Arlingtonian vol. 4 2020-21

ARLINGTONIAN

APRIL 23, 2021

VOLUME 84, ISSUE 4

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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h, to hold our issues once again. Although it’s been a while, we hope you are just as excited to read our articles in print during class again until your teacher takes it away. If you’re not that eager, we at least hope that you might look through the graphic elements of the issue and admire the layouts that we have been perfecting all year.

Even if this is the first time you’ve looked through one of our issues since before the pandemic, we promise we have been busy.

Aside from writing articles and interviewing (and seriously—working on layouts), our seniors have been struggling to commit to a college, our juniors have been testing and our sophomores have been working to learn the basics of their first year on staff while going through subjectively the worst year of high school.

While I can personally say things are slowing down for me and most seniors—we’re at the post of posting college acceptances and the start of senior tag which now seems allconsuming for my team and me—I know that’s not the case for everyone. Not to fear, though, we will be done soon enough, and hopefully the late starts from state testing pulled us through these past few weeks. Soon enough we will be back with an issue with our own list of college acceptances, profiles on seniors who will be missed and a sendoff to the building that has gotten us through this year.

While we wait, we can look at fake college acceptances on the “not” Norwester account and worry about AP exams. After all, once those are over we will get to mostly relax in class—watch movies and get the chance to read issues in class without it being taken away.

I consider myself so lucky to have been able to address all of you or write stories for the community over the past four years and am saddened that there is only one more chance for me to do so. I am certain, though, that you will see great things from everyone whether graduated or not next ARLINGTONIAN EDITOR IN CHIEF year and far after. arlingtonian.com FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @UAARLINGTONIAN

@uaarlingtonian

ARLINGTONIAN VOLUME 84 | 2020-2021 APRIL 23, 2021, ISSUE 4 EDITOR IN CHIEF

Josie Stewart CO-DIGITAL EDITORS

Noah Mizer Callia Peterson MANAGING EDITOR

Ben Rigney-Carroll COPY EDITOR

Ben Underwood STAFF WRITERS

SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Meghan Beery Matthew Doron Luke Eriksen Gracie Helfrich Sophia Hudson Lucy Miller Reese Plagenz Cameron Smith James Underwood Carly Witt

Michael Ballenger

BUSINESS MANAGER

Ava Adamantidis

ARTS EDITORS

Morgan Plagenz Pierce Thompson PHOTOGRAPHERS

Penelope Clark Bridget Mitchell Bella VanMeter GRAPHIC ARTISTS

Lucy O’Brien Sophia Shen

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EDITORIAL POLICY Arlingtonian is a studentproduced newsmagazine published

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The Balancing Act

In light of the Board of Education’s decision to return to all inperson learning on March 1, many members of the community have reevaluated their voices in the district’s decision making process.

BY MEGHAN BEERY, ‘21. GRAPHICS BY MORGAN PLAGENZ, ‘21.

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ultiple petitions. Passionate emails. Zoom meetings. Phone calls. Picketing. These are all ways that members of the Upper Arlington community, young and old alike, have made their voices heard in the district over the past year.

Of the many challenges this year has posed, one of the most debated issues has been the Board of Education’s decision to return to all in-person instruction for five days a week. On Feb. 12, after consulting with the Medical Advisory Team, the Board met in a special session to discuss the issue. After a unanimous decision, students returned to school in full force on March 1.

Following the decision, many groups in the Upper Arlington community have questioned both the decision and their right to have their voices heard. A petition, entitled Dialogue Now UA, was shared and gathered over 600 signatures. Students and parents emailed board members with questions and concerns.

The Upper Arlington Education Association (UAEA), the teacher’s union, enacted work-to-rule indefinitely.

Amidst the controversy and competing voices comes new questions for the community: how much does one’s voice matter? How can an administrative body balance the many groups and concerns in a community? Students, parents and teachers are examining their role in the great balancing act of public policy.

STUDENTS Many students, such as senior Elena Reim, feel that the Board’s decision points to a larger issue with listening to student voices.

“Teachers weren’t talked to, students weren’t consulted, this just feels like the school board woke up one day and made a decision,” Reim said. “I just find it very frustrating. This decision just made me feel like they don’t care about students’ opinions at all.”

Following the March 1 decision, Reim contacted Superintendent Paul Imhoff and the Board via email with a list of concerns and questions regarding the return.

“I find myself stuck in the in-school pathway, a pathway that I have done quite well in, but am now concerned about,” Reim wrote. “I would like to know which students were included in the decision to switch to all-in school, and I ask that I be consulted in the future regarding pathway changes. I ask to be 4 | ISSUE 4 | A PRI L 2 3 , 2 0 2 1

included because these decisions affect the students the most, and I would like to have a say in my educational plans.”

Reim’s concerns included parking, social distancing and hallway transitions. She felt that her concerns were not adequately addressed through district webinars or at the board meeting.

“They sort of dismissed my questions and my concerns, and so again, I found that frustrating,” Reim said. “I’ve tried to have my voice and tried to talk [to them], but it just doesn’t seem to be met with much interest, and so it does make me not want to reach out again, or to try and discuss things with them in the future.”

Junior Matthew Abel did not share Reim’s initial concerns, but was surprised by the decision.

“I was a little surprised that there wasn’t a ton of student input on the decision, so I think it definitely did change my view a little bit—opened my eyes a little bit—to not having as much of a voice as maybe I would’ve liked to,” Abel said.

However, Abel supports the district’s decision.

“I’m really happy to get to see all of my fellow peers everyday in the building, and I think that the administration made an educated decision based on COVID-19 guidelines in accordance with Franklin County, as well as the need to get us back in school for those who might have difficulty learning at home,” Abel said.

Despite their differing views, both Abel and Reim agree that there are steps that the school and Board has taken and can take to increase student input.

“I think that I could definitely make my voice heard in certain ways­—sitting down and talking with maybe my counselors or with administration,” Abel said.

Both students are aware of Board Bylaw 0141.1, which states that “the Board will recognize one (1) student (nonvoting), selected annually by the Upper Arlington High School Student Council, who will be placed on the agenda at the Board’s monthly meetings.”

The bylaw guarantees a student presence at all regularly scheduled Board meetings, giving students the opportunity to weigh in with concerns, suggestions and questions. While the bylaw did not apply to the Feb. 12 meeting, Reim and Abel believe that enforcing it and adding additional measures would be an improvement in recognizing student perspectives. “[It’s] a great first step,” Abel said. “If we had a certain organization that could give some input and feedback, of FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @UAARLINGTONIAN

course constructive, I think that would be a really good idea, maybe a way that we can improve or turn up the volume on the voice of the students.”

Reim added that the bylaw itself could be improved upon.

“At the high school and with the school board, there should be more than one student,” Reim said. “I think that there should be a group of really any students who’s interested that should be consulted on issues, to maybe be included in emails or other conversations just because no one is affected by their decisions more than the students, and the students seem to be the ones who are included the least.”

PA R E N T S Aside from students, parents also offer outside perspectives to the district. Those perspectives can typically be shared through emails, phone calls and attendance at board meetings. Upper Arlington parent Jastyn Wallace has mixed feelings on the district’s parent outreach.

“I feel like [the district] respond[s] to emails. I feel like the administration attempts to include [parents]. I don’t know that I feel like they necessarily listen to those that are kind of in the

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minority,” Wallace said. “When I say minority, I’m specifically referring to kids with disabilities in the school system, who I think are pretty frequently overlooked and their parents just aren’t as vocal.”

Wallace feels that there is a difference between those who are in the minority and those who are a vocal minority. She believes that the Board’s Feb. 12 decision was, in part, due to a group of the latter. “[The decision] was done from public pressure. It’s not what [the administration] had previously told [parents]. They were not listening to the medical board, [and] I think that they were folding to the pressure of the loud voices who have been either suing them or threatening to sue them all year,” Wallace said. “I think it’s a vocal minority that ended up winning, in this case.”

According to Wallace, the people most affected by the decision were teachers, not parents.

“I just feel like the school board decision was kind of disrespectful to [teachers],” Wallace said. “I agree that students need to be back in school. I’m glad that students were going to be back in school on a more safe timeline with teachers who were vaccinated, so I just think it was pretty

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disrespectful to the teachers, and I think that’s a decision that has been made a couple of times this year.”

Upper Arlington parent Andi Hickman shares Wallace’s concerns and expressed her support for teachers by clapping them in the Friday before all students returned to school.

“I personally felt very conflicted by the school board’s decision, because as a parent, I was happy that my kids are returning to school five days a week, but as a big supporter of teachers … I was concerned that the decision was rushed and that it would’ve been better to have stayed the course with the original return to school date after spring break,” Hickman said. “[My family] clapped in the teachers because I wanted them to recognize that I saw them, and I do support their union and any efforts they need to make to have a stronger voice with the school board. I fully support teachers.”

While Wallace disagrees with the Board’s decision, she does believe that parents have an important vocal role in the decision-making process.

“Parents shouldn’t just let their child make the decision for themselves because they just don’t have the ability to weigh all of the options the way that an adult does,” Wallace said. “My son is [in] elementary school. I think his school does a good job

of listening to him when he says he needs something. I think that they are more likely to listen to me, especially because adults tend to know the kind of language that needs to be used to make sure that they’re listening. And I think that that’s appropriate at elementary school.”

