Winged Post Friday, April 4, 2014
THE HARKER UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER, VOL. 15, NO. 6
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SPIRIT WEEK sharanya balaji reporter
Spirit Week will take place the week after Spring Break, with dressup days and spirit activities taking place each day. On Monday students can wear their pajamas while racing across mattresses during lunch. Puzzle Trivia will take place on Tuesday with students dressed up as their favorite Disney or Pixar characters. Wednesday is Sports Day and Powder Puff will take place during long lunch. The traditional but revamped regatta will take place on Thursday, when students can dress up as tacky tourists. Spirit Week closes with the Spirit Rally when classes can wear their class t-shirts along with some green to show support the senior class.
SECURITY CHANGES roshni pankhaniya Aquila sports editor
Several new policies have been implemented to heighten campus security after six students’ laptops were stolen from their backpacks during a lacrosse game on March 7. These policies include closing the orchestra room and shed at 5:00 p.m. and locking the lockers in the girls’ locker rooms. Additionally, each student has been given the school security number to report suspicious activities or people. Security advises that students use their lockers to store expensive items such as laptops and wallets. In addition, students and teachers should report any strange activity by calling the school security number at 408-639-0743.
CLASS COLOR CHANGE shannon su
Aquila copy editor Students will not only be voting for ASB candidates today, but also for the opportunity to rotate class colors each year, an idea that was generated by the Dean’s Committee. “If they had a different color shirt each year, nobody could complain,” said junior class Dean Diana Moss. Though classes would lose their ownership of their color, they would be given the opportunity to wear all the colors. “Some of the classes don’t like their color; so should color be by year? In other words, every senior is always green,” said Dean of Students Kevin Williamson. The implementation of this proposed idea will be considered for the fall of the next school year after voting takes place.
Anthony Silk named new Dept. Chair
Trash system updated
New procedure starting a er break separates wet and dry li er
vineet kosaraju & tara parimi
vineet kosaraju & shannon su
copy editor & Aquila copy editor The Upper School is working towards a cleaner campus, especially around the eating locations, by improving student habits through a grading system and spreading awareness. ASB created a grading system that includes punishments and rewards in January due to the worsening of the clean-up after lunch. These include giving ice cream as a reward, and punishing students by removing the Mexican food bar, and the desserts section. Since the beginning of the year, people have been seeing improvement. “They pay attention more on these things,” said Gustavo Parra, who is in charge of assigning the daily lunch grades. “Even some of the students, [if] they see trash on the table, they go and pick it up even if isn’t theirs so they have improved a lot.” Members of the Green Committee also support the grading system and hope that the system will remind students to clean up after themselves. “There have been no repercussions for students who leave their messes,” “I heartily approve of the students’ losing their Mexican food and desserts and hope that through peer pressure, everyone will think how their actions affect everyone else,” said Green committee member Diana Moss. Other students, like co-president of the Green Team, Sabrina Sidhu (11) agree, and believe that the best solution to this school-wide issue would be for students to simply clean up after themselves. “I think the biggest thing students can do to help the current situation is just clean up after themselves and remind their friends to do the same. As simple as it sounds, it’s essential,” she said. Other students think that the system is working but disagree with the rewarding system. “I think that even if we do well, we shouldn’t get ice cream because cleaning up for ourselves is something that we should know how to do already,” Annie Zhou (10) said. Student council will be monitoring the system in the upcoming weeks to improve student habits.
copy editor & reporter
KEEPING IT CLEAN Seniors Dora Tzeng and Elizabeth Teng eat lunch in the bustling Edge. After lunch each day, the kitchen staff evaluates how well the student body cleaned up after itself.
