Issue 3

The Record

Remembering RBG

Volume 118 Issue 3

Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903

record.horacemann.org Septemper 25, 2020

“May her memory be a revolution” Yana Gitelman COLUMNIST

When I found out RBG passed away, I felt sad, and then scared, and then worried that I was one of those white women who venerate RBG as the highest beacon of progressivism, assuming that she fought equally for all marginalized people. I received the news at the table during Rosh Hashanah, when a Jewish friend texted me from his own dinner.

Seven more of my Jewish friends texted me within five minutes. I had never previously felt particularly connected to RBG as a Jewish icon, and I had never felt so connected to my Judaism during a Rosh Hashanah. The significance — both religious and political — of her dying at this moment cannot be understated. Someone who dies on a Shabbat or a Rosh Hashanah is a person of great righteousness, a tzadik. She died on both, which feels apt for the reach of her particular righteousness.

The last big news around a Supreme Court justice was Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

That year, I was one of four girls in my U.S. History class, and I felt like the boys assumed I was less capable. I would plan out my comments in my head and exert wild amounts of energy ensuring I never said “like” or let my voice crack. When I watched Dr. Ford on TV, I saw my best case scenario. This professionally successful, wealthy white woman, the most “respectable” by every societal standard. But the moment she threatened a powerful man’s reputation, she received so many death threats and rape threats that she had to relocate her family.

I know that I am not a passive person and that I will at some point annoy or threaten power.

What I internalized from the Kavanaugh confirmation at age 15 was that no matter what I do — no matter how accomplished I am, or how traditional my personal life is, or how generationally American or Christian I could pretend to be — I will never be immune from verbal or physical misogynistic violence.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a 5’1 Jewish girl from Brooklyn. She was my grandmother’s celebrity look-alike. She had a nasally voice and a New York Jewish accent. And she still commanded respect across party lines and generations. She had a reverse-Ford impact on me; she gave me hope, and I never identified it until after her death. She was a Supreme Court justice who dissented in the name of voting rights, reproductive rights, civil rights, and environmental justice, and who failed at times to protect Native Americans and immigrants.

She graduated first in her class at Columbia Law School as one of the only women in the school and did so without abandoning the pitch of her voice or her pronunciation of the word “talk.” My relationship to RBG, as someone who cares about justice and who hopes to one day go into a career in law or public policy, is necessarily linked to my relationship to her as a nasally-voiced Jewish girl from New York. She proved that I can

RBG was the role model this father pointed to for his then little girl to admire.

RBG left us with the belief that we can and should do better.

- Dr. Tom Kelly

be both, and I don’t need to mimic my male peers’ speech patterns to get there.

To those reading this — brilliant, involved, deserving Horace Mann students — you may feel like your identities and professional aspirations contradict one another. I wish I could personally find you a Ruth of your own, a reflection of you who has overcome all odds and become a widely respected and adored public figure. Representation has progressed and will continue to do so as we fight for equality, but in the meantime: please please share that thought you are holding back in class. Know that you are smart and valuable, and then act like it. Know that your

Ericka Familia

Last Friday evening, as I was talking to my mom, I picked up my phone and shrieked midsentence. I could barely explain when she asked what was wrong, as I read the countless news notifications: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon, dies at 87.” I had no words. Everything I was concerned about only two minutes before seemed trivial.

Somehow, out of this year’s innumerable tragedies, this one felt different.

My immediate thought was, “What will happen to all of the progress we’ve made when President Trump appoints a third justice?” The

Rachel Zhu/Art Director

perspective has the power to change people and institutions, to help uphold (or, really, create) democracy. And then vote, and get everyone you know to vote, and don’t stop there.

We say “may her memory be a blessing,” or better yet “may her memory be a revolution.”

We must mourn Ruth Bader Ginsburg by celebrating her triumphs, remembering her mistakes, and striving to do better than she did.

way in which the Supreme Court interprets the law has decided everything from outlawing school segregation, affirming reproductive rights, and protecting healthcare, LGBTQ+ rights, and DACA recipients, inevitably affecting every American.

