r
THE REVIEW
ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL SJSREVIEW.COM OCTOBER 3, 2017
2401 CLAREMONT LANE, HOUSTON, TX 77019. VOL. 69. ISSUE 1
texas flood how houston came together in the wake of harvey Special Edition PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHEN KIM
INSIDE FIRST RESPONDERS 3 VOLUNTEERS 6 RESCUERS 11 SOCIAL MEDIA 14 REFLECTIONS 16
P3 Security personnel work as first responders during Harvey
P11 Hammermans row through floodwaters to save neighbors STEVE HAMMERMAN
NOT A NORMAL YEAR
After lost week, school makes adjustments By Emily Chen
When students walked into advisory for the first time in feel a whole lot better about getting through all our materi10 days, they didn’t know how the school would handle al. AP classes in particular are on a tight schedule, so we’re all the missed instructional time. After learning that mid- grateful for the additional days and glad the school thought term exams would be canceled this semester, many students of cancelling exams to make up for lost time.” breathed a sigh of relief. Students in upper level English courses will not have to In an email to Upper School parents, Head of Upper write synthesis papers, which traditionally take the place of School Hollis Amley addressed these schedule changes. midterms and final exams. The synthesis paper was origi“School work should not be another source of stress,” she nally due on Dec. 11, but now classes will continue uninwrote. “Faculty are mindful terrupted until Dec. 21. that this has been an anxious “The senior teachers are time for all.” each looking at their seminar To ease the transition back and seeing how to give stuinto the school year and dents an authentic English lessen anxiety for anyone afexperience without having fected, the school extended synthesis as a culminating the grace period for students essay,” English department to learn school and uniform chair Rachel Weissenstein rules and has been flexible on said. “We will definitely morning tardies due to inmake sure that the seniors are creased Houston traffic. just as prepared without the INFOGRAPHIC BY STEPHEN KIM “A lot of students and teachsynthesis paper.” ers were happy to get back to school and to regain that Teachers are using the modified calendar as an opportunistructure,” math department chair Martha Childress said. ty for growth. Departments have been busily meeting and “The school has been really sympathetic to teachers and to restructuring their curricula. kids to make coming back after such a terrible experience “We have an extraordinary group of faculty, and they reas easy as possible.” ally are able to take a decision and find all of the benefits in While there will be no exams this fall, classes may still it,” Weissenstein said. “People are seeing this as an incredihave cumulative or major projects, but none will count for ble opportunity to work on material that they may not have 20 to 25 percent of the semester average like a final exam. had time for in the past and to evaluate what our purpose is The days traditionally used for exam review and the exams and what is of value. It’s always good to step back and have themselves will be treated as regular class days. those moments of reflection and restructuring.” According to Childress, cancelling exams “made everyone This positive approach is also evident in student and ad-
ministrative attitudes. “Our mantra is that this is not a normal school year,” said Dean of Students Bailey Duncan. “We want to do whatever we can to help students feel connected to the school and make them feel cared for. If we feel like there are certain things we need to rearrange in the interest of student wellbeing and community, then that’s what we’ll do.” According to Duncan, the rescheduling of the semester is a small change in comparison to the increased atmosphere of support in the community. “This is a community, and we’re all on the lookout for one another,” Duncan said. “So far the response has been amazing, and we just hope that we can continue that selfless feeling all year long without reliving the experience that caused it.” Upper School counselor Shawn Fleck is speaking with students who were affected by the storm, and Community Service Coordinator Marci Bahr is organizing service projects to help displaced community members. “The idea of ‘getting back to normal’ will be elusive and simply not possible for quite some time,” Amley wrote. “While coming back to school will be comforting for some, we want to be sensitive that many have experienced tremendous loss and that the range of needs in our community is vast.” Despite the disjointed start to the school year, faculty and administrators are optimistic about the remainder of the school year. “We’re now so much better equipped to support students and are more flexible when dealing with change,” Duncan said. “I’m enthusiastically arriving to campus each day seeing students and faculty working to support each other.”
Counseling team helps students with aftermath
By Sophia Lima
It’s okay to grieve. Such is the message Upper School counselor Shawn Fleck imparts to students who have lost their homes and possessions to Hurricane Harvey. According to Fleck, students who were affected most severely by Harvey may have lingering psychological effects. These issues can include difficulty concentrating and intrusive thoughts about the hurricane, which may inhibit their ability to comprehend material in class. They may also have recurring dreams or nightmares. “You can have acute stress symptoms, but if they are treated and you talk to somebody about them, you can likely prevent full-blown PTSD, which is much more debilitating,” Fleck said. After losing her house and the majority of her possessions during the storm, sophomore Taliha De Ochoa is currently living with a St. John’s host family. She only sees her family on weekends, which makes it challenging to keep up with schoolwork. “It has been very difficult to come back to school,” De Ochoa said. “In some ways, I’m happy to be provided a distraction. In other ways, my heart breaks every time someone even mentions Harvey since it has taken away so much.” Harvey and its aftermath displaced roughly 30 Upper School families, which Head of Upper School Hollis Amley discovered after sending out a survey about the hurricane. Returning to school after the hurricane, advisors assisted in providing the affected students with the resources they needed. Amley asked some faculty members to check in with students and forming a wellness team comprised of Dr. Fleck, Director of Spiritual Life Ned Mulligan and Director of Experiential Learning Marty Thompson. Thompson’s familiarity with the Upper School student body and Mulligan’s training as a pastoral counselor supplemented Fleck’s counseling expertise. Members of this group sat down individually with affected students to check in with them and listen to their stories. “I found it exhausting in a way since I’ve been replaying my story over and over, but that’s not to say it wasn’t helpful,” De Ochoa said. “I got to vent some feelings and have a little cry, which was well overdue.” Thompson kept a list of identified needs and made sure students knew who Dr. Fleck and where his office was located. He also reassured students that it is understandable to have difficulty returning to normalcy, that their well-being is more important than specific academic assignments
2
REYGAN JONES
A team led by Upper School counselor Shawn Fleck offered assistance to students affected by hurricane Harvey. The school implemented a similar system for previous traumatic events. and that there are people at St. John’s to help them readjust member that they will get through this.” to school. The committee also planned to monitor these students’ acThompson had time to aid the counseling effort after ademic performance and their emotional well-being. Fleck the annual Mo Ranch Trip for sixth grade students was wants to be a resource for them on a follow-up basis. postponed. This weekend trip to Hunt, Texas, gives new While talking with students, Fleck tried to focus on shortstudents a chance to meet those who came from Lower term needs. He asked students what they needed, if they School. No stranger to understanding student suffering, had ever endured a similar traumatic situation, and if so, Thompson developed a system in 2016 to keep track of where did they find hope in previously. students who struggled after the death of Spanish teacher “You feel empathy for their situation, especially if they’ve Andrea Hanhausen. lost their house or their car, but you have to listen and proAccording to Thompson, most students seemed ready to vide help or help them find a sense of hope,” Fleck said. resume as much of a normal school and social life as pos- “People underestimate the power of simply listening.” sible. Mulligan emphasizes the importance of listening. “Life in Houston will not be normal for some time, and “We all have different coping mechanisms,” Mulligan many families, friends and neighbors are faced with many said. “The important thing was to let students know what challenges as they work to restore their homes and replace was available, listen to what they had to say, and then allow belongings lost in flood waters,” Thompson said. “It is im- them to cope in whatever way they felt best. portant for students to lean on family and friends and re-
THE REVIEW SPECIAL EDITION OCTOBER 3, 2017
Security personnel serve as first responders By Iris Chen
