March 2021 by The Tattler

IHS TATTLER MARCH 2021 | VOL. 128 | NO. 7

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO TATTLE.

Established in 1892 Published Monthly www.ihstattler.com Ithaca High School 1401 North Cayuga Street Ithaca, NY 14850 FREE

EDITORIAL

Board of Education, Students’ Trust Requires Transparency BY THE TATTLER EDITORIAL BOARD

n November 22, 2020, Ms. Anjanette Brown, the ex-wife of superintendent Luvelle Brown, submitted more than 200 pages of emails, reports, and legal documents alleging gross misconduct and abuse of power by Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Superintendent Luvelle Brown to the ICSD Board of Education. These allegations included a conflict of interest in hiring practices, child abuse, and harassment of Ms. Brown and their children on school grounds during and following the divorce and custody battle, by and under the direction of Dr. Brown. The same day as the release of a document detailing the allegations, Dr. Brown announced his resignation at the January 12 Board of Education (BoE) meeting, causing immediate speculation among members of the school community. Two weeks later, Dr. Brown withdrew his resignation at the Tuesday, January 26, evening BoE meeting, saying, “After many conversations and reflections, I’m wishing to be here and [serve] as your superintendent going forward and indefinitely.” This decision was met with backlash from many students, parents and Ithaca community members because of the BoE’s lack of transparency and mishandling of this situation. Considering the gravity of these allegations, The Tattler Editorial Board supports the community’s demand for a thorough investigation by a third party of Dr. Brown and the Board of Education, and an appropriate course of action to follow. When asked how Dr. Brown was able to withdraw his resignation, Board President Robert Ainslie explained that Brown’s letter of resignation was never submitted to the BoE, invalidating his resignation. This explanation surprised the Ithaca community considering the email they had received notifying them of Dr. Brown’s resignation, a copy of an earlier press release in which the allegations against Dr. Brown go completely unmentioned. The email also listed all of Brown’s major achievements, followed up with a quote from Ainslie: “It will be nearly impossible to replace Dr. Brown. He has been an amazing leader and community member. We wish him great success in his new role.” In total, there were sixteen separate areas of concern discussed in the letter shared with the BoE and New York State Commissioner of Education, Betty A. Rosa. One such topic was the hiring by Dr. Brown of court-appointed paralegal, Erica Kueffer, to a position as an Administrative Assistant in 2015. Her hiring was allegedly in violation of her agreement to serve as a neutral agent to supervise the Brown children and offer advice concerning their custodial arrangements. Anjanette Brown also cites that Kueffer stated under oath that she had started and maintained a romantic relationship with Dr. Brown. This conflict of interest was apparently not objectionable to the Board of Education. Another significant concern listed in Anjanette Brown’s letter was Dr. Brown’s treatment of their children. According to Ms. Brown, the superintendent withheld information about their children’s education from her, created special ICSD Google Classrooms that would allow him to meet with the children, entered their children’s classrooms during the school day, and organized FaceTime

calls with his daughter using her teacher’s phone. Dr. Brown addressed the claim about the classrooms in a community conversation hosted by Meryl Phipps on February 20, saying that the classroom was created for his own professional development, and not personal reasons, but not the others. Ms. Brown also claims he used his position of power to pull his son out of class before Child Protective Services came to speak with him about alleged physical abuse from his father. Based on a 2020 court order prohibiting contact with his children during school hours, Dr. Brown acted in defiance of the judge each time he met with his children while they were at school. Such actions are completely unacceptable and create an unhealthy and unsafe learning environment for the children. If the allegations are proven to be true, they would warrant Dr. Brown’s immediate dismissal. When Dr. Brown announced his return to the district at the January 26 Board of Education meeting, student representatives to the BoE inquired about steps taken to investigate the allegations against Dr. Brown. They were entirely ignored until a BoE member prevented the meeting from ending by bringing the issue back up. According to an Ithaca Times article, “About face: Luvelle Brown will remain with ICSD,” BoE President Robert Ainslie explained that Kate Reid, the district’s attorney, had read the document detailing the allegations and “found that there was no justification for the allegations and that there was no impact to the district.” Reid’s investigation, however, may also be a conflict of interest since Reid is the subject of one of the document’s claims. Ms. Brown states that Reid initially denied her access to her childrens’ school records, going against school policy, while saying that she was acting on behalf of the district. Furthermore, an investigation behind closed doors taking place without public knowledge or a comprehensive report is alarming, especially considering the dismissive attitude of Ainslie toward the nature of the allegations. Two letters were sent to the ICSD Board of Education in the first week of February, one by parents and one by teachers. They demanded an official investigation of the BoE’s handling of the allegations surrounding Dr. Brown. Parents demanded the resignation of BoE President Ainslie, a full and detailed explanation from Dr. Brown on why he reversed his resignation in late January, and the termination of Attorney Reid for her inappropriate behavior towards Ms. Brown. Two BoE members, Ainslie and Sean Eversley Bradwell (BoE Vice President), as well as Superintendent Brown and Deputy Superintendent Lily Talcott, were served legal documents of unknown content. All parties involved sought legal representation, Brown hiring local law firm Schlather, Stumbar, Parks & Salk to represent him. President Ainslie was also caught on camera throwing the legal papers he received in the snow, another dismissive action displaying the BoE’s mishandling of the situation. In the process of writing this editorial, The Tattler Editorial Board reached out to Dr. Brown to request a statement about his resignation and return to the district, as well as the allegations against him. When asked why he reconsidered the resignation,

EDITORIAL

Staff 2020 – 2021 Editor-in-Chief

Anna Westwig ’21 editor@ihstattler.com News Editor Katie Lin ’22 news@ihstattler.com Opinion Editor Jinho Park ’22 opinion@ihstattler.com Features Editor Frances Klemm ’23 features@ihstattler.com Arts Editor Louisa Miller-Out ’22 arts@ihstattler.com Sports Editor Rohit Lal ’22 sports@ihstattler.com Literary Editor Adowyn Ernste ’22 literary@ihstattler.com Back Page Editor Ethan Carlson ’21 backpage@ihstattler.com Center Spread Editor Dorothy Hamilton ’21 centerspread@ihstattler.com Copy Editor Heewon Ahn ’21 copy@ihstattler.com Photography Editor Hannah Shvets ’23 photo@ihstattler.com Graphics Editor Aidan Hayward Toland ’22 graphics@ihstattler.com Layout Editor Jacob Yoon ’21 layout@ihstattler.com Business and Advertising Adam Saar ’22 business@ihstattler.com Webmaster Alexander Yoo ’21 web@ihstattler.com Distribution Manager Mollie Abelson ’21 distribution@ihstattler.com Archivist Raia Gutman ’22 archivist@ihstattler.com Faculty Advisor Deborah Lynn advisor@ihstattler.com

Brown gave a similar response as he had given at the BoE meeting, writing, “After announcing that I would soon be transitioning to the new role, I had second thoughts after more reflection and conversations with others. While serving a larger community of learners, the prospects of not doing some of the same things I’ve enjoyed and been successful with the past ten years outweighed the previous desires to make a shift.” When The Tattler Board requested a comment about the recent allegations brought against him, the Superintendent simply claimed the allegations were false and stated he is confident that the New York State Commissioner will come to the same conclusion. In addressing the allegations against Dr. Brown, it is essential that the Board of Education treat this as a district-wide issue and not as a personal matter. The BoE has made their opinions clear: addressing one of the student representatives, Ainslie said, “There are things that are private and within a family, and we have no wish to go there.” Although issues of divorce are not ordinarily considered at work, it is foolish to ignore the crossover between personal and professional matters. The allegations put forward by Ms. Brown detail a transgression of district policy which, if proven true, would indicate that Dr. Brown has used workplace resources to attempt to resolve a personal problem. Not only does a violation of professional boundaries warrant consequences, the character of school district leaders is paramount to their employment. The BoE’s treatment of the allegations demonstrates a dissonance between their professed values and present behavior. Their role is to foster outstanding conduct and exemplify the values of the school district. Instead of being transparent with the school community and addressing the elephant in the room, the BoE has betrayed our expectations. The character of members of the Board of Education and the Superintendent alike are fundamental to the standards of a school district as they act as role models to the school community, especially to students themselves. An investigation of abuse is the duty of district leadership on behalf

The Tattler is the monthly student-run newspaper of Ithaca High School. All currently-enrolled students at Ithaca High School are welcome to submit writing and photographs. As an open forum, The Tattler invites opinion submissions and letters to the editor from all community members. Email submissions to editor@ihstattler.com or mail letters to: The Tattler 1401 North Cayuga Street Ithaca, NY 14850 Send submissions by March 11 to be included in the April issue. The Tattler reserves the right to edit all submissions. All articles, columns, and advertisements do not necessarily reflect the views of editorial staff. To read The Tattler online, visit our website at www.ihstattler.com.

of the alleged victims and the ICSD community as a whole. In investigating Dr. Brown, the BoE must not dismiss truths that come forward as personal rather than professional matters. An appropriate investigation would be enacted by a third-party committee, independent from Dr. Brown and the Board of Education, and include interviews with all involved parties, including, but not limited to, Dr. Brown, Ms. Brown, Erica Kueffer, Lily Talcott, and the Brown children’s teachers. The Editorial Board reached out to the Instagram account Stressed at IHS and requested the responses from a recent survey they did about the board’s handling of the situation. The quotes below are just some of the dozens of responses received. They reflect the students body’s concern about the difference between the BoE’s supposed values and their actions. “This matter should not be taken lightly. Do not use your ‘culture of love’ to cover up the mistakes you’ve made. You need to be honest with your community and you must respect our voices and opinions, especially those of our youth” “What happened to ownership and integrity?!!!” “You need to be transparent about these things” “In order to restore confidence, the ICSD needs more transparency. They deserve that.” Other responses ranged from calls for Brown’s resignation to anger about how little the student voice matters to the BoE. The IHS student body is exasperated from having no say in the matters of the District and being silenced when they attempt to speak out. ICSD must pursue justice fairly, earnestly, and relentlessly. It would be an arrant mistake for the calls for justice to go unanswered. The Ithaca community will not accept a verdict reached from behind closed doors, nor by individuals who have been dismissive of the gravity and relevance of the issue. If these claims are proven false, students want them proven false in a way everyone is able to trust and accept, so that the community can move on; if they are proven true, students want to ensure accountability will follow. It is particularly essential that the Board of Education align with their professed values and act as mature role models for all the ICSD students watching. The Tattler Editorial Board demands complete transparency about the investigation that must occur and proper consequences for the parties involved.

