The Fourth Estate 2017 May issue

SENIORS

LAGUNA BLANCA SCHOOL SANTA BARBARA, CA

JUNE 2, 2017

VOL. XXIII, ISSUE 4

From the Editors Dear Readers, In the theme of this June issue, The Fourth Estate recognizes the graduating seniors. Although they may be small, the class of 2017 has not failed to leave its mark on the Laguna community — as explained by English instructor Bojana Hill in her letter to the seniors, “No other class in Laguna’s recent history shares your group spirit.” Relating to the seniors, you can also find the senior staff members’ letter to their freshman selves, remember when’s, most likely to’s, senior quotes and a college map. This issue covers a variety of topics ranging from the spring break trips — the tour of Boston-area colleges and the experiential-ed New York trip — to highlighting the warm-weather fashion trends. To honor the recently deceased beloved Laguna community member Davies Kabogoza, there is a dedication to him on page nine created by freshman Sydney Hlavaty.

— the Editors-in-Chief We hope to use this space to cover events, interviews and topics of interest in greater depth. Our creative team of photographers, artists and writers strive to capture the voice of the students and tell their stories in a compelling way.

The Fourth Estate is an open forum created for and by journalism students of Laguna Blanca Upper School.

Our staff seeks to be a platform for creative expression and to report on events and ideas of importance to our readers.

The Fourth Estate welcomes guest columns and letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and must be no longer than 400 words.

Editors reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and/or taste. Anonymous letters will not be published. The Fourth Estate reserves the right to reject advertising.

Opinions expressed in this publication reflect the perspectives of the staff.

The Fourth Estate publishes four issues per year with a senior insert in the last issue.

We mail issues to subscribers and advertisers and exchange papers with high school journalism classes across the country.

When factual errors occur, we will correct the errors in the next issue.

The Fourth Estate accepts both print and online advertising in either black and white or color.

Contact Amanda Skinner at skiama@lbsstudents.org for advertising and/or subscriptions.

Visit our online paper for daily updates: www.thefourthestate.net. “Follow” us on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook.

the STAFF EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Aura Carlson Rose Houglet

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sonya Kotler NEWS & MANAGING EDITOR Jack Stein FEATURE EDITORS Carina Tedesco Caylin Zimmerman A&E EDITOR Kendall White SPORTS EDITOR Kelly Bickett OP-ED EDITOR Kailea Hieshima LIFESTYLE EDITOR Fiona Flynn PHOTO EDITORS Carina Tedesco Caylin Zimmerman BUSINESS EDITOR Amanda Skinner COPY EDITORS Mathew Goldsholl Jackson Hurley WEBSITE EDITOR Sydney Edgecomb

Corrections: A picture caption in the last issue with a photospread about Winter Formal misidentified sophomore Sullivan Israel as a freshman. A picture caption in the last issue with an article on “Speakers in Spaulding” misidentified Rabbi Zalmy Kudan as Rabbi Zulmy Kudan.

FACULTY ADVISOR Trish McHale, MJE

This is the fourth issue and 25th volume (published on June 2) of the Laguna Blanca School, 4125 Paloma Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93110, newspaper, The Fourth Estate. Contacts are available at tmchale@lagunablanca.org, (805) 687-2461 x317 or www.thefourthestate.net. Laguna Blanca School has an EK through 12th grade student population of approximately 375, with 100 in the Lower School, 110 in the Middle School and 165 in the Upper School, and a faculty population of approximately 60. The Fourth Estate is an 8.5 by 11 newsmagazine, created on Apple computers on Adobe InDesign CS6, using Helvetica Neue and Adobe Garamond Pro font families and printed on glossy paper by aPrintis, free for students and $30 for a yearly subscription. The magazine is distributed to all Upper School students through the school’s advisory program and sent by mail to subscribers, with 600 copies printed per issue. We are associated with NSPA, CSPA and JEA.

Jules Bernard Henry Farrell Julia Fay Natasha Heyer Clara Hillis Sydney Hlavaty Ava Morouse Kathryn Norris Luke Smillie Peter Smith Sierra Willard

REPORTERS

In This Issue NEWS 4 STEM 5 College Tuition 6-7 Spring Break Trips 9 Dedication to Davies

THEME 24 College Map 25 Dear Freshman Self 26-27 Remember When 28 Most Likely To 29 Dear Seniors FEATURE 30-31 Senior Quotes 10-11 Great Expectations SPORTS 12-13 Faculty Profile 32 Senior Highlights 14-15 Religion 33 Martial Arts 16-17 Teen Suicide 18-20 Are APs Worth It? 34-35 Spring Sports 21 Illustrated Interview

OPINION-EDITORIAL 36-37 Whales 38-39 Incarceration 40 Political Correctness 41 Pockets 42 Losing Touch LIFESTYLE 43 Prom 44 Teachers’ Dogs 45 Photographer 46 Hot Styles

ON THE COVER — Front: seniors then Back: seniors now Design: Natasha Heyer

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 22 Adult Animation 23 Sweeney Todd

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26 23 35 41

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he brainchild of Laguna Blanca science teachers Staci Richard and Zach Moore, the 2016-2017 school year introduced a brand new class for a new generation of young scientists.

The Science, Technology, Research and Mathematics (STEM) class opened up opportunities for more in-depth fields of study for a group of nine sophomore students. We asked students to write down their favorite things about the class so far: after all, in a class where students learn by doing, the best people to write about the class are the students themselves.

PHOTO: CARINA TEDESCO

THE WRITING’S ON THE WALL: Sophomore Izzy Sabino writes on the quote board, the STEM class’s window on which they write down in-class quotes.

BY JACK STEIN//GRAPHIC: JACK STEIN

NEWS

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Average Tuition (2016-2017)

Public Two-Year In-District:

$3,520

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ree college tuition.

This idea has become increasingly popular and was one of Bernie Sanders’s biggest campaign promises. His idea, that “every person in this country… should be able to get all the education they need regardless of... income” has gained popularity among some state and local governments despite the election results.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders recently announced that New York is going to be the first state in the country to provide free tuition to a wide variety of students attending two and fouryear public universities starting this fall.

This program provides undergraduate students who meet income requirements with “Excelsior Scholarships” to any city or state university in New York.

Once the scholarship is granted to a student, he or she must continue to meet the minimum GPA requirements and be enrolled in at least 30 credits per year.

The state’s program will be rolled out in tiers over the next three years, starting with full coverage of four-year college tuition this fall for students whose families make less than $100,000; the maximum income will then increase to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019.

However, there are many behind-thescenes problems with this seemingly flawless idea.

The program only covers annual tuition, which means that room and board aren’t included in the scholarships. This is a problem, because tuition only accounts for

Public Four-Year In-State:

Public Four-Year Out-of-State:

$9,420 $24,930

about a quarter of the total cost of attending a public college or university in New York, so families would still be required to pay significant amounts of money for the other aspects of attending college, besides just the tuition. Additionally, many federal and state aid programs only address tuition costs as well, so this program wouldn’t significantly assist low-income students.

It doesn’t cover full tuition for private schools. Instead, a new grant program will be created for students who attend private colleges in the state, with a maximum award of only $3,000.

Private colleges would also be required to match the grants, and to freeze tuition for the duration of a student’s grant.

After graduation, students have to live and work in New York for the same number of years they received scholarship money or pay back all the money they received.

This could force recent graduates to stay in New York even if unemployed instead of being able to work in another state, which is extremely limiting to students as it narrows their already tough job search to a specific state.

Freshman Peter Smith feels that this is a negative aspect of an overall “step in the right direction,” because “...it forces people to stay in a high-rent area. Graduates will be thrust back into an urbanized, expensive environment where they might not be able to get a job right away.”

Another issue to consider is that the money required for this plan will still have to be generated somehow, whether it be from

increased taxes or spending cuts for other programs such as infrastructure, etc.. “Free” college tuition is a myth: it won’t be free, just paid for in other ways.

When asked about his opinion on the deal, College Counselor Matt Struckmeyer said, “The issue is not so much affordability, it’s people unprepared to do the work, so just making it free doesn’t solve the problem when you have a huge number of students who show up to college and do not have the skills from high school to succeed in any college course.”

Struckmeyer pointed out that some students who qualify for the scholarship may not be prepared to excel in college classes, so these students will get money from the government but won’t necessarily succeed in college.

Therefore, he believes the money for this program could be spent in better ways, such as “universal preschool,” because that would create a strong foundation for education and would help produce more motivated students who have a passion for learning.

The skills these kids learned at a young age would then help them succeed in the future.

Since we already have federal, state and institutional forms of aid, what we need now are programs that integrate those different funders.

While the New York idea is on the right track, its specific policies generate issues and don’t fully address the problem of expensive college tuition.

There are still issues to consider.

Cuomo’s College Controversy

BY JULIA FAY

GRAPHIC: SONYA KOTLER

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NEWS

A New York Minute 52 Laguna students in the city that never sleeps. BY AVA MOROUSE Day 1: Welcome to New York After an hour-long bus ride from Queens, 52 Laguna students arrived in Manhattan.

Central Park was our first destination, and a stroll across several miles of stone paths led us to the Met. Students wandered through stone halls and stood perplexed in front of art pieces ranging from Ancient Greek sculptures to works by Picasso. Yes, hours could be spent roaming the Met, but time was of the essence, and the adventures had only just begun.

Tidey meets with Mr. Apollo at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Day 3: Harlem Another subway whisked us to Harlem as the Sunday sun rose over the city. Greeted by the mesmerizing Neal Shoemaker, a Harlem tour guide, the energy of Harlem radiated off of the red brick homes that lined the foggy streets.

Students split into two groups: one group began a walking tour of Harlem, and the other journeyed to Canaan’s Baptist Church for an authentic gospel church experience in the heart of Harlem.

A visit to the Apollo Theater followed. Experiencing the magic of this iconic theater proved itself to be one of the most memorable moments of the entire trip.

The night closed with a dreamlike visit to the Empire State Building, where the group made its way to the top of the legendary building.

Day 2: Brooklyn Saturday, Brooklyn was ours. Twelve students traveled to Williamsburg, where they met Roger Greenwalt, local music producer and mentor to Laguna students for the day.

Over the course of three hours, students wrote, recorded and created a song in the recording studio – a professional-grade experience. Check out the song at www.thefourthestate.net.

Meanwhile, the other 48 students embarked on a visit to the Brooklyn Art Museum and viewed the infamous feminist art installation “The Dinner Party,” a 1970’s piece consisting of the names of 1,038 women painted in gold leaf on a tile floor, and ceramic place settings chronologically depicting 39 women throughout time by artist Judy Chicago.

Next, we explored Brooklyn restaurants for lunch and boarded a subway for a walk around historic Chinatown along with a few hours of shopping and exploration in SoHo, a neighborhood located in Lower Manhattan.

Wandering through a city park and riding on a carousel came before dinner at Schnipper’s, followed by a moving viewing of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” at the Belasco Theater.

PHOTOS: CAMILA LEMERE

NEWS

Day 4: Greenwich Village Monday morning began with meeting Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, author and editor of “Nonstop Metropolis,” an atlas that freshmen had studied in English class earlier this year.

Freshmen engaged in analysis and reflection on their personal research papers, which were inspired by maps found in “Nonstop Metropolis.”

