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Volume 13 Issue 2

News & Views from Contra Costa County High Schools

Vaping solution: monitoring the school bathrooms

By Peyton Smith and Matthew Carrington Miramonte High School The Acalanes Union High School District has the highest e-cigarette usage rates in Contra Costa County, according to the 2017-18 California Healthy Kids Survey, doubling between 2013 and 2015 and doubling again between 2015 and 2017.

Data from the survey shows that 25 percent of students in the district admitted to recent use of e-cigarettes.

Recent medical findings about vaping and a failed federal grant

request by the Acalanes district highlight an important truth: While Miramonte is doing a lot already to combat the issue on campus, student awareness and increased surveillance of the girls bathroom is crucial to counteracting the epidemic.

Looking around campus, it’s not hard to see; during brunch, lunch, and even passing periods, students crowd into bathroom stalls to vape.

To decrease vaping in its schools, the district applied for a $1 million federal grant to the Department of Justice to purchase and install vape detectors and other measures to help students addicted to nicotine. However, the grant application was unsuccessful.

The grant would have distributed money to detect students

Northgate ‘senators’ convene in ‘Congress’

vaping at school and help students dealing with addiction. The district hoped to install e-cigarette detectors inside bathrooms and cameras outside to monitor student activity. An additional school nurse and counselor were going to be added to the staff amongst the four district high schools to help students struggling with addiction.

The district also asked for nicotine specialists in the grant proposal to serve as resources for the Human and Social De- velopment class as well as parent information sessions.

Recent patient studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linked vaping with lung illness, chemical exposure and fat buildup in the lungs, and hemoptysis (coughing up blood).Within the last few months, 33 deaths across the

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Teens practice legislative skills

See VAPING Page 7

San Ramon Valley schools test vaping detectors in restrooms

By Ronnie Gogoi and Liann Bielicki California High School

By Cassidy Baumann and David Allen Northgate High School In a week marked by a U.S. Justice Department report on foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election and pending impeachment charges against President Donald Trump, members of the Senate still managed to approve dozens of bills on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 in two actions-packed days. They approved legislation that provides social and health services to people, helps small farmers, and promotes social justice issues.

These accomplishments did not take place in the U.S. Senate or the California State Senate, but the four legislative bodies of Northgate High School: the Blue, the Red, the White, and the Stars and Stripes senates where Northgate’s seniors simulated all aspects of the legislative process.

“People have more differing opinions than we are raised to believe,” said Jon Wake, who participated in the White Senate. His bill, which proposed funding for non-embryonic stem cell research, made it to the full Senate and was passed.

“Until Mock Congress, I thought people thought the same way, but I was wrong.

It was refreshing.”

Mock Congress is not a stand-alone event at Northgate. The concept of Mock Congress in high schools was created in 1887 by at school teacher at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Since its creation, Mock Congress has been incorporated in the curriculum by numerous renowned institutions such as Harvard University, Columbia University, Yale University, UPenn, and Rutgers University.

Northgate began incorporating this activity into its government curriculum around 35 years ago.

Northgate government teacher Jon Burchett, who has been instrumental in keeping Mock Congress running, described how Mock Congress has evolved: “Mock Congress has changed significantly since I’ve been here. When I started, we had one Senate and a House of Representatives, and everyone was only allowed to speak twice, with a big speaking list. Since then, we’ve made many, many changes over the years. This year we’ve changed it to make the president pro-tem position a separate non-partisan role in light of events last year.”

Students saw bills regarding nuclear energy funding, embryonic stem cell research, and homeless aid passed, often with added amendments, pauses for lobbying or even filibusters. Students got heated in these political debates and were able to observe first hand the excitement and controversy of being in Congress.

“One bill on electric cars and tax deductions that was good,” said Northgate senior Jafer Noorani, who participated in the Red Senate. “It gave tax deductions for electric cars,”he said. “It’s the future and our generation is going into the future.”

Students also praised Mock Congress, adding in what they learned and how it’s helped them.“It gave me more respect for real Congress, and helped me understand why Congress takes so long to pass a bill,” Northgate senior Garrett Smith said.

Northgate will continue to incorporate Mock Congress into its curriculum for years to come, because of the benefits it has on how students interpret government.

“It’s important for students to participate in Mock Congress,” Burchett added, “because it’s something that they experience. It’s just a different way of learning to experience it rather than just hearing about it. It’s something they participate in and they have a certain amount of ownership over it. It has been such a successful program throughout the years here for that reason.”

United States have been connected to vaping, according to the CDC. Additionally, the CDC linked 805 illnesses across 46 states to vaping.

“While we knew [vaping] was a bad thing for a variety of reasons, we are now beginning to understand the scope of the damage vaping can cause,” district Superintendent John Nickerson said.

Regardless of the health issues, the fact that vaping prevents students from using the bathroom at a public school is appalling.

Using the restroom is a basic human bodily function, and students should be able to do so whenever they need.

“It’s annoying when I try and go to the bathroom during brunch

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Racist incidents spark response

By Claire Chu and Raquel Montelindo Monte Vista High School Students refuse to open a classroom door because a person of color touched the handle.

A teacher tasks students to translate between Ebonics and English.

Monte Vista High School staff cards a Monte Vista African American student at a football game against California High School and moves the student to the California High side–while not carding white students.

These instances occurred late last year at Monte Vista High School and prompted the principal to email parents on Dec. 6 encouraging them to discuss racism with their children at home.

But then a Twitter video was posted by a Monte Vista student. He signed and said the n-word to an African American male online. Principal Dr. Kevin Ahern sent out a second email Dec. 18 and the school decided more needed to be done.

“Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a noticeable incident for people to realize racism is a prominent issue, but it happens all the time in reality,” said sophomore Iziyah Robinson, a member of the Black Student Union (BSU).“You don’t often notice the sparks of comments in casual conversations.”

Senior Jordan Scates, also a BSU member, feels that “many students are blinded by racism because it See RACIST INCICDENTS Page 7

San Ramon Valley Unifited school administrators are fighting back to prevent vaping in campus bathrooms. In early November, new vape detectors were installed in three campus bathrooms as part of a pilot program being tested by California and Dougherty Valley high schools.

“The goal is students’ safety,” said Cal ifornia High principal Megan Keefer. “We believe vaping is unsafe and not okay for the student body.”

The pilot phase is supported by the district and funded through a grant from the state’s Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program.

A vape detector was installed on the ceiling of the main building’s first floor gender-neutral bathroom and the bathrooms on the side of the world language building. They look similar to smoke detectors and are able to detect certain vapors by their chemical signatures, campus supervisor Chris Torrey said.

Torrey said he and fellow campus supervisor Tim Ford are alerted when the vape detectors are triggered. After the sensor goes off, an alert is transmitted to their phones, presumably allowing them to catch students in the act of vaping.

But Ford said that the detectors aren’t perfect, because aerosols such as perfume can get picked up by the detectors as well.

“Every day the detector goes off,” Ford said. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to catch [someone vaping]. They can just spray perfume and it will go off.”

Torrey and Ford said they believe the vape detectors can be good deterrents and will help the growing problem on campus. But they also believe students must take the initiative to stop.

“Kids have to want to stop,” Torrey said. “It’s on the kids. The detectors can’t do everything.”

Many students are aware of the vaping problem, but some do not know about the new vape detector’s installation.

“I see kids vaping almost every time I go into the bathroom,” junior Kimi Shirai said.

Shirai believes the vape detectors could be helpful, but only if they’re enforced.

One issue with the new system is that administrators may be unable to tell who, or what, set off the vape detectors. If an administrator is unable to arrive promptly, the culprit could be long gone.

Especially in the crowded gender-neutral bathroom, it may be difficult to pinpoint who set off the alarm, which makes enforcement difficult.

Some students who vape said they think the new detector seems pointless.

A junior boy, who wished to remain anonymous because he vapes at school, was aware of the detectors. But he believes that they would not be a good deterrent.

“I think kids are going to do all that other [expletive] anyway,” he said.

On the other hand, a sophomore boy who vapes said that detectors may be effective in reducing the number of students who vape on campus.

“It matters that they’re in the back [of the bathroom],”he said. “It’s a risk factor.

People tend to stay out of the area,” he said.

One way students who vape can circumvent the detectors is by “zeroing” vapor. By inhaling and waiting for the vapor to dissipate, students can reduce the likelihood of the detectors picking up any signals.

AP U.S. History teacher Troy Bristol believes that students vape because of social standards, which a detector is unlikely to change. “I think students vape for the sake of being cool,” Bristol said.

Peer mentors help younger students adapt more quickly to high school

By Caroline Hesby Acalanes High School Three missing assignments, crumpled papers at the bottom of a backpack, video games during study sessions -- this common pattern of freshmen habits appears every year. These students will soon have a solution to their challenges in adapting to the high school workload.

After noticing the recurring issue of students, mainly ninth and tenth graders, not actively using their time wisely in the last school year, Acalanes High School Associate Principal Mike Plant and English teacher Erin Barth introduced the Peer Mentor program, in which older student volunteers will be paired up with younger

students who need academic support.

Issues included the struggling students’ lack of organizational skills and useful strategies for staying on top of schoolwork.

“I see students who could use a three-ring binder, and use some organization,” Spanish teacher Heidi Skvarna said.

In the new program, older students volunteer to spend two or more sessions every month with a younger student who needs support.

So far 44 students have signed up to become peer mentors plus four teachers who have volunteered to host peer mentor sessions.

The pairing process will involve identifying which younger students need help with certain subjects and connecting them with an older student accordingly.

Rather than having a strict academic focus, Peer Mentors will take on the task of helping struggling students make more productive use of their study time, encourage communication with their teachers, and assist in the development of organizational and time management skills.

“What we determined last year was some of these students, it’s not really content that they struggle with, it’s organization,” Barth said.

“I thought it was a really cool opportunity that I could help freshmen or sophomores manage their time better,” junior Keily Sarica said.

Teachers on campus are enthusiastic about the new opportunity for student growth.

“I thought it was a really cool opportunity that I could help freshmen or sophomores manage their time better,” said Keily Sarica.

“I love that it puts students in touch with another peer, that they can collaborate and that one student can help another student succeed,” Skvarna said.

“Students who have been through it themselves could give advice, and perhaps the student who needs help would be more

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Gun threat not so distant to county schools

By Edi Zhang Monte Vista High School It seemed distant, like a rare event that would never happen to us. But the plague hasn’t seen its end. School shootings and threats have become an epidemic across America.

The San Ramon Valley School District is facing many difficulties against these threats. In the 2018-2019 school year, two instances of graffiti resulted in several lockdowns. At Coyote Creek Elementary School graffiti was found in a bathroom, saying “Every body dies at 12:30.” In the same week in December graffiti that said “school shooting Fri 13th” at Windermere Ranch Middle School caused a lockdown. California High School has also been locked down due to graffiti threats.

This new wave prompts the question: Is Monte Vista High School prepared? School Principal Dr. Kevin Ahern says the school is taking this issue seriously.

“We have our protocols that we follow, and the same protocols that Cal High, Iron Horse, and Coyote Creek have,” Ahern said. “We see it as a threat and respond appropriately.”

Monte Vista faced a graffiti threat four years ago and took

immediate action.“We had a graffiti threat where we locked down and did a full sweep of the campus with Danville Police before we released students again,” Ahern said.

However, no one was caught or disciplined, and the school returned into operation after the 30-minute incident.

Ahern said there is a low risk that these graffiti threats would be carried out, but the school takes them seriously in order to keep students safe “The odds are that nothing is going to happen, but you can’t be wrong one out of a hundred times, a thousand times, or even ten thousand times,” he said. “So we treat every threat like this really seriously and make sure all of our students are not going to be in any kind of threat.”

In random interviews with students at Monte Vista, many showed indifference about the issue, expressing little or no concern.

But Sophomore Arnish Shad was one who felt safe because of Danville police protocol is coordinated with the school.

“What the school is doing now is very good,” Shad said. “It is well managed and protected, and I feel 100 percent safe unless I hear otherwise.”

Monte Vista ran a lockdown drill in the fall to rehearse the the

protocols. The “Hide, Run, Fight” method is what students should follow in the event of an active shooter on campus. All classroom doors must be locked, windows covered, and students out of view in classrooms with windows on the outside.

However, some educators think drills are the wrong approach.

Math teacher Anthony Peña believes that prevention is the key.

“Studies have shown that doing a lot of drills doesn’t improve outcomes,” Peña said. “Checking in and taking care of students is what’s important. The work is in prevention,” adding that “once a gun is on campus, we have failed as a school. We have to address the root causes and solve those to deal with any issues.”

These root causes include but are not limited to stress, depression, bullying, family problems, and poor social interaction.

Educators say that preventing school shootings requires the school to pay close attention to student life, schedule, and trends to be aware of what students are going through and how they might feel.

(In February, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety joined with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association in calling for schools to reevaluate the use of lockdown drills. The groups issued a white paper that said they didn’t recommend active shooter training because they did more

harm than good, terrifying children and causing trauma, according to an NPR report.)

Educators also say social media may also affect threats and shootings. People may develop their motive due to cyber harassment and insecurity, according to some experts. As a result, Monte Vista maintains constant awareness of the trends and behavior on social media.

“We pay attention to what’s happening on social media, and we want people to say something when they see something,”Ahern said. “We have the anonymous tip line and safety plan that are all meant to address these issues.”

Ahern said Monte Vista emphasizes the procedure “If you see something say something” to make everyone aware of situations going on outside of or within school.

However, situations going on with students with their family may not be within the school’s reach.

“Schools can only do so much,” Shah said. “There is an extent to where the school is just too distant to deal with it.”

The school can do its best to understand its students, but ultimately it’s a collaborative effort by students and staff to be aware and raise concerns.

Ygnacio Valley academy takes education outside of school

By Clara Stevenson, Brian Castillejos, Keydi Perdomo Ygnacio Valley High School Ygnacio Valley High School students interested in the education field have the opportunity to learn not only in the classroom but outside as well.

The Education Academy is one of the two academies offered at Ygnacio Valley, and it gives students the opportunity to intern at local elementary and middle schools. The program gives them a chance to work hands on with young students.

The internship is only available to seniors, although students can apply for the program after their freshman year. While interning, seniors can gain experience working in classroom settings and it also helps to build up their communication skills.

“The academy basically offers a career tech education curriculum to students in the education industry,” said Thatcher Palmer, a teacher for the academy.“We also focus on life skills and building professional skills.”

Senior Jose Araujo said, ”When I was in elementary school I always liked how I had a connection with my teachers, and I thought to myself that I wanted to be like that one day and have the same connection with a student.”

As an intern, Aruajo was able to work with students struggling with their lessons. He said he enjoyed teaching and helping kids. “I would like to keep teaching and I think it’s pretty cool.”

Brenda Maciel, also a senior, said she joined the academy for the experience of being around younger kids. Even before her senior year she had the opportunity to meet with students and get an idea of what it would be like to be an intern the following year.

“On the junior achievement day, as juniors, we went with the kids. They were really smart and really interacted with us and it made me feel like I could do the internship,” she said.

Because of the internship, Maciel said she wants to pursue teaching.

Although some of the students in the academy want to be a teacher, some find that it is a rewarding experience regardless of whether they actually pursue teaching.

Jose Guillen, senior, said he wanted to work with older kids, so he interned at a middle school. “Little kids scare me, so I interned with bigger kids to have a challenge,” he said.

Guillen said he remembers there was an intern in his class when he was younger, and he liked what the intern did. And while he doesn’t think he will pursue teaching, he said it was a good learning experience in the Education Academy.

Senior Jeremy Payne also interned at a middle school and has had the chance to work with students in groups or individually. “I probably won’t want to be a teacher, but the skills I learned from it are really helpful and useful that I’ll probably use for the rest of my life.” said Payne.

San Ramon fights for mental health

By Claire Chu Monte Vista High School With the escalating academic pressure in schools nationwide, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) is making efforts to address and remedy the mental health issue.

Two SRVUSD high school campuses will install wellness centers next school year, and then two more will open in the 2021-2022 school year.

Although the school selections have not yet been decided, district staff members are visiting campuses throughout the spring semester to determine availability.

SRVUSD social worker Lacy Canton began working on the project last spring after noticing an influx of teens experiencing various forms of mental health through the healthy kids survey.

“The number of young students who are going through anxiety, depression, stress, and other mental illnesses concerned us in the district,” Canton said. “That’s when we decided to start conversations about building wellness centers in schools as a powerful resource for students.”

Gun brought on campus

By Diana Gazca Kennedy High School It felt like a nomal day on Dec. 6. at Kennedy High School. But while students went to class that morning, police officers were removing a student with a firearm on campus.

Ygnacio Valley High School senior Jose Guillen, top left, leads group discussion with students at the Oak Grove Middle School where he interns.

Brenda Maciel, left, senior, leads a presentation about the Education Academy in the Ygnacio Valley High School library in front of two English classes.

Ygnacio Valley High School Senior Jose Araujo goes over a lesson plan with a student at Valley Verde Elementary School in Walnut Creek.

Photos by Keydi Perdomo and Brian Castillejos, Ygnacio Valley High School

With an undisclosed amount of funding from a state grant, SRVUSD aims to hire about 10 staff members to run the centers throughout the school day and after school to establish long-term relationships with students.

“We want to create a welcoming space for any student struggling in school or family life, so a practical, interactive, and open classroom is crucial for us,” Canton said.

Whereas school counselors have a limited amount of time to meet with students and spend time on other tasks, the wellness centers will be available anytime.

The newly hired mentors will set a restricted number of times students can visit the centers during the school day to ensure that they do not regularly miss class.

The plan is to have a room with a meditation area, stress balls, crafting stations and space to speak with the counselors.

“We know that every student’s situation is different and may not have an ideal family to share their struggles,” Canton said. “This is why we are here with open ears and hearts to listen and help them with our specialized resources.”

Students said they believe the new project will benefit the overall school climate.

“For too long, student stress and anxiety has been swept under the rug,”junior Sydney Brandeis said.“Giving students an outlet to express what they are feeling and have a safe space is truly acknowledging the root problem and need for a solution.”

Brandeis added, “The wellness centers will help students who are afraid to talk about mental health at home because students have the support of trained counselors who can empathize with their emotions. In doing so, students can feel heard and perform stronger in class.”

The day ended with assemblies all afternoon but several staff members said they didnt know exactly what had taken place.

At 7:56 p.m. that night, the Richmond Police Department issued a statement on Facebook about what had happened. The post was titled, “Keeping Our Schools Safe.”

The post said that the Richmond Police Department’s special investigation section had gathered intelligence concerning an armed student at Kennedy High School. The student was isolated by RPD’s school resource officers and arrested without incident.”

That information raised concern with students

and teachers because the school had not been on lockdown. English teacher Myriam Godfrey said,“They are putting us in direct risk.”

Web Design teacher Mitzi Perez-Caro said, “I feel misinformed. ” Assistant Principal Elina Duarte-Ruiz explained that the school needed to follow protocol to assess the situation. “If we went on lockdown, most likely something else would have happened,” she said.

Richmond police did not inform Kennedy about their post. Duarte-Ruiz, acknowledged that many Kennedy staff members felt uninformed and said, “In the future we will have a different protocol.”

ASU provides unity, community

By Jenna B. Espejo De Anza High School Seeing someone who looks similar to you in less diverse places can catch your attention, and depending on the situation, it might even make you excited. Why is that?

High school can be a significant time for growth and belief in self-identity. Many student union clubs meet to provide empowering safe spaces and judgment-free environments where students are encouraged to freely express themselves. They provide an environment in which we can find a sense of community and support amongst each other.

In an interview, De Anza’s Asian Student Union club (ASU) co-president Arielle Saechao, a senior, discussed how giving each other the opportunity to openly learn about ourselves is crucial to both personal growth and the betterment of our communities.

ASU was officially founded at De Anza in 2018 and now has some 80 members. The club is completely open to all students regardless of racial or ethnic identity. Currently, ASU has members of Filipinx, Vietnamese, Mien, Chinese, and other backgrounds, with an emphasis on diversity and full representation for Asian students.

The faculty advisors of ASU are Gina Saechao, who is not related to the club president, and Nam Kang, whose room (6-111) is used to hold the club meetings every other Tuesday during lunch.

The club itself serves as a safe space for (but not limited to) students of the widely diverse Asian identity “to learn more about their identity, community, and history that’s been neglected by standard textbooks,” Arielle Saecho explains. “Our mission statement is to

“I never knew such impact the word ‘refugee’ has and the experience that follows behind it,” Arielle explains, “This side of history to me is something that I hold with significance to my identity.” expand ASU with other high schools and grow as a club to be the representation of our people.”

The club’s aspect of educating each other and learning from one another is really inspiring to me as it gives students a voice that can often be overlooked within the education system.

“The club is a community and it’s a family,” says Arielle. As it grows, the more impact it makes.

Communities have common repeated struggles that are shared within, which gives strong meaning to those going through generational hardships and trauma.

“I never knew such impact the word ‘refugee’ has and the experience that follows behind it,” Arielle explained, “This side of history to me is something that I hold with significance to my identity.”

At De Anza, the Asian Student Union club isn’t the only club based on “ethnic” or “racial” identity.

There’s the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Latino Student Union (LSU).

Many students find it inspiring to see student-run clubs where students meet together in a positive and empowering space meant to strengthen unity despite divisions created by the universal oppression that their communities become so characterized by.

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3 March 2020

THE FIRE THIS TIME: Brush fires threaten Acalanes campus

By Stella Heo, Emerson Brown and Katrina Ortman Acalanes High School Black smoke billowed into the sky. Heavy branches fell at unsuspecting pedestrians. Families scrambled to pull together essentials following evacuation orders. Drivers grumbled in long lines of traffic. A normal, relaxing Sunday in Lafayette erupted into chaos.

On Sunday, Oct. 27, high winds blew into the Lamorinda area, contributing to two brush fires that started near Acalanes High School. One fire south of Highway 24 and parallel to Pleasant Hill Road, named the Pleasant Fire, was first reported at 1:20 p.m..

Another fire north of the highway, even nearer to Acalanes, dubbed the Curtola Fire, was reported around 1:23 p.m.. Power remained on in both areas before the outbreaks.

Lafayette resident Geoff Martin reported hearing the sounds of electric arcs from power lines that most likely ignited the Curtola fire.

“It sounded like a ‘boom’,” Martin said. “I’m an electrician and so I know what the sound of an arc is like that and so I knew what it was when I heard it, I just didn’t know where it was. But my neighbor that saw it said it happened 3 times that day.”

Prior to a more intensive investigation, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (ConFire) released a media advisory on Nov. 1 stating that it believes Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) power lines started both Lafayette fires.

The Curtola fire soon spread, scorching the LafayetteTennis Club, which was hosting a junior tennis tournament when the fire began.

“We just ran to our cars and left,”tennis player Harsha Rebby said.

The two-story tennis club and two of its outbuildings completely burnt down, and one private residence nearby received minor damage.

Firefighters and policemen were quick to respond to the

sudden blazes in Lafayette. ConFire managed the two incidents simultaneously, using Acalanes as a command center to organize the 56 crews they dispatched.

“We were fighting fires on multiple sides. It was important to bring them all together at some point. It would be just chaos if they all converged right on the fire scene,” ConFire Public Information Officer Steve Hill said.

Lafayette residents living near Camino Diablo and Springbrook Road received evacuation orders at 2:05 p.m., and those living south of Old Tunnel Road received orders at 2:44 p.m..

“It was a very chaotic and rushed experience,” sophomore Ella Tinianow, whose family had to crowd three cats and a dog into their car, said.

Numerous students fled to the Safeway parking lot in downtown Lafayette. Residents north of Highway 24 rushed to the Acalanes parking lot. However, because ConFire occupied the lot, it could not be used as an evacuation site. Police designated Springhill Elementary school as the evacuation spot.

Evacuations for the Pleasant Hill fire were lifted at 5:05 p.m. and the Curtola Fire evacuations were lifted at 7:08 p.m..

During the fires, difficulties contacting friends and family concerned Lafayette resident. Unreliable cellular service amid prescheduled public safety power shutoffs by PG&E obstructed communication efforts. During power outages, cell towers typically stop working or become overloaded with calls and texts.

“I get in my car and I don’t know where I’m going to go. I have no contact with my family or literally anyone for that matter,”junior Shayna Parker said.

The effects of the two fires were not confined to Sunday, as the Acalanes community felt the impacts of the fires into the following week; Acalanes remained without power on Monday and Tuesday

of that week.

Administrators said that Acalanes lost electricity due to a downed power line, which was most likely brought down by a combination of the fires and high winds.

Although school remained open on Monday, the two-day power outage forced Acalanes to cancel school on Tuesday, Oct. 29. No other schools within the district canceled school, as power was restored to the three other campuses.

“What we realized is that we can get through a day with no power, or losing power in the middle of the day,” Administrative Services Associate Superintendent Amy McNamara said. “Going two days seemed really stressful for staff, and the problem becomes that some of the local staff have been evacuated; they’ve been without power in their homes.”

Smoke billows from a fire on the north side of Highway 24 near Acalanes Without power, the fire alarms and the PA system High School during last fall’s emergency power shutdown. Photo by Stella could not operate. According to the protocol outlined Heo, Acalanes High School by the California Fire Code, school campuses must be checked for fires every 30 minutes if its fire alarms often they opened doors. are nonfunctional. Administration split the Acalanes campus into Administration encouraged students to stay inside during break two zones and took one-hour shifts watching for fire safety. Fire and lunch, and all sports practices–both indoors and outdoors–were monitors also checked how classes were faring through the outage canceled on Monday. In the week after, Physical Education classes while patrolling. and after school sports were limited or canceled depending on Without power, the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning the Air Quality Index.

(HVAC) systems did not function. This led students and parents Beyond athletics, the power outage directly impacted most to express concern over whether it was safe and healthy to be classes. The band room is built without windows to maximize at school, considering that smoke could not be ventilated out of acoustics, and the room was pitch-black. Students could not read classrooms. Despite this, district officials believed satisfactory air their music without lighting, so none of the four instrumental music quality would exist if teachers kept windows shut and limited how classes played music on Monday.

Hula dancer brings Hawaii to Bay Area

By Raquel Montelindo Monte Vista High School

training. Her hālau has won a variety of awards in Hawaiian and Tahitian dance competitions throughout Northern California.

When Hedican and her group perform ancient hula dancing, they wear traditional Hawaiian clothing.

“When we dance, it’s mandatory to wear a pā’ū skirt,” she said. “They are plain when we practice, but when we compete we have pā’ū skirts that have specific patterns of stories that we dance.”

Calf length pā’ū skirts covered with vibrant colors and Hawaiian images swish and swirl with the dancer’s movements. The skirts illustrate dramatic stories of adventure and Hawaiian dance with her hālau, Nā Hula o Moku ‘Aina. The competition occurred courage and help audience members vi- at a beach in Long Beach, California. Photo courtesy Bret Hedican. sualize images of what the dance is about.

“In that dance, we honor one of the goddesses of Mauna “The stories that we tell with hula can be any sort of event, Kea, which is one of the volcanoes in Hawaii,” Hedican said. or I guess you would call them myths,” she said. “They are tales “It’s significant to me because my teacher’s teacher is related about the gods and goddesses of Hawaii. When we dance, the to the goddess’s sister through years and years of his ancestry.” moves tell a story of what the words are saying.”

Hedican’s biggest inspiration is her kumu because “she’s Hedican’s favorite dance that she has performed honors taught me everything about life that I love so much.” two goddesses: Lilinoe and Poli’ahu. Lilinoe and Poli’ahu are Alongside, her kumu and her kumu’s teacher, Hedican has sisters, and Hedican’s teacher’s teacher, Kawaikapu, is related gained an immense respect and understanding of hula culture. to Lilinoe, a goddess of the mist.

“Kawaikapu has passed on his knowledge to my kumu, “The thing about the gods and goddesses of Hawaii is that who has now passed that knowledge down to me and my hula they were once real people, like saints,” she said. “Lilinoe is a sisters,” Hedican said. sister of the snow goddess named Poli’ahu who resides on the “We are so blessed and lucky to have such amazing sources Mauna Kea volcano.” to learn from.”

When most people think of hula dancing, they envision swaying palm trees dancing in a warm wind, bright blue water gently lapping against white sand, and people dancing in traditional Hawaiian attire -- and they think of Hawaii.

Most wouldn’t think of a small town in Northern California.

But that’s where you will find Keara Hedican, a sophomore at Monte Vista High School who has been dancing the hula at her Danville hālau (studio), Nā Hula o Moku ‘Aina.

Hedican always has a constant smile on her face, especially when she dances. She began dancing at four years old and continued because she enjoyed learning about Hawaiian dances and culture.

After dancing for a few years and being immersed in Hawian culture, Hedican received her Hawaiian name, Leianamailelauli’i, from Catherine Blankenship, her kumu (teacher).

“It translates to ‘adorned with the maile lauli’i’,” Hedican said. “A Hawaiian name has to be earned.”

Maile laull’i is a type of flowering plant that traditional leis are made of.

Hedican explained that there are two main styles of hula dancing: Kahiko and ‘Avana. While Hedican performs both with her studio in competitions, she prefers Kahiko, which is the ancient style.

“It gives me an idea of what it was like to dance back then in a time where hula truly surrounded every aspect of life,”she said.

Hedican values the lessons she’s learned through the dances she and her hālau perform. The fables and didactic include valuable lessons of kindness and bravery — which are all things Hedican has grown to respect more through her hula

120 square-mile iceberg splits from Antarctica Weddell Sea

The European Space Agency’s satellites spotted a significant breakup, or calving event, underway on Pine Island Glacier’s floating ice shelf. This glacier along with it’s neighbors are a massive cache of frozen water, one that would raise global sea levels by four feet if it were all to spill into the sea.

ANTARCTICA South Pole

Melting from above and below Glaciers flow out from the land over the ocean, with their front edges afloat; as the atmosphere warms up, more water accumulates on the surface of the ice while warm water weakens the ice from below causing calving.

600 km

Pine Island Glacier

600 miles

Melting water accumulates on surface Floating Ice shelf

Cooler water

Glacier

Grounding line pushed inland

Original grounding line where glacier ice met ocean

Incoming warmer water

As warm water enters from below, the grounding line is moved farther inland, weakening the ice shelf.

Source: projectmidas.org, NASA, AP, nationalgeographic.com Graphic: Staff, TNS

STREAK! Acalanes High senior Brooke Westphal passes the ball during Acalanes’ women’s 8-6 water polo victory over Miramonte in the 2019 North Coast Sectional title game. The Acalanes team has gone 54-0 during the last two seasons. Photo courtesy Bret Hedican.

State law prompts changes to Acalanes district dress code

By Tom Bequette Acalanes High School What to wear? Out of the many choices that Acalanes students face on a daily basis, it’s one that certainly appears small, but with modern schools becoming buzzing social centers this choice can be quite daunting.

It can become even more challenging when school boards place limits on how you can express yourself while at school, by way of a dress code.

While this isn’t a new concept for students, as schools have had official dress codes dating back to 1969, it’s one that has been continuously disputed by the student body for years.

Schools have dealt with controversy about the dress code by imposing varying degrees of severity, with some putting no restrictions on what you can wear, and others going as far as insisting on the dreaded school uniforms.

The Acalanes Union High School District has decided that for the benefit of its students, it will attempt the daring feat of walking the tightrope between the two.

But with the standard for what is socially-ignorant and offensive seeming to change every minute, school policy must be ready to adapt.

This debate took center stage last November, when the school board voted unanimously for a more socially conscious dress code.

One of the ways that the board majorly updated the policy was by adding that the dress code shall not discriminate against students based on their hair texture and their protective hairstyles. Protective hairstyles include braids, locks, twists and many more.

“That was prompted by a change in state law when SB 188 was passed earlier this year,” Acalanes Board member Kristin Connely said. “It’s an example of where our policy needed to catch up with what is happening on our school campuses.”

SB 188 is a bill by Sen. Holly Mitchell to ensure that minorities in California public schools do not face discrimination because of the way that they wear their hair.

While this is a change that may seem minor, according to the bill “hair remains a rampant source of racial discrimination with serious economic and health consequences, especially for Black individuals.”

The bill also states that this discrimination is largely due to our current definition of professionalism and what we deem to be formal attire. “Professionalism was, and still is, closely linked to European features and mannerisms, which entails that those who do not naturally fall into Eurocentric norms must alter their appearances, in order to be deemed professional.”

