THE @THEHURONEMERY
HURON EMERY HURON HIGH SCHOOL, 2727 FULLER RD., ANN ARBOR MI 48105
VOL. 7 ISSUE 5
NEWS PAGE 3 Senior Zach Mayrend recounts the night he got shot
He was sitting by himself in the front office. Nobody knew how he had gotten there. “I mean, this kid just gets on a city bus with perfect strangers,” teacher Billy Finch said. “That just shows so much strength and perseverance.” CAITLYN FONG
Ann Arbor community members help refugees MAYA FU COPY EDITOR
ccording to the International Rescue Committee, 74,000 Afghan refugees fled from their homes to seek shelter in the U.S., 300 of them settling in Washtenaw County. The refugee crisis is rising again, and the conflict in Ukraine displacing human lives has highlighted the dilemma. More than half a year ago, the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Ann Arbor’s Jewish Family Services (JFS) is an agency helping to shelter refugees and provide necessities for them. One of the volunteers willing to go the extra mile is Forsythe Middle
A
School social studies teacher Semra Koknar. “It happened randomly,” Koknar said. “Because with JFS, the actual involvement has to happen during the work week, and I’m a teacher, so I can’t volunteer.” Last November, Ann Arbor Public Schools had several days off of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “My immediate reaction was ‘great, now I can volunteer!’” said Koknar. “I signed up to bring food to a food shop and bring food to a family that’s up in a hotel, on the side of the highway in Belleville.” The needs of this family — which would later become her “main family” — and others in the resettlement program, are often extensive.
“It was pretty elaborate shopping,” Koknar said. “You want to make sure it’s decent quality and the meat is Halal, or permissible for Muslims. I went to about four different stores and gathered up everything that I thought this family would need. I brought it up there, met this family, and was instantly charmed by them.” She got the impression that the family she worked with were middle upper class and most likely had a fairly large home. All the children are educated and the daughters speak some English. However, many other families in similar situations don’t have these advantages. Finding jobs and places to live. Fighting language barriers and cultural differences. There are
NEWS
TARIK FERMIN ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Huron Band performs at Carnegie The long awaited Huron Band’s trip to New York and their concert at Carnegie Hall have been planned since the beginning of the 20212022 school year. However, due to continuous COVID-19 regulations, whether the trip would actually happen was unclear for a while. “I remember thinking that there is no way we’ll be performing,” tenor saxophone player and junior Julianne Cucos said. “I thought the trip would be canceled
Page 1.indd 1
See REFUGEE, PAGE 3
ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 13 Representation in Bridgerton: On point
SCAN HERE
To find more content on our website
A heartfelt gesture by a Huron teacher in light of a tragic death
briefs
Daniel Lee STAFF WRITER
countless roadblocks to deal with, making every step the refugees take “My husband and I work really hard to help the families find a house which is challenging because most renters want to make sure that the people they’re renting to are employed, that they have proof of three times the rent, monthly rent, that they have a credit score above a certain number,” Koknar said. “They want all of this documentation that refugees can’t supply. They’re unemployed, they have no credit history. But of course, the resettlement agency does guarantee a certain number of months of support with the goal, they also supply support for employment.”
OPINION PAGE 8-9 Should the mask mandate be mandatory?
Kira Zhao playing the bass clarinet at band rehearsal. COURTESY OF BRAD CARLSON even the day before we left for New York.” Despite the concerns from students, the Huron Symphony and Green band went on their trip from March 28 to April 2, and had a twohour long concert at Carnegie Hall on March 30. They performed alongside other Ann Arbor Public High Schools: Pioneer, Skyline and Community. “The trip was really fun, and this was a cool experience because I never know
when I will get the chance to perform at Carnegie Hall again,” Cucos said. Despite the concert at Carnegie Hall being their first performance outside of Michigan this year, Cucos said it wasn’t overwhelming, but rather a valuable experience. “Most people said that they weren’t nervous,” Cucos said. “It felt similar to other concerts we have done this year. Obviously, the fact that it’s Carnegie Hall made it special.”
Nearing the end of second hour, on a regular Friday in September, Huron principal Ché Carter gasped in shock as he requested all teachers to check their email. After exactly a minute, he announced that senior Zade Shamma passed away. The bell rang and for the first time, silence struck as students swarmed the hallways trying to get to their next class. Nobody spoke. Nobody said a word. It was Sept. 9, 2021 when Shamma passed away, causing many lives to turn upside down. That included Huron social studies teacher and
counselor Mike Gottliebsen. “It was pretty hard,” Gottliebsen said. “[Shamma’s death] came right in the beginning of a class that I was supposed to have him in. So, on the fly I had to come up with a way to handle my own emotions, as well as seek to help whoever was in the classroom.” Gottliebsen wanted to help heal the Huron community, so he created a grief support group to provide support and contribute to the effort to help Huron students process the tragedy. “[I was] trying to help the kids that I saw personally in a couple of my classes,” Gottliebsen said when asked about his main motivation
See GRIEF SUPPORT, PAGE 5
5/22/2022 10:37:19 PM