Following the talk, we explored Greenwich Village, the bustling neighborhood adjacent to several NYU buildings, and we visited the 9/11 memorial. A basketball game at Madison Square Garden capped off the night.

The group walking in SoHo. Day 5: Chelsea Our final day was spent in hyper-gentrified neighborhood of Chelsea. We traveled to Hudson Guild, a community center that provides services such as education and health care to families in need.

There, we were given the incredible opportunity to speak with participants of the Marc Levin’s HBO documentary “Class Divide,” a film studied by the freshmen that tells the story of the social and economic divide between avenues: The World School, an elite private school in Chelsea, and the Chelsea Elliot Housing Projects.

We made our way into Chelsea, where we stopped in at a gallery featuring the artwork of Laguna parent Russell Young. Then, just like that, the trip was over, and all that remained were the memories made, the friendships formed and the city that never sleeps.

GRAPHIC: WIKIPEDIA

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Boston Bound

BY SIERRA WILLARD Five Days: 16 Colleges & 14 Kids.

Day 1: Monday City: Worcester, MA Weather: 38°F, Raining Colleges: WPI, Clark College, Holy Cross College Story of the day: “We were on our way to this vegan restaurant, even though no one is vegan. While on our way there, since no one wanted to go, we put a burger place into the GPS, but somehow still ended up at the vegan restaurant. It was very funny.”

— Sophie Henderson

Day 2: Tuesday City: Providence, RI Weather: 44°F, Raining Colleges: Brown University, RISD, Wheaton College, Harvard University Story of the day: “We all watched a horror movie and after that no one could sleep because the house we were staying in had an attic just like the one in the movie.”

— Andrew Tolles

Day 3: Wednesday City: Boston, MA (suburbs) Weather: 42°F, Sunny Colleges: Brandeis College, Wellesley College, Babson College Story of the day: “All the boys cried when we watched “The Fault in Our Stars.”

— Javi Abrego

Day 4: Thursday City: Boston, MA (city) Weather: 40°F, Sunny Colleges: Boston College, Boston University, MIT, Boston Conservatory, Northeastern University Story of the day: “We drove 30 minutes out of the way to go get rolled ice cream.”

— Bella Gavasse

PHOTO: ALEX KOKE

JUMPING FOR JOY: Junior Annabelle Finefrock jumping in front of a Brown University sign.

PHOTO: MADDIE WALKER

COFFEE & CAMPUS: (Clockwise from PHOTO:counselor MATT STRUCKMEYER left to right) College Matt Struckmeyer, sophomore Alex Koke, junior Annabelle Finefrock, sophomore Sophie Henderson and sophomore Bella Gavasse at Boston University.

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Day 5: Friday City: Boston, MA (city) Weather: 32°F, Snowing Colleges: Tufts University, Harvard University (lecture) Story of the day: “So Mr. Struckmeyer accidentally put Sophie’s bag in the wrong car, instead of mine, because they were both red. About 10 minutes before my train left, I got my bag and made the train.”

— Alex Koke

GRAPHIC: MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY

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NEWS

Davies a dedication to

T

his year, we lost a lively young man who had, in just under a year, given everything he possibly could to the Laguna Blanca Community. Davies Kabogoza was a leader, a role model, and someone who always put others before him. He was a coach and a teacher. He was caring, compassionate, and lively. He had the power to lighten any room with a smile and lift the spirits of everyone around him.

“My thoughts on Davies are difficult to express because I feel a deep sense of loss for both our school and my family. Over the past couple of years, Davies gave soccer lessons to my boys, babysat them, and gave them a wonderful example of how to be a good person. It’s painful to think that John and Jojo won’t have Davies to learn from going forward, and that the Laguna community won’t have the opportunity to come to know him even better. However, I have taken some comfort in the thought that we are all fortunate to have had Davies in our lives, even if too briefly. Davies taught us all lessons of kindness, resilience, generosity, and dedication through the way he lived his life. I know that Davies made Laguna an even better place, I know that Davies and his story made me appreciate my life so much more, and Amanda and I know that Davies made our boys better young men.”

— Head of School Rob Hereford “We are going to play Cataperia” “Watch Netflix and eat some popcorns” “What's a Miguel?” “Don't float my boat.”

— Beau Glazier ‘20

“Unfailingly, each and every time I saw Davies, he greeted me with the biggest smile and warmest embrace. Davies had a gift for making you feel like family.”

— Meghan Roarty AP Psychology Instructor

“There is no way to explain it, but there was something so special about him. His kindness and smile could light up any room.”

— Lexie Reichard ‘20

“He was always so optimistic. I loved his jokes and will miss all the great memories.”

— Summer Wang ‘20 “I got the chance to spend almost five months training with Davies. It’s hard to put into words what he was to our community. Every day the JV soccer girls and I treked out to the fields and were met with a pair of bright shoes and a coach whose smile was even brighter.

Davies was a constant presence on the field, cheering us on, lifting us up when we felt down.

There was just something so pure about him — his warmth, his kindness, his smile — that made him such a wonderful person to have known. It’s hard to believe that such a light is no longer with us, but he will always be in our hearts.”

— Sydney Hlavaty ‘20

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NEWS

BY KATHRYN NORRIS GRAPHICS: SONYA KOTLER

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rom the moment a boy or girl is born, parents’ expectations are set in place, both consciously and unconsciously. Boys are immediately swaddled in a “masculine” blue, their nurseries are inundated with trucks and guns, and their small bodies are quickly clothed in pants and collared shirts colored in strong hues of blue, red, brown or black.

Little girls are swaddled in a “feminine” pink and return home to a nursery filled big-eyed stuffed animals and fairy depictions as they spend their days in dainty pink clothes.

Perhaps it is society that first sets up boy and girl expectations when a child is born, but as time go on, these expectations and distinctions between the two sexes widen and deepen as parents begin to grow their own personal set of expectations.

“Girly” items like dresses and makeup are yanked from male hands and are replaced with “masculine” items like footballs and baseballs. As little boys grow, they are taught that emotions are a sign of weakness, that everything should be held inside while they give the outward appearance of toughness.

Instead of dreaming about a limitless future, boys are assumed to excel in a science, math or business related field, and they come to recognize the unacceptable potential problem of failing. Meanwhile,

FEATURE

little girls are taught to be quiet and sit pretty, have long hair and wear just enough makeup to look good, but not too much to look superficial. The subjects surrounding becoming a wife await girls, while the expectation to also look like a perfect wife come running after them.

Parents have the ability to uphold these stereotypical standards, change them or find a place somewhere in between. One would hope that the expectations parents have is not based on their children’s sexes. But, according to research done by The New York Times using anonymous Google searches, the focus parents have for their children is extremely different for boys and for girls. In Seth Stephens-Davidowitz’s article “Google, Tell Me. Is My Son a Genius?,” Google searches found that parents are two and a half times more likely to ask “is my son gifted?” than “is my daughter gifted?”

Googled questions that are related to boys are also much more likely to include worries such as “is my son stupid?” or “is my son slow?” than girl searches with the same phrases. However, these findings carry no true meaning, as Stephens-Davidowitz found that girls are 11 percent more likely to be in gifted programs than boys, and girls have consistently been found to have wider vocabularies at a younger age compared to their male counterparts.

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and learning is the key as quickly as I have,” the first boy said.

On the other hand, for girls, the question “is my daughter When students were asked if they think parental expectations are overweight?” is looked up nearly twice as much as “is my son partly based on their sexes, each noted that individuality is the key overweight?” The irony behind this question is that, according to deciding factor of what expectations parents have, not necessarily National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, sex.

American boys are 33 percent overweight, while American girls are The first boy mentioned that the variety in his siblings’ personaljust 30 percent.

Going hand in hand with this, The New York Times study found ities and abilities led to various expectations. “One can argue that I was the only one that was pushed because I was a guy, but I know it’s that parents are three times more likely to look up “is my daughter just because my parents saw that I was smart, but didn’t really like ugly?” than “is my son ugly?” proving just how focused parents are schoolwork. In my family, I think each of us are pushed based on on the genius of their sons and the appearance of their daughters. what we can achieve, not gender.”

When I did my own Google search, I found that my results The second girl also agreed that she deals with different expectalined up to the New York Times’ research. When looking up “is tions not because of her sex but because of personality differences. my daughter…” the first words that popped up below my search “My parent’s expectations wouldn’t change whether I was female or bar were, in order, “gay, overweight, bipolar, crazy, gifted.” When I mirrored the same question with boys, the first ones that popped up male. Society makes it out that guys or girls do have different expecwere “gay, autistic, gifted, depressed, bipolar.” When I tried a similar tations. Guys are expected to be better at sports than girls, better at science than girls. But I think that society is changing.” search question phrased as “will my daughter be…” the first that Laguna students are presumed to be smart and to try their hardest. popped up were “pretty, tall, be like me,” while for boys it was “tall, According to my interviews, Laguna is not as weighed down by bald, gay.”

I wondered how my findings would translate into our community female beauty standards and male genius when compared to America where expectations are high for students to excel. The two boys and two girls I interviewed all mentioned that parents expected high “Men and women are not the same creature, so dedication to their work and learning. The first boy brought up the expectation of a social life in my opinion there should be different expecsacrifice in exchange for learning: “They expect tations; they just shouldn’t be negative or take me to give my utmost effort in all things related away freedoms. Also, expectations are just exto school. They don’t really care about sports because they know I like them...They expect pectations, don’t think that these are things you sacrifice of social life to achieve everything you must do because they’re not and if you fall into are able to so that you can go to the best name those expectations because you feel obligated college...”

The first girl I interviewed went along with then you are no better than the people that set the same idea, but expanded her perspective as them.” — Second Boy the oldest child; “In terms of school they have very high expectations. I feel like a little bit more for me, because I’m the eldest of three, so that plays a big role. You have do things right, because you’re setting as a whole. But the interviewees have all noticed differences in son an example for your siblings. My parents have told me, ‘studying and daughter expectations in different families. “Men and women should be your life everyday.’ They tell me I shouldn’t complain are not the same creature, so in my opinion there should be different about my life, because it’s my job is to study.” expectations; they just shouldn’t be negative or take away freedoms.

For the first boy and girl, the expectation to study and succeed Also, expectations are just expectations, don’t think that these are is closely matched despite different sexes. The second boy and girl things you must do because they’re not and if you fall into those mentioned a more self-motivated approach, and how their parents expectations because you feel obligated then you are no better than have taken a step back after seeing a built-in desire for learning and the people that set them,” says the first boy. success.

The first girl could also see why females and males may suffer from All four students agreed that parent expectations have sometimes different anticipations, but sees girls as being the ones with higher dissuaded them from pursuing a more desirable course, but has not expectations. She credits this to parents “trying to overcome history limited who they’ve become. “They say, ‘studying is your numand the [female] barrier”. ber one priority, and if you have a job or a boyfriend it’ll distract According to the Google study the rest of the country is still you from everything else.” But if I didn’t have those expectations focused on gender stereotypes, but here at Laguna the expectations I wouldn’t who or where I am today,” says the second girl. Othput in place for each student are based on concrete achievements and ers agreed that after defying expectations, they quickly learned to effort. Parents are able to adapt to the individual personalities and respect their parents’ wishes, “My parents are people who value abilities each of their children have, leading to unique expectations being intellectual, so I think that, yes, I may have done some things for each child. As these expectations are met and often exceeded, the different like going out when I shouldn’t have, or not focusing on trend towards individualized and non-gender specific expectations school, but I truly believe that I wouldn’t have known that school will hopefully increase.

