2023 Documentary Magazine Vol 2

FREESTYLE ACADEMY

Student Documentary Articles

Design by Luiza Rufeisen

Freestyle Academy proudly presents

2023 Documentary Articles

Junior students were challenged with:

For the Junior Documentary Project, students portray an intriguing person, group, place, idea, or issue, gathering primary and secondary research sources to develop a distinct perspective about their subject’s significance in the community and/or world. The research-based paper from English serves as the copy for the magazine articles in this publication. This unit emphasizes narrative-style journalism.

Students in Digital Media learned to use Adobe InDesign for article layout, Adobe Photoshop of image editing, and Adobe Illustrator for graphic design to produce these articles. Each student in Digital Media also produced a documentary website.

Film students additionally produced a Documentary Film. Animation students additionally produced an Animated Documentary. Design students additionally produced a Documentary Book.

All documentary productions can be viewed through https://freestyleacademy.rocks/documentaries

“How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?”

Contributing Authors

Ethan Huang

A Dying World

By: Ethan Huang

Dew-riddled grass glows in the birth of the sun’s light. Birds sing sweet tunes, calling for each other. Plants face the sun to welcome its presence. We stand here, experiencing an indescribable beauty, one that will inevitably be destroyed by our own hands. If we do not realize our detrimental impact on our Earth, our home will never be the same.

Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a research preserve where Stanford Biologists have made many groundbreaking studies, such as Paul Allred’s studies on species collapse. Although Jasper Ridge continues to host more studies, many are on the verge of being discontinued due to a

multitude of issues, such as pollution and global warming. We not only see the future of our education in danger but a place of beauty and safety too. Jasper Ridge is a microcosm of our world, as many of its issues are essentially global. As humans, it is our duty to protect and preserve the Earth if we expect to survive. Many of us do not have the time or energy to be pollution and global issues activists, but we do not have to do so to make a change. Change starts with small actions of preservation in our everyday lives.

Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, or JRBP for short, is a private biological preserve built on three main ideas, research, education, and conser-

vation. In the preserves past 50 years, scientists have been studying ecosystems not influenced by the outside pressures of development and human impact. JRBP has found the basis for many impressive and groundbreaking concepts such as metapopulations, remote sensing, environmental DNA, and how populations collapse. These concepts found by JRBP have been ap plied to a wide array of aspects, ranging from biology textbooks to environmental laws. Many of these concepts can be recreated or reused in different places, making their influ- ence even wider. On top of the immense positive impact that JRBP has on our world and environment, it also brings a socioecological aspect, as they collaborate with not only biologists, but historians, Native Americans, musicians, and many more. JRBP also allows students to conduct research that may combine different fields, such as music and biology, allowing the opportunity for students to be creative. While the positive impact of Jasper Ridge is monumental, its future is unsure.

Environmental issues

While many of us believe that our world is secure, this is not the case. Jasper Ridge is a small example of this, as it is threatened by problems that not only affect JRBP, but our world as well. Luckily, by understanding the issues that the preserve faces, we may be able to apply the same logic to our world. If we do not act soon, we will lose both a monumental biological preserve and possibly our world.

One large issue that affects both JRBP and our world is global warming. Global warming is the long-term rise in temperature due to human actions. In the case of JRBP, both global warming and climate change have led to increased wildfire risk. According to Cortez Ramos, the executive director of Jasper Ridge, “the pressure of wildfire is increasing because of warmer temperatures of

climate change and lack of precipitation. So we have this fire risk that’s increasing with the years.” Wildfires can be detrimental not only to Jasper Ridge but to the environment overall. According to Science: Wildfire Impacts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, “large patches of high-severity fire can hinder the ability of an ecosystem to recover, potentially undermining conservation of native biodiversity by long-term or permanent loss of native vegetation, expansion of non-native, invasive species, and long-term or permanent loss of essential habitat for native fauna.” Major wildfires have the potential to destroy ecosystems like Jasper Ridge; if an unmanaged wildfire broke out, it would devastate the preserve. This is a reminder that unmanaged ecosystems are at risk of wildfire.

On top of threatening ecosystems, wildfires also contribute to an increase in temperature and change in weather. According to Climate Change Indicators: Wildfires by the EPA, when forests burn, “they immediately release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which in turn contributes to climate change.” In turn, the severity and frequency of wildfires exponentially increase as the release of CO2 causes warmer temperatures and more wildfires. The cycle continues as more CO2 releases into the atmosphere.

Wildfires not only affect our environment but also affect us as well. According to the article Wildland Fire Research: Health Effects Research by the EPA, “The effects of smoke from wildfires can range from eye and respiratory tract irritation to more serious disorders, including reduced lung function, bronchitis, exacerbation of asthma and heart failure, and premature death.” This article demonstrates how it is paramount not only to

reduce wildfire risk for the environment but for ourselves as well. If we do not decide to make changes soon, then our future generations may suffer the consequences.

To reduce wildfire risk, one would have to monitor and manage the area around them, which cost money. According to Dr. Ramos, “It is really expensive to regulate the amount of wood that’s on the floor, to cut down trees, to pull all the weeds out. To make sure you protect all the species when you’re doing management of land, make sure you protect the plants, make sure you protect the nests of the birds.” The large cost attached to wildfire risk reduction means that areas under wildfire risk that are not well-funded may suffer immensely, as wildfires are only increasing in intensity and frequency. The increase in wildfires may even affect well-funded areas, possibly requiring them to receive additional funding from the government or other sources.

Another issue that concerns both Jasper Ridge and our world is the large amounts of nitrogen content being emitted. Nitrogen oxides, or NOx, are mainly emitted by gas-powered vehicles and can cause multiple issues. One problem that arises with the oversaturation of nitrogen is more invasive species, as Dr. Ramos states that “Nitrogen is what we call in ecology, it’s a limiting nutrient. So that means plants or other organisms don’t grow because they have one limiting nutrient… Once you start adding nitrogen, you make that soil available and more fertile for other plants. And that could be invasive species, for example.” This means that more NOx emissions have paved the way for potentially invasive species, which may harm the preserve.

While most invasive species at Jasper Ridge are currently not detrimental, the introduction of new invasive species may pose a threat. Invasive species are non-native species that outcompete native species in an ecosystem. For example, “The Asian chestnut blight fun gus virtually eliminated American

chestnut from more than 180 million acres of the Eastern United States. Many animals were adversely affected, including the ten species of moths and butterflies that became extinct because they could live only on American chestnut trees” (Climate-Woodlands). Invasive species like the Asian chestnut blight fungus cause chain reactions in an ecosystem, harming more than just the plant or animal itself. Furthermore, if a keystone species (a species that many other organisms within the ecosystem rely on) were outcompeted, it could lead to the collapse of an ecosystem. Even if the event of a collapse doesn’t occur it could lead to “extinctions of native plants and animals, reducing biodiversity, competing with native organisms for limited resources, and altering habitats,” according to the NOAA’s article “What Is an Invasive Species?” These major impacts of invasive species demonstrate why root causes like NOx should be targeted as if they are left unchecked, it may lead to harmful impacts on our environment.

In addition to promoting the spread of invasive species, high amounts of NOx also negatively affect both humans and vegetation. The CDC states that “Breathing high levels of nitrogen oxides can cause rapid burning, spasms, and swelling of tissues in the throat and upper respiratory tract, reduced oxygenation of body tissues, a build-up of fluid in your lungs, and death” (“ATSDR Nitrogen Oxides Toxfaqs”). While these are likely extreme cases, levels of NOx may rise to unhealthy levels in the future if left unchecked. If we are to create a safe environment for generations to come, we must act now.

Asian Chestnut Blight Fungus

Photochemcial Smog

affecting human health, “High levels of nitrogen dioxide are also harmful to vegetation— damaging foliage, decreasing growth or reducing crop yields,” states the Queensland Government. Reduced crop yields may also prove to be a large issue for humans, as less food for an exponentially growing population may cause mass famine. As well as being harmful to both humans and vegetation, NOx is also a key part in the formation of Photochemical Smog, which is also harmful to humans. The damaging properties of NOx on both humans and the environment make it a priority among many others.

How can you help?

Many of us think that we have to make a monumental effort to reduce the multitude of issues that our world faces, this however, is not necessarily true. Many of these issues, like increased wildfire risk, are linked to larger issues like climate change or global warming. If we all choose to be mindful of how we impact the Earth and make more environmentally friendly choices, we can make a stand against these problems. To help our environment, we can do a multitude of simple things ranging from bringing a reusable bottle to recycling more.

One thing that many of us can do is to spread awareness of these issues and their impact on both us and the environment. Dr. Ramos states that “the more we talk about it, the more it helps everyone be more aware of it,” allowing us all to be on the same page. Once we all understand why these issues are so important to address and take care of, it will be easier for us as a collective to make waves against them. If we all do not understand the dire situation we are in, it will be hard for positive changes to happen.

Another action that we can take to combat global warming is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Since global warming is caused by

greenhouse gases like CO2, reducing our greenhouse gas footprint as individuals would help against global warming drastically. Transportation, at least in the US, makes up “roughly 97 percent of the global warming potential of all greenhouse gas emissions from transportation,” states the CBO in their article Emissions of Carbon Dioxide in the Transportation Sector. If we are to aid the issue of global warming, we can start by using other means of transportation. According to Greg Stoehr, an AP environmental science teacher at Los Altos High School, we can use a variety of transportation to reduce our fossil fuel emissions, such as taking public transportation, “walking, riding… [and driving] electric cars with no exhaust pipes.” If we choose to use these alternative means transportation, we may be able to reduce the impact of global warming. In addition to spreading the word and reducing our greenhouse gas footprint, we can choose to vote for more eco-friendly people to be in power. Dr. Ramos believes that “voting is also really important too. I think knowing who your city council is, knowing who your state representative is. If you’re not of voting age, you can still help your family and say, Hey, did you read this?” Governing figures, like the city council or state representatives, are able to enact changes against a multitude of things, like pollution. If we vote for more environmentally friendly leaders both locally and at the state and federal levels, mandates against problematic issues that target our environment will be more prevalent. The more mandates against issues that harm our environment, the more effective our impact will be against the larger issues of climate change and global warming.

About the Author

Ethan Huang is a high-school junior who attends both Los Altos Highschool and Freestyle Academy, in which he partakes in Animation class. He enjoys learning how to express stories through different methods of media and hanging out with friends. Going forward, he hopes to go to college and pursue a carrer in music production.

Eva D’Antonio

Teen Depression

Isat across from my therapist, uncertain what to expect. As an anxious seventh grader, I did not understand this at the time, but I soon learned that everything I had been feeling was connected to one word: depression. This was just the start of my treatment, and little did I know that it would follow me into high school. There has been increasing concern over rising rates in depression and suicidal feelings, particularly among teens. Even before the advent of COVID, the CDC has been researching and studying this phenomenon. Despite earning good grades and keeping a schedule full of extracurriculars and social activities, teenagers are up against the same psychological and emotional battles as any adult. This struggle is far more difficult for teenagers who have depression.

“If you’re going through Hell, keep going.”

Many People Struggle With Depression

According to the CDC, “nearly 3 in 5 (57%) U.S. teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021— double that of boys, representing a nearly 60% increase and the highest level reported over the past decade.” This data demonstrates how depression is a prominent, ongoing issue for teenagers. Debra Houry, CDC’s Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science, emphasizes that “High school should be a time for trailblazing, not trauma.”Houry is saying that, unless something is done, children will continue to suffer with trauma that affects the quality of their high school life. When asked why it matters that people understand the effects of depression, eleventh grader Lexi Davis points out “I know tons and tons of people that I can name off the top of my head who struggle with it”.

