Anthro Volume 5 Issue 3

Power en pointe

pg. 14

Mission Statement

The ultimate goal of Anthro Magazine, Paly’s social activism publication, is to create a platform and forum for students to express their opinions and voices. Social activism is bringing issues into the spotlight to spread awareness and create change in society. On this platform, we will promote unity, diversity, and respect. As a publication, we aim to be inclusive but do not tolerate hate speech of the targeting of individuals. We hope to highlight issues that we see in our community, create a safe place to discuss these issues, and to make sure student voices are heard.

From the Editors

Dear Readers,

The Anthro staff was deeply shaken by the outbreak of mass shootings in California, as were many of our peers. This issue, we attempted to highlight the numerous Palo Altans pushing for change. Our cover story, “Power en pointe” by Evelyn Zhang and Maya Mukherjee profiles a local high school dancer who is choreographing a dance about gun violence. In the same vein, new staffers Lara Dumanli and Vivian Tang cover the county’s expanding measures on gun control in “County ‘Strike Team’ focuses on guns.”

A few issues ago, we covered the Muwekma tribe’s efforts to be federally recognized. After reflecting on the impact that story had, we realized we’ve drastically undercovered Indigenous rights in the past. This issue, we made an effort to expand our Indigenous coverage. Ash Mehta and Minirva Villegas covered Indigenous history in “Who’s at the table?” and Maya Mukherjee, Karrie Huang, and Evelyn Zhang followed up on the Muwekma story in “Calling on Congress” and “Gaining visibility for the tribe”

Anthro Magazine’s AI policy is on its website and on the page across from this, and we are prepared to adapt as available technology and knowledge about it changes. Natalie Neumann and Vivian Lin also wrote “The artist’s dilemma” about the challenges artists face in the age of AI.

Anthro Magazine Volume 5 Issue 3 comes out of a changing and adapting Incubator — we are expanding to revive Via Verde and Veritas, travel and science/technology magazines, respectively.

We have thoroughly enjoyed working on these issues of Anthro, and we are excited to hand over the reins to the next generation of Anthro leadership. As always, enjoy!

— Ash Mehta and Maya Mukherjee

Editors-in-Chief

Ash Mehta

Maya Mukherjee

Managing Editors

Lauren Wong

Sandhya Krishnan

Design Leads

Annelise Balentine

Arati Periyannan

Section Editors

Content: Karrie Huang

News: Lucianna Peralta

Features: Saanvi Garg

Opinions: Kat Farrell

Promotion Team

Business: Evelyn Zhang

Distribution: Minirva Villegas

Artists/Photographers

Daniel Garepis-Holland

Jeremy Dukes

Sasha Kapadia

Staff Reporters

Divij Motwani

Faizan Kashmiri

Joshua Kao

Lara Dumanli

Madelyn Castro

Natalie Neumann

Vivian Lin

Vivian Tang

IN THIS ISSUE

4 Local activism roundup

4 Students react to shootings in California

5 County “Strike Team” focuses on guns

6 Activism around the world

7 The mayor’s mission

8 ‘Pretend equity’?

10 Overflowing with danger

12 The real cost of inflation

14 Power en pointe

16 Dear Ms. Cohen...

18 The artist’s dilemma

20 Who gets a seat at the table?

22 Calling on Congress

23 Gaining visibility for the tribe

24 The controversial AP

25 In Florida: Censorship expands

Local activism roundup

Bay Clean-Up

Animal Rights

From June 9 to June 14, students with the Direct Action Everywhere organization in Berkeley will bring together animal rights activists from around the world for this annual event. This organization has already successfully taken steps to introduce legislation against factory farms in order to reduce animal suffering. More than 500 people will be in pursuit of these efforts as they have done in previous years according to the Liberation Conference’s website.

This Burning World

Available until March 26, artist Jeffrey Gibson’s art gallery in San Francisco aimed to highlight the importance of our relationship with the planet. According to the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco’s website, the installations and hundreds of videos he displayed on the walls and floors captured natural evolving environments to give thanks, but also apologize for how humans have treated them.

Text and Photos by JOSHUA KAO

On March 25, the Climate Reality Project hosted a clean-up of the San Leandro Bay. The organization continues to work towards practical climate solutions and encouraged participants to preserve the last remaining marshlands with this hands-on experience. Participants met the organizers at Oakport Street in Oakland to clean up plastics and trash and also admire views of the bay.

Trans Support Group

On April 6, the San Mateo County Pride Center hosted a peerled support group open to non-cisgender adults to share experiences and build a community. The group is a safe space with available resources like clinical support for those who benefit more from that than socialization activities the center typically offers.

Indigenous Voices Circle

On March 23, led by urban Indigenous women, the Monthly Indigenous Voices Reading and Listening Circle read and discussed recommended readings from the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust website to investigate how efforts by indigenous groups to resist carbon have been successful in slowing down greenhouse gas emissions.

Verbatim: Students react to mass shootings in California

Two mass shootings have recently occurred close to home — one in Half Moon Bay, and one in Monterey Park, killing and wounding many people. Anthro asked Palo Alto High School students about their initial reactions and thoughts to the streak of shootings in California.

“I think it is really sad, especially the recent shootings and the history of school shootings because there are lots of kids that are just trying to learn and build a future. Unfortunately, they just get that taken away from them.”

e than meets the eyebrow

“I think it is concerning especially since California has stricter gun laws than other states that we’ve been hearing about. We need to take an approach to get to the root of the problem and have stricter gun laws.”

ALEXIS

County “Strike Team” focuses on guns

Santa Clara County expands measures against gun violence

as an example of minority representa tion in media, admits that she’s Holly wood’s ‘acceptable version of a Black girl.’ In the end, all of that new rep resentation still has the aesthetics of white beauty, just without the white person. And that leaks into how we view ourselves. You don’t see a Pakistani kid with unibrows; rath er people feel pressured to conform with very specific standards set white-dominated society.

TThe Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is expanding its ‘gun violence strike team’ following the recent mass shootings in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park, focusing on confiscating guns from people with an existing court order or that present a potential threat.

Well, if you do see one scruffy kistan kid with a unibrow: That’d just happen to be me. But I’m the excep tion, not the norm. And even though I’ve always accepted that about my self, it still stings to know it. I’ll never be part of the majority, the known, or the familiar. It took me a while to embrace that fact about myself. Being outside the norm used to seem like a downside, but i’ve come to love me for me. Not for anything else.

The five-person strike team’s mission is to “take guns from people, who frankly, shouldn’t have them,” said Cindy Chavez, member of the Board of Supervisors.

ney for Santa Clara County, said.

Along with illegally trafficked guns, the proliferation of privately made firearms made in home factories, known as ghost guns, has increased in California, Gibbons-Shapiro said.

Chavez said.

JAMES GIBBONS-SHAPIRO,

“It’s not very difficult to do because you buy a kit, which has the gun 80% made, and you’re just putting together the last few parts and you’ve now got a functioning assault weapon that’s illegal to purchase in California,” Gibbons-Shapiro said.

A large aspect of the expansion is that the funding will not be taken out of any other department and only existing laws will be applied. This strike team isn’t implementing anything new, but simply imposing it, according to Gibbons-Shapiro.

“We can’t predict where every incident is going to be and that’s one of the reasons that I’m so focused on using the laws and resources that we have, removing as many guns as quickly as possible and as safely as possible,” Chavez said. “We are using grants and the $900,000 the county put in to be able to support local agencies with overtime to pay officers to retrieve firearms.”

The unibrow makes me unique ly me. My buddy between eyebrows has become to me a symbol of taking on the standard of beauty in my own little way. The unibrow makes me . A person not dreading shaving day or feigning security, but a person proud of his identity.

The Board is set to approve almost a million dollars for new local positions, bringing the unit size to 23 people, according to Chavez .

Although this plan has been voted on by the Santa Clara County Board, the enforcement of these actions rely on the Santa Clara County’s judge’s approval. Temporary removal orders are easier to get during critical circumstances before a full hearing can occur.

This is a message to You. To with crooked teeth, big noses, bushy eyebrows, large stomachs, anything deemed imperfect by society. We de serve to love our bodies. You to love yourself, your features, and what you are as a person.

These makeshift guns are nearly untraceable, but the strike team plans to make ghost guns a priority. Gibbons-Shaprio said they need to attack this problem from the base and prosecute the people manufacturing the makeshift guns.

