7 minute read

Stabbings: Attacks on campus leave lingering fears

from Octagon 2022-23 Issue 8

from Octagon 2022-23 Issue 8, page 3

Reparations: CA to make amends...

(continued from page 1) two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide. He pleaded not guilty to the charges on May 5.

Breaux, the first stabbing victim, was a well-known Davis resident known as “The Compassion Guy.”

Day recalls seeing him often while going jogging.

“I used to notice him sitting there at the corner of downtown Davis, interacting with people,” Day said.

Day never saw Breaux approach anyone. Instead, people would come up to Breaux, and he would gather their self-defined meanings of the term “compassion.” Breaux published the definitions in a book named “Compassion.”

“He seemed like a quiet, gentle soul. I never spoke to him, and I regret that,” Day said.

Now, passing by the bench where Breaux once sat, Day sees numerous people gathering around the many flowers and notes left in Breaux’s honor.

“He seemed to have touched a lot of people’s lives,” Day said.

Another Davis resident, high school English and Spanish teacher Diego Panasiti, was also shocked by Breaux’s death.

“He had this intrinsic motivation to find out what moves people and why.”

Although Panasiti only had brief interactions with Breaux, he said he took more time to understand Beaux’s intentions.

“I think a lot of people took David Breaux’s outlook on life and live with compassion and really honored him as an individual,” he said.

After hearing about the recurring stabbings, Panasiti said his shock turned into fear, and he prioritized being more aware of his surroundings.

In addition to Country Day teachers who live in Davis, former Country Day students attending UC Davis and Country Day seniors who plan to attend UC Davis were also directly moved to rethink campus safety.

Senior Ibrahim MoheyEldin is planning to attend UC Davis next year. He was informed of the incidents by UC Davis’ Aggie Alerts messaging system.

“I was startled, but I believe they arrested the suspect, so I felt relatively safe that it was conducted in a timely manner,” he said.

MoheyEldin said his views of UC Davis have not necessarily changed, but the incidents did bring the thought of school safety to the forefront of his mind.

Country Day freshman Annabelle Do’s sister, Celeste Do, is a sophomore at UC Davis. After hearing about the third stabbing, Celeste said students were scared to go to their classes, even the ones that took place during the day. Some of her friends were even afraid to take the bus.

“A lot of students were saying on social media how they did not want to go to class,” Celeste said.

On May 2 the UC Davis campus temporarily pivoted to remote instruction for all courses ending after 6 p.m., according to the UC Davis website. These rules were in place until the Academic Senate approved the return to in-person classes on May 8.

Many students hesitated to come to class until it was absolutely necessary.

“After class, I would immediately go back home because it was so scary being outside and just risking our lives,” Celeste said.

The campus looked empty, Celeste said. She compared campus life to that of a holiday or weekend.

“There were a few professors and teaching assistants that would act really insensitively towards their students, but there were also a lot of professors and TAs who were really accommodating,” she said.

Country Day graduate, Tarika Brar ‘22, is also a UC Davis student and a cognitive science major.

Brar had an astronomy lab the night of the first stabbing.

She later found out she was in class around the same time. The thought of walking home alone during that time was nerve-wracking, she said.

“I was pretty anxious for the next few days,” she said.

According to Brar, even though none of the stabbings occurred on campus, she felt less safe knowing that a UC Davis student was one of the victims.

In order to ensure all students got to their destinations safely, the UC Davis Safe Ride system extended the time that the vans ran.

Students can travel to and from campus via the UC Davis Safe Ride system by using an app that contacts a van to pick them up.

Although UC Davis provided a secure transportation system, students still felt unsafe because many of their classes during the day were still in session.

It wasn’t until after the third stabbing that evening classes were canceled.

“I feel like the school could have had a better response and acted faster,” Brar said.

BY SAHEB GULATI

The Sacramento Kings’ meteoric rise to the 2023 National Basketball Association playoffs sent shockwaves throughout the city, reigniting Sacramento’s loyalty to its hometown team, boosting economic vitality and instilling a sense of community on the Country Day campus.

“We showed how Sacramento has life. We aren’t just this random team in California anymore. We’re a real basketball team,” said sophomore and lifelong Kings fan Max Weitzman.

The Kings, after a 16-year wait, shattered the longest-standing playoffs drought in North American team sports this century, according to the NBA.

For the first time since the 2002-2003 season, the Kings closed out the regular season at the third-highest ranking in the Western Conference, boasting the highest offensive rating in the league.

The metamorphosis of the team unfolded via a sequence of tactical moves, including major trades and cultivation of the team’s young core.