STUDENT RESPONSE
On a scale of 1 to 5, how serious is the trash and li ering problem on campus? Out of 124 respondents
LOOKING FORWARD
What to expect from the new trash policy
Continued page 8
70%
of collected waste diverted from landfill,
according to Head of School Christopher Nikoloff
Upper School mathematics teacher Anthony Silk will replace Bradley Stoll as the new chair of the Mathematics department at the beginning of next year. Stoll has held the position as department chair for the past 14 years since joining the school in 2000. Department chairs act as a conduit between the faculty of a department and the administration, communicating with students, teachers, and administration alike. The role involves consulting with teachers about the courses and curriculum in their respective departments, settling the concerns of students and teachers, evaluating students for placement in classes, observing and improving courses, maintaining a budget for the department, directing the usage of programs like Mathematica and The Geometer’s Sketchpad, and administering math exams such as the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC). “I think the main thrust of the job is making sure we are working as a single department and not as 10 separate teachers,” Silk said. Silk is looking forward to working closely with his colleagues while forging new relationships with students and teachers. “[I anticipate] working more closely with my fellow teachers and the administration. I love being able to collaborate and exchange ideas about how to make our school and our department the best that it can be. I am thrilled that I will have more time to do that,” he said. Both Stoll and Silk recognize the importance of being cognizant of the “wants and needs” of both the administration and the students to successfully manage the department. “I always tried to remember that it’s not about me being right or wrong, it’s about the student. I liked that I was able to communicate a great deal with parents,” Stoll said. “The little moments of when a conservation with a parent went the way I [thought] was best, are something that I will cherish.” Silk states that he is looking forward to the upcoming year.
Tinker Tour promotes student free expression apoorva rangan & elisabeth siegel
managing editor & copy editor Celebrating the First Amendment for United States youth, the “Tinker Tour” made a stop at the Upper School gymnasium today from 9:40 to 10:40 a.m. The tour features Mary Beth Tinker, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), which culminated with the historic decision that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Tinker refers to the tour as a “pep rally for the First Amendment.” “I realize that it’s really for everybody when students have a voice and are able to have input into the decisions of our society, and I realize that it’s good for adults too,” Tinker said. Tinker’s experience as a former pediatric nurse exposed her to students’ limited voice in government. “I’ve gotten [...] tired of patching up kids paying the price for policies
SYMPOSIUM, 2
that they had absolutely no part in as the executive director of the Fred T. from the very people who fought for making. Like car crashes are the lead- Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights their rights, which can be a powerful ing cause of death in teenagers, but and Education, an institute she co- experience,” Rees said. the schools have cut way back on driv- founded in 2009 in her father’s honor. Funded in large part by the ers’ education,” she said. United States History teacher SPLC, the Tinker Tour has had stops In September of last year, she be- Katy Rees anticipates that the assem- in private and public high schools, gan traveling in a bus alongside SPLC bly will provide effective context for colleges, technical schools and juveattorneys. As of February, the tour has the judicial branch. nile detention centers, all in the name logged over 20,000 miles and 58 stops. “What’s great about this is that of inspiring young people to speak up. She also travels in support of continu- students will hear about these issues For more information, go to page 9. ing civics and journalism classes, programs that have received significant cut-backs due to revised budgeting in many school districts. The Upper School is one of the five stops in Northern California, which include Whitney High School, Monta Vista High School, Convent of the Sacred Heart, and Palo Alto High School. Accompanying Tinker will be Frank LoMonte from the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) and Karen Korematsu. Korematsu’s father, Fred Korematsu, stood up to the United States government in Korematsu v. United States (1944) against the Japanese internment camps during World FACES BEHIND THE CASES Mary Beth Tinker and her brother pose with the War II. armbands that began the Tinker vs. Des Moines case in 1969. Tinker spoke to Karen Korematsu now operates the student body today alongside Karen Korematsu and Frank LoMonte. SPECIAL TO THE WINGED POST
4 SEN. YEE CORRUPTION CASE 6 COLLEGE ADMISSIONS 8 BAN BOSSY CAMPAIGN 9 FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS 10 FLIGHT MH370 11 HEALTHY LUNCH OPTIONS 14 JAWBONE REVIEW 15 FACIAL RECOGNITION 16 HOSCARS OVERVIEW
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