The Classic, Vol 38, No 1, Spring 2022 by The Classic

Looking back at school closures

This year both FON and SING debuted before live audiences in the Townsend Harris auditorium, marking the first time they were back since the 2019-2020 school year.

THE CLASSIC has continued publishing online throughout the pandemic. Now, it is returning to print with a special issue collecting the major stories published during the past two years. Next year, we will continue publishing both in print and online.

TWOLATERYEARS

FON SING&return

LargmannRemembering

Dr. Largmann, founding principal of the reopened Townsend Harris, passed away in 2021. Read about his life and his work as a principal from those who knew him.

Page 2 Page 6 Page 12 thhsclassic.com • Spring 2022 • No. 01 | Vol. 38 THE CLASSIC TOWNSEND HARRIS HIGH SCHOOL AT QUEENS COLLEGE

Take a look at the major articles published as the largest school system in the country shut down at the start of the pandemic. There are also articles that showcase what it took to reopen schools in subsequent school years.

OPINION: It is time to close NYC schools

Seniorscommunity.wereespecially dis appointed by this interruption to their last year of high school. Ma ny are dwelling on the possibility of not being able to attend their prom or graduation due to the current ban on large gatherings.

Though students are relieved to know their health and safety are a priority for NYC officials, many are also upset by this temporary separation from their school

AP Biology teacher Shi Bing Shen said, “I do believe closing the schools is the right decision.

Previously, government and DOE officials had grappled with plans to provide adequate nutri tion to underserved families and childcare for elementary schoolaged children, without compro mising the safety of other NYC students by keeping schools open.Mayor de Blasio has since decided to keep these resourc es available to students at their local schools in spite of the in structional recess.

“I’m going to stay in my home, quarantine, and sleep since they are literally closing every thing and my friends are scared to come outside,” said sopho more Ngozi Anya.

“I honestly didn’t want school

“I believe online learning would be possible for THHS since the majority of the teach ers have set up Google Class room for this year so there is a way to distribute materials, chat, and discuss topics even in realtime,” added Ms. Shen.

Bebe Ad

ewale.Nevertheless, teachers remain confident that online instruction will ensure that this break from school will not obstruct stu dents’ learning too severely.

It is entirely unreasonable to keep schools open when stu dents’ primary mode of trans portation is a danger to their we ll-being.Mayor de Blasio has repea tedly said he is hesitant to clo se schools because he fears that students who rely on their scho ol cafeterias for meals won’t ha ve access to adequate nutrition. There are ways of providing this service without keeping schools open for Finally,classes.thecoronavirus has dramatically impacted lear ning. Students, rightfully stres sed and concerned by the pan demic spreading all around them, have great difficulty focusing on their academics. Conversations in many classes are dominated by the virus, as teachers work to reassure the concerns their stu dents are Altogether,voicing.this is not an en vironment in which students can learnOnlineeffectively.education, even if im perfect, would allow students to learn from the safety and comfort of their own home, free from the distractions of the virus.

to close down for this long, but in my free time I am go ing to catch up on studying for various APs and regents and actually get the time to do work and mentedsummer,”ternshipfindingobjectives,otherlikeaninforthecomsophomore

Published online on what would end up being the last day of fully inperson classes until September 2021, this article captures the sense of urgency that gripped city students in the days before the largest school district in the nation shut down. See the full version online.

March 17, 2020

In the last 72 hours, the coro navirus outbreak has officially re ached the status of a WHO-re cognized pandemic. Most res ponses to the disease have been sweeping. However, New York City has taken no such measu res. Though there have been six ty-two confirmed cases in the city, the Mayor’s office has conti nued to reiterate that school clo sures are a last resort. Such reasoning is foolish. A single student coming to scho ol while potentially infected with a virus that can take significant ti me to show symptoms is harm ful to the well-being of thousands of other students and staff mem bers.Furthermore, most high sc

“I’ll try to find a new hobby dur ing this month and since PSAL isn’t running, I’ll go out often on runs by myself to stay healthy,” she explained.

"I understand it has wide spread consequences, but for the good of the city and to hopefully slow down the trans mission of the virus, it was a nec essary step in the right direction for“ThoughNYC.” unfortunate, this de cision is ultimately the best for the NYC population as a whole. Taking preventative measures is

hool students rely on some mo de of public transportation in or der to get to school each day. The chairman of the MTA has su ggested that if New Yorkers can get around without using the subways, they should.

“It feels unreal, as if we’re in a dream or a simula tion. I looked forward to my senior year, my entire high school life, but everything blew up. I’m definite ly not happy and I’ll miss seeing my friends and my teach ers in school,” said Emily.

After numerous petitions pres sured Governor Cuomo to close NYC schools, he announced plans to submit to these requests as soon as Mayor de Blasio devised a plan to ensure childcare for all during this bestlybreak.“Idefinitethinkitwasthedecisionand it should have happened earlier. As we can see from the spread of this deadly virus in other countries in Asia and in Europe, isolating is an effective method to slow down transmis sion,” commented UFT chapter leader Franco Scardino.

2 The Classic

Maggie also plans to spend most of her time at home.

By Zeyad Shariff ‘21 March 13, 2020

better than taking reactive mea sures in a pandemic,” said senior Vice President Emily Tan.

As the novel coronavirus pan demic sweeps across the United States and the world, numerous high schools and colleges have temporarily closed and switched to online classes in order to con tain the spread of the virus. With many students at New York City private schools already atten ding online classes, and with co ronavirus cases rapidly prolife rating through all five boroughs, the time for action is now. In or der to protect students and staff at New York City public schools, Mayor de Blasio must immedia tely close schools.

All schoolsNYC to close pandemicglobalamidst

“I believe online learning would be possible for THHS since the major ity of the teachers have set up Classroom.”Google

Mayor Bill de Blasio an nounced at his press conference on March 15 that all New York City public schools are closed, effective immediately, until April 20. However, this closure may continue until the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

PHOTO: KATRINA DYDZUHN ‘20

By Julia Wojtkowski ‘21, Daniela Zavlun ‘21, and Julianna Zitron ‘20

“For the seniors and graduat ing classes of 2020, I feel sad dened that they aren’t able to fully experience their last year in school. Hopefully, everything will be better soon and their grad uation plans are not ruined by this issue,” said freshman Mag gieHowever,Huang. others were looking forward to using this extended hiatus from school as a time for both rest and productivity.

“I think it’s going to work out fine. I already have my ninthgrade classes organized on Google Classroom and my ju niors are all online and on sched ule to complete their AP Re search paper,” said Mr. Scardi

COVID NEWS

no.“I think the band program is completely prepared for this. Luckily, the way the curricu lum/ course was already struc tured, switching to a complete ly online platform will be a some what easy transition for us…I am confident that when school re sumes, we will have advanced where we left off and will be more than prepared for our con certs and NYSSMA festival per formances,” said music teacher Kevin“GreatnessHeathwood.isnot measured when things go perfectly," Mr. Heathwood continued, "it is measured when things don’t, and seeing how one perseveres, adapts, and rises to the chal lenge. There is a big task ahead for both staff and students… but I believe Townsend is equipped and prepared for it.”

“I plan on practicing on the saxophone a lot more, which can be hard with school…. I’m also crocheting right now, and hopefully I can learn how to use a sewing machine,” stated junior Weiye Yasen.

we kind of already knew where we were going before that.”

to make the most robust elective course selection I can.”

Under new DOE programming guidance, courses may be cut

“We are trying to mitigate that through efficient programming and through trying to make su re that we use the rules to our advantage to maximize program and course offerings,” Principal Condon stated. “There will be diminished course offerings, I’m sure. But we are going to do our best to minimize that.”

we might need staffed under these circumstances,” said Prin cipal Condon. The DOE has ex pressed that they will work with schools to fill these gaps, and the THHS administration is now working to find where the scho ol will have teaching shortages and will provide that information to the DOE. It is unclear how the DOE will provide the teacher ro lesElectivenecessary.courses would be the first to be cut. “The allocation of the resources goes as follows: mandated courses, core cour ses…[then] electives,” said Mr. Condon. “So I have to first staff my mandated and core courses, and then I have to figure out how

2020 Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com

Earlier today, plans for live Winter Con cert performances were cancelled in re sponse to rising CO VID-19 cases.

Asit.”hybrid students would require two teachers per class, one for the two days their cohort is in person and one for the four days their cohort is learning re motely, there would be a shorta ge of teachers to run all the co urses offered in the current pro gram. “So you either have to re duce the number of classes you’re offering, or you have to get mo re teachers in yo ur building to do that work,” Princi pal Condon themeareextraknowoption.sestainteacherstheritthistoHowever,said.duebudgetcutspastmonth,isunclearwhehiringmoretomaincurrentcourisafeasible“Idon’twheretheteachersgoingtocofromtostaffclassesthat

pening committee can come to a solution that allows students at Townsend Harris to continue to explore their interests, even if that means classes have to be taught completely virtual.”

Winter Concert canceled as cases surge

Students were preparing for the Winter Concert as Omicron cases rose PHOTO: MATTHEW MERINO ‘22

3 Spring 2022 COVID NEWS

Since nearly 60% of students are currently opting for blended/ hybrid learning at THHS, cour ses for those students will requ ire two teachers each, which wi ll make it likely that fewer overall courses can be offered. Accor ding to Principal Condon, “The greater the population that takes the blended learning model, the greater the resources needed to staff

The Classic spoke to Princi pal Brian Condon who explained how the programming will work with these guidelines. There wi ll be two types of courses: re mote courses and “blended” or hybrid courses. Remote courses are taught to students who opt to stay home entirely. Since stu dents can only come to school in two day shifts, blended cour ses feature a mixture of in person and remote instruction. In accor dance with the newly released guidelines, following an agree ment between the DOE and the UFT, blended classes require two teachers: one who will teach the students when they are in the building, and another who wi ll teach that group of students when they are at home. All remo te students will have one teacher per class they are taking.

Following newly released Department of Education (DOE) guidelines calling for schools to assign teachers to one specific type of teaching at a time—either all remote, hybrid remote, or in-person—the Townsend Harris administration is now programming students accordingly. However, due to the number of teachers required to meet these new guidelines, multiple courses are at risk of being cut.

as the hard numbers [showed] that there were positive cases and cases were going up in the school community. This morn

The concert was supposed to be held on Wednesday eve ning, with a ingthenandministrationtionHeathwood.musicfactors,wascanceltheconcertlive-streamedsecondmini-tobehelddayafter.ThedecisiontotheconcertbasedonmanyaccordingtoteacherKevinHesaid,“Itwasaconversabetweenmyselfandtheadthathadbeentalkedmentionedlastweek…andlastnight,westartedhavmoreserioustalksaboutit

and got everybody on the same page as the word was getting out…the final decision was in my fourth band this morning, but

By Micah Sandy ‘22 December 20, 2021

By Nikki Ng ‘21 and Victoria Oei ’21 27,

August

Plans for the reopening of THHS remained up in the air as the first day of school approached.

The THHS reopening commit tee worked this summer to cre ate an “exception” proposal that would avoid cuts such as these. Their model, which they called the Enriched Virtual Plan, was introduced during reopening information sessions this mon th. According to Assistant Prin cipal of Organization Ellen Fee, the committee submitted it for approval on Friday, August 14 and was denied by the DOE the same day.

At 1:05 p.m. today, Princi pal Brian Condon sent out an email that officially announced theHechange.wrote, “Out of an abun

ing was when we were making theHecall.”added, “I had told the jazz band during zero band, and then we had a follow-up meeting with the principal and a bunch of the assistant principals formulated

er Saad Ahmed said, “I’m defi nitely sad that the winter concert was canceled, everyone worked so hard for it. But it’s complete ly justified given the rise in CO VIDJuniorcases.”and Chamber Strings student Lana Yepifanova said, “I was so disappointed that they canceled the winter concert. I was really looking forward to playing the Demon Slayer duet with my Sophomorepartners.”and Jazz Band/ Wind Ensemble student Kay lah Rouzier said, “I honestly wasn’t expecting [the cancel lation of the Winter Concert] to happen, especially after we had managed to successfully pull off a big production like S!NG. I was and still am pretty upset about it. Last year, all of our performanc es were remote except for grad uation, but even that had its lim its. I was looking forward to a re al in-person concert and being able to experience it properly for the first time [at THHS].”

dance of caution, and in light of a recent increase of COVID posi tive cases in our school building, I regret to inform you that we will be canceling our live, inperson performance of our annual Winter Con cert.”The email went on to detail that the perfor mance would be made available online through the school’s YouTube channel. It said that the link to the video will be sent to the entire school community once it is available.Seniorand Vice Pres ident of Hawkapella Marykate Wee said, “I feel disappointed and al so scared since this last minute cancellation feels very familiar. Hopefully the break simmers down the situation so when we come back, things will be bet ter.”Senior and Tech Squad Lead

Student Union President Sharon Li expressed her disa ppointment with the news. “Cut ting the selection of electives we have to offer is losing the level of rigor and opportunities we pro vide to our students,” Sharon said. “I hope the DOE and reo

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Former English teacher Judy

Remembering Dr. Largmann, founding principal of new THHS

Former English Teacher Debra Michlewitz described this as Dr. Largmann’s very own “educatio nal Camelot” that he built throu gh the excellence of students, staff, and teachers.

“Rankingstaff.#1 consecutive ly in NY is definitely an ama zing feat that I am very proud of,” said junior Jennifer Quisi. “It really shows how hardwor king and dedicated our facul ty is and how high-achieving Towsend Harris students are. I hope that in the coming years, the school continues to garner these recognitions and more.”

PHOTO BY KARI IOCOLANO ‘15

6 The Classic

Former Athletic Director and Dean Wanda Nix described Dr. Largmann as a tough but fair boss who made her feel that her opinions mattered despite disa greements.“Thefocus was always on the students and providing them with the best school experien ce, the best preparation for the next level and the tools to beco me good Accordingcitizens.”tomany, Dr. Larg mann would ask students to na me at least one thing they lear ned after the end of a school day. Before technological deve lopments allowed for the main stream use of online dictionaries, he would make sure that all stu dents carried dictionaries.

THHS ranked Newschoolpublic#1highinYork

He also always remembered his roots as a teacher.

Former student Tanya M. Odom said, “He was so proud of our accomplishments, whe re we went to school, and what we did with our lives. I felt like he was always really happy to share in our accomplishments, so I think it’s really special that the teachers that he worked with while I was there and afterwar ds are people who were around him until the very end. That spea ks to the community that we had, and that touches me on a very deepParentlevel.”Coordinator Dafne Manhart, who first met Dr. Larg mann in 1997, said, “Dr. Larg mann has sent me a Christmas card every year, and every year, he would write regards to Tho mas and Douglas [her sons and THHS alumni]. When I heard of his passing, it really touched my heart.”

