Stay alive and free
Who: Mr. Bremond
What: Street Soldiers
When: Every Thursday during lunch
Where: Bremond’s class room 650
Why: To stay alive and reduce violence
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Scholarship Websites:
Hope Scholarships & Lifetime Credits
For more scholarships go to West Contra Costa Unified
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Healthcare and students
Many Americans do not have health insurance coverage – either because they are unable to afford it or obtain it. Some students even have to stay out of school in order to care for ill family members. They are often forced to search for employment to pay for their family’s high medical bills.
This issue is having a drastic effect on students, who instead of worrying about health care should be concentrating in school. Students have plenty to worry about: death from disease, general health problems and the H1N1 virus. These Americans will be those who cannot afford health insurance or those that do not know how to get it. Even working Americans who undergo surgical procedures are having to return to work before their recovery period is over in order to pay for their medical bills.
Jeffrey Humble, 16, a Richmond High School student, has medical insurance, but it does not cover everything. He and his family do their best to “stay healthy” and “away from danger.” Although they have no problem paying for the insurance, when they need to visit the doctor they end up receiving a large bill in the mail.
In Victor Velazquez’ family the only insured members are he and his younger brother. His parents do not have health insurance and that is why they try to take good care of themselves to stay as healthy as possible. In their home they have lots of medicine and first aid supplies. Once when Victor was having difficulty breathing they had no other choice but to call an ambulance, In the end cost them around $2,000. “Health comes first,” he said, “So when there’s an emergency we don’t think about how high the bill will be, we think of our health.”
The family of Yahana Armendriz, who is 17 and attends Richmond High School, has no health insurance.“I went to the hospital once because I was feeling really bad,” she said, “They had me wait for a while, and then when they called me in they told me that I would have to wait for a whole week for just one appointment.” Many people are severely sick but are denied treatment by a doctor because they do not have health insurance. What if Yahana had a contagious illness it or in a worst case scenario a deadly condition? It is important that every individual in this nation have health insurance, not just for their personal well being but that of everyone around them. It is a person’s right to be able to see a doctor when they are ill.
Many people like Yahana’s mother, who studied nursing, have to take care of their own families with home remedies or other resources at hand. Yahana, like many other young people, plays sports – in her case soccer. When she gets injured her mother has no choice but to find some way to treat her without going to the doctor.
Luckily there are students who do have health insurance. One of them is Harold Guerra, who is 16. His health insurance plan charges him only $5 for every doctor’s visit. He pays nothing for prescriptions. Other students at Richmond High depend on the Communities in Schools program for STD testing, advice from personal counselors, birth control, sports physicals, eye testing and more. It is like a personal hospital and the best thing about it is that the student’s visits are confidential, so their parents will not find out.
Many Americans desire affordable health care for the future because otherwise there will be more people catching dangerous diseases and dying. This affects not just one person or one group of people, but everyone no matter the age.
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Richmond high school holds candlelight vigil 11-02-09
Mr. Torres, RHS history teacher, opened up the vigil.
By Sandra Hernandez & Alex Ramirez
Richmond High School students, parents, teachers, staff, community members, the principal and the girl’s pastor attended the peace vigil. A lot of support was demonstrated for the victim.
Everyone participated and showed that Richmond is not a community of violence, but a community advocating peace. Principal Franco asks the public to notice that “We are successful [community of] students and the vigil was a good reflection on us.” There are many people who really care about the violence that has been happening in our community and, as a whole, we want to stop it.
The vigil was a very helpful and comfortable event for all of us to get together. Principal Franco also said, “It was well organized.” We held presentations and provided information for students, community, and staff members. It provided an opportunity for everyone to speak out and express their feelings towards the crime that happened after homecoming. Daniel Tinajero, a Richmond High student reflected, “I feel inspired because a lot of people care for a person they don’t know. It’s very cool that we all come together as a community to support others and be united.”
The vigil took place on November 3, 2009 behind of Richmond High School, by the field. Mr. Hill, staff at RHS, says “I think it was a positive, productive event.” The vigil was against violence. We all felt the violence and took it upon ourselves as a community. We did not just place blame on those who were there. The purpose of the vigil was to heal all the pain. We wanted to show that RHS is not a bad school, like the media thinks we are. All students attending RHS are not animals. We are all successful students trying to make a change. We try to progress and make our parents/guardians proud.
Lola Verdin, staff and former graduate of RHS, states “It was a positive event for our community.”
Go Oilers!!
The crowd.
Superintendent Bruce Harder
The lovers.
Principal Franco
The media, of course.
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The generous donation
The Bonfare Market of fine foods donated money towards a new computer lab to help the English Learner population of Richmond High School.
The lab has brand new computers and new desks. Donald Kaplan, President of Bonfare Market, said “I thought the money was needed to help the school and to help people.” New seats are on order. The Bonfare Market donated $17,146.00 and bought 40 computers and desks for the school.
Richmond High School honored the company for helping the school and showed their appreciation by saying thank you and giving them a plaque of honor today, November 13, 2009.
