A6 News
The
inbrief Whooping Cough Miller to present display at Santa Monica gallery Middle school art teacher Robin Miller will display her work in an art show at the Hanger Galleries in Santa Monica beginning Friday. The show is titled “Urban Nature” and will be on display through Oct. 2. “‘Urban Nature’ is a milestone for me as an artist who works full time as an art teacher. While artmaking is quite naturally one of the sources of inspiration for what I do with my students in the classroom, it is very difficult to discipline myself to make the effort to produce it,” she said. —Keane Muraoka-Robertson
Students to continue textbook drive this year After organizing an end-ofschool textbook drive last year, Austin Lewis ’11 and Emilia Louy ’11 plan to continue the textbook drive this year. Many of the books collected last year were sold to the bookstore to be re-sold this year, and others were kept for student use in the library. The remaining books will be donated to a library chosen by Head of School Harry Salamandra, Lewis said. “This year we have more time to think things over, plan a little more ahead, and hopefully something good can happen,” Lewis said. —Alex Leichenger
Attendance posted only online this school year Starting this year, attendance records are posted solely online at hw.com/students under the “U.S. Attendance” tab. Head of Upper School Attendance Gabriel Preciado has been wanting to transition to online attendance for a while, he said. Online attendance is more up-to-date, and saves a lot of paper. It is also more convenient, as students can see their absences and tardies in one place, he said. —Arielle Maxner
Sept. 22, 2010
Chronicle
threatens to spread
The common cold...or whooping cough? The first stage and most contagious stage of whooping cough looks nearly identical to the common cold. However, there are numerous differences, making it far more virulent.
By Saj Sri-Kumar As you walk down the hallway of Chalmers on your way to your math class, you might hear a student cough many times in succession. At first it appears as if it’s just another student with a cold, but when he coughs so much that he is struggling to fill his lungs with air and takes deep inhalations, it becomes clear that it is something more serious: pertussis, better known as whooping cough. Pertussis, a highly contagious disease that is occasionally fatal, has infected seven times more people in California since June 1 than the same time period last year, resulting in the most cases in 52 years. As a result, the California Department of Public Health has declared a statewide epidemic. While often associated with infants, teenagers and adults are at a greater risk than before for two main reasons. First, many vaccinations that people may have gotten as young children have worn off and the protection that they afforded has weakened, pediatrician Cara Natterson ’88 said. Second, many adults and teenagers will go to work or school despite being sick to avoid having to make up work. Natterson said that this causes the disease to spread to peers, and she suggested that anyone who feels sick should see a doctor. “When people cough into their hand and then touch a doorknob or a desk, they leave bacteria on the surface; the next person to come along and touch the same can easily pick it up. We all touch our eyes, noses, and mouths throughout the day, often unknowingly. When we do this, we expose our bodies to bacteria and viruses that we have come into contact with in the environment,” Natterson said. “This is why hand washing is so important. If you eat a sandwich without washing your hands, you are ingesting all of the things you have touched in your community. If you wash with soap and water, then the germs from your surroundings don’t get into your body,” she said. Additionally, not every student has necessarily been vaccinated against the disease, even as a child. Harvard-Westlake’s Director of Sports Medicine Sandee Teruya said that while the school strongly recommends students receive the vaccination, it is not required. The school has announced that as a result of the pandemic, it will be offering the “TDAP” vaccine to all faculty at the annual Health and Wellness fairs, as part of the school’s health insurance for faculty. That vaccine will include protection to tetanus and diphtheria in addition to pertussis. There are three distinct phases of symptoms that one experiences once infected. The first is similar to the common cold in many respects, and consists of the same symptoms. This stage is also when the disease is most contagious. The second phase, also know as the “paroxysmal” phase, is characterized by periodic spurts of coughing, often followed by a deep inhalation. Natterson said that the deep inhalation often sounds like a
Whooping Cough Results from a bacterial infection Lasts around 100 days Can be fatal to infants
Common Cold Caused by a viral infection Typically lasts one week Rarely, if ever, fatal
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Source: Cara Natterson ’88 Graphic by Lara Sokoloff, Rebecca Nussbaum, Wendy Chen
We all touch our eyes, noses, and mouths through the day, often unkowingly. When we do this, we expose our bodies to bacteria.