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FEATURE

AN INTERVIEW WITH SOCIAL SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR RICHARD NATHAN

BY CLARA HILLIS // PHOTOS: CARINA TEDESCO

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NOT YOUR PARENTS’ RELIGION

BY CAYLIN ZIMMERMAN PHOTOS: CAYLIN ZIMMERMAN

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rganized, traditional religion is declining. The religiously unaffiliated, or “nones” in the U.S. now account for 23 percent of the adult population, up from 16 percent in 2007, according to the 2014 Religious Landscape Study done by the Pew Research Center.

As a believer in God, but not a devout follower of Christianity, I fall into the 63 percent of Americans who are “absolutely certain God exists,” but do not regularly pray, attend religious services, or consider religion to be very important in their lives.

My parents were raised Catholic, but, as adults, they became less strict about religion and now call themselves “Christian,” as I do. I have always planned to find my “true” religion once I got older and could experience religions in some capacity. I don’t want to continue to follow blindly the religion I was given at birth, but rather find myself while searching for a new way to live or new beliefs.

So, is religion really given to us at birth? How often are we given the chance to believe what we want to believe, free of bias from our families and society?

Many young people follow the religion of their parents because they simply don’t have enough experiences to compare religions for themselves. Junior Sophia Fay, for example, is a follower of Catholicism because of her parents.

“Since I was born I was always supposed to be Catholic. I was baptized as a baby, I had my First Holy Communion when I was in fifth grade, and I was just recently confirmed.” Fay plans to continue following Catholicism and has no desire to look into other religions. As for her future children, she says they can follow whatever religion they want as long as they are happy.

Junior Roth Yin also has the same beliefs as his parents. Like Roth and his parents, most of the younger generations in China are atheist, while many of the older people are Buddhist. Roth attributes Buddhism’s popularity among the elderly to the structure it gives in people’s lives. He says that he has noticed that “monks live a very long time because of routine, such as having to eat stuff at certain times. Also, when the monks get sick, they are comforted in knowing that they will be saved.”

Roth believes that he will be an atheist for the rest of his life, but plans to look into religions in the future.

For others, the faith that they grew up with begins to lose its meaning as they enter into adolescence or young adulthood. Just around the time that we begin to grow emotionally and begin to find ourselves, sometimes we find that our old beliefs and traditions no longer fit our new selves.

Math instructor Joel Poholsky was raised on traditional Judaism, but now practices some Buddhism. He attributes the shift in religion to a change in experiences, saying, “I think you always grow up with the religion your parents had in the household, but over time if the religion you compare new experiences to no longer reflects your

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personal beliefs, you start to consider switching.”

It’s a lot more common for adults to have a different religion from their parents’ than it is for kids to differ from their parents’. Because kids are often forced by their parents to attend religious services and celebrate certain holidays, they usually just follow family tradition.

English instructor Bojana Hill, who was raised in former Yugoslavia, says that her parents were not religious per se, but her grandparents were, and they had her home blessed and celebrated Eastern Orthodox holidays with them. Today, Hill is not a part of an organized religion, but believes in a spiritual lifestyle.

41%

of 75 Laguna students surveyed are part of an organized religion.

Hill says that she is, like many others who are “more spiritually curious or have that component to want to reach their highest selves through spiritual or religious means.”

She does not follow a book or doctrine on how she should live her life, but prefers to hold herself to a higher standard of “non-violence, peace and passion” through “spiritual training” that makes her always think of what is the right thing to do.

Poholsky mentioned his niece who, contrary to most millennials, is more religious than her parents and even more religious than her grandparents. He attributes this interest to her wish to be more connected with her family and past generations.

Sophomore Sully Israel is another millennial who differs from most. He was not given religion by his parents in a traditional sense, rather, he and his parents both decided together to start attending synagogue and become more involved in Judaism.

When Sully was approaching 13, his parents wanted him to have a bar mitzvah, so they found a rabbi and started to attend synagogue regularly. He says, “With my attitude, I really enjoyed studying with my rabbi. One of the biggest aspects of Judaism is having free choice. Kids are allowed to ask as many questions as they want to and are challenged to question everything by the rabbi. You have to accept the belief for yourself, no one else is going to make you.”

Sully also wants his children to be Jewish, so that they can carry on the Jewish legacy within his family.

A lot of people assume that those who do not belong to an organized religious group reject religion altogether, but many “nones” believe in God and heaven; they find God in nature rather than in a church.

Religion and personal beliefs can come from anywhere: life experiences, traveling, relationships. Questioning and challenging the beliefs you’ve been pushed into believing is a great way to discover the way of life that allows you to be your best self.

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BY CARINA TEDESCO

PHOTO: CARINA TEDESCO GRAPHICS: PISCI ABREGO

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that’s the easy way out,’” said founder of Media Impact and Navigation for Teens, Alexa Curtis.

Aside from experts like Curtis who believe the show could serve as a negative influence for some teenagers, others praise the show in its ability to initiate necessary conversation about these issues.

Katherine Langford, who plays Hannah, defended this in a recent interview. Langford said, “Of course there’s controversy. I think things like this instigate discussion, which is the important part. And I think we cover so many important issues in the show that are going to affect people differently depending on their own personal context. And it is right for teenage suicide and depression to be labeled “important issues.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among American people between ages 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death.

Experts say that although it may appear in “13 Reasons Why” as though Maybe if depression were not treated as most teenage suicides are solely caused by bullying, a large factor is left out of a weakness and a rarity, people would the picture. feel more comfortable getting help. “[13 Reasons Why] is a huge insult — Anonymous Laguna Blanca junior to anyone with mental health issues,” said “The Tab” writer Serena Smith. series, as claimed by producer Selena Gomez, was Smith argues that the show’s lack of any mention to spread awareness about teenage depression, the of mental illness inaccurately depicts suicide, show has experienced backlash in more ways than which is most likely the cause of the show’s one. receiving “over dramatic” reviews.

In addition to many viewers believing that Smith goes on to argue that suicide is not the execution of this message was over dramatic, directly caused by other people and that mental many mental health experts criticize the show, illness is a factor that was inappropriately igarguing that suicide and depression are portrayed nored in the show. both romantically and inaccurately.

Reflecting on her own mental illness, a junior, Experts believe that the romanticized, extremewho asked to be anonymous, said, “It is embarly graphic scene of Hannah’s suicide could be the rassing because everyone would look at me diftipping point for teenagers struggling with mental ferently and would treat me differently. I feel like illness or an inspiration for “copycat” suicides. some people would think I’m weak and exaggerThe idea of “suicide contagion” isn’t a new ating to get attention. Maybe if depression were one. In 2013, a study published in the Canadian not treated as a weakness and a rarity, people Medical Association Journal found that young would feel more comfortable getting help.” students who were exposed to a classmate’s suicide Although “13 Reasons Why” has debatable were five times more likely to experience suicidal faults in its presentation, the conversation it has thoughts. urged is a step in the right direction. Spreading “Had I been watching [13 Reasons Why] as the awareness of the fact that mental illness really is vulnerable, fragile kid that I was when I was 13 or not a rare condition is pivotal in the elimination 14, I might have watched that and thought, ‘Oh, of its negative stereotypes.

he main character of “13 Reasons Why,” the newest binge-watching obsession on Netflix, digs a razor into her wrists and bleeds to death in a bathtub after multiple accounts of bullying.

Yet, she appears at the top of the list of “The Most Annoying Characters” in the show on satire and pop culture websites like “Betches,” which has a following base of over 5 million and which explained her place on the list saying, “half the s--that happened to her wasn’t even that bad.”

Expressed in 13 revenge tapes left behind for each person who crossed her, Hannah Baker’s “13 reasons” for killing herself were seen as over dramatic, and memes mocking her slogan “welcome to your tape” quickly went viral on social media and typically look something like this: Hannah: “Can I have a Coke?”

Waiter: “Sorry, we only have Pepsi.”

Hannah: “Welcome to your tape.”

Although the reason behind the creation of the

of 103 Laguna Blanca Upper School students reported feeling depression or suicidal thoughts

of these students said that no teachers or friends were aware

HOW TO GET HELP

Megan Brown Laguna Blanca High School Counselor mbrown2@lagunablanca.org

24/7 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255

You Matter Blog youmatter.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

of 103 Laguna Blanca High School students said that they would feel embarrassed about admitting suicidal thoughts or depression

Are APs Worth It?

We asked 43 students, 14 teachers, two admissions representatives and four alumni to figure out whether it is worth it for students to take APs and for Laguna to offer them.

BY AURA CARLSON & ROSE HOUGLET PHOTOS: CARINA TEDESCO

I

magine typical teenagers falling in love.

They spend four years trying to impress, look attractive to and make their crush love them back, with their parents, friends and counselors constantly offering advice on how to woo the recipient of the love. Most of the lover’s time and energy is focused on pleasing their crush, from their school day to their weekends.

Who is the lucky recipient of this infatuation, you may ask? College Admissions.

Students

O

GRAPHIC: SONYA KOTLER

FEATURE

ut of the 43 students surveyed, 86 percent agree on one thing: one of the main reasons Advanced Placement (AP) classes are taken is to look good for college admissions. But there are many pros and cons to weigh when considering whether or not APs are worth taking given the time they take and the stress they cause. From current upper school students and teachers to admissions representatives and college-aged alumni, we asked the question: are APs really worth it?

And to this, the majority (58 percent) of students replied yes. However, when asked what their primary reasons are for taking AP

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courses, students prioritized looking good for college, getting college credit and receiving the AP grade point average bump before learning the material.

For example, one anonymous student said, “There is so much work involved, and it is so stressful, but if it gets me that extra push into college, I need it. After two years of hell because of APs, the only thing that gets us through is the hope that this will help me get into a good college.”

Similarly, when asked to pick the reasons why they think students take APs, the 14 teachers polled chose looking good for college (93 percent), GPA bump (86 percent) and peer/parent pressure (79 percent).

But instead of helping in the college admissions process, APs can sometimes hinder your chances of getting in by consuming time that can be spent in ways that are both more fun and guided towards your interests.

In a time where many colleges take into account “your whole story,” as stated by a Bard admissions representative, students may benefit more from spending free time on their passions rather than on unhealthy numbers of AP courses, which, according to the other 42 percent of students are not

THE FOURTH ESTATE

worth taking due to extreme levels of stress: “I’ve had a lot of stress to the point where I’ve completely broken down, and I know now that it’s not worth my mental health,” another student said.

One of the most common concerns among the polled students was the AP test itself, with 86 percent saying that the test should be optional and 53 percent stating that making the test optional could be a solution to the problem of APs at Laguna.

One responder said, “I think the actual AP class is good because it’s harder coursework and prepares you for college. However, I think the actual exam is a total scam. You have to pay an excessive amount of money for it, and you only have one day to perform well. The tests put way too much pressure on kids. One day should not decide the course of someone’s future.”

