Globe Newsmagazine, March 2021, Issue 6, Vol. 92

GL BE educating america . VOLUME 93 . ISSUE 6 .

CLAYTON HIGH SCHOOL. CLAYTON, MO. MARCH 2021.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! The Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. We receive no funding from the school district for printing. Each issue of the Globe costs approximately $2000 to print.

We are deeply grateful to our sponsors for their support of our publication. They make our work possible. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email us at globe@claytonschools.net.

ISSUE SPONSORS ($2000 Level) Gail Workman Clayton Education Foundation

PANDEMIC PATRONS Mark and Krista Sucher Sultan Meghji Qinghong Wang Julie Taylor Matthew Bower Olivia Marcucci Anneliese Schaefer Layla Guillen Tim Erlin Michael Reed Erin Sucher-O’Grady James Zahniser Kimberly Carroll Peggy Guest Laura Pierson David Lotsoff Jessica Millner Siram Venugopalan Jannette Rusch

Patrick and Chris Win Ann Zahniser Katie and Mark Sandquist Raihana Omri Elizabeth Cuneo Eudora Olsen Dave Zahniser Chris Meisl Ying Ma Mary Modzelewski Matt Erlin Kathy and Jeff Wilkerson Radha Krishnaswamy Susana Erlin The Bruegenhemkes Will Murphy Izzy Greenblatt Kelly Weygandt Marisa Johnson

Rachel Zahniser Aimee and Matt Snelling Linda Piecynski Phillip Lee The Naemi Family The Jerath Family Allison Creighton The Park Family Molina Dayal Janette Rusch Monica Mills David Zahniser Jim Zahniser Lan Yang Steven Bassnett Kiranmayi Mungara Nicole Svobodny David Stine Furniture

GOLDEN GREYHOUND SPONSORS ($200+ Level) St. Louis Suit Company Clayton All in Coalition Van’t Hof Family Cobblestone Quality Shoe Repair The Retina Institute Yeung Realtors

DTLS Landscape Architecture Dale Avenue Pediatrics Windsor Dave Stine Woodworking Alicia Espe

WORLD TRAVELER SPONSORS ($100+ Level) The LaGesse Stanton Family Bob and Betsy Cuneo The Stemmler Family Ann Sachar The Chung Family Washington University Physicians Allergy & Immunology Clinics

Mary and Dick Anthony Robin and Neil Snelling Maya Jerath and Sanjoy Baruah Venkatesh Narayan Gita Krishnaswamy Christy Hager DDS Angela and Troy Quinn

The Erlin Family The Family of Lary Baker Kay Quinn Malone Andrew Nadin Christy Auston Marica and Josip Kos

The pit orchestra practices in a socially distanced setting inside the black box theater.

DAVID BLAKE , PHOTOGRAPHER

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prom probe Alexandra Hagemeister, Max Hagemeister and Daphne Kraushaar explain the pros and cons of prom.

the problem of pay ss 15 Kaitlyn Tran examines staff pay in the CHS Learning Center.

lupin 39 review

Luka Bassnett reviews the hit French TV show Lupin.

CONTENTS 3

GL BE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

STAFF

REPORTERS

Sofia Erlin and Shane LaGesse

Owen Auston-Babcock

Charlie Miller

CHIEF DIGITAL EDITOR

Stella Bishop

Kirby Miller

Jenna Bush

Isaac Millians

Rachel Chung

Ruby Nadin

Alexandra Cohen

Medha Narayan

Cecilia Dupor

Katherine Perrin

Isabel Erdmann

Abby Rosenfeld

Maya Goldwasser

Alex Slen

Isra Kayani

Samuel Smith

Tatum Ladner

Leo Taghert

Enoch Lai

Andrew Thompson

Chloe Lin

Sophia Thompson

SECTION EDITORS

Sophia Lu

Estella Windsor

Alex Hagemeister and Ruthie Pierson, NEWS

Ella McAuley

Annie Xiao

Emma Baum and Seraphina Corbo, FEATURE

Samantha McDonough

Siddhi Narayan

CHIEF MANAGING EDITOR Angela Xiao

SENIOR MANAGING EDITORS Ella Cuneo Lulu Hawley Noor Jerath Kaitlyn Tran Yiyun Xu

Ivy Reed and Disha Chatterjee, OPINION

ART EDITOR

Kaia MIlls-Lee and Cece Cohen, SPORTS

Sonali Dayal

Kate Freedman and Moriah Lotsoff, REVIEW Max Keller, PRO/CON

COPY EDITORS Vivian Chen and Margy Mooney

PAGE EDITORS

PHOTO EDITOR Eli Millner

PHOTOGRAPHERS Natalie Ashrafzadeh Cecilia Baer

Luka Bassnett

Ana Mitreva

Audrey Deutsch

Isabella Bamnolker

Sofia Mutis

Davia Goette

Chloe Creighton

Rachel Liang

Maci Klaus

Sahi Gokaraju

Naveed Naemi

Monica Klein

Thomas Guftafson

Emma Raine

Avery Kleinhenz

Max Hagemeister

Sophie Srenco

Lily Kleinhenz

Sasha Keller

Sophie Yoshino

Whitney Le

Daphne Kraushaar

Haley Lewis Amy Ma Sophie Matiszik Deborah Park Maya Richter Emma Stipanovich Kendall Turner Anna Walsh Esther Wang Angela Wirthlin

Professional Affiliations: Journalism STL, Missouri Interscholastic, Press Association, Missouri Journalism Education Association, Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association Please visit chsglobe.com for our editorial policy, mission statement, and ethics code. You can contact us at chsglobe@claytonschools.net with comments, story ideas or letters to the editor.

from the editor Education isn’t easy. It isn’t supposed to be easy. For students, it’s hours of sitting in uncomfortable desks. For teachers, it’s cranking out endless lesson plans and struggling to keep students engaged. The grind of the education system has become especially real this year, as Zoom after Zoom has left teachers and students alike burnt out and exhausted.

But when I think about my experience with education, I don’t just remember the day-today grind. I don’t just remember the sleep deprivation of high school, the boredom of fifth grade, the frustration of middle school. As I’ve grown up, I’ve started to see the big picture.

As students, it’s so easy for us to take a cynical view of the education system. It’s easy to shrug off the efforts of our teachers as simply adding to the day-to-day monotony of school. It’s easy to think about the education system as nothing but a compulsory step to endure on the way to college, and that mentality has become even more prevalent recently.

In fact, over the past year I’ve noticed a lot of cynicism even in the national debate over education. The pandemic has exposed a massive digital divide and sweeping lack

of access to broadband infrastructure. A nationwide teacher shortage has left districts struggling to retain staff. The efforts of teachers’ unions have been largely ignored, both by the Trump administration for the majority of the pandemic and by President Biden, whose campaign relied heavily on support and endorsement from these unions. Missouri teachers will not be eligible for the vaccine until mid-March; even states where they are eligible have experienced distribution delays and restricted access to vaccination for educators.

I’ve also observed a general low mood among teachers and students here at CHS. We’ve lost the liveliness of the hallways and the buzzing collaboration of science classrooms, journalism offices and rehearsal rooms. The crowds in the hallways are thinned out; the teachers are struggling to balance Zoom and in-person hybrid classes; motivation is low among many students. When it feels like education has been so neglected nationwide, a lot of us are missing a sense of purpose behind the difficulty of the day-to-day.

We show up to school every day because it’s required by law. Our teachers show up to

school every day because it’s their job. But our parents also sent us to public school for a reason, and our teachers went into education for a reason. It’s because they believed in the radical, yet simple, promise of equality that public education holds out. That promise has yet to be fulfilled, but millions of us remain committed to it. For this issue we interviewed academics, parents and teachers who share that commitment, despite their understanding of the deep flaws in the education system.

It’s important to remember that public education as we know it in this country has only begun developing over roughly the last two centuries. If we as students and we as a society put our collective belief in its power even when it’s easy to lose hope, we’ll be one step closer to the values public education was formed on.

ivy reed

OPINION SECTION EDITOR EDITOR’S LETTER 5

theory of relativity

Sophomore Ariana Kroeger preforms in the CHS musical production of Theory of Relativity which streamed online from Feb. 25 to Feb. 28. 2021.

Photo by Dr. Pieper

COVID MUTATIONS The mutations of COVID have been found in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil and have been spread to other countries, concerning many scientists around the world. The coronavirus makes copies of itself whenever it infects a new host. These copies of the coronavirus contain small differences from the original sample; these are called mutations.

Most of the time these tiny changes are not a cause for concern, but occasionally a significant mutation occurs and the structure of the COVID virus changes. With more infections comes the possibility of more mutations. These new mutations of coronavirus, like the one that originated in the U.K., are soon to be more contagious than that of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan.

NEWS & NOTES COVID UPDATE

WINTER WEATHER

On February 22, the U.S. reached 500,000 COVID-19 deaths. More Americans have died of COVID-19 than those who died in the Vietnam War, World War I and World War II combined. The 500,000 citizens who have died from COVID make up 20% of the world’s recorded COVID fatalities. In Missouri, there have been 518,796 COVID cases since the outbreak, and 8,330 deaths related to COVID.

VACCINE UPDATE As of late February 12.1% of Missourians have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, and 5.7% of Missourians have been fully vaccinated.

NEWS 8

In mid-February, the U.S. faced frigid cold weather in many states. Snow, freezing temperatures, ice, terrible road conditions and power outages affected many people all over the country. In Texas, hundreds of thousands of people were left in these terrible conditions for days on end, suffering through the extreme cold temperatures without power. This deadly freeze has resulted in Biden declaring a disaster declaration in order to help the state recover from this devastation.

ruthie pierson & alexandra hagemesiter NEWS SECTION EDITORS

BODY PARTS

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PUZZLE BY THOMAS GUSTAFSON

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ANSWERS CPR CH I OAK OR A S I DE A CHE ODD M I C R ON C AM I OTA HA LO P E EP ORB S O SL O S P EW C E L L UN I T S ANE S I T E E GO S US E R HD ME D S T R I NG E S T WH I S P E R S HO P RAP DNA Y E S “The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.”

CROSSWORD

4. Which company’s vaccine was approved for emergency use on Feb. 27? a. Pfizer & Biontech c. AstraZeneca b. Moderna d. Johnson & Johnson 5. These structures have gained popularity as outdoor seating shelters in cold weather. a. Tipis c. Cabins b. Yurts d. FEMA Tents

perhaps 18. Maximum amount (super-superlative) 20. Rate of work 22. Item worth 50 to 200 Monopoly dollars 31. Baseball statistics: abbr.

32. Leave, slangily 35. Sneaker, e.g.

36. Information for detectives 37. One might be quirky and pedantic 38. ___ Torino 40. “How Come?”

41. Massage Parlor

1-B 2-A 3-D 4-D 5-B

2. On February 25, the house passed this extensive LGBTQ+ rights bill. a. Equality Act c. LGBTQ+ Incorporated b. Love is Love Act d. Civil Rights Act II 3. This show won Best Drama at the Golden Globes. a. The Mandalorian c. Lovecraft Country b. Ozark d. The Crown

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3. Fundamental circle segments 4. Chocolate in a packet 5. Classical violinist Hilary 6. Mike’s candy partner 10. Friendly prefix?

11. It can be realist or surrealist 12. Only marsupial native to North America 13. Hate 14. Like many of Trump’s tweets 16. Utter destruction 17. White elephants,

1. An iceberg the size of this city recently broke off of Antarctica. a. San Francisco c. Toronto b. St. Louis d. Oklahoma City

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Try to answer some questions pulled from the news quiz reporters take each week during Globe meetings.

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NEWS QUIZ

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NEWS QUIZ

This unconventional crossword puzzle is divided into four “parts.” Certain clues in each of these quadrants connect in some way to one or more of the other quadrants. When solved, the contents of the circled squares, outlined answers and middle clue will reveal a noble truth revered by the Clayton Science Department.

ACROSS 1. Common health class 28. Online destination requirement 29. Rational 4. Tai ___ 30. Visitor of 28-Across, 7. Singer Rita perhaps 8. Tree that can be black 31. 1080p graphics, e.g. or white 33. They can be super, 9. Runner’s peeve according to Freud 12. Like 2021 but not 2020 34. ___ School (where 15. Little bit one might go to study 16. Word with web or sky 26-Across) 19. Easter candy 35. Type of cheese or bean 21. Little bit 39. Found, for short 22. Game where you fight 40. Sounds in the wind or the Covenant dark, maybe 23. Capital of Norway 42. Rabbit’s step 24. Some weaver spiders 43. Spit, say 25. Sputter 44. Affirmative for a prog26. What 26-Across is rock band? inside of... or the 45. Some content of container of the circled 26-Across letters rearranged, otherwise known as DOWN 20- and 22-Down 1. adj/hyp combined 2. “___ and proper” 27. 15-Across, for one (behaved)

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PUZZLES 9

NEW VACCINE PLAN? The Globe explores the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in Missouri.

A mass COVID-19 vaccination event was held Wednesday in Leopold, Missouri, a town of just 69 people. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

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s vaccine distribution begins, people around the country have already experienced difficulty and inequality within the process. This situation has become even more problematic for the citizens of Missouri, particularly in St. Louis County. Many states have struggled to vaccinate their populations proportionally; Missouri’s difficulties bring the state to a whole different level.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control Prevention and The New York Times, only 382,552 doses of the vaccine have been administered, meaning only 4.8% of the Missouri population has been vaccinated against COVID-19. This leaves Missouri tied with Idaho for last place in vaccinated percentage.

This is not the only issue Missouri is facing with regards to the COVID-19 vaccine. The St. Louis region has been receiving less than half the vaccines it should be based on population.

In regards to distribution, Missouri is split into nine regions. Of the state’s population, 37% live in region C, which includes St. Louis and neighboring counties. These 2.2 million people should be receiving 34,000 doses per week out of the 93,000 available. However, the health care system in Region C has only been getting around 15,600 doses per week. Additionally, the mass vaccine events and clinics do not appear to be based on population either.

Dr. Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, took notice and began to speak out about the issues with vaccine

NEWS 10

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OUR COMMITTMENT AND OUR EXPECTATION IS THAT WE WILL WORK TOWARDS ACHIEVING REGIONAL BALANCE...

OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO GET A GOOD SENSE OF PARITY ACROSS ALL THE REGIONS. distribution in Missouri.

“At the mass vaccination events, about 2,000 people are vaccinated. While that can be a significant portion of the population in more rural regions, that’s a drop in the bucket for Region C,” said Garza.

Because of these concerns, government and hospital officials in the state of Missouri created a new plan.

Adam Crumbliss, director of the public health division within the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said, “Our commitment and our expectation is that we will work towards achieving that regional balance...

Our objective is to get to a good sense of parity across all the regions.”

The new official state plan will give 34% of the vaccines to the St. Louis region to try to match the population. Additionally, hospitals in the St. Louis region will be receiving around 6,000 more vaccines than they have in the past. Lastly, each of the regions will host mass vaccinations which will care for another 2,000 people.

“If this is true, then it helps get us closer to the amount of vaccine that we should be appropriately receiving given our population size,” Garza said. “This will go a long way to help save lives in the region.”

As of now, data from state officials show that only 30% of citizens older than 85 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, as have only 18% of citizens 75-80 and 20% of citizens ages 65-74.

This new vaccine plan will help lead Missouri and the United States as a whole to a COVIDfree future. Missouri officials have already witnessed a decline in cases which has not been seen since early July. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have also been decreasing across the state. The plan is not only saving lives; it is providing hope to the people of Missouri.

hannah teagan REPORTER

PROM: PANDEMIC EDITION A treasured high school tradition faces changes to combat COVID-19.

Students across the country attend outdoor, COVID safe proms to make up for the ones canceled last May. (Doral Chenoweth/Dispatch)

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uring a regular year, most juniors and seniors have reserved the end of March and beginning of April for curating the perfect prom Pinterest board, coordinating dresses and coming up with the perfect entrance. And let’s not forget about “prom-posals”; everywhere you would turn, someone was interrupting class with flowers, cheesy poster boards and chocolates.

Unfortunately, this is not a regular year.

So what does that mean for potential “prom-goers”? Recently, students have been speculating all of the possibilities after receiving tidbits of information from teachers in the know. As of Feb. 2, some of those rumors were put to rest. CHS teachers and junior class sponsors Alex Schwent and Jennifer Swift, as well as junior and senior class officers put out a survey unveiling what “Prom: Pandemic Edition” might look like.

The survey announced, “We are planning on an outdoor, socially distanced 2021 Prom Event. Our target date is May 1st.” Teachers and student executives have put a lot of time and energy into planning a safe event that upperclassmen will remember for years to come.

