February 2021

redwood

bark.

Volume LXIII, No. 3 • February 12, 2021 • Larkspur, CA

Vaccine distribution p. 12-13 Baseball gears up during COVID-19 p. 16 Hard of hearing students in the pandemic p. 21

Cover by Kalyn Dawes and Keely Ganong

Redwood High School 395 Doherty Drive, Larkspur, CA 94939 www.redwoodbark.org Editors-in-Chief: Ella Green Sofi Mincy Camille Ray Jack Watson Art Consultants: Kalyn Dawes Keely Ganong Business Managers: Annie Goldstein Samantha Michaels Survey Manager: Emma Lightfoot Social Media Managers: Audrey Lightfoot Charlie Ginsburg Podcast Editors: Nathan Ash Video Editors: Sterling Lazarus Hannah Morgan Multimedia Editor: Olivia Kharrazi

Copy Editors: Nicole Johnson (Head Copy) Shannon Watridge (Head Copy) Martha Fishburne Kate McHugh Sophie Smallhorn Natalie Tress Maxanne Anderson Samantha Elegant Gemma Strauss Abigail Shewmaker Greta Cifarelli Bella Piacente Alli Runnfeldt Reporters​: Avery Aguero Will Baker Julian Belzer Isabel Ames Alex Fisch Clariss Garcia Nina Geoghegan Sydney Liebhauser Loughlin Browne Libby Hughes Patrick Jacobson Mia Kessinger Ava Koblik Brooke Leslie Charlotte DeForest Alyssa McCadden Declan McDaniels Kate McHugh PJ Pfeiffer Caroline Scharf Allie Vasquez Keegan Williams

Opinion Editors: Sol Ladetzky Casey Braff Feature Editors: Kent Goodman Taylor Elliot Lifestyles Editors: Anna Silverman Hollis Belger Sports Editors: Jacob Mandel Christopher Vargelis News Editors: Caroline Goodhart Jackson Epps Review Editors: Sophia Rocha AnnaLise Sandrich Spanish Editor: Hannah Sellers Senior Staff Writers: Mara Farese Katie Parsons

redwood

bark.

Volume LXIII, No. 3 • February 12, 2021 • Larkspur, CA

Vaccine distribution

12

Sports Spotlight

14

Cotton Candy Girl

23

redwood high school • 395 doherty dr., larkspur, ca 94939 • volume LXIII, no. 3 • february 12, 2021 • www.redwoodbark.org

Assistant Superintendent of HR announces retirement for June 2021

By Kent Goodman On Jan. 25 the Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) listed a job posting for a new assistant superintendent of human resources. Currently, the position is held by 62-year-old Lars Christensen who is set to retire on June 30, 2021, ending his 38-year career in education.

Because late January to the end of March is the typical hiring season in the education field, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong has already begun the process of finding Christensen’s successor. After the posting closes on Feb. 17, a panel filled with teachers, classified union members, administrators and community members will begin the paper screening process. Then, another panel will conduct interviews with the finalist and Superintendent Tara Taupier will choose a candidate to send to the school board for approval. According to Armstrong, they hope to have a recommendation for the school board by March 9.

“We are definitely looking for someone who believes in our community and our organization,” Armstrong said. “We want [a candidate] who is ready to help us move

Photo by Kent Goodman

FINISHING HIS SIXTH year at TUHSD, Christensen works at the District Office.

forward in the work that we are committed to.”

Because Christensen announced his retirement so far in advance, the district has an ample amount of time to find a qualified replacement. Despite this, according to TUHSD Superintendent Tara Taupier, finding an equivalent successor will be hard due to Christensen’s unparalleled work ethic.

“We’ll really miss him,” Taupier said.

“He makes a very difficult job look easy.

[Christensen] works very, very hard. I have gotten text messages from him at 5 a.m.

I have gotten emails from him at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night. He works tirelessly to make sure that the job is complete, and those are big shoes to fill.”

Christensen was planning on retiring in June 2020 but quickly changed his agenda when COVID-19 forced the TUHSD into an online format.

“I had planned for the last 10 years to step away last year, but when we shut down in March, I called the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and said ‘pull my papers.’ I just couldn’t leave the people I care about in the middle of the crisis, I couldn’t do it,” Christensen said.

Currently, Christensen is in charge of negotiating with the certificate (teachers) and classified (employees) unions, managing position control (ensuring the correct number of teachers are hired), teachers’ leave of absence, salary schedules and disciplinary action for employees.

Taupier believes that Christensen thrives in this job because of his empathetic nature. “[Being in charge of human resources] often requires difficult conversations, and I think the level of compassion that he brought to those conversations and his ability to see individuals and not just policies was really special,” Taupier said.

In addition to human resources, Christensen is in charge of maintenance and operations as well as facility construction within the district. While this is not typically the role of the assistant superintendent of human resources, when the TUHSD chief financial officer (CFO), who was in charge of facilities at the time, left unexpectedly, Christensen stepped up and took on the extra role. “[Facility construction and

Photo by Kent Goodman

PLANNING TO RETIRE on June 30, Assistant Superintendent Lars Christensen reviews teachers’ contracts and plans for hybrid learning. maintenance] is complex, and it’s its own language. Firstly, I just wanted to help, and secondly, I have an interest; I feel like I can speak that language pretty well and I enjoy the dynamics of it all,” Christensen said. “[The duties] have grown in scope … and they are a big part of my weekly life here.

I didn’t anticipate this when I took the job, but [I] wouldn’t change a thing. I’d jump right back in if I had to do it again.”

Once Christensen departs from TUHSD, the facility services responsibilities will be transferred back to the business office. Corbett Elsen, the current CFO, will take the responsibilities and will, in turn, be promoted to assistant superintendent of finances and facilities.

Elsen and Christensen have already started the transition process, and Christensen believes that Elsen will do a good job being

in charge of facilities.

As Christensen’s imminent retirement inches closer, he has taken the time to reflect on his wonderful tenure at TUHSD and the true value of this district. “[TUHSD] leads, we don’t follow, and I am proud to be part of a team that other districts look [to] for direction and guidance,” Christensen said. “I really want everyone to understand how special this place is. It’s natural for people who’ve been at a certain job for a long period of time to take everything for granted; I would be guilty of that, but we need to appreciate [these schools] every day because it is different here in a very positive way … and when I walk away on my last day, I’ll have a tear in my eye.” kgoodman@redwoodbark.org

bark

Page 2 • News

February 12, 2021

Photo Survey “If you could warn your past self about 2020, what would you say to them?”

“It was crazy. There aren’t enough words in a sentence to describe the craziness of 2020.”

Hannah Ritola freshman

“Your world is going to turn upside down and there’s going to be a lot that you don’t expect or don’t like, but there will also be some moments of joy in the darkness.”

“To take advantage of being outside with friends and in school before you [won’t be able to].”

“Everything has changed; the whole world has changed.”

sophomore

Lauren Duncan junior

Jake Zesiger

Jack Haubold

senior

Sir Francis Drake Boulevard name discussion continues

By Loughlin Browne

On Monday Jan. 25, Marin County Supervisors Dennis Rodoni and Katie Rice hosted a virtual panel of historians and indigenous representatives to discuss the renaming of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

The panel aimed to shed light on the history of the road, provide a platform for Marin’s indigenous voices and educate the public on the logistical implications of a name change. Many members of the community have argued that Drake’s legacy as a slave trader should not continue to be honored.

Rice oversaw the panel as part of an ongoing effort to educate and hear from a passionate community.

“While renaming a road or a school may seem more symbolic than substantive, the naming of important features or institutions in a community does say something about not only [those who named it] … but also reflects community values at that moment in time. Going into the future, signs, symbols [and] even street names convey information and send a message,” Rice said.

The panel began with the history of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard’s original naming in 1929. According to historian Dewey Livingston, the name’s selection had a financial motive, as it was chosen to increase Marin’s appeal to tourists by associating the natural beauty with Kristin Abbott Aaron & Randi Agenbroad Seth & Kelli Anderson Susan Anderson Robert and Jean Baker The Baker Family Susan Ellsweig & Gary Barnett Caroline Beard The Belger Family Kathleen Belzer The Bishop Family Fred & Mary Blum The Braff Family Jason Brown Victoria Camelio Monica Canas Lucy Churton Kevin Cifarelli Robyn Cohen Laura Collins Edward Conti Deborah Cook Kelli Cook Hali Croner The Culhane Family Courtney Daly The Dawes Family Regina DeAngelis Sonya DeForrest Sandra Derango Joanne Desin Robby Dinowitz Ira Elegant The Elliot Family Mary Elliott The Elliott Family

commemorative history. “[The name] was based entirely on bringing business from tourists and new residents to Marin and its coast,” Livingston said. “It’s unlikely that these local merchants, residents and religious figures had any detailed information about Drake’s full history. In California at the time, his was a heroic story of a sea captain who circumnavigated the world and claimed the California shore for the Queen of England.”

Since the summer of 2020, however, many in the community have called on their local government to change the name as part of Marin’s efforts to foster inclusion. There is no legal obligation for the road’s name to be consistent, so each individual jurisdiction that the boulevard runs through has the right to change the name for that segment.

According to Rice, changing the name on the entirety of the road would cost a total of $134,000 from the County’s budget and would affect 614 residential and commercial properties. Those with a Sir Francis Drake address would be responsible for changing the records of any accounts that require their address within 18 months. After the 18-month period, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is not obligated to honor packages marked with Sir Francis Drake addresses.

Changes would also include obtaining

Ronald Ellsweig Douglas Epps Joseph Estus Deirdre Evershed Jennifer Fang Kristin Farese Monica Fieber The Fishburne Family Rod & Hannah Fligel Pamela Fong Robert Frankus Paul Gehrman & Norah Frei Allie G The Ganong Family The Ginsburg Family William Gisvold Martin Goldstein The Goldstein Family Cynthia Goodman Ina Gotlieb Jennifer Green Linda Groah Melissa Harms Christopher & Jennifer Hartung Randy Herbst Nancy & Allan Herzog Joan Hornberger The Hughes Family Tamara S Hull Robin Jacobson Carolyn Jensen Wendy Jessen Sylvia Jones William & Rachel Kessinger Anneke Koblik E. Koeppel

Photo by Jackson Epps

FOLLOWING A NAME change, 614 residential and commercial addresses will need to be updated. updated drivers licenses, but property owners would not have to re-register their property.

Lorelle Ross, a member of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, acknowledged this inconvenience, but emphasized that she believes a name change would have more than just symbolic impact.

“I won’t pretend to be naive about those impacts, but the bigger picture here is how do we continue to be inclusive and include opportunities beyond just the name change?” Ross said. “It matters how we work together and continue to find ways to be making a future for generations. Now, generations of children and elders that [can

be] reflected and included in the shared history [of] a shared place.”

While the supervisors did not hint at a final resolution, they expressed gratitude for the hundreds of emails they had received from constituents on both sides of the subject.

“Some have said this action isn’t necessary, it’s too costly to even consider it. Some have said [that] while it’s a discussion on the name of a road, it’s a much deeper discussion about community equity and listening to others. And still others have said it’s simply just a road naming exercise,” Rodoni said. “But for me, it’s an important conversation about listening and understanding how we are affected by our past and influenced by our future, and how others are affected by our past and will be affected by our future decisions.”

The Marin County Free Library has developed a learning page for more information on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard’s History. Scan this QR code to learn more.

lbrowne@redwoodbark.org

Bark Patrons Zoe Koonce Carl Krawitt Sol & Gil Ladetzky Reshma Lensing The Leonard Family Elizabeth Brown & Janet Lewin Deborah Lightfoot Stephen Lightfoot Louise Lo Burt & Lisa Losee Ellen Lynch Alexandra Maliniak René Mandel Harold & Nancy Mann Dana Marotto Micheal Marrero Kerianne & Christopher McBride Ruth McDaniels Katie & David McGee The McHugh Family The Michaels Family Eileen F. Miles Robert Morgan Ann Aiko Morton Julie & Brian Muller Camelia Negrea Cecily & James O’Connor Denise Olson Hillary Oppenheim Sharon Parsons The Parsons Family

Cynthia Patrizi The Pfeiffer Family Frances Piacente Micheal Piacente Gabriella Piccioni Megan Pirsch The Ray Family Bruce Reed Jennifer Reese Lesley Reidy Kimberly Resnick Timothy Richards The Rocha Family Liliana Royal Jason Ryning D. Sanders The Sandrich Family Wendy Shewmaker Jena Shore Martin & Deidre Silverman The Silverman Family Peter & Lucia Sinatra Veronia Skelton The Smallhorn Family Michael & Victoria Song The Steele Family Seth & Jill Steinberg Paul & Amanda Stephen Catherine Stevenson Robert Stone Irene & Phil Strauss

Kate & Ron Strauss Jennifer Sutter Mary Sylla Richard Thalheimer Maryann Thompson Jean-Ray Tippo Deborah Tirschwell The Towns Wagner Family Andy Tress Christopher & Lisa Tribolet Kimberly Tully-Sutton Lisa Turner Dawn Valler Caroline Wabl Kimberly Wagner Perelandra Wait Diana Wang The Watridge Family The Watson Family The Welch Family Larry Wilson Ryan Wilson Julie Wolfert Sarah Young Constance Zlot Simon Zornoza

If you would like to support the Redwood Bark, donations can be made by check and mailed to Redwood High School. Checks should be made payable to the Redwood Bark. See www. redwoodbark.org/donate for an online payment option.

bark Water rationing looms amid Bolinas water shortage Page 3 • News

www.redwoodbark.org

By Will Baker

On Wed., Feb. 3, the board of directors for the Bolinas Community Public Utility District (BCPUD) convened to discuss and present a plan to the Bolinas community for mandatory water rationing amid a “prolonged drought condition” in the district. The meeting yielded the announcement of a mandatory water rationing system plan for every water connection within the utility. The plan will be presented for approval no later than March 1, 2021.

Bolinas has relied on an ongoing rationing system dating back to the 1970s due to the town’s dependence on an already scant water supply. Lydon Comstock, one of five directors on the board of the BCPUD, says Bolinas rainfall is on pace for a record low, putting stress on

Photo by Will Baker

URGING BOLINAS RESIDENTS to conserve water, BCPUD signs like these are posted across town.

residents to conserve water. Bolinas pulls water from the Arroyo Hondo Creek and a few small wells, according to Comstock.

“The creek itself is quite small. If you go to a narrow spot in the dry season you could jump over it. … Available water has really diminished and we don’t have other supplies to tap into. So we’ve already been in further levels of voluntary water rationing for the past several months,” Comstock said.

Comstock recommends shorter showers and not flushing toilets as often and blames landscaping water use as a top consumer of municipal water.

Chelsea Maissen-Kahn, a Bolinas resident and waitress at Smiley’s Saloon in downtown Bolinas, anticipates changes for Smiley’s as drought conditions worsen. She says that the bar and hotel will most likely have to switch to off-site cleaning of sheets for their hotel rooms in order to conserve water.

Water supply in Bolinas is further strained by an increase in population and tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these tourists, Comstock says, are not particularly mindful of the water shortage.

Marin residents are flooding the Bolinas oceanfront, short term rentals and their second homes like never before with more time on their hands as well as the ability to work remotely.

“We still had some heavy water users in December –– [in] our minds that is clearly an indication of households having more people in them than usual,” Comstock said.

Senior Kayla Sutton owns a second home in Bolinas, which she says her family uses almost every weekend.

According to Sutton, because they are only in their Bolinas home for a relatively small amount of time, the Suttons use less water. While Marin families with second homes in Bolinas, like the Suttons, follow the recommended water use reduction strategies, increased stays in Bolinas contribute to dwindling water supplies.

“For me [water conservation has been] kind of just been a normal thing [in Bolinas],” Sutton said. “We have to take really short showers and conserve our water a lot more.”

The water use shortage has exacerbated a divide between temporary residents and locals, who cite the second-home owners for driving up living prices in

Photo by Will Baker

CONCERNED ABOUT THE effects of the water shortage, Chelsea Maissen-Kahn hopes Bolinas visitors will be mindful of their impact.

Bolinas and not contributing to the community. “[Non-permanent homeowners] are not as conscious as the actual locals here. … I just wish they’d be more aware and cautious and keep us, locals, in mind,” Maissen-Kahn said.

While many Bolinas residents hold non-locals accountable for the recent record water shortages, Comstock makes it clear that the main problem is supply and that the community as a whole has done an exemplary job of decreasing water usage. Despite this success, the outlook on Bolinas’ water future remains dismal as Comstock points out that the measures BCPUD has to take will be severe.

Locals are not seeking to dissuade tourists and Redwood students from visiting Bolinas, but Comstock and Maissen-Kahn both echo the importance of preserving what makes Bolinas a community.

“Just be aware. People do live here. People are trying to survive in this town. It’s not just some show that we’re putting on for people,” Maissen-Kahn said. wbaker@redwoodbark.org

Marin cancels Project Roomkey funding until further notice

By Camille Ray Established in March 2020 as an emergency response to homelessness during the pandemic, Project Roomkey is a federally funded, locally administered service that provides isolated shelter options across the state. Despite rumors hinting at the program’s termination, as of December, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom has agreed to extend funding indefinitely.

Under this extension, the state agreed to allocate an additional $62 million on top of the original $100 million to support homeless residents’ relocation to emergency hotel rooms.

With uncertainty surrounding how transmissible and fatal the coronavirus was at the beginning of the pandemic, the motivation behind the fund was to help people experiencing homelessness get into emergency shelter care as quickly as possible to reduce potential exposure to the virus.

However, regardless of this recent announcement, Marin County does not plan to reapply for any hotel room funding at the moment so that they can focus on finding the remaining homeless residents permanent housing options through a spinoff program called Project Homekey.

Like its sister program Project Roomkey, Project Homekey is a grant program for counties to buy vacant buildings to permanently house people experiencing homelessness. Administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, $600 million has been set aside for local officials to use. Of that $600 million, the county was able to acquire $12 million for their permanent housing project.

Upon its announcement last June, San Rafael Director of Homeless Planning and Outreach Andrew Hening has been eager to complete the project in the hopes of finally having the space and financial means of housing homeless people that do not want to be out on the streets.

“In the 11 years I’ve been [director], maybe one in 100 people are truly committed to living on the street. The

Photo by Camille Ray

SHELTERING FROM THE cold, a homeless man sets up camp beneath Highway 101 in downtown San Rafael. vast majority of people want to be inside.

Having these permanent housing options has definitely convinced more people to reach out for our support,” Hening said.

Marin County Homeless Policy Coordinator Ashley Hart-McIntyre has also been advocating for a countywide focus on finding permanent housing for homeless residents in Marin because of its ability to resolve chronic homelessness.

“Historically, places that spend their time, energy, funding and political capital on emergency solutions don’t see homeless populations go down,” McIntrye said.

“These places aren’t providing people with the tools they need to keep themselves from becoming homeless again. This allows for generational homelessness where children are then raised homeless and then their families and so on and so forth.”

According to Hening, homeless residents will soon be able to move into buildings the county bought this year. In Marin, these permanent lots are located in San Rafael and Corte Madera and combined will provide 63 units of housing.

The goal is to have these spaces ready for

guests by the end of February.

Although the county’s recent focus has primarily been on permanent housing solutions, uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and its projected conclusion has persuaded officials to keep Project Roomkey on standby rather than discontinuing it for good. Should the need for emergency shelter arise, officials agree that the program has proved to be a successful response.