Teachers & Alumni

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dditionally, nine of the 14 instructors polled said that it was not worth it for Laguna to offer AP courses. Latin instructor Rose Steeber, who teaches AP Latin, in response to what effect she sees AP courses having on students, listed, “Learning how to take a test rather than the content of the subject area, no time to explore connected interests and learning on a superficial level.”

When asked to pick the main problems with AP courses, instructors listed, in order, stress on students, time constraint (less teaching time), teaching for a test and a restricting syllabus (needing to be approve by the College Board). History instructor Lindsay Woodard, who teaches AP U.S. History, added that “the course emphasizes scores over learning.”

Some teachers said that they aren’t upset with Laguna, and rather with the College Board. Science instructor Staci Richard, who teaches AP Biology, said, “The pressures

YES

NO

Are APs Worth Offering?

Nine out of 14 teachers polled through a Google Forms answered no.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

YES

NO

Are APs Worth Taking?

25 out of 43 students polled through a Google Forms answered yes. of getting into college have created a College Board monster to whom we are all prisoner.”

Margaret Lazarovits ‘14, a junior at University of Chicago who took eight APs, agreed, “For me APs seem to cover breadth and not depth, so while you learned about all these different topics, you didn’t necessarily have time to delve into the theory or motivation behind them.”

Though most instructors opposed the program, they still commented on certain advantages to offering the courses: “I know from alumni and my own experience that AP courses do help students in college in several ways. [First], they prepare students for the rigor and pacing of college courses.

[Second], they give students a jump start on the material, making courses easier or allowing students to have a reduced course load (if they receive credit). So actually having taken APs in high school can reduce stress, increase achievement and allow students more free time in college. If nothing else, they definitely help teach time management,” said science instructor Katie Pointer, who teaches AP Chemistry.

Dani Abrams ‘16, a freshman at Bowdoin College agreed, saying, “I think that advanced/challenging courses definitely prepare you more than regular classes do, but I don’t think that AP courses necessarily put you at an advantage. Coming into college, classes are faster paced and the exams are difficult — so in that respect, I felt AP courses were helpful.”

So, will APs help you in the college admissions process and in getting class credits?

We decided to find out from the colleges themselves. We asked alumni from colleges ranging in size, in addition to admissions representatives for the University of Santa Barbara (UCSB), a local research university, and Bard College, a small college on the East Coast, popular among 2017 Laguna applicants.

The value of taking APs for college credit

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ROTH YIN “When you’re pushed to do something that you don’t want to do, the ... stress will [overwhelm] you ... On the other hand, if you are not forced to do something, you won’t feel stress.”

MATT STRUCKMEYER

“On the upside, as a former AP Literature teacher, I am a strong believer that setting a benchmark of college readiness, as a national goal for high school students, is extremely important. When you publish those standards ... you’re proving what students can do in high school.”

KATIE POINTER

“They require more time than my other classes to prepare. The pacing is faster than I would like to go, and even though I actually agree with the content chosen by the College Board (in most cases), I wish I didn’t have to squeeze it all in before May.”

FEATURE

usually depends on whether you go to a big or small college. Alum Robert Estrada ‘16, a freshman at University of California Los Angeles, who took six APs, said, “Personally, AP classes and tests allowed me to receive college credit for multiple subjects. I have received credit for both a language and an English requirement, which has allowed me to get ahead and try new classes.” Many large schools are willing to accept APs as college credit, although, each school varies.

Lazarovits said “UChicago does give AP/ IB credit. However, because of our ‘Core curriculum,’ … classes like AP English will often not be taken for credit.” Some schools do have a core curriculum, therefore not necessarily accepting all AP credits. Lazarovits continued, “However, I completely tested out of my foreign language Core requirement with my AP Latin score, so I have extra classes to explore other fields, complete my minor and go part-time during my last year.”

Even if colleges do accept APs for college credit, sometimes students don’t even want to use their APs for credit. Morgan Gainey ‘15, a freshman at University of Washing-

“Personally, AP classes and tests allowed me to receive college credit for multiple subjects. I have received credit for both a language and an English requirement, which has allowed me to get ahead and try new classes.”

— Robert Estrada ‘16 ton, a college which does accept AP credits, said, “I actually didn’t send in any of my scores from my exams; I wanted to take the beginner levels again because I didn’t want to stress myself out first thing into college by taking harder classes.”

When contacted about AP credit at UCSB, Admissions Counselor Kathleen Vu said, “AP courses can prepare students for a class in a college setting as well as help students fulfill some college graduation requirements while still in high school. This results in creating more flexibility for the student because they may be able to graduate earlier, take less coursework per quarter/semester, pursue a 2nd major or a minor, etc.”

Abrams said that her small college, Bowdoin, does allow you to “place out of certain intro courses if you score a 4 or 5 on the AP exam for that subject.” However, Abrams said that she didn’t find this to be very help-

FEATURE

ful “because you are still required to take the same amount of credits to fulfill that major … you just have to take an extra upper level course instead.” Similar to Estrada, Abrams acknowledged that “AP scores can be useful for some languages and humanities courses.”

Solutions

G

oing back to the question of unrequited love, both colleges agreed that if APs are offered, taking a challenging, yet reasonable, amount will be beneficial in the admissions process. However, Michael Wood in the admissions office at Bard College said, “We do look at the rigor of a student’s academic coursework in the light of what classes are available to them. If a student is applying from a school where APs are not offered, they won’t be ‘penalized’ for this in the application process.”

So, what’s the solution?

When asked what Laguna should do about the AP dilemma, the polled students upset with the AP system listed, in order, no requirement to take the test (53 percent), taking away the AP system (22 percent), other (17 percent, including “giving more tests and more practice for more things” and “requiring [AP] tests but getting rid of the finals for AP classes”) and replacing the AP program with IB (8 percent).

Other solutions popular among teachers polled was taking away the AP courses and just having honors/regular classes (33 percent) and having no requirement to take the test (8 percent).

When asked what he thought about the future of the AP program at Laguna, College Counselor Matt Struckmeyer said that he believes “Laguna will move post-AP rather than get rid of them.” By doing so, teachers won’t be “straitjacket[ed] into these AP curricula that are very constraining,” said Struckmeyer.

He continued, “Moving post-AP is something that many of the best independent schools in the country have done because, at a school like Laguna, they can hire whomever they want ... Moreover, a gifted teacher can go beyond the rigor of AP in their own creative way, and students can also [still] take the AP test ... even though they were never in an AP class because they developed really rich skills in these classes that have an eye towards these skills, but that’s not the whole focus of the class. These schools, I think, are finding that they have a way better curriculum, and students are way more interested in what they’re learning because the classes are less constrained.”

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THE FOURTH ESTATE

ILLUSTRATED INTERVIEW: MS. STACI RICHARD, SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CHAIR INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY JACK STEIN

Draw a self portrait!

What’s a book that has changed your life?

What makes you happiest?

THE FOURTH ESTATE

What is your dream meal?

What do you love about Laguna?

Where do you come from?

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Where is your favorite place in the world?

What inspires you to teach?

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

FEATURE

animation is GROWING UP

BY JACK STEIN//GRAPHIC: JACK STEIN

N

early three decades ago, “The Simpsons” aired its first episode and changed TV forever.

Before the airing of the now-classic program, the cartoon airwaves were dominated by children’s shows like “Ghostbusters,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “G.I. Joe.” “The Simpsons,” however, was the first of its kind: a mainstream animated sitcom geared toward a primarily adult audience. It ushered in a new wave of animated programming.

Two enduring animated shows for adults, along with “The Simpsons,” are “Family Guy” and “South Park.”

“Family Guy,” created by Seth McFarlane, is a comedy show that airs on Fox. According to the network itself, the titular character and his family are “hilariously odd” and “endearingly ignorant.”

“South Park” airs on Comedy Central, and, rated TV-MA as opposed to “Family Guy’s” TV-14 or “The Simpsons’” usual TV-PG, it takes a more adult approach to TV comedy.

All of these comedies, while they certain-

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ly can be witty and satirical, are still just comedies. They — generally — lack a key storytelling element that brings drama and urgency to other shows: serialization.

Serialization is when the episodes of a show come together to tell a unified story instead of just being one-off events in an unchanged universe.

“South Park” recently delved into serialization, but retained the show’s levity. However, despite the success of these animated shows in the past, there’s a new wave of TV going in a new direction.

New animated programs are taking control of the mainstream airwaves, shows that are trying to bring more gravity to the traditional formula.

What may be the most popular of these new shows is “Rick and Morty,” which airs on Adult Swim and tells the story of a mad scientist and his grandson.

“Rick and Morty” has developed an incredibly strong fan base. Newfound lover of “Rick and Morty,” sophomore Sully Israel, said that he enjoys the show because “It combines normal ‘gross’ humor with

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more complicated scientific ideas while maintaining a sense of creativity paired with ingenuity.”

“Rick and Morty” features themes of suicide and depression, alcoholism, broken families and loneliness. It deals with these heavy topics in an animated format, which can make them more accessible for viewers.

Another animated show that strives for emotional depth is Netflix’s “BoJack Horseman.”

“BoJack Horseman” is about a severely depressed, drug-addled middle-aged ex-TV star from the ‘90s. The titular character is angry, bitter and very realistic — but he is also an animated horse.

“BoJack” is a prime example of how even the darkest of shows can be revived by animation. Despite the relentless pessimism of the show itself, the animation style stays bright and colorful, keeping viewers engaged.

Will this trend of emotional cartoons continue? Ratings are high, and the critics can’t get enough of them. We’ll have to wait and see where the shows go from here!

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Catching Up with the Cast

BY KENDALL WHITE

T

his year’s spring musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” a dramatic and complicated play by any standard, debuted in Spaulding Auditorium on April 27. We caught up with a few of the principal players to ask them about their experiences in the show, including their favorite parts about their characters, their favorite memories and funny moments.

Q: How do you feel about Sweeney

Todd being your final production at Laguna?

It was a great end to the string of productions that I have done since seventh grade. My dream since eighth grade was to play Ms. Lovett, so the fact that I was her for my last production was phenomenal.

Q: Any funny moments? I was back-

theatre program affected your high school experience? Theatre has really taught me to try to be myself in front of as many people. I have met and bonded with some of my closest friends because of theatre, and for that I am grateful.

Q: What was your favorite part about

Q: What was your favorite memory

your character in Sweeney Todd? My character made me feel a little uncomfortable, because I had to be the worst person I could imagine and the worst person I could be. Getting up on stage in front of people is always fun, and I like playing characters who are very different from how I conduct myself.

Q: How has being involved in the the-

rehearsal I was supposed to be dead, and I felt a sneeze coming from a mile away, Junior Jackson Hurley: and then when it came, I just kind of jerked up and sneezed, and it was very Judge Turpin humorous.

Q: How do you feel about Sweeney

atre program affected your high school experience? It completely changed it, because a large portion of my high school career has been about theatre. My old high school was an art school, so I was heavily focused on that there, and when I came here I joined the theatre department and did all the shows. It’s a balancing act between academia and the arts.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

atre program affected your high school experience? In 8th grade, I had to play the main role around a bunch of seniors, and it forced me to mature a little and grow up. More recently, the play was just a way to have fun, above anything else.

