The Talon | Issue 3 | November 25, 2014

Los Altos High School, Los Altos, CA ■ November 25, 2014 ■ Volume XXX, Issue 3

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ENVIRONMENT

Green Team holds annual conference

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

VOLUNTEER

AVID students mentor middle schoolers ALEXANDRA MILKEY Staff Writer

GIRLS BASKETBALL SEEKS TO REPEAT PAST SUCCESSES

With the momentum of last year’s season, the team plans on going as far as they can and continue to strive toward developing a more aggressive play. Sports, 18

Cocina Central opens in San Antonio Village Cocina Central is ready to blow away the competition with its own new-andimproved version of Mexican cooking. The restaurant adds unconventional ingredients to conventional recipes to improve traditional dishes.

Entertainment, 15

The New Racism Check out this issue’s InDepth section as it explores racism in modern America through the lens of the Ferguson protests. In-Depth, 10-11

Teacher tenure Read a student’s opinion on the recent Vergara v. California ruling which recently struck down the tenure statute of the California Educational Code. Opinions, 8

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Green Team co-president senior Meredith Soward talks with a high school student attending the Students for Green High Schools conference. The club founded the conference last year with the goal of starting a high school-centric conservation dialogue.

JESSICA KING Staff Writer

The second annual Students for Green High Schools conference took place on Sunday, November 16 at Google headquarters in Mountain View. Founded and run by the Los Altos High School Green Team, the conference aims to create more environmentally-friendly high schools in a way that’s feasible to high schoolers and takes into account the resources that are available to them.

“We’ve been to plenty of conferences run by adults, and they come

UPCOMING EVENTS November 17 – December 5

Second Harvest Food Drive November 26 – 28

Thanksgiving Holiday— No school December 5 @ 7 p.m.

Holiday Jazz Concert December 8 – 12

Hour of Code

December 12 @ Lunch

Holiday Fair

December 10 – 12

Winter Concerts: Band, Orchestra and Choir

News Editorial Opinions

2 5 6

Features 9, 12 In-Depth 10–11 Entertainment 14 Sports 18

“Green” continues on page 2

“AVID” continues on page 2

Learn more about the year-long elective course

HANNA KHOSRAVI

After an exciting season, the Los Altos Cheer Team will compete in the national competition on Nov. 28 in Anahiem, CA. Sports, 20

Catch up on the recent elections for the House of Representatives from our congressional district and read background on our local candidates. News, 2

After the presentations, the representatives broke into groups that discussed different areas of green focus, such as water conservation, composting and recycling and community outreach.

They also analyze how best to approach work with school administrators to complete projects.

“Our motto is, ‘for students by students,’ so it’s the idea that a more [collaborating] environment instead of one person telling you what to do,” co-president senior Sruthi Jayakumar said.

Patty Fambrini whips up culinary class

ELECTIVES

Cheerleading takes on Nationals

CA-17 Elections

up with these really cool-sounding green projects that aren’t feasible to high school scenarios,” co-president senior Meredith Soward said. “What we wanted to do was to organize a conference by high schoolers, for high schoolers.”

Student representatives from Mountain View, Saint Francis, Lynbrook, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Castilleja, Gunn, Palo Alto and Valley Christian High School first listened to presentations from different schools. The LAHS Green Team presented on a variety of topics, including the zero-waste initiative on campus, Anything But the Car Days and activities in honor of Earth Week.

Starting January this year, Graham Middle School program director Joey Ordonez began a mentoring program between high school Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) members and Graham students in need of extra assistance in school. The program aims to provide these Graham students with a high school guide to coach them through middle school.

“Our hopes are that, with the help of the mentors, the students will find what they are passionate about and strive for success through [this added] stability and help” AVID mentororganizerAlicia Herrera said.

Los Altos High School (LAHS) AVID students were asked in January to take a survey listing their hobbies which would be used to pair them up with the Graham students. The selected AVID members then began coaching their Graham mentees every Wednesday after sixth period at Graham Middle School.

Initially, the middle school-high school mentoring program was set up and funded by the Police Activities League (PAL) which had already introduced a program pairing elementary school students with local officers. This program was designed to keep at-risk youth active in the community. However, Ordonez realized that high school students are closer in age to middle school students and are more likely to form bonds than if the middle schoolers were paired with adult officers. He decided to implement a similar support program but this time with high schoolers.

Staff Writer

ELVIS LI

Patty Fambirini assists a student in the Culinary elective course.

Peek into culinary teacher Patty Fambrini’s kitchen, and you will not see a typical classroom. Students in traditional chef uniforms mill around stainless steel countertops and stoves, holding bowls

of egg yolks and other ingredients.

Fambrini herself demonstrates the proper technique to frost a cake while students gather around her, watching with palpable interest.

Located in room 604, the Culinary class is a full-year elective course during second, fourth and sixth periods and is comprised of

instruction from Fambrini and cooking done by the students.

Fambrini’s main goal for the class is to create a place where students can learn a lifelong skill, thrive creatively and (most appealingly to the average teenager), enjoy some delicious, hand-crafted food.

“Culinary” continues on page 9

STEM

Science and Engineering Team builds standing wave flame tube successfully completed and tested the tube during a Wednesday lunch period.

Many students crowded the classFor many, music is sound; however, for room that day with their cellphone the Science and Engineercameras in hand, eager ing Team (SET), it’s much to see the tube tested. more than that—it’s sound “I think that this team Each meeting waves. These sound waves has incredible potenis exciting—it cause the flames on top of tial,” junior Jim Hollingthe Rubens’ tube to dance in worth said. “We’ve been never feels like height, creating a spectaculucky enough to have another class. lar show in a dark classroom. the supplies and involve—junior Jim For the past few ment to make some reHollingworth months, SET worked on ally cool, abstract ideas building a Rubens’ tube, into functioning projects. a physics apparatus in Each meeting is excitwhich flames shoot out of holes drilled ing—it never feels like another class.” into a tube. Two weeks ago, the team “Rubens’ Tube” continues on page 12

JAMES SUN

Copy/Content Editor

COURTESY ELLEN DAI

Science and Engineering Team (SET) president junior Paul Dennig gathers the club to discuss and prepare the Rubens’ tube. A Rubens’ tube emits several jets of flame that fluctuate based on the frequency of the sound waves coursing through the apparatus.

The Talon November 25, 2014

Get daily LAHS updates and read the news archives at lahstalon.org/news

Interact, Key Club host successful blood drive EMILY AOKI Staff Writer

On Friday, November 7, Interact and Key Club collaborated with the Stanford Blood Center to put on their annual fall blood drive. The drive was sponsored by the two clubs and took place in the small gym from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A total of 84 people donated blood, giving enough to impact the lives of 242 patients.

“We were hoping to see about 90 students, and [we saw] just about that,” Stanford Blood Center accounting manager Elisa Manzanares said. “I think even [an LAHS] graduate heard about it and came to donate.”

Students, staff members and even several parents arrived to donate blood. Members of the two sponsoring clubs were responsible for recruiting other students to donate blood at the drive, while the Stanford Blood Center representatives did the blood collection. Volunteers

Green CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE One example of last year’s success comes from Mountain View High School (MVHS). At last year’s conference, the MVHS Green Team expressed interest in a refillable water bottle station. Over the next year, the MVHS Green Team successfully installed the station and shared their experience with the implementation process at this year’s conference.

During the 2011-2012 school year, the LAHS Green Team spearheaded the plastic bag ban in Los Altos by presenting at several city council meetings until the ban was passed. By sharing this story and others at the conference, the LAHS Green Team hoped to motivate other schools to initiate similar movements.

The LAHS Green Team considers last year’s conference a success because of stories like Mountain View’s and the real-

PHOTOS BY BRANDON HONG

Left: Stanford Blood Center representatives chat in between breaks during the drive. They supervised and performed all the blood collection. Right: Students donated blood in special chairs provided by Stanford Blood Center. This year, the drive was coordinated by two of the school’s clubs: Interact and Key Club. from the two clubs were also present to direct arriving donors and distribute food.

“People don’t realize that when you give blood it actually goes to four people,” Interact

istic approach the conference took to building greener high schools.

“Representatives from [almost] every school said they felt like it was the first time they [had] been at a conference that was actually successful and [helpful],” Meredith said.

Beyond the conference itself, the LAHS Green Team also hopes to use it as a way to connect with other schools more often than just once a year. They also want to collaborate with other schools on different projects. For example, LAHS and MVHS want to collaborate on a water conservation week.

The conference also allowed new LAHS members to better understand what the club is about and what it aims to do, and gave them the opportunity to become more involved in the club and its projects.

“Sophomore year, entering this club, [new members] don’t know what it’s about,” Sruthi said. “This conference kind of allows them to see what we are, what we’re about and hopefully [inspires] them to make a change.”

MENSON LI

Student representatives from Mountain View, Saint Francis, Lynbrook, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Castilleja, Gunn, Palo Alto and Valley Christian high schools listen as Green Team co-presidents Meredith Soward and Sruthi Jayakumar present at the conference.

treasurer junior Patricia Davila said. “You can actually save four lives instead of just one because they separate the blood into red blood cells, plasma, platelets and white blood cells.”

As only students 16 and older could donate, most of the student donors were juniors and seniors. Those who were 16 years old were also required to get a permission slip signed. There

are minimum height and weight requirements for donating, which further prohibited some students from donating.

After donating, students were given a voucher for a free meal at Chipotle. This incentive, coupled with the friendly atmosphere of the drive, led many students to donate.

“I was [originally] afraid of needles, but it turned out well,” senior Summer Wong said.

“The thing I love about Stanford Blood Center and being at the drives is that everyone is so friendly. The nurses and the people who donate are really friendly and nice to talk to. It’s a lot of fun.”

There will be another blood drive sponsored by the Stanford Blood Center at school on Friday, March 6 next year.

“It’s a really good way to give back and it makes you feel good because part of your own body is now going to help other people,” Patricia said. “It’s really personal.”

CA-17 district midterm elections The Talon takes a look at how a recent change in the election process allowed two candidates of the same party to compete for a position in the House of Representatives and how LAHS students are making a difference.

JESSICA KING Staff Writer

Beginning in June, the 17th Congressional District of California’s (CA-17) midterm elections for the House of Representatives proved to be a tight race even to the last minute of voting on November 4. Mike Honda managed to secure the win over Ro Khanna with 51.8 percent of the votes.

Typically, the district election process is broken down into two pieces: the primary and the general elections. In a traditional primary, one candidate from each party is nominated to run for a position. Then, in the general elections, the top two candidates, each from a different party, both vie for the final position of district representative.

However, this year, the CA-17 district used a different version of the election process called the “blanket primary,” also known as the top-two system.

“It’s from the June 2010 ballot,” method of candidate selection is AP Government teacher Sarah what led to two Democrats runCarlson said. “[It was] approved ning head-to-head this year. by 53.8 percent of the Honda is 73 years vote [and] it took efold and has taken on fect in 2011, so it’s a several tasks in Conrelatively new system Helping with gress. He has held one that we have.” this campaign term as the congressIn the primary has made me man from California’s elections of the topDistrict 17. This elecrealize the imtwo system, any cantion, he was opposing didates can run for pact that peo38-year-old Ro Khana spot in the general ple can have on na, who has served elections.

Regard- the government as Deputy Assistant less of party, the two Secretary at the U.S. even at grasscandidates with the Department of Comhighest votes of the roots level. merce since 2009. primary elections are — sophomore In the 2012 midMegana Bobba pitted against each term elections, Honother in the general da won by a large elections. So, the margin, winning over 70 percent running candidates could be any of the vote. However, in this year’s combination of the two. This new midterm election, Honda was

VANESSA MARK

running a close race with Khanna, winning by a 3.6 percent margin.

Although he lost the elections, Khanna’s campaign spread his message by enlisting many students to participate, some from the school. Over the summer, many teens applied as fellows to volunteer in his campaign. Teens participated by knocking on doors throughout the CA-17 district and educating citizens about Ro Khanna’s campaigns. Among them was sophomore Megana Bobba.

“Helping with this campaign has made me realize the impact that people can have on the government even at a grassroots level,” sophomore Megana Bobba said. “Although Ro [Khanna] didn’t win this election, we were able to get his message out.”

The Talon November 25, 2014

Looking into Athletic Boosters: how it works HANNAH CRAFORD HANNA KHOSRAVI Staff Writers

This year, the annual Los Altos High School pumpkin patch raised more than $11,000 for the Athletic Boosters Committee to supply funds for the school’s sports programs. The pumpkin patch is just one of several fundraisers held by the LAHS Athletic Boosters, a parent-run club that aims to raise money for all of the sports teams on campus.

Athletic Boosters president Barbara Carroll, who has been head of the committee for three years, says that she and Athletic Director Kim Cave have many thorough conversations with each coach of every Los Altos High School sports team to identify where money that has been raised is needed most, so they can fulfill the desires and wishes of every coach and sports team.

“In April, every year, we meet with each coach on a one-onone basis with Ms. Cave and they come to us with their wish lists and tell us what they would like us to buy for them next year,” Carroll said. “We provide everything from equipment to uniforms [and] we pay for some training facilities. Most times, we are able to give the coaches what they ask for.”

From Carroll’s perspective, the number of the participants in each team is the most inf luential factor when deciding how to distribute the money.

“It’s based on size, obviously,” Carroll said. “When you look at each team’s needs based on their size, it is very fair. All of the teams get what they need from us. But obviously, some teams like cross country, track and

football are huge, so they have a bigger budget.”

All of Athletic Boosters’ money goes to the school’s sports teams. During their meetings with the coaches, the committee receives the coaches’ wish list sand interprets the needs of each team. While most of the essential needs are met, according to Cave, some of the teams’ more expensive and optional wants are taken off the priority list and saved for another year.

“They make lists, and then the Boosters [Committee] sit down and they say, ‘Oh, well we can do this this year but we might have

to table this for next year,’” Cave said. “That way everyone gets some money. There is not any certain percentage which everybody gets.”

While some have criticized the Boosters for supposedly giving teams like football more privileges in their expenditures, both Carroll and Cave insist that every athlete is being afforded the same benefits.

This year, with JV and varsity rosters combined, the football team had a total of 79 participants. Another large group was cross country with 94 students on the co-ed team. The girls vol-

leyball team is smaller in comparison with 29 athletes on the team this year. According to Cave, the difference in team size misleads people into believing that the larger teams gain more monetary endowment per player from the Athletic Boosters.

“Each athlete is going to be getting about the same amount,” Cave said. “So we buy uniforms for the [varsity] volleyball team which only has 12 girls in it, and we are buying uniforms for 50 [varsity] football players. It’s going to look like ‘Wow, we’re spending a lot of money on football,’ when really, every athlete

is getting a uniform, it just looks like we’re spending more for one sport than the other because they have more players.”

In their current success with this years’ Pumpkin Patch, Los Altos High school hopes to have a prosperous year with the Athletic Boosters. Currently, Carroll and the Boosters team are hoping to duplicate or even expand on their success with this years’ Christmas tree lot, which will open during the holiday season and involve many students who participate to help bring in profit for the high school and all of the sports teams on campus.

VANESSA MARK

School adds online United AVID States History course I hope that it’ll give the students an introduction to what is probably going to be a major part of As students begin to sign up for their education going forward.” their classes next year, some may In addition to some daily online want to keep a new online class participation, the class will meet in mind when considering their in person once a week to do activischedules. This upties an online platform coming school year, can’t completely offer.

U.S. History will be This includes debates, offered as an online [This course] is socratic seminars and alternative to the for people who simulations to aid with in-class experience, enjoy having learning as well as quizwith history teach- the online expezes and tests to circumer Mike Messner vent the possibility of rience, people leading the class. cheating. As of now, The plan to add who might not the class is holding its U.S. History into an necessarily do in-person sessions duronline platform for well in a classing zero period as opstudents was formed room. posed to after school. last winter by Mess“It’s not for every— U.S. History teacher ner, Principal Wynne body,” Messner said.

Mike Messner Satterwhite and Asso“It’s for people who enciate Superintendent joy having the online Brigitte Sarraf. The idea was inspired experience. People who might not by the increasing amount of online necessarily do well in a classroom classes colleges which are beginning where they’re just being lectured. to offer on their own campuses.

I hope that it is a good supple“We certainly would like to see ment to what we already have.” more of this at some point in the fuThe class meets the University of ture, but obviously there [are] some California’s A-G requirements for classes where you couldn’t do an on- one year of college preparatory U.S. line class,” Messner said. “I think History and does count toward gradit’s inevitable that there will be uation credit. more online education at Los AlThe course was an option duringtos, but it can never be a total sub- last year’s course selection period; stitute for a classroom experience. however, students did not express

CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE

PERLA LUNA Senior Writer

MENSON LI

U.S. History teacher Mike Messner teaches one of his classes. He will be the instructor for the online course next year.

enough interest for the administration begin the class this year. After the decision to hold off the course until the following school year, students began to express interest in the course. Administration decided to use the delay time this year to adequately advertise the class to interested rising juniors and finalize the details of the curriculum.

