HBDragon Daily
We Need to Have a Talk About School Safety
Recent trespassing incident sparks conversation about school safety
by Steven Reynoso and Sasha Kravets
On Thursday March 6, a trespassing incident occured on Bernstein campus. A suspect walked through the front office at the beginning of school as students were arriving, walked up to the fifth floor of the school, and began verbal abusing teachers and students.
The suspect was found by out of classroom staff and escorted off campus. The trespassing incident did not prompt a lockdown and a police report was not filed, raising the concerns of staff and students.
This raises many questions, what if it was a more dangerous individual? What if she had been carrying a weapon? What if that day ended tragically? (Read more on page
Dream Resource Center does invaluable work in uncertain times for Newcomers
by Daniel Ferrell, News Editor
The Dream Resource Center on is a room on the 3rd floor that provides support, resources, and a safe space for students who have recently arrived in the United States.
The center is ran by the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights (Los Angeles), an organziation founded in 1986 to advocate for human immigration policy and support to immigrant citizens in Los Angeles.
The center is ran by Kathia Garcia and Ms. Xochitl who hold presentations about immigrant rights and facilitate club meetings for immigrant students.
This work has become invaluable in the new year with President Trump’s re-election and campaign commitment to ramp up immigrant detention.
“[Trump’s Policies] creates fear for students and families. Families have also been becoming scared to drop off students at school and engage in the community as Trump os very vocal about his policies,” said Ms. Xochitl.
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A recent trespassing incident has sparked a conversation around school safety at Bernstein HS Scan QR to
Students from the Dream Resource Center with Ms. Kathia Garcia, third from right
HBEDITORIAL
School Safety concerns need to be addressed, says staff and students
from front page)
In the last four years, there have only been two lockdowns. One was prompted by an incident that happened at Hollywood High School, and the other was when a similar trespassing incident happened. A parent accidentally strayed from the Parent Center and began walking the halls, prompting LAPD Hollywood Police to come and search the campus.
This year has also seen a rise in fights on and off campus. A student recently was beaten by a former student of the school at the beginning of the school day which prompted the parademics to arrive.
Furthermore, last school year, students denonated a small explosion at the lunch tables during lunch and there were no repercussions for the students who did it. It was not addressed by the administration and campus supervisors who witnessed the incident and did nothing to report it.
An unfortunate memory that still lingers with the school campus is the death of a young student, Melanie Ramos, a then 15 year old student passed away due to a drug overdose on campus after-school hours.
How did the trespasser get let in?
Through the front door. Were they checking for IDs? Apparently not. We didn’t even have a lockdown. Even if this was ‘minor’ we should have had one for safety. How did we know she didn’t have a weapon in her bag? Furthermore, with the new cell phone policy, how are we to keep our phones locked up when they let someone into our campus and we can’t access our phones in an emergency?
What if it was a more dangerous individual? What if she had been carrying a weapon? What if that day ended tragically, like in a mass shooting? Neither teachers nor students feel safe on school grounds. Our school is supposed to be safe, a place where we can learn. But how can we feel safe when a trespasser can walk into our campus and classrooms with no pushback?
Is the Cell Phone Policy Working Two Months In?
It’s time to take stock. Is the new cell phone ban policy working?
Students are getting around the cell phone policy in many ways. Videos have been widely circulated from TikTok about how to break open the Yondr pouch with a pen or by smashing it against a desk. Some have invested in a magnet that can open the lock.
Some students bring “burner” phones and put them in the Yondr pouch upon inspection, while still having their normal phone on them. Some also lie to campus safety guards by saying that they left their phone at home. It also seems like to some students, the policy does not apply, and adults are allowing it.
Also, if teachers are allowed to be on their phone during class time, shouldn’t they also comply with school policy and store theirs away as well? If they need it for an emergency, why can’t we have ours with us, for the same reason?
A protest at Marshall HS last year after Administration did nothing to address ongoing safety concerns
The Yondr Pouch System: is it effective in stopping student cell phone usage?
HBEDITORIAL StudentshaveFreeSpeechRightsundertheCAEdCode
By Daniel Ferrell, News Editor
Though I may have only been writing as a part of the Dragon Daily for about a year now, it has come to my attention that one of the biggest and longest running struggles for the journalism team has been censorship.
California Educational Code 48907 gives students in public schools the right to have a student publication and free speech protections so long as speech is not obscene, libelous, or slanderous, and it does not incite the student body to commit unlawful acts or disrupt school operations. A principal can ask to review the paper before publishing in compliance with the Educational Code, but delaying publication because of an editorial written in the paper is considered prior restraint.
