Verde Volume 16 Issue 1

V. FIGHTING SPIRIT Kariel Young p. 38 EPA Boxing p. 33

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RIGHT HOOK (p. 33) A boxer at the East Palo Alto Boxing Club works out in the club’s training facility.

Verde October 2014 Volume 16 Issue 1

Inside

Cover

8 The Launch 12 News

Culture 16 17 19 20 22 23 24 26

Mandarin Roots Timothy Adams Chocolate Rate My Teacher Music Review Gelataio Camouflage Tradition Super Smash Bros Pizza Studio

profiles

33 East Palo Alto Boxing Club 38 Kariel Young

42 52 58 60

Hoeprich Teachers with Careers Foug Froli

features 28 44 48 54 56 61 62

Cheating Hands Up Don’t Shoot Mental Health Institute for the Future Drought Drones Firefighters

Perspectives 64 65 66 68 70

Feminist Music Videos Introvert Stigma Women Against Feminism Young Adult Literature That’s What Shi Said

EDITORIALS CONDEMNING DRESS CODES

T

HIS YEAR AT JORDAN MIDDLE SCHOOL, a new addition to the dress code informs students that “pants must fit appropriately meaning that there should be no panty lines, they should not stretch across the skin where the fabric is taut and pulled.

Unless they wear a top that completely covers the buttocks.” This policy joins others that are all too familiar, like the two finger rule for shirts and the finger-tip rule for shorts and skirts.

Verde believes that dress codes, which primarily target girls, are inherently sexist and unjustified. The rules contribute to the larger issue of victim-blaming and rape culture.

Furthermore, the idea that girls must take preemptive measures because boys simply can’t control themselves in the presence of certain outfits insults boys. Holding girls responsible for the actions of boys implies that boys have no self-control and can’t take care of themselves.

The handbook of all Palo Alto Unified School District middle schools states that the intention of the code is to create a safe learning environment for the entire staff and students. If dress codes are indeed enforced to protect the rights of all students, why does it appear that the rights of boys to focus in the classroom (as implied by the intention of the policy) are being fiercely protected while the rights of girls to freely present own bodies are being violated?

To illustrate our point, take a man walking down a street wearing an expensive watch who is mugged. Of course, he is not to blame for this incident. In contrast, when a 12-year-old girl walks down the school hallway wearing a tank top and yoga pants, a teacher scolds her and makes her change outfits, showing the girl that society has deemed her body a sexual object that must be covered up. She should not be condemned for wearing what she wants, regardless of the reaction it causes in others. In the same way that no one asks to be mugged, no 12-year-old girl asks to be sexualized and ogled at.

Dress codes are the most common and evident form of victim-blaming, the idea that a victim of a crime is held partially or fully responsible for the crime. The policy sends the message that girls are responsible for taking preemptive measures to cover their bodies in order to prevent boys from being distracted. By blaming girls for the fact that boys supposedly can’t focus in class, the school perpetuates rape culture by implying that a girl’s body is an inherently sexual object.

The victim blame has reached a point in which all PAUSD students can be punished for breaking the dress code with refer4

rals and detentions. The administration is equating wearing short shorts to such offenses as violence or disrespecting other students.

This is an issue for all genders, because a dress code is diminutive to all genders. Dress codes reduce girls to their bodies and boys to their sexual urges.

Verde believes that while a school may have the right to enforce a dress code, never will it ever have to the right to enforce rape culture. We call for a change of the dress code in all PAUSD middle schools and for the stop of ingrained slut-shaming and victim blame.

CHEATING POLICY PROMOTES GROWTH

T

HE PALO ALTO HIGH school administration has addressed the longstanding issue of cheating with a new academic honesty policy which will be piloted this year. This new policy allows students convicted of cheating to choose between the “traditional” policy and the new “restorative justice” track.

Verde commends the Paly administration for attempting to reduce cheating by offering a non-punitive option aimed at changing behavior and mentality among students.

Created by Teacher on Special Assignment Eric Bloom, the new policy includes specific, graduated levels with the intent of addressing cheating offenses of different magnitudes. According to a presentation prepared by Bloom and Diorio, the new restorative justice system aims to help students “accept responsibility and identify root causes, alter their behavior, and give them the opportunity to rebuild relationships.”

The Paly website expands on these goals, indicating that the new pathway has been created with the intent to initiate “genuine learning that leads to a change in behavior, and restoration for the wrongs done to individuals and the community affected by the individual’s actions.”

Recognizing that all offenses cannot be lumped together under one overarching punishment is important, and we believe that the new system brings in much needed flexibility in the consequences assigned to each level of infraction. Furthermore, the new policy recognizes that an infraction of the honor code also breaks the natural trust between the transgressor, their peers and the teacher, and works to repair that bond, which is a crucial step in maintaining an environment in which mistakes can be made, but second chances are given.

We have noticed that academic honesty infractions are extremely prevalent amongst our peers. Cheating poses a huge problem to the integrity of our Paly community, and we hope that this new policy will discourage future infractors.

p. 33

p. 38

p. 26

p. 17

p. 62 p. 33

p. 61

From the Editors

A FRESH START

W

ITH A NEW YEAR, NEW STAFF, new building, new website and new technology, everything about Verde Magazine is starting fresh. On Sept. 27, high school journalists from around the state gathered in the Media Arts Center for a day of collaboration and learning. J-Day highlighted how Palo Alto High School’s new journalism home has exceeded our expectations as a hub of creativity and passion, and we are incredibly grateful for all the work and planning that went into creating such a revolutionary building.

After working with our new staff for these first couple months, it is evident to us that Verde’s tradition of combining a close inner-community with high quality journalism will continue naturally throughout this transition. We welcome them into our Verde family with open arms, eager to see all that they will accomplish. We could not be more proud of their hard work and dedication thus far.

For some, fresh starts change lives. Our cover package this issue, titled “Fighting Spirit,” highlights an individual and an organization who have managed to overcome their challenges, turning adversity into widespread positivity.

The East Palo Alto Boxing Club (p. 33) provides “at-risk” teens a safe place to exercise, make friends and build character.

The opportunities the club offers have been turning lives around, one punch at a time.

Kariel Young (p. 38), a Paly junior, paralyzed from the waist down, has not let her disability define her. Instead, through her resilience and courage she has managed to live an active and engaging life while using her condition to advocate on behalf of those with spinal cord injuries. As a result, she brings a new perspective to the our Paly community.

This issue dives into several other pressing issues in our community, such as cheating (p. 28), mental health (p. 48), the drought (p. 56) and feminism (p. 64 and 66). We also take a look at developing trends through our stories on the Institute for the Future (p. 54) and the rise of drones (p. 61).

We hope that the movers and shakers introduced in this issue inspire you to move forward this year with strength and motivation. Everyone has the potential to adopt the fighting spirit; it’s just a matter of being willing to take a stand on an issue that matters to you.

Have a great fall, Paly!

— Bryan, Jack, Jasper and Tira

Editors-in-Chief Jack Brook Jasper McEvoy Tira Oskoui Bryan Wong Managing Editors Lucy Fox Brigid Godfrey Design Editor Claire Priestley Features Editor Eliza Ackroyd Perspectives Editor Kelly Shi Culture Editor Anand Srinivasan Launch Editor Esmé Ablaza News Editors Anna Lu Siddharth Srinivasan Business Managers Zofia Ahmad Alexandra Hsieh Art Director Anthony Liu Artist Karina Chan Photo Director Ana Sofia Amieva-Wang Staff Writers Emma Goldsmith Emilie Ma Joe Meyer Madison Mignola Christian Miley Anna Nakai Ansley Queen Elana Rebitzer Ryan Reed Gabriela Rossner Rachel Van Gelder James Wang Bethany Wong Caroline Young Roy Zawadzki Adviser Paul Kandell

6

Contact Us

VERDE MAGAZINE

@VERDEMAGAZINE Information Publication Policy Verde, a feature magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Magazine Journalism class, is a designated open forum for student expression and the discussion of issues of concern to its readership.

Verde is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost.

Letters to the Editors The staff welcomes letters to the editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity.

Send all letters to veics-1415@ googlegroups.com or to 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301. All Verde stories are posted online and available for commenting at http://verdemagazine.com Advertising The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with Verde, please contact the Verde business manager Zofia Ahmad and Alexandra Hsieh at 650-796-2358 for more information.

Printing & Distribution Verde is printed five times a year in October, November, February, April and May, by Fricke-Parks Press in Fremont, Calif. The Paly PTSA mails Verde to every student’s home. All Verde work is available at http://verdemagazine.com

Planning and Coaching Ellen Fisher, BA, MA ellen@college4u.info Phone: 415-420-054 www.college4u.info Check us out on

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.

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LAUNCH

ASB ANSWERS

Compiled by esme ablaza

WHY DID ASB CHANGE THE FORMAT OF SPIRIT WEEK DANCES? “We’ve had exclusion issues in the past. We’ll increase class unity. We think it’ll be a great change and it’ll give the spirit dance a different feel because if students do choose to participate, it’ll be on a larger scale.”

— CLAIRE LIU, ASB PRESIDENT

Reporting by CHRISTIAN MILEY; Photography by CLAIRE PRIESTLEY

HOMECOMING ASKING TIPS

BY NATALIE MAEMURA 1. PICK THE RIGHT TARGET: Don’t ask someone who is already going to be asked or already has a significant other. That could get awkward and messy.

2. GET A HEAD START: Start planning now. It’s like studying before a test; don’t procrastinate!

3. BE A CREEPY STALKER: Facebook stalk and check out their likes. This could help you come up with a clever asking idea. Research is the

VERBATIM:

WHAT IS YOUR DEFININITION OF CULTURAL APPROPRIATION?

“When you adopt a culture and fit it into your own.”

— freshman Jackie To

8

name of the game.

4. USE PUNS: If you did your research, then you will have a better chance of coming up with something PUNNY. Corny is good.

5. USE SOCIAL MEDIA: Snapchatting: only 10 seconds (or less!) of awkwardness.

6. UTILIZE FOOD: Whether it be chocolate, cupcakes, Chipotle, or pizza, giving food has always been a safe bet.

7. JUST ASK: It’s self-explanatory.

“When one culture takes on an aspect of another culture and makes it their own.”

— sophomore Max Lenail

TEACHER TWEETS

Reporting by CLAIRE PRIESTLEY

SPIRIT WEEK THEMES that weren’t AFTER WEEKS OF DEBATE, ONE SPIRIT WEEK THEME PER GRADE EMERGED. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE IDEAS THAT FELL SHORT? 2015: The Class of 2015 chose The Great Gatsby over the Emerald City. A spirit dance that mixes pop music with music from the musicals “The Wizard of Oz” and “Wicked” would have been a sure hit for the seniors, but the Gatsby soundtrack will provide plenty of songs as well.

2016: The Class of 2016 considered El Dorado before settling on pirates. The grade’s leadership called the theme “Aztec”, but the idea of dressing up as another culture sparked an intense discussion on the class Facebook page.

2017: The Class of 2017, who will be “red-carded” soccer players, also toyed with being “caught redhanded.” Seeing them walk around on theme day with their hands painted red would have be funny, but in the end would just leave the school covered in paint residue.

2018: For their first Spirit Week, the class of 2018 eventually chose Lion King, but before that, they considered Florida’s Natural Orange Juice. While creative, the theme gives few options for costumes beyond a carton of juice.

Text by ELANA REBITZER

Photography and reporting by EMMA GOLDSMITH

“When one culture is modified to fit the mainstream culture.

This can have a predominantly negative connotation.”

— junior Natalie Snyder

“When people take on important traditional aspects of a culture and make it mainstream ... like making traditionaly clothes into ‘trendy’ costumes.”

— senior Audrey Zha 9

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

NEW CLUB CHECK-IN: ASSASSIN’S GUILD

Text by MADISON MIGNOLA

“We organize by email this game called Assassin, where everyone gets a target, which is someone else in the club, and then they have to ‘assassinate’ another person in the Guild.”

to subscribe to

PHOTONICINDUNCTION For those of you that love science, this channel involves a man with a funny accent, experiments involving household appliances and way too many volts of electricity. These videos are a bit long, but definitely a fun watch.

FOODWISHES With this channel, you get a yummy recipe along with a hilarious narration from Chef John. The difficulty level of the recipes vary but all videos are fun and easy to follow along with. Get cooking!

THEMOSTPOPULARGIRLS This hilarious channel follows the lives of “popular” high school girls through the use of stop motion film and barbie dolls. The crude humor may not be for everyone, but this series definitely gives a good laugh.

RRCHERRYPIE GROUP If you’re ever stressed, try checking out this channel. For one reason or another, watching a pair of mysterious hands make tiny candies relieves some anxiety. This channel is entirely in Japanese, but luckily you don’t have to speak the language to understand it!

LAUREN CURTIS With thousands of makeup channels out there, it’s hard to choose which one to watch. Lauren Curtis offers excellent advice on which products to use and also gives very specific descriptions of how she uses the product and how it helps or hurts a certain look. Of all the makeup channels to choose from, this one takes the cake.

10

— JOEY KELLISON-LINN, SOPHOMORE Reporting by JOE MEYER Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

FALL READING LIST NOT SURE WHAT TO READ THIS FALL? CHECK OUT ONE OF THESE YOUNG ADULT BOOKS Text by CAROLINE YOUNG “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

by Cristin Terrill This taut, emotionally-charged time-travel novel tells the story of an assassination plot and its two opposing teams as they race against each other to save what they love. With memorable characters and debatable morality, “All Our Yesterdays” questions whether the ends justify the means and whether the inevitable should dictate the present.

“KIKI STRIKE: INSIDE THE SHADOW CITY”

by Kirsten Miller Full of mystery, exploration, and a group of genius ex-Girl Scouts exploring the hidden tunnels beneath New York City, this book is fun, addictive, and charming in addition to having colorful, quirky characters and a unique plot that will keep you reading late into the night.

YUMMINESS

VILLAGE CHEESE HOUSE

DOUCE FRANCE

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

MAYFIELD CAFE

GOTT’S ROADSIDE

Anna LU ASSESSES A PALY STUDENT’S LUNCH OPTIONS

REPORTING BY ANNA LU PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

asian box

HOWIE’S ARTISAN PIZZA

LULU’S

AFFORDABILITY

NETFLIX FIX RUN OUT OF TV SHOWS ON NETFLIX TO BINGE WATCH? WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED Text by ANSLEY QUEEN BREAKOUT KINGS: Two U.S. marshals chase down the countries most wanted escaped convicts with help from three ex-cons. The convicts are able to think in the same way as the escapee, giving the viewer an interesting peek into the minds of our most-wanted.

LIE TO ME: In this crime-drama, Dr. Cal Lightman, an expert on human behavior, uses his gift of observation to try to determine whether people are lying. He freelances with his partner, Dr. Gillian Foster, taking cases ranging anywhere from murder to espionage.

THE BLACKLIST: The Blacklist is a crime-drama series starring Raymond “Red” Reddington, who sits atop the FBI’s most wanted list. He surrenders on the condition that he can work cooperatively with rookie FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen. Together they work to stop dangerous criminals.

NEWS

RENOVATION Conceptual designs of the current library (upper left) are set to be finalized in December. The new building (upper right) will increase by 1000 square feet, with a second floor addition. Graphics provided by the PAUSD Board of Education.

Conceptual library designs released Palo Alto High School plans on renovating the library building with hopes to begin construction in July 2016.

According to Paly librarian Rachel Kellerman, the renovation design will be finished by the end of December. The design aims to create an atmosphere more conducive to academics.

“There will no longer be a pass through [in the library], so that will cut down on all the traffic and will preserve

the environment of mellowness instead of frantic passing through,” Kellerman said.

Proposed spaces for the building include the library, student activities, instructional spaces, meeting rooms, the College and Career center, and the Guidance Center.

The conceptual design, which is posted on the Palo Alto Unified School District website, showcases large windows, a mezzanine and skylights. Stylistically, the library

will have a double-height space and new openings that incorporate bookshelves and edge seating along windowed walls.

The new design will also feature modern technology to assist students.

“We are going to have a genius bar,” Kellerman said. “If someone has a tech issue, there will be plenty of charging stations here for them to come and get help.”

BY ANAND SRINIVASAN

Superintendent looks forward to major changes The Palo Alto Unified School District’s new superintendent plans on making significant changes to improve transparency and communication.

On Sept. 25, superintendent Max McGee hosted a coffee meeting in the Media Arts Center atrium, expressing his main goals for the coming years.

According to McGee, one of his goals is to improve the district’s transparency.

“One of our [the district’s] goals is being much more proactive and much less 12

reactive in communication,” McGee said.

“We should share our vision to share our goals and our successes, but when problems exist, we should be forthright and address them promptly, openly and transparently.”

McGee also hopes to improve the district culture to help prepare students for a future that engages in global collaborations and competition. “[Our goal is of] promoting, advancing and inspiring a culture of academic

excellence,” McGee said. “We also need to highlight consistent high quality and fairness in curriculum, instruction and assessment, balancing that with supporting the design, development, implementation and assessment of innovation at the school sights.”

McGee says he looks forward to working with high school students, as he believes they are not shy to express their ideas.

BY BRIGID GODFREY

NEWS

James Franco to appear at MAC grand opening Palo Alto High School will host a grand opening weekend for the Media Arts Center on Oct. 16, 17 and 18 to celebrate the completion of the new building, featuring guest appearances from James Franco, graduating class of 1996, and Arianna Huffington.

According to journalism teacher Esther Wojcicki, the week’s first event will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 16 with speeches by Ariana Huffington, president and editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post; David Kelley, head of Design School

at Stanford; and Shelby Cofey, vice chairman of the Newseum.

This opening event is invitation-only, and took only three days for the event to nearly fill up, according to Wojcicki.

The second night will feature an open house that everyone is invited to attend.

The third night will feature James Franco, who will present a new movie and artwork.

This event will cost $50 and Wojcicki plans to make tickets available to students first.

“The food [that will] be served [on the third night] is going to be Campanilefamous food — pizza,” Wojcicki said. “I thought it should be a recreation since James Franco was in the Campanile. He thinks that [the Paly journalism] program has had the greatest impact on his life, so he’s coming back to celebrate. ... The drama program at Paly also had a big impact on his life, and so he feels very connected to Paly, so that’s why he’s coming back.”

BY LUCY FOX

Departments will revamp furniture this winter Palo Alto High School will receive new furniture after a significant donation from an anonymous donor.

According to English teacher Marc Tolentino, the furniture is expected to be delivered around Winter Break. Principal Kim Diorio said that the art, English, science, former history and former math buildings will all receive furniture upgrades in December.

Furniture manufacturer KI will be working with Paly to design the new furniture. KI provided the furniture for the math and history buildings as well as the Media Arts Center.

In preparation for the furniture revamp, Tolentino and other English teachers will begin “test driving” English classrooms in the Media Arts Center to see what desks and chairs best fit their teaching style.

“A lot of teachers who are teaching in the Media Arts Center have offered me an opportunity to test drive a classroom, meaning that I can bring in [my] class during an empty period and check out to see how the furniture works for me,” Tolentino said.

One of the new desks being discussed

EARLY STAGES KI representatives discuss innovative furniture options with Paly English teachers. The new furniture will arrive in December. Photo by Eliza Ackroyd. is the KI’s “Learn II,” a chair-and-desk combination with wheels that brings increased mobility. Journalism teacher Esther Wojcicki believes that the moveable desks will improve the learning environment.

“The moveable desks prevent teachers from lecturing, making classes more engaging for kids,” Wojcicki said.