The THHS Library now carries his name and the school’s motto, “Ad Astra per Aspera.”

By Lauren Jun ‘22, Ramisha Parvez ‘22, and Micah Sandy ‘22 June 15, 2021

They considered 24,000 hi gh schools across the nation and ultimately ranked THHS among a total of 17,860 sc hools.Tocreate the ranking, the group used a combination of six criteria to select and rank schools, including the propor tion of seniors who took AP exams, the range of exams ta ken, results from state exams in the context of student de mographics, underserved stu dent performance, and gradu ationTherate.evaluations were based on school performances from the 2018-2019 academic year.

Many emphasized Dr. Larg mann’s pride in his students, and his passion for getting to know them and their strengths.

In a wide range of interviews, teachers, alumni, and adminis trators credit Dr. Largmann with working tirelessly to bring to life his vision of a school that offers a stellar education, rooted in the humanities, to its students.

Former Spanish teacher and Assistant Principal of World Languages Joan Walsh said, “When the school opened in September, 1984, he set the to ne for the school culture by be ing omni-present in the hallways and in the classrooms. He made it his business to know most of the students by name.”

Alumni Association Co-Pre sident Craig Slutzkin said, “I wasn’t close to Dr. Largmann when I was a student. I rea lly didn’t have much interacti on with him. But through both of our Alumni Association involve ments, we became friends and eventually family over the past

30 years. And what amazed me is that even though we didn’t ha ve much interaction when I was a student, over the years, he wo uld bring up things from my days at Harris that I would have never thought he knew about – clubs I was in, teachers I was a monitor for. That is so telling – he knew what each of his students did, what they cared about.”

In another instance where he was observing classes, former English teacher and Classic advisor Ilsa Cowen said that Dr. Largmann was keen to help re ad a passage of the Old English book Beowulf for her class.

Dr. Malcolm G. Largmann, the founding principal of the re-esta blished Townsend Harris High School, passed away on May 31. He was Hand-selected89. by those res ponsible for reopening the sc hool, Dr. Largmann led THHS from 1984 to 2001. Many of the traditions and experiences that define THHS began under and through his leadership. The Qu eens College collaboration, the opening of the school building on the college campus, Foun ders’ Day, and the swearing of the Ephebic Oath are just a few examples.Beforebecoming the principal of the re-established school, Dr. Largmann was English Depart ment Chair at Tilden High Sc hool and an English teacher at Lafayette High School. He re tired from THHS in 2001 and was succeeded by former Prin cipal Thomas Cunningham af ter having worked in education for over forty years.

“From experience, I can say that not every high school prin cipal is such a strong advocate. For example, each June, I com piled summer reading lists for every grade to be distributed on the last day of school in June. Before the bibliographies were printed however, Dr. Largmann liked to see them. He always had questions, comments, additions or deletions. He cared. I was so grateful to have his input becau se I knew that in the end the rea ding lists would be the very best that they could be.”

When she asked him about this, he told her that he “simply missed teaching.”

On Dr. Largmann’s drive to get to know students, Ms. Walsh shared a story of a time when he had to rethink one of his plans: “In keeping with his vision of min gling with the students and get ting to know them, he thought it would be a good idea for the fa culty to eat lunch with the stu dents in the student cafeteria. Needless to say, that idea was short-lived. The students were not too thrilled, and neither we re the Despiteteachers.”theplan not working, he found other ways to create communal bonds that made for unique and lasting educational experiences.Oneway was through Dr. Largmann’s love of literature, which translated into his passi on for a humanities education.

“Dr. Largmann always recogni zed the importance of the school library and supported it in every way he could,” said former libra rian Valerie Billy.

She noted that, “A couple of times when he was observing one of my classes, he couldn’t resist taking over and seemed to be having a wonderful time. He was glad to read a passage from Beowulf to my appreciati ve class. I learned so much from his example and suggestions.”

SCHOOL NEWS

Left: Dr. Largmann in 2015; Right: The THHS Library, named after him

Many Harrisites reacted to the news positively, crediting the school’s success to the stu dents and

Biener said that Dr. Largmann once came into her classroom, took the chalk, and started tea ching the class.

Townsend Harris High Sc hool swept the US News and World Report 2021 high scho ol rankings, placing 1st in New York State, the NY Metro Area, and New York City, as well as 12th in the nation.

“Our core mission for us is to provide an accelerated lear ning experience for students that forces them to think criti cally and to develop content knowledge,” said Principal Bri an“There’sCondon.really not a day when the adults don’t come into the school focused on how to ma ke it better for the kids, from the administrators to the teachers to the school aides to the se cretaries and the custodians.”

The ranking was created by US News and World Report in association with RTI Internati onal, a nonprofit research insti tute that partners with govern ment agencies, commercial cli ents, and academic institutions.

By Dorcas Adewale '22 and William Rhee '22 May 14, 2021

This may be intended to appear as a typical budget cut in an economic crisis, [but] the fact is that this is a program that the DOE has worked in the past to undercut. This is a cynical and opportunistic attempt to undo a 36 year legacy, under the cover of crisis.

Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com

This funding is separate from the core budget the school re ceives. Since the school will not be receiving the additional fun ding this year, the administra tion would have to redistribute the existing school funds from the school’s core budget if they choose to continue the Queens College partnership.

By Lauren Jun '22, Cate Nguyen '22, Sophia Park '22, Jennifer Quisi '22, Ryan Eng '22

PTA Co-President Bill Rettig shared his concerns that the loss of the program would ne gatively impact both current and incoming students, as resources wold need to be redirected to substitute missing QC classes.

Mr. Scardino, a member of the school’s reopening committee, also emphasized the importance of QC classes in the program ming of the whole school.

Former UFT Chapter Lea der and current Social Studies teacher Franco Scardino said that he agrees with Mr. Con don’s allegation that the DOE is exploiting the pandemic. Ci ting the controversy over prin cipal hiring from 2017, he said, “for whatever reason(s), some officials at the DOE have histo rically targeted THHS.”

Citing budget crisis, DOE cuts funding for Queens College Bridge Program gramgeaboutattorsLegisla-meetTHHSBrid-Pro-

“This is [an] opportunity for the Townsend community (young and old) to band together to fi ght for change or against unjust actions done without the consi deration of the student body,” Ju lian said.

Mr. Styer wrote, “In the face of the severe budget crisis cau sed by the COVID-19 pande mic, we made the hard decision to prioritize core academics, re sulting in hundreds of millions in budget cuts in the Adopted bud get alone. This special allocation was unique to Townsend Harris, and, in the interest of equity, we sought to work with school lea dership to find alternative means to continue funding this program within their budget if they cho ose

SCHOOL NEWS

“We’ve all benefited from the QC-THHS partnership in one way or another and it would be saddening to see the next few graduating classes not be able to experience it.”

“I think we were all expecting potential budget cuts in this si tuation but none of us expected it to be in such a direct way li ke eliminating the Bridge Year Program,” said Tina Chen, Class of 2020, who plans to contact elected officials.

asons.” Calling for an “all-handson-deck approach,” the THAA provided contact information for elected officials and emphasized the urgency of the situation, ur ging alumni to reach out to offi cials before the DOE makes any announcements, and many ha ve already responded to the call toInaction.aletter to representatives,

In the hours following its cre ation, the petition has garne red over 1,600 signatures, with many students and alumni taking to social media to promote it and encourage students outside of THHS to Teachersparticipate.andparents have al so joined the conversation.

In response to Mr. Condon’s email, the Townsend Harris Alumni Association (THAA) has released a statement encoura ging alumni to reach out to po litical representatives and put pressure on the DOE to fund theTHHSprogram.students have also ex panded their efforts by laun ching a petition in support of the program.Inthestatement, the THAA expressed their opposition to the cutting of the program, wri ting that the alleged decision is “not appropriate for so many re

January 25, 2022

Class of 2019 alumna Shivani Persaud wrote, “The Bridge Year Program [is allowing] me to graduate in Fall 2021 with my bachelor’s degree from the Uni versity of Central Florida, begin graduate school at the age of 20 due to my early graduation, [and] win scholarships to other colle ges…due to the merit associ ated with the Bridge Year Pro gram.”Similarly, Class of 2016 alum Julian De La Rosa explained that the credits offered by the pro gram transferred over to his current college, giving him some leeway when switching majors.

The event took place on the auditorium stage, where students held a mock semi narLegislatorsclass. sat in open seats to listen in to student discussions that modeled work that would take place in a typical humanities class.

Brian Condon Principal

The DOE support staff would consult with the school on how to proceed in making such cho ices.

On Monday night, Principal Brian Condon strongly objec ted to any fund reduction to this program, writing, “defunding this long standing partnership is not acceptable and will not be to lerated.”Mr.Condon will meet with the Senior Budget Director of Que ens North later today to discuss the funding of the Bridge Pro gram.Inapress conference held this morning, a reporter from WCBS 880 asked Mayor Bill de Blasio about the funding. The Mayor said he would check in on the situation, and said, “We want to do the best we can for our seni ors, they’re going to go through a lot this year.”

Afterwards, Principal Brian Condon, along with Assis tant Principals Veronica York and Rafal Olechowski, spo ke of the values of the pro gram and invited speakers to reflect on their AssemblymanaftertheandtovethegoingthinkonDunbar’sreflectingonnitiesthemockDunbar,Queensgainedbecauserathernishaspirations,ostedscribedAssemblywomanexperiences.RozicdehowtheprogrambohercollegeandcareerallowinghertofiherNYUdegreeinthreethanfouryearsinpartofallthecreditsshefromtakingcoursesatCollege.SeminarteacherRyanwhoseclassheldtheseminar,spokeaboutuniquenessoftheHumacourseanditsimpactcurrentstudents.SuperintendentLindsey,onhervisittoMr.Humanitiesclassanotherday,said,“Idon’tanyonesittinghereistowalkawayandsayprogramdoesnotdesertocontinue.AndI’mheresupportPrincipalCondon,allofthestudents,allofadministrators."“Mysupportisonlystrongersittingheretoday,”saidBraunstein.

This indicates that the scho ol would have to cut funding for other programs, find the money from another source, or work with Queens College to reduce the program’s cost.

The 2021 Editors of The Classic July 29, 2020

On Tuesday evening, the Townsend Harris Student Uni on (SU) created a petition in or der to organize support again st the decision to cut the Bridge Year Program.

Townsend Harris adminis trators, teachers, and seni or Harrisites hosted a Legis lative Breakfast to advoca te for the continuation of the THHS-Queens College Brid ge Year Program following its complete defunding by the Department of Education in 2020. At the event multiple guests, including Executive Superintendent Dr. Maurici ere de Govia, Queens North Superintendent Elaine Lind sey, Assemblyman David Weprin, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (an alumna), Qu een District Attorney Melinda Katz, District 23 City Council Member Linda Lee, and As semblyman Edward Braun stein, reaffirmed their com mitment to advocating for fun ding the program’s future.

Lastto.”year, the school received $671,000 to fund its partner ship with Queens College.

After the NYC DOE cut funding to the Bridge Program in 2020, THHS was still meeting to restore it in Winter 2022

7 Spring 2022

In an email to The Classic, De partment of Education Deputy Press Spokesperson Nathaniel Styer confirmed that due to the budget crisis caused by coro navirus, the DOE will not be fun ding the Queens College Brid ge Year Program for the 20202021 school year.

Alexasaid.and

Xandria have also included YouTube video links to stream. “By watching the ads that come up in their entirety, the owner of the video [can] col lect ad revenue and then donate it,” Xandria explained. “I think that this is a great alternative.”

Juniors Xandria Crossland and The Classic Layout Editor Alexa Jude Tumulak have also taken initiative, creating a “master doc ument” that links resources and petitions to inform and educate their peers on the different ways they can support the movement.

essay editing for students who show proof of donation. “As a first-generation college stu dent, I often felt alone and clue less throughout the application process, so I often looked to alumni for advice,” Annie said. “I hope that through this service, students can feel more secure and confident in their college application. I want to help stu dents prepare for the next step while encouraging them to be aware of the real-world events goingOtherson.” have taken to so cial media to gather donations. Class of 2019 Alumna Lucy Yang created a donation board on Instagram, with different do nation slots ranging from two to ten dollars to encourage do nations that her followers can claim. “The goal was always to make donating more accessi ble and more Instagram-friend ly,” Lucy said. “Typing in some one’s Venmo tag and donat

By Victoria Oei '21 March 3, 2021

Freshman Olivia Wong said she believes “Asian hate crimes have been prevalent…but people were too shy and afraid to voice their opinions.”

Following reports of a rise in violence against Asian-American community, Harrisites share concerns

Senior Ina Mui shared that a few months ago, her mother was asked if she was Chinese and then told, “Go back to your country.”

PHOTO BY NIKKI NG ‘21

“As teenagers, we have to start dismantling the covert racism we see or experience in our day to day lives. We have to speak out on these injustices and find oth er ways to help rather than just do something performative,” Al exa concluded.

While a wide range of vi olent acts has been report ed, some events stood out to students. Alvin refer enced the news of an Asian woman being shoved to the ground by a man in Flushing lastTheTuesday.eventgarnered sig nificant attention as stu dents reposted an Insta gram post urging the com munity to help find the of fender.“When I first saw the vid eo [I was] shocked…We live close to Flushing and Townsend is in Flushing so the proximity of the hate crime was definitely fright ening to think about,” Alvin said.The assaulter was arrest ed two days later, but was released “under supervi sion.”Some Asian-American students have had person al experiences with racism.

Junior Jasmine Chang, who is providing a similar service, emphasizes that donations are essential because “they allow funds, organizations or individu al activists to continue their fight towards dismantling systemic racism.” She added, “I am sim ply offering the added incentive beyond the most important moti vators for donations: funding bail money for protesters, purchas ing equipment, and investing in underdeveloped communities.”

Alvin Zou Class of 2021

“On Instagram, there were 26 million posts for #blackouttues day with posts of a black square, but only 12 million signatures on the Justice for George Floyd pe tition. If those exact people had signed or spread around pe titions, it would’ve helped so much. I couldn’t just spread awareness, it was time to actu ally do something about it,” Al exa

Ina said, “I remember when she came home and told us what happened, I was so baffled that I laughed."Irefused to believe that something that I had only heard from ignorant school children when I was young er was still being unironical ly said in 2020, by a grown man, in Queens, New York of all Manyplaces.”students have ex pressed their concerns about these events by re posting informational con tent on their social media platforms.Oliviasaid she “repost[s] information on Instagram to help spread aware ness.” Sharon, who also said she reposts resourc es, explained that she uses Instagram to stay informed. “I follow Nextshark on Ins tagram to keep up with the news and what is going on in the Asian American com munity.”Although there have been a considerable amount of resources made available on social media, some stu dents shared that these at tacks have not received enough sustained cover age in larger news outlets.