“I’m excited about it and I hope that we can make it f ly next year with the right timing,” Messner said.

One of the main reasons for using AVID high schoolers was to provide the Graham students with role models who showcase high academic goals.

“The [AVID] program is designed to close the achievement gap and most [Graham] students are aspiring to go to a four year college. [AVID students] would be the ideal students to have helping at the middle school,” Herrera said.

Meetings include both educational lessons and special bonding activities which range from group discussions about how to manage stress to dodgeball day. “[We have] talked a lot about topics that relate to school like body image, bullying, drugs, stress and relationships,” junior AVID student Aldo Montes Sanchez said.

Ultimately, there have been signs of improvement in the Graham students participating this program.

“I got to work with an 8th grader who is now an AVID freshman and the biggest change I saw was her trying to push herself for better grades,” Herrera said. “I encouraged her, and her hard work [started] to pay off, so she began to make goals for herself to get

involved in our community.”

However, this program doesn’t solely benefit the middle schoolers. “[We are] like a symbol for the middle school students to encourage them to keep moving forward, motivating them, and inspiring them to keep reaching for success [in their goals],” Aldo said. “I’ve learned a lot and improved my leadership skills.

Plus I was able to help others.”

Through the dedication of Ordonez and Herrera, both high school and middle school students are experiencing the benefits of helping each other learn and accomplish goals.

“Our goal for the future is to be able to provide this kind of mentor-mentee relationship at other schools, therefore [creating] a long-lasting impact on the youth in our community,” Herrera said. “We just want to make the program better and [more] effective.”

ELVIS LI

AVID mentor senior Jorge Farias (left) tutors Graham student Ivan Amaya during one of the program’s weekly meetings.

4

The Talon November 25, 2014

San Antonio Village development sparks debate ALICE DAI SPENCER DEMBNER Entertainment Editor Staff Writer

In Mountain View’s San Antonio Center area, developers have proposed a number of new developments in response to high demand.

However, controversy has arisen over development’s potential impact on the neighborhood and the city. Key issues are the balance between housing and other developments, the worry that local businesses are being driven out and the possibility of acquiring a new school site.

The Mountain View City Council is currently considering the “Villages at San Antonio Phase II” project, a large development owned by the real estate investment firm Merlone Geier in the San Antonio Center area at the corner of San Antonio road and California street.

Phase I was completed in 2013 and consists of retail and housing, while the current proposal for Phase II includes 400,000 square feet of office space, a hotel and a movie theater.

At recent city council meetings, community members have advocated for additional housing.

They argue that this would help fix Mountain View’s jobs and housing gap, where too much office space has been built, and the inf lux of workers has raised rents and driven lower-income residents out of their homes.

At a city council meeting over the summer, community members asked the council not to approve the project. They cited concerns that the project did not have enough housing. The council initially agreed and asked the developer to consider converting some of the office space to residential space. However, the council has more recently indicated it could approve the project without housing, citing the delay involved and large housing developments already being considered in the area. “[Phase II] would have to be significantly redesigned and probably delayed 6 to 12 months [if housing

RENDERING COURTESY MERLONE GEIER

Clockwise from top left: A completed apartment complex in the Villages at San Antonio Phase I project; the Milk Pail Market’s sign; the inside of the Milk Pail Market; a sign near the proposed site of Phase II; a rendering of the proposed Phase II project. Phase II has become the subject of controversy over the impact on local businesses, such as the Milk Pail Market, as well as the balance between housing and office space. were to be added],” Mountain View Mayor Christopher Clark said. “We already had a two to three year process, so if they were forced to redesign everything I think they might [not go ahead with the project].”

Some are concerned that new housing projects could flood school districts with more students than they can handle. However, Clark believes planning and coordination between school districts and the city should limit the enrollment shock.

“We study [impact on enrollment] with every single project ...[and] that gets shared with the school district,” Clark said. “There’s this sense that we’re doing all these things and just not telling [districts], and letting the school

districts deal with it. That’s really not what’s going on at all.”

Since the $150 million school bond Measure N passed in November, the Los Altos School District is considering acquiring a new school site, which the city of Mountain View could assist with. Although the city cannot legally designate a site for a school, it could help the district in other ways if they decide they want to build a new school.

“Our hands are tied legally because we can’t require a developer to dedicate land or fees or anything for a school,” Clark said. “What we can say is if you want to voluntarily [dedicate land to a school] we might look favorably on that.”

Some are worried that large de-

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velopments such as Phase II will push out established local businesses. Residents are particularly concerned about the Milk Pail Market, a dairy and produce market located in the center of the area proposed for Phase II. To meet a legal minimum for parking spaces, it depends on sharing them with neighboring businesses. Its current sharing agreement expires in 14 months, and if it cannot negotiate a deal with Merlone Geier, it could be forced out of business.

At a July 1 meeting, Merlone Geier and Milk Pail announced a spacesharing deal that would allow the Milk Pail to remain open, but that deal was rescinded when approval for the project was postponed.

“[Merlone Geier] knows that it is really important that the Milk Pail issue be solved,” Clark said.

“If they want to move forward, they will need to figure something out [with Milk Pail], and I think that they probably will.”

Milk Pail owner Steve Rasmussen is hopeful but remains skeptical that a viable deal can be reached.

“There are plenty of good intentions, but it’s a complex problem,” Rasmussen said. “It’s frustrating for me because the community wants to see a solution, but it’s hard work to come up with one.”

Developer Merlone Geier could not be reached for comment as of the press deadline. A final vote on Villages at San Antonio Phase II is expected by the end of the year.

as equality, human rights and literacy. This donation will be part of the “We are the Districts” project, which aims to ease economic disparity by pushing for the improvement working conditions and wages for those who work menial jobs.

Although the Book Club already hosts annual book drives, the club still wants to do even more to contribute to the cause of the Harry Potter Alliance.

“We were kind of just trying to find popular ways to raise money, other than, ‘Hey, bring books,’” Ashley said. “And we saw how successful ASB’s movie night was and we figured that, in the winter, it’s not so much fun to go sit out on the grass.

So we thought, maybe we could do something in the library, and Mr. Jack said, ‘Oh, well we could play a movie. We could put up a sheet, people could come in and just have fun.’”

—William Jow

begun to worry about the potential spread of the disease as a plague to the American public.

The government has taken precautions against the spread of the disease in the U.S. by quarantining hospital workers who have been in contact with Ebola-stricken patients. At major airports, the Border Patrol is trained to look for potentially sick passengers and ask about any of their recent exposure. Agents can isolate passengers suspected of having the disease in special units until the Center for Disease Control and Prevention personnel arrive for further questioning and tests. In addition, contact tracing is used to track down people who have been in contact with an infected person in order to monitor their statuses.

“We feel that this is able to be done because the professionals, the people [at CDC] who are very good at this and have done it very well and successfully, are going to be able to do that contact tracing and get that, in essence, put the lid on this,” Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with NBC. —Robert Chin

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This December, the Book Club looks to host a movie night fundraiser in the library. The club plans to show “Maleficent,” a movie based on the Grimm fairy tales, in order to stay consistent with the book-based theme of the club.

Admission will be two dollars, and there will be complimentary popcorn and additional refreshments for sale. As of the press deadline, the date has not been officially decided, but the club is hoping to host the event on Friday, December 6. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and pillows as it will take place on the library floor.

“It’s going to be kind of quiet because the maximum occupancy of the library is 103 [people],” Book Club president senior Ashley Musick said. “So we can’t have a massive event where everyone comes, but it’d be good to get as many people as we can. It would also be kind of fun to get families in, so we encourage you to bring siblings. It’ll be nice.”

The funds will be donated to the Harry Potter Alliance, a non-profit charity that uses stories to encourage activism with issues such

National News: Ebola in the US

During the past couple months, the American media has been abuzz with new developments concerning the status of this year’s Ebola virus outbreak, both in western Africa and in the U.S. Many Americans have

The Talon November 25, 2014

Please send letters to the editor to talon.lahs@gmail.com

Homecoming court prevents celebration of student body Once a year, the school rallies together for Homecoming week through brunch time activities, an assembly, a parade and other celebrations to unite in school spirit.

However, Homecoming is flawed.

Homecoming week revolves around a small court, preventing the school from celebrating the entire student body and weakening the school’s Homecoming experience as a whole. Focusing the entire school’s time on 20 students is counterproductive when attempting to unite the school and make the week as spirited as possible. As ASB debriefs this year’s Homecoming, they must understand that court should be cut.

Many of the traditions associated with court itself prove it to be outdated and unnecessary. To begin with, the court’s structure is reliant on the formation of couples along with each member’s identification with either the male or female gender. This perpetuates obsolete heteronormativity, the mainstream erasure of non-heterosexual couples and experiences, and a meaningless gender binary.

If this is not problem enough, court is not selected based on merit, but by fellow peers through a lengthy and somewhat random voting process. While court members are often active and accomplished students, these accomplishments may not have been the reasons they were chosen for court.

But the problems caused by an antiquated court structure are not the primary reason court must be cut from Homecoming festivities.

Court benefits only a few students rather than creating an enjoyable and unifying Homecoming week for all, and it no longer should have a place at our school.

Clubs and friendly class rivalry, rather than the court, should be responsible for the spirit associated with Homecoming week. Homecoming currently entails a float competition between grades and hallway decorations by clubs. This type of spirit fosters school community rather than idolizing a select few. Schools such as Palo Alto High School prove

Silicon Valley companies releasing their diversity numbers to the public.

In recent months, several large tech companies such as Google, Apple, Pinterest and Ebay have opened up about the true percentages of women along with other minority employees within the companies. With these numbers available to the public, such companies are showing that change must be made to increase diversity within the STEM fields. This is step one: acknowledging the current situation at hand. From here, companies and other organizations can continue to work toward increasing diversity.

Editor-In-Chief Carly Cohen Managing Editors Maya Acharya(Print) Zach Cohen (Print) David Wu (Web) News Editor Sofia Guo Features Editor Katherine Yen In-Depth Editor Amelia Baum Entertainment Editor Alice Dai Sports Editor Daniel Rosenbaum Media Editor Noy Anisman Copy/Content Editors William Jow, James Sun, Maya Varghese, Kevin Yen Business Managers Johnny Scher, Leonardo Wai

Senior class votes

on the top 50 candidates, selecting 25 boys and 25 girls from a roster of the entire class.

John Doe

TOP 50

vote for me for HC court!

Seniors on the top 50 can choose to run for Homecoming court or deny the nomination.

Senior class gathers

in the Eagle Theater to select 20 candi dates (10 boys and 10 girls) for the Homecoming Court.

Court members spend

Breakdown of the vote for king and queen

nearly a month preparing for Homecoming by making video announcements, preparing skits, filling out surveys and more.

administration, class council advisors

Videographers Bonaventure Duprat, Carl Faust, Brandon Hong, Ian Mackey, Riley Moulds Adviser Michael Moul

POLICIES

the senior class

KING

successful through their class spirit, with all students enthusiastically participating in theme days, something Los Altos should try harder to imitate. Class and club spirit of-

Staff Writers Emily Aoki, Claire Bai, Teddy Chmyz, Hannah Craford, Spencer Dembner, Annie Gaffney, Anneliese Gallagher, Cole Hanson, Olivia Jerram, Hanna Khosravi, Jessica King, Josh Kirshenbaum, Eric Kopps, Elaine Lee, David Lisbonne, Alexandra Milkey, Emily Terada, Eric Thiem

Graphic Artists Amanda Mell, Vanessa Mark

HOMECOMING COURT

whole school

Senior Writers Robert Chin, Perla Luna, Sitara Sriram

Photographers Ian Mackey, Brandon Hong, Allegra Maeso, Noah Tsao, Elvis Li, Menson Li, Gina Kermode

QUEEN

fer potential to grow in place of the traditional court, allowing the entire school to be involved.

Getting rid of court is an easy and effective way to improve Homecom-

ing. It is time for the school to come together for a Homecoming that celebrates the entire student body rather than a court made up of 20 senior students.

Note: The Talon’s editorials are usually left unsigned. However, The Talon would like to acknowledge that of those who worked on this editorial, Maya Acharya, Carly Cohen and Zach Cohen were on Homecoming court. While they stand by the opinion represented in this editorial, they are grateful for the experience and appreciative of the people who provided it.

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Los Altos High School

201 Almond Ave., Los Altos, CA November 25, 2014 Volume XXX, Issue 3

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to the school for not giving students adequate notice before scheduling activities during tutorial.

The Talon is selling See’s Candies!

This year was the second annual ultimate frisbee tournament. With each team consisting of seven players, six on the field at any given time, this tournament allows for many students to be involved in one activity.

Tournaments such as this are beneficial for increasing school spirit.

ADVERTISE & SUBSCRIBE Send advertisement and subscription inquiries to Johnny Scher and Leonardo Wai at talon.lahs@gmail.com.

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Teachers are notified in advance when there will not be a tutorial available for student use. However, students only hear a few days beforehand, and may not hear at all. Tutorial is essential for students because it provides a time during the school day for students to talk to teachers, seek extra help or simply do their homework. While using tutorial for necessary school activities such as fire drills is what it was designed for, students deserve to know when this will occur so they can plan around it.

THUMBS UP to school spirit through the ultimate frisbee tournament.

Los Altos High School’s Compositional Journalism class is solely responsible for The Talon, which is published eight times a year. The Talon also updates its website, www.lahstalon.org, with fulltime coverage.

The Editorial Board sets the policies of The Talon and crafts its editorials and thumbs. Its members are Maya Acharya, Noy Anisman, Amelia Baum, Zach Cohen, Spencer Dembner and Perla Luna.

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Support student journalism!

For more information, see a or email talon.lahs@gmail.com As part of a fundraising initiative supported by See’s Candies, The Talon is selling boxes of candies and other See’s products at in-store value. A portion of the sales for the candy purchased goes towards supporting The Talon’s budget.

Sam and Ann Baum, Bruce Cohen, Amy and John Gaffney, Bob and Janis Harrison, Samrand Hesami, Rick and Corrie Jow, Jade Kandel, Hanna Khosravi, Vivian Mao, The McColl Family, Angie and Steve McDonald

The Talon November 25, 2014

Read more opinions articles at lahstalon.org/opinions

Gentrification in San Francisco benefits city COLE HANSON Staff Writer

In the city with the second-largest wealth gap in the nation, it is no wonder that gentrification has sparked so much controversy between long-time citizens and the rising upper class.

Gentrification is when a wave of affluent and middle class individuals move into a city or suburban area, often displacing low income residents and creating shifts in housing prices and the community. Renters, especially in San Francisco where 60 percent of residents do not own a home, are hit the hardest by the economic change.

Despite the price issues in the real estate markets, such as an increase in rent and evic-

AMANDA MELL

tion rate, gentrification is actually beneficial for the city of San Francisco as a whole because it improves the quality of life in terms of education, safety and economic progress.

Since the birth of the technology boom, high income residents

have been flocking to San Francisco due to the competitive salaries of engineering and executive positions at high-tech companies such as Apple and Google. According to an article by Enrico Moretti, an economics professor from UC Berkeley, one tech job

leads to approximately five other new jobs, which means the influx of technology has been a major factor behind the increase in employment in San Francisco. This means that gentrification is actually creating more jobs, despite the fact it is rumored to take them away.

The downside remains that the cost of housing in San Francisco is up about 35 percent and rent has increased due to a lack of space to expand. Many citizens, in response to the income inequality and steep increase in evictions, took to the streets and blocked Google buses to express their discontent with how wealth is distributed in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley.

Despite these downsides, the urban shift actually contains many benefits. According to an article by the San Francisco Chronicle, residents feel safer where the neighborhoods have been permeated by

wealthy individuals.

Gentrification also results in improvement in infrastructure, individual salary and reform due to the surplus of money that follows. According to an article by Bloomberg, San Francisco has seen a drop of 3.9 percent in unemployment in the last four years.

The city has also had an increase in average salary of 4.3 percent, which is 2 percent more than the country’s current average.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Gentrification is no longer a dirty word.” Today it means change, development and an upward trend in productivity, real estate activity and jobs. We cannot still consider gentrification to be a negative influence on the community. Doing so will hinder the exciting progress of our neighborhoods and major cities, a dangerous move for our economy and the future of this country.