Before attending the dance, students will be asked to create a group of up to ten people that will be assigned to a private tent. All entrances to the dance will be live-streamed and captured by a photographer for the CHS Instagram. After you’ve had your chance to smile for the camera, your group will be escorted to your designated

tent. It is important to note that everyone must wear a mask at all times, even when inside the tent. Five tents will reside in a horseshoe shape surrounding Enterprise Pavillion in Shaw Park.

Each tent will have a separate dance floor for its occupants to dance the night away. A DJ will be stationed at the pavilion, playing music for all groups to enjoy.

As wonderful as this all sounds, many students and families are still concerned about the safety aspect. So here are some things to keep in mind: Pro: There will never be more than 50 students at the dance at a time.

Schwent, a member of the Prom Planning Committee told us that currently, “the city guidelines say that we can have no more than fifty people present at a time.” Fifty students is nearly a fourth of the typical number of students in attendance.

Con: Interactions are limited to the ten people in your tent.

Unfortunately, attending with a group larger than ten is not feasible this year. Since students will mostly remain inside their tents, there will be a lack of interaction with those beyond the tent.

Pro: Your tent will be specifically for your group, and will only allow people in your bubble to enter.

This measure ensures the safety of students

and allows for risk mitigation through social distancing. Though this does limit the social interaction between people, the time spent at the dance will be focused on the people with who you have chosen to purchase tickets.

Con: With the “3-4 shift model” groups will not be allowed to stay at the dance as long as they typically would.

Due to the occupancy limitations, the only way to meet the demand is to split into three to four groups of fifty (to account for an overall group of about 200). Each group will attend in shifts, which will ultimately result in less overall time at the dance. Also, due to the time slot separation, it is likely that you will not see all of your friends in person, as they may be booked before or after your group. This isolation might be upsetting for some students who have a wide range of friends that they would like to see and miss spending time with.

Pro: The fact that the event will be held outdoors improves the likelihood of risk mitigation through social distancing.

As previously mentioned, having prom outdoors and socially distanced makes it much more COVID-19 safe than having it inside the school. The tents are supposed to be able to hold a maximum of twenty people leaving enough space for the ten people to social distance inside the tent. For the design of the tents, Schwent said, “The tents will have one

NEWS 11

side to them, so there will be three open sides to allow as much ventilation as possible.”

Con: An outdoor prom means considering possible weather setbacks.

With outdoor events comes the possibility of delays and rescheduling due to bad weather.

Whether it be because of scheduling issues, outdoor furniture rentals, or Shaw Park’s availability, prom’s date is greatly dependent on the weather. Not only does the scheduling rely on the weather, but whether or not people attend prom could also be affected. Humidity and allergies could make or break the turnout of prom. Even though we cannot always rely on the weather to go in our favor, having a prom outside, with the risk of a rain check, is much better than having no prom at all.

Con: The coronavirus is still a thing.

Even with all of the precautions that CHS is implementing for prom, having a lot of students around each other is cause for concern. Masks and social distancing can limit the spreading of COVID-19, but any mass social event can be considered dangerous during the pandemic.

Between dancing, talking, or even sharing rides, there could potentially be some cases of COVID-19 which could be traced back to this event. Clayton High School has no control over the actions of students outside of school grounds. That means students could participate in unsafe activities before or after the dance that would spread COVID-19. Schwent said, “If we can keep the event as safe as we plan to, then the onus is on everyone else outside to do their part before and after prom.”

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THE PROM EXPERIENCE IS GOING TO BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, BUT THE IDEA IS TO JUST HAVE SOMETHING... I THINK THERE IS A PRETTY SOLID CHANCE THAT WE CAN GIVE NOT ONLY OUR JUNIORS BUT PRIMARILY OUR SENIORS WHO OTHERWISE WOULDN’T HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY SOME SORT OF PROM EXPERIENCE.

Pro: Most students would prefer this to a virtual prom or no prom at all.

With the crazy year that juniors and seniors have had, a little bit of normalcy is something that could make the year a little brighter.

Events like Homecoming, Spirit Week, sports games, or even little gatherings like clubs and practices have been changed to accommodate Coronavirus safety guidelines. Having prom in a safe outside environment will allow students to experience this important high school event. It is even more important than the current seniors experience a prom this year since it was canceled their junior year.

Schwent said, “The prom experience is going to be completely different, but the idea is to just have something... I think there is a pretty solid chance that we can give not only our juniors but primarily our seniors who otherwise wouldn’t have this opportunity some sort of prom experience.”

Prom is still going to be prom at the end of the day, just with a couple of tweaks. Even though there are necessary precautions that come with still having a prom, it is important to keep in mind all of the positive reasons to attend. After all, prom is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Although it is only months away, Schwent is “as encouraged today as [he has] been throughout the whole process.” He goes on to say, “We still have a lot to do; we still have a lot of details to iron out to make sure we are doing everything we can. We still are trying to figure out ways to best communicate to the students and families of students that will be attending how important it is that they help us and do their part as well.”

(Alexey Novikov)

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alexandra hagemeister, daphne kraushaar, & max hagemeister NEWS SECTION EDITOR l PAGE EDITORS

VACCINE EMOTIONS Several members of the Clayton community remark on their emotional response from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

KATELYN LONG After almost a year of not being able to see her students in person or her extended family, CHS teacher, Katelyn Long was elated to find out that she was eligible to receive the

Vaccine being administered

JOHN MCCALL, PHOTOGRAPHER

COVID-19 vaccine.

When the pandemic initially started in March, Long, like many others, was fearful of contracting the virus, especially because she has type one diabetes and didn’t know what the effects might be; however, the hardest struggle early on was setting boundaries for herself and her family.

“As soon as March hit, it was like nobody can be around together. And you know, it’s just really sad looking back because you felt like you were so out of control, like there is nothing that you could do about it. I remember that feeling of being terrified to go to the grocery store. You just had to stay inside your house,” Long said.

When the new school year started again in August, Long endured further struggles having to balance her roles as a teacher instructing her students virtually and as a parent to two young children: a 3-year-old and a 6-year old.

Long and her family agonized over the idea of sending their kids back to school.

Long said, “I think the most terrifying part was right when school started again and we didn’t really know what was going to happen.

So emotionally that was the hardest part for me. Especially because my daughter started kindergarten this year. So for me being a first time kindergarten mom, it was hard for me to imagine that this is what [my daughter’s] first

experience of school is going to be like.”

As soon as Long got word of the approved vaccine, she did everything possible to get not only herself, but her parents on a list to get vaccinated.

“I was so pumped to get this vaccine,” Long said. “I would have driven anywhere.”

For Long, one of the most exciting things about getting the vaccine was finally being able to see her students in person.

“I’m really looking forward to being able to be in person with my students again. That was my number one priority in getting the vaccine.

I really had all my students in mind when it was happening,” Long said.

While many of us have grown accustomed to our lives working around the pandemic, the implementation of the vaccine makes it much easier to imagine returning to normalcy.

“When I look back, I think I was so caught up in the moment of taking it day by day that I didn’t tend to notice like, yeah, I really, really miss my friends and having that social connection,” Long said. “And then, when you’re sitting there after getting the vaccine, all I could think about was how much this virus has taken away from us. Just how different life is. And it is emotional when you start thinking about looking back and you think, okay, we’re getting close to the end of this.”

CECE COHEN More and more adults are getting vaccinated each day, but it’s not often that students are able to get their hands on the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, CHS senior Cece Cohen was very fortunate.

Especially as an upperclassmen and oncoming senior, Cohen was worried at the start of the pandemic in March, 2020.

“I was actually pretty nervous. I did take it really seriously. I carried hand sanitizer with me everywhere I went,” Cohen said.

Throughout the entire school year, Cohen has been taking precautions and was ecstatic when she found out she had the opportunity to get vaccinated. Cohen and her family volunteered to pass out forms to people preparing to get vaccinated at Union Station in downtown St. Louis. The site had many extra doses and offered them to those volunteering.

“I’m actually very blessed I was able to get the vaccine especially for my age. I’m very fortunate and very thankful,” Cohen said.

Cohen and her family experienced many side effects. Her siblings experienced fevers, chills and body aches. Luckily, Cohen was able to avoid the extreme effects.

FEATURE 13

“The second dose was pretty rough with the side effects,” Cohen said. “I had horrible migraines even three days after. I was very exhausted and my arm was extremely sore, but it was definitely worth it.”

As a senior, Cohen had been stressed about going off to college next year during a pandemic. However, many of her fears were lifted after she got the vaccine.

“I feel like I’m going to feel much more comfortable going to college next year and seeing new people that you don’t know where they’ve been. And you don’t have to worry about seeing this person and not having any idea who they’ve come in contact with or where they’ve been. I’m not as nervous,” Cohen said.

Cohen, like many others, said she feels far more hopeful about the future not just for herself but for our country and world as a whole.

“The fact that I already have it and more and more teachers at CHS are getting vaccinated makes me much more hopeful about the future,” Cohen said. “And even though there are many who haven’t been vaccinated that should be, so many already do have the vaccine and that’s really uplifting.”

PHOTO FROM AXIS MEDICAL CENTER

DANIEL GLOSSENGER

Glossenger teaches a class outside

DR. PIEPER, PHOTOGRAPHER

Unlike many others, CHS teacher Daniel Glossenger knew that the coronavirus would have a drastic impact on our lives long before the whole world shut down in March of 2020.

“I can remember telling a few people who I trusted that they needed to go to home improvement stores and buy masks, particular N-95s with filters. And that was in late January of last year,” Glossenger said.

The pandemic took a toll early on in Glossenger’s classes as he began to separate desks and sanitize. While students’ health and safety was of top priority, effectively teaching also became a struggle.

“This has been by far the most difficult year of my teaching career ever. It is painful for me, too because I know how wonderful teaching and learning can be in the school district of Clayton and elsewhere. But to know how far we are from that, it hurts,” Glossenger said.

Glossenger realized the mental anguish going through the pandemic caused on his students and acknowledged that his primary focus was to guide students through this hard time.

Glossenger said, “I won’t say that I gave up on teaching economics, but at the same time, I thought it was more important to make sure that kids knew they had somebody who they could talk to this year.”

Relationships with students during the pandemic has been a struggle for nearly every teacher, especially with the fact that many teachers don’t know what a large number of their students look or sound like. But for Glossenger along with many other teachers, the rise of the vaccine was also the rise of hope.

“I was elated when I learned that there were

multiple vaccines that were successfully coming out,” Glossenger said. “And we learned small details throughout the fall about successful vaccination trials and every little piece of news about that is something that helps me. Elation.

Joy. Which are things that have been in such short supply over the last year.”

Not only did Glossenger suffer from the effects of COVID-19 in the classroom, but he was also prevented from seeing extended family as his wife is also a teacher. Together, Glossenger and his wife are exposed to about 600 individuals in a week and didn’t want to risk exposing close friends and family. But Glossenger was reassured by the vaccine that he’d be able to interact with students and family soon.

“When the vaccines were being developed, and that third phase of, you know, there might be hope at the end of the tunnel, in the center light at the end of the tunnel. And the sense that there’s a vaccine and humanity will emerge from this. That gave me a little bit of motivation to keep going,” Glossenger said.

It’s difficult to find joy in times like these and Glossenger endured these same struggles.

However, as time progresses, it is gradually becoming easier to find things to be happy about.

“I’m usually a very pessimistic person and my colleagues always kind of prepared themselves for me to be like, actually, here’s the doom,” Glossenger said. “But I’m very optimistic. And that’s a weird feeling for me. But I think that our country will grow out of this and that we will get to experience those moments with loved ones again soon.”

nearly every patient that came through their doors, having access to the vaccine definitely made the process easier.

“I feel more comfortable at work now than what I ever have because we’re all very cautious.

We clean more now than ever and we make sure everything is very sanitized,” Lee said.

As a smaller branch of a large hospital chain, Lee and her staff weren’t expecting to be able to get the vaccine right away. They were elated when they found out.

“It was emotional when they told us that we were going to be part of the first round because I never thought we would,” Lee said. “And so to be a part of something like that, and even if it made me sick, I didn’t care if it would help others.”

Lee acknowledges that life likely won’t ever return to what it was but is still hopeful for a future that doesn’t include COVID-19.

“I’m patiently waiting for others to be able to get vaccinated because I want things to get back to our new normal. We’re never going to go back to our normal lives the way it used to be and there are going to be people who are still going to be fearful,” Lee said. “But every day from here on out I’m hopeful for what’s ahead.”

WE’RE NEVER GOING BACK TO OUR NORMAL LIVES THE WAY IT USED TO BE AND THERE ARE GOING TO BE PEOPLE WHO ARE STILL GOING TO BE FEARFUL. BUT EVERY DAY FROM HERE ON OUT I’M HOPEFUL FOR WHAT’S AHEAD.

JILL LEE Jill Lee, a CHS parent, works at Metro Imaging and consults with roughly 100 patients on a daily basis. Even when nearly all other stores and offices shut down in March, 2020, Lee and some of her staff continued to show up to treat patients. “[The pandemic] made me realize that I took a lot of things I did on a daily basis at work for granted. We went from staffing each office with fifteen employees to ten, and went from having fifteen to only three offices open,” Lee said. “It was mentally and physically exhausting every single day making sure that everything was taken care of.”

Lee also frequently encountered patients who came in with COVID-19 symptoms or who had recently tested positive, but she was still willing to treat them if proper measures were taken.

“Honestly, [treating patients with symptoms] didn’t worry me. I really just wanted to get them in and out of our office to make sure they were okay because they weren’t being accepted anywhere else,” Lee said. “A lot of people may not have had COVID but if they had pneumonia or some other infection, they needed to be treated also.”

Though Lee and her staff were willing to treat

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kate freedman & kaia mills-lee SECTION EDITORS

FEATURE 14

THE PROBLEM OF PAY The Learning Center staff are faced with low wages and are categorized as “interns,” limiting the growth of the Learning Center.

T

ucked into a corner adjacent to the math hallway, the Learning Center is inconspicuous at first glance but, inside, holds a valuable space for students to enrich their learning and extend analytical thinking skills.

“Our vision for the Learning Center has beenthat it’s a space in a student’s day where they can develop into a critical, curious thinker [...] So, [the Learning Center] is a place where students can come and take those risks and be curious and build their strategies and develop skills to be independent thinkers and learners in our space and beyond,” said Carroll Lehnhoff-Bell, Director of Learning Support.

The heart of the Learning Center is its dedicated teachers: four full-time staff (officially called interns) specializing in various areas and Lehnhoff-Bell, who acts as an overseer on the administrative team. With the Learning Center being a class specialized to work oneon-one with developing and enriching student learning, its teachers are invaluable mentors to students.

“The Learning Center teachers push me to think above and beyond on assignments when I want to stop and just submit them. They push me to add more, [and] even though it might not get me a better grade, it will help me be more accountable for my work later in life. I really value their work and hope every student that walks into Clayton High School gets help from them in any type of way. I know it would change their whole perspective on school,” said

DeCarlos Brown, 11th grade CHS student.

Despite the Learning Center’s integral role in cultivating a love for learning in its students, it has historically struggled with staff retention, partly due to how the role of the staff is designated as an “intern” position -often viewed as temporary -- but carries much larger responsibilities, more similar to that of a teacher.

Justin Seiwell, current Forensics coach and Video Production teacher, taught at the Learning Center part-time when first starting at Clayton in 2011. Speaking of his experience as an intern, Seiwell explains the difficulties he found working in the position. “The students will come in and you help them in whatever way they need. That was the first time in my life I’d ever been put in that position. I could argue that that’s actually in many ways more challenging than being a traditional classroom teacher. Yes, there are more demands on traditional classroom teachers, there’s no doubt about that. But at least a traditional classroom teacher is in control of what they’re going to do each day.”

And in this unpredictable teaching environment, having teachers familiar with the curriculum is crucial, prompting the Learning Center to shift away from positions intended for shorter-term staff. “We need folks who know the culture of Clayton, we need folks who know what’s taught in freshman physics, we need the ear of teachers who know what’s taught in sociology [...] as we’re trying to realize

our vision, that’s changed. We want folks who are going to stay and stick around and people who know the building. That’s what we’re trying to move toward,” said Lehnhoff-Bell.

However, maintaining staff over the course of multiple years has been difficult due to the low salary Learning Center teachers are paid.

Lehnhoff-Bell is visibly passionate when she talks about the dedication of Learning Center teachers and their willingness to go to lengths for their students, but the circumstances of the job often push staff to move on. And, with high staff turnover, the rift between the Learning Center and its vision for expansion increasingly widens.

