Kern graduates keep in touch via new Web site

Kathy Cooper, Taft High class of 1984, reconnected with the student body president after 18 years and ended up marrying him.

That's a sampling of the surprises culled from Kernalumni.com, a Web site for Kern high school graduates launched last month by three local grads.

Users can log onto the site to view and post pictures and mini-profiles, check reunion information and engage in free-wheeling discussion forums, all for free.

People have registered with the site from Germany, Japan and Antarctica. Members range from Pete Gianopulos, Taft High class of 1942, to Sherrie Hopper, a self-described "ultimate drama freak" from the South High class of 2004.

Scott Peaker is a regular in the discussion forums, where he posts as many as eight messages a day. Peaker spent four years at South High in the early 1980s. Now, from his home outside Tokyo, he says his visits to the site are one of his most constant ties to his hometown.

"I feel like I'm right there, even though I'm actually on the other side of the Pacific," Peaker said.

The site was created by Brian Jones, 28; Michael Lowe, 37; and Hao Ngo, 29; three friends who met at Aera Energy four years ago and who have been building and maintaining the site in their spare time since.

Ngo said they were inspired by Classmates.com, the hugely popular national Web site, but wanted to create a local alternative without the fees.

The site's creators say its appeal stems from the peculiar power of high school itself, with its potent mix of trauma, euphoria and youth.

"You spend four years, but for some reason, in our society it's a really important four years," said Jones, Stockdale High class of 1994. "You're figuring out who you're going to be."

Many Kernalumni.com users were carried over from older sites Ngo and Lowe created for their alma maters, South High and Taft High respectively. But after little more than a month, the new site is thriving, with more than 2,070 registered users.

"In high school, you have so many friendships. But people go separate ways," Lowe said. "A lot of those friendships are lost."

The most active section of the site are discussion forums that include updates on how hometowns have changed, such as the fate of favorite burger joints and hang-out spots, and wide-ranging political debates about the presidential election and gay marriage.

Matthew Kimberlin, South High class of 1994, lives in a suburb of Portland, and said the site has helped him stay in the loop when he couldn't make his 10-year reunion several weeks ago.

"The funny thing is," Kimberlin said, "many of us seem to be becoming stronger friends now, even separated by distance ..."

And of course, the discussion occasionally escalates into trademark high school soap opera, such as a thread in which users confess their secret high school crushes.

Twenty years ago at Taft High, Kathy Cooper, then known as Kathy Campbell, said she harbored one of those crushes for Eric Cooper. She was band president, he was the boy next door and student body president. Kathy said they were friends but lost touch after graduation.

Two years ago, Kathy came across the Taft High School site, and found Eric Cooper on it. Kathy, now a sixth-grade teacher in Shafter, invited Eric to an office Christmas party, and their fates were sealed. Married since March, they joke now about the past.

"He said I was the ugly duckling that grew up," Cooper said.