BHS Jacket 2023/24 Issue 13

BY CECILIA TILES staff writer

The Berkeley High School Florence Schwimley Little Theater was filled with color, song, dance, and applause as the cast of “Urinetown” performed their second of five shows on Saturday, Feb. 24. Families, friends, and students alike gathered in the theater to watch the BHS drama and stagecraft programs present their rendition of the Tony Award-winning musical. This was BHS’s first musical in many years, largely due to COVID-19, and much to the delight of the audience, it did not disappoint.

The set was filled with well-constructed moving structures and stairs, highlighted by neon lights and signs. The mood of each scene was wonderfully displayed through the staging. The poorer parts of Urinetown were bathed in a warm yellow and red, contrasting with the stark blue and cool tones of the wealthy district.

The vivid use of color extended to more than the lighting. The wardrobe department did an excellent job conveying the deep divide between wealthy and impoverished characters, with the ridiculously rich dressed up in creatively dramatic suits and dresses. A particularly exaggerated example was the main character Hope’s costume, which featured massive, bright pink shoulder spikes on an overcoat that added a comedic element to her more physical scenes. PAGE 13

BHS boys soccer declared North Coast Sectional champions

BY ANNA WILLIAMS staff writer

After finishing second in their league, the Berkeley High School School boys varsity soccer team advanced to the first round of the North Coast Sectional (NCS) Division 1 playoffs, having only lost two games in the regular season. BHS needed to win all four games in the

knockout tournament to be declared NCS champions. Their first opponent was Montgomery High School. Going into the game, BHS was heavily predicted to win, as they were ranked 50th in California, and Montgomery was ranked 152nd. The game ended up going to overtime, and BHS secured the win with a goal from senior Finn Gohlke. The final score was 1-0 BHS.

In the quarterfinals, the Jackets faced Redwood High School, who had gone undefeated in their league games. The game was very close, but neither team was able to score and secure the upper hand. The regular time and overtime both ended scoreless, 0-0, so the game went to a penalty shoot-out. Berkeley’s Gohlke, Oliver Gill, and Harlem Clemons were all able to score their penalty

kicks, and senior goalie Toby Jacobson-Bell was able to save all three of Redwood’s penalties, ensuring a BHS win.

In the semi-final of NCS, BHS went head-tohead with Monte Vista High School. The game was scoreless until the last two minutes, when senior Marlow Buettner rolled the ball into the net, securing Berkeley’s victory. PAGE 16

Boys soccer won four games to be declared champions.

PHOTOS BY ATTICUS LABANG, PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ELLA CREANE, ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANJA BALL

BUSD partners with CORE to improve Literacy Plan, curriculum

BY EVA KATZ staff writer

In the 2023-24 school year, Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) partnered with CORE Learning, an organization centered on improving learning services for schools so that students receive efficient and valuable instruction. As stated on the BUSD Literacy Plan website, through this partnership, the district hopes to “deliver professional development and coaching on the science of reading and foundational literacy skills”. According to the website, “The goal of the literacy action plan is to provide universal access to core curriculum, reduce inequities, align our systems, and promote partnerships between families and the school so that every student can flourish.”

The goals of the BUSD Literacy Plan are to develop programs that not only enhance general education

but also aid students who have, or are at risk for reading difficulties, reduce the achievement gap for students by increasing support, actively monitor students at the district level and ensure engagement of staff, as well as increase the quality of special education programs like Individualized Education Programs and Section 504 Plan development.

“My understanding of the Literacy Plan is right now they’re in a process of reviewing the curriculum at the elementary level, and there will be an adoption in 2025 of a new K-5(th grade) curriculum,” Rachel Manandhar, an education specialist and teacher in special education and literacy intervention, said. “They’re looking at curriculum, pedagogy, and intervention to meet students’ needs who aren’t making adequate progress within the current curriculum. The national conversation right now is around bringing the science of reading into schools and

closing the divide between research and practice.”

Chris Albeck, the director of curriculum and instruction at BUSD, said, “We recognize the necessity to have a comprehensive curriculum that all of our current educators are familiar with, trained on, and are implementing with accuracy and reliability.”

In May of 2017, four past and present BUSD families brought a lawsuit against BUSD under federal disability law. Then, in November of 2020, the BUSD board of directors unanimously voted to approve the Literacy Improvement Action Plan. The plan mentioned is a component of an agreement reached between BUSD and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc., along with other advocates.

“There are excellent teachers throughout this district, yet they’re not always equipped to support their students in the way they want to support them due to many different issues. It’s just a

question of capacity. You’re trying to move through the content and curriculum, yet you have students reading at all different levels,” Manandhar said. “The idea behind pairing professional learning with a curriculum adoption is so that we know why we’re doing what we’re doing. Moving in the direction of the principles of structured literacy across content areas and grade levels reflects the research that’s out there that tells us how

students learn to read and how to maximize students’ skill acquisition.”

Stephanie Travaille, the literacy coach for King Middle School, said, “The BUSD Literacy Plan is trying to align the teaching of reading with the current science about the teaching of reading (to find) what would be a science-based aligned curriculum we can use for that.”

Teachers in BUSD teaching grades kindergarten through

fifth grade participated in the CORE’s Elementary Reading Academy, and BUSD middle school teachers attended the Adolescent Literacy Solutions.

“I personally feel that if we paid more attention to literacy and how to really help students progress with their reading and writing skills, then it would impact them across content areas,” Manandhar explained, “It would impact their opportunities beyond Berkeley High (School).”

BHS students witness shots fired outside of Zellerbach Hall

BY VIOLET MILLERBRADY staff writer

On Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, an armed man outside of Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus fired nine shots from a semi-automatic handgun into the air. No one was injured and the suspect was arrested within minutes by Berkeley police officers.

Mabel Athanasiou, a freshman at Berkeley High School, was working at a concession stand in Zellerbach Hall during a performance when they saw the gunman walk into Lower Sproul Plaza. The suspect was originally accompanied by a woman, but she soon ran away when the suspect started harassing dancers who were practicing in the plaza.

Athanasiou initially

thought that the sounds were fireworks, but quickly realized they were gunshots, then eight more shots followed.

“When the shots were fired, we looked down into the first floor where all the doors are and we saw everybody rushing inside,” Athanasiou said.

The doors were quickly locked and everyone was ordered to get away from the windows and to get against the wall. However, Athanasiou

explained that this was difficult because the front of Zellerbach Hall is almost entirely made up of glass.

“People are getting guns who can’t use them or shouldn’t have them and that’s why there needs to be more precaution so that this doesn’t happen,” Amelia Monagle-Olson, a senior and leader of BHS Students Demand Action, said. BHS Students Demand Action is a chapter of an international human rights organization that is focusing on gun safety this year. According to Monagle-Olson, although the Bay Area has better firearm regulations than many places, there is still more change that needs to be made.

was watching the show was locked in the theater for an intermission. The show was sold out, Davis said, and the audience consisted of about 1,700-1,800 people.

inside the building for a little longer before they were allowed to leave.

For both Davis and Athanasiou, this was their first experience of an active shooter threat.

“People are getting guns who can’t use them or shouldn’t have them.”

Amelia Monagle Olson BHS senior

The theatergoers were told to stay inside due to a safety issue, but according to Davis, many of them didn’t know what was going on, and those who did were alerted through a safety app called WarnMe.

Michael Davis, also a BHS freshman, was working with Athanasiou at the time of the shooting. According to Davis, several people in the group outside of the theater were on the phone with the police while everyone who

“They decided to open the intermission so everybody could come out – I’d say 10 or 15 minutes after – but we were still on lockdown. So everybody was allowed to come out of the theater, but nobody was allowed out of the building,” Athanasiou said.

The audience then returned to the show, and after it ended, everyone was made to stay

“I wasn’t too scared,” Davis said. “I was just trying to go see what was happening.”

According to Athanasiou, her initial reaction was fear over if the gunman was going to enter the building.

The cops arrived at the scene very quickly, though, because there had been a previous call and they were already en route, so the period of confusion over the situation was short.

According to Athanasiou, although the situation was stressful, it was reassuring that the police were able to arrive as fast as they did.

“The fact that somebody that unstable can get a hold of a weapon like that, and it could have been so much worse,” said Athanasiou. “It’s really frustrating.”

KAI HANSCHEN

JAY TRAUNER

The shots were fired outside of Zellerbach Hall, a performance facility on the UC Berkeley campus.

BIHS students navigate costs of study tools

BY RORY NADEAU staff writer

As the International Baccalaureate (IB) test season approaches, students are navigating a wide array of testing resources to prepare for both in-class and IB exams. However, many IB resources, including previous test questions, are less accessible to students because they cost money for access or subscription. This year, new access to testing materials paid for by Berkeley High School has expanded options for BHS students to prepare for exams and learn content.

Nick Pleskac, an IB Biology teacher at BHS, shared that this year, BHS paid for a subscription that allows him access to all old IB Biology test questions. In addition, the school has found a website that allows students to freely access these old tests.

and practice-test yourself, as a way of preparing for an exam in this class, or a final exam, or the actual IB test,” Pleskac said.

He noted that the availability of the test study materials was an important change from years prior when these resources were only available to those able and willing to pay high prices in order to access these practice tests.

makes it more difficult to complete for students who don’t have a computer or reliable internet at home.

For IB Bio, the IA is an extended lab report for IB Biology students worth 20 percent of an IB exam grade

“I’ve spent probably over 10 hours at my house working on the IA, and I assume (that for) people who don’t have access to a computer at home, it would be much more difficult to complete this,” Wolf said.

LILA HALLWARD

and questions available is a helpful resource for many students, there should not be reliance on that in order for students to do well on the test itself.

“(It set) up this situation where it’s kind of unfair economically because not everybody has access ... ”

Nick Pleskac

IB Biology Teacher at BHS

According to Wolf, students at private schools have an advantage due to more intensive test preparation. In part, this may be due to the fact that BHS only offers IB Biology as a one-year, instead of a two-yea, IB course. “I just feel like other schools have opportunities to do their IA’s with lots of other materials, so I don’t know if that’s just a limit for Berkeley High (School) or a limit because we’re taking (Biology) for one year instead of two, but it puts us at a disadvantage,” Wolf said.

“(It set) up this situation where it’s kind of unfair economically because not everybody has access, so when I realized that, I tried to even the playing field by

“The test questions are very valuable in order to do things like practice quizzes and practice-test yourself ... ”

Nick Pleskac

IB Biology Teacher at BHS

“We’ve always prepared students well for their exams in (the) absence of that resource, and even though students have access to that resource this year, their scores are very comparable,” Pleskac said, “They’re not higher than the scores from students in past years.” For varied forms of testing, differences in resources may still affect students.

Jack MackeyWilliams, a BHS junior who plans to go for the IB diploma, expects that few students are both able and willing to spend extra money in order to obtain these higher-cost materials, despite them being a useful resource. He noted that while he feels that his work in class is doing a good job preparing him for his IB exams, his inability to access higher quality resources has made aspects like the IA slightly more challenging to complete.