“We have to dramatically reduce the number of firearms that are in our community, and then we’re coupling that with

With the recent shootings in California, Gibbons-Shapiro said that this is exactly the right time for the strike team to expand.

“California has some of the strongest gun laws in the country, and they’re only meaningful if we do the things to enforce them,” Gibbons-Shapiro said.

After the 2019 Gilroy Garlic shooting when the gunman legally obtained but illegally transported his gun to California, politicians have been working on a solution to make it harder for these in stances to occur again.

We can learn to be a bit happier with ourselves.

UNIBROW: Faizan Kashmiri, Paly sophomore and author of this piece, poses for a photo. He has had a uni brow all his life and does not shave it as a form of self-expression. He hopes to reduce the stigma around unibrows and help those with uni brows accept them.

“We’ve seen both the rise in privately-made guns and the rise of illegally-trafficked guns into our state,” James Gibbons-Shapiro, the assistant district attor-

Photo by ANNELISE BALENTINE

Text by JOSHUA KAO and LAUREN WONG

— GAVIN LIN freshman

CHIU senior

“I think it’s horrible. I think that the government should do more to regulate firearms in the state, and to do more about mental health and relating to gun violence and its consequences because without regulation, bad things like this happen.”

— JACK MADWED sophomore

“It is horrible and we should help those people that are mentally unstable and have stricter gun laws.”

YARA CHAIB freshman

Bay Area community members organize and lead efforts to support causes they are passionate about.

“We have to dramatically reduce the number of firearms that are in our community.”

Santa Clara County assistant district attorney

Activism Around the World

Democracy, war, retirement, peace: a look at protests globally

FRANCE: The raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64 has sparked protests in France that are the largest in recent memory. Though the exact number is in dispute, it is indisputable that over a million have taken to the streets to march, and even opera and dance organizations in Paris have protested in their own way, like performing outside in the bitter winter. Theater troupes have added their touch by parading props and having actors perform scenes with themes of justice and activism. The president, Emmanuel Macron, has signaled that he will not give concessions to the protesters.

MEXICO: A wave of protests has racked Mexico City as president Obrador has altered electoral laws by cutting funding for certain election offices and lowering penalties for improper campaign finance reporting in order to divert more money towards helping the poor, he claims.

Activists say that the new changes are threatening Mexican democracy and demand that the reforms be overturned. Tens of thousands flowed through city streets wearing white and pink in solidarity with the colors of the National Electoral Institute.

PHILIPPINES: The Philippine government has allowed the U.S. military access to four new bases, firing up activists across the country. This is to counter the growing presence of China in Taiwan and the South China Sea. A group of protesters clustered around the Manila — the capital of the Philippines — military camp where the deal was made, protesting the potential for the Philippines to become ensnared in the tensions and possible confrontation between China and the U.S.

RUSSIA: Though reports of anti-Ukraine war protesting — and most other protests as well — are tightly suppressed by the Russian government, a spate of one-person and silent protests has struck cities across the country. Flowers are being laid at sites with relation to Ukraine to protest the deaths of civilians in an apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine despite the huge penalties protesting carries in Russia.

SOUTH AFRICA: As South Africa’s economy stumbles and an energy crisis grows, civilians are crowding the streets of Pretoria — the nation’s capital — to attempt to make president Cyril Ramaphosa resign. Helping contribute to the protest is the leftmost, Economic Freedom Fighters, who are a large third party in South Africa. The activism has sparked fears of widespread looting and rioting, which has occurred in recent memory, causing the police to maintain a high level of readiness and businesses nearest the protesting to lock down.

in case of an emergency,” said Abdullah Coskun, vice president of Stanford’s Turkish Student Association.

People are still being rescued by humanitarian aids and relief support after 250 hours underneath the rubble, the Turkish government is focusing on detaining “the culprits” – construction companies. Over 100 were detained by a new “Earthquake Crimes Investigation” unit which was established in response to this disaster, according to Wall Street Journal.

The mayor’s mission

New mayor Lydia Kou’s goals for Palo Alto

January, 2023, Mayor Lydia Kou took office. Anthro Magazine spoke with her about her primary activist goals.

ness in the sky.”

At night there is an additional harm to both wildlife and humans.

Whether these detained building contractors are guilty or not, the responsibility of assuring the public’s safety should always be the government’s. The World Health Organization reported that almost 26 million people have been personally affected by the earthquake and instead of focusing on those, politicians are protecting themselves by refusing to acknowledge their negligence.

One of Mayor Lydia Kou’s primary interests is the environmental impact of Palo Alto. After making progress electrifying homes, commercial buildings, and installing heat pumps, Kou has shifted to focus on Palo Alto’s natural landscape.

“What I have noticed is that there tends to be more focus on the tech side versus looking at our natural environment and how to protect and preserve it,” Kou said.

“Nighttime lights that are on … actually attract a lot of the insects and the birds to it,” and leads to issues for local health due to sleep pattern disruption.

ity in Palo Alto for the youth. Ms. Kou is committed to advocating for the creation of new, fun activity spaces such as bowling alleys, arcades, and skate parks.

“I believe that youth should be youth,“ Kou said. “I think there needs to be some fun in the sir lives if it’s a bowling alley, or arcade, or whatever they think is needed, we really should try to make it happen.”

Ms. Kou is eager to hear the voices of the youth and encourages anyone to reach out to her.

Her hope is to solve potential issues before they become hazardous, referencing the recent floods as a turning point.

Senior social services are provided by Kou, as she has expressed concern about many elderly citizens who often don’t eat right and need housing downtown. She has started this initiative by supporting a non-profit organization funded by the city to provide seniors with hot, nutritious, affordable dining.

This result is linked to a long- line of corruption that runs deep in the Turkish government and finally after this earthquake, change needs to be implemented. The government needs to do better. Not only for its own political future, but also for its people. There is often guilt linked with leaving your home country, like how my parents felt, and it weighs heavily especially when a disaster strikes. Although it’s frustrating trying to support your family by fundraising instead of being there, it’s all we can do from across the Atlantic Ocean.“Of course I feel hopeless, but we’ve fundraised over $100,000 so even though it’s a tiny drop in the ocean, it helps,” President of Stanford’s Turkish Stu dent Association, Baris Baran Gundogdu said.

“I think there’s two groups in our community that we don’t hear much from which is the youth and the seniors,” Kou said. “For the youth, please let us know what we need and what you want.”

Ms. Kou takes a personal approach to her work as mayor and sees it as a way to take care of our home here in Palo Alto.

“With the floods that happened during this rainstorm potentially it was because we are really close to our stream but also because our bridges are older,” Kou said. “We’ve got to look at all those components.”

The concept of infrastructure as a tool for sustainability powers Kou’s ideas. As Palo Alto continues new housing projects, Kou is focusing on how to keep buildings efficient for residents.

“The dining brings the seniors out of their house and into a dining room where they are served meals, where it is enjoyable, and they get to talk to each other and come out of isolation,” Kou said.

Ms. Kou feels as if the elderly community in Palo Alto is often overlooked and not heard from as much as other populations.

“This is where we play, this is where we live, this is our home,” Kou said. “If someone is feeling down and just wants someone to listen, I’m open for that too.”

As a Turkish citizen, I am appalled by the lack of measure taken to combat this diaster. I know how beautiful my country is, the tenacity we have, and for the government to be destroying it is heartbreaking. In Turkish we say ‘daha iyisini yap’ which translates to “do better” so on behalf of my aunts, uncles, cous ins and the rest of Turkey eagerly watching the news hoping that the death toll doesn’t increase, please do better.

“I see more and more of the buildings; they’re mostly glass and steel… and we have to ask ourselves is glass really the best use, is it energy conserving or does it let in too much heat?” Kou said.

“They need a place, they need a dining room, and I want to make sure they have a home downtown,” Kou said.

In accordance with the Stanford Turkish Student Association, please support the Bridge to Turkiye re lief fund.

Alongside energy efficiency, Kou cites potential harm to Palo Alto’s local wildlife and scenery and is searching for possible solutions.

“Migratory birds they tend to not know and they fly into the glass and kill themselves,” Kou said.

Buildings, which may lead to additional light pollution, draws her attention to the loss of Palo Alto’s natural features.

