“Tea Fire Ten” Named

Wow, some actual information. The 4th estate is not yet dead in Santa Barbara.

Had these 10 been Latino with possible gang connections, the DA's office would have smeared their names and pictures all over the place. Ditto poor white folk or African-Americans.

But the office deserves some credit for a little care here.

Unfortunately first-rate fire forensics does not seem to have transpired.

Also, we can see that SBCC brings a lot of non-local young people to the area. The SBCC president and hierarchy doesn't seem to care to acknowledge the impacts.

"Also, we can see that SBCC brings a lot of non-local young people to the area. The SBCC president and hierarchy doesn't seem to care to acknowledge the impacts."

What do you mean by that sevendolphins? UCSB and Westmont also bring in a lot of non-local people to the area. My job brought myself, a non-local, to this area. There are many immigrant workers in this area. Basically, there are thousands of people, for many different reasons, who are non-local living here.

A simple google search reveals that Joshua Decker-Trinidad is an ex Westmont student.

Crack reporting, Independent.

After that editorial chastising all the commenters who suspected a Westmont student connection at the time, and considering the "no current Westmont students were involved" line from Beebe, it would seem prudent for you guys to check something this elementary out.

Enrollment at SBCC has more than doubled over the past 15 years.

Huge impacts, for example, in Isla Vista, where actually UCSB contributes a lot (like the new Foot Patrol Building and roughly 1/4 of the staffing of the Foot Patrol).

SBCC contributes zippo. Their president doesn't give a rat's posterior, as she doesn't care one whit about, for example, implementing anti-drinking (how many of the Tea Garden Partiers were under 21?) programs or fire safety programs.

According to a press release by Westmont in March 18 2008 Joshua Decker-Trinidad was a freshman water polo player for Westmont College. He comes from Florida.

In Nov 2008 Westmont announces "No current Westmont Students" were involved in the tea fire.
It seems to me a Christian College like Westmont would want to always be as honest and straight forward as possible.
It seems Westmont is more interest in talking the talk of being Christian than walking the walk.

I understood from the start that adding the word "current" in the Westmont statement meant that at least one had been a student at some point...

@sevendolphins??? Why the racist remarks? Just from the names of these kids it is fairly obvious that they were NOT all "rich white kids", so your comment is completely out of line.

As for the comment "Unfortunately first-rate fire forensics does not seem to have transpired."

... Again, just because it doesn't fit into your own pre-concieved idea of reality, they didn't do their jobs? Huh? Really?

Yes, it's terrible that such tremendous loss and devastation ever took place under any circumstances. Justice should prevail.

BUT, our DA, even if a woman, is not out-to-lunch. Why not bring the case to trial if she and her staff believed there was even a modest chance of a conviction? Of even one of the "perps?" Think of the exposure.

Those accusing DA Stanley of bias and being easily influenced by power and money are lashing out when most would want to.

However, her determination to avoid throwing away hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars (or more), to "teach those young people a lesson," and her decision to pass up the chance for international exposure, should be respected - not belittled. Thanks, Ms. DA, for careful, considered, decision making.

p.s. About those rich foreigners: three of the names of the ten accused appear to be Middle Eastern in origin. Speaking of bias...

SevenDoplhins. Did you say the city college president should "implement an anti-drinking program"?

Under what rock are you living? Have you been to city college and I.V. lately?

They're college kids. They're going to drink. And more power to them. College is about learning your limits and when to say when.

Can you imagine the very first meeting of "SBCC's Anti-Drinking Day". Come one, come all. They'll be cookies, soda pop, and hugs for everyone. Back in my college days, I would have brought the bottle of rum to that shindig.

Not often that I say this, but good work DA Stanley!

My home was lost in this fire, and it is nice to know how it may have happened. I have no desire to see these kids go to jail as I believe that it was accidental. My only request would be that perhaps these kids contribute to the cleanup efforts. Actually come to someone's property and help dig through the rubble searching for treasures. Then and only then will they understand just how much this has affected us.

Our home was a total loss, and we had about 20 minutes to pack up and go. We have 2 small children ages 5 and 20 months. My 5 year old daughter was the first to see the fire from the dinner table, saying "Daddy, look fire!" I thought she was kidding but when I looked out our window saw 40+ foot flames coming over the hill with 60 mph winds. Needless to say it was one of the more frightening moments of my life.

Perhaps these kids can answer the question my five year-old asks... "why did the fire take our house?".

So, for me I would love for one or all of these kids to come up to me and say "sorry". A heartfelt apology would go along way.

Sorry for the rambling comment.

LivinginSB:
RE: They're college kids. They're going to drink. And more power to them. College is about learning your limits and when to say when.

I always thought colleges were for getting an education.
Turning a blind eye to underage drinking (minor consumption) is not the thing to do.

Denial is not a river in Egypt. We need more education on substance abuse for college students, maybe a required course.

