The Oracle Early March 2019

NON-PROFIT ORG

Palo Alto Unified School District Henry M. Gunn High School 780 Arastradero Rd Palo Alto, CA 94306

Artist of the Month: Vivian Becker

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PG. 8 FEATURES

THEORACLE Henry M. Gunn High School

http://gunnoracle.com/

Friday, March 1, 2019 Volume 56, Issue 6

780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306

Parking issues on campus persist

Devon Lee Tech Editor

For the past two years, there has been a shortage of parking spaces.

Currently, 40 spots are reserved for the construction workers, and with increasing class sizes, there are more student drivers vying for a parking spot than there are spots available.

Finding parking in the morning is difficult, even for administrators. “Everybody is stressing about the parking piece, and it’s hard,” Principal Kathleen Laurence said.

“I come, and the spot that’s for me is taken, and I drive and end up way down at the Village.” According to Laurence, a big contributing factor to this issue is the construction.

“There are always concerns in that there’re more people who want to drive than we have spots,” she said.

“However, when the new building opens up, then we [will] have more spots available.”

Director of Student Activities Lisa Hall is aware of students parking illegally. “It does concern me that there are students who choose to drive to school and park on campus, even though they do not have a permit,” she said. “It is contributing to the problem of parking congestion and [is] unfair to students who have purchased permits.”

The Palo Alto Police Department (PAPD) has been employed to combat illegal parking. “PAPD patrols the lot and issues tickets to cars that are parked in non-parking spaces or are parked without a permit,” Hall said.

According to Laurence, the increase in student enrollment has added to the problem. “The other

piece to remember is that we have the bubble of enrollment coming through, so we have more kids for the next few years,” she said.

“Therefore, we have more kids who want to drive.”

Due to the parking shortage, some students have been forced to park on streets near Gunn, most commonly Georgia Ave. Junior Micheal Tao is one of the students that accommodates for his parking situation in this way. “I never parked in the parking lot because I started driving after semester one, and I live too close, so I could never get a parking pass,” he said. “I do have to leave earlier because the walk takes a good amount of time compared to biking. So I have to leave five to 10 minutes earlier than when I bike, but it’s worth it because it’s cold.”

For students who live on Georgia, the increase in drivers has not been too difficult to live with. “I don’t really see it as much of a problem right now because I figure [if] they don’t have a spot to park in the actual parking lot, then they have to find somewhere else to park,” junior Ryan Wang said. “It’s more of an inconvenience than a large problem.” According to Secretary to the Principal Martha Elderon, she has not received any complaints from neighbors.

Hall believes that one possible solution to the parking predicament is to find alternate modes of transportation to school. “The school could start with better messaging to the community about finding other ways to travel to school, encourage carpooling and to remind parents not to idle in parking spaces while waiting to pick up or drop off students at school,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Richard Yu

Title IX protocols consistent amidst local, national discussion Caroline Ro and Angela Wong Editor-in-Chief and Reporter

As ongoing sexual harassment allegations in the Gunn Robotics Team (GRT) were brought to court last month, the spotlight is being refocused onto the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Title IX procedural requirements. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ proposals to grant more rights to the accused and shift the nature of Title IX regulations has also kept the law and its future on the national radar.

Title IX was first passed in 1972 as a response to complaints against the lack of athletic scholarships, championships and funding for women’s teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Title IX originally aimed to eliminate gender-based discrimination in athletics, but has since evolved into a law that encompasses “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Since 1972, the scope of Title IX has also expanded to cover not only gender discrimination in

athletics, but sexual harassment as well as gender-based discrimination against transgender students (primarily under the Obama administration).

In 2016, a court case that charged a Palo Alto High School student for the assault of two female freshmen sparked controversy within the district and the community, as many felt as though the case was not handled according to the principles of Title IX. Upon receiving reports of this, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)–a subagency of the Department of Education–confirmed that the case had not been handled in accordance with Title IX and subsequently began to work closely with PAUSD’s Board Policy Review Committee, staff members and a lawyer specializing in Title IX to improve the district’s approach to Title IX cases. The result of this collaboration was a revised board policy regarding the scope and definition of sexual assault, along with a new uniform complaint procedure for students and employees to report Title IX violations. Because the new board policy was created in conjunction with the OCR, it was written to closely reflect the standards placed by Title IX and

was confirmed by the OCR to be legally sound. “After it was written, we forwarded it to OCR and they looked over and said, ‘Yes, we approve of this. This is exactly the policy you should be having,’” School Board President Jennifer DiBrienza said.

Since this revision, there have been several local and national incidents that have prompted many to question the future of PAUSD’s Title IX policies. Most recently, on Jan. 24, a petition was filed with the Santa Clara County Superior Court alleging that PAUSD had mishandled her sexual harassment case, which began as a Uniform Title IX complaint. The petition requested the reinstatement of a previous directive issued by PAUSD in November 2018 and limited student's interactions with another student who was found to have sexually harassed her.

On Jan. 18, the restrictions placed by this directive were loosened by the district. The petition stated that this decision “unconstitutionally deprives [the victim] of her right to equal access to education,” and that PAUSD “is essentially asking (the girl) to make an impossible choice Title IX—p.4 — to choose either her safety or her

2

News

Monthly Highlights: Love Week “I think it’s a really good way to get to know people. You’re matched with people that you’ve never met before, and you can just like go up to them and be like we matched, and just start conversations. I think that’s super cool.”

—Michael Panitchpakdi (12)

“I think the most interactive part would be the first day guessing the songs. I feel like having everybody compete against each other is really fun, but my personal favorite is the marriage one. I feel like getting a photo with your friends is really fun.”

“I like the Name a Tune; that’s fun.

That’s the best part [of Love Week].”

—Angela McCurdy (10)

—Kaveh Esfahani (12)

Photos by Dajiana Huang and Samson Wong

—Compiled by Vinay Ranganathan

New Social Justice Pathways made available for freshmen Grace Tramack Features Editor Next year, a program called Social Justice Pathways will be available for students in an effort to expand opportunities for students interested in community involvement and project-based learning.

This program will consist of a series of courses similar to those already required of sophomores, juniors and seniors, but will include the additional component of looking at material through a social justice lens. According to Social Studies Department Instructional Supervisor Lynne Navarro, students who sign up for it will be in the same social studies and English classes for their last three years of high school to create a smaller community called a cohort.

As juniors, each member of the cohort will complete Advanced Authentic Research (AAR). As seniors, Social Justice Pathways students will extend their project to community engagement. “Social justice is so huge, [the project] can be anything,” Navarro said. “Someone can do something on an environmental issue, food waste, homelessness, gender, race, disability or sexual orientation. I think people have sort of a limited view of what social justice means right now. It’s just a term people throw around in the news.”

Additionally, as seniors, students will most likely be

able to choose among the social studies electives that are currently offered but do not receive enough interest required to run such as Cold War, Ethnic Studies and Holocaust.

Palo Alto High School (Paly) has offered the Social Justice Pathway for several years, and former Gunn English teacher Angela Dellaporta says that she envisioned its appearance at Gunn since her retirement in 2012. Though Dellaporta will not be able to teach any of the classes within the Social Justice Pathway, she has been actively involved in bringing the program to Gunn.

The main differences from the program at Paly are that two years of AAR are allotted and cohorts have different teachers each year of the program. According to Dellaporta, this gives greater opportunities to both students and teachers. “It's a great opportunity [for teachers] to be able to teach these difficult, controversial issues and make them really come alive,” she said. “The great benefit for students is that they will see how history is still active now, and they will get to see how what's happening now is a reflection of what happened in the past.”

According to Paly sophomore Sloan Wuttke, who is currently in the program, classes are more intensive and rewarding than other ones she has taken. “It surprised me how close-knit our cohort has gotten in the past semester,” she said. “We aren’t afraid to talk about things that other

classes typically would be afraid [to talk] about.”

Although Dellaporta is excited to already witness enthusiasm for Social Justice Pathways, she and the other founders of the program want to see a group of engaged students who are truly interested in engaging and making a difference. “We're hoping that students don't take this course or this pathway just because it looks good on their college applications,” she said. “We're hoping that students take the course because they really care about what happens in the world and they want to speak up, learn how to make change and make their voices heard.”

Navarro hopes that students who choose to participate in the program leave having established strong, researchbased stances. “We're living in a slightly wacky political time right now,” she said. “There's people on both sides of the political aisle that are spewing things that aren't evidence-based. I really want our students to be good at figuring out what isn't [a] reliable source and to have their strong opinions about things, but to base them on that evidence.”

It is Dellaporta’s goal that students leave the program with broadened political viewpoints. “It’s very difficult for us to open up our belief systems,” she said. “We have a defense system built in to protect ourselves against listening to the other side. It’s very difficult not to just listen, but also understand the other side.”

economics

AAR

Advanced Authentic Research

senior Year

Junior year APUSH

Advanced Placement U.S. History

cold war ethics or holocaust

News THEORACLE 780 Arastradero Rd. Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 354-8238 www.gunnoracle.com

Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Caroline Ro Managing Editors Megan Li Kristen Yee News Sohini Ashoke Ryan Li Tejpal Virdi Forum Jennifer Gao Liza Kolbasov Joshua Yang Features Julia Cheunkarndee Joy Huang Grace Tramack Centerfold Yael Livneh Chelsie Park Sports Eric Epstein Bridgette Gong Elisa Moraes-Liu

Friday, March 1, 2019

3

Alumni share insight on wellness via documentary Natalie McCurdy Tech Editor Between 2009 and 2015, Palo Alto experienced nine student suicides which that took place in two different contagions. In response, broadcast journalist Liza Meak and former Gunn student Kathryn Basji collaborated to create a documentary titled “The Edge of Success.”

The film follows the search for an explanation of the number of teen suicides in the past 10 years through accounts of life at Gunn from six high school students, Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) staff members and medical professionals.

“The Edge of Success” began filming in 2015 and took three years to complete. Over the course of the documentary, audiences can witness the progression of the students’ opinions, recovery from the events and outlook on Palo Alto’s academic environment.

As Gunn was put in the spotlight, the conversation surrounding academic pressure, mental health resources and student well-being in Silicon Valley garnered national attention. Olivia Eck, a member of the Class of 2017, agreed to contribute her unique point of view to the film in order to clear up misconceptions about Palo Alto. “Much of my involvement in the film was due to anger and disappointment about how

outsiders were reacting to Gunn and all of Palo Alto,” Eck said. “Seeing news reports, articles and even strangers’ reactions was a constant battle between facts and perceptions.”

Lisa Hao, a member of Gunn’s Class of 2016, was incentivized to get involved after understanding the documentary’s goal and the manner in which her words would be portrayed.

“The fact that there was no hidden agenda, other than to show the complexity of the issue, but also [to] highlight how much, not just Palo Alto needs to think about this problem, but across the country how we can all benefit and join together in thinking about this issue that affects so many of us,” Hao said.

The film premiered at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival on Oct. 18, 2018, with Meak winning an award for Best Director of a Documentary Feature.

Although the documentary isn’t available to the public yet, there have been negative responses from the community regarding the discussion of taboo issues. Eck believes that this criticism is misdirected. “I think there is a misconception about the goal of the film,” she said. “It simply aims to bring light to the issue and document the characters’ progress throughout our years at Gunn and in the community in general.

Despite the initial reaction from the public,

Tone Yao Lee, also a member of the Class of 2017 and featured in the documentary, hopes that audiences will gain a positive outlook for the future of student wellness. “I hope that people will learn that mental health is a real issue and should be talked about,” Lee said. “I also hope that people will begin to understand that by talking about it, we can tackle the problem together.”

Being a part of “Edge of Success” required frequent interviews, in which students addressed serious and emotional topics and opened up about their feelings about loss in the community. “Personally, sharing any experiences I had was difficult at times," Eck said. “While none of the suicides were extremely close to me, the toll that they took on the community affected everyone. Sharing my perspectives made me think more about the situation.”

While this process may not have been easy for the participants involved, Lee and Eck were ultimately glad they were able to be a part of the film. “Sharing my perspective and experiences has been part of the healing process for me,” Lee said.

“The Edge of Success” will be shown to the public for the second time at the 2019 Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival in San Jose and Redwood City on March 10, 16, and 17.

Lifestyle Laurel Comiter Noa Rapoport Online Stephanie Jackson Andrew Zhao Changing the Narrative Grace Williams Photo Editor Sofia Sierra-Garcia Graphics Editor Mina Kim

Staff Business/Circulation Ryan Manesh

Photos courtesy of Olivia Eck, Tone Yao Lee and https://edgeofsuccessmovie.com/

Oliv ia Eck a n d To n e Ya o L e e , b o th me mb e r s of t he Cl a s s of 2 0 1 7 , di s c us s e d t heir v iews o n te e n w e l l n e s s i n i n te r v i e ws fe a t ure d i n t he doc um e nt a r y.

