Teen going green

I spent a day off from The Bee last Friday on a freelance assignment for Scholastic News, you know that little newspaper we used to look at as kids in school. I drove down to Bakersfield to photograph a teenager who helped organize an awareness campaign about a scrap metal plant polluting the environment when he lived in Oakland. Heavy metals in the air caused major problems with his asthma. He led a press conference that drew attention from local media and city council members and got the place cleaned up. Juan even ended up in Newsweek for his efforts. What’s even better for Juan is that his move has helped him turn the corner on his original problem – getting mixed up in gangs. My son reads Scholastic News in his sixth grade class so I’ll be interested to see how he tests on that quiz.