Senior Travis Smillie: Sweeney Todd

Q: How has being involved in the

Todd being your final production at Laguna? I’m so lucky, it was such an awesome choice for my last production.

It was a really difficult show, but definitely worth it in the end.

Q: How has being involved in the the-

Junior Camila Lemere: Pirelli

from the show? In rehearsal before opening night, Matthew forgot his cue line, and it was during this big momentous part of the play, and it left Jackson and me sitting on stage awkwardly ad-libbing lines while we tried to alert Matthew backstage to come on.

Q: Any funny moments? During dress

Senior Zuley Lewis: Beggar Woman

from the show? My last show with all the seniors was very bittersweet. stage with Merrick during the performance; he only had one line in the show, and his cue line was “Johanna,” spoken

by Mathew. We were backstage talking and heard Mathew yell “Johanna!” He repeated the word many times, each getting louder and louder. Finally, Merrick realized that he was suppose to be on stage. He looked up at me in terror, aggressively whispered “oh f---!” and sprinted on stage to try and salvage his one-line debut.

Q: How has being involved in the Senior Joan Curran: Mrs. Lovett

Q: What was your favorite memory

theatre program affected your high school experience? I don’t know how to answer that question, because it’s been such an important part of my life, and I can’t even imagine what high school would have been like if I hadn’t done theatre.

Q: What was your favorite part about

your character? He’s young and charming. I’m glad I finally got to play someone with those traits.

Q: Any last words? I hope the Laguna

Theatre department continues to flourish. You’ve done some good work, and I can’t wait to see what becomes of you.

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Senior Mathew Goldsholl: Anthony PHOTOS: CARINA TEDESCO

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BARNARD COLLEGE Cindy Shan NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Mathew Goldsholl Clara Hillis Travis Smillie THE NEW SCHOOL Fiona Flynn

NORTH CAROLINA WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY Grace MacNeil

NEW YORK SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY William Bartholomew

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY Natasha Heyer DREXEL UNIVERSITY Eric Chen

S

BOSTON UNIVERSITY Luke Smillie HARVARD UNIVERSITY Henry Farrell

MASSACHUSETTS CA LIF OR NI A

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UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS Zelime Lewis

SCOTLAND

SENIORS 2017

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CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS Holly Tobias CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY Jack Copeland Melissa Silva UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Sally Li UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Nicole Belton Joan Curran UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Madison Nicolson Zaira Paredes-Villegas

TE

PENNSYLVANIA

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dear freshman self, T

his letter is so cliché, but don’t turn away if you are as naïve and insecure as we know you are.

We know how scared you are. You don’t know what you’re doing. You overthink everything, and you don’t love yourself. Your innocence is a treasure. Please fight as hard as you can to keep it for as long as possible.

People judge you for being yourself. Who are they, and why would you even think that those people know what they’re talking about?

That’s the attitude you have to have — unapologetic and unafraid. Maybe not as harsh and heartless as we are now, but grow smart enough and strong enough to stand up for yourself and what you believe in.

That being said, remember that everyone else is dealing with their own personal problems going on behind the scenes. Try to keep that in mind, and treat everyone with sincere kindness. Even the person you hate deserves to be treated like a person.

Being truly compassionate won’t be easy at times. You’ll find yourself gossiping, making snide comments or worse of all — standing by while another gets hurt.

Surround yourself with friends who you can laugh with and cry with. Spend time with people who make you want to be a better person and develop the parts of you that you had always felt insecure about.

The same goes for adults. Show respect to your teachers and your parents because it is their joy to watch you grow.

Read the books in English class. Try to appreciate them even though your hand cramps from annotating them.

Some of the passages you read might stick with you for years to come.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Find something you love and be wildly nerdy about it, whether it’s science, language, sports or art. Throw yourself into it and don’t be embarrassed to enjoy something. Later you’ll be proud of how much you’ve learned and how long you’ve stuck with it. Apathy makes you “cool” for about two minutes.

Don’t be scared of the seniors either. They feel the same crippling uncertainty as you. They wish they were as jaded as you. They wish they hadn’t twisted their younger smiling faces under the stress and scrutiny of high school.

You guys, as much as you are annoyed by your class and its size and how much the school hates you (it barely gets better for the rest of high school), you have a great class.

You are so lucky because you have a class that is a family.

Beyond all the sound bites of literally every other group that claims to be a family.

Remember to love each other. We, as a class, did a poor job of this. And, to this day, that was the biggest mistake we made.

Please don’t grow up completely. You might be embarrassed of your childlike demeanor, but it gives you character, it gives you passion.

Your youthful curiosity reminds you that your life is worth living. That you mean something, somehow.

Listen to advice. That’s something we all wish we would have done more of and need to do now.

You’ll learn new lessons and later look back and shake your heads at all the things you wish you’d known.

Pack as many memories into the next four years as you can. You’ll make it out alive. I promise.

love, your senior self 25

SENIORS 2017

Freshman Year Mads and Antonia Danger Rave and Jacque Neon Nights Holly and Maddy ditch the class Will is a theatre kid Henry has nice legs Winter Formal fail Everyone has a crush on Luke Movie nights and Pinkberry Where your furniture at, cuz?

She’s a little Zaira Holly breaks Jason’s glasses Logi Bear loves Joan Ask.fm Joan pretends to be asleep in a closet Feinberg leaves mid-year Joan breaks Holly’s Polaroid Holly and Carter Maddy and Cole Bye Bidwells

Sophomore Year Cindy, Sally, and Eric join Nicole dents Miles’ car Squad Cindy sings for everyone Zaira’s Quinceañera Luke pops the question to Josie Fiona and Nicole get the volleyball team disqualified Clara’s cootie catcher The Bunkhouse Fiona barfs her way through London Taco Bell and hydroplaning Jack denies Grace Placebo Effect “The train is coming” Clara and Nicole’s London hotel damage The “Circle of Boys” is created Where is Johnny?

Will makes teachers cry Travis tap dances Nicole is “The Worst Prom Date Ever” Joan and Little Chiment

SENIORS 2017

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THE FOURTH ESTATE

Junior Year Zuley and Melissa join Fam sleepovers Nicole and Mark Will and the Suburban Freshmen ruin Halloween The Baguette Club Melissa and Darwin The class adopts a hamster Clara and Will back together and break up and get back together…? And break up…?

Maddy breaks a table Once Upon a Time ...

Natasha and Théo Kahoot roasts Fowler’s pool house Nicole moves out Heaven Mock Trial falls apart Gravity Grace goes on a journey of self-discovery Senior Year Fiona dyes her hair black Jack’s back Does Nicole still go here?

Holly and Conor Joan acts the part of a man, a big strong man Henry and Grace Mena Fiona and Charlotte break up Mathew’s sick raps at El Cap Gabby’s bash Tacoma reaches full dent capacity Zuley dyes her hair purple Eric introduces us to his artistic side Stats is especially fun Fiona’s big break Is Henry still flexing?

Our class gets political Luke, Natasha and Clara begin their activist careers The sign #TeamSeniors Fiona gets edgy Mathew wants baguettes for his birthday Luke vs. Laguna Teachers Seniors or Senior Citizens?

Mathew fights for the WiFi Senior prank is dead Joan creates Real World 101 Nicole and Miles Cindy, Sally, Grace and Henry get Cum Laude

THE FOURTH ESTATE

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SENIORS 2017

the class of 2017 is

to take over the world and complain while doing it

most likely to ...

CLASS OF 2017

win the popular vote

be published

make a ton of money on Instagram...

be a real estate agent

GRACE

CLARA

TRAVIS

NICOLE

become a supermodel but fall during her runway debut

get jury duty and argue with the judge

accidentally start World War III

end World War III with her music

NATASHA

LUKE

MATHEW

star in “The Devil Wears Prada 2”

be the “Bachelorette”

be the defense attorney in the country’s next impeachment proceedings

create a new font

FIONA

MADDY

JACK

SALLY

marry a celebrity

be an Uber driver and run out of gas

read all 17 Shakespeare plays

design the robot that will save the human race from the evil A.I.

HOLLY

MELISSA

ZULEY

ERIC

get caught sleeping in class

graduate

mansplain to his professor

sass her director and not know her walkie talkie is on

CINDY

HENRY

WILL

ZAIRA

SENIORS 2017

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JOAN

THE FOURTH ESTATE

N

o other class in Laguna’s recent history shares your group spirit. Like a large extended family, you have created deep bonds with one another, yet each of you has retained your individual uniqueness.

And now, it’s time to embrace change…. I stand on the shore as you set sail, offering you my blessing, and, as Polonius said to his son Laertes, “…these few precepts in thy memory.”

As you embark on your new voyage, remember to believe in yourself and your ability to meet life’s challenges. Don’t live in fear. “The Laestrygonians and the Cyclops and furious Poseidon you will never encounter … unless your soul raises them up before you.”

When you set out on the voyage to college, I pray that your journey will be full of adventure and full of knowledge. Such delights await you at the harbors never seen before! Be open to life’s possibilities. Commit to being life-long learners, readers and writers. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Accept responsibility for your actions, learn from failures and forgive yourself and others for any imperfections. Forgive often and move forward.

And believe in something greater than you – something that gives your life purpose and meaning. Build a braver new world than the one you found (and braver than the one Huxley prophesied!). The world needs your creativity, passion, kindness, and humanitarian action. Like Candide, cultivate your own garden and be the change you wish to see.

Yet by no means should you hasten your voyage. Make it last long enough to learn the practice of judging less and understanding more. Without heavy baggage, you will travel light and far. Remember that happiness is a state of mind. But when the clouds hang on you, remind yourself that “there is no sun without shadow, and [that] it is essential to know the night” (Albert Camus). Then find someone less fortunate than you and brighten that person’s day with a random act of kindness.

Above all, appreciate the miracle of your own beautiful life. Like a finely-tuned instrument, vibrate at your highest potential. There is no reason to compare yourself to another; there has never been anyone like you, so love what is! Be a mindful, conscious citizen of the planet Earth and do no harm. Respect Earth’s creatures, small and large: we are all interdependent, contributing to the sublime symphony of life.

So follow your own bliss and let no one steal your dreams. And remember to breathe… deeply.

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SENIORS 2017

Will is a great friend, because he’s not only an incredibly dependable person, but he’s also always in a good mood and can make anybody laugh.

— Julia Fay

Nicole is big-hearted, intelligent, tough, creative and hilarious. She is the best per- He always thinks before he talks, so when son to bring on an adventure and loves her he says something, it’s usually something that’s meaningful. He doesn’t just blurt friends more than anything. She is truly out random stuff; his words are always one of a kind, and I don’t know what I’ll thought out. — Victor Liu do without her. — Fiona Flynn

Natasha is one of the most compassionate people I know. She’s always thinking of others and always giving back to the community, and she has a very funny sense of humor.

— Grace MacNeil

Clara is one of the kindest people in the class. Frankly, one of the nicest and smartest people whom I have ever met. She is so thoughtful, and occasionally unpredictable, but, for the most part, tries to be the good person who she is. — Mathew Goldsholl

Melissa is one of the most thoughtful people I’ve met. She helps people out, even when it’s inconvenient for her. I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to become really close friends with her, and I hope that our friendship lasts through college. Don’t go too far away. (And P.S. Camila, I cried for three hours.) — Zaira Paredes-Villegas

He is a good friend, and a nice guy.

