Issue 6: April 23, 2021

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Vol. XCIX, No. 6

Palo Alto High School, 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301

PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL 50 EMBARCADERO RD. PALO ALTO, CA 94301 NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE

PAI D PALO ALTO PERMIT #44

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Students taking STEM AP Exams offered at-school option Bill Xia Staff Writer

Paly to hold in-person graduation ceremony

Paly administration has scheduled Advanced Placement testing for seven science, technology, engineering and math subjects in June if students wish to take the tests digitally.

AP testing times have been grouped into three administrations with the first administration starting in early May, the second in late May and the third in early June. Students can also take the test in-person earlier in the second administration.

The first plan the school introduced would have had Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Physics 1, Physics C: Mechanics, Physics C: E&M, Chemistry, and Statistics tests administered only in Administration Three, after the school year ends on June 9 and 10.

District officials said when they started planning for AP testing, they weren’t sure whether onsite facilities could accommodate inperson testing because of COVID-19 safety precautions, and Administration Three is the only time frame where the College Board offers online testing for these subjects.

However, some students raised concerns about the original plan and created a petition advocating

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ith Santa Clara County moving into the orange tier and vaccinations continuing to increase, many are wondering what the progress towards the end of the pandemic means for in-person senior celebrations.

ASB advisor Greer Stone said ASB and administrators have begun planning for an inperson graduation.

“It's looking optimistic that we're going to be able to have an in-person graduation,” Stone said.

Stone said that the graduation committee is in the early stages of planning, but the main issue is that whichever tier the county is in on graduation day will dictate the level of ceremony that Paly can hold this year.

“If we are in the orange tier, which is the tier we are currently in, we can only have a max of 33% of wherever we are hosting graduation,” Stone said. “If we are in the yellow tier, which seems to be a good chance for this given the direction things have been headed, we can have a maximum of 67% in the stadium. You can see the difference between orange and yellow is really huge when it comes to graduation.”

While most proposed in-person events have not been approved by the district yet, Stone said that an inperson graduation has been approved by both the district and the county.

“They have told us, at least as of right now, we're not able to really plan any other social events but graduation,” Stone said. “So at least I think that helps to go show the seriousness that the county and the district is putting on making sure that we have graduation this year.”

Stone said that along with an in-person graduation, this year’s senior class can expect a car parade as well.

“A car parade allows the entire Palo Alto community to be able to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduates where otherwise graduation is very much just a your-friends-and-family type of affair,” Stone said. “I think this is a really exciting opportunity to just create a new tradition where the whole community can come out and support graduates, so I'm hopeful we'll keep this going.”

Some major California Department of Public Health guidelines for commencement ceremonies include: fixed audience seating, limiting attendee groups to a single unit, wearing masks at all times as well as socially distancing at least six feet from other attendees other than household members and pre-screening for COVID-19 symptoms.

Stone said basic safety precautions such as wearing masks and cleaning stations with hand sanitizers will be a part of the precautions taken to ensure safety dur-

ing graduation, but more details still need to be worked on.

But Stone said after a meeting on April 22 with district leadership, other than graduation, only one other in-person event is allowed.

“Cap decorating for seniors got approved as long as we spread it out over the course of several days in order to keep the cap of students under 50 at a time,” Stone said. “We'll likely hold the event the week before graduation. Other events — movie night, drive-in movie, petting zoo, carnival, senior sunrise — all got a no.”

Stone said prom is also a no from the district.

Don Darby, the parent of a Paly senior, is a strong advocate for an in-person prom and said the district should be working with both students and parents to host COVID-safe events. Darby has contacted the principals of both high schools as well as Austin to lobby for a modified in-person prom.

“It can be done, clearly if other schools are doing it,” Darby said. “I think there's an opportunity for the district to continue to be leaders with running COVID-safe or allowing COVID-safe events to occur.”

Darby said that after the year seniors have had they need in-person events to celebrate, despite what the district says.

“That just doesn't seem to be the desire or energy (from the district),” Darby said “I said, in (an) email exchange, if you had a child who was a graduating senior who missed out on a lot over the past year, you'd be advocating for your child as well. For me that's what this is about.”

On April 22, Austin released a statement on Schoology in response to the influx of emails the district received regarding prom proposals.

“We are meeting with the Public Health Department later today for clarification regarding gatherings and events,” Austin said, in the statement. “Holding an in-person graduation this year is our focus. We will be cautious about anything that jeopardizes that opportunity.”

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INSIDE News. . . . . . . .A1-A4 Opinion. . . . . .A5-A7 Editorials. . . . . . . A8 Lifestyle. . . . . .B1-B3 Spotlight. . . . . B4-B5 Science&Tech. .B6-B8 Sports. . . . . . . C1-C4

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ASB Elections

Officers for 2021-22 school year elected PAGE A5

Lifestyle

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Senior Elimination

PAUSD seniors find a way to participate in this tradition safely.

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for more options. After further discussion, district officials adjusted the plan to create additional in-person testing options on May 24 and 25.

PTSA Director of Development, Leadership Circle and Community Charu Gupta said school officials have been working with parents and teachers to come up with a solution that provides more options and flexibility to students.

“The College Board decided to give schools some flexibility during the pandemics and they offered three date options," Gupta said. "The dates that were selected for June 9 and 10, after school ends, were the only dates for those six tests that would be offered online, hoping to give students the maximum flexibility to take those tests online. Most other exams are in the latter half of May. Music Theory and World History are all in-person.”

Most language tests will be taken early in the first administration. All other tests will be conducted in the second administration which will take place in the third and fourth weeks of May. For math and physics tests, there are some key differences between the online and in-person tests. Compared to the online version, the in-person test includes more free response questions than

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Starting April 27, Paly students will be able to return to campus four days a week for in-person Zoom from the classroom. Students will still be able to choose which days they prefer.

Principal Brent Kline said students will follow the same rules and regulations as before.

Senior Jenna Tetzlaff is planning on going back to school in-person four days a week once she gets the chance.

“I love how it opened up to four days a week because now I get to see my friends that are in the A-L group,” Tetzlaff said. “I now get to see more people and the classes don’t feel as empty.”

Tetzlaff said she is also excited because there will be more people to play Spikeball with on the Quad.

PAUSD elementary schools also opened for in-person school five days a week for students in grades 3-5 on April 19; those in grades K-2 will be given the option to do the same on April 26.

Palo Alto Educators Association President Teri Baldwin said the district made the decision after the CDC adjusted its social distancing guidelines for elementary schools to three feet.

Baldwin said the decision was not made in cooperation with the PAEA. “We knew it was probably going to happen, but we did not make that decision together,” Baldwin said. “Students and staff will need to wear masks at all times except when eating and teachers are still supposed to keep a six feet distance from students.”

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While the PAEA was not consulted, Superintendent Don Austin said principals have been working directly with their staffs in preparation for this change.

“The single biggest difference was the Public Health Department’s revised spacing rules,” Austin said. “Shifting to three (feet) opened the door for a full return.

We went through every room, including over break, to make sure they are ready.”

Austin also said that elementary schools could open with no distancing restrictions in the fall.

PAUSD parent Jenn Ibbotson, whose daughter goes to Addison and has been attending school in-person in a hybrid manner two to three days a week, said that her daughter was nervous about returning to school five days a week.

“I was worried it would be difficult for her to wear a mask for that long every day and that she no longer had the stamina to make it through that many days in a row in a school setting,” Ibbotson said. “Aside from these few worries I was excited for her. I knew she would love to have PE, music and library in-person and get more time with other kids in class and on the playground.”

Ibbotson also said that her daughter’s teacher has done a great job of adapting curriculum and activities in light of social distancing requirements.

“I am sure it's been challenging for teachers and administrators to come up with creative solutions in order to comply with all of the restrictions and still carry out collaborative work,” Ibbotson said. “I am very impressed with Addison’s principal and all the other teachers. It has been a great experience for Alice.”

Sports

JENNA HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

Asian-American Experience Slurs and Slander in Sports The Campanile discusses the history and impact of anti-Asian sentiments.

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How racism affects Paly athletes on and off the field.

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Friday, April 23, 2021

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Paly, Gunn host joint online career month

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aly and Gunn Career Month concluded on March 31 after running virtually for the second time, and was held from March 19 to March 31 for both Paly and Gunn students. A speaker series and a job fair were among the events offered.

By offering both a speaker series and a job fair, Work Experience teacher Rachel Kaci, who helped organize the event, said she hoped to expose high schoolers to career options.

“Career month is to get students thinking about opportunities they have beyond high school or a four-year college,” Kaci said.

The program began with a week of speakers from fields including management and politics, headlined by keynote speaker Florian Riedel, general manager of the Palo Alto Four Seasons. The speakers created a video detailing their career path and accomplishments, then participated in a live Q&A with interested students over Zoom.

Paly junior Khushi Agarwal, who serves on the student-run Career Speaker Committee, said the speaker series is a great way for students to not only learn about career opportunities, but also build connections.

“Students get to speak to professionals in fields they might want to pursue,” Agarwal said. “And they have an easy way to contact and get to know professionals.”

Gunn sophomore Kaylee Wong agreed that the speaker series could serve as a way to build connections in a field.

“I could definitely reach out to a speaker,” Wong said. “They were very open about how to make connections and get involved.”

Wong also said she attended the event for Alys Spensley, a US foreign service officer, and it made her interested in foreign service as a career. “(Spensley) made it seem really fun, and the opportunity to move around a lot and try new things seemed really cool,” Wong said.

Kaci said the online format helped students build connections compared to the previous large group, in-person format, because students and speakers could talk more personally.

“Even though it’s all virtual, it feels like the connections are easier to build upon,” Kaci said.

The virtual events also had a higher attendance compared to previous years, Agarwal said.

Following the speaker series, the month concluded with a job fair on March 30. At lunch, companies looking to hire high schoolers met with students in breakout rooms.

Jefunira Summer Camp, represented by Director Jeff Gamble, hoped to promote awareness about the job opportunities with their organization.

“We only hire people who have graduated high school, but we wanted people to start thinking about us for when they do graduate,” Gamble said.

Gamble said he felt it was harder to make connections online.

“There are features of virtual job fairs that make them more efficient, because I don’t have to travel,” Gamble said. “But there’s something that’s lost when the exchange is through the computer.”

However, he said said he was impressed with the turnout he got.

“I thought it was fabulously successful,” Gamble said. “Usually at these events, if we talk to two or three people, we consider it a success, but we had five times that.”

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multiple choice questions.

“To do the special notation for calculus online tests, instead of writing those notations using pencil and paper, you would have to do so using a keyboard,” Gupta said. “The online exams wouldn’t allow you to move back and forth in the exam, while some students would like to look ahead or backward during the person exams.”

According to Gupta, she’s excited administrators listened to feedback from students and parents and made these scheduling changes. “(There have) been lots of emails and dialogue back and forth,” Gupta said. “I don’t know if there was any kind of town hall or anything like that, but I know that parents have been communicating with the district.”

Junior Anisha Gandhi organized a petition calling for the school to accommodate in-person testing, gathering over 150 signatures, and said a big part of his motivation was the difficulties online testing present to students.

“Whenever I take my school tests online, I can always hear my family talking in the background and it can be distracting,” Gandhi said.

“You’re just not as focused on anything because there are so many distractions in your house.”

In response to this petition and criticism from students and parents, Paly administrators surveyed students about their preferred means of testing. The data from this survey showed the school could, in fact, accommodate in-person testing.

“The College Board requires five feet of spacing, and we could still get away with the six feet of spacing based on these numbers,” Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson said.

“The gym normally holds 180 students. So we’re talking about 110 students right now.

There won’t be an issue as long as things don’t change.”

The current plan is as student-friendly as possible, Berkson said. But it does complicate things.

“This definitely increases the complexity in terms of logistics,” Berkson said. “For example, some tests will be taking place during the senior finals, so we need to make some adjustments there, which usually wouldn’t happen in past years. For seniors, we avoid anything in the graduation week.”

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While the majority of PAUSD middle and high school students say the amount of homework they get is “just right,” more Paly students than Gunn students say they receive too much homework. Why that is and what can be done about it was a topic officials discussed at the April 20 school board meeting. They looked at results taken from the Panorama Social-Emotional Learning Survey that asked secondary students about homework habits in addition to asking questions about emotional control and having race-related conversations.

Associate Superintendent Sharon Ofek said the district will commit to working with teachers to make sure they are adhering to the board’s home-

work policy. That policy says ninth graders should receive a maximum of 90 minutes of homework per night; 10th graders a maximum of 100 minutes per night; 11th graders a maximum of 110 minutes per night; and 12th graders a maximum of 120 minutes per night. The board policy also allows flexibility in homework load for students taking AP and honors classes.

“The Panorama platform permits school sites to drill down into data such that they can do an analysis of the students who reported that they spend time on homework that goes beyond the hours specified in the administrative regulation that accompanies the board policy,” Ofek said.

“And that, ultimately, will help to determine some root causes.”

Following Ofek’s presentation, board members Ken Dauber, Jennifer DiBrienza

PANORAMA SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING SURVEY

and Jesse Ladomirak all expressed concern about the number of high schoolers at both Paly and Gunn who said they did more than three hours of homework per night.

They also want more administrative action to get those numbers down to board policy “There is a culture of trying to push for more APs or more weighted classes or this or

that — and with that comes (these statistics)” DiBrienza said. “Obviously we still have more work to do … And I am hopeful that (laying out goals) will make a big difference.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

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News A3 Churchill crossing designs bring mixed emotions Charlotte Hallenbeck Staff Writer

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n response to the planned electrification of Caltrain, the Expanded Community Advisory Panel is recommending building an underground tunnel for bikes and pedestrians and closing Churchill Road at Alma Street to vehicles.

The panel, known as XCAP, is a group of nine Palo Alto residents who evaluate the information regarding grade separations –– when roads and railways cross at different heights –– and provide informed recommendations to the Palo Alto City Council.

After comparing three different closure options for the Churchill grade crossing, XCAP decided in a 6-3 vote to recommend Closure with Mitigations to the City Council. Closure with Mitigations would close the Churchill-Alma crossing to vehicular traffic while remaining open to bikes and pedestrians by way of a tunnel, and would include traffic mitigations designed by Los Angeles based traffic consultant Aecom that address the intersections on Embarcadero, Page Mill and Oregon Expressway.

“The idea is that in 10 years when these things get built, Caltrain will already be running a schedule, and it’s important to make sure that we have those grade separations,” XCAP chair and Palo Alto resident Nadia Naik said. “And, of course, for safety — because it’s really not great having everybody driving over the train tracks.”

Within the Closure with Mitigations proposal, two closure options exist that illustrate different models for an undercrossing. The first option would require individuals to cross Alma before entering the tunnel, while the second option has a tunnel running under both Alma and the train tracks.

XCAP voted for the second option in a 7-0 vote with two abstentions.

Naik said change is needed at the Churchill grade crossing because there will be an increase in the number of trains being run after the electrification of Caltrain. More congestion is predicted at the Churchill and Alma intersection with this increase in trains, especially during rush hour.

“Imagine if 16 times between 5 and 6 p.m., the gates come down,” Naik said. “What ends up happening over time is that the traffic signal and the train — which has what is called preemption — gets to go first, and the cars

have to wait. But when you do that so often, at some point the cars are not going to be able to go through, and backups will be so bad that we’ll get gridlock.”

According to XCAP’s final report, the majority opinion voted for Closure with Mitigations because they saw it as the cheapest and least destructive option. The minority opinion, which included Naik, is concerned the mitigations won’t be adequate after closing the Churchill intersection.

“There are still other things in question,” Naik said. “If we’re going to be building something that’s going to survive for 100 years, we really need to look carefully because these are also incredibly expensive.”

XCAP’s recommendation has resulted in both positive and negative reactions from the community. Junior Isabella Jones supports XCAP’s proposal, despite driving over the train tracks at Churchill two to four times a day.

“I don’t think it would affect (my drive to school) at all,” Jones said. “I think it’s pretty beneficial because it’s really dangerous for the bikers at the moment.”

Jones said the addition of a tunnel for bikers and pedestrians will make everyone’s commute to school safer because cars currently have to weave through the bike masses crossing Alma on Churchill every morning and afternoon.

Principal Brent Kline, though, does not support XCAP’s recommendation because he said it lowers the number of access points to Paly. He said there should be a way for the Churchill grade crossing to remain open to cars.

“Closing Churchill will increase the traffic flow on Embarcadero and give us just one road for us to get in and out of (Paly), except for on El Camino,” Kline said. “I think it has a bigger impact than they realize.”

Kline also said the Paly community should have a voice in the planning of the grade crossing, considering it adjoins the campus. He fears the recommended changes even with the mitigations in place.

