ReMarker Feature: The Right to a Voice

The ReMarker

Dallas, TX • Volume 67, Number 2 • October 29, 2020 •St. Mark’s School of Texas

The

right to a

voice Women consistently turn out to vote in stronger numbers than their male

counterparts — but it was only a century ago that their voices were unheard altogether. Page 3

For more on women at St. Mark’s: • Women are making their mark in the STEM fields. Page 9 • With a combined 94 years of employment at 10600 Preston Rd., Marietta Johnson and Mary Ann Livengood reflect on the many changes through the decades. Page 11 • It’s time to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Page 24 • The addition of a female trainer emphasizes the inclusiveness within the athletic world. Page 27

STORY Henry McElhaney, Toby Barrett ARTWORK Cooper Cole

Inside

The school of life

Adulting lessons from faculty, staff and alums on some of life’s most valuable skills. Page 6

Trials and errors

Examining the difficulties of mixing remote learning with an in-person experience. Page 16-17

‘Mr. St. Mark’s’

Remembering Tom Adams, legendary history instructor and baseball and basketball coach. Page 28

History

Right to vote, the right to have a voice

early representation of women in local government.

“There was a special session of the legislature in 1918 which let women vote in the Democratic primary,” Harrigan said.

“That effectively meant that women were voting in the general election, since Texas was, at that time, really a one party state, a Democratic state. So it’s interesting, before women were voting in the United States, women were making decisive votes in the Texas primary. That’s really important.”

Even during a mass movement, women’s suffrage on a national scale struggled to get through federal legislature owing to the South’s staunch opposition to feminist ideals.

You can’t underestimate how huge the changes were.

Andrea Hamilton, History instructor

But finally, in 1920, the 19th Amendment passed and gave women the right to vote.

“It was huge symbolically,” Hamilton said, “and there was a lot of worry among the men who hadn’t wanted to give women the vote that suddenly women were going to vote in this block and throw off politics. Other than a few issues, a lot of women tend to vote with their class, not as a block.”

Dr. Joanne Green, political scientist and TCU Interim Chair of Women and Gender Studies, compounds on the symbolic value of the 19th Amendment.

“The 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in all elections was a significant step in allowing women all rights of citizenship,” Green said. “Others, like the right to a trial by one’s peers, the right to claim one’s wages and the right to be protected against discrimination based upon one’s sex took many more decades, but ensuring the right to vote was a significant step,” Aside from politics, however, women already had a significant role in society.

“I’d also say that by the time women were getting the vote in 1920, you’ve already reached a point where women made up over half of the college population, and a lot of other societal changes had taken place that changed womens’ lives,” Hamilton said.

To Hamilton, the women’s rights movement saw a decline after the passage of the 19th Amendment.

“The reality was that women still couldn’t practice law in most states,” Hamilton said, “and schools still had quotas, and women still didn’t get custody of their children, and they still couldn’t hold a credit card in their own name, and so all those other issues were still there.”

The timeline July 19, 1848

The Seneca Falls Convention in New York meets to discuss women’s rights and marks the start of the women’s suffrage movement.

March 13, 1913

Women from Texas and around the country march on Washington, D.C., in the Woman Suffrage Procession.

July 27, 1918 Women possess the right to vote in the next Texas primary after Governor William Hobby passes new legislation.

After the suffrage movement, the National Women’s Party emerged, seen as another “radical” group of women. They continued to lobby to change women’s roles in the family and in society.

“You get the Great Depression and the World Wars, and that consumed a lot of national energy, so it was relatively quiet,” Hamilton said.

In the wake of the 1960s social movements, the women’s rights movement gained an additional wave of widespread popularity.

“You got other kinds of cultural changes in the 60s, so more women protest and advocate for change,” Hamilton said.

Yet there is still work to be done.

Women fall behind in national averages in civic representation, Kay Bailey Hutchinson remains the only woman to serve in the United States Senate in Texas history and women are not equally dispersed throughout the House of Representatives.

“Only 9 [Texan] women have served in the House, currently there are the most ever – 6 – 16.7% of the House delegation – below the national average of 23%,” Green said. “25% of the state legislature is female, as compared with the national average 29%, but the numbers are increasing and Texas women are a force with which to be reckoned.”

Leader of the Hockaday chapter of the NewGen student advocacy group Premanshi Agarwalla ‘22 feels learning from the women’s suffrage movement provides a path toward a more equal future and a larger role in government for women.