INBOX

Assistant Business/Circulation Peter Oh Copy Editors Calvin Cai Madison Nguyen Nikki Suzani Oracle/SEC Liaison Bridgette Gong Oracle/TBN Liaison Collin Jaeger Graphics Artists Nicole Lee Grace Liu Jocelyn Wang Photographers Melissa Ding Sophia Lu Reporters Annika Bereny Charlie Bush Kate Mallery Josh Mei Kepa Neesen Vinay Ranganathan Sophia Stern Eric Tang Jessica Wang Angela Wong Katie Zhang

The Oracle strongly encourages and prints signed Letters to the Editor and Comments. Comments are generally shorter responses, while Letters are longer pieces of writing.

Letters and Comments may be edited to meet space requirements and the writer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Please include your name, grade and contact information should you choose to write one.

Letters to the Editor, Comments and ideas for coverage may be sent to oraclegunn@gmail.com or posted on our Facebook page.

These letters need not be from current students.

I thought that the issue explored a lot of different topics so that there is something interesting for everyone.

—Tiffany Mu, 12 I thought it was organized clearly. I would try to put the more “relevant” things on the front pages but I understand this is kind of subjective. I was still able to find everything that I wanted to.

—Michael McCandless, 11

Tech Editors Natalie McCurdy Devon Lee

The new issue is well-written and covers a variety of topics. The structure especially lets me scan through the entire paper easily and select the topics that interest me. Also, the article about helping the homeless people in Palo Alto, along with the pie chart on the same page was the last story I enjoyed reading. I found it informative, and directly helpful.

Adviser Kristy Blackburn

—Alexander Thaik, 10

—Feb. 1, 2019—

I liked reading all of the stories from different perspectives. A few of the perspectives were from people that I hadn't interacted with on campus before due to whatever reasons so it was really cool to read about their experiences.

—Mishaal Hussain, 9 I especially liked the front page article covering the issues the Computer Science teachers are encountering. It makes more students aware of these issues and presents it in a friendly manner.

—James Chang-Davidson, 12

The Oracle won sixth place in Best of Show at the 2018 National Scholastic Press Association Conference on Nov. 1-3.

4

News

United Computations club hosts day-long hackathon Liza Kolbasov

Forum Editor

On Feb. 23, Gunn hosted its fifth annual hackathon, GunnHacks, organized by the United Computations club.

Over 160 students from Gunn and surrounding schools got together in the N-building from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., to work on programming projects and attend various workshops and trainings.

Attendees had the opportunity to design innovative projects in teams with fellow students. Projects ranged from coding mobile applications to programming robots.

“For 12 hours, you’re going to sit down with your team, have some food, eat some snacks, talk and make something cool,” GunnHacks organizer John Guibas said.

Workshops from mentors, including Stanford students and experts from various companies, were also available to provide hackers with the necessary skills to carry out their ideas, allowing students with limited knowledge of computer science to get involved and experienced programmers to grow their skill set. “Especially for novice coders—people who went in there blind without any knowledge like myself—you can go to one of those workshops and they'll teach you, really simply and efficiently,” former attendee and current organizer Quinn Arbolante said. “At the end of it, you'll have a product that you can work on for the rest of the hackathon.”

United Computations club had been working throughout the year to organize the event, which is almost entirely student-run. The process involved booking the venue, fine-tuning logistics, contacting sponsors and mentors and promoting the event. “I think the biggest challenge we faced was obtaining sponsors for our event,” GunnHacks director Austin Ho said. “At the beginning, we

“I think one misconception about hackathons is that people think [they] are just for experienced programmers. That's not the case for our hackathon. We've definitely put in a lot of effort to make sure that our workshops are for both beginners and experienced programmers.”

—Austin Ho (12)

didn't have any responses coming back from any of our sponsorship requests, but, however, our persistence paid off when we did receive offers from various businesses.”

GunnHacks offered opportunities for programmers of all levels to extend their skills. “I think one misconception about hackathons is that people think [they] are just for experienced programmers. That's not the case

for our hackathon,” Ho said. “We've definitely put in a lot of effort to make sure that our workshops are for both beginners and experienced programmers.”

The hackathon is also a chance for students to expand their knowledge of computer science outside of the classroom. “This is an opportunity to go and learn something about writing programs that are useful [and] not in a classroom environment where you don't have to worry about a grade or anything like that,” United Computations advisor Joshua Paley said.

Overall, one of the main goals of the event was to allow students to appreciate the power of computer science in action, as well as channel their creativity into building an impactful product. The event is a chance for students to experiment and see what they can come up with in a limited amount of time. “What you realize is that code is really powerful. You can scrape together these minimal viable products in less than 12 hours and maybe sometimes less than six, and some of those applications can be really powerful,” Guibas said. “The most important part of your project is your idea. It really teaches how much power you have in the human spirit.” The first place project, created by junior Audrey Xie, was Earl-AR, an augmented reality program.

Photos courtesy of Andy Wang

Pa r tic i pa nts of Gu n n Ha c ks 5.0 wo rk tog ethe r i n the li b ra r y to b u ild a n a p p licatio n , we b tool o r g a me i n fewe r tha n 12 hou rs.

District compliant with changing Title IX standards Title IX access to education.” On Feb. 24, a district attorney filed a response with the court, alleging that the decision was made to balance and protect the rights of both the boy and the girl. His mother had disclosed in December 2018 that his "emotional health and well-being would be seriously impacted by his continued exclusion" from GRT. On the national level, Betsy DeVos’ new clarifications and guidelines regarding Title IX are expected to alter schools’ approaches to the law. Her outline generally aims to clarify the laws that protect the rights of the accused (such as requiring a higher burden of proof before a required response or permitting student advisors to cross-examine the accuser) and specify when exactly schools are required to respond to sexual harassment claims. For example, schools are now only required to respond to “conduct within its education program or activity,” potentially eliminating online of off-campus offenses.

While the scope of Title IX is currently being argued, the district does not plan on reeling back any of their legal protections offered to students. The strength and efficacy of the current policies have eliminated any need for revision in response to DeVos’ new guidance. “Our policy hasn’t changed and state law hasn't changed; state Ed Code hasn’t changed.

Even though there is less that we have to do according to Title IX, we're still following our own policy, which is just as strong as it was before she rolled back those protections,” DiBrienza said. “In fact, if we did revisit our policy, we’d have

to get it approved by OCR because they approved our policy as is now.” Similarly, Superintendent Don Austin reinforced that the district had no intentions of compromising their standards. “I think federal regulations set a floor and not a ceiling. So, in the case of regulations and protections for

"Our expectation here in Palo Alto is going to be that we're going to protect every student to the nth degree and we're going to exceed those minimum standards."

—Superintendent Don Austin

students, we’ll see those as minimums,” Austin said. “Our expectation here in Palo Alto is going to be that we're going to protect every student to the nth degree and we're going to exceed those minimum standards.”

The district is, however, constantly working to improve the accuracy of its Title IX investigations and improving the process overall, from complaint to resolution. “Sometimes a Title IX case will touch other aspects of one or more of the students involved. And I think here at the district level, we need to be more thoughtful about who else we involve in the conversation and make sure that we really understand

the players, that we really understand where the complaint is coming from, what the respondent has to say and everyone involved in between,” said Austin. “Part of our job is to coordinate all those people in a way that we reach the best possible resolution and have the best possible outcome for everyone involved.”

Regardless of how PAUSD’s specific Title IX protocols may or may not change, though, DiBrienza still believes sexual harassment in general will remain a critical, widespread concern. “I don’t know that we’re ever going to get successful in completely eliminating every instance of sexual harassment ever,” DiBrienza said. “I’d like us to get better at it. That’s what the [Responsive Inclusive Safe Environment (RISE)] task force is working on.”

PAUSD’s current sexual harassment education includes high schools’ Safe and Welcoming Schools Days and assemblies led by activists and speakers such as Anea Bogue and Jackson Katz. In the years to come, PAUSD plans to normalize these conversations at a younger age. “I know that the RISE Task Force is thinking about really expanding down into the middle schools because that’s where you really start to have these relationships and get into more complexity than just friendships,” DiBrienza said. “I think it's not that unusual when you have thousands of students together that incidents are going to happen sometimes.

We're trying to really work on those sort of cultural norms.”

Forum

Friday, March 1, 2019

5

students should join, charter clubs Out of sincere interest

Tejpal Virdi

With over 100 chartered clubs, Gunn provides its student body with an impressive array of interests to explore.

From Interscholastic Gaming Club to Philosophy Club, there is bound to be a student organization that aligns with your interests. If not, the process of starting your own club is relatively straightforward: simply fill out an application, find an advisor, stake an open room and recruit at least 10 members. Seems harmless, right? The truth is that while such an easy process encourages creativity and diversity, it also allows some to receive undue credit for starting or joining a club when they're simply padding their résumé.

On one hand, Gunn has benefited greatly from clubs by bringing the student body together, teaching leadership and encouraging intellectual curiosity. Gunn Business and Gunn Math Circles, for instance, provide unique, valuable opportunities for students to participate in certain competitions and events. Gunn Model United Nations, a club chartered for long over a decade, attends six conferences annually, with student delegates consistently winning numerous awards. On the other hand, however, some of the lesser-known clubs often fade into obscurity, holding rather closed meetings that are attended only by a select few.

A similar dynamic occurs in

other well-established clubs on campus as well. In United Computations, for example, there are dozens of registered members, yet only 10 to 15 people actually show up to the meetings. For many clubs, even fewer attend planned events. In a scenario like this, although each member is able to claim participation in the club, not everyone puts in an equal amount of effort.

Some students may be taking advantage of the system in this way, but it does not necessarily mean that the policies around clubs need to change drastically.

If it were more difficult to form a club, there could be a decline in the number of clubs offered to students, thus limiting extracurricular opportunities. Obscure clubs may be benefiting a smaller number of people, but there should always be access to even the most eccentric of interests.

One way to counter this issue would be to have more Student Executive Council (SEC) check-ins with clubs. As the year progresses, some clubs may become listless and dysfunctional, their numbers falling below the original requirements to start a club. In the case that these clubs are not put in check, the system becomes corrupt.

By having SEC—which handles the chartering of clubs—regularly meet with club presidents for status updates, we can greatly improve the quality of clubs on campus and filter out those that fall under the baseline. According to Student Body Vice President Sean Yu, there are quarterly check-ups with advisors to ensure that clubs are following the requirements to be chartered, but there is no measurement of quality (engagement of members, productivity of meetings, outreach to new students, etc.) that is consistently tracked. The requirements that do exist include meeting a minimum of two times per month on campus, having at least one teacher advisor present at all events, maintaining an average of ten members in attendance at each meeting, not engaging in potentially dangerous activities, filling in the required officer positions and following original club agreement policies. Of course, clubs must also comply with the rules set by the Californian government.

Some clubs have integrated an attendance policy when distributing credit to members.

For instance, in Pandora’s Box, a club which works on Gunn’s creative magazine, club officers track how often members attend before marking each member as an official contributor. Policies like this ensure that students cannot join and claim credit simply by signing up for the club; they must be active and contributing members.

Pa ndora's Box's polic y has been quite effective in maintaining attend a nc e a nd begs the question of whether it should be implemented within all clubs.

Aside from a few minutes lost in meetings, there are no draw-

"Some of the lesserknown clubs often fade into obscurity, forming

rather closed meetings that are attended only by a select few."

Sofia Sierra-Garcia

backs to having clubs track membership. After identifying the active members, clubs should a lso send an official member list to SEC, establishing a level of authenticity when it comes to claiming a role in a club.

Another solution that can reduce the number of students who use clubs as mere résumé credit would be to change how people view clubs by condemning the belief that one should join or start a club for the sake of getting into college. In the competitive culture of Silicon Valley, it is easy for a student to feel obligated to do certain extracurriculars simply because it “looks good” for applications.

Unfortunately, this mentality takes away from the intellectual curiosity that clubs were meant to cultivate in the first place. Instead, if students only went to the clubs they were interested in and founders only started clubs for the sake of spreading opportunities, Gunn could foster a healthier and more stimulating extracurricular environment.

Whether reforms are made by enforcing stricter policies or adjusting students’ perspectives, the current fairness problem with clubs should not be dismissed.

Clubs are an integral part of Gunn, as they cultivate new perspectives and provide unique social settings for likeminded individuals. If change is not made to shift the current trajectory, the privilege of high-quality student organizations could easily disappear.

—Virdi, a senior, is a News Editor.

