by Mark McDermott
At the beginning of last week’s Kids Need Classrooms rally outside City Hall, organizers stood before an audience of about 100 people and held placards aloft that were stamped with headshots of four Manhattan Beach Unified School District board members, Superintendent Mike Matthews, and teacher union leader Shawn Chen.
Rally organizer Tiffany Wright told the audience of about 100, which included Mayor Suzanne Hadley and City Councilmember Joe Franklin, that those six people were responsible for kids not being in classrooms.
“Those people are the red lighters,” Wright said. “We’ve got Shawn Chen the teachers union….Mike Matthews, superintendent of our school district here.”
Teachers vaccinations begin at at BCHD’s AdventurePlex in Manhattan Beach [Update]
SHARE Redondo Beach Child Development teacher Sarai Cuevas receives a COVID-19 innoculation from Manhattan Beach Firefighter Tyler Wade on Wednesday, at the Beach Cities Health District’s AdventurePlex in Manhattan Beach. Looking on are Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn and Redondo Beach Schools Superintendent Steven Keller. Photo by Kevin Cody
by Kevin Cody
Approximately 1,200 teachers at 11 South Bay public school districts began receiving Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination shots on Wednesday at AdventurePlex, in Manhattan Beach.
AdventurePlex is a children’s play facility owned by the Beach Cities Health District, which is coordinating administration of the vaccinations. Volunteer medical professionals and fire fighters administered the vaccination shots on the play facility’s indoor basketball court.
February 27, 2021
Screengrab from YouTube/ GQ KOREA
What Hyun Bin tells himself when he wants to give up
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j 8yQpZAiM[/embed]
A video of South Korea s internet boyfriend Hyun Bin promoting Under Armour s SS21 collection was recently released and while many of us can get too engrossed staring at his dastardly good looks and well-defined biceps, let s not ignore his nice soundbites, too.
In the interview interspersed between shots of him lifting weights, doing push-ups and such, the 38-year-old talked about what he tells himself when he feels like giving up. I ask myself if I would regret my decision later. If I feel uncomfortable, even a little bit, while thinking about it, it gives me the strength to overcome it, he said.
Loyal Channel 8 viewers may recognise Shaun Chen as the actor who played villains in numerous local productions.
In the Hear U Out Feb. 26 episode, the 42-year-old actor discussed with host Quan Yi Fong his fall from grace when SPH MediaWorks merged with Mediacorp.
Starting his acting career
After giving up on his dream to be a national badminton player and boyband singer, Chen decided to give acting a shot, building on his prior experience in modelling. Screenshot via meWATCH.
A Mediacorp representative in Kuala Lumpur had approached him and arranged for an audition for him in Singapore.
Chen claimed that he did not do any preparations for the audition and just took a four to five-hour bus ride to Singapore to have a look as he had not travelled abroad before.
by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District has been gradually increasing the number of students returning to in-person classes, welcoming back its TK-2 students earlier this month and almost 100 high needs middle school and high school students this week.
Next week, the district plans to bring back grades 3 to 5, four days a week on a rotating morning and afternoon schedule, and 6th grade for its humanities classes. By April 12, the district intends to begin some form of in-person instruction for grades 7 to 12, depending on forthcoming LA County Department of Public Health guidelines.
Despite the plans, district leaders continue to face criticism for the pace of reopening. MBUSD superintendent Mike Matthews has come under particular fire from frustrated parents. But Matthews, in an interview this week, defended the pace MBUSD has taken and expressed optimism that some sense of normalcy could return sooner rather than later.