“There are folks who would like to make [the Learning Center] their permanent home; this is where their heart and passion lies. It’s been a gift to have the teachers who have been here for as long as they have, but unfortunately, it’s been at a high cost to them,” said Lehnhoff Bell.

“The pay of this position compared to other positions in the building is very low. It’s to the point where some of the staff have to have a second job. The heart and the commitment is there, but it’s hard when your energy is being zapped from other places because you have that second job.”

Brenton Jamison, Learning Center intern, is one of the many interns that have to take on a second job.

“With it being a lower pay, I have to pick up a second job right after [school hours]. So not being able to stay after school to actually help

Learning Center employees from left to right: Carroll Lehnhoff-Bell, Brenton Jamison, Tamicka Nelson-Bobo.

VIVIAN CHEN AND KAITLYN TRAN, PHOTOGRAPHERS FEATURE 15

An empty Learning Center classroom after school hours.

KAITLYN TRAN, PHOTOGRAPHER and support the students is probably the biggest struggle for me,” said Jamison.

Moreover, Learning Center staff are paid for set hours on a school day (7:30am-3:30pm), rather than on a salary basis like traditional classroom teachers. This system of pay results in Learning Center staff having to apply for additional hours in advance, which can be infeasible given the unpredictability of when students will ask for additional help.

The designation of “intern” ties back into problems of staff pay. Seiwell explained that the ‘intern’ position pre-dates all of the current members of the administration, and that when re-analyzing pay, Clayton sees that they pay higher than average for an ‘intern’ position. But this disregards how Learning Center interns take on exceedingly heavier workloads and responsibilities than average interns.

“A lot of our staff in the Learning Center are really happy in the Learning Center and working with students and having that executive function coaching and working with them without the rigors of a curriculum [...] I really don’t see them as interns. I see them as teachers.

I think it’s a shame. That intern flag really limits what they can do and how much they’re compensated,” said Seiwell.

The second job that Learning Center interns take on largely limits the potential for the Learning Center to expand, hurting both the Learning Center interns by restricting them from cultivating their passion for teaching, and for students, who could benefit from Learning Center improvements.

“One of the things we’ve been talking about for a while is doing some sort of mentorship program during the school day. Having time afterwards to be able to do more of a mentorship-type program attached to the Learning Center is definitely something I would love to be able to do,” said Jamison.

Jamison also references another Learning Center intern, who is working with the athletics

department to help students with lower GPAs than required to play sports.

“I know with him, he wanted to be able to support students after school as well, and also be able to make it to some of these extracurricular activities. But he’s not able to do that because he’s also having to pick up a second job.”

Even these projects that Learning Center interns are motivated to pursue convey their undeniable passion for enriching the learning of their students.

“They contribute a lot to students’ lives inside of school and out. There have been many times when I text Mrs. Lehnhoff-Bell on the weekend about something and she helps me figure it out no matter what’s going on,” said Brown.

But Learning Center interns’ pay doesn’t match the level of effort they put into their

“

administration has to grapple with to improve the working conditions for staff.

“I think our administration would be welladvised to think creatively, to remove that flag of intern from their job title completely and come up with something new [...] I think there could be a middle ground. If our administration wanted to put a lot of value in the services the Learning Center offers, I think [they] could find a new form of salary schedule for those individuals that would definitely be compensated a lot more than the current intern rate. At the very least, what our administration should do is tie their compensation to an annual rate [to account for yearly inflation],” said Seiwell.

Lehnhoff-Bell is currently in talks with the Clayton School District administration to negotiate a higher staff salary, an idea that the administration has been receptive to.

The increase she is requesting would allow Learning Center staff to quit their second job and focus their full time and energy on interacting with Learning Center students, including potential expansions of the curriculum that staff have wanted to take on but haven’t had the time for.

“I think [the administration] is on the right track. They’re listening to us propose some of these ideas already. I think that’s the main thing--just listening to us and seeing how the Learning Center can pretty much be [integrated] into everything [at the high school],” said Jamison.

“I love my students. I love teaching. I just really would love it to expand and be better than what it is now. I think it’s good, but it can always get better.”

IT’S A PAY THAT WOULD BE NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO LIVE INDEPENDENTLY ON...IT’S NOT TOO FAR OFF THE POVERTY LEVEL.

FEATURE 16

work. Simply put, Learning Center interns have to take on a second job because they are vastly underpaid. “It’s a pay that would be near impossible to live independently on [...] it’s not too far off the poverty level. That’s what makes it really difficult,” said Lehnhoff-Bell.

“The pay is awful [...] I got to a point where I was like ‘I’m going to quit. I can’t do this. I can’t pay bills.’ That really doesn’t motivate you very well when you’re working like 80 hours a week but can’t afford to pay for your car or your rent.

You have to worry about that,” said Seiwell.

The two interconnected problems, the label of ‘intern’ and low staff pay, are what the

kaitlyn tran

SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR

MUSIC

Many have criticized singer-songwriter Sia’s new movie about autism starring Maddie Ziegler for it’s portrayl of autism made to uplift the autistic community, you would think Sia would take care in researching and consulting with experts, but that is far from the case.

After being criticized, Sia took to social media and tweeted, “I actually tried working with a beautiful young girl non verbal on the spectrum and she found it unpleasant and stressful. So that’s why I cast Maddie.” User, Helen Z responded with, “Several autistic actors, myself included, responded to these tweets. We all said we could have acted in it on short notice. These excuses are just that-

“

From left to rightt: Maddie Ziegler, Kate Hudson and Leslie Odom Jr.

VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT

F

ilm has always been a medium in which directors and actors can express themselves and share their stories. But what happens when someone else tries to tell your story while simultaneously silencing your voice?

Recently singer-songwriter Sia of hits such as “Cheap Thrills’’ and “Chandelier” released a movie called “Music” about an austistic girl with the same name. It has sparked controversy due to its stereotypical and abeliest portrayal of the developmental disorder. The lead is also played by neurotypical dancer (famous for being on the reality show “Dance Moms”), Maddie Ziegler.

Advocates for the autistic community have spoken up, saying that non-autistic actors should not play autistic characters because oftentimes, their portrayal is offensive and takes away opportunities from actors that are actually on the spectrum. While this has become a topic of debate, Sia’s movie is undeniably different and worse than movies such as “Forrest Gump.”

Rather than made strictly for entertainment, “Music” is a movie specifically made to raise awareness about autism. Of course filmmakers should not have to make movies about topics solely based on personal experience or their own lives, but with a movie that is supposed to be an accurate representation of autism and

SEVERAL AUTISTIC ACTORS, MYSELF INCLUDED, RESPONDED TO THESE TWEETS. WE ALL SAID WE COULD HAVE ACTED IN IT ON SHORT NOTICE. THESE EXCUSES ARE JUST THAT - EXCUSES. THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS ZERO EFFORT WAS MADE TO INCLUDE ANYONE WHO IS ACTUALLY AUTISTIC. excuses. The fact of the matter is zero effort was made to include anyone who is actually autistic.” Sia then said, “Maybe you’re just a bad actor.”

Afterward, she continued to defend herself: “I cast thirteen neuroatypical people, three trans folk… [it’s] sad nobody’s even seen the dang movie. My heart has always been in the right place.”

“What Sia should be promoting is accommodating autistic people,” said Paige Layle, an autistic advocate dedicated to spreading awareness about the community on social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. “What makes it worse is that she’s

OPINION 17

always saying her intentions were good…

I don’t understand how, I don’t understand where… [She’s] done nothing actually good…

Maddie’s portrayal of Music is the same way that neurotypicals mock autistic people… That was the way I was bullied in real life… It was uncomfortable to watch. It was hurtful.”

However, it is important to note that the blame should be directed at Sia, not Maddie.

Sia made a statement that said, “[Maddie] cried on the first day of rehearsals and she was really scared and said, ‘I don’t want anyone to think that I’m making fun of them.’”

Layle also said, “I just want to make sure everyone knows and everyone’s aware that this is not Maddie’s fault. I don’t want anyone sending hate to Maddie. Maddie knew what she was doing was not okay which I respect.

I think that involves change and growth and empathy… I’m mad at the full grown, adult woman who directed this who did her research in all the wrong places and is actively harming the autistic community.”

However, the acting isn’t the only problem in Sia’s “Music.” The movie itself clearly wasn’t made with a neurodivergent audience in mind. “[It had] no closed captions in the trailer [and] was full of flashing, wild, colored lightsvery not accessible,” said Layle.

On top of that, the singer continues to make claims that she did her research, but her outdated word choice and organizations she chose to work with say otherwise.

“I’ve never referred to Music as disabled.

Special abilities is what I’ve always said, and casting someone at her level of functioning was cruel, not kind, so I made the executive decision that we would do our best to lovingly represent the community,” said Sia. In response to Sia’s choice of words, Layle said, “Why? Because you think being disabled is bad? Because you think disabled is a bad word?

Because it’s not… That’s ableism… I don’t know what special abilities here you’re talking about.

It’s a disability, and that’s fine. Being disabled is not bad. It’s okay to be disabled- it’s okay to use the word disabled.”

Sia also used descriptions such as “nonverbal” and “high/low functioning” as well as person-first language which all have roots in ableism. Person-first language refers to people as “individuals with autism” as opposed to identity-first language which refers to people as “autistic individuals.”

“You can’t separate us from autism. I can’t separate autism from anything I do. Everything I do is autistic… it’s always there, it’s always a part of me. I’m not a person with autism. I don’t carry autism around in a bag with me. I don’t leave my autism at home some days. I wouldn’t be who I am if I wasn’t autistic,” said Layle.

Furthermore, the research Sia has proclaimed she has done was in collaboration with Autism Speaks, a supposed advocacy organization that has been known to actually be harmful. “[Autism Speaks] is an anti-autism group meaning that they advocate for removing autism, ‘curing’ autism, getting rid of it, helping out and caring about parents and care-givers of autistics rather than actual autistics. None

OPINION 18

Sia performing at the Showbox at the Market in Seattle, Washington

KIRK STAUFFER, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

“

THIS WAS FOR CAREGIVERS TO FEEL SOME INSPIRATION-PORN, SAVIOR COMPLEX...I RECOMMEND EVERYONE TO NOT WATCH IT. I DON’T THINK THAT SIA DESERVES OUR MONEY.

of their board members are autistic… and something like 2% of the money that they generate actually goes to helping autistics,” said Layle.

Even from an objective standpoint, the movie lacks aesthetic value. From the trailer, it resembles a Target commercial with cheaplooking visuals.

Most importantly, it has done nothing to help the autistic community, nor has it done anything to educate non-autistic people. To Sia and other neurotypical people, Layle said, “You’ll never understand, and that’s not your fault… that’s just the way it is. That’s why people like me are here to maybe help vocalize some of the stuff we’re feeling. So it is uncomfy to me to think that watching this movie [that it] was not for autistics. This was for caregivers to feel some inspiration-porn, savior complex…

I recommend everyone to not watch it. I don’t think that Sia deserves our money. ‘Nothing about us without us-’ and this is clearly without us.”

sophie yoshino

PAGE EDITOR

REDDIT, ROBINHOOD, AND WHY THEY MATTER T

he allure of making money fast has long drawn people to Wall Street hoping to make a fortune. For a long time, investing in the stock market has been for the wealthiest people, with ample money to put at risk along with the ability to pay the necessary fees. This all changed with the advent of the internet. Now, stock trading is as simple as buying something from a store.

Create an account, pick a stock, pay, and you are now a shareholder in a company.

These new online brokers have changed the way people invest. No longer do you need a human broker to execute trades for you. You simply need an app. These online firms don’t charge any fees or have any account minimums.

Low costs and a game-like format have especially enticed young people. In the realm of brokers, one online brokerage has dominated them all: Robinhood.

Robinhood, whose mission is to democratize trading, created a whole new type of retail investors. One of Robinhood’s biggest fans are members of a subReddit called “Wall Street Bets.” So, what is Robinhood and Gamestop?

What happened? Why does it matter and what can we do about it?

To understand this event it is necessary to get to know Wall Street Bets. Wall Street Bets is an internet forum where amateur day traders share investing tips and information. Wall Street Bets are famous for their signature move, the “YOLO,” where an investor would put all of their cash into an option such as a Tesla call. Wall Street Bets traders are also famous for their impressive losses. There are many situations where members have lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in risky options.

They existed in relative obscurity. Until they discovered that Gamestop had been shorted millions of shares. Gamestop stock has taken a beating in the past few years. With most video games being bought and played through the consoles it rendered Gamestop obsolete. The pandemic too further declined the remaining sales. They realized if they could generate enough interest and money, it would create a

short squeeze increasing the cost of Gamestop shares dramatically.

A short is where a person borrows shares of a stock from a broker with the promise to return the same number of shares to them after a certain period. They then go and sell those shares on the market anticipating the price will drop. They then buy shares at a lower cost, return the borrowed shares to the broker and take the profit. However, there is one vulnerability in this model: a short squeeze. If there is enough interest in the stock, the price will rise, but those funds have to buy shares no matter the cost driving the price up. Since the shares are borrowed, the hedge funds could lose an unlimited amount of money. Each time a contract expires the funds have to buy more and more shares sending the stock price skyrocketing. The hedge funds unknowingly added fuel to the fire. They shorted more shares than existed. Thus increasing the amount the price could go up. The Wall Street Bets traders knew this and started to spread the word on this possibly lucrative investment. More people started to hear about Gamestop and started to buy billions of dollars of shares. Gamestop got to a point where the stock was trading at around 500 dollars a share. A sharp increase from around 30 dollars a share. Celebrities, politicians, and regular people all got caught up in this frenzy where it seemed the retail

investors beat Wall Street at their own game.

Soon, a major obstacle to the retail investors

ART BY ELLA CUNEO OPINION 19

PHOTO FROM MCT CAMPUS would happen: Robinhood stopped allowing users to buy Gamestop stock.

This decision was one of the most consequential decisions in the whole saga and was met with lots of resistance from everyone from Ted Cruz to AOC. People were up in arms and called foul play on Robinhood.

Politicians were calling for inquiry, others calling for the head of the CEO of Robinhood over this decision. People thought that some of Robinhood’s investors are connected to the hedge funds and they ordered this to happen.

In reality, the truth of this decision is a lot more complicated.

When a person buys a stock, they first go through a brokerage such as Robinhood, which exercises the trade for them. The trade is then sent to the NSCC or the National Securities Clearing Corporation who prepares a report.

That report is then sent on to the DTCC or the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation who acts as an intermediary for the buyer and seller of the security.

When a person buys a security the broker gives some collateral to the DTCC for their service. The collateral they ask for is dependent on how risky the stock is. Stocks such as Apple or Microsoft have low collateral amounts due to their relative stabilization, while penny stocks might have much higher collateral amounts.

On that Friday, when Robinhood stopped trading, the DTCC increased the amount of collateral needed from their members. The collateral needed jumped to $33.5 billion, up

OPINION 20

from $26 billion. Many of the firms could not afford the extra collateral for those trades. One reason for this is that many of the buyers on Robinhood were buying on margin. Buying on margin is when a person borrows money from someone else to buy a stock. This practice is risky as a person could lose more than 100 percent of the money they invested with should the security go down. Since so many people were buying on margin on platforms such as Robinhood were strapped for cash and could not afford the extra collateral needed. These brokers also do not charge a commission, thereby limiting their cash on hand.

Critics point out that they allowed selling, but this explanation accounts for that.

Collateral, is put up by the seller, not the buyer.

While many people believed that there was some form of a grand conspiracy to hurt the retail investors. In reality, there is a simpler explanation: The brokers ran out of cash for collateral.

So why does this matter? This moment marks one of the most significant moments to happen on Wall Street. Millions of retail investors rose and caused serious harm to the hedge funds for some time. There is a more sinister side to this as well. Wall Street Bets has shown just how easy it can be to manipulate a stock price. Silver, a few weeks ago, saw massive growth, but no one was sure why. Wall Street Bets members claimed it wasn’t them and blamed the hedge funds. Much of that information was spread on the forum; silver

rose more than 30 percent in just a few days.

This growth pales in comparison to the rise of Gamestop or AMC but still is a sizable payday.

What proved is that any company, individual or foreign power could easily manipulate the market and have massive real-world results.

For example, hostile foreign powers such as Russia could put millions of dollars into a shorted stock and then use their tried and tested bot army to go on forums such as Wall Street Bets to create a clamor, driving banks down with them.