Firefighter Shelby Powell was called in on Sunday, Aug. 27 in the midst of Hurricane Harvey. As he navigated the rapidly flooding roads to get to work, his 30-minute commute stretched into eight hours. Like many other St. John’s security personnel, Powell works at the school when not on call. While many people streamed out of town or readied their homes and families for the hurricane, first responders headed directly into the storm. “A lot of us wanted to show up earlier,” said Richard Still Jr., a firefighter and security guard at SJS. “We’ve seen firsthand during the 2016 Tax Day flood the massive amount of manpower that is necessary to take on a situation such as the hurricane.” First responders were swamped with rescue calls and medical emergencies. Flooding restricted access to hospitals and people in need of help. Ambulances and fire trucks could not pass through more than a couple feet of water, so most water rescues had to be done with boats and high-water rescue vehicles. “Usually our response time is around five minutes, but it took us around 20 minutes because of the flood,” said Still, who manned an ambulance. “To get so close but to not be able to get there, over and over, was heartbreaking and frustrating.” When Still reached a patient, providing medical help was a whole other challenge: Methodist Hospital in Willowbrook was the only hospital in Still’s area that would accept new patients. Houston police officer Justin Chase was
tasked with maintaining order under unusual circumstances. After waking up at 3:00 a.m. on Aug. 27 to go to work, he was assigned to the George R. Brown Convention Center. “The unfortunate part is that I was in a patrol car, and they didn’t allow us to go do rescues,” Chase said. “We just assisted wherever we could to try and catch the bad guys.” Chase apprehended a couple of looters who were trying to break into a pawn shop, but he couldn’t arrest them because the jail was flooded, so he issued warrants for their arrest once the prison was operating normally. Because of the spike in emergency calls, first responders fielded calls days after the flooding receded. It often took several days for the calls to even show up on the line. Officer Chase was stranded at work for four days. “Not knowing how your house is, how your wife is, or what’s going on in the family — that’s the hard part,” he said. St. John’s hosted first responders who were cut off from their families and supplies by offering them shelter in the gym and basic necessities during the storm. According to Chase, officers who couldn’t get home often had to sleep in their cars or find alternate shelter before coming to St. John’s. “St. John’s helped a lot of officers who couldn’t find food or shelter for a couple of
“
days,” Chase said. Even after the storm blew over, first responders had to deal with damage in their own homes. Still has a leaky roof to fix, and a few officers slept in the Tradition Room on the second floor of the Smith Student Athletic Center days after the storm because they had nowhere else to go. “A lot of my coworkers are going out and helping their friends and loved ones rebuild,” Still said. “I know a lot of firefighters had their own homes destroyed, vehicles destroyed. Right now it’s all about quickly getting back to normal.” Many SJS first responders noted how the outpouring of support from the Houston community mitigated the dire situation. Officer Still met people from all over the country, even two men from New York who drove down with their boats to participate in the rescue efforts. “It was inspiring to see Texans helping Texans, seeing police departments and even fire departments all over the nation coming to help out without being asked,” Chase said. “Houston really stepped up to show what it means to be a Texan.”
Houston really stepped up to show what it means to be a Texan - Officer Justin Chase
Hurricane recovery keeps Community Service busy In the days after Harvey, students were on the ground participating in efforts to help the community. They organized donations and entertained young children at shelters including NRG Stadium, Lakewood Church and the George R. Brown Convention Center. Much of the early volunteer work was initiated by students. As the focus shifted towards collecting donations, Marci Bahr, the Director of Community Service, organized a variety of volunteer efforts for the affected families. As the need for volunteers at the biggest shelters waned, students found ways to help at smaller locations including Congregation Emanuel and St. John the Divine Church. According to Bahr, now that clothing needs have been met, Community Service will focus on finding furniture for those affected by the hurricane. “I love that we have been very involved with selfless service from our inception.”
By Tyler King
Harvey by the numbers
DATA TAKEN FROM ACCUWEATHER, MIC, CNN GRAPHICS BY STEPHEN KIM
GRAPHIC BY SIENA ZERR
SJSREVIEW.COM SPECIAL EDITION OCTOBER 3, 2017
3
Boston-area alumni establish Harvey relief fund By Eli Maierson
Like thousands of Houstonians, Joseph Caplan and John Peavy spent the week after Hurricane Harvey volunteering. Both helped clear out debris from their grandparents’ flooded homes. Peavy and Caplan (both ’14) had been preparing to head back to Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, for their senior year. Together they launched a social media campaign that has raised more than $3,000 for Harvey relief. Caplan and Peavy were still in Houston when Harvey hit. They banded together on Facebook to create the Jumbo Hurricane Harvey Relief Effort page. The name of the charity is a reference to the Tufts mascot, an elephant named Jumbo. According to Caplan, their original goal was a modest $1,000. Their campaign has since raised over $3,500. “Our goal was more to raise awareness than to raise money,” Caplan said. Caplan and Peavy primarily communicated through video blogs posted on Facebook in which they interviewed local residents in a series called “Heroic Houstonians.” Noteworthy was Peavy’s interview with his grandfather, Herman Gabriel, who has lived in his Fifth Ward home for over 30 years. He and his wife Ann tried to evacuate, but she suffered heart failure on Saturday Aug. 26, when the flooding was the worst, so they stayed in their garage for nearly two days awaiting rescue. According to their Facebook page, Peavy’s grandmother eventually made it to Methodist Hospital in stable condition. Meanwhile, Caplan’s grandfather’s home took in three feet of water. The Jumbo Facebook page features an interview with Caplan’s uncle Richard as he cleaned out the flooded home. These videos helped to grow their Face-
4
book page, which attracted more than 30,000 followers in just one week. “Posting on Facebook was a really cool and effective way to reach a lot of people who might not have a personal connection to Houston or the storm itself, especially other students at Tufts,” Caplan said. “To post and share our stories — and share other people’s stories that we’ve met — was a really good way to reach out to people and get our message spread and raise more awareness of what’s going on.” Caplan and Peavy saw firsthand the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. Their Facebook page follows them as they clean flooded homes and volunteer night shifts at the George R. Brown Convention Center and Lakewood Church. They also joined a massive Maverick volunteer effort to clean up head athletic trainer Mike Kleinstub’s Michael Morisi Braeswood-area house. (See story, Tufts seniors John Peavy and Joseph Caplan, both ‘14, launched the Jumbo page 7.) Hurricane Harvey Relief Effort to increase awareness and raise money. Caplan and Peavy’s initial aim was to attract an audience beyond with your life,” he wrote. on expanding on-campus efforts, including Houston. “When streets turn to rivers and neigh- a comedy show scheduled for October that “We wanted to do something to help peo- borhoods to lakes, you need all the help you will feature a short presentation by Peavy. ple, originally connecting the relief effort can get to stay afloat.” All proceeds will go to the Harvey fund. back to our campus at Tufts,” Peavy said. Caplan and Peavy searched for a different “We want to get as many of the groups In order to promote their charity, Caplan charity to support, finally settling on Glob- at Tufts to sponsor events and raise charity wrote an opinion piece for the Tufts Daily al Giving, a charity website dedicated to funds at their shows,” said Caplan. “Hopeabout the realities of living through a nat- donating 100 percent of all profits towards fully, the op-ed will let people know to look ural disaster. Harvey relief efforts. out for that. It lets people know that we’re “Tons of students read the Daily, and Caplan and Peavy created a page on Glob- still going to try and do something good for I knew an op-ed would be a good way to al Giving’s website, so all the funds they Houston.” spread word of our fund,” Caplan said. raise will go directly to Global Giving. In In the piece, “Houston Strong,” Caplan 20 days, with over 27,000 donors, Global Visit the Jumbo Hurricane Harvey Relief details the realities of living through after Giving has raised over $3 million for vic- Effort page at Global Giving to donate. the flood. “When it rains a year’s worth in tims of Harvey. 48 hours, you don’t mop the floors, drain Back at Tufts, Caplan and Peavy are focusing the streets, put on rubber boots and get on
THE REVIEW Special Edition October 3, 2017
Front and Center: MS teacher answers the call
First responder and MS history teacher Gordon Center, shown rescuing Molly the dog, embarked on numerous missions to rescue flood victims. Center also helped rescue the grandfather of reporter Izzy Andrews.