He’s very talented and motivated, and he has a bright future ahead of him.

— Javier Abrego

There are many great things about Zuley, so it’s really hard to be concise. When I first met her in “Harvey,” I claimed her as my mother because she exudes responsibility, and her spirit animal is a wise owl.

— Stella Haffner

Travis is incredibly witty and intelligent.

Whenever I have a conversation with him I always feel a little bit smarter if I’m able to even keep up with him. I can’t wait to see what he will go on to do.

— Clara Hillis

Jack is as smart as he is tall. He is kind, supportive and a good co-worker with every other person in the class. — Joel Poholsky

She is really nice. At first, you think she is quiet, but when you get to know her, you know that she is really outgoing and willing to help others.

— Helen Yang

Holly was a wonderful presence as a creative artist at our school, and I loved watching her grow as an actress and as a person.

— Charles Donelan

She is the most trustworthy person I know. — Nicole Belton

Grace is a force to be reckoned with.

Her drive and stamina and willingness to hurl herself into the world should leave us shaking in our boots — as we think about what she is going to accomplish. — Ashley Tidey

Henry is a generally nice person with a genuine smile and a good sense of humor. — Aidan O’Donnell

Maddy’s a really special girl and one of my best friends. She’s trustworthy, smart and funny, and she’s a person that’ll help me out no matter the situation or need. I’m going to miss her a lot next year and so is the Laguna community. — Ethan Tyng

Caring about Fiona is like eating a prickly pear: thorny and hard on the outside, but sweet and soft on the inside. — Rose Steeber

Dam sanwich. Zaira is one of the most caring people I’ve ever met. She is so caring that she cried for a whole day about a disease she thought that I had. I didn’t have the disease.

— Camila Lemere

I am honored to call him my friend. He always puts others before himself. He has been there for me in my toughest times.

I am going to miss our quirky adventures together, and even though we’ll be on opposite sides of the U.S., he will always be close to my heart. — Joan Curran

Cindy can be kind of crazy sometimes.

She sometimes laughs for no reason, and sometimes I feel like we’re not on the same page, because I don’t get why she laughs. I’m not saying that it’s bad, I’m saying that it’s a “thing” about her. And she has helped me a lot on the college admissions process, because I literally knew nothing about colleges, so she really helped a lot. She helped me pick out schools and helped me with my essays.

— Sally Li

PHOTOS: CARINA TEDESCO & CAYLIN ZIMMERMAN

senior

QUOTES

“My most memorable moment was winning CIF in volleyball my junior year! The funniest moment would probably be harmonizing to the word lemon, or Dani slipping on the way into practice … it was so funny.”

“My junior year of soccer we beat Dunn 1-0, which was the first time that we ever beat Dunn in my four years of high school.”

Lu k

yF arr el l

Ma

dd y

Nic o

l so

n

“My senior year we beat Cate 2-1 in soccer after coming back from 0-1 deficit at halftime.”

lie

Hen r

mil eS

Remembering the Seasons

BY KELLY BICKETT

Hol

me

w

GRAPHICS: KELLY BICKETT PHOTOS PROVIDED BY BLAKE DORFMAN

olo rth l Ba Wil

as

“The most memorable moment would be my junior season of football when we came back at halftime and beat Orcutt Academy. They didn’t score one point in the second half.”

obi ly T

Seniors talk about what was their funniest or most memorable Laguna or independent sports moment out of all four years of high school.

“In all four years of tennis, I loved the lightheartedness brought by our coach, Rob. He was like our own personal comedian.”

Grace MacNeil

“When Shertzer and J.R. kicked up the soccer balls really high and we’d have to trap them. I think I was either a freshman or sophomore, but I decided to take the ball with my chest. It was pretty painful. Everyone fell to the ground in laughter. I was the only one standing.”

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THE FOURTH ESTATE

MARTIAL

ARTS GR

EYE A H IN ASH K STE NAT JAC

BY APHIC:

Sasha Hsu Kailea Hieshima

A

s this school year quickly comes to an end, the stress that accompanies finals, exams and end of the year projects is skyrocketing; however, athletics can free a student’s mind and blow off steam.

For students interested in pursuing activities outside of the offered curriculum, martial arts helps them alleviate stress and get in touch with their bodies.

Juniors Sasha Hsu and Kailea Hieshima and freshman Sydney Hlavaty use their different methods of martial arts as a catalyst for finding inner peace and gaining confidence for protection from the outside world.

Sydney Hlavaty

R

KARATE: Junior Kailea Hieshima in 2014, testing for her second degree black belt.

“I did karate for six years, and I earned my first and second degree black belt. I enjoy it because it really makes me let go of everything for a while and focus on making yourself stronger, and not just physically. We train to be better, to push ourselves and to hopefully achieve the self confidence needed to defend ourselves.

That is what I loved about it – you can just let go of everything and find yourself out on the mat completely in your own zone. I have learned never, ever to give up on something, no matter how hard it may seem, and to never let yourself get pushed down. I have learned to be strong willed and confident as well as how to physically protect myself from harm.”

MARTIAL ARTS WAS CREATED MORE THAN

9

DEGREES

18.1 MILLION AMERICANS

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“I have been kickboxing at the Paragon Academy since the beginning of 2017. I enjoy kickboxing because it is a great workout that provides an outlet for strengthening my body and mind as well as teaching me useful knowledge. It is great fun, and it feels like a family there. Some useful information that I have learned through kickboxing is that even in high-intensity activities, having a relaxed, focused mind is always beneficial.”

“I have been doing karate for 13 years and am a third degree black belt.

It is an enjoyable way to get much needed (and unwanted) exercise. I have learned that sometimes you have to work very hard in order to get what you want – not everything is handed to you on a platter.”

1500 YEARS AGO OF BLACK BELTS HAVE PARTICIPATED IN MARTIAL ARTS DURING THE PAST YEAR

SPORTS

BLOCK: Junior Spencer Rycroft blocks Garden Street’s outside hitter PHOTO: CAYLIN ZIMMERMAN PHOTO: TARA BROUCQSAULT

SPIKE: Freshman Kai Nakamura volleys the ball over the net

PHOTO: TARA BROUCQSAULT

FOREHAND: Junior Alex Furukawa returns the ball over the net

Boys Tennis

BY KELLY BICKETT

T

he boys Tennis Team has worked hard this season to make it to the CIF playoffs for the second time in two years.

The tennis team is a freelance team. Junior Co-Captain Alex Furukawa said, “freelancing is a set of rules that we have to abide by to make the playoffs. The rules are that we have to win 80 percent of our games and play out least 16 matches. So the record we needed to have to make the playoffs is 13-3.”

The Owls kicked off the season defeating Coast Union 15-3. In doubles, freshmen John-Henry Schulz and Rhami Zeini beat Coast Union’s No. 1 and 2 teams. Furukawa played at the No. 1 singles position and didn’t lose a single set. Juniors Conor Scheinberg and Victor Liu followed as the No. 2 and 3 single positions, both sweeping in three sets.

Boys Tennis Head Coach Trevor Thorpe said, “I was very pleased with the effort I saw from every single player we managed to squeeze into the match.”

SPORTS

The Owls continued their winning streak, beating both Carpinteria High School and Nordhoff High School.

In the game against Carpinteria, Furukawa dropped only one game in three sets of play, which led the team to a 10-8 victory over Carpinteria.

The Owls defeated Nordhoff at home, 135. Furukawa and freshman Kai Nakamura, playing singles, each swept three sets. Liu and junior Jason Barnick led the way at the No. 1 doubles team position for the Owls with two wins.

In singles, Furukawa lost the first round but came back in the second and third round games.

He won 6-2 in the third, sealing the victory over Foothill Tech. Liu also helped the Owls produce the win by winning the second round singles match.

The Owls tied Foothill Tech 9-9 but won in total game points, 72-68.

Thorpe said, “We didn’t necessarily play our best, but we got it done. The desire is

34

there, and the results are coming.”

The Owls took their first loss of the season 15-3 against Cate, which is undefeated.

However, the Owls came back in a crucial game of their season — the rematch against Carpinteria, ending with the Owl’s winning 12-6.

Both No. 1 seaters for singles and doubles won their matches respectively. This was yet another game that pushed the Owls closer to the Division 4 CIF playoffs. Furukawa said, “We made it, and we are headed to the playoffs!”

Scheinberg comments on the season as a whole, saying, “We have been pretty strong this whole season. Our coach, Trevor Thorpe, keeps us on track and has taught us how to compete and definitely has helped us make it this far.”

The Boys Tennis Team CIF playoff run ends after a hard fought match against Downey High School. The boys lost 11-7 in the quarterfinals, which beat the school record.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Boys Varsity Volleyball

BY JULIA FAY

A

fter coming off of a CIF-SS final run last year and losing five top-notch seniors, the Laguna Blanca Owls varsity boys volleyball team has had their work cut out for them with a schedule full of tough competition.

Their lineup has utilized two young setters, sophomores Kyle Aitcheson and Andrew Tolles, who, despite being some of the youngest players of the group, have proved to be very influential for the success of the team.

Laguna opened its season with a sweep against Cabrillo and have continued to dominate every team in their league since then. Their tougher competition came from tournaments and other non-league matches; it was here that the Owls proved their ability to challenge and compete with larger schools.

In the majority of these matches, the Owls have either swept the opposition or been swept by them. One of the exceptions was their highly competitive match against Santa Ynez High School. The Owls were victorious after a hard-fought game against the Pirates. The team’s tenacity was evident when they swiftly recovered from their first loss and came back strong to win the next three scoring 25-16, 26-24 and 27-25.

When asked about the highlight of his season, senior and co-captain Henry Farrell responded that the Santa Ynez game was undoubtedly it, saying, “Everyone stepped up, especially Sam, who served us back from 22-24 to a 26-24 win in the third game. Miles had some key blocks on their go-to hitter in the fourth game and it was just really competitive, fun volleyball.”

Senior Jack Copeland and sophomore Sam Stegall led the team in kills, Copeland scoring an astounding 24 and Stegall posting a career high of 14.

In their most recent tournament, the Owls competed in the local Chadwick tournament, where they went 2-2 for the day. They started the morning with a close loss to Marshall, bounced back to win the next two games against Chadwick and Vistamar and then ended the day with a loss against North Torrance.

The tournament helped the Owls gain experience, and they continued on a winning streak for the rest of their pre-playoff games. Unfortunately, the Owls faced an early loss in the first round of their Division 3 CIF match against Damien High School, ultimately ending the Owls’ season.

VOLLEY: Freshman Kiki Tolles bumps the ball.

arsity girls beach volleyball has won several key matches this year, slaying several big public schools, including teams such as Dos Pueblos, where they took one win, and Santa Barbara, where they added two more wins.

These wins against the big public schools were crucial for the beach volleyball team to secure a spot in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.

When asked how the team’s wins against these public schools, who had a student body almost twice the size of Laguna’s, senior Maddy Nicolson said, “they [didn’t] think about the name [of the school].” they “just play[ed] the game.”