“The women obviously had opinions, but they weren’t represented in the democracy,” Agarwalla said. “Even though you say you’re a democracy, in order to be truly representative of the people, you have to be willing to listen to what they have to say. It’s not enough to only listen to who you want to listen to.”

Now, Harrigan looks forward to a female-powered future, hoping that republican ideologies will be strengthened through equal representation and increasing numbers of women in government.

“The idea that women are increasingly running for office means that we are going to have a more representative state, and a more representative country in the future,” Harrigan said. “Who knows if the women who are casting their votes are voting for a liberal candidate, a conservative candidate or somewhere in between, but they will be a part of the process, which can only obviously be for the good.”

STORY Henry McElhaney, Toby Barrett GRAPHIC Morgan Chow

August 18, 1920

August 6, 1965

The 19th Amendment is ratified after being passed by Congress the previous year.

The Voting Rights Act is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which prohibits discriminatory processes in the voting system.

The ReMarker • October 29, 2020

T

he American people’s right to vote, while in recent elections overlooked by the general populace, represents what it means to be an American. Through the ballot, the governed can express their consent with operations and representation on both local and federal levels.

Yet, in the 2016 presidential election, 49.6% of eligible voters did not vote, according to the United States Election Project. With the 2020 presidential election upon us, we look back at one group’s 70-year-long fight for the vote.

While so integral to government function and equal representation, the vote has not historically been guaranteed to all. This past August marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment, the amendment that gave women the right to vote.

To history instructor Andrea Hamilton, however, the 1848 Seneca Falls convention serves as the starting point for a sevendecade-long women’s suffrage movement.

“Seneca Falls is the first convention where there was a formal declaration calling for women’s right to vote,” Hamilton said. “It was really connected with the abolitionist movement. People working for women’s suffrage believed that women would get the right to vote after the Civil War, when African Americans got the right to vote.”

While female activists were first seen as radical, the Progressive Era’s widespread social activism led to a shift in public opinion in the early 20th century: women’s suffrage became a mass movement.

“A lot of different groups who became interested in women getting the vote for a variety of reasons,” Hamilton said. “People working for labor reform wanted women to get the vote. People on different parts of the political spectrum who would vote really differently on other issues all agree that they want to fight for women to get the vote.”

It crossed party lines. It crossed regional feuds. It united many parts of America, but the suffrage movement was still unpopular in the South.

“The issue in the South was largely that they didn’t want Black women to get the right to vote,” Hamilton said.

“You’ve got Southern segregationists and white Southern men who didn’t want any women to get the vote, because they saw it as giving Blacks more lobbying power, and they think they’ll attack segregation then.”

For Texas women, however, representation in elections preceded the 19th Amendment owing to unique legislation. Tenured Texas Monthly journalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of the Alamo Stephen Harrigan maintains the significance of this

Issues

Today, women comprise more than half of voters in the United States. But it was just 100 years ago when they received the franchise to participate in the American electoral process.

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Election

An in-depth policy comparison of presidential platforms along with student opinions. Pages 4-5

Life skills

Taking a look at valuable practical life skills for young adults. Page 6

Service

Why are students required to complete community service hours in a COVID-19 climate? Page 7

In brief VISITING SCHOLARS PROGRAM Dr. Katherine Magruder was named Head of the Visiting Scholars Program by Head of Upper School Colin Igoe Oct. 2. Magruder is exploring the option of inviting virtual guests. “We’re in the brainstorming phase,” said Magruder, who teaches sixth grade humanities. “Generally the way it works is the coordinator will start soliciting ideas from the community, and people will mention names they would like to be a part of the program. There’s a little bit of work that needs to be done there to figure out the logistics and feasibility.”

The Visiting Scholars Program provides students with opportunities to hear from learned lecturers, artists and thinkers. Past guests have specialized in a variety of different fields, including poetry, literature and science. Last year, visitors included astronomer and astrophysicist David Shoemaker and journalist Bryan Mealer.

VIRTUAL ADMISSIONS Due to the inability for interested families to visit campus, the Admission Office has organized virtual “Coffee Break Live”, which will be virtually hosted with over 150 families from across the nation in September. The goal is for on-campus events to return as soon as possible, but virtual events will continue to be included to better serve out-of-town families.

NATIONAL MERIT Thirty-two seniors were named semifinalists for National Merit Scholarships by the National Merit Scholarship Program Sep. 9. The seniors are among only 16,000 semifinalists from across the country. After following the prerequisite guidelines, they will continue to the Finalist section of the NMSP, where over half are expected to receive one of 7,600 National Merit Scholarships.