This past month, re ports of a spike in violence against the cently,theseture.”thisgeted,centhatesetriesandsharedcommunity.”someoneitandattacksscriptionswithbeentheposts“Seeing“scary.”scribedthesesharesocialrisitesrecentinsocialcommunityAsian-Americanhavefloodedmediaandappearedmajornewsoutlets.Inweeks,manyHarhavetakentotheirmediaplatformstotheirconcernaboutevents.SeniorElaineTsuidetheattacksasSeniorAlvinZousaid,allthenewsandonsocialmediaaboutspikeinhatecrimeshasdistressingespeciallyseeingorreadingdeofthedifferentthathaveoccurredthethoughtofthinkingcouldverywellhappentoIknowfrommyFreshmanSharonLeeherthoughtsaswell.“Ihateseeingthisspike,itbothangersandworme,”shesaid.“I’mupthatthere’ssomuchinthisworldandinnopeoplearebeingtarandI’mworriedthatwillcontinueintothefuAlthoughcoverageofeventshasrisenrestudentssharedthat

To appeal to the juniors, a group of seniors has started a college counseling service for those who donate to BLM orga nizations. Seniors Togay Atma ca, Cathy Choo, Annie Lin, Jon athan Tran, and Shane Werther are participating in a nationwide effort, providing services such as

“We have 4 unique artists partic ipating, each with their own style and mediums used. If a piece costs $5, you donate $5 to an organization of your choice that connects to Black Lives Matter,” she said. In addition to donating

June

the Asian-American com munity has faced racism in many instances prior.

Ina shared a similar senti ment and said, “I’m glad that the media is covering these stories, but I feel like more could be done.”

ing money in less than a min ute is much easier than getting out your card and typing in your card information for each orga nization you want to donate to… If I used this popular format of raising funds, more of my friends would be a bit more encouraged toLucydonate.”believes that as much as protests are vital to the move ment, donations supporting or ganizations such as Black Vi sions Collective, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the National Bail Fund Net work are more effective towards the long term goal “in targeting the real disparities experienced by Black communities daily.”

with reporting the recent spike in hate crimes against AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) because currently, the majority of the support comes from with in the AAPI community (i.e. celebrities, politicians, or ganization leaders, etc.).”

Fundraising efforts in support of Black Lives Matter

Seeing all the news and posts on social media about the spike in hate crimes has been community.knowtoverythinkingtheoccurredattacksofdescriptionsseeingespeciallydistressingwithorreadingthedifferentthathaveandthoughtofitcouldwellhappensomeoneIfrommy

Outraged by the killing of George Floyd, supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) move ment across the nation are chal lenging police brutality and the systemic racism entrenched in society through protests, peti tions, donations, and demands for reform. Several students at Townsend Harris are also par taking in the movement by rais ing money in support of Black LivesSophomoreMatter. Aimee Wad olowski is creating custom art pieces to encourage her peers to donate to BLM organizations.

8 The Classic FEATURED TOPIC: RACISM

money, Aimee gives the option of streaming YouTube videos whose ad revenue goes toward BLM for those who do not have the means to donate.

By Kelly Jiang '21 and Jessie Ye '21 10, 2020

Sophomore Leanna Ji ang said, “I wish the promi nent media channels [were] more eager and involved

Blacksystemmercilessandhavenotachievedjusticeforit.Theprotestsareforme,mymother,myfather,mysisters,andeveryotherpersonout

She is calling on the THHS com munity to present concrete solutions “rather than providing one ‘safe’ space to speak.” She proposes bet ter mental health resources for stu dents and mandated diversity train ing for the faculty “to understand the power they hold over students of color and how their actions, harm ful or not, can impact them.”

At the most charitable, those who feel the need to qualify in this way are just socially inept. Worse than the possibility of being so cially inept is the sense that deep down that “but” is coming from a place of bigotry.Recognize that when people are hurting and they say they are hurting, it is not the time to counterargue grief. Respect peo ple at this time. Listen to understand. Realize that listening is an honor. Sym pathize with them. This is essential in fixing the state of our nation right now.

Mr. Condon said, “Bigotry in all forms is antithetical to our value sys tem and we’re going to continue to work to root it out wherever it ap pears in our school community.” He and the administration are review ing the claims.

The process involves creating a safe forum for students and alumni to share their stories, and engaging the school community to set goals and create an “action plan” to meet thoseAftergoals.thisproposal, he wrote: “We are committed to creating a space for courageous conversations to take place. We will continue promot ing respect for the multiple perspec tives we each bring to our communi ty. I also want to make it very clear to each member of our community that harassment will not be tolerated.”

He proposed a four-step process that the community will be taking in order to improve the situation.

UFT chapter leader Franco Scardino has not seen the com ments, but has seen Mr. Condon’s letter and said, “This is a very dis turbing incident no matter how one looks at it. Bigotry, racism, and bully ing have no place in our school and in society in general. We are each re sponsible to speak up. People who have been victimized must have their voices heard and the incidents in vestigated.” Mr. Scardino has faith that the DOE will investigate these matters.“TheDOE protocols to report and investigate are pretty clear…. Mr. Condon has already sent out a letter to the school community, and I am sure the Office of Special In vestigation will be in touch with the former and current students who have spoken up and with the teach ers named.” We reached out to the NYC Department of Education for comment on the investigative pro cess. The DOE did not immediate ly respond to request for comment.

The fact that you feel so strongly the need to ed ucate me on how my de spair lacks enough nu ance for you is not your privilege showing—it’s worse.

Mr. Condon encouraged students with other experiences to share to reach out to his administration.

Class of 2018 alumna Jayden Full er started the Instagram forum for any alumni and current students who have encountered instances of racial insensitivity and prejudice within the Townsend Harris community.

I have en gaged with over ilarthistionsconversadia.socialweekinstudents15thepastonmeEightfeaturedphraseorsimphrasing:“What hap pened to George Floyd is horrendous but…”. When people use the word ‘but’ in a conversation about our trauma it is more than triggering.Whydoes it seem so easy to find the word ‘but’ to diminish the hor ror of unjustified murder of Black people? Why does what comes after the “but” seem far more important than the first part of that specific sentence? Why is it so easy for someone to write a five-paragraph essay to educate me on the part that comes af ter the ‘but’ more than the part that comes before it? When speaking to some one who is mourning, saying “I understand your pain, but” is in no way ap propriate to address the situation at hand.

By Ifeoluwa Adedokun '21 June 5, 2020

there that this could hap pen to. It is traumatizing that I could be walking on the street right now and my life could be abruptly ended by simply existing. It’s the fact that I could be trying as hard as I possi bly can to “leave my city… greater than I found it” and someone decides to end my life based solely on the melanin in my skin.

munity in response to the postings.

This week, Townsend Harris ranked first in New York and fifth nationally in the US News & World Report 2020 Best High Schools Rankings. While many faculty mem bers and students were celebrat ing this achievement, some took to social media to share experienc es of racism and discrimination at THHS that they felt the rankings hid. One alumna’s Instagram page began cataloguing student-to-stu dent and teacher-to-student inci dents in response to an open ques tion she shared publicly. The Classic can report that Principal Brian Con don has reported the allegations that have surfaced on Instagram to the Department of Education.

9 Spring 2022

He said, “The DOE has a process and system into which we report these claims. There is a protocol in terms of how we go about investi gating them. So I will do what I have always done, which is follow the De partment of Education and its re quirements around reporting, inves tigating, and addressing concerns that are substantiated. …We’ve al ready reported this and we’re wait ing for the next steps.”

She has shared posts since Tues

The death of George Floyd and the events that followed have utterly shat tered the world and the Townsend Harris com munity is not exempt. This time has been trying for Black students as they are struggling to voice the pain, frustration, and anger they feel. I am both tired and amazed by how non-Black students have handled this situation. I commend those who stand in solidarity with their peers and those who have used their platform to call for action. How ever, it is in times like this that many have forgotten that this is a traumatic re al-life experience and not a Socratic seminar meant for the classroom.

day and hosted a live discussion with fellow Class of 2018 alumna Tamanna Saidi and Class of 2019 alumna Safiatu Diagana on Thurs day night, which had, at times, over 200“Thisviewers.issomething that has been rampant within the Townsend Har ris community,” Jayden said during her“Studentslivestream.and faculty have been complacent in creating a hostile environment for Black, Latinx, LG BT+ people, and other marginalized groups. While the breadth of bigotry is huge, we are focusing on the ram pant racism that Townsend actively fosters in this community… Please continue sharing your stories, expe riences, and anything else that you have to offer.” Jayden and Tamanna declined to comment further to The Classic.Safiatu felt inspired to talk after recent reports of racist videos shared on TikTok and social media.

"The fact that you feel so strongly the need to edu cate me on how my despair lacks enough nuance for you is not your privilege showing—it’s worse."

Students share stories of bigotry on social media

The protests are not just for George Floyd; they’re for every single Black person who has to live in the reality that this is our life. The protests are for every single Black per son who has died at the hand of a

“Unfortunately, these racist vid eos reminded me about the un spoken culture of Townsend Har ris and how various students would make comments like these or even [worse] ones, so I decided to shed some light on it,” she said.

George Floyd’s mur der was videotaped and made public. Yet it took four days to arrest his murderer and days more to elevate the charges against him to seconddegree murder. This re ality and many other reali ties leave the Black com munity in a sense of de spair. It’s as if these mur ders will keep happening with no sense of escape.

IMAGE COURTESY OF NOTMYTOWNSEND

FEATURED TOPIC: SING & FON

In response to the victory, Elliot said, “To be completely honest, I was surprised that we won. I was so as tonished by the spectacular produc tion that the Semores put on that it diluted my confidence in our victory. Our victory is nothing without them as well as our outstanding team of directors and participants. Howe ver, I don’t think whoever wins S!NG should matter all that much, since both teams performed great shows and hopefully garnered rewarding experiences along the way.”

Centered around this year’s theme of Apocalypse, both team’s produc tions highlighted concepts such as resilience, family, and friendship. The Freshiors produced “Deserted” and the Semores produced “Life Could Be A TheDream.”twoteams took distinctive paths when creating their show. Freshior overall director (and editor) Elliot Heath said, “Our team interpre ted the theme in a largely dark and dramatic way. The apocalypse im mediately appealed to us as a unique S!NG prompt, so we did not want to waste its potential. You can see se veral of the effects of our interpreta tion in our show, including the omi nous backdrop, the dark costumes that many of the performers wear, the punk and sinister song choices, and the overall narrative themes that were considerably more solemn this year than in past years.”

The Freshiors’ performance focu sed on two siblings and an android searching to uncover their scientist father’s secrets amid the aftermath of a nuclear fallout. They opened up their show with an explosive perfor mance to Olivia Rodrigo’s “brutal,” later followed by a dance number to “One Way or Another” by Blondie. Many laughs were shared among the audience from strong comedic timing by Freshior actors.

By Lauren Jun ‘22 and Ramisha Parvez ‘22 December 16, 2021

12 The Classic

The Semores put a creative twist on their apocalypse, in which dreams manifest into reality, and protagonist Milo and company must navigate the chaos to survive through the chaos.

After last year’s virtual showcase, S!NG veterans and newcomers alike were excited to get back to perfor ming on the real THHS stage. Des pite COVID-19 regulations such as vaccine mandates placing partici pation restrictions on students, bo th teams managed to successfully put on their productions.

Semore overall director Lynda Iri

S!NG returned to Townsend Harris High School with four shows on November 19 and November 20, with the Freshiors being announced the winners of the 2022 S!NG com petition. The entirely student-writ ten and directed productions by the Freshior and Semore teams were hi ghly anticipated as one of the first in-person performances since the beginning of the COVID-19 pande mic. The Friday and Saturday eve ning performances were broadcast on YouTube by The Classic.

year: Stunt for the Semores and So cial Media & Communications for the Freshiors.Astradition follows, the winners of this year’s S!NG were announced at the end of the Saturday evening per formance. The Freshiors narrowly won by a score of 917-915 points, edging the Semores in the individu al categories of Writing, Acting, and Backstage. The Semores won their respective categories of Vocal, Dan ce, Instrumental, and Art.

Freshiors take SING

The annual Festival of Nations, also known as FON, is an annual event that celebrates diversity, culture, and com munity. Each year, FON leaders are tasked with choreographing dances, coordinating costumes, and organi zing performances that are fully ex pressive of the unique beauty of their respective cultures.

The music blasts in the audito rium, echoing throughout. The costu mes whirl as dancers spin in perfect sync on the stage. The world seems to narrow until nothing remains but a colorful display of culture, tradition, and friendship. The audience cheers and applauds as the performers fi nally present their work that they spent countless hours toward plan ning, choreographing, and practicing over the past few months.

In addition, new FON groups ha ve been introduced this year, such as Chinese water sleeves FON, part of the Chinese Silk FON performance. Like many other groups, it has held multiple fundraisers to overcome fi nancial difficulties and fund a perfor mance that accurately demonstrates

These are just some of the long awa ited traditions returning in Townsend Harris’ Festival of Nations on March 4 and 5, its first live performances in two years. The 2022 production has gene rated both excitement and new experi ences for FON leaders and members under the challenges of the pandemic.

itsJuniorculture.Sean Zhou, a Chinese water sleeve FON leader, said that although fundraising has become less profita ble due to factors such as the adminis tration’s introduction of pandemic-in duced safety measures and other ex penses, “COVID hasn’t discouraged people from buying.”

Last year, due to COVID-19 restric tions, FON could not be held in per son. Instead, a slideshow was created that reminisced upon past performan ces and discussed the different eth nicities typically represented by FON groups.Several FON leaders have ex pressed their excitement for this year’s in-person experience. Junior Ti jon Dembo, an African American FON leader, said, “FON… is one of those traditions we look forward to at Town send Harris. It’s a great way to make new friends and explore different cul tures and just have a place to be af terManyschool.”performers are also grateful

13 Spring 2022 Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com FEATURED

On the other hand, numerous Harri sites who are new to this tradition are excited and hold appreciation for this culturalFreshmancelebration.Nicole Wikiera, a mem ber of African American FON, said, “I love the atmosphere and the accep tance even if you’re not a good dan cer.”Sophomore Shranaya Kumar, a member of Bollywood FON, said, “I’ve always loved Indian dance, so fi nally being able to be a part of [FON] and learn the different techniques is like a dream.”

that this year’s FON will finally take place in-person.“I’m super excited to be back this year,” Emilia Jankowicz, a junior and a member of Polish FON, said.“Before FON started, I thought that the process and practices would be very different from how [they were] pre-pandemic, but Ms. Fee and FON leaders and the THHS community in general have been making sure that an amazing performance gets put to gether while still maintaining COVID safetyHowever,procedures.”someleaders said that the year off led to the emergence of new challenges, making it difficult for organizers to gain traction and recru it members.“AfterCOVID and coming back, I think another challenge is trying to get the freshmen and the sophomores… to come join,” said Caribbean FON leader and senior Angelina Kretz “For freshmen, it’s their first year and it’s in person after being in a pandemic, [so] I think [it’s] harder for them to connect with all the extracurriculars that we ha ve, especially with FON.”

