For starters, I must pay my respects to Matt Lopez and P.J.
Galvan. They were two great guys and loved by everyone. To the
Lopez and Galvan families: I am truly sorry for your loss and they
will be missed, but most importantly, please remember that they
will not be forgotten.
Now I have some things to address that irritated me.
For starters, I must pay my respects to Matt Lopez and P.J. Galvan. They were two great guys and loved by everyone. To the Lopez and Galvan families: I am truly sorry for your loss and they will be missed, but most importantly, please remember that they will not be forgotten.
Now I have some things to address that irritated me.
I don’t mean to come off rude, but I was very disappointed when I read the following statements by our superintendent – “The sad part about the recent tragedy is that students view it as the norm… They think this is normal, that it happens every year. That (thinking) allows it. People think it’s something that’s going to happen. It doesn’t have to happen.”
Now that you know what statement I was talking about, I will tell you why I was a little angry about it.
Superintendent Jean Burns Slater is right. It doesn’t have to happen. However, every student at San Benito High felt that loss. Every single one of us was sad about it. Students and teachers alike were heartbroken at the loss. We are human too and we do know death happens, but we know when people die in a car accident for whatever reason, we know that is not normal.
Senior Adrian Ponce said it is bound to happen, but it is not expected. What is expected is that kids will get home safely after they have been out with their friends. That is normal. That is what is expected to happen. Even for the students, if you hear of someone going out, you pretty much expect them to get home safely. No one will ever expect a phone call like the Lopez and Galvan families got that night. I can’t even begin to imagine what they went through.
Let me divulge a little bit about what it was like to come to school after the tragedy. For having so many students attend San Benito High, it was very quiet. The weather was gloomy to match everyone’s mood and it began to rain. No one really cared about the rain. There was an air of grief that had settled on everyone. Students were absent, mourning the loss alone at home. Even the guys shed tears that day. Even to remember it is hard.
Everyone felt the loss, but I am going to venture and say the older students and teachers took it especially hard. In dance class, the song “Unchained Melody” – a song a group of girls were dancing to for an upcoming concert – became a symbol of grief. It was hard to watch them dance without crying. These are truly the best pictures I can paint for you, the community, on what it was like to go to school that day. Things really didn’t get better until after the funerals. I don’t mean that things were great, but that the mood was not so gloomy, shy smiles began to peek through the tears and the rain started to lighten. But things will never be the same. We will always remember them.
When writing this column, I wanted to let you know why I was upset and to also let you know what it was like in school. It was also an unobtrusive reminder to everyone that students are human, we have emotions, we don’t expect these things to happen and we know it is not normal.
I didn’t mean to be rude or disrespectful in any way while writing this column. It was just to let the community peek into our lives as students and to know we do not view it as “the norm.”
As we students move on, we will always have times in our lives when we will revisit this event that impacted so many. We will never forget, and the families will be on my mind and in my prayers. Thank you for reading what I had to write.
Brandie Locke is a senior at San Benito High School.
