Issue 2, 10/4/2018

Thursday Oct. 4 2018

The Campanile

Vol. CI, No. 2

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

PAI D PALO ALTO PERMIT #44

www.thecampanile.org

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

Title IX Misconduct Addressing board candidate Kathy Jordan's clarification, apology past interactions with The Campanile staff By the Editors-in-Chief

O

n Sept. 29, 2017, The Campanile published a story titled “Title IX Misconduct” covering a sexual assault case at Palo Alto High School in October 2016.

The Campanile has received negative feedback from some in the community over the sentence: “The incident was subsequently determined to be consensual.” This issue resurfaced at the recent Board of Education candidates’ debate.

The Campanile has previously published a clarification regarding the article, but would like clear up any confusion.

We would like to apologize to the victim, the victim’s family and the community for any unintended trauma the article may have caused through inadequate attribution. Our intention was not to silence victims of sexual assault.

To clarify, what we should have reported was that “consensual underage sexual activity” was the charge filed by the District Attorney.

As individual students distinct from our representation of the publication, we stand and will continue to stand with victims of sexual assault and commend them for the courage and bravery they display when they come forward.

As journalists, our obligation is to report the facts to the best of our ability.

In the clarification to the original article published on Oct. 20, 2017, The Campanile

clarified the sources for the consensual determination based on conversations with former Principal Kim Diorio and an interview conducted by The Mercury News with attorney Stephanie Rickard, who represented the former Paly student accused and subsequently convicted of sexual assault.

We stand and will continue to stand with victims of sexual assault and commend them for the courage and bravery they display when they come forward.

The Campanile was not trying to make a determination or pass judgement on these events, but rather report on statements made by others involved in the situation. In this reporting, we took the defense attorney’s comments to mean that the court found the act to be consensual and then quoted Diorio saying the same thing.

To clarify, what we should have reported was that “consensual underage sexual activity” was the charge filed by the District Attorney.

We should have used more sensitive language that made this nuanced distinction between a “charge” and a “determination” clear and recognized that the phrasing in question could have been interpreted as The Campanile taking a stance on the events that occurred rather than relaying information.

Any questions about this issue can be emailed to the Editors-inChief at theeds19@googlegroups. com.

By the Editors-in-Chief

A

Paly Voice reporter asked a question addressing student press freedom Education Code 48907 to Board of Education candidate Kathy Jordan about her stance on student journalism at the school board debate on Sept. 20.

Jordan’s response sparked a discussion in the community over Jordan’s criticism of a series of articles The Campanile published about a sexual assault incident that took place on Paly campus on Oct. 2, 2016.

Jordan implied The Campanile’s article was libelous in public comments and explicitly accused The Campanile of libel through email correspondence. The Student Press Law Center (SPLC), a nation-wide organization dedicated to protecting the freedom of press for student journalists, confirmed The Campanile’s coverage of the sexual assault incidents was not libelous.

In one of several emails to The Campanile staff, Jordan stated: “[The] statement was inaccurate, false, misleading and unverified by professional journalists and needed to be retracted immediately.

As aspiring journalists you might be interested in the definition of libel, as I would contend that the statement The Campanile printed, even after notice and knowledge given to all of you, which you no doubt shared with your teacher advisor, is libelous.”

Last fall, when The Campanile staff reached out to organize a face-to-face discussion with Jordan about her claims, she initially agreed to a meeting, but then insisted the meeting only take place if both Campanile teacher advisers were not present, leaving just Jordan and a student reporter at this potential meeting.

Alex, a pseudonym for the student Jordan had been arranging

KAYLIE NGUYEN/THE CAMPANILE

Kathy Jordan, second from the right, talked about an incident with The Campanile at the Sept. 20 debate. to meet with, said Jordan’s insistence that the student meet alone “seemed like a red flag” and they “definitely would have been uncomfortable to go by [themself ].”

Jordan sent numerous emails to The Campanile editors-in-chief and staff writers, many of whom weren’t directly involved in the article in question, demanding the articles regarding sexual assault be retracted.

These demands came across as harsh and aggressive, resulting in many Campanile staff members feeling shaken and harassed, according to Campanile staff members.

“I understand what Kathy Jordan’s intentions are; her whole idea is that she cares for the students and wants to speak up for them, but I feel like while she was speaking up for the victim, she did make the student journalists feel as if they were being attacked and in a hostile situation,” Jamie, a pseudonym for a former Campanile staff member who received emails, said.

In order to put an end to the repeated emails, Paly administration had to hire a lawyer who specializes in the First Amendment, Thomas Burke of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, to help former As-

sistant Principal Janice Chen craft the following statement to Jordan: Dear Ms. Jordan, It has come to my attention that our Campanile staff is feeling threatened and harassed by your multiple emails, phone calls and text messages regarding some articles published in the Campanile. The students have shared that the repeated contacts occur sometimes more than once a one day and the students are feeling stressed and harassed.

Our Campanile staff prides themselves in being student journalists, and since they are minors, I respectfully ask that you stop any contact directly with students, in particular the Campanile staff. If you do have any questions or comments you would like to make in regards to the Campanile, please contact theeds18@ googlegroups.com and the teacher advisers — ­­ not individual students.

I appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

After Chen sent this statement, Jordan stopped initiating contact with Campanile staff

members.

When addressing the topic of these emails in the comments section of a Palo Alto Daily Post article, Jordan wrote, “emails that no one need open are not harassment.” In an email statement about her interactions with The Campanile staff, Jordan reiterated that “no one is forced to open any email sent to them.”

Journalism is an integral part of Palo Alto High School, according to Jamie. Jamie said what makes Paly’s journalism program strong is the freedom advisers give students, which is guaranteed by Education Code 48907.

To see several emails Jordan has sent to The Campanile, view our online article at thecampanile. org. An editorial on candidates The Campanile endorses can be found on A8.

Editors’ Note: The Campanile is and always has been a student-run publication. Though we receive advice from our teacher advisers, all final decisions are made by students. Whether or not the administration and Campanile advisers communicated about what to publish, our students do not write to push the agendas of the school or the District.

Vigil held in support of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Law assists evicted Hundreds gather at corner of El Camino, Embacadero, raise $166,391

Renovation of Hotel President forces long-time residents out of their homes

By Lucy Nemerov Business Manager

H

undreds of candles lit up the corner of El Camino and Embarcadero as supporters of Christine Blasey Ford took part in a candlelight vigil on Sept. 23. Blasey Ford, a Palo Alto resident and professor at Palo Alto University has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both in high school.

This accusation has resulted in reactions ranging from support for Blasey Ford to claims she is a liar. However, at a local level, many community members say they give Blasey Ford their full support.

“This moment is incredibly important because it sends the message that enough is enough At the local level I think it's important because that's where change begins and the local level is where we all come together and support one another,” vigil attendee Shannon Laux said.

This theme of supporting a community member recurred throughout the vigil. However, Palo Alto parent Rick Marshall witnessed community members dismissing the issue as solely political, instead of a community issue.

“I’ve seen many posts on the app Next Door saying that the vigil should not be published within the app as it is a political issue,” Marshall said. “Obviously politics are involved, but at a basic level, we are supporting a neighbor and community member.

That’s what good neighbors do.”

INSIDE

tenants in relocation

By Will Robins

T KENNEDY HERRON/THE CAMPANILE

Palo Alto residents gathered on Sept. 23 and held signs to show support for Blasey Ford at a candlelight vigil.

According to Family Law Specialist Robin Yeamans, men facing accusations of sexual assault often lie in order to discredit the accusers claims.

“I specialize in domestic violence cases and I see lying guys like this all the time,” Yeamans said. “Right when (Kavanaugh) started to talk [about the accusations] I felt like he was lying. He worked for as a clerk for Justice Alex Konsinski who was removed for the sexual abuse that was going on in chambers at the courthouse and Kavanaugh claims he just ‘didn’t notice?’ I don’t believe that. The women of America are not going to put up with it. And Kavanaugh didn't count on this.”

Blasey Ford’s lawyers have clarified to the Senate that her terms regarding her testimony.

Senators must ask her the ques-

tions and that Kavanaugh will testify after her and not be present during her testimony.

Although Blasey Ford’s lawyers stated her terms before she testified, senators had a female sex crimes prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, question Blasey Ford during a majority of the hearing.

In other instances of local support, Palo Alto Area mothers formed a A Letter of Support which was signed by many.

Additionally, a GoFundMe page, created by Team Christine Blasey Ford has raised $166,391 out of the $150,000 goal. According to the information provided on the GoFundMe page, the money will go to the family in order to cover the immediate security and personal expenses they are incurring.

In the last two weeks, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick,

Lifestyle

former classmates of Kavanaugh’s, have come forward with sexual assault allegations against the judge. Although these allegations have been acknowledged, the alleged victims are not scheduled to testify due to the time sensitive nature of the decision regarding Kavanaugh’s potential chair in the Supreme Court.

Hours before the vigil occurred, Blasey Ford’s lawyers clarified that Blasey Ford would testify against Kavanaugh in front of the Senate Judiciary committee on Thursday, Sept. 27.

In a heated and emotional hearing, both Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh delivered their sides of the story. After deliberation between key senators, it was decided that a week-long FBI investigation will occur before Kavanaugh can be confirmed.

Science & Tech

Senior Staff Writer

he Palo Alto City Council approved a new law on Sept. 17 guaranteeing that tenants facing eviction would receive some form of relocation assistance, regardless of their income levels.

On June 12, AJ Capital Partners, a Chicago-based hotel developer and owner of University Avenue’s President Hotel, notified tenants that it had closed escrow on the 75-unit hotel in Downtown.

The company instructed the residents that they needed to move out of the building by Nov. 12 before the company began renovating the historic 1929 building in order to convert it from an apartment complex to the Graduate Palo Alto Hotel.

Dozens of residents facing eviction urged the City Council to spare the building from being converted back to its original purpose as a hotel.

However, due to the fact that the conversion was legally justified, the City Council could not veto it.

The compromise provided tenants with relocation assistance.

The new law, which was passed with a 8-1 majority vote on Sept.

17, expanded upon an “emergency law” that was approved on Aug. 27.

The previous law stated that relocation assistance would be granted to residents facing evic-

Spotlight

tion if their income level met or exceeded the median area income of around $90,000 for a oneperson household. Households would receive ranges from $7,000 for studios to $17,000 for threebedroom apartments if they met the limit.

However, prior to the group consensus over the new law, David Lanferman, AJ Capital's attorney, claimed to the city council that the ordinance was illegal. Lanferman said he ordinance would not apply to President Hotel tenants.

"Mandating universal relocation assistance payments without regard to the financial resources or incomes of affected tenants would be contrary to state law, arbitrary, unreasonable and not supported by substantial evidence,” Lanferman said in a letter, according to Palo Alto Online.

During the meeting on Sept.

17, city attorney Molly Stump stated that the new law is general and does not focus on the President Hotel, according to Palo Alto Online.

The improved law removed the clause that disallowed residents who did not meet the income credentials from receiving assistance.

However, the rent cap was a policy that the Council did not agree on.

The Sept. 17 vote was a rare moment of agreement among the council members.

Before the new law, the argument over renter protection has divided the City Council.

Sports

the edition

News. . . . . . . . . A1-A4 Opinion. . . . . . . A5-A7 Editorials. . . . . . . . . A8 Lifestyle. . . . . B1-B3, B6 Spotlight. . . . . . . . B4-B5 Science & Tech. . . B7-B8 Sports. . . . C1-C3, C6-C8 Sports Spread. . . . . C4-C5

ALYSSA LEONG/THE CAMPANILE

Joe & The Juice

New beverage store will open three Palo Alto locations.

PAGE B2

EMILY ASHER/THE CAMPANILE

Climate change murals

Paly spreads awareness for climate change with murals.

PAGE B7

MATTHEW PIATT/CCBY-SA2.0

Bell schedule debacle

Exploring the discrepancies between current schedule and the ISC draft.

PAGE B4-B5

KAREN AMBROSE HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

New football coach

New head coach Nelson Gifford takes over for Danny Sullivan.

PAGE C6

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

A2

NEWS

Candidates join race for school board election

Five newcomers and one incumbent board member vie for two open seats

MADDY MCCLUSKEY/THE CAMPANILE

Seniors play tug-of-war at a lunch rally during the 2016 Spirit Week.

ASB prepares for new Spirit Week activities

By Kiana Tavakoli

KAYLIE NGUYEN/THE CAMPANILE

Candidates Ashlund, Dauber, Dharap, Jordan and Scharf present their ideas and goals at the Palo Alto Weekly School Board Debate on Sept. 20.

By Tien Nguyen

F

Staff Writer

ive newcomers and one incumbent board member are currently running for two open seats in the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education election in November.

Current board members Terry Godfrey and Ken Dauber's terms are coming to an end. Godfrey is not running for re-election, while Dauber is. Dauber will face multiple newcomers: attorney Shounak Dharap, college student Alex Scharf, PAUSD parent and special education advocate Stacey Ashlund, PAUSD parent Kathy Jordan and InstEd director Christopher Boyd. Two candidates, Dharap and Scharf, are PAUSD alumni.

Dharap, now a 27-year-old attorney, graduated in 2009 from Henry M. Gunn High School.

This was around the time of a suicide cluster in Palo Alto, which he said will allow him to connect to students in the district. ¨It gives me a kind of firsthand experience, a deeper understanding of what students are going through,” Dharap said. “More specifically, I remember what it was like to live through some of these big issues that students are dealing with in this district, specifically whether that’s mental health and wellness.¨ If elected, Dharap said he wants to bring effective oversight to the school board, instate innovation and expand programs that engage students into the process of learning, such as the Connections program.

According to the JLS website, Connections, a program at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School, uses project-based learning to teach the whole child: in the social, emotional, intellectual aspects and teach students as individuals. They also give parents a say about the school, and teach that less is more, emphasizing the importance of putting depth over coverage. Students learn to have the teacher as a guide.

Dharap also said he is an advocate of community building.

He has an open door policy for his campaign, offering students the opportunity to be a part of the campaign and learn more about behind the scenes, believing that transparency is necessary in the school board to aid the alleviation of the undue stress miscommunication brings.

“I’m not running for the school board because I have spare time to fill,” Dharap said. “I’m not running without reason; I understand that public service is sacrifice. I’m doing it because I feel very passionately, very strongly about giving back to the district that has given me so much.”

The youngest candidate in the running, Scharf, graduated from Paly in 2015 and now attends Foothill College as a part-time student. He believes his youth is an advantage compared to the other candidates.

“I think [the other candidates] don’t necessarily understand that everything someone in school today has to go through compared to what they had,” Scharf said.

“I think my biggest advantage is that I’m a student currently and I think I have a good grasp on what the needs of the students are.”

One of Scharf ’s main priorities if elected would be improving the resources available to students, especially those relating to mental health.

“One of the main things is budgeting to mental health and a lot of the systems and services provided to mental health are [only the absolute necessities], so they provide the bare minimum

2018 PAUSD Board of Education Candidate Statements Stacey Ashlund

With your support, I will continue working to broaden the definition of success to foster a lifelong love of learning in every child, to advocate strongly on behalf of our teachers and to bring accountability to the PAUSD school board’s mission of inspiring all students and providing them with the means to achieve their personal best.

Christopher Boyd

I'm the director of InstED, a nonprofit program that provides students with science, technology, engineering and mathematics classes, including computer science, robotics, astronomy, neuroscience and physics.

Photo unavailable

Ken Dauber

I'm President of the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education. Goals for the future: implementing the district's homework policy, closing the achievement gap, improving special education, strong management and compliance and unlocking innovtion.

Shounak Dharap

This community is engaged learning, a strong leadership at the district level and opportunities for every student to find success. After law school, I moved back to Palo Alto because I believe it's the best community to start my own family. Now I want to give back by bringing my skills as a complex litigator and PAUSD graduate to the school board.

Kathy Jordan

From her website: Kathy is a parent and student advocate for all of Palo Alto. She is an independent leader who will ensure academic excellence, act as a fiscal watchdog protecting our tax dollars and be strong for all students.

Alex Scharf

I’m running for School Board to focus on changes and priorities that will have the most benefit to all students. My two main priorities are teacher and administrator accountability and student mental health. My main focus is to represent you, the community.

of what is considered counseling with trainees that have no experience at all and simply provide lackluster service,” Scharf said.

“And if we’re able to validate a decent budget toward mental health and provide quality services, I think that’s going to be a very important thing.”

Parents Ashlund and Jordan both expressed their ideas of what kinds of changes they want to make. The impact they want to have is based on their children’s experiences in the Palo Alto education system.

Like Dharap and Scharf, Jordan said the school board should improve by bringing accountability and transparency to the current system, along with making sure students are put first.

“I offer common sense, persistence, tenacity and the commitment to focus on the well-being of our students and our community,” Jordan said in an email. “I will work to be an independent leader and advocate for all of Palo Alto, to usher in a new era of which we can all be proud.”

As a stay-at-home mother, Jordan said she found ways to incorporate herself into her children's school community by volunteering in her children´s classroom for more than 10 years.

“I believe that the breadth of my career, in the private and public sector, combined with my experience as a parent, have prepared me extremely well to meaningfully contribute to our community as a member of the school board,” Jordan said.

Ashlund said she is putting a

large emphasis on making sure students feel happy and their voices are heard. She also said she is an advocate for developmental assets and inclusion.

“We talk about academic excellence because we want our kids to get into a good college,” Ashlund said. “You know, ‘good college,’ get a good job, earn money and be happy and successful right? But we also want out students to find joy in learning, to really enjoy it and love it.”

Another aspect of Ashlund’s campaign is educating parents and the general public on the importance of balancing academic success with being socially and emotionally successful.

“From talking to people, we’re really not serving equally, and that’s why I’m running for the Board to include all students, to support all students to be happy, healthy and successful in life,” Ashlund said.

Ashlund also emphasized individuality and the importance of ensuring that as many students as possible leave the district feeling satisfied both emotionally and academically and treated with the importance that all individuals deserve.

The final newcomer to the school board race is Christopher Boyd, who is the director of a nonprofit after-school STEM program for students called InstED, which was recently found to have some inconsistencies. According to a Palo Alto Online article, it is not a non profit organization as previously claimed as it was not found in the California Secretary

of State’s list of registered businesses. The article continues, stating that tax ID provided by Boyd is a different Palo Alto non profit called the Institute for Environmental Management, an organization Boyd has not worked for.

Boyd did not respond to emails and LinkedIn messages seeking comment on his school board candidacy.

Incumbent Dauber said he wants to strengthen the district’s innovative classes and programs for students. He said that although the district has made progress throughout his last term in this area, there's still a long way to go.

According to Dauber, he would continue stricter enforcement of the district's homework policy, which states students should receive about 90 minutes of homework a night. He would also like to enforce policies that prevent the stacking of multiple projects and tests, work on improving special education services and closing the achievement gap.

Dauber said his years spent as a student wellbeing advocate in PAUSD prior to joining the school board make him a good candidate as well.

“I have a very solid understanding of the district,” Dauber said. “I expect to share my opinions and experiences with the other candidates. I think voters will judge me on the basis of my accomplishments, which I think make a good case for my re-election.”

The election will take place on Nov. 6.

C

Staff Writer

ombining old favorites, like tug-of-war, with new events involving hamster balls and inflatable ponies, the Associated Student Body (ASB) hopes to freshen up this year's Spirit Week while still maintaining the tradition that is loved and cherished by many Paly students.

“Spirit Week is arguably Paly’s biggest and most anticipated event of the year,” ASB Secretary Charlize Nguyen said. “With dress up days, games and cheers every day of the week, this involves months of preparation from ASB.” According to Sophomore President Adora Zheng, in preparing for Spirit Week, ASB officers and commissioners thought thoroughly about the inclusiveness of each game and put their energy toward making each activity one that would draw a wider range of participants. “[There is] a new set of games this year, with hamster balls and Hungry Hungry Hippos instead of the 3-point contest in order to increase participation and more,” Zheng said. “Of course, students can expect to see favorites like tug-of-war and Name That Tune as well.”

Though tug-of-war and Name That Tune allowed for wide participation, some of the other games last year, specifically the 3-point contest, were less inclusive. The 3-point contest restricted participation to only a handful of students, predominantly basketball players, which prevented a majority of students from signing up. The new activity, Hungry Hungry Hippos, will be added in its place and encourages much larger teams of students to sign up regardless of their athletic skills.

The rally game that will be during advisory, Hungry Hungry Hippo, consists of students using baskets to bring balls from the center of the court back to their team while laying on a scooter board. Though the rules are not finalized, the new game will allow for larger participation.

“In terms of games, ASB is introducing a Pony Hop where students will jump across either the field or track on an inflatable horse,” Nguyen said.

Video tutorials explaining the new games will be published in the coming weeks to help students understand the rules and encourage sign ups.

Another activity that will see some changes this fall is the float building competition. A new scor-

ing system will be implemented that focuses on the small details of each grade’s float and will allow for more transparent judging.

“In the past, floats have been scored on three things: stuffing execution, theme incorporation and creativity,” Spirit Commissioner Chloe Laursen said. “This year, stuffing will only be worth half the amount of points it was worth before and a new category will be added. This category will focus on the complexity and details of the float.”

With the new scoring process, float builders will focus on the intricacies of their design and creativity of their ideas. All students, regardless of float building experience, are encouraged to contribute to their grade’s float, which will be displayed throughout the week.

“I would strongly recommend all freshman, especially those interested in art, help out with the float,” Senior President David Foster said. “I was a new freshman at Paly when I first helped with float building and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

“Spirit Week is arguably Paly’s biggest and most anticipated event of the year.”

Charlize Nguyen

While float building and participating in activities is a fun way to contribute, the easiest way to help your grade is simply to dress-up every day of the week.

In recent years, ASB has made it easy to find gear for those who are willing to exchange an article of their own for something new that fits their theme.

“For students who do not already have the dress-up gear, ASB hosts a Spirit Swap right before Spirit Week,” Nguyen said. “This is a small event during lunch where students can exchange clothing items that fits one of the dress up themes with another item they may need.”

With Spirit Week less than a month away, students are beginning to find gear to exchange, signing up for activities and buying a bag of cough drops for all the cheering they'll be doing.

“If you’re on the fence about participating or want to learn more, talk to a member of ASB [or] upperclassmen,” Nguyen said.

“Spirit Week is a key part of Paly tradition and it’s an amazing time to promote class pride and unity.”

UPCOMING EVENTS OCT.

5

OCT.

6

OCT.

7

OCT.

8

OCT.

10

OCT.

11

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY One student always ends up accidentally coming anyway.

STANFORD VS UTAH FOOTBALL An opportunity for students who won't get into Stanford to at least look the part.

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION Watch how far people will go for free birthday cake.

COLLEGE FAIR Frantic seniors go to Gunn to scout out colleges and leave with an armful of pamphlets.

PSAT Juniors and sophomores suffer through a test to earn scholarships while other students sleep in.

BABY AD WORKSHOP Parents brainstorm the best ways to embarrass their child in the yearbook.

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The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

A3

NEWS

ALYSSA LEONG/THE CAMPANILE

Senior Emily Tsoi makes a call on her new gold iPhone XS Max that she has customized with a Harry Styles pop-socket. Tsoi pre-ordered her phone the day that it was released to replace her old iPhone 8.

Apple releases new gadgets online and in-store

Thousands place pre-orders on iPhone Xr, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPad Pro and Apple Watch Series 4

By Alyssa Leong

A

Photo Editor

pple Inc. unveiled new iPhones and a new Apple Watch on Wednesday, Sept. 12 which include new features such as bigger screens, higher prices, more colorful displays and in the case of the Apple Watch, new health–related features.

The iPhone Xs Max is the largest and most expensive iPhone yet, boasting a display of 6.5 inches and a $1,100 price tag.

The iPhone Xs is not far behind, with a display of 5.8 inches and a starting price of $1,000 and the iPhone XR is the least expensive of the bunch. It has a starting price of $750 and a 6.1 inch display. Comparatively, this to the iPhone X, which has a diagonal screen size of 5.8 inches and the iPhone 8 Plus with a size of 5.5 inches.

“If you have a 7 or lower, then it makes sense to get the Xr because the speed and design is better, and then if you have an 8 it makes sense.”

Raj Sodhi

All of the iPhones include new and improved features, such as brighter displays that show colors more accurately, processing chips that make the phone run faster and more powerfully and adjustable cameras. The iPhone XR also comes in a wider range of colors including blue, yellow and red. “[One of the new features] is

the new iOS 12, which is going to come out on [Sept. 17],” AT&T employee Gustavo said. “It’s going to have FaceTime with 32 people, and the cameras are going to be good as well. It has 4K reading and taking pictures.”

The iPhone Xs and Xs Max are available for preorder and began shipping on Sept. 21, while preorders for the iPhone XR begin on Oct. 19 and start shipping Oct. 26.