Executing FON in person and in a post-pandemic environment has pro ved difficult in other ways as well. During Omicron’s peak in late De cember, leaders were faced with kee ping their members safe while simul taneously holding productive auditi ons and Seniorpractices.GabrielaQuizhpi, a Hispanic Modern and Traditional FON leader, said, “Our traditional FON is very part ner oriented… We were told to hold off on partner practices when Omi cron was beginning to surge, but as it was a big part of our FON, we fell a bitGivenbehind.”the dwindling state of the pandemic, many students are confi dent that COVID-19 will not further impact FON performances in signifi cant“Whenways.Omicron started hitting… I got worried because I was scared they would cancel [FON], but thin gs got better and I’m glad it looks li ke we’re going to be able to perform,” said junior Camila Zarama, a member of the Traditional and Modern Hispa nicAdditionally,FONs. many Harrisites are ex cited to watch the first FON show in two years. Math teacher Abid Choud hury said, “FON is… one of my favori te things about this school. I definitely will be [at the Sophomoreperformance].”KaiaLainsaid, “Peo ple always hype [FON] up and they talk about how it’s a Townsend Harris experience, so I’m really excited to go see what it’s all about in person for the first time. I’m also excited to see my fri ends in it and hype them up in the au dience. ”

FON back on stage TOPIC: SING & FON

By Kelly Gildea ‘24, Diana Piergrossi ‘24, Gabriella Renzi ‘24, and Lauren Xiao ‘24 March 1, 2022

volved, and taking all necessary follow up action, including dis ciplinary measures and soci al-emotional support.”

According to the five alumni, the administration immediately took action in investigating the students’ allegations and gathe red written statements of their ac counts.Three alumni said that they felt comfortable reporting their clai ms to guidance counselor Ron dell McClary and Assistant Prin cipal of Humanities Rafal Olec howski. The two other alumni said that they felt comfortable repor ting their claims to Mr. Olechows ki and Assistant Principal of Gui dance Veronica York.

are why the teachers no longer work at the school. In his email on Monday, Mr. Condon said sc hool administrators are “restric ted by state law, the employees’ contracts, and in some cases the authorities” in what they can sha re.

Assistant Principals Georgia Brandeis, Susan Brustein, Ellen Fee, Rafal Olechowski, and Vero nica York did not return a request forMr.comment.McClary wrote in an email last week that he followed the DOE protocol “on all allegations.”

One of the criticisms levied against the THHS administration on the Instagram page was that the school’s leadership sweeps negative issues “under the rug.” Because Mr. Condon responded to some but not all allegations in his April 24 letter, The Classic decided to investigate some of the claims along with the admi nistration’s handling of those ac cusations.InMay,The Classic spoke to fi ve alumni who confirmed they fi led reports of sexual misconduct about two teachers at Townsend Harris.Two reports against one teacher were filed in 2016 during former principal Anthony Barbe tta’s term as principal. The other three reports against a second teacher were filed in 2017 during Mr. Condon’s term.

their parents about the investiga tion.“We take very seriously any allegation of sexual misconduct and this troubling behavior has no place in our schools,” said DOE Deputy Press Secretary Natha niel“OurStyer.priorities when respon ding to allegations are engaging in a thorough investigation, pro tecting the privacy of those in

Melba Melo, parent of class of 2019 alumna Melanie Esterine, said she did not recall being noti fied when her child’s teacher was

Seven students said their pa rents were only aware that their teacher had been replaced be cause of what they had told them.

Last month, an alumna sha red student and alumni stories on Instagram that alleged mul tiple instances of discriminati on and misconduct in Townsend Harris. On April 24, three days after the social media posts be gan, Principal Brian Condon responded to concerns related to racism and discri mination at THHS in a letter to the school, pledging to “root out bigotry, root and bran ch.” However, ten sto ries shared on the In stagram page histhesetedtoployees’Mr.ClassictionsaddressMr.sexualteacher-to-studentallegedmisconduct.Condondidnottheseallegainhisletter.InanemailtoTheonMonday,CondonsaidementitlementconfidentialitylimithediscussionofallegationsinApril24letter.“All

Last May, The Classic re ported that five Townsend Harris alumni made allega tions of sexual misconduct about two THHS teachers between 2016 and 2017. This piece won an award at a high school journalism confe rence the following January.

the DOE’s policy to “respect the privacy of all parties.” Regarding the allegations made during his ti me as principal, Mr. Condon said, “It is my understanding that the investigation is still pending.”

Once the THHS administrati on collected student reports, the New York City Department of Education took over from there and the claims were investigated further, according to Mr. Condon.

Chancellors Regulation

Senior Awestaa Zia descri bed the quickness of the chan ge to the class as strange. “I do wish the administration would ha ve just been clear about what was going on,” she said.

Three weeks ago, an alum na from the Class of 2013 re ached out to The Classic af ter reading that same article. The article inspired her to come forward and share her story about her experiences with a third former teacher at THHS.“Iwas groomed by a pre dator at the school for over two years,” she wrote. “I had to undergo around six years of therapy to come to terms with it and move on in life. I haven’t yet felt like I’ve fully re covered from that nightmare.”

How it started: The Classic publishes on misconduct following #NotMyTownsend revelations

“You can say, ‘we have had inci dents of inappropriate behaviors, we are now doing something to address this.’”

Neither teacher currently wor ks at the school. The Classic can not confirm that these reports

Senior Daniel Montesdeo ca said that the school did “not at all” communicate to students about the situation.

Artwork by Amanda Renzi ‘20

FEATURED TOPIC: SEXUAL MISCONDUCT (CONTINUED)

By Samantha Alzate ‘20, Isabelle Guillaume ‘20, and Amanda Renzi ‘20 May 26, 2020

Afterwards, four of the alumni said that they spoke with priva te investigators; all five said that they wrote testimonials and that the THHS administration notified

“These decisions are made on a case by case basis,” he said.

replaced mid-year.

“If people are being remo ved for sexual misconduct, the first thing it says is that the sc hool needs to come clean to the parents and to kids….and the re are things you can and can’t say because of privacy laws, be cause of personnel laws, becau se of teacher contracts, but the re are some things you can say,”

Editorial: We need trainingyearly

‘21 May 19, 2021 14 The Classic

Senior Kelsey Zhen said that her parents were never informed by the school of the chan ges that occurred in the classroom.“Theonly information they got was what I wo uld relay back to them,” sheInsaid.hisMonday email to The Classic, Mr. Condon said that the DOE do es not have a set policy on notifications for stu dents, parents, and sta ff about the removal of an employee for sexual mis conduct.Insome circumstan ces, he said, principals can communicate di rectly to a school commu nity, such as if a teacher is arrested and the arrest is reported on by the media.

ART: AMANDA RENZI

While the six alumni who spoke to The Classic had di fferent stories, it is clear that what they experienced has impacted them into today, and THHS can do more to prevent this from happening again.We believe it is important to honor their courage in co ming forward by very clearly saying: Townsend Harris ne eds to implement a yearly trai ning program that focuses on preventing teacher-to-stu dent sexual misconduct.

we would have been able to say was that allegations were made, that the allegations were reported to the appropriate investigative body, and that’s all we know at the mo ment,” he said.

“The situation would’ve been handled more professionally and it would’ve appeared to be more under control had we been noti fied,” she said.

Dr. Shakeshaft told The Classic.

“The reporters point to so me clear areas for potential policy change,” awards ju dge and education reporter for the New York Daily News Michael Elsen-Rooney com mented. He concluded that the information reported in the article about developing better procedures in respon se to sexual misconduct “co uld result in real change.”

The teacher accused by this alumna—the sixth for mer student to speak with The Classic and allege fa culty misconduct—does not currently work at the scho ol. The Classic cannot con firm that these accusations are connected to why the teacher no longer works at theWhenschool.we spoke to the alumna and heard her story, she said she was passionate about protecting future stu dents. She, like Elsen-Roo ney, saw last year’s article as a path towards real change and an opportunity for the sc hool to better implement po licies and programs to keep students safe.

The Classic interviewed sixte en students who were in the clas ses of a teacher who was repor ted on during Mr. Condon’s time, each of whom said that they co uld not recall clear follow up ac tion or communication from the THHS administration, either by the guidance office offering ex plicit resources for coping with the unexpected shift in teachers or the administration providing di rect communication to parents of theseClasschanges.of2019 alumna Julia Grygorzcuk said she felt there was no support provided given the abrupt changes students ex perienced.“Itwasas if we were just ex pected to go along with this change even though we had many concerns,” she said.

The Classic spoke to two ex perts with experience in respon ding to sexual misconduct in sc hools, Virginia Commonwealth University professor Charol Sha keshaft and psychologist Ricky Greenwald. These experts said that while privacy rules, teacher contracts, and state law might prevent schools from sharing in formation about specific cases, school administrations should follow up with clearly communi cated plans to prevent future in stances.Dr.Shakeshaft, who resear ches sexual misconduct in sc hools and was called upon by the United States Department of Education to write a report on educator sexual misconduct, said schools should communicate with students, parents, and sta ff after instances of misconduct.

A-830 regulates how schools and the DOE handle allegations of harassment. It states that it is

“We take all allegations of mis conduct seriously and ensure to report all allegations to the appro priate investigatory agency of the Department of Education,” Mr. Condon said. Mr. Barbetta did not return a request for comment.

By Nikki Ng ‘21, Victoria Oei ‘21, and Samantha Sestak

“Our values are not to pro tect predators,” said Amy Arun dell, UFT Queens Borough Of fice Representative, in an inter view after the meeting, which took place at THHS and lasted for more than two hours. “Our values are to make sure that schools are safe learning envi ronments and our members can teach and guidance counselors can do all the things they do in schools and know that…if some thing were to happen and they were accused they would have dueAtprocess.”themeeting, Ms. Arundell was joined by UFT Vice Presi dent for Academic High Schools Janella Hinds, Special Repre sentative for High Schools An thony Klug, UFT General Coun sel Beth A. Norton, Queens High School Representative James Vasquez, and THHS UFT Rep resentative Kevin McDonaugh.

These developments repre sent a step in the right direc tion towards answering that question, as does the UFT’s willingness to sit down with Townsend Harris protestors and journalists for more than three and a half hours to hear out concerns and speak on the record about these topics.

By Kate Estevez ‘23, Janna Habibulla ‘23, and Elliot Heath ‘23 April 26, 2022

Student activists were first alerted to the problem of how misconduct allegations are han dled when news broke in No vember about sexual miscon duct allegations against a former THHS teacher who had been removed and then reinstated at the school. The teacher, Joseph Canzoneri, was removed from THHS in 2018 and investigated by the city’s office of the Special Commissioner of Investigations (SCI). In Spring 2019, SCI re leased the results of their inves tigation to the Department of Ed ucation (DOE) where they con cluded Mr. Canzoneri had “en gaged in a sexual relationship… with a female THHS student” and recommended his termi nation. The DOE told The Clas sic that after receiving the report they moved to terminate Mr. Canzoneri’s employment. Once a school district decides it wants to attempt to fire a tenured teach er, it must go through a process governed by state education law 3020-a. According to the New York Post, the case against Can zoneri was dismissed by a hear ing officer because “none of the students agreed to testify [at the 3020-aCanzoneriproceeding].”wasreturned to THHS after the dismissal of the case, only to be removed again amidst media inquiries about the SCI investigation from Clas sic editors, reporter Susan Edel man at the Post, and reporter Ka tie Honan at The City. Soon af terward, THHS students created Protect Our Students and orga nized a schoolwide sit-in in No vember, followed in January by a phone bank event where they specifically called on the UFT, politicians, and the DOE to ad

In a statement, spokesper son Jenna Lyle announced that the DOE is working on new po licies as a result of THHS stu dents speaking up about mis conduct.TheDOE also told The Classic that it supports revi ewing a law that determines how teachers can be fired in New York State.

By Kate Estevez ‘23, Janna Habibulla ‘23, and Elliot Heath ‘23

Students meet with UFT representatives

Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com

UFT meets with students, pledges to bring proposals back for discussions onDOEAnalysis:Newsworkingchanges

More contested was the dis course over the need for cross examination itself. Isabella asked if there was a need for alleged victims to testify after they had already been asked to sit for in terviews with the SCI investiga tors for a report.

During the conversation, Is abella, Audrey, and Alyssa fo cused much of their attention on the role of testimony from al leged victims in the hearings that determine if a teacher loses their job. During their sit-in and phone bank event, the protestors refer enced the role of testimony in the case of Joseph Canzoneri.

The UFT representatives em phasized that teachers, who are public employees, have the con stitutional right to face their ac cuser. They said that SCI reports should not have the final say in these cases and that there must be due process.

The students in attendance representing Protect Our Stu dents — seniors Isabella Sicil ian, Audrey Chou, and Alyssa Figueroa — have called for re form to the city policies and state statutes that determine what happens when students ac cuse a teacher of sexual miscon duct and city investigators “sub stantiate” those claims. They ex pressed concerns about how and where alleged victims are

In response to a request for comment about the meeting and UFT plans to engage in conver sations on student propos als, the DOE told The Classic that they are working on mak ing changes to DOE policy and credited THHS students with helping to inspire their planning. DOE spokesperson Jenna Lyle said “Our schools must be sanctuaries for our students –anything less is unacceptable. While this teacher was not as signed to teach any students, he should not have been placed back in a school, and we applaud the young people at Townsend Harris for speaking up about this. Because they raised their voice, we are working on new policies to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”The Protect Our Students representatives, reflecting on the UFT meeting, said, “We are very thankful that UFT took the time to meet with us. While we do wish they could’ve committed to greater transparency in regards

Asked to comment on the DOE’s statement, Principal Brian Condon told The Clas sic, “I am encouraged by the statement the DOE has ma de, and I too am proud of the efforts of our students in raising and reporting on this important issue of student safety. I have faith that the new administrati on will make significant refor ms and will ensure that the vo ices of school communities are heard regarding matters of this nature.”Perhaps even more signifi cant is the DOE confirming to The Classic that it supports a review of education law 3020a to ensure that all misconduct can be heard by the hearing of ficers in charge of making final decisions on termination.

15 Spring 2022

asked to testify about the alleged misconduct, the statute of limi tations that determines how old an allegation can be to merit a teacher’s firing, rules relating to sexual grooming, and more.

dress a list of demands for re forms on how allegations of ed ucator misconduct are handled in schools.Duringthe April 12 conver sation at THHS, which the UFT representatives invited The Clas sic to observe, Ms. Hinds made it clear that they were not au thorized to make any commit ments to policy changes dur ing the meeting. But she said they were planning to return to UFT offices and follow up on the proposals voiced by THHS stu dents, which focused on reform ing the policies and procedures surrounding the removal and re instatement of teachers accused of misconduct.“Wehearwhat you are say ing,” said Ms. Hinds. “We are committed to engaging in con versations with our colleagues about advancing the concerns you are raising.”