By Izzy Andrews
Of all the photos posted on social media from the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, the one that struck a chord for the St. John’s community showed Gordon Center, a Southside Place first responder, carrying a frightened brown dog named Molly through waist-high floodwaters. Center, a Middle School history teacher and varsity field hockey coach, was working his way down Buffalo Speedway on foot with three other firefighters. Wearing life vests and carrying pike poles, they were rescuing people from their flooded homes when a man approached them and said that his two dogs were trapped. Realizing it was unsafe for the man to move the dogs himself, Center offered to help. The dogs were larger than Center imagined, but they were able to carry both dogs back to the firefighter command post at the Panera Bread in the 3100 block of Holcombe. Center has been an EMT and paramedic since 1992 and a volunteer firefighter with the Southside Fire Department for the past 15 years. “Gordon is happy and funny, and he is great to work and joke with,” said Southside firefighter Derek Cane, who has worked with Center for seven years. “He is always positive with the people we rescue. Working in the hurricane was no different.” Center has seen his fair share of tragedy as a first responder, but Harvey stands out as “truly a disaster.” When school was called off for Friday, Aug. 25, Center was unsure the cancellation would be necessary, but the SFD began preparing for the worst by sending volunteers to stock up on food and check on supplies anyway. The rain began on Saturday, and by the time it stopped days later, parts of Houston had received over 50 inches of rain. “We were sitting there with the doors open on the bay with chairs out, just chillaxing,
telling bad stories,” Center said. “And then the rain started to fall, and it just kept on falling and falling.” The flooding began around 9 p.m. on Saturday. Center was unable to make it home until the rain briefly stopped and the floodwater subsided, around 1 a.m. The next day, Center waited until the sun rose and decided to walk the two miles to the station, a journey that would have taken two hours had he not been picked up by other first responders in a high-water vehicle. Once at the station, the sheer number of people who needed help began to overwhelm the SFD. According to Center, the first responders had to differentiate between people who were “inconvenienced” and those who were “in danger.” SFD concentrated on those who were trapped on the second floor over those who had water up to their doorstep. From there, they prioritized based on the age and health of those who needed help. “It’s rare I feel out of control in a situation, but on Sunday it felt out of control and then some,” Center said. “How could the water be over the roof of every house? That couldn’t be right.” With the help of dump trucks, boats, a Coast Guard helicopter and civilian volunteers, the first responders worked non-stop to rescue people and pets from their flooded homes. “It was moldy, it smelled like damp rot and we were covered in sheens of different fuels and additives,” Center said. “I don’t remember going to the bathroom. We didn’t eat anything. It was just go, go, go, go, go.” After the rain lessened on Sunday night, most of the emergency calls either concerned fires or were false alarms. As people turned their power back on, the electricity would sometimes short circuit, causing small fires. Some callers claimed to smell gas, which was actually from the fumes of a Coast Guard he-
Hare-raising rescue reunites family, bunny Amy Powers knew her home would flood, so she took two of her children and evacuated to a friend’s house. Her husband Jason (’88) insisted on staying in their one-story Meyerland home to “hold down the fort.” He was
awakened on Sunday morning at 5 with his mattress floating on six feet of water. Powers climbed out the bedroom window and swam to a two-story house across the street where he was later picked up off the roof by a he-
licopter. Meanwhile, their oldest daughter Sarah and her rabbit Waffles were trapped at a friend’s house for five days. Though Sarah was in no immediate danger, Amy wanted to reunite the family as soon as possible. The next day, she got a text from her son Danyel’s (’24) advisor, Gordon Center, who was checking to see if her family
licopter flying above.
Center’s interest in firefighting be-
gan in the mid-1970s when he was living in Bahrain, an island country in the Arabian Gulf. Oil was the major industry in his town, and Center’s father worked for the local oil company. One night, there was an explosion at the refinery, and Center’s father came home late, hands and face burned because he had stayed and helped fight the fire. Even though his father’s injuries were not permanent, Center’s memory of the incident was. A few years later, Center developed an interest in becoming an emergency medical technician on a gray, rainy day in fifth grade when he saw a classmate get hit by a car and was unable to help. He still remembers the sound of his classmate landing on the ground. Center began to fulfill his desire to help when he moved to Houston and became an EMT and paramedic with Harris County in 1992. He was 23 years old. Center stopped working full-time in 1997 and became a teacher with HISD in 1999. When Center and his family moved to their current home in 2002, he began to volunteer with Southside Place as a firefighter and EMT. Though he only gets paid $20 a call as a volunteer, he not only loves helping people himself, but also watching others come together and support one another. During Harvey, Center was “amazed” by the number of people who wanted to help. He was impressed with the more than 100 SJS students, faculty and parents who gathered to help tear out sheetrock and move damaged furniture at trainer Mike Kleinstub’s home. (See page 7 for full story.) “I was struck again and again by the bravery of people I volunteer with and professionals who put themselves at risk to help others,” Center said. “There were a lot of really thoughtful, incredible people who just went above and beyond.”
was alright. After Amy explained her family’s predicament, Center volunteered to get Sarah, but Amy refused, knowing that people who were “sick or trapped on their roofs” took priority. Center convinced Powers to give him the address and he delivered Sarah and Waffles to the family later that afternoon. Center even stayed for a
half hour to celebrate Danyel’s birthday. “He’s such a nice man, and it was so sweet for him to come in and have birthday cake with us,” Amy said. “He reunited our family, which was very gracious and kind and wonderful, and it was a great introduction to the warmth and the community of St. John’s.”
By Izzy Andrews
SJSREVIEW.COM SPECIAL EDITION OCTOBER 3, 2017
RAKESH AGRAWAL
The day Mr. Center saved my grandfather By Izzy Andrews
When my grandfather, Jim Schwartz (’60), asked to be dropped off at his house on Saturday, Aug. 26, after a family dinner, no one knew that he would have to leave wearing a life vest the next morning. “After four generations in the house, the house is a home and like a family member,” he said. “I was wanting to protect an old friend from being hurt.” On Sunday, he came downstairs to find six inches of water covering the floor. At 2:34 p.m. on Sunday, my mother texted Middle School teacher and first responder Gordon Center to alert him of my grandfather’s situation. “Even though I knew he wouldn’t drown inside the house, I was worried that he could be dehydrated or overheated,” she said. “My dad is very stubborn, and I knew that only someone like Gordon could convince him to leave his home.” Since there were people in more dire situations in Southside Place, Center continued on multiple rescues with his team. Later that day, he got special permission to leave the crew and retrieve my grandfather. Around 6:30 p.m., Center and fellow firefighter Derek Cane walked through several blocks of waist-high floodwaters to my grandfather’s house. My mother had not heard from Center since that morning, so she also sent my dad to my grandfather’s house. He was forced to park many blocks away but tried to navigate his way through the waters. My dad reached the house just before Center and Cane, while walking up Kelving Street. “I saw this tall guy dressed in a sunhat and all this firefighter gear,” my dad said. “I called out, ‘Is that Gordon Center?’ We agreed it was a very Stanley-Livingstone moment.” Center quickly outfitted my grandfather with the life vest, and they all walked back to my dad’s car while my grandfather regaled Center with stories from his days at sleepaway camp in Maine. Once my grandfather was safely back in my dad’s car, my dad took Cane back to the fire station while Center continued his rescues until late that night.