Homeward Bound of Marin is one of many local shelters that partnered with Project Roomkey to locate those in need and provide them with hotel accommodations at the beginning of the pandemic. Homeward Bound of Marin Family Center Director Shikira Porter worked specifically with families to locate housing that accommodated their needs.

“We had to get really creative and scramble to help these families. Once we located families in need and transferred them to motels, we would provide them with any care necessary for their survival.

That included COVID-19 screenings, food and medical support, which was all

supported by the Roomkey fund,” Porter said. As of December, Homeward Bound of Marin has transferred 234 emergency sheltered residents out of Project Roomkey funded hotel rooms and into permanent housing alternatives. Now, according to county data, only seven of them remain in hotel rooms.

Whether or not Project Roomkey is re-established later in the year, Hening is committed to providing homeless people with shelter options and health protection that they otherwise would not have access to.

“Across California, for the 150,000 people that are homeless on any given night, there’s only shelter capacity for about 30 percent. So, while we’re certainly looking to reimplement Project Roomkey in the future if the need arises, we are also being very deliberate about creating housing that helps end this problem permanently,” Hening said.

Photo by Camille Ray

SETTLING BENEATH HIGHWAY 101, homeless residents assert their right to encampment through a graffiti sign.

cray@redwoodbark.org

opinion

Page 4

It’s time to press pause on racism in comedy Story and Illustration by Hannah Morgan

A few weeks ago, I was watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” on Hulu when I noticed an episode was missing in season six. After a quick Google search to see why the episode was removed, I saw that it, along with several others, were taken off the show for their portrayal of white actors in brownface and blackface. Currently on season 14, FX has renewed the show for four more seasons as of December 2020. Though the last episode featuring blackface was made in 2013 — which is still shockingly recent — the lack of consequences for white creators enables them to continue profiting off of a show that has featured racist stereotypes.

Many other programs in the past have also featured cultural appropriation, which is when actors play races different than their own. Even older movies such as “Sixteen Candles” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” which many people still regard as “classics,” show overtly offensive stereotypes of Asian characters. The popularity of programs that feature these stereotypes makes many of us familiar with them and their implications; in a January 2021 Bark survey, 80 percent of Redwood students reported having watched a TV show or movie that had a racist stereotype. Despite the fact that many mainstream streaming services have either dropped episodes of TV shows that show racist stereotypes or added contextual title cards, it remains important to hold creators of programs who are responsible for their production accountable for the lack of diversity behind-the-scenes.

One of the main contributors to this problem is the historic lack of diversity in Hollywood and mainstream media, which contributes to the absence of accountability white creators have had to deal with when criticized for racist stereotypes in their work. When Tina Fey, creator of “30 Rock,” was called out in 2020 for featuring blackface in multiple episodes of the show, Fey issued a letter to specific streaming services and called for the episodes to be taken down from the platforms. However, Fey has since faced more criticism for her portrayal of race in later shows, such as “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” Fey’s lack of consequence in making these programs speaks to the widespread absence of

accountability taken among those who have done similar things in their own work. This event is one of many that sheds light on the importance of holding creators to the words they have made in their public statements, and makes it clear that viewers need to start seeing creators in light of their actions as they move on to new productions. If there was greater diversity during the production of TV shows and movies, there would be a greater understanding of how to approach showing racism on the screen — whether the intent be critical or simply comedic.

The lack of diversity present in so much of the media in recent years is exemplified by the workplace at the Columbia Broadcasting Network (CBS). In 2019, Whitney Davis, a former executive at CBS, said in an article for Variety that CBS’s top-level executives— including those in creative departments— were primarily white.

Davis stated that in the almost 15 years she worked at CBS, there were no black creative executives working there, which includes work in departments such as casting, production and content development. Data from a 2020 Hollywood Diversity Report from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) showed that only 13.9 percent of film writers and nine percent of studio heads are people of color.

Despite the issue with diversity contributing to racism on screen, some of the shows that have been criticized for having blackface or other stereotypes have argued that they have actually been trying to challenge the unironic use of the stereotypes themselves or claim that they refer

to something unrelated or non-offensive. One case of this was when a highly-rated episode of “Community” was pulled from Netflix for Ken Jeong’s use of makeup resembling blackface.

Though the makeup itself was not portraying the actual stereotype, the character was rightfully called out for his ignorance in wearing it at all. In “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” the main premise is to find humor in the moral depravity of the core group of characters, which has been used to try to justify the use of blackface and other racial stereotyping in the show.

However, regardless of these shows’ intent in displaying blackface, there is no reasonable explanation for why it was needed as a plotline, especially when the cast and crew of both of these shows are mostly white.

Though streaming services are taking down specific episodes that include racist stereotypes, viewers should actively find out who is behind the content they watch and ask themselves if they can condone the creators’ past actions enough to support their new work. With a better-informed audience, problematic creators could potentially see a drop in viewership and be able to reflect on what they’ve done.

Questioning the creators of popular media is the first step in creating more diversity in the industry. hmorgan@redwoodbark.org

Vegetarianism: not a missed-steak

By Jacob Mandel

Three months ago, every Sunday night kicked off with the unmistakable smell of steak wafting from my kitchen. Every morning started with a dozen chicken sausages, and my go-to lunch was a Popeyes chicken sandwich. But despite this, I gradually became inspired by one of my best friend’s eating habits.

A steadfast vegan, my friend had boundless energy and remarkably healthy habits in and out of the kitchen.

Although I was initially unsure that I would be able to transition out of my meat-heavy diet, I found the vegetarian lifestyle to suit me quite well. In the following months, not only did I feel more energetic and pay better attention in school, but it was encouraging to know that I was reducing my carbon footprint.

Since switching to a mainly vegetarian diet, I’ve concluded that it’s important to assume a vegetarian lifestyle in order to live a healthier life, be more conscious of the effects of what you eat and be more environmentally friendly. Mainly due to lower fat and sodium levels, a plant-based diet has been proven to decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, according to Harvard Health. Healthline,

an organization dedicated to improving the mental and physical health of its readers, found that plant-based foods such as legumes that are high in protein contain protein that is at least equally effective to most animal foods. More so, plant protein-rich foods don’t contain all the fat and sodium that meat proteins have.

For example, Livestrong states that a six ounce steak has 40

Illustration by Kalyn Dawes

grams of protein with 12 grams of saturated fat, while one cup of lentils has 18 grams of protein and no fat.

In the long run, leaner plant-based proteins can lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of a heart attack. However, it is

equally important to eat high-nutrient vegetables and carbohydrates alongside a protein source; the vitamins present in kale and the fiber in brown rice are vital to include in a vegetarian diet. That being said, there are countless ways to make a vegetarian meal equally delicious and healthy; my go-to vegetarian dinner is tofu stir fry with broccoli, mushrooms and rice.

In addition to the health benefits, a vegetarian diet has numerous environmental benefits that cannot be understated. For instance, the U.K. Vegetarian Society states that you can save the same amount of emissions by eating vegetarian food for one year as you could by taking a small family car off the road for sixth months.

These emissions come from the factories that process the beef, pork and chicken most Americans eat, as well as from the methane gas emitted from millions of cows in the U.S. Eating a meat-heavy diet, especially red meat, also contributes to deforestation.

The Rainforest Partnership, an enviromental organization based out of Texas, states that three-fourths of the Amazon Rainforest is currently being cleared for the production of beef. Given that the Amazon Rainforest is responsible for absorbing 5 percent of the Earth’s carbon emissions (two billion tons) per year, according to Associated Press (AP) news, it is no surprise that environmentalist groups are encouraging a reduction of beef consumption.

Nevertheless, it’s important to note that the production and transportation of plant products can still be detrimental for the environment. Joseph Poore, a researcher at the University of Oxford, argues that the air-transportation of fruits and vegetables, especially when out-ofseason, emits more greenhouse gases per kilogram produced than poultry meat.

This sentiment is echoed by Angelina Frankowska, who studies sustainability at the University of Manchester. She and her team found that, for every kilogram of asparagus produced, 5.3 kilogram of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere.

Although the environmental hazards of vegetables are alarming, they pale in comparison to the negative effects of meat consumption. For reference, for every kilogram of poultry produced, there are 15.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide emitted. For beef, the carbon dioxide emitted per kilogram is an astronomical 22 kilograms, mainly due to the rampant deforestation to make room for cattle farms.

When considering vegetarian foods’ relatively benign relationship with the environment, along with the various health benefits of a vegetarian diet, it is evident that eating vegetarian is the diet of the future. Not only did the diet boost my energy and consciousness of the environmental and physical effects of what I ate, but it also heightened my mood and productivity. Take it from someone who used to eat a 12-ounce T-bone steak every Sunday night: vegetarianism is worth a shot. jmandel@redwoodbark.org

Page 5 • Opinion

www.redwoodbark.org

The DMV’s longest line just got avoidably longer Story and Illustration by Avery Aguero

On Dec. 7, 2020, when Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the state’s second stay-at-home order due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, it was only a matter of days before the tighter restrictions went into effect. Shortly after the statement was released, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced that beginning Dec. 14, 2020, all behind-thewheel driver’s tests would be suspended until at least Jan. 11, 2021, which was later extended indefinitely.

However, in light of the governor’s recent decision to lift restrictions as of Jan. 26, the DMV decided to resume driver’s tests on Feb. 1.

While this may come as good news to the many people who had their previous appointments suspended, both the DMV and those individuals now face another problem: the major backlog due to the number of preexisting appointments that need to be rescheduled. Of course, this would not have happened if the DMV did not make the unnecessary decision to suspend all driver’s tests in the first place.

Having a license allows individuals to go places without relying on public transportation, which is especially important now that offices, restaurants, schools and other businesses are reopening. With commuting resumed, the DMV’s current rescheduling dilemma is more timely than ever as many people who need their licenses are still waiting to take their test. I work a part-time job that requires me to commute; however,

because I have not been able to take a driving test, I am forced to rely on my fully-employed parents for rides.

After having my test pushed back not once, but twice, like many of my peers, I was upset the process of getting my license kept on getting slowed down. According to a January 2021 Bark survey, 12 percent of students had a driver’s test that got canceled during the shutdown.

The disappointment felt by those unable to take their tests could have been avoided if the government let the DMV remain open with rigorous safety precautions in place instead of squandering the opportunity entirely.

While it is understandable that trying to fit everyone back in for rescheduled appointments is no easy task for the DMV, giving priority to those who first scheduled appointments should factor into this process. Unfortunately, some people who had their tests scheduled after January have already received a new appointment date, while others who had scheduled appointments before them have not. It is unjust to those whose original test date was much earlier to not be prioritized by the DMV. What is even more surprising is that while license tests were canceled, I could still complete my final two-hour driving lesson with my instructor during the

bark

shutdown. To take the behind-the-wheel test, one must complete three two-hour lessons with a certified driving instructor.

If driving lessons can continue with proper safety guidelines in the car, why can’t driver’s tests do the same? Granted, it wouldn’t be justifiable to compare the decisions made by privately owned businesses to the government-owned DMV, but it certainly sets an example of how driver’s tests could have operated if they had initially enforced stricter safety protocols.

Despite public skepticism surrounding ride-sharing with nonfamily members, recent studies have proven that there are effective ways to reduce COVID-19 transmission in a vehicle. Dr. Varghese Mathai, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and head author of a December study published in Science Advances, found that the best way to facilitate proper air flow in a vehicle is for the driver to open the front seat window on the right side and for the passenger to open

implemented this strategy as part of their safety regulations, the behind-thewheel tests could have safely proceeded.

Even without these measures in place, according to the January 2021 Bark survey, out of the students who had their driver’s test canceled due to the lockdown, 75 percent reported that they would have been comfortable taking the test under the current safety guidelines.

Limiting contact between other people outside of our households as much as possible is of utmost importance right now. Popular ridesharing services such as Uber and public transit that were once very convenient are now considered unsafe methods of transportation. Although one must ride share to take a driver’s test, having the ability to get places in one’s own car is a necessary tradeoff to make during this time, especially for those commuting to work.

Without enough thought or consideration to implement any protective health policies, the DMV not only disappointed the people who were

the back-seat window on the left side, rather than the windows beside them. According to Mathai, this simple practice will allow for better crossventilation throughout the vehicle, helping reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19 from passenger to passenger.

While the time frame between when this study was published and when the DMV suspended testing was short, the state government still had several chances to resume tests much earlier before the stay-at-home orders were eventually lifted. If the DMV

inconvenienced by this issue, but it also extended the wait in line for new appointments. COVID-19 has presented an overabundance of obstacles for many people, some of which were unavoidable, but the decision to halt drivers tests altogether was one that should have been prevented.

aaguero@redwoodbark.org

kdawes@redwoodbark.org

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Page 6 • Opinion

February 12, 2021

Here’s the tea: consent education needs to change Story by Sydney Liebhauser

Global Warning: wipe away cosmetic waste by ditching the makeup wipes Story and Illustration by Anna Silverman “Global Warning” is a column discussing relevant enviormental concerns that our planet faces today.

In every department store lies a beauty aisle. Colorful bottles populate stacked shelves, their contents ranging from shampoo to facial cleanser to makeup remover.

I could spend hours perusing through every product, examining their health benefits or beautification claims, but recently I’ve discovered that their environmental impact is often excluded from the display.

The global personal care industry encapsulates all cleansing and cosmetic products, and its dependence on plastic is an undeniable trademark. About 48 percent of the 120 billion units of hair care bottles, makeup sets and toothbrushes produced each year globally are made of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable plastic, according to Zero Waste Week. Plastic is one of the largest contributors to global waste and threats to aquatic animal health; there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic currently in the ocean and 100,000 marine mammals die from plastic pollution or consumption each year. Decreasing your own plastic consumption minimizes cosmetic waste, but opting for products with sustainable packaging is a great first step.

While the marketed purpose of the beauty industry is to increase health and wellbeing, the quality of the material and chemical components of personal care products often fail to do so. Many beauty products possess a serious threat within their containers: toxic chemicals.

The ingredients listed on most personal care items are comparable to hieroglyphs in the level of difficulty and effort it takes to understand them. As a result, the often exhaustive collection of foreign, polysyllabic “-oxides” and “-benzones” is ignored by most shoppers. According to a January Bark survey, 10 percent of Redwood students always check for sustainability labels on cosmetic items, 35 percent do occasionally and 55 percent rarely or never check.

Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires manufacturers to ensure their products are safe for human use, it does not regulate levels of ingredients other than those directly labeled toxic or harmful. Of the 10,500 unique chemicals used in the personal care industry, 216 are likely carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents, for both humans and animals. Dangerous additives such as diethanolamine (DEA), phthalates, sulfates and parabens remain legal, at least in the United States, due to their association with personal care.

Upon researching the ingredients in my personal care collection, I discovered that most had at least one substance listed on hair and wellness site Nutrafol’s 2020 “16 Ingredients To Avoid In Hair Products” article.

Apparently, my Vaseline is comprised of petroleum jelly, which is derived from crude oil and contains hormonedisrupting chemicals that can cause infection in humans and animals. Palm-derived sulfates and DEA produce a foamy texture in roughly 50 percent of hair and cosmetic products but are likely carcinogens for humans and can become fatally toxic to animals when they wash down the drain.

Many brands are now jumping on the sustainability bandwagon, promoting recycled containers and the absence of certain harmful ingredients. CVS, Target and similar stores have placed labels declaring products “cruelty-free,” “vegan” and “clean.” It is also important to bring attention to those that do not meet the same standards is necessary to reduce our cosmetic waste.

Instead of trusting boasts of “extreme hair volume” and “clear skin guaranteed,” start researching ingredients, recycling (and avoiding) packaging and substituting makeup wipes and cotton balls with their reusable counterparts. The “Makeup Eraser” is a machinewashable, remover-infused towel that only requires water to wash off cosmetics, and melting/cleansing balms are its liquid equivalents. The Environmental Working Group and CodeCheck app also help evaluate the overall toxicity and sustainability of beauty products and brands. So, the next time you wander into that beauty aisle, remember to incorporate environmental care into your personal care routine. asilverman@redwoodbark.org

hot water and leaves. The video insinuates that rape is less extreme than it is in actuality, therefore unintentionally discrediting the experience of victims. The second issue is the way schools decided to introduce sex to us through this reductionist scope: we are no more than corporal beings who perform sexual actions. The video completely disrgardes the idea that there is a lot more depth and emotion in being human, let alone being a teenager new to sex. Rather than implementing the message of valuing and respecting

In eighth grade, my classmates and I gathered in the Hall Middle School library to watch a video titled “Tea and Consent.” With over 4 million views, the video marks the first time many Bay Area middle schools, Hall, Kent, Ross and Del Mar included, introduce their students to the concept of sexual consent. In short, the animated stick figure video establishes a metaphor comparing a cup of tea to sex.

If someone says they would like our a cup of fellow tea and later human decides they beings, my don’t want to peers and I drink it, don’t were fed surface pour it down level “rules.” their throat. The There’s a lot of same goes for sex; wisdom to be acquired if a person says before entering the world they want to have of sex and relationships, all sex but later changes of which Marin middle school their mind, don’t force administrations decided to them to have sex. cram into a three-minute Though the video video about tea. is favored amongst Redwood students are teachers, it not facing the consequences of only fails to properly the lack of consent education first prepare students for the rest hand. According to a Bark survey in June of our lives, it’s also insufficient on many 2020, 31 percent of Redwood students have Illustrations by Cate Sullivan other levels. witnessed sexual harassment or assault, yet While objectively the metaphor from the video is only 15 percent have filed a complaint to the school’s valid, when my class heard, “The other day, when I asked administration. Due to the lack of information students a friend if he wanted me to get him some tea his reply receive about consent, it’s often hard to determine what was, ‘Yes, but I might change my mind so don’t make me classifies as sexual harassment or assault. Grey areas come drink it! Tea consent is important!”’ the room filled with about often when drugs, alchol and relationships become giggles. The “Tea and Consent” video stands as a notorious intertwined with sex, making it common for teens to comidic relief amongst students. rationalize situations where they were exploited. If But what I thought was a joke about tea stopped being students were to be engaged in a sex so funny when, only a couple of weeks later, I was walking education course throughout high down my street in pajamas and was catcalled by a group school where we are reminded of middle-aged men in my neighbors’ garage. Or when and educated about the laws and my best friend woke me up in the logistics that go into consentual middle of the night on a camping sex while also taking into trip to tell me she had just consideration the complications gotten sexually assaulted that come with being a by one of our now former teenager, guy friends. these In a time grey areas are more likely to be prevented.

The Tamalpais Union High School District follows legislation that was passed in the state of California requiring the teaching of affirmative consent at least one time in

where one out of every six women has been the victim of attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, it is critical that consent is taught correctly in schools.

Consent can be a tricky subject to teach, especially to middle schoolers and young high schoolers. The “Tea and Consent” video is used on a large scale because it ultimately simplifies consent and seems to be an easy way for students to learn about it, however simplifying the subject isn’t a beneficial way to teach it.

The first problematic element in the video is the fact that it desensitizes rape by essentially comparing rape, a disgusting, life-ruining and sickening topic, to a mug of

the high school years.

Throughout her job, Redwood Wellness director Jessica Colvin and her colleagues have worked to create a consent curriculum. But the curriculum has only gone so far, as Colvin believes social issues should not be the only class required by the district that teaches consent.

Colvin and her colleagues’ efforts are appreciated but, unfortunately, the systems currently haven’t made a large enough impact. Presently, the majority of students have received one lesson about affirmative consent in ninth grade social issues because it’s the only requirement.

