Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Teens explore difficult issues.

SOH Health Students Write About Suicide
by Omar Arce

Two weeks ago the students in Mr. Esposito's Comprehensive Health Class at Southwest High School wrote articles about suicide. The students were assembled into groups in order to obtain as much knowledge as possible from the information that was given to them. Students in that class it felt awkward discussing a subject that is not far from taboo. The main goal of the project was to promote awareness about suicide. After the articles were completed, Mr. Esposito asked the Raiders Digest staff to make the information presented by his students available to the student body at large.

The statistics presented in the articles are alarming. "Suicide is the third cause of death for people between the ages of 14 and 24. Approximately 4,500 young people take their own life every year but even more attempt it. About 149,000 teenagers and young adults are treated for self-inflicted injuries in the U.S. every day". These facts were presented by Michelle Avila, Claudia Arias, Natalia Alvarez, Pedro Bonillas and Marris Boldridge.

Other students wrote that withdrawal from everyday life is a main indicator of suicidal behavior. "When a person is contemplating suicide he or she begins to feel hopeless. Another symptom is that a person might stop talking to his or her friends. In addition, a person might begin to neglect their needs, such as taking a shower, changing clothes, and eating. The person might also lose interest in everyday activities. Rebellious attitude and violent behavior are other symptoms". This group was composed of Elma Gonzalez, Moncerrat Galego, Miguel Flores and Priscilla Grijalva.

Melissa Maher, Abraham Morales, Derek Miranda, and Omar Manrique believed that depression is the cause of many suicides. "A common factor behind suicide is depression. Teens commit suicide as an attempt to escape their issues. Some might be angry or feel guilty for something they did and cannot deal with the pain".

Students wrote that the best way to prevent suicide was talking. "If someone talks about suicide or you want to end your life, don't keep it to yourself! Take all talks of suicide seriously and understand that suicide is not the solution. Change negative thoughts to positive. Never keep it a secret, always remember that nothing that can happen to you is as important as your life. Suicide is always preventable and the only person to protect yourself from it is you". This was written in the article submitted by Andrea Ruiz, Daniel Murguia, Giovanni Grageola, Tanya Ramos, Nicolas Nunez, Salvador Velazquez, Joseph Dancel.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Academic Powerhouse

Raider Brain Warriors Take Lead
by Martin Zazueta & Dwayne Codding

Last week was a great week for your SOH's Academics program. On Wednesday February 17 at an awards banquet at the University of San Diego, the Southwest High Academic Decathlon team ranked for the eight straight year in the top three schools in the county for the regional competition which took place on February 6 at Olympian High School. SOH received the 3rd place award for the second year in row. This time around, though, they beat out last year's second place winner, the Academy of Our Lady of Peace.

The results of this year once again proved the power of hard work as SOH faced a serious of setbacks this year such as having a brand new head coach of the program (Coach Adam Orin, a second year Physics & Physical-earth science teacher at SOH), having received their study materials three months late in October due complications with the district's budget, having been unable to go on the traditional museum trip to study the selected artworks (this year all 17 artworks would have been in New York's Metropolitan museum of Art), also not having enough people on the team especially for each of the 3 GPA divisions (in fact the final team consisted of only 8 out of 9 Decathletes). Another issue was that they had little access to rooms to study in and practice their speeches in throughout the year, and lacked consistent help from an overburdened staff (although various staff members contributed in any way they could).

Despite these and various other smaller problems, the Decathlon was able to outwork virtually most of its competition. Overall, the team won 3rd place in two of the ten events: Social Science & Art. Also the team won 12 medals: 4 going to Varsity division Dwayne Codding(who was awarded a bronze for Math, Literature, & Art while getting a silver in the Essay), 2 medals went to Scholastic division - Francisco Munoz for a bronze in Economics & a gold for Social Science. The remaining 6 went to Scholastic division Captain Martin Zazueta for bronze in Speech & Social Science, silver in Interview Literature & Art, and a gold in Economics (Martin also placed 3rd in the county for his division).

However, besides medals the team also scored 2nd place in the Super Quiz Relay test. Honorable mentions go to Elma Gonzalez of the Honors division for having the second highest score in the team. Also for an honorable mentionwas Grisele Gonzalez, also of the Honors division, who had the highest score on the team for any single event, - the Interview, having scored 955 out of a possible 1000 points. Unfortunately, due to the highly competitive nature of the high GPA students of the Honors Division, she was unable to receive a medal for her remarkably high score. And when asked how she felt about her score and the overall outcome of the Decathlon she had this to say: “ I'm glad I did my best to help the team and to help represent our school. I feel we accomplished plenty which showed in our team score, and I'm glad that my score was able to contribute significantly to the final score that led to our ranking”. Also when asked about how he felt about this year's result, Coach Orin said that he was “very proud and honored to be associated with such a group of smart young people”. Coach Orin also commented that for next year (for which the theme will be “The Great Depression”) his goals are to win the Super Quiz Relay and to help his team get more gold medals.

Apart from Decathlon the SOH Academic League have been on a roll by defeating Montgomery, Castle Park, Sweetwater, and Mar Vista. Both JV and Varsity have been doing a terrific job at playing the game. Let it be noted that for the first time ever in Southwest High Academic League history, the main starters and contributers to the overall score have been 2-3 Freshmen who are part of a pool of about 10 freshmen like Salvador Navarro and Ruben Vega who have been the leading scorers for JV this year. These players and others are no rookies though they have been playing this for a while now, as they had played middle school Knowledge Bowl. Yes, that's right - these battle-hardened veterans have been ready for action for weeks before their first game, after intense training under the SOH Academics Program that started since late June, and these elite freshmen along with their returning 11th grader teammates (who are second-year players) are ready to dominate the South Bay league competition.