As students get older, Wallace adds that parents should take a lesser role.

“I think that parents should be beside their child as they get older,” Wallace said. “Starting in high school, I do think that kids should have more of a voice and parents should just be there to guide and kind of get it done if it’s not working for the child.”

Hickman has found that students can typically make their voices heard through everyday interactions.

“From the perspective of an elementary school parent, I think that children are influential with their teachers and counselors,” Hickman said. “I think that my fourth grader does a lot to be involved in student ambassador programs, and she feels [or] seems very confident and assured in her voice in elementary school.”

Hickman believes that polling could potentially be used to gather more perspectives throughout the community and ensure equal representation of all voices.

“I would be curious to see if polling could be used more broadly,” Hickman said. “I feel like that’s just an example where, I think, the impetus right now is on parents to find a way to get involved. It would be great if the school board had more means, but I think just the data to back their decisions and creating more visibility behind it based on parent input would go a long way.”

Wallace agrees that there is potential for polling.

“I like the polls,” Wallace said. “I think that they need a way to connect with more people.”

T E AC H E R S Work to rule: a job action in which employees follow their job descriptions exactly, working the minimum number of hours required and expected by their contract. In response to the Feb. 12 decision, this measure was enacted for 542 teachers, staff members and support staff in Upper Arlington.

The 542 participants are only obligated to work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Any tasks that are incomplete at the end of the day will be postponed until the next. Work to rule began on Feb. 22 and has continued indefinitely.

“Based on the way the system is set up, work to rule was our option,” said UAEA co-president Leslie Watkins. “This is our way of saying ‘Hey, wait a second. We need you to

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listen to us so that we can advocate for our students.’”

Prior to returning to all in-person learning, Watkins and the UAEA presented the board with 15 pages of questions and concerns. When they felt that those questions weren’t addressed, they chose to make their voices heard in a different way.

“We didn’t feel that [our concerns] were heard or answered, which was pretty disheartening to a lot of people, because honestly, we’re trying to keep the students safe. We’re trying to keep the community safe,” Watkins said.

As opposed to students and parents, teachers have the unique position of working inside the district while not necessarily making the decisions. Watkins feels that their particular perspective was not adequately considered.

“What was most disheartening for us, is we felt like we were giving a perspective from inside the schools and how we can best serve the students and protect the students, and we did not feel that that was addressed,” Watkins said.

Although work to rule has not brought about significant changes, it has caused more conversations in the community.

“There are people who are for it and people who are against it. I think either way it’s made people talk a little bit more,” Watkins said. “It’s going to be a while before we can see, truly, if it has impacted whether or not they’re going to listen to our voices.”

Watkins added that the teachers’ influence can vary by decision, and the Board’s Feb. 12 decision does not necessarily point to a larger issue with teachers’ voices.

“I think it’s just a matter of perception from both sides, from both parents and from teachers. If we’re not seeing what we shared or what we wanted, then we’re going to say ‘Well, they’re listening to the other side.’ It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re listening to the other side more, it simply means that we’re looking for an outlet for frustration,” Watkins said.

“I would say that there are topics that more voice is necessary from the community, and there are topics that more voice is necessary from the teachers, and so I think it’s going to play out differently.”

Teachers are able to express their voices through actions such as work to rule and communicating through the administration. “[Teachers] don’t speak directly with the Board ever, so whatever we share with administration, it’s their job to take it to the Board or make whatever decisions they make,” Watkins said. “We’re going to continue to work with administration as best we can, and we’re going to continue to say what we have to say, whether they hear it or not … we’re still going to continue to advocate for our students and for what’s best, what we feel is best as educators.”

T H E B A L A N C I N G AC T As a board member, Lori Trent is responsible for balancing the perspectives of students, teachers, parents and other community members. For Trent, listening ears are the most important tool.

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“Listening is the most important step that the Board takes to collect information. The Board continually seeks input from all of our community stakeholders understanding that those individual groups may have different needs and preferences, and individuals within those groups may have different needs and preferences as well,” Trent said in a statement.

Despite that input, Trent added, someone’s opinion may not necessarily turn into action.

“Being heard, however, does not mean that everyone will agree with the ultimate outcomes. Many times, a conversation will lead to additional information of which others were not aware. There can often be multiple answers to the same questions,” Trent said. “This goes back to listening and engaging in an open dialogue which helps to drive understanding.”

According to Trent, that open dialogue is important both for sharing ideas and encouraging different world views. As a community, each member has something unique to offer.

“I have found that adults may have more experience on which to draw, but they can also discard new ideas because of individual biases. Students often view the world through a lens that is free from preconceived notions. I believe as a community we benefit from both types of thinking,” Trent said. “It is our duty as community members to listen to our children and take action to ensure they feel a part of the decision-making process.”

Similar to Hickman, Trent believes that students can make their voices heard through those near to them: building staff, parents, friends, etc.

“I believe that student voices are represented and considered. I encourage students to engage in an open and honest dialogue with their peers, adults, teachers, staff and administration,” Trent said. “I do think, however, that we are not perfect at this and need to continue to work at building all of our relationships.”

R E AC H I N G FO R EQ U I L I B R I U M In an interconnected world with many different perspectives and opinions, the Board has the job of balancing each community member’s voice. The task? According to Wallace, virtually impossible.

“Especially in this year, they couldn’t please everybody.

Everybody wants different things—everybody thinks they know better,” Wallace said.

Nonetheless, Trent is optimistic that through relationships a balance can be achieved and change made.

“If our job is to prepare our students for the future, we need to help them create the world in which they want to live by working with them side-by-side to help them make a difference for the next generation,” Trent said. “The world in which we live is interconnected and international, and we as a community can only solve the issues at hand by working together to build solutions and bridges for the future.”

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Five Miles

Franklin County Metro Parks, in collaboration with Thrive Companies, is creating a unique Metro Park and mixed-use development.

BY BEN UNDERWOOD, ‘21. PHOTOS BY PIERCE THOMPSON, ‘21.

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olumbus Metro Parks is currently developing its newest park, the Quarry Trails Park. The park, located west of Riverside Drive and north of Trabue Road, will be the closest Metro Park to Upper Arlington.

“By building this park, we’re putting every person in Franklin County within five miles of a Metro Park, which is one of our big long-term goals as a park district,” said Park Manager Dan Kaderly, who was previously the park manager of the Scioto Audubon Metro Park, a park that opened in 2009.

With waterfalls, lakes, bike trails, a mountain biking trail and spots to kayak, the park will be unlike any other Metro Park.

No opening date has been set, but if all goes to plan, two sections of the park should open this fall, Kaderly said: four whitewater kayak chutes and a mountain biking trail.

The mountain biking trail is currently about 80% complete and is being built by Sheckler Excavating, Kaderly said.

“You start at the top of the hill and there’s about seven routes you can choose from to go down, and as you go down, there’s ramps and jumps and obstacles,” Kaderly said. “It’s a little bit different than a regular mountain bike experience in that it’s all downhill for the most part, so you’re really using your speed to carry you through the course.”

There is also a dilapidated pioneer cemetery on the site of the park. It has about 25 visible headstones in various stages of disrepair.

“Right now we have a bunch of conceptual design plans for the cemetery—it could be anything from leaving it how it is today to restoring it,” Kaderly said. “We’re not going to move the cemetery or do anything like that, but probably some improvements [will be] made to get people access in the future into it, so that they can walk around and look.”

A plat map of the cemetery produced by the WPA in the early 20th century indicates that War of 1812 Veteran George Skidmore is buried within the cemetery, but his tombstone is no longer visible. Skidmore achieved the rank of captain, according to the Ohio Society United States Daughters of 1812.

One of the most unique aspects of the park is that a mixeduse development created by Thrive Companies will be directly integrated into the park.

Thrive Companies (formerly known as Wagenbrenner Development) was started by Mark and Eric Wagenbrenner in 2003. Since then, it has grown from “more of a mom and pop shop to a true company,” said Steve Bollinger, the company’s Executive Vice President of Development.

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Thrive is building 43,000 square feet of office space, 293 apartments, about 18,000 square feet of retail, 100 townhome flats and 40 detached homes atop 80 acres of land. But that’s just in the first phase. Over the next seven to nine years, Thrive will build roughly a 1,000 to 1,500 apartments, 300 detached homes and 280 townhomes if demand remains high, Bollinger said.

“We’re pretty bullish on starting the sales process,” Bollinger said. “We think a lot of people are going to want some homes.”

But this is more than a traditional construction job: the site of development was used as a landfill in the mid 19th century.

According to an article published in the Columbus Dispatch, Upper Arlington—along with Grandview Heights, Hilliard, Worthington and Marble Cliff—used this landfill for waste disposal until its closure in June 1974. (Upper Arlington’s waste currently goes to the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill about 15 miles away.)

A publicly available letter from Trabue Dublin, LLC, to the Ohio EPA indicates that the site also contains hazardous industrial waste from Columbus Coated Fabrics, a company that has since gone out of business.

Building apartments atop a former landfill presents unique challenges. Landfills release gases such as methane, which could explode if it is in high enough concentrations, and there could also be leakage of waste if preventative action is not taken.

Fortunately, Thrive Companies has experience working with brownfields, which are areas where hazardous materials make development more difficult. The company previously did brownfield remediation along Grandview Avenue and at other sites, Bollinger said.