The students named include Alam Alidina, Michael Anderson, Jacob Bell, Beto Beveridge, Beau Exall, Jackson Fair, Jordan Gaines, Fritz Hesse, Matthew Ho, Anish Karthik, Mustafa Latif, Jamie Mahowald, Rishi Mohan, Sam Morgan, Cristian Pereira, Robert Pou, Antonio Quinones, Cooper Ribman, Siddhartha Sinha, Ned Tagtmeier, Sai Thirunagari, Varun Trivedi, Michael Vanesko, Vatsal Vemuri, Benny Wang, Mason Westkaemper, Drew Woodward, Max Wu, David Yang, Charlie Zhang, Han Zhang and Jerry Zhao.

9

Science

While STEM is still a male-dominated field, more women have found opportunities, so we met with science instructors Bonnie Flint and Cristina Macaraeg to learn about some of their experiences in the STEM world.

Biology instructor Bonnie Flint has always been interested in science “My main entrance into science was that from a very young age, I really was fascinated by animals,” said Flint. “In fourth grade, I heard the word ‘zoologist’ and after hearing that, I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

Flint’s fascination with animals carried all the way through high school, and eventually, she decided to major in behavioral ecology.

“I took a behavioral ecology class, or the first one that I took was an animal behavior class, by a professor who studied animal behavior,” Flint said. “At that time I was like, ‘This is it. This is my thing.’”

In both undergraduate and graduate school and in college, Flint noticed that a large majority of the students were female, contradicting prevailing stereotypes about women in STEM fields.

“It turns out that ecology is, at this point in time, mostly women,” Flint said.

“In graduate school, the women in my departments outweighed the men probably like eight to one. There were way more women than there were men. Even at the level of the professors, there were definitely men professors in ecology, but there were just as many women.”

Flint believes that ecology does not actually suffer from discrimination for your gender like some other STEM fields have.

Flint says that women experience a lot of resistance in is fieldwork though.

“The only place where sometimes people will doubt you is in fieldwork,” Flint said. “If you’re needing to go out and camp alone somewhere or be in the field by yourself, you’re gonna have people, usually men, who are going to say ‘Are you sure you can do that? I don’t think that’s safe.’

But they would do it in a heartbeat.”

Flint says that there were situations where people would doubt her just because she was a woman. This became very prevalent when Flint was doing fieldwork in Botswana.

“A lot of times what would happen, especially in Botswana, is I would be out in the field by myself,” Flint said. “I had a truck that I was driving out there, and you would get a flat tire. And I don’t even know how many times I changed a flat tire on a truck by myself. When nobody’s around, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Bonnie Flint But then people say, Biology ‘You did that all by instructor yourself in the sand and mud?’‘Yes, I did.

What other option did I have?’”

Flint also mentioned that many times, people would refuse to accept her help.

“In the rainy season [in Botswana], it would get really muddy, and you had to be very careful when you drove,” Flint said. “When you’re driving through that kind of stuff, you can’t be cocky about it.

A lot of other people would get stuck, and I would drive up to them and ask them if they needed help getting out. If it was a man, without fail, he would deny my help.

It was like I’m castrating him, which is very ridiculous. But he just didn’t want a woman to be the one to save him.”

On the other hand, Chemistry Teacher Cristina Macaraeg has not experienced much resistance as a science teacher.

“I’ve been interested in science since middle school, so it made sense to me to major in science,” Macaraeg said. “I originally was going to premed, but eventually I ended up majoring in

biophysical chemistry, which is a good mix of physical chemistry and biochemistry, plus lots of lab work. I really owe it to my professors and classmates for making it such an enjoyable experience.”

While Macaraeg said her teachers were very supportive, she did notice a lack of female professors while she was in college at Dartmouth.

“I had incredibly supportive professors and mentors at Dartmouth, and I felt like I had equal access and opportunity to pursue projects beyond the regular curriculum,” Macaraeg said. “It seemed as though the women in STEM at Dartmouth, whether they were professors or graduate students, made it a point to connect with us, so there was never a sense of being lost or overlooked. That said, there weren’t many women in tenured positions, and it was obvious that the ones there were working overtime to make sure we were stuck with it. ” Macaraeg believes she is incredibly lucky with her experiences as a STEM teacher or even in the STEM community.

“As a high school science teacher, I haven’t faced particular hardships that are specific to being a woman in STEM,” Macaraeg said. “Within the STEM community, my colleagues have always been supportive. What’s interesting is the contrast between the STEM support I’ve received and the challenges I’ve faced in other male-dominated spaces – coaching and administration, for example.”