5
Sophomore injures knee saving classmate’s dog By Sophie Caldwell Lauren Harpold’s father shook her awake at 4:30 a.m. Water was streaming into their house, and they needed to evacuate immediately. Harpold, a junior, lives in Braes Heights, one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods during Harvey. Her house is next to Brays Bayou, which quickly overflowed during the heavy rains on Sunday, Aug. 27. The water rose just over two feet in her house and backyard. Harpold was forced to decide what to do with her five pets. She placed her kitten, Smokey, high on a bathroom counter and her other cat, Olive, onto her bed. Then she packed her oldest cat, Kellen, into a carrier, which she brought with her as she evacuated. Her labrador, Mandie, was safe in the garage, but her favorite dog, a border collie named Blanco, was stranded in the backyard as the water rose. He was too big for her to safely move, so she had to leave him behind. Harpold and her parents waded through waist-high water on Glen Arbor Drive to a nearby two-story house. At one point the house was home to 15 evacuees and 13 animals. Once she reached safety, Harpold texted sophomore Claire Seinsheimer about Blanco’s situation. Harpold’s father had planned to return for the dog, but the water had risen dangerously high. After seeing on Snapchat that Harpold’s next-door neighbor, sophomore Luke Venus, had not yet left his house, Seinsheimer messaged Venus and asked him to check on Blanco. Venus feared the dog would drown if he didn’t act fast. Climbing over the fence separating their houses, he waded through the Harpold’s backyard where he found Blanco paddling through the water. “He definitely would have drowned if not for Luke,” Harpold said. While trying to reach Blanco, Venus’ leg got caught on some debris, and he fell into the Harpolds’ swimming pool. Venus later discovered that he had torn his ACL. Once Venus reached Blanco, his father called Lauren’s father to find out their gate code, and Venus eventually led Blanco out of the flooded backyard and into the Venus’ house, where he was later retrieved by Harpold’s father.
LAUREN HARPOLD
SONIA VENUS
Due to sudden flooding, Lauren Harpold had to leave her border collie Blanco outside. Her neighbor Luke Venus rescued Blanco but injured his knee in the process. Venus had surgery on Sept. 28 to repair his ACL. Venus and his family evacuated to the same house as the so that they won’t flood again. Harpold is currently living Harpolds. Venus took his labrador, Dax, who had to dog- in a rental house in West University Place, and misses her paddle part of the way since the current was strong and the home, car and belongings. floodwater was over his head at some points. “I would give up every other piece of furniture just to The street had become a five-foot-deep river. Harpold have my bed back,” she said. could only see the tops of trees poking above the water. Venus, a varsity football starter, is out for the season. He Neighbors who had not evacuated in time had to be air- had surgery to repair his ACL on Sept. 28. lifted off their roofs by the Coast Guard. He still doesn’t regret his choice. Once the waters receded, the Harpolds returned to as“It was the right thing to do. I wasn’t just going to let an sess the damage caused by the two feet of water that had animal die. I had a responsibility to that dog.” breached their house. Both the Venus and Harpold families plan to tear down their homes and rebuild them higher
Damage Control: How Facilities cleaned up campus
By Manar Ansari Before Hurricane Harvey hit, Facilities Supervisor Salvador Aquino never imagined that cleaning up rotten animal carcasses and bacteria would be part of his job description. Those spoiled materials were among the remains festering in biology classroom refrigerators after the school’s power went out due to multiple campus-wide power surges. Aquino was there to witness the rotting materials being cleaned out of the rancid refrigerator. “The smell was terrible,” Aquino said. “One of the guys even threw up, but he was still able to get everything out and take it to the dumpster.” The refrigerator clean-out may have been a challenge, but the school could have sustained much more severe damage had it not been for the hard work of the facilities staff and security guards. Richard Still, the Director of Safety, Security, Facilities and Physical Plant, knew that the school had to prepare extensively for Harvey. Still’s crew began collecting generators, lights and extension cords on Aug. 24, the day before school was canceled. To prevent water from flowing into low-lying areas, they
6
placed sump pumps in areas prone to flooding, which prevented the water level from rising above one inch. Crew members also sandbagged the new tunnel and gym to further defend against the raging storm. After the power surges, many of the school’s electronic locks were fried or had to be reprogrammed. It was especially bad for big equipment: the Lower School’s AC units were disabled. Richard Still kept things running from Aug. 25 to Aug. 28. During those four days, he worked constantly and stayed at the school overnight, resting infrequently and sleeping in his office for about 40 minutes at a time. After the hurricane passed, cleaning crew members and security guards began to prepare the school to reopen. Many members of the cleaning crew couldn’t get to school, but roughly a half dozen workers managed to come each day. “Even though we had our own problems with the flooding, we still managed to take care of our houses and families as well as the family of St. John’s,” Aquino said. A St. John’s employee for nine years, Jose Hernandez
dropped everything to help. He spent two hours driving to campus, a commute that normally takes about 35 minutes. The flooded freeways prevented Hernandez from getting home, so at one point he remained on campus for 48 hours. He mopped up water that came into the gym basement, made sure pumps were working properly, and looked out for water damage, fallen trees and trespassers. Hernandez knew he was relatively safe, but it was hard for him to be separated from his family, with whom he spoke at least four times a day. “I definitely worried about them,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t know the impact of the storm. I knew it was going to be bad, but nobody knew how bad.” After assessing their preparedness for Harvey, the school has ordered more sump pumps, airflow fans and flood gates for the next flooding event. “It was a lot of work, but it made our department feel good,” Aquino said. “It made me feel proud of my team because nobody asked if we’re going to get paid or get bonuses. Everyone was just like, let’s do it, whatever it takes.”
THE REVIEW SPECIAL EDITION OCTOBER 3, 2017
Task force assembles to aid athletic trainer
Marci Bahr
More than 100 volunteers, including coaches, parents, teachers, siblings and members of almost every sports team arrived at the home of athletic trainer Mike Kleinstub to help him gut his flooded home and ended up working on over three dozen additional homes in the surrounding area.
By Gracie Blue Athletic Trainer Mike Kleinstub has devoted his life to taking care of others, but after his Maplewood West home sustained significant flood damage, a crew of nearly 100 volunteers seized the chance to lend a gloved hand to the athletic trainer who has always been there to take care of so many. Middle School history teacher and volunteer firefighter Gordon Center referred to the event as a “block cleaning party” in his call-to-action post on the SJS Field Hockey Facebook page at 7:45 p.m. on Aug. 29. Sixteen hours later, members of almost every sports team arrived at Kleinstub’s door armed with hammers and crowbars. Along with them came coaches, parents, alumni and administrators, all ready to help. Parents brought lawn chairs, coolers, music and snacks to allow volunteers to take quick breaks during the first sunny day since Hurricane Harvey hit. In addition to Kleinstub’s regular patients, generations of SJS families, alumni who graduated before Kleinstub came to the school, and students who have never stepped foot in the training room extended their resources and physical labor to take part in the effort. Organizers soon realized that there were too many volunteers for just one house, so lacrosse coaches David Cohn and Amanda Bencosme, along with other faculty members, made their way down the block, knocking on doors to offer assistance. Within the next five hours, the volunteers had worked on more than three dozen homes on two flood-ravaged blocks. Volunteers worked side by side, moving wet furniture, carpets and books and ripping out wooden floors. As much as four feet of water had inundated the homes, and most occupants had been stuck inside since the storm hit. Kleinstub could only salvage one item from his home: a black-forest wood bar inlaid with jade and emerald. The house was built by his parents in 1968. “It was difficult watching all that stuff being carted out onto the sidewalk and thrown away. It’s as if everything you know in life is just gone,” Kleinstub said. “I know it’s just stuff, but it’s all my parents built, everything they had.” Two days after Center’s initial post, Kleinstub reached out to Marci Bahr, Head of Community Service, who sent a second task force to remove the last of the wet carpet and insulation. Two days later, a third group of parents showed up at Kleinstub’s house, ready to rip out sheetrock and finish the job. “It was humbling to see how many members of our community really do believe about living a life of selfless service,” Center said. “Again and again I saw students seeking ways to patiently help complete strangers that had seen decades of personal history wiped away, and treating them in those most vulnerable moments with respect and dignity.” Since 2005, Kleinstub has worked on the volunteer side of many community service projects, including the Costa Rica service trip, the holiday Bike Build, and other schoolwide philanthropy work. Until Harvey, Kleinstub had never needed to ask for help.
