March 2022 by The Blue and Gold

The Blue and Gold maldenblueandgold.com

Malden High School

Volume 107 Edition 5

77 Salem Street

March 2022

Malden School Committee Lifts Mask Mandate in Schools

New Saturday School Program for Malden High Students Lily Nguyen Reporter Mack Keating Reporter

A Illustration by Ruka Truong.

Read the story on pages 13-14.

Update On Malden City Worker Vaccination Status Daniel O'Toole Lead Reporter

uring the last few weeks, Massachusetts has started to ease off its mask mandate in order to open up the state again due to the decrease in COVID-19 cases and increase in vaccinated citizens. Earlier this year, to increase the safety within the city of Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu declared that all Boston city workers were required to show proof of vaccination in order to have a job in the city starting on January 15th.

The Boston Firefighters Union 718, and multiple unions under the Boston Police, were upset about this mandate and filed a lawsuit against the City of Boston on January 26th. The unions alleged that Mayor Wu had violated parts of the collective bargaining agreement made with the unions by requiring them to show proof of vaccination to be able to work for the City of Boston. In the end, the case was closed on February 15th, and Justice Sabita Singh temporarily suspended the mandate, keeping union workers from losing their jobs.

If you wish to view the case and see a more detailed timeline of it, click here: https://www.maappellatecourts.org/docket/2022J-0031 Malden is a much smaller city than Boston, with fewer city workers under its control. Nonetheless, the issue over Malden’s city workers requiring proof of vaccination in order to work for the city is an important one that can and should be elaborated on. Mayor Gary Christenson Continued on page 12.

Black Culture Club Runs Door Decorating Contest for Black History Month Hadjar Yousfi Lead Reporter

ebruary is Black History Month, and Malden High School is celebrating Black history and culture in various ways. “As Black people, we keep in tune with our mental health and our physical health,” Micaela Henry, copresident of the Black Culture Club, stated. Spanish teacher Claudia Romero explained how Black History Month is important to her because “it is a time to learn more about her students and colleagues.” She was

excited to hear more traditional music, taste cultural foods and attend enriching events. She feels as though it is important for Malden teachers to support Black culture as this “is an example of loving our neighbors regardless of race.” To kick off the month and involve students, the Black Culture Club decided to do a door decorating contest, with the theme of Black history and excellence. Groups of students worked with a teacher to decorate their classroom door in ways that related to the theme. The contest was set to end on the 11th and then be judged on the

18th, but the date has since been extended. Kristy Magras, the advisor of the Black Culture Club, explained that “we actually did our door decorating contest back in 2020 [and] it was a huge success.” Due to COVID, they ended up not doing it last year, so they were excited to bring it back this year. Magras hopes that this event “builds morale, exposure, and just again, to be able to share the works with the community.” She wants students to have fun hanging out Continued on page 7.

fter extended intermission, millions of students across the globe returned to the classroom this school year. However, the transition was anything but easy. With online learning not proving to be an ideal learning environment for most students, it impacted student-teacher communication and the well-being of students. The administration sought for a solution that could provide students additional academic support. Principal Christopher Mastrangelo spoke for a number of administrators, teachers and counselors when acknowledging students that “may be in need of academic acceleration... as we came back from COVID lockdown.” The solution that came to mind was Saturday School, which would “offer students additional pathways for accelerating their learning,” elaborated Erin Craven, Director of School Counseling. “When it comes to the really tumultuous and difficult last couple of years, the government wants to ensure that there are opportunities for students to ensure they are getting all the learning they need…to succeed and graduate, ” she said. Brunelli House Principal Jean Ewald Charles shared similar

Graphic by Lily Nguyen. Continued on page 9.

Staff

The Blue and Gold March 2022

maldenblueandgold.com

In Conversation With Donald Ford Julie Huynh Editor-in-Chief

MEET THE

BLUE AND AND GOLD GOLD BLUE

Carlos Aragon Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design

This is a transcript. To listen to the full episode, visit maldenblueandgold.com

ULIE: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Blue and Gold Podcast. I’m Julie Huynh, Editor-in-Chief and this is Carlos Aragon, Editor-in-Chief of Print. Today we’re joined by senior Donald Ford to discuss his high school experience and recent acceptance into college. How are you today, Donald? DONALD: Okay, I’m good. I’m doing lovely. It’s been an amazing day. CARLOS: Can you talk about how you started playing piano? What inspired you to start? DONALD: So from the beginning, everything mainly started when I was really young, probably seventh, sixth grade. And I started playing bass and the bass guitar in band, I don’t know if you remember. And I was walking by one of the pianists playing this song. And it was a song that I really liked from one of my favorite animes, Tokyo Ghoul. It’s called “Unravel,” that was one of the first songs I ever learned. And yeah, once I heard that, it kind of gave me the realization that, I really, this is, really cool, it sounds really good. And I forgot that classical music isn’t the only thing being played on piano. And then made me, realize that I can play video game music, I can play songs of my own interest. I can even come up with stuff. And yeah, after that, that’s when everything just kind of branched out. JULIE: Do you find that piano is your favorite instrument to play? DONALD: Honestly? Yes. Honestly, I just love the thing because it’s very, creative and you know, easy to understand, in my opinion. I don’t know if it’s different for others, it’s probably different, but in my opinion, it’s easy for me to, you know, take in, because I just like the way it sounds, I like pressing the little things, then making a click, like I’m typing on a keyboard, or the computer. And yeah, it’s just beautiful. I love it. CARLOS: So what made you want to decide pursuing music in college? DONALD: I think mainly what inspired me was that one day when we did that Berklee field trip in middle school. When we did that field trip... it’s gonna sound really corny, but when I took that first step off the bus, and I saw everything and we walked in, and I was like, oh my God. This is beautiful. And we started walking past people who

Editor-in-Chief: Julie Huynh ‘22

Editor-in-Chief: Lauren Mallett ‘22

Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design: Carlos Aragon ‘22

Editor-in-Chief of Web and Mobile: Lulu Harding ‘22

Managing Editor: Sandra Li ‘22

Managing Editor: Karen Rivera ‘22

Managing Editor of Art and Photography: Brandon Wong ‘22

Class Advisor: Ryan Gallagher

Head of Sports: Juliana Luong ‘23

Head of Sports: Kaoutar Wakaf ‘23

Head Copy Editor: Chaimaa Assli ‘23

Head of Local: Head of Local: Kayley Glavin ‘23 Krishany Marius ‘23

Reporters Reporters

Lead Reporter: Nathan Dean ‘24 Lead Reporter: Gabriel Fesehaie ‘23 Lead Reporter: Courtney Fitzgerald ‘22 Lead Reporter: Zachary Nedell ‘24 Lead Reporter: Desiree Nong ‘23 Lead Reporter: Daniel O’Toole ‘24 Lead Photographer: Liam O’Toole ‘22 Lead Reporter: Hadjar Yousﬁ ‘24 played, somebody carrying a whole bass like violin-thing. Somebody was carrying a whole keyboard case. It was all amazing. And I was like, these people are really nice. Someone even said hi to me in the lunchroom, because there were college students plus us. I said, "hi," and I was like, “oh my god, do you play piano?” He’s like, ”Yeah, it’s my second semester here.” I was like, "oh, my God." JULIE: That could be you! DONALD: Yeah, and after that we had a conversation and I asked him, “how’s it like going here? I really wanna go here, I really like playing piano too!” And he was like, “you’re honestly gonna love it, and you’re gonna make a bunch of connections, and the moments you make here, you’re always gonna remember them” and I was like, “okay!” JULIE: So how would you describe the application and interview process? DONALD: So the application, it was simple it was honestly just you know, information and all that thank God there was no essay or anything, because it’s music, so

Ashton Calixte ‘25 Dani Licona-Cruz ‘25 Fatima Dahbani ‘25 Joy Lugo Morales ‘25 Nora Hounain ‘25 Dorothy Michel ‘25 Gabi Ilebode ‘22 Lily Nguyen ‘25 Mack Keating ‘25 Vanessa Ramos ‘24 Gianna Lally ‘25 Ruka Truong ‘25 Sophie LeBlanc ‘25 Samara Valencia ‘25 Jessica Li ‘25 Divina Wembi ‘23

I don’t have to do any of that. The interview was really scary. And because I was I think five minutes late, and it was freezing. I took the train and my hands were getting really cold and when my hands are cold, I can’t move freely, I can’t do all that some of my fingers. And so I was like, “what if I put my piece and my hand goes in the wrong direction. So that’s all I was thinking about. “What if I messed up, oh my god this freaking Massachusetts weather, I freaking hate this.” So then I got there, I sat down, it was this big room and one of the guys

was “Hey, are you Donald Ford?” and I said “Oh yeah” and he said “the guy up there is waiting for your piano original” and I went “okay perfect!” So he took me up there and we had a little conversation about, you know, Berklee, all excited and he’s like, “oh, yeah, no, it’s gonna be fun. Honestly don’t feel nervous, I’m not gonna press you anything.” and I was like “Alright, cool!”

To hear the rest, follow us on Spotify or visit our website!

The Blue and Gold March 2022

Malden High Bathroom Monitors Raise Controversy Among Student Body

Interactive

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MARCH SPOT THE DIFFERENCE Can you spot the differences between the two Nedlams?

Carlos Aragon Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design Karen Rivera Managing Editor

n a surprising development, the Malden High administration has decided to station monitors outside of the bathrooms on the third floor of Boyle house. This decision has garnered different reactions from students across the school. Marta Cabral, who is the Holland house principal, stated that as of now they are starting with a pilot in the third floor Boyle house bathrooms, but the school’s hope is to “review the data that we collect from it and learn from how the rollout has been from the third floor and then implement it in the other bathrooms for next year.” The students must sign in and out of the bathrooms with the monitor outside, and bring a pass from their teacher to be let into the bathrooms. Only three people are allowed into the bathroom at once in order to time the students and keep the wait organized. Many students have expressed that they do not see a point in only implementing the monitors in a few bathrooms while there are still many others around the building that have been left unattended. Senior Sharon Pan expressed that “the fact that there is only one bathroom being signed in and out is kinda weird because if they do it in one… I feel like at the same time it might not help with the issue.” In addition, teachers must have a planning and prep period implemented into their schedules so that the school and administration can not force them to use their time to monitor the bathrooms. The teachers and staff located outside of the bathroom have volunteered, stated Cabral. For this reason, the school as of right now can only manage to keep one bathroom monitored. Principal Christopher Mastrangelo explained that the reasoning behind the bathrooms is that “we have too many kids that are making too many poor decisions, from hanging out in the bathroom which is one thing but graffiti, the destruction it's unacceptable.” Mastrangelo expressed his frustration by noting that “Malden High School has never dealt with this before, this has never been an issue… I mean we've had pockets of issues from time to time but not to this level… So what we are trying to do is this pilot outside of the third floor Boyle.”

The question that arose from both students and staff was whether or not having this new system would keep the crowds and destruction out of the bathrooms and prevent the chaos that has been going on. “We’ve had some people say well there are only teachers outside of the Boyle House bathrooms so they’ll go somewhere else. But what does that do? It creates a safe space for kids that want to go to the bathroom and don't want to deal with the nonsense. So we get it,” said Mastrangelo. Many students shared that they are doubtful this system will bring any significant change and ultimately, it is a hassle for the students who are doing the right thing. Senior Armani Dure expressed his frustration by stating that he believes “it's really unnecessary. I don't think this is really going to be a deterrent for people doing negative things within the school. It's honestly just a detriment to everyone who's doing the right thing.” Dure added that he “sees people rushing to C5. I’ve heard stories of people just leaving the school to do…So it’s not doing anything, it just takes the most available option away from them.” As a result, Dure believes that the bathroom monitors aren't really mitigating any of the problems that they're meant to solve. On the other hand, some students think those bathroom

monitors are an apt solution to the problem of students crowding the bathroom. Senior Jimmy Hou stated that while he initially thought the crowding was frustrating, over time he became apathetic to it. “This has happened to me so many times,” he said. Senior Lucas Williams added that he believes the new system is “a better thing now because we don't have 37 people walking in there vaping and hanging out.” Williams explained that “it's really uncomfortable walking in the bathrooms and having that many people in there.” He further mentioned how he is content with having the sign-in sheets as it allows for two people in at a time. While they may be a minority, a few feel as though the monitors are completely unnecessary. Senior Sheldon Wasajja stated that he had really never seen any students crowding around the bathroom and that the monitors are just an inconvenience. No matter what anyone thought of the solution, most seemed to express the same sentiment towards the problem of crowding; disgust. Senior Leslie Rodriguez stated that “if you go to the bathroom just to hang out or to smoke or to do nothing but use the bathroom, it's disgusting and it’s pathetic.” Rodriguez added that “it's not fair at all. There's always that one group of kids that ruins it for everybody so I feel like they should

just stop. You're in high school, you need to grow up, you're going off to college or you're going to become an adult soon. You need to learn to be respectful and you need to learn a lesson and it ruins it for everybody.” Mastrangelo noted that 1,700 kids use the bathroom appropriately, less than 100 don't. “It's so insanely disrespectful… we’re doing all these wholesale changes based on the actions of a small percentage of our kids. The way you combat that is the larger number stands up to the smaller number “ stated Mastrangelo. He made it clear that Malden High Schools' goal is to create a safe space for the students who need to use the restrooms appropriately and put an end to the destruction and shenanigans that have been going on over the last 8 months. Mastrangelo made it clear that Malden High “needs people to just stop.” He warns that if they “find the kids that are doing the graffiti and ripping this school apart we’re gonna take it to the highest level of school discipline we can, cause it's ridiculous.” Overall, there is still much uncertainty regarding the bathroom monitors, despite only being located in one bathroom. While most students aren’t big fans, the administration seems hopeful to expand the policy even further next year. Even so, both faculty and students seemed exhausted and frustrated with the issues plaguing the bathrooms.