Apple also revamped other devices. The Apple Watch Series 4 has new rounded corners, a larger display and an EKG scanner. It also includes a workout app to set goals and measure calorie burn, boasts water resistance up to 50 meters, a customizable display for different apps, more options with cellular data (such as an emergency SOS feature) and Siri.

The Apple Watch was available for sale starting Sept. 21 at $390.

Despite the high price tag, certain models of the Xs sold out within days of their announcement. Debbie Whitson, an economics teacher at Paly, explained some of the reasoning behind this.

“There is something called ‘inelastic demand’ in economics,” Whitson said. “It means that as the price of a good increases, consumers still buy the product.

It can be for one of three reasons: there are no good substitutes for the product, the product is a necessity, [or] the item is a small percentage of one’s budget.”

Some Paly students are not exactly enthusiastic about the newest upgrades. One such example is junior Raj Sodhi. While his dad works at Apple, he has not discussed or heard about any of the products from his dad, and all opinions and research are his own.

“Between the Xr and the Xs,

they’re the exact same except for two things,” Sodhi said. “[The differences are] the price, obviously.

The screen on the Xr is bigger, so that’s a plus; but the biggest [difference] is that you go from LCD

in Xr, but even then from Apple’s perspective, that’s maybe a couple dollars worth,” Sodhi said.

“So those two factors result in a $250 price increase from Xr to Xs, which is ridiculous.”

SOURCE: APPLE

to OLED display. That just means a different type of display that looks better, it’s got deeper blacks, richer whites. That is pretty much the only difference, [apart from the] 3D touch.”

3D touch is the ability to press and hold on apps or notifications, which brings up quick actions such as pressing a text notification and getting to reply to it. “[3D Touch] is not available

In all cases, Sodhi believes it is worth getting one of the Xs’s if one is planning on buying a new iPhone.

“If you have a 7 or lower, then it makes sense to get the Xr because the speed and design is better, and then if you have an 8 it makes sense,” Sodhi said. “In every option, you would already be jumping a whole lot to the Xr… there’s no point in getting the Xs

for that much more money.”

Students who already have the new iPhone are enjoying it, especially the camera.

“I got the iPhone Xs Max and I really like it,” said junior Amy Liu. “I used to have the iPhone X, so the different honestly isn’t that great. The biggest different is definitely the camera quality; the images are a lot sharper now.”

Senior Emily Tsoi, who also owns an Xs Max and previously had an iPhone 8, echoed similar sentiments.

“I thinks it’s a really good phone and the camera function is really cool… you can change the field of depth after you take the picture, so blur stuff or unblur it,” she said. “ It’s basically cheating photography. It’s really fragile but I think if you need a new phone, it’s a good choice but if you have the 8 or the regular X it’s not necessary to upgrade.”

Liu also recognized that the phone was very fragile.

“I also get really conflicted on whether I should put on a phone case- the glass gold back is so pretty and aesthetically pleasing but then again I’m a clutz so I know I’ll drop it,” she said, noting that she had already cracked the screen and was getting it repaired. “[The iPhone Xs Max] definitely has more features that I really like [compared to my old iPhone 8] like face recognition, a lot more storage, a way better camera, and a bigger screen, so for me this upgrade is worth it,” Tsoi said.

Other students, such as sophomore Aidan Rausch, who owns an iPhone 8, were disappointed by features that didn’t change from previous models, such as the lack of a headphone jack.

“If it weren’t for the interface

of Apple on its phones I would switch to another phone only because of the headphone jack,” Rausch said. “It’s stupid. I can’t connect to speakers unless they are wireless or I have the stupid adapter that is basically made so you can lose it, and headphones, same thing.”

“I think it’s a really good phone and the camera function is really cool... you can change the field of depth after you take the picture, so blur stuff or unblur it. It’s basically cheating photgraphy.”

Emily Tsoi

Apart from the missing headphone jack, Rausch thinks the new iPhones are somewhat overpriced.

At the same time, the good user interface makes it worth it, according to Rausch.

Similarly, other students are indifferent about the new Apple products.

“The new iPhones seem pretty cool, but from what I’ve heard, they don’t look or seem very different from the old model,” said sophomore Mia Baldonado who owns an iPhone 7, referring to the older iPhone X. Whitson said, “As our lives have become more interconnected with technology, we want the best and easiest to use.”

Suspect robs and assaults mother and daughter Palo Alto Police Department is actively looking for suspects who forced two pedestrians to the ground, stole purse

By Henry Queen Senior Staff Writer

T

he Palo Alto Police Department is looking for leads on male suspects who reportidly assaulted and robbed a mother and daughter.

“I thought Palo Alto was a relatively crime-free area, but everyone needs to be on watch all the time these days.”

Daniel Rabello

On Saturday, Sept. 15, a mother and her daughter reported to be violently forced to the ground and robbed of the mother’s purse by a male suspect.

The crime took place around

1:40 p.m. at the corner of Kingsley Avenue and Waverley Street.

The victims made a call to the police directly after the incident at 1:42 p.m.

The mother, in her 50s, reported hearing shouting and then seeing the male suspect running towards her daughter, who is in her 20s.

According to the mother, she defensively embraced her daughter, but both women were knocked to the ground when the man used his body to hit them.

Shortly after the impact, the man entered a vehicle and was driven away by another male suspect according to the victims.

While neither women suffered serious injuries, the mother did report that the man had stolen her purse.

Police recently released a sketch of the first suspect who engaged with the victims.

According to the victims, the perpetrator was described as a “dark-skinned man who was ei-

ther black or Polynesian, in his mid-20s, and approximately six feet tall, weighing 200 pounds.

He was wearing a dark shirt, khaki-colored shorts and his face was covered with a red bandana.”

A mother and her daughter were violently forced to the ground and robbed of the mother’s purse by a male suspect. The crime took place around 1:40 p.m. at the corner of Kingsley Avenue and Waverley Street.

This latest robbery comes after two others that have occurred in Palo Alto since August. While

police say they do not believe these crimes are related, some people are becoming wary of future robberies.

Senior Daniel Rabello is one of many citizens who are concerned with the many recent robberies.

“I’m really surprised that these robberies could happen at any time in the Palo Alto community,” Rabello said.

Sophomore Julian Martinez echoed Rabello’s sentiment about the community.

“I thought Palo Alto was a relatively crime free area, but everyone needs to be on watch all the time these days,” Martinez said.

The two male suspects are still at large.

Anyone who has information about the incident or about the supsects that could aid the police in capturing them should call the 24-hour dispatch center at (650)329-2413, or send in an anonymous tip by e-mailing paloalto@ tipnow.org

COURTESY OF THE PALO ALTO POLICE DEPARTMENT

A sketch of one of the two male suspects of the assault and robbery.

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

NEWS

A4

Paly Centennial Committee organizes celebratory program Alumni, students, parents, staff gather together to celebrate beginning of hundredth year of Palo Alto High School community [both] now and in the future,” Kellerman said.

According to Kellerman, the idea for the march originated with the Palo Alto Historical Association.

The event is intended to celebrate the opening of Paly’s current campus on Embarcadero Road, a crucial landmark in Palo Alto history.

“I think one of the things that has always made Paly interesting was the journalism program.”

Rachel Kellerman

THE CAMPANILE /FILE PHOTO

The Centennial Committee is preparing to celebrate the 100 year aniversary of Paly's new campus at 1 p.m. on October 7 at 850 Webster St.

By Khadija Abid

Distribution Manager

H

osting a reenactment of its current campus’ opening 100 years ago, the Paly Centennial Committee is putting together an event that will mimic how students, staff and community members marched from the old Paly campus at 850 Webster St. to the current Paly site in 1918.

Following the march, a celebratory program called the Centennial Celebration will proceed in the Performing Arts Center.

The Centennial Celebration will feature a variety of performances, including the Palo Alto Festival Choir and the world premier of a song composed by Grammy-award winning Christopher Tin, a ‘94 Paly graduate. The event will open

with the Paly band and close with birthday cake to celebrate the school’s 100th year.

In addition to a variety of performances, a multitude of prominent dignitaries who are Paly alumni will attend including Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, State Assemblyman Marc Berman and Joe Simitian, State Sen. Jerry Hill and City Council member Karen Holman.

The Oct. 7 march will go from

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and the centennial performance will follow from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.. Attendees should meet at 850 Webster St. before the march starts.

Paly librarian Rachel Kellerman encourages all community members to attend. “[I’m most excited about] the mix of Paly ‘then and now,’ as the interaction between the older alumni and current students helps to build a stronger Paly

The Centennial Committee has been working with the Palo Alto Historical Association to organize and plan this event since last year, Kellermine said.

Furthermore, several notable Paly pioneers will be recognized for their pivotal impact at the high school.

Mary Gordon, a long-time Palo Alto landscape architect and designer, will be honored for her years of dedication and volunteer service to preserve the Paly campus with a brass plaque.

It will be placed in the garden in front of the Tower Building

according the Centennial Program’s recognitions sheet.

Additionally, Anna Probst Zschokke, one of Palo Alto’s first citizens, will be recognized with a commemorative plaque outlining her vital role as the founder of Palo Alto schools and Paly in particular.

The plaque will serve to educate the community and campus visitors about her story as a pioneer and risk taker in initiating an innovative school system in an era when these roles were not typically occupied by women.

The event is intended to celebrate the opening of Paly’s current campus on Embarcadero Road, a crucial landmark in Palo Alto history.

The celebrations will be continuing throughout the school year with this event here, this event now, and this event.

Both events are free. The general admission tickets for the Centennial performance are available at Palo Alto High School Theatre program's website.

Law firm threatens legal action over coming Board of Education election PAUSD faces lawsuit amid allegations of minority voter dilution through the election system used for School Board

By Sarah O'Riordan Staff Writer

A

lleging that Palo Alto Unified School District’s upcoming Board of Education election is discriminatory toward minority voters, a Southern California law firm has indicated PAUSD could be the next district it targets for legal action.

According to Board President Ken Dauber, the Board would like to be able to gather public opinion before addressing the August letter from Alexander Tomescu of the firm Wewer & Lacy.

In his letter, Tomescu claims the at-large election system PAUSD uses to elect candidates for the Board of Education results in “minority vote dilution” based on the geographic racial polarization of Palo Alto’s voters, and therefore violates the CRVA. Tomescu’s letter urges PAUSD to “voluntarily change its at-large system of electing board members” and warns that if PAUSD does not comply, the Laguna Niguel law firm “will be forced to seek judicial relief.”

“I don’t see much evidence that minority candidates don't do well in school district elections.”

Ken Dauber

In the letter, Tomescu also alleges that the at-large voting system currently in practice “allows a bare majority of voters to control every seat,” and instead suggests a system in which political units are divided into single-member districts in order to “facilitate a minority group’s ability to elect its preferred representatives.”

The PAUSD Board discussed the letter in closed session on Sept. 4, and discussed it publicly on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s meeting was a chance to hear the public’s opinions, which will influence how the board plans to respond, Dauber said.

At the meeting, William B. Tunick, board attorney of Dannis Woliver Kelley, LLP, explained the legal background of lawsuits similar to this potential one. In its history, there have been multiple cases and settlements, with close to 200 school districts and over 20 community colleges districts agreeing to transition from atlarge election systems.

According to Tunick’s presentation, there has been no successful defense against California Voting Rights Act challenges since the institution of the Act in 200 1because of the high litigation cost from cases like this for school districts.

The board is now faced with

two choices. It could decide to change the election system. If the board chooses to do this, Tomescu would receive reimbursement of up to $30,000 from the district in litigation fees.

If the board decides to refute the recent allegations, however, they must prepare to defend themselves against a more costly lawsuit, one which no defendant has won.

Despite the law firm’s original response deadline of Sep. 24 having passed, Tomescu has agreed to extend the deadline for a district response by 45 days.

In an at-large voting system, each voter, regardless of political orientation, can place one vote for every seat open in the election.

For example, if six candidates were running for four seats, each voter could vote for four candidates.

The top four candidates with the most votes would win the election and fill the open seats.

On the other hand, Wewer & Lacey’s preferred system involves dividing Palo Alto into defined, compact political areas, each of which would elect one candidate to the School Board.

As an example of how the current system discriminates, Tomescu used the school board elections of 2014 and 2016.

In the election of 2016, “a candidate of Asian descent ran and lost to non-Asian candidates,” Tomescu said. “As a result of racially-polarized voting, Palo Alto does not appear to have any Asian elected representatives.”

“As a result of racially-polarized voting, Palo Alto does not appear to have any Asian elected representatives.”

Alexander Tomescu The credibility of this example as evidence of unjust voting has been called into question by Dauber, however.

“I don’t see much evidence that minority candidates don't do well in school district elections, and it isn't apparent to me that the viewpoints of minority voters are not reflected in outcomes on the school board,” Dauber said.

He cited minority candidates who had won various district elections in the past, such as Barbara Klausner and Amado Padilla.

Additionally, he referenced the 2016 candidate who he had mentioned in the letter.

“Subramanian might well have won had he not dropped out of the race,” Dauber said.

According to Dauber, while he agrees voting by geographic district can be effective based on the concentration of different ethnic groups into districts, he

THE CAMPANILE /FILE PHOTO

The PAUSD Board faces a potential lawsuit for supposedly discriminatory voting policies within the election of board members. doubts the worthiness of the case applying to the Palo Alto community. “In our situation, I don’t think that we actually have that geographic concentration. I don’t think district voting would be an effective solution even if there were a disparity in voting,” Dauber said.

According to 2017 U.S. Census data, Hispanic and Latinos make up 7 percent of the population of Palo Alto and 12 percent of student enrollment.

Asians account for 31 percent of the population and 36 percent of student enrollment. African Americans make up 2 percent of student enrollment and 1 percent of the population, and Caucasians make up 62 percent of the population and 40 percent of student enrollment.

Using this data,Tomescu points out that while the population in PAUSD is made up of many races, the School Board lacks Latino, Asian and African-American representation, and blames the atlarge electoral system. Tomescu’s letter also mentions online racial appeals complaining about the issues of school segregation, and mentioned the use of the hashtag “#BoardSoWhite” calling the hashtag a “direct reference to the lack of minority representation on the Board.”

“Diversity and inclusion are some of the shared values that we have in Palo Alto.”

Ken Dauber

In terms of this year’s election, regardless of whether PAUSD cooperates with Wewer & Lacy, the election will continue, according to attorney George Schisler, a former PAUSD parent.

If a suit were filed, a judge would grant an injunction for the election to be effected.

“I would not expect the lawsuit to affect the election unless the judge grants an injunction. ” George Schisler

“In a matter like this, I think an injunction would be extremely unlikely,” he said. In addition to the subjective issues that could potentially surround the suit, “There are different legal requirements for when at-large voting is deemed to be unconstitutional. The minority group must be sufficiently numerous and compact to form a majority in a single district.

The minority group must be politically cohesive, meaning that they tend to vote similarly, and the majority vote is sufficiently a block to enable it to defeat the minorities’ preferred candidate.

All those things have to be proven to show that an at-large system is discriminatory.”

Students of color seem to be unsure what to make of the lawsuit threat, and whether or not districted elections would get to the root of the problem.

“Within Paly, there is a lot of splitting up of minority student groups from other groups, and I definitely feel like there is a difference in terms of representation for minority and non-minority students. I feel like that’s true of most schools, though,” sophomore Marina Buendia said.

However, Buendia doubts that this lawsuit have the potential to fix the bigger issues at play.

“We live in Palo Alto — most of us are liberal. We’re

not that split up. Dividing us up into factions is not going to do anything,” Buendia said. “I understand what they were trying to achieve, but I don’t think this is a problem that can be solved this easily. Racism and bias in general, they go a lot deeper.

It’s going to be a long while before we live in a world where it won’t affect our schools and elections.”

In addition to the legal complications, this lawsuit threat could raise potential new issues for Board of Education candidates to consider in their campaigns.

Board candidate Shounak Dharap would favor switching to district elections. He said regardless of the ethnic dispersion in Palo Alto, district elections would allow for more minority and non-traditional candidates to run, which in turn would create more representation for those groups. However, he acknowledges there are pros and cons for either side.

“It allows non-traditional candidates to run for office and those are younger people, professionals, who are lower income and statistically speaking, minorities."

Shounak Dharap

“The cons of a districted election can be that it’s a lot harder for consensus building when you have a board made up of people from various geographical segments,” Dharap said. “There may be more tension with respect to building infrastructure. For example … building the magical

bridge playground. If we had a district council elections, then maybe there would be contention as to where that should be built.”

Despite these cons, he said districted voting would be beneficial, even in Palo Alto, where some argue voter disparity isn’t an issue.

“Dividing us into factions is not going to do anything.”

Marina Buendia

“I think a lot of people say Palo Alto is spread out evenly, so it doesn’t really apply and won’t help the situation,” Dharap said.

“Even assuming that’s the case …

I think they [districted elections] would [be beneficial], because the first and biggest bar to political access is money. When you have a population where the minority is spread evenly throughout, it makes it a lot harder for nontraditional candidates to run for office against traditional candidates who have more access to resources and exposure.”

Dharap also said the average cost of running an effective campaign is excessive and could decrease if candidates only had to get exposure in their own district rather than the city as a whole.

“What it does is it allows non-traditional candidates to run for office, and those are younger people, people who are lower income, and statistically speaking, minorities,” Dharap says. “Diversity and inclusion are some of the shared values that we have in Palo Alto, so we should do what we can to trend towards that inclusion. This is all assuming that Palo Alto is fairly homogeneous in its spread. I don’t think that’s true. I think dividing into district elections could actually bring us closer together.”

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

A5

OPINION

Students should be aware of negative effects of “voluntourism”

By Annie Chen Lifestyle Editor

A

t 6 a.m. in Bonao, a small city in the Dominican Republic, senior Jennifer Xu prepares for the day’s project: a mural. Xu, who had woken up before everyone else, paints outlines on a wall tainted by graffiti and establishes a foundation for the piece. As the sun rises, students from abroad and local community members begin to trickle in and add colorful strokes of their own.

Like Xu, many Paly students participate in service projects abroad each year, traveling to countries thousands of miles away. Participants spend several weeks contributing to temporary interventions generally intended to improve the educational, health, environmental and economic aspects of underprivileged communities. This international shortterm volunteer work that has recently gained popularity is known as “voluntourism.”

There are many flaws in this emerging trend which students should consider before opting to participate.

Though “voluntouring” may appear philanthropic and seem to be an admirable way of improving less privileged communities, there are many flaws in this emerging trend which students should consider before opting to participate.

First, these trips are often inefficient, given that projects are delegated to students who may have less experience than needed. Many organizations lack a standardized or formal requirement for the amount of experience a “voluntourist” must have, and do not preface trips with sufficient training.

Xu, who tutored children in English at an orphanage called “La Fundación

Un Nuevo Futuro,” said the organization she registered for the trip through, Global Glimpse, did not prepare participants thoroughly enough. According to Xu, she thought the organization should have provided better training, as students were given sparse teaching handbooks and she had to rely more on her pre-existing knowledge of English grammar.

Moreover, the language barriers that “voluntour” trips often involve are a difficult obstacle to work with.

A number of organizations do not require fluency in the native language of the host community, which is an especially prominent issue when participants’ jobs are to teach children a new language.

Additionally, while experiences for the individual student volunteers may often be valuable, the host communities do not always reap the same benefits.

One factor that may negatively impact the community served is that the program and work are usually temporary.

The program Xu attended lasted just two weeks, which was not sufficient enough to thoroughly teach the children. Furthermore, Xu said the constant arrival and departure of waves of student “voluntourists” can negatively impact the community and the children’s social and emotional wellbeing. According to Xu, the children she tutored became emotionally attached to her throughout the two weeks.

She said it was disturbing to watch the children cry when participants left, especially since they were orphans.

Senior Ashley Hitchings, who has also participated in service trips abroad, is also concerned about the effect of the trips’ short duration.

She has gone to both Lijiang and Yuanyang in the Yunnan province of China over the past two summers through the Peach Foundation, volunteering as an English teacher

for children who are unable to access quality education.

Though Hitchings said the Peach Foundation manages a sustainable cycle of tutoring for their host communities, she recommends participants be conscious of the effects a temporary trip without a sufficient follow-up may have.

According to Hitchings, “voluntourists” can disrupt local people’s lives. She said longevity is important, and when students from abroad show up in a whirlwind and quickly disappear, the community is negatively impacted. Ensuring that participants’ actions are effective and their changes are enduring is important.

Another aspect that may damage the host community is the possible displacement of community members.

Hitchings believes participants’ work should fill a need in the host community that is currently not being met, and it is important that participants arrive with the proper cultural context.

Rather than focus on student participation, organiza-

tions should promote local community members’ contribution to these projects given that they are more familiar with their community’s needs and can maintain the sustainability and effect of efforts once participants leave. Finally, in addition to having negative consequences on host communities, “voluntourism” also usually caters to only high-income students who can afford to travel abroad.

Fees are not only expensive, often reaching up to thousands of dollars per person. This may prevent students of lower socioeconomic status from embarking on these trips and possibly gaining valuable experiences, as scholarships are often limited.

Overall, “voluntouring,” though seemingly generous, often has negative consequences for both student participants and host communities, including lack of training, disruptive actions and high registration fees.

However, genuine, comprehensive community ser-

vice, local or abroad, that serves both volunteers and community members well should not be tainted by the effects and flaws of certain “voluntour” organizations and practices.

For example, according to Amigos Peninsula Chapter President Ellen Curran, while many “voluntourism” organizations only provide a glimpse of the community, Amigos is a 54-year-old volunteer abroad program that allows for full cultural immersion of participants in their host communities.

Amigos not only offers scholarships and allows students to cover partial registration fees through fundraising or selling products, in addition the program provides 50 hours of training and seven hours of direct community service beforehand, thoroughly preparing students in regards to health, safety, cultural awareness and understanding.

Curran said the main difference between Amigos and many other organizations is that Amigos does not arrive

tion allows for students to address issues that directly affect their lives.

The Palo Alto Board of Education elections are to take place on Nov. 6.

Residents will vote to fill the spots of five school board positions and the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) will vote to support two of six candidates.

It is clear that many differences of opinion lay between teenagers and parents in this community.

Topics including freedom, privacy and academics are all examples of disagreements that occur within the typical family. As of now, parents and other adults in the community are in charge of voting for high schoolers educational rep-

resentatives. How can students be assured that adults are voting in the student’s best interest and not furthering their own agendas?

Juniors and seniors in particular have been at Paly long enough to be able to assess the changes that have influenced our school.

Most upperclassmen also have their driver’s license — a pivotal step towards becoming a young adult.

If a student is old enough to drive a car on the road, they’re old enough to drive the decisions that influence their daily lives. With a driver’s license, one’s management of his or her life is heightened to a degree that wasn’t feasible before.

This new liability allows the student to learn and mature drastically and be-

come indisputably more independent. Once this independence is gained, it seems only appropriate that he or she is able to utilize it to have a say in their academic lives.

Teenagers are the ones experiencing the discrepancies within our schools, therefore it is the student body who should be the ones who try to advocate for change in respect to voting.

Without student input, the school board elections are relying exclusively on adults to vote for the candidates they feel are most fitting for the position using their own biases and judgements.

Occasionally, parents decide to abstain from voting, which can be frustrating for their children.

According to junior Site

Council representative Ben Gordon, he had to convince his parents to vote on his behalf after they told him they were not planning on voting at all.

Some may feel that it is inappropriate to have minors make decisions that affect the entire community because teenagers are commonly known to have impulsive and underdeveloped thought processes.

While this may be somewhat true, the future will ultimately be controlled and transformed by the younger generation.

Learning how to handle adult situations and make educated decisions allows high schoolers to feel empowered and motivated to advocate for change and improvements within so-

at host communities with a specific, already planned project.

These trips are often inefficient, given that projects are delegated to students who may have less experience than needed.

The program analyzes the communities’ needs, promoting cooperation between student participants and local community members during project brainstorming.

Therefore, before embarking on a “voluntour” trip, students must thoroughly consider the positives and negatives of the program they are attending and develop a strong cultural awareness of the host community.

Though participants may obtain valuable experiences, these experiences can come at a cost — both in terms of registration fees and, especially, possibly doing more harm than good.

Voting age for school board elections should be lowered

LN

By Leila Khan

A

Staff Writer

s students progress through the journey of high school, constantly being affected by the inner workings of the school district, it is essential that they have a say in the way their schools are run.

Lowering the voting age

How can students be assured that adults are voting in the student’s best interest and not furthering their own to 16 years old for the upcoming school board elec-

ciety. Allowing students to elect the representatives that are in control of our community will instill responsibility and ignite social change into the minds of young adults.

It is clear that many differences of opinion lay between teenagers and parents in this community.

Increasing student activism and participation in the community will lead to endless improvements and allow for student’s voices to be heard and appreciated, further developing Palo Alto’s society and overall content in our school district.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

OPINION

A6

School bathroom policy ought to be consistent, fair

By Bernie Koen

Senior Staff Writer

T

he uncertainty of the process of going to the bathroom troubles any individual awaiting the relief that a long-awaited bathroom visit can provide.

