TimesOC: Writing to erase the stigma of mental illness
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Good morning and welcome to the TimesOC newsletter.
It’s Wednesday, April 6. I’m Ben Brazil, bringing you the latest roundup of Orange County news and events.
This week I’d like to highlight a story from my colleague Matt Szabo about an Orange County math teacher who juggled having a mental illness with being an educator for decades.
Mental illness has played a role in Dr. Kimberly Powers’ life since she was very young. During an interview with Szabo, she recounted her mother’s erratic behavior as she struggled with bipolar disorder. Her mother went untreated and eventually killed herself by jumping off of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1973. Powers was just 12 years old at the time.
Powers described how nobody addressed the trauma she and her sisters endured.
“No one talked to us,” Powers told Szabo. “There wasn’t a funeral because they thought a funeral was inappropriate for someone who committed suicide. There was this shame around her death. We grew up thinking, ‘We can’t be like our mom.’”
Powers was later diagnosed with the same disease her mother suffered from, but she learned to manage it in a healthy manner with medication, a good support system and diet and exercise. Since 1999, she has taught math at Marina High and she recently self-published her first book: “Jumping Is Not Genetic,” a collection of essays on her family history and dealing with mental illness.
Powers, who is retiring from teaching, is hoping that her book will help shed light on mental illness and erase the stigma associated with it.
“I’ve been a teacher for 36 years, I raised a family, I have a home,” she said. “I hate to say I have a normal life, because normal’s just a setting on the dryer. But it’s a life that’s productive. It’s not a tragic life.”
MORE NEWS
A Costa Mesa children’s camp is embroiled in controversy. For years, Camp Lila has provided arts lessons to children ages 3 to 8. But now, the camp is in a battle for its future. It isn’t clear whether the camp is compliant with Costa Mesa’s municipal code or operating as an illegal day care without proper permits, wrote reporter Sara Cardine. Further complicating the issue, several cannabis retailers have submitted applications to operate at nearby sites. However, dispensaries may not operate within 1,000 feet of child day care centers.
More than 2,500 marijuana plants were seized and a suspect arrested this week after Costa Mesa police detectives conducted a search of an illegal marijuana cultivation site. Although the city allows permitted retail cannabis businesses, it is still illegal to grow marijuana in the city. A HazMat response team from Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue was on scene due to the volatility of some of the chemicals used in the marijuana growing operation.
The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the death of a 35-year-old man who was fatally injured during an altercation with Santa Ana police. Authorities have yet to release much information on the altercation or what injuries he sustained during the incident. The officers were equipped with body-worn cameras, but it isn’t yet known whether they were turned on. According to police, the man was breaking windows and attacking security guards before police arrived on the scene.
After running some errands this weekend, a Costa Mesa man returned to his home to find that a fire had engulfed his house. Firefighters believe that the fire started in an upstairs bedroom. Luckily, nobody was home at the time and a neighbor called the authorities.
LIFE AND LEISURE
When Costa Mesa resident Bonnie Matthews’ art is displayed in John Wayne Airport later this month, she hopes that it will spread a message about the importance of environmental stewardship. The piece is a wood panel cut into the shape of a whale, with scenes depicting beach cleanups within the body of the animal. The work, titled “Set in Motion, a Change for the Ocean,” was commissioned by Mesa Water District and is being hung up in the airport for Earth Month.
Community members took to the beach this week to honor the life of Taylor Hawkins, a rock music legend who grew up in Laguna Beach. Music fans held a drum circle at Aliso Beach in remembrance of the Foo Fighters drummer who died at age 50 on March 25. “To see the community support and that he really had such an impact on so many people in Laguna and all over the world is amazing,” said Chris Davison, who considered Hawkins a family friend.
Josephine “Josie” Sim has been around for a while. The 106-year-old remembers when hotels were cheap and, like all centenarians, she remembers the wars. In particular, she and her late husband, then tavern owners in Pennsylvania, held a party for every local young man who returned from overseas during World War II. She also remembers those who didn’t return, like the two cousins who were lost on the battlefront. Check out the story from my colleague Lilly Nguyen.
Love Costa Mesa has evolved from an annual event into a movement where volunteers find neighbors in need and provide a manual labor project for them. The year-round program is run by people with a variety of skills including landscaping, painting, construction and plumbing. Once a month, they provide a service for somebody in the community to continue “growing the neighboring culture in the city of Costa Mesa.”
SPORTS
Bill Sumner, the longtime Corona del Mar High School track and cross-country coach, is humbled by the school’s move to rename a track field after him. Sumner has been on the campus for about four decades, but he still doesn’t understand why anybody would want to name anything after him. “I guess I’ve been around long enough,” Sumner said. “I don’t remember doing anything that would make me that person. I do one day at a time. I do as much as I can a day. I wake up at 5 in the morning every day and I enjoy it. Coaching’s better than working.”
Since Tyler Wade was traded to the Angels in November, he has been enjoying his time playing on the team he grew up rooting for. Wade will likely also have more playing time in the upcoming season than in past years, wrote reporter Mike Digiovanna. While he may not be a full-time starter, he fits into the strategy that manager Joe Maddon tends to favor — on-base ability, aggressive baserunning and situational hitting.
Corona del Mar High School’s Caroline Glessing and Jason Plumb recently claimed long jump titles in the Orange County track and field championships. My colleague Andrew Turner profiled the two high school athletes and their hunger for perfection in sports and academics.
What’s the Shohei Ohtani rule? This week, reporter Bill Shaikin wrote about how the rule came to be and how it benefits fans. “This is a fan-friendly rule because who doesn’t want to see Ohtani bat more often,” wrote Shaikin. “But it also restores a measure of fairness: Why should Ohtani and the Angels be penalized because of his unique skill? Why should they be forced to limit how long he can hit because of how long he can pitch?”
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