There is also a slight wording revision to the board policy. The policy originally said that students could not wear anything that was a “distraction.”

The board revised this to only being opposed to any clothing that’s “deemed inappropriate for an educational environment.”

“I believe that the new language is more positive and clear,” Acalanes Board Member Bob Hockett said. “It also helps us to not discriminate against other minorities and religions at school.”

The new language now states that “students shall not be prohibited from dressing in a manner consistent with their gender identity, gender expression or with their religious or cultural observance.”

“I strongly support these additions,” Hockett said. I believe they give students both greater freedom of expression and greater protection, in their dress and grooming.”

However, some students are skeptical about how much the changes will safeguard student expression at school.

“Most teachers really don’t enforce the dress code, so I’m not sure how much it will affect student life,” sophomore Aidan Shvo said. “But it is nice to know that they are trying to make certain changes to improve the school and to help out the students.”

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March 2020

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Dougherty shines new light on social justice

By Daniel Shen, Sheyda Ladjevardi, Jade Wang and Mehek Kandru Dougherty Valley High School More than a dozen social justice projects were displayed around Dougherty Valley High School, drawing attention to their portrayals of current issues such as school shootings and sexual assault.

Despite being criticized by some for glorifying the subject matters, the projects received mostly positive feedback for the awareness and dialogue they nurtured.

In the Social Justice class — which counts for English 12 credit — Dougherty Valley seniors learn about wealth inequality, opportunity and social privilege through the lens of a traditional English class by reading, writing and analyzing texts.

For these specific projects, teachers Tim Brown, Rebecca Uscian and Hanna Love encouraged students to dig beyond relevant texts for relevant topics.

“They’re not only looking at different sources of information … but then they’re looking to do some analysis and integrate some of the research they find,” Brown said.

These projects were inspired by a CNN article titled“What would make you care about Aleppo?”which used different media to convince readers to care about an issue — specifically, the Syrian Civil War. “The website … shows you all these pictures of people in Syria, and then there’s videos and statistics, and ... the idea [is] like,‘Would you care now?’” Uscian said. “The idea behind the project was using that as a format [to] make the students of Dougherty Valley care about something you care about.”

The result was a myriad of projects, each focusing on issues that Social Justice students felt passionate about.

Suraj Malhotra, Shakthi Subramaniam, Zoya Abidi and Haidar Jafry selected the conflict in Kashmir, a region between Pakistan and India that has been disputed by the two nations for the past 50 years. The project displayed a mask with the Pakistani flag on one eye, the Indian flag on the other, blood smeared across it and red tape covering its mouth.

Subramaniam explained that aside from creating awareness and discussion, the project showed how “more important than how proud you are of your country … all these people … are getting hurt in the fighting.”

Though students are more exposed to the discourse around school shootings than the Kashmir conflict, Leah Wang, Anoushka Basu, Anikait Konatalapalli, Malavika Divakar and Hadas Tankel believed that gun violence is still not discussed enough. Their poster, which was displayed outside the administration office, featured a school crossing sign with bloodstains, bullet holes and the words “ARE WE NEXT?”.

“We needed to make it a little bit more extreme so people would care about it. Otherwise, people will be like,‘Oh, whatever,’”Basu said.

Elaborating, Konatalapalli explained how many students have become desensitized to the issue.

“A lot of people have the thought or the idea that it’s not something that we need to worry about because we live in the area that we do,” Konatalapalli added. “I think our purpose was to

make people talk about the issue in a serious matter rather than a joking matter, because I do see a lot of that around the school.”

Choosing another school-related issue, Nathan Nguyen, Sammi Cha, Brittney Lum, Josh Downton and Dani Nolasco addressed vaping in their poster. It was displayed next to the downstairs 1000 bathroom door and included statistics as well as physical Juul pods.

The group felt they had to discuss vaping because it is prevalent at Dougherty and students are not aware of the health effects of vaping.

“People always think of cigarettes [as] just being so bad, with tobacco and nicotine, and they don’t think Juuling is as bad,”Cha said.

One last project chose to focus on sexual assault, a pressing issue for young women. Kim Shum, Leila Amiri, Katie Moore, Sami Frias and Sam Mass’s display on victim shaming displayed a variety of attire — from a crop top to a hoodie — on a clothing rack located outside of the 1000 building. It featured a red Solo cup, common questions asked to victims such as “What were you drinking?” and various quotes from them.

Frias said that aside from the CNN website, other projects around the country on victim shaming also motivated her group’s project.

“Some signs are called ‘What are you wearing?’ or ‘What was she wearing?’ and it’s just clothes displayed [where] people write their stories … We just wanted to take that, obviously, on a smaller scale, make it our own and kind of explore,” Frias said.

Many projects covered delicate subjects that had to be dealt with carefully. Because of this concern, DVHS administration — represented by assistant principal Sarah-Acosta Landry — played a role in producing these projects.

In addition to acting as a “sounding board”for project approval, Landry also engaged with students to help them achieve the projects’ intended purposes. She considered factors as detailed as where the projects would be displayed.

“Landry was interested in helping the kids get their message across. She gave a lot of really good advice on ‘How do you make this unique?’ and ‘How do you make this more powerful?’” Uscian said.

Landry felt that as an educator and administrator, she needed to inspire students to “make a difference in the world.”

“What do you want your audience to do, see or feel when they experience your exhibit or your installation” and “what are the perspectives that you’ve considered?” are two common questions she asked students.

Landry emphasized that the Social Justice students understand the difference between their intended message and viewers’personal interpretations.

“You have to be very careful when you’re talking about sexual assault or gun violence … so I asked them to consider, ‘How does your project do a good job of raising awareness as opposed to promoting something?’” Landry said.

Ultimately, most Social Justice students and teachers, as well as Landry, agreed that the projects achieved their common goal of spreading awareness and creating conversations on their topics.

Malhotra elaborated on a common question raised about his group’s poster: “One of my friends was like, ‘Wow, this is really cool [and] interactive, but I don’t get the point of the mask.’ … I think people

got a little confused … but the red tape on the mask symbolizes the people of Kashmir being silenced to bloodshed torture.”

The vaping project also shocked some students and teachers.

“We did get feedback from a teacher when we were putting up the poster, since she didn’t realize how many cigarettes were actually put into … one pod,” Cha said. “I think it surprised everyone that one pod equals 20 cigarettes or 30.”

Though many praised the projects for their social consciousness, others were less enthusiastic. In an anonymous letter to DVHS administration, four students expressed concerns about the projects’ effects on the student body.

One of their key criticisms was that the projects failed at their goal of raising recognition, harming students’ sense of security at school more than empowering them.

“If the creators of these displays are trying to create a safe school culture by ‘raising awareness,’ this is not the way to accomplish it,” the letter read. “Those with PTSD or who are triggered by mentions of these subjects walk past these displays on practically every corner of the campus, causing panic attacks, flashbacks and general discomfort or discontent.”

Sympathetic to their claims, the students behind the victim shaming awareness project explained how their project’s interpreted meaning could differ from its intended meaning.

“The way [some people] took it, they thought we were saying, ‘Oh, only girls that wear minimal clothing and girls that are drunk get raped’ … We tried to say anyone can … but those are [the] people that get blamed the most,” Shum said.

Notably, the letter’s authors believed that many of their peers shared their views.

“It was all of us and also people that I had talked to,” one author said. “As people who are really involved in walkouts — for the Parkland shooting two years ago — that stuff hit really hard.”

The letter specifically pointed out four specific projects for “triggering” students.

Addressing an exhibit with “statistics on how members of the LGBTQ+ community are more likely to be murdered, harassed and discriminated against,”the letter said that“LGBTQ+ members at this school already feel threatened enough … and openly displaying how they might die does not help.”

Then, criticizing a chalk message in the quad that read something to the effect of, “one out of every 5 women are sexually assaulted,” the letter wrote: “The display has five circles, in which students can stand in to ‘see’ if they will be raped. This is absolutely ludicrous, as it is having young women stand in a circle which appears to decide if you will be sexually assaulted or not.”

After discussing the victim shaming awareness project, the letter lastly and most prominently condemned the school shooting poster, particularly for the violent imagery it employed.

“Its purpose is likely to inform students about statistics of school shootings, but … no student will look at this poster and be inspired to make a difference,”the letter wrote.“In fact, the opposite is happening. Students are avoiding this sign altogether by walking a different route to prevent panic attacks.”

The authors later said that to alleviate the poster’s traumatic

effects, they would have “remove[d] the bloodstains,” “the bullet holes” and “the aggressive ‘ARE WE NEXT?’”.

“The bottom line is, these displays need to be taken down,” the letter concluded.

After being received by Landry, the letter was then passed onto Uscian and Love (Brown’s students’ projects were not presented publicly on campus).

Uscian expressed her initial response to the letter as a sort of balancing act between engaging the community and being sensitive about topics such as sexual assault and gun violence. She also noted that to the extent of her knowledge, there’s never been any such criticism in previous years.

“I think part of the idea is that they make you feel uncomfortable, right? That’s kind of part of the project,” she said. “But I also … don’t want my students’ projects to give another [student] a panic attack on the way to school.”

After reading the letter aloud to her first period Social Justice students, Uscian initiated a discussion of her students’opinions.While some students agreed that they should have been more considerate, others said they made their points the way they wanted to.

Indeed, Basu and Konatapalli acknowledged the letter’s point regarding their school shooting poster. Nevertheless, they believed that it wouldn’t cause real damage to students.

“When I was walking out of fourth period … I heard some people making these comments about it. Some of them were, like, ‘Oh, that’s a bit extreme,’”Basu said.“At the same time, there weren’t any specific accounts of anyone actually having a strong reaction, like … [having] to avoid this part of the building because it might trigger them. I feel like they kind of blew things out of proportion.”

Konatapalli said that even if it meant negative feedback, her group would still have taken the extreme approach in order to spread awareness. She called for students to judge only after evaluating the poster’s real message.

“I would hope that the school takes a little more time to decide on whether they’re angry at a poster for how they feel on it, or how they fear other people would react … A lot of the negative reaction that we did receive was other people speaking for what they believed would happen and not what is happening,”Konatapalli said.

The creators of the victim shaming awareness project also responded to the letter’s claims pertaining to their project. Though they understood the writers’ argument, they believed it misinterpreted their project’s message, particularly given that they had covered their project with explanatory text cards.

One read, “Rape victims are still being interrogated about what they were wearing at the time of assault, despite the fact that the length of a woman’s skirt should never be seen as a measure of her consent.”

Respecting the letter authors’own interpretation of her group’s project, Frias nevertheless offered a final clarification of the message they intended to convey.

“Some people thought we were saying women shouldn’t be wearing certain types of clothing,” she said. “The stories … explain how we’re saying that it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing, it doesn’t matter what you’re drinking; people can still be victims of rape.”

Langbaum plans four-legged college The Blueprint switches from tabloid to magazine format

By Elisabeth Deplouys Monte Vista High School For some high school students, the after school sport of choice trades sneakers for boots.

At Monte Vista High School, senior Lauren Langbaum has been riding for 13 years and recently committed to UC Davis to ride on their NCAA division equestrian program.

Langbaum rides at Brown Ranch, a boarding facility and stable in Pleasanton.

“I ride at a boarding facility, so there’s a lot of other types of riders and horses.”Langbaum said.“I’m kind of the odd one out because I actually compete and do something different than most of the horse owners at the ranch I board at.”

Langbaum started riding young, and her passion for the sport grew ever since.

“I started riding when I was 4 when my sister and I had a peak interest in farm animals,”Langbaum said. “I tried other sports like soccer and gymnastics but horseback riding just stuck.”

Langbaum trains daily, and spends hours working hard and riding constantly. Her practices work on improving certain techniques and improving her skills. For Langbaum, practices can last around 30 minutes to 3 hours.

She begins with warming up her horse, then working on a few key things that she thinks both she and her horse can benefit from. Once she is successful, and feels that she made progress, the practice is over.

“I ride 7 days a week, riding multiple horses since a lot of people have allowed me to ride their horses to improve my skills,” Langbaum said.

Langbaum’s hard work and dedication have paid off. She has won multiple awards and qualified for several finals.

Some of her awards include winning 2018 NRCHA Derby youth champion, 2019 Reno SBF top 5 in youth limited and non pro limited, 2018 and 2019 NRCHA World Show qualifier, 2016-2017 AQHA

By Stella Heo and Kayli Harley Acalanes High School

Lauren Langbaum on her horse “Little Soldado,” also known as Maddox. She is pictured competing in a youth spectacular at the 2019 NRCHA Derby, and she placed 3rd overall. Photo courtesy of Lauren Langbaum, Monte Vista High School. world show qualifier, and being a multiple time class winner in CCHA. But despite her awards, college teams require absolute dedication, and Langbaum had to cross several barriers to be accepted for UCD. She said colleges look for people who are able to show they have mastered beyond their specific discipline, and can ride multiple horses and still perform under different circumstances then they are used to.

“Like any sport, being on a college team requires your utmost attention to your sport,” Langbaum said.

“Colleges look for people that will suit their needs and will be a successful team member. I had to show more than I had before in order to prove myself a strong candidate for UC Davis.”

Horseback riding is hard, and requires balance,

“I ride 7 days a week, riding multiple horses to improve my skills,” Langbaum said. strength, and precision to compete at the level Langbaum rides. Any change in body language will affect your and your horse’s performance and behavior, she said.

“You have to control and make a 1,200-pound animal perform these tasks and the only form of communication is your body,”she said.“It really makes you think and be aware of so many minute details in order to be successful.”

prototype in August, it was apparent that Blueprint was fully capable of the transition.

The first step was to acquire an Acalanes Parent What started as a mere vision in the minds of Club grant to cover the costs of at least one issue. the editors-in-chief of the Acalanes High School Unlike previous Blueprint issues that cost between student newspaper, The Blueprint, to create a $1,500 to $2,000 to print per issue, the new magazine revamped publication has blossomed into a reality. will cost around $3,000 to print.

Moving from a black and white tabloid to a magaWith a grant that covers the more expensive zine filled with color, The Blueprint is evolving. printing costs, Blueprint is still able to produce the After Advisor Natalie Moore and Editors- same number of print copies as it previously produced in-Chief Nelson Rogers, Zoe Cate, and Charlotte when it was entirely self-funded.

Glass presented their vision at “If we’re really going to a Lafayette Partners in Educainvest another $1,000 into tion board meeting last fall, Blueprint, we want to be able Lafayette Partners generously to actually see some genuine granted Blueprint $17,000 improvement in what we do to cover the costs of its new in improving the quality of the magazine style. paper,” Rogers said.

Acalanes Partners is a The grant from Lafayette community foundation run by Partners has the potential to parent volunteers that works to foster Blueprint’s growth not only provide educational opportunias a student newspaper but as an ties to Lafayette schools. established publication.

Acalanes Partners Co“Being able to produce a Chair Laura-Kate Rurka said magazine is incredible compared her group was impressed with The Blueprint, new style on top of to what we’ve done. the ambition of the students the old style.

“This really takes it to the next who collaborated to create the level and gives us a lot of graphical magazine product. freedom and really lets us make a product that has “The board was really excited about the its place in 21st-century journalism,” Rogers said. student-led initiative to upgrade the format of Acalanes Principal Travis Bell praised the deterBlueprint and the fact that they spent their own mination of the students who formulated the idea time over the summer getting together and really of the magazine as well as the dedication and time coming up with a business plan. We really wanted required to make it happen. to be able to support that financially,” Rurka said.

“It’s done in a way that’s really mindful and The idea of converting the Blueprint print respectful of upholding those ethical standards in product into a magazine has been sitting in the journalism practice,” Bell said. minds of the student editors since this past sum“Not to mention a high caliber, high-quality mer. Afterthe editors created and printed a physical product,” Bell said, “and constantly not just being

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5 March 2020

Libraries hit with ransomware attack

In the kitchen at Pinole Valley High

By Liann Bielicki California High School

It’s said that you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. But at the Pinole Valley High School Culinary Club, we know otherwise.

At the club’s Jan. 23 meeting we learned to bake a chocolate cake with pink buttercream frosting.

We started by gathering ingredients: baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, egg, water, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, chocolate milk, and sugar. We combined the dry ingredients, then added egg, vanilla extract, chocolate milk and water to the dry mixture. When it was whisked together we carefully divided the batter into three small pans.

Once we put the pans in the oven, it was time to make the buttercream frosting. We added melted butter to a bowl and sifted

It was just another normal day at Contra Costa County libraries on Jan. 3 until a ransomware attack struck, forcing the libraries to close their systems and lock out library patrons.

The problems persisted through Jan. 22, affecting all 26 community libraries in Contra Costa County and the administrative office in Martinez.

“A lot of people rely on theWiFi and free services, and because of the ransomware attack, it was harder for them to do every day work,”said California High sophomore Richa Prabhakar, who studies at the library every week.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website describes ransomware as “a type of malicious software… designed to deny access to a computer system or data until a ransom is paid.”

“One of the core tenets of libraries is privacy,” Cal High’s librarian Nicole Ogden said. “[The incident ended up] highlighting to all of us that our data is not as secure as we thought it was.

“You have to understand that there’s an inherent risk,” Ogden continued.

“Anything you transmit is available for hacking.”

The county library system sent patrons an email about the initial attack and additional emails providing updates.

“It’s always wise to monitor your personal information on a regular basis,” the email read.

The ransomware targeted the library catalog servers. In a statement emailed on Jan 4., the public was assured that their personal information is secure.

“The library has no evidence that any personal patron data has been compromised,” the email read. “The server that stores patron data related to library card accounts and transactions was not affected.”

The library worked with local authorities and IT experts to resolve the issue.

“The affected servers have been taken offline,” the email read. “It may be several days before all library services are fully operational.”

Senior Kendra Lin noted that the attack heavily impacted the community, especially those who use library services like she does. “[The library is] an important part of the city,” Lin said. “Students often go there after school to study, and other children and adults rely on it to read and check out books.”

She also said that while she was not worried about her personal information, the ransomware attack likely scared many patrons.

All 26 community libraries remained open after the attack, with visitors checking out and returning books as usual. But internet access and WiFi were shut down for three weeks at all locations, and were only restored on Jan. 22.

“I think the biggest impact it had was on the online accounts,” Lin said. “No one could log in to check their accounts, and they couldn’t put anything on hold either. It was kind of inconvenient for me.”

This was a big hassle for students who use the library to study and do homework.

“When I [went] to write an essay, there [were] fewer computers instead of the usual 30,” Prabhakar said.

With systems down, librarians switched to old-school methods of checking out books. By keeping physical records of library card numbers, names, and ISBN codes, librarians continued to loan books out although the catalog was down.

“Part of library use is access to technology,” Cal High librarian Stacey Quick said. “Libraries and technology go together in ways to improve access to information and resources.”

Ogden stressed the importance of protecting libraries, citing the ransomware attack as evidence that library systems need help from the community in order to match the obstacles of the 21st century.

“Libraries are one of the true democratic institutions of our country,”Ogden said.

“It’s up to our community to support libraries and fund the cybersecurity they need.”

“It’s nice to know if you ever need anything, you can go to the library,” said Prabhakar.

Dress to impress!

By Elana Ignacio Pinole Valley High School

powdered sugar, adding the powdered sugar little by little to make sure the frosting didn’t have clumps. Then came the red food coloring, which turned the frosting to pink.

We also added vanilla extract and chocolate milk for more flavor.

After 40 to 50 minutes the cakes were done. We let the cakes cool because if you frost the cake while hot it can crumble and fall apart. When the cakes cooled, we took them from their pans and layered them on each other, making a three-layered cake.

Then we coated, the cake with the pink buttercream frosting After frosting the cake, we sliced and tried it. Though it took a while to make, it was worth it because it was delicious.

If you’re a PinoleValley student and have an appetite for making tasty food, join The Culinary Club. It meetsTuesdays for planning and Thursdays for cooking.

Members of the Pinole Valley High School Culinary Club decorate a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. Photo by Angelina Vuong, Pinole Valley High School.

BSA welcomes females, undergoes growth

By Lauryn Leong Monte Vista High School It’s official. Girls are now a part of the Boy Scouts, and Monte Vista High School now has some of its own female scouts. This major change is welcomed by many, but implementing it has had its challenges.

The largest scouting organization in the United States announced in 2017 it would open its program to both boys and girls. This change was made official on Feb. 1, 2019, when girls were finally able to join the organization. Boy Scouts changed its official name to Scouts BSA. Sophomore Madison Chamberlain joined Scouts BSA the first day she became eligible, becoming part of a sister troop tied to Troop 36 which meets at St. Timothy’s Church in Danville.

“My brother is an Eagle Scout,” Chamberlain said. “Seeing him do all these cool adventures growing up made me want to join part of the fun.”

Sophomore Sidney Kalin also joined Scouts BSA in hopes of participating in more outdoor activities. Kalin is also part of sister Troop 36 alongside Chamberlain.

“I’ve always enjoyed outdoor activities,”said Kalin.“Scouts BSA was the program I was looking for to do such activities.”

Sister Troop 36 originally started with six girls, but the troop has grown to 18 girls. Five of the scouts are from Monte Vista.

“A lot of them were also looking for more adventure than what Girl Scouts was offering, so when they heard of the opportunity to join Scouts BSA, they took it,” Chamberlain said.

“Some of them also have family who have also been involved in Scouts.”

Although it’s been almost a year since girls have joined Scouts BSA, even troops that have girl members are still struggling to balance the needs of existing boys and the new

girls. Some troops aren’t even aware that they have a sister troop tied to them.

“Only 20 percent of our troop is aware that we have a sister troop,” said junior Brian Leong, who is a former senior patrol leader and a current member of Troop 805 which meets at Sycamore Valley Elementary School in Danville.“It’s unfortunate that only Scouts in leadership positions are aware of this. This is likely because we don’t meet together.”

Girls who have joined Scouts BSA not only have their separate troop, but they also hold their separate meetings instead of meeting with the original troop.

“We have separate meetings, but the program is the same,” Chamberlain said. “The girls’ meetings and outings are the same as the boys.”

The addition of girls to Scouts BSA hasn’t come without controversy. While many are excited for the changes that lie ahead, some think otherwise.

“I have heard lots of negative comments from former Boy Scouts,” Chamberlain said. “Many boys have left Scouts BSA since girls have joined.”

On the other hand, there are Scouts who welcomed these girls with open arms.

“I’m friends with most of the boys [in our troop],”said Kalin.

“We have a pretty good culture.”

While Kalin is a Scout, she is also currently a Girl Scout as well.

“Compared to Scouts BSA, Girls Scouts is more focused on the arts,” Kalin said. “A lot of girls have been quitting as well, which makes it less fun.”

Chamberlain was also a former Girl Scout for a few years when she was younger.

“Our troop fizzled out due to a lack of people,”Chamberlain said. “I never got back into it just because it wasn’t my thing.

Block schedule prompts change to new clocks

By Alex Ariker and Keith Johnson Acalanes High School

campus and have given rise to a variety of opinions.

“I think looking at the hands and recognizing the digits will help people tell time on the analog clocks, which is kind of a lost art,” said English and French teacher Elyse Johnson.

While some teachers are against the new clocks, Spanish teacher Heidi Skvarna has no preference between analog and digital clocks.

“I like them both. I like the analog because it’s kind of old-fashioned and I like the digital because it’s efficient,” Skvarna said.

Video Production teacher Austin Briggs feels satisfied with the new clocks for the most part, although he has one complaint about them.

“I didn’t actually get to decide the placement of my clock … It is right where my photos are and I did not know they were going to put it there. If you look at it, the photos are disrupted by the clock where the students’ work is,” Briggs said.

Additionally, teachers made note of the second function as a potential distractor.

For students facing the complications of block schedule, telling time is a necessity. To ensure all classrooms have the same time, the administration installed digital clocks in all Acalanes High School classrooms recently.

Last year, many teachers had analog clocks in their classEveryone’s style is different and everyone has their own taste. A person’s style rooms. While most of them kept accurate time, some teachers has a special meaning that’s demonstrated in how they dress and why they dress brought their personal clocks to school with them. their way. I interviewed three style mavens at De Anza High School to see how According to Acalanes Principal Travis Bell, the entire they dress to impress!

Acalanes Union High School District chose to install the new Freshman Armon Daniels Westbrook clocks. says his personality reflects his style The Acalanes administration supported the decision. because he is “conceited” so “I make sure “We wanted to make sure this is an integrated system that I look good every day. will also have the bells and the all-call [the announcements],” “Instagram models mostly inspire Principal Bell said. “We wanted to update that system because me,”says Westbrook. Some of his favorite not all places can hear the call.” brands and places to shop at are Jordan, The digital clocks can be found in every class around True Religion, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Fashion Nova. Westbrook likes to show “Attitude,” she says. “ I believe I’m going to do all clothes,” she says. A look that she would like to try his creative side and that side shows “no what makes me happy and feel at my best.” is a real gothic look with “ leather pants, chains, and one is my fashion inspiration.”

Trotter treats her outfit by depending. “If I been combat boots.” Overall Trotter has a beautiful and He describes his style mostly modAaliyah Trotter having an outfit that I have been wanting to wear interesting style! ern.

Sophomore Rosalie Phan says her personality reflects her style “because of my for a long time but it’s raining, I’m going to say lifestyle. I can wear any kind of color because at the end of the day I’m dressing for forget mother me and only me.” She says whatever she wears people are still going to “judge me nature because I know it’ll still regardless, so I dress how I like.”

From VAPING Page 1 Phan mostly shops at Zumiez, Pacsun, Forever 21, & Aeropostale. She says look good.”

Shirai, on the other hand, believes that kids vape Trotter brands aren’t important to her because “at the end of the day I’ll make it look good.” to relieve stress. s h o p s a n y Phan treats her outfit in the morning by “taking a jacket with me and taking it off “The vape detectors won’t really discourage where; from when it starts feeling warmer throughout the day.” anyone from doing it,” a junior boy said.

She says she would like to try “more like an ‘80s/’90s” kind of style, “maybe Ralph Lauren Instead, he believes education is how school can to the thrift for a rally day but that’s about it!” The ‘80s/’90s vibe isn’t really her style but she help students with their addiction. store or Ross. would try it!

“I think the school could inform students about Senior Aaliyah Trotter. Trotter says her personality reflects on her style by “There’s no difnic patches and gum,” he said. ference, they’re Rosalie Phan showing that she doesn’t care what anyone has to say

By Vanessa Lakthanasuk Neuo De Anza High School

I always wanted to do more adventurous activities, which is what drew me to Scouts BSA instead.”

By joining Scouts BSA, girls now have the opportunity to earn the prestigious Eagle Scout rank, the highest rank that one can earn within the program. The Eagle Scout award is recognized as a milestone of accomplishment across the country and even the world.

However, that will be challenging for this first generation of girls in Scouts BSA. That’s because it takes years for Scouts to reach this rank. Traditionally, Scouts begin their work in 6th grade and have until their 18th birthday to earn their Eagle award. They have to complete seven ranks, each with its own set of requirements. And once a Scout reaches the Life Scout ranking, the sixth ranking, there are additional requirements to reach the Eagle rank.

Since girls have just been accepted into Scouts BSA for less than a year, it’s extremely hard for the older girls to complete all the requirements in time. However, Scouts BSA implemented a 24-month extension for new scouts who were between 16 to 18 years old on Feb. 1, 2019.

“There’s a definite increase in workload,”Chamberlain said.

“One challenge of having less time is that as a high schooler, I deal with loads of homework and extracurriculars while also having to do the bulk of the work for Scouts now.”

Sister Troop 36 is also aware of their Scouts and their busy schedules, and they have made some changes in scheduling to make Scouts BSA more flexible.

“The troop’s supportive,” Kalin said. “Our last meeting of each month is optional for us if we want to continue working on their merit badges and requirements.”

Although earning their Eagle awards in a shortened time frame is a challenge for Scouts like Kalin and Chamberlain, they said they welcomed it.

Vaping solution

“I find that students are more likely to count down the seconds of a class period than they have been previously,”English teacher James Muñoz said.“It draws more attention than having a second hand on the [analog] clock does.”

Some teachers even go so far as to cover up parts of their clock with a sticky note or by taping a piece of paper over it.

“I chose to cover up the seconds because the constant ticking of the time changing made me nervous. The swooping hand on the analog clock doesn’t bother me,” Johnson said.

Others consider this function a useful teaching material.

“I like the seconds feature because sometimes for teaching, it does come down to the wire,” Skvarna said.

Muñoz believes the clocks show Acalanes’ attempts to modernize campus.

“I think sometimes students feel like teachers are using archaic forms of education. To feel like there’s an integration of new technology reminds them that we are investing constantly in updating education through what is physically in the school and the curriculum itself,” Muñoz said.

How Likely Would You Be to Fill Out the Census Form?

2% 5%

3% 10%

25%

2%

2%

3%

6%

4%

4%

23%

20%

Somewhat likely

40%

Very likely

32%

33%

Extremely likely

45-64

65 and older

30%

Not at all likely Not too likely

33%

39%

38%

35% 32%

30%

Survey average

22% 18-34

27% 35-44

Notes: All estimates were rounded so that the sum of estimates equals 100 percent.

Source: 2020 Census Barriers, Attitudes, and Motivators Study (CBAMS) Public Use Microdata Sample

News

6

March 2020

CC Spin

Voting opportunities available to county teenagers

By Sophia Puentes California High School

Numerous Contra Costa high school students will have an opportunity to vote in the California presidential primary on March 3 and in the 2020 presidential election in November.

Polls open for the California primary at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Primary elections are a preliminary task in the process of nominating a candidate for president. They allow voters to choose a candidate of preference and then narrow the field of candidates.

American government teacher Tasneem Khan has helped hundreds of students register to vote for about 10 years now. “I tell students, if you guys don’t go out and make your voices heard someone else will. Do your civic duty,” Khan said.

Like Khan, AP government teacher Brandon Andrews hopes students understand the importance of their civic duty.“By voting, you’re giving a better representation of what America thinks,” Andrews said.

In order to vote in the California primary and general election, students have to be registered.

Once students have registered to vote, they do not need to re-register unless they change their name, home address, mailing address, or political party preference.

Students who have not registered and want to vote in the California primary in March must meet the basic requirements: be a United States citizen and a resident of California, be 18 years or older on election day, and not currently in state or federal prison

or on parole for a felony.

Students can register online at the California government website at www.registertovote.ca.gov.

Students who choose to register online will need a California driver’s license or California ID number, the last four digits of their Social Security number, and date of birth.

Students may also register through a paper registration application, which can be accessed at a county elections office, DMV, library, and U.S post offices. Paper voter registration applications must be filled out and mailed to a county elections office no later than 15 days before the election.

“I want to vote because this is my country and I want my country to be led by a strong and capable person,” senior Ryan Senjit said.

Voters are asked to select a political party preference and can only vote for the political party they have put as their preference when registering to vote.

Voters who registered to vote and did not state a political party preference are known as No Party Preference (NPP) voters. For presidential primary elections, NPP voters will receive a non-partisan ballot that does not include presidential candidates. The nonpartisan ballot includes the names of candidates for voter-nominated offices and local nonpartisan offices and measures.

If students are not registered with a preference for a political party but want to vote in the presidential primary, the Democratic Party, Libertarian Party, and the American Independent Party allow them to vote in their presidential primary. But the Republican primary is closed to people who are not registered as Republicans.

If students would like to vote for another qualified political party’s presidential primary, they must re-register to vote and choose the political party they prefer.

If students are not old enough to vote, they can pre-register as long as they are 16 or 17 years old and meet all the requirements to vote. If students pre-register, they will be automatically registered to vote when they turn 18.

Once the election days arrive, students may vote at polling places indicated on their voter registration packet or by mail.

Those who choose to vote-by mail have to request a vote-by- mail ballot from their county elections office no more than seven days before the election.

The last day county elections officials will accept any voter’s application for a vote-by-mail ballots for the primary is Feb. 25.

A vote-by mail ballot must arrive at a county elections office no later than March 6, three days after the primary. If students don’t think their vote by mail ballot will arrive at a county elections office on time, they can bring it to a polling place in their county on election day.

Contra Costa County has 646,360 registered voters, according to the county website.

Around 61.4 percent of the citizen voting-age population voted in the 2016 presidential election, according to the U.S Census Bureau.

“People just complain about things not happening but voting equals change. Everyone has that right once their 18 and everyone should use it,” Kutrosky said about the importance of voting.