Parents should not expose their children on social media Jackson performed with his star sures of child stardom by indulging sibling group of singers, The Jack- in drugs or substance abuse.” son 5. As he grew, media outlets In today’s entertainment induslike the Rolling Stone lauded him try, the curse of the child star is seen as a prodigy with overwhelming through celebrities like Lindsay LoSOFIA GUO News Editor musical gifts. After peaking in 1984 han, Miley Cyrus, Macaulay Culkin with his worldwide hit and Shia LaBeouf. All Nowadays, it is a common expec- “Thriller,” Jackson beof these celebrities betation for parents, friends and fam- gan an already-instigan as successful child ily to post pictures, statuses and gated decline rife with Young children stars, but before or videos of their children online. Al- substance abuse, ad- who have heavy, during the transition though these posts seem relatively diction to medications early social to adulthood, each one harmless with the good intent of and sleep disturbance to the pressures media exposure fell spreading the pride and joy adults that eventually led to of the entertainment are at a higher have for their children, the damage his death in 2013. industry and most of that early and continued social meJackson is the prime risk of low selfall, the pressures from dia exposure can cause on young example of the “curse esteem. the public to maintain children is not worth the short- of the child star,” a their childhood image. term emotional return. In particu- phrase coined by psyTelevision and the lar, young children who have heavy, chologists like Mallory Kwitter, au- press were main instigators of early social media exposure are at a thor of the American University pa- “the curse” in the time of Jackson, higher risk of low self-esteem and per “The Age Difference: Does the Cyrus, Lohan and Culkin. Now, at-risk behavior or tendencies.

Entertainment Media Treat Child social media has emerged as the One of the greatest examples of Stars Differently Than Adult Ce- root of this curse. The largest perthe risks involving child fame and lebrities?” According to Kwitter, the petrator is the video sharing site heavy media exposure is the rise phrase refers to “the failure to main- YouTube, which hosts hundreds and decline of singer Michael Jack- tain fame as an adult in combination of thousands of videos featuring son. Beginning from the age of six, with being unable to avoid the pres- children with millions of views and subscribers to their channels, givADVERTISEMENT ing these children the same status as a celebrity.

The website Business Insider’s compilation of YouTube’s top 20 most popular stars, in number of subscribers and views, includes three channels based on children.

EvanTubeHD features seven-yearold Evan reviewing video games and toys, Potemi926 features two young Japanese sisters playing with toys and eating candy and TheFineBros racks up views with filming the reactions of children, teens and elders to viral videos.

In addition, YouTube acts as a trove for television shows to fill their schedules with children gone viral on the website. The Ellen Show routinely snaps up toddlers to feature on TV. Mateo “the cupcake boy” rocketed to fame after video surfaced on YouTube of him trying to weasel his way out of trouble with his mother. Noah Ritter is routinely called back onto the show simply for his young, laughter-

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AMANDA MELL

inducing expressions. Childhood “prodigies” like Elias Phoenix and Heaven are lauded with celebrity admiration on Ellen for playing the piano and dancing with a parent, respectively.

Each of these children’s development and self-image are dramatically altered by their “minicelebrity” status that is constantly perpetrated by social media, as the Ellen Show and other similar shows repost live episodes back onto YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to rack up even more views. At such a young age, they look to what will get them applause, “likes,” smiles and laughter. They are taught to spend the majority of their time caring about what other people will think of them in a video and on a stage. These children are given positive attention for being a child, something that will not help them survive and develop as they enter the adult world.

The child stars of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter suffer the same curse of child celebrities decades

before, but for a shockingly different reason. Instead of being driven only by the purposeful agendas of ambitious parents and companies, these children are being pushed into the industry through the innocent mistakes of their parents posting videos online wanting to share their joys of raising children.

Social media promotes the idea that it is rewarding and positive to share life moments, especially with children. While ideal, in reality, social media companies disregard the fact that this has the potential to alter children’s development as they grow, as it places them in the hands of the people who “like” their video or repost their picture.

As children have no say or choice in whether they become celebrities by social media, the first step in stopping this cycle of the “curse of the child celebrity” will begin with parents, family and friends finally respecting the privacy of their children and waiting for them to reach adolescence to begin exposing them on social media.

If you would like to write about your stance on an issue that’s affecting students at our school, email Opinions Editor Steven Cui at talon.lahs@gmail.com with a summary of your idea.

The Talon November 25, 2014

Just Maya Thoughts

Drought requires more local response ANNELIESE GALLAGHER Staff Writer

By Maya Varghese

Media Coverage of International Events too America-centric Too often, when a major international event occurs, the American media rushes to predict how it will affect the United States rather than focusing on the event itself. The media has been flooded in the past few months with news of disasters that have been occurring around the world, especially ISIS and Ebola, and these situations have been no exception.

By now, many people have heard about Thomas Duncan, who passed away in Texas in October, as well as the other eight cases of Ebola reported in the United States. Though the fact that Ebola has traveled to the U.S. is alarming, what is even more alarming is that much of America did not seem overly concerned about Ebola until it arrived in the United States. According to Google trends, which has tracked interest in Ebola since the summer, relatively few people were searching for articles about Ebola until the first cases arrived in the United States in August, when the number of people looking at Ebola articles spiked. Interest dropped throughout September until a much larger spike occurred when Duncan arrived in the U.S. in October.

The same phenomenon applies to American attention to the threat of ISIS. It was the beheading of James Foley and subsequent worries about a possible ISIS attack on the United States which garnered the most media attention.

Though the civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria have been covered by all of the major news sources, the threat of a presently unlikely attack on the United States has occupied more media time than it should.

I do not mean to say that James Foley’s death is not important. His death was a tragedy, but there have been 5000 more tragedies in Iraq which are given little attention in comparison.

Obviously the American media will be concerned with reporting on American deaths in any international calamity, just as other nations’ media will more extensively cover their own citizens’ deaths. However, it is important to also realize that the calamity in these cases is much worse in other countries. Understanding what is occurring throughout the world is important even when it doesn’t concern America.

These are not American calamities, but they are world calamities and human calamities.

Looking at events through this lens will allows us to connect to them even if they do not take place in our country.

Since 2011, California has been growing steadily drier each year. Between October 1 last year and September 30 this year, rainfall capped at only 12.08 inches, about 57 percent of the state average. If California is to make a successful recovery, Los Altos residents must increase their efforts to conserve water and be drought-conscious.

Drought maps show that the Bay Area sits at the epicenter of the most

drought-stricken region in the state.

Los Altos, along with all other towns within a 100-mile radius, has a dangerously low supply of water and a high wildfire risk.

Though recent rainstorms have been a help, they have not even come close to repairing the damage.

In the last week of October, several regions of California received about an inch of rain, and mountainous regions received a light dusting of snow. This alleviated the status of the drought, filling empty reservoirs and replenishing snowmelt as a continuous source of water; however, it was not enough. One inch of rainwater cannot erase the impact of the 11 inches of water that we have

AMANDA MELL

lost in the past year alone. ernment, one minute in the shower It appears that the heavy rainfall consumes about 2.5 gallons of water.

California so desperately needs won’t If we all shorten our showers by just be coming anytime soon, despite two minutes, we can save up to 35 galpredictions of El Niño conditions. lons of water per capita each week.

According to scientists Along the same lines, at Stanford University, gray water systems can a high-pressure atmotrap enough rainwater spheric system called Los Altos to water our lawns for the “Ridiculously Resilweeks at a time, allowresidents must ient Ridge” is to blame ing residents to turn off for the dearth of rain- conserve water their sprinkler systems storms in California. more actively without permanently This ridge covers most and consisdamaging any plants. of the state and has These water consertently. been pushing away vation methods are all nearly all storm clouds widely discussed but for the past year. Meteorologists do not as widely practiced. In order to not know how much longer the ridge maximize efficiency, water conserwill persist. Regardless, it is clear that vation must become a lifestyle, and the drought is not going to fix itself. we must practice as many methods Considering this fact, Los Altos as possible. Students are warned and residents must take strong action. often nagged about protecting the We cannot rely on winter storms environment, but it’s hard to take and hope that nature will heal it- such an abstract concept to heart. self, because that won’t work. To We use water for hundreds of small replenish our water sources, Los tasks every day, and because we often Altos residents must begin cutting do not see the drought first-hand, we back on water usage. are not mindful of conservation. But “We can all try to conserve by tak- if we continue to live in such an ignoing shorter showers, not letting the rant manner, our own wastefulness water run and installing gray water will plunge the state into an even bigsystems for our homes to capture ger water deficit. To cure our immerainwater to use for watering our diate drought and stop the long-term plants,” Los Altos Mayor Pro Tem- effects of global climate change, Los pore Jan Pepper said.

Altos residents must conserve water According to the California gov- more actively and consistently.

Kurdish fight against ISIS deserves more support HANNA KHOSRAVI Staff Writer

The radical Islamist terrorist group ISIS has continued with its expansion to overtake large sectors of land in Iraq and Syria. While their expansion continues, its rate has been slowed down, since U.S. airstrikes against ISIS began in September. These battles have been particularly intense in the Syrian-Turkish border-city of Kobani, where the U.S.-coordinated airstrikes and the Kurdish Peshmerga militia forces (the Kurdish military units FLICKR USER JAMES_GORDON_LOSANGELES from the Kurdish Regional Govern- Kurdish fighters await an encounter with ISIS. Support from foreign ment) are defending this strategically nations could drastically help the Kurdish cause. pivotal city in the war against ISIS. Who are the Kurds and why are they cal Islamist campaign in the region, said in an interview with CNN. “Their giving their lives to protect the Middle the Peshmerga (the word Peshmerga arrival probably cements the city’s deEast? This question has caused many roughly translates to “those who face fenses against ISIS.” to try and understand the Kurd- death”) have protected the city of KoThe Peshmerga is making headish cause and has also shown how bani and prevented ISIS’ occupation. lines across news networks such as support from countries around the Kobani is strategic for ISIS because CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera America and world could help the Kurdish forces it borders Turkey. If ISIS succeeds in HBO’s exploratory news program continue their fight against ISIS and capturing this important border town, “VICE,” all of which have praised help prevent ISIS’ domination of this it would further strengthen their ap- the militia forces for their liberaltroubled region. The Kurds should proach in building an Islamist nation. ism and idealism. be recognized for defending human According to CNN, the Peshmerga Women, who fight in the front lines rights in the region, and should re- in Kobani, Syria have recently been along with men, are crucial factors to ceive support for their actions. joined by the Peshmerga from Iraq on the armies’ strength. The women say The Kurdish people October 30. With their that they see it as their duty to fight, are from a region known arrival in Kobani, the and many have even dubbed them as as Kurdistan, which is Peshmerga pledged to ISIS’ Worst Nightmare. This makes divided amongst the The people batcontinue the fight along the female fighters of the Peshmerga Middle Eastern nations tling against with the Syrian Kurds in the frontline all the more critical to of Syria, Iraq, Turkey while the United States fight against ISIS, as the ISIS jihadists and Iran. While the ISIS’ brutal and other allies rain air- now fear the women fighters of the Kurds have their own actions deserve strikes around Kobani. Peshmerga on multiple levels. language, culture and the support of Not only do the Kurds “[The female Peshmerga has] taken even their own identify- the worldwide receive airstrike assis- up arms to protect Kurdistan, but also ing flag, they have never tance from the U.S., but to say that there’s no difference becommunity. been afforded a nation they also get airdropped tween men and women,” Peshmerga of their own. The Kurdsupplies and ammuni- unit commander colonel Nahida ish people have open-minded values tion to assist in their battle.

Ahmed Rashid said in an interview and ethics of regard for human rights “[The Peshmerga] will roll into a with PBS. “Jihadists don’t like fightof people with different religions and city defended by a beleaguered band ing women, because it is believed that cultures. This has put them at odds of Syrian Kurds and Free Syrian Army if they are killed by a female fighter, with the many dictatorial govern- fighters who have seen few reinforce- they will go straight to hell.” This type ments, who promote Islamist ideals, ments since ISIS’ siege of the city be- of gender impartiality is virtually nonsurrounding their community gan in mid-September,” Washington existent in the Middle East, with the Since the beginning of ISIS’ radi- Institute Defense Fellow Jeff White exception of Israel.

The Peshmerga are putting their lives on the line every day, taking on the battle with ISIS because they believe freedom and human rights come before religious beliefs and that this region is at risk of being overwhelmed by Islamist ideology.

They should be provided with support from governments around the world, and should be recognized for making the ultimate sacrifice to defend human rights in the region alongside the U.S.-led coalition.

Meanwhile, ISIS continues its heinous crimes in the region and most specifically against the Kurdish people through their engagement in Kobani. On November 4, ISIS released a group of Kurdish children who had been held captive since May this year. Human Rights Watch reported that nearly 150 Kurdish boys were abducted and taken from their families in Kobani and around the Syrian areas. There has been evidence of torture against the children, and for the boys, who were forced to undergo religious training, the severity of their torture depended on the role that their parents played as Kurdish militia fighting ISIS. That being said, signs are emerging steadily that the coordinated U.S. airstrikes and the Kurdish Peshmerga’s ground push are inflicting serious losses in both territory and fighters on ISIS, forcing them to change their behavior. ISIS is under pressure in Iraq, where a combination of coalition airstrikes and ground forces of the Iraqi army along with the Kurdish forces have destroyed ISIS’ lines of communication, modes of resupply and key sources of revenue that ISIS relies on heavily.

With the continuation of ISIS’ cruelty, it remains difficult to predict the eventual of fate of Iraq, Syria, Kobani or ISIS as they continue their crimes against humanity in the Middle East.

The people battling against ISIS’ brutal actions should be commended for their efforts and credited for their courage, as they deserve the support of the worldwide community to rid the world of the terror that is ISIS.

The Talon November 25, 2014

Expansion of downtown will be a benefit to community LEONARDO WAI Business Manager

The City Council of Los Altos has made the decision to expand downtown, which will do much to improve the economy of Los Altos.

Professional research by economists reveal that expanding a town’s infrastructure will result in a net increase of the town’s wealth. Economist Luis Servén, who works for The World Bank in Washington, D.C., concluded from a series of studies that improving a city’s infrastructure brings a boost to the local

economy; the town of Los Altos is no exception.

By expanding downtown Los Altos, the town will be able to house more businesses and residents. With more businesses and more residents in Los Altos, commerce increases and more money flows through the economy.

This improvement in the economy is a gift that keeps giving. Greater commerce will cause the property values of business establishments to rise, which increases the money obtained by the town through tax income.

Thus, the net effect of expansion is augmented wealth and an improved local economy.

So far, a total of 13 construction plans have been approved by the Los Altos City Council for develop-

ment; nine of these construction plans are already in development.

These nine ongoing developments are set to be completed by the end of 2015 and will mostly be located around the downtown area. All of these ongoing or future developments will either be housing for residents or commercial buildings for businesses and retailers.

City Council member Jean Mordo was elected to the City Council of Los Altos in early November and supports the expansion taking place in downtown Los Altos.

“I am in favor of updating downtown Los Altos,” Mordo said. “I favor allowing increased density [infrastructure] to promote greater vibrancy [commerce]. This will lead

ELVIS LI

The Enchanté Boutique Hotel is one of the many developments in downtown Los Altos that are currently under construction. The expansion of the downtown area poses many benefits to the city as a whole.

to more successful restaurants and stores and bring in more quality choices to residents... it will also raise property values downtown and generate more tax income to the city and to the School Districts.”

Probably the most apparent infrastructural development being made in Los Altos is the Enchanté Hotel.

This luxury hotel will be located at One Main Street, at the very beginning of downtown. Los Altos developer Abigail Ahrens is in charge of the development of the hotel.

Ahrens stated her enthusiasm for the development in an interview with the Town Crier.

“This is something we’ve been dreaming about designing and making happen,” Ahrens said. “This community has needed a hotel as long as I can remember.”

Ahrens hopes that the hotel will also be able to serve as a gathering spot for the local community.

“I’m hoping it becomes a community-centered area,” said Ahrens. “I just want to have fun with this. It’s a place for the community to express its uniqueness.”

The location of the hotel in downtown Los Altos is no accident. From the hotel, visitors and tourists will be able to access the many businesses and retailers in the surrounding area, which conveniently provides commerce for the town. With greater commerce in the downtown area, the wealth of local businesses should increase, and the quality of the downtown experience will improve. The Enchanté Boutique Hotel is set to be fully developed by the end of this fall.

Inevitably, there will be drawbacks to downtown expansion. Despite the benefits the hotel will bring as

a business, there is no established parking area for the hotel’s future customers. Thus, customers will have to occupy parking all across downtown. Considering the fact that parking in downtown is already limited, the Enchanté Boutique Hotel will only worsen the parking situation in downtown Los Altos. In spite of drawbacks to expansion such as parking concerning The Enchanté Boutique Hotel, the economic benefits that come from developments will prove significant. The benefits will still outweigh the drawbacks.

Infrastructural expansion will not only increase the wealth of the City Council, it will also increase the wealth of the public. Empirical studies done by Luis Servén support the fact that infrastructural expansion brings both growth in income and improvement in the distribution of income. In other words, new establishments will create new job opportunities; the effect is a subtle yet significant increase in the overall employment rate. This increase in public wealth will gradually improve the town of Los Altos, thereby gradually improving quality of life for the public and effectively making Los Altos a more desirable place to live. Over time, the value of Los Altos’ infrastructure rises and the town experiences a slow increase in population. From there, the cycle repeats and the town of Los Altos prospers.

The increase in wealth and quality of life in Los Altos will slowly emerge following the completion of the expansion of downtown. The already rich and prosperous community will experience a further gain, making Los Altos a truly growing town.