TRASH DAY:
Dozens of volunteers helped the neighbors of athletic trainer Mike Kleinstub move their wet possessions to the curb. HELPING HANDS:
After floodwaters destroyed athletic trainer Mike Kleinstub’s 1960s orange carpeting, seniors Avery Morris, Audrey Ledbetter and Elizabeth Awad worked to extract it from the home.
Photos by Gracie Blue
“It was frightening, it was overwhelming, it was confusing, almost every emotion that you can think of,” Kleinstub said. “I felt helpless.” The SJS community service Instagram page was an outlet Bahr and the Community Service officers used to match volunteers with those in need. Community Service recruited more student volunteers for projects at faculty homes, including those of Class 3 teacher Susan Tallman and fine arts teachers Victoria and Alex Arizpe. Kleinstub is currently staying with family, and numerous St. John’s families have reached out to provide additional
help. Many have offered him a place to stay and assistance later on with home construction, remodeling and electrical repairs. Over the past two years, senior Isabel Windham has been treated by Kleinstub for two ACL tears. She and her family did not hesitate to help the athletic trainer and his neighbors in their time of need. “Kleinstub always jokes that everyone hates him, but judging by all the people that came by to help him, I think he is wrong about that one,” Windham said.
SJSREVIEW.COM Special Edition October 3, 2017
7
Division
T
polarization nation
A city UniteD
It’s no secret that American society has become increasingly polarized. Division permeates everything from politics to pop culture to professional sports. With every push and pull, we stray further from the middle ground. The divisiveness reached a tipping point on Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia, when escalating tensions over the city’s decision to take down a confederate statue erupted into verbal assaults and violence. A car driven by an alleged white supremacist plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring dozens. The events in Charlottesville are tragic reminders of American extremism.
While people beyond Hurricane Harvey’s reach debated Houston’s zoning laws or immigration policies, Houstonians faced the storm hand-in-hand. “People rescued each other no matter what political affiliation they had,” junior Shomik Ghose said. “Harvey really united the city in one big show of compassion.” Ghose’s home flooded, and as he and his family worked to minimize the water damage, Ghose realized that some Facebook users seemed to lose sight of what was important such as spending their time posting about storm policies and legislation instead of helping others. “Flooding doesn’t discriminate based on politics,” Ghose said. “When the floodwaters came rolling into our house, it wasn’t about who we were voting for.” When President Donald Trump arrived in Houston on Sept. 2, junior Maria Arreola was volunteering at NRG Stadium. She noticed that volunteers around her were too busy working to pay much attention to the Commander in Chief. “It was important to volunteers to remember that he was there for the people left homeless from the hurricane and to let guests have time with the president rather than have volunteers leave their posts,” Arreola said. “We were there to help, not to get in people’s way from a much needed distraction from recent events.” Religious divisions were rendered moot in the face of Harvey’s destruction. After Congregation Beth Yeshurun took in more than a
my neighbor, the bomber Police cars lined the 2000 block of Albans Street near Rice University when senior Katie Friedman arrived home from a sleepover on Aug. 20. Officers were investigating the home of Andrew Schneck, just two doors down from Friedman’s home. Unbeknownst to her, the 25-year-old Schneck had been arrested after allegedly trying to plant a bomb at a Confederate statue in Hermann Park the day before. Schneck’s actions were yet another episode in the national conflict over Confederate statues. Several hours later, Friedman glanced out her second-story window to see HAZMAT vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, black SUVs and an army-green military Hummer rumbling down her street. After coming to a stop in front of Schneck’s house, SWAT team members tumbled out of their vehicles, fully loaded with protective gear and guns. The Hummer swiveled and aimed its gun squarely at Schneck’s front door while several more men clad in camouflage rapidly dismounted. No sirens or yells pierced the air, preserving the street’s eerie silence amid the chaos. Neighbors anxiously awaited answers to the mystery as officers investigated Schneck’s property for the rest of the day. Early the next morning, officers prepared to detonate explosive materials found in the home. Officials warned residents to evacuate. Families who stayed would hear the explosion, see smoke and feel the ground shake beneath them. As the Friedmans prepared to leave, several helicopters circled above their home and reporters swarmed the sidewalks. When the family returned later that night, the immediate danger was over, but law enforcement remained on their block. “I didn’t really think about how dangerous the situation could be, and I kept going outside trying to take pictures and send them to all my friends,” Friedman said. “I probably should have taken it more seriously.” That night, officers confirmed their suspicions: Schneck had been experimenting with explosives as well as other hazardous materials and chemicals. This was not the first time law enforcement visited Albans Street. In 2013, Schneck’s home was raided by government agents for possession of high-risk chemicals and explosives. Schneck was sentenced to five years’ probation because it was his first offense, but he was released early, just two years and two months into his sentence.
“
When the floodwaters came rolling into our house, it wasn’t about who we were voting for. - Shomik Ghose
TO
unity
foot of water during Harvey, Lakewood Church hosted Rosh Hashana services for some 4,000 congregants. Although the mega church received widespread criticism during the storm for hesitating to open as a shelter, many congregants of Beth Yeshurun appreciated the hospitality. “It was different not being in our own synagogue, but Lakewood Church was extremely accommodating in order to make us feel at home,” senior Ellie Gershenwald said. “I was grateful that the congregation could still come together for the Jewish High Holy Days.” During the week school was closed, Gershenwald volunteered at the Jewish Community Center distribution site. She noted that people of every race and religion, including parents, faculty, and students from SJS were eager to volunteer. “Many of the people had never even been to the JCC before,” Gershenwald said. Houstonians flocked to any organization that would accept their help, regardless of religious affiliation. Students spent days demolishing houses and hauling supplies with strangers without feeling the need to talk politics. “I bet some people I was working with had different political opinions than me,” freshman Ken Matsunaga said. “But I didn’t care because I knew everyone just wanted to help.” Firefighter Shelby Powell, who works as a campus ambassador at St. John’s, noticed reduced tensions across the city in the wake of tragedy. “There’s so much bickering back and forth about politics,” Powell said. “It was just nice to see everyone put that aside and come together and help each other.”
Even athletic rivalries were paused momentarily. When senior cross country captain Drew Woodfolk and his family were displaced by Harvey, they evacuated to Dallas where he trained with the St. Mark’s runners. The Lions are one of the biggest competitors for the SPC crown this season. “They were incredibly welcoming, like a second family,” Woodfolk said. “I was expecting it to feel like a competition every day at practice, but it turns out we all clicked together and ran like any other team would.”
In the same boat The divisiveness from Charlottesville initially persisted, but the trillion gallons of water Harvey dumped on Harris County put a damper on the lingering animosity, at least momentarily. As the city’s neighborhoods crumbled and floodwaters swallowed streets, strangers became heroes and clenched fists became helping hands. In the aftermath of Harvey, the country learned a lesson from Houston: when the rain comes and the waters begin to rise, it does not matter if the person you are pulling into your canoe has a different political ideology, religion, race or sexual orientation. As the old adage goes – and as many Houstonians discovered – we were all in the same boat.