Across classes, students experience different procedures for receiving permission to go to the bathroom.

The variety of procedures, ranging from sign-out sheets, to printed bathroom passes, to the lack of an actual procedure, make students unsure of what the process of going to the bathroom looks like. Additionally, the procedures in some places are often unfair to the students.

The worst method used is printed bathroom passes distributed to students at the beginning of each quarter or semester.

This method allows teachers to limit the number of times students go to the bathroom during a given time period, which is an unfair restriction.

Some teachers ask for students to raise their hands and simply ask to go use the bathroom.

Generally, the number of bathroom passes given to students is two to four per semester. Students who need to go to the bathroom often run out of their passes and are then unable to fulfill the basic human necessity of relieving themselves.

The only benefit of this system is the ease of communication between student and teacher.

A student can simply hand his or her bathroom pass to the teacher, or place it near them and head to the bathroom without disrupting the class, since no conversation is required.

However, the faults of this method outweigh the benefits. Limiting the number of times students can go to the bathroom simply shouldn’t be allowed.

The main benefit of this system, non-verbal commu-

nication, can be obtained through a much more fair system that doesn’t limit a student’s ability to use the bathroom: a sign out sheet.

In some classes, teachers use a sign out sheet to track which students go to the bathroom.

It appears sign out sheets are not scrutinized unless a teacher wishes to see who went to the bathroom during a certain time period, in case of a fire alarm or similar drill, or how often a student goes to the bathroom if a problem rises regarding the student’s grade and class participation.

Paly physics and chemistry teacher Michael Lupoli, who uses a sign-out sheet system in his classes, says the sheet can be helpful for assessing a student’s bathroom tendencies.

According to Lupoli, on occasion, he’s pulled the sheet out to show parents when there’s a concern about how much time their student is spending outside the classroom.

Since a teacher can see a student using this sign out sheet, verbal communica-

tion isn’t needed, which is beneficial for students and for not disrupting the flow of the class by interrupting the teacher to ask for permission.

According to Lupoli, he prefers that students give him some sort of signal that they’re leaving the classroom, so he knows that they’re leaving, even if the signal is just be that they see that he sees them signing out.

Among all the systems, the sign out sheet provides the best balance between accountability for the student and ensuring that students have the ability to use the bathroom when they need to.

According to Lupoli, this sign out sheet doesn’t prevent them from making choices of when to use the restroom and when not to use the restroom. He lets them make that decision, but will coach them if he notices a trend or a problem. He said that if you need to go to the bathroom, you need to go and that he doesn’t have any way of knowing if they’re telling him the truth, and

he’s not going to question them on that kind of thing.

If a student does abuse their freedom to use the bathroom and they miss significant classroom time, the sign out sheet gives the teacher a tangible method of identifying the student’s time spent outside of class.

In addition, in case of emergencies, the sign out sheet provides a reliable way of knowing where students are.

According to Lupoli, in case there’s an emergency, he can quickly know which students he has in the room and which students are not in the room that he needs to report as potentially missing or needs to go look for depending on the emergency.

The third common system is the lack of an actual system.

Some teachers ask for students to raise their hands and simply ask to go use the bathroom, while others indicate that it’s acceptable for a student to simply get up and leave, whenever they need to.

This system gives students the most freedom by far, by making them the only

ones responsible for the class time missed when they use the bathroom.

AP Psychology and Positive Psychology teacher Chris Farina said he feels comfortable giving his students the freedom to monitor their bathroom use on their own.

According to Farina, the reason he has no system is because he teaches a generally really mature group of seniors, and he trusts them both to know when it’s a convenient time to go and use the restroom and to not be out too long.

Farina said he has had occasions where students abuse their bathroom privileges, but he doesn’t think having a system is the most effective way to address the problem.

According to Farina, he doesn’t need the policy much as just a chance to talk to students.

One major downside of this system is in some instances, such as in case of a fire or earthquake, it would be beneficial for the teacher to have a written account of which students were outside

of the classroom at that given time.

Both the sign-out sheet and the lack of a system provide students with the freedom teenagers should be treated with.

Any system that sets a limited number of times a student can go to the bathroom should be removed, as it simply unfairly restricts a student from filling their basic bodily needs.

The only benefit of this system is the ease of communication between student and teacher.

Bathroom policy should be standardized across Paly, making it the norm for a teacher to use a non-restrictive sign out sheet to be able to track their students in case of bathroom privilege abuse, or an emergency..

According to Farina, he understands why people might want students to sign out but he just doesn’t feel the need to have anybody ask for permission.

Reform necessary to speed up teacher grading process

By Kaitlyn Lee Staff Writer

W

hile many students’ lives are dictated by the strict due dates of their homework, tests and other assignments, teachers don’t seem to have such strict deadlines. Instead, they have the ability to wait to grade assignments weeks or even months after they were turned in.

For this reason, stricter grading deadlines should be implemented. While there are already progress reports that occur three times a semester, they allow teachers to be very broad about the student’s performance in the class.

According to math teacher Daniel Nguyen, most teachers only enter whether or not the student is passing or failing the course.

Because these grades are so insignificant, it takes incentive away from teachers who would otherwise be timely in their grading. Ultimately, the grades produced in progress reports are a poor representation of a student’s work in a class.

If students have strict deadlines, teachers ought to have them too.

These progress reports should require teachers to enter grades of all assignments that have been turned in, giving a specific percentage grade in the class. They should also be more frequent and occur at least once a month.

Another solution to this problem would be to enforce policies in which certain assignments must be graded within a certain time period

based off how difficult they are to grade. Tests should be returned no more than a week after they are taken, essays or assignments with lots of writing should be returned after no more than two weeks and smaller homework assignments should be returned within the next couple class periods.

While this could be harder to enforce and keep uniform, teachers should be able to hold themselves accountable and adhere to these deadlines to the best of their ability. If students have strict deadlines, teachers ought to have them too.

Extensive delays between the time when students turn in assignments and receive feedback on them can result in students developing a false sense of security about their grades.

When teachers wait for a month to grade assignments, students can get complacent

with their grade and their motivation may decline with the belief that their performance is satisfactory.

Once the points from the ungraded assignments, tests and quizzes are entered into the gradebook, however, the realization that their grades are not what they had hoped sets in. This is especially detrimental at the end of the semester, when there is no way to make up for these points except for the final, since all work is completed.

A specific example of this happened to junior Zach Donaker. On the night before one of his end-of-theyear finals, he said he was missing scores for around 20 activities in the gradebook, so he had no idea of where his grade in the class stood, since there was a large number of unentered points.

While a common student tactic at Paly is to cal-

culate the score needed on the final to get a desired grade in the class, Donaker said he couldn’t do this since his current grade was not up-to-date, putting him in the dark about what score he needed on his semester final to get the final grade he wanted in the class. He also said he wasn’t able to prioritize which finals he needed to study for the most because of this. In the end, his missing activities never got graded, which didn’t hurt his final grade, but could have been harmful if his grade was lower.

Another reason that grading deadlines should be implemented is that students are more likely to remember material if they receive tests back sooner.

Many students have the learning mindset of cramming before the exam and forgetting that information soon after the test has been

taken. If an exam is returned a month after it’s taken, the information is no longer relevant and all that matters is the score, causing students to only care about their grade, not what they got wrong or what they could have improved on.

Sophomore Charlize Nguyen said she has experienced long periods of time between taking a test and receiving it. While she understands teachers have a heavy workload, she said there should be a two-week maximum grading period because a long grading process adds extra stress to students.

Especially if the test was difficult, she says she finds herself stressing about what she could have gotten wrong, and the longer the process is, the more agonizing it is to wait.

Some may argue that implementing grading deadlines would be unfair to teachers since they have a heavy workload. While this is true, many

teachers have teacher assistants (TA’s), which are students that help grade completed assignments.

With TA’s helping teachers grade, these deadlines are reasonable because TA’s will cut down a good portion of teacher’s workloads.

Despite many teachers taking weeks to grade a single test, there are many of them who grade quickly and efficiently. I appreciate these teachers. They are proof that it is possible to grade tests within a couple days rather than a couple weeks.

Still, a large number of teachers don’t enter grades in an efficient manner, meaning teachers should have grading deadlines.

This would greatly benefit students’ lives, not only relieving them of stress, but bettering their education as well.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

OPINION

Hard alcohol ban is not solution to hazing deaths

By Eve Donnelly

L

Staff Writer

ike peanut butter and jelly or ketchup and mustard, alcohol and fraternities have always been a pair that seem to go together.

Recently, a series of deaths related to fraternity hazing have sparked a call for reform.

Though disheartening, because many lives were lost to bring attention to this issue, American fraternities are working to change. The issue is that they are going about it in the wrong direction.

Fraternities across the U.S. will no longer be able to serve hard alcohol at parties.

In an effort to reduce hazing, over 80 percent of fraternities nationwide will no longer be able to serve hard alcohol at parties. Dis-

guised as a solution, the hard alcohol ban provides a thinly veiled distraction while “pledging” flies under the radar as the true culprit.

The North American Interfraternity Conference came to conclusion of banning hard alcohol after a near unanimous vote on Aug. 26.

Starting on Sept. 1, 2019, students in more than 6,000 chapters across the U.S. will no longer be able to consume hard alcohol, unless it is provided by a licensed third party. This includes students over the age of 21.

Hard alcohol is defined as anything containing above a 15 percent alcohol content. Additionally, all chapter parties and events must be registered with school administration.

The prohibition of liquor was prompted by a long string of hazing-related deaths as well as alcoholinfluenced sexual assaults.

Hank Nuwer, an author, speaker and journalism professor at Franklin College, reports there is at least one

hazing-related death each year in the U.S., according to years worth of compiled data from schools across the country. There is no good reason why anyone should be subject to dying in college in such circumstances of peer pressure, especially for an issue that can be addressed.

After hazing death incidents dating as far back as 1838, this is the first significant attempt at prevention.

Decision-making skills on behalf of fraternity members should be improved with or without alcohol.

It should be kept in mind that the banning of liquor is not an end all solution. Many college students express skepticism around fraternity members obeying these rules.

A Stanford University freshman who asked to remain anonymous said he would find it surprising if fraternities took the ban seriously.

Especially with older chapters, culture and traditions are highly valued and

hard to break. Hazing is a prominent part of tradition, and therefore an act few will be willing to omit easily.

In addition, there is no foolproof way to keep undergraduates away from liquor. People will always find ways around rules, especially teenagers and young adults.

Students can still drink in dorms before going out, hold off-campus parties and conceal alcohol from administrators.

In order to properly address the issues at hand, stricter rules against hazing should be implemented by the North American Interfraternity Conference, starting by discussing a major reform.

“Hazing” is a common term used to describe the rituals and initiation tasks many fraternities require new pledges, students applying to their selected chapter, to complete in order to prove allegiance.

For example, George Desdunes, a 19-year-old from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Cornell

University, died from acute alcohol poisoning in 2011.

As part of a tradition, he and another fraternity member were forced to drink shots of vodka each time they answered a question about their fraternity’s history incorrectly.

Desdunes is only one of over 200 lives lost since 1838 from fraternity rituals. At least 40 deaths have occured between 2007 and 2017 alone.

Most hazing happens during rush week, a time where freshmen select a fraternity or sorority to be a part of. These prospective members are referred to as pledges. To gain the status of an official member, they often have to endure a grueling selection process.

Seeing as hazing has harmful effects, includingbut not limited to alcoholrelated deaths, ending the practice of “pledging” may be the answer they need to consider.

Student’s acceptance into a chapter should not be determined by their lack of

self-respect or alcohol tolerance. Pledging is an unnecessary, dangerous form of initiation that university greek life should consider abolishing.

Pledging is an unnecessary, dangerous form of initiation that university greek life should consider abolishing.

The human body can become comatose from any type of alcohol in large quantities. What needs to change is not the kind of alcohol, but the kind of behavior. Schools should not endorse nor tolerate hazing The Interfraternity Conference’s hard alcohol ban should be seen as nothing but a start. A simple forbidence of hard alcohol will not suffice in saving lives.

Only when behavior, practices and traditions are altered will greek life students be safe.

CROSSWORD

Hello Campanile readers! The answers to the clues of this crossword puzzle can be found throughout the articles in this issue. When your crossword puzzle is complete, bring it to the MAC 103. The first 30 people to do so will receive a free cookie.

Down:

Sept. 15 in Professorville.

1. One country prominently featured on the quad’s new mural.

22. Celine Boissy is fluent in this Mayan language.

2. The high school that the new head football coach, Nelson Gifford, attended.

4. The fear or aversion to the sight of irregular small holes.

5. The amount of newcomers running for school board this year.

7. A claim or dispute filed and brought to a court of law.

9. The neurotransmitter in brains that creates feelings of happiness.

10. The name of the company that put up Paly’s new mural.

11. An organization located in the Paly science buildings that tutors underprivileged youth and low-income students from Terman and JLS. 13. In martial arts, a bow represents ______.

14. Paly alumni Emily Tomz (‘18) plays soccer at this California college.

19. California’s 24th District State Representative.

21. A ______ took place on

23. The number of progress reports sent out per semester.

25. The ______ of a local theft was seen with a red bandana covering his face.

27. To buy and sell an item for profit is to ______.

28. This administrator took over bell schedule duties after Kim Diorio.

30. The architect of the library also designed this other building on Paly’s campus (Answer in the form of acronym).

32. Due to the high cost of equipment, it is difficult for some students to ______ playing a school sport.

34. ______ are played by professional online gamers as a spectator sport.

35. Acronym for the bell schedule committe.

36. The number of schoolboard candidates that PAUSD will elect.

38. The display type of the new iPhone XRS (Answer in the form of acronym).

Across: 3. The ______ march, taking place on Oct. 7, will celebrate Palo Alto High School’s one hundreth year.

6. New undergraduate students applying to be in a fraternity or sorority are called ______.

8. After a long period of construction, this building is

scheduled to open in January of 2019.

with any traditional religious groups.

12. The second largest religious group in America.

18. The public art facility in Palo Alto where some Paly students volunteer.

15. The last name of this year’s incumbent running for the PAUSD school board.

16. The term to describe a person who does not affiliate

20. Each year, this number of adults register for the Palo Alto Adult School (PAAS), where various classes are provided.

24. One of the Palo Alto Adult School’s main classes is one that allows adults to learn English (Answer in the form of an acronym).

26. This popular clothing brand, valued at $1 billion, was recently bought by the Carlyle Group.

27. The technology used to

sort plastic on a conveyer belt is called infra______.

29. A category of waste that includes materials such as plastic, paper, metal and glass that can be refurnished into new objects.

31. A Paly student was recently harassed online over an app called ______ chat.

A7

33. High school soccer’s biggest college recruiting tournament.

35. There is controversy over whether or not this after-school program, run

by Christopher Boyd, should maintain its non-profit status.

37. A golf player requires this number of clubs to play.

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

A8 EDITORIALS Ashlund, Dharap for School Board Classes should cover current world events P I alo Alto voters will face a critical decision on Nov. 6 when choosing two candidates for Palo Alto Unified School District school board, who will shape the district’s climate over the next four years. Six candidates are vying for two open seats and five of them — Stacey Ashlund, Ken Dauber, Shounak Dharap, Kathy Jordan and Alex Scharf — were present at the Palo Alto Weekly School Board Debate on Sept. 20. The sixth candidate, Christopher Boyd, was not present, after the Weekly found out that he had been misrepresenting his after school program InstED and asked him to withdraw.

After attending this debate and hearing from all of the candidates present, The Campanile has chosen to endorse Ashlund and Dharap, as we believe they have a strong understanding of the needs and nuances of our community.

Additionally, as newcomers, they would provide fresh insight that can lead to much needed change. They both eloquently emphasized their past experience that make them qualified and their intentions to work closely with students, an important trait for a Board member.

Ashlund, a parent of two PAUSD students, has been an active volunteer in the district for the past 18 years and repeatedly highlighted her past experience working closely with students, parents and teachers. The Cam-

panile believes that Ashlund’s work with Partners in Education (PiE), Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and for student wellbeing will make her well-equipped to serve on the Board.

Ashlund's belief that academic rigor and student wellbeing are not part of a tradeoff is a promising characteristic.

In her response to the first question about the state of the district, Ashlund brought up student wellbeing and mental health.

Her empathetic outlook on these topics, as well as her belief that academic rigor and student wellbeing are not part of a trade-off, are promising characteristics.

Ashlund also represents a strong voice for equity among all students. Through her work on Project Safety Net, Ashlund has helped families of all backgrounds, ensuring that socioeconomic status, learning disadvantages and ethnicity are not barriers to success.

The Campanile hopes that Ashlund continues to champion these ideals as a Board member.

Lastly, Ashlund touched upon the topic of course and crossschool alignment. She expressed

support for standardizing sections of the same class taught by different teachers through aligning what teachers teach, but not how and when, an approach The Campanile supports. Ashlund also referenced expanding strong extracurricular programs at Gunn to Paly and vice versa.

Dharap, an attorney and litigator, was a Gunn High School student around the time of the suicide clusters. This background provides him with very unique qualifications to be a board member, as he can relate to problems students face. For example, he has empathy and understanding for current student issues such as stress and the culture of comparing and bragging about achievements. In addition, his legal experience would allow Dharap to understand where the board is lacking legally, and what it can do to comply with laws such as Title IX. To mitigate future infractions, Dharap suggested implementing a general council or a chief lawyer to ensure the district complies with all laws.

Another policy of Dharap’s is that The Campanile commends is transparency within the board.

Dharap emphasized the importance of releasing information to the public as soon as possible. On the issue of Paly’s unannounced, last-minute schedule change, Dharap said, “public information should never surprise us.”

Throughout the debate,

Dharap also made clear his stance on academics. His beliefs include introducing pre-kindergarten programs, emphasizing depth of knowledge, ensuring challenging students is not mutually exclusive from helping them and boosting enrollment in electives that allow them to explore interests. We feel confident in a candidate who supports these learning goals.

Dharap emphasized the importance of releasing information to the public as soon as possible.

Finally, Dharap explained how not being a PAUSD parent would work to the District’s advantage, since he would strive to improve all schools equally and not be biased towards any one school.

We believe Ashlund and Dharap are the most qualified to serve on the Board because they understand the concerns of the community and have the knowledge and skills to rectify them.

Editor's Statement: We the editors-in-chief strongly urge the community not to vote for Jordan. We believe her inappropriate and unacceptable conduct with students and poor conflict resolution skills make her unfit to be a Board member.

t has become increasingly apparent that media literacy is a necessary skill that far too many people lack. Ongoing debates about fake news, the legitimacy of social media as a news distribution platform and incredibly low voter turnout in the United States should all raise alarm in this community. In the digital age, learning how to keep informed about current events and sift through the falsehoods designed to generate online revenue is a vital skill.

In the opinion of The Campanile, it is in Paly’s best interest, as well as the interests of PAUSD, to promote the incorporation of current events into curriculum.

Currently, some teachers include discussions about news and current events into their lessons, but whether any given student gets to learn in such an environment is entirely dependent on which teacher they are assigned.

Between different periods and teachers of the same curriculum, the emphasis placed on current events varies wildly. This inconsistency exists outside of honors or AP classes, which further muddies the waters. Some, such as AP Environmental Science, include current events in a commendable fashion. Others, regrettably, do not. A skill as important as media literacy should not be taught randomly, depending entirely on

which class a student is assigned to.

The solution would be fairly simple. Any class that covers a topic that receives regular news coverage, such as a science or history course, ought to devote a few minutes every class period to discuss a recent development in that field. This would teach students about the impact of local events on our community, as well as the larger impacts of national or international events. It would broaden the perspectives of our student body, encourage intellectual diversity and help students develop the habit of staying informed, while the habits that will govern how they live for the rest of their life are being formed.

Ultimately, it is the job of a high school to prepare its students for the rest of their academic and professional lives. In the opinion of The Campanile, the small sacrifice of a few minutes every week is more than worth it to ensure Paly’s students are more well-rounded and educated. One of high school’s most valuable functions is creating engaged and informed citizens. If our students aren’t taught the value of informing themselves and keeping up to date with their communities, their nation and the world in which they live, can it truly be said that this school is educating them to the best of their ability?

New library should be open longer

A

t the end of a long school day, many students head to the locations they have determined to be their most productive environment for studying, such as local libraries, coffee shops or their desks at home.

However, some students don’t have this luxury, due to a lack of transportation, disruptive living circumstances or evening activities on campus that they must stay for.

Generally, the most convenient location for these students to study is the makeshift library, currently held in the student center. However, this space closes at 5 p.m, forcing students to find a different location.

The Campanile believes the hours of the newly renovated library, scheduled to open in January 2019, should be extended in order to provide an adequate after-school study space for students. In addition to funding for extending the daily library hours, The Campanile believes funding should also be budgeted to cover popular programs like Food for Thought.

Before the library renovation started, many Paly students stayed until the library closed. Even with the temporary library in the student center, Paly librarian Rachel Kellerman estimates an average of 20-30 students stay until closing at 5 p.m., demonstrating that students still value the study space, even in the makeshift location.

We strongly urge Paly adminstration to request addition funding for extended library hours.

Members of The Campanile staff attest to the fact that the Rinconada Library, one of the two main libraries in Palo Alto, is used

by Paly students after school, to the point where the teen room,

private study rooms and desks in the main area are often crowded.

On Monday through Thursday, the Rinconada Library is open until 9 p.m., a resource many students utilize to study late.

If the Paly library were to extend its hours, students would likely opt to use this more convenient and likely less crowded space. While keeping the library open until 9 p.m. likely isn’t feasible, a good compromise would be to extend library hours until 6 or 7 p.m.

According to Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson, the new Paly library is estimated to cost $10 million.

We believe it would be a waste to spend this much money on a building without allowing students to take full advantage of its utility, as the purpose of renovating the library was to serve the students and provide them with the best opportunities possible.

Berkson said if the hours were to be extended, the library would be staffed with a “classified employee,” meaning a non-teacher.

The cost would be approximately $25 per hour with 25 percent benefits, which is a tiny fraction of the total cost of the renovations.

According to Berkson, in order for Paly to acquire additional funding for this purpose, administrators would have to go to the District to request the money from the chief academic officer or the director of fiscal services.

Berkson said gaining these additional funds would likely not be easy. The District receives a budget from the government every year, which often includes onetime funds that the District can then allocate in a variety of ways.

Berkson said it would be difficult to use the District’s current budget to add another expenditure right now.

We strongly urge Paly administration to request additional funding from the District for extended hours, or to work with the District to redirect funds in order

to make the extended hours a priority.

Kellerman said the library staff is there to serve the students, and if the library is able to get the funding to staff the library for extended hours, they are happy to do it.

The Campanile believes the hours of the newly renovated library should be extended in order to provide an adequate afterschool study space for students.

The issue of funding longer library hours extends even further than the wish for a later closing time on a day-to-day basis. Food For Thought, a popular program held in the library during finals week that provides students with hearty, free dinners and teachers available to answer questions, is also facing funding problems.

According to Mary Bena, the founder and organizer of Food For Thought, last year’s program was funded by a generous donation from a Paly parent. However, Bena said the program will not be able to run this year without additional funding, whether from the District or from parents. To fund the first year of Food For Thought, Bena went around Palo Alto to organizations such as churches to raise the necessary funds. While Bena said she is willing to do that again, she would prefer an alternate source of funding.

Around 250 students attended during first semester finals in the winter of 2017. Given the popularity of the program, The Campanile believes it would be a worthwhile investment for the District to fund both the Food For Thought program and extended hours for the library.

OCTOBER'S TOP TEN LIST Top Ten Paly Pick-Up Lines 10) Are you in the advanced math lane? Because I'd really like to BC-ing you.

9) Are you the quadratic formula? Because I'd be down 2a date with you.

8) Are you my beginning-of-the-year motivation? Because I'm really trying to hold on to you.

7) Are you the fire alarm? Because at this point, even when you're silent, I still hear you in my head.

6) Are you lunch? Because I really never get enough time with you.

5) If you're a Howie's pizza, I'm the grease — all over you.

4) You must be a cupcake, because I sure do Kara bout you.

3) Are you the classroom thermostat? Because you're just too cool.

2) Are you an overpriced burger? Because I Gott's to have you.

1) You must be spikeball, because even though I don't understand you, people seem to really like you.

