March 2018

redwood

bark.

Volume LX, No. 6 • March 16, 2018 • Larkspur, CA

Student activism shouldn’t require permission Read more on p. 7

Photo by Max Gilberg

Editors in Chief Anne Pritikin Daniela Schwartz Shannon Donelan China Granger

Spanish Editor Bea Cazares Business Manager Sylvana Perczek

​Copy Editors Christine Watridge Social Media (Head Copy Manager/ Editor) Snapshot Editor Melissa Block Jocelyn Overmyer Natalie Cerf Caroline Art Consultant Cummings Max Gilberg Tilly Friedlander Sabine Lloyd Senior Staff Maggie Smith News Editors Neva Legallet Survey Manager Saamya Alexandra Lee Mungamuru Reporters Opinion Editors Josh Cohen Vera Palczynski Nate Charles Emily Sweet Jack Green Hannah Halford Feature Editors Lucie James Jericho Rajninger Maxim Lily Baldwin Kawashima Jacob Klionsky Sports Editors Natalia Lazor Anna Compagno Vincent Leo Sam Warren Alexander Lieberman Review Editors Charlotte Seton Jordan Overmyer Amanda Morse Julia Jacoby Devon McClain Matthew Lifestyles Editors Mulcahey Sydney Hillbush Sachi Nahas Carolyn French Julia Scharf Jack Parsons Adviser Erin Schneider

redwood

bark.

Rowers’ dieting habits

10

Aruban baseball player

17

Gluten-free lifestyle

redwood high school ● 395 doherty dr., larkspur, ca 94939 ● volume LX, no. 6 ● March 16, 2018 ● www.redwoodbark.org

23

Budget deficit results in district-wide program cuts

By Sydney Hilbush The Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) is projected to reach a $6 million structural deficit as district funding has surpassed the budget. Within the next four years, the district hopes to balance the current deficit through adopting a district-wide parcel tax as well as pursuing alternative methods of revenue sourcing through the newly adopted budget reduction and recovery plan.

This structural deficit is attributed to enrollment growth, increased employee numbers, growth of the Special Education department as well as network infrastructure upgrades, in addition to other educational facilities such as the portable classrooms, according to the TUHSD First Interim Report.

As TUHSD is a basic aid district, funding is acquired primarily through property taxes and receives no general purpose state aid. With increased enrollment over the past four years, the district has struggled to account for the number of growing students in the budget as the state does not provide supplemental funding for additional students, according to TUHSD Assistant Superintendent Tara Taupier.

“I think all of the schools are feeling the enrollment growth. Hallways are more crowded, bathrooms are more crowded, classrooms are more crowded,” Taupier said.

According to Taupier, the increase in student enrollment prompted the growth in staff and faculty numbers in order to maintain the contractional ratio of students to teachers in the classroom. Since the 2010-2011 school year, the district has added 67 full-time equivalent positions, amounting to a $7.5 million increase in staff expenditures alone.

“We knew the deficit was coming.

We knew we were going to see an increase in cost with our growing student population and the rising cost of portables and construction, which has gone up significantly. Things being a little more expensive and a little less predictable has put us in a position of deficit spending more than we had anticipated,” Taupier said.

To balance the current deficit, the district is organizing a parcel tax projected to take effect starting in the spring of next school year, according to Taupier. A parcel tax is a form of property tax, based on the assessed value of real estate, used in California for the funding of public education. This tax is placed on any family who owns property in the district.

To implement the parcel tax, the measure requires a 2/3 majority on the Nov. countywide ballot. According to Taupier, the district hopes to increase the parcel tax by 50 percent for the budget to be balanced within the next four years. The existing parcel tax, passed in 2012, will increase from $285 to an estimated $434 per parcel, according to Taupier.

Taupier hopes the parcel tax will maintain the current educational standards, so cuts can be made outside the classroom instead of within.

“Our job is making sure we are protecting instructional integrity,” Taupier said. “We are protecting programming and the educational services being offered to students, so we need to take a hard look

at what is essential for us in order to do the best that we can to serve students and make sure that the new budget plan will ensure student needs.”

Although the parcel tax will assist the deficit in providing a source of revenue for the district, the tax alone will not be enough to balance the $6 million deficit. According to Superintendent David Yoshihara, other methods of revenue sources are being discussed with the Financial and Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Committee, a collection of parents, staff, community members, board members and students that provides recommendations for budget changes.

“My intention is to collect stakeholder input over the next four to six weeks on new ideas and develop categories of where those could fit into programatically, and then I would bring them back to the LCAP group who would then let me know which ideas they would recommend,” Yoshihara said.

Implementing ideas for balancing the deficit outside of the parcel tax have been particularly challenging for Yoshihara and Taupier, as the County Office will not consider the parcel tax until it passes, leaving the district with underdeveloped ideas for alternative revenue sources.

“There are two parallel paths you take. You can plan for the parcel tax and you plan for your worst case scenario. We are just at the valuing stage, not as much the nitty-gritty details of what it would actually look like,” Taupier said.

At the current rate of deficit spending, the district will deplete its financial reserves within the next three years, dipping below the required minimum for reserve levels, according to Taupier. Because of the severity of this fiscal solvency, the Marin County Office of Education has required

a deficit reduction and recovery plan to be submitted as a component of the second interim budget report, according to the district website.

To jumpstart budget reductions, the board has issued the suspension of the Teacher Leadership Model as well as the layoff of multiple positions around the district, including librarians from Redwood, Drake and Tamalpais. In addition, the director of Wellness, Jessica Colvin, has been laid off from her position.

Deputy Superintendent of Marin County Schools, Terena Mares, has worked closely with the board to provide supplemental oversight in the budget reduction and recovery plan.

According to Mares, although she has been working with the district in an advisory role for budgeting over the past few years, she decided to heighten her involvement in recent months to ensure the district does not increase the current depth of its deficit.

“We stepped in this time because we wanted to make sure the board didn’t wait too long to implement some of the strategies that they had been talking about.

When a school starts making course corrections to their expenditure plan early on, it is much less impactful for students,” Mares said.

According to Mares, the county office serves as an intermediary agency between the state of California, the appropriator of school funds and the school district.

The county office cannot enforce specific changes under the current budget but instead works with the district and budgeting committees to prevent future revenue problems. According to Mares, the county office has pushed for additional budgeting attention to issue the parcel tax before the deficit increases.

“When we see that structural deficit not being erected quickly enough, we step in to address that. The board is aware of the budget problems and this has not been a surprise at all. We are just encouraging them to step up their efforts, especially because of the depth of the projected deficit,” Mares said.

Due to the severity of the threat to the district’s fiscal solvency, Mares has required the reduction and recovery plan to be submitted with the second interim budget report. As a part of this recovery plan, the district board has issued a series of program cuts to help alleviate the depth of the deficit. Although discussion surrounding an increased parcel tax is ongoing among the community and board members, the tax itself will not be enough to cover the $6 million expenditure, requiring rapid reductions of expenditures.

The suspension of the Teacher Leadership Model will take effect at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year and is estimated to be resumed the following school year. The one-year suspension of the program is projected to save the district almost $1 million, as the cancellation will dismiss formal teacher leadership roles and eliminate summer work, release days, release periods and stipends, as outlined by the Teacher Leadership Model criteria.

According to the Teacher Leader of the Social Studies department, Lisa Kemp, teacher leaders bridge the communication between administration and teachers, one of the largest components that will be lost with the suspension of the Teacher Leadership Model.

“The district thought that cutting the program would be a less controversial move as it does amount to a lot of money. I think that the schools are stronger with this type of leadership model rather than each department having a representative that just sits around,” Kemp said.

Numerous members of the community, including students, teachers, parents and TUHSD staff, both former and current, have stepped forward to address their concerns with the recent program cuts. At the most recent board meeting on Tues., March 13, six students, including Redwood senior Vicens Vila-Coury and five students from Drake, spoke directly to the board to vocalize their dissatisfaction with certain program cuts and advocate for reform in the Budget Adoption Resolutions.

Vila-Coury stepped forward to speak about the elimination of the librarians throughout the district, as his close relationship with Redwood’s head librarian Adriana Perez, has played a critical role in the development of his educational experience.

“In a time where access to meaningful, credible and rigorously productive information is one of undeniable importance, losing our librarians in budget cuts is short-sighted and an incredible disservice to students,” Vila-Coury said.

The district holds open meetings to receive insight on the parcel tax and other budget recovery propositions from the community twice a month. These meetings take place in the Kreps Conference Center at Redwood, and the next meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 27 at 6 p.m.

Data from tamdistrict.org

Infographic by Sydney Hilbush

shilbush@redwoodbark.org

bark

Page 2 • News

March 16, 2018

Photo Survey

Will you be participating in the walkout?

(As of press time)

“No, because school is not an “Yeah, I’m not happy with all “Yes, because I think that “Yes, this is a way for me to appropriate place to protest of the school shootings that gun violence is a serious express my voice as a student political views.” have been going on.” problem in our country.” without being able to vote.”

Mason Beuman freshman

Annika Abbott sophomore

Miles Dean junior

Caitlin Donnelly senior

Next Generation Science Standards in place starting 2018

By Charlotte Seton The Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) science curriculum will undergo significant changes starting this fall due to the new California-mandated implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The new standards will impact students’ science education requirements beginning with the class of 2022, and are already posing a challenge to Redwood science teachers.

Redwood will begin implementing these standards in August 2018, when Integrated Science 1-2 will be replaced by a year-long Physics in the Universe course. In the following year, the 10th grade Integrated Science 3-4 course will be replaced by a new biology course, The Living Earth. Then, in August 2020, a new chemistry course, Chemistry in Earth Systems, will be offered for 11th grade students. The rest of Redwood’s science curriculum is expected to remain the same.