BY SIDDHARTH SRINIVASAN 13

NEWS Spirit Week to encourage more inclusion Spirit Week starts on Oct. 24 and will feature several changes from past years, making it more inclusive and fair for all students of each class.

According to an official statement by the Associated Student Body at Palo Alto High School, one such change is to the spirit dance, where the 10-member limit has been removed. Now, each student who participates in the dance will earn a point for their grade, to incentivize inclusion.

“It incorporates so many more people, which I think will remind people of what Spirit Week is really about: getting close to your class and having fun,” said ASB Spirit Commissioner junior Emma Cole. “People seem to forget that when they’re in the midst of all the competition, but Spirit Week is about school pride and unity — not class rivalries.”

ASB also hopes to bring back quad rallies at brunch and a night rally.

“We’re still going through all the events, but it’s looking like it’s going to be a crazy year,” said ASB Spirit Comissioner Ariya Momeny.

BY ELIZA ACKROYD

IN CONVERSATION Senior city librarian Laurie Hastings (center) leads a community discussion of “What it is Like to Go to War” by Karl Marlantes as part of the Palo Alto City Library’s “War Comes Home” program. Thanks to a grant from Cal Humanities, the program will continue until Nov. 19. Photo by Bethany Wong.

Libraries honor vets The Palo Alto City Library will host a special community reading program called “War Comes Home” from mid-September to mid-November.

According to the City of Palo Alto’s press release, the program aims to address the ways the community can support California war veterans when adjusting back to civilian life.

In the upcoming weeks, multiple library locations will host book discussions, author visits, creative writing workshops and family nights for veterans and community members, according to the program website.

Cal Humanities, an organization that seeks to engage Californians in diverse conversations, awarded the Palo Alto City Library with a $5,000 grant to fund this program, as part of its 2014 California Reads Initiative.

The library kicked off the series with a discussion of the program’s central book, “What it is Like to Go to War” by Vietnam Marine Lt. Karl Marlantes on Sept. 18.

The next “War Comes Home” event will feature a live conversation with Marlantes on Oct. 11.

BY BETHANY WONG

Theater group to perform ‘Server of Two Masters’ The Palo Alto High School Theater’s production, “A Server of Two Masters,” will open on Nov. 6.

The play is a modern spin of an 18th century comedy that follows the misadventures of a servant trying to simultaneously serve two separate masters without exposing himself.

“It’s a modern take on an old classic 14

called ‘A Servant of Two Masters,’” senior actor Will Kast said. “It’s a little bit of a pun, bringing it into the modern times of the tech world.”

According to Kast, Paly’s production will be just as lighthearted.

“It’s going to be 90 minutes, which is the shortest show we’ve done in a long time,” Kast said. “There will be lots of

physical humor, farce — great for all audiences. [It] should be a lot of fun.”

In November, “A Server of Two Masters” will be performed five times. Tickets will cost $5 each and can be purchased on the theater website, at the auditor’s office, or at the door.

BY CHRISTIAN MILEY

NEWS

BY THE NUMBERS

VOTE

PALO ALTO SCHOOL BOARD ELECTONS Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera

Cabrera is focused on standardizing and utilizing technology, especially in education. He also states that he is not running to win but to get ideas out there.

Ken dauber

Dauber is focused on creating a more technologically innovative environment. He envisions more consistent teaching with less crowded schools.

Gina dalma

Dalma is focused on building a healthy community and creating a learning institution that will enhance student success in a 21st century learning environment.

cAtherine crystal foster

Foster believes we need to invest in great teachers and better writing programs and introduce language programs earlier. She believes that partnering with non-profits would be beneficial to the education system.

terry godfrey

Godfrey wishes to recognize talent in individuals. She hopes to create more personal teacher-student relationships in the district.

Text by MADISON MIGNOLA Photos by LUCY FOX

English teacher on education tour A Palo Alto High School English teacher will publish his book after taking a year off to tour California’s best schools.

After 12 years of teaching English at Paly, David Cohen will visit 70 schools with “positive education” and will be writing a book which is due to be published next year.

The purpose of Cohen’s trip and book is to emphasize the positives in education, as he believes people always hear about the negatives too often.

“It seems like negative stories mostly make people feel helpless and then disen-

gaged,” Cohen said. “We need a positive vision of what already works, what’s worth preserving and supporting and advancing.”

Cohen will be visiting teachers that he met through a statewide leadership network that he has co-directed for nearly six years called Accomplished Teachers California.

The funding for Cohen’s trip is coming from his Kickstarter campaign, “Capturing the Spark: What Energizes Great Teachers and Schools.” His goal is to raise at least $30,000 by Oct. 22.

7 years that Kariel Young has used a wheelchair. page 38

36% of East Palo Alto adults don’t have a high school diploma. page 33

20 years that Steve Foug has coached football. page 58

58%

of Paly students feel the

pressure to be perfect. page 48

BY RACHEL VAN GELDER 15

CULTURE | OCT 2014

exploring asian fusion A NEW APPROACH TO CHINESE CUISINE

PORK BELLY QUESADILLA

Text by BRIGID GODFREY and CLAIRE PRIESTLEY Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

The quesadilla is wrapped in an onion pancake, a heavier albeit more dynamic option than a standard tortilla.

CUISINE Asian Fusion PRICE RANGE Not cheap but still student affordable LOCATION 3345 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306 HOURS Lunch (Tues-Fri) 11:00 - 2:00,

(Sat) 11:00-3:00, (Sun) 10:00-3:00

Dinner (Sun-Wed) 5:00-9:00,

(Thurs-Sat) 5:00-10:00

E

NTER THROUGH THE RED AND beige doors of Mandarin Roots and prepare for an unexpected culinary experience. With an elaborate menu offering a wide variety of Asian-fusion cuisine, no one would have thought that this now hip location once served traditional Chinese dishes on white paper tablecloths.

Previously known as Hunan Garden, Mandarin Roots, revamped and under new leadership, incorporates more of a California atmosphere through trendy decor and new dishes.

Jarvis Yuan, the son of the founder of Hunan Garden, is the new owner and head chef of Mandarin Roots. According to Yuan, all dishes incorporate both traditional Chinese cooking and the diversity that encompasses fresh California gastronomy — a balance of sweet, savory and spicy.

“When I cook, I incorporate a little bit of Vietnamese, Thai, Singaporean, Malaysian — those southeast Asian countries,” Yuan says.

Yuan sought to create a restaurant that would appeal to millennials, so he decided to establish a stylistic medium between upscale and simple.

Furthermore, he drew on his background in southeast Asian cuisine to create a contemporary Asian restaurant that differentiates itself from the customs that traditional Chinese restaurants abide by.

According to Yuan, his restaurant has distinguished itself from the competition by incorporating premium ingredients, using better execution and focusing more on the details as well as the science behind the cooking. v 16

SAN TUNG CHICKEN WINGS A sweet and spicy sauce was the redeeming quality when it came to these wings but, unfortunately, the fried exterior was difficult to bite into.

48 HOUR PORK BELLY WITH BROWN RICE The tender pork belly was cooked with precision, and the bok choy was steamed to a perfect al dente. However, the undercooked fried rice did not complement the dish well.

Hopping into the Chocolate Business AN INNOVATIVE DUO HANDCRAFTS BON-BONS

Text by ANSLEY QUEEN and CAROLINE YOUNG Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG and CAROLINE YOUNG

A

FLAMINGO-PINK roof protrudes cheerfully from the glass shop. Beyond the doors, the fresh scent of sweet chocolate wafts through the cool air. Hot pink and blue stripes adorn the inside walls, and illustrated pink bunnies seem to run around the short cylinder lights like part of a carousel.

This is the home of Timothy Adams Chocolates, located on 539 Bryant St. in downtown Palo Alto. Here, the cheerful color scheme, softly pulsing pop music and friendly employees create a lightness of mind and feeling, the perfect atmosphere in which to browse through an assortment

of freshly-made bon-bons.

Timothy Woods, co-owner and headchef of Timothy Adams Chocolates, spent several years in the restaurant business until a fateful trip to Amsterdam left him inspired to open a chocolate boutique.

Woods remembers walking through the streets of Amsterdam and stumbling upon a hidden gem of a chocolate shop. Persuaded by the incredible appearance of the sweets, he and his partner, Adams Holland, purchased a box to eat while exploring the city. Woods, a trained chef, admired how dark, white and milk chocolate were all used harmoniously to create a masterpiece, in both aesthetics and taste.

“If you go into Godiva Chocolate or

See’s, almost everything you see is dark chocolate,” Woods says. “That made me use the different colors of chocolate for decoration ... it’s a way to give everything a distinctive look, so every chocolate looks different, without reverting to artificial things.”

Following the chocolate tasting in Amsterdam, Woods enrolled in a chocolatiering school in Chicago and subsequently worked in several chocolate shops, such as Puccini Bomboni in Amsterdam and Demel in Vienna.

After five years of planning, Woods and Holland opened Timothy Adams Chocolates. The plan had been to open in Sausalito, Calif., where Woods worked as 17

CULTURE | OCT 2014 a manager in a French restaurant. However, Woods and Holland learned that Monique’s Chocolates in Palo Alto would soon be moving to Paris, opening up a golden opportunity for them to take advantage of.

Now based in Palo Alto, Woods and his team have created over 100 original designs for their bon-bons. To describe the thinking process behind his seemingly abundant and never-ending creations, Woods uses fashion to explain. “[It’s like if you] look in your closet at home and you need to plan outfits out for 10 days, with what clothes you have, and you don’t want to repeat any items; it’s the same way,” Woods says. “Because you want … a diverse collection.”

Woods’ appreciation for fashion extends throughout the shop, even in the littlest details. He points out the pink hashmarks done by Holland that line the striped walls, reminiscent of the stitches lining the edges of clothing labels. In addition to the aesthetics, Woods places utmost importance on the origins of every ingredient that goes into his bon-bons, incorporating everything from Venezuelan chocolate to strawberries and raspberries from the local farmer’s market.

Once all the ingredients have been procured, production starts. The process takes over 48 hours, half of which are spent waiting for the ganache to set to develop the perfect texture.

Then, each bon-bon is rolled in a layer of liquid chocolate. “[You] put on gloves and take chocolate that has been tempered correctly and you roll each one in your hand ... that’s what gives it the really thin, nice coat of chocolate,” Woods says, using a spoon to ladle white chocolate onto his gloved hands. It dribbles down his gloves as Woods, smiling, rolls a ganache between his hands. He sets it on a tray before grabbing another.

He and Holland have made efforts to win over these former Monique’s customers. For instance, when a customer approaches Woods over the counter and inquires about Monique’s chocolate syrup, Woods kindly suggests an alternative.

“If you come by on Tuesday, I’ll write down a quick recipe for you on how to make a good chocolate syrup,” Woods offers.

The customer smiles and thanks Woods before leaving the shop.

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Despite customers occasionally mistaking Timothy Adams for Monique’s, Woods remains happy at how the location arrangements have turned out. He notes that had he and Holland settled for Sausalito, the shop’s main customers would likely have been tourists, but here in Palo Alto they have built a local client base and community.

Holland, who manages the packaging, decor and environment of the shop, reflects on the pleasure of seeing lots of customers drop by, especially on the weekends.

“When the people come in here, they’re just happy,” Holland says.

The community that Woods and Holland feel is reflected in the quirky mood and decor of the shop, from the countless bunnies to the pots of flowers and pink desk lamps that decorate the tables like they would in a little house.

“If you’re welcoming someone into your home, then you have this obligation to make them feel comfortable,” Woods says.

The bunnies continue to stand attentive over the bon-bons, greeting each new customer. v

Raspberry The white and dark 58 percent cacao chocolate combine together to mesh with the raspberry perfectly. The raspberry adds a welcome tartness to the sweeter white chocolate while not overwhelming the taste buds, and the ganache is very smooth.

XXX (Triple x) At 100 percent cacao, this musthave for dark chocolate lovers does not overwhelm the tongue with bitterness. The ganache is smooth, with a thin couverture.

Coconut Creme Caramel This bon-bon holds shredded bits of coconut inside of it that are fresh, sweet and crunchy. The coconut adds a welcome texture while the faintest bit of caramel to the ganache enhances the sweetness just the right amount.

TRADEMARK (TOP) One of many bunnies featured in the chocolate shop.

CREATING CHOCOLATE (LEFT) Timothy Woods (left) and Adams Holland (right) roll caramel for their fresh bon-bons. The two opened Timothy Adams Chocolates together just over two months ago. “There can be multiple dream jobs in life, but, yeah, this is one of them,” Woods says.

Mocha This chocolate reflects the essence of coffee without being too bitter and goes very well with the dark chocolate, which is pretty sweet. The chocolate sprinkles on top add a nice touch and slight texture, while the ganache easily melts on the tongue.

CULTURE | OCT 2014

TO RATE OR NOT TO RATE STUDENTS’ THOUGHTS ON RATE MY TEACHER Text by RACHEL VAN GELDER and NATALIE MAEMURA Art by ANTHONY LIU

S

“

HE DRIVES THE CLASS up a wall, talks to herself in a very scary manner, and has a thing against cats. I hate her and I hope she gets fired.”

This comment is just one of many in a sea of student-versus-teacher criticism and praise on ratemyteacher.com.

Rate My Teacher, created in 2001, was originally intended for students to truthfully critique their teachers based on past classroom experiences.

According to a survey conducted of 170 Palo Alto High School students, 5.9 percent say that they post on the website, and 36 percent say that they have never used Rate My Teacher.

One of the students who posts re-

50% of students Use Rate My Teacher

1

views on the site, junior Miranda Chen, explains why she does.

“I think it’s good to contribute to ratemyteacher.com because if you don’t, who else will?” Chen says. “It gives us [students] free will to say what we want on a public forum anonymously.”

Although the site was intended to be a useful resource, the anonymity of posters often makes it difficult to determine which comments are from students on a vengeful rampage and which are from students with honest descriptions of teachers.

Whether the reviews are positive or negative, sophomore Josh Code feels that most of the time, students accurately depict teachers on the website.

“I think that no one knows the teachers better than the students, so ratemyteacher. com offers a reliable system for gauging a teacher’s effectiveness,” Code says.

Often times, teachers of higher lanes

36% of students

Have Never Used Rate My Teacher2

get harsher reviews because of their course content and steep grading. AP U.S. History teacher Jack Bungarden has experiences with this, but is indifferent about the site.

“The comments are all over the map, and it’s not very accurate since it’s such a small sample size,” Bungarden says.

In contrast to Bungarden, English teacher Marc Tolentino does not like the anonymity because it gives students the freedom to lash out at teachers.

“It’s intimidating as a teacher because students can post without the teacher knowing,” Tolentino says.

Tolentino still keeps an open mind about Rate My Teacher. Like most of the surveyed students, he understands the different ways students can use the site.

“Students can take things emotionally and then post their feelings online, [but] at the same time, I see how it is a good tool for students,” he says. v

5.9% of students

Post on Rate My Teacher3

The student poll results collected for this issue are from a survey administered in Palo Alto High School English classes in September 2014. Eight English classes were randomly selected, and 170 responses were collected. The surveys were completed online, and responses were anonymous. With 95% confidence, these results are accurate within a margin of error of 1 6.31%, 2 6.06%, 3 2.97%.

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CULTURE | OCT 2014

The “A” Review

Music Review: Clipping — CLPPNG

Rating:

9.5

Text by ANAND SRINIVASAN Art by BENJAMIN MAY

S

LUDGY BLASTS OF AUDio slurps burst. Spiraling tinny echoes usher in electronic chirps.

Pitter-patter beats dance around unapologetic verses. Slushy drums are immersed in static.

Released this July on Sub Pop Records, rapper Daveed Diggs and producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson’s newest album “CLPPNG” sounds like a collection of audio snippets strung together from a futuristic-dystopian alternate universe as opposed to your typical summer release.

With shrill and booming tracks like “Intro” and “Body & Blood” juxtaposed against spectral, electronic-experimental songs like “Work Work” and “Summertime,” one sees the sonic diversity that Clipping strives for in its production. Clipping’s MC, Diggs, furthers the album’s advancement on this most recent release by taking what made their debut project “mid-

city” so gripping — the hyper-lyrical story-telling, explicit imagery, intricate wordplay, gruesome descriptions and, at times, thought-provoking lines — and amplifying it to the max. Diggs improves his overall flow, becoming more technically proficient, speedy and complex.

Beyond the alarming ambience radiating from Clipping’s newest album, clarity can be found in what appears to be rampant chaos. In other words, “CLPPNG” is an example of what music reviewers call a concept album — a body of work that transcends music and incorporates elements of theme, motif and storyline to expand the meaning of the album. This conceptual element is achieved on the producing end with Snipes and Hutson, as the album cohesively blends a spectrum of ominous and sinister vibes, creating what the group likes to call, “party music for the club you wish you hadn’t gone to.”

The production sets up the canvas for what the project is going to be figuratively painted on, and so it really is in the lyrics where the magic happens.

On the most basic level, the listener follows an assortment of characters Diggs creates through a series of events in the selfcreated world of CLPPNG. With the groupings of tracks like “Tonight,”

“Dream” and “Get Up,” the listener gets the feeling that a continuous story or collection of chronological events are present, not only due to the song titles but also the storylines and themes addressed on each song.

It should also be noted that Diggs never once uses the word “I,” emphasizing the fact that these are all characters suspended from actual reality. Each song often follows its own unique story arc and often functions like scenes from an overall screenplay, depicting everyday life in a destitute land, desolate of hope.

For example in the song “Story 2,” the main character, Mike Winfield (portrayed

by Diggs) is walking home from his lowpaying job, and he reflects on all of the “charred skeletons closeted begging to get out” of his house.

“He [pauses] ... scared of airing out [his] thoughts, [and] he can taste it in his mouth the sulfur and bitter carbon — hearing all the burning bodies shout, but no. That was a full lifetime ago and nobody ever has to know.”

As he continues walking, he sees a suspicious Acura, dented on the left rear fender, that he barely recognizes. He keeps walking when suddenly ashes start raining from the sky. Frantically, he calls his babysitter, but when he gets no reply, he starts sprinting to his house, three blocks away. Right as he turns the corner onto his street an explosion goes off and he hears screams from his house. He walks toward his burning house with tears in his eyes, “letting the smoke take his breath” until someone knocks him down and he says, “Why won’t you just let me die.”

With this most recent release, the members of Clipping prove themselves to be incredibly masterful, individually, and as a group. This project was truly one of the most unique and refreshing albums out of all genres I’ve heard so far this year. v

Nadine Priestley Photography

nadine.priestley@gmail.com 650.868.0977 nadinepriestley.com

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CULTURE | OCT 2014

A TASTE OF ITALY Text and photography by RYAN REED

NEW GELATERIA BRINGS AUTHENTIC TASTE TO PALO ALTO

A

LTHOUGH GELATO has become a popular treat in America, many do not have the privilege of a local gelateria serving organic Italian ice cream. As of a few weeks ago, however, Palo Altans are now able to experience a new taste of Italy at Gelataio.

Meaning “ice cream man” in Italian, Gelataio offers far more of an natural, flavorful gelato taste than other local shops.

Found near the corner of Alma and Lytton in downtown Palo Alto, Gelataio is located on the ground floor of a newly renovated building across the street from the CalTrain station. The interior of the gelateria delivers a modern, comfy layout. On both walls of the shop are a collection of artistic pictures advertising current flavors.

Upon walking inside, customers are greeted by a wide selection of gelato, ice

cream bars and juices. Behind this counter are two black chalkboards advertising the day’s flavors and prices.

Beneath these, a wooden countertop runs across the back of the room, covered with treats not seen at your average gelateria, including two chocolate fountains — one dark and one milk — with wafers for dipping.