Depression Stigma and Awareness

Although progress has been made in raising awareness for mental illness, we still have a long way to go before the stigma associated with depression is gone. A study of Youth in Psychiatric Outpatient Treatment conducted by the NIH in 2012 addresses this stigma and details how youth experience it. They found that “Youth in psychiatric treatment acknowledged that their larger cultural context holds pejorative viewpoints toward those with mental illness and reported experiences of stigma within their families and social networks”. Stigma has a devastating consequence of isolation as affected teens may internalize the harsh judgments of those around them and withdraw further. In the worst case scenario, the pattern of behavior can culminate in suicide. This is a very real risk when depression goes untreated or under-treated. Yet there are ways we can alleviate the harmful effects of stigma. Education is a big part of the solution. The more we bring attention to depression and mental health within classrooms, treating it like a topic that is not taboo, the more people may develop a willingness to engage in helpful forms of treatment such as therapy. It’s important to shine light on the effects of depression for everyone’s sake because in Cole’s words, “. . .in this day and age, I think everyone struggles with it to an extent.” It’s important to shine light on the

effects of depression for everyone’s sake. Being open about depression will normalize it as a topic of discussion, giving people a chance to address how they experience it so they can begin to cope and to heal. Our community expects teens to maintain high academic performance, engage in a full-day of activities outside of school, and keep an active social life. These expectations contradict the reality of the national mental health crisis teens with depression are facing now. Even simple daily tasks can become seemingly impossible obstacles, let alone reaching out for help. Often adults misunderstand depression as a part of growing up and being a “moody” teen. Ideas like this fuel a stigma surrounding depression in young people. Educating people and taking real steps in order to support those who are struggling is necessary in order to maintain a healthy environment. School administrators and staff must be trained to provide support for this portion of the student population. We can no longer write off the needs of depressed students. Depression is a worldwide crisis that can be fatal if we continue to ignore it and pass it off as simply part of the ups and downs of adolescence.

“In this day and age, I think everyone struggles with it to an extent”

How Depression Affects Daily Life

Major depression involves a teen’s body, mood, and thoughts, affecting eating, thinking, and sleeping patterns. Stanford Medicine’s description of major depression in teens highlights how “Teens with depression can’t merely pull themselves together and get better”. Depression is shown through many different symptoms which vary depending on the teen. Leaving depression untreated can come with many risks including lasting for years, causing relationship and social problems, and leading to substance abuse and suicide. Depression is indicated by specific signs that warn something is wrong. These factors are all vital to a young person’s life such as “poor school performance and frequent absences from school” and “loss of interest in family and friends”. This is concerning because teens rely on friends and family for support, especially in early adolescence. How will they get the help they need if they are pulling away from the people that are there to help them?

To answer this question, we must listen to the voices of those who are currently fighting against depression in their high school career. Lexi, from Mountain View High School, recounts her struggle: “I remember the first time that my mom saw my self-harm scars. She kind of freaked out which makes sense and she kind of was just like “Oh my god Lexi why would you do this”. Her description shows a fear of worrying her own mother and may have prevented her from seeking help and support during a vulnerable time. Later during this same interview, Lexi went on to explain how “it was very hard for me to do difficult or simple tasks like brush my teeth, take a shower, brush my hair, go to school, and do homework”. This is similar to another eleventh grader whom I spoke with about his experience with depression in high school. He says, “It’s really tough to initiate tasks and get the motivation to start and continue doing work, especially homework and even just really simple seeming things like, you know, getting off the couch.” Difficulty with simple daily tasks has a debilitating effect on the lives of young people who are not only trying to make it through the day, but through high school itself. Lexi said it best when she characterized depression as “a giant weight on your shoulders making it really difficult to stand up and do normal things.” This is an accurate depiction of depression, one that people should be able to grasp. Testimonies such as Lexi’s are crucial in understanding and treating depression as a legitimate condition, one that must be taken as seriously as any other disability.

School While Struggling With Depression

As depressed teenagers contend with carrying this heavy weight, the school environment can exacerbate all of the symptoms they need relief from. Clearly anyone with depression who is also attending school is in need of treatment and additional support. In a study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, more than half of teenagers ages 12-17 are not receiving treatment for their depression. In light of this lack of treatment, it does not come as a surprise that a depressed teen’s grades may decline. There’s a shocking lack of treatment to accommodate the increase in depression. There is such a worsening of student mental health by any and all standards that the Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy, published an advisory to alert the entire nation about this health crisis. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic Murthy stresses how “. . . mental health challenges were the leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes in young people, with up to 1 in 5 children ages 3 to 17 in the US with a reported mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder.” The rate of depression has reached the level of national crisis yet, the expectations and demands placed on students with depression remain the same. A friend of mine since middle school spoke about how the rigors of school conflict directly with the mental toll depression can take. Cole explains how “There’s this ruthless cycle of losing motivation and falling behind and then having to catch up. But seeing that big fat list of missing assignments and having to catch up again, you lose more motivation so then you end up being more behind.” This cycle is one that I have seen repeat again and again among my peers and including myself. The worst part is being caught in the cycle, aware you are in it, but being unable to escape it. It gets to a point where teachers can only do so much within their power and “it doesn’t feel like it’s enough to say you get extended time on tests or extensions because those are really helpful but they don’t seem to be enough mentally.” The sad truth is often there is no solution and the only thing to do is to push through. As Churchill said, “If you’re going through hell,

keep going.” Not only do academic pressures demoralize a depressed teen, social pressures are also a factor. When asked about the social environment at the school she attends, Lexi paints a scene that is “very clique-y and I think it’s very hard to thrive there if you have mental illness and if you’re not picture perfect, straight, white, skinny, blonde type of thing. And I just think that everybody’s very judgy.” Finding the perfect social group can be hard for teens with depression as it’s more difficult to connect with others in general. It’s already hard enough to connect and socialize in high school without the added barriers and walls that depression automatically puts up. It feels like the school doesn’t have enough power to address the issue, and even working towards a solution isn’t enough. Those who occupy higher positions within the school district need to recognize the mental health crisis and take concrete steps towards providing mental health support on campus for students. Instead of saying there is a problem, take action. Cole believes “the admin could do more. And maybe just the school district in general. I think it’d be nice if they addressed it a little bit more so instead of the student body, because it’s important that the student body does that, but I think it’s more important for the people that run the school to be more active about it.” The student body alone is not enough to address this issue. Adult leaders, administrators, counselors and teachers in schools must show their support for the mental health of their students. A week designated for mental health awareness is a nice gesture but without adult support it can only have so much impact. Teachers alone can make a massive difference yet as Lexi says “I think some teachers still need to get behind that and kind of accommodate students that have depression or other mental illnesses.” It should be easier to get help from teachers and to receive accommodations specifically for the challenges depression presents to affected students. In failing to ease the way for a depressed teen, yet another wall of separation is put into place that prevents reaching out for help elsewhere.

bout the Autho

Eva D’Antonio is a junior at Freestyle Academy and Mountain View High School. She has a passion for design but enjoys all aspects of art. Ever since she learned to sew at age 6, she’s been creating her own garments and accessories. In the future she hopes to continue her artistic journey and become a fashion designer.

Felicia Wagner

The Social Benefit The Social Benefit

By: Felicia Wagner 2023

During a brisk winter night, a soft smile presents the crowd, with her long brown hair that falls perfectly upon her varsity gymnastics windbreaker. While hugging familiar faces, Julie Bortolato has crept into the first 15 minutes of her brother’s game. It’s a Tuesday night at Mountain View High School and teens and parents have gathered to watch varsity soccer compete against various teams. After the crowd celebrates, and the whistle gets blown a prideful smile comes running from the other side of the field. Just trying to catch his breath while drops of sweat fly behind him, Luc Bortolato thanks the crowd for supporting him and acknowledges the presence of his twin sister by a gentle side hug.

Even though the Bortolato twins exude success and stability, becoming a young adult is not a simple task. During high school, millions of developing brains are maintaining their lives everyday –driving to school, being able to independently do homework, and even making lunch. While all of these seem like trivial tasks, high schoolers often forget the importance of tending to their mental health and wellness. In particular, there is a large group of students whose every day routines do not allow time for a break: student athletes. Constantly competing to be the best can take up more time than you think, especially when you consider that after school practices often end after the sun goes down and homework isn’t usually finished until the clock strikes midnight.

With every school year getting more advanced, and every sports season getting more competitive,

mental well being can get lost in between games, practices, exams, friends, and family. Most will associate the stress students carry with poor time management or too much time spent outside the house with friends. They often forget the human necessity for social interaction, and how important it is to a hard working student and athlete.

Luc Bortlato is a 17 year old soccer player who attends Mountain View High School. He has high ambition to play soccer in college, which has carried his skill through many teams, and made him appealing to the eyes of many scouts. Luc enjoys spending time with his friends ranging from classmates to teammates. Luc explains that he values his relationships both on and off the field because “You’re practicing your skills of socializing with people and you’re gonna need that in college and you’re gonna need that everywhere” (L. Bortolato). Luc is also a part of the Mountain View Track team, and is an avid supporter when he goes to see his friends play in their games as well. His story starts way back in 2014 when he followed the World Cup with his dad. Luc recalls, “After watching and understanding how to play the game I never looked back, and ever since then I have been playing at a competitive level” (L. Bortolato). Thus, he began to play for Waldorf Middle School. It was here when Luc started to

enjoy exercising his abilities; although playing at this level, he wasn’t obtaining the practice he needed to be a “great” player. Alongside him up until 8th grade, Julie took a leap into her passion by attending Mommy and Me gymnastics classes. After going to a recreational gym for years, she finally found the courage to try out for a competitive team in 2017 with a company named Twisters. Ever since joining this team, Julie has grown as an athlete and a person. Being in such a tight knit community, it has taught her to speak up and use her voice to earn her spot in the gym. Julie reflects on how her Coach Erica “Taught me to be more assertive and Confident and to help get out of my shell” (J. Bortolato). For both Luc and Julie, sports have helped them understand the level that they wanted to succeed within their sport, gained skills, and improved their physical

Julie doing beam routine for Saint Francis Highschool

Luc playing soccer for Mountain View Highschool

Especially after the pandemic, high school was the opportunity for both twins to learn how to maintain balance in their lives. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, the human hierarchy of needs, from top to bottom, includes: self-actualization, esteem needs, love and belonging, safety needs, and physiological needs. It is especially hard for high schoolers to differentiate between esteem needs and self-actualization. In fact, Maslow divided esteem into two subcategories: “The esteem a person has for themselves, or self-esteem, and the respect they desire from others.” Self-actualization, on the other hand, comprises “A person knowing themselves, understanding their full potential, and reaching it.” (West)

There are many specific instances throughout the course of adolescence where these two concepts become intertwined with one another. In Julie and Luc’s lives the confusion of both concepts appears more often when both are under pressure. During the first semester of school, Luc wakes up early in the morning and makes his way just down the street to class. Right after the last bell rings, and sometimes before, he rushes straight to soccer practice or a game which lasts until about 7pm. Finally, after a long day, he begins his homework. Additionally during the second semester Luc juggles track practice after school which lasts until about 5:30pm, and club soccer practice. Finally Luc arrives home around 8. On the flip side, Julie drives to school around 8 or 9am and is home close to 4:45pm where she works on homework for a small amount of time before heading off to practice. She returns home around 8pm, to finish up some details on her assignments. Clearly, both students have a lot on their plate, and this can lead to causing both to overextend their schedules. Julie spends her time attacking a pile of homework or trying to fit in friends as a secondary priority. Luc comes home exhausted after a two sport combo and tries not to fall asleep in order to meet a deadline. Both find equal amounts of relief after completion of homework/practice and both like to have the same feeling when their friends laugh at their jokes. For these twins they can have the best of both worlds, but at what cost does it become too much to handle? During our interview I asked Luc about pressure to perform that can be felt from sports, friends, and school. His response left me wondering how many young student athletes feel this way behind closed doors. He shares, “At least my parents, probably other people’s parents [too], go to time management” as being a key reason why it’s difficult to finish tasks. Luc elucidates his side of the story. He explains that “I just don’t think that even with really good time management if you still have sports for four hours after school,

Luc and Julie attending Mommy and Me gym classes

both club soccer and track for me” (L. Bortolato). His statement shows that good time management isn’t enough. Overall exhaustion requires a break that time management can’t fix.