Workshops like Colvin’s should be implemented into more curriculums beyond just freshman year. Marin is known for overzealously starting kids early, whether it’s teaching math, instructing piano lessons or enforcing SAT preparation. It’s time we start investing in teaching a life skill that is bound to benefit people for the rest of their lives, and make consent a regularly taught topic.

sliebhauser@redwoodbark.org

Page 7 • Opinion

www.redwoodbark.org

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Redwood High School 395 Doherty Drive Larkspur, CA 94939 www.redwoodbark.org Editors-In-Chief Ella Green Sofi Mincy Camille Ray Jack Watson Head Copy Editors Nicole Johnson Shannon Watridge

editorial Dear College Board: modify tests for modified learning “AP doesn’t stand for accelerated pressure.”

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, The Bark conducted our studentsurvey via email to maintain a balanced student body representation. We acknowledge that this is not the random sample we strive for in the other issues of our publication.

As of Jan. 19, the College Board will no longer offer Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Subject Tests.

As a part of their initiative to “reduce the demands on students,” the College Board has also discontinued the SAT essay. However, what is missing from this recent announcement is any semblance of hope that the Advanced Placement (AP) tests may be modified.

Before this January, Subject Tests served as a way for students to “showcase their skills” in individual subjects for the college admissions process, and AP test scores, taken to receive credit for college courses, were only submitted if students felt confident in their performance.

Unfortunately, this latest development regarding AP tests comes at a time of inequality in students’ ability to prepare for examinations. The Bark urges the College Board to lessen the amount of content that students will need to learn and reduce submission requirements to uphold AP classes’ true purpose, alleviate stress and level the playing field.

Last May, AP students took their exams from home in a modified format. A common experience among over 400,000 students worldwide was that of being painfully alone and utterly unprepared for their 45-minute exam. Thankfully, there was less content as a result of lost class time due to distance learning.

Despite the testing accommodations, many still felt dismayed, either by countless historical events, mathematical functions or laws of physics that they vaguely reviewed online. One can only imagine what those 400,000 plus students would feel like if the test had been full-length and full-content. Apparently, we’ll find this out this May. The College Board officially announced on Dec. 18 that colleges and universities expect the 2021 exams “to reflect the full scope of the AP coursework.” In other words, there will be no shortened exams, even though many students haven’t returned to campus at all since March 2020.

A study published in the journal Science Education in December 2008 examined two sets of high school science students. One set “sprinted,” and the other had teachers who slowed down, went deeper and did not cover as much material. Unsurprisingly, the first group of students scored higher on the state tests at the end of the year. What stood out was that the students who learned through the slower approach earned higher grades once they made it to college. Speeding up the pace at which AP courses are taught will detract from AP courses’ true purpose: to give students an in-depth education on subjects they already love. Students are not grasping the content –– they’re quickly memorizing instead of critically analyzing.

Among other AP teachers, Lindsey Kornfeld, who teaches AP U.S. History, has concerns over the limited class time available during remote learning.

A BARK to Marin’s COVID-19 numbers finally declining. We’re RED-y to get back in school!

A BITE to taking senior photos in the winter. The snowstorms will pale in comparison to us.

A BARK to Grammarly.

Writing is not that easy but Grammarly can help. This sentence is grammatically correct but it’s wordy and hard to read.

A BITE to Kim and Kanye getting divorced. We miss the old Kimye.

A BARK to Biden rejoining

In normal conditions, we have 234 minutes of each class per week; however, online learning cuts this to 180 minutes. Students are feeling the strain of these shorter classes. In a January 2021 Bark survey, 37 percent of AP students said they weren’t confident in their ability to pass the full-length exam.

AP classes are known to be fast-paced to get students prepared for a college course’s rigor and speed; however, shortened class periods have created gaps in the AP curriculum. In a survey of Redwood teachers that teach AP courses, 67 percent responded that their course was at least two weeks behind the schedule of an in-person year, and 19 percent said that they were four or more weeks behind. As a result, teachers are rushing through units to cover the required material, and students are not absorbing the information they need to.

“The pace that [students] have to be on for this semester is what I have a problem with. If they have to stay at this pace, it’s a little unfair,” Kornfeld said.

“The hard part as a teacher is to sit there and look at student mental health versus the worth of the score.”

Undoubtedly, administering tests during a pandemic puts the College Board in a difficult situation; however, they could look to other educational programs, such as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB), for guidance.

According to Laterna, an IB service provider, IB has removed or amended parts of their final exams for 2021 to reduce the amount of content that students will need to get through. For example, in their Language A: Language and Literature course, they removed two final paper requirements. Ignoring the better actions of similar establishments proves that the College Board lacks empathy for students.

In dealing with our own struggles, we also must put ourselves in the shoes of those who are less privileged than us. Some students across the country will not only have to take their full-length exams in a public setting, where Wi-Fi access may be spotty and environmental factors will likely be distracting, but also do not have access to the same quality of education as we have at Redwood, one of California’s top public schools. College Board, we call on you to reduce content requirements and modify AP exams this spring to ensure equality, promote AP courses’ original objective and mitigate students’ and teachers’ stress.

Have an opinion regarding anything that appears in The Bark or in general? We encourage our readers to submit letters to the editor.

Letters to The Bark should be 500 words or fewer, typed if possible and signed. They must be emailed to bark@redwoodbark.org.

the Paris Climate Accord.

Looks like this president won’t be a fossil fool.

A BITE to Silentó being arrested for murdering his cousin. We don’t think he can “Nae Nae” his way out of this one.

A BARK to some high school sports starting. At least the tennis team has an excuse for the empty stands.

A BITE to anti-vaxxers. Why don’t you just give it a shot?

A BARK to Netflix’s new serial killer documentary series “The Night Stalker.”

Now we have yet another reason to stay indoors and away from strangers.

A BITE to the required Chrome extension Proctorio that’s supposed to discourage cheating. Don’t forget to Chegg that all your tabs are closed.

BARKS and BITES are the collective opinion of the BARK staff concerning relevant issues. BARKS are in praise of accomplishments, while BITES criticize decisions or events.

Copy Editors Maxanne Anderson Greta Cifarelli Samantha Elegant Martha Fishburne Kate McHugh Bella Piacente Alli Runnfeldt Abigail Shewmaker Sophie Smallhorn Gemma Strauss Natalie Tress News Editors Jackson Epps Caroline Goodhart Opinion Editors Casey Braff Sol Ladetzky Feature Editors Taylor Elliott Kent Goodman Sports Editors Jacob Mandel Christopher Vargelis Review Editors Sophia Rocha AnnaLise Sandrich Lifestyles Editors Hollis Belger Anna Silverman Video Editors Sterling Lazarus Hannah Morgan Spanish Editor Hannah Sellers Podcast Editor Nathan Ash Business Managers Annie Goldstein Samantha Michaels Social Media Managers Charlie Ginsburg Audrey Lightfoot Survey Manager Emma Lightfoot Multimedia Editor Olivia Kharrazi Art Consultants Kalyn Dawes Keely Ganong Reporters Avery Aguero Isabel Ames Will Baker Loughlin Browne Charlotte DeForrest Alex Fisch Clariss Garcia Nina Geoghegan Libby Hughes Patrick Jacobson Mia Kessinger Ava Koblik Brooke Leslie Sydney Liebhauser Declan McDaniels PJ Pfeiffer Caroline Scharf Allie Vasquez Keegan Williams Senior Staff Writers Mara Farese Katie Parsons Adviser Erin Schneider

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El primer senador latinx que va representar California Cuento y Infografia por Clariss Ajanel

Mientras que Kamala Harris fue la primera mujer afroamericana y asiática americana en convertirse en vicepresidenta el 20 de enero, Alex Padilla, a la vez, hizo historia ya que fue nombrado el primer Latine en representar a California en el Senado.

Anteriormente, Padilla trabajó como senador estatal y secretario de estado. Como secretario de estado, Padilla aprobó más de 70 proyectos de ley, incluyendo la legislación para combatir el cambio climático llamada Ley de Reducción y Energía Limpia.

Shawn Cole-Woods, director de programas y educación de Next Generation Scholars, ve el juramento de Padilla como algo que no solo beneficiará a la comunidad latina, sino toda la comunidad de bajos ingresos. “[Padilla] es un científico que es genial, considerando todo lo que estamos pasando con COVID-19 y con el

Foto cortesía de Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

HABLANDO EN EL escenario de la Marcha de Mujeres 2018 Los Ángeles, el secretario de Estado de California, Alex Padilla, se dirige a la multitud. aumento del nivel del mar,” Cole-Woods dijo. “Todos estos problemas se relacionan con las comunidades de bajos ingresos porque muchas de esas comunidades están más cerca del agua, por lo que si sucediera cualquier cosa, serían los primeros y probablemente los más afectados si continuamos en la dirección en la que hemos estado yendo.”

Según VoteSmart.org, algunas de las políticas existentes de Padilla apuntan a aumentar la financiación fiscal para la educación, fortalecer las protecciones ambientales y mejorar la formación de las autoridades públicas En una entrevista con VoteSmart.org, Padilla mencionó que quería aumentar la financiación para cuestiones gubernamentales que beneficiarán al país a largo plazo, como atención médica, transporte y gestión de emergencias como el senador.

“Debemos hacer que el gobierno sea más eficiente con los recursos existentes para servir mejor a nuestras comunidades,’’ Padilla dijo. “Reduciría las lagunas de impuestos de las grandes corporaciones y les pediría a los multimillonarios que pagaran su parte justa.”

Debido a la experiencia previa de Padilla, el gobernador de California, Gavin Newsom, eligió a Padilla para reemplazar a Harris en su salida del Senado, a pesar de la insistencia en que Newsom eligiera a otra mujer afroamericana. En una declaración pública, Newsom explicó los motivos que le hicieron elegir a Padilla.

“Gracias a su tenacidad, integridad, inteligencia y valentía, California está ganando un luchador, que será un fuerte aliado en DC, elevando los valores de nuestro estado y asegurándose de que obtengamos los recursos necesarios para salir fortalecidos de esta pandemia,” Newsom dijo. “Él será un Senador para todos los californianos.”

California es un estado muy diverso. Según el censo de EE. UU. en 2019, la comunidad latina es el 39 por ciento de la población del estado, representando el grupo demográfico más grande en California. Dado que Padilla representará un porcentaje tan significativo del estado, su victoria es un paso importante hacia la comprensión y atención de las necesidades de esas comunidades.

Ruby Aguirre, que trabaja con Next Generation Scholars, expresa su alegría de que se le haya dado el puesto a Padilla, especialmente considerando su origen étnico mexicano.

“Existe la esperanza de que debido a su experiencia de crecer en un hogar de padres inmigrantes, que es tan común en personas de primera generación, escuchará las demandas de la comunidad,” Aguirre dijo. “Al mismo tiempo, queremos que sea responsable de lo que dice, y se asegure de que nos ayuda de la manera que ha dicho que lo hará en lugar de ser cómplice de las demandas de sus jefes. “ Como guatemalteca que vive en un hogar de padres inmigrantes, Saidy Reyes, estudiante de último año en Redwood pertenece a la misma comunidad marginada en la que se crió Padilla. Reyes, encuentra inspiración en la victoria de Padilla para seguir adelante y aprovechar las oportunidades que ofrece este país.

“Me siento contenta de que haya representación hispana en el gobierno. Asimismo, me inspira a seguir adelante y seguir siendo una representación para mi comunidad,” Reyes dijo.

Las políticas financieras de Padilla, específicamente aquellas relacionadas con la mejora de la atención médica para familias de bajos ingresos, dan a Reyes la esperanza de un futuro mejor para ella y su familia.

“Espero más inclusividad de la comunidad hispana en Estados Unidos y que en cierta forma ayude a los hispanos inmigrantes. También, sería bueno que ayudará a los hispanos de bajos recursos con programas de vivienda, salud y alimentación,” Reyes dijo.

Mientras Reyes cree que el aumento de representación latina en la política puede mejorar la calidad de vida de los

latinos en California, otros no están de acuerdo con ella.

Aguirre cree que las políticas de Padilla no beneficiará a todos, ya que la comunidad latina es muy diversa en sus necesidades.

“El hecho de que Padilla sea latino no significa que hable por todos los latinos,” Aguirre dijo. “Él ha vivido y

experimentado algo completamente diferente a lo que yo tengo, lo que significa que puede apoyar cosas con las que estoy totalmente en contra. Todos somos humanos y no puedo esperar que él arregle todo por mi.”

Sin devaluar, la presencia de Padilla en el Congreso traerá diversidad al senado, lo cual es algo en lo que Aguirre, Reyes y Cole-Woods observan como un cambio positivo.

“Puede que sea un hombre Afroamericano, pero sigo siendo [parte de] un grupo marginado, así que cualquier triunfo para aquel que ha sido rechazado o marginado es un triunfo para los que han sufrido rechazo y marginación,” Cole-Woods dijo. cajanel@redwoodbark.org

Cielos azules y una falta de máscaras: México atrae a turistas Estadounidenses Cuento y Arte por Libby Hughes

Cuando abrí mi teléfono la mañana de Navidad, revisé las redes sociales y noté una tendencia similar en las publicaciones: el agua azul y palmeras verdes, un inusualmente tropical lugar para mis compañeros de Marin County. Aunque espero que todos hayan seguido las recomendaciones de Center for Disease Control (CDC), el tiempo fue extraño por el toque de queda.

El 26 de diciembre, California tuvo un gran número de casos nuevos de COVID-19, 64,987 infectados. A pesar de estos números alarmantes, la gente sigue viajando. México fue uno de los lugares más populares para residentes de Marin.

Según al World Tourism Organization, Cancún recibió 236,000 estadounidenses en noviembre y esperaba recibir más en diciembre. Desde entonces, los casos de COVID-19 han aumentado y se espera algo similar durante la semana de vacaciones en febrero y las vacaciones de primavera en abril. Mientras viajar al extranjero puede parecer algo no extraordinario, el CDC dice que debemos quedarnos en casa para detener COVID-19.

El 21 de enero, el presidente Joe Biden emitió una orden ejecutiva que hizo necesario tener una prueba de COVID negativa o un documento de recuperación que sigue las regulaciones del CDC para los

viajeros que regresan a los Estados Unidos.

Estas nuevas reglas reducen el número de casos de COVID-19 en los EE.UU. Sin embargo, México todavía no requiere una prueba de COVID-19 negativa ni hacer una cuarentena para entrar al país debido al gran impacto que tiene el turismo en la economía mexicana. La falta de regulación ha sido un problema porque México ha visto más de 160,000 muertos h a s t a febrero,

clasificado como el país con el cuarto mayor número de muertos en el mundo por COVID-19.

Según Xavier Tello, un analista de políticas de salud de la Ciudad de México, viajar es una razón principal para la continuidad de casos de COVID-19.

“Nosotros estamos creando un círculo vicioso donde estamos recibiendo más

gente que puede estar enferma o infectada de otros lugares y se encuentran con personas de La Ciudad de México y continuar infectando a la gente.” Tello le dijo a los New York Times.

Por el fácil acceso y las cualidades atractivas que México tiene para ofrecer a los turistas durante un tiempo de cuarentena, los turistas están ocupando espacio en las Unidades de Cuidados Intensivos (ICUs).

Esto se suma al número de pacientes de Covid en el país que tiene limitado recursos Mexicanos de salud y seguridad.

Además de los turistas, muchos Mexicoamericanos procedieron con sus viajes anuales a México en diciembre.

Aunque es comprensible visitar a la familia durante las vacaciones, no vale la pena el riesgo de la vida de familiares mayores solo por unos días de normalidad.

Sin embargo, todavía hay muchos aspectos positivos para mantener un control flexible sobre las regulaciones de viaje. De acuerdo a Fernando Gomez

Suarez, quien trabaja en la Universidad de Panamericana en la Ciudad de México, la restricciones de viaje más estrictas podrían resultar en una caída del 60 por ciento en los ingresos del turismo Mexicano, lo que es un problema para la economía dependiendo del turismo. Aunque la salud de los ciudadanos del país es importante, en un lugar como México, sacrificarlo por COVID-19 puede ser necesario para continuar con los ingresos del turismo.

En algunos lugares de México, como el estado del sur Oaxaca, que dependen del turismo como su principal fuente de ingresos, los trabajadores y las pequeñas empresas han sufrido debido a las reglas de capacidad. Aunque una economía estable es importante, especialmente en ciudades más pequeñas, el gobierno Mexicano debería dedicar todos sus recursos a la seguridad pública y los trabajadores sanitarios. Las regulaciones sobre México deben recibir la máxima prioridad debido al alto número de muertos y a las ICUs ocupadas. Si planeas hacer un viaje al sur en las próximas semanas para “escapar de todo” uno debería pensar sobre las comunidades que tienen que vivir con las consecuencias de tu viaje. En lugar de viajar uno puede disfrutar de los hermosos paisajes de Marin o explorar y participar en lugares menos conocidos de su comunidad. lhughes@redwoodbark.org

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Addiction or connection? How video games affect mental health

By Taylor Elliott As a child, Randeep S. Bhatia, the head of engineering for music at Twitch, would wake up around 1 a.m. to play his favorite video game, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and sneak back to bed as the sun was coming up.

Although this habit resulted in hours of lost sleep and the occasional squabble with his parents, Bhatia claims the hassle was all worth it.

Before working at Twitch, a live-streaming platform centered around building online communities for gamers and musical artists, Bhatia helped build games like SimCity, The Sims 4 and Madden NFL for Electronic Arts (EA).

Despite his love for video game development, he could not be happier with his current career. “[I love] the motivation and dedication of everybody on my team to do something different and work towards giving the creators on Twitch interconnectivity and a platform to enjoy music,” Bhatia said.

Although Bhatia has found great success in the video game industry, many medical specialists worry about the types of childhood habits that got him there. Jennifer Kenny-Baum, a licensed clinical social worker and the Wellness Coordinator, believes teens are particularly vulnerable to video game addiction. She describes how the teenage brain is prone to addiction because it is constantly developing around its environment.

“What we know is that [teenagers] have all of these neural pathways, and anytime you develop a connection that gives you a boost of serotonin or adrenaline, your neurotransmitters make you want to repeat whatever that behavior was,” Kenny-Baum said.

“Video games help do that to your brain.

They’re designed to help create opportunities for you to unlock things that give your brain a boost.”

At Redwood, video games are a prevalent source of serotonin. In fact, according to a January 2021 Bark survey, 19 percent of students play video games every day, and 40 percent play at least a few times per week. Junior Will Davis is one of these students, and his gaming habits have proven to be more harmful than anticipated. Davis estimates that he plays for an hour or more each day during the school week and for two or three hours per day on the weekends, amounting to 11 hours each week.

“The second semester of my sophomore year, when it was first online learning, I was playing video games all the time. That’s

when it was really bad. I fell behind in my schoolwork because of it. Now I’ve learned how to manage [my video game use] a lot [better], but I used to be worried about failing [my classes],” Davis said.

Davis’s experience highlights that the pandemic has increased video game use and therefore also increased the likelihood of video game addiction for many.

According to The NPD Group, a market research firm, August gaming sales in the U.S. increased by 37 percent compared to last August, reaching an all time high of $3.3 billion.

Additionally, August 2020 was the fifth month in a row that had a large growth in sales compared to the same pre-pandemic months of 2019.