Gelataio, opened in early August, is owned by local resident Christianne Mares, who believes that Palo Alto was the ideal location to start her business.

“I thought it [Palo Alto] was a very good, creative community,” Mares says.

[Palo Altans] do care about using good ingredients, and so I thought it was the perfect place.”

Despite Gelataio’s infancy, it has managed to attract a large number of customers. However, there have been

less young adults than Mares would expect to see.

“We don’t see so many high schoolers in here,” Mares says.

Although high schoolers are not a frequent sight at Gelataio, word surrounding the new gelateria has spread throughout the teen community in Palo Alto. Former Palo Alto High School student Yumi Temple, of last year’s graduating class, raves about the shop she discovered this summer. “[Gelataio] is polished, whimsical, modern and communal,” says Temple, who has gone multiple times since its opening.

As Gelataio’s popularity continues to grow, many should expect it to become a household name as one of the best dessert shops in Palo Alto.

“Gelataio is a place for everybody,” Mares says. “Families, children, grown ups, I want everybody here.” v

I tried three different flavors: Stracciatella (Italian chocolate chip), Coffee and Cajeta (Mexican caramel). Although all three flavors were delicious, each had its own defining features that seperated it from the rest. For each flavor, I gave a rating out of 10.

Stracciatella — 8/10

Although packed with flavor, stracciatella did not have the sweetness that some have come to expect from frozen treats. For those seeking a similar taste to American ice cream, this is certainly not the same.

22

Coffee — 10/10

The similarity to a traditional espresso is so great that it makes one question how the ice cream they had been eating before had ever been considered “coffee-flavored” in the first place. A must-have for coffeeheads.

Cajeta — 9/10

While many other flavors focused on the natural taste of the gelato, the cajeta is perfectly sweet. While not cloying, the gelato manages to taste sugary and flavorful, and combines perfectly with the more semi-sweet flavors.

Camouflage

Text by JOE MEYER and CHRISTIAN MILEY Photography by ANA-SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

EXPLORING THE SENIOR TRADITION

O

N THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, A SWARM of incoming seniors storms the Palo Alto High School campus, decked out in the familiar uniform of the veteran Palo Alto high-schooler: camouflage. Flaunting this interwoven green and brown military pattern has become an essential part of Paly students’ high school experience, a badge of honor for the seniors after three years of anticipation. But it hasn’t always been this way.

The Class of ’97 was the first to don camo during their senior spirit week, when they chose “G.I.s” as their spirit week theme.

“Instead of simply wearing green for Paly’s school colors day, the troops [seniors] arrived in full camouflage to represent Paly and support their class theme,” the ‘97 Madrono (yearbook) writes.

Associated Student Body supervisor Matt Hall elaborates.

“The army wanted to show off their new humvee, and the seniors wanted to dance around the humvee, so they wore camo and there was a dance,” Hall says. “So that was the origin of both the spirit dance and seniors wearing camo.”

However, seniors wearing camo on the first day of school is a more recent development.

“Now, first day back, the seniors are in camo,” yearbook teacher Margo Wixsom says. “That’s only been in the last five or six years.”

But what about camo has made it such an enduring tradition?

“It’s a way to unify,” senior Sharissa Holopainen says. “It gets everyone really excited. For me and my friends, it was really exciting to get to dress in camo and come to school — a lot more exciting than it probably should’ve been.”

Library assistant Debbie Henry thinks camo unifies seniors.

“It seems on camo day they [the seniors] realize, ‘We’re all in this, we’re all seniors,’” Henry says. “It’s being in the same society.”

Hall, however, believes that camo detracts from school unity as a whole during spirit week.

“Is there any one day where all four classes are dressing the same? No,” Hall says. “Then how can you say school unity?

School unity is all the classes dressing the same.”

Campus supervisor Ernesto Cruz thinks camouflage is a strange symbol for seniors to use to represent themselves.

“I don’t think it goes with our Palo Alto culture,” Cruz says. “Here people are very nice and calm, and we talk to everybody. I come from Central America, and over there camouflage is aggressive and not too nice.”

Cruz believes seniors use camo to show their superiority.

“I think they [the seniors] are trying to make a statement,” he says. “Like, ‘I’m a senior and I’m better than you.’ I think every senior should remember they were a freshman, and they shouldn’t act too superior about it. We all start somewhere.” v

TOP DOG Senior Maeve Lavelle poses in camouflage, which has come to symbolize seniority at Paly. The tradition first began in 1996.

CULTURE | OCT 2014

SMASHING SUCCESS

The Multiplayer Fighting Game Phenomenon Text by JOE MEYER and ROY ZAWADZKI Art by ANTHONY LIU

I

T’S A SUNNY DAY ON GOOGLE’S SOUTHERN campus as groups of 10 carrying large analog TVs and backpacks full of Gamecube controllers and Wii consoles line up in front of conference room “Maxwell”. Inside, a group of about 100 people watches as Super Smash Bros players compete against each other, enthusiastically mashing the buttons on their controllers. Palo Alto High School junior Andrew Baer walks through a long aisle of green tables packed with TVs and white chairs, where excited gamers laugh with excitement as they play.

The game consists of competing Nintendo characters, controlled by “Smashers” like Baer, fighting each other in various settings and attempting to knock each other off of the game stage.

“It’s one of the most complex fighting games out there,” says Madison Brown, a freshman at Foothill College and an avid Smasher. “That’s part of the appeal.”

For Baer, the president of the Paly Super Smash Bros Club, the game is simply a way to battle and get together with friends from the Bay Area. Inspired by his experience with Bay Area Smash tournaments, Baer decided to co-found the Paly Super Smash Bros Club with junior Andy Kotick.

“I had the idea back in sophomore year,” Baer says. “There was no convenient way for me and my friends to play Super Smash Bros, so I started the club.”

Meetings remain casual for now, but the club will hold its first Super Smash Bros tournament in November at the Paly Media Arts Center. Students from Los Altos High School, Gunn High School and Paly will compete for prizes.

“I always thought it would be cool to have interscholastic high school smash tournaments,” Baer says. “I expect that everybody who comes will really enjoy themselves.”

Away from the competitiveness of tournaments, Baer uses the game

as a way to relax and hang out with friends.

“My friends who play Smash Bros love playing together, because there’s something different about sitting down next to your friend on the couch rather than talking to them through a headset across town,” Baer says. “Sometimes it’s not about playing the game, it’s just our way of hanging out and being with each other.”

For Brown, Super Smash Bros was an easy game to pick up and have fun with.

“I remember back when I used to be a lot more amateurish at the game,” Brown says. “I still had tons and tons of fun even though I didn’t really have much of a clue what I was doing.”

The Super Smash Bros culture interacts predominantly on social media, according to Brown. There are numerous Facebook groups dedicated to getting together to “Smash.” Players are also very active on sites like Twitch where they watch popular Smashers.

Currently, the Super Smash Bros community is anxiously awaiting the release of Super Smash Bros 4 for the Wii U, scheduled for October.

“The Super Smash Bros community, myself included, is very excited for the release of Super Smash Bros 4,” Baer says. “The gameplay feels smooth, and the new physics allow for faster, more exciting matches than I think [Super Smash] Brawl was able to offer.”

Super Smash Bros is more than a game — it is a tightly-knit community whose members value not just competition, but sportsmanship as well.

“Sportsmanship and attitude are often more respected than winning,” Baer says, “So if you come to play with a good attitude and are ready to learn, you’re bound to make some friends and have a great time.” v

“

Sportsmanship and attitude are often more Respected than winning.

— Andrew baer, paly junior

24

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CULTURE | OCT 2014

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CULTURE | OCT 2014

LIGHTS, Camera, PIZZA. REVOLUTIONIZING THE PIZZERIA Text by ANAND SRINIVASAN Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

A

DARK TOMATO BLEND SPREADS OVER the thin rosemary dough in circular motions, seconds later accompanied by a thick mound of fluffy, white mozzarella cheese and minced garlic. An array of toppings fly into the mix: sliced mushrooms, green bell peppers, caramelized onions, roasted broccolini, zucchini, crispy bacon bits, spicy pork sausage and pepperoni.

With no time wasted, the kaleidoscopic creation is whisked away into the fiery furnace, and three minutes later it emerges from the glowing depths of the oven, a glistening and sizzling sight. This culinary handiwork was not crafted behind the kitchen curtains of a five star restaurant, but rather on the Subway-esque assembly line of Pizza Studio.

“Here at Pizza Studio, you create your own masterpiece,” says Shaun Evans, the manager of the Mountain View Pizza Studio.

Pizza Studio, in a nutshell, is to the pizzeria what Subway is to the deli, allowing customers to choose from a variety of doughs, sauces and toppings to create their perfect pizza for $7.99. Located on 645 San Antonio Rd., this new addition to the chain is the first of many expected to open in the Bay Area.

“There are supposed to be 25 stores in five years in the Bay Area,” Evans says. “Also, we’re moving to Palo Alto soon.”

MY MASTERPIECE Throughout the creating, waiting and eating process of the Pizza Studio experience, the kitchen staff never once disappointed. The personal helper was exceptionally considerate, making sure amounts for toppings were just right. The crew seemed to genuinely enjoy assisting people in creating personal pizza masterpieces. The pizza only took three minutes to cook and held a number of pleasant surprises. First, the thin crust base was light and crispy, and the gooey cheese melded perfectly with all the fresh and flavorful toppings. In addition, all of the toppings were easily distinguishable despite the sheer volume loaded on, with the finely chopped vegetables and meats providing a crunchy texture.

Perhaps most importantly, though, was that unlike with pizza at certain restaurants, this pizza’s cheese did not slide off when bit into. The overall experience was truly unique as far as pizza restaurants go, with the efficient preperation, quick cooking 27 time, and delicious pizza. v

FEATURES | OCT 2014

peeking at the answers

NEW ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY PROVIDES POSITIVE SOLUTION TO CHEATING Text by BRIGID GODFREY and KELLY SHI Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG Photo Illustration by KARINA CHAN

W

HEN HE WAS in the 10th grade at Gunn High School, Palo Alto High School social studies teacher Eric Bloom tried to cheat on his German vocabulary test. “[First], because I thought I could get away with it and second, because I had forgotten and I didn’t even look at the vocab,” Bloom says. “I got thrown out of the department. There were six other people doing the same thing and I was just the one who got caught.”

If Bloom was a student last year, Paly’s administratiors would have marked the incident as his first “strike” out of three, as directed by the traditional academic honesty policy, which came to an end in 2013.

Bloom would also have received a zero on his vocabulary quiz and a warning would have been sent home to his parents.

Now, Bloom’s cheating would be classified as a Category B violation, according to the school’s new 2014 policy, which would offer Bloom two choices: In the first option — the traditional disciplinary process — Bloom would not only receive a zero on the quiz but would also be required to redo the assignment, write a reflection on his actions, attend Saturday school and meet with an administrator. His parents would be notified and he would be considered ineligible for the California Scholarship Federation or any other academic honor that Palo Alto Unified School District offers.

Or, with the second option, Bloom could embark on the new Process for Restorative Justice and circumvent the traditional consequences.

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The goals of the Restorative Justice path, introduced earlier this school year, are to achieve “genuine learning that leads to a change in behavior” and to restore “the wrongs done to individuals and the community affected by the individual’s actions,” as stated in the policy’s page on the Paly website.

Although students will still be required to make up for the corners they tried to cut, the Restorative Justice path is Paly’s pioneering step towards the realm of non-punitive administrative action. The new path reflects a change in the policies of other high schools as well, adding Paly as another member to the movement advocating increased communication between students and adults.

The dialogue supposedly not only benefits the student — providing a chance for them to explain their side of the story — but also aims to help teachers and administrators understand cheating culture and how to prevent future incidents of the same nature.

“We can’t punish people out of cheating,” Bloom says.

Paly AP Psychology teacher Melinda Mattes agrees that the non-punitive nature of the restorative path will help students reform their cheating habits.

“It’s not like kids don’t learn from punitive experiences — they certainly do,” Mattes says. “But research shows that you learn more how to avoid the punishment rather than learning whatever it is you’re supposed to learn.”

Mattes says she believes that at its core, the Restorative Justice process promotes growth.

“At this age, high school students are … still within the moral development phase,” Mattes says. “There’s all this stuff going on in this frontal lobe and all these connections still being made.”

The restorative path may play a role in preventing future cheating incidents by changing the culture around such behavior, Mattes says. Students who go through the Restorative Justice path may become future upstanders to other cheaters. At a time when the teenage brain is growing rapidly, Mattes says the restorative path can provide guidance for students when it comes to future decision-making and encourages them to not only choose not to cheat, but also to stand up to other

cheaters and change the culture by rejecting the norm.

In addition to preventing future transgressions, the restorative path also sets out to repair the relationship between the student and teacher, using discussion as a launchboard for creating understanding and trust. “[Teachers] want to believe the best in all students,” Mattes says. “This is a great process ... where we get to see that growth coming out.”

Paly student Kevin, whose name has been changed along with other current and former Paly students quoted in this article, doesn’t believe that there will ever be complete trust on a teacher’s behalf after any cheating incident.

“I always think that even after this [new policy] happens, the teacher … is always looking out for you,” Kevin says.

“You put yourself on a blacklist for teachers to keep track of.”

Bloom says that teachers themselves are responsible for taking preventative action to make cheating difficult in the classroom.

“If you have a pool at your house, you are required to build a fence around it so people don’t accidentally fall in,” Bloom says. “If someone falls in your pool and drowns, it is your fault because you didn’t build [the fence].”

CHEATING CULTURE There exists an entire culture when it comes to academic cheating, one that isn’t acknowledged outright until the kid sitting next to you wants to copy your homework.

When only 44 percent of Paly students surveyed strongly agree that cheating is wrong, it becomes clear that while the Paly community may not condone cheating, it certainly does not try to stop it. In the cases of last year’s cheating scandals in the AP Psychology and Algebra 2 classes, where information about tests was leaked multiple times, the rare upstanders did not confront the cheaters directly but went to the teachers instead. The underground mob mentality protecting cheaters has the potential to thrive best at high schools in particular, where social and academic pressures can work together to influence students’ decisions.

There are two broad areas of reasoning that factor into a student’s choice to cheat in school, according to Mattes. The first, personal factors, can include how a student was raised and are therefore out of the teachers’ and administration’s control.

But Mattes says the school can counter this by controlling the student’s learning environment.

“I think we can set up situations that either encourage or discourage cheating,” Mattes says. “There are things that we can do that take the pressure off of the ultimate grade and put the focus more on the learning …What we [teachers] want are for students to learn things. But we have this system where, in order to assess your learning, we have to give you this grade.”

Kevin says he believes that Paly’s intense academic environment can lead Paly students to cheat. “[Paly] is a better school, a better education,” Kevin says. “I feel like students need to cheat just to keep up with those standards.”

Kevin first cheated when he whispered answers to a friend during a test.

“He was a friend, and he was struggling in the class,” Kevin says. “I felt bad for him.”

However, according to Kevin, there are some students who will cheat even though they understand the material simply because it is easier. Paly grad Cole identifies as this latter type.

“For me personally, I feel like cheating was more just a thing of laziness; a shortcut instead of studying,” Cole says.

But the underlying problem, Cole believes, is that too many people at Paly cheat for the non-cheating students to succeed.

“If you don’t [cheat], you’re disadvantaged,” Cole says.

As a freshman, Kevin came into high school believing that he would never cheat on an assignment. Throughout his time at Paly, as he saw more students copying off each other, Kevin’s view of cheating shifted based on what he perceived to be the norm both inside and outside classes.

“This whole cheating thing start[s] with pressure,” Kevin says. “Everyone does it — you do it.”

This pressure, Kevin continues,

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE EXPLAINED

T

HE MOST SIGNIFICANT change from last year’s Academic Honesty Policy: Students now have a choice between the traditional vs. restorative pathways. The traditional path asks very little of the cheater; they simply have to accept a zero on the assignment and a strike against their record.

On the other hand, the restorative process “requires more time and effort from all parties,” according to the presentation given to students on Aug. 29. When it comes to the restorative justice path, the first step for the cheater is accepting responsibility for the violation. Both the cheater and the cheater’s guardian must “agree to participate in the restorative justice process fully,” according to the presentation.

The violations are categorized by letters ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’: • •

•

“A” violations include copying or sharing work on minor assignments.

“B” violations include cheating on major assignments such as tests, quizzes, labs and projects, submitting plagarized work, or communicating with or copying off another student during an exam.

“C” violations include altering a returned exam with the purpose of deceiving a teacher, stealing or photographing an exam or project, and altering grades in a digital gradebook.

The punishment is then decided on by the severity and circumstances of each violation, as well as by the student’s maturity level.

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can extend to the preservation of the cheating culture through a social stigma associated with “snitching”.

“Snitching” or “ratting someone out” are terms often used to negatively refer to those who inform teachers about cheating. The information passed along does not have to include names for one to earn the title of “snitch”;= just the fact that a cheating in170 Paly students cident occurred is enough to earn scrutiny from the teacher, which inevitably leads to were asked to subsequent hostility from students. identify what they “The reason cheating persists at Paly or at any campus is because students alconsider to be low it to happen,” Bloom says. “They don’t cheating. Here’s want to rat people out.”

While the student attitude towards what they said. snitches can keep teachers unaware of cheating incidents, social implications also Peeking at a play a role in instigating cheating behavior neighbor’s test among high schoolers. Unspoken agreements can lead to a symbiotic relationship that perpetuates a cycle of cheating.

Going to the bath“If you help someone with a test, room and looking at they’ll help you with a test if you need it,” A phone for answers Kevin says. “They kind of return the favor.”

Failing to hold up your end of the barCopying Homework gain, Kevin adds, results in a sullied reputation among other cheaters. Although Kevin believes that cheating is morally wrong, he says that it can be considered a form of Asking: “What was on the helping other students. test?”

“It’s not wrong to help the people who don’t know anything; that’s a good thing,” Kevin says. “[Cheating is] just Asking: “Are there any formulas/ considered wrong.” dates/definitions I should know?”

Though Paly’s Restorative Justice path does not immediately condemn students to a series of punishments, a Restorative Dividing Homework problems and Justice panel of students and adults will sharing answers at the end review the student’s case after discussion and decide how the student “can provide a satisfactory restoration for the harms done,” an assignment that may Asking: “How was the test?” include punitive tasks. “[The restorative path is] not an easy path because it requires a lot of growth and a lot of self-awareness and introspection,” Mattes says.

“But that’s also what aids in that growth and getting beyond the The student poll results collected for this issue are from a survey administered in Palo Alto High School English classes in September 2014. Eight English classes transgression and moving forward, were randomly selected, and 170 responses were collected. The surveys were completed online, and responses were anonymous. With 95% confidence, these because that’s what [Paly is] ultiresults are accurate within a margin of error of 2.47%, 3.22%, 5 .72%, 6.28%, 5.84%, 5.84%, 3.78%. mately about.” v

DEFINE

1

5

30

6

7

2

3

4

CHEATING Percentages indicate students who answered “yes”, the act is cheating.

1

96% 2 93% 3

71% 4 55% 5 31% 31%6 10%7

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Text by ESME ABLAZA and ALEX HSIEH Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES HOW A COMMUNITY BOXING CLUB TRANSFORMS THE LIVES OF EAST PALO ALTO YOUTH

33

T

RAVEL DOWN PULGAS Avenue in East Palo Alto any evening during the week, and you’ll eventually come across an open garage door. Rap music turned up to full volume is punctuated by the staccato beat of fists colliding with punching bags. The evening light casts shadows on a black concrete floor lined with mats and in the center of the room, a boxing ring stands four feet off the ground.