Kings Coach Mike Brown was hired, and strategic efforts were undertaken to acquire Domantas Sabonis and draft rookie Keegan Murray to join forces with De’Aaron Fox, the Kings’ longtime starting point guard.

Sabonis, the team’s towering 7-foot forward-center, delivered a stellar season, recording an average of 19.1 points, 12.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game.

Fox improved from previous seasons, averaging 25.0 points and 6.1 assists per game on a 51.2% field goal percentage.

Sabonis and Fox were both selected to play in the NBA All-Star game, an exhibition match with the league’s best talent.

Entering the first round as underdogs with considerable momentum, Kings faced off against the defending 2022 NBA Golden State Warriors.

Although the Kings were ultimately defeated, they took the best-of-seven series to its maximum length, barely losing 3-4.

Sophomore Imani Thiara watched the Kings playoff games from inside the Golden 1 Center, the team’s stateof-the-art home arena located in downtown Sacramento.

She described the atmosphere as nothing short of insane.

“The die-hardness of the fans has upped,” Thiara said. “It was the loudest arena I’ve ever been in.”

The return of the roar to Sacramento is reminiscent of 2013, when Kings fans set the then world record for the loudest indoor arena at 126 decibels, according to Guinness World Records.

Previously, Thiara doesn’t recall much anticipation surrounding Kings basketball. That changed this season, with fans flocking to rally behind a winning team.

“You don’t see sports being as much of a big thing anymore, so it was cool to see it bring people together,” she said.

Entering the first round of the playoffs, Fox was the inaugural winner of the NBA’s Kia Clutch Player of the Year Award and Brown was unanimously named the NBA Coach of the Year.

“To have that recognition for a small team is really important for our self-esteem as a team and fan base,” Thiara said.

Barry Broome, the President and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic

Council, has observed some of the positive economic and communal impacts of this uplifting season.

“If you were thinking about investing in Sacramento, this increases your chance,” Broome said.

Golden 1 Center’s presence has driven 1.5 million square feet — from retail to residential units to a hotel, according to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

Broome said that the Golden 1 Center is the biggest driver of economic activity downtown.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership estimates that the arena will attract 1.6 million new visitors to downtown Sacramento each year.

Games also drive significant income to the city and the small business sector.

“Every game produces tens or hundreds of millions of potential economic impact for the community,” Broome said.

According to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, the Golden 1 Center was at the heart of $6.7 billion dollars in investment by 2021, which is continuing to increase.

“The Kings might be downtown, but still do a lot for El Dorado Hills, Elk Grove and Folsom,” Broome said.

This positive economic influence is mirrored in the emotions and expectations of the fanbase. Fans, both dedicated and emerging, became invested in the Kings performance.

Weitzman was pleasantly surprised by their performance this season.

“I’m impressed. I never thought we’d go to the playoffs and take the defending champions to seven games,” he said.

One of Weitzman’s favorite moments of the season was the 176-174 double-overtime thriller win against the Los Angeles Clippers, where the Kings scored the third-highest points total in NBA history.

He witnessed firsthand the presence of fans on game nights, particularly during the playoffs where live screenings of games occurred outside Golden 1 Center.

Sophomore Wyatt Hall was happy to see the culture around Kings basketball shift to be more positive — the last playoff run the team made was before he was born.

“A lot of people joke about how bad the Kings are, but now they’re winning,” he said.

If the Kings continue to succeed, he plans to try to go to more games. The atmosphere in the stadium during the last match he attended, Game 5 against the Warriors, was the most electric he had ever experienced.

According to Weitzman, the turning point in this cultural shift was the laser beam.

In the 2022-2023 season, every Kings win is marked by a vibrant purple laser beam shooting from the Golden 1 Center into the night sky.

This display, the brightest full-color laser set-up in the world, spurred on chants such as “Light the Beam,” as reported by CBS Sports.

“‘Light the Beam’ is probably the best community brand I’ve ever seen,” Broome said. “People can feel the culture of our community by watching our fans.”

“We have a fanbase now that I never thought we’d have,” Weitzman said.

The presence of the Kings franchise is a mark of pride to Broome, as they chose to stay in Sacramento over relocating to Seattle in 2013.

LIGHT THE BEAM Sacramento Kings’ fans celebrate after the Kings defeat the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the first round of the 2023 Playoffs.

Staying in Sacramento, the Kings became an integral part of the city’s future, a role they wouldn’t have had in Seattle, he said.

To Broome, the benefits to community are clear, and not just economic.

“It gives people hope.”