There is no doubt that student athletes are appreciated in their school environments; whether this is from a celebration of their titles and winnings, putting them on the front page to highlight the school’s successes, or calling out their names on the morning announcements. But we are often too soon to think that they have it all. Stress in any competitive field is a given, but two fields side by side (school and sports) which provoke entirely different pressures, are getting progressively more tough to handle. Especially in Silicon Valley where there have been cases of young adults taking their lives due to mental health concerns which typically revolve around the subject of pressure and expectations. And on sports teams coaches pride themselves in pushing athletes in order to obtain greatness and success. Because of this it was not hard to believe that “Among athletes with known mental health conditions, only 10% seek care from a mental health professional” (Bernabe). Luc responds to this statistic: “I think that’s a really prevalent issue. No one’s really talked about it” (L. Bortolato). Julie shares how these pressures get to her: “[she has] definitely felt stressed. The stresses of doing sports and especially second semester when it’s gymnastics season [she doesn’t] really reach out to anyone” (J. Bortolato). For a lot of student athletes the subject of the matter is how much time is allotted for these students to incorporate enough rest, friends, hobbies, and time for homework into the mix. This is why most student-athletes and other students who have timesilently; it shouldn’t be a precedent school that overworking yourself means success. The loved ones that surround these kids—the adults which have had years of experience in mitigating their own stress—should be vigilant. As the summer break approaches, Luc and Julie will be enjoying their summer before the college app filled months start to creep in. Both will be surrounded by friends this summer and consecutively participating in sports as well. They are looking forward to finally being done with the second semester because of how many communities they have had to juggle. Being as committed as both twins are at such a young age, their skills of devotion to their sport as well as putting themselves first will serve them well in college. One day, the Bortolato twins will value remembering the laughs, and smiles that filled their high school experience. Despite their busy schedules, they made time for their friends, and enjoyed their high school experience to the fullest. As a result, Luc and Julie were able to maintain their grades, excel in sports, and build lasting friendships. They learned that the social benefit was not a distraction; rather, it was the secret to their success.

Julie’s competitive gymnastic team wininng 1st place

Luc and his Mountain View Highschool team

Author’s bio Author’s bio

Felicia Wagner is a 17-year-old junior at Mountain View High School. On the days she is not in school she enjoys the outdoors, spending time with her pup, making name cards for her friends, and going on long drives through the hills. She hopes to pursue Graphic Design in college. She adores attending all of her classes at Freestyle because she has never been able to apply her creativity like she can through all the amenities Freestyle has to offer. She also plans to advocate for young teens who struggle with Mental Health and hopes that her skills in visual communication will aid in spreading awareness.

Jensen McDonell

Rusty Hodge had a dream from the time he was a child. He wanted to create his own radio station. Even years later after graduating from high school, the dream persisted, never fading. During his college years at Cal Poly Pomona, he began to flesh out his childhood wish when he had an opportunity to manage his college radio station. Hodge’s fascination with radio destined him to make his own imprint on the worldwide stage.

Raised in Southern California, Hodge was surrounded by the pop culture and technology that was spreading along the West Coast. With his mom being a piano teacher and his father having an interest in radios and electronics, music was always present in his life and home. Some of his earliest memories from the age of three or four revolve around listening to the radio.

Another significant influence on his lifelong radio fascination was his grandfather. He would give Hodge the latest radio device for every birthday or holiday, feeding his growing interest. Southern California, the

home of Disneyland, has always been seen as the entertainment capital of the world. Growing up, Hodge lived very close to the Magic Kingdom so he enjoyed frequent trips to the park. The most memorable part for him was seeing the radio station inside the Disneyland Hotel. One of his father’s tricks as a local was to park at the hotel rather than the car park because it was cheaper. When walking through the hotel to the park he always passed the studio for the station KEZY, stopping to admire all the equipment, tape recorders, and mixers. It was after

seeing the Disney radio experience the seed was planted that someday he wanted his own radio station. Now, fifty years and untold iterations of radio stations later, Rusty Hodge is living out his childhood passion as the owner and operator of SomaFM, an internationally known and successful internet radio station. Many music lovers feel that mainstream radio is repetitive, boring, simplistic, and lacks creativity—not to mention it’s overrun with advertisements.

People tune into radio stations to listen to music, not to be sold things that they don’t need. Hodge and SomaFM are proving that there is another way to experience radio rather than simply putting out traditional mainstream pop music with commercials between every song.

Rusty Hodge’s brainchild, SomaFM, runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and provides content from over 30 channels to 200 different countries, all from a converted warehouse in the “Dogpatch” neighborhood of San Francisco. The name itself invites consideration. Its inspiration is from one of the most discussed and thought-provoking novels of our time. The word Soma was always a fascination for Hodge: “If you’ve read Brave New World, Soma was the name of the drug that they took when they danced to the electric music box” (Hodge). He also happens to work south of Market Street, often referred to as SoMa, and had a small internet company aptly named soma. net. The “About SomaFM” webpage states,

With over thirty channels, the station is primarily managed by Hodge with a few employees pitching in to support various channels. On

the daily, the most popular channel is Groove Salad which delivers downtempo music with little or no lyrics. Some channels consist of ambient music that is commonly used as background music. Regular listener Toby McDonell explains what he enjoys about the SomaFM experience : “It’s just very relaxing. It’s good if I’m trying to draw or paint. It just sets a nice background.”

A determining factor that comes into play when curating music for the channels is that listeners don’t want to hear the same songs. “If we played that song at noon on a Monday, we’re not gonna play it between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM for another

eight days,” Hodge explained. Having a listener-supported radio station means that you need to satisfy your listener’s needs to remain financially solvent.

Another innovative way the listener experience is enhanced by SomaFM is their inclusion of what they call “Spice Tracks”. These tracks are songs that everyone has heard and loved at one point but if they heard them repeated daily they would revolt. “But if you heard it like once every six months, it’d be kind of fun to hear it again” (Hodge). For example, “Never gonna give you up” by Rick Astley is a Spice Track option even though it is now notoriously known as a meme or joke.

The SomaFM office is a snapshot straight out of Hodge’s mind. As you enter the space you’ll see a shelf covering the entire back wall filled with CDs. According to Hodge, “There’s at

“we started broadcasting from San Francisco’s South of Market underground club area, also known as SoMa.”

least 8,000 last time I did a rough count. There could be more, cuz there’s like some walls up there that are just piled with them.” The adjacent wall displays colorful plaques of all the different channels offered by SomaFM. Just below the wall lounges a big purple couch where most of the interviews and podcasts take place. One of the workstations is situated right in front of the couch where there are microphones and all sorts of equipment.

Before Covid-19, artists would actually come

into the studio and do live performances. In the farthest corner of the office sits Hodge’s main computer and control station. It stands out with its large monitors and soundboards. One monitor has a live video feed of the data center which is located downtown. Another monitor displays the Pro Tools station, where all the audio editing is done in order to make the jingles for the live broadcasts.

After only seven years, Rusty was able to turn SomaFM from a hobby into a full-time profession. The process of building and promoting a new business was strenuous, to say the least. His business’s growth had many problems and setbacks, the first notable one being limited bandwidth. In simple terms, bandwidth is the maximum amount of data transmitted over an internet connection in a given amount of time. The amount of bandwidth it took to stream audio was pretty high and it required a strong internet connection. There was not a lot of available bandwidth so the number of listeners at any given time was fairly limited. As Hodge noted, “I think it was like less than fifteen listeners before it filled up and couldn’t handle anymore without skipping or dropouts or whatnot.” In other words, greater bandwidth was a top concern. It was possible to purchase chunks of bandwidth from providers but it was very expensive compared to today.

According to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the price per megabit per second (Mbps) was 98% more expensive in 2000 with the price per Mbps at $28.13 as opposed to the current cost of $0.35 or less per Mbps (NCTA). The solution to their limited bandwidth problem came from one of the most prominent internet providers at the time, AOL(America Online). The company realized that it had tons of excess bandwidth that was not being used. The AOL users were pulling data in but not pushing it back out. It was determined that AOL would save money if they were able to equalize the data being taken in and the data being sent out. Since SomaFM was using a service that was owned by AOL to broadcast their music they started relaying all of this extra bandwidth to them. Their once very limited listener count was now able to increase exponentially. It took them from having around fifty concurrent listeners to, suddenly, a thousand or more.

About the Author

Jensen McDonell is a junior at Mountain View High School and is studying Design at Freestyle Academy. He is an explorer of life as he strives to discover new places and Ideas. His goals in these upcoming years of adolescence are to discover new passions and establish great ideas. Outside

of school he enjoys exploring nature, hanging out with friends, and creating art. Creating Art is something that he began doing with his Dad and Grandma from a young age and has still been expressing his artistic abilities since.

Kylie Outten

A spects of I ntegr A t I on

By Kylie Outten

Gabe’s mother, Marcy Selaya, explains the common biases that restrict people with disabilities from the opportunities and experiences that kids typically enjoy. “I wish they didn’t see Gabe for his diagnosis. I think because there are physical markers and characteristics for Down Syndrome, sometimes people see that, and (especially certain generations) carry a bias because a lot of things have been changing the past ten, twenty years, and have become a lot more open. There are people who see him and then automatically assume that he is not able to do certain things” (Selaya). Fostering relationships between students with disabilities and those without is challenging. Continuing these friendships and interactions outside of established programs and into the post-educational year, as the students move into possible careers, is even harder.

Friendships and inclusivity are vital for everyone. Among the high school population, there are kids with disabilities who are often separated from the larger student body. Fostering friendships for children with disabilities and their peers is crucial because every student deserves the opportunity to make a friend both in the classroom and outside of it.

From my firsthand account as a teacher’s assistant, the result of these friendships is very positive. After building relationships with these students over several months, I went to their taiko performance (a Japanese drumming class) for a World Down Syndrome Day celebration. Brian, one of the students performing, saw me watching the show and stopped drumming altogether to wave at me with a huge smile on his face. There are state and federal laws in place to protect people with disabilities and provide support in younger years.

Students at Mountain View High School

Laws

One of the most prevalent laws in place for young students is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This act requires all students with disabilities under the age of 21 to have educational support and other related services for the child (California specifically extends this program until the age of 22). After high school, they are able to go to an adult program until they age out. The U.S. Department of Education explains, “IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to more than 7.5 million (as of school year 2020-21) eligible infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities” (“About IDEA”). This is a useful program because it provides kids the opportunity to learn with accommodations, and gives parents a place where their child can go during the day to learn. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) works in tandem with IDEA because they both support the lives and needs of kids with disabilities. The National Network states that the ADA “guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications” (“Americans with Disabilities Act”). These are all important factors in bridging the gap between these students and their peers, but a divide will continue to exist without more advocacy.

This separation begins to widen as students grow into high school. Often, students with disabilities are placed in classrooms with widely differing schedules than the mainstream population and are often placed in an alternative vicinity to their peers. This is not inherently negative, but it does cause a barrier to social interactions within the wider student population, and makes it difficult for these students to form lasting friendships outside of the classroom bubble. There are some schools that are taking initiatives to help fix this issue. At Mountain View High School, Spartan Buddies pairs students in the Special Education classes with students in the mainstream population. The club meets once a week during lunch on Thursdays.