Look around, and you might notice Rodney Mason, an ex-gang member turned competitive fighter, as he ducks and weaves, sparring with an imaginary opponent. On the other side of the room, Jessyca Montes pounds a punching bag. Next to her, Aaron Guerrero weaves hand wraps between his fingers, sunlight illuminating his bright orange Nike T-shirt that says “Stay laced up.”

Overlooking the scene are posters of boxing legends Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Muhammad Ali — and the watchful eyes of the owner, Johnnie Gray.

Born and raised in East Palo Alto, Gray founded East Palo Alto Boxing Club in 2003 to give “at-risk” youths of East Palo Alto a place to exercise while learning the discipline and work ethic they need to succeed in life. The club aims to provide a refuge for members of the community despite a lack of financial support from the city and local businesses.

In the 11 years since the club was established, Gray has transcended his role as a boxing trainer and mentor.

“The majority of youngsters who come here — they change their lives,” Gray says. “I mean, they graduate from high school … go on to be law-abiding citizens, politically active — and that’s what this [club] does. Because it’s not just about boxing anymore. It’s about life.”

A Tale of Two Cities “Over there [in Palo Alto], you never hear ‘at risk,’” Gray says. “They put a name on kids here, ‘at risk,’ because of the lack of opportunity and programs.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 97.6 percent of Palo Altans over the age of 25 have a high school education. In East Palo Alto, this number drops to 63.7 percent. This is partly due to the fact that students in East Palo Alto do not have the same level of educational and extracurricular opportunities as those in Palo Alto.

34

Gray believes that the influence of drugs and alcohol have also created a downward spiral, particularly for its youth.

“It’s all a cycle,” Gray says. “Lock them up, let them out. . . Put them in a drug program. Lock the young people up, don’t give them a job, don’t give them opportunities.

Even if it’s just cleaning up this community … Give them something to do.”

According to Gray, the programs that exist in East Palo Alto are not targeting the young people most in need of help.

He aims to fix this problem with his boxing club and a community center targeted for the general public, where students can receive free after-school help and tutoring.

“They don’t have a program that’ll help these kids get on track,” Gray says.

“Kids are in high school that ain’t gonna graduate — they need help. So that’s why I’m gonna help kids that are off track.”

“

it’s not just about boxing anymore. it’s about life.”

—Johnnie gray, president of epa boxing club

Rodney Mason Five years ago, Rodney Mason was arrested with links to East Palo Alto’s notorious “Taliban gang.”

“My life, as far as doing stuff that was illegal, it was all about money to me,” says Mason, who dropped out of high school during his junior year.

Today, he sits in Gray’s office in his mid-twenties, clad only in black shorts and a pair of worn, red Everlast boxing gloves.

Though he has only trained at the club for two months, Mason is the epitome of everything that Gray has been working towards the past eleven years.

“When I was in jail I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and I really love to fight so I took on boxing,” Mason says. “It’s really keeping me off the streets and keeping me from doing anything bad or anything like that. It’s keeping me focused.”

Although he initially involved himself in street fights rather than fights within the ring, Mason’s interest in boxing eventually won over.

“I don’t blame the environment for the way I am,” says Mason. “Because the environment can make you do certain things as far as what you grow up around but I believe that’s not an excuse.”

Mason is lucky to be boxing at all, given his arrest record, but says his probation officer has permitted him to stay in the ring. He goes on runs and trains in the gym Photo by ALEX HSIEH

LEFT Alyssa Sanchez, 12, practices her left hook. RIGHT Isaac, a trainer at the club, helps a kid practice. daily, all in the hopes of someday making it into the ring as a professional fighter.

“I figured this is the best opportunity for me because I’m good at boxing,” Mason says. “I might as well channel my energy into something that’s positive.”

Jessyca Montes Standing outside of the gym, hands on her hips, Jessyca Montes, 16, makes up for her petite stature with an air of confidence. The wind tousles a loose strand of hair from her ponytail, framing pursed lips and round, brown eyes accentuated with winged eyeliner.

Before joining the boxing club she suffered from anxiety and struggled with anger management as a child.

“I had a lot of anger, and I was moving around schools, not getting along with all the people at the time,” Montes says.

Conflicts with her peers soon turned physical; throughout middle school, Montes was involved in multiple fights. She tried different sports, mostly soccer, to help channel her aggression, but soon found that the only effective activity was boxing.

“It’s a way to let out your emotions

and anger,” Montes says.

Although she attends the boxing club consistently, Montes has yet to participate in a competitive fight due to the lack of female boxers. Even so, her teammates at East Palo Alto Boxing Club encourage her to box competitively one day.

“They’re really inspiring, and they give really good advice,” Montes says. “It’s like a family here.”

Aaron Guerrero The youngest competitive fighter sits at the table in Gray’s office, arms crossed, his piercing blue-grey eyes staring straight ahead. Aaron Guerrero, 12, has enjoyed boxing his entire life, but began formally training three years ago.

Aaron is an “outside” fighter, meaning he relies on speed rather than brute force — avoiding getting hit by his opponents until he can deliver the final blow. This style of fighting cultivated by Gray and inspired

by Muhammad Ali is used by many other competitive fighters at East Palo Alto.

“I [like] how [Ali] named himself ‘The Greatest’ and didn’t really give anybody a choice, so now everybody knows who he

is,” Aaron says.

His father, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, is a professional boxer who has won titles across three weight classes. Aaron’s father is a childhood friend of Gray’s, and helped donate money to form the club. It’s no secret that Aaron gets his competitive passion for boxing from his father.

“I see myself as an Olympic gold medalist in the 2020 Olympics, and then going pro and being the junior multi-champion of the world,” Aaron says. “And eventually being one of the best ever.”

Though Aaron is inspired by famous fighters such as Ali, he says he does not look up to any of the competitive fighters at East Palo Alto Boxing. When asked why, he responds with a solemn, straight face: “Because I’m better than them.”

Staying afloat East Palo Alto Boxing Club has been struggling to receive financial support from local businesses but still hopes for general expansion, which would include the completion of a community center.

“Johnnie is so involved with just the coaching aspect of [this club],” says Hannie 35

LEFT TO RIGHT Jose (12), Brissa (13), and Alberto (10) pose for a photo. The club is open for younger children from 5-6 pm for them to experiment with boxing.

Kruggel, Director of the board of the club. “We want to free up his time to do that, so we try to do a lot of the administrative functions.”

Kruggel, 27, initially joined the club to have a place to train, but decided to take on more responsibility for the club’s finances when she realized no one working there was getting paid.

“I was like, ‘How can I help?’ I have a business background, I was working in tech at the time,” Kruggel says. “I found opportunities to. . . take over some of the leadership capacity.”

In addition to fundraising, the club receives grants from the city of East Palo Alto due to its status as a violence prevention program. However, these grants are not enough to keep East Palo Alto Boxing up and running, so the board has been attempting to reach out.

“We have not had any luck getting any grants from really any business around here,” Kruggel says. “And we’ve tried. . .We don’t really fit the criteria because we’re too small … since we’re volunteer-operated.”

The lack of support from the surrounding community only adds to the club’s financial troubles.

“We were originally a city program,” 36

Kruggel says. “But they really want people to try and go outside of East Palo Alto to try and fundraise.”

Looking to the future Despite these problems, Kruggel says that the club managed to raise more than $50,000 this year and the community center has started to get off the ground, despite the lack of a budget.

“We’re going to try to still … use [the community center] even while improvements are going on,” Kruggel says. “We want to have that [remodeling] be a handson learning experience for people.”

Overall, East Palo Alto Boxing hopes to expand into an organization that caters to everyone in the community, whether they like to box or not.

“We’re already really focused on character development, and teaching kids focus and discipline, and skills through boxing,” Kruggel says. “In the future, we want to be doing more for the community as well.”

Bridging the gap The club is currently searching for volunteers to tutor and do other tasks.

“I need high school interns from Paly [Palo Alto High School] and Gunn, seri-

ously,” Kruggel says. “I need people to help us with video editing, website stuff, and even photography. It’s something people can do remotely… You don’t need to be that good — we just need basic help.”

Kruggel hopes that her mentality about East Palo Alto Boxing Club can extend beyond the city’s borders.

“There’s so many resources outside of East Palo Alto, but it’s been hard to connect and leverage that,” Kruggel says.

“I’ve been able to bridge that gap a little bit, but not as much as much as we need.”

Moving forward As the sun sets, the shadows on the backs of the boxers begin to fade. The light-filled gym slowly darkens, and the rap music is switched off. The staccato beat of fists begins to diminish, and people start shuffling towards the exit of the warehouse, while Gray places his boxing gloves back on the shelf.

For him, the message of East Palo Alto Boxing is quite simple: “We live and die, we treat people the way they want to be treated, and that’s just the way life should be,” Gray says, staring off into the distance. “That’s what I talk to young people about in this program.” v

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fighting spirit

A STORY OF TRAGEDY TURNED TO TRIUMPH Text by EMILIE MA and BETHANY WONG Photos by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

K

ARIEL YOUNG DOES not know the next time her legs will move. It could be a week or a few days until her muscles contract again.

When they do, it feels to her like they are working, even though she has no control of her lower body — and never will.

Sometimes, these contractions send shocks down her back and numb her right arm. Or they go from her feet all the way up to her shoulders and make her back straighten up completely. Then, her legs turn back into spaghetti noodles.

This morning begins as most do, with Young wrestling herself out of her pat3840

terned pastel sheets, reaching for her toes, and flexing them toward the ceiling. If she doesn’t stretch out her legs, her knees will remain drawn up and her ankles will tighten to the point where she won’t even be able to wear shoes. To her, the muscle stimulation of stretching simulates walking.

Young then struggles to put on the smokey blue sweater and leggings she picked out the previous night, before scooting herself to the edge of the bed and shifting her body onto the black cushion of her pink and black wheelchair.

The clock reads 7:30 a.m. as she wheels out the back door of her grandparents’ house down two wooden ramps, pass-

ing through the side yard gate to her grandmother’s Honda Accord. The mile-long car ride ends as the Palo Alto High School tower building comes into view. She pushes her chair up the cement slope, through the main Quad to her locker, eventually rolling into her United States History classroom well before the bell rings.

It wasn’t always this way.

Seven years earlier in her home state of Alaska, Young and her step-brother were home alone in their five-wheeled camper van. As Young watched a movie, her step-brother fiddled with a gun behind her. Though she repeatedly asked him to put it away, he told her the gun was not

loaded. She continued watching the movie until the final credits began rolling down the screen, when she heard the sound of the gun’s metallic explosion.

The bullet severed her spinal cord at the T-2 vertebrae, paralyzing her from the chest down. While the incident may have been the darkest moment of her life, it also launched a life of vitality and activism.

HERE AND NOW Now 16-years-old, Young, who arrived at Paly as a junior this year, has risen above her paralysis and used her disability as a platform to advocate through the nonprofit Walk and Roll Foundation, where she was recently appointed as the organization’s innaugural ambassador. Each day, she strives to use her unique perspective as a means to raise awareness for those with spinal cord injuries and other disabilties.

As a result, Young exemplifies the fighting spirit, courageously confronting adversity every day. The smiling Palo Alto High School junior bears slim resemblance to the dejected little girl who left the hospital seven years ago.

“I took [paralysis] terribly hard as a child,” Young says. “It mentally destroyed me for a year, and I asked ‘Why me?’ constantly.”

Young’s paternal grandparents noticed the drastic change in their granddaughter when she visited them following the accident.

“She held everything close to her chest,” says Young’s grandma, Mary Ann Young. “She would often come to visit and we would know that something was not right. But she would never let on. The stress and the strain she was under was insurmountable, and it shut her off.”

Before the incident, Young took full advantage of the activities her home in Alaska had to offer. She rode dirt bikes and snow machines, skied, hiked, played soccer, ran and rollerbladed. But when Young returned from the hospital to her two-story home, she realized that she couldn’t get up to the second floor without relying on someone to carry her up and down the stairs. Her roller blades, ice skates, skateboard, motocross boots and bicycle were packed up on a shelf in the garage, out of reach and out of sight. “[Sports] seemed like something I had lost and could never get back,” Young says.

Photo by GEORGE YOUNG TOP RIGHT Kariel Young rides her bike along the sidewalk in Palo Alto at age 7.

LEFT Kariel Young sits beside her wheelchair, posing for a photo.

On the days she struggled to cope with her physical disability, she says she would have given away everything she owned to simply wiggle her toes.

In the years following the accident, Young has risen above even her own expectations and tried sports such as paddle boarding, snorkeling, kayaking, and 5k races. She aspires to become a professional dancer, singer and actress, despite the apprehensive looks she may receive.

“When people say, ‘That’s too hard, why would you even try?’ that fires me up, that pisses me off,” Young says. “I will try

any and everything even if it takes me three and a half hours.”

Though Young eventually found ways to get over the physical obstacles of paralysis, different challenges arose as she entered her middle school years. It seemed as if there was nobody at school she could relate to. Others would often try to commiserate, telling her they knew how she felt because they had been on crutches or broken a leg, yet these attempts at conciliation only left her more dejected.

“There’s no real understanding because they’ve never been where you are and 39

TRICKS Young shows off the different stunts she can perform with her wheelchair.

probably won’t be where you are,” Young says. “No matter how hard you try to explain [being paralyzed], there’s really no real understanding of how hard it is.”

High School Life After receiving homeschooling through ninth and tenth grade, Young remembers feeling excited to embark on her last two years of high school at Palo Alto High School. The start of her junior year marked not only the difficult return to public school, but the transition from Alaska to her grandparents’ house in Palo Alto.

Though Young remains optimistic, she has already had several unpleasant encounters with inconsiderate people.

During one of the first weeks of school, Young waited for seven minutes to use the elevator of the new math and history building. A group of boys had prevented it from going up to the second floor. This irritated her because she says the able-bodied boys had no valid reason to use 40

the elevator instead of the stairs.

Young asked the boys to use the stairs because she needed the elevator, but unfortunately, the situation replayed itself a few days later. This time, however, Young didn’t keep her composure quite as well. “‘I don’t have the ability to walk up and down stairs,’” Young recounts telling the boys. “‘I would give anything in the world to be able to do that. It’s not fair for me to have to wait.’”

Situations like these have served as motivation for Young. Despite the annoyed responses she might get when she tries to stick up for herself, she always takes the opportunity to educate non-disabled people about the respectful way to treat those who are disabled.

“I make it a point to stop and talk to them in a nice way and use me as an example for a lesson on life,” Young says. “Maybe it will click with them when they come in contact with another person like myself.

It’s not going to be foreign, and they might

know a little bit more about how to treat someone [using a wheelchair].”

Handling the Questions Paralysis brings both physical challenges and challenges to Young’s self-esteem.

“Because I’m in a wheelchair, people think I’m mentally challenged because I am physically challenged,” Young says. “That’s not true at all.”

Sometimes, Young feels that the misconception that she has a mental disability has led her to overwhelm herself academically.

For instance, she originally enrolled in seven classes for junior year, but limited her schedule to four classes after experiencing her first hectic week of school.

“I struggle with having to prove myself,” Young says. “I was overloading myself to be like everyone else.”

Throughout her seven years in a wheelchair, Young has heard an entire spectrum of misinformed comments directed toward

SPEAKING Young raises awareness about spinal cord injury through the Walk & Roll Foundation.

people with different abilities. When asked personal questions, Young tries to answer honestly.

“I actually encourage people to ask [about the wheelchair] so they can get the right answer rather than being unsure and making up the answer in their head,” Young says.

Spreading the Word With the abundance of misconceptions regarding paralysis, Young says she feels the need to educate her peers as well as others she encounters. As Walk and Roll’s ambassador, she educates people about Spinal Cord Injury and its effects.

Members of the foundation travel around California and participate in Rally for Reality presentations at schools to help inform people on the dangers of distracted driving and how it can lead to SCI. The Walk and Roll Foundation members share their personal stories and speak about their experiences at events.

Young hopes to coordinate a Rally for Reality at Paly in the upcoming months after she receives approval from the school administration; she is confident that the presentation will be well-received.

“I have another year at Paly before I graduate, and it’s just really fun to be able to do things with schools,” Young says. “Once you captivate the crowd, they start listening because people have a stereotypical view of people in [wheel]chairs.”

On a more personal level, Young wants the Paly community to learn to embrace others with different abilities who might attend the school in future years.

“What if there is a little girl who comes in as a freshman and she’s sitting in a chair and she’s getting the same [inconsiderate treatment] as I’m getting?” Young says. “What if she doesn’t have a good support system? All of that matters. I want to make many changes this year and next year to help anyone who comes to Paly with different abilities.”

Role Models Young understands firsthand the importance of having a loyal support system.

Through the Walk and Roll Foundation, she has met other girls who are paralyzed.

Not only have these young women become her support group, but they are also her friends who she can call anytime for advice or a listening ear.

“I have so many friends in [wheel] chairs, and it helps me so much that they’re all older than me,” Young says. “They went through high school. They know what I’ve been through. At the end of day when I’m absolutely torn down to nothing, I can call 10 people and get a different piece of advice from each person to help build me up for the next day.”

Young especially relates to Ali Stroker, a member of the Walk and Roll dance team and an actress and singer whose performance career included a role on the fifth season of “Glee.” Likewise, Stroker views Young as a younger version of herself.

“When I first met [Young], I saw a lot of myself in her,” Stroker says. “We have this inside joke that [she] is my mini me.

She has such a sense of humor; she is such a bright light. I feel like I was very similar to her when I was younger. She’s really opened up to me.”

Stroker and Young have the same spinal cord injury, so Young has learned how to perform everyday tasks such as getting from the floor to her wheelchair without assistance. Young also aims to become a professional actress, singer and dancer like Stroker and looks towards her for advice on how the industry treats paralyzed actors.

“In the [entertainment] industry, they would rather hire able-bodied people,” Young says. “The only way to really do you want is to be willing to put all of yourself out there.”

Older girls like Stroker have imparted an important lesson of determination on Young. According to her, d=ozens of other paralyzed girls look up to her as a role model.

“I look at the little girls that look up to me and it’s so powerful to think that some little kid who I’ve never even met looks at pictures and said, ‘I want to look just like her. Or, I want to roll fast just like her,’” Young says. “And that’s one of the reasons that I keep going all the time, because I want to be the person that I needed.” v 41

PAUL HOEPRICH IN FOCUS

PRESENTING THE NEW JOURNALISM ADVISER Text by EMILIE MA and ANNA NAKAI Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

G

LOSSY MOVIE POSTERS, FINNISH memorabilia and shiny awards cover the wall, while papers lie messily over the large desk.

Paul Hoeprich, the new Viking sports magazine and InFocus broadcast news show adviser, slouches back in his chair with his hands behind his head, feet on the table, a Hansen’s Ginger Ale within easy reach.

Although Hoeprich may be new to Palo Alto High School, he has considerable experience in broadcast journalism and film production. Before he became a teacher at Paly, Hoeprich worked as a professional reporter and cameraman at National Broadcasting Company affiliates, ran his own film company and built up film and journalism programs at several schools across the country.

When given his first camera at the age of seven, Hoeprich knew that he wanted to become a filmmaker. At his high school, he participated in a broadcast journalism program similar to InFocus, and continued to study film at Northern Arizona University. In college he was introduced to professional journalism when he was asked to go with a local NBC news source to get footage and take photos of a train wreck.