Editorial

The Blue and Gold March 2022

maldenblueandgold.com

Finding Comfort in the Uncomfortable

lipping through the dozens of pages filled with stories of the past, I arrive at an empty page. I begin to ponder over what specific event in my life that I should recount on. Taking pieces of memories, I uncapped my pen and let the ink slowly spill out as my emotions did the same–allowing each word to stand still, frozen in time, as I myself too am freezing, as my mind flashes back to write a story. As each stroke of my pen touched the surface of the page, with each tiny release of ink, I wrote about finding comfort in the uncomfortable. “...I recently saw an art piece that perfectly described the growth of an individual. There was a drawing of a stacking point pencil which was all the rage in elementary school. It showed how when a nib would finish, we didn’t throw it away. Instead, we would stick it back in so that a new one could surface. Well, at first I didn’t get the metaphor it was trying to make. But as I read through the art more, it suddenly made sense. The artist explained to think of the used nibs as your past self–they are stacked together to make who you are today…” - February 2022 I had always been a person who enjoyed being in the shadows of others. And I was content with that. I never felt the need to branch out or talk to new people. I didn’t feel the need to challenge myself by feeling discomfort. All throughout my childhood, I clung onto every little bit of comfort I could find everywhere I went, allowing others to soak in the space instead. In a way, I was running away from what I had considered

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a “threat” at the time. That was until high school came around. Whether it was interacting with students who I had never spoken to before, or simply raising my hand to answer a question, it was obvious that I avoided any challenge–or rather anything that would make me feel uncomfortable. Just the slightest thought of conversing with strangers transcended into sweat on my palms, giving me anxiety over whether I can surpass my introvertedness and hold meaningful connections with individuals. High school encompassed a series of phases that I endured through. Each day I criticized myself for not saying “this” or not saying “that.” I was filled with constant worry about the perceptions people would form of me. I cowered in fear over the thought of having to do something that required stepping out of my comfort zone. As a result, from these past four years I can recall many mistakes and awkward moments that I’ve had with people. At times, the words “if I had done this back then…” continuously crossed my mind everyday. I thought of every potential scenario of where I could have done something better. I tore myself apart in every way possible. In spite of all of this, if you had told me that in my last year of high school that I would: 1. Have recited a poem in the auditorium with a large audience 2. Have purple hair 3. Make new friends (yes, very cliché but true.) 4. Wear platform Dr. Martens everyday 5. Come out as pansexual. I most definitely would have glared at you, and most likely run

away from the insanity that came out of your mouth. Now I would be lying to the reader if I said I still don’t get nervous or am not socially awkward with individuals. Every now and then the thought of correcting a scenario in my head tends to spring into mind. Just last week I presented my first presentation since sophomore year in my AP Language & Composition class and a peer thought I was going to burst into tears, even despite having flashcards handy to help me remember what I had to say. As I’m writing this, I can still vividly remember the trembling voice and the gasp for air I had to take every few seconds to go through each slide. I still cringe at that memory. But you know what? I find that there are so many ingredients when it comes to embracing the act of overcoming. There is the sprinkle of anxiousness that goes into the pan as the sizzling confidence quickly simmers away the thought of failure. And while letting that settle, you discover other spices that provide a sense of thrill. My mother had always joked around saying how we’re able to eat any type of food, whether savory or spicy. And she’s right. It is as if I’m a blend of savory spices that have come together to embrace new flavors. That being said, I am confident to say that I am willing to take risks. Most times. I have come to learn the immense value in the overused saying “expand your horizons.” Although used too frequently, it has come to be true. Despite having once been afraid of extending my boundaries, I have paved a new journey for myself–embracing uncertainty. From

this previous feeling of isolation, ultimately sprouted my longing to soak up as much as I could of the world around me. Looking back at the artwork I wrote about earlier, I found that the artist was right. You can look back and think you were either too boring or too embarrassing. Which could be true. Or not. But in spite of all of that, it reminded me to be kind to myself–ultimately not to throw away my old self. Rather, be kind to my younger self. For my past and present are the authors of my future. That being said, to become comfortable with the uncomfortable is a journey that one has to be willing to take. It definitely can be unsettling at times, but facing those types of challenges that allow you to experience personal growth and embrace discomfort can settle together to form what you want to be. Capping my pen, I delicately place the silk ribbon in the crevice of the two pages. Smiling once more, I gently close my journal and pay a farewell to the memories I’ve made, hoping for more as I turn to the next blank page– ready for this insatiable desire to go out and absorb as many new experiences, pen in hand, set to write new strokes of memories.

Sandra Li Managing Editor

Editorial Policy The Blue and Gold is an open forum for student expression. It is produced by students for the school and the community. The views presented in this paper are not necessarily those of the advisor or the school administration. The views presented in the editorials are those of the editors-in-chief or guests. The goal of The Blue and Gold is to inform and entertain students as well as the community regarding issues that we feel are important. We strongly encourage readers to respond to material printed in the form of signed letters to the editors. No libelous, malicious, defamatory, obscene, or unsigned material will be printed. The Blue and Gold reserves the right to edit the letters. Names may be withheld upon request. Not all letters will be printed. Although The Blue and Gold appreciates the support of advertisers, we may refuse any advertisement that violates the above policy or that promotes products questionable to student use. Any correspondence concerning this publication should be directed to Mr. Ryan Gallagher’s room in J387 or to his mailbox in the main office.

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The Blue and Gold March 2022

Opinion

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Op-Ed: Embracing My Inner Black Hole Lauren Mallett Editor-in-Chief

he world is run by words. What we say, how we say it, and what we mean controls every aspect of our daily lives. We place a seemingly endless amount of weight on our words. The names and phrases we use can make all the difference, with the power to bring people together or tear them apart. Metaphors are especially powerful, seeing as they are a way of conveying our thoughts indirectly, with a sense of familiarity, often using common knowledge. In the song “Numb” by Waterparks, lead singer Awsten Knight questions listeners, asking, “How can I be a black hole / And your favorite constellation?” The lyrics present a perplexing pair of metaphors, comparing Knight’s idea of himself as a black hole and other’s views of him as a constellation of stars. Basic knowledge of the two astronomical objects provides recognition of the stark contrast between them; black holes are freez-

Carlos Aragon Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design

ear Kentaro Miura, Last January, I had been stuck in my house self isolating, staring at my computer screen for hours on end, droning through classes for nearly a year. My mind was beginning to tire out, and I had heard so many great things about your work before. I decided to take a break, and dive into Berserk, your most popular piece. And sadly, I was disappointed at first. To be fair, the first few chapters are quite rough around the edges. The story came off as shallow and edgy; dark for the sake of being dark. I still feel that way about the introduction, but in retrospect I chalk it up to you being young and wanting attention. More importantly, I was entranced by your art, paneling, and how the pages came to life in such a way that made a fictional world feel real. Even so, I ended up dropping Berserk a few chapters in. Then on May 6th, you died. For weeks, the entire world mourned. The influence you had and the impact you left on millions of people will be felt for decades. The brightest candles burn the quickest, and your flame set the world ablaze. Seeing the world weep was the final push I needed to give your life’s work a second chance. I wanted to experience the story that garnered

ing cold forces of gravity so powerful that they cannot be observed directly, whereas a constellation refers to a group of fiery stars emitting light and warmth. The two are polar opposites of each other, yet in this proposed scenario, one person is likened to both at the same time. These carefully crafted comparisons, when joined together, pose a question that is both simple and complex; how? How can one person be both a black hole, acting in a wholly self sufficient manner, and a constellation, lighting up its surroundings and creating energy for others? This question challenges the long-time expectations of human duality. The pressure to be multifaceted while maintaining a consistent reputation personalized to the person who is perceiving you at that current moment in

time. Everyone around you has a different view of your personality, your wit, and every facet of your being, but what happens when the person you are perceived as is no longer who you are? What if the two are as different as, let’s say, a black hole and a constellation. When it comes to the pressure of maintaining the performance and facade, when is it too much for one person to bear? Expectations weigh heavy upon the shoulders of those to whom they fall. I have built myself a certain reputation, and I’ve lived

accordingly for many years. As a kid, I was never in trouble at school. My permanent record is clean as a whistle, something I’ve always taken pride in. However, at the same time I feel a sense of regret towards my younger self for allowing herself to stay so small and go unnoticed. For not making big scenes when I was bullied or speaking up for myself when someone made me uncomfortable. Years of tribulations and repressed emotions have built me up to the woman I am today, and like a volcano on the verge of eruption, I am done waiting around for someone else to lead the way. I am tired of staying silent and pretending to be a constellation, where my only purpose is to provide happiness for others. I am ready to embrace my inner black hole, with all the mystery and strength that may come with that decision. My future is in my hands, and I am looking forward with my eyes set on the finish line, my own happiness set as the end goal.

nist, Guts, and his struggle, how he felt like a wanderer stopping to warm himself by the flame, I felt at peace. I could finally put into words what I had been feeling for years; I was struggling for a purpose. I thought long and hard about trying to find a spark of my own. And after feeling so deeply moved by the story you wrote, I decided to sit down and write my own. Who knows if it’ll work out? Time and time again I trash ideas, take long walks to clear my head, come back with new ones and repeat

the cycle. Yet, I can’t bring myself to stop. The excitement I feel when the creative gears start spinning is unlike any I’ve ever felt before. Every time I write, I feel the sparks flickering. One day, I hope to join the raging, dancing bonfires of the world. But in the meantime, I’ll cradle the small embers that I have, and thank you for showing me I had them in the first place.

Sparks

so many praises, to find out how it brought the world together. After rereading the first few chapters, I began the Golden Age Arc of Berserk. And I was not disappointed. I read it in two nights, over 90 chapters, and devoured over three thousand pages of meticulously detailed and beautifully composed artwork. I was so lost in the story and by the end of it, the melting pot of emotions I felt left me a disaster. As I looked up from the end of Chapter 94, I could see the early sun peering through my blinds, but I didn’t care. The whirlwind of sorrow, anger, fear, and betrayal had other plans. Throughout the night, I laughed, I cried, I clenched my fist and smiled throughout the whole ordeal. I was moved by your writing; how the characters were painfully human in a cruel world that was anything but. You wrote about their “spark”; the flame that pushed them to live, to fight, all gathering together, forming a bonfire made up of hopes and dreams. For almost two years now, I’ve sat and contemplated my desires in life. Each time, I came up blank. Sure, I loved reading, and I’ve done some video work here and there, but nothing has sparked my flame. And every day, I see little flickers all around me, in my friends, my teachers, my family, but I’ve yet to light mine. When I read about the protago-

Sincerely, Carlos

Local News

The Blue and Gold March 2022

Black Culture Club Spotlights HBCUs for Black History Month maldenblueandgold.com

Dani Licona-Cruz Reporter

uring this year’s Black History Month, the Black Culture Club focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Black Culture Club had a table near both of the cafeterias. This was so that students on their way to lunch were able to simply stop by and hear about a few HBCUs per week. Some of the schools they talked about were Howard University, Hampton University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Albany State University, Morgan State University and Florida A&M University, among others. The club’s goal was to bring awareness to HBCUs that most students are unaware of, and what they offer. Black Culture Club advisor Kristy Magras said, “we have reps come from various colleges and

universities, but rarely do we have someone from Historically Black Colleges and Universities come to visit. It is important with such a diverse high school that our students have awareness of their options for a post-secondary education.” Magras believes that HBCUs should be supported and talked about just as much as any other college or university. In the United States alone there are 107 HBCUs and 104 Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). This is the first year that the Black Culture Club has done the HBCU Spotlights. The inspiration for the program sprouted from noticing the extensive Black History Month program that Everett High School had last year. Reportedly, the students were assigned an HBCU and tasked with researching the school. “I thought this was something that was really interesting… instead

of waiting for someone to come and present to the students, the students actually did the research,” Magras stated. The idea was then adapted here at MHS, and the HBCU Spotlights were born. The original idea was to hold a college fair of sorts. They would have posters and teachers participating in the program. Students would have been able to visit them during lunch or after school to learn about the HBCUs. Unfortunately, due to scheduling problems and student commitment, they were only able to do a lunch table. The interesting part of HBCUs is that they are schools where minorities are not so minor. In a primarily white school, Black people are considered almost as a statistic. For example, Harvard is an Ivy League school with the most Black admissions, and still the minority

only stands at 11% overall. At an HBCU, this would not be the case. Black culture is fostered in these schools and gives a different, new and fresh perspective on the Black community. “If there was a place that fostered your culture, how would that make you feel? You know, versus being someone of a minority ,you know, in a school. It’s being able to just foster those cultures,” Magras expressed. The idea that students would not have to be a minority, but actually be able to embrace their culture, is a rare opportunity at big colleges and universities. This is part of the reason why it is so important to the Black Culture Club to talk about HBCUs. Moreover, even though things did not go exactly according to plan, Magras said, “Hopefully next year we can grow it.”