Spart an Buddies

As a President of the Spartan Buddies club, I observe all the successes and challenges of the club. While some of the pairings between kids with disabilities and their peers bring joy to these students, oftentimes the buddies outside of the special education classroom have difficulty grasping how meaningful these interactions are, and fail to show up consistently to the club. This leaves some buddies alone during lunch because some high school students decided going out to lunch or studying for a class was more important on this particular day. This defeats the purpose of Spartan Buddies because someone who does not show up for you is not a real friend. While this is a negative, there are still a majority of students who do show up for their buddies and build meaningful connections. As Selaya explains, “around Homecoming when Spartan Buddies march in the parade and stuff like that, he loves all of it. So I think he really enjoys having those connections with the other students.” Programs like this help integrate these students and allow for interactions between them, but it is not a solution that guarantees lasting friendships. Special Education teacher Seamus

Quillinan speaks on Spartan Buddies as the club advisor: “I think it is the right thing to do, the right start. I don’t think it always leads to genuine friendships, but I don’t know how else to do it. It provides an opportunity for our students and the students with disabilities to meet their peers. That’s really cool, but how many authentic friendships have come out of it? I don’t know, I wish it were more.”

Gabe and Mr. Q

Elise making an art project

While Spartan Buddies and organizations like it provide social opportunities for students, it is a challenge to maintain partnerships between the kids with disabilities and their buddies beyond the school year. Even after spending a whole year as friends in Spartan Buddies, oftentimes these connections do not last longer than the span of the year. Some of the students with disabilities do not continue to reach out or even talk to their past years buddy again. There is a difficulty in finding people who are completely willing to hang out with their buddies outside of school, and in a high school setting it is just impossible to enforce that standard. As Quillinan explains, “It’s just one of those things that has to come from within.” This is not to say that no real friendships are formed in this club. There are cases where the paired friendships result in a friendship that lasts for years. Even if the paired buddies do not last as long term friends, sometimes friendships form between the buddies, or between the other students. In the very least, the exposure to the whole student population has shown to be positive.

Integ ration

Some parents like Marcy Selaya argue that students with disabilities should be in mainstream classes or have access to more classes to allow for more integration. While some administrators maintain the idea that this would only be possible in a utopian world, and that there are barriers in place that make this difficult to accomplish. They claim that many students with disabilities have aids and learning accommodations that need attention, and being in their own classes separated is an achievable answer. In a mainstream class, they may not get the same attention and time to get the help and support they need. Alternatively, many feel if the child has an interest and the ability to be included, they should make every effort to do so. Both the peers and students with disabilities benefit from integrated classes. Understood, a non-profit organization that provides resources and support for schools and work, states, “The same research shows that their peers benefit, too. They’re more comfortable with and more tolerant of differences. They also have increased positive self-esteem and diverse, caring friendships” (Osewalt).

While it would be difficult to have complete integration with the current school system in the United States, there are some classes that should allow both students with disabilities and peers to take part in. For example, Mountain View High School dance teacher Lauren Kato states, “People should take classes that they are ready for, and everyone is ready for dance.” Ms. Kato has integrated classes that include the students with disabilities. This program has grown throughout the years, and now dance has become a class that all students can enjoy and participate in. She says that some of the special education students have greatly benefited from being in an intermingled classroom.

She speaks fondly about one student named Iasmim and says, “she started with me and was so shy, painfully shy would come in every day and not make eye contact, would stand up against the wall. . . I was like this girl she’s going to be out of here in no time, but then the music would start to come on, and when there is a song that she enjoys or has some sort of beat, that girl turns on. . . and let me tell you, we end up at Foothill College for these shows, and I have never seen Iasmim light up and just be so herself. It was the most beautiful thing to watch” (Kato).

Gabe and his Spartan Buddies

There are so many benefits to having students in special education have access to different activities and electives that the rest of the population has. Iasmim is only one example of the many students that have new activities that they love through having inclusive class options. Some parents wish there were more classes that integrated all students. Having more classes integrated allows everyone to be exposed to all different people and perspectives, and allows for social benefits that are impossible with the separated classes. While it is important to focus on the school years and having all the resources for these students, the question remains about what happens after students with disabilities age out of the school system.

After they age out of the adult program, they face the biggest challenge of finding jobs and being independent. This can be difficult because of the discrimination and lack of jobs available for people with disabilities. The majority of places that hire consist of grocery stores or cafes, and while this is great and allows people to make wages and have a sustainable job, there is the need for more accessible jobs. Some companies are working to make new job programs for people with disabilities. System Analysis Program Development (SAP) has started giving individuals with disabilities jobs in the tech world. Dr. Lawrence Fung, director of the Stanford Neurodiversity Project states, “I went to a conference and SAP is a software giant that has a program called autism at work. . . SAP gave these individuals a chance to show themselves, they now became some of the most productive people at SAP.” The main problem that people with disabilities face in the job world is the stereotypes and idea that they are incapable of doing certain things. While some disabilities hold more obstacles than others, it is crucial that there are job opportunities available. It is vital that people with disabilities are valued in society. Selaya recounts that she “. . . had a friend in high school who said,

‘What would you change about Gabe if you could?’

Iasmim

And I thought about it and li ke, you know, actually, I wouldn’t change Gabe. I would c hange the worl d because it’s the world that needs to change how they see him and how they accept him.”

It is important that people with dis abilities are seen as equal members of society, instead of separated as they often are. The more acceptance and inclusion that exists in the lives of these individuals will be improved dramatically. These children need to be brought into the spotlight. The more accepting and inclusive the world is, the more opportunities that will be available for these children. It is a necessity that more people must open their minds and hearts to see the capability and love these people bring to the world.

To conclude, starting in high school and beyond, it is a necessity that people with disabilities be given the best chance to develop relationships with peers in the mainstream, and alternatively give the mainstream people the ability to see the value in people with disabilities. They have hopes and dreams like many kids and should be able to have the resources available to achieve them. Iasmim’s mom, Alessandra Canales, explains that, “Iasmim wants to be a top model, and I think she has potential because, in my eyes, she is beautiful.’’ It is critical that a world is created where kids with disabilities can move into adulthood, businesses can understand their values, and the general public can develop an appreciation for people with disabilities in the workplace and all areas of adult life. The most important point to be made is that it is not the people with disabilities who need to change—it’s the world that needs to change.

Fu ture

A bout M e

Kylie is a junior at Mountain View High School and is a film student at Freestyle Academy. She loves being with family and friends and hopes to use what she learns at Freestyle in her future career.

Lemo Sekiguchi

Embracing

Authenticity

By Lemo Sekiguchi

Although the term “transgender” didn’t originate until the 1960s, people have always challenged gender conformity. One moment in history people usually go back to is the Stonewall Riots and the queer icons from the 1960s involved in it. Benji Bengtson (they/them), a 15-year-old transgender

youth from the Bay Area describes how there was so much before and after that uprising which has led to where we are today. Bengtson emphasizes people like Marsha P. Johnson “fought and sacrificed their lives for us to have what they are currently attempting to take away.”

When it comes to the topic of the hate put on transgender people in the United States, many allies and LGBTQ+ people will readily agree that it is heartbreaking, while transphobic and ignorant people maintain that transgender people are “dangerous” to our society. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity or expression does not correlate with the sex they were assigned at birth. It has become common today to dismiss the discrimination, prejudice, and hate growing towards the transgender community, due to the brutal assaults and repetitive attacks on individual’s rights, making us numb to the problem.

NPR journalists Coco Nakajima and Connie Hanzhang Jin report, “over the past two years, state lawmakers introduced at least 306 bills targeting trans people, more than in any previous period. A majority of this legislation, 86%, focuses on trans youth”. These bills targeting youth include banning transgender people from sports teams, restricting them from using the bathroom that reflects their gender identity, prohibiting gender-affirming medical care, and things that would not be threats to cis-gendered people. Additionally, “85% of trans and nonbinary youth said their mental health was negatively affected by these laws” as “more than half of trans and nonbinary youth “seriously considered” suicide in the past year”.

On February 11, 2023, Brianna Ghey, a 16 year old transgender girl from Birchwood in Warrington, Cheshire, England was found dead with stab wounds. On Twitter, many such as Senthorum Raj spoke out saying, “Young trans people deserve to thrive in a world that nurtures their humanity. Their lives must be protected, not debated. We all have a responsibility to challenge the insidious ways the media and politicians dehumanise trans people.” In Bengtson’s view, these losses of life are “causing a lot of pain. And I think we need to take measures to ensure it. As long as people are dying, as long as people are having their basic medical care and bathroom privileges being taken away. We’re not toddlers, as long as this is happening to a community, we need to do something.” They illustrate how it is not only killing and dismissing their deaths that are contributing to the insidious ways that Raj mentions, but even denying bathroom access or treating the community like toddlers. Bengtson is an authentic, determined transgender youth, and activist who empowers youth by illustrating that transgender people are not a threat to anyone, and instead are just human beings who have not had an opportunity to tell their stories.

In addition to the hate the transgender community is facing, many political leaders are passing laws hypocritically compared to their past actions. Political leaders such as Tennessee Governor Bill Lee recently made it a felony to dress in drag in public. Ohio Republican Josh Mantel called drag “child abuse”. George Santos supported “don’t say gay bills” as well as aligned himself with those who believe drag is a crime. Political leaders enforcing hate upon transgender people can’t have it both ways. Their assertion that everything was “simpler” back then, is contradicted by their action of dressing in drag in the past, before they decided to make it a political issue.

Transgender is an umbrella term for many terms that fall under it. Bengtson identifies with the term gender fluid and gender queer, after realizing that “[my gender] is always going to be constantly changing and I have to prepare for that because I can’t always be one thing.” While those who do not identify as gender fluid see themselves as a fixed gender every day when they wake up, it fluctuates for those like Bengston feeling feminine one day and masculine the other. Although there is no data on how common this fluidity is among the transgender community, the responses from the Ipsos global survey shows how “4 percent of young adult respondents identified as transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid”. Ever since childhood, Bengtson had always been gender queer, stating that they “would play with all sorts of toys. I would dress myself from the age of three and I would dress in all sorts of things, skirts, button ups, converse…” Eric Bengtson, their father, thought “it was great to see Benji kind of feel more confident and comfortable expressing themselves.” But, not everyone was unanimous as Bengtson began being called slurs: “[the bullies] don’t think that we can hear them saying these things about us. They don’t think that I can hear the word f***t being yelled at me in the halls. They think I’m numb to it now. But in a way, I am numb to it now because it’s happened so many times…” Although Bengtson has been living in the Bay Area where it is more open and progressive than other areas of the United States, people are still spreading hate and discriminating against those who are “different” from them. Los Altos High School’s Talon published a story about racist vandalism that was written on the stalls of the newly installed gender-neutral bathrooms. Bella Sturiale, President of Gender & Sexuality Awareness, states, “ ‘That’s not just writing the N-word’ … ‘They know exactly what they’re doing ...

The rampant hatred of LGBTQ+ people is often rooted in racism and white supremacy…it’s not like somebody who’s racist is going to happen to support gay people’ ”. This isolated many gender non-conforming students who felt the space was no longer safe, as they saw racism and queerphobia linked together. Bengtson used the gender-neutral bathrooms throughout their freshman year, but they “have not gone in there for a while because of safety.” They describe how “you have to be authentic for yourself, but you have to keep yourself safe. Because for me, I wanted to go to the neutral bathroom so bad, but I was like, I don’t feel comfortable being exposed in a scene where there are prolific words and slurs and things being written in there.” When we bring up many of these prejudices and discriminations around marginalized groups, most have been anonymous because people are scared. Bengtson says, “I think that they don’t know much about us and. They never try to. So they make claims and they throw their knives. And they don’t realize how many people they can hurt.”