“More or less what we do is we take up a 32,000 pound weight that is roughly the size of a queen- or king-sized bed and we just drop it,” Bollinger said. “Then we put on a two to four foot clay path to make sure that nothing migrates up through it.”

Throughout the entire process, Thrive Companies is doing tests and completing monthly reports to the Ohio EPA to ensure that fumes do not present an explosion risk. After construction is complete, Bollinger said that annual inspections and year-round monitoring will keep potential tenants safe.

“Each building will have a monitoring system,” Bollinger said. “Anytime that levels exceed what’s allowed and becomes a danger to individuals, the alarm will be going off, but at the same time, we’ll be doing yearly monitoring tracks to make sure that everything is operating correctly.”

“It’s been amazing to watch Thrive cap this landfill,” FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @UAARLINGTONIAN

Kaderly said. “It’s been a long, long process to cap that There may also be a new bridge built across the Scioto river or landfill—years.” the Trabue Road bridge may be expanded to allow for more Bollinger views the relationship between the Metro Parks connectivity. and Thrive as mutually beneficial.

In the future, the bike trails will also connect to the larger “To activate a park, there’s nothing better than getting front network of bike trails across Ohio. doors on the park, and the best amenity we could ask for is the “You’ll be able to get on your bike and ride from here all park itself,” Bollinger said. the way to Cincinnati and Metro Parks is back with 95% trail-use the benefitting because Thrive whole time,” Kaderly said.

Companies is bringing “It’s pretty unique.” in utility lines that Metro With thousands of Parks will be able to use. residents potentially The park will also serve moving in, traffic has been as a hub of connectivity a concern for all involved for bike trails. Upper parties.

Arlington Assistant City Thrive Companies is Manager Jackie Thiel currently funding a longsaid that there are plans term traffic study to figure for building a bike trail out the best way to provide connection to the park access. from Upper Arlington.

“There are major road The path will go from considerations that are Asbury Road to Lane going to have to take place,” Avenue, and part of it will Thiel said. “That could include a “sharrow” path include a new bridge over The current progress of the Quarry Trails Metro Park, located west of Riverside where bikes will share the the Scioto or an additional Drive and north of Trabue Road. road with cars. The city of connection to McKinley Upper Arlington obtained further south by Fifth Ave.” a grant from the State of Bollinger said that he Ohio that will account sees these developments as for at least 80% of the something larger than just estimated $300,000 price building new homes or a tag, Thiel said. new park.

“We have all these “I think with the city ideas of how to make these of Columbus, it could connections, and once that be almost a symbol for demand is there, we can what we are,” Bollinger start to look at funding and said. “We are [about] this what options are really connectivity, between all feasible,” Thiel said. “But different neighborhoods, we see this as a huge draw and we want people to for our residents, and our focus is really how to get them there activate these riverfronts that we already have.” by foot or bike to promote the active transportation and get “This is a really good example of a lot of agencies and kinda a recreational side to their life.” communities working together,” Thiel said. “It continues our One possibility that the City has considered is putting a focus on not just cars, but alternative modes of transportation, pedestrian tunnel underneath Riverside Drive, Thiel said. as well.”

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Advice

Columnists and teachers share advice for students in preparation for the May AP exams. BY CALLIA PETERSON, ‘22 AND BEN UNDERWOOD, ‘21. GRAPHICS BY LUCY O’BRIEN, ‘22.

ENGLISH

1. “Trust the things you’ve practiced in class and make sure that you read the questions carefully on the test and read prompts carefully.”

- Corrie Kentner, AP Literature

1. “Start studying early. Studying after midnight isn’t terribly useful.”

- Brian Wenger, AP Chemistry

LANGUAGE

SCIENCE

1. “Stay calm–restez calme! Don’t try cramming the night before— not going to help.”

2. “Go to bed early and then have some breakfast.”

3. “Wear clothes in which you feel good in. Don’t wear anything that is tight or uncomfortable.”

- Julia Voegt-Brooking, AP French

1. “I would encourage you to be curious and tenacious as you review. So ask questions of yourself about both how and why ideas work the way they do.”

2. “As you review, don’t review passively but review actively. So in mathematics for example, really engage in solving problems, pencil to paper or stylus to iPad.” 3. “The week of the AP exam, take good care of yourself, your physical and mental and emotional you.”

- Jeff Reinhardt, AP Calculus

MATH

1. “I would recommend planning your time wisely in the weeks leading up to the exam and dedicate a little bit of time every day to reviewing the material SOCIAL for the entire year. For an AP history class, [there is] so much material, you STUDIES really can’t cram it. You need to spend a little bit of time each day going back and reviewing the material that you have learned over the course of the entire year.”

- Joe Endres, AP European History

Ah, the dreaded AP and IB exam season is upon us, and if you are anything like the two of us, you are currently thinking about how you can best prepare for your exams. Here are some tips and resources for studying. Above all, remember that these tests truly aren’t the end all be all, and all you can do is your best.

1) Want to refresh your memory on a unit topic? Go to AP Classroom on the College Board website, and you will find dozens of videos made

by AP teachers from all over the country for each of your AP classes, broken down by unit.

2) Prefer your teachers’ lectures? A lot of AP teachers recorded their lectures during Enhanced Distance Learning and Hybrid. Go back and watch the videos they shared with you throughout the year.

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3) The College Board publishes a Course and Exam Description for every test. This document lists every testable topic, and it even includes “essential knowledge” that lists off the specific facts and pieces of knowledge that could appear on the test. It isn’t advisable that you read through the entirety of documents, but feel free to check out any topics that you’re weary on.

4) Ask your teacher if they have a favorite review book. Some teachers, such as Mr. Endres (see above), will recommend a specific book that they find the most accurate, while other teachers will prefer you to use their resources instead.

5) Stay balanced. Don’t kill yourself poring over study resources. On the other hand, don’t stay awake until 3 a.m. watching House of Cards the night before your test.

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The Center of It All UA voters will decide on May 4 whether or not to build a community center.

O

BY JAMES UNDERWOOD, ’23 AND MATTHEW DORON, ’23. PHOTOS BY PENELOPE CLARK, ‘21.

n a bright Saturday morning, juniors Ellie Kessinger and Daley Straub walk around a quiet South Arlington neighborhood, masks on and clipboards in hand. They approach a house and ring the doorbell. The homeowner answers along with his dogs, and the three are soon engrossed in conversation.

The homeowner has never heard about the community center ballot issue, so Kessinger and Straub explain it to him.

“It won’t increase your taxes either,” Straub adds. Kessinger hands him a glossy brochure and tells him that an absentee ballot is included. She pets his dog and heads back down the driveway with Straub.

Kessinger and Straub are student canvassers advocating for residents to vote “yes” on the May 4 ballot measure to build a community center for the city of Upper Arlington.

The pair first became involved through the Student Innovation Team by distributing yard signs.

“We were really passionate about it … [and we] wanted to spread the word and do something good for our community,” Straub said.

A simple majority vote from Upper Arlington residents is needed to approve the measure and start construction. The proposed building, which would be on the site of the former Macy’s building at Kingsdale shopping center, includes an indoor pool, exercise equipment, a childcare area and a senior center.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED The idea for a UA community center has long loomed large in the minds of some Upper Arlington community members.

UA Councilwoman Michaela Burriss said that when she was campaigning in 2019, “every other house said ‘community center’” in response to the question “What is, in your opinion, the most important thing you’d like City Council to do or think about?”

Previous proposals—the earliest dating back to the 1980s— faced various obstacles, including lack of community interest.

Some proposals were defeated at the ballot box; others never even made it to a vote.

The work for the current iteration of a community center started in July 2019 with the formation of the Community Center Feasibility Task Force.

The Upper Arlington City Council charged the task force with, among other things, “provid[ing] a recommendation to City Council on whether and how we might proceed in the consideration of a community center for Upper Arlington.”

Over the course of the next year and a half, the task force led a multi-phase study into the possibility of a community center.

Once they deemed a community center necessary, they began investigating various sites for consideration, including Fancyburg Park and the current municipal services building. The task force also conducted surveys and financial assessments.

Their final recommendation came earlier this year, when the task force released its report to the community. In a letter to City Council, co-chairs Margie Pizzuti and Nick Lashutka wrote, “We firmly believe that this is the right time and the right opportunity for Upper Arlington to pursue a Community Center.”

TAKING SIDES

A sign in support of the May 4 community center vote displayed in a resident’s yard.

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Various groups have taken sides on the prospect of a community center in Upper Arlington.

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has a goal of raising support for the ballot measure. The campaign has distributed yard signs and enlisted canvassers like Kessinger and Straub. Campaign co-chair Catherine Strauss said additional efforts will include “phone banks to drive out votes once absentee ballots are delivered.”

“I think the most important thing [for voters to know] is [that] the value is there, the finances are right and the timing is now,” she said.

However, the prospect of a community center is not without critics. A group called Arlington Citizens for Truth in Taxation (ACTT) has launched a campaign in opposition to the measure. In late March, the group released a six-page report on its website, detailing why it opposes the community center.

The paper, subtitled “The True Costs,” takes aim at several aspects of the City’s plan, including the cost of operating the facility once built, increases in property taxes and the City’s plan to rent out office space to businesses.

