She was two hours late to our meeting, but she was squeezing me into her already tight schedule. Dolores Sheen was about to hold one of two press conferences about a new endeavor Sheenway School was embarking on. Yet she managed to make me feel like I was the most important person she was going to see that day. And just a few hours before, Dolores was painting a classroom. Hey, somebody had to do it.

"Aunt Dolores", as she is known to her 120 students, is head mistress, publicist, spokesperson, fund-raiser, executive director, part-time cook and coordinator of Sheenway School and Cultural Center in Watts, which is located in south central Los Angeles, California.

In 1970, the black community in Watts finally lost its patience and its temper. People were tired of feeling as if they were second class citizens. The community was deprived of the same opportunities white people had everyday in neighborhoods that were just a stone's throw away. After the police arrested a black man for a minor traffic violation, the combination of the arrest, a very hot summer day, and people at the end of their rope caused an explosion of anger. Stores, homes, and businesses were looted and burned to the ground. Police fought with people in the streets. Many on both sides were injured and killed. When the riots ended days later, Watts was practically destroyed. This was the original Los Angeles riot.

Dolores' father, Dr. Herbert Sheen, had an office in Watts, and for some reason it was not touched by the madness. "He built the office from scratch," remembers Dolores, "and I think that was the rationale behind the rioters not destroying it. Because if you had enough money to build something, you certainly didn't have to build it in Watts."

Dr. Sheen decided the only way to prevent such a horrible incident from happening again was through education. By educating the community, you'd give them the skills they needed to go out into the world and make their own opportunities. He decided to start a school. "I asked, `What kind of school?'" Dolores recalls. "He said preschool, because we have to start early. He talked to everyone in the family, and the members wanted to know how much they were going to get paid. He told them there was not going to be any money, so no one thought it was it was a good idea. I thought it was great!

Dr. Sheen wanted to expose children to things they might not hear or see in their own community. Dolores developed her ideas from a woman who was the first director they hired for the school. In typical Dolores fashion they met because Dolores needed to get involved.

"There was this family huddled together in front of their house while these black children were throwing garbage and stuff at them and at the building. I passed by and said, 'What is going on?' The kids pointed at the family and said, 'These white people are moving into our neighborhood.'

Dolores calmed the group down and went to talk with the woman protecting her family. "The woman told me she was from Africa and owned a Montessori school. She was East Indian and was born and raised in Africa." Her family had fled her homeland in Africa because it had been overthrown. Her husband was in San Diego looking for a job.

"I came out and said to the kids, 'Look, these people are African. These people are blacker than you are.' The kids looked at the this light skinned family in disbelief. I said, 'Yes! These are real Africans.' They didn't have any trouble after that."

The woman invited Dolores to visit her school, which she did. Dolores learned a lot from those visits. "The Montessori technique is amazing. It is such a relaxed way of teaching. I was very impressed. I took the Montessori course and got my teaching credentials. My Montessori teaching skills, and my medical background, produced a very different kind of educational technique. That is what created the Sheen Experience. It's like my father always said, he didn't care what kind of method we used, as long as we taught the children how to think."

After spending a couple of years in preschool at Sheenway, the children's parents didn't want to send them to public schools to continue their education, so Dolores and her father added first and second grades. Every year it would be the same thing; they constantly added grade levels, until finally they got to grade eight.

Dolores has also extended the world away from the classroom. Teaching and learning at Sheenway is not only ABC's and math. There is a small animal barnyard with farm animals. Pigs, goats, chickens, dogs, and rabbits. The animals are not just pets--the children are responsible for the feeding and everyday care of the animals. All of the instructors are volunteers from various fields. "We have a Chinese studies teacher, a French chef, architects, a wonderful artist, a violin teacher, and various computer specialists. All of these people come willing to teach the children. They have a feeling of being able to share what they have accomplished in life, and to watch the learning experience grow. They eventually become attached to the children and to the experience.