6

Forum

Politics in the classroom: Foreign Policy class broadens perspectives

Teacher reflects on politics of neutrality, controversial topics

Brian Miguel

Sohini Ashoke As a world politics fanatic, adding U.S. Foreign Policy (FoPo) to my list of classes during junior year was a no-brainer. I, along with many of my Model United Nations friends, had been encouraging people to sign up for the course all throughout course selection season so that it could run. My expectation before enrolling was that FoPo would be primarily lectures, note-taking and lots of group work like most high school history classes were. This style rarely worked for me. I was pleasantly surprised during the first couple of weeks of class to learn that the class would be largely discussion-based, with near weekly class discussions on global issues after student presentations. These debates were extremely thought-provoking, as the class dynamic was passionate, heated and open to questioning opinions. For me, this experience was completely eye-opening because I got to hear and debate opinions rarely heard of in the politically homogeneous Palo Alto.

Following student presentations, our class would have a discussion revolving around 10 questions the speaker drafted. The presentation topics ranged from topics like North Korea to foreign aid and were supplemented with articles and links to adequately prepare for a fruitful discussion. During my own presentation week early on in the semester, I delivered a speech for an IsraelPalestine discussion. After an admittedly biased pro-Israel presentation and stance, I expected a short discussion, thinking that my view was in the majority and “correct.” My opinion was instead met with an ample amount of criticism—some harsh, but all helpful in helping me reconsider and amend my own. Various people brought up statistics I had never known regarding civilian casualties in Palestine. Two students from Israel shared personal anecdotes about their experiences living near the Israel-Palestine border and how their background shaped their view on the conflict. Each viewpoint was valuable and unique, and I still cite nearly all of these opinions when reviewing the reasons behind my amended opinion on the conflict.

Another favorite part of FoPo were the guest speakers, who included former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and American historian and “The American Pageant” author David M. Kennedy. These two speakers presented during weeks in which we dealt with material dedicated to their area of expertise, making our question-and-answer sessions with them more interesting.

Beyond presentations, the class also involved watching a significant amount of interesting documentaries, including “The Fog of War," which featured life lessons from former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara regarding content on the Vietnam War. I believe that the disproportionately low number of humanities classes at Gunn compared to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses offered is problematic given the importance of educating students about civics, politics and global issues.

FoPo was one of the first classes at Gunn that allowed me to learn about these topics in-depth. I can say for a fact that my semester in FoPo was my most enjoyable and enlightening.

Overall, my experience with FoPo was transformational, especially as someone who learns well in a Socratic-Seminar learning environment. Not only was the content perfectly tailored to my interests, but it was also the deciding factor in my choice of international relations over political science as my college major.

I highly recommend this course for any students seeking to gauge a worldview that is difficult to attain in sheltered Palo Alto, or anyone passionate about global affairs.

In politically charged environments, educator objectivity is bound to come under scrutiny. When students want to know where I stand on a subject, I often reply, “I have no opinions.” On the surface it is greeted as humorous, but for me its main function is defensive. It has long been held that teachers should never reveal their biases. Indeed, teachers do have a powerful platform, one that many fear could be used to indoctrinate young, impressionable minds. Definitions of bias often include the word prejudice and to most the word connotes a feeling of unfairness. Biases are mental shortcuts that can often lead to discrimination.

Teachers must always strive to avoid displays of personal bias, taking care not to abuse the power of their platform. However, teachers cannot and should not ever be neutral.

I often lay awake at night, replaying a classroom discussion in my mind over and over. What did I say? How was it heard? Did I say it clearly? Did I leave something unsaid or leave someone out? I fear losing a student or knowing they are uncomfortable and will never thrive in my class. A more senior teacher once cautioned me to avoid controversial topics to save myself the headache. In those sleepless moments, I wonder if they were right, before reminding myself of my duty.

The job of an educator is to stoke passion for knowledge and inquiry and to foster human decency. To do this, especially in the social studies classroom, sensitive topics must be discussed. The Social Studies Department at Gunn issued a statement on the teaching of controversial issues, noting the hope that students can “grow into knowledgeable humans who will continue to work to solve our world’s most important problems.” When these topics come up, the standard is that the teacher should remain neutral.

Neutrality of the classroom is a policy derived of both good intention and naivety. True neutrality does not exist, as it always favors the status quo. Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Marginalized student populations face very real challenges and fears, obstacles that are only strengthened by educator impartiality. A neutral teacher gives their support to the injustices of society, thereby abusing the power of that immense platform.

A nonpolitical classroom is also impossible. It is said that educators should avoid politics, leaving political maturation to family and life experiences. Politics is the making of decisions that apply to a community, and it is everywhere and in everything. The very idea of public education is a political act. Decisions of curriculum are political. The school board, a council of ideology-driven, elected officials, makes important policy decisions governing how students and teachers spend their day. Questions of access are deeply political.

Which textbooks are used and what they cover is political in nature. Education is inherently political.

A teacher should never endorse candidates or treat students differently based on political ideas. They should respect the individuality of their students, their experiences and their beliefs. Teachers should not abuse their power or use their platform to indoctrinate students to a certain worldview. But let’s not kid ourselves—politics is on display all around campus: every decision about what to teach or what to avoid, what to punish or what to ignore involves politics. Politics is everywhere, and neutrality is a political act. Educators should abandon faux neutrality and embrace opportunities to build character, awareness and morality.

­—Miguel, a social studies teacher, is a guest columnist. ­—Ashoke, a senior, is a News Editor.­

Graphics by Nicole Lee

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neutrality vs. discussion

Objectivity, analytic approach essential in teacher-led political debate, discourse Stephy Jackson With increasingly polarized politics, teachers have been faced with a modern dilemma: how should politics be integrated into the classroom in a way that promotes healthy and representative discussions between students? Some Teachers of the Year have argued for the need for teachers to speak up against certain political views, specifically those of President Donald Trump. Those claims have been sympathized with and supported by many across the nation; teachers taking a side on political discussions, however, only causes more polarizing problems in the classroom. Teachers are assigned not only to teach their respective subject, but also to teach students a sense of moral independence about their own political and personal opinions regarding the world they live in. Teachers share a social responsibility to themselves, to parents and most importantly to students to provide curriculum free of personal political interjections.

A teacher might be expressing their freedom of speech at the cost of others’ rights.

In October 2016, the 10 Teachers of the Year wrote an open letter stating that “[they] are supposed to remain politically neutral... But there are times when a moral imperative outweighs traditional social norms. There are times when silence is the voice of complicity. This year’s presidential election is one such time.”

Their letter went on to say that, “We believe that Donald Trump is a danger to our society in general and to our students in particular.”

These teachers claimed that President Trump's rhetoric in speeches and rallies isolates and even bullies certain populations of students.

Whether a teacher agrees with this viewpoint or not, by actively choosing to take a side in a political classroom discussion, teachers are potentially isolating some of their own students. This is rather counterintuitive to their plan to promote inclusion.

The argument against teacher neutrality relies on the notion that teachers have an obligation to teach students about proper moral development and an obligation to teach the opinion that is “morally right.” This claim, however, assumes that “proper moral development” is a politicized matter, when in reality, Republicans and Democrats alike have equal potential to develop their moral compasses, even without the influence of a teacher.

Students in the classroom should feel free to express and discuss their political views without fear of having their opinions viewed as “wrong” or “right.”

A teacher’s opinion of what is “right” is completely subjective to their personal motives. Conclusively, teachers have no right to impose their political beliefs on students, and by even mentioning their beliefs, they can unknowingly be influencing the mindset of a student.

The issue of teacher neutrality is not only a moral one, but also one of legal concerns when it comes to teachers speaking about their political beliefs in a professional capacity during instructional hours. The enforcement of teacher neutrality relies not only on teachers, but also on the school district. The legality of teachers’ freedom of expression has become murky and unregulated in many school districts, including the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD).

To clarify questions about teachers’ freedom of speech, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a list of guidelines for American public school teachers: “Generally, the First Amendment protects [teachers’] speech if [they] are speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern. However, if [teachers] are speaking in an official capacity (within the duties of [their] job), [their] speech will not have the same protection. What [teachers] say or communicate inside the classroom is considered speech on behalf of the school district and therefore will not be entitled to much protection.”

When Gunn teachers speak on their personal political beliefs, they are speaking on behalf of the PAUSD and, in some cases, might be misrepresenting the ideology of the district. The school district

should also be aware that “speech” includes posters, t-shirts and decoration within classrooms. Teachers and administration alike should be more aware of the constraint of teachers’ freedom of speech in the classroom and provide their own set of guidelines for Palo Alto teachers to follow with regards to politics in the classroom.

The PAUSD has, however, published its “Board Principles” that set a goal for teachers to participate in “developing each student's self-respect, respect for others, appreciation for diversity and sense of personal responsibility.”

The Board Principles also highlight how a “highly skilled and dedicated staff has a direct and powerful influence on students’ lives and learning.”

When a teacher who has a “direct and powerful influence” over students projects their personal opinions on politics, they are directly violating their responsibility to develop students’ personal autonomy and to appreciate diversity.

Students with differing opinions from their teacher may be deterred from speaking in class in fear of being judged by an authoritative figure. Teachers should be more aware of the potential power they have over their students and hold themselves accountable for their responsibilities. Even the slightest hint of a teacher’s political inclination or a subtle joke about the current political climate can isolate students who would otherwise feel comfortable speaking about their views.

This does not mean that teachers should avoid political discussions altogether— political apathy or ignorance can be just as harmful as ignoring neutrality.

Teachers should promote productive, engaging-for-all discussions about politics and current events if the topic is brought up in class. Teachers should correct students if they cite false evidence or facts to promote a political opinion, but the use of false evidence does not completely eliminate the validity of the student’s original opinion. Rather than talking about their own views on political matters or avoiding political discussions altogether, teachers should present and promote all sides of a political discussion impartially. For example, if students seem to be reiterating one side in a discussion, teachers should mention what the opposing side might believe or say in response to the students. This inclusion of diverse political opinions can increase students’ exposure to opposing opinions, which can open the opportunity for students to understand those that disagree with their views. When teachers discuss a current event that affects their field of teaching, such as the United States government or economics, teachers should provide sources from various viewpoints, rather than from one newspaper or cartoon.

When it comes to politics in the classroom teachers should prioritize, above all else, the opportunity for their students to form their own educated opinions on important political matters without the influence of a teacher’s agenda. An increased awareness that not all students share the same beliefs as their teachers and that there are consequences for a teacher’s words are crucial in promoting a more welcome environment within classrooms.

Politics will only become more and more polarized if students cannot form their own political opinions independently of teacher influence.

There are times when a moral imperative outweighs traditional social norms. There are times when silence is the voice of complicity.

[Board] policy... obligates teachers to approach controversial issues in the spirit of inquiry rather than advocacy.

­—Jackson, a senior, is an Online Editor.­

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Features : h t n o M e h t f r e o k c e t B s n a i Arti v e Vi r o m o Soph Madison Nguyen Copy Editor

From a young age, sophomore Vivian Becker loved drawing. When she was six years old, she began taking art lessons with a teacher, and since then her passion and skills have grown immensely.

Becker, who is currently taking Advanced Drawing and Painting Honors, has fond memories of her time in art class when she was younger. “I used to be left-handed—I would pick the pencil or paintbrush up with my right hand and then switch it to my left hand to draw,” she said. “One day, I thought, ‘What if I draw with my right hand instead of passing it over?’ It was in that moment I became right-handed. It was definitely so much better.”

When Becker first started, she practiced a fundamental drawing skill: tracing. “Some of my older pieces that I’ve drawn are so embarrassing,” she said. “I would draw little fairies from the Rainbow Magic books when I was younger. I was flipping through old picture books that I have, and each page had a paper that would have a picture of a shaky tracing on it. I thought, ‘If I was tracing it, why is it still so bad?’”

So far, Becker has drawn a myriad of portraits, both of herself and of others. She often emphasizes certain features of a portrait to create a unique image. “I like using a lot of different colors,” she said. “If I’m drawing a face and there’s a part of it that is slightly more yellow or green, I’ll try to really bring that color forward. I like to make some undertones really exaggerated.”

In the future, she hopes to dabble in a bit of mixed media art. “I do a lot of digital [art] on my iPad, so hopefully I’ll get better at that,” she said. “One thing I’m not very good at is colored pencils, so if I get better at that it would also be cool.”

Spending hours on a piece and having it not turn out the way she envisioned it can be very frustrating. However, Becker still finds the little things in art to enjoy, such as the creative outlet and the pillar of stability it provides her. “With art, it’s frustrating when I don’t have time to do it,” she said. “But most of the time, it’s the one thing in my life that stays constant when I have a struggle with something else. For example, if I got a concussion and I couldn’t play soccer or dance, I’d still be able to draw.”

As much as she loves art, Becker sometimes struggles with the competitiveness of the art community, especially when it means sacrificing her creative freedom and self-expression.