Last spring when Bengtson identified as a boy (before realizing they were gender-fluid), they had the opportunity to perform at their school’s diversity rally. They took the chance to read their poem surrounding their experience of being transgender. At the school gym, as thousands of students crowded next to each other on the bleachers, Bengtson stepped up and took a seat on the high stool. Their head was held high, with the transgender flag wrapped around their neck and displayed on their back. They smiled widely and took a deep breath.

In their poem, “Boyish”, Benji Bengtson explores their identity:

“I’m a boy

But I look like a girl

My gentle curves caress the air

Hugging myself tightly

My chest, soft

But no.

My body is boy

My curves are boyish because they’re mine

My blood is boyish because it comes from my veins

a boy because I feel it. Right here…”

Bengtson continued to read their poem optimistically as they celebrated and announced their identity to the school, but Bengtson started to hear giggling noises. They looked into the crowd and noticed the students pointing their phones directly at Bengtson –recording Bengtson’s performance without their consent. Bengtson took the opportunity to perform their poetry during the rally so “people would hear me when I said, ‘Hey, I am this, I am a boy, I am non-binary’ and that is valid.” They hoped that people would hear and empathize with them which would spread more awareness of the transgender community to the school, but, instead, “it was empowering and hurtful because who are they to tell me that I can’t be this and that? I want to make change, but it’s also like I’m going to go cry in my bed because it is so overwhelming how much hate there is in the world.” Bengtson tries to stay resilient about making changes at their school, but it can get overwhelming when students don’t even try to listen and understand those who are seen as ‘different’ around them. According to research at UCLA, “Two out of five (42.5%) transgender participants…ages 18 to 40 reported that they felt they did not fully belong at school at some point in their lives because they are LGBTQ.” More than half of those like Bengtson have never felt like they belonged in a school setting because of their differences, leading to an increase in a need for support. By “Respecting pronouns, referring to their child by their preferred name, and assisting with access

I’m

to gender-affirming health care” transgender youth’s mental health improves with “lower rates of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior” allowing them to feel more confident and letting them “counter the transphobic messages they may be hearing from the outside world”. If parents or guardians respectfully take action and say these things, it can help boost their child’s mental health by a lot, making them feel safe and comforted at home, even if they do not feel the same outside.

When Bengtson struggles to find a community in Los Altos, they watch Transgender creators from TikTok, such as Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender actress, comedian, and TikTok personality posting and sharing about her transition journey. Bengtson looks up to these content creators such as Dylan and how they are confidently expressing themselves despite the hate. But, in addition to these authentic videos like Mulvaney posts, Bengtson frequently sees transphobic videos where other creators are misgendering and obliterating a transgender person. While someone might scroll away thinking, “Oh, well, life is life”, it triggers anxiety and panic attacks for Bengtson. It makes them realize their own struggles of being called slurs across the hallways, being barked at, and being recorded without consent due to their identity and how they express themselves. Even things that may seem “small” to cis-gendered people such as pronouns, are triggering, considering how Bengtson have “been misgendered by almost everyone in my life, and it keeps happening every day, even by people I’m out to. Even by people I keep reminding.”

As an activist who sees value in “something as small as posting something on your story and saying donate or donating to something,” Bengtson works to educate those around them and connect with their community. In addition, Bengtson hands out binders and pronoun bracelets to those in need. Transgender masculine people use binders which are a compression undergarment worn to flatten breasts. Bengtson states, “our breasts are a very thing that very much bothers us and makes us very dysphoric.” Bengtson remembers when they got their first binder, “...from an 18 year old trans man, and he was like a big brother to me because I was so new to the community and I was so new to all of this. I didn’t know how to tell my parents. I didn’t know how to tell anybody. But I told him and he was like, okay, let me get you this binder and a copy of Dracula…” Bengtson finds themselves searching for that but they “take it upon myself to be that for other people.” Bengston describes how “this week, I gave two binders away to

another trans person who’s a seventh grader… they were very eager, and their parents kept taking away their binders, which I’ve never had to struggle with, thankfully.” They go on to explain how it is very hard to get a hold of binders when they were not out, but since “I have a lot of binders in my closet because I’ve grown out of them and I keep them, I give them away because I want other people to feel that euphoria and feel like they’re protected.” Bengtson believes that having older transgender people who can help you and understand what you are going through is so beneficial because not many people have a chance to get this kind of support. Although Bengtson has received support from their parents, it was “only to a point that cis people can understand.” Bengtson shows that having these kinds of people in the community is incredible, and hopes that they are becoming the person that “people can come to, and I think I’m reaching that.” Even if it is giving out hugs, Bengtson is happy to support another who is going through a similar experience they are going through because they have “been the person that’s been refused help…I just really want to be the person that people can come to and say, ‘Hey, I’m struggling with this.’ ” By continuing to live authentically and expressing themselves who they are without shame, they “want to be someone who can help people realize who they are… so other people can say, like, ‘Hey, I want that for myself’ and and I want to be the person that can help them reach that.”

Bengtson plans to continue being a resource for their community and advocate for transgender youth. They are currently in the process of receiving testosterone, but are “worried that the bills or presidencies will come in later and prevent me from doing so.” Although we are not able to combat this issue of hate in a blink of an eye, something that helps those who are afraid of difference and change is education. Bengtson suggests how “we just need to tell them that, just because someone is different does not make them your enemy. Just because someone is trans does not threaten the system, your cisness or your straightness.”

About the Author

Lemo Sekiguchi is a Junior at Los Altos High School and attends Freestyle Academy as a Film student. Ever since she was little, she has loved storytelling and videography. She hopes to continue creating art that she is proud of and speaks to what she wants to say as an artist.

Maya Batra

the sweet Escape

When the Coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, Naiel and Punhal were just eleven and nine, respectively, and found themselves in a similar situation to the rest of us. They were desperate for a hobby, a reason to keep going when nothing was looking up. As parents Aifra and Mozzam reflect, they did not want their children to fall into an unproductive rut. Rather, they tried their best to channel their kids’ boredom into creativity. When it came to television, the only shows that Naiel and Punhal were allowed to watch were productive ones, including cooking shows. Recent studies from MIT show that creativity thrives within limits, and Aifra and Mozzam’s parenting of setting television boundaries corresponds with several of the institute’s suggestions for nurturing creative minds. This includes involvement with projects that require socialization and passion, baking being a great example of this (Resnick).

Naiel excitedly tells us about how watching these cooking shows became a family routine and something that bonded him and his sister. “Every Saturday morning, Punhal, my Dad, and I would watch the Kids Baking Championship,” Naiel explains. Seeing the rows of bakers intently perfecting their craft was a huge source of inspiration for him and kept him motivated through the isolation. Little did he know that in just over a year he would be on this show himself, presenting his famous fusion recipes to world renowned bakers Valeri Bertenelli and Duff Goldman. Naiel and Punhal officially started their business on Valentine’s day of 2021, the perfect time to delve into a new set of desserts that their customers would love. One of the primary desserts that they offered during this time were fruit breads, given the copious amount of fruit trees in their backyard. Around this time Punhal also tried her hand at crafting healthy desserts such as keto truffles and cakes. However, Naiel and Punhal knew that if they were going to stand out in the baking business alongside hundreds of thousands of others, they needed to offer something special to their customers that would make them stand out.

Flashback to pre-pandemic times, the Chadury family would spend a few months each year in Pakistan, something that Naiel and Punhal have done since they were little, and are heavily inspired by the foods there: “We grew up with flavors that we get from there and our grandparents’ cooking, our parents’ cooking, and a lot of South Asian flavors.” Naiel tells us, referring to the hints of rose, cardamom, and saffron baked into all of their specialities. “When we started our business we wanted to sell flavors that were different from just chocolate or vanilla, so we decided to include flavors that we grew up eating and that really helped our business.” “A lot of people wanted to see that,” he explains, which is surely implied by the 4,000+ desserts that the siblings have had to craft since then. With this came the title for their business, Lá Jawab Treats, meaning unmatchable treats in the Urdu language of Pakistan.

After launching this idea and selling their first few rounds of fusion baked goods, Naiel and Punhal decided that if they were going to be earning money for their desserts, they would want to donate a portion of their money towards causes that are important to them. While this is not the first thing most people would assume to hear from an eleven and thirteen-year old, it does not come as a surprise given the environment Naiel and Punhal were raised in. “I’m on the board of a few non-profits, and we tell our kids [about it]” Mozzam explains. Not only have they been hearing about their parents’ work within charities from a very young age, but they have also seen it first hand: “We make sure that whenever we go to Pakistan we take them to a village,’’ he adds. “In the Bay Area, especially here in Los Altos, this is a bubble. You have to go and see the majority of the world and how they live. When they were young, we took them to a village that had a lot of mud and animal poop on the road, and Naiel and Punhal were like ‘Where did you bring us? I can’t even walk on this road. Why are you torturing us?,’” he laughed. “And I told them, there are about 100 kids who walk twice the same road to their school which we were going to. Now [on] the next trip, they were looking forward to that, and they made friends.” Despite being in such a privileged area of the world, being able to witness this level of poverty and misfortune first hand has played a huge role in their determination to use fame and money from the business to help the less fortunate. Their Pakistani roots continue to play a huge role in both the flavors

that they cook with and their inspiration when it comes to using their money for a good cause, and they certainly don’t fail to credit this when talking about the origins of their business. Some of the charities that Lá Jawab Treats donates to include LifeMoves, the Human Development Foundation, and GiveLight. “Recently we’ve been donating a lot to the Turkey Syria Earthquake and local homeless shelters as well.” Naiel adds.

As the siblings continued to work hard on baking, promoting, and satisfying customers, their efforts did not go unnoticed. Not long after it was launched, Lá Jawab treats began to capture the attention of news outlets in the Silicon Valley, landing them on local television, newspapers, and more. As a result of their successes and unique work with fusion treats in the Bay Area, Naiel was one day approached by Food Network with a show called Kids Baking Championship. Naiel and his mom Aifra Chadury were asked to fly to Tennessee for weeks of an extensive filming process, during which 12 kid bakers competed to impress judges Valeri Bertenelli and Duff Goldman. According to Naiel, this felt surreal, while also being one of crucial sacrifices that his family has had to make in order to foster the success of Lá Jawab Treats. “It was really crazy because this show had a big part in our baking passion,” he explains. Spending weeks away from school, friends, and family is a big commitment for a thirteen year-old. However, Naiel and his parents were aware that making these decisions are an unavoidable part of the journey to pursue the Chadury siblings’ baking passion. Naiel was both excited and determined to be a part of the Food Network world and surround himself with young people who share his passion for baking. The show featured ten intense rounds of baking competitions in which ten young bakers had the opportunity to showcase their own specialties and flavors through carefully crafted desserts, one getting eliminated per episode until a winner was left standing in the finale. This was yet another opportunity for Naiel to return to his South Asian roots when crafting delicacies for judges, including some of the treats that are sold as a part of his business. Just like so many customers before who had been drawn to these beautiful desserts with unique flavors, Goldman and Bertinelli were enticed by what Naiel was presenting them week after week.

