did a heritage tour with our (much younger) children. We were shocked at the school's appearance, Prop 13 and other funding reductions had really done damage. The neighborhood around the school was even more upscale but the school itself was in very poor shape. Graffiti all around, kicked in lockers, plants all dead, the sign out front was damaged. It was a new school when I attended there, just finished, bright and shiny. Our school district here in Seattle is more community based, always passes its levies, the people in the community would be incensed to have their schools look that way.

Interesting to compare this school to our local high school, Shorecrest in Shoreline, WA just north of the Seattle city limit. It started the exact same year, 1963. We've been parents at this school since 1996; 11 years, two more years left to go. In some ways, it seemed very much like Rio but the more I participated, it was clear that it was quite different. But I don't know if it was the time and place when I experienced it in the late sixties that made the difference or if they are significantly different. Is Rio now more like Shorecrest now?

When I was at Rio it was probably 98% white, maybe a very few latino or asian kids. Very few. Black kids were to be excluded or to be treated with condescension.

Now
Rio Shorecrest
Total enrollment 1800 1500
% white 77% 70%
% black 4% 6%
% latino 6% 4%
% asian 9% 17%

So Rio is a whiter than Shorecrest but much more diverse than it was 40 years ago. Many more asian students at Shorecrest, which was why it seemed like the right place for my asian kids.

I am sure this is colored by my lens of adolescent disaffection, but it seems like Shorecrest has a lot more 'heart', there's a lot of ways to fit in there, a lot more options to experience a valid high school experience. My memories of Rio was that it was stilted and rigid, there were only a few ways you could measure up and you probably didn't and there really wasn't any other option other than to be a rebel, a non-conformist, to be set apart.

I'm sure that there are kids at Shorecrest that don't 'fit in', I'm sure of it. But if you merely have a different style or interests or goals, no big deal, there's a place for you here.

Is Rio Americano like that now?