Living in poor communities such as Richmond and San Pablo has been a bitter sweet experience. I attended Downer Elementary where I had some good teachers as well as bad ones. In six grade I had a teacher who would fall asleep during class. At the time it was fun to play around during his nap but I can now see how that impacted my life. A hundred percent of all students depend of free lunch and I can recall coming across expired food, especially milk. I also remember the day when I went to school and a lady had gotten killed on the stairs the night before. At that age I was horrified by the stories people created about the killing. The stairs were covered in blood and students later started spreading a rumor that the ghost haunted the school. By the time I got to Helms Middle School, Prop 13 had destroyed the school immensely. Our bathrooms in many instances did not function, had no door and no mirrors. The cafeteria never had enough food for all students, some students would wait in line all lunch period just to be rejected. Our water fountains did not work, and were usually tagged and forgotten. There was a good amount of fights when I went there, I even remember witnessing a rumble outside of the building. There was a lot of stories of girls getting rapped in the creek near the school. There were a lot of boarded up windows as well. I graduated and went to Richmond High. There I was confronted with rooms with no windows but the portables and buildings outside. I also just got informed that a lot of portables are made with poisonous material. I remember someone coming to our school to do a investigation and saying that our school looked worse than a prison. I got pretty offended but at the same time garbage filled our school in many parts. After my junior year I really never went to school, a decision that affects me till this day. GO TO SCHOOL! While attending Richmond High I was involved in one fight and that's because they randomly pulled my hair. It was very easy to get drugs in school. I hope things have changed since I left...