However, it soon occurred to me that if Ginsburg had passed away during a different moment for our nation — one not riddled with so much divisiveness and crisis — the ubiquitous feeling of distress would not be nearly as intense. I resented myself for focusing

She’s a great model of integrity and decency that I hope all Americans can recognize and follow.

- Dr. Amir Khosrowpour

As a young Jewish woman passionate about gender equality, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was my idol. I feel responsible to uphold her legacy of persistence and hard work.

- Alexa Turteltaub (10)

on the political implications of her death rather than the incredibly symbolic and tangible nature of her legacy. I recalled why I became awed by Justice Ginsburg to begin with, as she almost single-handedly cemented my aspirations to become a lawyer.

As the second woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg’s life work is the perfect response to the question she was asked by her dean at Harvard Law School, where she was one of only nine female students in her class: “How does she justify occupying a spot at Harvard that would have gone to a man?” As a lawyer, she aimed to overturn laws that dictate or reinforce gender norms through proving that codifying sexism into law negatively affects all Americans, and won five landmark cases before the Supreme Court.

Ginsburg faced countless incidents of sexism throughout her career, which fueled her unwavering fight for gender equality, or, as she put it, “the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.” She not only broke through the glass ceiling but aimed to pick up the shards with her powerful legal dissents. As a staunch feminis, one continually inspired by Ginsburg’s devotion to equality, I have sought to turn my passion into activism.

I advocate for menstrual equity through cofounding Period. @HM and have educated high schoolers about reproductive justice on a Planned Parenthood Youth Action Council.

After reflection, my self-resentment lessened when I came across Justice Ginsburg’s final desire: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

As much as she deserves to be mourned and honored for her unparalleled contributions to the battle for social justice, she too emphasized the unsettling timing of her passing. Less than two hours after her death, Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate will vote on President Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy despite refusing to vote on President Obama’s nominee in 2016.

Her dying wish, so quickly violated for political gain, is not only heartbreaking but indicative of the direction our country seems to be heading in. And frankly, I’m terrified.

But fear alone is futile without channeling into action. I urge you all to cast your ballot if you’re eligible and ensure that everyone you know has a plan to vote in this election. And as Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor discussed, the issues that we care about are much larger than individual candidates, so lasting change will not be realized if we don’t continue working to dismantle oppressive institutions on the grassroots level. If Justice Ginsburg taught us anything, it’s that liberty and justice are not secure and should never be taken for granted. The seriousness of the issues at stake this election far exceed partisan politics, and if there was ever a moment to indulge our hopelessness, now is certainly not then.

Ginsburg said, “Fight for the things you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” The urgency of her message rings true now more than ever.

RBG was a powerful woman, not only in the courts, but as an individual. Her legacy will be honored and we will not forget the impact she had on our country.

- David Aaron (9)

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THE RECORD FEATURES SEPTEMBER 25TH, 2020 All art by Lauren Kim/Art Director

Informative or performative: B Courtesy of Ajani Green-Watson

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE Thousands of protestors take to the streets in Manhattan.

Devin Allard-Neptune Staff Writer Immediately after the murder of George Floyd, Cecilia Coughlin (10) started seeing photos and videos of him everywhere on her phone. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and most news outlets were flooded with the video of his death as his story went viral, she said.

Shortly after the initial outrage, Coughlin began to see posts encouraging people to support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and posting locations of protests.

A few days later, she protested along with thousands of others in Washington Square Park.

In recent months, BLM has garnered an immense number of supporters. Fifteen to 26 million people participated in the BLM protests across the United States after the death of George Floyd, likely making it the largest social movement in U.S. history, according to the New York Times.

Social media allows protests of such large numbers to come to fruition by spreading information to more people, Simon Lindgren, a professor of sociology at Umeå University, said in The Wall Street Journal. “It has this network character,” he said. “If you reach one you reach two, if you reach two you reach four.”

