BY BIRTH OR BY BLOOD
Speaking of change
Additionally, Buyukcangaz said the policy sends the message that non-English languages are less valued in American
“It’s very, very widely known that parts of the U.S. speak so many languages, like Spanish, French, Chinese and so many others, and I think this policy is making a show that all these other languages are being discarded, while only prioritizing English as the main language,” Buyukcangaz said.
“It would go against the reality of the globalized world, and it would go against the millions of immigrants’ values and not
Buyukcangaz said the policy adds to the social pressure non-native English speakers like herself have felt to speak English in
“Especially over the last few years, we’ve been feeling more suppressed and not speaking our own language, and being able to communicate only one way,” Buyukcangaz said. “Even in the Turkish community, we always try to speak English with each other, even though we all can speak Turkish, so it’s a noticeable change.”
Buyukcangaz said the policy also creates an additional burden for non-native English speakers living in the U.S.
“Kids like me, immigrants like me, would really have trouble adapting to this change,” Buyukcangaz said. However, Kumar said she believes that regardless of the executive order, learning English is necessary for immigrants to adapt to life in the U.S.
“Although you should preserve your own culture and your own language, once you move to a foreign country, you should learn the language,” Kumar said. “ ere are countries that have one single language as the o cial language, and that does not mean they ban ey can still promote it internally, like learning foreign languages within our public schools.”
Annika Chu News/Opinion Editor
City Council temporarily halts replacement of synthetic turf elds
e City of Palo Alto recently halted its plans to replace synthetic turf elds with natural grass at all of its parks to review the nancial, environmental, health and safety impacts of synthetic turf before deciding whether to proceed.
If approved, three major playing elds will be resurfaced: May eld Soccer Complex, El Camino Park and Cubberley Football Field.
e citywide debate over synthetic turf versus natural grass began in May 2024, when the Finance Committee opposed a proposal from the Community Services Department to replace synthetic turf with grass. Since then, many city council members have raised concerns about the safety of synthetic turf. e issue resurfaced in October 2024 after Diego Velasquez and his family sued the city, claiming a “sticky, gumlike substance” seeping from May eld’s arti cial grass caused him to slip, fall and sustain injuries.
May eld temporarily closed in September 2022 due to the deterioration of synthetic turf.
Sophomore Poppy Morrison, who regularly plays soccer on a ected turf elds, said the poor conditions at May eld have historically posed challenges.
“Playing on May eld when the turf was bad was really dangerous because the turf would get caught up in my cleats,” Morrison said. “People were always rolling ankles, injuring themselves, and it was hard to get traction on the eld.”
City sta identi ed the May eld turf as nearing the end of its usable lifespan. However, the replacement that was initially scheduled for last year was paused while the city considered its alternatives. Meanwhile, the city is planning to replace the synthetic turf at El Camino in the scal year 2026 and at Cubberley Community Center in 2028. Sports clubs, particularly the Palo Alto Soccer Club, are the main advocates for the preservation of turf elds. PASC relies on turf elds for its more than 50 teams across 14 age groups, and Executive Director Rodrigo Baptista said that synthetic turf is essential to the community.
“Restricting synthetic turf installations would take away valuable athletic opportunities for kids and weaken our community’s dedication to accessible, high-quality recreation,” Baptista said. “Palo Alto already faces a shortage of usable elds, and limiting synthetic turf would further reduce access to playable surfaces for youth sports like soccer, ag football, ultimate frisbee and lacrosse.”
Baptista also said that switching to grass elds would have major consequences for club teams and the city.
“In order to replace one arti cial turf eld, the city would need to build 3-4 grass elds, as turf allows 2-3 times more playing hours than natural grass,” Baptista said. “Banning arti cial turf would also require an additional 1.2 million gallons of water use, and grass elds in Palo Alto already su er from holes, dry patches and broken sprinklers, making them more hazardous than properly maintained turf.”
However, the potential health and environmental risks of synthetic turf have also raised concerns. A report by the Santa Clara County Medical Association, which represents over 4,500 physicians, found that microplastics in turf in ll do not biodegrade and instead harm the environment at every stage of their life cycle.
Emily Coren, the Director of Governance and Advocacy at the SCCMA, said there are environmental bene ts to natural grass.
“Natural grass is less expensive when a full life cycle analysis is performed,” Coren said. “In addition, natural grass prevents stormwater runo of toxins and provides living carbon capture.” Coren also said switching to natural grass elds is better for public health.
“As physicians, we advocate for reduction in toxic exposures to reduce individual harm, societal harm and health care costs, which are rising,” Coren said.
As of March 27, the city council has not made a nal decision regarding a ban on synthetic turf elds.
“City Council had a scheduled item to consider funding a consultant study on the issue, but that discussion was delayed,” Reckdahl said.
“Santa Clara County considered a ban on turf elds last month, but the Supervisors made no decision on that item.”
Mirai Matsuzawa
Sta Writer
Trump imposes tari s on Mexico, Canada, China
In a move his administration says will help the country prioritize domestic manufacturing and alleviate trade imbalances, President Donald Trump announced a plan on April 2 to set a 10% baseline tari on all countries and raise tari rates even more on others.
Part of this plan includes, for example, a 34% tari on China and a 20% tari on the European Union. e 10% baseline tari will go into e ect on April 5, and the individualized reciprocal tari s will go into e ect on April 9. After the announcement, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 2.5% and S&P 500 futures dropped 3.6%. Technology stocks dropped as well, with shares of Tesla and Palantir down 8% and Apple shares falling by 7%.
Critics say these new tari s violate international treaties – such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a free trade agreement that was rati ed under the rst Trump administration – and rules created by the World Trade Organization, an international body that facilitates global trade.
AP Macroeconomics teacher Eric Bloom said tari s discourage foreign exports to the United States, raising consumer prices.
“Tari s are a tax on imported goods,” Bloom said. “It simply raises the price and fewer goods are sold because some importers are like, ‘You know what, I’m not going to bring in that stu anymore. It’s too much trouble.’ Some foreign producers are like, ‘You know what, I’m just going to go to Mexico. I can sell as much as I want in Mexico, so I won’t worry about that.’” Bloom also said the economic impacts of tari s will make the United States vulnerable to recession.
ere’s a decrease in the total GDP and the total amount of output done in the United States is going to go down,” Bloom said. “Now, more of it might actually be from American manufacturers, but still, the total is down, and that’s the
part that makes people worried about how it could trigger a recession.”
Because domestic manufacturers often have higher labor costs and stricter work standards compared to foreign competitors, Bloom said one bene t of Trump’s tari s is they might protect domestic companies.
“Producers that used to not make a pro t because they were either new or ine cient in using old technology couldn’t compete anymore,” Bloom said. “But now (under tari s), the price has risen, so there are more domestic producers that can meet that price and still make a pro t.”
However, AP Macroeconomics teacher Grant Blackburn said the United State’s decision to break free trade agreements by imposing tari s has aggravated its allies.
“It would be like if you and your best friend lived next door, and then your best friend threw some-
thing over the fence and hit you in the face with it,” Blackburn said. “You’re not going to be too happy about it, right?”
Bloom said the impacts of tari s aren’t just domestic; they are global because countries may retaliate with trade restrictions on the United States.
In response to Trump’s tari s, Canada and Mexico immediately announced retaliatory tari s on the United States, while China appears to remain open to negotiating. Bloom said these retaliatory sanctions have made trade more ine cient.
“For 20 years, Canada, Mexico and the United States have been like a European Union,” Bloom said. “We were treating each other as one market, and that meant goods moved easily and without tari s across the borders. en we started innovating in manufacturing and (specializing in certain products).”
In the long term, junior and Vice President of the Economics Club Jerry Yan said increased domestic manufacturing from a tari could increase the U.S. supply of goods and o set losses in trade.
“For example, Canada produces a lot of maple syrup, and if the US has a tari on that, then maple syrup becomes more expensive,” Yan said.
“Maybe the United States will start producing maple syrup more. en, in the future, we might see the United States not relying on Canada.”
Furthermore, Blackburn said trade wars favor countries that can withstand economic strain.
“A tari is something that can de nitely hurt an economy and can also hurt our own,” Blackburn
said. “ e question becomes, how much can they stomach it? And we’ll have to wait to see.”
China’s retaliatory sanctions against the United States during Trump’s 2018 trade war led to the loss of nearly 300,000 jobs and an estimated 0.3% of real GDP.
Following a tari , Blackburn said consumers typically experience higher costs for businesses.
“(Tari s a ect) the business side in the beginning, but ultimately, the consumers are the ones that will pay,” Blackburn said.
However, Yan said the exact impact of a tari depends on the speci c measure enacted.
“Much of the cost of tari s goes to the consumer, but sometimes the rm also absorbs some of the cost,” Yan said. “If it’s a 5% to 10% tari , then normally the rm just takes the cost. All in all, the net e ect is more of a wash, because you don’t know what’s actually going to happen.”
And with reduced competition, Blackburn said domestic companies may also raise prices to maximize pro t.
“If their competitors are forced to raise their prices to pay for the tari , then why wouldn’t domestic producers just raise their price, maybe a little bit lower, but still competitive?” Blackburn said.
Ultimately, Bloom said the impact of tari s on U.S. consumers will be regressive. e burden of tari s are going to fall on consumers, which are people that spend most of the money they earn,” Bloom said. “If you’re making $50,000 a year, you’re spending 100% of your income. If everything goes up a little bit, then that’s going to impact you more.”
In the end, Blackburn said a tari impacts every stakeholder di erently.
“Is a tari a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it depends. If you’re an American company that doesn’t have to pay the tari , it’s a good thing because you get to raise your prices. If you’re someone who could bene t from getting a job from these companies that are coming into the US to avoid the tari , that’s a good thing for you. If you’re the government, you’re getting tari revenue. If you’re the American consumer, this is going to make things more expensive.”
To allow freshmen to focus on speci c mediums in more depth, Visual and Performing Arts courses will be reorganized into new 2D Visual Arts and 3D Visual Arts pathways starting next school year. e Art Spectrum and Art Spectrum: Digital Emphasis courses will be replaced by 2D Art & Design I and 3D Art & Design I.
“PAUSD has a really excellent arts program starting from Kindergarten all the way up through 12th grade,” Kerby said. “We’ve been o ering this survey course called Art Spectrum for a very long time, which is essentially like an introductory art course, which exposes students to painting and drawing and ceramics and sculpture.”
Kerby also said the new pathways were designed with incoming freshmen in mind.
“What we realized is that when students come into Paly, they actually already have knowledge of those di erent pathways,” Kerby said. “It gives students
more choice of where their passions lie, and they can now focus on that particular pathway. I think we have a lot of students who are interested in maybe just taking ceramics and sculpture, and so now they can start that their freshman year, rather than having to wait a year to really dive into that pathway.”
e new 2D Visual Arts pathway will include 2D Art & Design I, II, III and III Honors, while the 3D Visual Arts pathway will include 3D Art & Design I, II and III. AP classes will remain unchanged in each pathway.
“2D Art I is a lot of what Art Spectrum has been, but also incorporating Digital Art Spectrum, and also we are revamping it a little bit to modernize it,” 2D Visual Arts pathway teacher Tracey Atkinson said. “ ere’ll be more digital art than there was in previous years, more looking at artists who are currently working, and more career applications.”
Graphic Design and Advanced Graphic Design, which have not run in several years due to low enrollment, have been cut from course o erings. Kirby said elements of graphic design have been integrated into 2D art and photography classes.
In the new Photography pathway, Advanced Photography will be the prerequisite for Advanced Photography Honors. Students who have taken Photo I can choose either course for the 2025-2026 school year.
Sophomore Stella Guo, currently taking Ceramics & Sculpture, said she has mixed feelings about the new introductory art classes.
“It is good in a way that if you know what you want to do already, you don’t have to waste time in Art Spectrum, and you can go straight into what you like to do … but it isn’t good if you are confused or wondering if you want to do something new,” Guo said. “For me, I wanted to do 2D art when I went into Art Spectrum, but I came out wanting to do 3D art.”
“What’s nice about both pathways is that we still are o ering them a variety of di erent creative processes … Ms. Atkinson and I are very open to having kids explore both areas,” Da Ponte said.
“So, you know, I don’t really mind if those (2D Art pathway) kids want to come over and see what we’re doing and if they have free time to try some stu out.”