Multiple science teachers support the new research-based approach to teaching science, including AP Environmental Science and Sustainable Agriculture teacher Joe Stewart, Physiology and Honors Integrated Science teacher Todd Samet and Physics teacher David Nash.

“I’ve been teaching for 34 years and this change is potentially a game-changer in a positive way in terms of how science will get taught,” Samet said.

Samet believes that reducing the number of concepts taught allows for more in-depth learning in each area, which will enhance how well students understand and learn science. Stewart said that the new science standards emphasize how science is taught and learned instead of focusing on content.

TUHSD is not alone in applying NGSS for K-12 students; 19 states have adopted the new standards. The updated science

curriculum was made necessary by the tremendous scientific advances in biology, space exploration, artificial intelligence and robotics in the last 20 years, according to the NGSS website.

TUHSD’s Senior Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Kim Stiffler, explained that a core concept of the new standards is that teaching of content is integrated with scientific and engineering practices.

TUHSD has facilitated the transition to the new standards by setting up a task force led by teachers, administrators and district office representatives to develop the sequence of the new courses as well as for the topics within each course. A group of four science teachers from Drake, Tam and Redwood are putting together most of the curriculum, according to Nash.

Photo by Charlotte Seton

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE TEACHER Joe Stewart supports the new researchbased approach to teaching science emphasized by the NGSS.

However, Nash explained that teachers are struggling with the transition. Biology and earth science concepts will be woven into the new curriculum but will not be the main focus as they were in the Integrated Science courses. As a result, not only do teachers need to learn the new standards, but they also have to develop new teaching plans and become recertified in different science subjects.

Approximately seven science teachers must become re-credentialed to teach the new courses, according to Stewart. To be able to legally teach the new classes, science teachers have to pass a qualifying exam at the state level. The teachers and Stiffler agree that the test is challenging.

Science teachers will need training to teach subjects they haven’t taught before, such as chemistry and engineering.

“If you’re a biology background teacher and you’ve been teaching Integrated Science—mostly a biology course—for 25 years here, you don’t know how to problem-solve in physics at a pretty high level,” Nash said.

The physics qualification test is not appropriately designed to measure the instructors’ abilities to teach the new science course, according to Nash, who compared the teacher’s test to an AP Physics test from 30 or 40 years ago.

Because teachers must pass this exam, their focus could be diverted from preparing for the new course, he explained.

To address the difficulty of the exam, TUHSD is providing professional development for teachers, which includes bringing in physics professors from College of Marin to run workshops and tutoring sessions. However, retraining is a time-consuming process.

Infographic courtesy of the TUHSD Science Task Force

According to Stewart, the teachers have been undergoing training for two hours once a month throughout the school year.

Additionally, they were offered training for 10 full days during the past two summers.

Stewart estimated that teachers have undergone approximately 180 hours of training in addition to the time they might put in on their own.

Another challenge in implementing the new standards is the increased costs caused by the hands-on engineering practices.

Funding additional classroom projects and field trips may be difficult.

Nash also expressed concern that there are no honors versions of these courses being planned. Integrated Science 3-4 has had an honors version offered at Redwood for at least 20 years.

While it’s likely that sophomores will be able to address this shortcoming by doubling up on their science courses, Nash feels that there should be an honors science option for students by 11th grade, such as a chemistry class based upon more sophisticated math concepts.

Like teachers, students will be impacted in various ways. The most significant change is that Redwood graduation requirements will become more onerous. Redwood students will now have to take three years of science to graduate as opposed to two years.

On the other hand, students will be able to earn University of California lab science “D” credit more quickly. It previously took two years of Integrated Science to earn one year of UC credit. If all three courses are approved, students will earn a year of UC credit for each year of the new science courses. cseton@redwoodbark.org

www.redwoodbark.org

Page 3 • News

Curriculum brought to life for art students abroad

bark

By Maggie Smith

Over February break, 27 art students, accompanied by Redwood art teachers Lauren Bartone, Susanne Maxwell and Drake art teacher Martha Cederstrom, traveled to Florence, Rome, Pompeii and Naples to explore the history of various disciplines of art.

According to Maxwell, one of the goals of the trip was to bring the curriculum she was teaching her AP Art History students alive.

“In a science class, you could talk about how seeds grow, or you could go plant the garden. It makes a big difference when you’re actually doing and seeing and feeling and touching and experiencing the work,” Maxwell said. “There’s so much of our common humanity that is connected back into the arts and where we come from, and how these things have influenced who we are and where we are today.”

According to senior Kate Theriault who went on the trip, standing in front of artworks had a significant effect, especially David by Michelangelo.

“People can tell you how tall [David] is, but until you actually see it and you’re standing in front of it, there’s nothing that can really prepare you for the awe of that experience,” Theriault said.

Senior Lucas Marchi, who takes AP Art History and AP Studio Art, said seeing artwork in Italy was more meaningful than learning about it in the classroom.

“It gives a lot of context for [the art] too, because you don’t see just this one picture and this one work, you see all these other pieces around it, and you see the building that it’s in,” Marchi said.

Junior Lily Derecktor also felt that viewing the art in person that they’d studied in class led to an increased understanding of some of the 250 works students have to memorize as part of the AP Art History course.

“I think those who did [go] have kind of a step-up in the class because all those works are so important and there’s so much context and there’s so much history,” Derecktor said, “When you’re there to see it, it’s more memorable.”

While the most recent trip was designed for the Art History curriculum, any student in the art department was invited. According to Maxwell, painters, photographers and ceramists also attended.

AP Art History teacher Lauren Bartone said that her motivations for planning the trip came from repeated student interest in traveling and her own experience

Photo courtesy of Susanne Maxwell

GATHERING TOGETHER BEFORE a tour, Art and Art History students prepare to take a bus to the city of Pompeii, one of the many stops on their week-long trip. studying in Florence.

Maxwell also said she loved seeing the connections “For me, that feels like part of my home, and those are developing between students on the trip, both on their works of art that I studied at the same age that a lot of my group text and their shared Instagram account. kids are, so I kind of felt like ‘We’ve got to take them. We “I think it’s a friendship of a group of kids that will have to finally get it together,’” she said. always have that connection with each other. It was really Maxwell said that the planning for this year’s trip took special,” Maxwell said. an immense amount of work, particularly scheduling the Theriault also said that the relationships she formed excursions and the restaurants for the group dinners, but it with the other students was one of her favorite components all paid off in the end. of the trip.

“It was a lot of work and well worth it. I don’t regret “It was so amazing getting to know people because if a minute of it, and I couldn’t have done it without a good you looked at a list of everyone going on the trip, it was partner, so Ms. Bartone was excellent,” she said. so broad. So many people, from leadership kids, to drama According to Bartone, the group’s shared interest in art kids to AP Art History people,” Theriault said. “And that aided in the bonding of students on the trip. one thing that was bonding us all was art.”

“They’re all kids that love art enough to give up their February break. There was no sleeping in; there was no relaxing; it wasn’t a vacation at all. They worked really hard all day long,” she said. “That’s a self-selected bunch of kids who are really fun, and positive, flexible, resilient people.” msmith@redwoodbark.org

bark

Page 4 • News

March 16, 2018

Computers labs to be converted to classrooms, replaced by Chromebooks

By Lucie James Previously, rooms 158 and 276 have been areas at school for teachers and students to access computers during class time, with teachers often pulling students out of their regular classrooms to utilize the techfocused spaces. However, with an increasing student population, Redwood is in need of more classroom space.

To accommodate the growth, both computer labs have been closed since Feb. 28 and are in the process of being converted into classrooms for the next school year.

Although access to the computers in 158 and 276 will no longer be available, the Redwood Foundation will be helping to purchase more Chromebook carts for inclass use by students and teachers, according to Assistant Principal Saum Zargar.

“Chromebook carts have primarily been purchased for teachers by our generous Redwood Foundation. All of that has led to those labs not being used much; that is the primary reason. The model of teachers grabbing their students escorting them to a lab to do something and bring them back to the classroom is an older model,” Zargar said.

The administration made the decision to convert the labs, but not without the input of the departments who most frequently used them. According to Zargar, the World Language department utilized the labs more than other departments. Due to this, their consultation was sought out before finalizing the closure.

According to AP Spanish and English Language Development teacher Debbie McCrea, transferring from desktop computers to Chromebooks is a positive change for the community and for her classes especially.

“I think the Chromebooks make a lot of sense. The world is changing and everyone has laptops and technology and things are a lot faster than they used to be. The way I use [Chromebooks] a lot in the class is that they are on the desk and maybe you open them, and use them for some activities, but not for all. It’s more of a complement to [students’] learning,” McCrea said.

While McCrea is new to having Chromebooks, Mike Kelemen, who teaches economics, government and A.P. The Abbott Family The Abbott Family Stacy Achuck The Agenbroad Family The Alden Family The Allen Family The Callaway Allen Family The Ames/Bouton Family Susan and Mark Anderson The Anderson Family Anonymous (2) The Ashworth Family The Ayres Family The Bailitz Family The Baldwin Family Jeff and Catherine Barcy Cammi Bell Allison Belger Brad and Stephanie Bennett Joanna Berman Mandel Lisa Bernardi The Bialek Santas Family Lauren and Ella Blazei Loren and Howard Block The Bludau Family The Blum Family The Blum Family The Bober Family Colleen Bourke Benjamin and Mari Bowler Kathleen and Bill Brady The Brady Family The Brown Family Linda Brune The Bucklar Family The Buechner/ Whitt Family The Burgert Family Carrie and Jim Burroughs Kristina and Steve Campondonico The Carlson Family Liliana Carolina Naficy-Royal and Kenneth Eugene Royal The Cerf Family The Chou Family The Christman Family Bruce and Robyn Cohen David and Rebecca Conant The Conner Family The Conrow Familiy The Conti Family Deb and Kevin Cook

Photo illustration by Lucie James

USING CHROMEBOOKS AS an alternative, students adapt to the closing of computer labs 158 and 276 due to the increased need for classroom space.

