There are certain things Mannix Gonzalez will remember from his four years at Mountain Empire High School. Rain hitting his head in class. Showering in his shoes because the locker room drains overflowed.
School canceled for water pump failures, drinking water contamination and wildfire evacuations. The wind wearing away the school walls to little more than thin plywood. All his life, Mannix attended school in the vast Mountain Empire Unified School District in rural East County.
Since he was a toddler, this has been home for the redhead with a black cap and a frankness that makes adults laugh and think. Both of his parents work for the school district — his mom as an executive assistant, his dad as a maintenance technician. He has friends here; he appreciates his teachers.
But Mountain Empire’s facilities have been failing for years, and failing them. “Our experiences are: We don’t get to come to school because it’s windy. Our experiences are: There’s E.
Coli in our water, so we got no school,” he said. Mannix wanted people outside his small, rural community to see what was happening to him and his schoolmates. So last December, he began making a documentary about his school’s conditions and the toll they have taken on students and staff.
Since he graduated in June, Mannix has joined the U.S. Forest Service.
But he hopes his film will somehow help his alma mater. “I want to spread awareness, raise money — obviously rebuild the high school,” he said. “.