NEWS

Debra Haaland: An Overview By WILL THOMAS IMAGE FROM WORLD OIL

Deb Haaland, Biden’s nomination to Secretary of the Interior

n December 2020, President Joe Biden historically nominated Debra Haaland as the Secretary of the Interior, responsible for overseeing a myriad of federal agencies dealing with conservation and, crucially, Native American affairs. As a member of the Laguna Pueblo people, the New Mexico congresswoman will be the first ever Native American to hold a cabinet position. Haaland worked her way through college, giving birth to her daughter four days after graduating. She was then unable to afford housing, and relied on food stamps and the generosity of friends to survive. In an interview with UPolitics, Haaland emphasized, “I got into politics because I really wanted more Native Americans to get out and vote.” As a volunteer for Obama’s campaign in 2012, she specifically worked to end the underrepresentation of Native Americans in the electorate. She also served in state-wide positions, running as a lieutenant governor candidate in 2014. Despite her failure in that election, she eventually rose to the chair of the state Democratic party. Under her leadership, the party raised large sums, and within two years, amassed enough to pay off the debt left by the previous seven years of leadership. In 2018, Haaland announced her intention to run for the House of Representatives in New Mexico’s first congressional district. She won 40 percent of the vote in the primary, a large enough margin to gain the nomination. She then won 60 percent of the vote in the general election, becoming one of the first two Native American women to ever serve in the House, along with Sharice Davids of Kansas. As described by the Guardian, in her

acceptance speech, Haaland referenced the actions of the previous office and her goal to create change: “This moment is profound when we consider the fact that a former Secretary of the Interior once proclaimed it as his goal to, quote, ‘civilize or exterminate’ us. I’m a living testament to the failure of that horrific ideology.” Haaland also possesses a record of progressive policy on fracking and other issues that may fall under her purview as the warden of federal lands. Many view her appointment to the position as a confirmation of Biden’s commitment to pursue environmental justice. The president has pledged to set the US on track to net zero emissions by at least 2050, and to work to stop polluters and fossil fuel companies from contaminating vulnerable communities. This commitment was also signaled by his recent moratorium on new drilling permits. Beyond appointing Haaland, the Department of the Interior has said Biden also signed an executive order directing the department to reexamine sacred monuments, and collaborate with tribes to restore them if necessary. Previously, the Trump administration had taken a different approach to the duties of the Interior, with federal lands being opened to drilling and over 100 environmental regulations being rolled back. Between the appointment of Haaland and the other promises made by Biden, it seems as though that trend will soon change. How far back to the side of stringent environmental regulations the government will go remains to be seen. However, it is clear that the Biden administration will not be a return to the days of minimal climate efforts.

NEWS

Workers in Bessemer, AL Fight to Form Amazon’s First U.S. Union By ANNA WESTWIG

mazon employs more than a million workers across the globe, is worth around a trillion dollars, and, in its 26-year history, has undercut, outstripped, or absorbed almost every competitor—but one of the retail giant’s greatest concerns revolves around the votes of 5,805 warehouse workers in the suburb of Bessemer, Alabama. If, by March 29, more than half of the employees mark ‘no’ on their ballot, Amazon will be able to add Bessemer to its long list of successfully-quashed unionization attempts. If, however, more than half vote ‘yes,’ then the warehouse will make history, forming the company’s first American union represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)—and, as organizers are hoping, possibly start a chain-reaction across the country. Such a reaction is precisely what Amazon is hoping to prevent. In Bessemer, the company has turned up the heat on its already robust anti-union messaging, mandating that all warehouse employees attend daily screenings of videos that warn against the cost of paying dues, and tally the benefits the company already gives them. Amazon goes so far as to blow up employees’ phones up to five times a day

with texts like “don’t let outsiders divide a winning team,” and plaster “Vote No!” flyers on the insides of bathroom stalls. According to RWDSU organizers, the company even got the city to recalibrate red lights around the distribution center to be shorter, so that organizers (pulled from already-unionized poultry plants) had less time to approach people as they waited in cars, one of their primary strategies. The intensity of the concerted pushback has intimidated workers, but has also proved to them that Amazon is treating them as a serious threat. The company attempted to force an in-person vote, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denied their request, and mailin ballots were sent out. This much success was unexpected. Past unionization efforts hardly ever reached the voting stage—a prerequisite for a vote is that the NLRB recognize a “significant” number of employees calling for a union election. The last instance was in 2014, where the majority of thirty Amazon repair technicians voted ‘no.’ What’s changed? Part of the answer is the pandemic: as Amazon doubled its profits—they reported 5.2 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2020

compared to 2.6 billion in 2019—a lack of paid time off and greater concerns for worker safety have fomented discontent. Such discontent is not merely confined to Bessemer, of course. On February 16, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Amazon for lack of protections against COVID-19. But Amazon’s strategies focus on portraying union organizers as outsiders, and Bessemer is where the organizers have strong ties to employees, which have only been strengthened by the Black Lives Matter movement. As many as 85 percent of workers in the Bessemer warehouse are Black, and so are many of the organizers. “We see this as much as a civil rights struggle as a labor struggle,” RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum told Bloomberg in an early-February article entitled “Will Amazon Unionize?” Jeff Bezos, who recently stepped down as Amazon’s CEO, previously expressed his support for Black Lives Matter, but his support means little to Bessemer’s workers, who are banking on a union, not a proclamation, to give them the power to negotiate a usable bathroom break, higher wages, and safety while a pandemic rages.

OPINION

Thinking Past Reform: The Case for Prison Abolition By LOUISA MILLER-OUT

n January 26, 2021, Joe Biden signed an executive order to phase out private prisons by refusing to renew federal contracts with them. This decision is logical, considering that privately owned prisons are rife with abuses. Driven primarily by profit motives, private prisons are uninterested in actually rehabilitating the people locked within their walls. According to a 2016 report from the U.S. Justice Department Inspector General’s office, private prisons had twice as many inmate-on-inmate assaults as public prisons and nearly 40 percent more attacks on guards. Staff frequently have violent altercations with incarcerated people. Facilities are often understaffed and in disrepair. Resources are limited. As prison populations continue to grow due to the crackdown on nonviolent drug-related offenses, overcrowding is a significant issue that leads to squalid conditions and the spread of infectious diseases. Mental health crises abound, partially as a result of social isolation, and are treated with militant force, not compassion. Under the oversight of profit-hungry companies, private prisons serve neither incarcerated individuals nor their employees who are underpaid and overworked. Furthermore, incarcerated people can legally be coerced into labor under the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed involuntary servitude “except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This manifests in businesses such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Victoria’s Secret outsourcing manufacturing tasks to prisons, where imprisoned people are compensated for their labor with pathetic “wages,” making only pennies on the hour. In America, a country which prides itself on being “the land of the free,” slavery is still legal as long as the laboring people have been convicted of a crime. Then, consider that two to ten percent of the two million people currently in prison have been wrongfully convicted, according to the Chicago Tribune. And according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, another 50 percent are imprisoned for nonviolent crimes, immigration or drug offenses. It is chilling to imagine how many innocent people are currently being exploited, their bodies contracted out to companies ever-hungry for cheap labor. The legality of prison slavery is a boon to corporations, who can even morally justify this exploitation by labeling all incarcerated people as miscreants and monsters. The collaboration between prison, private industry, and public perception creates horrific abuses and facilitates modern slavery. It is abundantly clear that ending private prisons is in America’s best interest. Unfortunately, Biden’s executive order does not apply to state and local prisons, nor does it apply to the for-profit facilities in which thousands of immigrants are currently detained. This hardly makes sense, considering that non-federal prisons are fraught with the same problems as federal ones. Just a few weeks ago, a man named Preston Chaney died of COVID-19 in a Houston jail while awaiting trial for stealing food. As U.S. representative Ayanna Pressley

pointed out, his ultimate “crime” was simply being poor. This maddening tragedy prompted Pressley to write, “Mass incarceration is a public health crisis,” and I concur. Immigrant detention centers suffer from the same issues as private prisons: negligence, poor conditions, and insufficient resources. Biden isn’t even banning private prisons; just revoking federal support for them. But even if he moved more decisively to end private prisons, it wouldn’t be enough to end the corruption and injustice that incarceration creates. Our current response to crime is locking people away, placing them under constant surveillance, controlling every aspect of their lives, and socially isolating them. This approach is, unsurprisingly, damaging to mental health. It breaks apart families, weakens social connections, fosters resentment, and makes it incredibly difficult for people to re-enter society. Ex-convicts also face discrimination in the hiring process, meaning they often end up in poverty and in situations where they are more likely to resort to crime for survival. Contrary to popular belief, increased incarceration does not deter crime, nor does it keep society safer. The harmful mental effects of imprisonment make recidivism more likely, as does the stigma placed on anyone who has committed a crime or is thought to have done so. Recent studies uphold the paradoxical finding that increased incarceration is useless at best and detrimental at worst in curbing crime rates. According to a study from the Vera Institute of Justice, increased incarceration rates do not affect violent crime rates and may even increase them. While harsher sentences and higher incarceration rates have a mild deterrent effect on property crimes, that effect diminishes every year. The United States currently spends a staggering 182 billion dollars a year on mass incarceration, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Are minimal to nonexistent improvements in public safety really worth this exorbitant cost? Making people suffer for their crimes is a disservice to everyone. Centuries of punitive justice have not significantly improved public safety, and come at an outrageous cost to American taxpayers. It is time we abandon the antiquated institution of incarceration and reinvest in preventative methods, like ending poverty and alleviating the desolate conditions which drive people to crime in the first place. Physical and mental health care must be made free and universal, as well as addiction rehabilitation services. Only through rehabilitative justice and compassion can we truly create a safer society for everyone. Mass incarceration is irreconcilable with American ideals of liberty and justice. Then again, America rests on land stolen from indigenous people, and to many, the American empire has no credibility or legitimacy at all. However, by practically every metric, America’s current system of incarceration is cruel and unjust. Non-incarcerated people must use their freedom to promote that of other human beings. America cannot be called a free country while the horrific institution of imprisonment exists.