U.S. History, has utilized a permanent Chromebook cart in be recycled in an environmentally friendly fashion so that his room for two years now, and finds having a computer none of the material will be wasted. cart to be very efficient.

“The computers in the computer labs are really old Kelemen has seen technology change at Redwood so they are going to be E-wasted. We work with our throughout his 22 years of teaching, and supports the idea technology department to make sure they are properly of Chromebooks becoming the primary use of technology disposed,” Zargar said. for students.

Despite the loss of two specific rooms dedicated to “Having Chromebooks is super convenient, and the housing desktop computers, students can easily access next level in technology is the Chromebooks. Price-wise computers both at the library and in their classrooms with they make sense,” Kelemen said.

Chromebook carts.

According to Zargar, the old computers in the labs will ljames@redwoodbark.org

The Corn Family Beth and Chris Cummings Jeff and Kari Cusack The Cusick Family Robyn & David Dabora The Dahlin Family The Dalzell-Piper Family Gina Deangelis The Desin Family The Diener Family The Doctor Family The Donelan Family Doreen and Brian Donnelly Family Laurie and Scott Dubin Roxane Polidora and Ed Duckers The Elliot-Diab Family Naz and Brian Erickson The Sparler Family The Nolan Family The Fargo Family Violich Farms The Felder Family The Fitzgerald-Davidson Family The Fogarty Family Shane Fricke The Fuches Family Conrad Gann Eva Geitheim The Gibbs Family Arthur Gilberg Jennifer and Michael Ginsburg Elon Ginzburg Kristin Glickman The Goray Family Brendhan and Katherine Green Lynn and John Green Jennifer and Michael Green The Gullen Family The Gustafson Family Catherine Guthrie The Hackett Family Dominique and Heil Halilej The Hanssen Family Jan and Annabel Heinemann The Henderson Family The Herron Family The Hettleman Family The Hilbush Family Caren and Bill Horstmeyer The Jacks Family Jim and Tami Jackson

Bark Patrons

The James Family The Jeffry Family Cat and Dillon Jensen The Jessen Family Jill and Tyler Johnson Lee and Jeff Johnson The Johnson Family Sylvia Jones The Kaga-McLay Family Nina Katz and Mike Fuller The Kawamura & Foley Family Rebecca and Jascha Kaykas-Wolfe The Kempler Family John and Frances Kernan The Kim Family The Kimball Family The Klein Family The Klionsky Family Jill and Larry Knott Paul and Esther Kulhanjian The LaCarrubba Family David and Melissa Lee The Lee Family The Lefferts Family The Leo Family The Leslie Family Carolyn and Michael Lewis The Lewis Family Midori Liu and Bret Lama The Lloyd Family The Loebbaka Family The Loo Family The Malek Family Alice and Bob Marks The Marlowe Family Larissa Graff and Mike Marrero Kerianne and Christopher McBride Kevin McGee &Kathleen Hamon Bobby McInerney The McKenchnie Family Wendy and William McKinley The Mellberg Family Michael Metzner The Middleton Family The Minami Family The Morken Family Kathleen Morse The Mulcahy Family

The Muller Family The Neustaetter Family Jennifer Newbury Timothy and Julia Noble The Nolan Family Mark and Donna Norstad The Notter Family The Overmyer Family Barbara and William Owens The Parker Family The Parsons Family Sabina Patterson The Perczek Family The Perry Family The Peterson Family The Pfeiffer Family Steve Pigott The Pole Family The Pritikin Family The Pritzker Family The Rajninger Family Christine S. Ramos Manny Ramos and Robin Synder The Rankin-Williams Family The Ratcliffe Family Dan and Jen Reidy The Renney Family Michele and Tim Richards The Riggins Family The Robinow Family The Rocha Family Frank J. Rollo The Rose Family The Rosenberg Family Allison & Andy Ross The Scharf Family The Searles Family Chris and Corinne Seton The Silberman Family Victoria Silverman The Sinatra Family The Skerrett Family The Smalbach Family Louis Smith D.J. and T.T. Solomon David A. and Patti Stadlin Robin Steele & Dominc Spaethling The Steele Family Jill and Seth Steinberg The Stock Family

Paul and Paula Strand The Strotz Family The Sweet Family Patricia and Robert Taitz The Tantum Family The Tede Family Greg and Heidi Thomson Julie and Jeff Thomson The Three Larrys Marylou Tierney The Tippo Family TJ’s Gym Richard and Sophia Tong Tara Trask Kim Tully-Sutton The Van Hooser Family Sellers Van Pruissen Vickie Van Kristen Vasquez Done Buder and Cheryl Vohland Philip and Kris Wade The Towns Wagner Family The Wagner Family The Wait Family Héléne and Jason Walters Jim Granger and Yu-Ling Wang Jordan Warren The Watkins Family Peter and Linka Watridge Dr. Jenniffer Watters The Welch Family The Wentworth Family The Whelpley Family Michelle Wilcox Isolde and Aleck Wilson The Wood Family The Yoslov Family The Zeitz Family The Zesiger Family The Zlatunich Family The Zlot Family

To support the Bark, visit www.redwoodbark.org

opinion

Page 5

Panda Express: a cheap, easy recipe for misconception

Story and Illustration by China Granger

Standing on the South Lawn, holding the sweet, delicate cookie, my mind conjures up images of my mother and me in a kitchen, cramped with three generations of Chinese women, folding succulent pork dumplings and gossiping in Mandarin—our native tongue. The Fortune Cookie, bearing a small piece of parchment commonly engraved with the words of Confucius, is a traditional and age-old sign of good luck and prosperity in China.

I’m kidding, of course. Unlike my mother, I don’t speak either Mandarin or Fujianese. I don’t eat meat. Many of my Chinese relatives live in places like New York, Alabama and England. And the brand of fortune cookie we know today was largely the invention of JapaneseAmericans living on California’s coast, not some traditional, foreign practice.

Maybe it’s time to introduce myself.

My name is China. No, I wasn’t born there. Yes, I am half Chinese.

And yes, race has to do with it.

A few weeks ago, Redwood’s Leadership class decided to celebrate the Chinese New Year, advertising the sale of Panda Express at lunch. Later, on the morning of Feb. 14 and what was a rather startling Valentine’s-Day-Chinese-NewYear fusion, I walked into school and was enthusiastically handed a fortune cookie while simultaneously wished a very happy Valentine’s Day. Panda Express and fortune cookies did not serve as a celebration of Chinese New Year, but as a listless attempt to introduce something “exotic” into the everyday routine of school that ultimately promoted widespread cultural misunderstanding.

To the average reader, I’m not sure if my ethnicity qualifies me to comment on the use, and misuse, of minority culture. Or, if perhaps it simply paints me the archetype of a cavilling upper-middle class minority, demanding excessive recognition from a place of already healthy personal privilege.

Maybe I sound like a young, technologyaddicted “snowflake,” launching another self-righteous, politically correct crusade from behind a screen.

But, in an increasingly globalized society, it is only by speaking up about insensitivities that they can actually serve a greater purpose: to act as learning opportunities in the present and models of what to avoid in the future. Sending the message to the entire student body that egg rolls and broccoli beef are all you need to experience Chinese New Year is misleading… and offensive.

Few times have I been more painfully aware of my ethnicity than during a middle school field trip to Chinatown, a supposed supplement to our social studies unit on ancient Chinese history. The field trip didn’t feel like a celebration of culture. It felt like the manic dissection of a tourist attraction—one Americanized enough to be palatable, but still exotic enough to draw a crowd.

As we strode past vendors selling San Francisco keychains and license plate name tchotchkes, I felt that the commercialized nature of Chinatown, along with its complex immigrant background, wasn’t being distinguished from the traditional culture it seemed we were supposed to be observing. Take the New Year Parade: an NBC article released earlier this year was titled “A Chinatown tradition, San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade is ‘American like chop suey.’” The article cites the fact that the parade was at one point an attempt to improve relations with the rest of the city during WWII out of fears of encampment. Chinatown is largely the result of Chinese immigrants altering and commercializing their culture in an attempt to be accepted and make ends meet in a hostile city during an era of Chineseonly schools, housing discrimination and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Somewhat paradoxically, after the tour it felt like my responsibility to remind my peers that, no, most Chinese dinner tables don’t feature turtle soup or puppy stir-fry.

Or that, actually, fortune cookies originated in San Francisco, not China.

The erroneous interpretation of culture is irritating on a small scale, but the real danger comes when this ignorance is sponsored by a dominant or representative group of people. Whether that be the

leadership of a school, a workplace or simply a group of the racial majority, the result is large scale misunderstanding.

And while there is nothing wrong with cultural exchange—the conscientious and mutually-enriching process of sharing cultures that makes much of America diverse and inclusive—it can be more harmful than enlightening when botched.

Because of this, sharing cultures (especially not your own) comes with an incredible amount of responsibility.

When a dominant culture or group publicizes a narrative, whether or not accurate, it will be listened to. That, in many ways, is the essence of privilege. And if the privilege of one group is being utilized to tell the story of another group, regardless of good intentions, it is important to recognize the damage that can come from telling an incorrect or incomplete story.

Cultural exchange is not serving Panda Express on the South Lawn. It is not handing out fortune cookies and tactlessly meshing Chinese New Year with the overtly commercial holiday that is Valentine’s Day. It is not diluting an ancient celebration into trite and palatable components in order to squeeze it into a 40-minute lunch period.