In Spring 2024, Mr. Ramirez delayed the publication of the newspaper because of an editorial he disagreed with. The editorial in question was written about the advisory period, in which the student writer said that the advisory was promised to be a relaxed period, but instead it was a venue for test prep, which only added to the stress of students. In an email thread to our newspaper advisor, Mr. Ramirez justified the delay because of an illness and that after changes were made, he would publish the paper.
The editorial in question about the Advisory Period that can be read at issuu.com/hbdragondaily
But after changes were made, Mr. Ramirez did not give permission for the newspaper order to be made. In addition, Mr. Ramirez also asked to speak with editors and writers of the newspaper and intimidated them by claiming that what they wrote was gossip and misinformation. This continued into the fall of this school year when Ramirez called in a student over an editorial written about the school’s drop into Priority status, a designation by the district to identify the lowest performing schools. He attempted to convince the student that their opinion was misleading and would be ignored as such.
CA Ed Code 48907 says...
Although students have attempted to better the school by writing editorials that address critical school issues, Mr. Ramirez’s silent refusal to publish newspaper editions that have contrarian opinions to administration is a form of impermissiable censorship. This is an example of “prior restraint”, which is withholding publication of a newspaper because a public official disagrees with the speech. As a result of this censorship, we haven’t been able to publish hard copies of the paper because it requires approval of admin, so we have to publish this on our own.
(a) Pupils of the public schools, including charter schools, shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press including, but not limited to, the use of bulletin boards, the distribution of printed materials or petitions, the wearing of buttons, badges, and other insignia, and the right of expression in official publications, whether or not the publications or other means of expression are supported financially by the school or by use of school facilities, except that expression shall be prohibited which is obscene, libelous, or slanderous.
(d) There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official school publications except insofar as it violates this section. School officials shall have the burden of showing justification without undue delay prior to a limitation of pupil expression under this section.
HBEDITORIAL
Why is it so hard to use the restroom at Bernstein?
By Sasha Kravets, Editor-in-Chief
Bernstein has followed a school policy of closing the bathrooms in the first and last ten minutes of class. There is no confirmed LAUSD policy that requires it but many schools in California have adopted that rule. Open bathrooms are difficult to come across on the Bernstein campus and students often have to search for an open bathroom for an upwards of 15 minutes just looking and attempting to use the restroom.
In some cases, Students might not find an open restroom to use, and need to come back to class without having been able to relieve themselves, and lost valuable instructional time as a result. For some students, using the restroom must happen as soon as possible, due to factors such as menstruation. Most of the time the bathrooms are closed for around 30 minutes between two classes and during the passing period, in total being 26 minutes of waiting in between classes.
Since bathrooms are often not opened on time the wait is upwards of 30 minutes, if not more. Class typically doesn’t start in the first ten minutes with students and the teacher preparing or working on a warm up and begins winding down in the last ten minutes.
CA Education Code states that bathrooms must be open at all times when students are not in class (i.e passing period) and most bathroom must be open during class to accommodate enough students all over the campus. Bathrooms may only be closed if there is a danger posed to pupils by the facility, or the facility is being repaired. Even under those circumstances, there must be an adequate amount of bathrooms open to accommodate the student population.
The main issues with the bathrooms being closed include students not being in class for upwards of 15 minutes losing valuable class time, having to wait for upwards of 30 minutes to an hour between periods to use the restroom, and it is illegal to close bathrooms in the state of California without probable reason of protecting student safety or fixing the facility.
by Staff
A new occurence at Bernstein is the announcement reminding teachers to send students on iReady.
Students have observed that most teachers ignore the reminder and continue on with class as scheduled.
Teachers have reported that the current rotation of iReady cuts into classtime, with some teachers expressing frustration that English and Math IReady/IXL should be facilitated and supported in those classes.
If this is what our performance is being judged on, then it’s not being clearly communicated. This is yet another score that is being used to classify us and our school.
The
An example of the restroom sign-in, sign out procedure that has been recently implemented
HBNEWS
Boys Basketball win Back to Back City Championships; 2nd Back to Back title run in School History
By Staff
The Varsity Boys Basketball won the Division III LA City Championship, clinching back to back titles in the division in 2024 and 2025.
This is the second back to back City title run for Boys Baskebtall in school history, when in 2015-2016, the Boys team won back to back City championships them as well.
