It had been a couple of years since I visited SAN LEANDRO HIGH in San Leandro, back-to-back to all-black Oakland. The mostly white students came out for early dismissal at 1:55, walking sometimes five or six abreast toward me standing at a corner crosswalk. I missed about one-fourth of them as they continued to walk, not bothering to wait for the literature. (This is typical of most teenagers: If you don’t catch them when they’re passing by, they seem to lack the patience to wait.) A few of the kids came back to ask for it as soon as they found out it was about abortion. A young man and his girlfriend stood next to me on the corner where I was standing. I could overhear his remarks to his girlfriend. Apparently, this was his first experience at seeing abortion pictures and he was horrified.

     When the onslaught of students started to subside and I had handed about 300 packets, I looked at my watch and thought I would try to reach some of the stragglers at ELMHURST JR HIGH in Oakland which had let out a few minutes before. When I drove close to the school, I parked my car about two blocks away in order to reach approximately fifty students who were walking home. They were all black children. This seemed strange to me as less than a mile away was SAN LEANDRO HIGH where most of the students were white. It was as though an invisible wall separated the two cities

     I headed back on the freeway to neighboring San Lorenzo. About fifteen minutes later I parked my car in a commercial parking lot directly across the street from the front door of SAN LORENZO HIGH. There were a handful of cars with high school age boys parked there. As I handed them our literature, I asked a friendly, talkative boy where I could stand to reach most of the kids. "THEY’LL BE COMING ACROSS THE STREET ON THE CROSSWALK," he said. "A LOT OF THEM WILL BE HANGING AROUND HERE, AND YOU MAY BE ABLE TO PASS OUT ALL THAT LITERATURE," he said, pointing to my tote bage. Just as he said, all the students began walking across the street on the crosswalk, and there were as many as ten to twelve abreast. A friendly brunette girl approached me asking me questions about the literature, telling me she was pro life. All the while I was there, she stood talking with several of the girls about the materials. Another girl came up to me and asked me what I was doing this. "I’M TRYING TO SAVE BABIES," I said, "AND I’M ALSO TRYING TO STOP THE GIRLS FROM RUINING THEIR LIVES." The answer seemed to satisfy her, as she walked away with a look of understanding on her face.

     I could hear one girl saying she didn’t want the literature because she was "pro choice" so in a minute or so when there was a lull between the students coming toward me, I walked over to where she was standing in the parking lot and asked her if she was the one who said she was pro choice. She nodded her head. Opening up one of the packets of information which featured the D & X abortion (kills late-term babies by sucking out the brains) and saying, "I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU COULD BE FOR ABORTION AFTER READING THIS." I was surprised when she said: "I KNOW IT’S MURDER. I’VE READ IT AND I’M STILL FOR ABORTION." She then made a flippant "pro choice" comment. "DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?" I asked her. "SURE I BELIEVE IN GOD," she answered. "DO YOU WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN OR HELL?" I questioned again. "OF COURSE I WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN," she answered. "GOD FORGIVES EVERYTHING WE DO. I’VE READ THE BIBLE." "THAT’S WHERE YOU’RE WRONG," I answered. "FIRST YOU HAVE TO REPENT, AND IT’S NOT THAT EASY." Before I could go on to explain, she held her hands over her ears in mock protest and walked along with two or three other students who were standing there.

     A few minutes before I had noticed a snappy red convertible with the top down driving past me into the parking lot. It was driven by a pretty brunette girl about 17 years old with a proud look on her face. The car was obviously out of place in this less than affluent community. There she was again driving by me as she waited for an opportunity to get into the flow of street traffic. This time I attempted to give her a literature packet. She muttered something under her breath which I couldn’t figure out, but the expression on her face told the story: "I DON’T WANT ANY OF YOUR GARBAGE!" This time there was a young man sitting next to her who for some reason was not being given the "male prerogative" of driving the car. Obviously embarrassed by her rudeness, he called out to me, "DON’T WORRY. I’VE GOT YOUR LITERATURE!" (For some reason the picture of that young woman in her red convertible stayed in my mind that day. Her actions seemed symbolic of the age we live in - an age of materialism, women’s rights, and the putting down of men.) Suddenly, a woman in her early forties was standing in front of me with a literature packet in her hand. “DID YOU GIVE THIS TO MY DAUGHTER?” she asked. “YES,” I answered, expecting a confrontation with an irate mother. Instead she said in a soft voice, “I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE.” I gave a little laugh and said, “I THOUGHT YOU WERE ABOUT TO CHEW ME OUT.”