If there were an event that sparked outrage in one state, social media would allow those personally affected to connect with strangers from across the world in a matter of minutes, AJ Walker (11) said. “Pretty much anyone can be a part of the conversation.”

Associate Director of the ICIE Ronald Taylor first joined the BLM movement shortly after Trayvon Martin’s death. While he was a sophomore at Syracuse University,

he worked with other activists to bring attention to implicit biases surrounding Black men. To spread awareness, he and other student leaders posted a picture of a Black man on Twitter every six minutes for two hours with the caption, “When you see me, what do you think?” This campaign helped begin discussions concerning race at Syracuse, Taylor said.

Activism, in general, continues to develop and change with time, and activism on social media is a product of that change, Taylor said. “The protests of the 1960s were effective at that point in time, but now that we have these devices that can connect you to someone thousands of miles away in a matter of milliseconds, activism has also evolved.”

When Taylor was an undergraduate student, Twitter was the platform that was the most popular for social media activism. Now, new platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram are more beneficial for targeting Generation Z, he said.

Pascale Zissu (12) posts on Instagram to learn and spread information about social movements, she said. She has been active on social media relating to social justice issues since eighth grade, but she began to post more regularly after she saw posts about BLM after Breonna Taylor’s murder, which was deeply alarming, she said.

In addition to posting about police brutality in the United States, Zissu reads articles and books and watches documentaries to educate herself about Black history and to learn how to become a better ally, she said.

On Instagram, Zissu saw posts of charts that displayed racial bias through police brutality in the United States and others that disproved the validity of the Blue Lives Matter movement, she said. Zissu typically reposts articles from the account

@soyouwanttotalkabout on her Instagram story, an account that breaks down social issues in the Instagram slideshow form.

On Facebook, she reposted an article about immigration from The Hill, a political newspaper. “I try to post as much as I can, because I find that personally I’ve learned from a lot of other people’s posts,” she said.

Gisella Fischberg (9) reposts articles and pictures she finds helpful on her Instagram story, she said. On TikTok, she has seen videos sharing the experiences and stories of Black people and other posts calling for participation in the movement. Through these videos, Fischberg has learned information that she would not have otherwise. “It has been helpful in spreading awareness and telling the stories of important people,” she said.

Although TikTok offers a massive reach, with over 800 million users worldwide, the format of its content can sometimes make serious posts appear less meaningful, Fischberg said. Each TikTok user has a “For You Page” with short videos tailored to the user’s viewing preferences, and the type of content on the feed varies video by video.

With serious videos about BLM surrounded by dance and comedy videos, the movement’s message can be “watered down,” Fischberg said.

Content tailored to each account allows users to control the information and perspectives they see, Taylor said. Each person’s feed is determined by whom they follow, so the user can decide whether they want the content they receive to be educational and related to current events, he said.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, BLM has been able to gather support and share news. Isolation during quarantine has made social media especially important for spreading information, because online platforms allow people to be politically active without potentially risking their lives, Zissu said.

Even before the pandemic, social media provided an outlet for activists to engage and spread the word without needing to participate in protests, Zachary Kurtz (10) said. Social media allows people who generally do not engage with activism to become involved, he said.

By using social media, Zissu has been able to gather information about BLM in one place that she would otherwise find on multiple traditional news outlets. “With the easy and fast access that social media provides us, it’s made more people aware [of BLM],” she said.

However, widespread access to information allows for the possibility of misinformation.

While scrolling through political posts on Instagram, Walker encountered graphics containing incorrect statistics about interracial violent crime incidents intended to delegitimize BLM. These statistics have the potential to cause serious harm to the movement if users scroll past the information and take it as the truth, Walker said.

To avoid spreading misinformation before reposting, Zissu carefully reads the post and looks for sources. If the post cites its sources, she feels more comfortable reposting it, she said. Zissu additionally cross checks facts

with news sources she trusts, such as the New York Times.

