San Leandro High School Student Feedback

The following comments were provided by students at San Leandro High School—as well as their teacher, Kate Livson—after Surviving Justice narrator David Pope spoke at their class. Livson teaches a Forensic Biology class to juniors and seniors in which she incorporates Surviving Justice into the curriculum.

Kate Livson (teacher)
“I began teaching this class last year and at the start we had a total of thirty students enrolled. My students are an enormously diverse bunch from a primarily low-income background. I began teaching and noticed that the curriculum did not address my students’ diverse backgrounds and cultures. I began to incorporate the book Surviving Justice into each unit of study and noticed an incredible shift in my class. My students, many of whom live in a world where social injustice is a way of life, became engaged in the class in a new way. One by one, my students opened up and told stories of racial profiling, gang violence, and police mistreatment. The class had gone into a personal realm, relating forensics to the daily struggles of my students. Now, I offer five classes of Forensics to over 110 students. It is the single college preparatory class offered at San Leandro High School that consistently attracts students who are not expected to be college-bound. I couldn’t teach the class without Surviving Justice. I believe that young people are attracted to the study of forensics because they want to be part of the work that sets right the injustices of the world. This book gives them a language and a starting place to address those injustices and creates an opportunity to become part of the solution.”

Sarah Woofter (student)
“Reading the different stories of exoneration in the book Surviving Justice almost brought tears to my eyes. The things that hurts the most is knowing there are thousands of other innocent people in the world who are spending their lives in jail for a crime they did not commit. I am very upset at how they took so long to get [David Pope] out of jail when they discovered through DNA evidence that he was not guilty.”

Matt Levy (student)
“They had [David Pope] locked up for 15 years of his life and all he got was a certain amount of money for each year he was incarcerated...but you can’t bring back those years of his life.”

Kelly Hausen (student)
“The class of Forensic Biology seemed more important after reading David Pope’s story because I already knew forensic evidence was the most important part of the investigation initially. But to actually see the consequences to not having it present or totally wrong and inaccurate was really depressing.”

Jake Maral (student)
“One common theme between all the wrongfully convicted people was that they had very little money. Not one person was able to go out and get their own lawyer. This means that the public defenders do either a very bad job or they have too many jobs to focus on one.”

David Buscovich (student)
“Science can be misused in the criminal justice system by making technology seem to be more accurate than it is.”

Ali Rodrigues (student)
“I believe that these books with stories about different exonerees should be read at school in science classes and criminal justice classes.”

Ashley Turner (student)
“Their stories can help people in the future who are wrongly accused get their story heard and the record set straight.”

Demetria Ruiz (student)
“I knew [the criminal justice system] wasn’t fair but I didn’t realize the extent that it could ruin people’s lives.”