On April 12, representa tives from the United Fede ration of Teachers (UFT) met with Townsend Harris stu dents to discuss student de mands to reform how NYC schools handle educator se xual misconduct. At the mee ting, the representatives pled ged to return to the UFT and share student concerns. Sin ce a prominent topic throug hout the conversation was the responsibility of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) to more effectively pro tect students from educator abuse, The Classic contacted the DOE for comment on the UFT meeting.

FEATURED TOPIC: SEXUAL MISCONDUCT (CONTINUED)

At the meeting, the students asked the UFT representatives about the conditions under which students who allege sex ual misconduct testify during a 3020-a proceeding, in particular the physical space itself where these hearings take place. Mr. Vasquez, UFT’s Queens High School Representative, said that the rooms can be small, though sizes vary. He said there are “usually no more than six or so people in [a] room” during the proceedings.Alyssasaid that asking al leged victims to testify in close quarters with the teacher they’ve accused of misconduct could be potentially traumatic and might hinder students from agreeing to testify.“That’s a very good point,” Mr. Vasquez said.

PHOTO BY JASMINE PALMA ‘22

Following student protests held earlier in the school year over how sexual misconduct al legations against educators are handled by the school system and the teachers union, repre sentatives from the union, the United Federation of Teach ers (UFT), met on April 12 with members of Protect Our Stu dents, a Townsend Harris stu dent advocacy group.

April 26, 2022

Both represent significant moments in the conversati on that began in November after news first broke about a teacher who was returned to THHS after city investigators concluded in a report that he “threatens the well being…[of] students at THHS.”

to future policies, we are excit ed to know that they will bring up our concerns to UFT lead ership.” They said they consid ered it a success that their efforts were noticed and addressed.

A holistic outlook of a student’s profile is critical as it embraces va rious aspects of a student’s perfor mance in school. Townsend Harris integrates the Pupilpath grading system, allowing teachers to as sess students on a range of cate gories: assessments, homework, and classwork/participation. Most teachers weight assessments as the most significant determinant of a student’s average, as they com prise between 45 and 70 percent. Homework, on the other hand, ac counts for a meager 5 to 20 per cent of a student’s grade point average. The excessive emphasis on exams fails to accurately gauge a student’s academic strengths, and thus testing must be modified to incorporate alternative assess ment

sidered.Inthe one lesson I had, students learned how to apply a condom; this is im portant, but, sexual experi ences encompass far more than just contraceptives. At present, the only students that took sexual education lessons with some depth at THHS are the current seni ors, which means that 75% of the student body has ne ver received adequate or any sexual education. This is a major problem. A study

Michael Babayev ‘24 and Matthew Babayev ‘22 March 25, 2021

THHS moved sex ed to senior year, leaving its students at riskISSUESSEL

Testing can involve comprehen sion and conceptualization but it can also be a game of memoriza tion, inhibiting creativity and criti calAthinking.significant disadvantage of traditional testing, especially in a remote setting, is the high proba bility of cheating. PBAs mostly eli minate the prospect of cheating because of their creative compo nents that are required to produce authentic work.

A high school in which students are spending the majority of their time lear ning how to calculate the li mit of twenty different equ ations while not knowing how to engage in safe and respectful sexual relations is a school that is failing its students.

Miruna Radu ‘22 May 6, 2021

Remote testing needs revamping

By Matthew Merino ‘22 and Haley O'Toole ‘22 March 1, 2022

process. Test scores are com mensurate with the depth of stu dents’ knowledge and achieve ment. However, high-stakes tes ting undermines the purpose of meaningful learning.

In THHS, there’s a belief that all students are well-in formed, upstanding mem

tial for students until colle ge. This can be very dama ging, as the sexual safety of students is crucial ear lier on in

A student’s ability to focus fal ters and is further exacerbated by the 37-minute time constraint allo tted for an exam. Additionally, onli ne exams tend to be vulnerable to connectivity issues that are detri mental to test-takers. Technologi cal fallibility creates anxiety and of tentimes forces students to retake assessments. During a pandemic, avoiding unnecessary stress sho uld be a top priority of our school’s

for instance, is an essential topic and is much more complex than just “yes” or “no.” Accor ding to experts, “educati on for young people is one of the most important ways to diminish the incidence of sexual assault.”

Three students who shared their experiences with The Classic re vealed that most examinations are administered within the allotted band, and additional time is gran ted as needed. Quizzes and exa ms are administered in three to fi ve of their classes—namely mathe matics, science, history, and langu age—using platforms like Google Forms, Test Wizard, and AP Class room to do At-homeso.distractions for these students ranged from a lack of sta ble internet access to having siblin gs causing inconveniences during exams. To address these unfavora ble circumstances, alternative tes

Our high school needs to teach health earlier and take a serious look into the nuances of health that wi ll teach students detailed lessons on the multiple res ponsibilities that come with being sexually active.

The screener, al so known as the De vereux Student Stren gths enttheythis?rdestionblewillassessingadult?”thedoesonstoarewordedtheestionswell-being.dentsmatelyreManyfidence,tionshipdecisionfunctioning“social-emotionalonssurveyteachers(DESSA),Assessmentrequiredtoansweraof43questiaboutastudent’sincludingmaking,relabuilding,conandothers.”teachersweassignedapproxi31to35stutoevaluatetheirHowever,thequpresentedinSELsurveyareinwaysthatdifficultforfacultygaugeinstudents.Oneofthequestiasks,“HowoftenthestudentseekadviceofatrustedAfacultymemberastudentultimatelybeunatoanswerthisquaccurately.WhenwouldathibandteacherseeAndwhywouldknowhowfrequithappens?

ting formats, like project-based as sessments, should be integrated into the virtual fundamentaltorsamongting.timebeThegher-orderincorporatingconceptsblecourseon(PBAs)Project-basedclassroom.assessmentsareanin-depthexploratiofatopicthatunfoldsovertheofasemester.PBAsenastudentstohighlightunderlyingofthecurriculumwhileproblem-solving,hithinking,andcreativity.natureofPBAsallowsthemtoconvenientlycompletedoveraspanratherthaninasinglesitSomearguethatexamsarethemostpreciseindicaofastudent’saptitudeandapartofthelearning

Consent,life.

bers of society simply be cause they are part of the THHS community (or wor se, that THHS students are all more “innocent” and don’t need to worry about these topics at their age). These are very dangerous assumptions to make.

OPINION

Confinedmethods.to their homes, stu dents may be hampered by the distractions of bustling family members. The aroma of lunch, the chatter of siblings, and the rever berating footsteps of people are part of daily life at home. This is by no means an ideal environment for testing, let alone learning.

conducted by the CDC re ports that over half of teens have sex by age 18. Thus, high school students need to be taught proper beha viors right away when par taking in such intimate mo ments so that both par ties feel safe and respec ted—ideally during fresh man year.

I spoke to students in the school who did ha ve sex education clas ses before the program changes went into effect.

In my three years in Townsend Harris, I’ve on ly had one sex educati on lesson. The lesson oc curred just before my sop homore health class was abruptly canceled and shif ted to a physical educati on course. This was done to correct a programming oversight that would leave THHS students without the required Phys Ed credits to graduate. Since then, the THHS administration has decided to push heal th and sex ed to senior year. This was a mistake and the decision should be recon

Additionally, there sho uld be inclusive education available for members of the LGBTQ+ community before senior year. Many members of this commu nity struggle with being ac cepted by their own family, friends, and people around them, making them less li kely to receive necessary information from people in their life. According to Plan ned Parenthood, they are more likely to have sex earli er, more likely to face dating violence, and more likely to contract STIs. It is impera tive students are taught this information at the age that they need it most.

Recently, Town send Harris High Sc hool students be gan to receive emails containing their soci al-emotional learning (SEL) assessment scores from late last year. The score re sults listed those with a score of 60+ with a “strength” indicator showing “well-deve loped social-emotio nal skills,” those with a score of 41-59 listed as “typical”, and those below a 40 score in dicating the “need for instruction.”Behindall of this data comes its down falls, mainly con cerning its reliabi lity and its effective ness, especially with the vague label of the “need for instruction” when it comes to hel ping a student’s men tal Thishealth.is a DOE-ba sed program that all schools are manda ted to participate in with a price tag of $18 million to school assessment company Aperture Education.

administration and teachers.

In a previous news arti cle about the physical edu cation changes of last year, Assistant Principal Ellen Fee said, “We [the admi nistration] are still thinking that it [health class] pro bably belongs most in se nior year.” In a later article, The Classic reported that “when students take heal th in their senior year, the course will focus on faci litating their transition to college.” In the same arti cle, Principal Brian Condon explained the decision and said, “There’s a lot of issu es around mental health, social skills, [etc.] that you may encounter in college.” This decision suggests that a lot of aspects of health are not going to be essen

16 The Classic

Our high school needs to teach health earlier and take a serious look into the nuances of health that will teach sexuallycomeresponsibilitiesondetailedstudentslessonsthemultiplethatwithbeingactive.

When asked about his se xual education experience at Townsend Harris, senior Xu Dong said, “I received half a school year’s worth of sexual education during my sophomore year at Town send Harris. I don’t belie ve anything was left out, as Ms. Assante didn’t shy away from any subjects. She made sure that we un derstand the consequen ces of our actions.” Whi le this is wonderful to hear, the younger grades haven’t had this experience yet.

The reservesClassictherighttoeditlettersforclarityandconcision.

In fact, if they had moun ted a thorough exploration of racial issues at the scho ol over the past year, they would have heard this co ming up Somethingfrequently.should have been done last year when NMT brought this issue up.

ol-based racial issues be cause to address these is sues means having to con front a harmful environment that members of the scho ol community perpetuate. Instead, the administrati on and its Equity and Ac cess team have favored general discussions about racism in society, a choice which makes it less likely that members of the scho ol community have to be held accountable for racist behavior. By definition, an institution cannot be an ti-racist if it does this.

EDITORIAL STAFF EDITORS-IN-CHIEF2022

A statement like this is told to create self-doubt, and to stick with me throu gh everything I do for the rest of my Studentslife.may have di ffering political opinions on Affirmative Action as a policy, but they are not at all experts on my resume or anyone else’s. Statements like these racially-motiva ted forms of bullying are the school’s responsibility to confront.Onthe NotMyTown send Instagram story, for mer students also posted about peers accusing them of only getting into a colle ge because of Affirmative Action.This is not a new issue, and administrators have probably been hearing si

It is admirable that the team hopes to diversify ad missions, but can the team promise that newly admit ted Black students will fe el welcomed and included in the THHS community?

The Townsend Harris administration needs a pro tocol to name and address these problems, and pro blems like them, that repea tedlyMyarise.experience with ra cially charged remarks li ke this will not be the last; those micro-aggressive ra cial comments are a con stant recurrence, and the administration must find a way to make students and teachers aware of the harm being done, work to prevent that harm from oc curring, and make clear the repercussions for tho se who contribute to this climate.Thisis important becau se of how frequently this is sue occurs and the impact those comments have on students’ mental health. Education on and discussi ons about this during a se nior meeting would be he lpful, as would some spe cific indication that these statements and others like them will not be tolerated.

Can they promise those students won’t work hard for four years only to be told one day by their peers that they have not earned their achievements?

We welcome letters to the editor. Townsend Harris High School 149-11 Melbourne Avenue Flushing, NY thhsclassic@gmail.com11367

milar stories for years.

MANAGING EDITORS

Ariana Vernon ‘21 April 15, 2021

It has been nearly a year since THHS alumni started a platform called NotMy Townsend (NMT) on In stagram to allow current and former students to ex press their experiences re garding racism and bigotry in our school. In response, Principal Brian Condon re leased a letter in April 2020 identifying four steps the school must take to crea te a more inclusive school environment. These steps included “rooting out bi gotry, root and branch” from Townsend Harris. In the year since, THHS has taken clear steps to pu blicize its embrace of “an ti-racism,” but it is unclear what efforts the adminis tration has made to iden tify and confront racism in ourOneschool.ofthe most com mon experiences of racism a Black student at THHS faces occurs when col lege decisions come out. When I was accepted in to Harvard in December, I was supposed to be ce lebrating, buying apparel, and joyfully throwing out other applications, but I kept hearing rumors that I only got in because of Af firmative Action and didn’t earn my acceptance based on Whenmerit. I first heard about these statements, I wasn’t shocked. I expected it ba sed on what I’d heard about other Black students at THHS getting accepted into prestigious colleges. However, I didn’t expect all of the repercussions that come with it. I didn’t expect to have 22 FaceTime calls within four days of hearing the first rumors. On these

The Equity and Access team was created “to en gage in discussions about race and equity.” These discussions are impor tant; however, discussi ons about race and equ ity aren’t effective unless they are held alongside more frank conversations about problems in the sc hool community itself.

In fact, something sho uld have been done five years ago when The Clas sic published an opinion piece on the very topic.

Izegbuwa Adun, Kate Estevez, Elliot Heath, Janna Habibulla, and Victoria Siebor

The Classic is an open forum for the expres sion of student views. The opinions expressed therein should not be taken to represent those of the administration or faculty, or of the student body as a whole.

This, however, is not the only issue at THHS and it raises a larger one: recent efforts to promote anti-racism at THHS ha ve tended to avoid conver sations regarding scho

ADVISOR Brian Sweeney

Ryan Eng Julia JasmineMaciejakPalma

Copy Team: Faiza Tasnim, Jasmine Deonandan, Daffny Cardoso, Emma Joa, Genessa Kahn, Matthew Cantor, Michael Babayev

EST. 1984 17 Spring 2022 Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com OPINION

Top ONLINE ARTICLES THHSCLASSIC. COM toMarch2020May2022 1 A&E " There is a new game Among Us" by Lauren Jun, Daffny Cardoso, Reem Nasrallah 2 FEATURES HEPA filter report with CDC interview by Ryan Eng and Jasmine Palma 3 NEWS "Students report being in Can zoneri’s presence multiple times ...” by Ryan Eng, Julia Maciejak, and Jasmine Palma 4 A&E Review: Best and worst ‘Drink Cirkul’ flavors by Jessica Sandoval Despite its recent embrace of anti-racism, THHS has yet to confront the racism that exists within its halls NEWS Micah RamishaLaurenSandyJunParvez FEATURES Hana AlishaJuneyArafaLiuAnsari OPINION Miruna Radu ARTS ENTERTAINMENT& William Rhee Jessica Sandoval Amelia Harrington MULTIMEDIA Zuzanna Kowalski Amelia Ferrell Riya Singh SPORTS Madeline Cannon Gabriel Matatov Zaynah Shariff SCIENCE & TECH Elsa JocelynOreenWang PHOTOGRAPHY Audrey Chou Kate Romero SOCIAL MEDIA Farah Haq Haley O'Toole Cecilia Taravella ART Jialin VeronicaChenKuzmaSophiaPark ACCURACY Richard Lu Matthew Merino

calls we tried to figure out what I was supposed to do. Do I confront the situation directly? If I confront it am I going to seem like the ste reotypical “angry Black girl” who wants to pick a fight? Do I say nothing and let it keepThesegoing?FaceTime con versations and texts went on for weeks, and figuring out all the possible scenari os was exhausting. I even had to question my own fri ends.Istarted to wonder if they believed it too and were just trying to spare my feelings. It never led me to doubt myself because I knew I deserved my achie vement, and frankly, I don’t care what strangers think of me.But it planted a seed of doubt in my mind about my friends, people whose opi nions I actually value, and what they thought of me.

