As of Tuesday, Feb. 24, staff and students welcomed a new monitor, Mr. Sean Jack, to the Pueblo community, giving our school more security after losing two monitors earlier this semester.
New Pueblo Monitor Sean Jack (Bottom)
Jack was born and raised in Tucson and graduated from Tucson High School in 2001. Around the same time, Jack joined the Air National Guard.
During his time in the Air National Guard, Jack served as a medic and traveled to countries such as Jamaica performing health and wellness checks. He was also deployed to Afghanistan in 2006.
Jack is currently attending the University of Phoenix as a business major and is pursuing a bachelor’s in business management. He hopes to later receive a master’s and to become an officer in the Air National Guard.
In the meantime, Jack has committed to being a part of the Pueblo staff. Although it is only his first two weeks, he had some positive feedback to give the El Guerrero staff.
“So far, Pueblo seems like a good school,” Jack said. “I haven’t run into any serious problems, and the staff and students seem nice and are really easy to talk to.”
The 4th annual “Mr. Pueblo Warrior” pageant generated great enthusiasm and professionalism on Friday, Feb. 13, in the auditorium.
As in the previous three years, 10 male contestants from the senior class representing different clubs all competed for the title. In the end—after dynamic, original performances—Santos Barbosa humbly accepted the crown.
Ms. Sarah Wilson (radio teacher) and Mr. Jesus Orduño (Spanish teacher) emceed the event, and senior Julie Harrison was the student host.
Mr. Pueblo Warrior 2015 Escorts
All contestants had the privilege of having a female escort, and the contestants showcased their talents, as well as competed in a “swimsuit” segment. Each contestant presented his escort with a meaningful, heart-felt gift, making the judges’ final decision very challenging.
Santos Barbosa
In the end, the judges chose the final four: (4) Matthew Raper; (3) Jose Angel Toro; Victor Garcia (the runner-up), and the victor, Santos Barbosa.
Barbosa said, “My experience for the pageant was beast! It was a real blessing to spend time with my family and friends, and I put a lot of hard work and effort towards it.” He paused and added, “I felt really excited and unexpected when I won the pageant—the competition was really challenging.”
Third placer Jose Toro said, “The entire evening was really great! I had a good time presenting my stand-up comedy act, and I’m really glad people enjoyed it and laughed at my jokes. I was a little worried that nobody would laugh.” Toro added, “I really thought that I wasn’t going to place in the Top Three, so I was really surprised.”
All of the contestants expressed their own form of victory.
“Although I joined the competition late, I had a lot of fun,” said Albert Nieblas. “In the end, I feel that Santos was a great competitor and definitely earned the crown.” He added, “I think the Mr. Warrior Pageant should be continued as long as Pueblo High School is up and running”
Mr. Augustine Romero, Pueblo’s principal, said that he enjoyed watching his first Mr. Warrior pageant. “The pageant was a great experience! I am glad that I was able to share this event with my family and friends. It’s clear that a lot of hard work went into the preparation of this pageant. It was amazing!”
On Monday, Feb. 16, the song, “What Does the Fox Say”, has been repeatedly played on Pueblo’s KWXL radio station between passing periods in hopes that students and faculty members will get tired of hearing the song—thus, donating money to student council, who is striving to raise $1,500.
The money that student council raises will help fund spirit assemblies, school dances, supplies to promote clubs and sports teams, activities during lunches, teacher appreciation events, and money to send students to leadership conferences and other events, student council advisor Ms. Kari Warner said.
by Dominic Garcia
As of Friday, Feb. 20, student council has raised $245.
Student council president Jorge Ruiz, a senior, said, “A lot of people don’t realize that this money is to benefit the entire school—not just student council.” He added, “We want to continue this fundraiser, but a lot of the commotion has caused student council to abandon the event.”
Senior class president and a member of student council, Maria Louisa Vega, said, “We’re disappointed in how some of our students are reacting. Their behavior has been less than professional. Having food thrown at us at lunch and threatening some of my club’s members has been disgraceful and shameful.”
Vega added, “The money that we are asking for will help the entire student body. I can’t believe that even one of my teachers verbalized her disapproval of the fundraiser—threatening to obliterate the speakers in her classroom.”
Student council advisor Ms. Kari Warner said that administration has been as supportive as possible.