“The test questions are very valuable in order to do things like practice quizzes

making those tests available to everybody,” Pleskac said. Pleskac also noted that while having old IB tests

NEWS BRIEF:

BY ERIN LIAO, AARON STEVENS, & FINOLA JACKSON staff writer, news editor, & news editor

On Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, the Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center released a complaint alleging that Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) has failed to sufficiently address harassment and discrimination against Jewish-identifying students at elementary, middle,

Ziporah Wolf, a BHS junior in IB Biology said she recognized that the Internal Assessment’s (IA) required use of a computer

“I was just working on my IA for Biology, and it would’ve been helpful to be able to use the premium version,” Mackey-Williams said.

ADL FILES FEDERAL COMPLAINT AGAINST BUSD, ALLEGES ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUSES

and high schools in the district.

The complaint is based on input from approximately 100 students and parents and asks the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to open an investigation into BUSD.

In a statement responding to the complaint, Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel said, “We continue to uphold our stance against all forms of hate and are proud of our legacy of diversity and inclusion. If and when there

are problems in our community, we work together to address them.”

The BUSD Jewish Parents for Collective Liberation made a statement opposing the complaint, by saying it “irresponsibly fabricates or exaggerates a majority of incidents described, and needs to be laid bare for what it is: another harassment tactic intended to censor teaching our children about Palestine.”

ZOE

This quote I’ve recently come across has stuck with me; “You will never always be motivated. You have to learn to be disciplined.” I think this resonates with me because it’s easy to put aside assignments because you aren’t feeling motivated enough to start them, or you’re waiting for the “perfect time” to start working on something. Motivation can come and go in a fleeting moment. The truth is, there’s never a “perfect time” where you suddenly feel productive and will complete all your work. And waiting for one will only cause you to put off your work. That’s where the skill of discipline comes into play, because you know that the sooner you get to work, the sooner you’ll be finished with your assignments. Being disciplined is knowing there’s not a “perfect time” to get your work done, but you still do it regardless. A quote by Elbert Hubbard says this perfectly: “Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.” I want to share some ways I’m hoping to improve my discipline.

1. Breaking up tasks

Hearing that I have an essay due by the end of the week and only given one week to prepare for it can feel stressful. Without some structure or outline I can feel even more stressed about how to start writing. By breaking up essays and big projects into smaller tasks, I won’t feel so overwhelmed but can work on the assignment a bit each day until it’s complete. I’m the type of person to write out all the due dates for assignments in my planner, but when it comes to daily tasks, I feel a bit lost with a long list of things to do and no starting point, like a big ball of knotted yarn. Having bigger tasks broken into smaller ones helps them feel more manageable, and will cause me to get more done. As someone who likes to track my progress, and have that act of checking off or deleting tasks from a list, it’s a rewarding feeling to complete what I planned to do for the day and become more disciplined by holding myself accountable.

2. Reminding myself that I can do it

Sometimes when I don’t have the motivation to do something, it helps to think of a time where I accomplished something that made me proud, kind of to inspire myself to get things done. For example, when I feel unmotivated to read a book, I like to remind myself of the email I sent to my seventh-grade English teacher about all the books I read at that point, and there were like 8! I want to say I read all those in the span of a week or 2. And now I’m working on finishing one book without losing motivation quickly and putting it down for my phone. It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed by assignments, but I think sometimes a friendly reminder that we’ve done difficult work before and can do it again is needed to build up discipline.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

Ruby Nichols (left) and Chiara Hyman (right) do work in an IB Biology class.

Chinese New Year Fair features crafts, culture, and calligraphy

BY SZE TING CHEN staff writer

On the morning of

Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, the Berkeley High School Mandarin program held its annual Chinese New Year Fair. Many booths were set up in the A-Building gallery, all relating to a different part of Chinese culture.

yeah, this year, finally, it’s back.”

Each Mandarin class had to prepare their own posters and interactive ideas for the booths, with the exception of the Mandarin 3 class, which was in charge

“I also think it’s a good way to explore other cultures ... ”

Jessica Hipona

BHS Commisioner for Multicultural Affairs

Xin Chen, the Mandarin teacher here at BHS, said, “For this event, I hope it’s really helpful for the high school. Students should know the Chinese New Year and … really experience some Chinese games and experience the culture.”

When asked about the history of the event, Chen said, “We’ve been (holding this event), but it’s just the COVID(-19) situation … We stopped because we (had) to really be careful about giving out food. So

of making the bulletin and gaining publicity for the event.

The fair started during the first period and ran until lunch. Some students from other Mandarin classes also came and helped, even when they were not officially on duty.

Each booth had its own theme and group of students in charge of managing it. One booth was about educating people about the different kinds of Chinese tea, another showed off and taught traditional Chinese

calligraphy, and another hosted chopstick skill competitions. Students were seen trying on traditional Chinese clothing, eating Chinese food, and conversing about their own Chinese zodiac signs. This was a new experience for many students, like BHS sophomore Adrian Lei, a student in Mandarin

2. He said that the process of planning the event was enjoyable. “Me and my friends brainstormed activities that would captivate participants,” Lei said, “We settled on origami of various cultural items.

items. Seeing the smiles of students as they completed

culture after participating in the creation of it.”

“I felt more connected to the culture after participating in the creation of it.”

On the day of the event, it was fun to see so many familiar faces and show my friends how to make origami of cultural

Adrian Lei BHS student in Mandarin 2

their origami project was also incredibly satisfying … I felt more connected to the

Others, like Jessica Hipona, a BHS junior in Mandarin 3 and the BHS Commissioner for Multicultural Affairs, said that she thinks the fair was a great opportunity to learn about different cultures with

MADELEINE WILSON

proper guidance.

“I also think it’s a good way to explore other cultures ... but it’s kind of hard with, like, the line between cultural exploration and cultural appropriation. And I think that having some fair like this, where you can interact with it and there are people from this culture there to guide you and teach you, is a really good opportunity for that cultural exploration,” Hipona said.

School board discusses Ethnic Studies curriculum and LCAP

BY JULIUS BRAUN staff writer

During the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) School Board meeting on Monday, Feb. 21, 2024, the school board allowed for a long period of public comments and board member comments, as well as a review of the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) goals. The meeting commenced with a student presentation by

the Young Gifted and Black program in honor of Black History Month.

During the time for public comments that was provided, several people stood in line with posters in support of having the Ethnic Studies curriculum teach about the history of Palestine. BUSD students, parents, and teachers made numerous comments in favor of allowing teachers to educate students on the history of Palestine in both Ethnic Studies and history

classes.

“I have been appalled that there has been a failure to hear the stories of Palestinians in my classes,” said Sonali MascarenhasSwan, a sophomore at Berkeley High School. Many students gave praise to the Ethnic Studies class at BHS and urged the school board to find a way to provide education about the conflict in Gaza.

“It’s so refreshing for me and my peers to have the opportunity to learn about

real-life topics, as well as see myself represented,” said BHS freshman Taylor Reynaud, who is currently enrolled in Ethnic Studies. BUSD superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel later responded to the comments by explaining that the Ethnic Studies curriculum is being developed by educators in BUSD and in partnership with community members, which includes the many public comment speakers.

of Education, and it serves as a vital resource for the district in establishing student outcome objectives

“... we can ensure that we maintain an atmosphere of inclusion within BUSD for those most impacted by this crisis.”

Laura Babitt BUSD school board member

is obtainable from district programs that evaluate and improve planned actions and services. The fifth and final goal was to increase access to school for students who experience homelessness, which is made way by decreasing absences and suspension rates.

and formulating strategies to utilize district programs effectively.

School board member Laura Babitt addressed the various comments, letters, and petitions the school board has been receiving about Islamophobia and antisemitism. “(We) must understand that while we will not solve the issues of the Middle East, we can ensure that we maintain an atmosphere of inclusion within BUSD for those most impacted by this crisis,” said Babitt.

LCAP’s first goal was to provide high-quality classroom instruction and curriculum to promote college career readiness and provide whatever help students need. The second goal was to provide necessary and timely academic interventions, focusing on clearing a path for student success. The third goal was to ensure that all

“It’s so refreshing for me and my peers to have the opportunity to learn about real-life topics ... ”

Taylor Reynaud BHS student in

The board meeting included a presentation regarding the 2021-24 LCAP plan and goals. Essentially, LCAP is created through collaboration with parents, guardians, educators, and the Board

Ethnic Studies

school campuses have a safe, hospitable, and inclusive environment for students and families. The fourth goal was utilizing local and state measures to assess student progress, which

The LCAP presentation also exhibited a midyear 2023-24 progress monitoring report, which showed evidence of progress in specific areas. The desired outcome of the percentage of 10-12th grade students who took an AP exam and passage rate was succeeded, with the percentage of students who took the exam increasing from 38 percent to 40 percent and the percentage of those who passed increasing from 71 percent to 84 percent. The four-year graduation rate statistics also increased from 88 percent to 93 percent. The percentage of English learners who were redesignated to fluent English proficient increased from 7 percent to 12 percent, and the internal assessment participant rate increased from 85 percent to 94 percent.

Students practice traditional Chinese calligraphy at a booth in the A-Building.

opinion editors: ysabel chu & Ohad Aviran-Finkelstein

Meta political content policy harms youth

BY SABINE ROSEN staff writer

Every day, millions of high school students open social media platforms to view their friends’ posts and see what's new. At times, these students may have come across political content on platforms like Instagram, but this will no longer happen. Meta recently made the decision to no longer recommend political content to users on Instagram from accounts they don’t already follow. Adam Mosseri, the executive who oversees Instagram, says this new policy is so that people can choose which political content they want to see and interact with. However, this new system does not benefit

society, especially youth, and should be removed.

It's extremely important that youth are introduced to political matters on their own so they can form political beliefs independent from their parents. A survey done by the Pew Research Center showed that around 90 percent of kids with democratic parents end up voting for Democrats and 80 percent of kids with republican parents end up voting for Republicans.

Berkeley High School sophomore Tasya Xiao provided one reason for this; “I trust my parents. What they believe in is how they raised me, so now I believe in the same things,” Xiao said.

Students voting for the same candidates as their parents or guardians is not

KASS

a bad thing, as long as the students are aware of the ideas they are supporting. Students need to create their own opinions, and political information shown on social media can inform students of different political beliefs.

Additionally, this policy makes it even easier for people to ignore politics and not participate. This problematic mindset is already prevalent in America’s youth. According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, in the 2022 midterm elections, the national youth turnout was only 23 percent. Instagram, as a social media platform that 62 percent of teens use, can help solve this problem.

BHS is a good example of how Instagram can foster political engagement. At BHS there are elections for student government. All students are able to campaign, and using social media like Instagram is quite common. Instagram makes it easier for students to learn about the positions of all of the candidates. This access may also help prevent students from only voting for people they personally know or are friends with. Instagram, before this new

policy was put in place, served the same purpose for young adults nationwide. It helped young adults stay informed and educated them on politicians and political issues they weren't already aware of.

One reason Meta may have implemented this policy is because of misinformation. A study done at Temple University shows that 67 percent of Americans have come across fake news on social media. However, instead of putting in the effort to filter out the inaccurate political information, Meta simply chose to not promote any information at all. This policy is not solving a problem; it is ignoring one. There is always going to be misinformation online, and all people, especially youth, need to learn how to recognize it.