The U.S Census Bureau also reported that only 46.1 percent of

Teacher rides span the spectrum

By Anthony Santa Maria and Cameron Roth Monte Vista High School The Monte Vista High School parking lots are filled with cars costing millions of dollars. Students seem to take great pride in their forms of transportation and show them off. But what about teachers?

Math teacher Yvonne Spilker doesn’t mess around when it comes to speed. It may come as a surprise to people, but she has one of the fastest cars in the lot. Her 2006 Dodge Charger Daytona is beyond compare. Having 350 horsepower, and reaching 60 miles in under six seconds, it was one of the fastest on the cars on the market in 2006.

With vibrant yellow base color and black racing stripes the car doesn’t fail to turn heads. According to Spliker, the Dodge community refers to her Charger as “Top Banana.”

“I needed a car with power,” Spilker said. “It just sails.”

And no, Spliker isn’t sailing down Hartz Avenue in Downtown Danville with Top Banana; she said she is a law-abiding citizen who would never speed. Although that’s not to say that she doesn’t enjoy the speed that her Charger has. She explained how it was nice to have a quick car in order to be able to slip out of tight spots and out of the way of large trucks on the freeway.

Spilker made it clear that buying the car “was mostly for safety,” although she enjoys zipping past slow cars.

Long-time economics teacher Greg“Mr. Bike”Blandino has a slightly different way of transportation. Three times a week Blandino rides one of his five bicycles to school. According to Blandino, he rides on Mondays because it “gets him going for the week,” Wednesdays because “it’s hump-day,” and Friday because “yahooo.”

18-29 year old’s voted in the 2016 presidential election.

“Political participation is on the decline,” said Andrews, who reviews the primary election process in his AP Government classes.

“Little things matter like the midterm elections.”

Andrews also hopes students understand that their individual vote counts and is important to the democratic process.

Lafayette’s ravenous pigs destroy rec field

By Julia Poole and Allie Marcu Acalanes High School

“The Tank” is one of five bicycles Monte Vista High School economics teacher Greg “Mr. Bike” Blandino used to ride to school. Photo by Cameron Roth, Monte Vista High School How does he choose which bike to take?

“It depends on my mood,”Blandino said.“But I usually take my tank. It goes anywhere.”

Blandino’s “tank” isn’t a machine made famous by the first and second World Wars, but one of the names he has given to his bikes. The bike is a rugged tealish color with white taped handles and classic black rubber tires.

Like an actual tank, his bike has a few gadgets on the handle bar such as a speedometer.

Blandino said he’s had the bike for five years, but the frame (the main part of the bike) is from 1993.

“I bought it for pennies off Craigslist and rebuilt it into the tank,” Blandino said. “It weighs about the weight of a tank.”

“Mr. Bike” does drive cars but has racked up some impressive miles on his bikes.

His bikes “ have a couple hundred thousand miles on them,” Blandino said. “My car has more though. It’s hard to go to Montana on a bike.”

Tarantulas in the Bay Area? Yeah!

By Paola Campos De Anza High School Just in time for spooky season last fall, the warm weather brought out tarantulas around the Bay Area. Most of the year they live underground and are nocturnal, but in autumn they come out at all hours on the search for female tarantulas to mate with.

The species of tarantulas roaming around the bay is the Aphonopelma iodius, according to SF Bay Wildlife. These spiders have unfriendly fangs and hairs all around them that serve as protection against predators. Luckily, male tarantulas only live 8 to 10 years, and die within 6 months after mating season.

A tarantula’s sting is similar to a bee sting and isn’t really poisonous; some people have reactions while others don’t.

But because they are quite hesitant to bite humans, you can consider them gentle giants.

Those of you that have arachnophobia may want to steer clear of warmer places in the Bay. Mostly the East Bay -- Mount Diablo, Sunol Regional Park, and Henry Coe State Park -- are filled with tarantulas.

Various places hold reserved tours for spider enthusiast to watch these tarantulas in action. Particularly on Mount Diablo, rangers have been protecting tarantulas, since they have a lot of tarantulas living on the mountain.

Generally, tarantula mating season begins in late August, but because of people going on trails, it disturbs the tarantula’s habitat, which causes the spiders to take an extra week or two to begin mating season.

Mount Diablo, where most tarantulas reside, has limited the amount of visitors on some trails. This has allowed for mating season to come back in full swing.

The “Where and How to Vote” page of the California Secretary of State’s website, https://www.sos.ca.gov/ elections/where-and-how/ connects you directly to your polling place.

Rabid raccoons, psycho squirrels, and dazed deer live among the quirky wildlife in the Bay Area. Joining the ranks is an infestation of feral pigs that last fall demanded the attention of many Lafayette residents.

These pigs caused significant damage to the Lafayette Community Field, leaving behind dangerous potholes and forcing local sports teams to cancel games on the Saint Mary’s Road. field.

“We had to move to Stanley middle school for the rest of the season in order to continue our games,” junior and local soccer player Torin Cate said.

According to John Krause, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife), feral pigs are common in the East Bay. “Particularly in the fall and during the dry season they work their way into residential areas to take advantage of rich food resources,” Krause said. Then “neighborhoods surrounding the hills are often more attractive than dried-out open land where they usually feed.”

Although the pigs have always lived in the Lamorinda area, Jonathan Katayangi, Director of Lafayette’s Parks, Trails, and Recreation, said that he and his coworkers have never seen damage to this extent.

“Fish and Wildlife say that we do and always have lived with them since the Spanish brought them over in the 1700s. Neighbors would see them from time to time but they have never done this much damage before,” Katayanagi said.

Sophomore Audrey Jaunrubenis witnessed the damage firsthand.

“The feral pigs ripped up our front lawn and the neighbor’s across the street from us. Their whole grass yard was totally dug up,” Jaunrubenis said. She lives in Lafayette Estates, which is located near the Lafayette Community Park.

Katayanagi caught the pigs mid-snack a few days after he discovered the damage at the Lafayette Community Park. He traveled through the park in a car to avoid the potentially aggressive feral pigs.

“When we arrived at the park we discovered that a user had left a gate open and the pigs had found their way onto the field, hence the need for self-closing gates. Not only were they on the field, but they were also all around the playing area. We estimate there were over 25 pigs present that night of all ages and sizes,” Katayanagi said.

“If you see a pig in a residential neighborhood, Fish and Wildlife staff recommends doing what you can to safely chase them off. You can install fencing or other structural barriers to keep pigs off your property,” Krause said. “If you have a lawn, you can reduce watering so it’s less appealing as a food source. Cayenne pepper can also work as a deterrent.”

CONTRA COSTA CENSUS

2020

Count Me In! Complete Count Committee

Political Power

Billions of dollars for our:

WHY

Schools

WHO

A Chilean rose-hair tarantula (above) is on display at Harry's Big Adventure: My Bug World at Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Illinois on May 16, 2012. (Keri Wiginton/Chicago Tribune/MCT) A female tarantula, (left) about fist-sized, crawls around in her enclosure at the Austin Nature and Science Center. (Eli MadaliI/American-Statesman/ MCT)

Housing

Transportation

One Census form should be completed for all residents in each household

•

The United States constitution requires all residents to complete the Census form every 10 years Under the Law, the U.S. Census Bureau cannot share an individual’s Census data with the public, state or local governments, immigration enforcement, or other The questionnaire takes about 15 minutes, with large household taking longer, and asks ten questions about: address, age, race, and relationship to the other residents in the household

• • •

WHEN

Children & Families

•

•

WHAT

Healthcare

Census 2020 begins online in mid-March 2020 Starting in May 2020, Census workers will begin going door-to-door to households who have not completed the Census to ask them to respond

All households will receive a postcard in the mail with instructions about how to take the Census through the following options:

HOW

Online

Phone

Paper

By computer, tablet, or smart phone

By a 1-800 number

Households can request a paper form

Available In

Printed In

English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, Polish, French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Japanese

WHERE

English & Spanish

At community locations to be announced in early 2020!

At home

At the library

For more information visit www.contracosta.ca.gov/census2020 or email kristine.solseng@dcd.cccounty.us “Couple” icon by Freepik from www.flaticon.com. From the Noun Project: Congress by MRFA · Family by Gan Khoon Lay · Education by Victoria · Library by Rauan.

News

CC Spin

7 March 2020

Powell takes over reins of Dougherty Valley High School

By Daniel Shen and Caroline Lobel Dougherty Valley High School

Since replacing Dave Kravitz as permanent principal of Dougherty Valley High School, Evan Powell has quickly reacquainted with the community and taken up many of his predecessor’s efforts to support the school’s students.

Evan Powell replaced Dave Kravitz as permanent principal of Dougherty Valley High School on Nov. 20 after approval by the San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board of Education.

The administrative change was one of multiple rearrangements involving middle schools Windemere Ranch and Los Cerros and high schools California and Dougherty Valley. Kravitz joined the district office as the Director of Secondary Education.

Powell has returned to the school that first employed him.

From 2007 to 2012, he taught in Dougherty’s athletic department; since then, he’s served as assistant principal at Monte Vista and principal at Los Cerros.

“I’ve been gone seven and a half years,”Powell said.“I’m excited for what the school has become, and all the great accomplishments that the students and staff have put together.”

At Los Cerros, Powell’s initiatives included a full bell schedule change, grade reforms and test score improvements. Most impor-

tantly, he“fostered a community of respect”with“high expectations and well-behaved students.”

Moving to Dougherty, he has continued Kravitz’s endeavors in helping students discover their dreams and convictions. “The one big thing I would really like is to understand where our students are going … I really want to get information on what they wish they would have known or done differently in high school,” Powell said.

At the same time, he hopes to build trust in the community and create a sense of purpose. While leading Dougherty to be, “literally, the best high school in the state,”he also hopes that students explore every available option while they can.

“When I was in high school, I stopped playing baseball my sophomore year. I had two great seasons, [but I] wish I ran track and field. I wish I played football,” he said. “So there’s things … I just didn’t do. And once you’re out, you can’t go back.”

Powell says that nurturing school spirit and mutual encouragement is the first step toward helping students.

“When the school starts supporting, it goes a long way for morale,”Powell said. “So it’s really important that we work together and support each other. Get that ASB pass at the beginning of the year and go to everything.”

Before becoming assistant principal at Dougherty in 2013, Kravitz spent 27 years as a coach and teacher at Cal and San Ramon

Valley High. In fall 2016, he took up the principal position at Dougherty upon Daniel Hillman’s move to the district office.

At Dougherty, Kravitz headed efforts to improve student and staff wellness, encouraging community members to understand what motivates them while emphasizing work-life balance. In leading this endeavor, Kravitz learned much about what defines Dougherty.

“Academics is a focus for our community … and that’s great,” Kravitz said. “But we have blossomed into a school that is way more than just academics. Whether it be our athletics, fine arts programs, clubs, our leadership program … Students have taken advantage of them and ran with them further than we ever thought they would go.”

Kravitz has kept in touch with Powell on both administrative logistics and school culture. Simultaneously, Powell has connected with students in hallways and worked with “staff, students and parents to find out what we want for a 1-3 year plan together.”

Ultimately, Kravitz said that what he misses most about Dougherty is “the people.”

“The people whom I work with are phenomenal in so many ways … I’m amazed by not only [student] achievement … but the care that … our staff has for our students and our students have for each other,” he said. “That welcoming attitude of staff and students together has been something I’ve been very blessed to be a part of.”

Evan Powell (right) enters Dougherty Valley as permanent principal. Former principal Dave Kravitz (left) is set to become SRVUSD’s new Director of Secondary Education. Photo by Caroline Lobel, Dougherty Valley High School.

Soph looks forward to Hands-on classes greatly benefit Miramonte students turning ‘4’ on leap year “Wise is super fun because it gives us the

By Skyler Lee Miramonte High School

By Adelaide Berrett Northgate High School Not many students at Northgate are turning 4 this year. None, in fact, except sophomore Daniel Pikovskiy. Pikovskiy was born on Feb. 29, 2004. Because the 29th only comes every four years, in a leap year, he will celebrate on his actual date of birth for the fourth time. Most years, he celebrates on March 1.

When asked if there is a difference between those he celebrates on his actual birthday -- ages 4, 8, 12 and this year 16 -- and the other three in between, Pikovskiy replied, “Not really because I don’t think about my birthday that much.”

Pikovskiy attended Foothill Middle School when he turned 12, and more friends were aware. “It was a lot more people saying ‘happy birthday’ to me. And it was cooler because it was the actual day,” he said.

What even is a leap year? While the Gregorian calendar most countries use has 365 days, Earth actually circles the sun in 365.25 days. We add a day to the calendar - leap day - every four years to keep the astronomical seasons on track with the calendar.

Julius Caesar created the concept of leap year over 2,000 years ago. According to timeanddate.com, he made one major mistake. The original concept stated that any year that was evenly divided by four would be a leap year. As one can probably imagine, this resulted in too many leap years; ultimately this rule was amended 1,500 years later, adding that century years must be divisible by 400. Thus 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600 and 2000 were.

So, how many people are born on a leap day? According to online information, a baby has a one in 1,461 chances of being born on that day. Statistics show there were 187,000 people born on such days in the United States as of 2016, and about 4 million worldwide.

There are some cultural legends associated with leap day. According to one, if a man was taking too long in Fifth Century Ireland to propose to his love, then the woman could propose to him on leap year day. If the man refused, he had to give her compensation in the form of “a kiss, a silk dress, one to twelve silk dresses, one to twelve silk gloves, or the sum of one pound,” according to online magazine Bustle.

Pikovskiy said he doesn’t have any big plans to celebrate the actual date of his birth this year for when he turns 4, even though the day will be a Saturday with no school. “But the next day I have tickets to the Warriors game,” he said.

So he will be celebrating his birthday this year on March 1 as he did for the past three years and as he will for the next three years until Thursday Feb. 29, 2024, when he will turn 20 -- or 5, depending on how you count.

In the current job market, companies look for more than a potential hire’s education to determine if they are right for the position. Now more than ever, organizations seek employees with applicable, real-world skills beyond purely traditional intelligence.

To this end, many high schools in the United States have classes centered on Career Technology Education (CTE) to expose students to practical skills needed to succeed in the professional world. Students and the administration in the Acalanes Union High School District must continue to emphasize and offer classes that teach hands on skills.

Currently, the district offers a variety of these classes.

Miramonte has Journalism, Oral Interpretation, Foods, Computer Pro- graming, Sports Medicine, Digital Electronics, Introduction to Engineering Design, and Introduction to Digital Design.

Stacy Churchill currently teaches Digital Design and Introduction to Engineering Design, both of which are considered CTE classes. “These courses train students using real-world

industry skills including critical thinking, communication skills, and positive work mindsets, all things employers are looking for in their workers,” Churchill said.

Another class that offers real-life training for students is WISE (Wise Individualized Senior Experience). WISE is an English 4 class taught by Steve Poling and can be taken senior year. Throughout the first semester, students learn an English 4 curriculum at an accelerated pace. During second semester, students spend their time off campus, pursuing a career of their choice. Many students choose to do an internship that fits with their career interests.

“Wise is super fun because it gives us the opportunity to try something new that isn’t a regular English class, and we get to explore our interests. I’m going to be coaching gymnastics at Luna Gymnastics for my internship,”senior Kate Blanchard said.

Blanchard competed with the team at Luna for many years, and she sees it as a perfect place to expand her coaching abilities and gain applicable skills.

“It’ll be fun to experience that side of it after competing, and I’m excited to work with the kids,” Blanchard said.

Campolindo and Acalanes high schools also have several unique options, such as Architectural Design, Wood Technology,

opportunity to try something new that isn’t a regular English class, and we get to explore our interests.” and two levels of Auto Shop. Students have opportunities to work on various design projects whether designing the optimal office space, building household furniture, or rebuilding an engine. These real-life projects ultimately allow students to apply skills they learn in class to a real-world setting.

These CTE classes teach valuable life skills, especially for one’s career and college experience. Vocational classes are an important step in many students’ careers, as it gives them practical and technical skills while also emulating their future employment experiences.

Overall, they contribute to Miramonte’s mission statement: “Educate every student to excel and contribute in a global society.”

Schools confront vaping crisis with monitoring From VAPING Page 1 in my break and have to wait in a line of 10 girls because the big stall is full of girls vaping. I am forced to leave my class to use the restroom which frustrates my teachers when I have to ask at the beginning of class,” junior Stephanie Dolan said.

“It is very frustrating at times when people need the restroom but can’t because people are vaping in 2 or 3 of the 5 stalls. It’s your choice to vape but just don’t do it when it’s during the bathroom rush,” one senior said.

Unlike the boys bathroom, where campus supervisor John Fow- ley can periodically check to see if students are vaping, the girls bathroom lacks frequent security checks.

While a female security guard might help, assigning willing female staff members to moni- tor the bathrooms during

breaks would also deter vaping on cam- pus.

“I try to frequent in bathrooms as much as I can. It would be great if we could devote some female staff members to do some rounds,” Associate Principal Sara Harris said.

Miramonte has recently taken meaningful strides to provide services for addicted students. “I do believe Miramonte is trying– we work with our community group ADAPT who strives in exten- sive education for students and parents, we have instituted academy sessions put on by Stanford University to educate students with our registered nurse about how harmful drugs and addiction can be.

“We monitor as much as we can and try to keep the campus safe. We hold parent information nights and attend training frequently as a staff to educate our students,” Harris said.

However, these efforts can only be effective if students acknowl- edge that vaping is a prevalent issue, become informed about the resources available to them, and make a personal decision to avoid e-cigarette products.

Students need to rise above the popular pres- sure to partake in actions that pose real threats to their health.

The safety of such a young and vulnerable population is at risk. The goal of pursuing stricter surveillance isn’t to punish more students, but to preemptively stop the consequences before they become a crisis.

“We have legal obligations to follow through with discipline, but I want to make sure we are also equipped to help our students get through the addiction phase with good knowledge and understanding of the drug itself,” Associate Principal Harris said.

Racist incidents roil the Monte Vista community From RACIST INCICDENTS Page 1 doesn’t happen to them.” As a result, some students may overlook the issue due to the perceived distance.

These incidents are not the first sequence of racist and hate events at Monte Vista and the surrounding community. Four years ago, the words “colored” and “white” were scrawled over urinals in one of the men’s bathrooms. Additionally, swastikas repeatedly appeared on classroom desks.

Although these events occurred a few years ago, students and teachers say that the underlying issue is apparent and continuous.

According to the school’s web site, MonteVista’s student demographic for the 2019-2020 school year is: 60 percent Caucasian, 18.8 percent Asian, 8.7 percent Hispanic, 0.6 percent African American and less than 12.8 percent Native American, Cambodian, Guamanian and Pacific Islander. This racial disproportionality increases the difficulty of grappling with the issue.

Robinson, who is African-American, said when he moved from Seattle to Danville in his freshman year, he had to adjust to this different environment.

“Initially, people didn’t directly use slurs to my face, but earlier this year, I was called the n-word by a student who was trying to use it to be funny,” Robinson said. “It was a shock to me because it was my first incident, but I’m aware the n-word is frequently used here.”

The Twitter video not only attracted the attention of Bay Area media but has led to a renewed effort by the school’s “Equity Squad.”

This group was formed at Monte Vista 18 months ago in a workshop with Courageous Conversations, an organization that strives to help

“people of all races achieve their highest levels and live their most empowered and powerful lives.”

A version of the Equity Squad exists at each high school in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD), but each is built on the school’s desires and needs.

English teacher Kimberly Gilles, a member of the Equity Squad, said she is unsettled by the incidents that have occurred on Monte Vista’s campus.

“It is in some ways worse than I’ve seen it in 32 years,” she said.

“What’s happening now really alarms me.”

Robinson said he believes that the problem stems from people not being educated on or exposed to different cultures and ethnicities.

Most of the time, students have established conclusions by the time they reach high school, so it is difficult to change those presumptions.

“In this area, it can be difficult to find fresh perspectives in regards to race,” he said. “At some point, you become certain of what you know. It’s challenging to change our mindsets and be untaught to hate because our brains become ingrained in particular thoughts.”

Educating students about their choice in using vernacular language is challenging when the same references are used casually in popular culture. Scates said he noticed the influence that the entertainment industry has on young people.

“When students listen to a song, read a book or hear celebrities use African-American slang, they often justify themselves to use it,” he said. “It’s hard to avoid these terms because nearly everyone listens to music, reads and watches movies.”

Gilles and her colleagues say they are determined to confront the problem and devise a solution. “This is when we get busy,” Gilles

said. “We don’t get bitter or scared and we don’t give up. We roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

Gilles and the other members of Monte Vista’s Equity Squad – English teachers Carrie Leadingham and Stephen Brooks and math teacher Anthony Peña – are partnering with educators in the district to gauge the student perspective that adults often lack and to build lessons on interpersonal communication.

“Administration probably only hears about a fraction of these incidents, and we are concerned that these infamous, individual instances overshadow the racist encounters that happen day to day,” Brooks said. “I hope we don’t ever get to the point where we think we’re done with our job because it is an ongoing struggle.”

Brooks and his colleagues have been meeting periodically with district board members and teachers to discuss issues of race and equity as they relate to teaching, learning and diversifying cultures of SRVUSD campuses. “Our goal is to create capacity and tools for district staff to deal with issues that arise,” Brooks said. “These include how to have conversations with students about race and how to approach the tensions. We want to provide mental tools in the way we train ourselves to think and speak.”

Scates reflected on these new efforts, attesting that they will establish “a safer place” for all students at Monte Vista.

“More teachers should be addressing racism, so it’s reassuring that the Equity Squad is comprised of teachers who are willing to make an impact,”Scates said.“When students see teachers attempting to change the way we view one another, [we will collectively] promote equality on our campus.”

In addition to the Equity Squad’s agenda, Monte Vista’s Site

Council met in December to discuss the episodes of racial prejudice and came up with propositions of its own. The Site Council consists of five students, five parents, nine teachers and members of the school’s administration.They convene monthly to share their concerns about the school’s climate.

“Parents discussed their frustrations at how racist incidents are still prevalent during the public comment portion of our meeting, and we plan to dive more into that,” said junior Rachel Eizner, a student on the council.

Teachers and parents at the meeting were discouraged that many students are not holding their peers accountable, Eizner said.

When students feel that they can dismiss repercussions in smaller social settings, a chain reaction occurs which leads to surges of racist thought.

“I’ve definitely heard about racist incidents but never truly witnessed them because they happen in smaller groups where there are fewer consequences,” Eizner said.

Gilles said he hopes to forge the way to a place of deeper understanding for her and her students. “I refuse to be complacent in racism by doing nothing,” she said. “If I do nothing and say nothing, I am complacent. I’m part of the problem. It’s time for [us] to assume some of the responsibility.”

The BSU said it hopes to initiate a support system for students of color and to educate students who have not experienced racial prejudice. “Our goal is to leave a strong foundation to ensure that our voices continue to be heard for generations,”Scates said.“There’s very little we can do to erase racism, but we want to dilute it as much as we can.”

News

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March 2020

CC Spin

Area students impacted by intense U.S.-Iran conflict

By Manahil Rizvi Monte Vista High School

The increasingly volatile conflict between Iran and U.S. and increasing tensions has affected the lives and families of some Monte Vista High School students of Iranian descent.

In January, just days before a missile attack that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and several other Iraqi militia officials, Sophomore Enayah Aamir was at the Baghdad International Airport where the drone strike occurred.

“I was there at the airport five days before the missile hit,”Aamir said. “But when the missile hit I was in Najsg, a little farther from it.”

Aamir was visiting both Iran and Iraq for a holy pilgrimage (ziyarat) with her local mosque.

While she and the members of her group were safe from the attack, she witnessed the burial procession because it went through Najaf a few days after the Jan. 3 strike.

“They were taking the bodies -- General Soleimani’s and four others -- to famous sites and graves to pay respects,” Aamir said.

“And since the other four bodies were being buried at the mosque right next to my hotel, it took us longer to leave.”

Aamir described the streets as cordoned off as people gathered to mourn the deceased. This and flight delays at the airport kept Aamir and her family uncertain about when they could leave. The U.S. government and Iranian citizens were telling them they needed to leave as soon as possible in order to make it home safely.

“We were wondering if we would even be able to leave because we were U.S. citizens in a country that was bombed by the U.S.,” Aamir said.

(President Trump authorized the killing of General Suleimani, who was Iran’s top security and intelligence commander.)

After some difficulty, Aamir, her family and other members of the holy pilgrimage were able to leave. But they would encounter more delays upon their return to the U.S. and going through customs.

“Since we were with our molana [priest] who goes there all the time, he was interrogated for hours,” Aamir said.

Sophomore Jasmine Rezaei, who is Iranian-American, was also impacted by the attack. Recently her grandmother’s visa was cleared, she received a green card and she came to the U.S. four days before the attack.

But other family members, including Rezaei’s grandfather and uncle, had stayed behind in Tehan for work-related reasons. Now

they won’t be able to join her grandmother any time soon.

Aamir said that it’s hard for non-Iranian citizens to empathize with the hardships and see the destruction being caused by the U.S.-Iran conflict.

“We live in a bubble here,”Aamir said. “What you hear is what you hear but since I went all the way there it really opened up my eyes.”

She said the experience of being there changed her. She said she became aware of the amount of collateral damage the attack caused innocent civilians.

“When we think of going to war we’re only thinking about the government but not the people or innocent lives,” Aamir said.

“I felt really angry because I had witnessed it first hand,” she added. “Little kids and people in the streets are barely living off of anything already.”

Although frustrated with the current situation, Aamir said she recognizes how lucky she is to be a U.S. citizen and living here.

But she wants Americans to learn more about what is happening elsewhere in the world.

“Here, everyone’s eyes are closed because they just take in what they hear and don’t bother to do more research,” she said. “People should be more aware.”

Shahab-3 missile A U.S. Defense Department report describes Iran’s missile forces as the largest in the Middle East, comprising mainly short-range and medium-range missiles. The Shahab-3 has the longest range at up to 1,250 miles.

Caspian Sea

TURKEY Med. Sea

Range 1,250 mi.

Tehran

IRAN

SAUDI ARABIA

Persian Gulf

INDIA

Current version Origin: Based on North Korean Nodong missile Height: 52.5 ft.

Diameter: 4.4 ft.

Warhead: 1,680 lbs.-2,600 lbs Range: 620 mi.-1,250 mi.

Engine: Liquid propellant rocket Source: Xxxxxx Graphic: Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Launch vehicle

Source: Federation of American Scientists, BBC, missiledefenseadvocacy.org Graphic: Staff, TNS

Young California High activist fights for sustainability

By Avni Kalur California High School

Senior Caelan Chamberlain has made a huge impact on California High School with her effort to help the environment.

Chamberlain’s main projects include last month’s clothing swap and advocating for the use of biodegradable utensils in the cafeteria earlier this year.

“Switching to biodegradable utensils really shows that one person can make a difference,” said senior Anjana Kumar, who is close friends with Chamberlain.

“She is really aiming to make the world a better place,” Kumar said.

In order to switch to more environmentally friendly utensils, Chamberlain researched alternatives for plastic, like biodegradable material.

Chamberlain said she learned about some options, then emailed Cal’s principal, Megan Keefer, who then emailed the director of child nutrition at the district to set up a meeting.

After the meeting, Chamberlain researched the brand Cal was

using and found an alternative called Enviroware, which takes 10 years to decompose in a landfill.

“While this [was] not the best option, it was very much better than the kind that the district puts in the elementary schools,” Chamberlain said.

In addition to the switch from plastic to biodegradable utensils, Chamberlain had other ideas in mind, such as renewable fashion.

“I condemn fast fashion, like Forever 21 or Target because the clothing they make is cheap and will not last,” Chamberlain said. “I think you can get

as good clothing for cheaper by thrifting or swapping clothing.”

After Chamberlain made a jean jacket out of recycled jeans, she began to gain more interest in sustainable fashion.

Because of this interest, Chamberlain hosted the school’s inaugural clothing swap the week before Thanksgiving break.

She worked with Needle Earth, an organization that helps to set up clothing swaps in high schools.

“I planned this clothing swap by first putting up flyers and collecting bins to hold the [donated] clothing,” Chamberlain said.“We collected for two weeks.”

Chamberlain raffled off sustainably-made beanie babies as an incentive to donate. Chamberlain said the beanie babies were made out of thrifted fabric filled with

rice and beans. After collecting clothes, Chamberlain stored the bins at her house while sorting them by size with a group of volunteers.

Many clothes were donated and lots of students were seen on the school’s stage during lunch, picking up new clothes.

All of the extra clothing will be donated to the Purple Heart Army, an organization that sells clothes to thrift stores for people with family in the Army. “Starting the clothing swap was great as it really builds community,” Kumar said.

Chamberlain’s motivation for starting her projects was influenced heavily by her friends.

Chamberlain has created a clothing swap committee so she can host more swaps later in the year. She has been working with biomedical science teacher Joanna Condon to continue this project. “[Chamberlain] has always been thoughtful about her place in the world and the impact on the planet,” Condon said.

“Starting the clothing swap was great as it really builds community,” Kumar said.

Church comes to a high school campus

By Jamie Lattin Acalanes High School Although most students avoid school on weekends, some may have noticed the tall banners and clusters of people gathering on campus every Sunday. This crowd is Fellowship Church, a Christian organization that meets weekly at Acalanes High School.

The church began meeting at Acalanes in April 2018 “It probably was about a year of communication from them on wanting to try to come into the school and figure out what that [relationship] would look like and working with the district to figure out how that would play out,” Acalanes Principal Travis Bell said.

Pastors Shaun and Diana Nepstad founded Fellowship Church in Antioch in 2002. The church’s expansion to Acalanes was engineered in order to accommodate 5,000 new members of the quick-growing institution.

“Especially in this area where the property values are so high it’s hard to acquire property for organizations like a church. I think it’s pretty common to use other areas where they rent [space],” Bell said.

Acalanes has rented space to other organizations in the past, including Scout troops and colleges.

Although Fellowship church is a religious organization, it is permitted to congregate at Acalanes according to U.S.

Supreme Court decisions.

Both Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District and Good News Club v. Milford Central School held that allowing religious organizations to meet at public schools was constitutional if a number of conditions were met, based on the hours the organizations meet and past rentals of the school’s space.

Nonetheless, the use of public schools by religious organizations continues to be a hotly debated issue. Administrators strive to clarify that their rental to Fellowship Church is not an endorsement of religion.

“I think that our communication is really clear. We also really make sure that the church isn’t putting anything on there like ‘Acalanes Fellowship Church’. It’s just a fellowship church that meets at Acalanes High School,” Bell said.

According to its website, the church is focused on hope and healing through Jesus. Attendees undergo a four-step growth track to become official members of the church. This growth track examines how God can use each individual to make a difference and eventually presents participants with an opportunity to join the Dream Team.

“Dream Team are just people that serve during the service and then through the week on church activities.

I’m one of the leaders for the prayer team,” church member Gary Kingsbury said.

“If anyone comes to the service and wants individual

one-on-one prayer, our team prays with them. And then during the week, if they ask for prayer on the phone or email our people respond to their request and meet with them if necessary,” Kingsbury said.

The church employs private security equipped with firearms during church services in order to protect its members.

Students have varying degrees of comfort with the presence of guns on campus.

Junior Nick Emtage first noticed the security when picking up a textbook during the weekend.

“I walked right next to the guards and I did actually at that time recognize that they had weapons on them,”Emtage said.

Many Acalanes students are unaffected by the presence of armed security on campus. “It doesn’t make me nervous that they would bring firearms onto campus if it’s just for protection, especially if they’re a private gathering,” junior Michael Castelli said.

According to Associate Vice-Principal Andrea Powers, the Lafayette Police Department has met each guard and approved them.

Acalanes’s relationship with the church is projected to continue for the foreseeable future.

“They have filed the appropriate paperwork and have the appropriate insurance and are doing their thing on a Sunday. I think they are doing what they do best and I support that,” Bell said.

Love can shape your future.

On the 2020 Census, you’ll have the option to identify a relationship as same-sex—informing community planning for families and providing vital statistics to advocates and policymakers who work on LGBTQ+ issues.

For more information, visit:

2020CENSUS.GOV D-PO-LG-EN-043

‘OK Boomer’ meme fuels intergenerational clash

By Cayley O’Brien Miramonte High School

Baby Boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, recently came under fire for their political views and social intolerance.