Black History Month: WellnesS Wednesdays Ruka Truong Reporter

lack Culture Club hosted three weeks of ¨Wellness-Wednesday,¨ which discussed the intersection of race and mental health in a safe space, on Feb. 2nd , 9th, and 16th.. Week one was LETS BREAK DOWN THE STIGMA!, week two was Coping Skills, and the final week was Black Joy. The idea starts off with how “Last year, Everett High School had a very extensive Black History Month program and I thought this was something that was really interesting where the students were doing presentations on the schools,” Kristy Magras, Black Culture Club advisor, expressed Magras, Christelle Jean, and Micaela Henry the co-presidents were in charge of putting the pro-

Graphic by Ruka Truong.

gram together with the help of Taysia Holmes, a social worker at Jenkins House. ¨Especially within the Black community [mental health] is stigmatized—you just don’t talk about it. You don’t know therapy is a good thing. And we wanted to break that stigma, that stereotype, by talking about it and sharing our feelings,¨ Magras stated. For the first week they got to know each out, talked about mental health, and didn’t get into much. The second week they got into Thinking Traps which were some grounding skills, and how to avoid things like jumping to conclusions, ignoring, or blowing things out of proportion. Magras said she hopes the club could host these talks year-round She also hopes that they “remain able to talk about strategies of

coping, and not just mental health issues, but just our own personal selves.” With that, Malden High

A flyer for Wellness Wednesdays.

School wrapped up February with a Door Decorating and HBCU Spotlights.

The Blue and Gold March 2022

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Black Culture Club Runs Door Decorating Contest for Black History Month Continued from page 1. while creating their art pieces. After choosing the winner, the Black Culture Club will be throwing a pizza party for the winning group. Though the Door Decorating contest may seem like a simple fun thing to do, Magras explained how it is a good way to show “the contributions of Black Americans and…to promote Black excellence.” One of the many groups to participate in this event was science teacher Michel-Le Meranda’s group, which consisted of sophomores Tori Gammon, Sarah Boucher, Delilah Hudson and Samara Hogan-Sanders. Located on the fourth floor,

Meranda’s door is beautifully decorated with the face of a Black woman with many curls. Boucher expressed that Black History Month is a month ¨where we get to express our culture and show what our history means to us.” Gammon added that Black History Month is an important time of the year because it gives “us the chance to show our culture and creativity.” When it came to deciding on whether to join, Boucher felt “it was an obligation to show people how much we care about this month.” It helped that throughout the entire process Boucher had a lot of friends. Romero chose to join the contest as she “wanted to recognize people

within the Black community who have made our lives better with their contributions, their example, and art.” Gammon explained that being with her favorite teacher, and “being with a group of friends when we had all been friends for so long,” made them enjoy the experience more as they were able to become even closer over the course of the project. Throughout the month of February, the Black Culture Club has also been hosting Wellness Wednesdays and HBCU Spotlights. These programs are open to everyone who wants to come to support the Black Culture Club.

Henry mentioned that they are considering continuing the Wellness Wednesdays past this month because “it has been really fun and impactful,” as it is a significant resource to have available for the Black youth at the high school. As students walk through the building these next few weeks and see the different doors decorated in the halls–painting the stories of pain and suffering, as well as love, strength, beauty and culture, they are reminded to appreciate the people behind it—those who stepped forward to decorate a door with more than just art—they are pieces of history, and examples of excellence.

Henry believes that it helps to enlighten others by bringing “awareness and to not just talk about the Black struggle, but Black joy,” which is often overlooked.

Erin O’Brien-Mazza’s door is decorated to celebrate Black musicians. Photo by Ashton Calixte.

Kate Haskell and Victoria Atkinson’s door is decorated for Black History Month. Photo by Ashton Calixte.

Michel-Le Meranda and Jessica Bisson’s door is decorated with the phrase, “Black is beautiful.” This door won the contest. Photo by Ashton Calixte.

Claudia Romero decorated her own door. Photo by Hadjar Yousfi.

Ann Pember’s door decorated by Sarah Schneider, Julie Huynh, Reem Bouachra and Lauren Mallett. Photo by Nathan Dean.

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The Blue and Gold March 2022

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Jessica Li Wins Student Round of Poetry Out Loud Gabriella Ilebode Reporter Ruka Truong Reporter

s the new year started off Malden High hosted its annual Poetry Out Loud (POL) semi-finals. Eight people competed in a recitation competition. Only two people from each period could move forward to the finals. The Poetry Out Loud Finals took place January 27th. Malden High School's POL competition is the largest in the state. Jessica Li won the competition this year as a 9th grader. During the finals are two student rounds where the students recite two poems. Specific staff members pick the winners of each competition. This year, those judges were Mrs. Marquez, the Accuracy Judge; Ms. Brookes, the Recitation Judge; Ms. Mulkern, Recitation Judge; and Ms. Clapp, the Tabulation Judge. In first place from the Period 2 semi-finals was Alyssa Littlejohn, who performed “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, and second place winner, Kiley Fray, who performed “The Albatross” by Kate Bass. Alyssa Littlejohn said that, ït is such an honor to have won first place, both in my class competition and in the semi-finals.¨ She even exclaimed that, Ï definitely gained more confidence, especially speaking in front of a group of people I'm not used to speaking in front of as much.¨ She has a background in performing music and ït was definitely a different experience.¨ Ï think they did amazing, especially after two years of not being at school,¨ accuracy judge Yaharia Marquez explained. There were 13 finalists in the

student competition. Each student would go up, state their name, the name and author of the poem and then recited the poems while teacher Mrs. Marquez did an accuracy check. After the student was done reciting their poems, they would give the judges time to grade the student on how well it was recited and then move on to the next student. The first round of recitations took about forty minutes, starting off with Alyssa Littlejohn, after Ryan Coggswell; once the last student was done, Mrs. Marquez called the staff on stage for the teacher round of POL. Five staff members participated in POL to show solidarity to students, knowing how hard it is having to stand up in front of people reciting something. To start the teacher round, Principal Mr. Mastrangelo performed first, followed by Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Mauser, Mr. Pitnof, Mr. Charles and Ms. Clapp. Once the staff was done reciting their poems, the students participating in Poetry Out Loud voted on their favorite staff recitation. Ms. Clapp was announced as the winner for the staff round and her name was added onto the David Holland award. Lastly, the final round of the Student Poetry Out Loud, they went in reverse order so starting the second round was Ryan Coggswell and it went on faster from there. Again, the judges graded the students on their performance. By the end of the second round, the judges turned in their papers and Mrs. Clapp totaled up the students' scores. Mrs. Marquez announced the third through first place winners. In third place was Sophomore Ryan Cogswell, in second place was Junior Jadelini Mora and in first place was Freshman Reporter for the Blue and Gold Jessica Li.

Senior Sandra Li reciting her poem. Photo by Joy Lugo Morales.

From left to right: 3rd place winner Ryan Cogswell, 2nd place winner Jadelini Mora and 1st place winner Jessica Li. Photo by Joy Lugo Morales.

Senior Lucas Williams reciting his poem. Photo by Joy Lugo Morales.

Sophomore Sarah Henry reciting her poem. Photo by Joy Lugo Morales.

The Blue and Gold March 2022

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Chinese Culture Connection Hosts Virtual Lunar New Year

9 New Saturday School Program for Malden High Students Continued from page 1.

Sandra Li Managing Editor

n celebration of the Year of the Tiger, the Chinese Culture Connection (CCC) celebrated Lunar New Year with a virtual event over Zoom with a variety of performances and acts to ring in the new year. Prior to the pandemic, the CCC would showcase their performances at Malden High School in the Jenkins auditorium. However, because of restrictions the organization decided to display their event virtually where attendees could RSVP. Mei Hung, the Executive Director of CCC, explained that there were several setbacks and challenges in midst of the pandemic as the organization had to be creative and think outside the box. Hung emphasized how there was tremendous time pressure, as well as having to make many changes in order to prepare the celebration. “Having an online event meant we would not provide a stage… so many performers could not participate [which] meant that all the performances would have to be prerecorded and edited,” she said. As a result, not all of the performers had the space to perform or the technical skills needed to produce the recording in a timely manner. Urban Media Arts (UMA) was able to support the CCC's efforts by offering their equipment and helping to record some of the performances at the J Malden Center. Hung noted that in the virtual world, it takes much more preparation as it required the CCC more than a month of intense production labor during the last two weeks of the event as “we had to hold many rehearsals to make sure that we ironed out the many technical issues and avoid glitches.” With the CCC having more than a decade of experience in hosting this annual event, Hung

stated that “we have attracted many friends and performing groups who appreciated the opportunity to participate and share their cultural heritage and talents with our audience.” And although many recurring performers could not join them this year, there were still benefits to the virtual format. “[It] enabled us to invite performers from China, this would not have been possible if the event was in person.” During the event, there were various acts of singing and dancing from performers coming from the organization and all across Malden. Hung especially highlighted ZiDe Qin She, a traditional Chinese musical group. She went on to say how the whole performance introduced not only the unique characteristics of each musical instrument, but also “set the time in the Song dynasty with the performers’ costumes and coupled with their highly creative interpretation and versatile video technique.” The performance was able to establish a fantasy-like visual effect through its performers. “It gave an outlandish and a sense of a surreal experience for the audience.” In addition, each year the CCC collaborates with the U.S Postal Service to unveil a limited edition Lunar New Year stamp for the Year of the Tiger, with this year being the seventh year. “It is essential for our Asian immigrant community to retain their cultural heritage and feel a sense of pride, while acculturating into the mainstream American culture,” Hung emphasized. Observing this annual Lunar New Year celebration is “symbolic of embracing their traditional heritage” because it “helps our American-born youth with Asian heritage to preserve and develop a positive bi-cultural identity.” “We want our youth to feel

proud of who they are and leverage their bi-cultural persona as an asset to maximize their potential,” Hung said. Junior Henry Zhao, who celebrates Lunar New Year annually with his family, stated that the holiday allows for families to “spend time with your family and to welcome yourselves into the new year with good fortune, happiness and love.” As an immigrant, Hung believes that the celebration served many functions. She added that as human beings, “we have more in common than our differences… but we also have unique aspects of our very own culture.” She elaborated that “the differences are often very small, yet they can set us apart…I hope through the sharing of this event, we educate, enrich and inspire each other.” Adding on to that thought, senior Katrina Chang, who volunteered for the CCC, explained that through this event, the organization “makes us feel connected with the country of origin, despite being Asian American.” She added that it strengthens the “bond between Asian Americans and allows us to expand more on Chinese culture to others” who are not well-versed in it. Hung expressed that the mission of the CCC is to “promote intercultural harmony, strengthen the diverse community and build a bridge between the Chinese and American citizens and people from around the world within our reach.” “Our goal is to help our Asian immigrant community feel a sense of belonging, while connecting to their American neighbors and friends,” Hung said. Moreover, it is to have a cultural center that enables people of “all ethnicities to congregate, share dialogue, exchange ideas, share and learn from one another to celebrate diversity for the benefit of all.”

thoughts with Craven, desiring a “restorative approach for kids who are having a difficult time getting work done, passing their classes or missing credits.” As a result, Malden High School submitted a request and was soon awarded the MassGrad Promising Practices Grant in January, a grant delivered by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to fund supplementary programs for high school students at risk of not graduating due to absenteeism, course failure, among other factors–exactly what they needed. “We’ve been working diligently to make the idea a reality ever since,” said Craven. And it paid off: after a month or so, introduced to Malden High by a teacher committee of varying content areas led by Craven and Charles was the Saturday School program, run with support of federal funding. Classes are to commence Saturday, February 19th, 2022, from 9 AM to 12 PM, giving students ample time to catch up. It is scheduled to run until June, and the leaders of the committee are energized by long-term goals for the program. More specifically, Charles hopes that Saturday School will become “an integral part of school where students have a place where they can make up work, and social-emotional issues can be addressed, [outside of] the actual school day.” With the program providing an ideal, tight-knit environment for student acceleration, he finds it to be “a great addition for students.” “Education didn’t take a front seat for these students across the entire pandemic, showing us that there was a number of students that had credits they still need–or that they maybe would’ve earned last year–to fulfill,” detailed Craven. “Grades and attendance were perhaps not where they typically are, and we want to give students the opportunity to get the classes, grades and attendance that they were lacking before now.” Overall, the committee has high hopes, envisioning that Saturday School or a similar program will be established in the following years “depending on the data of this spring” and its success in “benefiting students’ grades and attendance.” If you are interested in learning more about Saturday School, please contact Principal Mastrangelo or other members in the committee for more details.