The Varsity team consists 3 four-year seniors, 2 battle-hardened sophomores, a 3rd-year junior, 2 second-year seniors, and 2 first-year seniors who have also been hard at work to perfect their playing techniques and speed. Like the JV, they are also 4-0 and are fighting to reach the Metro Conference championship for the 8th year in the row and will hopefully head on to the county playoffs for the 8th time in this decade since 2001, 2003-2007, & 2009. The Leaguers' next match will be against Olympian on Thursday February 25 in the Library at 3 P.M.
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SOH B-Ball wins a banner!

Raiders Upset Cougars in B-Ball
by Marlo Villanueva

Southwest claims their title as South Bay League Champs after defeating the San Ysidro Cougars on Wednesday night. It was one hectic game for both teams having a record of 9-1 in the league.

Southwest started off hot against the Cougars leading 21-6 in the first half. The Raiders took their lead and kept the lead throughout the entire game. There were spectacular plays all game from both sides of the court. The game ended on the score of 69-61.

The Raiders' Varsity team worked hard for this all season and proved they deserve the title. There were 4 players that ended the game with double digit points. Emilio Arellano with 15, Jay Santos 14, Lamar Weston 13, and Ashper Morris with 13. This teamwork from the Raiders paid off and got them the banner for the second time consecutively.

The Southwest crowd took on an early celebration as they tackled the court and the basketball players when there were 3.5 seconds left on the game. That didnt phase the Southwest Raiders as they knew they had the game in the bag.

Congratulations to the Raiders for the repeat of their banner league win. Make sure to follow them up on their way to the playoffs as they compete against the best of the best for the CIF title. This also brings one question to mind, since the Raiders won the banner this year and last, will they finish a threepeat ?

Ole!, Ole!, Ole!, Ole!

Boys Soccer Team Secures Banner
by Omar Arce

To win a banner. That is the ultimate goal of joining a sport. Not to get in shape, not to fraternize, and certainly not to appear at the assembly. The men soccer team won the South Bay Metro League banner. In Hollywoodesque way, the Raiders won the banner at their last home game vs. Sweetwater. With a great attendance, the home crowd was euphoric. And the home team was not different. "There is always pressure before a game. but in this case there was more exitment to know that the banner was just 80 mins away from our hands," said Senior defender, Pedro Bonillas.

The victory was not overwhelming, but the 2-1 score was enough to secure the banner. The goals were scored by Defender Jonnhy Coronado, and Captain Alexis Guadalupe. With only a one point difference from Castle Park the raiders secured the banner. "Its a great feeling knowing that our team deserved it, and it just feels incredible," proclaimed Pedro Bonillas.

When the referee blew the final whistle, the crowd ran to the field and surrounded Coach Medina, jumping, chanting and screaming. Medina did not know at first what to do, when he saw the crowd running towards him, and decided to embrace them, by starting jumping, and chanting with them.

However, the celebration must not go to their head, the raiders will play Ramona this Wednesday at 7 PM. Now the goal is to go to CIF finals. Luck will be needed, along with great goals.

Robert Pattinson...

Twilight Star Upsets Fans Through Comments
By Elma Gonzalez

Twilight star, Robert Pattinson, posed for yet another magazine this year. Details magazine did a photo-shoot and conducted a revealing interview with the sexy vampire for its tenth anniversary. The star not only showed a different side of him in the photos, but also disclosed how he feels about women.

In the cover the star appears with his head nestled between a woman's legs. Although for some men, doing a photo-shoot with naked ladies for 12 hours might seem like a dream, Pattinson described it as 'torture.' He stated, "I really hate vaginas. I'm allergic to vaginas." His remark has stirred up a lot of controversy. Is the sexy star gay? Does this mean the millions of girl fans have lost their chance with Rob. Although, his comment may seem to be insinuating his sexual orientation, many argue he is simply alluding to a joke.

Either way, the actor's dark humor has caused displeasure among the fan community. Pattinson ends his comment about the shoot by saying, "Thank god I was hungover."

The interview, however, also touched other issues like the actor's projects. Pattinson plays Salvador Dali, the famous painter, in Little Ashes, and in his new movie Remember Me, he finally plays a 'normal, average' guy. In regard to his love life, he assured he does NOT have a girlfriend and that the only real relationship he is in is with his dog.

CAHSEE tutoring

A Raider has a Rant!
by Bob Chan

Sophomores this year they have an important test that decides their future because if they don’t pass then they might not get a high school diploma. That test is the CAHSEE and is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of California and is divided into two main sections: English-language arts and mathematics. The English section includes 79 multiple choice questions, and requires students to respond to a prompt with a 2 1/2 page essay. The mathematics section consists of 92 multiple choice questions. Scores are scaled out of a possible 450 points on each section. The essay portion is scaled out of one to four. The test first applied to the graduating class of 2006, with approximately nine of every ten students passing.

Every Saturday the school hosts the Rising Stars, which is a program that brings in students who show great promise to pass and to help them to achieve the goal from 8 A.M to 12 A.M in the gym. For that you are not required to go but on Wednesdays and Tuesdays certain students are forced to skip STEP and an hour of their time after school to go into a CAHSEE help class. The part of that which doesn’t make sense is that people who are not required to go to the special class are still doing the same things in their class instead of themselves taking any form of CAHSEE prep. A problem I have with that is that some students who happened to have not done enough of a good enough job on their CST's or End of Course Exams last year but who are taking AP classes cannot go after school to be tutored or retake tests and stuck in that class until 4 P.M by which time most teachers would have left. That leaves the students with no extra help and will lead to lower grades for the students. Just because the person did not do a good job on their pre-CAHSEE it does not mean that they need unnecessary help. Administrators should instead examine students' G.P.A and other facts that would better illustrate the student's mental capacity.