“I went backpacking some years ago and we went out to desolation mountain and it was so out there that at night there was no light so all you see is the stars,” said Kou,“when I go out here at night you can hardly see the stars because there is so much light that is taking away the bright-

A concern for many Palo Alto citizens which is held by Ms. Kou is attracting businesses to Palo Alto, despite its high land values. Oftentimes, people have to travel outside of Palo Alto to find recreational activities and facilities.

She also hopes to build a fun facil-

“This is where we play, this is where we live, this is our home.”

— LYDIA KOU, Palo Alto mayor

Text by JOSHUA KAO and MADELYN CASTRO

Photo by MADELYN CASTRO

Recent math laning lawsuit to affect Palo

‘Pretend

was started in an effort to improve equity and close achievement gaps. It means that the district would work towards getting rid of accelerated lanes and aim help every student achieve high levels.

“We were actually going to advance everybody

Equity’?

The act was implemented in 2015 and requires school districts to adopt “a fair, objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy.”

Judge Carrie Zepeda ruled that PAUSD was in violation of the Math Placement Act

Paly math teacher Zachary Barnes said that the math program has tried to shift their role in the math placement process. `

“Students have a lot of autonomy and choice in the class they want to go to, we have shifted our roles (from) placing kids into what we feel is the appropriate math class to recommending the correct math said she didn’t file the lawsuit kids, who wouldn’t be affected, but rather, in the interest of the Palo Alto community as a whole.

“All my opportunities that I have in life, my career, everything, is built on my love and ability in math,” Cohen said. “It’s not reasonable, to me, to hold kids back if that’s their passion and if that’s where their strengths are.”

School board president Jennifer DiBrienza said that controversy over policies is expected.

“There will always be disagreement,” DiBrienza said. “Reasonable people can disagree about what

The PAUSD math laning system discriminates against female students, according to Wang. The lawsuit stated that over the past two years boys have outnumbered girls in advanced math classes three to

“They keep telling kids, it’s most likely you’re gonna fail [the Skip test],” Wang said. “It could be that girls might be more susceptible to psychological in-

However, DiBrienza said that she has not found any evidence of gender inequity in math laning. always taken the issue of student achievement, student support, student success, student learning, student mental health, all of that very seriously,”

DiBrienza said.

Though the claim of gender bias was dismissed in the court, the judge ruled that PAUSD’s current laning policies are illegal. This is because the current placement policies are seen as effectively holding students back from taking more advanced classes.

Wang said that the de-laning initiative will ultimately decrease student achievement and will fail to challenge advanced students.

“Imagine you’re in a math class, and everybody is about the same level, and then there’s like one kid who is a know-itall and kind of ruining it for everybody,” Wang said. “Should they be in that classroom?”

The lawsuit removes emphasis on the de-laning initiative and provides students with chances to advance math lanes. However, one of the major concerns with the new requirements brought about by the lawsuit is that it will decrease equity by introducing a “pay-to-play route,” Wang said. Students who take outside math classes will now be able to “laneup,” whereas those who can’t afford those classes won’t.

Barnes stated that the possibility of skipping classes might exacerbate the already competitive Paly environment.

“It’s part of the Paly culture, we want to be successful and challenge ourselves as much as possible, sometimes to the detriment of our own mental health and grades,” Barnes said. “And I don’t think that Paly students should want to skip things unless they’re [not] being chal-

lenged.”

Wang additionally said the equity aspect of it is less concerning as inequity is already a flaw in the current math system.

“Our neighboring districts, like Los Altos, Cupertino, Saratoga, they all have math pathways that lead to geometry in eighth grade,” Wang said.

“They don’t need to go to outside school … it’s not pay-to-play.”

DiBrienza said she feels hopeful that the lawsuit will not increase student achievement gaps, and said that the board is overall feeling confident that they will be able to adapt.

“[We’ll ask], are most kids finding success?” DiBrienza said. “Is it a similar distribution of grades and success that we saw before? … That would be, that would be a successful sort of pilot.”

“We were just frustrated to hear, over and over and

“Staff has always taken the issue of student achievement...very seriously.”

JENNIFER DIBRIENZA school board president

“We were actually going to advance everybody and everyone was gonna get to algebra in eighth grade.”

JENNIFER DIBRIENZA school board president

BARNES: Palo Alto High School math teacher Zachary Barnes grades math papers. “We have shifted our roles [from] placing kids into what we feel is the appropriate math class to recommending the correct math class,” Barnes said.

Photos by ASH MEHTA and SAANVI GARG

IN LUNA DANCE STUDIO, students ranging from 11 to 18 sit in chairs in a semicircle facing the mirror in eerie silence, a ring of dim red lighting above them.Then, a haunting, distorted version of “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong is piped in.

Give peace a c

Recruiters on campus are antithetical to peace

passion for her work, she said.

e peace a chance

There is no place that is seen as more off limits for violence than school. It is as much a sacred place as any temple: a crime universally condemned in international law if you put it in harm’s way. So, it’s a bit confusing on why, of all places, military recruiters have unlimited access to them.

It’s safe to say that most Palo Alto High School students have been accustomed to the United States military booths that pop up on the Quad during lunch every other month. Both on Club Day and, sometimes, seemingly out of the blue in front of the library. The booths offer pamphlets, posters, and imposing figures of military authority with them. On a good day, they even bring a pull-up bar.

They arrive, setting up a temporary outpost, and leave as quickly as they arrive. We are so accustomed to their presence in a place meant for education that you might barely even bat an eye at them.

Tracing back the roots of military recruitment, particularly in the US, can take us all the way back to the earliest days of America’s emergence. During the Revolutionary War, children were often pressured to become soldiers.

But in a post9/11 world, military recruitment within schools became a magnitude larger. The passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

A gunshot goes off.

allowed for recruiters to have full access to “secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings,” according to . With this newly acquired information, they were able to find a pool of people to recruit. According to CBS News, nearly one-third of all American soldiers who were mortally wounded in Iraq, the exact number being 8,895, were between the ages of 18 to 21, many of them likely exposed to joining the army through their own school.

The students begin moving in unison, sliding their chairs in front of them and hiding behind them, sobbing and cradling each other.

Allie Tachner, a senior at Gunn High School, rises to stand on her chair, directing the other students to form a barricade, going through the motions young students have been taught in school many times.

“I mean, it [the shootings] makes me angry,” Tachner said. “And I think it made me feel like having this idea for the dance and including all these people in it was the right way to do it.”

Soliman has had an instrumental role in her dance, Tachner said.

Soliman said although the dance concerns a heavy topic, Tachner was the right person to take it on.

awareness. Tachner said that dance is a valuable method of activism.

All of what I’ve written isn’t some groundbreaking revelation here. In the rest of the Western world, direct recruitment as a practice has been largely abolished. Most European nations now recruit only from eighteen and above, according to Child Soldiers International.

“It’s not only self-expression, for the dancers themselves and feeling like they’re doing something,” she said. “But it’s to spread a message.”

Soliman said dances about topics such as this need to be handled delicately.

It isn’t fearmongering or wrong to say that some of the people who are exposed to US army recruitment will join the military. And, as the American Journal of Public Health put it, those who join as a result of practices “disturbingly similar to predatory grooming,” risk being injured during their service. As history has proven, too often fatally.

Then, the students form a circle, and collapse together onto the wood floor.

An audio begins — a mashup of news anchors, repeating variations of the same thing: a report to the nation of another school shooting.

Even excluding the possibility of death, 45% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had filed claims for permanent disabilities by 2012 according to the National Veterans Foundation, and over 15% were diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It’s obvious why recruiters on campus generally don’t plaster this fact all over their colorful and meticulously edited brochures.

Throughout, Tachner is the focal point, performing her senior piece, an emotional and provocative dance about gun violence in America.

Tachner is choreographing it at Luna Dance Studio with the help of her instructors, Nadeen Soliman and Serena Rodriguez, and will perform at the studio’s recital on April 29 and 30 at Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center. Tickets are sold out.

The dance piece, depicting a classroom disrupted by a shooting and students creating a barricade, was inspired by seeing shootings in the news, Tachner said.

“After the shooting in the elementary school over the summer, right before summer hit, I went out of the country for a while and I found myself thinking about it all the time,” she said. “What I wanted to do to become an advocate for change.”

Detractors of course will offer a plethora of supposed benefits: for example, the offers of educational opportunities that low-income students often do not get. With the average application fee being $45, as stated by an article by U.S. News, this is far out of reach for families living paycheck-to-paycheck. According to a study by the Brookings Institute, the US Aarmy has become an exception to wider wage stagnation, with members earning more than their civilian counterparts.

