Student organization against racism adviser Daniel Perez said he left his position as an adviser at the  high school temporarily for paternity leave last winter.

According to Perez, he was only able to take temporary leave from the Student Organization Against Racism (SOAR) because he knew the group would continue in his absence.

“I’ve been so involved as a dad and spending time with my wife and our families that I’ve just disconnected completely, but part of the reason I was able to do that so much is because I know SOAR is in great hands,” Perez said.

Junior SOAR member Doreen Moranga said a decreasing number of SOAR meetings have occurred as the year has progressed.

“When we started in the beginning of the year we had a lot of meetings, but now we haven’t had them in a really long time and I don’t know why that is,” Moranga said.

Perez said before he left he didn’t put any plans in place for SOAR because it is a student led organization, but he and his co-advisor Joy Esboldt are always there for support.

“We say let us know how we can support you but for the most part it is student driven,” Perez said.

Moranga said SOAR initially had many plans for the year, but busy schedules prevented these plans from happening.

“We had a plan of having the IB teachers and the english teachers, have them use different books. I just wanted to do something that is powerful or that’s what I hoped to be doing and it just didn’t work out,” said Moranga.

Currently, there are no meetings scheduled for the remainder of the school year.