Sending positive healing thoughts for you and your family!

Yeh, host students are paying a handsome sum for the experience, so, no, they will not be taking care of any kids in the house.

Interesting to read everybody’s take. My daughter is interested in Physics. The way her school has it all set up is that she would take the two trimesters of AP Physics 1, and the first trimester of AP Physics C Mechanics during her Junior year; then the remaining trimester of AP Physics C Mechanics, and the two trimesters of AP Physics C A & M during her Senior year. Her math courses would be AP Calc AB Junior year and AP Calc BC Senior year. I am not sure why exactly it is set up this way. Maybe to give more students the opportunity to take at least one AP Physics exam but still let more interested students take all AP Physics C exams?

I just wanted to give you a hug. My sister lived with ALS for 7 years. She lost mobility three years into her condition, but kept her voice for 6 years after her diagnosis. We were very fortunate that she lived in Spain, where their universal health care system meant we didn’t have to worry about medical expenses or loss of coverage. As her condition worsened, her disability benefits increased and she was able to cover all her necessary care with that. For the last three years of her life she was cared for at a residential care center. I wish this kind of support system was available in the U.S. too. I think one very important thing is figuring out your own care as your condition worsens. Do you have extended family in the area? A church community? An ALS association that could direct you to resources? When you get to the point of losing your voice, having a computerized communication system would be tremendously beneficial for your quality of life and that of your family. If you feel up to it, there are apps that you can use now to bank your voice so that it can be used instead of a synthesized computer voice.

My older daughter took it at her school a few years ago. I don’t remember much except flash cards galore. Definitely a year long class and worthy of extra weight like other AP classes.

I will be in a similar situation. My daughter attends a public high school, and she will be taking an online foreign language course this summer to meet college admissions requirements. Her school will not give her credit because this outside course is not district approved. We don’t have a foreign language graduation requirement, so that’s not a problem. What matters to me, in California, is that it is UC approved. The plan is to self report the course in the college application, and then, when admitted, send the transcript to whatever university. I know several people at my daughter’s school who have done it this way, so I hope it will be smooth sailing for us too.If my daughter decides to continue with the foreign language, she could do the SAT Subject test, take another online AP Spanish course and take the exam, or take a Community College course for credit.

What a great program! The price is really good considering what it offers.

My 15 year old will be taking a couple of online courses that she couldn’t fit into her school year schedule: health to meet high school graduation requirements, and Spanish 3 to meet college admissions requirements. She will keep going with lessons for her three instruments, and may possibly keep teaching her one student. In July, she will be a camp counselor volunteer for a couple of weeks at a downtown science museum. Then in August, she will volunteer at a local school with a dual language Spanish immersion program. Other than a family vacation in July, she wants to swim to drop time for next year’s swim team season, and hang out at the beach with friends. Mid August, marching band camp, then school starts again the following week!

I understand. It still needs to be done. The guy screwed over needs a Canadian immigration lawyer and pronto due to the company’s (HR manager) incompetence and negligence. This is the company’s doing, not the employee’s.

I would insist on having a Canadian immigration lawyer get started right away with this case to fix whatever can be fixed.

Yes. I am giving the parents the benefit of the doubt, because I realize how difficult it is to navigate a parent-young adult relationship and how little you really know unless they share with you themselves. I am not absolving the parents. If it turns out that they knew and they didn’t do enough, then that would be different. It’s just that it is so shocking to everyone I know that also knew him. A friend of our family was in the same high school and at the same college and year, he even had coffee with the shooter a little over a month ago or so, and didn’t notice anything alarming even though he is a racial minority.

The connection was with the fact that the shooter may have felt like a misfit at the school because he was a high achieving student. Mount Carmel has won the Band competition for the last 4 years in a row. They have an impressive program.

SanDiegoMom is right. This is a very academic district. This particular school is one of the lesser achieving high schools in the district, which is actually a good thing, because in some of the higher achieving schools there is a much more competitive culture and stressed out kids yearning a spot at highly selective colleges. This school offers regular Physics plus the three AP Physics 1, AP Physics C Mechanics, and AP Physics C Electronics and Magnetism combo in a 2 year period, so it’s not lacking in any way, it’s just more laid back. There was a district wide survey done recently and the comments from the school community were overwhelmingly positive, commending the school for its culture and climate of diversity, acceptance, and inclusivity.