Foreign powers or bad actors now could have a lot of power over some of the largest public companies. Should something like this happen again it could cause irreparable damage. If a major bank closed because of this type of market manipulation, it would cause havoc where millions of people could lose their savings and livelihoods. These fears should be taken into consideration by regulators to create ways to prevent things like this from happening again. They could implement regulations about how much anyone can short a company, create limits for the number of trades that can be executed on a day, make shorting information public, or other actions to help prevent this amount of instability in the global financial market.

alex slen

REPORTER

educating america by alex cohen, angela xiao, sophia lu, siddhi narayan, ivy reed & annie xiao

the history of public education “I had some sense that what I would be doing would be to create a better America,” said CHS history teacher Daniel Glossenger, describing why he went into public education and echoing the sentiments of reformers and educators who have believed in the institution of public education over the centuries.

Today, education is widely considered the powerful foundation of society and culture, but that wasn’t the case for much of American history.

“For a very long time, up until the early 19th century, education in America was considered to be private, and there were private academies,” explained Dr. James D. Anderson, Dean of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Education.

“The few public or public-like schools that existed were known as charity schools, that was charity for the poor.”

Through the 18th century, education did not exist as a free, compulsory public service.

But the history of how American education as we know it came to be starts even before the United States existed, during the preRevolutionary War period.

As Washington University in St. Louis education professor Dr. Michelle Purdy explained, “Between 1607 and 1770, we there is a smattering of schooling options, a lot of emphasis on literacy from the family and from the church, some private schools, but nothing that’s really resembling today’s public education system.”

It was the American Revolutionary War that set the educational transformation in motion. During what was known as the New Republic period from 1780 to 1820, American leaders viewed education as a way to develop American culture and shape future generations of democratic citizens.

Reformers such as Henry Barnard,

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the first United States Commissioner of Education, and Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, advocated for a uniform and publicly funded education system in which all students would have access to the same resources and curriculum. This model of education was known as the common school system.

The beginnings of the public education system coincided with the beginnings of the economic shift of the Industrial Revolution.

The advent of the assembly line and mass production left schools struggling to build a system that kept up with the demands of an increasingly industrialized economy.

“They were trying to develop within the school a whole culture and norms of efficiency, because they thought that would make school more compatible with the efficiency of the Industrial Revolution as well,” said Dr. Anderson, explaining that school systems have historically lagged behind economic changes.

“Our new economy is demanding computer science and computational thinking and coding and programming,” he said. “Schools are just starting to catch up.

And maybe by the time they catch up, the economy will have changed again.”

However, both the Industrial Revolution and the development of public schools were happening mainly in the North. The South has a different story.

Purdy pointed out, “The United States is literally built on inequality, and so that’s going to affect the development of public education.” Both enslaved and free Black people were legally forbidden from learning how to read or write in the South, and common schooling did not exist in the region until after the Civil War. That changed during the Reconstruction period, when Black people gained political

power in Southern state legislatures. After the Civil War, new constitutions were drafted by states that had seceded and re-joined the union.

Because Black leaders had roles in writing these constitutions, common school systems were established for the first time in the South.

But these common schools were mainly segregated, and segregation only worsened as reconstruction came to an end and federal troops were removed from the south.

“Over the next 20 years the southern policy makers began to basically create the conditions that would lead to Jim Crow,” said Dr. Purdy. “Jim Crow is cemented in 1896, with the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which allows for separate but equal to exist. By the time schools existed in the South, segregation affected how Black schools’ resources, facilities, and teacher salaries, and how they were so different from the white schools.”

Although schools were segregated before Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decision upholding segregation cemented the legality of unequal resource distribution between white and Black schools.

Almost 60 years later in 1954, the principle of “separate but equal” was overturned by another Supreme Court case: Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled that race-based segregation in public schools was illegal.

However, what is often neglected in the simplified version of the Civil Rights Movement taught in social studies curricula is a second decision issued in 1955: Brown v. Board of Education II, which directed southern states to desegregate schools “with all deliberate speed.”

“In the first 10 years after the Brown decision, there is very little statistical desegregation,” said Dr. Purdy. Desegregation didn’t ramp up in Southern states until the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This federal legislation, passed during the Johnson administration as part of his “War on Poverty,” provided Title I federal funding to schools with high proportions of low-income students, but made desegregation efforts a prerequisite to receiving that funding.

However, segregation in public schools across the U.S. lives on today. According to the Economic Policy Institute, only 1 in 8 white students nationwide attend schools where the majority of students are people of color, while 7 in 10 Black students attend schools where students of color are in the majority.

Brown v. Board of Education made segregation illegal. But, as Dr. Anderson explained, Brown was anything but a silver bullet. It outlawed “de jure” (legally enforced) segregation, but left untouched “de facto” (not officially sanctioned) segregation, such as segregation caused by residential trends, redlining and “white flight” in northern, western and Midwestern cities.

“And so it was much more difficult to enforce desegregation in those states, because the Supreme Court put them on a different mandate,” Anderson said. “So one of the things that Brown left undone was the increasing segregation, particularly in and around our metropolitan areas and in northern, Midwestern and western states.

And much of the resegregation that has occurred in America has occurred in those places.”

Almost 70 years after the Brown decision, cities such as Chicago and New York City are home to some of the most segregated school systems in the country. Data from New York City Council shows that of New York City public school students, almost 75% of black and Hispanic students attend a school with less than 10% white students. 34.3% of white students attend a school with over 50% white students.

“And the worry is that we have an increasingly racially segregated system of public education without any weapons to change it,” said Dr. Anderson.

Since the mid-century decision, Brown has also been steadily eroded by additional lawsuits.

Dr. Anderson explained that the 1974 Supreme Court decision over school desegregation plans in the Detroit area, Milliken v. Bradley, ruled “that you cannot cross district lines for purposes of desegregation.” St. Louis was formerly the only city in the country where the city and county reached a settlement on a desegregation plan, but now even that student transfer program is coming to an end.

Dr. Purdy also pointed to two Supreme Court cases decided in 2007, Meredith v.

Jefferson County Board of Education and Parents Involved in Community Schools v.

Seattle School District No. 1. The Supreme

“the worry is that we have an increasingly racially segregated system of public education without any weapons to change it.”

Court ruled in these cases that race could not be used as a factor in public school enrollment plans.

“Many people would argue that Meredith and Parents Involved have basically gutted the Brown decision,” she explained. Although Brown v. Board of Education is still in place and segregation in schools remains illegal, the Supreme Court has ruled against many of the tools that can be used to desegregate schools. The decentralized nature of the public school system also makes it hard to institute widespread changes.

“There’s such a wide gap from zip code to zip code, just in the St. Louis area, that what is supposed to be a great equalizer and balance things out and give everyone a somewhat common starting block in a 100-yard dash only further exacerbates inequalities,” said CHS social studies teacher Dr. Paul Hoelscher.

Because school districts are funded by property tax revenue, students who grow up in wealthy areas benefit from more resources, larger school budgets, and higher-paid teachers.

However, AP Economics Teacher Daniel Glossenger pointed out that, “just because there are different qualities of schooling doesn’t mean that we should call into question the project of public education in the United States. By design, the system is decentralized so that communities can control for themselves what they want to pass on to the next generation.”

He added that even some well-resourced school districts struggle to fulfill what he sees as the purpose of public education: to help students develop their identities and understand how they fit into a broader society.

Instead, focus is placed on the education system as simply a stepping stone to getting students into prestigious universities—far from what the founders of public education such as Horace Mann envisioned.

In the words of Mann, “Education...beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of conditions of men.” But when our current education system is seen by many as anything but equalizing, what is the purpose of education?

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success & happiness For most people, success is seen as the end goal of their lives. This concept arises from the Industrial Revolution. A capitalist economy thrives on success motivated workers who value constant productivity.

This trickles down into our public education system.

America’s public education exists to serve the desires of parents and communities, particularly in higher income districts.

Students absorb these messages from their parents and schools.

Glossenger said, “Public schools are designed to pass on the values, traditions and ideas of an older generation to a younger one, and to help young people and individuals see how they fit into a broader society.”

In Clayton, many of these ideas include various opinions about success and happiness. 60 percent of student responses to a question about their definition of success included some mention of happiness. Some talked of goals and helping others. Others described making money and having a good job. CHS senior Charlie Mcdonough said, “a financially stable career is something that I’m looking forward to, and also a family.”

However, it is not the students who determine the system under which they grow up. Much of the makeup of a public school district is determined by the community, particularly parents, and what they perceive will help their children achieve success.

In Clayton, many parents believe that getting their children into known universities will help them achieve high paying jobs, and ultimately success.

Only 11% of parent survey respondents answered that they hoped a Clayton education would provide their children with a happy life. 42% answered that they hoped their children would be independent and contribute to society.

CHS parent and Meramec Fifth Grade Teacher Dr. Scott Osborne said, “People in Clayton value a college degree. If you’re a doctor or an attorney or if you can identify yourself with a one word answer for what do you do, I think that in this community, that’s valued.” The Clayton community places a high value on academic achievement and accolades.

Parents believe that these achievements will help their children reach success.

American society’s idea of success hinges on the American dream. This concept is traditionally defined as financial stability,

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a family, and a home. The idea is that these factors, once achieved, will lead to happiness. However, the truth is much more complicated.

CHS English teacher John Ryan said, “I do think the notion of the American Dream still has a strong hold on people, and the prospect of financial and cultural growth via hard work, etc., entices them. But, too often

“it is not the students who determine the system under which they grow up.

Much of the makeup of a public school district is determined by the community.” that ‘Dream’ is self-centeredly material, not understood in terms of health, morality, or some notion of equity and concern for the commonwealth.” Themes of the American Dream underpin the ideas about success held by many in the Clayton community.

A college degree and a professional job are often seen as simple ways to achieve these

ideals.

However, financial success doesn’t always lead to happiness. According to a University of California study, childhood emotional health was the greatest predictor of adult happiness. Childhood academic success was the least important variable. Further research from the University of Illinois found that happier people were more likely to acquire favorable life circumstances often correlated with the American Dream, such as marriage, financial stability and a long life.

This flips the traditional narrative on its head, suggesting that happy people become successful, rather than vice versa. Furthermore, happiness does not continue to increase past a certain level of financial stability.

Data from a 2018 Purdue University study says that between $60,000 and $75,000 of annual income for an individual is ideal for day to day happiness, while $95,000 is the sweet spot for overall life satisfaction, which describes a person’s happiness with their life overall.

With the Clayton community’s high emphasis on academic achievement comes a high emphasis on grades.

Parents and students focus on grades because they determine a student’s college and career trajectory.

According to a University of Michigan study, 80 percent of high school students base their self-worth on their grades.

Grading only works as a reward, not a punishment. Students who receive low grades suffer lower motivation as a result of these grades.

Grading is also extremely susceptible to teacher bias, further disadvantaging certain students. This system is reflective of a societal focus on grades as a concrete way to measure employability.

America’s capitalist society values numbers and productivity, as they are easy to measure and promote the status quo. Letter grades as we know them today were originally developed in the 1940s. They were created to allow educational institutions to communicate with one another about their students.

However, government initiatives latched onto grades and standardized testing as a way to easily and quickly measure not only individual student achievement but entire schools and districts as well.

Initiatives such as the Every Student Succeeds Act place pressure onto districts to have their students perform well or risk their funding and resources. This pressure

is passed down from administrators to students and teachers, creating a school culture that is obsessed with productivity and high GPAs. This emphasis on grades and test scores creates a competitive environment within CHS. Parents sometimes encourage this by placing pressure on their students to be the best. Many do this out of anxiety, wanting to ensure their children will receive the best opportunities.

However, much of this environment is driven by the students, responding to pressure from their peers, parents and the culture as a whole. McDonough said, “I think it’s very student driven, the competitive environment, and I think it’s driven by this want to be the best at something.”

Students compete through GPAs, club and academic accolades, difficulties of courseloads and numbers of AP classes.

While the school district has tried to minimize this through the age restriction on AP classes and the decision not to publish class ranks, the competitive environment still grates on the mental health of students.

While the School District of Clayton as a whole remains very competitive and hyperfocused on academic success, some changes have begun to take place in the district’s culture.

Osborne said, “I feel like there’s been a big shift within the community, as far as how they support the schools here. We understand we’re not building people to do a job. We are developing students that think critically and understand why things are happening and can help make change.”

Osborne attributed this shift to changes at the administration and Board of Education level in the last five years, as well as a general shift in community priorities. Society has started to value mental health and critical thinking more in the last few years, as difficult problems such as the mental health crisis, the pandemic and climate change grow more dire.

Mcdonough said, “Making money has always been the goal for a lot of people. But there has been such a huge shift with mental health and taking care of your mind and body just to live a happy life.”

Now and in the future, the School District of Clayton will have to balance this shift with the intense drive for success present in parents and students. The great value that the Clayton community places on academic success is reflective of the priorities of the community.

the cycle The education system is often criticized as a “factory model.” In a factory setting, workers are trained to keep their eyes on the next part on the assembly line. Similarly, the valuing of success enforced by educational structures forces students to constantly look ahead to the next opportunity to succeed. This creates a cycle: the more successful students are, the more pressure is imposed on them to achieve more. They go on to carry those same pressures with them into adult life. The glorification of grind culture teaches students to value being productive over making time for their own happiness and developing who they are as individuals. But despite the negative effects on student mental health, the factory model is effective at generating productive members of the economic system.

Reform in education is often criticized as disrupting this carefully-constructed system.

CHS social studies teacher Dr. Paul Hoelscher reiterated this. “If we’re this middle piece in an educational factory model and an assembly line, all of the pieces would have to be destroyed and I think that includes higher education.”

Even though many teachers and students agree that change is needed in the educational system, there is a lack of clear vision for what that change will look like.

Education has looked the same (rows of desks in a classroom facing a teacher) for so long that changing it would require a major restructuring. Because the education system is so formative of society, changes made would also have profound effects on future generations.

As Hoelscher said, “All teachers teach with subconscious elements of our own learning experience.” He explained how issues of race and social justice were neglected in his educational experiences, which inspired him to highlight those issues as a teacher.

Similarly, Glossenger explained that his experience of “pretty terrible schooling” inspired him to work to change the system for future students. The education system has immense power in society, both to perpetuate the cycle of success and to incite change in how we think about success and happiness as a society.

Change in education is possible. But as Dr. Purdy put it, “the American people have to want it.”

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voices of education

For most CHS students, their commute to school is fifteen minutes, tops. However, junior, Willa Stine, has a more complicated commute. Stine said: “We have two houses, one in St. Louis and one in Illinois. They’re about 45 minutes apart. When school’s in session, we’re there for the 5 day school week and then for the weekend we come out here to the farm.”

Stine’s commute echoes her family’s value on education. She said, “Clayton schools are so well ranked in the country, and that’s why we moved here, to attend them.

Although Stine’s parents deeply value her education, she explains that they never pressure her in terms of grades or test scores.

Instead, she feels academic pressure from her peers and the Clayton atmosphere.

Stine said, “One of my new year’s resolutions was to stop talking about my grades with my friends, because it would just make me feel jealous and annoyed. But even when I try not to talk about it, I still think about it constantly. It’s just in my brain permanently.”

This pressure is further exacerbated by the looming presence of Clayton’s online grading system, PowerSchools. On the PowerSchools online browser, students can view a general overview of their grades and then are able to see the grades of every one of their assignments in their respective classes.

Parents have access to all of this information as well.

50% of Clayton students surveyed said they check their grades daily or more often. 51% of Clayton parents surveyed said they check their children’s grades weekly.

There is also a PowerSchools app. This app is popular among CHS students, as it provides the easiest access to their grades.

Each time a student’s letter grade changes, they receive a notification on their device.

“I’ll be having fun, like watching Mad Men or something with my mom, and then suddenly I’ll get a notification that an assignment has been graded, so then it’ll affect my overall grade, and then I’ll think about my GPA, and I’ll think about what can I do to rectify this and then I’ll email my teacher and it’s really really not a good situation,” Stine explains.

The constant PowerSchools alerts can be detrimental to student mental health.

“I think the school should focus more on mental health and just helping us calm down.

I’ve been permanently stressed and anxious since freshman year, and now I just have to wait it out until the end of senior year,” said Stine, “I think it would help to just help give us a little bit of a reality check. Your score on a quiz in College Prep English is not going to be the end of the world.

Although teachers often try to lessen the emphasis on grades, the intense Clayton peer pressure often prevails. Students continue to constantly compare themselves.

Stine reiterates, “I feel like I need to get certain grades or else everyone will think I’m dumb, or that I’m not trying, and I don’t deserve to do things. I would say, 100%, there’s an environment where you know your grades determine everything about you.”

Stine has a deep love for theatre and has been performing since she was in elementary school. In last year’s CHS musical, the Wizard of Oz, Stine starred as Dorothy. Stine explains the lack of emphasis on theatre and other art classes as compared to the core classes.

