530-993-4379
Sierra Booster
  • Home
  • Newspaper
    • Latest News
    • Letters to the Editor >
      • Submit Letter to the Editor
    • Old News Archive
    • Photo Tour
    • Events
    • About Us
    • SUBSCRIBE
  • Advertiser Directory
    • Advertiser Press Releases
    • Website Sponsors
    • Advertiser Area
  • Buy Ads - Services
  • Fishing Report
  • Contact Us
  • Admin Log In

How Rural California Teens Are Rising Above The Let-Down Of A Canceled Summer

7/22/2020

0 Comments

 
By Tessa Paoli
Downtown Downieville in Sierra County is usually packed with tourists in the middle of the summer. But the town is quiet this July, and so are the teenagers. High schoolers experienced prom and graduation cancelations in the first couple months of shelter-in-place and now they’re having to spend the summer inside. 
Mia Martinelli is 14 years old and figured she would be spending the summer after her freshman year of high school hanging with friends and shopping in Reno. But the pandemic has changed a lot of her plans.
“At first my parents were very loose about it. And then it hit them and they were like, you can't go outside. It's too dangerous,” Martinelli said. “I didn't see her for a month and a half.” 
Martinelli is talking about her best friend, Isabel Long-McGie. They’re in the same class at Downieville High School and live across the street from each other. They weren’t allowed to hang out inside until recently, so they would say hi and chat outside their houses, six feet apart, with a fence in between them. Isabel could not get used to it. 
“She would be there waving at me. And I was like, we're so close, but so far apart,” Long-McGie said.
And for Martinelli, too much time at home without seeing friends took a toll. Her attitude changed and she started acting out.
“So I got my door taken off, because I was very rude and I would slam it all the time,” Martinelli said.
James White has also readjusted his expectations for the summer. He just graduated from Quincy High School and was looking forward to a busy, fun couple of months before leaving for the University of Nevada to study animal science. 
“It kind of hit me like a wall. Because every single thing I've done up to this point has been working towards, you know, graduation, the county fair, all of those things. And they kind of have been taken away one by one by one,” White said.
The Plumas-Sierra County Fair in Quincy wasn’t just a social event for White. The 17-year-old has been raising and showing rabbits and poultry for years and was looking forward to his last county fair before moving to college. 
But James still isn’t sure if he’ll be able to move to Reno and live in the dorms for his first semester of college. It all depends on whether or not the COVID-19 numbers continue to rise in Nevada.
“I've lived in Quincy my whole life, a town of you know, a really small town. And I'm excited to go out and see the world and experience diversity and all that,” White said. 
While events were getting canceled for most teens in Plumas and Sierra counties, 17-year-old TyAnna Farmer was making things happen. She heard about the Black Lives Matter movements all across the country after George Floyd’s death and thought, why not Quincy? She decided it was time to visibilize the racism she’s experienced in her hometown her entire life as a Black person. 
“At this point I feel like I've been silent for a very long time. Like, I've been very complacent and I've just kind of watched and let it happen. And then this year, I was kind of like, 'No, I'm speaking up. I'm gonna call attention to the racial injustice,'” Farmer said.
Farmer’s friend Tristan McMichael, who’s a rising senior at Quincy High School, stepped in to help organize the protest for June 5 and spread the word. 
“We just kind of shared a flyer out and it went everywhere,” McMichael said.
Farmer read a poem she wrote about her experience in Quincy’s mostly white schools. About 300 people in masks, holding signs, showed up in support. 
“There were literally people playing music. There were people dancing, like it was awesome. It was so nice and so many people came out to show support. Honestly I think that’s the most support I’ve ever felt in Quincy,” Farmer said.
But even after organizing a huge protest on their own, Farmer and McMichael are also very aware that their last summer before their highschool graduations is being spent at home, in lockdown.
“It's our last summer of being actual legal kids,” McMichael said.
Nina Sparling Contributed to this report.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    April 2014
    September 2009

    Categories

    All
    2015
    Sierra County News

    RSS Feed

    Vie
    ​w Old News

CONTACT US:

Sierra Booster Newspaper
PO Box 8
Loyalton, CA 96118
Phone: 530-993-4379
Fax: 844-272-8583
Email: jbuck@psln.com

Website Privacy Policy​
Picture
Local Weather
©Copyright Sierra Booster - Sierra County News - Editorial
Website by Chamber Nation