While Kenny-Baum understands the appeal of gaming during a pandemic with everyone stuck inside and extremely bored, she is wary of the long term effects.

“People turning to more outlets on screens, especially for modes of connection, are always going to feel initially really positive. But anything that we are doing for extreme periods of time has the potential to develop patterns and in the worst-case scenario potentially develop an addiction.

That’s where the long-term danger is,” Kenny-Baum said.

According to a study conducted by Zhejiang Normal University in China, young adults who were addicted to online gaming had lower volumes of gray and white brain matter than young adults in the same test group who were not addicted.

These abnormalities in brain matter mean that those addicted to video games may experience increased difficulties with decision-making, impulse control and emotion regulation. On the other hand, a study from Oxford University refuted reports in opposition to gaming and instead came to the conclusion that video games increased users “well-being.” A major difference between the two studies was that Oxford used actual play-time data, meaning that they gathered information as the subjects played Nintendo and EA games in real-time rather than having subjects self-report their playing time. This resulted in more accurate findings.

Despite his struggles to put school work above video games in the past, increased mental health and “wellbeing” are symptoms Davis actually attributes to gaming.

He says that he plays video games because of the social aspect, making him a part of the 52 percent of Redwood students who say that video games have helped them stay connected to their friends throughout the pandemic. “[I] 100 percent play video games more often now than [I did] before the pandemic, but it’s just to see my friends. I’m very limited with what time me and my friends spend together in person now,” Davis said. “I’ve also met a ton of new people over video games that I wouldn’t have met beforehand.”

The world of streaming video games on platforms like Twitch also creates opportunities for

social interaction. The same January 2021 Bark survey showed 34 percent of students use Twitch occasionally, and of those students, approximately 39 percent say they use Twitch because it connects them to an online community with shared interests.

At Twitch, by coding, organizing music launches and testing new products, Bhatia works to connect users. He praises the platform for emphasizing this aspect of video game streaming, especially during COVID-19.

“I think [Twitch] has helped bridge the gap of people being far away and uses different mediums to connect, work and interact with each other,” Bhatia said. “Twitch has given such a huge platform to creators and artists to come in and express their creativity in a safe and very inclusive manner. It’s actually one of my favorite places to come in and express my talent and skills.”

Although the long term implications of video game addiction are severe, it seems that, if not abused, gaming can contribute positively to mental health. The best way to ensure this, KennyBaum argues, is to live a balanced life. Activities like going for a run or seeing friends at a distance can boost one’s serotonin levels in the same way that playing video games would.

“The more you’re diversifying those different things in your life, Illustrations by Kalyn Dawes the healthier you’re going to be. But if you find that you only have one outlet and that’s the only area that’s giving pleasure and all the other things are starting to fall away, that’s dangerous,” Kenny-Baum said.

According to a study published by the American Psychological Association, a balanced future is probable for video game users. The study concluded that video games have the potential to promote well-being, including preventing or treating mental health issues in youth. Given how popular video games are amongst children and teens, developing a video game with an “innovative approach to mental health intervention” could reduce mental health issues for the kids of tomorrow. Until then, everything is best in moderation. telliott@redwoodbark.org

bark

Page 10 • Feature

February 12, 2021

A faithful nation: examining the intersection of politics and religion Story and Illustrations by Nicole Johnson The storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was a colorful sight: rioters clad in varieties of patriotic hues and dark shades composed a sea of stars, stripes and the infrequent animal pelt. Clothing color was one of the few exceptions to the crowd’s general homogeneity, though –– rioters were overwhelmingly white, maskless and falsely asserting that the presidential election had been stolen.

Also on display were several crosses, flags alluding to Jesus and organized prayer. These spectacles demonstrate the the prevalence of Christianity at the center of pro-Trump extremism. According to interviews conducted in a Jan. 11 New York Times article, many rioters were self-proclaimed participants in “a kind of holy war:” 40-year-old evangelical Christian Lindsay French told the Times that she jumped on a flight from Texas to Washington, D.C. to attend the president’s rally after receiving an omen from God. Religion has long been alive and well in the U.S., but invoking divine beings in the name of Trump is a fairly recent development –– one that represents a distorted faith sweeping many regions of the country.

Historically, political conservatism and Christianity have been inextricably bound in some area codes while holding little correlation in others. Pew Research Center data on the 2020 electorate reveals that 79 percent of registered voters who identified as Republican fell under some Christian denomination; 32 percent of this demographic self-identified as white evangelical Protestants. On the other side of the political spectrum, 52 percent of Democrats were Christian, and the numbers were split relatively evenly among Christianity’s varied branches.

Religion –– and specifically evangelical Protestantism –– has long held a central role in right-wing politics, but recently, it has mobilized.

To U.S. history teacher David Minhondo, extreme thought lies at the root of extreme action. America’s political climate and other recent developments have created the perfect storm for such radicalism to thrive. “[First], there’s the hyperbolic culture of today’s American media, where everything is talked about in apocalyptic terms, like ‘the war on’ this or ‘the war on’ that; everything is built up to be an allor-nothing situation,” Minhondo said. “I think that gets mirrored in some churches. … A lot of denominations of evangelicals believe in the rapture, and so they’re constantly talking about the end of the world coming and final judgment, and so I think that there’s kind of a combination of those things where your worldview is constantly on edge.”

When fear is prevalent, answers are sought out, and in a polarized, exaggerative atmosphere, the promise of comfort can lay with whoever has those answers, Minhondo explains. But both truth and some aspects of religion have become warped as the crowds claiming to have solutions have expanded, opening the floor for falsehoods.

“Religion has dominated the earth since the birth of civilization [because] people sought out answers. ‘Why

does the sun rise?’ Somebody needed to explain this, so religion was the answer –– it was the way that people were able to cope with the seemingly chaotic and oftentimes random way that the universe seemed to play out,” Minhondo said. “And we like to think ourselves beyond that, right? We are becoming a more secular society, but we still seek order from chaos, and even if we’re not using religion to do that as much, it can give us answers, [as can other sources].”

The sheer breadth of these alternative sources can at times lend a hand to misinformation.

“That opens up a vacuum where people are going to seek answers from conspiracy theories, for example. Many people have shunned religion; they can’t believe their media; they don’t believe their politicians, so they get roped into QAnon and these crazy theories,” Minhondo said.

Conspiracies aside, religion and politics take on dramatically varied forms across the country, and their intersection in each region of the U.S. reveals something different about its inhabitants. In Marin, evangelical Protestantism has few footholds –– objectively, no religion does on a comparative level, according to Joey Martin, Hillside Church’s Director of Student Ministries. A Texas native, Martin grew up next to “megachurches” that drew in tens of thousands of attendees each weekend, making for quite different-looking Sundays than those he now experiences in Marin.

“I wouldn’t say Marin is a religious county at all, but I do believe there are people who definitely have a spiritual sense to them,” Martin said. “The largest church in Marin County would probably be one of the smallest churches in the town that I grew up in, which has a population the size of Novato. Here, it’s not normal to go to a church that has thousands of people there on the weekend.”

Faith still has its pulses across the county, but local links to places of worship are still relatively weak. Of all Marin residents, approximately 36 percent followed some Christian denomination in 2009, with 30 percent identifying as Roman Catholic, according to data from the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. In a January 2021 Bark survey, 58 percent of Redwood students claimed to not subscribe to a faith. Because more people are unaffiliated with any religion than are religious in Marin, secularism, like political liberalism, has a strong local presence. In fact, according to Minhondo, the two may be closely intertwined.

“In Marin, religion is not as overt: you’re not seen as weird for being

Jewish or Muslim or Catholic or whatever. … In a place like Texas, where those concepts are more foreign –– where you don’t run into a Jewish person every day –– you’re more apt to believe in stereotypes because you’re not interacting with people like that on a day-to-day basis. And so you sort of end up with your worldview being influenced by your vote,” Minhondo said.

One religion does not dominate mainstream thought in Marin, facilitating a loose

relationship between political and religious affiliation.

However, this scarcity of faith may correlate to Marin’s left-leaning political outlook, the Pew data suggests. And while political and religious outlooks are somewhat unattached with one another here, a bond does exist. About 38 percent of religious Redwood students believe that their political convictions may be influenced by their faith, the January 2021 Bark survey revealed. Three percent of respondents reported that the two are certainly connected.

This connection is even more prevalent on a national scale. A 2016 survey released by Barna Group, a research firm specializing in faith and culture-related analysis, had 46 percent of respondents nationwide report religion as their primary source of political influence.

Northeastern Pennsylvania resident Sarah Block, who was raised evangelical Christian and now identifies as simply Christian, lives in a region that wholly counters Marin’s political and religious affiliations.

“Political and Christian conservatism are for sure interrelated [here]. … I know of people who supported the [Capitol] riots and didn’t see it as problematic, [but] I also know people who see it as hugely problematic,” Block said.

The separation of church and state is an integral cornerstone of our federal system’s ideological basis, but it was never intended to apply at the citizenry level –– religion is deemed a healthy feature of civil society by a majority of Americans, says 2019 Pew data.

However, Martin fears the intersection between the two has crossed lines in some cases, breaking essential theological standards and abetting

generalizations.

“Christianity shouldn’t be used as a pedestal to promote someone other than Jesus, and sadly, that’s not the case [anymore]: you see these pastors that have influence in larger gatherings promoting and endorsing political figures, which can be very dangerous because they’re tying their religious belief to someone else other than who the Bible points us to, which is Jesus,” Martin said. “In the last election and the election before that, it became this assumption that ‘oh, if you’re a Christian, that means you’re voting for this person,’ which should not be the case at all.”

The January Capitol insurrection not only solidified these assumptions and the presence of evangelical Trumpism to many, but effectively smeared Catholicism’s name to some as well. In a Jan. 28 article from The Atlantic, Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Christian Congressman from Illinois, referenced the decline of his faith’s image

in the public eye. “[Looking at] the reputation of Christianity today versus five years ago, I feel very comfortable saying it’s a lot worse. … I think we have lost a lot of moral authority,” Kinzinger said in a commentary on recent events.

To Martin, the type of Christianity marching in D.C. in early January was almost unrecognizable.

“As I watched the Capitol storming and saw flags [reading] ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ waving next to [flags saying] ‘Jesus saves 2020,’ my first thought was, ‘what Jesus are they talking about?’” Martin said. “Because the Jesus we read [about] in the Bible is believed to be a true figure who promoted peace, which was very different from what was portrayed at the storming.”

Amending this will take time: putting faith in faith is a complicated task. To Martin, an initial step the church can take to make up ground is encouraging its proponents and followers to evaluate their grasp on what Christianity truly means.

“These people are very vocal about what they believe and why they believe it, and even though they want to say that to be pro-Trump is to be pro-Christian, it’s very false,” Martin said. “For us, the real church has to step up and reclaim, even though it might not fall on good ears, the real Jesus.” njohnson@redwoodbark.org

bark A budding industry: the disjointed debate on cannabis Page 11 • Feature

www.redwoodbark.org

By Shannon Watridge and Martha Fishburne Having evolved from the days of Cheech and Chong and primitive joints at high school parties of the 80s, recreational marijuana is seemingly everywhere in California. Cannabis products can be found in the Lululemon pockets of stressed Marin moms or hidden deeply in the drawers of elegant Tiburon houses. Doctors prescribe it to their cancer patients and senior citizens use it to alleviate their arthritis pains. Yet, in spite of its prevalence, it appears that Marin voters are not ready to allow dispensaries close to home, regardless of the overwhelming support for legalization in 2016.

One of the opponents to dispensaries in Marin, Ron Strauss M.D., a Redwood parent and opponent to dispensaries coming to Marin, stresses the distinction between reducing criminal offenses on marijuana charges and wanting the same product to be easily accessible within the county.

“There’s a difference between [possessing marijuana for personal use] and trying to make it readily available in the community and promoting it,” Strauss said. “[The marijuana industry is] a billion-dollar industry [that] deliberately confuses things to try to push their own agenda.”

One of Strauss’s biggest issues with marijuana advertising is that businesses attempt to promote cannabis to underage teenagers to broaden the scope of their consumers. By campaigning to younger generations, these corporations ensure themselves loyal marijuana consumers in the future, a crucial step for continuing the drug’s legality.

“The marijuana industry is copying the successful campaigns of the alcohol and tobacco industries,” Strauss said. “[They use] glamorous advertising and try to get product placement out there in all the various ways [they] possibly can. And [they are] making it appealing to younger users because [kids are] almost twice as likely to become addicted to it. So it’s sort of reminiscent of Joe Camel plush toys or candy cigarettes.”

Bright green and blue billboards plastered with advertisements for cannabis delivery companies such as Eaze and Raw Natural Services are easy to spot along California freeways and crowded San Francisco streets.

Although the California Bureau of Cannabis Control limited these advertisements in 2021, the Bureau has not imposed a deadline or consequences for businesses failing to comply with their regulations. According to a 2018 RAND Corporation study, increased exposure to marijuana advertising contributed to higher teen usage rates, as well as a more positive attitude toward the drug.

However, this may not be as detrimental to adolescents as it appears.

“Mary,” a Redwood senior who wishes to remain anonymous, regularly smokes marijuana to alleviate the discomfort of her chronic illness. Despite illegal recreational use for people under the age of 21, she began using cannabis in eighth grade and argues that it has been more effective in treating her pain than the prescribed medications from her doctor.

“It’s not the scary drug that it’s been pushed [as] for so long. It really just helps so many people in so many different ways without pushing them onto an addiction of another pill,” Mary said. “It comes from nature, and it’s a plant. If you’re scared of how it’s been painted for so long without giving it a chance, it is a little messed up because you’re depriving people of something that can ease [their] pain.”

This sentiment is reflected in the student body; a Bark survey conducted in January of 2021 found that 33 percent of students have used a cannabis product at least once, and 4 percent reported using it daily.

These numbers may not appear drastic, but they are much higher than the California average of approximately 16 percent, according to the California Healthy Kids Survey.

While some Marin residents

opposing dispensaries are largely concerned about the storefronts increasing youths’ access to cannabis products, marijuana lawyer and Larkspur town Councilmember Scot Candell believes that cannabis products are already available to teenagers who want them. According to Candell, the of opening dispensaries will have no effect on adolescent cannabis use.

“People who want to get cannabis in high school can get cannabis in high school.

There are people who will deliver it to playgrounds and parking lots and wherever you want, and these are coming from illegal cannabis sellers. I mean, it’s very easy to grow cannabis,” Candell said.

Candell staunchly supports the implementation of dispensaries within Marin County, believing that the benefits far outweigh the costs, especially for those seeking information on the product.

“Doctors don’t know a whole lot about cannabis. They don’t know the difference between indica, sativa, this strain, that strain,” Candell said. “So you’re on a website, and there’s nobody to talk to. It’s not very personal. When you go to a dispensary, you talk to people who are experts in the field. They’ll talk about your options, but with delivery, you don’t get that. That’s why you need a dispensary for the educational aspect of it, which is what we’re missing in Marin.”

California passed the law legalizing the use of medical marijuana in 1996 when many began to realize the benefits of the drug, which can be used to treat chronic illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, cancer and Tourette syndrome. While Strauss acknowledges marijuana could be used to help relieve pain in some situations, he also notices similarities between the beginning of the opioid crisis and how medical marijuana is used now.

“I try to listen to patients open-mindedly, but [in] the days prior to recognizing that we had an opioid crisis, [I saw] patients who were addicted to opioids that [said] that it was the only thing that could manage their pain,” Strauss said. “And, at the end of the day, we’ve learned that it actually is a terrible idea to try to manage chronic pain with opioids. That was something that the medical

Illustrations by Kalyn Dawes

community learned the hard way. We have a massive opioid crisis nationally on our hands, really because of [legalization], prescription or diversion of legally prescribed or produced opioids.”

Despite Strauss’s apprehension to marijuana’s benefits, aspiring dispensary owner Kevin Igersheim assured the public in the Jan. 15 Novato Town Council meeting that allowing dispensaries and cannabis delivery would ultimately improve the well-being of the city.

“I believe the city of Novato will benefit quite a bit from [allowing cannabis delivery],” Igersheim said.

“These benefits include not just economic development, but also from a health perspective. Part of our proposal is a continued outreach to highlight the benefit of cannabis for alternative uses of medicine.”

Aside from surface-level effects, having increased access to marijuana will contribute to more knowledge on the uses of marijuana. Candell expresses an eagerness to continue research on the possible medicinal functions of the drug.

“We have enough history, enough data, that we can actually read these studies and feel safe that we understand this drug. At least we understand it’s safe as far as its medical potential,” Candell said. “We don’t understand [all of its medicinal benefits] yet because we haven’t done the real studies that we need, like whether it’s going to cure cancer or whatever wonderful things it’s going to do in the future. We just don’t know yet because we’re still a little afraid of it.”

However, addiction specialist Patricia Pike shares Strauss’s concern about the long term effects of this budding industry, particularly in the harm that can come from years of heavy marijuana use.

“Folks who smoke and indulge in cannabis to the extreme levels don’t have a job or they’ve dropped out of school, spend all their money on cannabis, get kicked out of law school or get kicked out of classes,” Pike said. “So there’s an unmanageability that starts to happen for folks when they cross those lines.”

Despite these reservations from concerned residents and professionals, cannabis delivery services are available within the county, with suppliers such as Nice Guys Delivery and Marin Gardens popping up in Mill Valley and San Rafael.

It is clear that even with the Marin population split on the debate of whether or not to allow dispensaries, one thing is certain: the marijuana industry is not going up in smoke anytime soon. bark@redwoodbark.org

The inoculation initiative: pushing to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine

By Olivia Kharrazi A quick pinch. A couple of days of soreness. Wait a few weeks. Repeat.

After almost a year trekking through life amid a pandemic, vaccines have finally been authorized for widespread distribution at sites nationwide. Here in Marin County, Marin Health and Human Services (HHS) has set up a point of dispensing (POD) at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, where those meeting eligibility criteria can receive the vaccine after setting up an appointment with the clinic. The POD receives approximately 5,000 doses weekly and gives anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 patients their first vaccination dose every week, according to the MarinHealth website.

Marin County Assistant Emergency Services Manager Woody Baker-Cohn has been involved in the establishment of the POD, working to fine-tune the process to maximize vaccine distribution rates for Marin residents.

“We learn a lot along the way, but I think we are really rocking it,” Baker-Cohn said. “A number of counties have come to us wanting to either visit the [Marin Center] POD or understand how we’re doing it because we’re so far ahead of most counties. It’s not like we’re geniuses. It’s sort of this virtuous feedback loop: we try something, it works or it doesn’t work and we just keep adapting.”

Marin’s efforts mark the beginning of a push for largescale immunization that county officials have spent months preparing for and anticipate taking months to finish. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has encouraged immunization of all Americans; vaccines deemed safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which are currently restricted to those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, have been evaluated using both data from their manufacturers as well as other clinical trials. Both vaccines prevent serious illness upon COVID-19 contraction and lessen the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 in the first place.

To maximize the rollout’s effectiveness, Marin has opted for a three-phased working model dictated by the state’s vaccination plan that outlines the vaccine’s release to various groups through the summer of 2021.

Across the nation, there has been a variety of different immunization methods, and these many modes of

organization have often resulted in inconsistent success between states. Though initially expected to fall behind larger states, many predominantly rural states have been the most effective in their dissemination: Utah, North Dakota and New Mexico have currently distributed the highest percentage of their federally allocated doses at 103, 99 and 94 percent, respectively.