“Because it’s in close proximity to our school, it’s a great conversation to have with more students and even staff so that we can understand the impact and maybe provide some of our thinking,” Kline said.

In accordance with Kline’s statement, one of XCAP’s specific recommendations to the city council is to get formal feedback from Palo Alto Unified School District.

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“They need to be involved,” Naik said. “As much as possible, it would be good for the school to be involved in designing it because we might have suggestions, but students will have other ideas that we, as non-student bike riders, may not have.”

Beyond the Paly community, Closure with Mitigations will also affect Southgate residents because of their proximity to the crossing. Southgate resident Susan Newman is against the closing of Churchill crossing and has vocalized her concerns by attending all the recent XCAP meetings. She also is part of an unofficial group of Palo Alto residents who are against the closure and have made lawn signs reading “Keep Churchill Open.”

“There are reasons from (inside) our local neighborhood and out,” Newman said.

“In Southgate, if they close Churchill, I will have to reroute 95% of my trips out of the neighborhood because almost all of them go down Churchill and on to Alma.”

Newman said Southgate is a centrally located neighborhood that has a protected feel to it because there are only two points of entry.

By prohibiting cars from crossing the train tracks at Churchill, Newman said the neighborhood experience is going to change.

“We have older folks who’ve been in Southgate for a long time, and as they retire, move out and pass away, you get this influx of young families,” Newman said. “There are people of all ages in the neighborhood which is nice, and we worry that the younger folks, who have their kids and their two jobs, are not going to want to live here because it’ll be too hard to get around and they won’t be able to, for example, get down to Walter Hays.”

Even though XCAP has already made its recommendation to the City Council, the proposal is still subject to change. Numerous people including engineers, architects, Palo Alto residents and Caltrain representatives will discuss the plans for the grade crossing’s future, and Naik said the final decision will take at least 10-15 years due to the multi-step process required for approval.

IMAGES BY AECOM

Three different plans discussed by XCAP for Churchill crossing: partial underpass (top), closure with mitigations (middle) and viaduct (bottom).

As residents of Palo Alto, Naik says now is the time to speak up if people have concerns about the proposal or want to support XCAP’s recommendations.

“Anything that’s designed with the people who live in the city — actually being a part of it — is going to be better,” Naik said. “There’s a particular value to (receiving input from) the people who live here.”

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Following its advancement to the orange tier of the governor’s reopening plan on March 23, PAUSD began offering the option of in-person schooling to all secondary students, and many other Bay Area schools have since followed suit.

Mountain View High School board member Fiona Walter said her district’s approach to reopening on April 19 aims to safely bring students back to campus after being in a yearlong hiatus.

“MVLA is currently open in a stable group model where students anchor in one room for the day and have breaks (and) lunch on campus to see friends, get out of their own houses and start back to some normalcy after a year away from campus,” Walter said. “Each grade level has

one day a week. A small portion of our teachers are voluntarily back on campus, but still teaching on Zoom.”

Walter continues by adding that the reopening plans has been going well.

“From both observations and direct reports, these groups seem to be going well,” Walter said. “Our goal was to address some of the mental health issues our students face from this year of learning in isolation. The smiles, laughs and visible relief on students’ faces is really encouraging.”

Walter said the number of students who opted to resume in-person learning met the board’s expectations.

“As was anticipated, this model didn’t work for everyone, and some students opted not to return after trying it for a day,” Walter said. “Others received positive feedback from friends, and as a result we’ve ART BY GINA BAE been receiving phone calls asking about another round of sign ups.

Percentage-wise, attendance varies across the grade levels with a maximum of about 20% of the freshman returning and fewer

of the seniors back on campus.”

Walter said the practical aspects of the reopening plan have gone well and students have been following protocol as instructed. She said having some students piloting in-person learning before a full return has helped school administration find and address unforeseen issues.

Jerry Liu, the President of the Board of Education at the Cupertino Union School District, said his district will begin offering a hybrid plan on April 5.

“The week of April 5 is a transition period with students on campus for up to two-and-a-half hours for two days a week — students are divided into A (and) B cohorts with Wednesdays being asynchronous learning days,” Liu said. “April 12 is spring break for us, and April 19 we move into the regular hybrid schedule.”

Liu said he expects 50% of students to return to campus with the numbers being different for high school, middle school and elementary schools. Like PAUSD, Cupertino has enacted safety protocols based on the CDC guidelines to keep students and staff safe and minimize the spread of COVID-19 on campus.

Superintendent Don Austin said PAUSD’s secondary schools reopening has been generally well-received by students and staff, which he says was the main goal. Like Walter, Austin said PAUSD officials anticipated the low attendance rate.

“I don’t get daily attendance reports, but it sounds like we are between 20-30% in-person each day,” Austin said. “That is about what I expected. I think it will grow after spring break.

It’s not a competition, and we are happy that students who want to return to be around people have that option.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

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News

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ART BY BRADEN LEUNG

Exploring other paths

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ommunity College Week — an annual opportunity for students to learn about the non-university options for higher education — kicked off on April 12. Students could attend Zoom workshops each day except for Tuesday, which was dedicated to asynchronous virtual tours.

“We’ll be talking about everything that has to do with community colleges,” College and Career Center Counselor Crystal Laguna said. “All the things that you can do there, all the different pathways for students, a workshop specifically for the transfer process because it’s one of the most popular items. We’ll also have an application workshop, and we’ll hear from Paly alumni who are at community colleges and what their experiences have been.”

Paly class of 2019 graduate Carlos Diaz said Community College Week helped, him when he was at Paly, to make the decision to attend community college.

“Community college was always in the back of my mind, but I think the counselors did a great job of presenting me with my options,” Diaz said. “They’re so busy with like 2000 kids. It’s crazy that they could take time out of their day to help me.”

Diaz said community college helped him focus more on academics.

“In high school, I wasn’t doing the extra things I needed to do, such as utilizing tutorials,” Diaz said. “I was playing soccer, and I was on the cross country team and the track team, and we had school, and then I had a two and a half hour practice after. Still being here in Palo Alto (has) been nice, because it’s not different but, without the sports, I feel like it’s just easier to focus and

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time manage because now I have much more time. It’s been nice just to reflect on that.”

Foothill Community College Transfer Counselor Cleve Freeman said many transfer options are available to community college students.

These include the Transfer Admission Guarantee option, which guarantees admissions into some UCs; the Associate Degree for Transfer program, which guarantees admission into CSUs and HBCUs and the Western Undergraduate Exchange program, which reduces tuition at out-of-state schools.

“Students can see transferring as a second chance to get into schools they didn’t get into before or as an option to save money,” Freeman said.

Freeman said there are other reasons for students to go to community college.

“Community college can help students who don’t feel they’re ready to leave home yet, or don’t know what careers they want to pursue,” Freeman said. “Community college counselors can help them find what they want, and they don’t have to spend a lot of money at a university instead.”

Community colleges also offer associate’s degree programs, which help students learn vocational skills to pursue such careers as electrician, plumber and mechanic.

Applying from community college can also increase a student’s chances of being accepted to CSUs and UCs. “Let’s say there are 100 California community college students that apply to a UC and there are 1000 high school students that apply to it,” Freeman said.

“The universities might say, ‘You know what? We are going to accept 55 out of those 100 California community college students.’ And then from the 1000 high school students, they might say, ‘You know what?

We’re going to accept maybe 500 students’.”

Laguna said every student should be aware of all the options available to them, including all of the programs that come with community college.

“I’ve noticed that there’s been an increase in students interested in community college,” Laguna said.

“This could be for different reasons, whether that be that they’re not ready to go to a four-year for financial reasons, or because they may not know what they want to do. It’s just important for students to know all these different pathways that are available to them to reach a level of success.”

Freeman also said it’s important to eliminate the stigma of community college.

“I hear things from students and parents where they say community college is not a good option,” Freeman said. “I really want to challenge that stereotype and say it’s for anybody that’s interested. I think it’s a great opportunity to learn and grow and to meet people. I have met California community college students that have been admitted to Ivy league (schools and) Stanford. I just wish that there was a way that I could break the myth that community college is only for a certain student. I think it’s for everyone that’s interested and it’s a great place to learn and grow.”

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!"#$%&'()"*+,)%-.."(/%01&1(&"+)%"(%2'3(%1(*%!'4(#,$%0"..1/+%3"#5%6+*"&1.%'7&+)% Ali Minhas Staff Writer

Once full of people and stores, Town & Country Village now has a 20 percent vacancy rate and far fewer visitors than before COVID-19. Due to the pandemic, stores such as Mayfield Bakery, Village Cheese House and GNC have all shut down.

In light of this, Ellis Partners, the owners of the Town & Country property, proposed allowing medical offices in the vacant spots in order to increase foot-traffic at the open-air mall, a proposal Palo Alto Rugs and Art Gallery employee Hamed Bahroni said will help increase business.

“I think that while having medical offices

can cramp the style of Town and Country, as long as you have more traffic and the medical offices can help others, I think it will work,” Bahroni said.

City Council member Greg Tanaka also supports the proposal. Tanaka said COVID-19 has hit retailers hard, and the idea of medical offices near shops would give customers a better experience.

“My daughter has braces, so maybe when I take her to get her braces checked out, I can go out to get a smoothie or I could go and look at the bookstore while I wait for her,” Tanaka said “The version right now, her orthodontist is on El Camino, so when I go there I just sit in the waiting room.”

However, enough council members, including ASB Director Greer Stone opposed Ellis

Partners’ plan. Stone said that the main reason Town & Country is suffering is COVID-19.

Once more people are vaccinated, business will resume as usual, he said, so having medical offices is not necessary. The plan has been sent back to the planning commision for further review.

“I am absolutely against medical offices on the ground floor of Town and Country,” Stone said. “It harms our retail. I don’t think it’s appropriate. There are many places around the city where medical

is allowed ... there is Palo Alto Medical Foundation right across the street, Stanford Medical a few blocks away.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

A5

News

New ASB officers elected for 2021-22 school year !"#$%&"'()*+,*-.&("/01#./('%)1&$(*2234-0"#*2(%2%)"-1&((

ART BY BRADEN LEUNG

!"#$%&'%(&')$*+&$ ,(-%.)$(,/010/0') Braden Leung Staff Writer

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COLLAGE BY AJAY VENKATRAMAN

Left to right: President Johannah Seah, Vice President Ashley Meyer, Treasurer Vivian Trach, incoming Class Presidents: senior Mathew Signorello-Katz, junior Ashley Hung and sophomore Shamsheer Singh, and incoming Class Vice Presidents senior Joy Xu, junior Ines Legrand,and sophomore Sophia Kim.

N

ine Associated Student Body officers have been elected

by Paly students for the 2021-22 school year after Paly’s second all-virtual election process, which ran from April

14-16.

Voting, which took place digitally through the polling app TallySpace, allowed students to choose between 18 candidates running for both schoolwide and individual class leadership positions.

Those elected include new President Johannah Seah, Vice President Ashley Meyer, Treasurer Vivian Trach, new class presidents senior Mathew Signorello-Katz, junior Ashley Hung and sophomore Shamsheer Singh, and new class vice presidents senior Joy Xu, junior Ines Legrand and sophomore Sophia Kim. These members will take over responsibility from current ASB officers at the start of the new school year. Freshman class officers will be elected in the first few weeks of the new school year.

ASB Coordinator Greer Stone said the position of ASB Secretary remains unfilled because of a lack of candidates. ASB plans to hold further events to fill this position.

“We’re planning a follow up election for it,” Stone said. “We will open up the position to candidates who did not win their race and also promote the position to more students.”

Stone said that these follow-up elections will take place during the week of April 26, before which ASB will offer applications for the position via Schoology.

In the weeks leading up to the election, candidates went through a virtual version of the campaign process, consisting mainly of social media based campaigning. Each candidate also released a short virtual speech prior to the elections through ASB’s YouTube channel.

Stone said ASB limited campaign efforts to online mediums to ensure candidates would have an equal opportunity to reach students.

“We didn’t want to disadvantage students who chose not to come to campus for school, so we asked students not to campaign in person,” Stone said. “We also reduced the budget for campaign materials to zero because students no longer need to do things like making campaign posters.”

Stone said the candidates’ adjusted effort led to a decent voter turnout.

“For our school-wide ASB positions, we had around 900

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students vote, which is nearly 50% of the student population,” Stone said. “It’s great to see so many students taking the opportunity to participate in their student government.”

Seah said in her recorded campaign speech that her goals for the coming year include addressing campus issues such as planning for reopening and increasing Title IX education. “(A goal is to) coordinate bonding events, if permitted, for Paly students’ transition back to in-person learning,” Seah said.”I’ll make it a priority to implement a student taskforce to ensure education regarding Title IX and consent … and a safe campus for all students.”

Seah also said she wants to establish strong transparency and accountability by introducing an ASB Calendar which she said will streamline ASB’s communication and publication of its proceedings.

Signorello-Katz said he also hopes to help organize in-person activities throughout the coming school year.

“A cardinal focus will be reestablishing bonding activities and making up for lost time last year,” Signorello-Katz said.

Signorello-Katz, who also served on ASB this year as junior class president, said he hopes more in-person events will help bring the student body together.

“The efficacy of virtual bonding events typically isn’t at the same level, and we’ve had lower turnout than we could at some of these events,” Signorello-Katz said.

“One of the biggest challenges next year will be rekindling a sense of community since people have been deprived of that for a whole year.”

Meyer and Trach both expressed similar goals in their campaign speeches, as both plan to focus on organizing more events such as Cookies on the Quad and school dances once permitted.

Stone agrees that planAN ning in person events will AM TR KA be important for the new EN V JAY year.

YA TB AR “It really depends where we’re at with the pandemic, but my hope is that we’re going to be able to provide a special, fun year,” Stone said.

Stone also said he looks forward to seeing the new ASB team start next fall.

“These students should understand the great honor that comes with these roles,” Stone said. “Let’s be optimistic for a busy but fun year.”

Ajay Venkatraman Online Editor

With the return to in-person high school learning, ASB officers are looking forward to planning on-campus activities since the online ones didn’t go as well as hoped, senior and Sports Commissioner Sophia Dalby said.

“There’s things on Zoom, but we didn’t get a ton of participation,” Dalby said. “Everything really differs with kids being at home. It’s really hard to plan so that everyone can participate. It’s understandable, considering kids don’t really want to be on their computers more after a long school day to either join a Zoom or do movie night or Kahoot or whatever event we had planned.”

Before the in-person return ASB had on-campus activities for the cohort of students who were on campus, including Frisbee golf, badminton and Cookies on the Quad. Junior and ASB Secretary Yubin Zhang said now that all students can return to campus, the activities list has expanded to include ping-pong, football and soccer.

Zhang said Cookies on the Quad is both the students’ and staff ’s favorite activity.

“People would love to get a cookie,” Zhang said. “And also the staff. Staff members would walk out during lunch, and they would see cookies on the quad, and they really enjoyed getting cookies too.”

The move to the orange tier allows for even more activities, Zhang said.

“Orange tier is not that much different from red tier, but you can have more contact activities, like capture the flag,” Zhang said.

Regardless of the activity, Dalby said ASB prioritizes giving all students — both in-person and at home — the opportunity to participate in activities.

“Equity is just trying to give all kids the same chance,” Dalby said. “We want all kids to be on the same playing field with being at home and on campus.

We’re trying to make events where everyone can participate. We’re doing contests where everyone can win and has the same fair chance of winning. So there’s a lot of issues surrounding kids on campus and not on campus when we’re doing events and contests and tournaments.”

Dalby said she is excited that ASB activities are back on-campus.

“This past year has been really tough,” Dalby said. “We’ve not been able to do much. It’s what we’ve planned for. So it was a little disappointing, but I’m really looking forward to the future for this last quarter.”

10',&%2%&'(-&#%&"("#3*%-&4

The ASB election process has begun and includes candidates getting signatures from students and teachers, filming a two-minute video and releasing a written statement to the student body.

Voting for ASB officers began April 14.

Senior and ASB Treasurer Cindy Liu said elections — and following ASB’s strict campaign rules — can be stressful but also fun.

“My first year, it was definitely really stressful,” Liu said. “It’s a lot of competition. For me, my second year I was unopposed. So that was much more fun and lowkey than my first year. (My first year) was definitely pretty nervous for me because I ran against someone who was like a year older.”

Liu said the main parts of her campaign the last two years were on-campus posters and Instagram DMs. Because of COVID-19 and concerns over equity, ASB candidates were not able to campaign on campus last year and will not be able to this year. Liu said this lowered the stress level of the election last year.