OPINION

Can We Get Vaccine Rollout On Track? By MUKUND GAUR

t has been no secret that America’s vaccine rollout was chaotic from the start. At the end of January, all 50 states were reporting vaccine shortages. Our fragile healthcare system, already fracturing under one global crisis, is not using available resources to distribute vaccines. Today, the U.S. is falling behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Bahrain in percentage of population vaccinated, despite having ordered 1.2 billion doses of vaccine and working closely with vaccine companies. Clearly, then, vaccine rollout isn’t working. Several issues have been making it hard for the government to produce and distribute vaccines at high efficiency. One main issue is unfamiliarity. Vaccines in the past have taken years or even decades to develop, test, and produce. However, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been developed in less than 9 months. While this doesn’t mean that the vaccines are unsafe (they have been reviewed by multiple scientific boards and the FDA), it does mean that the government did not have enough time to create a comprehensive vaccine plan. In order for vaccine rollout to work, vaccine rollout needs to become an even higher priority for the government, who must work closely with states and vaccine manufacturers. Vaccine supply has also been an issue on every level of the process, from singular vaccination centers to the level of the federal government. This problem is hard to combat because eligibility for the vaccine has been increasing every day. But the future for vaccine availability is looking up. On February 11, the Biden administration announced that it had secured 200 million more doses of the vaccine. Supply of vaccines will most likely be less of a problem on the federal level, as Moderna and Pfizer have announced that they will be able to deliver 300 million more doses by July, and the Biden administration has announced that it has enough vaccine to vaccinate the entire country. So then, why are states and counties facing shortages? Mostly due to a lack of cooperation. With operation Warp Speed, the federal government was able to help companies create and manufacture vaccines faster. However, distribution of vaccines on many levels was left largely to state and county level officials, creating a decentralized distribution system. The federal government shipped doses to states, but then largely stepped out of the process. A comprehensive vaccine plan with cooperation from all levels of government would help alleviate this problem. Public health departments without adequate funding, large state deficits, and multiple budget cuts have left local health officials stripped of the resources they need to set up vaccination sites and distribute vaccines. Stimulus bills passed by Congress have helped provide funding for these departments, but this will

IMAGE FROM USA TODAY

The Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine need to continue in order for small local governments to have what they need. Further, overwhelmed hospitals simply don’t have the resources to vaccinate people on top of treating pandemic victims. Hospitals, however, don’t need to be vaccination hubs, especially when they’re dealing with their own crises. Separate vaccination sites, set up and staffed by state and federal governments would reduce the load on hospitals. One common vaccine issue which has become prevalent with the COVID vaccines is the widespread fear of the vaccine. According to the New York Times, more than a quarter of Americans say that they would probably or definitely not take a COVID vaccine. To some extent, this is understandable—being afraid about a vaccine with shorter development time is not entirely illogical. To combat this, however, hospitals and healthcare facilities need to have vaccine education programs set up to help people understand how the vaccine works and why it is safe. This problem should also lessen in severity as more people see relatives and coworkers get vaccinated. Problems abound in our vaccine rollout problem, but these problems also have solutions that the government can use to give more people access to vaccines faster. Already, there are signs of improvement, as vaccine rollout has sped up in all 50 states, with an average of 1.72 million doses administered each day, as of mid February. Cases have dropped by nearly half compared to a month ago, and the vaccination rate in the U.S. is rising sharply, with about 15 million fully vaccinated people as of February 16. A world without COVID is a distant memory now, but if we can get vaccine rollout back on track, it could come faster than we think.

OPINION

Distance Learning at IHS: A Clear-Eyed Assessment and a Call to Action BY RUBY LAROCCA AND TANIA HAO

or many students, the phrase “distance learning” calls to mind a solitary student crouching in some cramped corner of the house, staring listlessly at a computer screen. The screen is meant to be an opening or portal into the world formerly known as high school. But the portal opens both ways—it is a means of observing and thinking about the internal workings of our institution. Suddenly, students learning from a distance have an unsettling view of what passes for learning at IHS. The prospect is alarming. The pandemic has stripped school down to lessons, assignments, homework. This concentrated kind of schooling need not be a bad thing, so long as the lessons themselves are good and contribute to a genuine education. Carefully designed, a shorter, more intensive school day focused on edifying exchanges between students and teachers, students and out books, students and other students, students and our own thoughts, might have led to long revitalizing afternoons in which unfettered students freely commit to our own athletic, musical, vocational, or artistic pursuits. But administrators in the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) have not met the challenge of providing an online (or in-person) education that is energizing, varied, and aimed directly at the goal of preparing students for fulfilling future employment. Instead, they seem convinced—and are trying to convince us—that the work we do in school is ultimately not a challenge worth meeting but a hardship and a burden. Consequently, all the district’s efforts are aimed at lightening the load. Consider the environment in which online classes are now conducted. Cameras are not required. Class participation is not required. Late assignments are not penalized. Failing grades are masked by “safety net” measures. Books have been replaced with “manageable” short articles; thoughtful analysis has been replaced with students’ immediate, emotional reactions and impressions; long-term research and writing projects have been replaced with extemporaneous discussion. Teachers have been obliged to carry out Board of Education policies. Cameras are not required. At IHS teachers are not allowed to require that cameras are turned on for class. If self-conscious teenagers are given the option to hide our faces and not risk participating, we will likely seize the opportunity (especially if everyone else has). In addition, many students report technical trouble connecting to online classes that prevent them from having their camera on. As a result, students learning from home now suffer through an online environment where only one or two living faces can be seen among a sea of frozen profiles. Though it is entirely possible to participate without turning on cameras, many students don’t answer direct questions, don’t write in the chat, don’t give any indi-

cation they are still present. Even when breakout rooms are used to give students a better chance to engage with one another, students who are there and want to talk to their classmates face the wearying task of speaking into the void and waiting for responses that never come. Instead of collaborating in social learning and making new friends, they learn to endure a humiliating silence. Class participation is not required. While it is only to be expected that teachers are more flexible with students during this stressful time, it is startling that teachers no longer enforce or even encourage class participation, either by making participation an expected part of class or by making a regular habit of calling on students. Because class participation is all about norm setting—creating the expectation that class conversation is ongoing and questions might be asked at any time—students now do not expect to be called on if they remain off camera. If they are unexpectedly called on, they often do not respond at all—presumably for the reason that they are not present. Expectations for student participation are now so low that just logging onto Google Meets warrants thank yous from teachers. Late assignments are not penalized. Teachers have been explicitly told by the administration to simplify and slow down the curriculum. As a result, students have seen a reduction of content, a diminishment in the intensity, variety, frequency, and complexity of assignments, and the frequent postponement of due dates. Teachers too often give due dates which are then ignored, and assignments turned in late receive little or no penalty. This policy offers a stark contrast to the pre-pandemic era, when late work was a sure way for students’ grades to plunge. Students who have labored to turn in their assignments on time find themselves dragged through the same assignment for further dreary class sessions. Moreover, telling students who are having trouble turning in assignments that “it doesn’t matter when you turn them in, so long as they are in by the end of the marking period” is unlikely to offer real help. The problems of struggling students only mount and their days feel even more unstructured and lonely. Failing grades and incomplete assignments are masked by “safety net” measures. Despite lenient grading and a reduced curriculum, more IHS students are failing than ever before. The alarming number of students who are not doing well in classes has led the IHS Administration to implement “safety net” measures. Currently, students

OPINION

who receive a 65 and below in any class will not fail the class but receive a “COVID designation.” At some point the student will be contacted by a school counselor, dean or associate principal. The student may then be allowed to “engage in online credit recovery options” before the end of the school year, or, perhaps, to take advantage of “Summer Credit Recovery.” Which raises the questions: Who will be giving these credit recovery courses? Will already overworked and overwhelmed teachers be asked to dedicate more time to the same students who would not or could not complete their classes? At best, a student will be asked to complete work without the advantage of a trusted teacher to help identify the problems that were tripping the student up in the first place. At worst, unchallenging online “fulfillment options” risk moving students through essential requirements without receiving any true educational benefit. Books have been replaced with “manageable” short articles; thoughtful analysis has been replaced with students’ immediate, emotional reactions and impressions; long-term research and writing projects have been replaced with extemporaneous discussion. Troublingly, school is no longer helping us to communicate clearly and effectively, or to address a live audience coherently, or read books that are new to us, or talk to people we don’t know well. Contrary to the way we’ve typically imagined schoolwork, we are now encouraged to produce responses that resemble Instagram or Twitter posts and send in GIFs or memes that symbolize our feelings for the day. Presumably, teachers champion immediate and short-form responses because they assume that making school work analogous to social media posts will allow students to be more comfortable and take added pleasure in the work. But in fact these practices get rid of the expectation that students communicate in careful, original, informed ways. This disorienting shift from close reading and written analysis to impromptu discussion (“hot takes” or “quick writes” or “do nows”) seems designed to make our manner of communicating more colloquial, more personal, more literal, less professional. Besides, doesn’t the most enduring, economical, least technology-dependent way to learn from home involve reading really good books? All students, those who already love books as well as those who have not yet come to delight in the way a good book can expand the imaginative reality of human beings, need more practice reading and thinking critically about what they’ve read. (Reading well, Thoreau says, “requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole of life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.”) But the books in our curriculum, like the longterm, carefully-researched assignments, are disappearing. Teachers are obliged to carry out ICSD Board of Education policies that hamper teachers’ own expertise, experience, and efficacy in the classroom. Teachers were already being constrained over the past few years by slowed and homogenized curriculums. Now they are distressed by sudden changes to grading protocol and diminished dialogue. Enduring learning requires intellectual challenge, engagement, creativity and focused effort for teachers as well as students. Experienced teachers who are forced to abandon their own best teaching practices are left unable to help students, es-

pecially students in crisis. *** These radical changes to school policy are supposed to help students and further promote our “Culture of Love.” A recent IHS memorandum explains the changes to grading protocol this way: We continue to have an emergency educational crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that began during the spring of 2020. This crisis has caused numerous academic and technological challenges for both students and caregivers. It has changed much of how we teach and learn. We must change how we grade as well. Our goal is to create a safety net and to support our students. Ithaca High School has removed all the usual measures that give public education a reliable structure and make the fair assessment of students possible. IHS no longer supports mandatory attendance, predictable grading rubrics, timely feedback from teachers, or enforcement of informal rules that govern behavior in groups and that are designed to promote fairness and cooperation. This infantilizes students and robs us of our agency. We are being treated in a way that is apparently kind but that eliminates accountability. Instead of being “supported,” we are being patronized. For one thing, students who adopt the “support” on offer are not going to equip themselves with a reliable skill-set or useful habits. What will happen when IHS students pursue higher learning or have to compete for careers with real deadlines? Your boss at Ithaca Bike Rental, The Yarn Emporium, or The Overpriced Children’s Apparel Store is unlikely to tolerate late or missing work. Your mentors in medical school are not likely to say: “We would really like you to memorize correctly these medical terms; of course, this is only a suggestion. If you do not learn them, we will not test you, and you will not be penalized. When you start seeing patients who rely on you, we will just have to hope for the best.” Your mother is not likely to say: “I’d really like you to be home by 9:30 on a school night, but of course this is only a suggestion I have no way of enforcing.” Consider, too, the devilish piece of illogic we’ve willingly accepted. According to the IHS Administration and the ICSD Board of Education, we have an “emergency educational crisis” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this crisis designation, all the usual norms and regulations that create successful learning environments, online or otherwise, have been dispensed with. ICSD is apparently unable to form a connection between the number of students who are struggling, failing, or losing interest in school and the abandonment of the usual standards of acceptable student conduct and the best practices in the classroom. This contorted logic should remind us of ICSD’s reopening plans—plans which were bound for trouble from the very beginning. Presentations by the ICSD administration detailing reopening plans were confusing and frustrating. Bafflingly, a survey was sent out to families a mere five days before plans were to be submitted to the Governor—making it impossible to actually include student and parent suggestions and opinions in reopen-