Vergara v. California ruling misguided, destructive critical to the success of our state’s educational system, but that Vergara does it in a way that shifts the blame AMELIA BAUM In-Depth Editor unfairly on teachers.

At the forefront of the Vergara controversy is a provision in the California Educational code providing the legal basis of teacher tenure, an Note: This article is not a complete institution that provides job security analysis of the tenure debate, but to hundreds of thousands teachers explores some of the major claims in the state by preventing them from of the Vergara case. being fired without due process.

Students Matter, the nonprofit This past June, a Los Angeles court organization supporting Vergara, arstruck down five provisions of the gues that the tenure laws violate CaliCalifornia Education Code in a land- fornia students’ basic rights to educamark decision known as Vergara tion by keeping ineffective teachers in v. California. Provisions outlining classrooms. The plaintiffs assert that the processes for teacher dismiss- discrepancies in teacher quality, especially those in urban als, layoffs and tenure districts, contribute to were ruled unconstituinequitable education tional. The ruling has for California students. been contentious from Though it is The Vergara approach the beginning, and is reasonable to has two major negative currently in an appeal advocate for effects. First, it overprocess spearheaded some kind of represents the number by the teacher’s union. tenure reform, it of truly underperformAt face value, the ing teachers in our Vergara case seems is irresponsible state, overshadowing logical. Any student to do it in the the hundreds of thouwho has ever been in a way Vergara is. sands of teachers who classroom with an inefare committed and effective teacher can empathize with the Vergara argument, fective everyday.

David Berliner, a professor of Eduwhich seeks to prevent these “bad” teachers from remaining in the class- cation at Arizona State University room. It is well known that tenure testified as an expert witness, attestmay in some cases have the effect of ing that between one and three preventing these teachers from being percent of California teachers were fired, a condition which is frustrating “grossly ineffective” in the classroom.

In a post-trial interview by Jordan and unfair for all parties involved.

However, support of the Vergara Weissman of Slate magazine, Berclaims illustrate a simplistic view liner referred to the number as “a of our state’s educational system ballpark estimate, based on my visitand the teacher-student dynamics ing lots of classrooms”. This number within it. It is critical to acknowledge is, at best, a misguided extrapolation both that the case sheds light on an formed from anecdotal experiences, important issue whose resolution is and not the hard data Students Mat-

ter suggests it is.

The misrepresentation speaks to a nationwide misunderstanding of the magnitude the ineffective teacher problem. Just as it doesn’t make sense to dismiss the validity of any profession based on a few members, it doesn’t make sense to take away job security from the hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing it right, or at least trying to.

According Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor at Stanford University, teachers in the United States enter the workforce with “dramatically different levels of training... sharply disparate salaries…[and work] under radically different teaching conditions.”

This inequity suggests that “ineffective” teachers are more likely to be made than born, and that a lack of institutional support can prevent teachers from being their most effective, or even make an effective teacher into an ineffective one.

The second problem with Vergara centers on a conclusion made from confounded data that suggests that bad teachers are the source of educational inequity.

For instance, the plaintiff’s evidence cites that students in the Los Angeles Unified School District can lose up to 9.54 and 11.3 months of learning as measured by ELA and math standardized test scores, respectively when they are taught by a teacher in the 5th percentile of effectiveness versus the median level of effectiveness.

Studies like these define teacher effectiveness arbitrarily, and do not account for a lack of randomization in teacher’s classrooms for students racial, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to draw conclusions about teacher performance from these measures of student achievement.

“The problem of inner-city schools is not that the dedicated teachers who

A CONVERSATION ABOUT EDUCATIONAL INEQUITY x

– VERGARA v. CALIFORNIA

I’ve decided: tenure policy is to blame for the educational inequity in California schools.

ME

What’s tenure?

VERGARA v. CALIFORNIA

Tenure prevents certain teachers from getting fired, even if they’re bad.

ME

But the quality of education is not just based on the quality of teachers.

Educational inequity is largely caused by the lack of teacher training and unequal funding for schools.

Message NOY ANISMAN

work in them have too many rights, but that the students who go to them are disadvantaged in many ways, the schools have inadequate resources and the schools are surrounded by communities that are dangerous, lack essential services and are largely segregated both by race and class,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the School of Law at the University of California in Irvine wrote in an Opinions piece in the New York Times.

Such inferences are dangerous not only because they unfairly damage the reputations of hardworking teachers, but because they suggest that complex educational problems can be solved by striking of a handful of provisions from the state’s ed code.

In the Economic Policy Institute’s study “Problems with the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers,” experts argue that educational inequity in the state and country are better explained by confounding socioeconomic factors that have a larger impact on their test scores than a teacher needing to cover dozens of state standards in one school year.

For students, administrators and lawmakers alike, teacher quality is understandably seen as a necessary component of a quality education.

Though it is reasonable to advocate for some kind of tenure reform, it is irresponsible to do it in the way Vergara is. Better reform ideas revolve around updates such as increasing the amount of time before a teacher is granted tenure, increasing support for struggling teachers or other strategies that address an ongoing problem while continuing to respect teachers.

Effective remedies for the issues that do exist with teacher tenure must come from within the educational system itself, not from lawsuits or court rulings.

The Talon November 25, 2014

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Read more features articles at lahstalon.org/features

Ely’s lifetime career in mechanics JOHNNY SCHER Business Manager

1966– 1970

1970– 1972

1972– 1976

1976– 1979

1979– 1988

1982

1985

1988– 1990

1990– 1998

1993– 1998– Present Present

Auto Shop teacher Greg Ely’s career LOS ALTOS HIGH SCHOOL has been anything but conventional.

From his first job as an electrician’s Was a assistant to his current position as a Chevrolet Met Jimmy College: teacher, Ely has held around 20 jobs, Teaches mechanic.

Doolittle. Worked as a Became a most of them relating to mechanics.

Auto Shop. mechanic at taxi driver. Air Force: Since his early childhood, Ely was a specialty Earned Served as a surrounded by machines. His father, Confederate Air Force: car shop.

Coaches the teaching loadmaster. who was an electrician, piqued Ely’s Restored and flew Service Manager: High School: girls swim team. credentials. interest in automobiles through his WWII planes around Trained other Worked odd jobs work with electronics. mechanics in the the U.S. for air shows. during summers.

“I was always curious about buildBay Area.

NOY ANISMAN ing stuff, because my dad was always “I loved that job,” Ely said.

“You got more jobs as a car mechanic before building stuff,” Ely said. “When I was 11 or 12, I wired my room up with to meet some of the nuttiest people becoming a mechanic for UPS. He switches so I could turn the radio on [and] the nicest people. Back then if held that position for eight years and off [and] the lights on and off... you could handle the people that call from 1990 to 1998, a period he looks for cabs at one o’clock in the morning, back on with distaste. all by [flipping] switches.”

“There are three ways of doing When Ely was a kid, his aptitude you could handle anything.”

In 1972, after completing two things: the right way, the wrong way in mechanics was not always put to good use. He and his friend once years of community college, Ely de- and the UPS way,” Ely said. “The UPS cided that he wanted policies and the way they treated their attempted to ignite to work with airplanes, employees were just awful.” a handheld flare and an interest that dated Ely’s teaching career took off in instead blew a hole in back to his childhood 1993, when the LAHS Auto Shop the side of his friend’s I want to reach fascination with me- teacher left halfway into the first segarage. The fire depart- out to kids chanics. Because the mester of school. A friend of Ely’s ment had to put the fire from diverse demand for airplane owned a company that matched out. work was very low teachers to schools around the Bay “My friend said, ‘Let’s backgrounds...I in the Bay Area, Ely Area. He called Ely, asking him to fill try mixing the flare welcome anyjoined the Air Force in the empty Auto Shop position and with lighter fluid!’” Ely one who has a as a loadmaster, load- save the program, which was on the said. “Boys have the good attitude NOAH TSAO ing and securing cargo verge of collapse due to a lack of stustupid gene.” and loves cars. into planes. dents and resources.

In high school, Ely Auto shop teacher Greg Ely searches his cabinet for a tool. Ely has When his four-year “I said, ‘Sure, I’ll take a shot at this,’” held numerous jobs throughout his life, many of them related to worked all sorts of sum— Auto Shop teacher Greg Ely enrollment service Ely said. “When I came in [the Auto his love for mechanics. mer jobs. One year he expired in 1976, Ely Shop room], there was a hoist, one was a roofer and another year he was a backstage helper for became a service manager for a rac- broken car, a few tools and a bunch of much as when he first began teaching. backgrounds.

“I like the people I work with,” Ely “I want to reach out to kids from a circus. As a senior, he drove a 1948 ing shop and traveled around the crap all over the place.”

By the end of his first semester, Ely said. “I like the job, it’s a really cool job. diverse backgrounds,” Ely said. “I Peterbilt dump truck to haul dirt at Bay Area training other mechanics in brake, alignment and suspension had fallen in love with teaching. He I suggest anybody that wants a second would like to see students come in construction sites. here that are taking all AP classes and After graduating from high school repairs. This first experience with threw himself into his position, build- career to go into teaching.”

In his next few years at the school students that are looking to achieve in 1970, Ely studied geology for two teaching was far from positive: his ing the program up to its current size before retirement, Ely’s main goal is in areas outside of school. I welcome years at the College of San Mateo. students were often rude and unap- of about 40 students and 16 cars.

Now, 21 years since he first stepped to expand Auto Shop to include stu- anyone who has a good attitude and During his time there, he worked as a preciative of his hard work. Tired of the work, Ely cycled through two on campus, Ely still enjoys his job as dents from all academic and ethnic loves cars.” taxi cab driver as a side job.

Culinary CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE

“I wanted to give back and teach students knowledge for the outside world and what they need to live their life,” Fambrini said.

This year, in one of their busiest fall seasons ever, the Culinary class took on the immense task of being the sole caterers to this year’s Homecoming events for the first time. For culinary students, this project resulted in a week of stress and required an enormous amount of time management. Even though the extra load was a big step for the

ELVIS LI

Culinary teacher Patty Fambrini demonstrates how to make a crêpe.

Fambrini leads the LAHS culinary program and took on several new class projects this year.

class, Fambrini believes it was a good learning experience for her students.

“Catering is more cost effective than going off campus and getting food,” Fambrini said.

“We are learning how to create an entire menu and how to execute it.”

Fambrini appreciates the hard work of her students, many of whom are willing to devote extra hours to the class. During Homecoming week, her culinary class displayed exemplary effort by returning to the kitchen after the minimum day to help prepare meals for the event.

“The students who signed up to come back after a minimum day made a huge commitment, and that was wonderful,” Fambrini said.

Besides daily lessons and catering ventures, Fambrini also plans projects designed to stretch students’ culinary skills while integrating ideas often hyped up in current media and modern business. Last quarter, students partook in Fambrini’s “Food Truck Challenge,” where each group created a customized and legitimate idea for a potential food truck. In the classroom, students converted each table into a booth that represented their “food truck,” a venture for which the students had to utilize their skills in rec-

ipe-writing, math and most im- will open a bag of mystery inportantly, originality. gredients and use their skill “My dream is to have a food and creativity to whip up a dish. truck, so I [fulfill that] by get- However, students will not be ting to do it with the class,” Fam- winning the show’s $20,000 brini said. “It gives a lot of chal- prize because Fambrini says lenges. Number one, it teaches that the point of the project is students about pricing food... for knowledge, not for money.

It teaches how to advertise and “I try to put trends into our how to get people to your booth classroom when I am making in order to sell. And it teaches our syllabus up because it’s rehow to execute a menu.” ally important for kids to see As for upcoming events, the what is out there and what is Culinary class has trendy right now,” several projects Fambrini said. “Glupacked into their ten-free foods are I thoroughly curriculum. trendy right now, so This Thanksgiv- enjoy teaching next semester we are ing, the class will the class. I do going to be making be selling 9-inch not know what gluten-free items pumpkin pies with and seeing how we I would want handmade filling can incorporate and crusts—some- to be doing non-gluten f lours thing they have any more than into our cuisines.” never done before. teaching stuWith its list of However, Fambrini dents. achievements, the and the class anclass is on its way to — Culinary teacher ticipate that it will gaining even more Patty Fambrini become a strong cuprominence on camlinary class tradition pus. Fambrini and to celebrate the holiday season. her students continue to take on Continuously searching for many new endeavors, both withinnovative ways to spice up the in the classroom and throughclassroom dynamic, Fambrini out the school. Fambrini would will organize a classroom com- not have it any other way. petition based on the popu“I thoroughly enjoy teachlar Food Network program, ing the class,” Fambrini said. “I “Chopped,” for the first semes- do not know, in my life, what ter final. Like the on-screen I would want to be doing any contestants, Culinary students more than teaching students.”

The Talon November 25, 2014

The shooting of 18- year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri has dominated the news in recent months, captivating the nation and generating controversy over the incident and the unrest that followed. Beyond the headlines, a larger conversation is developing about media bias, police violence and what racism toward the black community looks like in the context of today’s world.

and its implications on race relations in the United States Want to see more?

See an extended version of this spread at lahstalon.org/ in-depth

Somewhat Biased

Mostly Unbiased

166 students polled

“GRIEF AND PROTESTS Follow Shooting of a Teenager,” the headline read in the August 10 edition of The New York Times.

An August 14 video from Fox News featured the headline, “Forgetting MLK’s Message: Protesters In Missouri Turn To Violence.”

“Clashes, Chaos: Police Again Use Tear Gas On Ferguson Protesters,” blared the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in its August 18 issue.

These headlines highlight aspects of the media that are currently raising questions about the portrayal of minorities. For decades, there have been certain words and phrases that have been associated with the black community.

People have compared media coverage of Ferguson to that of Pumpkin Fest in Keene, New Hampshire, where riot police were dispatched to quell alcohol-fueled parties. Critics say there are differences in phrasing that reflect the racial breakdown of each events’ participants. Those involved in Keene were mostly white, compared to the mostly black protesters in Ferguson.

News outlets reported Keene as a “clash” involving “drunk college kids,” whereas Ferguson was called a “riot” and those who took part were called “thugs” and “rioters.”

The word “riot” is particularly associated with the black community, said Victoria W. Wolcott, a professor of history at the University of Buffalo-New York, in an interview with CNN. It puts a negative emphasis on how black violent behavior is portrayed compared to white violent behavior. Because of the differences in coverage, viewers might develop different interpretations of the situation, no matter if they’re accurate or not. “[The use of the word riot] speaks to the notion that No Completely white violent behavOpinion Unbiased ior is not something talked about or stigmatized in the media or in mainstream society to extent that African-American rioting or loot-

A TIMELINE OF FERGUSON

ing behavior is,” Wolcott said in an interview with CNN. There are two concepts that explain the media’s tendency to stereotype the black community as violent: illusory correlation and confirmation bias.

Illusory correlation occurs when people falsely associate two unrelated things by virtue of the fact that they’re both statistically unlikely.

“In the context of media coverage of race and crime, 27% Television the very fact that minorities are minorities and that crime is a relatively rare event means that because we see black people paired 32% Online up with crime in the media so much, it tends to inflate our perception of the relationship between 241 students polled those two things,” University of California, Berkeley Assistant Professor of Public Policy Jack Glaser said.

While it might be easy to point fingers at the media, it often reflects its audience. Together, they are a two-way street; people come to expect a certain image from the media, but this image is often one that previous media viewings have cultivated.

“The mainstream media is not able to necessarily fill its role of journalistic integrity because of the very nature of the system that constructs [it],” University of California, Los Angeles Associate Professor of Information Studies Ramesh Srinivasan said.

People will look for information that upholds what they believe, regardless of its truthfulness. This is confirmation bias. Confirmation bias affects both the media and its audience, unintentionally or not. In reporting the events of Ferguson, some news outlets have reported what reinforces previously-held beliefs about race and racial violence, even if they don’t intend to show a bias. This affects audience too, as people will seek out stories that support what they already believe.

August 9

The day after the fatal shooting took place, a peaceful candlelight vigil was held as a memorial for Brown. Tensions between citizens and police officers over the shooting prompted looting. Protesters returned on August 11 and Ferguson police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd. The next day, protesters began gathering in the city of Clayton, calling for Wilson’s prosecution.

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“People go to the media to validate… or reinforce their opinion,” Srinivasan said.

Some believe that some news sources intentionally show confirmation bias by reporting their information in a way that caters to an expected audience.

“The right wing news stations are still covering [racial violence]; they’re just framing it as something 7% Other else, which is what 5% Print their user base Newspapers wants,” senior Ben Gardner-Gill said.

“People who look at the left wing news sources might dive into a lot more ac29% Social Media curate portrayals of how race relations work, but in some ways they are just as desensitized to what the actual issue is.”

Fox News has been criticized for its coverage of Ferguson because much of it was centered around the looting and discord that happened as a result of Michael Brown’s death. Gilbert Bailon, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, stated that Fox missed an opportunity to delve into Ferguson’s motivations, instead choosing to villainize the protesters and dramaticize the events by focusing on the violence.

Much of it depends on the news outlet and their audience. While Fox News might choose to focus on the protester violence, other media sources focus on police brutality.