“I really don’t like the art atmosphere and culture,” she said. “Art is a really individual thing, but you’re always still competing with other people, especially if you want to make a career out of it.”

Becker has been able to apply skills she’s learned from art—like her sense of creativity and her hand-eye coordination skills—to other parts of her life. While Becker isn’t planning on pursuing a career in art, the skills she has learned from it will aid her in whatever career path she decides to pursue. “I want to go more into the field of medicine,” she said. “Art is helpful to me; I’m always going to be drawing, and it will always be there for me in my life. If I decide I want to pursue a career in surgery, it’s a lot of hand-eye coordination. Also, with creativity, just being able to think about the solutions to problems—hearing or seeing something and being able to turn it into what you are doing—will be especially helpful.”

Becker first started her Instagram art account, @creati.vivian, after a friend suggested that she do so. Recently, however, she hasn’t paid as much attention to it as she would have hoped to. For those interested in creating an art account, Becker recommends updating it often to keep track of individual progress, as well as starting with whatever feels comfortable. “A lot of people, they start doing calligraphy which is really cool, too,” she said. “There isn’t a need to go full-out and start with portraits right away. If you feel like your drawings are really bad, then you don’t have to show anyone for a while. You can just start one, work on it and it’ll turn out okay.”

Fi n d V iv ia n B ecker's pa i nti n gs i n co lo r o n I n stag ra m: @cr eati.v iv ia n Photos by Sofia Sierra-Garcia Painting frame graphics by Mina Kim Paintings courtesy of Vivian Becker

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Gamer competes in internationaL ESPORTS TOURNAMENTS Ryan Manesh Business Manager Junior Max Popov has the dream job of many: getting paid to play video games.

Popov is a professional esports player and has traveled all over the world to compete in FIFA tournaments and competitions. FIFA is a soccer simulation video game developed

by Electronic Arts (EA) Sports. The game was first released as FIFA International Soccer back in January 1993 and was released most recently this year as FIFA 19. Over the years, FIFA has gained a strong following and fanbase, and is one of the best selling video game franchises of all time.

Popov has been playing soccer all his life, and it was one of the reasons he started playing the video game. “I started playing FIFA 13 about six years ago,” he said. “I’m a huge soccer guy; I love watching and playing soccer, and I also like gaming, so playing a soccer video game made a lot of sense.”

Initially, Popov never thought of making money through FIFA, but that all changed when he found that he was skilled at the game. “I probably realized I could go somewhere with FIFA around FIFA 15,” he said. “I was only 12, but it was nice competing with some of the best players in the world.”

However, Popov couldn’t legally compete until he was 16, so this is the first year he is eligible to compete.

Despite not being of age to play, Popov competed in his first tournament about two years ago. “My first tournament was in 2017 for $10,000,” he said. “Unfortunately, I lost in the final. After losing, I was a little upset. Ten thousand dollars would be some good cash for a 14-year-old.”

Although he lost his first tournament, Popov held his head high and has since competed in many others. “I’ve also gone to London and Miami recently and will be going to Singapore and most likely Berlin over the summer,” Popov said.

Throughout his time competing professionally, Popov has formed many connections within the FIFA community. “I’ve made quite a bit of friends online and at these tournaments, some people that I’m close with and probably going to meet in Singapore really soon.”

At 16, Popov has already achieved a lot; for example, he has qualified for three events in his first year eligible to compete. “I had to be one of the top five players in the world

to qualify for my events, so that was a pretty big deal for me,” he said.

To qualify for FIFA tournaments, players compete against the top 50 players from around the region. After that, players enter an eight-hour group stage, where half of the competitors make it through. “And then, you play the knockouts where you have to win two knockout games,” Popov said.

“It’s usually in the last game to qualify when you’re playing somebody who’s extremely good, so it’s always intense and stressful.” Up until now, he has only competed against players from North America, but the events that he qualified for will field players from all around the globe.

Popov does not think the FIFA franchise will end any time soon due to its longevity. “Particularly for FIFA, I think it has a big future because people love soccer,” he said. “Love for soccer is not going to die, which means that the video game about the sport is also not going to die.”

Popov is also sure that the esports scene will only grow.

“I think that for sports games in general, there is a good future,” he said.

QUICK STATS • Esports global market revenue is projected to be $1.096 billion in 2019, according to Statista.

• There were 380 million global esports watchers in 2018, according to Newzoo. Viewers were mainly from North America, China and South Korea.

• The League of Legends World Championship was the most watched event on Twitch in 2017 with 49.5 million hours, according to Newzoo.

Visit gunnoracle.com for more stories on students involved with esports.

Photo illustration by Mina Kim and Sofia Sierra-Garcia

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Coffeeology cafe helps teach students communication skills Each Monday during A period, the smell of banana bread and freshly-made espresso wafts down the halls as special education students host their weekly Coffeeology cafe.

Students budget money, cook food, operate coffee machines and use Vehicle Transportation Agency (VTA) transit to buy the necessary ingredients. As part of Gunn’s Future Students Vocational Education program, Coffeeology gives students experience in jobrelated areas in order to support their career development.

Program advisor and Education Specialist Sandra Conklin believes that the program allows students to gain valuable life experiences. “The purpose of the program is to teach our students to practice their social skills through functional academics,” she said. “They do all the shopping, baking, measuring, learning how to handle money and talking to teachers. It’s really like running a small business.”

Junior Shauncy Lim participates in the Coffeeology program and finds it an enjoyable way to learn how to make both food and coffee. “I would say the coolest thing I’ve done was learn how to make cappuccino and a latte,” she said. “We have an espresso maker, and we put the pot in the espresso maker, and we have a lever which we press down to start making cappuccino or espresso.”

In order to get the ingredients to create the food, students have to plan their bus routes and use comparison shopping in order to use their money effectively. “Usually, we shop at Safeway, sometimes Walmart, and we usually try to pick the best price for the brand

Features

that we buy,” junior T.J. Anderson said. “We take some VTA buses through VTA routes and plan our trips and our returns.” They also have the opportunity to bring the recipes they learn back to their families so even more people can enjoy the fruits of their harvest.

Like it is with all small businesses, running Coffeeology isn’t always smooth sailing.

“I think there were also some problems with the coffee machine between regular and decaf,” Anderson said. “Apparently we were actually using two coffee machines that were both making caffeinated, and one needed to be the decaf, but we didn’t know that they were both making caffeinated. So, communicating between staff is important.”

Still, the students and staff are always ready to deal with any difficulties they face.

“We’re learning about kitchen safety and sometimes you make something and it doesn’t turn out as you’d hoped it would,” Conklin said. “So we just remake it and get it ready on time for the customers to come in.”

Since Coffeeology is entirely self-funded, budgeting and money management are important aspects of the program. “With money, we get the cash box and divide the money into five dollars, one dollars and the coins,” Lim said. “We set them all up and see how much we have. After that we calculate how much we’ve got and how much we’ve given change to the customers.”

The program also promotes social skills by allowing the students to carry on conversations with staff. “They are learning to make eye contact, learning what other questions [the students] could ask and continuing a conversation,” Conklin said. “If you say, ‘How was your weekend?’ and they say, ‘Oh great, I went to see a movie,’ then they’re learning to continue the conversation like, ‘What movie did you see?’ and, ‘Oh I’ve seen that,’ or, ‘Oh, my favorite movie is this.’”

Local businesses have also worked with Coffeeology to get the program on its feet and ensure that students have the resources necessary to run it. “Nespresso hosted us at their shop in Town & Country and taught the kids how to use all their equipment and how to make the cappuccinos and lattes, later donating cups and syrup,” Conklin said.

“We also learned how to be baristas from Peet’s Coffee, and they made us a bunch of little samples of chocolate and coffee, so that was cool too.”

Gunn staff are an integral part of keeping Coffeeology alive. “A cool part of the program is that we rely on our staff to come in and help us with social skills and provide us with opportunities to have conversation and work on social skills,” Conklin said. “We have a great group of regular staff that come in every Monday or every Coffeeology day to make sure to get in here and chat with the kids, and that’s been really special too.”

—Written by Nikki Suzani

Junior student bakes a tray of chocolate chip cookies to sell at Coffeeology.

Photos by Sofia Sierra-Garcia Graphics by Mina Kim and Grace Liu

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Friday, March 1, 2019

Right: Students in the special education program make bread and pizza for those who pre-ordered them.

Bottom Right: A student smiles with their freshly-baked pizza.

Bottom Left: One student counts change from a sale at Coffeeology.

Co-taught classes integrate special education students into general curriculum Chief to the integration of special education programs into classroom settings has been the co-teaching program.

Launched just five years ago, the co-teaching program consists of a general education teacher and a special education teacher instructing students in a shared classroom.

Currently, co-teaching is offered through all four years of college-prep English classes and through junior year for math, science and history courses.

Co-teaching can take on many different forms; in parallel teaching, two teachers split students into groups and teach simultaneously. Another option available is for one teacher to lead the class the majority of the time and for the other teacher to provide assistance as needed.

According to special education teacher Jacqueline Selfridge, co-teaching gives special education students a chance to be in the general education setting and offers a more equitable experience. “It gives [special education students] access to [general education] curriculum and [the opportunity] to be taught by a content teacher as well as a special ed teacher,” she said. “It gives them opportunities to access academics as well as the social aspect of it: to be able to work with their same aged peers that are in the generalized setting.”

Selfridge remembers watching her students grow and thrive in a co-taught setting over the course of a year. “One of my favorite memories is watching kids who, their freshman year, wouldn’t say anything—they wanted to participate, but they were so scared to be in bigger classes,” she said. “Their sophomore year, [they were] the leaders of the class. Within a one year time difference, they made that big of a jump. They were much more confident and they became independent, and they saw what they’re capable of doing.”

—Written by Joshua Yang

Q&A with special education teacher Courtney Carlomagno The Oracle: What type of courses and students do you primarily teach at Gunn?

Courtney Carlomagno: I currently teach Conceptual Physics with [Science Department Instructional Supervisor] Laurie Pennington. Ever since we became a fullinclusion school, all of our graduation requirement classes, or the majority of them, are co-taught. There is a special ed and general ed teacher in the room so that all students can get a high school diploma. I also teach a support class known as Academic Planning.

Previously, I ran an academic communication program which supported students on the autism spectrum with improving their social skills.

TO: How long have you been a special ed teacher?

CC: This is my sixth year as a teacher at Gunn, and I was actually a special ed aide at Gunn for two years before becoming a teacher.

TO: When did you know you wanted to be a special ed teacher?

CC: I originally thought I was going to be a preschool teacher. I did that for about a year and a half in college and right out of college, but that became mostly ‘you nap them, you feed them and you change them.’ I got really bored of that and so then I decided to try working with a different age group. I applied for an aide position at Gunn and then I ended up just loving being able to support different kids and helping them meet their goals.

TO: What’s the most challenging part of teaching special ed?

CC: I think the most challenging part is just maintaining patience, so being patient with all different stakeholders.

TO: What is something about special education that you think people should know?

CC: I think a common misconception about special education is that students who need special education are different; it’s more that they need different paths of support to help them be successful. All of our students on campus, special ed or not, are highly capable, and it’s just about figuring the strategy they need to use to figure out that information.

TO: What’s your favorite part of teaching special ed?

CC: I love the fact that I get to see a lot of the kids for all four years, so I get to witness a lot of growth and really create a long-lasting relationship with them. I have a ton of students who I’m still in touch with, tons of students who I take pictures with at graduation and it’s really great to see all their progress.

TO: What does special education mean to you?

CC: To me, special education means leveling the playing field. I love that picture of the three kids looking out over the baseball diamond, and they are all different heights, but they get the right amount of boxes so they are all on the same eye level. So special ed is making sure everyone has what they need to be successful.

—Compiled by Eric Epstein

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Cente

BAY AREA STEREOTYPE PROMOTE INACCURATE GENERALIZATIONS

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For decades, Silicon Valley has been universally recognized as the heart of technology and innovation. The establishment of a booming tech industry has cultivated a culture that has distinguished the S Bay from its surrounding counties and drawn the attention of those ar world. Media coverage and word-of-mouth over the years have slowly but su a strong image of both affluence and intense academic focus.

Following the tech boom of the last century, wealth poured into Silicon Valle rise of a very specific lifestyle associated with rich tech executives and the rest of the common stereotype of bountiful, elite, upper-class suburbs inhabited by liberal engi to frivolously spend money on avocado toast and nitro-blended iced coffee has shaped Silicon Valley.

For junior Maximilian Goetz, traveling outside of the Bay Area has allowed him to see jus change someone’s view. “Whenever we travel to someplace outside of Silicon Valley and we Valley,’ my dad is always asked if he works in the tech industry or if our family is rich,” he sa when I was in South Africa, and one of the flight attendants asked me if my family was rich, an is higher compared to the rest of the nation, but we also have to spend a lot more money to live i mortgage and everything is really high, so I think it all evens out.” This stereotype is further rein “Silicon Valley,” in which five young tech hopefuls strive to establish and advance their unique da strike it rich.