To drive her message home, Tachner included other students in her dance, instead of creating a solo piece, which is typical for seniors.

Is it not more concerning that we’ve created a pathway to education through the militaryarmy, one that targets these aforementioned low income students? We routinely condemn the Russian and Chinese governments for these same types of tactics, so why is that we get a pass on this?

In January, there were back-to-back mass shootings in California, both killing several people near the Bay Area. This streak of shootings added to Tachner’s

“It’s important to [to speak out] to serve really any topics that might dancers feel passionate about and help in any way to pray to bring like that vision to life,” Soliman said.

Tachner, as part of Luna Dance Studio, has participated in several pieces related to social activism in the past, covering topics like mental health and suicide

“With a topic as heavy as this, the most difficult aspect is making sure that dancers and families feel comfortable with the dance and its message,” Soliman said.

Tachner said Soliman told her about dropping her child off at elementary school and seeing other parents dropping their kids off in tears. This led her to consider giving the dance piece a more hopeful feeling, but she eventually rejected that idea.

“We didn’t want the ending of it to seem sad and to make everybody sad, but what I said to that was: I’m done having hope — I want change instead,” she said.

Gunn High School senior Allie Tachner hides behind a chair during a practice of her senior dance piece. The dance, set to a distorted version of “What a Wondeful World,” acts out scenes of school shootings. “That’s the goal of the piece — to just convey what it feels like to be a student in all of this,” Tachner said.

The current geopolitical environment hints towards a renewed cold war between the US, China, and Russia. It’s not inconceivable that there will be renewed military conflict, and many of these students-turned-recruits from across the US may find themselves in battlefield situations. It’s more important to stop this now before these children make not just a career decision,

Photos by ASH MEHTA

“What I wanted to do to become an advocate for change.”

ALLIE TACHNER Gunn High School senior

“It’s important to serve really any topics that my dancers feel passionate about and help in any way to bring that vision to life.”

— ALLIE TACHNER, Gunn High School senior

LEFT: Military recruiters stand at the quad at Palo Alto High School, with informational pamphlets.

RIGHT: A student does a pull-up as part of the recruiters’ booth.

BALENTINE

Real cost of inflation

How inflation affects Paly students and small businesses

As customers wait in line at CVS at Town and Country, a few grumble or complain about the rising prices and inflation. This isn’t an unfamiliar occurrence for Anna van Riesen, a Palo Alto High School junior and former retail employee at Town and Country.

“When I take off tags and put tags back on, I’ve noticed increasing prices,” van Riesen said. “I’ve also seen prices going up when I’m working check-out.”

The topic of “inflation” has almost become a buzzword. These words are ubiquitous in the news and are associated with everything — gas prices, groceries prices, hygiene product prices, medication prices, and more. Food prices almost doubled nationally during the pandemic, according to Harvard Public Health.

The effects are tangible at Town and Country Village, across the street from Paly, where students say they have seen big increases in food and product prices.

Van Riesen has seen inflation, especially with cough medicine and paper products, and has experienced customers’ frustration with it over her past few months.

“When I’m doing check-out for people, a lot of times, customers say out loud

‘Oh my God, why is this so expensive’” van Riesen said.

“I understand why they’re frustrated, but it’s just as frustrating for me when they then go and aggressively voice their frustrations out to service workers or retail workers when we have no control over it.”

Sophomore Kaitlyn Gonzalez has noticed inflation in another product category—female hygiene products.

“When I’ve tried to get pads or tampons for my period or haircare and skin-

care from CVS — things that I need for my hygiene — it can get too expensive,” Gonzalez said. “I used to be able to go to other stores for cheaper prices but inflation is everywhere.”

Already being affected by the “Pink Tax,” female hygiene products have also been affected by the recent inflation. The average unit price of tampons in the U.S. was over 10% higher in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to Bloomberg.

Paly students have been finding ways to deal with the price hikes of food at Town and Country. One popular approach is taking advantage of the free lunch at school, which was recently expanded to every public school student in California.

“I started to get school lunch a lot more often if I wasn’t able to bring something from home,” sophomore Vit Do said. “I just steered clear of getting lunch at Town and Country as often because I started noticing that it way too expensive and hard to get lunch below $10.”

Looking at recent inflation trends, it’s unlikely that prices will be reaching pre-pandemic levels any time soon. The Paly and Palo Alto community just have to find ways to respond and adjust their purchasing habits.

“Hearing something about the government shut-down, you might not see your day-to-day life impacted, but gas and food prices are a lot more tangible,” said Van Risen. “People should just keep in mind that the people checking them out are their neighbors, their friends, people as well, and instead of unfairly letting our frustrations out about the economy on a retail worker, we should all adjust our daily lifestyle and spending.”

“I used to be able to go to other stores for cheaper prices but inflation is everywhere.”

— KAITLYN GONZALEZ, sophomore

Photo by ANNELISE

Palo Alto High School senior Eliza Mutz picks up lunch from the sandwich and salad section Traders Joes. Trader Joes prices, as with most prices at Town and Country, have increased as inflation has risen. “I think it used to be a lot cheaper,” Mutz said, referring to Trader Joes prices.

uting materials for relief.

Mostofizadeh spoke to Anthro about her personal experience with the flood.

“Thankfully my mom and I prepared well by going to the Palo Alto Airport where they were providing sandbags about 120,” Mostofizadeh placed them along our house with wooden planks as well.”

Voices that Escape

San Francisco gallery gives voice to refugees

When news of the impending flood first reached began panicking. Mora Oommen, ex ecutive director ty Service, a volunteer organization, quickly took action.

citywide effort.

n a bustling street known for vibrant graffiti and unique shops, the Refugee Eye gallery sits quietly between a baptist church and a crowded neighborhood park. The sleek black storefront catches onlookers’ eyes, some even stopping to peer inside, some even taking pictures of old newspaper clippings and flamboyant art festival posters.

O“A lot of youth came out when we put the word out that they could get service hours for it,” Oommen said. “The cities’ [Palo Alto and East Palo Alto] mayors came out.”

Oommen says that after a time of crisis, it’s important to examine what caused and exacerbated the problem.

“I think in the moment we all can’t all just need to roll up our sleeves and get what needs to be done, done,” Oommen said. “But I think then, we also need to hold people

The exhibits focus on highlighting umerous global conflicts,the campaign titled; “More Powerful Than Bullets” catches the eye, regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, featuring over 10 artists. The co-founders, both refugees themselves, vowed to create a safe space for fellow refugees to express their passion.

Since opening the first exhibit,

In this case, the substandard infrastructure of the Newell Bridge and

“My Gaza: A City in Photographs,” by co-founder Jehad Al-Saftawi in March 2022, Refugee Eye has gained attention nationwide. Their promise is to deliver a new exhibit every six weeks.“Many people connect with the exhibit because it shows an inside perspective of truly what it feels to leave home,” Lara Aburamadan, co-founder, said.

Chaucer Bridge exacerbated the effects of the flood.

“Both are supposed to be renovated and fixed and elevated because there’s not enough clearance for the water to go through so that’s why there’s a lot of flooding,” Oommen said. “Newell Bridge has already received funding and been discussed at City Council meetings, but nothing has been done.”

planning and approval process has been ongoing for the past 11 years.

Aburamadanhas been making waves internationally. She was chosen by Time Magazine among 34 spotlighted photojournalists around the world. Aburadamn and Al-Saftawi have created a safe envir onment where refugees can display their artistics abilities. “All we knew is that we wanted to create something related to visual art that would make sure that refu-

According to the California Department of Transportation, the Newell Bridge has been deemed “functionally obsolete” on multiple occasions. The

It has been more than 25 years since the city of Palo Alto started discussing the reconstruction of the Newell Bridge and Pope-Chaucer Bridge; yet, Palo Alto has moved very slowly. Fixing the bridges

would mean less risk of flooding and endangering those who live near the Newell and Pope-Chaucer Bridges since it would increase the amount of water that the San Francisquito Creek can hold. [hopefully Brad from Public Works Department].

With constant delays and project reprioritization, construction isn’t set to take place until 2024, which is a one-year delay from its previous 2023 completion date. It will take about a year and a half to complete according to the City’s website. But with climate change creating more erratic weather patterns and events, can we wait that long before another flood flashes through?

