latimes.com - Sandy Banks

Finding a deeper lesson in high school gang rape

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Adults see Richmond High attack as the product of long-simmering immorality, indulgence and insensitivity.

In last Saturday's column, I relied on teenagers at Richmond High to help me understand how gang rape became a spectator sport on their San Francisco Bay area campus. They explained that bystanders who watched the assault on a 15-year-old girl outside their homecoming dance last month may have been too afraid to intervene. Or they didn't feel compelled to help because the victim wasn't in their clique. Or they were simply paralyzed by shock, fixated as if the violent scene was a snippet from a reality TV show.

Plenty of questions but no easy answers in wake of gang rape

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Brutality of the incident at Richmond High is hard to fathom.

The sense of horror seems to be fading at Richmond High -- the Northern California school that made news around the world this week after a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped outside a campus homecoming dance while a crowd of students watched but did nothing to intervene.

Fighting to be a mother again

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

For women trying to get their children out of foster care, it's more than becoming a better parent and kicking drug habits. It's contingent on finding safe, affordable housing.

It took her 15 years -- one stint in prison, several passes through drug rehab, months of weekly parenting classes.

A tough approach to drug-using mothers

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

It was painful to read our stories Sunday about two abused teenagers who died after spending years bouncing around Los Angeles County's child welfare system.

Supporting our military -- with baseballs and blankets

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Jim Hake's Spirit of America nonprofit is bridging the gap between troops and Iraqis and Afghans with wish-list items, giving 'a reason for interaction outside of a hostile encounter.'

When I first met him six years ago, Jim Hake had yet to reconcile his peacenik credentials with his fervent support for our country's newly declared war on Iraq.

Getting insight, but not answers

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Going to Alabama with a baby boomer's need to know my medical legacy and connect the dots of family history.

I flew down south to Montgomery on a mission to download from my elderly aunts decades of family history.

Medical pot proposal erases compassion

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:16:00 -0700

L.A. needs to regulate pot dispensaries, but this plan goes too far.

She didn't know whether she'd have the nerve to speak. But Judy Bowen signed the list and took a seat amid the pot smokers and growers, the lawyers and doctors, the Rastafarians and AIDS patients crowded into the Los Angeles City Council hearing room.

No reward for bad behavior

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Congressman Joe Wilson, tennis star Serena Williams and hip-hop artist Kanye West didn't have a problem running their mouths. But our collective response was heartening.

A week of public hand-wringing may have exhausted readers' interest in the recent displays of boorishness by political, athletic and entertainment figures.

Thoroughly modern milieu

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

After half a century, none of the women in the Current Issues group recalls exactly how it began. Now in their 80s, they relish companionship as much as asking tough questions of guest speakers.

I don't remember much about our first visit, beyond the elegant home in Beverly Hills, the delicious home-cooked lunch and the coterie of elderly women hosting me. They called themselves the Current Issues group, and I was one of the writers, artists, politicians and academics asked to speak at their monthly meetings.

Utopia is a hard sell in Jordan Downs

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Planners' $1-billion vision of a new housing project includes a health spa and stores -- but residents want barred windows too.

Ronald Perkins and his neighbors were nearly outnumbered by the consultants and architects who showed up at the Jordan Downs community center.