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Books find new home in redesigned library
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Class sizes rise, students suffer
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Calculators run, bike, swim for calculators
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Arangetrams serve as coming-of-age for Indian girls
september
Alumnus gives life for U.S.A. Matthew Axelson dies in Afghanistan by Alex Cohn, editor-in-chief and Neha Joshi, managing editor
O
n a familiar cul-de-sac in Cupertino, all seven houses display American flags as the wind gently lifts the banners, briefly imbuing them with a temporal life as they unfurl and wave. In the backyard of the well-kept house on the corner, next to a pile of firewood, a rusty, be-speckled two-door Triumph waits to be restored among the leaves, under a gray tarp. Within the house, in a living room filled with family photos, Cordell Axelson thoughtfully said of the car, “We were going to rebuild it when he came home. In fact, on Father’s Day he ordered a big manual for me, for us I should say, that we were going to use when we rebuilt it.” It was only nine days after that Father’s Day that Cordell’s son, Matthew Axelson, a graduate from Monta Vista High School, died on June 28, while on a mission for the US Navy SEALS in Afghanistan. The mission, known as Operation Red Wing, took the lives of eleven soldiers, the highest death toll for a SEALS operation since World War II. His father said of him, “He was just a typical guy that loved to be with his friends… he was not a blabbermouth for sure. He didn’t want to be the center of attention. He [was] very modest and very intelligent and physically and mentally he could do anything he wanted to do. He was a great guy to talk to.” The Axelson family used to raise St. Bernards. In one litter, a puppy was born with a black patch over its eye, an undesirable coloration for St. Bernard purebreds. “Matt said, ‘This is the one I want.’ When we asked why, he said ‘Because no one else would want it,’” said Donna Axelson, Matt’s mother. Matt was part of the graduating class
see Axelson on page 16
Symrin Chawla | staff photographer
Car Wash Senior Onur Erbilgin washes a minivan on Sept. 10 as part of the Class of 2006’s fundraiser, with all funds being given to victims of Hurricane Katrina. The event raised a total of $207 for the cause.
Clubs aid victims of Katrina by Vikram Srinivasan, managing editor
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ust two days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the American Gulf Coast, most of the nation was in a state of shock. Without tangible measures of the extent of the damage, prospects looked bleak at best. But sophomore Chetan Surpur, president of the Monta Vista Hindu Club, already had a plan in mind. “We were struck by the poor, dead victims, so we decided to do something,” Surpur said. And do something he did. In just a week of circulating classroom donation jars and selling candy after school in the bus circle, Surpur and 20 fellow volunteers had raised $1,300—and counting. Plus, $985 of that sum came in the first three days. Though Hindu Club’s proceeds will go to the American Red Cross, MV’s Red Cross chapter has launched an effort of its own, trying to raise funds by soliciting donations at the Cupertino library. A similar endeavor
for tsunami victims last year raised $700. Club Co-President senior Clarence Quah hopes to hit that same mark, if not surpass it. “We all agreed that the conditions [in Louisiana] are really devastating,” Quah said. “The conditions there seem like thirdworld country conditions.” MV’s leadership class seems to agree. The Class of ’06 organized a car wash on Sept. 10 and, with about 30 volunteers, managed to raise $207. Meanwhile, the spirit commission has planned out “Coin Wars,” a competition between classes where students deposit coins in the containers for their classes to win points or insert dollar bills into other classes’ containers to cause them to lose points, for the week of Sept. 19-23. Teachers have been keen to this student grassroots activism and have tried to help out by increasing awareness of Hurricane Katrina through their lesson plans. “A lot of kids don’t watch the news in general, so for me it was a priority to
educate them on the event, and then have them understand the impacts,” said history teacher Robyn Brushett, who discussed the consequences for the people of the country and region in her classes. Fellow history teacher Maria CarterGianinni took a similar approach, while business teacher Jeff Mueller focused on the disaster’s economic impact, and biology teacher Lora Lerner dealt with it in terms of the environmental results and the ongoing recovery. Though most of the fundraising projects last only a few weeks, the recovery doesn’t stop there. With New Orleans in ruins, the road to normalcy will be no walk in the park. However, more plans are in the works. Monta Vista’s club council met Sept. 15 to brainstorm more campus-wide ways to help out. Brushett said, “A lot of it has to do with empathy, to reach out for humanitarian reasons not just extra credit.” So far, it looks like students are keeping that spirit alive.
Plug pulled on wireless internet access by Julia Stenzel, perspectives editor
F
or several years, any Monta Vista student with a wireless-enabled laptop has been able to access the internet from anywhere on campus. But by the end of fall, this service will no longer be available. According to MVHS network support specialist, Sal Murillo, the school’s wireless internet was never intended for student use. “The wireless access was for the teachers’, staffs’, and campus laptop carts’ use,” he said. “This particular access was [meant] for these computers, and these only.” A major reason for the removal of wireless for student use stems from a concern for the safety of MVHS students’ personal information.
“Security is very important to anyone and everyone. Every single student who attends MVHS has their information stored on our database server,” Murillo said. “Imagine if someone was able to get a hold of this particular bit of information; now multiply this by as many students who attend here.” Another possible hazard of offering wireless access to all students is if a virus were to be “unleashed on our campus network by a student laptop which is not properly protected, or is unknowingly infected,” Murillo said. However, the elimination of student wireless will not affect the existence of wireless for staff. “Teachers will still be able to access the internet and network services, through the wireless connections as always; no changes for them,” Murillo said.
Senior Leon Young said he sometimes uses the internet at MVHS, but this will not affect him very much. In fact, he sees it as a potentially positive change. “It will encourage people to find other ways to study besides relying on the internet all the time,” Young said. “People will learn more by having to do different kinds of research.” But all hope is not lost for wireless internet access. When the myriad of problems surrounding wireless access for students can be resolved, it may return to MVHS. Principal April Scott said, “We want to bring it back, but we have to be safe about it. . We don’t want it negatively affecting the school.” Until then, students will have to leave their laptops at home, instead using desktop computers on campus.