“It feels good that we donated money to the school. I knew that I was going to donate money, but I didn’t know where. I’m happy that the money is going to a good cause, to educate the students of Richmond High,” said Jag Kapoor, of Bonfare Market.
Principal Franco said “We are grateful to our community, thanks to Jag Kapoor and Donald Kaplan!”
By Veronica Rodriguez & Jeffrey Humble
Donald Kaplan being honored for his grateful donation to Richmond High. 11-13-09 RHS photo
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Students speak out-you part of the problem?
It’s simply down to this, do you care and how much do you care?
Students are not stunned by the rape, because there is so much violence in Richmond and not much of it ends up on the news. This unfortunate girl was raped on the campus of Richmond High the night of the homecoming dance. We all feel bad about her tragedy, but if the community really cared this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. People outside of our City already see Richmond as a city with a lot of crime and now we have the news making lies. We are all feeling like criminals. My own sister says that the media called the students of Richmond High animals..animals!!! Did you guys know that back during WWII Richmond was a thriving community. We were like a GEM and now look at it,violence everywhere. What happened along the way? I would submit that people stopped caring. Abel Pineda, an active student at Richmond High said, “If you’re not part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.” So instead of all this lashing out by the media why don’t we show them that the Richmond community can shine like a gem…. again.
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Life Goes On
Life is too short
Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness
Laugh when you can
Apologize when you should
and let go what you can change
Love deeply and forget quickly
Life is too short to be unhappy
Take the good with the bad
Smile when you’re sad
Love what you got and
remember what you had
Keep in mind to forgive
but, to never forget
Learn from your mistakes
and never regret
People change and things go wrong
just remember live goes on..
So live life to the fullest cause tomorrow is not promised
*Sandra.Hernandez*
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Students speak out – parent meeting held at Richmond High School
A meeting was called to address parents concerns about safety. There were media cameras everywhere and photos were being taken. It was held on Saturday, October 31, 2009 from 10:00am to 12:30. The School Board told parents they were going to make the campus safer. From the podium of the little theatre at Richmond High School , parents said comments such as, “my daughter has a 3.5 average and works so hard,” “Richmond High means the world to me,” and “Can you guarantee that are kids are going to be safe in school?’
Principal Franco addressed the parents and stated “We assure security for after school events/programs.” One parent said “Mr. Franco is involved in the problem, but he is not part of the problem.”
Each parent had three minutes to speak their mind. Patrica Bryan, a parent, said “I’m heartbroken. . .” In Spanish, Rosa Pena said “Que las camaras deberian funcionar en la escuela y deberian poner una fenca paque haiga mas seguridad” y “Richmond High tiene muy pokita seguridad” Translated to English, “The school cameras should work and the school should put a fence around for safety. . . .”
Antonio Medrano, School Board memebr, stated they are going to install over 200 cameras on campus. He closed the meeting by thanking the parents for coming and for being concerned for what happen on Saturday, October 24, 2009.
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Students speak out – negative experience
The crime that occurred last Saturday after the Richmond High homecoming dance is a very tragic and unfortunate event. Every single person is somehow affected by this event, from parents, to staff, students, listeners, bystanders, and the poor girl. Parents are extremely unsettled, disturbed and frightened for their children that attend the school. It’s more disturbing knowing this violence occurred on school grounds. But one also has to consider this happened in an isolated, poorly lit parking lot. Students are frightened because they know some of the people that took part in the violence. Students want the public to know this doesn’t reflect the school as a whole. We believe the media is presenting this misconception. “What happened doesn’t mean that all of Richmond is full of pot-head, drunk, bad people,” said David Pation a Richmond High School student. He goes on to say the boys involved didn’t even go to Richmond High School” but the news doesn’t seem to care. The media doesn’t care because “cause after all, it’s Richmond, so why not make us look bad right?”
A tragic event such as this could have occurred anywhere, but because it occurred in Richmond, which has a bad reputation, the media has blown the circumstances out of proportion. This makes the staff, the authorities, and the students look bad. The people that were involved made poor choices. They didn’t think of their actions and how they would affect the school and community. Not all Richmond High students drink, smoke or participate in promiscuous activities. All of us have not committed crimes. Generalizing and stereotyping all students is unethical and wrong.
Despite the grave negative affects this event has caused our school and our community, students believe we can shape it into a positive outcome. A public crime like this one can bring together a community, even a nation. It can unite the school and bring us together.
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Students speak out – harsh media
There probably will be no more homecoming dances at Richmond High School.
With all the negative media attention the school is desperate to have no more stories about our school. “A girl was raped repeatedly . . .with . . .many people witnessing it” as reported by CNN . The media is trying to insinuate that it happened in a very public area, when it really happened in a far corner of a high school. The school is actually fairly big. The distance between the dance and the dark corner where it happen is longer than a football field.
With understaffed security, no lights, no cameras because of no funding, it was bound to happen. It happens everywhere. Girls get raped everyday and everywhere. So why are they picking on our school when we are trying to clean up our image. Probably because the media sees a lot of potential for numbers and therefore, selling papers.
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