“In the moment we all can’t be pointing fingers — we all just need to roll up our sleeves and get what needs to be done, done.”

— MORA OOMMEN, YCS executive director

BEFORE DANGER STRIKES. The San Francisquito Creek flows peacefully under the Newell Bridge during good weather. However, its low clearance becomes a problem during floods.

and MINIRVA VILLEGAS

The artist’s dilemma

What AI means

the future of art

Who gets a seat

for

at the table?

sentation in social studies curriculum.

Text by VIVIAN LIN and NATALIE NEUMANN

California recommends schools collaborate with local tribes in curriculum

THow do we unlearn misconceptions about Indigenous peoples?

What is the true history of coloniza-

he sound of graphite against paper and the swirling of brushes in water are the only sounds in the room as students in Tracey Atkinson’s PRIME class immerse themselves in their art projects. Colorful acrylic paintings, still life studies, and

er. As accessibility increases, AI has been used more frequently to generate art pieces.

Starting out in the late 1990s, AI was used to create computer graphics and even music and poetry, according to an article by V7 Labs, an AI annotation plat-

California followed this trend in September with the passage of Assembly Bill 1703, which attempts to reframe the way Indigenous history is taught. AB 1703 attempts to bring more Indigenous people into the conversation by encouraging schools to col-

she would be grateful for any opportunities to collaborate with local Indigenous groups.

a statement prohibiting the usage of AI art in students’ art portfolios, and she expects colleges to follow suit.

“I think the problem [with] AI is that [in] art making, you have to understand how to use the elements and principles of art and you have to understand how

“My desire is that I am very much aware, given how much of an advocate the various tribes are, I know there’s advocacy there, they will embrace AB 1703 and reach

ies will be a California graduation requirement starting with the class of 2030, which has provoked school districts across the state to revise their curriculum. “It’s going to be even more important, as we start to build out our Ethnic Studies curriculum, for us to make sure that the right voices are at the table,” Conaway said. “That includes all the cultures that are intended to be represented.”

According to the Education Data

have implications for the tribes if they’re suddenly getting inundated with school requests,” Drewes said. “It’s like, for each local tribe, are you gonna hire a coordinator who can coordinate speakers or who can manage a curriculum?”

SJP history teacher Eric Bloom said that he sometimes faces resistance when removing curriculum to make space for amplifying unheard voices, including Indigenous voices. He hopes that this bill

does is that it will open up opportunities for the willing.”

AB 1703 also requires schools to identify achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and to create plans to rectify these gaps. Sano said that, though there are only a few Indigenous people at PAUSD, it’s still important to address the systemic factors affecting those students.

“Just because there’s only a handful

“We have to move past that time where we’re saying, ‘Oh, we’re waiting for our Indige-

a

Photo by NICO LANDOLFI

Calling on Congress

Students fight for Muwekma in D.C.

Four Palo Alto High School students recently returned from a trip to D.C. where they worked with Muwekma Ohlone leaders to fight for the tribe’s federal recognition as a tribe.

The Muwekma were formerly recognized, and then lost their tribal status. The campaign to be re-recognized has been going on for a few years, and is finally reaching the ears of Congress. The Muwekma traveled to D.C. from March 6 to March 9 to meet with Congress and lobby for the return of their federally recognized status, and the students joined them to support them and learn from them.

The students — juniors Katya Oks, Athya Paramesh, Nico Landolfi, and Ella Bishop — were inspired to travel with the Muwekma by their history unit in the Social Justice Pathway, in which they learned about Kimberly Teehee, the Cherokee delegate to Congress, the ongoing issue of kidnapping and murdering Native American women, and the recognition of the Muwekma.

“I feel like Native American history is so disregarded in history classes, and I always wanted to learn more about the history of Indigenous people, especially in the United States,” Oks said. “And working with these people directly is so great not only because it’s different from just learning about it in class and like actually talking with these people who are affected by these issues feels more personal.”

They began a still ongoing project of writing postcards to advocate for the Muwekma’s recognition, and were offered the opportunity to travel to D.C. by their teacher. According to Oks, they all jumped at the chance.

Bishop said the students felt their role in meetings in D.C. were to provide additional support to the Muwekma.

“So I think we were just there to just show that it’s not just adults who are talking about it or like the tribe that’s talking about it,” Bishop said. “It’s schools and students as well.”

As representatives for the whole sixty students of the Social Justice Pathway, their potential influence on politics was important to emphasize, according to Bishop.

“We are the next generation of people who are going to be voting for you and we want to see what you do about these issues we care about,” she said.

Bishop emphasized that the Muwekma’s recognition is especially important because of their prior recognition that was stripped from them.

“It’s important to clarify that they were previously recognized by the BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs], and it’s less of a like ‘let’s recognize this tribe!’ and more like undoing the mistake of the past and just reconfirming their original status,” she said.

Bishop said the trip fueled their passion for helping the Muwekma.

“We were already involved in this issue, but meeting those people and working alongside them really helped make this issue a personal matter for all of us,” Bishop said. “Because you hear their sto-

ry like over and over again, trying to talk to these legislators and it’s just like, every time it’s still that same kind of impact.”

It also inspired them to continue their work for the Muwekma, they said.

“We were all like plotting out next steps, and talking to them has given us so much momentum and firepower to kind of keep this going,” Bishop said. “It’s like it really keeps the wheels turning.”

Going forward, the students who went on the trip want to honor and fight for the Muwekma in new ways.

For example, Oks mentioned the idea of placing a plaque for the Muwekma in the revamped Tower Building, and having a land acknowledgment during graduation.

“Now that we’re back and regrouping with our SJP cohort as a whole, there’s just a lot more of us and we can get in a lot more places and get a lot more done,” Bishop said. “So we’re pretty optimistic about what we can do with it.”

Text by EVELYN ZHANG

Gaining visibility for the tribe

In May 2022, the Muwekma Ohlone tribe was engaged in an ongoing fight for federal recognition.

Although the tribe has resided in the Bay Area for 12,000 years and still has 600 living members, it still lacks the status of being federally acknowledged as a sovereign state. A year later, although progress with political support has been made, there is still a long way to go.

The tribe has been pushing for the passage of the California Senate Joint Resolution 13, introduced March 2022, which would establish them as a federally recognized tribe.

This status would make the tribe eligible for government funding and protections, which are especially important in times of crisis.

Moreover, the Muwekma would have the inherent right to self-government.

Aside from the ongoing DNA research that proves the Muwekma have been residents of the Bay Area for thousands of years and petitions that the tribe have been using to promote awareness about their fight against the injustice of not being federally recognized, the Muwekma have also made advances in the political sphere.

At the beginning of January, Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh was in D.C. for two weeks and met with both members of the California delegation and the national delegation.

“She gained bipartisan support from people across the country and from Speaker Pelosi and from Congressman Obernolte,” according to Jonathan Michelangelo Lockwood, the tribe’s spokesperson.

Federal recognition has been a drawn-out process. While other tribes have achieved recognition from the

Interior Department, the Department was unwilling to help the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, according to Lockwood.

The lack of federal recognition has had substantial impacts on the tribe.

“Because the tribe didn’t have a federal recognition, they were not able to access the same services that other people were able to during COVID,” Lockwood said. “In terms of moving forward with federal recognition, the tribe will have more economic security and economic freedom to exist.”

The Muwekma Ohlone tribe believes that this fight demonstrates the resilience and perseverance of the tribe as they continue fighting for justice.

“Justice for Muwekma is not just an idea, it’s a mandate,” Lockwood said.

“Members of the Bay Area delegation need to listen to the Bay Area communities and do everything in their power to right the wrongs of the past.”

“We’re about to be voting age, we are the next generation of people who are going to be voting for you and we want to see what you do about these issues we care about.”

— ELLA BISHOP, D.C. trip attendee

Left: Social Justice Pathway students discuss Muwekma federal recognition with representatives on Capitol Hill. Photo by Ella Bishop

One year later — what has changed for the Muwekma tribe?

Right: Social Justice Pathway students stand with members of the Muwekma delegation to discuss Muwekma federal recognition.

Photo by Nico Landolfi

The artist’s dilemma

What AI means for the future of art

Who gets a seat

sentation in social studies curriculum.

Text by VIVIAN LIN and NATALIE NEUMANN

California recommends schools collaborate with local tribes in curriculum

HTow do we unlearn misconceptions about Indigenous peoples?

