NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.

Neurofeedback program at CSUSB Palm Desert Campus receives $20,000 grant
Uken Report
July 13, 2021

The Anderson Children’s Foundation has awarded a $20,000 grant to the Neurofeedback Center at Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus to treat children in the Coachella Valley adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

CSUSB’s Neurofeedback Center will be partnering with school districts in the Coachella Valley to provide innovative mental health services to children whose mental well-being has been adversely affected by the global pandemic.

The funds will be used to extend the university’s neurofeedback program to students at greatest need in the Coachella Valley, and will provide additional neurofeedback services to 100 children per year, significantly improving the quality of life of the children receiving these services.

“Anxiety and depression levels decrease, academic performance improves, behavioral interventions decrease, and the overall positive outcomes enhance the lives of the children, their parents, their teachers, and the community as a whole,” said Connie McReynolds, director of the Institute for Research, Assessment & Professional Development, and professor of special education rehabilitation and counseling at CSUSB.

The Desert Charity News (DCNews) website picked up the article on July 13, 2021: “CSUSB Palm Desert Campus receives $20,000 grant for neurofeedback program.”

The Palm Desert Patch also published the article on July 13, 2021: “Kids Impacted By COVID-19 Get Help In Coachella Valley.”

CSUSB Palm Desert Campus receives $20,000 grant for neurofeedback program
NBC Palm Springs
July 13, 2021

The Palm Desert Campus of Cal State San Bernardino was awarded $20,000 by a local nonprofit to deliver mental health treatment to children in the Coachella Valley affected by the coronavirus pandemic, it was announced Tuesday.

The Palm Springs-based Anderson Children’s Foundation gifted the funds to expand CSUSB’s Neurofeedback Center, which will now be able to provide brain training therapy to an additional 100 students each year.

Connie McReynolds, a psychologist and the center’s director, said children often experience a plethora of benefits after receiving therapy at the center.

“Anxiety and depression levels decrease, academic performance improves, behavioral interventions decrease, and the overall positive outcomes enhance the lives of the children, their parents, their teachers, and the community as a whole,” she said.

KESQ TV also picked up the story on July 13, 2021: “CSUSB Palm Desert Campus receives $20K grant to deliver mental health treatment to children affected by the pandemic.”

Part 4 of CSUSB professor’s series of columns focuses on a user’s guide to social distance
Psychology Today
July 12, 2021

Anthony Silard, CSUSB associate professor of public administration, in the fourth installment of his series on “When You Want to Be Closer Than They Do,” wrote about how being able to read others’ social needs, including time apart, can create an environment of trust and closeness.

He wrote in his blog, “The Art of Living Free,” “The more we can detach from the perpetually shifting social distance in each of our relationships and recognize this out-and-back process for what it is—a ubiquitous theme on our social stage—the more we become what the British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion refers to as a ‘container’ for the emotions of others.”

Read the complete article at “When You Want to Be Closer Than They Do.”

CSUSB professor comments on college student facing hate crime charge after she stomped on a ‘Back the Blue’ sign
The Daily Beast
July 12, 2021

Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, was quoted in an article about a 19-year-old college student, Lauren Gibson, who was charged with a hate crime by a Utah sheriff’s deputy after she stomped on and trashed a rusted “Back the Blue” sign following a traffic stop.

Gibson was arrested by a sheriff’s deputy and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief with a hate-crime enhancement for her attempt to “intimidate law enforcement,” according to a probable-cause affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast. Experts familiar with Utah’s laws say they believe the hate crime charge is a stretch at best.

Levin said he could see how Utah’s law might “at its greatest elastic stretch” allow for a “misapplication” of the statute in the case of Gibson. But he was doubtful her case would go very far. “I think any decent prosecutor would decline the charges,” he said.

Read the complete article at “How a 19-year-old got charged with a hate crime for teasing a cop.”

 

The CSUSB Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism’s latest research on hate crimes against Asian Americans was cited in the following:  

 

Illinois becomes first state to make teaching Asian American history mandatory
Romper
July 14, 2021

Illinois has become the first state to require all public schools include Asian American history in their curriculum following a year in which hate crimes against Asians and Asian Americans spiked dramatically. Under the Teaching Equitable Asian American History (TEAACH) Act, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law last week, every public elementary and high school in Illinois must educate students on Asian American history and, specifically, the history of Asian Americans in the Midwest and Illinois. …

Illinois’ new law comes shortly after data analysis from the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that anti-Asian hate crimes jumped 169% from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.

 

'I pray that I will never have to use these practices': Elderly Asian Americans learn to fight back
Daily Kos
July 13, 2021

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a string of attacks against the Asian American Pacific Islander community, especially the elderly. According to Stop AAPI Hate, the total number of anti-Asian incidents reported during the pandemic last year has doubled by March alone. In California, the increase is even higher. A new report from the state’s Department of Justice found that hate crimes against Asian Americans in California increased by over 100% in 2020. …

While xenophobia against the AAPI community is not a new phenomenon, the rate at which these crimes are increasing is more alarming with every data report released. Hate crime data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino found that hate crimes against Asian Americans surged in 2020 in at least 15 cities, Daily Kos reported. As the cities were further reviewed, a new report indicated that crimes against Asian Americans rose by 169% when comparing the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.

 

The DOJ only prosecutes 17% of hate crime suspects, a damning new report says
Mic
July 12, 2021

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report on federal hate crime prosecutions from 2005-2019. The report examined 1,878 suspected hate crime cases and found that only 17% of them were prosecuted. In other words, during that time frame, the DOJ failed to prosecute 82% of hate crime cases, with the report stating that insufficient evidence was most often the reason why U.S. attorneys decided not to move forward with a case. (The other 1% of cases were tossed by judges.)

The report is particularly disturbing given that it comes less than a year after the Federal Bureau of Investigations found that hate crimes in the U.S. reached the highest level in more than a decade. In addition, communities of color have been under increased attack lately. For example, a study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino found that reports of anti-Asian hate crimes surged in early 2021, with many attributing the attacks to xenophobia following the coronavirus pandemic.

These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”