Elaine Dang/Courtesy

Elaine Dang thought she was going to die.

Caught in the middle of a siege that would later become Kenya’s deadliest terrorist attack since 1998, the UC Berkeley alumna found herself huddling under a counter, trying to make herself invisible to the gunmen attacking Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall.

“It was this weird kind of competition in my mind where half of my mind was preparing for death and the other half was still yearning to survive,” Dang said in an interview with The Daily Californian earlier this week.

Dang, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2009, had come to Nairobi a little more than a year before the attack to work at Bridge International Academies, a for-profit company that builds primary schools in Kenya. Since April 2013, she had been transitioning into a role as general manager for Eat Out Kenya, a Yelp-like startup.

That day — Saturday, Sept. 21 — she was simply trying to judge a children’s cooking competition.

Everything changed with an explosion. About 12:40 p.m., terrorists from the Somali militant group al-Shabab stormed the mall, throwing grenades and shooting indiscriminately. The mall, popular with families and expats, quickly became a war zone.

Dang sensed a large crowd would be an easy target and made the split-second decision to hide under a nearby kitchen counter. She collapsed on top of a woman already hiding and crouched in fear as more people dived on top of her, looking for similar shelter.

As gunshots fired from all directions, the woman beneath her wailed, blood streaming from a fresh wound. The woman was one of more than 170 people injured that day. That total included Dang, who was hit by shrapnel just moments later while sprinting to a different counter.

Bleeding and running on adrenaline, Dang found herself next to a man and his wife, both of whom had been hit.

“Are we going to die?” the wife asked her hysterically.

“I told her, ‘yes,’ ” Dang said. “ ‘I think we are going to die.’ ”

Dang, whose friends describe her as deeply rational, strategized quickly and feigned death. She lay down facing the militants, knowing that if she were shot in the back, it would mean paralysis.

Surrounded by limp bodies, Dang lay there helplessly.

As the gunshots subsided an hour after the attack began, several men charged in to usher the victims to safety.

“I was actually so thrilled that I started crying,” Dang said, recalling her emotions upon making it outside.

Finally safe, Dang was rushed to a hospital and treated for two shrapnel wounds in her leg and arm. Christopher Suen, who knows Dang from her time at Bridge International, met her at the hospital.

“She was physically screwed up, covered in her own blood, but she understood people around her were much more injured,” Suen said. “She was taking it so rationally.”

Halfway around the world, Mary Dang was buying coffee on a routine Saturday morning when she received a terrified phone call from her sister.

Dang was hysterical.

“She was screaming and crying; we were both very emotional,” Mary Dang said. “It was kind of a blur.”

Elaine Dang visits a Bridge International Academies school in Kenya.

Although nearly three weeks have passed since the attack, Dang is still grappling with her experience mentally and emotionally. She has returned to her home in California and is recovering with her family.

“During the day, I’m composed, but I have crying episodes and very emotional times,” Dang said. Nonetheless, she says, she is on a “positive road to recovery.”

Dang says she wants to return to Kenya, a country she considers her second home, to visit close friends who still live there. Seeing how the country has come together in the wake of the disaster despite its ethnic differences has been heartening, she said.

“It was a beautiful thing to see,” Dang said.

Dang is uninsured in the United States and is unable to afford her medical expenses. The Dang family has set up a fundraising website to collect donations to pay for continuing care. Extra funds will be donated to the Kenyan Red Cross.

“Elaine is the kind of gal that when she walks into a room, everyone hears her voice,” Suen said. “She’s a phenomenal person, a great example of the kinds of alums you get out of Berkeley.”

Contact Giacomo Toginini at gtognini@dailycal.org.

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Anthony Bongco/Staff

Berkeley Unified School District’s truancy rate is significantly higher than the state’s average for the 2011-12 academic year.

In a 2013 report, state Attorney General Kamala Harris raised concerns that a trend of rising truancy rates across the state could lead to a rise in high school dropouts, with dropouts costing the state $46 billion a year.

Truancy is defined as a student’s missing at least half an hour of class without an excuse at least three times in one academic year, according to the California Department of Education. About six out of every 10 students in the Berkeley school district are truants.

The district’s truancy rate, which is 60.2 percent in the 2011-12 academic year, is far higher than the state average of 28.5 percent during the same time period, the department’s website states.

According to the report, 82 percent of prisoners in the United States are high school dropouts.

Despite these truancy statistics, Reaa Puri, a former Berkeley High student and current freshman at UC Berkeley, believes the situation is actually far less serious.

“I don’t think truancy is correlated with a rise in crime,” Puri said. “There are students who skip school due to already having gotten into colleges.”

Over the past few years, the school district has developed new approaches to resolve the problem. New measures include an automatic system that informs parents when their children are absent, as well as changes in the way students are punished for truancy, said Karen Hemphill, president of the school board.

Two years ago, students’ grades dropped by one letter if they had five unexcused absences, according to Hemphill. Now, truants are barred from attending events, such as prom or gamedays, and are given opportunities to make up for the hours they lost by attending Saturday school.