West Virginia is another rural state that has had success with its immunization efforts starting from early on in the vaccination process, having distributed 91 percent of their doses. According to the Brookings Institution research group, this is in part due to its reliance on independent pharmacies to distribute the vaccine; the state was the first to oppose engagement in the partnership the federal government formed with CVS and Walmart to inoculate long-term care facility residents. In South Dakota, where 83 percent of doses have been distributed, the three main health networks have divided the state into sections to distribute to, holding medical facilities responsible for administration, says CBS News.

Some of the most populous states are the ones that have fallen the furthest behind: Pennsylvania has distributed 63 percent of allocated vaccines, California has distributed 67 percent and Florida 69 percent. Early on, a potential common factor among less effective systems was more vigilant adherence to the CDC’s guidelines, which could be hindering more than helping, according to CBS News.

Many local officials look at the uneven dispersal successes as evidence for the nation’s faulty public health priorities; despite vaccine allocation being mandated at a federal level, states and counties have borne much of the burden of vaccine distribution planning. Dr. Gregg Tolliver, medical director of infection control at MarinHealth Medical Center, believes that vaccine distribution problems could have been partially prevented with adequate support and public health organization at a higher government level.

“Vaccine distribution is frustrating almost anywhere at any time. It’s never going to be perfect,” Tolliver said. “In this situation, it’s certainly not perfect because you just don’t even know what’s coming down your supply chain, and the rules are changing all the time.”

Despite the Marin Center POD’s relative success so far in terms of vaccine distribution, frequent miscommunication –– or lack of communication altogether –– has complicated vaccine administration in Marin on the local level: not only are shipments often few and far between, but those received come with little or no prior notice.

“Right now, [the POD] knows usually less than a week in advance which vaccine we’re going to have, so we’re trying to plan for staffing, space, suppliers and recruiting people to make appointments with less than a week’s notice,” Baker-Cohn said. “We’ve got a very flexible operation that’s doing amazing things, but that’s unsustainable. If we know what’s coming a few weeks out, that will make a huge difference and will ultimately lead to higher throughput and efficiency.”

For past emergencies, mutual aid from either other states or countries has been an integral part of remedying disasters. Unfortunately, the very nature of a pandemic makes this impossible, increasing the need for a dependable federal government. The Trump administration’s lack of guidance and fluctuating vaccine eligibility requirements consequently put pressure on local public health organizations to quickly adapt to these uncertain conditions. In less successful states, county oversight of immunization has resulted in overall disorganization.

According to CNN, the Biden administration found that there had been no vaccine distribution strategy in place whatsoever under Trump’s leadership, forcing the new administration to essentially create a completely new plan from scratch. Now, the change in leadership has roused optimism surrounding the future organization of the vaccine’s distribution for Baker-Cohn.

“With the new administration, it’s going to be a new world,” Baker-Cohn said. “We’ll have a better idea of what’s going on, and they’ll be focused on the right things.”

New priorities include hiring 100,000 healthcare workers to aid in the vaccination process and using federal disaster relief funds to compensate for the money states and local governments have had to use for immunization purposes.

Biden has also requested $20 billion from Congress to broaden the scope of vaccination centers by including stadiums, pharmacies, doctors’ offices and mobile clinics.

By enacting the Defense Production Act, he has worked to hasten the distribution process to further meet the need for

vaccine supplies as

well.

The new administration initially promised to inject 100 million vaccines in the president’s first 100 days in office, though Biden has since expanded his pledge to 150 million. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have committed to delivering 200 million doses by the end of March, and with the possibility of more contributions from other companies in the near future, the U.S. could have the resources for over two million vaccinations each day when the end of the month arrives.

Despite efforts to methodically organize immunization dispersal, the current muddled state of vaccine distribution systems has resulted in shortages of doses in some places and surpluses in others. The Marin Center POD, for example, has the facilities to work for seven days a week, but cut back to five because they were not receiving a sustainable amount of vaccines to stay open all seven days.

“I’m pretty confident that we can flex up to whatever comes our way,” Baker-Cohn said. “I think our challenge is going to be figuring out how to get [more vaccines] at the rate we can put [them] into arms or getting people to wait. Everybody wants it immediately and very understandably.”

Conversely, at a clinic set up for COVID-19 vaccine distribution by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there are frequently extra vaccine doses at the end of the day, whether they be due to no-shows or an uneven number of the doses in each vial, according to Redwood graduate Charlie Werner, an emergency medical technician (EMT) for NORCAL Ambulance assisting with vaccine distribution at the San Francisco clinic.

“Every single time I’ve worked, we’ve had some extra [vaccines] at the end of the day,” Werner said. “[When we have extras,] the people working at the clinic who haven’t yet gotten it will be offered a chance to get the vaccine.”

Werner is one of the many EMTs authorized by the city of San Francisco to help with vaccination distribution. San Francisco and Marin have both now offered an expanded scope of practice for EMTs to allow them to partake in additional training to perform invasive procedures like vaccine injections, a step that has helped with staffing at vaccination clinics. The Marin Center POD has also partially remedied their own staffing struggles through help from volunteers from organizations such as the Marin County Medical Reserve Corps and the Marin County Search and Rescue team.

Government workers have also been appointed to execute jobs that they would not do in their ordinary day-to-day work to help shoulder some of the vaccine distribution workload.

As the eligibility requirements broaden to include more populations, distributing the vaccine to all those eligible has often proven to be difficult. As California moves into Tier One of Phase 1B, those employed in education and childcare, emergency services and food and agriculture have become eligible for the vaccine, as well as individuals who are 65 years of age and older. As the scope expands, so do the difficulties in spreading information, especially when one of the primary ways clinics reach out to patients is online.

“The counties are struggling with how you get the word out to everybody, particularly the people that are most vulnerable,” Baker-Cohn

said. “Many elderly people either don’t have email or don’t browse the web. They’re unlikely to get something electronically, so we’re trying to reach out through other networks.”

By working with organizations such as Vivalon and Meals on Wheels, the Marin Center POD has effectively reached out to the newly vaccine-eligible 75 years and older age group. The Marin Center POD is also planning to open smaller institutions for Marin residents who do not drive or for those located in West Marin, and have partnered with the Marin Community Clinic in the Canal District of San Rafael to open a POD there as well.

Reaching Marin’s homeless population has also been a challenge, but help from the Marin HHS and various fire agencies countywide have allowed the Marin Center POD to communicate and get vaccines to them.

Overall, the Marin Center POD has been, for the most part, successful with vaccine distribution given the current circumstances: 35, 214 people living in Marin have received at least one vaccine dose, or 13.5 percent of Marin’s total population, according to the California Immunization Registry.

Even while the vaccine roll-out begins to gain traction, it has been met by yet another obstacle: new COVID-19 variants. Though variants can always be expected of a virus, scientists have yet to determine their contagiousness and severity compared to COVID-19 as well as the effectiveness of the current vaccines against them. So far, the CDC has reported that the only known variant circulating the U.S. is B.1.1.7, a lineage that initially emerged in the United Kingdom and is associated with faster transmission and a possible increase in the risk of death, according to U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson.

Whether this variant could increase illness or decrease the vaccine’s effectiveness is still being researched.

“Vaccines work best when there are low amounts of virus circulating,” Tolliver said. “Every time we put something into the environment, like a vaccine or a monoclonal antibody, we are asking for it to select variants that could potentially confer worse characteristics, like being easier to spread, and I think that’s already happened with some of these variants.”

As the variants arise, it becomes even more crucial for the continuation of the vaccines’ dissemination and the continued use of nonpharmaceutical interventions such as mask-wearing and social distancing to mitigate the risk of contraction. Especially with the impending imperfections of vaccine distribution, sole dependence on the vaccine against the virus remains unsafe.

“People need to continue to do pretty much all the stuff they’ve been doing,” Tolliver said.

“The vaccination is kind of coming out to the population as the ticket, the exit strategy, but it’s not. It is only a part of the exit strategy. For a complex problem like the coronavirus pandemic, we need a multifaceted approach.”

Information last updated on 02/08/21.

okharrazi@redwoodbark.org

Illustrations by Olivia Kharrazi and Kalyn Dawes

sports

Page 14

Luke Neal rallied his way to Yale University’s class of 2025

By Taylor Elliott

Heart pumping and nerves racing, Luke Neal shuffled to hit the ball as his team watched and cheered from the sidelines. The boys’ varsity tennis team was missing two of their top three players, but in a match that Neal describes as his biggest high school tennis moment, he led the team to victory in the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) quarter-finals as a freshman.

Neal fell in love with tennis at four-years-old when his mom encouraged him to pick up a racket.

At that time, he never would have imagined that he would eventually be ranked 24th in the country for his age group and have offers from several Ivy League schools by the time he was a junior.

“I just started hitting a couple of balls around and got signed up for some junior clinics. I thought those were a really fun experience and a great way to connect with friends,” Neal said.

Neal developed his ability to socialize by playing sports in elementary school, including basketball and soccer, but ultimately decided to focus on tennis when he entered high school.

“I was just better at tennis comparably, and I also liked that I could choose when I could play.

With tennis, you sign up for a tournament and you’re playing by yourself versus with team sports, the coach decides when you sit on the bench,” Neal said.

Despite Neal’s appreciation for the independence in tennis, Craig Flax, the head coach of boys’ varsity tennis, says Neal has always been there for his teammates.

“For the higher-ranked guys like [Neal], it’s pretty easy to choose to disassociate yourself from the team. Just sort of show up and play. But [Neal] never did,” Flax said. “My favorite memory of him was actually in practice when he was playing with

Photo courtesy of Douglas Zimmerman/ Special to Marin Independent Journal

PLAYING AGAINST TAMALPAIS High School in the 2018 MCAL Tennis Championship, Neal focuses on his next backhand. a friend of his, Zachary Gerstenfeld. They were out there having a really good time, and Zach was giving him a run for his money on a couple of points. Zach’s game when he was hitting with [Neal] was unlike anything I had [seen] before from him.”

Beyond his ability to push his teammates to play better and his outstanding sportsmanship, Flax admires Neal’s mental game and competitive spirit.

Flax attributes these qualities to Neal’s power as a player.

“He’s a workhorse; he does whatever it takes to win. He has probably the strongest mental fortitude

of anybody that I’ve ever coached,” Flax said.

Waking up at 6:30 a.m. to work out before school and then heading to practice for three to four hours afterward during a typical day, Neal’s strength doesn’t end with his mental grit. He makes sure that he is a force to be reckoned with on the court.

“I don’t want anyone to outwork me. So I’m putting as much effort as I can at each point and really trying to make it difficult on the opponent if they’re winning,” Neal said.

Throughout Neal’s entire tennis career, he has had this drive pushing him to success. He was named Marin Independent Journal’s tennis player of the year as a freshman and won the Daniel Scafidi Junior Sportsmanship Award in 2019, which is presented to an extraordinary youth player for great sportsmanship. With a 25-13 record, Neal has secured a spot on Yale University’s tennis team and plans to pursue environmental engineering in the future.

During his time playing for Redwood, Neal helped lead the team to victory in the North Coast Section (NCS) two years in a row, ranking them top 10 in the whole country in the process. A friend and former teammate, Dylan Kapur recalls winning their NCS tournament.

“Winning NCS is my favorite memory with [Neal]. He was playing two singles, and he clinched the win for us. Everyone was so happy, and although we were expecting to win, [Neal] fought through it like any other game,” Kapur said.

Reflecting on his time playing alongside Neal at Redwood, Kapur believes––similarly to Flax––that Neal’s mindset sets him apart from other players.

“He’s a great player both physically and technique-wise, but also mentally,” Kapur said.

“He’s really optimistic. He’ll set his mind to a goal, and he works super hard to achieve that, and that’s why he’s had so much success.” telliott@redwoodbark.org

The biggest boom since Tiger: golf soars as the newest sports fad

By Keegan Williams Golf was seemingly the forgotten sport of our generation. Prior to the pandemic, the sport had an underwhelming number of young players. However, once COVID-19 restricted most high school sports, this changed. As a result, golf gained youth attention almost overnight, bringing young athletes out of their lonely bedrooms and onto green grass to socialize and play with friends. This is something many have not experienced since last March. Luckily, the sport remained virtually unaffected by the pandemic.

Interest among students has dramatically increased since the start of COVID-19. According to a January 2021 survey, 32 percent of Redwood students who play golf started during the pandemic. Junior Josh Blum learned to golf when he was four years old, but his clubs had been collecting dust in the basement until last March.

“Until a year ago, I didn’t want to get better. [Now] I have so much more free time to play a couple holes which is always a nice thing to do,” Blum said.

Blum’s favorite aspect of golf is playing in different social atmospheres.

“It’s relaxing and fun to play; you

can go out with friends and not care [about your score] and just have fun or you can go out with your family or play for money,” Blum said.

With golf being one of the few sports that remained open at full capacity throughout the pandemic, student-athletes are flocking to popular courses in Marin including Stonetree, Meadow Club, Peacock Gap and McInnis. A month into quarantine, senior and varsity lacrosse player Hugh Stevenson began playing golf to fill up his free time.

“I went up to the driving range at McInnis with a couple of friends, and after that I went a couple times with my dad and brother and I was hooked,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson enjoys the way golf challenges him mentally, expressing how important it is to not let one’s mental game disrupt the physical game on the course.

“It’s a big mental game, you have to be calm and focus on the task [while] combining a lot of technique to succeed. [This] is extremely difficult, but once you do it’s very rewarding,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson has taken a few lessons with Redwood parent Jim O’Neill to improve his technique. O’Neal has been a golf instructor for 30 years at three different clubs around the Bay Area,

Photo by Keegan Williams

PEACOCK GAP GOLF Club is a popular public golf course for beginners and long-time players alike. and is currently in his 18th year as the Head Golf Professional at the Meadow Club. He has also noticed the increase in popularity and is excited about what it means for the future of golf.

“It’s a dramatic increase and it’s all over the country. It’s an increase of 15 percent in some areas and as much as 25-30 percent in other areas,” O’Neal said.

There has not been this much of a “big boom” in the sport since 1997 when Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament. He hopes this growth will continue and that people will play the

sport throughout their lives.

“For the next three to four years [after 1997] the game was growing very quickly but tapered off and was in a holding pattern after that,” O’Neal said.

Golf’s popularity boom is mostly attributed to the inability to play other sports during the pandemic. Still, The challenges and beauty of the sport keep old golfers coming back and now bringing new, younger friends with them. kwilliams@redwoodbark.org

Page 15 • Sports

www.redwoodbark.org

NFL review: a season of broken records and broken bones

By Declan McDaniels The 2020-2021 National Football League (NFL) season brought viewers an array of nail biters and highlight reels, despite concerns over the safety and logistics of allowing a football season to proceed during COVID-19. The NFL managed to carry out games in one of the most hectic and memorable seasons in history, representative of the year in which it took place. Many teams had COVID-19 outbreaks within their organizations, resulting in the league holding games on all days of the week for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, injuries disrupted most of the season; this can be attributed to the shortened off-season and lack of preseason games.

Some of the best players in the league were taken out for the year after being injured at the start of the season. Saquon Barkley, Nick Bosa and Dak Prescott all suffered season-ending injuries early in the year, putting their respective teams at a disadvantage. Bosa was a top candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, Prescott threw an NFL record 1,690 yards in his first four games and Barkley was already a consensus top ten running back in the league in only his third season. These early injuries caused speculation for the possible impact that no pre-season games and limited organized team activities (OTAs) could have on players. In October, Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he believes that limited conditioning is bad for the players’ health.

“Even though all of us have been playing football for our entire lives, we still need that time to acclimate our bodies to that ground and pound, especially our tendons and ligaments, stuff you have to condition.” Fitzpatrick said, “ If your body isn’t conditioned to it ... a running back goes out there and runs the ball 20 times and gets beat up, that’s tough. You’re definitely going to see a lot of injuries across the board.”

Additionally, 2019 league leaders Christian McCaffrey and Michael Thomas went out with early injuries, and they both missed the majority of the season. The 2020 first overall pick, Joe Burrow, had his rookie campaign cut short after tearing his ACL and MCL in a game against Washington in Week 11. Other notable players to sustain impactful injuries were George Kittle, Odell Beckham Jr., Derwin James, Courtland Sutton, Ronnie Staley, Julio Jones, Austin Ekeler, Jimmy Garoppolo, Von Miller, Richard Sherman, Nick Chubb, Joe Mixon, Tyron Smith, Kenny Golladay and more.

Having lost many star players, this year’s league leaders in offense and defense were both familiar and new.

Deshaun Watson led all quarterbacks with 4,823 passing yards but has now requested a trade after a 4-12 record and a lack of involvement in the Houston Texans’ organization decisions. Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook and Alvin Kamara all dominated the running back stat lines, with Henry scoring 17 touchdowns and Cook and Kamara each scoring 16 in their career seasons. Henry repeated as the league’s rushing leader with a whopping 2,027 rushing yards, the eighth player to reach 2,000 yards in NFL history, and on Dec. 25, Kamara ran for six touchdowns, which had not happened in a game since 1929.

In another statistical category, this season’s receiving leader was Stefon Diggs, who had the best season of his career with Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. This season, the top defensive players saw new faces across the board, as Xavien Howard, T.J. Watt and Zack Cunningham topped the charts for interceptions, sacks and tackles, respectively.

Along with the league leaders, this year’s rookie class brought immense talent to the NFL, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Justin Jefferson and Justin

Herbert each had incredible rookie seasons in a tight race for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Jefferson broke Randy Moss’s Vikings and Anquan Boldin’s NFL rookie receiving record after securing 1,400 yards in 16 games.

Herbert became the fastest rookie to reach 30 touchdowns, notched 379 completions for an NFL rookie record, and scored 36 touchdowns for another NFL rookie record.

Jefferson and Herbert were not the only rookies to show off their immense talent. Rookie running backs all over the league gained attention with their exciting skill, including James Robinson, Antonio Gibson, Jonathan Taylor and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Second overall pick Chase Young was another young player who impressed this season, helping lead Washington’s defense throughout the regular season and into a playoff spot.

The Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs earned the number one seed in their divisions, led by the top two Most Valuable Player (MVP) candidates, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. After the Packers decided to take a quarterback in the first round of the 2020 draft––passing on the numerous talented receivers despite Rodgers’ expressed desire for an additional receiver––Rodgers exceeded expectations and had one of the best seasons of his career. He was number one in touchdowns, completion percentage and quarterback rating while throwing only five interceptions through 16 games, which was less than any other quarterback. Rodgers was able to throw to the talented pass catcher Davante Adams, the clear best ESPN fantasy receiver, leading multiple statistical categories after having the best season of his seven-year long career.

The Chiefs continued their dominance with a 14-2 season led by the league’s best offense. Mahomes had another great season, finishing top five in yards, touchdowns and quarterback rating, throwing only six interceptions. Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill led the offense alongside Mahomes, both scoring more than ten touchdowns and racking up over 1,200 yards. Kelce broke the record for most yards by a tight end in a single season with 1,407, previously set by George Kittle in 2018 with 1,377 yards.

The playoffs included some exciting storylines, such as the Browns’ first trip to the playoffs since 2002 and the Bills seeking their first playoff win since 1995.