“I got a call from a reporter saying, ‘There’s been a train

42

wreck,’” Hoeprich says. “There was a freight train that was hauling brand new Lexus SUVs, and it had like derailed and there were … SUVs all over the mountainside, but they wouldn’t let us in to get footage. … I went trudging through the forest that night and went up this mountain and got a really nice shot of the train derailed with all the SUVs, and that was actually used as the nationwide feed for NBC. … That was the first time I’d seen my footage on other [news] feeds.”

Hoeprich went on to become a camera operator for NBC affiliates in Flagstaff and Phoenix in Arizona. As one of the few employees in the small production center of Flagstaff, Hoeprich received significant journalism experience.

“There were days when I would get into the news car, because we [NBC Flagstaff] couldn’t afford a van,” Hoeprich says. “I would interview people and run the camera, write everything, come back to the station, edit it all together, give it to the production staff, and then work camera and teleprompter for the news show where they would show my story.”

Later, he transferred to the Phoenix NBC station, which covered a much larger area with more viewers.

“I worked there in 2001, which was a pretty rough news year,” Hoeprich says. “They had given me a pager, and I re-

PROFILES | OCT 2014 member when Sept. 11 happened I worked crazy hours like which, although only six minutes long, garnered the most from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. … I was sleeping and I remember seeing awards and attention of all his films. The film focuses on a it on the news or whatever, and then the pager just went crazy married couple after their wedding night when they begin to … so I kind of got thrown in the fire as far as news goes.” confess that they kept secrets from each other. According to Seeking a life with more stability than his late night shift Hoeprich, the confessions become bigger and bigger until there had to offer, Hoeprich decided to take a job at a charter school. are mariachi bands marching through the room and undercover “I think having a quote-unquote normal life, meaning like CIA agents coming out from under the bed. a family, a kid, a dog … became important, and working 3 a.m.

“It is just this kind of classic comedic escalation … I like to 11 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays off is it the most because it’s just cool clasnot conducive to that,” Hoeprich says. “I “we want to win two national sic comedy,” Hoeprich says. “It’s two found a job teaching history at a charter people in a bedroom and it’s just good awards this year for the school. … I really enjoyed it, and I was dialogue and something people can reshow [infocus].” like, ... oh boy, I guess I’ll be a teacher.” late to.”

While teaching, he attended UniverHaving lived in Arizona since ­— paul hoeprich sity of Phoenix in order to receive a masthe age of five, Hoeprich decided ters in education and soon began teaching he wanted a change of scenery and film and broadcast journalism at various public schools, includ- looked to move. An open teaching job at Paly attracted him to ing Arcadia High School in Phoenix. come to Palo Alto.

“I taught at Arcadia High School for six years and built the “It [Paly] had a really college campus feel,” Hoeprich says. [broadcast journalism] program up from nothing to a nationally “It felt like a free learning environment, and I got that right the recognized program,” Hoeprich says. “It’s what I like to do so minute that I crossed the street from the Town and Country.”

I’m excited to do it here [at Paly].”

As the adviser for Viking and a first-time adviser for a print Teaching also allowed him time to pursue his other pas- publication, there’s a lot for Hoeprich to get used to. sion, filmmaking. Hoeprich, along with his friends, started Cat“For Viking, my goals are to learn how a print publicabrain Films, a company that produced and directed short films. tion works here [because] I’ve never actually done this before,” His favorite film that he produced was “The After Vows,” Hoeprich says. “They [the staff] have been really quite cool and they are teaching me a lot, which is neat. My goal is to ... assist them as much as I can, but they really have it together so I don’t think they’ll need much help from me.”

Hoeprich has taken a more active role with InFocus because broadcast journalism is his area of expertise.

“I want the students to produce everything,” Hoeprich says. “It should be their show, but right now there’s a lot of technical things ... and training they need and things like that to get the ball rolling, so I think I have a much more active role now, but I hope to stand back and just let them run the show and just fix things they break.”

According to Griffin Carlson, one of the executive producers of InFocus, Hoeprich works well with the InFocus class.

“I think Mr. Hoeprich is a great new fit for the InFocus classroom because he is very dedicated and he is [replicating] a professional atmosphere for us,” Carlson says. “His motto is that ‘If it works in the industry it will work for us,’ and I think that is great because a lot of people who join the InFocus class are interested in following a career path in broadcast journalism and this will help them see if they’re interested.”

With a new teacher, a new studio and the new Media Arts Center, expectations for InFocus are high.

“Our goals for this year are to form long lasting relationships between InFocus crew members and then we wanted to garner campus-wide viewership of 90 percent,” Hoeprich says.

INFOCUS Hoeprich helps freshman Peter King with his “Our biggest goal is we want to win two national awards this year for the show, of some kind. Awards aren’t everything, winvideo.

RELAXING (opposite page) InFocus director Paul Ho- ning isn’t everything … but it’s kind of a nice validation that your work is being recognized.” v eprich relaxes in his room after class.

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FEATURES | OCT 2014

HANDs UP, DON’T SHOOT EXPLORING THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN POLICE AND RACE Text by ANNA NAKAI and GABI ROSSNER Photography by GABI ROSSNER Art by KARINA CHAN and ANTHONY LIU

I

T’S A COLD FRIDAY NIGHT IN APRIL and Tony, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, stands on a brightly lit street corner in Redwood City, talking with his friends. Another kid approaches the group aggressively and attempts to instigate a conflict. Tensions escalate, Tony recalls, and bystanders alert the police, who come and arrest the instigator despite no blows having been exchanged.

As the police arrest two other teens, Tony, a Palo Alto High School student, pulls out his phone and begins recording the scene. Soon, one of the police officers approaches him.

“Please cross the street,” the officer says, his voice

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FEATURES | OCT 2014 clear in a video recording of the incident Media attention nationwide has been shared with Verde. focused on the issue of police use of force “I’m pretty sure I have the right to and brutality, particularly against minorities record you,” Tony replies. and those of color. Although Ferguson has “Please cross the street,” repeats the once more brought this issue to light, there officer. has existed a long standing national prob“This is America.” lem of relations between races and the poImmediately, the officer replies, “Put lice force. There have been several similar your hands behind your back.” instances in the Bay Area, such as when poThe screen goes black. Tony recalls lice shot an unarmed black 19-year-old in what happened next.

San Francisco this summer and when Palo Suddenly, three police officers grab Alto police officers broke the arm of a Los hold of Tony, handcuff him and begin Altos resident Tyler Harney in 2013. Acreading him his rights. They threaten to cording to the Center for Disease Control “drop” him if he continues resisting arrest, from 2003 to 2009 across the United States, scratch him with the handcuffs and throw black suspects are two times more likely to him into a painful armlock. The officers be killed by police than white suspects. carry out the threat of “dropping” another “I think police these days could charge boy, throwing him to the ground and pin- you with whatever,” Tony says. “They ning his legs up against his back. When the could just lie. That’s why I thought it was a police eventually release the boys, they con- good idea to pull out my phone and record fiscate Tony’s cell phone for two months to the incident, because in my eyes, I knew use as evidence. that kid wasn’t doing The group of kids “Police brutality is anything wrong.” who were arrested conJeffrey McCune, a sisted entirely of Latino not a new thing. It is as Washington University and Tongan teens, a fact American as apple pie.” professor of Women, that Tony does not overand Sexuality ­— Prof. Garrett duncan Gender look.

Studies, says that the “Police specifically police culture of our target a certain group of people because current times enables the sort of interacof their skin tone or their race,” Tony says. tion that Tony experienced.

“And I feel that’s what happened to me.”

“I find it very dangerous that we now While Tony states that he was arrested live in a moment where the law so easfor resisting, he also denies the accusation, ily stands on the side of the police,” Mcsaying he believes he experienced an exces- Cune says. “Knowing that the trend across sive use of force in relation to his actions. the country for police to enact brutalities “How can I resist when my hands are against certain bodies in some very egreup?” Tony says. gious ways.”

This is the type of question that thouAshley, an African-American Paly stusands of people across America have been dent whose name has been changed to proasking for decades in response to police ag- tect her identity, remembers an incident in gression. More recently, “Hands up, don’t which the police accosted her dad in a way shoot” has become a nationwide cry for she believed was racially motivated. equality following the shooting of Michael “My dad got pulled over ... and the Brown, an unarmed black teen, by a police police officer was like, ‘Where are you goofficer in Ferguson, Missouri. ing and where did you come from.’ They “What happened in Ferguson is a said they were looking for a black guy in national trend,” says Garret Duncan, as- a Range Rover who committed a crime,’” sociate professor of African and African- Ashley says. “My dad got really, really upset American Studies at Washington Univer- ... and kept on talking loudly. I saw the offisity. “Every day … video clips [appear] of cer do the reach-back thing ... and I started people, mostly black folks, and if they’re panicking.” not black, poor white folks or Chicano or Although Ashley’s experience did not Latino, just getting beat down by police. end in violence, she still feels the threat of Police brutality is not a new thing. It is as what could have happened.

American as apple pie.”

“In those types of situations, it’s not

the increased likelihood of a black suspect to be killed by police.

of people stopped and frisked by police who are black.

decrease in the likelihood that, after being stopped and frisked, a person will report crimes in the future.

rise in rate of justifiable homicides by law enforcement from 2000-2010.

Data respectively collected from the CDC, 2003-2009; New York Civil Liberties Union, 2011; the FBI, 2000-2010; and the Vera Institute of Justice, 2013.

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FEATURES | OCT 2014 good to respond [angrily] that way, because if something were to happen ... it would be like everything you have been hearing in the news,” Ashley says. “It would be that, ‘Oh my dad was acting in a certain way where the officer felt threatened and had the right to taze or shoot.’”

The use of force by police is not a singular event, but a trend relevant to the whole country, where instances of police brutality have been popping up everywhere. McCune attributes the issue to with the way police approach problems.

“It is largely problematic that we now live in a time where we have deemed police to have in some sense jurisdiction over life and death,” McCune says. “My issue is, we have moved from detain-the-subject to killthe-criminal.”

The number of justifiable homicides by law enforcement has risen. A justifiable homicide occurs when a police officer shoots a person and the shooting is later ruled as legally justified. As reported by the FBI, the rate of justifiable homicides by law enforcement increased by 25 percent from 2000 to 2010.

Even so, there are also indications that police brutality might not be getting worse.

According to Duncan, due to social media and other forms of communication, the public knows more about police brutality and is able to hold police depart-

ments accountable.

Peter Joy, a Hitchcock Professor of Law at Washington University, believes that the spread of information has led to an improvement in police policies.

“We’ve learned more about it [police brutality] over the last 10 or 15 years than we have previously,” Joy says. “I think that there’s been some improvement over the

“There is this stronghold of racism that teaches young white men and young white wome n that black bodies are not valued.” ­— Prof. Jeffrey mccune last 10 or 15 years because I think police departments are more aware, and in a lot of police departments, unfortunately not all, there have been more and more efforts to be aware of and to avoid some of the [problematic] practices.”

Use of force does not appear to be as much of an issue locally, however, as there are only about 10 uses of force per year in Palo Alto, according to Palo Alto Police Chief Dennis Burns. He adds that the department’s last taser activation was two years ago and the last officer-involved shooting occurred over 13 years ago.

“Police come into contact with a lot of people every day, and more often than not there usually is not a use of force,” Burns says. “In fact, it’s very, very rare.”

Although there have been fewer reported official uses of force, these statistics might not account for less tangible incidents, such as the ones Ash-

Dec. 25, 1951 — Bloody Christmas in Los Angeles.

Police officers beat up five Latino men and two white men.

POLICE CHIEF Dennis Burns outlines his department’s policy of Fair and Impartial Policing at police headquarters. ley and Tony experienced. For example, in 2008, in response to a string of robberies, former Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson issued a statement that instructed police officers to question all African-Americans they encounter because many of the suspects were black.

“When our officers are out there and they see an African-American, in a congenial way, we want them [officers] to find out who they are,” Johnson told City Council, according to ABC News.

Because many of the recent incidents of police use of force involved minorities, and the police have long been accused of racial profiling, people have brought forth the question of how race plays into police brutality. To McCune, it is the devaluation of black bodies that leads to the aggression against them.

“There is this stronghold of racism

May 3, 1963 — During the Birmingham Campaign for Civil Rights, police turn their fire hoses on children and bystanders.

May 1970 — Kent and Jackson State Shootings: police open fire at two universities during anti-Vietnam War protests.

FEATURES | OCT 2014 that teaches young white men and some young white women that black bodies are not valued,” McCune says. “When it comes to criminality, it’s easier to treat those bodies differently than you may treat criminal white bodies, because they’re not your own.”

While Burns acknowledges that racism remains prevalent, he feels that the PAPD’s policy of Fair and Impartial Policing can help address this issue.

“It [Fair and Impartial Policing] is acknowledging that we all have implicit biases, and to be aware of those biases but not to act on them and to treat everyone with dignity and respect,” Burns says. “The constitution applies the same to all of us.”

Two Palo Alto police officers were recently recruited by the national Department of Justice to travel to different police departments around the country and teach workshops on Fair and Impartial Policing as a response to racial profiling, Burns adds. It’s a strong indication that PAPD’s Fair and Impartial Policing is working, he says.

Joy emphasizes that minority groups say racial profiling by police is commonplace.

“I know that in a lot of poor communities, and especially in a lot of communities of color, it’s hard to find somebody who hasn’t had a story of where they believe that they have been racially profiled,” Joy says.

When individuals such as Tony have bad experiences with police, it can lead them to harbor feelings of resentment and distrust towards law enforcement.

“I told him [the police officer], ‘I wanted to be a police officer when I grew up, but since this night, and ever since I saw how you treated me, I don’t want to be a police officer anymore,’” Tony says.

This loss of trust leads to the ripple effect of having a community that does not want to interact with police. A Vera

March 3, 1991 — Several Los Angeles police officers beat Rodney King, a black man. The beating sparks huge riots.

Institute of Justice study in 2013 found that policies such as New York City’s Stop and Frisk, in which police officers can detain suspicious looking people and search them, have led to a decreased willingness of the community to report crimes. For every time that a person was stopped, the likelihood that they would report a crime decreased by eight percent.

According to East Palo Alto resident Tony, people in EPA, a community largely consisting of minorities, don’t see the police as helpful and instead try to avoid them, fearing violence.

“I feel like if there’s a problem, something going down, it’d be safe not to call the police because you don’t know what could

“It [Fair and Impartial Policing] is acknowledging that we all have implicit biases, ... but not to act on them and to treat everyone with dignity and respect.” ­— police chief dennis burns happen,” Tony says.

Junior Catherine Davidson feels that police actions against minorities can be justified.

“If you see a black person with saggy pants walking around suspiciously, any type of authority might get suspicious,” Davidson says. “I don’t think it’s good that police can make generalizations like that, but I do think that in the past, the people who got caught were the sketchy looking people.”

The most recent studies show that the majority of crimes are committed by white people, although the majority of people sent to jail are minorities. The FBI reported in 2012 that 69 percent of people that are

2000 — Oakland, CA: the actions of the Oakland Riders, a gang of policemen who beat people up and lied about it, are discovered.

Jan. 1, 2009 — Oscar Grant is shot in the Bay Area in an incident where the officer claims he mistook his gun for his taser.

arrested are white and only 28 percent are black, but 58 percent of the prison population is black or Latino. White people make up 35 percent of the prison population.

“In terms of the police, we need more training, more community interaction,” McCune says. “We need a community outreach system, rather than a community regulation system. We need more community activities with the police where we’re engaged in collaboration rather than antagonism.”

Echoing McCune, Burns says the PAPD needs to be a resource for the community, not just to enforce law but to educate and collaborate with others when there is a community problem. He also acknowledges that the police force should be taught to appreciate the diversity in its community.

“I want people who appreciate difference and understand difference — but know that difference is not deficient, that difference does not mean that you should be made suspect,” McCune says.

Burns says police and citizens need to act now in order to prevent the vicious cycle of racial profiling and police brutality from continuing.

“This is not a theoretical issue,” Burns says. “This is very real for people. We need to know each other better and have community dialogue and engagement.”

To Duncan, professor at WUSTL, understanding the interrelatedness of all people is the first step towards solving these very real issues.

“I would like to see people understanding their relationships to people they did not know they were related to before,” Duncan says. “Across race, across class, across nationalities, I would like to see people knowing that we’re all related; we’re all part of the fabric called humanity.” v

Aug. 9, 2014 — Michael Brown, a black teen is shot by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer for allegedly attacking the officer.

The Pr ic e of WHEN THE PRESSURE TO SUCCEED HIDES Text by ZOFIA AHMAD and ANNA LU Art by ANTHONY LIU

Imperfe ct

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“

Empty

I

WOULD TRY AND GET myself sick. I looked up online what the lethal dose of bleach is. I thought about drinking just enough bleach so that I would throw up and I wouldn’t have to go to school to take my math test, but I wouldn’t die.”

Hopeless

Pe r f e c t i o n

THE PERSON

BEHIND THE ACHIEVEMENT

Palo Alto High School student Jennifer, whose name has During adolescence, the brain undergoes significant been changed, along with several other students mentioned developmental changes, causing emotional fluctuations, in this story, felt depressed last year due to academic-induced Anderson says. Of course, most everyone feels unhappy at stress. A member of two varsity sports teams, with a rigorous times, but as teenagers struggle to find their identity while seven-course workload, Jennifer says she felt pressured to be managing the stress of being a high school student in Palo perfect.

Alto, they become extraordinarily prone to stress-based anxi“I wouldn’t talk to people at brunch, and I would just go ety and depression. to the library to try to get homework According to a survey of 170 Paly done,” Jennifer says. “When the rest students taken in English classes, 38 of my friend group was talking, I felt percent reported either experiencing like it was just too loud, so I would DUE TO THE PRESSURE, THINGS depression or anxiety at some point in go away. I was so focused on doing lives.

THAT I ENJOYED ALL BECAME theirAnderson productive things that I didn’t allow says that teens who are THINGS THAT I ACTIVELY AVOIDED.” busy living up to societal standards of myself to do anything else.”

Once, having missed a couple perfection sacrifice the time they need — JENNIFER, PALY STUDENT to build their own identities. Jennifer of assignments and done poorly on a few tests, she says she began to feel agress that the expectations are overworthless in comparison to everyone whelming. else. She did well in the past. Now, people expected more.

“In Palo Alto, you’re expected to do a lot of different acBut as her course load escalated, those expectations seemed tivities — you can’t just be good at one thing,” Jennifer says. impossible to meet. Jennifer had fallen into the trap of de- “But if you’re involved in a lot of different activities, you feel pression. like you have to be great at everything you do.”

“It’s like you’re walking upstream, and the water is up Jennifer thinks perfection is an addictive concept beto your neck, and it’s rushing really, really fast downstream,” cause it establishes a sense of worthiness in the eyes of othJennifer says. “It’s really cold, but you have to keep going, ers but creates unreachable expectations. Being an active and every once in a while, there are rocks that you can hold member of varsity sports teams and taking the school’s hardon to, and you can rest, but eventually, those rocks get pushed est classes are no longer enough to satisfy everyone else’s exaway by the current, and the option of just stopping and let- pectations. ting the current carry you down is very attractive.”

“Due to the pressure, things that I enjoyed — believe it It is important to realize that while depression can be or not, I actually enjoyed math once — and the sport that I triggered or worsened by specific events and societal pres- compete in all became things that I actively avoided,” Jensures, it is fundamentally caused by a chemical imbalance in nifer says. the brain. Although not medically diagnosed, Jennifer conJennifer is not alone. Our survey found that 58 percent of sidered herself depressed.

Paly students feel the pressure to be perfect.