Now is not the time for young people to avoid politics or trap themselves in an echo chamber. They should be exposed to diverse political information in order to form their own opinions. To help reach this goal, Meta should reconsider their new policy and once again recommend political content to users from accounts they don't already follow.

Come visit the Wellness Center for support

Some of the services we offer at the Wellness Center consist of having breaks from class or school. During your break time in the Wellness Center, you can play mindful games, using coloring pages, and listen to calming music. It is a space where you can have a quiet 10 minutes to relax and refocus your energy.

In order to go to the Wellness Center you need to get a pass from your teacher. All our Berkeley High School teachers will be able to give you a pass with no questions asked. If you feel like talking to somebody confidentially, the staff in the Wellness Center can connect you to a counselor or to one of our peer mentor educators.

Our peer mentor are juniors and seniors at BHS who have been trained to support other students. If you do decide to talk to a trusted person in the Wellness Center, everything will be confidential at all times unless you have any thoughts of hurting yourself,

hurting others, or if you are in an unsafe situation. All members in the Wellness center have an obligation to report any safety concerns to the necessary people who can help keep you safe

As a peer mentor, some of the services we offer are talking one-on-one with students and providing presentations in classrooms about the Wellness Center and mental health topics.

If you don't know where to go during a challenging time you can always come to the Wellness Center. We want to make sure that we are here to support you at any time and that there are people who love you. Also if you feel more comfortable talking to someone who speaks the same language as you we can connect you to one of our bilingual student mentors.

Don't feel shy to come by and say hi, we are here to support you. Come find us in H104!

BY YULISSA BAHENA BHS peer mentor

RAPE CULTURE REVEALED: POLITICS

Worldwide, women ages 15 through 44 are more likely to die or be maimed by male violence than by cancer, malaria, war, and traffic accidents combined. In 2022, there were 133,294 rapes reported in the U.S. That's a rape less than every four minutes. And it's estimated that only about one-third of rapes are actually reported. This means that there's 60 to 70 percent more rapes than that. It’s likely that there is a rape per minute in this country.

You have probably heard of the 1 in 6 statistic. What it says is that 1 in every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. It’s also incredibly important to note that sexual violence impacts underrepresented communities more severely. 1 in 5 African American women and 1 in 3 Native American women report being raped during their lifetime, as opposed to the general 1 in 6 statistic. A 2010 study showed that the second most reported police misconduct –sexual violence – disproportionately affects women of color. If that's not terrifying enough, the leading cause of death for pregnant women is their spouses. A pregnant person is more likely to be killed by their spouse than die from pregnancy-related complications.

A while back, I came across something that really struck me. It's from before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and it's a speech where a Republican representative from Missouri, Todd Akin, argues that abortions should be illegal, even for people impregnated due to rape. That “if its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down." That is a flat-out lie. In no way is that even the slightest bit true. The female body has absolutely no control over what enters its uterus, or anything that happens after that. But I’m sure tons of the people who heard that believed him. And that thought just outrages me. It’s these kinds of things, that may seem like no big deal, that truly mess up our country, because hateful talk from people in power permits hateful acts. Their word is law, even if what they say isn’t.

Something many people aren't aware of is that politicians are legally allowed to lie in their campaigns, because of arguments about free speech. Now I’m all for free speech, however, corporations and companies are legally required to tell the truth in advertisements, and political campaigns are really just selfadvertisements that end up having a bigger impact on people. People should have to tell the truth in political campaigns because right now they are getting elected based on lies they tell. Lies that hurt so many people. Lies that invalidate rape, promoting rape culture in this country and embedding it in its politics. As long as these ignorant, self-serving people hold even a portion of the power in this country, rape culture will be as much a political issue as it is a societal one.

NATALIA

LETTERTOTHEEDITOR

Students require resources to build stress-relieving and coping skills

From uncomfortable interactions with sworn enemies to lectures from authority figures, students are often put into situations they’d rather not be in. Unfortunately, it’s rarely an option to simply walk away. To some extent, there’s an expectation that young people stand and suffer whatever stressful conversations-turned lectures that society throws their way. At some point in their lives, who hasn’t sat through someone going through the same points over and over again, paying more attention to the lint on their left shoulder than their droning? For students unable to leave stressful situations, finding stress-relief options that work non-disruptively would significantly reduce harm.

As teens approach adulthood, increasingly busy schedules

BERKELEY HIGH

and social obligations can lead to more stress. While older adults have stress-relief skills honed over the years, teens are less experienced, making it especially important that school supports them over these four years.

Here at Berkeley High School, if students are stressed enough, they can use one of BHS’s mental health counseling services, such as the Wellness and Health Centers. However, the mental health messaging students receive around BHS doesn’t provide many specific mechanisms to alleviate the low-grade stress experienced daily and in the moment, and they aren’t easy to find, either. Additionally, the tips and tricks learned by students as freshmen may be forgotten by junior year when the stress reaches its peak. BHS offers generous crisis management. While this is good, it addresses the result more than the cause. A streamlined resource for everyday use would be vital for struggling students and act as a preventative.

As it stands, students already use a variety of coping mechanisms, whether they realize it or not; a walk with a friend to get away from the hustle and bustle of fourth period, or turning to their phone when they can’t handle thinking about that argument from last night. These all can be methods to relieve stress, though some are only temporary and others disrupt learning. As a school, we must recognize these as necessary, on occasion.

However, students can also resort to more harmful means of relieving stress and anxiety, including self-harm. According to the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine,

this is especially common among teens and often happens in response to stress. Vaping, drinking, and other drugs are other ways some students attempt to unwind.

Beyond that, according to the Mayo Clinic, stress can have profound impacts on health, increasing the risk of heart disease, type two diabetes, and more. Reducing stress would improve the lives of most, if not all students.

To help resolve this, a cohesive framework for destressing, in an easily accessible place online, would add some relief. The handouts and slideshows currently used are much easier to forget and lose, especially as students reorganize their binder and reshuffle subjects. Solutions don’t have to be rooted in new programs — creating systems that allow for support between peers will be helpful as well. Currently, some teachers have mindfulness sessions, another helpful tool. The Wellness Center offers a place for students to go in stressful situations, but many may not feel comfortable leaving the classroom. But either way, unified action, and empowering students with tools to create a toolset on their own will help them long beyond high school.

For now, consider, can you escape the conversation, or make it less boring? Once students identify one of many sources of stress, it can be helpful to resolve, rethink, or distract from the problem. And of course, venting to some friends tends to help as well. In these changing times, knowing how to relieve some pressure is a skill well worth having.

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Demonstrated interest creates inequality in the college process

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Many factors contribute to which students colleges accept and which they reject. Demonstrated interest, which measures students’ interest based on how much they interact with the college, is one of these factors at certain colleges. Demonstrated interest tracks if a student attends a college tour, signs up for a college email list, visits a college website, and even how long a student stays on that website. Some colleges are more likely to accept students who show more "interest." Although this may seem logical, the practice is problematic.

When you visit a college and go on a tour, sometimes your name is added to a list that slightly increases your chances of getting accepted to that college. However, not every student is able to fly out and go visit their dream school. This puts them at an unfair disadvantage compared to students who can visit every college they are applying to.

According to a National Association of College Admission Counseling survey, 44 percent of colleges utilize demonstrated interest. Despite this, many students don’t know about it. “I had no idea about demonstrated interest, which is weird because I feel like it’s a big deal. More people should know about it,” said Diego Zarate, a Berkeley High School junior.

This lack of information is why so many students hire college counselors who guide them through the process. Demonstrated interest is the type of thing a college counselor would tell their clients about. Therefore, students who can’t afford a college counselor may never find out about demonstrated interest, putting them at a disadvantage.

While demonstrated interest can assist colleges in knowing who is serious about attending their schools, there are other, more fair methods colleges can use to determine this.

For example, many schools offer early action or

early decision. Early action is when a student applies early and is considered before the rest of the normal applications. Early decision is when a student applies early and promises, if accepted, to attend that school. Early decision has some drawbacks; for example, a student may not be able to compare financial aid offers from other schools. However, it still is a more reliable metric of desire to attend than demonstrated interest.

Comparatively, far more students know about early action and early decision.

In fact, at BHS, college counselors come and present the college process to juniors, including how to utilize early action and early decision.

Though colleges considering who is most interested in their school is not a bad idea, the way interest is measured must be reassessed in order to ensure equality. By doing this, colleges will become more diverse, and more students will be able to get into their dream schools based on merit.

Socratic seminars: A place for rich discussions when used sparingly, with intentionality

BY ADITYA SRIDHARAN staff writer

English and history classes have long been places of discussion, debate, and disagreement. Conversations can quickly become rich, nuanced, and even heated. For this reason, humanities classes frequently depend on the Socratic seminar as a way to discuss ideas respectfully.

At its core, the Socratic seminar allows for complicated issues to be explored with the nuance they deserve.

Over time, however, Socratic seminars have become overused and it has become unclear how structured they should be. While Socratic seminars can be valuable learning tools, they must be used sparingly and follow common ground rules.

Socratic seminars originally stem from the Socratic method. The Socratic method revolves around the presence of an ongoing dialogue between students and teachers. Essentially, students are encouraged to question the information they are taught and

engage actively with their teachers. Socratic seminars are the open-ended discussions that mirror this philosophy.

Teachers use Socratic seminars for a variety of reasons. "I think some of the best learning occurs when students talk to each other," Victor Aguilera said.

Aguilera teaches Comparative Values and Beliefs at Berkeley High School, in addition to 12-grade government.

The benefits of peer instruction and learning are well documented. A 2020 study published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, found that learning through peers has a great impact on the knowledge acquired as well as the ability to be metacognitive. In a peer-to-peer situation, students can better tackle complex, informationdense topics than if they were receiving information through a lecture.

While socratic seminars can spark critical thinking and collaboration, they are much less effective at helping students retain course material. A 2017 study published in Educational Psychology, compared the efficacy of Socratic seminars to the efficacy of testenhanced learning (memory-based learning). The results indicated that

for retaining core information, memorybased techniques far exceeded socratic seminar discussions.

This is to say that teachers must use Socratic seminars in a purposeful way. By using them sparingly and alongside other teaching methods like lectures and exams, teachers can preserve their value while mitigating their shortcomings.

"There should be something worth discussing with a certain level of subjectivity," Aguilera said. "That way it is worth discussing and spending time on."

Aguilera cautions against teachers forcing Socratic seminars into the wrong situations.

"I have seen math teachers try to hold Socratic seminars about objective problems that are difficult to discuss," Aguilera said, "It ended up being a discussion about how to solve a problem, which is not a Socratic seminar.”

There is also the question of how structured a Socratic seminar should be. Ideally, guidelines are given at the beginning, and the rest of the discussion is student-run.

"I like to emphasize the difference between a debate and a discussion," Aguilera said. "Students are really used to debating and contradicting. Before we start, I ask them to avoid back and forths.”

"I think some of the best learning occurs when students talk to each other."

