Bowie High students react to administrator suspension

(Nov. 2012 story)

About 30 students stood screaming for the return of Johnnie Vega, their recently suspended assistant principal and the man who admitted to the El Paso Times three months ago he helped remove students as part of Dr. Lorenzo Garcia’s cheating scheme on Monday.

“We need Mr. Vega back, we need Dr. Chavez back, we need Ms. Kell, Mr. Cobos. I mean, they’re great,” said Bowie High parent Mary Gonzales. “They did wonders with our kids.”

Gonzales supports the student walkout and protest, a push back she says comes from the students low morale.

“We got great kids, good students,” “Gonzalez said. We need to bring good people back.”

But the great students, according to Interim Principal Nick Cobos,were not a part of the walkout, but in their classrooms.

“This call to walk out of class, to go protest was all over the school today,” Cobos said, “but the great majority of our Bowie students chose to stay in their class , chose to do what they were suppose to do. And I was very proud of them.

Pride is something that’s been gradually eroded at Bowie High, and after months of mixed media coverage, and the suspension of two administrators and one counselor in one week and the final resignation of former principal DR. Jesus Chavez, students are acting out their frustrations.They want back Mr. Vega, a grandfather-like figure who presides over the disciplinary department on campusand held a strong rapport with students.

“He was just following his orders,” one student said. “They fired him for false pretenses.”

During this investigation, the loss of cherished administrators is will be tough for bowie kids, but Cobos said, it will only make the school stronger.

“The Bowie High school community has been through some tough times but they’ve become tough for it,” Cobos said. “This is a tough time in Bowie’s history, but we’ll get through it.”

(Nov. 2012 story)