Citing estimates that 16% of residents would become members, the group also doubts that a community center would be of use to the entire community, saying that “residents are being asked to subsidize this recreational facility for the benefit of the few residents expected to become members.”

Strauss disagrees.

“The community center really will offer something for every resident,” she said. “It is intended to be inclusive for all residents.”

If the measure is passed, City Council will appropriate funds for the project, but they have ultimately left the decision to the voters. While City Council as a whole cannot officially take a position on the issue, Burriss personally is in favor of the community center.

“I just don’t see why somebody wouldn’t vote for this,” she said.

THE $54 MILLION QUES TION The community center would cost around $54 million to build, but the City says an increase in taxes won’t be necessary.

Instead, the City has proposed a number of alternative funding sources.

The bulk of funding—70%, according to numbers released by the City—would come from tax increment financing, or TIF. This means that, beyond the current “base” valuation, any increase in tax revenue collected from the development area would be rerouted to paying off capital costs for the community center.

Regardless of how the community votes this May, the abandoned Macy’s building will be demolished and the surrounding area developed.

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UAHS juniors Ellie Kessinger and Daley Straub canvass in support of the proposed community center.

The Board of Education, too, would forgo some tax revenue. This is one of the chief points of criticism from those opposed to the measure.

“Since the School District is the principal funding source for this project, UA property owners can expect multiple, periodic property tax increases from the schools to make up for the lost revenue,” the ACTT report warns.

In a fact sheet all but explicitly responding to ACTT, the City stated that “no other property taxes of any kind can be increased without a vote of the residents.”

Additionally, the City has agreed to offer the school district several benefits, such as Brandon Road parking improvements for UAHS and the property of the current senior center. In order to do this, the City has agreed to transfer the location of the senior center to the community center.

“When you add up all these different items and the potential value of these items, this TIF with the community center is in line with some of the other TIFs we’ve approved in the past before,” said UA Schools Treasurer Andrew Geistfeld in a December school board meeting.

Publicly released plans also call for two floors of office space, which the City says could help supplement capital costs. Citing central Ohio’s oversaturated office real estate market, the ACTT report called this aspect of the plan “a risky bet,” though the City says this is a peripheral and not essential part of the financing model.

After construction, the actual operation of the building would be funded in part by memberships and daily passes.

Draft documents released by the task force propose a twotier membership system—available on either a monthly or FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @UAARLINGTONIAN

annual basis—with rates varying based on residency and other factors.

If the ballot measure passes and the City goes through with the draft model, an individual pass for UA residents would cost more than a senior pass for non-UA residents.

A NEW ERA FOR KINGSDALE Even if the measure does not pass, the abandoned Macy’s building at Kingsdale will still be demolished. Continental Real Estate, a Columbus-based real estate and development company, has already received preliminary approval to develop a number of lots in and around Kingsdale.

However, Strauss said that the Kingsdale location is important to the community center effort.

“We have this crown jewel of Kingsdale that could be our community center, which to me is really exciting,” she said.

Straub also stressed the finality of the May 4 vote.

“This is probably the last chance to get a community center,” she said.

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The War on and War of Cancel Culture The consideration of cancel culture on social media for students.

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BY CARLY WITT, ‘23. GRAPHIC BY LUCY O’BRIEN, ‘22.

ith the constant presence of social media, #SomethingIsOverParty always seems to be trending or a new debate over an author, brand or show has started on cable news channels. There are never-ending dramatic confrontations from celebrities on any platform only leading to a new debate about “cancel culture” and its validity or effectiveness.

Although cancel culture is technically rooted back in early 2010 Tumblr blogs calling out celebrities such as One Direction and Kevin Hart, the cancel culture we know today came into play in 2017.

“I think cancel culture started as something good, but over time has become something extremely toxic on social media and needs to be under control,” freshman Tatum Ringlien said.

Over the past few years, some high schoolers have watched Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star, James Charles and other online stars go under fire on the internet when people came forward about allegations against them.

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by what the person has done. I remember when someone I watched was canceled, and it was really hard to deal with since I was such a huge fan,” Ringlien said.

Some people have gone so far as to lose friends and relationships because they support someone after they’ve been canceled—some are able to look past a mistake or characteristic while others cannot.

“I remember when a musician I loved for so many years was canceled, and it was so hard because, at the same time I was so upset with what they had done, and I also still loved their music since I’d been a fan

for so many years. It was really conflicting and hard to navigate,” sophomore Katie Harris said.

But out of cancel culture, some people have even found a career. YouTube channels like Tea Spill and Shook have curated very successful channels by posting drama, pop culture updates and who is being canceled at the moment, which has only popularized the culture.

“I’ve seen those channels, and sometimes I’ll watch a video because it’s not very biased, and gives good information on the situation,” Harris said.

Recently, more allegations against YouTuber David Dobrik have come to light with him losing sponsorships and over 100,000 subscribers. Everything happened quickly, and yet some feel there are worse people out there who haven’t yet faced cancel culture.

“Yes, what he did was horrible and he deserves to be disciplined for it, but I feel like there are so many worse people out there on the internet who deserve the same treatment as others,” Ringlien said.

Whether tearing friends apart or bringing people to watch videos over controversies, this culture has been growing as students do.

While the culture may be a controversy itself, some students still feel its effects and growing presence.

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RUNNING

A DIFFERENT

RACE

BYJOSIE STEWART, ‘21. COVER AND SPOTLIGHT GRAPHICS BY MORGAN PLAGENZ, ‘21.

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Exploring girls’ experiences in athletics at UAHS.

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I

n the starting week of this year’s track and field season, some members of the girl’s team were greeted with a brief meeting on the appropriate attire for practice. While the starting weeks of spring sports this year were cool, students weren’t at first encouraged to layer up for the cold temperatures. “[The team] ended practice, and after we stretched [one of the coaches] told the boys they could go and told the girls to come to the corner of the field,” senior sprinter Adiah Bonham said. “When we got there, she [said] she had been noticing [our] clothing, and she talked about how she wants us to be classy and professional while still being confident.”

This followed a teammate being “dress coded” by a coach earlier in the same week.

“I came to practice in leggings and a jacket and a tank top— that’s what I would wear last year, too. During practice she would stop me while I was running and say you can’t wear that, and I [just said] ‘I’m sorry. I’ll wear something else tomorrow,’” said the student, who requested anonymity. “The next day, I wore the same jacket with a t-shirt and sweatpants and she stopped me again while I was running and said, ‘That shirt is too short— when you lift your arms up you can see your stomach.’”

At the same meeting after practice, the athlete recalls the coach mentioning that they shouldn’t be showing “bra straps and stomachs” along with the implication that the boy’s track team is watching the girl’s team during practice.

DRESS CODE According to athletic director Tony Pusateri, track and field is the most policed sport in terms of clothing.

“The only thing I know about dress code is that it always, always, always pertains to track and cross country. At all the high schools I’ve seen—Reynoldsburg, Dublin Coffman, Upper Arlington—we ask the guys to wear t-shirts when they’re out in the neighborhoods. Obviously, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t,” Pusateri said.

While this rule is in place, he said the girl’s side is usually more controversial.

“For the girls’ side, obviously they’re going to cover themselves. Whenever there’s a female coach, the female coach asks them to be presentable and to keep their dignity. If I were coaching [women], I probably wouldn’t say anything about what you wore because I don’t think it’s appropriate,” he said. “If we have a female coach, they really try to tell the girls to keep their dignity. You know high school guys can be ornery sometimes. We don’t want to put girls in that situation at practice.”

After this encounter, Bonham said that the emails addressing the team were targeted at appropriate clothes for the weather rather than appropriateness in general. On the boy’s side, junior and distance runner Nathan Mark said that their team also must be prepared for the weather, but practices like taking off shirts have not been brought up.

“If we don’t wear long pants and a sweatshirt if it’s below 60 degrees, then we get yelled at,” Mark said. “When we go on our long runs, we can wear shorts and it’s not a big deal. If we’re off campus, then [we might take off our shirts to run], but if we’re 18 | ISSUE 4 | APRI L 2 3 , 2 0 2 1

on the track then probably not.”

Mark had also heard about the meeting on the girl’s teams and believed that some of the implications were wrong. “[It’s] pretty unfair. That’s assuming a lot about both sides.

Telling them that they have to wear something so they’re not distracting, that’s objectifying I guess in a lot of ways,” he said. “I don’t really understand where they’re getting their reasoning and I don’t think that distracting the boys is a good reason for a dress code change. Other than the girls winning more than us, I don’t really pay attention. For distance, we just practice by ourselves a lot.”

Pusateri said that there is no dress code given by the athletic department, although some athletes have seen problems with dress in general.

In the past, women’s crew team members were not allowed to remove their tank tops at practice whether on land or on the water.

“Until this year, we have had coaches in the past who haven’t let us take our tank tops off when it was really hot,” senior and varsity rower Lindsay Holman said. “Whereas [with] the boys: if it’s above 70 degrees, you know what that means—shirts off.”

In other sports, such as field hockey, the rules may vary or depend on others near the team.

“It doesn’t really matter what clothes you wear [to practice], but sometimes with conditioning, we’ll run in our sports bras,” senior and field hockey player Elizabeth Cramer said. “Our coaches don’t care if nobody is around, but if another school sport is close or something, they won’t let us. I don’t know what that means, but it’s a little annoying.”