Drunk drivers under the age of 21 are just as dangerous as old fart alcoholics, sometime they take out entire families in drunk driving accidents. But that's okay they were merely learning their limits and when to say when?
That is complete BS, in my opinion, of course.

As a SBCC employee, I am a little thrown aback by some of the ignorant comments made about the campus.

First off, SBCC DOES have an anti-drinking/ anti-smoking/ safe sex/ health awareness program for students. It is called Project HOPE and they do a lot of great work and presentations all over campus and in classrooms on a regular basis.

Dinah: Could you be anymore cliche? SBCC is not responsible for teaching students all the values necessary for them to make the right choices- that's what parents are for.

Yes, SBCC HAS grown. This campus provides so much for so many and has changed the lives of MANY SB locals- myself included.

Many of those who lost their homes were SBCC employees. Our campus is very saddened by the events that transpired, but bashing SBCC is not the answer. Playing the blame-game is not going to bring anyone's home back. All it will accomplish is widening the divide among SB residents- local or no.

Bigwaves: I am VERY sorry you and your family lost your home. A very dear friend of mine lost hers as well and I have been up there sifting through the rubble and doing demo. It is a heart-breaking sight and I do agree that these kids AND the families could benefit from their picking up a shovel getting involved. I wish you all the best.

Like everyone else, Westmont did not know the names of the suspects until this week. The investigators told us no current students were involved and that was the information the college released, and it proved to be true. With so many of our friends and neighbors in Montecito and Santa Barbara, we have suffered significant losses from the fire, and we are devastated by all the damage. We are grateful to the firefighters who fought so hard to save our campus and to the investigators who worked to bring a conclusion to this difficult case.

"They're college kids. They're going to drink. And more power to them. " -livingsb-

Right, and wrong. Yes, they will drink because we live in an increasingly spiritually vacuous society where people of all ages need to dull their senses in order to escape the pain of their superficial lifestyles. No, not "more power to them". Tell that to anyone who has been affected by drunk driving, or has had to deal with having an alcoholic family member.

Finally: Good posts by sevendolphins and especially by Dinahmason. Yes, college is supposed to be about learning, not about boozing it up.

That all these horrible racist jerks who falsely accused the DA of protecting "rich white kids" have been shown to be wrong will not change their minds or their tune in the slightest.

"we live in an increasingly spiritually vacuous society where people of all ages need to dull their senses in order to escape the pain of their superficial lifestyles"

Pining for a non-existent past, eh Bill?

"Good posts by sevendolphins"

Yeah, three cheers for falsely and groundlessly accusing the DA of bigotry, I'm sure.

"Also, we can see that SBCC brings a lot of non-local young people to the area. The SBCC president and hierarchy doesn't seem to care to acknowledge the impacts." -sevendolphins-

The 4th estate is not yet dead in Santa Barbara. -sevendolphins-

Truthmachine: There ARE good posts. The truth (no pun intended) is that you just can't resist coming on these blogs and poisoning them by insulting people. Life on salon.com isn't as exciting as here, I realize.

By the way, welcome back.

"That all these horrible racist jerks who falsely accused the DA of protecting 'rich white kids' have been shown to be wrong will not change their minds or their tune in the slightest" -truth_machine-

To those of you whom truth_machine calls "racist", (either literally or implied) don't feel bad, it's just par for the course for her to do that, as her blogging history shows. Here are some comments she posted from back in 2007 on this site. You decide.

http://www.independent.com/news/2007/jul...

Falsely? Rashidi Ali, Deborah Poole, Robert Allen, Mike Harris, and Vallejo Kennedy.

Forensics? Well, let's see a serious report released. I seem to recall claims that investigators had traced the fire origin and roped it off *during the fire*. No report released = no serious forensics.

SBCC does a lot of great things for locals. But to the extent they bring in out-of-towners, they should consider the impacts on housing and policing. And in the event of something awful like this, contrition and humility would work wonders.

SBCC does fill IV with a lot of aimless wealthy rowdies. Sure, college is for that, but most colleges try to give their away-from-home Freshman some transitioning guides. SBCC always claims lack of resources, but if true, they should simply admit fewer non-local Freshmen and Sophmores.

There's something FISHy going on here!

I agree.

Wow, I'm shocked at the hating on SBCC. SBCC is a great resource for the community and a real opportunity for unsupported working students. It's been implied that SBCC doesn't contribute anything to the community, but its very existence and broad accessibility at very minimal cost is the contribution to the community - and education on the cheap is a real gift!

I commend the DA as well for not barking up a tree where that spector of "reasonable doubt" is likely hiding to protect these kids criminally. Luckily, the preponderence of evidence is less taxing in civil litigation and while it won't send anyone to jail, it will certainly cause much financial pain for the tea-fire 10.