“The DM-ing aspect didn’t really change,” Liu said. “I still talked to people so that they would help me publicize.

But obviously without the physical flyers, it’s kinda missing a large component.

I feel like overall without the posters, there is not as much of that competitive vibe; when it’s online, it feels quite different, and it feels a lot more relaxed.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Opinion

A6

Expanded AP testing options beneficial !"##$%&'()*+,-"".*/0"1'+*'"*21"3&4/* "22"1'$%&'&/+*5"1*'67&%8*'/+'+*/61.(*-/.2+*+'$4/%'+

ART BY GINA BAE

Gina Bae

Multimedia Editor

Partially due to the efforts of PAUSD students and parents, the Paly administration has made praiseworthy changes to its plans for AP testing to better accommodate student needs.

Amid the chaos the American education system faced last year during the abrupt switch to virtual learning at the start of the pandemic, one of the most prominent challenges for high school students was the 2020 AP exams.

For most of the month of May, students flooded social media with videos of themselves sobbing as they frantically clicked on the submit button for AP tests to no avail, cracking jokes about cheating with the help of Vaseline-tinted glasses or look-alike siblings or giving up on tests and submitting unrelated photos.

These teens were a small portion of the group of approximately 10,000 students who reported experiencing technical difficulties submitting their 2020 AP tests, according to USA Today.

This year, the College Board decided to make some changes to accommodate students taking the 2021 exams.

In addition to not charging

exam cancellation fees and preventing students from going back-and-forth between questions, it also added live online review sessions for academic support and, in order to prevent technical issues, a testing application that doesn’t require a continuous wifi connection.

Most importantly, the College Board established three waves of testing: Administration 1 (May 3–7, 10–12, 14, and 17) for those taking traditional inperson tests, Administration 2 (May 18–21, 24–28) with an equal number of in-person and digital tests and Administration 3 ( June 1–4, 7–11) for mostly digital tests.

The PAUSD administration initially released a plan that forced Paly students in Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Physics 1, Physics C: Mechanics, Physics C: E&M, Chemistry, and Statistics to take exams digitally during Administration 3.

This sparked outrage from community members who, while acknowledging digital exams were easier for the

school to administer, thought Paly administrators should have offered all three testing dates to every student and then allowed students to choose their test formats and dates.

Paly students and parents alike expressed their support for this through junior Anisha Gupta’s change.org petition.

After reflecting on feedback from students and parents and the results of a survey Paly Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson and Gunn Assistant Principal Harvey Newland sent to PAUSD AP students, student demand for in-person exams led the district to reassess its ability to provide space to accommodate those who prefer in-person tests. This change of heart resulted in the addition of more in-person exams in Administration 2 for subjects initially part of Administration 3.

This updated decision is beneficial to students who were originally inconvenienced by June exams which extended their period of test anxiety and resulted in

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schedule conflicts related to summer camps or other previously scheduled events that overlap with Administration 3 testing.

Not only do the additional tests offer more convenience for students, but the flexibility in format also benefits those who might find a test format more compatible with their learning style.

For instance, students who take digital exams will not have the option of moving between questions. They will also not have the option of taking the exam on a smartphone, and some digital exams will have a different format than in-person tests because the College Board prevents students from submitting handwritten work on digital tests. Digital exams can also be an equity issue for low-income students and students with disabilities. Offering options for in-person exams accommodates these students’ different circumstances.

Students worldwide have had to make major adaptations in their lifestyles because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I thank the Paly administration for listening to community voices and making our lives a little easier by adding testing options, and I thank the PAUSD student body and its parents for their efforts to bring about this change.

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Board Correspondent

ART BY GIANNA BROGLEY

The idea that mental health is just as important as physical health has been extensively studied and proven true. Some states and school districts have recognized this by allowing students to be excused from school for mental health reasons just as they are for physical reasons.

But while PAUSD has taken steps to provide mental health resources for students, including establishing counseling services and a Wellness Center, it has yet to take the additional step of allowing students to take excused days off for mental health reasons. PAUSD should take this step, and in doing so will help destigmatize mental health by treating it as on par with physical health.

Under Education Code 48205 and Administrative Regulation 5113, PAUSD follows California law by allowing excused absences for student illness or health appointments.

Although California law clarifies that “health appointments” includes mental health appointments, it is unclear whether mental health falls under the category of excused “student illness.”

Director of Student Services Jason Krolikowski said although district officials might be interested in discussing the idea of mental health days, calling in an absence for that reason results in an unexcused absence.

However, he also said he sees value in establishing mental health days to help destigmatize mental health issues and allow students to advocate for their own needs.

PAUSD should make this change, and it can start by examining what other districts who have adopted this policy have done.

The Sacramento City Unified School District and the Poway Unified School District are both districts that successfully moved to establish excused mental health days. Isa Sheikh, the student board member who championed the proposal for SCUSD, said making this change starts with the superintendent creating a board policy clarifying the definition of absences for “health reasons.”

From there, the board of education votes to approve or not approve the policy. I urge our superintendent and school board to follow suit.

Gunn student board representative Thomas Li said the positive impacts of establishing

mental health days was part of what motivated him to bring up the idea at PAUSD’s March 9 board meeting. He said he thinks creating excused mental health days would add another layer to the three-tiered mental health support system PAUSD offers.

And although it is inevitable that some students will take advantage of these days, whatever students choose to do during their time away from school will likely benefit their mental health.

Students should urge the superintendent and board of education to explore this idea by speaking during open session at school board meetings or by reaching out to their Paly student board representative senior Medha Atla.

We are living in a time where physical health is prioritized more than ever, and mental health should be too. Many students have less opportunity to access their normal support systems such as friends and extended family members during the COVID-19 shelter-inplace, and establishing mental health days allows students to take care of their mental health just like they have always been allowed to take care of their physical health.

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Opinion

A7

PHOTO BY BEN ANTONOW

An RV sits on the Stanford side of El Camino Real. Because some students have to go to school in situations such as this, PAUSD and Palo Alto need to use some of their available space, including Cubberley Community Center, to help.

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BY HYUNAH ROH

Staying home has its benefits ART

!"#"$%&&'"#()*+,#-&#.)&/),0#-%)#$%&+$)#.)12+,"#')*+-+12-) Hyunah Roh

Senior Staff Writer

O

ver a year ago, Paly’s campus closed down and classrooms gathered dust as students were instructed to shelter in place. Now, students are back on campus, but with the on-campus guidelines calling for wearing masks, social distancing at all times, a limited number of students being allowed in each class and plexiglass dividers at every desk.

I was a second-semester junior when we first went into shelter-in-place, and I had worked hard to start all my classes with good grades since I was not satisfied with my first semester performance.

While I was building up momentum to keep my grades up, the school closed and suddenly all school work became optional and — eventually — grades became pass/fail. I was disappointed to know my hard work from the beginning of the second semester would not be included in my transcript, which is crucial for college applications.

Fast forward to August 2020, and I didn’t feel like a senior because I was still home and on my computer all day. It was unfortunate the class of 2021 had to miss out on important events as seniors such as showing up on the first day of school wearing camo pants and ruling the senior deck, spirit week and homecoming. While some students immediately attended in-person school when campus officially opened on March 9, I was hesitant and decided to stay home and continue school through Zoom for a multitude of reasons.

!"#$%$&'($)*%*(+$%+,),-$+$)* Despite losing campus life, staying home for online school allows me to become better at managing my time.

Since classes are on Zoom, my only commute is from my bed to my desk and then my desk to the kitchen during lunch.

This shortened commute gives me extra time before school and between periods, which I could use for self-care, eating and homework.

Throughout the year, more teachers allowed students to log off of Zoom before the class period ended so they could get a break from the computers and also work independently. This gives me 20-40 minutes between classes where I could do anything, so I began to utilize this time efficiently by either catching up on any work or studying for the next period.

Although I sometimes got off task and distracted at home, I pushed myself to use my time efficiently because I realized my focus was a lot better compared to in the evening, since I was still in the mindset of being in class.

I was able to be productive during the times because I was also alone in my quiet room rather than a noisy classroom with other students. If I were back on campus now, I could not maintain this rhythm of utilizing short periods of extra time since I would need to walk to my next class, and I would get inevitably distracted by my peers.

Especially as a senior, I believe I have benefited from developing this skill because, once I go to college, I will take different courses at different times of the day and need to make a schedule and follow it.

.,/($#%*"%0$12%3,+(14 Before Paly opened its campus to students, some businesses and companies allowed their employees to work in person again. Many parents returned to their offices and could no longer care for younger children who may need supervision at home.

If students have younger siblings, they can help their family by attending school at home while caring for siblings during breaks, between classes and immediately after school. Similarly, if students are living with their grandparents, they can assist them while staying home while their parents are at work and lower their risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 to their more at-risk grandparents.

>$**$#%1$,#)()-%$)?(#")+$)* During the past year of sheltering in place, many students may have developed

social anxiety, resulting in a more difficult transition to suddenly being back on campus. These students feel more comfortable staying home so they do not get overwhelmed and worry that others will judge them.

For students who already had social phobia, the transition made from inperson to online school makes it easier for them to interact with their peers through Zoom — a change that could help them perform better academically.

According to the ASU Prep article “Can Students With Social Anxiety Benefit From Online School?,” “Online learning gives students the freedom to work on their own time and pace, which is helpful because they can slow down without feeling like they’re trailing behind.”

Since students are behind a screen and have control over when they turn on their mic, they can attend class without so much social pressure and anxiety. Online school has allowed many students to learn and concentrate better and for this reason, some students prefer to stay home.

5,3$#%3#"+%6789:;<= While the in-person safety guidelines PAUSD put into effect for students and teachers have reassured some that coming back to campus is safe, some students still feel uncomfortable going on campus where there are 10 or more people around them in fairly close range.

Not only is there the possibility of students breaking social distancing guidelines, but there is the real sanitation risk of touching contaminated items we come in contact with and the possibility of putting parents and elders at risk.

With only a few months left in the school year, many students may be debating whether going to school in person is worth it.

Even though the benefits of being inperson include reuniting with friends and slowly settling back into the pre-pandemic lifestyle, there are still many cons such as safety, personal and health concerns that outweigh those benefits.

So, I’ve decided to stay home and continue attending school online — and you should too.

Staff Writer

At any given time, countless RVs are parked on the Stanford side of El Camino Real. Within them live a diverse array of people for a diverse array of reasons –– construction workers who would otherwise have to commute hours to their jobs, young couples saving on rent, Palo Alto retail workers who can’t afford permanent housing –– but some of the most affected by the pandemic have been families with young children who are homeless, some of whom live in these RVs. According to the district, 26 students attending PAUSD schools are homeless. Although they now have the option to return to in-person school, they still must cope with challenging circumstances during the pandemic, such as spotty WiFi and unreliable power.

Parking for extended periods of time on El Camino is illegal –– meaning those living in these vehicles may need to move them every 72 hours to avoid a fine.

Because of these kinds of situations, it’s the district’s responsibility to work with the City of Palo Alto to designate one a sparsely used parking lot as a temporary trailer park for those camped on El Camino Real, exclusively for families.

The lot should be outfitted with WiFi and power, along with washroom facilities.

The city has already taken some action on this issue.

In February, at 2000 Geng Road, Palo Alto opened its first “safe parking lot” in an attempt to create a safer place for RVs to park than El Camino Real. The lot includes a building with a shower and can accommodate 12 vehicles.

Despite this attempt at progress, it is unclear how much this development has aided those in need. Because the parking lot is on the other side of the Bayshore Freeway, it’s unfeasible for children who need to commute to school –– especially when their main form of transportation is also their home.

Due to the fact that there are only 12 spots available in the lot, there has been little change in the number of vehicles on El Camino.

The district could further address the issue if it designated part of the parking lot at Cubberley Community Center as a trailer park and allowed those who park their RVs there to use the center’s electricity, WiFi and bathrooms.

The center is located within walking distance of two elementary schools, Hoover and Fairmeadow, and one middle school, JLS. It also borders Greendell preschool and is near Mitchell Park, an ideal place for children to play.

Community members may feel that this plan could be unsafe for children at surrounding schools. But ultimately, having young children live and play on one of Palo Alto’s expressways is far more dangerous than in a parking lot, and it allows them to learn in an environment free of rocking motion and loud traffic.

Superintendent Don Austin said he opposes this plan because Greendell is at the same site.

However, for those still worried about the safety of children in neighboring schools, it’s important to note that the trailer park would be reserved for families, and most of the parents would be off at work during the school day.

Furthermore, the City could designate a community resource officer to man the trailer park and make sure it stays safe.

Taking action to help some of their most disadvantaged students is the district’s responsibility, and this plan is a substantial way to do just that. The center is much safer than the status quo –– and would be very beneficial for residents in such dire need.

!"#$%&'()*+,&-./0'1&2)30&-.&'*'14-.45-+-16&7-1(-.&-1'&'8())+' Gianna Brogley Lifestyle Editor

In the scientific community, it’s common knowledge we have been in a period of anthropogenic climate change for several years.

According to NASA, 2020 is tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, and average temperatures are 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than averages in the 19th century.

Since 1993, Greenland has lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year, and Antarctica has lost an average of 148 billion. In terms of trash, the United States Environmental Protection Agency reports Americans throw away 4.9 pounds of trash per day, and in 2018, we disposed of a total of 292.4 million tons of waste.

It’s clear we are in an era of overconsumption and a climate crisis, and contributing to solutions should be a top PAUSD priority. However, there is no evidence the district has taken steps to improve

its waste output and energy conservation.

The PAUSD website claims since 2005, schools have worked in conjunction with the City of Palo Alto to be zero waste by 2021, which would mean schools wouldn’t produce any trash and would only recycle and compost waste.

There is no evidence that this is the case at any school, or that PAUSD has made any clear advancements to reach this goal in recent years. PAUSD administrators did not respond to confirm or deny the accuracy of this claim. The district website also said it rolled out a program promoting zero waste on campuses in 2016, but the impact of this program was the simple installation of signs on waste bins that say what type of trash goes where.

While the district website reported that there was a 20% reduction of water, electricity and natural gas use since 2011, there is no evidence of PAUSD replacing appliances with those that are Energy Star approved, which is a crucial step towards sustainability.

It is apparent there is a lot of work that needs to

be done before PAUSD can be considered sustainable.

For starters, all energy and water bills as well as trash reports should be accessible to the public and published on the district website; currently, there is no numerical data to support their claims of a 20% resource reduction.

Additionally, PAUSD should be investing in replacing appliances with efficient alternatives to reduce energy consumption and prioritizing sustainability over other expenses such as fancier technology or other large projects. PAUSD ought to move forward with the plan to eventually produce zero waste, and should implement mandatory presentations about how students can reduce their trash output on a regular basis. The district should also create an incentive system to students who make an effort to be sustainable by rewarding them with prizes.

It is the district’s responsibility to make environmentally conscious choices; if we aren’t a part of the solution, weAare contributing to the problem: the destruction of our planet.

ART BY

Y GIANNA BROGLE

The Campanile

Friday, April 23, 2021

A8

Editorials

APRIL’S TOP TEN LIST Top Ten Best Things About Getting Vaccinated

97

Proudly displaying your Band-Aid Defending your side in Pfizer-ModernaJ&J arguements

7;

Downplaying your side effects to make you seem superhuman Taking the high road and not posting your vaccination card

7=

Laughing at underclassmen who are too young to get it

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E

ven as the Class of 2020 celebrated the end of its time in high school with a car parade, the lack of a true in-person graduation loomed large over the event. This year, however, we appear to be nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination rates are rising, and California’s lowered age threshold means plenty of students can be fully vaccinated by the end of the school year.

The Campanile praises ASB and the Paly administration for moving ahead with plans for an in-person graduation on the football field. We trust proper health precautions will be taken to ensure all in attendance feel welcome and safe.

Additionally, The Campanile thanks the PTSA for its tireless planning of graduation-week events for seniors. The opportunity to regain some sense of normalcy at the end of the year would be impossible without their efforts.

But as both ASB and the PTSA advocate for more in-person events, opposition from district leadership has proven to be a difficult obstacle to overcome. The Campanile thinks, as long as the proper safety measures are put in place, PAUSD should allow students and parents to plan more in-person events in order to foster a muchneeded sense of community in the wake of COVID-19.

As proven by low case numbers and the lack of spread during in-person school, Paly is certainly prepared to host more in-person

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activities. In fact, Friday lunches often come with spikeball and music courtesy of ASB, a scene that closely resembles lunchtime activities from before COVID-19. What separates this from other events proposed by ASB? Additionally, there is a clear need for inperson bonding after a year hunkered down at home. In-person events offer a brief period of normalcy where students can truly be a part of the Paly community.