One major difference between traditional television coverage and social media news is the way in which incorrect information is corrected, Walker said. On national television — with entire organizations behind every statement — information is more likely to be fact checked, whereas on social media, incorrect posts are less likely to be corrected, he said. “Anybody can write something and then just say that’s true, so it’s really tricky.”

However, even news sources can have their own biases depending on the audience or sponsors, which may cause the news to be represented in a different way, Kurtz said. Media coverage can become distorted through the lens of

the news source, but social media news coverage often comes directly from those experiencing the reported news firsthand, sometimes making it more forthright, Kurtz said. “It takes away the middleman.”

During the peak of the BLM protests in New York City, Ajani Green-Watson (11) used social media to document protests.

She recorded her experience at protests through Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter to show those who could not attend that the nonviolent reality of the protestors’ behavior is not what is captured on the news, she said.

“A lot of people think that it’s a bunch of rioting, and people are stealing and causing chaos, but I posted to show that we weren’t stealing, looting, or harming anyone.”

Video footage of the protests also helps hold the police accountable for their actions during protests, Walker said. On July 28, BLM protester and homeless transgender teenager Nikki “Stickers” Stone was grabbed by NYPD officers in plainclothes and thrown into an unmarked Kia minivan after vandalizing city security cameras the day before, according to the Washington Post. A fellow protester

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HORACE MANN FEATURES SEPTEMBER 25TH, 2020

Black Lives Matter on social media posted a video of the arrest that received over 13 million views on Twitter, and Stone was released from custody the next day.

Videos of police brutality can provoke immediate reactions and outrage from those not currently involved with BLM, which in turn causes more participation, Walker said. “If people weren’t getting live footage of protests, then the movement would definitely die out quicker because people would lose motivation.”

In addition to inspiring people to protest, social media gives them the ability to

organize gatherings. Coughlin protested in New York City every day that she could for two weeks. Around the peak of the protests, Coughlin used Instagram to find out which materials, such as masks and water, she should bring. Additionally, she was able to

use her Snap Map, a feature on Snapchat that shows the location of other users, to find large gatherings of friends and to determine where protesters were meeting.

To continue the momentum of the movement during the pandemic, certain social demonstrations have taken place entirely on social media. On June 2, millions of Instagram users worldwide participated in Blackout Tuesday, during which they posted a picture of a black square with the hashtag.

The movement’s goal was to stop the flow of new content on social media and to engage in productive dialogue and self-reflection surrounding BLM, according to The Show Must Be Paused, the organization that created the event.

Blackout Tuesday demonstrated unity surrounding BLM and spread awareness about the movement, Alex Nagin (11) said. Even though posting did not remedy racial injustices in the United States, it helped demonstrate the size of the movement and the unified front of its advocates, he

said.

Coughlin did not post on Blackout Tuesday, because she did not think that it was necessarily productive. “Posting really depends on the message you are trying to send,” she said. “Whether it’s to hop on a trend or to really use your voice — and if you feel that’s the right way to speak out — you should do it.”

Walker participated in Blackout Tuesday, but he regrets it, he said. Soon after posting, he talked to his friends in a group chat and discussed the ramifications of the Instagram demonstration. Walker and his friends came to the conclusion that while posting a black square on Instagram was not harmful to BLM, it did not help the movement either.

“I had to come to terms with the fact that even though posting it makes you feel good in the moment, in the long run, it doesn’t do anything,” he said. “Blackout Tuesday is just a way to post and have people see that you support the movement.”

Although over 28 million pictures were posted with #blackouttuesday on Instagram, the Change.org petition that demanded justice for George Floyd — the largest petition in the history of the website — only had around 13 million signatures.

Sasha Snyder (12) did not post for Blackout

Tuesday because she has not been active on social media for the past few years. Instead of posting for BLM, she has participated in the movement by signing petitions, sending emails to police departments and local politicians, and educating herself, she wrote in an email.

