Lillian Mongeau

Castleers Dawn McCladdie (left) and Dejai Johnson-Willis

The Castleers are the oldest student singing group in Oakland. They've represented East Oakland's Castlemont High School since 1929 and have performed in places as distant as Jamaica and as elite as the White House lawn. Their next planned stop is South Africa.

But since last autumn, a scheduling change has hobbled the venerable singing program. The choir’s status was changed from a for-credit course that met during school hours to an extra-curricular activity with an after-school meeting time. While this might not pose a problem in a more secure district with after-school buses, in East Oakland it raises serious safety concerns.

“It’s just not safe to have a young man or a young woman walking on the streets alone,” choir director Vallie Towns said. “At night, there’s no way I’d put anyone’s child out on the street.”

“There has been an increase in shootings, there are some open air narcotics markets in that area and there’s some reckless driving,” said Chief Peter Sarna, who heads the Oakland Unified School District’s police department, of the area surrounding the school. “There is a need to be concerned.”

Six Oakland teens have been shot in the neighborhood surrounding the Castlemont campus since the start of the school year. Chris Jones, 17, Jimon Clark, 13, Raymen Justice, 17, and Phillip Wright, 16—were killed. Darnell Barr, 18, of Bay Point was shot in the same neighborhood and became Oakland's first homicide victim of 2011. Aggravated assault is a daily occurrence in the area, and police regularly crack down on narcotics dealers there, according to data available on Oakland.Crimespotting.org. During the first week of 2011 alone, 10 police reports of aggravated assault and 15 of narcotics possession were filed in the neighborhoods surrounding Castlemont, where most of its students live.

Sarna said that despite the violence in the neighborhood, major incidents are rare on the Castlemont campus itself. But getting to and from school is another story. Sarna said students found at school with firearms—something that happened twice during the fall semester—often tell officers, “‘I didn’t bring it because I was afraid at school. I brought it because I was afraid going or coming to school.’”

“That’s got to be scary,” Sarna said. “How can you concentrate when you’re worried while going to school that your life is in danger? No kid should have to deal with that.”

The Castleers’ rehearsal time change was part of a larger scheduling shift at the school. It was unrelated to budget cuts, and was not part of an effort to limit arts classes, said Troy Flint, spokesperson for the school district. Indeed, a beginning choir class is still offered during school hours. But The Castleers are an advanced choir and require auditions, so participation was designated an extracurricular activity and the group was given a 3:45 p.m. meeting time, Flint said.

Lillian Mongeau

Oakland's Castlemont High School

Since then, Towns and the current singers’ parents have refused to hold after-school practices, saying the time conflicts with their performance schedule and that the neighborhood is too dangerous. The choir began meeting on weekends at a nearby church--sopranos in the front pew, baritones in the back. Shortly after those practices started, Towns had to leave work for foot surgery and practice ceased altogether. Between the upheaval and the surgery, she said, “We have lost precious preparation time.” Invitations to perform at Christmas concerts and at Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s inauguration ceremony had to be forfeited.

Castleer Dawn McCladdie, a bouncy sophomore, calls singing an “easy way to let go.” “Everybody has a voice and everybody deserves to be heard,” she said. Nevertheless, getting home from school after hours worries her. Even though the Castleers are temporarily practicing off-campus, McCladdie often stays late at school for her on-campus job, and takes precautions to avoid being in the surrounding neighborhood on her own. She said getting home safely has become even trickier since AC Transit cut bus routes and service frequency over the last year. “The buses run crazy now,” said McCladdie. Sometimes, she said, she has to wait nearly an hour for the right bus.

Flint said he is sympathetic to the students’ safety concerns, and points out that “this is not an issue that’s just facing the Castleers.” Indeed, any student who wants to stay for one of the many after-school programs at Castlemont, from basketball to art club, must find a way to get home safely.

“My parents pick me up or I take the bus with friends,” Maria Muniz, a freshman, said during an after-school art club. Muniz said she feels safe at school and in the surrounding neighborhood during the day. But in the evening, she said, she worries about whether “you’re going to get shot or something.”

Muniz’s art teacher, Tarika Lewis, said East Oakland needs more ways to keep neighborhood kids from turning to violence in the first place. “We just need more things for kids to do,” she said. “More, more, more.”

Imari Lyons, who graduated from Castlemont last year and is now a freshman at Texas Tech, agreed. Home for winter break and sitting in the bleachers of the school’s pennant-bedecked gym, Lyons watched her former teammates vie for the ball during a passing drill. She said high school basketball taught her “how to be a team player, how to be independent and how to be a leader. It taught me so much more than just putting a ball in the hoop.”

Three of Lyons’ friends were killed while she was in high school—all of them were in the wrong place at the wrong time, she said. For some, the path to the wrong place began with losing interest in school and spending increasing amounts of time on the streets. “They just came to school to hang out and never really went to class,” Lyons said.

But good grades are a requirement for participation in The Castleers or court time with the Lady Knights. Coach Duke Lane requires his player to maintain at least a minimum 2.5 G.P.A. and insists on strict safety guidelines for his athletes. They travel home by city bus in groups or get a ride to their front doors. If parents or teammates are not available, the coaches give rides, Lane said.

For Lyons, the safety concerns that came with afternoon practices and evening games were worth it. “I love the sport because it’s like an outlet, my outlet,” she said. “Whenever I’m going through something, I pick up a ball and I let out all my anger—I take it on the court. It’s like a pain reliever, but not medicine, not one of them drugs.”

After-school programs are meant to promote confidence, leadership skills and investment in the school, while helping teens avoid violence. But at Castlemont, it seems that just getting to those activities has meant navigating the same streets the students are intent on avoiding. “There are ways to get home safe in other districts,” art teacher Lewis mused. If only there was the political will in Oakland, she said, maybe the school district could find the money for after-school buses.

Right now, there is no chance of that, Flint said. The district has just cut $120 million from its budget as a result of falling enrollment and drastic cuts to education funding at the state level.

So for now, The Castleers will resume practice weekend mornings at church, hoping it’s enough, while the students who do stay for after-school activities on Castlemont’s campus continue the scramble to find a safe way home.