On the flip side of affluence, there is a more infamous facet to the Bay Area. For Palo Alto spe multitude of teen suicides in the past decade, which were widely attributed to the intense academ article, “Silicon Valley Suicides,” painted Palo Alto high schools in the same light through stude article served as a way to bring awareness to the high rates of suicide in Palo Alto schools, it was a lens through which the rest of the world views Silicon Valley and its youth.

Many students have felt the pressure of performing up to par with their peers, which ultimatel culture. For example, sophomore Vedha Mahesh has had firsthand experience with the urge to s honors classes in order to keep up with the students in her grade. “I’m taking a lot of AP classes everyone does it, but also because I’m interested in these classes,” she said. “It’s hard when a competition and you have to try to keep up or risk not being able to get into a good college.” S prevalence of this culture of competition and perfect grades. “I don't know what it is, but you sti that I shine in other places, but the culture promotes the ideal student, and the ideal student GPA, 1600 on SAT or 36 on the ACT,” he said.

Furthermore, as a student attending a high school in Silicon Valley, there’s bound to be a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field. A “typical” Bay Area stude computer science (CS) or who has taken at least a CS class at some point in their acade type is only propelled by the technological focus and high-paying tech jobs of Silicon characterization is incorrect as the majority of students have a diverse set of intere to break free of the STEM mold.

While there may be no real way to completely eradicate these stereotypes and environments, the community can attempt to alleviate them by being awar biases, embracing new perspectives of students not partaking in STEM and avoiding the spread of a toxic academic culture. For Silicon Val as a whole, the media can assist by being sensitive to topics that could potentially be harmful to the resident communities.

—Written by Jennifer Gao

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MISCONCEPTIONS AFFECT O N G U N N C U LT U R E

Grace Williams

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As a student at Gunn, I often feel like those with no connection to the school perceive it differently than I do. Upon hearing that I attend Gunn, other students and adults would say, “Isn’t that the suicide school?” or “That is the super hard and stressful school.” It seemed as though these false perceptions were all they knew about Gunn. However, not only are these statements untrue, but they are extremely hurtful towards the school’s community. I personally have felt victimized by the harmful statements others have made, knowing that my school is so much more than what they perceive it to be.

From the classroom to the lacrosse field, my time at Gunn has taught me many things, but the main lesson I have learned is to not judge a book by its cover. With brown and dark red walls and roofs, Gunn is not the most pleasant or beautiful high school campus in the area. The dreary exterior may be an indicator of the stressful environment that Gunn is infamous for, but what it lacks in aesthetics is made up for through its community. Gunn is a unique place that creates a unique experience for each and every student, but there are still many shared aspects such as the academic ups-and-downs of student life at this school. This connection compels students to support each other in a way I never experienced outside of Gunn.

Another misconception about Gunn is that most students attend Ivy League schools, or an equivalent, after graduating. Though this is true for some, the number of students that attend top-tier institutions is not as large as many believe. Whether it is a state school, an Ivy League, a liberal arts college or a community college, almost every student attends the school that is the best fit to their needs. Though I am not a attending an Ivy League school next year, I have worked just as hard as other students and have reached the goals I set for myself, not the goals set by the “norm” of Gunn. There are some who think students here are only focused on receiving a letter from a top college; the bulk of students demonstrate a desire to get more out of life than an acceptance letter.

In reality, Gunn is more complex than its stereotypes. Students, teachers and administrators are continuously working towards a more caring, accepting environment, and the changes being made within the school will help diminish the stereotypes that are used to define us. Although we are not a perfect school, we are working towards being the best version of ourselves, and that is all anyone should care about.

—Williams, a senior, is the Changing the Narrative Editor.

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Graphics by Mina Kim and Yael Livneh

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Friday, March 1, 2019

Student clubs support Gunn Athletics Gunn 6th Man cheers on student athletes, increases school spirit Joy Huang Features Editor

and the coaches.”

Farley and Everett manage the Instagram page, “Country roads, take me home,” the crowd on the @gunn6thman, to post about upcoming games and bleachers sang during the final seconds of a basketball events, score updates and dress-up themes. Themes game against Los Altos High School. They jumped and include Crazy Costumes, Halloween, USA and Holiyelled when the scoreboard indicated a win for the day. One of the traditions is Silent Night, where the Gunn Titans­—all in a day’s work for the 6th Man Club. crowd stays silent until the 10th point.

The name “6th Man” originated from basketball; Chanting, “Let’s go, Titans!” and wiggling fingers there are five people on the court during a game, so quietly are just a few ways the club encourages the the “6th man” refers to the at h letes. “I love cheer ing,” cheering crowds. The club is Everet t said. “Even t hough a collaborative fanbase that I’m not playing, I get this huge cheers for Gunn athletes and adrenaline rush. I love supportbr ings school spir it to the ing my friends and cheering games. Senior Jimmy Farley is on the teams. You’re having so the Sports Commissioner and much fun regardless if you’re leader of the club. “[We give] winning or losing that you just unconditional love to everyone —Basketball player Connor Page don’t want to stop.” who’s on the court or the field,” Everett will be leading the he said. club next year and hopes more Junior Aidan Everett has been an active participant students join in. “I think a huge, huge reason why in 6th Man since his freshman year. “To me, [the 6th people should go support and be a part of the 6th Man Club] means that people can come together and Man is because you get that little extra happiness share a common hobby and cheer on their friends inside because you know that you’re doing something and classmates,” he said. “They can show their en- positive for the school,” Everett said. thusiasm towards the sport, the school, the players Varsity basketball player senior Connor Page is

“I f t h e re w e re n o 6 t h Man, we would be able to go out and p l ay, b u t w e w o u l d n’ t e n j o y i t a s m u c h .”

grateful for the support that the 6th Man gave the team all season. “It was such a nice experience getting to see them,” Page said. “It just makes the games—I’m not even kidding—10 times better.”

Everett enjoys encouraging the athletes by cheering loudly. “I mainly just make sure that the players’ heads are up and are confident in themselves and not get discouraged if they screw up,” he said.

Page believes that the club’s energy helped the basketball team make Central Coast Sectionals (CCS) this season. “There’s no way we would have been [at CCS] without the 6th Man,” Page said. “At the end of the day, if there were no 6th Man, we would be able to go out and play but we wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

[The cheering] gives you something to play for. It gives you so much more energy and another reason to win.”

Anyone is able to join the club. People can receive updates on athletic games and special events by joining the 6th Man Facebook group or following the Instagram page. “I think a lot of people do get scared about coming to games,” Farley said. “But we try and make it clear that if you’re going to come and you’re going to show energy, we’re going to love you unconditionally.”

Photos courtesy of Jimmy Farley

6th Man Club cheers as Gunn hosts Paly basketball.

Club members pose in 6th Man merchandise.

Members embrace “Crazy Costumes” theme for match against Paly.

Sports Journalism Club highlights events, athletes Julia Cheunkardnee Features Editor During the Sports Journalism Club’s lunchtime meeting, the whiteboard quickly becomes covered with brainstorms and scribbled plans.

The group of students, gathered at their desks with their papers and laptops out, are discussing ideas for future articles—all of which will be centered around Gunn sports.

Junior Faiz Aladin founded this club in his sophomore year. Initially, he created a website for the Gunn Sports Boosters, which is group dedicated to supporting and raising money for the athletics program at Gunn. “But there weren’t that many people going to games,” Aladin said.

“I thought I could coordinate a club that raised more interest in sports and wrote about sports so that more people would go to the games, and it would help [Sports Boosters] out.”

Now, the club has created its own website, gunnsportsjournalism.com, and publishes articles there weekly. Their latest article covers the varsity soccer games against Lynbrook; the site also includes a link to upcoming games and sports events in the area.

Aladin is proud of the club’s growth, particularly since the Sports Journalism members have been juggling both their club responsibilities and schoolwork.

Junior Alexis Bromberg, vice president of Sports Journalism, was driven to join the club by his own passion for sports writing. He believes the club brings a unique touch to the Gunn community. “We don’t see much about sports on

TBN because it’s mostly focused on other stuff,” Bromberg said. “I feel like we give publicity to the teams.”

Typically, club members choose one of the brainstormed article ideas, attend the game or event and then write the story for publication.

“My favorite part about the club is definitely going out to games and writing articles, even though I can’t do it all the time,” Bromberg said. “Writing articles and seeing them come out on the website is a good feeling.” Bromberg also noted that these experiences have helped improve his writing.

Choosing what articles to cover can be difficult. “It took a little bit of twisting here and there, like with what people found interesting and the data that people wanted to see,” Aladin said. “We started doing players’ individual scores, which is probably the hardest thing: keeping track of who’s scoring like every second of the game.

That takes time.”

A normal club meeting consists of a debrief on the upcoming games that week, and then articles are planned out and taken by different members.

Currently, Aladin is planning on creating new profiles on different athletes, consisting of details on how they train and manage their diets.

“I used to read the newspaper a lot, like the sports section, and it was really fun to read,” Aladin said. “I always think of that when I read our articles. Overall, writing is something that people don’t do that much these days. And it’s been fun to keep that going.”

Photo from www.gunnsportsjournalism.com

Club members take a photo during a weekly meeting.

Julia Cheunkardnee

Faiz Alladin and Michael Iglesias brainstorm story ideas.

16

Sports

Spring Sports kick off season with strong start DIVING

SWIMMING

At the start of the spring season, the co-ed diving team can be found practicing flips on the trampoline and diving board late into the evening, accompanied by upbeat music played through the pool’s loudspeakers.

Despite some complications around gaining a new teamcoach, the team has readily established a regular routine.

“We have a great coach,” sophomore Anna Gersh said. “[He’s] very organized. We have scheduled diving practice, and we’re getting great training.”

This season has also brought a notable variety of new talent from all grades. While training players of many skill levels can be difficult, diving coach Douglas Ward does not mind the diversity. “We have some really good divers, we have some very experienced divers and we have a whole lot of beginners,” he said. “So far, it’s been a lot of fun.”

The swim team, which consists of approximately 120 members, aims to win the Central Coast Section (CCS) and State Leagues this season. This is swim coach Bruce Smith’s 25th year coaching, but his first year at Gunn. “Our goals are developing strong characters of people, finding a way to work together and just getting a good work ethic,” Smith said.

Senior Milan Hilde-Jones is a varsity athlete and has been on the team since her freshman year. “[I want to] push myself by going to every single practice, letting my teammates help me get better and working on details,” she said.

Smith looks forward to bonding with the athletes. “What I’ve always loved about coaching is that you start with a bunch of individuals and then see them pull together as one united team… [that has] a common goal,” he said.

Their first match will be on Friday, March 1 against Paly. “Come out to support us; we’re gonna have a pretty awesome season,” Hilde-Jones said.

Jessica Wang

Kenji Zaharchuk (11) and Sebastian Cai (12) Photo courtesy of Sebastian Cai

BADMINTON

Ben Goldgof (12) Er

BASEBALL With the goal of making it to the Central Coast Section (CCS) Championship this year, the boys varsity baseball team is working harder than ever. Junior Aiden Everett says the team is looking to have fun while also dedicating more time than previous seasons to accomplish their goal of winning. “I would say our team goal this season is to give 110 percent each game and get better each time we play, so by the end of the season we accomplish what every team and person and school wants to accomplish: getting to CCS playoffs,” he said.

Everett believes that in order to attain this goal, the team must support each other throughout the season.

“We are going to need to play as one and get along well and make sure we have each other’s best interests in mind,” Everett said.

The team is going to face tough competition this season; senior Ben Goldgof says that beating Los Altos will be their toughest obstacle on their path to CCS.

ic

s Ep

te

in

Practice is starting up again for the badminton team, and the athletes are more than ready to jump into the season. Senior Kyler Salameda has played badminton for eight years already and is looking forward to future practices with his teammates.

“I have played since I was 10, but I started to receive training when I was 14,” Salameda said. “I really enjoy the fast-paced action of playing badminton, and I also wanted to become part of a community since I had not participated in many school activities freshman year.”

Senior Rasmus Janmyr joined the badminton team after hearing about the team’s high standards. “I’ve played badminton since I was really young, and I got recommended to join the team from club coaches,” he said. “Those coaches told me it was a very strong high school team.”

For Salameda, his most memorable moment on the team was when he received the Coach’s Award in 2017. Janmyr, on the other hand, fondly remembers his time competing in tournaments. “Getting second with Adrian Lee at NorCals sophomore year and winning CCS with Cynthia [Wong] last year were two fun and memorable moments,” he said.