This is particularly important for freshmen, many of whom know classmates only from Zoom and have never met some of their peers. In-person events are invaluable to creating a sense of community among the freshman class and will help integrate the class into the larger school community.

Seniors would also benefit immensely from the presence of more in-person events during their last month of high school. From reconnecting with old friends to checking in on people’s post-Paly plans, in-person events provide seniors with a sense of closure after a turbulent year.

The Campanile acknowledges that, despite the vaccination rollout and lowered case numbers, many traditional in-person events remain out of the question due to State and County pandemic regulations. However, plenty more events are still both safe and feasible. We urge PAUSD to work to prioritize finding ways to alter iconic traditions in order to maintain tradition while providing a safe environment.

This is certainly a difficult task, but both ASB and the PTSA have proven it is possible. And just as neighboring school districts have adapted in-person events such as prom to be safe for COVID-19, The Campanile hopes PAUSD will work with student and parent organizations to approve and run inperson activities.

!"#$%&#'$%()$*#+%,$-'.-*/%/0$1'(%'$%2"3/%,.'4%2$1/%5.3/%61./-+#4 Biking is a central part of Palo Alto’s identity. Since the city unveiled a bike boulevard on Bryant Street in the early 1980s, it has championed itself as a bikerfriendly community.

Not only does Palo Alto encourage bike riding, it makes it easier than most cities for bikers to commute to work and school. The Campanile applauds the city’s historic dedication to ensuring safety for all commuters, especially those on two wheels.

Palo Alto proves if a city strives to make bike transportation safer and more feasible, the community will respond. All over the city families ride on the roads, Stanford students explore the area, people head to work and kids bike to school.

One component of being a bike-friendly city is dealing with accidents. According to the California Office

of Traffic Safety, in 2018, Palo Alto had 99 incidents where a bicyclist was either injured or killed. In 2017, neighboring city Mountain View had substantially fewer collisions involving cyclists, only recording 31 incidents.

These numbers demonstrate that while Palo Alto has taken important action for bikers, more can be done in the area of biker safety.

The Palo Alto biking population is growing, and due to the pandemic, biking has surged across the country. According to the National Public Radio, last year bike sales grew 65% in the United States.

As a result of the increasing number of riders, the California Department of Transportation offered $7 million grants to cities and towns for temporary, quickbuild bike safety precautions. The CDT put this temporary offer in place to help keep communities safe

and deal with the pandemic cycling boom.

With increased traffic from both bikes and cars in Palo Alto now that stores are opening back up and restaurants can seat patrons indoors again, permanent safety measures are needed now more than ever.

The Campanile is also encouraged by the city’s willingness to implement permanent bike safety solutions. This spring the city will spend $6 million on the third and final phase of the Charleston-Arastradero improvement project which will add islands for crosswalks, as well as new bike lanes throughout the corridor. However, the Churchill and Castilleja intersection serves as proof more still needs to be done. Due to the intersections location it has been a hazard for both student riders and commuters for years, with more riders than ever the problem

could escalate.

The Campanile urges the city to further embrace it’s bike-friendly identity and take greater action to guarantee all bikers make it home safely by prioritizing school zones and other heavily trafficked areas for these safety improvements.

As we approach the end of this unpredictable school year, it is time to set our sights on planning for next year. The Campanile thinks in order to give students the safest biking experience, the city must continue to improve bike safety now, before schools open in the fall and bikers flood the streets.

If the city keeps emphasizing bike safety and utilizing its resources through preventative measures such as new yield signs and better marked crosswalks, not only will bikers be safer, so will the environment, as more people will make the switch from gas pedal to bike pedal.

7?

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Stress-free outdoor dining Training yourself to stop flinching when you hear a cough

7@

7:

Forgetting it takes two weeks to acquire full immunity

ART BY ADORA ZHENG

PAUSD should allow more in-person events

78

7>

Seeing family and reconnecting with old friends The Roaring '20s: Part Two

79

Editors-in-Chief Shiva Mohsenian • Kris Risano • Benjamin Stein Andrew Toteda • Adora Zheng Online Editor Ajay Venkatraman

Managing Editors Jace Purcell • Andy Wang

News & Opinion Editors Siddhartha Sahasrabuddhe Sloan Wuttke

Lifestyle Editors Krista Robins • Gianna Brogley

Science & Tech Editor Austin Xiang

Sports Editors Evelyn Cheng Ziggy Tummalapalli

Multimedia Editor Gina Bae

Business Managers Will Thomas • Emma Todd

Board Correspondent Valerie Chu

Art & Photo Director Sasha Lehrer

Staff Writers

Ben Antonow Charlotte Hallenbeck Aidan Seto Zack Silver Anaya Bhatt Bruno Klass Maya Singer Lauren Chung Braden Leung Avantika Singh Shantanu Deshpande Leo Malchin Parker Wang Olivia Ericsson Ali Minhas Joy Xu Jack Galetti Hyunah Roh Kyla Schwarzbach Declan Greicius Jimmy Miller

Illustrators

Aaron Kim Zander Leong

Isabel Toteda Astrid Wuttke

Adviser Rodney Satterthwaite Letters to the Editors: Email all letters to editors to theeds21@googlegroups.com. The Campanile prints letters on a space-available basis. We reserve the right to edit submissions. The Campanile only prints signed letters. Advertisements: Advertisements with The Campanile are printed with signed contracts. For more information regarding advertisements or sponsors in The Campanile and their size options and prices, please contact The Campanile Business Managers by email at campanile.ads@gmail.com.

Note: It is the policy of The Campanile to refrain from printing articles that misrepresent or alienate specific individuals within the Palo Alto community. The Campanile would like to thank the PTSA for supporting the mailing of our newspaper!

Our Vision Statement: The Campanile has upheld the highest standard of student journalism for the last century by engaging the community through various mediums of storytelling.

Our coverage of news, culture and athletics aims to represent the diverse perspectives of our student body.

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Lif style

SENIOR ELIMINATION

ART BY HYUNAH ROH

!"#$%&'())&*+(,-)+*&."/+010."+-&0)&"))("#&10+$230,-&+/",0+04)&"50,&."),-501 Evelyn Cheng Sports Editor

A

fter idling in her car for an hour and a half and spending another 30 minutes hiding behind a bush, senior Malia Wanderer finally makes her move, leaping from the shadows and tagging her target with a beach ball.

Wanderer is participating in the Class of 2021 Elimination, a city-wide game played by both Paly and Gunn seniors.

Participants are assigned a target and receive a small beach ball, which they must hold on to at all times in order to be safe from being tagged themselves.

When a player tags their target, they enter their target’s code into the system. Then, that player takes on the defeated player’s target, and the game continues until there is one person left standing.

PAUSD administrators were against holding this annual senior game this year because students would have to break social distancing rules when tagging their target, but senior Jenna Tetzlaff decided to organize the tradition anyway, away from campus, while accommodating COVID-19 restrictions.

“Ever since I was a freshman, I wanted to play Elimination,” Tetzlaff said. “Since my class missed out on Spirit Week, two proms and other senior activities, I wanted to find a way to still feel like a senior, so I made Elimination happen.”

Due to the pandemic, the game,

which began on March 1, looks different than it did in previous years.

“I heard that around 320 (Paly) seniors played last year, and I knew we weren’t going to match that,” Tetzlaff said. “This year we have around 140 seniors playing which isn’t a lot, but considering the circumstances, I think it’s a great turnout.”

In order to allow the game to happen this year, several new rules had to be implemented, including requiring participants to go outside for an hour a day and wear a mask at all times. “(Going outside for an hour) is sometimes annoying because maybe it’s a rainy day or you just want to stay home, but this rule is one of the most important rules because if you don’t go outside, you’ll never get tagged, and you’ll never tag your target,” Tetzlaff said.

“The game simply can’t be played.”

Every week, Tetzlaff said targets are shuffled, and every two weeks, there are new rules regarding how participants can keep themselves safe with their ball.

“The first two weeks you had to be wearing your mask and holding your beach ball to be safe, and the following two weeks you had to wear a mask and hold your ball on top of your head,” Tetzlaff said. “(Starting March 29) you have to hold the ball with two hands to be considered safe.”

Senior Charlize Nguyen, who eliminated nine people prior to being eliminated, was formerly first in the game.

Nguyen said she attributes her success to a creative strategy for tagging her targets,

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as well as a bit of luck.

“If you have your target’s address, I think a really effective strategy is to ring their doorbell,” Nguyen said. “It’s a bit scary because you don’t know who will answer the door, but usually people don’t think to bring their ball with them when answering the door.”

Some of her attempts have been successful because of her unique approach.

“In one case, my target was a mutual friend of mine,” Nguyen said. “I reached out to (my target) to ask for help planning a small surprise birthday party for our mutual friend. Then, when my target showed up at the birthday party, I was able to tag her.”

Second in the game at one point, Wanderer had six eliminations before being eliminated herself. Wanderer said the game started out slowly for her, but picked up once she got her first target out.

To find moments to get her target out, Wanderer said she had to do some digging online and get help from her and her target’s mutual friends.

“I’ve searched up their addresses on white pages –– it’s a little bit creepy,” Wanderer said. “And I’ve snuck outside their house, also creepy. Then I also just (talk) to mutual friends to find out where people are going to be and when.”

Wanderer said she was eliminated shortly after eliminating her seventh target, so she couldn’t enter her target’s code and the elimination was not counted.

“I was hoping my game would last long, but it ended much earlier than I anticipated,” Wanderer said. “I was going way out of my way to find people, hunt them down and tag them, and going on hour-long stakeouts. I wanted to make it to that purge, so I was very disappointed.”

Elimination is one of the few traditional events this year’s seniors have been able to participate in, and Wanderer said she was glad she took part in it.

“Elimination was really fun for me,” Wanderer said. “I was super into the game because getting kills was really exhilarating and super satisfying.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Lifestyle

B2

Upping the Ante

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"#$%&'()"*'!")+,#'+-.'$#/&%012"0'/%'3%4"&'-.'-'5$00)"'.26%%)"&'01&$#7'8-5$),'9%-&0'7-5"'#$76/.'+6"&"'6"'.-$0'6$.'0-0' +%1)0'2&1.6'6$5:';%+"<"&='!")+,#>.'$#/"&"./'$#'/6"'7-5"'+-.'3$?1"0'-8/"&'6$.'9&%/6"&'+%#'-'3%4"&'/%1&#-5"#/'-/'!/-#8%&0' @#$<"&.$/,='9&$#7$#7'6%5"'-'#"+'3%4"&'."/:' For Selwyn, part of poker’s popularity lies in the thrill of bluffing, as well as the fact that money is part of the game.

Its popularity both online and among students has risen with the pandemic limiting other forms of recreation.

Now, Selwyn said he and his close circle of friends hold routine poker games.

“My friends and I have basically made it a weekly thing that we do, and we always like to keep things interesting by playing with new people,” Selwyn said.

Selwyn said what he loves most about the game is the strategy and the psychology.

“In certain games like chess, whoever makes the best moves wins, but for a game like poker, you don’t have to have the best hand to win, and that’s what makes it so unique and enticing,” Selwyn said.

In order to be successful at the table, Selwyn said his strategy is to be unpredictable so everyone at the table has no clue whether he is bluffing — betting heavily on a weak hand — or holding the nuts — the best hand.

“Trying to read other people, making bluffs and just figuring how to make strategic decisions that optimize your outcomes is what I enjoy most about poker,” Selwyn said.

Senior Jenna Tetzlaff recently took up poker after a coincidental encounter with some friends at a park.

“I love the thrill of poker,” Tetzlaff said. “Who wouldn’t love taking money from your friends and having fun while doing it? You gotta take risks and poker is a cool place to do so.”

As a beginner, Tetzlaff said she has not yet mastered the art of bluffing.

Instead, she said she uses a cheat sheet that lists all of the hand combinations — high card, pair, two-pair, three-of-a-kind, straight, flush, full house, four-of-a-kind, straight flush, and royal flush — to make her bet.

“When I play, we typically have a buyin of $10, and I treat poker night the same as an event, meaning that I’m spending $10 on my ticket to play, and if I don’t win it back, it’s OK because I still got the experience,” Tetzlaff said.

“I always make sure I have $10 I’m willing to lose, so if I’m gambling and it all goes wrong, it’s OK. But, if I do end up winning back my $10 or even more than that, it’s a bonus.”

Senior Chris Chen said he was introduced to poker through his dad’s online playing.

“I started playing for fun with friends and real money around the end of sophomore year,” Chen said. “At one point, my friends and I were playing around every

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other week but right now maybe once or twice a month.”

Chen said learning other peoples tells is what makes the game so interesting.

“I think gambling is a huge part of poker, but the larger part is the mind games,” Chen said. “Being able to bluff an opponent and put them on tilt — a state of emotional frustration — is very rewarding and can influence them into making bad decisions which allows you or other players to win more. While luck is a big part, I would say poker is more a game of skill and not just pure luck.”

On the topic of skill, luck and gambling, Selwyn said society holds a misconception.

“I read this really good book by a professional poker player, ‘The Biggest Bluff ’ by Maria Konnikova, about how the game of poker is very similar to the game of life, in that you have to figure out how to optimize your decision making with limited information,” Selwyn said. “The author’s point of view was that a lot of the decisions we make in life are gambles. Like if an athlete signs away his life on a football contract, betting that he won’t get injured or fail to live up to his full potential. Or a stock trader making million-dollar trades on stocks with limited information.”

Thus, Selwyn said he does not see the gambling aspect of poker as a negative.

“Uncertainty and risk are natural elements of life,” Selwyn said. “That being said, gambling is kind of fun. Without money on the line, people aren’t invested in the game, but when they have something to lose, that changes everything.”

Andy Wang

Managing Editor

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ART BY DECLAN GREICIUS

ART BY BRUNO KLASS

Friday, April 23, 2021

B3

The Campanile

Lifestyle

Vaccinated community members engage in new activities

F

or many students, parents and teachers, the past year has been a grueling, monotonous, anxiety-filled period. However, as an ever-growing number of community members get one of three COVID-19 vaccines, they are finally beginning to emerge from isolation and adapt to a new post-vaccine lifestyle.

English teacher Kindel Launer received her second-dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in late March and said she already feels more optimistic.

“I feel encouraged,” Launer said. “I feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

I feel more confident at work. It’s horrible to teach and constantly have to worry about your safety, your students’ safety or who just sneezed — I’m just much more confident doing everyday things.”

Launer also said she cannot wait to be able to do many activities she has had to give up during the shelter-in-place.

“I want to go to the library and choose my own books,” Launer said. “I’d also like to go to Carmel and go window shopping.

I’d even love to go to Downtown Los Altos and just go through the stores and pick out all of my own clothes … I’m excited for all the little things.”

Senior Juan Macarrein, who has been fully vaccinated since February due to a health condition, said his attitude regarding the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted since his vaccination.

“I feel like I’m much less fearful,” Macarrein said. “I started going to soccer practices because of it. I started going outside much more, and I’ve been seeing a lot more people that I haven’t seen in a long time.”

Beyond everyday local activities, Launer said she also looks forward to reconnecting with loved ones.

BY ART

“My mother-in-law is 91, and her facility has been in lockdown since March 1, 2020,” Launer said. “Just last weekend she was able to see her son, my brother-in-law, and my daughter … so I’ve really been waiting to see (her).”

Both Macarrein and Launer say they are particularly excited about new opportunities for vacations. Macarrein, who has already visited friends in San Diego and Los Angeles in March, said he plans to travel more in the coming months.

Launer also intends to travel in the near future.

“I want to get on some airplanes,” Launer said. “I haven’t seen my East Coast son and his wife since November of 2019, so in my perfect world, we’d do a big Thanksgiving family dinner over there.”

Despite these plans, however, Launer said she still harbors reservations regarding her safety during the pandemic. In fact, she said she will continue to avoid highrisk activities like indoor dining and large gatherings.

“I really just want to avoid the whole thing,” she said. “If we can avoid getting this virus, let’s just avoid it — even now. I don’t want to play around with it.”

Dr. Jessica Ridgway, an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases & Global Health at the University of Chicago, said Launer’s attitude is a smart one.

“We need to have higher vaccination

rates in the U.S. and decreasing rates of COVID cases before we start relaxing precautions,” Ridgway said.

Nevertheless, Ridgway said it is up to individuals to weigh the risks of engaging in higher-risk activities such as travel and indoor dining.

“Fully vaccinated people gathering indoors with other fully vaccinated people is very low risk,” Ridgway said. “Indoor gatherings with large groups of people who are not vaccinated or whose vaccination status you don’t know, like in a restaurant, is a little bit higher risk. That being said, I think it’s reasonable for a group of fully vaccinated people to go out to a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion.”