Victor Aguilera Social Science Teacher

As the discussion progresses, it is key for the teachers to observe and let the students explore the topics at hand. Even if a discussion is moving slowly,

teachers should only intervene if there is a direct conflict between students. By doing so, teachers allow students the autonomy necessary for critical thinking.

A successful Socratic seminar should also have two components, or circles. In the outer circle, students should individually reflect on the prompts. In the inner circle, there should be a traditional Socratic seminar discussion. By allowing students to reflect individually and in a group, students with anxiety have more opportunities to share their thoughts. While these two circles may make the Socratic seminar more complex, they are a crucial component for the discussion's success.

According to Harvard's Instructional Moves project, time for students to reflect is crucial for consolidating learning. While many teachers employ a written reflection, this should not be necessary. Students will have already reflected in writing during the Socratic seminar. Adding another writing element to the discussion will only stress students as they race to complete what is "required". Having students think without writing is a more effective way for them to reflect meaningfully.

All in all, using Socratic seminars is a complex process. While Socratic seminars are clearly worth implementing, they are not without their problems. Maximizing their potential with the guidelines above will require the efforts of students and teachers.

investigative editor: Josephine Morasky

BUSD teachers fight for a single-payer healthcare system alongside CA nurses

BY ELSIE YUEN staff writer

As of 2022, 3.2 million Californians have no form of health insurance. Since the federal public health emergency for COVID-19 ended in 2023, almost 1 million Californians have lost their Medicaid coverage. Outside of government covered healthcare, healthcare costs themselves have increased dramatically over the past decades, from 5 percent of the GDP in 1962 to 17 percent in 2022, while being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

“Healthcare costs in the Bay Area have been rising much faster than overall price levels, especially in the past few years,” Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) President Matt Meyer wrote.

According to Meyer, teachers and the district share the cost of healthcare. Because of this, when healthcare costs go up, employee take-home pay decreases. This is stressful, especially for educators with family plans, which is now expensive, explained Meyer.

“(The rising costs of healthcare) makes it harder to afford to live in (the area). This area is already a high cost area of housing,” Josh Austin, a Berkeley High School Special Education teacher, said. “Most teachers barely make enough to afford the housing here and the cost of groceries and gas, things like that.”

Generally, “it just undercuts the morale,” Alex Day, a BHS Ethnic Studies teacher, said. “You have to consider, like, do I need a second job for this or not?”

coverage for all,” Meyer wrote. According to a timeline by Healthcare for Us, Assembly Bill 1400 (aka CalCare) was first introduced in February 2021 by San Jose Assemblyman Ash Kalra and was backed by the CNA. However, the CNA has been pushing for a single-payer healthcare system since 1994, when it was integral in initiating Prop 186, which would have replaced the health insurance system we have today. However, California voters barred Prop 186 from going into action.

For teachers in Berkeley, 50 percent of their healthcare insurance is paid by BUSD, and the other half is deducted from their salary, according to Austin.

“The District receives a certain amount of money from the state,” Meyer wrote, “That money is used for everything, including raises, healthcare increases.

... There is only so much in a given year, and oftentimes the amount of

“(Through CalCare), every person living in California would be included, regardless of income level, immigration status, prior health conditions, or ability to pay.”

Under CalCare, everyone would be able to choose their own doctors and healthcare providers, as stated by Kuhl. Moreover, instead of an insurance company determining what they will cover, doctors and providers will make the choices, according to Kuhl.

“It would benefit all Californians, including educators, to move to a single payer health care system paid through payroll taxes,” Meyer wrote.

Still, there are arguments against CalCare. In order to meet the funding requirements, higher taxes would be necessary, which some of those against CalCare see as an undue financial burden. However, Austin said, “I think the studies show that the net effect of having a single payer (system) would cost the average person less money, because though they’d be paying more in taxes, they’d be paying less on health insurance. So the net result would be a gain for most people.”

“CalCare is what we need what nurses, teachers, and the vast majority of people want is a system based on maintaining health and healing,” Kuhl continued. “It provides for health care from head to toe and removes the financial barriers to care.”

Additionally, co-pays would be removed: “You arrive at the doctor’s office, show them your CalCare card, and get the care you need,” reads one CalCare flyer.

According to Day, to regain money spent on health insurance, teachers have to fight for raises. However, between the cost of health insurance and living, the raises haven’t been keeping up.

According to

money given to districts is less than the (healthcare) increases’ expenses.”

Combined with teachers’ already low wages, “It’s too much work for not enough pay,” Day said. When healthcare costs cut into pay, “that’s just going to be depressing. You’re barely making ends meet.”

Teachers with families are hit especially hard, according to Smith. “As health care costs are rising, it’s affecting those teachers who either have a very large family that they need to take care of, or they have very sick family members,” Smith said.

Recently, the BFT passed a resolution that supported CalCare, a single-payer healthcare system that would grant universal healthcare coverage for all California residents, joining the fight with the California Nurses Association (CNA). According to Meyer, educators have been working with the CNA by hosting events and lobbying campaigns. Additionally, Berkeley Unified School District community members have met with Mia Bonta, a California State Representative, to discuss CalCare. “The conversation was well received,” Meyer wrote.

“It’s been great to work with the BFT,” Martha Kuhl, secretary-treasurer of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United and Registered Nurse said. “Teachers and nurses often share the same points of view. It’s just sort of a natural affinity in many ways.”

CalCare “would guarantee quality health care

However, according to Meyer, “this should have been fixed a long time ago.” The healthcare system is profit driven, he wrote, such that “even if prices increase, people still (going to) buy it because they need it and are legally required to have it.”

This can translate into a broken system, Kuhl said. “As a registered nurse for over 40 years, I have witnessed health care change into a market based, profit driven industry that is incredibly fragmented and hard or impossible to use for so many. Care is often delayed or even denied and is based on the ability to pay,” they said.

According to a California Health Care Foundation survy, 52 percent of Californians “put off medical care due to cost,” half of which said that doing so made their preexisting conditions worse.

According to a CalCare talking points document,

Kuhl, the CNA and BFT have struggled to keep healthcare as part of the health benefits that come with their job.

“Not because we don’t think we should have a different system, but because until we have a different system, everybody needs to be able to get healthcare,” said Kuhl.

There have been many efforts to pass single payer bills for decades. However, due to more organizing to pressure lawmakers, Day said that CalCare is “doing better” than previous attempts.

“The people who are working on the campaign have been doing this for a really long time,” Austin said, “And they are optimistic that right now, this has the best chance of succeeding than it’s ever had. Because of the momentum that they built through previous efforts, they are optimistic that there’s at least a better chance than there ever has been before.”

ANISHA PINTO

BHS students face challenges within U.S. medical system

BY ELIOT PERDUE staff writer

The closer teens get to adulthood, the closer they get to adult responsibilities like insurance, rent, and navigating the healthcare system. American teenagers face this dilemma uniquely, as America is one of few wealthy countries without universal insurance or health care, as well as one of the most expensive countries for pursuing higher education.

“When we see how many people are in debt … due to medical expenses, it seems to me like these are the things that we should be teaching,” Diane Kung, an Academy of Medicine and Public Service (AMPS) English teacher, said.

The AMPS curriculum at Berkeley High School allows its students to learn in-depth about subjects such as medical ethics and the US public health system.

Kung teaches Applied Medical English. “We explore issues related to bioethics, which is around ethical issues in medicine and science,” she said.

Medical ethics and bioethics are complex and deeply important ideas when it comes to modern medicine and the age of DNA testing. Reasons range from medical safety to bodily consent and insurance rates. However, only select students, those in the AMPS community, are receiving this education. This lack of education on issues such as the US healthcare system can lead to many teens venturing into adulthood blindly, which can lead to later life problems such as medical debt.

extremely important part of the job search.

“Once I'm not dependent on my parents for benefits that are offered by some jobs (healthcare, etc.), those will be a lot more valuable (to me),” BHS senior Nathan Weltzien said, reflecting on his personal experience entering the workforce, and how he expects it to change over time.

“When we see how many people are in debt ... due to medical expenses, it seems to me like these are the things that we should be teaching."

Diane Kung AMPS English teacher

Thinking of how things will soon change often brings up the question of: “Where will I be? And will I be safe?”

“The first thing (young people) think when it comes to finding a job is, what is the salary? And what they don't consider is what are all the other benefits,” Kung said. Young people often enter the workforce with an underlying capitalist mindset, rather than a realistic needs-based approach. Understanding the retirement, healthcare, and PTO (paid time off) benefits a job offers is an

“I applied to schools in many different states … Going to a school in a state with better health care I think could definitely be a driving factor,” Weltzien said.

“I'm 100 percent not going to a state that doesn't allow abortion or … makes it very hard to take birth control,” Wren Chambers, a BHS senior, said.

school because I don't have rights in that state,'” Chambers continued.

For people with chronic pain or mental illnesses, life-changing decisions such as these can be made even more difficult. “Just the little things are a lot harder to do. Going out with friends, I've had to stop because of being dizzy or nauseous and have to go home," Chambers said, explaining her experience with chronic pain.

"Once I'm not

dependent on my parents for benefits that are offered by some jobs (healthcare, etc.), those will be a lot more valuable (to me)."

Nathan

She’s experienced trouble getting medical treatment for years. “I would have to do the same tests over and over again because (doctors) wouldn't communicate to each other. And it was just very frustrating ... I eventually just gave up. I didn't want to have to go through all of this anymore,” Chambers continued.

Weltzien BHS senior

ILLUSTRATION BY CLAUDIA BLOOM

Teens should be able to make college decisions based on what they want educationally or environmentally, not based on where they will or will not have medical autonomy.

“It's just something you've got to consider when you're going to college. And I feel like that is limiting a lot of places where you can't go because it's like, 'oh, I can't go to this

Not only is medical care and coverage a difficult industry to navigate, it’s even harder for those in marginalized groups. “I've noticed, especially when I have doctors who are men, they don't take me seriously,” Chambers said.

“I recognize how messed up it is that it's even possible for me to have this privilege,” Weltzein said, touching on the privilege it takes to be taken seriously medically. “People of color have it so much worse … than white people in so many areas, but especially health care,” he continued.

Many BHS students may not see medical care as a major factor in their current life, as teens are often covered by their parent's insurance as well as MediCal, California’s medical coverage for those with limited income. But soon it will be, and with the stress of full-time jobs and college coursework, mental and physical health will grow exponentially in importance to young adults.

THE ART OF IMPROVING (CONTINUED)

ZOE PATTERSON

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

3. Think of the cost

I want to implement this idea more. If I have an assignment that I’m procrastinating on, and then I decide to complete it all the night before it’s due, I don’t feel good about procrastinating in the first place because of all the avoidable stress that comes with it. I would tell myself that I work better under pressure, but it was just an excuse I was saying to justify my procrastination. I realize that thinking about the stress that comes with putting off assignments until the last minute and rushing to complete them makes me want to save myself the headache and not procrastinate. But it’s easier said than done, so I think my next tip would tie into this well.

