City takes rst steps away from gas stovetops

BY ALEX KELLY Business Manager

thinks that an element of its appeal is the “simplicity” of the crime. “ at’s the accessibility of shopli ing, especially in stores where there are no security tags or buzzers to catch you,” Geminder said. “I think people also tend to forget about the serious consequences associated with shopliing because they don’t think they will get caught, which is why it has become so normalized.”

Arrests and charges for retail the have dropped 70% between 2017 and 2021, while reported incidents rose 21%, according to e Philadelphia Inquirer.

An anonymous source — who attends Burlingame — disclosed that shopli ing is addictive and that shopli ers like him are unable to quit because of the serotonin it gives them. e source, who has stolen roughly $5,000 worth of items from retail stores such as Lululemon and e North Face, admitted that acquiring new items makes him feel both happy and accomplished. However, he also claimed that if he had a higher allowance from his parents, he would pay for the items instead.

Another anonymous source said they were similarly reliant on shopli ing.

“To be honest, I steal everything. Half of my closet is stolen. I haven’t paid for clothes in the past two months,” the source said. “Why would you pay for something when someone you know is stealing it and paying nothing for it?”

According to Impact Law, theft is the most common crime among teenagers in America. The crime is so prevalent that students are even stealing unattended belongings from the PE locker rooms. PE teacher Anthony Dimech believes the issue originates with lost or misplaced locks.

“We probably have about 75 locks that are lost because [students] misplace them. They don’t close their lockers. Every day when I walk around, I’m closing someone’s lock, or I’m picking up a lock off the floor,” Dimech said.

Moreover, Dimech gives a locker room talk to his students every day, reminding them that items don’t get stolen unless they’re left in the open or other classmates know the combination.

“If you can pick a lock in front of me, I’ll give you $100. No one’s ever been able to do so,” Dimech said.

Because many people forget to lock their lockers and keep expensive valuables at school, students often lose costly clothing and accessories during Flex Time periods, when students steal the most.

Another anonymous source revealed that during Flex Time, groups of girls will sometimes take items in the locker room if they see the item has been there for a few days. For example, if a pair of jeans has been unclaimed after a week, some individuals will take the jeans for themselves. Although the girls won’t reach into unlocked lockers or unzipped backpacks, items that are “laid out in the open” are what catches their eye.

“Shoplifting is so normalized in our society that it creates an environment where you feel left out if you don’t [partake in stealing],” junior Tem Battsooj said.

Rise in cheating linked to technology

FROM PG. 1

“[It causes] a lack of learning and gaining knowledge,” Kirkpatrick said. “I’m worried that critical thinking skills are going to be a lot lower, and what kind of people are going to come out of this to be adults and members of our community?”

According to school data, cheating investigations at the University of Pennsylvania increased 71% from two years ago.

“I’m not usually the teacher who gets angry, but [my class] saw me upset,” Bellas said. “Hopefully, I got the message across.”

But tests don’t need to be online for students to cheat, as they can take pictures and send them to other classmates. Figuring out which students gained an advantage is seemingly impossible.

“I appreciate that admin took it very seriously immediately, and worked hard to track down some of the people that may have [received it],” chemistry teacher Joshua Dyl said. “Every time students [cheat], all [they’re] doing is trading in some personal integrity for a little bit of GPA. at’s a bad trade.”

Chemistry teachers now force students to turn in their phones during class and create di erent test versions to decrease the chances of communication with others about the questions.

“I have to relinquish some control,” Kirkpatrick said. “So do I think it’s something that could conceivably happen [again]? Yes, but I tried to do my best to prevent it in as many ways that I can.”

APUSH teachers followed suit, creating multiple prompts for their writing assessments to dissuade plagiarism.

“We are working through tools to block browsers or have [students] handwrite, which is way more annoying for them,” Bellas said. “[For] students who did their work honestly, it’s not fair.”

Teachers will be watching closely for future incidents to maintain academic integrity, but the fallout from these incidents and their impact on the other students will be felt long a er this school year is over.

“It calls into question how education works,” Dyl said. “Technology limits our development, and we’re starting to lose our capabilities because of what we’re relying on. But am I worried that [cheating] is going to happen [again]? Yeah, for every test.” e topic quickly devolved into political and cultural uproar, but relatively little legislative change has been made since the news broke. However, the city of Burlingame has taken up the crusade against gas stoves. In an attempt to reduce gas stoves in Burlingame, the city council passed new Reach Codes, extending the ban on gas stoves and other gas appliances in new multi-family buildings to include new single-family homes.

When a political feud blew up online at the beginning of 2023, most would have assumed that it was about one of the following things: classi ed documents, Ron DeSantis or Hunter Biden’s laptop. But instead, Twitter in uencers, TV pundits and elected o cials were ghting over a common household appliance: gas stoves.

On Jan. 9, Richard Trumka Jr., a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner, told Bloomberg News that the government might want to consider stricter regulations on gas stoves, sparking the online uproar. It wasn’t all Trumka’s fault: In recent months, the EPA and World Health Organization (WHO) have published data linking gas stoves to respiratory disease, cancer and cardiovascular issues. Natural gas is also harmful to the environment and pumps methane into the atmosphere and households.

“We are pushing for people to use electric cooking over gas,” Burlingame Sustainability Coordinator Sigalle Micheal said. “Our rst reason is because we want to reduce the use of methane gas because every time you turn on a gas burner, you’re actually burning fuel and creating greenhouse gas emissions.”

Steps such as the reach codes are crucial to making Burlingame less gas dependent and more environmentally friendly. However, many Burlingame residents may be reluctant to part with their gas stoves. Senior Lily Hartley has a gas stove at home and uses an electric stove in Culinary class at Burlingame, and says the gas stove consistently produces better results — enough for the risk of gas sto be worth it.

“I think it’s the media trying to blow it out of proportion. It’s kind of a crazy story, like, ‘Oh my god, a common household appliance might cause asthma or cancer,’” Hartley said.

It isn’t just Burlingame residences who have to grapple with the implications of their gas stoves and appliances. In the classrooms where Shannon Couch teaches Nutrition and Culinary classes, half the student work stations are gas stoves and the other half are electric.

According to the EPA study, students may be exposed to the potentially harmful e ects of gas stoves once or twice a week, depending on how much they use them in class. Despite the potential hazard, students in Couch’s classroom are generally not troubled about their exposure to gas.

“We don’t have them on that much, like if we’re cooking the stoves are only on for 20 to 30 minutes max,” senior Hayden Wilson said. “Set-up, cleanup [and] eating are most of the class.”

While Wilson is not concerned about exposure in the classroom, his family has moved away from gas stoves in their home in favor of induction stove tops. Induction cooking relies on the transfer of electro-magnetic currents to the metal pots and pans on top of the glass surface, all without using a burner or ame. Induction cooking is much more safe for households and the environment, and according to Wilson, it doesn’t make a di erence in cooking.

“I de nitely think they work the same,” Wilson said. “It is a little simpler to use because when you stop using it turns down really quick, whereas gas and electric stay hot for a while.”

In an attempt to introduce induction cooking as an alternative to gas stoves, Micheal has started an induction cooktop program for Burlingame residents. Residents can check out a small induction cooktop to use at home and try out the di erent method of cooking.