NEWS
02 the Epic
PHOTO BY NICOLE GE
Letter from the Editors Dear Vikings, Welcome to Issue 7! Our centerspread surrounding languages delves into topics ranging from meaning that’s lost in translation to the application of swear words in daily conversation. Don’t forget about our usual coverage, either! In News, travel to Japan with the Japan Bowl team; in Opinion, delve into what it means to be “woke”; in Features, meet four of Lynbrook’s budding YouTubers; in In-Depth, learn about the politicization and history of drag; and in Sports, break school track records with senior Evan Taylor. Make sure to visit our website for exclusive content, including behind-the-scenes coverage of the InDesign fashion show and a video about students’ favorite song lyrics. During spring break, 22 Epic staffers traveled to San Francisco for the annual JEA/NSPA Journalism convention. Six staffers won individual awards and the Epic took home a prestigious second place among scholastic publications from across the nation. Get excited for Issue 8, our final issue of the year dedicated to the Class of 2023! Our seniors will be writing columns reflecting on their high school experiences. If you’re an underclassman, look forward to celebrating the Class of 2023’s senior bequeathals! Good luck on your APs, Elizabeth Cheng & Amy Liu Editors-in-Chief
PHOTO BY CATHERINE ZHOU
City to improve Lynbrook pedestrian safety BY AUDREY SUN
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o improve pedestrian safety and reduce traffic speed, the City of San Jose is proactively taking measures to add bulb-outs, or curb extensions, to the sidewalks at the intersection of Donington Drive and Johnson Avenue just outside the Lynbrook main entrance. Through the work of San Jose Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei’s office and the Department of Transportation, the city also plans to create a safety plan for all public and private schools in San Jose. “Lynbrook is an area where we have gotten community concerns about traffic and how fast the cars are going,” San Jose Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei said. The T-intersection of Donington and Johnson experiences heavy traffic during student drop-off and pick-up times, rendering it a hazardous area for bikers and pedestrians. These bulb-outs will narrow the road to force drivers to slow down, increasing pedestrian safety by offering a buffer area from cars. Bulb-outs are just one of the many features that the city has implemented in the community to ensure pedestrian safety. “I think the addition of bulb-outs will
be helpful to students who walk to school because it will provide more room on the sidewalk, which will make it safer for us,” junior Cyrus Wong said. To establish safer speed limits for pedestrians and bikers, DOT has employed a dedicated consultant to update engineering and conduct traffic surveys to reevaluate what should be the appropriate speed limits around school campuses. The city sources its data by sending out surveys to school principals, which allows them to identify specific issues related to each school and understand the needs and concerns surrounding its facilities. “We’re locating areas around schools to see if there have been incidents with pedestrian crashes or if cars are driving faster than speed limits,” Kamei said. Lynbrook is in an area which has received particularly numerous community concerns about the speed of traffic. A report of a student that was hit by a car during the 2021-22 school year was also a spark for the city to take the safety of student pedestrians more seriously. Due to this incident, DOT has planned to lower the speed limit near Lynbrook’s main entrance on Johnson
Avenue to 30 mph, but are awaiting the outcome of the study to make a final decision. “Slowing down the speed limit will help to a degree, but people should be driving closer to a 25 mph limit any time they are close to schools that are in session,” Lynbrook crossing guard Tim Wehner said. “It might help community members, both elderly folks and younger children, who may cross further up Johnson towards Bollinger, which is great.” In addition to the new safety measures the city is taking, Wehner suggests that drivers and pedestrians know the rules of the road as well as practice patience when the rush is on. Earbuds and phones are an unnecessary distraction for the 90 seconds or so it may take to cross any busy intersection. “The risk-reward between a tardy and someone being severely injured is not worth taking,” Wehner said. “Parents can consider leaving the house earlier, and perhaps dropping off their student a few blocks away from the school, which could alleviate congestion.” In June, DOT is expected to finish developing a school safety work plan with data from public and private schools.