“It’s hard to explain, because [the theatre hallway] is so jarring, it’s gray and beige and the tiles were falling apart, the fountains are broken, and half of the toilets and sinks don’t work right. It’s such a perfect example of what [the school district] cares about and what they don’t. You walk through that door and it’s like a different school,” said Stine.

For Stine, the atmosphere of Clayton has been confining.

She explains, “[Success] to me is definitely just doing what I like to do and not constantly being told what to do and how good I am and being compared to other people. I mean, honestly, anything but high school.”

Anmei Deck is a freshman. And, she’s already heard the notorious Clayton college whisperings.

“We just had the meetings with Mrs. Smith, she’s our counselor, all about GPA and the graduation requirements and the service hours.That’s kind of scary to think about,” said Deck.

The intense college pressure is embedded in the Clayton culture. Grades play a major role in this.

Deck moved to the School District of Clayton in 7th grade from a private school, and the grade culture proved very new to her.

Deck explains, “At our private school, grades kind of weren’t a thing at all. [...]

There were just no grades and at the end of the year you got like a giant participation report that was sent home to your families.

We never had letter grades or percentages or GPAs or anything like that. So, that was really different when we came into middle school because there’s PowerSchools and all your tests have a little letter on them.”

For Deck, this large emphasis on grades often displaces other important topics and valuable life lessons. “I wish we did focus more on current events, especially in social studies, Because I feel like a lot of my friends who don’t do extracurriculars just have no idea what’s going on in the world,” said Deck.

Many of the freshman and sophomore have rather rigid curriculums, leaving little time for other discussions. However, after the Capitol riots on January 6, many teachers paused their regularly scheduled lesson plans to discuss the events.

“We talked about the insurrection, but if we didn’t talk about the insurrection that would be a major problem. We just don’t address anything,” describes Deck, “In eighth grade, the government shut down so many times, and people just had no idea like why shut down or if it was even shut down in the first place, and no one talked about the impeachment trials. It’s just really weird that we’re studying the American Revolution, but we just don’t talk about what’s happening, like right now.”

Deck understands the hesitancy teachers may feel to discuss controversial current events. Such discussions can sometimes make students uncomfortable.

“I feel like if they don’t teach us how to have conversations with people that don’t agree with us then we’ll never learn how to.

I mean, at some point, not everything has to be comfortable, but you can still be respectful with it. And I think if we just completely ignore it and don’t talk about it, we’ll never learn how to do that and then we’ll just have another bunch of incompetent adults who don’t know how to talk to each other,” said Deck.

The 2019-2020 Medical Interventions class had four students.

Sarah Taylor, a CHS junior, was one of them.

The class focused on real world medical scenarios and diagnosing and treating various diseases.

“Medical Interventions was just not what you would expect from a science class. All we did was have these very open ended discussions. But, I found myself being able to retain information without notes or flashcards,” said Taylor.

Medical Interventions is one of CHS’ medical classes; Principles of Biomedical Science, Human Body Systems are two prerequisites to taking the class. This track provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of medicine and prepare for medical school.

These classes were a turning point in Taylor’s education.

She said, “I took Principles of Biomedical Science, which was a huge turning point in the way I started seeing school. That’s when I really started to find what I was passionate about.”

CHS’ large variety of science courses has allowed Taylor to further explore her love for science and research. However, a heavy course load and challenging classes can be isolating at times.

“Your social circle is cut off from anyone you don’t have classes with, because the people who take the hardest classes stick together and move up, and then you just associate yourself with them,” Taylor said.

Within this environment, competition can seem stifling. There is a constant work culture.

Taylor explained,“I’ve gotten really good at time management this year, but I also don’t know what to do with my free time. I feel so unproductive. I used to sleep in so much on weekends, now I’m scared to because I just think of all the things I could be doing.

I never stop thinking about the work I could be spending time on.”

Although her junior year has looked different than most, Taylor began her year wary of what it would bring. At CHS, junior year is considered the pinnacle of a student’s academic efforts. With AP classes, standardized testing, and the start of the college application process, most juniors are typically overwhelmed with work.

“The fact that everyone knows you’re going to burn out junior year shouldn’t be such a normalized thing either. It shouldn’t be about pushing yourself past your limit. It should be finding what you like, and that’s what you’re willing to put the most effort into, so then it’s not as much of a chore,” explained Taylor.

The Clayton system has allowed Taylor to find her passions and continue to pursue them. However, she understands that not all students feel this way.

“Something that a lot of kids don’t realize and the school system probably doesn’t do a good job of emphasizing is the fact that any skill or small interest you have, you can turn that into your career,” said Taylor. “I read an article on how the school system does not cater anything to anyone’s strengths. We expect everyone to have an insane work ethic, love everything or at least want to learn about everything and be innately good at it, which is just not realistic.”

“

it’s just lecture after lecture of taking notes.

“My view on education has been so distorted. Because I would say that if I have an A in a class, but I don’t actually understand anything in the class, I would say that I’m being educated in that class. Whereas if I had a D in a class, and I somehow knew everything, I would say that I wasn’t being educated in that class,” said CHS junior Charlie Blake.

For Blake, day-to-day classes often feel monotonous. This repetitive model of education has heightened during pandemic learning. With the number of hands-on and group activities decreasing, teachers have leaned on lecture-style teaching.

“It’s just lecture after lecture of taking notes and then it’s like, okay, we’re doing this part of the unit today, and then next week we’re going to have a test, and then we’re going to redo the entire thing again, just with a different unit. It’s all repetitive, and you get so bored of it that you’re just trying to do whatever you can to get a good grade on the next test and move on.”

The majority of Clayton students share Blake’s sentiments. On a survey, 90% of CHS students say that at one point they felt that earning a grade was more important than understanding the content being taught.

For many CHS students and students across the nation, playing into the education system becomes all-consuming, and school and homework takes over their lives.

“I think that a big reason why nobody likes to read anymore is because in school all day you’re basically reading worksheet after worksheet.” said Blake.

To combat this monotony, Blake likes to educate himself in different ways. Blake explains, “A lot of times I’ll justw like to go on YouTube and find interesting videos on different topics. Sort of like Ted Talks, I don’t know. And then I read a lot of books about history.”

Blake recently watched a Ted Talk called, “Let’s Teach for Mastery — not Test Scores.”

The Ted Talk was by Sal Khan, the creator of Khan Academy, a free online educational program that provides resources for students around the world.

“Khan was talking if a class takes a test and one kid gets a 70% on it, that’s still a passing grade in the eyes of the school system. But, that kid doesn’t know 30% of the information. Since school works on what you did the previous unit, that kid isn’t gonna know 30% of what he needs to know. And then, if he gets an 80% on the next test, that’s another 20% doesn’t know,” Blake said. “So, he was talking about how instead of just test after test, we should focus more on actually understanding what’s going on even if that means we take like a few extra weeks on a unit here and there.”

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“Once students started online learning, everyone had access to Google.

But, in Mr. Bergeron’s class, Google can’t really help you, because you have to understand it to be able to do well,” said CHS junior Spencer Rosenblum.

In AP Biology, Mr. Bergeron uses a testing model that is based on the AP exam. Bergeron’s tests are all application based. He gives students access to their notes during these exams, but the questions assess students’ knowledge and application of the content. In addition to his open-note test policy, Bergeron allows his students to resubmit their assignments to gain back lost credit.

Rosenblum explains, “I feel like Bergeron cares about learning a lot more than other teachers do, because if you do poorly on a test, you can resubmit.

So, it’s more about learning than getting the grade and moving on. If you get a C, you can keep teaching yourself outside of class, so that you can get an A and actually learn the content and not just move on and not know what you did wrong.”

Throughout the pandemic, other teachers have adopted open-note test policies. Rosenblum greatly supports this shift. “I think we need to step away from memorization, because wisdom is not memorization. We need to step away from memorization and start going to actual learning,” Rosenblum reiterates. “Learning to me is getting introduced to the concept, fully understanding the concept and being able to retain the concept and apply it. I feel like it’s really hard for teachers to teach application.”

One of Rosenblum’s favorite aspects of school are the relationships he is able to form with teachers. He deeply values teachers like Bergeron and Ms. Cearley, his freshman and sophomore English teacher.

He explains, “Freshman year, I wasn’t in Honors English, and then she made me move up with her into Honors English. We need teachers like Ms. Cearley to motivate their students and work with them so that they can improve.”

Rosenblum also greatly appreciates the English Conferencing Program. He said, “It’s really good that each student gets to have a one on one. It’s greater than just writing skills; it’s people skills and teaching you how to be punctual and how to talk one on one with someone. I think that’s really important, and I think Clayton has good writers because of that.”

“I feel like the [Clayton] culture is actively killing people’s inner motivation,” said CHS Senior, Robert Rosas.

Rosas has been in the Clayton School District, since he was in first grade.

Throughout his Clayton education, he has taken honors and advanced courses.

Despite his long stretch in the district, Rosas doesn’t feel well prepared for life after school. He said, “I mean, academics are good, but I feel like I’m also lacking a bunch of emotional skills and social skills.”

Other CHS students are split on this concept. 38% of CHS students surveyed indicated that they felt under-prepared for life after high school. On a scale from one to five, they rated their preparedness as a one, two, or three. The other 62% of students felt relatively well prepared by their Clayton educations, rating their preparedness as a four or five.

Rosas reiterated, “I feel like there’s a lot of soft skills that are just ignored. I feel like a lot of the most important things are done in health class and that’s restricted to a few quarters.”

To graduate, CHS students need to earn 24 credits: four units in English and three units in Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics.

Students also must earn one Fine Art

credit, one practical art credit, one Physical Education credit, half of a health credit, and seven and a half elective credits.

The disparities in credit requirements illustrate Clayton’s academic approach to education and questions the system’s ability to create truly well-rounded individuals.

In addition to the curriculum, many students are negatively impacted by the overall culture of Clayton. The constant competition often causes students to have to play into a system they don’t agree with.

Rosas reiterated, “If we had more of a culture of process over product, the curriculum itself would become a lot more effective, just because people would be more open to learning new things. Right now, since everyone’s just learning things for a grade, every new thing we have to learn is more of an obstacle rather than something to add or entertain us.”

For Rosas and other students, it can be difficult to see how historical facts and chemical equations connect. Through the Clayton system, these students are educated about specific subjects but end up lacking an understanding of real world applications.

“Right now, we just have a bunch of

subjects we learned, but I feel like there’s no underlying framework to connect all of them. I mean some people definitely have that and those are usually the people who are the most motivated to do well in school, because they can see how everything connects,” said Rosas. “But, I know a lot of people are just kind of left on their own and they’re just confused, and I don’t blame them.”

“You can be uneducated but intelligent, and you can be educated and unintelligent.”

Differentiating between education and intelligence, Clayton parent Uri Bamnolker calls into question the purpose of education and the education system.

Although parents define education and its main purposes differently, many Clayton parents share similar ideals, subsequently choosing to send their children through the Clayton School district.

New Clayton parent and resident, Nate Sprehe, made the decision to send his two daughters to Clayton from neighboring University City around a year ago. Choosing a new school district required evaluating his family’s values in an education system.

Sprehe explained, “I’m most interested that my kids grow up to learn to think creatively, and to be curious about life. I think if you foster a sense of curiosity in children, that’ll drive them no matter what.”

Other Clayton parents shared this sentiment; 26% of surveyed parents described a sense of curiosity and love of learning as their biggest hope for providing their children with a Clayton education.

Ultimately for Sprehe, the value of curiosity and creativity leads to his unique view of the purpose of education.

“I think the point [of education] is to introduce you to a whole lot of things, different ways of thinking, different experiences, different pathways, and then you rely on values your parents helped embed and that you’ve developed,” Sprehe said, “And how do you take all that’s coming in and process it, and what do you do with it? Where do you go?”

This exposure to new ideas emphasizes the importance of the diverse perspectives public schools provide. Public schools are typically comprised of a more diverse demographic, encompassing students of a region rather than only those whose families can afford and choose to send them to private school.

Parent and former School Board President, Kristin Redington, holds a similar point of view. She described the purpose of education as “creating opportunities for all the people in our community, country, and collective global community to be creative, curious learners and compassionate for others.”

While working on the school board, Redington worked toward Clayton’s fulfillment of this purpose. During this time, she visited Clayton classrooms to explain the purpose and role of the school board to students.

On one of these visits to Wydown Middle School, “I asked a question of the students: ‘So, why do you think a public education is important?’ And one of your classmates said, ‘I think public education means that every child has an opportunity to realize their full potential.’ And I was totally blown away. I use that now,” Redington said.

Public education gives students access to an education and its associated opportunities.

This serves to provide the youngest generations with the means necessary to better themselves and the world.

“Our public education does that because

parent perspectives otherwise you could have kids that may be able to create better outcomes for humanity, and we would never know it because that child didn’t have access to a decent education,” Redington said, “The future is only as good as what we invest in it.”

However, public schools are not funded equally, meaning some students and futures are invested in more than others. Public schools are funded with inputs from the local, state, and federal level. However, according to the US Department of Education website, “Education is primarily a state and local responsibility in the United States.”

Of the total estimated $1.15 trillion spent on education nationwide for the 2012-2013 school year, the Department of Education estimated that “92 percent of the funds came from non-Federal sources.”

The School District of Clayton benefits from a thriving business district and housing market, both providing increased funding for the district. However, many districts are not as fortunate and have less to spend on each student.

Clayton parents remain cognizant of the differences in the education their children receive compared to the average American student.

“I would say that I feel very privileged to be able to have a career I am passionate about, that also affords me the opportunity to live in Clayton and send my kids to the school district. There are a lot of people who aren’t in that situation, which is why I would want any kid in any neighborhood to be able to access at least a baseline set of educational advantages,” said Sprehe.

The inaccessibility of the Clayton-level education reveals a certain failure in the public education system, only available to those who can pay for it.

Sprehe said, “We can talk all about stoking curiosity and creating lifelong learners but to me the point of education is to give people a fair shot and to create a certain baseline of equity in our society and I don’t think that’s happening.”

Often times, you don’t need to go far to find this inequity.

“Going from Normandy to UCity to Clayton, you compare the three, and it’s the US education system in a nutshell,” Bamnolker said, “You go ten miles up and you have the whole US [public education system] in a ten-mile radius.”

Based on statistics from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Clayton High School spent an average of $14,645 per student, while Normandy High and University City Senior High spent averages of $8,706 and $12,685 per student respectively.

Although these issues may seem distant as families move through the Clayton School District, the comparison of these neighboring districts and their funding serves as a stark reminder of the progress that needs to be made before the public school system achieves its purpose.

Even within the seemingly successful Clayton public education system, parents identified room for improvement. The district’s strong reputation of academic excellence cultivates a competitive environment, both pushing and pressuring students.

Bamnolker said, “Clayton gives you an edge, and if you are up to the challenge, then it works well or else I think you’re going to find yourself chasing the majority of the students. But again, it might be enough to be average in Clayton. However, it can impact you socially if your friends are above average.”

The immense academic pressure faced by students to keep up with their peers parallels a similar pressure students feel to keep up with or surpass their parents in future success.

“When you think, I’m only going to be successful if I’m a lawyer and I make $300,000 a year or my dad or mom is the head of this, and if I don’t do that, then I failed,” Redington said, “Well, we’ve got a whole bunch of kids, especially in Clayton, who are set up to fail.”

Beyond the issue of pressure on students, the pandemic and changing economy call into question the functionality and relevance of the current Clayton and American public education model.

“Are we really preparing kids for the future of work? The way the current school system is built is on compliance work,” Sprehe said, “But we’re switching from an industrial model to a very different kind of future. [...]

The economy’s changing fast. The world’s changing. So, that seems like we should give [the education system] another look.”

The compliance model of the current education system praises students for sitting still, answering close-ended questions, and receiving as few points off as possible. This model has and will continue to be rethought.

Any new system will be tasked with producing curious, creative critical thinkers.

The Clayton School District currently serves as an exemplary public school system in the United States, a high bar other public schools aim to reach.

Yet, there are large barriers that remain before Clayton and the American public school system can “realize their full potential” to help students do the same.

immigrant parents According to the Yearbook of Imigration Statistics, the US admits over a million immigrants into the country every year, whether on here for schooling or other causes. As a result, many of them decide to stay in America to raise a family here.

Coined by James Truslow Adams, the American Dream states that regardless of previous class or economic status, a person can become successful through hard work and determination. Although the phrase wasn’t official at the time, the American Dream has been an ideal ever since the founding of this country.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

While it’s a broad concept that leaves much room for interpretation, this idea has motivated civilians for hundreds of years, and still carries on to this day.