OPINION

ing plans. According to a teacher at the February 9 Board of Education Meeting, a committee consisting of ICSD teachers dedicated to formulating a reopening plan met repeatedly over the summer. After countless hours of hard work, they had created a plan that would put students into cohorts to minimize quarantine and exposure. A day before the plan was due, Superintendent Luvelle Brown expressed his dislike of the teachers’ reopening plan and instructed them to present his decisions. Teachers expressed frustration over not being heard and questioned the purpose of the teacher committees if their feedback was going to be ignored. The levelling down of academic content is not unique to the pandemic era. Over the past few years, ICSD has been determined to simplify the curriculum and remove advanced learning options. In 2019, the accelerated math program at the middle school level was cancelled. This year, tenth grade English Humanities has been removed from the IHS Program of Studies. Rising tenth graders now only have the choice of Regents or Honors English 10. Those seeking a more academically challenging or classic literature-based English course will not be able to take one until their junior year. Our school district seems bent on continuing its mission to deprive students of academic challenges, limit the range of content we encounter, and reduce school to a joyless, empty enterprise. *** But there is a new twist in the promotion of ICSD’s misguided policies. Instead of reforming the system, school administrators are covering up their shortcomings by selling us a lie. The district is now turning students into converts who embrace and promote the very policies that will eventually leave us stranded and foundering. Should we feel grateful for changes that will leave us unserved in the end? The Board of Education wants us to believe that we need the changes being made, that we couldn’t succeed

without flattening and levelling the curriculum, loosening online etiquette, and reducing participation and accountability. If the administrators are willing to implement practices that do not genuinely promote learning, they are selling out. It is up to us not to buy in. Students, there are some things we can do today to improve the culture of online learning. There is no reason we need to accept the second-rate models we’ve been offered. We must stop embracing the ICSD-pushed ideology that learning is a burden. It’s a gift. We can choose to participate in class instead of sitting silently hunched in a corner. We can pluck up some courage and show our faces, or even just volunteer to answer a few questions. Let’s acknowledge that compelling questions posed by alert teachers can improve class participation and help students clarify their thoughts. Students pay better attention when they know they might be called on. Instead of seeing “cold-calling” as a punishment or shaming mechanism for distracted students, dynamic teachers use questions to deepen class discussion, make class activities lively and fun, and bring the best out of every student. When used correctly, cold-calling can create a classroom environment of trust and understanding, where mistakes are not only expected but encouraged. We might consider big reforms that test new modes of learning such as an experiment designed to give students more time during class to complete work with a measure of privacy and dignity. In exchange, students agree to keep cameras on for half the class. Ask for more time to read, think, and respond during the school day. If we could go to school every day and talk with our peers and teachers before the pandemic, we can certainly do so now. This last year and a half has proved that decisions made by those in power are not always the right decisions. We must wake up to the fact we can take care of ourselves. Let’s use our own agency to do what is good for us, not what feels good right now.

The Hot (Chocolate) Take By ELLA AVGAR

hile it may be March, it’s pretty clear that the Ithaca winter is not scared of blowing into the spring months. And if the winter can continue, I say that winter traditions, like good cups of hot chocolate, should as well. Hot chocolate is one of my rediscovered favorites. It is a bright spot on a cloudy day, warming you up from the outside in. Allow me to take you on a hot chocolate journey through Ithaca. My ideal cup of hot chocolate is sweet, but not too sweet, rich in flavor, and has a smooth consistency. I reviewed these hot chocolates with those criteria in mind and on a scale of one to five marshmallows, one being the worst and five being the best. From national chains, to local shops, to store-bought varieties, here are my reviews of places to find this sweet treat. Starbucks Good old Starbucks. The monarch of America’s hot drink empire. When I tried their hot chocolate, I found it pretty bitter. The flavor reminded me of dark chocolate, rather than the sweet drink I was expecting. It had a nice consistency, and the barista served it at the perfect temperature, but I couldn’t get past the bitter after-

taste it left on my tongue. I would definitely recommend it if you aren’t a fan of really sweet desserts, but not if you want to satisfy a sweet tooth. Three out of five marshmallows. Dunkin’ Donuts The world might run on Dunkin’ coffee, but does it run on their hot chocolate? I would say, yes because this hot chocolate was really good. It was decently sweet, and they added milk. This addition made all the difference. The drink was less watery and more substantial, and there was no aftertaste, cough cough, Starbucks. All in all, I was happy with the standard and delicious hot chocolate that Dunkin’ delivered. Four out of five marshmallows. Purity Ice Cream What, they have hot chocolate? Yes, yes they do. If you are ever at Purity and want something to balance out a cold scoop of ice cream, maybe try their hot chocolate. Be warned, the first sip I took was scalding hot, and I still don’t think my taste buds have recovered, but I guess I should have known that was inevitable on a hot chocolate tour of Ithaca. Anyway, the Purity hot chocolate had a

OPINION

pretty mild flavor. It was a bit watery, but you could still taste the chocolate. It definitely warmed me up and sweetened my day. Three out of five marshmallows. Ithaca Bakery For my last hot chocolate from an Ithaca located cafe, I stopped by Ithaca Bakery to see what they had in store. I hate to say it, but I was pretty disappointed. This hot chocolate was very watery. It was hard to find the flavor, and I was left grasping for a glimpse of the chocolatey goodness that I was waiting for. It was served at a nice temperature, but altogether felt more like drinking tea than hot chocolate. Two out of five marshmallows. Nestle In the case that you are snowed in at the moment or feel that staying home would suit you better, here’s an at-home hot chocolate to try. Well, if the Starbucks hot chocolate was bitter, then this hot chocolate was the polar opposite: sweet, sweet, sweet. Almost too sweet, to tell you the truth. I made the hot chocolate with milk and added some marshmallows to spice things up. What I got was hot chocolate with a really nice consistency, but a flavor that was artificial. The whole drink tasted extremely fake. Imagine a banana Laffy Taffy; the flavor is reminiscent of banana, but in that way that flavored things are. This hot chocolate was the banana Laffy Taffy of hot chocolate. There was an unpleasant, artificial aftertaste that was especially bothersome. I probably would not buy this brand again, but if you are a fan of super sweet things, maybe Nestle is for you. Two out of five marshmallows. Swiss Miss Last but not least, I tried the Swiss Miss, another store-bought hot chocolate. I made it with milk and topped it off with marshmallows. Now, this was the drink my hot chocolate saga had been waiting for. It was rich and smooth, with just the right amount of sweetness. The milk really brought out the flavor and combined well with the chocolate. A genuine delight all around. When the next cold winter day rolls around, or I just need a drink to cheer me up, I will be choosing Swiss Miss. Five out of five marshmallows.

I Shouldn’t Be Scared Of Jews In Government By ADAM SAAR

ecretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland. Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The aforementioned prominent members of the Biden Administration all have one thing in common: they are all Jews. When the nominations were announced and I realized that so many Jews would be holding high positions, I was initially really excited. As a Jew, I have always felt that— like many other minorities—my people have been tossed around as political pawns by non-Jews who claim to advocate for us while bringing us down in the same breath. Over the past four years under the Trump Administration, there has been a sharp rise in antisemitism surfacing across the entire political spectrum. From Charleston to QAnon to the courting of antisemitic anti-Zionism on college campusues, antisemitism has been allowed to flourish nationwide. Along with the removal of Trump himself, the appointment of Jews in such high profile positions made me optimistic about the Biden Administration’s potential to appropriately address the antisemitism crisis in this country. And then I had an epiphany that deeply disturbed me. The most common antisemitic tropes—those that are the foundation of many of the extreme conspiratorial movements of today, such as neo-nazism, QAnon, and whatever the heck Space Lazers are—have to do with Jewish control of institutions: of banks, of government, of corporations, of global power systems. In Biden’s administration, a Jewish woman— arguably the most qualified person in the nation for this position—is the head of the Treasury department. Now a Jew actually does control the banks. Alejandro Mayorkas, a Latino Jew, is now the head of the Department of Homeland Security, fulfilling the conspiracy theorists’ notion that

Latinos and Jews are attempting to infiltrate the country. Antony Blinken, the new Secretary of State and known globalist, fits perfectly into the idea that Jews somehow run the world through a worldwide network of globalists who undermine national interests. These fears of mine were realized on January 6. As Trumpism reared its ugly head and announced that it was here to stay, so did antisemitism. Men and women waving swastika flags and sporting T-shirts with “Camp Auschwitz Staff” emblazoned on the back did everything in their power to prevent the unseating of the Trump Administration—and the induction of an administration dominated by Jews. Since then, congresspeople have been sworn in who spread the theory that Jews have sent satellites into space which fire lasers to start wildfires. Antisemitism continues to pervade the United States. The professionals appointed by President Biden and the people of the United States to these positions are some of the most qualified men and women in the nation and many are longtime allies of Biden—I highly doubt religion played any part in their selection. Yet, their religion will undoubtedly influence how they are evaluated. I am in no way arguing that President Biden should not have appointed these people to these positions to avoid antisemitism in response. Rather, I am glad that Jewish people are now in a position to tackle antisemitism on a national level. But I should not be scared of their appointment. I should not fear for myself when my religion is represented on such an important stage. The United States needs to prove me wrong. We need to discredit any and all antisemitism peddled by anyone in this country, especially that targets our nation’s leaders. We need to disavow all antisemitic troupes and themes, even if they are accepted by your political party. Antisemitism is far from gone, and we all must work to destroy it.

OPINION

How Blokus Questions the Idea of Winners and Losers BY MANU BOSTEELS

A game of Blokus, pictured above

lokus is a very special board game. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Blokus is quite simple. Participants play on a gridded board upon which Tetris-like pieces are slotted in. The pieces fit into the gridded spaces, and players have to connect their colored pieces through corners, as demonstrated in the image above. You will notice that the same color pieces only touch corners, as having your pieces flush on any entire edge is against the rules. Blokus can be extremely entertaining and ruthless because players can make a trail and invade other people’s space, causing them to eventually run out of moves. It becomes even more challenging to put down all your pieces when two players form an alliance; that is, up until they are the last two left. However, this is not what sets Blokus apart. What makes the game especially intriguing is that four players can participate in the game, follow all the rules, and all four players can win. Puzzlesland.com reports that there are perfectly legal ways for all players to put down all their pieces. As puzzlesland puts it, “Here’s what a game might look like if players were being cooperative rather than competitive:” I find this fact quite fascinating, as it shows how integral competitiveness is to board games and their ability to entertain. Everyone can win in Blokus, and yet, in my experience, this scenario has never happened. And, frankly, I wonder if the game would even be enjoyable if this did occur. In an article for NBC News titled “Why board games bring out the worst in us,” Nicole Spector writes, “...once engaged, our brains don’t really know it’s just a game…When we have a victory or experience a sense of bonding with our teammates, our brains release pleasurable chemicals.” Blokus makes me wonder if competitiveness (and the associated chemical reactions) has to deal with victory itself, or victory juxtaposed with failure.

