Helping student-athletes reach their potential Former Brahma passes knowledge to the next generation

BY JAYNA KUKLIN News & Copy Editor

Athletic counselors are more than people who help with athletics— they help those students become their best in academics.

For athletic counselor Joseph Roberson, this job wasn’t his first rodeo.

“I was also working in general counseling,” Roberson said. “Before that, I had been a counselor’s aide at Santa Monica College.”

Roberson, a Pierce College alumni from the class of 1996, was also an adjunct professor at College of the Canyons (COC) and California State University, Northridge (CSUN).

Roberson said that when he was graduating from CSUN with a degree in sociology, he didn’t find his options viable in a career.

“And she [my counselor] had to say “You know what, Joseph, you spent a lot of time trying to help the people around you pursue their educational career.”,” Roberson said. “She was like, ‘Have you ever thought of being a counselor?’.”

Roberson said that despite his unfamiliarity with what his counselor was saying, he ended up applying to the Master’s in College Counseling and Student Services Program at CSUN.

Women’s volleyball head coach Edison Zhou had high praise for Roberson, especially for how helpful he is with the student athletes.

“All my athletes love him because he helps all the athletes from the bottom of his heart,” Zhou said. “He works very hard to give his “kids” the best education plan and transfer options.”

Zhou also said that whenever he needed help, Roberson was the first person that he thought of.

“For me he’s like an older

In a typical intro to journalism class, Chavira teaches her students ethics and the value of the First Amendment, as well as teaching them to write many different styles of articles and photography. In the advanced classes, the students are put in charge of putting together the school yearbook, news magazine, news website, and social media. She hopes that her students learn the value of keeping up with the news as well as the importance of media literacy and writing accuracy. For Chavira, the constant bombardment of news from social media is why she stresses to her students the importance of being informed.

“All of those messages can also easily be manipulated. You often see people sharing misinformation,” Chavira said.

“As well as learning about journalism, they also need to know how to verify facts, how to make sure that something is true, and also when someone tells them something, when they're interviewing, how to verify facts as well. That's definitely very important. And you know, kind of question everything as well. Don't just take everything at face value.”

All throughout her entire career as a journalist, Chavira has never had an article face the chopping block for any reason. All that changed in Nov. 2021.

The Pearl Post, a studentrun newspaper at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School which Chavira advises, published an article about the district-wide mandate that required all faculty and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or work remotely and not be allowed on campus. The Post named the teacher-librarian and wrote about the effects of the mandate. They corresponded with the affected individual to conduct an interview but was brother,” Zhou said. Zhou also thought Roberson was the best choice for athletic counselor due to having played football when he was a student at Pierce.

Football head coach James Sims echoed Zhou’s sentiment on Roberson’s caring attitude towards the student athletes.

“When I got hired, he was already the athletic counselor,” Sims said.

Sims also said that Roberson’s son was a football player at Pierce.

Head swim coach Judi Terhar said she knew Roberson for 20 years, even when they both went to CSUN together.

“Joseph and I went to school together at CSUN and both of us graduated with a Master's Degree in College Counseling Student Services,” Terhar said. “He has a tremendous responsibility and opportunity to speak to our student athletes out of both his personal experience, as well as from what much,” Miranda said.

For Chavira, this issue began in Dec. 2021 and ended when the district rescinded her suspension.

Chavira hopes for more awareness of student journalism rights from LAUSD, adding that the district was in violation of California Education Code Section 48907 which, “specifically protects student advisors from retaliation, firing, suspension, whatever, because of something that their students wrote.” he has learned in school and life. I know him well enough to know that he takes nothing for granted.”

Receiving a suspension at a school that bears the name of a deceased journalist is also ironic, according to Chavira.

Terhar praised Roberson further, specifically in the way that he treats the athletes.

“Joseph cares about the studentathletes as people first, students second, and as athletes third,” Terhar said. “This is important because 95% of our studentathletes will not be making a living at their chosen sport.”

Terhar said that Joseph is a genuine and positive athletic counselor at Pierce, and she believed no one is better equipped for the job than him.

Athletic Director Susan Armenta said she has great respect for Roberson as a person and as a counselor.

“He is very inspirational and I know our student-athletes value his support,” Armenta said. I value him as a member of our athletic department.”

Armenta also stated that there were a lot of things that made Roberson a great choice as an athletic counselor, and she echoed Zhou’s statement on how he was a student-athlete at Pierce himself.

“He was a student-athlete himself, so he knows the challenges and struggles with balancing sports, academics, and life responsibilities,” Armenta said. “He’s had tremendous life experiences that he shares that often resonate with our studentathletes. He attends their games and practices, showing his support, while building rapport with them.”

Armenta said that she is confident Roberson will help student-athletes with their educational plans due to how meticulous and detail-oriented he is.

Roberson said he was able to get to where he is now with assistance from the LACCD staff.

He also said the biggest challenge for him was to get students connected with the campus.

“One of my greatest challenges is trying to make sure that I do my due diligence and supporting students and whatever their educational and life goals are,” Roberson said. “I have to find ways to support them and their goals no matter what, but at the same time give them an accurate perspective of what’s out there.”

Roberson also shared that even though some people may perceive him as an extrovert due to working as an athletic counselor, he actually isn’t one.

“I very much enjoy being alone,” Roberson said. “My role here requires me to live as an extrovert so I think the power in that though is this. I enjoy not needing anyone’s support or validation.” jkuklin.roundupnews@gmail.com never granted one, according to Chavira.

“They got a published article and then about a month later, I got an email from her asking that her name be removed,” Chavira said.

“She cited HIPAA law, saying we were violating it.”

There was never any request to remove the whole article, Chavira said. “But even just a removal of some information is still censorship.”

For Nathalie Miranda, the reporter who wrote the article, the rest of the school year was stuck in limbo, leaving the Post to wonder what was going to happen next.

“Before the threat of suspension came, Ms. Chavira made it very clear that it was up to me and the other editors to decide what to do,” Miranda said. “She wanted to leave the decision completely up to us but then when the threat of her getting suspended came up, it kind of felt unfair to make that decision for her.”

According to Miranda, Chavira told her and the editors she was not worried about suspension and ready to face the consequences.

“I grew a new kind of respect for her after that. She was just so prepared to defend her students to the end, and I loved that so

“This is not something that I ever thought would happen in my school,” Chavira said.

For Stanford University sophomore and former Editor-inChief of the Pearl Post Itzel Luna, the way Chavira and Post staff members handled themselves made her proud.

“It once again shows how important it is for student journalists to do this work and to not back down in cases where administration is trying to shut you down and trying to get you to do something,” Luna said. “In a broader sense, it really shows that student journalism is incredibly important, and a really good reminder that it's really important to stand up for your rights.”

When asked if the Pearl Post was affected by the censorship issue, Chavira said that hasn’t stopped them from reporting the truth.

“It gave the student editors a sense of empowerment through this. It made them appreciate journalism, appreciate the First Amendment and appreciate their press freedom rights as well,” Chavira said.