The broader Lunar New Year celebration is the most important holiday in China as well as Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and a number of other countries.

During two weeks of celebration, many businesses close their doors allowing people to travel to spend time at home with their families. For example, it’s unlucky to clean during the celebration because it’s said that luck can be swept out of the house.

It’s impolite to stick chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice because it’s reminiscent of incense at a funeral. During a holiday steeped in traditional values and driven by auspicious practices, telling the entire student body that the Americanized

Chinese food of a fast food chain is an appropriate way to celebrate a 5,000-yearold holiday condones widespread ignorance.

The Lunar New Year is a complex holiday. It is difficult to understand without cultural context. But if it is to be truly celebrated, a complete narrative must be told. Include the input of the voices being represented. Include the perhaps confusing practices. Include the archaic values.

Certainly as students, we aren’t perfect.

But Redwood can do better.

Whether students are enjoying fortune cookies in San Francisco under the pretense that they represent Chinese culture or Panda Express under the pretense that it counts as a celebration of Chinese New Year, the fact is that if any form of a leadership body attempts to bring another culture into the mainstream to celebrate it, they should strive for accuracy.

In a liberal pocket of liberal California, and in a school district that talks of acceptance and the celebration of diversity, I would hope Redwood’s Leadership could get it right.

In an institution of learning that warns about the dangers of telling a single, stereotypical story, our leadership body has an obligation to get it right. Please, let this serve as a lesson, a future call to action against the institutionalized complacency of cultural ignorance. cgranger@redwoodbark.org

Eating dogs is horrific. So why isn’t eating cows?

By Saamya Mungamuru

Around summertime every year, my email account becomes flooded with angry, passionate Change.org petitions with the same goal: to ban China’s annual Yulin Dog Meat festival. The festival is a 10-day event held in Yulin, Guangxi, China during the summer solstice and is celebrated by eating dog meat. Last year, an estimated 10,000 dogs were slaughtered for the festival, according to an article by The Independent.

Countless petitions and articles carry heartbreaking images of puppies cooped up in cages on their way to slaughter houses and skinned dogs hanging upside down from metal hooks. They include gory details of how these animals are clubbed, torched, burned, beaten, even boiled to death while fully conscious. It is a horrific, cruel festival that is on the receiving end of much global outrage and criticism. But why do the same people who condemn the Chinese for eating dog don’t find fault with Sunday barbecues, hamburgers and bacon?

The meat eater’s hypocrisy is immoral and unjustifiable.

The other day in Spanish class, one of my classmates presented about a Peruvian dish, cuy, and mentioned that cuy is a dish made from guinea pig meat.

Upon hearing that, some people gasped in horror. “Yeah, it’s really sad,” she responded.

But why is the death of a guinea pig for human consumption so sad, while t h e plight of millions of cows, pigs and chickens, who await their death within the confines of the most atrocious factory farms, isn’t?

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), over 99 percent of farm animals are raised in factory farms—profit-driven industries that couldn’t care less about animal welfare because it threatens their ability to maximize output at the lowest possible cost. In factory farms, animals raised for slaughter spend their whole lives in the most cramped, unnatural and stressful conditions.

In 2015, Americans consumed a total of 48.4 billion pounds of red meat and 8.82 billion head of chicken, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If 10,000 dogs and cats that lose their lives in Yulin every year is an appalling number, how does this compare?

In an industrialized, systematic fashion, we continue to support the murder of billions of farm animals. Yet, the Yulin Dog Meat festival will always draw more outrage than the U.S.’s monstrous meatpacking industry ever will.

Many people in Marin say they are animal lovers; however, they extend their love to animals that, in our world, are designated as pets. As a society, we have accepted that some animals exist for human companionship and some for human consumption. We love our dogs and cats because we spend time and bond with them.

Many people after picking up a ham sandwich at the grocery store do not feel empathy for the pig that died to go into that sandwich because they don’t think about their meat as something that was once a living, thriving, sentient individual.

Instead, they see it as food.

We need to start empathizing with the animals in factory farms the same way we Illustration by Lauren Smart

empathize with our pets.

One common justification for eating meat is that farm animals cannot reason like us, therefore, as superior beings, it is our right to eat them. Even compared to our pets, they seem to be less sensitive and less evolved. Scientific research, however, has proved this notion to be false.

A study conducted by neuroscientist Lori Marino, founder of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, and professor Christina M. Colin of Emory University found that pigs have similar mental and social capacities to dogs and chimpanzees. In fact, pigs are one of the smartest animals, according to the Humane Society, with greater cognitive abilities than three-year-old children.

But at the end of the day, is eating them because they’re of a lesser intelligence a justification at all? Even if farm animals did lack the capacity to reason and think, it still does not mean that humans have the right to subject them to a life of torture before their ultimate demise.

Philosopher Peter Singer once famously said, “All the arguments to prove man’s superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals.” And he’s right. Whatever reasonings humans may conjure up to justify eating meat, the arguments remain morally fallacious because all farm animals are capable of feeling pain and suffering, just like dogs, just like guinea pigs and just like us.

Human entitlement dictates that animals are ours.

But animals aren’t ours—to eat, to confine or to use. If we truly are morally, intellectually and evolutionarily superior beings capable of reason and empathy, then the time has come to end the exploitation and consumption of all animals. Or at least, the next time you sign a Change. org petition criticizing the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, don’t order a hamburger when you go to In-N-Out.

smungamuru@redwoodbark.org

bark

Page 6 • Opinion

March 16, 2018

Point-counterpoint:

Is technology crippling society or pushing us forward?

By Nate Charles

By Lily Baldwin

The growing use of technology in today’s society has sparked numerous reactions, from younger people embracing their smartphones and computers to older generations criticizing the overuse of these technological advancements. What is to come from all of this innovative upheaval?

Sure, automation of even the most mundane acts seems like a good idea when some engineer in a basement creates the next time-saving innovation, but at what cost? Every time a new gadget is created, the original pieces required to do the job are discarded, whether they be out-of-date apparatuses or modern Luddites. Then, in two years, the technology is updated or possibly even replaced.

Take Cadillac’s new self-driving car for example. It can operate completely independent of the driver and can be told where to go. Were self-driving cars to take over the streets of America, taxi and Uber drivers would become irrelevant. Additionally, by next year Cadillac will have refined the model so much that the current version will be ‘out-of-date’. This creates a cycle of replacement in which robotics continues to come out on top, making me question how willing we are to thrust technology into our lives.

Our society has become so consumed by technology that everything we do relies either directly or indirectly on it. From talking with friends to grocery shopping, we have become dependent on modern engineering in an unprecedented way. We’ve thought of so many ways to make life better that we even created machines that do the thinking for us, from artificial intelligence (AI) to cars like Cadillac’s latest product.

CNBC wrote an article in which futurist (a person who studies the future and makes predictions about it based on current trends) Ian Pearson said AI will be billions of times smarter than man and that people may need to merge with computers to survive. Unfortunately, this may be the case. According to a study released by PwC, an accounting and consulting firm, 38 percent of jobs face automation by the year 2030, a percentage higher than any other major country, including Germany, Japan and England. Computers haven’t taken over yet, but they are well on their way.

Amazon’s self-checkout store in Seattle, dubbed “Amazon Go,” was the last straw for me. Society has become so obsessed with innovation that we automated grocery shopping. Grocery shopping, people. The store has no workers, but rather a supercomputer that can tell when someone picks up or puts down a certain item.

Picking up the item will add it to your “cart” and placing it back down removes it. Once you walk out the doors, anything in your cart is put on a bill that Amazon sends you.

I have a couple problems with this, and the biggest one is a trend that has been bothering me for a few years. As mentioned earlier, this new store features zero workers.

Today’s job market is already extremely competitive, but when you throw machines into the mix there’s one more limiting factor. Automation of jobs has been taking place since cars were first being produced, but in a time where the DOW can change over two percent each day and workers face much uncertainty, job security is chief among many people’s concerns.

In a study run by Pew Research, 51 percent of young professionals and 59 percent of older professionals listed job security as their top priority.

Technical engineers and innovators must take that into account when they are dreaming up machines that could work ‘twice as fast as humans,’ because though efficiency has its perks, the downsides of an economy riddled with unemployment severely outweigh them.

Humanity’s priority should be the well-being of all humans, not coming up with the next autonomous letter-opener.

And why did we even make this store a reality in the first place? Because grocery shopping was such a chore? So that we could avoid human interaction at all costs?

Many new technological upgrades focus on such trivial facets of our everyday lives that all we have to do is press the button. We as a society are rapidly becoming so tech-dependent that we lose our ability to do even the most basic tasks. Such overbearing of automatons removes the human touch from just about anything, a step we as a people should be not b e s o comfortable with.

But let’s be sensible here.

I am a teenager, I use technology to my advantage. I am most certainly not calling for a boycott of technology across the board (or should I say screen?). We as a society have made terrific advancements in numerous fields with the help of technical engineering, like cell phones or electric vehicles, and those should be celebrated. In addition, this is a world where everybody wants it done yesterday and efficiency is a prized trait, something technology can most definitely deliver. According to a Heartland Monitor Poll, 69 percent of Americans said “having the latest technology i s totally necessary to our lives.”

Surely we crave technical helpers, but our addiction to them needs to be checked. Right now on debate.org, a website that posts yes or no questions, 79 percent of people responded yes to “Do we depend on technology too much?” If we continue our overzealous reliance on technology, we face numerous consequences like a crippled workforce and the inability to perform basic tasks. We are letting tech run free in our lives and it has started to penetrate the very essence of what it means to be human.

Illustration by Lucas Marchi

I can’t be the only 17-year-old who receives sporadic emails from their relatives with links to articles titled “Social Media is as harmful as alcohol and drugs for millennials.”

