hopping the pond Physics teacher Karen Hutchison will trade places with an Eton College physics teacher for the 2011-2012 school year.
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a way with notes
Kevin Schwarzwald ’11, a violinist, pianist and composer, conducted a piece he wrote at last night’s symphony concert.
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hronicle C april 27, 2011
Harvard-Westlake School Los Angeles, CA Volume XX Issue VIII chronicle.hw.com
School OKs prom with conditions By Jordan Freisleben and
Lin shows art, advocates environmental awareness By Saj Sri-Kumar Architect Maya Lin spoke about her artwork and environmental activism in a speech to the Upper School on Monday. Lin described her large-scale outdoor sculptures. “I’m drawn to social, political and cultural issues,” Lin told the audience. Many of Lin’s works involved working with the natural environment in a particular area. One of her larger works, the restoration of Lewis and Clark’s trail throughout the Pacific Northwest, involved moving parking lots and buildings to make the landscape resemble what it looked like when Lewis and Clark first explored the area. “As an artist, I’m hopefully getting you to realize what’s missing,” she said. Lin did not discuss her most wellknown work, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, referring to it only
as a “student project.” A large portion of Lin’s speech was dedicated to her environmental activism project, named “What is Missing?” She referred to the project as her “fifth and final memorial.” The project seeks to reverse the trend of mass extinctions among many species in the wild by reducing human impact on habitats. “It’s an issue of land use and consumption,” she said. Lin was the 11th speaker of the Brown Family Speaker series, which was established in 2000 by Abbott and Linda Brown (Russell ’94, David ’96) to bring a notable speaker to the school each year. A reception was held after the assembly in Feldman-Horn Art Gallery, where copies of Lin’s book were available for purchase. Despite the surplus of seats available, students who were not enrolled in an advanced art class were prohibited from attending or purchasing copies of the book.
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save the planeT: Vietnam Veterans Memorial architect Maya Lin lunched with Katie Speidel ’11 and other visual art students, top, after speaking at an upper school assembly, bottom. Her most recent project, “What is Missing?” aims to raise awareness about humans’ impact on the environment.
Panel urges parents to combat teen drinking By Rebecca Nussbaum Parents are being asked to help combat a binge drinking culture at the Upper School in light of the hospitalization of six intoxicated students at the unauthorized semiformal afterparty in January, a record number of parents at April 20’s Harvard-Westlake Parents Association board meeting were told. The school has a plan to educate parents, provide parental support groups and encourage safe house contracts so parents can converse with their children about drugs and alcohol to prevent students from making poor choices, Dean Rose-Ellen Racanelli said. The school will also give all parents a copy of a Community of Concern drug and alcohol prevention booklet
by the end of the summer, Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. “It will give all of us a common platform,” Salamandra said, and ensure that parnathanson ’s/chronicle ents are asking Harry Salamandra the same questions about the safety of their children. Dean Tamar Adegbile told parents that students have been actively brainstorming and discussing how to prevent another dangerous situation like afterparty. “Our Prefect Council has been amaz-
ing and very impressive in galvanizing their peers and really helping to lead the discussion about what can we do to change the culture,” she said. Former English teacher, writer and columnist for The Atlantic and the New Yorker Caitlin Flanagan (Patrick Hudnut ’16) said that the school has made its stance against binge drinking perfectly clear and that it is now up to parents to present an equally strong front to their children. “Schools are off the hook here,” Flanagan said. She noted that Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts sent every parent a letter warning them of the annual unofficial afterparty and the drugs and alcohol that accompany it, and yet parsee HWPA, A7
Daniel Rothberg
Seniors and their parents must sign a pledge of good behavior to buy tickets for the May 14 Prom at the Renaissance Hotel, Prefects announced at the senior class meeting last week. The fate of prom was in jeopardy after students went to the hospital as a result of excessive drinking at the unauthorized semiformal afterparty in January. The pledge warns that students will receive a minimum punishment of a one-day suspension if they arrive at prom intoxicated, plan or attend an afterparty at a non-residential venue, “occupy” a room in the Renaissance Hotel during prom weekend or if alcohol or drugs are found in their limo. The one-day suspension punishment is reportable to colleges, Prefect Council adviser and Upper School Dean Tamar Adegbile said. “It has given us an opportunity to say if somebody does violate it or breaks some of the rules, we’re going to suspend them, and that does mean we’re going to have to notify colleges, and we don’t want to be in that position,” Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said that a similar agreement has been used for senior retreat. “This seems to be a workable model for senior retreat in that students who participate in senior retreat are promising in advance that they will not drink or get in trouble,” Huybrechts said. The pledge ends with students promising to “act responsibly” throughout the night. “I was surprised at how far the students were willing to go. I wasn’t sure they would be, which I guess says that the kids as a whole, this class, is more concerned about the safety of their peers that maybe I would have given see Prom, A8
INSIDE Chopsticks and Matzo: Multiethnic students experience different cultures when they are with different sides of their family.
B4 Q&A: KC Cord ’11 and Hilary King ’11 run in record-setting relays after playing key roles for winter sports teams.
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