Globe Newsmagazine, April 2017, Issue 7, Vol. 88

GLOBE issue 7, volume 88

AFTER THE

45 TH

clayton high school, clayton, mo. - april 2017

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GLOBE

april 2017

Sports

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Talented Trystan

Get to know Trystan Goette, sophomore lacrosse star.

After the 45th

The Globe learns the stories of members of the Clayton community and their varying responses to the 45th presidental election. Page 19.

News 10

Opinion

Cemetery Vandalism

The Globe investigates the recent vandalism at Chesed Shel Emeth’s cemetery in University City.

The Silent Minority

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Pro/Con: The Finsta Phenomenon CONTENTS 3

Gloob

F e at u re

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Mourning the Assassins

Dr. Taylor Dances

CHS English teacher Rebecca Taylor has a hidden hobby as president of St. Louis Country Dance troupe.

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CONTENTS 3

Who’s Your Spirit Teacher?

GLOBE editor-in-chief camille respess

chief managing editors kevin rosenthal ellie tomasson

managing editors noah brown nicholas lee mitali sharma max steinbaum

section editors madeline bale michael bernard daniel cho lucy cohen sean kim jacob lagesse zachary sorenson ashleigh williams tara williams

copy editors

charlie brennan harry rubin neel vallurupalli

webmaster nicholas lee

business manager

lucy cohen

photo editor alex gerchen

distribution editor grace monshausen

staff

editors

sophia barnes sophie bernstein lise derksen mariclare gatter olivia joseph nisha klein elise levy grace morris lauren praiss olivia reuter nikki seraji martin sharpe catherine walsh samantha zeid

reporters

madeline ackerburg sarah baker barrett bentzinger richard cheng daniel cohen theodore fehr leo gavitt beverly goode justin guilak katie he lucas hoffman cicely krutzch cody krutzch san kwon fiona mcguire kellan morrissey laura parvulescu katherine snelling grace snelling philip stahl sara stemmler junyi su lila taylor karena tse victor wei

photographers

synthia baer jennifer braverman daishanae crittenden ella engel sarah franzel akansha goel paige holmes catherine holtzman alivia jacobs xuenan jin areeba khan richard kuehn gabreille lask caroline marsden michael melinger grace monshausen mia redington alhan sayyed sarah schmidt claire schwarz eunice shin katherine sleckman emma weber

adviser

erin castellano

Professional Affiliations: JournalismSTL, Missouri Interscholastic Press Association, Missouri Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association

FROM THE EDITOR My family, friends and teachers have become more politically active than ever before.

It has become unusual to pass through a single school day without overhearing a political conversation or learning of someone’s plans to protest against the Trump administration the coming weekend.

This level of activism is something I have not witnessed before and it is both exciting and uplifting to know that so many people care deeply about their country.

However, living in Clayton, most of the activism I have seen is directed towards resisting the policies of the Trump administration.

While it is necessary for the success of democracy to resist changes you disagree with, it is also essential to attempt to find common ground with the people who represent ideas you protest. Only then can greater understanding be reached and compromise can become feasible.

Finding common ground can be difficult in our polarized political climate, especially when individuals feel targeted by opposing interests.

Thus, it is imperative to recognize that all political parties and interest groups are made up of individual people that, on a personal level, largely have the same wants and needs as each other.

Though their different perspectives may cause them to disagree on specific policies, nearly all people want safety and economic security for themselves and their loved ones.

I believe that the vast majority of people are truly good and want what’s best for themselves and their country.

Keeping this in mind, it becomes far more difficult to dismiss certain political be-

liefs or make generalizations about the people who hold them.

To some extent, we all make political decisions based out of self-interest, influenced by our experiences and backgrounds.

By recognizing that all political organizations are made up of individuals with very real stories and desires that shape their perspectives, we gain a sort of common interest, no matter how wildly different our political beliefs may be.

We must make an effort to learn the stories of those we disagree with in order to better respect their opinions and understand why they hold them.

Only once a basic level of respect and understanding for the individual is achieved

can there be civil and productive discussion that addresses issues fairly among all groups.

Living in Clayton, it is easy to surround yourself with like-minded people.

This can provide a very limited perspective which, given the anxiety some people feel towards the Trump administration, may be quite dismaying.

While protest and resistance are tenants of democracy, it is perhaps of greater importance to recognize the humanity of opposing groups and to search for common ground.

So by all means, protest, make your voices heard.

But take some time to try and understand the people behind the beliefs and policies you’re protesting. Learn their stories.

Nick Lee, Managing Editor; Webmaster

The Globe Newsmagazine exists to inform, entertain, persuade and represent the student voice at CHS. All content decisions are made by the student editorial staff and the Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. Not every story that our reporters write is published in the print newsmagazines. Visit www.chsglobe.com for additional stories and photos and for more information about the Globe itself. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement - for more information about advertising and subscriptions, please contact our office: Clayton High School Globe 1 Mark Twain Circle Clayton, MO 63105 (314) 854-6668

EDITOR’S NOTE 5

Senior Seth George visits the ARoS Kunstmuseum during his year in Denmark.

PA N O R A M A SENIOR CHASE LOPATA TAKING A SHOT ON GOAL IN THE SEASON OPENER FOR VARSITY BOYS LACROSSE AGAINST FORT ZUMWALT WEST ON MARCH 9. THE HOUNDS LOST 9-10.

P hO o tR o A b yM A PA N

Carson Holtzman

Quarterback Zach Louis looks to looks to complete a pass in the Greyhound's season opener versus Lutheran North. The Greyhounds lost the match.

Photo by Alex Gerchen

NEWS Senior Brooke Jones embraces her mother after winning the District championship on March 2. The Lady Hounds defeated Miller Career Academy 49-34 to bring home the first championship for girls’ basketball since 1988.

Photo by Katherine Sleckman.

BY THEO FEHR and KEVIN ROSENTHAL

NEW S and notes Girls’ Basketball Wins Districts On March 2, before a packed Stuber Gymnasium, the Clayton Lady Greyhounds basketball squad notched their first district victory since 1988. Seniors Pierce Sams and Claire Millett were indispensable as the Hounds cruised past Miller Career Academy in a 49-34 win. The following week marked the end of the ride for Clayton, as the Lady Hounds lost an overtime thriller to Lutheran South.

Terror Attack on English Parliament

On March 22, a 52-year-old British man named Khalid Masood carried out the largest terror attack in London since 2005. Injuring over 50 people and killing four, Masood ran his car over the sidewalk on the Westminster Bridge. Exiting onto the Palace of Westminster grounds, he stabbed a police officer to death before being slain by another police officer shortly thereafter. This unsettling attack raised further alarm to an already tense European atmosphere.

NEWS 8

Obamacare Prevails Although President Trump promised Obamacare’s upheaval would occur “very quickly” after he took the Oath of Office, the proposed American Health Care Act was pulled from the floor of the House of Representatives the day a vote was scheduled. The Republicans despite their majority in the House and Senate - found themselves back at the drawing board regarding possible replacements for the Affordable Care Act.

College Admissions Decisions Released Years of built-up anxiety for Clayton students was tranquilized on March 31 when online admissions portals revealed the potential futures of remaining applicants. These Greyhounds, whose decisions were brought into light this week, found themselves suddenly liberated from the swarm of smalltalk and purgatory of hypotheticals perpetuated by always well-intentioned, but sometimes soul-crushing, Clayton family friends regarding the college question.

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CEMETERY

Cemetery desecration shakes St. Louis community

BY THEO FEHR AND SAMANTHA ZEID On Feb. 17 and 18, rows and rows of final resting places were knocked over and vandalized. The next morning, thousands woke to find their holy place disturbed.

The recent vandalism at Chesed Shel Emeth, a Jewish cemetery in University City, has led to heightened attention on acts of hate crimes in the region.

Although unclear whether or not the vandals targeted Chesed Shel Emth because it is a Jewish cemetery, the desecration of the cemetery has affected St. Louis’ Jewish community.

CHS freshman Sarah Baker felt deeply affected by the incident.

“I felt disturbed that someone would desecrate a holy space,” Baker said. “For Jews, cemeteries are really holy spaces.”

This shock is echoed in other students.

“I just can’t understand why someone would do that,” Leeor Michelson, CHS sophomore, said, “It’s just unbelievable to me.”

Clayton and the surrounding area is generally regarded as a safe and accepting space.

“It’s just hard to see it happen five minutes away,” CHS junior Matthew Bloom, who has multiple relatives buried in Chesed Shel Emeth, said.

Michelson recounted his experience revisiting the cemetery after the attack.

“When I went to the cemetery to check on what happened there, I was really worried because I wanted to make sure my family’s tombstones weren’t knocked over.

But then after I found that mine weren’t, I looked around and there were a few tombstones that you could very clearly tell that they had been knocked down and it’s just sad to see,” Michelson said.

Bloom’s anguish was magnified after he visited the cemetery to help repair the vandalism.

“I actually have relatives in that cemetery, so I felt really upset when I heard what was happening,” Bloom said.

This crime was also a time for reflection on family history.

CHS teacher Carroll Lehnhoff-Bell explained that the desecration filled her with a surge of deep sadness as she recounted her family’s journey to America.

“My family immigrated from Russia, fleeing the Bolsheviks and that’s where all of

that family is buried. My great uncle Joe was buried there. He was the first to come over, so without Uncle Joe, we’re not here,” Lehnhoff-Bell said. “Even just thinking about it evokes this sadness because you know what your family went through to get here, and this was their final resting place. And with being Jewish, part of the tradition that is so beautiful to me is the final mitzvah. When you lay the dirt on the coffin, it’s sacred, and whoever did [the desecration] disturbed that.”

For Lehnhoff-Bell, the recent cemetery vandalism serves as yet another example of the anti-Semitism she believes exists in society.

“I’d love to think that [anti-Semitism] is recent, that it wasn’t always there before this, but the bottom line is you and I know it’s always been there,” Lehnhoff-Bell said.

Anita Feigenbaum, executive director of Chesed Shel Emeth, is reluctant to declare the desecration an anti-Semitic act.

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“Not initially, or now do I think it was an act of anti-Semitism, at least not yet. I like to deal in the facts, not to jump to conclusions,” she said. “When it’s anti-Semitism, you want to declare it as anti-Semitism because that way people will care. But when everyone gets angry at someone, they go, ‘Oh, she’s such a Nazi!’ And then what happens is, [the title] loses its meaning and the importance of what it is. I won’t say, I cannot say that is what it is because there is not that show of motivation yet. We just don’t know.”

Rabbi Susan Talve of the Central Reform Congregation noted that discrimination often occurs when people feel threatened by change.

“For people who are of afraid change, for people who want to keep the world the way it is and keep their privilege, we are a tremendous threat,” Talve said. “There are times that anti-Semitism is going to grow when you see movements for change.”

Many understood and sympathized with those affected by the cemetery vandalism.

“The story of the desecration of the cemetery here, in many ways is found in

VANDALIZED

its name. Chesed Shel Emeth [means] the mercy of truth,” Talve said. “It calls us to tell the truth and one of the truths is, first of all, that people of all faiths were touched by the destruction of the cemetery, because it hurts when the memories of the people that we love are disturbed.”

Many diverse groups were prompt in their efforts to help with the recovery of the cemetery.

Although the act was in an all Jewish cemetery, over 2,500 people, not all necessarily Jewish, came to the grounds to support those affected.

“People came to help clean up, to show support and to say ‘no’ to hate in Saint Louis,” Talve said.

Talve emphasized that the coming together of all different groups of people in this time of distress was an important step toward progress and ultimately hope.

“The Muslim leaders in the country who put up that GoFundMe page and raised over $12,000 for here and for other desecrated cemeteries and Jewish sites were very inspiring. When I asked why they did it, they said

because it’s the right thing to do,” Talve said.

“There are probably many places where we disagree with each other but that didn’t stop them and that gives me hope.”

This hope is echoed by other Jews in CHS, who feel that, amid all these threats to their identity, they can stand strong in the face of anti-semitic opposition.

Bloom, who went to help restore and clean Chesed Shel Emeth, also noted the diversity of those helping.

“I saw so many people there: Christians, Muslims, every different race as well. It was really nice to see all this diversity and so many people who cared and who were willing to come out and help clean up,” Bloom said.

Even across many different personal philosophies and creeds, Talve believes that the idea of a sacred place for loved ones is universal. The multi-cultural support of the Jewish community in response to the recent event gives Talve a sense optimism in the future of the increasingly-diverse world.

“We create these coalitions, as we gain trust between these people who are at risk:

Jews, Muslims, the black lives matter movement, Hispanic community, all kinds. When we start to work together, we will take back the country,” Talve said.

Michelson stressed the importance of responding to tragedy in a bold, unintimidated fashion.

“We need to show that it hasn’t affected us negatively, that we aren’t afraid, and I don’t know how but we need to stand together and show that we are not scared of what happened,” he said.

Bloom believes that although there is no easy solution, moving forward in the right direction will require the spreading of awareness.

“Something as simple as a Facebook post can really make a difference. The smallest things make a big difference, so even if you know someone, giving them a call, making sure they’re alright or just building your awareness, giving your support to people and recognizing that things happened,” Bloom said. “If everyone raises awareness, and we all come together and support each other, then things can be a lot better.”

A woman promotes peace by hanging a sign (left). A man rakes cemetery grounds (right). Photos by Synthia Baer.

R O B I N R EP O RT S CHS alumna Robin McDowell receives Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

BY MADDY BALE / feature section editor It was not until a hired man leapt into a speed boat, pursued them and threatened to ram into their own boat that CHS alumna (‘83) Robin McDowell and her group of reporters, videographers and photographers reluctantly fled from Benjina, a remote tropical island in Eastern Indonesia.

After spending more than a year reporting on the island, McDowell felt prepared to publicize the atrocities that had occurred in the depths of Benjina’s forests and in the prized Indonesian waters surrounding them.

On the edge of the island sat a single fishing factory which had kidnapped or lured hundreds of young Burmese men onto their boats with the promise of paid fishing jobs in Thailand. Instead, the men had been sent to foreign oceans thousands of miles from home and forced to work 20 to 22 hour shifts as enslaved fishermen seven days per week.

At the fishing company in Benjina, some slaves were held in cages, others were whipped with stingray tails and beaten by a hired man known simply as The Enforcer and all were deprived of food, clean water and sleep.

Although Benjina is technically a part of Indonesia, many Indonesians had been largely unaware of its existence prior to McDowell’s reporting. Absent from the vast majority of maps, Benjina was truly an island with no escape.

The fishing factory on Benjina was only one part of a vast system of fishing companies profiting from modern-day slavery.

Thailand leads Asia’s fishing industry, earning more than $7 billion per year from the seafood exports primarily caught and prepared by thousands of poor migrant fishermen tricked, sold or kidnapped into the industry. Fortunately, the work of McDowell and a group of reporters from Associated Press has changed this.

“Human rights issues and issues revolving around social justice have always been a focus of mine,” McDowell said. “I wanted to check the government and check authority and I wanted to provide an outlet for people who cannot voice their grievances on their own. I give them a way to tell the world what’s going on. Once you start doing that, other people in similar situations start to feel like they aren’t as alone.”