What is the true history of coloniza-

he sound of graphite against paper and the swirling of brushes in water are the only sounds in the room as students in Tracey Atkinson’s PRIME class immerse themselves in their art projects. Colorful acrylic paintings, still life studies, and

er. As accessibility increases, AI has been used more frequently to generate art pieces.

Starting out in the late 1990s, AI was used to create computer graphics and even music and poetry, according to an article by V7 Labs, an AI annotation plat-

California followed this trend in September with the passage of Assembly Bill 1703, which attempts to reframe the way Indigenous history is taught. AB 1703 attempts to bring more Indigenous people into the conversation by encouraging schools to col-

she would be grateful for any opportunities to collaborate with local Indigenous groups.

a statement prohibiting the usage of AI art in students’ art portfolios, and she expects colleges to follow suit.

“I think the problem [with] AI is that [in] art making, you have to understand how to use the elements and principles of art and you have to understand how

“My desire is that I am very much aware, given how much of an advocate the various tribes are, I know there’s advocacy there, they will embrace AB 1703 and reach

aaway some jobs. Especially since you don’t really need to pay AI that much like normal artists.”

Atkinson said that while AI platforms can be used as a tool, AI lacks the ability to make art that has meaning to it. She also said that companies should use real

Wu said that AI still lacks the ability to do more advanced tasks, so some artists’ careers will not be im pacted as of now.

“There are a lot of

“We have to move past that time where we’re saying, ‘Oh, we’re waiting for our Indige-

Dear Ms. Cohen...

Will Paly take on the new AP African American Studies course?

New

Miren Boda sits on the bustling Quad at brunch. She talks with a friend, agonizing over Paly’s numerous senior history elective offerings. The course selection deadline is approaching fast, and she’s torn. If the new AP African American studies course had been available, Boda said taking that for her senior year would have been a no-brainer.

Every morning, English teacher Lindsay Cohen enters room 218, coffee in hand. She sits at her desk, an “Irish writers” poster on her left, strings of cards behind her, and opens up her sticker-adorned laptop to the phrase: “Remember your why.” Cohen’s “why” is a piece of binder paper, crumpled up from being read over a dozen times, stored carefully in her car compartment for three years.

ersial AP

The controversial AP

This course was piloted at 60 high schools this year, and will be broadly available to American high schools in the 2024-25 school year, according to the College Board. If Palo Alto High School offers the course, current underclassmen may have the chance to add this class to their transcripts.

can Americans.” can because Paly is lacking in other history AP

jor at Notre Dame de Namur for her undergraduate degree. Throughout college, she worked with imprisoned and recently released teenagers. She did an internship helping children in a juvenile detention center write personal statements at Hillcrest Juvenile Hall, after which she mentored recently incarcerated teenagers and young adults.

According to the rankings and demographics website, US News, 1.3% of Paly students are Black, compared to the 5% average for California public high schools. Senior Wyeth Minami said this class would be beneficial to offer because of that.

This paper is a heartfelt note from a student at Cohen’s last school, Downtown Prep.

“This girl had recently called me a not-so-lovely name and was very frustrated by my class and life,” Cohen said.

AP African American studies offers high school students an opportunity to explore the robust contributions and experiences of African Americans, throughout all of US History. It touches on fields ranging from literature and the arts to science and geography, according to the College Board website. However, the curriculum was edited after Florida banned the class, according to the New York Times (check sidebar).

Soon after, the student wrote Cohen a note apologizing and explaining her situation. Cohen said that this note is one of the best things she’s ever received from a student.

Cohen joined Palo Alto High School’s English department this year, and her career has spanned from teaching in juvenile detention centers to low-income schools. She hopes to bring this array of knowledge, as well as student-teacher connection, to Paly.

However, she grew up in an affluent, predominantly white neighborhood. She said that she aims to push Paly students outside of their bubble, something she didn’t experience as much growing up.

Cohen started out as a sociology ma-

“I don’t think I did anything impactful or different,” Cohen said. “I’m sure most of them don’t even remember me, but I really remember all of the stories that they told me.”

“Speaking about African American people, this isn’t a very diverse school,” Minami said. “So I think it would be a good opportunity for people to learn a lot more about the culture and the community and the history surrounding Afri-

Cohen said she became a much more empathetic person through these opportunities. One memory that she said stuck out to her was learning about the precarious situation people on house arrest or parole are in.

“They actually have to pay for supplies for house arrest,” Cohen said. “If it breaks, or something doesn’t work, or your WiFi goes down, that’s on you, you’re going back.”

Cohen said her and her mentees were roughly the same age — late teens to early 20s. She said she learned a lot more from them than they did from her.

“I just remember sitting there and feeling really confused why I was supposed to be mentoring them,” Cohen said.

Though Cohen said she originally planned to pursue a criminology degree,

Sano said the department is prioritizing adapting to the new California gradua tion requirement of Ethnic Studies. This graduation requirement will take effect in California starting with the graduating class of 2029-30 (current fifth graders).

she said working with incarcerated youth made her too sad and she decided to become a teacher instead.

The first school Cohen worked at was Downtown College Preparatory, a charter high school in San Jose. DCP is a predominantly Latino, low-income, first-generation school, and Cohen said she learned so much from teaching there.

“We’re focused on that [Ethnic Studies] and everything that comes with that new requirement so we have not even given a thought to this new offering,” Sano said.

Sano also said the department values genuine learning over the prestige of a class.

“It was probably one of the best things I could have done for myself,” Cohen said. “I learned about a culture that I never learned [about]. I never knew what a quinceañera was.”

There’s lots of people there who I’m sure are not happy about what’s going on, but they [Florida] seem to have a government right now that has pretty uniformly … decided that it’s bad to be of an identity that’s not of their choosing.

Do you think Paly should offer the class?

has made the course mandatory effective the 2025-26 school year.

Cohen said that DCP, because of its smaller population, felt like a family. She said one of her takeaways from DCP was the individualized attention and connection between teachers and students.

“Adding on more APs just because they’re APs is not necessarily something that’s at the top of our list, when what is at the top of our list is teaching these classes in which all the voices in the room with all this diversity of skills and experience, are what drive you know the discussions and the richness of our classrooms.”

It’s a class that should be available to all students. It’s particularly important to non-African American students. It’s just like one of these histories that the more you learn about all the diverse groups that have come through the United States, the more it opens your eyes to, Oh, this is the way the world has worked.

The Ethnic Studies Planning committee, composed of four teachers from Gunn and Paly, plans to make the transition as smooth as possible. “I hope it [transition] will be positive, and that kids would be excited about having this new class as a requirement,” Mary Sano said.

Cohen said every junior class at DCP would go on a “junior trip,” where they would visit colleges together. The goal was to increase college matriculation rates, as the application process is more difficult for first-generation students, according to Cohen.

Sano said that although adding the class is not the department’s first priority, it should be considered at some point.

What are your thoughts on the College Board’s revision of the curriculum?

The most significant aspect of the course is being comfortable with being uncomfortable, Cronin said.”If you can’t have discourse about [race], then we can never progress as a society,” Cronin said.

take a different class to fill up my studies,” freshman Sophia Zhang said. However, others see it as chance of exposure and learning and for many, their perspective depends on how much the course relates to modern issues compared to past events. “I think that it’s extremely important to learn about these things, but I feel as though it might be better if it wasn’t a graduation requirement and rather was taught in individual classes so it doesn’t affect your graduation,” freshman Ivy Lee said.

“The fact that this is particularly an African American Studies class is interesting,” she said. “And definitely worth at least at first a department discussion.”

At the end of the trip, DCP faculty would write each student a note.

“[Students] each get a handwritten letter by a teacher saying, ‘Hey, I know

“It’s important for us, as consumers of AP classes, to remember that the College Board is a for-profit institution they’re in the business of making money … But if this is a product that enough people want, sometimes capitalism comes through for us, right?”

Being able to talk about representation and letting students have exposure to it in Ethnic Studies could be a big step in improvement at Paly, according to Cronin.

“Research has shown that it has helped students of color to

While no further details have been released on this decision, the committee is working hard to prepare for this new requirement. “We are the ones starting to come up with the possibilities…, and we hope that students will be interested,” Sano said.

“I think history is an insanely important thing to know to be on top of what’s going on in today’s world.”

