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INKLINGS INKLINGS
April 3, 2017 page 8 Jesse’s roommate search Jesse Levinson ’17 satirizes the college roommate search process.
Vol. 88, Issue 9
page 15 Off the Presses Sophia Livecchi ’17, Matteo Brocollo ’17 and Elizabeth Rhoads ’17’s t-shirt companies take Staples by storm.
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HELICOPTER PARENTS
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News Opinions Features Arts Sports
Gender-inclusive policies promised at Staples in defiance of withdrawn federal protections
prompt security action at PSAT10 exam Brendan Massoud ’17 & Alex Spadacenta ’17
estport’s Continuing Education felt pressured to take precautionary measures and hire a security guard for the March 10 administration of the PSAT10 (the version of the PSAT which is offered to sophomores), after receiving aggressive calls from parents demanding that their child take the test. Although no one was in physical danger, security guard Ron Palmer and Horace Lewis, SHS head custodian, were present in order to ensure that no parents disrupted the strict procedures and regulations set forth by the College Board. According to Ellen Israel, the director of Continuing Education, the numerous emails and calls she receieved from parents were agressive and inappropriate since multiple reminders to sign up for the test were sent, and since the PSAT10’s registration deadline had already passed. Israel said parents were impolite and said the parent interactions were not helpful. “I would prefer that [the parents] teach their students to advocate for themselves,” Israel said. In the Staples community, a number of teachers have also found parent interjections in their child’s academic life to be more harmful than helpful. Science teacher Trema Voytek understands that parents are trying to protect their children, however she feels that helicopter parents in high school could potentially hurt the child later in life because they do not allow kids to take responsibility or make mistakes. “[Parents] end up doing everything for their children and the kids don’t learn how to be responsible,” Voytek said. “When they get out in the real world, if they’d never failed, when they do fail, they’re devastated.” English teacher Brian Tippy agreed that parents can often lose sight of boundaries, but believes this instinct stems from intentions which are in the right place. “Sometimes you get people who are so desperate to protect their kids that they forget that some consequences are really important,” he said. Izzy Baildon ’17 noticed that her
INSIDE
Names have been changed*
Izzy Connors ’18
Graphic by Channing Smith ’17
parents check her grades on Home Access Center more than she does. “My mom is completely obsessed with it,” she said. Baildon also said that her parents will contact her teachers, but only with her permission. However, not all parents are as forthcoming with their children when they contact teachers. Robert Shamberg, a social studies teacher, said that some parents ask him to refrain from telling their child they have contacted him.
“Sometimes you get [parents] who are so desperate to protect their kids that they forget that some consequences are really important.” -Brian Tippy Alan Jolley, a math teacher, administers the PSAT and SAT tests at Staples, and feels that the PSAT10 incident was a learning experience for parents. He “wish[es] these parents would understand that this was a practice [exam],” and he hopes that they have learned what to do when the real SAT comes around. “The college process is so anxietyprovoking at this point that it’s hard not to get caught up in that anxiety,” Israel said regarding parent behavior. The PSAT10 incident was not Israel’s first encounter with helicopter parents and she said the behavior is evident even in kindergarden. Israel said that parent
How involved are your parents in your academic life?
reactions to a robotics class offered to kindergarteners is just one example of parents becoming overly enthusiastic and thinking too far ahead. “It can sometimes be difficult for parents to separate the idea that their kid might want to do robotics for fun when they’re in kindergarten, but might have absolutely no interest in computer science whatsoever,” she said. To combat the helicopter parents phenomenon, Staples is attempting to increase student responsibility and encourages students to initiate contact with teachers. “I think there are a number of ways that we could encourage more self-reliance and more taking responsibility,” Tippy said. “A good example is we are reworking the academic honesty policy.” In Tippy’s opinion, it is parents’ heavy pressure on kids to achieve A’s that is the driving factor in the issue of academic dishonesty. AP students, Tippy felt, were at least as likely to cheat as their peers, purely because they “just can’t turn in a ‘C’ paper.” Voytek believes that the culture at Staples in recent years has created the assumption that getting a ‘C,’ which is passing, is unacceptable. “[Parents are] always trying to protect them from getting a ‘C,’” Voytek said. “A ‘C’ never killed anyone years before.” Yet Tippy pointed out that student anxiety is built not only by parent pressures, but also from the pressures created by society. “There is a whole cultural phenomenon in this town, in lots of towns,” he said, “that puts measurements of success ahead of actual success.”
Less than I’d like them to be Results from a school-wide poll with 205 student responses.
STAPLES HIGH SCHOOL| 70 North Ave., Westport, Connecticut
Staples implemented gender neutral bathrooms last year and has pledged to keep them open. Photo by Ellie Kravetz '18
Protection effectiveness against bullying in question after federal investigation Max Appell ’18 & Zach Horowitz ’19
59%
As much as I’d like them to be More than I’d like them to be
On Wednesday Feb. 22, the Trump administration announced that the federal protections for transgender students that allow them to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identity at schools will be withdrawn, reversing a landmark executive order issued by the Obama administration. In the wake of this decision, the Connecticut governor, Dannel Malloy, released a statement condemning Trump’s actions. “In Connecticut, we will defend the rights of all students regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity and disability status,” Malloy stated. He reassured residents that the state will continue to implement policies that “will continue to protect their access to welcoming learning environments.” Nevertheless, some LGBTQ Staples High School students were shocked and saddened by Trump’s regressive measures. “My overall immediate reaction was probably fear,” Ethan*, who identifies as agender, said. “I wasn’t very worried about myself so much as the transgender children younger than me and those who would be brought up in this sort of systematic oppression where they wouldn’t have basic rights.” continued on page 3
25% 16%
The Westport Board of Education went under federal investigation on Nov. 9 due to claims that school officials from one of Westport’s middle schools grabbed and shook a student who had filed a complaint about being bullied. The specifics of the bullying allegations qualified as violations of the Title IX and Title VI amendments. But federal investigations of schools are not rare; other boards of education in the state of Connecticut have also undergone investigations. Title IX states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of continued on page 5
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