Reference Page 1 -- Part 3 Sub Part 1 Of "1979" / 1979westbrook.com

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This background photo me addressing the student council at Gladstone High in Covina was taken sometime late September or possibly early October 1969. I was arguing for the right of the male students to wear their hair long, and have the student council enjoin me in presenting a petition to the school's administration wave this portion of the 'Dress Code' to waive this regulation, during the start of my Junior year.

I was repeatedly stonewalled procedurally from letting the student council take a vote on my proposal, and so it looked as though I my proposal was doomed to dismissal. I went back to my Civics Class with Mr. Khan empty handed.

Only some days before, Mr. Khan said I was "...a free thinker..." which was one of the best compliments that I had ever recieved from one of my teachers ever and it gave me some much needed encouragement there in the days that led up to my first student council meeting.. ThI

As I recall there was another student council meeting held on a few days later to address some other issues being addressed and once again I raised the issue about the school's dress code restriction regarding hair length, although I was once again supported by a few other students who were my friends and supporters'

My motion to let the student council vote on the matter was once again blocked procedurally, but I had become something in the way of a
'lightening rod' and political symbol for my supporters in the student council, which had increased slightly.

It was on the following day that the small group of my allies in the student council met me at a bench on the campus of Gladstone High and one of them brought out a large piece of red cloth and started tearing into strips that we all tied around one of our arms.

We all agreed to wear them as a sign of protest until the student council approved my motion to put the dress code restrictions regarding hair length to a popular votes of the entire student body, as it was the President other puppets in the student council that argued that the vast majority of students favored the dress code. -- A vote by the entire student council would have proven or disproved this one way or the other.of th
Next day, there were other students there wearing red arm bands, and day after day, more and more students were also wearing the red arm bands,sso much so that the wearing of the red arm bands had become a symbol of being fashionably 'hip' and 'cool' as well.

It was the kind of non-violent protests that had gained mass appeal as it raised the issue of basic personal freedom at a time when the corporate mass media smeared 'pot' smokers, anti-war protesters and liberals as dirty 'hippies', communist sympathizers and traitors.

Gladstone High was alive with the 'buzz' of social revolution during that Fall of 1969, and seemed to charge the campus with a spirit of new found freedom of self-expression, as this was only two-months after the Manson murders who many believed that the Feds and L.A. police had staged, as well as the televised assassination Senator Kennedy in Los Angeles, then only 16 months or so, and the then ongoing cover ups then underway. -- Senator Kennedy was sure to have been elected President having won the California Primary only minutes before his death.

Even those students who wore their hair short, and dressed conventionally supported the idea of a vote on this issue, as did the 'pot' smoking 'heads' in bell bottom jeans, paisley shirts and fringe jackets that packed the bathrooms during breaks, to smoke cigarettes, and buy and sell 'pot', pills and LSD.

It was truly a marvel to see that at least half if not more of the male students at Gladstone High wearing the red arm bands and even some of the girls as well.Gladstom

The school administration issued a few feable and vascilating comments over the school P.A. system, there in veiled referrences to the red arm band movement as this campus revolution was then underway.

Finally as a last ditch effort to prevent me and political allies of the red arm band movement from agitating the entire student body into voting referendum on the matter of hair length regulations for boys, the administration made an announcement that the provision in the school dress regarding school hair length was to suspended for the present time.

A month later I was sucked into a cleverly pre-arranged showdown with Mr. Alf of the administration, apparently with the help of a student and so by November 1969 I was sent over to Continuation School to finish the Fall and Spring semesters of my Junior year in High School.
It was there that I was to meet 'Spud' Helberg, who was murdered in July 1971 therein connection with some things I told him as we partied all night July 9 and into the morning of July 10, 1971.

I should also note that it was then at that time only 6 months after a fellow student, named R.G. who I met in my Drama-English class taught by Mr. Caskey had 'ratted' me out to the L.A. Sheriffs out of the San Dimas station there on May 16, 1969. -- I got thrown in jail for a few hours and received 2 years probation for 'Cultivation of Marijuana'. -- I tried to sell the 'pot' plant I had to R.G. before my next door neighbor, Alfred Ernes, a L.A. Sheriffs Deputy discovered the plant in my backyard.

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My acting debut at Gladstone High in Covina in March 1968.

 

The link below goes to page in this website that has more details on the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, televised live nationally on June 5, 1968. The Senator was officially reported dead on June 6, 1968. My family and I were all Democrats and witnessed the 'hit' on Kennedy there at our home in Covina, it was traumatic and devasting on a number of levels at least for me.

The 'JFK' assassination coup' plotter cartel then in control of the nation, denied the American People access to the November 22, 1963 Zapruder film until March 6, 1975.
New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison subpeonead Zapruder film and played it for the jury in the trial of CIA agent Clay Shaw in March 1969, for his role in the assassination of President Kennedy in November '63.

My next acting part was 'Georgie' in the Spring of 1969 and I must have been in at least a dozen or more performances, as Mr. Caskey had us play in various auditoriums including one at my former middle school and once in competition in Genesha High in Pomoma. -- The T.V. actor Ed Nelson was one those who rated our performances in Pomona and gave me bad reviews. -- I didn't care though as I had charisma there 'in spades'.

 

In the photo below I was challenging ABS President Stewart's position on the dress code, hair length issue, Mr. Rogers was there at his side during my appearances at Student Council, coaching him every step of the way. -- Thanks to experience in Mr. Caskey's Drama Class I had the confidence and composure to conduct myself well and articulate my position effectively.
Stewart was a fellow Thespian and the star of Caskey's production of: "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" , which also prompted me to treat him with respect, although I took his position apart during my student council appearances.

 

The link below to the September 1970 news report on the death of perhaps one of the greatest guitarist in rock music history Jimi Hendrix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfUdsfyrYII

The news clip is posted at Youtube-Google and in the event that the link below does not work for any reason, please feel free to e-mail me and let me know at: 79westbrook@ProtonMail.Com