Branham Bear Witness

The Class of 2026 walked the stage on Thursday evening for their graduation ceremony, celebrating their success and accomplishments over their past four years at Branham.

During the ceremony, Holden Wooster and Camille Quinard were awarded the Principal’s Cup Award for well-roundedness and contribution to the community. Aubree Rosenblum was awarded the Laurence J. Hill Award for exhibiting leadership skills and devotion to the community.

Teacher of the Year Linda Chen highlighted the importance of the Class of 2026 continuing to develop their leadership skills.

“People don't look to see if you have all the answers; they actually look to see if you are panicking,” Chen said. “A true leader absorbs the stress and shows a calm, steady path forward. You don't need a very fancy office or a big title to be a leader.”

Valedictorian Aiden Jeong expressed the importance of challenging oneself and seeking growth in future pursuits.

“Instead of striking up small talk with our Uber driver, we can just call Waymo, or we can plug in our AirPods and scroll reels,” Jeong said. “So easy, so predictable, but the moments that matter, the moments that we remember, the moments that make us better people, aren't the easy or predictable ones.”

Principal Beth Silbergeld spoke throughout the ceremony. She congratulated the seniors on their academic achievement and the importance of continuing their success.

“Each of you will be officially concluding your high school journey and moving on to a future where you will be asked to prioritize humanity in a world where the very essence of intelligence and what it is to be human is under scrutiny,” Silbergeld said. “I'm confident that you will lead effectively on college campuses, [in] workplaces and [in] communities.”

Reporting by Emmett Spear, Amelia Martorano, Emiliano Gonzalez, Rebecca Tochilnikov, Noa Muyal and Kendall Ladd

Branham Jazz Band hosted their final performance, the Jazz Cafe, in the cafeteria this Friday.

The Jazz Cafe also included both Dartmouth and Ida Price students, in addition to Branham’s own high school band class, and was meant to end the school year with a showcase of what they’ve been practicing throughout the year. It featured a special guest, Roland Garceau, playing the trumpet.

Band director Chris Nalls explains how this event gives middle school students a chance to experience what it’s like to be a part of Branham’s music program.

“Any time we get to put on a concert together with our middle school friends means they get a sense of how fun it is to make music at Branham and how strong our program is, so it's a great recruiting tool, as well as a community builder,” Nalls said.

As the school year came to an end, Nalls noted his time as a mentor and director at Branham throughout his time teaching.

“Becoming a music teacher at Branham full-time has been one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Nalls said. “The community here has been very welcoming, and the music team has created a program that is the rival of any in the Santa Clara Bay Area or even Northern California.”

Senior and alto saxophonist Owen Smith provides his perspective on the significance of the event.

“The Jazz Cafe is our final send-off to all of the jazz seniors, along with our final performance, where we perform most of the repertoire that we've done throughout the full year.”

As the school year ends, Smith is optimistic about the future of the music program and hopes to see it expand and grow in numbers.

“I hope that the population of the music program grows. I think that we've been growing over the past few years, and I don't see it stopping anytime soon,” Smith said.

As he prepares to graduate, Smith reflects on his overall experience as a musician and the impact it had on him.

“I would recommend it to any musician or anyone interested in music. There are so many levels of bands, so many different types of bands and so many different people you'll meet. It's one of the best experiences I've ever had,” Smith said.

Reporting by Emi Mohanrao and Kailey Fu

Mandarin teacher Linda Chen won Branham Teacher of the Year at the CUHSD Board Meeting on May 21.

According to a district newsletter, teachers were recognized for “hard work, dedication and commitment to our students and schools.”

Chen felt honored to have received the award.

“The moment I got announced, I was like, ‘oh my god, I need to be very humble with getting my award,’” said Chen. “Because I'm not even a full-time teacher, I'm a part-time teacher, but I can get recognized by not only the students, but my colleagues [and students’] parents and grandparents.”

Alongside her Mandarin classes and club, Chen has hosted several community events throughout the year, such as Lunar New Year and Christmas events in the Cambrian Library.

These events were part of her effort to educate the community on Chinese culture and language and grow her students’ leadership skills.

“I really want the students to realize and learn [that] we are born in this life to be a helper, a giver for our world,” said Chen. “Students like you guys, you are raised to become a future leader who really cares about people, so that's what I want to show you through my events.”

Teaching students to be helpers and leaders is a large part of Chen’s teaching philosophy. Chen believes that holding positive characteristics close to one’s identity is how one can be the best they can be.

In accordance with her philosophy, she shared how she had designed a t-shirt with her English name that had an acrostic of positive traits associated with each letter, similar to how parents assign meaning to their children’s names in Chinese. She believes these values have helped guide her throughout her teaching journey.

She hopes to continue teaching for a long time, despite recent health scares, so she can inspire more students.