Spoons, a card game involving the quick, stealthy taking of spoons until one person is left the loser, and Cockroach Poker are examples of games where multiple people become winners, and only one faces loss. But what happens when a game has no loser? Such a result is comparable to participation awards in sports. These awards are generally seen as inferior, or even demeaning, as many feel that they reward players for not doing well. So I wonder if the same sentiment would be applied to an ‘everyone-wins’ board game, or if the “sense of bonding with our teammates” in sports that Nicole Spector brings up can work elsewhere. In other words, can there be winners in a board game without losers? My first reaction, having been raised in a competitive, capitalist society, is no. I would conclude that a game is not, in fact, as enjoyable when there are no losers. Perhaps this is an indicator of the reach of capitalist ideology, and perhaps the socialist conclusion is the opposite. Nicole Spector writes in that same article, “Board games are designed to rile us up. Like sports, these games work by creating division. We adopt a “me versus them” mentality.” In contrast, Don Vaughn, a neuroscientist whom Spector interviews, states that “‘It is possible to get some of the neurochemical benefits of board games [including] the release of oxytocin (the ‘love’ hormone) from social connectedness.’” So which is it—are fun board games only possible when they sow division, or can they work by uniting people in a social manner? Unlike Vaughn, I am not a neuroscientist capable of measuring neurological responses to competition, nor am I a philosopher here to question the ethics and morality of winners and losers. Nevertheless, I wonder if the case could be made for a game like Blokus in which the goal is to create scenarios like the one pictured above. Could a game based on cooperative victory be both enjoyable and successful in the mass market? Or, has the competitive win-lose dynamic infiltrated the board game industry beyond repair? It’s tough to say. After some thought, I think a game like this could work really well. The important thing to note here is that competition can exist in a cooperative game. The Oxford English Dictionary defines competition as “An event or contest in which people take part in order to establish superiority or supremacy in a particular area.” Maybe I’ve been looking at this all wrong, and competition and cooperation are not mutually exclusive. Suppose a game is designed in such a way that participants are only “establishing supremacy” over themselves; in that case, you can get rid of the win-lose dynamic while retaining a competitive aspect. For example, a puzzle game in which participants have to work together to create as many solutions as possible, say, arranging shapes into a square in as many different ways as possible. Such a game would allow players to compete with the previous highest number of solutions, and yet, the game creates no losers. Furthermore, by doing away with the “me-versus-them mentality”

OPINION | FEATURES

that Spector mentions, a game like this would avoid the typical emotional drama that some other competitive games create. And finally, there are categories of games that already exist that do away entirely with the competition aspect. Although I am not well-versed in any of them, there are hundreds of role-playing board games out there where the objective is to create an exciting storyline. Again, games like this provide entertainment for participants (and are very popular!) without requiring someone to lose.

Clearly, a board game without losers is possible. That’s irrefutable because such board games already exist. For now, the only question that remains is whether or not the massive market for competitive games that leave one player triumphant and the rest defeated will ever be made obsolete by the games that offer the same entertainment, minus the family-destroying win-lose drama. I’d love to poll my parents to know their opinions on the matter. Unfortunately, we’re not exactly on speaking terms after last night’s Monopoly. I won.

Commercialism, Screen Time, and Tantrums: ICSD Elementary Families on Virtual Learning By TANIA HAO

or most of us, elementary school looked a lot different than it does right now. We went on field trips, had lunch with our friends, and held assemblies without worrying about infection. But ever since March 2020, kids as young as four are staying home and learning through their screens. The virtual learning experiences of ICSD elementary students and families are varied and plenty, ranging from good to okay to overwhelming and terrible. As with any new ordeal, challenges are inevitable. Many families The Tattler connected with, especially those with younger students, reported how hard it was for students to engage and focus in the virtual environment. One parent of a kindergartener mentioned how their child needed to have an adult with her to keep her focused. Another described temper tantrums, complaints, and fidgeting when it was time for virtual meetings, adding, “The teachers are doing an amazing job but I still don’t think it is useful for kindergartners.” Virtual learning has also taken a toll on parents, especially those with younger kids, who often find themselves spending copious amounts of time helping their students. A parent of a second grader stated that “Virtual learning for a second grader is a bandaid trying to stop a hemorrhaging wound. It’s better than nothing. It requires a lot of parent time to guide, remind, check on work, set expectations, teach the material, and monitoring to prevent the kid from playing games during class time.” Unsurprisingly, screen time and computer use is also a concern among many ICSD families, with most parents not wanting their child in front of a screen all day. One parent noted the difference between ICSD’s predicted amount of screen time for kindergarten, 1.25 hours, and the actual amount of screen time their kindergartener was having each day, with multiple meetings spread out throughout the 6-hour school day. Another reported “significantly more screen time overall” (as compared to before the pandemic). When asked how their online classes were going, a fifth grader said, “Okay. I don’t love the hours of screen time.” Another common obstacle we found with virtual learners was the lack of interaction with peers. Especially for younger students, learning social skills and being with friends are crucial. A fifth-

grade parent who originally chose virtual learning is considering in-person in the future, saying, “At the [beginning], we were happy to learn virtually because it gave us flexibility for the schedule. Now we would like to return in person because we think social life is important for kids to grow healthy mentally.” A parent of a second grader said that their student was “missing out on the socialization and interpersonal relationship building, people skills and [play].” Despite its numerous challenges, most of the families The Tattler connected with could list a fair share of positives in their experiences of virtual learning. Family bonding has grown from the increased time at home, families are grateful that kids aren’t exposed to COVID-19, and students are becoming more tech-savvy than before. One ICSD parent with a kindergartener and third grader said the two kids grew closer than before because of all the time spent together at home. They also noticed how less contact with peers led to less peer pressure and commercialism, telling The Tattler, “I’ve seen a marked decrease in my older elementary school daughter’s ‘need’ to buy more LOL dolls this year than in the past couple of years.” Another explained how the time at home has helped with other commitments. “For our family, it has made it much easier to supplement with religious and additional language education at home than when our kids were ‘in-person,’” they said. ICSD teachers are also making virtual learning easier for their students. One parent is “amazed” by their teacher’s creative, often offline, paper assignments that include puzzles and decoding. Another observed how their student learned to work more independently and manage her own time, and that teachers were integrating remote and in-person students’ lessons excellently. Overall, while families believe there is still much to be desired in virtual learning, there have been good things that have come out of it, like family time and extra learning. As a parent of a fifth grader put it, “With the great improvement between the spring and fall, I’m very encouraged by the improving quality. I expect this to be more typical in the future.”

FEATURES

Managing Stress During the Pandemic: A Conversation with Dr. Haltom, PhD, CEDS By ALICE BURKE

his March marks one year since COVID-19 invaded our lives in Ithaca and changed all we were accustomed to; the pandemic has impacted everything from school to extracurriculars to social interactions to organized sports… the list goes on. Unfortunately, with new challenges emerging from the pandemic, there has also been a growth in mental health issues. According to a study published in Science Advances, the pandemic has caused an increase in acute stress and depressive symptoms across the United States. From personal experience and reaching out to peers, it has become obvious that stress has also affected students at IHS. Distance learning and hybrid instruction, along with the continuation of heavy workloads, has created an environment where students are experiencing more mental strain than ever before. With AP and Regents exams coming up in just a few months, it seemed imperative to research stress management and see if there were any methods that could help students at our school manage any mental strain they might be experiencing. As part of my research into stress management techniques, I reached out to Dr. Cristen E. Haltom, Psychologist, PhD, CEDS. Dr. Haltom is a professional psychologist in Ithaca who has been delivering psychotherapy services for 35 years. When speaking with her, the psychologist offered insight into the most effective ways to improve mental health and manage stress during this difficult time. Her first tip was one that should not be surprising to any of us, and yet it is something that seems to be repeatedly neglected in our busy student lives: getting enough sleep. Dr. Haltom expressed that sleeping enough is extremely important for stress management, and recommended that we try to sleep at least eight or nine hours each night. This amount can seem like an unattainable goal, what with all the work we are given as students, but getting enough sleep will help reduce stress and actually increase our ability to concentrate and do work. Following a regular sleep schedule improves concentration, regulates mood, sharpens judgement and decision making, and restores the body. If you are well-rested, you are a better problem solver and more able to cope with stress―all important factors in completing the mountain of work that many of us have. Without sleep, our energy is reduced, our mental clarity declines, and our ability to do quality work lessens. No matter what homework you may have, what test you might be cramming for, what classwork you are not caught up on―sleep is the most important factor when it comes to your health and academic performance. Dr.

Haltom recommends setting a bedtime for yourself and sticking to it, no matter what. Various students she has worked with in the past have reported it to be the most effective stress management tool that has also helped in their academic success. Even though consistently getting nine hours of sleep may be unrealistic for many students at IHS, just adding one extra hour of sleep every night can go a long way in reducing stress, and it is something we can all do if we make it a priority. Dr. Haltom’s second tip for stress management was to eat regular meals. It’s a simple, easy way to help lessen stress levels and improve general well-being. When we are poorly feeding our bodies, stress can take an even greater toll on our health and concentration. Eating regularly helps keep our blood glucose levels stable, which our brain needs to function well. Studies have shown that more stable blood sugar levels are associated with lower stress and better academic performance. Too often, basic self-care―like eating well and sleeping enough―is sacrificed for schoolwork and other aspects of our busy lives, but the truth is that if we take the time to focus on self-care, the rest will fall into place. It is common among teenagers to skip breakfast on a daily basis, due to lack of time, and some even skip lunch because they are “not hungry.” Not only is skipping meals extremely unhealthy, but it also negatively affects stress levels, concentration, and academic performance. Too many high school students skip meals and neglect basic self-care, and it is reflected in their mental health. Not to say that everyone who skips breakfast is super stressed, but it is a general trend―and it can be solved in part by eating regularly. If we all realized the importance of our nutrition, chances are our stress levels would decrease and our focus and concentration in school would increase. While eating more regularly is a major way to reduce the stress of school and general pandemic life, Dr. Haltom also described another technique we as students can utilize that involves less change to our lifestyle and routines. Specifically, Dr. Haltom outlined the benefits of practicing deep breathing every day and especially spoke about RSA Breathing, or Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Breathing, a technique first used to treat asthma patients in Russia. RSA Breathing is deep, metronomic breathing aimed to slow heart rate and decrease stress. Dr. Hatom recommends deep breathing for about ten minutes every day if possible, especially right before going to sleep. While performing this breathing exercise, you should try to have only six breaths per minute, with each breath lasting for ten seconds (four second in-

