Harvard-Westlake • Studio City • Volume 31 • Issue 7 • March 23, 2022 • hwchronicle.com
Students respond to Ukraine By Daphne Davies
On a Friday afternoon, an Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. Government and Politics class sat in its Seaver classroom, deeply immersed in a discussion about the events that had transpired the day before: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine. The chatter of students quickly faded with the sound of chair wheels sliding back across the carpeted floor. A student stood up from their desk and exited the room, leaving nearly twenty pairs of eyes staring in surprise. The student in question declined to comment. Their classmate Raymond* reflected on the moment the student made the decision to leave the room. “We were discussing the Russian invasion [of Ukraine],” Raymond said. “One student, whose family is Russian, essentially brought up how the demonization of Russian people has been part of American culture since the fall of the Soviet Union. [The student] was talking about how Western media incorrectly portrays the Russian invasion and how [the student thought] there are legitimate reasons for it.” As the debate escalated, Raymond said his classmates remained calm but highlighted multiple flaws in the student’s argument. He said they did not criticize the student directly but that they instead chose to use facts to prove their points. • Continued on B8
WILL SHERWOOD/CHRONICLE
TO MASK OR NOT TO MASK: Logan Azizzideh ’24 takes notes during a lecture in his Honors Algebra II course. For the first time in more than two years, Azizzideh was able to attend a class without having to wear a mask after the administration removed the school’s indoor mask requirement.
Cases rise after school relaxes indoor masking policy according to county recommendations By Natalie Cosgrove
The Community Health Office (CHO) announced in an allschool email the school would be lifting the mandatory mask mandate, meaning masks are strongly recommended but no longer required on campus. The school made the decision in response to the school’s case count decreasing significantly and Los Angeles County lifting its mask mandate, according to the email. “One of the reasons that the school is confident in its de-
cision to follow [Los Angeles Department of Public Health (LADPH)] guidance with respect to indoor masking is that case rates on campus remain very low,” the CHO wrote. “Since early February, the number of cases on campus each week has been in the low single digits.” The email said the individual PCR testing program will be continuing at least through the week of April 16, in addition to a number of other current COVID-19 protocols that require testing in special circumstances.
By Lily Lee and Will Sherwood
Bake Sale Benefits: Community Council sold cookies on the Quad and donated the funds they made to Ukrainian refugees.
request of all of [students] is that [they] respect the choices of every individual around masking, understanding that everyone’s personal and family circumstances are different.” Commons said he made the decision to lift the mandate because of the updated LADPH guidelines, but he said he also kept the feelings of the student body in mind. “What makes me excited [about the change is] that it is a step forward in our return to normalcy,” Commons said. • Continued on A2
Committee revises existing schedule
IN THIS ISSUE
A7
Following the initial March 9 email, both Head of Upper School Beth Slattery and President Rick Commons sent emails to the student body reiterating the sentiments of the school’s previous email. Slattery said she expects students and faculty to respect the boundaries of students who are hesitant about the change in rules. “While this news is a welcome respite for many in our community, there are also many for whom this change is unsettling,” Slattery wrote in an email. “My
A10 Eco-Conscious Campus: Teacher Ryan Ellingson writes about the need to change the Upper School’s sustainability policies.
B4-B5
C3
Coming to the Court: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history as the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court.
Peaceful Protest: Students collaborated to paint a version of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” in response to current events.
The Scheduling Committee approved changes to the school’s schedule for the 2022-2023 school year by extending lunch to a full hour, adding more breaks and adjusting break length. Scheduling Committee Chair and Science Teacher Heather Audesirk said the committee chose to extend breaks and change the order of the block schedule for a number of reasons. “We are hoping for a number of positive changes,” Audesirk said. “We [hope that] students will have more opportunities to meet with teachers, that there are more times in the schedule for students to retake assessments, that there will be time during lunch for [students to eat] lunch and [attend] club meetings, that students might utilize [the] first break [in the schedule] just as a legitimate break rather than trying to fit in another meeting with teachers and that the blocks rotate more equitably.” Audesirk said the Scheduling Committee made the decisions in response to survey results that suggested students are not able
to find time to meet with their dent body will like it,” Hsieh said. teachers or make up tests in the “Of course, people will still have current iteration of the schedule. minor complaints, but I think “People reported not having that this new schedule adds [and] enough time to meet with teach- builds off the positive aspects of a ers [and that there were] very few block schedule concept.” times in the schedule in which Sophomore Student Rep[students] could realistically make resentative on the Scheduling up or retake an assessment that is Committee Wilson Federman longer than about 40 minutes,” ’24 said he enjoyed getting to Audesirk said. “[Other problems have an impact on the future of included] not [having] the school. enough time to meet “It was a very with teachers during eye-opening opportulunch and still be able nity because I had no to eat lunch during the idea so much thought lunch period [and] stuand care went into dents being late to class crafting the schedule,” meetings and directed Federman said. “We studies due to the lack hoped to create the l. wood of passing periods, so best possible schedule we did our best to solve for the community, Heather Audesirk as many of those issues and this year we were as we could.” specifically focused on Junior Student Representative deciding whether or not to make on the Scheduling Committee lunch longer by 10 minutes and Hope Hsieh ’23 said she is happy break shorter, so kids can make with the the suggested changes. up tests during lunch. It’s really She said she and a number of stu- interesting how those 10 minutes dents on the committee gave ad- makes such a big impact on the vice to the administration during schedule-making process. We Scheduling Committee meetings. had numerous test schedules cre“The students on the commit- ated, sent lots of surveys sent out tee all had a lot of input on the and it took a lot of discussion to schedule, so hopefully the stu- finalize it with the school.”