The classes are small at Sheenway, typically there are ten to fifteen students, so there is plenty of time for individual attention. Dolores' goal is to treat each child as an individual with special needs. Most of the kids attending Sheenway are from low income families. Several of them are former gang members Dolores has personally rescued from the streets.

All the students at Sheenway must pay a nominal tuition to attend. Those who can't are usually sponsored by local businesses or private citizens. All students' parents are required to give some time to Sheenway to offset the expenses that keep the school running, because keeping the doors open is always tough. Dolores Sheen has already mortgaged her home to pay off debts to keep the school operational.

The classes that are part of the Sheenway program reflect the idea of incorporating the unusual with the usual. Classes like karate. "From the very beginning we had the karate school, because martial arts has many disciplines that are lacking in today's fractured family. Martial arts teaches you to respect everything and to be respected. It also teaches you to use more of your mind than your body, because without using your mind you can't use your body effectively. You learn how to concentrate, and how to finish a task. All these are very important disciplines."

Dolores' introduction to martial arts came after her divorce. When her youngest son complained of being picked on constantly, she knew she needed to teach him how to defend himself. Dolores began taking karate, deciding she could learn martial arts while teaching her son at the same time.

"It was horrible, they beat me up every day, they were big dudes." Even so, Dolores earned a black belt and realized the benefit the discipline of karate would have on her students. "Karate is required here. I've found that the discipline will last forever. I am very strict but I am also very loving."

And somehow, Sheenway keeps growing.

"These two girls begged me to open a high school at Sheenway. I told them we simply didn't have the money to do it. I thought you needed to have a big football field and all the rest! 'Aunt Dolores, please! We're not learning anything at our school. I want to go to college-- please! Please!' I said, 'Okay, I'll call and find out what to do,' but I just knew they were going to say it was impossible.

"I called the Superintendent of Private schools, I'll never forget his name. Mr. Milner. I said, `This is Dolores of Sheenway School. What do you have to do to open a high school?' He said, 'Sheenway School?' I said, 'Yes.' He told me, "If Sheenway puts a high school sign on the roof, we will okay it because we know what you're trying to do.'

"I said, 'Oh my God.'"

She has many success stories. Two are Chunga and Miracle, two young men who at fifteen and fourteen years of age got out of the street gangs, thanks to Aunt Dolores.

When someone painted graffiti on a wall of the Sheenway school, a building gangs never touched, Dolores got mad. It was the first time this had ever happened and she was determined to find out who did it. Walking through the housing project near the school she confronted a group of gang members in a stair-well. "You better get out of here old lady," someone told her. "You're gonna get hurt!"

"Young man," she said to the one who stepped up, "I know you wouldn't talk to your mother that way. I am easily old enough to be your mother. Now, somebody damaged my property. The colors represent your gang so I know it was one of your homeboys. I want to find out who it was and if you don't watch your attitude with me you'll wish you mother was here."

Dolores remembers the incident. "I was scared. I knew the young man had a gun but I just couldn't let him think he was in charge. I wanted to run out of there so fast. I kept asking myself, what did I think I was doing?" When she left, one of the boys who was standing there watching quietly followed her. Dolores knew he was one of the leaders and she was nervous. The boy, fifteen and the size of a man--a big man--stopped her and told her the problem would be taken care of.

A few days later that young man, named Chunga, became one of Sheenway's students. He was so impressed with Dolores' commitment and courage that he was sure she'd have something to offer him. A few weeks later Chunga convinced a younger friend, Miracle, to join him at Sheenway. They have become two of the school's best examples of how the Sheen program can find and shape the potential of anyone.

At her press conferences, Dolores will explain the upcoming venture--a camping trip with members of rival gangs. She has already convinced a few summer camps to volunteer their facilities. Dolores wants the gang members to realize, that in the real world they would have to depend on one another. That someone wearing colors different could help you when no one else is available. And what goes around, comes around.

The mural on the side of the main building of Sheenway, painted by a former student depicts the face of Herbert Sheen. It seems a contented face, especially when surrounded by the children he has made a place for, children who play in the neighborhood and learn in the school he left his daughter to run.