Lead by Coach Chans, the Boys team went undefeated in league and won the City Championship game against Marquez 55-42. The Boys went to State where they beat Santiago HS of Garden Grove in Orange County 56-28. The boys lost in the next round against Poly High School of Sun Valley, CA, 75-51.
The team was anchored by Senior Greg Griffin who finished the year first in points. Senior Justin Lusk led the team in FG Percentage, and Senior Jeff Fields led in 3 PT FG Percentage.
Dream Resource Center holds space for INA students
(Continued from front page)
Bernstein is one of five LAUSD schools that have an International Newcomers Academy (INA). The school within Bernstein’s campus helps students who are recent arrivals to the United States adjust to attending US public schools and getting necessary language support in the classroom.
For the last seven years, Bernstein’s INA academy has been coordinated by Dr. Sara Jean Lipmen, an instructional coach who helped found the school as a pilot and under their stewardship, has brought it to being one of the exemplary models of Newcomer instruction in the district.
Also as a resource of the school, the school has an in house legal representative, Hannah Feldman. Feldman has helped students with their immigration paperwork and attending court sessions with the student or on their behalf. Bernstein is the only school in the US that has a legal representative on campus.
Dr. Lipmen, INA Coordinator (left) and Hannah Feldman, Legal Representative (Right)
Varsity Boys Basketball has won back to back City titles; the 2nd back to back run in school history
HBPOET’S CORNER
Featured Short Story...
Don’t Be Lame On Halloween!
By Steven Reynoso
It was a dark stormy night. Many children, and some adults, were disappointed by the rain on Halloween night. No trick or treating, no handing out candy, no egging houses, none of the Halloween traditions. Except for one, parties. The sixth house on Edgar Street was roaring with noise. The gate leading to the house is open for anyone to come in, multiple cars in the street blocking the sidewalk. As the party continued to rage on, a man, breathing raggedly, walked past the cars, toward the sixth house on Edgar Street. Once inside the gates that confined the house, the man turned, closing the gates. His worn down black plague mask is fully on display.
Inside, college students were having fun, most were drunk, some were flirting with each other, others were making out, some were playing games, etc. However, there was one lone girl. She was petite, with pale skin and messy reddish brown hair, her round glasses messing with her costume of Lindsay Lohan. She twiddled with her fingers as she stayed by the wall, her red solo cup of beer, untouched. She was dragged there by a “friend" saying how she needed to be more social and have the “College” experience. She ended up finding out she was brought there as a prank. The popular girls laughed at her calling her delusional but let her stay since it was ‘Soooo sad to see a loser alone...” Typical. Sighing to herself, she put the cup down and headed upstairs, to look for a bathroom so she could call her mom to pick her up. As she headed upstairs it got eerily quiet. She shifted slightly as she neared the bathroom.
“Boo!” He exclaimed, causing the petite girl to jump.
“Christ, Jake!” She said clutching her chest, Jake was your typical jock. Buzzcut, big build, got to college on a football scholarship, goes to every party, and ‘every girl’ wants him. Chuckling, Jake leaned close to the girl
“Aww is little nerd Kyra mad?” he taunts. Narrowing her eyes she tried to go past him to get to the restroom but he grabbed her arm. “Where do you think you’re going?” He said pulling her back roughly.
“Hey!” Kyra exclaimed, trying to pull free from his grip, making him tighten his grip.
“What's wrong? I know you want it. A nerd like you probably doesn’t get much action,” He grins leaning toward her, his breath reeking of cheap alcohol.
“You don't know anything!” She yelled, kicking him in the crouch, causing him to double over.
“You little-!” He yelled pushing her causing her to fall into the door, opening it and causing her back to hit the ground.
Groaning, she crawled back as Jake stood, wobbling slightly. His drunken grin was replaced with a scowl. He walked forward toward the petite girl as she kept crawling back.
“I am so going to enjoy-” Before his sentence could be finished a gloved hand appeared from the darkness behind him covering his mouth. His eyes widening as he felt a sharp pain in his lower back as a knife is driven in and out of him a multitude of times before the person reached up and slit his throat and pulled back their hand from Jake’s mouth as he choked on his own blood.
(Continued on the next page)
HBPOET’S CORNER
The masked man wiped the blood off the knife using his free hand. He looked at Kyra who was still crawling backward until her back hit the wall, fear evident in her eyes. The man tossed her something, landing on her lap she looked down and saw her phone. She hadn’t even realized she had dropped it. She looked back up at the man he crouched down and grabbed Jack's leg pulling him out of the bathroom before closing it, leaving Kyra alone.