4. Having an accountability partner

As humans, it’s normal to want validation from others. By having an accountability partner, you’ve made a promise to two people: 1. Yourself. 2. Your partner. At the same time, I think it feels worse to not reach your goals with an accountability partner, because it’d be like you’ve broken a promise to yourself and your partner. But mainly, I think by at least telling someone else about a goal you want to achieve helps you feel more determined to get it done, because you have someone to talk to and update with your progress. And since we want others to feel proud of us and notice our accomplishments, I think that having an accountability partner where you are both working towards goals and can share them with each other is a great way to stay consistent with goals and feel more motivated to complete goals, since you aren’t doing it alone.

5. Set a timer

Another thing I used to tell myself was that I just didn’t have enough time after school to get a lot of work done. That’s a lie. I just wasn’t prioritizing my time correctly. I would go to the library after school and get some work done, but I would tell myself that I would finish the rest of it at home. Between sports, dinner and daily chores, it turns out that I only have so much time going to bed and I knew that doing homework in the morning would only make me more stressed. It wasn’t until my friend recommended to me this productivity app where you set a timer to do your homework, that I realized how badly I was using my time. It made me realize how much work I could do simply by setting aside just 15 minutes of uninterrupted time. My incentive was that with the app, you’re planting trees as you set the timer to work, and if you close out of the app to do something else, the timer stops and you lose your progress. I also like being able to track my progress and what assignments I was working on with the time duration. Seeing how I can stay focused to complete assignments makes me feel more determined to want to get more done, helping to improve my discipline.

Overall, I think there’s so many areas of life that we can build discipline in, and it’s an important skill to have. One last quote I really like is “Excuses make today easy, but tomorrow harder. Discipline makes today hard, but tomorrow easier.” I believe half the struggle with becoming disciplined is to just get started on tasks, but by taking small steps every day, you will reach your goals over time.

Mathematicians and bakers unite to celebrate Pi Day

BY ELSA DIETZ staff writer

Pi Day, celebrated on March 14, is a celebration of pi, the constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The first three of the infinite digits of pi are 3.14, so March 14 (3/14) was chosen for the annual celebration.

The Berkeley Bakers Baking Club at Berkeley High School plans to celebrate Pi Day by encouraging members to bring homemade pies for the club to enjoy and learn from. “We’re planning to have everyone bake a pie and we’ll try them, and then we’ll rate them (and) give tips on how to improve,” Zolly Corrigan, a BHS junior and assistant president of the club, said. The club aims to be a safe, relaxing environment for students to learn about baking. “We just had a baking contest (where) people could bring whatever; it just had to be baked,” Corrigan said.

Sebastien Minn-Murray, the president of the Berkeley Bakers Baking Club, plans

to celebrate Pi Day with his friends. “I have some close friends come over, (and) we all bake pies together,” Minn-Murray said.

FatApples, a restaurant and bakery with locations in both Berkeley and El Cerrito, sees a major increase in pie sales on March 14 in observance of Pi Day. “(We sell) something like 200250 (pies) between the two stores ... at least tenfold of what we normally sell,” Caryn Carson, a manager at FatApples, said. Among the variety of pies they sell, their olallieberry pie is the most popular on Pi Day and all throughout the year. “An olallieberry is a type of blackberry. It grows in a cold coastal climate, so we get ours from Watsonville down in the Salinas Valley,” Carson said.

In addition to selling pies with a pi-shaped cutout on top and making special pi t-shirts for employees, FatApples encourages kids to get excited about math through pies. “We have some fun stuff about how to calculate (area) based on knowing what the diameter of our nine inch pie is,” Carson said. “The other

really fun thing about (Pi Day) is that moms and dads and kids come in together talking about math. A lot of times, math is a very angsty conversation between kids and parents because it’s not the most popular subject as far as fun goes. This is one day when there’s a lot of conversation about math between (parents) and kids.”

Peter Seibel, a computer science teacher at BHS, celebrates “Tau Erasure Day” instead of Pi Day. Inspired by the The Tau Manifesto by Michael Hartl, Seibel believes that the constant tau is superior to the more well known circle constant, pi. “Tau is the number of radians it takes to go all the way around the circle … The essence of (the Tau Manifesto) is that circles are defined by their radius, not their diameter …When we define a circle, we define it as a center point and a

radius and that tells you exactly where a circle is. (Hartl’s) basic point is that the fundamental ratio that we should care about is not between the circumference and diameter, but between the two things that define the circle, which are the circumference and the radius. That just ends up being twice pi,” Seibel said.

Even though most students in traditional math classes aren’t taught about tau, Seibel believes it’s valuable to learn. “These days, there’s enough Tauists out there that (if) you want to be culturally educated, you need to at least know what (tau) is,” Seibel said.

On Pi Day, Seibel will be found wearing his tau shirt. “If you want to be slightly contrarian and do things in a better way, even though people have been doing things a different way for millennia, (then) tau is for you,” Seibel said.

Linda Carr brings art and passion to BHS

BY LUCY GRIFFITH staff writer

Linda Carr holds a multitude of roles at Berkeley High School — the Beginning Modern/Jazz Dance, Dance Production, and Advanced Dance teacher; choreographer for the play “Urinetown”; and leader for the visual and performing arts department at BHS.

Growing up in Marin County, Carr went to Redwood High School. Outside of school, she took ballet classes, but at her high school there was no dance program. As a kid, she always had an eye across the bay towards Berkeley. “I knew people who went

to Berkeley High (School), and it seemed to be a very vibrant world that I was curious about,” Carr said.

Carr graduated high school early, and later had her first experience in a modern dance class. She said, “At the beginning of the class, the teacher said to everyone, take a big breath in and exhale, and I thought, ‘Oh my god.’” It was something different and new from her prior dance experiences.

Expanding on these differences, apparent when comparing ballet and modern dance, she said, “Ballet is so controlled and about not showing your ‘human-ness’; you’re an ethereal being … Modern dance is all about being

connected to yourself, to your breath, and to the earth. This (was) revolutionary for me.” Carr brings this attitude into her teaching.

After time at the College of Marin, she attended UC Davis as a visual arts major, studying drawing and painting and taking dance classes.

Carr continues to dance in her free time. Most recently, she danced with a company called MoTo which focuses on body percussion and songs based in Appalachian arts. She was in a piece titled “Water in the Kettle” where they performed at Rhythmix in Alameda. She also likes to spend time with family, cook and bake, garden, and swim.

At UC Davis, she had no idea a job like her current position at BHS existed because she didn’t have one at her own high school.

She started her current position at BHS 24 years ago. It was very different then; when she started she used cassette tapes to play music for her students. Now, she makes a playlist. “There’s very little research that you have to do now in order to be exposed to new music,” Carr said.

Explaining what drew

her to this job, Carr said, “One of the appeals of the performing arts is that each performance is its own little mountain that you climb ... (Cast and crew) don’t know if we’re gonna make it, and then everyone pulls together, and it’s a little miracle.” She elaborated on how this affects the community. “I feel that it gives you a lot of faith in yourself, other people, and collaboration. It’s also a really nice feeling that makes you want to do it again,” Carr said. Her favorite part of the BHS community is the students. “I love this community and its energy,” Carr said. “I love the different kinds of people who are here as students and the passion that they bring.” She finds her role fulfilling as well. “I love this job because I love being able to unlock students’ belief in themselves and what they can make happen,” Carr said.

Carr gave a piece of advice that she wants students to carry: “The voice inside your head is important. It’s important to cultivate a positive (mindset), to believe in yourself, and your own possibilities. None of us know what the limits are of what we can do.”

LEO OSTROY HARP

Linda Carr gives her performers the thumbs up.

Peter Seibel demonstrates tau’s advantages over pi.

‘We are family’: BHS custodian Praneshwar Chandra reflects

BY MUHAMMAD DELGADO staff writer

You can see Praneshwar Chandra on the first floor of the C Building every day after school, where he’s worked as a custodian for the past nine years. Room to room, Chandra goes down the hall with his cleaning cart, taking care of the environment where hundreds of Berkeley High School students learn daily.

Chandra, who is of Indian descent, was born in Fiji. He has a great deal of love for his home country and gives it glowing recommendations all across the board. “Everything is organic in Fiji,” Chandra boasted. His father owned a sugarcane plantation there, but when they could not plant sugar, they relied on farming cattle for their income.

smooth,” Chandra said, “not like here.”

Chandra emigrated to America nearly 15 years ago at the age of 40, with his wife and son. He came to this country for its promise of a good life for him and his family. Chandra’s sister was already here before he made the move over the Pacific.

“She told me America is good, and I’ve been here, and I like it,” Chandra said. “American lives are fast. ... Everything is big.”

Despite the promises of prosperity, Chandra found that the cost of living in the United States could be overwhelming. “(If) you haven’t got the money. You cannot survive here. That is my experience,” Chandra said.

So, Chandra took it

does other jobs during the weekend, like construction and landscaping, for extra money whenever he comes across an opportunity. Thanks to his labor, Chandra bought a house for himself, his wife, and his son who serves in the U.S. military.

When he isn’t working, Chandra likes to travel. He’s visited a number of locations including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and of course his home country of Fiji. “If you’re going to go anywhere and the people ... take care of you, you’re going to love it,” Chandra said. Each nation he visits boasts uniquely beautiful scenes and welcoming people, but Fiji always remains a special place for him.

“(If) you haven’t got the money. You cannot survive here.”

Whatever money they made went a long way in Fiji. With the country’s lack of property tax, the hard work of one person could provide for all of Chandra’s seven person family. “Life in Fiji is very

Praneshwar Chandra BHS Janitor

upon himself to “eat less and work hard” to provide for his family. Besides his custodial work, Chandra

Before working at BHS, Chandra served as a substitute custodian at John Muir Elementary. Many of the students Chandra saw as children at John Muir Elementary reappear at BHS. Chandra said that he doesn’t always remember them when they first say hello, because of how much they’ve grown, but once they mention

John Muir Elementary, the memories come back.

After nearly a decade at BHS, Chandra has seen teachers and students alike come and go. One would imagine that the work of cleaning up after hundreds of teenagers brings with it a share of hassle, but Chandra is patient with the activities of BHS students. “I cannot blame (them). ... They are kids now,” Chandra said. But

at the same time, Chandra also finds BHS students to be a little bit extra. Actions like graffiti or breaking things in the restrooms make Chandra wonder, “If they’re going to destroy it, then how are they going to use it?” He believes that “we are family” at BHS, and that students should take better care to respect the environment and faculty that provide for them everyday.

Chandra said that his experience in school was very different than that of an average BHS student. “We haven’t got a shoe, we haven’t got a bag, nothing. We (were) poor,” he said. After school he would go to work on a farm. With all the upgrades and freedoms accessible, Chandra encourages students to “try to use (them) and go up and up.”

ZOE KOHLMEYER

Looking back on the Fishbowl Podcast, a student-led production

BY JASPER LOVVORN-BLACK staff writer

During their sophomore year, video production teacher Phil Halpern reached out to Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) seniors Finn Brooks, Magnus Scheffy, Cyrus Patten-Ostergard, and Lincoln Roan. Halpern gave them the opportunity to record a podcast in Berkeley High School’s upcoming sound studio.