From a young age, McDowell knew that she wanted to enter the field of journalism.

McDowell and Htusan on a boat with a group of Burmese men who escaped their fishing boats in Indonesia. (Photos from Robin McDowell) In Holland, McDowell’s uncle was the editor of the biggest newspaper in the family’s town.

“I’d always come home and see him and his friends smoking their pipes and talking about issues that were really important,” McDowell said. “I’ve always kind of romanticized journalism.”

Despite her clear passion for journalism, McDowell did not begin her work in the field until after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis.

“I almost wanted to be a journalist so badly that I was too intimidated to do it. I was worried that I wouldn’t be good at it and that the dream would die,” she said.

Regardless, McDowell studied English Literature in college, went on to work for various book publishing companies in Boston and New York City and then returned to school at Columbia University to study journalism. During this time, she worked various part-time jobs in the field of journalism that ultimately connected her to Cambodia.

During the Vietnam War, the United States bombed large portions of Cambodia, increasing the anti-western sentiments of the Communist group called Khmer

FEATURE 12

Rouge which then attempted to nationalize Cambodia. This attempt led to the Cambodian Genocide – the deaths of more than a quarter of Cambodia’s population in less than three years. Throughout the genocide, a Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and 12 years of civil war, laws regulating the media in Cambodia were very strict. It was not until the United Nations imposed a press freedom provision in 1993 that journalism once again had a place in the country.

With the help of a connection from one of her part-time jobs, McDowell found herself starting a newspaper in Cambodia and reporting on the country’s uncertain future.

Although she began working for Associated Press a few years later, McDowell did not leave Asia.

“The most challenging part was that I could write a story and it could be a story about a girl who gets stolen off a street on her way home from school and sold into sex trafficking and you might be able to help that individual girl, tell her story, get human rights workers involved and get her home, but you’re helping one person,” McDowell said. “The rest of the world just doesn’t care about another story about a horrible thing that’s happening on the other side of the world, so getting it to be something that actually has a larger meaning and an impact is really difficult.”

This would certainly prove to be the largest challenge facing McDowell and the group of reporters from Associated Press as they first considered reporting on the atrocities occurring within the fishing industry in East Asia.

McDowell primarily discussed the topic with fellow Asssociated Press reporter Margie Mason.

“She and I both knew that the seafood industry was one of the most brutal. These guys would go out on boats and disappear and people would treat them however they wanted to,” McDowell said. “There was no escape. They were prisoners on those boats.

It’s something that people were writing about, but nobody seemed to care.”

But then Mason called McDowell with a way to make people care.

“I was in a bar in Burma and Margie called me and she said, ‘You know what, what if we track the seafood back to American dinner tables? Maybe that’s how we can make people care,’” McDowell said.

Although the idea of tracking food products had become a standard technique, the relative complexity of East Asia’s fishing industry compared to that of other global networks made Mason’s goal more difficult.

“It seemed impossible,” McDowell said.

“The fishermen are at sea. You don’t have your eyes on them. You can’t see which boats are abusive boats and which ones are full of men who made the choice to be on those boats.”

To further complicate the situation, fishing boats in East Asia do not necessarily go to port and unload the fish that they have caught. Instead, large refrigerated cargo ships meet the smaller boats and pick up the fish at sea. Due to this practice, the fish from dozens of different fishing companies become mixed together very quickly.

“There’s just no way to know which fish is ending up at Walmart,” McDowell said.

Despite these challenges, McDowell and Mason were determined to report on the human trafficking issues within East Asia’s seafood industry.

“Margie heard about a bunch of fishermen who had been stranded on an island in Eastern Indonesia. We knew there was a fishing factory and we knew that there were Thai companies who were connected to that fishing factory,” McDowell said. “In our minds, this was the ground zero – the closest we would get. Nobody had been there to see how these guys were being treated. We knew that we had to check it out because it was not something that was happening five years ago. It was happening right then.”

It was decided. McDowell would go to Benjina.

Two boat rides, four plane rides and 30 hours later, she arrived on the island with an Indonesian videographer and photographer.

The crew had to lie to the fishing company on Benjina and pretend to be filming a praising documentary about the rich Indonesian waters saturated with billions of dollars worth of the world’s seafood.

“We kind of pitched it like we were doing a good news story about the Indonesian fishing industry. They bought it because they had been operating at will for so many years without anyone realizing what was actually going on there,” McDowell said.

Although the managers of the island’s fishing company did not originally question the group’s intentions, they did not allow the photographer and videographer to venture anywhere on their own. The managers arrived at the group’s shack every morning, guided the camera men to the boats and allowed the photographer and videographer to document the village life.

McDowell, on the other hand, was left alone. The managers of the fishing company assumed that she was a tourist who had followed the camera men from the previous island and would go teach English to the island children or visit Benjina’s coastal villages.

“They left me alone and followed the photographers everywhere, so I was able to do some reporting,” McDowell said.

Very quickly, McDowell managed to interview men who had been captives on the company’s fishing boats but had since escaped and were now living in various villages with new Indonesian families. The majority had been kidnapped by the company. Others had been sold into the business and told that they could not leave until they paid back their own sale value with wages that never came.

“I had an idea at that point that this was what was happening in the company, but because I was talking to guys that had fished a couple years before, it wasn’t good enough, because I still needed to know if it was still happening,” McDowell said.

In her determination to talk to current fishermen, however, McDowell faced a significant challenge. Although she spoke the language of Cambodia, she did not speak Burmese, and the vast majority of the enslaved men had been trafficked from Burma. But after reporting in Asia for 20 years, McDowell had built enough connections to solve this problem.

“I managed to get in touch with a colleague in Burma and she was a Burmese girl who had been a journalist for two years and I told her that she had to get here,” McDowell said.

Two boat rides, four plane rides and 30 hours later, Esther Htusan arrived on the island from Burma. Like Cambodia, Burma had also experienced a tumultuous history, but following a strict period of military dictatorship and civil war, it was celebrating a new, open press. After years in the dark, Htusan struggled to cope with the atrocities she witnessed on the island of Benjina.

“She couldn’t believe that all these guys were Burmese. What were they doing here?

To her, it was the end of the world,” McDowell said. “It would be like if we showed up in Africa and found a bunch of people from Ladue living on an island or something. You just can’t believe it. What are these people doing here?”

Although the ethnic connection between Htusan and the enslaved fishermen was painful, she was immediately drawn to the story. The fishing factory had women do the cooking inside, so Htusan was able to blend in and explore the factory grounds. Now

Burmese fisherman returns home after 22 years.

His mother thought he was dead.

FEATURE 13

that she could listen and translate, the stories of the enslaved fishermen poured out.

“The men were so desperate to talk to her,” McDowell said. “As soon as they found out that Esther was a journalist, they would chase after us and try to get messages out to their families to say that they were alive.

People were crying and knocking on our door in the middle of the night and begging us to take them back home.”

One day, a fisherman brought McDowell and Htusan to the island’s graveyard. By that time, the jungle of Benjina had devoured the few dozen stones marking the locations of buried bodies, but everyone knew that hundreds of dead fishermen actually rested in the area.

On the few gravestones that remained, fake Thai names eliminated all evidence of the abuse that occurred on the island. When tricked or sold onto ships, the Burmese men had all been given these fake Thai identities so that their captors could avoid federal investigations. Even in death, the slaves were not treated as humans.

Shortly after McDowell’s trip to Benjina’s graveyard, the factory managers grew suspicious of her.

“At this point, the workers would just follow us everywhere and try to tell us stories, so [the managers] called us into their office and wanted to know what we were doing,” McDowell said. “They basically told us that we had to get off the island by the next day.”

Despite the warning, McDowell knew that she would not get the chance to return to the island, so she moved beyond the factory grounds and pretended like she had misunderstood the manager’s demands.

“But then they hired some thugs to look

out for us and some guy saw us filming like 50 yards away and he jumped onto his speed boat and started chasing us and threatening to ram into our boat,” McDowell said.

“At that point, we were definitely in serious danger.”

The next morning, McDowell and the rest of the group left the island.

“I have talked to people who have been in horrible situations – have lost everything – and the hardest thing is that you can’t promise them anything,” McDowell said.

“You can’t tell them that anything is going to change just because you’ve written the story. Maybe if enough people write about an issue, then something will happen, but you never feel in your heart like you’ve done enough.”

Fortunately, the atrocities committed on Benjina were different.

No reporter had ever been to the island before, so the story would surprise the world. Furthermore, McDowell and her group had personally seen the fish caught by enslaved Burmese men inducted into a network linked to the United States. After tracking the ship via satellite online for two weeks, McDowell and Mason even met the boat at port and followed the trucks loaded with the fish to factories that shipped to the United States.

“All you can really do is try to write the best story you can and try to make it broader and try to explain in the story that this is not just one person,” McDowell said. “Hopefully you can get people to care and get involved.”

Now that the atrocities had been linked to the United States, McDowell knew that the investigation would not go unnoticed like so many other investigations of enslaved

fishermen had.

“We felt confident telling the men that we were going to get them off the island,” McDowell said. “And that’s not something that you can say very often.”

McDowell’s promise did not fall short.

Two weeks after the publication of the story, the Indonesian government visited Benjina, confirmed the investigation and immediately evacuated the trafficked fishermen.

From the island’s boats, factory and jungle, 320 fishermen sprinted through copious torrents of rain to board the boats that would take them home.

Today, more than 2,000 enslaved fishermen have been rescued from dozens of factories across Indonesia as a direct result of McDowell’s investigation on Benjina. The reporting also led to the closure of a multi million-dollar Thai-Indonesian fishing company and three class-action lawsuits. Furthermore, companies in the United States linked to this fish could no longer deny culpability. Congress is currently working to create greater transparency throughout food networks.

For their investigative work, McDowell and the three other reporters on the story – Margie Mason, Esther Htusan and Martha Mendoza – won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2016.

But it was not recognition that McDowell wanted when she set out to tell the stories of the enslaved fishermen on the island of Benjina.

“Being able to know these guys and their stories and then seeing them get back home and knowing that we helped with that [...]

You can’t beat that,” McDowell said. .

Indonesian officials ask foreign fisherman, “who wants to go home.”

Everyone raises their hands.

FEATURE 14

D R . TA Y L O R D A N C E S

BY LUCY COHEN, OLIVIA REUTER AND TARA WILLIAMS An inconspicuous old church basement is not the place where one would expect a jubilant dance workshop to be held, but most Friday nights a month, The St. Louis English Country Dance troupe dance the night away.

CHS English teacher Dr. Rebecca Taylor is not only a member, but is also the president of this dance troupe.

As president, she organizes the community dances and helps choreograph. Taylor is also a board member of another dance group called Dance Discovery.

Through Dance Discovery, Taylor dresses up in historical costumes, while reenacting dances from many time periods.

Recently, Taylor performed at the Missouri History Museum for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. “We all had to wear hoop skirts. Wearing a hoop skirt is interesting. It floats and you’re a lot wider than you usually are. It was really fun,” Taylor said. “The women kind of looked like blossoms.”

Along with being able to wear various costumes, Taylor explores various cultures through her dancing. In the past year, she has picked up Morris dancing. Morris dance is a form of English Folk dance that requires the use of bells and sticks.

“We have sticks and we dance in groups and hit the sticks together,” Taylor said. “You throw the sticks and hope you don’t get hit and the word is that if you get hit it’s your fault because you’re not paying attention.”

Through these three dancing groups, Taylor is able to meet new people.

“I think the people that I dance with are intelligent and well-informed. Most of them are pretty liberal with a few closet conservatives. It’s very interesting if you run into a conservative person in the middle of a liberal group,” Taylor said. “It’s very different but it’s good.”

As a natural dancer, Taylor incorporates her rhythm into her lessons.

In her sophomore Honors English II class, she integrates this into her teaching of poetry scansion. When students learn iambic pentameter, Taylor encourages them to clap and even dance to the rhythm.

Taylor uses dancing not only to help students learn poetry, but also to gain a deeper understanding of the books she teaches.

Years ago, when she taught Romeo and Juliet, Taylor relied on dancing to explain

Taylor (right) practices at the St. Louis English County Dance troupe. Photo by Akansha Goel. the books. Her students created masks and Taylor taught them how to dance.

When Taylor teaches 1984, she uses a game called Oranges and Lemons to give the students a glimpse into the time period of 1984.

“You have two people and they hold hands - that comes from the same tradition so that was fun and different anyway,” she said. “It can get a little rowdy, I have to say, [so] you have to make sure the people you pick don’t hurt the people they are trying to catch.”

Taylor’s dancing career has also left a mark in her daily life.

“Sometimes I get ideas for dances. It’s a skill; it’s really cool. Once you’ve done it enough, and you know the moves,” she said.

FEATURE 15

“You hear a piece of music and you go, ‘Oh yeah, butterfly turn signal here.’ You can see it in your head when you hear the music.”

Taylor’s favorite dance is called ‘Le Cat Mercou,’ or the Four Cradles.

“Dr. Ramsay, the male principal dancer [of the troupe] found it on a French website.

I was studying French at the time, and my French teacher helped me translate it,” Taylor said. “Then I took it to Ramsay’s house he saw it was laid out like a quilt, so you have these little blocks and intricate figures. We had to backtrack through the whole thing to figure it out, and it is a wonderful dance.”

Taylor’s motivation behind dancing ties back to her childhood.

“I have always loved to dance. My father is a very good dancer,” Taylor said. “We didn’t dance that much [together] when I was a kid, but I guess I just learned to love it from him.”

STITCHING IT TOGETHER

BY NOAH BROWN / managing editor The Globe explores the journey of CHS alum Daniel Shapiro, who now owns his own clothing brand, FourLaps.

Daniel Shapiro is no stranger to Clayton, Missouri. Shapiro, a CHS graduate of the class of 1994, grew up immersed in the Clayton community.

“I went to Clayton from kindergarten through high school. Most of the people I went to school with there I’d gone to to nursery school with. I had known the majority of my class my entire life,” Shapiro said.

To this day, Shapiro values the intimacy the Clayton community fostered.

“Growing up in Clayton is pretty idyllic. You play in the neighborhood with your friends. You know everyone,” he said.

“There’s something nice about that.”

For Shapiro, there is a very specific, special spirit to St. Louis as a city that he is frequently reminded of, despite now living in New York City.

“There’s just this warmth [in St. Louis].

I have some friends in New York who happen to be from St. Louis and I think there’s

this shared experience that you have that, in a weird way, prepares you for living in a bigger city,” Shapiro said. “I just think there’s a way you go about things in St. Louis that translates well to other places. St. Louis people sort of tend to find each other.”

Following his Clayton education, Shapiro stayed close to home, receiving his college diploma from Washington University in St. Louis.

After a short stint at a local St. Louis consulting firm, Shapiro tested the waters of entrepreneurship, moving to Washington D.C. to work for a start-up business.

He then moved to San Francisco to work for another start-up. Ultimately, Shapiro’s unique professional experience shaped his interests.

