West Side Recorder Volume 5 No 9

              WEST SIDE RECORDER
Volume 5—Number 9
Monthly Newspaper of the West Side, Denver, Colorado
March,  1969
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS
FOR THIS ISSUE OF
THE WEST SIDE RECORDER
Catholic Archdiocese
of Denver $200
Colorado Printers    10
First Avenue Presbyterian
Church         10
First Bethany Lutheran
Church         10
First Mennonite
Church        10
Inner City Parish     10
Theresa Jacinto       5
James L. Meier       5
St. Elizabeth's
Catholic Church ... 10
St. Joseph's
Catholic Church __ 10
Wesley United
Methodist Church 10
And a special  thank-you
to Adolph Coors Co.
City Promise Down the Drain
Plug Pulled on Pool
Teen Council Started
At Action Center
The latest thing for teen-agers on the West Side is the
West Side Teen Council which
has its headquarters in the West
Side Action Center. It has been
started in the last month.
The Teen Council will work
on teen-age education, employment, recreation, and crime on
the West Side. Money and technical assistance will be made
available through the federal
government.
All West Side teen-agers are
invited to join the Council as
soon as possible. Joe Soriano
and Larry Gonzalez at the West
Side Action Center, 534-5141.
Method Used To Accuse Teacher
Leads to W.H.S. Faculty Protest
Some time ago a West High School social studies teacher was
asked by a class member why some students do better than others in school.
According to the teacher, Harry B. Shafer, his answer was that
it depended on the intelligence of the student, his parents and
grandparents, on his home life, on whether he wanted to learn
and how interested he was.
BULLETIN APPEAL
The West Side Action Ministry, in its review of the situation at West High School,
encourages the school administration to re-open the
case for further discussion.
The Minstry also believes the
community should be given
a voice in working out the
problems.
Free Classes Open
At St. Elizabeth's
Enrollment is still open for
the spring semester adult education classes at St. Elizabeth's School, 1020 llth St.
An adult education program
without any fees, the classes
are available to any person 18
years old or older, regardless
of  educational  background.
Classes are held from 9:30 to
11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday and from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Daytime classes with openings include Monday—reading
nesday — English grammar,
reading, and typing; Tuesday—
mathematics and reading; Wednesday—English gra m m a r,
reading in social studies, and
typing, and Thursday—mathematics. The typing classes are
available to those who have
passed their GED.
Evening classes, in which the
spring enrollment has reached
193 persons, include on Tuesday — mathematics, English
grammar, English as a second
language, typing, and Great
Books discussions. Thursday
evening classes are reading
comprehension in literature,
science and social studies, typing and shorthand, and English
as a second language.
Enrollment is always open
in all classes.
Interested persons may call
255-7759 between 9 a.m. and
noon daily. Rose Marie Fearn is
coordinator of the program.
Mr. Shafer, who was born on
the West Side and graduated
from West High School, has
taught there for 43 years. The
main course he teaches is "Social Problems."
In his course, Mr. Shafer has
discussed the good and bad of
situations as he sees them. He
has said that anyone thinking
about joining a group should
look it over carefully first, and
find out its purposes and principles and decide whether he
wants to support them. One
example of this, Mr. Shafer has
said, is the Crusade for Justice.
Some weeks ago a student
teacher under Mr. Shafer's supervision made arrangements,
unknown to him, for members
of the Crusade for Justice to
speak to the Social Problems
class.
ALTHOUGH OUTSIDERS are
not usually permitted to enter a teacher's class without
invitation from the teacher, the
Crusaders were allowed to
speak. After class the question
about why some students learn
better than others was asked of
Mr. Shafer again. He gave the
same answer he had given earlier.
All of this blew up Feb. 27 in
the face of Mr. Shafer and
members of the administration
of both West High and the
main school offices down town.
In a meeting requested by
Edgar Benton of the Denver city
school board on the complaint
of Corky Gonzales, leader of the
Crusade for Justice, Mr. Gonzales accused Mr. Shafer of racism and of saying that Mexican students do not learn as
well as non-Mexican students.
Mr. Gonzales indicated he has
had reports from two students
to this effect.
THOSE PRESENT at the
meeting, set up by request
from Mr. Benton to the city
school administration to the
West High administration, were
the following:
Mr. Benton and Mr. Gonzales; Howard Johnson, deputy
superintendent of Denver Pub-
(Cont on Page 3)
Grape  Boycott
Leader Living
On West Side
Mrs. Alfredo Herrera of 361
Elati St. is the coordinator for
Denver and Colorado efforts to
boycott the sale of California
grapes in support of a strike
by California grape pickers.
They are trying to win union
rights, better working conditions and protective laws for
farm workers.
West Siders and all other
Denver residents are asked to
boycott all purchases in Safeway stores in particular because
Safeway is the largest buyer
of California table grapes for
retail sales and for wholesale
to other grocers.