Recently, Snyder noticed some of her peers have used posting on social media as a way of maintaining “political correctness” without engaging meaningfully in the BLM movement. “With social media activism, it can often feel like participants don’t genuinely care about the issues, but rather only wish to be seen as the type of person who would,” she wrote. Actions outside of social media require more effort and do not boost one’s public image in the same way that social media does, and as a result, physical actions are more of a testament to the activist’s commitment to the movement, she wrote.

The phenomenon described by Snyder — in which a user posts a message of support for a movement on social media but does not take further action — is an example of virtue signaling, according to culture magazine Savoir Flair. By only posting about pressing issues on social media, the user is displaying their virtue without taking any concrete actions.

Similar to virtue signaling, performative activism occurs when users engage in social media activism by centering themselves in political conversation, with the intent of gaining engagement rather than truly desiring to help.

“If you’re posting just to look good, then you’re profiting off of the injustices that are happening,” Walker said. “The reason that you should be reposting stuff is to help and make sure that these injustices don’t continue.”

However, performative activism and virtue signaling can be difficult to identify, Nagin said. Because communication occurs through words on a screen without additional verbal cues and body signs, it is impossible to fully understand others’ intentions, he said.

Many Instagram users regularly post petitions as well as information regarding BLM, Zissu said. In addition to the George Floyd petition, there are also petitions calling for justice for Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain, and other victims of police brutality. Over the past few months, petitions have received millions of signatures and in some cases have led to government action.

The men involved in both Floyd and Arbery’s murders were charged and arrested, and a new investigation was launched into McClain’s death, according to the New York Times. However, the police officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s murder were not indicted on any charges directly related to her death.

Although social media makes it easier to gather signatures for petitions, Zissu said she doubts the practice. “The petition might be helpful in showing how many people care, but in the end, it’s up to the lawmakers,” Zissu said. Still, she continues to sign petitions. “It takes 30 seconds to sign, so I’d personally rather just do it on the chance that it does help.”

According to Jason Del Gandio, a professor of communications and social movements at Temple University, petitions are most successful when coupled with other tactics. Supplementing petitions with protests, phone calls, face-to-face lobbying, community outreach and other strategies can make the goals of the signatories a

reality, Del Gandio said in an interview with the New York Times.

Social media can be used as a helpful tool for learning, but physical participation beyond posting is more productive for accomplishing the goals associated with the movement, Zissu said. In June, Zissu attended a BLM event in Van Cortlandt Park.

“When you see so many people showing up in person, it feels more powerful to me than when I see a bunch of people reposting something online.”

As social media activism continues to grow, so does the importance for activists to engage in actions that directly help social movements, Walker said. The first step one should take when trying to participate in social media activism is sharing credible

Courtesy of Instagram

SOYOUWANTTOTALKABOUT Insta-graphics. information. “Even just by reposting information on how people can be better allies or things that people can do to help the movement is helpful in itself,” he said. After posting, the user can contribute by signing petitions and donating to reputable civil rights organizations.

“I think where social media activism fails is when people think by posting a photo that they’ve changed the world,” Taylor said.

“Sure, if you’re Beyoncé, you can post a photo and you might start a huge conversation. But you have to do more.”

Shortly after Blackout Tuesday, one of Taylor’s friends from Syracuse reached out to him to talk about BLM. He had posted the black square but was unsure how to continue supporting the movement, Taylor said. “You posted the black square. Great,” Taylor told his friend. “But now, in your community, what can you do to help correct systemic issues?”

After their conversation, Taylor’s friend joined his local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as a member of the organization’s Economic Justice Commission, and he is currently using his background in finance to help the organization.

Social media allows activists to create large followings and share their messages, but there have to be further actions taken to utilize that following to create social change, Taylor said. By using social media strategically with the intent of reforming society, users can advance BLM even further, he said. “That’s the work that we need to see to move this country forward.”

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THE RECORD NEWS SEPTEMBER 25TH, 2020

Rachel Zhu/Art Director

Courtesy of Flickr

WHITE FRAGILITY DiAngelo’s book, read by staff.