STory by Gracie Blue, Claire Furse, DAni Yan Illustration by Stephen Kim design by Ashwini Bandi
Younger students contribute to relief efforts By Sarah Jane Lasley
Since it is inadvisable for young children to handle crowbars or power saws, Lower and Middle School students had to find other ways to give their time and energy to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Third grade student Samantha Boyd donated old books to Houston-area schools with flooded libraries. She and her sister Stella, a kindergarten student, also volunteered alongside their parents, bringing water, fans and other necessities to people whose houses flooded. “It was so weird to see what a house looks like with nothing in it,” Boyd said. “It made me feel really bad for all of those families that now have nothing.” Another family, who asked to remain anonymous, delivered homemade cupcakes to their local fire department to thank the first responders for their service. The children, a student in kindergarten and a student in second grade, also handed out doughnuts one morning in a hard-hit neighborhood. “I can’t describe it, but it made me feel warm inside,” the second grade student said. Volunteering taught the children about friendship and support. “It has been a hugely important teaching moment for us to impart empathy and a sense of caring for the community,” the mother said. Middle school students were just as enthusiastic to help. When Lower School science teacher Michelle Hayes’ home flooded in Braeswood Place, crowds of energetic volunteers flocked to help her family clean, having mucked the home of Athletic Trainer Mike Kleinstub mere days before. (See story, page 7.) Sixth grade student Penelope Macpherson arrived eager to help at Hayes’ home, bearing a tray of fresh brownies with her family. “Penelope was in Mrs. Hayes’s advisory in Class 4 so she really wanted to do something to help,” Penelope’s mother Consuelo Macpherson said. “The brownies were just a small gesture to show that she cared and that she was thinking of them.” Boy Scout Troop 55 organized a clothing drive at St. John the Divine. Scouts helped sort and bag donations including clothes, blankets, and cleaning supplies for distribution centers such as the BBVA Compass stadium and Jewish Community Center. Will Burgess, a fourth grade student and Boy Scout, and his parents, Bill and Stacy Burgess, went through all of Will’s clothes and donated both casual and dress clothes for all seasons. Will also went through his toys and games and
10
GATHERING AT THE GARAGE: A group of
Lower School students and parents put together activity packs for students from schools with delayed openings.
HARD AT WORK:
Sixth grade students Yazzie Stein and Lillian Poag empty bottles of household cleaning supplies at the home of Lower School science teacher Michele Hayes. CATHERINE SMITH
gave away several that were new or gently used. Lower School parents Leslie Sasser and Mary Dawn McEnany organized a community service project for second grade students on Sept. 4. The students put together activity packets for children attending schools that delayed their reopening due to flood damage. “We appreciated the opportunity for the kids to feel that they were a part of the recovery process of the city,” McEnany said. “So many of the parents wanted our children to volunteer and give back, but very few opportunities were available.” Along with handwritten, heartshaped notes from the young volunteers, the packets included individual pages from coloring books, crayons, stickers, puzzles, pipe cleaners and mazes. Once the packets were completed, parents delivered them to the George R. Brown Convention Center, which housed many evacuated families with children whose schools were closed indefinitely. “The effort amazed the parents, and everyone was so hap-
SHELLEY STEIN
py to see their friends and to experience a little bit of normalcy,” Sasser said. “The students were happy to help in a small way.” By the end of their shift, the young volunteers organized and packaged over 2,000 activity packets. “I was very proud of how focused the kids were on their jobs,” McEnany said. “Everyone who came that day jumped right in to help immediately. Kind is cool.”
THE REVIEW SPECIAL EDITION OCTOBER 3, 2017
deliverance how a Father-son duo Decided to brave harvey’s waters and rescue their neighbors
EVAN HAMMERMAN
After entire neighborhoods flooded, coach Alan Paul rowed along with senior Evan Hammerman and his father Steve, floating from street to street and saving people stranded in their homes. The Hammermans rescued people with a borrowed canoe for six straight days.
What happens when parents are away during a hurricane By Gracie Blue
Andrea Anaya sat in her parents’ bed, munching on the only food left in her house, blueberries and nuts, as the rains from Hurricane Harvey pounded the roof of her otherwise-empty abode on Aug. 27. Two days earlier, Anaya’s parents had left town on a six day Caribbean cruise. In order to block out the noisy storm, Anaya watched the “Game of Thrones” season finale at maximum volume. When the power went out later that night, the senior only had 10 percent of her phone battery left. She texted a facetious farewell to her friends, joking that she would see them when the storm was over. When her phone died, she retreated to her room to sleep. Five hours later, there was a loud knocking. Anaya looked down from her third floor window to see senior Evan Hammerman banging on the front door, prepared to rescue her. Still dressed in her pajamas, Anaya grabbed her laptop and phone and hopped into Hammerman’s car to take shelter for the next few nights at senior Trip George’s house. Anaya’s friends, worried about her safety, had contacted Hammerman, who was canoeing around the city rescuing flood victims. Harvey arrived at a particularly inconvenient time for families with college students. Many parents, like Barrett and Susan Reasoner, were out of town dropping off their older children at college when they found themselves stranded with no way to get home. The Reasoners had just moved their son William in at Lynn University in Florida when their return flight to Houston was cancelled. The Reasoners flew to Dallas and then began to drive home but only made it as close as Huntsville at 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 27. Their daughters Olivia, a senior, and Eloise, a sophomore, were home alone with a sitter. The Reasoners kept in constant touch with their daughters, who reassured their parents that they were fine. “Although we knew our girls were safe, it was unsettling not being with them,” Mrs. Reasoner said. “I wondered if they were putting on a good front so we wouldn’t worry.” After six days of watching television reports for hours on end, the Reasoners finally made it home on Aug. 30. “We are proud of them for staying strong and being mature during an extremely difficult time,” Mrs. Reasoner said.
By Dani Yan Yuko Mori-Akiyama stood in her one-story Meyerland house with flood waters rising to her hip and a panicking 40-pound dog in her arms. Akiyama first noticed the rapidly increasing water level in front of her house on South Rice at 3 a.m. on Aug. 27. Her younger son, Yo (’16) was in Taiwan, and her older son, Taichi, had already moved back to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, a dog-phobic neighbor repeatedly refused to let Akiyama and her dog Hana into his two-story house. Her panic increased when Coast Guard rescuers passed by without stopping to pick her up. A friend of Akiyama’s posted about her situation on Facebook. The message was finally received by senior Evan Hammerman, who arrived at her door with his father Steve in a borrowed canoe. “The water in Ms. Akiyama’s house was so high we literally rowed our canoe right through her front door,” Evan said. “She was shaking when we got there. I was glad we could help in time.” After the Hammermans dropped Akiyama and her dog off at a friend’s house, Evan received a phone call from senior Laura Valderrabano, who had seen photos of Evan’s rescue expedition on Snapchat. She asked him to head towards the Galleria area, where senior Andrea Anaya was home alone with no power and a dead cell phone. “I was in bed, a little freaked out and being overdramatic when Evan suddenly came to save me,” Anaya said. “I was so confused. I had just woken up and he was standing outside with his dad. It was all so crazy, I left without even thinking to bring clothes.” (See sidebar for full story.) For the next five days, the Hammermans paddled their canoe through the Gessner
and Briar Forest area, where they worked with other volunteers to clear people from the flooded area. “It was incredible, people were out there doing everything that they physically could do,” Mr. Hammerman said. “Everyone was communicating; everyone was working together.” On Gessner Road, Mr. Hammerman took people to dry ground on an inflatable motorboat after Evan had retrieved them from their homes on the canoe. “Doing everything with Evan was a very moving experience,” Mr. Hammerman said. “It was an opportunity to work sideby-side with my son, helping people and showing him that we can actually directly impact people’s lives.” Once the Hammermans got to the dry land, volunteers were ready with supplies and cars to transport the rescued people. “It wasn’t organized by the city,” Mr. Hammerman said. “People just heard what was needed and showed up to help evacuees they had never even met before.” Wrestling coach Alan Paul joined the Hammermans on Aug. 29. Paul manned the canoe with Evan and recorded the experience with his GoPro camera. “One man hugged Evan and me and called us heroes after we led him through the floodwaters,” Paul said. “It was very
“
emotional to help someone who was so visibly scared of the water.” The rescue team encountered some people who refused to leave their flooded houses. “Rescue personnel tried for two days to get a man in his eighties to leave his home but he would not leave until I took his son to his house to convince him,” Steve said. “It was shocking to me that people wouldn’t leave even with several feet of water in their houses.” After four days, the Gessner and Briar Forest area was almost completely evacuated. Mr. Hammerman witnessed both Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Alicia in 1983 but had never seen anything like Harvey. “I was on the bay when Alicia hit,” Mr. Hammerman said. “The wind and rain were quite impressive, but the flooding was nothing compared to Harvey.” This time, he said, “we were rowing down Gessner and literally going over cars.” Evan views his six-day rescue trip as a fulfillment of responsibility. “Since I was in a situation where I wasn’t affected by Harvey, I think it was my job to help those who were affected,” Evan said. “My house wasn’t damaged and my family was completely okay, so I could either sit at home while other people suffered or go out and do something productive.”