“I had like five jobs the first five years out

FEATURE 16

of college. The last company I worked for did a lot of work for retailers and I got really interested in retail,” Shapiro said. “I had worked at Banana Republic in college but I didn’t know that retail was really a career.”

Although his interest in retail became more solidified as he got older, the foundation for Shapiro’s interest in business was established much earlier in his life.

“I was always interested as a kid in consumer behavior and why people bought things. I was the go-to person in my family and amongst family friends,” Shapiro said. “If someone wanted to buy something, I would research whatever it was and tell them what the best thing was to buy.”

With his childhood curiosity as inspiration, after college, Shapiro became fully indulged in the apparel industry, working for Gap and American Eagle for several years.

Despite his largely positive experience, Shapiro eventually realized that this kind of work was not for him.

“Ultimately, you’re working for someone else and you’re making someone else money.

Out of hard experiences, that’s when you’re forced to really figure out what you want,” he said. “That last year that I had at Gap was really challenging, and really rough. It forces you to figure out what you really want.”

What Shapiro really wanted was ownership – ownership of his own clothing brand and company. And that desire would require significant compromise.

“I came back and interviewed and got this job at a big company, but I just decided that I was going to start my own brand.

I ended up turning down a very big job to start this company,” Shapiro said. “I had been thinking about starting an athletic apparel company for years but I just decided to take the punch.”

This past August, Shapiro launched FourLaps, a men’s apparel company rooted in a contemporaneous craving for functionality and fashion. In many ways, FourLaps was Shapiro’s response to the current athletic apparel industry.

“FourLaps is really a reaction to the current athletic apparel market which has seams running in every direction,” Shapiro said. “Some of the items that you see out there look like Star Trek next generation.

It’s very futuristic and over-designed. FourLaps is our reaction to that. It’s clean lines, it’s bright colors, it’s color blocking, but we’re still using very functional materials.”

FourLaps’ clothing is tailored to those seeking both flexibility and functionality.

“The products have a lot of functional details. They’re built for someone that wants to go for a run and also might want to wear them after the gym. They might want to just throw on those shorts and go to get a coffee or go about his daily life. It’s really built with the functionality of life in mind,” Shapiro said.

The New York-based company finds inspiration in its very immediate surroundings, taking full advantage of the unique creative spirit of the city it calls home.

“There’s no harder place to start a company, but there’s no better place. The amount of resources and creative energy in New York is just unparalleled,” Shapiro said.

As the principal leader of FourLaps, Shapiro has faced immeasurable adversity. That

said, he has learned how to embrace the daily challenges.

“There really is no typical day. 80 percent of my day is spent doing things I don’t know how to do. You have to love the everyday challenge. It’s literally getting up and solving problems and you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s just part of the process. You have to be very comfortable with discomfort,” Shapiro said.

The almost-constant presence of difficulty has informed the culture of the company itself in addition to Shapiro’s everyday approach to his work.

“The culture of the brand is about doing things differently. It’s about being resourceful. It’s about being solution-oriented. You just need to come to the table with solutions because there’s a million problems that happen,” Shapiro said.

Despite the frequent setbacks, Shapiro’s seven-month-old clothing brand has already garnered serious attention. Perhaps most notably, FourLaps was recently deemed GQ’s favorite new apparel brand. Although he is grateful for the numerous positive endorsements FourLaps has already received, Shapiro recognizes that running a successful company requires much more.

“It’s really nice to get those endorsements, but it takes a lot more. It takes a constant determination. Ultimately, building a company takes years. You’ve got to love the everyday challenge because all the press and everything feels great and is really important, but it’s the day-to-day that you have to be able to handle,” he said.

Shapiro’s long-term goals for FourLaps revolve around broadening its reach while still staying true to its fundamental vision.

“I want to introduce new products on a regular basis. I want the products always to be inspired by a combination of functionality and fashion,” Shapiro said. “I’d eventually like to do women’s. I want to create a viable company, create a culture and support myself. I haven’t earned a dollar in three years.

That’s the reality of this.”

Shapiro has found where he belongs and envisions himself developing FourLaps for many years to come.

“This is it. People that have worked with me would tell you how passionate I am about product. I’m in the right spot.

I’ve loved clothing and I’ve loved consumer behavior since I was a kid. Very few people can say that they’ve started a brand, and I’ve done that,” Shapiro said. .

Left: founder and CHS alum Daniel Shapiro in FourLaps gear.

Right: More from the FourLaps fashion line (photos from Daniel Shapiro).

THE HACK IS BACK

BY MADELINE ACKERBURG AND CATHERINE WALSH A look into the theatrical career of a Clayton substitute teacher When Sam Hack steps into the spotlight, it is not just as a popular substitute teacher at Clayton High School.

Hack has been interested in the world of theatre since he was a little boy.

“I was 9-years-old when my parents chose to buy very cheap season tickets to the Muny,” Hack said. “As I spent many Saturday nights there, I fell in love with live theatre.”

Hack continued through high school at University City with very low self esteem, unsure of how to pursue the passion he had acquired as a child. However, one teacher noticed Hack’s unique talent and interest in the field and eventually pushed him to follow his dreams.

“She helped me discover my passion and ability to write,” Hack said. “Her method was mostly to let us write about whatever we were interested in rather than give us assignments. I was always writing about theatre. At one point, as she was signing my yearbook, she said, ‘I look forward to reading your stuff in the New York Times,’ and I thought, ‘Well, that’s an idea. How does one get to do that?’”

Hack continued to pursue the possible career of a theatre critic during his time studying at University of Missouri St. Louis, but he soon became interested in the world of directing.

“At UMSL, I started with directing a play for a fellow student who had lost his leg in a

motorcycle accident. We students wanted to get together and do something for him, so we put on a production of Don Juan in Hell, and I directed it just because I was around,” Hack said.

It was then that Hack discovered his love of theatre not just as an audience member, but also as an actor and as a director.

“I get most passionate and excited when I’m directing a play,” Hack said. “I enjoy acting. It’s incredibly fun, but directing is just something that feels right for me.”

Hack has since then worked on a vast number of plays and performances. For the last several years, he has even worked as a director of the Clayton Community Theatre.

“My mission as the director is to keep the artistic integrity of the group high,” Hack said. “I exercise some influence in play selection and production qualities in order to keep the production values high.”

Recently, the Clayton Community Theatre performed the play “A View from the Bridge,” a tale about a struggling family set in 1950s Brooklyn, New York.

“A View from the Bridge was the first play I ever saw professionally acted on stage,” Hack said. “It was a really strong production and had a really big impact on me and became one of my favorite plays, so I had some influence in deciding on this play [at the Clayton Community Theatre].”

Not only did Hack provide insight and experience in deciding to produce the play, but he also starred in a leading role as Alfieri, a narrating lawyer who represents the “bridge” between two different cultures.

“I auditioned like anybody else and got casted as the role, and I was really thrilled to be a part of that production,” Hack said. “It made my life a little more difficult because I was getting ready to direct the next play [at the Clayton Community Theatre] and at the same time trying to focus on acting in a play.”

On top of acting and directing, Hack’s passion for teaching has inspired generations of Clayton High School students.

“I think I’m proud that teachers trust me to sub for them and leave a lesson plan that involves teaching instead of just putting on a movie because they know I can handle it,” Hack said. “I love working at Clayton and feel proud to do so.”

For the future, Hack plans to continue his teaching, acting and directing.

“I don’t really think about the future that much. I’m directing another play next winter for the Clayton Community Theatre. In regards to acting, I’ll see if an audition interests me as I go, but I’m old enough now that I’m okay with not always working,” Hack said. “But I do think I keep busier than a lot of people my age.”

Hack (at desk) performing in A View From the Bridge. Photo by John Lamb.

FEATURE 18

AFTER THE

45 TH

Following the highly controversial election of Donald Trump, there have been protests across the nation and growing movements toward civic engagement. The Globe collected the stories of members of the Clayton community participating in these movements, as well as the stories of Clayton educators who are grappling with how to address these current issues in the classroom.

“You’ve got to care about the people around you. When we take care of each other, we’re stronger.” (VonDras)

By Katie He, Olivia Joseph and Lauren Praiss + RETIRED GLENRIDGE TEACHER

Joan VonDras

Pussy Hats. Ranging in colors from hot pink, light pink, bright pink, to coral pink, these cat-eared hats are simple yet effective when it comes to providing those who advocate for women’s rights with a unifying visual statement.

Joan VonDras, a retired Glenridge Elementary School teacher and current resident of the Clayton community, uses her knitting talent and voice to participate in the Pussy Hat Project. In this way, she is able to use her creativity to support women’s rights.

VonDras has always been a political change agent, but after retiring several years ago, she has further expanded her role in politics.

“I’ve been to Jefferson City to speak to some of our local legislatures. I also protested outside of Roy Blunt’s office about immigration,” VonDras said. “I think it’s our obligation as people who live in a democracy. [We] really need to be having conversations and finding a better way to reach out to people who don’t see the topic.”

In addition to vocalizing her views, VonDras recently began writing to the state legislature. “[I do] a lot of writing to people and also writing to people that support the causes,” VonDras said. “There is an app called Countable, and it has the bills that are in the legislature and the Senate and who voted which way on what. [It has] the emails and phone numbers of representatives [like] Lacey Clay and Stacy Newman. It comes up, and I can email them.”

VonDras believes there are many problems with the current government system.

“My concerns with the current government is that we are in a constitutional crisis because [politicians] don’t know what they’re doing and don’t have a full understanding of what our democracy is about and what it’s based on,” VonDras said. “I think there are a lot of illegal things going on.”

As for her motives, VonDras believes it is her obligation as a citizen living in a democracy to promote better change.

She urges citizens to read bills in order to help bring stability to our government.

“Reading the bills yourself, that’s very easy to do,” VonDras said.

“You just go to [Missouri.gov] or you go to either the House of Representatives or the Senate. I think that it’s important for people to read the bills and get out of their bubble and start reading other things that aren’t so left and right.”

VonDras also believes students should read bills to gain a strong grasp and understanding of the American government.

“I think there are teachers [who are] just so afraid of backlash,” VonDras said. “But you can still teach about the process to show [students] the structure in which that discourse can occur and the structures on how you fix something and change something. There is no reason why a classroom teacher shouldn’t be able to put a bill in front of her class, teach them how to read it, let them debate it and write their own legislation. Let people have differing views about [bills]. But we are never going to get anywhere if our very foundation of democracy, which is the public education system, can’t even venture into that territory.”

VonDras hopes that America will soon follow Thomas Jefferson’s powerful words and use education to create unity under a democratic political structure.

“Jefferson said we have free education for our constituents, and our population will be educated enough to participate and choose our leaders,” she said. “Essentially, education can really save a democracy.

People need to understand how powerful they are in a democracy.”

VONDRAS VOICES HER CONCERNS FOR POLITICAL PROBLEMS

20

Reeves Oyster THE 2015 CHS GRADUATE HOPES TO PURSUE A CAREER IN POLITICS

“Kent, my old basketball coach [at CHS], used to say, ‘Play with a chip on your shoulder.’ I knew what it meant, but I never truly understood internally what it meant until the election,” Reeves Oyster, CHS graduate of the class of 2015, said.

By election, Oyster means the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, which she has grappled with since November.

“To have watched Hillary [Clinton] work so hard and to have been so prepared and experienced and for it to be stripped from her, I remember saying, ‘Okay. Let’s get to work. It’s time to play with a chip on my shoulder, to play like I’ve got something to prove.’ I think women and a lot of people do now in this time and age,” she said.

Over the past several months, Oyster has used her multiple social media platforms to take a stand about her beliefs, to educate herself and others by reading and sharing articles, and to voice her concerns about the current government, especially the choices and beliefs of the Trump administration.

Oyster is particularly concerned with the future of the environment and public education under the current presidential administration, as well as the future of single mothers in the shifting dynamic in American politics and culture.

Shortly after the election, she took to Facebook to address the ongoing struggle of single mothers in America, writing, “My heart is mourning for other single mothers across this nation - especially those whose intersecting lines of oppression have pushed them so far into a corner that they do not have the power to demand the space for their voices to be heard.”

Oyster’s actions as an activist stem beyond the walls of social media.

She has participated in many protests in the St. Louis area since the election of Donald Trump.

Additionally, she often calls both of Missouri’s senators, as she believes it is essential for citizens to use available resources to speak with their representatives.

“I don’t call Claire McCaskill that much because I am usually in line with where she stands. But I have called Roy Blunt quite a few times.

In terms of Roy Blunt, he does not hold town meetings, he does not communicate with constituents,” Oyster said. “It’s really frustrating to call him.”

Oyster also encourages others to call their representatives as well.

In fact, her Instagram bio reads, “CALL YOUR FREAKING REPRESENTATIVES,” followed by Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill’s names and phone numbers.

In addition to her interest in taking action and communicating with members of US government, she is also involved in groups at the university she attends, WashU, geared more towards local issues.

In order to become an active participant in dialogues about the divisions within the St. Louis area, Oyster joined a club at WashU called City Faces, which allows students to travel to a housing project and tutor kids in downtown St. Louis.

These experiences illustrate to Oyster the extent of the disparity that separates people of different races and socioeconomic status throughout St. Louis.

Moreover, the participation Oyster has had in her community outreach engagements have opened her eyes to the privilege she has expe-

Oyster at the Women’s March on St. Louis.

(Photo from Oyster)

+ ALUM

“Until you recognize your privilege and are willing to look past that and feel empathy for the people around you, that’s when the change is going to happen.” (Oyster)

By Camille Respess, Grace Snelling and Katie Snelling rienced in her own life.

“Until you recognize your privilege and are willing to look past that and feel empathy for the people around you, that’s when the change is going to happen,” she said.

A sophomore in college, Oyster already has her sight set on a career in politics. “I want to get into politics. That’s the long term goal for me. Whenever I say that to people they often respond, ‘Oh why would you want to do that? Especially now.’ It always reminds me that I have something to prove now,” Oyster said. “This is what I want to do and what I am passionate about.”

21

Photo by Katherine Sleckman

+ STUDENT “CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IS OUR CIVIC DUTY,” CHS SENIOR BROOKE JONES SAID AT THE ST. LOUIS MARCH ON DOWNTOWN NOV. 13, 2016

By Charlie Brennan

Brooke Jones

“I really am a protest girl at heart. I go to protests whenever I can.

I love the atmosphere of a protest and the community within a protest,” said CHS senior and social activist Brooke Jones.

“When Michael Brown was shot, there was something that sparked inside me. After the shooting, I began to attend protests,” she said. “Many times, people only see the negative side of a protest through the media, but when you are actually in the crowd, it is a whole different story. It feels like you’re in a family and your voice is heard in that group.”

Under a Trump administration, Jones adamantly holds firm to her opinions. “The many recent, radical executive orders which have significantly divided the country are one of my main concerns,” Jones said. “The government is discriminating against certain people. Rather than being a government that caters to the population as a whole, the government is only catering to a selective group of people, and that is always a concern.”

In an attempt to address this rift in the country, Jones has not only participated in protests, but has also communicated with many activists in St. Louis including those who organize and lead the demonstrations she attends.