“I just want to teach till someday I cannot move, but after the surgery I was seriously thinking about maybe, not getting ready to retire, but maybe I [could] tell [my] body, ‘I have to look in the mirror, I'm old,’” said Chen. “But after I told [my students] I will just keep teaching until my full retirement age, they [were] very excited and happy.”

Reporting by Emmett Spear

The media production class performed its end-of-year showcase last Wednesday, “Dear Diary: The Blue Period.”

The student-made showcase follows a young woman as she revisits her old diary and reflects on her identity after a painful breakup. Technical Theater, Digital Film and Theater students worked together to produce it.

The various scenes and songs that followed each diary segment focused on an aspect of the girl’s identity. Some of these included “On My Own” from Les Misérables, “Ways to be Wicked” from Descendants and “The Sound of Music (Reprise)” from The Sound of Music.

Junior performer Sevin Sabei explained that the showcase focused on healing and self-discovery after heartbreak. As the students put together the storyline and scenes themselves, she found the show unique and impactful.

“The main point of the show is basically it follows the storyline of a girl kind of trying to navigate her life after a really rough breakup,” Sabei said. “[The message was] that a breakup doesn't define you, and it's important to stay true to yourself and enjoy the company around you.”

Senior performer Malaka Osias described how everyone in the showcase performed symbolically as the same girl during their own scenes, but each person contributed differently to the story.

“We all played the girl who wrote her diary,” Osias said. “When we all weren't doing that, we were in the background, like party goers or friends, comforting her and helping her see the light of the situation.”

Despite the short rehearsal schedule and challenges, Sabei expressed that the cast enjoyed creating one last production together before the seniors graduate.

“It was a labor of love,” Sabei said. “And we just really had a fun time with it.”

Osias feels the performance highlighted the chemistry and creativity of the student performers as they shared their final moments on stage together.

“It's a big community thing,” Osias said. “It's kind of playing a sport with a team. You all work together to make one product. For sports, you work together to win the game. For us, we work together to make art.”

Reporting by Rebecca Tochilnikov and Amelia Martorano

The softball team played the Notre Dame Tigers on Saturday in the CCS Division IV final and lost 0-5.

Before the game, both teams were congratulated for making it this far and all players and coaches were introduced.

During the first four innings, both teams battled it out in a tight game as neither team scored.

The Tigers hit back-to-back doubles that scored first runs on the board in the fifth, which gave them a 0-4 lead. They scored again after a single to right to make the game 0-5.

The softball team finished their season 13-13 overall, with a league record of 6-8.

Reporting by Cain Cheng

The softball team played the Pacific Grove Breakers yesterday and won 5-0 to head to their first CCS final.

The game started off slow, with both teams playing with shutdown defenses in the first three innings. However, the Bruins rallied during the fourth, scoring four runs.

Junior Kaitlyn Douglas was in the hot seat in yesterday’s match, having three at bats and cashing in an RBI for the team, with screams of her name yelled from the dugout greatly motivating her during the trips she made to the plate.

On the defensive side, both junior pitcher Taylor Bugliarello and junior third baseman Autumn Burns had defensive plays that limited the Breakers’ ability to put runners on the bases. Aiding them in the defensive effort was junior Lily Jensen, who made a diving catch in shallow right field to prevent a scoring opportunity for the Breakers.

The Bruins stayed competitive on defense, helping Bugliarello to her shutdown game on offense and ultimately leading them to their win.

After the game, Bugliarello highlighted the team’s spirit.

“We were all believing in each other, and we all hyped each other up and wanted to win,” Bugliarello said.

The Bruins will play the No. 1 seed Notre Dame Tigers on Saturday.

Reporting by Brayden Gassmann

Correction (May 29): The Bruins will play the Notre Dame Tigers next. A previous version of this story stated an incorrect mascot.

Several track and field athletes competed at Central Coast Section (CCS) Finals on Saturday, with two individuals qualifying for state championships.

Freshman Alex Garza ran 1:52.19 in the 800-meter race to place second, qualify for states and break the previous school record of 1:53.63 set in 2009 by Kevin Jani, who began coaching at Branham this year. Garza is currently the fastest freshman and 15-year-old in the world in the 800 meters, according to Athletic.net.

Also qualifying for state championships, senior Alijah Murillo ran 9:02.64 in the 3200-meter race and placed second. Senior Daniel Cheyer ran a season best of 9:19.75 to place eighth.

In the girls 3200-meter race, junior Gemma Cervone (10:55.13) and sophomore Dhrithi Ravilochan (10:59.83) placed seventh and eighth, setting new personal records. Cervone also improved her own school record.

Freshman Lucija Ivankovic ran 5:13.35 in the 1600-meter race, and junior Camryn Setser ran 15.47 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles while senior Livia Roder cleared 10 feet, 2 inches in pole vault.

