Compton Residents Divided In Responses to COVID-19 Updates and City Representation
At Jefferson Elementary School in the city of Compton, a child in kindergarten exhibited symptoms of COVID-19. The elementary school parents were not informed about the incident until Arambula Sassie, a Jefferson Elementary parent, warned them about it.
Report on COVID-19 rates for marginalized communities is increasing at numbers twice that of wealthier neighborhoods. Blacks in low-income communities have the highest numbers of deaths, followed by Latinos, according to CAL Matters. The number of coronavirus cases confirmed for the city of Compton is 4,993. Yet, there has not been an absolute number of deaths attributed to the virus.
According to The United States Census Bureau, 21.9% of U.S. citizens in the city of Compton live in poor conditions, a figure more than 9.2% of the nation’s poverty rate, which in many cases lead to a lack of representation and recognition for the community; it’s also increasing the numbers of coronavirus cases.
A community engagement project for the county of Los Angeles was conducted, emphasizing Compton’s city and responses from residents aware and unaware of the severity of the virus during a significant rise in coronavirus cases.
Within the narrative, response techniques got incorporated to expand on people’s voices from the city of Compton. The Cicero Independiente utilized a side-by-side imagery strategy of community engagement to tell its story to the public. The publication incorporated portraits of respondents and quotes within the narrative, one tactic used to generate this story’s responses. However, memes are included instead of the side-by-side depiction. Also, the inclusion of memes will still follow Cicero Independiente’s format.
Although the city of Compton’s website offers information about the novel coronavirus and precautionary measures, infrastructures such as the educational system went against coronavirus protective protocol. Perhaps due to a lack of knowledge about the dangers of the virus on the city’s website.
“If you’re a Jefferson Elementary parent and sent your kid back to school, please have them tested for covid. I was just informed that on Wednesday, a student in kinder (kindergarten) showed symptoms and was sent home along with the rest of the students and teacher,” Sassie said in a Facebook post on the Compton Community News page.
“Parents of the other kids were not informed as to why their child was sent home.”
The importance of listening to the residents’ responses to amplify their voices for media representation posed an obligation for their stories to get told. The responses from the city of Compton varied from complaints, disagreements to agreements – between and from residents. However, many residents also offered solutions to the uninformed public of the novel coronavirus and precautionary measures for the city of Compton.
“I think education is huge,” Stefanny Saldana said. “I’ve noticed even on my block; there are many individuals not wearing a mask. I would appreciate it if people took it more seriously.”
The second community engagement strategy incorporated for this narrative is a Twitter outreach technique, which Los Angeles Times journalist Esmeralda Bermudez utilized to generate a solutional response from individuals within the Latinx community. Bermudez used the social media platform to collect background information from Latinx individuals, mostly first generational, about being raised in a home with immigrant parents, adding more cohesiveness to her narrative.
Although there are two community engagement practices utilized for this particular narrative, both tactics center on generating responses and solutions from the city of Compton to represent the community better.
Christian Duran is a parent of daughters who attend schools in the Compton Unified School District. Duran disagreed with Sassie’s comment about CUSD misinformation concerning COVID-19 protocol and asserted a transparent relationship between parents and teachers at the schools where his daughters attend. However, Duran refused to mention the schools due to safety precautions.
Yet, Nancy Garcia agreed with Sassie’s complaint about parents not receiving the correct information about the dangers of COVID-19 imposed on their children due to a lack of representation and transparency. Garcia is also thankful for no longer having children to worry about in grade school.
Lastly, Soraya Ramirez offered several solutions for the city of Compton and its resident, after Jerry Rios asserted that Mayor Aja Brown is not offering outreach efforts and is giving basic information such as keeping a social distance, washing hands, wearing masks, and sanitizing. Ramirez retorted with the question, “how many of our residents participate in the City Council? How many people attend the weekly Mayor Aja Brown updates about COVID?”
Ramirez does her best to stay informed about news pertaining to the novel coronavirus, and understands that life is complicated during the pandemic. Some people are conflicted with work or family. Ramirez asserted that there are ways of being informed. Yet, some of Compton’s resident choose not to inform themselves; however, complain about issues of misrepresentation and not take steps to make a change.