     As the kids gradually stopped crossing the street, I noticed an obviously pregnant girl standing in a circle with about a half dozen of her peers. "HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED", I said to myself. "THIS YOUNG WOMAN DOESN’T SEEM TO BE THE LEAST BIT EMBARRASSED, AND HER FRIENDS SEEM TO BE REACTING IN A MATTER-OF-FACT WAY TO HER CONDITION." They were asking her questions and she was giving them answers. Later, she walked away arm in arm with her boyfriend. As I pulled out of the parking lot, the friendly girl who had talked to me about being pro life gave me a friendly wave.

Five school busses were already parked in front of LODI HIGH as Lydia and I arrived a few minutes before dismissal. We stationed ourselves in front of the school several hundred feet away from each other. At first there was no trouble as I distributed about 200 packets to the students as they boarded the busses. They willingly accepted the literature. After the busses had pulled away, I made my way toward Lydia and mistakenly handed our packet to a very short woman security guard. She looked at the material and immediately announced her intention to find the principal. This man came over in less than a minute and began to physically stop us from distributing the literature. Nothing I said seemed to phase him. When I suggested that what he was doing was illegal depriving us of our rights of free speech and that he could be laying himself open to a lawsuit, he handed me his business card and told me to go ahead. I replied that he was acting like a member of the Gestapo, that this was America, the country that had been founded on the right of free speech. Lydia told him how much the students needed our message and asked him whether she could go inside the school and speak to the students. He acted like he was agreeable to this, but I knew better. He kept insisting that we distribute our packets across the street where, of course, there were little if any students. I managed to hand out a few more packets, and the same security guard retrieved them.

     Our next stop was WOODBRIDGE SENIOR ELEMENTARY (seventh and eighth grades). Again, Lydia and I separated to reach as many kids as possible. I stood at the rear exit, and she walked around to the front of the school. After successfully distributing literature to about 100 students, I was approached by a mother of one of the students. She was a large, overweight woman in her late thirties dressed in pink, and she was in a fit of anger. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE GIVING THIS MATERIAL TO MY 13-YEAR- OLD DAUGHTER?" (The daughter was obviously embarrassed as she stood silently by as her mother began to yell.) When she asked me if I had permission from the school, I decided to stop talking to her and turned away because she was so irate. Apparently, she then decided to confront Lydia as she walked around to the front of the school. When the woman told her that if her daughter got pregnant, she would make her daughter have an abortion, Lydia told her about all the harm she would be doing to her. "WHAT ABOUT HAVING THE BABY?" the woman asked, implying it would be more harmful. Lydia told her that having the baby would be a positive thing. .

     Later when the LIFE LINE phone began ringing off the hook, I assumed it was the woman in the pink dress or some other angry mother. "I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE PERSON WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALS AT WOODSIDE," the female voice at the other end of the line demanded. "I REALLY DONT HAVE TO ANSWER YOU," I said. "THIS IS AN ANONYMOUS HOT LINE FOR PREGNANT GIRLS." "WELL, I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT A WOMAN WAS FORCING THE LITERATURE ON THE STUDENTS." "I KNOW THATS NOT TRUE," I answered. "THE WOMEN WHO DISTRIBUTE LITERATURE ARE GOOD CHRISTIANS. I REALIZE THIS IS A HOT ISSUE AND THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO DONT AGREE WITH US, BUT THATS JUST THE WAY IT IS," I said. "WELL, I'LL JUST HAVE TO CALL MY ATTORNEY," she said as she hung up.

I spent almost three hours on a beautiful day in April leafleting between 500 and 600 cars. They were all parked along the street around STANISLAUS UNIVERSITY in rural Turlock 20 minutes south of Modesto off the 99 Freeway. In order to avoid getting too hot and tired, I stopped after the first 1 ½ hours and had lunch at McDonalds. When I was returning to my car, I noticed someone had taken off the literature from six of the parked cars and had thrown the packets in the street. I picked them up and put them back on the cars. (I wondered why the person hadnt been more ambitious and continued to remove them from all the cars.) The lunch break was a good idea because it cooled me off and gave me a spurt of energy to face the hot afternoon sun.