Cramer also believed that this is viewed differently when put in perspective of boy’s sports, too.

“The guys cross country team, the football team, literally all the other teams will walk around without shirts on after practice or during conditioning or something. I don’t see why we can’t do it if everything is covered that needs to be covered, then it’s not a big deal,” Cramer said. “You see women in the Olympics wearing sports bras and spandex because it helps them perform better.”

This lack of explicit rules still had some athletes feeling uncomfortable with the general culture in women’s sports.

UAHS 2020 graduate and former member of the swim team Alicia Howe found the general culture with swim uniforms to be a common topic of discussion.

“The water fountain that’s in the natatorium is so bad, so we’d have to go out into the hallway to get water. You just go out in your swimsuit because that’s what you’re wearing, and there were times when there were adults or other students who would make comments like ‘You should cover yourself up,’” Howe said.

“I don’t find that weird but apparently it is seen as something that’s very controversial.

Aside from practices, this extended into swim meets with staff attending to support students.

“A lot of [the team] felt the need when our teachers would come to our meets—which I very much appreciated—we always felt like we should cover up more and that we shouldn’t [greet] them in just our swimsuit,” she said. “We were meant to feel like FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @UAARLINGTONIAN

our teachers shouldn’t see us in our swimsuits at a swim meet.”

Howe also is part of an advisory board with the UA Equity Project where she pushed for focuing on activism for dress code reform and giving attention to problems with gender and sex in the high school. With this, she felt that a 1998 study about selfobjectification related to the performance of athletes at the high school.

In the study, proctors had men and women try on a sweater and a swimsuit and rate themselves in the apparel. During this, they gave the subjects a math test and found that the women scored significantly lower on the test while wearing a swimsuit.

Howe mentioned that this study concluded that “perhaps wearing a swimsuit reminded [participants] that they are women” and therefore “might have induced the effects of stereotype threat for women in the swimsuit condition.”

In terms of high school athletics, Howe has always found this state of sexualization to be odd.

“I think that swimming is a sport that most people do since you’re a child and we all grew up in our swimsuits,” she said.

“That’s not something that’s seen as sexual in any way to us and it always felt very odd to me that other people would sexualize that.”

Holman would address this idea similarly.

“The way that you dress for sports and athletics should be whatever makes you comfortable and what will help you perform at your best. Usually with sports, it’s all the focus on what you’re doing personally,” Holman said.

Howe described the dynamic between the girl’s and boy’s swim teams similarly to that of the crew team and found gender discrimination in more subtle ways.

“Swimming is unique in that the boys and the girls practice together and I don’t think that’s something that happens with any other sport as far as I’m aware. We view ourselves as the same team in a lot of contexts,” she said.

Since the team practices and attends meets with one another, Howe found that problems extended from former differences by gender before Title IX. “Boys would bring [‘Saturdays are for the boys’] flags to meets,” Howe said. “Out of context, I am not offended by the flag as a woman, but in that context where women are historically excluded from competing on Saturday and you bring a flag that says Saturdays are for the boys, I found it very odd that that wasn’t a talking point and it was allowed.”

MEN’S AND WOMEN’S Aside from dress code, the differences between women’s and men’s athletics have been on display this year after women in the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament posted videos of the disparities between their equipment and other amenities compared to the men’s teams.

After the posts went viral, the NCAA replaced the women’s weight facilities after saying that the problem was not due to problems with funding.

As with problems with dress and similarly to the scale of the NCAA, student athletes in Upper Arlington don’t find that they FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @UAARLINGTONIAN

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originate in funding or problems with money.

“Girls volleyball and boys volleyball get the same exact [funding]. Boys golf and girls golf get the same thing. Boys soccer and girls soccer—same thing,” Pusateri said. “You can’t compare field hockey and football—there are no [counterpart] teams. If there’s two sports—one boys and one girls—they get the same thing.”

Pusateri does note that there were previously slight differences in the amount of funding between the two swim teams since the boy’s team used to attend the state tournaments more often than the girls and required more funding for hotel rooms. He now says that the amount, though, has evened out.

Instead, Cramer has more concerns focused on her team being less prioritized over other teams when it comes to practice.

“One thing that we’ve struggled with is finding field time.

The guys’ teams always get priority on the field which is really unfair because we’re all sports teams at the school. Sometimes we’ll have practice until 9:30 at night because that’s the only time we can get on the field,” Cramer said. “At the Marv it doesn’t matter because there’s lights, but at Tremont we’ve had practice so late that it’s gotten dark and a couple of our teammates got hurt because it was dark.”

Cramer also explained that there have been problems in the past with getting necessary equipment.

“We had [goals] at Tremont and obviously we’d just leave them there overnight because that’s what every other team does. It kind of happened over a period of time, but slowly the goals were getting torn apart and it wasn’t because they were old or we were doing it,” she said. “People were tearing off wood on the backboard and the nets had holes in them and at one point, the whole thing collapsed and we couldn’t even put it up. After that, it probably took a month or more for the school to get us new goals. We did not have goals for a pretty long period of time.”

Beyond this, some problems don’t stem from equipment but rather expressions from counterpart teams or even just stereotypes or beliefs about girl’s sports.

Holman has experienced this repeatedly from other members of her team rather than with coaching staff during her four years on the crew team.

“One of the things I love with crew is that it’s a similar sport for either side.There aren’t any differences with rules and the equipment is essentially the same. In some of the ways it’s run, I think there are some differences,” Holman said. “I feel like usually we do a good job of the team supporting each other, but it’s not like I’ve never heard things from the guys where they’re discrediting accomplishments because ‘it’s easier since we’re girls’ or ‘there’s less competition’ or in the past, some people have said that [girls] can’t reach the same level of pain and we’ll never know what it’s like to push yourself to that limit.”

Cramer has heard similar criticisms of field hockey throughout her time on the team.

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say that field hockey isn’t a sport and that it’s not hard at all even though it’s an Olympic sport,” she said. “We have a national team. It’s arguably harder than other sports. It’s a lot of running and it takes a lot of physical strength. On average we run as much in a game as in soccer.”

Cramer also believes that this notion leads to boy’s sports being supported more.

THE GOAL Aside from the NCAA reports in the news, allowing transgender athletes to join high school sports teams has also made national headlines.

Mississippi and Arkansas have both banned transgender student athletes from joining school sports. According to the governor of Arkansas, it is to “maintain fairness” in women’s sporting events.

While this has not been a major concern in Upper Arlington this year, the Ohio High School Athletic Association does have a mandate for transgender athletes.

It states that trans women are able to compete on men’s teams at any time, but “before a transgender female can participate in a girl’s sport or on a girls’ team she must either have completed a minimum of one year of hormone treatment related to gender transition or demonstrate to the Executive Director’s Office by way of sound medical evidence that she does not possess physical or physiological advantages over genetic females of the same age group.”

Similarly, a “transgender male who has not yet begun medically prescribed testosterone treatment for purposes of gender transition may participate on a boys’ team,” but if the athlete is taking medically prescribed testosterone treatment “before he can participate on a boys’ team, medical evidence must be submitted to the Executive Director’s Office that certifies that the muscle mass developed as a result of this testosterone treatment does not exceed the muscle mass that is typical of an adolescent genetic boy; that he has not started any hormone treatment and his hormone levels are monitored by a licensed physician every three to six months.”

While a bill to ban trans athletes from joining the team that aligns with their gender identity was proposed earlier this year, it has not been passed.

Aside from following the guidelines and mandates of the OHSAA, Upper Arlington’s athletic department is ahead of many other schools with a wide variety of sports and multiple girls participating in traditionally male-dominated sports like ice hockey and wrestling.

“Nobody [else] has 33 sports. The only one that has more than us in Ohio is Ohio State. They have 36,” Pusateri said.

“There is one high school in the state of Ohio that has crew. It’s Upper Arlington. Sometimes something will come up with crew, and we have no one to call. If something came up with tennis, I would call Hilliard or Dublin and say, ‘How do you guys do this?’

We have no one to call since we’re the only ones.”

While the school does offer many more sports, counterparts for girl’s of some sports have not been created since there are FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @UAARLINGTONIAN

only a small number of female athletes. “[OHSAA] looks to see if there is an interest [in a new sport].

If they were going to start surfing, they would [say], ‘How is anyone surfing here? There’s no ocean.’ Obviously, that’s extreme. If enough girls in the state of Ohio go, ‘Ohio State has a good women’s ice hockey team—let us start it,’ Ohio high school would say that if they see it catching on like girls wrestling, then they’ll propose it,” he said. “Then Arlington would propose it, too, but we’ve only had one or two girls since I’ve been here.”

Pusateri also wants to reiterate to athletes that their voices and opinions are important to the school and athletic department.

“Student athletes in the athletic program come first. If they want something—obviously if it’s not against the law or the rules or anything like that—we are supposed to do our best to give that to them,” he said.

Similarly, he has instructions for students who have had problems on their teams or with peers.

“If you’re a student athlete, we ask that if you have a problem, then we ask the coach and the athlete to work all of their problems out. If the coach and the athlete can’t work it out, then we ask the coach, the athlete and the parents to try to work out an issue,” Pusateri said. “If that doesn’t happen, then the athletic director comes in and if that doesn’t happen, then the principal gets involved. We would like our young student athletes to advocate for themselves. We don’t want something [like] you feeling threatened [to follow this command], then you come right to us or the police or the principal.”