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The Blue and Gold March 2022

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Maldonian Raises Money for Yearbook Lulu Harding Editor-in-Chief of Web and Mobile Apps

he yearbook is almost here! The Maldonian class at Malden High is currently putting together the final touches on the senior class’ 2021-2022 yearbook. In the meantime, one of the biggest focuses of the class is raising money. Senior Mackenzie Brennan, a proofreader for the Maldonian, expressed how important fundraising is for the yearbook. Throughout the year, the class has hosted several fundraising events to raise enough money to keep yearbook prices low, adding, “around picture day, we sold several Malden High lanyards. In the fall, we had a pie and cookie dough sale and most recently we had an online popcorn sale.” “Fundraising is important for the yearbook because the price that we sell the yearbook at is actually not the price it costs to make the yearbook…it costs more to make it than what we charge,” senior Maldonian member Abby Tang added. “A lot of money has to be made to keep the yearbook at $85.” After February break, the Maldonian class is planning on starting a pastry fundraiser with the same

company that they sold pies and cookie dough with. In addition to the various fundraisers happening, February is “Maldonian Month.” If students purchase a yearbook in the month of February, they are automatically entered into a raffle. Prizes include Celtics tickets, escape room tickets, a prom ticket, several different gift cards to nearby businesses and more. Brennan brought up that although fundraising has been going great this year, one of the biggest challenges that the staff has faced is getting people interested in being involved with the yearbook. “With everything digitized, not everyone is interested in having a yearbook nor do they see the importance of it.” The staff has also realized that one of the reasons that it has been somewhat difficult selling yearbooks at this point in the year is because “many people think they will be able to buy them in June, which is not necessarily guaranteed,” Brennan stated. Tang mentioned that students often believe they can buy the yearbook later when it comes out, although “preordering is the only way that you know you’ll get it for sure.”

Only about ten extra yearbooks are ordered. If there happen to be leftover books, Tang explained, “the cost of those goes on to the next year’s class to make up for [it].” It is strongly encouraged that if students want to buy a yearbook, the best time to order is now. The yearbook is on track to be finished in early March. Tang says that she is currently working on the

pages for the Swim Team and Mock Trial. “A few of the other pages that have been done are Track, Feminism Club, [and] Psychology Club.” “Currently, most of the staff is finishing winter sports and club pages and beginning spring sports ones,” Brennan said. “It is set to be approximately 200 pages and will be in full color, so it is very exciting.”

Maldonian Advisor James Valente posing with a 2021 Maldonian Yearbook. Photo by Lauren Mallett.

The Malden Human Rights Commission Strives to Protect Housing Rights Hadjar Yousfi Lead Reporter

he Malden Human Rights and Fair Housing Commission (MHRFHC) is on a mission to “protect the civil rights of renters, owners and landlords,” according to the City of Malden Website. The commission stands to advocate for people to ensure that all Malden citizens are treated fairly because, as stated on their website, they deserve to have someone there for them no matter their “religious creed, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability, national origin, Veteran or military status, marital, familial or parental status.” According to Paul Weston, Chair of the MHRFHC, as well as a representative of the National Asso-

ciation of Realtors, the most recent iteration of the commission was from 2016. Prior to 2016, there had been a “separate Human Rights Commission, and that was a separate Fair Housing Commission.” Eventually, both commissions seemed to have been forgotten, most likely due to no one really paying attention to them. The Commission itself covers broad topics with many spots of expertise. However, Weston feels that his personal goal would be to help people. They receive lots of calls about many issues related to housing, such as people being stressed out, as well as tenant and landlord conflicts. Weston feels that many people reach out because they do not know who to turn to within the city. Some people have issues that they may not know how to handle and are

The three designs from the Logo voting Google Form.

not informed about who to talk to. That is where the MHRFHC will then do their best to help, or link the person to someone who could help them even more, such as the “police department, fire department, the building commissioner.” Some issues they have handled include tenant to tenant issues, conflict with a neighbor, landlords not responding as well as noise complaints. At the moment Weston mentioned they were working on an issue with water submetering in one of the big apartment buildings. Recently the Commission began trying to establish a new logo. They then decided to open a google form where they let people vote for their favorite logo of the three options at choice. The logo is said to be used for the city website, written materials, and at events sponsored by the Commission. The logos themself were designed by Commission member Meghan Volcy who is the Secretary and a City Council Resident Member. They started off with around six or seven designs, and they ended up rounding down the number to the three shown in the google form. Weston originally came

up with the idea to make the logo voting public. He expressed that “sometimes I don't think people know we exist,” so he hopes the voting will help generate more traction for the Commission and what it is they do. As for the logos themselves, Weston hopes that they are interpreted in a positive way. As simple as some of the designs are, Weston hopes they will generate a comfort for those in Malden as well, a sort of statement saying that “we try to help resolve the conflicts and bring everybody together.” Maria Luise who is a part of the Commission as well as working in the Mayor’s Office, and an ADA Officer, was incredibly helpful in this process. According to Weston she got the form up and running, she “does a lot of the outreach.” Luise helps a lot with communication, between the Commission and the many city departments that they work alongside. Next time if you have any worries about anything relating to anything on the spectrum of things the Commission handles, make sure to reach out. Because as Weston said, “at the end of the day, sometimes you just want somebody to talk to, to help resolve work for your issues.”

The Blue and Gold March 2022

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A Day in the Life of Concert Choir Zachary Nedell Lead Reporter

Left side view of Concert Choir rehearsing. Photo by Zachary Nedell.

he daily life of the concert choir is a fun but work-heavy schedule that revolves around many students, ranging from their sophomore year to their senior year. Each student holds a passion for singing, as they learn from chorus teacher Todd Cole, who has been teaching at Malden High School for 19 years and teaching in general for 27. The 90-minute classes have made schedules across the high school somewhat different, affecting the concert choir. Cole remarked that “I'm kind of reworking the way that I break up the class because you can't have them singing the entire period, their voices wouldn't last.” Rather than doing that, Cole begins with a warmup for his concert choir and mixed choir classes. This could be either working on pieces that students are reviewing or dealing with measures of new notes. Cole explained that afterwards, he allows students to “sit for a little bit while we do some music theory… I teach them how to sight-read and how to read rhythm… Then we stand back up and jump into two or three more pieces at the end of the period.” For some students, this was a different experience, especially with the schedule. Senior Natalia Matos commented that “he teaches us something new [every day to] work on with the specific parts.” She

believes that during that time it is very productive, and "it's not a lot of slack time" because they work really hard, "so we get a lot done.” When there is not enough time in the period, the students immediately go home to study, and Matos continued that “when I'm struggling on a piece, I go home and kind of practice it myself. We have a lot of time in choirs so it's not too hard for us.” “I listen to the audio recordings as I'm doing my homework,” Senior Yasmine Alayan added. At the end of the day, Cole enjoys every class with the concert choir, as he gratefully mentioned that “even after 19 years of being here at Malden High School, I walk into the building, and I get excited when I get here first thing in the morning and I'm planning the day knowing full well that the students that come into my room are here because they love singing.” He stated that “I know ahead of time that those are the students that I'll be teaching. And I'm not sure every teacher gets the luxury of that.” Cole explained that there tends to be “a lot of teachers that have students only because the students have to be there. Some students don't like math, but they still have to sit in a math class and that teacher still has to access them.” “My students have chosen to be here. And that's what makes my job and concert chorus such a pleasure,” Cole expressed.

The concert choir practicing with teacher Todd Cole. Photo by Zachary Nedell

Altos and Tenors performing "Red Red Rose." Photo by Zachary Nedell.

Sopranos and Basses rehearsing. Photo by Zachary Nedell.

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The Blue and Gold March 2022

maldenblueandgold.com

Update On Malden City Worker Vaccination Status Continued from page 1.

gowns, face masks, eye protection, all of that. The members are trained in the proper disposal of that equipment that was not used or has been contaminated.” More recently, to further prevent any contact from onduty to off-duty, “we've had washers and dryers installed in the fire station so that we don't even have to take our work uniforms home and wash them there.” Sullivan expressed his thoughts on those who might share close contact with someone else in a working environment. “I believe that if you work in close contact with other people in the public, you have a responsibility to protect yourself.” Sullivan gave an example of this, saying that “for the most part, I frequently visit restaurants in this area and I can't remember the last time that I encountered a server or a host or hostess that didn't have a face mask on. They’re doing this because they want to make sure customers feel safe and comfortable, which is exactly what we need right now.” “I believe that if you work in close contact with other people in the public, you have a responsibility to protect yourself,” added Fire Chief Bill Sullivan Police Chief Kevin Molis mentioned how with the addition of the policies they received from the Board of Health and the CDC, they made changes to create a safer work environment. “We did some things like not having a roll call in person for a while at the police station and no longer allowed use of the community room by the public, along with masks being mandated indoors.” Additionally, at the peak of the pandemic, the police officers “instituted a program where we were trying to reduce the number of calls where police would have to go

into homes. Cases that if they were non-emergency calls such as past reports and non-violent emergency situations.” Molis believes that issues pertaining to vaccine or mask mandates for city workers or employees of businesses are not new to them. Molis continued by saying how the choice is up to a person whether or not they feel safe with a mask on or off, but if a mandate is in place, people should follow it. Ward 5 School Committee Member Adam Weldai thought that Mayor Wu “did the right thing.” He elaborated on this, saying “I think it was a gutsy move. It's hard to be a leader and go out on a limb like that when you know people are going to be upset with you one way or another. She probably made the right move for Boston mostly because it pushed tons of people to get vaccinated who otherwise might not have gotten vaccinated.” Before the mask mandate was lifted in Malden and in the public schools, Weldai said the school committee “had informal discussions about whether or not a vaccine mandate should be something that was mandatory if it should be something that we keep track of.” Weldai went on to explain that the decision of a vaccine mandate came down to two things. “We knew that whatever we did, we were going to have to bargain with the teachers union. It's not something we can just do to them. We have to work with them and we like working with them.” The other point was the number of vaccine clinics the city was giving out at the time. “We offered so many vaccination clinics and so many opportunities for staff to get vaccinated that we had a feeling they took us up on it which gave us some faith that the majority

believes that “something like this should be done on a regional or statewide basis. Being that we move to and from different cities and towns so often, unless everybody participates in a program like that, it would not be helpful or effective unless everyone was a part of it. As a result of that belief, we have never imposed that requirement on our employees.” The idea of having Malden city workers requiring the COVID-19 vaccine has come up in the past, and Christenson thinks that “we've always come back to the same conclusion that we think it would make more sense for the state or the federal government to make that requirement across a larger group of people.” He added on, saying that “for one city to [have a mask mandate] and everybody around us not to do it, we just didn't think it would be as effective as it could possibly be.” Christenson brought up the point that if a mask or vaccine mandate was to be put into place, “it has to be done statewide, or across the country. The one thing that…I do not support is sort of the us-versusthem mentality.” Christenson thought that having the “us-versusthem” situation would create division amongst the city and the state as a whole, which is something that nobody needs to worry about during this time. Fire Chief Bill Sullivan talked about how he came to the conclusion that Mayor Wu’s decision was good for the protection of the workers and citizens of Boston. “I have to believe that Mayor Wu obviously had a concern for her employees that work for the city of Boston certainly as well as the residents that she represents.” Even with the potential addition of a vaccine mandate, Malden’s Fire Department was well prepared after the city “made available to Malden firefighters the vaccine,” with “many members who took advantage of that opportunity to get vaccinated.” Factoring medical situations into the firefighter’s job has been something they have been doing over the years, so with the addition of COVID, they were able to quickly adjust protocol. “It's been a very real concern of all first responders, police, EMS, for many, many years and decades,” said Sullivan. He continued on saying, “we've been trained and we certainly encourage the use of examination gloves, Person receiving COVID vaccine. Photo from Getty Images

of our staff were vaccinated.” As a result, that led the school committee to never having discussions about a vaccine mandate for staff. According to Weldai, the talks for a lift of the mask mandate only go back to when Governor Charlie Baker lifted the statewide requirement in schools. “It wasn't even on our radar. I think people had a lot of misconceptions about what the governor did. This is just my opinion as I think there's been a lot of leadership failure from our state throughout the whole pandemic because each city in town had to make up all of these rules and policies that we shouldn't have had to have done.” Weldai continued saying “the state should have been telling us what we had to do and this is how we'll help you get it done. Instead, we were stuck. It's not just us in Malden, Medford, Everett, Chelsea, Revere, Somerville, Lynn, all the cities around had to make our own confusing policies ... since the state didn't give us any guidance.” Weldai felt that this put cities and towns in a hard place since they had their own policies that would not suddenly end simply because Governor Baker said so. Weldai said that he believes in what the Board of Health and the CDC tells everyone, so “the only reason that I voted for the mask mandate last year was the Board of Health advised us to do that. They told us on the 7th that we were ready. So that's where I learned and I followed their advice and that’s why we ended the mask mandate.” Weldai talked about how he thinks that “everyone should get vaccinated because we should care about the greater good like we should care about other people around us.” Weldai is conflicted on the idea of vaccine mandates and if they should exist or not. “In a retail store, the CEO says, we need our employees to be vaccinated, I think that's part of the double-edged sword of freedom. People have to have the right of their body, but they should follow what is being told to them from their leaders with justifying evidence.” In the end, Weldai thinks that “I'd leave it up to the individual business owner,” since they have a good reason to be mandating vaccines. Malden is not heading in the direction of requiring vaccines, since our vaccination numbers are through the roof, with 59,408 out of 63,744, (around 93.2%), being vaccinated due to work done by the city to protect its citizens and public workers, and keep the availability of vaccines high.