Despite her relatively cautious approach, Launer said she now plans to take advantage of every chance to safely experience the world after a year of self-isolation.

“I remember we were in Hawaii two summers ago at this rocky volcanic beach, and I didn’t want to get in because the water was rough, and I was nervous about slipping,” Launer said. “But now? Forget that. I’m never going to miss an opportunity to go out and have those kinds of experiences again — ever.”

Leo Malchin

Senior Staff Writer

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News of questionable action regarding college admissions taken by several prominent actors and wealthy professionals, including “Full House’s” Lori Loughlin and MGM Resorts CEO Gamal Aziz, broke in March of 2019. Within hours, local college coach Rick Singer’s far-reaching and unsettling college admissions operation was revealed, with his clients spanning from Oscar nominee Felicity Huffman to a Palo Alto family.

“Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal,” Chris Smith’s Netflix documentary about the scandal, is a thought-provoking inside look at Singer’s illicit operation and raises questions about the college admissions process.

Ultimately, though, it falls flat in addressing more meaningful themes such as racism and classism preva-

lent in the increasingly cutthroat college admissions process.

The documentary begins with overlapping news anchors discussing the scandal but mostly forgoes other documentary staples and minimizes talking heads. Instead, the dialogue is transcribed from FBI wiretaps of Singer’s phone.

Eschewing the fallout of the scandal for most of the film, the documentary instead takes a deep dive into the inner workings of Singer’s operation and the side doors he opened into elite universities for his clients.

The documentary explains there are two conventional ways into elite colleges: the front door, which is getting in based on academic and extracurricular merit, and the back door, which involves parents donating seven-figure sums of money to a university in order for their child to be admitted.

Singer’s side door, which is far cheaper than the back door, involved

fraud and cheating the system to provide advantages to his clients.

Singer’s techniques included paying an expert to take SATs and ACTs for his clients’ children, bribing athletic directors and coaches of underfunded sports at universities and faking applicants’ academic and extracurricular backgrounds.

Former Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer was one such coach. The documentary portrays Vandemoer as far more altruistic than being indicted in a federal investigation may suggest, and FBI wiretaps show that while Vandemoer accepted donations from Singer, he funneled all of the money back

into Stanford’s sailing program and did not keep any for himself.

The film’s use of real conversations, some of them spliced together for flow, was more impactful than a dramatization of events. The shockingly casual manner in which Singer and his clients discuss the side door hammers home their lack of understanding of the gravity of their actions — the only concerns his clients had were being caught or having their children find out.

But despite well-done portrayals of real conversations, “Operation Varsity Blues” fails to convey any message beyond claiming the college admissions system is fundamentally broken. It glosses over Singer’s and

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his applicants’ race, and it’s hard to ignore that almost every one of Singer’s clients were white.

The documentary also fails to address how income remains the biggest indicator of success in the college admissions process or how applicants of color get the short end of the stick because Singer misrepresented his clients’ children.

The film also doesn’t address how the sports Singer passed his clients’ children off as playing, such as water polo and sailing, are all sports dominated by white people.

Rather than delving into the systemic inequities hurting low-income applicants and applicants of color, Smith closes the documentary by reminding the audience the back door remains open and essentially divides all college applicants into those who use the back door and those who don’t, instead of acknowledging the more fundamental issue: the position of privilege Singer’s clients had and will continue to have.

The Campanile

Friday, April 23, 2021

Spotlight

B4

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1848

First large wave of Chinese immigrants to the U.S.

1854

People v. Hall: ruled an Asian person could not testify against a white person in court, setting a precedent for anti-Asian violence to go unpunished and, in many cases, unreported

1871

Los Angeles Massacre

1882

Chinese Exclusion Act: banned the immigration of Chinese laborers until 1943

1885

Rock Springs Massacre

1924

Johnson-Reed Act: effectively banned immigration from Asia by setting quotas

1941

Roughly 120 thousand Japanese and Japanese Americans forced into internment camps

March 2020

Then-President Donald Trump first refers to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus;” first surge of reported, COVID-19-related anti-Asian hate crimes

March 2021 Atlanta spa shooting

A long history of racism

T

he recent rise in anti-Asian violence and hate crimes is not a recent development, and while it has shocked those unfamiliar with bigotry against Asian Americans, senior Michaela Seah said she was not surprised.

“I feel like I knew it was coming,” Seah said. “Asians have always been used as scapegoats for all sorts of things, and when COVID-19 started tension in America kept rising and never disappeared.”

Palo Alto City Council member Greg Tanaka said his father, who was 5 years old at the time, was one of the many sent to internment camps from California.

“It was pretty brutal,” Tanaka said. “There was no insulation, limited fuel, limited food. My grandfather never made it out, he died of tuberculosis. They don’t talk about that stuff.”

On the West Coast, where so many fought or lost family in the Pacific, anti-Japanese and anti-Asian discrimination was widespread, meaning getting an education or white-collar job was near impossible if you were Asian-American, forcing many to work in manual labor, Tanaka said.

“My dad said it was actually better in the camps because of the racism,” he said. “My dad dropped out of high school because of it. He lost his dad, his house, his family’s business and then his education.”

But in 1982, 40 years after the Japanese internment camps and surge in anti-Japanese sentiment, Vincent Chin — a Chinese-American — was beaten to death by two white auto workers in Michigan. Their motive? They thought he was Japanese and blamed him for the recession caused by the rise of the Japanese car industry.

It seems that regardless of the reason for the animosity, Asian Americans have been forced to pay for American hardship entirely unrelated to them for centuries.

Through the past year, it is apparent to Michaela that the current hardship facing Asian-Americans is the COVID-19 pandemic. She said, many Americans are unable to tell the difference between Asians and are unwilling to differentiate between people and a virus. Her sister Johannah agrees.

“I think the racism has always been bad,” she said.

“It’s just now being exposed for what it is. I think COVID-19 has exacerbated xenophobia, sinophobia and hate against Asians, but this is not a new thing.”

Gunn sophomore Jasmine Fan said she has also experienced the negative consequences of the Model Minority Myth.

However, she says one characterization has impacted her more profoundly than others.

“The ‘good-at-math’ stereotype really affected me a lot because math is just not my strong subject,” Fan said. “I feel like I began to internalize this and other stereotypes that the Model Minority Myth says, which lowered my self-confidence.”

However, not only does the Model Minority Myth impact Asian Americans, but it also places a wedge between Asians and other minority groups like Black Americans, according to Former United States Representative from California’s 15th and 17th District Mike Honda.

Honda said it is important to confront the anger and tensions presented by the Model Minority Myth.

“We all have different kinds of sources of rage but if we don’t challenge them, then we will start to be pitted against each other,” Honda said.

Microaggressions cause pain

Before moving to Palo Alto, Sarah, a freshman who agreed to share her experiences only if The Campanile didn’t use her full name, attended a predominantly white middle school, with two Asian American students in a class of 50.

“I remember we were learning about Ancient China and some boys made an inappropriate comment about what the Chinese people in the textbook were wearing,” Sarah said.

“They were basically making fun of Chinese culture, and the whole class burst out laughing. Then, everyone looked at me, and I didn’t know what to do, so I just started laughing too.

Model lingers Minority Myth lingers

After spending countless days and long nights studying for her math final, sophomore Sophie Yang was extremely pleased with her “A,” knowing her hard work had paid off. However, Yang said the underwhelming responses of her friends insinuated that her good score was expected solely because of her ethnicity. This, in large, is one of the negative consequences of the Model Minority Myth.

In 1966, the New York Times published an article titled “Success Story, Japanese-American Style.” This article, widely regarded as one of the most influential pieces of writing about Asian Americans at the time, depicted all Japanese Americans as hardworking and determined — ultimately giving birth to the Model Minority Myth, according to Paly’s Asian American Student Union President Cody Hmelar.

Initially, this myth only referred to Japanese Americans, but as Americans failed to differentiate between the different types of Asians, the term quickly extended to characterize all Eastern Asians.

Despite the seemingly positive characterizations of Asians, the Model Minority Myth is damaging to individuals, Hmelar said.

“What happens is that the accomplishments and achievements made by the individual are stripped away and instead attributed to their ethnicity,” Hmelar said.

And sophomore Sophie Yang said she has experienced the negative consequences of the Model Minority Myth.

“If I do well on a test, people would be like, ‘That’s just because you’re Asian,’ but if I do poorly on a test people would say, ‘Oh, you’re just dumb,’” Yang said. “It made me feel like a lot of people have high expectations from me just because I’m Asian.”

3,800

anti-Asian hate crimes were committed in 2020

STATISTICS FROM STOP AAPI HATE

150%

increase in anti-Asian hate crimes from 2019-2020 STATISTICS FROM THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HATE AND EXTREMISM

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Spotlight

criminasian

“

B5

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0&#1+$&')-+$2&3"&4)-5&)&*"/3&6)7 There were many instances like this where I didn’t have the guts to stand up for myself and instead just laughed along to racist comments and jokes.”

Sarah, a first-generation Vietnamese American, said this hurt her self-confidence and presented internal conflicts regarding her identity.

“I became super self-conscious about how I looked, what I wore and what food I brought to lunch,” Sarah said. “I even told my parents to stop chaperoning me on field trips because I didn’t want them to be the source of a racist joke. I tried to distance myself from my ethnicity as far as possible. To be honest, I didn’t like being Asian. I wanted to be white like my other friends.”

Michaela, a first-generation Chinese American, said she, like Sarah, vividly remembers the racism she has experienced from a young age.

“When I was in elementary school, there were a group of girls pulling their eyes back while saying, ‘Ching Chong’ and other racial slurs,” Michaela said. “When they saw me, they told me that they didn’t mean it in a racist way, so I just ran away.”

Michaela said she started to internalize this racism.

“There was a phase in my friend group where we, as Asians, would all make fun of our parents and people from our homeland for their accents and the way they dressed,” Michaela said.

“We even joked among ourselves saying we were bad Asians because we got a certain grade. At the time, it was really funny, but looking back I realize it was hurtful and disrespectful.”

P L I CIT M I BIASES

I didn’t like being Asian. I wanted to be white like my other friends.” !"#$#%&!#'(')*(+,!-$.,%*#'

Hate crimes spike with pandemic

As the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring shut down businesses, closed schools and thrust society into an unprecedented world of masks and social distancing, it brought with it a surge in hate crimes targeting the Asian American community.

Such hate crimes include discrimination, verbal harassment, racial slurs and violent attacks. In San Francisco, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee died after being pushed to the ground on his morning walk. In Brooklyn, an 89-year-old Chinese woman was publicly slapped and set on fire by two people. In Atlanta, a series of mass shootings killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women.

“I used to always wish my extended family lived in the United States so I could see them more,” junior Audrey Teo said. “But in light of recent events, I couldn’t be more glad that they aren’t here.”

In the case of Ratanapakdee, the San Francisco District Attorney described the attacker’s actions as a “temper tantrum.” With the Brooklyn woman, the assailants were just 13 years old. For the Atlanta shooter, officials blamed his actions on a “bad day.”

“It’s just so frustrating that these hate crimes are not being treated like hate crimes, that the people doing them are being defended and excused for what they did,” Teo said. “I think that’s the underlying problem: the unwillingness by the people in the government to make the connection between the victim and the crime and to actually address it and fix it.”

Tanaka said during the first three months of the pandemic, when reported incidents in California were at their highest, he experienced verbal harassment a number of times while biking in Palo Alto, most notably when a group of white men yelled at him and told him to go back to China and asked why he brought the virus here.

“I hadn’t felt like that since I was a kid,” Tanaka said. “I was actually scared.”

In addition to COVID-19, Honda blames the harsh anti-Asian rhetoric of the nation’s leaders, specifically former President Donald Trump, for the past year’s spike in hate crimes. Honda says Trump’s language in addressing the virus not only spread hate but also incited violence by deeming such hate acceptable.

“His personal behavior bleeds into public policy, public opinion and public behavior,” Honda said. “That gives other people permission to behave similarly.”

Trump’s initial reference to the coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus” in March 2020 led to an increase in the usage of “#chinesevirus” on Twitter by 8,351% according to Yulin Hswan, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.

The hashtag’s increase was followed by an immediate spike in reported anti-Asian hate crimes across the country.

However, even with Trump out of office, reports of antiAsian incidents continue. In early February, a 61-year-old Filipino was slashed across the face with a box cutter on a New York subway. At the beginning of April, a woman in Los Gatos was shoved from behind and told to go back to China. In San Francisco, a Slap-an-Asian challenge targeting Asian-presenting individuals on public transportation is being investigated by police.

Teo said it has become obvious the problem is rooted beyond politics.

“It has never been clearer that change is needed than now,” Teo said. “I hope that we as a community can realize that and act on it, that we hold ourselves accountable and make real change.”

is to address the issue in conversation, spreading awareness and being more aware of the meaning and effect behind our everyday language.

“The first thing that people can do is be more cognizant of what they’re saying and how what might seem like a joke to many actually may have historical meaning behind it,” Hmelar said. “Recognizing that words do have power and do have meaning is important.”

To address anti-Asian sentiment within the district, Hmelar said the AASU has hosted a number of events in the past month to discuss the issue and administered school-wide surveys to gather both first-hand experiences with anti-Asian racism and input on how to address it.

“We are surveying students, teachers, parents and community members to see what they have experienced and what resources they feel they could benefit from,” Hmelar said. “We want to find how people feel and then develop a school-wide and hopefully district-wide curriculum on how to treat racist behavior and microaggressions.”

Hmelar said this curriculum would be for teachers, specifically those of younger grades, to develop a standardized method of approaching racism at an early age. Hmelar said this curriculum is being curated by the AASU in conjunction with research professionals.

“The AASU is collaborating with Stanford graduate researchers who specialize in early childhood development, education in public school administrations, ethnic studies and positive psychology,” Hmelar said. “We want to make sure it is the best possible curriculum.”

Fan said she feels addressing anti-Asian sentiment in the classroom is important at the secondary level as well, believing that hosting discussions that force both students and teachers to reflect on the issue would play a crucial role in solving the problem.

“Schools can start by at least addressing (anti-Asian sentiment),” Fan said. “During BLM or the capitol riots, we stopped the entire class just to talk about them, but when there are anti-Asian American hate crimes, I don’t think anyone even mentioned it.”

Outside of the classroom, members of and advocates for the Asian American community have taken to the streets, with rallies occurring across the country and in Palo Alto.

The widespread protests that ran from late March to early April marked the first time in history the Asian American community organized on a national level to advocate for change, something Teo said is a major step in the right direction.

“We’ve never had something like this on this scale,” Teo said. “Beyond the hate crimes, it helps break the model minority view of Asians which will have even greater effects in the long run.”

Still, Johannah says greater action is needed beyond protests to create lasting change.

“This isn’t just a one year thing, it’s a continual thing, and that has to be recognized,” Johannah said. “We need to hold other people accountable and recognize that we can’t be apathetic anymore, we can’t afford to be apathetic because people die over that.”

Tanaka said he too wants to see action taken beyond protests, including greater representation of Asian people in the government and voting populations. He said greater involvement in the government through voting would prevent instances like the San Francisco DA deciding not to press murder charges for the man who shoved and killed Ratanapakdee.

“The reason why the DA could say that is because Asians don’t vote,” Tanaka said. “We don’t get involved. We don’t run for office. And therefore, we’re like the rug — everyone steps all over us.”

To get more Asian Americans voting and involved, Tanaka said he has started the 8by8 challenge, the goal of which is to get eight people registered to vote in eight days to increase Asian representation within the government.

“It’s like an ice bucket challenge to get every Asian committed to vote so that we have a voice,” Tanaka said.

Ultimately, however people choose to stand against antiAsian hate crimes — in the classroom, in the government or on the streets protesting — Johannah said the message is clear: do something.

“Solving racism isn’t an individual issue. It’s a systemic issue,” Johannah said. “It starts with people recognizing that we need to change the system. We need to make legislative action, and we need to continue.”

1,600

anti-Asian hate crimes were committed in California in 2020

Long-term action needed

With reports of anti-Asian hate crimes reaching record highs, a new emphasis has been placed on combatting and recovering from such targeted and violent displays of racism.

Hmelar said the first step in battling anti-Asian sentiment

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

B6

Science & Tech

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Gunn junior Hayden Zhu has been streaming on Twitch since August 2020, playing Valorant and other video games under the online alias “Hazu.” He said he attracts dozens of viewers per stream on Twitch, streaming for hours at a time multiple times a week.