And I can’t be the only one who reads those articles, rolls their eyes and goes back to FaceTiming their best friend. It feels as if every opinion about technology is expressed with a mourning sigh, accompanied by some pitiful explanation as to why social media and technological advancements are ruining young people everywhere. Yes, everything should be done in moderation. However, this deluge of criticisms young people are receiving is a cyclical pattern of older generations griping about how scary the future seems. Technology provides a chance to expand our minds and explore the curiosities of the world with easy access.

I cherish time with my friends and my version of dragging a phone cord around my room chatting as my parents did as teens is even better: I get to see my friends’ faces, hear their voices and watch their reactions to the ridiculous subjects we talk about.

The growth of technology and social media in the lives of young people is not something to fear. According to a 2008 New Yorker article, advancements in technology are the driving forces behind progress throughout history. The invention of the telegraph wasn’t scoffed at in 1844; it was admired and marked a turning point in communication for humanity. That’s what technology serves as: not a sign of declining connections, but a mark of progress in communication and growth within the human race.

The kind of pessimism surrounding what the future holds is not conducive to a better, brighter community. In fact, it’s detrimental to the generations ahead. As we continue to plant seeds of dismay in young minds about how technology is allegedly ruining their social ability, we sequester them to a static world where progress is nearly impossible. Demonizing the betterment of technology is demonizing the advance of knowledge and communication, and, for centuries, fear is what has held back the human race from progressing into a more connected, more accepting time.

I understand where parents are coming from, but I don’t believe a concern for safety is really the biggest reason older generations are apprehensive about their kids using social media. I believe that everyone is a little afraid of change, but according to Roger Gil, a clinician for Family Intervention Services, as you get older, you tend to become more resistant to change.

“When we experience the world or ourselves in a certain way for an extended period of time, we develop core beliefs that make up our paradigm for how life is supposed to be,” Gil said in a LifeHacker article about why older people are afraid of changes. “As we age and our brains become less plastic, we encounter more difficulties processing changes because our paradigms are more ingrained.”

The future can undoubtedly be scary. Artificial intelligence has made a rapid growth within technology in recent years, with the invention of robotic machines capable of doing almost everything its human counterpart can do. However, there are innumerable reasons why it’s unreasonable to be so concerned about technology. A 2017 New York Times article points out that machines will never be able to replace humans, and we shouldn’t be afraid of the assistance technology provides.

“While humans can act from fear and anger, and be harmful, at their most elevated, they can inspire and be virtuous. And while machines can reliably interoperate, humans, uniquely, can build deep relationships of trust,” said David Seidman, CEO of LRN leadership and ethics company.

The progress technology has made isn’t something that should scare people, because a machine can never possess the qualities of a living, breathing, compassionate person. New technologies have merely created opportunities in fields such as science and medicine; the use of equipment like robotic prosthetics have allowed those who are physically disabled to gain efficient motor function that is necessary in everyday life. These kinds of inventions aren’t ones we should foresee as potential enemies.

Machines can never connect on the level humans do, but they can help people make those connections.

It’s not that you shouldn’t listen to your parents when they ask you to put your phone away for dinner. I acknowledge technology can be a distraction, and when overused it can prevent deep connections from forming through face-to-face interactions. But I don’t believe this is as prevalent as parents believe; to me, it seems they only see the negative side effects of social media because what they’re searching for is a reason to back up their concerns about the changing habits of young people.

According to a recent Bark survey, 68 percent of students self-reported that they believe technology and social media can be both detrimental and beneficial to society, and I agree. Everything has its pros and cons.

However, the criticisms older generations have toward active users of social media creates an environment of animosity and idealizes an idea that you’re a better person because you don’t use Twitter. Just because someone didn’t grow up with our modern ways of communication doesn’t mean they’re more connected to humanity. To me, it’s the complete opposite. Social media is a way to connect with relatives, friends, loved ones and others you may not otherwise be able to keep in touch with. I wouldn’t have any sort of contact with my best friend from fourth grade if it weren’t for iMessage and social media. Through websites like Facebook, my family was even able to find an uncle I never knew existed that was discovered through Ancestry.

This is the first time in history that people of all generations have had easy access to multiple platforms to connect with creative, scientific, knowledgeable groups and be able to foster both professional and personal relationships that don’t rely on geography, ability or age. People are more able to spread their ideas, raising the standards of how people think and learn. Lively debates about life in a modern world wouldn’t be so prevalent, and many wouldn’t be able to speak their voices without social media, such as the growing movement of young people motivated by the attack in Parkland, Florida. to speak out against gun violence. They’re creating real, tangible change that wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for their influence being spread through social websites.

Online platforms and social networking sites have given us the ability to make more connections than ever and don’t detract from real life situations, despite what your parents say when they see you on your phone. Technology is changing and advancing, and along with it, so are humans. It’s your choice whether you embrace the changes that time brings. You can either welcome it with open arms or argue it with strong intent. I urge older generations not to fear the future just because the past is more comfortable.

ncharles@redwoodbark.org

lbaldwin@redwoodbark.org

Page 7 • Opinion

www.redwoodbark.org

bark

bark

Redwood High School 395 Doherty Drive Larkspur, CA 94939 www.redwoodbark.org

Editors-In-Chief Shannon Donelan China Granger Anne Pritikin Daniela Schwartz

Illustration by Christine Watridge

editorial Age of student activism cannot be inhibited “I’d rather get soaked than shot”

Two days ago, the nation united. At approximately 10 a.m. on Wednesday, students across the country chose to walk out of their classrooms in support of the Florida shooting victims and increased school safety measures. Amid morning showers, many Redwood students joined the walkout. Many who left class knew that an unexcused absence could go on their attendance records, however, to them, the movement outweighed the consequence.

The thousands of students who have walked out of their high schools are making history. According to the Women’s March website, where this walkout, named #Enough, originated, 2,853 walkouts were scheduled for Wednesday. However, despite the impassioned levels of activism around the country directly after the Parkland shooting and leading up to this walkout, the Redwood community has remained—for the most part—silent. The discussion surrounding school safety has been minimally addressed on a local level.

There have been no assemblies, no discussions, no action, but instead an email has been sent to the entire Redwood community clearly stating the ramifications for those choosing to protest. The email stated that students would receive an unexcused absence if they decided to miss class for 17 minutes to honor the 17 lives lost during the Parkland shooting. While it is true that schools cannot mandate walkouts or protests under the California Education Code, students should not feel obligated to seek permission to stand up for their beliefs.

According to a recent Bark survey, 45 percent of Redwood students self-reported feeling less safe at school given recent events. It is the responsibility of our student body to change this and make a statement, no matter what consequences administration gives regarding our attendance records. The walkout is one step in the right direction toward a community where prominent student voices are acknowledged and encouraged.

The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the grounds of the latest school shooting, sparked a national youth-led movement that has spread throughout schools. These students are broadcasting the message that as young adults in America, it is essential to voice our opinions on platforms both large and small to demand change in our legislation. As members of an affluent community similar to Parkland, Florida, we have the duty to use our platform to speak out against these issues. These students have effectively utilized their socioeconomic advantages and unfortunate place in the spotlight to break the decade-long impasse on the gun-control debate centered around school safety.

Despite this, as teenagers across the United States demand to be heard, most Redwood students continue

A BARK to Night of Blues. You like jazz?

A BITE to the Utah State Bar for accidentally sending a topless photo to every lawyer in the state. We have an objection to that erection. #fullsend A BARK to Coner Lamb winning the Pennsylvania house seat. Saccon(e) that! Paying your mistress to get an abortion doesn’t pay off.

A BITE to Ryan Seacrest’s alleged history of sexual harassment. Sorry dawg, you’re not our American idol.

A BARK to the March 13 packed board room meeting. We commend Tam District students for speaking

to sulk in the shadows of the politically active few who are open to expressing their beliefs on a countywide scale. This may be because we care more about an unexcused absence, creating an atmosphere of apathy among the student body.

Some students in our own district did not hesitate to take action the day following the Parkland shooting.

Tamalpais High School students organized a candlelit vigil with speakers, local news station publicity and even a statement from Congressman Jared Huffman to accompany the event. The organizing of this event required teachers taking time out of class to plan, action that has not been present in our classrooms.

The vigil demonstrated real community activism— activism that Redwood has clearly lacked.

We cannot seek permission from administration or parents and let the fear of academic consequences extinguish advocating for our beliefs, especially when the issue is so closely connected to our lives.

This is not the first time Redwood’s administration has struggled to define the boundaries of student expression. For example, in 1971, a Redwood student was suspended after wearing a “F**k the Draft” pin to protest the Vietnam War. Nationwide, public schools faced similar dilemmas; in December of 1965, Mary Beth Tinker was suspended for wearing a black armband to her public school to protest the Vietnam War. After appealing this decision, her case eventually became the well-known Tinker v. Des Moines, in which the Supreme Court ruled that we as students do not have to leave our freedom of speech and expression outside of school. Nevertheless, over 50 years after this case, students are still taking cues from school officials on how and when they should behave when they feel strongly about an issue.

History has shown us time and again that student activism can yield results, so why do we still feel the need to obtain permission for our activism?

Let us leave our mark on the very history textbooks that have built the foundation of our education. Walking out of our classrooms for 17 minutes is only a start. Wednesday isn’t an isolated action, it is the beginning of a movement, one led by us. We must not fear an absence more than a bullet.

The choice is ours.

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 submitted to room 177 or in the Bark mailbox in the facility. They may also be emailed to bark@redwoodbark.org.

out.

A BITE to “The Shape of Water” winning best picture at the Oscars.

Seems a little fishy to us.

A BARK to all the upperclassmen that wake up at 6:00 a.m. to get a parking spot in the front lot. What’s the point of sleeping in bed when we can sleep under Redwood’s luxurious solar panels?