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The Blue and Gold March 2022

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Malden School Committee Lifts Mask Mandate in Schools

Class of 2022 February Fundraisers

Nathan Dean Lead Reporter Gabriel Fesehaie Lead Reporter

n a meeting held on March 7th, the Malden Public School Committee passed the motion to rescind the indoor mask mandate in schools with a 7-2 vote, which made big waves in the Malden High School community and beyond. The motion to drop masks was not a shock. Given the fact that the mask mandate was dropped in all non-municipal buildings in Malden on February 4th— and many cities around Malden rushed to repeal their school mask mandates— it was only a matter of time before Malden dropped their school mask mandate as well. The chamber room was relatively packed with seven of the eight school committee members: the Chairman Mayor Christenson, the Vice-Chairwoman Jennifer Spadafora, Superintendent Dr. Ligia Noriega-Murphy, the Student Representative Christelle Jean, and several attendees, including Forestdale School Principal Donald Concannon. Mayor Christenson started the conversation off by giving the floor over to Jean, who presented information from a survey sent out to MHS students. It found that a majority of students who participated were not in favor of dropping the mask mandate. However, the survey was distributed before the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released information sharing that it is now safe for fully vaccinated individuals to not wear their mask in public, if they so choose. This ended up being a major factor in some of the members’ decisions. Mayor Christenson said, “if Christelle hadn't said that her survey was taken on February 11th I might not have voted to rescind." Some school committee members cited information from the CDC, stating that with vaccination rates high in Malden, it was now safe to remove the mask mandate. Ward 5 School Committee Member Adam Weldai went on to talk about how the policy in place before the vote was first created and how that influenced his decision: "Our policy was initially created based on the recommendation and the advice from the Board of Health and based on the scientific data. It wasn't created based on feelings or politics or anything around the pandemic, it was created from medical advice and data.” Continued on page 14

Student Council members managing the bake sale. Photo by Jessica Li. Jessica Li Reporter

Mack Keating Reporter

ith the Class of 2022 (CO’22) prom nearing, seniors are creating and implementing more fundraisers. During February, two of these fundraisers took place, including selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Valentine’s Day baked goods. While each class sale has had its own profits, the food consistently sold the best, hence the return of it. The Krispy Kreme fundraiser is one of the more notable sellers, as it comes back annually. This is not the first sighting of a Krispy Kreme fundraiser for the CO'22, though. Back in December, the same product was sold for the same cause. During that sale, over $1.7k was raised, out of the goal of $10k. Due to its immense popularity and success, the product was brought back, with a raised price from $13 to $15 per box of a dozen doughnuts. Editor-in-Chief and Class President Julie Huynh, Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design Carlos Aragon, Tivian Nguyen and Mayada Giha were among the myriad of seniors who helped run the table. In hopes of replicating the success of the first sale, the seniors restocked the product. “The first Krispy Kreme fundraiser we had, we raised a lot more than expected. We were taken by surprise in a good way,” Nguyen explained. Huynh elaborated on this, noting the people running this behind the scenes. “We brought up the idea the first time. I think the fundraiser has always been something that the school has done

before in the past, so we reached out to Ms. Quinn who used to run it. And then she kind of helped us get started with that and we decided that it would be something that we can definitely do.” Class Advisor Daniel Jurkowski, who was in charge of the fundraiser, expatiated on Quinn’s work. “I was talking to her…we were talking about fundraising and fundraising ideas, and she brought up the idea of Krispy Kreme. So, we reached out to them. One of our student council officers, Mayada, reached out to them and got more information. And then, we just kinda went from there.” This process was not as easy as it seems, though: the doughnuts are produced and stored in Connecticut, where someone must drive down in order to pick up and distribute the products. “Thankfully we have a dedicated advisor that was willing to go to his full extent to help the class out. We are very thankful for him for everything he has done. Without him, we would not be where we are now,” Nguyen professed. Financially, fundraising is on the right track for their prom goals. “We made a good amount of money last time; we made around $2,000 the first time we did it. So, a couple kids reached out to us and asked if we were gonna do it again. And, it’s an easy fundraiser; we honestly don’t have to do much--too much work: so, just collect, sell boxes, we go pick them up, we distribute them and it’s basically free money.” He

also stated, “We didn’t sell as many dozens of doughnuts as we did last time, but I would still say it’s a big success because we made over $1,400 which is perfect because it goes right to prom.” With the added price to the doughnuts, the class still made enough money. “The purpose of the fundraiser is to fundraise as much money as we can for prom. Everything that we raise right now, every single dollar, is going towards prom--to make prom as affordable for as many kids as we can,” Jurkowski detailed. Currently, prom tickets are aiming to be under $80, with a ballpark range from $70-90. Another issue Nguyen brought up was how “not enough people support or help the class, especially in our own grade. Whether it’s volunteering, helping us out, buying something small, we face a struggle in that.” Jurkowski added another faced issue, that being “everybody [having] trouble fundraising the last couple of years - every group, every class, every organization within the school - so now everyone’s trying to make up for that too by fundraising at the same time. So, everyone, we’re trying to ask people for money, and everyone else is trying to get money too. So that’s been the most challenging part. It’s kind of, like, to come up with unique ideas that people want to spend money on. Because everyone’s trying to fundraise now, so that’s the most challenging part.” Continued on page 14

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Mask Mandate, continued from page 14 He added that “we have heard from our Board of Health that we are ready to make this move and I am cautiously optimistic. I am comfortable voting tonight in favor of that reason." However, other school committee members expressed their concerns about the topic. Ward 4 school committee member, Dawn Macklin was particularly concerned that students who continue to wear their masks after the mask mandate fell might be bullied and ostracized. She was also worried about immuno-deficient students, teachers and parents. Ward 8 school committee member Sharyn Rose Zeiberg and Vice-Chairman Jennifer Spadafora were quick to respond. Both pointed out that schools have other methods in place to stop the spread of COVID-19 that will remain in place after the mask mandate falls. They also claimed that the ability for teachers to teach without a mask significantly benefits students. Prior to the vote, the parents and guardians of children were in frantic contact with the school committee. Weldai added “we’ve been hearing very 50-50 [split] down the middle." Weldai also noted a surplus of emotional content related to the vote during his comments, stating that he “wants to give special appreciation to those who chose to express their opinion in a constructive and respectful manner...this was the first time in a while we got a lot of the opposite.” After all the school committee members who wished to speak had spoken, Mayor Christenson made a lengthy statement about the decline of the coronavirus in Malden, especially in the Malden Public Schools. Utilizing statistics from the CDC, the mayor stated that: For the 16-19 age group, Malden had a vaccination rate of 73%, For the 12-15 age group, Malden had a vaccination rate of 70%, And for the 5-11 age group, Malden had a vaccination rate of 40%. Compared to the national averages of 56.4% for the 12-15 age group, and 22.6% for the 5-11 age group, Christenson went on to praise the city: “Malden has really done a great job when you compare this to the national average.” He also continued to say that compared to the beginning of the school year, Malden has acquired many more helpful tools to deal with COVID, such as takehome test kits and vaccine clinics, which helped Malden to reach a point where they could consider taking masks off. Following the Mayor’s remarks, the School Committee then proceeded to vote on the resolution to remove the mask mandate within the Malden Public Schools, introduced by Spadafora and seconded by Weldai. The motion was carried with Jennifer Spadafora, Adam Weldai, Micheal Drummy (who attended this meeting virtually), Joseph Gray, Sharyn Rose-Zyberg, Rob McCarthy and Mayor Christenson in favor, and with Keith Bernard and Dawn Macklin against. Ever since that school council vote, faces have been more and more prevalent within the Malden Public Schools, as both teachers and students begin to take their masks off.

Class of ‘22 Fundraisers, continued from page 14 That was not the only popular food fundraiser, though. On February 14th, - Valentine’s day - the CO’22 organized a bake sale, with goods produced and supplied by senior vendors. Snacks such as cookies, brownies and chocolates were sold, along with a multitude of other options, for a cheap price of $1-3, depending on the product. The food was sold after school ended, as opposed to outside the cafeteria during long block like most sales, and the table flooded with students as soon as the time hit 2:15. For over 10 minutes, students were crowding the table, trying to purchase something before they sold out. The four seniors running the table - Editor-in-Chief Lauren Mallett, Jennifer Wong, Sammi Nie and aforementioned Julie Huynh - were rushing to keep up with the excited energy of students and increase efficiency, due to the line. The line eventually dwindled, allowing the cash to be totaled. Unlike the Krispy Kreme sale, the bake sale ran smoothly. “Krispy Kreme, one of the biggest challenges was getting people to buy it… The bake sale, I want to say was not very difficult, we always get people to donate, there wasn’t too big of a problem. We thought COVID would be a problem, but since everything was prepackaged, it was super, super easy, there weren’t any obstacles,” Nie distinguished. Due to the success of this sale, Nie explained how the class plans to replicate it: “We also want to do more bake sales, as a monthly thing if we can. It doesn’t have to be specifically like Valentine’s Day.” There are other fundraisers coming up as well, according to Nie: “a volleyball tournament, a dodgeball tournament, a basketball tournament, maybe a car wash in the future, as they are super profitable. We did one in June or July, and we raised at least a couple hundred.” The class also has a public GoFundMe page to help them reach their goal by May. Without tracking expenses, the Krispy Kreme fundraiser tallied $1,413.75 and the Valentine’s Day bake sale raised approximately $350. Over the course of four years, $22,000 has been raised, with $12,000 from this year alone. To reach their fundraising goal, the CO’22 needs around $5,000 more.

The flyer promoting the Krisp Kreme Fundraiser.

Valentine’s Day bake sale table. Photo by Jessica Li.

From left to right, Carlos Aragon, Micaela Henry, and Julie Huynh overseeing the first lunch Krispy Kreme fundraiser. Photo by Jessica Li

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Youth Climate Lobby Week Chaimaa Assli Managing Editor

outh Climate Lobby Week is a statewide youth-led movement in which the youth of Malden were invited to participate in climate action or to learn more about the democratic political process. The Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition (MYCC) worked hard for the past ten months writing Climate Justice bills in order to remind committees to vote favorably on the bills that were highlighted by the MYCC on Joint Rule 10 day which was held on February 2nd. This event consisted of a series of Zoom calls starting on Monday, January 24th, and ending on January 26th. MYCC is a youth-led network of organizations that fight for intersectional climate justice. MYCC is still a new organization and they welcome any youth-led groups in Massachusetts to make the state a leader in climate change. Youth Climate groups worked with senators and Congresspeople to write these bills, researching the bills and coming up with actions that will be good and effective. After that, the bills go to committee but they never get voted on. The priority bills are: Interdisciplinary Climate Education, Green Future Now Corporate Polluter Fee, 100% Clean Act, Air Quality EJ and the Building Justice with Jobs Act. There were over 140 participants that represented about 20 or more organizations from around the state during lobby week. They

all contacted their legislators and their state senators and set up virtual lobby meetings where they talked about the five priority climate bills. In total, there were 42 different meetings with legislators on all the bills. Some of the things they did in the meeting included urging the legislators to sponsor the bills and if they had not sponsored them, they were asked to co-sponsor the bill, which means they would put their name on it and say they agreed with it. After lobby week, Massachusetts State Representative Steven Ultrino and Senator Jason Lewis pledged to co-sponsor all five of the priority bills. Rep. Ultrino sent a letter of support to the Transportation Utilities and Energy committee (TUE). All together the MYCC earned 11 more co-sponsorships as well as letters of support. They also got invited to meet with Representative Jeffrey Roy, who is the Committee Chair of the TUE committee to help write the legislation. On February 8th, the youth regrouped, reflected on how the lobby week went and planned the next steps. Book author Kari Percival joined the MYCC as an adult ally. She believes that “youth voices have the clout right now,” so she believes that this is a powerful movement. Percival said, “it's exciting for me to be an adult ally with this organization and see these things happen.”