Mr. Frank Rosthenhausler, assistant principal, said, “I love the song and the idea—but not the students’ negative reactions.”
Assistant Principal Ms. Alma Carmona-Alday said, “I think that the Pueblo community should continue to donate in order for student council to attain its goal.”
Despite student council’s good intentions, many students and some faculty members have reacted adversely from hearing the 2013 song “What Does the Fox Say”, a song from a Norwegian singing duo named Ylvis.
“The song is highly irritating, and student council knew people would get tired of it,” said junior
Yasmine Saenz.
“Annoying is an understatement!” said auto teacher Ms. Marie Little.
Senior Ricardo Manjarrez said, “Instead of aiming to irritate students into giving money, I feel they could’ve broadcasted a message to positively influence our students.”
Some students reacted even stronger.
“Other students have been bullying student council members because of this fundraiser,” said senior Destiny Felix, a member of student council. “This is not true Warrior spirit.”
Felix added, “This first week was a hard week for all of us. Students at Pueblo really need to change their mind-set in order to improve our school.”
However, some teachers and students feel that opposition to this event has been hyperbolized.
“It’s a fundraising strategy and a fun way to raise money for the whole school,” said junior Daniel Motley. “It kind of makes you want to donate to stop the song from being played.”
Photography teacher Ms. Emma Tarazon said, “On Monday, the first day of the fundraiser, hearing the song over and over was really annoying, but the song actually grew on me, and then I looked forward to hearing the song.”
Graphic arts and printing teacher Mr. Pete Pederson said, “At first, I felt like we were the hostages of the radio. Then, when I found out it was a fundraiser of student council, I thought it was a pretty cool idea. Now that students are bullying student council members, I feel upset that our students are trying to squash student council’s First Amendment rights.”
Radio teacher Ms. Sarah Wilson said that she is disappointed at how strongly opposed students and even teachers are to this fundraiser. “With so many horrible events occurring around the world right now—like the 21 men who were publicly executed by ISIS last week—I can’t believe that some people at Pueblo are giving this issue so much energy and attention.”
Ms. Warner added that the fundraiser will continue until further notice.
Nearly 450 Pueblo students and faculty members packed the school’s auditorium on Friday, Feb. 13, to attend a presentation from Katie Spotz, a self-motivated young woman who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in a variety of stellar physical achievements—raising money to provide clean drinking water to an estimated one billion people on this planet that don’t have access to it.
Nearly 5,000 people (mostly children) each day die from drinking bad water, she said. Most of the countries that she has helped raised money for to provide safe water include Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Kenya.
“I couldn’t just stand around and let this happen anymore, so I started to challenge myself to help as much as one person can,” the Ohio-born Spotz said.
On March 14, 2013, the then 22-year-old Spotz became the younger person (and only the second woman) to row across the Atlantic Ocean, unattended and without aid—approximately 3,000 miles, from Africa to South America! During the 70-day challenge, Spotz said she had very little diversion except for a day interacting with dolphins and the several occasions of avoiding enormous freight ships.
“I would listen to a lot of music and comedians on my headphones,” Spotz said. “Once I hit the midway point, halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, I really had to focus on rowing just one mile at a time. One mile…one mile…instead of the 1,500 that I still had to row to reach the South American coast.”
In the end, her “Row for Water” event raised more than $150,000 to provide safe drinking water. But, she didn’t stop there. In a valiant effort to raise even more awareness of providing safe drinking water to one billion people, Spotz has a resumé of unbelievable, impressive, physical feats, including swimming the entire length of the Allegheny River as well as cycling across the United States in seven days—even with a broken pelvis! Spotz eventually traveled to Kenya, and there she helped 10,000 students, first-hand, in that African nation gain access to safe drinking water.
“It was an amazing opportunity to actually be in the middle of this crisis,” Spotz said, “and also to be a part of the solution.” She added that she was appalled at how many people in Kenya are without clean drinking water—maybe only one person in 1,000 have access to healthy water each day.
Spotz spends most of her time traveling around the United States helping and inspiring schools to raise money for a project called “Schools for Water”.
Students in attendance were definitely inspired by Spotz’ achievements. Senior Narda Garcia said, “I was totally captivated by the presentation—especially because a woman defied all of the odds and stayed tenacious, never giving up. We students can definitely learn from her determination and perseverance.”