“I definitely think [some news outlets are] more sympathetic toward the victims, and they’re casting the police force in a negative light,” senior Ashwin Vaidyanathan said.

No matter what side the media ultimately favors, people generally agree that such biases are detrimental to everyone portrayed. “[The media is] kind of portraying that all police officers are like that,” senior Philip Almeda said. “Or if not, that all African Americans are like that. That we’re always the victims, or every police officer is dangerous or just trigger-ready.”

Where do LAHS students get their information about Ferguson?

On August 9, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown had been walking in the middle of the street when Wilson stopped and asked him to move to the sidewalk. Accounts of the ensuing incident vary, with some claiming that Brown assaulted Wilson and others maintaining that Wilson fired when he thought that Brown, who was unarmed, was going to attack him.

September

August August 10-13

Claire Bai, Staff Writer | Spencer Dembner, Staff Writer | Jessica King, Staff Writer |Perla Luna, Senior Writer | Alexandra Milkey, Staff Writer | Sitara Sriram, Senior Writer | Emily Terada, Staff Writer | Maya Varghese, Copy/Content Editor

IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS

How Would You Describe the Media Coverage of the Events in Ferguson?

Very Biased

The Talon explores some of these implications, both in the context of Ferguson and in our own community. We encourage you to join this conversation and find out why the events of Ferguson and its effects matter in our community.

August 16-18

On August 16, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon imposed a curfew from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. in Ferguson. A crowd gathered the next day and was dispersed by police with tear gas. Nixon stopped the curfew and instead called in the National Guard to “help restore peace and order.” However, this change did little to immediately quell the protests. On August 18, several hundred protesters charged a wall of policemen and over 78 people were arrested. Nixon withdrew the National Guard on August 18.

The Talon November 25, 2014

THE NEW RACISM TRADITIONALLY, racism toward black people in America is associated with enforced segregation, the Jim Crow South and the Ku Klux Klan. Black-white racial relations have come a long way since then. With no “whites only” signs hanging on bathroom doors, it can be easy to pretend that racism no longer exists in the 21st century.

The racial profiling and stereotyping occurring in Ferguson are proof that this is not true.

Racism still exists. However, since most of the new racism is not explicitly written into law, it is harder to identify and combat.

Prejudice vs Racism

Some people believe that racism refers to any form of discrimination against a person because of their race. For others, racism refers specifically to situations in which a race experiences systemic oppression. These people believe that other forms of discrimination stem from personal, rather than societal prejudice.

However, the terms racism and prejudice are used interchangeably, and it is perhaps this lack of agreement on what racism means that has led to the rise of a new definition and usage of the term reverse racism.

Reverse racism refers to the condition of being racist toward the dominant group in society. In America, when people discuss the idea of “reverse racism,” they are typically referring to people of color acting in a racist manner toward white people.

“It’s not at all controversial to say that people form a minority group can prefer their group and even really hate the majority group, and sometimes they have a pretty good reason to if they are being oppressed by that group,” UC Berkeley public policy professor Jack Glaser said.

However, even hatred of a majority group rarely results in oppression of the majority. Derogatory language and racial slurs toward white people are undoubtedly hurtful, but are not the same thing as systemic oppression. By equating the two, one is trivializing the unique hardships that result from systematic oppression, which prevents any real progress from being made.

Affirmative Action is often cited as a controversial example of reverse racism. However, people who view affirmative action as such may not be looking at the full picture.

“People will often say that [affirmative action] leads to reverse discrimination,” Glaser said. “[But at the same time] there are all kinds of other mechanisms in employment decisions and job decisions that tend to favor white males. The net effect may not be reverse discrimination at all.”

This controversy highlights the lack of a clear definition of racism. It is this lack of clarity, and sometimes downright misunderstanding, that leads to people incorrectly claiming that racism is dead. Part of the problem is that at LAHS, we rarely discuss how race applies to the present day. Open conversations about race are nec-

Derogatory language and racial slurs toward white people are undoubtedly hurtful, but are not the same thing as systemic oppression.

October 12-13

essary to minimize the effects of more subtle forms of racism, such as implicit bias.

Implicit Bias

point it’s just reality and I’m used to it.”

No one should have to accept racism as an unavoidable part of everyday life. Being aware of our own implicit biases may help us to change our mindset and actions, so situations like this occur less often.

One reason that combating racism is difficult is that many people who would never consider themselves to be racist are not aware of their own racial biases. All people are affect- Microaggressions ed by something called implicit bias, which is A more subtle form of racism is microaga subconscious prejudice which can be related gression, which involves small actions or comto race. Implicit biases can affect interactions ments that may not be intentionally racist but and relationships in ways that are not neces- still undermine a minority group. Sometimes, sarily obvious. a microaggression can be as simple as the unIn recent years, psychologists have devel- dertones of a joke. oped something called association tests, “I have a lot of white friends [at LAHS] and I’m which are a way of determining an individual’s cool with them,” senior Phillip Almeda said. “But implicit biases.

I hear them say a lot, ‘Phillip, you don’t act very Harvard University’s Project Implicit pro- black.’ What are blacks supposed to act like? I vides many tests of implicit bias, including guess they think one which evaluates whether an individual every black [perprefers black people or white people. The test son] has to be asks individuals to first sort photos of black ghetto, has to be and white individuals, one group left and one angry, has to be group right. Then it asks individuals to sort about that lifepositive and negative words left and right. The style. There are next steps are when it gets more difficult. The African Ameritest flashes both words and pictures. Black cans that act like faces and positive words go to one side, and that but there white faces and negative words to the other. are also other -senior Phillip Almeda Then it switches again; black faces go to the African Amerisame side as negative words, and white faces cans as well.” go to the same side as positive words. The test Because of the common microaggressions records “reaction times,” or how long it takes in society, sometimes people of color feel they a person to sort words and pictures after the need to adjust their behavior in order to avoid appear on the screen. If people have to think stereotypes. Microaggressions and implicit more on one of the tests with both words bias may be less noticeable forms of racism, and pictures, it can reveal their subconscious but they still significantly affect individuals’ views about white and black people. everyday lives.

According to Glaser, similar studies have “I was told at a young age that I have to be shown that a majority of white people have calm and relaxed inside because if big, black a subconscious preference for white people, guys come in and have an attitude or, you know, and that black people tend to be split down doesn’t have a nice face, people tend to be the middle, with half preferring white people scared. They just tend to already get an opinion and half preferring black people. about me and how I am,” Phillip said. “So I have “The important implication of that is peo- to always have a smile on my face.” ple have biases that are operating outside of Ultimately, the “modern” racism is much their consciousness awareness but are still more subtle than the racism of the past, and for affecting their behavior,” Glaser said. “So you this reason, harder to detect and change. It is could have somebody who is on the surface now more important than ever that we have fully motivated to be egalitarian and to treat important than ever that we have open coneveryone equally and fairly, but because of versations about race, both nationally and at how their mental associations are arranged in LAHS. The events of Ferguson have shown their head, they’re not going to interpret two that in order to achieve progress, we must acpeoples’ behaviors identically, because they knowledge the significant role race still plays are going to see one through the prism of the in our society. racial stereotype.”

This impacts the way people of color are treated Who experiences racism at the school? in everyday life and even in our community.

Asian “Just the other day my mom got pulled over by Black the police and they made all of us get out of the car White just because we’re black, and we had to all give our Hispanic IDs,” senior Taya Brooks Pacific Islander said. “That’s not the first time that’s happened to Multi-Racial me. I have been stopped on the streets for just walking, and in stores security folVery Often Occaisionally Rarely Never lows me all the time. At this

I have a lot of white friends...they say ‘Phillip, you don’t act very black.’

What are blacks supposed to act like?

268 students polled

Multiple organizations were created to protest the Ferguson shooting, including Ferguson October. During the week of October 12, Ferguson October held a week of resistance featuring a service and a rally. On October 13, protesters attempted to cross the police lines in front of the Ferguson Police Department building, and over 50 of them were arrested for misdemeanors, including prominent American activist Cornel West.

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October October 3-6

On October 3, following a protest with over a dozen arrests, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson gave peacekeeping responsibilities to the St. Louis County Police Department.

However, three days later on October 6, after a baseball game between the Dodgers and the Cardinals, a group of pro-Wilson Cardinals fans clashed with a group of pro-Brown Ferguson protesters outside the stadium.

November November 17

As of press deadline, the grand jury for Michael Brown’s trial was currently in deliberations, and will be delivering a verdict shortly. The Missouri governor has declared a state of emergency throughout the state ahead of the jury’s decision, which is expected to incite violence. The national guard has been brought in to assist local and state police.

12

The Talon November 25, 2014

New club unites against cancer CLAIRE BAI Staff Writer

With its enthusiasm and openness of expression, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) stands out in the annual wave of new clubs.

Although only a few months old, the club has made its mark on the school, garnering attention through promotions ranging from homecoming hall decorations to powerful messages on the video announcements.

Co-presidents seniors Michele Tom and Summer Wong started the Los Altos High School chapter of the national non-profit organization to spread awareness and to unite those affected by cancer.

Michele first heard of the SU2C organization through her participation in Relay for Life. After her grandmother passed away from colon cancer during her freshman year, Michele found that raising support for the fight against cancer took on a new, more personal importance.

“Seeing [my grandmother] in her more positive and negative moments in her fight against cancer inspired me to look toward ways I could help,” Michele said. “Throughout our school, there hasn’t really been a huge outlet for cancer awareness,

so we wanted to allow other sponsored by the Leukemia and people to express their concern Lymphoma Society and occurred and their support for the fight on Saturday, November 1. against cancer.”

“It’s just raising awareness There are several medically- [and] money,” Summer said. “We oriented clubs at Los Altos, but had a fun night lighting up the as the only cancer-focused orga- dark world of cancer—that’s the nization on campus, SU2C sheds metaphor there.” a new light on the cancer comUp until the Holiday Faire, munity of LAHS. SU2C will be passing out club “Stand Up To Cancer raises buttons and selling club sweatmoney for cancer reshirts. Future plans search that directly include fundraisgoes to benefit paers all throughout tients [by helping] We wanted to second semester, develop personalpromotion of World allow other ized treatments Cancer Day in Febbecause different people to exruary and a possible people have differ- press their conLos Altos re-enactent types of cancer cern and their ment of the Swim and different stages,” Across America support for the vice president senior (SAA) pediatric canfight against Kate Voytyuk said. cer fundraiser.

The SU2C board cancer.

The original SAA kicked off the year event takes place ev— Stand Up To Cancer Club co-president with a photo camery September in the senior Michele Tom paign.

Members San Francisco Bay. put together an InHundreds of people stagram cardboard cutout and jump into the Pacific Ocean and asked students around school to swim 1.5 miles from the Golden take headshots. They also photo- Gate Bridge to Yacht Harbor to graphed people with whiteboard raise money for kids with cancer messages on why they stood up and to remember those who have to cancer. passed away from cancer. Math Outside of school, SU2C mem- teacher Judy Strauss, who works bers participated in Palo Alto’s on the SAA board and is a canLight the Night walk, which was cer survivor herself, supports the

idea to host a Los Altos event.

“Ms. Strauss is planning to help us organize a pool swim at the school to swim for pediatric cancer,” Summer said. “She’s really involved in Swim Across America, so we wanted to bring that to school, and spread that message [about fighting against cancer].”

According to the officers, SU2C’s main goal is to provide a place where students can broaden their perspectives about the cancer community.

“I never personally knew anyone who passed away or was suffering from cancer,” Summer said.

“When I started this club with Michele, I got to know a lot of people who know or have known people who are suffering, and it’s opened my eyes. I know this sounds completely cheesy, but cheesy things are always true.”

With 30 to 40 people meeting every Wednesday at lunch in room 411, SU2C provides an environment of comfort and support, allowing students of all backgrounds to forge unique bonds.

“It’s just getting to know people around you, getting to know their experiences,” Kate said. “It’s really eye-opening in a way. And bonding together and standing up for one big cause is really uniting.”

ALLEGRA MAESO

SU2C club officers seniors Molly Vanderlip, Allison Mock, co-presidents Michele Tom and Summer Wong, Kate Voytyuk and Gabi Shab (left to right) hold up the club sweatshirt. Michele and Summer formed the club this year and have been actively promoting it through a variety of activities such as photo campaigns and a Palo Altos Light the Night walk.

Rubens’ Tube CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE A Rubens’ tube is sealed at both ends with perforated holes on top.

Students pump flammable gas into the tube and then light the gas on fire, creating flames that shoot out of the holes. At one end of the tube, a speaker emits sound waves of varying frequency through a flexible membrane, which changes the gas pressure within the tube and causes the flames to vary in height.

Because of the presence of fire, students were meticulous in their safety precautions, checking the seals and keeping a fire extinguisher nearby. While making the main tube, the drilling process was done with great care and with a teacher present.

“The point of [all the safety measures] for the tubing is that there is no gas leak,” club president junior Paul Dennig said. “We’re working with flammable gas, and safety is first as always. We’re building something really cool, but really dangerous as well.”

The process of building the tubing spanned several months, but

PHOTOS BY CARL FAUST

Left: The Rubens’ tube is lit on fire. Right: Science and Engineering Team club president junior Paul Dennig studies the tube intently. The club recently built a Rubens’ tube and tested it during a club meeting. the group managed to pull through to create their masterpiece. Funded by the science department, SET members bought supplies from common hardware stores such as Home Depot. Led by Paul, the project took form extremely quickly after the brainstorming of the initial idea. However, the group faced several barriers.

“Although we were especially careful with the gas and gas leakages, we did not anticipate the tube expanding as much as it did from heating up,” Paul said. “Fortunately, after testing [before the team meeting], we found that the

tube had crinkled a little bit and we were able to fix the problem before the demonstration during the meeting.”

Not only did the science department fund the project, but it also plans to use the tube as a practical demonstration to teach students about sound waves.

“Hopefully students will get the chance to see this if they are taking [a science class],” Paul said. “The idea is that this tube will last 20 years. That’s the benchmark for the kind of projects we want to produce in the future.”

Looking forward, SET plans

to make FM radios to sell at the Holiday Faire. These radios will be built from scratch so that members of the team can learn the basics of circuit boards. Not only will the radios raise funds for the team, but they will also teach members how to use circuits for the team’s next project: drones.

“We’ll cover a lot of ground and hopefully have a really cool end product that everyone can enjoy and feel proud of,” Paul said. “What this club is at the moment is really a testimony that building things can be a community hobby that inspires us to create.”

This Side of Lunadise

By Perla Luna

Redefine success Knowing that high school is only a pit stop in our lives, albeit an important one, should make it easy to not let the pressure of being a good student get to many of us the way it does. After all, in 15 years who’s going to ask you what you got on the limits test for AP Calculus?

A bad essay grade freshman year isn’t going to haunt you for the rest of your life and a minimum SAT score hopefully won’t be a requirement for a relationship. The odds are that no one is going to care who you were as a teenager.

The problem is that even though we can logically conclude that these things won’t matter in the long run, for those of us who are too aware of what a bad grade or score can mean, it’s difficult to feel that truth. As we all know, teenagers aren’t exactly known for their big-picture thinking. These things matter to us in the heat of the moment and the competitive, Successful with a capital S environment we live in only further inf lames those valid feelings. If we don’t get an SAT score above some arbitrary number, we failed. If we aren’t in at least three AP classes each, we failed. If we don’t go to a four-year college, we failed. But that’s just not right.

These accomplishments are great for those who achieve them but, realistically, not everybody can be that person. Getting below your dream school’s average SAT isn’t indicative of your selfworth (or your college preparedness, but that’s a topic for another day). AP classes end up being like sprinkles on cupcakes—nice but unnecessary. And for some people, community college is the way to go and that’s great.

There are even some teachers here who can tell you stories about them not doing so great in school but figuring out life later, which is just as great as someone who knew what they wanted to do since the age of 12 because what matters is that we get to destinations we’re happy with.

I’m not saying that the ultimately trivial aspects of typical forms of success are an excuse for you to blow off your homework or fail that test. It’s not an excuse for not trying. What this is is reassurance. You don’t have to be the mythical straight A student to be a good student. You just have to be someone who can be proud of what you’ve done, however much that is. You get to decide what’s important.

The Talon November 25, 2014

13

Life of an

Eagle Scout ELAINE LEE

I

Staff Writer

magine canoeing across nal project known as the Eagle hundreds of miles in Can- Scout project in order to become ada and then proceeding an Eagle Scout. These projects are to carry your canoe above intended to leave a positive impact your head for a few miles on the community. more. Or snow camping Eagle Scout senior Ashwin in an igloo that you built yourself Vaidyanathan built a greenhouse with a shovel. These types of trips for Egan Junior High School are just some of many potential for his project, which he had activities that offer Boy Scouts planned extensively beforehand. the opportunity to build lifelong He went to lumber shops to talk friendships, develop survival and with professionals, used Google leadership skills. Ultimately, they Sketchup to create the models, work towards the honor of becom- made a list of necessary mateing an Eagle Scout, a rials, spent four to distinction that less five months planthan 5 percent of Boy ning and built the Scouts achieve an- It’s very regreenhouse over the nually. At the school warding to course of a few more alone, there are 17 Ea- have finished a months. gle Scouts, all juniors multiple-month“[Being an Eagle and seniors, with Scout has made me] five more working on long project and more prepared and be like, ‘People their Eagle projects. calculated and a betBoy Scouts is a pro- helped me, but I ter planner through cess of self-realization was in charge.’ the process,” Ashwin and leadership deVaidyanathan said.