— SIMA THOMAS, Paly

kids would be excited about having this new class as a requirement.”

— MARY SANO, Social Sciences Instructional Lead

teacher Lindsay Cohen hopes to push you outside your bubble

“I’d never worked with sutdents outside the demographic that I always worked with.”

— LINDSAY COHEN, English teacher

gallery

er, the existence of the gallery wasn’t easily established. Al-Satawi said that it took a lot of plan ning and hard work since both of them had no prior experi ence or connections but, in the end, it was worth it. “[It] really res onated with us because it was but this way, we could talk about our homeland,” Al-Satawi said.

in an intense environment like Gaza pres sured him to leave at an early age. “This story isn’t only me though, it’s the story of all kids that grew up in places [where] they couldn’t stay,” Al-Satawi said. Al-Sa tawi said he was fortunate enough to work with journalists and gain language skills. This helped him be better prepared to leave and start a new life. “People [like me], we try to seek better opportunities and leave war ravaged places like their home country,” Al-Satawi said.

stand how important it is to be heard,” Yakunova said.

gives voice to refugees

ed neighborhood park. The sleek black storefront catches onlookers’ eyes, some even stopping to peer inside, some even

The exhibits focus on highlighting

es the eye, regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, featuring over 10 artists. The co-founders, both refugees themselves, vowed to create a safe space for fellow refugees to express their passion. Since opening the first exhibit,

started noticing that it way too expensive and hard to get lunch below $10.”

Looking at recent inflation trends, it’s unlikely that prices will be reaching pre-pandemic levels any time soon. The Paly and Palo Alto community just have to find ways to respond and adjust their purchasing habits.

“My Gaza: A City in Photographs,” by co-founder Jehad Al-Saftawi in March 2022, Refugee Eye has gained attention nationwide. Their promise is to deliver a new exhibit every six weeks.“Many people connect with the exhibit because it shows an inside perspective of truly what it feels to leave home,” Lara Aburamadan, co-founder, said.

Aburamadanhas been making waves internationally. She was chosen by Time Magazine among 34 spotlighted photojournalists around the world. Aburadamn and Al-Saftawi have created a safe envir onment where refugees can display their artistics abilities. “All we knew is that we wanted to create something related to visual art that would make sure that refu-

“Hearing something about the government shut-down, you might not see your day-to-day life impacted, but gas and food prices are a lot more tangible,” said Van Risen. “People should just keep in mind that the people checking them out are their neighbors, their friends, people as well, and instead of unfairly letting our frustrations out about the economy on a retail worker, we should all adjust our daily lifestyle and spending.”

gees didn’t feel alone,” Aburamadan said. Both friends didn’t know where to start helping, but in 2018, Aburamadan started using the hashtag #RefugeeEye on Instagram. This hashtag was shared across friends and families and from there, an idea, resulting in the current creation of the art gallery, flourished. “It really resonated with us because we wanted to find a way to talk about our homeland and our own experiences,” Al-Satawi said.

The future of Refugee Art is still uncertain as many of the artists themselves don’t have citizenship papers. The artists are refugees seeking asylum; thus they have the ultimate goal of returning back home, which causes instability. “It’s difficult,” Aburdamn said, “Can’t expect them to stay. Even for me, I’m still applying for my papers.” Being one of the few Bay Area galleries showcasing refugee’s art, the commitment doesn’t go unnoticed by Palo Alto High School students. Sophomore Vit Do admires the nonprofit organization’s spirited passion for featuring voices that have been silenced. “I think their art is inspiring and creative by showing the refugees’ perspective through art which is not commonly seen,” Do said. The “More Powerful Than Bullets” art exhibit was prominent in depicting the radical change the artists experienced since Russia invaded their nation, according to their website.

Tetiana Yakunova, a Ukrainian artist

Refugee Eye has created an environment dedicated towards connecting the art to the viewers according to Aburdamn. More people can relate to the art because it not only gives an inside perspective of refugees but what it feels to leave home in general.

“I think what we are doing here is impactful, and purposeful. Our ultimate goal is to simply help people not feel alone,” Aburdamn said.

Palo Alto High School senior Eliza Mutz picks up lunch from the sandwich and salad section Traders Joes. Trader Joes prices, as with most prices at Town and Country, have increased as inflation has risen. “I think it used to be a lot cheaper,” Mutz said, referring to Trader Joes prices.

Text by LARA SU DUMANLI

Photo b: JEREMY DUKES

AT FIRST GLANCE: Storefront of Refugee Eye Art Gallery in San Francisco’s Mission District. Magazine clippings and art festival fills the front as the refugee art can be seen clearly from the window.

Photo by Jeremy Dukes.

“[It] helps the victims of wars and people who have experienced it understand how important it is to be heard.”

— TETIANA YAKUNOVA, artist for Refugee Eye

Give peace a c

Recruiters on campus are antithetical to peace

e peace a chance

There is no place that is seen as more off limits for violence than school. It is as much a sacred place as any temple: a crime universally condemned in international law if you put it in harm’s way. So, it’s a bit confusing on why, of all places, military recruiters have unlimited access to them.

It’s safe to say that most Palo Alto High School students have been accustomed to the United States military booths that pop up on the Quad during lunch every other month. Both on Club Day and, sometimes, seemingly out of the blue in front of the library. The booths offer pamphlets, posters, and imposing figures of military authority with them. On a good day, they even bring a pull-up bar.

They arrive, setting up a temporary outpost, and leave as quickly as they arrive. We are so accustomed to their presence in a place meant for education that you might barely even bat an eye at them.

Tracing back the roots of military recruitment, particularly in the US, can take us all the way back to the earliest days of America’s emergence. During the Revolutionary War, children were often pressured to become soldiers.

But in a post9/11 world, military recruitment within schools became a magnitude larger. The passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002

allowed for recruiters to have full access to “secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings,” according to . With this newly acquired information, they were able to find a pool of people to recruit. According to CBS News, nearly one-third of all American soldiers who were mortally wounded in Iraq, the exact number being 8,895, were between the ages of 18 to 21, many of them likely exposed to joining the army through their own school.

It isn’t fearmongering or wrong to say that some of the people who are exposed to US army recruitment will join the military. And, as the American Journal of Public Health put it, those who join as a result of practices “disturbingly similar to predatory grooming,” risk being injured during their service. As history has proven, too often fatally.

Even excluding the possibility of death, 45% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had filed claims for permanent disabilities by 2012 according to the National Veterans Foundation, and over 15% were diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It’s obvious why recruiters on campus generally don’t plaster this fact all over their colorful and meticulously edited brochures.

Detractors of course will offer a plethora of supposed benefits: for example, the offers of educational opportunities that low-income students often do not get. With the average application fee being $45, as stated by an article by U.S. News, this is far out of reach for families living paycheck-to-paycheck. According to a study by the Brookings Institute, the US Aarmy has become an exception to wider wage stagnation, with members earning more than their civilian counterparts.

Is it not more concerning that we’ve created a pathway to education through the militaryarmy, one that targets these aforementioned low income students? We routinely condemn the Russian and Chinese governments for these same types of tactics, so why is that we get a pass on this?

All of what I’ve written isn’t some groundbreaking revelation here. In the rest of the Western world, direct recruitment as a practice has been largely abolished. Most European nations now recruit only from eighteen and above, according to Child Soldiers International.

The current geopolitical environment hints towards a renewed cold war between the US, China, and Russia. It’s not inconceivable that there will be renewed military conflict, and many of these students-turned-recruits from across the US may find themselves in battlefield situations. It’s more important to stop this now before these children make not just a career decision, but a life or death decision in the process.

The peaceful doves are gone. The integration of the military into our schools risks undermining peace and turning yet another space into a permanent recruitment outpost. As a student body, no, as a nation, the rejection of this practice should be a top priority. Keep military recruiters off of our campus.

And maybe then the doves will come back.

LEFT: Military recruiters stand at the quad at Palo Alto High School, with informational pamphlets.

RIGHT: A student does a pull-up as part of the recruiters’ booth.

Photos by ASH MEHTA

in case of an emergency,” said Abdullah Coskun, vice president of Stanford’s Turkish Student Association.

People are still being rescued by humanitarian aids and relief support after 250 hours underneath the rubble, the Turkish government is focusing on detaining “the culprits” – construction companies. Over 100 were detained by a new “Earthquake Crimes Investigation” unit which was established in response to this disaster, according to Wall Street Journal.