The team’s work on cre ating a speaker series, en couraging students to read Stamped, commissioning a mural, and so on, should all be part of the solution. But without focus on—or even acknowledgement of— the issues within the sc hool, these actions are not addressing the real pro blems identified.

ls take diet pills, laxatives and take many other harm ful actions in order to lose weight.Many students ex pressed the sentiment that creators and users of Tik Tok have perpetuated the concept of an ideal body image in young children

While some students have had negative ex periences with Tik Tok, others have had mixed feelings regarding the standards put out on the platform.“Itreally does go both ways, because in gene ral, I do feel more confi dent due to the makeup and style freedom TikTok expresses,” said sop homore Kylie Gavlin.

By Matthew Merino '22 April 8, 2022

Belowcarts. is the winning platter. You can find all ran kings in the full article pub lished on thhsclassic.com.

The problem with TikTok’s unrealistic beauty standards

ART BY PIXABAY USER ANTONBE patients because they stru ggle with poor body image.

Food Review: Tasting halal carts throughout NYC

done anything to pre vent young children from viewing this kind of con tent except implementing an age check when so meone first downloads theHowever,app. anyone can easily lie about their age to get around this featu

The MATTHEW

MERINO ‘22

re.Freshman

and teenagers by plan ting insecurities in banyo ne that looks different. Se nior Natalia Gierlachowski said that many of the trends “push viewers to compare themselves” to the social media standards of what constitutes being ‘pretty.’

The Festival of Nati ons (FON) is a way for Townsend Harris Hi gh School students to learn about and appre ciate their peers’ cultu res. In the past, students led cultural dances and collaborated to create a large, diverse showca se, held during the first few days of March. Typi cally, there would be two or three final performan ces where friends, fami lies, and relatives would come and watch what the students had wor ked tirelessly on for the past few months. Given the current circumstan ces however, the scho ol decided to hold its fir st-ever virtual FON as a replacement for the twoday on-stage performan ces.“I’ve worked with lea ders since January to collaborate to see how we can recreate the FON experience, pan demic-style. We tried to find a way that all groups would be recognized even if they didn’t have the means to choreogra ph a video. The google slide presentation see med like a good com promise. We added tri via, dance Fee.itnotbeingbutchJuly.watchingnesenatoplentycate,tiveZoom,choreographywith,thatreforformatbersreography,osemePrincipalTHHS,”pastdancesprofessionaldescriptions,examplesof(videolinks),andFONvideosfromsaidAssistantEllenFee.SoFONgroupsdidchotoincludenewchoeditingmemintoagroupdance.Withthisnewvirtualcamechallengesstudentleaders.“Thewerecountlessfactorswewereunfamiliarsuchasteachingthroughfindinganeffecwaytocommuniandultimately,justoftechnicalskillslearn,”saidjuniorFioZheng,leaderofChiModernFON.“TomeitwassimilartoHamiltonlastItwasgreattowatitfrommylivingroom,itwasn’tthesameasinthetheatre....It’sthesamewatchingbyyourself,”saidMs.

18 The Classic

TikTok, the viral social media platform, takes up a significant portion of the li ves of Harrisites who use it. While users can pick up various pieces of advi ce and tricks from scrolling through their feeds on Tik Tok, including recipes and TV show recommendati ons, they are also envelo ped by unrealistic societal beautyStudentsstandards.have ex pressed that it is no secret that TikTok trends, from re vealing side profiles to bo dy shapes, have impac ted its many impressiona ble young users. The dis turbing hourglass trend showcases young gir ls demonstrating how to get abs by wearing plastic wrap around their stoma chs. Junior Maimuna Mun taha said this trend “broke my heart as I never realized how many children see the se unrealistic beauty stan dards and want to be like their favorite TikTok influ encers.”Unrealistic beauty stan dards can have detri mental effects on all peo ple and their body image, especially developing chil dren and teenagers. A stu dy conducted by Bradley Hospital, Butler Hospital, and Brown Medical Scho ol found that one-third of inpatient adolescents are notably more ill than other

By Reem Nasrallah '24, Daffny Cardoso '24, and Melinda Wang '24 May 21, 2021

May 14, 2021

Adel’s Famous Ha lal Food, which is diago nally across from Radio City Music Hall at Roc kefeller Center, is one of the more widely praised halal carts located there. Even with their late wee

Image courtesy of Pixabay, Pixabay license

kday opening hours star ting at 6 pm serving the la te-night crowd (and at 2 pm on weekends), Adel’s really stands out in multiple ways. At Adel’s, they serve two types of rice, the usu al yellow rice and their spe cial “spicy” rice, both retai ning their fragrance throu gh the many sauces and meats. The romaine lettu ce didn’t hold moisture, a definite plus when it came to being slathered in their sauces. The chicken was superb, with a well-seaso ned, juicy, flavorful consis tency. Their lamb gyro re ally stood out, shaved and then sautéed with oni ons and peppers as a bo ost. The white sauce has a nice balance between thick and thin, while not

By Izegbuwa Adun '22, Lauren Jun '22, Juney Liu '22, Victoria Siebor '22

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

For consistency, all ha lal platters were a chicken and lamb combo over rice, topped with white and hot

Adel’s Famous Halal Food (6th Ave. & 50th St., Midtown)

The app itself has not

In the United States alo ne, the number of indivi duals that will be diagno sed with an eating disor der sums up to be 9% of the population. In additi on, approximately 35 to 37 percent of adolescent gir

Along with bagels, pizza, and pastrami, the halal cart platter is a staple of New York City cuisine. Consis ting of yellow or basma ti rice topped with chic ken, lamb, or falafel it’s a quick, inexpensive, acces sible across all five borou ghs, and filling meal on the go. However, not all halal platter fare is created equ al, and since there are no best-of-the-best rankin gs out there, I set myself to find the best halal places in New York City.

overwhelming the other sauces. Although the gre en sauce is on the milder side, it added a nice touch to the overall dish ove rall. The sauce really pac ks that kick that is neces sary, with all three sauces taking on great coverage

on the platter topped with soft pita. Overall, Adel’s re presents what an NYC ha lal platter should be, even with their higher than usu al price of $9, it would be an eye-opening experien ce for any tourist visiting New York City.

sauces. If offered, orders were also topped with gre en chili chutney. The listin gs below show a combi nation of brick-and-mortar physical locations and por table carts. Listings are se lected from existing rankin gs and well-acclaimed ha lal

remotegoesFON

Jenna Diaz states “I’m always cat ching myself trying to change something about how I look to try and look like one of the gorgeous girls that popped up on my For You page.” Many other students agreed that TikTok has caused them to compare them selves to others. Seni or Aliyah Ghany said, “In general, I would say [that] TikTok has made me a lot more critical [about] my own body, and [I’ve] no ticed ‘flaws’ that I never even thought about befo re I had the app.”

“The trends sometimes hype up features that are typically put down in so ciety.”

highest ranked of eleven platters PHOTO BY

The music festival is a new step for the music pro gram at Townsend Harris. “[Harrisites will] want to strive to be the greatest and be in the festival,” mu sic teacher and band di rector Kevin Heathwood said. “We now have a seri ous arts program at Town send. Students can come to THHS for the high aca demic rigor and be able to play music at a high level. It’s the beginning of a new era.”Sponsored by the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and Music Educators’ Asso ciation of New York City (MEANYC), the festival divides students into di fferent music groups, in

Francesca Manabat's concept art of what junior Weiye Yasen would look like as Wednesday Addams.

Q: How has CO -

Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

cluding modern band, string orchestra, sympho nic band, chorus, and jazz ensemble. This year’s par ticipants were nominated by Mr. Heathwood and se lected by the honors festi val committee board. The program also features other musically talented students across NYC hi gh schools who were no minated by their teachers.

The New York City Hi gh School Honors Festi val is a selective two-day annual music event that selects students from pu blic, private, and charter schools to rehearse and prepare for a concert per formance. For this year’s upcoming eighth annual festival, 15 Harrisites we re chosen to participate in modern band, orchestra, symphonic band, jazz en semble, and chorus.

Tonight would have be en the final performan ce of The Addams Family. The Classic asked junior Francesca Manabat to de sign what Junior Weiye Ya sen would have looked like as Wednesday Addams, a key role in the musical. The image is featured to the ri ght.Wednesday Addams is known for her gothic fashi on sense, as well as her bitter and dry-witted per sonality. She enjoys raising spiders, writing poems to

A: There are so many exciting scenes, but I was looking forward to putting One Normal Night toge ther because practically everyone is involved.

as Matthew Babayev, the festival is especially rewar ding as it is their final year at MatthewTHHS. said, “[As a se nior] I get to actualize my work in an honors festi val with other Townsend musicians. Playing Fren ch horn for the past four years with Mr. Heathwo od has really been an ama zing experience, and I have his classes to thank for my continued interest in mu sic.” Likewise, Ann is exci ted to learn from the other high school musicians.

them, and painting sinister pictures of human heads and trees. She falls in lo ve with a “normal” boy and must learn to balance her relationship with his family and her quite unusual fami ly. What follows is a Q&A with Weiye on the role.

She said, “It’s extremely rewarding because when I’m onstage in a big group, I’m not as nervous, and when we play well, it feels like I’m able to almost stare down the audience, which is a lot of fun for me.”

Q: What’s your favorite thing about playing Wednesday Addams?

19 Spring 2022

play with other musicians.”

nal and virtual performance de with the support of Mr. Schwab, Mr. Dunbar,

By Antonella Abreu Filpo '21

to figure out who she re allyIt’sis.also about learning the process of making de cisions, not based on what I would do, but based on what Wednesday Addams would do.

Q: What scene in the play were you most looking forward to see ing executed on stage?

a stress re liever, but also as a way to meet and jam with other talented high school stu dents beyond the Town send community.” Dari an said, “I’ve always found the bass really interes ting… Between school and other commitments it’s easy to let my passion for music fade, but I’ve be en doing my best to keep up with Sophomorepracticing.”Nicolas Lin, juniors Joyce Ke and Lana Yepifanova, and seniors Nathan Lin and Amelia Harrington were chosen to participate in the orches tra section along with over 50 other students from across the city. Lana said, “The sheet music was har der than expected…[but] it is a nice opportunity to

HonorsseatsearnHarrisitesmultipleinNYCMusic

ded sec tion in onlymetunityopporafestivalthe“Iandrience,hisspokefestival.theWilliamonexpesaid,thinkmusicisgreatfornotas

April 25, 2020

Nathan agreed, saying, “I’m excited to see what it’s like performing in one en semble with such a diver se group, and I can’t wait to see how the final perfor mance practice,music.”onsandsthetes.performWhatispartstonouslyverallywork,requiresgedNicolasgoes.”acknowledthatbeingamusicianlongandarduousandsaid,“Thedaigrindofpracticingsehoursaday,monoplayingthesameoverandoveragain,aconstantstruggle.peopleseewhenIisjustafewminuWhattheydon’tseeishundreds,eventhouofhoursthatIspendeachindividualpieceofEvenwiththisextensiveNicolassaiditis

VID-19’s effect on the performance made you feel?

PHOTO COURTESY OF KEVIN HEATHWOOD

An Interview with Wednesday Addams

The festival will be con ducted by Marlon Dani el, director of the orches tra ensemble at Fordham University, Ray Vega, se nior lecturer and conduc tor for jazz and trumpet at The University of Ver mont, Charles McGuire, professor of musicology at Oberlin College Con servatory of Music, and Bryan Powell, assistant professor of music educa tion and music technolo gy at Montclair State Uni versity.Forthe modern band section, applicants we re required to submit their own auditions to the music festival committee instead of being selected by Mr. Heathwood. Junior Dari an Jimenez and senior Wi lliam Rhee (who is also a Classic editor) were cho sen with 10 other students to represent this newly ad

A: My favorite part of playing Wednesday is trying to figure her charac ter out. She is a really inte resting character that has a lot of different sides to her, and I feel like, throug hout the play, she is trying

Note: Since the spring mu sical was already in producti on when schools shut down, The Classic worked with The Townsend Harris Players to release a series of pieces that would show what the musi cal might have looked like.

Fifteen THHS students were chosen for the eight annual festival

worth it: “Performing we ll and entertaining the au dience is always enjoya ble. I love creating mu sic with people that are just as invested into it as I am, and the feeling of be ing proud of something you’ve worked extremely hard on with other people is one of the best feelings in the world… The reward of performing and sharing your work with other peo ple more than justifies [the struggles],” he said.

By Jessica Sandoval '23 March 23, 2022

The symphonic band features sophomores Kaylah Rouzier and Ann Hsieh, junior Rebecca Ortiz, and seniors Alyse Sayed, Matthew Babayev, and Aviv Fetaya. This year’s Symphonic Band is composed of 65 stu dents. For seniors such

A: I was extremely disa ppointed, but I tried to ha ve hope that we could sti ll go back to school early enough to still put some sort of production toge ther. I guess in a way, my wish came true becau se we’re still doing some thing virtually.

aimed to use narrative research to provide emotional guidance to breast cancer patients and their families, as well as clinicians, a process which they found to be both inspiring and fulfilling. Nar rative research gleans interpre tations from any form of expres sion, should it be words, repre sentation, or behavior. Typical ly, it is based on stories and ex periences, and developed into quantitative data to conceptual ize human experiences.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW MERINO ‘22

Research Spotlight: Conceptualizing Experiences of Breast Cancer

While searching for possible research topics, they uncovered the expansive study of breast cancer. Although there are a great number of studies focus ing on possible treatment ave nues, Sai said she realized there wasn’t much on the “patient and their journey with cancer.”