“Halpern approached me and Cyrus and literally goes, ‘You two are best friends, right?’ And we’re like, ‘Yeah.’

He’s like, ‘Would you like to start a podcast in the new sound studio in C-400’? And we’re like ‘Sure’,” Roan said. Brooks and Scheffy joined the pair when they talked to Halpern again to finalize the project. They would name it the “Fishbowl Podcast,” and officially release seven episodes.

Initially, the podcast was supposed to take place in the new sound studio, however, the four ended up meeting at Brooks’ house to record episodes. “It was supposed to be in the sound studio that’s in Mr. Halpern’s class now, but even after the entire

summer (of) sophomore year, it was not filled. We just took equipment to Finn’s house every Thursday and recorded there,” Roan said.

One of the biggest challenges for the podcast was reserving the school’s equipment on time to record an episode for the Thursdays they met on, because they couldn’t automatically reserve it for every Thursday.

“A couple of times, it would be Wednesday night at 11:30 p.m., and I’d be like, I gotta put in a request form, and sometimes I forget. So, yes, we checked it out every Wednesday night and then

picked it up Thursday,” Roan said.

The “Fishbowl Podcast” discussions were mainly inspired by ideas for prompts Brooks had recorded in his notes app, as well as a combination of other talking points brought by the other members.

confidential, the four recognized their connection to BHS and CAS in the podcast, as all four of the members are in CAS. “We definitely had like

“Topics vary from women’s reproductive health, to backbacking, to fashion trends and psychology.”

Magnus Scheffy BHS Fishbowl member

“To be honest with you, it was mostly Finn on the notes app, and if anyone had any random ideas, you would just throw them in. But most of it was freestyle,” PattenOstergard said.

The concept behind the “Fishbowl Podcast” was to bring in a new guest every week to contribute to their conversations. In episode four, they featured their first guests Edith Galvagna and Elodie Chinn of the BHS Period Club to discuss “the importance of reproductive health education,” according to the description of episode four.

Other guests consisted of friends of the group and the discussion was often influenced by who the guest was during each given episode. “Topics vary from women’s reproductive health, to backpacking, to fashion trends, and psychology,” Scheffy said.

After initially trying to stay separate from BHS and keeping people’s identities

our inside jokes kind of leak out,” Patten-Ostergard said. Sometimes the group would have CAS-related discussions, or they would reference a classmate or a teacher.

During its seven-episode run, the podcast amassed around 2000 plays, which translates into $30 that the podcasters made. They were also able to raise $205 from donations as well as someone recently buying their original Instagram tag.

But besides the monetary gain, the four also found some valuable experiences through the podcast. “I think it was fun … We learned a lot. Or at least me and Magnus edited an episode or two, … so I learned a lot about editing. We all learned, because we had to set up the equipment and all that, and … we had a lot of technical difficulties because, you know, public school audio equipment was not that efficient,” Roan said.

The podcast came to a close after officially publishing the seventh episode, because the groups’ schedules had gotten much busier and there was a lack of availability to record with the school-provided equipment.

“(It) was just all reserved … We couldn’t do it. Our Thursdays got taken up because of ... our conflicting schedules. We did a couple episodes on Discord though,” Roan said.

However, the podcast might be able to return towards the end of the school year, when senior schedules begin to loosen up. “I bet we could crank out one or a couple episodes before the year ends,” Roan said.

The project inspired the group to podcast in the future, as well as people around them, such as Roan’s dad who has since begun his own podcast.

“I feel like what was interesting was that my dad (would) listen to it. And same with (other member’s parents), like Finn’s mom ... They both were showing … their friends, and all their friends said that is interesting to see a window into teenagers’ lives,” Scheffy said.

“It was cool to see the response from people at BHS,” Roan said, “it just felt good to make something … and have people like it.”

Cyrus Patten-Ostergard, Magnus Scheffy, Finn Brooks, and Lincoln Roan are all seniors at BHS and former hosts of the Fishbowl Podcast.

Praneshwar Chandra has worked at BHS as a custodian for the past nine years.

ENTERTAINMENT

GLOBAL ARTISTS: SHIRIN NESHAT, CAPTURING DEFIANCE

MALIE MATUBREW

If one could encapsulate Shirin Neshat — an Iranian political activist, photographer, and filmmaker – and her work in one word, it would be “striking”.

In the vast majority of her work, her subjects are facing towards the viewer, piercing them with their eyes, usually emphasized with lighting tricks or bold, crisp eyeliner. Neshat herself is also usually wearing very defined eye makeup, reminiscent of kohl, highlighting her striking gaze. In her work, women are in control of the gaze when commonly, they are victim to it.

Neshat was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1957 to a middle-class family who could afford to send her to America for education in 1974. She would not return to Iran for 20 years. While she was in America, the Islamic Revolution occurred in 1979 and political instability prevented her from returning home until 1993. During those 20 years she graduated from UC Berkeley and moved to New York, but she did not start making art until after she returned to Iran.

Her first works very much reflect her feelings towards Iran’s changes from when she left to when she voyaged home (from 1974 to 1993) — her very first series, “Unveiling” (1993) and “Women of Allah” (1993-1997), were largely created in reaction to the dress code forced upon women by the new Iranian government.

Both of these series are absolutely beautiful, with my favorite photo being the headliner of the Unveiling series — an Iranian woman dressed in chador (also called hijab or veil), but she is not afraid or sad; she is defiant and powerful. She also has Farsi verse written on her face, a common motif in Neshat’s work. The verses are from Forough Farrokhzad — a modernist and radical feminist Iranian poet. In Neshat’s photography and films, the veil is not diminishing the women’s power — they are powerful with or without it — a truth that Westerners sometimes forget.

“Women of Allah” is similarly powerful — many of the women in this series also have Farsi poetry written on their face, heels, or veils. I especially like “Faceless”, in which the central figure is holding a gun — the barrel facing the camera. The gun is a common image in this series — symbolizing both violence against women and defiance of that violence. This series especially is an insightful investigation of femininity and religion, oppression and defiance, violence and power in Iran, unveiling problems as relevant to Iran in 2024 as they were in 1993.

Neshat is still vocal about the threats Iranian women face every day, with some of her most recent works being made in response to The Guidance Patrol’s murder of 22 year old Mahsa Amini in 2022. Despite being in de facto exile from Iran (due to the political nature of her work), she is constantly breaking the silence and unveiling the oppression of women, in Iran and around the world.

AHA Art Exhibition shows variety of styles

BY EVA DICKINSON staff writer

Berkeley High School’s Arts and Humanities Academy’s (AHA) Art Exhibition on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 showcased the AHA student body’s adeptness and dedication toward their craft. The small school partnered with the Kala Art Institute to set up an exhibit for AHA students to display their art to their friends, family, peers, and the broader community.

The exhibition consisted of a large variety of different styles and mediums of work, ranging from pencil sketches, photography, paintings, and prints to textiles and quilting, as seen in the junior class interdisciplinary project. The one constant throughout the vast range of pieces displayed across every wall of the exhibition space was the high level of quality, craftsmanship, and creativity seen throughout the bustling room.

These artworks varied greatly between themes, styles, and mediums.

The junior class Interdisciplinary Project titled “There to Here:

Immigration Narratives,” combined elements from the AHA junior year history, English, and science classes to achieve their final art piece. AHA juniors contributed to the two group quilts depicting textile portraits of friends and family members who immigrated to The Bay from across the globe. BHS juniors Yelitza Brusatori-Salazar,

‘Madame Web’: An embarrassment, but still a fun watch

Christopher Paredes Taylor, and Jayson Dejean Campbell worked to create their quilt square depicting Brusatori-Salazar’s mother, Melina Salazar, and her immigration journey from Peru to Berkeley. The group included images of the beach, ocean, the sun, and a bright orange peach.

“Peaches are a big scent for my mom because growing up she was around a farm,” Brusatori-Salazar said, “Peaches remind her of her life there.”

The other works were

mostly made by AHA seniors who all contributed two to four pieces that conveyed a certain topic. These artworks varied greatly between themes, styles, and mediums.

AHA senior Xaro Kaufman used the imagery of different warped faces, shapes, and lines to create their conceptual Prismacolor drawings.

“Whatever emotions I’m having in the moment are kind of infused into the artwork ... ” Kaufman said, “My artwork is full of lots of different colors and shapes that are kind of abstract in different ways.”

BY ZACH YOO staff writer COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES

Rumor has it that “Madame Web” a new spinoff of the “Spider-Man” franchise, was intended to take place in the same universe as Tom Holland’s “Spider-Man” films, but this idea was scrapped after Sony realized it had set the film in the wrong year for this to work. If true, this mistake is emblematic of “Madame Web” as a whole, a series of mistakes that seem so obvious you can’t believe you’re watching them.

“Madame Web” feels like an over-produced and over-budgeted TV pilot. Though it technically contains five whole spiderpeople, it only ever shows one in costume and two using their superpowers outside of incredibly brief flash-forwards. Those two are Cassandra Webb — Madame Web — (Dakota Johnson) and Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), the other three (Sydney Sweeney,

Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor) are portrayed as normal teenagers for the events of the film. This means that mainly, it’s a superhero movie where the action is people in normal clothes running around and driving places.

Madame Web’s superpowers aren’t even spider-related — she can see the future (clumsily explained as a “web” of events). I’m told this makes more sense in the comics, but I’m doubtful.

In addition to superhero action, “Madame Web” is going for a thriller vibe. This can mainly be seen in its villain, Ezekiel Sims. The editing and cinematography somewhat effectively frame him as a dangerous killer, but his line reads and affectations instantly shatter any threatening image he could have. He has an untraceable, extreme accent and his delivery makes terrible lines like, “Gimme my spider!” even more strange. It sounds like much of his

dialogue was dubbed over in post-production, so this is more indicative of bad production than bad acting, but regardless, it’s hilarious.

The script, from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (the duo behind last year’s “Morbius”), is genuinely awful. It’s clumsy, slow, and most importantly, just doesn’t make any sense.

“Campy” is maybe giving it too much credit; in addition to facepalmworthy lines like, “The great thing about the future … it hasn’t happened yet,” the use of basic techniques like plant and payoff is totally bungled. Madame Web’s backstory is entirely made up for this movie; she’s connected through her dead mother to a Peruvian tribe of spiderpeople — sure, why not?

The fact that it’s set in 2003 is a major part of the film’s identity, but not for any reason other than the

lack of anything else going on. A massive billboard for Beyonce’s debut album “Dangerously in Love,” obnoxiously colorful Pepsi cans, and references to watching “Idol” (“American Idol”) are fun in their superfluousness. But the film is incompetent at even staying true to its setting. In an early scene, a background character uses a PlayStation Portable, a piece of Sony product placement that actually wasn’t available until 2005, and the film ends with “Dreams” by The Cranberries, which is a ‘90s song, not a 2000s one! All this means that Madame Web is a massive embarrassment, but at least a fun one. It’s not bad in any really condemnable way, or even seemingly in an intentional way. It’s a bad movie like how your dog is a bad dog — it doesn’t matter, you love it anyway.

MALINA MEISSENER

Exhibition attendees admire AHA students’ work.