Whether these detained building contractors are guilty or not, the responsibility of assuring the public’s safety should always be the government’s. The World Health Organization reported that almost 26 million people have been personally affected by the earthquake and instead of focusing on those, politicians are protecting themselves by refusing to acknowledge their negligence.

This result is linked to a long- line of corruption that runs deep in the Turkish government and finally after this earthquake, change needs to be implemented. The government needs to do better. Not only for its own political future, but also for its people. There is often guilt linked with leaving your home country, like how my parents felt, and it weighs heavily especially when a disaster strikes. Although it’s frustrating trying to support your family by fundraising instead of being there, it’s all we can do from across the Atlantic Ocean.“Of course I feel hopeless, but we’ve fundraised over $100,000 so even though it’s a tiny drop in the ocean, it helps,” President of Stanford’s Turkish Student Association, Baris Baran Gundogdu said.

As a Turkish citizen, I am appalled by the lack of measure taken to combat this diaster. I know how beautiful my country is, the tenacity we have, and for the government to be destroying it is heartbreaking. In Turkish we say ‘daha iyisini yap’ which translates to “do better” so on behalf of my aunts, uncles, cousins and the rest of Turkey eagerly watching the news hoping that the death toll doesn’t increase, please do better.

In accordance with the Stanford Turkish Student Association, please support the Bridge to Turkiye relief fund.

Text

Art by LAUREN WONG

More than

e than meets the eyebrow

What my unibrow means to me

When I wake up in the morning, brush my teeth, and stare into the mirror to check on a concerning pimple, I’m always met with the reflection of a little patch of hair between my eyebrows. When I shave it, one might find a few pieces of hair in the sink, trivial compared to the near Afro-worthy hair on the top of my head. But to me, my unibrow remains my little hirsute beast, having made its home on my face.

This, my friends, is the unibrow. A streak of hair that connects two separate eyebrows. And it begs the question: How coulda simple strip of hair be such a menace?

Being Pakistani-American certainly comes with its benefits. I have a lot of pride in my culture.

Taking away the Pakistani part of my identity would render me unrecognizable. However, my mom’s side of the family came with one other special trait — being genetically disposed to a unibrow. It’s not exactly rare among Pakistanis, but it’s particularly prevalent in my extended family. So, just like my uncle and grandfather before me, I won the genetic lottery.

The unibrow will always follow me. I never paid much attention to the eyebrows of others. It was a fact of life. An inanimate part of the body.

On a lazy middle school afternoon surfing the web, I came across “The Stereotype Song” by Your Favorite Martian.

It was tailored for a middle school sense of humor. No one is spared, but it’s meant to ridicule stereotypes. The one little line that caught my attention? “Let’s come together and live in this world like a unibrow on an Indian girl.”

Emerging from the depths of my mind, my unibrow came alive. It was my hairy, burly, baneful little horror.

For a time, I could ignore it. Luckily for me, my unibrow hadn’t actually been brought up in conversation outside of a passing statement of fact. There wasn’t any point in addressing it.

But it didn’t go away. I realized that I was almost alone in having it. Sure, Frida Kahlo might have proudly paraded hers, but the closest thing I had to representation would be Bert from Sesame Street. Nobody likes a unibrow.

Mainstream conceptions of how one looks at themselves are influenced by Eurocentric standards of beauty. ‘Ethnic’ features are particularly frowned upon. The unibrow is caught in that crossfire.

Even with an increase in representation, those ‘ethnic’ features are washed away. Zendaya, often lauded

County “Strike Team” focuses on guns

Santa Clara County expands measures against gun violence

as an example of minority representa tion in media, admits that she’s Holly wood’s ‘acceptable version of a Black girl.’ In the end, all of that new rep resentation still has the aesthetics of white beauty, just without the white person. And that leaks into how we view ourselves. You don’t see a Pakistani kid with unibrows; rath er people feel pressured to conform with very specific standards set white-dominated society.

The Santa Clara County of Supervisors is expanding its ‘gun violence strike team’ fol lowing the recent mass shoot ings in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park, focusing on confiscating people with an existing court order or that present a potential threat.

Well, if you do see one scruffy kistan kid with a unibrow: That’d just happen to be me. But I’m the excep tion, not the norm. And even though I’ve always accepted that about my self, it still stings to know it. I’ll never be part of the majority, the known, or the familiar. It took me a while to embrace that fact about myself. Being outside the norm used to seem like a downside, but i’ve come to love me for me. Not for anything else.

The five-person strike team’s mission is to “take guns from people, who frankly, shouldn’t have them,” said Cindy Chavez, member of the Board of Supervisors.

A large aspect of the expansion is that the funding will not be taken out of any other department and only existing laws will be applied. This strike team isn’t implementing anything new, but simply

dent is going to be and that’s one of the reasons that I’m so focused on using the ing as many guns as quickly as possible and as safely as possible,” Chavez said.

“We are using grants and the $900,000

The unibrow makes me unique ly me. My buddy between eyebrows has become to me a symbol of taking on the standard of beauty in my own little way. The unibrow makes me . A person not dreading shaving day or feigning security, but a person proud of his identity.

The Board is set to approve almost a million dollars for new local positions, bringing the unit size to 23 people, ac cording to Chavez .

Although this plan has been voted on by the Santa Clara County Board, the enforcement of these actions rely on the Santa Clara County’s judge’s approval. Temporary removal orders are easier to get during critical circumstances before a full hearing can occur.

This is a message to You. To with crooked teeth, big noses, bushy eyebrows, large stomachs, anything deemed imperfect by society. We de serve to love our bodies. You deserve to love yourself, your features, and what you are as a person.

fornia, Gibbons-Shapiro said that this is exactly the right time for the strike team

“California has some of the strongest gun laws in the country, and they’re only meaningful if we do the things to enforce

After the 2019 Gilroy Garlic shooting when the gunman legally obtained but illegally transported his gun to California, politicians have been working on a solution to make it harder for these in stances to occur again.

We can learn to be a bit happier with ourselves.

UNIBROW: Faizan Kashmiri, Paly sophomore and author of this piece, poses for a photo. He has had a unibrow all his life and does not shave it as a form of self-expression. He hopes to reduce the stigma around unibrows and help those with unibrows accept them.

“We’ve seen both the rise in privately-made guns and the rise of illegally-trafficked guns into our state,” James Gibbons-Shapiro, the assistant district attor-

“Well, if you do see one scruffy Pakistani kid with a unibrow: that’d just happen to be me. But I’m the exception, not the norm.”

“No one likes a unibrow.”

“We have to dramatical ly reduce the number of firearms that are in our community.”

Santa Clara County assistant district

Photo by ANNELISE BALENTINE

INCUBATOR SPOTLIGHT

Palo Alto High School’s Incubator journalism class is currently home to four publications: Anthro Magazine, KPLY, [proof], and Ink. Anthro Magazine has compiled some of the content these publications have produced this quarter to give a taste of what our class has been doing. We encourage you to check each of these publications out!

KPLY is Paly’s online podcasting publication, providing weekly campus updates via Quad Talks and features on campus culture. Tune in to listen to dozens of podcasts covering everything from cultural analysis to current events and student opinions.

Executive Producer: Madelyn Castro

Listen on Soundcloud, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts: KPLY Paly Radio

Follow on Instagram: @KPLYPalyRadio

IN THIS ISSUE

5 County “Strike Team” focuses on guns

6 Activism around the world

7 The mayor’s mission

8 ‘Pretend equity’?

10 Overflowing with danger

12 The real cost of inflation

14 Power en pointe

16 Dear Ms. Cohen...

18 The artist’s dilemma

20 Who gets a seat at the table?

22 Calling on Congress

23 Gaining visibility for the tribe

Editors-in-Chief:

Arati Periyannan and Annelise Balentine

Cover: Kai Silverberg

INK.

Editor-in-Chief: Saanvi Garg

[proof] is Paly’s fine arts and photography magazine, focused on showcasing student artists and the Bay Area’s artistic community through features, artist profiles, photo eessays, and a Paly student gallery section.

Submit your photography or art to: proof.paly@gmail.com

Ink is a literary magazine dedicated to student expression. Our central mission is to create a platform for diverse student voices. We believe reading and sharing writing is vital to the writerly experience.

24

Cover: Tyler Wong anthromagazine.org

Submit your writing to: literarymagazineink@gmail.com