By Kimberly Burgos

Today, Patterson High continues to mourn the loss of Ivan Carlos Funez. Ivan was a 17 year old boy who was originally from Honduras, a country in Central America. He was educated at Patterson High School in Baltimore, Maryland. He had a passion for wanting to join the military when he was older and even decided to join the JROTC program at Patterson.

During his free time Carlos would make music and experiment with his friends because he loved music. He was also a big fan of cars. He would collect a bunch of hot wheel cars and put them up on his wall. He was really proud of his background. He would always rep his country, no matter what. He would always mention his country and even post his flag. He was into trap music. He would often experiment in his room and rap about his love. His lyrics were always really deep, talking about having it hard and his romantic life.

His friends at Patterson always referred to him as the chillest dude they’ve ever met. He was always helpful, always thankful for everyone and everything he had in his life. They referred to him as being one of the best people to have a friendship with because he was always putting others before himself.

He went missing in the Month of December, then was reported to be dead. There were a lot of rumors telling multiple stories such as he was shot and then others said he was stabbed but later on people found out it was due to gun violence. it was confirmed he was dead on December 1, 2023 at 9:09 AM.

People were devastated. His family prayed that their son would be found alive. They had spread awareness on social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.  His friends helped set up a GoFundMe and hoped they would make enough in just 3 days to send Carlos back to his home country to get buried. His death made a lot of people and students tear up. Several people broke down in school crying.

Thankfully, Patterson is a very supportive high school that cares about their students. They offered support and comfort to students who were heartbroken and affected by the death of their loved one. They would check up every day on their students and go around the hallways asking every student they saw if they needed comfort or anything or wanted to talk about Carlos. This all lasted until the day it was finally time to bury Carlos.

Several of his friends and relatives went ahead to post a black ribbon bow and their profile to honor him. They made a shirt of the year he was born and the year he passed with his name and a lot of signatures of his loved ones. On the day of his funeral, everyone wore little badges of his face on their shirts and wore black. It was a really depressing death and affected a lot of people, especially his parents.

Rest In peace and fly high, Ivan Carlos Funez.