These wins helped Laguna secure a solid record of 8-5.

According to girls Beach Volleyball Head Coach Mike Maas, the team was “sort of haphazard because we never really had anybody — the girls always had soccer, or clubs, or injuries, and they didn’t really come until it was over… every week was sort of a hodgepodge we put out there… but they are very talented athletes, a bit short, but they have a lot of ball control.”

Aided by their staggering victories, the varsity girls team made it into the playoff quarterfinals.

When asked about the girls run, Coach Maas said, “Well, it was quick, we played Arroyo Grande on Monday, the playoffs started Tuesday, and we were out Tuesday afternoon.”

These victories are owed to the team’s strong backbone of juniors. The juniors are “indispensable,” Nicolson said.

The varsity team also hosted a handful of younger athletes, including freshman Kiki Tolles, who, due to her performance throughout the season, moved up to a spot on one the top three teams.

Junior Varsity

F

PHOTO: HAYLEY BANKHEAD

BY PETER SMITH

V

Varsity

Girls Volleyball

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35

ollowing this skill-developing season, the girls junior varsity is hoping to rebound from a 0-6 record. The JV team ran into a few problems during the season. Freshman Summer Wang noted that the season may have gone better “if we could have had more practices, but we were reffing the varsity’s games most of the time, so we didn’t have enough time to practice.” Although their practice time was limited, the team is hoping to have more for next year, and hopefully for years to come.

When asked and about how the girls junior varsity team was doing, Wang said, “Our team overall is pretty constant, everyone’s at the same skill level, so it’s nice.”

Even though the junior varsity’s record isn’t perfect, it seems as if the freshmen and the two sophomores are geared up for the next season to come.

SPORTS

THE OCEAN IS NOT WHALE

BY JULES BERNARD

GRAPHICS: JULES BERNARD

Harpooned while coming up for air, a young minke whale struggles against the line burrowed in his side. He swims until he is too tired, and when he comes back up for air he is shot repeatedly. He then bleeds out slowly, and his carcass is hauled on deck to be carved.

H

istorically, whales have been hunted for blubber, meat and oil, but in today’s modern industrial society, why would people invest in hunting these creatures?

With the advent of electricity over a century ago that allows us to keep warm in the winter and light our houses without whale oil, it seems like we shouldn’t be hunting these mammals anymore. But then why do we still see shows on the Discovery Channel depicting this gruesome sport?

Today, there are two main countries that hunt whales: Japan and Iceland. Because of its inhumane methods of killing, Japan, especially, is guilty.

In 1985, the International Whaling Commission instituted a zero catch policy.

As a result, Japan outlawed the commercial hunting of whales for food.

Instead of stopping, however, whalers then resorted to using a loophole in the 1946 whaling convention that allowed

OPINION-EDITORIAL

whales to be killed for scientific purposes.

For years the Japanese government, in an effort to get around international laws, has been operating under the pretense that their catching and killing of whales is strictly for scientific research.

This is not true.

KILLING “FOR SCIENCE” In modern scientific fields, technology allows scientists not to have to kill animals in order to learn about them; now, samples can be taken from shed skin cells, fecal matter and the blowholes of live animals for collection of pathogens, so Japan’s claim can’t be true.

Of the 14,410 whales killed under the pretense of scientific research, the Japanese are responsible for 95 percent. Furthermore, since 2005, for all the “research” they claim to be conducting, only two peer reviewed papers have been published.

Because the International Whaling Com-

36

mission lacks jurisdiction in certain areas of Japan and Antarctica, Japanese whalers primarily utilize these spots for catching, but in 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled Japan’s scientific rationale moot and ordered them to stop their whaling in Antarctica.

Unfortunately, during Japan’s next whaling season, they ignored the Court’s ruling, because they claimed that it too lacked jurisdiction over whaling.

Additionally, in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, a “safe haven” for endangered species, Japan has been killing thousands of whales in this protected area for years.

Realistically, everyone knows that the Japanese are violating their no catch policy, but, because permits for scientific whaling are given by Japanese government officials, it’s hard for anything to be done from an outside perspective.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Online petition: https://secure. avaaz.org/en/whales_last_push/

FINANCIAL ISSUES Even if you lack compassion for whales, the gentle giants of the ocean, there are financial reasons to be opposed to whaling.

Whale watching is a major tourist attraction with its yearly revenue reaching $2.1 billion, according to the International Whaling Commission.

On top of that, the whale watching industry is predicted to add 5,700 jobs yearly to the global economy.

We will economically benefit from ceasing whaling practices as well.

The whaling industry in Japan costs around $12 million in direct subsidies, but, after the 2011tsunami, instead of decreasing whaling budgets and diverting funding to offer relief to the victims, Japan increased its whaling budget.

It is not much of a stretch to assume that some of the billions given to Japan from the United States, for disaster relief purposes,

THE FOURTH ESTATE

was used in the whaling budget — considering the fact that the sales of whale meat have dropped by 30 percent, leaving no internal funds to be directed towards the whaling budget.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO? Legally, it is up to the policy makers we choose to draft laws to protect these beautiful creatures. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything.

Online petitions are always an option, and there are opportunities through the World Wildlife Fund to “adopt” a whale and donate to their organization.

You can support Sea Shepherd or Greenpeace, both of which actively send out voyages to physically protect whales from whalers. Most importantly, you can educate yourself and others on the topic.

The more people who demand action worldwide, the more action will be taken to save the whales.

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OPINION-EDITORIAL

Left Behind

BY LUKE SMILLIE In a country where our defense system is incredibly overloaded and overworked, the treatment of those within the prison system is cruel and inhumane. Urgent action is required to reverse this endemic problem.

R

ecently, I had the pleasure of viewing a documentary directed by a young filmmaker named Natalie Johns. The film centers around the problem of mass incarceration in the United States of America.

It was immensely inspiring, moving and heartbreaking.

America is an incarcerated country. We solve our problems by handing out extremely harsh sentences for minimal crimes and then locking people up. We are taking away peoples freedom and then forgetting about them. The treatment of those within the prison system is cruel and inhumane.

Urgent action is required to reverse this endemic problem.

People stuck in the system want help.

They are constantly reaching in vain from behind bars, begging for some sort of assistance. And we, as a country, do very little to help them. This, because we don’t value each other as individuals.

We are all so self-obsessed and focused on our own problems that we don’t care about each other. We selfishly look at a young kid growing up in a rough neighborhood, and we see a criminal, a delinquent, a dangerous person.

This is wrong, what we should be seeing and recognizing is that this kid needs help.

He is stuck in a system. A system that is hellbent on making our world a “safer” place by locking him up again and again and again.

Eventually the kid doesn’t know any better, he doesn’t know how to live any other way. He is a prisoner of the system and has no escape.

The truth is that most of the people who are trying to make a difference are doing so because they have experienced this unjust and inhuman system themselves. They are the lucky ones, who got a small piece of their freedom back.

What is sad is that most humans, if they haven’t experienced something themselves,

OPINION-EDITORIAL

won’t ever really understand how serious of a problem it is. They won’t understand what it feels like to be ignored by society and treated as a disappointment, as a criminal.

Americans will keep going about their own lives without a care in the world until it affects them. This is not OK, and if we, as a society, allow this to continue, inhuman policies will never be removed.

Also, the prison system is full of racism.

Bill Quigley in the Huffington Post states, “In New York City, where people of color make up about half of the population, 80 percent of the NYPD arrests were of blacks and Latinos.”

Statistics like that are just a small example of the systematic racism within our police forces and our prison systems.

According to Quigley, “In the federal system, black offenders receive sentences that are 10 percent longer than white offenders for the same crimes.”

The fact is that the racism is ingrained within our prison system, but people are choosing to ignore it.

When people ignore widespread racism like this, and don’t say or do anything, nothing ever changes.

Another serious problem is what happens to inmates after they are released. Every week ten thousand people are released from prisons or jails in the U.S.. They are thrown into the street, often with no money, no job and no idea of how to rejoin society.

Not only this, many are facing the next few years on probation. Consequently, if they do make a mistake and commit, however minor a crime, back into the system they go.

The reality is that when people get out of prison, they are generally even more likely to commit a crime than they were to before.

We, as a country, spend millions of dollars keeping people imprisoned to try to stop crime and increase public safety, only to release them and have their risk increase the

38

second they are let out of jail.

The system also helps people who are guilty and rich over those who are innocent but poor. People who can’t afford their bail can spend days to weeks in jail even if they are only on a misdemeanor charge or if they are totally innocent and have been wrongly convicted.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, “70 percent of the 646,000 people incarcerated in more than 3,000 local jails have not yet been convicted of a crime.”

If you have money, you can pay for great defense lawyers, but if you are poor, you are going to have to rely on a public defender.

A lot of public defenders might even be good lawyers, but the problem is that, for the most part, our defense system is incredibly overloaded and overworked.

They handle far more cases than your average lawyer and, because of this, are often unreliable. It is policies like these that cause the people who need the most help to be let down. They are being treated as if they don’t exist. This cannot be allowed to continue.

Another huge issue involved with this failed system is the number of people with drug addictions or mental illnesses being sent to jail rather than to mental health facilities.

America has been waging an unsuccessful war on drugs for decades. In fact, there are over 1 million drug arrests each year, and over half of the country’s entire prison population has been incarcerated for drug related crimes.

In spite of this, the rates of drug abuse and addiction in our country are actually on the rise, and yet we don’t change our policies.

We still arrest and incarcerate as many drug users as our prisons can hold.

We need to change the way we view this issue and realize that, if we want to reduce drug abuse and addiction, the best thing to do is to provide treatment, not incarcera-

THE FOURTH ESTATE

GRAPHIC: SONYA KOTLER

tion. Addiction is a disease, not a crime, and therefore it should be treated like one.

Having a mental illness, much like a drug addiction, is a disease. People need help, and yet our society does nothing for them.

According to an article by Olga Khazan in The Atlantic, “55 percent of male inmates in state prisons are mentally ill, and 73 percent of female inmates are.” This is a very large percentage of people in prison all struggling due to mental illnesses. Something needs to be done.

The documentary mentioned previously consists of many different interviews of peo-

THE FOURTH ESTATE

ple who have been effected by the system.

One of the stories in particular is told by a woman who lost her husband. Her husband was a police officer who was shot while on duty.

For the longest time, the woman blamed the shooter and wanted him to die. She thought it would make her feel better and get rid of the pain that she felt. However, after some time she began to realize who this young teenager that had fired the gun was.

Ever since he was a child he had grown up in a struggling neighborhood and had been in and out of the system. Constantly ar-

39

rested and placed on probation. Constantly having his freedom stripped away from him.

Constantly having his existence and identity ignored. Her husband’s dying was not solely this kids fault, it was the fault of the system.

Kids like this need help not incarceration from a young age.

If we can find a way to do this we can prevent shootings from ever even happening in the first place.

Our prison system is run on policies based on fear, racism and corruption. A lot of prisons are run for profit. It is a pernicious business.

OPINION-EDITORIAL

Let’s Talk About Not Talking

BY HENRY FARRELL & JACKSON HURLEY

S

ticks and stones may my break bones, but words will never hurt me. I call bull.