In addition to his baking skills, Naiel was able to apply the entrepreneurship skills he had learned from running his business thus far in order to advance on the show. For example, his unique, fusion flavors are a huge selling point, and for the first few rounds he impressed the judges through a traditional South Asian dessert called Ras Malai, a baked donut with Mascarpone Masala whipped cream, and other such fusion desserts. In a room full of baking talent, Naiel was able to stand out and impress the judges time after time, enough to make it to the final round with two other contestants. In the season finale, each baker was given a theme, and without any prior preparation was challenged to come up with an elaborate cake to satisfy Goldman and Bertinelli. Naiel approached crafting his nautical themed cake in the same way he approaches many of the cakes for his business, with both efficiency and intricacy. Somewhere along the process the cake started to fall apart, an extremely stressful situation given the time limit and pressure of the final round. However, Naiel was able to act quickly and correct the mishap, going on to produce an award winning cake within the allotted time. Naiel’s passion and entrepreneurship skills became visible to audience members throughout the series, but the last episode truly showcases several of the abilities that he has been able to learn through running Lá Jawab treats. When it comes to any aspiring young entrepreneur, we see that the journey requires risk taking, time management, communication, and often compromise. Naiel took home the winning trophy for Season 11 of Kids Baking Championship with his blue sailing themed birthday cake, as well as $25,000 in cash.

As of future hopes and dreams, the pair hopes to one day be able to start their own bakery. “We want to open it up in Downtown Los Altos because it’s close to our home and we’ve been there a lot” Punhal states, describing her ideal location for this big dream. Indeed, their accomplishments of the past two years show that anything is possible, and as long as their famous fusion desserts keep selling at the current rate it’s safe to say that Lá Jawab Treats has a successful future ahead.

About The Author

Maya Batra is a Junior at Mountain View High School and part of the Design program at Freestyle Academy. She lives in Los Altos with her Mom, Dad, and brother. Aside from visual communication, her biggest passion is music and songwriting. She hopes to one day be able to pursue a career in digital marketing, in addition to being a singer-songwriter. In her free time, she enjoys running, podcasting, and planning events.

Maya Yoder

Crossing the Bridge

Maya Yoder

Walking through the small gates of the local middle school that served as our weekend campus, I entered San Francisco Japanese School (SFJS) for the last time. I bowed at the teachers greeting the students at the front gate. It still didn’t feel real that this was my last day of attending SFJS. No more cramming for the kanji test in the morning or staying up until 3am to finish my essays. No more exchanging my bento with my friends or fooling around with them during break time.

When moving from their home country to a new country, immigrant kids can struggle adjusting to their new environment. Learning a completely new language is already difficult enough.

without any way to ease in. On the other hand, multicultural kids, kids of multicultural backgrounds, can also struggle with feeling connected to their heritage culture, as they spend more of their formative years in their new country. This situation can cause many of them to develop an identity crisis based on their confusion about habits and values influenced by their heritage culture. With constant confrontation between the mainstream culture and traditional culture, immigrant and multicultural kids can feel lost. Heritage schools like SFJS can provide a place for multicultural students that allow them to celebrate their culture and develop a stronger sense of cultural identity.

What is SFJS?

Heritage schools, defined by the California Department of Education (CDE), are “Schools and programs that operate outside of compulsory education to offer instruction in the culture, traditions, or history, and language of a country other than the United States” (“Heritage Schools”). The CDE has requirements for what heritage schools must offer, like education in a foreign language, education of tradition/culture, and even culturally enriching activities.

SFJS is a Japanese heritage school in the Bay Area with classes held every Saturday. It was founded in 1968 and was created to help Japanese kids in the Bay Area to “grow into active players in the international society”(SFJS Website) as well as prepare those who intend to go back to Japan to continue their Japanese curriculum education. SFJS follows a similar system to schools in Japan. The curriculum uses textbooks approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education and all classes are taught in Japanese. Class periods are divided into Japanese language, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. The Social Studies classes generally focus more on Japanese culture and have more of an international perspective. The Japanese classes are much more comprehensive.

Subjects like Math and Science may have commonalities with the American curriculum but are taught with different tools and methods. Even though there are similarities with American schools, SFJS uses a Japanese approach in developing their students’ knowledge, thinking, and problem solving skills.

SFJS tries to provide the same amount of teaching and knowledge to their students as if they were going to school in Japan. The curriculum can be difficult for its students to manage in addition to their compulsory classes at their American schools. But because of SFJS’ authentic approach, their students can get the benefit of a truly Japanese educational and cultural experience through the school.

Embracing Culture and Community

SFJS not only provides a unique educational experience to their students, it also fosters an

environment for Japanese kids where Japanese kids can be part of a community with similar culture and values. It allows students to experience the social and cultural aspects of a Japanese school and feel part of the Japanese community.

Kotone Takada, an American born Japanese, found that one of the aspects of Japanese culture integrated into SFJS’ environment were the strict rules. Since she never experienced going to school in Japan, she was surprised by the things that were taboo in SFJS. She talked about an experience she had with her friends getting caught when eating a snack during break time. She says, “the fact that we had to hide it was surprising”(Takada)

Aloha Kato, a recent graduate from SFJS, found these rules familiar to the schools she attended in Japan. She also found them different from the more laidback rules in her American school. She commented on the differences between the two school systems: “SFJS compared to American schools, It’s really strict, but I feel like compared to schools in Japan, it’s actually a lot more loose” (Kato). For her, SFJS is more of a hybrid between the two countries’ school systems. But since she was used to the stricter Japanese system, it was easier for her to adjust to the environment at SFJS.

SFJS holds various

extracurricular events that are a familiar part of schools in Japan. These events range from sports day to the school play festival to the annual food bazaar. During sports day, students are divided into teams based on their classes and compete in different sports, like dodge ball, basketball, or volleyball. Teams will spend days and weeks practicing and strategizing before the competition. Takada noted how the level of competitive spirit increases as kids move to higher grade levels. “It gets pretty intense once you’re in the upper classes. You’re upper class, so you don’t want to be beaten by a freshman.” Through the sports day competition, everyone becomes closer knit and develops stronger connections with their classmates. Ryuto Tsuruoka, a current student at SFJS, mentioned that he thought that the opportunity to get closer to his classmates was an important aspect of sports day. He says “It fosters our sense of community. You’re in competition with other classes within your grade and get to

spend time with them”.

The Gakugeisai, the school play festival, is held near the end of the year after the students finish their final exams. Preparation for the Gakugeisai starts 3 months before, since a lot of work is required to get ready for the final performance. The story, script, costumes, and set are all created by SFJS students. Towards the end of the school year, preparation for this event becomes the focus at school for the students. Kato believes that preparing for the Gakugeisai helps students get closer to one another: “I like the Gakugeisai because my classmates collaborated together to make a full 10 minute skit.” While there is lots of anxiety building up to each performance, it is one of the most enjoyable events for students each year, because they get to share the results of their hard work with the whole community. Cultural events like these give students a sense of the social customs of Japanese schools. Takada found that these events were unique, as they didn’t exist in her American schools. “All the events were kind of strange, but I liked the uniqueness of it all.”

Takada’s Graduation Uniform

“All the events were kind of strange, but I liked the uniqueness of it all.

Kotone Takada, 17

Even when you don’ t know everyone’ s names, you ’re familiar with everyone s face to the point where you just see someone outside of school and you can say hi.

Heritage schools like SFJS can often provide a more inclusive environment for immigrant and multicultural students that can help them to develop their social self more easily than they can in their American schools. Within the heritage community, they often feel more comfortable and confident because they are in a familiar environment with others who share a similar background and values. Many SFJS students feel that the social interactions at their American schools can be quite different.

According to Takada, “Since everyone is Japanese, I feel like I can connect with people in a way that I can’t in my American school.” A

benefit of everyone having the same cultural background is that it helps students find a sense of belonging that they might not have in their American school. Because of this, heritage schools can create a closer, more supportive community. Tsuruoka states,“It’s a tight knit community. Even when you don’t know everyone’s names, you’re familiar with everyone’s face to the point where you just see someone outside of school and you can say hi.” On a deeper level, Takada believes that the reason for the tight knit SFJS community also has to do with the common values Japanese people have. She says, “I think Japanese people are very focused on togetherness. As a community, we help each other without question and are supportive in a different way. It’s different to how Americans view their interactions with other people.”

Acculturation and Language

Although education and community are key reasons for heritage school enrollment, what makes them especially important for multicultural kids is how they can help foster their cultural identity. For multicultural kids in America, it can be easy to lose connection with their heritage culture and lose their home country ties. Many of the kids in

SFJS continue to hold on to their heritage values and culture as part of their identity instead of letting go of them completely. The school’s promotion of Japanese heritage in its space helps students to maintain a positive attitude and acceptance of their Japanese identity and allows students to go through a process of acculturation.

According to Mary Zheng, Bridgewater State University, acculturation is defined as “the process in which an individual learns and adapts to the norms of a different culture.” She states that this is not the same as assimilation which requires one to completely adopt those cultural norms into their own identity and life. Acculturation can have positive impacts on development of heritage youths. Further, Jean S. Phinney, a psychology professor who conducts research on identity development, states that heritage individuals who acculturate “strive to achieve or maintain a positive social identity, thus boosting their self-esteem.” Assimilation on the other hand may lead to cultural bereavement. Cultural bereavement, as defined by Jay Patel from the University Maryland Department of English, is a “form of psychological grief caused by the loss of one’s culture.” Through assimilation, immigrant kids risk losing their heritage cultural identity, which can lead to regret and lower self esteem.

Tsuruoka expresses that SFJS provided him with a place where he can reinforce his mixed Japanese and Indian Identity, as he has the opportunity to meet other mixed people like him. He states, “I feel like a lot of people talk about identity crises with being of two different cultures. I feel like when you go to somewhere like SFJS, you don’t really feel that because there’s diversity within the community.” A community to find people common to you can help multicultural

Ryuto Tsuruoka, 17

people achieve a strong sense of ethnic identity leading to a more positive sense of one’s ethnic group.

How do the kids at SFJS define their identity through the acculturation process? Many SFJS students define themselves as either Japanese or JapaneseAmerican. Kato, when asked the question, responded that she feels more Japanese. However, she mentioned that recently, she has been feeling more American. Although she identified as full Japanese when first coming to America, she started to become more connected to American culture. She says, “Few years ago, I would say I was a hundred percent Japanese, because my Japanese is a lot better than my English. But nowadays, I feel like I’m losing some of my Japanese”(Kato). With kids who immigrate to America in their childhood years, there is often a shift in how they identify themselves depending on how long they live in their new environment. Language can also play an important role in shaping one’s cultural identity. Bonny Norton, a professor of the Department of Language and Literacy Education at British Columbia University, describes the link between a linguistic language and identity. She states that language is “theorized not only as a linguistic system,

Being able to speak Japanese, I have the opportunity to work in either Japan or America. I can even go to college in either country

but as a social practice in which experiences are organized and identities negotiated.” When they are more proficient in their heritage language, multicultural kids identify more with their heritage culture as a result. With proficient language skills, it is easier for multicultural kids to stay connected to their relatives in their home country and interact with others of the same heritage. Takada feels that SFJS has helped her in being able to communicate with her family in Japan. She says, “If I didn’t go to SFJS I wouldn’t be able to communicate with them at all. Even though I can’t communicate everything that I want to, it’s enough to allow me to have a meaningful relationship with them”(Takada). Communication is key to developing social connections which is why language education is a key part of heritage school curriculums and a key benefit for its students. Aside from helping form a strong cultural identity and create a more open mind, being multilingual and multicultural has other benefits as well. Having the ability to speak multiple languages and understand multiple

cultures can also create more possibilities for people coming from multicultural environments. Kato believes that with her ability to speak both Japanese and English, her future has more opportunities. She says, “Being able to speak Japanese, I have the opportunity to work in either Japan or America. I can even go to college in either country”(Kato). Multilingual and multicultural can be superpowers that help you succeed in a cosmopolitan society. With the World becoming more interconnected, the power to communicate and build bridges between nations becomes more of a necessity.

