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VOL. 63 ISSUE 6
THE MATADOR 801 S. RAMONA STREET, SAN GABRIEL, CA 91776
SAN GABRIEL HIGH SCHOOL
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018
BY SELINA HAN
Fully dressed in business attire, San Gabriel High School’s (SGHS) Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) celebrated as they took home first place for Chapter Sweepstakes at the Gold Coast sectional competition on Feb. 3. This year, the annual sectional competition was hosted at Westlake High School where over 600 students from different schools competed in over 30 events, including Economics, Computer Applications, and Accounting.
“I was the only one left standing; I was just very shocked.” PHOTO COURTESY OF ROXANNE FONG
Of over 75 students who competed representing SGHS, 32 qualified for the state competition, including seniors Carlos Carrillo-Gallegos, Manyi Chen, Roxanne Fong, Kaijie Han, Lisa Hong, William Kwoon, Randy Lee, Kelly Luu, Justin Nguyen, Justin Phan, Lexie Tang, Sydney Ton, Yvonne Van, Wendy Yan, Leo Yue, and
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTINE RAMSAY
Michael Ramsay’s wife Christine plants a memorial tree in the BTA garden. BY NIAN CAPILI
A Celebration of Life memorial service was held for retired history teacher Michael Ramsay on Jan. 31 at the Business and Technology Academy (BTA) garden. The ceremony consisted of multiple people with teachers, staff, former students, and Ramsay’s family participating. During the event, everyone had an opportunity to share a few words about Ramsay before planting a tree in his memory. History teacher Nicole Manalang then requested former students of Ramsay to help plant the tree which will grow seven to eight feet in height. Ramsay’s wife, Christine Ramsay, noted that she will come in a few weeks to visit his
OPINIONS pg. 4
Following the awards ceremony, FBLA competitors proudly pose with their awards from the day. They hope to display the same performance at the state competition. Lilian Zhang; juniors Adeline Cheng, Jamie Fong, Susan Geng, Selina Han, Sonam Huang, Yin Fang Huang, Kyle Lam, Jacwa Lei, Irene Lu, Cynthia Ly, and Chau Phong; sophomores
tree and spread some of his ashes around it since San Gabriel High School (SGHS) meant so much to him. “Everyone at SGHS was his family and I received so much love and strength from everyone,” Christine said. “So a part of Mr. Ramsay will live on there forever. On behalf of my husband, I want to say thank you SGHS for giving my husband 30 of the best years of his life.” After the ceremony, everyone was welcomed inside the Family Center, where pictures of Ramsay through the years were displayed. Snacks and drinks were provided to those who came to visit inside. People were also able to write messages on a card for Ramsay and place it inside his guitar. Senior Yamile Monroy remembered being close, cracking jokes and roasting with Ramsay, which made Monroy feel very emotional about his passing. She also wrote a message to Ramsay that she put inside his guitar. “Hearing about his passing made me cry and made me think about him and our past memories,” Monroy said. “He would always call me tamale because he didn’t know how to say my name. I put that all our memories were great, I really miss him, rest easy of course, and signed it tamale.” History teacher Eric Hendrickson worked next door to Ramsay for 20 years and also coached golf with him for five years. “He was always ready to make a joke and make people laugh,” Hendrickson said. “I am very saddened. Because he had more health problems than anyone I knew, I was always worried for him. Rest in peace, Michael.” Christine treasures the legacy her husband left at SGHS. “I am so proud to be his wife.”
FOCUS pg. 6-7
Darlene Lien, Catherine Tran, and Leyna Tran; and freshmen Megan Tieu and Brandon Tran. “I wasn’t sure if I had prepared enough,” freshman Brandon Tran, who placed in In-
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troduction to Information Technology and Spreadsheet Applications said. “When I took the test, some of the questions were actually pretty easy. When I actually won, I was really excited; I was exhilarated. Everyone was cheering and it was a really good experience and I definitely learned a lot.” The sweepstakes award is based on a school’s collective amount of points, which is affected by the amount of competitors from each school who place in events and how high they placed. The award was presented at the end of the ceremony as representatives from each school stood in front of the crowd of competitors. “I honestly expected [Arcadia] to get [first place],” senior President Roxanne Fong said. “But when they called Arcadia for second and I was the only one left standing; I was just very shocked. I was in FBLA from sophomore to this year. It’s been a very exciting experience just going to competition every year. I’ve been going [to] state competition for the past three years too.” The 2018 State Leadership Conference will take place at the Ontario Convention Center in April. The three-day event will feature students who qualified for the state competition from other chapters across California.
The student restrooms are usually clean and stocked with supplies. (998 responses)
Overall, I like attending SGHS. (998 responses)
GRAPHIC COURTESY OF SGHS
BY KEVIN CONTRERAS
Both students and staff members of San Gabriel High School (SGHS) were able to provide feedback to the school last year through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) survey, which allowed the school community to express their concerns on a variety of subjects. A critical issue brought to attention in the survey was school sanitation. Only 58.6 percent of the 998 students surveyed believed that the restrooms were well kept. Two custodians, who asked to remain anonymous, said that they have few supplies. They believe that the resources the SGHS maintenance team have to use are becoming scarce. “If I ask for something I need, it takes a while for me to get it,” one custodian
LIFE & ART pg. 8
SPORTS pg. 10
said. “We don’t have enough; we used to have three gardeners and now we are down to two. We do a lot more with less.” The custodians offered several solutions on how the problems could be solved. In addition to more resources, more personnel would help alleviate the workload as well as increase efficiency. “If they hired more people for the day positions, that would help,” the custodians said. “We used to have a sweeper that would take care of the leaves and trash around campus. We used to have a pressure washer that worked; with that, we could take care of spots around campus. Some teachers allow students to eat in the classroom. If they didn’t, that would fix the wrapper problem, some rat and ant problems, and even some coyote problems.” Continued on pg. 3
FEATURES pg. 12