Purposefully discriminating and antagonizing based on someone’s sexual identity, gender, race, weight, height, socioeconomic status or just about anything else hurts. It can impede the victim’s ability to learn and socialize, it perpetuates stereotypes, and its effects can reverberate into adulthood.

However, there exists a similarly ubiquitous form of name calling that can result in ostracism, or even being fired. “Racist.” “Sexist.”

“Bigot.” “Homophobe.” These labels, often based on less than well-grounded accusations, are hard to shake. Yet they are tossed around casually and carelessly, as if their connotations are somehow neither severe nor hurtful.

ESPN announcer Doug Adler’s career was demolished by accusations that he was a racist, after he correctly used the term “Guerrilla Tennis,” to refer to Venus Williams’ play during the Australian open.

Oversensitive and ignorant fans claimed he was a racist (‘guerrilla’ is pronounced like ‘gorilla’), and, like countless other employees, he was shunned and discredited by broadcasting agencies.

Even companies who recognize the fact that he was not being intentionally racist steer clear from Adler, for fear of bad publicity.

In my personal experience, getting called these names results in introspection into my own moral character.

“Do I really judge minorities’ character purely because of the color of their skin?” “Am I irrationally aversive to homosexuals?”

These insults also steer me away from talking about issues regarding race and gender, or even to acknowledge them at all. Fear of being labeled as some regressive, degenerate, Trump-obsessed bundle of hatred is a more than adequate reason not to bring up sensitive topics.

But what inspires people to label one another with such vicious titles? Unfortunately, any comment can be taken out of context, an awkward attempt at an “ice breaker,” or even just the

simple misuse of a pronoun is enough to render someone a bigot by their peers.

However, what is really bothersome, is that the intentions of said ‘micro-aggressor’ are seldom to offend — a fact whose importance is ironically ignored by the same folks who are otherwise most keen on protecting people from attacks on things they have not chosen.

Recently, at Middlebury College in Vermont, racist social scientist Charles Murray was violently stopped from speaking by angry heckling students. Similar rioting has been provoked at Berkeley and Yale not targeting legitimate injustices, but rather at the free speech of those with conflicting ideologies.

Real racists do exist, but this petty finger pointing detracts from the progressive cause. The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that one exists, but when well-meaning intellectuals trying to discuss and solve the problems of our society are inaccurately portrayed as part of the problem, progress is prolonged.

And so — to the PC police — I leave you with a piece of your own philosophy: do not be so quick to judge, to label, to discriminate. Turn in the badge, and give people a chance to change their rehearsed ways and to adapt to an ever more progressive society.

GRAPHIC: SONYA KOTLER

OPINION-EDITORIAL

40

THE FOURTH ESTATE

I

would like to begin by saying that this is a problem of epidemic, nay, pandemic, proportions. Worse, you could say, than the common flu, with all of its symptoms, but, at the same time, not quite as terrible as the current state of politics. A nightmare suffered by not only every single woman, but also any man who has ever accidentally (or possibly purposefully) bought women’s pants — hey, what can I say, if it makes your assets look good, then I don’t blame you.

Alright. I’m just going to say it: the pockets on women’s pants are way too small.

Honestly, why is it necessary to make men’s pockets the size of grocery bags, and women are left with holes the size of a singular dime? Ever wonder why we have to carry purses everywhere? Because there’s no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that we could fit even a quarter of what we need in our pockets: a phone and driver’s license, maybe, but sunglasses, (full sized) wallet, extra tube of lipstick, hair ties (unless we want to develop painful, red rings around our wrists) — no way José.

And because of this, we are forced to carry around purses, most of which are expensive, lest we lose the many necessities that men can simply place in their reasonably-sized pockets. At least there’s different styles of jeans, right? Wrong.

Unless you want to wear saggy boyfriend jeans (which I am personally very into for

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comfort), most styles of jeans are very focused (and tight) around the caboose area.

Take, for example, skinny jeans. Look, I get that you want to seem like you’re not wearing any pants, but at what cost?! Even though they (usually) hug you in all the right places, they are a royal pain.

First, you have to fit your whole foot through the tiny ankle hole, and then you have to do 10,000 bunny hops in order to get them in the right spot. And, if you pull up too much, let’s just say it’s not fun. But, say you got your foot through, you kangarooed (yes, it’s a verb now) just enough and you were able to button up with only a little bit of not breathing, and you’re ready to leave. It’s a little bit cold outside and your sweater doesn’t have pockets, so where do you put your hands? Well, in your jeans, of course. And you go to put your frozen icicle fingers into your pockets, and guess what?

They don’t exist.

And this is what we have to deal with with pretty much every pair of women’s jeans ever.

And this rant is just about pockets — I’m not even going to mention the fact that the perfect jeans probably don’t exist: either the length is just terrible, or you get that Grand Canyon-sized gap in the back when you sit down.

So, to the makers of women’s jeans: I beg of you: just put in some gosh darn pockets.

OPINION-EDITORIAL

I

t’s funny how phones and Instagram followers rule kids’ lives today. Posting online is more important than talking in person, and everything we think about has roots online.

Could we even begin to imagine a life without checking our Instagram, or keeping

“Now it was ‘likes’ and ‘thumbs ups’ instead of conversations and personal interaction. The age of social media had arrived”

tention, its the other world in their pockets.

Their lives don’t revolve around the social interaction that they used to — there are no secret handshakes, no lunch meetings, no sing-songs or hand games. At least, not in person. It’s just Instagram and Snapchat and all things online.

By introducing touch screens, we’ve lost the feel of real conversations and personal interaction. But we live and breath in a physical world, not one in the cloud. While we shouldn’t stall technical advancements, we should always keep one eye on the world outside the screen of our cell phones.

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our streaks on Snapchat?

Is there a world where trends and songs aren’t based off of social media and hand games and challenges aren’t inspired by a YouTuber?

It wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t need to rely on popularity online. Before the iPhone, it was hand games and sing songs that our lives revolved around.

It was songs like “Happy Llama Sad Llama” and “Slide, Slide Slippery Slide” that I know a portion of my childhood was spent annoying my parents with. These songs spread from fifth grader to fifth grader in a matter of months, simply through repetition and mimicry.

Words like cell phones, YouTube accounts, and social media held no meaning to the children before the era of technology.

The only purpose a cell phone served was to take blurry photos and to text parents.

Grade schoolers communicated solely through passed notes and secret lunch meetings. Everyone had their “secret-handshake” — a blur of claps and fist bumps woven into a complex and intricate display of friendship, as cheesy as that sounds. But nonetheless, there was still that living network of repetition and mimicry that could spread a hand game faster than an airborne disease.

Unfortunately, this network began to dissolve as the world transitioned from having kids with secret handshakes to kids with secret passwords to their social media accounts. Now it was “likes” and “thumbs ups” instead of conversations and personal interaction. The age of social media had arrived, bringing with it Internet trends and

celebrity news.

Now, posts and videos could be spread across the globe in minutes. And, as more children logged into social media accounts, the personal network that ran from kid to kid began to slowly decay. In a matter of years, we had lost the social interaction that used to be the center of our elementary school lives.

So how is it that we can go so quickly from spreading rhymes and songs through association and a kid-powered interaction that relied on natural, physical contact, to an online world that depends on what could be displayed on a two-and-a-half-by-four inch phone screen?

Have we really evolved to rely more on what we can share online than what we share with our family and friends? Social media serves a purpose — call it what you will, advertisement, appreciation, publication — but it has begun to invade our personal lives to a point where we choose to converse through Snapchat and iMessage rather than converse through voice and personal interaction.

Some argue that social media is a good thing, and we should be using it to the best of our abilities. This is true — social media is not something we need to completely eradicate, it’s merely something we should keep in check.

The age of technology is progressing farther and farther every day, but as long as we keep one eye off the screen and on the world around us, we can find that nice balance between the real world and the virtual world.

Unfortunately, as more and more kids discover what it’s like to have the virtual world right at their fingertips, they are setting themselves up for a life online. To them, “Happy Llama Sad Llama,” and “Slide, Slide Slippery Slide” aren’t the center of their at-

OPINION-EDITORIAL

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THE FOURTH ESTATE

Senior Holly Tobias and junior Conor Scheinberg walk to catch the trolley.

Sophomore Ty Trosky slow dances with junior Tiffany Yabsley.

Junior boys Zane Mazor-Brown, Jack Fry, Ethan Tyng, Alex Furukawa and Aidan O’Donnell in front of the Goodland Hotel before entering the dance.

PHOTOS: CARINA TEDESCO

For more photos from prom, visit www.thefourthestate.net

Mr. Faust’s daughter, Ava Faust, having a blast with senior Maddy Nicolson.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Darwin Miguel ‘16 and senior Melissa Silva at the preprom dinner.

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LIFESTYLE

Dog Days

BY JACK STEIN

PHOTO: TARA BROUCQSAULT

Laguna is a community where everybody is welcome. Students, teachers ... dogs? Teachers are encouraged to bring their pet dogs in to join them throughout the day, provided that the dogs are well behaved and under control. I talked to Latin instructor Rose Steeber, who frequently brings her dog, Ciccu, to campus and learned some pretty interesting things about dogs at school.

TEACHER’S PET: Steeber’s dog, Ciccu, surrounded by students: from left, sophomores Hayley Bankhead and Andrew Tolles, freshman Kiki Tolles and junior Kailea Hieshima.

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teeber has been bringing her dog, Ciccu, to school with her nearly every day for over a year. Her reasoning for bringing Ciccu was simple: in her words, anybody “can have a conversation over belly rubs.”

Even though one might think that the very idea of dogs on campus could be problematic to certain members of the community, Steeber assures that, while “the gophers have a problem… everyone else seems to be fine.”

“Everyone’s really accepting of it,” Steeber said. “I make sure he has his therapy dog tag

LIFESTYLE

on... he has certification, he has training… no one has ever really batted an eye at it.”

Another problem that could arise is the reality of other dogs on campus: even well-trained pets are still, after all, animals.

But Steeber and Ciccu couldn’t get along better with the other teachers’ dogs.

According to Steeber, Ciccu’s “very calm, he’s Mr. Zen Dog,” and, rather than fighting with his fellow animals on campus, “he doesn’t mind other dogs,

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he’s really good with them.”

Art instructor, Dug Uyesaka occasionally brings his dog, Palmer, and Middle School Head Stephen Chan is sometimes joined at school by Yeou, who is one of his three dogs.

While it may seem a bit unorthodox, students seem to appreciate the presence of teachers’ dogs on campus.

“Ciccu brings a calm, mellow presence to any classroom, making the environment more relaxed and enjoyable,” sophomore Bennett Coy said.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

photographer spotlight:

CAMILA LEMERE

THE FOURTH ESTATE

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LIFESTYLE

Warm Weather, Hot Styles

BY CLARA HILLIS // GRAPHIC: CLARA HILLIS

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5

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Wide Leg Trousers - Zara $35.90

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Tragus Earring - Etsy $8

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Scrunchie - Scünci $5.49/ set

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Lace & Silk Slip - ASOS $35

LIFESTYLE

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5

Flower Embroidered Mom Jeans - Topshop $110

6

Leather Mule Slipper - Gucci $650

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Mesh Mock Neck Top Charlotte Russe $23.99

THE FOURTH ESTATE