Macaraeg believes that for women to have more impact in all communities, they must start with the top.

“I think it will take a real shift in the mindset of many Americans to see women as capable leaders in STEM fields and beyond,” Macaraeg said. “The lack of women representation at the top, whether we are talking about elected officials in the United States, company CEOs or heads of school, plays into this idea that women are less-than, so until real progress gets made in these areas, it will likely remain the same.”

STORY Ethan Borge, Cooper Ribman PHOTO Ekansh Tambe

The ReMarker • October 29, 2020

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hroughout school history, the science department has yielded students who have gone into succesful carrers in STEM. Now, students have dreams of starting the next tech giant, building the next great machine, solving the world’s greatest problem.

They have success on their minds.

But what what those Marksmen don’t consider, what they don’t have to consider, is whether their gender will eliminate learning or even professional opportunities.

For years, however, that hypothetical has been a real issue for women.

But Dr. Bonnie Flint and Cristina Macaraeg are proof that this trend is changing.

IN THE LAB As more women join the STEM world, biology instructor Bonnie Flint and chemistry instructor Cristina Macaraeg (pictured) are leading the charge toward a new era of science, technology, engineering and math.

Discoveries

Women in STEM

Environment Director of Environmental Studies Dan Northcut explores the damage meat consumption can do to the environment. Page 10

In brief GREEN MARK’S CLUB The Green Mark’s Club began its Lower School teaching program earlier this month. Last year, the program taught 2nd through 4th grade about water conservation, pollution and recycling. In late October, the club held a volunteering event at the Trinity River Audubon Center. More community service events will be planned throughout the year with organizations such as For the Love of the Lake.

QUIZ BOWL The quiz bowl team placed first in the Texas Quiz Bowl Alliance jamboree on Sep. 26. The team that won consisted of juniors Miki Gosh and Han Zhang, and seniors Ned Tagtmeier, and Aayush Goodapaty, beating James E. Taylor High School in the finals 715-55.

This qualified them for nationals.

The C team consisting of freshman Vardhan Agnihotri, Ethan Bosita, Arnav Lahoti, and Sid Bidare also qualified for nationals by making it to quarterfinals in the tournament.

ROBOTICS TEAM Since early September, the Robotics Team has met after school to prepare for the BEST Robotics competition in early November.. In previous years, the competition involved a large gathering of over thirty local schools, but due to health restrictions, this year’s competition will be conducted remotely by each participating school. Each team builds an obstacle field to compete on competition day, and a referee will come out to judge the completion of tasks compared to the other teams.

Opinions

The ReMarker • October 29, 2020

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Election

Students with different political outlooks give their take on what's at stake in the presidential election.

Page 25

Staying Safe The Editorial Board urges Marksmen to stay committed to safety on campus. Page 26

Pigeons

Axel Icazbalceta reflects on the trials and tribulations of owning and caring for pigeons. Page 26

short & SWEET

EDITORIAL

Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment

Seventy seven years after it was first introduced in Congress, the Equal Rights Amendment, which seeks to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sex, remains in limbo. Here's why it should be the 28th Amendment.

GOOD TROUBLE A diverse coalition of women demonstrate in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Photo Creative Commons

Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

A

bove is the text of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

It’s remained virtually unchanged since it was written 77 years ago by lawyer and activist Alice Paul. She recognized then that while the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the ability to vote, it didn’t protect them from genderbased discrimination. Today, according to a 2016 poll by the ERA Coalition, such an amendment would be supported by 94 percent of Americans. So why hasn’t it been ratified?

By 1982, the ERA was passed by the House and the Senate with a two-thirds majority and ratified by 35 of the necessary 38 states (including Texas). Ever since, it’s remained at a standstill, because while it’s been reintroduced in every session of Congress and three more states have since ratified it, five states have also taken the legally murky step of withdrawing their ratification, leaving the ERA’s future in question.

Nevertheless, we believe these challenges can and should be overcome with bipartisan action at both the federal and state level. The ERA is worth fighting for because it exemplifies why Constitutional amendments were created in the first place: to

prevent the nation, in the words of Justice Joseph Story, from “by the pressure of its inequalities bring[ing] on a revolution.”

There is, however, one common counterargument to the ERA: that it’s unnecessary, that legal precedent has already established that gender-based discrimination is illegal. But the Constitution contains no explicit language that protects people from discrimination on the basis of sex, so any precedent is vulnerable to being overruled. And that’s not just our opinion — no less than Justice Antonin Scalia has said that the Constitution “doesn’t forbid” discrimination on the basis of sex.