Mental health has been a prominent issue in our com“Living in the bubble that is Palo Alto heightens my anxmunity since the series of student suicides in 2009, but has iety,” senior Noah Hashmi says. “I constantly see and hear no yet received the same recognition as physical health. of examples of success, and if I’m not compared to them, As reported by the National Alliance of Mental Illness, I’ve gotten into a habit of inadvertently comparing myself 21 percent of children ages nine to 17 have a diagnosable with them.” mental or addictive disorder. However, only 20 percent of When teenagers are taught that they can do anything, it children with mental disorders are identified and receive can mistranslate into the belief that they must do everything mental health services in any given year.

— especially what their peers are good at.

Child psychologist Cari Anderson says that the leading Survey results showed that 73 percent of Paly students cause of depression and anxiety in adolescents is stress-in- feel pressured to be good at the same things that their peers duced feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy, which are are good at instead of finding their own passion. magnified in affluent communities like Palo Alto.

This can cause students to over-commit themselves.

“

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“Being really busy and not having time to form deep re- anxiety problems. lationships with people can lead to feeling really lonely even “When I’m depressed, I don’t feel like they are my though they’re around other people all the time, because friends anymore,” Mark says. “I feel like the world is closed they’re all just superficial relationships,” Anderson says. in against me, like I’m trapped in a box. The worst thing “If the main pleasure you get in the activity is winning, not about depression is that it’s a cup and there’s no bottom. You in doing the activity itself, it’s a really different experience. pour in water and it comes right out onto the floor. When you Then, the moment you lose, there isn’t feel happy, you fall right back on the anything left and there’s nothing to floor, so you need to get a new cup ­— feel good about because you suddenly a new purpose to be happy.” haven’t lived up to this mark.”

For Mark, losing hope was the “[Depression] is a cup and toughest aspect of his depression.

Many students admit that they ignore mental health concerns when “When I was depressed, I lost there’s no bottom. You it comes as a trade-off to achievepurpose,” Mark says. “I lost hope, and pour in water and it comes you really need hope because without ment. right out onto the floor.” it there’s nothing really to look for“I took AP U.S. History because both of my siblings took it and I didn’t ward to every day.”

— Mark, PALY STUDENT want to be that one siblings that didn’t Mark believes that many students live up to them,” junior Aiva Petriceks pretend to be happy to maintain a fasays. “When signing up for classes, cade of perfection. my first thought isn’t ‘What class will I enjoy the most.’ It’s “I think a lot of people are unexpectedly depressed even ‘Let me take as many hard classes [as I can] without making when they’re really happy,” Mark says. “Everyone wears a me go crazy.’” mask to school to not show what they’re going through.”

Petriceks says she believes that the perfectionist mentalJennifer admits that she was afraid to acknowledge her ity places the bar too high, setting everyone up for inevitable depression because she didn’t want to be labeled as weak failure and feelings of inadequacy and depression. and imperfect.

According to Mark, a Paly student diagnosed with de“I was scared of being depressed and afraid of crying pression, most people don’t really understand what it means in front of people and of showing weakness,” Jennifer says. to be depressed, and this lack of understanding can make Paly student Sabrina says that adolescents suffering from it harder to support friends who suffer from depression or depression and anxiety problems need to realize that they are not alone and that it’s okay to seek help from counselors.

“To anyone who is going through depression, or any mental illness for that matter, remember that it gets better and that you are loved,” Sabrina says. “There are people who care about you.”

Anderson adds that depression and anxiety are more prevalent among teens than most realize.

“If they look around at their classroom at Paly, they’re not the only one in that classroom that has that experience,” Anderson says. of students nationwide have a mental or adAnderson emphasizes that sufferers of mental health dictive disorder. 1 problems can greatly benefit from talking to trusted people.

Jennifer’s personal experience with depression leads her to of Paly students2 have had a depression or agree. anxiety problem at some point in their lives.3 “I think many people are depressed and they don’t know what to do, so they just try to deal with it themselves,” Jennifer says. “Sometimes it helps to tell other people what you’re of Paly students feel the pressure to be 4 thinking, so that you can identify the source of stress.” v perfect.

“

The Price of Privilege 21% 38% 58% 73%

of Paly students feel pressured to be good at the same things that other people are good at. 5

According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness 2 The student poll results collected for this issue are from a survey administered in Palo Alto High School English classes in September 2014. Eight English classes were randomly selected, and 170 responses were collected. The surveys were completed online, and responses were anonymous. With 95% confidence, these results are accurate within a margin of error of 3 6.12% , 4 6.23%, 55.60%.

1

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Need Help?

If you or someone you know is suffering from depression or anxiety, contact: Academic Counseling Services: 1-650-833-4244 24/7 Teen Crisis Hotline: 1-888-247-7717 SCC Suicide Crisis Hotline: 1-855-278-4204

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PROFILES | OCT 2014

BEFore they were here FACULTY’S CAREERS BEFORE TEACHING

O

Text by NATALIE MAEMURA and ELANA REBITZER VER 200 FACULTY MEMBERS AT PALO Alto High School teach, counsel and otherwise work here on a daily basis. While many were passionate about their chosen field of educataion from the beginning of their own higher education, others arrived at their destinations as teachers through alternate routes. Verde talked to four faculty members to learn about their careers before going into the field of education. v

cynthia chen Cynthia Chen has always been interested in becoming a teacher, but she did not choose to follow that career path at first.

“I’ve always thought about education even when I was in high school myself,” Chen says. “I didn’t have the courage to pursue it mostly because of the financial reason.”

After graduating from UCLA, she began working at Deloitte Consulting, specifically with the software PeopleSoft. As a technology consultant, she conferred with different companies who wanted to install PeopleSoft to manage and configure their databases.

“I mostly met with clients to understand their needs in terms of how they wanted to configure their different databases,” Chen says. “We needed to figure out what their specific needs are because different [companies] have different protocols.”

Throughout this time, she felt as if there was something missing. Though her career in tech was more profitable, Chen realized that money did not matter as much as happiness did to her, so she decided to follow her heart and become a teacher.

“You’re going to have to do whatever it [your job] is for conceivably your entire career,” Chen says. “You have got to make sure it counts and you’re happy.”

Chen explains that she incorporates the skills she learned while consulting into her teaching. She is able to incorporate the skills she learned while consulting into her teaching career by making sure to get back to students as soon as possible and by keeping her classroom organized.

“I am very happy with [my new career] and I love being in the classroom and interacting with students,” Chen says.

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ASTRONAUT(ISH) Josh Bloom poses with space shuttles at Dryden Flight Research Center. Photo: Mark Pestana.

Josh bloom Josh Bloom has wanted to be a scientist since a young age, but teaching never crossed his mind until he was given the opportunity to work as a scientist for NASA. Growing up, Bloom felt a strong affinity for the space program, so he decided to major in physics at the University of Washington. However, after getting first-hand experience while working with a physics professor, he decided to change his plan.

“It [physics] just did not resonate with me, so I came back to aerospace engineering,” Bloom says.

Bloom graduated from college with a double major in physics and aerospace engineering. He then began interning at NASA’s Dryden Flight research center in Southern California; he considered pursuing a career with NASA. “I thought maybe I [would] be an astronaut,” Bloom says.

After a year working as an intern, NASA offered Bloom a position to train astronauts in Texas. However, Bloom decided to turn down the position at NASA and become a science teacher at Gunn High School, eventually switching to teach at Paly. He based this decision off of his prior experience as a camp counselor, when he felt passionate about working with kids.

“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had taken the job at NASA,” says Bloom, now in his 14th year of teaching. “But I don’t regret it at all.”

PROFILES | OCT 2014

CRYSTAL LAGUNA Unbeknownst to many Paly students, the Guidance department has many faculty members with their own unique backgrounds.

One of them is Crystal Laguna, who now works as an outreach specialist in the guidance department. She had no intention of working in education when she began her career in health care in San Jose, California. Laguna worked in that field for over four years, dealing with insurance and medical records. This also included providing health information to healthcare providers. However, there was a downside.

“I liked [my job], but there wasn’t much room for growth there if you didn’t have any other kind of degree,” Laguna says.

While working as a healthcare technician and eventually becoming a supervisor of the department, Laguna realized that she still felt unfulfilled since she was unable to move up furthur in the ranks of that field. This realization prompted her to go back to school to get a college degree.

“Once I enrolled at college, I realized that my passion had always been education,” Laguna says. “My own experience [growing up] in education is what drove me to get my degree as a counselor.”

Though Laguna went back to school specifically to learn how to be a counselor and work in education, she has found that her experience working in health care carries over into counseling. She is able to communicate easily with students as well as parents because of her experience with patients while working in her previous career. Laguna can understand and sympathize with students like she did with the patients on a daily basis. This can involve focusing herself on their needs to understand what may be causing their frustration or depression, and treating them with the respect that they deserve.

Because of this, working in education has become a fulfilling career for Laguna. It is a field that she is passionate about and one which allows her to keep improving. This differs from the field of healthcare where her lack of a degree kept her from moving up in the ranks as much as she wanted to.

“I think you should have the ability to change careers until you find that passion that you’re looking for,” Laguna says.

She has found that passion as a counselor and specialist at Paly. Laguna says that she hopes to continue to work and grow in the field of education and counseling in the years to come.

LIEUTENANT John Bungarden (right) shakes hands with Virginia Senator John Warner as soldiers watch. Photo: U.S. Army.

JOHN (Jack) bungarden For the many students who have taken John Bungarden’s A.P. US History class, it is hard to imagine him doing anything but teaching. Before becoming synonymous with APUSH, Bungarden spread his talents around many areas, working for startups, a hazardous waste company and financial services. However, the most prominent of his previous jobs was working for the United States Army, which Bungarden joined after graduating college. Bungarden especially enjoyed serving as a part of a unit.

“There’s the missions, the soldiers you served with and the things you had to learn [and get] better at,” Bungarden says. “But the fun part diminishes [over time]”.

He then decided to leave the Army after achieving the rank of Captain. For the next decade and a half, Bungarden served in the National Guard as he worked at various other jobs before deciding to go back to what he had originally wanted to do and became a teacher. He uses his Army experience in his current job, especially when teaching about wartime tactics, like the American Revolution and trench warfare. “[It is] true for all teachers that you bring the rest of your life to teaching,” Bungarden says. “Everything contributes to it.”

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FEATURES | OCT 2014

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE LOOKING TWO STEPS BACK TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP FORWARD

Text by SIDDHARTH SRINIVASAN and JAMES WANG Photo Illustration by ANTHONY LIU and ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

C

ASUALLY DRESSED weird combo,” Voto says.

Marina Gorbis, the executive director employees are strewn about the lobby of what looks like of IFTF, attributes their varied areas of ina typical Silicon Valley com- terest to the inclusive nature of the future.

“We do not have a distinct target poppany. While some recline in ergonomic chairs and type on sticker- ulation the way that some nonprofits do,” covered laptops, others are engrossed in Gorbis says. “We help anyone from indidiscussion, periodically adding to a colorful viduals to corporations to governments. idea board. However, unlike similar orga- There are a lot of different stakeholders in nizations, this downtown Palo Alto busi- the future; it’s hard to commit to just one.”

In addition to their varied clientele, ness doesn’t specialize in software security or hardware development. It specializes in Betina Walburg, IFTF’s Public Foresight analysis and prediction, researching mod- Strategist, believes that IFTF is unique beern trends in our society to help predict and cause of its hands-on involvement in future forecasting. improve our future.

“There are a lot of groups that just Institute for the Future, or IFTF, has been involved in future forecasting as a try to put a stake in the ground about what nonprofit organization for 45 years, work- they think is going to happen,” Walburg ing with sponsors ranging from Fortune says. “What we do here is we try to help 500 companies and the US Federal govern- people shape their own future. It’s not so ment, to nonprofits and even individuals. much about knowing what exactly is going Attracted by IFTF’s extensive track record, to happen in the future but rather finding the San Jose Unified School District has so- interesting alternatives and working backlicited the help of IFTF, hoping to use their wards to figure out what you can do today.”

IFTF adheres to this philosophy by expertise to reinvent the education system concentrating on actionable projects that for the 21st century student.

The redefinition of education for are relevant to unique aspects of today’s SJUSD is one of the many different proj- society.

“We did a part ects that IFTF is curof that project lookrently involved in.

“Most people in educa- ing at extreme learnBy diversifying the topics which they re- tion understand that the ers — people who are hacking into their search and forecast, IFTF hopes to devel- present system is broken.” own education in new op a comprehensive ­—NATHAN CROSS, ways,” Walburg says. did some profiles knowledge of today Consultant “We on different kinds of so they can influence students and adults tomorrow.

Alessandro Voto, the research manag- and put that on our website ... but we are er for IFTF, is a testament to the diversity hoping to expand it as a project.”

Through initiatives like the extreme of IFTF’s research base.

“Since I have been here, I have worked learners project, IFTF has developed a repon the future of food, the future of retail utation as a pioneer in education. Seeking and the future of manufacturing — just a IFTF’s expertise, the SJUSD recently par-

54

ticipated in a workshop facilitated by IFTF over the course of three days.

Jason Willis, the assistant superintendent for the SJUSD, explained that the SJUSD has been working on reforming their education system for several years.

However, Willis feels that the ideas produced in this period were not innovative enough to match the unique circumstances of the 21st century student.

“Most people in education understand that the present system is broken and that we are not meeting the needs of people like yourself [students] who walk around with at least seven different pieces of electronics,”

says Nathan Cross, a senior associate with Cross & Joftus, an educational consulting firm also partnering with the SJUSD. “We are not really meeting and integrating the needs of different learning styles and creating learning environments that you’ll feel comfortable in.”

Willis believes that IFTF has provided the SJUSD with an environment encouraging unique, viable education reforms.

“Institute for the Future has been the kind of shot in the arm that we really needed to push us to new heights in terms of student engagement and accelerated learning for kids,” Willis says.

During the SJUSD’s three day workshop with IFTF, Willis recounts that through consolidating today’s effective education trends, IFTF provided a comprehensive evaluation of the current state of the education system and the needs of modern students. Willis feels that this knowledge was valuable in the development of new, progressive learning models.

One idea that the SJUSD discussed with IFTF was the idea that students should help take control of their own learning. “[The idea] completely flips the concept that the teacher has to be the owner of all learning,” Willis says. “It gets stu-

IN THOUGHT (Left to right) Institute for the Future employees Betina Walburg, Rod Falcon, Ben Hamamoto and Brad Kreit get creative in brainstorming ways to improve the future.

dents into a situation where they have to be creative. They have to be problem solvers, they have to communicate with their colleagues and work to solve real world problems.” v 55

FEATURES | OCT 2014

Drought hits home MORE THAN JUST A DRY SPELL FOR PALO ALTO

Text by RACHEL VAN GELDER AND BETHANY WONG Art by ANTHONY LIU

F

ROM A DISTANCE, THE STANFORD GOLF THE BIGGER PICTURE Course looks like any typical course on a sunny afThough people all over California have felt the impacts of the ternoon. Golfers dot the neatly mowed green grass drought, the area suffering most is the environment. Joanne Mcand a gentle breeze drifts through the air. Upon closer Farlin, a senior ecologist at local environmental non-profit Acterinspection, however, patches of dry brown grass line ra, has noticed that lower creek water levels have made water less the edges of the expanse. While many envision a stereotypical available to plants and wildlife. As a result, wildlife have less food golf course as a flawless green carpet, Stanford Golf Course has at their disposal because many native plants have dried up before chosen to take the more environmentally friendly route by reduc- seeding or sprouting. ing the frequency of its irrigation on parts of the course.

“The drought greatly increases the stress to the wildlife,” Just a few streets away from Stanford, environmentally McFarlin says. “I am afraid that an extended drought will cause minded Palo Alto residents have taken steps further wildlife species to disappear from our to reduce their personal water usage as well. area or become extinct altogether.”

The importance of these water conservation While fear of the diminishing water supefforts has increased in the midst of what is When you see a huge green ply may hover at the backs of Palo Altan’s California’s third driest year in the past cenminds, residents should also feel concerned tury, according to the University of California space in the desert, usu- about the toll the drought is taking on the at Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. ally it’s either a golf economy. Palo Alto High School environ“Most people seem to be very aware of science teacher Nicole Loomis says course or a cemetery.” mental the State’s drought conditions, and a lot of the drought’s effect on the economy will be — mary baker, paly parent greater than its effect on the environment. people are choosing to conserve water on their own,” says Catherine Elvert, the City of “If the farmers don’t get water for their Palo Alto Utilities communications manager. crops, then they just can’t grow them” Loomis “We are currently logging all notices about water use infringe- says. “Prices for food go up, there’s no water in the rivers which ments and dispatching staff to educate community members means there are no fish and fishermen can’t go fishing. … The about our drought regulations.” drier it is, the more wildfires we have and the costs to fight them Palo Alto and other cities across California face an uphill bat- go up. All of those [costs] combined [add up].” tle if they hope to conserve water as the drought worsens. Across Both the environmental and economical implications of a the state, the drought has shown a significant impact as the snow- long-term drought make the necessity of conserving water in Palo pack has been 16 percent of its seasonal level and reservoirs are Alto paramount. Within the Palo Alto community, residents are 75 percent of their average capacity. responding willingly to the city’s water-saving measures.

“

56

FEATURES | OCT 2014 WAYS TO SAVE WATER Palo Alto Utilities runs an education-based system to inform residents about adjustments they can make in their households.

The city’s main restrictions on water usage prohibit landscape irrigation only between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., discourage water runoff from outdoor landscapes to other properties or sidewalks and request the immediate repair of any broken plumbing, sprinklers or any irrigation systems which permit the leakage of water.

Most Palo Altans have been highly receptive of these sustainability measures.

Some residents, such as Palo Alto High School parent Mary Baker, have taken extreme water saving measures by redesigning their landscaping. After construction work devastated her yard, Baker chose to remove her lawn and replace it with native California plants.

After conversations with people who had already abandoned the traditional lawn, Baker chose to place more drought-resistant plants in her front yard such as the California fuchsia, blue bell, Douglas iris and clarkia.

Overall, Baker feels content with her decision. According to her, 15 to 20 percent of her water bill each month was previously spent on irrigating the lawn. The native plants, however, require much less water because most can survive with very little water.

Additionally, Baker enjoys the diverse wildlife that the native plants attract, including Californian birds like chickadees, sparrows and goldfinches. Though it did take time to get used to the absence of grass, Baker feels that her new garden enables her to appreciate the changing seasons.

“I think for some people, they look at the native plants, and at first it’s just disappointing to them that it isn’t more green,” Baker says. “Your eyes get used to it. You see the changes of the seasons more. A lot of people will tell you California doesn’t have seasons, but it does when you see the native plants.”

Baker encourages other Palo Alto residents to reevaluate their reasons for maintaining a lawn, especially since the city of Palo Alto currently incentivizes lawn replacement with rebates of $4 per square foot when residents replace their grass.

“When you see a huge green space in the desert, usually it’s either a golf course or a cemetery,” Baker says. “It’s something to think about when you decide whether you want that outside your home.”

Paly senior Chelsea Thangavelu took an alternative approach to saving water when she realized the large quantity of water she wasted while heating up the shower. Instead of letting this perfectly useable water go down the drain, she regularly collects this water in large buckets and uses it to water the garden.

“It usually takes between three and four minutes [for a shower to warm up],” Thangavelu says. “It’s actually a lot of time and a lot of water considering you should only be taking five-minute showers. That’s more than half your shower time just wasted warming the water up.”

Thangavelu purchased five gallon buckets from Home Depot, and she urges others to try the inexpensive and effective bucket system. Although she doesn’t know exactly how much water the shower bucket saves, it reminds Thangavelu to think about the water she uses each day.