“I already played a lot of video games and was into the culture for a while, so I was pretty familiar with the idea,” Zhu said. “One day after watching a streamer, he inspired me to start streaming myself. I thought it looked fun and fulfilling and wanted to experience it myself.”

During the COVID-19 quarantine, many students like Zhu have found themselves lacking activities they can enjoy while remaining indoors and socially distanced. In response, some have explored content creation using digital media and now showcase their work online.

Zhu said he regularly interacts with his viewers and values them as they are a large part of why he continues to enjoy streaming and why he hopes to be able to stream for a living.

“The whole purpose of streaming is for entertainment, and seeing others entertained by what I do is the best part for me,” Zhu said.

“Seeing that others have a fun time watching me do what I do makes me feel great and my favorite part of Twitch.”

Zhu said Twitch is the most appealing streaming platform since the connection between viewer and creator is unrivaled. While other streaming services such as YouTube and Facebook Gaming have attempted to replicate Twitch, their user count can’t compare, Zhu said.

Zhu sees a bright future as coming generations of students begin taking a stake in these sites.

“Teens make up a huge part of the community and help gradually grow it,” Zhu said. “As more and more young creators are building communities through TikTok, YouTube and Twitch, they will be the ones revolutionizing and pioneering the next age of content creation.”

That said, Zhu said he encourages others to their own content.

“It’s not as easy as some may think, but you should not be discouraged if you have a slow start,” Zhu said. “Everything comes together gradually, but the most important thing is to have fun.”

Whenever senior Jett Ng has spare time, he said he launches Adobe After Effects on his computer and continues adding on to the editing projects he shares with his hundreds of YouTube and Instagram followers. Hours of work and scrutiny are compressed into each edit, he said, sometimes taking multiple weeks to complete.

Like many other creators, Ng let his shifting interests and experiences guide him to where he is now. He began editing when he made his first montage of clips from video games at the beginning of quarantine.

“But I eventually took the editing skills I had learned and started to make anime edits, which I found more enjoyable,” Ng said.

Ng said he has built his following through a tightly knit online community that shares a common interest in making visually entertaining anime edits.

His content, he said, is driven by the satisfaction of seeing his work come to fruition and interacting with his fan base. With each post, Ng said he receives feedback from his peers, drawing in more followers.

“Seeing so much support come out from people I look up to is really motivating and makes all the difference when admiring the final product of my edits,” Ng said.

Ng attributes his success to the supportive community he said he is lucky to be a part of.

“My connections with other creators and involvement in those communities gave me opportunities to get opinions from more experienced people,” Ng said. “Making more connections can also help with gaining exposure as people can promote your work to their audience.”

For newer creators, Ng said both motivation and determination are equally essential for one to gain exposure.

“Don’t get too obsessed with the statistics side of your posts as it can quickly cause people to lose motivation from a post that didn’t do as well as intended,” Ng said. “Consistency is key in growing your channel.

Just remember that the ultimate rule of thumb is to make sure you enjoy what you are doing.”

/%#"'0"1 012$+3)+4'5)$#2$ Since she was 6 years old, junior Meya Gao has been building her passion for drawing but has decided to take art more seriously in the past few years.

“Aside from learning technical skills and composing creative pieces, I sometimes make fan arts as well about the things I like, which I find relaxing when I need a break from schoolwork,” Guo said.

Gao composes digital art and shares it on social media platforms such as Instagram, where she started posting since quarantine started. She said she started using her Instagram account after experimenting with digital art and Photoshop, a medium new to her at the time.

“I find it a really fun medium because there is so much I can do with it,” Gao said. “The curiosity I had for digital art is what made me start posting more consistently on

social media.”

Gao’s current goal is to experiment with different styles, which she constantly changes. She said her art also allows her to meet similar creators who can be supportive as well as inspiring.

“I like thinking about what to draw and then visualizing the elements in my head: composition, color choices, concept and more,” Gao said. “The process of drawing out the idea is my favorite part because I get to see how my idea will visually turn out.”

Gao said she sees her content creation as not only an exhibition of creativity. For her it is also a tool that can have a significant impact on people. She said creators like herself should always be mindful of how their content might affect their audience.

“I believe that teen creators can have lots of impact on different audiences as time goes on, and it’s necessary to keep the good values close with us when we create and influence,” Gao said.

For people new to content creation, Gao says they should keep a goal as to what they want their content to do for themselves and their audience. She said remaining patient and open to new ideas is important to enjoying content creation.

“Don’t stress about the algorithm of social media platforms,” she said. “Some are notoriously challenging for new creators.

Starting fresh on a platform will always take time before reaching larger audiences, so take this time to value the process of growth and improvement, and value the followers and mutuals who really care about you.”

Aidan Seto Staff Writer

ART BY WALLIE BUTLER

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Joy Xu

Staff Writer As junior Emily Yun slowly closes her laptop after a long day of sitting and staring at a screen, she sighs heavily and thinks about all the homework she must get done before her next day of virtual learning.

Dejected and unmotivated, she slouches in her chair and stares at the ceiling.

“In the virtual learning environment, I’m very doubtful of my knowledge and understanding, and I feel very unconfident in my actions,” Yun said. “It makes me unmotivated to do things.”

Since schools closed last March, Paly has been operating in a virtual learning environment.

But in this environment, many students feel unmotivated to do work, although some have adapted efficiently, including sophomore Johannah Seah.

A Southern Cross University study shows that short online learning sessions are more efficient than longer sessions, as they allow synapses in the brain to process information better than attempting to absorb large amounts of information for a longer time. Seah said she has used this knowledge to her advantage.

“A misleading but important practice for effective studying is taking intentional and effective breaks,” Seah said. “Overworking often leads to burnout or excessive stress, which can affect productivity and cognitive performance.

Breaks, on the other hand, allow the brain and body to rest and as a result, work harder and healthier.”

In a 2009 study published by Williams College, students studied a stack of 20 vocabulary words. One half of the group studied the 20 words continuously, while the other half studied five words at a time in four separate stacks.

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The study found that students who studied the entire stack at a time could remember 13% more words than the students who studied in four smaller stacks, because the students studying the larger stack had more spacing between each of the four times they saw a word. Even though the time in between studying sessions was minimal, the study proved spacing learning has a positive effect on retaining information.

According to the American Psychological Association, students can study smarter by testing themselves and their understanding, as it forces them to retrieve information and apply their knowledge.

“The problem with repeated rereading, which is what most students do to study, is that it gives you a false sense of familiarity,” Washington University psychologist Louis Henry Roediger told the APA. “You feel like you know the material, but you’ve never tried retrieving it.”

Yun though, said studying smarter can vary from student to student, and the true meaning of studying smarter is to study in a manner that best suits each individual student, even if it's different from someone else.

“If you are using the methods that you

know work for you as a learner, such as flashcards, Quizlet or reading the textbook, that’s studying smarter,” Yun said. “And that way you will be a lot more efficient in the way you study.”

Similarly, in 2017, a research study conducted by Stanford found students who approached learning and strategized their resources scored an average of 3.45 percentage points higher than the class in the first study, and an average of 4.65 percentage points in the second study.

In both studies, a group of students acted as a control group and received the normal exam reminder. However, the students in the intervention group were asked to strategize their resources by thinking about the material on the upcoming test.

Yun said studying efficiently is key, especially while learning virtually, but keeping a growth mindset is equally as important to learn.

“I try to keep my mindset on working harder to truly understand concepts rather than working harder to get good grades,” Yun said. “Simply working harder to raise grades is not a good mindset to have, especially when you’re preparing to go into the real world.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Science & Tech

B7

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PHOTO BY PALY NEUROSCIENCE CLUB

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Kyla Schwarzbach Staff Writer

I

n order to educate students about the brain and how it functions, junior Cynthia Zhang and sophomore Isabella Pei started the neuroscience club. In January of 2020, and in August of 2020 the club elected junior Madison Abbassi and sophomore Sophie Gu as vice presidents.

“We started it because we all were interested in neuroscience, and we thought we might as well just start a club for it, and hopefully see if any other students had the same interests and form a community there,” Abbassi said.

Pei and Zhang both began to work on the club as a way of understanding humans, particularly in matters of behavior.

“I’ve just always been questioning human behavior, so I’m interested in both neuroscience and psychology,” Pei said. “I thought it would be nice to learn the actual science behind how we think, so that’s why I thought of starting the neuroscience club with Cynthia.”

In September of 2020, the club posted to its Instagram account for the first time, welcoming anyone with even a passing interest in how the brain works to join them Friday at lunch. But the club actually began nearly a year prior.

Pei said many of the club members joined because of their interest in psychology and human behavior, but anyone who is interested in neuroscience is welcome.

The first meeting happened in person, but the club had to adapt to virtual meetings, like all other Paly clubs, last March.

“Our first, and only, in-person meeting, we were actually able to get Boba, and we were kind of doing like a Jeopardy-style thing and giving Boba to the winners.” Abbassi said. “And obviously with the virtual, you can’t really give out any prizes. So we shifted to almost more of like a lecture-style meeting where we would all like to research a topic and present some slides on it and then do like a little quiz over Zoom.”

Pei and Zhang lead club meetings, which often include presentations, videos, games and special guest speakers. Along with their vice presidents, they research topics such as neurosurgery and brain structure — enough so that they’re able to convey their knowledge effectively to members.

And while the club’s Instagram, brain-related memes have garnered 180 followers and helps followers grasp a more full understanding of blood barriers, the club’s lessons teach a lot more than someone learns from scrolling through the memes on its feed.

“In the past we’ve done or we’re planning to do the neurochemistry of emotion. We have also talked about mental illness,” Abbassi said. “But we have also done more hard scientific stuff like neuroanatomy, because there’s some cool online 3D interactives. And I guess that’s something cool about virtual is you can just pull

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up a 3D thing and screen share, and then you’re able to rotate it in real time.”

However, not all neuroscience can be taught through student knowledge.

Zhang said sometimes the best way to learn about the neuroscience field is to listen to those who have firsthand experience.

“We were fortunate enough to have Dr. Linda Wei Xu, a female neurosurgeon who has trained at Stanford, speak with us about her experience studying neuroscience and what being a neurosurgeon looks like,” Zhang said. “Before the meeting, we sent out a form to our club members to see what questions and topics they wanted to learn about from our guest speaker, and using that form, Dr. Xu curated a presentation that basically described her experience.”

Xu’s cameo was not only informative for the club, but also inspiring for its members.

“And I think it was so cool just to have her,” Abbassi said. “She was a real role model, and she made neurosurgery seem very accessible because I know a lot of the people think: ‘Oh, brain surgery is this big daunting thing. Like only super crazy people would devote the time to that.’ But, I think honestly, having a good mentor, a good role model and having that exposure might encourage more people to consider careers or pathways that they would never look up before.”.

Despite welcoming professionals, the club is also a space for those who know nothing about neuroscience, and want to learn.

Whether or not you’ve taken a course on the topic, are interested in a cross section of neuroscience with another topic or just want to learn more about the brain, stop by P-11 (or their Zoom meetings, for the time being.) “(We’re) just generally (open to) people who are curious about the brain and how it works,” Pei said. “And it’s a very beginner friendly club.”

!"##"$%&'('%)"*%+"&'(+",-% +(.,/$0%+(*1' )&*+,-(#.(/ Uses:

• Anti-inflammatory, promotes digestive health • Induces sleep and relaxation • Eases anxiety • Relieves pain from back spasms and arthritis • Relieves skin irritation

Methods for use:

• Seeped to create tea • Infused in oils for external use • Infused in lotions, balms, and soaps • Added to food • Eaten raw

ART BY AARON KIM

Anaya Bhatt Staff Writer

We’ve all had headaches, muscle cramps and the sniffles. Although not life threatening, these conditions can be annoying and painful. And the first item we often reach for to stop these annoyances is a bottle of pain killer that many Paly students say they pop like candy.

However, studies show overuse of painkillers can lead to stomach disruption and gastrointestinal distress as well as a decrease in the effectiveness of painkillers as your body builds up tolerance. So, next time you feel unwell, try one of these natural medicinal remedies. Your body will thank you.

!"#$%&'("#)*%+(%,)'-%)#.'/*.+)0.1 One of the worst parts about having a cold is a constant runny nose. Aside from the mucus leaking out of your nose, the inability to breathe properly and the pressure in your sinuses, added frustration stems from the fact that there’s no medicine you can take to fix it. Luckily, there are a few simple natural remedies that can help reduce the symptoms of the common cold.

Eating foods containing ginger and chilis, which have antiinflammatory properties, can help reduce swelling in your nasal passages and clear up your sinuses while releasing some of the tension in your head.

Anything involving steam, including hot showers, turning on a humidifier or standing over a pot of boiling water and inhaling the steam, is effective in reducing the fluid buildup in your chest, making it easier to breathe. This technique works even better if you infuse the water you are boiling or the water in your humidifier with peppermint oil or tea, since it simultaneously clears up your sinuses, eliminating that runny nose.

2%.3.4-%)*%+(%,)'-*"/$-)+(5/(3& Headaches are one of the most common health problems teenagers face and are often caused by high stress levels and insufficient sleep. The Migraine Research Foundation says 28% of adolescents suffer from chronic headaches.

Next time you find yourself with a headache, instead of reaching straight for the pills, try something less invasive. When you feel a headache coming on, immediately drink a glass or two of water. Dehydration can cause headaches and exacerbate their symptoms. Rubbing lavender and peppermint-scented essential oils on your temples can also help release pressure.

Drinking caffeine can ease symptoms, too, as it makes you more alert and constricts your blood vessels, which stops headaches by moving excess blood away from your head. However, be mindful that caffeine can also cause headaches if you become too dependent on it or consume too much at once.

Finally, if you find your headaches are chronic, try doing yoga for 15 minutes every day to relieve stress and pressure. Or try booking an appointment for acupuncture. Many patients find their headaches become less frequent when certain parts of their body are stimulated using acupuncture needles.

6%3('.'("#)4.#)*%3/4%)&'*%&& Stress is hard to avoid. But some days stress can feel more intense than usual, to the point where it can be debilitating, and rubbing essential oils on your temples can help. The stimulation of your temples along with the scent of the oils can help reduce your heart rate.

Meditation is also an effective way to alleviate stress as it allows you to compartmentalize your thoughts, reduce your heart rate and steady your breathing.

You could also download apps like Headspace which has free meditation guides that range from three minutes to an hour.

Exercise allows you to mentally and physically remove yourself from whatever situation you are in and release physical tension.

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Uses:

Stress can also cause insomnia. With all the time spent on computers during the pandemic, we are constantly bombarded with blue light from our screens. Blue light suppresses your body’s natural release of melatonin, a hormone that induces sleep and drowsiness.

To help limit your blue light exposure and improve your sleep schedule, try wearing blue light-blocking glasses and remove screens from your bedtime regimen. Try reading good old-fashioned paper books before bed instead which reduces exposure to blue light. Reading books makes your eyes and brain work simultaneously, which helps tire you out and makes you fall asleep faster.

Finally, drinking herbal teas such as chamomile can induce sleep. Chamomile contains an antioxidant called apigenin, which calms your body and allows you to relax, eventually leading to sleep.

Though medication may be convenient and perhaps even the fastest way to solve some of your health issues, replacing painkillers with natural remedies can not only improve your quality of health, but also allow your body to react better to synthetic painkillers in emergency situations where you need more powerful options.

• Nutrient rich • Suppresses nausea • Treats irritable bowel syndrome • Relieves indigestion • Improves brain function • Relieves congestion • Relieves stress and anxiety • Antioxidant • Rich in vitamin A

Methods for use:

• Seeped to create tea • Infused to oil for external use • Crushed into lotions and balms

INFORMATION FROM THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE ART BY KYLA SCHWARZBACH

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Science & Tech

Roots of Underrepresentation in STEM !"#$%&'(!)*#$%&'+,-.$+/&'$%+,-01)*'-&)1'2-)&#2$'&3$4*5-2#16/+-071-"&%*-5$+%#$)$'&8$1'-$'-87*-9*35

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s senior Noelle Burwell looks around her science class, she feels a sense of separation.

Burwell, who is the co-president of the Black Scholars United Club, said she has seen first-hand the underrepresentation of women and some races in the STEM field.

“I don’t really see a lot of other students that look like me in a lot of the science classes that I have taken, which is really unfortunate,” Burwell said. “It does bring a sense of isolation — like who can I really connect with on a deeper level within my classes?”

While employment in the STEM field has increased by 79% since 1990, according to the Pew Research Center, many marginalized community members, namely women, AfricanAmericans and Hispanics, continue to be underrepresented within it.