A BITE to Rex Tillerson being fired.

A meteor must have hit the White House, because this T-Rex is now extinct.

A BARK to California ICE spokesman, James Schwab, for resigning over disputes with Trump.

Way to Schwab the deck of fake news.

A BITE to Stephen Hawking’s death.

You were our (theory of) everything.

A BARK to Hertz Rental Cars cutting their ties with the NRA. That’s a real drive towards progress.

A BITE to recent budget cuts. When we said we wanted to slim down for summer, this isn’t what we meant.

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

Head Copy Editor Christine Watridge Copy Editors Melissa Block Natalie Cerf Caroline Cummings Tilly Friedlander Sabine Lloyd News Editors Neva Legallet Saamya Mungamuru Opinion Editors Verenice Palczynski Emily Sweet Feature Editors Lily Baldwin Jericho Rajninger Sports Editors Anna Compagno Sam Warren Review Editors Julia Jacoby Jordan Overmyer Lifestyles Editors Carolyn French Sydney Hilbush Spanish Editor Bea Cazares Business Manager Sylvana Perczek SocialMedia/ Snapshot Editor Jocelyn Overmyer Survey Manager Alexandra Lee Art Consultant Max Gilberg Reporters Josh Cohen Nate Charles Jack Green Hannah Halford Lucie James Maxim Kawashima Jacob Klionsky Natalia Lazor Vincent Leo Alexander Lieberman Charlotte Seton Devon McClain Amanda Morse Matt Mulcahy Sachi Nahas Jack Parsons Julia Scharf Adviser

Erin Schneider

POLICY: All editorials are unsigned and have been approved by the majority of the Bark staff.

español

Página 8

Español para Hispanohablantes prospera con diversidad Por Bea Cazares y Diego Clavijo Cuando llegas a Redwood solo se escucha inglés: la música, las lecciones y las conversaciones entre amigos.

Pero eso no refleja el 10 por ciento de la población de la escuela de quienes su idioma principal no es el inglés.

Por esa misma razón, después de seis años volvió haber una sección de Español para Hispanohablantes (EpH) en Redwood.

Según el líder del departamento de idiomas, Debbie McCrea, aunque la clase ha existido en el Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) por 20 años, Redwood no pudo tener la clase porque no podían llegar al mínimo de 20 alumnos en la clase.

La maestra de la clase Anna Alsina informa que aunque los alumnos puedan hablar con fluidez, el escribir les falta un poco de práctica porque no lo hacen seguido.

“Muchos no leen en español, solamente lo hacen en inglés debido a sus clases y encontrar materiales en español es más difícil,” dijo Alsina. “El inglés, ellos lo escriben y lo leen en sus clases, el español no está tan presente en sus vidas. Esta clase es un lugar donde ellos puedan trabajar en su español y conocer aspectos culturales del español que ellos no conocían.”

Inicialmente, para tratar de apuntar alumnos a la clase de EpH, les preguntaron a los que sabían que evan nativo hablantes y alumnos que hablaran español con fluidez aunque no es su primer idioma.

De esa manera pudieron encontrar algunos alumnos para integrarse inicialmente en la clase.

Según Alsina, también este año casi no podían tener una sección de EpH porque inicialmente sólo se apuntaron 17 alumnos, pero a medida que iba avanzando el año más estudiantes se apuntaron.

“Los alumnos empezaron a difundir la clase y así más alumnos empezaron a integrarse. Todas las sillas se fueron llenando hasta que ya no [quedaron] mas lugares disponibles,” dijo Alsina. “Los estudiantes hablan entre ellos y se dan cuenta que ellos pueden estar ahí, debido a que son hablantes nativos. O también puede ser que conozcan las clase a través de los consejeros.”

La variedad de culturas y países de donde vienen los alumnos es una parte que agrega a la clase.

Según Alsina, hay estudiantes de Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, España y México quienes añaden sus propias perspectivas a las lecciones en la clase.

“Podemos hablar de cualquier tema sin ninguna barrera del idioma, podemos debatir, y discutir temas complejos sin el impedimento de no entendernos unos a otros, entonces podemos hablar acerca de todo,” dijo Alsina.

La variedad de culturas es algo que atrae a alumnos a la clase, como el estudiante de cuarto año, Diego Kroell.

“Compartimos la misma cultura, porque la mayoria son latinos, es como un conjunto de personas que tiene algo relacionado, que tienen algo en común,” dijo Kroell.

“Creo que es más entre el diálogo y las conversaciones [que] son más culturales que en otras clases.”

Aunque muchos alumnos que son parte de la clase hablan español en sus casas, esta clase es una oportunidad de mejorar.

“Los ayuda a mejorar y ampliar su vocabulario.

También se exponen a leer y escribir en español, cosa

Foto por Vincent Leo

CONJUNTOS EN UN circulo, Angel Alonzo, Anna Alsina y Diego Kroell usan Español para hablar de topicos relevantes a los estudiantes en la clase. que no hacen en sus otras clases,” dijo Alsina. “El nivel hablemos en español y es mejor.” de español de los alumnos es buenisimo y entienden con Según McCrea, la diferencia entre las clases APs facilidad todo.” estaban creadas con el propósito de escribir ensayos y Esa misma ampliación de vocabulario es lo que atrae a analizar, mientras la clase de EpH tenía un propósito la estudiante de tercer Bruna Busquets a la clase. diferente que fue tener ideas nuevas y diversidad.

Después de que se mudó de Barcelona a Tiburon de Para Alsina, no tiene que preocuparse de enseñar intercambio, cuando Busquets se apuntó en clases supo cosas como gramatica, pero toma el tiempo para enseñar que EpH iba suplementar su horario escolar. ortografía.

“Lo que me gusta es que no es tanto aprender el idioma “Entienden todas las palabras pero no saben cómo se porque todos allí ya sabemos hablar escriben, ampliamos vocabulario, español, pero es seguir practicandolo estudiamos materiales auténticos y para no perderlo,” dijo Busquets. que no están modificados, que son “Además lo que me gusta más es que originalmente del español,” dijo conoces diferentes culturas y acentos de Alsina. diferentes partes del mundo aunque sean Alsina se enfoca en encontrar hablar español. Todos los estudiantes temas relevantes que les interesan son de diferentes países y eso me gusta a los alumnos cuando planea sus mucho.” clases.

Para Kroell, le gusta más EpH que “Yo me esfuerzo mucho clases como matemática y ciencia por la preparando mis clases, por ejemplo, manera que está estructurada. ahora estamos hablando de las “Es más divertido. En matemáticas Bruna Busquets, tecnologías de la información, como todo está planeado y en la clase de estudiante de tercer año afectan a las personas, a los jóvenes hispanohablantes va conforme a la clase y a niños. Yo intento encontrar temas a lo que debemos hacer,” dijo Kroell. que les interesen a mis alumnos,” “La clase de matemáticas seguimos un dijo Alsina. patrón de secuencia que va, primeros 20 minutos esto y Para Busquets, poder preservar su español mientras 30 minutos esto. Y esta clase de español es más relativa, estar en la escuela es un aspecto que le gusta de la clase. tenemos tiempo de hacer lo que queramos mientras “Es una manera de seguir practicando y además conocer más gente, nuevas culturas, nuevos países y acentos sobre todo. Mucha gente lo habla en casa o quizás ni eso pero lo conocen así lo que quieren es practicar y no perderlo,” dijo Busquets.

Aunque todos pueden entender el español, todas idiomas tienen acentos que dependen de sus paises de origenes.

“En España les dicen a las chicas lindas ‘mona’, y en mi país nunca le decimos ‘mona.’ Porque si le decimos ‘mona’ sería como llamarla mono o algo así. Entonces yo no le diría algo así a una chica pero en españa si lo dicen, es como decir, ‘esa chica es muy mona.’’

El sentido de comunidad está muy vivo en la clase, según ambos Kroell y Busquets. Dijeron lo que más se destaca de la clase es la variedad de personas en la clase.

“Es como un choque y una mezcla de muchas culturas y mucha gente diferente que viene de lugares y familias diferentes que tienen algo en común que es el español. Esa mezcla enriquece la clase y hace que la clase sea más rica y completa,” dijo Busquets.

Conoces diferentes culturas y acentos de diferentes partes del mundo.

bark@redwoodbark.org

Foto por Vincent Leo

DANDO UNA LECCIÓN sobre novelista Colombiano Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alsina atracta el atencion de todos sus estudiantes en Español para Hispanoablantes.

Editado por: Sr. Stevens y Vicens Vila

feature

Page 9

Threats and tragedies prompt security changes

By Carolyn French and Julia Jacoby A wave of anxiety washed through the halls when the fire alarm rang out two days following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The parallels between Parkland’s tragedy and the environment of Redwood became all too similar. Both are wealthy communities known for their well-established public schools, and with the fire alarm echoing through otherwise silent corridors, a feeling of safety was temporarily lost.

After the series of, thankfully fruitless, shooting and bomb threats that have occured over the past year, Redwood has acquired a reputation for its excessive threats. This has unfortunately become the reality for many schools in the United States. Following the tragedy that struck Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 14, security has become more of a pressing concern than ever. According to a recent selfreported Bark survey, 45 percent of students feel less safe at Redwood, “given recent events.”

“It’s so troubling when the school becomes targeted because, number one, it’s our young people,” said Redwood principal David Sondheim. “And I think there is no bond like the bond between a parent and a child, and so the thought that our children are at risk is something we work our entire parenthood to try to minimize. It strikes fear almost like no other.”

This type of fear has risen for students as well, as schools nationwide have seemingly become a target for violent expression. According to the New Yorker, many have dubbed the years following 1999 as the “school shooting era,” after the Columbine High School massacre occurred. Through the 2000s, school environments and policies have been more affected by the fear of gun violence in schools.