     One girl (possibly not a student) opened her car window as I approached her as she was standing on the sidewalk. She had a small baby in a car seat already in the car. "WOULD YOU LIKE SOME PRO-LIFE LITERATURE?" I asked. "WELL, IM PRO-CHOICE, she answered, BUT I STILL WOULD LIKE TO SEE WHAT YOURE DISTRIBUTING." At that point I began a short conversation with her, immediately telling her that God says abortion is wrong and that pro-choice is really "pro-death". I asked her whether she believed in God. She gave me a quizzical look and said she wasnt sure although she came from "a religious background". The hardness in this young womans heart was evident in the expression on her face and in her whole manner. I asked her whether she had ever read the Bible. She said she had. "TRY READING IT AGAIN WITH YOUR HEART INSTEAD OF YOUR HEAD," I told her. Then she remarked that the truth can probably be found in many ways. "JESUS SAID, I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE", I answered. "WITHOUT A RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST, YOURE NOT GOING TO HEAVEN," I said to her as she was about to enter her car. As I walked away I said, "SOMEDAY WHEN YOURE IN REAL TROUBLE, YOURE GOING TO CALL OUT TO HIM, AND THATS WHEN YOULL FIND HIM," I said.

     I went to Stockton on Thursday, March 5, leafleting about 350 cars parked around the COLLEGE OF THE PACIFIC. I kept to the streets. After that I went to LINCOLN HIGH and SIERRA MID SCHOOL, adjoining schools. The kids were coming out together so it was a good opportunity to reach both schools at the same time. After a while a police car suddenly stopped beside me and the cop asked to see a sample of our literature. About that time I had stepped on turf around the school to hand someone the literature. He accused me of being on school property. I apologized. Next he was on his radio speaking to someone at headquarters obviously describing the literature. At that point I told him I was going on the campus to pick up a few packets that had been scattered on school property. As I was picking up the literature, I turned around and the police car was gone.

     A few days later LIFE LINE received a letter from the LINCOLN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT in Stockton, CA which was laughable because it was riddled with misinformation regarding my fifteen-minute stop there. I quote Paragraph 2 of that letter: "On Thursday, February 27, a representative of LIFE LINE was distributing literature to the middle school children of this school district. (I was distributing to the high school and the middle school.) Since it is against our policy to allow the distribution of materials on or adjacent to school property, our security officers asked her to move across the street. (There were no security officers there and at no time was I asked to move across the street.) Your representative complied with our request. However, the principal of the school reported to me that on Friday, February 28, your representative returned to the school side of the street and continued to distribute information. (TOTAL FABRICATION I did not return the next day nor any other day.) Security was again notified but by the time they arrived the woman was gone."

     I filed this unanswered letter in our file of letters from school officials which we receive on occasion after distributing literature at a school.

I waited for the 3:15 dismissal at MCCLATCHY HIGH where five city busses were parked, one behind the other, on a busy street in Sacramento. As I stood there, I was amused by a boy waiting in front of the school with his bike. When I approached him, he commented: "I DONT WANT ANY OF YOUR FACIST CHRISTIAN LITERATURE!" He had a large hole in his ear lobe with an enormous earring dangling from it.

     Many kids boarded the busses. They were a mixture of races, but predominately white. I stood there at least twenty minutes waiting for the stragglers coming out of the school. As I talked to three black girls who were studying the literature and making comments to each other, one of them exclaimed, "LOOK AT THAT!" with an incredulous look, as she pointed to the picture of a garbage can full of aborted babies. "WHAT DO THEY TEACH YOU HERE ON THE SUBJECT OF ABORTION?" I asked. "NOTHING," all of them replied.

After distributing packets of literature to students at the corner crossing of IRVINGTON HIGH SCHOOL, I made my way across a parking lot to a group of tough kids "hanging around" at lunchtime. There was the usual animosity displayed by rebellious teenagers. They all seemed to be pro-abortion except for one spunky girl who told me she agreed with me in a loud voice so that all the kids could hear and then shouted, "THESE KIDS ARE MY FRIENDS, BUT I’M ASHAMED OF THE WAY THEY ARE ACTING!" One young man, in particular, kept asking me to leave, and I told him I wasn’t about to be scared off by him, that I had a perfect right to say anything I wanted to say. He finally started to ask some questions about abortion, the usual cut-and-dried queries about rape and adoption. Another young fellow stomped the ground with his foot and along with some obscenities demanded that I go away. All the while I was making my points on why abortion is wrong and was witnessing to them about their relationship with Jesus. Just before the bell rang, the girl who told me she was on my side came up to me and asked for more literature, which was her way of showing support.