Blinking to herself she quickly grabbed her phone and started to rapidly put in her password, messing up three times before getting it right. She clicked the contacts button and scrolled till she reached her mom’s number. Meanwhile, the masked man walked down the stairs and the sound of EDM music and the smell of cheap booze filled the air. He scanned the room looking for his next target at that moment, Victoria Fawks the ‘Queen B’ of Central City College started speaking.
“Alright party people!” She yelled out as she stood on a table. The masked man made his way to her. “Despite the boring weather I know! You all are having fun! This is Halloween! And this is the Fawk’s house-” Before she finished her sentence a knife was thrown at her, impaling her eye.
As she fell the masked man pulled his knife out of her eye. He turned to face the rest of the party, tilting his head. One of the football linebackers rushed him tackling him, but was met with a knife to his throat, the football player choked on his blood. Raising his leg the man kicked the player back. The football player choked on his blood reaching to the others for help who were shocked at the sight.
The killer however wasn’t and immediately rushed the crowd cutting down at least five of the students before the rest started rushing out the door. While they did so, the killer started cutting down the ones who couldn’t get out. The ones who did were stopped by the gate, as they tried pushing it open the cars on the other side stopped it from doing so. Once down inside the man walked out watching as the party-goers cried and desperately clawed at the gate keeping them in. The man swung his backpack off his back and pulled out an M16, with multiple drum magazines.
A girl who had turned around saw the gun and tried to scream but before she could scream she was met with a bullet to her forehead. As the sound of the gunshot rang out he began to fire more and more and more, killing multiple of the students. Once one magazine ran out he grabbed another, and another, until they were all gone.
Kyra was still in the bathroom, crying her tears making her makeup run. She jumped when she heard the sound of the door open and saw the killer standing there, soaking wet with some blood still on his clothing. Kyra’s breath hitched, her mother was still 10 mins away and the cops were on their way but would take the same amount of time. She closed her eyes as he walked toward her. She let out a shaky breath waiting for a knife or a bullet but instead felt him pad her cheeks with a hand towel. He did this for a minute before the sounds of sirens got close. He looked at her for a second and stood up walking into a separate room, presumably to hide. She heard cops downstairs, and soon they found her taking her away to her mother. The killer was never caught.
Kyra at a friend's, Edward’s, house a month or so after the ‘Halloween Massacre.’ She was lying in his bed as she showered. She was scrolling on social media when she saw his closet was open. Standing up she walked over to close it. When she looked up from her phone she saw a familiar mask sitting there… the same one he wore that day. She looked back as Edward walked out of the shower. He stared at her then at the mask. He calmly walked over and shut the corner. He looked back at her and put a finger on his lips. She silently nodded as he smiled.
“Wanna watch a Halloween movie?”
HBPOET’S CORNER
The Eyes That Watch
By Steven Reynoso
Beneath the moon’s cold, silver stare, There’s something lurking, lurking there. A thousand eyes that never blink, They haunt the shadows, make you think.
In the dark, they pierce the veil, A thousand whispers, soft and pale. They follow you, they see your soul, A silent dread begins to roll.
Each glance a shiver down your spine, As eyes that aren't yours pierce the mind. They watch you sleep, they watch you wake,
No place to hide, no path to take.
The mirror cracks, and there they are— Reflected demons, twisted, far. They see through walls, through skin, through bone, A quiet terror, all alone.
The fear of eyes, too sharp, too near, A silent scream you cannot hear. In the dark, you feel them creep, The eyes that never rest, that seep.
And when you turn to face the night,
It Follows
By Steven Reynoso
In shadows deep, it waits unseen, A figure cloaked in twilight's sheen. Its form unknown, its face a blur, Yet something stirs when it’s near, a stir.
A breathless chill, the air grows thick, Each step it takes, the ground does tick. A whisper soft, a tortured sigh, It lingers close, but can't be spied.
Eyes that pierce where none should gaze, A silent watcher, lost in haze. It draws you near with unseen hands, And leads you through forgotten lands.
A shape that shifts, it never stays, Fleeting in and out of days. Yet every night, it finds your door, A haunting knock, a silent roar.
No name, no voice, no face to show, Yet in its grasp, you’ll surely know— That once it’s near, there’s no retreat, You’ll walk with it, down endless streets.