“whoop,” giving the disease its popular name. The final phase is a gradual recovery, during which the cough slowly subsides.If one is diagnosed with pertussis, the disease can be treated using antibiotics. However, a recurring problem is that many people do not think they have pertussis and spread it to others. Additionally, many doctors do not think to test for it initially, Natterson said. “My advice is to have the doctor check you by listening to your lungs and doing a quick physical exam—this is always better than running to a lab and just getting a lab test. When you feel sick, and certainly when you have significant cough, an exam by a doctor is always a good idea,” Natterson said.
Sophomore burns hand in chem lab
Delegation of Chinese teachers to observe school A delegation of Chinese teachers will be visiting the Middle School on Oct. 6. The trip was organized by Jack Jia, the CEO of the European Union Education Foundation. The delegation will meet with Chinese teachers Binbin Wei and Xiaomei Mu and Assistant Head of Middle School Paul Mastin. Jia said that he hoped to learn the “secret of [Harvard-Westlake’s] success,” in addition to how Harvard-Westlake helps students to develop and what “students bring with them after their graduation.” —Eli Haims
Prefects create Honor Code video for juniors The Prefect Council is making a video about the Honor Code to be shown at a junior class meeting in October. Prefects Sam Wolk ’13, David Olodort ’12 and Jamie Temko ’11 are working on the video in coordination with Nick Lieberman ’11. They will meet next week to discuss the details. They plan to make two videos about decision making. The videos targert juniors because they “still have two years left in high school, and it would be most relevant to them,” prefect Brooke Levin ’12 explained. —Molly Harrower
—Cara Natterson ’88
By Michael Rothberg
Reprinted with permission of Jordan elist ’13
Helping out: Jordan Elist ’13 shows off bottles that volunteers collected through his organization, “Save a Bottle, Save a Life.”
KABC honors sophomore for non-profit organization By Allison Hamburger Jordan Elist ’13 was featured as a KABC Cool Kid for his nonprofit organization “Save a Bottle, Save a Life” on Aug. 26. The organization, which he founded last year, donates food to the Jewish Family Services Food Bank bought with money raised from recycling bottles and cans. Elist has collected about $3,000 so far, which translates to about to 5,500 pounds of donated food. Elist hands out bags to about 75 houses every week. The residents collect recyclables and return the bags to Elist. He then uses the money earned from the recycling center to buy food for the food bank. Elist said he would like to include the school
in the future to expand the organization. “I’m planning on giving a bag to every student at the school to collect their own bottles and cans. Then maybe at the end of the week they can recycle it themselves and get some community service hours,” Elist said. Elist is hoping to incorporate bigger companies, especially ones involved in the food or bottling industries, he said. He was interviewed by ABC Eyewitness News’s Danny Romero as a part of the weekly “Cool Kids” segment, which features kids involved in bettering their community. Elist said he was surprised to find out about the segment, but enjoyed the process.
On his first day in chemistry class, Anthony Thompson ’13 burned his hand after volunteering for a combustion demonstration. The experiment involved pouring methanol into a water bottle and then dropping a match in, creating an explosive reaction that releases a flame upward. When Thompson first attempted this, the match blew out before he reached the bottle. He performed the experiment again, but as soon as he dropped the match in the bottle, a burst of methane gas exploded upward and burned his hand. “Protocol was followed. His hand was treated in the classroom and he was then seen by the athletic trainers in a follow up examination after class,” science teacher Stephanie Quan said. Trainer Milo Sini wrapped Thompson’s hand and his mother drove him to St. Joseph’s Hospital. Thompson’s hand is now almost fully healed except for minor scarring. “It was an interesting first day of school, but I look forward to the rest of the year,” Thompson said.