Liliana Greyf Staff Writer

Faculty attended Professional Development Day, a virtual event that featured keynote speaker Dr. Robin DiAngelo, this past Tuesday. Head of Upper Division Dr. Jessica Levenstein and Associate Director of the Office for Identity, Culture, and Institutional Equity (ICIE) Ronald Taylor designed the event to facilitate discussion about bias and antiracism.

After Taylor framed the day’s events, DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility,” spoke and presented a slideshow. Later, faculty took part in racial affinity group discussions, and the day ended with an optional cross-racial processing space, which around one third of the faculty chose to attend, Taylor said.

DiAngelo is a lecturer and academic working in the field of Whiteness Studies, according to her website. She is currently an Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The keynote lecture, which lasted two hours, was a highly informative aspect of the day, English

teacher Jennifer Little said. Through a structured speech and presentation, DiAngelo explained the prejudices and racial biases of American systems, expanding on concepts covered in her book, she said.

Taylor also worked with Director of the HM Parent Institute Wendy Reiter to offer a family engagement lecture with DiAngelo later that evening. At this event, DiAngelo went through the same presentation, Levenstein said.

Evie Klein P ’18 ’21, who attended the event, was captivated by the images that DiAngelo used throughout her talk, which were primarily infographics that detailed racial statistics within the U.S. “She really wove the arc together,” Klein said. “She knew who her audience was and that the majority of them were white parents, and she really catered towards that.”

“She was very successful at cutting through any ways that white people might excuse not talking about race,” Little said. “It was very impactful to hear her just break down all the different reactions she has heard when white people are confronted with these topics.”

DiAngelo’s understandable yet informational language stuck with world languages teacher Daisy Vazquez, she said. In her presentation, DiAngelo explained how the mainstream definition of a racist — an individual who consciously does not like people based on their race and is intentionally hurtful — actually protects the system of racism.

DiAngelo also offered a series of reflective questions to deconstruct bias and for the faculty to reflect on what ways race has shaped their lives, Vazquez said.

After the presentation, faculty members split off into racial affinity groups: one designed for whiteidentifying faculty and the other for faculty of color.

Little, who attended the affinity group for whiteidentifying faculty, was asked to journal responses to the lecture and reflect on her own experiences, she said. DiAngelo, who led this group along with former Director of the ICIE John Gentile, asked white faculty members to set goals for themselves

for the future. Little plans to continue educating herself after the completion of this event, because she understands that anti-racism goes beyond a few hours at a workshop, she said.

Meanwhile, faculty of color reflected on their day, Taylor said. “We really focused on figuring out what we need from our white faculty and white people in general in order to make the school more equitable,” he said. “Moreover, we talked about how faculty of color, despite their various ethnicities, can best support each other.”

The final event of the day was an optional crossracial processing space, designed to allow white faculty to hear from their co-workers of color, Taylor said.

Although the space was not a required part of the day, 130 out of the 360 faculty members present throughout the day came to the space, Levenstein said.

“That was a powerful moment to showcase,” Taylor said. “When you feel alone, just know that there are 129 other people on this campus that are committed to the same work.”

Since this was the first time a cross-racial discussion space was held for the entire faculty, Taylor wanted to be careful to make sure it was not a harmful space for anyone present, he said.

“Had I made that space mandatory, we may have had some people come in that were not there to be productive,” he said. “They could still have been processing parts of the conversation, and then they could have come in and been more disruptive and destructive than productive.”

During this group, faculty of color were given 20 minutes to share what they had spoken about in their affinity group and to ask their white coworkers to act in ways that would be beneficial to them and supportive of their needs. Then, white faculty members were given 15 minutes to make commitments to create a more equitable school environment, Taylor said.

Taylor said this optional workshop was the most successful part of the day. “In my four years as an

employee at this school, this was the first time that we came together in a cross-racial setting to talk about these issues,” Taylor said. “We asked the white people in this space to listen and to share what they had learned, and they actually did.”