ART BY ANYA
RASMUSSEN
Isabella Li Guest Writer
Isabella Bian Newsletter Editor
People from Paly: Joan Baez
America in 1958 was at a crossroads: it was the year that the landmark ruling Brown v. e Board of Education outlawed segregation in schools, which represented progress in civil rights in the context of ongoing racial tension. In foreign a airs, America found itself amid an intensifying Cold War that resulted in an increasingly aggressive anti-communist campaign.
It was also the year that 17-year-old Joan Baez, then a student at Paly, de ed an all-school air raid drill — her rst act of civil disobedience.
e escalating arms race between the Soviet Union and the U.S. had led to a widespread fear of nuclear war, and schools ran air raid drills to prepare students for a possible attack. Many peace activists at the time, however, Baez among them, voiced concerns that the practice was designed to instill unnecessary fear in people and prepare them for war, rather than turning to nonviolent con ict resolution. Baez said she shared these views.
“Paly decided they were going to have an air raid drill for all of us,” Baez told e Campanile. “We’d all walk home, or your parents would come and pick you up. And I just thought that was so ridiculous … So I decided I would stay in class, stay in school.”
When the alarm rang, students walked out of the building in compliance, leaving desks empty and hallways quiet. Baez, however, said she remained in her seat, her heart pounding.
“I was nervous,” Baez said. “I can’t pretend I wasn’t really nervous, because I was the only one doing it. But I knew I had to do it by myself. When I said ‘I’ll do this,’ it would be whether somebody else was with me or not.” e press took notice. e next day, the newspapers were saying that a 16-year-old had done this thing,” Baez said. “ en, the following day, the newspapers were saying that I was a communist, and not to let your kids come near me. But I did it on my own.” at small act of resistance was just the beginning. From that moment on, Baez found herself drawn to movements ghting for civil rights, peace and social justice.
A prominent singer, songwriter and active member of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements, she has been jailed twice and has performed domestically and worldwide with activists and musicians, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. ough she is known for singing and speaking out about nonviolence, she said her spiritual upbringing and in uences after her parents became Quakers when she was 8 exposed her to the importance of deep, quiet contemplation as well.
“I was raised from that point on as a Quaker, which means that you hear discussions about non-violence, about nationalism,” Baez said. “It’s the silence that has stuck with me — by way of meditation and realizing how important silence is. And the other part that stuck with me was social awareness. I was very much on board.”
Even as a teen, she said these Quaker ideas translated into action.
“My father was anti-bomb shelter (in Palo Alto) because a bomb shelter was a stupid idea,” Baez said. “So we were all passing out (anti-bomb
shelter) lea ets. at’s the rst time I remember really being out with my family, supporting a cause.”
Baez said hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak in person as an adolescent was a particularly transformative experience.
“I dissolved into tears,” she recalled. “ is man was doing what I’d read about. He was organizing bus boycotts in Mississippi, and I was just smitten with the fact that this was what I read about, and it was happening, and there were people doing that. I’m sure that’s when I signed on mentally for the civil rights movement.”
roughout the Vietnam War, Baez continued protesting, and she traveled to North Vietnam to perform music and promote peace.
While in Vietnam, she was rushed to safety while American bombs were dropped throughout the country during her stay.
Later, on a tour of Latin America, she was perceived to be such a signi cant threat by dictators from Brazil, Argentina and Chile that she was banned from singing in those countries, denied entry into them, and even faced death threats. Still, Baez said no oppression could deter her from performing.
Although she has always been very involved in collective action, she said she didn’t always have a full understanding of how much her activism was a ecting society at the time.
“I knew I was on the front lines,” Baez said. “But I didn’t know it would be as impactful as it turned out (to be).”
Over the years, Baez’s clear, strong voice has become a force in movements for peace, civil rights, and social justice. Her version of “We Shall Overcome,” for example, became a protest anthem throughout the 1960s.
“Music really is the only thing that crosses boundaries of countries and beliefs,” Baez said. “When I was arrested for aiding and abetting the draft resistance movement, there was a group of us, and we were all paci sts, and these police surrounded us. I stood up and sang something - probably Amazing Grace - facing one of the policemen, and he just started to shake. ey plucked him out of the line because he wasn’t tough enough.”
is intersection of music and protest has been the most ful lling for her, personally, as well.
“I know I’ve always been the happiest when I’ve been wearing both hats: doing activism and non-violence work, and music,” Baez said. “ at’s when I really ourish.”
Additionally, although an inspiring gure in times of chaos, Baez said she is not always a hopeful person herself, and acknowledges that sometimes the burden of injustice can feel overwhelming.
“I’m not a particularly optimistic human being,” Baez said. “I never was. People say to me, ‘How do you keep your optimism?’ and I’m saying, ‘What can anybody do?’ It can’t matter whether you’re cynical. In the state of the world, I go up and down, trying to nd my place and what to do.”
Sometimes that place has involved joining a movement with others, but often she has felt called to act on her own, if necessary.
“Most of the stu I’ve done, I’ve done alone,” Baez said. “Doing it with other people was too risky when people had families and kids — I’m not blaming anybody for not signing on — but when I was in Chile, decades ago, they were disappearing people, so it was dangerous. My participation in (resistance movements) is really, really important to me.”
Baez also said she understands the di culty of keeping a movement non-violent, especially in a period of time that can feel scary and out of control. In tough times, she said she reminds herself of the deeply spiritual and lasting legacies of non-violent leaders, such as Gandhi and King.
“I get so pissed o ,” Baez said. “By nature, I am bellicose, and I have a really short fuse, so I have to turn to the people who carry out what I believe in to get a refresher course.”
ese days, Baez spends her time walking, writing poetry and painting portraits of what she calls the Mischief Makers — activists, leaders, writers and musicians who have fought for nonviolence and justice. She keeps chickens in her yard, does yoga and other exercise to stay physically strong and nimble, and said she tries to nd meaning and purpose in the small things in her life, which helps her overcome feelings of pessimism. ere were these ocks of birds years ago, and they would come through in the canyon below me, and it was just like a chorus,” Baez said. “It was a cacophony of bird sounds. And over the years, it vanished almost completely (due to climate change). And so: instead of going around moping about it, I decided to listen to the one bird that was there. I mean, we still have birds, you know. And I started listening to one bird, and quit waiting for the chorus.”
For young people looking to get involved in activism but who may not know where to start, Baez’s advice is simple: start by doing what you love.
“One of the things that I think is true is that you should nd what calls out to you,” Baez said. “It could even be rescuing dogs, but something that is of a positive nature, has to do with kindness, empathy and all the things that they’re trying to erase. Don’t think about whether or not that will affect the bigger scene — because it probably won’t. Probably nothing I do is going to a ect it, but I have to do my calling, and the sooner you nd your calling, the better it is for you and everybody. It might be something that doesn’t look that important at all, but if it’s positive, and it’s kind and it affects somebody else in a good way, I say, ‘Go for it.’”
Paly grad Joan Baez stands in front of a line of Alabama State Troopers during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March. “I knew I was on the front lines,” Baez said. “But I didn’t know it would be as impactful as it turned out to be.”
Baez performs at a Vietnam anti-war rally in 1965. “Music really is the only thing that crosses boundaries of countries and beliefs,” Baez said. “When I was arrested for aiding and abetting the draft resistance movement, there was a group of us, and we were all paci sts, and these police surrounded us. I stood up and sang something facing one of the policemen, and he just started to shake. ey plucked him out of the line because he wasn’t tough enough.”
CLAUDE BEAGARIE/USED WITH PERMISSION
Baez walks with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a large civil rights march in Grenada, Miss. in 1966. “ is man was doing what I’d read about,” Baez said. “He was organizing bus boycotts in Mississippi, and I was just smitten with the fact that this was what I read about, and it was happening, and there were people doing that. I’m sure that’s when I signed on mentally for the Civil Rights Movement.”
CLAUDE BEAGARIE/USED WITH PERMISSION
Elise Andrade Sta Writer
Gathering Garage Gurus
In 1938, Stanford graduates Bill Hewlett and David Packard set up shop in a tiny Palo Alto garage with just $538 to their names.
Less than a year later, their rst breakthrough invention, an audio oscillator, ended up in Walt Disney Studios to test sounds from the movie “Fantasia.”
As the company expanded into a technological powerhouse, its garage became a symbol of innovation and forward-thinking, o cially dedicated in 1989 as the “Birthplace of Silicon Valley.”
Although Silicon Valley may have traded modest garages for glass-walled o ces, residents around the Bay Area continue to turn their homes into makeshift workshops, keeping the creative spirit from decades ago alive. Ryan Starr, a dentist and at-home innovator, said he has spent years creating a video game to help aspiring musicians learn guitar.
“I’m not particularly good at (guitar), and I don’t know every note,” Starr said. “I’ve tried to brute-force learn that by just memorizing it, but it feels like too much work and I can never get motivated to do it, so I wanted to make a video game to do that for me.”
Starr’s video game Eldertone, currently in production, blends music education and a third-person combat game design to create an engaging experience. e premise of the game is a player trying to climb a tree while avoiding being attacked by an army. e user, with their guitar, must play the correct notes to climb higher, while playing the wrong notes will cause the player to hit a thorn and take damage. To keep the audience engaged, Starr has added intermittent battles that are fought between the player and the attackers. e player gets a move set — abilities that can be activated by playing certain notes and chords to fend o attackers during these battles.
“My hope is that the game is fun enough to allow others to have that incentive to practice their scales, so it will be easier to learn,” Starr said. “I think it’ll be a good way to practice these chords and notes in a way where you aren’t thinking about them but simply playing a game.” rough his game, Starr said he aims to get a broader audience for music.
“My hope is to try to get it in music schools or the app store,” Starr said. “We’ll de nitely try to get it out to people, but if not, it’ll just be my own personal tutorial.”
While Starr is gamifying the guitar learning process, freshman David Clark is bringing joy to hospital hallways, one wooden lily pad at a time.
Clark has organized a nine-month Eagle Scout project involving eight community organizations, over 200 volunteers and more than a thousand volunteer hours. His project focuses on creating Lily Pads — decorated wooden platforms placed at the base of medical infusion poles for young patients to sit or stand on during their treatments.
“Young cancer patients and others with serious chronic diseases from across the nation come to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital for care,” Clark said. “Receiving an infusion can be a stressful experience for these children, and a Lily Pad o ers a more pleasant, comforting environment to help ease the challenges they face during ongoing treatments.”
As a former patient at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Clark said he understands rsthand how daunting it can be for young kids to undergo infusions.
“I want to help kids going through the same struggles I did when I was younger,”
Clark said.
In addition to high-tech gadgets and creative objects, other meaningful innovation takes place in the classroom. In 2020, Ravenswood math teacher Harriette Huang
embraced this idea, recognizing challenges in East Palo Alto school’s math curriculum.
“In East Palo Alto, only around 5% of students are pro cient in math, and the high school graduate rate is only a bit over 30%,” Huang said. “I have students who do amazing work one-on-one but have a hard time focusing in big groups. I thought, if a student gets four hours of learning math weekly, if we were to just add one more hour on weekends, that’d be 20% extra learning.”
With this observation in mind, Huang launched the East Palo Alto Tutors Interact Club in 2023, recruiting high school students and other teachers as tutors for her 6th graders.
“According to an annual diagnostic test, the average student’s growth in my class has been 90%, ” Huang said. “ e average growth of a tutored student has been 130%.” is growth equates to an increase of two letter grades.
“Hopefully, the program connects a student who wants to learn with a tutor who wants to support them throughout all years of middle school,” Huang says. “I hope these students can have a good time in high school, graduate and even get into college. at is my dream.”
Johnny Gu Guest Writer
Freshman David Clark paints and seals an art project Lily Pad. “I want to help kids going through the same struggles I did when I was younger,” Clark said. Clark has organized a nine-month Eagle Scout project to create these pads for young cancer patients to use during their treatment.
DAVID CLARK/USED WITH PERMISSION
“I
Kalena Masching’s life is a nonlinear path. After graduating from Paly in 2004, Masching has worked in retail and real estate while playing the bass in her band, the Doll Parts, and recreational softball in her spare time.
Recently returning to school to obtain a degree in sociology with a minor in education and a master’s in school counseling, she said she has always embraced the values of resilience and adaptability.