Over 50 people attended the protest in person at the State House. Photo submitted by Kari Percival.

Zoom meetings during lobby week

Protestors show their support for the climate and for the Youth Climate Movement. Photo submitted by Kari Percival Percival said that they do not know the future, but they know the next steps. On February 12th, they held a Youth Climate Summit. Percival expressed how fulfilling it is for the youth to be both learning and working on this. “One of the aims is to get a really clear and truthful picture of how the legislature is working and figure out how to make it better for the future because right now it seems to be a little bit dysfunctional,” she said. The plan for the summit was to figure out the next steps by going over the information that they gathered from the lobbying meetings and the reports. Their goal is to see what the most effective strategy is to combat climate change laws. Another event they organized was the Broken Hearts protest. This was held at the State House on Valentine’s Day. The purpose was to protest to let people know that their hearts are breaking because important climate bills are not moving forward from the committee. Percival said that “we are urging the

state legislature to do the things that need to happen.” Anyone was invited, and everyone at the event wore red to show their support for the climate and for the Youth Climate Movement. The purpose was also to show support to other social justice issues and organizations, like the Indigenous Legislative Agenda, which also died in committee. Other organizations were supporting such causes as immigrant civil rights, ending solitary confinement and anti-eviction bills. Despite the cold weather, over 50 people attended the protest in person, and even more attended on Zoom. There were speakers from community organizations who gave short speeches and they urged the attendees to not give up. They told them to join organizations, write to their legislators and urge action. Percival believes that the youth are doing a fantastic job. She said that “they have such really great technical skills with the technical media and they are extremely creative and adaptive.”

All were invited to protest for important climate bills that are not moving forward from Committee. Photo submitted by Kari Percival

Photos submitted by Kari Percival

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New French Teacher Isabelle Desbiens Arrives at MHS

M alden High’s Writer’s Den Retur ns

Sophie LeBlanc Reporter

sabelle Desbiens joined Malden High School earlier this year as a new French teacher. Desbiens works alongside Molly Crellin and Paul Degenkolb, teaching French I and French II. Desbiens was born in Quebec, where she lived for a large portion of her life. She spoke French predominantly at home, which is where she gained her extensive knowledge of the language. She later attended Université Laval in Quebec City and gained a bachelor's degree in Music, Computer Science and Archival Administration. After university, she pursued a career as an archivist for quite some time, most of the time living in France. Desbiens commented, “it was really interesting, I got to work with firefighters in the city, so it was really cool.” After moving to the USA, she stumbled upon a job opening at MHS. Being a French teacher was not Desbiens' original plan when she attended university, however, the position seemed to be a good fit for her. “It was something I had wanted to do for a while [and] I am happy to do it now,” she mentioned. The head of the World Languages department and Spanish teacher, Sharon Kalagher, agreed that Desbiens is a good fit for the job. “She is excited to be here and she is really interested in planning fun things for kids to do. There’s a lot of enthusiasm in her work,” explained Kalagher. Desbiens noted that the most rewarding part of being a French teacher is “students asking questions about the language.” She later remarked that “sometimes students ask things I’ve never thought about.” She went on to explain how she is learning new things about the French language every day. Although being a teacher is rewarding, there are struggles that come with every job. She mentioned that one of the biggest daily challenges she faces is “trying to entertain students” and making sure they stay engaged. A hobby that some students might not know Desbiens enjoys is playing music. She has a bachelor’s degree in music and originally wanted to be a music teacher. Even if that is not the career she pursued, she still finds ways to incorporate music into her everyday life. “I play the violin and fiddle, and sometimes I’ll perform at little cafes; it’s really fun,” she highlighted. In the future, Desbiens is looking forward to spending time with students and being the best educator she can possibly be.

The Writer's Den. Photo taken by Sophie LeBlanc. Mack Keating Sophie LeBlanc Lily Nguyen Reporters

he Writer’s Den at the Malden High School has provided students with an inviting space for collaborative and creative writing since its inception six years ago. In this student-led program, one can both share their passion for writing with peers along with furthering their skills to become better writers. This year, the program is guided by English teacher and leader of the English department Yahaira Marquez, as well as Tufts University stu-

dent and Head of the Writer’s Den Isaac Wilde. The program was originally founded in 2016 by Marquez and Sean Walsh, who taught at Malden High School as an English teacher and was Head of Theater for 13 years. “The Writer’s Den is a space at the school that is dedicated to providing an area that fosters students’ creativity and their writing skills, whether it’s creative writing or academic writing,” Marquez explained. “The mission is to have students find a place where their thoughts are celebrated and they can experiment and explore their thoughts,” Walsh expounded. “It would be great if we can do more than just test and assign work to students. To

How Students at Malden High Celebrate New Year’s Nora Hounain Reporter

tudents celebrate New Year’s Day in various different ways. Some do it according to their own traditions, while others switch it up. Freshman Merari Flores said that with her family, it is different. They make food different from others considering they are El Salvadorian. They make and eat foods such as tamales and ethnic Salvadorian foods. She explained there is a tradition within her family where they buy new clothes consisting of different colors including yellow, red or white. Yellow will give you money, white gives prosperity and peace and red would be love. COVID affected what Flores was planning to do this year. Her family members got to spend time with each other, but because she had COVID, she had to stay home in her room. Freshman Bertha Jean Louis reflected, “New Year for us isn’t as different as the way other people celebrate New Year. I’m Haitian and people I know celebrate New Year by making Haitian soup joumou and throwing parties where they have barbecues. Some also spend this day in church with families.” Freshman Amber Benfield celebrates New Year by choosing either her own house with her parents or her grandparents’ house. Together, they watch the ball drop on the TV, playing music, talking and hanging out together. They make a traditional Guyanese food called cookup, a rice dish with beans and chicken, beef, goat, ham, turkey, etc.

COVID also affected the way Amber celebrated New Year because she, her sister and mom all got COVID. They couldn’t celebrate New Year this time with other relatives and go to another house and have that celebration. They had to be quarantined and each watched the ball drop from their own room. Juliana Rosa, a freshman, celebrated New Year’s at home since her sister had gotten COVID. This year she ate lentils because Brazilians say lentils will bring you good luck. When she used to live in Brazil, every New Year she would go to the beach wearing white and watch the fireworks with her family. Wearing white is supposed to bring you peace and harmony and sometimes she’d wear yellow too because it brings you money and luck. In the past years, she would jump seven waves for good luck. Freshman Helen Xie celebrates Lunar New Year. She said she ate hot pot and got red envelopes. Xie said people who are usually married or have jobs hand them out to each other and kids which symbolizes luck, fortune, and wishing well in general. Since red is seen as a lucky color, the money is inside of a red envelope. Just at Malden High School, there are so many unique traditions and ways that students and their families celebrate the New Year. Whether a reflection of their culture’s traditions, or a modern-day spin on them, New Year’s Day represents a hopeful outlook for the coming months.

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Illustration by Lily Nguyen. know there's a place to freely put forth your words is really powerful.” Wilde provided more detail to this statement, adding his own perspective: “It provides a space where writers can come and form a community with each other; a space where they feel comfortable coming to me or their peers to chat, workshop stories, get feedback, things like that.” He also noted another highlight of the program, that being the school landscape of it. “The second purpose it serves is more academic-focused,

in which teachers can use me--I’m a student teacher, I’m studying education and English--they can use me as a resource to help in their classes. If there’s an essay, if there’s a project, I would be working with Ms. Alexis’ students in her English class and helping with the brainstorming process for creative projects.” Scheduling-wise, Marquez explained that Wilde is at the school “7:30 till at least 2:45 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays,” ensuring that “students can just go, either on their own, during a study or whatever it may be.”

After his extensive assistance in the program, he is now the main resource for this program. “This is the first chance I’ve gotten to guide the process myself, though I note that the program is student-led. I’ve just been getting my feet wet, learning what the school’s like, enjoying meeting all the students, and how I can best be a resource.” Although this is Wilde’s first year running the program, he has worked with this program enough to know the ropes. “For the last 3 years, I’ve been volunteering at the Writer’s Den in an ancillary capacity; I’ve helped out Mr. Hurley with the previous Writer’s Den; and, I’ve been helping out with the mini Writer’s Den, a program for the middle schools… And for the last few years, I’ve been helping and facilitating.” The Mini Writer’s Den is where Wilde has worked the most before this year, noting that, “In many ways, they’re a continuation of each other.” Even with his first year leading, he has embellished his goals for the program. He said, “what we can hope is that mini Writer’s Den will be facilitated by students from the big Writer’s Den so they can see where they might end up in a couple of years. It then continues into high school where it becomes freeform, self-directed, and the students have a project they’re working on--it becomes this space to facilitate that.” Despite their similarities, the two programs are not identical: “Mini Writer’s Den involves more structured resources for students just beginning their writing process; it focuses on prompts and some lec-

tures, videos, group work…it’s a lot more teacher-led and it allows students to learn what writing can offer them in terms of personal growth, understanding and expressing themselves, what they're interested in when it comes to writing.” The program itself means a lot to the teachers: “It brought me joy just to be able to go to a place within the school to give students a relaxed and comfortable space,” Walsh professed. “We have, in years prior, been able to house some authors, and I even published a book with Mr. Gallagher during that time. It was really meaningful to have students see themselves in these places. It was profound to me.” The program has not been the easiest to run this year, though. “It usually starts at the beginning of the year, but we had a different location. We used to be on Boyle 3rd floor, but that space needed to be cleared for a teacher so that’s what delayed the opening until now,” Marquez commented. The years prior have been difficult due to COVID-19, so it was important to run this program better than ever. “I would say, the last couple of years with the pandemic, this is sort of like our rebound.” “The hardest is consistency and scheduling and visibility,” Walsh added. “It is hard to be visible to students and not end up kind of clique-y. I think the visibility is good and making sure the offer is inclusive and all backgrounds can feel they have a space, that can be tricky.”

New Santa Fe Location to Open in Malden

Dani Licona-Cruz Reporter

ecently, word has spread that a burrito restaurant called Santa Fe Burrito Grill is coming to Malden. It will be among the many new stores and restaurants in Malden Center such as Tous Le Jours Cafe, Starbucks and 110 Grill. Mayor Gary Christenson seemed particularly enthused as he ate a Santa Fe burrito in a video posted to his Instagram account. “Welcome to the future home of [Santa Fe Burrito Grill] at [Malden Center] and my go-to place when I’m working a late shift at City Hall,” he captioned. Danyela Galeano, the restau-

All photos from Santa Fe’s Instagram account @santa_fe_burrito_grill rant's marketing person, said that they picked Malden because it “is a wonderful neighborhood and a growing town with a nice community, lots of schools and a very safe place to establish a new business.” As more restaurants are coming to Malden, it can cause controversy due to issues such as gentrification. Over the past few years, new businesses have come to Malden and housing has become more expensive. The good thing about Santa Fe, however, is that it is a family business. One of the restaurant's goals is to establish a new, safe environment for the Malden community.

Galeano stated that “as a family business we are always looking for places where we can be part of the community and add some wonderful things and burritos to it.” The new location will be similar to their Melrose location on 417 Main Street. It will have a full bar with “amazing drinks” to go with their traditional Mexican cuisine. It will also have an outdoor patio with “excellent service and wonderful ambience.” As for the public’s reaction, Galeano explained that “people are anxious and expectant about how the place will be and when the

opening date will be. We have felt a cheerful and warm welcome from the community of the town so far.” Galeano hopes to create a new meeting place in the community. Somewhere for families to go to dinner, kids to go after school, meet your friends on the weekend and even just enjoy a nice lunch alone. Although it is unclear when Santa Fe Burrito Grill will open, the restaurant’s goals are set. It is safe to say that they are going to be an interesting addition to Malden’s community. As Galeano put it, “burritos make everyone happy.”