In the unified shot put, partners Mike Baskin (40 feet) and Damian Arellano Martinez (39 feet, 6 inches) took first. Jeremiah Bolton (35 feet, 2 inches) and Kyle Morioka (29 feet, 7.25 inches) placed fifth, and Holden Wooster (30 feet, 11.5 inches) and Jesse Anaya (25 feet, 8.5 inches) finished in ninth, according to head coach Craig Lee.

Garza and Murillo will race on Friday and Saturday at CIF State Championships in Clovis. Additionally, several runners will compete at the Marin Mile this weekend and Nike Outdoor Nationals in June.

Reporting by Elliott Yau

Former Branham employee Heriberto “Eddie” Plascencia was arrested last week for allegedly sending harmful materials and inappropriate messages to at least two juvenile female students, according to the San Jose Police Department. He was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail.

Plascencia was hired in the middle of the 2024-2025 school year as a one-to-one classroom aide for a special education student. He also coached the JV boys basketball team and track and field team in his first year, then the varsity girls basketball team during this past season.

The 31-year-old is the head coach of Jr Ballers, a basketball training program, and formerly coached at KIPP San Jose Collegiate.

After investigating him for misconduct in 2025, the Campbell Union High School District removed Plascencia from Branham in early December and reassigned him to Westmont High School as an aide. Board policy 4216 says classified employees can receive permanent status after six months or 130 days of employment. Plascencia also coached track and field at Leigh this year.

“Once the investigation report is done, there are certain decisions that principals make site-based, always with the consult of HR,” Silbergeld said. “There are other [decisions] that HR or the district might make for us, instead of just local site control.”

Although the school and district were aware of misconduct last year, new details required an escalation.

“New information was shared with me by a student on May 15 that prompted me to call the police and report the information that I had to the school district,” Silbergeld said.

In response, police arrested Plascencia on May 21 after investigating.

Silbergeld sent a schoolwide message prior to today’s press release.

“I wanted to make sure that students, staff and families had an alert, so that if it was going to be in the news, that they had context for it,” Silbergeld said. “Even though I can only share limited context, that was important to me to respond to previous requests by our community.”

Videos circulated online last week claiming to depict Plascencia getting assaulted by minors.

Reporting by Elliott Yau, Aryella Finkel-Hozer and Emmett Spear

Students and parents gathered in the Performing Arts Center to watch the annual choir concert commemorating their six seniors on Tuesday.

The concert included several songs intended to highlight the strengths of the participating seniors. “The Road Home” by Conspirare and Craig Hella Johnson was sung by the entirety of the choir as an emotional piece intended to represent the last song performed by the senior class.

In addition to musical performances, awards were distributed in the middle of the concert to students across all grades. Senior Lindsay Dixon received the “Most Likely to be Successful in Music” award and Hannah Buchanan and Mahi Deo won the freshman award. In total, ten awards were given out by Choir teacher Barbara West.

Near the end of the concert, two members performed songs of their own choice to celebrate their senior night. Four total seniors performed songs. Junior Kamala Smith — dubbed an “honorary senior” by West because of her change in schools for the following year — performed a classical Irish piece. Following Smith, Senior Layla Calvert sang “Inarticulation” by Rio Romeo, and Lindsay Dixon and Lauren Quimby who sang a segment of “Duo De Fleurs” from Lakme.

Lastly, Sophomore Zachary Im switched roles with West for one song to conduct the piece as his fellow classmates and teacher sang.

Reporting by Kendall Ladd

Editor's note (May 26): Information about performers and award winners were corrected.

The softball team hosted the Presentation Panthers in the first round of CCS division four playoffs yesterday and won 14-2.

The team got off to a hot start by scoring three runs in the first inning off of Panther errors. In the second inning, junior Kaitlyn Douglas hit a single that drove in another run to make it 4-0. Another error by the Panther defense led to two more runs to make it 6-0.

The Panthers scored two runs off a single and a wild pitch to make it 6-2, but Douglas responded with another single that drove in two more runs. Another error by the Panther defense added to the Bruins’ lead, scoring 9-2 in the fifth. Freshman Sabrina Bugliarello hit a double that scored two more runs to give the Bruins a 11-2 lead.

In the sixth, the Bruins closed it out with a three-run double by junior Madelyn Steiner to win the game 14-2.

Coach Chrisopher Jensen is enthusiastic about the strong start for the battle-tested team.

“It was a team effort today. It's hard to point out just one person when you score 12 runs,” Coach Jensen said. “Everybody hit the ball well today, had really good at bats — definitely proud of the team.”

The team is set to play the Pacific Grove Breakers on Wednesday at Los Gatos High School with first pitch at 6:30 p.m.

Reporting by Cain Cheng

Correction (May 26): The upcoming softball game was rescheduled to Wednesday.