Many immigrants came to America from overseas in search of their own American Dream. “It is something that brings a lot of people to the United States; the opportunity to achieve the things you want to, without being held back by any restrictions is really exciting,” CHS parent Maya Jerath said.

Janne Guerin, whose kids graduated from Clayton, described how America opened up the doors to many schooling opportunities and life paths to take, whereas they were limited in her home country. Whether it be

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for education or money, there is always a factor that motivates immigrant families to migrate thousands of miles away from their home country.

Having a dream is one thing, but actually achieving it is another.. For overseas college students, they have to be outstanding in their class to shine amongst applicants born in the US. For people just wanting to move here, Visas and applications for permanent residency can take up to three years to process.

“The circumstances of your birth, your family, what opportunities you achieve, what luck you have, all of that plays a part in everything, and I think that’s true for everybody across the world,” said Jerath. “I think that there is a little bit more mobility in America from a lower socioeconomic class to a higher one than in a lot of other countries.

That’s what makes it different.”

One major factor in achieving the American Dream is education.

For some parents, this means years of schooling to provide for their kids. For other parents, this means sending their children to the most prestigious universities so they can thrive in the future, and obtain the dream themselves. For most people, the end goal is to be accomplished and successful. This drive is apparent in immigrants, who come to the US to seek out a better future.

“I think that accomplishments can lead to happiness, but it doesn’t always, so the most important thing for me is to be happy,” Jerath said.

“On an emotional level of life, it’s important

to be happy. But I think you have to be realistic, especially living in the US; you have to have certain accomplishments in order to be able to live a good life and not worry, whereas only living for happiness may not take you as far,” Guerin said.

Immigrant parents are like most other parents, it seems, with their wishes for their childrens’ futures.

“For my children, I hope they can find a compromise where they can have their passion but at the same time, they will be able to have a job which provides them with the necessities for living,” Guerin said.

“I’ve seen so many cases of kids growing up burdened with the pressure of their parent’s high hopes,” CHS parent Joy Hsu said.

“Although they may have achieved their parents’ wishes, they aren’t happy with their lives. I don’t want my kids to go through [that ordeal], so I never told my them to become this or that. We told them it is their responsibility to figure out their future. The important thing is to be good people.”

From an educational standpoint, immigrant parents seem to have a higher expectation for the children in general.

They worked hard to come to this country, so it would make sense if they want their children to work just as hard to fulfill their future.

When asked to rank the importance of education on a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being the most important, all of them ranked education as a 10.

“I think education provides you with a foundation of what you need to pursue anything, to have these critical thinking skills.

It gives you reading, writing, arithmetic, so the very basic skills you need to do anything comes from education.”

But education isn’t everything.

“It shouldn’t be something that is a huge burden on you,” Hsu said. “But [through education] you learn to be strong, to face the problems that life gives. Education is not just what you learn knowledge wise; the process builds who you are as a person, so you know how to deal with life in the future.”

Guerin is both a parent and teacher, and wants her students to be happy, and to not be afraid of making mistakes and asking questions.

“I want my children to not worry about a good grade by itself, but worry about what they can do next. The journey of learning, the journey of solving, the journey of thinking of new things. And doing it because it’s their passion and not because someone else says this is what you need to do,” Guerin said.

All three parents want their children to go to college. They agree that in this day and age, a college education plays a major factor in the future wellbeing of an American citizen.

With their experience traveling thousands of miles in search of their own dream, it is only expected that they want their children to accomplish great things.

And the quickest and most foolproof way to accomplish those things is through education.

higher education During March and April each year, millions of high school students wait anxiously for college acceptance letters.

They have spent years working hard in rigorous classes, forming meaningful relationships with their teachers, and becoming skilled in sports and other extracurriculars in hopes that they will receive acceptances to great schools and earn scholarships that could save them thousands of dollars. The connection between a college diploma and future earnings is well established, and many families see elite institutions as a means of securing a stable and high paying job in the future.

However, a large number of students, statistically those in wealthy and high-achieving districts, tend to feel a great deal of stress from parents and mentors throughout high school and the college admissions process. In a society where wealthy students attend higherfunded schools and have access to more outside activities and educational resources, poorer students often get left behind.

A common component of the “American Dream” is the idea that children will achieve more than their parents, particularly in terms of money, happiness, and life satisfaction, but what really helps students to succeed?

What makes a public education valuable, and how can schools prepare students for life after high school?

Every year, Clayton High School tops the list for the best public high schools in Missouri for its outstanding faculty and student achievement. And many of the qualities that make public education valuable, Clayton has. With small class sizes and an open campus, students are able to have greater intimacy with their fellow classmates, as well as an increased sense of independence.

CHS college counselor Mary Modzelewski began her career as a high school teacher in the St. Louis public system before moving into higher education and college admissions. Having taught in many different academic settings, she understands Clayton’s uniqueness and recipe for student success.

“Clayton is the ideal size for a public school. Most public schools are really large, and with the school population it’s sometimes

hard to have those personal relationships, and we have extraordinary faculty. The hallmark of our school has to do with the teachers and the administration,” says Modzelewski.

CHS senior Milan Patel echoes this belief, saying “Clayton has one of if not the most qualified faculty. I think the teachers here have over a decade of experience and understand the most effective teaching methods. Also, I think Clayton offers a variety of courses for students to discover their strengths and weaknesses. Overall, Clayton puts an emphasis on academics and pushes students to succeed at the highest level through the environment.”

Unfortunately, high-achieving school

“We cannot have an informed, educated democracy without strong public education.” districts across the United States have seen an increase in drug and alcohol-related problems, and it is often due to the intense pressure to succeed. Suniya Luther, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, published research in 2017 based on the New England Study of Suburban Youth. The study, which followed two groups of adolescents from affluent communities, one through college and the other from ages 23 to 27, found “alarmingly high rates of substance abuse” from the young adults they studied as teenagers. While Clayton offers students a wide variety of support services, pressure from parents, teachers, and friends can lead to chronic stress and a lack of sleep.

“However, there are some things that were unhealthy that I think the pandemic has pointed to, and that’s our schedule,” said Modezelewski. “One of the things that I felt

about Clayton when I got here 11 years ago was that the eight period a day, marchingschedule of 45 minute classes was very detrimental to students’ overall well-being.

The community knew it and understood it, but it’s very hard to actually switch up and change something to make it better. When the pandemic struck, it made us slow down and even in my meeting I saw that students were getting more sleep.”

Some adults have tunnel vision when it comes to success and achievement, and parents and students can clash when their goals differ. However, Modezelewki argues that because a Clayton education is holistic, students are well prepared for life after high school no matter what they choose to pursue later on in life. The purpose of a public education is to foster a love of learning and create empathetic and self-actualized global citizens. And if they chooe to attend a college or university, it is beneficial to take higher-level courses throughout high school. It is good practice to challenge oneself, but Modzelewski says that academics should not negatively impact student health, and that greater focus should be placed on learning rather than on grades alone.

“Yes, we have particular families who would have high expectations and teachers who have high expectations, and students who have those high expectations. That’s not necessarily a bad thing overall, because it is good to instill a want and a need to digest more information and become a learned and educated person. Where it’s not healthy is when that level of sleep deprivation and competition drives the cart rather than actual learning,” she says.

As a college counselor, Modzelewski stresses that above all, it is important for parents and students to understand that there are many options open to them, and that it is important not to push oneself onto a certain path. What truly makes an education valuable is diversity, inclusion, and rigor. In a competitive and globalized world it is more important than ever to ensure that future generations have access to a quality education. Whether students choose to go to community college, attend a four-year university, or begin working after high school, a public education gives them the opportunity to enter young adult life on a more even playing field.

As Modzelewski says, “We cannot have an informed, educated democracy without strong public education.” Essentially, if the citizens of this nation adhere to the principles of the American Dream; liberty, democracy, and opportunity, public education is paramount.

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economic policy

The United States. The land of the free.

Opportunity for all. The place where anyone can achieve anything, where everyone makes their dreams come true. The United States prides itself on being the best country for people to change their lives, and for people to strive towards a more robust existence.

However, the United States falls short in a key part of this dream: education. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an academic test that measures student achievement, the United States ranks a mere 36th out of 79 countries overall.

Teachers in the United States, on the contrary, spend more time than most countries working-- averaging 1050 to 1100 hours a year-- despite being paid less on average than educators in countries like Ireland and Switzerland.

Additionally, the quality of education isn’t the same for all groups of people in the United States. Dr. Emma Garcia, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute who specializes in the economics of education, believes there is a major discrepancy that exists between different groups of people’s education, even before they enter school for the first time.

“We have recent research that shows that students do not start school on an equal footing. There are large achievement gaps already.” said Garcia. “There are gaps between kids of different racial and ethnic groups, and students who belong to different socioeconomic groups.”

The pre-existing gaps are amplified in schools, then. Education is partially funded by property taxes in the United States, while states attempt to cover the differences. This means that higher-income areas rely more on property taxes, while the opposite is true for lower-income areas. But according to Dr. James Shuls, assistant professor and the graduate program director of

32

educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, this doesn’t necessarily equalize funding between low and high income schools.

“The state tries to address these inequities through increasing more state funds for these poor school districts, but it can’t fully close those gaps,” Shuls said.

State funds are not able to equalize these gaps, and individual schools do not want to act out of their own interests, either.

“There are only two ways that you could [solve these inequalities]: One is you got to take from the ones that have more or you got to give more to the ones that have less. We don’t have enough money to bring everyone up, and [high income school] don’t want us to take their money away.”

As a result, huge discrepancies in the resources allotted to schools of different economic levels exist. This can come in different forms: one of the most prominent ones being the quality of teachers.

Teachers, in general, face many hardships in the United. According to Garcia, teachers get severely underpaid compared to their counterparts in other professions.

“We call [it] the teacher pay penalty, that’s a significant [difference] in your [salary], just because of the fact that you chose to go into one profession, or one career versus another… and it’s been increasing in the last 20 years or so,” said Garcia.

Additionally, teachers do not receive much support for a profession that is often mentally and emotionally taxing. Education policy does not support teachers well enough, and does not create healthy, safe working conditions for them, especially in lowincome schools.

“You can get a job in a high poverty school district where you’re facing all kinds of other challenges. Students who have more difficult home lives and lots of trauma and issues that you have to deal with,” said Shuls.

This often leads to higher-income school districts attracting teachers away from lowincome schools, especially if the teacher is more experienced and educated, which creates a deficit in low-income schools.

“Our high poverty school districts are training grounds for teachers, who then go to the more affluent neighborhoods ‘easier to work in’ because the students have fewer traumatic issues and whatnot, and there is a more positive school culture,” said Shuls.

Garcia believes that in order to attract and keep teachers in the profession, some sort of

compensation is dearly needed.

“There are many things that you could be teaching from the perspective of policy, for example, pay [off teachers’] student loans [or] professional development opportunities,” said Garcia.

As a result, gaps in the United States are exacerbated. Low-income students receive less funding and less resources. With a lowerquality education, it is even more difficult to break out of poverty.

There are a couple of counter-solutions that economists and policymakers have proposed to mend these issues embedded in the United States school system. Shuls believes that location based schools should be abolished, and instead, the school that one attends should be based on their interests and their own choices.

“There are lots and lots of different competing educational philosophies out there, but you wouldn’t know that from our education system.

What we could have is a beautiful garden of different types of schools where [students] could find the schools that fit them and work well for them.”

This, according to Shuls, would not only allow students to explore different types of learning that may serve them better, but it would also allow funding to be more equivalent, as individual schools wouldn’t be funded differently based on their location. It would allow students of different income levels to interact, and give low-income students and parents more of a choice to draw their own education path.

“We’ve chosen to do it one way primarily where we draw circles around neighborhoods and we assign kids to schools. I think there is a better way to do it. We get there through increasing educational opportunities for students and giving parents more ability to choose the type of school that they want for their kid,” Shuls said.

No matter what, the United States needs to change its mindset of the way we address the future of our society, believes Garcia, and realize that paying for education is more than just a cost with no effects.

“Education is perhaps the most important component in our way to personal and societal human capital. So, the money that goes into education is an investment… and it an are that countries, or the states in the country, have an obligation to provide.”

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PRESIDENTIAL PARDONING

How did this controversial power end up in the Constitution and how have presidents abused it?

President Donald Trump displays Alice Johnson’s full pardon in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Aug. 28, 2020. Trump granted Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate and former federal prisoner, a full pardon after commuting her sentence in 2018.

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP, PHOTOGRAPHER

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lorida rapper Bill “Kodak Black” Kapri was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to weapons charges. Kapri had previously faced a first-degree sexual conduct charge after raping a teenager. He has also been arrested for charges of robbery, battery, two counts of false imprisonment of a child, three counts of false imprisonment of an adult and received several other charges stemming from an Instagram live video where he passed marijuana and a gun around a small child.

Kodak Black was one of many to receive a presidential pardon from Donald J. Trump.

Pardoning has offered mercy and compassion in a sometimes racist and harsh legal system, but it’s also been a way for presidents to free campaign allies, close friends and anyone else believed to personally benefit them. This conflicting use of power has been seen all throughout history, from Andrew Johnson pardoning soldiers who fought for the Confederate Army to Barack Obama getting rid of life sentencing drug convictions for Rory Larry Lee and countless others.

The only restrictions on this executive power

OPINION 33

are that the crime being pardoned has to be federal and a president can’t get rid of cases of impeachment.

Compared to the rest of the U.S.’ elaborate checks and balances systems this absolute power doesn’t seem American, hardly democratic. So how did this controversial power end up in the constitution?

“A lot of U.S. constitutional law, whether we like to think about it or not, is modeled explicitly on English practice,” said Andrea Katz, Associate Professor at Washington University School of Law. In English history, the “prerogative of mercy” first appeared in the 7th century. It was originally used by the monarch to withdraw or provide alternatives to death sentences.

Alexander Hamilton, credited as the key defender of the pardon, stated that the U.S. needed this power so that the country could move on from cases and promote public welfare.

The first President was the first to use the pardon. In the 1791 Whiskey Rebellion, 150 protesters were arrested for treason, two were convicted. Later (perhaps out

of embarrassment at how he handled the situation), President Washington pardoned the two protesters and preemptively pardoned the others.

But looking at how Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, Former Maricopa County Sheriff, who had disobeyed a federal judge’s order to stop racial profiling in detaining “individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally,” Hamilton’s idea of promoting general welfare and peace arguably hasn’t held up. Even though Trump’s pardons have gained a certain attention other presidents’ pardons haven’t, he is in no way the only president to use this power for personal gain.

“Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, who had a drug conviction. Is this what the Founders had in mind? Arguably not,” said Katz. But looking further into Donald Trump’s pardons, we can see an unusual amount of pardons that arose from connections. Take Eliyahu Weinstein, one of the many people pardoned under Trump’s term. Weinstein got two-thirds of his 24-year sentence for investment fraud commuted.

Or Trump pardoning the father of his sonin-law Jared Kushner, who pleaded guilty

to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.

Another fairly new aspect of pardoning is celebrity intervention.

In 2018 Kim Kardashian asked and received a pardon from Trump for Alice Johnson, a woman convicted for drug charges and sentenced to life imprisonment.

“Kim Kardashian going to the White House to ask for pardons? Pretty new. You could question whether that’s presumptively unfair.

Or you could say that it’s a celebrity using their position to draw attention to real, important cases. I don’t know. But it is sort of a bizarre development.” said Katz.

In 2019 Lil Wayne, Dwayne Michael Carter Jr, was convicted for carrying a gun and bullets on a private plane in Miami. He faced up to 10 years in prison. Lil Wayne was another celebrity pardoned by Trump. During the election campaign, he met with and appeared to endorse Trump.

“I think our gut reaction is that when a celebrity draws attention to a person who’s been imprisoned for life, especially a young person, this is a beneficial use of their platform. But then other cases, like [Lil Wayne] with a gun on a private plane, that sounds like elite privilege.

Certainly, many of the pardons that we saw the Trump administration issue were very much steeped in privilege, privilege and connections, and this use of the pardon power seems just presumptively wrong,” Katz said.

It’s undeniable that the power leaves plenty of room for abuse. During late 2020, unsealed court records were released stating that the DOJ started an investigation related to bribery for a pardon.

Even though almost all requests for executive clemency are passed through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, the office acts more for the president’s convenience and the

“

U.S. President Donald Trump’s former adviser Stephen Bannon exits Manhattan Federal Court following his arraignment on fraud charges over allegations that he used money from his group “We Build The Wall” on personal expenses, on August 20, 2020, in New York City.

