Teenagers

Sixteen marks the age of many monumental events in a typical teenager's life For one thing, it means the time for one to take on the largest responsibility yet -- driving. That's right, since many teenagers are usually very eager to drive, most have probably received a permit at 15 and have been driving around with their parents. By the time teenagers reach 16, they probably can't wait to actually drive on their own. Thus, turning 16 gives them this opportunity once they pass the driving test.

A Costa Mesa transient has been charged with a hate crime and is being held on $1-million bail after allegedly calling a black teenager racial slurs outside a local CVS Pharmacy and threatening him with a knife. Ronald Allen Bramlett, 65, a white transient who lists his address as Share Our Selves in Costa Mesa, was charged with felony aggravated assault, criminal threats and an enhancement of an alleged hate crime for a confrontation police said he had with teenagers Tuesday. According to prosecutors, Bramlett told teenagers hanging out outside the pharmacy that he was part of a well-known white supremacist gang.

Wake up. Go to school. Go to work. Come home. Do homework. Go to bed. Repeat. This is in actuality the tedious daily schedule of a number of teenagers in our society. This basic formula does of course vary from person to person. While it may seem surprising to some people, the teenagers of today often have more on their plate than they can handle. So, what are some of the things that teenagers must face every day? Well, where should I begin? Teenagers, not only here in our community but doubtlessly all over the country, have a number of important obligations.

I was invited to a leadership conference at Newport Harbor High School, and it restored my faith in the democratic process. The 150 Harbor High students who attended broke up into student-led groups after lunch to discuss some weighty topics. The groups rotated through the four subjects, which included the Zero Tolerance Policy, the Honesty Code, the community's perception of teenagers and intramural sports. While students had passion about the issues, they were willing to let everyone have a turn at sharing ideas, without denigrating others.

MAXINE COHEN I was aghast when I saw the story on the front page of the Daily Pilot. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District had decided to prevent the display of the flier advertising Eric Schlosser's lecture in middle and high schools. They thought his work was too controversial and that he might veer off topic to talk about the subversive topics of sex and pot in his latest book. My daughter, Barbara, and I went to the Newport Beach Public Library to hear him speak.

Jessica Garrison NEWPORT BEACH -- Three Newport Beach teenagers were taken into custody after police caught them attempting to steal items from Harbor View Elementary School on Tuesday night. At about 11 p.m., a Harbor View resident noticed a van parked near the school and three teenagers loitering suspiciously near it, said Police Sgt. Mike McDermott. Police drove to the school to investigate and discovered that the van had its cargo door open and that items from the school had been loaded into it. As police approached, one of the teenagers ran from the van, McDermott said.

Deirdre Newman Kathy Muirhead was fed up with battling her teenage daughter. The arguments over homework and respecting parental authority were taking their toll emotionally on Kathy and her husband. So they decided to sign up for a parenting class with Bill Seery, a marriage and family therapist. Seery guides parents through a six-week odyssey into the enigmatic world of teenagers, illustrating how to steer children away from negative impulses and toward healthy relationships and nondestructive behavior.

Two teenage boys were hospitalized late Friday, one with bleeding in his brain, after being hit by a minivan as they crossed 19 t h Street in Costa Mesa, police said Saturday. At about 9:30 p.m. two 15-year-old boys "hurriedly" walked across 19 t h Street in the 700 block and were hit by the eastbound van, police said. The teenagers suffered concussions, cuts and bruises and one of them had bleeding in his brain and is listed in stable condition, officials said.

Deirdre Newman They are known as the "lost boys." They are teenagers from Sudan forced to leave their country because of a brutal civil war. In the past few years, many of them have resettled in the United States so they can live in a safer environment than their homeland and get an education. For the past week and a half, four of them have been the guests of Newport Coast resident Paul Curry and his family. The Currys have been ferrying the teenagers around Southern California, taking them to famous locales like Hollywood, Staples Center and UCLA, and simply showing them the California way of life -- one dramatically different from their own beginnings.

Deirdre Newman In the early 1990s, gang violence claimed the life of some teenagers in this area of Costa Mesa. Out of those dark days sprang a safe haven for teenagers: the Save Our Youth organization. Today, SOY's 10th anniversary, the organization will celebrate helping participants graduate from high school, get into college, get jobs and become positive role models in the community. SOY offers recreational, social, academic and health and fitness activities for youth ages 11 to 17. And it does it all on a shoestring budget of less than $130,000 per year, executive director Oscar Santoyo said.