-NOAH BAUM & SARAH O'RIORDAN

The Campanile Editors-in-Chief Leyton Ho • Waverly Long • Kaylie Nguyen Ethan Nissim • Ujwal Srivastava

Online Editor Yusra Rafeeqi

Managing Editors Kennedy Herron • Byron Zhang

News and Opinion Editors

Lifestyle Editors

Noah Baum • Neil Kapoor

Annie Chen • Leela Srinivasan

Science & Tech Editor

Sports Editors

Miranda Li

Navid Najmabadi • Ben van Zyll

Multimedia Editor

Business Managers

Vivian Feng

Lucy Nemerov • John Tayeri

Distribution Manager Khadija Abid Emily Asher Eve Donnelly Kaahini Jain Leila Khan Paige Knoblock Bernie Koen Kaitlyn Lee Nicholas Le

Photo Editor Alyssa Leong

Board Correspondent Samantha Hwang

Staff Writers

Cameron Legrand Rebekah Limb Anna Meyer Sophia Moore Lara Nakamura Tien Nguyen Sarah O'Riordan Henry Queen

Maya Rathore Frida Rivera William Robins Kiana Tavakoli Kai Vetteth Johnny Yang Jaures Yip Shannon Zhao

Photographers Khadija Abid • Emily Asher • Leila Khan Alyssa Leong • Johnny Yang

Illustrators Khadija Abid • Noah Baum • Annie Chen Cameron Legrand • Noa Lehrer • Zander Leong Miranda Li • Lucy Nemerov • Jaures Yip

Advisers Rodney Satterthwaite • Esther Wojcicki

Writing Coaches Evelyn Richards • Elisabeth Rubinfien

Letters to the Editors: Email all letters to editors to theeds19@googlegroups.com The Campanile prints letters on a space-available basis.

We reserve the right to edit submissions.

The Campanile only prints signed letters.

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Note: It is the policy of The Campanile to refrain from printing articles that misrepresent or alienate specific individuals within the Palo Alto community.

The Campanile would like to thank the PTSA for supporting the mailing of our newspaper!

Our Vision Statement: The Campanile has upheld the highest standard of student journalism for the last century by engaging the community through various mediums of storytelling. Our coverage of news, culture and athletics aims to represent the diverse perspectives of our student body.

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

LIFESTYLE

Religious ‘Nones’: a new generation of beliefs I

s God Dead?” in bright red dominated one of the most iconic covers of Time Magazine in 1966. The cover story, written by religion editor John Elson, focused on professor William Hamilton of Colgate Rochester Divinity School and his belief that God’s death caused him to leave his job and home. As a result, Time received backlash from citizens and publications challenging the controversial statement.

“As always, faith is something of an irrational leap in the dark, a gift of God,” Elson wrote in the article. “And unlike in earlier centuries, there is no way today for churches to threaten or compel men to face that leap; after Dachau’s mass sadism and Hiroshima’s instant death, there are all too many possibilities of hell on earth.”

Published in the era when religiously devout global citizens watched as “Godless” communism stretched across Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, people in the United States were quick to declare concepts of atheism and agnosticism as radical and dangerous to capitalism.

Fifty years later, being religiously unaffiliated is not quite so disfavored. In fact, the religious “nones,” or those who do not identify with traditional religions, account for the second largest religious group in the U.S., following Christianity. According to National Geographic, this may involve a number of factors, one of which is the world’s most recent technological advancements.

Husna Hashmi, a local mosque organizer, says she tends to see a good number of local youth attend religious activities and socialize with peers.

Although the advantage of extremely accessible information online has allowed for humans to better establish their beliefs regarding the unknown, such as God, angels, and other supernatural concepts, she says she has seen some aspects of technology negatively affect communities as a whole.

“Technology can be a great resource, but tends to take away from face to face interaction, religious experience and socialization benefits,” Hashmi said. “It can be difficult to fully embrace religion without understanding, seeing and practicing with others in a faith based environment. Youth are more distracted today with technology than ever before. Earlier generations didn’t have constant distractions. Their religious upbringing was given importance and valued by the society. ” In the U.S., young adults are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated, even though the majority have grown up in religious settings. Humanities teacher Mimi Park said this nation-wide shift has had an affect on how religious students act in her class.

“There’s a fear that those who are [religiously affiliated] won’t be taken seriously,” Park said.

“There’s such a high value on rationality that to profess to believe in something that requires faith rather than rationality is what people worry about. There is a social pressure to not say any-

thing, and so it has taken a lot of my very religious students some years to become comfortable about sharing their faith to their own friends, especially when they don’t share their beliefs.”

Park said that although there is not a widespread fear of expressing personal faith, unlike certain areas of the world where people are targeted for their religion, there is a slight stigma that may cause students to tire of explaining beliefs.

“They get tired of defending themselves, defending their faith, essentially,” Park said. “It’s important to talk about differences of faith, but continuously debating one’s identity might cause students to keep it more personal.

They don’t want to state their belief and then have ten people go ‘Wait, why do you believe that, can you provide evidence?’”

“It’s important to talk about differences of faith, but continuously debating one’s identity might cause students to keep it more personal.”

Mimi Park Scientific advancements have also caused people to question God, according to Hashmi.

“Young adults are immersed in an environment where they see science as having the answers and delivering results which can been seen, understood and proved,” Hashmi said. “It’s what they may rely on, are familiar with and turn to for solutions.”

In Silicon Valley specifically, the incredible amount of technological research and growth might be causing a substantial decline in religious affiliation, which according to Park, is a misconception.

“It is a stereotype that the majority of the Silicon Valley is agnostic or atheist, because, in my time teaching humanities, I find that there is a very substantial core in every single class of people who are very devout in faith, even if they don’t outwardly express it,” Park said. “Some of the things I’ve heard from my students is that it’s very unpopular in this area to express that one is very religious because it seems so outmoded [and] so counter to the value of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).”

According to Hashmi, the trend seen in people leaving religious identity, for one reason

or another, might describe a phenomenon regarding the state of religious centers. Churches around the world often go out of business due to a lack of interest in religious communities.

“Younger generations may be stepping away from faith because religion may not serve a clear purpose in their lives yet,” Hashmi said. “What may be causing this trend is lack of knowledge, time, disinterest, being oversubscribed and negative messaging around religion by the media.”

Although being religiously unaffiliated continues to gain popularity in certain areas in the U.S., Middle-Eastern and North African regions are experiencing the opposite effect. Habiba Mekay, a Paly freshman who identifies as Muslim, moved to Palo Alto from Egypt the summer before her freshman year. She said she experienced a shock as she adjusted and continues to adjust to her life in America.

“In Egypt, being Muslim is pretty normal,” Mekay said.

“Some people just say they’re religious because their parents follow a religion, but most people I know still had a religion …

Here, I feel as if everyone stares at me and thinks I’m weird for showing my religion [by wearing a headscarf ].”

Park said geographic location plays a significant factor in the religious behavior of adolescents and young adults. In areas where religion is a large part of culture, Park said it becomes natural to profess religious identity. However, in places where religion is not central to common lifestyles, religious affiliation becomes that much more private.

“There are certain religions very intertwined with culture,” Park said. “For people who are part of those faith systems it will be easier because it’s not just faith, but it’s part of their culture so it seems more acceptable in that type of society versus when someone is strictly talking about their spiritual faith.”

Mekay said one of her first friends in America did not believe in God. Their difference in beliefs allowed them to have respectful debates, each trying to justify her own opinion.

From experiences with her friend and exposure to American culture, Mekay said people choosing to be religiously unaffiliated might have something to do with their resulting freedom.

“If you’re not religious, you’re kind of free to do anything,” Mekay said. “There isn’t a set wrong or right laid out by a religion.”

However, Mekay notices the greater religious diversity in America allows those who are affiliated to become more devout, contradictory to what she saw in Egypt.

“Here, [religious people] know that other people around them follow different religions, or don’t even follow one,” Mekay said. “So they try to focus more on their religion and aren’t influenced by the [beliefs] of other people.”

Those who choose to go online to access information and form beliefs regarding the super-

natural may not be exposed to opportunities of observing different faiths. Accordingly, seniors Jared Yang and Leon Lau, presidents of the Christian Club on campus, hope that their club will serve as an open environment to all Paly students curious about the world’s largest religion.

“Religion is a good way to

“We’re seeing this large trend of turning away from institutions of tradition in general.”

Jared Yang get a strong foundational moral background,” Yang said. “A lot of the times we think that religions are mysterious, and so a lot of people don’t really know about the major world religions. I think it’s good to raise awareness on campus to learn more about what religions are about and then make a decision from there.”

Yang said the drift towards the state of being religiously unaffiliated might have to do with the deterioration of traditionalism in present day.

“In younger generations, we’re seeing this large trend of turning away from institutions of tradition in general,” Yang said.

“People are turning away from concepts, basic family structure and traditional values.

It’s hard to say if this is a good or bad thing, but it’s a rejection of the way things have been.”

Lau said younger age groups are more

likely to be affected by their peers.

“The environment and culture of this generation has changed,” Lau said. “The people that influence us have changed their beliefs.”

Although being religious has seen a downturn over the past few generations, it will not be impactful enough to affect the amount of religious growth across all age groups, according to Demographic Research.

Hashmi says that in order to counter lack of interest in her younger Muslim community, she plans to create more youth-oriented activities that will bring attention away from distractions and toward their faith.

“On Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) minimum days & holidays, we anticipate and plan see our youth attend prayer services which are geared toward them,” Hashmi said. “We recently started a program on Friday evenings, providing students a place to gather with friends.”

Religious Affiliation of 65 Paly Upperclassmen

Text & Design by Yusra Rafeeqi • Design by Paige Knoblock

Data in this chart was collected via Facebook in a optional survey offered to Paly juniors and seniors.

SPOTLIGHT

Schedule changes cause frustration

From a faulty auditor to a community member who cried foul, discover the behind-the-scene details that changed the schedule right before the new school year commenced. Learn about the communityís response.

PXHERE/CC0 1.0

PAGE B4-85

Lifestyle

Science & Tech

JOHNNY YANG/THE CAMPANILE

Palo Alto Adult School

Read more about the adults who choose to attend extra schooling.

PAGE B3

• Art by Annie Chen

Science & Tech

FLYZ1/CC BY 2.0

JASON LAWRENCE/CC BY 2.0

Video game addiction

Tracking trash around town

PAGE B7

PAGE B8

Explore the psychological effects of this type of technological addiction.

Learn how waste recovering facilities filter and process garbage.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

LIFESTYLE

B2

NAVID NAJMABADI/THE CAMPANILE

Column: How to hit the weightroom

By Ben Van Zyll

M ALYSSA LEONG/THE CAMPANILE

Two customers order an Iced Americano and Green Shield with Tunacados at the first of three open Joe & the Juice shops, located on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto.

Three Joe & the Juice locations open downtown Palo Alto

Newly opened chain juice shop and cafe offers healthy food selection, study space for students

By Lara Nakamura Senior Staff Writer

I

t’s hard to miss the bright pink windows on the corners of University Avenue. The logo of a faceless man and his coffee, just keep popping up all over Palo Alto. Behind the pink walls lie what will be a trendy, modern study spot. Easily recognizable by the quote “this color will look good on your Instagram,” coffee and juice chain Joe & the Juice has come to Palo Alto in a swarm, adding a new study spot and trendy hangout to downtown and the Stanford Shopping Center.

“I was extremely excited. I had told my family that I really wished [Joe & the Juice] was in Palo Alto. [In Norway], we went almost every day Makenna DeGeronimwo

The three new Joe & the Juice Palo Alto locations add to the over 200 chain locations in North America, Europe and Asia. Founded in 2002 by exkarate champion Kaspar Bosse, the company started with a sin-

gle shop in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2016, Joe & the Juice’s estimated revenue was close to $400 million, nearly doubling since 2012.

“There aren’t any other places that offer a wide variety of freshly pressed juices.”

Jaime Furlong

Located under the Accel Venture Capital building on the corner of University Avenue and Cowper Street, the first of three Palo Alto Joe & the Juice locations provides a cool and relaxed space for studying and sipping. The formerly-pink entirely glass exterior of the shop fills it natural light, and the inside is furnished with modern, dark metal furniture. A light, relaxed ambiance of mellow techno-pop music plays in the background.

Not only does Joe & the Juice provide competition for the other drink giants such as Starbucks and Jamba Juice, the new coffee and juice shop in town provides an “edgier” feeling than a local Starbucks.

Featuring not only coffee

but freshly squeezed juices, the menu items are at higher price points than other chains; a small juice retails for $7.

Senior Makenna DeGeronimo has been an employee at the University Avenue location ever since it opened in late July.

While visiting her uncle in Norway, DeGeronimo fell in love with the local Joe & the Juice. She was surprised to hear that her favorite coffee shop overseas was opening three new locations right down the street from her.

“I think it’s quite excessive that they’re opening up three locations, it would make more sense to me if they started off with one and expanded as they saw fit.”

coffee and juice spot is already a known and visited spot for students. Senior Jamie Furlong likes Joe & the Juice for it’s healthier drink options and nice atmosphere inside the store.

“There aren’t any other places that offer a wide variety of freshly-pressed juices,” Furlong said. “They have live music some days which creates a really nice atmosphere and study environment.”

With many other popular downtown study locations being loud and overcrowded, it’s unique features like this that make Joe & the Juice a new goto. “I don’t know of any other cafes that have that.”

Even as a fan of the chain, Fulong does have thoughts as to the chain’s large expansion into Palo Alto.

“I think it’s quite excessive that they’re opening up three locations,” Furlong said. “It would make more sense to me if they started off with one and expanded as they saw fit.”

With the other two locations set to open later this year, the three Joe & the Juice’s are a part of the chain’s spread, moving down California and over the U.S. According to employees at the University Avenue location, stores in Mountain View and down the Bay Area are set to open in the year.

Jaime Furlong

“I was extremely excited,” DeGeronimo said. “I had told my family that I really wished [ Joe & the Juice] was in Palo Alto. [In Norway], we went almost every day for lunch.”

Although the first location only opened this summer, the

Male students sport earrings, each with differing reasons Many males have begun to follow the earring trend, despite possible stigma surrounding male jewelry

By Navid Najamabadi

P

Sports Editor

icture an earring being worn by an individual. Which gender are you picturing?

Chances are, you’re visualizing a female. Earrings have been around for over 5,000 years as a form of jewelry.

Yet, for generations, females have been the dominant gender to wear them.

Over the last few years, however, males have begun to drift toward a new trend: sporting earrings, whether it be for fashion purposes or to publicize their affluence.

“It definitely isn’t ideal to pierce your [own] ears in terms of safety, I wouldn’t reccommend Jess McLaughlin According to ear piercer Jess McLaughlin from Belmont tattoos, the number of men who have pierced their ears recently has increased.

“Today three out of six people who came to get their ears pierced were males, so I’d say it’s become more common,” McLaughlin said.

Sean Hamedanian, a senior at Mission San Jose High School who recently pierced his ears, said he enjoys the style and hopes that men wearing earrings will become a popular cultural norm.

“I definitely love to wear my stud earrings,” Hamedanian said.

“It’s all about fashion and setting trends. Not many students have their ears pierced [in high school], but I hope that changes now that

it’s become something male athletes and celebrities have done over the past few years.”

However, while wearing earrings is something he said he enjoys, Hamedanian said the stigma attached to men with earpiercings

can be uncomfortable at times. “[Wearing earrings] probably gives off a certain connotation,” Hamedanian said. “I feel that I get looked at awkwardly when I’m in a mall or out and about which seems weird, but I’ve gotten used to it by this point, and I think [the earrings] really suit me.”

The negative connotation Hamedanian refers to is one that developed during the 1960s when hippies and individuals were assumed to be homosexual or feminine if they wore an earring on their right ear.

While this notion developed over five decades ago, many adults to this day still find it peculiar for a male adolescent to pierce his ears.

Some individuals who decide to pierce their ears make the argument that females can wear earrings at their will and aren’t judged, but when males wear them, they are automatically viewed as different or even feminine.

“Pierced ears aren’t really a big deal. I pierced [my ears] myself with a safety pin and some Purell. It didn’t hurt.”

Raphy Rerolle

According to senior Emily

Tsoi, most males are not willing to switch from the stereotypical male convention.

“I think some people think guys having ear piercings is odd because ear piercings are generally associated with girls and feminity, and they probably aren’t used to guys choosing to deviate from typical gender norms and standards,” Tsoi said.

“I definitely love to wear my stud earrings. It’s all about fashion and setting trends.”

Sean Hamedanian

Senior Raphy Rerolle, on the other hand, did not hesitate to pierce his own ears.

“I liked the look,” Rerolle said.

“It reminds me of pirates and rappers and such. Pierced ears aren’t really a big deal. I pierced [my ears] myself with a safety pin and some Purell. It didn’t hurt.”

However, while some students do decide to pierce their own ears, it definitely isn’t the safest technique.

According to McLaughlin, there are a number of possible side effects that come with piercing your own ears.

Possible side effects may include infections, keloid scarring, perichondritis.

“It definitely isn’t ideal to pierce your ears in terms of safety, I wouldn’t recommend it. We train to pierce ears and two people came in to fix their ear piercings they did at home,” McLaughlin said.

However, while some students decide to pierce their own ears, it isn’t the safest option.

Some males who are interested in getting their ears pierced end up backing out just because they worry about the perceptions of others and how they might be viewed.

Senior Eitan Klass recently made a post on Instagram ques-

tioning whether or not he should pierce his ears.

“My mom isn’t a big fan of me getting my ears pierced,” Klass said. “She said it’s too weird and nobody else at my age does it, so I asked others for opinions via social media.”

“My mom isn’t a big fan of me getting my ears pierced. She said it’s too weird and nobody else at my age does it, so I asked others for opinions via social media.”

Eitan Klass

At the end of the day, fashion trends come and go, but the spirit behind males who have earrings is something that will continue to be explored.

Sports Editor

any high school students develop a desire to make gains at some point in their days, making the gym a top destination on campus.

There are plenty of places that students go to for a great work out.

You can go to our own Paly gym, the YMCA, 24 Hour Fitness or any of the many small gyms scattered throughout Palo Alto.

Whether you are trying to impress someone, make a healthy life choice or just need a way to fill your empty afternoons, there is a certain etiquette that is essential to the gym life.

1. Hit the ellipticals First, make sure you are hitting the ellipticals for at least half of your time in the gym.

Ellipticals are basically like running machines, but way easier and make running seem fun because of how ridiculously effortless it is to use them How else are you going to get an engaging, strenuous cardio workout? Running to and from the gym? Biking there? Absolutely not.

You have to be on those ellipticals if you are really looking to make waves in the gym and enhance that heart of yours.

2. Check yourself out The time that you aren’t spending on the ellipticals must be spent standing in front of a mirror, doing absolutely nothing.

Make sure that when you are in front of the mirror, you follow these exact steps: extend your right arm, then retract it so you can get that solid flex of the tricep AND the bicep in order to admire your own physique.

Then do the same thing with your left arm.

After that, it is vital that you lift up the bottom of your shirt to wipe off literally your entire face.

But be careful not to block your eyes so that you can get a thorough glance at your abs.

If you aren’t spending at least 25 minutes standing in front of a mirror at the gym, why even bother going?

3. Critique random people Another absolute necessity when you’re at the gym is to critique people as much as possible when they are working out.

They’ll love it. If someone is doing push ups and they are only going down to about 100 degrees with their arms, it becomes your moral obligation to make sure that person is going all the way down to 90 degrees with their next push up.

If you see a person whose form is slightly off when they squat or bench, it becomes your moral obligation to let them know what they are doing wrong in the middle of their squat, right then and there.

Everyone knows the best kind of advice is the kind no one asks for.

4. Post to social media Similar to standing in front of the mirror for an unreasonable amount of time, you have to make sure that once you finish your workout, you take as many mirror pictures as possible, post them to as many social media platforms that you can and caption them #getswole.

When people browse their Instagram feeds, check Snapchat for recent story updates. The number one priority for them is hearing atbout your amazing gym session.

Not just that, but a visual as well!

If you aren’t posting pictures of your gains, why even bother making them?

Let’s recap what we learned Basically, when you go to the gym, you have to be hitting those ellipticals because nothing beats fake running.

Stand in front of the mirror for a gross amount of time because self-love is the best.

Critique people you have never spoken to because they’ll love and appreciate you for it.

And finish off your workout with some social media: let everyone know you were at the gym because everyone cares a lot.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

LIFESTYLE

B3

Sexual harassment on social media platforms causes anxiety Pervasive patterns of mounting pressure discourage victims from coming forward, exacerbated by apps such as Snapchat Lucy Nemerov

A

Business Manager

s the worlds of sexual harassment and social media inevitably intersect, they have cultivated a new kind of easily erased footprint for harassers.

Presenting itself in the form of threats, unsolicited pictures, inappropriate comments and many other possibilities, online sexual harassment has become all too familiar for many teenagers.

Not all harassment begins online. For many victims, their harasser is someone they know, who often threatens to tarnish a reputation or send or demand sexual pictures. Through popular apps like Snapchat, harassers can send messages that are virtually untraceable, as they disappear in seconds.

Eva, a Paly student who has asked to have her name changed to protect her identity, said her harassment incident began her freshman year. A senior boy sent her a picture of his genitals on Snapchat.

“It was shocking and unwelcome. I had begun hooking up with one of his friends, and he berated me with messages, and he said if I did not provide him with details he would ‘ruin my life’ because he knew I had had sex with the friend and I didn’t want anyone to know.”

A constant cycle of verbal harassment and coercion led to stress and internalization of the messages the male student would send her. “[His threat of ruining my life] was terrifying for me, as I had intercourse with his friend and did not want to be labeled as a slut, because I was the only one of my friends to have had sex,” Eva said.

“Regardless, he referred to me as a slut, accompanied by the phrase ‘the truth hurts.’ Despite his poor reputation, I internalized those words and question whether he is right to this day.”

His harassment stopped her from being able to report or speak

about his actions, as she was threatened with the exposure of her own personal information.

Many harassers and abusers use whatever they can to place their victim in the inescapable area of forced agreement. They often dig a hole so deep the victim feels as if they cannot do anything but plead for a way out. His threats to ruin her life came from the fact that he knew that she had engaged in intercourse with the friend, something she was incredibly embarrassed about.

Apps like Snapchat can be a easy resource for these abusers, allowing users to delete previous chats, destroying all evidence and send pictures that only appear for 10 seconds or less. Messages and photographs that could be used as proof of abuse and harassment are are deleted with the tap of a finger, and the victim is yet again voiceless. Although it is possible to preserve messages through screenshots, Eva said she was afraid of the consequences that could come with this approach.

“I blocked him on Snapchat, although he had my phone number and began texting me soon after. Through fear of further harassment, I unblocked him.”

Eva

“I found [that] with Snapchat there is no evidence unless you screenshot the picture/conversation, which would notify the individual and probably anger them so it is challenging to address.”

Additionally, speaking of the disconnect present in social media interactions, Wellness Center coordinator Elizabeth Spector said, “You can really hurt somebody and you can really damage either relationships or people’s emo-

Many victims of digital sexual harassment have been blackmailed and silenced, often struggling to speak up for fear of retribution. tional state or affect people without having to do it to their face.

It’s scary to me. So I think I think social media definitely makes any sort of harassment or bullying just so much easier to happen.”

Another simple response many would immediately suggest is to block any form of communication with the alleged harasser. However, when threats of exposure are on the line, cutting off all communication presents itself as a risky option that in some cases, the victim may feel hesitant taking.

Just because the online communication method is cut off does not change the fact that the harasser can approach the victim in person, and the threats remain an issue.

At first, Eva had the intention of never speaking to her harasser again. Unfortunately, fear of hurtful backlash made her reconsider her options.

“I blocked him on Snapchat, although he had my phone number and began texting me soon after,” Eva said. “Through fear of further harassment, I unblocked him.”

According to Jayne Hitchcock, president of Working to Halt Online abuse, there are specific steps that the victim should take in response to harassment. First, she says that victims should tell the relevant authorities and clearly tell their harasser to stop contacting them.

They should also stop all online communication with their harasser through blocking their accounts.

“It had gotten to the point where someone would send the most scathing, racist, violent thing to me — like rape or death threats — and I would barely have a reaction.”

Mia Matsumiya

Hitchcock also encourages victims to keep all messages from their harasser through screenshots

to prevent the harasser from to deleting the messages themselves.

Although social media is not the sole enabler in perpetrators’ actions, it obscures the boundaries of appropriate social conduct and consequences of negative actions. Face-to-face confrontation is eliminated and direct consequences seem irrelevant.

Though she acknowledges the difficulty of reporting harassment, especially if the victim is facing threats, Spector stressed the importance of coming to a supportive adult when facing a difficult situation such as Eva’s.

“As mandated reporters, we [Wellness Center staff ] do have to tell administration and call in the police for serious situations,” Spector said. “Hopefully people realize that everyone involved would be trying to protect the student victim involved. So if the harasser is is threatening them, I understand it’s hard, but we need to communicate to the victim that they need to report the situation.”

Additionally, Spector specifically encourages students to come to the Wellness Center specifi-

cally in order to help them with either reporting or simply talking about the situation.

“We have really well trained people here whose best interest is with the student and can kind of help guide and direct about what’s going to happen in the future and who’s going to be involved,” Spector said. “You can have that person as your advocate and as you meet with police or as you meet with administration, or different things like that, so that it doesn’t feel so isolating.”