‘Urinetown’ dazzles audiences with colorful chaos and passion

In contrast, the poorer characters were dressed in beige, dirty, and tattered clothing, incorporating occasional bright pops of color in accessories or makeup.

Urinetown, a town with a horrible drought and restrictions that force people to “pay for the privilege to pee,” can only be described as a dystopian society. It represents the relevant issues of unchecked power, capitalism, and the subsequent lack of equality. The actors used pointed looks at the audience and comedic timing to emphasize the modernday relevance of the plot throughout the show, giving way to laughs all around.

was a standout, filled with hilariously choreographed, perfectly synchronized bunny hopping.

“I could just count on the fact that I would get to go to rehearsal after school ... I think it has made my year exponentially better.”

Sophie

Another memorable moment was the last few minutes of the show, as the audience watched the end of “Urinetown” – narrated by yet another superb monologue from Officer Lockstock. While certainly not the happiest ending in musical theater history, the ensemble members did an admirable job representing the grim consequences of a drought.

The show itself started off with the narrator and police officer named Lockstock, played by Kirby Duncan, a Berkeley High School freshman, giving a short monologue introducing the show and the town.

Through every moment of the show’s two-hour run, the cast perfectly portrayed the deeper political meaning of the show, maintaining chaotic satire and humor.

The comical “Don’t Be a Bunny” musical number

Still, the most successful part of the show was the cast itself. There were multiple apparent moments thrown in during the show that the actors created or improvised themselves. An audience favorite was a shocking stage kiss at the end of Act Two, which multiple actors said was their personal favorite moment in the show.

The idea for the kiss was created by actors Duncan and Arjun Hermon, a BHS freshman, who played

Officer Barrel. They created the idea offstage and then implemented it in the performance. “Me and Kirby are friends,” Hermon said, “So we were just like, ‘Oh, you know what’d be really funny right there?’”

Throughout all of the song and dance numbers, the ensemble were nearly always engaged and in character, constantly acting even if they weren’t the principal focus of the

scene. Each cast member genuinely seemed to be enjoying themselves. Jamie Grace, a BHS sophomore who played the role of Soupy Sue, an excitable poor character, mentioned the moment where they all broke character and started laughing on stage.

“Every single one of us on stage broke during the song ‘Run Freedom Run’ because one person couldn’t stop laughing in the crowd and it was throwing all of us off,” Grace said, “(It) could’ve been better. But I think it was definitely good we had that energy tonight.”

The hard work, effort, spirit, and time that was put into the show was evident in every moving moment and line. Whether it was Sam Van Ausdall Canny –who played the lead Bobby Strong, belting out song lyrics – or Lilah WolfsonHecht – who brought a smile to people’s faces every time she came onstage as the curious, but ironically hilarious, Little Sally – the energy was undeniable.

“It’s been such a consistent thing to look forward to,” said BHS junior Sophie Novick-Prucher, who played the role of

Senator Fipp in the musical. “Even when rehearsals were hard and long and kind of a slog at times, as they always are, I could just count on the fact that I would get to go to rehearsal after school ... I think it has made my year exponentially better.”

All throughout the dazzling performance, the “Urinetown” cast and BHS Stagecraft department showcased their passion for the show. The audience experienced a confusing, chaotic, and wonderful spectacle with a surprisingly deep message that they won’t forget.

ATTICUS LEBANG

‘Nepo babies’ have the responsibility to credit their privilege

BY ANNIKA JOY staff writer

“Nepo baby” is a modern day term used to describe people who owe their success more to nepotism, which is family or personal connections, than to skill or merit. It’s particularly prevalent in

the entertainment industry, where family ties often pave the way to fame and fortune. This sparks debate over whether those who benefit from nepotism truly deserve their status and whether it’s fair to those who start with fewer advantages. The music and film industries, in particular, have become increasingly

difficult to break into due to nepotism, which is why celebrities who have benefited from nepotism have a responsibility to acknowledge their privilege.

The concept of “nepo babies” is a controversial one in Hollywood, with questions being raised about whether their status has been earned or bought.

Regardless of one’s stance on the topic, there is no denying the countless privileges that come with celebrity nepotism. These tend to be people who have grown up in the industry and are familiar with the way it operates better than any outsider could be. There are also instances where commonly accepted industry standards do not seem to apply to those with a legacy.

would never be granted the same opportunities that Lila Moss has, and the difference is her background.

Celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate

opportunities. The real problem arises when these celebrities refuse to acknowledge that nepotism has helped them get where they are.

The music and film industries, in particular, have become increasingly difficult to break into due to nepotism ...

Hudson have criticized the “nepotism” label.

One such example is Lila Moss, daughter of ‘90s supermodel Kate Moss. Lila Moss has been following in her mother’s footsteps in runway modeling over the last couple of years. And while female runway models can generally be no shorter than 5 feet, 8 inches, Moss is only approximated to be about 5 feet, 5 inches tall. Despite this, she has walked for high-class fashion houses such as Miu Miu, Coperni, and Fendi, usually being the shortest girl on the runway, regardless of platforms. Anyone who is at or below Moss’ height and trying to get into modeling

According to Hudson, it isn’t right to question the merit of celebrities born to famous parents, as they’ve only been given a foot in the door. Hudson told The Independent, “I don’t care where you come from, or what your relationship to the business is – if you work hard and you kill it, it doesn’t matter.” Yet industries like acting and modeling have too many people for the number of available jobs –and a foot in the door can mean a world of difference.

However, those who benefit from nepotism cannot choose their families, and it’s not entirely fair to shun them for taking advantage of presented

When those who benefit from nepotism disregard their privilege, it undermines the meritocracy that these industries are supposed to be based on and delegitimizes the achievements of those who started at the bottom and worked their way up to success. By disregarding nepotism and its consequences within the entertainment industry, there is no chance for change within the system.

Although there is no controlling the advantages one may get from their family, those who benefit from nepotism carry a certain responsibility to credit their privilege when talking about how they achieved success. Otherwise, industries will continue to become oversaturated with legacies, until it becomes nearly impossible to enter said industries without a foot in the door.

Novick-Prucher Senator Fipp in “Urinetown”

Cast of “Urinetown” performing live in the Florence Schwimley Little Theater.

BHS women find paths into film industry

BY AMARA KAPUR staff writer

Historically, the film industry has been mysterious in some ways, and not very open to diversity, making it difficult for minorities, including women looking to do more than just acting, to enter. This is now changing, with more classes like “Video Production,” “Studio Editing,” and “Photography” being introduced in schools, giving female students pathways. Film students in high school and college are now more frequently finding their way into the profession.

Bahia Rozan, a sophomore in college at the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, is a BHS alumna. She took three to four years of film electives at BHS and now majors in Film. She said that in high school, she took beginner film, then advanced studio editing

for two years in a row, and was later a proctor for the advanced class her senior year.

Rozan shared that right now she “currently helps out Amanda Marini, and Phil Halpern with their film classes, while also learning from them.” She was inspired to come back to BHS because she was already taking a semester off of school and wanted to incorporate film and teaching into it. “I work full time at a daycare, and wanted to have experience with high school students as well,” Rozan said. Rozan’s teacher for two years, Amanda Marini, has been working at BHS for twenty years as a film and video teacher. “After working lots of jobs, I knew I wanted a career that I felt passionate about,” Marini said. “At that time I was also editing a literary magazine with a friend who had started an independent publishing company. I found working with writers,

seeing ways to help their work improve was really satisfying. I thought maybe I could do that full-time as a teacher, and it would be a way for me to give back to the community which was important to me, so I decided to give it a shot.”

Marini went to Cooperstown Central High School in Upstate New York. Reflecting on her time after high school, she said, “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go to college because it felt like that was the only option ever presented to me, and I resented what felt like a decision that had been made for me.”

Marini knew she didn’t want to stay in upstate New York, but was unsure about what would ultimately make her happy. “At that point, the future seemed really daunting, so I tried not to think about it,” she said. “Otherwise I would have some obviously ... unattainable ideas for my

future, mostly inspired by movies I watched.”

Marini said that she thinks her students are passionate about film and are trying to find a place for themselves in the industry. “Last year, I think I had at least nine go on to film programs,” she said. “And the really exciting thing about that is they were mostly women. That’s different from when I was in school. There were women, but it was mostly male students, male teachers, and male teaching assistants. I am thrilled to see more and more diverse voices at BHS accessing film and video classes and pursuing it beyond high school.”

The Film Fest club has been a tradition for three years and has been run by Cleo Saxe for the past year: an eleventh grader in IB film. She said that Film Fest is a club where students help run a festival for student made films. According to Saxe, the club’s vision was to create a space where

students feel comfortable sharing their films outside of class. “I think we have achieved that goal with our prior film festivals,” she said. “And we are starting to achieve it this year with our new submissions.”

Saxe said she’s not sure yet where they want to go to college, but definitely a four year college. “I am interested in the UC colleges and UNC,” Saxe said. “I’m keeping my options open but I am definitely interested in going into the film department or keeping it as a side hobby if I pursue something else. If I were to go into film, it would probably be more editing-

focused as that is my favorite part of filmmaking.”

Saxe added that it is harder for women to join the profession, but slowly it is getting more diverse.

All of these filmmakers are walking different paths. Many high school film students envision themselves joining the notoriously difficult industry. Luckily, the BHS film program has fostered a supportive community and inspired many young artists. Marini shared that “everyday (she is) inspired by (her) students and their creativity, resilience and passion. (She) can’t imagine giving that up.”

Choosing your own adventure

BY AMAR WALKER staff writer

“Warning! This book is different from other books. You and YOU ALONE are in charge of what happens in this story.” Written at the beginning of each book in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, the reader is given the responsibility to decide what happens next.

Choose your own adventure, now a niche genre, was massively popular in the 1980s and 90s. The format of the books allowed readers to decide the actions of the main character, and in doing so, change the ending of the book. The books were brilliant for their time, creating multiple different storylines packed into a single novel. They were marketed towards kids as a fun and interactive way to read, bringing millions of young readers into the world of books. But as years go on, fewer and fewer people are reading them. So what happened to the genre?

When the books were first released in the ‘80s, over 250 million copies were sold. The storylines included mystery, thriller, fantasy, survival, exploration, and more. New copies of Choose Your Own Adventure books are still being sold, yet sales haven’t reached their previous levels. People have also written interactive novels for adults, but those aren’t particularly popular either. One of the more notable authors within this genre is Ryan North, a Canadian

author, who wrote “Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable Path Adventure.” This novel offers over 100 different endings for the reader to choose from.

Over time, choose your own adventure has evolved into new mediums. Netflix created interactive movies and TV shows, like the interactive romcom, titled “Choose Love.” The show allows viewers to control the actions of the main character and decide who she ends up with. And while the idea is certainly creative, everything else was poorly executed, with awful acting and a generic storyline.

There are also similar iPhone games like Episode and Choices, both of which have millions of different stories to choose from. Users must decide what the main character says, which impacts the arc of the story.

Episode currently has a higher level of popularity than the books, with 5 million active users and a total of over 50 million downloads since the app was launched.

