A8 News
Nov. 10, 2010
The
Chronicle
Researcher explains results of student stress fracture study
By Eli Haims Results from a study on stress fracture, for which Harvard-Westlake students served as test subjects from 2003 to 2004, were presented in an assembly on Monday. The results were presented by Michelle Barrack, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Orthopedic Surgery Division of Sports Medicine, who is one of the nation’s experts on bone density, according to Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas. The study focused on factors that affected the frequency of stress fractures, which develop over time due to a repeated action, particularly “bone mineral density, nutri-
tional status and training volume,” according to a slide show shown at the assembly. The study, according to Barrack, found evidence to suggest a correlation between bone density and the frequency of stress fractures. The study found that the bone density of female endurance runners did not, on average, increase from the time the athletes were freshmen to when they were seniors. There is generally a significant increase in density during these years. Barrack stressed that the lack of increase in density is not a direct effect of running, but the data suggests that repetitive motion often seen in runners can increase the probability of a stress fracture.
Student creates iSketch app, donates profit
Dalton censors school paper from Censorship, A1
By Sade Tavangarian At 13-years-old, Cameron Cohen ’16 has already successfully created an iPhone application, and donated most of the proceeds from the application to the University of California, Los Angeles Mattel Children’s Hospital. The seventh grader created the “iSketch” application that allows buyers to create and draw doodles through touch screen finger painting, coloring, and sketching. Cohen earned $20,000 from his application sales within months, but decided to give his proceeds away. “I decided to donate to the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital because during the month of March in fifth grade I had a benign tumor, Cohen said. “I was fortunate enough to have my iPod and iTouch which distracted me through the time, but I realized a lot of kids didn’t have any Apple products to distract them.” Cohen used the $20,000 from application sales to purchase Apple products such as laptops, iPhones, iPod nanos and iTouches for the patients to enjoy during their stays. Cohen’s interest in computer programming sparked last summer when he took a computer programming course at Harvard-Westlake Upper School with Chris Gragg. He also took courses at Ivy Tech on general computer programming and web design. Cohen was always interested in drawing applications during his spare time, although he claims he’s not the best artist. “I looked online and all the good drawing applications ranged between $5-10,” he said. “All the cheap drawing applications were free. I wanted to create an affordable drawing application
Daniel Kim/chronicle
Bone density: Postdoctoral research fellow at the UCLA Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Michelle Barrack, presents the results from a 2003 to 2004 stress fracture study to an assembly.
printed with permission of Cameron Cohen
iSketch: The application designed by Cohen provides a cheaper way for people to sketch on their iphones. because I don’t think it’s worth it to spend that much money on it.” iSketch, Cohen’s first iphone programming attempt, took him two to three months to complete. “I was always home because I couldn’t play sports due to my surgery,” Cohen said. “I watched apple video tutorials online, audidated tapes, and watched iPod programming classes from Stanford U Online and worked through their course.” Within three weeks, Apple accepted Cohen’s application and it was an instantaneous success. He created an update for iSketch where users can share their drawings via Facebook and Twitter, but Apple rejected his idea. “I’m mad at Apple for rejecting my application,” he said. “I am now learning how to create a web service like Facebook or Twitter. What I like about programming languages is that no one can approve or reject your ideas like Apple does. It’s a lot more open.”
One week later, the school distributed a reprinted version of the newspaper including the article on alcohol consumption. The chart originally printed on The Daltonian’s front page said that 80 percent of students who responded to a school survey did not drink regularly. However, the survey question had asked whether students drink at all, not regularly. The New York Times story said that the administration worked extensively with the student editors to revise the story to their satisfaction. Dalton spokesman Jim Zulakis said the school did not object to the survey being published but “surveys and other information must be reported accurately.” Harvard-Westlake’s administration does not believe in censorship of The Chronicle and has never exercised prior review or halted distribution, Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. “The goal is to help the young adults find their place in the community, and I personally feel that our policy is really the best policy. It goes back to that idea of community of trust,” he said. “We do occasionally get burned, but we trust the students of the editorial board to ultimately end up putting out accurate information,” he said. “Sometimes it is controversial, but it’s done in a way that I think allows the community, students, as well as adults to understand the importance of a particular subject and its relevance to a community.” According to the Student Press Law Center, First Amendment rights do not prevent school censorship at private schools. In the case of private high schools, only a state constitution, statute or school policy could provide private school students with free speech protections. In California, the Education Code gives public school students free speech privileges, and California Education Code Section 48950, known as “Leonard Law,” forbids private schools from punishing students for exercising rights of free speech they would have off-campus under the First Amendment. Administrators at Campbell Hall, a private school in Valley Village, rarely censor the school newspaper, The Piper, but do practice prior review. “They are allowed to censor anything they feel might be inappropriate or offensive,” The Piper editor Alexandra Tashman said. “However, while they may have the power of censorship, they rarely use it. More often than not, if we are planning to print something controversial, they will ask to see it in advance.” Tashman said that the administration typically does not ask for articles to be cut. “Usually, they just like to know about our more controversial material in advance,” she said. “The administration, while they may not always be thrilled we criticize them in the paper, does not usually censor us. All they ask is for accuracy and fairness.” Palisades Charter High School is in the process of implementing a “publications policy” for its newspaper, The
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We occasionally do get burned, but we trust the students of the Editorial Board.”
—Harry Salamandra Head of Upper School
Tideline. In a preliminary draft of the new policy, some of the wording implied the possibility of prior review by the administration, said Ben Levine, editorin-chief The Tideline. A publications policy is required in order to operate as an independent charter school in California, Levine said. Roger Boye, director of the National High School Institute at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, said that censorship by school administrations ends up negatively impacting a school’s image rather than helping preserve it. “As a general rule, most cases of censorship on the high school level tend to be an overreaction by school administration and create more negative publicity for the school than the censored article would have caused,” he said. “They also tend to be at schools that don’t have a skilled, professionally educated journalism teacher or at schools where the journalism teacher and students lack rapport and a good working relationship.” Jessica Skoczylas, editor-in-chief of The Record at Horace Mann School in the Bronx, said a clear distinction should be made between a school’s administration and the newspaper staff. “Because we are a private school, the administration can always step in. However, because we have a faculty adviser, it generally does not,” Skoczylas said. “We recommend student newspapers investigate the possibility of establishing a publication code to determine the roles of the students and administration in a school newspaper.” Salamandra said that many controversial articles that have the potential to affect a school’s image are not always read in the broader context. “Articles that are in a student publication could be damaging to a reputation or to the image,” Salamandra said. “If you put on the front page of the school newspaper that 60 percent of students are consuming alcohol or drugs or whatever it happens to be, absolutely, because you’re not comparing it to other schools. Maybe if Dalton looked even around in their immediate area they’d find that other schools are even worse than that.” Salamandra said that while censoring school publications would help avoid controversy, the administration is a proponent for freedom of the press. “Would that make our lives easier?” Salamandra said. “Yeah, sure. Is it the right thing to do? Well, we decided no, that’s not what we want to be right now. I don’t believe personally that it would be the right thing.”