More importantly, under current precedent racial and religious discrimination are held to a higher level of judicial review under the 14th Amendment (“strict scrutiny”) than gender discrimination (“intermediate scrutiny”). In other words, while any discrimination is incredibly difficult for the government to justify, a government policy that discriminates by gender would be easier to justify as Constitutional than one that discriminates by race or religion.

It’s evident, then, that ratifying the ERA would result in more than just symbolic posturing—it would mean real legal protections for those facing discrimination on the basis of sex. And the country should do so as quickly as possible: surely there would be no better way to honor the legacy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg than by cementing in the Constitution the protections that she fought so hard to uphold.

Our hot takes on the month's less consequential issues­– in 280 characters or less.

SAGE's food has been good overall, but inconsistent.

The churros: fantastic. The meatloaf, not so much. And the pizza ran the gamut – we saw every shade of mozzarella from white to well-burnt brown.

Five things to know

• 38 states, just over two-thirds of the country, are needed to ratify the ERA • 35 states ratified the amendment before the original Mar. 1979 deadline • 5 states, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Dakota, subsequently rescinded their ratifications.

• 3 states, Nevada, Illinois and Virginia, have since ratified the amendment • A new amendment will need to be re-ratified by Congress

Political discussion should be encouraged in relevant classes. Full stop. That's especially true in the run-up to an election, because it'll make for better-informed voters and a less polarized atmosphere.

This year's Senior Class is the biggest yet and that means less available parking.

Right now there's enough space given a little leakage into the junior lot. But, as classes grow across the Upper School, we hope to see a more permanent solution.

And remember to go vote on or before Nov. 3.

For more details, head to vote.org.

GRAPHIC Jonathan Yin

From the 1970s till now, you've had legislation which has outlawed discrimination against women under the 14th amendment. But that amendment wasn't designed specifically around gender. It was part of the civil rights legislation, and it's been expansively viewed to enforce some kind of equality between genders. But the right to that equality is nowhere in the Constitution, unless you're interpreting due process.

– History instructor Andrea Hamilton

the profs WEIGH IN

Amendments can be expanded or contracted by courts to mean all sorts of different things.

Especially now in this era, the whole issue of gender now is kind of up in the air – everybody's arguing over what gender is, whether someone can identify as a particular gender, who can participate in certain sports – throw all of that into an Equal Rights Amendment and it's thrown into a cocked hat.

You've got confusion rather than clarification.

– History instructor Bruce Westrate

EDITORIAL

Miscommunication between students, administrators Communication is central to the new normal created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The school has had to communicate with the community to notify students and their families about safety protocols, scheduling changes and, most recently, information about COVID-19 cases on campus. At the beginning of the school year, it was evident that the school decided to prioritize informing parents of Marksmen over students themselves. While we understand that parents are often a more reliable and consistent recipient of critical information, this should not prevent the administration from directly informing at least the Upper School student body as well.

When on-campus COVID-19 testing was first made available before the start of the school year, for example, students never directly received information from the administration on whether testing would be offered, much less when and where it would occur. As a result, only 43% of

polled students knew that there was testing in the first place. Similarly, students are not directly informed when a member of the community tests positive for COVID-19. Instead, parents are notified by email, while students are relegated to either checking the inconspicuous Covid Cases Community Update page or relying on their parents or even other students. When considering the school’s emphasis on education that nurtures independent young men, over 90% of polled students agreed that students should not be kept out of the loop on this valuable information, especially given the fact that the students are the ones who are on campus and, like faculty and staff, may actually catch the virus.

While we greatly appreciate the consistency with which the administration communicates with the parents in the school community, we hope that the school will extend their effort to the students as well.

POINT-COUNTERPOINT Republican? Democrat? Differing viewpoints, philosophies highlight contentious presidential campaign.

Junior Shane Sweet: "The government is the organ for change..."

The most important issues in this election are Coronavirus and our response to it, because we are still dealing with spikes in cases; economic recovery, because the economy is down really bad and many people are out of work; immigration, because that is a very negative effect on American jobs; and the Supreme Court, because there is a strong movement to erode our norms by packing the court.

CARTOON Cooper Cole

I’m a moderate Democrat who is going to support Biden. I disagree with many of Trump’s decisions and dislike his conduct as president. Biden will be a welcome return to some sort of political normalcy.