In response to Gaijin I agree that City College in and of itself is a good thing, but how do we reconcile the good it gives Santa Barbara with the great numbers of out-of-town people coming in to enroll?

I've heard it said that the goal could be achieved by building more higher educational facilites in nearby areas but of course the problem would be getting the $$$ to build them and the placement of them as well. Nonetheless, one can only squeeze so many people into a phone booth and addressing the problem of too many people being brought into an already crowded area is not per se being anti-education, but merely facing the fact that a given area's carrying capacity should not be exceeded.

They are going to drink and more power to them ! What kind of irresponsible message does this send ? That power comes out of a drunk and a bottle? We recently lost a valuable public servant to a drunk driver, whole families and countless innocent pedestrians have been wiped out by these mindless drunks, cyclists have been mown down and motor cyclists tossed into oblivion. Is this the kind of power to be admired? Someone here clearly has a perverted sense of the value of power.

Incredible. The problem must be outsiders. An attractive nuisance like SBCC (SBCC specifically, mind you. Not UCSB or Westmont or Brooks.) is going to ruin this town by bringing in less-than desirables and allowing them to run amok in our fair city.

What a load. Need I remind you it is our fabulous residents, born right here, who are stabbing each other on street corners?

SBCC, or any institution for that matter, has no obligation to babysit its students outside of its walls. Why the fault, or lack thereof (I don't care what sort of evidence some you think you have to the contrary. There is nothing to sustain a charge of arson, no matter how tainted or how slowly you think the crime scene was processed), should be placed on SBCC is nonsensical.

The purpose of a learning institution is to teach, not to police.

I feel these students should get a three-day jail sentence plus 10,000 hours of weekend community service.

I was relieved to hear none of the local kids were involved in the bonfire. I was also delighted to hear my own children state they nor anyone they know would ever think of doing a bonfire in our hills. They are completely aware of the high fire dangers in our area.

I do not know where all the tea fire 10 are from but Joshua Decker-Trinidad moved from Florida in 2007 to attend Westmont College. Creating a bonfire on the beach in Florida might be perfectly fine, but creating a a bonfire in the hills of Montecito or Santa Barbara is a disaster.

Shouldn't our local colleges be including fire dangers in their orientations and have regular reminders particularly during fire season. Maybe email reminders?

"What a load. Need I remind you it is our fabulous residents, born right here, who are stabbing each other on street corners?" -sbdude-

But what isn't being taken into account is the "rats in the cage" factor. Endlessly shoving more and more and more people into an already crowded and frantic situation results in shortened tempers and anti-social behavior, whether it's encouraging mass migration from other countries into already crowded neighborhoods, or encouraging more students to keep coming into S.B.

I can understand how someone from Ojai or Santa Ynez might think Santa Barbara is crowded. But if you're from the Bay area, LA, Orange County, San Diego, or Denver (where I just flew in from) Santa Barbara is pretty low density, even in the summer when we're swollen with tourists!

According to the California Master Plan for education, which outlines the responsibilities for our state's 3-tier higher education system, community colleges are required to admit any California high school graduate, no matter where in the state they're from. Our state's 100+ community colleges are designed to be near residential centers and only ~10% offer on-campus housing, unlike most UC campuses which have on-campus dorms. So community college students are typically going to be locals living at home or renting and out-of-towners renting. Those out-of-town students spend money here and contribute to the community. Some transfer to UCSB or other UC campuses. Of course there can be bad eggs in the bunch but is that a surprise?

I also second the thoughts of those that remind us the primary mission of higher education institutions is related to academics, not parenting.

So this out-of-town banter and SBCC's guilt by association are a couple of red herrings. The real issues are whether the bonfire started the fire, and if so, whether the people that started the bonfire were negligent in starting & extinguishing it.

An accident, ok. But if there were any calls to the city or county about the kids or the fire, those authorities should be fired (or prosecuted) who did not take appropriate action .

Wow, I'm shocked at the hating on SBCC.
Gaijin (anonymous profile)
February 19, 2009 at 1:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

You must have missed all the hating on Westmont before the DA announced the kids were from SBCC.

By the way, isn't calling someone "racist" without proof to back it slander?...or since it's being published online, libel?

How could the people who accidentally started the Zaca Fire be charged with five felony counts of "recklessly causing a fire", but these ten not!!? Regardless of whether their specific fire started the Tea fire, they STILL recklessly STARTED A FIRE - as far as I understand, this is undisputed. Why wouldn't this be enough for felony charges to be brought? These misdemeanor are a joke and an insult to justice.

If we all look back on our own past, most of us have made mistakes that we still live with the consequences of to this day, so no one is exempt from making mistakes. All people who recklessly drink and party should be aware theses consequences of their actions will stay with them no matter what, no matter race or even religion. Should they be treated any differently? absolutely not...

The people who have lost their homes in this fire need better closure then what they have received, and I wish them the best.

Gail Devine