Addressing Racial Disparities Black employees make up 9% of the STEM field in the United States, while Hispanics constitute a mere 7%. In comparison, Blacks and Hispanics compose 13.4% and 18% of the country’s population.

Burwell, who plans to enter the STEM field after graduating from college, and said she was inspired by her mother, who works in the field.

However, Burwell said her exposure to STEM is an anomaly.

“I never really got any additional information about STEM (in school) — I just got it through my mom,” Burwell said. “But I personally don’t see a lot of resources specifically for people of color where they can learn about the STEM field, gauge their interest and eventually go into it.”

Meanwhile, Tiffany Grant King, the Global Program Manager for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at HP Inc., said her interest in STEM started when she was 7 or 8 years old as a result of her family.

“My father grew up on a farm in South Carolina, so we had tractors, we had a lot of farm equipment, broken cars, and I was always with my dad tinkering, trying to figure out how things worked, so it just piqued my interest,” Grant King said. “I love problem-solving. I love overcoming obstacles and coming up with new creative ways to do things.”

Grant King said she decided to major in mechanical engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she joined the school’s National Society of Black Engineers chapter. In 2011 she started her own engineering education consulting business.

“I realized that though I wasn’t that far removed from my mentees, they weren’t getting the same level of exposure and awareness to what was happening around the world of STEM as I was,” Grant King said. “So I did some engineering projects on the side, but then I also got very involved in working very closely with our K-12 system here in the Bay Area.”

Grant King said she has also reached out to Paly and encouraged students to sign up for an NSBE virtual convention for high school and college students.

King hopes the

event, which took place on April 8 and 9, increased access to STEM-related information and helped bridge the gap in representation within the field.

Burwell said having more channels of information about STEM, like the NSBE virtual convention, could help combat the issue of the underrepresentation of minorities in the field.

“I think providing students, especially high school students who are getting to think about their future careers, with information about the STEM fields will allow for a lot more students of color to go into that field and make it a more representative career field,” Burwell said.

Sophomore Elena Brierley-Green, who is the co-president of the Socioeconomic Equality Club, said financial resources can also hinder people of color from joining the field.

“Underrepresented minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics oftentimes do not have the same resources and opportunities as those who are more privileged, so they may feel as if future careers in the STEM field are not realistic for them,” Brierley-Green said. “STEM is also an extremely demanding and competitive field, meaning that those who have the financial ability to receive more education and resources are at a significantly higher advantage (over) those who don’t.”

Burwell said the underrepresentation of people of color in the STEM field can also be attributed to preconceived notions about who belongs in the field.

“I think the STEM field is mainly seen as a field not for people of color because when people think about it, they don’t necessarily consider it could be mainly for African Americans or Hispanics,” Burwell said.

“I think that’s something that may deter people of color from entering the field, because they feel like they don’t belong there or they aren’t represented by it.”

Burwell also said people of color are discriminated against even after they enter the field. The data backs her up: the Pew Research Center said 62% of Black people in STEM reported experiencing discrimination based on race.

“I’ve had many conversations with people in the STEM field that do experience certain microaggressions or aren’t necessarily treated like their other peers who are not people of color,” Burwell said.

Grant King said while people of color do face discrimination in STEM jobs, she does not let the discrimination get to her.

“I’m a very optimistic person — no one can keep me from achieving something that I desire to achieve,” Grant King said. “So at the end of it all, you have to keep your goal at the front and don’t let anyone else keep you from it. Also, you have allies and support systems out there who care and will help you get to whatever you’re trying to achieve.”

And Burwell said the underrepresentation of people of color in the field has actually inspired her to pursue a STEM career.

“It turned into more of a push for me to go into the field, as opposed to a deterrent from entering it,” Burwell said. “I think I am really inspired to be in a place that I am not necessarily expected to be — I like the idea of going into the field and leading a path for other young women of color and setting a precedent or being inspirational to other people of color.”

STATISTICS FROM PEW RESEARCH CENTER

The Gender Gap Persists Although women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, they only represent 27% of STEM workers, according to The United States Census Bureau. Sophomore and co-president of the Girls Who Code club Tess Bowen said this underrepresentation of women goes back many years.

“I think that a lot of the reason is that historically, women were not encouraged — in fact, they’re discouraged from pursuing an interest in science and math,” Bowen said. “I think it has started to change, but it takes time.”

Sophomore Annum Hashmi, also co-president of Girls Who Code, cited gender norms as a cause for women being underrepresented in this field.

“Society is still largely dictated by gender norms, and many women have to choose between a career and raising a family,” Hashmi said.

“There are certain ideas about what a woman is capable of which (are) created by gender norms.”

Hashmi said internal struggles can also prevent women from joining STEM fields.

“A reason we can point out is a lack of faith and belief in yourself,” Hashmi said. “That is also just an effect of the lack of representation — if you don’t see role models in that field that are women, you can kind of stop believing in yourself and your own abilities to pursue that field.”

Hashmi and Bowen said the gender gap in STEM also widens during grade school.

Research done by the National Science Board largely supports this idea, showing that by the time students enter college, only 21% of engineering majors and 19% of computer and information science majors are women.

Text & Design by Austin Xiang Design by Joy Xu Art by Aaron Kim

“During middle or high school, it’s easy to notice girls will choose to not participate as much in STEM activities and instead move to other areas,” Hashmi said.

“It definitely can start at early ages, although they may have an interest in these things in elementary school.”

The Pew Research Center reports half of all women in STEM say they have experienced discrimination based on their gender.

Having grown up in an affluent area surrounded by technology where women are more inclined to enter the field, Bowen said she’s been lucky to not have been discriminated against.

But Hashmi said being part of a minority group involved in STEM subjects many girls to discrimination.

“Personally, I have participated in STEM extracurriculars and classes, and I’ve definitely felt the need to prove my worth as a girl in these maledominated spaces and activities,” Hashmi said. “When I’ve been in all-girls teams during some activities, it feels as though we’re not given the same respect, and a lot of times people doubt our abilities.”

Hashmi said when there are so many boys in a setting with so few girls, girls can feel like they’re being spoken over.

Through their club, Girls Who Code, both say they have been working on creating a safe environment for girls of any skill level to learn coding through projects that interest them.

“Having a safe space is important to ensure that people can ask questions and learn without judgment,” Hashmi said. “Our projects allow girls to work on what they choose and show them that coding has many possibilities and can contribute positively to anything in their life.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

Sports

Slurs and slander on the field !"#$%"%&'%()%*+%,-%'*.-+&/0'1%*23."2*4'*%/.*5&'6#+$%').*"+-+)."+,3'+,'&)2*"&0' *%7%.$+,3'89,1./%,".$'+&&9%&'6+"#+,'."#$%"+-'-9$"9*%

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hen junior Quinn Mount heard about NBA G-league player and Paly alumnus Jeremy Lin being called “Coronavirus” during a regular season game in late February, he said he was not surprised.

Mount is Native American and part of the Paly lacrosse team. During one of his first games as a freshman, Mount said players from the opposing team hurled racial slurs at him. “(A player) on St. Francis had blind side cross checked me which he got a penalty for during the first quarter of the game and was pulled out,” Mount said.

After scoring a goal in the next quarter, Mount said the St. Francis’ player called him “Squanto” and was subsequently ejected from the game.

After the game, Mount said the perpetrator told him he didn’t mean the slur, saying he thought the slur was Mount’s real name.

Following the game, the St. Francis’ player was disciplined by his school, Mount said.

“I never talked to the kid,” Mount said. “I didn’t even know him, but he was ejected, and the school suspended him. After COVID hit, my coach scheduled a Zoom meet up for the kid to apologize for his action, but I refused because it is not the same as physically looking in my eyes and admitting he was racist.”

Mount said playing lacrosse as a Native American is particularly challenging.

“I’ve been playing lacrosse my whole life,” Mount said. “It’s a lifestyle my ancestors played the game long before white settlers took this land and the game away from my people. Being the only native kid on white teams is hard. I heard slurs my whole life no matter what sport I played.”

Mount’s coach and social studies teacher DJ Shelton said lacrosse’s long history has contributed to the racism present.

“Lacrosse is especially

prone to racism because of its inherent genesis,” Shelton said. “The version most commonly seen today in America is field lacrosse, which was appropriated by white colonialists in the up-state New York region from the Iroquois Nations. The whites then took the land and opened sports clubs where lacrosse could be played, but, of course, barred entry to Native Americans to those clubs.”

Shelton attributes the limited accessibility of lacrosse to its racist origins.

“This history of exclusion within lacrosse has continued today in most areas where it thrives as a sport is in upper-middle class white cities, and in private schools, Shelton said. “It is extremely important to honor its native roots and ensure that all that play it knows they are representing a 500-year-old tradition that is intended to bring people together, not divide them.”

And it’s not just lacrosse players who have to endure slurs and slanders. Senior Jackson Bundy said he’s seen plenty of racism on the football field.

“On both occasions that it happened, a Los Gatos football player called our players the n-word” Bundy said. “The first time we did not handle it as well as we could have, and we fought back. However, the second time that they did it, our players did not fight them. Rather, we showed them up on the field.”

Regardless of how the team handled them, Bundy said the experiences were shocking.

“As someone who would never use the n-word, I honestly don’t know why someone would use it,” Bundy said. “I’m not one to talk trash in games, but I would never even think about using a word like that towards another player,” Mount said he also considered reacting violently toward the St. Francis player.

“At first I was purely shocked by the audacity of this player’s blatant racist comment,” Mount said. “I felt disrespected. During the moment I felt like going to town on this kid, but I knew if I did I would be punished more for my actions for starting a fight, so I chose to keep my composure,” Mount said he thinks racist incidents are preventable, but the solution lies long before players take the field.

“Maybe we should teach history right for once, not this white-washed history which makes natives look like we were in need of help, which we weren’t,” Mount said. “I think we should teach the real history about the atrocities committed against my people, and I think we should recognize that the U.S. government tried to take away our culture, food, ceremonies and the game of lacrosse from my people. We can start teaching the next generations about racial equity. US lacrosse can help teach the real origins of the game and give the respect that is lacking to Native Americans when teaching youth.”

Shelton agrees.

“Basic education on race, society and inequality is obviously

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a starting point, but zero-tolerance is also important from a coaching perspective,” Shelton said. “Players might be willing to overlook some comments from teammates or coaches because the joy of playing outweighs that, but no player should have to be faced with that decision in the first place. When a team, administration, and even the entire league/conference, attack racism, it sends a clear message to players that it’s a topic worth investing time and energy in.”

But Bundy said he thinks the problem lies in the individual which makes the issue hard to solve.

“Sadly, I don’t know if there is anything else that you can do,” Bundy said. “If someone is using sports to degrade someone, then they’re probably using it in everyday life, so trying to get rid of it outside of sports is the only solution to get rid of it in sports,” Shelton, though, said racists often lack education and maturity.

“There are a multitude of reasons,” Shelton said.

“But I would say the most common is pure and simple ignorance mixed with some immaturity.”

Shelton said everyone has to be actively anti-racist for effective results.

“Create a clear and communicated standard for combating racism on the field, such as micro-aggressive comments about stereotypes,” Shelton said. “If every coach and every player had the same framework, it would form a united front and take away the need for coaches to create their own ways of handling it which aren’t always productive.”

Racism in sports is an ongoing battle that everyone must work hard to overcome, Shelton said.

“Racism is a huge issue in sports,” Shelton said.

“The stereotypes that surround certain ethnicities regarding ability and social expectations are vast. The way athletes are treated for their behavior, especially in pro sports, is also indicative of this difference.”

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Weightroom Inequalities

College and high school athletes react to the difference in quality of the womens and mens weightrooms at this year’s NCAA basketball championship tournament.

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

PAGE C4

ART BY VALERIE CHU

Wearing Masks in Sports

Athletes adjust to safety requirements during practices and games.

PAGE C2

JENNA HICKEY / USED WITH PERMISSION

Field Hockey

The team maintains their first place position within the league.

PAGE C3

JENNA HICKEY / USED WITH PERMISSION

Return of Contact Sports

Athletes in these programs compete again with shorter practices.

PAGE C4

The Campanile

Friday, April 23, 2021

C2

Sports

Masking the new norm !"#$%&"'(")*%"%+,($(-",".,#+/&0,1(2%,2.3%4/&0+,/&,-4(2"/2%5,2.6-%"/"/.&+ mask, they stand out because everyone is masked up.”

Liu said that although masks are optional during games and mandatory on the sidelines, she still sees most people playing field hockey wearing them the majority of the time, something she supports.

“I think you should be able to make the decision on if you want to wear the mask or not, but I think it should also be heavily encouraged, which I think it already is — to wear it as much as you can during a game, just because you are exposing yourself to a lot (of ) people,” Liu said. “But I understand if you can’t just because you’re running a lot, and it’s really hard to sprint and wear a mask.”

Volleyball player and junior Hillary Cheung said that despite needing to keep on masks throughout practices and games, and also being limited to having drills limited from six against six people to the five against five, she still believes that Paly volleyball’s strict enforcement of mask wearing has been the right thing to do.

“I think that the masking requirement is definitely something that should be enforced in all sports,” Cheung wrote in an email to The Campanile. “Of course, it’s not the best case scenario, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. In volleyball, masks are slightly bothersome and can restrict breathing, but it’s not to the degree where it would be impossible to play with them.”

Peters said she thinks most athletes want to be safe, and wearing masks is an effective way to stay healthy, even if they do restrict breathing to a certain degree. “(Breathing) is not impossible or anything,” Peters said.

“You can play with them on and be fine — it’s just annoying, and I feel like it’s a lot more helpful when you’re not wearing it. But it’s not some huge thing where if they said we had to wear masks to play, people wouldn’t. I just want to play, so if they want us to wear masks while we play, I’m fine with that.”

Valerie Chu

Board Correspondent

U

ntil last year, basketball player and sophomore Kaella Peters said interacting with her teammates was a constant in her life. And now that preseason, in-person basketball training has begun again, Peters said those interactions have slowly returned in modified forms with the additions of social distancing and other COVID-19 precautions.

“We’ve all been wearing masks during practices and lifting and everything,” Peters said. “We don’t see each other as much because of all the COVID-19 (protocols), but usually when we do see each other, we try to keep social distancing.”

Despite the safety guidelines athletes must follow, Peters said she still thinks the close relationships on her team have remained even through lockdown restrictions.

“We were still pretty close; we didn’t really have much contact with each other, but once we could do practices, we were kind of just back to normal — (being) friends and talking and all that type of stuff,” Peters said.

Junior and field hockey player Vienna Liu said that one thing she appreciates is how her coach gives the team longer water breaks than they had last year, a time she and her teammates use to talk to each other and to make up for lost social interaction over the past year.

“Masks have been integrated pretty heavily into sports right now, so I don’t feel like it’s made a significant difference in my social interactions,” Liu said. “I guess there’s the six feet thing, because when you get water you have to take your mask down, but other than that, just because it’s really normalized, it’s not something that feels like a nuisance.”

Athletic Director and football coach Nelson Gifford said he also believes that the county guideline of wearing masks to the furthest extent possible has just become a normal part of athletes’ lives.

“As coaches, we’re required to wear masks all the time … it’s just what you do,” Gifford said. “We have such good masking compliance here, not only in Palo Alto, but just in Santa Clara County in general, that it’s certainly more common to see someone with a mask than without a mask.

And when you see someone without a

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Business Manager Whether he’s traveling across the state to compete in tournaments or playing locally at Mitchell Park, physical education teacher Peter Diepenbrock loves being on the pickleball court. Diepenbrock said his passion for the sport has led him to search for every opportunity he can to improve his game, playing up to six times a week.

“What draws me to the sport is the strategy,” Diepenbrock said. “It’s like playing chess on a mini tennis court. Every time the ball is hit to you, there is a correct shot that you should hit. I really enjoy the challenge of not only trying to make the correct decision every chance I get, but also physically executing it.”

Pickleball, essentially a hybrid of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, might just be the fastest growing sport in America. According to the USA Pickleball Association, the paddle and wiffleball game saw a 650% increase in the number of participants from 2013-2019.

The Paly PE department has had pickleball as a part of its curriculum since the mid ‘90s, and teachers say it is one of their most popular units.

“I think the reason pickleball has seen a recent increase in popularity is similarly to why it is such a popular PE sport,” Diepenbrock said. “It’s fast-paced, fun and competitive, with a very quick learning curve. Students that have never played can pick it up quickly and start having fun competitive games right away.”

Senior Callum Olsen said pickleball has been a great way for him to unleash his competitive side.

“I’m a pretty competitive person, and pickleball has given me a great opportunity to compete against all my friends,” Olsen said.