“In our society, oftentimes people of color are told that they can’t have access to something or they can’t enter into certain spaces,” Taylor said. “We wanted to model what it would have looked like to have equitable time.” Since history has put people of color in the backseat on so many things, they gave them more time to share, he said.

Levenstein first had the idea for this event in March of 2019, after reading “White Fragility,” DiAngelo’s most famous work. “This book [was] incredibly useful to me, and I can only imagine that it would be very useful to my colleagues,” she said.

She brought the concept of a “faculty read” to Gentile, who already had an established connection with DiAngelo, Levenstein said. Gentile invited her to speak at the school last March, Levenstein said.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the school postponed the event; however, faculty members had a chance to read DiAngelo’s book and discuss what they had learned in smaller, cross-departmental workshops throughout last fall and last winter.

“We came together and discussed DiAngelo’s work chapter by chapter,” Levenstein said. “Those were incredibly successful and interesting discussions, so we were really ready and excited for her visit in March.”

After the postponement, ICIE rescheduled with DiAngelo, asking her to provide a virtual talk and the administration decided to give students the day off and faculty members were asked to Zoom into workshops, Levenstein said.

Taylor hopes that the impact of this day will go beyond Tuesday’s discussions, he said. “We are not doing this work just to give ourselves a pat on the back,” he said. “We have to reflect on what we did in order to become a better, more equitable school.”

Random COVID-19 screening yields all negative results Mia Calzolaio Staff Writer The school’s random COVID-19 screening testing produced all negative results, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly wrote in an email to parents on Sunday.

The screening was the first round of the bi-weekly testing program.

This program entails 125 to 175 randomly selected students and faculty reporting to their division’s respective testing locations — the Steven M. Friedman ‘72 Gymnasium for the Upper Division (UD) and Middle Division (MD), the Faculty Workroom for the Lower Division (LD), and the tented rear playground for the Nursery Division (ND) — on Fridays for saliva-based PCR spit tests, Kelly wrote in a separate email to students last Thursday.

The tests were administered under the supervision of employees from Vault Health, Inc, the same company the school used to test all employees at the start of the school year, Kelly added. All students received their results within 24 hours.

Dalia Pustilnik (11) is glad that the school is conducting COVID-19 tests during the year, especially since

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students could have been exposed to the virus between the time they submitted their initial test and the beginning of the school year. “I think it is a really good idea to have random testing and cover all our bases,” she said.

The testing program is modeled off of other schools’ COVID-19 protocols, including several liberal arts colleges with which the school tends to have much in common, Kelly wrote.

Kelly told students their parents would receive an email if they were chosen for testing and instructed chosen students to bring in a signed consent form and electronic device to register their test kit. He also advised that students allow 15 to 20 minutes to complete the test and not to eat or drink anything 30 minutes prior to testing.

Kelly said the screening presents new challenges. “Testing our younger students requires a higher level of care and supervision, and getting our MD and UD students to complete the testing within the context of an already busy day is another concern.”

Upon entering the gym for her COVID-19 test, Amelia Resnick (10) received her testing kit and created an account online in order to scan the

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barcode on the bottle. She then spent around 10 minutes spitting into a test tube. All of the instructions were online, and there were volunteers around in case anyone needed help, she said.

Pustilnik said once she had filled her container, she was instructed to add a chemical to her saliva in the bottle, shake it, and place it into a box for the employees. The process took around 15 minutes and was simple, she said.

After receiving word that he was going to be tested, Mehraz Karim (12) was initially upset, because he did not want to take the time out of his day and thought that it would be a nose swab test. However, his feelings changed after finding out it was a spit test and talking to his friends — those who were selected made him feel less singled out and those who were not assured him that nothing bad could come of it. “I was actually pretty happy because it showed that the school was committed to stopping the spread,” he said.

Resnick was happy she was chosen because she wanted to ensure she did not have the coronavirus and said the testing was a positive reminder of the school’s precautions.