Through victims coming forward with their experiences and the advice of certified counselors and experts, the subject of online harassment will hopefully become a larger conversation within our community.

Need help for yourself or a friend?

Rape and Trauma Services: 650692-7273 24/7 Crisis Text Line: text BAY to 741741 YWCA Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-572-2783 Santa Clara County Suicide and Crisis Hotline: 855-2784204

Service through art Adult School provides variety of classes

Teens creativily give back to community Individuals return to school for number of different reasons Johnny Yang

O

Staff Writer

n a regular Saturday afternoon, at one of the local homeless shelters, senior Renle Chu holds a pencil and teaches a homeless man how to draw, as she has been doing for over three years.

“I started this non-profit organization called the Art for Action Foundation (A4A) in my freshman year,” Chu said. the president of the organization. “Basically, what we do is using art, specifically art by teens and community members from Palo Alto, to bring change and awareness to relevant issues in [our] community.”

As community service becomes an important expectation for high school students, the diversity of it also increases. As a category that many people are not familiar with, art-related volunteering is becoming more popular.

Chu said the A4A is currently preparing for its annual art gallery in October. A4A gathers art from both teen and community artists, frames the pieces and eventually auctions the works off during the exhibition to raise money to support Dreamcatchers, one of the partner organizations A4A that tutors underprivileged youth and low-income students from Fletcher and Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle Schools.

“The revenue we get from [reselling the art] goes to both the clans and the shelters to support them.”

Renle Chu

Although the gallery and auction help generate financial support for the youth tutoring program, fundraising is not the only service that A4A provides.

“Another part of the Art for Action Foundation is [that] we teach art classes at local homeless shelters every week,” Chu said. “It helps with mental health issues and serves like a stress-reducer.

We also take some of their art and resell it through a third party.

The revenue we get from that goes to both the clans and the shelters to support them.”

According to Chu, the basic

techniques and various tips that she learned in AP Studio Art were useful for teaching art.

“I do art a lot in my spare time, and I really enjoy it,” Chu said.

“Combining art and service together was a really exciting idea for me when I thought about it in my freshman year, because service is another thing that I really love.”

Sophomore Avery Hanna, who volunteers at the Palo Alto Art Center and teaches basic art techniques to young children, says this unusual experience of volunteering has been meaningful.

“The kids are always unique, and they make really crazy figures,” Hanna said. “[The Palo Alto Arts Center is] inspiring their imagination and helping them express their ideas through art.”

“It’s really important to give back to the community that is already giving so much to us.”

Evan Baldonado

According to Hanna, her art passion contributed to her choice to volunteer at the art center.

“I can’t do art at school because it doesn’t fit into my schedule this year,” Hanna said. “So, I think artrelated service would be a great way to stay connected to it, and it has really become part of my life.”

As more people express a growing interest in this unconventional form of community service, Hanna said more organizations similar to A4A and the Palo Alto Art Center are likely to be established. She believes that the rise in art and service organizations would not only provide more diverse jobs and types of community service, but also provide students more options in terms of how to spend their time and what they would like to gain from it.

Other students share similar views on the value of community service.

“It’s really important to give back to the community that is already giving so much to us,” said Evan Baldonado, a senior who has earned over 1000 hours of community service during his time at Paly so far. “And, for yourself, you really get to feel good about helping others, and you can also gain important work skills.”

JOHNNY YANG/THE CAMPANILE

Students at the Adult School participate in a yoga class, one of several classes held in the band and orchestra room each week.

Jaures Yip

T

Staff Writer

o most students, the idea of voluntarily choosing to go to extra schooling after finally completing years of arduous education seems like a baffling decision. Yet, around 8,000 adults annually register in the Palo Alto Adult School (PAAS) to attend class at usually teenager dominated campuses.

“I get all types of reasons. Sometimes it’s work related, or [students are] retired and they want to do something or they’re going on vacation.”

Hunter Reardon

Founded with a focus on citizenship and English as a Second Language (ESL) courses in 1921, PAAS has since expanded to offer world languages, health and fitness, music, parent education and career training.

Classes are located throughout Palo Alto Unified School District, including Jane Lathrop Stanford

Middle School, Barron Park Elementary School, Cubberley Community Center, Escondido Village and Wesley Methodist Church.

According to PAAS French instructor Hunter Reardon, a Paly teacher and former adult student himself, student demographics range from college age to elderly residents.

“I get all types of reasons why people take classes,” Reardon said.

“Sometimes it’s work related, or [students are] retired and they want to do something or they’re going on vacation.”

Bridgit Conrad, who is taking a watercolor class, said she is in it for the enjoyment.

“I like just being able to concentrate on something different than what I normally concentrate on,” Conrad said.

Others students say they take PAAS classes for vocation or lifestyle reasons.

One of the largest number of PAAS classes are for ESL, where nonnative adults improve communication skills for more vocational opportunities.

“Learning English would really help me get a better job to get a better life,” ESL student Douglas Alves de Oliveira said.

PAAS is particularly appealing because of its low fees, since it is a

nonprofit organization.

“We don’t make money, that’s not our aim,” principal secretary Malou Cruz said. “Teachers get okay pay, but they’re really here because they love helping.”

“They have a nice variety of courses, and the prices are very reasonable, especially compared to other adult schools in the area, so it makes sense why a lot of people would come.”

Douglas Alves de Oliveira

The Adult Education Block Grant funds vocational classes, including citizenship and ESL, eliminating fees. Most classes are located in school district buildings which helps with saving expenses for facilities and decreasing student cost.

“They have a nice variety of courses, and the prices are very reasonable, especially compared to other adult schools in the area, so it makes sense why a lot of people

would come,” Conrad said.

The lack of grading in more academic classes also serves as another attractive aspect, as it alleviates stress and allows students to focus on their growth as a learner.

“The really nice thing about adult school is that the entire endeavour is about student learning, and there isn’t grades intervening and getting in the way of actual learning happening,” Reardon said.

In order to provide additional encouragement for adult learning, PAAS has been working with other districts in the North Santa Clara County Student Transition Consortium, an association representing Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and portions of San Jose and other communites in the area.

Together, they are coordinating programs and developing plans on a regional basis to better support the adult educational needs.

As a result, PAAS has added a writing academy and Transition Advisor, who aids students with their academic goals.

Language student Don Mclaughlin said, “Learning is the most fun thing you can do. Why stop learning after you finish college?

Thursday, October 4, 2018

B4

The Campanile

SPOTLIGHT

FEBRUARY 2017

JANUARY 2018

APRIL 2018

The shortage of instructional minutes in the Paly and Gunn bell schedules are discovered and brought to light.

The Gunn schedule is found to be 23 hours short of state mandated instructional minutes, while Paly is found to be 37 hours short.

The former auditor for the District, Sheldon Chavan from Chavan & Associates, informs the Innovative Schedule Committee that zero periods and blended periods would count as valid instructional minutes towards the state requirement.

Ken Dauber and Jennifer DiBrienza, President and Vice President of the Palo Alto Board of Education, respectively, determine that since the auditor will confirm compliance, the school Board does not need to review the new proposed bell schedule.

SEPTEMBER 2017

FEBRUARY 2018

The Innovative Schedule Committee, consisting of 18 Paly students, parents, teachers and staff, is formed with the purpose of creating a new bell schedule that adheres to the California requirements for instructional minutes.

The Innovative Schedule Committee releases its bell schedule proposal for the 2018-19 school year, pending Board approval. This schedule features the elimination of C days, alternating 8:30 a.m. and 10:05 a.m. starts and tutorial four days a week.

Investigating the be

A behind-the-scenes look at the factors contri Text by: Kennedy Herron, Miranda Li, Anna Meyer & Maya Rathore

D

to community desire . . . [understand] what the community wanted and [understand] current research for students and teachers and schools, and then [combine] that to create an innovative schedule.”

In an attempt to maximize student learning and engagement, the ISC explored various options and ideas to implement into the new schedule. Advisors such as Denise Pope, co-founder of Challenge Success, an organization whose goal is to “implement research-based strategies that promote student well-being and engagement with learning,” according to its website, and senior lecturer at Stanford’s School of Education, were brought in to help stir up ideas.

The ISC held focus groups and sent out surveys to students and parents to gain input on the schedule.

Hours upon hours of research and deliberations led to some bold recommendations: the elimination of “C” days, the implementation of daily midday tutorials, block days that alternated on a two-week rotation and flexible, later start times—as late as 10:05 a.m. on some days. The changes would be largely beneficial for students, Foster said.

When the ISC crafted its final bell schedule, the proposal, still pending Board approval, was released to students on Infinite Campus in February. While there were some complaints, such as athletes concerned about a somewhat later end to the school day and people who wanted more hours in traditional classroom settings, students largely welcomed the change.

espite all the upheaval last school year, with dual resignations by the District Superintendent Max McGee and Paly Principal Kim Diorio, one thing seemed assured: Paly would have a new, redesigned bell schedule this year featuring late and flexible start times, tutorial four times a week, and most importantly, the elimination of seven-period C days.

February 2017 But behind the scenes, chaos was brewing, and on graduation day itself, Diorio learned the disheartening news that Paly’s heralded new bell schedule, a product of more than seven months of hard work by both students and staff, would have to be scrapped.

A summer of scrambling lay ahead in order to produce yet another new schedule. The end result was the schedule that is now in place, with no late start times or frequent tutorial periods that had been largely embraced by the student body.

Instead, students were given five more minutes of sleep than last year with an 8:20 a.m. start time and a five-minute later dismissal. Additionally, what was previously known as Flex time turned into tutorial periods every other day. The one aspect that the new schedule shared with the scrapped one was the removal of C days.

What went awry?

The Campanile found that several factors contributed to the costly scheduling snafu: a committee striving to be creative, a consultant who seemed unsure of the rules, a state office that demurred and finally, a Palo Alto citizen who protested. In the end, it was the citizen’s unexpected complaint that set the revamp in motion.

Eleven days before the start of the school year, Paly students, parents and staff learned of the drastic revisions, all brought about because the planned bell schedule had fallen short of the state-required instructional minutes.

It was a particularly harsh blow to Diorio, who had envisioned that the schedule would be appreciated for its innovation and creativity. Diorio said she imagined that consultants would flaunt Paly’s schedule and say, “‘look at what Palo Alto High School is doing!’”

It seems the shortfall was nothing new. Digging into the details, Dio-

August 2018

rio learned that Paly’s bell schedule had been non-compliant for several years without any repercussions.

However, this was forced to change two years ago, when the principal of Gunn at the time, Denise Herrmann, referenced Paly’s non-compliance while addressing Gunn’s bell schedule problems.

September 2017 Following the discovery of insufficient instructional minutes, Paly established the Bell Schedule Review committee in the 2016-2017 school year, and then at the start of last school year, established the Innovative Schedule Committee (ISC), a favorite undertaking of Diorio, who saw bell schedule revisions as a way to decrease stress while increas-

ing learning. The committee worked t i re l e s s l y over the course of seven months to produce a schedule that would not only comply with California’s requirement of 64,800 annual instructional minutes, but would also imp r o v e the lives of Paly teachers and students.

The ISC was comprised of 18 Paly

students, parents, staff and community members; at the head of the committee sat Diorio, Paly’s principal at the time. The committee met twice a month until the end of February, blowing through dozens of drafts and paying thousands of dollars to an outside facilitator.

According to ISC member and Paly senior David Foster, the main goal of the ISC was to “respond

"We found out there was a complaint filed by a parent with the county that we were short instructional minutes."

Kim Diorio

Adding to the momentum was a decision by the PAUSD School Board to not review the proposal.

As stated in Board Policy 6112, “the Board of Education shall fix the length of the school day subject to the provisions of law,” meaning that the Board is responsible for reviewing the number of instructional minutes to ensure compliance.

However, School Board President Ken Dauber and Vice President Jennifer DiBrienza saw no urgent need for school board approval. “We knew a lot of work went into it and the committee was happy with it, so as long as it was compliant in instructional minutes, we saw no need to review it,” DiBrienza said in an email.

Why didn’t they feel it was necessary? According to DiBrienza, it was because they knew that all the while the ISC was working, it had been running its ideas by an outside auditor hired by the district, Sheldon Chavan, whose job was to audit the District finances and to interpret compliance with California mandates for instructional minutes, according to DiBrienza.

After looking over the work of the ISC, the School Board deemed the situation a site-level issue, giving Diorio and Adam Paulson, Paly’s assistant principal at the time, full power to design the schedule so long as Chavan approved the instructional minutes. According to Diorio, whether minutes in a schedule count

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

SPOTLIGHT

B5 JULY 2018

MAY 2018

Following the contradictory information given to the Innovative Schedule Committee by Sheldon Chavan, the District decides to dismiss Chavan & Associates and work with a new auditor, Christy White, on the bell schedule.

Sheldon Chavan informs the Innovative Schedule Committee that zero periods will not count towards instructional minutes, contradicting his previous statements to the ISC, making the bell schedule proposed by the committee non-compliant.

MAY 2018

JUNE 2018

AUGUST 2018

A Palo Alto community member files a complaint about the proposed bell schedule, claiming that it does not give students enough seat time nor fulfill state-mandated instructional minutes because it counted zero periods and blended periods, Diorio said.

The implementation committee, previously formed to help with the transition between bell schedules, is now faced with the challenge of redesigning a bell schedule to comply with California instructional minute standards.

The finalized bell schedule for the 2018-19 school year created by the implementation committee is released. This final schedule eliminates C days and pushes start times to 8:20 a.m., and holds many discrepancies with the proposed schedule.

ell schedule kerfuffle

ibuting to Paly's last minute schedule change Design by: Kennedy Herron, Miranda Li & Anna Meyer as instructional or not depends completely upon the interpretation of the auditor, who is required to follow state guidelines.

“External auditors have the responsibility of auditing a school district’s instructional time per the procedures in the audit guide,” California Department of Education Information Officer Cynthia Butler said in an email.

For a while, Chavan’s interpretation of minutes lined up with the committee’s, according to Diorio. Over the course of its deliberations, the committee had wrestled with the question of whether certain types of non-traditional school time could count as “instructional minutes,” including: • Zero period where a limited amount of people took zero-period physical education classes • Blended periods where roughly half of the class time is not actually in class • Passing periods - which have to be consistent and no more than 10 minutes • Tutorial - for which mandatory or not makes a difference • InFocus - which must be supervised for its entirety But according to Diorio and others on the ISC, Chavan’s advice was inconsistent.

Chavan informed the committee that zero periods and blended periods were counted as valid instructional time, according to Samuel HowlesBanerji, Paly chemistry teacher and ISC member. The ISC then took this information into account when drafting and revising its final bell schedule.

“I gave [Chavan] all the information from the year prior, about zero period and 8th period classes,” Diorio said.

The auditor then deemed those periods valid instruction time, and gave the committee the all-clear, according to Diorio.

Chavan did not respond to repeated attempts by The Campanile to reach him by phone and email and therefore could not confirm whether he felt fully informed by Paly about zero period, tutorial periods and other scheduling details.

In any case, Dauber and DiBrienza were relying on him.

“The auditor would either find

[the schedule] compliant or would not . . . This was the only factor with which we were concerned,” DiBrienza said.

May 2018

Finally, after much back and forth, the schedule was approved by the

"In the end of May, [Chavan] gave us a different piece of information that conflicted directly with what we had been told."

Samuel Howles-Banerji

auditor, streamlined past the School Board in spring and set to be implemented for the upcoming school year. But unbeknownst to the committee, a community member was challenging the legitimacy of the new bell schedule.

According to Diorio, a member of the Palo Alto community filed a complaint with the Santa Clara County Office of Education questioning the interpretation of zero periods and blended periods.

“We found out there was a complaint filed by a parent with the county that we were short instructional minutes and the county [had] contacted the auditor and the auditor [was] looking into it,” Diorio said.

Both the Santa Clara County Office of Education and officials at PAUSD said they had no details about the com-

By the Minutes Required: 64,800 Old schedule: 62,600 Current schedule: 66,760 Current surplus: 1,960

plaint.

This time, Chavan changed his mind, saying zero period could not be counted toward necessary instructional minutes, according to Diorio and others on the committee. “[Chavan] gave us one set of information about zero period in January, which we used to build our schedule,” Howles-Banerji said. “Then, in the end of May, he gave us a different piece of information that conflicted directly with what we had been told.’’

June 2018 And so it was that when Diorio stood handing out diplomas, the bell schedule debacle lurked in the back of her mind, and she knew the clock would begin ticking down as the committee would have to scramb l e

to craft a completely new schedule.

“Mr. Paulson tried to loop people in as he could, but it was summer and people were dispersed to the winds, and it was kind of a ‘we need to figure out an option,’” Howles-Banerji said.

Paulson, newly named as Paly principal, stepped in for those crucial months to guide Paly to a solution.

“I didn’t have much of a summer, as far as getting away from this place,” Paulson said. “I just wanted to make sure that I started with something that we could work with, and that would work for students, and I think the biggest piece was just getting rid of that C day… the most important thing is to make a schedule that’s best for students.”

By the Dollars ISC Budget: $30,000 Total spent: $37,921.86 The committee, consisting of Paulson, Assistant Principal Katya Villalobos, Guidance Counselor Susan Schultz and Paly teachers Erik Olah, Howles-Banerji, Andrea Struve and Susan LaFetra, assembled to draft a new bell schedule for Paly that would meet state-mandated instructional minutes.

July 2018 The group met once right after the school year ended, and then throughout the summer with whoever was available. In m i d - s u m m e r, the District decided to work with a new

a u ditor, Christy White from Christy White Associates of San Diego.

“She, from what I could tell, was super responsive, responding to emails multiple times a day, as opposed to once a week,” Howles-Banerji said.

White, PAUSD’s bond and performance auditor, stepped in to audit the new proposed schedule, looking at teacher supervision, passing times, flex times and tutorials.

White consulted the California Department of Education about whether or not to count

tutorial time as instructional minutes but received only a “preliminary conclusion.” White’s office declined to comment.

August 2018 The end result of the committee’s efforts: the loss of late start times, optional flex periods and teacher collaboration time and more than $37,000 spent on a schedule that flopped.

“It wasn’t perfect, but I think we came up with a schedule that works for students and staff this year,” Paulson said.

ISC members refuse to be discouraged about the future of the bell schedule.

“One of the hopes is that in the future we can still use the data that we so tirelessly gleaned in order to make a great bell schedule,” Foster said.

Diorio’s vision goes beyond Paly’s borders. “The culture of compliance and the culture of innovation are at odds,” Diorio said, in reference to state instructional minute guidelines. “You c a n’t b e creative and innovative when you’re being held to the bureaucratic playbook.”

For his part, Paulson agrees that there is still hope for Paly to create the ideal schedule.

“We’ll reconvene this next year and then really have an inclusive process,” Paulson said. “I want to include students, parents and teachers again, and then go through slowly and work through all issues. We’ll dust it off and, you know, come back to the table,” Paulson said.

Will an innovative yet compliant bell schedule emerge?

Only time will tell.

Thursday October 4, 2018

The Campanile

LIFESTYLE

B6

Students share experiences learning English in new environment Initially struggling, students from foreign countries assimilate into new culture, become accustomed to new way of life

By Sophia Moore Staff Writer

W

hen moving to a new country, it is difficult for someone to learn the native language and become accustomed to the new way of life.

Being unable to pronounce words correctly may cause close-minded people to question their intellectual abilities, even if knowing one language as opposed to another is not an accurate representation of abilities, according to junior Amanda Lehes.

Students within Paly have experienced this transition to learning English in the U.S. when they originally came from a different country.

Lehes moved from Sweden when she was only in fifth grade, but ultimately chose to take a full year off from school in order to give herself the time necessary to completely adjust to the brand new country with a foreign language.

“Even though it was difficult for me to learn English when I first moved here, I believed being bilingual would be helpful in the long run.”

Yue Shi

She dove into learning English by picking up different types of books, particularly manga, and today still recognizes books and reading as the most useful tool in her understanding of the English language.

After becoming proficient in English, Lehes started school in the Palo Alto in sixth grade.

However, despite her strong work ethic and dedication to transitioning in America, she said coming from a vastly different environment made it hard to adapt

and she found it difficult to fit in with the language barrier inhibiting her means of communication.

Although being bilingual could be a valuable trait as it allows one to connect with people who speak both languages, it can also be a burden, according to Lehes.

“I don’t know if it’s an advantage,” Lehes said. “It’s been tough switching [languages]. When I’m tired and under stress, I tend to revert back to Swedish, and sometimes I say the wrong thing or forget an accent.”

In addition to learning English, Lehes is currently taking Spanish courses at Paly, putting her on the path to becoming trilingual.

“Tackling three languages is not easy, especially because at home, my family and I still speak primarily Swedish,” Lehes said.

Even though many struggle with finding a home in a foreign place according to Lehes, it is especially hard for those who do not speak the native language. However, after being around a certain culture long enough, senior Yue Shi said she started to adapt to societal expectations and language trends.

From China, Shi said when she first came to the U.S., she was at a major disadvantage because she could not understand English nor basic social norms, both of which made it difficult to make friends and earn good grades.

However, after enough time, Shi realized that being bilingual can be beneficial, and began to learn English as her second language.

“Even though it was difficult for me to learn English when I first moved here, I believed being bilingual would be helpful in the long run,” Shi said.

Shi said she learned English through memorizing vocabulary, watching TV shows and attentively listening to peers and teachers in order to adapt to the American culture and learn the language quickly.

Like Shi, junior Arnold Wu spoke Chinese as his first lan-

ALYSSA LEONG/THE CAMPANILE

As part of an effort to improve their English, many students practice a standard method of writing, reading and reading comprehension. guage. Wu was only five years old and still living in China when he first began to learn English, making it easier for him to become fluent. He said he learned the language through essay writing, reading, reading comprehension practice, school and private tutoring.

Although Wu moved to the U.S. four years ago, he was fluent before he arrived, which he said helped him adjust life in the U.S. “Personally, I think I am at an advantage being fluent in both Chinese and English because I feel that it would help me in my future careers,” Wu said. “I am now able to communicate with different types of people who speak either Chinese or English.”

Senior Celine Boissy grew up speaking French, Spanish and Kaqchikel, one of the Mayan lan-

guages of Guatemala, and moved to the United States from Guatemala approximately three months ago.

“It is really helpful to be fluent in multiple languages. You can meet more people and see the world in a different perspective.”

Celine Boissy Boissy attended a Spanishspeaking middle school and didn’t fully develop her English skills until a few years later through many tutors, constant practice and frequent exposure to the language

through hearing people speak it.

Even though she has had much practice, she still has some trouble in speaking English fluently.

“When I’m around fluent English speakers, I become more conscious about my word choice and can get jumbled up,” Boissy said.

According to Spanish teacher Pilar Badillonovas, the most effective way to learn a language is by practicing the language as much as possible. This especially applies to learning how to speak and apply the new language in real life.

“By far the hardest thing when you learn a new language is speaking,” Badillonovas said. “People tend to be shy to speak to other people and to make mistakes, but speaking is the best way to play

with the new language and to get instant feedback. Mistakes are part of the process of learning and a good proof that you are trying.”

Although Boissy said she has experienced minor rough patches in the path to becoming fluent in all four languages, with enough practice, she should be able to accomplish her goal.

According to Boissy, knowing multiple languages comes with helpful advantages, making her more motivated to gain the multilingual status.

“I always felt that I needed to read more, learn more vocab and push myself more to reach the ‘American standard,’” Boissy said.

“I believe that it is really helpful to be fluent in multiple languages.

You can meet more people and see the world in a different perspective.”

Streetwear resale culture on rise, becomes source of profit for students As the streetwear industry grows rapidly, luxury products such as Supreme, Louis Vuitton become less exclusive

By Nick Le

B

Senior Staff Writer

rands like Supreme and Off-White are often spotted on Paly campus.

According to Hypebeast.com, streetwear culture has shown a massive increase in recent years.

This has lead to a growing secondary market culture based on the buying and selling of streetwear items for profit.

The streetwear community has been rapidly growing, as shown through the increase of streetwear brands like Anti Social Social Club and Supreme which were recently being bought out for $1 billion by the Carlyle Group. This is increasing the amount of luxury brands getting involved, such as the Louis Vuitton Supreme collaboration and Louis Vuitton’s recent hiring of streetwear designer Virgil Abloh as Men’s clothing Creative Director. The culture revolves around the hype of limited drops of clothing and sneakers.

Reselling can cause items to skyrocket in price once they hit

the secondary market, sometimes tripling in price.

With demand growing for the streetwear industry, many have capitalized and have begun to resell streetwear, shown through the growth of stores and websites such Flight Club, and StockX.com.

“I was interested in getting hot releases and shoes that not all people could get because of the limited amount of shoes produced.”

Chris Martinez

Senior Chris Martinez said that he was introduced to resale culture at an early age through family.