The HEPA filter level of ef ficiency is set by the United States Department of En ergy, but manufacturers do not receive certification for their filters from the govern ment. Dr. Martin said, “HE PA filters are tested and certified by their manufac turers according to consen sus standards.” The con sensus testing standards come from the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology.

ed States are projected to de velop breast cancer once in their lifetime; it is also the most com mon cancer in women, besides skin cancer. As reported by the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s patient information site, there are currently around 3.8 million women diagnosed with breast cancer in the Unit edBeingStates.diagnosed can invoke fear and stress, the uncertain ty of the situation often being an overwhelming ordeal. Diag nosed patients often have to un dergo the harrowing process of wondering what the next steps will be, if they can afford treat ment, or how their life will pro ceed from there on out. Not on ly that, they will have to deal with pain from the chosen treatment or the swelling in their breasts. Surviving cancer is a daunt ing and draining hardship, both physically and emotionally.

“HEPA refers to having a specific type of filter… so a product should have one of those filters in it to be a HEPA purifier,” said Dr. Delphine Farmer, an atmo spheric chemist with a re search focus in air pollution from Colorado State Uni versity, in an email to The Classic.According to an email from Dr. Donna Green, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia and a founding member of the Climate Change Research Centre, “[Intellipure] uses a different process, which may meet or exceed the fil tration standards of a HE PA, but that only makes it HEPA like, not true HEPA.”

20 The Classic SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The two are currently work ing on a study titled “Narrative Research and Breast Cancer.” The project studies the experi ences of women who have or

Asha introduced the idea after discovering a publication by Dr. Janine Overcash about how nar rative research could be used to understand how elderly patients are affected by a breast cancer diagnosis. “This caught my eye because it was interesting to see how qualitative information

The DOE calls the air purifiers that will be in NYC classrooms “HEPA purifiers.” The Classic asked the CDC if that’s accurate. Here’s how the CDC responded

In light of this, Sai and Asha

By Jasmine Palma ‘22 and Ryan Eng ‘22 August 31, 2021

The difference between a true HEPA filter and a HE PA-equivalent device can be significant, according to Dr. Martin. “The biggest concern with air cleaners claiming Thetechnologies,”necessarilycrease.trationclesHEPAperformperformance‘HEPA-equivalent’ishowtheyovertime.Asatruefilterloadswithpartiovertime,theoverallfilefficiencywillonlyinThesamecannotbesaidforotherhesaid.OtherexpertsspoketoClassicaboutwheth

Given that aerosol ized particles with SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can re main suspended in the air for long stretches of time, ventilation and air purifica tion represent key preven tative strategies. In its guide to opening schools, the Centers for Disease Con trol and Prevention (CDC) recommends schools con sider adding portable air purifier units with high effi ciency particulate air (HE PA) filters to “enhance air cleaning wherever possi ble.” The CDC’s FAQ on ventilation notes, “Portable HEPA filtration units that combine a HEPA filter with a powered fan system are a preferred option for auxiliary airAncleaning.”investigation by The Classic has found that, though it has told the pub lic that two “HEPA Purifi ers” will be in each class room this fall, the New York City Department of Edu cation (DOE) will be pro viding devices (Intellipure compact air purifiers) that do not match that descrip tion. The DOE has repeat edly referred to the Intel lipure units as “HEPA pu

have had breast cancer. They analyzed the stories of 40 wom en of all ages and stages world wide, and compared the experi ences within the generational di vide of their patient pool.

According to the Nation al Breast Cancer Foundation, one in eight women in the Unit

rifiers” on its website, in a “DOE Homecoming Health and Safety Guide,” and in statements to The Clas sic. Multiple experts have told The Classic that to be a “HEPA Purifier” the units should have within them an actual HEPA filter, but they do

“By taking the patient’s narra tives into consideration, it gives medical experts and the fami lies of breast cancer patients a more personal insight into what the journey is like, allowing for them to provide the best sup port, relief, treatment process es, and more,” Asha said.

By Carolina Corcuera ‘24 June 23, 2021

On Twitter, Mr. Styer claimed that HEPA refers to a rating that could be ap plied to “different types of machines” that filter parti cles at the level of HEPA fil ters. According to the Envi ronmental Protection Agen cy, the designation HEPA is specifically applied to “a type of pleated mechanical air filter” tested to a stan dard level of efficiency. Cit ing the CDC, Mr. Styer said that because Intellipure’s process as a whole can fil ter at HEPA filter levels, it is a HEPA purifier. The Clas sic contacted the CDC, however, and a represen tative said the two technol

“The distinction between an air cleaner using a true high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter and one that does not should be clear,” said Dr. Steve Mar tin, an engineer and expert on ventilation at the Nation al Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, a branch of the CDC, in an email to TheDr.Classic.Martinsaid that while “it is certainly possible for other air cleaners to use a combination of filtration technologies that can per form at ‘HEPA-equivalent’ levels (and maybe even higher),” the Intellipure air purifiers are not true HEPA devices. “The distinction should be clear between true HEPA air cleaners and others,” he said.

could be converted into quan titative research to improve the breast cancer experience and highlight the common concerns that many patients face,” Asha said. She eventually reached out to Dr. Overcash and successful ly acquired her as their mentor.

Juniors Sai Choudari and Asha Suganthan excitedly entered the second year of their science re search course, having acquired a heightened zeal for science in their first year. There was one notable difference, however. While their ability to explore sci entific fields was limited in year one, the pair said, year two of fered full autonomous initiative in pursuing individual research that catered to personal interests.

“Previous research on breast cancer largely consisted of med ical studies done on the suc cesses of treatments and pos sible cures, however not much research addresses the patient and their journey with cancer,” Sai said. “Our study wants to ex plore this experience as qualita tive data, in order to provide both patients and clinicians informa tion on coping with the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.”

Whennot. asked by The Classic to comment on the accuracy of the DOE’s de cision to describe the Intel lipure units as “HEPA puri fiers,” DOE spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said, “We never said that the units had HEPA filters. We said that they met the standard for HEPA filtration. That they are HEPA purifiers.”

ogies are distinct.

er it was accurate for the DOE to describe the Intel lipure units as HEPA purifi ers to the public.

Dr. Overcash is a Profes sor of Clinical Nursing at Ohio State University. She specializ es in geriatric oncology, working as a nurse with older cancer pa tients, and has written over fifty related peer-reviewed journal ar ticles. Many of her penned pa pers adopt a narrative research methodology.According to Sai, Dr. Over cash was the one who “truly in spired” her to take on this type of project. “Our mentor has been a guiding light throughout our project. She had helped us navigate the narrative research method, as we were both quite new to it. She would help us plan and outline.”

The Intellipure Purifier

“Without research, there’s no understanding, and without understanding, we cannot hope to allevi ate such issues.”

climatebloomsphytoplanktonspotlight:Researchandchange

“The robot did things towards the end that I don’t think they were able to do in the beginning. I think that in the first couple of matches I was watching it only do the low goal and then suddenly the high goal,” Ms. Brustein said. “I didn’t know that they were prepared to do that, so once they did that it changed our game of play.”

By Anton Rud ‘25 and Jocelyn Wang ‘22 March 25, 2022

“The Chairman’s team did such a good job on explaining our financ es that they won an award we didn’t even know we were going for, which was the entrepreneurial award,” Ms. Brustein said.

While working on the project, the importance of this research was only fur ther highlighted. “Climate change and pollution are not simple,” Sonia said.

By the end of the final round at the FIRST Robotics New York Tech Valley Regional Competition last Wednesday, the Townsend Harris Steel Hawks robotics team were all sprawled across the floor of the stadium in exhaustion, but for many of them it was worth it. After a long build season and three days of in tense qualifying rounds and elimi nation stages at the Albany compe tition, to the relief of the entire team, they won the tournament champi onship. This is the second time the team has won this event in its histo ry; with this result the team has al so qualified for its seventh Worlds Robotics Competition, which will be held this upcoming April in Houston, Texas.“What is meaningful to me about FIRST is it celebrates ‘coopertition,’ which is what they say. That if you win against a team that’s not a good rival, it doesn’t mean anything,” As sistant Principal of Science, Math, and Technology and robotics coach Susan Brustein said. “Your goal is to help somebody else to become bet ter so that when you compete you’re actually winning. It’s enshrined in their gracious professionalism award, which we have won in every venue that we’ve ever competed in.”

and the others worth six points, ten points, and fifteen points.

The residual effects of the pan demic also posed many difficulties.

Steel Hawks advance to Worlds

Thesaid.urgency of the re search matter founded the inspiration for the project.

The team discussed the many challenges that they had to over come. Ms. Brustein described the fi nancial costs of competing as “wick ed expensive.” Though they have do nors, she said, the team had to pur sue additional fundraising efforts to cover competition fees, travel, robot parts, and other expenses. The Steel Hawks has been operating a morn ing cafe where they sell drinks such as boba and coffee. The Chairman’s financial team also worked towards amassing team funds.

When Sonia met research scientists at a virtual ca reer day and learned about this type of re search, she “was hooked.”

“I felt awe at the team overcom ing the obstacles of not having two years of hands-on experience and still triumphing at the competition, which is a testament to how hard they all worked,” Ms. Brustein said.

Freshman Abdullah Khan, a mem ber of the Programming Depart ment, said that going into regionals, “Some of the members had low ex pectations when we were going af ter the Falcons, because they had swerve drives which let their team be very fast. But then, after we lost the first round we started chanting cra zy for the second, and all of a sud den people were chanting for our team – even those who weren’t on it. We got closer and closer to win ning, catching up by the last round, and our defense was just insane. Af ter we traversed the final rung, every one was just jumping up and down.”

To carry out the proj ect, Sonia and Alisha used many online research da tabases to search for trends based on phyto plankton indicators such as chlorophyll-a concen trations and fluorescence line height. Focusing on two estuaries in New York and San Francisco, both of which house wildlife and provide drinking wa ter to many people, So nia said, “we download ed eighteen years’ worth of monthly data, then an alyzed it using original Python programs.” Al though there were some challenges, such as learn ing to use computer pro gramming specifically for this project through “in cessant trial and error,” the pair was able to make several interesting finds.

21 Spring 2022

The regional had 69 qualifying matches. The teams were random ly placed into alliances, either red or blue, which are made up of three teams each. The alliances raced to score cargo into two hubs, a lower one worth one point per cargo and an upper one worth two points per cargo. They could additionally earn points by climbing four rungs, with the lowest one worth four points

“This is critical because we needed to use these findings to better explain phytoplankton associa tions with climate change and identify which phy toplankton populations need the most surveil lance and monitoring,” Ali sha

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

“Learning about the im portance of phytoplank ton in our ecosystems and how pollutants cause eu trophication made the re search seem much more urgent,” she said.

“The only people that remained on the team were freshmen.”

After first develop ing an interest in chemis try her freshman year, ju nior Sonia Hasko became enthralled by the scienc es. Junior Alisha Ansari, meanwhile, was attract ed to a class that would “develop an autonomous and innovative mindset” and “expand [her] knowl edge.” When it came time to choose their sopho more elective, the sci ence research program seemed the most com pellingOncechoice.students enter their junior year in the pro gram, they must complete an independent research project. For their junior re search, “18-Year Trends in Phytoplankton Blooms and Associated Physical Variables in New York and San Francisco Estuaries,” Sonia and Alisha worked together to analyze satel lite measurements of chlo rophyll-a frompollutionon,aries,tems.pactsetyassociatedimalthatfromatestion,inbecomesay,eutrophication.tobloomsarea.mentaldirectlyterns,studyingphotosynthesis.terictheecosystemamountnalist.selectedsiumandfirstterns.andseafluorescenceconcentrations,lineheight,surfacetemperature,salinitytodetectpatTheprojectplacedattheJuniorScienceHumanitiesSympoSemifinalsandwasasaRegionalFiPhytoplanktonarepartothehealthofanastheyformbasisformostaquatfoodwebsandsequescarbondioxidethroughThroughtheirbloompatitispossibletoinobserveenvironhealthofagivenHowever,prolificcanbedamagingecosystemsthroughThatistoabodyofwatercanexcessivelyrichnutrientsduetopolluwhichthenproliferdensealgalbloomsthephytoplanktonaredamagingtoanlife.“ThemyriadpollutantswithoursocihavedevastatingimonaquaticecosysForinstance,estuwhichwefocusedexperiencenutrientthatoriginatesfarmsorwatertreat

Each match lasts a total of two minutes and thirty seconds. The first fifteen seconds of the match relies on precoded information to move the robot autonomously. Hu man drivers and operators can con trol the robot during the rest of the match.Theteam’s Head of Communi cations, senior Karan Ajmera, de scribed the preparation for the com petition. He said, “The preparation process was long and it all hap pened pretty quickly since we were running behind, but it worked out well in the end. Our main challenge was just ensuring that we packed all the right things because we haven’t packed for a competition in almost three years. Also, just finishing the robot became a challenge because we had a lot of moving parts and not enough time to get everything on there, but in the end it worked out really well for us.”

“I would say one of the biggest chal lenges in this build season specifi cally was the fact that we were all adjusting to return back to the really long days as well as adjusting to the work requirements,” senior Ethan Diep said. “All the veterans were at least a little bit rusty, and tasks had to be done longer than it would’ve tak en in the past from rustiness and in experience combined. Despite this, we were able to complete our jobs, which I definitely give props to the whole team for.”

ment plants, alongside other sources. This en courages excessive nu trient concentrations, and ultimately, oxygen deadzones and harmful algal blooms,” Sonia said. “Far from a distant worry, estu aries are a source of rec reational, scientific, and practical use on which humans and wildlife rely.”

The Steel Hawks won the regional championship in Albany and are advancing to the Worlds Competition

Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com

By Amy Jiang ‘24 May 27, 2021

PSAL respondplayerstoclosures

how hard it really was to be cap tain and get everyone in order, but it helped me to work closely with the other captains, helping to grow our friendships.”Asforadvice for underclassmen and prospective members, Kaitlyn said, “The season goes by in the blink of an eye, so make sure to al ways have fun and cherish every practice and meet. Also, remem ber that swimming isn’t only about how fast you are but how you can contribute to the team as a whole.”

Harris gym. “I want to em phasize that this is a very large offering, and we ([ad ministrators], [Athletic Di rector], and coaches) will do the best that we can, and we will need to coor dinate with many constitu ents (security, custodians, attendance, permits, etc),” said Ms. OfferingCaiaccia.16teams was not an easy feat and re quired the coordination of many, including Principal Brian Condon and Assis tant Principal of Organiza tion Ellen Fee.

SPORTS

On October 27, the Townsend Harris Girls Varsity Swim team had their last swim meet of the regular season. The event, referred to as Senior Night, commemorated the last home game of every attend ing PSAL sports team. This year’s seniors are Kaitlyn Chung, Faith Grinion, and captains Crystal Lin, Raquel Mulakandov, Elon Orr, and Sophia Park.