I have no intention of going there but I have read some of what’s there and I find it too disturbing to read more myself. I do not want to end up with ptsd. As far as parents not noticing, I can see how it could happen. I have an adult child living at home, she is working and saving for grad school. I don’t monitor any of her online activities. She is an adult, like the terrorist. I monitor my younger child’s online activities, but at some point you have to let go and trust that they will have taken your lessons and advice. He was a full time college student, and part of his college swim team, in the summer at least he worked as a lifeguard. Honestly, it probably wasn’t in his parents’ radar that he was up to no good. What signs could have they noticed? Moodiness? Increased anger? What if he had always been generally moody and prone to anger? One of the people at his church said that he was always very quiet. I mean, unless he was actually sharing his new ideas with the family, I don’t know that those signs would be red flags pointing to radicalization. I read that he had said he bought the gun legally. I am sure the authorities will find out exactly how it happened. I also wish things were different here with regards to guns. It’s a great source of stress for me. I hate it.

Sorry, I misunderstood you! Are you a member of the CA Homeschool College Seekers Facebook page? They might be able to help.

Most of the teens I know do more extracurricular and volunteering than working regular part time jobs, but there are still plenty who do work. We are in a much larger school district. For example, my 15 year old just had her very first paid job as a band buddy teaching a middle school student. She doesn’t need a permit for that although it goes through the school band. My older child did work summers only but it was under the table too.

Especially when Fox News used the same exact term the day before the Sri Lanka bombings to refer to the people displaced from the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and no one batted an eyelid.

I was not just talking about advantage. His family is a middle class family of six living on a teacher’s salary in a high cost of living area, so their lifestyle is not exactly out of the ordinary. I was pointing out that he had grown up surrounded by socio economic and ethnic diversity and, as far as I know, had grown up in a religiously and politically moderate household and yet, he was radicalized online. Online radicalization is not only real, it is a global threat. Discussing the Sri Lanka bombings with my Sri Lankan relatives, this is a common thread.

No, this is incorrect. It is a public school I know very well.

I understand how frightening this is for you. I am not a religious or a racial minority myself, but my husband is both. I am ethnically and linguistically a minority myself. I am very much personally concerned about these matters. As far as how deeply did his family engage in educating their children in diversity? I don’t know. I don’t know them that well. I do know that they live in an extremely diverse neighborhood and they had good standing in the community so they must have gotten along with their neighbors. I know the public schools their children attend, and they reflect the neighborhood’s socio economic and racial diversity. I know that his younger sister has diverse school friends. The dad teaches at and their children attend the most diverse school in the district. So, it could be true that the family’s focus was not diversity, but they were in no way sheltered from it.

I cannot answer your exact question, but I just wanted to make sure that you are aware how competitive Cal Poly has become in the last few years. They do offer admission on a point system, they have their own method that is unique to them, no other Cal State follows the same process. If you head to the Cal Poly College Confidential forum, there are posts with links on how to calculate it. I hope that you can find the answer to your specific question there.

What I find really sad, knowing him and his family, is that he had all the right things to not turn out this way. His dad is a well respected science teacher, his mom is a devoted stay at home mom of four, he went to great diverse public schools where everyone learned and played well together, was a lifeguard and had saved a life recently, and was studying to become a nurse. How could this happen other than him becoming entangled in hate online groups? That’s the really scary part!

As far as I am aware, no one had any idea that the 19 year old who did this had white supremacist ideas and that he was acting or planning to act on them. He is a local kid. A lot of people here know him and his family. His family is a very normal, kind family. I am in shock, hurting for his victims, and for his own family, who are also victims. And although I am not religious, I am praying for them all, because I don’t know what else to do.

Yes, this is what I thought. Cal Poly will consider it towards their academic index, but not the UCs, and none of the other Cal States either, correct?

My heart aches for all those families. I learned of the attacks Saturday evening on a group chat with my Sri Lankan in laws. One minute we were joking and laughing, the next minute one of them said “Bad news in Colombo”. We are very fortunate that all our family and friends are safe. A neighbor, 42, the father of four young kids, did perish in one of the hotel blasts. Terrible loss of life, and a big setback for the country. They are very much in shock, and fearful for what all this means for the future. The authorities have blocked social media to prevent the spread of rumors and communal instigation. The investigation is ongoing -several arrests have been made, several controlled detonations have been carried out in different locations. All of this to say, please pray for Sri Lanka, for all those hurt, and for peace.