In recent months, the term“boomer”has fueled a generational battle between the baby boomers and younger generations. The phrase “OK Boomer” has gained popularity among Generation Z teens and Millennials; its purpose is to degrade the baby boomer whose opinions or perspectives are considered antiquated or generally conservative. It hits at baby boomers inaction about current crises such as climate change or gender inequality.

Although the phrase started out as a joke, some baby boomers have taken offense at the phrase, claiming it is derogatory toward older people. But both younger generations and the older generation need to recognize that a phrase doesn’t summarize an entire generation.

Who is characterized as a “boomer” and what is said to be a “boomer moment” differs from

what most believe. Although “boomer” has been historically used to refer to people born between the mid -1940s and the mid-1960s, it has recently transformed into a term that refers to anyone with conservative or outdated opinions.

For example, anti-abortion advocates and climate change deniers are often dubbed“boomers” regardless of age.

But the term is not always aimed to offend. According to Miramonte senior Julia Lang, a “boomer moment”can be a small misunderstanding between teens and the older person.

“I told my grandparents that I’m applying to the UCs and they don’t really understand that schools are hard to get into so they kept telling me, ‘Oh that’s great you’ll definitely get in.’ I’d say that was an OK Boomer moment,” Lang said.

“I think the phrase is funny because a lot of the older generation doesn’t understand the culture that Generation Z has developed. It’s relatable for many teens to just lightly make fun of the older generations. Most people don’t mean any harm.”

People from older generations often disagree

with fashion and what is appropriate, such as piercings and tattoos.

“I get comments from my grandparents about what I’m wearing or how I’m sitting but I wouldn’t necessarily say they are trying to be disrespectful.

They just see the world differently than I do,” senior Sonya Harrison said.

The phrase is teens’ defense mechanism. “We are all teenagers growing up and it’s hard to see the world from others’ points of view,” Harrison said.

Although not always easy to understand, there are valuable lessons to be learned across generations.

“I think it’s really important to have conversations with people from older generations to understand why they are the way the are,” Harrison said.

A closer look may reveal that teens have more in common with older people than they think.

“I think it is important to have conversations with older generations because sometimes our generation tends to get wrapped up in trying to be as socially progressive as possible and we stray away from issues that are more pressing or immediate.

There’s a lot we can learn,” junior Mia Cohen said.

Art by Reese Whipple, Miramonte High School

EVERYONE COUNTS! Census 2020

A CC SPIN SPECIAL SECTION

Art by Allie Marcu, Acalanes High School

C2 March 2020

2020 Census

CC Spin

Many teens unaware of pending 2020 Census

By Shruthi Narayanan Dougherty Valley High School “I have heard of the census, but I don’t know what it is,” Dougherty Valley High School sophomore Sydney Mock said. “I think it’s a document?”

“Even though I know what the census is, I don’t know why it’s important,” Saadhvi Natarajan, another sophomore at Dougherty Valley, said.

Mock and Natarajan aren’t alone in their knowledge of the 2020 U.S. Census, which began in late March. Out of 20 students randomly surveyed recently at Dougherty Valley, 17 said they didn’t know what the census was. Even after they were provided with a definition – “The U.S. census counts every resident in the United States and every 10 years” –15 of the students said they hadn’t heard of this.

According to the Pew Research Center, “31 percent of 18-29 year-olds say they have never heard of the U.S. Census, and 17 percent say they are still unfamiliar with it even when it is described as the count of all people living in the country.”

This is a big problem.

“Participating in the census is in everyone’s best interest because the information on the forms is used by decision-makers to determine which communities, schools, hospitals and roads need federal funding,” wrote Dave Roos, a journalist, in his article, “How the Census Works,” published on the HowStuffWorks web site which contains explanations of how things work. Roos noted that

by participating in the census one can improve public places and allow people to live better lives.

Johann Somerville, a Dougherty Valley U.S. history teacher, noted that the census is used for many things. He said it provides invaluable data to governments which helps them make important decisions that affect nearly everyone in the U.S. He said the census “helps us understand how each community is comprised demographically.” Then, for example, the data can help governments “give funding to areas that have a lower income level.”

Somerville, who covers the census as part of his curriculum, said, “It decides what the appropriate number of members of the House of Representatives there should be per state. It’s even more important because it helps appropriate billions of dollars of funding to each state.”

Many young people, however, fail to see the importance of the census. The Pew Research Center found that fewer than half of people younger than 30 said the census is very important for the country. “I personally am just not interested in the census,” Mock said. “All of the statistics don’t seem very interesting to me.”

Some may argue that teenagers can be forgiven for being unaware. After all, they were very young when the last census was held. But educators and others concerned about civic life say it’s never too early for young people to learn about events that impact their lives and communities.

Somerville said that voting districts and federal funding changes, based on census results, and that “businesses around the country rely on census results to make decisions, such as where to

open new stores, restaurants, factories, or offices; where to expand operations; where to recruit employees; and which products and services to offer,” all of which affect teenagers’ lives in major ways.

To work on solving this issue, there are a multitude of steps to be taken. For one, people can work on educating teenagers about the census, allowing them to be more aware about its existence and what it entails. The government can also do outreach programs in high schools that increase awareness of the census and help students understand its importance.

A program called “Statistics in Schools” makes interactive, informative, and interesting activities and resources for schoolaged children using census data in order to better educate them about the importance of the census. This allows schools to receive better funding, thus incentivizing them to continue teaching about the census.

“We need to educate the public on this topic, which in my opinion can be taken care of outside the classroom,” Somerville said. “More time needs to be spent explaining what the census is and how it helps.”

The Census Bureau has taken a number of steps to encourage educating teenagers about the census. For example, it made a community outreach tool kit available that schools can use in their curriculum to increase young people’s general understanding of the census.

The importance of the census may be overlooked in today’s world, but “in an era of misinformation,” it’s more important than ever, Somerville said. Census information “helps us truly fight for

what we are owed and what we deserve, and we can’t have it taken away from us without even a fight.”

To learn more about resources in this story, go to: https://people.howstuffworks.com/census.htm https://www.ichabodcrane.org/wp-content/ uploads/2019/11/2020-Census-Stats-in-Schools.pdf https://www.census.gov/partners/toolkit.pdf Shruthi Narayanan is a sophomore and staff writer on her school newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune.

Your responses are safe.

Your responses to the 2020 Census will never be shared with other government agencies. It’s the law. It’s also an oath every Census Bureau employee must swear to uphold.

For more information, visit:

2020CENSUS.GOV D-PO-GP-EN-047

California mounts statewide effort for 2020 census

By Izabella Ge San Ramon Valley High School

California is spending big on the 2020 Census, with amounts totaling $187.2 million. The stakes have never been higher for the Democrat-controlled state and serious efforts are being funneled towards obtaining an accurate count of every resident.

One major concern behind the state’s hefty spending is the possibility of losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

According to the Census Bureau’s 2019 population projections, California could lose one of its current 53 seats.

“We could stand to lose anywhere from one to two congressional seats,”said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, in a Los Angeles Times article, and that could impact traditionally underserved communities such as where African American and Latino residents live.

The U.S. Constitution requires a census be taken of “every person” every 10 years on the zero number year and, based on population change or movement, electoral districts to be redrawn.

If there is no change or movement, then the district stays the same.

Democratic counties often record smaller populations while Republican counties benefit from increasing populations, explained Jeff Davis, an Advanced Placement Government and U.S. History

teacher at San Ramon Valley High School. In the past, this has provided Republicans with the power to redistrict states in a way so that Republicans are likely to be elected to the legislature.

Using census data, Republicans set up “safe-seat districts” that were overwhelming Republican, Davis said. That allowed them to gain control of the U.S. House and Senate in 2012. While the Democrats may have received more popular votes, Republicans won more districts.

“A political district is a geographic area from which voters choose representatives,” Davis said. “For the U.S. Senate, for example, the entire state is the district. But for the U.S. House of Representatives, the state has to be divided into districts. For California, that’s 53 districts or 53 representatives.”

Davis said an undercount of the California population benefits the Republicans because those who get missed are often hard-tocount communities such as immigrants who generally are more supportive of Democrats and their social policies.

For this reason, Democrats and immigrant activist groups have charged the Republican Party of deliberately trying to keep immigrants from being counted in the census. The Republicans have a history “of trying to prevent every person from being counted,” said Maria Alegria, chair of the Democratic Party of Contra Costa County.

María Alegría, Chair, Democratic Party of Contra Costa County.

Matt Shrupe, Chair, Republican Party of Contra Costa County.

Alegria cited the Trump administration’s failed effort to include a question about citizenship on the census questionnaire as an example.

“This has never been asked, and in my opinion was an effort to intimidate individuals who are undocumented or noncitizens,” she said.

Matt Shupe, chair of the Republican Party of Contra Costa County, said of this criticism: “I don’t think it’s fair to say that.” He added, “I believe that when it comes to districts, as far as voting,

only citizens can vote [therefore] they should be proportioned in a way that represents American citizens.”

The census does not merely represent the nation’s population, but a central debate between the Republicans and Democrats as to whether undocumented immigrants are welcome in this country. Democrats have been more supportive of accommodating undocumented immigrants.

“We are a nation of immigrants,” said Alegria. “After all, the U.S. Constitution was drafted by immigrants who fled England and a king.” Moreover, “everyone in America should be treated fairly and with dignity, regardless of their status,” she said.

Both Alegria and Shupe said they wanted an accurate count in Contra Costa. “Every resident needs to be counted and we deserve t o have our fair share of federal and state funding for our resid ents,” said Alegria.

“I think that it is incredibly important every census is accurate because the census essentially shapes how our government and budget is run,” said Shupe. “It decides how many congressional districts each state gets. How we allocate resources is reliant on an accurate census count.”

Izabella Ge is a junior and a member of the school’s vjournalism club.

Census officials say state could lose congressional seat

By Faizan Azhar, Nihal Singh, Soham Kinhikar Dougherty Valley High School

U.S. Bureau Census officials predict California will lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in history following the decennial census due to an exodus out of California over the past decade.

Representation in the House is proportional to the population of each state. California currently has 53 of the 435 seats, making it the most represented state in Congress.

“We predict California to lose a member in the House of Representatives this year,” Bay Area Census Bureau media specialist Josh Green said.

California will still have the largest congressional delegation by a wide margin, leading the second most represented state of Texas’s 36 seats by 17. However, the loss of one seat may still have

ramifications on the broader political spectrum, especially if it is filled by a non-Democrat.

Currently California’s delegation is comprised of 45 Democrats and six Republicans, with two vacancies.With the House of Representatives split 197 Republicans, 232 Democrats, with one independent and five vacant seats, the Democrats hold a house majority. As the blue state of California begins to lose representation this opens the chance of spots being filled by Republicans, threatening the Democratic house majority.

Over the past 10 years, charts by the Public Policy Institute of California show that the state’s population growth rate has decreased by greater than 50 percent. This is due to an immense increase in people moving out of the state. In 2019, nearly 700,000 people left California for destinations such as Texas, Arizona and Colorado.

These states are predicted to gain representatives, according to published reports.

“I love California; it’s just not the Golden State in my eyes anymore,”said Susanna Cardenas-Lopez in a Calmatters.org article.

Cardenas-Lopez left Salinas for Idaho.

Cardenas-Lopez, along with countless others who are leaving California, point to this theme: financial restraints. Studies show that the majority of people leaving the Golden State are composed of low and middle-income households. California’s rising cost of living makes it increasingly difficult for people. In other states, the average income may be significantly lower, but the immense gap in cost of living creates a much more stable life for many.

California’s housing crisis is another reason why people are leaving the state. According to a Bloomberg article the median price home recently reached more than $600,000, double the national figure.

“About 32 percent of households in California can afford to buy a median-priced home,” said Oscar Wei, the Realtor Association’s senior economist and director of research, in the same Calmatters .org

article. If California does lose a seat, a reapportionment committee will decide how to redraw district lines. The National Conference of State Legislatures states this committee will be made up of five Democrats, five Republicans and four from neither party.

To learn more about resources in this story go to: https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/01/notthe-golden-state-anymore-middle-and-low-income-peopleleaving-california/ https://www.ncsl.org/research/redistricting/5-trendsshaping-redistricting.aspx https://www.bloomberg.com/ graphics/2019-california-housing-crisis/ Faizan Azhar, Nihal Singh and Soham Kinhikar are sophomores and staff writers on the school newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune.

GAO estimates this will be the most expensive census ever

By Nicholas Harvey California High School

The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates the 2020 census will cost $15.6 billion. If this estimate proves to be correct, the census is on track to be the most expensive in U.S. history, beating the runner-up 2010 Census cost of over $12 billion.

And some steps being taken to help reduce cost -- such as adding the option of filling out the census online -- have introduced new risks.

The census cost has risen over the past few decades, even when adjusting for inflation and population size. The 1990 Census cost $49.20 per household to conduct (in 2019 dollars) while the current estimate for the 2020 Census is a per household cost of $121.30.

(The census is conducted on the scale of households, not individuals).

The 2020 Census Lifecycle Cost Estimate Executive Summary, issued by the Census Bureau in 2017, outlined eight reasons for the cost increase: constrained fiscal environment; rapidly changing use of technology; information explosion; declining response rates; distrust in government; increasingly diverse population: informal, complex living arrangements; and, a mobile population.

Another concern raised by the National Research Council in 1995, and still valid today, is a change from paying temporary census workers, who are called enumerators, by each assignment to paying hourly. The NRC pointed out that workers with little oversight can take advantage of hourly pay by intentionally working slowly and driving up costs.

The new census is using new helpful methods that may reduce some costs. For example, this will be the first census to allow every person to take it online. A trial census was conducted online in 2000, but that was only available to a limited population.

“Once you scale up [the online census], it is much more efficient,” said Joshua Green, a Bay Area media specialist with the U.S Census.

“It’s much cheaper because the more people take it online, the fewer enumerators you have to hire, you’ll have to send less paper, and you are saving on human resources.”

Moving the census online lowers costs by reducing the amount of paper census forms that need to be transcribed by hand, as well as making it easier and cheaper to give the census in minority languages. In contrast to the two languages being used in census paper forms and mailing, the online census will be conducted in 13 languages.

However, with digitalization comes the threat of hackers, which poses its own monetary costs to fix. During a test of online U.S. census systems in 2018, Russian IP addresses were able to access portions of the system that were supposed to remain away from public eyes, according to a Reuters article which interviewed two directly involved security officials. One of the two officials also mentioned a separate incident, where a census site IP address experienced a domain name service (DNS) attack.

Although no known damage was caused by these attacks, it suggests the census could be at the receiving end of hacks. Online censuses have been hacked before in other parts of the world, to the detriment of taxpayers.

When Australia rolled out its first online census in 2016, a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack disabled the census website for days, which resulted in a total increased cost of $21 million.

Another way malicious actors can hijack census statistics is using sophisticated algorithms to determine the information of specific people by extrapolating from published census statistics.

“Hackers are pretty sophisticated; it’s an arms race, you have to keep up,” said Green when referring to protecting the integrity of the online census.

The 2020 Census will be using a new, state-of-the-art technique called “differential privacy”to reduce the risks of this occurring.

“To do this, you randomize the data so no algorithm can trace the data back to anyone, and the data is still accurate,” said Green.

The 2020 Census will also be using satellite imagery to canvas.

This is the process of compiling the addresses of Americans in order to conduct the census, which should help reduce costs by decreasing the need for personnel to canvas on the ground. Canvassing in the field will only be conducted when satellite imagery fails to accurately assess addresses, according to the Census Bureau.

Social media is also an increasingly important part of promoting the census at a lower cost. According to the Census Bureau, 29.1 percent of the 2020 Census’ media budget is for digital advertising.

For the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau said it is required by law to reuse data already held by other government organizations in conducting the census in order to reduce costs. This data is and will be confidential.

To watch a tutorial on how census data and privacy are protected, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT19VwBAqKA Nicholas Harvey is a sophomore and a reporter on the student paper, The Californian.

2020 Census

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Census takers on front line of decennial count

By Clara Stevenson Ygnacio Valley High School This year’s census can be done over the phone, online, or on a paper form. But the fourth and final way dates all the way back to 1790 when the first census was taken: people go out to houses to help people complete the census.

Those people are known traditionally as census takers, although today’s official job title is enumerators. They are sent to households where people haven’t filled out the census form using any of the first three options.

Linda Marshall-Smith, a Los Angeles-based partnership specialist for the 2020 Census, was a census taker and a manager of census takers in the 2010 Census. She talked about what it takes to be a census taker and what you can expect working for the census.

“It’s a really good job, especially if it’s one of your first jobs because it’s great for your resume that you’ve worked for the federal government,” she said.

“It’s also a good job for students 18 and older because you can do it after school,” Marshall-Smith said. “You can make your own hours as long as you get the job done.”

The current pay for a census taker in the Bay Area ranges from $21 to $30 an hour. In Contra Costa County, it’s $25 an hour, according to the Census Bureau.

Marshall-Smith said census takers are assigned to go to

households in areas near where they live so they don’t have to travel far. Since you are located to work near your home, it is a great way to meet people and engage with members of your community, she said, adding sometimes you can find some really nice people.

“One time I was invited to go inside and it was a big family and I was there for quite some time and they made me lunch,” she said.

You might even get to meet a furry friend along the way, she said. “Another time I went inside and I made good friends with the doggy who gave me kisses the whole time.”

But she added that not everyone can be trusted. “You have to be aware of your surroundings because some dogs may not be as nice. And you have to be aware of things in your surroundings. You need to know how to deal with those types of situations and the training you get helps you to deal with those types of situations.”

Marshall-Smith said there’s plenty of training. “There will be classroom training, self-study training and person-to-person training. Even after your training, you also get accompanied by a supervisor on your first time out.”

Marshall-Smith explained that the first notices to people to fill out the census form are sent out in mid-March. The Census Bureau tracks who fills out the census and then mails reminders to those who haven’t completed the form.

After several reminders to households that didn’t respond, “then we’ll send the census takers out,” she said.

The bulk of hiring for census takers took place earlier this year,

CENSUS 101: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW The 2020 Census is closer than you think!

Here’s a quick refresher of what it is and why it’s essential that everyone is counted.

Everyone counts.

The census counts every person living in the U.S. once, only once, and in the right place.

It’s about fair representation.

It’s in the constitution.

Every 10 years, the results of the census are used to reapportion the House of Representatives, determining how many seats each state gets.

The U.S. Constitution mandates that everyone in the country be counted every 10 years. The first census was in 1790.

It’s about $675 billion.

It’s about redistricting.

After each decade’s census, state officials redraw the boundaries of the congressional and state legislative districts in their states to account for population shifts.

The distribution of more than $675 billion in federal funds, grants and support to states, counties and communities are based on census data.

That money is spent on schools, hospitals, roads, public works and other vital programs.

Taking part is your civic duty.

Completing the census is mandatory: it’s a way to participate in our democracy and say “I COUNT!”

Three census tips

By Clara Stevenson Ygnacio Valley High School Linda Marshall-Smith, a partnership specialist for the 2020 census, said there are three important things to keep in mind about participating in the count.

“First, it’s easy. There are many different ways to do it: by phone, on the computer, on a printed form, or with a census taker.

“Second it’s safe. Everyone’s information is protected and we keep everyone’s privacy confidential.”

“Third, it’s important. The census and population count determines how many representatives in the House each state will get … and it determines the boundaries of the voting districts for the next 10 years (this is called redistricting). Then, over $675 billion dollars a year gets distributed to states and local communities services, and it’s all based on population count.

“That’s why it’s very important that we count everyone in the community because the population count determines how much money your county gets.

That’s why we need to count everyone once and only once. Those are the three things to remember.”

Five reasons a robust decennial census benefits all 1. It is a foundational tenet of our democracy.

2. It determines how to allocate spending for many federally funded programs.

3. It determines legislative districts and ensures accurate representation in Congress.

4. It is the foundation for important data products and projections for the rest of the decade.

5. It is a key information source for all groups and stakeholders.

–U.S. Census Bureau

but hiring continues through the summer. The last day to fill out the census is July 31, 2020.

The number of census takers that will be hired depends on how many cases are leftover in an area. For example, if Contra Costa County has only five percent of the houses left to complete the census by a certain time, fewer census takers will be needed, Marshall-Smith said. On the other hand, if only 25 percent has completed the census, a lot more census takers will be needed to handle the remaining 75 percent.

Once out in the field, census takers follow a procedure in asking people to fill out the form. They enter the data directly into a little computer, iPad or iPhone, if completed in English or Spanish.

But the census takers will provide paper forms if the respondent prefers that, Marshall-Smith said. It takes about 10 minutes for an individual to answer the nine questions.

Before becoming a full-time employee for the Census Bureau, Marshall-Smith had a career in marketing and collecting data. “I thought of the Census Bureau as the granddaddy of all research because we collect data, so working for the census has always been a treat for me.”

To apply to be a census taker you must be 18-years-old and a U.S. citizen. For more information visit www.2020census.gov/jobs.

Clara Stevenson is a senior and a writing editor for the Ygnacio Valley High School yearbook.

Census Bureau Partnership Specialist Linda Marshall-Smith at a booth set up at a Carson City festival, where she helped promote the 2020 Census and recruited census takers. Photo Courtesy of Linda Marshall-Smith.

Some Contra Costa residents are anxious about what the census could mean for their families

By Siddhant Gupta California High School While many American’s enthusiastically fill out their census forms every decade, some immigrants to our nation fear the government may use their responses to track them, oppress them and even deport them.

This group of individuals include people who don’t know the purpose of the census, people who migrated illegally, or immigrants from countries with oppressive governments where citizens fear the government having their information.

Many of these immigrants live with family members who will be faced with the decision on whether or not to include their immigrant relatives on their census question.

One 20-year-old undocumented immigrant, who immigrated to the United States last summer, said his family would not count him when they fill out their census in spring. (He asked that his identity not be revealed.)

“Never,” the immigrant said, “I don’t want the govern-

ment to have any personal information about me.”

The Contra Costa County census team said it is aware of these circumstances and it is working with various groups to try to achieve complete coverage.

“People may have been asylum seekers, undocumented, or persecuted in their country of origin and the biggest source of anxiety for these immigrants is the prospect of government officials coming to the door of where they live,” said Ali Saidi, deputy public defender and director of Stand Together Contra Costa, a rapid response and immigrant advocacy organization run through the public defender’s office. “The stakes have never been higher for immigrant communities under assault by the rhetoric and legal aggression of federal government.”

Saidi said the now-removed question of citizenship on the census was an explicit attempt at census suppression in order to reduce the representation of the immigrant community. He believes this effort can be countered by naming it for what it is, encouraging people to exercise the right to participate in democracy and standing together as one community.

He said Stand Together Contra Costa’s mission goes beyond giving adequate representation and federal resources to immigrant communities. Participating in the census serves as a first step into integrating immigrants into the civic institution and democracy. The organization provides free community outreach and legal services year round.

“If we did a better job throughout the decade – not just when the decade turns – making sure everyone in our community regardless of immigration status, socioeconomic status, race or language, has access to our civic institutions and government and are incorporated into our systems and resources, they will become stakeholders in a common enterprise,”said Saida.

“Then hard-to-count communities in this census will not be hard to count next time around.”

To learn more about resources in this story, go to: https://standtogethercontracosta.org/about/ourprogram/ Siddhant Gupta is a senior and managing editor of the student newspaper, The Californian.

Census welcomes you in 59 unique languages

By Sabrina Contreras California High School Many non-English speakers don’t participate in the census for a variety of reasons. Some may not understand how to participate, while others simply don’t feel the need to.

With language being a barrier, many non-English speakers feel isolated from the community. Some might even be skeptical about being questioned during the census since they are so used to being isolated.

“I don’t like to be part of that stuff because I don’t want the people and the government to know stuff about me,” said Francisco Diaz, who just moved here from Venezuela. The 20-year-old works at Pizza My Heart in San Ramon.

Diaz understands English but is still having a hard time speaking it. (In an interview, Diaz spoke in choppy English, but a few words were translated from Spanish because he is still learning the language.)

The barrier language can lead to a loss of trust from those who don’t speak English. “I can’t even talk to the cashier at the grocery store,” said Elda Arrieche, 83. “How am I supposed to participate in something like [the census]”

We keep your data like you keep your kids. Safe and secure.

All 2020 Census responses are kept confidential and private. It’s the law. Your responses cannot be shared and cannot be used against you by any government agency or court in any way.

For more information, visit:

2020CENSUS.GOV D-PO-GP-EN-046

Arrieche also moved to San Ramon INFORMACIÓN BÁSICA SOBRE EL CENSO: recently from Venezuela with her husband, LO QUE USTED NECESITA SABER ¡El Censo del 2020 está más cerca de lo que usted cree!

Victor Arrieche.The couple speaks no English Esto es un repaso rápido de lo que es y de por qué es esencial que todos sean contados. and were interviewed in Spanish. They are living with their daughter who is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Todos Se trata de una cuentan.

Victor Arrieche said they came to escape representación El censo cuenta a the crisis Venezuela is facing under Nicolas todas las personas justa. que viven en los Cada 10 años, los Estados Unidos una Maduro who is serving as president but who resultados del censo vez, solo una vez y se usan para llevar a en el lugar correcto. the Arrieches regard as a dictator. cabo la redistribución proporcional de la Cámara de Immigrants such as the Arrieches and Representantes, determinando Diaz said their experiences in their home cuántos representantes recibe cada country contributed to them not wanting Está en la estado.

Constitución. to participate in something run by the La Constitución de los EE. UU. government. ordena que cada 10 años se cuente a todas las personas que están en el país. El primer censo se llevó a “I’m more Venezuelan than I am cabo en 1790.

Se trata de American,” said Victor Arrieche, who has Se trata de la $675 mil redistribución lived in the U.S for half a year. He said he millones. legislativa. would have preferred to have stayed in Luego del censo de cada década, los funcionarios estatales redefinen los Venezuela, but with crime at its peak and límites de los distritos legislativos congresionales y estatales en sus food shortages, he agreed to live with his estados para reflejar los cambios en la población.

La distribución de daughter for the time being. más de $675 mil millones de fondos federales, subsidios y More than 40 languages are spoken in apoyo a los estados, Participar es su condados y comunidades Contra Costa County, according to the county se basa en los datos del deber cívico. censo. government’s web site. Around 150,000 Completar el censo es obligatorio.

Ese dinero se usa para Es una manera de participar en escuelas, hospitales, nuestra democracia y decir “¡YO residents do not speak English, which is carreteras, obras públicas CUENTO!”. y otros programas vitales. more than the population of the county’s largest city, Concord: 130,000. language guides, print language guides, and language glosThe most common non-English language spoken in Contra Costa is Spanish, according to county saries in 59 non-English languages, covering 99 percent of all data. Around 18 percent of the county’s population are native languages spoken in Contra Costa County.

Seema Shah, who has been a U.S. citizen for 17 years, said Spanish speakers, some of whom don’t speak English at all she doesn’t find the census a problem even though English is while others are bilingual.

Reaching non-English-speaking residents is important her third language, especially if it can be translated.

“I personally don’t think the census requires too much because an accurate count determines how much federal dollars come to the community to support essential services English knowledge because the questions it asks are simple,” such as road repairs and schools, said Joshua Green, a media she said. Shah, who came from Afghanistan, grew up speaking specialist for the Census Bureau who helps citizens with ques- Farsi and Pashto. She added that she was also comfortable with the census because her children help her with the translating. tions in the Bay Area.

To learn more about resources in this story, go to: “It’s important to participate in the census because every https://contracosta.ca.gov/7527/Hard-to-Count-Maps community should get its fair share of federal funding,” said Green.“Also, every community deserves to be fairly represented Sabrina Contreras is a junior and editor of the school newsin Congress.”

Green said for the 2020 Census there will be video paper, The Californian.

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Impact of the CEN Housing

Schools and Educat

The long awaited n Montano. Dougher Dejean Middle Sch

A Snapshot of Contra

The Dougherty Valley neighborhood has contributed to San Ramon’s growing population. Photos

by Jake Gerbracht, California High School.

From Richmond to Walnut Creek, the census

By CC Spin Staff

Signs for new homes for sale are common in San Ramon. Photo by Daniela Wise, Doughtery Valley High School.

Transportation

The census has been coined “a snapshot of America.”

“The census is not just a decennial headcount. It is a snapshot of the nation that affects just about every important decision policymakers at the federal, state, and local level will make over the coming decade,” emphasized Dan Stein, president of FAIR, the country’s largest immigration reform group.

For Contra Costa County, that means learning about the need for new housing and how to help big and small businesses. The census provides important data to support planning for schools and aid for public services such as immigration, non-English communication, homelessness and mental health.

It also provides information so the political debate of whether there is too much growth or not enough growth and what kind of growth can be based on facts.

Five high school photographers went out to capture their own “snapshots” of Contra Costa County for CC Spin.

Their images reflect different issues for the region that will be impacted by the census.

BUSINESS In 2017, total employment in Contra Costa County was 336,654, up 3.3 percent from the previous year, according to census data. In 2012, men-owned firms totaled 47,721, compared to women-owned firms at 34,296.

Minority-owned firms numbered 35,831.

Daniela Wise of Dougherty Valley High School took photos of small and large businesses. The Lafayette Body Shop in Lafayette represented “the many small and old yet thriving businesses, especially along Mt. Diablo Boulevard,” she said.

Wise, a junior and social media editor of the school newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune, noted, “Lafayette hasn’t changed a whole lot; rather what keeps people coming are the small businesses,” (Rachel Decker is the adviser to the school newspaper.)

In contrast, Walnut Creek sports a massive outdoor shopping space at Main Street and Mt. Diablo Boulevard that “illustrates the perfect dichotomy of the old and new,” said Wise. A large and eye-catching Neiman Marcus dominates the landscape, but there are also boutique shops along Heritage Walk.

Wise also explained that San Ramon’s changes include City Center at Bishop Ranch, a massive and upscale outdoor shopping mall that opened in 2018.

She photographed children playing at Alexander Square, located in the center.

For Richmond High School Senior Alejandro Durate, businesses such as Frosty King are vital necessities of life.

“I’ve spent quite a good amount of time eating at Frosty King on weekends when there’s nothing good to eat at home.”

Durate’s photographs are part of a visual essay titled “Home: A collection of pictures from my community that all relate to the theme of Home.” He said, “These are images of places where I feel happy and feel at home.” (“Home” was produced as part of the Advanced Media & Communications class at Richmond High School taught

by Maya Kosover.)

HOUSING Housing is a highly controversial subject in the Bay Area because there isn’t enough and housing costs are so high. According to the Census Bureau, the median value of an owner-occupied house was $582,400 between 20142015. There were 2,907 building permits issued in 2018 and a total of 415,919 housing units.

To photograph new home construction in Dougherty Valley, a neighborhood in San Ramon, California High School Sophomore Jake Gerbracht used a drone. Gerbracht said his IPhone X was synced to the controller of the drone so he was able to view the photos taken while flying the drone.

“I got into drone photography because I love aviation as well as photography and drone flying blends both of those passions together perfectly,” said Gerbracht, who is

City Government an

The Concord BART station is located between downtown businesses to the west and residential neighborhoods to the east. Photos by Nima Pendar, California High School.

Two modes of transporation are seen here in Danville (right): a bus stop and a bicycle lane. Photo

by Daniela Wise, Doughterty Valley High School.

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NSUS on our lives

tion

Business and Economy

new campus for PInole Valley High (left) opened last year after six years of construction. Photo by Mason rty Valley High from a drone. Photo by Jake Gerbracht, California High School. A stairway leads to hool in Richmond. Photo by Alejandro Duarte, Richmond High School.

a Costa County

s will help shape the region’s future a photographer for the student newspaper, The Californian. (Brian Barr is the adviser to the school’s newspaper.)

On this assignment for the census project, he said, “I included Mt Diablo in the background of one shot because I felt it would tie in the new houses and the school perfectly with the old time charm of Mount Diablo,” TRANSPORTATION It’s a common refrain: traffic has gotten terrible in the Bay Area, and some of the worst commutes are in Contra Costa County. For example, the county was included in four of the top 10 worst Bay Area freeway spots in 2017, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission: Interstate 80 westbound, all day, State Route 4 to Bay Bridge Toll Plaza (number 2) Star Route 4, eastbound, p.m., Contra Costa County Morello Avenue to Port Chicago Highway (number 5) State Route 4, eastbound, p.m., Interstate 580 to Wilder Road (number 9) Interstate 680, northbound, p.m., Sycamore Valley Road to Buskirk Avenue/Oak Park Boulevard (number 10) Planners working on the future of the county’s freeways and roads and public transit depend on census data. For the period 2014-2018, the mean travel time to work among workers 16 years old and up was 38 minutes, according to the Census Bureau.