“It’s like ‘The Breakfast Club’ — but they actually do work,” said Hemphill.

Chronic truants are referred to the School Attendance Review Board, where school administrators engage with students and parents to discuss the underlying issues for the truancy and to work together to create a solution. The SARB can also report a student — or, in the case of elementary school truancy, a family — to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

Currently, the school is partnering with Berkeley Police Department and implementing increased security at campus entrances to help staunch rising truancy rates. If the police sees a student under 16 outside of class during school hours, they will escort the student back to school, Hemphill said.

“There is a message now on campus about going to class,” she said.

Contact Giacomo Toginini at gtognini@dailycal.org.

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Police responded to reports that the man was stabbing himself in an attempt to commit suicide. While the attempt was unsuccessful, the man sustained injuries that police said could have been prevented had they been equipped with tasers.

This is not the first time the association, a labor organization that represents officers and sergeants, has advocated allowing Berkeley police to carry tasers. Earlier this spring, they conducted a survey, which showed that more than 80 percent of Berkeley residents supported taser use by police.

“None of us want to see a mentally ill person suffering,” said the association’s president, Sgt. Chris Stines. “A taser is not pleasant but has an extremely low likelihood of causing injury or death.”

Currently, the city of Berkeley does not allow its police force to carry tasers. Police instead are armed with batons, firearms and pepper spray, Stines said.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, whose officers are equipped with tasers, has said tools are effective as a nonlethal use of force in dangerous situations.

While community members generally support the use of the devices, Berkeley Copwatch, a local organization that seeks to hold city police accountable, has been vocal about its opposition to the idea.

“There is a tendency to use tasers as a form of punishment to people,” said Copwatch volunteer Russell Bates. “Police officers are too quick on the draw to use tasers.”

In its opposition, Berkeley Copwatch cites an Amnesty International report showing that between 2001 and 2012, there were more than 500 taser-related deaths in the United States, at least 92 of which were in California.

Bates said that communication as well as mental-health teams from the community would be far more successful in resolving delicate situations that could otherwise result in injury or death. The probability of death becomes higher if the victim is intoxicated, is on drugs or has pre-existing cardiac conditions, he said.

When the Berkeley Police Association’s survey was sent out in the spring, Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson expressed opposition to the use of tasers in Berkeley on these same grounds.

Any change to the police department’s taser policy would need to come before the City Council and be voted upon — although no item has yet been introduced.

Councilmembers Gordon Wozniak and Darryl Moore said they are moderately in favor of equipping police with tasers, although they stressed the need for strict regulations and a lengthy discussion before any policy change is implemented.

“I’d rather be tased than shot,” Moore said. “There needs to be very clear policy on engagement of force.”

Contact Giacomo Toginini at gtognini@dailycal.org.

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Senate Bill 135 enables the development of a system to notify residents at least one minute prior to an earthquake. Methods of notification are still unclear, but State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, the main sponsor of the bill, has proposed using Amber Alerts and smartphone apps as well as halting transportation as means of ensuring public safety.

The estimated initial cost to build the system is $80 million for the first five years.

During an earthquake, energy radiates from faults in two phases. The first phase, called P-waves, is low-amplitude and causes no damage. The second phase, S-waves, causes damage through shaking. While the system does not predict earthquakes, it detects P-waves and estimates the magnitude before it strikes, warning residents in the area.

For the past two years, UC Berkeley has been running a successful demonstration system, said Richard Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. Researchers at the lab contributed extensively to the project.

“This is a big deal for UC Berkeley,” Allen said. “This is a great example of how fundamental research at a university can produce a real public good.”

Berkeley is located near the San Andreas Fault, a prominent earthquake-prone zone. Another one, the Hayward Fault, runs behind Clark Kerr Campus and underneath Memorial Stadium.

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services now has until January 1, 2016, to find sufficient funds for the system, according to California Newswire.

Allen said Padilla has suggested a variety of sources, including federal grants and bond measures.

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Katherine Velaski/File

Several areas of Tilden Regional Park will be closed to the public between October 2013 and February 2014 due to maintenance work to improve the safety and efficiency of the Tilden Nature Area, according to an East Bay Regional Park District press release.

Areas that will be closed for the duration of the project include Tilden Little Farm, Indian Camp and Big Leaf picnic area. The Environmental Education Center will remain open, but its hours will be restricted to 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Tuesday through Sunday.

Some trails may have detour signs or be closed altogether to visitors, the press release states.

The development plan is a part of a fund approved by 72 percent of voters in Alameda and Contra Costa counties in 2008 under the Measure WW bond. Some of the $500 million provided by the bond extension will go toward modernizing the sewage system of the park, including removing abandoned tanks and installing a pump control panel.

The measure, named the “Regional Open Space, Wildlife, Shoreline, and Parks Bond Extension,” aims to preserve and extend the East Bay’s natural parks and wildlife areas.

According to the press release, the nearly $1 million project will enhance the security of the sanitation services for visitors. The nature area, popular among UC Berkeley students, is a 2,079-acre regional park in the Berkeley Hills.

Contact Giacomo Toginini at gtognini@dailycal.org.

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