Although this chain of command is important for issues like uniforms and playing time, it may not adequately address issues like dress code or gender differences since some athletes believe this behavior is often continued in the school building.

Holman attributes this factor to the smaller microaggressions or sentiments that are sometimes expressed. “[People use] weird euphemisms or something where kids will lose a game or sport and be like ‘We got raped.’ Obviously the intent is just to say ‘We lost brutally’ or whatever, but that’s an awful thing to say: step back, that’s a serious thing,” she said. “I don’t think we should be tossing that around lightly. Small things like that add up and make things seem okay or less serious than they are.”

Cramer agrees, especially in the sense that the differences or harassment aren’t often discussed in terms of what’s going on in the high school. She attributes this in part to past responses to sexual harassment that has possibly discouraged women from speaking out now.

Drawing this back to the field, the dynamics are possibly about the respect for one another as athletes.

“There have been times when we have practice and we have the field—it’s our designated time and nobody else is supposed to be on it—and groups of guys will come onto the field and start playing football in the middle of our practice,” Cramer said. “Nobody would ever do that if the football team was practicing or the lacrosse team was practicing. I think it’s just a level of respect that people have where they have more toward men than women especially in sports.”

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Returning Home

A look into the sport quarantine rules and athletes’ decisions to participate in Online Academy or all-in learning. BY CALLIA PETERSON, ‘22 AND LUKE ERIKSEN, ‘22. GRAPHICS BY LUCY O’BRIEN, ‘22.

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hen senior Paris Alexander arrives at school each morning, she watches as her sister gets out of the car and enters the UAHS doors, then pulls away from the school and heads home to her computer, through which she completes her online coursework before heading to lacrosse practice.

After the district announced that students would be returning to school five days a week on March 1, dozens of students traded in-person learning for the Online Academy (OA)––particularly spring athletes.

For many of these spring athletes, often seniors gearing up for their final high school season, their reason to transition to the fully online option was rooted in a new quarantine rule for athletes.

When the district announced the school would switch to all-in

Two Upper Arlington softball players meet during a game. The players must wear masks when not playing.

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learning, families were informed that if their child was exposed to COVID-19 in the classroom, they would still be required to attend school, but must quarantine from all sports practices and games due to the close-contact nature of the extra-curricular.

This rule has since changed, but was a prominent factor in athletes’ decisions to switch to OA in March, which many remain unable to switch back from.

Alexander lowered her chances of being exposed to COVID-19 in the classroom by staying home, even while her sister attends school in person.

“I had already missed my whole junior year due to COVID-19,” Alexander said. “I just didn’t want to miss any more games than I did last year.”

THE EVOLUTION OF QUARANTINE With tennis, lacrosse, volleyball, track, water polo, baseball, softball and crew seasons underway, there are hundreds of athletes at risk of being quarantined.

The decisions about COVID-19 restrictions for athletes are made by Gina Rancitelli. Rancitelli serves as the UAHS COVID Coordinator.

“We have to trust the experts, and the experts are Gina and the health department in Ohio. They have our best interests in mind,” assistant athletic director Spencer Smith said. “She keeps track and organizes everything so it’s up to date. It gets very confusing, but she’s on top of it.”

“It can be kind of challenging to monitor all these kids in a sport, but with the help of the parents and other students, [I am] able to find the kids that need to be put in quarantine,” Rancitelli said.

In order to track down everyone who has been exposed to a positive case, Rancitelli conducts extensive contract tracing.

When Rancitelli learns an athlete has tested positive, she reaches out to their teachers for seating charts, talks to coaches and the athletic director for information about how the student may have been exposed at practices or games and contacts the parent to receive more detailed information about the exposure.

Furthermore, Rancitelli must determine who was within 3 feet of the infected athlete, and she determines which students need to quarantine due to exposure.

As new data and research about COVID-19 and exposures in schools is revealed, public health officials determine new guidelines for students. These guidelines determine if a student must be quarantined, the length of time and what the student is able to do during quarantine (e.g. whether they can still attend FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @UAARLINGTONIAN

school or athletics under a modified The girls lacrosse team meet quarantine). at the side of the field during one of their games.

“The reality is that quarantine guidance from public health officials has changed several times since the fall,” said Superintendent Paul Imhoff in a video on the Upper Arlington Schools YouTube Channel on March 31.

When the district first announced students would be returning to school five days a week in late February, the quarantine guidelines for athletes led many to switch to fully remote learning in the Online Academy.

These initial quarantine guidelines, which were announced by Superintendent Paul Imhoff in a webinar on Feb. 22, were if a student was exposed to COVID-19 within 6 feet in the classroom, they would still be able to attend school, but must quarantine from everything outside of the school day, including sports. This was referred to as a “modified quarantine” by continue attending school, but also organized athletics and Franklin County Public Health. extracurricular activities during their quarantine period.

“If you were near someone who tested positive and that Under the latest guidance, students in a regular, “non happened within a classroom, you are on quarantine for modified” quarantine must quarantine from school, athletics everything outside of the school day but you are allowed to and activities for ten days or for seven days if they have a continue to come to school only during that quarantine period,” negative result from a test taken on day five or later.

Imhoff said. “And if you are an athlete, the current guidance is Imhoff advised in a video detailing the new guidance that that you would be quarantined for 14 days [from your sport].” “any close contacts should still continue monitoring their It was then announced on Feb. 24 that the modified symptoms for 14 days after exposure. quarantine, where students may still attend school even if they “We continue to meet with public health officials and our were exposed in the classroom but not activities outside of Medical Advisory Team to learn about the most up to date school, would only apply to all students that were 3 to 6 feet from information, and we will adopt any updates and guidance a positive case in a classroom environment. Then, anyone who from public health,” Imhoff said. was less than 3 feet would need to stay home from school and all activities outside of school.

THE BIG DECISION After this guidance was announced in early March, 150 students switched from in-person learning to the Online Three weeks prior to the changes in quarantine guidance Academy. Many of those students were athletes who did not allowing athletes to continue to attend their sport even if want to be exposed in the classroom and then be required to a classmate tested positive, athletes had to decide if they continue to come to school but quarantine from their sport. would attend all-in learning starting on March 1 or switch When students returned from spring break, and the district to OA. This forced them to choose between seeing friends at had already been in the all-in learning model for a couple of school with the risk of being quarantined from their sport or weeks, the quarantine guidelines changed once again. Now to switch to OA and not be exposed to any positive cases at any students placed in a modified quarantine may not only school.

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Varsity baseball player and junior Kuyper Lashutka decided to transition to a reduced in-person schedule by taking some classes over Zoom and through OA so that he was less likely to have to quarantine from athletics. Lashutka takes IB Business over Zoom, attends school for IB Sports Science and Designing with Materials while completing the rest of his classes through Edgenuity, the OA platform.

“I’ve been playing youth baseball with a few of these guys since I was eight or nine so it’s awesome that I can do it, but going online sucks because I have my school friends, my baseball friends and my football friends, and I don’t see [all of] my school friends anymore.”

When Lashutka does come into school for a couple classes each day, some of his teachers allow him to sit near other athletes.

“In my Designing with Materials class I sit with a lacrosse kid, and then a football kid and then some kid who doesn’t play sports. Then in IB Sports, I sit with two football kids and a baseball kid,” he said. “It’s pretty controlled, and I know all of them so it’s not like I don’t know what they’re doing on the weekends. I understand what’s going on with them and they are cautious about it because they play sports, too.”

Although he knows some of the people in his classes, he said he misses seeing his friend group.

“I only go in for two classes, but it’s still pretty tough on me to see everyone in my friend group is having lunch together, and they’re all having the time of their lives and they’re all hanging out in school and stuff, while we’re all sitting at home doing nothing,” Lashutka said.

Varsity softball player and junior Caroline Langmeyer decided to stay in school because she feels more productive at school.

The girl’s lacrosse team stands for the National Anthem at the start of their game.

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“I just don’t think I am as productive at home, so I really wanted to stay. Especially because I get to see more people as well,” Langmeyer said.

Although Langmeyer is in school full time, most of her teachers did not give her an isolated desk.

“Some classes I’m surrounded by seven people so if one of them got it, I’d have to quarantine [under the initial guidance].

Only in one of my classes my teachers said, ‘If you’re an athlete you can sit in these desks,’ but most of my teachers said they can’t give preference,” Langmeyer said.

Last year spring sports were canceled, and seniors like Alexander found it essential to finish their high school athletic careers with decreased risk of quarantines.

“The seniors decided to do online academy just because [we] had already missed [our] whole junior year due to COVID-19,” she said. “It would just be really unfortunate if one person in my class—say it’s someone who I don’t even talk to—were to get COVID-19, and I would have to sit out for two weeks from my season,” Alexander said.

Missing the social aspect of school wasn’t worth it for senior track captain Coleman Kegler.

“I wanted to come into school and see the people I haven’t been able to see in a while. Plus this might be the last chance I have to be around my classmates before we go off to college,” Kegler said.

Luckily for Kegler, the quarantine rules changed two weeks after he made his decision, so athletes do not have to quarantine because of a positive test in the classroom.