“My older cousin introduced me to retro Jordans and other limited sneakers in elementary

school,” Martinez said. “I was interested in getting hot releases and shoes that not all people could get because of the limited amount of shoes produced.”

Others were introduced to the culture through sports. Junior Lincoln Bloom said he first found his way to this culture through basketball.

“I was introduced to resell and streetwear through basketball sneakers,” Bloom said. “I love to play basketball and kicks are a big part of the game, so naturally I got into sneakers and buying sneakers. I got into streetwear when the Supreme Jordan 5 collaboration happened because it kind of crossed over the sneaker and streetwear world.”

Although the sneakerhead and streetwear communities have changed over time, longtime sneakerhead and part- time reseller Christian Rene’ Esdrelon shares similar stories to both Martinez and Bloom.

“I got into sneakers through my cousins, who were into a lot of older Jordan retro releases,” Es-

drelon said. “I looked up to them as a role model; I just wanted to be like them, which included what they wore and sports they played, specifically basketball.”

Streetwear and reselling both rely on one another in order for both cultures to continue developing.

“I got into streetwear when the Supreme Jordan 5 collaboration happened because it kind of crossed over the sneaker and streetwear world.”

Lincoln Bloom

Some streetwear enthusiasts use reselling sneakers and streetwear as a method of earning money to fund further streetwear purchases.

“I started reselling so I could buy more and more shoes and

clothes, because at the time I was too young to get a job, so it was a good way to earn money,” Bloom said.

Reselling has become more accessible and has led to a more appealing image for the hobby.

Reselling sneakers or clothing is a way to earn fast cash due to the high demand for these products.

“Being a reseller isn’t easy, but I feel that it is very possible for anyone as long as you have the right knowledge and resources,” Esdrelon said. “In the social media era, learning to do something if you put your mind to it is valuable.

There are books, blogs and videos on how to become a reseller.

Personally, sneaker or streetwear heads becoming resellers is something I don’t mind. However, hypebeast culture sometimes rubs me the wrong way.”

Some Paly students have pounced on this opportunity.

Teens have seen this as a possible way to earn cash, and have become young entrepreneurs.

“I got into it when I noticed it was profitable and easy before everyone else began to do it,” Martinez said.

“The rapid growth of resellers has defintely changed the sneaker and streetwear commmunities drastically.”

Rene’ Eadrelon

The fast-growing resell culture also has its downfalls. Many streetwear enthusiasts say it has over-saturated the streetwear market with easily accessible streetwear items and sneakers.

NICK LE/THE CAMPANILE

Streetwear that is usually in limited supply, such as designer shoes, is now more easily available to consumers due to the rise of resale culture.

Some believe the culture has been negatively affected by this lack of exclusivity.

“Being a reseller isn’t easy, but I feel that it is very possible for anyone as long as you have the right knowledge and resources.”

Rene’ Eadrelon

“The rapid growth of resellers has definitely changed the sneaker and streetwear communities drastically,” Esdrelon said. “Money has definitely been the focus of reselling through this community has made a huge turn around in profit. Despite making profit, I feel that the culture is truly hindered by this … A lot of resellers just care about the money rather than the actual release. This prohibits people who actually want the shoe to get it at retail price rather than resell.”

The growth of the reselling industry has allowed an influx of many items at higher prices.

These increased prices can take away chances for people who truly want these products at retail prices.

Bloom said, “It’s good and bad because now the resell market is so big. A lot more items are very easily accessible, so brands like Supreme or a pair of Yeezys are stuff that everyone has, which kind of takes away the exclusiveness and uniqueness of those things which is a little annoying because now if you wear Supreme you become associated with a lot of hypebeast posers.”

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

B7 SCIENCE & TECH #REFRAMECLIMATE displays mural on Paly quad Dysturb uses photojournalism to present important, often-silenced topics such as climate change in areas for public viewing

By Emily Asher Staff Writer

E

very second, around 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, and a majority of it comes from humans, according to CBS News. While this is a problem globally, Palo Alto community members have taken it upon themselves to start bringing change to this ongoing problem.

One way Paly has spread awareness about climate change in the community is by hanging up an eye-catching mural on the quad, focusing primarily on the global effects of waste and garbage on the atmosphere.

This installation was created

by Dysturb, a company that utilizes photojournalism to educate the public by using one of the most basic platforms of social networking, the streets. By creating striking and impactful visuals, the company draws attention to critical issues such as climate change.

The mural at Paly displays a sizable photo of children looking through one of the largest garbage dumps in Jakarta, Indonesia, along with a short description of how waste releases methane, a harmful greenhouse that contributes to global warming.

“The mural we installed [at Paly] is part of a global campaign named #REFRAMECLIMATE, which challenges the stereotypical notions of what climate change looks like in order to expand and deepen perceptions about its many implications,” Dysturb Cofounder Benjamin Petit said in an email. “Our goal is to spark a dialogue upon important and too often under-reported issues.”

Climate change, one of the many causes for which Dysturb has created movements, is a prevalent issue with effects such as warmer temperatures and poor air quality. However, it is often interpreted incorrectly, according to Paly environmental science teacher Alicia Szebert.

“People may often confuse weather with climate, and people

may also incorrectly assume that climate change means the planet will only get warmer,” Szebert said. “Climate change actually means that we will see changes that can lead to extremes— higher highs, and lower lows. This means that the normal conditions in which organisms evolved and ecosystems were created would be changed to a degree that organisms may not be able to adapt to in the time needed to adjust.”

There have been drastic changes in the amount of natural disasters occurring. On the East Coast, hurricanes are becoming more powerful and disastrous as the ocean temperatures rise. Wildfires in California are becoming increasingly common and destructive as land gets dryer, according to Lori Meyers, environmentalist and teacher at South Peninsula Day School.

“Climate change is apparent in all of the storms we are seeing,” Meyers said. “Not necessarily in the frequency of the storms, but the power of the storms. The storm right now in North Carolina is huge; it’s bigger than the state of Florida. There is consensus among climate scientists that the size of these storms is directly affected by climate change.

“The mural we installed [at Paly] is part of a global campaign named #REFRAMECLIMATE.” Benjamin Petit In order to maintain a healthy environment, there are planetary boundaries that need to be sustained; however, humans have exceeded many of these limits and are continuing to harm the environment daily. Planetary boundaries regarding ocean acidification, ozone depletion, freshwater use and deforestation are being pushed past their safety limits. By exceeding these boundaries, there is an immense amount of pressure

EMILY ASHER/THE CAMPANILE

A mural by Dysturb displays a photo of children gazing upon a garbage dump on Paly quad to spread awareness to the issue of climate change. on the earth, leaving plants, animals and humankind in danger, according to the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Humans have already considerably damaged the Earth. The acidity of the ocean has gone up by 30 percent since the industrial revolution according to NASA, the ozone layer is still recovering from a hole created by chlorofluorocarbons, humans are using more freshwater daily than the environment can replenish and deforestation has continued to put many species at risk of going extinct such as orangutans in palm forests, according to World Wildlife Foundation.

If humanity continues to underestimate how its actions affect the world, it is possible that the world will soon become an unsustainable environment for life, according to Meyers.

“I am a mom and as I started reading up on it, I learned that climate change is a big, exponential threat to the environment,”

Meyers said. “I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t do everything I could do try and make it better so that my children and their kids will have a safe, clean, healthy place to live.”

Many people, including Paly students, have taken it upon themselves to change simple things in their daily lives to help clean up and save the planet.

“It seems pretty minor, but not using plastic straws can actually do a lot,” said junior Gracia Hmelar. “I know [the Californian government is] in the process of banning them in California because most of them end up in our oceans and environment, which hurt our ecosystems.”

This is only one of many simple measures communities can take to ensure people are not carelessly harming the environment.

“Paly students can always be aware of their daily purchases and the amount of waste they are generating,” Szebert said. “If Paly students learn more about the com-

panies they are supporting, they can make decisions to support companies that they believe in, or companies that share their vision.”

Among other Bay Area cities, Palo Alto has become one of the major contributors to eliminating the spread of climate change, with its goal to have zero waste by 2020, according to Meyers.

“Paly students can always be aware of their daily purchases and the amount of waste they are generating.”

Alicia Szebert “It is really cool that we live in a city that is so progressive with the environment, particularly because our federal government right now is pushing back on combating climate change,” Meyers said. “This means a lot of the efforts being made are based on

the city level, and a lot of cities together can make a big difference.”

Nearby city San Francisco has also played a major role in leading the world in climate change reformation. Marches attracting around 30,000 people, according to the Mercury News, and climate change summits have recently been held in San Francisco, creating a positive impact among society.

According to Meyers, discussions and marches like these are necessary to environmentalists in order to educate the public and fight to reduce and mitigate the effects humanity has on the planet.

Meyers said, “Climate change is something that is happening and everybody needs to know about it. Not only so that we can try and fight it, but so we can deal with it because no matter what we do at this point, we will feel the impacts of climate change. It is happening no matter what, the goal is to reduce it.”

Science behind video game addiction Living with the fear of small holes Virtual games entice teenagers because of brain stimulus

By Paige Knoblock

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Staff Writer

early every 21st-century student has played a video game. Video games are the national craze and part of a billion dollar industry in America.

Whether students play with their friends for fun or on competitive e-sports teams, it’s no surprise video games are the subject of addiction.

In a recent study conducted at the Pew Research Center in Washington D.C., researchers found nearly all American youth play a video game of some sort.

Across the world, around 1.2 billion people play video games, which is approximately one-seventh of the world's population.

When looking at video games, one may wonder how the addictive nature starts. According to Paly Wellness Center Coordinator Elizabeth Spector, addiction can stem from a multitude of reasons.

“Addiction can interfere with all areas of daily functioning including social, occupational, etc," Spector said. "It can also greatly impact sleep which may also impact daily functioning."

Many Paly students said that they first started playing video games in elementary school. It was at that time that electronics emerged as a new form of entertainment for all. Platforms including Wii, Nintendo DS and Xbox rounded out this new past time.

Games such as Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto allow players to wear a headset and engage verbally with other players during the game, using gaming as a form of socializing as opposed to speaking in-person. Freshman Alex Born enjoys playing with friends after school.

“I game because I enjoy playing with friends and putting time into a game to improve,” said freshman Alex Born.

According to a survey done at the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2015, children spend around 50 hours a week looking at a screen.

To many, this may be considered an excessive amount of time. So when do screen time and video games become too much?

In June 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized “gaming disorder” as a mental health condition. The condition would have behaviors like gaming taking precedence over other activities despite negative consequences, such as playing instead of studying for a test. The disorder affects a teenager’s inability to differentiate enjoyment versus addiction for the activity.

Professor Anna Lembke of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University explains how the brain reacts to addiction.

“I game because I enjoy playing with friends and putting time into a game to improve.”

Alex Born “The brain adapts to the effects of the stimulus, such that the addicted person continues to need more and more of the substance to get the same effect, craves the substance when they’re not using, and is no longer able to enjoy ‘natural rewards,” Lembke said.

Most adults who are addicted started when they were teenagers according to Lembke, this suggests that the number of addicted adults in the next generation will only rise. “I’m concerned that the games can become another thing to do, making other activities overwhelming,” said Paly parent Debbie Bunten.

They offer escapism, an outlet for aggression or adventure. The feeling that these games elicit in a fantastical manner is what gamers may feel they are missing in their real lives, and over time many players resort to games such as Sims and Grand Theft Auto to fill the missing void in their life.

“We all understand that gaming is, in the end, something virtual, an escape from reality, and don’t make it the only future we have,” Benjamin Kong, President of Paly Esports Club said.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that offers feelings of happiness and pleasure. It is released when someone is doing something that the system thinks is vi-

tal to do. It makes someone want to repeatedly do the action to get more dopamine.

“I will not deny that playing video games does feel good, especially when you’re having a good time with friends,” Kong said Drugs and addictive behaviors, hijack the dopamine process.

Repeated activation of the reward system dulls the receptors; this creates less of a rush, making the gamer play more to get the original feeling.

“That hour you planned to play could turn into three or four," Kong said. "Anything enjoyable can be addicting, like how that one episode of your favorite show could turn into four or five.”

In many cases of video game addiction, it’s the parents who seek help for their children, knowing they may be missing out on important events of childhood.

“I notice negative behavior change when the screen time is extended,” Bunten said. “It feels like the kid is lethargic from lack of movement.”

Another important factor that affects gamers is the social obligations that come with playing, according to The Economist. Players may feel obliged to help their teammates and friends when they play in games where teamwork is required; using the logic that if other people are still playing the game, they should, too. Many times students use gaming as an incentive.

“Addiction can interfere with all areas of daily fuctioning including social, occupational, etc.

It can also greatly impact sleep which may also impact daily functioning.”

Elizabeth Spector “I use [video games] as motivation to finish my homework,” Born said.

Addiction is something all gamers need to beware of because it is a possibility for all who play.

Kong said, “Balancing school, family, friends, and gaming can be a struggle, but it’s not impossible.”

By Shannon Zhao

T

Senior Staff Writer

wo students look at an enlarged image of a sponge and have drastically different reactions. While Paly senior Leslie Santos is momentarily off put by the unusual cluster of holes, Paly senior Nicholas Padmanabhan immediately cowers into his seat, unable to look further, as an itching sensation rushes over his body.

Sensations of insects crawling under the skin, the closing of the chest, feverish cold sweats and an intense urge to cry are some of the many symptoms people with trypophobia experience when exposed to images of small holes or bumps according to WebMD. Trypophobia is a fear or aversion of irregular clusters of tiny holes or bumps.

While many people may feel disgust after viewing triggering images, those feelings of unease only last for about a few seconds, whereas those who suffer from trypophobia, also known as trypophobes, will have a more visceral aversion and struggle to shake off those images.

“It is just kind of gross, but I would not really say that it is disturbing,” Santos said.

Trypophobia can be triggered by a wide range of patterns, mainly distinguished by two types: “disease-irrelevant” images such as lotus seed heads, and “diseaserelevant” images such as tiny holes on human skin.

Some researchers and psychologists cite evolutionary survival responses as a cause for trypophobia. According to a study in a 2013 Psychological Science, human ancestors could have developed the fear as a mechanism to alert the brain of poisonous species which often had circular patterns, such as the blue-ringed octopus.

“Certain phobias are easier to learn than others are because we have this biological predisposition to be afraid of things that might be able to kill us,” Paly AP Psychology teacher Christopher Farina said.

To test if triggering images truly induced a state of fear in trypophobes, the researchers used eye-tracking technology to determine if looking at cluster holes caused their study subjects’ pupils to dilate, a fight or flight response.

Rather than pupil dilation, the study found that the subjects’ pupils constricted and breathing slowed. This reaction suggests that the subjects may have associated cluster holes to infectious diseases, characterized by bumps on the skin, and in attempt to limit its exposure to contagion, experienced shortness of breath.

“I can see how people can be disturbed by pictures of hands with holes in them because it makes the person imagine the holes in their own hands,” Santos said.

According to the study done

by Psychological Science, 16 percent of people are trypophobic; among those is Paly senior Nicholas Padmanabhan. Although Padmanabhan’s first encounter with triggering images lasted only a few seconds, the memory remains permanent and vivid in his mind.

“I immediately felt very itchy and uncomfortable, and I knocked the phone out of his hand because I found the picture so disgusting.”

Nicholas Padmanabhan “I still remember exactly where and when I realized I had trypophobia,” Padmanabhan said. “My friend showed me a picture meant to test for trypophobia — it was a close up of a beehive.”

Just a quick glance, he said, caused all of his hairs to stand on end, sending an unbearable crawling sensation over his body.

“I immediately felt very itchy and uncomfortable, and I knocked the phone out of his hand because I found the picture so disgusting,” Padmanabhan said. “For the next few days, I couldn’t stop seeing that picture in my head.”

“Once I see a triggering picture, it takes at least an hour to get it out of my mind, and during that time, it pops up over and over,” Padmanabhan said.

Although it takes a lot of mental strength to overcome trypophobia, treatment does exist. According to Farina, a student can cure their phobia through desensitization and exposure therapy.

“Both of which are techniques where you are slowly going to put

the person in a situation where they are encountering a greater level of fear until they learn how to calm themselves over it,” Farina said.

Despite available options for treatment, many trypophobes have such intense revulsions to triggering images that they do not wish to seek treatment through desensitization. Padmanabhan’s case is so severe that he declined to talk about his phobia in person, and instead opted to be interviewed via Messenger.

“I’ve never talked to a psychologist about trypophobia, nor do I want to because even talking about it makes me uncomfortable,” Padmanabhan said.

According to Farina, students’ learned awareness of trypophobia can actually cause them to subconsciously exaggerate their response to triggering images.

“Being aware that something is a real phenomenon makes you more likely to look for it,” Farina said. “ Then also being aware of the fact that that is something that has made you afraid in the past makes you more likely to look out for those kinds of things in the present.”

Padmanabhan attests to this theory. Before being exposed to an image of a cluster of small holes and being informed that he was trypophobic, Padmanabhan had never been conscious of his fear.

“I became paranoid about objects with holes only after I learned that it was a known phobia,” Padmanabhan said. “To be honest, my phobia probably wouldn’t be this strong if I hadn’t been able to associate it with a specific term.”

According to Padmanabhan, once his phobia is triggered, he enters a period of paranoia and sensitivity where, his brain scans for sights of small holes in his vicinity, and in doing so, triggers the phobia more. Even seemingly ordinary objects, such the metal outdoor tables at school, have become debilitating, causing Padmanabhan to not be able to sit at them anymore.

As trypophobia is newer term, substantial empirical research on the topic does not currently exist.

But according to Farina, information from case studies and experts’ opinions suggest that the best solution to combat trypophobia is to completely avoid images of samll holes.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

SCIENCE & TECH

B8

TRACKING TRASH 4.5

from the bin to the plant: discovering where Palo Alto’s trash travels

14%

4.5

The percentage of complete waste flow to final disposal made

by California

pounds of trash generated daily by each person in california

source: calrecycle

source: KCET.ORG

INTRODUCTION

O

bserve the trash cans in your backyard closely: a green, a blue and a black can, each with its own identification number. Green is for compost, blue is for recycling and black is for trash. On one morning every week, three trucks swing by at 6 a.m., 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. to empty the three cans from each household.

In 2014, the city of Palo Alto initiated a pilot program to sort residents’ weekly waste into three categories: compost, recycling and trash. According to the City's Financial Comittee, the goal of the program is to “divert more landfill-bound garbage into the compostibles bin, to lessen greenhouse gases by reducing the number of trips by trucks picking up and hauling the garbage and to make the sorting of waste simpler and thereby changing people’s behaviors."

YARD TRIMMINGS

S

ubstances in the green can, mainly yard trimmings, grass clippings, tree branches, dead flowers and fallen leaves from people's backyards, travel to the Green Waste Recovery (GWR) facilities in Monterey and Gilroy, Calif.

California produces several million tons of green waste per year, making up a significant portion of its waste stream, according to GWR. Upon arrival at GWR, the yard trimmings collected by the green trash cans first undergo a screening process on a conveyor belt, which shakes all the dirt off of the material.

Employees at GWR then conduct a manual screening process by pulling out contaminants such as plastic, metal, glass or landfill. These contaminants are transported to other facilities responsible for treating those materials.

Then, the green waste is transported to an electrical grinder, powered by a renewable energy source produced onsite. According to GWR, the grinder pulverizes 40 tons of green waste every day from cities in Santa Clara County and San Jose County into mulch and wood chips.

Finally, the product is taken to a processor in Gilroy to start a 60-day treatment converting the mulch and wood chips into compost, which can be transformed into soil amendments. Composts are often applied to crop fields growing lettuces and strawberries.

According to a GWR video explaining the technology of its yard waste facility, the sorting of yard waste is actually quite new for the garbage and waste industry.

“We are always implementing pilot programs and looking for ways to add new technology in the services we provide,” said Emily Finn, director of business development and communications at Green Waste Recovery.

RECYCLING LANDFILL

R

ecyclable items— plastic, paper, glass, metal—are transported to the Zanker Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in San Jose, Calif., a partner of GWR. According to MRF, the recycling facility currently processes about 1,000 tons of single stream recycling materials daily.

“The process is really convenient for us, because of the help of technology,” a collection truck driver in the Rinconada neighborhood said. “I drive to San Jose, and the trash is weighed on an electronic scale and separated. There are many trucks coming from the county, but they get the sorting done really quickly.”

Once the collection truck drivers empty the trash, employees from the facility will perform a preliminary round of screening to remove contaminants, such as glass and shredded paper, that can later get caught in the machines.

The materials are then loaded onto conveyor belt to undergo multiple stages of screening and sorting. Using a series of rolling disks, the Old Corrugated Containers (OCC) separate the mixed debris of papers into three categories: shredded paper, cardboard paper and newspaper.

Metals are sorted into ferrous (iron-containing) materials and non-ferrous wastes through an electromagnetic conveyor belt.

Products containing non-ferrous metals will pass through another screen that removes all non-ferrous metal content.

Plastic wastes are separated by an infrared screen into three groups: beverage containers, colored plastic containers and other plastic wastes.

After each screening process, GWR ensures the quality and purity of the sorted products by introducing one round of quality control in which employees at the MRF will manually remove any contaminants that the screens are not able to separate. Upon completion of the screening process, the sorted materials are bailed and sent to different end users, such as plastic processors and paper mills.

There is also a garbage MRF designed solely for non-recyclable garbage that is thrown in the black trash can.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

I

n January, Zanker Recycling implemented the ZRR2 Robot, the first artificial intelligence trash sorting technology on the West Coast of the U.S. In a statement to the public, Zanker said the recycling company currently processes approximately 2,600 tons of construction debris daily. The large quantity of trash limits the efficiency of systems inside the treating plant, since it takes some time for employees

"We are always implementing pilot programs and looking for ways to add new technology in the services we provide."

Emily Finn, director of business development and communications at Green Waste recovery

to conduct the manual quality checks after the screening processes.

“The advantage of deploying AI robotics to recycling differentiates Zanker from our competitors,” said Michael Gross, Director of Sustainability for Zanker Recycling. “In this case, it means identifying the sweet spot where a hybrid mix of our employees and robot delivers the biggest payback, both to the bottom line and also to our employees while increasing the diversion of recyclables.”

The ZRR2 AI System, according to Zanker, will “operate 20 hours per day with total system production at 150,000 tons per year.”

With the implementation of AI technology, the sorting process and quality control will require significantly less amount of manual labor while being able to workworking for longer hours.

Dane Campbell, the ZRR2’s System Engineer said, “This will be the most advanced waste material processing facility in the world. We have combined the very best equipment available, into one fantastic recycling system for Zanker.”

text by: byron zhang art by: jaures yip design by: alyssa leong & maya rathore

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

SPORTS

STEPPING UP TO THE SIDEL NE COACHES AND STUDENTS SHARE STORIES OF THEIR JOURNEYS TO SPORTS CAREERS THAT TAKE PLACE OFF THE PLAYING FIELD

A

s high school students are sucked into inevitable conversations about future careers, those who are passionate about sports often lose themselves in the logistics of college scouting, parental expectations and the pressure to perform, forgetting that there are alternative routes into the world of sports.

Paly campus supervisor and girls varsity soccer coach Ernesto Cruz shared the story of how he first discovered his interest in coaching soccer.

“When I was a teenager, I played on a super competitive club soccer team in El Salvador,” Cruz said. “That’s all we have there, one sport: soccer.”

Cruz said that though he was able to land a spot on the roster, the competition was tough and his teammates were much more skilled than he was.

“I spent most of my time just sitting on the sidelines, next to the coach on the bench,” Cruz said.

Most athletes would look back on this experience negatively, not wanting to dwell on time spent in the shadow of their teammates.

However, Cruz said though his teenage self was completely oblivious to it, his career in coaching took off because of his rather warm seat on the bench.

“Being right there, sitting next to my coach while the game was going on and my teammates were on the field — that’s what allowed me to learn a lot from the coach as a mentor, and prepared me for what I do today,” Cruz said. “He was always talking to me because I was there, and I was studying the game instead of playing it.”

It took Cruz several years and the advice of a close friend to steer him away from playing soccer and toward a coaching career path. Today, however, he considers coaching one of the most gratifying parts of his life.

always known that I wanted to be some sort of teacher, perhaps in special education, and I expressed this interest to my club soccer coach, Kyle.”

Looking back, she said her coach saw an opportunity for her and strategically gave her a chance to test the waters of coaching.

“He asked me, ‘Why don’t you come help me with the 03s — a

“I was studying the game instead of playing it.”

ERNESTO CRUZ team of players born in the year of 2003 — once a week?’” Bell said.

“He clearly did not need the extra help. He was just giving me an opportunity to see if coaching sparked my interest.”

Bell said she was open to the idea, but she could not have predicted how much she would enjoy coaching and how fitting it was to her persona.