Each team won their first-round matchup, but both were beaten in the following two rounds by the Chiefs, the American Football Conference (AFC) champions. Tom Brady and the Buccaneers beat Drew Brees and the Saints in an exciting and historic game. This was followed by the National Football Conference (NFC) championship matchup between Rodgers and Brady, ending with a 3126 score in favor of the Buccaneers and sending Brady to his tenth Super Bowl appearance. The Buccaneers became the first team in history to simultaneously host and play in the Super Bowl, which took place on Sunday, Feb. 7 in Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay dominated the game in a 31-9 win over the Chiefs. The Buccaneers defense did not allow a touchdown in an outstanding performance against one of the league’s best offenses, racking up multiple sacks and interceptions.

Brady took home his fifth Super Bowl MVP and scored three touchdowns, two of which were caught by longtime Patriots teammate Rob Gronkowski. This win cements Brady’s legacy as the greatest quarterback of all time and caps off what was one of the most eventful seasons in NFL history.

dmcdaniels@redwoodbark.org

Image courtesy of CBS Sports THE 2021 NFL playoff bracket included multiple upsets and nail-biters in a solid end to the season.

bark

February 12, 2021 bark Page 16 • Sports Kylie Horstmeyer graduates early to play for Division I USD

By Hannah Sellers

enthusiasm will remain in the Phil Roak gymnasium, but her teammates feel the loss of both a strong player as well as a supportive team member. Senior Brooke Strodder will especially miss Horstmeyer after playing alongside her for four years.

“She is definitely a natural leader,” Strodder said. “She always pushes everyone and helps us rise to challenges.”

In addition to Horstmeyer’s unwavering stream of positivity and bubbly personality, Strodder notes that Horstmeyer’s relentless drive to enhance her skills never failed to impress the rest of her team.

“She has a constant craving

Spring semester of senior year is typically a time to celebrate accomplishments and experience one last hurrah with lifelong friends; however, for the class of 2021, little tradition remains. On Jan. 2, senior Kylie Horstmeyer seized the opportunity to take an alternative path. Graduating a semester early to head down to Southern California as a Division I recruited athlete at the University of San Diego (USD), Horstmeyer begins a new chapter of her basketball career.

After three years of leading the girls’ basketball team to victory, Horstmeyer felt to get better dismal about the prospect every single of a senior season given day,” Strodder said. “It is crazy to California’s strict sports watch her grow because she is already the best at guidelines. When USD everything; how is she going to get even better? offered her a spot Then it happens, and it’s so fun to watch.” on their basketball Strodder shares this sentiment with her coach team, though it meant as well. Redwood basketball coach Diane Peterson potentially missing a has seen Horstmeyer grow remarkably as a player final few games as well throughout many years of mentoring. From a young as the closing months age, Peterson saw Horstmeyer as a fierce competitor of high school with friends, who enjoyed pushing herself to the limits with the Horstmeyer knew it was not a steadfast work ethic she rarely encounters in young chance to pass up. athletes. Years later, Horstmeyer continued to “I think that the opportunity that was impress Peterson with a hunger to improve at every presented in front of me outweighed practice. everything when I measure out the “[Horstmeyer] made sure to put in extra work in pros and cons,” Horstmeyer said. “I jumped on it as soon as possible.”

The legacy of Horstmeyer’s talent and Photo courtesy of Kylie Horstmeyer

the off-hours when nobody else was watching, and was determined to elevate her game in every way possible,” Peterson said.

Beyond her versatility on the court, Peterson saw Horstmeyer as a vital contributor to the team's spirit. She remarked that extremely gifted athletes commonly fail to act with their team in mind. That was never an issue with Horstmeyer. “[Horstmeyer] is an extremely humble and incredible team player. If anything, she wants others around her to elevate as well,” Peterson said.

“She is extremely unselfish which is a tremendous quality.”

Horstmeyer has trained tirelessly for years to reach the position she is in today. With a collegiate basketball coach as a mom and other relatives heavily involved in the sport, she aspired to play beyond high school from a young age.

When the opportunity finally arose, she found the USD program to be a strong fit in regards to the team community and excellent coaching staff. Likewise, Peterson sees USD’s basketball program as a perfect match for Horstmeyer as a player and teammate.

“She enjoys the pain that comes along with getting better and being pushed out of your comfort zone. At USD she’s going to be surrounded by athletes who are going to push her, a coach that’s going to push her; she thrives in that kind of environment,” Peterson said.

Despite not attending a classic graduation full of air horns, Instagram photos and crying parents, Horstmeyer could not be more excited to close her high school experience in pursuit of her collegiate basketball dreams.

“I'm so grateful. I made the decision to prioritize basketball, and would not change it for anything,” Horstmeyer said. “I would do it all again 100 percent. I would even do it harder.” hsellers@redwoodbark.org

Boys’ baseball swings into their unique 2021 season

By Mia Kessinger After triumphant 2018 and 2019 seasons, Redwood’s baseball team was headed towards a three-peat for the Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) Championship during the 2020 season. However, it was cut short due to the breakout of COVID-19, preventing the team from achieving that goal. Although the virus is still spreading in Marin, the baseball team has started practicing in order to maintain excellency in MCALs and in the state — all while strictly following COVID-19 safety guidelines.

High school athletic protocol prevents Redwood from officially training together before tryouts in March, so the team practices as one of head coach Mike Firenzi’s club teams.

They practice twice a week while adhering to regulations by wearing masks at all times and splitting into cohorts of infielders, outfielders and pitchers/catchers. Although the boys all practice at the same time, they avoid overlap between groups unless they are having intrasquad scrimmages during which they take extra care to keep their masks above their noses, according to senior captain Ben Cohen, a Pomona Pitzer commit.

“The only times we are less than six feet apart are when we are hitting and there is a catcher behind us or when there is a runner on first [base] who is close to the first basemen. Those are the

times when we are most careful and are sure our masks are on correctly.

We also avoid high fives to make sure we are safe — we take it really seriously so that we can have a season,” Cohen said.

Despite not being able to fully practice together or scrimmage other teams, the team is lucky to be practicing at all, according to Firenzi. Additionally, holding unofficial practices prior to the start of the season gives them an advantage over other teams who are not training.

“We have a basic philosophy that we try to be better than everyone else by practicing more and harder than our opponents. [The pandemic] has created the type of situation where you could do two things: you could complain about wearing a mask and being six feet apart, or you could take it and be grateful that you are even able to play,” Firenzi said.

Adding on to the already stressful season, the team lost eleven seniors last year along with their ability to hold bonding activities, making it more difficult to establish a strong team dynamic. With this in mind, Cohen feels that it is more important for the team to get to know each other during their limited practice time.

“We are trying to talk to the new members as much as possible and are throwing with different

Photo by Mia Kessinger

LEADING OFF FIRST base, senior Mikey Bender looks to steal second base. guys in order to get to know them. If yet they also want to win the state we establish a bond now so we are championship tournament. Cohen comfortable calling each other out speculates that by continuing to train later, that will really help us when we for the season, even throughout the are in a game scenario where we need pandemic, they should be able to to keep each other accountable,” Cohen maintain their success within the said. league and even the state.

Furthermore, junior player Charlie “We don’t have as much Welch believes fewer opportunities to experience as a team than we did in practice as a team have pushed the boys years past, but our coach teaches us to practice more individually. in a way so that we are prepared,” “[COVID-19] is definitely making it Cohen said. “He hates to lose more hard to develop a tight-knit bond, but at than he loves to win, so we feed off the same time I can see how the extra of his energy and we are unstoppable. time [to practice by ourselves] has paid Because we are going the extra mile off because our skills are progressing to practice now, we should be ready even with fewer practices,” Welch said. to beat anyone by the time March Due to the team’s success in the rolls around.” past, their expectation is to win MCALs, mkessinger@redwoodbark.org

review

Page 17

Super Bowl Weeknd: the performance was ‘Heartless’

By Jackson Epps We all know The Weeknd. “After Hours” sold upwards of 400 thousand copies in its first week. Spurred by its viral TikTok success, “Blinding Lights” is still in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 over a year after its release, the longest-running top 10 in the chart’s 60-year history.

The Weeknd certified his success with the release of his greatest hits album, “The Highlights,” a 104-date world tour announcement and promptly followed it with a Super Bowl LV performance.

Breaking from tradition, The Weeknd opted out of any surprise guests or collaborators, unlike his predecessors Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, whose 2020 Super Bowl performance has since

Image courtesy of Billboard

surpassed 190 million views on Youtube. But, something — anything — to spice things up would’ve been greatly appreciated. The lack of movement on stage, with the exception of the choir/orchestra occasionally featured in the background, made me yearn for another Beyonce versus Bruno Mars dance battle.

Emerging from the futuristic choir hidden in the stands, The Weeknd sang a medley of his biggest hits.

Foregoing a stage set in the center circle, The Weeknd instead set up in the stands above the Chief’s endzone.

Despite his vast back-catalog and hit-collection, the lackluster performance did not compare to years past.

The 13-minute set was plagued by audio issues; The Weeknd’s lyrics often blended together into an unintelligible hum, drowned out by the overpowering instrumental.

Further setting his performance apart from past halftime shows, there was a prolonged portion of the set in the wings of the stands, forcing the in-person audience to watch the performance on the Jumbo-Tron.

Initially, it was appealing. Distorted footage of The Weeknd as he came in and out of focus, stepping towards and then away from the camera in gold-plated halls provided a welcome respite from the otherwise run-of-themill set. Bandage-clad dancers crashed into The Weeknd and the walls creating a scene of chaos. Unfortunately for those watching, the excitement created by the sudden introduction of the dancers and jittery camera-work soon lost its element of surprise and instead dragged on until The Weeknd finally arrived on the field itself.

The Weeknd’s backup dancers were another low-point. Their haphazard and sometimes directionless running on the field was less than compelling.

If you’ve been keeping up with The Weeknd through his slew of 2020 award show performances (especially the American Music Awards and Video Music Awards), the dancers’ beat-up and bloodied look may not have come as a surprise. If you somehow managed to avoid it, here’s the history: according to Variety, The Weeknd is reflecting on “people manipulating themselves for

Image courtesy of Billboard

PELTED BY FOOTBALLS, The Weeknd stars in a commercial posted on his Instagram account for his Super Bowl LV performance. superficial reasons to please and be validated.” While the choreography was lacking, The Weeknd put significant effort into his performance’s storyline.

The Weeknd’s halftime show was a huge disappointment. He has slowly built up a larger-than-life persona since emerging into the mainstream with 2015 hits like “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face.” What should have been the cementing of his place as one of music’s most prominent figures, instead, fell short, leaving both the 25 thousand in-person audience and the Super Bowl’s 185 million at-home viewers in disappointment.

jepps@redwoodbark.org

‘Let the Lord Sort Them’ paints a chilling picture of capital punishment

By Sophia Rocha “Let the Lord Sort Them,” a book by Maurice Chammah released on Jan. 26, takes an in-depth look at the history of capital punishment through specific cases in the state of Texas, which is notoriously known for its long history with the death penalty. Along with being an author, Chammah is also a journalist and staff writer for the Marshall Project, a non-profit organization reporting on criminal justice issues in the United States.

Image courtesy of Tamir Kalifa

AUTHOR MAURICE CHAMMAH has written for the Marshall Project throughout his career.

Chammah’s relation to the Marshall Project and personal thoughts on capital punishment shine through in his writing.

Some of the facts he chooses to include are jarring, but it’s impossible not to wonder if any of the statistics were cherry picked.

It doesn’t take long, however, to find the nearly 100 page source list in the back of the book, allowing the reader to further their own personal research if they please.

Alongside his use of statistics, Chammah is most effective in his arguments when he uses firsthand accounts from capital punishment cases in Texas.

For example, in the first part of the book, Chammah follows Danalynn Recer, a white woman studying law. She takes a special interest in the Texas Resource Center, a group of lawyers who fight to get inmates off of death row, and decides to work with them. While telling the story of Recer, Chammah also documents the career of Elsa Alcala, a Mexican American prosecutor who attempts to give out death penalty sentences to those who deserve it.

This interesting dynamic not only allows the reader to understand both sides of the centuries old debate regarding capital punishment, but it also helps maintain interest in the book itself, as it wasn’t just a dry description of statistic after statistic.

Many of the cases highlighted through the anecdotes of lawyers such as Recer and Alcala happened to be cases of Black men on death row. Although Chammah chose not to make the issue of race the focus of his entire book, he does use his research to make and support the claim that lynchings of Black people, along with many other

minority groups, are the root of capital punishment. Some of his points allude to the systemic racism that the criminal justice system is built on, but no claim goes unsupported.

Though the book was thoroughly

the “rise” of the death penalty and the other part depict the “fall,” the second part mirrors the first, only choosing different cases and characters to spotlight.

Overall, if little organizational hiccups can be overlooked, this is an excellent

Photo by Sophia Rocha

WINNING AWARDS BEFORE publishing, including the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Book Award, “Let the Lord Sort Them” exceeds expectations. researched, one small detail is difficult to omit. The full title of the book is, “Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty.” The book is split into two parts, “Rise” and “Fall” respectfully.

Despite seemingly creating a theme, Chammah did not stick to this at all in his writing. Rather than having one part depict

read for anyone who enjoys educating themselves about criminal justice. The perfect blend of statistical and anecdotal evidence is more than enough to capture a willing audience, and Chammah’s extensive research does not disappoint. srocha@redwoodbark.org

February 12, 2021 bark Page 18 • Review Five resources for allies’ education during Black History Month Story and Illustrations by Caroline Goodhart

Over the past year, there has been a great deal of turbulence in the U.S. surrounding the unfair treatment of Black citizens, specifically by police and in the justice system. Incidents including the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery rebirthed the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that began in 2013.

Emphasizing education is an important step in the fight for equality and will help white allies better understand the injustices in our country, and making an effort to learn about the daily struggles of African Americans will allow for more sympathy and understanding in our communities. The BLM movement is far from over, and this Black History Month it is more important than ever to make an effort to educate ourselves on Black history. Here are some informative and engaging resources to utilize.

Documentary: “13th” A great way to educate yourself on history is through film, especially documentaries. “13th,” a Netflix documentary produced by Ava DuVernay, who is most famously known for “Selma” (another great film), is a moving story that highlights the injustices of the incarceration system in the U.S. The documentary, as the title conveys, is about the thirteenth amendment; more specifically, the clause –– and loophole –– stating that slavery is illegal “except as a punishment for crime.” It covers the convergence of race and the justice system and traces the roots of unjust punishment back to the Civil War. The one hour and 40-minute film does an exceptional job of accounting for many aspects of systematic racism and is careful not to over-simplify the extremely complex problem. The feature is emotional, thought-provoking and an excellent social-political query.

Series: “America to Me” Another illuminating option is the ten-part docuseries “America to Me,” created by filmmaker Steve James and available on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Starz. The series explores the racial disparities that high school students face at Oak Park and River Forest High School in a suburb of Chicago by following the daily lives of multiple students. The school is racially diverse and approximately one-third of the students at the school are Black, but these students face injustices

daily. The racial groups in the school are separated and Black students are presented with fewer opportunities.

Considering Redwood’s population, according to US News and World Reports, is about 70 percent white, the hour-long episodes are especially eye-opening because it gives a realistic perspective on what life is like for minorities and what it means to be a Black student in the American public school system.

Podcasts: “Code Switch” and “#TellBlackStories” Podcasts are another exceptional method of storytelling. “Code Switch”

by NPR is an educational podcast hosted by Black journalists that features valiant –– and much needed –– conversations about race.

The podcast makes a deliberate effort to cover all sides of the Black experience in America, discussing everything from politics to pop culture.

Code Switch’s most recent release was a conversation on the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on Black Americans and is definitely worth the 19-minute listen.

For those especially interested in pop culture and Hollywood, the nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, Color of Change, released the remarkable podcast “#TellBlackStories.”

It pushes for the recognition of the role Black actors have in Hollywood and acknowledges how unfairly Black people are portrayed in movies and TV shows. The podcast has hosted big stars including Michael B. Jordan, Yara Shahidi and Taraji P. Henson, and the conversational format makes the podcast feel relaxed yet riveting.

Instagram Accounts: “@blackarchives.co” and “@ibramxk” Objectively, the leading factor in gaining support for the BLM movement is social media; the platforms make it easy for activists and allies to spread information, raise awareness and plan protests. However, many posts are full of flowery infographics with little information to offer.

There are so many accounts and influencers who do a great

job spreading awareness and deserve more attention. Black Archives (@blackarchives.co on Instagram) posts almost daily photos illustrating Black history and claims to be, “a multimedia platform that brings a spotlight to the Black experience.” As for platforms run by individuals, Ibram X. Khendi (@ibramxk on Instagram) is a phenomenal antiracist activist, historian, author and professor at Boston University. His IGTV is especially educational and he shares regular speeches and videos. The content he shares covers a wide variety of topics, including what it means to be anti-racist, how race relations in the U.S. can be improved and how to spot non-apparent racism.

Book: “12 Years a Slave” In a time when so many aspects of life are online, reading a book is a refreshing experience.

“12 Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup is an excellent autobiography that details the life of Northup, a man forced into slavery after growing up free and educated. Similar to “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas,” Northop’s story illustrates slavery through the eyes of a man who was not a product of the horrifying system, and instead, an attentive and motivated person who understood the importance of education as a path to freedom. The book is a page-turner and, despite being written in the mid-1800s, is not difficult to understand.

In addition, there is a wonderful film adaptation of the book that won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay in 2013. The story is a timeless, important and un-glorified narrative of the unjust and grisly circumstances Black Americans were forced into for ages, something that must never be forgotten.

Learning about Black history can be an eye-opening experience that all Americans should commit to. If everyone allocates some time to the cause, Americans can all be on the same page when beginning the conversation about anti-racist work to be done and can make a positive step forward on the path to justice and equality. cgoodhart@redwoodbark.org

The ‘sol’-warming Viqtor Food by Sol Food is a must-try

By Avery Aguero

the nice topping combination, the tortilla lacked the crispiness that I had hoped for.

The savory aromas of hearty stews, mouth-watering sandwiches and garlicky Bruce’s Spicy Coconutty Stew meats seasoned with fresh herbs and spices fill the air outside Sol Food, San Rafael’s As a long-time fan of curry and other popular Puerto Rican eatery. Customers coconut milk-based dishes, Viqtor Food composing a never-ending line outside La did not let me down with its unique Puerto Bodega wait patiently for their takeout as Rican twist on a hearty, curry-like stew. the comforting smell of Latin American cuisine wafts past them. At the main entrance of the restaurant is the pickup location of its newest establishment, Viqtor Food. The menu features a wide variety of options such as fresh salads, sandwiches, egg dishes, casseroles, tacos and stews, all of which are available for online ordering and pick up at the San Rafael location or through food delivery services. As someone who would eat Sol Food any day of the week, I could not wait to try it out.

Victor’s Tacos For the steep price of $10.95, Victor’s Tacos topped with sour cream, fresh guacamole, homemade spicy red sauce and your choice of chicken or potato filling will have you savoring every last bite.

Overall, this dish did not disappoint nor did it fall short on the portion size. From the smokiness of the hot red sauce to the light and creamy texture of the guacamole, the flavors in the dish were perfectly balanced.

I decided to go with the chicken filling in my tacos and while my taste buds did enjoy

came with two fried garlic plantains, fluffy rice and a roasted serrano pepper, all for $9.95. Although I would have enjoyed a protein with my meal, I was reluctant to pay an additional $9.95 given the fact that this meal was already expensive for its portion size. I highly recommend this dish to anyone comfortable with spending a little extra cash for a classic comfort meal.

beets, a hard boiled egg and fresh lime, is a nice dish that pairs well with any of Viqtor Food’s substantial soups or sandwiches.