The election will decide the fates of both parties either resulting in a return to a more bipartisan time or a lurch further to political extremes and partisanship. This election covers a massive amount of issues including the economy and the wealth gap, COVID19, international relations, Healthcare, racial equality, abortion rights, and political extremism.

We need to work to respond to COVID-19 and help Americans recover financially from the damaged economy and the growing wealth gap. We also have chaos and violence from domestic extremist groups and a police system that needs reform. And arguments over health care, abortion rights, environmental regulations, and gun control are still prevalent.

The US should be more involved with foreign affairs and that we should stabilize our trade agreements with allies. I think [the Trump Presidency] will be seen as a departure from America political tradition and a huge shift for the Republican Party.

I’ve been thinking about what my response should have been. All I could manage at the time was an off-guard, “I’m just like… you know… another friend you can hang out with.”

And to think my baggy-shirted, bowl-cut, first grade self made it all the way to senior year, to think I’m in a position where a first grader is asking me what a senior does is crazy. I’m still wondering how anybody let me get this far.

Truthfully, I don’t know what a senior buddy — or a senior in general — is supposed to do. I was half-expecting a manual or some insert in my directory. None so far, for those of you wondering.

Two months in, it’s been blue shirts, a senior year yard sign and more college essays than I could’ve ever imagined.

But I think I figured out at least part of my answer.

As a senior buddy, yeah, it is my job to be another friend for my little buddy to hang out with.

But as an upper schooler, as a young American, as a young adult inthis world, it’s also my job to start growing up, taking action and becoming the leader I’ve been trained to be.

It’s my job to be the most supportive big brother, the most fun senior buddy, the most approachable peer I can be.

It’s my job to take an interest in my future — the world’s future — and immerse myself in conversation, in others’ opinions and in my own beliefs.

And eventually, it’ll be my job to vote — missing this year’s date by days is a bummer by the way.

Catch me at the midterms in a couple of years, though.

But regardless of whether I can vote, regardless of the action I’ve taken in years past, regardless of how much I’ve actually been plugged in, the fact of the matter is that I have more power than I thought.

We, the young, up-and-coming generation, have more power than we thought.

It’s just a matter of putting it to use.

It’s time for us to assume responsibility, take charge and be the leaders — be the change — like generations before us.

And if it sounds a little early for this, sure, maybe I am jumping the gun. But it’s our future anyway.

Might as well have a little input.

And I know it’s easier said — or written — than done. We’re going to fail at taking the lead occasionally. That’s just part of the deal.

But instead of taking your bumps and bruises and feeling rotten about them — like those disgusting apples — be a green grape.

They’re better anyway.

Sid Sinha Managing Editor

25 Opinions

Other than working with other countries to fight climate change, America should largely remove itself from the global sphere and focus on its own issues. We should bring all our troops back from the Middle East ASAP.

"This election covers a massive amount of issues..."

I

met my little buddy for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

Granted, it wasn’t exactly how I had dreamt of our first meeting, but for a 30-minute virtual faceto-face, I think we got along pretty well.

He had some tough questions for me — favorite color, favorite food, you know, the real hard hitters.

And like any journalist, I flipped his questions on him. From experience, there are some interviews you never forget because of how hard it was to get answers or any conversation. This was not one of them.

Open book is an understatement, I’m happy to say.

Right off the bat, he likes basketball — already a great guy by my calculations. He has a collection of stuffed animals — specifically “piggies” (one to sleep with and two more as backups).

And he likes green grapes. Not those disgusting red ones. They get bruised and taste like rotten apples.

My mom says I’m a picky eater. I don’t even know what a picky eater is.

A few more tough questions. How old are you? What grade are you in? As a green grape consumer, he’ll catch on to the whole senior part of it eventually.

But then he squeaked a question I didn’t have a simple answer to. A question I couldn’t flip: What exactly is a senior buddy?

I had a lot of things planned for our first meeting.

Getting stumped by my first grade buddy was not one of them.

October 29, 2020

My political ideology is really about putting America and its citizens first. I believe the government is the organ for change, and that the state should provide for its people via social programs like universal healthcare and social security and things of that nature. I also think that we need to protect American workers by trying to stop harmful effects to jobs, such as robots and low skill immigrants as well as awful trade deals, to protect American workers. And I believe America should do all it can to fight climate change and protect the environment.

Senior Beto Beveridge:

Be the future leaders of right now.

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Women’s sports

Much work still remains

For years, women have made tremendous strides towards equality in the world of sports. But, today, women are still fighting for equal opportunities on the playing field and in the training room

T

he first professional women’s basketball game was played in 1997.

