Category: Education

by Scott Hopkins / Times of San Diego / October 28, 2025

Point Loma High School‘s football team will be playing to make dreams come true at home on Oct. 31 against Eastern League foe St. Augustine.

One of those dreams is to finish the regular season undefeated as the Pointers enter the game with a 9-0 record and first place in the league at 4-0.

The St. Augustine Saints are in second place at 4-5 and 3-1. But Point Loma scored 101 more points and gave up 109 fewer than the private school.

The Pointers last finished the regular season undefeated in 2005 under longtime coach Mike Hastings. That team went on to the California Interscholastic Federation championship, where it lost, coincidentally to the Saints and finished 12-1.

Another dream is to receive a high seed in CIF Division I playoffs when pairings are announced on Nov. 1. Highest seeds receive a coveted first-round bye and home games against every lower-seeded team.

These dreams, if realized, would lead to a third dream – the team’s first CIF championship since Bennie Edens guided his 1991 team to the title.

From San Diego 350

Young people called on lawmakers, including SD Council President LaCava, to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act to protect schools and communities.

On Friday, October 24, over 1,000 students from 19 schools across San Diego and thousands from 50 California middle schools, high schools, and colleges walked out of class in a coordinated statewide action demanding that oil and gas companies be held accountable for the damage caused by their pollution.

Organized by youth climate groups and advocacy organizations including Youth v. Oil and SanDiego350 in partnership with the Make Polluters Pay campaign, the walkouts spanned San Diego County — with major events at Hilltop High School, Pacific Beach Middle School, University City High School, Eastlake High School, La Jolla High School, and Otay Ranch High School.

“Californians are already reeling from wildfires, floods, and extreme heat. We’re taking to the streets to demand passage of the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act to send a clear message that we won’t let Big Oil continue to destroy our futures,” said Diego Sandoval, senior at Eastlake HS in Chula Vista.

From SanDiego350

Students will call on lawmakers to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act to protect schools and communities, to force Big Oil to pay for climate damages.

San Diego students, including those at Point Loma High, will join others at 50 schools across California will walk out of classrooms to fight for their future. Youth are calling on decision-makers to hold polluters accountable for the climate damages they’ve caused. This statewide day of action, co-organized by Youth v. Oil, a part of SanDiego350, will bring thousands of students together to call for lawmakers to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act — sending a clear message that California’s young people refuse to let Big Oil write the rules of their future.

19 Middle schools, high schools, and colleges across San Diego 50 across the state, with major hubs at:

“I’m not 14 years old anymore, and her music will be a lot better when she realizes she isn’t either.”

By Milla Kuiper / The Point – PL Nazarene University / Oct 21, 2025

Taylor Swift, to me, used to represent the idea that womanhood could be both glamorous and innocent. Her lyrics were whimsical and clever, the music was fun and my juvenile voice could keep up with hers.

But I’m not 14 years old anymore, and her music will be a lot better when she realizes she isn’t either.

Listening to “The Life of a Showgirl” feels like watching a teenager stand in front of her parents with her arms crossed and a hip popped, saying, “What’re you gonna do about it?”

This would be entertaining if it were Swift’s first stunt like this, if the music was good, and if she weren’t 35 years old.

She already did the “This is who I am now, mom,” thing with “reputation,” and back then, it mostly worked. But “reputation” was feisty, and every song was unique enough to be memorable. Not so with “The Life of a Showgirl.”

My first complaint is that I think the songs are boring, unmemorable, sad-girl pop. The album is called “The Life of a Showgirl,” but there is no hint of the loud, brassy burlesque music characteristic of the New York City showgirl scene in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s.

By News Writing Staff / The Guardian – UCSD / Oct 6, 2025

UC San Diego’s administration sent personally identifiable information of UCSD faculty, staff, and students to the University of California Office of the President, which sent said information to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. This comes following a request from the OCR in its investigation into the UC’s handling of discrimination and harassment claims, especially in regard to antisemitism. UCSD and UCOP have not indicated whose information was divulged, nor when it was shared. As of Oct. 5, UCSD officials have not notified the individuals affected.

All the individuals are connected with the University, but their exact affiliations remain unclear. However, the Faculty Defense Group told The UCSD Guardian in early September that all the individuals had some relation to “complaints of harassment and discrimination.” On Sept. 18, The Guardian received confirmation that federal investigators have acquired names. No other details can be identified at this time.

By Bradley Granieri / The Point – PL Nazarene University / Oct 8, 2025

Having a fantasy football team isn’t all that fun. But watching that team beat somebody else’s is thrilling.

I didn’t start playing fantasy football because I loved watching the NFL. Four seasons ago, I barely watched football. I said “yes” to joining a league because I was bored, and figured doing so would give me something mildly interesting to do in math class. But when the next season rolled around, I agreed again.

“It’s a fun thing to talk to your friends about, even though I don’t really care about football,” Kate Walter, a third-year applied health major, said.

Just like Walter, I don’t care all that much about the NFL, but I still sign up because it’s what happens off the field that makes fantasy football truly matter. It’s the community and competition that comes from it that keeps me coming back year after year.