With the season beginning, both Salameda and Janmyr are looking forward to building strong friendships as well as a stronger team. “I’m mostly excited about getting the team to work well together so that we all can improve as much as possible,” Janmyr said.

BOYS GOLF

The boys golf team began their season with a match against Santa Clara on Thursday, Feb. 28. Senior Jamie Hamilton believes that the season has a lot in store. “I think now that we have an older team with a lot of experience, coupled with that fact that we have a lot of new talent joining the team this year, it’s going to be fun to see what we can do,” he said.

The team is excited to begin their season and spend time together. “Even though golf at its core is an individual sport, when you play a round with somebody, you’re naturally going to be spending a lot of time just talking and joking around with them,” Hamilton said.

Coach Marc Igler is optimistic about the boys’ prospects of making it to the Central Coast Section (CCS).

“This year, I hope our entire team can go to CCS. It’s been about five years since that has happened for Gunn golf,” he said. “I’m really excited about this year’s team. It’s shaping up to be one of the strongest in the past few years.”

Jessica Wang

Sports

Friday, March 1, 2019

TRACK AND FIELD

17

The track and field team has been practicing their running, hurdling and throwing for five weeks now, aiming to strengthen their skills with every day that passes.

Junior Justin Chiao has been running track for nine years and has been on the school team for two seasons. “This season I’m trying to hit 1:53 for the 800 [2 laps] and 4:20 for the 1600 [4 laps],” Chiao said. Chiao has high hopes for the season and has his sights set on achieving a new personal record.

Freshman Amy White is excited to try out new things this season while bettering her times on already-strong events. “I hope to improve my mile and do well on the two-mile,” she said. “I’m really excited to find out what the two-mile is like, because I haven’t done that before.” White did track in middle school for two years and is looking forward to seeing how this new level of competition differs from the old.

“Track and field is one of the premier sports in the world,” head coach Michael Granville said. “I would like to see a lot of support from the student body and teachers and parents just so that we can make it that much of a home field advantage when we’re here.”

Their first meet is on Saturday, March 2 at Monta Vista High School.

Daniel Pei (10) and Winston Chan (11)

LACROSSE

BOYS VOLLEYBALL Even though it is only the boys volleyball team’s second season, the players have high hopes for the year.“We feel really excited about our upcoming season,” sophomore Boris Bukchin said. “The team has been working really hard in practice and it’s already paying off.”

The team has started the season hot, already winning their first game and looking forward to more wins. One game that Bukchin has circled on his calendar is the game against Paly, which he is especially excited for. “We are looking forward to playing Paly,” Bukchin said. “We went 2-0 against them last year and we are looking for a repeat of that this year.”

Although the team lost some key players this year, Bukchin is still optimistic that the team will fight for the top spot in the conference. “Our team works really well together,” Bukchin said. “Everyone has stepped up after the loss of our two seniors.”

Volleyball’s next game is Saturday, March 16.

Boris Bukchin (10) and Simon Antony (11)

Gunn’s lacrosse teams are back for the spring season after months of practice on the field. Lacrosse teams meet on the turf as early as 6:30 a.m. and after school until 7 p.m. for weeks of pre-conditioning. The girls’ junior and senior varsity teams, coached by Doug Arakawa, are excited for the games they’ll play this season. After all, their team performed well last year, with an overall record of 17-5 and a non-conference record of 15-3.

The lacrosse teams began with a scrimmage on Tuesday, Feb. 26 and will end with finals on Saturday, May 11.

Freshman Irene Kim is excited by the prospect of facing off against tough opponents. “I’m looking forward to all the games, because all the teams are really strong,” she said. “I think it’ll be a fun challenge!”

The boys, on the other hand, have one level, a varsity team coached by Pete Donat.

Regardless of their differences, all the lacrosse teams agree that togetherness is the most important aspect of the sport. “All the super nice and funny people on the team definitely made me want to join,” Kim said. “Good team players benefit the whole team, not just themselves.”

Sophia Lu

h ia Sop

Lu

SOFTBALL

After a tough season last year, the varsity softball team is back and ready to play. Ending last season with a 5-21 game streak—partly due to a plethora of injuries—the girls feel Sophia Lu much healthier now and are hopeful for this season’s prospects.

As a team of only 13 girls, it requires hard work and dedication in order to win games. Head coach Matt Maltz emphasized that doing well in League Championships this year and hopefully making it to the Central Coast Section (CCS) are the team’s main goals.

However, after this year, the team will be left with only seven girls and a few incoming freshmen, so Maltz is keeping the future of the team in mind as well. “This season, we have six seniors that will be graduating, which is a lot for a team that plays with nine on the field,” he said. “My real goal this year is to get the four freshmen and two sophomores up to speed for next year. It’ll include hard work, but that’s really my focus.”

With the addition of new, eager players, the team has found a new dynamic. “This team definitely has some younger energy with the four freshmen that just came on board,” Maltz said. “Three of them are [experienced] players. They’re hungry, want to participate and add value to the team. I think the energy they have brought will spark a fire in some of the older kids that do have the talent but just need a push.”

Senior Victoria Mock is glad that the team is closer than ever. “I’m excited for the new people on this team; we’re all bonding really well,” she said. “I love how close we are already, so I’m really excited to continue that bond. I think the team chemistry makes a huge difference in how we play. I’m hoping that will carry out into our performance.”

Maddie Ta (10) Eric Epstein

—Written by Annika Bereny, Laurel Comiter, Joy Huang, Kate Mallery, Madison Nguyen, Peter Oh, Sophia Stern, Jessica Wang, Angela Wong and Katie Zhang

18

Sports

Along with potential benefits, athletic turf poses possible hazards Ryan Li

News Editor In 2007, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) accepted an anonymous $2.6 million donation to install new synthetic turf fields at both Gunn and Palo Alto High Schools.

The contractor hired to install the fields, O.C. Jones and Sons, used a synthetic grass called Duraspine, which was manufactured by the French-Canadian company FieldTurf. The City of Palo Alto’s 2011 Artificial Turf Factsheet states that the Duraspine carpet consists of a crushed rock base below a rubber weed barrier. The weed barrier is then covered in silica sand and recycled rubber particles. The grass itself is made of a polyethylene, a plastic commonly found in water bottles and packaging.

A New Jersey Advanced Media investigation found that the Duraspine product used in the Gunn and Paly fields deteriorates up to five times faster than advertised.

The investigation claimed that Duraspine was not properly manufactured to withstand UV radiation, causing the surface to deteriorate more quickly. The report asserted that company officials first realized the defect a full year before the sale of Duraspine to PAUSD, though they never revealed any information on the turf’s premature deterioration. “From the first signs of trouble in 2006 until sales of the brand ended in 2012, FieldTurf officials never changed their sales pitch,” the report said.

Despite knowing of the defects, former FieldTurf CEO John Gilman lauded Duraspine’s resilience to wear in a 2006 sales pitch. “We anticipate that a mono-surface will have a useful life longer than 10 years,” Gilman said.

According to then Chief Business Official Bob Golton, the district was unaware of these defects when it purchased Duraspine turf. “When our fields were installed, there were no concerns about FieldTurf,” he said. “We are [now] fully aware of the concerns and litigation that have

arisen in the last several years.”

PAUSD is not the only district being affected by Duraspine’s shortcomings. FieldTurf maintains that Duraspine has been sold to clients in over 1100 athletic fields worldwide, including 283 fields in California. Since 2007, 15 lawsuits in six different states have been filed against the Fieldturf, according to a Truth in Advertising report.

O.C. Jones and Sons Estimates Manager Greg Souder said that FieldTurf is still one of the largest suppliers of artificial grass in the Bay Area. “The FieldTurf guys usually act as a subcontractor for us,” Souder said. “And there’s probably a 90 percent chance that they’re the ones who did it for a given school.”

According to Souder, O.C. Jones and Sons had FieldTurf lay its own artificial grass independently while O.C. Jones worked on drainage and excavation. “It comes out basically like carpet in your house,” he said. “They then roll [the Duraspine] out together in a lawn.”

Athletic Director Curtis Johansen says that the rubber infill and plastic grass detached from the carpet tends to cling to athletes’ clothing. “It comes off the shoes and over the socks,” he said. “Football or soccer are affected by it because soccer slides a lot. [The infill is] kind of like dirt, but since it’s not natural, it will stick a bit.”

Despite these drawbacks, some athletes still prefer

Gunn’s artificial turf over natural grass. Freshman soccer player Scott Hwang says that loose rubber infill does not do much to affect his performance. “It’s not really dangerous to play on turf,” he said. “[It’s] more likely to have an irritating cut, but bumpy grass can lead to more [serious] in-game injury.”

Hwang believes that loose turf can still cause rare, albeit minor, injuries like turf burns on knees. “[Turf burns] are basically shallow scrapes that bleed,” he said.

“Once, a ref said a player had to leave the field because of a bloody one, but that almost never happens.”

Johansen agrees with Hwang, believing that Gunn’s use of synthetic grass was still the right decision. “The main reason why they would install it at any school if you have heavy use like in P.E.,” he said. “During the day, in sports after school and with rentals on weekends—that’s another big component. After our sports teams are done on Saturdays and Sundays, it’s important that the field doesn’t turn to mush.”

Golton says that both Gunn and Paly athletic fields are to be replaced in coming years using different artificial grass products. “Artificial turf fields generally have a life cycle of 10-12 years,” he said. “The industry has moved on and the materials will be different.”

Beneath the turf-ace: The layers of Gunn’s Duraspine turf

Nicole Lee

Sports

March Madness 2019:

The Oracle looks

into its crystal ball

Friday, March 1, 2019

19

Why you should pay attention to the madness

March Madness, one of the most anticipated annual sporting events in the country, is a tournament that hosts 64 Division I collegiate basketball programs during March. “Madness” refers to the plethora of unexpected outcomes that occurs due to the massive amount of games being played in such a short period of time. “Upsets,” a scenario where an underdog team beats the odds to defeat the favored team, are common during this period of mayhem. Successful teams include perennial powerhouse programs such as Kansas, Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina, but smaller programs such as Butler, Connecticut and Loyola-Chicago often find ways to pull off improbable runs, adding to the excitement and unpredictability of the competition.

Tennessee Volunteers

Gonzaga Bulldogs

Tennessee is the top-ranked team in the Southeastern Conference at the moment with a 25-3 record. Spearheaded by the dynamic duo of guard Admiral Schofield and forward Grant Williams, averaging 16.9 and 19.0 points per game respectively, Tennessee has been a force to be reckoned with this season. The team averages an astounding 83.6 points per game, and with their only three losses in the season coming from top-15 teams in Kansas, Kentucky and Lousiana State, the Volunteers have much to look forward to this month.

Gonzaga, which statistically has the best offense in the nation, is sure to light up the March Madness tournament. Led by the versatile forward Rui Hachimura, who averages 20.5 points per game, Gonzaga has not faced many opponents that have been able to handle their high-scoring offense.

Losses to the superb Kansas and Tennessee squads seem inconsequential compared to what Gonzaga has in store for the future. If the Bulldogs can put up big numbers consistently during the tournament like they have in the regular season, they are sure to streak to the Final Four.

Michigan Wolverines

Kentucky Wildcats The Wildcats have been on an emotional rollercoaster this season, losing crucial games while winning others. A tough blowout-loss to Duke at the beginning of the season seemed to knock Kentucky down the rankings, but the Wildcats have resurrected themselves with a vengeance. Driven by sophomore forward P.J. Washington, who averages 15.0 points per game, Kentucky has proven their ability to take down top-tier teams consistently. With an experienced coach in John Calipari, who has taken the Wildcats to multiple Final Four appearances, Kentucky seems like they’re looking forward to success.

After a bitter loss in the final championship round in 2018, Michigan has come back even stronger with hopes to avoid suffering another devastating defeat. Led by freshman forward Iggy Brazdeikis, who is averaging 14.4 points per game, Michigan has found a winning rhythm this season, boasting a 24-4 record. Defense has been Michigan’s forte for the past couple of years under head coach John Beilein; the Wolverines are currently third in the nation in scoring defense, holding opponents to a stingy 58.4 points per game. Additionally, valuable veteran experience in senior forward Charles Matthews and junior guard Zavier Simpson makes Michigan a solid pick for this year’s Final Four.

Eric’s Sleeper Teams to watch: Wisconsin & Purdue Busts to avoid: Mina Kim Michigan State & Duke

Check out resident March Madness expert Eric Tang’s full bracket and picks on www.gunnoracle.com

­— Compiled by Eric Tang

Faces in the Crowd

What are you most looking forward to for this year’s March Madness?

“I don’t really follow basketball, but I’m just looking forward to watching the final.”

Jayden Kratt (9)

“I’m excited to watch Brigham Young University play because they are my favorite team, and they are a lot of fun to watch on the court.”