FEATURES

hale, six second exhale). The aim of RSA Breathing is to balance the parasympathetic drive (the relaxed side of autonomic nervous system) with the sympathetic drive (the stressed part of the autonomic nervous system). By deep breathing, we can relax the body, relieve tension, and reduce stress. Breathing deeply sends messages to the brain to calm down and relax, which the brain then relays to the rest of your body. As you breathe deeply, the parasympathetic drive in your brain increases and helps you relax by lowering your heart rate and decreasing blood pressure throughout the body. Deep breathing before bed is also an excellent way to help you fall asleep, which, as discussed before, is also very important for stress management and general well being. If ten minutes of deep breathing a day is too much to ask for, even a couple minutes of dedicated relaxed breathing can be helpful in reducing stress, and it is so easy to complete―there is no excuse for not being able to just relax and breathe for a few minutes out of your entire day. The last piece of advice Dr. Haltom gave about managing stress was stretching or doing a relaxing yoga flow before bed. When we are stressed, the fight or flight response in our body, triggered by the sympathetic drive in our brain, causes our muscles to contract and restricts blood flow. By stretching these muscles before sleeping, we can increase circulation to the muscles which can help lower the sympathetic drive and increase the parasympathetic drive, leading to increased relaxation. Stretching or yoga before bed has similar effects as the RSA Breathing described earlier―both aim to balance the parasympathetic drive with the sympathetic drive in the brain in order to increase relaxation and manage stress levels. Stretching or yoga also has the added benefit of forcing you to slow down and be present in the moment. It makes you pay attention to your body, allows you time to breathe, and lets you take notice of your surroundings. Slowing down helps you decompress and relax, which ultimately leads to stress levels decreasing. Lastly, if you stretch or do yoga before bed, it will help you fall asleep by relieving muscle tension and allowing you to let go of stress carried in your body. Sleep quality may even improve because mental stimulation is reduced by stretching, a factor common for people who struggle with insomnia. Although stress is a huge problem in many of our lives right now due to the pandemic, the solutions for this issue are relatively simple and easy to incorporate into our routines. Too many students at IHS disregard the importance of basic self-care, like sleeping enough and eating well. Increasing sleep and improving nutrition is a good first step in managing stress levels and general mental health. There are also specific actions we can take to reduce stress, like practicing deep breathing and implementing stretching and yoga into our daily lives. These changes are not magical solutions, and will not immediately reduce the stress we may experience every day, but they definitely are helpful in improving mental health over a longer period of time. I was fortunate to have the guidance of a professional psychologist when exploring the solutions to student stress at IHS. Hopefully many of you will apply these techniques to your own lives―sleep, nutrition, deep breathing, and stretching all have proven benefits for reducing stress, and one of these approaches to stress management is bound to work for you.

FEATURES

15 Influential Women in History— Women’s History Month 2021 By FIONA HINRICHSEN

hroughout history, women have been uncredited, and unrecognized, so we need to celebrate some of these incredible, intelligent, and inspirational women who have paved the way for women’s rights, and racial equality, and who have made amazing advances in science, mathematics, and literature. These women are only a few of the powerful female politicians, leaders, scientists, and social activists without which the world would not be where it is today.

IMAGE FROM THE ITHACA VOICE

To recognize and honor some of these women for Women’s History Month here are ten of the most influential women in history: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: She was the second woman ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court as a justice. She served on the court for 27 years, during which she fought for women’s rights. Marie Curie: She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics. She later also became the first person to claim a Nobel Honors twice, the second time for Chemistry. Her scientific discoveries, with her husband Pierre Curie, included their discovery of polonium and radium, as well as her advancements in the development of x-rays. Rosa Parks: She was a social activist; she fought for the rights of people of color in the United States. She is most widely known for her help in the civil rights movement where she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus in 1955. Malala Yousafzai: She is a young female activist who fought against Tehrik-e-Taliban who restricted education for girls in Pakistan. She is also the youngest person to win a Nobel Peace Prize, at age 17. Maya Angelou: She was a civil rights activist, poet, and award-winning author. Her book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings was also the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American Woman. I wanted to look a little closer to home and highlight five influential women from Ithaca: Dorothy Cotton: She was a Civil Rights Movement leader who acted both as an educator and activist. She even met Martin Luther King Jr. and helped him write his famous “I have a dream” speech. She became part of the Ithaca community afterward but continued on her journey of being an advocate for civil rights in her Dorothy Cotton Institute.

Dorothy Cotton teaching

Caryn Davies: She graduated from Ithaca High School and went on to become an Olympic rower, making it to the Olympics three times. Before going to the Olympics she received many awards for rowing and won a national championship in college with her Harvard University team. After her rowing career, she continued with her education at Columbia Law School, received a Doctor of Law degree and became an attorney. Alison Lurie: She lived in Ithaca since 1961 and was a professor of Children’s Literature at Cornell and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Similarly, in her books, she references both Ithaca and Cornell. In 2012, she was even named the 10th New York State Author by Governor Andrew Como for two years. Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer: These women were in a same-sex relationship and were open about their relationship which was very uncommon for the time. They even became the first full-time female professors at Cornell. Together, these women founded a home economics department at Cornell, which later became the New York State College of Human Ecology. Their department was admired by the women’s rights movement. Each of the women I have chosen to honor this month has made amazing achievements in a variety of fields. However, what made these women stand out to me is their ability to push past societal limitations to change our world for the better. Not only did these women greatly impact their current society, but they also all improved the world for future generations by expanding opportunities for women and sharing their talents and knowledge.

ARTS

Gideon the Ninth is Worth Coming Back from the Dead to Read By ANNA WESTWIG

ome books you devour; some books devour you. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is one of the latter. Muir’s prose is not just hungry, it is ravenous and won’t let you out of its jaws until it’s sucked every bit of marrow from your bones. This book will leave you recovering in an infusion suite because your entire emotional range has been depleted. It’s a rollercoaster, a death trap—and, above all, wickedly fun to read. Gideon the Ninth was (rightfully) one of 2019’s most hyped releases, but its now-infamous tagline “lesbian necromancers in space” falls short of capturing Muir’s genius. Although Muir does not fail to deliver on lesbian necromancers in space, she also offers profound studies of character relationships, a plethora of Catholic and Greco-Roman allusions to mine, and references to Mean Girls. Our introduction to a rich and dizzying world, in which nine planets have been resurrected after an apocalypse and become the Nine Houses each with a specialized brand of necromancy, is through the eyes—and snark—of Gideon Nav. Gideon is an indentured servant on her thirty-third escape attempt from the greasy, skeleton-inhabited Ninth house and its seventeen-year-old Reverend Daughter and bone-witch extraordinaire, Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Gideon is desperate to join the Cohort in order to fight a galactic war on behalf of God (yes, God is a character). But the Cohort (and God) hardly features, as her latest attempt, like all her previous ones, is foiled by Harrow, who will do anything to keep Gideon with her. This fraught relationship between the two daughters of the Ninth is the heart of the book, one that cuts—like knife through sinew—straight across the slew of gore-spattered description, the kaleidoscopic worldbuilding, the lengthy dramatis personae pages (which should not be skimmed and then ignored; refer to them without shame), and Gideon’s irreverent quips. Harrow and Gideon, who have spent their entire childhoods clawing at each other’s faces, are forced to cooperate when Harrow gets an invitation from God to travel to Canaan House—located on the abandoned First—and attempt to become one of his all-powerful immortal bodyguards known as Lyctors. No necromancer is complete without a cavalier: a fighter who is utterly devoted to them, a master of the rapier, and ready to absolutely wreck anyone who messes with their necromancer. Unfortunately, the depleted Ninth only has one option. Gideon might not be devoted to Harrow, she might only be a master of her beloved two-hander, but she is certainly ready to wreck anyone she wants to. And, don’t worry, Muir will let you see her do it. But Muir does not just settle for one complex and compelling relationship; each of the eight necromancer and cavalier pairs at Canaan house has its allure, even if, in some cases, it is only hinted at through scraps of dialogue. Camilla Hect and Palamedes Sextus of the bookish Sixth are unwaveringly devoted to each

other. Colum Asht has been chosen as the Eighth house cavalier for his uncle Silas Octakiseron, due to his genetic compatibility, so that Silas can use him as a battery. The twins Coronabeth and Ianthe Tridentarius from the Third House are both flesh magicians. Corona is the brighter twin and Ianthe sulks in her shadow. But they, like binary stars in orbit, are enmeshed in each other’s gravity. Their cavalier, Naberius Tern, is often collateral damage to their codependency. All of these relationships are stretched in new, compelling directions when something menacing emerges amid their attempts at achieving Lyctorhood. You may have noticed, at this point, that all the characters’ last names correspond to the number of their house. Rest assured, every name is significant and yields even more insight upon a re-read. In fact, re-reading is almost an obligation considering Muir’s mastery at foreshadowing; I promise, even though some information might seem irrelevant, not a single word is wasted. And if the point of a detail isn’t obvious, it’s probably because it’s foreshadowing for Gideon’s darker, moodier sequel: Harrow the Ninth. Gideon the Ninth is, like the necromantic constructs within its pages, a mind-boggling amalgam of disparate elements that you would think could hardly stick to each other, let alone attempt to form a coherent whole. But Muir deftly combines elements of horror, pulp, murder mystery, and sci-fi/fantasy to create a strikingly original narrative that still manages, in all its strangeness, to tug at the heart. Gideon the Ninth’s sequel Harrow the Ninth came out August 2020; the final installment of the trilogy, Alecto the Ninth, is scheduled for release in 2022.