COULD I PERSONALLY CONTEMPLATE A WORLD WHERE THE PRESIDENT IS STRIPPED OF THE PARDON POWER? ABSOLUTELY. AND I DON’T THINK IT WOULD BE THE END OF THE DEMOCRACY OF THE UNITED STATES. BUT HOW THAT HAPPENS? IT WOULD TAKE AN ENORMOUS SWELL OF PUBLIC OPINION AGAINST IT.

Rapper Kodak Black, right, speaks with his attorney during a sentencing hearing in connection with the violation of his house arrest, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday, May 4, 2017.

CARLINE JEAN, PHOTOGRAPHER

SAUL LOEB/AFP, PHOTOGRAPHER

president is allowed to bypass that office. Only 25 of the 237 pardons and commutations issued by Trump came through the pardoning office that finds people’s petitions worthy of clemency. The system has a backlog of 14,000 applications.

“I don’t see the power of the pardon power being susceptible of change without a constitutional amendment,” Katz says.

Out of11,000 proposed amendments, only 27 have passed a constitutional amendment.

Getting rid of the pardon doesn’t seem likely, epecially when you give thought to the pardon’s original purpose still being carried out through occasional convicts. But through changing laws, we can create a lesser need for the pardon and put more emphasis on the abuses of this power rather than the mercy it shouldn’t have to give.

“This discretionary sort of power shouldn’t be what we rely on to deliver justice,” said Katz.

“Reforming laws should be what we rely on.”

ana mitreva

PAGE EDITOR OPINION 34

RUTHIE’S REVENGE Ruthie Pierson dominates soccer and cross-country at Clayton High School.

Left: A senior portrait of Ruthie from the 2020 cross-country season.

Right: Ruthie hard at work on the field during one of her varsity soccer matches.

MARCI PIEPER, PHOTOGRAPHER Ruthie Pierson started playing soccer in kindergarten. Little did she know it would become a lifelong passion of hers, leading her to make varsity her freshman year.

Pierson began taking her interest seriously in 4th grade, when she joined the club team. She participated in club soccer until eighth grade, and then joined the high school’s girls’ varsity team.

“Club soccer and high school soccer… they’re definitely different experiences. My freshman year, I think I was very timid on the team, but it was nice to make varsity freshman year and get that experience playing at that high level from the beginning, because it’s definitely boosted my confidence and made me a better player,” Pierson said.

Pierson not only decided to further her passion for soccer by signing up in the spring, she also decided to join the school’s cross country team in the fall upon entering high school.

When she joined the cross country team, several of the girls’ team’s members were high school seniors, leaving the team sparse when

SPORTS 35

they graduated. This allowed Pierson to become a cross country captain her sophomore year.

“For three years, I was a captain, so I just tried to build the team back up. The experience was really good-- I really liked everyone on the team and doing cross country has definitely also just helped me stay in shape for soccer,” Pierson said.

Between cross country and soccer, Pierson chooses soccer. Not only has she been playing soccer for much longer, she notes that cross country meets can be more painful and less enjoyable than her soccer matches.

Choosing to play two sports in high school has made it difficult to balance other extracurriculars and a job, but Pierson has been able to handle it well, especially with the winter being an off-season in between.

“I mean, obviously playing sports, it’s more difficult to balance activities rather than just not playing sports at all… but it’s been good for me, and I like being busy during the fall and spring.

It helps me be more productive when I do have time to do other things, so being busy and having to balance, it helps me manage my time

better,” Pierson said.

In her sports career, Pierson’s greatest accomplishments include becoming captain of the cross country team her sophomore year, winning second-team all conference for both her sports over multiple years, and beating Ladue in the first round of districts.

“One of my favorite memories from soccer would definitely be when we beat Ladue. The energy after the game was super high,” Pierson said.

Some of Pierson’s other favorite memories include the bonding activities from her sports teams, such as scavenger hunts or playing games while waiting for the run to start.

Coronavirus had an enormous impact on athletics nationwide. However, Pierson feels that the guidelines the school to make cross country a safe option for students last semester were adequate.

“It’s easier to do with a sport like cross country because we would wear masks anytime we weren’t running obviously, and we didn’t run with masks on, but most of the time at practice we can stay away from each other. In

Above: Ruthie strives to beat her personal record during a cross-country invitational. Below: Ruthie poses with fellow teammates after beating Ladue at district playoffs.

meets, they limited the amount of people in each race, so they did waves [of people], or just more races. So I would say I felt pretty safe at those, and obviously in races also you can stay away from people. I would say that with cross country, they did do a good job,” Pierson said.

However, Pierson is more concerned with the safety guidelines for the soccer season. The pre-season workouts take place indoors, which poses a greater risk compared to outdoor races and practices.

“I’m a little nervous about those indoor workouts, and also just when the season starts…. I mean I’m a little nervous about game, just the other teams not doing a good job. I know Clayton does a pretty good job handling coronavirus, but other schools may not,” Pierson said.

Aside from coronavirus impacting the season, Pierson’s senior year cross country

“

COACH CROWE FROM CROSS COUNTRY DEFINITELY HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON ME... HE KNOWS EXACTLY HOW TO TRAIN A CROSSCOUNTRY TEAM, SO HE’S DEFINTELY HELPED PUSH ME.

MARCI PIEPER, PHOTOGRAPHER experience did not live up to her expectations.

While she hoped to break her personal record, she unfortunately was unable to accomplish her goal, but made up for it later in the season when she placed well in districts.

“This season was slightly rough for me, I don’t really know what it was, I kind of just hit a little bit of a wall. I was hoping to break my PR, but I didn’t end up doing that. I’d say this cross country season still went well but was a bit of a disappointment, the team as a whole kind of struggled. My district race went better than the rest of the season: I think I got 21st or 22nd, and top 15 go to state, so I was pretty close to the cutoff,” Pierson said.

For soccer, Pierson’s main goal is to have a winning record, and she hopes to make it past the first round of districts, which is against Ladue.

Pierson appreciates her cross country coach James Crowe for helping shape her into the athlete she is today, stating that he was her most impactful and inspiring coach.

“Coach Crowe from cross country definitely had the biggest impact on me. He’s a super great coach and he’s had tons of experience; he ran in college. He also just has really good advice and knows what he’s doing-- he knows exactly how to to train a cross-country team, so he’s definitely helped push myself. He’s inspired me because he’s such a great athlete himself and he’s had this lifelong running career, and at the same time he’s helped me become better because he always knows what advice to give, so that helps me be able to trust his process at practice.”

disha chatterjee CECE COHEN, PHOTOGRAPHER

SECTION EDITOR SPORTS 36

MARTIN MACHINE CHS sophomore Nate Martin dominates wrestling.

Nate Martin wins his match

DAVIA GOETTE, PHOTOGRAPHER

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hirty-two and three. Sophomore Nate Martin finished the wrestling regular season with a 32-3 record and finished third at districts, earning him a chance to compete at the Boys’ State Wrestling

Meet.

After getting fifth place as a freshman at the State Meet last year, Martin is looking to place even higher this year, with a hopeful first place win next year.

Martin attributes his love for the sport to his father.

“When my dad was younger, wrestling was a big part of his life, so he wanted to pass it onto me because he thought I would really enjoy it,” Martin said. “I started when I was about four, and he’s been pushing me ever since. I’m very thankful for that.”

Wrestling has even become a family sport.

Martin’s younger brother as well as his younger sister, Elsie Martin, also wrestle.

While Elsie, a freshman, did not do as well at the Districts Meet as she hoped, Nate already has big plans for her for next year “I have no doubt in my mind that she is going to go to state next year. I can just tell how badly she wants it. She has already been asking me about working out. So she already wants to grind in the offseason, a day after she lost her matches,” Martin said.

Martin began wrestling in Tennessee before

moving to St. Louis in sixth grade.

“There were these two big competing high schools. The first place I ever went to was one of them when I was around four. It was a high school, but they also had a club team. They had very high level high school programs, so they produced a lot of good athletes from there,” Martin said.

The move to St. Louis was a little rough, but Martin quickly adjusted.

“Missouri is one of the top 10 hardest states in America for wrestling. Tennessee is definitely lower down there. I would definitely say it got harder,” Martin said. “I also think that I was really lucky because I got into a really good program called team St. Louis in Missouri that is run through Whitfield. I definitely had a lot of good opportunities there, and I had a good little league wrestling career with them. They really helped me a lot to get to where I am now.”

Similarly, shortly after the move, Martin also had to adjust to high school wrestling.

“I had no clue what high school wrestling was going to be like. I thought I was going to be exactly like little league. But I was wrong in so many ways. High school is so much more competitive than I could have ever imagined that it was, which is something that I love, but it really hit me as a shock when I got to high school,” Martin said.

Martin believes one of the hardest things

mentally about wrestling is the large weight fluctuations each wrestler must go through. In wrestling, they have weight classes, with the lowest one being 106 pounds and the highest being 285 pounds. As the weight classes increase, the increments between each one also increases.

“I came in before the season at about 130 pounds. This year I’m around 113. I try to make it where the most my weight ever gets is about seven pounds above my weight class. It’s really hard, especially when I’m already staying below my regular weight, which is 130. I’m already 10 pounds below that, and then I have to make sure to stay even below that so that I can hit my weight class,” Martin said. “It’s a lot of water weight that I am losing and putting back on.”

Martin definitely has big plans for the future and even hopes to wrestle in college.

“I think that wrestling in college could be a very realistic possibility for me, and I would definitely do anything that it takes to get there,” Martin said. “It’s the main goal for me.”

cece cohen

SPORTS SECTION EDITOR SPORTS 37

baseball

girls’ soccer

water polo

boys’ golf

Players to watch: Michael Filarski Ned Thompson Sam Siwak

Players to watch: Regan Wade Paige Boeger Ruthie Pierson

Players to watch: Daniel Love Blair McCoy Pablo Buitrago

Players to watch: Eitan Fredman Trace Carroll Nolan Waites

Goal: To win districts and beat Westminster

Goal: To win districts

Goal: To make sure everyone does their best and has fun

Goal: To improve on their record

girls’ track

boys’ track

Players to watch: Sophie Thompson Kim Cheng Ingrid Stahl

Players to watch: Milan Patel Anand Mysorekar Shane LaGesse

Goal: To qualify more runners for state

Goal: To qualify more runners for state

girls’ lacrosse

boys’ lacrosse

Players to watch: Sarah Centeno Charlie McDonough Paige Rawitscher

Players to watch: Joey Ettinger Nick Walsh Jackson Swinigan

Goal: To bond as a team and win every game

Goal: To win the state championship

SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW

boys’ tennis softball Players to watch: Tommy Lawrence Manny Vidal Jack Winnings Will Winnings Goal: To make the state tournament

Players to watch: Anya Thigpen Olivia Zindel Cooper Teich Goal: To grow the team

Last season was canceled due to COVID-19, so there are no records from last season.

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Photo By Eli Millner

cece cohen & kaia mills-lee SPORTS SECTION EDITORS

HOT CHOCOLATE OF STL Where is the best place to get affordable and tasty hot chocolate in St. Louis?

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t is freezing outside! What better way to warm up than with a nice cup of hot chocolate? I tried to find the best hot chocolate in STL taking into account each drink’s price, size, flavor, temperature, and other important factors.

Cursed Bikes & Coffee At Cursed Bikes & Coffee Shop, I purchased a 12oz cup of hot chocolate for $3.00, although a 20oz is available for $3.50. The drink had a strong chocolate flavor and was served warm for immediate consumption. This was a nice, traditional hot chocolate, with a whipped cream topping to add additional flavor and visual appeal. It was not overly sweet and I enjoyed the classic nature of it’s flavor. 3/5

Panera Bread At Bread Co., I ordered a regular hot chocolate which was $3.69 although a large size is also available for $4.09. Although Panera has great bagels and other meals, they completely miss the mark on their hot . The drink had a strong chocolate flavor but it was very grainy and not pleasing to drink. In addition to this, it had a very strange aftertaste that lingered in my mouth for a long time after drinking. Bread Co. provides a great sized serving for their price but as for its flavor, it was not enjoyable. 1/5

Colleen’s Cookies Colleen’s Cookies sells their hot chocolate for $3.50 for a 12oz and for $4.00 for a 16oz. Both sizes include their house made ganache added to provide additional chocolatey flavor. They also provide the option to change the type of milk in the drink. Colleen’s Cookies hot chocolate was very yummy with a subdued chocolate flavor and a smooth consistency. Overall the drink was very good and I rank it a 3/5.

Meshuggah Cafe Meshuggah Cafe’s hot chocolate is sold for $3.50 for a regular size and $4.75 for a large. This hot chocolate had an incredibly strong chocolate flavor and was very smooth. It was also not overly sweet as the milk perfectly balanced their chocolate flavoring. 4/5

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C. Oliver Coffee + Flower Bar Located in Maplewood, C. Oliver Coffee & Flower Bar charges $3.50 for their 12oz hot chocolate. This hot chocolate was very light and had a strong milk flavor with small hints of chocolate. It was very smooth with a foamy consistency throughout the cup. The temperature was the perfect warmth for immediate consumption and didn’t get cold until several minutes after I received it. Overall, this hot chocolate was the most pleasant to drink and the foamy consistency was a nice, unique addition. 4/5

Kaldi’s Coffee At Kaldi’s, I ordered the 8oz hot chocolate which cost $3.25 although other sizes are available such as 12 oz ($3.90) and 16oz ($4.35). This hot chocolate was served at the perfect temperature with a strong chocolate taste. This was by far the sweetest hot chocolate but it was not overpowering. I received whipped cream on top which was a great addition. 3/5

Starbucks At Starbucks, I ordered the kids size hot chocolate (8oz) costing $2.85. The consistency being very powdery, Starbucks hot chocolate was not smooth and had the mildest flavor. Due to the lack of the chocolate flavoring’s ability to be mixed into milk, some sips would taste strongly of chocolate, and others would be plain milk. Starbucks is perfect for a sugary coffee drink or a nice pastry but unfortunately, hot chocolate is not their specialty. 1/5

QuikTrip I was incredibly impressed by this hot chocolate, costing $1.74 for a medium size (est 16oz).

This drink had the most intense chocolate flavor out of all of the ones I tried, with the perfect balance of sweet and bitterness. This surprisingly smooth hot beverage had only one flaw, which was the scorchingly hot temperature that demanded time before drinking. This cup of hot chocolate receives the highest overall ranking, due to the strong flavor, low price, large size, and the convenience of being able to fill up my car’s gas tank and get a sweet treat in one stop. 4.5/5

photos by moriah lotsoff

moriah lotsoff

REVIEW SECTION EDITOR REVIEW 41

NIGHT STALKER The Globe reviews the new Netflix true crime docuseries.

Richard Ramirez (The Night Stalker) in episode four “Manhunt” of “Night Stalker”: The Hunt For A Serial Killer.

ARAYA DOHENY, PHOTOGRAPHER hile scrolling through my Netflix suggestions, I stumbled across Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer. I love a good crime documentary, even though I often regret watching them at night. This documentary scared the living daylights out of me. I couldn’t believe the story and as the days passed by, I couldn’t get the horrendous picture of Richard Ramirez at his trial, holding up his handembellished with a Satanic sign, out of my head.

Directed by Tiller Russel (Operation Odessa, The Seven Fire); Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer studies the case of Richard Ramirez, an El Paso native who terrorized over 25 victims in LA. He was sentenced to 19 death sentences and many said he looked like the devil incarnate.

So you are probably thinking to yourself, Isabella, why would you watch a show about a serial killer that is going to scare the living daylights out of you? Trust me, that was my first thought when I saw the suggestion at 10:20 pm on a Friday night in the dark. But this show will stick with you.

The documentary is narrated by Gil Carrillo and Frank Salermo, who were the leading detectives on the case. Russell introduces each interviewee with a

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heartfelt story to build sympathy with the audience. For example, Carillo shares a story about his journey from the army to the police force and the strained relationship with his dad. It also features interviews from family members of victims, news reporters, and police officers who were involved. In true-crime documentary fashion, the buildup of the case begins with the stories of the victims.

Carillo and Salermo are both convincing and detailed with the victim cases. Once a family is involved in any story, it becomes an automatic tear-jerker for me.

Although the story isn’t based around Ramirez’s life and motives for these killings, the police detailings are just as compelling. In fact, the clues that led up to the discovery of the killer were really unique. For example, when Richard attempted to rob a house, he left a perfect print of his shoe in the flower bed. From the shoe print, police were able to find the shoe size and searched to uncover what brand the shoe was. They discovered the shoe was an Avia model in black (from witnesses). Only one Avia shoe in black came to Los Angeles!