With these alternative choose your own adventure experiences available at the touch of a button, there is less incentive to read the actual books. It’s more practical to download one app with over 150,000 stories (in addition to the different arcs within each story) versus buying one book with around 30 storylines.

It’s also a matter of the content of the books holding up with the times. Some of the books written in the late 70s and 80s have oldfashioned and insensitive ideologies, making them uncomfortable to read. But there are hundreds of different books, and more often than not, they are goofy and entertaining.

With streaming services like Netflix, there is a likelihood that the genre of interactive film will continue to grow and evolve into the potential it holds. The future of choose your own adventure as a genre is promising, and it’s up to the viewer to decide whether or not they’ll take it to the next level.

— Raven Fonseca Jensen

TOSCANA GIRARD MAXON

Students sit in a BHS film class.

BHS women’s wrestler makes it to states

BY LULI GALINSON staff writer

On Thursday, Feb. 22, girls wrestling captain Shiella Paredes-Akimoto competed at the state championships. It was a three-day long event held at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield, California. Winners at the event moved on to a national championship competition.

Paredes-Akimoto went into the event with a strong game plan in mind: To win. She said that all of the people who have helped her improve her wrestling skills throughout high school motivated her to try her best. “It matters less to me, placing at tournaments and stuff. I want to prove it because of the people who have put so much work into me, because I know how good I am. I like winning to show the work that people have put into me is worth it,” Paredes-Akimoto explained. Head wrestling coach Benjamin Nathan, assistant coach Dashiell Allen, and Paredes-Akimoto’s mom all accompanied her to the state championships.

Even though she won her first two matches of the competition, ParedesAkimoto didn’t feel she

was wrestling as well as she could have been. “I just kind of focused on the fact that this is kind of like my last chance, so I thought about it like this is gonna be my last high school wrestling match, so let’s make the most of it,” Paredes-Akimoto recalled.

She amped up the energy during her third match on day two of the tournament, and despite having the upper hand for the majority of the match, she ended up getting pinned and being knocked out of the competition. This meant that she finished being ranked as one of the top 25 wrestlers in California. She said, “I knew logically that I could do better than what I ended up doing. But at the same time, I don’t really think that I believed fully

that I would actually do that well.” Despite this, she stayed focused on her goals of wrestling in the future as best she could.

Paredes-Akimoto’s life has become centered around wrestling as she has improved in the sport. “I feel it’s giving me a lot of purpose in life,” she expressed, “because it’s the thing that I do. Every day is about wrestling for me. I work so that I can wrestle and so that I can go to certain tournaments in the offseason. I’m in independent study so that I can rest properly and can recover and have more time to work and train.”

She is also very proud of the mental fortitude the sport has given her. “It’s taught me so much

about hard work and about strength. It’s a very brutal sport. Mentally it’s just so hard because it’s an individual sport; even though you’re wrestling with a team, at the end of the day, it’s all on you,” ParedesAkimoto said.

While she plans to continue to do local wrestling, ParedesAkimoto’s biggest plans are coming next year. “I’m moving to Japan for a year, … and I’m gonna wrestle out there,” she said, “When I get back, I also want to wrestle in college.” She was approached by college scouts at the state championships who offered her spots in college wrestling programs, and she hopes to have more options when she returns from Japan.

Non-competitive sports alleviate pressure

BY MINAMI SOGA staff writer

Sports are often known for being competitive, but there are many ways to be able to participate in them without playing competitively. For high school athletes, sports can become more intense in a competitive environment, causing pressure and taking the fun out of the sport.

Wanting to escape these conditions, some students choose to play their sport non-competitively. This can be in the form of joining recreational teams, taking classes, joining athletic programs, and much more.

Kalyan Wetzel, a sophomore at Berkeley High School who does skateboarding and played on a recreational soccer and baseball team for several years, shared that he is attracted to playing sports non-competitively because of the lack of stress and how he has the freedom to choose what tricks he wants to learn on his skateboard.

“I think with noncompetitive (sports), you can have a lot more fun … For competitive (teams), you can have the same amount of fun, probably, but (non-competitive) is

definitely a lot less stressful,” Wetzel said, “With skateboarding, I know people who do competitive skateboarding, and it just seems like it’s a lot of other people telling you what tricks to learn, rather than just learning new tricks that you want to do.”

Playing noncompetitively can also allow athletes to find a sense of community and unity.

Keito Schocker, a senior at BHS, plays basketball under a club team for Japanese Americans and described how the low stakes can allow for players to connect better with one another.

“There’s a certain point where at times, you do want to put your all (into games). But it’s also nice to have an opportunity where there’s no consequence if you lose … It’s something where you can engage with others, with your community. Everybody on the team is Asian, so it’s nice to have people from my community come together and play basketball,” he said.

The dance industry is also known to be quite competitive. According to Alisa Garduno, a BHS sophomore who does ballet, modern, and contemporary dance, competitive dancing has a “bad atmosphere” as

it can be burdening, both mentally and physically. She believes that dancing noncompetitively allows her to build stable relationships with dance classmates and teachers and to be able to learn at her own pace while taking care of herself.

“I love how I’m not trying to fight to compete against my classmates, rather just have fun with them. And that also builds a good community around the people I dance with and good communication between me and my teachers so they don’t have

to always be stressing me about reaching this goal. We can just reach it gradually like how my body would like to,” Garduno said.

Clio Wachtel, a sophomore at BHS and another ballet dancer, agreed and emphasized how the relaxed setting allows them to grow as they focus on themselves rather than their competition and the eyes of the judges.

“I get to work ... without the pressure of having to put it out to people I barely know and have them judge me ...” Wachtel said.

ZOE WHITMAN

The excessive exclamation mark. Single handedly the most dreaded misuse of English grammar by all elementary schools. Sure, understanding a semicolon will take time, heck, forgetting a comma is allowed, but a wrong exclamation point, unacceptable! As a kid on, every paper was, “Zoe!” because to little me, that seemed happier. My teacher was not pleased and eventually got me to stop. The issue, he said, was grammatical.

The exclamation mark appears to signify unprofessionalism. Some authors have decreed a ban on this punctuation. They say that, if overused, it will lose meaning. People see it as juvenile, therefore unprofessional.

A reason for it appearing childish is that younger generations grew up on the internet, the exclamation point just a click away whereas older generations had to dance their fingers across many typewriter keys to get the exclamation point in writing. This leads to younger people simply having more experience and comfort with the punctuation. Compared to the period, an exclamation mark can be a symbol of joy and happiness, part of the reason it’s seen as so unprofessional.

The exclamation point is special because it can mean many different things. The punctuation conveys human emotion and evokes feelings. When you see “hi.” compared to “hi!” they come across two different ways. The period is more blunt and cold in comparison to the almost bubbly exclamation point.

Alternatively, the exclamation point can be a very stark and aggressive punctuation. For instance, “leave me alone.” is a bit dreary, but “leave me alone!” is like you’re being shouted at impassionately. It can come across as more of a command. Some say that this use is so important that it’s similar to the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, you only use it when necessary as opposed to over using it and not being able to have that extreme when it’s needed.

All of this creates a quandary for people the mark is commonly associated with. These people tend to be non-men because the mark has so much emotion attached to it, some even consider the mark a sign of instability, which, of course, means it’s associated with women. One challenge as someone who is not a man, is if you don’t use an exclamation point you’re hard and icy, but when you use too many exclamation points you are then ditzy and overexcitable. When in correspondence, a certain level of enthusiasm is often expected from these groups of people and the exclamation mark is the perfect way to showcase this.

What we all need to keep in mind is that language, punctuation included, changes over time. We have to remember that in ancient Rome, there were no spaces or periods at allsentenceswouldlookmorelikethisiftheywereine nglish(.) Making someone more comfortable isn’t a bad thing. The exclamation point is so multifaceted and diverse that it’s able to convey opposite meanings of both comfort and fear.

Shiella Paredes-Akimoto plans to move to Japan to wrestle next year.

LEV TEIBLUM

Back to glory: Boys soccer wins NCS for first time in 4 years

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Finally, in the NCS championship game, BHS and Dougherty Valley High School competed against each other for the title. The game went scoreless into the second half. Berkeley had a great opportunity off of a free kick from the 35-yard line. The free kick landed right in front of the goal, where Buettner shot the ball, but it was blocked. After collecting the rebound, Buettner shot again, and it was saved by Dougherty Valley High’s keeper.

The game then went into overtime, where sophomore forward Jake Goetting laid the ball off to junior midfielder Samuel Sha who split the ball between Dougherty’s defenders. The ball then found Goetting again, who scored, as he fell due to a foul by Dougherty Valley.

In the midst of Berkeley’s celebration, the referee said that because there was a foul before the shot occurred, BHS would have a penalty kick, but the goal was not valid. Buettner stepped up to take the game-winning

shot, and he kicked the ball in the bottom left corner, winning BHS the game and making them NCS champions for the first time in four years.

When reflecting on the season, Jacobson-Bell said, “It was our year; we went through three years, got knocked out in the first round every time, sophomore and junior year got knocked out in the first round, so we all knew the goal.”

He also spoke about the uniqueness of this year’s team having 19 seniors, as well as being an unusually big team, which he said made them more competitive.

BHS senior forward Kea Morshed credited the team’s chemistry and closeness as key factors to their victory.

“We won because we had a lot of positive peer to peer leadership and the group was cohesive; we’ve known each other for a while,” Morshed said. “I definitely got nervous sometimes, but had to remember that the team is a family. Regardless of what happened, we were there for each other.”

After their NCS win, BHS began to play in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) NorCal Championships. Their first game in the championship was against Saint Francis High School.

The first half of the game was filled with goal-scoring opportunities by BHS. The closest to a goal opportunity was when junior forward Oliver Adams passed it to senior forward Harlem Clemons who had a shot on goal, but hit the crossbar. However, despite BHS’s many attacking opportunities, the first half ended scoreless.

Within the first 2 minutes of the second half, Adams shot and scored from near range. However, as Berkeley celebrated their goal, Saint Francis was able to get a breakaway, scoring and tying up the game. The game remained tied throughout the end of the regular game time and overtime, leaving it to penalties.

Sadly, Berkeley lost during the penalty kicks, marking an end to their long and very successful season.

POSTSEASON SCOREBOARD

ATHLETE PROFILE

The Berkeley High School girls varsity lacrosse team is led by senior Lane Imen. As captain, Imen expressed that “learning how to implement different leadership styles and interact with different types of people has really been one of the hardest things, but also one of the most beneficial things (she’s) learned.” Imen said, “I take that skill to school and all my other relationships outside, and it’s kind of just made me a better person.”

Imen is staying focused on BHS lacrosse after having to give up club lacrosse and BHS varsity field hockey due to a stress fracture in her back last year. “I think all of the difficulties and hardships that sometimes aren’t as enjoyable, become enjoyable when we get in season and get to make memories,” she said. She thinks the upcoming season should be a promising one with “a lot of new talent coming in, and the team has become a lot more developed than it has been in the past.”

— Sam Mascarenhas

ZIVA AMENDOLA

Senior midfielder Oliver Gill shoots the ball in the first round of the CIF championships. NOLAN WHITEHILL