— Eagle Scout velopment through But Eagle Scout senior Ryan Wu activities in nature. projects do more Regardless of rank, than personal develScouts learn to adapt to the situ- opment. For those who complete ation they are placed in. Whether them, they represent a huge acor not that is a medical emergency complishment. or a camping site teeming with “It’s very rewarding to have finwild animals. ished a multiple-month-long projAlong the way, Boy Scouts re- ect and be like, ‘People helped me, ceive merit badges for completing but I was in charge,’” Eagle Scout certain tasks and work toward re- senior Ryan Wu said. “It’s a lot of ceiving 21 badges to meet the re- responsibility, but I enjoyed learnquirement to achieve Eagle rank. ing about what I could do.”

“Merit badges introduced me to Aside from the work needed many new fields such as nuclear to complete merit badges and fiscience and genealogy...and taught nal projects, one highlight of the me about personal management scouting experience is the chance and personal fitness,” Eagle Scout to create lasting friendships. junior Ashwin Krishna said.

“The bonds made in the Boy Boy Scouts must complete a fi- Scout troop are very strong,” Eagle

Scout senior Makinnon Baugh said. “I still talk with boys who were in my troop [who] now live states away.”

While some experiences lead to stronger bonds with friends, Scouts also enjoy time to themselves and connect with nature on other trips.

“Some of my favorite experiences were hiking atop a cinder cone in Lassen Park and experiencing the most profound silence I have ever heard, making my own bow and arrow for an archery merit badge and building a 10-foot folding kayak from plywood and canvas,” Boy Scout senior Vishnu Bachani said.

Although many outdoor trips are physically demanding, they provide a unique chance for appreciating the beauty of nature.

“My favorite trip is called Northern Tier, a High Adventure trip in which a group of scouts go up to northern Minnesota and Canada and spend a week and a half canoeing through lakes there,” Eagle Scout senior Danny Beatty said.

“We were constantly wet and mosquitoes were biting us the whole time, but it was still a great trip that kept us completely isolated from the rest of the world.”

To those in the program, becoming an Eagle Scout is more than just an accomplishment; the program becomes a way of life, of accepting responsibility and accountability for their actions and sometimes even over others. It is an experience that leaves a lasting mark in the lives of those involved.

“Ultimately, being a scout teaches that leadership is about having a vision and leading your peers to realize that vision,” Ryan said.

I

formed a guitar ensemble, taught them music, led them as a group, rehearsed and performed pieces from “The Nutcracker Suite” for a local ballet school...The project lasted four months, with weekly rehearsals. Tickets sold increased by the hundreds compared to the previous year’s sales.

-Eagle Scout senior Ashwin Vaidyanathan

F

or my Eagle Scout project, I refurbished a prayer garden at my church. What had previously been an unused and overgrown area now features Japanese maples, lemon trees and potted succulents. I also sanded and repainted the bench that was already in the area and built a brand-new bench as well.

-Eagle Scout senior Michael Wu

GRAPHICS BY VANESSA MARK

PHOTOS COURTESY TROOP 37

Top: Boy Scouts enjoy their whitewater rafting trip down the American River. Second from top: Eagle Scout senior Ryan Wu gives a thumbs-up at Kayak Camp in Lassen National Volcanic Park. Third from top: Boy Scout Ben Delaney hangs on to his paddleboard at Emerald Bay State Park. Fourth from top: Boy Scouts work on completing their merit badge worksheets. Above: Boy Scouts visit a Florida Seabase on a “Scuba Live Aboard” trip.

The Talon November 25, 2014

Catch reviews of new movies, music and more, plus read the entertainment archives at lahstalon.org/entertainment

MUSIC

TAYLOR SWIFT

BRANDON HONG

MAYA ACHARYA

TAY LOR SWIF T HAS SHAKEN THE WORLD ONC E AG AIN WITH HER NE WEST ALBU M , “1989.”

SWIF T DE V IATED FROM HER AC O U STIC RO OT S AND I S MAKING WAV ES IN THE P OP GENRE.

FLICKR USER AVRILLA

Print Managing Editor

As if in an attempt to taunt fans of yesterday’s Taylor Swift, iTunes still characterizes the 25-year-old singer as “Country.” The Country Music Awards keeps nominating Swift for their top level awards (perhaps to increase viewership), but Swift’s only remnant of “country” is iTunes’ now laughable label.

Swift released her newest pop album, “1989,” on October 27. Swift’s genre isn’t the only thing that’s changed. For someone whose claim to fame in 2006 was relatable folk songwriting, Swift has become detached from the everyday listener. A week after the release of “1989,” she pulled all her music off the popular streaming service Spotify, a move following her Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, published on July 7, condemning free music services.

With actions like this one, Swift comes across as out of touch with the current state of the music industry. In her WSJ article, she writes “My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet…is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.”

While her message is a valid one, Swift runs herself into trouble. The nature of today’s music industry promotes making music universally available through free streaming, and all artists except Swift seem to have caught on.

If the Spotify controversy is hurting Swift’s record sales, she isn’t feeling the pain: “1989” is the first album of 2014 to go platinum, a testament to Swift’s expertise in record setting.

Swift runs a loud and effective marketing scheme, with promotional videos and song teasers in Diet Coke ads counting down the days to her album release. She included Polaroid-style pictures of herself in the album, as well as three bonus songs and three songwriting memos on the deluxe version, sending dedicated fans to pick up physical copies.

With “1989,” Swift has completely foregone her acoustic roots in an attempt to break into dance-pop.

“1989” does present a solid mix of ballads and dance songs, but a few of Swift’s new songs are forced and cringeworthy.

“Shake It Off” is the most recognizable song off the album, having been promoted with a music video and released as a single in mid-Au-

gust. As a feel-good song, “Shake It Off” is markedly Swift with its confident lyrics and catchy instrumental music. Swift released a video for “Blank Space,” another song off the album, on November 10. Blank Space is unremarkable; somewhat catchy but repetitive, it has no real place on any playlist. However, its music video is a work of art. Swift and director Joseph Kahn created a quasi-horror short movie seemingly making fun of the media’s portrayal of Swift’s dating history.

Of the fast paced songs on the album, “New Romantics” is the most well-crafted and the one that best showcases Swift’s strong vocals.

Swift sings, “Please take my hand and, please take me dancing, and please leave me stranded, it’s so romantic.” These lyrics poetically mirror the shift in her career. New Romantics is not the best song on the record, but it defines Swift’s new style the most.

“New Romantics” was a success, but Swift should have stopped there.

The other dance-pop songs on the record make the album weaker overall. “Welcome to New York,” “Out Of The Woods,” “All You Had To Do Was Stay” and “Bad Blood” all sound

generic and have poor songwriting uncharacteristic of Swift. The vocals are choppy, as though Swift tried too hard to fit the unimaginative lyrics to a vanilla dance beat. Swift’s songwriting genius and strong vocal range are her greatest assets; without utilizing them, her songs flop.

The strongest songs on the album lay off the pop beats and leave room for Swift’s lyrics to shine. The ballad, “You Are In Love,” does what Swift does best. Her voice is the perfect vehicle for love stories. Fans of Swift’s first three albums will enjoy this song as well as “This Love,” “Wildest Dreams” and “Clean” for the beautiful music storytelling that put Swift on the charts in the first place.

“1989” proves that even after a fan alienating Spotify removal, Swift can still write a universal love song (or five). The album shows that she has breadth, but that she still has much to improve in her new pop identity. Though there are more than a few disappointing songs on the album, loyal fans will look at the glass as half full. Fans will be expecting more creative beats and lyrical integrity from Swift in the future, but for now, she gives us something to enjoy in “1989.”

LOCAL

Museum continues cultural tradition with new exhibit Nan Geschke and a committee of re- “meet” the Los Altos and Los Al- prominent local families such know quite what to do, but we did search volunteers felt overwhelmed tos Hills inventors and founders as the Packards and Duvenecks. have a box of Kleenex handy.” by the staggering amount of who have shaped the tech For Laura Bajuk, executive Ultimately, the industry. director of the LAHM, LAHM serves as Silicon Valley is the hub of information they uncovOther highlights one of the best parts of the guardian of high-tech industry giants, the ered. At one point, they of the exhibit in- creating any exhibit the city’s history. birthplace of trailblazing inno- were even ready to give clude a selfie sta- is witnessing the Each exhibit repvation and home to four million up because they were tion that prints a excitement of both resents months people from all backgrounds. not sure how to presphoto on the spot, the public and the of research on a Because Los Altos was formerly a ent the information a workbench repli- volunteers who made single aspect of valley of sl eepy apricot orchards, effectively.

Fortunately, one of cating the one that the exhibit happen. our history. one can’t help but wonder what— Steve Jobs and Steve “There’s a little tweak“For me personand who—brought about such a the committee memWozniak used to make ing that gets done [in the ally, [the rewards are] revolutionary change of industry. bers came up with the title the first Apple computer first two weeks],” Bajuk the things I learn,” Bajuk These are exactly the questions “The Lure and Legends,” FLICKR USER WIKIMEDIA STEVE JURVETUSER MATTHEW models and an original said. “When you create anysaid. “It’s the connecthat the Los Altos History Mu- which crystallized the SON YOHE film produced especially thing, you see what didn’t tions that get made. The seum’s (LAHM) newest exhibit, structure of the exhibit.

“That kind of snapped the for the exhibit in which happen, but it’s the experitrouble with history is “Silicon Valley: The Lure and Legends,” seeks to answer. Run- whole thing into place,” Geschke Geschke interviews several local ence of other people [seeing the that people don’t realize the value exhibit] that’s really exciting.” of it when it’s happening, unless ning from Saturday, October 19 said. “The lure were the reasons technology leaders.

“We hope this is the kind of exAnother aspect of Bajuk’s work for it’s really obvious...[so only] bit to Saturday, April 15 of next year, for why [Silicon Valley] happened, and then we focused on local hibit people will come back to the LAHM is helping people and pieces of it are preserved. It’s the exhibit features a geometric people, primarily those again and again because you trace their family tree. really about these little bits and centerpiece structure, infrom Los Altos and can’t sit down and read Bajuk once helped a pieces that may change your perteractive hands-on disLos Altos Hills [for [everything], but you woman discover the ception of history.” plays, a reproduced the legends].” could do it over several story of her ancesThe LAHM is open Thursdays workbench, an origiThe centerpiece times,” Geschke said. tor who left his through Sundays, 12 to 4 p.m. nal film screening of the exhibit conExhibits like “Silicon wife and children Admission is free, and all visitors and various exhibisists of cardboard Valley: The Lure and in the South and are welcome. tion panels. hexagonal units fit- Legends” showcase part came out West. He “We’re crazy people who choose A culmination of ted to create a mam- of our city’s rich cultural eventually married museums for jobs,” Bajuk said. “It’s three years of research moth structure that heritage, something that another woman and not high paying, but I knew that and planning, the exhibit grazes the ceiling. The the LAHM is committed to prestarted a second family.

I’d be doing something that wasn’t offers a comprehensive overhexagons represent stock serving for future generations. “[The woman] started going to be about the money. We view of the birth of Silicon In the past, the museum ALLEGRA MAESO crying because she was so educate not just through words but Valley, with a special focus ALLEGRA MAESO exchange data from Silicon Valley’s early years. has had exhibits focusing amazed to find out what through images and three dimenon the visionaries of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. During the Through iPad stories and photos on anything from toys to eccen- happened at last,” Bajuk said. “She sional experiences. And it’s really planning process, exhibit creator within the structure, visitors can tric heiress Sarah Winchester to was reduced to tears. We didn’t fun putting that all together.”

KATHERINE YEN Features Editor

The Talon November 25, 2014

Tech

TRENDING

BAR KEVIN YEN

Copy/Content Editor

Space Tourism

Commercial space tourism technology has progressed considerably, and space travel companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic have started to experiment with the idea of leisure space travel.

Youngest Entrepreneur 13-year-old Shubham Banerjee, founder and CEO of Braigo Labs, is the world’s youngest tech entrepreneur to receive venture capitalist funding.

Braigo Labs designs low cost Braille printers for the visually impaired. Intel became impressed by Banerjee’s energy and product and subsequently announced its investment in the company.

$

Amazon Echo Amazon has created a cylindrical, 9.25 inch tall speaker named Echo that is the latest form of artificial intelligence.

Echo is the only piece of furniture that can talk back— and crack jokes. For now, Amazon has implemented an inviteonly policy for customers interested in purchasing it.

ROCKET AND ECHO GRAPHICS BY NOY ANISMAN

FOOD

Cocina Central brings twist to Mexican cuisine EMILY AOKI Staff Writer

Cocina Central

Mexican

2590 W El Camino Real Mountain View, CA Price Range: $$

★★★☆☆ There are plenty of Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area, but newcomer Cocina Central takes this traditional cuisine one step further. While the classic Mexican restaurants provide the typical tastes that customers have always loved, Cocina Central is ready to blow away the competition with its own new-and-improved version of Mexican cooking. The restaurant adds unconventional ingredients to conventional recipes to improve traditional dishes.

Cocina Central, founded by Randy Everman, made its of-

ficial debut on November 22 in the San Antonio Village. It is the first Cocina Central to open, although another is scheduled to be built in Oakridge Mall in San Jose. The restaurant prides itself on “ridiculously good urban Mexican food,” and serves a variety of dishes inspired by Latin and Asian cuisines. They offer happy hour sessions from Monday through Friday, along with taco Tuesdays.

One of the strongest points of the restaurant is its ability to take traditional meals and give them a modern twist. Classic entrees like chile relleno and plain chicken tacos are enhanced with added elements such as coconut and lime to boost the flavor. Most dishes are between $10 to $26.

However, both the cheaper and the more expensive dishes are well worth the cost because of the high quality taste of the food.

Although the food is undoubtedly excellent, the restaurant does have an unpopular chips and salsa policy. The chips, salsa and guacamole are not free, and they only come in small portions.

However, the chips are handmade and dashed with salt, chili powder and cilantro. While the appetizer is creatively prepared, it comes with a hefty $7 price tag for chips and two dips.

Cocina Central has a modernrustic theme, pairing items like black chandeliers with mason jar silverware containers. The relaxed and casual atmosphere of the restaurant is immediately apparent, coupled with music in the background and an open bar directly to the left. To the right is an open patio with heaters alongside each table.

Although the restaurant serves authentic Latin food, the ambience of the restaurant veers away from that with the lack of Latin decoration.

Between October 30 and November 22, the restaurant was open to the public for a trial period. During this period, the restaurant was testing what it would be like to be open officially and serve customers.

Because the restaurant was newly opened, the service was slow. The staff was inexperienced, and there was little organization. Diner experience will likely improve as a whole as the restaurant works out service flaws over time.

Overall, Cocina Central has the potential to become a local favorite. The food mixes classic flavors with newer, bolder ones to create an improved final product. Many of the dishes are also vegetarian, vegan and/or gluten free, which accommodates a wide range of customers. The price range is generally within reason, and once the restaurant works out minor kinks in organization, it is sure to become very popular.

PHOTOS BY ALLEGRA MAESO

Sajj Mediterranean: pricey, convenient, tasty JOSH KIRSHENBAUM Staff Writer

Sajj Mediterranean

Mediterranean

2580 West El Camino Real Mountain View, CA Price Range: $$

★★★☆☆ Next in the wave of ultracustomizable food options like Chipotle and Pizza Studio, Sajj attempts to bring the personalized experience to Mediterranean cuisine, boasting “exotic Mediterranean entrée choices you can customize any way you want.” Located in the Village at San Antonio Center next door to the Counter, Sajj offers quick meals that, while not amazingly authentic, are still satisfying.

Sajj’s menu bases itself on its simplicity and personalized

meals. First, customers are asked to choose a protein as the base of the meal. Sajj offers falafel, chicken and shawarma, which is chicken or beef that is slowly grilled on a spit. They also have “shawafel,” a combination of falafel and shawarma. The shawarma, while not the most traditionally prepared, is very flavorful and well spiced. The falafel is a little dry but is well spiced and overall a good vegetarian option.

Next, Sajj offers two types of wraps and two types of bowls.

For the wraps, there is the choice between a thicker pita bread, and a thinner lavash bread. Like the meats, neither would pass for authentic Mediterranean food, but they both have good consistency and f lavor. The bowls are a lower-carb option, and the portion size is larger. While the rice bowl is a little more traditional than the

BRANDON HONG

Sajj offers specialized salad bowls. Bowls and wraps perfectly compliment flavorful meats and fresh greens.

