Hats off to Cetrella WEEKEND | 18 DECEMBER 18, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 47
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A kid’s best friend VOLUNTEERS TEACH MV STUDENTS HOW TO TREAT ANIMALS IN ‘CRITTER CLUB’ By Kevin Forestieri
S MARK NOACK
Muslim men gather for the late afternoon prayer at the Seerah Conference held at the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara on Dec. 12. The annual event focused on the community’s challenges amid recent terrorist attacks.
Putting faith to the test TERROR ATTACKS BRING ADVERSITY TO LOCAL MUSLIM COMMUNITY By Mark Noack
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or the estimated 250,000 Muslims living in the Bay Area, these are the times when faith is put to the test. Following the Islamic Stateinspired terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, a pall of suspicion has been cast on the Islamic community that reminds some of the dark days after the Sept. 11 attacks. On a day-to-day basis, local Muslims say this backlash can play
out through glares, derogatory slurs or cold treatment from strangers. And the animosity is fueled by politicians calling for surveillance on mosques, banning Syrian refugees or Donald Trump’s extreme proposal to totally bar Muslims from entering the country. Even in the Bay Area, a region that prides itself on tolerance and diversity, there are plenty of examples of anti-Muslim hostility. Earlier this month, a group of Muslims picnicking
at Lake Chabot in Alameda County were berated and had hot coffee thrown at them by a woman who saw them praying. Last week, the Santa Clara offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (ISNA) received an envelope containing white powder meant to resemble anthrax. The powder wasn’t hazardous, but the incident resulted in a full evacuation of the building
tudents at Mistral Elementary’s Beyond The Bell afterschool program got a surprise visitor last week, when Rubi, the 6-year-old yellow Labrador, waltzed up to the front of the class. With a tail wagging at full speed, it wasn’t clear who was more excited — the children or the dog. Rubi is a search and rescue dog, explained Steve Garcia, a volunteer for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, and her job is to sniff out a missing person with her super-human sense of smell. One student in the front row was floored when Garcia said kids would have next to no chance winning a game of hide-and-seek with Rubi once she gets their scent. “She can smell the tiniest, tiniest things,” Garcia told the students. The lesson on search and rescue dogs was the latest in a series of classes called “Critter Club,” hosted by the Palo Alto Humane Society. Volunteers with the Humane Society visit several
schools in the area, including Castro and Mistral Elementary, to teach students about how to treat and take care of animals. Leonor Delgado, an educator and translator for the program, said they expose students to animals including birds, dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens to give students a first-hand experience with animals. The variety they bring into the classroom depends on local volunteers who lend their pets, but that rarely seems to be a hurdle for Delgado. “We have a lot of people who get really interested and want to help,” she said. Critter Club started in 2013 as a popular program in the east Menlo Park neighborhood of Belle Haven at Beechwood School — a private school serving mostly low-income students. Delgado said they try to visit under-served communities to teach students about the humane treatment of animals, and started coming to Castro last year. “We target areas where kids might not get this kind of educaSee ANIMALS, page 9
See MUSLIMS, page 6
Split school board votes to open Slater Elementary By Kevin Forestieri
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ossibly ending a yearslong effort by families in the Whisman and Slater area lobbying for a neighborhood school, the Mountain View Whisman School District board
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voted 3-2 last week to reopen an elementary school on the Slater Elementary campus. Since April 2014, the board has agreed that the northeast end of the city needs a school of its own — it was just a matter of figuring out the right timing. But worries
that the new school would siphon off students essential to the functioning of nearby schools, and concerns that there isn’t enough money to fund construction, forced the board to postpone See SLATER, page 8
GOINGS ON 22 | MARKETPLACE 23 | REAL ESTATE 25
MICHELLE LE
Rubi, a search-and-rescue dog, visits a classroom at Castro School with Steve Garcia as part of a lesson in animal care from the Palo Alto Humane Society.