ONE STUDENT’S STORY

Pictured above is the U.S. Soccer Coaching License Pathway. Bell’s first and second licenses, F and E, are considered introductory and are both part of the Grassroots Pathway in the bottom section.

ccording to Cruz, the adolescent years are a crucial time to explore one’s interests, and athletes and sports fanatics alike should consider their options in sports-related careers that take place outside of the physical boundaries of the playing area. Cañada College sophomore Zoe Bell, for instance, stumbled upon her career path unknowingly when she was still in high school.

“I had never, ever, ever considered coaching,” Bell said. “I had

“I had always been captain of my team, and I think I had always seen the game from [a viewpoint] that was in between the players and the coaches,” Bell said.

“I loved talking, communicating and expressing my ideas, and as a coach, I got to do that and more.”

According to Bell, her coach would send her exercises that she would have to prep for the teams on her own. She would then coach them on the day of the session without his guidance. In this way, he eased her into the instruc-

A

SPREAD

The challenge with club sports

When not playing for Paly, many student athletes participate in club sports.

These leagues can be more rigorous and demanding than the typical level of regular high school sporting competition.

PASOCCERCLUB.ORG/FAIR USE

PAGE C4-C5

tion process and helped her gain familiarity with drills and the work behind the scenes.

“Two months in, Kyle told me I’d have to get a coaching license if I wanted to continue coaching,” Bell said. “I did a four hour online class that granted me my first license. It wasn’t difficult. It was mostly information I had absorbed from being a player, going to referee classes and just general soccer knowledge.”

In the United States Soccer Federation, the top coaching license is at the professional level, and is followed by licenses ranging from an A license, the highest, to an F license. Bell said she quickly realized she was ready to bridge up from an F license to an E license, but the next step of the process could not be completed from behind a computer screen.

“I then drove down to Ventura and completed the course for an E license,” Bell said. “It was an important moment; everything was coming together, and I realized how much independence I had as a coach and what I had achieved by obtaining the license myself.”

Today, Bell has earned the position of head coach of the Palo Alto Soccer Club (PASC) 2010 White team, and during the spring season, she will most likely take on the PASC 2010 Blue team, one level higher, as well. She said her coaching path has been a constant uphill climb, and she is certain that coaching will be an important part of her future, as it fits seamlessly into the vision she has for her career.

“I’m still focusing on becoming a special education teacher, but all of the prep I’m doing can help me as a coach as well,” Bell said. “I’m taking [classes in] psychology, social psychology, teaching in a diverse society and health safety and nutrition. It’s all intertwined.”

Many of the coaches she works with at PASC are also classroom teachers, and Bell said she has noticed that the hours in their days line up perfectly.

The players can only attend their practices after their school day is over, which is, logically, when a teacher’s work day comes to an end as well. This enables teachers to transition smoothly into the coaching day.

“It definitely took me a while to figure it all out,” Bell said. “But now that I have, I am so excited about all of it. I’m not after the money; I want to be passionate about what I do for the rest of my life.”

Staff

KAREN AMBROSE HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

New football coach

Meet the former Paly athlete, Gifford, who has led the Vikings to a hot start.

PAGE C6

Design by Lara Nakamura

BEHIND THE SCENES

S

enior Gerzain Gutierrez has shaped an idea for his future, which drew inspiration from a mentor who is involved in the business side of sports — someone who works for both the Green Bay Packers and the San Antonio Spurs and teaches sports management at Stanford University.

“He is still involved in the sports, but he isn’t center stage; he’s making things happen, but he’s not in the spotlight,” Gutierrez said.

Following and participating in sports are important pieces of Gutierrez’s life, but he is aware professional sports teams are selective and only a miniscule number of athletes make it to the top.

“I love sports so much, but I’m probably not good enough to play professionally,” Gutierrez said.

“There are other paths in, and the business side of sports is there for everybody.”

CLOSING THOUGHTS

C

ruz transported himself back in time to 19 years ago, when he was offered

Text & Design by Leela Srinivasan

his first coaching position in the most unexpected manner. At the time, he hadn’t been involved in coaching at all, and had stepped back from the world of soccer.

“I was working in pest control to make a living, and I got an assignment with a company in Portola Valley,” Cruz said. “I remember talking to a lady — she was my very first client — and then I noticed a soccer field in the background.”

Cruz said he told the woman that he thought it looked like a really nice playing field, and the question that followed took him entirely by surprise. “‘Would you like to coach a team? We have a group of girls that want to play, but we don’t have a coach,’ she asked me,” Cruz said. “She told me I looked like I would be a soccer coach.”

Cruz smiled, closed his eyes, and said, “Life,” marveling at the way that an entrance to his coaching career had been handed to him, and how this moment had shaped the rest of his coaching career.

How to get a U.S. Soccer F license:

1. Go to dcc.ussoccer.com 2. Create a user account

3. Complete the two-hour training course, composed of four modules: Kick off, first half, halftime & second half *Note: Course is open to all applicants at least 16 years of age

Unusual Sports

Funds

AC RACHAEL LOFTIS/CC0

The cost of the game

A deeper look into the expenses of playing youth sports.

PAGE C6

STEFANO KOCKA/FAIR USE

Martial arts

Learn about the practice and selfdiscipline on the road to mastery.

PAGE C8

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

SPORTS

C2

SPORTS REPORT

CROSS COUNTRY RECENT SCORES

Stanford Invitational 9/29: VB 24th, VG 4th SCVAL Preview 10/2: VB 2nd, VG: 4th UPCOMING GAMES

Clovis Invitational 10/6, 9:00 a.m.

Monterey Bay Invitatational 10/13, 9:45 a.m.

FOOTBALL RECENT SCORES

Paly vs. Milpitas 9/21, W, 41-13 Paly @ Wilcox 9/28, L, 35-21 UPCOMING GAMES

Paly vs. Cupertino 10/5, 7:00 p.m.

Paly @ Fremont 10/12, 7:00 p.m.

GIRLS TENNIS RECENT SCORES

Paly @ Monta Vista 9/25, L, 6-1 Paly vs. Los Altos 9/27, W, 5-2 UPCOMING GAMES

Paly @ Homestead 10/4, 4:00 p.m.

Paly vs. Los Gatos 10/9, 4:00 p.m.

GOLF RECENT SCORES

Paly vs. Los Gatos 9/18, W, 196-216 Paly vs. Gunn 9/24, W, 210-234 UPCOMING GAMES

Paly vs. Carmel 10/5, 1:30 p.m.

Paly vs. Saratoga 10/8, 3:00 p.m.

BOYS WOPO RECENT SCORES

Paly @ Homestead 9/27, L, 10-9 Paly vs. Woodside 10/1, W, 8-7 UPCOMING GAMES

Paly @ Mountain View 10/4, 3:30 p.m.

Paly @ Lynbrook 10/9, 6:45 p.m.

GIRLS WOPO RECENT SCORES

Paly @ Homestead 9/27, L, 6-3 Paly vs. Los Altos 10/2, L, 10-6 UPCOMING GAMES

Paly @ Mountain View 10/4, 6:45 p.m.

Paly @ Fremont 10/9, 3:30 p.m.

VOLLEYBALL RECENT SCORES

Paly @ Lynbrook 9/27, W, 3-0 Paly vs. Monta Vista 10/2, W, 3-0 UPCOMING GAMES

Paly @ Mountain View 10/4, 6:45 p.m.

Paly vs. Los Altos 10/9, 6:45 p.m.

BHUSAN GUPTA/USED WITH PERMISSION

Cross country athletes commence their race at the Gunn Alumni Meet, the first race of the year. The boys and girls senior teams came in first place among four other teams.

Cross country stays strong throughout invitationals

By Rebekah Limb

T

Staff Writer

he cross country season is in full swing as both teams faced challenging competition at the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 29, with the girls placing 10th and the boys placing 24th.

At the second invitational of the season, senior Donald Taggart came in first for Paly boys, followed by senior Alex Evans, senior John Tayeri and senior Ben Huang.

For Paly girls, junior Miranda Jimenez placed 14th with sophomore Hailey Hwang and junior Ella Ball close behind.

The results for the meet were unexpected considering the success of the first meet, according to junior varsity girls captain Kai Douglas.

“Stanford Invitational wasn’t

the best meet for the team as a whole, but some individuals raced well,” Douglas said. “We are really looking forward to the upcoming league meets and getting some training in between championship season.”

“We are really looking forward to the upcoming league meets and getting some training in between championship season.”

Kai Douglas

At the first meet of the year, the Lowell Invitational on Sept.

8, all runners from junior varsity to varsity teams made a great im-

pression Evans said.

According to Evans, the environment of the more intense meets can be hard to get used to, but the invitational was an exceptional start.

Taggart placed ninth overall in the invitational, running 2.93 miles in 15 minutes and 17 seconds, the fastest time of the Paly varsity boys team.

Jimenez ran the fastest out of the varsity girls, placing eighth overall and helping the varsity girls to a second place team finish.

There were several notable junior varsity performances; sophomore Max Barthelemy, sophomore Emilie Defilde and senior Carlos Diaz all placed in the top 15 in their respective races.

Underclassmen like Hwang were able to get a taste of the intensity of high school meets, noting the team aspect that made the

invitational so exhilarating.

“It was a great time racing because it was an early invitational where I could test my abilities and also experiment before more meets roll later in the season.”

Alex Evans

“I think we all did really well, and I was able to pace with my teammate, Gretchen [Berndt], which was really useful,” Hwang said. “It was especially exciting to cheer for everyone and see them finish their race really strong.”

The invitational allowed for all

runners to see their potential for future races. Even for upperclassmen who have previously experienced several intense meets.

“It was a great time racing because it was an early invitational where I could test my abilities and also experiment before more meets roll in later the season,” Evans said.

Senior varsity captain Henry Saul could not race in either invitationals, but said he looks forward to the rest of the season and can’t wait until the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League meets.

“I’m pretty excited because league meets are good to see who your competition is as well as allow non-varsity to race,” Saul said.

Major meets in the next couple weeks include the Clovis Invitational on Oct. 6, where runners will race against top cross country teams from all over the state.

Boys football loses five-game winning streak to Wilcox

By Emily Asher

A

Staff Writer

disappointing loss of 3521 against Wilcox High School last Friday ended the Paly varsity football team’s five-game winning streak.

Despite losing last game, the team’s early success has helped improved the team’s chemistry, teaching them to work as a unit, according to junior wide receiver Jamir Shepard.

“We have started to trust each other, and it’s a brotherhood that we can’t even explain,” Shepard said. “We can’t explain how much we love each other on and off the field.”

Creating a strong and resilient team has not come naturally; there have been many improvements and progression throughout the season, according to head coach Nelson Gifford.

“The coaches are really great and their concepts really help us understand the game better.”

Damion Valencia

“There has been a lot of growth in terms of their understanding of what we are asking them to do, and understanding how to make particular adjustments as the game progresses,” Gifford said. “We have also gotten really good at communicating with each other about not

KAREN AMBROSE HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

Senior Jackson Chryst runs the ball down the sideline toward the end zone during the Wilcox game; Paly lost 35-21, ending its winning streak.

getting too down when things are challenging, and really focusing in on doing our job as best we can.”

Gifford and his coaching staff have created a lasting impact on the players, regardless of their standings, according to senior cornerback Damion Valencia.

“The coaches are really great and their concepts really help us understand the game better to give us a better look at the field,” Valencia said. “We feel like they

really have our backs.”

“We can’t explain how much we love each other on and off the field.”

Jamir Shepard

One coaching strategy Nelson offers to the team, is teaching just as he would in a class-

room, and according to Shepard, his strategies are some of the best he has seen.

“We have lesson plans and objectives for the players to meet and they set goals for both individual and small group deep instruction,” Nelson said. “It’s just like a classroom but louder.”

Setbacks from last season, such as losing games, helped drive this year’s success according to senior Chris Martinez.

“I feel like losing last year has definitely made us come back

stronger than before,” Martinez said.

According to Gifford, their success on and off the field has to do with the hardworking and committed players on the team.

“I have never thrown a pass, or thrown a block, or caught a ball or anything like that,” Gifford said. “It’s the guys. They do amazing stuff, and I just get the best seat.”

The next home game is against Cupertino High School on Friday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.

Girls water polo perseveres through tough losses

By Kai Vetteth

A

Staff Writer

fter a disheartening 12-1 loss two weeks ago to Los Gatos High School, the girls water polo team aspires to build momentum in the second half of the season and move into the Central Coast Section (CCS) playoffs, according to Coach

Doug Stotland.

Senior captain Grace Rowell said the team felt that the loss was an inaccurate representation of its potential.

“As [the Los Gatos High School Game] was the last game of the first half of the [season], we are looking towards the future of the team and the second half of the Santa Clara Valley League

(SCVAL) games as well as the CCS [tournament],” Rowell said.

The team placed second in the Aptos Tournament earlier in the season, losing in the championship game. After losing 6-3 to Homestead High School last week, the team is ranked sixth in SCVALs. “We’re still a young team, so we get better fast, but our inexperience shows against the stronger teams,” Coach Stotland said. “I’m happy with our progress, but not satisfied with the results so far.”

According to Coach Stotland, the team continues to be driven by a fervent desire to improve after every game, practice and drill.

“The players are focused and are always working hard at practice and then touting their new capabilities to work in games,” Stotland said. “That’s the formula for improving, or as we call it ‘ABGB’ [meaning] always be getting better.”

DAVID HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

Coaches Doug Stotland and Deke Rowell give a pep talk before the game

Because of this, Stotland expects the second half of the season to yield better results.

“We expect to see close losses become wins during the [last] half of the season and propel us into the playoffs with a lot of momentum,” Coach Stotland said.

According to senior captain Esme Stotland, this philosophy is

consistently reflected in the players’ work ethic.

“Our work ethic is fantastic, and we really push ourselves and each other,” Stotland said. “I think the team just needs more experience, and that experience will get us more wins.”

The team’s next game is at Mountain View High School at

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

SPORTS

C3

DAVID HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

Varsity tennis player junior Ria Pai lunges for ball during a difficult tie breaking doubles match.

DAVID HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

Senior Siena Brewster leaps and prepares to spike the ball forcefully over the net toward her opponent.

Girls varsity tennis team learns from Girls volleyball team finds success in losses, sets high hopes for fall season Chandler Invitational tournament

By Sarah O’Riordan Staff Writer

A

fter a promising start to the season, the girls varsity tennis team’s schedule has intensified further.

The team lost to Piedmont High School and Cupertino High School on during the week of Sept. 9, both with scores of 4-3.

After that, the Vikings played in three matches during the week of Sept. 17.

The girls tennis team won against Homestead with a score of 5-2, but lost their next two matches against Los Gatos High School and Saratoga High School, with scores of 6-1 and 4-3 respectively.

With both wins and losses this season, the team is hard at work preparing for the matches to come.

“Every coach says that losses help players improve more than wins, but it’s definitely true,” senior captain Isa Cossio said.

“I think one thing our team has to work on is trying to learn from our losses because those experiences can really help us be better prepared for matches in the future.”

According to Cossio, the central issues the team has faced thus far have been in unity.

“One of the main challenges

we’ve had since the beginning is getting the team to practice together, which initially affected our team dynamic,” Cossio said.

In addition, sophomore captain Maddi Page reveals another issue affecting team performance.

“Most of our matches have come down to tie breaks, most of the matches we lose are solely because we didn’t win the tie break.”

Page said. “I think we really need to work on that, but it’s mainly because most of our newer members just aren’t used to the high pressure levels. We’ll definitely get better.”

“Our team has to work on trying to learn from our losses.”

Isa Cossio Despite facing problems and losses, the team is currently doing very well, according to Cossio.

“After playing in a two-day tournament together and having more team bonding time, such as a team dinner, we are more connected to each other,” Cossio said.

Page won all her matches against Homestead and her single match against Saratoga. The new additions to the team and the im-

provement of returning players have proven useful.

“This year’s team is very strong in both singles and doubles, because we have many new experienced players and all our players have improved a lot since last season,” Cossio said. “I think we can do very well in our league this season.”

In addition to this, the team bonding activities and joint practices have helped with camaraderie, according to Page.

“I feel like I’m better friends with some of my teammates, which in turn is helping us on the court since we’re all closer and better communicators with each other,” Page said.

As the season progresses, the team remains optimistic and motivated, their main goal being the Central Coast Section (CCS) championships at the end of the season.

“Everyone is just excited to improve, get more match experience, become closer as a team and hopefully be seeded in the CCS championships,” Cossio said.

It is still early in the season, and the team has many more matches to play.

Varsity tennis will be playing on Sept. 25, Sept. 27 and Oct. 4, against Monta Vista, Los Altos and Homestead.

By Eve Donnelly

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Staff Writer

eginning league play in early September, the girls volleyball team is undefeated. Their main goal now is to have it remain that way.

The girls defeated Homestead High School in their first league game of the season on Thursday, Sept. 6, 3-0. Coach Benji Saetang said he was very proud of this result.

“They are all talented and skilled players.

They are starting to mold into the team I had visioned.”

Benji Saetang “They are all talented and skilled players,” said Saetang.

“They are starting to mold into the team I had visioned.”

Between league games, the players attended the Chandler Invitational tournament, where they played five teams.

The girls won four out five games, losing only to Sacred Heart 2-1.

A notable match for the girls was a victory against Menlo Atherton High School, a team they had lost to previously this season. “[We] came back and defeated MA after they beat us in a preseason match, but unfortunately we lost to Sacred Heart Prep and MA took first,” junior Grace Thayer said. “We know what we have to do looking forward and we played some of our best volleyball in the MA game.”

Coach Saetang expresses a similar stance.

“There is still a lot of work to be done,” Saetang said. “However, the team understands that working hard, putting out 100 percent effort in playing the sport of volleyball, and performing their specific jobs on the court comes first.”

Post tournament league games resumed on Sept. 18 when the team faced Los Altos High School, winning 3-1 and continuing their hot streak.

Promptly afterward at a match with Los Gatos High School, the girls won 3-0.

According to senior captain Mallory Kuppe, the team sees itself in a good place at the moment.

“The team is in a great spot confidence wise and we have re-

ally been performing well these past couple of games,” said Kuppe.

The girl’s volleyball team plans to keep up their positive attitude and rigorous practice to maintain this.

“The more we play together we play together as a team, the better we get. I’m loving this season so far and I think it’s safe to say the rest of the team is too.”

Mallory Kuppe “Training has been great, because the more we play together we play together as a team, the better we get,” Kuppe said. “I’m loving this season so far and I think it’s safe to say the rest of the team is too.”

Coach Saetang re-emphasized how large a role mental stability and team unity play in performance.

“The girls have been working hard on their mental toughness and team bonding off the court,” Saetang said. “When the team does this, the wins will come.

Boys waterpolo aims to improve offensive tactics Golf on winning streak After tough loss to Los Gatos, boys water polo sets goals for season

By Lucy Nemerov

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Business Manager

oming out of their first three matches undefeated, the girls varsity golf team said they are confident as they prepare to play cross-town rivals, Gunn High School.

Looking to compete at States, junior Priya Bakshi said the team is motivated to keep up its winning streak.

Bakshi attributed the team’s recent success to the team’s competitive and experienced players.

“We’re first in our league because we’re really one of the most competitive teams,” Bakshi said.

“We all play tournaments outside of school. We’re all like we’ve all been playing for a really long time, so we’re the most experienced team.”

Regarding their upcoming match against Gunn, Katherine

DAVID HICKEY/USED WITH PERMISSION

Senior Javid Alasti shoots the ball during a boys water polo game against Lynbrook High School, resulting in a 14-5 win for the Vikings.

By Frida Rivera

D

Staff Writer

espite some strong defense, Paly boys water polo lost to the Los Gatos High School team on Sept. 20, 10-8.

Los Gatos scored the first goal early, which slightly lowered Paly’s confidence.

“The initial goal was a slight setback,” junior Dexter Gormley said. “However, it only motivated us to work harder.”

Throughout the game, the Vikings trailed only by a point or two.

“We kept our work ethic up throughout the match,” junior Ryan Stanley said. “We were able to tie with them part of the way through the third quarter, but they quickly countered.”

The boys’ strong defense allowed for a tight score through-

out the water polo match, which is credited to the team’s intense practices.

“We have improved a lot since the beginning of the season,” junior Ryan Wisowaty said. “We’ve gotten a lot better at executing defensive plays and communication and I think that that is reflected in our record.”

“The initial goal was a slight setback, however, it only motivated us to work harder.”

Dexter Gormley According to senior captain Ben Rapperport, the team fought hard throughout the game but were unable to secure the win.

“Our team’s defense was do-

ing really well and working hard, but it was difficult for the team to get any goals,” Rapperport said. “I think shooting is something our team needs to focus on in order to succeed this season.”

According to senior captain Javid Alasti, the Vikings are hungry for revenge.

“We know that if we play a good game and shut down their main shooter we can win,” Alasti said. “We are also excited that it will be a home game.”

In addition to facing Los Gatos High School, the water polo team has also faced off against Lynbrook High School, winning 14-5.

“The game went very well.

We were able to use our speed to our advantage which got us some counter goals,” Wisowaty said.

“We played good defense on them and were able to keep a wide gap.”

Last year, Paly lost to Lyn-

brook High School twice, so Stanley said the win against them this year was a big one.

“I am very proud of the way we worked as a team during that game,” Stanley said. “I hope we can continue to work as a team so we can reach our goals this season.”

“The game went very well. We were able to use our speed to our advantage which got us some counter goals.”

Ryan Wisowaty The boys water polo team will play at home against the Lincoln High School Lions on Oct. 4 at noon.

Sung, another junior captain, said the team is relatively confident, as it started the season strong and Gunn is currently in fourth place in the league.

“I’m really confident that we’re going to win, but the next team we’re playing is Lynbrook [High School], and they’re definitely more competitive than most other teams,” Sung said. “That will probably be more of a challenge, but we should be able to win both matches.”

If the season continues to go smoothly, the team is looking to place well at States at the end of the season.

“One of our big goals is making it to states for the last two years,” Bakshi said. “We’ve made it to the NorCal competition, and we’ve gotten knocked out, but we have a really strong team this year, so we want to get to states and remain undefeated.”

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

CLUB SPORTS

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A GLIMPSE AT THE WO

TEXT & DESIGN

BY REBEKAH LIMB

Student athletes face higher levels of play,

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ith the pressure from her club team on her back, the sun glaring on the field and beads of sweat dripping down her face, sophomore soccer player Sydney Japic faces her opponent. To her right, five college coaches analyze her every move; to her left, parents and spectators applaud and scrutinize every play.

The stressful environment induced by club sports is only one aspect of many that highlights its differences from high school sports.

“I think club is more intense [than high school] because you have games against better teams, and you do it for most of the year instead of one season,” Japic said.

Although the types of sports are the same, the two seasons, often at different times, contrast as, according to Japic, club sports are often more intense and come

Collegiate soccer athletes who played club in high school (Source: USA Today HS)

with more competition, exposure and expense. “You are more focused on developing in a club,” Japic said. “School is more about winning.”

S

TRYOUTS

ince club sports are not limited to players from a specific high school, there is a wider range of players trying out that raises the quality of talent, according Japic. As a result, teams are often composed of the most skilled players from many cities in a geographical area.

With this comes a substantial amount of competition not only between clubs, but also between players who want to join the “best” team, according to sophomore club volleyball player Kylie Mies.

Mies said the race to the top of the ranks can lead to an unhealthy and secretive environment for coaches, players and parents.

“As soon as it came to a business oppurtunity they chose to go another direction.”

Grace Thayer According to Mies, some club teams form private tryouts and invite specific players to ensure that their team is made up of the best athletes. Their team is formed weeks before the advertised open tryout, which creates a sense of false advertisement as clubs are not

Played club sports Did not play club sports

disclosing to the public that offers are being made beforehand to the top players. Junior volleyball player Grace Thayer experienced this first hand.

“Tryouts were terrible because they didn’t tell us players paying to tryout that there was already a full roster,” Thayer said. “I was really hurt and felt like I had given so much to that club, but as soon as it came to a business opportunity they chose to go another direction.”

Paly varsity volleyball and Academy Volleyball Club coach Benji Saetang has been involved with the politics of club and high school volleyball for almost a decade. Being a coach for both versions of the sport, Saetang said club tryouts can be shady.

“Club sports are different from high school sports in a sense that all those back door deals before tryouts is one thing — business,” Saetang said.“It guarantees them to be paying for a spot on that team, and at the higher levels of club, it gets college coaches to pull in and see this team.”

COLLEGE RECRUTING

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he elevated play of certain club teams also attracts many college coaches looking for players to fill their roster, according to coach Chris Fitzpatrick of the Palo Alto Soccer Club 2001 Girls team. The major soccer tournaments such as Surf Cup, Junior Nationals for volleyball and Amatuer Athetic Union Championships for basketball are swarmed with college recruiters.