Jones has also been trying to reach out both to the Representatives of Missouri and also to the people who have come to represent the School District of Clayton.

“I am also trying to talk to the administration on a more community based level in order to find and fix the issues that we have in our own Clayton community,” she said.

Beyond creating a constructive dialogue between the students and administration of Clayton, Jones hopes to encourage discussion between both Clayton and Ladue students.

“I also have been working on forming the discussion group for a while now. This discussion group would have students from Clayton and students from Ladue and be a forum to voice their concerns,” Jones said. “I want to ensure there is open communication between different races and different people and to create that dialogue which is important to democracy.”

Within CHS, Jones has been working with the Social Justice Club and the Black Student Union to make this goal a reality. The group is still unsure of the exact direction it aims to take. “[I envision] an open discussion where if someone wanted to say something they would be able to take the microphone and say what they need to say, like open-mic. We just want to create a field where people can express themselves in this very tense country,” she said.

As she strives to break down race and sex barriers in society, Jones is also attempting to heal the fractured relationships between many American citizens in this two-party system.

“Often, if you’re a Democrat, then you hang out with Democrats and don’t talk to Republicans.,” Jones said. “We are trying to create a dialogue between the two parties and show everyone that we are not all that different from one another.”

Jones believes her empathy for others inspires her to act.

“I am a very empathetic person, and I think that is the reason why I have been empowered to speak out and share my voice. As a society, we need more empathy,” Jones said. “For example, let’s say there is an issue with Planned Parenthood. I have never used Planned Parenthood myself, but I would still support them. I can see beyond myself, and that is critical in helping people beyond your own race and your own gender.”

STUDENTS STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT IN ORDER TO BE HEARD

22

Lisa Humphreys TWO YEARS IN CLAYTON AND HUMPHREYS IS ALREADY A COMMUNITY LEADER

+ PARENT HUMPHREYS HOSTS ONE OF MANY HUDDLES SHOWING UP NATIONWIDE, PROVIDING WOMEN WITH A CHANCE TO VOICE THEIR OPINIONS

Photo from Lisa Humphreys

By Sara Stemmler

Lisa Humphreys identifies as a feeler, a person whose emotions are codependent with those of others. In other words, Humphreys desires peace and harmony but fears that current political divisions threaten to disturb these ideals.

Her first reaction has been to be proactive about responding the changes in government. Humphreys’ newest project is called “The Huddle.”

More so now than ever before, Huddles have permeated the nation as a catalyst for action. While the specific motives behind them vary, many serve as a safe place for people to share their struggles and successes with the government with a small group of people. The idea is to then visualize what a better, more equitable world could look like in the future.

To reach this goal, members work backwards, engendering small change that ultimately comes together to produce the hypothetical ideal.

Humphreys hosts her own Huddle every Thursday at her house. Her version of the Huddle is tailored specifically to women but is not necessarily limited to the discussion of feminist issues.

On average, around 10 women with differing backgrounds show up to discuss anything they care to discuss.

Humphreys hopes to share her knowledge from the Government 101 class she takes weekly with the purpose of “demystifying state government.”

Humphreys encourages the women attending her Huddle to become educated on their state laws. She believes that an unbiased, basic understanding of current laws, regulations and systems be-

longing to the government is a necessary first step to taking action.

Another incentive of the Huddle is to learn how to be effective in supporting or opposing government movements.

Humphreys hopes to provide members of The Huddle with the necessary materials to make their voices heard.

“Pick the issue you are passionate about, follow it, gather comrades, show up, make noise,” Humphreys said.

As most elected officials have never experienced this magnitude of community action, Humphreys believes that even a simple phone call will have a great impact on government.

Many who have witnessed the various protests occurring on Inauguration Day and those revolving around feminist movements feel that protesting is not effective in making change. Humphreys supports organized protesting but encourages activists to take their actions a step further.

“Participate in protests enough where you feel like you’re part of the group, but then get down to business of what really needs to happen,” she said.

While Humphreys shares similar political views with those that attend The Huddle, she recognizes that those leaning in a different direction may share the same passion that she does in her beliefs.

Humphreys believes that the most effective way of addressing the divide in political beliefs is to ask questions.

“I feel like we have to get over the fact that we just had this devastating loss that we had no idea was coming and realize that we do need to reach agreement and get people off the defensive response to get people to listen,” Humphreys said.

23

Justin Seiwell VIDEO PRODUCTION TEACHER JUSTIN SEIWELL EXPLAINS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A JOURNALISM TEACHER IN THE POST-ELECTION ENVIRONMENT “Ever since I was little, both of my parents were pretty vocal in the house as far as where they stood on things,” said CHS Video Production and Forensics teacher Justin Seiwell. “Growing up in [a] household that had that kind of discourse, I’ve never been someone who can just comfortably sit back when I know that people are hurting.”

Most recently, Trump’s controversial presidency has made Seiwell’s unwillingness to sit back even more apparent. He is an ardent supporter of women’s rights and has marched extensively with Black Lives Matter protests. “A lot of the conversations that came out of that process were really good, solid conversations for bringing people together, and I really valued that,” Seiwell said.

But the controversy surrounding the new administration has also made it more difficult for Seiwell to produce neutral Greyhound Exculsive Television content.

“The GET broadcasts during third hour are to captive audiences.

I don’t want to force someone to watch something that they absolutely object to, so I try to be very conscious of that time,” Seiwell said. “We want to create a solid, well-rounded community of both teachers and students working together to learn and grow so that when you all graduate, you can start working towards making things a little bit better and have more knowledge, more understanding, more efficacy, and more power to control what’s going on in the world.”

After Trump’s victory, many CHS students approached Seiwell to discuss the results of the election.

“Throughout the day, people would just walk up to me and we would have conversations and start talking. Typically, the student would express concern to me. And my response was that I’m also having concerns that I wasn’t necessarily having 24 hours ago,” he said.

Seiwell is quick to point out that his concern for the current administration is not political. “I’m a debate teacher; I like discourse

and argument,” he said. “I can certainly appreciate and [respect] administrations that make decisions I disagree with.”

But this does not mean that Seiwell shies away from criticizing President Trump’s rhetoric.

“I’m a public school teacher. I’m going to deal with people who don’t look like me everyday, who don’t think like me everyday, who don’t have the same romantic and sexual attractions like me everyday. To dismiss other people based on racist, homophobic and misogynistic language is horrendous. I don’t want my students to ever feel that I condone that, or that I support it, or that it should be acceptable in our society as anything other than trash,” Seiwell said.

Despite his distaste for Donald Trump’s offensive rhetoric, Seiwell is not terrified of the country’s future.

“I take my solace in that overwhelmingly, the American people want what is best for each other. We don’t have to live in fear of our leadership,” he said. “We should definitely be critical of our leaders, but I’m not terrified of tyranny coming down on the United States.

As long as we are watchful and mindful, we can avoid going down that course.”

Seiwell sees the rocky political climate as an opportunity for students, regardless of their political stance, to express their individual beliefs. “You can still hold your values and be proud of them,” he said. “This is actually a moment where your values can shine. Now is a good time to articulate better what you personally believe in.”

24

+ TEACHER

“We don’t have to live in fear of our leadership.” (Seiwell)

By Richard Cheng and Sean Kim

“You grow up naive, ignorant to everything,” senior Natasha Jain-Poster said.

For her, this all changed when a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri killed Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American man.

“When the situation in Ferguson happened, I was really hurt. My mom was like, ‘We need to go to this Ferguson protest.’ It was a Black Lives Matter thing, and I didn’t really want to go, but my mom forced me to,” Jain-Poster said. “But when I got there, I met the most amazing people. They had so much energy and were so down to earth, and I felt like I wanted to be like them. That was the type of person I wanted to be.”

Since that first protest, Jain-Poster has not needed her mother to force her to attend more demonstrations.

“I definitely have a more open-minded perspective after going to protests,” Jain-Poster said. “Meeting people who come from different parts of St. Louis has really opened up my eyes to the different types of people who are out there and how we should respect everyone. It’s really rewarding.”

When she is not participating in a protest, Jain-Poster pushes herself to become active in her community through other efforts. To help protect underrepresented groups in St. Louis, Jain-Poster’s family hosts a social justice group at their house every Sunday. When Jain-Poster’s mother posted a notice about the group on her social media accounts, more than 20 people showed up to participate.

“They were all so intellectual and motivated,” Jain-Poster said.

“That was really refreshing to see. We’re not only discussing the issues that face the community, but we’re also taking action. We go to the senators’ offices and rally, and we’re making a lot of phone calls.”

Beyond this social justice group, Jain-Poster volunteers for EnTeam, a non-profit organization that works to teach adolescents from diverse backgrounds to cooperate with one another.

After the election of President Trump, EnTeam created an outlet of the organization that specifically works to bring African-American youths living in the city together with the police officers in their communities. This outlet aims to ease the tensions that have increased between police officers and adolescents who have protested Trump’s presidency with violence.

“We have the police officers and the kids play games and really focus on cooperating and getting to know one another,” Jain-Poster said. “They work so well together. The kids are always asking when they’re going to see the police officers again, and they’re keeping in touch. Even forming just one relationship spreads a positive message to the rest of the community.”

Now, Jain-Poster strives to bring her work into the Clayton community. “Within Indian Culture Club, we’re trying to relate Indian politics to American politics and to the Trump Administration so that we can try to reduce the oppressive tensions that have been rising,” Jain-Poster said. “We really want people to stop being so close-minded. Both Democrats and Republicans lately have not been willing to hear the other Party’s perspective, but I think that it’s really important that we talk and start thinking about others.”

To get involved in social justice activities, Jain-Poster urges students to join one of the many cultural clubs that CHS boasts.

“Everyday, we hear about someone being oppressed, so it’s really nice to see people coming together and building relationships,” Jain-Poster said. “We need to take action not only as a nation, but really in our Clayton academic community.”

CHS SENIOR BUILDS COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

By Maddy Bale with + STUDENT

Natasha Jain-Poster 25

+ PARENT Julie Murphy hosts Bread Breakers dinners to give community members a chance to learn from one another.

By Sam Zeid

Julie Murphy MURPHY HOPES TO BUILD COMMUNITY THROUGH PERSONAL DIALOGUE After the most recent election, Clayton parent Julie Murphy felt a calling that she never had before. “Before, I never felt pressured ... And now I just, I can’t watch the news and know that I am doing nothing.”

In the past, Murphy volunteered for mayoral elections and participated locally, but she believes that this particular political season struck her more than anything ever before it.

“What I took so seriously is the fact that President Trump could use such hateful rhetoric throughout the whole election cycle, and he still won the vote. I think it unleashed the atmosphere that welcomed, or allowed people to act badly or wrongly.

Whether its antisemitic, sexist, xenophobic, whatever, he unleashed this cloud of evil,” Murphy said. “Because he won with that, he is like a bully, and now the bully won, and it is allowing people to feel more justified in acting the way he does. That’s what bothers me more than anything.”

With the help of four other women – Mona Helmy, Jackie Butler, Dana Jones and Danijela Boric – the group known as the Bread Breakers came to be.

Originally, the group began with 15 people with various backgrounds meeting for the first time at Murphy’s home for dinner and discussion.

The guests were all strangers except for the group leaders.

“There is something very natural about sitting at a table, having a meal, talking to the person next to you and learning about them and what their life is like. Usually at the end of every meal, we will bring up a particular topic, such as the immigrant ban or systemic racism. A lot of the time, the people sitting at the table who [the topic] affects the most are really the ones who lead the discussion. It’s really a privilege to get to hear from them, and often they have really good ideas for what we can do that I never would have thought of,” Murphy said.

The idea was that people could come together in support of each other and learn more about others instead of retreating into their own experiences.

“At the end of the night, I think a lot of people leave feeling either more hopeful or more supported because they really got to have a group of people listening to what their personal issue is based on their culture, or I feel more empowered to go out and either be stronger in speaking about that, or I’ve learned an action that I can do to help alleviate the problem.”

Murphy explained that a lot of her motivation stemmed from the effect that the election has had on her children and their

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friends.

“I think about my kids’ friends who are of color, or who are Muslim, and they are scared. I have a third and a fourth grader, so they are only exposed to a certain amount of media. They also (through school and their teachers and some media) heard Donald Trump speak and they knew that he did things that they would have gotten in trouble for doing. They knew that. So to have to explain to them that our country voted for this man, was really hard,” Murphy said.

Murphy emphasizes that people need to take action and not just watch.

“You have to be a good member of society and actually do something to change it,” Murphy said.

Although Murphy holds strongly democratic views, she believes in the power of discussion and that it is important to listen to others, because everyone comes from different circumstances which influence the way they think.

“I also think that it is important that I always tell my kids, because they know that not everyone voted for Hillary Clinton like I did, but that’s what great about our country,” Murphy said. “I always tell them that in America, you can have your own opinions and you can vote for them, and that is what makes America great.”

Karen Handelman + COMMUNITY MEMBER

By Mitali Sharma In the late 1980s, Karen Handelman and a couple of her friends got in a car and drove from college in Michigan to Washington D.C. to march in protest of restrictions on reproductive rights.

Thirty years later, Handelman relived the moment, this time accompanied by her daughter, as she took to the streets to participate in the Women’s March on St. Louis. For Handelman, however, the march was only the beginning of a series of actions she is taking to oppose the actions of the Trump Administration.

The results of the election shocked Handelman. She did not take Trump as a serious candidate during the campaign and was completely distraught to hear that he had won the election.

“I don’t think he’s fit to serve. I don’t think he has any experience. I don’t think countries need to run like businesses, and really, my biggest concerns were the hate that he was projecting and kind of brewing,” Handelman said. “I would say it was like someone had died. I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t know it could happen. I didn’t know what to do. It was kind of debilitating.”

However, soon enough, Handelman’s shock turned to motivation to get involved in political activism.

“Facebook went from being a social tool to being a political tool almost overnight. I realized we can’t just sit here and be afraid, upset, or angry, but we have to do something,” she said. “I don’t think any of us know exactly what the plan is but we’re just doing stuff and hoping it’s making a difference.”

This “stuff ” for Handelman began with more protests following the Women’s March. She attended the travel ban protest and two protests in front of Senator Roy Blunt’s office in downtown Clayton. Her actions soon grew deeper than just participating in demonstrations.

In fact, Handelman started spending hours per day sending emails, calling senators, and finding more ways to get involved.

“Some people are still in that paralyzed phase,” she said. “To me, it’s overwhelming in the other way: it’s overwhelming in that there is so much to do. I’ve actually kind of neglected my work life a little bit.”

The Women’s March published a list of actions called “10 Actions, 100 Days” following the actual March on Washington. The first action was to write postcards to senators. Handelman got the idea to make this a social event and to get more people involved.

After organizing with her friends, she sent the invitation out to five mailing lists and soon had more than 100 people in her home for the event.

That day was the foundation for Handelman’s “list,” an email list of over 250 people that brings the group together to follow each of the Women’s March actions and notifies them about other ways to be politically active and resistant.

Furthermore, in February, Handelman sat down with Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman to discuss prospects for future actions. One of the results of these meetings was the Government 101 class taught by Newman at CHS. Newman taught the course twice before, but Handelman figured that more people would attend if the class was offered at night.