Due to nancial instability growing up, Masching said she struggled to connect with her peers while attending Paly.
“People were not nice,” Masching said. “I used to call Palo Alto ‘Shallow Alto.’ I didn’t grow up with the same income level that a lot of the other kids did … It can be really isolating when you’re not in the honors classes and you don’t necessarily have the money to do the things they’re doing.”
Masching also said she felt an overwhelming pressure to excel academically during her time at Paly.
“Wherever you are, teachers and parents have a lot of in uence on what kind of classes you take,” Masching said. “Honors classes weren’t weighted back then, but there was this stigma that if you weren’t in them, then you were doing it wrong.”
She also said the school’s college-centered culture hasn’t changed much since she was a student, with students sometimes prioritizing academics above all else.
“As long as on paper you were doing ne, then there was a lot of free reign,” Masching said. “A lot of people are getting absolutely stoned on the weekends, but they’re getting straight As, and they’re working in labs.”
Despite these challenges, Masching graduated with a schedule lled with softball, student council and nearly every music ensemble o ered — jazz, pep, concert and symphonic band. However, hidden behind these activities, she said she struggled with undiagnosed attention-de cit hyperactivity disorder.
“Having ADHD means there’s so many things you want to do, and Paly has such amazing o erings,” Masching said. “It’s hard to pick all of them.”
After high school, Masching decided to attend community college while working in retail.
“By the time I was 19, I was the manager of a retail store — the youngest manager in company history,” Masching said. Eventually, Masching moved to real estate — one of the few jobs that didn’t require a college degree. However, the transition wasn’t easy.
“My rst ve years, the best year I had, I made $900,” Masching said. “ at’s not a lot of money.”
Eventually, though, she turned it around. By 2024, Masching ranked among the top 10% of realtors in California. But Masching said the stress of real estate and 70 to 80 hour work weeks drove her to seek change.
“You have to live to work, not work to live,” Masching said. “I was working really hard, and we were able to do all those things, but if you’re not happy, and if you’re stressed all the time, are you really living? So I went back to school, and I didn’t tell anyone.”
Masching now attends the University of California, Berkeley, in pursuit of a sociology degree. She said she wants to continue focusing on her personal well-being while becoming a secondary school counselor to support students in nding career paths after graduation.
“I went to Paly,” Masching said. “I know what it feels like to not be the one going to the four-year college. My life is awesome. Masching said students should take time to nd their passions before committing to a career instead of feeling pressured to pursue a path de ned by external expectations.
“I think there’s value in going to college when you know what you want to do,” Masching said. “For me, community college was great for guring out what I wanted.” Similarly, in her own life, Masching continues to adjust her career path to align with her personal values.
“I’m still going to sell real estate because I want to, but I don’t want to be stressed out all the time,” Masching said. “ e life I want has a stable retirement, time for travel, time for my family and helping people.”
Ultimately, Masching said students should embrace failure and focus on their own interests.
“Sometimes there’s value in looking at what you are learning in the activities that you like versus just doing things because they look good for an application,” Masching said. “ ere are very few mistakes that are irreversible … as long as you’re still alive and functioning, you can basically reinvent yourself over and over again.”
Reality Rush
Coming back from a long day of school, sophomore Anjali Dahncke eyes the TV remote on the couch with relief, looking forward to relieving her stress by watching the latest episode of her favorite reality TV show.
With a wide variety of genres, Dahncke said one of the primary draws of reality TV is the lightheartedness.
“I feel like these types of shows are not very heavy and they’re very good for if you’ve had a long day and you want to unwind and put something on in the background,” Dahncke said. “A lot of them are full of stupid drama and plot lines, but I think that’s really what draws a lot of people because it’s a kind of comforting leisure activity after a hard day.”
With a lot of stress in student life, Dahncke said that it’s important for people to take mental health breaks, and watching reality TV can be one way of doing that.
“It’s important that people take time for a break in their daily life, because I think there’s so much of our lives that are just spent as go, go, go, go, go,” Dahncke said. “Having a pause, even if it’s in watching something that’s not necessarily educational or contributing to your life in a huge way… at’s good, because there’s so much going on in their lives outside of that, and they can have just a moment to kind of debrief mentally.”
Paly English teacher Mimi Park said she started watching a lot of reality TV when she was in college.
“I watched a lot of ‘American Idol’ when I was in college since it was just one of those things you did together with your roommate or friends every week, and so it was really social and really fun to do,” Park said. “ en I stopped watching when I graduated college since I was too busy in law school, until I met somebody who had just been on ‘Survivor,’ actually, and he was one of the attorneys at the law rm that I was doing my internship with. So I started watching because I was really curious, and I got really hooked on the early seasons of ‘Survivor.’”
Paly math teacher Sarah Gilmore, whose current favorite reality shows are ‘Love is Blind,’ ‘ e Ultimatum’ and ‘Made in Chelsea,’ said she started watching a lot of reality TV during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reality TV made it easy to disassociate into something meaningless that provided fun drama and distractions from what was happening in the real world,” Gilmore said. “Also, it seemed like the only thing people could hold conversations about was ‘Love is Blind.’”
She also said talking about reality TV shows, such as ‘Love is Blind,’ allowed her to be more lighthearted and make connections during the loneliness of the lockdown.
“I remember having a full conversation about Love is Blind with my local grocery store clerk and realizing that she was the rst stranger I had talked to in months,” Gilmore said. “It was cool to see so many people latch onto something that we could all still share even while shut down in our homes.
Park said reality TV shows have shifted signi cantly over the years, especially with the rise of social media in uencers.
“I remember watching early seasons of ‘ e Bachelor,’ and as much as there’s a skepticism about whether people can nd love on TV or not, at least back then, you saw people who actually had careers and weren’t trying to be aspiring in uencers,” Park said. “(Contestants) would look attractive, but they also look like normal people. And I think over the years, it’s become much more commodi ed to not just be on there, but to have a career where the reality show actually launches you…I think that changed a lot too, as social media became more prevalent.”
However, with the growing prevalence of these types of reality dating shows, Dahncke said it can skew dating perceptions for younger viewers, especially if they are exposed to toxic behaviors.
“ e idea that, if this person is the same age as me, but they look like that, or they act like that, it kind of gives more leeway into that comparison than if it was someone that you had absolutely no similarity to,” Dahncke said. “Especially for dating shows, toxic behavior or relationships can get kind of romanticized because it’s kind of just seen as the plot.”
Gilmore said she is aware of these unhealthy relationship dynamics and behaviors when watching reality TV shows.
“I nd myself recognizing the toxic dynamics and beauty standards and calling them out, which makes me hyperaware of those dynamics in general and more able to avoid them,” Gilmore said.
ough toxicity can be fun to watch on TV, Williamson said it should not be normalized.
I think that reality TV is fun and can be trashy, and that’s why we like it. And I do not think anyone should take advice from reality TV seriously, or think that relationships portrayed on there are normal because they are not,” Williamson said. “And it’s also impossible to know what’s scripted
versus not, a lot of it’s edited a certain way. We can’t really know what people are really like because they are portrayed to us in a very produced way. So there are things that are left out of what happened. ere are certain ways that they can put shots or moments together that make a person look a certain way. So I hope today’s audiences, especially teenagers, know that it’s fake.”
Dahncke said it is easy for viewers to get invested in TV show contestants because they are not entirely ctional. at concept really grounds how much emotion we feel when we watch it because it’s not like they’re characters, it’s it feels like these are actual people that we can see ourselves in, in some way, even if they’re totally exaggerated, or even if the drama feels like somewhat manufactured,” Dahncke said. “It still feels like there’s a connection that you don’t get as much when it’s entirely ctional. And I think that a lot of people can feel like their personal life or people in their life, or even themselves, is being re ected in the show that they’re watching.”
Park also said while many viewers develop parasocial relationships with reality TV show contestants, it’s important to remember that these shows are edited to put people in a certain light.
“With parasocial relationships, I think the biggest thing is realizing that what we see is so edited,” Park said. “It’s such a small part of what this person and their relationships and everything might be like. With awareness of how these shows are made, Park said it is hard to nd the right balance between genuine interactions and fun content.
“On one hand, especially for the dating shows, people want to see genuine connections and real people,” Park said. “But then that doesn’t always translate to good television because if they’re healthy, then they’re kind of boring for the ones who want drama, but then (for) people (who) don’t want drama, that’s what gets ratings, and of course, what brings the drama is toxicity.”
In addition to balance, Gilmore said in order for TV shows to truly re ect reality, they should have a diverse cast of people.
“I think in order for reality TV to mirror reality — which is the selling point — people of di erent backgrounds and identities have to be included,” Gilmore said. “It does a ect how much I enjoy the show as it feels less authentic otherwise, which makes it more di cult to dive into.”
ough the industry has made some steps towards having a more diverse cast, Park said there is still a long way to go.
“Ultimately, broadcast corporations are in the business of money, so they’ll do what they need to do to make it seem like they’re increasing diversity,” Park said. “But if you actually start to look at the statistical breakdown of contestants and leads, in particular, I pointed back to we’ve had one Asian Bachelorette, and she had one of the worst seasons. e cast clearly did not want to marry an Asian woman. e guy that she ended up choosing was terrible. And there was so much hate and terrible comments.”
Park also said these forms of diversity can come in many ways.
“ ere’s (also) a lot of di erent types of diversity,” Park said. “ e ‘Bachelor,’ ‘Bachelorette,’ they’re all very heteronormative and cisgender. When it comes to representing diversity across the entire realm of race, religion, LGBTQ, sexuality and all of that, I think it could be better. But on the other hand, they’ll only do it if they get the ratings to support it, as long as it keeps making the money.”
While acknowledging diversity is important, Dahncke said production should also prioritize a group of people that will add substance to the show.
“I would say that in recent years, it’s become a bigger thing to have diversity,” Dahncke said. “But if you’re casting a big group of people, I think the best way to do it isn’t necessarily to prioritize diversity or to not prioritize diversity. I think you should just focus on getting a group of people that’s interesting. And of course, there should be diversity… (But) I think perspective should be a leading factor because of the types of perspectives and personality types that you’re throwing together into this mix. I think that’s very important for how the show plays out.”
Williamson said that while reality TV, in general, should be viewed for fun and not taken too seriously, it can help people re ect on themselves, their relationships, and their values.
“I do think that the one thing you could take away from those shows in terms of relationships and dating is just knowing more about like for your personal self and re ection of what you want and what you don’t want, and it also maybe helps for people who have gone through something similar,” Williamson said. “Hearing somebody else’s story, or watching something happen to somebody on TV, be it ctional or ‘reality,’ does help people process their own emotions and feelings, and helps them feel less alone and isolated. So I think there’s some community there. I also think it can be good to just self-re ect on ‘if my partner did this that this person’s doing on TV, would I be okay with that?’ Or, like, ‘this would be okay with me versus not,’ and it kind of helps you re ect on your values.”
Cherianne Yoon News/Opinion Editor & Art Director
Alex Isayama & Gavin Lin Sci/Tech Editor & Managing Editor
Kalena Masching plays bass with her band, the Doll Parts. “I went to Paly,” Masching said.
know what it feels like to not be the one going to the four-year college. My life is awesome.”
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ART BY CHERIANNE YOON
Back from the Great BEEyond
As he examined the unknown species from Palo Alto, Martin Hauser, the senior environmental scientists supervisor of California, sat in shock at his rare discovery.
e tiny insect was indeed a “Plebeia emerina,” and Hauser wondered how this Brazilian stingless bee could have settled and thrived in California. As he drove to Palo Alto to see the colony for himself, Hauser could only believe that this must have been a prank.For 75 years, a population of Brazilian stingless bees, “Plebeia emerina,” has secretly thrived in Palo Alto, creating a healthy colony long-after the species was presumed extinct in the United States. Following the large discovery in 2021, entomologists made e orts to support the bees’ survival in Palo Alto and continue to educate the community on meliponiculture — the management of stingless bees.
In the 1940s, Brazilian entomologist Paulo Nogueira-Neto released colonies of “Plebeia emerina” around the United States in an attempt to prove fellow entomologists in Brazil that individual bee colonies could survive in non-native environments.