Cross the Bridge

SFJS has an official school song in which the lyrics emphasize the importance of meeting and creating connections through a bridge to the world. The chorus repeats the lines “いつか世界の架 け橋に (Nakamura), “one day, on a bridge to the world”. The lyrics are especially meaningful to SFJS students because of how SFJS acts like a bridge for their journey of cultural identity. Whether they are coming from Japan to live in America, or they are American born wanting to stay connected to their Japanese roots, SFJS provides a bridge for students to cross in support of their cultural journey.

Bento Box

Aloha Kato, 17

About the Author

Maya Yoder is a Junior at Mountain View High School in California. She attends Freestyle Academy, and is specializing in Design as her Elective. Maya is passionate about creating art through different medieums including painting, drawing, and digital art. Aside from art, she enjoys playing Lacrosse, baking, listening to music, and spending time with her friends an Family. She wishes to major in Design for College and continue art in the future as well.

Mia Florendo

Leap to Success

by Mia Florendo

Lauren Kato, a dance education teacher at Mountain View High School has dedicated her life to sharing her passion of dance with her students and has learned to recognize the importance of teaching the whole person.

All her life, Kato has been a people pleaser with a bubbly personality, character qualities that positively influence the lives of her friends and students every day. As a dance teacher, she strives to educate her students about this most expressive form of art by emphasizing performance qualities, self-expression through art, and the foundation of the learning process, where students themselves can understand and value how to integrate people’s humanities into the practice of student-teaching. She also emphasizes the development of her students both inside and outside of dance. According to CASEL, Collaborative Academic Social Emotional Learning, “Social Emotional Learning is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions”. Kato’s teaching approach is special: she creates personal relationships with students, making it easy for her to facilitate each individual’s process of improvement. By letting her students take the lead in exploring their own artistic abilities, Kato pushes her students to maintain a strong work ethic in order to achieve quality work. She often steps back and lets the student leaders figure things out, stepping in only when absolutely needed to get them back on track.

Kato was able to develop the skills of her teaching style with assistance from her students. From the age of two, she has always been involved with community building and started dancing after being inspired by the Nutcracker performed by the Boston Ballet in Massachusetts. She fell in love with dancing and performing when she first began taking classes at her grandmother’s studio, and has continued to love dance ever since, according to her family. Starting at the age of three, Kato moved several times during her childhood but continued to dance with the people she loves. She’s been through many ups and downs throughout her life, as she tried to find what she wanted to pursue as a lifelong career. Reflecting on this experience, she believes that they trusted her abilities knowing that she had already danced with the president and vice-president of the program outside of school. At the time, there were only three classes, and if you did some sort of dance, including cheerleading or musical theater, you were typically considered an advanced dancer. Kato reflects, “I was really lucky that I got to be a part of it. I was one of two freshmen in the class and I loved it. I loved how when I was in there, I was one of the youngest people, but the upperclassmen took me in, showed me the way and modeled the way. I just felt safe there.” She saw the program as a safe and welcoming community where she could be around the people she loved and do the things she loved.

Today, Kato provides a dance education to students in an engaging and entertaining manner. She always shows all of her students genuine sympathy and support, and she makes use of this kindness to help her students grow both as dancers and as people. She occasionally has a tendency to be more strict, but she achieves a lovely balance between being sweet and assertive in order to make her point.

By allowing her students the ability to take the lead and learn from their mistakes, she has positively impacted their lives. Dance Spectrum has provided a safe space where students are able to be comfortable with fellow students leading their classes, by creating a fun environment no matter which grade or class you’re in. “Student-led learning makes the classroom less of an “institution” and more of a community, encouraging all-around mutual support rather than competition and bullying”. For instance, when a group of choreographers don’t communicate well with one another before teaching, the class that is attempting to learn often faces trouble since they are unsure of what is right and wrong. This helps students understand that making mistakes the first time around is acceptable, resulting in improvements in their emotional development. In fact, “teachers’ emotional intelligence abilities positively influence teacher efficacy. Having teachers who are apt to perceive and manage emotions will be salutary for the personal development of students, as well as for structuring a positive and self-regulating learning environment”. When student leaders of the program are in need of help, it encourages them to turn to Kato, and there’s nothing wrong with needing help, as some may assume that they need to know everything perfectly. By focusing on honoring the humanity of her students in this student-centered dance program, she has further expanded the wonderful community of dance for high school students throughout the years.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, “In this model, learning is a constructive process that is relevant and meaningful to the learner and connected to the learner’s prior knowledge and experience. The learning environment supports positive interactions among learners and provides a supportive space in which the learner feels appreciated, acknowledged, respected, and validated. Rather than trying to “fix” the learner, the learner has the power to master his or her world through the natural process of learning”. Teachers should remember that each student is different while acknowledging everyone’s various learning styles. Some kids could be better at the subject than others, and keeping that in mind helps students feel more positive about their performance rather than inferior to their classmates. A safe environment where students can study and work on new material increases their motivation to complete their schoolwork. In other words, a healthy mind requires healthy surroundings.

When I asked Kato about how she adjusts the class curriculum according to the level of the dancers, she responded, “As a teacher that encounters students of all dance backgrounds, I adjust my curriculum to accommodate all dance journeys by starting from scratch because every year I have three beginner level classes and that’s really where I get most kids that are maybe dancing for the first time. So I always go back to ballet basics.” Even when the advanced dancers go back to technique, they are still able to learn something new each class because no one can ever be perfect all the time.

For example, perfectionism is often a common issue among the advanced dancers because they set the standards for themselves really high, and try to work and share their best work when performing in front of others. According to the IADMS, the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, “For a dancer with low self-esteem and high stress levels, chances are high that goals of perfect performance become overly demanding and upcoming shows feel like impending doom rather than exciting challenges”. A dancer may experience a range of emotions while performing. It could have either positive or negative effects on different people. Dancers with poor self-esteem and high levels of stress perceive that they are not giving their best performance, which prevents them from enjoying the stage at that moment in time. Kato continues, “Although ballet is not necessarily the foundation of all dances and dance styles, there is technique and positions and movements within ballet that are really consistent throughout the majority of different dance styles.” In fact, that’s true in most cases, especially when it comes to student-centered learning. Not only do you see your friends as people you love to hang out with, but sometimes they take over a leadership role of some sort and you get to see them as a “different person”. Kato was dancing with her best friend, when she realized the significance of student-centered learning: “I choreographed with one of my good friends my freshman year, which was huge because I was a shy person and even my best friend was in the program with me my senior year, our junior and senior years, and I came in to teach one of her classes because she was in the Jazz Dance class one day, and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh! Like, Lauren, you’re a different person when you’re teaching.’ And I was like, I know. I’m actually confident and not like the weird, quirky one, but it was just a safe space where I felt comfortable to be a leader”.

As Kato looks ahead into the future, she hopes to have left a legacy in the Dance Spectrum community. She is the first full-time dance teacher at Mountain View High School, which is very exciting for her, considering that she is back at her own high school. More importantly, she is able to share her love for dance with different sets of students each year. “I think Dance Spectrum is going to continue to grow. Even from last year to this year, there’s an increase in enrollment, especially as we’ve doubled our freshman enrollment for next year. And I just think as we continue to have more shows and performances, again in-person, where students are able to come and see what it’s all about, that will help enrollment increase and more and different types of students will continue to feel comfortable joining,” says Kato. From experience I can say that our show last year, and our first in-person show back from COVID was such an amazing experience for me, and after the show lots of people came up to me to ask how they could sign up for the program. She believes that the program is still growing, and is trying to rebuild the male population since it is pretty low, whereas it used to be a lot higher overall. She adds, “I’m really hopeful that population grows and there’s just more diversity in gender and in ethnicity and race as well” (Kato). Kato’s education style has helped many students grow over the years, to learn to focus on themselves first, and that making mistakes is part of becoming a stronger person and student leader.

“I think that being a dance teacher at a public school isn't just teaching dance, but it's teaching the whole human being and just listening and supporting and nurturing everything about the students. And that's really what I love. And I don't know, I just love my job. It's the best job on the planet”

- Lauren Kato

About the Author

Mia Florendo is a junior at Mountain View High School, and attends Freestyle Academy with film as her elective. She loves to dance and get boba in her free time, and hopes to use all her skills learned at Freestyle in the future.

Rye Donaldson

Neurodivergent Education: Assimilation or Alienation

By Rye Donaldson

Introduction

A cramped room packed with clusters of desks, bright flickering LED lights embedded in the ceiling, walls covered in a mayhem of shapes and colors. A slightly-too-loud voice droning on, a pair of kids giggling somewhere to the left. The rapping of a table-mate’s fingers on synthetic wood, barely out of sync with the constant ticking of the clock above your head. Only an hour more. Then 50 minutes, then 45… it’s never going to end. Your sock is bunching in the wrong place, the tag of your t-shirt rubbing your neck. You can’t move, you can’t speak, you’re stuck. There is so much unbearable noise, filling your brain like TV static. In conventional classrooms, neurodivergent students are commonly seen as a problem. Maybe they act in ways teachers don’t understand, or are unable to meet expectations and comply with rules. People think it’s a behavior issue—that they’re being difficult on purpose. The students are told to ‘fix’ themselves, that they’re distracting, disruptive, lazy, or disrespectful. What those people are not seeing are the real reasons behind these behaviors. As Efsun Alper Sweet, a drama teacher and mom of neurodivergent kids, put it, “what can be seen as a disruptive behavior might be a stim for someone to be able to soothe themselves, to actually regulate their nervous system.” It’s not just a misunderstanding on teachers’ parts, though. The reason these behaviors are considered a problem in the first place has to do with the education system itself. School is meant to be a space for learning, and yet it expects a vast variety of neurodiverse people to learn at the same rate and in the same way. The education system was

built by and for neurotypical people, and neurodivergent students are forced to put in so much extra unnecessary effort just to stay afloat. When they are unable to meet these ridiculous standards, they are unfairly blamed for it. Behind shiny diversity statements and supposed devotion to teaching, the modern education system’s true oppressive and assimilative nature is revealed. This system needs to change, and fast, for this pressure to conform throughout childhood is detrimental to neurodivergent students, and by extension, the equality of our society as a whole.

History of the Education System

Before discussing the specific challenges neurodivergent people face in the education system, it’s important to look more generally at the creation and history of mass education in America. There is a deep-rooted structure in schools that forces assimilation towards the dominant culture, or that of the white, heterosexual, able-bodied and minded, middle and upper class men. In “Neurodiversity and the Deep Structure of Schools”, Peter Smagorinsky writes, “normate policies established through their power have governed who is considered acceptable in the school setting, and who is deemed disordered.” This meant that anyone who did not change to fit that dominant culture would be looked down upon—including neurodivergent students. This was because in the US, schools began as a way to take a country of diverse people from different cultures and backgrounds and mold them into one national culture. The general mass education system, created around the mid 1800s, followed the belief that “the most urgent task of a rap

Our education system doesn’t work for SO many people. Here’s why, and what to do about it.

idly expanding nation populated by diverse people was to create a sense of unity and national identity, using the vehicle of school” (Smagorinsky 13). This belief that assimilation into one culture was necessary in order to form a strong national identity came from the belief that the dominant culture was superior to other cultures, and that any divergence from it was therefore bad. Under the guise of helping people become better, schools crush these wonderfully diverse cultures into one, positioning “violators as fundamentally in need of repair, banishment, punishment, exclusion, and disdain” (Smagorinsky 17). So, how did this assimilative schooling affect neurodivergent people? Similarly to the way members of the dominant culture believed their culture was superior, neurotypical people believed the way they functioned was the only correct way to function. Furthermore, at the time America’s education system was developed, neurodivergent people were identified only by behaviors. There was significant emphasis on behaviorism, the theory that human (and animal) behaviors can be explained by environmental stimuli or past conditioning, rather than thoughts or feelings. This was integrated into schools, so that students were “judged by their actions—the focus of behaviorism—and not the mental or neurological makeup that produces actions that defy conventional behavioral norms” (Smagorinsky 17). Just like how schools told themselves they were helping people become part of a better culture through assimilation, the education system continuously “helps” neurodivergent students by pressuring them to forcefully adopt neurotypical behavior—or to mask. When students were unable to mask to the point of blending in with their peers, they were unfairly punished for simply acting in accordance to the way they were wired. In reality, these so-called educators are not supporting the students, but instead forcing the students to change for the comfort of the neurotypical people around them.

