THE
OCTAGON
VOL. 40, NO.1
||
Sacramento Country Day School
||
2636 Latham Drive, Sacramento
Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sacramento, CA Permit No. 1668 @scdsoctagon
||
COMBATING RACISM
H.S. teachers bring intriguing pasts to their positions
Incidents spark action from Shakespeare Festival
BY KATIA DAHMANI
Elissa Thomas Thomas said that she still had to learn some Spanish to get around, because when she got to Barranquilla, she didn’t know any. “But immersing yourself in another culture makes learning the language easier,” Thomas said. Barranquilla is known for having an amazing Carnaval celebration it’s the second biggest in the world (behind the one in Rio de Janeiro), according to Thomas. “While I was there, I had the opportunity to attend many of the Carnaval parades and celebrations, which included some beautifully intricate costumes and dancing,” she said. Thomas said that she also misses the easy beach access in Barranquilla. After two years of teaching in Colombia, Thomas decided to move back to the U.S. after she saw the online job posting for a STEM teacher at SCDS. Victoria Conner Victoria Conner last taught chemistry starting in 2003 at an alternative
NEW TEACHERS page 2 >>
‘Three-Year Swim Club’ is bestseller by new head’s wife BY ALLISON ZHANG
Two STEM experts have joined the faculty. Elissa Thomas teaches high-school computer science and mathematics, and Victoria Conner teaches high-school chemistry. Elissa Thomas Elissa Thomas has taught computer science at Arizona State University in Tempe and a K-12 school in Barranquilla, Colombia (South America). She began teaching at ASU four years ago, but said the teaching was a lot more lecture-oriented and less personal than teaching high school. “I stopped teaching college courses because I wanted to interact more with students,” she said. Thomas said research, rather than teaching, is a college professor’s top goal. “For me, making sure that the student is actually learning is more important (than getting grants),” she said. After leaving Arizona, Thomas moved on to teaching in Colombia. Thomas knew about the school there because several of her family members had taught there, and when she had visited them during Christmas, she experienced the Colombian culture. “I was instantly drawn by Colombia’s very social culture,” she said. “There was a very close-knit environment there.” Because the school was bilingual (half the classes were taught in Spanish and the other half in English), Thomas could teach in English.
September 20, 2016
Julie Checkoway, wife of head of school Lee Thomsen, is an author and documentary filmmaker. She has written two books and directed the film “Waiting for Hockney,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired on the SundanceTV channel. Her most recent book, “The Three-Year Swim Club,” is a New York Times Best Seller about a group of poverty-stricken kids from Maui who want to become Olympian swimmers. She has two daughters, Sophia and Abby Thomsen, who are a sixth grader and college freshman, respectively.
Chocolate and turban Top: Senior Emma Belliveau remains on crutches since hurting her ankle in a soccer game over in a game against Delta High School. PHOTOS BY ADAM KETCHUM
Q: Where did you grow up? A: I grew up in a really small town about an hour north of Boston in a place called Newburyport. (It’s) right on the water.
ASHLAND A.M. Jag Lally , ‘16, sips a cup of hot cocoa at Morning Glory in Ashland during the 2015 junior/senior class trip. Lally’s turban elicted a racist remark from three men in a truck, while Lally was walking in town. PHOTO BY GRACIE STRUMPFER
I
n July, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival emailed a letter to its patrons, supporters and community members about its newfound mission to bring about social justice.
BY ADAM DEAN
“You may have heard by now about the racist verbal assault directed at one of our actors, and about a death threat leveled at another female company member of color only days later,” artistic director Bill Rauch and executive director Cynthia Rider wrote. “As far too many people in our community have experienced, these are not isolated incidents - they are happening daily in Ashland, and all over our country.” English teacher Patricia Fels received the letter because SCDS high-school students have been attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland every year since 1977. The next trip begins on Tuesday, Oct. 4. The letter said one of these incidents involved African-American actress Christiana Clark in June. While she was walking her dog in Ashland, a man on a bike stopped and spoke to her. He said that he could kill her and get out of jail the next day. He also said that the Ku Klux Klan still lives and thrives in Oregon, according to Clark’s June 24 Facebook post. Days later another death threat was directed at a second female actress of color. “The second occurrence came from a known resident with a mental illness,” Eddie Wallace, associate director of communications, said in a phone. “But our position is that it doesn’t take away from the fact that people of color still deal with it.” Wallace said Oregon has always had a “bad racial
history.” In fact, he noted that it was only in 2002 that the state removed a controversial part of its constitution. The passage read: “No free negro, or mulatto, not residing in this State at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall come, reside, or be within this State, or hold any real estate.” This isn’t the first time incidents like these have occurred in Ashland. Rather, it’s just easier for victims to speak up, Wallace said. “Here in Ashland there are a lot of Confederate flags around,” Wallace said. “And it’s not uncommon for someone to be called the ‘n-word’ while walking down the street. “It just doesn’t create an environment where it’s easy to come out and share these things.” Other “microaggressions” often include people of color being followed around in stores or given inferior service, Wallace said. Jag Lally, ‘16, said he was on the receiving end of one of these microaggressions a year ago. Lally, a Sikh who wears a turban, was walking in the town to get food with two of his friends when three men in a truck pulled up beside him and told him to go back to his country. “It was an unnerving incident,” Lally said. “It’s sad that people today still say things like that.” But racist encounters with Country Day students are rare. Biology teacher Kellie Whited has chaperoned the Ashland trip for five years and said she hasn’t heard about any issues. “Everyone has always been very friendly and welcoming of our students,” Whited said. And of the three college students of color contacted
RACISM page 10 >> RECORDING STUDIO TAKES SHAPE Two sixth graders planning to take the middle-school History of Rock elective, taught by Brian Billings, try out the nearly finished recording studio. The facility will be named The Connor Burns Music Studio in memory of the seventh grader who died two years ago. However, the studio still needs to be soundproofed before it’s ready. And a mural will be painted in the entryway in the next two to three weeks. The studio will be open to all K-12 students. Students in band, orchestra or chorus - or even students who want to form their own rock band - will be encouraged to use it. Construction of the studio, which was handled by Ken Dyer Construction, began on Feb. 20. PHOTO BY BENNET SACKHEIM
Julie Checkoway Q: Where do you consider your home? A: Lee and I have lived in so many places while we’ve been married, so home has changed for me to wherever our family is - where he is and where my children are. Our home has been in Baltimore; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Athens, Georgia; Houston and Salt Lake City. (Over my) whole life I’ve lived in China and England, so my philosophy is that home is wherever you are. Q: What were you doing in China? A: I taught at a university; I was a visiting professor, and I taught literature to graduate students who were so open-minded and so hungry for information about the West and new ideas, so it was a very exciting time. I was very young - I was 24 - and I went there right after graduate school. It was at a time in China where things were just starting to open up - in 1987-88 before Tiananmen Square. I lived in an industrial city four hours south of Beijing. It was a fascinating time to teach there. Q: Did you teach in Chinese? A: I learned Chinese but not very well, so I did teach in English. Q: Where did you go to college, and what was your major? A: I went to Harvard College, and I majored in English with a concentration in creative writing. Q: Why did you decide to write “The Three-Year Swim Club”? A: I’ve been a writer my entire life. Writers are always looking for a good story - the story of a lifetime. So ev-
CHECKOWAY page 3 >>