Long Beach's Freedom Writers 20 Years Later – Where Are They?

Sue Ellen Alpizar wiped away tears as she talked about the darkest days of her teenage years in Long Beach. That was 20 years ago, but she remembered her suffering like it was yesterday.

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“My father was an alcoholic and my parents finally divorced,” she told me last week. “My brother died of a rare disease. My home life was tumultuous. For a while, I was homeless and lived in a camper at a gas station.”

Her confidence and self-esteem plummeted at Wilson High School. “Some of the teachers called me lazy and stupid,” she said. “I was told I was not college material and shouldn’t even think about it. I was just trying to survive each day. There were times I felt suicidal.”

But a remarkable transformation took place when Sue Ellen was placed in an English class being taught by Erin Gruwell.

“I was so afraid when I turned in my first paper,” she recalled. “But, instead of marking it up with a red pen like other teachers had done, Erin said, “I think you have a learning disorder.”

Gruwell was right; Sue Ellen was dyslexic. And after the diagnosis, Sue Ellen’s grades improved. She graduated from Wilson and obtained degrees from Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach. She now works in the Freedom Writers Foundation created by Gruwell in 1997.

“Erin was the first person to tell me I could go to college, the first person who believed in me,” Sue Ellen said.

Sue Ellen was an original member of 150 Wilson students who became known as the Freedom Writers, now celebrating the 20th anniversary of their senior year at Wilson High in 1997-98 and telling similar stories of their inspirational years in Gruwell’s classes.

Many of those stories were published in the bestselling book, “The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.” Sue Ellen is on the cover of that book with Gruwell and other Freedom Writers. This also is the 10th anniversary of the Freedom Writers movie starring Hilary Swank.

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A documentary depicting what happened before, during and after the Freedom Writers entered Room 203 at Wilson 20 years ago will be shown free from 7 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Crystal Cove Auditorium at  University of California, Irvine. The documentary, “Freedom Writers, Stories from an Undeclared War,” will be followed by a question-and-answer period and book signings by Gruwell and some of the Freedom Writers.

Much has changed for Gruwell and her former students in the last 20 years. Gruwell said all of the Freedom Writers graduated from high school and most went either to a city college or university. More than half graduated with college degrees. Several have more advanced degrees.

Gruwell’s foundation created the Freedom Writers Institute, a development program instructing educators on how to engage and empower their students. Gruwell said more than 600 teachers have attended the Institute from all 50 states, along with 20 countries. The foundation also gives scholarships to high school students to go to college.

One of Gruwell’s strongest supporters continues to be Carl Cohn, who was superintendent for the Long Beach Unified School District when she was teaching at Wilson. Cohn now is executive director for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence.

“What Erin did was really important,” Cohn said. “She found ways to give students a voice. It’s a remarkable story of how a teacher can have a tremendous impact on students. And her outreach is tremendous. She is a home grown Long Beach product now on a national stage also and, to some degree, international.”

Other Freedom Writers talking to me last week included Tiffony Jacobs and Latilla Cain.

Jacobs talked about growing up with domestic violence as she moved with her mother from Louisiana to California, eventually winding up homeless. She said she was a shy and reclusive teen until she met Gruwell.

“Writing down my story and reading about ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War and those persecuted during the Holocaust put my life in perspective,” said Jacobs, who works for the foundation now. “I started to believe in the power of resilience and not tolerate abuse. Erin created a place where I could feel safe.

“She gave us an opportunity to really know each other. She taught us that dreams can come true if we work hard and have a plan.”

Cain said she grew up in a gang environment and was “hanging out with the wrong people.” She said Gruwell impressed her by wanting to find out about her as an individual. “Other teachers just gave us assignments,” Cain said. “She exposed us to so many things and each other. She taught us how to mentor other kids.”

Cain is a program specialist with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County & Inland Empire and is a program coordinator with the Freedom Writers Foundation.

Gruwell works out of her offices at an historic home she rents on Ocean Boulevard. She still wears the necklace of pearls her father, Stephen Douglas Gruwell, gave her. She wore them for the first time when she was a 24-year-old teacher facing her first “at risk” students, including gang members, victims of domestic violence, homeless and even some honor students.

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Some were written off as unteachable.

“Some of the students called me a cheerleader from hell. Some bet this perky teacher from Newport Beach wouldn’t last a semester,” Gruwell said with a laugh.

But that all changed and Gruwell and the Freedom Writers now form a mutual admiration society.

Speaking like a proud parent, Gruwell said, “Over the years, I have been proud to watch my ‘kids’ become adults. I am still their cheerleader, their mentor, their confidante. I learn from them every day, and, in this way, I have also become their student.”