Category: News

An online petition has emerged with the start of heat waves to get air-conditioning in every LBUSD classroom. The petition, started by concerned parents on change.org, has received over 9,000 votes in two weeks. The online petition reads: “It is imperative that LBUSD update our buildings and put air conditioning in all of our classrooms. Temperatures have been consistently been rising, and hot weather is lasting well into autumn, in Southern California. Our children can’t be expected to concentrated in conditions like this.” With the start of autumn heat waves, the Long Beach Unified School District has continued to implement the use of minimum days to combat the heat. The minimum days were a feature started last school year While the minimum days are a short-term solution to the excessive heat in classrooms, it does not address the root of the problem: the lack of air-conditioning in every classroom in the school. Newly built schools in LBUSD, such as McBride High School, McBride Academy, and Roosevelt Elementary school feature full air-conditioning in all classrooms. A bond measure is a possible long-term solution to getting air-conditioning in all classrooms. This was the path of action taken by Bellflower Unified School District in 2012. A $79 million bond was approved by BUSD voters that improved overall structural issues with the district, which included updates to air-conditioning. Long Beach Unified is a significantly larger school system, and the full air-conditioning update could cost $700 million, according to LBUSD spokesperson Chris Eftychiou. Until the air-conditioning solution is solved, minimum days will continue to be implemented on a case-by-case basis.

Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School reopened after a two-year rebuild of the entire campus on September 2nd. During the rebuild, staff and students relocated to Butler Middle School. The rebuild was paid for by Measure K bonds. Measure K was a ballot initiative, approved in November 2008, which will allocate $1.2 billion for the building, renovation, and general improvement of schools in LBUSD. Roosevelt Elementary was originally opened in 1935, and, in homage, photos of murals, along with an original door, are displayed in the library. “We used Measure K to build one of Long Beach’s oldest schools. Roosevelt now has a community health center on campus, it is energy efficient, and has the latest technology. As it is a historic neighborhood, we’ve taken great care with the treasures from the 1930’s. I hope everyone will agree that it was well worth waiting for,” said Felton Williams, the President of the Long Beach Board of Education. Other highlights of the rebuild include two computer labs (one Mac-based and on PC-based), a playground built over a ground-level parking garage, and a multipurpose room, complete with a stage and an audio/visual alcove. “I’m thankful to those who have been a part of this project. I’m excited to see the kids’ faces when they walk through the gate and see the school. It’s like opening a Christmas present,” said Clarissa Tolentino, Roosevelt’s principal. Roosevelt Elementary grew from 64,000 square feet to nearly 100,000. The school serves 1,100 students, kindergarten through fifth grade. Measure K is also paying for Poly’s own renovated auditorium, as well as improvements for Wilson High and major renovation for Jordan High.

I grimace whenever I look back on the past three years. These years have not given me the washboard abs and six-foot-height I wished for. Alas, the only things I’ve gained are twenty pounds and an insatiable addiction to coffee. Yet, my biggest frustration is not my physical mediocrity; rather, it was my lack of useful knowledge coming in. No one told me what it felt like to be a grain of sand at the beach in a school of over four thousand students, feeling microscopic is, at times, inevitable. Such was the fate I believed I was consigned to for the next four years. Or so I thought. High school isn’t all fun and games, but it isn’t a complete bore, either. Looking back, I can say that I’ve grown past my awkward freshman self.As I sit in this coffeehouse waiting for the ground to swallow me whole, I am overcome with a sense of responsibility to you, incoming freshmen, in hopes of making these next four years the best they can be. This duty to help has resulted in a hastily-written freshman survival guide from one of Poly’s most lackluster students. Though I wanted to release this in Sunday’s edition of the Times, the High Life will have to do. To all freshmen, make sure to print this out and post in on your walls. Treat it with the same reverence as the Bible. This collection of tips will single-handedly turn your life around. You can thank me later. For starters, you must learn that Poly’s seagulls are unavoidable. They have accuracy better than Olympic archers. Walk with caution, my friends. Secondly, spend a coup1e of hours on Urban Dictionary. You don’t know how embarrassing it is to not know the difference between “thought” and “thot”. Once you learn the art of communication, try talking to people. For the most part, Poly students are very friendly—not everyone is a cold-blooded cynic like me. Graduation is in four years, start eating healthy. You will most likely donate several organs in order to fund your college education, so the better their condition, the less debt you’ll accrue. A kidney might pay for a textbook or two. As you prepare to become a semi-functioning adult, learn to control your social media usage. Not everyone needs to know what Becky ate for breakfast. The whole world is your oyster and your eyes are plastered to a screen. Look up at the falling ceiling tiles once in a while — counting the dots are a great way to pass the time in class. What is the most valuable advice I can give to you? My biggest tip is to do something worthwhile. Engage in various things, actually. You’re going to spend four years with people as lost as you. Hang out with them. Go attend Poly’s many activities. Join a club. Better yet, join the High Life and hang out with me, Poly’s go-to source for bad humor. As you spend the next four years in these halls, I hope you heed my advice. It will help make these years a bit more bearable. Best of luck, fellow Jackrabbits.