“In 1948, I sent 10 colonies of Meliponini to the United States Department of Agriculture, and 20 others in 1950,” Nogueira-Neto wrote in his article published in December 2002. “ ey were forwarded to Baton Rouge (Louisiana), Tucson (Arizona), Davis and Palo Alto (California), Logan (Utah) and Beltsville (Maryland).”
Of these populations, he concluded every colony died within a year, except those in Baton Rouge and Palo Alto.
According to his observations, the Baton Rouge population lasted two years, while the Palo Alto population, under the supervision of Stanford Professor George Schafer, survived eight years.
When all of the colonies had died, the study concluded and the stingless bee was assumed extinct in the United States.
In 2013, though, a local exterminator received a call from a Palo Alto family about a swarm of bees in their backyard. After careful examination by Hauser, he conrmed that the insects were “Plebeia emerina.”
“Six years later in 2019 the tree died in which the bees were in, but the home owners kept the tree still in the garden,” Hauser said. “But in 2020 in a storm, the tree was pushed over by the storm, and they had to cut it down, unfortunately, with the colony.”
As this colony waned, former Gamble Gardens Director Richard Hayden identi ed another colony of “Plebeia emerina” in the trees at the Palo Alto Gamble Gardens in 2018.
“We came across the bees because I noticed in one of our very tall, very old, probably 100-year-old palm trees by the house at Gamble garden there was some insect activity very high up that was unusual,” Hayden said. “It was coming out of the trunk, like there was a nest in the trunk, and I was curious.”
After sending a sample for identi cation, Hauser again con rmed that they were “Plebeia emerina,” and interestingly Gamble Gardens is only a few blocks away from the house of George Schafer, the Stanford professor in the ‘60s who maintained the original colony.
Palo Alto entomologists o cially con rmed the existence of this species in Palo Alto in spring 2021 when 4-year-old Annika Arnout found a small insect in her Palo Alto backyard.
Her caregiver, entomologist and biologist Targe Lindsay, con rmed the two colonies Arnout found were in fact “Plebia emerina.” e rare discovery not only con rmed Nogueira-Neto’s original thesis, but it
also revealed the stingless bee had exclusively survived in Palo Alto. More colonies were found at Gamble Gardens afterwards.
Jean-Philippe Marelli, a beekeeper, studied the stingless bees when he was living in Brazil during the pandemic, and continued studying and helping them when he returned to Davis, California.
“ ey’re really exceptional because they’re the only (stingless) bees that occur in the northern hemisphere, so it’s really a very unique opportunity,” Marelli said.
Marelli connected with experts in Palo Alto and began e orts to sustain the bees.
After attempting many strategies, he said he eventually found a way to help the swarm settle permanently in a hive, allowing him to transfer the bees to better locations for care.
“We’re hoping that by next season, by the spring, we’ll have some success on that, but it’s been fun working with those bees,” Marelli said.
According to Marelli, the bees are particularly special because they are uniquely an introduced species to the United States, and yet they have still thrived only in California.
“ ey’re really not either invasive or noxious to the environment, because all they do is help pollination,” Marelli said. “ ey’re not expanding the range, and the reason we think they’re not is because the conditions of Palo Alto are really unique in terms of the amount of owers that are present all year round.”
Retired journalist and photographer Robin Agarwal began photographing the bees locally when she couldn’t travel during the pandemic. Agarwal said while they are nonnative species, meaning they were introduced to California by humans, they are not invasive species as they don’t harm our environment. ey didn’t choose to come here, but nonetheless survived,” Agarwal said. “Impressive. I’m also fascinated by the fact that in the 70 years they’ve been here, they have never been spotted outside the Palo Alto city limits.”
Marelli said the climate, similar to that of southern Brazil, with colder winters and medium summers, make Palo Alto an ideal location for the bees to thrive. Hauser also said many other aspects of Palo Alto make it perfect for these bees, especially its location near the ocean. ey need higher humidity, and they need nice gardens, so they would (generally) never survive in the natural environment in California, and that’s very likely the reason why they never spread and why nobody ever found them,” Hauser said.
Marelli also said the fact the bees are stingless makes them ideal for educational purposes since kids can learn about them without the hazard of getting stung. ey do produce less honey than normal bees though. Marelli said these bees generally come in small populations of only 5,000 to 10,000, yet they are crucial in many environments, especially in tropical areas.
“I think what is fascinating to me is that they are really pretty essential for the conservation of the tropical rainforest, so without stingless bees, we could not have the Amazon,” Marelli said.
Agarwal said she hopes to continue working with these special species and help them thrive in Palo Alto. Agarwal said, “I just want them to live their lives, looking cute, pollinating our local gardens and bringing joy to entomologists who study introduced species.”
Dalia Saal Sta Writer
Axed Department of Eduation restricts students
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20 directing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. e Trump administration has also cut parts of the education-research branch of the DoE, reduced its civil rights division, and red nearly half of the department’s sta
As a result, student loan portfolios –– which include $1.6 trillion in loans –– originally overseen by the Federal Student Aid O ce in the Department of Education, will now be moved to the Small Business Administration. Federal special education services will now be moved to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Similarly, Trump ordered Pell Grants, Title I and funding resources for children with disabilities and special needs will be redistributed to various agencies.
e changes have many experts concerned.
Manish Naik, the director of legislation for the Council of Great City Schools — an organization that works to improve inner-city education in 78 of the nation’s largest urban public school systems — said the original purpose of the Department of Education was to help students who were underserved by state governments.
“In general, there were pockets of students in this country who were not being well served by their states,” Naik said.
“ e United States has a very decentralized education system. Every state is responsible for its own system of standards, its own state testing and things like that. And a lot of that is even decentralized, even further to its individual school districts.
e Department of Education was rst created in 1979 to collect information on schools and teaching in order to help the States create e ective school systems. Its mission is to “promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.”
However, former chairman of the Santa Clara County Republican Party Shane Patrick Connolly said people shouldn’t be so concerned. He said the Trump administration’s goal is to increase e ciency and prevent excessive federal in uence.
“ e idea here is that the administration is trying to eliminate the bureaucracy of the Department of Education without eliminating some of the key work of the department,” Connolly said. “ ere will still be grants, like Pell grants that are authorized by Congress. ere will still be care for and support for disabled students. ose functions will continue. ey’ll just be in a di erent department … It’s really about creating e ciency and reducing costs and also reducing federal in uence on local schools.”
Michael W. Kirst, former president of the California State Board of Education, said one motivation behind the cuts is the national debt.
ere’s a huge de cit, and we’ve got to cut,” Kirst said. “It’s just, what do you cut?”
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary School Education Act provides $17 billion to 63% of public schools where at least 40% of students come from low-income families.
e way it works right now is Congress has authorized a law called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that has a formula for how funding should be distributed to Title I schools,” Naik said. “So that formula, which is basically the calculation and how the big pot of money gets distributed to each of the individual states and then to each school district. en districts determine how much goes to each school building.”
While 83% of PAUSD funding came from property taxes in 2024, the district did receive $5.7 million from the Department of Education
with $280,000 coming from Title I funding. Of PAUSD’s federal funding, $2.6 million is provided by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for Special Education support.
According to NPR, federal grants are essential to lowerincome rural schools, providing sta salaries, supplies, and other basic services that low-income schools may not otherwise be able to a ord.
PAUSD would not be as a ected, however, due to our high property taxes. Furthermore, during a March 25 board meeting on the budget, Chief Financial Business O cer Charen Yu said the district does not have to worry about federal cuts a ecting Title I and IDEA funding.
“According to the latest executive order that we have received, the federal government ensures the preservation of Title 1 and the IDEA Funding, however, it is advisable to prepare for potential cost deferrals,” Yu said.
Eliminating the Department of Education has been a recurring objective of conservatives since the 1980s. A year after the department was signed into law, former President Ronald Reagan tried to eliminate the department. Similarly, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) suggested abolishing the department in the ‘90s. en, in the 2008 presidential primary, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and the then-governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney called for the same.
U.S. Government teacher Caitlin Drewes said the order is a result of an ongoing debate between allocating political power to the federal or state government.
“Republicans have wanted to get rid of the Department of Education for a very, very long time,” Drewes said. “ e complaint was like, ‘Education should be local. It should be at the highest level of the state. It should not be federal.’”
But Naik said there is a common misconception that the Department of Education controls local school and state curriculum.
ere’s a very small amount of funding that the federal government provides, and a fairly small amount of strings,” Naik. “ ere’s very little they’ll be able to do more than they couldn’t already do now.”
Naik said federal funding can still be signi cant, though, especially to schools that do not receive much money from property taxes. In fact, roughly 13.7% of public school funding came from the federal level in the 2021-2022 school year, according to USA Facts.
“It’s a small amount of funding, but it’s supplemental funding,” Naik said. “Every school district gets a certain amount from their states, but our local and state funding system is a little inequitable, often based on property taxes. So having an urban or rural district get supplemental funding for those students from the federal government, that money is very valuable to them, even if it’s just a small part of their budget.”
While the Department of Education can hold states accountable, Connolly said individual states can often decide what education systems work best for them.
“ e genius of our system was that states were the incubators of experimentation and success, so when you learn about good practices in one place, they can be replicated, but they aren’t forced on anyone where they don’t t right,” Connolly said. “Di erent states have di erent complexions of population demographics, di erent, rural, urban divides, and so the learning situations may be di erent. A lot of states are doing innovative things like pure voucherization, where the dollars follow the child to let parents have a say in the best institution to have their child educated in, whether that’s homeschooling, religious, private school or a public school.”
However, Connolly said the lack of national standardization also has some drawbacks.
“ e downside is that the states that are doing badly may double down on their bad policies where they’re not properly emphasizing core curricula and instead forcing on students kind of like social agenda pursuits that don’t have much to do with actually giving them the skills they need to be able to learn whatever they want,” Connolly said.
Ultimately, Connolly said the Trump administration’s goal of abolishing the Department of Education is to give states the freedom to do what’s right for them.
“States will have more exibility in how they spend the education dollars, so they can focus more of the dollars on what’s working and not just what some bureaucrat in Washington says they must spend on,” Connolly said. “My hope for California is that they start spending it more wisely and with a greater emphasis on core curriculum.”
Although Title I funding and other supportive resources might not fully go away, Naik said having no Department of Education leaves the states without accountability.
“With money, the federal departments do have some ability to get states to follow the law, because of the money and because of the appearance of authority; (prevention) for defying the federal department of education goes away a little bit,” Naik said.
Federal funding also plays an important role in supporting higher education research. However, on Feb. 7, the
PAUSD Revenue Sources
(then) going to further reduce the number of low-income students that can a ord to enroll in college.”
Natalie Miller, a student journalist at the University of Southern California who has interviewed students applying for nancial aid, said the indirect costs cap is also a ecting undergraduate students.
“ e threats to cut research programs a ect students across the board within STEM elds,” Miller said. “From interviews that I have conducted, I have learned that incoming students will be the most a ected, as there will most likely be a halt or decrease in the amount of research positions made available. Current research students are at risk of having their labs or projects completely paused, harming their path to gaining their degree and nishing their studies.”
By splitting up educational programs, Naik said the Trump administration’s actions threaten smaller educational initiatives and federal education.
“I think a combination of getting rid of sta and moving it to another agency puts the programs and the priorities and the authority of it at risk,” Naik said. “I think if you move Title I from the O ce of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, and if you move it ve or six levels down to the Department of Health and Human Services or Department of
ey’re cutting personnel without a clear plan to add sta to these places that would inherit the old Department of Education.”
Despite this, Connolly said the cuts are a necessary step toward reducing government overhead.
“ e idea was to improve educational outcomes in America,” Connolly said. “Unfortunately, we’re spending billions of dollars and getting worse results at schools … And then the department has been misused as during the Obama administration, when they tied funding for policies like requiring bathrooms for girls to be accessible by boys who are claiming a di erent gender, or something like that.
With the U.S. Fiscal Treasury Fiscal Data marking the current national debt at $36.22 trillion, Connolly said reducing federal spending is critical.
“We need to do everything we can to slow the growth of the national debt because pretty soon the debt, which already consumes more in interest payments than we spend on national defense, will be eating up resources that are needed for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, things like that,” Connolly said. “We don’t want our federal government to be a pass-through just to pay o the debt.”
Even with debt in mind, Naik said the reason behind cutting funds from the education department lacks clarity.