     The last person I talked to was a pretty brunette girl with lots of makeup and a vulgar mouth. She was burning with hostility. She, too, asked me to leave, saying she didn’t believe in God, etc. When I asked her whether she had a Christian mother, she gave me a piercing look and said, "MY MOTHER DOESN’T WANT ME." "OH, THAT’S TOO BAD," I said to her, giving her a sympathetic look. Her glance back to me was full of hate. I walked away saying, "HEY, WHY DON’T YOU GIVE LOVE A TRY?" Just at that moment a middleaged man was dumping out wastebaskets in a large bin in the parking lot. He had, apparently, been listening to our conversation. He gave me a little smile as much as to say, "I’M ON YOUR SIDE."

     Later that afternoon I passed out literature at WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL in Fremont. I got there a little early and began a conversation with a few kids waiting across the street from the school. The subject of abortion immediately opened the door to the Gospel. I told them the only way to Heaven was through Jesus Christ. There was no other way. One boy asked, "I’M A MOSLEM. WHAT ABOUT ME?" I told him that EVERYONE must accept Jesus. "YOU MEAN ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS JUST ASK JESUS TO COME INTO OUR HEARTS?" one girl asked. "NO, IT’S MORE THAN THAT," I answered. "YOU’VE GOT TO REALLY MEAN IT." When I started quoting the Bible to them, they asked me how I knew the Bible was true. "WHEN CHRIST LIVES IN YOUR HEART, YOU KNOW," I answered. "GOD BLESS YOU1’ I said to them as I crossed the street to WASHINGTON HIGH.

     As I began to pass out literature at dismissal time, a large man (security) approached me and told me to move away from "his campus." I told him I was on the public sidewalk and that I had a right to distribute literature. As I was about to pull out the paper I had regarding my Constitutional rights, he turned around and walked away. He stood in the parking lot with his back to me and didn’t pursue the matter any further. When I was through, I walked back across the street to find the same boys still standing there. One boy who had stood out from the rest because of all the questions he was asking, greeted me with, "WELL, HERE’S THE RELIGION LADY AGAIN!" "YOU’VE GOT IT WRONG," I told him. "IT’S NOT A RELIGION, IT’S A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS." I pulled out a tract from my pocket and handed it to him, "THE NEW BIRTH." He accepted it.

Anne Potje and I drove through an unusually congested freeway to the island city of Alameda. The first school we leafleted was "Catholic" ST JOSEPH’S HIGH where we were harassed by school officials. At first there was no trouble and we managed to distribute a large amount of literature. After about five minutes the principal came out and began to question me. I finally told him that I didn’t want to be rude to him, but I really didn’t have anything further to discuss as we were within our legal rights to distribute literature on the public sidewalk and we were going to continue to do it. He quickly commandeered at least four teachers who began to take the literature from the students’ hands as soon as Anne and I passed it out. When we finally crossed the street, they continued their tactics. When I suggested to one of the teachers (he seemed so happy to be opposing us) that he was pro-abortion, he told me that he could "sue me for defamation or character!" We have leafleted ST. JOSEPH’S on an annual basis for many years, so the school administration must be aware of our legal rights. I asked one of the teachers, "DOESN’T IT BOTHER YOU THAT A GIRL FROM YOUR SCHOOL MIGHT HAVE AN ABORTION BECAUSE YOU ARE TAKING THIS LITERATURE AWAY FROM HER AND SHE IS NOT BEING INFORMED?" He didn’t answer me and, apparently, wasn’t bothered by what I said by the expression on his face. Anne Potje asked one of the students why he thought the teachers were harassing us. "OH," he said, "THEY JUST DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT (ABORTION)."

     We hurriedly drove over to ALAMEDA HIGH SCHOOL to catch the students when they were coming back from lunch. There is a lot of hardness at this school. Some have a flippant attitude about God bordering on the blasphemous. One girl, in particular-a tall, attractive brunette-walking with a couple of male students, was verbally abusive. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING - PLAYING GOD?" she exclaimed when I told her that belief in abortion could send her to Hell. She gave the usual pro-death comments "YOU’VE NO BUSINESS TELLING ME WHAT TO DO WITH MY BODY." Her words were interlaced with profanity. I had the feeling she was listening when I let her know that if she had an abortion (which she strongly supported) that she had to ask God’s forgiveness.

     Our next stop was ALAMEDA COLLEGE where we leafleted about 400 cars with no trouble. The following week I received two interesting phone calls from female students as a result of our visit. CHIPMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL was uneventful and finally ENCINAL HIGH. A tough heavyset woman security guard approached us after we had been leafleting for about five minutes and asked us to move away from the front of the school. We stood our ground telling her that it was our Constitutional right to distribute literature on the public sidewalk. As we were leaving, we were approached by a woman teacher who told us in a polite way that we shouldn’t be passing out materials to the students.