Nima Pendar, a sophomore and photo editor for The Californian High School student newspaper, visited the Concord Bart station, one of seven stations in Contra Costa County, while Wise captured two other modes of public transit: a bicycle lane and bus stop in Danville.

GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Contra Costa County's estimated population is 1.1 million with a growth rate of 0.67 percent in the past year, according to the most recent census data. That makes the region the ninth largest county in California.

With that growth comes more pressure on city and county governments to manage services and to make decisions impacting their communities. They are aided by nonprofit and community organizations, without which

many social services couldn’t be provided.

Duarte photographed the Ryse Center in Richmond, a nonprofit organization youth center “born out of the organizing efforts of Richmond and West County young people who were determined to create safe spaces for themselves and their peers,” the web site said. “Named by the founding youth council, Ryse is not an acronym but a bold call to action inclusive of the many diverse communities that we serve.”

“The Ryse Center is a blessing in disguise for the Richmond youth,” said Durate. “It has helped provide many opportunities for youth in Richmond who have wanted to reach some goal they might have thought unattainable before.

Not only has it helped the youth but all of Richmond with its fairs and fundraisers, but it has raised awareness to many issues and injustices that happen in our community.”

Duarte also took a photo of the Richmond City Hall, which he called “the heart of the city.” He thought the fountain “somewhat looks like a heart or veins, which sort of fits in with the idea of this being the heart of the city.”

Wise’s photograph of directional signs on Railroad Avenue in Danville reflect the civic life in a community she described as “homey and comforting.”

QUALITY OF LIFE Farmer markets are plentiful throughout the Bay Area, and Wise captured one in Danville. She observed that they attract both older people and young families.

She also captured some “quirky statutes and iconic things,” such as the Bullman with Bulldog statue in Downtown Walnut Creek along North Main Street.

Schools and Education Pinole Valley High School’s Mason Montand photographed the school’s new campus, which opened last year.

He noted it was a tough six years for students who had to endure temporary structures while the new school was being built. Montand is senior and the music editor on the school newspaper, Spartan Ink.

Nieman Marcus anchors Walnut Creek’s upscale shopping. Photo by Daniela Wise, Dougherty Valley High School. Small businesses such as Foster King in Richmond Photo by Alejandro Duarte, Richmond High School. Auto body shops in Lafayette are important contributors to the local economy. Alexander Square is part of the City Center at Bishop Ranch which opened in 2018. Photos by Daniela Wise, Dougherty Valley High School.

Quality of life

nd Services

A fountain sits in front of Richmond City Hall, part of a renovation completed in 2009. This mural in Richmond captures the energy and cultural mix of Richmond and gives a shout out to the public library. Photos by Alejandro Duarte, Richmond High School. Richmond High School. Signs point to civic buildings in Danville, including the Town Hall. Photo by Daniela Wise, Dougherty Valley High School.

Ryse Center in Richmond provides important services for youth. Photo by Alejandro Duarte, Richmond High School.

Downtown Walnut Creek features public art, while a Farmers Market in Danville is a popular draw. Smart lockers(above) at the Rancho San Ramon Park in San Ramon allow residents to borrow sporting equipment. Photos

by Daniela Wise, Dougherty Valley High School.

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CC Spin

Taking away immigrants’ fear of the census

By Vanessa Macias Making Waves Academy

T

he last census was in 2010, and I was eight years old and in third grade. My little sister was three. I remember going to the San Pablo library with my mother to pick out new books. At the checkout a librarian told my mom to come back for a census information session.

My mom didn’t take up the offer.

The year before my father was in a work accident, rendering him unable to work. As my mom told me recently, “With everything going on in my life, the census wasn’t important to me.”

“Sometimes immigrants are living such hard lives that they try to be as invisible as possible to remain hidden,” she explained. “You try to avoid the government as much as possible, at all costs. Even though it feels bad to be invisible, it’s better than the alternative.”

I talked to my mom about the 2020 Census to better understand the concerns immigrants have about the count. She said she hardly remembers anything about the last census but she does remember the fears she had.

We were a family of four, living in a one-bedroom studio apartment behind my aunt’s house. It was cramped and stuffy.

My dad was bedridden. My sister and I slept on a mattress on the kitchen floor. We were trying to fill up as little space as possible.

My mom recalls my aunt telling her not to fill out the census and my mother didn’t disagree. “I had another fear,” she said. “We’re not going to say you’re living here” because like many people after the recession we were living in studios and garages illegally.

We weren’t the only ones hiding. My parents were scared they would be sent back to Mexico, like so many others.

“As an immigrant you don’t understand the benefits that come from the census,” my mom said. “I didn’t even know what questions would be on there. I assumed it would ask me what government benefit programs I was in like Supplemental Nutrition Programs and food stamps. How would that help me?

You’re trying to survive above all.”

My mom didn’t see a good reason to fill out the census. “I was scared. I wasn’t even going to run the risk. I didn’t believe it. Why else gather so much information on who we were and where we lived? It’s illogical to think otherwise.”

With a deep sigh, she added, “Fear is the primary reason

why immigrants don’t self report. Even now I can’t think of a reason that would convince them because the fear is so overwhelming.”

The reality for many immigrants is that they live in fear of being deported to their home countries that are unsafe due to violence, drugs, poverty, and human trafficking.

I want to push for a higher self-response rate in Richmond and San Pablo by educating the community. I urged my mom to talk with our neighbors and her friends and to encourage them to fill it out.

She looked at me sadly and said, “I can’t encourage others to fill the census because when I was in their place I didn’t have the courage to do it, so I can’t tell them to.”

“Everything you do has a reaction, therefore, I imagine that if they do complete the census they will have positive consequences but also negative ones,” she added.

“For example, the more immigrants registered on the census could anger people and make them feel like we are invading them. It is both sides. It is positive and negative.”

It breaks my heart that no matter how we try to tell our community that the census is safe to answer, they won’t believe us because they are scared of the government that is supposed to help them. We can try our best to encourage and educate our

friends and family. At the end of the day, the biggest impact we can make is filling it out ourselves, adding to the other brave people in our community pushing for a better redistribution of government funds in Contra Costa County.

Last year my mother and I became legal residents and that has changed her attitude about the census.

“I think it’s important to participate for me and for all those people that are feeling the fear I felt. If I can make any difference now in my current situation I have to do it.”

Vanessa Macias is a senior at Making Waves Academy and president of the school journalism club.

“Sometimes immigrants are living such hard lives that they try to be as invisible as possible to remain hidden. You try to avoid the government as much as possible, at all costs. Even though it feels bad to be invisible, it’s better than the alternative.”

This census defining moment for all of us

Keep the census focused on purpose

Census participation can improve Richmond

By Alejandro Duarte Richmond High School

By Jasmine Vazquez Richmond High School

By Vivianna Bejarano Richmond High School

T

his year’s presidential election is probably going to be the most important one in my life. Not only is it going to be the first year that I am going to be able to vote, but it’s also the defining moment where I decide what my political stance is.

As a Latino youth I constantly see the discrimination and oppression that is expressed by our president Donald Trump. His hate for minorities and illegal immigrants especially is one of the things I constantly see. I experience the hate and oppression not only through his words, but through his followers, his actions, and now the 2020 census.

A census is used to know the population of the country so we can determine how many seats each state needs in the House of Representatives, and where government money is needed to help communities. So why did the president want to put a citizenship question on the 2020 census requiring residents to state their immigrant status?

Well, other than the fact that it would possibly make it easier for ICE to track down illegal immigrants and deport them, it would put a big smile on Trump’s face as well as most Republicans in this country. If the census included that question it would cause most if not all illegal immigrants to avoid filling it out.

Many immigrants come to America seeking refuge from their countries that are being torn apart by civil wars and poverty. Talk of a citizenship question on the census causes fear in immigrants as the last thing they would want is to be deported back to the place they’re trying to escape.

This puts fear in me as well as I fear that this could cause me to lose my family members and some of my closest friends. If this census included a citizenship question it could lead to mass deportation of immigrants, heavily affecting the economy as many immigrants pay taxes. By deporting all of these people, our economy could take a pretty big hit.

This census could also make it so the government might want to divert from giving federal money and political power to states and cities that tend to have large numbers of non-citizens and instead give it to more rural areas that are probably leaning towards the right wing.

This could then affect me as I live in California, which is the most populated state in America and has the largest number of immigrants. My community which is here in Richmond/San Pablo isn’t one of the best communities to say the least. Our schools aren’t that good, we suffer from both environmental racism and food deserts, and we have a pretty high crime rate compared to that of a white community.

The Bay Area is already one of the most expensive places to live in America.

By taking away both money and political power from this state and area it would make a hard situation even harder for people who work day and night to support their families.

On June 27, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that president Trump could not put the citizenship question in the census.

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he Census Bureau was created on July 1, 1902 by the United States Congress to facilitate the decennial census mandated by the Constitution. It is used to count the population of every state and with that information the federal government makes decisions on funding for education, social services and needs of cities such as Richmond.

According to information from the United States Census website, “The census tells us who we are and where we are going as a nation, and helps our communities determine where to build everything from schools to supermarkets, and from homes to hospitals. It helps the government decide how to distribute funds and assistance to states and localities.”

This can be a very good thing for towns and poor communities. It is also very easy to fill out the census. It asks for your gender, race, how many people live in the household and other questions.

But there is a problem. The government wanted to add a new question about citizenship. This had a lot of people worrying about their safety. California has more immigrants than any other state, some without documents or legal status.

The person who pushed for the citizenship question on the census is the one and only, President Donald J. Trump, People were scared about the citizenship box. If they said that they are undocumented immigrants their safety could be threatened. They feared that if they answered ICE could use that information to track down undocumented immigrants. Trump said there was no problem with the question, that if the census can ask about race, why not ask about citizenship?

The truth is, there was no need to ask. Thousands, perhaps millions, of people would have refused to participate in the census. And thousands of others would have hid how many people live in their household.

This would have affected the community. If people refuse to fill out the census the count would be short and federal funding for cities such as Richmond would be less than the need.

Richmond would lose money for its community. We wouldn’t be able to fix roads, schools or even clean the city properly.

Let’s be honest, a lot of our hard-working neighbors are immigrants. They help small and big communites with the culture of hard work they bring.

Thankfully, a count ruled that the question could not be added to the census.

America is the land of the free, the land of the dreamer. People come here for a better life. The Constitution says the census is supposed to count every peron, not every citizen. It should not matter what anyone’s status is. It matters only that they live in the community so they are part of it.

We are all Americans.

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s someone from a low-income community, an accurate census count of my community could mean a chance to improve the conditions of my community. Everyone’s participation could be beneficial for my community, but according to census report findings by the West Contra Costa County office, Richmond has a low response score, with roughly 30 percent of residents completing the previous census.

Richmond is also considered a hard-to-count area because of the heavy concentration of non-English speakers, homeless and undocumented residents within the city.

I believe this is a result of my community’s fear and distrust of the government or maybe an overall lack of understanding of the reason for the census.

I wasn’t aware of the census until recently and didn’t really care for it until I learned about how the information gathered from the census is used.

Besides the population count, the data from the census allows the government to determine the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives and distribute federal funds for state, county, and cities.

With an accurate count in Richmond, my community can receive more funding for schools, roads, and local businesses that we strongly need since we suffer constantly from lack of funds that keeps us with poor infrastructure.

With more funding for schools especially, that could mean better supplies, updated school structures, and an overall better environment for students and staff alike that’ll give students the resources and opportunities to thrive. This is important to me because students that come from low-income communities are typically at a disadvantage academically.

Many don’t receive a proper education because of hurdles related to the school’s financial status. At Richmond High for example, there are instances where there aren’t enough laptops for students, preventing them from completing work because various classes’ curriculum are technology-based.

Richmond High’s infrastructure is outdated with rotting ceilings and no windows. This impacts the learning environment and forces students to learn in an inadequate environment.

I want the best for my community and I believe the consequences of choosing not to respond to the census can put residents like me and my family at a greater disadvantage. If funding for Richmond is reduced that would cause an even greater financial struggle for residents, local businesses and schools that are dependent on government money.

Although I recognize that for certain groups of Richmond’s population such as the homeless make it hard to complete the census, I encourage those who can, to take the time and complete it. Whether it’s through mail or online, increasing the number of Richmond residents who complete this year’s census can be a beneficial boost for our community.

Citizenship can be very complicated issue for immigrants in regard to census

By Leobardo Ceja Richmond High School

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he question of citizenship is very complicated for many people, as it is for me.

Because I’m a product of immigration I always have this chip on my shoulder and feel tons of pressure. The 2020 Census caused a controversy because some in the federal government wanted to include a citizenship question. If it had included that question it could have resulted in a lack of funding for immigrant communities and worse.

My whole family are illegal immigrants from Mexico. My parents have been fighting for their citizenship for about 20 years. If the question of citizenship were on the census, it would scare immigrants and would cause persecution, even though the government said it wouldn’t.

Illegal immigrants are the reason why the U.S. economy in agriculture and other industries is doing well.

Just because I am the son of two immigrant parents, I am seen as a minority.

I have many disadvantages and have to try ten times harder than other people .

Although many immigrants hide their true identities I’ve learned to take pride in it.

In the U.S. there are stereotypes about Mexicans that are a product of discrimination. Stereotypes like Mexicans are lazy or immigrants are rapists and criminals, or are bad people. Stuff like this is being said by our current president, “President 45.”

Due to stereotypes and how the media portrays us, we sometimes are seen as evil human beings. However, I beg to differ. I don’t know any lazy Mexicans and we aren’t all rapists. The Mexicans I know are hard-working, honest and kind human beings.

When I was a child I was ashamed that my parents didn’t know English and didn’t do things as other kids’ parents did. My parents had to work weekdays and weekends, which made me mad, but they had to provide for me and my older brothers. My Mexican parents taught me the best lessons and have instilled important These four essays were written by Richmond High School seniors as part of the school’s Multimedia Academy program for 12th-grade Government teacher Carlo Juntilla. The opinions expressed herein are those of the students only.

values in me. Those values have taught me to be open-minded and to be respectful of others.

America is benefitting from immigrant labor. California and Texas are the top two manufacturing states. According to Bloomberg News, in 2017 6 percent of the labor force in those two states were undocumented immigrants.

The Bloomberg article said, “Unauthorized immigrants can make up as much as 17 percent of the workforce each year.”

This shows how much discrimination is rooted in the United States. It shows how our president is a hypocrite. He says we are stealing jobs, even jobs like cleaning bathrooms, working in hard construction, working in the fields. White people don’t want to work in these jobs.

Meanwhile the illegal immigrants you say are stealing your jobs are the ones feeding you. They are the ones that pick the produce you get from the store. This country was and is still being built by undocumented folks. But the president didn’t want the census to show that. He wants to say terrible things about immigrants, not count them.

So the next time somebody says this remind them that this country was built off black and brown bodies.

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2020 Census COMMENTARY

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March 2020

The huge impact of census participation

By Tania Norzagaray Making Waves Academy

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he census is a count by the federal government -- as mandated by the U.S. Constitution -- of all residents in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories every 10 years. It is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, a nonpartisan government agency.

As this year’s census gets underway, I urge everyone, especially people living in low-income and underserved communities of color, to answer the short questionnaire -- either online, by phone, or by mail.

This participation may assist in bringing more government resources to your communities. The government takes into account the information that participants provide and uses it to decide how to allocate funds around the country.

The census consists of questions like age and sex, employment, family members, living arrangements, race/origin, income etc. Although these matters may seem basic and the census itself may not seem important to some people, it is imperative to take part in it. Especially when it comes to low-income and underserved communities, participating in the census will help federally funded programs to determine how to allocate spending.

According to Diana Elliott, a researcher at the Urban Institute,

“In 2015 states received nearly $590 billion from 16 large federally funded programs, the allocation of which was determined by the 2010 census counts.” These programs ranged from healthcare (Medicaid, or Medi-Cal in California), infrastructure (highway planning and construction), education (Head Start), and food security (the National School Lunch Program.)

In addition, the data determines how congressional seats and Electoral College votes are apportioned and play a role in how voting districts are drawn.

Elliott also warns that research shows certain groups -- including people of color, low-income people, and in many cases in northern Contra Costa County and elsewhere across the country, undocumented immigrants -- are more likely to be undercounted.

Why? According to the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, “Households with low incomes are more likely to include people of color, who are also historically hard-to-count. In fact, the 2010 Census undercounted African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians and Alaska Natives living on reservations.

The results of undercounting include skimpier-than-normal allocation of federal resources, underrepresentation in Congress, and most importantly perhaps, setbacks for civil rights. People in undercounted areas are denied power they are entitled to.

Because of the undercount, according to the Georgetown

Center on Poverty and Inequality, political boundaries may not accurately represent reality. That means people in some areas are denied a full voice in policy decision-making, resulting in their community’s needs to be given short shrift in relation to the community’s real share of the population.

In 2010, my undocumented mother and many of her friends who were also undocumented refused to participate in the census for fear of deportation. Why were they afraid? Because they knew the census was associated with the government. They feared admitting their undocumented status would lead census officials to notify ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and cause them to be deported.

Because my community consists primarily of people of color, including Latinx immigrants, we are often undercounted and underrepresented.

In planning for this year’s census, the Trump administration wanted to include a question about icitizenship status, but after court fights it was eventually dropped. Its inclusion would have resulted in an even more severe undercount of people of undocumented status.

But regardless of exclusion of the citizenship question, there is still concern about Hispanic/Latinx participation in the census because of the current presidential administration’s anti-immigration policies and rhetoric.

Demographic diversity demands an accurate census

By Mahika Arya Dougherty Valley High School

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ontra Costa County remains an ever-changing landscape with its demographics diversifying over the years. The 2020 Census data should reflect this and assist in the type and amount of government attention in communities.

Accurate demographic data from the census is essential because it allows governments to promote local, state, and national representation. How large are populations by their enthic backgrounds, sex, income, and where do they live can aid government and social services in knowing which places need attention in specific sectors.

And demographic change results in more understanding of social and economic problems, and their potential solutions, from market research to economic development.

Contra Costa County has a number of cities with exceptionally high populations compared to other cities in the U.S. on average. The county includes Concord (population 123,812), Antioch (population 112,635), and Richmond (population 110,040).

These cities are growing, which follows national trends of population growth, with the United States being expected to grow by 100 million people in the next 40 years, according

to Smithsonian Magazine.

The county’s cities are becoming more diverse, as is the entire Bay Area. A 2000 to 2010 census comparison of San Ramon found that although whites make up the majority and its population is still growing, its relative population had dropped from 76.8 percent to 53.6 percent because other enthic groups grew in greater numbers. Asians more than doubled its share of the population from 14.9 percent to 35.6 percent.

According to the Census Bureau, data on race is “derived from answers to the question on race that was asked of individuals in the United States. The Census Bureau collects racial data in accordance with guidelines provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and these data are based on self-identification.”

The OMB “requires five minimum categories: White, Black or African-American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.”

The U.S. faces similar diversity developments. By 2050, whites are no longer expected to be the majority; the minority population is expected to grow from 30% to 50% in a matter of 30 years.

Racial diversity positively impacts the Bay Area, a place known for its “melting pot” and entrepreneurship and technological developments. Diversity allows for more incorpora-

tion of ideas and innovation that the world strives for.

The results of the census need to reflect these ongoing changes because the various races and ethnicities all need different resources to thrive. For example, medical units and job opportunities vary among races, and governments should strive to use census results to discover which areas need additional help in reaching racial equality.

More immigration into Contra Costa has led to the springing up of many new households, with about 389,597 households as of 2017. Additionally, the number of teenagers has increased, with 262,014 minors in Contra Costa as of 2018. That means more city and state resources should be directed towards housing and student opportunities to support these families.

The census needs to provide governments with demographic information in order to assist them in what kind and amount of support communities need. Without this knowledge, Contra Costa and all other locations cannot adapt to their changing environment.

Although such fears about deportation are genuinely felt, under federal law, the census bureau cannot share responses that identify individuals with the public or other federal agencies, including immigration authorities and other law enforcement agencies.

This year, as a result of several informational forums with a nonprofit organization dedicated to immigrant justice, my mom became convinced to take part in the year’s census. Her immigration status has not changed unfortunately; she is still undocumented and will most likely stay that way for a long time due to this administrations focus on immigration.

To learn more about the resouces in this story, go to: https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/five-reasons-robustdecennial-census-benefits-all-americans https://www.npr.org/2019/03/31/707899218/what-youneed-to-know-about-the-2020-census http://www.georgetownpoverty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Low-Income-Families-HTC.pdf https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/2020census-research-undercount/ Tania Norzagaray is a senior at Making Waves Academy and a member of the school jounralism and media club.

FAQ for the 2020 Census U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Economics and Statistics Administration U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

®

This is the official questionnaire for this address.

It is quick and easy to respond, and your answers are protected by law.

Para completar el cuestionario en español, dele la vuelta y complete el lado verde.

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Start here

OR go online at [url removed]

Use a blue or black pen.

To learn more about resources in this story, go to: https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about. html.

Mahika Arya is a sophomore and a copy editor on the school newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune.

2020 Census projected to decline in accuracy

to complete your 2020 Census questionnaire.

2.

Before you answer Question 1, count the people living in this house, apartment, or mobile home using our guidelines.

Children, related or unrelated, such as newborn babies, grandchildren, or foster children

• Count all people, including babies, who live and sleep here most of the time.

• If no one lives and sleeps at this address most of the time, go online at [url removed] or call the number on page 8.

Relatives, such as adult children, cousins, or in-laws Nonrelatives, such as roommates or live-in babysitters People staying here temporarily

The census must also include people without a permanent place to live, so: • If someone who does not have a permanent place to live is staying here on April 1, 2020, count that person.

No additional people

3.

Owned by you or someone in this household free and clear (without a mortgage or loan)?

• Do not count anyone living away from here, either at college or in the Armed Forces.

• Do not count anyone in a nursing home, jail, prison, detention facility, etc., on April 1, 2020.

1.

How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2020?

Is this house, apartment, or mobile home — Mark K J ONE box.

I Owned by you or someone in this household with a mortgage or loan? Include home equity loans.

The Census Bureau also conducts counts in institutions and other places, so:

• Leave these people off your questionnaire, even if they will return to live here after they leave college, the nursing home, the military, jail, etc. Otherwise, they may be counted twice.

Were there any additional people staying here on April 1, 2020 that you did not include in Question 1?

Mark I K all that apply.

J

Rented?

Occupied without payment of rent?

4.

What is your telephone number?

We will only contact you if needed for official Census Bureau business.

Telephone Number –

–

Number of people =

By Sneha Cheenath Dougherty Valley High School

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implemented, they had the potential of saving the taxpayer $5 billion, the Census Project claimed.

Congress ended up approving $238 million less than what the Census Bureau requested for its 2015 budget, according to a Huffington Post article.

The other major factor in changing the accuracy of the decennial census is changes in demographics.

A study from the Urban Institute called “Assessing Mis-

have an overwhelmingly negative effect on the overall accuracy, particularly in California, the Urban Institute said.

California has the highest population of these traditionally undercounted groups.

“Our projections show that even under the lowest-risk scenario -- where we assume that the 2020 Census will perform exactly as the 2010 Census did -- the national population count will be less accurate,” the Washington, D.C.-based think tank said.

To counteract these problems, the Census Bureau said it has implemented a number of new initiatives to improve national participation, most notably the option to answer online.

However the Urban Institute argued that these programs remain underfunded, which could be problematic.

“Not only are these new additions insufficiently tested in a decennial census environment, but the best evidence suggests they will disproportionately improve the count of those who are already easiest to count, leaving the hard-to-count population a lingering challenge,” it said.

If the 2020 census ends up being less accurate than 2010, it will be the break of a positive trend.

The 2010 census was found to be more accurate than the 2000 census, and the 2000 census was more accurate than the 1990 one, according to a New York Times article.

To learn more about resources in this story, go to:

he 2020 Census is projected to be less accurate than the 2010 Census, primarily due to lack of funding and changing demographics, according to articles on the upcoming count.

In an article titled, “The 2020 Census may be wildly inaccurate—and it matters more than you think” published by the Brookings Institute, a Washington, D.C-based research institution, the author reported that in the past decade Congress repeatedly curtailed the census budget. The first instance was in 2014 when Congress voted that the 2020 budget couldn’t exceed that of 2010 and without adjusting for inflation.

The article went on to explain that the second cripple to the census’ funding was when the Trump administration decreased funding by 10 percent, fully flatlining 2018 funding.

According to the Census Project, the Obama administration asked for $1.21 billion in 2014. But Congress only approved $1.11 billion, according to the Census Project, an independent organization that lobbies for an accurate census count.

In the Census Project’s fact sheet, “Why Full Funding Matters,” the organization said there are many new methods that could be implemented to improve the accuracy h t t p s : / / w w w. b ro o k i n g s. e d u / b l o g / of the census, but they aren’t possible fixgov/2017/08/31/the-2020-census-may-bebecause of insufficient funding. wildly-inaccurate-and-it-matters-more-thanThree ways to take the 2020 Census: fill out a paper form, fill out a form online, or you-think/ The report said 2015 was a particudo it over the phone. Cartoon by Rebecca Newman, California High School. larly important year for funding because https://thecensusproject.org/fact-sheets/ that’s when many of the tests were done to https://www.urban.org/research/publication/assessingcounts in the 2020 Census” said that “hard-to-count groups develop a strategy for a more accurate census. miscounts-2020-census -- including complex households, renters, young children, These methods include using administrative or existing immigrants, and people of color -will represent a larger data to count houses that are unresponsive and/or automatshare of the population in 2020 than they did in 2010.” ing field data collection.

Sneha Cheenath is a sophomore and co-sports editor The higher concentration of hard-to-count groups could of the school newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune.

If these and other technologies could have been

By Siddhant Gupta California High School Q: How do I fill out a census form?

A: Beginning in late March, notifications on how to fill out the census will be mailed to households. There are three ways to fill out the census: go online, call by telephone, or request a printed form and mail that in. For households that don’t do any of these, the Census Bureau will try to send a census taker to your residence.

Q: How long will it take to fill out the census?

A: The Census Bureau says that the estimated time to fill out a census is 10 minutes. If there are others living at your address, there will be more questions, so then it will take a little longer.

Q: How many questions are there?

A: There are nine questions to start. Then there are seven more questions for each of the additional person living at that address on April 1, 2020.

Q: What actually happens on Census Day, April 1?

A: This is confusing to some who think the census is conducted on this day.

Filling out the census actually takes place beginning in late March through July 31, 2020. April 1 is the date referred to in the census questionnaire: “How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2020?

April 1 is also used by the Census Bureau and other census programs to “launch” the census, urging the public to participate.

Q: What’s information is in the mail sent out by the Census Bureau?

A: In mid-March the Census Bureau will begin mailing instructions on how to access, fill out, and submit the response to the census questionnaire.

This physical mail will have the phone number and url listed for people who want to respond via telephone or the internet.

Q: Still need help?

A: Go to https://www.census.gov/en.html, or: Call Center: 301-763-INFO (4636) or 800-923-8282 or ask.census.gov TDD: TTY users can dial 1-800-877-8339 to use the Federal Relay Service

2020 Census

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Census participation affects school programs

By Hannah Wang and Anvi Vasa Dougherty Valley High School The 2020 census is especially important for government programs because it sets the amount of funding for many for the next 10 years, including programs that impact youth.

For example, the count provides valuable information for officials to plan the amount of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

SNAP provides meals for economically-disadvantaged students to help get families out of food insecurity and even poverty. According to Josh Green, a Bay Area media specialist for the Census Bureau, the number of students counted is critical because it gives the federal government an idea of how much funding is necessary to spend on these programs.

For some students, SNAP is the only way for them to get a well-balanced meal. According to the Census Bureau, in 2016 the funding allowed for SNAP to provide around 30.4 million meals for students nationwide; $71 million was allocated based on 2010 census data collected. (SNAP funding is offered to every school in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.)

Amy Hill, the Director of Community Engagement & Advocacy of the Pennsylvania Central Food Bank, described the importance

of the program in a published report.

“SNAP is the number one program that helps people when they’re faced with the challenge of food insecurity. So, if that program goes away, there really isn’t enough as it stands right now to fill that gap.”

Educators say that without the free lunches from SNAP, students can have a hard time focusing in class, which can adversely affect their learning experience and academic success in class. The funding for free lunch also allows for supplementing the food budget, saving money for low-income families that desperately need it.

A large portion of federal funding also goes towards public schools.

According to an Education Votes’ article, National Educational Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia stressed the significance of the count towards educational funding, stating, “Being counted helps ensure that all communities receive their fair share of federal and state funding for schools and other critical services.”

The census counts children in each state and uses their statistics to decide which communities are in need. The government then uses their information from the census to allocate the correct amount of money towards increasing support for children.

Without these programs, schools would not have enough to provide students with enough resources, educators say. The $800

billion in government funding for educational programs is essential because it promotes better learning for students of all ages and leaves a long lasting impact toward a child’s academic success, the Education Votes’ article reported.

The government also puts aside money for families that need daycare and preschool services but cannot afford it.

According to Educationvotes.ea.org, in 2010, 10 percent of children in the country were missing. This meant that over 2 million children were not counted, leaving many of them vulnerable.

National Education Association Senior Counsel Emma Leheny said in the article, “Job one is to do everything we can to support a complete and accurate census. It’s the first step in understanding the needs of the next generation of school-age children.”

The census begins in mid-March and ends July 21, 2020.

Sophomore Hannah Wang and freshman Anvi Vasa are staff writers on the student newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune.

CENSUS BY THE NUMBERS • California receives approximately $76 billion in federal funding, based upon the state’s population.

• Each person not counted equates to a loss of between $1,000 to $2,000 in State and Federal funding per year.

• 72% of California’s population belongs to one of the groups historically undercounted during the once-a-decade census process.

• Contra Costa County has just under 250,000 (20 %) people living in “Hard-to-Count” Census Tracts.

• If the county undercounts by 5%, the county will lose between $500 million to $1.0 billion over 10 years.

–U.S. Census Bureau

More LGBTQ questions sought

By Alyssa Earnest De Anza High School Leading up to the census, LGBTQ activists expressed concerns over which questions would be included in the count.

According to published reports, the Census Bureau began counting same-sex couples in the 2000 and 2010 census using questions about gender and relationships. The 2020 Census is expected to provide an even more accurate count of how many same-sex couples there are in the U.S, census officials said.

But the Census Bureau decided against questions asking about a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity that would allow them to count noncoupled LGBTQ individuals. This disappointed LGBTQ advocacy groups, according to published reports.

In interviews with two De Anza High School teachers who identify as members of the LGBTQ community, they offered their insights into the issue of inclusivity and the census.

“When people feel shut out, they’re not going to answer the census or answer it accurately,” said Erica Lorraine Webb, who teaches English. “So it diminishes the accuracy of the census.”

Webb said she has people in within her family life who are non-genderconforming and that having those choices on the census would have been highly appreciated and it would have made the entire process easier on those who might not otherwise feel comfortable answering the questionnaire.

Jane Shetterly, the school’s resident art teacher, agreed, and noted that she didn’t think the Census Bureau has done a very good job representing historically marginalized groups, including the LGBTQ community.

“I think it’s kind of terrible. With the creation of the census, there were so few choices involving race and gender with the census back then,” she said.

Shetterly said she believes everyone should be represented, whether it involves ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.

Advocates of more inclusion have said that these issues are of particular importance in California, which has one of the most diverse populations in the country. They note that for those who’ve never had to deal with issues relating to gender identity or sexual orientation, it can be difficult to understand the strain put on someone who feels they don’t fit into a box, yet still has to be labeled with a number for a survey.

Alyssa Earnest is a junior and staff writer on the school newspaper, The De Anza Times.

Latino, Asian communities fear census

By Lauren Chen Dougherty Valley High School Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration was not allowed to include the question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” on the 2020 census. The administration argued that the question would lead to improved enforcement of federal voting laws.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that this reasoning was “contrived.” Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the court “cannot ignore the disconnect between How Likely Would You Be to Fill Out the Census Form?