Juul pays its largest settlement over minor-directed advertising training on it from the staff level, so we knew what to be looking for and what was n April 12, California announced happening,” Assistant Principal of School that they would receive the largest Climate Tara Grande said. In 2019, an FDA investigation found settlement a state has ever received from Juul Labs. The company settled with that Juul was selling its products without six states, amounting to $462 million appropriate authorization and implied that paid for advertising its e-cigarettes to their products contained less tobacco than audiences under 21 years prior to its they did. Additional criticism and lawsuits company-wide reset in 2019, in which the from states over various issues resulted company redefined its ethics after in Juul taking on a change in leadership. Under new CEO K.C. criticism. Crosthwaite, Juul “By using pledged to earn the advertising and trust of the community marketing strategies and rebuild to lure young people relationships with to its products, million paid by Juul for public-health officials Juul put the health advertising its e-cigarettes and policy-makers, and safety of its to underage audiences of with its primary goal vulnerable targets less than 21 years of preventing the use and the California of e-cigarettes among public at risk,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said underage users redefining the brand. “I felt that the company and the to the Mercury News. “Today’s settlement holds Juul accountable for its actions category, quite frankly, needed a reset and puts a stop to its harmful business given the trajectory that we were on,” Crosthwaite said to Bloomberg. “There was practices.” Since 2019, Juul has settled with 47 states clearly erosion of trust that existed for our over 5,000 lawsuits, amounting to a total of company and for the category.” While Juul never explicitly advertised nearly $3 billion. In its latest settlement, attorneys general from California, Colorado, to underage users, their products came Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and in sweet flavors which appealed to the Washington D.C. received compensation age group; they used young models and for lawsuits in their individual states, with celebrity influencers in their ad campaigns; California receiving the largest sum of hosted launch parties for products and gave $175.8 million. California plans to put the free samples to underage users at events. “I’m sure that advertising from vape money toward education and prevention of companies affects the number of students e-cigarette use as well as research. Launched in 2017, Juul quickly found who vape, I mean, that’s why they do it: to itself at the center of a teen vaping epidemic hook kids young,” Grande said. “That’s why as its flavored e-cigarettes rapidly rose in there are so many anti-vaping, anti-smoking popularity among minors, even making its commercials directed toward youth: they know that that’s what’s happening.” way to Lynbrook. One Juul pod, the cartridge containing “That was when we started doing some education around it and having more the flavored liquid, contains as much BY SAMYUKTA SARMA
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$462
nicotine as a pack of 20 cigarettes. Prior to a lawsuit from the state of New York in 2019, it was not disclosed on the packaging of Juul products or on its website that their products contain nicotine, nor did Juul define nicotine as an extremely addictive chemical derived from tobacco. A warning about nicotine is now disclosed on the packaging of Juul products and on the website, with an age-verification pop-up when browsing products as well. During its 2019 reset, Juul stopped all advertising in the U.S. and has yet to restart it. Additionally, Juul has discontinued all sweet flavors of its vape pens after backlash arguing that these flavors specifically appeal to underage users. The FDA is currently in the process of reviewing Juul after banning their products in 2022 after it alleged that Juul did not provide sufficient data in toxicology reports. While Juul’s products have reentered store shelves, the only flavors available for purchase are menthol and Virginia tobacco. According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, underage use of Juul products has declined by 95% since 2019. However, lawsuits from that era in Juul’s history continue to cost the company billions of dollars. Juul’s leadership has said that it continues to pay these settlements in order to atone for the company’s problematic past and show the public its commitment to transparency going forward. “With this settlement, we are nearing total resolution of the company’s historical legal challenges and securing certainty for our future,” Juul said in a statement released on April 12. “Now we are positioned to dedicate even greater focus on our path forward to maximize the value and impact of our product technology and scientific foundation.” Although the use of Juul among
PHOTO BY INAAYA YOUSUF, GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY INAAYA YOUSUF AND VIDUSHI UPADHYAY
underage users has plummeted, underage accessibility to vaping has not halted. Alternative brands, such as Puff Bar, are on the rise. In the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 14% of high school students and 3% of middle school students reported current use of e-cigarettes, with Puff Bar being the most popular brand. “Whenever new products come on the market and we start seeing our kids be interested in them, we want to take action to do education and prevent it,” Grande said. Of those who reported e-cigarettes use, 85% reported using flavored e-cigarettes, most commonly fruit-flavored, followed by candy and other sweet flavors, largely reflecting the legacy of Juul. While no amount of money can undo Juul’s actions prior to 2019, this settlement will contribute to the California government’s efforts to combat underage vaping.