GINA KERMODE

Sajj’s wraps are tasty and easy to eat. The restaurant offers Chipotlestyle convenience to Meditarranean cuisine. salad, both work well with the meats and toppings.

Lastly, the toppings make the meal even more customized. For a more traditional take on Mediterranean food, Sajj serves much of what would be found on an Israeli street cart: pickles, onions, hummus and tahini. These old favorites bring a good level of spice and tang to the meal. However, it also offers more contemporary toppings like caulif lower, arugula and cherry peppers, which add freshness and zestiness. All meals are served with a complimentary small cup of lentil soup. Warm and traditional, the soup is a delicious start to the meal. Sajj also offers a larger serving for $2.50.

The restaurant is a modern, open space. Television monitors show pictures of the food, and the menu hangs down from the

ceiling, giving the restaurant a laid back atmosphere. There are plenty of tables both inside and outside to accommodate a large lunch crowd. The overall ambiance is pleasing and accessible.

Sajj is more expensive than the average to-go lunch. A shawarma wrap with fries and a drink costs $13. The portions are small for an average high school student, and while students should be aware of these drawbacks, the quality of the food certainly makes up for the slightly higher prices.

Sajj is a Mediterranean-style Chipotle. While no one who has eaten Mediterranean food in the Middle East would confuse it with an authentic meal and the prices are steep for the small portions, Sajj is an ideal place to pick up a quick, customizable Mediterranean meal.

The Talon November 25, 2014

MOVIES

“Interstellar”: A journey into the final frontier HANNAH CRAFORD Staff Writer

“Interstellar”

Nov. 5, 2014 (PG-13)

Directed by Christopher Nolan Starring Matthew McConaughey

★★★★☆ The blockbuster release of acclaimed Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” has become a highly anticipated addition to the growing sci-fi genre. With its high quality graphics and use of in-depth scientific knowledge, it appeals to a variety of audiences. However, the trailer misguides the viewer about the level of concentration it takes to fully grasp the complex messages in the movie. The complicated plot twists throughout the storyline can be hard to follow, but do not let that deter you from watching it.

“Interstellar” stars Matthew McConaughey, who plays Cooper, a man living on a farm in a future

rural “Dust Bowl” America with his family. Cooper is convinced to join a last ditch effort to save the human race from extinction by jetting off to an unknown galaxy.

He is given the impossible decision to either stay with his daughter or save the human race. In the end he decides to leave in order to protect future generations.

The events that follow probe into the inner workings of space and time. The twists which occur in the plot bring considerable suspense throughout the movie leaving the audience spell-bound.

By questioning what is out there in the universe, the writers of “Interstellar” have created a theory of how the universe works.

A three hour trip into space with a classic ambiguous Nolan ending, “Interstellar” encompasses the themes of unconditional love and sacrifice, which are skillfully portrayed throughout the movie.

The discoveries that Cooper make in space along with the discov-

eries that his daughter Murphy make while on earth are intriguing to watch.

The scientifically accurate graphics displayed throughout the movie are also phenomenal.

Nolan’s use of scientific knowledge and special effects together produce an exhilarating movie that is worth the money to see. Even famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is known for pointing out the f laws in many sci-fi movies, had nothing but praise for the science in “ Interstellar.”

The special effects used in order to create such scientifically correct planets and wormholes truly deserves an award.

The stunning graphics in “Interstellar” are not the only elements that make the movie so unique. The movie warns about the consequences of mistreating the resources in our world. Nolan’s application of Ray Bradburyinspired thinking warns viewers

SYNCOPY / LYNDA OBST PRODUCTIONS / LEGENDARY PICTURES

“Interstellar” is from acclaimed director Christopher Nolan and stars Oscar award winner Matthew McConaughey. The film is a frontrunner for the 2015 Oscars. about the ominous future and effectively works with the movie’s dramatic plotline.

Nolan’s ability to fuse science, love and pressing world issues into one movie about a man trying to save his family and the

human race is a phenomenon all in itself. Despite the fact that you have to dig a little in order to fully understand the plot, this movie is one that will set movie graphic standards for the rest of the sci-fi genre.

“Nolan’s ability to fuse science, love and pressing world issues into one movie is a phenomenon all in itself.”

FLICKR USER GLOBAL PANORAMA

“Dear White People” highlights issues with racial stereotypes SITARA SRIRAM Senior Writer

“Dear White People” Oct. 17, 2014 (R)

Directed by Justin Simien

“Black people can’t be racist.

Prejudiced, yes, but not racist.

Racism describes a systematic advantage based on race. Black people can’t be racist, since we don’t stand to benefit from such a system.”

Sam White, the female protagonist of Justin Siemen’s debut satirical motion picture “Dear White People,” utters these resounding words in response to her professor calling her a racist.

“Dear White People” is societally relevant because it highlights the nature of modern day racism and emphasizes the role race can play in a search for individual identity.

The movie follows the lives of a group of four black teenagers at Winchester University, a

fictional university that is supposed to resemble an Ivy League school. Sam White hosts a radio show called “Dear White People,” in which she attempts to break down race relations at her predominantly white college.

Historically, the black community has been underrepresented in mainstream media or portrayed one-dimensionally.

One of the most refreshing aspects of “Dear White People” is the complexity with which the black characters are portrayed.

Not only is the cast predominantly black, but also they do not fit into any stereotype. They are multilayered characters with complex thoughts and emotions.

For example, one of the characters, Lionel, is a gay student and a freelance writer for the oncampus newspaper. He does not fit traditional black stereotypes, and at one point during the movie, he says, “I listen to Mumford and Sons and watch Robert Altman movies. I don’t think I’m

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black enough for the union.” Another white character later on in the movie says, “Lionel, please.

You’re only technically black.”

These intentionally racist references, such as being “technically black,” are common throughout the movie, and imply that to be black is equivalent with acting, speaking and dressing in a particular manner. Lionel’s behavior is inconsistent with these stereotypes, and thus, some of the other characters call him only “technically black.” The movie sheds light on racially sensitive topics through satire in order to point out society’s prejudice against the black community.

Yet despite the other characters’ views of him, at the end of the movie it is Lionel who begins to takes leadership at the end of the movie. He convinces the other black students at Winchester to rise up, take action, and stop an offensive party blackface party going on. In order to relate to his actions, it is important to understand the historical significance of the term “blackface.”

The Guardian describes blackface as white Americans putting dark paint on their faces and acting out racist and offensive stereotypes about African Americans. It’s a historically malicious tool and is racist and offensive.

The movie uses characters like Lionel to illustrate that to be black isn’t equivalent with acting or dressing a certain way, that black people are a diverse group, and they all act and behave differently. These ideas may seem obvious, but much of mainstream

DULY NOTED / HOMEGROWN PICTURES / CODE RED FILMS

“Dear White People” recounts the lives of black students attending the fictional Winchester University. The film delves into sensitive racial topics through satire. media portrays blacks in a very limited way. “Dear White People” humanizes these black characters, showing that they are just as multifaceted as any other group.

The final scenes of the movie feature scenes from actual blackface parties that have happened across numerous college campuses in America, reminding us that these are not made up or isolated incidents. Racism takes on a new form in “Dear White People.” The movie emphasizes that the racism of the past is over and has been replaced by a subtler kind, one that is less tangible, so it’s easier for people to forget about it. Modern racism is based

on stereotypes, lack of representation and misrepresentation. It still involves prejudiced behavior based on someone’s race, even though legally all races are equal.

“Dear White People” is an important reminder that racial equality is still not pervasive throughout all of America.

Events like Ferguson and the shooting of Trayvon Martin, coupled with the portrayal of blacks in the media demonstrate that we have a long way to go before there is complete equality. Recognition of these issues is the first step, and “Dear White People” could not have come at a better time.

The Talon November 25, 2014

BOOKS

J.K. Rowling releases Umbridge’s story on Pottermore OLIVIA JERRAM

release digital scenes, Rowling publishes accompanying short Platform Nine and Three Quar- stories online, allowing fans to ters, Honeydukes’ Bertie Bott’s Ev- delve further into the backstoery Flavour Beans, disapparition ries of characters and discover lessons, the Great Hall draped in aspects of the Harry Potter world glittering garlands for the holi- they never knew existed. days—any Harry Potter aficionado On October 31, Rowling rehas his or her favorite moments leased a personal record of six from J.K. Rowling’s popular novel posts on Pottermore, providing series. Now, with the introduc- a window into the life of the notion of an interactive website, torious Dolores Umbridge and Pottermore, in 2012, fans around the charming fraud, Professor the world can enroll in Hogwarts Trelawney, as well as traversing a School of Witchcraft and Wiz- variety of other wizardly topics. ardry to experience the wizarding These include the magical prisworld firsthand. on of Azkaban, a description of In 2011, J.K. Rowling partnered Thestrals, a list of past Ministers with Sony Corporation to bring of Magic and a conclusive discusthe wizarding world to life on any sion on Seers and their powers. computer, tablet or phone. ReRowling’s story on the origin leased in April 2012, the interactive of Umbridge was the most wellwebsite Pottermore allows Harry received by fans. Alongside an Potter fanatics to become a witch interactive graphic depicting Umor wizard and join Harry’s story. bridge’s office at Hogwarts, the By creating a free online account, story goes behind the frilly, pink anyone can visit Ollivander’s lace curtains and gaudy floral Wand Shop to receive their own upholstered chairs to tell readers wand, stroll along the twisting about the origin of the characstreets of Diagon Alley, peruse ter—both her backstory and RowFlourish and Blotts to ling’s inspiration. stock up on quills and The story, parchment or collect written 11 galleons to add to their Years after the first years afHarry Potter book Gringotts bank acter Umcount. b r i d g e ’s was published, I’m Pottermore appearstill astonished and offers a variety ance as a delighted by the of online excharacter in responses the stories the fifth Harry periences imemit. mersing fans in Potter book of — J.K. Rowling the virtual world of the series, still magic. Fans can explore retains Rowldigital recreations of memorable ing’s elevated style and remarkable scenes from five of Rowling’s sev- creativity. The story reveals Umen novels, play games and read bridge’s passion for collecting kitten exclusive extra content written by decorated china and inventing inRowling herself. struments of torture. It also follows As Pottermore continues to Umbridge’s progression through Staff Writer

FLICKR USER TIM PARKINSON

J.K. Rowling recently released a mini-series continuation of the hit Harry Potter novels on the interactive website Pottermore on October 31. The latest stories delve into professor Dolores Umbridge’s past and more. her career of evil endeavors.

The most interesting section is called “J.K. Rowling’s Thoughts,” where Rowling posts details on the inspiration behind characters and scenes. Here Rowling explains how the clash between sickly sweet fashion and cruel nature provided inspiration for the character of Dolores Umbridge, who is a greatly exaggerated version of her real life professor.

Whatever the muse for her characters, Rowling’s stories have captured the imaginations of readers for over a decade and counting.

“Thirteen years after the first Harry Potter book was published, I’m still astonished and delighted

by the responses the stories emit,” Rowling said in a 2011 promotional video that first introduced Pottermore to the public. “Even though the seventh book and the eighth film have now been completed, I’m still receiving hundreds of letters every week and Harry’s fans remain as enthusiastic and inventive as ever.”

This is a testament to Rowling’s achievement for keeping Harry Potter alive through generations.

Whereas many popular novel series fall out of the public’s eye after a few years of success, Rowling has managed to maintain her fanbase.

A major reason for this may be her continued additions to the story

that perpetuate active interest in Harry Potter today.

“It’s the same story with a few crucial additions—the most important one is you,” Rowling said in her promotion about the Pottermore experience.

Although there have been some complaints about Pottermore from Harry Potter fans, namely the short length of her posts—the recent frenzy over six Pottermore publications on Halloween that totaled only 5,500 words is, as The Telegraph states, “A…tribute to the 4,224 pages she has already written about the boy wizard that even the smallest addition to the canon is pored over with such passion.”

VIDEO GAMES

“Assassin’s Creed: Unity” delivers mediocre gameplay ERIC THIEM Staff Writer

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Action/Adventure (Mature 17+) Nov. 11, 2014 Ubisoft Xbox One, PS4, PC

★★★☆☆ “Assassin’s Creed: Unity,” the seventh installment in the hugely popular Assassin’s Creed series, was highly anticipated by gamers around the world. Being the first designed for next generation consoles, many believed the game would ultimately determine the future of the series.

While some aspects of the game are progressive, many fall short of their potential. The game adds some impressive new features.

However, it leaves many persistent problems in the series ignored, such as poor controls and one-dimensional combat.

At the same time, developer Ubisoft has modified the scattered and confusing storylines that many gamers have come to expect from an Assassin’s Creed installment. Instead, they chose to refine the individual narrative of the latest assassin Arno. Unfortunately, Ubisoft made the story too simplistic, creating a shallow story that boils down to a typical revenge tale. This nevertheless

leaves gamers optimistic about the future of the series as it shows Ubisoft is putting effort into fixing their repetitive plots.

Graphically, the game provides stunning visuals of its setting: revolutionary France. In addition, its utilization of the Xbox One’s and the PS4’s graphical capabilities is arguably the best in the industry.

The vast city of Paris is a marvel to venture through. Each section of the city has its own identity: from

the grand Palace of Versailles to the decrepit back alleys. The huge crowds of citizens that flood the city streets are a testament to the new consoles’ power but make travel at ground level difficult at times.

The competitive multiplayer battles do not return in this installment, instead replaced by coop missions around Paris. These missions are anywhere between two to four players who team up to infiltrate, sabotage or assassinate

BRANDON HONG

“Assassin’s Creed: Unity” is the latest installment in the series.

Unfortunately, the game still has aspects that fall short of expectations.

a target. Many of these new missions require precise timing and positioning which forces teams to communicate and work as a unit.

This is a refreshing addition that is rarely seen in modern video games. Also, these missions indirectly tie into the storyline. As one progresses through the singleplayer mode, more missions become available. The new multiplayer system is a great introduction to the series, but does not encourage players to spend more than a few hours playing. Hopefully, in future installments, the old player versus player online duels will return to give gamers a more prolonged multiplayer experience.

Even though the next generation technology has added and improved many interesting gameplay features, issues that have plagued the Assassin’s Creed series since the first game still persist. The controls are at times uncooperative and unresponsive, and the cover system is finicky at best. Also, the combat still relies on parry strokes.

New problems with combat arise as

well. With the removal of the human shield ability, guns now present more of a threat, sometimes halving your health in one hit.

Guns are powerful and their damage should be respected, but due to the clumsy combat controls, there is almost no counter. Attempting a dodge roll rarely succeeds and this Matrix-style tactic is both impractical and unrealistic. Adding to the trouble, enemy soldiers are now much more aggressive and do not hesitate to pull out their pistols and unload. This leads to many situations where fighting more than a few guards becomes a death sentence.

Overall, the graphics create an immersive world to explore and the innovative co-op missions encourage teammates to communicate. However, many recurring problems still hinder the enjoyment of the game. Assassin’s Creed: Unity is an impressive game that leads to hours of entertainment, it’s just not the revolutionary gaming experience expected out of next generation consoles.

The Talon November 25, 2014

Get daily updates on Eagle athletics and read the sports archives at lahstalon.org/sports

Basketball program renews freshman team DAVID LISBONNE Staff Writer

For the second year in a row, the school will be fielding a separate, all freshman boys basketball team in addition to the varsity and frosh/soph teams. This new team was created last year due to the dramatic increase in the number of freshman players trying out.

Varsity head coach Bob McFarlane speculates that the reason for the influx of freshmen trying out is due to the recent success of the varsity team.

“We have established a little bit of a winning tradition here in the

last few years,” McFarlane said.

“I think that makes some of the eighth graders coming in rethink whether they want to come to our program. Hopefully that is having an impact.”

The varsity team has won league championships for the past two years, with an overall league record of 22-2. In addition, over the past two years, the team has traveled its furthest in school history, competing in the CCS semifinals both years.

Complementing the recent success, the freshman class size is a record 570 students. With a larger freshman class, there are more students who can tryout.

All administrators and coach McFarlane had to arrive at a conclusion as to whether or not the school would field another freshman team. The board was reluctant to sponsor the reapproved team, and denied the initial petition for the freshman team. However, after a second review, and a lot of parent and player support through contacting the board, they had a change of heart allowing the freshman team to compete.

“The district and the board were very supportive of trying to find solutions to make this happen,” McFarlane said. “It would be a year-to-year approval basis for programs to show they have

the numbers to warrant a freshman team.”

Last year, the freshman team was very helpful to the program thereby allowing them a chance to improve their skills this year.

Many of these players are now active members on the frosh/ soph team and hope to make an impact on the basketball program at the school.

“Of course the freshman team is a good idea,” sophomore Brendon Ng said. “It gets 15 more kids into the program who wouldn’t get the chance to play otherwise.

Without the freshman team I wouldn’t be playing basketball right now.”

BRANDON HONG

Sophomore Brendon Ng goes for a layup in a frosh/soph practice. He was a member of the inaugural freshman team last year.