The first FIFA Women’s World Cup was established in 1985.

The first female NFL coach entered the league only five years ago.

The list could go on, but within each sport, the story is the same: women haven’t been dealt a fair hand in establishing themselves in the male-dominated industry of sports.

Women’s sports have increasingly gained recognition as athletes like soccer player Megan Rapinoe, tennis player Naomi Osaka, and track star Allyson Felix have used their platform to fight for equality within sports, male sports remain in the spotlight.

Although female athletes have struggled to attain equal opportunities to succeed, women are finding themselves more and more vital within the sports world. At 10600 Preston Rd., women like Natalie Bumpas, the newly hired athletic trainer who serves as the only female member of the Athletic Department, are establishing themselves in an overall maledominated industry at an all-boys school.

Bumpas was hired this fall to help fellow Athletic Trainers Matt Hjertstedt and Doc Browning. After many years of education and as a trainer, Bumpas hopes to improve the safety and wellbeing of our Natalie athletes.

Bumpas Born and raised in Athletic Indianapolis, Bumpas trainer graduated from Indiana University and pursued a career in health and administration. After realizing this path wasn’t fitting for her, she returned to IU for a degree in athletic training.

She used her degree to join the Athletic Department at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC for a year before attending the University of Iowa for her masters in sports administration. At Iowa, she spent two years as an athletic trainer for the baseball team. With all of this schooling under her belt, she was ready to move on to a bigger stage.

“I interned for the New York Mets for a season, so I was down in Florida for six months — March through August,” Bumpas said.

“Then, I got my first job in Division I athletics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. While I was in Omaha, I worked with volleyball, softball, swimming, baseball and a lot of different sports. We had a pretty small staff, so we all pitched in where people needed our help. Then, I was in Chicago at Northwestern [University] for seven and a half years working with their baseball team, and now I’m here.”

With many years of experience and education, one would think a trainer like Bumpas would have many opportunities to work wherever she pleases. But, for many women, this is not the case.

“In Division I athletics or professional athletics, you definitely don’t get the consideration that a male athletic trainer would,” Bumpas said. “A male athletic trainer can really get any job anywhere with anybody, and it’s not that way for a female. The females have to work harder, they have to prove

themselves, and it is a much tougher road for a female to get a job in this male-dominated world.”

Middle School assistant cross country coach Cristina Macaraeg, like Bumpas, feels she hasn’t always received the same recognition or platform as her male colleagues.

“When I was coaching varsity track in Los Angeles, it was a little more challenging to be heard, especially because I had so many other coaches working alongside me for the different events,” Macaraeg said. “It was just difficult to be recognized.”

Former Middle School track coach Michele Santosuosso, who now spends her free time coaching her two young sons in football and basketball, has also experienced struggles because of her gender.

“The only aspect that’s been different in both football and basketball for my kids is with the other male coaches,” Santosuosso said.

“Since I was the only female coach, I would get yelled at or they wouldn’t shake my hand at the end of the game. At first I found it insulting, but now I just find it funny, especially if my team beats their team.”

Bumpas feels she must act with more precaution because she’s at an all-boys school.

“It’s a little bit different, but I’ve been working with all boys for many years now,” Bumpas said. “There were only four females at the [New York] Mets, and as we got further into the season, it was just me. I was the only one because everybody else left for their affiliate. It is different in the considerations that I have to have, but it shouldn’t be any different for you all.”

Middle School water polo coach Janis Oprea says because she’s spent her whole life surrounded by men, coaching at an all-boys school is no different than coaching co-ed teams.

“I grew up with guys, so this is just natural for me,” Oprea said. “I didn’t have any sisters, so I’ve been playing sports with guys my whole life. Women sports didn’t pick up until I was a junior in high school, so then I joined the girls teams. Us girls who were athletic had no choice but to just play pick-up games with guys our whole lives because we had no other options for sports.”

Oprea, who grew up in Michigan, spent her childhood playing any and every sport, which inspired her to start coaching. Despite not having any opportunities to join girl sports teams as a kid, she found a way to stay active with her friends in the neighborhood.

“We were like The Sandlot movie,” Oprea said. “We all just played sports. There were no girls sports, even in my school, so I was always running around with my three brothers and all the kids in the neighborhood playing real football, real basketball and real baseball since I could probably walk. ” For female athletes like Bumpas, Macaraeg, Oprea and Santosuosso, the pay gap battled over in the WNBA and for the Women’s National Soccer Team demonstrates a disconnect between how we value the achievements of women versus men.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that there is such an imbalance there, especially with the

example of the women’s soccer team and what they have accomplished,” Macaraeg said. “It might be that their endorsement deals aren’t as big, but as far as success on the field, they’ve proven themselves more than capable of what the men have done and have achieved more. So it doesn’t make sense that their pay is so much less.”

