LITTLE BIG GAME ISSUE
THE BURLINGAME B theburlingameb.org
October 24, 2017
What’s Inside? New tax in Burlingame Page 2
Little Big Game celebrates its 90th year From 1927-2017, annual homecoming game unites community This year marks the 90th annual Little Big Game. The Panthers are aiming for their 54th win over the San Mateo High School Bearcats on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 11 a.m. The game will be at the SMHS football stadium. The BHS band, cheer team, and other supporters are marching in the traditional parade from Burlingame to San Mateo around 9 a.m. What started as a small, cross-town rivalry is now a deeply rooted school tradition that is the highlight of the fall. Alumni, community members and current students join together each November to watch the Panthers and the Bearcats battle it out in a football game for the coveted “Paw.” With Burlingame currently holding The Paw, the Bearcats are looking to take it back for the first time in years. Can the Bearcats finally defeat Burlingame, or will we continue to PROTECT THE PAW? Find out on Nov. 4.
Meet the face of Royal Donuts Page 4 Students on SoundCloud Page 4
Little Big Game dancers and artists Page 5
“And so we stayed” “It’s really scary to get an education and work really hard, and not know what you’re going to be able to do with it,” Abitbol said. “If I hadn’t gotten my green card, I probably would have continued to work in some little coffee shop after college.”
Little Big Game Pages 6 + 7
Honors classes Page 8
Stress culture Page 9
Volleyball headed to CCS Page 12 Water polo in PAL tournament Page 12
Issue 2 Vol. 110
BY LILY PAGE
Senior Reporter Sophie Abitbol was 17 years old when her parent’s restaurant went out of business, taking her family’s investor visa and life savings with it. “And so we stayed because there was nothing to go back to,” Abitbol said. As recent immigrants from France, this setback rendered the family unauthorized to stay in the United States. After being accepted into UC Santa Cruz under the assumption that she would pay instate tuition, Abitbol received a letter demanding proof of U.S. residency, or otherwise pay out-of-state tuition. “We were still working, we payed taxes, we
filed our tax returns,” Abitbol said, recalling her initial shock. “[We did] everything like everybody else.” Abitbol called the office of Nancy Pelosi, her elected official, and left a message explaining her case. To her delight, someone from Pelosi’s office decided to pick up her case and requested approval for her California state residency for educational purposes. Abitbol described it as “miraculous” when a document certifying her residency came in the mail. So she went to college. Yet there was always a fear of deportation in the back of her mind, one that significantly affected her financial situation. “I was very aware that as a white French
kid, I wasn’t going to be asked for papers as much as a darker-skinned person,” Abitbol said. “But I knew which jobs I could apply for, and which ones I couldn’t.” For the entirety of her college years, Abitbol cleaned houses, worked as a babysitter, tutored, and worked in small cafes. She feared that the rest of her life would be spent in the same way. Then her second “miracle” happened, she said. Just a month before she graduated, Abitbol received her green card. Her experience of growing up in the shadows inspired her to teach English Language Development classes, which is what she first did at BHS.
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C building boys’ restroom falls victim to vandalism BY DARRION CHEN repaired, another gets Senior Reporter vandalized.” Examples of such The C building boys’ restroom has been defacement include, but sporadically closed for are not limited to, bromaintenance over the ken door handles and past few months due broken soap dispensers. to repeated vandalism, There was also graffiti according to Principal - particularly scratches and carvings - which Paul Belzer. However, as repairs warranted a repainting were carried out, the of the bathroom door reason for the closure and a ‘wet paint’ sign, was never officially an“It may have nounced to students, leaving students specuseemed like lating about the cause. a continuous “There is a consenlockdown sus among male students in thinking that because once the locking was caused something by people Juuling (using was repaired, e-cigarette-like devices) in the restroom,” juanother gets nior Junha Park said. “I vandalized.” think all boys at school have seen people JuulPaul Belzer ing in that restroom.” Although the in- which furthered delayed creased amount of the restroom’s usability. The seemingly endvandalism in the C building restroom may less cycle of defacebe correlated with it ment and repair is very being a “hotspot” for hard on the mainteJuuling, the closure of nance staff. “The custodial staff the restroom was not a punitive or preventive already have full-time measure against Juuling. jobs,” said Belzer. “So “The bathroom was the need to fix the bathnever closed because of room on top of their one ongoing issue,” said original jobs is an extra Belzer. “It may have load.” Belzer also applied seemed like a continuous lockdown because the New York broken once something was window theory to the
current situation; if the school permits Juuling and other minor illegal activities in the bathroom, then vandalism and more serious crimes will gradually become more prevelent at BHS. “This is why the bathroom needs to be continuously fixed,” Belzer said. Since the C building accounts for one third of the mens’ restrooms on the BHS main campus, the restriction has presented many inconveniences to male students. “It’s a major inconvenience when the closest bathroom is the C building, but you have to run all the way to the A building or F building,” said Park. “We need to find a solution to prevent vandalism, not just keep patching the restroom up,” said Park. “Students need to have respect for the community when using the facility and technology,” Belzer said. “We need to respect the learning environment. We wouldn’t have to lock it if there was no vandalism.”