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Photo taken by Danny Nguyen

A poster read "Mrs. Black, you will be missed" sticks out the window of Mrs. Black's classroom so that people passing by could see it and remember her.

It is with a heavy heart that The Roosevelt Review regrets to inform all of its readers and Roosevelt’s students, of the unfortunate tragedy that occurred over the winter break to one of our own teachers here at Roosevelt.

On a Dec. 28, 2017 afternoon, ERHS’s very own 59-year-old Physics teacher Rachael Black, along with her 65-year-old husband Vernon Black, were involved in a fatal car accident at the intersection of Kershaw Road and the westbound Highway 140 in Jackson County, Oregon, near the state’s local cities of White City and Medford where the couple was there presumably vacationing and visiting family. Both of them perished at the scene that occurred at around 1 to 1:30 pm and were pronounced dead by medical personnel that arrived to examine the bodies.

Vernon Black was the one behind the wheel of his 2013 Toyota Camry car with his wife Mrs. Black when he failed to stop a stop sign at the indicated intersection. What followed was the couple’s vehicle’s collision with a semi-rigger 2001 Freightliner truck when the couple was entering the highway from the street.

The truck was driven by 49-year-old Kelly Kime from Grants Pass. Kime was unhurt in the incident and cooperated with Oregon Police State officials who came to the location of the crash at around 1:15 pm.

Police Sergeant Jeff Proulx determined that Kime did not possess any suspicion of criminal action, hence no criminal charges were made against her at the time.

Oregon State Police assessed the scene with the help of the local Fire District 13 near the area of the crash, Mercy Flights, and the Jackson county Sheriff’s office as well as the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).

A few days later, another accident occurred at the same intersection, this time involving a motorcyclist trying to make a left turn at the intersection only to get hit in the process after unsuccessfully yielding to incoming traffic.

The ODOT plans in 2020 to adjust Kershaw Road so that it can only allow drivers to make right turns instead to hopefully avoid any future accidents.

Two days after the accident, a statement was made and released by the Corona-Norco Unified School District (CNUSD) where Mrs. Black worked for, in which they remarked that they and the “Eleanor Roosevelt High School community are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Mrs. Black, a beloved physics teacher at Roosevelt High School in Eastvale.”

This shocking news of the Mr. and Mrs. Black has had a significant impact on students and staff here at Roosevelt, where it’s been almost impossible to fully grasp this devastating news. While this news is certainly not the most ideal thing to accept as Roosevelt students return from break and are in the process of embracing a new semester, it is imperative that we as a student body and community give our condolences and continue to honor the unfortunate passing of one of Roosevelt’s finest teachers.

When asked about how both (in separate interviews) felt upon hearing the news of their teacher’s sudden death,  senior students Kevin Tao and Rami Madani, Mrs. Black’s Physics class 2nd semester admitted that they were “shocked” to lose their current teacher of their year.

“I wasn’t happy to hear such news,” Tao said and Madani remarked that while it felt “not like any other loss he had because I have lost other people in my life, Mrs. Black’s death was unexpected.”

Indeed, Mrs. Black was a beloved teacher here at ERHS and much more: she was a dedicated, compassionate, and kindhearted person that was willing to help her students, but also challenge them to try to think for themselves and try to grasp concepts about Physics. She was, in many ways, unique.

“I thought she could be unpredictable, in a good way,” Chris Dimitropoulos, one of Mrs. Black’s students last semester said in a short interview.

“She was an experienced and educated teacher, but she also cared for her students and she was willing to help others. She had knowledge in her field and was able to relate Physics to other topics as well to help motivate her students to hopefully pursue something in the science field,” Rami Madani said in an interview.

Madani, a high school senior, was part of Mrs. Black’s APC Mechanic Physics last semester, and is now awaiting for a new Physics teacher to be hired to teach the class. In the meantime, her students will be overseen by a temporary substitute teacher.

He recalls a conversation he had with Mrs. Black during the last day of the 2nd semester before everyone went off break.

“I had asked her why she didn’t become a professor at a university because I thought she had such knowledge and was very educated in her field. And her response was that she just wanted to become a high school teacher because she wanted to help kids.”

One of the things that Mrs. Black does in her classes is to constantly ask her students questions about their arguments and stances on certain concepts in Physics during the discussions that she has with them that require them to present their findings on white boards.

Kevin Tao, a senior student that was enrolled in Mrs. Black’s class this school year during the 2nd semester, said that “The way she teaches is fine, but it’s also different and she goes a bit faster, building upon concepts. It requires patience.”

Black was among one of the eight founding science teachers that helped form the physics program here in the early years of the establishment of Roosevelt. Prior to that, she taught at Santiago High School and transferred to ERHS once the school opened where ERHS science teachers Jennette Bowles and Patricia Bickel also taught. Both consider Rachael Black to be not only a colleague that challenged them, but also a friend that would help them in their personal lives as well.

Mrs. Black’s reputation for being an exceptional and more than qualified teacher, to say the least, having attended both Pitzer College and Arizona State University where obtaining a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and a masters in education and natural sciences.

ERHS Administrator and STEM director Dr. Kim Lawe spoke fondly of Mrs. Black, as she actually lives within close range to her in the city of Rancho Cucamonga.

“Mrs. Black would always get to work ahead of me and we would joke about that,” Lawe said in an interview. The two would talk about interesting developments in education when it came to Science and converse about the developments that go on with how students learn.

At the present moment, Lawe said that there are ideas floating around in regards to how the school should honor Mrs. Black, ideas that include possibly naming a building of the STEM building that is currently under construction, but for now, Lawe and the ERHS administrative staff have proposed to plant a tree next to Mrs. Black’s room, a black diamond tree to highlight the shining spirit that Mrs. Black to the school.

In addition to that, Mrs. Bowles has already started a scholarship fund in Mrs. Black’s name as that would be something that Mrs. Black herself would have wanted.