IMAGE PROVIDED

Promotional material for Gideon the Ninth from Tor.com

ARTS

Reading Recommendations in Celebration of World Book Day! By ALICE BURKE

or those of you who love to read, March 5 is World Book Day! Hopefully we can all spend some time indulging in our favorite books, but for anyone who is out of stories to read, I’ve created a list of some of my favorites from various genres. The list spans from a memoir discussing sexual assault to a satirical comedy that parodies Lord of the Flies, so hopefully there is enough variety to find a book that interests you. Don’t be afraid to branch out and try new books, either―World Book Day is a great opportunity to expand your reading horizons. Have fun trying out some of my book selections, and happy reading! Memoir: Know My Name by Chanel Miller Know My Name is an incredibly emotional story written by Chanel Miller, the sexual assault victim of Brock Turner, who was the so-called “Stanford Swimmer” of 2015. Through her beautiful and expressive writing style, Miller tells the story of her assault and subsequent year-long court case in which she was harassed by the opposing attorneys and attacked by the media for “harming Turner’s reputation.” Miller describes the toxicity of victimhood and the injustices of the American Court System, and reflects on how her traumatic experiences made invisible but lasting repercussions on her well-being and mental health. This memoir was my favorite book of 2020, and I truly think everyone else should read it―not only does this book explore a very serious and important issue in our society, but it is also skillfully written, with so much emotion. Miller is an exceptionally talented writer, and everyone should read her memoir simply for the beauty of her words. Fantasy: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang If you are looking for a fantasy trilogy that strays from the alltoo-common Western tropes and worldbuilding, then I highly recommend The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. The fantasy world in this series is masterfully crafted to reflect aspects of Chinese history, culture, and geography, while also incorporating a unique magic system that adds even more to the story. Everything about this series is perfect: the plot is complex and exciting, the worldbuilding is unique, and the characters are endearing and extremely authentic, with real flaws that make them all the more compelling. Some of the major conflicts in The Poppy War also mirror real events in Chinese history, such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Opium Wars. Suffering and violence from conflicts like these is reflected in Kuang’s writing through major themes of pain and brutality. The Poppy War is a dark fantasy, with many horrifically violent scenes throughout the series, so I would not recommend it to those who are sensitive to such themes. However, for those who do like more violent books―this is one of my favorite series of all time, and you should definitely give it a try! Mystery: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Although this book was first published over sixty years ago, it

has remained one of the best mystery novels ever written. Agatha Christie was one of the best-selling authors of her time, and her books continue to be popular, especially And Then There Were None. The story begins when ten strangers are invited by a mysterious, shared acquaintance to stay on a secluded island off the English coast. Within the first four chapters, one of the visitors has been murdered, and a storm imprisons the remaining nine on the island with no means of escape. This book is the original “We’re all trapped here, and one of us is the murderer!” story, and it is a grim but riveting tale full of suspense. The abundance of plot twists and red herrings throughout the book keep readers from discovering the murderer until the very end. The point of view shifts between all the characters, and without the narration of a reliable protagonist, it is very difficult to predict who is going to live and who will die. This story is especially unique because the characters are picked off one by one according to an old nursery rhyme, which adds even more intrigue to the story as readers must try to figure out how the murderer will execute the next death described in the rhyme. For any mystery fans out there who haven’t picked this book up yet, what are you waiting for? It’s the perfect read if you want a fast-paced, thrilling mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. Satire/Humor: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray I highly recommend reading Beauty Queens by Libba Bray if you are looking for a quick, easy read full of hilarious absurdity and endearing characters. This book is a satire that reflects the world that we young people are growing up in, filled with reality TV, corporate sponsorship, and beauty obsession. In fact, the main characters of this book are teenage beauty pageant contestants―whose plane has crashed on a deserted island. Instead of competing in a beauty competition, which is what they’ve been groomed for their entire adolescent lives, these young women find themselves in a struggle for survival as they face living in the wilderness. In many ways, this book can be interpreted as a parody of Lord of The Flies by William Golding, but Beauty Queens has the added perks of a hidden conspiracy, an international relations disaster, and even shipwrecked pirates. Although the characters may seem very stereotypical at first, Bray successfully subverts the beauty queen cliché in her book and creates developed, complex characters that feel like real girls with genuine struggles. The plot and setting of this book are absurd, but the characters still engage in honest conversations with each other about parental pressure, sexuality, and identity. Despite the comedic and satirical nature of the book, it manages to explore important themes, which is what makes it such a compelling and unique book that many people would enjoy reading. Young Adult LGBT Romance: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera Just a disclaimer: if you don’t want to cry your eyes out, then I advise you not to pick up this book. However, if you’re fine with

ARTS

having your heart ripped out of your chest, then you should read They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. The story is set in a world where death is forecast a day in advance. Mateo and Rufus, two teenage boys predicted to die on the same day, end up meeting each other to spend their last day together. As they try to live an entire lifetime in twenty-four hours, the two become friends and then start to fall in love. Although readers are warned from the very beginning that Mateo and Rufus are destined to die, it does not prevent us from falling in love with the characters and their relationship and then being devastated when they both

meet their end. The beauty of this story is that, at heart, it is not about death and sorrow. It is about Mateo and Rufus trying to live in the moment and enjoy life while they still can, despite the hopelessness that they feel at many points. It reminds readers to live every day to the fullest, no matter the circumstances, which is an ever-important lesson that many people should learn. Regardless of the devastating ending, I highly recommend this book. It is such a beautiful story about friendship, love, and life, and I think many people might need it right now to be reminded how important it is to live.

Bridgerton: Is it worth watching? By SILVER VINCENT-FARIS (Spoilers ahead! Content warning—the show covers topics that may not be appropriate for all audiences, such as sexual content, sexual assault, toxic relationships, and death.)

ridgerton premiered on December 25, 2020, and has become the most viewed series on Netflix over the past two months. Based on a series of books by Julia Quinn, the show follows Daphne Bridgerton through her family’s journey to have her wed by the end of the courting season. The show also sees other families, such as the Featheringtons and the Cowpers, struggle to find matches for their eligible daughters. What has made it so popular? Many think it’s the costumery, done by designer Ellen Mirojnick, who has worked on other hits such as The Greatest Showman and Fatal Attraction. She says of the dresses to Vogue, “This show is sexy, fun, and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that.” Over 7,500 costume pieces were put together in five months, with the main character, Daphne Bridgerton, having over 100 costumes. Even though the show has become so popular, there are clear issues with it, such as queer-baiting and “color-blindness.” The show claims to have queer romances, although the sole reference to a queer relationship is a man cheating on his wife with another man at a party. There are also queer-coded characters, such as Benedict Bridgerton, although nothing ever comes of that, and he is seen in a heterosexual relationship. On the subject of color-blindness, the show seems to break barriers with its inclusive casting and main characters who are written as people of color (POC), but its plot choices and colorism

have drawn criticism. It looks at first like they just cast the best actors for each role, not caring about race, but moving through the series there are some comments about “us” and “them” that show that their society has not always looked like this. Patricia A. Matthew says, “I don’t really know what ‘right’ looks like for Black characters in an England that in 1813 had abolished the slave trade but not slavery,” and that seems to sum up how race is portrayed in the series. It’s not a super important aspect of the show, but it definitely has an impact. Another issue is the possibility of colorism, as of the only three POC main characters (Simon Bassett aka the Duke of Hastings, Marina Thompson, and Lady Danbury,) two of them are lighter skinned with eurocentric features such as smaller noses. The show has also come under fire for its portrayal of toxic relationships, especially Daphne and Simon’s. It seems to romanticize them, even though it is clear they want very different things in life and some of their differences seem irreconcilable. On this topic, Simon is very clearly childless and never intends to have children because of a vow he made to his father. Daphne wants nothing more than to be a mother, and won’t let anything get in the way of that dream. However, by the end of the series, Simon is excited to have children and to be a father. This could present not wanting kids as something that can be changed with a conversation, when in reality it’s a lifestyle choice that could tear apart a relationship. Even with all the issues, I still really enjoyed this show and would recommend it, although there are some mature scenes that could be sensitive to some. It’s a beautifully made show, and escaping to a fictional world is something that many people need right now.

ARTS

01ÿ345617ÿ897 8 ÿ ÿ ÿ

ÿÿ 9 8ÿ 3 3ÿ 749 5&53 ÿ8ÿ ! ÿ " ÿ 3ÿ#554ÿ 3ÿ*59 $%3&8ÿ 371ÿ 56ÿ 68% '3& (ÿ$39 1ÿ )59ÿ 3ÿ3 ÿ +837 ÿ 5ÿÿ ÿ,ÿ-.ÿ/ ÿ ÿ0 ÿ 11 2 3 ÿ.4 5ÿ.4 ÿ3 / 56ÿ 78ÿ9 >%9!# ÿ 8W891578 5 (756ÿ 6 3 ÿ= ÿX5ÿ 45ÿ

! ÿ 8ÿ 4! $&%3( & 8)83 8 ÿ ÿY3Z Sÿ 63 ÿ #5! 7#ÿ 5ÿ #!W8ÿ 89ÿ

5&%8ÿ 5) ÿ 1ÿ 5 8 \5%4ÿ : 5ÿ(786ÿ]491ÿ &%837ÿ57%1^ÿ 837 ÿ ]457A ! ÿ68 ?=^ ÿ#8 ÿ

ÿÿ:! ÿ 8ÿ 6 5% 8ÿ69 &986ÿ 57ÿ 8ÿ"5';ÿ *5 ! 7#ÿ<37ÿ #5ÿ 57#=

>98ÿ15 ÿ# 1 ÿ 98ÿ ! ÿ! ÿ !&?

@81 5 9;ÿ457A ÿ15 ÿ " ÿ BCDEÿ 8@Fÿ 48& 593 ! 57 ÿ ) 9 5 ÿ 1ÿ GHIÿKLMHINOPÿQOMHPR

S ÿ:F* ÿ:TU*V ÿÿÿ

S ÿ:F* ÿ[FTX;ÿ[FTXÿ:957#

*8W89ÿ)839;ÿ 1ÿ &5! ÿÿ9348 = ÿ !