When I started my first fantasy football team four years ago, I didn’t know how anything worked. I was a rookie, but I quickly learned the basics in a trial-by-fire period of just a few short weeks. What I learned was that fantasy football put me, the “coach,” in control of a virtual team composed of real NFL players who play against other virtual teams.

By Danna Givot

The City is planning to increase the College Area’s zoning to allow 34,150 (2050) versus 8200 housing units on the ground in 2024 – a 316% increase. That’s crazy when SANDAG estimates the entire city of San Diego will increase housing by 107,778 units between 2023 and 2050.

Why should the College Area be upzoned to provide almost one quarter of the City’s new housing between now and 2050? It shouldn’t!

In 2020, the College Area housed only 1.8% of the City’s people and accounted for less than 1% of San Diego’s acreage, so why would it be upzoned to accommodate 24% of the new housing in San Diego. It makes no sense.

Let’s look at what other recent community plan updates have upzoned their community planning areas for and compare them to what is being asked of the College Area.

Mira Mesa, University, Hillcrest/Uptown and Clairemont have three or more times the existing housing and their community plans are only increasing their housing density by 98% on average, while the College Area is being hammered with a 316% increase. What could justify this?

By Sydney Brammer / LomaBeat  / Sep 12, 2025
 
Following the tragic accident of Point Loma Nazarene University student, Dakota Briley, an auction with over 300 items, including hotel stays to surfboards signed by professional surfers, went through Monday, Sept. 15, to raise money for his rehabilitation funds.

Nearly three months ago, Briley was hit by an 18-year-old driver while on the side of the road in Haleiwa, HI. Crushed between two cars, Briley’s spine, skull and lower body were critically injured.

After spending 58 days in the Queens Medical Center in downtown Honolulu, mostly in a coma, Briley was transferred to Craig Hospital in Colorado, where they believe his rehabilitation needs will be better met, said Erin Lau, his sister.

Since the accident, Briley has awakened from his coma, undergone 11 surgeries, can hold conversations,

by Ernie McCray

Today there’s a move,
spearheaded
by a dictator-like-president,
to hide truths
in our schools,
an idea beyond ridiculous
since truths
are basic
to learning,
something made clear to me
when I began teaching sixth grade
in the 60’s,
at a school
where many of the students
lived in naval housing,
their dads off fighting in Vietnam,
leaving them to wonder what was really going on,

by Mike McCarthy / Times of San Diego / Sept. 17, 2025

Point Loma High celebrated its centennial with a gala on Sept. 13, marking a major milestone for the school’s long and decorated history. More than a thousand alumni and guests gathered at the Port Pavilion on the Broadway Pier for the festive event.

Several older alumni were given special recognition, including Eileen Finley McCarthy, who was presented as the school’s oldest living alumna. She will turn 104 on Oct. 25.

McCarthy was born in 1921 and raised in Point Loma. Her parents and older brother immigrated from Canada and settled in Ocean Beach in 1918. McCarthy’s early life was dedicated to dance and the performing arts. Attending public school was usually not an option at that time. The opportunity to be at Point Loma High “for two wonderful years (1935-37), was one of the best times of my life,” she said.

As a young girl and then a teenager, McCarthy was well-known in San Diego as an actress on the radio.  During the Depression, this type of work was well-received and well-paid. The money was used to pay for her expenses as a ballerina, her first and real love. McCarthy was also the principal dancer for the San Diego Starlight Ballet.

By Gillian Mohney / SFGate / Sep 15, 2025 

Officials at UC Berkeley have sent over a hundred names of students and staff to federal officials, who are looking into allegations of antisemitism as part of an ongoing federal investigation.

The names of 160 students, faculty and staff were sent to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after the office demanded documents related to complaints of antisemitism and discrimination at the university.

[See below for “Backlash”]

“The UC systemwide Office of the General Counsel (OGC), in compliance with its legal obligations to cooperate with the agency, directed UC Berkeley to provide those documents to the federal agency,” Janet Gilmore, the senior director of strategic communications at UC Berkeley, said in an emailed statement. “Numerous documents were provided over recent months to OCR, including the names of individuals in those reports.”

Gilmore added that the individuals were notified last week if they were named in the documents sent to the federal investigators.

By Jan Hintzman / Special to the OB Rag

In our community’s relentless nine-year struggle to restore access to the College-Rolando Branch Library, we are no stranger to city two-facedness. Our case was strong. When opportunities arose, the City needed to recover necessary library parking. The opportunities arose, but the city did not rise to help us!

The City had built generous library parking on part of the church property next door. In the deal, the City made a formal commitment to our community to purchase that property for a park, should it come up for sale, given that our older communities were built without public amenities.

The library was our jewel, the only major city investment on the horizon. And it came with promises for more. But instead of more, we got less. The property was in fact offered for sale to the City, and the City refused to purchase it.

Thus, the library lost its main driveway and most of its parking….and an astute investor scooped up the opportunity.  His plan was to convert the property, having a land use potential of Low/Medium Residential and General Commercial with Residential, into a profitable student housing project.  And ultimately he did, with the cooperation of the city and at the expense of the library.