2% 5%

3% 10%

25%

2% 6%

30%

2%

3%

Not at all likely Not too likely

4%

4%

23%

20%

Somewhat likely

40%

Very likely

32%

33%

Extremely likely

45-64

65 and older

33%

39%

38%

35% 32%

30%

Survey average

22% 18-34

27% 35-44

Notes: All estimates were rounded so that the sum of estimates equals 100 percent.

Source: 2020 Census Barriers, Attitudes, and Motivators Study (CBAMS) Public Use Microdata Sample

the decision made and the explanation given” by the Trump administration.

Even without the question’s inclusion, the controversy stoked fear in many minority communities, critics of the administration’s immigration policies said.

On Jan. 9, 2019, Congress held a hearing about reaching hard-to-count communities in the census, and witnesses testified that many people in minority communities had worries about their representation in the census.

Many Latinos and Asian Americans fear the census and are less likely to participate because of the Trump administration’s hostile attitude toward immigrants, according to an NBC article titled “Latinos, Asian Americans still fear 2020 census over citizenship question, witnesses tell Congress,”by Suzanne Gamboa.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, called the citizenship question a “failed debacle” and stated that it “instilled a lasting fear [in Latinos].

“This is exacerbated by a hostile environment toward immigrants propagated by this

The goal of the 2020 Census is to collect responses from as many households in the United States as possible, but many are difficult to account for. These are what the Census Bureau describes as “hard-to-count” or HIC communities.

They can include people who move often, low-income people, non-English speakers, undocumented immigrants, and others. Contra Costa County is doing its part to make sure that people in these communities are represented in the census because the data helps determine the allocation of federal funding.

One effort that Contra Costa is doing to reach these populations is through the Census’ Community Partnership Engagement Program.

“There are 1,500 partnership specialists hired across the

EVERYONE COUNTS! is special feature of CC Spin, a countywide student newspaper produced by students at participating Contra Costa County public high schools. Story development is supervised by journalism advisers at participating schools and professional journalists who coach the students and guide their reporting and writing. Staff members from Bay City News and other local journalism outlets and retired journalists are available to instruct participating students in professional journalism standards and practices.

CC Spin is a product of the collaboration of The Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation, the Contra Costa County Office of Education, Bay City News, and the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative.

Schools in Contra Costa reflect the myriad diversity of its population. Students at Dougherty Valley meet at lunch. Photo by Lauren Chen, Dougherty Valley High. administration,” he said. The 2010 census left 1.5 percent of Latinos uncounted.

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, had similar concerns about the census.

“Asian Americans are the fastest-growing

minority group in the country”so Asian Americans refusing to answer the census questions could have lasting consequences, Yang said.

Lauren Chen is a freshman and a copy editor on the student newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune.

Contra Costa County reaches out to include its hard-to-count communities in the census–ten years of funding are at risk

By Caroline Lobel Dougherty Valley High School

CC Spin

country, including several hundred in California,” said Josh Green, Bay Area media specialist for the 2020 Census.

“Those who work in the (community engagement) program have deep experience living and working in their communities and they make connections with local businesses, government agencies, nonprofits and many other institutions to encourage participation,” Green said.

The engagement program uses maps to decide which locations to reach. The census’ “Response Outreach Area Mapper” is used to provide socioeconomic and demographic features of areas throughout America.

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) publishes an interactive map that highlights hard-to-reach communities and explains why these areas are difficult to account for. The two maps guide engagement program workers.

For example, according to the PPIC map, 11.5 percent of people living in Contra Costa are noncitizens. Additionally,

7.7 percent of households in Contra Costa have a likelihood of no response.

The census considers it critical that these people are accounted for so they can receive proper representation when government funds are allocated, whether it be for public services, infrastructure, or something else.

“These efforts are made year-round, every year at the census, but the work of (the engagement program) began as people were hired in the summer of 2019, and it will last through the count, which officially ends July 31, 2020,” Green said. “Our mission is to work in every state and territory, and that’s where we are.”

To learn more about resources in this story go to: https://www.ppic.org/blog/video-countdown-tocensus-2020/ Caroline Lobel is a junior and managing editor of the school newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune.

All opinions expressed in CC Spin are the views of the student authors only and do not represent the opinion of the Lesher Foundation, any school, district or county educational authority, or the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative.

CC Spin is a product of student journalists and is guided by tenets of the First Amendment, ethical guidelines of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the legal guidelines of California Education Code sections 45907 and 48950.

CENSUS PROJECT CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Mahika Arya, Dougherty Valley High School Sneha Cheenath, Dougherty Valley High School Sabrina Contreras, California High School Izabella Ge, San Ramon High School Siddhant Gupta, California High School Caroline Lobel, Dougherty Valley High School Vanessa Macias, Making Waves Academy Shruthi Narayanan, Dougherty Valley HIgh School Daniela Wise, Dougherty Valley High School Cover art by Allie Marcu, Acalanes High School sophomore and cartoonist on the school newspaper, The Blueprint.

Bruce Koon, Writing Coach/Editor Funding for the 2020 Census special project was provided through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation representing a collaboration of 10 Bay Area foundations.

Steve O’Donoghue, Director California Scholastic Journalism Initiative 5818 N Street Sacramento, CA 95819

Viewpoint

CC Spin

17 March 2020

No, men, we don’t hate you

By Nicole Prozan Acalanes High School

T

he second most popular definition of feminist on Urban Dictionary is “a person, usually but not necessarily, of the female gender, indoctrinated to find fault in everything a male does whilst believing all females can do no wrong.”

The most common phrase I hear used to describe a feminist is “man-hater.”

This, in my view, pervades the narrative of modern feminism due to anger expressed toward men all over social media, with phrases like “I hate men” or “Why do men exist?” among the most commonly used.

While it is true that feminists, including myself, are not shy when it comes to confronting and critiquing our male counterparts, I disagree with the notion that feminists are indoctrinated to find fault in everything a man does.

Behind all of the anger and seeming disgust toward men in the feminist movement is anxiety toward the unpredictability of men.

In a survey in which 134 female Acalanes students responded, 78 percent reported that they had been catcalled.

Some 72 percent reported feeling scared or threatened by a man’s words or actions at some point in their lives.

This isn’t normal. It shouldn’t be normal. Respondents to that survey are all students at Acalanes who are under 18 and who live in a relatively safe area. Imagine -- we are the most privileged, yet still, 72.4 percent of women who responded have felt scared or threatened. If we are facing numbers as staggering as that, imagine how much worse it is for women and girls elsewhere.

At a time the most famous names in our culture, including the president, Supreme Court nominees, and movie stars are faced with allegations of sexual assault, we must ask the question: If men as powerful as these have harrassed various women, even famous women, then what are “regular” women facing every day?

With the rise of movements like Time’s Up and #MeToo, women are tired of putting up with what might seem to be insignificant actions like being catcalled. Women are tired

of living their lives having to plan for what may happen to them at the hands of men. Women are tired of being faced with the unpredictable nature of men’s attitude toward women.

We are cautious. We walk down the streets with our keys between our fingers. We don’t go out alone at night.

We’ve learned tactics to keep ourselves safe, and even then, sometimes those tactics fail.

Though some view it as a radical notion, women shouldn’t have to live their lives struggling to cope with the irrational and unpredictable behavior of our male counterparts.

So when the frustration of having to live and plan our lives to avoid coming into contact with the worst parts of humanity comes across as anger, I promise you, it is not.

There is something deeper than just anger --- something that must change within our society.

So, the next time someone refers to feminists as “manhating” or another derogatory adjective along those lines, I urge readers to remind themselves of the everyday events and risks that women must be wary of just to exist.

Art by Liam McGlynn, Acalanes High School

Should the school be Excessive use of marijuana on campus worried about more threats of violence?

By Rebeca Perez Kennedy High School

E

By Myles Douglas De Anza High School

O

ver the past few years, there has been an alarming rise in school threats on social media and on the internet in general.

This has become a serious problem and something every school has to look out for. Even our own school, De Anza, was recently threatened, but the threat was reported and the student was stopped before any threat could ever become reality.

The incident illustrates that threats are something De Anza must about in the future.

People began paying close attention to school threats after the Parkland. Florida, shooting which occurred on February 14, 2018, when a19year-old student allegedly brought a semi-automatic rifle to his school and proceeded to start firing, killing 17 students and injuring 17 others.

After this event, there were hundreds of school threats reported around the country.

The level of threats rose from 10 a day to 70 a day, a rate that diminished over time. Still school threats, many made on social media, are now a daily occurrence around the country, Most threats found on social media never result in anything serious ever happening, but schools and the police still have to take these threats very seriously.

Most school threats on social media are posted as sick jokes and people who post them usually think that the school will never see it and they won’t get in trouble for it.

However, school officials encourage people who see these threats to report them immediately so schools can inform the police, who take required action.

The police handle all school threats as if they are serious so it doesn’t matter if you are joking or serious. The police can track down perpetrators from their social media. Everything done on social media is trackable, so you can’t post carelessly or you might end up being confronted by the police.

Schools also monitor social media and if school officials see anything suspicious, they can take action and punish accordingly.

Students who post threats, even as a joke, could end up ruining their future. It’s no laughing matter.

veryone knows that many teenagers do drugs and the most common one is smoking or eating marijuana. This is a plant that many people use to relax and it’s why some doctors prescribe it to some of their patients.

Another reason why it could increasingly be prescribed is to treat seizure disorders, Crohn’s disease, and muscle spasms.

If teenagers have any of these problems, it’s fine for them to have marijuana, but why consume marijuana at a learning environment like a high school?

Schools do not allow drugs on campus and of course, Kennedy High School does not allow it. But it looks like most of the staff doesn’t really care about how much students are smoking on campus. It does not go unnoticed, though, because one of the English teachers at Kennedy said, “They think we don’t know but we do.”

This teacher has even said that all of those little corners

and “hiding spots” on campus that students go to with friends to smoke are not so secretive, because most teachers already know about it.

Much of the time at Kennedy the smell of marijuana will hit you through the halls, even in many classrooms. For a learning environment, this is not OK. Many students at Kennedy claim that they don’t mind the smell of marijuana, which is probably because they do the drug themselves. But other students, including myself, do not like it.

Non smokers say that the smell of marijuana gives them a headache, which makes it harder for them to concentrate on their classwork.

A Kennedy student who wanted to remain anonymous said, “In most of my classes it reeks of marijuana and it’s annoying because the smell disgusts me and I’m just trying to get through the class so I can leave as quickly as possible.”

Marijuana also deeply affects people with asthma.

English and theatre teacher Jamie Myrick has asthma and has strong reactions to perfume, strong fragrant lotions and

the smell of cigarettes and marijuana.

Myrick said that at times it gets so bad that she has to step out of her classroom and have someone else teach her students. She also said that the people who come to class smelling strongly of marijuana are simply rude because they forget about those with asthma like herself.

Myrick said it’s offensive because students smoking marijuana don’t understand that she and students with asthma can get an asthma attack that can send them to the hospital.

Myrick said that she has seen her students get asthma attacks, which is scary. She said that what she thinks can be done about this problem is to make people aware.

This got me thinking.

Something needs to be done, by the staff, or students themselves. Students can make posters warning about the risk. There can be simple announcements on the loudspeaker to make students aware of the problem.

The messages can encourage those who smoke on campus to do so elsewhere.

Deadly coronavirus could be China’s Chernobyl Staff Editorial California High School

T

he first case of the coronavirus, a highly contagious virus that can lead to lethal respiratory infections in humans, was confirmed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

Today, the virus spread rapidly to 28 countries and is infecting more than 30,000 people worldwide. As of Feb. 29, the virus has claimed more than 2000 lives.

Chinese officials have quarantined infected individuals, but many fear the Chinese government has not been entirely truthful regarding the scale of the outbreak and believe the real situation is much more dire than reported.

Wuhan doctor Wenliang Li, who communicated the emerging threat of the virus on the Chinese social media app WeChat, was taken in by authorities for his critical exposés.

He contracted the disease and died.

Many other whistleblowers were taken in by government authorities and some have disappeared. The govern-

ment has also censored social media posts.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been maintaining a low profile, rarely appearing in newscasts to address the epidemic.

In spite of the virus’s rapid proliferation and immediate, devastating economic effects, Chinese authorities appear to be more focused on censoring citizen journalists’ reporting that contradict the official narrative.

Chinese censorship is no longer a domestic problem. It is a catastrophic danger to the entire world.

While Chinese authorities are right to remove any speech that may agitate mass hysteria, they certainly do not have the right to censor reporting because it deviates from the state’s speech, especially when the government lacks the power to fully understand and control the virus.

In 1986, a calamitous accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine occurred, causing severe radiation sickness and contaminating broad areas around the site.

Many people are still suffering the consequences of the infamous nuclear disaster today.

Throughout the catastrophe, the Soviet Union denied and lied about the scope of the accident. Their actions instilled in people a sense of false reassurance and delayed the evacuation and clean-up processes, thereby intensifying the aftermath.

As history has shown, transparency is essential to public health. If the Chinese government does not disclose the full extent of the new epidemic, the deadly coronavirus can become China’s Chernobyl.

Getting involved in government on the unified school district board

By Luke Shalz Pinole Valley High School

W

e have a voice. We matter. What we have to say, what we think and what we want done in the West Contra Costa County School District matters. Did you know that our district spends about $370 million per year to educate us?

Adults can only make best guesses as to how we would like to see the taxpayers’ money spent on US. If we don’t get involved and speak up, adults will make all the decisions for us.

Our Board of Education is elected by the people, based on their values, to set policy and make decisions for students. Their names appear on the plaque in the lobby at our school, Pinole Valley High School. They work with our superintendent, Matthew Duffy, to distribute funds available based on what they think is best for students or most needed.

Our district has unique and often costly needs mostly related to our cultural diversity, social/emotional needs, English-as-asecond-language and free meals for students in need. Most other districts have these needs, but on a much smaller scale.

I’ve learned that our board’s job is difficult as members constantly have to consider competing needs and ultimately decide what is best for students overall.

At the beginning of the school year, my mom and I appealed to the school board for new band uniforms. We did a lot of research and brought them facts to convince them how much our band needed new uniforms as well as the costs and process.

Currently, the band is going through the process of getting

new uniforms.

We spoke for students and our voice was heard.

At that meeting, I was approached by board member Mister Phillips and previously by member Tom Panas. They said that they would like to see me on the board as a student member. I didn’t even know such a position existed. I followed the process of joining the Youth Commission and being elected as a member.

I’ve been serving since September.

I would highly recommend to anyone interested in education, public policy or law or such to consider being on the board.

It’s valuable, real-world experience.

On the board, I have learned so much. It’s not easy to be a board member nor superintendent. I have voted alongside board members on very meaningful issues while being aggressively and angrily shouted at by attendees all wanting a vote in their favor.

The board has a “road map,” based on the will of the people who elected them, which guides their decisions. Those who appear at board meetings are given a lot of time to make their case for their requests. The board must vote the will of the people reflected in the “road map” which is ultimately the adult-perceived needs of the students.

This is why it’s important that students become more involved and speak at board meetings. We’re not yet 18 so we can’t vote for board members but we can speak at meetings and let our voices be heard.

Here’s an experience I had on the board: I was approaching the entrance to the school where the board meetings are held.

Many people were dressed in indigenous clothing, dancing and banging drums and chanting and yelling while blocking the entrance to the meeting place due to their sheer number. The meeting room was filled beyond capacity with hundreds of John Henry High School parents, teachers, students and many more.

That evening, the board was to vote on whether or not to continue to fund their charter school. We listened for hours as John Henry students, parents, staff members and the like spoke on behalf of their school.

Presentations from district officials presenting relevant data showed that the school was not meeting certain standards. The crowd was very hostile and aggressive toward the board and district officials.

During the voting, the crowds drew closer to the board in anger. I voted in opposition, along with the majority of the board.

People began yelling and cursing at the board members and there were fights in the audience.

While the security guards were busy trying to control the situation, the board members and I exited to a separate, safe room.

This is a taste of what I personally experienced while a student board member. This board meeting was just one of many that gave me real insight as to what it really means to be an elected official.

I now have a much different understanding of what it means to be an elected official as well as how much effort really goes into educating students.

Ralph Bedwell, director of the Pinole Valley High School

Luke Shalz, a junior at Pinole Valley High School, is serving as the student member of the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education. Photo by Mark Shalz, Pinole Valley High School. newspaper, Spartan Ink, approached me months ago to write this article but I didn’t have much real experience to write about yet.

The issues that have been addressed by the board, the difficulty of issues to consider and having to vote on these issues have opened my eyes, deepening my understanding of how things

18 March 2020

Viewpoint

Homework is a flawed way to learn

What’s censorship?

By Zoe Edelman Acalanes High School

I

This editorial cartoon is by Kelly Tran at Pinole Valley High School. It’s a commentary on how the National Archives handled the photo this year from the 2017 women’s march as part of its elevator lobby promotional display for our current exhibit on the 19th Amendment. The exhibit erased Trump’s name. The National Archives later apologized for altering the image.

t is 11:15 p.m., prime time to sit down at my desk and mindlessly complete all the homework that I effortlessly pushed away all day. Maybe it all gets done, maybe it gets copied, or maybe it could possibly be thoughtfully completed. The clock now reads 1:06 a.m. Rinse and repeat for the rest of this week, and the rest of the school year.

This pattern is so easy to fall into, and many students at Acalanes do. It begs the question, is it really worth it? Is 10 points worth less sleep and an ever present feeling of guilt and exhaustion?

Is writing that essay in the wee hours of the night worth the detriment of student mental health?

The stress and poor mental state of students ties closely to homework, and something needs to change.

Personally, I enjoy learning. I feel grateful when I gain the satisfaction of growing intellectually. However, most of the homework I do doesn’t contribute to my actual learning. I am guilty of staying up too late, scrambling to finish worksheets and sending the “Have you done the homework?” text.

Bay teams cursed by one another

By Shannah Saul California High School

A

nd Boston makes it look so easy.

It’s either the Niners, the Sharks or the Warriors having a great season, but it’s never all three. For whatever reason, the Bay Area just can’t have a year where all of their sports teams are doing consistently well.

Even our baseball teams are guilty of this. If the A’s have a good season, the Giants don’t, and vice-versa.

At this point though, they’ve become less relevant because they’re more detached summer teams. Plus, at least there’s two of them to root for.

The Sharks, usually first or second in the NHL Pacific Division, are a whopping sixth this year with a 24-27-4 record. This is a league where the Vancouver Canucks are now in first.

It’s not like the Pacific Division is particularly talented.

It’s hard to believe, but the Warriors are doing worse. With a 12-40 record, the team that reached the NBA finals the last five seasons are dead last in both the Western Conference and the NBA as a whole. Even the Sacramento Kings are better than the Warriors. Jeez.

Last year should have been the peak of Bay Area excellence, but of course the Niners crashed and burned when quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a torn ACL in his left knee early in the season. From there, it was all downhill for San Francisco as more of their roster went down.

OK, so maybe 2019-2020 would be our year.

And it should have been. All we needed were the two most consistent Bay Area teams to keep it up. The Warriors had another great season prior to the 2019-2020 season, and were the champions of the Western Conference for the fifth straight year.

The Sharks lost in the Western Conference Finals to St. Louis, but their playoff run had been so impressive, nobody was really too upset.

Fast forward to February, and it’s basically the sports apocalypse.

The current Warriors have pulled a 2018-2019 Niners and lost most of their top talent to injuries. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and the list goes on and on.

The Sharks are more tricky. These guys are scrambling to first figure out what’s wrong, and it appears we have an answer.

CC Spin

Everything is wrong.

They thought despite giving up Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi, and Gustav Nyquist (20 percent of the scoring from last season), superstars like Brent Burns, Logan Couture, and Erik Karlsson would make up for it.

Unfortunately, the Sharks didn’t seem to get the memo.

Karlsson is not worth $11 million a year. Burns is flailing. Martin Jones and Aaron Dell are now fighting for a starting spot in goal after Jones proved he couldn’t stop a puck if it fell into his glove.

Former head coach Peter DeBoer has been fired and is now coaching for the Vegas Golden Knights, a powerhouse team that already gives the Sharks trouble. And oh yeah, Couture is injured.

You didn’t think you were getting through this without an injury, did you?

And what’s worse, with the Oakland Raiders officially becoming the Las Vegas Raiders, we’ve lost the resident trash team that makes the rest of our sports teams look that much better. Is one of our once-mighty teams going to have to replace them?

Luckily, we’re still fortunate to have two baseball teams.

Unfortunately, these two teams seem to have the same issuethey can’t both agree on a good season.

Last year, the A’s were second in the American League West with an impressive 97-65 record, and cinched a Wild Card spot.

The Giants, on the other hand, missed the playoffs for the third straight season with a 77-85 record. In fact, the last time the A’s and Giants both finished with a winning record was 2014.

Will we ever have a perfect Bay Area trifecta? The answer: not this season. And maybe not next season either.

It’s highly unlikely the Sharks and Warriors make it into playoff position, and in the Sharks’ case, they don’t have a chance at the draft since they traded away their picks.

The Warriors, on the other hand, may have a shot at a nice comeback. Their best plan of attack is to just roll over, accept defeat and a high draft pick, and wait for the stars to come back.

At least we’ll always have the 2015, 2017, and 2018 titles.

At the end of the day, we’re not Boston. But even if we were, what goes up must come down. The true fans will stay dedicated to this city (or cities) until we’re back on top, and then it’ll all be worth it.

And if you’re looking for some optimism right now, just think of this-- at least the Patriots didn’t win the Super Bowl.

Then again, neither did the Niners.

Or, I end up being too exhausted to fathom reading another 10 chapters of an ancient text for English.

The pressure of doing homework for points in a grade book transforms students into machines, inputting data for a result. Students do not learn or retain substantive information when teachers assign lots of work and short deadlines.

Contrarily, when homework is optional, the likelihood of students accomplishing the work improves greatly. In fact, studies continually show that homework actually does not correlate to higher test scores.

In a study on high school homework for a Healthline article, an AP Biology teacher cut down half of her students’ homework load. Test scores did not drop because students were using the new-found time to learn in ways that worked for them or having the extra time to relax was helping them as well.

This system is far better because it holds students accountable for their own learning. The thought process shifts to “Couldn’t do it last night, but I can still do it tonight,” rather than “It’s too late now.”

Homework being an option allows students

to do quality work, where they actually learn the material as opposed to simply completing it.

Additionally, teaching the mindset that students have to do homework for a grade value doesn’t set them up for success in college. Most college courses don’t count homework as an important category in grades, meaning only intrinsic motivation drives students to complete homework at higher levels of education. Applying the wrong standards in lower levels of education does not set up students for future success.

Students should be held accountable for homework by themselves, not their teachers and grades. Students who choose to cheat or not complete homework will see the result with poor grades on tests and other assignments. Others who choose to learn and do homework to the best of their ability will reap the results.

Homework should be an extension of learning, not a stressor. Reduce the quantity and short deadlines and allow students time to learn instead of worry. Teachers should be focused on whether students have adequately learned the material, not whether it’s complete by the bell.

Men gain popularity, women lack respect

By Seta Salkhi Monte Vista High School

D

epending on the season, students at Monte Vista attend rallies for football, see posters for basketball, and hear announcements for baseball. But no matter the time of year, women’s sports come secondary to men’s — at least in the eyes of advertisers.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) are two of the biggest sports organizations in the United States. Americans will likely be keeping track of one or the other at all times of the year. We have the media to thank for giving us the latest score updates and schedules on demand.The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Softball Association (NSA) are probably less familiar to us, and for that we also have the media to thank with their focus on male sports.

American sport culture is reliant on men not because their sports are more entertaining, but because they are more widely advertised and their athletes get more sponsorships.

As a result, the difference in popularity between men and women’s sports is largely a result of publicity — and lack thereof.

This trend has been reflected in our school with Leadership in charge of athletic promotion. Junior Olivia Stark, a Leadership member and player on the women’s varsity water polo team, explained.“Within leadership, there are different committees that [students can be] in, ” Stark said.

“One of those committees is athletic recognition.”According to Leadership, its focus this year is on acknowledging athletes from all sports. However, there is an issue that has remained untouched: women’s sports continue to get less publicity than men’s.

“People have said that it is unfair some sports get more hype than others, so this year we are in the process of getting them the same amount of advertising,” said Junior Emily Tatum, a member of Leadership.As sports that include both men and women grow in popularity, the gap in publicity between genders widens in favor of men.The effect on attendance is minimal at the high school, according to athletic director Andy Popper.

But once we get to higher levels of popular sports and we see greater differences in publicity, American interests

change dramatically.“We all watch the NBA and we watch the [National Football League], so we’re bound to go to a high school basketball or football game,” Stark said. “I’m sure you haven’t watched a water polo game on television.”

However, some don’t blame sponsorships and publicity for the differences in attendance. Instead, they give credit to the fact that men are more athletic than women.“I think there is a difference [in advertising between genders] because men’s games are more exciting, more fast-paced than women’s games,” said senior Connor Stechsulte, a varsity boys basketball player.

However, if this were the case, then why are attendance rates similar in high school? How come women continue to bring audiences to their games against all the odds, in high school?

Male sports are definitely popular because of their players’ admirable athleticism, but it is important to remember that, even though women play their sports differently, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the way they’re playing is wrong.

In the example of volleyball, men jump higher and hit the ball harder, but girls can rally for a longer period of time.

In water polo, women are feistier than men. In lacrosse, fans can find that, while men are more aggressive with each other on the field, women are more skillful in their techniques.

If the reality is that both men and women sports have their pros and cons, why do we put such an emphasis on male sports?

“Tradition,” Stark said. “I feel like football and basketball are going to be fan favorites, at least for the time being.”

However, it is also important to note that our school’s culture is changing, with Leadership working to ensure that both men and women’s sports get equal opportunities on and off the field.

“Leadership was thinking of making a spring sports’ rap where they include women’s sports, and we’re working on our Instagram to get the word out for their games,” Tatum said.

While it will be difficult to transform America’s entire outlook on sports everywhere in the country, at least we are starting to see the changes here in Danville.

As for why it is so important that we give more recognition to female sports, Stark touched on that really well: “They deserve it. Women are bada**.”

CC Spin The CC Spin is produced by students at Contra Costa County public high schools. Story development is supervised by the journalism advisers at the participating schools.

Professional journalists coach the students and guide their reporting and writing. Staff members from local journalism outlets and retired journalists instruct participating students in professional journalism standards and practices.

FACILITATORS

FACULTY ADVISERS

STUDENT EDITORS

Melissa Stafford Jones Executive Director Lesher Foundation

Natalie Moore, Acalanes High School Brian Barr, California High School Thomas Gagnie, De Anza High School Rachel Decker, Dougherty Valley High School Myriam Godfrey, Kennedy High School Masin Persina, Making Waves Academy Donia Gousios, Miramonte High School Paige Crawford, Monte Vista High School Karen Jenkins , Northgate High School Ralph Bedwell, Pinole Valley High School Maya Kosover, Richmond High School Joseph Alvarico, Ygnacio Valley High School

Nicole Proznan, Acalanes High School Gina Wu, California High School Alyssa Earnest, De Anza High School Caroline Lobel, Dougherty Valley High School Vanessa Macias, Making Waves Academy Juliet Adams/Lauren Nixon, Miramonte High School Seta Salkhi, Monte Vista High School Cassidy Baumann, Northgate High School Mason Montano, Pinole Valley High School Heidi Carranza/Vivianna Bejarano, Richmond High School Izabella Ge, San Ramon Valley High School Clara Stevenson, Ygnacio Valley High School

The CC Spin is a product of the collaboration of The Lesher Foundation, the Contra Costa County Office of Education, and the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative.

Terry Koehne Chief Communications Officer Contra Costa County Office of Education

All opinions expressed in CC Spin are the views of the student authors only and do not represent the opinion of the Lesher Foundation, any school, district or county educational authority, or the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative.

Steve O’Donoghue California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, Coordinator

CC Spin is a product of student journalists and is guided by the tenets of The First Amendment, the ethical guidelines of the Society of Professional Journalists and California Education Code sections 45907 and 48950.

Jim Finefrock, Writing Coach Bruce Koon Writing Coach Carol Pogash, Writing Coach Dick Rogers, Writing Coach Printing by FolgerGraphics Printing Hayward, California

CC Spin

Viewpoint

19 March 2020

Art by Allie Marcu, Acalanes High School.

Am I diverse just because I’m not white?

By Stephanie Liu Acalanes High School

I

’ve been building a “diverse” brand for myself throughout my high school career. But I’ve realized that this brand doesn’t quite fit me, and it has led me to question whether I am diverse or not.

In order to determine if I am diverse, we must first consider its definition. Literally, diversity means variety. However, in practice, people often associate diversity with racial minority groups and the ensuing constant oppression.

This one-sided approach to diversity is problematic and ignores the complexity which racial diversity presents. It does not take into account the context or environment in which a person exists.

Take me, for example. I’m Asian. Using the simplified definition of diversity, I am inherently diverse because of my race.

That label makes sense here in Lafayette, where the majority of people are white.

It’s incredibly easy to poke holes in this definition. Most of the friends I eat lunch with are Asian, and the rest are white.

There are only two races represented, but since most of the kids in this group are not white, we are diverse.

Let’s take it a step further. If I went to school in China, assuming all the rest of my classmates were Chinese, I would be in the majority. There is only one race represented in this hypothetical population. And yet, by definition, I would still be diverse because I am not white.

This classification also implies that white individuals are “not diverse”. This creates a fabricated cultural divide, which manifests when my white peers expect me to conform to their idea of a “diverse lifestyle”: something completely opposite and new, dramatic and compelling enough to bestir some pity for the inevitable racism I must have suffered.

Unfortunately for anyone seeking an exciting life story from me, I’m boring.

Regarding the racism, I’ve been relatively lucky. Having lived the first 10 years of my life in majority-Asian communities

and being the daughter of successful Chinese immigrants, I have not experienced the systemic racism in this country the same way other racial minority groups have. I have additional buffers in the form of my relatively light skin, model minority status, and the general tolerance of the area I live in.

As an East Asian, I have two big privileges. Because my skin is relatively light, I have more privilege-- a phenomenon known as colorism. Secondly, as part of a “model minority”, people tend to associate my race with more positive qualities than negative. Add in the fact that my parents are well-educated and moderately wealthy, and it’s clear that I have many factors out of my control allowing me to live a good life.

Further, I have lived in this community since I was 11 years old. My current life is not drastically different from the typical white Acalanes student. Maybe I don’t have the same typical dinner as my white peers -- it’s Chinese food every night -- but I still ignore my lactose intolerance in favor of a slice of Costco pizza now and again. My biggest problem is not overt bullying about my race; it’s my tendency to put off writing my college essays

until my mom starts to yell.

I readily admit my privileges, and I am more than comfortable speaking about my experience as a Chinese-American. I want to talk about my complex relationship with my ethnicity and how I feel alienated from my culture because of whitewashing and my limited ability to read or write Chinese. I want to talk about different types of privilege.

The problem is, when I engage in conversations about race I feel pressured to present the “diverse” narrative or risk losing the interest of my whtie peers. I feel like I must stir emotions, evoke a feeling of wrongdoing and instill enough white guilt to spur action. That’s my purpose as a “diverse” individual.

I can’t do that. I haven’t suffered enough to be “diverse”, and isn’t that a sad thing to say? The fact of the matter is, “diverse” is a superficial label. It says nothing solid about a person’s experience or their relationship to the world. Ironically, diversity has become a term to generalize a population. Until we reform the connotations attached to diversity, I cannot keep identifying with such an empty label.

A look into cheating and academic dishonesty on campus

By Akira Nannen Acalanes High School

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rom writing on the palms of their hands to hiding answers on the insides of their calculator cases, students never fail to come up with clever ways to cheat.

Students may be tempted to cheat to improve scores on tests or avoid doing homework. The intense academic environment at Acalanes may be a factor into some students’ decision to work dishonestly.

In order to combat student cheating, the administration has created specific guidelines prohibiting the practice.

The Acalanes Student Handbook divides academic dishonesty into four categories: cheating, unauthorized collaborating, plagiarizing, and unauthorized publishing of school materials. Further subsections of cheating include copying other students’ work, falsifying academic work, and having a parent make major changes to student work.

In an anonymous survey of randomly selected Acalanes students, 57 percent of students reported cheating at least once. Yet, only 53 percent of students observed a cheating problem at Acalanes.

The survey found that students primarily cheat after forgetting to study for a test, while sheer laziness provided the second most common motive. Other students explained that they cheated since they struggled to find time to study or, sometimes, because they dismissed certain classes as unimportant.

