Gayle Jackson and Dr. Priscilla Currie, Principal

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December 12, 2015

PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, CA
Contact: Gayle Jackson, President, The DeSean Jackson Foundation, deseanjacksonfoundationceo@yahoo.com
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DeSean Jackson, CEO, of the DeSean Jackson Foundation and a Washington Redskins’ wide receiver; and, his mother, Gayle, President, of the DeSean Jackson Foundation made an in-kind donation of brand, new books to the 92nd Street Elementary School, Los Angeles, CA (Watts), as part of their foundation’s holiday giving program.

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Dr. Priscilla Currie, Principal, at 92nd Street Elementary, Los Angeles, graciously accepted the donation for the school library on behalf of her students who were in dire need of current, age appropriate, ethnically diverse reading materials.

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Gayle Jackson states that it was extremely important to my son, DeSean, that our foundation enhance our programs and services to include a component to promote literacy so we made several book donations to school in the Washington Redskins’ franchise market this year; and, he desired to also select a school in Los Angeles to be the recipient of a holiday giving book donation; and, 92nd Street Elementary, in Watts, was chosen. The school is one of several schools that Gayle Jackson tours during the football off-season with NFL Moms and the Read Across America program. The books were received prior to the holiday break because DeSean said it was imperative to encourage students to read with their entire family during the break from school; stay out of trouble; and, exercise your body and mind.

NFL Moms Read Across America

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Needs Assessment:
In America’s public high schools, 45% of black students and 43% of Hispanics (as compared to 22% of whites) drop out before their classes graduate. Dropout rates are especially high in urban areas with large minority populations, including such academic basket cases as the District of Columbia (57%), Trenton (59%), Camden (61.4%), Baltimore (65.4%), Cleveland (65.9%), and Detroit (75.1%).

Of those black and Hispanic students who do manage to earn a diploma, a large percentage are functionally illiterate. Black high-school graduates perform, on average, at a level that is four academic years below that of their white counterparts. Of all graduates in the class of 2011, only 11% of blacks and 15% of Hispanics were proficient in math, as compared to 42% of whites. Similarly, just 13% of blacks and 4% of Hispanics were proficient in reading, versus 40% of whites. As political science professor Lydia Segal notes in her book, Battling Corruption in America’s Public Schools: “It is in cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Philadelphia where the largest numbers of children cannot read, write, and compute at acceptable levels and where racial gaps between whites and blacks and Latinos are widest. It is in large cities that minority boys in particular, trapped in poor schools, have the greatest chance of flunking out and getting sucked into the downward spiral of crime and prison.”

For more information about the DeSean Jackson Foundation, please visit: http://www.deseanjacksonfoundation.org.

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Dear Mrs. Jackson,

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you and DeSean for your generous donation. What greater gift than to put books in the hands of children? You donation is greatly appreciated and needed.

Heartfelt thanks,

Priscilla Currie
92nd Street ES
Principal

“Believe in your best…have a goal for the best, never be satisfied with less than your best, try your best, and in the long run things will turn out for the best!” –Unknown