Pueblo is now challenged to raise money for “Schools for Water”. According to Ms. Mary Wallace, government teacher and the organizer of this presentation, Pueblo has committed to raising $1,500 and challenging Cholla, whose goal is to raise $1,000.
Wallace said that she is communicating with our administrators about ways to raise money in support of “Schools for Water”, including a “hat day” in which students will be allowed to wear hats for a day in exchange for one dollar. More activities will be announced throughout the semester, she added.
“Students are needed to help with raising money [for “Schools for Water”] because I want this fund-raising event to be student-based,” Wallace said. “This is a great opportunity for students to show leadership and responsibility.”
Junior Michael Montijo, who attended the presentation, said, “Spotz really brought the global water crisis into the spotlight. In today’s world, there is no excuse for unsanitary water or food.”
Armando Corral, a sophomore, said, “I was really motivated by the presentation. I want to help this situation by not wasting water in the future. We can all do a little something to make a huge difference.”
Senior Ariel Garrison was inspired by the presentation. “I think she is admirable for raising awareness to a topic that I was not fully aware of until now. Ms. Spotz is a awesome role model for all of us, and we should all find our own individual ways to help those who are not as fortunate.”
Another senior Narda Garcia, “I can’t believe that she continued the race with a broken pelvis! Talk about tenacity! I think that she truly inspired a lot of us to persevere under difficult situations. After the presentation, my friends and I were talking about what we can do to make the world a place where we give more than we take.”
A club for the LGBT (and the straight community) is thriving here at Pueblo Magnet High School this school year; the “I Am Me Project” has more than 20 members and supersedes the PRISM Club.
A few teachers noticed that some students’ were struggling with personal frustrations. This is when Ms. Amy Kijewski (world history teacher) and Ms. Sarah Wilson (radio teacher) decided to sponsor the “I Am Me” Project.
“I could tell this year that many kids were in desperate need of [an LGBT club], so it didn’t make sense to not be involved and initiate this club,” said Wilson.
Although the “I Am Me” Project is less than a semester old, sponsors and club members have established many goals and objectives. They want to promote their new acronym, ASKE (Advocacy Support Knowledge Empowerment) as a way for students to feel comfortable and let them know that they have a safe place on campus.
“One of our goals is to give students support and to educate the staff on how to deal with homophobia in the class room,” said Kijewski.
Another goal for this project is to encourage these students to take control so it may be more of a student driven club, Kijewski.
Junior Kia Guedes, the club’s president, said, “Because ‘I Am Me’ is an up and coming club, we have to build a foundation and promote our organization in a way that doesn’t offend anybody and is welcoming to all.”
A way that this club is trying to promote themselves is by hosting the first ever high school Gay Pride Day.
“Holding this Gay Pride Day would let others know that we exist,” Guedes said. “We really want others to know that LGBTQ students are not alone.”
She added that a date has not been set, and no details have been ironed out yet, but it is the hope of club members and sponsors that this event occurs before the end of the school year.
“I Am Me” vice president Manuel Navarro, a sophomore, said, “I wanted to be involved in this club because I knew what other students who felt different were going through.”
Club leaders and sponsors want the Pueblo community to know that all are welcome to attend future “I Am Me” meetings—regardless of a person’s sexual orientation.
“I can’t stress enough that it’s a club for everyone and anyone,” sponsor Sarah Wilson said. “It is certainly a good place for some people who have questions about who they are.”
The “I Am Me” Project meets on Thursdays in Room 100 at 3:30 p.m.
This past weekend we took the 3 state qualifiers to the Division III State Wrestling Championships. They were Christian Felix at 128 lbs, Billy Bertsch at 154 lbs. and Will Smith at 285 lbs.
With these three wrestlers we managed to finish 24th out of 48 teams.
5th Place for Christian Felix at 128lbs.
Christian Felix won his final match of the season to finish in 5th place.
6th Place for Will Smith at 285lbs.
Will Smith finished in 6th place!
Christian has been knocking on the door the last two years, falling short of placing by one match. He finally broke in. This was Will’s first year wrestling and to finish in 6th place at the State Tournament is quite an accomplishment!
Please congratulate these young men for a job well done & a great season!