“I am looking forward to this year’s March Madness mostly because I think Duke is going to dominate the competition this year.”

Alexy Downer (10)

Suraj Sharma (10)

“I am looking forward to picking the perfect bracket and winning a billion dollars so I can buy a boat.”

Sebastian Cai (12) ­— Compiled by Kate Mallery

20

Lifestyle

Celebrity promotion of unhealthy products stir controversy Since the debut of social media platforms such as Instagram, many influencers have taken advantage of their following to create a form of revenue for themselves through advertising. Celebrities have been endorsed by many types of companies that sell a huge variety of different products. Such brands range from fashion companies such as FashionNova to certain big-name car companies.

Although these advertisements may be seen throughout celebrities’ Instagram feeds, none have received major backlash in the past, as most people understand the business side of these endorsements. However, with more recent celebrity promotions of products that contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle, public reactions have been much more negative.

For example, on May 15, 2018, Kim Kardashian advertised a lollipop released by popular appetite suppressant company, Flat Tummy Co. After posting the paid advertisement, Kim Kardashian received a flood of negative responses. Influencers, celebrities and regular Instagram users all attacked Kardashian for broadcasting and promoting an appetite suppressant to her millions of followers.

People believed it was immoral for someone with such a huge following, especially of young people that may look up to her, to promote an appetite suppressant. Jameela Jamil, an actress

on NBC’s “The Good Place,” took to Twitter on the day the advertisement was posted to express her disappointment.

“MAYBE don’t take appetite suppressors and eat enough to fuel your BRAIN and work hard and be successful. And to play with your kids. And to have fun with your friends.

And to have something to say about your life at the end, other than ‘I had a flat stomach,” she tweeted.

The lollipop that Kardashian promoted contains an ingredient called Satiereal, which is a plant that is supposed to cure people of their hunger pangs. Flat Tummy Co.’s website states that the lollipops offers an ingredient that will suppress the eater’s appetite for a few hours to prevent snacking.

Flat Tummy Co.’s lollipops are also only considered as supplements, which means that the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate the brand closely.

Kardashian has since deleted the ad after the overwhelming amount of hate in the comments of the post.

Promoting things like appetite suppressants and waist trainers never goes well for celebrities. They should realize that their endorsements can affect impressionable teenagers and cause them to make poor decisions. As such, these influencers should think twice before they post.

—Written by Ryan Manesh

Juice cleanses do more harm than good In recent years, juice cleanses have emerged as a popu- lack of nutrients or glucose, which can lead to an inability to lar diet and have been advertised as a fast way to rid the think clearly. The body doesn’t need juices to detox—it has body of toxins and lose weight. During a cleanse, each meal its own system to naturally do so. is replaced with a bottle of juice, and this substitution lasts Despite the detrimental effects of juice cleanses, juice can anywhere from one day to a few weeks. be a beneficial supplement to one’s regular diet because Although cleanses have been proven to help there are valuable nutrients in the fruits and vegpeople quickly shed weight, the effect is merely etables it contains. Juice, however, should temporary; most of the weight lost comes not be considered a full meal because on its back when the dieter starts eating solid own, it is not enough to sustain a person.

The acceptable food again. The majority of the weight Cleanses are not a way to fix health daily distribution of that is lost during a cleanse is water and problems, and the benefits of detoxifymuscle weight, not fat. Over time, freing are short-lived. For some, the objeccalories is 20 percent quent dieters can also potentially start to tive of the cleanse is to lose weight or protein, 30 percent fat lose bone mass. change their diet, but instead of resortand 50 percent When fruits are juiced, the fibers are ing to a glorified version of starvation, carbohydrates. removed, which allows the fruits to be dithey should focus on healthy eating; eatgested more quickly than if they were solid. ing healthier is more sustainable and will In consequence, people tend to drink more in have an overall better effect on health than order to feel satisfied, and the amount of sugar going on a cleanse. consumed can be more than a bottle of Coke.

—Written by Sophia Stern Juice cleanses come with a slew of harmful side effects that can be seen almost immediately and include headaches, dizziness and fatigue. Often, symptoms can be brushed off as a sign of the body detoxing, but they are really a sign of a

The average Daily nutritional value of a beginner cleanse

How to stay healthy 1. Eat healthier proteins: Red meat often contains a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol, which can negatively affect heart health. Processed meats such as sausage, salami and bacon have been shown to increase the risk of certain cancers. Try eating poultry such as turkey or chicken for a leaner option, or fatty fish such as salmon for brain-essential Omega 3s.

2. Drink more water: The human body consists of about 70 percent water. Dehydration can cause lethargy, headaches and electrolyte imbalances, especially in athletes who sweat frequently. Carry around a water bottle and try to sip from it between classes to stay hydrated.

3. Eat more fruits and vegetables: Dietary guidelines recommend that teens eat at least two cups of fruit and three cups of vegetables daily, but this may be a difficult goal to meet. Replacing snacks such as chips and sweets with an apple or some baby carrots can help increase the amount of produce in one’s diet. These foods contain vitamins and minerals extremely important to preventing diseases.

4. Stop drinking soda: A 12 oz can of regular Coke contains 39 grams of sugar and 140 calories. The American Heart Association only advises consuming 25 grams of added sugar per day for women and 38 for men. Eliminating soda from your diet is an easy way to stay below the recommended limits.

5. Take healthy study breaks: It can be tempting to go on your phone to unwind for five minutes during marathon study sessions. However, moving around, drinking a glass of water or eating a nutritious snack ensures you return to your work feeling refreshed.

Try stretching or taking a walk for exercise, and eating almonds, yogurt or fruit for a quick snack.

77 % carbohydrates 6. Get more sleep: Falling asleep at a reasonable time can be hard to accomplish while juggling homework, sports and your social life. Nonetheless, getting at least nine hours of sleep a night is essential to performing your best. Put your phone away at least an hour before sleeping, don’t procrastinate and try not to greatly deviate from your normal sleeping hours during the weekend and breaks in order to consistently get a good night's rest.

8 % fat 7 % protein —Compiled by Kepa Neesen Graphics by Mina Kim and Jocelyn Wang

Lifestyle

Friday, March 1, 2019

21

NO

YES

Should music artists take political stances?

Yael Livneh

Calvin Cai

Well-known singers Camila Cabello and Janelle Monáe have risen to fame because of their platforms, fan bases and identities that they have spent years shaping. With their household-name status, their actions and beliefs could change the cultural landscape. Artists should take advantage of their influence in order to shift public opinion and enact social change.

In 2018, rapper Donald Glover, more commonly known as Childish Gambino, released “This is America,” a song addressing gun violence and racism against African Americans in the United States. The song and music video both feature deep-cutting lyrics and visuals, which garnered national attention. By using his established prominence as a talented rapper and producer, Glover was able to call attention to issues of national importance.

With “This Is America,” Glover broadcasted his stance on hotly debated political issues like gun control. His fans became polarized, and those who agreed with him only liked him more after he released the racially charged video. Those who opposed his commentary on the racial atmosphere in the United States stormed the video with criticism. By taking political stances, artists can create spaces for conversation and debate, opening their fans to new ideas and viewpoints.

Artists can also take stances through platforms other than their music. Yasiin Bey, a rapper widely known as Mos Def, is an exceptional example of how an artist can use their prominence to call attention to important issues through activism.

Mos Def has long been an advocate for social equality, traveling to favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to meet with locals and learn about problems in the community. He’s created justice groups like “Hip Hop for Respect” to speak out against police brutality in response to the 1999 police shooting of Amadu Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea. His calls to action have influenced the public and swayed government policies. This social change was only possible after Bey made his political stances widely known.

Artists can use their prominence to make real social change, but only with the backing of their fans.

Recently, many singers and rappers have spoken out on political issues dominating the nation. These celebrities often take their stances to social media and their music, which can result in negative outcomes such as controversy and false propaganda. As such, artists should not be involving themselves in politics publicly.

Rapper Kanye West has been one of the most outspoken musical artists. Starting just after the 2016 presidential elections, West openly supported Donald Trump and claimed that he would run for president in the 2020 elections. It is unclear whether he will follow through with this presidential bid, but it still caused a huge, unnecessary distraction during the elections. He continues to voice his political opinions on Twitter.

Many artists have diehard fans who listen to and regurgitate everything that they say. Many young fans can become brainwashed by these singers, causing them to not think for themselves and blindly follow celebrities. Artists can use their wealth and fame to influence the population, stopping many voters from thinking for themselves.

Moreover, many artists spread their influence over social media, where often they have millions of followers. These sites have no way to verify the information being spread, so the opinions can often be very biased or even based on false information.

In one case, Kanye West tweeted about a very controversial topic: “We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment.” The 13th amendment is the amendment passed by Abraham Lincoln that abolished slavery.

Later on, he clarified that he actually wanted to make positive reforms to it, not abolish it. In this incident, by speaking his political opinions through Twitter, he caused outbursts across the internet, spreading contentious opinions while hurting his own reputation at the same time.

Artists across the world have been speaking up about politics, but by doing so, they are hurting others more than they are helping them. Voters have the ability to think for themselves, and celebrities shouldn’t be getting involved in issues that don't directly pertain to them.

—Cai, a sophomore, is a Copy Editor.

—Livneh, a senior, is a Centerfold Editor.

Political stances taken by artists over the years 1978 – In a time of widespread violence and

political tension in Jamaica, reggae icon Bob Marley headlined the “One Love” concert in Kingston, Jamaica in the name of national peace and togetherness. During Marley’s set, he called for Prime Minister Michael Manley and political adversary Edward Seaga to join hands, symbolizing the unity and coexistence that Marley and so many other Jamaicans had longed for.

1971 – English singer/songwriter John Lennon

was a monumental political influence during the early 1970's because of the liberal and peaceloving opinions palpable in his lyrics. In 1971, he released “Gimme Some Truth” and “Imagine,” where he condemned former president Richard Nixon and outlined his ideal societal structure.

His radical ideas were widely criticized and praised at the same time, sparking political debate across the globe.

2016/2017

– Rappers YG and Eminem used their musical platforms to express their displeasure with President Trump. YG’s song “FDT” and Eminem’s four-and-a-half-minute freestyle during the 2017 Black Entertainment Television Hip Hop Awards both garnered national attention for their explicit and blunt criticism of Trump.

2005 – Rapper Kanye West openly shared

his feelings about former president George W. Bush by blurting out, “[Bush] doesn’t care about black people” on a national television broadcast raising support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. West has since made a name for himself as an outspoken and erratic personality, frequently making his political beliefs public knowledge.

2019 – Hip-hop superstar Cardi B does not

have any reservations about sharing her political beliefs with the world. She has habitually taken to social media to release her pointed, political opinions. Most recently, her Instagram rant about the downsides of the 2019 government shutdown went viral and was shared to millions of citizens across the nation.

Graphics by Jocelyn Wang

—Compiled by Eric Epstein

Graphic Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

22

Lifestyle

teen Party Culture can introduce students to Alcohol at young age It’s the classic high school movie: the main character, a nobody who has recently gained popularity, attends their first house party. They walk into the house and the hits are blaring through a speaker, red Solo cups are in the hands of every person in sight and the frantic host is scrambling to pick up all of their parents’ antique vases before someone decides to play catch with them. The main character drinks too much, embarrasses “I think that drinking and themself in front of everyone and smoking in moderation then, after a heartfelt conversation with a trusted adult, vows to never within safe environments change themself to appease others. Roll credits. But movies aren’t is ok and pretty comreal life, and the experience of one mon among my friends.” fictional character is not universal.

According to the National Insti­­ Senior tute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), underage drinking is common nationwide, with 33 percent of students admitting that they have had at least one drink by the age of 15 and 60 percent by age 18. Every year, around 5,000 people under the age of 21 die in alcohol-related incidents, the majority of which are drunk driving accidents.

A junior, who will remain anonymous as the activities they describe are illegal, thinks that drinking at the high school age should not be as stigmatized as many make it out to be. “I believe that underaged drinking at our age is fun and more of a social event where you can interact and have fun with friends as a way to come together,” they said.

Some students began drinking even before entering high school. “The first time I really drank was in seventh grade,” an anonymous freshman said. “I was with my friends and they had some vodka, and I had never been drunk before so I just thought, ‘Why not?’” The freshman went on to mention how they learned their

—

boundaries that night and have not become sick from alcohol consumption since.

Similar to the junior, they believe that as long as a teenager is being safe with their drinking, a little bit of alcohol won’t hurt them. “If a teen wants to go party a little now and then and have a few drinks and have some fun, that’s completely normal and up to them,” they said. “On the other hand, when a teenager is drinking often and gets to the point where they can’t control themselves under the influence, that’s when it gets dangerous. Ultimately, if a teen is being safe with their drinking, it’s fine, in my opinion.”

