Octagon 2016-17 issue 6

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OCTAGON

THE

Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sacramento, CA Permit No. 1668

VOL. 40, NO. 6

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Sacramento Country Day School PREPARING PROSECUTION Senior Jaelan Trapp finishes his trial notes minutes before the final trial against Elk Grove High School at the Robert T. Matsui Courthouse, Feb. 27. Coach Wayne Strumpfer said Trapp preferred working alone, silently constructing his trial arguments. PHOTO BY CHARDONNAY NEEDLER

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@scdsoctagon

2636 Latham Drive, Sacramento

March 21, 2017

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Mock Trial tackles human trafficking, places 2nd BY CHARD0NNAY NEEDLER “All rise,” a booming voice shouts in the Robert T. Matsui Courthouse in downtown Sacramento. The “State v. Awbrey” case is in session. Lin Stark, a middle-aged immigrant from the country of Tanterra, is being overworked, underpaid and unfairly treated by her boss and the owner of Taste of Tanterra, Cameron Awbrey. So Stark took Awbrey to court on the grounds of human trafficking. At the county courthouse, tensions are

high and points thoroughly argued. Except this case isn’t real. This case is what earned the SCDS Mock Trial team second place in Sacramento County, one of the most competitive districts in the league. The case was created by the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) and formulated into a script as the Mock Trial case for 2016-17. Stark and Awbrey were both played by sophomore Gabi Alvarado; the attorneys were really senior Jaelan Trapp and sophomore Jack Christian; the pre-trial attorney was senior Shriya Nadgauda; and the

expert on human trafficking was sophomore Blake Lincoln. That’s not to say that a case of an overburdened immigrant was far from reality. In fact, Mock Trial coach Wayne Strumpfer, who worked at the Victim Compensation Board last year, said he has dealt with real-life cases like Stark’s. “There was a Christmas-tree farmer who needed labor to cut down trees in the fall,” Strumpfer said. “He got these immigrants from Mexico, and he trafficked them by making

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Large majority thinks AP classes should be worth the weight BY QUIN LACOMB Advanced Placement (AP) classes are harder than regular classes because of a more rigorous curriculum. Even so, AP classes are weighted on the same scale as other classes on the SCDS honor roll. This has proven to be an unpopular policy. An Octagon poll of 110 high schoolers on March 16 showed that 85 percent of highschool students think AP classes should be weighted more highly for the honor roll. Senior Isabelle Leavy, who is taking five AP classes and one regular one, would support the weighting of AP classes for honor roll. “I have good grades, but I’m taking a large number of AP classes, and it really does take a toll on me,” she said. “This last (quarter) I wasn’t on the honor roll, but I really deserve that recognition because of the course load.” But it’s not looking like this system will change any time soon. Head of high school Brooke Wells said that the honor roll should be more inclusive and celebrate good students, regardless of how many AP’s they’re taking. If the honor roll were weighted, he said, it would be skewed in favor of those taking AP’s. “You don’t find many AP students who aren’t on the honor roll,” he said. “It’s not comparative and doesn’t have a certain percentage of students; it has a set GPA requirement.” Daniel Neukom, history teacher and exdean of students, agrees. He said that students taking AP classes are obviously skilled in that subject, and thus it’s the right fit for them. “We try to match a student’s ability to their subject,” he said. “It’s worrisome when students will say something like ‘I got a B in AP US History, but it’s technically an A.’ “No, you did B-level work in that class.” Neukom said the system started some time

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HERE COMES HINOJOSA English teacher to-be Jason Hinojosa poses with a sadhu (holy man) in Kathmandu, Nepal. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF HINOJOSA

Two-time novelist, global traveler settles in Sacramento to join faculty

New teacher attracted by small classes, close community BY JACK CHRISTIAN

W

hat do a Peruvian writer and a member of the Raider Nation have in

common? Both of them will be joining the high-school faculty next year! Jason Hinojosa and Damany Fisher have been chosen to fill the open English and history positions in the high school, respectively. Hinojosa is currently a graduate student at the University of Iowa, studying to obtain a

master’s in fine arts and creative writing. To pay tuition, he teaches classes in both the English and creative writing departments. Hinojosa is projected to teach freshman English and both AP and regular senior English. Hinojosa said that he was drawn to Country Day because of its size. “I really liked the idea of a small community and English department, where I could get to know all my students,” Hinojosa said. In Hinojosa’s current position he teaches 50 undergraduates of

the 24,476 at the University of Iowa. “So the idea of having 50 students that I would get to know or 150 students in the high school was really appealing to me,” Hinojosa said. Hinojosa will be making the journey from Iowa to Sacramento during the summer with his wife Dana and their cat, Johnny. The family is especially looking forward to connecting with relatives in Sacramento. Hinojosa said that both his wife’s parents live in Sacramento, and her brother- and sister-inlaw and their three kids are going

to move to Sacramento as well. Both Hinojosa and his wife, Dana, are from big families. “(Dana) is one of six kids, and if you include my stepbrothers, I am one of eight,” Hinojosa said. “So it is very unlikely for our whole family to be in the same city, but to have a big cluster in Sacramento is really exciting for us.” Hinojosa said he loves to write, practice yoga and run during his free time. “Writing is my passion,” Hinojosa said.

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Art, history teachers shout last Renaissance ‘huzzah!’ BY CHARD0NNAY NEEDLER The Renaissance Faire: a festive day of recorder music, phony British accents, apothecary and flower shops stocked with mini potions and flower garlands, and, of course, “huzzahs!” It’s a rite of passage for every seventh grader at Country Day. But this year marks the end of an era for this euphoric European-inspired day, as it is both organizer Patricia Kelly and King Chris Kuipers’s last year participating in the tradition.

Kelly is retiring, and Kuipers is trading his seventh-grade world history class for AP European History next year. Kelly said she’s been “everything from parent organizer, script editor, and lunch-andbreak performance coach, setup and cleanup go-to person (to supply orderer)” for the past 11 years. Kuipers, who has been part of the Faire for seven years, praised Kelly for her role. “I’m always sort of in awe that it comes together so well,” Kuipers said. “There are so many different moving pieces, and there are always scheduling issues. Hats off to Ms. Kelly!”

Among the activities Kelly schedules are the Maypole Dance, a reenactment of traditional Middle Age dances complete with multicolored ribbons and recorder music; the seventh graders’ parade through the school on the way to the Renaissance Faire play in the MP Room; the guilds (apothecary, games, food and merchant) that sell Renaissance and Middle Age-themed goods; and the assembly and dismantling of the castle. When Kelly was first asked by former head of middle school Quincey Grieve to take on this assignment, she accepted immediately.

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SPONTANEOUS SONNET History teacher King Chris Kuipers honors Patricia Kelly, art teacher and Renaissance Faire organizer. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF SANDY BUCHANAN


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