Girls Swim Team seniors reflect on last four years

By Kristen Zhou ‘21 April 6, 2021

After the return of sports was announced on March 8, many were left with ques tions about what this would look like for Townsend Har ris. On March 27, Athlet ic Director Lauren Caiac cia sent out an email detail ing which sports would re turn, possible locations for practice, and the necessary steps and forms needed to join any given team. This condensed spring season will not run until mid-June.

As these seniors reached the

According to the email, 16 sports teams from the fall, winter, and spring sea sons will return. These sports include boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls soccer, girls swim ming, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls track and field, boys and girls basket ball, boys and girls hand ball, baseball, softball, and fencing. Each sport was fol lowed by a list of possible locations that will be avail able for teams to practice at. Some of the locations included Kissena Park, Po monok Playground, Cun ningham Park, Main Street Park, and the Townsend

16 teams set to return for the spring season

“This team is a great commit ment, so if you plan on joining, make sure you’re willing to put all the time and effort to make this team great, while still creating amazing memo ries,” Faith concluded. But then, after we lost the first round we start ed chanting crazy for the second, and all of a sudden people were chanting for our team – even those who weren’t on it. We got closer and closer to winning, catching up by the last round, and our de fense was just insane. After we tra versed the final rung, everyone was just jumping up and down.”

After their win against Bayside High School on October 26, with a score of 49-43, the team qualified for playoffs. Later, on October 28, the team competed against Hunter College High School in their play off game. Although the team lost by a score of 31-55, the team was ultimately able to place second in the PSAL Queens A Division, af ter Francis Lewis High School and Benjamin Cardozo H.S. who tied for first place. Throughout this sea son, every senior has broken their personal swimming records as well.

The 2021-2022 THHS Girls Swim Team

22 The Classic

By Ryan Eng ‘22 May 15, 2020

tling team stated that she is “working out at home and getting the exercise through home workouts”. In addi tion, while discussing the possibility of goals she set for herself in the new offsea son, she said, “Some new goals I plan on setting are just learning to exercise on my own and to motivate my self… Since I’m graduating this year, I felt that it was im portant to learn how to work out myself and motivate my self.”Senior Noah Pearlstein and math teacher Kev in Claesgens, captain and coach of the boys’ tennis team, respectively, find that though the events had hit their team hard, they remain positive for the future. Noah stated, “The cancellation of the spring season has been extremely tough. I felt as if we had a real chance to compete … Though, I am hopeful that the underclass men can carry the torch.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZAYNAH SHARIFF

The process of select ing which sports to offer al so involved many variables. According to Ms. Caiaccia, primary concerns included location and space, where teams could practice and possibly compete; coach availability, which coaches would be willing and able to return.Ms.Caiaccia also said, “PSAL was not offering any form of JV programs, and they were only allow ing general track and field.”

The senior swimmers were pre sented with gifts from the under classmen on the team to thank them for their contributions throughout the last four years. They were given cards with individualized messages from each swimmer, personalized Crocs, and matching green, heartshaped sunglasses.

end of their time on the THHS swim team, they looked back on the time they dedicated to the team. “[There was] always such high energy and anticipation at each race so I’ll def initely miss it,” said Kaitlyn. Similar ly, Faith said, “I’m definitely going to miss cheering for my team dur ing each race because supporting them during their events brings the team together. I am going to miss those bonding moments the most.” Raquel said the team traditions that she will miss the most are “[the] se nior meet, senior relay, team picnic, [and] singing in the locker room af ter a Regardingwin.” the team’s accom plishments, Sophia said, “The team has had its ups and downs over the years. Our team used to be the Bor ough Champions for 10+ years, but it hasn’t been that way recent ly, but I know that in the upcoming years, the team can improve great ly and get back to that level.”

‘23

The swim team captains also re flected on their experiences lead ing the team. Raquel said, “I, along with the other captains, created line-ups for every meet, organized car rides, created sets and work outs, and always had to assure that everything was orderly.” Crystal al so said that “the adjustment period for new swimmers was a bit stress ful at times, but nevertheless, [she] couldn’t be more proud of them and their success within the sea son.” Sophia said, “I didn’t realize

In an unprecedented sit uation, the spring season, meant for practices, games, and bonding, has been re placed by a quarantine or der that will be active until at least May 15. Perhaps the most hard-hit by this situa tion in the Townsend Har ris sports community are the seniors, who had their wishes of a farewell season cut short. Regardless of the adversities and anstayaredefeated.howeveroutcomederstandablyspectiveoutadaptbackstillcircumstances,unfortunateseniorsaredeterminedtobouncebyfindingwaystoandmakethebestofthesituationathand.Theseniorsandtheirrecoachesareunupsetbytheofthisseason,theyrefusetobeManyseniorstryingtomoveonandinshape.SeniorViviChenofthegirls’wres

By Madeline Cannon ‘23 and Ryann Plaisir ‘24 November 8, 2021

Ms. Caiaccia’s email al so included instructions for joining a team, as well as four forms that studentathletes must complete.

SPORTS Many of these articles are excerpted. Read the full versions online at thhsclassic.com

In recalling the season over all, senior captain Justin Luu said, “This season has been an incredible ride to experience so far. I don’t think anyone on the team expected this level of success considering how the previous year was shut down due to Covid, but the fact that we have been able to rebound back stronger than ever has been amazing to witness. I am extremely proud of all the hard work, effort, and time that we have put in as a team during practices and games to make our dreams a reality.”

Boys Badminton Team defeats Stuyvesant to win PSAL Championship

23 Spring 2022

By Ryan Eng ‘22 November 16, 2021

With the season concluded, those who will remain on the team for future seasons are mo tivated to build on this result.

“For future members of the badminton team, I would just like to say that this team is more than just a regular sports team. We’re a family. We create and share great memories on this team and we all help each other when in need. So, commit to the team. Time goes by fast when you’re having fun,” Wilson con cluded in a final message to the team.

on the reality.ourgamespracticesahavetimework,ofextremelytobeenthanbackablewebutduewastheconsideringlevelexpectedteamthisofsuccesshowpreviousyearshutdowntoCovid,thefactthathavebeentoreboundstrongereverhasamazingwitness.Iamproudallthehardeffort,andthatweputinasteamduringandtomakedreamsa

trust and rely on to show up to games and practices to cheer you on is really helpful mentally and“Theyemotionally.”pouredtheir blood and sweat into spending so much of their free time practicing but due to covid, they lost their oppor tunity to showcase their skills. The seniors are all definitely very grateful for having this opportu nity and having the chance to put a banner up is simply insane to even think about. I am so grate ful for this journey.”

“The players on the team push themselves each practice. If we are in the gym working on skills, or in the weight room working on strength and conditioning, the team gives it their all each and every day,” said Matthew Lemanczyk, coach of the Bad minton team, while summarizing the team’s season.

In describing the impact of the loss, senior captain Justin Luu said, “this loss was a big wake up call for us but it allowed us to work on making the adjustments and improvements necessary to advance in the playoffs.”

Ultimately, the team placed second in their division, with a regular season record of 8-2. Then on the road to the finals, the team defeated New Utrecht and Franklin D Roosevelt High School in the first and second

In their previous history, the team had never made it through to the second round of the play offs.Leading up to the finals, the Boys Varsity team had enjoyed an unprecedented regular sea son, coming back from last year’s modified pandemic sea son to earn two impressive wins againstHowever,Hunter.the catalyst for the Badminton Team’s growth would come after their two de feats against Bronx Science, one of which they were narrow ly edged by a score of 3-2.

Earlier this evening, the Boys Varsity Badminton Team defeat ed Stuyvesant High School 3-2 to win the PSAL championship. A high stakes affair for the Bad minton team, it was the first time the team had won the title.

round of the playoffs respective ly without dropping any games.

Class of 2022

has always been the team’s dream this entire season, and it’s thrilling to be able to make this dream come alive. I don’t think it has even hit me yet how fast this season is coming to a close, but looking back on it, be ing able to reach the finals this year and win the championship has been a wonderful journey,” addedRegardlessJustin. of their champion ship win, senior captain Spencer Zou was also quick to point out the team’s growth this season.

“It has definitely been a come back season. We lost twice against Bronx Science and it was a crushing blow as we had been undefeated before then. Despite these defeats, however, we have managed to make it to city championships without los ing a single set in playoffs,” add ed Spencer prior to the match.

“My goals are to maintain this camaraderie and to simply train more. Training isn’t just training. The fact that we are together brings us together even more. It’s not pushing people to work harder and improve. The amount of fun that we have motivates us to work harder,” said sophomore Jie Xuan Tang.

Reflecting on the team’s suc cess this season, senior captain Wilson Chu said, “This season, we have gone way further than my expectations. I am person ally really proud and grateful of everyone we have on our team. We all have come a long way and this year’s season was def initely“Reachingunexpected.”the finals and bringing a banner back home

The 2021-2022 THHS Boys Badminton Team

This season has been an incredible ride to experience so far. don’t think anyone

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAUREN CAIACCIA

“The ‘X-factor’ for the team’s success this year is the senior leadership. Our captains, Spen cer, Wilson, and Justin set the tone for each practice and they lead by example,” said Mr. Le manczyk.Reflecting on the reason be hind their success, Spencer said, “I think our team chemis try has definitely contributed the most to our success. Everyone is very comfortable with each other and we are a very close ly knit group. Having a support ive team that you know you can

Justin Luu

has assigned articles about how to keep mentally healthy during these times, and workouts to do that require questions, which is some sort of reflection to be do ne Seniorafter.”

lifetime as a senior,” she said.“As a se nior, I know that seeerying,ments,thesesonNileballofniorsport.”optedwe’veloveersshownow,ter,toforpracticedI’veyearsgetbetsothatwecanoththesamethatadforourSememberthebaseteamJohnechoedsentisay“Evyearyouagroup

Ms. Assante, the aerobics and health teacher, has also been as signing her students their work through Google Classroom.

Emily Yan thinks her assignments are beneficial in helping students stay active. “I feel that this is an adequate way of making sure that students are staying fit by giving easy work out videos to follow at home,” saidMr.Emily.Bermudez, another health and Physical Education teach er, gave his students workout re flections that they have to com plete three times a week.

Ever since the Covid-19 pan demic prompted the shutdown of New York City schools, teach ers transitioned to using remote learning. Most classes don’t have a problem with this, as Google Classroom has always been a major resource for teach ers to communicate with their students.However, physical education teachers face a new challenge: transitioning to remote learning in the absence of a structured physical education (PE) class. The sudden change to remote learning means that PE teachers now have to create lesson plans through a virtual platform. This,

fers this method of learning more than working out in class. “I ac tually like working out at home because for a lot of people it’s never really comfortable work ing out in front of others, like how we do in school. So, it’s much easier to push myself and feel comfortable exercising when I’m home and get to do it on my own schedule,” she said.

season has disappointed ma ny athletes around Townsend Harris.However, the athletes un derstand the reality of the situ ation and agree that their health should be the number one priori ty. The news also hasn’t discour aged them from looking forward to activities potentially being re sumed. “I can still see my senior moment… Hopefully it’s on a scalding hot June day with the playoffs on the line,” said Nile.

The 2020 Flag Football team, whose season was cut short by the closing of spring PSAL sports PHOTO COURTESY OF SAVANAH SCLAFANI ‘20

of players leave the game, putting everything they have, and dealing with the fact it’s their last chance to play competitively again.” However, Nile acknowledged, “[Mayor De Blasio] definitely made the right call. At the end of the day, health comes first.”

SPORTS

As Mr. Lemanczyk put it, “We are encouraged to stay inside and isolate, but there is no rea son we can’t continue to exer cise and take care of the body and mind. Fitness and exercise is essential to living a life of well ness and happiness.”

Other PE teachers have taken a different approach.

Ms. Figelman, who teaches weight training, said, “I created a new Instagram account [so] you can see where I will be posting different types of workouts, and they can use these videos as a reference.” This Instagram page is a public account that students can access anytime.

Phys ed teachers transition to teaching fitness remotely

By Amir Baig ‘21 March 13, 2020

By Ariana Vernon ‘21, Amir Baig ‘21, Andrew Mak ‘21, and Dylan Samuel ‘21 April 3, 2020

For non-seniors, the news of suspension still impacts them greatly. Junior Kanny Ho Fang, a member of the girls’ badmin ton team said that, “I’m disap

pointed that our season was in terrupted so abruptly. I was re ally looking forward to the sea son and growing as a part of the team.”Kanny also noted that with the season being suspended, she now has “more free time to fo cus on schoolwork and APs, as well as relax and get rid of some stress.”Athletic Director Lauren Cai accia also commented on the suspension. Ms. Caiaccia said,

Google Classroom has become a source for PE teachers to con vey their lessons and the “value” of exercising at home.

Each reflection contains four questions, such as “what did you do today?” or “how intense were your workouts?” Junior Natalie Villacres says she pre

On Thursday, March 12, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all after school programs are suspended un til further notice. The mayor’s statement said, “Non-essen tial, non-instructional activi ties [will be] altered… That in cludes PSAL activities, games, and practices…” This news came right after many teams in Townsend Harris began the spring season. The decision to suspend athletics indefinitely produced an array of reactions from teams, especially senior members.Thespring season represents a senior’s final season compet ing in the PSAL and its suspen sion carries considerable weight for them. Senior Joe Guartan, a member of boys’ volleyball, said, “I am really bummed out with the decision because my team mates and I were really looking forward to this season. Hopeful ly [the mayor] will allow us to par ticipate in our activities soon.”

When asked about class ex pectations, junior Anil Singh

Co-captain of the girls’ flag football team and senior Kelsey Zhen also weighed in on the de cision. “[I feel that] PSAL sports should be continued. I really hope that it resumes as soon as possible because these expe riences only happen once in a

said, “Ms. Figelman posts week ly workouts that we have to do twice a week. We then have to record ourselves and submit the videos.”Ms.Figelman also advised that her students workout and alleviate their stress for the next few months while also enjoying fitness.Even on such short notice, Physical Education teachers have been able to maintain a connection with their students in order to teach their lessons and make sure they stay fit.

“Although it is above my author ity to make these decisions, we need to make sure that our ath letes are informed about the situation so they know how to handle it. Our priority is to make sure we don’t jeopardize our athletes and coaches.” When asked about how the athletic department will be moving for ward, Ms. Caiaccia said, “It’s just something we will have to take day by Suspendingday.”’the PSAL spring

24 The Classic

One of her students, junior Jai da Boodram said, “Ms. Assante

Mayor de Blasio suspends PSAL activities indefinitely amid Coronavirus panic

unfortunately, removes the stu dent/teacher interactions that physical education highly val ues. Despite these changes, teachers have been able to find ways to teach their lessons on line.Athletic Director and PE teacher Ms. Caiaccia said, “Cur rently, I am using Google Class room as my primary means of communication. This may evolve as time goes by, but for now, it is an efficient and effective tool.”