“I was not very happy about the initial rules. They have been changed, though, so that was big for the people who chose to stay in school,” Kegler said.

Lashutka said he was frustrated when the quarantine rules changed, because a lot of his teammates chose to switch to OA. “Like two weeks after [we switched], the state came out with a rule that you don’t have to quarantine anymore, so we’re all kind of mad about it because we went online for [nothing], and couldn’t go back,” he said.

However, Lashutka added that he thought he made the right decision.

“I know personally after having five games and having a blast playing baseball, if I would’ve had two weeks shut down, I would have felt miserable and so would everyone else. The fact that we’re all so close knit, and we’re all together all the time, if one of us would get it then all of us would probably get it and we’d have literally two or three weeks gone and that’s a majority of our season,” he said. “It’s very hard to do, but we all made it our choice, and we’re sticking to it because it’s what is best for us and hopefully our team in the future.”

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SAFE ON THE FIELD Even for the athletes who switched to OA, if a teammate were to test positive, there is still a risk of being a close contact during practice or games. A whole team shutting down could be detrimental to the season.

“Athletes definitely are more at risk just because of the contact that they have with one another but again it all comes down to mitigation practices and trying to social distance and mask as much as possible,” Rancitelli said.

In the winter, when practices and games are usually held inside and due to the close-contact nature of the sports, Rancitelli had to quarantine both the boys and girls basketball teams and the wrestling team.

“You are close to getting in somebody’s face with wrestling and with trying to play basketball and dribbling and getting around everybody, so the guidelines stated [for] especially those two sports, it didn’t matter the amount of time that you were with somebody. It’s considered a close contact sport so everybody had to do quarantine, so that was a lot [and] very busy,” Rancitelli said.

Spring sports teams have been doing everything they can to prevent a team shutdown, including following precautions at practice.

“We stay 6 feet apart [at] our water breaks, [and] all of our bags are 6 feet apart. In line drills we are 6 feet apart from each other,” Alexander said.

Alexander’s teammates also wear masks at practice. She said the only exceptions are during hard runs, an intense drill or during games in which some girls pull it down if they are in a position that runs often.

Sports like baseball and softball have a much easier time distancing themselves since players are naturally spread out in the field. They wear masks in the dugout and if they are at bases where they cannot distance from other players.

The dugout is the only place where transmission could likely occur during softball games as well.

“We practically always wear our masks. We try to stay 6 feet apart in the dugout. Some of us are on the fence, some are on the bench. There are Xs where we can sit 6 feet apart,” Langmeyer said.

The most challenging part for the baseball team is not being able to celebrate wins the same way.

“You can’t celebrate outside the dugout, and normally when someone scores a run everyone goes to the dugout and greets them, but you can’t do that now which is awful because we’re a pretty loud group, and we can’t get all hyped up when someone scores a run.”

The spring sports that take place outdoors have had better luck with limiting the spread and preventing team-wide quarantines than the winter sports that practiced indoors.

“Being able to be outside really does help limit the spread so while I saw a lot of cases, several of them being in a sport, especially in the winter time, luckily I am not seeing as much of that now, so that’s where we are at with that,” Rancitelli said.

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Junior Kuyper Lashutka during a baseball game against Hilliard Darby.

STAYING CAUTIOUS When athletes test positive, Rancitelli must get official clearance from a medical provider to make sure the athlete is able to return to their sport safely. She emphasized the seriousness of the virus for athletes and warned of the long term effects.

“It’s really important for families to understand that we don’t know all the long-term health effects that can happen with a student or an adult with COVID-19. We just don’t know how it can affect the heart or other vital organs. It needs to be taken really seriously when a student does test positive,” she said.

Smith showed his appreciation for Rancitelli and the health department and their efforts to keep students safe.

“She’s really good at her job. She has a tough job. We appreciate all the work she has done. She [gets] a rave review from us,” Smith said.

In a family update on April 9, Imhoff announced that positive cases and quarantines are leveling off in the district, but that community members must remain cautious as numbers rise on the county and state level.

“Our Medical Advisory Team stresses that we still need to remain vigilant with all of the health and safety precautions during the school day and outside of our homes, especially masking,” he said. “These precautions will help us slow the spread in our community and reduce the number of quarantines and successfully keep our students in school all day, every day.”

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By the Numbers

Explore this issue through statistics. COMPILED BY JAMES UNDERWOOD, ‘23. GRAPHIC BY LUCY O’BRIEN, ‘22.

28% 500

COVID-19 vaccines were made available to UAHS students.

Registration for these vaccines took place earlier this month.

of residents or students said that UAHS was safe for all-in learning in the week of March 1. This is based on 161 respondents to Arlingtonian’s Instagram story.

8

films have been nominated for Best Picture for the 2021 Oscars. This list includes Promising Young Woman, Minari, Mank, Judas and the Black Messiah and Sound of Metal.

$54,000,000

is the projected cost of the proposed community center. The city of Upper Arlington says taxes will not increase.

47

clubs were ran in the 2020-2021 school year at UAHS. In August 2021, the Athletic Department will become the Department of Student Life.

93%

of residents or students said they plan to or have already received a COVID-19 vaccine. This is based on 187 respondents to Arlingtonian’s Instagram story on April 3.

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5

members make up the Upper Arlington Board of Education. The current president is Scott McKenzie and the vice president is Carol Mohr.

150

students switched to the Online Academy this spring. This transition into all-in learning was the last chance for students to make this decision.

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Just a Spoonful of Sugar:

A Fix for 24 Assignments, Six Readings, 12 AP Tests and Four Graded Discussions The science behind stress baking.

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ith AP or IB tests, college decisions and final projects around the corner, my house has turned into one giant cavity: layer cakes, ideas for lunchbox cakes, cupcakes, Oreo cookie balls, frosting recipes, croissants, cookie dough. Recently, I even ventured into homemade pesto. As Olaf wisely states in Frozen 2, “We’re calling this controlling what you can when things seem out of control.”

Stress baking is not a new phenomenon and has become particularly prominent after the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to The Atlantic’s Amanda Mull, some Americans “seem to have turned to weekend baking as a salve for the ambient anxiety of being alive.”

BY MEGHAN BEERY, ‘21

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The “salve” is so effective because baking itself is a series of repetitive movements that require complete focus and calm the mind.

Measuring water, folding flour, leveling a cake. It is difficult to panic over math equations and correctly temper chocolate at the same time. For an hour or so, the stress of the day is out of sight and out of mind.

The science behind the “escapism” of baking is complicated, but it essentially comes down to the prefrontal cortex. When a person is stressed, their amygdala—the part of the brain that controls anxiety, blood pressure and breathing—kicks into high gear. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex—which regulates emotions—deactivates. Their brain becomes unable to regulate its emotions as effectively, leading to hyper-fixation on certain stressors.

Actions such as meditation and deep breathing reactivate the prefrontal cortex, putting rampant emotions back in check. In many ways, baking is a form of meditation: the repetitive actions require focus and mindfulness. In moderation, baking can be an effective stress reliever.

For anxious busybodies such as myself, the brief reprieve from daily life is a form of self regulation and health.

Oftentimes, the popular stress-relieving methods of listening to music, taking a nap or deep breathing are not appealing

because they require slowing down instead of utilizing that nervous energy.

Baking keeps the hands busy and creates a tangible result, one that can be shared with others.

If you’re struggling with anxiety or stress, I recommend finding a unique balance of activities that combine relaxation with energy utilization. If you’ve been studying for hours and need a break, take a walk around the block and just breathe. If you’re full of nervous energy, lace up your running shoes or knead a ball of dough. Whichever method you choose, remember that life is sweeter and bigger than your current situation.

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And the Oscar goes to...

The 2021 Oscar nominations made history, but how are the films themselves?

GRAPHIC BY LUCY O’BRIEN, ‘22.

NOMADLAND

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hile this movie made me feel something, it’s difficult to say exactly what emotion. It is melancholic but also very peaceful. Nomadland makes you feel like you’re wandering alongside the main character, Fern, as she roams across the country in her van. The film begins with silence, just Fern packing her van. She’s lost everything: her husband, her job and her entire community. As she wanders and meets fellow nomads, she finds a community of kindhearted strangers who wander in order to escape nine to five capitalistic nightmares. Nomadland’s director, Chloé Zhao, has made history for her work as both the screenwriter and director of this film. She is the first Asian woman and the second woman in history to win Best Director at the Golden Globes, and is the first Chinese woman to be nominated for a best director Oscar. Zhao directs this film beautifully, taking you to deserts, forests and oceans all while taking you on a more subtle emotional journey of grief and acceptance. Fern, played by a subdued Frances McDormand, develops heartwarming relationships with strangers as she begins and continues her journey as a wanderer. Nomadland is a gorgeous film about grief, finding peace and living your life to the fullest. Your heart will break a little at the end, but that’s okay, it’s supposed to.

Minari is another film nominated for best picture this year.

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MANK

s someone who has visited the legendary Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, I have been fascinated by the man who inspired and the men who created the groundbreaking 1941 film Citizen Kane.

The film, at its core, is a fictionalized account of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s successes and failures.