“Because you are really just hitting a wiffleball over a net on a pretty small court, it is something we have all been able to get into. It’s especially fun when you’re competing against other people that are very athletic, as you’re always looking for ways to hit sick shots past them to score points.”

Diepenbrock agrees and says he especially likes playing doubles.

“The team element of doubles pickleball should not be overlooked as to why the sport is so great,” Diepenbrock said. “Most pickleball is played two-on-two, requiring a great deal of teamwork and making the whole thing a very social experience.”

Olsen says he has noticed a spike in the number of people who play the game, which he attributes to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The same way more people have begun playing tennis, I think a lot of people have gotten into pickleball because it is a relatively safe, socially-distanced outdoor sport,” Olsen said.

“It has not just been something for active kids to enjoy either. Even my mom has been playing pickleball with all her friends. There are so many people, from young kids, all the way to seniors, wanting to get out there and play.”

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!""#$%&&'()%("*'+&"()('%,#)-'&"(( Charlotte Hallenbeck Staff Writer

Though the varsity football team’s season may have started off slowly with losses against Wilcox High School (5628) and Mountain View (38-21), the team regained its momentum, winning their following two games against Milpitas (56-29) and Santa Clara (43-10), but lost their final game versus Los Gatos (45-7).

“We started off pretty rough, but we’re really starting to get the groove of things,” senior left tackle Patrick Crowley said.

“We’re really putting in the work and putting a lot of effort into practices so we can go out and play how we want to play.”

Prior to playing their final game of the season, Crowly said the team was eager to play, especially because they were coming off two wins.

“I’m looking forward to going out and playing Gatos,” Crowley said. “I think that’s going to be a great game, but I am also looking forward to seeing the progression all of our juniors are making. It is really nice to see.”

As for the team’s environment this year, a delayed start and COVID-19 regulations haven’t affected the brotherhood between the players, Crowley said.

“Our dynamic as a team is very much of a family,” he said. “We go out and play the game we love, but the bigger part of it is being able to play together as a team.”

The possibility of not playing this year

alarmed many players, so playing games has increased the team’s positivity, head coach Nelson Gifford said.

“The opportunity just to be around friends was really really important,” Gifford said. “And then the opportunity to play came as a shock to everybody, including myself. Everyone’s really happy to be here.”

And a short season didn’t stop the team from putting in the effort. Players and coaches alike say they are over the moon to have had the opportunity to play despite the ongoing pandemic.

“I am so happy for these guys that they got the chance to play, and I am so happy that they’re having a good time and having fun,” Gifford said. “I’m going to miss them.”

Cheer kicked off its season almost a full year after initial COVID-19 shutdowns last March.

Junior Nicki Loewy said the team began meeting over Zoom in late January for group workouts and conditioning before transitioning to in-person practices in late February.

“When we first started in-person practices, we were in the red tier, so it was only outside, six feet apart, and we would only do workouts and practice cheers.”

Loewy said. “Now since we are in the orange tier, we are able to practice inside and stunt although we are still masked the entire time.”

In a normal year, the cheer team begins practicing in August and the season lasts until March and picks back up again for try-outs in mid-April.

This year, with the season starting later, Loewy said the team’s skills have not reached the level they were at before shutdowns.

“Compared to last season, our skills are nowhere near what they used to be,” Loewy said. “It’s partially because we combined JV and varsity and because we only just began stunting again, and it’s really hard to master some of the skills we all forgot.”

Last year, the cheer team competed at the national cheer competition in Anaheim. This year, instead of competing in competitions covering dance, cheers and stunts with teams from across the country, cheer coach Lea Santini says the team plans to compete in a stunt-only competition with a few Bay Area teams.

“Cheer will be scrimmaging local schools in the new and emerging Title IX sport – STUNT (CSC). This is a spring season sport that focuses on the stunting and tumbling aspect of cheerleading.” Santini said. “The 20202021 season is one for the books. As a coach, I could not be more proud of everything that this team has accomplished thus far. We have defied all odds and continue to do so.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

The Campanile

C3

Sports

!"#$%&'($$)*+,$$&)-.%&%),%(-&%/#(-0 Kyla Schwarzbach Staff Writer

The girls volleyball team started its season in mid-March and has been averaging four games a week since, allowing the team to get the action of a usual season in just two months.

“It’s just like a super condensed season, because we’re cramming everything into these last couple of months,” junior Alison Xiong said. “So usually, in a regular season, we would have two games a week maybe, but we have one every other day now.”

Chris Crader, who has been coaching the girls varsity team since 2019, emphasized the lost time.

“Last year, our season was just a little over 14 weeks. This year from our first day of real practice to our last match, it was exactly four weeks,” Crader said.

Varsity is 8-1, JV is 8-0 and the freshman team is 4-3 with all teams having their last match on April 21.

The freshman team, Varsity team and JV team ended the season on a high note, each team winning their final games.

“I’m not sure if there’s really a league champion this season because every team has had matches cancelled,” Crader said. “But if we win tomorrow (April 21), both varsity and JV would stand alone with the best record.”

Despite playing against other high schools in the league, the team is not competing in a season, which in past years would end with the Central Coast Section tournament.

To compensate for this and how it could affect college recruitment for some athletes, Xiong said summer activities may be amped up. And though Paly doesn’t provide summer sports, many girls participate in junior nationals which run until July.

But spring is usually club season for volleyball, creating a conflict which doesn’t exist during a regular year.

“It's been challenging because the club season is happening at the same time as school season, normally schools in the fall and clubs in the spring,” Coach Dan Lee said. “So there've been a lot of conflicts, and on a dayto-day basis, you don't quite know who's going to be there and who's not.”

Lee said the irregularity of full team practices has made it hard for the team to develop a strong offensive rhythm.

“That said, I think the girls have done a pretty good job kind of adapting to whoever's in the gym and trying their best to get better and to play the game,” Lee said.

Lee hopes the next season will pick up normally in August.

Lee said, “I think everybody's just grateful that we can kind of get back in the gym and play the sport that we love.”

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JENNA HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

Half time! The team talks strategy during its game against Valley Christian.

Joy Xu

Staff Writer The field hockey teams have won all but one game as the end of the season nears.

The team and its 13 varsity and 15 JV players practice five times a week for one and a half hours, playing an average of two games a week.

“During practice and games, we make sure to generally keep in mind that we’re still in a pandemic,” junior and varsity player Anika Chang said. “We keep on masks on during practice, and if we lower them while playing games, we put them back on when we’re on the sideline.”

Soccer teams finish season

The varsity team has won almost every game it has played, and has only been scored on seven times.

“Very sadly, we only have one more game left of our season, which is next week,” varsity player and junior Reilly Bruff said.

Chang said despite the COVID-19 pandemic, practice has been minimally affected. However, during preseason training, which took place between mid March and early April, guidelines were more strict and the team was split into three cohorts with roughly 10 people per group.

“I think the biggest impact COVID has had is the shortened season and less games,” Chang said. “Also, playoffs were cancelled, so that’s something I know many people on the team were bummed out about.”

Despite this, COVID-19 has not dampened team spirit — Bruff said. In fact, she said, the team makes efforts to go to breakfast together after its Wednesday morning practices.

“Team spirit at Paly is as strong as ever,” Chang said. “I think if anything, we all know the season is shorter, so we all try to make the most of every practice and game and give it all for our teammates, coaches and ourselves. Honestly, we are all just grateful we get to be out on the field again.”

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Paly vs. Los Altos 4/17, W, 3-0 Paly vs. Los Gatos 4/17, W, 3-2 Paly vs. Monta Vista 4/19, W, 3-0 Paly vs. Homestead 4/21, W, 3-0

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Game on! Paly defenders, including senior Hailey Hwang, swarm Gunn's offender to ward off a potential shot on goal. Both the boys and girls team have started their seasons adapting to COVID-19 protocols including wearing masks and starting the season later than normal.

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hange is the name of the game for girls varsity soccer this year as they adapt to COVID-19, a fresh coaching staff and a new practice schedule.

Girls soccer is one of the league’s season two sports that began March 15, and junior Mariana Kessinger said the team has already begun competing in this short period of time.

“We have games pretty much every Tuesday and Friday,” Kessinger said. “So far, we have won one, lost one and tied two.”

Like all high school sports in California, the soccer team has had to adapt to strict COVID-19 safety guidelines. The team wears masks and socially distances when possible, though Kessinger said these safety measures have had little effect

on the team’s ability to train and compete.

“Soccer is an outdoor sport, so it is relatively safe compared to other sports like wrestling,” Kessinger said. “We have been able to play games, which not a lot of other sports have been able to do.”

Instead, Kessinger said the greatest impact of COVID-19 has been the delayed season. Usually a winter sport running from the end of the first semester to the middle of second semester, soccer now has a season from March 15 to April 23. This later season coincides with club season, forcing many athletes to juggle double practices and commitments, as well as be exposed to more people.

“It’s been hard doing club and high school plus schoolwork,” Kessinger said. “More people miss practices or are tired at games.”

The team also has a new coach this year, with last year’s junior varsity coach Jessica Berta replacing Armando Luna as the varsity head coach.

In addition, the team has had to adjust its practice schedule to allow other sports, such as field hockey, to use the field.

Kessinger said despite these changes, the season has been smooth and she is happy to be back and playing on the Paly field.

“I get to have games again and see people I

haven’t seen in over a year,” Kessinger said. “Our season may be short, but it’s better than nothing.”

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After a rough losing streak, the boys soccer team ended its season on a high note with a win against Santa Clara High School on April 20.

Senior and captain Teg Singh said the team, which lost its first eight games, was limited mostly by its offense.

“We’ve been playing really well from the back, but for some reason, our attack is having trouble,” Singh said. “We have one of the best defenses in the league in terms of least goals conceded, but we’re still losing and tying games because we just can’t seem to score goals.”

Despite a disappointing record, Singh said the season is going much better than last year’s.

He attributes this to the new head coach, Rusty Millard.

“Our coach last year was pretty universally disliked by the players,” Singh said. “Our new coach brings a lot of energy to practices and games, and the team loves being there. I guess it’s almost a weird feeling having a coach that actually believes in your team.”

Millard said in his 19 years coaching varsity soccer, this season has been one of his most enjoyable.

“Our goal for the last couple of weeks is one, can we make our brand of soccer one that’s respected by everyone in the league, and two, can every opponent know that they need to bring their A-game because Palo Alto is going to fight to the very last whistle,” Millard said.

The team only starts four seniors each game, meaning a large portion of players on their roster will compete next year too.

“I think this season is a bit of a rebuilding year,” Singh said. “We have a pretty young team, and the quality has skyrocketed from last year.

The future is very bright for Paly soccer.”

Ben Antonow & Jack Galetti Staff Writers

Varsity: 6-1 !"#"'()*#$%"+) Paly vs. Fremont 4/12, W, 9-1 Paly vs. Los Altos 4/8, L, 6-2 Paly vs. Saratoga 4/5, W, 5-0 Paly vs. Monta Vista 4/3, W, 7-0

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Friday, April 23, 2021

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who is really contributing to bringing in that money, but I’m illions sure there are lots of contracts of TikTok that discuss the equal spread users watched accounted between men’s and Oregon Ducks women’s women’s sports.” basketball player Sedona According to ESPN, NCAA Prince’s video in disbelief. officials have come out with a The video, posted on statement explaining how budgets March 18, has garnered are being distributed. They say that nearly 12 million views and the men’s budget for the 18-19 season shows the difference between was $28 million, almost twice as the mens and womens weight room setups much as the women’s budget. They say for the NCAA basketball tournament — this came from the amount of total the former boasted piles of weights and income each branch makes. According intricate machines, while the latter was to their data, the mens tournament equipped with a stack of yoga mats and a net income was $84 million while the single rack of weights. womens tournament lost $2.8 million.

Senior Adar Schwarzbach said he was This year, Mark Emmet, the NCAA surprised by the video. president, told the Associated Press “It’s bothersome because the this year’s budget plans will be more NCAA isn’t supposed to be a for-profit equitable than in previous years. institution, so regardless Since the NCAA of which gender brings does not pay athletes in more revenue, they as part of its budget, !"#$%&'$(&)*'$)$+,(-./0( Shah said the least it should be treated equitably,” Schwarzbach could do is provide all *&/1(23+)('40$()*$(%$56(73)( athletes with the proper said.

Senior Annika Shah, resources — and for who had first seen a )*$8(&/$59)(:4;$5(&5($<3&'( female athletes, she said picture of the two weight that is not happening. rooms on Instagram, felt Paly alumn Carly &%.35)(.=(&>>/$?4&)4.5(&51( angry at first.

Leong, an NCAA “When I initially player /$+>$?)(=./()*$4/(*&/1(-./0@A basketball saw the picture, I was and junior at Trinity just angry, but sadly, not University, agreed and !""#$%&'(%( surprised,” Shah said. said there is inequality “The women’s game between mens and hasn’t been getting the same resources womens sports, as women are not as the men’s game for a while now, and given the same opportunities as men. people can argue it’s about the money, and Leong said she was irritated when she

first became aware of the weight room situation and was surprised by the public’s reaction.

“I did see a ton of NBA players and people chiming in on Twitter which is not usually what happens. Most of the time people just stay out of it,” Leong said.

Although many were commenting on this specific situation, Shah said there are other circumstances where people continue to sweep situations under the rug.

“It bothers me since there are many recurring actions like this that are disrespectful to the women,” Shah said. “They work hard just like the men, but they aren’t given an equal amount of appreciation and respect for their hard work. What’s even crazier is that the people who continue to criticize the womens game don’t even play sports at the next level, so they don’t understand the sacrifice these athletes put to be in that position.”

Leong said she and her teammates have experienced this inequality first hand.

“Being on a womens basketball team, we all have experienced inequality as a collective,” Leong said.

“Especially with mens sports being treated differently, getting more things and having more opportunities.”

And Shah said there are simple things people can do to encourage the NCAA to change.

“I think as a community we need

to keep talking about it and give the same opportunities to women as the men do,” Shah said.

She said increasing viewership of womens sports is a must for leveling the playing field.

“Right now I can scroll through the guide on the TV and watch a college mens basketball game of a school I have never heard of, but then to watch the number one team in the country for womens basketball, I would have to pay on a website or app to watch,” Shah said.

“A lot of pro or college mens athletes have done a great job showing support for the womens game, but I think even more of them can show support.”

Bruno Klass

Senior Staff Writer

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As a result of the CDC’s COVID-19 safety guidelines, varsity swimmer and senior Hana Erickson has seen a wide range of swimming restrictions established since the team resumed earlier this year, such as her team being unable to compete in meets including the Central Coast Sectionals.

The extent of these restrictions depends on whether or not the sport is contact or no-contact.

Junior and varsity football player Blake Chase said he is making the most out of each practice because COVID-19 precautions have limited the number of practices coaches can offer each week.

“Practices have been a little shorter than normal, with around four to five days of practice each week for around one to three hours,” Chase said.

Last year, the football season took place during the fall, so Chase said having practices and games during the spring this year has felt different.

“Not everything has been set up too well, since back in the fall, the majority of the school would come to our home games and watch as a community,” Chase said.

Despite these troubles, Chase said having a football team compete in games is beneficial not only to the athletes but also to the school and the Palo Alto community.

“The football games are where people connect and meet new faces, and also we are all able to connect over one thing,” Chase said.

Erickson also said she misses seeing a lot of supporters in the bleachers during her swim meets.

“For swim meets, we now have limited spectators on deck, and we do not have CCS swimming or league finals,” Erickson said.

Swimmers must wear masks inside the pool area, and although

they cannot wear masks in the water, they must maintain social distancing when they are on the wall in the pool.

On April 15, California began allowing residents ages 16 and older to sign up for vaccine appointments. Erickson said with vaccines being distributed to Paly students, swimming is a sport that should be able to compete safely.

“A lot of the athletes on my team are vaccinated and being in the Orange Tier makes me feel like it is safe enough to race,” she said.

Varsity swimmer and junior Harrison Williams said swimming has changed more than many other sports when it comes to COVID-19 protocols.

“The biggest difference with practices this year compared to pre-COVID is that we used to be allowed to swim with five or six other people in a lane, but now we are only allowed to swim two per lane,” Williams said.

In addition to swimming two

per lane, Williams said each swimmer has to enter the pool from opposite ends, and two swimmers cannot be on the same side of the pool in a single lane.

Last year, swimmers had the weight room available for them to use throughout the swim season. But Williams said they were not allowed to use the weight room during this year’s season.

He said there are no downsides to swimming competitively as long as everyone sticks to the COVID-19 requirements.

Williams said, “I think that swimming absolutely should be allowed to compete during the season as it is a sport that can easily compete under safe social distancing guidelines.”