ÿ431ÿ 75 ÿ18 ÿ %5 =

ÿ ÿ !7 8 ÿ%3 89

Continued on page 22

ARTS | LITERARY

Shmoop’s Scoop Continued from page 21

ÿ 6ÿ ÿ 0ÿ23456ÿ7438ÿ893ÿ 3 2 ÿ69 ÿ! " ÿ

3 ÿ ÿ 6ÿ 2 ÿ 3 ÿ$96 69 ÿ ÿ ÿ 6#34 %! 6 ÿ

6 7

&'( )* + ÿ ÿ ,'ÿ -'ÿ .* / '

898ÿ 8 6ÿ ÿ : 5 ; ÿ 34 $36ÿ 69 ÿ ! " ÿ 46 2ÿ #3 ÿ < ( 03 ÿ4$ÿ 1 4ÿ 69 ÿ ÿ ! 46 6 3ÿ 2 4ÿ3 ÿ * 4 ÿ 5

05 ÿ "7 ÿ63ÿ9 ; ÿ " n 9ÿ 4ÿ 66 46 ; ÿ

2 4"

R9 47 ÿ4$ÿ S; 34 "3 634 $96 ÿ%#3 ÿ

= ÿ?@AB CÿDEFG EHEÿ IEJKLMNÿ @?C M@FFJÿ OGPAB Cÿ?LKEQ

TUVWÿWYZU[ÿ\]^^ÿ`abcÿ bdbeÿfghbÿgfbijklm

Lifeboat

crumbling

By Louisa Miller-Out

By Alice Burke

Sitting there One small ship Lost at sea

i feel like i’m a spring wound too tight

Lonely air Till you sat Next to me

i’m always sprinting but never move

Anywhere That you are I will be

so close to just falling to pieces

LITERARY

Judith Slaying Holofernes By Raia Gutman How had he wronged you? Had he spilt your blood or the blood of your sister with that same sword? How heavy and strong was he when he struggled against your firm and vengeant arms? Was it your sister’s idea or your own to spill his blood on the sheets, One holding the blade to his neck and one to drive it in? Or did you whisper over your weaving, picturing the scene between your minds again and again So the act itself was fluid as a dream? The sheet was torn and your dress ruined. Did you parade them before the town like a madwoman and take pride in the destruction? It would be a shame to retreat in dignity and be treated like a saint, When you are something much more powerful. The painter must have known you to paint you in combat. In the other paintings your eyes are averted from your victim, your victory, your triumph. Artemisia knows you better. She knows your arms are taut with muscle, Your skin is darkened by the sun, And your sister has felt the general’s big fist driving her back and pushed down still. She knows you wish your sister beside you had a name In the Scriptures, Perhaps you wish you were not in the Scriptures at all. You are more fit for the godless myths of colossal battles; You share the rage of Achilles. Caravaggio never met you. He knew nothing of the contortions of your face. He would have your nose wrinkled in disgust and remorse At your crime. Artemisia knows the general’s cries would not faze you, That the streams of blood that erupted from his butchered neck Could not weaken your hold on the sword. She knows you won your prizes and took them home together: The sword and the head, both dipped in blood. Caravaggio would have you leave the sword at the door And return to your weaving. The other painters know, at least, Your face was calm while you clutched him by his hair. But dressed in blood and rage, you had none of the beauty Of a portrait of a woman. You left your beauty at your dwelling And returned by candlelight With something much more powerful.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1620-21, oil on canvas, 162.5 x 199 cm From the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

LITERARY

Butterflies In Light By Jinho Park

Odilon Redon, Evocation Des Papillons From the Detroit Institute of Arts

Cerulean Butterfly by Joanna Charlotte

I’m quite fond of my physics classroom. It’s a large room. In a school full of cramped classrooms with ceilings so low that you can jump and touch them, people always notice how spacious this room is. The amount of space is liberating when we solve problems—ideas seem to leap and soar in every direction just like gas particles bouncing around unrestricted. Coming into the classroom, you’ll notice how all the walls are blackboards. Throughout the week, notes, formulas, and equations cover the walls, but every Monday, the chalky blackboards are washed to reveal their dark surfaces. You’ll also notice the lights on the ceiling. Instead of the flickering white lights that are in every other classroom, this classroom has amber lights that encase the entire classroom in a golden glow—the lights make the air in the classroom look viscous, like honey. Today, my teacher is giving a lecture about kinetic friction. I try to pay attention, but it’s frighteningly frigid in this classroom today—the heaters behind me are groaning to fight the cold air in vain. I’m shivering despite the warmth of my winter coat, and I’m pretending to follow along as my teacher solves a practice problem. I reach into my coat pocket. I find what I’m looking for—a blue butterfly encased in a resin disk the diameter of a tennis ball. I flip it back and forth a few times, admiring the butterfly inside. My physics teacher gave all of us one of these resin butterflies at the start of the year—she said she had a friend who put lots of butterflies in resin. My friends at the table smile at me and pull out their own butterflies, and we start sliding the resin disks around like hockey pucks on the smooth table. We take care not to drop the disks, because if the resin fell to the ground, it would shatter. At the end of her lecture, my teacher comes around, chides us for not paying attention, but turns our little game of butterfly hockey into a lesson about kinetic friction. She tells us that the table and resin disks are both smooth, and that little kinetic friction opposes their movement, allowing the disks to glide across the table. Then, she tells us that she has a surprise. As soon as we hear the word “surprise,” my friends and I stop sliding the resin disks around (my teacher likes to surprise us with tests). Seeing a classroom of panicked faces, she simply laughs and leaves the classroom. She’s gone for a while, and by the third minute of her absence, the classroom is roaring with conversation. When she comes back, she’s holding something draped in satin. She brings it over to an empty lab bench and pauses, waiting for dramatic effect. After a few seconds, she takes the satin off, revealing a mesh cage, and then opens it. At first, most of us in the back are squinting to see what’s in the cage. But after one moment, we see dozens of butterflies flooding out of the mesh cage into our classroom. The butterflies all look a bit different from one another—no two of them look like the same species. There are small butterflies whose wings are the size of a child’s pinky but there are also big butterflies whose wings would span an adult’s face. Some of

LITERARY

the butterflies have speckled wings with a rainbow of colors, but others are less colorful. I start noticing the individual colors I see: red (a deep ruby), blue (a light cerulean), orange (I know this one is a Monarch butterfly), white (an ivory butterfly you might see on a meadow of flowers). The butterflies flutter everywhere, landing briefly before taking flight again. It’s so weird to see butterflies perched on notebooks and backpacks, on thermometers and voltmeters, on pulleys and weights, on heads and hands. For around a minute, my entire classroom is in a true silence, appreciating the absurdity of the butterflies finding home in the familiar black walls of our classroom. Then, someone breaks the silence. My classmates start talking and getting out of their seats, admiring the butterflies as if they were in a botanical garden, not a physics classroom. As they talk, their breaths are suspended in the cold air, and as the butterflies move through these foggy clouds, it is as if they are a flock of birds flying through a cloudy sky. Despite this spectacle, I stay firmly rooted to my seat—the surreality of the situation has paralyzed me. A blue butterfly settles on my notebook. On the college-ruled paper, the butterfly’s colored wings (the black border blends into a cerulean center) look particularly vibrant. The butterfly then flutters on top of my resin disk—it stays there a while. I wonder whether it knows that the butterfly in resin cannot move. A quarter of an hour passes. One by one, the butterflies flit toward the ceiling. My blue butterfly is one of the last to go. The amber lights become tinted by the wings of the butterflies, casting flashes of color in every direction like a disco ball at a party. My classmates start asking each other why the butterflies went to the ceiling. After a few minutes of silly conjecture, a girl searches it up on their phone and explains that butterflies are positively photoreceptive—they like light. Now, the entire class is looking at the ceiling. The butterflies are huddled near the lights, and they’re moving less and less. On the ground, it feels like some strange party—everybody is huddled in their winter coats as a rainbow of color is scattered all throughout a physics classroom. Suddenly, the girl with the phone squeals and panics. Our class stops our silent observation of the butterflies to look at her. As she looks up and yells that the butterflies are going to die, the first butterfly drops. It’s white, and as it falls, its wings spread to slow its descent. It settles a few meters away from me, its white wings looking eerily like college-ruled paper on the black lab table. One by one, the butterflies fall. They flutter down just as leaves flutter down in the autumn. I lock my eyes on the cerulean wings of the butterfly who perched on my notebook. I find myself hoping it can hold on longer, that it can prevent its inevitable descent. Eventually, my cerulean butterfly, too, falls. As its wings are shrouded by the golden glow that pulsates from the amber lights, the cerulean butterfly is encased in resin. The cerulean butterfly settles motionless on my notebook next to its inanimate friend.

Forgettable Things By Lily Grover I love it when the snow falls slow and heavy So you can picture that time stands still And they’ll never touch the earth. I love it when a snail passes by Moving steady and slow With a trail that shimmers With all the colors of the rainbow. I love it when laundry is fresh from the dryer Smelling so clean and warm Never failing to make me want to sleep. I love it when someone laughs at a joke And genuinely thinks it is funny. I love it when a cup of tea is bitter and sweet With just the right amount of honey. I love it when a dog I’ve never met Looks perfectly content to prance and dance Happy and free. I love it when, early in Summer The grass has never been cut So it is so soft to step on. I love it when watermelon is crisp And cold And wonderfully refreshing. I love it when everything is quiet And filled with tranquility And when everything is loud And filled with laughter. I love all the little moments. The ones that can leave without you knowing. The ones that are so easy to forget. So I hold on to them tight While I still remember Each smell Each taste Each mundane Easy to forget Moment of perfection.

LITERARY

Limerick Contest Turnips This month’s winner:

By Lelia Shaffer There was an old woman who noted That the turnips upon which she doted Gave her stomach a grudge And the gas wouldn’t budge Yes, the woman was feeling quite bloated

Birthday Limerick

A Woman so Mean

By Anya Kramer

By Alex Jordan

On the sixth I became an adult Which should be a cause to exult But I spent the event Feeling quite discontent I’m so lonely I might join a cult

There once was a woman so mean Conspiracy and COVID Queen Jewish space laser And shooting erasure Marjorie Tatertot Greene

Living in Memory

Anniversary

By Caitlyn Strong

By Louisa Miller-Out

There is a young woman in the wood Her mind is so misunderstood She was frozen in time In a land quite sublime About to reenter her childhood.

A whole year with COVID-19 The death count is simply obscene Mask up, stay upbeat, Endure Google Meet Survive till you get the vaccine!

The Flying Skunk By Alice Burke There once was a skunk who could fly He thought he could reach for the sky He climbed up a tree And jumped with a wheee! But fell and then started to cry

PENULTIMATE

Surrealio By Ethan Carlson

March Sudoku February Solution

The Coolness Spectrum What is Your Favorite Greek Symbol? Perhaps This Horoscope Knows!

Cool April Fools edition of The Tattler!

Perseverance

By Ethan Carlson Pisces (Feb 19 - Mar 20): π (pi): You prefer to leave your job half finished.

Libra (Sep 23 - Oct 22): σ (lower case sigma): You like to deviate from the mean.

1C phase of vaccination

Aries (Mar 21 - Apr 19): 𝛕 (tau): You like stories to come full circle.

Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 21): ɑ (alpha): You may be small, but you always like to keep things positive.

School sports

Taurus (Apr 20 - May 20): ∑ (upper case sigma): You hate it when things just don’t add up. Gemini (May 21 - June 20): ϴ (theta): You need to see every problem from all angles. Cancer (June 21 - Jul 22): Δ (delta): You prefer change over tradition. Leo (Jul 23 - Aug 22): ɸ (phi): You love finding universal patterns, especially spirals. Virgo (Aug 23 - Sep 22): μ (mu): You’re just an average person.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21): β (beta): You gotta quit being so negative, man.

At-home gym no longer on Wednesdays

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19): ɣ (gamma): You think of yourself as a little ray of sunshine.

Turtleneck syndrome

Aquarius (Jan 20 - Feb 18): √ (square root): “But wait, that’s not a Greek symbol.” “I know! Isn’t that radical?”

Lockdown anniversary

Anti-Asian hate crimes

Biden continuing deportations

Uncool