In a group of three or four people, including Newman and Handelman, CHS was booked to host the class. More than 300 people showed up that night.

Following the class, in Early March, Handelman jumped on the opportunity to host an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Webinar Viewing party.

The ACLU asked locals to host viewing parties in their homes to get the community together. Handelman, a University City resident, took the offer and hosted people in her home to watch the ACLU suggest their own ways of resisting the Trump Administration’s actions.

Currently, Handelman is still active in her involvement in the resistance. The “list” still exists, but she is also a part of a small group working towards more broader goals.

“We have started to do some behind-the-scenes work,” Handelman said. “We’re trying to figure out how to take all these groups in their own silo with whatever type of resistance they’re doing and how to bring them all together.”

This group is specifically focusing on the upcoming local elections in 2018.

“The goal is to bring everyone together so we in someway are a unified force and ready for 2018,” Handelman said. “What we’ve decided we know needs to change is that we have to get good people elected [in Missouri]. We’re not big enough to affect the whole country but we think we can do good work on a local level.”

Despite all the hate and frustration Handelman is attempting to counter with her various actions, she does feel that one good thing has come out of the recent election.

“It’s like the world woke up in November. Every person that might have been sitting on the sidelines complaining is now doing things. It’s waking people up and it’s activating them. I hope that’s here to stay.”

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Photo from Karen Handelman.

Micah Johnson JOHNSON MAINTAINS BALANCE IN TEACHING ABOUT SPANISH CULTURE WITHIN THE POLTICAL CLIMATE

+ TEACHER JOHNSON SPEAKS HOPEFULLY ABOUT THE PROGRESS AMERICAN IS BOUND TO MAKE AFTER THE ELECTION.

By Catherine Walsh and Lila Taylor

“I felt like I had woken up to a new world, which wasn't true, obviously.

We had been living in that world the whole time,” CHS Spanish teacher Señor Johnson said.

Johnson was shocked by the recent election. “It was just that that world existed to such a great extent that I think a lot of us were surprised, and it feels very different ever since.”

For Johnson, remaining apolitical in the classroom is harder than ever.

“We’ve never seen an administration like this,” Johnson said. “We’ve never seen one come out with such negative terms against the very people whose culture it is my job to teach. And I take that personally, even though I’m not Latino.

But I’ve dedicated my life to standing for that culture and to talk about it and to teach it.”

With regard to his duty as a teacher, Johnson assures that his classroom remains a safe place for students, regard-

less of their views.

“I’m careful in class to both acknowledge that it’s okay if you feel a different way,” Johnson said. “Also, as a Spanish teacher whose job description includes global literacy and global citizenship, we can talk about the issues of the wall or immigration, and it’s okay that my view that all humans are humans and no human being is illegal, it’s okay that [my students] know I believe these things.”

In the midst of protesting and marching to stand up for his rights and others’, Johnson works to help his students see how they too can help.

“Sometimes showing up is the work.

Other times the work goes further than that,” Johnson said. “The minimum we can do is to stay informed. Never before have I seen that there’s such an outright war on the truth. And if truth loses that war, we are in big trouble.”

Johnson has been using social media to not only get his message out to the

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world, but to engage in conversation with individuals with whom he doesn’t agree.

“A good conversation isn’t always that I convinced you that you were wrong or you convinced me that I was wrong. Sometimes it’s just sitting down and exchanging ideas,” Johnson said.

“And after, you should realize how much better you understand how someone thinks about a certain topic. Then we walk away, and both of us are a little humanized by it. We are a bunch of individuals and not just a bunch of bad ideas.”

As Johnson looks to the future, he hopes to reach out to those who may feel they are unwelcome in America.

“I think the Mexican wall is a metaphor for all of the walls trying to be built around us right now. The work that we have, I think, is to make sure that for every brick that comes up, we take two down.”

Auriann Sehi SEHI TAKES ACTION BY GETTING INVOLVED IN HER COMMUNITY

+ STUDENT AURIANN SEHI DISCUSSES HER OPPOSITION TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

By Daniel Cho and Zachary Sorensen Photo by Erin Castellano

“Sure he’s a businessman, but I don’t think he really knows what he’s doing,” Sehi said.

CHS senior Auriann Sehi has been an active participant of the rapidly growing ‘resistance’ movement – a sentiment sparked by the recent election of Donald Trump.

“My current concerns about the government are that certain interests of certain groups within the United States are being represented [more] than others. Just because there are certain class interests, certain parties and other organizations that have a larger influence over our government, they’re able to manipulate the election and are able to support certain candidates for their cause.”

Sehi has been doing whatever she can to make sure her voice is being heard.

“I’ve been attending a lot of democratic societies where we’re talking about what we can do together in order to combat these issues [such as] doing campaign calls or rallies. There’s not that much I can do as a 17-year-old girl living in the United States. But calling senators and letting them know that I’m concerned about these issues shows that these issues aren’t just something the adults have to care about,” Sehi said.

As a result, Sehi has become very involved within her community. By joining CAIR-MO, Citizens for a Democratic Society and a local Iranian group in St. Louis, Sehi has been able to make sure that her voice is being heard.

Furthermore, Sehi has recommendations for ways that other students and community members can get involved.

“To get your voices heard, first, I would talk about it with your friends. But also, don’t be afraid to talk about with your teachers and administrators,” Sehi said. “That’s kind of how I’ve been trying to get the administration to talk about these things.

Like in Principal’s Advisory council, I’m telling Dr. Gutchewsky that these certain things need to be talked about.”

Also, considering the media-driven society that has been

growing, Sehi recommends using social media as an outlet for change. And finally, she contends that one does not have to be politically active.

“Do direct actions, go to food banks if you feel like people shouldn’t be hungry, help out at homeless shelters. There are ways where you don’t have to just sit aside and let everything happen. You don’t just have to say that ‘I can’t do anything’. Because if everyone says this, nothing is going to happen. We’re never going to get any progress. So, it takes that one person, and then it’ll multiply for change to actually occur,” Sehi said.

Considering these actions, Sehi has a few goals. “Short term, [I want to make] sure that the grievances that people have are being said so that everything is pretty much out in the open and that we’re being completely honest with each other -- from both sides. Long term, [I hope] there will be certain actions taking place to combat those sort of issues and to address those issues,” Sehi said.

Sehi alongside many within her movement have sought to make their grievances with the president known. Despite her beliefs regarding the President she feels that the issues that face the country “should be solved in a way that takes into account both parties and the interests of everyone. It’s not ‘Auriann’s country’, it’s the United States of America.”

When it comes to what it would take for her to consider Trump her President she states, “I think he should be more open to doing the things I want to happen before I call him President.”

Sehi asserts, “Technically, [Trump] is my President. [But], he is not my President because he does not represent me ... But, at the same time, can I put a fist in my mouth and say that Donald Trump is my President? Sure, I’m not that stubborn. But, he doesn’t represent me. His campaign was run on something that was completely against me, my religion, and my sex. And for those reasons, I cannot support someone like him.”

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Photo by Erin Castellano.

On Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, many CHS students decided walk out of class at noon in protest of Trump’s entrance to office.

Senior Dominic Derfler had been asked by student organizers to speak at the event, however he did not know at that point that he would soon become a leader of the whole march.

Students met in the quad at noon, trying to make a statement.

However, Derfler felt that this was not enough to get the attention of the administration. He led the students out to march and chant around downtown Clayton, in efforts to get their voice heard.

“I decided to take the initiative to move the walk out further because I felt like our administration and administrations everywhere won’t take it seriously unless we do what they expect us not to do,” Derfler said.

For Derfler, the point of the walk-out was to state that Clayton students would not tolerate hate in their community. After Trump’s election, he had seen the acts of hate grow and wanted to make sure Clayton stayed a tolerant and welcoming environment.

“I am fed up with the hate in not just our school, just in general.

There’s just a lot of negativity and I don’t like it. Somebody needs to promote both positivity and this togetherness in stopping hate,” he said.

Along with the sentiments of hate he felt to be growing in the country, Derfler was particularly concerned with the treatment minorities would receive under the Trump administration.

“My biggest concern was basically people not getting represented by the Trump Administration and the people who began to come into power recently,” Derfler said. “Groups like LGBTQ community and minorities like the Hispanic/Latino community and a lot of people just that would be coming under fire through the things [President Trump] would be putting into action in his office so I decided that someone, specifically during the walkout, had to make the move to let people know that nothing’s going to happen unless we take initiative.”

During this Inauguration Day walk-out, Derfler also wanted to ensure that positivity remained key and thus decided to contrast, what he believes to be, hate culture and social inequity, with a positive attitude.

“I was making sure everybody was smiling and having fun because it’s not about hatefully protesting Trump or whoever or hatefully this, hatefully that. It’s about positivity because you can’t fight hate with hate; there has to be a positive movement in it,” he said.

For Derfler, this positivity is especially needed in high schools across the country. He believes that the Trump administration’s tactics present a poor example to young teens who have come to learn that the actions of the Trump Administration represent what America has come to be.

“Everything that our administration promotes -- whether it’s hate or positivity -- the society reflects that. I want kids to know that it’s not the truth. You don’t have to be negative. You don’t have to feel like your word means nothing,” Derfler said.

Derfler’s leadership did not end with the walk-out. In fact, he has been working to create an Open Dialogue Club in CHS to foster better and more civil discussion, and provide students with a place to have their voice heard. Although Derfler was working on the project prior to Election Day, he felt that Trump’s presidency coincided perfectly with the creation of the club.

“It happened to coincidentally work well with the Trump hate speech, hate crimes, and this hate environment that a lot of the Trump Administration promotes, or passively supports,” Derfler said.

Ultimately, Derfler’s goal is not to solely denounce the actions of the Trump Administration but to leave a positive mark on CHS, that denounces the concept of hate altogether.

“It’s not about who remembers me, it’s about what I’ve done to help this place,” he said. “I’m not going to say I spent four years here for nothing. Although it’s still a great, tolerant environment, we should always strive for better.”

Derfler hopes the actions he takes in CHS to promote this environment will last and eventually spread to other parts of the city and even country.

As he said, “it’s all based off the theory that if you’re positive and you promote a positive environment, then that positivity will stick.”

By Mitali Sharma and Sara Stemmler + STUDENT

Dominic Derfler CHS SENIOR DOMINIC DERFLER IS TAKING A STAND AGAINST HATE WITHIN THE HALLS OF CHS

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“I can’t sit around and do nothing,” Wydown Middle School Literacy teacher Deb Baker said. “I feel like I have a responsibility to try to promote change in places where I think change needs to happen.”

Baker has been passionate about certain social issues since a very young age. “I think that my parents probably had a lot to do with it.

They made me aware of certain things in our communities that need people to pay attention to,” she said. “I think sometimes it’s overlooked how much we can do in our own small community [to make change].”

Baker’s passion for creating social change within her community led her to found the Gay-Straight Alliance at Wydown last year with Social Studies Teacher Aimee Snelling.

“We wanted to make sure that students who identify as LGBTQ+ and their allies had a safe space to discuss issues or to talk about anything,” Baker said. “ Working with [the GSA] has prompted me to read more and learn more and go out in the community. I’ve gone to panel discussions and things like that so that I can better understand the issues that are facing that part of our population.”

Beyond Wydown, Baker has also joined many organizations in the St. Louis area devoted to social change. In particular, she works with the International Institute of St. Louis, an organization that helps immigrants transition to life in the United States by teaching them how to navigate various aspects of American society.

Within the Institute, Baker is training to become a part of the Speaker’s Bureau.

“The Institute needed people who were willing to become trained about issues surrounding immigrants and refugees in our community. They wanted people to go around the community and try to dispel some of the myths people had about refugees,” Baker said.

As she works to defend the most vulnerable members of society, Baker understands that change does not come quickly. “It’s hard to see big change, but I’m learning to be more patient,” Baker said.

“Even if I can’t always see big change in the issues that I’m passionate about, I can see changes in my own awareness of myself and of my own bias and assumptions. We can always work on ourselves.”

Also on a smaller scale, Baker has seen changes in the students that she teaches. “I think that sometimes students feel like they are powerless, but I see them as anything but powerless,” Baker said.

“As a literacy teacher and a writer myself, I think that there is a lot of power in our written words. Anybody can start a blog. Anybody can write a letter to the editor. There’s a lot of power in sitting down and trying to get one’s own thoughts together about an issue and then trying to persuade other people to listen. Some of our biggest movements in this country have had young people at the forefront of them. Young people have a lot of power to stand up and ask questions of people in power. There’s lots of ways to use our voices,” Baker said.

But Baker also understands that her students must immerse themselves in the writings of those who do not share their ideas before they can most effectively advocate for their beliefs.

“Sometimes, we read things written by like-minded people, and while that can be interesting, it’s actually more important to read articles and books that are written by people who have different views than you do on whatever issue you are thinking about,” Baker said.

To make a difference, Baker does not believe that an individual must change the whole world.

“It’s important to celebrate when you see small successes because otherwise, it feels like a hopeless battle,” Baker said. “I can’t just sit back and point fingers and wish that something would be different.

That just doesn’t seem like the right way to live, so that’s not how I choose to live.”

+ TEACHER

WYDOWN LITERACY TEACHER STRESSES THE POWER OF SPEECH

By Maddy Bale and Jacob LaGesse

Debra Baker

A LIFE-LONG INTEREST IN SOCIAL CHANGE ENCOURAGES BAKER TO HELP HER STUDENTS FIND THEIR VOICE

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Photo by Neel Vallurapali + CLAYTON PARENT CHS PARENT AND LONGTIME CLAYTON RESIDENT HAS BEEN AN ACTIVE PROTESTER OF TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION

By Noah Brown, Neel Vallurapalli and Sam Youkilis

Iva Youkilis

Amidst a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people in Washington D.C. on Jan. 21 was CHS parent and Washington University Italian professor Iva Youkilis.

It was the Women’s March, the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history, aimed at newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump.

Youkilis’ unique experience growing up in Yugoslavia and emigrating to the United States as a young adult in 1991 shape her equally unique perspective on United States politics.

“The reason why I’m so worried is because I lived during the period before the civil war in Yugoslavia. I was your age and I remember everyone saying, ‘It will not happen to us. It’s not possible. We like each other. We’re all neighbors.’ The next you thing you know, there was a war,” Youkilis said.

Youkilis was a teenager when Slobodan Milošević rose to political power in Yugoslavia and her witnessing of totalitarianism in Europe only adds to her concern with, and skepticism of, the Trump administration. Youkilis’ reservations with the Trump administration, however, are unparalleled to those of other regimes that she’s witnessed firsthand. “[Milošević] was not a person that would go in public and make fun of where blood comes from women's bodies, or make fun of a disabled person, and wasn’t incapable of stringing a sentence together,” Youkilis said. “All of these people, they were crazy and dangerous, but they were more educated, worldly and respectable in the beginning.”

Youkilis’ concerns with the Trump administration have less to do with the political party he represents and more to do with the kind of person she sees Trump as.