While female athletes don’t receive the same recognition and respect as male athletes, Bumpas says they put in equal amounts of work.

By the “Especially if you’ve numbers ever worked at any college, there’s no difference between the women’s schedule and the men’s,” Bumpas said. % of all sports “They’re doing the same media covers amount of lifting, the same female sports amount of training, the same amount of practicing and all the same things that male athletes are doing. It’s not billion viewers during 2019 like it’s easier to be a female Women’s athlete. It’s not like it’s World Cup harder to be a male athlete.

It’s a very equal playing field as far as how hard they’re % difference working.” between NBA Oprea believes although and WNBA men and women put in rookie salaries equal amounts of work Sources: Cheryl Cooky, Adelphi when it comes to sports, the University physiological advantages men have are the reason sports are so maledominated.

“Men are better at sports,” Oprea said.

“I was at a disadvantage playing with all the guys. They were stronger, and most of them were faster. It helped me get better, but there’s no way I am equal athletically. That’s just biology.”

While Bumpas has been treated differently as a trainer in the past, she says the environment here is very supportive of her despite her gender.

“When you are an experienced and strong female, sometimes that is difficult for people,” Bumpas said. “Everyone here has welcomed me with open arms, and I think they definitely have been really open to my ideas and some ways that I can improve things around here with all the experience that I’ve had.”

Bumpas hopes one day male and female sports are respected equally, and female athletes are appreciated beyond their gender.

“I just hope that someday there isn’t a need to do an article about women in sports,” Bumpas said. “I hope someday it’s just about sports. I know it’s been a rough road for a lot of other female athletic trainers because I’ve known female athletic trainers that have goals of working in the NFL or working in the MLB. I hope that the female teams can achieve their goals, achieve the equal pay and accomplish the goals that they want to accomplish. It’s been really inspiring to see some of the stories and see the progress that has been made.”

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STORY Peter Orsak, Luke Nayfa PHOTOS Evan McGowan, courtesy Michele Santosuosso

The ReMarker • October 29, 2020

TAPING UP Newly hired athletic trainer Natalie Bumpas tapes Junior Henry Piccagli’s wrist before he heads out to football practice.

Sports

SOLO As the only female head football coach in her son’s flag football league, Santosuosso is out to prove herself.

Tom Adams Remembering the late history instructor and legendary coach, Tom Adams. Page 28

Rays trio

Three alums blazing a trail in professional baseball.

Page 29

Best games

Looking back on the greatest sports games in school history. Page 30

In brief

CHAMP TO COACH Former national chess champion turned coach freshman Harry Wang is currently training several of his elementary and middle school students from various schools in Plano and Allen.

Along with participating in loads of tournaments, Wang’s main goal is for his students to improve their chess rating, a number that determines a player’s skill. While he normally rents out a local learning center to tutor his students, Wang is forced to teach online in accordance with safety guidelines. In the future, Wang plans on giving free lessons to underprivileged kids, as well as donating the money earned from these lessons to support various causes.

IVY CANCELED Due to concerns regarding COVID-19, the Ivy League announced July 8 to cancel all fall sports this year.

The decision was made due to the lack of confidence that a safe environment could be maintained for all athletes. The Ivy League will, however, allow small group workouts and individual practices for these collegiate athletes.

Current alumni athletes Yale football player Anthony Andrews ’20, Dartmouth football player Paxton Scott ’20, Dartmouth football player Carr Urschel ’20, University of Pennsylvania basketball player Andrew Laczkowski ’20 and Yale football player Seun Omonije ’18 will not be able to participate in their respective sports this year because of this cancellation.

SCRIMMAGE Returning varsity basketball players played various scrimmages against local schools throughout this fall. Coached by former varsity basketball captain and University of Pennsylvania basketball player Andrew Laczkowski ‘20, the team beat Duncanville High School, the defending 6A state champions, 64-62.

The team also beat Highland Park High School for the third year in a row 59-49, however, they took a tough loss to the two-time 5A state champions Lancaster 54-60. Taking on some of the best competition in Texas, the players are grateful to be the preseason number one ranked team in the state and the number 23rd ranked team nationally via MaxPreps last April.