Interview with Dr. Virginia Uribe, founder of Project 10

Q: So, What is Project 10?
Project 10 is a drop out prevention program targeted at bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender students. It came from Kinsey's statistic that 10% of the population is probably homosexual most of their lives. We realized many years ago through incidents that occurred, that this was a population within our educational system whose needs were not being met. And who were at very high risk of dropping out of school because of the effects of stigmatization. So we began as a grassroots group here at Fairfax, a lunchtime group and it became formalized here at Fairfax to the point that we developed a little model that they could use then at other high schools in the district. Now we have about thirty or so at our high schools.

Q: It started when?
It started in 1984, during the administration of Warren Steinberg. And I've given him a lot of credit. When I went to him I thought we needed to talk about this issue and these students. Their needs were not being met. His answer was: "We're a public educational system. We're supposed to meet the needs of all of our students. And if this is a area that is not being met then I will support you in trying to do something about that." So that was very helpful, plus he answered the dozens of phone calls that came in. When people found out about it we had a major attack against the program about three years after it had been around. A major attack by the Traditional Values Coalition and some other ultra-conservative groups.

Q: Was this generated from the campus or outside?
It was an attack on Project 10 here at Fairfax High School. But, it was generated from outside. We never really had much trouble from parents or groups inside the campus itself. This was an outside group, they demanded a full hearing. And they had political connections in Sacramento. They wanted to stop all the money that came to the LAUSD because of this teeny-weeny little program that had one person working it. So anyway, they demanded a hearing, it was an all day, eight-hour hearing, and everyone said their piece. But the district stood behind the program. From then we continued to be attacked, but it was always more muted after that.

Q: So how successful do you think the program has been?
Well, I think the Project 10 program has been very successful and I'm saying that because there have only been -- I was the only person involved in it. It's not like I had a big office with a big staff or anything. And I was still teaching here half- time until the time I retired. So considering there was only one person half time, plus volunteers that we got, I think it's very successful. We do have groups now on about thirty of our high school campuses. We have a full time person now, instead of just a half time person. Ya' know, and if we had more people involved we would certainly be able to reach many more students. We know that they are out there. But we just don't have the staff. And plus we get lots of phone calls from middle school teachers and surprisingly enough elementary school teachers. But we don't really have the staff, the personnel to meet all those demands.

Q: So Project 10 is really at the high school level for the most part?
I would say eighty percent high school.

Q: And you're at thirty high schools in the L.A area?
Well, it differs. But it's thirty to thirty-five. Sometimes it drops a little because high schools are on different tracks so we might have a Project 10 that meets one track and not another track, but approximately thirty to thirty-five.

Q: Are there any particular stories or anecdotes from the years since the project has been formed, about particular students that it affected or things you think are characteristic? Is there anything that comes to mind?
Well, I can't think of anything right off hand. I have a few funny things I remember when the program first started here, and there was a real emphasis on the language being sensitive, and not using the word, "faggot" and this and that and the other thing. And I do remember a couple of students outside my classroom and I remember one kid saying to the other kid, "Watch out for the 'dyke' in there, she won't let you say the word, 'faggot.'" So I thought that was a kind of classic move forward, slowly. We have a lot of students that come back and say that if it hadn't been for the little support that they got in the Project 10 program that they probably would not have gone on to college. And so many of the students are so tremendously isolated and alienated that actually what we do for them is minor compared to what they need. But just to have a little support is very helpful to them, to know that they have people in their corners. And so we hear about that a lot. Not that all the students we meet here are successes but we try to do what we can, we try to let them know that there are people who do not think their awful, and who do think they have potential. And they've heard so many negative messages that they need that.

Q: Can you talk about the first gay and lesbian prom?
Yes, in addition to the Project 10 program that exists in the school system, we also have a nonprofit organization called "Friends of Project 10" that raises money through private donations. Friends of Project 10 supports these activities that the district won't pay for. One of them is the gay and lesbian prom. We've had that for about six years now. We have an annual conference at Occidental College, we have a youth lobby day where students go up to Sacramento and talk about various educational issues and we had to make a real conference about non discrimination policies, how to implement them in the schools, we had a scholarship program. All of that is sponsored by Friends of Project 10. Our prom is the most fun event that we sponsor.

Q: Also, the legislative, that's a yearly thing up in Sacramento?
The lobby day, yes. This year instead of sending the kids up to Sacramento, we had a conference at Cal State University. Because in January, bill AB537 was signed by the governor, which made sexual orientation one of the protected categories in the California Penal Code. So we had a conference on how to develop strategies on how are we going to let schools know now about their responsibilities, their legal responsibilities toward their gay and lesbian student population. So that's what we did this year instead of sending them up to Sacramento, but we've been sending them up to Sacramento every year.

Q: Thank you.
You're welcome. I didn't want to come back to Fairfax, since I'm retired now and I was here for so long, but I'm glad I did.

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