“I am a liberal person, but I am also a person that is open-minded which means that if the Republican Party got in power I could be upset or try to be involved in the process, but I would not be this upset and this afraid of what is going to happen. America did not elect a Republican; they elected a person who is not capable, and should not be in this position because he is jeopardizing the safety of this country and the people who live in this country,” she said.

Youkilis views her role in the resistance primarily as an organizer.

She has taken the initiative to be an organizer of group meetings. The several groups she’s a part of, Youkilis says, focus on “[making] phone calls mostly targeting state representatives and senators and then federal phone calls, postcard writing, demonstrating, talking about it and making sure people are aware of what is going on.”

In addition to Youkilis’ discontent with the way the President holds himself and behaves is an ideological frustration in the way his administration has begun to allocate its funds.

“The scary part to me is the reallocation of funds which would make this country militant because a lot of these funds would go into military. While at the same time the funds that were allocated to education, art learning and health are being defunded,” she said. “I just think that certain things should not be touched. This government already cut funds to humanities, arts, science research. This is all what made this country great. This is why America had money and energy and resources to do research that helped the whole world.”

As a longtime member of the Clayton community, Youkilis worries that Trump’s legislative actions may pose long-term threats to the quality of a Clayton education.

“These policies and bills are passing the House as we speak so you don't see the results but they will be visible in a year or two because they are even planning on completely eliminating the Department of Education,” Youkilis said. “So you can imagine this from the Clayton [perspective] as a high school that has resources and great teachers. If they don't have that, what kinds of results would the students have and what kind of opportunities would all of you guys have to study and learn and be on top of the game nationwide?”

Youkilis encourages those who are passionate about America and its future – but skeptical about its current politics – to share their opinions and become part of the resistance.

“I think anybody who wants this country to prosper and be a country like it has always been, a moral compass, a research center, an example of the free world, needs to participate to stop this administration from ruining it,” she said.

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+ CLAYTON PARENT

Jessica Del Pilar

By Lila Taylor

CLAYTON PARENT JESSICA DEL PILAR HAS TAKEN TO THE STREETS IN RESPONSE TO THE STATE OF POLITICS Clayton resident Jessica Del Pilar has been participating in the fight against injustice alongside many others in the Clayton community. The Glenridge mother of two has become involved with different groups, marches and Lobby Days for over a year. With the future of her country and her children in mind, Del Pilar is doing what she can to better society, as well as increase her involvement in democracy.

“I started getting involved with Moms Demand Action, a sensible gun law body, with a lobby day in Jefferson City,” Del Pilar said. “I got involved in helping Jason Kander’s campaign.”

As Del Pilar continued her work in the community, the recent election opened her eyes to additional steps she could be taking.

“November 8 came around and I realized that what I was doing was simply not enough,” Del Pilar said.

Del Pilar makes an effort to educate her children on politics, despite the complicated and mature nature of some of the country’s issues.

“It’s very helpful for me to have a conversation with a fifth grader, because it helps me break it down to really what the key issue is and not get lost in all of the elements that surround it,” Del Pilar said.

“Whether you’re talking about abortion or unequal pay or systemic racism - all of those things are hefty topics.”

Del Pilar has taken her children on door knocking campaigns for Jason Kander as well as to St. Louis Lambert International Airport to protest the travel ban. In addition, she and her 10-year-old daughter attended the Women’s march in Washington D.C. “I’ve been going to the Wednesday protests in front of Roy Blunt’s office, I joined a progressive pod, I went to the Pro-Choice march and I keep finding myself needing to check in with how I feel about each experience,” Del Pilar said. “Because you don’t want to blindly follow.

You want to make sure that what you’re doing does align with your

Photo by Michael Melinger.

morals and values.”

To Del Pilar, political involvement is a movement long overdue.

Citizen participation in the local, state and national government is a crucial element in a functioning democracy.

“As a society we’ve done a terrible job of teaching civics in schools and even within our communities,” Del Pilar said. “For that to have been my first trip into an estate house at 37—Democracy is dependent on civic engagement. Outside of writing your check for your candidate and showing up to vote on election day, it seems we have really lost our way.”

Del Pilar has always had a deep desire for fairness and justice, not to mention how this new administration potentially threatens the rights of herself as well as the people she cares about.

“My husband is a first generation American—I’m a twelfth generation American and the perspective that you take is very interesting too,” said Del Pilar. “And as a woman, I think that there are a lot of rights that we very recently have acquired. And not only for myself but for my daughter. To not focus on that would be to fail us both.”

Del Pilar looks to the future with a mindset focused on building and adding to society, instead of merely stopping and protesting actions that she finds unjust.

“Coming off of all of these experiences, I’m finding that while I want to be part of the resistance, I also feel like I don’t always want to be on the defensive side,” Del Pilar said. “What we’re doing only continues this antagonistic approach to everything. I want to be a member of the progress, the forward movement and identifying goals, then achieving those goals. I’ve been to all of these marches, and the women’s march, but that was an introduction to an anthology. I don’t know what this book is or what this chapter in history is going to look like, but this just felt like the start.”

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THE SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT + TEACHERS

THE SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS OFFER PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY AND HOW TO ADDRESS THE CONTROVERSY IN THE CLASSROOM

by Nisha Klein and Mitali Sharma A main component of all history classes is to draw parallels with the events of the past and the events of the contemporary world. The Trump Administration is no exception to this rule and the CHS social studies department is intent on discussing the actions taken in Washington with social studies students.

CHS history teacher Josh Meyers is adamant that these actions must be discussed within our social studies classrooms, despite their controversial content.

“I can’t imagine being a social studies teacher and, regardless of your politics, not being excited to draw parallels and make connections between the past and what’s happening today. If there’s any place that those things should be discussed, it’s in a social studies classroom,” he said. “There are some voices that are very angry at teachers for talking about the issues and sharing their personal thoughts and I can understand that. What I can’t understand is someone saying that this discussion has no business in a social studies classroom.”

Parallels can be easily drawn between today’s political events and the curriculum social studies students are studying.

“I can’t understand someone saying that this discussion has no business in a social studies classroom.”

(Josh Meyers)

“In AP history and sophomore history it’s so easy to make connections between the content that we are currently studying and the election,” Meyers said, providing the example of nativism.

“The era of nativism in the 1850’s looks, sounds, and feels different than the era of nativism today, but there are some important similarities, too.”

Social studies teacher Richard Kordenbrock agrees.

“In the sophomore history class, I think it’s very important because a lot of the issues we talk about - the industrial revolution, New Deal, great society - these things are directly relevant to what we study.”

However, some subjects tend to be more controversial than others. Although most of the teachers discuss nativism in their classrooms, some are hesitant to directly call Trump a nativist.

“I never called Trump a nativist,” Meyers said. “I said Trump has clearly tapped into a fear or concern of immigration and they may not call themselves nativists, but nativism is a phenomenon that has always existed in America, and it ebbs and flows with economic boom and bust.”

Social studies teacher Paul Hoelscher also refrained from labeling the

THE CHS HISTORY DEPARTMENT FACES THE CHALLENGE OF PROPERLY

34

president, however Kordenbrock felt that Trump should be called a nativist, if he were to adhere to nativism’s political definition.

“Why not call him what he is?” Kordenbrock said. “Is that not proper in a history classroom?”

The teachers themselves are concerned about the political climate of the country that resulted from the election.

“I feel like the political race and the campaigns and the way we talk about public policy it is something that I am disgusted by as a teacher of politics,” David Aiello, CHS history and psychology teacher, said. “Our inability for people of different opinions to discuss attacks is very, very troublesome to me because if you go back to our founding as a country, people had incredibly different experiences, feelings, and beliefs, and yet they managed to compromise. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, they got a constitution that still included slavery and obviously there were flaws, but they were able to come to some agreement.”

Meyers agreed, adding that, “political debate and discourse in this country has just disintegrated.”

CHS history teacher Chris Livingston felt that this inability to speak stemmed from extreme polarization between the two dominating political parties which bled into people’s personal lives.

“Americans seem to be on that track of ‘I’m right, so if I’m right and you have the opposite opinions, then therefore you’re wrong.’ And if somebody’s wrong, you don’t want them to win,” Livingston said.

For Aiello, this track is a scary path to be on.

“To me it’s even more. It’s not just that you’re wrong, it’s now that you are stupid, evil, a heretic, whatever. It’s not just that your idea is wrong, it’s that you personally are a bad person,” he said. “The stories of members of congress, from different parties, going out to play softball together, being family friends together, that just doesn’t happen anymore because if you are on that side

of the aisle, you are the enemy, you are trying to destroy our country. That’s just very scary to me that we are in that situation.”

Despite this fear, both Livingston and Aiello believe that this tense climate can and needs to be changed.

“You should be able to knock on your neighbor’s door, have them over for dinner, and not talk politics. And if you do, it shouldn’t turn into a fistfight,” Livingston said.

“To me, maybe the approach is that the swamp of Washington D.C. is so infested that we have to start with local things: school board elections, alderman election, mayoral elections,” Aiello said. “And to start having more civil discourse at that level and slowly build from the ground up.”

Aiello added that the black-or-white approach to politics not only creates further division between the parties, but results in neither side winning.

“All or nothing...you’re gonna get nothing,” he said.

The CHS social studies teachers often have lively discussion during their common lunch break. Photo by Michael Melinger.

DISCUSSING POLITICAL ISSUES IN A TENSE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

35

ATHLETE PROFILE

T A L E N T E D T R Y S TA N Sophomore shines on the CHS boys’ lacrosse team

BY MICHAEL BERNARD / sports section editor

Goette with the ball in the Greyhounds’ game against Fort Zumwalt West.

Photo by Carson Holtzman.

“The first time I ever picked up a stick was when I was at Gay Field playing soccer and there were a few guys playing lacrosse. I asked them what it was and they let me join them,” CHS sophomore and varsity lacrosse starter Trystan Goette said. “They taught me the basics of passing and catching. I went right home and told my mom that I wanted to play lacrosse.”

Goette starting playing the sport in fifth grade with the Junior Hounds and has grown immensely since then.

Since the first day he started playing the foreign game, he has remained dedicated to improving his ability.

“I practice every day in my backyard,” Goette said. “I pass off of my garage wall and shoot on the goal I have set up in my driveway.”

Goette additionally practices with the team at Brittany Woods Middle School during the spring season.

Even though he is an underclassman, Goette acts as one of the go-to leaders on the team.

“I try to motivate and help others,” Goette said. “When I see someone drop a pass, I help them or tell them that they’ll get it next time. If they miss a shot, I’ll help them with what they did wrong and teach them how to do it better next time.”

Dylan Snodgrass is a freshman and is

playing his first year of lacrosse. “[Trystan] is one of the most skilled players on the team,” Snodgrass said. “He helps the newer players when they are struggling and he [congratulates] them when they succeed.”

During the beginning of the season, Snodgrass consistently struggled with perfecting the bounce shot. Goette took Snodgrass under his wing and worked independently with the rookie in order to improve his technique.“He has a good attitude towards the coaches and gives all his effort when playing,” Snodgrass said.

Along with helping out the newcomers on the team, Goette loves the aspect of scoring and leading his team to wins.

Last year during the 2016 season, Goette recorded 27 goals and 13 assists.

During his first game with the Greyhounds last year, Goette assisted the game winning goal with only 30 seconds left to play.

During his first year with the Greyhound’s, Goette never missed a game for an injury: an uncommon occurrence in the sport.

“Last year I got named All-Conference. I just tried out for and made MO22 which is an elite summer club team with some of the best in Missouri,” Goette said. “About 150 kids tried out and I was one of 22 to make

SPORTS 36

the team.” Being only a sophomore, Goette is in the minority as the team primarily consists of juniors or seniors. Goette was selected as an attacker and is the only CHS student to make the team in the last few years.

MO22, which is additionally a non-profit organization, competes in multiple tournaments throughout the summer. Goette must participate in rigorous training sessions throughout the summer weeks.

One of MO22’s goals is to attempt to get the young lacrosse players recruited to the collegiate level: a long term goal for Goette as well.

Goette is already talking to Division-III coaches, but he plans on playing at the Division-I level after high school.

Goette’s goal for the 2017 season is to be named to the All-State team, as well as to record more goals and assists.

According to Goette, he believes the Clayton lacrosse program has grown a lot over the last few years. However, he believes that adolescents interested in the sport should begin playing much earlier in their youth, similar to Goette.

Although Goette dedicates much of his free time to the sport, his commitment to lacrosse does not interfere with his commitment to school.“[Lacrosse] motivates me to work harder in the classroom knowing it could help get me to college,” Goette said.

DAVID DRIVES

BY SOPHIA BARNES AND LISE DERKSEN

CHS sophomore David Cramer is a standout on the boys’ golf team.

The first time his little fingers gripped the handle of his plastic golf club when he was a toddler, CHS sophomore David Cramer fell in love with the sport.

When he was in middle school, he started taking golf more seriously and it has become a dedication for him ever since.

“When I started playing, there was a deal over at the Forest Park course. I decided that I would do that and my parents were working so I would just go over there and hit balls everyday for like five or six hours,” Cramer said.

The next summer, Cramer played again and his passion grew for the sport.

“I really like practicing, I think that hitting the ball is really fun. Most people would say that I am a boring person for liking to go and practice,” he said. “But my favorite thing is to go out for hours at a time.”

Over time, Cramer’s strength as a player has grown by playing in his free time and by participating in some tournaments.

Cramer explored new courses while on vacation in Florida and Mexico and will participate in upcoming tournaments in Nashville and Louisville.

Chris Moody, the CHS golf coach, is impressed with the talent Cramer has.

“David is becoming a quiet meter. People realize that he has a talent, so they like to see what he doing and try and emulate that. He is trying to figure out what he needs to do to become the best player in the conference,” Moody said.

According to student and coach perspectives, golf is a very competitive and skillful sport. It takes a lot of practice and can time out of school.

At the end of the season the team heads out of tow to a tournament and misses over a week of school.

“There is work to make up but it is not that bad. Spending days playing golf is better than being at school,” Cramer said.

Moreover, Cramer enjoys the challenge of crafting his golf skills.

“It is fun when you hit a good shot and it is hard to hit a good shot when you are first starting. You have all these problems and you have to learn to fix everything. You

Photo of Cramer by Patrick Ostapowicz have to change and improve your swing so you not just hit it straight, but you can be consistent with every shot,” Cramer said.

As a freshman, Cramer made the varsity CHS golf team and continues to play at the varsity level for his sophomore season.

Cramer has spent many hours working on his technique and consistency in golf to build up his skills.

“I practiced a lot and I wasn’t really good at first but I just hit ball after ball,” Cramer said. “After a lot of practice you become more consistent.”

Last year the team went to state and this year they are working together to get there

SPORTS 37

again.

“Cramer came in knowing what his game was, but now he is realizing what he needs to do to get better,” Moody said.

Even though golf may feel like an individual sport, the CHS golf team works together to help each other and support everyone to do well so they will be ranked in tournaments.

Cramer saw this difference between being an individual golfer and a team golfer once he entered the CHS team.

“Most golf is individual. [At CHS] you have to work at it as a team and you’re rooting for other people. The team is really fun and I am glad I choose to participate,” Cramer said.