Volume 118 Editorial Board

A&E Izzy Abbott Abby Beckler Oliver Steinman

Staff Writers Devin Allard-Neptune, Chloe Choi, Emma Colacino, Yin Fei, Lucas Glickman, Claire Goldberg, Tuhin Ghosh, Liliana Greyf, Lauren Ho, Hanna Hornfeld, Oliver Lewis, Rowan Mally, Simon Schackner, Arushi Talwar, Katya Tolunsky, Max Chasin, Alex Lautin, Jillian Lee, Hannah Katzke, Vidhatrie Keetha, Louise Kim, Zachary Kurtz, Clio Rao, Ayesha Sen, Emily Salzhauer, Emily Sun Staff Photographers Kelly Troop, Sophie Gordon, Amanda Wein, Emma Colacino, AJ Walker, Lucas Glickman, Lauren Ho Staff Artists Eliza Becker, Felix Brener, Riva Vig

The tests provided reassurance, Karim said. He knows that people with COVID-19 can be asymptomatic, and while temperature checks are effective, they are not a surefire way to stop the spread. He is glad that the school is testing students, just to ensure that no one is sick, he said.

“Being tested has definitely made me feel more comfortable at school, not only because I know that I am negative, but also that Horace Mann has done a good job with its reopening plan,” Michael Shaari (11) said.

While the screening testing program has many advantages, there are inevitably some challenges, such as false negatives or positives. Rachel Baez (10) was concerned that her test would be a false negative.

According to an article published

by Harvard Medical School in August, the reported rate of false negatives is as low as 2% and as high as 37%, with nasal swabs typically providing more accurate results.

However, Kelly has faith in the testing system. “While there is always a concern about false positives or negatives and even null responses, we are testing enough individuals to feel confident that the data set will serve us well,” he said.

Editor-in-Chief Julia Goldberg

Lions’ Den Yotam Hahn Alison Isko Josh Underberg

Middle Division Adrian Arnaboldi Bradley Bennett Jack Crovitz

About Founded in 1903, The Record is Horace Mann School’s award-winning weekly student newspaper. We publish approximately 30 times during the academic year, offering news, features, opinions, arts, Middle Division and sports coverage relevant to the school community. The Record serves as a public forum to provide the community with information, entertainment, and an outlet for various viewpoints. As a student publication, the contents of The Record are the views and work of the students and do not necessarily represent those of the faculty or administration of the Horace Mann School. Horace Mann School is not responsible for the

Issues Editor Adam Frommer

Design Lowell Finster John Mauro Sarah Sun

Editorial Policy

NEWS IN BRIEF ICIE responds to Taylor verdict

Following the verdict not to indict officers for the murder of Breonna Taylor, Head of School Tom Kelly and ICIE Director Ronald Taylor hosted a series of moderated discussions outside of Spence Cottage with over 100 community members attending.

Students shared thoughts and questions they had about Taylor’s case, police brutality, and systemic racism. Kelly offered his reflections on the issue, and Taylor asked students to reflect on their privileges and consider what agency they have to enact change. Engaging in political systems, becoming an empowered bystander, and leading with empathy were some of the strategies discussed.

School removes government positions

The school will discontinue the positions of Student Body Presidents (SBPs) and class presidents, Dean of Students Michael Dalo wrote in an email. Instead, six elected representatives from the freshman, sophomore, and junior grades and eight elected representatives from the senior grade will comprise the Community Council (CC).

Any of the eight elected seniors will be eligible to run for two CC Co-Chair positions. This shift will hopefully move student government away from hierarchical titles and towards leadership more representative of the student body, Dalo wrote.

- Features Editor Henry Owens and EditorIn-Chief Julia Goldberg

Art Annabelle Chan Gabby Fischberg Lauren Kim Rachel Zhu

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Photography Jackson Feigin Julia Isko Maxwell Shopkorn

Faculty Advisor David Berenson

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