Desire and pressure to attain good grades and receive acceptance into highly competitive universities underlies most cheaters acts of academic dishonesty.

“The belief that you have to get into a top tier college and have near perfect grades and test scores contributes to an unmanageable amount of stress and anxiety for many young adults,” local psychologist David Matz said.

Although many teachers try to prevent cheating by walking around and observing students taking tests, some students cheat regardless of their teacher’s level of observance. But teachers often observe defined patterns of incorrectness.

“The general way I find it is when they get the same wrong answer. They’ll make the same kind of incorrect statement, or they copy their friend’s work word for word,” European history teacher Ed Seelenbacher said.

“Occasionally in math, during quizzes or sometimes during tests, me and my friends look at each other’s papers if we’re confused on a problem,” one student cheater said. “Sometimes in science class, I may send a picture of my homework or a friend might send a picture of theirs if either of us are confused,” admitting to both cheating and unauthorized collaboration.

Census data on education levels and earnings

– U.S. Census

Art by Stephanie Liu, Acalanes High School.

Students who frequently cheat employ certain strategies to ensure they will not get caught by teachers.

“I have a solid strategy when the teacher is not paying attention. I may cast a few glances at the other person’s test sheet, but if I’m sitting next to someone who’s not very intelligent, I usually don’t copy them,” another student cheater said. “I consider everything, you know? I need to make my choices smart. I need an A.” “Plagiarizing papers and essays without appropriate attribution is another big way students cheat,” comparative government teacher Joseph Schottland said.

Although the students we interviewed did not admit to plagiarizing, teachers report that they deal with plagiarizers every year.

English teacher Ken Derr has seen entire student essays ripped off the internet.

While technology may have made copying easier in the past, online services are now very effective at detecting plagiarism.

“Turnitin would be the number one thing to detect plagiarism in essays,” Schottland said. Turntin is a website designed to detect plagiarism.

Despite Turnitin deterring many would be plagiarizers, Associate principal Mike Plant reported already having dealt with three cases of plagiarism as of the end of October.

In addition to plagiarism of essays, Plant also dealt with two official cases of students copying homework from friends and classmates. Besides these instances formally reported by teachers, Plant noted that he regularly observes students copying the work of others during break, academy and lunch.

“Even at lunch when I’m walking around I see people copying homework from their friend,” Plant said.

Despite the school district’s clear policies regarding academic dishonesty, only 30 percent of students who said they cheat reported getting caught.

Students who cheat may face a wide range of punishments, depending on the offense. Among other consequences, students may have to meet with an administrator or counselor, lose credit for an assignment, be assigned detention, and the offense could appear on the student’s permanent record depending on the severity.

If a student has not completed work or does not feel prepared for an assessment, instead of resorting to academic dishonesty, a student can always contact their teacher, an administrator, or counselor to find a better solution for the issue.

“If you feel trapped in a position where you feel you only option is to cheat, I would hope there’s an adult on campus that you can go talk to that could help you with that problem,” Plant said. “Cheating is never OK, but also cheating is never a necessity.

There are ways around that.”

JFK should revert to a 7-period schedule

By Byron Ward and Antela Orduno Kennedy High School

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he Kennedy High School schedule was better the way it was before the adminisration changed it. This year Kennedy High’s seven class schedule was reduced to six classes.

If a student needs to make up a class or take a class for their career or dream job, having seven periods a day is more beneficial and practical.

Having only six class period is especially hard on Englishas-a-second-language students. They frequently can’t take the classes that they need to get to the right level.

Students need every possible chance we can get so that we may succeed in whatever it is we want to do. Think of all the students who want to become welders and won’t be able to just

because they couldn’t take the class they needed at the time.

We’ve spoken to a few students about the matter and most of them agreed that the seven period schedule was and is the superior way to go.

A few students felt like the six period schedule was superior because for them it’s easier to keep track of their work and there are fewer assignments. It’s easier to have six periods rather than seven.

Another way the Kennedy schedule is inferior is that as it is now some students are caught up with class work and if they might want to add a second elective they can’t because there are not enough openings in a six period day.

We believe that if Kennedy were to go back to the old schedule the school’s graduation rate and the student success rate would increase.

Viewpoint

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March 2020

CC Spin

Dark humor is crucial for surviving global tragedy

By Nick Harvey California High School

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ith the recent tensions between the United States and Iran looming over our heads, the internet has taken to Twitter, Reddit, and TikTok with full force to make WW3

memes.

In the aftermath of the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, #WW3 reached more than 200,000 tweets on Twitter, and “World War 3” was mentioned in at least 1.6 million tweets.

On TikTok, a social media app where users make short videos, #WW3 has almost 1.8 billion views.

Which leads us to the question: Is it OK to turn warfare and possible tragedy into memes?

Of course! Dark humor is ubiquitous in our society. Popular shows like “South Park” joke about topics such as China’s repul-

sive violations of human rights, detention camps on the border with Mexico, and drunk driving. The Onion, a famous satirical newspaper, features titles such as “Crack Of Gunfire Resounding Through Office Gives Woman Perfect Cover She Needs To Bite Into Crisp Apple.”

Just because people laugh at a dark or offensive joke doesn’t mean they can’t understand the gravity of the topic.

Black humor could even be good for you. A study published in the scientific journal “Cognitive Processing” showed a positive correlation between an appreciation of dark humor and higher intelligence.

Arnie Cann, a former psychology professor at the University of North Carolina, said humor is an important part of being able to cope with difficult situations, according to an interview with the Association for Psychological Science.

The history of dark humor goes back many years. During World War I, newspapers around the world published satirical

Surviving the ordeal of public speaking

By Glendy Jimenez Pinole Valley High School

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ublic speaking is a fear shared by many people’s . It’s one of my fears. I get nervous when speaking in front of people and start to shake. My adrenaline goes up and I start feeling nauseous. On Jan. 28, I overcame my biggest fear.

I won Poetry Out Loud for my Pinole Valley High School English class and had the chance to enter the school competition. It caught me off guard due to the fact I thought I did badly the first time reciting my poem for my class. I was in shock.

The day before the competition we went into the theater and practiced. An actual poet was there and gave us tips to improve. I was even nervous about going up there to practice and missed a couple of lines.

They told us the best way to calm our nerves is to take deep breaths and exhale for four seconds. I tried it and it worked!

The same night, I stayed up going over my poem. I was reciting it in my head over and over. I did it while I was in the shower, while I was in the car, and while I was making a pb&j sandwich. I practiced my tone and how I could make the poem real.

I broke it down and practiced over and over. I was hardly able to sleep that night because I was so nervous. I wanted to get it over with fast. I just didn’t want to mess up and do bad.

It was morning and all I kept thinking about was the competition.

I was anxious the whole day and couldn’t stay still. I had a lot of my friends help me practice and they gave me pep talks, which helped me feel better.

At lunch, the other contestants and I met at the theater to set up and get ready. I couldn’t even eat anything. My hunger went away and my adrenaline went up. I was shaking and was barely able to stay still.

I kept reciting my poem in my head but since I was so nervous, I kept messing up.

I was scared and thought I was going to miss a couple of lines. As more and more people came in I became more anxious. That moment I just closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I calmed down a bit.

As the competition began I tried thinking on the positive side and that I was going to do great. When it was finally my turn I zoned out. I don’t know what got into me but I was able to remember each line and add so much emotion. It felt as if I was in a telenovela.

I recited “Bent to the Earth” by Blas Manuel De Luna and I was able to make people feel as if it was my story, my poem, my experience.

When I finished reciting my poem, I smiled and was happy. I didn’t know I could do that. Going back to my seat I got many compliments. The other contestants congratulated me and said I did well.

I felt so proud of myself. It was finally time to announce the winner.

I didn’t win but I overcame my biggest fear. I know I did great and was so proud of myself. I almost made the audience cry and was able to help them feel the poem. I made many new friends and everyone did great.

Everyone was so kind and I had an amazing experience. You meet new people from different grades and backgrounds. Everyone did great and I was so proud of all of us. I definitely would do it again!

Everyone living in your home counts.

The census counts every person living in the United States regardless of their country of origin or immigration status. This includes children and newborn babies, grandparents, friends, nonrelatives, and everyone who is living or staying with you as of April 1, 2020.

The 2020 Census is safe and confidential.

Responses to the census are safe and confidential. Your information is protected by law and cannot be shared with other law enforcement agencies—not the FBI, ICE, or even local police.

The 2020 Census is easy and convenient.

The census is available in many languages, including Spanish. You can respond online, by phone, or by mail.

The 2020 Census is important for our community.

Your answers to the 2020 Census will impact funding decisions for the next 10 years for important local services in our communities, including: › Schools

› Roads

› Health clinics

› School lunch programs

› After-school programs

› Playgrounds

› Public transportation

› Community centers for seniors

For more information, visit:

2020CENSUS.GOV D-HP-LT-EN-133

cartoons mocking the war. When First Lady Nancy Reagan visited her husband Ronald at the hospital after an attempted assassination, he reportedly joked, “Honey, I forgot to duck.”

The Germans even have their own word for finding other people’s suffering hilarious: schadenfreude.

But one downside with the storm of WW3 memes on the internet is the spread of false information. The internet has panicked over the draft, which ignores the fact that the draft no longer exists.

Selective Service still exists, and the vast majority of men 18 years of age or older in the U.S need to register by their 26th birthday.

However, Selective Service is merely in charge of running the draft. In order to reinstate the draft, both houses of Congress would need to pass legislation to restore it.

Another example of recent dark memes is a tweet with the text “gotta start practicing just in case [sic] i [sic] get caught” and

a screenshot of Google Translate. The picture features a translation from English to Arabic, ignoring that 98 percent of Iranians don’t speak Arabic, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Listen here, parents. Memes don’t entirely deserve the blame for this. The spread of false, oversimplified news is a larger problem within modern media, amplified by the rise of cable news and, more recently, social media.

The transformation of global conflict into memes is merely a single facet of a larger phenomenon: Millennials and especially Gen Z-ers have been using memes as a coping mechanism for a difficult and changing world.

According to Pew Research, 13 percent of American teens reported having a major instance of depression in 2017. Young adults are disillusioned with problems they see, but it’s hard for them to change the world. Most teenagers can’t even vote.

As I watch the world around me slowly burn, I’ll sit back, relax, and enjoy watching WW3 TikToks.

An outsider looking at life in California

By David Allen Northgate High School

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his year – my senior year in high school– is my first year as an official resident of California, and I can’t express how grateful I am for the experience.

Although I miss Washington state, a fantastic place to live, there is a certain vibe about the Bay Area that is keenly attractive. With all its icons, influence, history and industry, California makes a gratifying home.

That aside, here are my foreigner impressions to the Californian lifestyle.

The pace of life: Unlike the thoughtful and slow style of a small town, the Bay Area moves in a constant hustle. Plans are spontaneous, not sweated over. The Bay Area is an incredible oasis of opportunity, but the amount of things to do is perpetually overwhelming. It takes some time to adjust to the new speed.

The palm trees: You know you’re in California when you see these topheavy trees break into the skyline. They give a perfect sense of warmth and luxury, especially on the backdrop of a clear blue sky. I can’t get over how cool these are.

The weather: In eastern Washington (where Washington State University is), the climate is extremely seasonal: Heat in summer, high winds in autumn, snowfall in winter, and thunderstorms in spring.

Here in California, the weather is much less varied. Any day here can be spent outdoors (except for the occasional fire day). While this means sports training can continue

year-round, it’s hard to give up the excitement of a dramatic climate.

Where I used to live, December meant I had to wake up early and shovel snow out of the driveway. We could go sledding and build snowmen in our backyard in winter. The frozen fog would leave tiny white icicles all on every exposed surface.

Although California is pleasant, with sunny days late in the year, it’s not quite Christmas here on December 25.

The people: Washingtonians are reserved, they keep to themselves.

In Seattle they tend to be passive-aggressive instead of openly angry. There is a robust reliance on “common sense”, and mistakes are generally not tolerated.

Even at a young age children call out mishaps, starting with harmless typos and butchered words in grade schools and extending to unclear instructions and poor planning in high schools.

Here in California, the people are much less uptight.

They are noticeably open and friendly. The tradeoff is that life here can be chaotic and disorganized, but the atmosphere is overall sunny and warm.

The food: While you may have In-and-Out and avocados, there’s nothing like Starbucks and donuts on a cool, cloudy day in Seattle.

Life isn’t better or worse here, it’s just different. While my heart will always be in the Evergreen State, there’s something satisfying in being called Californian. Moving here has taught me brand names, boba (bubble tea) places, and emotional intelligence. All in all, it’s been an experience I would never give up.

Palms trees are missing in Washington state but common in California. By David Allen, Northgate High School

Life 360 invades teen privacy, destroys trust

By Cayley O'Brien Miramonte High School

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ife 360, an app designed to track and record an individual’s actions and share them with family members, is a popular application for parents of students in the Miramonte community.

Although this application is a great way to ensure the safety of family members, Life 360 is a violation of privacy and destroys the bond of trust between parents and children. Because trust is an integral part of any relationship, parents should not install this invasive application on their teens’ phones.

Life 360 tracks specific locations of the cell phone that the app is installed on. Not only does it simply track current location, it sends every family member in a private and invite-only “circle” a notification when someone leaves a location, arrives at home, school, or work with specific coordinates. It also can track top speed while driving, and instances of fast braking to notify family members of a potential problem on the road.

While Life 360 may be a good method of location tracking, in reality, having one’s parents watch and monitor their child’s every single move creates a sense of paranoia, leading to the damaged trust between parents and teens.

Senior Jordan Goularte does not have the app, but believes it plays a role in the breakdown of trust between family members. “It’s a terrible idea. There’s little to no privacy and it makes kids have to try to lie to their parents just so they don’t get in trouble,” Goul- arte said.

Many teens have found loopholes within the app.

They’ve discovered that putting their phone on airplane mode for a certain time period and returning to their prior location to turn it back on, giving the appearance that the phone has remained in a single location.

There are over 590,000 reviews on the App Store alone, most of them reported by parents rating the app highly. But also among these reviews are teenagers rating the app one star, complaining that “trusting your kid is one thing, but getting a whole tracking system on their phone

to get them in trouble is idiotic,” and “par- ents didn’t have any way of being tracked when they were teenag- ers but they think they have the right to invade our privacy,” and “this app makes me feel like a prisoner with one of those proba- tion ankle trackers”.

Trust is a fundamental part of a parent-child relationship. As children grow into their teen years, bonding with parents becomes more complex.

The restrictions placed on freedom by Life 360 causes teenagers to act out against these limitations, resulting in more rebellious actions.

With every move tracked, parents are robbing their kids of the teenage years that should be filled with mistakes they can learn from, and the independence they need to succeed throughout the rest of their lives. Life 360 also allows parents to obsess over fol- lowing every move

and action of their child.

“It’s funny how many adults who have downloaded this app on their kids’ phones had a childhood where they could go out with friends and not come home bombarded with questions asking why they were stopped at a certain place for 7 minutes or why they were driving 5 miles per hour over the speed limit or why they decided to take a different route to a certain location,” an individual who spoke on the condition of anonymity said.

There are alternatives to this app, such as Apple’s Find My Friends, where parents can track their children’s location in case of emergency without being notified of every single movement their child makes.

In order to maintain a healthy and honest relationship between parents and children, the Life 360 app should not be installed on children’s phones.

Viewpoint

21 A soliloquy with myself 10 years down the road

CC Spin

By Kayli Ann Harley Acalanes High School

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(C) TNS 2020

ear 2030 me, I hope you know that I am proud of you. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, or however you feel, you are still here. You are still standing, whether your legs feel strong and sturdy, or your knees are wobbling and your muscles are shaking and you are seconds away from collapsing.

No matter how many times you hit the floor when you simply could not find the strength to stand, you rose each time, finding the worth in our heart even when our mind could not.

In the moments of life that allow you to embrace happiness, give yourself permission to relinquish yourself to that feeling.

Welcome the warmth into your chest without trying to quarrel it with the coldness of the worry under your skin. I hope you are able to smile without questioning how genuine it is, and laugh without the weight of guilt pressing on your shoulders.

I want you to know that I do not know you. I only know the fragments of you that reside within me. I know that you have changed, and I am okay with the pieces you put back together.

Acknowledge the growth that you have made, even if it meant leaving some parts behind.

I hope you remember the pain, but I also hope you have learned to love yourself without it. I hope you are allowing yourself to live the life you have been given. I understand that you are only 25, but do not use that as an excuse to undermine the life

that you have lived simply because it is not the life you envision in your dreams. Trust that you are capable of creating that life.

I can only hope that you are allowing our heart to shine through over our head sometimes, it always did cower when our thoughts encompassed everything. Each thought became a needle that etched doubt and fear into our heart until they seeped into our blood and swam throughout the entirety of our body. Our body did not shake, it trembled. Our eyes did not cry, they poured.

Our heart did not just bleed, it shattered.

Once I was done staring at the pieces in awe of my pain, I picked them up and got to work. I am putting myself back together.

I blamed our mind for so much, I blamed it for all the pain, all the anxiety, and I blamed it for breaking our heart. I want you to know that our mind is still beautiful, even if it hurts us sometimes; it is still learning to be okay with some things. Forgive it for what it has done.

I can imagine that there is still fear, that the anxiety still gets the better of you. Doubt does not have to hold you by the throat.

Uncertainty means that you are in this world. Uncertainty allows for vulnerability to heal you.

Remember to return home when you need to, it is always there. Remember to feel the calmness of the ground beneath your feet when possible.

I hope that you have filled thousands of pages with the words that pump through your heart to your veins. Run your fingers over the words sometimes, you are a writer, make sure you feel that.

March 2020

Each word is a fragment of your soul. Each sentence is a piece of you that you bravely put into the world. Every phrase is vulnerable. Remember to read me from time to time. I am always in the pages, in the words. I am in it all.

Remember the girl before me, too. I know you long to get her back. Remember that she is still in our hearts, in our eyes. She will never leave us. She is a healthy reminder that we are allowed to smile, laugh, and be happy. She can remind us of the life that grows within us.

Life sprouts from the roots of your feet to the branches of your fingers. From the songs on your lips to the stars in your eyes and the flower of a heart that beats in your chest. The petals reaching and reaching into the sky, grasping everything they can reach.

During the sunsets and sunrises they touch the horizon.

At night, the galaxy of thoughts that expands in your mind is everlasting.

When you look out on the horizons of the earth and admire the immense beauty it radiates, you are getting a glimpse of the fabric of your being. The same beauty that writes the stars into the sky and the trees into the ground is within you. You are life, you embody it. Begin to love yourself the way you love the world.

I love you.

—You This essay was selected as a runner-up in the 2019 national high school essay contest conducted by Lily News, an online newsletter.

Should historical simulations bring suffering into class?

By Vivian Kuang and Kavin Kumaravel Dougherty Valley High School In social studies classrooms around the nation, students are assigned to participate in debates or simulation activities touching on sensitive subjects.

Despite controversy, many teachers pursue simulations to help students understand the experience of living through historical atrocities and to impart knowledge in an engaging manner.

“Sometimes you just learn about numbers, but numbers become meaningless over time,” Dougherty Valley High School World Geography and AP World History teacher Julian Pont explained. He had conducted a simulation of the Middle Passage, the route by which slaves were transported across the Atlantic Ocean, in which students laid under desks in the dark while ocean sounds played and he read an enslaved person’s diary excerpt.

“And then you just hear about one case, and that really impacts you more,” he said.

But while empathy is important, these simulations risk trivializing historical atrocities. This is largely because despite one’s best efforts, such simulation can’t possibly replicate what it was truly like to live through these situations. For example, the mild discomfort students feel lying on a classroom floor is incomparable to the Middle Passage’s horrific conditions, and when students are presented with this comparison, it’s easier for them to dismiss the lasting and far-reaching impacts of these events.

“Simulations that intend to recreate a traumatic experience are not a good idea,” World Geography and AP World History teacher Evan Liddle said. “You run the risk of potentially minimizing real trauma and a real tragedy.”

Additionally, students often laugh off these simulations or joke around, and subsequently the activity leaves them less aware of history, rather than more. Pont explained that at times during his Middle Passage simulation, students “get goofy, which kind of ruins it. They just can’t stop laughing and talking, and then it just kind of kills the whole thing.”

Perhaps the greatest risk of these simulations, however, is that they chance causing trauma for students with personal connections to the event being simulated. For example, assigning African American students to role play as slaves is insensitive, considering that their own ancestors may have actually lived through those events and that the horrific effects of slavery still persist today.

“It was kind of awkward … It just belittles the experience,” Dougherty Valley junior Gabriel Sebhatu said about a Middle Passage simulation in which he was one of two students of African

descent in the class.

While he explained that his parents immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia and he thus does not fully speak for people whose ancestors experienced the slave trade, he added, “I think it’s a problem for a lot of history classes [in] what is considered to be OK to do as an activity.”

History classes also occasionally conduct in-class debates on similarly sensitive historical subjects, such as what civil rights should have been afforded to blacks during the Reconstruction Era, or whether the Trail of Tears was justified. Sometimes, students are asked to determine a winner.

These debates are carried out with the intent of informing students of the controversy and motivations behind these historical events. Teachers explain that they engage students with different opinions and viewpoints, which allows them to grow as thinkers.

“Being devil’s advocate … is one of the best ways to learn because when you’re forced to defend your points and your arguments, that’s when you really fine-tune and make more connections. Then you’re ready for when you have to maybe meet somebody in the real world to counter that [argument],” Pont said.

This is true for some topics, like the benefits of the New Deal or whether the American colonists should have declared independence. But at this point in our history, it’s widely recognized that situations like slavery and the Trail of Tears were immoral.

A productive debate involves an equal division of ground on both sides, with defensible arguments for both; thus, stances in favor of historical atrocities often seem legitimized by the implicit presentation of both sides as seemingly equal, resulting in a reproduction of the same prejudices society has fought so hard to diminish. Furthermore, students end up being assigned to advance morally abhorrent views, making them feel unsafe, especially when they are students of color.

“I just think it takes away from the integrity of the classroom when you ask students to have those lines of reasoning,” senior Lauren Ottley said.

To be clear, we aren’t arguing for the elimination of all simulations or debates in history classes, only those that cover potentially traumatic historical events in insensitive ways. We understand that many activities are often undertaken with the intention of making learning interesting beyond lectures or worksheets, and agree that a focus on interactive learning is beneficial. For example, simulations about federalism in AP U.S. Government or a reenactment of feudal Japan in AP World History both capture student attention while avoiding potentially offensive outcomes.

However, students will still experience engaging learning overall, even if certain sensitive simulations are eliminated.

There are alternatives to insensitive activities that still promote engagement in learning.

Social studies teachers we interviewed offered approaches such as reading firsthand accounts of historical events or watching documentaries or movies. Sebhatu also wondered if debates could be modified to discuss these historical events in a more nuanced way — for instance, debating the different impacts of the Trail of Tears on the Native American community, instead of whether it was justified.

Even if not all of these activities are eliminated, we believe they can be set up differently. Currently, these activities have logistical guidelines, such as how to prepare for them or how students will be graded, but these could be supplemented with guidelines and clear examples that specifically establish how to be respectful and sensitive when discussing such weighted historical events.

Expectations and ground rules, as well as carefully choosing and monitoring such activities to make sure that no lines are crossed, can help prevent students from being inappropriate.

“Whether you are just replicating an event in history, or if you’re just putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes, it’s imperative that expectations are understood,” World History and AP U.S. Government teacher Holly Herrington said. “I think there should also be some type of protocol . . . to keep people from going too far, and understanding that we are not ourselves right now — we’re playing the role of somebody else.”

For example, a discussion behind the reasons for slavery could be prefaced with an explicit statement that as an institution, it was and is morally reprehensible. Furthermore, it could be added prior to the start of the activity that clearly offensive statements and actions — even under the guise of a simulation or debate — will not be tolerated.

While some may believe that this violates potential standards of teacher conduct regarding not taking sides on political issues, this isn’t the case. At its core, making statements about slavery or racism being wrong is not a political stance, but one that supports basic human rights.

“That’s a moral civil rights issue, not a political issue,” Pont said. “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, put forth by Eleanor Roosevelt after World War II, lists 30. A lot of those rights may seem political, but they’re not; they’re rights that all humans are born with, and on those issues, you can definitely take sides.”

We understand that teachers have the best intentions in mind when designing their curriculum and appreciate the immense time and effort they put into crafting activities for their

students’ benefit. At the same time, curriculum is always changing and teachers constantly revise assignments and activities; in line with that, these activities could be revised to more accurately reflect the learning and purpose of the activity.

In the process of writing this article, as we spoke to Pont, he decided to discontinue the Middle Passage simulation for next year’s AP World History students. We hope teachers around the country, including at Dougherty, will take similar steps to create a safer learning environment for their students.

“Most of the time when teachers run those kinds of simulations, they have very noble plans,” said Courtney Konopacky, Stone Valley Middle School eighth grade core teacher and San Ramon Valley Unified School District Teacher on Special Assignment for History Curriculum. “They just don’t realize the common negative effects that it can have on kids. So it’s not something to shame teachers for doing, but to make teachers more aware of avoiding in the future.”

Considering that about 80% of American public school teachers are white, as are the majority of social science teachers here, “good intentions” do not guarantee that students of color aren’t harmed. While these activities may be perceived as harmless, they may not share the same perspectives with students of color, who are burdened by a history of racial oppression that lingers today. Good intentions shouldn’t invalidate these students’ concerns, and as students of color, we hope to encourage white teachers to consider how their intentions may be influenced by their perspective as a white American, as Konopacky has.

“As a white woman, I’ve tried really hard to educate myself first. History teachers pretty much teach what they know. I know that I don’t know the whole story — that in many aspects of American history that I teach, I have to consciously seek out resources so that I can be more conscious in how I’m planning my curriculum for my kids,” Konopacky said. “You have to actively always be working on and extending your own content knowledge as an adult, not thinking you know everything already as a history teacher.”

When appropriate, simulations generally provide positive, engaging learning experiences for students. However, we would like to see schools across America reconsider the way they teach hard, sensitive history.

We can and want to have uncomfortable conversations about race and historical oppression. But there’s a clear distinction between challenging students in order to confront troubling parts of history and facilitating activities that make students feel unsafe in both their premise and execution, even inadvertently.

Ultimately, studying and understanding history is important, but we’d like to leave these activities in the past.

Mental health days key to lifting stress and depression

By Natalie Means Acalanes High School

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or some students, high school is an exciting and memorable chapter in their lives. However, many others feel high school is a source of stress and exhaustion due to challenging classes and demanding teachers.

Every year, parents, faculty, and students have ignored issues like depression, chronic stress, and anxiety, but more students are beginning to vocalize the importance of maintaining a healthy state of mind, especially after the Parkland High School shooting of February 2018.

Aspiring to combat these mental illness in teens, students in Oregon introduced their idea of “mental health days”. Their goal is to prevent incidents like the Parkland shooting by paying more attention to the mental well-being of teens.

On July 1, Oregon legislators passed a law allowing high school students five mental health days for every three months of school. Utah also accepts “mental health” as a valid excuse to

miss school. Currently, Oregon and Utah are the only states with revised laws to support students’ mental health.

Schools in Oregon and Utah hope students will use their time away from school to rest and get help if their mental fatigue is extreme, but this new law does come at the risk of students taking advantage of this policy and missing too much school.

Mental health days “could help benefit some students, but at the same time, I think you would have those who would abuse it too much and they would start falling behind even more in school,” senior Mikaela Valerio said.

Every two years, ninth and eleventh-grade students in California take the California Healthy Kids Survey. The 2015 survey found that 13 percent of ninth-grade students and 25 percent of eleventh-grade students have missed school because of a lack of sleep. Also, 7 percent of ninth-grade students and 23 percent of eleventh-grade students reported they missed school because they were unprepared for a test or behind in schoolwork.

“I definitely think it would be helpful to be excused from school if you were lacking on sleep or extra stressed out,”

sophomore Brooke Blacklidge said. “Sometimes I spend too much time doing work or sports the night before and won’t get to bed until late.”

Acalanes teachers recognize the sleepiness of some students day-to-day but are reluctant to accept mental health days as the solution to sleep deprivation.

“I do think there are a lot of students at Acalanes who are really stressed out, experience a lot of anxiety, depression, and there are a lot of people who are going through that, but I don’t know that mental health days in itself would be the solution,” Human and Social Development teacher Monica Voellm said.

Although it does not look like Acalanes will be adopting the same policy as Oregon and Utah anytime soon, there are plenty of resources on campus for students seeking help with their mental health, namely the Wellness Center.

“The idea of the wellness center is to give [students] a place to go and to connect them back to the classroom and provide them support and get them back in the classroom,” Acalanes Union High School District Superintendent, John Nickerson said.

On top of sleep deprivation, the California survey reported 8 percent of ninth graders and 16 percent of eleventh-grade students have missed school because they felt depressed, sad, hopeless, anxious, stressed, or angry.

“Depression, stress, and anxiety are probably the thing that people come in for the most,” Acalanes Wellness Center Manager, Allen Choi said. Since the opening of the Wellness Center last year, students now have a place to go to if they are feeling mentally fatigued or want to talk to mental health professionals, without being away from school.

Administrators currently see the Wellness Center as a better option for Acalanes students than mental health days, especially since there are certain drawbacks to taking time off from school.

“We know it kind of snowballs when you miss school and with stress and anxiety. The more you miss, the bigger that snowball becomes and the more difficult it becomes to re-enter reality.

I love the idea of a no-worry, no-stress, take-a-day-off plan but I’m not sure how it is going to play out in the other states first,” Nickerson said.

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Halsey unveils her inner mind in album ‘Manic’

By Lauren Chen and Harshita Neralla Dougherty Valley High School

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eleasing her third studio album “Manic” on Jan. 17, Halsey reverts to her hollowed vocals and rebellious lyrics, finding creative solace within her own life and focusing on the person behind her persona: 25-year-old New Jersey native Ashley Frangipane.

Incorporating concepts from her imagination, Halsey’s first two releases were both concept albums about fictional worlds and people. However, “Manic” completely reinvents her style, turning fully to her own story and dropping the stage persona she’s built up over the years. The songs are disjointed, but this sheds light on the album’s theme and title, as Halsey has openly talked about living with bipolar disorder and wrote parts of the album while “experiencing an extended manic period,” according to an interview with CNN. Fans got their first glimpse of “Manic” back in October 2018 from chart-topper “Without Me.” Halsey revealed in an interview with Zane Lowe last year that this was the first song she’d ever written as Ashley, not Halsey.

“No wig, no colorful hair, no character … [“Without Me”] is about my life and about my relationship [with G-Eazy] that the

world has watched so closely.” With snappy background vocals and biting lyrics, Halsey cycled her way through various radio stations and set the stage for the rest of her album.

“Ashley,” Halsey’s first name, opens the 16-track album and serves as an introduction to the artist’s mind. The self-focused nature of this album appears immediately, aided by a sample from Kate Winslet’s character, Clementine, from the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” This transitions into the second track of the album, “clementine,” also inspired by “Eternal Sunshine.”

Sonically, this album is chaotic, tentative of a cohesive sound.

Taking a more patchwork-quilty sound, Halsey explores multiple genres spanning from country to singer-songwriter. In “You should be sad,” Halsey blends country and pop in a post-breakup song while channeling various musical idols, including Christina Aguilera and Shania Twain, in the music video. Though the song is catchy, the artist’s overall attempt at genre-blending is ineffectual. Halsey even steps into a new light as a romantic lyricist, painting a picture of the shy and daring first few moments of a relationship in “Finally // beautiful stranger.” She writes unapologetically, and this song without self-deprecation or a punchline is definitely a standout.

Other highlights of the album include “More,” an emotional

The legacy of PC music is growing

By Mason Montano Pinole Valley High School

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n case you were unaware, the latter half of 2013 was a pop culture event! New artists, like New Zealand singer Lorde and American singer and actress Ariana Grande, were taking the mainstream music scene by storm, and already established acts, like American singer and actress Miley Cyrus and pop legend Lady Gaga, were reinventing themselves in fresh and exciting ways, and it was during this period of pop excellence that PC Music emerged.

PC Music is a London-based record label and art collective founded in June 2013 by British producer, singer, and musical genius A.G. Cook that is known for its surreal interpretation and experimental approach to pop music through a combination of avant pop, bubblegum pop, and hyper pop with elements of kawaii, camp, and Y2K culture.