“I haven’t heard anyone explain how this move would improve test scores,” Naik said. “Ironically, in that executive order, they say test scores are terrible, and we should close the Department of Education. First of all, they’re citing the Department of Education statistical analysis. You know, they actually red a lot of the people that did the analysis.”
will ultimately harm the country.
“ e U.S. is just going to continue to go downhill in reputation and in just in general, because education is such a core foundation of what the citizens of the United States set out to succeed,” Fan said. “Without adequate support, innovative students who have the ability to create di erent ideas and di erent technologies might not be able to do that because they’re not going to receive the foundation that they need in education throughout their lives.”
And Naik said he worries that cuts will disproportionately harm vulnerable student populations.
“Our school districts, and ( e Council of Great City Schools) represents the largest urban school districts in the country, have a lot of the students that the Department of Education was created to serve, such as low income, English learner, immigrant refugee students and students with disabilities … and we have doubts about whether or not the federal government is still able to do that with the sta cuts,” Naik said. “We feel that a nation should have a federal department of education. It should be a major priority of any important nation to improve the education of all students, but especially those that have often been disregarded or left behind.”
STORY BY CINDY LIANG, ZOYA PRABHAKAR & LUCA VOSTREJS
ART BY TERESA WANG
Athletes compete in niche sports for college admissions
It’s Friday night, the stadium buzzes with excitement, and the bleachers are jam-packed with students cheering on the football team. e crowd’s roar reverberates through the gridiron as much as the spotlights illuminate it. But on the other, quieter side of the school, fencers and rowers work diligently into the night.
Niche sports aren’t widely popular, but could provide students with opportunities to bolster their ultimate goal: college applications.
Pinewood freshman Eddie Ling has been a competitive fencer since the age of 7 and currently ranks sixth in the nation for 16 year olds. He represented Team USA at the Cadet Circuit, a series of tournaments for fencers in the cadet age group held in Bulgaria, Slovakia and France, and won gold against teams across Europe.
“At rst, I didn’t really think about fencing in college or getting recruited by a prestigious university,” Ling said. “I fenced because I loved the sport.”
But Ling said he later realized his passion for fencing o ered a unique path to college recruitment compared to more mainstream sports. Learning how to deftly attack with an épée might get a student admitted into one of the 46 universities across the country that o er fencing.
Similar to Ling, for many talented high school athletes, college placement is the ultimate goal.
“As I got better, the idea of college recruitment piqued my interest,” Ling said. “My potential to attend a top university suddenly became more realistic.”
And Ling said niche sports like fencing pave a unique path to college recruitment compared to more mainstream sports.
“Since fencing is not common, there are fewer competitors at a high level which makes standing out from the crowd much easier,” Ling said. “ e best universities have great fencing programs, so being recruited to one of those schools is now my priority.”
Sophomore Madalena Buxton can relate. She said she hopes to follow the footsteps of her two older sisters, one who rowed at UCLA and the other at Boston University. Seeing how rowing steered her siblings toward success, Buxton said she rows competitively knowing it could add muscle to her 2027 college applications. e admissions boost that comes with crew played a big part in my motivation to row,” Buxton said.
But unlike Ling, Buxton strategically chose to pursue rowing from the beginning. To her, crew is more than a high school sport — it’s an opportunity to distinguish herself in the competitive world of college admissions.
“What’s great about rowing is that even if you start late, you can still pick up this sport if you dedicate yourself to it,” Buxton said. “Show up every day, work your tail o and you can excel in crew.”
Over 150 universities o er NCAA Division 1 rowing, with the average scholarship size for men at more than $14,000 per year, and for women, it exceeds $20,000 annually. e odds of earning a scholarship for fencing are almost three times as high as the odds for basketball players.
Katie Smith, who was a starter for St. Mary’s College’s basketball team, said she knows rsthand the competitive advantage of participating in niche sports. “ e pool of applicants participating in niche sports is much smaller,” Smith said. “ e percentage of recruited high school athletes from those sports is higher than students playing in the mainstream.”
But Smith said while the chances of recruitment may be higher, athletic requirements are still challenging.
“Although niche athletes enjoy greater probabilities of playing at the collegiate level, admission standards at top colleges tend to be stricter for those students compared to football or basketball players,” Smith said. Niche sports might not grab ostentatious headlines, Ling said success isn’t always found on center stage. It can be fostered in the shadows, away from the limelight. Ling said, “Niche sports can uncover opportunities that you might have never expected.”
Kane Do Sta Writer
High equipment costs of sports limit accesibility, diversity
Examining the beautiful smooth metal golf clubs in the PGA Superstore with curved glossy heads displayed in front of him, junior Dylan Liao hesitates to turn over the price tag. Despite the bright red ‘On Sale’ next to them, he knows these sets of clubs would cost thousands to purchase.
Liao said gear is the main reason for golf’s image as an expensive sport.
“ e clubs can cost, for a full set, $4,000,” Liao said. “You have speci c clubs that can cost up to $1,000 for just one club. e balls you use can sometimes go upwards of $5 a ball.”
And Liao is not the only student-athlete to be impacted by the high price of playing the sport they love.
“For skiing, the amount of driving has many accompanying costs, such as car maintenance and gas,” said junior Oliver Payne. “In addition, people need to pay for lodging, which can be quite expensive, and for actual ski gear. Some ski resorts have very expensive ski passes, too. Finally, being a part of a ski team costs even more.”
Similarly, junior Kensie Pao, a former sailor, said sailing equipment is expensive.
“ e gear (can be expensive), and also if you don’t have access to a public lake with rentable boats, you have to own your own boat and pay to use the lakes,” Pao said.
ese prices, Liao said, can reduce the sport’s accessibility to only those with the means to a ord these increased prices.
“It de nitely does limit who can play golf and who can’t, but there’s a lot of programs today that o er signi cant discounts,” Liao said. “For example, PGA is partnered with TaylorMade golf brand, which allows its members who buy like $100 plaque (to) get a 40% discount on all items sold by TaylorMade. But for the most part, people who are not the top 1% (are) just not going to be able to participate in these high-cost sports.”
Similarly, Pao said the price of sailing can limit who is able to take part in the activity.
“If you don’t have access or the means to be on a competitive sailing team (which) provides you with a boat and lake time, you can’t participate in the sport,” Pao said. “Additionally, regattas cost money to participate in, so that’s another factor”
Payne, who also plays soccer, said in comparison to skiing, she said soccer is less expensive.
“I do think that for skiing, there are very high costs that do limit who can ski and who can’t, but soccer tends to be much more a ordable to play,” Payne said.
Payne said these price di erences limit diversity in youth sports across the nation.
“I think that the rising prices of youth sports do decrease the diversity of athletes in the sports world because many minority families in the US are unfortunately in a worse nancial position and are therefore unable to put their kids into sports programs,” Payne said.
Liao said these rising prices can also be detrimental to current players and newcomers to the sport.
“I think that people coming into the sport will be less encouraged to keep on playing because of the high cost,” Liao said. “ e people (who had played) before will notice the higher cost and also leave the game. ose who can pay for it will be the only ones playing the game.”
Naveen Narayanaswami Sports Editor
Female athletes inspire change
Junior Zoe Sherer laces up her pointe shoes, the soft satin concealing the hours of dedication, pain, and perseverance behind every graceful movement.
As she prepares for another rigorous practice, she thinks of Candy Tong, a professional ballet dancer and model who has carved her own path in the industry.
“She is really inspiring because of how strong of a woman she is,”
Sherer said.
“She is really
independent and started her own business, which I also want to do when I’m older.”
For Sherer, Tong’s impact goes beyond dance — her success as an entrepreneur and performer resonates deeply, especially because of their shared cultural background.
“She’s an Asian immigrant who has gotten work in the dance industry and has been really successful and well known, which is inspiring,” Sherer said. “She’s impacted (young girls) by representing that minority in dance.”
As Women’s History Month celebrates the resilience and achievements of female athletes, role models like Tong continue to inspire young female athletes to push past barriers and pursue their passions with con dence.
Similarly, junior track and eld athlete Lilia Kuzmicheva said her role model, Sunisa Lee, an Olympic gold medallist in gymnastics, empowers girls by challenging societal prejudices.
“She defeated a lot of stereotypes, especially in a sport like gymnastics, because I didn’t know it was possible for girls to do all those tricks that she could do,” Kuzmicheva said. “Young girls watching her on TV and seeing those things … look up to that.”
Athletic Director Jennifer Crane said female athletes like Mia Hamm, a renowned soccer player, have opened new career opportunities for women.
“Mia Hamm’s impact on the commercialization of women’s sports has undoubtedly paved the way for female athletes to gain more visibility nancial opportunities,” Crane said.
“She was one of the rst female athletes to secure major endorsement deals, proving that women’s sports could be
Crane said her admiration for Hamm stems from Hamm’s character and values.
“I remember her being a really hard worker and (having) a huge level of humility when she was being interviewed,” Crane said. “Most of her interviews always related back to her passion and love for the sport, and that’s something that stuck with me because that’s why I
While she didn’t gain technical sports knowledge from Hamm, Crane said she still learned valuable lessons from “She wasn’t the sole in uencer but in uenced the way that I handle myself in the athletic arena in regards to sportsmanship and holding yourself with a certain stature in the athletic arena,” Crane said.
Like Crane, Sherer said Tong taught her crucial values, such as being perseverant in the face of setbacks.
“Always push yourself, be your own person and take
opportunities to score and (made) a lot of mental mistakes,
Lucas Lai
Sta Writer
In a thrilling home game on March 15, boys lacrosse beat Archbishop Mitty 10-8. e match was close, with both teams trading goals back-and-forth until the game was decided in the nal 15 seconds when Paly scored to take the lead. Sophomore Richard Zhang, who had one goal and one assist, said executing the team’s game plan played a large role in its victory.
di culties, he thinks the team will be successful this season.
“We gave them too many opportunities to score and (made) a lot of mental mistakes, but we played well as a team together,” Zhang said. “If we just keep playing like that, we’ll de nitely keep winning games.”
Senior Sam Helft prepares himself for a game on April 1. “We gave them too many
but we played well as a team together,” Zhang said. “If we just
nitely
RAHUL SHETTY/THE CAMPANILE
Amaya Bharadwaj Sta Writer
ART BY ANGELIKA GERA
Rohan Predicts: Jokić over Shai; Green wins DPOY
The NBA season is winding down, and with the playo picture clearing up, it’s time to turn our attention to the individual awards race.
While narratives have taken their usual twists and turns, some aspects remain constant—rookies defying expectations and voters pretending defense matters for a month. Let’s break it all down.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is having an incredible season. e under has a 0.840 win percentage, and a 10-game win streak because of his stellar o ense and his better-than-advertised defense. But the MVP has to go to Jokić in my mind. Jokić is just the best player on the planet, and this year, he played like someone who knew it. He is averaging a triple-double every game, but it’s the way he controls the game that separates him.
e Nuggets are elite because Jokić orchestrates their o ense like a chess grandmaster,
sees passes before they exist and has a scoring e ciency that would make an accountant blush.
Yes, voter fatigue is real, but so is common sense. After watching Jokić drop 61 points on the Timberwolves, I can’t see the award for the best individual player going to anyone else.
Since Victor Wembanyama’s injury, Evan Mobley and Draymond Green have been going blow for blow on sportsbooks and in the metrics.
Mobley is the anchor of Cleveland’s defense. He switches onto guards, protects the rim without fouling and erases bad matchups before they become problems. e Cavaliers’ defense stays elite whenever he’s on the oor, and that’s without relying on traditional shot-blocking stats. Green, on the other hand, has some of the highest Defensive IQ in the league. He handles two-onone and three-on-one fast breaks by himself and positions himself such that he has the e ciency of two defenders.
Since winning the West’s Defensive Player of the Month in March, Green has climbed to
the top of the DPOY ladder, triggering journalists and forum surfers alike. But he’s going to do that tenfold with the Hakeem Olajuwon trophy in hand. He is hands down the most impactful, versatile defender in the NBA.
is isn’t a Victor Wembanyama repeat, but Stephon Castle landing in San Antonio and immediately thriving should terrify the rest of the league. e rookie class was supposed to be wide open, but Castle quickly separated himself as a two-way force with positional versatility and a pro-ready game.