REVIEW

SARDELLA

BY ASHLEIGH AND

Gerard Craft has a new addition to his restaurant empire: Sardella. Residing in the former home of his fine-dining restaurant, Niche, Sardella offers a more fresh and casual dining experience than its posh (but beloved) sister.

Open most hours of the day, Sardella serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. According to its website, “Sardella is an ancient Italian sauce made from sardines, salt and peppers. It’s a vibrant sauce of the sea and the earth, and it serves as inspiration for our space and our cuisine.”

The dishes offer fresh twists on traditional Italian dishes, including Burrata served with Salsa Verde and Toast, or the “Drunken Pappardelle,” a new spin on a Pastaria favorite. The decor of the restaurant is fresh too.

The dozens of colorful sardine tins lining the cabinets, open floor space and long booths make the restaurant feel airy and bright.

The waitstaff is very friendly, talkative and more than willing to explain anything unfamiliar on the menu. Sardella hits all of the notes for a casual restaurant: creative dishes, a comfortable atmosphere, friendly service and, of course, a great burger.

TARA WILLIAMS Photo by Akansha Goel

Begin your path to anywhere this summer or fall

ENROLL NOW AT PATHTOSTLCC.COM

OPINION

THE SILENT MINORITY Does CHS create a safe space for conservative views?

BY ZACHARY SORENSEN / opinion section editor Clayton as a school is tolerant of all races, religions and sexual persuasions.

We have robust student organizations like the BSU, JSU and GSA that represent the interests of large swaths of the diverse and cosmopolitan community within our school.

In addition, we also have a district administration that is willing to take measures to ensure that a safe environment remains within our school, such as the invitation to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over the course of two days; an event which took place in light of the recent acts of hatred which included the desecration of a historic Jewish cemetery and anti-Semitic expression on social media by several students.

This same administration, despite criticism, has sought to uphold the District commitment to the values of trust, accountability and inclusiveness though this event and their recent communications to us. Our District administration should be applauded for seeking inclusion for so many.

However, unfortunately our school has failed to be inclusive, or open minded, or tolerant, of many within our school - those that are conservative or simply moderate in political persuasion.

In doing so our school has played into the insularity and inaccessibility that often and unfortunately defines much of our school’s claimed identity.

A safe space has been created for many students; however, some of the students at our school continue to feel unsafe. They feel unsafe to voice their opinions, or defend their values, or even maintain neutrality in the ideological firefight that has embroiled our nation.

When the Anti-Defamation League came to our school to facilitate a discussion they set some rules of engagement.

The goal of these rules was to establish a space where students felt free to discuss the issues facing our community.

One such rule was that bias is universal, a true statement and one of many critical acknowledgements to be made in most productive discourses.

I myself am biased, so are you and your father and your mother. We aren’t all racists,

or homophobes, or islamophobes, but we all have prejudices that inform our actions and feelings.

The ADL asked us to do our best to set those aside for the sake of a dialogue.

Later, when discussing the event with a girl who self identifies as a liberal she asserted that I was biased.

I insisted I was not. She insisted I was. She insisted that all people were biased, I asked her whom she was biased against and she replied,“I try not to be biased towards anyone of course, but anytime I talk to someone who identifies as a conservative, I do find myself making judgments about them or what they believe.”

This justifiably expands what I had considered to be bias.

Bias is not necessarily towards someone’s race or gender or religion. Bias is simply a positive or negative unfair prejudice towards a group of people.

Bias is by its nature however specifically unfair, it wouldn’t be unfair to associate someone who identifies themselves as conservative with conservative viewpoints - it would be unfair to associate them with the worst elements of their movements or associate them with entirely different political movements.

A negative bias towards conservative voices in Clayton exists, all you need to do is ask conservatives or people who have experienced maintaining political views outside of what is mainstream in Clayton.

People who identify themselves as conservatives put themselves at risk of being associated with the worst of their movement and adjacent movements, such as the altright.

Many people who I’ve spoken to resent the conflation between being a republican, or a conservative and maybe even being in support of Donald Trump with being in support of some of the outrageous things Trump has said.

Matthew Straetker, who attended the inauguration of the President with me during the weeklong Close-Up trip, regularly states

OPINION 39

his political stance as, “supporting the party, not the president.”

Straetker still encounters, however, plenty of flak for harboring anything resembling support for the President with people making gross suppositions regarding his beliefs and personal convictions.

His experiences, naturally, make him reluctant to share his opinions or ideas with people who do not ostensibly share his convictions.

The school has done a great job of working towards the goals created as the mission statement of the District, its stated goal of inclusiveness, “by valuing individual differences and the contributions of a diverse student body and staff,” and of trust, “by building relationships based on integrity, mutual respect and open communication,” and even further accountability, “by aligning our actions and resources with our stated objectives and taking responsibility for the outcomes.”

However they have done just that - made progress on their stated objectives.

The school has expanded its role as an arbiter of dialogue and discussion both in and outside of school.

It has taken on the responsibility to ensure that our students feel safe and are exposed to a diverse environment while they are educated.

The District and the school body should not forget that they have an obligation to treat all their peers with respect If measures are not taken to encourage dialogue among students of differing perspectives - including those of conservatives - we will not be able to accomplish the values our District strives to uphold. If we are not able to expose the student body to a diverse array of opinions they will not be prepared to make educated decisions in a heavily partisan country.

If we want to ‘burst’ the ‘bubble’ that surrounds our community we have to make decisions that expose ourselves and our peers to contrary and diverse opinions.

Finally, if we do not attempt to give a voice to the people who are afraid to speak then those people will remain silent.

PRO/CON

F I N S TA E M P O W E R M E N T

BY KARENA TSE / reporter

Liked by chsglobe and 100 others If you don’t have one, you’re following one: the “fake Instagram,” better known as the “finsta.” Ironically, such profiles offer more “real” representations of girls than we’ve seen online in a while.

When I first noticed the trend, I was confused. What could you possibly need another account for? Is your life that interesting?

Upon reviewing some friends’ newly made finstas, I noticed a couple things: 1) The movement seemed almost exclusively led by girls. 2) The profiles just seemed like more personal versions of their “real” counterparts. And when I made the connection between these two observations, I began to see the true significance of the finsta phenomenon. The only place where girls are subjected to more social pressures and expectations than they are in real life is online.

Photos of the perfect girls everywhere you look -“#goals”, one might say. Flat tummies, tiny waists paired with inexplicably boundless curves, eyeliner so sharp you could cut yourself on it, big eyes, big lips - all effortless, all “off-guard.” Part of how we respond to these standards is through our carefully crafted online presence. The pictures that

make it online are only one of many, vetted for the best lighting, angle and a plethora of other details so miniscule that anyone else would hardly know the difference. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to present yourself in the best light - if there’s one thing 21st century teens have learned by now, it’s that anything you post online never really goes away. But the constant barrage of quasi-models and idealized representations of female life takes a toll. It’s easy to forget that those images aren’t real life. We wonder why our own lives aren’t picture-perfect and we’ve been wondering since the beginnings of popular social media. Some might argue that the recent proliferation of finstas just serves as further evidence of teenaged girls’ obsession with social media.

But I think the finsta is the 21st century girl online’s declaration of imperfection. I see girls posting about being tired, sick, sad, lonely, and lost. Pictures taken for the sole purpose of sharing a moment, and a feeling

OPINION 40

even those of the most unglamorous variety.

And even more striking, I see girls connecting with girls over these feelings.

Supporting each other, diverting from the long-standing tradition of girls one-upping other girls. We’re finally letting our guards down, and I think it’s incredible— even if it’s just to a carefully monitored audience through a private Instagram account.

But this isn’t to say finstas are just virtual pity parties - far from it. In fact, some of the funniest pages I follow happen to be finstas. There are girls I’d been going to school with for years whose unexpectedly crude humor I’d never been lucky enough to see until the finsta movement. Finstas strip away the filters. And this means everything that makes a girl truly herself- her thoughts, her feelings, her sense of humor, no matter how socially unacceptable - are being shared and appreciated. There are battles ahead as we face an administration hostile to women’s rights. But maybe this is where we start - by realizing that the less photogenic parts of female life are not moments to experience alone and with shame; rather, they are how we connect.

PRO/CON

F I N S TA F A K E S

BY ELISE LEVY / page editor

Liked by chsglobe and 2 others With the rise in popularity of fake instrgram account, our Globe reporters debate the pros and cons of this social media movement.

Without a doubt, the Internet grows vaster every day. It seems every second we are clicking, tweeting, posting, commenting and replying. We can’t put our phones down.

The emergence of finsta culture or “Fake Instagrams” is a part of this growth. To be easily defined, a finsta is a social media platform which more and more teenagers are creating to expose their “real selves.”

Optimistically, these accounts are permeated with funny pictures, inside jokes and candid moments of daily life. Yet, if you take a closer look, finstas can contain a little bit of darkness. Not only do people take the opportunity to rant and complain about their so called “problems,” but these accounts can swiftly shapeshift into hidden forms of hate speech. What some may call teen angst, others may call cyberbullying.

I cannot speak for all finstas, yet if this is the account that represents “the real you,” what message does that send? The phrase finsta itself is derived from the word fake. So, if this is a phony account, but it is exposing the real you, what does that say about you as a person? Thus, is the content on your main account an accurate representation of your and your life? I can’t help but acknowledge the irony of these fake accounts that expose the real you.

In an article by Valeriya Safronova, in the New York Times called “On Fake Instagram, a Chance to Be Real,” Trinity College student Amy Wesson talks about her finsta: “You post things you wouldn’t want people other than your friends to see, like unattractive pictures, random stories about your day and drunk pictures from parties.”

OPINION 41

Yet, if you wouldn’t want anybody but friends to see this photo or this caption, should you be posting it at all?

Over the past decade, there has been endless talk about the diminishing amount of privacy in one’s life due to the development of technology and the obliviousness of its users. Now more than ever, our lives are public. You may think you know how Instagram or Snapchat works and who is on the other side of that screen, but there is no real certainty to that assumption.

Privacy implies confidentiality. Confidentiality is to be respected, kept from the public eye.

So do you want to be public or private?

Are you going to be upfront with your followers, who should be your friends, or are you perpetuating a fake version of yourself? .

OPINION

S TA F F E D : R O A D T O A C C E P TA N C E THE GLOBE’S DISTRICT RECOMMENDATIONS ON DIVERSITY Over the past months the Clayton community has been in a state of crisis over increasing instances of hate-speech. These incidents are not the result of a new problem, but are merely bringing to light a problem that has ailed the Clayton community since its onset.

These instances of hate speech have stemmed from cultural insensitivity and a lack a full awareness of what might be offensive to others.

Clayton has always been a stellar school when it comes to academics - we consistently place on national lists of the best public schools, our standardized test scores are off the charts, and we send kids off to amazing colleges ready to tackle any level of academic rigor.

But academic education is only one portion of the education of the “whole child.”

What good does this academic education do if students are sent out undeveloped in other areas such as cultural sensitivity and awareness?

The School District of Clayton raises many students from 18-months when they first teeter into the Family Center to 18-years-old when they stride across the stage to receive their diploma.

And in these years students spend eight hours a day for the better part of the year in school buildings.

So regardless of what you think the limits of a public education should be, it is clear that the School District of Clayton

has a profound effect on shaping children in their most formative years.

Some community members argue that it is not the responsibility of the Clayton administration to deal with the “personal” issues of hate-speech of the students - that the job of the district is to educate its students not regulate their speech. However, the School District of Clayton administration has already taken upon itself this responsibility.

The handbook of the School District of Clayton outlines the five “core values” of the District one being, “to model and promote inclusiveness by valuing individual differences and the contributions of a diverse student body and staff ” and further another is “to model and promote accountability by aligning our actions and resources with our stated objectives and taking responsibility for the outcomes.”

The Clayton administration is stating that it is their responsibility to promote an inclusive environment and that they must take accountability for making actionable changes and allocating resources in alignment with stated objectives such as this.

The District has promised the Clayton community that it will take action to support an inclusive environment, but a lot of the action the District has taken has been reactionary to negative situations as opposed to implementing sustainable proactive changes.

The District has put into place measures

that they can point to when accused of not doing their part to ameliorate the diversity and inclusiveness of the Clayton community, however we must take a proactive stance on these issues rather than a reactive one.

One important, yet often neglected, way to build cultural sensitivity and tolerance is in the curriculum itself. The majority of the western history we learn about is dominated by white colonial powers and most of the literature is by white men.

This is hard to avoid because of the nature of our nation’s history.

Our studies of the history and literature of foreign cultures is ancillary to our mission of getting educated in the western canon and western history.

Clayton High School offers a senior elective history class called African American History, but how much of this course should be part of the mandatory curriculum of all students not just a handful of volunteering seniors?

The District’s recruitment of the Anti Defamation League (ADL), while a y direct reaction to instances of hate speech on social media, was a good start in taking action.

However it should be just that: a start.

Our eyes now turn to the administration to see what their next actions will be and if they make any real actionable and longterm changes. It is our position that the District should consider the following actions to meet that goal of long-term changes. II

1. Diversity Curriculum Coordinator - a position dedicated to supporting the incorporation of issues of diversity and equity into the District curriculum.

2. Teacher Professional Development - Training for new, and current, District teachers on how to incorporate and work with students on issues of diversity and equity in the classroom. This should be a sustained PD effort.

OPINION 42

GLOOB

G L O O B : T H E S AT I R E MAGAZINE GAMER PROFILES

BY JUSTIN GUILAK, SEAN KIM, JACOB LAGESSE

While the AP students and student athletes complain about their stressful lives, hardcore student gamers carry the biggest weight.

“I find it too hard to manage my homework when I have to put in at least six hours a day to Overwatch,” said a hardcore gamer at Clayton who goes by the alias ‘Diamond’.

“If I go ham at school, I’ll never hit top 500,” Diamond said.

Diamond’s hard work, however, has paid off.

According to MasterOverwatch.com, he is in the top 5000 players in the US, out of millions.

He recently reached “Grandmaster,” the highest available rank in the game. In addition, he was drafted for a professional Esports team, as well as being hired to coach a lower-level team and to “boost” other players to higher ranks using “smurf ” accounts, in exchange for various gifts.

“Most people don’t consider gaming to be as important as other extracurricular activities, such as sports,” Diamond said. “They think that it’s easy to reach the point I’m at in my gaming career. They don’t understand

the struggle of having to carry your team because you get queued with a Hanzo main.

My friends call me sad because I grind to much. Stop Grinding? The Grind Never Stops.”

Another high rated CHS student who goes by the username ‘Thumb’, struggles with balancing the time he spends with friends and pursuing his career.

“Nobody knows the challenge of trying to carry a whole team. I have friends who are lower ranked than me, so I can’t really play with them. And when I do, they throw and ruin my rank. So I basically don’t play with them anymore,” Thumb said.

To increase his gaming time, Thumb plans to take a one year leave from CHS, leaving all his friends to level up in game.

Some CHS gamers are so devoted to their pastime that they even play during school hours. STEM teacher Stephen Beauchamp, who has the only PC computer lab in CHS, especially struggles with this issue.