The label’s sound is characterized by high-pitched, feminine vocals and bright, synthetic textures; and its image embraces the aesthetics of advertising, consumerism, corporate branding, and cyberculture.

Many of its acts use an alias in order to obscure both their identity and the number of artists signed to the label, and early on in its lifetime, PC Music kept tight control over its interactions with the press in order to maintain a certain image of digital secrecy. Over time, however, the label gradually loosened its grip and became much more open about the identity of its artists and the way it operates.

The reaction to PC Music has always been polarizing, with some critics praising it as “innovative” while others dismissed it as “noise”, and despite making a name for itself in the U.K. and achieving mild chart success — Hannah Diamond’s November 2014 single, “Every Night”, reached No. 28 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, becoming the first PC Music artist to impact a mainstream music chart — within its first two years, the label had not yet impacted the international market, but that was about to change.

In February 2016, after working on her third studio album with Cook as her creative director and PC Music affiliate SOPHIE as her primary producer, English singer-songwriter Charli XCX — a commercially successful and well-established artist who impacted charts everywhere with massive hits like “I Love It” and “Boom Clap”, dropped her controversial Vroom Vroom EP and changed the face of pop music forever.

Vroom Vroom marked a turning point in the pop world, as it was the first time PC Music was presented to the eye of the mainstream, and just like anything that dares to bring something new to the tasteless GP, Vroom Vroom was met with mixed to negative reception upon its initial release, with some even going as far to deem it “unlistenable”.

The negativity surrounding Vroom Vroom didn’t stop Charli, though, as she continued this new sound with her 2017 mixtapes Number 1 Angel and POP2, inspiring a new generation of artists to follow in her footsteps and pioneer a movement within the underground pop music scene that emulates the sound and style of PC Music.

These new artists; which include American singer Slayyyter, Australian producer Donatachi, and Spanish singer and rapper Rakky Ripper; have found great success within this newfound community, receiving praise from critics, who have not only given PC Music and Vroom Vroom a second chance, hailing the latter as “bold” and “ahead of its time”, but are finally starting to recognize the cultural significance of PC Music and giving proper credit where credit is due.

PC Music isn’t just a weird, British novelty act. It’s a boundarypushing collective of talented innovators who have pioneered the future of pop and the future of music in general. This is the legacy of PC Music.

The label’s sound is characterized by high-pitched, feminine vocals and bright, synthetic textures; . . . its image embraces the aesthetics of advertising, consumerism, corporate branding, and cyberculture.

song rumored to be about the singer’s past miscarriages, and “929,” the closing track of the album. “929” takes its name from Halsey’s birthday, and the stream-of-consciousness lyricism works surprisingly well over simple instrumentals. Contrastingly, “forever … (is a long time)” and “I HATE EVERYBODY” are mostly forgettable.

The album is also interspersed with interludes from featured artists. Dominic Fike, a singer and rapper from Florida, sings about “brotherly love,” as described by Halsey. Alanis Morisette, one of Halsey’s musical idols, joins her on a track about empowerment in a bisexual anthem. (Halsey has frequently mentioned her bisexuality, as in past songs “Bad at Love” and “Strangers.”)

Finally, Suga from BTS (Halsey collaborated with the Korean boy band on “Boy with Luv,” not featured on “Manic”) raps about the costs of fame in “Suga’s Interlude.”

“Manic”’s tracklist is jarring, jumping from softer songs such as “clementine” to the roaring “3am” and radio-friendly “Graveyard.” It’s a drastic change from her previous works, which followed mostly linear storylines and cohesive sounds. The constant jumping between sounds is harsh and often pulls the listener away from the experience. However, the overall album is a very entertaining listen, with enough variety and appeal for both devoted fans and casual listeners.

Manic is the third and latest album by Halsey, released by Capitol Records, http://www.manicthealbum.com/.

Online dating challenges 21st Century teens

By Nicole Prozan and Zoe Cate Acalanes High School

“Y

ou have a new match!”

Gone are the days of love letters, candlelit dinners, and formal courtship. The new norm consists of late-night texts, unopened snapchats, and swiping in a multitude of directions. Though most assume the world of online dating exists exclusively for adults, Acalanes students indicate the magnitude of its far-reaching influence.

Some look for love or an escape from boredom. Others just look for instant validation from strangers. Through an array of apps, many students explore online dating.

Teens use apps, including those specifically aimed for children under 18 such Yellow, or apps meant for adults such as Tinder and Bumble.

We spoke to four Acalanes students regarding their illicit use of dating apps. Because none of these students is legally able to use these apps, those quoted have been renamed Student 1 through 4.

A few apps, such as Yellow, market to children under 18 on the premise of, “Making new friends,” as the app’s description states. However, much like commonly known dating apps, users upload pictures of themselves, biographies, and ultimately swipe left and right on other profiles.

“When I was younger, I used apps like Yellow that was specifically aimed for teens. It was fun, and I was able to talk to people who I never would have met otherwise. No relationships formed from the app,” Student 1 said.

Yellow features include live streaming, private messaging, and swiping. Users have the option to swipe on people closest to them geographically, or on others from anywhere in the world.

Users on Yellow often begin using the app with innocent intentions. Yellow provides an initial platform for children to engage in conversations. Once this becomes dull, however, users often look to more mature apps.

“I used Tinder with a friend of mine. We were bored, so we got the app as a joke so we could talk to random people and have conversations that I normally wouldn’t have. It was honestly pretty fun and exciting,” Student 2 said.

Although dating apps like Tinder sometimes lure young users, they also highlight statutory issues that are of-

The new Kanye puzzles his fans

By Zack Lara Acalanes High School

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ans say Kanye West has gone off the rails after revealing plans to run for president, change his legal name, and devote himself to Christian music.

Some suspect his ego has driven him mad, while others say he’s following God. Fans debate whether to shake their heads or shout Hallelujah as West preaches love for Jesus and prepares to lead America in his true colors: President Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West.

West strives for an entire makeover to his identity following the fall debut of his album, ‘Jesus is King’. The renowned hip hop star first announced plans at the Fast Company Innovation Festival regarding his presidential campaign and his legal name change to ‘Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West’.

In regard to the new album, fans say West’s empowering Christian influence in hip hop further exemplifies his unique innovation and pioneer status in the music industry.

West kicked off his revolution in October with the highly anticipated and rather spontaneous release of “Jesus

ten overlooked when teenagers first register for these apps.

“I think it is kind of beguiling because unless you denote your age in the description, I think it touches on a really charged subject of statutory issues,” senior Camryn Langley said. “Honestly, under the law minors have so much protection and that is absolutely not the fault of the people on Tinder for making advances towards minors.”

Student 2 was conscious of the dangers of Tinder when she registered, thus she was careful with how she presented herself on the app.

“I think that as long as you stay smart about what kinds of pictures you upload and what kinds of conversations you’re having, they’re pretty safe. I didn’t run into any unsafe situations and maybe that’s because I got lucky but I think part of it was because I used a lot of caution when displaying myself,” Student 2 said.

Some students, feeling as though their dating pool is currently limited, use dating apps as a way to explore new possibilities.

“Online dating can be important to gay teens who feel isolated. I only got the app to swipe through girls. I don’t think I would have gotten it for guys,” Student 3 said.

According to the Pew Research Center, 1 in 4 teens have dated someone they first encountered online. As online dating becomes more prevalent, many fear that young people have trouble connecting with each other face to face.

“I think online dating is making us stray from dating Is King,” Kanye West’s first shot at Gospel music.

The album features 11 songs, all generally emphasizing the importance of exercising Christian values and pursuing salvation. From start to finish, Chick-Fil-A to Jesus Christ Kanye exposes his religious side and embraces the Christian morale.

Though very Christian, many believe “Jesus is King” briefly relieves the modern hip-hop industry of popular obsession with sex, violence, and flexing. Modern artists restrict the genre to these minimal and extensively repetitive themes, but here West introduces something new, and he could very well be expanding the horizon for rap as he has done in the past.

“Overall it’s a pretty good listen with a lot of decent songs,” Acalanes sophomore Matt Walner said. “But I feel like his fans, including me, rushed him a little bit in trying to drop the album.”

Walner expressed that the transition to Gospel did not concern him, so long as his music can testify to the traditional Kanye quality.

“I think the music he makes will always be something to marvel at because of his creativity and his passion for music,” Walner said. “[Concerning] his new ‘hobby’ of religion - I think it’s a fad he’s going through,” Kanye frequently expresses false claims in the media to get attention.

“He speaks what is on his mind,” sophomore Davis Frolich said. “He can do whatever he wants. I don’t agree

in real life. People nowadays are much more comfortable sending a message on Tinder or sliding into someone’s DMs than they are going to go talk to someone at a party. We are more comfortable behind our screens because it isn’t as anxiety-inducing or nerve-wracking,” Student 4 said.

Additionally, users find comfort in their ability to mold their online persona while hiding behind a screen.

“You are really getting a refined perspective of that person and a lot of times your dating career is determined by your ability to text well which is just not reflective of one person’s entire personality,” Langley said. “And especially with electronics, it’s like you are always with that person instead of hanging out with them and going home, I think it can be really harsh on a young person’s mental health to have that constant connection.”

While some users enjoy the privacy and discretion of meeting behind a screen, others utilize dating apps to form real and long-lasting relationships. Student 3 met her girlfriend on Tinder; an opportunity that never would have presented itself without the platform that dating apps provide.

“We talked for a week before the meeting, we also FaceTimed before meeting. We wanted to meet in real life because texting is not the same. It was awkward for a bit but then after a few minutes it was fine.

“Originally, I felt weird about meeting her ‘cause you never know who someone is based off their profile really,” Student 3 said.

Many students actively use precaution throughout online encounters.

“I actively don’t post where I live, or other sensitive information on dating apps. It even can be unsafe to link social media accounts, as those contain more sensitive information,” Student 1 said.

Student 2 was conscious of the dangers of Tinder when she registered, thus she was careful with how she presented herself.

“I think that as long as you stay smart about what kinds of pictures you upload and what kinds of conversations you’re having, they’re pretty safe. I didn’t run into any unsafe situations and maybe that’s because I got lucky but I think part of it was because I used a lot of caution when displaying myself. “ with some of the [stuff] he says but you’ve got to respect the dominance it shows.”

Kanye West has now moved his public persona into the political arena. (Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment/ Abaca Press)

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Generational collision in a decade of cinema

By Lauren Chen, Shruthi Narayanan, Drishti Upadhyaya Dougherty Valley High School

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he 2010s saw a generational collision. The plastic of the past. The promises of the future. The world changed as a new generation came of age. A new, tech-savvy generation that started the shift to streaming services.

A new, young generation who found comfort in familiar tales. A new, diverse generation who intended to make the film industry more accepting. A new generation who took control of Hollywood’s reins and drastically changed film in a span of 10 years.

As we leave the 2010s, we can see that there were many changes in pop culture during that period, especially in film.

These changes were monumental, and caused the decade’s movies to be unlike any others.

Streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu have created original blockbusters exclusive to their respective websites in order to garner large audiences. From beloved movies such as “Roma” to absolute disasters such as the live action “Death Note” adaptation, original movies captivated people

around the world in positive and negative ways.

Many Netflix original movies have managed to gain Oscar nominations. “Roma,” a Spanish movie, gave Netflix their first best picture, best director, and best actress, along with many more nominations and as well as grossing $5.1 million in the box office, showing how the internet and the rise of streaming services have allowed people to experience entertainment from all around the world, which they previously were unable to unless they looked at independent films, not blockbusters.

Many other films were also able to rack up Oscar nominations, despite being made by streaming services. In total, 15 Oscar categories were nominated by 16 different films, and four of them managed to win their respective categories.

Even with so much new content this decade, it’s clear that moviegoers still enjoy sticking to what they know, a fact on which movie studios are more than willing to capitalize. Sequels, series and sagas boomed this decade, particularly within the science fiction genre.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) released a whopping 20 films between 2011 and 2019, and Star Wars released its final trilogy as well as two feature-length spin-offs, “Rogue One: A

Star Wars Story” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Not surprisingly, the three top-grossing films of the decade were either Star Wars or MCU movies.

There isn’t one clear reason why these movies appeal to so many people, but most like the sense of familiarity that sequels provide, as well as a sense of nostalgia from continuations older films, as seen with the Star Wars trilogies.

Familiarity sells not only in storytelling, but also in casting.

The world we know today is incredibly diverse, though this wasn’t always reflected in film. Hollywood pushed films centered around cishet white leads, often casting people of color or queer actors as stereotypical caricatures. Whitewashing plagued the 2010s, notably in “Aloha” and “Ghost in the Shell.”

Despite these shortcomings, representation in Hollywood drastically improved this past decade. 2013 was a huge turning point for black representation, with five acclaimed films featuring primarily black casts. Thirteen black actors and actresses won Oscars this decade.

Asian representation also took a positive turn, with “Fresh Off the Boat” becoming the first American sitcom with Asian main characters. “Crazy Rich Asians” continued this trend as the first

Campus custodians are unsung heroes

By Angela Paloma California High School

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hey’re not seen frequently, and when they are, they’re typically overlooked. They are the unsung heroes of Cal High: the custodians.

And they are led by one man: Roberto Manrique.

Manrique has worked at California High School since April 2007. He and his night crew spend eight to 10 hours a day preparing the school so it looks as nice as it does every morning when students and staff arrive on campus for another day of school. “[There are] a lot of kids here doing practice, sports, activities, and meetings,” Manrique said. “So it is pretty busy at night in addition to the cleaning.”

Ricky Galvao is one of only three custodians who work the day shift. Galvao, who has worked at Cal since 2012, arrives at 6 a.m. every morning to unlock all of the school’s main entryways, turn on all the lights, and set up the commons.

Galvao prepares and cleans the school, including the parking lot, every day until 1 p.m., when two more custodians come take over the cleaning duties.

When Manrique arrives for his shift in the afternoon, he checks the school calendar and ensures every school event or activity, such as Fright Fest and homecoming, has what it needs to run smoothly.

He then assigns the other custodians to their buildings and projects for their daily duties.

Most of the night custodians arrive on campus around 3 p.m. They have 15-minute to half hour meetings every day, where they discuss daily work that needs to be done, joke around and bond as a team.

Many students don’t realize how much work is required

to clean up after as many as 2,885 students.

But the school and district certainly understand their important role on campus. In fact, Manrique was selected as one of the district’s Classified Employees of the Year in 2012.

He also was also honored earlier this year as Cal’s Shining Star by the San Ramon Valley Education Foundation.

“Our custodians obviously don’t get enough recognition,” junior Kelly Kyutoku said. “No one really thinks about the work they do to keep our school looking the way it is.”

It is fair to say that Cal’s campus is very large, especially with 12 buildings and the outdoor areas, including the quad and parking lot to maintain.

Many students think Cal has a pretty dirty campus. What they don’t realize is that the custodians try to clean the entire school every night, but new messes are inevitably made by students each day.

“Overall, the custodians do a great job cleaning up,” sophomore Apara Jella said.

Aside from trash, students have also been seen spitting on floors and throwing junk inside empty lockers.

“We don’t give [the custodians] enough credit for cleaning up our mess,” senior Liana Wong said.

Since trash and filth is not uncommon around Cal, people have simply learned to deal with it.

“I’ve just become accustomed to it,” Wong said. “[It’s] a major problem, because something has to be done about it.”

Fortunately, Manrique thinks the campus is improving and students are beginning to pick up their trash. But he’d like students to know more about recycling.

“The recycling bins in the main building are 50/50, garbage and recycling,” Manrique said.

Above all the trash and food scattered around campus, Manrique says the worst mess his crew has had to deal with is cruel vandalism, which often includes racial slurs, scrawled

in the school bathrooms.

Unfortunately, it happens more than students realize, but the hardworking custodians always get rid of the harsh words quickly. Still, the vandalism is Manrique’s least favorite part of the job.

Even with all the messes created by students, the custodians still love them.

“My favorite part of the job is seeing the kids,” Galvao said.

But contrary to many students’ beliefs, the custodians do more than simply clean the school.

Sure, they work tirelessly to ensure that Cal is in the best condition for students when they arrive in the morning. But without the custodians, many would find that they do not have all the supplies they need for various events or access to certain buildings.

One of Manrique’s favorite stories is the time before a Mr. Cali show, Cal’s annual male pageant, when Manrique sent newly-hired custodian Jose Flores to be in charge of the theatre.

At the time, Flores had not worked at Cal for very long, so he wasn’t yet familiar with campus events.

When students arrived to prepare for the show, Flores would not let any of them in the theater until “Mr. Cali” arrived, thinking that “Mr. Cali” was the teacher in charge.

To this day, Manrique and Flores still laugh about this rookie mistake.

Although their jobs are tough, the custodians enjoy the time they spend at Cal, especially the time they spend together as a team. “[The other custodians] make me want to go to work everyday,” Galvao said. “Manrique is not just a good boss, he’s also my friend.”

Jonas Brothers smash return to Bay Area

By Gabby Ceccarelli Monte Vista High School

T

he Jonas Brothers are back and better than ever as the three brothers lit up the stage at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Dec. 12, 2019.

The band of brothers sang a mixture of classic, old school Jonas Brothers songs from their first couple of albums such as “A Little Bit Longer” and “Lines, Vines, and Trying Times.” But the majority of the songs were from their newest album, “Happiness Begins.”

After a long six-year break, Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, and Kevin Jonas reunited in early March of last year and released a new song “Sucker.” This song was a part of the “Happiness Begins,” which was number one on Billboard’s Top 100 for 26 weeks.

Despite the long absence, Jo Bro fever and fans are stronger than ever. At Oracle Arena, fans of all ages were wearing new band merchandise, although most were still sporting old vintage band tees from their first concerts such as “The Burnin’ Up Tour.”

Fans came to rock out with the brothers and it seemed that the band jumped right back to when they were teens, giving an energetic and enthusiastic performance.

When the band split up in 2013, I was shocked because they were just at the height of their musical careers. The Happiness Begins Tour gave fans the chance to hear favorite old school songs, but also the band’s new mature album.

From the moment the three appeared on the stage, there were 30,000 fans screaming at the top of their lungs watching the three brothers belt out “Rollercoaster.”

They performed “S.O.S,”“When You Look Me in the Eyes,” and “That’s Just the Way We Roll.” Most of the screams came from when they started singing songs from their Disney Channel roots.

As the melody to “Gotta Find You” from the Disney Channel Original Movie, “Camp Rock,” played a wave of excitement spread through the crowd. Everyone was sway-

The Jonas Brothers perform at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/TNS. ing their hands and singing. The song electrified the crowd, bringing me back to my days of yelling this song while dancing around my room.

Fans were shocked when Nick Jonas began singing his hit single, “Jealous.” That was followed by Joe Jonas singing “Cake by the Ocean” from when he was in the band DNCE. Fans were surprised that Nick and Joe Jonas decided to include music from their solo careers to the set list.

The Happiness Begins Tour had a variety of songs that highlighted each of the individual brothers’ strengths. Even though it has been years since they performed together, nothing has changed.

Kevin continued to play all different musical instruments

while Joe sang and did cool tricks with his microphone, and Nick was somewhere in between often switching between the two.

The band of brothers made the concert fun and exciting with fun blow up machines, confetti, and glow in the dark floating bouncy balls. They perfectly balanced their past and present songs, so no matter how old you were, there was a song you could sing.

They ended the night by singing their iconic song, “Burnin’ Up,” which was literally flaming hot as fire appeared on the stage. The fire was a captivating touch to the concert that added an element of danger and adventure.

The last song of the night was their 2019 hit, “Sucker.”

Hollywood film since 1993 to star a majority Asian cast.

With greater diversity came more personal storytelling in film. Familiarity connects to audiences better than the unknown.

Representation also served as a response to the ever changing political climate. Under Barack Obama’s presidency, the LGBTQ+ community was granted greater rights. With the legalization of same-sex marriage came greater LGBTQ+ representation in Hollywood, and movies like “Call Me by Your Name” and “Moonlight” received critical acclaim. In contrast, under Donald Trump’s presidency, racial tensions rose as police brutality continued against black people. Films such as “The Hate U Give” served as a response to the oppression and provided greater representation.

Overall, the 2010s brought monumental changes to Hollywood. Movies were released to the world digitally, not just in theatres. Sequels and sagas abounded. There was increased awareness of cultural, racial, and social representation. As the new decade begins, the 2020s are sure to bring many more changes into the film industry. Maybe a new Golden Age of Hollywood will arise with glamorous movie stars and films making lots of money.

A gem in the rough

Adam Sandler at the 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards at the Beach on Feb. 8 in Santa Monica, Calif. (Kay Blake/Zuma Press/TNS)

By Brooklyn Weber Monte Vista High School

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hen you think of Adam Sandler, your mind quickly goes to the loveable, goofy guy he portrays in movies such as “The Waterboy,”“Grown Ups,” and many more alike. But in his latest film, “Uncut Gems,” Sandler takes on a pivotal career role that some thought would garner his first Oscar nomination.

And although he didn’t get the nomination, it was a tough year for the academy due to so many brilliant performances. But Adam Sandler will go down as one of the biggest Oscar snubs of the year.

From the minds of filmmakers Benny and Josh Safdie comes this modern crime film that shows the world that the Safdie brothers have earned their spot in Hollywood following their 2017 hit, “Good Time.”

With its 92 certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, critics, including myself, are all in agreement that “Uncut Gems” is one of the best films of the year.

“Uncut Gems” follows the life of Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a Jewish diamond dealer in New York City with a serious gambling addiction. Although diamond dealing is usually an occupation built around trust, Ratner is quite the opposite. The middle-aged dealer is wrapped up in so many different bets and schemes at once, one could only wonder how he’s kept it together this long.

“Uncut Gems” is a suspenseful rollercoaster that toys with your imagination and stresses you out the whole journey. The suspense built throughout the film is fist-clenching and “Uncut Gems” could only be described as anxiety-inducing for the viewer, with very high highs and low lows.

As the movie progresses “Uncut Gems” will leave you at the front of your chair and you will find yourself with your eyes almost shut at moments. And just when you think you’ve figured this film out the Safdie brothers prove you wrong.

Sandler was born to play Ratner. He’s had some lackluster films from years recently and even the dubious honor of receiving numerous “Razzie,” nominations and wins, an award given out by the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation for the worst cinematic underachievements. So “Uncut Gems” is really a step back in the right direction for Sandler.

I have never seen anything quite like “Uncut Gems.” The use of actual basketball footage throughout the film and appearances by now-retired NBA great Kevin Garnett and Grammy-winning R&B artist “The Weekend” in theory may seem corny, but I can assure it is not. It only makes the film more unique. In addition, the visually beautiful transitions and cinematography make this film a true gem.

“Uncut Gems” is one of the best movies I’ve seen start to finish. The Safdie brothers have done it once again. And although Sandler wasn’t nominated for his first Oscar, he would go on to win the best male lead at the Independent Spirit Awards, where he delivered a heartfelt speech while also poking fun at the academy for his Oscar snub.

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March 2020

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BACK PAGE

CC Spin

e are journalism students at Richmond High School working on a project to showcase the diverse stories that make up our community. We sought out classmates, teachers, staff members, and complete strangers in order to gather these stories. We recognize the flawed, one-sided reputation our city has. This project aims to challenge that reputation and reveal multiple truths about the people who live here. For more stories, visit our website at humansofrichmondca.wordpress.com or find us on Facebook & Instagram when my parents were around. I came here with an image of how my parents looked and acted, and after 18 years I had expected them to be the same.

But no, everything had changed. I didn’t feel happy because everything was different and the melancholy had gotten to me.

It was the price to pay for seeing my family again.”

“When I graduated from high school in 2006, I was still undocumented. I couldn’t pay for university even though I was accepted to UC Berkeley. My solution for that took me a long time. It took me 10 years to finish college. From 2006 I found a job that I could use to save money, so I could go to U.C. Berkeley and pay on my own. I came back again in 2009 and I paid on my own for that semester, thinking that during that semester my documents were going to change. I thought I was going to become a legal resident but it didn’t happen. I had to go back to my hometown and continue working. Luckily, my parents had applied for our legal status in 2001, so in 2012 we finally became legal residents, and I was able to come back to school and I finished my degree.

It took a lot of patience: working, saving and struggling mentally with accepting that this was my life. But I knew I couldn’t let my dream go.”

By Abraham Alaniz

By Karina Vaca Mora

By Christofer Leon “I was a month away from turning 10. I think like any big event in history, anyone who experienced it remembers where they were. For me, I was in my classroom and the secretary from my school came in, told the teacher something, and they both started crying.

I remember they were pulling kids out and then probably 15 minutes later the whole school went on lockdown and we were all put in the gym. Every school in the immediate area of New York City was on lockdown. We were sitting there and we didn’t know what was happening. Then someone who worked in the school came in and said, ‘Someone commited suicide and flew a plane into the World Trade Center.’

The towers went down around 9:30 a.m. and around 11, school ended and they sent everyone home. My mom got us and a bunch of my friends whose parents were still working and took us home.

She still didn’t know what was going on and nobody in real time knew what had happened yet, just that the towers had gone down. As the day progressed, my mom and I went to a park near my house and we just looked across the water and the whole city looked like it was up in smoke.

My dad called and he was on his way to work in Queens and he was on the bridge and he had been there the entire time and watched the towers go down. That night, my mom got a phone call from one of my aunts and my cousin who worked in the World Trade Center was missing, and they haven’t been able to reach him.

In the days after that there were a lot of stories like that. The way that it worked with that event was that even if it was very clear weeks after if the person was still not found, if they haven’t found the remains yet, they were still declared missing. We all knew that my cousin was most likely dead as he hadn’t been heard from or found in the week after.

Starting in October, my school held funerals every day, as it was attached to a church.

That went on for a good year. And my cousin, his remains were found, his bones were found like six months later in March of 2002 and he was officially declared dead. I think we had his funeral that month.”

By Jordan Espinoza Ramirez “The happiest day of my life was getting to see my parents again after 18 years.

I had to move to the United States to find the stability that I couldn’t find in my country. I migrated to the United States to find it.

Moments before I got to see my parents again my heart was beating super hard. It felt like it was going to pop right out of my chest.

And when I got to meet them, I didn’t know how to feel. I was happy, emotional.

It’s something I had never felt before. However, after that had happened, I didn’t exactly feel happy

By Tahayla Sylvain “My mom almost got deported because of her being an (undocumented) immigrant. It was back when immigrants couldn’t get a driver’s license. She was driving illegally with only insurance on her car and there was a police checkpoint that checked to see if you’re drunk or have drugs on you or hold to check if you had insurance and a license and they checked my mom and luckily it was an Hispanic cop and he told us that if it was another cop she could’ve gotten deported.

I was really scared and thought she would get deported, leaving us forever.”

“Ever since my father began to work in L.A. I barely get a chance to see him. But when he does come, I feel whole again. When my father was around more, a typical day with the family would start off with us going to have breakfast at IHOP. He loves it there because of their omelets. It’s his favorite place to eat at. We spend a lot of time in there. Then at around 12 we would usually go to Ross and do some clothes shopping. My mom and my sisters would also get clothes. My dad does not buy anything, so I get two colognes, one for him and one for me. At the end of the day, we all go home and talk about how life treats us. He asks me about school and I ask him about work while we clean up the yard.

These moments make me happy. Usually, I work on weekends so I don’t get to see him much.

One day, we will all be together again.”

HUMANS OF RICHMOND

By Abraham Alaniz

By Ronishilla Maraj “My most terrible memory was when we were moving out of our house. We were evicted and it was hard because we were moving out in the cold during Christmas and New Year’s time. Everyone was stressed out. We didn’t even know where we were going to end up and we didn’t really have a lot of money since my mom is the only one working. It was stressful then and it is stressful now.

But I feel like the main thing was that there was drama during the time and the stress mixed with our overall emotions, making us angrier than we already had (been).

Leaving the house I basically grew up in broke my heart and it was like I was leaving a part of my childhood.”

By Reyna Ramirez “I think my dad’s stepmom is a witch. When I went to Mexico to visit her, a lot of scary things happened. Last night, out of nowhere, I was fixing my suitcase. Because seeing it messy bothers me and I just don’t like it. As I was fixing it, I pulled out a pair of jeans and I felt something.

So I threw it and a black scorpion came out.

I stepped on it, but then I questioned myself on how that got inside. Days later I was eating pan dulce, bien agusto que me lo estaba comiendo. I felt something and it was a ball of yarn. Pan dulce que comes de la tienda. Pink yarn. My grandma did a holy cleanse on me, when I went back she said, ahora que estabas haya te hicieron algo, which means that somebody had done something to me.

Then my tio passed away and my step-grandma had gone to the hospital. I was looking at her and she was whispering to herself. She stood up and said, ‘Well, I hope he gets better, I’m leaving now because I have to do a lot of work.’ After she had left, three minutes later my uncle died.

I (didn’t think) about it at first but now that I have, I keep on asking myself what she was saying to herself, why did she leave all of a sudden.”

Humans of Richmond is modeled after Humans of New York, a series of photos and stories that became a model for Humans of in many parts of the world.

Here the interviewees remain anonymous with only their pictures for identification.

Listed in each photo is the name of the reporter who conducted the interview.

“The way I grew up, we didn’t live in a rich place, so we would be limited on resources. So to me I would always feel like we really had nothing. I remember my parents could only take me to shop at Marshall’s and Ross.

I wouldn’t wanna go because I would feel embarrassed to be seen in there. In elementary I remember I would always want my friends to come over but we didn’t grow up with fortune, so every time I would think ‘Oh should I invite him?’ I would think, ‘What would they do?’ I didn’t have an Xbox or anything so I couldn’t really entertain them. All I could do were home games that I made up which probably seemed poor to them, and I didn’t want them to perceive me that way.

So I would just avoid every time they would ask me ‘Where do you live?’ because our house wasn’t that great. But my parents made the best of it.They made me feel safe. It shaped me to appreciate what I have now. I just think of it as ‘that’s all they could get me’, so I appreciate it more.”

By Abraham Alaniz “The weirdest thing for me is that my kid is transgender. There was never any indication that ‘he’ felt like ‘she.’ I never had any clue. I’m not saying I’m not close to my kid; me and my kid are so close.

We talk about everything and there was never any indication.

During her senior year, she seemed more withdrawn and not really open and forthright, and for 17 years she was open and we talked about everything.

I would ask her, ‘Something’s on your heart, what’s going on’ and she would say, ‘Oh, I’m learning about sexuality.’

I thought maybe she was gay. I had the same attitude towards her decision and it wasn’t until college, which is in Washington, and we talk every Sunday having family Facetimes, and it was then when she said ‘I’m not Greg anymore, I’m Grace.’

At first it felt strange, but I wasn’t unwilling or unable to say this is my daughter.

The thing that I found to be most interesting was other people’s reactions, because I would say ‘My son isn’t my son anymore, my son is my daughter’ and some people you thought were OK would get tense and really tight about the whole situation.

I don’t have any problem with her being transgender or her sexuality because I just want people to be the best you every day.”

By Marina Knowles “My regret is not trying this year in school and my grades going down just because I wanted to have fun. I just regret that. I was doing good at the beginning of last year, but I started to just hang out with friends and my grades started going down and they stayed like that through this year. I realized I was messing up when I started getting a lot of truancy letters. The principal had a talk with me and my mom about me coming to school and what I was going to do after high school – basically just talking about life.

I realized that messing up in school now is really going to hurt me later. I’m not trying to make trouble for my mom because if they make me move schools, then she’ll have to stop working in the morning so she can take me. It’s just not worth it so I decided I should start trying for my mom.”

As individually identified, all interviews and photos are by students in Maya Kosver’s Journalism class, Richmond High School.

By Christofer Leon “Around 2005-2006, the U.S government tried passing a law called HR 4437. It was a law that would’ve made it a crime to support or help undocumented folks in any way. It was a very antiimmigrant law that was aimed at Latinx people. This made me realize how much racism there is today in this country and how people who are simply trying to live their lives are seen as criminals. It pushed me and motivated me to spark changes in the community.

We started to organize walkouts for Richmond High School. At that time, the principal prohibited us to get out of school to protest, but we did it anyway.

We would take the BART to San Francisco, where we did our walkouts.

Because of the limitations placed on Latinx people, I was motivated to go to college and figure out why people are seen in that way. To this day, it is an ongoing motivation for me and for others to fight for justice.”