The overall quality of this meal does not compensate for its stiff price of $12, so I would opt out of adding a serving of tuna salad or chicken for an extra $6. Despite the simplicity of its ingredients, this salad did not lack freshness or flavor, as the shredded beets and carrots were just sweet enough to balance the bitterness of the greens and the salty hard boiled egg.

I expected the dressing to pair well with the light and crunchy vegetables, but it was too bland; it could have been more acidic to boost its flavor profile.

Jamaica Iced Tea

Wash down any of the items listed above and get your money’s worth with a tall, refreshing cup of herbal Jamaica Iced Tea for $4.25. The subtle sweetness of the hibiscus tea poured over ice is the perfect palette cleanser for any Viqtor Food menu item. I highly recommend ordering this tropical beverage on a warm, sunny day.

My taste-testing experience at Viqtor Photo by Avery Aguero Food was delightful and I would definitely BRUCE’S SPICY COCONUTTY Stew with rice and plantains will warm your heart recommend giving the new place a try, and satisfy your hunger, but beware of the spice! especially to all the Sol Food lovers like myself.

At first bite, the tangy coconut broth with Shredded Special Salad sauteed onions and crushed tomatoes packed a quick, spicy punch, leaving my The Shredded Special Salad, made with mouth cool with every bite. This dish also organic mixed greens, shredded carrots, aaguero@redwoodbark.org

www.redwoodbark.org

Page 19 • Review

These television couples will melt your (chocolate) heart

By Greta Cifarelli As the holiday of love approaches, those stuck at home binge their favorite television shows, envious of the beloved couples. Both wacky and sometimes unreliable, these couples show us the easy and difficult aspects of how to love.

Although they may not always exhibit the most healthy relationships, the pairs are definitely entertaining. Unfortunately, this Valentine’s Day will not be one of dinner dates and nights in town. So, grab some chocolate hearts (and tissues) and ponder which couple would survive the pandemic by living vicariously through them.

bark

and disagreements to fit the sitcom’s heated, comedic nature. There is a widely held belief that opposites attract, and with Cam’s exuberant behavior contrasting Mitch’s understated temperament, the two make for a fiery relationship. A lot of viewers disagree with their pairing, arguing that the duo borders on toxic at times. However, for the sake of the show and entertainment, they work together and their interactions are the most fun to watch.

Because playful banter is Mitch and Cam’s favorite pastime and being cooped up in a house for a long period of time away from their family allows for a lot of it, hopefully they would find another way to express themselves –– or at least take walks separately.

Jane and Rafael - “Jane the Virgin” Sometimes all you need is accidental Homer and Marge - “The Simpsons” Image courtesy of IndieWire artificial insemination to fall in love.

While it is not the most conventional Navigating parenthood, ex-wives, celebrity FEATURED IN 11 seasons, protagonists Mitch and Cam speak to the camera in the romance, Homer and Marge Simpson fathers and murderous stepmothers, Jane mockumentary style show, “Modern Family.” have maintained a marriage for over 30 and Rafael seem to have the world pitted Sarah Cameron and John B - “Outer are right for each other (the “we were on years. When watching them raise their Banks” a break!” debacle will probably never be children, no matter how dysfunctional the Everyone’s favorite quarantine binge, resolved), we see that these characters are family can be, you can feel love through “Outer Banks,” allowed us to wish for at their best when they’re together. the hysterics. Homer may be childish and our own John B or Sarah Cameron as Arguably two of the most high incompetent doing most everything, but an adventure partner. Sarah Cameron and maintenance television characters, the duo his dynamic with Marge allows her to John B are the modern-day Romeo and would spend a lot of time complaining show her love by caring for him. Even Juliet and the epitome of teenage puppy during the pandemic. Whether it be that when their arguments lead them to make love. Coming from different upbringings a paleontologist is not essential or that rash decisions, the episodes end in an with their own slew of problems to tackle, Central Perk does not have outdoor seating, entertaining reconciliation that makes the an unlikely alliance turns romantic while they would have to navigate a lot of issues fighting worthwhile. they look for lost treasure. What makes this in the extra time spent together. But they Homer and Marge’s relationship seems pair so special is their immediate emotional can handle it, because after all, he’s her on the rocks at some points, but it is connection even with their forbidden love. lobster. nothing in comparison to their questionable The relationship will unfold further in parenting. Try to imagine them cooped up season two, which is anticipated to drop Mitchell and Cameron - “Modern in a house with their children: it would this year.

Family” certainly not bode well.

Although the pandemic will probably Fan-favorite couple Mitch and Cam not be mentioned in the “Outer Banks” had an interesting dynamic in their universe, Sarah Cameron and John years together on Modern Family. Their Image courtesy of Vulture B’s daring spirit would be unfazed if relationship comes with a lot of bickering gcifarelli@redwoodbark.org GINA RODRIGUEZ WON an Emmy for COVID-19 struck their town. Even a her performance as Jane on the hit CW natural disaster could not convince them to take a break from solving mysteries. While show “Jane The Virgin.” their relationship may not be strained, their against them. As they experiment with refusal to follow stay-at-home guidelines being co-parents to lovers to friends, it would surely be frowned upon in town. seems as though the two will never settle Ross and Rachel - “Friends” down. Even though a child brought them As “Friends” dominated television together, it is their love for each other that in the 1990s, Ross and Rachel arguably gets them through all the mayhem.

While Jane and Rafael would have became the most iconic “will they, won’t challenges being stuck inside with each they?” couple. The partners have known other for months on end, like caring for a and loved each other on and off since high child and managing an empty hotel, they school, so they understand one another and would definitely be the most adaptable it is impossible to keep them apart. Ross couple. This pair has endured much worse and Rachel give each other dating advice on the show and staying at home together (even with other people!) and still care for Image courtesy of NewsMax would be a nice change of pace from their one another during their biggest fights. MARRIED FOR 32 seasons, the Simpsons portrays the lives of Homer, Marge and While it is sometimes questionable if they their children. action-packed lifestyle.

Crank the volume and hit the road for a NorCal night drive!

By Mara Farese

With travel regulations, social distancing requirements and cold weather, many students find it hard to spend time outside. The start of 2021 has brought with it more COVID-19 cases, making it clear that we need to switch up the way we’ve been living this past year.

Night drives are an excellent activity to get out of the house without going to public places. All students need the relief that can come from listening to the kind of music that m a k e s you forget life’s problems and live in the moment — this playlist is just that.

A great way to reset your mind is to take a drive down Marin County’s renowned coastal roads. Driving around the Bay Area is not only a creative way to get out of the house, but also an opportunity to see and appreciate the majestic beauty of the Northern California coast.

The playlist incorporates a soundtrack to a night on the road, ranging from peppy rap songs to high school sing-alongs to songs for your very own “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” tunnel moment.

Illustrations by Kalyn Dawes

PLAYLIST: TROJAN HORSE - SEBASTIAN PAUL Higher Ground - ODESZA, Naomi Wild The Difference - Flume, Toro y Moi The Spins - Mac Miller French Riviera - Cautious Clay On My Own - Jaden, Kid Cudi Insane - Flume, Moon Holiday Free - Louis the Child, Drew Love White Walls - Macklemore, ScHoolboy Q Wonder - Shawn Mendes California Nights - Best Coast Heroes - David Bowie Nights - Neon Trees Kids - MGMT Perfect Places - Lorde Holy Ghost - BORNS Midnight City - M83 Time to Pretend - MGMT Famous - Kanye West Use your Spotify app and scan this code to access the full playlist!

mfarese@redwoodbark.org

February 12, 2021 bark Page 20 • Review And the Grammy for Record Of The Year goes to...

By Audrey Lightfoot Grammy season is quickly approaching, which means we are in store for incredible performances, show stopping outfits and, of course, awards. After delays due to COVID-19, the 63rd Grammys will finally be taking place on March 14 on Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). There are a total of 83 categories, however, the most anticipated of them is the coveted Record Of The Year. All the nominees within this category are exceptionally talented and deserving, but some outshine others. Here is a review of the Record Of The Year nominees. “everything i wanted” by Billie Eilish Billie Eilish once again dominates the music world with her single “everything i wanted,” which was released on Nov. 13, 2019. Since the song’s debut, it has continued to grow in popularity, even reaching the number eight spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in November of 2019.

This song does not disappoint vocally, musically or lyrically. The sound is captivating and chilling, as it leads with soft piano and is later met with a gentle yet consistent beat. The melody accompanies Eilish’s eerie voice, trailing the piano’s delicate notes. The chorus features the layering of both Eilish’s voice and the voice of her brother, FINNEAS, who cowrote and produced the song. Eilish is the predominant focus, as her vocals are higher and more volumized, while FINNEAS’s voice adds a low, faded vocal to create a subtle yet entrancing harmony. Sensitive and traumatizing all at once, the lyrics describe one of Eilish’s past nightmares in which she commits suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Despite the dark storyline, it also represents her strong relationship with her brother and his undying support for her. Eilish sings, “And you say, ‘As long as I’m here, no one can hurt you/Don’t wanna lie here, but you can learn to/If I could change the way that you see yourself/You wouldn’t wonder why you hear/‘They don’t deserve you.’”

“Say So” by Doja Cat Although Doja Cat is not a new artist for many, she has definitely garnered more acclaim this past year. Her latest album, “Hot Pink,” was released Nov. 7, 2019, and is her most successful yet, as its songs have been gaining a tremendous amount of traction on the social media platform TikTok. “Say So,” which is part of the “Hot Pink” album, is an upbeat, fun song that encapsulates the genres of pop, rap and even some influences of funk. Although the song can be slightly repetitive, the second verse diversifies the tempo by adding a rap section performed by Doja Cat herself.

“Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa British pop star Dua Lipa’s lead single, “Don’t Start Now,” off of her second album “Future Nostalgia,” became a fan favorite as soon it came out. With over 1 billion streams on Spotify and earning the number two spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in November of 2019, it is safe to say this song took over the music industry. Lyrically, the song describes a heartbreak Lipa endured, but quickly got over. She expresses that she is ready to move on despite the initial heartache. Lipa sings, “Did the heartbreak change me?/Maybe/But look at where I ended up/I’m all good already/So moved on it’s scary/I’m not where you left me at all.” The bass and percussion are by far the song’s most vital elements, creating an upbeat, groovy tune when meshed together. While unconventional, the noises of cowbells, synthesizers, handclaps and violin all work together to make a cohesive song. The sound range is undoubtedly what attracted such a large audience to Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.” “Circles” by Post Malone Rapper Post Malone has raised the bar for his new music and has furthered his musical career with his most recent album “Hollywood’s Bleeding,” which was released in September of 2019. “Circles,” a single off of his album, is one of Malone’s slower songs as it features simple guitar, bass and drums. These instruments work together to produce a catchy, head-nodding sound; however, lyrically, this song focuses on a melancholy topic. “Circles” describes the story of a struggling relationship as Malone sings, “Seasons change, and our love went cold/Feed the flame ‘cause we can’t let go/Run away, but we’re running in circles/Run away, run away.” Malone’s voice in this song does not follow his typical rap style; instead, his performance and vocal technique is more musically inclined with a soothing raspy quality to it, which accompanies the song very well.

“Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé “Savage” combines two of the most popular names in the music industry today: Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé.

Originally the rap song only featured Megan Thee Stallion, but after its release, a remix was later produced and made available to the public in which Beyoncé was featured. The remix features multiple new verses from both artists. Both Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé offer something different to the song as their musical stylings are different, but they complement each other well. It is up-tempo and the melody is centered around repeated piano keys and a powerful beat. In addition, the song includes Megan Thee Stallion’s classic and

Image courtesy of Stereogum

MEGAN THEE STALLION and Beyoncé collaborated on the song “Savage,” which was released on April 29, 2020. familiar vocal sound, “Ah.” and Beyoncé’s angelic voice. “Savage” is a great dance song as it focuses on confidence, body positivity and empowerment.

“Colors” by Black Pumas “Colors,” the single off the debut album of the recently formed psychedelic soul and R&B band, Black Pumas, has now reached over 39 million streams on Spotify. “Colors” features lead singer Eric Burton and guitarist Adrain Quesada. The song starts with slow strums of the acoustic guitar and is followed by the steady sounds of powerful percussion. Additionally, “Colors” has a funky bassline, which contributes to the song’s overall bluesy sound. Burton sounds absolutely incredible in this song as his spectacular vocal range and control shine throughout the entirety of “Colors.”

“Rockstar” by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch Unlike other rap songs, “Rockstar”

by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch leads with simple guitar chords and DaBaby’s vocal “Woo’s,” which are met with low, deep beats and clapping sounds to create a rap or hip hop tune. The song’s lyrics compare the lives and behavior of a rapper or hip hop artist to a rockstar, thus the name “Rockstar.” There is a big emphasis on using guns within the song, even comparing it to a rockstar’s guitar.

DaBaby raps, “This ain’t no guitar, b****,

it’s a Glock.” In addition, there is also an emphasis on the police as DaBaby raps, “Brand new Lamborghini, f*** a cop car.”

Overall, “Rockstar” had a catchy rhythm, but there was nothing spectacular about the song composition. DaBaby did more singing than he typically does on his other songs, and although it was a new, unique style change, it was not something that altered the song in a positive way.

“Black Parade” by Beyoncé The single “Black Parade” by Beyoncé was released on June 19, 2020, which is also Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the ending of slavery in the United States.

The song “Black Parade” celebrates Black pride and, more specifically, Black heritage. Beyoncé sings, “Put your fist up in the air, show Black love.” The song’s sound is led by a strong beat and various layerings of horn and flute melodies which captivates the listener. Not only is “Black Parade” an impressive song for its sound and production, but it also shares an important message and meaning behind it as it highlights a momentous day in American history. It serves as a reminder to honor the day of Juneteenth and is also a beautiful song.

alightfoot@redwoodbark.org

Image courtesy of RCA Records

Image courtesy of ATO Records

DOJA CAT’S ALBUM “Hot Pink”’ released Nov. 7, 2019, includes her popular single “Say So.”

THE BLACK PUMAS’ self-titled debut album was released on June 21, 2019 and was performed at President Biden’s inauguration.

lifestyles

Page 21

DHH students persevere through the pandemic

By Kent Goodman Imagine going to the store and struggling to understand the mumbling cashier. Now fast forward to 2021, where a mask obscures the bottom half of their face.

For deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals who rely heavily on lip cues and facial expressions to decipher speech, this situation becomes almost impossible. Fiona Hynes and Sarah Noble are both students in the DHH community; despite their vastly different situations, they have both overcome the obstacles that their hearing caused during the pandemic.

BEFORE COVID-19 “[My husband and I] were trying to have kids for a super long time. It took us almost 10 years. So when [Fiona and her twin, Jack] were born, I was just happy to have babies that were alive,” Jennifer, Fiona’s mom, said.

Fiona, a first-grader attending Laurel Dell Elementary School in San Rafael, was diagnosed with mild to moderate hearing loss during her infant hearing screening. Even though Fiona was already hard of hearing when she was born, during the first few years of her life she had several ear infections that made her overall hearing even worse. By the time she was four years old, she had lost practically all of her hearing which, according to Jennifer, was a distressing experience. “[When] she lost most of her hearing in her left ear, it was just traumatic. All of a sudden she was totally deaf, and communicating was really hard. She couldn’t go to school. If she did go to school, she was crying,” Jennifer said.

Luckily for Fiona and her family, the Marin County Office of Education (MCOE) Early Start program for kids with special needs was available to help. Through this program, Fiona had home visits from a DHH teacher and a speech therapist for continuous support throughout the process.

While Fiona was able to get diagnosed immediately after birth, many children born before her did not have the same opportunity. Redwood alumna Sarah Noble was born in New York in 1999, the year before the state started imposing newborn screening requirements. As a result, it was not until she was three years old that Noble was diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss, preventing her from hearing high pitch noises like fire alarms or microwave beeps. According to Jeannine Blankinship, the Hard of Hearing Specialist for Marin County, Noble was extremely independent and only occasionally needed minor help with hearing aid equipment.

“Sarah was super, super smart, and it was only because she had hearing loss that I helped her. I mean, she would have still been very successful without me,” Blankinship said.

With teachers’ accommodations, such as seating

her in the front of the room or posting the notes online a few days before they were discussed, Noble thrived at Redwood. Looking back at her experience, Noble greatly appreciates people like Blankinship who have supported her throughout her high school career.

“At Redwood, similar to the rest of my whole life, I felt so much support from the people [around] me and by my teachers. [Teachers] made the environment so that [my hearing loss] did not hinder my learning,” Noble said.

Noble, now a junior at Macalester College, believes DHH students have to put in more effort in order to receive the same level of education as her peers. At the beginning of each semester, she writes letters to her teachers regarding her hearing loss and suggests ways that they can help her succeed. Although professors are generally supportive at Macalester, Noble has run into a few problems with teachers in the past, despite her prior efforts of explaining her necessary accommodations. “[Midway through] my freshman year, I had to go to this mandatory presentation for a science class. I went up to my professor and said ‘I know I need to go to this presentation … can you please get in touch with the disability office and get [closed] captions for the event?’

She looked at me weirdly and just said ‘no,’” Noble said.

“She had no reason to be ignorant; it is not that hard to understand what hearing loss needs are.”

DURING COVID-19 Although Fiona had struggled with academics because of her hearing loss before COVID-19, the problems only worsened once her school went online.

“I just don’t think it’s possible for DHH kids to do virtual learning,” Jennifer said. “It was just a nightmare.

At that time, [Fiona] couldn’t understand anything that was being said. The [hearing system] was never working.

She had to have two computers, one for her interpreter and one for her teacher. We all just hated it.”

Online learning was so ineffective that Jennifer and Fiona’s teachers collectively decided that it would be best if Fiona did not attend school at all. Instead, Fiona was homeschooled for about seven months by Jennifer while her peers remained online.

“Last year in kindergarten, she was really social.

But, for a while during the pandemic, [Fiona] was really isolated and getting upset,” Jennifer said. “[Unlike other kids], she could not do online [school] with her friends and act goofy in class or talk to people during breakout rooms, and it was really heartbreaking.”

Jennifer constantly advocated for Fiona to go back to in-person, and, by December, Fiona was able to return to in-person learning three days a week with minimal online instruction. Despite Fiona’s happy ending, Jennifer is worried about the other DHH kids whose situations have not yet improved.

“For [DHH] students’ parents, especially during this time, they have to do so much more, or else their kids will slip through the cracks,” Jennifer said. “I’m concerned about most DHH kids’ situations. I fought so hard for Fiona

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Hynes

ADJUSTING TO A cochlear implant, 6-year-old Fiona Hynes thrives in the pandemic despite her hearing deficit. [and] now she has three days in person and everything is great, but what about the kids that don’t have parents that fight?”

Because Fiona’s hearing loss is so severe, Fiona decided to switch to a cochlear implant, which is a surgically implanted device that bypasses the normal hearing process by sending an electrical signal directly to the brain. By the end of October, the cochlear implant was activated, but the transition to the new piece of technology was rough. Jennifer had to constantly force Fiona to wear it because all Fiona heard was irritating ringing, and she kept wanting to take it off. However, over time Fiona began to adapt to the new technology and started to thrive. “[Fiona] was just not [originally] happy, but now she has just been lighting up and is the happiest kid ever,” Blankinship said. “[Fiona’s] life has dramatically changed in the past two months. Now, she loves school and it’s really awesome because a happy Fiona is a happy team.”