On Saturday, March 14, Poly students participated in the annual History Day competition at Azusa Pacific University. This year’s theme was “Leadership and Legacy in History”. History Day is an annual event where hundreds of students from high schools all over Los Angeles County are able to demonstrate interest and research in specific periods of time in history. By studying a person, place or event and presenting their ideas in a variety of creative means, students are able to share their knowledge in a friendly, yet competitive environment. This year, Mara Koval and Asa Mazor-Freedman were successful in the process of judging and will advance to state. They will once again present their documentary, with the chance to make additional minor edits prior to the competition. As partners in the competition, Koval and Mazor-Freedman represented Poly with a documentary, titled “God Incarnate”. The video was intended to highlight the contributions of former Ethiopian President Haile Selassie. Selassie became the face of resistance for Ethiopia during the 1930s with the nation in the midst of invasion and instability. “We saw so many great documentaries and learned so much,” said Koval. “We were shocked to be advancing to state, and plan on editing our video.” Six groups, some of which were individual projects, represented Poly. The process of preparing for the competition often includes several months of gathering research and making a presentation. Some groups even started preparing over the summer. “It’s great to see the initiative and creativity that goes into these projects,” said Mr. Gillogly, Poly’s team sponsor. “I’m so impressed every year by the projects that are showcased”. Poly will compete in the state competition taking place on May 8 and May 9.

On Sunday March 15, special guest Evelyn Knight spoke at the Long Beach Art Theater’s viewing of Selma. 
 At the event the 81 year old Evelyn Knight, a participant in the Selma marches, recounted her experience walking to Montgomery alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Knight, a Long Beach resident, left her home and job to join other activists in the march from Selma to Montgomery, a nonviolent fight for African American voting rights. Having been born and raised in Alabama, Knight shared her experience with segregation in the South and the police brutality she witnessed in Selma. 
 Although Selma marchers fought voting discrimination back in 1965, it is still a pressing issue today. 
 “Under the guise of limiting voting fraud, many people are working hard at restricting voting rights through voter ID laws, restrictions on the types of ID that can be used, and even restrictions on registration and where people can vote. This is scary since it is a certain type of voter: minority, poor, young college students, people who move a lot, et cetera, who are having their rights restricted, and it seems like this battle has already been fought,” event organizer Mr. Adler said. 
 Knight’s experience encourages students to become active in making a positive change. Knight should also be remembered for her activism in helping to organize a program that reunited homeless children with their families. Knight said, “I remember one time I had a caseload of children–very young children, and also older children. The older children had no family and there was never going to be anybody. I looked for and found adoptive families for them.” Adler has additional voter registration awareness events planned for later in the school year.

Two Long Beach Poly High School teachers, Danielle Sawyer and Julie McMann, represented Poly at a conference to learn how to make the school safer for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students on March 10. The five hour meeting held at the TRC (a teacher training center)  included information as well as training on how to handle real-life situations in their classrooms.

According to transgenderlawcenter.org, “California’s safe school laws prohibit discrimination and harassment based on gender identity and expression.” This conference worked toward educating teachers on laws like this one, and making sure that everyone is safe in California public schools.

“I would hope that, regardless of a teacher’s beliefs, they would never allow mental or emotional harm to a student” said Ms. Sawyer, Poly’s health and AVID teacher.