“I think it just raises awareness,” Thangavelu says. “The bucket helps me remember that we’re in the drought and we should be conscientious of how much water we’re using. Whether it saves a lot or a little, it’s kind of a reminder for me just in general to be careful.”

With people like Baker and Thangavelu taking measures to conserve water, the city of Palo Alto has taken notice of how much the community’s cooperation has made a difference.

“A lot of people realize that during shortages, outdoor irrigation is secondary to saving water for drinking, cooking and sanitary purposes,” Elvert says. “We have received a number of calls and emails from people wanting to know precisely what measures are in effect, particularly for irrigation, so they can be sure to comply.”

Despite the multitude of issues brought on by the drought, Palo Alto residents should persist in their efforts to reduce their water usage as much as possible.

“We’ve reduced our water usage by 17 percent in the last year,” Drekmeier says. “We’ve responded to the call [to conserve water] and we should be proud of that.”

Although significant reduction has occurred, Californians need constant reminders of the work that still can be done to preserve the water supply.

“Humans have a short memory,” Loomis says. “There were water restrictions in California in the ’70s. Over time, people forget those ways of conservation. Now we’re back in a place where people will have to realign their lives.” v

57

FOUg HIS LIFE AS A STUDENT, COACH AND TEACHER

Text by RYAN REED and CLAIRE PRIESTLEY Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

58

K

NOWN FOR HIS captivating classes, humorous antics and characteristic laugh, Steve Foug is a favorite teacher for many Palo Alto High School students.

His recent decision to stop coaching the varsity football team after 20 years surprised many around campus. Verde sat down with him to discuss that decision and his past at Paly.

ON HIS FAVORITE TEACHERS ...

F: Freshman year I had a guy named Mike McGovern, who was just legendary. He created these reenactments that were just outstanding. I had Mr. Lim when I was here for two years. [Lim] was really good; I had Algebra 2 and geometry. I had [Kathy] Bowers for junior year math. People think teachers love school. I think I thought of it the way most of you guys do. It has its bonuses; it has got its parts that are a pain.

ON NO LONGER COACHING FOOTBALL ...

F: It’s nothing exciting, it’s just that I had done it for 20 years. It was an extra 20 to 30 hours a week, on top, and it could be too much work sometimes — it was a lot. It got to the point where I was doing neither thing very well. Last season I wasn’t doing a good job, so I thought, “I’m not doing the team any good.” I might wait a little while before attending games. You need to have a little separation, just to get it off my mind for a while.

ON HOW PALY HAS CHANGED ...

F: [Laughs] Enormously. I stopped thinking of myself as an old teacher here. It’s huge. It was under 1200 students when I was here. Sports were okay. We were not winning section championships and having Olympians around. There’s just such a great talent pool here these days. I tell my old college friends about how we have a quarterback at Stanford, a linebacker at Stanford, a girl who played table tennis in the Olympics, a girl swimming at USC. [In my day] we had one guy who was like a walk-on. The level of achievement is just through the roof.

ON HIS LOVE FOR HISTORY ...

F: I have been a legitimate history nerd since seventh grade, I remember. I still have my final exam from freshman year, where I got 198 out of 200 out of the multiple choice — I still have the scantron somewhere. 198 out of 200, that is not bragging, it is just I was so proud of that.

ON LIVING IN THE MIDWEST ...

F: I just fit right in like a glove [at the University of Michigan], I was perfectly at home.

I loved it, I loved the seasonal weather, everything. For me, I was so enamored with going to a big college town [Ann Arbor], it was what I always envisioned college in my head. It was what I pictured.

ON MEMORABLE TEACHING MOMENTS ...

F: There are a couple [lessons] that just absolutely had me panicked. It was always when I tried to do a new inventive lesson to change things up so it wouldn’t be so boring everyday. I would try and recreate [McGovern’s lessons] for my class. He was this excellent storyteller and I would focus on the wrong things such as the gore and the bloody stuff. Anything to get [students] attention, since some of my lessons were just so boring. I was explaining the actual process of crucifixion, not the bible story of it, but in, like, Discovery Channel-level de-

tail. I was just like, “And this happens, and this happens,” just to try and be extreme. A kid got so grossed out that he passed out — just from what I was saying. He fell out of his desk and his little feet were in the air, and I was terrified. I remember sitting there in my boss’s office afterwards and I was like, “What did I do?” and he had to like talk me down. He was like, “It’s okay, It’s okay. You’re alright.” It’s those types of experiences that make you better down the road. So I learned from that.

ON THE FAMOUS STUDENTS HE HAS TAUGHT ...

F: I don’t really have too many stories about them, but I had [actor] Dave Franco — whose career is really taking off — and he was great. That was at the time that his brother [actor James Franco] was in the first Spider Man movie, but I was such an idiot I didn’t put two and two together. Like I didn’t even know. I was like “Where were you last week?” and he was like, “I was at the premiere for my brother’s movie.” And I was like, “What are you talking about?”

ON HIS HOBBIES ...

F: I wish I had more. When I was doing football it was school, football, go home, face down on the couch, fall asleep, wakeup, have a doughnut, a gallon of coffee, get here, get through class — excuse me — teach effectively, go to practice, have another coffee … It was tough. I’m not that good at hobbies, I’m not good at free time.

I am a fanatic about sports, but fantasy [sports] … If I grew up in this era I would be completely addicted to [fantasy], ridiculously addicted. I’m uptight, I don’t pay attention to details that I should. Other hobbies are being sarcastic, insulting people, fine dining, living the dream. v 59

PROFILES | OCT 2014

PA NTHER T R ACKS THE MAN BEHIND THE MASCOT

T

HE SOUND OF SQUEAKING ATHLETIC shoes thrums out a steady rhythm of bump, set, spike. Between two benches, handling the scoreboard, Mel Froli watches the game intently. His eyes are on the court, never missing a beat of the intense volleyball match unfolding before him. As a sports announcer for Gunn High School, he can hardly afford to blink.

Although Froli dreamed of announcing sports professionally, he was told by his college adviser that it was an extremely difficult career. He then turned his attention to teaching. Froli started working for the Palo Alto Unified School District immediately after finishing his degree.

For the past 52 years, Froli has served as a PAUSD volunteer and teacher, primarily at Jane Lanthrop Stanford Middle School. Throughout the years, Froli has witnessed JLS undergo many changes, which have included the renaming of JLS, the creation of a new middle school mascot and the founding of the JLS studentrun store.

Froli helped choose the panther as the new mascot of JLS. According to Froli, the north part of Palo Alto (now the Jordan district) nominated the panther, while the south part (now the JLS district) nominated a bulldog.

“We went to the [former JLS] principal and said, ‘It looks like we have a tie,’ and she said, ‘We’ll be Panthers,’” Froli says. “And that’s why we’re Panthers.”

Since then, Froli has been instrumental in aiding the JLS Panther by providing snacks, guidance and support for the mascots. Former Panther Gloria Guzman has fond memories of Froli and appreciates his numerous contributions to the community.

“He gave it his all no matter how big the event was,” says Guzman, a Paly senior.

Froli also helped create the mock election program at JLS in 1980. Completely student-run, the mock election imitates real national elections as closely

Text by ZOFIA AHMAD and EMMA GOLDSMITH Photography by ZOFIA AHMAD

as possible, even requiring students and teachers to register before voting.

“Students would want to come in and vote but they weren’t registered so they couldn’t,” Froli says.

One of his favorite memories of JLS is when the principal forgot to register for the the mock election.

“The student [handling the voting] was doing her job and she said, ‘I’m sorry, you did not register so you can’t vote’ ... and he [the principal] got mad,” Froli says. “But I just congratulated the girl for doing her job.”

Aside from teaching and volunteering in the district, Froli has also managed to keep his childhood dream alive by serving as an announcer for sports at various PAUSD schools and programs, as well as at Stanford for 16 years.

Occasionally, Froli sees students, including some from the Paly community, he used to announce for and is proud to know that they still remember him, he says.

“The [Paly] stadium is right on the railroad tracks, and the train goes by during the game, so I would announce, ‘That’s the 4:30 to San Francisco,’ and I bumped into one of the football players the other day, and he said, “I sure liked it when you said, ‘That’s the 4:30 to San Francisco,’” Froli says.

Despite how the district has evolved, Froli insists that the atmosphere has stayed the same.

He loves working with middle schoolers because he believes that it is an important age for children, where ideas are shaped and values formed.

“Unless they’re obnoxious, you gotta love them,” Froli says. “They’re not set in their ways [and] you can talk with them and reason with them.”

While it may seem that middle school kids might be a little too hard to handle, Froli says that this has never been the case, which is part of the reason why he enjoys working with them so much.

“When you deal with them, you know they’re respectful,” Froli says. “They’re fun.

Every day is a new memory.” v

ANNOUNCER Mel Froli holds his scorebook during an intense Paly vs. Gunn game at Gunn on Sept. 23. Froli is a long-time PAUSD sports announcer. “I would rather deal with ... kids than adults,” Froli says, laughing.

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the FUTURE OF DRONES

FEATURES | OCT 2014

A REVOLUTION RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER Text by MADISON MIGNOLA and JAMES WANG Photography by JAMES WANG

T

HE COMPETITORS WEAVE ABOUT ONE another inside of the battle arena, each maintaining a safe distance from the other fighters while simultaneously looking for a chance to strike. Suddenly, one of the fighters lunges forward. Everything becomes a flurry of chaotic motion, lasting for an instant. In the end, several of the combatants lie mangled on the floor, concluding another match between members of the aerial fight club, Game of Drones, in their exhibition at the 2014 Maker Faire.

Game of Drones has paralleled the rise of drone technology, quickly growing from a small group of robotics enthusiasts to a well-established organization dedicated to improving drones through drone-on-drone battle.

Marque Cornblatt and Eli Delia, the co-founders of Game of Drones, believe that battling drones creates a unique environment for innovation, forcing participants to improve or be destroyed.

“I think the best thing that has come out of fighting drones is how fast we learned to develop,” Delia says. “I think that trial by fire as I call it is a fantastic methodology for finding what’s wrong with your drone as fast as possible.”

Cornblatt and Delia hope that through the unique conditions provided by Game of Drones, they can promote innovation in the wider drone industry, a field Delia predicts will become a ubiquitous part of civilian life.

Palo Alto High School junior Nathan Kau holds a similar opinion. Through his internship at Matternet, a Menlo Park startup specializing in drone delivery technologies, Kau has gained first-hand experience into the rapidly expanding world of drone technology.

“I think the development of small drones will mirror the de-

velopment of the personal computer,” Kau says. “Two years ago, personal drones were exclusively the hobby of tech enthusiasts.

Now, personal drones are just reaching the consumer market. In two decades, we’ll barely notice the ever-present buzz of drones flying overhead.”

However, despite the perceived benefit of drone technology, many have less optimistic feelings towards the field, fearing that drones might put their privacy at risk through unwanted surveillance.

Cornblatt believes that while these concerns may seem legitimate, they are less so in practice.

“If you wanted to spy on someone, you could theoretically put a drone up with a camera and start spying on them through the window, but they would know,” Cornblatt says. “Drones are not a secretive or effective way of spying on someone.”

Delia attributes the public’s fear of drones to military use of the new technology, as well as what he sees as knee-jerk regulations made against the drone industry by the Federal Aviation Association.

“I believe the FAA is overstepping their bounds in an area that is brand new to them,” Delia says. “However, there are enough of us developers that are pushing back that we’re going to have the freedom to continue forward.”

In fact, consistent with Delia’s prediction, drone technology has recently made a significant step forward. Acknowledging the utility of drones, videographers, agribusiness organizations and oil-production companies have lobbied against the FAA, hoping to lift restrictions against using drones in national airspace.

As a result, on Sept. 25, the FAA lessened its restrictions on using drones commercially, giving select Hollywood movie companies permission to use drones on set. These exemptions may provide a precedent for future federal drone regulation, allowing drones to assume a more prominent role in people’s lives.

“It’s not humanity that’s going to be able to travel to the stars,” Delia says. “It’s going to be our machines.” v 61

FEATURES | OCT 2014

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

LOCAL HEROISM WITH A DASH OF PEPPER SAUCE Text by ELIZA ACKROYD and ANSLEY QUEEN Photography and Art by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

S

HAFTS OF SUNLIGHT MAKE THEIR WAY through high windows, falling on an impressive red and silver figure. “Palo Alto Fire Dept.” is etched around the city emblem and painted on the side. This fire engine, kept in a large concrete garage, is the centerpiece in the building a select group of heroes call home.

Fire Station No. 5 is in all aspects a house, complete with living quarters, bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room. It is here that a portion of Palo Alto’s firefighters take up residence, allowing themselves to be handle emergencies — ­ day or night.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FIREFIGHTER Michael Simbulan, a firefighter of two months, starts his day at 7 a.m. in Fire Station No. 5 when he gets the newspaper and starts making coffee for himself and his crew. By 8 a.m. he has checked their gear and the fire engine by ensuring that all parts are in their proper place, safely poised and ready to go in case of an emergency. After a morning meeting communal breakfast, the firefighters proceed to start their chores.

“We make sure we do our house duties, because we live here,” Simbulan says. “We all live here for 24 hours. We want to make sure we do our chores just like every other home.”

After the household duties are done, the firefighters train. A tower facility at Stanford University allows them to run different scenarios involving burning buildings and different types of rescues. At around 4 p.m., after lunch break, there is an hour designated for physical training and exercise consisting of the CrossFit regime, popular among the firefighters. Paired with a workout area

featuring ellipticals and treadmills, CrossFit keeps the firefighters in great shape. However, each day’s schedule remains tentative, due to the spontaneous nature of the job — they have to be ready to drop everything upon recieving a call.

“While we have [our] plan, we are also running calls; people call 911 all the time,” Simbulan says. “Everything could get pushed back [and there] might be something that we can’t get done.”

These calls emphasize the necessity of a comprehensive training routine.

“When you get a 911 call, you can go from a resting heart rate of 60 [beats per minute] to a heart rate of 100 [bpm], so it’s important to keep your heart in shape,” Simbulan says.

Firefighter Lee Taylor, who retired two years ago after 31 years of service, can attest to the adrenaline rush of a 911 call.

“When the call comes in there’s anticipation — you get an adrenaline rush while you’re going there — you can see the smoke while you’re talking to dispatch,” Taylor says. “There’s a lot of excitement followed by a lot of physical work, and it’s ever-changing as you continually gather information as the fire proceeds to modify your attack.”

According to Taylor, training is critical to ensure the readiness and efficiency of firefighters. They cover a wide array of scenarios to prepare them for any situation, ranging from water rescues to hazmat certification, the latter of which certifies firefighters to deal with dangerous materials and substances. Besides the taxing physical element of being a firefighter, Simbulan finds gratification through the more humanitarian aspect of the job.

“I wanted to become a firefighter because I liked how it’s posi-

FEATURES | OCT 2014

RED HOT PEPPER SAUCE

E HOSING DOWN Simbulan showcases the fire hose used to put out fires. He checks compartments like these on the fire engine every morning to make sure it’s ready to go. tive — something where you can help others,” Simbulan says. “On top of that, they [firefighters] were doing something that wasn’t the same thing everyday. It was something different and challenging. I get bored easily, I like to be challenged, and you don’t really know what to expect. To me everyday is pretty exciting, because I’m always learning something new.”

Firefighter Taylor also enjoyed the challenges that are inherently part of the job description.

“The problem solving was always an enjoyable challenge,” Taylor says. “To help [people] you have to solve problems because it’s rarely just a simple problem. It’s out on a freeway, or people are trapped in a car; there’s always something complicating the care.”

Taylor has been called upon to help in many situations over the duration of his career, some very unexpected. Once, he delivered a baby.

“I did CPR and you watch a lot of people die in your career, but I got to be there and deliver one baby,” Taylor says.

Whether on their way to a fire or to help with a medical call, firefighters shoulder the responsibility of helping people with problems they cannot deal with on their own.

“We are prepared and willing to help someone in their situation, whatever situation, [when] they can’t handle it themselves,” Taylor says. “That’s why people call 911, when the little fire becomes big, or grandma has a heart attack and they don’t know how to help. To me it means being professional at all times and in all circumstances, and I was always honored with the trust that people put in us when we come into their homes and help them with their family, friends or relatives.” v

NTER THE FIRE STATION NO. 5 GARDen, and you will find a wide array of vegetation and life. This is where former Firefighter Lee Taylor began to grow his trademark chilli peppers. Since 1994, when he went on vacation and returned to find an overgrowth of chili peppers, he has been harvesting them and creating his own hot sauce, the Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce.

It started as a simple treat for himself and his friends, but soon became commercially successful.

“When I came back [from vacation], I had more peppers than I knew what to do with so I made a pepper sauce because I like hot spicy sauce,” Taylor says. “I gave some away and everybody liked it ... I just made it for myself and for my friends and made it the way I liked it, with no intent of selling it.”

The proceeds from the Pepper Sauce go to the Palo Alto Firefighters Charitable Fund, which has given 101 college scholarships to Palo Altan teens. 100 percent of the funds generated by the pepper sauce go toward this charity, which was started by Taylor and in 2003 awarded its first scholarships.

“In 2003 a sequence of events occurred in my life that made me very thankful for where I was and what I was doing,” Taylor says. “It was a very reflective time in my life, and I wondered what I could do to give back.”

At first, he raised money for his fund by participating in long distance bike rides. However, Taylor soon realized that it wasn’t a feasible way to raise money — it was just too dangerous.

“During training rides I was getting hit by cars,” Taylor says. “I got hit by 3 different cars during a couple months period of time. The last one [was] relatively serious, and my wife said, ‘Hey we have kids, a mortgage, you have a career [and] you can’t die on the bike.’”

So, taking the advice of some fellow firefighters, he switched to selling his pepper sauce instead. Scholarships are awarded based on an application that only Palo Altan teens can fill out.

This sauce is sold in multiple locations around Palo Alto, including Philz coffee, and can also be shipped nationally or even internationally, as far as New York and Ireland. A new flavor, XX Habanero, won a SCOVIE award last February. The SCOVIEs, named after the Scoville scale (which measures the spiciness of chili peppers), have become the most prestigious assessment of spicy foods.

If that is not enough, many testimonials from across the world are featured on the Palo Alto Firefighters website praising the recipe and encouraging others to test their taste buds with this fiery sauce.

The sauce ranges from $6 for an 8.5 oz bottle to $24 for a 64 oz bottle. Other options include a choice between the classic recipe or the new Habanero flavor.

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PERSPECTIVES | OCT 2014

FEMALE POP ARTISTS TAKE AN EMPOWERING STAND Text by GABI ROSSNER Art by KARINA CHAN

I

LIKE BIG BUTTS AND I cannot lie. Specifically, my newfound affinity for the rubenesque posterior stems from the fact that this summer, women in entertainment — namely Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj — have been taking ownership of their aforementioned butts.

Beyoncé and Minaj’s recent works have been provocative, controversial and fabulous. These two artists are not naked girls whose sole existential purpose is to pleasure men. They are grown women and unapologetic for their bodies and sexualities. Through their songs and music videos, Beyoncé and Minaj have started a revolution of empowerment in the entertainment industry that has spread to girls everywhere.

Throughout her album, Beyoncé very openly discusses many different types of sex. By doing so, she breaks an important norm in the music industry: the idea that women are not allowed to express their feelings about sex. Though pop music is riddled with sexual messages, most songs and videos feature women as sexual props who are only there to shake their butts and look pretty at the command of men.

Women who sing about sex are considered slutty, but men who do the same are praised.