Castle’s defense has been exceptional—he disrupts passing lanes like a veteran. O ensively, he’s grown into a legitimate, consistent option next to Wembanyama, blending smart decisionmaking with a developing shot.
Rookies usually struggle on defense or efciency, but Castle? He just ts. e Spurs have been struggling, but Castle is not the reason ––he’s a deserving Rookie of the Year.
e Cade Cunningham breakout was supposed to happen last year. Instead, a knee injury derailed him, Detroit cratered, and people began to whisper “bust” a little too loudly. is year? Cade shut that down.
Fully healthy, Cunningham reminded everyone why he was the No. 1 pick. He’s a do-it-all guard with size, vision and a smooth midrange game that can control tempo like a veteran. His numbers jumped across the board — points, assists, e ciency — while the Pistons ( nally) looked competitive in games that he played.
Some hate to see this award go to a player with an already high ceiling, but remember that Ja Morant won the MIP under similar circumstances. Norman Powell should get his owers as well, but Cunningham has the award locked up.
Rohan Bhatia Sports Editor
Isabelle Carlsen Business Manager
After a challenging match against Lynbrook on March 27, the boys tennis team fell to 6-1 in league play, but players say they remain optimistic about their performance and the team’s future.
Senior Carson Packard said their opponents have been tough, but also said he sees positives in the team’s e ort. “ ese guys are the best in the league, … but towards the end, we had a nice comeback going,” Packard said. “It was great for our con dence and great to win points with Ethan Kleiner. We’ve been doubles partners for a long time now, so the chemistry is de nitely there.”
Despite the loss, senior and captain Leo Terman secured the team’s singular point after his opponent retired due to an injury.
“I think I played well,” Terman said. “My forehand could have been better, but I knew I could use my backhand to attack. My opponent didn’t have the best attitude, but I just focused on playing my game and not letting his anger distract me.”
Terman also said injuries have impacted the team’s performance, with two singles players retiring due to injuries and ve key players missing from the starting lineup.
“If we had a full, healthy lineup, we could have won this match,” Terman said. “We had to move up some players who were
lower in the lineup, and it was a tough situation.”
As the team looks ahead, Packard said he thinks players are focusing on both individual and collective improvement.
“My goal is to foster more connections with my teammates and become a more con dent tennis player,” Packard said. Terman agreed and emphasized his desire to improve his forehand and serve.
“I’ve been working on my forehand in practice, but I need to translate that work into matches,” Terman said. “Our goal as a team is to keep improving. We moved up leagues this year, so we’ve been losing more, but it’s helping us get match experience against high-level players.”
Despite the setbacks, Terman said the team remains motivated.
“Everybody is really respectful to each other, and our doubles players especially have great chemistry,” Terman said. “Even with a tough season, it’s nice to see people really involved in the sport.” According to Terman, with a young roster and determination to improve, the team is hopeful for future matches and continued growth.
“I think the general goal is just to win,” Terman said.” Our team is pretty young, so they will be able to become better through this tough season and hopefully create a stronger team next season.”
e team’s next away game is on April 17 against Gunn at 4 p.m.
ART BY LUCY NEMEROV
Smog Surge
Santa Clara County’s worsening air quality is re ected in its failing “State of the Air” grades, according to the American Lung Association. With ozone levels and annual particle pollution consistently reaching unhealthy levels, the county has struggled to pass air quality assessments since 2016.
Data from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District shows that Redwood City’s highest January ozone levels have risen by 30 points over the last 20 years, highlighting a troubling trend that experts like Michael Flagg, Principal Air Quality Specialist at the BAAQMD, continue to monitor closely.
Flagg said the agency tracks pollutant particles in the air.
“Pollutants are regulated by the Department of Health Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act, so that’s particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead,” Flagg said. “ ese are the pollutants that we track over time. If we’re looking back 20 plus years, air quality has decreased since the early 2000s. What’s been happening more recently, like the last 10 years, is that concentrations generally have been fairly stable.”
Stanford Clinical Assistant Professor of Pulmonology and Critical Care Lauren Eggert said PM 2.5 particles, particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller, are of particular concern because they can pass through masks and handkerchiefs.
“AQI is the air quality index and that measures the levels of that 2.5 µm (micrometer) particulate matter in the air, and PM 2.5 is particulate matter that’s 2.5 µm in size,” Eggert said. “ at is the small particulate matter that we worry about because it’s so small, it easily gets into the lungs. It goes through a regular surgical mask.” Flagg also said ozone pollution poses a major health risk. e other main pollutant is ozone,” Flagg said. “It’s not emitted directly
quality. However, Stanford Associate Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Peter Kao said recent wild res have o set recent progress in reducing emissions.
“We’re having a higher frequency of wild res in California where the sky turns orange, and the air quality can be as bad as 200 or 300,” Kao said. “ ere’s been simultaneous e orts over the past three decades to reduce smog by improving pollution controls on cars — that’s helped, but that has been counterbalanced by the increasing incidences of wild res.”
Kao also said poor air quality can a ect breathing and other health problems.
“Poor air can exacerbate and worsen asthma bronchitis, which is a production of large amounts of sputum asthma, wheezing, shortness of breath,” Kao said. “ ere are more rare diseases, some of the cardiac diseases, cardiac arrhythmia or congestive heart failure. I have some patients who are exposed to dust down in the Central Valley, and there’s ne particulate matter — not necessarily for re smoke — that can also exacerbate their respiratory illnesses.”
Eggert said poor air not only a ects healthy individuals, but it is particularly problematic for vulnerable demographics like children.
“Unfortunately, our children are the most a ected because they have smaller airways, and so when they get in amed, they’re gonna have worse symptoms,” Eggert said. “Developing lungs are at the highest risk when they have these exposures. Children that are living near major highways and roadways in LA or elsewhere develop more asthma and have worse lung function and respiratory health. ere’s a lot of people now looking at the e ects of these wild res and how they may also be impacting respiratory health long-term.”
Kao said poor air quality also disproportionately a ects socioeconomically disadvantaged people who may not have access to treatments.
“For the last ve years, I’ve been telling many of my patients to buy an
have our core monitoring network, we operate throughout 30 locations throughout the air district. We’re working on partnering with communitybased organizations to expand access to air monitoring or air monitoring data in communities that live in close proximity to sources of pollution, what we call overburdened communities, which share a disproportionate amount of exposure to poor air pollution.”
To improve breathing, Eggert recommends avoiding outside activities when the AQI reaches unhealthy levels.
“In terms of how you can protect yourself on a personal level, when the air quality is poor you should avoid going outside or spending time outside and if you do, you should wear a tting mask at least a KN or an N95 that lters 95% of that small particulate matter,” Eggert said.
Kao said a treatment he recommends is salt water clearance.
“I’ve had re ghters be exposed to wild re smoke, and I have recommended to them that at the end of a workday, they do airway clearance therapies, which involve inhaling a mist of sterile salty water,” Kao said. is salty water in the air tubes by osmosis pulls water across the cells and liquidizes the mucus. It was proven to be e ective in patients with cystic brosis with very sticky glue-like mucus, but it can bene t even patients without cystic brosis by enhancing mucociliary clearance.”
Flagg said a bigger move to solve air quality is by targeting the source.
“ e core tenets of controlling air pollution is limiting emissions,” Flagg said. “A lot of pollution also comes from cars, both passenger vehicles, heavy-duty trucks and mobile source emissions that are associated with diesel engines. ere have been a lot of improvements in fuel e ciency around automobiles that have de nitely had a big impact on air quality. It’s not a single technology that’s going to solve the problem. It’s going to be working on a number of di erent ways to reduce emissions across the board for all types of di erent sources.”
Ultimately, Kao said protecting the air is protecting the body. “ e body is a miracle — take nothing for granted and be grateful for your health and preserve it, don’t risk it,” Kao said. “You win the game if you live a long rewarding life. Keep your eye on the long game and honor your health, preserve your health and be grateful for it.”
Cynthia Huang News & Opinion Editor
Waymo’s self-driving taxis gain popularity, optimize safety using AI
“(You) log in, sign in and tell the car where you want to go beforehand,” Gera said. “You can see what route you’re going on the screen in front,”
Junior Angelika Gera watches as her ride pulls up beside the sidewalk. It is a fairly normal car, except for the cameras on its side and the cylinder at the top of its head.
is is a Waymo taxi, one of many in San Francisco.
“ It was my rst time, and I wasn’t expecting it to drive that well,” Gera said. “I would say it was very, very precise (and) pretty fast.”
Self-driving car company Waymo launched its selfdriving taxi service last year, operating in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, where its cars now roam city streets.
Waymo cars use a navigation process called Sense, Solve, Go, where sensors and cameras on the cars process surroundings using arti cial intelligence.
Senior Marco Li said his experience with Waymo was successful despite minor inconveniences.
“I noticed that Waymo’s AI system tries to make tiny adjustments to the (route) every other second,” Li said. “It makes the ride feel a little bumpy because the car constantly calibrates its path left and right.” is occurs because, according to Gera, the routes are pre-planned.
Li said Waymo cars also show nearby cars and pedestrians, making him feel safe during his ride.
“ e car brakes suddenly when it detects pedestrians,” Li said. “ e deceleration I feel from braking is quite constant. I actually trust Waymo more than at least 80% of human drivers. ere was this funny moment when a human driver honked at our Waymo from behind. It made me realize no matter how perfectly a car drives, human drivers will still nd a reason to honk.”
With all these features, Gera said the car was faster than she expected.
“It was searching for opportunities to get to a point faster,” Gera said. “To get to things like red lights … it was sometimes trying to cut the cars to go faster.”
However, in his car, senior Nathan Jiang said such abrupt maneuvers were rare.
“It generally felt pretty conservative at stop signs, but it did surprise me with a couple of more aggressive moves,” Jiang said.
Despite common safety concerns, Jiang said he was not worried.
“It handled the road pretty smoothly, and I generally felt quite safe and comfortable in the car,” Jiang said.
Overall, Gera said the experience was memorable. “I would really recommend driving a Waymo at least once,” Gera said. “I would say it was a nice experience but very scary.”
Jiang said he expects Waymo to have an expansive future.
Jiang said, “It provides a good and new, exciting service that I think could challenge Uber and Lyft if it’s actually scalable.”
Lea Kwan
Senior Sta Writer
ART BY CYNTHIA HUANG
Rest assured
Meryem Orazova Sta Writer
e Cubberley Community Center has long stood as a pillar of Palo Alto’s cultural, educational and recreational activities. With new plans to renovate the facility, it is essential for the city to address the troubling legacy of its namesake, Ellwood Cubberley, an advocate of eugenics. To uphold its desire for inclusivity, Palo Alto should rename the Cubberley Community Center. Eugenics is a discredited scienti c theory aimed at “improving” the human race through selective reproduction based on racist and exclusionary ideals. Proponents of the theory sought to allocate resources and opportunities based on perceived genetic superiority, reinforcing systemic discrimination.
Ellwood Cubberley, a prominent educator and the rst dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, applied these beliefs to his work, advocating for the preferential treatment of those students he deemed “eugenically gifted” in the education system. is conversation is not new to Palo Alto. e community previously demonstrated a commitment to renaming institutions associated with the eugenics movement in 2017 when the Palo Alto Board of Education voted unanimously to rename Jordan Middle School and Terman Middle School due to their namesakes’ advocacy of eugenics. e move was in accordance with the community’s dedication to fostering a space that values all people, regardless of background. But the Renaming Schools Advisory Committee suggested at the time that Cubberley Community Center, despite its role as a community hub, only be renamed if it were reopened as a school.
On Feb. 18 of this year, the City Council approved a vision statement for the future of the community center, describing it as “a vibrant and beloved destination with activities, amenities and o erings that promote learning, joy and well-being where all cultures and generations belong.”
A facility meant to embody these principles should not bear the name of someone whose ideology promoted exclusion.
With proposals to develop and renovate the Cubberley site, the city has been presented with an opportunity to involve the community in deciding on a new name that aligns with Palo Alto’s values of equity and inclusiveness. After all, how can a community center truly embody inclusion and diversity if it continues to be a liated with someone whose ideology stood in opposition of those very values?
And reevaluating historical names is a part of a larger movement across the nation. is issue isn’t a matter of erasing or ignoring history — it’s a matter of deciding which beliefs align with community goals. When we name a community center, a school or even a bench at the local park after someone, we elevate their legacy and associate their names with the ideals we wish to promote.