“PCs are obviously superior to Macs for gaming,” said a computer science student.

“Also, [Beauchamp’s] classes aren’t important so it’s only logical that I spend my time in that room gaming. How will learning about STEM ever help me later in life?”

“There are kids who come into my room during their lunch just to play games” Beauchamp said. “It gets annoying to have to uninstall pirated video games from the school computers every night.”

Some determined students have figured

GLOOB 43

out ways they can continue to play games discreetly without the aid of a computer or phone. Two freshmen last year gained school-wide notoriety for installing various games, such as Super Mario, 2048 and Pokémon onto their Ti-nspire graphing calculators.

“I was so stealthy none of my teachers even had the faintest idea I was actually playing video games,” one of the freshmen said.

“It was so obvious he was playing on his calculator,” said one of their teachers. “Who spends the whole period furiously graphing equations in the back of the room?”

The duo even offered to install the games on other students’ calculators for the “small” price of five dollars, but nobody did this because with the same money one could purchase five pop tarts from the school cafeteria.

This gaming craze is not limited to students.

“Yes, I have played Overwatch,” CHS teacher and parent Gabriel de la Paz said. “I was not very good.” Despite his short Overwatch career, Gabe was often seen playing My Singing Monsters, even stopping class to compare his island with that of his students’.

Among many others, students have reported on math teacher Kyle McCord’s World of Warcraft gaming habits, history teacher Chris Livingston’s Skyrim gameplay and math teacher Kurt Kleinberg’s Steam account.

On an average visit to the school library, more than 90 percent of the students can be seen hunched over phones or computers, furiously tapping their screens or pressing buttons.

It is not uncommon to find 15-20 sophomore boys crowded around a single table, all playing separate matches in Clash Royale. A few months ago, the game would have been Geometry Dash or My Singing Monsters.

One can only guess what game will come next.

GLOOB

NEWS

and goats Brown Goat

Very cute nice goat... soft fur... very strong... can perform basic agricultural tasks... pull plow and wheelbarrow, small cart weighing less than three stones...cart can have three wheels four wheels… not six six too many for small cute brown goat.

White Goat

Very nice goat… like cloud… makes very good goat wool… shear every three months…goat wool make good hat good scarf good sweater… like sheep wool but softer smoother less rough… also make good blanket… good warm for winter summer year round… goat very nice.

Black Goat Very strong goat… great goat muscles… very tall long legs can carry water… water from deep well… very cold water very fresh many minerals… goat like to eat much… eat very much plant… especially eat bread… like most the rye… not like butter on bread only margarine… black goat also make fresh tasty milk… tasty but drink too much make sick.

Grey Goat Grey goat not good for much… always say ‘beh beh beh’... at least make tasty meat… very easy to slaughter… goat no fight much… not lot of blood if chop in right spot… only need three kilo salt dry blood… can cook on open flame or toaster oven… meat very tender and juicy… more lean flavorful than beef.

on the rituals of western men A fundamental and undying craving for purpose, belonging and understanding has always permeated the psyche of the human race.

From the first syllable of recorded time onward, these base needs have been addressed in myriad fashions by varied and diverse societies. One of the most common means by which humans have done so, as evidenced by its commonality across our planet, is through various methods of worship.

Some, of course, are rather peculiar: the polytheist Maya, for instance, worshiped the sun, while the Indians of the plains jived with the sacred roaming buffaloes.

No means of worship, however -- in the entire musical of man -- I venture to declare is more curious and perplexing than that which I have discovered during my most recent travels in the New World.

The succeeding paragraphs have been excerpted from my travel journals, and were written during my exploration of the great Columbian continent and her inhabitants.

At the confluence of two great rivers lies

a massive, roofless, unmistakable house of worship. At any time, the great cathedral is capable of seating perhaps 50,000 devotees.

During the summer months especially, cult members pour into the cathedral to engage in a peculiar three hour Long Stick-White Sphere ceremony, only to depart thereafter, leaving the cathedral entirely empty. This strange sacrament is repeated on a nearly quotidian basis. The purpose of this daily liturgy I have yet to even remotely ascertain -- but allow me now to describe the ceremony in greater detail, for the benefit my reader.

Approximately half an hour prior to the commencement of the ritual, cult members -- ornamented primarily in garments of red and white - passionately fill the cathedral’s 50,000 seats. By the time the ceremony begins, nearly all of the seats are occupied. The seating is arranged in a fashion such that each chair faces the stage on which the ceremony occurs, which is really no more than a pitch of compulsively manicured grass and dirt. At the sacrament’s start, nine men,

dressed exactly the same - monks, perhaps?

- enter the pitch from an underground bunker, much to the delight of the cult, as evidenced by their cheers. These nine monks, it appears, are the leaders of this enigmatic rite.

But even among these monks, there exists a rigid hierarchy.

One monk, for instance, is clearly more significant than the others; he stands atop a ridge of raised dirt, and consistently launches a small spherical object to a fellow monk.

In kind with his eight counterparts, however, this monk evidently answers to an even more powerful monk. Dressed in dark blue from head to toe, the king monk seems to evaluate the launches of the mound monk and commands such power that the simple flick of his wrist elicits immediate responses of anger and pleasure from the entire cathedral.

This ceremony and the participants therein can only be described as utterly incomprehensible and bizarre. It is, to me, plainly evident that these Columbians are mindless savages, enthralled by odd rite over which they have no control.ii .

B Y U LY S S E S a n d W AY N E W I N T E R S / g l o o b s e c t i o n e d i t o r s REAL NEWS 44

GLOOB

big herd very healthy goat... watch out for stampede! (Photos from George).

tasty tacos

a visit to the

legendary taco bell

B Y U LY S S E S a n d W AY N E W I N T E R S / g l o o b s e c t i o n p r e d a t o r s For a taco connoisseur such as myself, ever since unfortunate closing of the Del Taco on MacCausland, I had been without a worthy establishment to satiate my craving for the finest in folded foods. But this hiatus is over.

Taco lovers rejoice! Our modest midwestern town has been graced by a branch of the esteemed and wildly-popular taco chain, Taco Bell!

Though it is a bit of a drive from the old digs of Del Taco on MacCausland down to Taco Bell on Skinker, it is most definitely worth it!

The facade of the building is an innovative fusion of architectural styles, flawlessly fixing together a mission-revival style with the look of 1980s American cookie-cutter fast-food chains. Walking through the glass doors, I couldn’t help but think of the gleaming doors of our beloved Del Taco.

Taco Bell appears to have borrowed many of Del Taco’s stylistic trademarks: light grey tile floors, humming fluorescent lighting, enlarged photographs of tacos plastered on the windows with prices painted on the window in neon green.

Even the moniker Taco Bell is brilliantly constructed. “Taco,” a clear homage to

Del Taco, instantly lets the customer know the specialty dish. “Bell” not only recognizes the achievements of gastronomic auteur and Taco Bell founder Glen Bell, but also the bell as a symbol of liberty and American freedom, values instilled in this popular taco chain.

There wasn’t much of a line when I visited. This didn’t come as much of a surprise, since I had strategized to go at 3 P.M. as to avoid the crowds of culinary pilgrims who I’ve been told regularly flock to Taco Bell at lunch and dinner. The service was impressively quick, even by Del Taco standards.

Within minutes of ordering, my meal was ready.

Because of the name Taco Bell, I resolved to order a taco. I asked the man in front of me in line for a recommendation and he told me to get a crunchy taco.

Don’t quote me on this because it’s probably not true, but I heard somewhere Taco Bell uses only humanely and sustainably raised meats and plants sourced from local farms.

The restaurant expertly pairs proportions of meat with a soy and oat based mixture to create the perfect texture of meat while having the minimum required percentage to legally be called meat.

The quality of these ingredients shines through in Taco Bell’s simple preparations. The restaurant’s eponymous dish is served on either soft flour, soft corn or crispy corn tortillas, and simply trimmed with lettuce and cheese. A “supreme” option is offered with added fixings, but I decided not to get too adventurous on my first visit.

Much as our beloved Del Taco sold hamburgers, Taco Bell’s expansive menu is not limited solely to tacos. The menu features many southwestern classics updated for modern tastes. A clever pairing of Mexican and Italian cuisines shines on the aptly named “Mexican Pizza.”

Perhaps most surprising about Taco Bell was the beverage selection. The flagship offering was a flavor of Mountain Dew known as “Baja Blast.” This new twist on a proud Pepsi product had my tastebuds grinning gleefully. I could not believe how a small chain of taco stands could have the power to get a beverage behemoth to produce a specially-ordered flavor.

It’s been a month since my last visit and I can’t stop thinking about Taco Bell.

I would go back, but I don’t remember where it is.

REAL NEWS 45

GLOOB QUIZ

who is your spirit teacher?

Question 3: What is your biggest pet peeve? a; Up-talkers who finish every sentence with the phrase, “I know -- right?!?” b: People who call non-nuclear destructive devices, "weapons of mass destruction." Same people who say "Nucular." c: Wasting Time d: Slackers! e: Ignorance, rudeness, and social media posts that share too much! I'm sorry, I couldn't limit it to just one.

2: What does your perfect day look like? a: Sitting on the big, comfy couch located on my screened-in porch, simultaneously contemplating the woods, watching birds, reading great words, and drinking various forms of delightfully quaffable beverages with my husband. b: Sunny and 75, with a 6 pound walleye hooked to an 8 pound test in a crystal clear Canadian Lake, with the Opeongo Range in the background. c: Sleeping past 5:30 AM (a rarity), having a lovely cafe mocha with Eggs Benedict for breakfast. Then playing Pebble Beach, cooking a great meal for my family and friends while overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and finishing the day watching the Montreal Canadians win the Stanley Cup.

d: Good food, a good book, a nap, a bike ride in the countryside, blue skies, sunshine and 70 degrees. e: I am on a Caribbean beach: booked in a 5 star hotel, early morning run on the beach, fresh local fruit for breakfast, shopping through lunch, lobster and steak for dinner, and lastly, dancing the night away.

1: What’s your catchphrase? a. “YES” b. “Cubs Suck” c. “Don’t forget to change your S-I-G-N sign.” d. “I’m here til’ seven!” e. “Too Much!”

Question 4: What do you want to be when you grow up? a: An ornithologist b: Peter Pan c: Player in the NHL d: Work in the FBI or Secret Service. e: An 80-year-old health guru who looks like she's 50.

Question 5: If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be? a: Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Abraham Lincoln, and Johnny Carson -- my version of Mount Rushmore b: Galileo Galilei or Raquel Welch c: All 4 of my grandparents d: Sandra Day O'Connor, because she was the US Supreme Court's first woman, as well as a moderate who rose above partisan ideology and considered both sides before making a decision. I admire that!! e: Oprah!

B: Nathan Peck, Science Superstar

A: Sue Teson, English Afficionado

If you chose mostly...

C: Chris Moody, Math Master E: Kayra Merrills, Spanish Scholar

D: Debra Wiens, History Hero

BY LISI LEVY and CAMILLE RESPESS REAL NEWS 46

Photos by Michael Melinger and Katherine Sleckman

GLOOB

mourning the assassins

BY LISI LEVY / page editor Lauren Aiello, grade 12

Lauren Aiello took her final breath on Tuesday Mar. 14 at approximately 1:26 PM. Seconds after receiving the revelatory text message, delivering the news that she was a top 10 finalist in the game, Aiello was lured into deadly territory at the Thespian Troupe bake sale. With the final words, “Can I get an oreo ball please?” Aiello was attacked from behind by none other than her “best friend” and nefarious assassin, Hannah Ryan. In this backstabbing betrayal, Aiello suffered two gruesome blows to the neck and died promptly after. Aiello would like to bid farewell to her cat Teddy, sisters Katie and Sarah, and mother Janis.

To her father, CHS psychology teacher, David Aiello she asks, “Why did you teach me psychology when you could have taught me to defend myself against assassins?” Now that she has passed, local Clayton Theater celebrity from recent smash hit “Hairspray,” David Troy Blake, will be taking her place as the leading role in SRM, “Sweet Charity.”

Naaja Kirkland, grade 12

At approximately 12:08 during Spanish Conversation on Feb. 22, Naaja Kirkland met his maker in the halls of CHS. Spanish teacher Kayra Merrills scolded Kirkland as he tried to eat a bag of ribs in class. When dismissed to eat his ribs outside, Kirkland found himself defenseless and alone in the hallway. Kirkland was called back into class by fellow classmate, assassin Gaby Lask. He thought he was safe. Kirkland has never been more wrong. He stepped toward the door, ready to walk back into class just as Lask crossed the border from safe zone (the classroom) into the hallway and made her attack. Kirkland took a blow to the neck by the fatal red marker and lost his life. It was then that he heard Merrills laughing uncontrollably from inside the classroom and knew that his entire class had been plotting against his life. Kirkland would like to wish his parents goodbye and thank them for the life they’ve provided him. Kirkland hopes Merrills can live with herself being an accomplice to a valuable Clayton student’s death such as his. His final words were, “She better hope I don’t get her the next round, or else she won’t be around for long.”

Photos by Katherine Sleckman

Eli Hayward, grade 12

It was a dark and stormy day when Eli Hayward stepped into the deadliest trap of the game yet. On Mar. 15 at approximately 4:44 PM, Hayward was cajoled by the ghost of dead player Lauren Aiello into an evil plot by his assassin, Brittany Blinder.

Blinder, a member of the “Sweet Charity” orchestra was in cahoots with Aiello’s ghost, creating a lethal pair. Hayward was all business, trying to go over dance steps with his stage girlfriend in the hallway, when suddenly Blinder delivered a stealthy swipe to the neck from behind. Blinder caught him at his most vulnerable, while dancing, and proved to be the most bloodthirsty clarinet player on earth. Hayward’s last words to Blinder were, “Well played.” He’d like to say goodbye to Mary Kate Gelzer, who he will miss more than everyone else in this cruel, cruel world. Hayward would like to tell his father, CHS English teacher Adam Hayward, that “he’s not as cool as he thinks.” Lastly, Hayward’s parting words to the world will forever remain, “Never think about physics. It will solve all your problems.”

Grace Monshausen, grade 12

On Friday, Feb. 24 at approximately 9:56 AM, Grace Monshausen was ambushed by once seemingly sweet assassin, Tamar Sher.

While waiting for her own prey to pass by in the hallway, Monshausen entered into conversation with Sher. Monshausen claims she did not think anything of it as Sher is “just nice like that!” Unassuming Sher snuck back into the classroom, grabbed her weapon, and struck when Monshausen was least expecting it. Dedicated athlete and friend, Monshausen would like to say goodbye to Amy Monshausen, her best friend.

She’d also like to extend a special thank you to CalcChat for always being there for her.

She wants the world to remember to always buy nuts and mangoes at Trader Joe’s.

Finally, she asks her loving fans to plant a banana tree in her honor. Her last words were, “Trust No one. No one is trustworthy.

Even people you think are nice, they’re gonna getcha!”

R E A L N E W S 47

Lauren Aiello

Eli Hayward Grace Monshausen

Naaja Kirkland

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