Take, for example, the controversial Robin Thicke music video for 64

“Blurred Lines,” which portrays women as sexual objects and props for a song perpetuating rape culture. The tune was catchy, the girls were hot and most people absolutely didn’t care that Thicke was promoting sexual assault.

When Beyoncé released “Partition” or Minaj dropped “Anaconda,” songs that promote woman empowerment rather than objectification, the female artists were labeled as sluts and the sexuality of the videos was used as a reason criticize the songs.

By breaking this norm of women not controlling their sex lives, Beyoncé has taken strides forward in the fight for the empowerment of women. Beyoncé is an influential artist, having recently won a lifetime achievement award from the VMA’s and is widely viewed as one of the biggest faces in pop music. By taking the stage and telling everyone in a prominent way that the double standard needs to stop, Beyoncé can change the lives of a lot of young women.

Nicki Minaj, another female artist, chooses to represent her sex life and power in a much more aggressive and dominant manner. A self-identified feminist like Beyoncé, Minaj has repeatedly stated that she is not concerned with how much men like her.

The artist pushes for racial and gender equality in the music industry, openly discussing her experiences as a black woman in hip hop.

Minaj is always rude and abrasive, rapping about her sexual prowess and dominance. In “Anaconda” she chops up a banana, which represents a phallic object, and slaps Drake’s hand away from her body. Minaj’s ownership of her sexuality comes through loud and clear in the track. She is in control of all sexual encounters, bragging about her conquests in the same way a man would. By continuously rapping about her big booty and how much she loves it while refusing to subject herself to the pleasure of men, Minaj takes her body back from objectifying songs like “Baby Got Back” in which men talk about how much they love butts. Instead, Minaj loves her own butt and doesn’t care whether you like it or not.

We are entering a new age of female empowerment. Women are taking ownership of their bodies and sex lives in all fields. By doing so in such a highprofile manner, Beyoncé and Minaj have already sparked a movement. In the weeks and months since “Anaconda” and “Partition” came out, more tracks have appeared in which female artists take ownership of their sexual identities, such as “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor and “Booty” by Jennifer Lopez. The music industry is transforming into a platform of change for women who want to send the message that their bodies and their sex lives are their own. v

PERSPECTIVES | OCT 2014

the

perks

of being an

introvert

I

Text and Illustration by KARINA CHAN T ALL STARTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, verts,” argues that introverts actually have more creative ideas to where screeching children decimate a wall with muddy rub- contribute. ber balls. Off to the side is the kid who walks, eats and lives “When psychologists look at the lives of the most creative with his best friend: the book. Society labels this kid “the people, what they find are people who are very good at exchanging loner.” ideas and advancing ideas, but who also have a serious streak of “The loner” is a stereotypical introvert and society looks introversion in them,” Cain writes. down on him because of that. Roughly half of the U.S. populaOften, introspectiveness brings us the best ideas and leaders. tion are classified as introverts, according to Forbes Magazine and Eleanor Roosevelt, Mahatma Ghandi and Abraham Lincoln are it is widely accepted in America that introverts are reticent people only a few examples of successful self-identified introverts who who keep to themselves, refrain from contributing their ideas and made significant contributions to society. However, society presopinions and instead remain in sullen solitude. sures people to develop extroverted traits, even if that isn’t the Although introverts’ desire for solitude may lead others to most conducive to success for an introvert. believe there is something wrong with them, in reality, introvertedThis emphasis on extroversion is growing and prevalent in ness is natural and not actually a problem. the school system and workplace. In “progressive” classroom enSociety and media perpetuate the stereotype of the reclusive vironments, teachers are beginning to increase the number of reintrovert. We see this represented quired class discussions to encourage in the beginning of the popular to become closer to the “ex“[preference for solitude] does not mean students film “Perks of Being a Wallflowtrovert ideal.” These changes can be er.” The protagonist is explicitly that introverts are unable to engage in as subtle as grouping tables together introduced as an introvert because social situations or that an introvert so students face each other and feel he is shy, anti-social and also hapmore inclined to exchange ideas with doesn’t like social situations.” pens to have depression. “Perks one another, or more straightforward - Melinda Mattes, psychology teacher like mandatory participation in disof Being a Wallflower” perpetuates the idea that introverts are all cussions. However, these systems of defined by certain traits, even though these traits may not always learning are not always compatible for introverts. be applicable.

Junior Julian Knodt, a self-proclaimed introvert, expresses Contrary to popular belief, an introvert is really just someone his frustration with the expectation to conform to the “extrovert whose energy flows better when they are alone. Palo Alto High ideal.”

School AP Psychology teacher Melinda Mattes defines intro“I try to avoid large crowds,” Knodt says. “It’s not that l can’t verts in a way that challenges the stereotype. stand them; I just feel that when I am in large crowds, people don’t “Introverts find solitary tasks energizing, whereas ex- hear me and everything I say isn’t useful.” troverts find social situations energizing,” says Mattes, who The expectation to be extroverted and “contributive” is enholds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford Uni- forced past high school and into the workplace. In meetings, sucversity. “That does not mean that introverts are unable to cessful employees are expected to be constantly immersed in the engage in social situations or that an introvert doesn’t like group setting, vocalizing their ideas and actively reaching out to social situations. Similarly, even extroverts enjoy some others. solitary activities.”

It’s not that being outgoing at work is bad. However, not evIn other words, introverted is not synonymous with eryone can be expected to be outgoing. By creating these ideals, antisocial. The comparison between introverts and ex- society pushes introverts into roles they don’t want or need to take troverts is not binary; ­it’s a spectrum and neither per- and in many cases, society actually ends up restricting their producsonality type is bound to behaviors defined by their tivity and creativity. category.

Everyone is different. No one set of conditions or lifestyle is Just because introverts may not express their best for everyone because people come in a spectrum of personalideas as often as extroverts does not mean that they ities. For this reason, it’s time that we end our introvert stigma and possess ideas of lesser value. Susan Cain, author of respect the fact that various people require different conditions to the best-selling book “Quiet: The Power of Intro- reach their full potential. v 65

THE F WORD FEMINISM PROBABLY ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK IT IS

A

RE YOU A FEMINIST? WAIT. DON’T turn the page just yet. It’s not as intimidating, exhausting and annoying as you may think.

Now let’s rephrase that question: Do you believe men and women should be treated equally?

If you responded “no” to the first question but “yes” to the second, then you are in fact a feminist. Regardless of gender.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding of feminism in our society and the recent internet phenomenon “Women Against Feminism” has brought the depth of the problem into focus.

This movement consists of photos of women holding up signs explaining why they reject their idea of feminism. Although it was primarily rooted in a Tumblr page, “Women Against Feminism” has also branched out to Facebook and Twitter. The reasoning in these photos ranges from “I don’t need feminism because I am responsible for my actions” to “I am not a feminist because I like to shave my legs.”

Perhaps most telling of all is a woman smiling into the camera and holding a sign that reads “I don’t need feminism because fighting for women superiority is not fighting for equality.”

This statement reveals just how skewed the perception of feminism is. The fundamental principle behind feminism has always been that women deserve equality –– not superiority. Femi-

66

nism is often mistakenly associated with misandry. Misandry is the “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against men,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Feminism, on the other hand, is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.”

It’s interesting how many Americans believe that women should receive equal pay, abortion rights and protection against sexual violence but still shun the term “feminism.” How did feminism become such a dirty word? Paly is a school set in a liberal community ­— a community with widespread acceptance of equal rights. Yet in a survey of Paly students1, only 56 percent of girls2 and 13 percent of boys3 responded “Yes” to the question “Do you consider yourself a feminist?”

If women are reluctant to identify as feminists, men are even more so. Emma Watson recognized this in her speech to the United Nations on Sept. 21 when she launched the HeForShe campaign.

“Gender equality is your issue, too,” Watson said, directly addressing men. “If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled.”

Some of these women insist that the fight for equal rights is over. Indeed, women now do have opportunities that they couldn’t have imagined just a couple of decades ago ­— such as a greater va-

Text by LUCY FOX and ALEX HSIEH Photo Illustrations by ANA SOFIA AMEIVA-WANG riety of jobs, maternity leave and a furthered social independence from men. It wasn’t so very long ago that women in the U.S. did not even have the right to vote or own property But keep in mind that it was feminists who pushed for those advancements. (With that said, the feminist movement of the ‘70s and ‘80s branded the word “feminism” negatively. Many people wrongly associate feminism with bra-burning extremists as a result.)

Even in the U.S., reform is far from complete. There still remains a significant pay gap between men and women in the same positions. Women make up 51 percent of the U.S. population and only 19 percent of Congress, according to the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics.

In other countries, women are still denied the rights that many women in the U.S. take for granted. The Human Rights Watch states that in Saudi Arabia, girls and women are forbidden from traveling or undergoing certain medical procedures like abortion without permission from their male guardians or counterparts. In Yemen, women are only considered half a witness in a court of law, and they cannot leave the house without their husband’s permission, states the Washington Post. In Afghanistan, 85 percent of women reported experiencing domestic violence, states the Human Rights Watch.

In reality, the “Women Against Feminism” movement would

be more aptly titled “Women Who Do Not Understand Feminism.” Here’s what the signs of “Women Against Feminism” would actually say: “I don’t need feminism because I believe that women are inferior to men. Males should have the right to dictate what happens to women’s bodies. Male superiority over women should be both accepted by society and enforced by law. Women should not have the power of choice.”

To the women who reject feminism because they love their husbands: consider yourselves lucky to have the right to choose who to marry. It’s wonderful to have a family and to care of that family. It’s wonderful to be a mother and be able to take care of the ones you love. Being a feminist doesn’t take these privileges away.

Feminism is not intended to force you into the workplace. It’s the fight for women to have the choice to do so as much as men do, whether that choice is to stay at home or to run a company.

Let us say this: we’re thankful for the men and women who worked to give us the freedom and rights we have today and we are proud to be part of a movement that’s standing up for women in less privileged areas. We’re even thankful that “Women Against Feminism” exists because it has made clear the prevalent misconceptions in society about feminism. As for the women on the blog: we don’t demand that you embrace feminism. We only hope that you know what it really means before rejecting it. v

The student poll results collected for this issue are from a survey administered in Palo Alto High School English classes in September 2014. Eight English classes were randomly selected, and 170 responses were collected. The surveys were completed online, and responses were anonymous. With 95% confidence, these results are accurate within a margin of error of 2 6.26%, 3 4.24%.

1

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PERSPECTIVES | OCT 2014

Why Not Y.A.?

Text by CAROLINE YOUNG Art by KARINA CHAN

RE-EVALUATING YOUNG ADULT NOVELS IN THE FACE OF SOCIAL STIGMA

i

T HAS THE POWER TO MAKE intellectual conversations go sour, English teachers internally vomit and college admissions officers toss an application in question out the window. Others insist that it has the power to cause screaming pre-teens to run towards bookstores and panicking 17-year-olds to run away.

What is this phenomenon? Known as Young Adult or YA literature, this genre manages to stay prominent in the industry while still eliciting countless sighs of exasperation and twisted expressions of disgust.

Ever since the surge of notoriety in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, the YA genre has often been associated with the horrors of vampire-werewolf love triangles, atrocious writing and submissive female characters who willingly die for romance.

These assumptions may stand true in some cases, but just as in adult literature, there exists the good, the bad and the terrible. So while the more popular YA books may speak otherwise, not all YA fiction is written for girls. Not all YA literature is about a frivolous romance. Not all YA literature is written horrendously.

Simply put, not all YA is bad.

With more accessible dialogue and descriptions, YA literature conveys the same themes and ideas as required English readings without the long, winding paragraphs.

For teenagers especially, with a busy life on the go, a quicker-paced YA adventure about a fellow teen may be more suitable than a Steinbeck novel.

Palo Alto High School junior Siggi Bengston finds characters around her age to be more exciting and easily relatable.

“The characters [in YA literature] are usually around adolescence and I can relate to that better than I can relate to, you know, a 25-year-old male that’s going through an existential crisis,” Bengston says. “I appreci-

68

ate both of them probably equally but it is more fun to relate to a character.”

The age of the protagonist is actually what distinguishes YA literature from adult literature. Looking at the big picture, both genres tell a story about characters with problems such as finding their place in the world, discovering and pursuing their desires and becoming or staying happy. Both genres convey themes and ideas, both contain amazing and awful works and both take the reader on a journey. So what if the main character happens to be 16?

Not to mention that YA literature has it all. From fluffy romantic comedies to spies to teenage leaders in a dystopian world, there is a sub-genre for everyone.

Eager readers can flit between romantic contemporaries such as “Anna and the French Kiss” by Stephanie Perkins and more serious, historical fiction such as the World War II story “Code Name Verity” by Elizabeth Wein. Sprinkle in some dystopian works, such as Lauren Miller’s “Free to Fall” about technology monopolies and some sci-fi like “The 5th Wave” by Rick Yancey and whole new worlds open up.

Cressida Hanson, who purchases children and teen literature at Kepler’s Books, attests that there are different books for different times.

“You can’t read every book in every mood,” Hanson says. “There are certain times when you want to pick up a more dark book, or a more gritty book or a more light book … It really reflects who you are in that mood or that time of your life.”

Despite the variety that YA fiction allows, the idea that the genre is equivalent to the TV version of a terrible soap opera has taken root in society. In literature, there exists an intangible but generally agreed upon canon. This list of elite literature only allows in classics such as “The Great Gatsby” or “Anna Karenina.”

However, despite the canon’s subjective nature, the idea

PERSPECTIVES | OCT 2014 of a novel such as the “The Hunger Games” gaining entrance into such a club would be ludicrous. Even with the popularity and fanbase that the genre has garnered, YA is considered trivial and of poorer quality than other genres. Essentially, it carries no intellectual weight in the real world.

Some may argue that best-selling books like Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief ” and John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” have granted YA books redemption into this deep, mature side of literature, but along with the enthusiasts come the critics, who argue that these books are either too dreary and depressing or partake in a sense of levity unfit to the topic. The root of the problem regarding YA literature’s image is found in the double standards set in place, in which a novel is too serious or not serious enough, or when a protagonist, especially a female one, is deemed either blank-slated and submissive or hot-headed and unrealistic.

At the heart of this mindset lies society’s misconception about teens. Adults look down on YA literature in the same way that they look down on actual young adults: the average teen’s reputation for emotional, angsty histrionics fuels the idea that teenage problems are not as “real” as adult problems and that therefore YA literature is not as important as adult literature.

But we as teens should be allowed to read YA literature without shame, just as adults can read adult novels without worry of judgement. To be considered intellectual and deep, why should teens have to read about the problems of middle-aged adults when adults do not have to read about teen angst?

Junior Claire Dennis, co-president of the Paly Book Club, asserts that reading about teen issues is just as important as reading about adult issues.

“I think that a lot of people discount young adult literature, but I think … by discounting it they’re also discounting the things that young adults go through,” Dennis says. “Sure, there are some [YA books] that are less serious … [but] I think that comes with any type of literature.”

All in all, there is nothing wrong with reading YA literature. With its wide range of topics and relatable characters and problems, the much-maligned genre easily has the capacity to reestablish its reputation. It has the power to work towards a future where readers can proudly hold their YA novels above their heads while English teachers beam at the sight, where college admissions officers give their nods of approval and where teens and adults alike run screaming to grab the latest masterpiece off the bookshelf. That is, if only given the chance and reevaluation to do so. v

35

percent of surveyed Paly students do not read YA books.* * The student poll results collected for this issue are from a survey administered in Palo Alto High School English classes in September 2014. Eight English classes were randomly selected and 170 responses were collected. The surveys were completed online, and responses were anonymous. With 95% confidence, this result is accurate within a margin of error of 6.09%.

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PERSPECTIVES | OCT 2014

“I USE MY LEFT HAND” Text by KELLY SHI Art by ANTHONY LIU

I

(THAT’S WHAT SHI SAID)

N A CLASSROOM full of students hunched over their desks, the sound of scribbling pencils permeates the room. There is the smell of rubber shavings, binder paper and maybe a little bit of sweat. Test-taker Kelly goes for her eraser to scratch out her Scantron and accidentally bumps elbows with her neighbor.

If she were right-handed, this would be the end of the scene. Test-taker Kelly would be able to continue taking her test without a care in the world.

Instead, test-taker Kelly gets a dirty look from her neighbor because in her attempt to change her answer from “B” to “D” just now, she elbow-checked her desk partner for the fifth time this period.

The first thing I say to anybody who happens to be unfortunate enough to sit on my left side is, “I’m left-handed.” Forget introducing myself — my name is not what matters here. I tell them straight-up that their elbow will be meeting my elbow if we continue sitting in this configuration.

When teachers ask if there’s anything they should know about me to help me learn, I try to remember to tell them that, yes, I write with my left hand, so please keep that in mind when making your seating charts because it’s not that I don’t like the elbow space rule — it’s that the elbow space rule doesn’t like me.

And it’s not alone. In the 1600s, using your left hand was a considered a sign of witchcraft; many lefties were burned at the stake because of a careless raised hand.

Even though society is no longer roasting human leftie marshmallows, I’m pretty sure it’s not just my paranoia speaking when I say that the world is still out to get lefties. There is a bias towards right-handed people that fails to account for the comfort and accessibility of left-handed people and it’s time for the rest of the world to realize it and adjust accordingly.

If you look carefully (or if you are lefthanded and just can’t help noticing), it becomes hard to ignore the abundance of everyday objects clearly created specifically for the use of right-handed people. Either that, or inventors just assumed everybody on Earth was right-handed and didn’t even realize that they were excluding what Curtis Hardyck and Lewis F. Petrinovich’s study “Left-handedness” reports to be a whopping 10 percent of the population.

Everybody has one of those cheap holiday mugs where the image is only printed on one side. That same mug 70

foils my plans to simultaneously look at Santa’s peeling plastic face and have my mug handle facing left for my hand to grab so I can drink my hot chocolate.

I’ve grown up using my right hand to cut with scissors and click with a computer mouse because, for my parents, hunting down left-handed tools for their five-year-old wasn’t really a top concern — and rightly so.

People shouldn’t have to pay a visit to Lefty’s the Left-Hand Store to find alternatives to whatever object the right-hand bias is ruining. At this point, I’m convinced that left-handed desks with arm supports on the left side are as common as watches with the time adjustment knobs to the left of the face — that is, practically non-existent.

Even the newly announced Apple Watch, at first glance, has its digital crown placed on the right side of the timepiece. It’s only after a wild Google chase that CNET, a third-party website, is found with a report that Apple’s new watch is leftie-friendly. By changing a setting in the interface, lefties can program the watch’s display to flip vertically. They can then wear the watch upside down on their right hand so that the digital crown is on the left side of the clockface.

So lefties everywhere are appeased for now, but what Apple has done here is hardly revolutionary. The fact that the giant tech company had to add that its latest “innovation” would also work for lefties as an afterthought shows the little consideration given to our tenth of the population.

I am not asking for a public apology from all the corporations in the world that have thus far mainly produced righthanded objects (which, to my knowledge, would be all companies except Lefty’s the Left-Hand Store). All I’d like is for cheap holiday mug manufacturers to begin printing Santa’s rotund figure on both sides of their cups. I’d like for the Apple website to at least mention on their website that its new product is accessible to all the lefties who are resigning themselves to a life of telling time by smartphone and I want scissors, arm supports, watches and countless other products for the left hand to be as readily available as their rightie counterparts. I would really appreciate it if the world acknowledged that I use my left hand.

By no means is the right-hand bias the most outstanding injustice that the world has to offer; that award remains to be won by racism, misogyny, homophobia and other similar plagues in our society. But the bias is yet another case of the majority overlooking the needs of the minority and I’m tired of adjusting myself to give them elbow space. v

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