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SUNDAY BREAKFAST ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT
SOCIAL SCENE
Novelist able to raise the Barr. P38
Benefit helps lift people out of poverty. P23
SPORTS
Lake Forest junior Gavin Hoch heads to state in the hurdles. P30 FOLLOW US:
NO. 138 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
Top principal candidate spurs uproar BY ADRIENNE FAWCETT
T
he Lake Forest and Lake Bluff community is in turmoil over the candidacy of a Lake Forest High School principal whose data was removed from the Internet less than a day after her name was leaked to residents. The missing website information is just one of objections to top candidate Dr. Chala Holland, who is an assistant principal at Oak Park & River Forest High School. Many residents have stated that they object to the content of her writing, some of which was cached and therefore retrievable. For example, a post on the Facebook page for her consulting firm, Holland Education Consulting Group (HECG), showed an image of Malcolm X. The post contained the quote “Only A Fool Would Let His Enemy Teach His Children” along with a comment from HECG stating “His words continue to resonate. His life will never be forgotten.” People also have expressed concern about a post on the website for HECG, dated Jan. 1, 2013, that focused on academic
tracking (when students are assigned to different levels based on academic performance) and how it perpetuates racism in schools, as well as to links to other articles about white privilege and internalized racism. On May 21, sister Web site Daily North Shore published a letter to the editor by Lake Forest resident Jennifer Neubauer questioning why LFHS was considering Dr. Holland for the post of LFHS principal, and pretty soon the LFHS principal search was the main topic of conversations all over the community. On May 22, Superintendent Michael Simek sent an email to parents implying that they were taking information out of context — which prompted many people to point out that context was taken away when Dr. Holland’s websites and social media accounts were removed from the Internet. Many people said they wanted to know more about her background and how her experience and views on education apply to the LFHS mission. To address the issues, the District 115 administration held a special meeting Tuesday at 7
FOR YOUNG ACTOR, THE GOLDEN AGE IS BEFORE HIM, NOT BEHIND
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LOCAL POSTAL CUSTOMER
ECRWSS Harry Thornton
BY SAM EICHNER
U
pon first impression, Harry Thornton is clean-cut and polished. He’s articulate, insightful, and humble — and when he speaks, it’s with a silky timbre. It’s not hard to imagine him, on stage, spitting out Shakespearian soliloquies as Hamlet (which he has) or belting musical notes in front of a packed audience (he’s done that, too). Yet, though his maturity may suggest otherwise, Thornton has only just graduated from high school. Recently, as a senior at Evanston Township High School, Thornton placed as one of ten finalists in the English-Speaking Union’s 32nd annual National Shakespeare Competition. It was a long road. More than 15,000 students compete in 57 ESU branches nationwide; to reach the finals, Thornton had to win both the competition at his school and the one for the entire Chicagoland branch. Only then could he travel to New York with the other branch winners to perform a Shakespearian sonnet and monologue (his was from Hamlet) in front of a panel of judges at Lincoln Center Theater — of those 57 student representatives, just 10 were invited back as finalists to recite a randomly assigned monologue later that day. “Part of what made it such a powerful experience,” Thornton says, “is that there were students from all over the country, all coming together to perform the works of this writer who lived hundreds of years ago. Being with a group of fellow students who are interested in that idea was rare, and important to me.” This was not Thornton’s first trip to New York. As a freshman, he advanced to New York, but did not make it to the finals. Continues on page 12
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