The conference also covered the higher prevalence of bullying of LGBT students and how to properly address this and the issues that may come with it. Teachers had to work together to come up with solutions to classroom problems that may arise based on a student’s sexuality. They also recieved training on how to help students going through a process like gender transitioning.

“We want our students to feel safer at school, and this is an important step in creating a more accepting and compassionate environment at Poly,” said Ms. McMann.

The two men that ran the meeting were Joel Gemino and Dan Ditre, both from the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach. The LGBTQ Center not only helps to provide services like this one to the community, but also provides  resources like career counseling, HIV testing, and a legal clinic. “The Center and GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) are so incredibly proud of the partnerships we have created with LBUSD and we know that LBUSD educators are an example of progressive education for other schools across the nation,” said Gemino.

“I think it’s important because it can be harmful when teachers assume that everyone is straight.” said senior Annie Howitt. She felt that being sensitive, even to the pronouns used when addressing an LGBT student, can really make a difference. “It can really validate their identity by using the right pronouns.”

This training was only the first of many: another follow up training day will be available in April and it will  focus more on the inclusion of  LGBT history and other issues in the curriculum.

Japanese exchange students came to Poly on Friday, March 20 and Monday, March 23, from the Happy Science Academy Kansai, Junior and Senior High School in Shiga, Japan. Coming from a total high school/middle school population of 500 people, many were surprised by not only the size of the student population, but the size of the school itself.

“It’s always fun when Japanese students come to Poly, “ said Senior Tanya Nguyen, “We get to talk about how different our school lives are–though some things, like how much we hate homework, don’t change.”

Though the students were only here for two days, they were able to experience our Intercultural Faire, in which they were able to watch various performances and try a diverse array of food.

“I love how every little thing, whether it was something as small as walking in between classes to watching the dances performed on the rally stage, made the students really excited,” said junior Michaela Vazquez. “I just thought that was really cute.”

Many students within the Japanese department were given the opportunity to have a Japanese shadow for a day.”It was great having shadows from Japan,” said freshman Timothy Haneji, a native speaker currently in Japanese 5-6 Honors. “It was also a nice experience being able to speak and converse in Japanese- I’m looking forward to having them come next year!”

Despite the obvious language barrier, students taking Japanese from all levels tried their hardest to not only communicate with but befriend the Japanese students. Though both sometimes struggled to understand one another, many were able to get their points across.

“The thing I like best about our exchange programs is that both sets of kids benefit from it,” said Japanese 3-4, 5-6 Honors, and AP teacher Susan Watson. “While the Japanese students are able to experience ‘typical’ American high schools and ‘typical’ American students, our students are able to experience what it’s like to talk to a real Japanese people,” added Watson.

On Monday, the Japanese  students played dodgeball in the field with Kawasaki Sensei’s Japanese 5-6 students, which was an exciting bonding experience between the two groups. “Kawasaki Sensei said that dodgeball was really popular in Japan, and when I saw them, I could see what she meant; they were really good!” said junior Azalia Avellan.

Sophomore Shuusei Yoshida, another 5-6 Honors student and native speaker said,“When all of the Japanese shadows came to Poly, it reminded me so much of Japan and it made me feel like I was back home.”

When asked about our schools exchange programs, Watson said, “These kinds of exchange programs are rewarding and are experiences of a lifetime!”

Last Monday, March 16, fifteen year old Cabrillo student Kershawn Brooks was stabbed walking home from school just outside Stephens Middle School. An eighteen year old suspect, allegedly approached Brooks, grabbing his backpack in an attempt at robbery.

A struggle ensued, and Brooks was stabbed in front of the middle school. As the school day was ending, the parents and students rushed to help him. He was taken to the hospital where he later died from his injuries; he was only fifteen years old. The suspect was later arrested at his house for the attack.  In a news interview, Brooks’ father made it very clear that his son was not involved with gang activity- he said this was a robbery and murder, not a gang rivalry issue.

Cabrillo held a memorial rally for Brooks last Thursday at their school. Many Activities Directors in the Long Beach district attended, including Poly’s own Ngoc Nguyen.

“It was a devastating loss, and there’s a lot of tension in the Cabrillo and Long Beach community.”

Kershawn Brooks’ tragic death was a hard hit to the Long Beach family and community—he  will never be forgotten.