While Fiona was able to adapt during COVID-19 with the help of her family, Noble’s struggles affect her on an individual basis. In-person communication has been a major issue for her since the start of social distancing and mask-wearing. With masks covering people’s lips and their facial expressions, first-time greetings can be extremely difficult.

“I just accept that I’m not going to hear everything that someone says to me,” Noble said. “People might think that I’m being rude, but I just don’t have time to explain to everyone that I encounter that I have hearing loss.”

Conversely, COVID-19 has also presented technology that benefits Noble immensely. With all of her classes moved onto a computer screen, closed captions are easily accessible and effortlessly generated through sites like Otter. Now, Noble can thrive in online classes without the fear of mishearing — or not hearing altogether — the professor.

“I have never had a service like this before. [Otter] has definitely been a huge benefit to [me during] COVID-19 and has basically changed my life as a student. I wish I had this ever since I could read,” Noble said.

As new technologies are invented and improved, Blankinship believes the DHH community has progressed significantly over time. “[Teaching] deaf kids how to read a hundred years ago didn’t exist. ... These kids were never able to explore all of their options because they weren’t given them. So now, when we think of [DHH] kids graduating high school, that would have been insane one hundred years ago,” Blankinship said. “It’s cool to know that you can have a person, who has no hearing whatsoever, and they can do the same thing that anybody else does.”

Photo courtesy of Sarah Noble

CURRENTLY STUDYING AT Macalester College, DHH student Sarah Noble independently overcomes any educational barriers.

kgoodman@redwoodbark.org

bark

Page 22 • Lifestyles

February 12, 2021

An octave above the rest

Students produce and release their own music

By Natalie Tress

Heart-to-art: Eva Strage sees the world through a different lens

By Bella Piacente and Gemma Strauss The setting sun casts a warm light on the San Francisco Bay’s tranquil waters. Sailboats coast under the towering Golden Gate Bridge, traveling towards the city’s ports. For many, this temporal moment is taken in with their eyes. However, senior Eva Strage sees this scene as an opportunity for art and captures it with her beloved camera, permanently the beauty of this scene and many others with her precise skills and love for photography.

Strage has been pursuing photography in the Advanced Placement (AP) photography class since sophomore year. Her teacher, Susanne Maxwell, admires her hard work and dedication to the art.

“I could immediately tell that Eva was a passionate artist. It has been wonderful to watch her grow [her] talent, ideas and thought process. It’s exciting for me, as a teacher, to see someone with so much passion,” Maxwell said.

Fellow senior Nina Stypoloski has taken AP photography class alongside Strage for the past few years. Over this time, Stypoloski has watched her friend’s photography evolve into more than just a hobby.

“In the beginning, [her photography] was a lot more of her using her iPhone to take a few quick snaps.

[Recently], she really started playing around and getting into using the cameras and [equipment]. She is looking at life through a photography lens now,” Stypoloski said.

Strage’s mastery has also enabled her to take a more meaningful approach to her work. “[Her photography] gets people to think about things differently. There are times where she uses her photos for different reasons, like to transport people to a different place, maybe through taking a really scenic photo that’s really beautiful or by using Photoshop to change the photo up and make it look like something that’s kind of surreal,” Stypoloski said.

Outside of school, Strage has utilized YouTube to learn more technical photography skills. She credits one of her biggest photographic advancements to her strategic use of Photoshop.

“I [realized that] I can actually make [my photos] much better. There is a lot of stigma around social media posts [and] editing [pictures]. Realizing that I can alter pictures to make them better [has improved my photo quality],” Strage said.

Strage hopes to pursue her passion for photography professionally, possibly by starting a small business.

“With the amount of time, effort and money [spent], I would really appreciate [making something in return],” Strage said.

Although Strage would like to pursue photography professionally, her current priority is the art form itself.

“With the proper composition, settings and the way that you take the picture, you can really tell a powerful story. I just love the idea that you can share something so easily with the world,” Strage said.

Maxwell also sees a bright future in photography for Strage.

“My goal for [Eva], and for [all] my students, is that they have a platform [where] their voice can be heard through photography. Eva whas taken that platform and exceeded my expectations,” Maxwell said. bark@redwoodbark.org Photo courtesy of Eva Strage

SCAN THE QR CODE to see Eva’s work.

The crackle of a microphone and notes from a keyboard echo between bedroom walls. Three students, Dalya Byrnes, Asal Takesh and Berta Bunch scribble down chorus lyrics while working to develop and produce their own music. Throughout the pandemic, these students have been able to expand their passions for singing and songwriting by producing music from the confines of their rooms, rather than recording studios. Each of these girls has a unique perspective on songwriting, but are connected through the significant role music has played in each of their lives and the prospect of musical careers in the future.

Asal Takesh While junior Asal Takesh considers herself to be a singer first, her love for songwriting has continued to grow, especially through quarantine. Takesh has released four songs and is currently working on a six-song extended play (EP) album.

“I have been singing [for] as long as I can remember,” Takesh said. “Music has always been such an important thing in my life that keeps me really grounded.”

Takesh explains that a lot of her musical inspiration comes from personal experiences, specifically social challenges in middle school. Takesh writes many songs from an emotional standpoint and hopes to create music that other people can resonate with. “[Songwriting] is a very emotional and vulnerable process, and requires a lot of genuity,” Takesh said. “I get these surges of musical inspiration in the middle of the night or the middle of AP Comp class, and I will stay up and produce an entire song.”

One of her major inspirations, Harry Styles, expressed an interesting view on songwriting in an interview with Zane Lowe about his new album “Fine Line.” Takesh is inspired by Styles’ techniques and tries to parallel them when she writes her own songs. “[Styles] compared the process to surfing. You have to practice getting on the board enough times so that when the wave comes, you can actually ride it,” Takesh said. “I completely agree, because I can’t just sit down and tell myself, ‘we’re going to write a song today and it’s going to be really good.’ It just doesn’t work.”

Photo courtesy of Spotify

EXPLORING UNIQUE STYLES and perspectives, Dalya Byrnes has three singles released on Spotify and other platforms.

Berta Bunch Senior Berta Bunch has been singing since she could talk and playing piano since the age of five. She has also taught herself to play the guitar and ukulele throughout her childhood. As a ten-year-old, Bunch remembers writing her first emotional song when her parents got divorced.

Bunch found that the emotional vulnerability she felt during this time was an inspirational starting point and uses this emotion, as it relates to herself and others, in her songwriting.

“Music has always been a form of therapy for me. Whatever is going on in my life, I write about [it],” Bunch said. “I have been trying to write from other peoples’ perspectives, which is really different for me. I’ve written songs about what my friends are going through, or I’ll exaggerate a scenario [so] it becomes more relatable.”

Bunch has released four singles and currently has several more in the works that she hopes to release soon.

Bunch would like to expand her musical career in college and in the future. She has applied to many college music programs across the country, Los Angeles being her ideal destination. There, she expects to expand her music into new styles, furthering her musical education.

Bunch loves exploring and experimenting with different concepts in her songwriting and is determined to pursue a musical profession.

“If I come up with a new idea or a perspective of a song, it inspires me,” Bunch said. “I’m excited by all of it.”

If you are looking for new, relatable music, you can find Byrnes, Takesh and Bunch’s released songs on all music platforms, including Spotify and YouTube.

Photo courtesy of Spotify

TAKING INSPIRATION FROM important places and people in her life, Asal Takesh has four singles including “Augustana” and “New York Baby.”

Dalya Byrnes Senior Dalya Byrnes has always found inspiration in music and grew up doing musical theatre and chorus.

Going into Redwood, Byrnes found that Performance Workshop provided an educational opportunity to produce her own music. Taking advantage of quarantine, Byrnes has purchased music equipment for recording on her own.

Using melodic inspiration from classic rock artists and vocal inspiration from 90s pop queens, Byrnes has a unique songwriting process, matching up harmonies with lyrics.

“I go through lyrics first and test [them] with the chord progression I made to see if it flows, but sometimes I’ll find a cool harmony or something that sticks in my head, and then I’ll base the chords off of that,” Byrnes said.

With three singles released and an 18-song album in progress, Byrnes’ passion for producing music is growing.

In the fall, Byrnes will be attending Berklee College of Music, a private institution of contemporary music in Boston, where she is excited to expand her musical career.

“My ideal goal is becoming a singer and recording artist, and maybe getting into the management of music as well,” Byrnes said. “Ever since I was little I have wanted to be a singer, so I’m trying to work toward that now.”

Photo courtesy of Spotify

PRODUCING FROM HER bedroom, Berta Bunch has four singles, “Drop It,” “Real,” “Most Nights” and “Anyone but You,” released on all platforms, including Spotify.

ntress@redwoodbark.org

Page 23 • Lifestyles

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Backpacking Club blazes trails, connects members

By Charlotte DeForrest “[The coolest part of] last semester was the view at the top [of Mount Tam].

A lot of people hadn’t ever been to the top of Mount Tam and it’s pretty cool to see all of Marin from the top. It was amazing,” Rachel Mueller, co-founder of the Redwood Backpacking Club, said.

Seniors Rachel Mueller and Kalyn Dawes started the Backpacking Club as sophomores, hoping to create a community of students who enjoy spending time outdoors.

Club advisor and English teacher Cathy Flores enjoys the energy and spirit of the club and believes Mueller and Dawes have accomplished their goal of creating unity among students. “[The members] are from everywhere.

We have [both upperclassmen and underclassmen] and I love seeing how they interact and how they enjoy each other through this common thread of hiking and nature,” Flores said.

Currently, the club meets every other Tuesday on Zoom and has organized multiple COVID-19 safe, socially distanced Cathy Flores, group activities Club Advisor outside of school.

Since the pandemic has made it difficult for club events to occur, Mueller and Dawes have found other ways to accomplish their club goals.

“The first year, [our goal] was just to create a community at Redwood, but this year we’ve been looking to make the

outdoors more accessible [to others] and in that sense focusing on gear,” Mueller said.

Backpacking gear can be expensive, which prompted the club to organize a gear drive at Piper Park last semester to collect and donate gear to Bay Area Wilderness Training in Oakland. Bay Area Wilderness Training loans their donated gear to students and organizations, allowing them to experience the outdoors for free. The club’s gear drive was successful in part due to the club’s many members. This year alone, Mueller claims the Backpacking Club gained an additional 30 participants.

“I think the reason we have so many new members this year is a lot of them are underclassmen. [The new members are] looking for a way to find a community within Redwood. Just having the club and maybe going on more hikes will help with that,” Mueller said.

One of these new members is freshman Madeleine Muller.

Muller enjoys hiking and has participated in several wilderness adventures in the past, including a week-long overnight rafting trip.

As a member of the backpacking club, she enjoys being able to connect with other students and make new friends.

“I think one of the things I was most worried about with [online school] was not knowing anyone when I got to Redwood, so [being in the club] has helped me get more comfortable with the school and the people. It’s going to be nice when we go back to school because I’ll know all these

The club functions as a connector and shows that in essence, you are not alone.

bark

Photo courtesy of Kalyn Dawes

RESTING AT THE top of Mount Tam, the Backpacking Club has participated in a group hike and a gear drive this year. people already,” Muller said.

Despite their successes, running a club online has not been easy, especially when the activities rely so much on being outdoors and in-person. Mueller and Dawes have run into technical difficulties setting up Zoom meetings and have also had to find creative solutions to keep members safe and socially distanced during in-person activities. “[One of the biggest challenges is] probably just participation. A lot of the time, I feel like I’m talking to people and they’re just staring back at me, so I kind of empathize with teachers when students have their screens off. I’ll ask a question and people just sit there. Although some people participate, it’s still hard,” Mueller said.

Even through these difficult times,

Flores is proud of the club for their hard work and success in creating a tight-knit community that supports new students.

“There are so many students that feel disconnected from their school, even ones that are juniors and seniors, as a result of the pandemic. I think the club functions as a connector and shows that in essence, you are not alone. There’s a message being sent that we’re all in this together. Let’s go for a hike, let’s have a conversation safely and get through this together,” Flores said. “I think it’s important for students to see that they can lean on each other in more ways than might not be obvious to them.”

cdeforrest@redwoodbark.org

Emily Sigel, ‘Cotton Candy Girl,’ spins her way to success

By Annie Goldstein and Ava Koblik

Even after six hours of Zoom classes and schoolwork, the day does not end for student business owners. Whether it is spinning sugar into cotton candy treats or stringing beads into necklaces, students have found creative ways to launch new businesses and bring their interests to life.

Junior Emily Sigel, also known as “The Cotton Candy Girl,” started her cotton candy business during the fall of 2018. Before the pandemic, Emily’s business catered cotton candy to a variety of events including bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings, birthday parties and fashion shows.

The Cotton Candy Girl business began when Emily, a past ballet dancer, twisted her ankle and tore three ligaments and tendons in seventh grade. Forced to put her passion on hold, she underwent five different surgeries that left her bedridden for four months. Though her dancing career ended, Sigel’s freed-up schedule allowed her to launch her business.

From a young age, Emily demonstrated her independence and motivation, both skills that have helped her in starting her business. Her father, Greg Sigel, recalls

Photo courtesy of Emily Sigel

BITING INTO THE vanilla flavored cotton candy, a young girl enjoys Emily’s treats at a pre-pandemic event.

a time when Emily was younger and wanted to make money to buy herself a new laptop.

“She took a cooler and bought a whole bunch of cokes and sprites. We then went down with her to popular tourist spots like Sausalito and she made a sign [that said] ‘Emily’s Ice Cold Cokes,’” Greg said.

In the earlier stages of her business, Emily looked to her mother, Barbara Sigel, for guidance as she is an entrepreneur herself who started Corporate Impressions, a custom branding agency. Emily’s mother was ready to step in and teach Emily the inner workings of being an entrepreneur whether it was advertising or pricing her cotton candy. Although Barbara gave her initial advice on the marketing side of Emily’s business, she credits all of her daughter’s success to personal ambition.

“I just admire her as a person more than I ever thought I could,” Barbara said.

While Emily’s event-based business was impacted by COVID-19, that did not stop her from getting creative. She started making “cotton candy grams,” pre-packaged cotton candy that people could order and send to their friends and family. Emily has also used online platforms and social media to promote her business and grow her customer base. With background experience from a graphic design class she took at Redwood, Emily creates content for her website and designs banners for advertising throughout the community.

Photo courtesy of Janea Greene “Once I learned how to design websites and decided to buy [a cotton candy machine], it kind of took off. ...It was STANDING IN FRONT of her Halloween themed crazy and hard, but it was also a lot of fun,” Emily said. cotton candy, Emily displays her festive seasonal In addition to starting her own business, Emily has edition. also started the Teenage Entrepreneur Society that focuses on bringing young entrepreneurs together to talk about “I have been able to meet other people who are business strategies. passionate about their businesses and have different [interests]. If I would have had a community like this in the beginning, I think my story would have gone a lot differently because I’ve done most of it alone,” Sigel said.

While Emily has faced many challenges with running her business alone, Emily’s customers and community always support her during the tough times.

“The support that small businesses get is a lot more personal and community-based, and [the businesses] need that to function. It is not easy to navigate a small business on your own, so [small businesses] all depend on each other,” Emily said.

If you want to support Emily’s business, visit her website, The Cotton Candy Girl.

USE THE QR Code above to see more about Redwood’s entreprenuers.

bark@redwoodbark.org

Cora Champommier pours her ‘Soul’ into feature film

By Katie Parsons “It’s really fun to talk to people about [my experience voice acting]. I’ve had people come up to me saying to their daughters, ‘She did it, maybe you can do it.’

It’s cool to possibly be a role model to young girls or boys or anyone out there who wants to get into the industry. They can know that it’s not totally impossible. Even if you’re not the main character, you can still be a part of the big picture,” Cora Champommier, a Del Mar Middle School seventh-grader, said.

Champommier voices Connie, a trombone-playing middle schooler, in the Disney/Pixar film “Soul.” The animated feature was released on Dec. 25, 2020 on Disney’s streaming service Disney+. “Soul” has been highly praised, receiving a 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and featuring A-list celebrities like Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey. Champommier was amazed when she made it to Pixar studios in Emeryville and met Director Pete Docter, who produced the major motion pictures “Monsters Inc,” “Up” and “Inside Out.” “I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really working with the director that did all these amazing movies, movies that shaped a lot of people [including] me,’” Champommier said. “I knew that Pixar was the real deal, and that [it was] a lot more competitive than just a middle school play. I was open to the idea that there were people with more experience than me so [I knew not to] beat [myself] up if [I] didn’t get [the role].”

Although “Soul” was one of her first voice acting bookings, Champommier has been surrounded by the stage her entire life.

From visiting the Shakespeare festival in Oregon ever y year

Photo courtesy of Heidi Alletzhauser

Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar Studios

13-YEAR-OLD Cora Champommier voices Connie (right) alongside Jamie Foxx’s character, Joe Gardner (left), in Disney/Pixar film “Soul.” to watching her sister perform, Champommier has enjoyed the art from a young age.

One of Champommier’s first lead roles was in fourth grade, when she played the Wicked Witch of the West in Bel Aire Elementary School’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Despite the typical assignment of lead roles to students in higher grades, her director, Marissa Joy Ganz, knew Champommier was fit for the part. “[Champommier]’s such a special girl.

When casting for The Wizard of Oz, it was instantaneous with [Champommier]. There’s just that je ne sais quoi — that star quality that you can’t verbalize what that is, you just know it when you see it. [Champommier] possesses that star quality,” Joy Ganz said.

Champommier’s portrayal of Miss Hannigan in her fifth grade production of Annie caught Redwood alumnus and talent agent Lana Barkhordarian Burstein’s eye.

“To be a good voice actor, you can have a unique voice, but that doesn’t mean that you’re good at [voice acting]. What makes you stand out is that you are a good actor.

With [Champommier], I could tell she stood out because she really embraced the role of this middle-aged, bossy, cranky woman.

[Champommier] portrayed this character naturally. I didn’t feel like she was this fifthgrader playing dress up trying to be Miss Hannigan,” Barkhordarian Burstein said.

Around two months after watching her performance, Barkhordarian Burstein received a casting call from Pixar that she believed Champommier would be the ‘perfect fit’ for. She tracked down Champommier’s contact information and reached out to

her. Champommier then decided to join Barkahordarian Burstein’s agency, Shortlist Talent Agency, and audition for the role.

“In order to make the [recording] sound right, I had to go to my aunt’s attic and make a makeshift recording studio out of blankets and boxes,” Champommier said. “My mom and I worked until we found the perfect tape to send in. The whole recording process in the studio probably took less [time] than researching the audition material because I wanted [my audition] to be perfect.”

She moved from her aunt’s attic to Pixar Emeryville, where she was able to meet Docter and playwright Kemp Powers for the second round of auditions.

“I was in this little black booth with a group of people watching me. It only took 30 minutes [of] recording for a good take. I had been preparing for this so I was feeling pretty confident, and I guess they liked [my audition],” Champommier said.

While her future in the voice acting industry is unclear, her connection with Connie will be a permanent part of her life.

“When we first got the [description] of Connie it said she was strong-willed, she was determined, she was a little bit stubborn, but she also knew she had this talent of playing the trombone. She couldn’t just give up, she had worked too hard for it,” Champommier said. “I think that a lot of kids will relate to Connie in that even though others may push you down for doing what you love, you [have] got to continue if it makes you happy and feel good about yourself.” kparsons@redwoodbark.org