Most drinking goes down during parties and is a fairly common occurrence when there’s an “open house,” meaning that the host's parents are out for the night.

“There is music playing in the background that's fun to dance to,” the junior said. “There are always drinking games being played, like beer pong. Everyone is happy and having a good time, and it's a really fun, energized atmosphere.” They went on to say that parties usually last until 11 or 12 at night and are rarely broken up due to noise complaints. "It's usually a pretty hectic atmosphere,” added the freshman. “And there are always those few that will get out of control and throw up somewhere, or someone that does something stupid and breaks something, but, other than that, most people try to have fun and respect the host’s house.”

As stated by the NIAAA, in 2015, 7.7 million people aged 12-20 reported drinking more than “just a few sips” in the past month. In the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) alone, 36 percent of juniors have drunk alcohol in their lifetimes, and so have 18 percent of freshmen, according to the California Healthy Kids Survey.

Both sources stated that they never once have felt pressure by their friends and peers to drink or do drugs. “The friends that I hang out with are really understanding and respect when somebody doesn’t want to do something,” the freshman said. “If I drink, it’s because I want to.”

Wellness Outreach Worker Lauren Rocha doesn’t advise students to drink at such a young age, but says that if students plan on participating in it despite its illegal nature and consequences, they should put their safety first. “I think the biggest thing is having people you feel safe around and having friends or family members that you feel like would have your back if something were to go astray,” she said. “Having somebody that knows your boundaries and can remind you of them if you go too far is what I would recommend.”

—Written by Annika Bereny

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

“I don’t drink because it’s not appealing to me. It tastes bad, and it’s not great for you.”

—Junior

alcohol or drug use (any use): Grade 7 (7%).

Grade 9 (18%).

Grade 11 (36%).

“I chose to do shrooms because I heard it was a magical experience.”

—Senior

“I don’t partake in such activities, but I’m definitely around people that do. The effect on people is very visible, and you can see how trapped they are in their habits.”

—Sophomore

Friday, March 1, 2019 23 Lifestyle Legalization of MArijuana brings drug education changes In the past, educators have used scare tactics and harsh movements to prevent drug use among adolescents. In the 1980’s, first lady Nancy Reagan created the Just Say No movement, which aimed to discourage recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying no and became the model for drug education. In recent years, educators have realized that this approach is ineffective because it places all the blame on the individual and denies them the resources and knowledge needed to make a key decision. Today, drug education is taking a vast number of different approaches.

At Gunn, Living Skills is the primary course for drug education. Sophomore Maddie Ta believes that the class' approach to drug education is geared

more towards using substances in a safe way. “I definitely thought that they taught more about being safe around the drugs because they realize that students are always surrounded by it,” Ta said.

As some students may feel like they need to participate in doing drugs to fit in, Living Skills teacher Jeanette Tucker has ad-

vice on how to deal with peer pressure: “Make choices for yourself, and remember, it’s not your life to tell someone else how to live,” Tucker said.

A study done at Marist College revealed that 52 percent of Americans have tried marijuana at some point in their lives. Many people agree that the legalization of marijuana is allowing for more students to have open conversations about drugs without fear of being punished. In San Francisco, around 20 schools are using a curriculum called "Being Adept" that allows students and teachers to discuss the risks behind marijuana, as well as the motives for why people would use the drug.

Another new approach to drug education programs is telling students to delay the use of drugs until they are old enough to safely participate.

However, now that marijuana has been legalized, smoking or ingesting the drug may be perceived by some to be free of consequences. Tucker reminds students that there is not very much research on the drug because it is so newly legalized. “Unfortunately, it’s uncharted territory,” Tucker said.

“Your generation will be the one that shows us just how bad it is.” Although the legal age for smoking marijuana is 21, the brain is developing until age 25. According to the American Psychological Association, marijuana use has been shown to impair functions such as memory, attention, learning and decision-making. These effects can last for days after the high wears off. Heavy marijuana use in adolescence or early adulthood has also been associated with poor school performance, higher dropout rates, increased welfare dependence, greater unemployment and lower life satisfaction.

Tucker believes that students should be aware of their own motives behind drug use. “You should always ask yourself why you’re doing something. And if it’s to feel good, and if it means you’re using a substance, you should double-check your strategies,” Tucker said.

—Written by Kate Mallery and Kepa Neesen

Alcohol or drug use on school property: Grade 7 (1%), Grade 9 (3%), Grade 11 (4%)

alcohol: grade 7 (5%), Grade 9 (12%), Grade 11 (32%) Ever Any illicit AOD use to get high: grade 7 (7%), grade 9 (15%), Grade 11 (36%)

Very drunk or high (7 or more times): grade 7 (0%), grade 9 (2%), Grade 11 (7%)

used

electronic

cigarettes:

grade 7 (2%), grade 9 (9%), Grade 11 (18%) Current alcohol or drugs:

Grade 7 (3%), Grade 9 (7%), grade 11 (20%)

Prescription painkillers, diet pills, prescription stimulant:

Grade 9 (9%), Grade 11 (7%)

Courtesy of CALIFORNIA HEALTHY KIDS SURVEY: FOR PAUSD 2017-18

—Compiled by Bridgette Gong

“I get high because it makes life fun, easy and relaxing.”

—Junior

“Personally, I believe juuling is stupid, a waste of money and a useless deterioration to lungs.”

—Senior

—Compiled by Natalie McCurdy

Graphics by Jocelyn Wang and Nicole Lee

24

In the pursuit of wellness:

Wellness ≠≠ During the 2009-2010 school year, Palo Alto lost six students to suicide. Our community lost another four students in the 2013-2014 year. Following these tragedies, our school, district and community made various efforts to better understand what the causes were and take preventive measures.

i. what's been done so far?

Liza Kolbasov, Grace Tramack and Jessica Wang Forum Editor, Features Editor and Reporter This article is the first of a three-part series called In the Pursuit of Wellness, an investigative reporting initiative on Gunn’s efforts towards mental wellness. In this installment, The Oracle focuses on what wellness initiatives have been implemented on campus.

Early Mental Health Initiatives Of the mental health initiatives at Gunn, the oldest is the club Reach Out, Care, Know (ROCK). In 2009, classmates and friends of the first student lost to suicide created ROCK to improve peer-to-peer relations.

English teacher Paul Dunlap was asked to be the club’s advisor early in the process. “One of the best decisions I’ve made in my life is simply saying yes [to that],” he said.

Together, Dunlap and the students found an expert to teach them about peer wellness. Due to the publicity surrounding the suicides, they had many options. “We went to our principal and said, ‘Have you heard of resources in the community?’” Dunlap said. “And she said, ‘How much time do you have?’ She opened her email box and had innumerable emails of self-proclaimed experts offering help.”

After searching through the potential experts, the ROCK founders chose a then psychologist at Gunn to train the group of students. The first year’s efforts consisted of a successful eight-week study on how to offer support to their peers.

At the start of the second year of ROCK, the national youth suicide prevention program Sources of Strength contacted Dunlap about a possible partnership. This program focuses on developing protective influences for young adults, including healthy activities, mentors and positive friends.

Following what Dunlap would later call his secondbest “yes,” Sources of Strength held its first well-attended training for students and adults. “We got a great group the first time around,” Dunlap said. “There were almost 70 students packed in the library doing this training, having lunch together, laughing, making these big posters and getting really excited.”

Roughly nine years later, both wellness groups are still active. Dunlap remains an adult advisor and leader, enjoying his work towards building a stronger community. “In the face of trauma, it’s easier to freak out and complain and criticize than to take positive steps,” he said. “What I love about these two programs is that the emphasis is on what we can do to heal and protect.”

Center for Disease Control and Prevention On Friday, May 3, 2017, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released their Epi-Aid report on youth suicide in Santa Clara County. The report gave an overview of mental health initiatives within the county, data across multiple demographics and recommendations for improvements.

Following the second suicide contagion in 2015, community members involved in Project Safety Net, in conjunction with the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), observed the CDC conducting research for a similar situation in Fairfax, Virginia. After that report came out, community parents requested that the CDC conduct an investigation of mental health in PAUSD. Health Officer and Director of Santa Clara County Public Health Department Dr. Sara Cody formally asked the state for help filing a request for an investigation from the CDC, despite being unsure if the CDC was going to answer all of the community’s questions. “They already have a set of evidence-based recommendations for both documented protective and risk factors for suicide and suicidal behaviors before they go crunch the data,” she

Nearly a decade after the first suicide contagion, The Oracle is taking a look at what has changed between now and then. In the Pursuit of Wellness is an investigative reporting initiative that aims to answer the following questions:

I. What have we done to prevent suicides and improve mental health?

II. Are these measures really working?

III. What can we do better moving forward? said. “It wasn’t particularly This series will span three issues of The Oracle, beginning with tailored to the uniqueness this article. You can find all future installments here, on the of the community.” backpage.

According to Dunlap, it was initially unsettling to know that the CDC was investigating the school.

“Most of us only think of the CDC for physical diseases, outbreaks of diseases,” he said. “It felt like uncomfortable scrutiny, even though I and many others understood the big picture of why it was necessary.”

Though the study was neither long-term nor in-depth about the school’s current programs, the CDC report states that although the suicide rate in Palo Alto is the highest in Santa Clara county, it is still below the national average and that 65 percent of all mental health programs reviewed were provided by PAUSD. According to Dunlap, the study validated the significance of the programs students and staff had been working on. “I was able to take some of that information [from the CDC report] to my leadership identifying goals teams, peer leaders in Sources of Strength and the ROCK There is still work to be done around decreasing stigma leadership team and say, ‘If you had any reason to wonder for students seeking help, both from other students and if the work you’re doing matters, look at this,’” he said. from parents. The Wellness Center has been working on In terms of what can be improved on, the report spreading information to parents to ensure that they are stressed the importance of assuring that youth have access adequately prepared to aid and support their students. to quality mental health services and to shift some of the “We’re looking to really step up and improve the way that focus to preventive measures. we reach out and educate parents about mental health,” Wellness Outreach Worker Lauren Rocha said. “And that will be kind of a long term goal, looking into next school campus measures year as well, providing more opportunities for parents to Gunn’s Wellness Center was first opened in the 2016- get the things they need to help their students who are 2017 school year, offering access to individual and group going through things.” therapy, mental health support, as well as a space to relax The Wellness Center also seeks to make students more and take a break with tea and snacks. The Wellness Cen- comfortable seeking its services. “I think that we want to be ter will be expanding, consolidating with counseling and able to all for all 2000 students to at some point walk in the moving into the new building next school year. “I think Wellness Center and feel safe doing so,” Dixon said. “I think just having a Wellness Center in and of itself is a huge a lot of work that we have to do is still around the stigma initiative and a huge step forward in providing support and breaking down those barriers so that students don’t for students,” Wellness Coordinator Genavae Dixon said. feel like they are being stigmatized by walking in here.”

Although it was not directly implemented because of While wellness is a difficult subject, it must be adthe reports, the social-emotional learning (SEL) program dressed. “There may always be a stigma about talking titled Social Emotional Literacy and Functionality (SELF) about these things in different communities,” Dunlap also aims to improve student wellness through student- said. “But in my observation, more people are talking to-mentor connections. “The hope is that it’s the surest about it more comfortably than I’ve seen, and I think way we can guarantee that every child is connected to a that’s always good. Problems never get better if you don’t trusted adult on campus,” SEL Teacher on Special Assign- talk about them.” ment (TOSA) Courtney Carlomagno said. “If you’re not someone who’s involved in things, there’s a chance that you won’t have that adult connection. SELF’s mentorship and relationship piece guarantees that everyone gets connected, no matter interests or involvement.”

After the CDC report was released, Dunlap says people generally started taking programs such as ROCK, SELF and Sources of Strength more seriously. Additionally, he says that people have been more open to discussing mental health as a whole.

According to Dixon, the school community has made steps to decrease stigma surrounding seeking support in wellness over the past years. “There is a shift in [visiting the Wellness Center] becoming more normalized.

If you are worried about yourself OR It’s okay: we all need help, we all get stressed, we all get a friend, to be directed to professional overwhelmed,” Dixon said. “This is a place that I can come help, contact: and I can be and just kind of relax.”

In particular, staff members have become more sup• The National Suicide Prevention Lifeportive of wellness efforts. “I think we have a lot more line: 1-800-273-8255, 24/7 access to support from our teachers and our staff that runs really trained counselors on board with wellness and what it looks like,” Dixon said.

• School counselor/psychologist “I think I’ve been able to do a lot more activities that I’ve • Your doctor gotten a lot more feedback [about] from teachers, staff and • suicidepreventionlifeline.org and click students about how wellness works and how it can work “Get Help” for yourself or for a friend for them.”

• If the threat is immediate, call 911