Present-day Issues: What hasn’t changed

We like to tell ourselves that neurodivergent students are accepted and respected now, but while

it’s true our education system has become more supportive on the surface, so much hasn’t changed. The integration of behaviorism in schools is no exception. As Jacquelyn Fede and Amy Laurent, in their paper “Masking and Mental Health” put it, masking “is often taught or forced through very common and traditional behavioral educational approaches that promote compliance and conformity and the extinguishing of ‘autistic behaviors.’” In my interview with Efsun Sweet, she described how students will often be told to stop doing certain things as if they are in control of those behaviors or are doing it on purpose. As a result of this behaviorist culture that condemns differences, “individuals can also acquire similar skill sets implicitly, as it can be learned through observation of interactions between neurotypical peers, or from media sources” (Fede and Laurent 1). Everyone can mask to an extent, but Efsun says she has observed both in her own child and other students that “when it’s autistic masking, it just seems to be almost like creating a different version of yourself to be able to function, to be able to be liked in a group of people, and to be able to be considered even worthy at times…we are talking

about literally not showing any part of yourself… to the point that they may not know who they are after all of that masking.” Masking “is this reminder to self that they’re not enough. They’re not worthy. They’re not going to be loved or liked, and they are just weird” (Efsun). Before her second child was diagnosed with autism, she said that she “could mask really well,” and so she “was completely ignored because she was not causing any problems… teachers thought that she was listening to people and being very sweet and she wouldn’t speak up.” Teachers didn’t see what Efsun was seeing at home or when volunteering in the classroom, because her child had been so conditioned by the school to hide her autism. “That part was another difficult part because they were also missing severe bullying… being called names and this kind of torture happening for years at a time in a trusted place we thought was her safe place” (Efsun). Neurodivergent people are already reported to struggle with mental health conditions more than their neurotypical peers. In a paper by Amy L. Accardo and others, it was proven that in youth with ADHD and autism, “rates of anxiety and depression were up to ten-fold the prevalence of adolescents

“When it’s autistic masking, it just seems to be almost like creating a different version of yourself to be able to function, to be able to be liked in a group of people, and to be able to be considered even worthy at times.”

- Efsun

This image metaphorically represents the beautifully wild flowers that are trimmed back by schools.

not diagnosed with autism or ADHD.” About 69-72% of those with ADHD and autism were diagnosed with anxiety, and 38-39% with depression. The definite reasons for this are still unclear as there is a current lack of research, but it has been observed that autistic people who mask are also at a significantly higher risk of anxiety, depression, and suicidality (Fede and Laurent 1). Neurodivergent students are almost twice as likely to be bullied than their neurotypical peers (National Survey of Children’s Health), and students who are bullied are 2-3 times more likely to meet the criteria for depression as a young adult (Bowes et al.). Through all of this it can be seen how school environments can be detrimental to neurodivergent students’ mental health and wellbeing. Efsun later emphasized that during the pandemic, when her second child stopped going to school and the social interactions with peers (and subsequently, social pressures) went away, “there was a big change in the behavior…this frankness coming out, this brutal honesty that could seem mean to maybe another observer, but it was honestly refreshing that she was finally finding it easy to be just who they are.” Being able to unmask after social pressures were removed also proves that it was the social pressures keeping the mask up in the first place. “And you know, now she does not have a mask, and as her mom, I couldn’t be prouder” (Efsun). Social pressures are not the only thing wrong with the education system, though. When the education system was created, students were pressured to assimilate, and part of this meant learning the same things as one another, in identical classrooms with the same standards no matter the differences in the students. “I think many of us learned during the pandemic that that doesn’t work for so many people,” Efsun argued. Everyone’s brain is different, and so everyone has different needs. One strict system will never work for everyone—some people need visuals, some people need to learn through application, others need to move around, still others need group work. Efsun explains, “my second child… has a language disability where it’s very difficult for her to learn things verbally, whether it’s written or spoken.” My younger sibling Racoon, who uses all pronouns, struggles a lot with executive functioning, especially when he has to do something she doesn’t enjoy. Completing school work has always been a really big struggle, not because they aren’t smart enough, but because he is just unable to get herself to do it. In contrast, when they’re working on a passion project, she can spend hours absorbed in creating beautiful writing and artwork. He is smart and capable, but the way learning is structured in school doesn’t work for them, just like it doesn’t work for so many other neurodivergent kids. Furthermore, students so often do not have autonomy. Racoon, for example, would frequently sit in unconventional places like under a desk or in a cabinet but got in trouble, because it was apparently a “fire hazard.” The teachers, rather than understanding and safely accommodating her need for flexible seating and smaller, less-stimulating spaces to work, refused to listen and made him sit at a desk with other students. Teachers too often

treat kids, especially neurodivergent kids, like they don’t know what they really need. Even in going to the restroom, Efsun says, the students have to ask or get a pass, but really “whether the person is using it to relieve themselves or to get a mental break, it’s nobody else’s business.” Another big issue for neurodivergent students is testing. There is this big pressure on faculty to prove that the information being taught is retained by the students. To some degree, testing may be important to evaluate curriculums, and see whether they are effective. However, it so often turns into this competitive, stressful thing, most of which “has nothing to do with if the student absorbed it enough to make connections, make associations across disciplines, if they can actually take that knowledge and apply it…or to creatively pursue a project and marry different disciplines

and do something cool with it” (Efsun). Students with learning disabilities have an even harder time with testing, for a number of different reasons. Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, for example, are often unable to sit and focus enough to complete a test in the given amount of time, despite having the knowledge to. Academic success is measured in test scores and grades, and when this system doesn’t work for your brain, it makes you feel like you’re just bad at learning. In reality, you’re not—you just learn differently, but testing leaves no room for that.

Present-day “Solutions”

After addressing these issues, the big question is: how do we fix it? To this, I unfortunately have no concrete answer. It’s an incredibly complex issue, and fixing it is by no means easy. Today, the current “solutions” seem to be providing accommodations through a 504 or an IEP, and putting kids into special education. Given we still have all of these issues today though, this is clearly insufficient. For one, these accommodations are only available to those who are able to get a diagnosis. It took Efsun about 6 years to get her first child the diagnoses they needed for a 504, and for her second child, even after getting a diagnosis it took a full year before she was finally given an IEP. In general, it has been found that white children have

Racoon sitting under a desk

a much higher chance of being diagnosed than Black or Latinx children (Alyward et al.), and boys are diagnosed much more often than girls (Gesi et al.). This can be for any number of complex reasons, but often is due to the fact that most of the research is done on white men, and members of marginalized groups may not fit the stereotypes associated with the respective diagnosis (Arky et al.). This means access to accommodations and special education is unfairly biased and inaccessible. Special education is also so often severely underfunded, which means children who are able to enter it don’t get the attention and support they actually need (Samuels). Furthermore, Efsun explains, special education often “ends up getting privatized to the point that entering becomes really difficult.” Ultimately, though they do help some, these “solutions” are all flawed modifications to the current education system that are not fully implemented, only available to those able to get diagnosed, and are put in place so the system doesn’t really have to change.

education system. At first it had its struggles— teachers lecturing obedient children from textbooks, and significant race and class disparities, for example—but now, while still not perfect, it’s one of the best in the world. There is no emphasis placed on testing, no rankings or competition between students or regions, schools are publicly funded, and emphasis is placed on the process of actually learning rather than proving material has been learned. Neurodivergent students, rather than being labeled stupid and pushed aside, are given the attention and support they need in order to continue to learn and grow. This is essential both for the childrens’ future as well as their self esteem—they may have struggled learning the way others do, but because the teachers believed in them and provided that help, they know that they are capable of learning. Furthermore, Finnish schools and classes are smaller, and teachers are paid more while spending less hours actively teaching, giving them more time to prepare lessons and more closely assess their students. Teaching is also one of the most highly respected professions, and teachers receive much more intense and in-depth training. Ultimately, Finland’s schools put much more thought into actual learning, and simultaneously, teachers’ and students’ well-being. In the words of Finnish principal Timo Heikkinen, “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect” (qtd. in Hancock).

Realistic Smaller Steps

The Ideal Education System

Ideally, the education system would be rebuilt completely. Learning would be more flexible, with accommodations provided for every student based on their individual needs. It would also be more passion and strength based. When people are excited about something, they will be more inclined to actually learn about it, and will be able to go on to apply and build off of that and do something cool with it. While general education is definitely important to an extent, students who really struggle with certain subjects should not be made to learn them at the same rate or to the same extent as others. School really just needs to be a flexible space where students can learn what they love in the ways that work best for them. This dream school will never exist, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work towards it. According to LynNell Hancock, a writer and teacher specializing in education and child and family policy issues, before the 1960s the majority of children in Finland only received six years of public education, and were only able to get a quality education if they were privileged and wealthy. To combat their struggling economy at the time, they decided to reform the

The United States is not Finland. We are much larger, and are so often divided on what changes to make and why. It is highly unlikely that any significant change will come in any short period of time. That does not mean, though, that change can’t come—it just has to come differently. You know, now, many of the flaws with our education system, and how detrimental this education system is for the health and future of neurodivergent students. Change needs to come, for the sake of current and future students and the impact they will have on the world, but change will only come when enough people believe it needs to. For that reason, I hope that you will continue to educate yourself and others on this topic. That being said—raising awareness is crucial, but does nothing if no real action comes from it. On a smaller scale, simply supporting the neurodivergent people around you who need it, and fighting for individual accommodations or changes to local schools can really help the people in your community get what they need. Even coming together with local parents to change one classroom to have a more flexible and sensory-friendly environment can have a hugely positive impact on those kids—and hopefully, more classroom communities will see that and follow. On a larger scale, we need systemic change through political action, and joining or supporting larger organizations and fighting for that can make all the difference. One person may not be able to fix everything, but it’s important everyone does their part. In the words of Efsun Sweet, “whatever small win is good. It’s not small. It just needs to have that ripple effect.”

Sensory overload is a huge issue for neurodivergent students that makes it really hard to function.

About The Author

(all pronouns)

Rye Donaldson is currently a junior attending Freestyle Academy and Mountain View High School. He loves drawing, writing, and is currently learning to play guitar! They are neurodivergent and queer, and hope to educate others on those topics through her art, and before the end of high school, he wants to start writing an indie game!

About the Cover Designer

Luiza is a 17-year-old student at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy. Her main passion in life is art. Whether it’s fine art, photography, or graphic design, Luiza spends hours at a time being creative. Her dream in life is to turn her passion into a career by studying graphic design in college and obtaining a job in that field. She is fluent in English, and Portuguese, and is proficient in Spanish. Luiza enjoys playing guitar outside of school and spending time with her friends, family, and cat. She has designed various things for the community including The Out Of Darkness T-Shirt

Logo Design, The Turkey Trot Design, The Silent Auction Catalog for Bullis Charter School, the Golden Gate Park Band Festival Program and T-shirt, MVHS Oracle

Youtube Channel Backsplash, and KPOP Dance Club Exec. Board Design, Golden Gate Park Band Festival, and more! Luiza is so thankful to be a Freestyler, for it is the best part of her day.

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