The glamourization of serial killers is something to be looked at too. Ramirez had many admirers and groupies in jail. Many sent him explicit photos and vows of love. Ugh. Gross. I know, why are people attracted to a person who is

the embodiment of evil? I have never understood why someone would think that crimes of that level are attractive, but that is indeed a problem in popular culture. Just imagine how horrible the victims feel seeing someone justify their attacker’s actions.

The documentary is suspenseful and dramatic when it comes to showing the brutality of these murders. Those who don’t like seeing crime scenes played out or shown in old photos should probably look away. Personally, I felt a bit sick looking at one of the cases; which was a six-yearold girl who was taken from her bed and kidnapped. The woman was interviewed and her story was extremely creepy. Her narration plus the panned shots of creaky hands opening up someone’s window was a good idea to add suspense.

If you are looking for a documentary that psychoanalyzes Richard Ramirez’s childhood and delves deeper into the case itself and the actual court hearings; this documentary would not fulfill any of that to a tee. Night Stalker is more about the police investigation and the victim’s stories than the actual killer himself. I would rate this docuseries an 8/10. Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is an interesting time filler to add to your list!

isabella bamnolker

PAGE EDITOR

PRO: Repealing the Filibuster Our democracy is meant to be for the majority, yet the filibuster gives the minority unjust power and slows down our entire legislative process.

President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of congress on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020

YURI GRIPAS, ABACA PRESS

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democracy should represent the majority will of the people. Because the filibuster infringes on the basic purpose of a legislative body in a democracy, it is well past time to eliminate it.

Let’s start from the beginning. According to a report by the Center for American Progress, there is no mention of the filibuster in the U.S. Constitution. In fact, the use of the filibuster is largely the result of rule changes in the 19th century that went against both the founders’ original vision of Congress and the way Congress operated at the start of American history. In 1806, a rule that required only a simple majority to end debate on an issue was eliminated essentially by accident, allowing the minority to freely obstruct legislation. The filibuster could be used by the Senate minority to indefinitely hold up debate on an issue until 1917, when a rule known as cloture was introduced. The cloture rule allowed a filibuster to end if two-thirds of the Senate voted to end debate on the legislation.

In 1975, that threshold was lowered to threefifths of the Senatore, or 60 votes. That means that the minority party can successfully and indefinitely block legislation unless 60 senators support it. Essentially, every piece of legislation that passes the Senate requires a supermajority instead of a simple majority. Simply the threat of the filibuster is enough to keep major

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legislation from ever being introduced if it does not have the support of 60 senators.

There are some exceptions; through a process known as budget reconciliation, bills concerning spending provisions can be passed with a simple majority. Federal and Supreme Court judgeships and executive branch nominations also cannot be filibustered.

However, over the past century the filibuster has successfully and systematically been used to undermine democratic representation, subvert majority rule, and prevent progress.

During the 20th century, the main purpose of the filibuster was to block or delay civil rights legislation such as voting rights and anti-lynching bills. For example, the longest filibuster in history was led by Senator Strom Thurmond against the Civil Rights Act in 1957. What the filibuster has not done is protect the voice of the minority. Instead, it gives the minority undue power and influence in obstructing the legislative process. The filibuster is no longer a way for the little guy to stand up to the political establishment. Senators no longer even have to speak and hold the floor to filibuster a piece of legislation. Instead, announced intent to filibuster a bill is all it takes to suppress democratic will.

The use of the filibuster goes against the ideals that this nation is supposedly founded on. It has established the Senate as disattached

from the realities and hardships its constituents face. It has created a cycle of unkept promises in politics, where politicians engage in partisan bickering instead of getting things done for the people they represent. Even when candidates campaign on promises such as universal pre-K, raising the minimum wage, and cutting emissions to combat climate change, the majority of these promises will never come to fruition because the minority has so much power over the majority.

For Democrats, the debate over ending the filibuster is a question of whether the progress that can be made in the next two years outweighs the possibility of a Republican majority after the 2022 midterm elections.

However, it is the nature of democracy that the majority should hold power. Parties should not change the rules of the legislative process simply to maximize power and push through partisan agendas, but to uphold the purpose of governance in this country. It goes against that purpose to allow the minority party a substantial advantage over the majority.

ivy reed SECTION EDITOR

CON: Repealing the Filibuster The filibuster provides the only means for the minority party to have a voice in legislation, and it's removal would mean the end of compromise in our democratic system.

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epublics were built upon the idea that the majority should rule. However, for almost all of American history, our nation has stood on an additional foundation: the upholding of minority rights.

When referring to “minority rights” in the sense of democracy, it is in reference to those whose opinions are not the majority. Whether or not we recognize it, almost everyone is a political minority. The losers of elections are political minorities. The Supreme Court Justices who don’t agree with the vote are political minorities. The political party that doesn’t have majority control over Congress is a political minority. We often don’t use this term, but minorities are everywhere in our democratic system. And without regulations, the will of these minorities would be trampled on by the majority.

Because of the lack of power that comes with being a political minority, our country has created many regulations to allow these

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...THAT WILL TO BE RIGHTFUL MUST BE REASONABLE; THAT THE MINORITY POSSESS THEIR EQUAL RIGHTS, WHICH EQUAL LAW MUST PROTECT AND TO VIOLATE WOULD BE OPPRESSION. people to still have a say in our democratic process. One such rule, and possibly the most controversial, is the filibuster.

The filibuster is a rule where senators can choose to speak as long as they wish about a topic, which means absolutely no time limit.

The only way to stop someone from speaking is to pass a three-fifths majority vote in the senate to move on and vote on the bill at hand. That’s 60 of 100 senators needed to move on and vote.

The idea of a filibuster seems reasonable on paper. After all, if most of the senate wants to move on, they are able to do so with no problems. However, this rule has more recently been abused. Because the Senate is often closely

Senate building pictured during the global pandemic

DREAMSTINE, TNS split between both political parties, it can be very difficult to acheive a three-fifths majority on anything. This can cause filibusters to run on forever, shutting down any bill that comes into Congress. The increased abuse of filibusters has caused many people to call for its repeal, allowing for a simple majority to control the Senate. But this would be catastrophic for the minority rights of elected senators.

It may seem counterintuitive to say that the rights of minorities must be protected. After all, democracy is built around the will of the majority, isn’t it? Why should anyone care about those who hold unpopular opinions? But the truth is, everyone should care.

Without the protection of minority rights, the majority would rule tyrannically over the rest of the country. This is such a universally accepted principle that it was well-known hundreds of years ago when American democracy was still in its infancy. Even Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, expressed this at his first inaugural address in 1801.

“All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect and to violate would be oppression.”

With the ever-increasing divide between political parties in America today, it’s not unreasonable to imagine a world where one political party rules over the other.

Democrats and Republicans are already at each other’s throats in the other branches of the government, including the multiple impeachment hearings and Kavanaugh trials.

Any bond that once existed across political lines in the Senate is long gone. There’s a reason why the filibuster has been used so much in recent years: the gap between political parties is growing by the day. Whoever holds the senate will undoubtedly ignore the minority completely, passing partisan legislation through Congress at lightning speed. After all, nothing would be stopping them. The filibuster is quite literally one of the only things the minority party can do to slow down or stop legislation.

So without the filibuster, we can no longer expect any negotiation, compromise, or bipartisan bills to pass in the senate.

So should we abolish the filibuster, allowing the 51% to tyrannically rule over the 49%?

Of course not. The filibuster is incredibly annoying, especially for the political party that controls the Senate, but its purpose is clear: to prevent the majority from ruling over the minority. And in a country with a long history of suppressing those without a voice, repealing the filibuster is a huge step backward.

max keller

SECTION EDITOR PRO/CON 44

STAFF ED: $15 MINIMUM WAGE The Globe examines what effect a $15 national minimum wage might have on the United States.

President Joe Biden on his way to discuss his $1.9 trillion relief bill. Democrats call for an 2025 $15 minimum wage to be included in the legislation.

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Drew Angerer/TNS

ith the election of Joe Biden to one state will raise their minimum wage and the presidency and a newfound another won’t, but you basically have the same Democratic control of the US senate, pool of workers,” explained Daniel Glossenger, talk of a massive wage hike has the AP economics teacher at CHS. “And lots of rippled throughout the political scene and has studies have shown that small minimum wage become one of the administration’s focal issues. increases won’t produce deleterious effects.”

Progressives have long demanded a raise in A study performed in 1993 by economists minimum wage; polls show that wage increases David Card and Alan Krueger which are unfailingly popular nationwide and many examined the effects of a hiked minimum Americans believe the current minimum wage wage on fast-food restaurants in New Jersey ($7.25 per hour passed by congress in 2007 and and Pennsylvania showed little evidence of a instituted in 2009) is no longer liveable. meaningful increase in unemployment.

Adjusted for inflation, $7.25 in 2007 would be Newer studies also refute the claim that roughly $9.15 today, yet the federal minimum an increased minimum wage would elevate wage has not seen an increase for the entirety price levels. In 2016, Daniel McDonald and of the past 14 years. Supporters of the wage Eric Nilsson of California University found increase argue that even when adjusted for that, in fast food restaurants from 1978-2015, inflation, the current wage is under half of a price levels rose at about 0.76% per every 10% liveable wage— which Biden’s proposed plan increase in minimum wage. would just about reach.

Even so, due to the economy’s state as a Biden’s administration has recently posed a new, $15 federal minimum hourly wage. The minimum wage would not almost double from $7.25 immediately, but rather reach $15 over a series of smaller annual jumps until 2025.

Biden and progressive lawmakers have fought for this increase to be included in the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill currently being debated.

This pay increase has, with no surprise, experienced drastic pushback from the Republican party and other political sectors.

While many agree that a large portion of the United States lives in poverty, the concept of a $15 minimum wage is heavily disputed as the whole solution.

Those against the increase argue that, in theory, it would lead to unemployment and a rise in price levels as employers institute layoffs and bump up prices to combat higher labor Republican Senator Mitt Romney discusses costs. However, newer empirical studies have his proposed bill which would increase the begun to shift this theoretical model of the minimum wage to $10 by 2025. wage increase.

“You’ll have these natural experiments where TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES

result of the pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report declaring that unemployment— a loss of around 1.4 million jobs— would still result if Biden’s plan were enacted. Furthermore, the size of the increase would increase the federal deficit by $54 billion over the next 10 years.

The pure functionality of a national wage increase is another heavily contested point. A nationwide wage hike is a broad and extreme solution to a complex and multifaceted problem— depending on your location in the United States, a $15 minimum wage could be the perfect solution, or it could be disastrous.

“What works really well in Southern California could conceivably be very, very bad for people in rural Georgia… just as it should be different from parts of rural Missouri than from downtown Kansas City.” Said Glossenger.

Though a minimum wage increase could be beneficial for the millions of Americans, the problem many have with Biden’s $15 plan is that it’s just too big, and not at the right time.

The plan calls for over a 20% wage increase year-to-year, amid a pandemic which has already stretched thin businesses nationwide.

Some politicians, namely Republican Senator Mitt Romney, have offered a compromise of $10 per hour, along with an increase in immigration enforcement; many Democrats find this compromise unfavorable.

“A $10 minimum wage, even, would probably be a little too high. But if we settled on $9.50 right now, that would probably be in a warm and fuzzy spot.” Glossenger said.

In addition to a smaller increase in minimum wage, there are other methods by which the federal government can help bring Americans out of poverty.

“There’s programs like the EITC, or Earned Income Tax Credit,” Glossenger said. “It was proposed under Nixon to reward people for going to work. The more you worked, the higher a tax credit you would receive. That’s probably the biggest anti-poverty program that the United States has that no one understands— it’s a landmark in helping bring people out of poverty.”

The EITC and other welfare programs could work in tandem with a smaller minimum wage increase to combat poverty, especially for a pandemic-stricken nation.

“It’s not a binary,” Glossenger said. “You could expand the EITC and increase the minimum wage. A single massive increase isn’t the only way.”

shane lagesse

CO-EDITOR IN CHIEF

STAFF ED 45

Student-Centered Superintendent The Globe interviews Dr. Nisha Patel, the incoming superintendent of the Clayton School District. The first portion of the interview was recorded on our podcast, available on all streaming platforms as “The Globe.” Some elements of this interview have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Q

As vaccines have begun to roll out already, it looks like your incoming first school year will be a lot less affected by COVID-19 than this school year was, so what are your plans or ideas to reintroduce students into schools and address COVID-19 in the District?

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I think the first thing that I would want to do is truly hear from the students; get some groups of students together and get their thoughts and their experiences on what this current year has been like for them, including our virtual students and our students that are in-person, and get their thoughts because one of my goals has always been to amplify student voices. I want to hear from the students in terms of “What are some challenges?” and hear some ideas because, trust me when I say this, students always come up with better ideas anyway so why do we not tap into that resource more than we already do. Once we hear from them, that would help guide the next steps on how to reintroduce our students to an era, hopefully, post-COVID. I still think if you’re trying to predict it we’ll still have some challenges with COVID, but how do we mitigate those as much as possible? I think, again, it’s talking to our staff, it’s talking to our students, and coming up with plans like that. I truly believe that even this year, right now, we’re in February, we still have a few more months to go and our students should already be feeling a part of the year, even though it’s a little crazy and it’s a little challenging, I think that hopefully, come August, it’s almost a smoother transition and it’s not something that we’re starting all over from.

So I truly believe in almost planting those seeds for now and being proactive at that approach.

Q

There have been increasing numbers of mental health issues and disorders, so how do you plan on addressing mental health in the classroom and helping students who struggle with mental health disorders?

A

That is a really big concern, actually, the World Health Organization said that mental health issues are one of the two leading health problems that we’re facing and I know that it’s very prevalent in our schools and in our students. To me, it’s truly about having a sense of belonging in a school district. When kids and students feel

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that they’re valued, that they’re heard, that their voice is amplified, I feel that they feel a sense of belonging and they have hope. And then obviously, to make sure they have a connection to staff members in the building. Every student should have a person that they feel comfortable talking to, that they’re open to, and then it’s us creating an environment where they feel that they’re included and that their voices are heard

Antiracist education program], all the training that our staff does, and it’s all centered around making sure that our kids feel that they’re valued, no matter what their background is. To me, that’s saying, racism is hard to miss, but it’s really investigating the biases that exist behind that. I always say, “racism is hard to miss, bias is hard to see.” You really have to investigate that portion and really reflect and have courageous conversations around it. If there is a situation that arises, we all sit around the table and talk about it. And those situations shouldn’t be arising if you’ve created a culture that involves everybody and values everybody, and that’s based on respect and dignity in my opinion.

Again, I know I’ve said this, but this sense of belonging is huge for me.

Q

How do you plan on making the teachers at CHS feel valued and appreciated, including using teacher input in the decision-making process?

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in any environment. Then you give them tools, you know, for conflict resolution, you give them tools to be able to handle certain situations and challenging situations in a loving and caring environment.

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I believe that’s the key, right, teacher input. Any individual, no matter what your role, needs to feel valued and appreciated for what they do, and that comes from a sense of listening to them, it comes from a sense of giving them ownership on decisionmaking. So if there’s a situation that arises and that’s a challenge, then let’s all get together and talk about it and let’s come up with a solution.

I’ve always said this and I’ve heard it a lot as well, the answer is not in the room, the answer is the room. The more voices you have in any decision you make, the better off you will be because everybody’s got input and at the end of the day, you’re valuing that and that’s what’s important.

What plans do you have for continuing and expanding Clayton’s dedication to antiracist education?

One of the first things I want to do is to first make sure that I understand where we are in the journey, it is very important to me, it is important to the School District of Clayton, and it should be. I believe in the work and I want to make sure that we’re moving it forward. All our work on ABAR [the American Montessori Society’s Anti-Bias,

You can read Dr. Patel’s Letter to the Clayton Community on the District’s website and for more of the interview and Dr. Patel’s personal beliefs and story check out the Globe podcast available on all streaming services.

ella cuneo & owen auston-babcock SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR | REPORTER

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A gift to the Foundation’s Rick Beard Endowment Fund supports science, technology, engineering and math projects in the School District of Clayton.

In 2014, Rick Beard (‘78) was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident. His family founded the Rick Beard Endowment Fund for STEM through the Clayton Education Foundation in his memory. Since then, the fund has supported initiatives like robotics, STEM Days, Project Lead the Way, and internet hotspots for District families in need.

Your generous donations make access to educational opportunities like this possible. Find out more and how to donate at:

www.claytoneducationfoundation.org The Clayton Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization; all gifts are tax deductible.