IT IS FELT that a widespread protest over several
states against the purchase and
sale of grapes by the largest
food store chain in the West
would affect all its sales to the
point where Safeway would
help put pressure on grape
growers.
Mrs. Herrera said no grocery
chains in the Denver area have
cooperated with the request not
to display or sell fresh table
grapes since Feb. 1. Some Associated Grocers stores have cooperated, she said.
IN DETROIT, BOSTON and
other cities, all major food store
chains have refused to handle
table grapes for several months.
During part of this period Safeway stores in Denver sold California grapes under an Arkan-
(Cont. on Page 3)
God Lives!
The most important event in the Christian faith will be
celebrated in West Side churches as everywhere else in the
free world in the next two weeks.
The betrayal, torture and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His
triumph over death and sin will be remembered and studied.
There wiU be special services on Palm Sunday, March 30, on
Maundy Thursday, April 3, on Good Friday, April 4 and on
Easter Sunday, AprU 6.
All West Siders are welcome to join in these services. In
addition to the events listed here there will be services ln other
West Side churches from which no announcement was received for publication.
(See Holy Week Calendar on Page 2.)
Supper Saturday for Team
The City Parks and Recreation Department has decided
NOT to keep its promise to the West Side to fix up Lincoln
Park Pool this year.
Joe Ciancio, Department director, sent two representatives to a West Side residents' meeting at Auraria Community Center Feb. 20 to tell the 75 persons present that it
would take too long to reseal the pool against leaks and that
therefore it cannot be repaired and a water heater and filter
cannot be installed.
A representative of Mr. Cianco said at a public meeting
last August the pool would be fixed before this summer.
 When  West  Siders    at    the
meeting last month told the city
officials that they would rather
have the pool closed part or all
of next summer in order to have
it fixed, the request still was rejected.
THERE    ARE    ONLY    two
pools in Denver which are
not sealed and heated—Lincoln
Park and Curtis Park, both in
areas where most of the residents are low-income Hispanos
or black.
Representing the Parks and
Recreation Department at the
February meeting was Charles
D. Lind, director of recreation,
and James Adams, recreation
supervisor. Carlos Padilla of
1312 Mariposa St., chairman of
the resident group trying to get
the park pool improved for this
year, presided.
A list of recommendations
for Lincoln Park improvement
had been sent to the Department before the meeting. The
two representatives were asked to discuss each item on the
list.
MR. LIND  SAID    t h a t no
change or improvements will
be made in Lincoln Park
facilities for 1969 because the
budget is too limited. However,
he said the program will be inu
proved and will be carried out
in cooperation with RFK Community Center at 500 Kalamath
St. Elston Bower, director of
the RFK Center, will be in full
charge of both the center activities and the park program. Other RFK staff members and
Youth Corps Volunteers will be
used in the summer programs,
Mr. Lind said.
In addition, qualified neighborhood youth will be employed
on three levels, from $1.62 an
hour to about $1.90 an hour.
Minimum ages will be 16 years
for the first level, 17 for the
second, and 18 for the third.
Swimming ability will be necessary for levels two and three,
with training available this
spring at the Y.M.C.A.
THE TOTAL  PROGRAM as
outlined by Mr. Lind falls far
short of the residents' requests
which they felt were reasonable
and needed. Residents continued the discussion after the Department representatives left.
Mr. Padilla said he had heard
nothing new during the evening
and would do all he could to
lead   further action.
All West Siders are asked to
help in the continued effort to
get necessary improvements in
the Lincoln Park program and
facilities. Interested persons
should get in touch with Mr.
Padilla.
Improvements Set
For Daley Park?
Residents in the area around
Daley Park, located just south
of Hirschfeld Towers on West
Ellsworth Ave., have been promised by the City of Denver that
the park will be fixed up and
will have new equipment this
spring.
Joe Ciancio, director of Denver Parks and Recreation, said
there will be new plantings and
new play items for children. He
said more work will be done
each year until Daley Park
again is as beautiful and useful
as in years past.
The park has been badly damaged by vandals in recent years.
Children from the three Head
Start programs in the southern part of the West Side and
from the kindergarten classes
at Fairmont School especially
need the use of the park as it
is conveniently located for
them.
Persons living near the park
are asked to report any further
damage to the police. Mr. Ciancio also said nearby residents
could help by keeping the park
area cleaned and tidied up.
THE PARISH BRUINS from Inner City Parish finished in fifth
place this year, just a few months after they were first organized.
Coach Randy Berg and the players worked together to make a good
showing all season. The team is still playing although not in a
league.
This Saturday night, March 22, there will be a supper at Inner
City Parish for the Bruins and their wives or girl friends.
Art Show Sunday
Art work by children of the
First Mennonite Church will be
displayed in a special show
Sunday, March 23, from 3 to
5 p.m. in the Youth Center at
430 West Ninth Ave. The public
is invited.