by Joshua Garza
People know that Rogelio Silva was gunned down outside of the IN-N-OUT parking lot on February 2nd, 2008. He made a great impact on the school and touched the lives of many.
Since his passing, there have been many students raising money for his family and his funeral. Roy was a big inspiration to everyone, and everybody liked him. Everyone that was close to Rogelio, and some who weren’t, made a big leap towards increasing the presence of leadership on campus.
Monday Feb. 4th was the beginning. Students sold candy left and right. Almost everybody in the school had bought something. Because the costs of Rogelio’s funeral were so high the money that was raised helped so much.
On Feb. 5th, the student helpers had their first car wash at Ninth and Empire. Four days later, they had another car wash at the same place. The car wash was based on donations so you would be able to get a car wash for 5 dollars and fifty cents plus donations if wanted. “The first car wash brought in over a thousand dollars” said Kimberly Cardenas, a volunteer at the car wash.
“I think we raised about forty-two hundred dollars, and I would say at least ten through fifteen people helped. Names like Kimberly, Saul, Delia, Jaime, Nancy, Genny, Leo, Edgar, Stephanie, Irvin, and Claudia.” says Christina Urbina, a student who showed leadership by lending a helping hand.
On Friday February 8th, LPS San Jose had a memorial service in the Overfelt bleachers. As we were walking in the Overfelt track we were given green or a white balloon, which were two of Rogelio’s favorite colors. We started with opening remarks from Mr. Vilaubi who said Rogelio’s life was truly a great one considering all the people who have helped this person in these past weeks. Then we had two teacher reflections: one by Mr. Garcia and Ms. Kimble. We had two student poems by Rachel
Baeza. We also had a student reflection by Nancy Morales who loved talking to him. In a family reflection by his brother, Jaime Silva said “I know that my brother is still up there watching us and he would be very grateful for everything you have done”. At the end, we released the balloons in his memory, and the entire group sang “I’ll be missing you” by P.Diddy.
The memorial was truly beautiful, and it was a blessing to have this student Rogelio Silva in our school LPS San Jose. So many people cared for this young man, and it was an honor to have him with us.
admin @ April 22, 2008
By Wendy Muro & Monica Plascencia
On February 3, 2008 LPS lost a good student. His name was Rogelio Silva, but mostly everybody knew him as ‘Roy” or “Fresh Boy”. He was 17 and soon to be 18 on June 18th, but unfortunately faith had different plans for him.
It all started on Saturday night “Roy” and his friends were at a party. One of his friends got into an argument with another person at the party. Soon enough Roy and his friends decided to leave the party to go eat.
They decided to go to IN-N-OUT Burger located on Capital Expressway and Tully Road. A few minutes later Roy and his friends were confronted by the people they had problems with at the party. The problem started getting bigger and eventually it started a fight. Unfortunately, one of the combatants had a gun and decided to use it. Sadly, the bullet hit Roy Silva, even though it was meant for someone else.
On February 7, 2008, In Memory of Roy Silva LPS San Jose had a candle light vigil for him. Mourners left LPS at 5pm and got to Capital Expressway and Tully Road shopping center parking lot around 6pm. We had a moment of silence while everyone left candles and flowers.
admin @ April 22, 2008
By Libertad Carlos
As you might all know by now, we haven’t had the best beginning of the year in terms of violence affecting our students. Unfortunately, three of our students were stabbed by three of our other students, two of which were new students. Sadly, a week after this experience, a student from our school was murdered. Let me remind you that these undesirable incidents with our students have not taken place at LPS-San Jose; our campus remains a safe place. While I might feel safe at this school, I’m only one out of two hundred-forty students. Just because I feel safe does not mean others do as well. In order to get a better understanding of how safe our school is, I decided to ask a few of our students if they felt safe here at our campus.
More on page 98
admin @ April 22, 2008
by Rachel Baeza
Rest in peace
Now nothing
Can harm you
Rest in peace
And remember
You still have people
That love you
Rest in peace
Watch over
Your family
Your friends
And the ones you love
Rest in peace
Roy Silva
admin @ April 22, 2008
by Rachel Baeza
I didnʼt know you that much
We really didnʼt talk that
But you were
ARE still
My family
When you died
My friends
Began to cry
And that made
Me cry as well
Rest in peace
To the boy I did not know
But took apart of me
when he left
Rest in peace
admin @ April 22, 2008
By Karla Tapia
Photo (left): An example of a student disrespecting a teacher by using his cell phone during class time. I have witnessed many students disrespecting teachers at LPS- San Jose. In one instance, I was in second period. A student disrupted the classroom and started telling the teacher that she was done with an assignment the teacher
assigned her to do. After the teacher told the student that teacher was busy or that the student had to come to her desk, the student got mad and she started screaming at her. After that, the teacher asked her to come to her desk, because she needed to talk to her. The student came to her desk only after the second time the teacher asked her to come to her desk.
More on page 95
admin @ April 22, 2008
by Kaelyne Rocca & An Nguyen
Many students feel that LPS isn’t what it was promised to be. We attended a meeting before school started, in which the staff had said that there would be A.P. courses, honors, and labs. So far none of these have actually happened. Another problem is that there are many students who are not geared towards learning. It seemed as if you had to be “accepted” into the school, but it doesn’t seem that’s the case. Due to these problems many students are thinking of transferring after this school year.
More on page 94
admin @ April 22, 2008
by the Editor Staff of The Catalyst
We at The Catalyst would like to apologize for an incident that occurred in past issues of The Catalyst. Three acts of plagiarism, two major, and one minor, took place and were displayed on our website for a brief period. After learning that the articles were not of our own origin, we quickly removed them from the site. We here at The Catalyst do not practice or support plagiarism and will always give credit to any work that was used as research. We encourage originality and will always give credit where it is due. The necessary actions were taken to exhibit the gravity of the situation to the offenders. This has not stalled the production of our own work and will continue to publish quality work of our own inventiveness.
admin @ April 22, 2008
by Yara Hidalgo
Have you ever felt like you are not enjoying life because of all the things that you have to get done and worry about? This is called stress, and research shows that it is
far worse than depression. Sometimes we don’t reward ourselves after we have completed a task that caused us a lot of stress, and many don’t realize that it is a big
problem. We get too caught up in our past that we are unable to get over it, and leave it behind. Everything is
possible if you try.
More on page 92
admin @ April 22, 2008
By Selina Fuller
On February 5 th and 6 th tornadoes swept through Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama, and Tennessee. Fifty five people were killed and over one hundred and fifty were severely injured. There was said to be about sixty nine tornadoes in all. In Tennessee, an eleven month-old baby’s mother was killed after being sucked away from their home. Not long after in Nashville, Ferina Ferrington said, “I remember flying through the air. It was very scary….we saw our house was gone. Our baby was unhurt.” In Arkansas, Johnny Martin tried to recover any left over belongings from his destroyed home. He said, “We all huddled in the bathroom.”
More on page 91
admin @ April 22, 2008
By Selina Fuller
As a minor you face many rules; some of them are laws. A minor can best be described as an unemancipated (still under parental authority) person eighteen years old or younger who is not married, or in the armed forces.
More on page 90
admin @ April 22, 2008
By John Caliva
The world is filled with people who think differently between what’s good and what’s bad. And different cultures might conflict with each other because of this.
Recently, groups from different countries (but mostly the United States) began protests claiming the way the dolphins are being killed is a very inhumane and cruel act.
More on page 89
admin @ April 22, 2008