Sage Hill School, in partnership with the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, is hosting "The Teenage Mind: What Every Parent Needs to Know" at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 on campus, 20402 Newport Coast Drive. "Sage Hill School is pleased to welcome the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to our campus to provide cutting edge information on the important issue of teenage mental health," Jason Gregory, Sage Hill director of community life and public purpose, said in a statement. "As an educational institution, we are committed to providing purposeful opportunities to educate and empower our students, our families and our community.

A speeding teenage driver caused a fatal collision last year that killed a former Corona del Mar High School cheerleading coach along with three others, according to a recently released California Highway Patrol investigation report. Wendy Rice perished in the fiery Aug. 8, 2010, crash outside Bishop when her van was hit by a driver who lost control of an SUV. Rice, 35, was the cheerleading director, coach and choreographer at CdM from 2001-08. While driving at least 85 mph, Natalie Nield, 17, of Carlsbad swerved toward the southbound shoulder of Highway 395 to avoid a big rig passing another truck, according to CHP Officer Dennis Cleland.

IRVINE — Silkscreened on their matching green T-shirts was a photo of their friend at a birthday party. It was taken just hours before a car crash that led to her untimely death. Krista Merassa, Parisa Ghaemi and Alison Rivas, all 15, wore the shirts in memoriam of Ashton Sweet as they stood together Monday afternoon in front of the packed, brightly lit Chinese Baptist Church of Center Orange County. A crowd of some 300 attendees, dressed in green and white, was with the trio at the memorial service for Sweet, the 14-year-old Irvine cheerleader killed in a May 29 car crash in Irvine.

COSTA MESA — Los Angeles-based musician Ernie Halter has his fans but he just found out that one of the biggest pop icons in the world knows his name: Justin Bieber. Bieber showed up Thursday night during a performance by Halter at La Cave in Costa Mesa to surprise the singer-songwriter. Bieber had covered Halter's song "Come Home to Me" at a Hong Kong performance during his recent world tour. Halter, 36, had no idea that Bieber, 17, knew he existed until he saw a video of the performance online.

Two teenage boys were hospitalized late Friday, one with bleeding in his brain, after being hit by a minivan as they crossed 19 t h Street in Costa Mesa, police said Saturday. At about 9:30 p.m. two 15-year-old boys "hurriedly" walked across 19 t h Street in the 700 block and were hit by the eastbound van, police said. The teenagers suffered concussions, cuts and bruises and one of them had bleeding in his brain and is listed in stable condition, officials said.

NEWPORT BEACH — At 17, Michael Fleming has written the musical score for the upcoming "Our Town" production, which will open Friday night at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa. A junior at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, Fleming put together the music in less than a month after reading Thornton Wilder's three-act play of the same name, finding inspiration in the plot. "Our Town" is about a small community in New Hampshire called Grover's Corners; and although, in general, it's about the townspeople of that era, the story focuses on one woman, Emily Webb.

COSTA MESA — A group of Costa Mesa teenagers are due back in court for a pretrial hearing next week on charges they were part of a gang that attacked and robbed a pedestrian in a Westside neighborhood. Juan Gonzalez, 18, Ricardo Perez, 19, Jesse Sanabria, 19, and Irvin Perez, 18, are among 10 men accused of attacking a man Sept. 4 in the 600 block of Plumer Street, kicking and punching him and then stealing his wallet. The four are charged with assault with a deadly weapon and enhancements for allegedly being part of a local street gang.

A Costa Mesa transient was sentenced to eight years in prison Friday for threatening a group of teenagers with a knife in December while hurling racial epithets at them outside a pharmacy. Ronald Allen Bramlett, 65, pleaded guilty to felony counts of aggravated assault and criminal threats enhanced with a hate crime and deadly weapons accusations. He took a court-offered plea agreement to eight years in prison. Bramlett could have been sentenced to more than 18 years with convictions for a bank robbery in Oregon and a local petty theft from 2001 on his record.

A teenage Iraqi king made a pit stop in Newport Beach where he dined at the Balboa Bay Club and swam in Newport Harbor, during a whirlwind American tour in 1952. King Faisal II Al Hashimi of Iraq was only 17 when he embarked on a cross-country tour of the United States, arriving in New York aboard the Queen Mary in August 1952, according to historical news accounts. On his cross-country trip, the young king would meet President Harry Truman, baseball great Jackie Robinson and several Hollywood stars.