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Happier Than Ever Tour: Billie Eilish Concert Experience

Sophie LeBlanc Reporter

oncerts are some of the most exhilarating, exciting and enjoyable occasions a person can experience. I attended the Billie Eilish Concert on February 20th at the TD Garden, and it certainly was all of those qualities and more. My friend and I got to the venue before opening act Dora Jar even appeared on stage, yet the journey to get there was far from smooth sailing. I was attending the concert

Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas performing the last song “Happier Than Ever.” Photo by Lulu Harding.

My view of the stage. Photo by Sophie LeBlanc. with a close friend, so first, we met at Wellington Station and quickly boarded a train. However, getting to the next stop was not as hasty, and the train was moving in a “stop and go” pattern. Eventually, the driver made clear that the next stop would be the train's last. After the train stopped, we decided to take a shuttle bus, which worked out just fine. The journey was hectic, but we finally made it to the venue. Once we found our seats, opening act Dora Jar came on stage not long after. Her performance was easily one of the most interesting opening acts I had ever seen. While also sounding beautiful, being on stage came naturally to her, and the audience noticed. My friend and I enjoyed her song “Multiply” the most, and it is definitely worth a listen. After Dora Jar left the stage, it seemed as if days passed while waiting for Billie's entrance. At 9 o’clock sharp, the lights shut off. Cheers rose above the crowd as everybody started to anticipate the concert. Drums started to play and lights started blaring, and it started to get real. Then, out of nowhere, Billie jumped out of a hole in the stage, and cheers erupted from the crowd. She started her first song, which was her 2019 hit “bury a friend.” The lights turned red and you could see

Malden Reads Virtual Film Screening An event that brought people together and explored Native American culture, hosted by Malden Reads.

the entire crowd dancing and having a good time. A song she performed that I particularly enjoyed was “bellyache,” mainly because it was one of my favorite songs back in middle school and it gave me a lot of nostalgia. We both enjoyed the song “NDA,” which featured a stunning light show that resembled a busy road. Even so, our favorite song was “Happier Than Ever” by far. It was the final song, and the whole audience was singing it at the top of their lungs. Even if Billie had about 12 giant speakers displaying her voice, the audience was still louder. Her selection of songs was great since she did not neglect her old hits, while also highlighting her new ones. There was confetti sprinkling down from the ceiling as everyone was leaving, and we ended up taking a Lyft back to my friend's house to avoid the tricky situation with the train and shuttle buses. Overall, I would say Billie seemed very natural on stage, appearing as if she had done this 100 times before. Also, even when she was dancing around the stage, she sounded identical to how she sounds on the radio. It also felt very personal, like you were having a conversation with her between songs. To be honest, I somewhat forgot that she was

even famous during those moments. These are the kind of concerts you never forget. The ones that make you say, “did that really just happen?” The ones that make you dread getting up from your seat due to the risk of missing a song. They are tickets you will remember to fight for when the artist comes around next time.

Billie Eilish performing her song “Bellyache.” Photo by Lulu Harding.

Ashton Calixte Reporter

alden Reads hosted a virtual screening and short discussion on Wednesday, February 9th. They streamed the movie Gather, which was directed by Sanjay Rawal and released in 2020. On the Zoom meeting, Malden Reads co-founder Jodie Zalk,

The Blue and Gold March 2022

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A Quick Dive Into Misleading Nutrition Labels

Lilly Nguyen Reporter

Graphic by Ruka Troung

have always wondered why people are warned to be cautious about the ingredients they are shopping for. As many would infer from the words printed in attractively large fonts and colors, something is, in fact, “healthy,” “sugar-free” or “low-cholesterol.” What reason would food corporations have to falsely market their products? More recently, with food trends praising the healthy diet and consumers emphasizing the detriment of junk foods, corporations sought for consumer perception of their products being healthy, if not actually. An interesting example is how the McDonald’s fast-food chain introduced salads on its menu in the 1980s after nutrition education–most notably the publication of the first Dietary Guidelines–was foregrounded to the general public and stirred a worse reputation for the chain. Other leading food companies have made more subtle modifications to their products since then, but lack of transparency with what we are truly eating triggered tension, business-to-consumer. More items picked off the shelf translate into more revenue. Employing marketing tactics, food products nowadays are transferring

to natural, simple ingredients and minimalist packaging to attract the health-conscious millennial. After all, good health is good business. However, despite these efforts made by food companies, it seems that more effort is put into the label than improving the product itself. As a result, the information presented on the packaging can be misleading to consumers. Here is a quick dive into what this misleading nutrition label may look like: Companies can conceal harmful additives under a pretense of, say, “Natural Flavor” and another number of listed ingredients difficult to pronounce. As companies need not disclose these additives, this obscurity presents misleading information to the consumer–perpetuating the notion that we are consuming safe ingredients when that is far from the case. Looking above the list of ingredients is the table of nutrition facts, paid attention to most by consumers. Also, calories–perhaps often perceived to have the most importance in one’s nutrition—is another manipulated number in the food industry. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates the majority of manufactured nutrition labels, noted a surprisingly com-

modious margin of error with the numbers companies decide to put on these labels: up to 20%. In short, some 300-calorie product could at most be 360, and so on. (However, remember that the number printed largest in the nutrition label may be insufficient in the overall nutritional value of the product—calories are important to be considered, but not the make or break in a diet.) Not only can the calories in a product be inaccurate, but other nutrition contents are also distorted to uphold the pretense. In fact, 0.5 milligrams of, say, cholesterol in one serving of a product can be rounded to zero as per rounding rules of the FDA. Exploiting this commodity, food companies are quick to write “cholesterol-free” on the front of product packaging. Again, this tactic is also used with other parts of the food label. Overall, what stands out to me most is how the FDA, which authorizes the nutrition labels before products are on the shelf, openly confirms misleading information to the public, and companies escape scot-free. So yes; this information is displayed on the Internet with a simple search--accessible to billions of people around the world–but we have yet to do much about it. Despite

society advocating healthier food choices and increasing awareness of nutrition, misleading nutrition labels still appear on packaging. This spells a threat to our health and the upkeep of corporate integrity in the food industry while emphasizing why a superficial examination will never address its consequences on consumers. Stressing an agenda for companies to be more transparent when providing nutritional information, we must ensure that everyone has true access to quality and nutritious ingredients without misleading nutrition labels. But consumers, for now, despite all those large words calling a product healthy, read the fine print. Otherwise, we would not know what we are eating.

stated that “there were over 20 people who joined. The numbers were small because it was virtual, but we got visitors from people in different states, including people who used to live in Malden.” The movie was one hour and 14 minutes long, but the Zoom call lasted for around two hours. The movie Gather is about Native Americans and their cultural and spiritual journey. The

Native Americans were devastated by genocide in the movie. After the movie was streamed, the host took time to answer questions. Most of the questions were about the rumors going around that the Malden Public Library did not have enough funds, but those rumors were confirmed to be false: the Malden Public Library was in fact not closing down. Zalk also stated that, “the event

was planned over a series of meetings.” Malden Reads said that “we definitely have more virtual film screenings planned for the future.” Malden Reads expressed that “it's a good thing that people are being a part of the community coming together in these events.” If you were not able to come to the virtual film screening, you can stream the film on Kanopy by using your Malden Public Library

card: https://boston.kanopy.com/ product/gather Stay tuned for more screenings in the future. Zalk added that “Malden High students are welcome at all our Malden Reads events! There are upcoming film screenings, poetry workshops, discussions and a spring event on the Malden River planned.” Students can email maldenreads@gmail. com with questions.

Graphic by Lily Nguyen.

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Girls Basketball Concludes Successful Season

Krishany Marius Head of Local

s the Girls Varsity basketball season comes to an end, they reflect on how well they performed this year that resulted in a successful season. Scott Marino, coach of the girls varsity basketball team, explained how the team had a lot of ups and downs. Despite that, they overcame a lot of adversity this year in which Marino stated “we grew up as a team,” and qualified for the state tournament in the last game of the year. Though it was a great season, the team faced issues regarding trying to get a full team together and it was a struggle for the team for the

last three weeks of the year. The team also had other challenges including “injuries, not having a lot of players active due to COVID, [having] different starting lineups throughout the whole year,” Marino said. Senior Kimberly Vo had an injury this season, which was a struggle for her to catch up with the team. “I had to come out with my PCL torn,” she said, though that did not stop Vo from pushing herself and working hard. The team continued to push through and persevered where Vo continued on to say “if one person is down we always try to keep each other up.” There were also learning curves when it came to the team this season because there were underclassmen playing varsity. Additionally, get-

From top to bottom: Senior Yasmine Alayan helps her teammates by blocking their opponent from the ball; Sophomore Victoria Gammon gets prepared for game. Photos by Ruka Truong. ting back from COVID has been an adjustment and some players were unfamiliar with offenses and switching defensive sets instantly, but this did not stop them from continuing to play harder. Senior captain Yaz Alayan explained that it took her a while to step in and be in a leadership position because there comes chal-

From left to right: Sophomore Angelin Colon thinking of her next move; Senior Lissetee Curran running for the ball. Photos by Ruka Truong.

lenges that are faced as a captain. Alayan went on to say, “I can’t be everyone's friend… I have to be their captain.” She added that she sees a clear understanding of taking on that responsibility of holding her teammates accountable. Senior Neveah Cherilus, another captain of the team, made sure to keep her teammates consistent when it came to winning this year, and if not winning, ultimately making sure they kept up with practice. Cherilus highlighted how the team needed to “keep our heads up, focus on the game… we can’t let our feelings get the best of us.” She knew that if she had given up on the team then that would mean the team had given up on her, and made it her mission to not let that happen. Cherilus feels proud of the team and how much they have accomplished. She emphasized that after four years of playing varsity, “this is the best we’ve done.” The team's main focus is now on states and winning the first three rounds. It has been 25 years since the girls basketball team has made states at

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7th Grader Grader 7th McNulty Wins Wins McNulty States States

Zachary Nedell Lead Reporter Mack Keating Reporter Corynne McNulty being named as the winner of the match. Photo via MHS Athletics’ Twitter @MaldenHS_Sports

T From top to bottom: Senior Kimberly Vo focuses on her teammate’s and opponent’s moves; Junior Ana Yak reaches out for a rebound for her team. Photos by Ruka Truong. Malden High School. Alayan's motto going into states is “all in, win it all.” The team went through some challenges, though that did not stop them from trying to persevere and strive for achievement this season. However, the team did not hit their initial goal of winning

the Greater Boston League (GBL). Marino would like the girls next year to “push themselves as hard as the girls this year and try to win the GBL"—moreover, to make sure that the team advances themselves so they do not have to worry about playing the last game of the season.

Girls Basketball Takes On Hopkinton In Preliminary Round of States Daniel O’Toole Lead Reporter

In the Preliminary round of the MIAA Division 1 State Tournament, Malden was matched up against the Hopkinton Hillers who finished their season 6-5 which was good for 6th in the Tri-Valley conference. Since Malden had a lower seed, the game was played at Hopkinton. The start of the game didn’t look good for the Golden Tornados after Hopkinton jumped out to a 20-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. Malden’s biggest issue the whole was the inability to extend a possession after the set play fell apart. Often a possession would stall out and Hopkinton would be able to take advantage of the mistakes in transition. These mistakes led to a halftime deficit of 43-10. Coming out of halftime, the team looked a lot better with less mistakes on both sides of the court which resulted in a score of 51-19 at the end of the third quarter. For a majority of the fourth quarter, Malden looked to be in-control of the game but any efforts wouldn’t impact the outcome of the game. The final score was 61-29 with Hopkinton advancing to play Chelmsford in the Round of 32. Despite the crushing loss, the future looks bright for Malden Girls Basketball as they look to take this year’s success and push themselves even harder next year.

he state wrestling championship this year is none other than Malden’s Corynne McNulty. In only seventh grade and weighing in at 127lb, she continued climbing the tournament ladder until she eventually won the Massachusetts State Tournament. Although she is only a seventh grade student, she competed in the girls’ high school tournament this year and won first place, as well as the co-ed 7th and 8th grade competition and placed third for her brackets. Her hard work has earned her an official city citation, awarded by Mayor Gary Christenson. Director of Athletics Charlie Conefrey was especially proud of her “hard work and dedication,” but “even more exciting is her accomplishment at the age of 13.” He went on to say “the future is surely bright for McNulty as she is helping pave the way to encouraging young female athletes to take part in the sport of wrestling.” As a “top student at Forestdale school, Corynne is well-known for always going above and beyond in

her studies and for being a hardworking, highly skilled student athlete,” Christenson expressed on the official City of Malden Instagram. McNulty told Christenson that she “trains daily, stays focused and hopes one day to make it to the Olympics.” McNulty competes through Doughboy Wrestling Club in Lowell Massachusetts, who trained many other athletes into their victory at this tournament. From all around Massachusetts, students such as sophomore Ashley Dehney, who won her own competition with a weight at 136; Tori Orender who won the 111lb bracket and Shelby Galex close behind in third; Victoria Fogg who won at 215lb; and Tayla Tildsley who won the 147lb bracket, and even won OW. OW is a wrestling term for Outstanding Wrestler, which is awarded to someone who performed above expectations and did something to catch the judges’ attention. McNulty will continue to train in the off-season to prepare for her next year in girls’ wrestling.