Many historical gures, including renowned educators, scientists and political leaders, made signi cant contributions despite holding views or engaging in actions now considered deeply problematic. For instance, omas Je erson, a Founding Father celebrated for his role in drafting the Declaration of Independence, was a slave owner. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. President, is recognized for his leadership during World War I and the formation of the League of Nations, but his administration also mandated racial segregation within the federal government. Similarly, some may argue Cubberley’s contributions to education should not be dismissed solely because of his support for eugenics.
However, unlike Je erson and Wilson — whose legacies are broadly debated in the context of their contributions to the nation — Cubberley’s primary in uence was in education, an area where his advocacy of eugenics directly shaped exclusionary policies. His name on a community center, a space meant to welcome all people, reinforces a legacy that prioritized certain groups over others.
While history is complex, honoring a gure by naming an institution after them inherently expands their in uence. Keeping Cubberley’s name on a community center sends the wrong message, not only because of his association with eugenics but because his work in education actively promoted ideas.
Unlike a textbook or museum, where historical gures are studied in full context, naming a public facility after someone implicitly honors them. Keeping Cubberley’s name ultimately suggests that his contributions to education outweigh the harm of his ideology — an ideology that seeks to categorize and limit people based on racial hierarchies. Acknowledging his role in shaping education does not require continuing to celebrate his name.
Stepping into my bedroom, I immediately feel the heaviness of my eyelids after hours of endless lectures and classwork. I barely make it to my bed before I collapse into my mattress and surrender myself to a short slumber. Hours later, I wake up from a much needed nap, feeling rejuvenated and ready to focus on any remaining work for the day.
For the past ve years, after school almost every day, I indulge in a nap to ease my aching mind and body. It has become an essential part of my daily routine, giving me an additional boost of energy to compensate for any sleep debt. Without my daily nap, I feel drained and unable to take on the challenging workload I would normally be ne completing.
Some of my friends who don’t nap, enjoy teasing me about my nap routine. I understand from their perspective, naps seem like an unproductive waste of time.
While this may be true if you have a consistent, healthy sleep schedule, when heavy exhaustion starts to blanket your mind in the middle of the day, naps can become essential.
In fact, they are proven to provide an array of bene ts, even when someone is well rested. Research from 2016 by the American Psychological Association shows naps can improve reaction time, logical reasoning and symbol recognition. ose who napped were also found to maintain greater tolerance to frustration than those who stayed awake.
After-school naps are particularly e ective because sleep reinforces learned material. A 2003 study conducted by Nature Neuroscience suggests people performed better on visual-texture distinguishing tasks after sleeping through the night compared to people who just learned the material.
e performance of people who napped was equivalent to the performance of people who slept overnight.
Taking a nap after school aids comprehension of new material, allowing for more productive studying.
And despite what nap doubters might believe, reveling in a nap doesn’t have to occupy your entire evening.
A 2016 Healthline research study found that a 10 to 30 minute nap is enough to re-energize and enter the beginning stages of the sleep cycle.
is kind of nap prevents you from waking in a stage of deep sleep, which may leave you more groggy than before. It also helps prevent disruptions to your nighttime sleep. ough, if you are particularly exhausted and have the time, a 90-minute nap is bene cial as well as it marks the completion of one sleep cycle.
Naps also help alleviate the academic and social pressures of high school which is causing mass sleep deprivation among adolescents. According to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than two-thirds of high school students aren’t getting su cient sleep, with 20% of teens sleeping six or less hours a day, increasing their risk of health problems such as diabetes. A countermeasure to sleep deprivation is as simple as taking a midday nap.
Given my sleep deprivation, when I sacri ce my nap to study more, I often perform worse academically than if I had napped. By not napping, I usually have to end my study session earlier than I intended, even when I am not fully con dent in the topics, because I am too depleted from the lack of sleep from previous nights to concentrate adequately. On the other hand, taking a short, refreshing nap, I concentrate better and am able to end my study session when I feel like I have satisfactorily learned the material. e labeling of naps as lazy or unproductive is entirely unfounded. An energizing nap shouldn’t be seen as a sign of weakness but rather an act of self-care that enhances your cognitive, emotional and physical state.
Regardless of whether you nap, it is reasonable for most students to unwind after coming home from a long-day at school by scrolling through their phone, enjoying a snack or picking up a book. However, the next time you feel the weight of your eyelids taking you to a dream state, I encourage you to consider how your time, even if it is 20 minutes, might be better spent on welldeserved sleep that rejuvenates your mind and body for an upcoming productive study session.
Heather Song Managing Editor
roughout high school, students are encouraged to think about their futures: what they want to study, where they want to go and what careers they see themselves in. Seniors, in particular, start to think more about what they are going to do as they prepare for the transition to adulthood.
Yet, for many, including me, these decisions can feel overwhelming. e expectation to have everything gured out at such a young age is daunting, especially when it feels like there’s so little time to explore di erent career paths before making important choices.
I have always known I had a passion for biology, and taking AP Biology and Principles of Biomedical Science in high school helped solidify that interest. However, while these courses introduced me to various specialties such as ecology and genetics, they only scratched the surface of what the eld o ers at an advanced level. While taking these classes did let me know ecology wasn’t something I wanted to pursue after high school, I still didn’t have enough exposure to con dently determine what I wanted to specialize in. is lack of exposure to diverse subjects isn’t just an academic issue. It directly impacts students’ con dence in their post-high school decisions. Limited access to specialized courses due to the number of graduation requirements, along with a lack of real-world experiences, can make it di cult to explore potential career paths. Without these opportuni-
ties, it’s easy to feel lost in the what-ifs of choosing a career.
Because of this, it would be bene cial for students to have more opportunities for career exploration through eld trips, job shadowing and hands-on experiences. One possible initiative could be a dedicated Career Exploration Day, similar to Service Day, where instead of volunteering, students could choose a career eld of interest and spend the day shadowing professionals in that area. is would allow students to gain real-world insight into various careers before deciding whether to go to college to pursue a degree.
One experience that signi cantly in uenced my career interests was a eld trip with my biomedical science class to the Stanford Veterans A airs hospital during my junior year. ere, I was introduced to di erent elds of medicine, including cardiology, sonography and emergency medicine.
For the rst time, I was able to see rsthand what these professions entailed, and I realized how much I enjoyed sonography. Observing the anatomy and physiology of the human body in real time made my body buzz with excitement. is experience not only deepened my curiosity about medicine but also helped me identify career paths I hadn’t previously considered.
I also commend the organizers of the March career speaker events, where professionals share the nonlinear paths they took to reach their careers. I attended one of these talks my sophomore year, initially
unsure of how much I would gain from it. However, I left with a newfound appreciation for the diversity of career journeys and the importance of following one’s passions. ese events are a great step toward helping students understand their options and expanding them to include more elds. Interactive Q&A sessions would further enhance their impact.
Another major challenge students face when exploring interests is the rigidity of graduation requirements. As someone passionate about biology, there were so many courses I wanted to take — Human Anatomy and Marine Biology to name a few — but ful lling core requirements left little room in my schedule. A more exible curriculum would allow students to tailor their coursework to their career interests. Many European countries have taken a di erent approach to career preparation by allowing students to specialize in their last two years of high school. Systems like Germany’s dual education model or the UK’s A-level system provide students with the opportunity to focus on subjects that align with their career interests, whether they plan to attend university or enter a trade. is model is successful because it gives students a deeper understanding of their chosen elds while still in high school, reducing uncertainty about their next steps.
By contrast, many U.S. high schools follow a more generalized curriculum, limiting students’ ability to explore potential careers in depth. Adopting aspects of these specialized programs—such as o ering more career-aligned electives or allowing students to focus on speci c disciplines earlier—could help students feel more con dent and prepared when making post-high school decisions. For example, o ering journalism as an alternative to a traditional English class
or allowing students who play year-round sports (both within and outside of school) to ful ll their PE requirements through those activities could give students more freedom to take courses that align with their goals.
While I had ample opportunities to explore di erent sciences because I knew what I liked to study, my interest in world history was limited by course availability. Paly only o ers World History freshman year, with the closest related course being Foreign Policy Honors, which I was unable to enroll in because of high demand. Meanwhile, friends from other schools excitedly discussed their AP World History and AP European History classes — courses I wish I could have taken before selecting a major for my college. Without access to these opportunities, I gradually pushed history aside, but I wonder if I would have pursued it further had I been encouraged to do so.
While I understand that some graduation requirements are tied to the University of California and state mandates, it’s worth reevaluating them at all levels to improve student engagement and preparedness for college. Ultimately, high school should be a time for exploration, not just a checklist of required courses. By increasing opportunities for career discovery, expanding academic exibility and providing real-world exposure, schools can better equip students with the con dence and knowledge they need to make happier, informed decisions about their futures.
Isabelle Carlsen Business Manager
ART BY ANGELIKA GERA
ART BY ANGELIKA GERA
Opioids should be last resort for alleviating wisdom tooth extraction pain
Afew hours after having my wisdom teeth extracted and handed to me in a plastic bag, I lay on the couch in immense pain. e ice on my face reduced the pain only minimally, and I knew I needed something stronger.
My dad came up with the painkillers the dentist had prescribed before surgery, and I was surprised to nd that one of them was Vicodin, an opioid. Since I knew of the opioid crisis gripping our nation, I wondered why Vicodin had been prescribed even before I had surgery.
In his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vice President JD Vance describes his mother’s descent into opioid addiction. His mother Bev was a nurse raising her children like so many other parents until one day she got a bad headache at work. She took a Vicodin pill, the same opioid I was prescribed by my dentist, and she loved the way it made her feel.
After that, she began stealing and taking stronger opioids, and her life spiraled out of control. She lost her nursing license and access to prescription opioids. She started taking heroin, an illegal opioid, and her family life fell apart, leaving deep scars on her children. Like Bev, many people who are addicted to opioids start o by taking them for simple, legitimate reasons such as a headache, a back injury, or dental surgery.
Over the last 20 years, opioid overdoses have become a large cause of death in the U.S. opioids upheave the lives and families of over 2.1 million people in the country who su er from opioid use disorder. According to the Centers for Disease Control, around 87,000 people in the U.S. died from an opioid overdose in 2024, down from over 100,000 deaths in 2022. With the tremendous risks of taking opioids to manage pain, medical professionals should prescribe them only as a last resort, prioritizing non-opioid painkillers like Tylenol and ibuprofen instead.
Opioids work by activating opioid receptors in the brain, which reduce the pain experienced by the user and boost their feelings of pleasure. But they don’t treat the in ammation that causes pain. When the opioid e ect wears o , the pain can come back even stronger, which causes the person to reach for more opioids, thus creating a dependency that can lead to addiction.
In contrast, non-opioid pain medications like ibuprofen — commonly referred to by its brand names, Motrin or Advil — reduce pain by reducing in ammation. Ibuprofen and Tylenol, another non-opioid pain medication, are not
addictive but can have other side e ects at high doses such as liver damage in the case of Tylenol and stomach irritation in the case of ibuprofen.
In a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University, out of nearly 15,000 young people who received initial opioid prescriptions from their dentists in 2015, 6.8% had additional opioids prescribed three to 12 months later and 5.8% were diagnosed with opioid abuse during the 12 months after the initial prescription. In a comparison group that did not receive an opioid prescription from their dentists, 0.1% got another opioid prescription and 0.4% were diagnosed with opioid abuse over the same period. Teens from 16 to 18 years old in particular were signi cantly more likely to have persistent opioid use than older groups. is could suggest prescribing opioids to young people exposes them to opioids, thus increasing their risk of long-term opioid addiction.
According to a commentary in the Journal of the American Dental Association, surgical extraction of wisdom teeth is a procedure provided to approximately 3.5 million young adults in the United States each year. If 5.8% of people are diagnosed with opioid abuse within 12 months after their prescription, then over 200,000 people every year could be newly a ected.
Let’s apply this to Paly students: if 2,000 students had their wisdom teeth removed and opioids prescribed, around 116 people would likely be diagnosed with opioid abuse within 12 months of their trip to the dentist.
Corroborating the Stanford study, a di erent study done by researchers at the University of Michigan showed that young people ages 13 to 30 who lled an opioid prescription immediately before or after wisdom
teeth extraction were nearly 2.7 times as likely as their peers to still be lling opioid prescriptions weeks to months later.