Junior Sam Jackson said that the rising prevalence of shootings has made him more aware of the threats at school. “[School security] hadn’t even entered my mind before this year. I’ve never thought of it as a threat until now. I think that that definitely comes from Parkland and the prevalence of school shootings now,” Jackson said.

According to Wellness Center Coordinator Jennifer Kenny-Baum, part of this new standard is a “normalized” reaction to these types of events.

“As the threats have continued we’ve seen [wellness visits] kind of go down and that’s attributed to students beginning, sadly, to normalize this as part of their experience,” Kenny-Baum said.

Despite admin’s efforts to adjust crisis protocols, 54 percent of students in the same Bark survey self-reported feeling that Redwood administration hasn’t done enough to address the issue of safety at school.

According to Jackson, he and many of his peers have been frustrated with the lack of staff-to-student communication, and feel that administration has been prioritizing the school’s public relations and image over student communication. Jackson hopes to see a change in this in the future.

“However we can get our voices across to the admin—I don’t think that necessarily means a big march or a walk out or a moment of silence. I think that that just should come from even individuals speaking with admin

and voicing their opinions,” Jackson said.

These events, while frightening for some, provide insight into the merits of the school’s current security protocols, according to Sondheim.

“I think what the various threats this year have done is [that] they have gotten people on edge more than our staff and students and parents normally are. At the same time they have allowed us to look at protocols not just in drill form but what are closer to real form,” Sondheim said.

“And so we’ve gotten a much better idea of changes that we needed to make, and we have been able to make those.”

Robert Roman, a campus security staff member who is in charge of the safety of Redwood, has been involved in the procedures that have taken place due to security threats throughout the year.

“It unfortunately helps me become much less complacent,” Roman said.

“I’m just making sure my head is always on a swivel, or if I see anything out of place I make sure to report it. Unfortunately when this happens it makes your senses a little more aware.”

Roman, who has been working at Redwood for the past five years and spent a year and a half as a trained police officer in San Rafael, feels that he is personally well-trained in addressing security breaches and threats to the safety of others. However, according to Roman, Redwood security guards do not need to meet any prerequisite policing or security experience besides a background check.

Recently, staff and security participated in an active shooter training session which was very useful, according to Roman. Staff were trained on procedures for active shooters and went over the rights that staff and students have on campus.

“It opened my eyes more to not only the actual safety of the school, but also to what we can and can’t do,” Roman said.

As for what Redwood can and can’t do, political controversy extending beyond the campus has spurred discussion about arming teachers. Following the Parkland shooting, some political figures are pledging to pass a bill enabling teachers to carry firearms on campus.

President Donald Trump advocated for the idea. On Feb. 24 Trump tweeted, “Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus.

Shootings will not happen again - a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.”

Roman does not believe that teachers should have the ability to carry a gun on school campus. However, he does think it’s more reasonable for security to have the privilege to, as their main function on campus is to ensure safety.

“Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean you know how to use it. It requires a lot of training because it is a perishable skill, where if you don’t train you’ll lose your accuracy,” Roman said.

This stance is shared by Sondheim, who believes teachers already have enough responsibility and do not need the added pressures of handling a weapon.

Since 2013, there have been 299 school shootings in America, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group. This year, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting is the sixth school shooting that has resulted in injuries, and there have been 18 incidents of gunfire in schools, according to Everytown For Gun Safety.

Regardless, Sondheim maintains that while these incidents are horrific, they are still statistically insignificant in broader context and should not be considered a norm or a conventional part of schooling.

“I think there’s a heightened level of fear, certainly that’s been there for us this year with the different incidents we’ve had, and yet we still by and large by numbers are very safe in our schools. Does that mean that we feel as safe as we actually are? That’s two different things,” said Sondheim.

“We know there are 100,000 public schools in the country and almost all of them have never had an incident, but some have and some of those incidents have been horrific, and like a plane crash it jars us emotionally.”

With the increase in threats at Redwood this year, students’ perspectives on the idea of a shooting being possible have shifted.

“I feel like we’re going to become this school that cried wolf with all these threats. Parkland was just like us,” Jackson said.

Though Sondheim emphasized that the overwhelming majority of schools never experience violent attacks, both Sondheim and Roman stressed the importance of providing emotional support for students, especially those who may be troubled. Sondheim cited the Wellness Center as an example of this support. “[The Wellness Center] provides more services for kids, but additionally, the beauty of something like a Wellness Center is it de-stigmatizes and helps everybody become more aware of behavioral and emotional challenges—everything from the standard challenges of being a young person all the way to somebody who might do something terrible to a community,” Sondheim said.

Kenny-Baum said that Wellness plays an even bigger role in the connection between mental health and gun control.

“What we seem to see with school shootings is that it’s a lot of students who have historically felt that they don’t fit in. That they felt rejected from peers, and that have felt like it’s a buildup of anger, resentment, sadness and depression. I feel like those are things where we have a real role in being able to support people,” Kenny-Baum said.

Sondheim indicated that there would be changes to Redwood’s security and crisis protocols, but declined to comment about the specificities of these changes, as they are still under review.

Sondheim stated the importance of community initiative in ensuring school safety, such as educating students and family members on school protocols and keeping any guns in the home locked away and out of students’ reach in order to keep Redwood a place of learning and benevolence. “[School violence] is like an earthquake: one of the challenges of an earthquake is that which we think of as the most stable—the ground—is moving. Our reality is never that the ground moves, so it’s upsetting to our emotional status quo, and I think we think of schools as one of the most benevolent, safest, kindest places in our communities,” Sondheim said.

Photo by China Granger

SITTING ON THE football field after evacuating due to a bomb threat on Sept. 19, 2017, students wait for adminsitration to approve a return to class.

bark@redwoodbark.org

It’s 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning.

Fog hovers over the water as the rowers of the Marin Rowing Association (MRA) begin to arrive at the boathouse, alert and ready for their morning training.

It’s the day before the first major race of the season, and each athlete appears determined in the hopes of competing in their desired boat against other Bay Area teams.

The girls’ varsity coach, Sandy Armstrong, clutches her clipboard, attempting to decide who will make up tomorrow’s varsity boat as she corrects the coxswains’ every move through her megaphone. From the coach’s motorboat, there’s a clear view of the focus, coordination and unison exhibited by each rower. The sport requires nothing less than grit, drive and ambition, all evident in the rowers’ determined eyes. Watching their oars slice through the water so peacefully, it can be difficult to imagine the intensity— including rigorous dieting—that many rowers have been through to get to this point, or beyond.

At the MRA, rowers have the option of rowing in the heavyweight or lightweight boats. If rowers choose to row lightweight, they commit to remain at or below the maximum required weight of 130 pounds for girls and 150 pounds for boys by the time they weigh in at a race. They are also encouraged to weigh as close to the maximum amount as possible. If a rower is naturally above the required weight, they have about two and a half months to cut weight in time for races.

Last school year, senior Calvin Norstad rowed for the MRA’s boys’ lightweight team. Unlike many of the lightweight rowers who are naturally at 150 pounds, Norstad’s natural weight was above the maximum.

This year, he will be rowing for the heavyweight team because he could not continue to maintain the 22-pound deficit under his natural weight of 172 pounds.

“It just felt like the atmosphere was kind of closing in on me. It’s a weird feeling, being 22 pounds under [my natural weight], because you’re just so tired all the time. The strength that you normally have is just gone,” Norstad said.

According to coach Armstrong, she won’t accept female lightweight rowers

Making weight:

who are more than five to 10 pounds above the required range. Additionally, she explains that weigh-ins are very frequent for females in particular, in order to ensure that rowers are near the range, or if not, that they’re losing weight at a steady pace.

“If there was somebody that wanted to be in the lightweight that weighed 140 pounds, I would not consider them” Armstrong said. “It would be too much weight for them to lose. We weigh in about once a month, just to be aware of what’s going on. And if people are in that natural weight, we’ll know.”

The lightweight team is appealing to the more competitive rowers, as one female and one male lightweight boat goes to Nationals along with only one of the four heavyweight boats, called the varsity boat.

Senior and former lightweight rower Katie Reis joined t h e lightweight team initially because she aimed to compete in Nationals and didn’t think she had the physical capacity to be on the varsity heavyweight boat.

“For me, it was more of a height thing. I thought that I wasn’t tall enough to get to that level where I could be good enough to be in the varsity,” Reis said.

Like Norstad, Reis has also transferred to heavyweight this year, as she preferred not to diet.

According to Armstrong, lightweight rowers who are five to seven pounds over the required range are encouraged to lose the weight over a long period of time, both to be healthy and to minimize problems that can arise on race days.

“If a week out from that big race somebody is weighing in at 135 pounds, we have asked them not to [compete with the lightweights in that race],” Armstrong said.

Junior and heavyweight rower Sally Noble is a president of the Body Positive Club at Redwood, which is a San Rafael organization dedicated to helping people value their unique qualities and minimizing

self-hatred. According to Noble, although there is a respectable intent behind rowing lightweight, it can end up being taken advantage of by competitive rowers who aren’t naturally in the required weight range.

“The idea behind [lightweight is] really good, giving smaller girls a more competitive chance. But it just gets taken advantage of where instead of girls who are 130, there will be girls who are like 140 or 145,” Noble said.

Noble said she feels disheartened to see rowers who are purposely dropping weight to compete.

“There’s a freshman this year who’s on varsity and she’s trying to go to Nationals all four years s o she’s dieting a ton and it’s just sad to see that,” Noble said.

According to Armstrong, at the start of the training season, when some lightweights are beginning to cut weight, coaches provide them with tips on healthy ways to do so.