It was shocking to me that people wouldn’t leave even with several feet of water in their houses - steve hammerman
EVAN HAMMERMAN
Coach Alan Paul: “It was very emotional to help someone who was so visibly scared of the water.” Coach Paul joined the Hammerman’s canoe on Aug. 29 to rescue people and their pets.
SJSREVIEW.COM SPECIAL EDITION
OCTOBER 3, 2017
11
12
THE REVIEW SPECIAL EDITION OCTOBER 3, 2017
WEATHERING THE STORM
New teachers face first hurricane
By Maggie Ballard
Native Houstonians are used to flooding. People know to buy extra water, put their cars in the garage and move their furniture upstairs. But for those who are new to town, Hurricane Harvey was a dramatically different experience. Teachers from all over the country moved to Houston this summer and were just getting to know their coworkers and students before Harvey hit. English teacher Mary Mitchell, who moved to Houston in July from Bloomington, Indiana, lives near school and was not severely affected by the hurricane, but she still felt isolated from her new colleagues. “We had all these weeks leading up to the first days of school to meet everyone,” Mitchell said. “It was a great beginning, and suddenly we were all separated for 10 days.” Harvey was Mitchell’s first natural disaster. She noticed that Houston felt like a close-knit community despite its size. “I had students who I’d met twice email me to ask if I was okay,” Mitchell said. “They hoped my impression of Houston wasn’t affected by this.” Latin teacher Kim Dickson moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma, in July. While she was used to frequent tornadoes, hurricane weather was new to her. “My coworkers warned me,” Dickson said, “but I didn’t necessarily believe it was going to be as crazy as they were saying it was, so I ended up staying in town.” Dickson’s apartment was unharmed in the storm, but her friends and family outside Texas were concerned about her well-being. “All that they saw on the national news were the most extreme situations going on,” Dickson said. Dickson was amazed by the student response to the citywide devastation. “When I heard that students basically spent their whole time off volunteering, I thought, ‘Where am I?’” Dickson said. “This doesn’t even seem like a real place.” English teacher Max Boyd moved from Missoula, Montana in July and had never experienced a hurricane before. His wife, SJS alumna Sophia Proler (’04), provided some reassurance.
Gracie Blue
Less than two months after moving to Houston, new English teachers Max Boyd (Missoula, Montana) and Mary Mitchell (Bloomington, Indiana) experienced their first hurricane. Boyd was not severely affected by the storm but found it difficult to acclimate to the job a second time. “Gearing up for a new experience, and meeting all the new students and faculty but only having two days to get into it, requires a sort of psyching yourself up again to get back into it,” he said. The Houston community’s outreach impressed Boyd. “The idea that everybody is trying to pitch in and help is one of the good things that can come from something so
terrible — a community rallying and uniting to help each other,” Boyd said. The teachers’ first impression of the city, although intense, will definitely be memorable. “I don’t regret that I saw Houston in a pivotal moment,” Mitchell said. “I feel like I got to know it in a way I wouldn’t have if I had come at a different time.”
SJSREVIEW.COM Special Edition October 3, 2017
13
Mo Ranch trip postponed until mid-November Every year the sixth grade class ventures west to Mo Ranch in Hunt, Texas, so students can get to know their new teachers and bond with their classmates in a fun outdoor setting. In order to welcome the new students entering Middle School, the trip usually occurs in early September, but due to Hurricane Harvey, the trip has been rescheduled to begin on Nov. 13. For junior Morgan Self, the Mo Ranch trip helped her meet new people and create new friendships. “I’m still friends with many of the people I met,” Self said. The class of 2024 participated in community service projects on Oct. 2 and were split between Houston Food Bank and working to clean up and restore Buffalo Bayou Park near downtown. “We are trying to get the sixth graders to go out into the community,” said director of Experiential Education Marty Thompson. “We don’t want to wait until November, so we are trying to do what we would have done at Mo Ranch here in Houston.” Colder November temperatures might curtail water activities such as swinging into the Guadalupe River, so Thompson tasked history teacher Gordon Center to find a solution. “I can envision him starting the Polar Bear club,” Thompson said. “It’ll be much colder than it has been in the past.” By Hrishabh Bhosale
Family uses military truck to rescue Houstonians
While many rescuers were utilizing boats and canoes, two Upper School parents were saving people in a five-ton military truck. A week before Harvey hit, Michael Kamins, parent of sophomore Savannah Farmer and Class 7 student Patrick Farmer, sold his AM General military truck. With the hurricane approaching, Kamins decided to ask the prospective buyer if he could use the truck in case of emergency. Kamins and his wife Anna started evacuating people from their flooding homes with the truck, which they named “Harvey.” After posting on Facebook that they were available to assist in rescuing Houstonians, they were overwhelmed by the response to their post. “People would call us and say, ‘My mother’s on the roof of her house by the bayou,’” Kamins said. “We had calls from people who were sick or who were going into labor.” After rescuing people for three days straight, Kamins decided not to sell the truck and returned the deposit to the potential buyer. “We know there will be more floods in the future,” Kamins said. “We want to be able to help people.” By Sophie Gillard
14
Social media proves critical in coordinating rescue, cleanup By Ryan Chang
As the rain from Harvey entered his Bellaire home, English teacher Clay Guinn (’92) and his family moved food, water and valuables to the second floor. Guinn was ready for the storm thanks to frequent weather updates from his phone. “I’ve been through Allison and Ike, and having a smartphone this time made preparations much easier since I could easily access updates about the storm and when it was expected to hit,” Guinn said. Guinn posted a photo on Facebook of his two daughters looking out a second floor window at their flooded street. The post was shared 376 times, and many of Guinn’s friends offered to help evacuate him and his family. “It was very comforting to see both friends and total strangers offer support to us,” Guinn said. Camille Dawson (’17), a former student of Guinn’s, was out of town when Harvey landed in Houston. After seeing his Facebook post, Dawson posted about Guinn’s situation on her own account. A few hours later, Guinn notified his Facebook friends that he and his family were safe and dry. When the water finally receded, Guinn and his family drove to a nearby friend’s house. “It really warmed my heart seeing how quickly people were willing to help,” Dawson said. “Even strangers who saw my post were telling me that they had friends with boats.” Social media played an instrumental role in recruiting and organizing student volunteers. Head of Community Service Marci Bahr emailed a push page to inform parents of opportunities to help members of the school community. According to Community Service Officer Katherine Yao (’18), few students were aware of these opportunities to serve the community. To address this issue, Yao created the SJS Community Service Instagram account on Aug. 28. “Most students are willing and able to help but never hear about the push pages from their parents,” Yao said. “The community service Instagram got so many more students involved in helping during the recovery process.” Despite the volume of students eager to volunteer at homes and shelters, Yao soon discovered that some locations had too many volunteers, while others had too few. Almost 100 volunteers showed up at Athletic Trainer Mike Kleinstub’s house, but many alumni and Lower School teachers who also required assistance did not receive nearly as many volunteers. Yao asked people to direct message the Instagram account if they wanted to volunteer so that she could allocate volunteers more evenly. Although Yao initially directed students to the NRG Center, the George R. Brown Convention Center, and Lakewood Church, these centers soon began turning volunteers away. “Once we started getting updates from these places about how they had too many volunteers, I made it clear in the posts that there were faculty members who needed more help than the larger donation centers,” Yao said. Both Bahr and Guinn emphasized the importance of sending the right message over social media. “The photo I posted of my two daughters was really powerful, and it caused undue panic, which was never my intention at all,” Guinn said. “People offered to evacuate us, and I eventually took the photo down because there were other families who needed that help more
CLAY GUINN
After the first floor of his house flooded, English teacher Clay Guinn posted this photo of his daughters’ view of the flood. His post was shared 376 times.