Winter Sports Underway CHRIS DADOK, EMILY TERADA Staff Writers

Wrestling

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his year, the wrestling team will be welcoming a host of new wrestlers that will increase the team’s size and improve their outlook for the season. The wrestling team has not been this large in years, and the older players are stepping up to the challenge.

“There [are] going to be a lot of new wrestlers this year,” senior Sean Lanoza said. “Myself and other veterans will have to help them a lot this season.”

Because there will be some new wrestlers on the team, competition to garner a position on the varsity team will be high. The try-outs for varsity will be conducted in a knockout style, eliminating players in individual matches until a certain number remain.

With this quick decrease in progressing wrestlers, the team hopes to be able to send more people to CCS this year. With the more experienced veterans training with the influx of new potential in the freshman class, the team will be well-equipped.

The team not only has high hopes for their varsity team, but also enthusiasm for their upcoming season.

“We did pretty well last year. I think only lost to one school,” Sean said. “We had several wrestlers place in league finals, but only two went to CCS.”

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fter moving up to the De Anza division and ending the season with a 9-3 record, the girls varsity basketball team is looking to continue to improve their game. With the momentum of last year’s season, the team plans on going as far as they can and continue to strive toward developing a more aggressive play.

“Ultimately, our goal is to go as far as we can and make it to CCS,” captain junior Katie Munro said.

“We got moved up a division last year, so this year is the first year playing in the highest division.

We’ll be playing more advanced teams, so we’re hoping to work together, work with each other, learn how to deal with loss well.”

In addition to this, the team is planning on placing most of the leadership in the hands of the juniors because there are only two seniors on the team, Rebecca Andrews and Funo Heims.

To read more about sports and get the latest updates and scores, visit lahstalon.org/sports

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his year, the boys varsity soccer team is looking forward to a fresh season from last year’s record of seven wins and ten losses.

Team members are looking for a more cohesive team to advance them further than their previous season. In order to improve their record, the team hopes to develop a stronger team chemistry.

“Although we all individu-

Girls Soccer

Girls Basketball

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“I think we’re showing our hard work and dedication because a lot of the upperclassmen are the ones that come to all of the open gyms and workouts and show up early to practice and are always working hard,” junior Meg Enthoven said. “I think that just showing that dedication forces the underclassmen to work harder.”

The team has been focusing on pre-season workouts, such as lifting weights and doing intensive track workouts in order to create a strong and well-balanced team that will be ready for a more challenging season.

“After the end of the season, we started workouts again,” Katie said. “We have been conditioning all summer and all through the pre-season. We’ve just been working on fundamentals and scrimmaging...just making sure we’re always playing basketball.

It’s what keeps us going.”

As the excitement for the start of the season builds, the team is preparing to play against tougher teams with various conditioning workouts. In addition, they have more determination to advance in the De Anza division.

“I think doing as well as last year and...if we had all of our players we might have had a chance against St. Francis which was cool and motivating,” Meg said. “It shows that we can do this…[and that] is really motivating and shows that the hard work...has paid off and we’re becoming a stronger team.”

NOAH TSAO

Sophomore Krissy Ikeda boots the ball during the varsity tryouts.

Bottom left, junior Meg Enthoven takes a shot during practice. Bottom, sophomore Lars Joehnk keeps the ball away from the defender during the boys soccer tryouts.

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ith a new group of underclassmen, girls varsity soccer plans to build on to the team’s strengths, as well improve their weaknesses.

“As of right now, we have a lot of incoming underclassmen,” goalie senior Elena Strawn said. “Our goal is to just to build for the next couple of years and go as far as we can and [make it to] CCS.” In order to win more games, the team plans to use the veterans’ experience by creating a stronger sense of team unity.

“We want to build team chemistry that will last through to next year,” co-captain senior Allie Crum said. “We can use our experiences to help the newcomers adjust to the team, and pass on responsibility to the sophomores and juniors.”

In order to be successful, the team aims to create a strong offense that will force their opponents to work at a more demanding level.

Boys Soccer ally had above par soccer skills, we were unable to gel with each other and this ultimately led to our mediocre record,” senior Kunal Patel said.

But with seven to nine spots opening up on the team, the team has high hopes for becoming a more tightly knit unit. An influx of new players will be added to the mix which will hopefully create more team chemistry.

“This year I anticipate the chal-

lenge for playing as I am very likely moving up to varsity,” sophomore Albin Mollerstedt said.

“There will be many seniors and juniors who played the last year so they already know the coach and have shown what they can do, so I still have to prove myself.”

These new players might be the key in remaking the team into a well-oiled machine. With more spots up for grabs this year, the team hopes to be be reshaped.

NOAH TSAO

“We know there’s potential in every team,” Allie said. “Even if our team isn’t where we want it to be in the beginning, we know that working hard can get us far.”

The team lost five seniors from the midfield and defense positions last year. This will give the newer players an opportunity to rebuild the team. “[It] gives the freshmen and sophomores a better opportunity to show their skills and play at a higher level,” Elena said.

Along with having more underclassmen players, the team’s new coach, Stephen Nichols, aims to work on the team’s offense and create a more aggressive attack. Currently, Nichols coaches under-9, under-11 and under-14 teams for the Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club.

Before coaching at the school, Nichols spent six seasons coaching at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville.

“He’s more focused on the game and how it’s played,” Elena said. “I think he will have a strong impact on our program here because of the way he likes to play and the level that he coaches at outside of high school.”

Nichols will focus on creating a more possession based game and will help the team become a “attack-minded team.” With new players and experienced varsity players, the team will need to build on past successes in order to kick off the season.

The Talon November 25, 2014

Bay Area Sports Round-Up

Marching band finishes successful season JOHNNY SCHER Business Manager

By Josh Kirshenbaum

What is Up With the Oakland Raiders?

In a season that started with high hopes, the Oakland Raiders are tumbling towards a record that they don’t want to reach: a winless year.

Coming into the season, the Raiders were looking to turn around a franchise that had gone through a decade of futility. Head coach Dennis Allen’s team had gone 8-24 in the past two seasons, and the team hadn’t made the playoffs since 2002.

After a few seasons with less than stellar draft classes, Oakland looked like it was going in the right direction. A pretty good 2014 draft included bringing in outside linebacker Khalil Mack and quarterback Derek Carr.

Then the season started.

As of press deadline, the Raiders have played 10 games; they are 0-10 and are the only winless team left in the NFL. The season has been only downs, as Oakland has never gotten out of the bottom two on ESPN’s NFL Power Rankings.

After an 0-4 start, Allen was fired and assistant coach Tony Sparano was made interim head coach.

Under Sparano, the team has performed better despite the lack of positive results. All but one of the four games under Sparano have been close, including a trip to Seattle’s famously loud Century Link Field to play the Seahawks. In that game, the Raiders almost erased a 24-3 lead and were one onside kick away from really making things interesting.

But close doesn’t count for anything, and the stats show why Oakland has been struggling. The offense has been terrible. Oakland is last in the NFL in total offense, largely because of a run game that is also last in the league. In 10 games, the Raiders have had just two rushing touchdowns and two runs over 20 yards.

Compared to the offense, the defense looks great, which is more of a testament to how bad the offense has been. Though they are last in the league in turnover differential, the Raiders are 12th in passing defense and 19th in total defense. Mack has been the best player on the defensive side of the ball, racking up 12 tackles to be tied for third in the league.

Though the Raiders seem to be turning their luck around, they will be facing stiff competition from here on out. Of their six remaining games, only one is against a team with a losing record. If they don’t figure it out soon, they will be well on their way to the purest mark of futility: NFL’s second 0-16 season ever.

“I’m not [saying] that everything is hunky dory,” Sparano said in a press conference earlier this month. “We’ve got to block it better, we’ve got to do all those things better. I’ve got to get it, I’ve got to do a better job. We’ve all got to do a better job.”

On November 8, the school Marching Band placed third in the Bands of America Western Regional Championships at Long Beach.

This year’s show, a precise combination of music and marching, is based off a pack of playing cards and is thus named “House of Cards.”

“Each part of the show depicts a suit of cards,” band director Ted Ferrucci said. “The spades, the clubs, the hearts and the diamonds each have their own special musical character.

The spades are like soldiers, and the

clubs are like weapons develop and become of war. The hearts are seasoned musicians has like the ballet, and the Watching the been such a huge joy for diamonds are a big and younger musime this season.” sparkling end to the cians develop Although the band show.” will not be attending and become This year’s marchanymore competitive ing band is unique, seasoned musievents this year, they being mostly com- cians has been will still perform on Noprised of freshmen and such a huge joy. vember 22 in the Fall Fisophomore marchers nale, an end-of-the-year — band director who have proven their performance catered to Ted Ferrucci worth. friends and families of “We have a really young band—65 marching band members. On Noverto 70 percent of our kids are first or mber 30, they will also be playing in second-year marchers,” Ferrucci said. the Festival of Lights parade in down“Watching the younger musicians town Los Altos at night.

IAN MACKEY

Junior Hannah Klaassen plays the saxophone during halftime at the homecoming football game.

Girls tennis heads to CCS after SCVAL victory COLE HANSON Staff Writer

NOAH TSAO

Senior Madi Bourquin hits a cross court backhand. The doubles duo of Madi and senior Whitney Matthews play in CCS on November 21 and 22, after placing third in SCVAL.

The girls varsity tennis team’s season has come to a close with a league record of 5-7. Although their record is not enough to get the whole team into CCS, three individual players are slated to compete in CCS between November 21 and 22.

In high school tennis, players are seeded for CCS according to their performance in SCVAL. Their ranking in CCS mainly depends on SCVAL results but can also be influenced by performances in United States Tennis Association sanctioned tournaments.

Junior Carina Burdick went undefeated in league and secured a position in CCS by receiving sec-

Soaring Eagles

BY TEDDY CHMYZ Staff Writer

Carina Burdick Junior Carina Burdick went 16 and has competed in many undefeated in league during high level tournaments, inthe entire tennis season. She cluding a recent appearance in has been playing tennis since a NorCal doubles tournament, the age of four and has used her in which she and her partner experience to help lead the girls placed third and a singles tourvarsity tennis team. nament in which she earned Carina was born in Kalama- placement on the NorCal tenzoo, Michigan, a very famous nis team. tennis town where the UnitCarina will be competing in ed States Tennis Association the CCS finals for (USTA) Junior National Tennis singles. During Tournaments are held. When the season, she she moved to California at was ranked Ranked 35 age five, she took a break first for CCS in California from tennis, then returned singles and for U-16 later to begin playing in hopes to competitive tournaments at make a long age nine. She is ranked 35th in run into the all of California for girls under playoffs. She is a leader on the team and says many of the other players look up to her for her talents.

“I love playing on a team,” Carina said. “It’s always fun to know that you have your teammates to support you when the match is on the line or when you’re playing a tough match.

It’s a great aspect of tennis that I don’t get to experience often because most of the USTA tournaments are individual events.”

Carina does say there is pressure being the team’s number one and having to live up to expectations to continue her great performance, but she has been up to the task. She has only lost a handful of matches throughout her entire high school playing career and hopes to bring Junior Carina Burdick serves the that success to the upcoming ball during a league match.

CCS tournament.

ond place in SCVAL. Also, seniors Whitney Matthews and Madi Bourquin placed third in doubles in SCVAL, landing them spot in CCS as well.

This season, the team had to face the absence of junior Juliette Martin, a high-ranking individual player, due to injury. Also, the lack of experienced doubles players forced singles players, such as Madi, to switch and play doubles.

“We have definitely tried to work on being more aggressive, whether that be volleying, attacking the second serve or just taking the ball early,” Carina said. “We definitely had our fair share of 3-4 losses [as a team] this season, which is certainly demoralizing after a while.”

Luckily, the team will only be

losing two seniors and will retain many of their top players, such as Carina, Juliette and freshman Nadia Ghaffari. The strength of the doubles players will also increase as Coach Hung Nguyen works with rising freshmen and individual players on their game, an aspect of team play that is crucial to winning team matches.

“Next year, we are going to really work on our doubles players experience. Doubles [is] really hard because the players have to play four matches and most are individual players who had to play doubles,” Nguyen said.

Despite competing in the toughest division, the girls team had a successful season along with a strong performance in SCVAL.

Sean Lanoza Senior Sean Lanoza has over 1,700 all-purpose yards and has scored nearly half of the football team’s points this year. He has been the starting running back for the varsity team for the past two years and also a key part of the team both on and off the field.

Sean started off this season on a strong foot, with a 242 yard, two touchdown performance in the first game against Soquel. Since PHOTOS BY BRANDON HONG that game, he has not looked back and has continued to lead the Senior Sean Lanoza breaks team in scoring and rushing yards. a tackle. This year he led the team with 13 touchdowns.

“Individually, I feel like I’m doing really well,” Sean said. “My stats are spect me,” Sean said. “They listen a lot better than they were last year, to what I have to say, and you know and I just feel like an all-around without them I wouldn’t being do better player.” as well as I am.”

Sean has also taken on Sean credits his success a leadership role as one to his teammates and 1388 of the team captains. He Rushing says he would not have is one of the most expeachieved so much withYards rienced players on the out them. Sean hopes to team, one of only nine sekeep improving as a player niors and works with the other and a leader and plans to conplayers to improve the team. tinue playing football throughout “I feel like my teammates re- college.

The Talon November 25, 2014

GRAPHIC BY NOY ANISMAN, PHOTOS BY IAN MACKEY

Cross Country takes CCS with two runners heading to States COLE HANSON Staff Writer

On Tuesday, November 4, the Division II league championships marked the end of a successful cross country season with the varsity girls team taking second place overall and the boys taking third. Both teams had their top seven runners competing in CCS on Saturday, November 15.

“I think overall we trained hard all season long and many of us had both good and bad races,” junior Andreas Godderis said. “Injury prevention was key this season, and we did a lot of our workouts on the soft grass field rather than the paved roads in order to put less stress on our knees.”

Within their league, on the girls team, junior Lauren Jacob ranked third, while senior Kristen Adams, sophomores Katie Klein, Katia Gibson, Britt DeVisser, Annli Tico and freshman Elyse Folkman all competed. At CCS in Toro Park, Lauren Jacob took first with a time of 18:20 and qualified for the State meet while the team took fourth

place overall.

“Our season has had lots of ups and downs, but I’m so proud of how we all came together to cap it off at CCS,” sophomore Katia Gibson said. “We first had to adjust to our new coaches, later battled with injury and sickness and yet still managed to earn team medals throughout the season, with a lot of outstanding team and individual performances.”

Senior Kaizad Taraporevala, juniors Ben Zaeske, Andreas Godderis, Kevin Anawalt, Alex Perez, sophomore Andrew Young and freshman Langston Hay qualified for CCS. Unfortunately, Andreas injured his hip and was not able to compete. However, Ben took sixth overall with a time of 16:00 and was the only one to qualify for states at Toro Park. The team as a whole placed fifth in the competition.

“The State meet takes place at Woodland Park, in Fresno,” coach Pam Harris said. “It’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 29. I am extremely proud of our entire team.”

COURTESY MARTHA GOMEZ

The girls team jumps for joy after finishing their race, coming in fourth. The boys team finished fifth. Juniors Ben Zaeske and Lauren Jacob, Division II winner, both qualified for states.

Cheer team prepares for Nationals ERIC THIEM Staff Writer

On November 2, the cheer team participated in their first competition at James Logan High School.The cheer season starts in spring and then runs year round, with practices throughout the summer to get ready for competition season in the winter. Now, the school cheerleaders are ready to take the floor.

“We managed to hit all of our stunts and tumbling,” junior Kelly Little said. “Our routine still has room for improvement, but was very clean and definitely spirited.

We had really tough competition. Most of the other teams truly looked flawless, and

they were so much fun to watch. Even so, we placed third out of a total of seven teams.

I’d say we’re extremely proud of ourselves.”

With this triumph for the cheerleaders, the team qualified for Nationals, hosted by the United Spirit Association on March 28 in Anaheim, California. The team hopes to continue their victories in other competitions leading up to Nationals.

“As a team, our goal is to do everything to the best of our abilities, whether it be a halftime routine or a competition routine,” junior Kaitlyn Wheatley said. “Going forward, I really hope to see everyone help each other succeed and become better than they were before.”

Helping the team achieve this goal is new

head coach Michelle Schaffer. She hopes to train the cheer team hard while still maintaining an exciting and positive attitude for the cheerleaders. “[Coach Schaffer’s] doing a good job,” junior Maddy Zib said. “She is definitely less strict than our coach last year but she is great and very motivating which is something I think a team always needs.”

Every step of the way to Nationals, the cheerleaders will take the opportunity to learn and grow as a team.

“I couldn’t be more proud of how far we’ve come and we still have so much time to improve and be the best that we can be,” junior Lexi Kanerva said. “I’m pumped for this year.”

PHOTOS BY IAN MACKEY

The cheer team performs a routine during halftime of the Homecoming football game. The team placed third in its first competition of the season and looks to continue its success.