A common perception is opioids are more e ective than non-opioid painkillers at treating pain, but after dental surgery, research shows non-opioid painkillers are more e ective.
In a randomized clinical trial done by Rutgers Health, over 1,800 adults had their wisdom teeth removed, and those assigned to take Vicodin with Tylenol experienced signi cantly more pain than those assigned to take ibuprofen with Tylenol.
So with all of this data, why do dentists continue to routinely prescribe opioids to teenagers getting wisdom tooth extractions?
I tried to contact my dentist, but they did not respond for comment.
However, a commentary published in the Journal of the American Dental Association provides some insight.
“Given that (dentists) actually do not know how much pain a patient will experience, (they) most often provide a prescription for an opioid (painkiller) su cient to manage the worst-case scenario,” the authors wrote.
e authors also suggested the placebo e ect of obtaining an opioid prescription may reduce a patient’s pain.
“In clinical practice, prescription opioid formulations produce signi cantly enhanced placebo responses,” the authors wrote. “With these prescription drugs, patients incur additional costs, the inconvenience of traveling to a pharmacy, and receipt of written and verbal precautions.” In other words, when patients go through the trouble of lling a prescription to obtain opioids, they may think opioids are e ective because there has to be a reason for the trouble. is doesn’t mean opioids should never be taken after dental surgery. Each person experiences pain di erently, so while the data shows that in general non-opioid painkillers are more e ective, some people may nd opioids treat their pain better.
If this is the case, because of the risk of addiction, using opioids should be a last resort to treating unbearable pain, after everything else has been tried.
Alan Schroeder, a clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford and the lead author of the Stanford study, said he agrees opioids should be a secondary option and
if the situation demonstrates that they are needed, they should be prescribed at a very limited quantity. ere’s no reason that someone who has their wisdom teeth out needs 20 or 30 pills,” Schroeder said. “If you need 20 oxycodone for your wisdom tooth extraction, you should be going back to the oral surgeon ASAP, because something is wrong.”
Dentists may also still be prescribing opioids due to nefarious pharmaceutical companies, which have long deceived doctors and dentists about the safety and addictive potential of opioids, which has led to their widespread overprescription.
“We were taught that (opioids are not addictive),” Schroeder said. “When I was in med school and early in residency, I told families, I told patients, ‘You don’t have to worry about it.’ And I was dead wrong.”
Schroeder said he hopes dentists will educate patients on the dangers of opioids so they do not demand prescriptions.
“I would hope that most oral surgeons are having really serious conversations with patients saying, ‘We really encourage you to avoid opioids. Take ibuprofen around the clock for the rst couple days and really try to avoid it,’” Schroeder said.
Opioid addictions ruin lives and tear families apart everywhere. It is within our power as patients and families to let dentists and doctors know that we may not want opioid prescriptions, with the hope they will eventually change their practices. Teens who are getting their wisdom teeth extracted, as well as their parents, should be mindful of this data and need to realize their choice of painkiller can potentially a ect the trajectory of their lives. A healthy and ful lling life is hard to lead if one is addicted to opioids. Beyond opioid use for dental surgery, Schroeder also questions the necessity of preemptive wisdom tooth extraction before the teeth cause problems.
“Let’s have more conversations about, do these wisdom teeth absolutely need to come out?” Schroeder said. “What is the harm in waiting one year, two years, four years, ve years, maybe even waiting until they’re at a less vulnerable age? is is a really vulnerable age for kids to want to experiment with things … I would try to put it o in my kids until I was really convinced that the teeth were causing a problem. ” However, this is not to say that nobody needs wisdom tooth surgery until they are in their late 20s.
“I’m sure there are some patients who really need (wisdom teeth extraction), but I just don’t think all the patients that are getting it need it,” Schroeder said. In the end, we returned my prescribed Vicodin to the pharmacy, and I took Tylenol and ibuprofen instead. ose painkillers managed the pain reasonably well, and my face de-pu ed by the end of the day. My biggest complaint was having to eat things with the consistency of baby food. Many can spare their future lives from pain if they use opioids only as a last resort and realize the life-changing potential of one decision.
Stay informed on current events through newspapers, not social media
Alex Isayama Sci/Tech Editor
When I asked my friend why they don’t read the news, they said, “I hate politics.” is bothered me. Despite being at the very top of their class, they neglected the news. I probed further, asking them about a recent controversial event, and they went blank.
While people may avoid the news because it feels messy or overly political — politics and current events are complicated, and sometimes uncomfortable to grasp – avoiding the news doesn’t make issues disappear. In fact, it’s precisely because politics is messy that being informed is important. is messiness is the reason to dig deeper and
convenient way where the most important information appears at the top, and less urgent stories on the bottom. Artistic expression is often overlooked in newspapers too — thoughtful layouts, captivating photos and big headlines are structured in a way to catch readers’ attention immediately. In addition, it sounds old-fashioned, but there’s a special sensation in ipping pages and leaving behind noti cations. But let’s be real: any media consumption is better than none. Whether it’s reading online articles, listening to podcasts, or watching trusted news channels, staying informed is the most important in the end. Right now, misinformation is more prevalent than ever and the world is in a period of rapid transformation. So when you have some free time, look up online articles or purchase a newspaper subscription. Give it a chance — you might be surprised by what you’re missing.
Lucas Lai Sta Writer
Executive order attacking birthright citizenship crosses constitutional line
Of the urry of executive orders signed on inauguration day by President Donald Trump, most have been challenged and stalled in court. Trump has fully wielded — if not overstepped — the power of the executive, from attacking diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to issuing mass deportations of illegal immigrants through his executive orders. But one stands out. e order, titled “Protecting e Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” dictates in order to obtain citizenship at birth, children born on or after Feb. 19, 2025, must have at least one parent who is a permanent legal resident, meaning they are a green card holder or a citizen of the United States. Otherwise, the child may apply for a dependent visa if their parents were on temporary visas, or else be a citizen of their parents’ country if they were undocumented at the time of their birth.
ree days later, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington temporarily blocked the order from going into e ect. Since then, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to reverse the decision.
e attack on birthright citizenship seems like a play on populist rhetoric, but it has real consequences. Many of America’s political movements, from the Know Nothing Party in the 1800s to Trump’s actions today, were fueled by exploiting the fears of foreigners overwhelming the country — a fear of change. is is a narrative that must be consistently challenged, especially in the case of the current executive order. Citizenship establishes a legal bond between a citizen and their country. A citizen is entitled to certain bene ts, such as being treated equally under the law and receiving social services, while also giving back to the state by exercising their right to vote and serving in the military during a draft.
With approximately 11.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States based on 2023 numbers, many of whom are not married to legal permanent residents, the executive order, if implemented, would have millions of children being born alongside their peers but without any legal protections. Instead, they would be subject to deportation to a country they have never visited. Furthermore, the majority of these people would be unable to access legal pathways to citizenship because they do not have
the family, employment or asylum status to qualify.
Restricting birthright citizenship creates a group of second-class citizens which is both immoral and impractical in terms of a functioning government. One of the founding American principles that initially set the United States apart from its European counterparts was that children were not beholden to pay for the sins of their parents.
If a parent committed a crime, the child did not have to pay for it. is set the foundation for class mobility — a child can move upward in society regardless of the social class they were born into. Yet under Trump’s executive order, we erase this idea. A decision by a parent to immigrate to the country illegally will now leave their child permanently stateless, without the ability to access legal work and nancial aid for college, hampering their advance in society.
Birthright citizenship is also critical to integration within American society. America, both historically and today, takes pride in its unique identity as an ethnically diverse nation uni ed through a shared system of values and culture. is is best achieved through birthright citizen-
ship, allowing second-generation immigrants to assimilate into mainstream culture faster compared to their immigrant parents. is shared American identity helps mitigate racial and religious tensions that frequently fuel divisive political rhetoric and the scapegoating of minority groups. e Campanile also criticizes the fact that many Americans whose European ancestors migrated to the US without the consent of Native Americans and claimed citizenship through birthright are now the ones shutting the door on others.
e Campanile also views Trump’s executive order as a direct de lement of the spirit of the Constitution. e 14th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”
While Trump said his administration interprets the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” to exclude citizens who are not permanent residents of the United States, this language was also the same justi cation used in the 1884 Supreme Court case of Elk v. Wilkin, where
Native Americans were denied U.S. citizenship since they were born on reservations, which supposedly were outside U.S. jurisdiction. Historically, this justi cation furthered inequities and violations against Native peoples, as it would if applied today. is challenge to birthright citizenship shouldn’t be dismissed. In a time when temporary and permanent legal residents are deported and thrown in maximum security prisons due to “administrative error” or cowriting a student editorial expressing a political opinion, the Trump administration will only continue to infringe on the rights of immigrants if we allow them to. Trump has already expressed a willingness to stretch the bounds, if not outright defy, the right to due process — everyone, including native-born citizens, should be concerned.
In both practice and principle, eliminating birthright citizenship is regressive.
e Campanile strongly condemns the Trump administration for overstepping its authority to threaten the civil liberties of millions and upset the foundational values of this country.
America can’t a ord Trump’s tari s
Since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping tari s on a range of imports: 25% tari s on all aluminum and steel imports e ective March 12, followed by tari s on nished cars and car parts e ective April 3 and May 3, respectively.
On April 2, Trump announced a 10% baseline tari on imports for all U.S. trading partners effective April 5 and reciprocal tari s targeting 60 of what he called the “worst o enders” e ective April 9. Trump said these tari s are a declaration of economic independence and an end to a global trade market that has allowed countries to “rip o ” the United States. Despite these goals, the real, negative impacts are already apparent in the U.S. economy. As of April 4, the U.S. stock market has lost nearly $5 trillion in value since February, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 2.5% and S&P 500 futures dropped 3.6%. Shares of Tesla and Palantir are down 8% and Apple shares fell by 7%.
e Campanile thinks this radical shift in U.S. trade policy — upending nearly half a century of gradual globalization — is unlikely to curb o shoring, the practice of basing manufacturing overseas to take advantage of lower costs, and
will ultimately harm low- to middle-income Americans. e premise behind the tari s — that the United States has been systematically disadvantaged by unfair trade practices — misrepresents the complexity of global trade. Despite what was presented on April 2, the tari s that were said to be imposed on the United States were actually based on the trade de cit of physical goods with each country. is calculation is over-simplistic and misleading. For example, while the United States imports more goods from the European Union than it sends, the United States exports more services than it imports. Taking the trade of services into account, not just goods, would cut the trade de cit between the two countries in half.
And still, many past freetrade-agreement partners now face tari s, some upwards of 20%, like South Korea. With the removal of free trade, e Campanile thinks the president overlooks the bene ts Americans receive from importing goods, such as lower prices, higher incomes and product availability.
With countries retaliating against U.S. goods with similar tari s, there is potential for a trade war like in 2018, which cost the United States nearly 300,000 jobs and an estimated 0.3% of real
GDP. Such a trade war would put the nancial burden of tari s on domestic consumers and rms. Historically, supply shortages and importers maximizing pro ts have led to increased prices of imported goods.
For low- to middle-income families, these price increases may account for a signi cant portion of their income, worsening living conditions and ultimately hindering social mobility.
And while some domestic manufacturing may increase, leading to more jobs within the country, overall employment will likely still decrease. During the 2018 trade war, steel-consuming jobs outnumbered steel-manufacturing jobs 80-1, indicating greater losses than gains from steel tari s. More concerning is the long-term impact of this approach. e United States accounts for only 15% of global import demand, meaning it lacks the leverage to force widespread concessions or return manufacturing to the United States.
According to the Global Trade Alert, even if the United States halted all imports, 100 of its trading partners would recover within ve years. e rest of the world is far more prepared to live without the United States than the United States is to live without them.
Rather than boosting domestic manufacturing, President Trump’s tari s risk isolating the United States from critical international supply chains, hurting the most vulnerable in our country.
e administration must reconsider its decision to spark a global trade war built on outdated, failed economic policies and instead focus on domestic initiatives, minimizing animosity between countries and truly bene ting the working class.
The Campanile
Letters
ART BY THE CAMPANILE STAFF
TEXT BY RAHUL SHETTY ART BY CHERIANNE YOON