From Left to Right, Bottom: McNulty taking a breather; McNulty holding down her opponent; McNulty greeting her opponent before the game. Photo via MHS Athletics’ Twitter @MaldenHS_Sports

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Malden Boys Basketball Face Off Against Revere High

Mak Keating Reporter

From left to right, top to bottom: Sophomore Ezechiel Noelsaint dribbles past a Revere defender; senior Ryan Delacour makes a free throw; Malden High’s Cheerleading team performs during half-time; Delacour fights his way through Revere defenders to the basket. All photos by Jesssica Li.

triving to change their record of one win and twelve losses, the Malden High Boys Basketball team charged into their decisive game on Feb. 8, 2022, against Revere.

Malden won the tip-off, with the game off to a quick start. Senior Guard Ryan Dalencour was immediately fouled, and although he missed his first shot, he put the first

point on the board with his second free throw. Less than a minute later, though, Revere shot a three-pointer, and Malden abruptly called their first timeout. After a brief discussion

of plays, they rejoined the game. Once back on the court, Dalencour quickly tied the score at 3-3. Revere upped the pace - much to Malden’s displeasure - and the score grew to 12-3 before Malden was able to shoot again and fortunately make the shot, before once again getting fouled. Malden had an opportunity to make one more free throw and the the score rose to 12-6. Their efforts to retake the scoreboard seemed futile, it seemed, as Revere made another three-point shot, and the quarter ended 15-6. Malden shrugged off the first quarter and threw themselves into the rest of the game. Within a minute, Malden scored another two points, and even made their first three-point shot, both from Dalencour. Shortly after, senior Guard Kidus Paulos made another field goal, and the score rose to 15-13, Malden hot on Revere’s tail. A foul shot later, and Malden had its confidence back. Revere and Malden both scored until the score rose to 17-17. A three-point shot for Malden and two-point shot for Revere later, and Malden took the lead, 20-19. With mere seconds on the board, Revere managed to sink one final three-point field goal, and led at the halfway point, 22-20. While both teams took breaks and reassessed their plays, Malden’s cheerleading squad took the court, chanting a mantra of “We got the pride; we got the spirit; hey all you Malden fans; we want to hear it.” Partnered with impressive choreography, the team made quite the show for the fans. Off the bat, Revere racked up another three points, immediately followed by senior Guard Ronaldo Nguyen scoring two points for Malden. Revere followed suit, scoring two points as well, totaling the score up to 29-22. The second timeout of the game was called, and the cheerleaders chanted: “Blue to gold; white to white; come on, Malden; fight, fight.” This time, they even included a lift in their routine. Back on the court, Revere landed yet another three-point shot,

Indoor Track Season Ends on a Positive Note Carlos Aragon Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design Sandra Li Managing Editor

fter running at full speed for the past few months, the Malden High Indoor Track Team has come to a bittersweet end, with the Girls Track Team winning the Greater Boston League (GBL) title for the season with a 6-1 record and the boys ending with a 4-3 record. Senior captain Leslie Rodri-

guez expressed that she felt pleased with the season as a whole, “I have seen so many kids improve, not only the veterans but also the new students who have worked so hard with what they have done." Rodriguez explained that COVID was constantly a challenge for the team and impacted them in ways they did not expect. She went on to say that during the time when the GBL made the decision to put all winter sport meets and practices on hold due to the uptick in COVID cases, “it threw the team off because… it impacted the

body in more ways than one.” As a result, the team had to recover from that week off. However, Rodriguez added that they regained what they had lost and continued to improve. Coach Michel-Le Meranda stated that COVID did not affect the team as much as other schools. “Coming back from break, we did have a number of people who were out because of COVID, whether they had it, a family member had it… a lot of people were missing, but the GBL shut down for a week to help alleviate that” which made COVID absences much less impactful.

For Senior captain Marcos Ruiz, he mentioned that the team’s last meet, which was against Somerville, was ultimately bittersweet. He emphasized how there were many personal improvements that they could not overlook as the boys team faced a loss. In the end, Ruiz said that “it still counted as a loss which will always sting because I believe that our team can take on anybody in the conference.” Despite that, Ruiz acknowledged that every week “there was something new that I could be proud of about myself.” He stated

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building their lead to 10 points. Malden attempted to recover with another two points, but Revere struck back with another three-pointer. The score grew to 35-24, and Malden visibly started to lose hope, not running as quickly down the court as they could. They did eventually score another two-point shot, before getting fouled by a Revere player. Both shots were missed, but less than thirty seconds later Malden was fouled again. This time, another point was gained for Malden. Revere managed to squeeze in a final two-pointer, ending the third quarter at 37-27. Fresh into the fourth quarter,

freshman Aidan Brett - called up from JV - scored two points for Malden. Revere quickly matched that, and a back and forth in the scoring ensued, bringing the score up to 4331. After another two-point shot and a foul line shot, the score increased to 43-35. Revere scored again, bringing back their 10 point lead. Another two points and a foul later, and Revere was up 48-35. The time From left to right: Close to the hoop, senior Luke Zubrzycki prepares to block almost up, Malden forced in another an opponent’s shot; Senior Ryan Dalencour makes his way with the ball past a two point shot before calling a final Revere defender. Photos by Jessica Li. timeout. The cheerleaders chanted a ed out the time, ending the game parison to the power rankings of simple "Let's go Malden!" combined 48-37. nearby regions, and will increase with some tumbling. Once on the This outcome places Malden the incentive for the Boys Basketball court, Revere held the ball and wait- High School in 64th place in com- team to win future matches.

Jelani Garret performing the high jump. Photo by Carlos Aragon

that this could either be “winning another race and being able to help the team, or breaking a time barrier I never thought I would reach.” Consequently, “there was so much growth [and] it was incredible to see.” Rodriguez highlighted how some of her fondest memories from the season came from creating new friendships with other runners from

the team. “Meeting new people outside of my grade has been great… and getting to know the underclassmen and helping them navigate track and high school has made this season so much better.” Additionally, she said that watching the 4x400 relays and hearing the excitement from all of the team members for each other was thrilling. One memorable moment

for Rodriguez was their last meet against Somerville at Revere High School. It was the team’s “away” senior night where the coaches honored all of the seniors. “It was such an unforgettable way to honor all of the seniors on our team and it was a sentimental moment.” Meranda stated that one of her favorite moments from the season was when senior Jelani Garrett showed his progression from sophomore year, breaking his personal high jump best at 5’8. “Seeing him as a sophomore two years ago, not being able to clear opening height and now being able to jump at 5’8… I know that moment will live forever in his mind.” Senior Cindy Nguyen added that running the meets would have to be one of the biggest highlights because “the gym was so lively, watching everyone run, especially the relays.” Additionally, in terms of the practices “there were some hard practices that really pushed us, but it made us all closer altogether.” Adding on to that thought, sophomore Shuyi Chen believes that a positive to the season was being able to build connections with other

runners on the team, and “nothing feels better than running your best and knowing it.” Chen mentioned how being able to run at the GBL was an incredible experience because everybody was supportive and cheered. “There's never just going to be a word that can describe how I feel about not being able to be a part of the team after this year,” Ruiz stated. He elaborated by saying that when he first started track, “there was such an allure to being part of the team.” And soon enough, it did not take long for Ruiz to “realize that the team is a family and all these great people were willing to look at us and take them under their wing.” As a captain, he expressed that it makes him content to have the opportunity to do the same as past captains have done. He believes that it is “going to come down to the work that the younger athletes put in through their time on the team.” Ruiz is hopeful that the underclassmen are going to “carry the team to a great future.” Despite the uphill climb of COVID and having to do some heavy recruitment, the team managed to cross the finish line at full speed in a bittersweet ending to the 2021-2022 Indoor Track Season.

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Medford Malden Girls Hockey Team Finishes Season

Senior Forward Julia McDonough skating up ice in front of the team’s bench. Photo by Courtney Fitzgerald Courtney Fitzgerald Lead Reporter

ith spring coming into focus, the girls ice hockey team, composed of girls from Malden, Medford, Saugus, Revere and Everett, closed their season out with a game on Tuesday, February 22nd. Though this season may not have been the best for the team, losing 16 out of their 20 games, the team has come together in different ways. Medford High School senior, and one of the co-captains of the Lady Mustang hockey team, Isabella Sasso noted that her goals for this season were to “communicate on the ice, and work as a team.” Sasso believes that these goals, set by herself, were achieved. “At first I feel like we all played as individuals, not together, but as we did team dinners, practiced and hung out more I felt like we bonded together and started to play as a team as our season went on,” added Sasso. While the Girls Hockey team for Medford has always been combined with Malden’s, due to the lack of people interested, this year the team ventured out and invited the cities of Everett and Revere as well as the town of Saugus to join the team. Sasso mentioned that, “as a captain on the team with so many new faces, I wanted everyone to feel comfortable in the locker room.” She found that there were things that worked well in this form and found other factors that did not work so well. “What worked really

well was making sure everyone’s voice was heard. In between periods we had conversations in the lockerroom and we encouraged the girls to speak up if they saw something that we were doing wrong or right that we don’t see on the ice. That way we are getting feedback from everyone and the girls feel comfortable enough to speak up,” noted Sasso. Sasso found that focusing too much on the negatives did not work for her. She went on to explain that “when we were down in a game I found that sitting in the locker room and talking about all the things we did wrong would get us down on ourselves and we would go out and not perform the way we knew we could, but when we talked about positive things we would go out with our heads up and work till the end.” Sasso believes the past season she has played has contributed to the success and failures of this season. “This year, I was very anxious that I wasn’t going to get a senior season, due to girls not coming back and not having a coach,” said Sasso. “But then we got Coach Brittani, Coach Mia and Coach Sam, and I was just grateful for even having a team.” She added that, “this season may have been hectic and crazy, but I know the future of our hockey team is in good hands.” In addition, Sasso believes that this season “was the start of a new era.” With new teammates and new coaches, she felt that the season was one that both herself

and they will remember. Olivia Tufts, also co-captain of the Lady Mustangs and a senior at Medford High, had a goal similar to Sasso’s in the sense that she wanted to “have a team that bonded.” She went on to explain that “knowing that I had middle school girls and girls from Malden, Revere, Everett and Saugus, I really wanted to make sure that we all got to know each other so we would work well on the ice together.” Tufts found that having practices the day before a game was present in the performance the day of a game. “When we had a good practice, the things we worked on in that practice would be applied in the games,” noted Tufts. Though she found things that worked for the team, Tufts believes that the team needed to shoot more on net when they could. “I’m so happy with how my senior season turned out, even if we didn’t have the best record,” Tufts said. She expressed her gratitude to all her teammates for always lifting each other up and giving her “an amazing final hockey season.” Sasso believes that this season “was the start of a new era.” With new teammates and new coaches, she felt that the season was one that both herself and they will remember. “I will always be thankful to all of my coaches throughout the years,” Tufts concluded. “One of my goals for the season was simply to have a senior season,” exclaimed Medford high senior Ju-

lia McDonough, assistant captain of the Lady Mustangs. In the fall, before coaching staffs were announced for the hockey team, the season was up in the air where returning players were uncertain if there would actually be a season for them. “I was so excited to learn about the new coaching staff and their plan for the upcoming season. I will be forever grateful for the middle schoolers and girls from other cities and towns who contributed to an awesome season,” stated McDonough. While the team may not have had the best record to show for their season, McDonough “knows we were winning in other aspects.” She elaborated that “the need for team bonding translated into this season, which I would say was successful.” She mentioned how throughout the season, the captains of the team would organize team bonding before a game. By doing this, they were able to find that the team felt “more connected on the ice and overall just played a better game.” A collective highlight of the season was their senior night against Melrose. McDonough noted that “the underclassmen truly did an outstanding job to make this night one to remember, and beating Melrose really topped it off.” Sasso expressed how the team was able to come together and their playing showed in the score. For Tufts, the Melrose game was redemption. “We didn’t have the best record and we had previously lost to Melrose, but I was so happy that we pulled through,” stated Tufts. Mcdonough concluded that it was also amazing to have all of her family there to see when she scored the game-winning goal that night. With their season ending with a 4-16 win to loss ratio, the Medford High Lady Mustangs are hopeful for the season next year. With a younger team and a new coaching staff, the program is projected to run for a while longer.

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