than we did.” Bahr, who also organized volunteer efforts after Hurricane Ike, has seen the consequences of misusing social media. “Even though social media is a fantastic tool for organizing volunteers, you lose a lot of that interpersonal meaning,” Bahr said. “It’s really important to communicate the exact severity of people’s situations and to emphasize how much help they really need.” Despite the initial panic caused by his post, Guinn still advocates social media’s capacity to bring people together. “If you’re really careful about your language and how you phrase social media posts, it becomes an extremely powerful, helpful tool,” Guinn said. “Social media was really great at unifying the St. John’s community and Houston as a whole.”
Social media to the rescue
ILLUSTRATION BY NOEL MADLAND
THE REVIEW SPECIAL EDITION OCTOBER 3, 2017
Recognizing the real heroes of Harvey Five days after Harvey made landfall, we met at a Bellaire cafe to overhaul our first issue. In mid-August, we thought we were prepared, but the stories we had originally planned seemed insignificant in comparison to the unprecedented rainfall, damage and loss that many Houstonians experienced during the storm. Just down the road, families were cleaning up from the worst of the storm. Front lawns were strewn with old furniture and boxes. Curbs were buried under piles of broken drywall and torn-out floorboards. Amidst this inconceivable destruction, remarkable stories painted pictures of heroism and hope, of a school community brought closer through tragedy and a city fortified through its unity. We had so much to share — a four-page pullout eventually expanded to a 16-page issue, summer adventures and construction projects were replaced by boat rescues and alumni charities, the bigotry of Charlottesville made way for the resilience of Houston. Within the St. John’s community, 50 families were evacuated or displaced by Harvey. Now more than ever, it is important to reach out to your peers — strike up a conversation, say hello to friendly faces in the hallway or just ask someone how they’re doing. After so many spent weeks ripping up floorboards and soggy carpeting, sifting through ruined possessions and gluing our eyes to disaster footage on television, it is difficult to think or read more about Hurricane Harvey. Despite some moments of uplifting humanity, many of us would rather leave the worry and loss in the past.
The sun is shining again and school is returning to some sense of normalcy. We have homework to do and activities to plan. But in many neighborhoods, heaps of ruined insulation, blocks of plaster and discarded furniture still litter the streets. It will be years before Houston fully recovers and families can live in their homes again. In the meantime, we must continue to help our community. Houston is hurting, but we have received help from all over the world. Meanwhile, the people of Puerto Rico are struggling to find food, water, fuel and electricity after losing their homes to Hurricane Maria. Cell towers and ports are not operational. Food and clean water remain scarce. Carmen Yulin Cruz, mayor of San Juan, begged for help from the White House and got inflammatory tweets in return. Puerto Ricans are Americans, too. We can’t let them suffer any longer. In light of this recent series of unprecedented natural disasters, we must extend our care to our planet. While global warming did not create the hurricanes, Earth’s atmosphere made the storms much worse than they would have been. Harvey proved that climate change matters. As hurricane-ravaged areas recover, we should all be more mindful of how we treat the environment. This isn’t about politics; this is about our future. We hope this special issue highlights many of our local heroes, inspires you to support those who are still struggling and expresses thanks to our incredible Houston community. In our first edition of the year, we want to show how
THE REVIEW
St. Johns School | 2401 Claremont Lane, Houston, TX 77019 sjsreview.com | Facebook SJS Review | Twitter @SJS_Review Instagram @_thereview | Snapchat sjsreview Publisher Gracie Blue Executive Editors Assignments Dani Yan Design Ashwini Bandi Writing Claire Furse Assignments Editors Sophie Caldwell, Iris Chen, Alexander Kim Design Editors Stephen Kim, Prithvi Krishnarao Copy Editors Maggie Ballard, Sophie Gillard, Eli Maierson Photography Editor (Print) Caroline Ramirez Photography Editor (Online) Grace Sanders Business Editor Sukul Mittal Asst. Business Editor Andrew Duong Online Editor-in-Chief Emily Chen Asst. Online Editor Ryan Chang Online Section Editors Natasha Faruqui, Sophia Kontos, Sophia Lima Social Media Editor Lilah Gaber
Video Editors Jack Shea, Alex Tinkham Staff Izzy Andrews, Manar Ansari, Mehak Batra, Hrishabh Bhosale, Clara Brotzen-Smith, Laney Chang, Katina Christensen, Eli Desjardins, Fareen Dhuka, Sara Doyle, Mia Fares, Jordan Fullen, Thomas Goodgame, Joe Griffin, Mia Guien, Eric Hang, Eliza Holt, Jackson Humphries, Thomas Hunt, Shani Israel, Noura Jabir, Reygan Jones, Tyler King, Sarah Jane Lasley, Noël Madland, Lily McCullough, Camille McFarland, Will McKone, Sinclair Mott, Neel Pai, Amélie Perrier, Abigail Poag, Lucas Pope, Leila Pulaski, Henry Still, James Sy, Mira Thakur, Sacha Waters, Shelby Wilson, Sienna Zerr
Advisers David Nathan, Shelley Stein (‘88), Chuy Benitez
CAROLINE RAMIREZ
much we appreciate everyone who took time out of the recovery process to share their stories with us. We hope our paper can be a small testimony to your courage and your strength. To our classmates, teachers and coaches who hauled boxes of donations, comforted the distraught, or welcomed the displaced into your homes, you are the true heroes. Houston Strong,
Ashwini Bandi
Gracie Blue
Claire Furse
Dani Yan
Member Columbia Scholastic Press Assn.: Gold Crown 2015, Silver Crown 2014 & 2016 | National Scholastic Press Assn.: Pacemaker 2015, 4th Place Best of Show, All-American 2013-14, 2014-15 Mission Statement The Review strives to report on issues with integrity, to recognize the assiduous efforts of all, and to serve as an engine of discourse within the St. John’s community. Publication Info The Review is published six times during the school year. We distribute at least 1,000 copies of each issue, most of which are given for free to the Upper School community of 662 students and 98 faculty members. Policies The Review provides a forum for student writing and opinion. The opinions and staff editorials contained herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Headmaster or the Board of Trustees of St. John’s School. Staff
SJSREVIEW.COM SPECIAL EDITION
OCTOBER 3, 2017
editorials represent the opinion of the entire Editorial Board unless otherwise noted. Writers and photographers are credited with a byline. Corrections, when necessary, can be found on the editorial pages. Running an advertisement does not imply endorsement by the school. Submission Guidelines Letters to the editor and guest columns are encouraged but are subject to editing for reasons of clarity, space, accuracy and taste. On occasion, we will publish letters anonymously. The Review reserves the right not to print letters received. Letters and guest columns can be emailed to review.sjs@ gmail.com or hand-delivered to an editor or adviser in the Review room (Q210).
15
16
The Review Special Edition
October 3, 2017