OPINIONS
FOCUS
Satire: “Make America great again! Make America great again!”
“Undocumented” p. 6-7
p. 5
LIFE & ART
“All Male members join collegiate dance team, UnderGround” p. 8
THE MATADOR
SAN GABRIEL HIGH/DECEMBER 8, 2016/ VOLUME 62 / ISSUE 4
WWW.THEMATADORSGHS.US/801 S. RAMONA ST., SAN GABRIEL CA 91776
Bus pass fees put on hold L-building construction seeks to fix leaks
Photo by Sydney Trieu
Sydney Trieu With the Zonar tracking systems already in place on Alhambra Unified School District (AUSD) buses, the required use of student bus passes will begin on Jan. 19, 2017. There will be no fee for this pass next semester. The application process has already begun; until Friday, Dec. 9, students will receive informational letters at the bus waiting area asking them to fill out the “Race to the Bus Stop” form at <goo.gl/yB1o39>. The link can also be found on the school’s website, <sghsmatadors.org>. After submitting this information for a preliminary headcount of students who take the bus, students will receive an application for a bus pass from Jan. 4-10 next year. “We want to make sure the kids who ride the bus are the ones who get the passes,” Amy Rush, principal on Special Assignment for the AUSD, said. “Right now there’s no list of kids who ride the bus and what particular bus, [which is] why the [pass implementation] is taking so long.” Without a pass, students will not be able to board the bus. If a student loses a pass, they may request a replacement for $5. However, there is no initial fee for the first bus pass. “No one will be charged because this is a pilot run to make sure everything is established,” Matthew Dultz, assistant principal of Business and Activities, said. In regards to implementing the bus passes, Rush stated that “there was much to look into,” such as how many students use transport, appropriate training for bus drivers, and general logistics. “[Because of this], seeing which students need and don’t need to pay [for the pass] wasn’t a priority,” Rush said. “More than anything else, we wanted to roll out the system and see how it works.” According to Nico Richardson, director of Transportation Services for the AUSD, the possibility of a fee for these passes will be decided at a later date for the 2017-18 school year. “We’re still collecting data about how many students would need to pay for a pass,” Richardson said. “The fee for a majority of students will be waived, but we’re going to see if the board policy [about charging for passes] will hold for the next school year.” The bus passes will be distributed from Jan. 17-18.
Photo by Sunny Chen
Kayla Tang Arriving at school after a week of Thanksgiving break, many students noticed the construction site located on the east side of the L-building on campus. Assistant Principal of Business and Activities, Matthew Dultz said that “over Thanksgiving break, [staff members] found that a large pipe underground cracked at its joint due to how old the pipelines were,” causing the water inside to burst underground. “It got to the point where it was saturated and was brought to attention that there had been a leak,” Dultz said. “The leak posed a hazard to the water pressure in the bathrooms and also would cause the concrete above the pipes to cave in, creating an unsafe area for students and staff if not removed and replaced.” Fencing now surrounds the site of construction, posing as an inconvenience for students during passing periods. “The fencing area may cause a bit of a congestion, but I guarantee it would be of much bigger inconvenience if you fell in a hole,” Dultz said. Contrary to the idea that the school pays for new improvements on campus, Dultz said that “this is something that had to take place; it wasn’t the school wanting to replace the pipes, but rather something that needed to be worked on.” “All construction is funded by the district facilities,” Dultz said. “Everything is handled on the District’s end, including contractors, when a problem is brought to attention.” Dultz also mentioned that the pipes were intended to be repaired and the concrete repaved during the first weekend of December; however, due to previous weather conditions, construction was delayed. Before the leak happened, there had already been numerous recurring problems within the L-building’s girls bathroom, such as the mucky sink water. However, Dultz assures that the matter has been brought up many times in the past—to the extent where countless tests have been conducted by health professionals; each test concluded that the water was safe. As for the cloudy component, Dultz said that it was caused by calcium deposits in the water, which were also a past concern on the campus’ athletic field. Dultz plans oversee the construction’s progress until completed.
J i l l S t e i n l e a d s e ff o r t f o r p re s i d e n t i a l e l e c t i o n re c o u n t Kevin Contreras About a month ago, Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States; about a week ago, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein filed for a vote recount in three key states where Donald Trump won by a small margin against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. These states include Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Independent presidential candidate Roque De la Fuente also filed for a partial vote recount in Nevada. In each of these states, Donald Trump won by approximately 100,000 votes, and in order for Hillary Clinton to reverse the outcome, she would have to be declared the winner in all of three of the these states. When asked why she asked for a recount, candidate Stein suggested computer hacking, tampering, and human and machine error might have affected the election results. “In part, Michigan has this very high level of under votes; that is blank ballots,” Stein said in an interview with Stephen Henderson on WDET radio. There is a possibility that the amount of votes will change slightly, but it is very unlikely for the change to
be large enough to dethrone Trump from his presidency. History and psychology teacher Mark Juarez said that the recount probably will not have a major effect. “The fact that they have gone this far tells me that there are some discrepancies, but I don’t think it’s going to change who’s in the White House,” Juarez said. “It’s just going to be another stain on Trump.” President-elect Donald Trump spoke about this issue through a series a tweets, declaring Stein’s effort as a “scam.” “This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount,” Trump said in a statement. The recount in Wisconsin began Dec. 1 with little change in the results announced on election night. In Pennsylvania, Trump’s lead shrank a small amount, from approximately 71,000 to around 49,000 votes. The result in Nevada and Michigan have remained largely the same with a few changes in voter turnouts. Despite the efforts, Trump remains president-elect.
Photo courtesy of The New York Times
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein leads election recount efforts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.