David Fincher’s newest film, Mank, instead focuses on one of the men behind Citizen Kane, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, and his process of writing the script while struggling with alcoholism and broken relationships. For the most part, this film fails to deliver. It is poorly paced, taking us on a wandering and confusing trip through Mankiewicz’s time in Hollywood. The film also fails to properly introduce characters and situations, as I had to pause the movie many times and try to rack my brain for what exactly was happening and who was talking. Even though I often had no idea which character was talking, the acting was excellent.

Gary Oldman, who portrays Mankiewicz, is superb, and his interactions with the characters of Mankiewicz’s wife and brother feel honest but loving. His platonic relationship with Hearst’s mistress, Marion Davies (played by a charming Amanda Seyfried), is both genuine and heartbreaking.

However, if you want to watch a better film about the making of Citizen Kane, watch HBO’s 1999 film RKO 281, named after the technical name for Citizen Kane during filming. Currently streaming on HBO Max, RKO 281 is much better paced and focuses more on the film’s director, co-writer, and star, Orson Welles, instead of Mankiewicz. The film features Mankiewitcz in a supporting role instead, this time portrayed by one of my favorite actors, John Malkovich.

RKO 281 is both more entertaining and a much better character study into Hearst, Welles and Mankiewicz.

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JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

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red Hampton was a revolutionary socialist, an activist, a man of honor and action. Unfortunately, this film is not about him, it’s about the man who betrayed him and led him to his death.

Hampton was chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and the deputy chair of the national party.

He created a coalition between the Panthers, other Chicago revolutionary groups and major Chicago street gangs. He brokered agreements of peace between these gangs, worked with the Panther’s local People’s Clinic, taught political education and was crucial to the Panther’s Free Breakfast Program.

The man who betrayed him, William O’Neal, is the focus of the film. In exchange for having felony charges dropped, O’Neal became an FBI informant within the Illinois Black Panther Party. He gave the FBI the layout of Hampton’s apartment and drugged Hampton prior to the police raid that would end in his assassination. In the film, Lakeith Stanfield plays O’Neal with quiet, painful regret as he helps murder a man who genuinely trusts him.

Daniel Kaluuya, playing Hampton, and Dominique Fishback, playing his girlfriend and fellow Panther, are simply brilliant. Unlike Stanfield, they are allowed to show love, sorrow and dedication. They, along with Stanfield, are the film’s pride and joy while the rest of the film is mediocre, which is unfortunate considering how inspiring and tragic the source material is.

In a real-life speech, Hampton said, “Why don’t you live for the people? Why don’t you struggle for the people? Why don’t you die for the people?” The film has its own version of this powerful quote, “I live for the people ‘cause I love the people.”

He lived for the people, and he died for the people. Hampton himself put it best: “You can murder a revolutionary, but you can’t murder a revolution.”

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BY MATTHEW DORON, ‘23 AND BEN RIGNEY-CARROLL, ‘21.

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

S

traight from the outset, Ma Rainey is visually and emotionally so much more than can be fully experienced in one viewing. Directed by George C. Wolfe, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom draws its greatest strength from its powerful dialogue and standout performances.

Depicting Ma Rainey’s (Viola Davis) recording process, the film centers its thematic emphasis on the struggle that the Black band members and artists endure and navigate in order to survive in a world where so much of society’s power is held at the whim of white men Confronting the relationship between Black artists and the control the recording industry takes over their talents and success, Ma Rainey explores the division between the Black band members due to their collective desire to succeed against what often feels like a stacked deck. With the release of this film, we have seen the last finished work of the late Chadwick Boseman. Released months after his passing in August, his role as eccentric and talented musician Levee Green is potentially Boseman’s strongest role, drawing on vocally powerful monologues and rapid changes in emotion. In my eyes, though, he will likely be most remembered for his role as Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Boseman’s legacy is not fully complete without recognition of his range and immersion in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. As an 86-minute love letter to the daily struggle for equality in America, Ma Rainey herself delivers the importance of this film eloquently: “They gonna treat me how I wanna be treated no matter how much it hurt ‘em.”

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Below the Bar-ra A review of Upper Arlington’s newest taco restaurant.

B

GRAPHIC BY LUCY O’BRIEN, ‘22.

arra, a new Mexican restaurant, has opened on Northwest Boulevard. It replaced Yabo’s Tacos, which stood for a few years.

I was thrilled when a new Mexican restaurant opened where Yabo’s once stood. With its close proximity to UAHS, it could possibly be a hotspot for students to grab a bite to eat.

With the interior design alone, Barra looked promising to be a perfect spot for students to hang out and feast on tacos.

The wooden tables, the wide glass cups and the music selection created a great atmosphere. There was plenty of space and an abundance of tables even on a busy Friday night.

The menu had plenty of options with 18 tacos, appetizers, burritos, salads and a few different sides. There were also vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.

I ordered a total of three tacos and a side of the Barra potatoes. The tacos

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were expensive compared to other restaurants, ranging from $4.50 to $6.50 each.

The food took nearly 45 minutes to arrive, but my table was gifted with free chips, queso and salsa because of the wait. The queso, although small in size, was quite good and was served with thin lightly salted chips.

I was most excited about the fried shrimp taco with Barra slaw and lime aioli, but I was underwhelmed because of the lack of flavor from the slaw and aioli combination. The aioli did provide a cool, lime flavor, but it was not too much different than simply a squirt of lime. The slaw was merely shredded lettuce, and the shrimp were barely fried, as they included a very light crust that had lacked the crunch I was hoping for.

The carnitas, a fan favorite taco highlighted on the menu, was my favorite taco. It included shredded pork, avocado, corn and feta. The pork was slightly dry but nonetheless was quality meat for the taco. I’m always a fan of feta on a taco— the soft, crumbly cheese added a nice touch on top of the pork.

I also liked the avocado which was underneath the pork on the bottom of the tortilla. Although this taco was my favorite, it was nothing mind-blowing, and for $5.50, the taco doesn’t give the bang for your buck.

The shredded chicken taco

dollars were allotted in 1955 to excavate bodies from underneath UAHS construction. This year, more were removed with help from the district.

BY LUKE ERIKSEN, ‘22.

included jalapenos, sour cream and cilantro. The shredded chicken was conventional. The jalapenos and sour cream didn’t go great together. The sweet and spicy jalapeno was overshadowed by the sour cream’s creamy texture, creating an odd combination.

Finally, the Barra potatoes were recommended to me by the server. I found it odd to serve potatoes at a Mexican restaurant, but I was open-minded. The potatoes indeed were an odd side to my three tacos. The Barra dust, which was the seasoning on the potatoes, was a bitterlike flavor of which I was not a fan. Even with a dollop of sour cream on the side, I couldn’t get myself to finish the plate of potatoes.

All in all, I can’t say I’d go back to Barra if I were craving any sort of Mexican food. Barra could potentially be a place to hang out with your friends and enjoy chips. With the high number of high-quality Mexican restaurants in the area, Barra fails to add to the list.

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Preparing for the Long Road Ahead

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So inform yourself. Write a letter to the editor about an issue important to you.

Engage in the marketplace of ideas.

Democracy is often seen as something elusive, intangible and ethereal, and it’s unrealistic to strive for some kumbaya utopia. Democracy is messy, yes, but we—as a school, community and country—must commit ourselves to upholding it. With so much having changed in just the past decade, we have an opportunity, unlike any since the time of FDR, to rebuild America in a more inclusive and civil image.

So yes, there’s a long road ahead— one of restoration, healing and hard questions—but we have a duty to walk it.

L

CA RT OO N

BY

LU C

Y

O’ B

RI

EN

, ‘2

2.

The role of a free and independent press in all this cannot be understated; it is the lubricant to the complicated machinery that is our democracy. In the era of alternative facts, fake news, echo chambers and culture wars, we can live in a world entirely detached from reality—and each other.

More than ever, then, a free and open exchange of news, information and ideas is crucial. We, as your classmates and as student journalists, strive to impartially inform the student body and make it as easy as possible for them to civilly engage in the democratic process.

As a publication, we are proud and fortunate to be financially and editorially independent from school administration.

IA

rotests, rallies, yard signs, elections—these days, it would seem we’re surrounded by democracy all the time. Yet with rampant misinformation, mistrust and polarization, democracy is, in a sense, under attack. After all, we live in a time when a lost election is a rigged one. Voting is a privilege and not a right. Violence is the answer. Political disagreement is personal disagreement.

Ignorance is strength. Under these circumstances, even the most optimistic among us are bound to feel disillusioned.

Despite this—no, because of this—it is more important than ever that we retain a sense of solidarity in support of democratic values. After all, it is our generation, for better or worse, that has the burden and privilege of restoring our faith in democracy and sense of civic pride. It is our generation that may finally realize our Founding Fathers’ ideal of government of, by and for the people.

We’ve got to start somewhere, so let’s start local and even here within the walls of UAHS. Research the issues and vote.

Canvass for a cause important to you.

Join a UAHS political group, be it UA Equity Project or Turning Point.

And democracy isn’t just about voting and politics. It’s about civility and consensus-building. It’s about working together. It’s about getting along with people from different backgrounds, identities, perspectives and beliefs.

So debate. Participate in class discussions. Learn to find common ground and respectfully disagree. Resist the culture of mob rage and vitriol that has become the norm in the national political scene. Pitchfork politics are appealing but ultimately destructive to our common goals.

BY EDITORIAL BOARD

ED IT OR

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The duty we all have to engage in communities around us.

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