“Sports like soccer and basketball are totally different from football; you

very seldom see a college coach at high schools,” Fitzpatrick said. “I mean, you have Stanford [University] right across the street from Paly, and I can guarantee you won’t see them at high school games.

You need the club and showcase tournaments to get recruited.”

The timely rush to get recruited for college creates another form of competition within the individual team as players desire more playing time than others to be seen.

The recruiting process also comes with a personal stress, as athletes need to have adequate exposure to college coaches in order to be considered.

Paly has a multitude of college-bound athletes every year, some of whom can credit their commitment to club sports.

Paly alumni and Pomona College soccer player Emily Tomz is one of these players and said playing a club sport contributed to a prolonged recruiting season.

“September of my junior year my club coaches played a really big role in my recruiting,” Tomz said. “They really helped me initiate things and get in contact with schools at the beginning of the recruiting process. But by the end it had moved on to be my responsibility.”

However, this may not be the case with all athletes as some struggle with getting the attention of college recruiters.

Junior Marcus Ama, who plays club and varsity soccer, can attest to this troublesome process and notes the inner stress that playing on a club has ultimatley produced.

“There will be times where you can mess up one play and there will be five other players just waiting to pounce on your mistake with all the college recruiters watching,” Ama said. “But the fact that the coach can look at you for 30 seconds and he can already mark you off as a possible member of his college team if you miss control one ball is scary.”

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

CLUB SPORTS

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ORLD OF CLUB SPORTS

DESIGN BY NAVID NAJMABADI ART BY LUCY

long hours, intense performance pressure COMMITMENT

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he intensity of club sports varies across different skill levels, as the higher level teams often require more commitment from their players than lower skilled teams.

This commitment includes dedication to practices and competitions, as club requires players to devote much of their weekends to the sport.

Another aspect of club sports that is different from school sports is the large price tag of some travel teams. According to Saetang, some clubs can charge up to several thousand dollars to cover the expenses of cross-country tournaments teams may go to during the season.

“You really have to take the time out of your day, and it’s a lot of effort with a whole different level of pressure.”

Sydney Japic Clubs that uphold a more prestigious reputations often use their success to attract players willing to pay for the expensive cost of the season, according to Saetang. With this price comes another form of heightened stress, as sometimes players pay extensive fees and sit on the bench for the season.

Since club consumes a lot of players’ time and money, parents are often heavily involved in their children’s athletic

endeavors. Parent Josephine Cheung has two daughters: junior club water polo player Chesnie Cheung and freshman club volleyball player Hillary Cheung.

As an experienced club parent, Cheung views club less as a economic hassle and more as an opportunity.

“We are looking at the future, so if they want to to play in college we want to look at skill development and a good club,” Cheung said. “Chesnie and Hillary both want to play in college, so we want to have a top club. Costs and other stuff is just an investment for that purpose.”

PRESSURE

T

here can also be a psychological difference between the school and club sports that can prove to be too much for some young athletes to handle according to Japic. The rigor and demand that certain clubs call for is unmatched by the training of school teams, and it requires athletes to retain a great deal of focus and motivation.

“You really have to take time out of your day, and it’s a lot of effort with a whole differentlevel of pressure,” Japic said. “It really is a lot, but for me it is worth every second of it.”

The pressure is highest during club tournaments as there are national rankings and college scholarships ultimately at stake, according to Mies.

In high school games, since the potential audience consists mainly of family and friends, the pressure is

not as immense according to Mies.

School is a completely different environment in that sense, where the degree of a team’s success does not impact the players in the long run.

“Club sports are different from high school sports in a sense that all those back door deals before tryouts is one thing — business.”

Benji Saetang According to junior club soccer player James Jeon, the ruthless competitive nature that club sports has can cause student athletes to be overloaded with unnecessary stress. This can make it extremely difficult to enjoy the sport at times where there is unneeded anxiety produced.

“I think club sports can be super overwhelming because coaches expect a lot of you even when you are trying to balance all your extracurriculars and schoolwork,” Jeon said. “It almost came to a point where I considered quitting for school purposes, but thankfully it didn’t get that serious.”

Despite the stress that athletes may endure, club sports can also supply players with an array of attributes that can end up benefiting them outside of their respective sport.

“You learn a lot of skills and leadership,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve seen some of the girls personally grow on the team.

Being around 15 other girls really forces people to come out of their shell.”

NEMEROV

As club and high school sports continue to evolve, the differences in the two seasons become more straightforward, according to Saetang.

Although the ultimate goal is to improve the skills of players, club provides an alternative type of environment.

Players who are involved in club sports may consider it to be more intense, timeconsuming and rigorous, but they say for an athlete who loves the sport, anything to help future success is worth the commitment.

“Club has opened new doors for me, and I wouldn’t be here today without the hard work and commitment I’ve put in through club,” Mies said. “The lessons I’ve learned helped me to grow not only as an athlete but as a human being.”

Percent of college volleyball players who played club (Source: USA Today HS) Played club sports Did not play club sports

91%

9%

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Campanile

C6 SPORTS Athletics require significant funds New football coach improves team

From equipment to private lessons, sports prove to be more expensive than ever

By Kaahini Jain

F

By Samantha Hwang

Staff Writer

or many kids, it starts at young age. After practicing a sport for the first time, people go to the store to pick out gear and to make sure they get the perfect colors. After a couple years go by, more advanced equipment is necessary, and certain items are outgrown by the time the new season rolls around.

From soccer cleats to football helmets, equipment is an imperative part of youth sports. The cost of sports equipment for high school parents is always increasing as its industry expands. According to Time Magazine, the youth sports industry in the U.S. has grown by 55 percent since 2010.

According to research from Utah State University, parents are spending up to 10 percent of their income on their kids’ sports.

For more privileged families, this includes private lessons and summer camps. According to junior Anna Tomz, a member of the Stanford Soccer Club team, most club sports get support from big organizations to help them afford uniforms and equipment. “[Stanford Soccer Club] has shirts sponsored by the Lucille Packard Hospital and Stanford [Soccer Club] is funded by the club and parents,” Tomz said.

According to Nays.org, not only does a sponsor help fund the team, the sponsor itself benefits from supporting youth sports because spectors of games who see the sponsor’s name on uniforms may be lured toward that organization over a competitor.

“Our budget this year is $365,000, which means we aim to raise that much and spend that much during the school year.”

Rebecca Passarello In addition to club sports facing funding issues, schools can also struggle to get the money their teams require. The Paly Sports Boosters is the reason that every year there are more student athletes than the last.

According to Sports Booster President Rebecca Passarello, the

Board Correspondent

B

EMILY ASHER/THE CAMPANILE

Prices for sports equipment are on the rise; athletes and sports teams must figure out how to cope.

Paly Sports Boosters hold fundraisers throughout the year and ask for donations in order to support Paly sports.

“Our budget this year is $365,000, which means we aim to raise that much and spend that much during the school year,” Passarello said.

According to Passarello, they pay for all uniforms, referee officials, transportation, awards, equipment, additional practice fees and tournament fees.

“The biggest source of our income is from the participation donation that we ask each athlete’s family to make for each season they compete,” Passarello said. “Our target for this year is $200,000 of our $365,000 budget.

It’s important that we hit this target since our budget for supplying the teams with what they need depends on it.”

According to Passarello, other sources of income for the Boosters include ticket sales from football, volleyball and basketball games, snack bar sales, Paly gear sales and fundraising events such as the Christmas Tree Lot and the Fun Run. Some money is also raised from team photos and restaurant nights, where a portion of a restaurants proceeds go to the Sports Boosters.

Many people don’t understand why Sports Boosters needs so much funding. Lots of it is used for equipment which is not only

expensive, but also short lived.

“As equipment wears out, we replace it,” Passarello said in an email. “Uniforms, for example, are on a rotating schedule so they are replaced every 3-5 years. Some teams have more expensive equipment while the larger teams have higher transportation costs. Our goal is to support all of the teams with what they need to compete in the SCVAL [Santa Clara Valley Athletic League].”

According to junior Mikayla Rimsa, a player on the Paly girls

“We would go to Fremont to get a racket instead of buying one in Palo Alto because it’s cheaper.”

Noa Lehrer JV soccer team, the players also make an effort to raise money for their teams.

“We do some fundraising and hopefully we can get some sponsorships from some places for our new equipment, but most of it comes from our parents,” Rimsa said.

Some families have done the sports season shopping spree enough times that they have found some tricks to making things easier. Junior Noa Lehrer played tennis for Paly last year

Students struggle to balance sports, healthy diet, sleep

By John Tayeri

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Business Manager

t happens to everyone: staying up late to study and complete rigorous homework assignments. As fatigue begins to take over, and it requires every ounce of energy just to stay awake. When people realize that they’re hungry, they head over to the kitchen pantry past midnight for an unhealthy snack.

People have heard it time after time again that they should live a healthy lifestyle. They’ve heard it from their family, friends, doctors, teachers and coaches. While the majority of students are generally healthy, people all know what it’s like to do something unhealthy.

How does this differ for student athletes? It is a coach’s job to make sure their athletes get into top-condition, but they can only control the things that athletes do for the duration of practices. This leaves the rest of the day for athletes to do whatever they please.

“My coach says that it’s good to go to bed early, and wake up early to complete my homework.”

Kai Douglas Freshman Samantha Yamashita has danced for the last 10 years.

This year, she began dancing for the Paly team.

Although a freshman’s workload is often lighter than that of an upperclassman, Yamashita said she still experienced a big leap from middle to high school.

One of the biggest conflicts that Paly student-athletes will run into is sleep, or lack thereof. In a high school known for its over-

achieving students, many athletes will return home after practices with a large amount of homework piled-up.

“In general, I tend to prioritize my school work,” Yamashita said.

“I always try to get it done during prep. It isn’t too hard yet, but I think if it were starting to affect my general health, I’d sleep if I had to sleep. It has become a bit harder balancing my school work with dance lately, but it is still manageable. I try to plan it out, so if I had to do something important for dance, I’d get my work out of the way first.”

Junior Kai Douglas is running on cross country for her third year.

“My coach says that it’s good to go to bed early, and wake up early to complete my homework,” Douglas said. “That way my mind will be fresh and not tired.”

On the other hand, Paly psychology teacher Melinda Mattes thinks that waking up early does not have as big of an advantage.

“I don’t think there are significant advantages to waking up early,” Mattes said. “The best thing you can do for yourself is keeping your sleep cycle consistent. If you wake up early, you should always wake up early. If you go to bed late, you should always go to bed late.”

Alongside sleep, diet is something that students must improve.

To stay healthy, one must eat foods from all nutritional groups, including proteins, carbohydrates, calcium, fats and vitamins.

While many athletes fulfill these needs, many still find ourselves eating unhealthy snacks every now and then.

“Town and Country is still pretty new to me, so I always find myself going to Trader Joe’s and getting cookies,” Yamashita said.

Even upperclassmen, such as senior football player Paul Thie, admits to cheating on his diet

from time to time.

“For the most part, I eat healthy foods for all three meals of the day,” Thie said. “However, I like ice cream and boba too and I love to have them as snacks. They are definitely unhealthy foods, but I can’t resist sometimes. I have gotten better at managing my diet, but I’m still young and it can be hard to control.”

It can be a lot to balance school work, dietary choices, sleep and athletics. However, student atheletes cannot blame themseleves. According to Mattes, a teenager’s prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed; a part of the brain that regulates most quickdecision making.

“The best thing you can do for yourself is keeping your sleep cycle consistent.”

Melinda Mattes “The prefrontal cortex does a good job inhibiting behaviors or actions that might not be good for you,” Mattes said. “Since the prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed in teenagers, emotions sometimes play a larger role in what a teen might do. It doesn’t mean that all teenagers are destined to do bad things, but it does mean that the balance of power in the brain is not quite the same for teens.”

Most times, people make these decisions without thinking about what they just did. Eventually, the prefrontal cortex will make a decision, but by then it’s too late.

Thie said, “Sometimes I regret it right after I eat something unhealthy. I remind myself about how bad it is for my sports performance. But it’s too late at that point.”

and shared how her family combats the high prices.

“My family doesn’t struggle financially so price wasn’t an issue for equipment, however we would go to Fremont to get a racket instead of buying one in Palo Alto because it’s cheaper,” Lehrer said.

According to Lehrer, the tennis team also gets money from holding tennis tournaments, which participants have to pay to enter. Additionally, the Paly Tennis Camp, held over the summer, charges attendees and the profits go to the team. One sport that has to do a lot of fundraising is golf.

It is particularly expensive sport, according to junior Priya Bakshi, member of the Paly golf team.

“Golf is especially expensive just because there are fourteen clubs and each is about $300, at least, so it’s really important to find your balance and what works for you before buying a whole set because it’s so expensive,” Bakshi said.

According to Bakshi, all the girls on the team have their own set of golf clubs. The golf club does not get funding from the Boosters for equipment and uniforms. They only pay for the fees of the matches. Things like uniforms and other gear is paid for by fundraisers, donations or families.

From goggles to cleats, student-athletes, their families and the Sports Boosters find a way to ensure that their performance on the field is impeccable.

ack in January of the 20172018 school year, former head football coach Danny Sullivan announced his resignation and became Archbishop Mitty High School’s head coach. “[Sullivan] kind of left unexpectedly, and our whole team didn’t really know what was going to happen,” senior Aiden Chang said. “Then our new head coach came in and put things together.”

Despite the shift in coaches, the team has a 5-0 record with new head coach Nelson Gifford who mainly attributes to the players.

“It really comes down to the hard work that the guys put in, starting the spring and through the summer,” Gifford said. “They really did a great job of buying into what the coaches were selling by accepting the values that we’ve tried to instill in them. Their play has reflected that process.”

Since Gifford has come to Paly, the changes in strategy have been fairly small.

“I think the offensive style and the defensive style has changed a little bit, but from a foundational stand point it’s about blocking, tackling, passing and catching the ball,” Gifford said. “These kids came in with a strong football background, and they’ve continued to develop that. It hasn’t been so much new as it has been reinforcing the fundamentals.”

“[Coach Gifford] has a lot of experience with that and he’s really good at handling team adversity and struggle.”

Walker Rosenthal Although there has not been a major shift in team philosophy, Gifford has brought a shift in attitude and energy.

“One thing that coach Gifford does that’s good for us is that if we don’t understand something, instead of yelling at us he says, ‘okay we don’t understand that, let’s take it out of the play book, and work on something new,’” senior wide receiver Walker Rosenthal said. “That’s a big change from last year.”

Under Gifford, the team’s results have been more successful.

In a recent game against Milpitas High School, the team won 41-13. Last time the team faced Milpitas it lost 49-0. Leading up to the Milpitas game, in regards to potentially winning league, Gifford was not worried about predicting the team’s future but focusing on goals per game.

“I think that to win [league] you really have to focus on the steps that will get you to a point where you can win,” Gifford said.

“League is six games away and right now we need to beat defending state champions, Milpitas. To do anything you have to take care of Milpitas. That’s our primary focus.”

Aside from the positive results this season, Gifford has also has gained respect from players through his experience and accolades.

“These kids came in with a strong football background, and they’ve continued to develop that.”

Nelson Gifford “Coach Gifford has a lot of coaching experience,” Rosenthal said. “He has a lot of experience with that and he’s really good at handling team adversity and struggle so he’s seen it all. He doesn’t expect us to play like a pro player does. He understands that we’re high school kids and that we’re learning so he makes it simple...He makes sure that we know what we’re doing and he’s methodical and he works well with kids.”

This understanding comes from his experience as well as his time at Paly as a student and player as well.

Gifford said, “The experience as a player was that of any other high school student. You know you’re trying to craft an identity, both academically and athletically you’re trying to plan for the future. Coming back as a teacher and coach that identity has been established. I’m well into my career and I see things with a different perspective. Although I identify with the students that are still here because I was in their shoes.”

The Campanile

Thursday, October 4, 2018

SPORTS

C7

Athletics offer a broad range of competitive sports cultures Different dynamics in team and individual sports influence their varying intensity levels

from a young age.

“I think sometimes people underestimate how competitive basketball is,” Chen said. “Players, even at the freshman level, are already expected to be very fundamentally advanced. People play year-round, and many players have been doing that for a long time.”

Because of basketball’s enormous popularity at Paly, many athletes say they find it necessary to stay committed to basketball so they can keep improving and maintain their chances of playing every year.

“I think another one of the reasons why the program is competitive is because there aren’t many multi-sport athletes that play,” Chen said. “With some of the other athletic programs, some people can play at the varsity level year round on different teams.

This just doesn’t happen too much in the [Paly] basketball program because the teams play at such a high level.”

DAVID HICKEY/Used With Permission

Left: Senior Adam Love reaches his racket out and follows through on a powerful serve at his opponent. Right: Paly graduate Spencer Rojahn jumps high up with ball in the air.

By Neil Kapoor

News & Opinion Editor

W

ith the sun’s heat beaming on the cool chlorine waters and teammates cheering for her on the sides of the pool, swimmer Ashley Guo, a Paly junior, pushes herself to sprint to the wall as she completes her race at a swim meet.

She glances at the display board for her time, pumping her fist in celebration for managing to shave off a precious second off her time.

For swimmers and other athletes alike, the intensity and competitiveness of some Paly sports may seem intimidating for new players.

However, further research into the specific cultures of some of

Paly’s sports teams reveals a variation in competitiveness —whether one is looking for a high-caliber sport to test the best of the best of athletes, or a more relaxed athletic program where socializing is just as important as winning, Paly has it all.

For Guo, the competitiveness of Paly swimming depends on the athletes.

“Swimming is a sport where it’s only competitive if you make it competitive,” Guo said. “I’ve swam [on] many teams compared to other swimmers, but in my experience, every team and its culture is different...Most pressures during a competition are internal rather than external.

That being said, some swimmers’ internal pressures may result in a

competitive nature among their teammates.”

“In general Paly tennis is just able to be more chill because tennis is an individual sport.”

Antony Georgiadis While some members of the swimming team may be competitive, boys varsity tennis, also an individual sport, boasts a more relaxed nature than that of swimming, according to senior varsity captain Antony Georgiadis.

“In general Paly tennis is just able to be more chill because ten-

nis is an individual sport,” Georgiadis said. “Sure, you have your team around you for support, but at the end of the day, you are either out on the court by yourself, or with only one other person, trying to win your match.”

As recent years of season records indicate, the laid back nature of Paly’s tennis team may be a factor in their performances, according to Georgiadis.

“This chill factor has led to some commitment problems in the past where people do not feel like that they are obligated to come to matches,” Georgiadis said. “I think that the biggest difference is that if we were more intense, people would probably be more dedicated to the sport and be less likely to skip practices and

games.”

According to junior Aaron Chen, who has played on the basketball team for the past two years, the sport’s inherent popularity is the driving factor for its competitiveness.

“The program has been really successful in recent years, and there’s a huge culture of basketball here at Paly,” Chen said. “There a lot of kids who played for their entire lives who are all competing to make the team. That’s just the nature of basketball, it’s one of the more popular sports out there, so it’s going to attract the best of the best, the [Division I]-bound, multi-sport type athletes.”

For players, Chen said this competitiveness is synonymous with a dedication to the game

“For me, personally, I think the competitiveness of the program really helped me.”

Aaron Chen Although some may perceive the extreme competitiveness of some Paly sports, such as basketball, as a negative aspect, Chen said it has brought about positive experiences for him.

“For me, personally, I think the competitiveness of the program really helped me,” Chen said.

“Even making JV my freshman year was a great experience. It gave me the opportunity to compete at a really high level against older kids. I was able to meet some kids that I never would have met before, so it’s definitely been a rewarding experience that I might not have been able to get with some of the other athletic programs at Paly.”

The Campanile

SP RTS

Thursday, October 4, 2018

ART & DESIGN BY LEILA KHAN

ART, TEXT & DESIGN BY CAMERON LEGRAND

EXPLORING THE IMPORTANCE OF RESPECT, DISCIPLINE THROUGH MARTIAL ARTS T

he black belt in martial arts represents years of training and dedication to the sport, and is recognized around the world as a symbol of accomplishment and expertise.

The only way to achieve this status is to remain focused on one's goals within one's respective discipline.

Senior Tejas Shete is a second-degree black belt in mixed martial arts (MMA), the second of nine levels experts can attain after getting their black belts, and is still training as well as teaching those seeking to learn. He said martial arts are not taken seriously by many who practice other sports.

“People think of it as easier than a sport, and that is very untrue,” Shete said. “It’s an intense sport that requires a lot of physical and mental training.”

Shete practices MMA, which combines a variety of different styles including taekwondo, kickboxing and many others.

“It’s an intense sport that requires a lot of physical and mental training.”

Tejas Shete

“We do everything you see in the UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship],” Shete said. “But we learn and practice in a more proper way that includes correct techniques.”

Shete's journey to black belt status took eight years of training, and he can now spread his

knowledge and expertise to many others as a teacher at a studio in Mountain View.

Shete teaches with other instructors to help roughly 200 students learning the different styles emphasized within MMA. Paly currently has no martial arts program, but Shete said there are upwards of 30 to 40 students who practice martial arts on a regular basis. One of those is a peer of Shete’s, sophomore Neha Joshi.

Joshi has been practicing martial arts since she was in kindergarten, and continued to strengthen her abilities until she reached second-degree black belt in MMA in 2017, after receiving her initial black belt in 2015.

Although she highlights the importance of training the mind, as well as the body, in order to be successful, Joshi defines respect as the paramount factor of success in martial arts.

“In martial arts, one of the first things you learn is to bow,” Joshi said. “It symbolizes respect: respect for your fellow students, for your instructor, for the studio, etc. Respect is the foundation of your learning. As you advance through the ranks, you have to keep a sharp mind and discipline in order to perform to your highest capacity. The second you start to lose respect for one another, you not only become sloppier, but you are missing what the core of martial arts is really about.”

For many who do not practice martial arts, the only way to get exposure on the subject is through pop culture such as movies and television, which aren’t necessarily accurate portrayals, according to Shete.

“The styles they perform in those movies are pretty big misrepresentations,” Shete said. “The techniques they perform are cool, but that’s not real martial arts. [Movies] never really highlight the importance of how hard it is to really achieve mastery

in the art.”

According to Shete and Joshi, since martial arts are such a difficult sport to grasp, people often don’t give it a chance.

“It’s hard to pick up martial arts quickly like you can for sports such as soccer and basketball which can be played at almost any time.” Shete said. “I still believe that people should give it a try, for at least a month, to see martial arts for the physically and mentally challenging sport that it is.”

The difficulty in starting the sport is considerable and does not get easier, but Joshi said that once a person ultimately puts his or her mind to it, the impact is substantial outside of martial arts.

“If you’re not going to put in the work necessary to prove yourself and work towards your goals, you’re not going to make it.”

Mustafa Beig

“It’s fairly important,” Joshi said. “It really helped me develop a good sense of responsibility, and as with any sport, it’s helped me develop time management skills. I can also keep a calmer head in a multitude of situations simply because we have to be able to control ourselves. And it also helped make me stronger, and that’s helpful all around life. Plus, it’s taught me

very useful self-defense skills, and self-defense is something everyone should know.”

Shete has a similar viewpoint, and adding new perspectives as a result of teaching has greatly improved his outlook and actions well outside of martial arts.

“Training as a kid helped me with discipline, focus and respect, while now, as a teacher, I get to see how people of all different ages think and act, which has given me a lot of experience on how to treat others,” Shete said.

For sophomore Mustafa Beig, his introduction to martial arts was less linear, starting his career with a free guest pass to a local studio given by a friend.

After that, Beig committed to the sport for good and has reached red-belt level within his studio where he does muay thai, a style of kickboxing that uses fists, elbows, knees and shins. For Beig, the sport's most important facet is staying determined and disciplined.

“Determination is the hardest aspect of practicing martial arts because if you’re not going to put in the work necessary to prove yourself and work towards your goals, you’re not going to make it,” Beig said. “I’ve taken a lot of breaks in my five year career, and it’s set me back mentally.

It takes a long time to get into that state of mind.”

When it comes to a martial arts team at Paly, Shete and Beig both said they have thought of starting a team, but they both think the interest would not be great enough to start a team in the school setting.

“I don’t think people would be open to the idea, as there is not enough interest in the sport,” Beig said. “For it to work, people would have to have a discipline for it from the start, and that is very difficult to start with.”

TYPES OF MARTIAL ARTS KARATE

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

A system of unarmed combat using hands and feet to deliver and block blows, widely practiced as a sport.

A full-contact combat sport that allows striking and grappling, both standing and on the ground, using techniques from other combat sports and martial arts.

JIU-JITSU

MUAY THAI

A Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent, where combatants can also use small weapons.

AIKIDO

A Japanese form of self-defense and martial art that uses locks, holds, throws, and the opponent's own movements.

Utilizes a variety of kicks, punches, knees, and elbows in a kickboxing style.

TAE KWON DO

The art of self-defense that originated in Korea, with an emphasis on using kicks.