“We give them guidelines as to how to cut out calories and increase their workout so that you’re not just cutting calories but also burning more calories. [We] leave it up to them to put that into their lifestyle. We [don’t] dictate what they eat. We let them know how people lose weight, and that it’s not a difficult thing to do,” Armstrong said.

At the start of his junior year, Norstad utilized several dieting techniques to cut weight, focusing mainly on portion control and an increase in vegetable intake.

Although this approach sounds healthy, for Norstad the hunger was overpowering both physically and mentally.

“It’s terrible. I would have dreams about eating food. I would also have dreams about hurting myself intentionally, so that I could just go to the hospital and eat whatever I wanted because I wouldn’t

Photo by Tilly Friedlander

ROWING ON THE Corte Madera Creek, members of the Marin Rowing Association’s girls’ varsity team train for their upcoming races at Redwood Shores on March 17 and 18.

have to row anymore,” Norstad said. “It’s not that I didn’t love rowing. It’s that I didn’t love rowing lightweight.”

According to Norstad, after races, the lightweights have two weeks in which they can eat anything that they want, commonly unhealthy foods, because they don’t have to worry about maintaining weight. After the first race day was finished, Norstad said he consumed three sodas, along with cake and ice cream.

For junior and secondyear lightweight rower Gabe Mandossian, weight fluctuation was prevalent during this period of “freedom” after the races. According to Mandossian, he gained approximately 15 pounds in two days from binging on high caloric foods.

As a result of the extreme weight fluctuations, some rowers developed mental issues in addition to the physical ones. Although never diagnosed, Norstad believes that he developed short-term depression during the time that he was dropping weight, as his lack of energy and desire for food lingered.

“My parents were concerned because I was pretty depressed. I wouldn’t talk to them that much. I would just watch Youtube in my time off. I wouldn’t do my homework because I didn’t have the energy.

It wasn’t until I told them that I wasn’t happy and that I just wanted to quit that they were like, ‘This i s really bad now. Let’s fix this,’” Norstad said.

Unlike Norstad, Mandossian decided to compete in Nationals, despite his common feelings of tiredness and dizziness.

Each lightweight rower who was cutting weight had a different way of restricting themselves from eating foods that would cause their weight to increase.

Senior and former lightweight rower Stash Pomichter practiced strict techniques in order to do so.

“The hardest part for me was after the afternoon practice. I’d come home.

I’d be tired. Mentally, at the end of the day, you’re most weak in terms of mental strength, so I actually put a lock on my fridge multiple times, like a padlock,” Pomichter said.

Despite using a scientific approach to dieting by counting calories, Pomichter still found himself struggling to consistently diet in a healthy way.

“Some weekends I would just eat a bunch of stuff, then I would have to deal with the next week by eating way less. It would’ve been a lot healthier if I did it steady over the long term, but that’s hard when all you can think about is food,” Pomichter said.

Although she hadn’t experienced this pattern of eating herself, Reis has heard of very unhealthy practices on the girl’s lightweight team.

“There are some terrible horror stories about people throwing up to make weight, people taking laxatives to make weight. Those are things that when the coaches hear about them, they jump on it and say, ‘That’s not okay,’ and they monitor it,” Reis said.

Despite rumors of unhealthy practices, Noble tries to integrate ideas that she emphasizes in the Body Positive Club to rowers at MRA. “Intuitive eating is a big thing in Body Positive,” Noble said, “especially for rowing where you are burning a lot of calories, it’s important to fuel your body correctly and that’s where a lot of girls get in trouble.”

According to Armstrong, if

the cutthroat commitment of crew

By Tilly Friedlander and Alexandra Lee lightweight rowers weigh too far out of the range, then there are some questions that the coaches need to ask themselves.

“If they’re not in [the 130-132 range], we as a coaching staff need to make a decision if it’s healthy for that person to lose those five pounds,” Armstrong said.

“It’s really difficult to lose five pounds in a week. So, that’s why we try to take a step back where we want it to be over time. And then they maintain their natural lightweight.” Armstrong said.

Noble recalls an incident last year in which a lightweight rower lost 7 pounds in one morning in order to race.

“One time last year a girl before a race, that morning, weighed in seven pounds over, 137. And so she had to put on leggings, sweatpants, whatever, rain jacket, sweatshirts and stuff. And she had to bike for a long time. And then go drive to the course and then run like 3 miles.

And she weighed in, finally made it, and then she had to race,” Noble said.

According to Armstrong, the only suggestions that she offers for losing weight are to cut back on starches and to lose the weight over a long period of months, not rapidly. In her words, all of the guidelines and suggestions given out by the MRA are in the best interest of the athletes.

As a lightweight rower, Reis began to think about food in a different light. It wasn’t an aspect of mere enjoyment for her, rather it was pure energy needed to compete.

“The transition from never thinking about my weight to weighing myself at least once a week was different. And it changed the way I thought of food.

I had started to see food as my fuel and thinking, ‘Do I need this?’ and ‘What am I putting in my body?’ So, I actually ate a lot healthier when I was a lightweight than I do now, but I also ate a lot less,” Reis said.

Armstrong recognizes that with any lightweight sport, eating disorders are something to monitor. Part of her responsibility as a coach is to look for health-related red flags in each rower and to place them in a different rowing category, if need be.

“The key in all of this is that if there is an athlete, whether it be a lightweight or heavyweight, who has a tendency toward the issues that go along with eating disorders, meaning body concerns, control issues, stress, all of the stuff that goes with potentially having an eating disorder, yes, lightweight or coxswain, or even being a heavyweight can trigger those things,” Armstrong said.

Noble talks to her coaches about advice for ensuring that rowers are practicing healthy eating habits.

“It’s really important to eat consistently what you’re body is craving, and that’s a really important way to nourish yourself.

That’s something that I’ve talked to my coach a lot about, because that’s important to both health and athletic performance,” Noble said. “I feel like that’s one big way that [the Body Positive Club and rowing] overlap.”

Reis feels that the coaches for the girls’ lightweight team adequately ensured that they were handling the weight loss in ethical and healthy ways.

“I feel like usually people just talk to the girls about lightweight and say, ‘Isn’t it so hard to try to be skinny?’ But our coach was very good. We had a lot of talks about nutrition. We do weigh-ins not to shame you, but just to make sure that you’re on track when it comes to race day,” Reis said. “I think that that stems from stereotypes and the reality that there are a lot more eating disorders in girls.

But, unfortunately, that kind of hurt the

guys that no one checked up on them and they didn’t talk about it as much.”

Both Mondassian and Norstad agreed that the coaches monitored the boys’ lightweight team less frequently and claimed that that probably hurt their ability to diet in a steady fashion.

Senior and former lightweight rower Jack Wentworth began rowing weighing about 200 pounds without much muscle, and had to cut to 150 pounds by the time he started lightweight racing his sophomore year. Wentworth found that he was not able to maintain the lightweight diet for a long period of time because it began to affect his energy and health.

“I had to give myself a very, very strict diet and it was borderline unhealthy but nothing too extreme, but toward the end of the season I wasn’t able to continue keeping that weight,” Wentworth said. “I was trying to put out about three times as many calories as I ate, and I was losing weight at about two pounds a week. And then it got to a point where my body kind of plateaued and I wasn’t able to lose any more weight.”

Wentworth said that the dieting caused him to miss several school days.

“I was run down a lot, my immune system was pretty weak so I would usually get sick pretty Calvin Norstad, frequently, and senior I was in and out of school because I was really tired and hungry a lot,” Wentworth said.

For both Norstad and Wentworth, the constant lack of energy began to affect their school work as well, making it difficult to concentrate in and out of class.

“I’ve always been a pretty good student, haven’t really had to spend hours to get my homework done and complete it well. But, with lightweight, my attention span completely fell apart. Classes that I normally got As in easily, I was starting to drop to B,” Norstad said. “You just don’t have the mental capacity [to do schoolwork].”

While dieting and weight loss is a constant concern for several lightweight rowers, there are additional influential factors associated with rowing. Other pressures that some sources attributed to lightweight rowing include sacrificing personal well-being to benefit the success of the team, and in general constantly performing at a near-perfect level.

“Nobody really asks the question ‘Is it the right thing to do?’ They just ask, ‘Will it make the boat faster?” Norstad said. “So it was like ‘Okay, you’re going to have make some important sacrifices for the boat,’ which I was happy to do because that’s what a teammate would do,” Norstad said.

Norstad recalls some of the pressure that he felt as a lightweight rower to make sacrifices about his weight and health to benefit the rest of his team’s success as a whole.

“The coach wasn’t necessarily concerned with anybody’s personal health or well-being as much. I’d say more about the team’s well-being, in a way. Which is good and bad, but a coach should care about their athletes,” Norstad said.

According to Wentworth, he initially struggled with the repeated reminders to

stay at the top of his game.

“We were constantly being pushed and being shown the scores from previous years, and your seat is always being threatened to be taken by another person, so you’re always pushing yourself as hard as you can to get faster, stronger and fitter so you can keep your seat in the boat.

Pretty much everything was really hard for me the first year,” Wentworth said.

One of Wentworth’s biggest stressors was not letting his teammates down, which was a genuine concern as his entire boat could be disqualified from the race if he didn’t pass the weigh in.

“For example, our first big race in the lightweight event my sophomore year was in San Diego, and everyone has to weigh in in the morning. I remember the night before I was 152 [pounds], and I was stressing out, I was freaking out,” Wentworth said.

“I weighed in at 149.9, but if I were to weigh 151.1 I would’ve disqualified my whole boat.”

According to Reis, a lot of the pressures lightweights feel come from their own internal thoughts, rather than any explicit statements from coaches or teammates.

“The pressure mostly just came from ourselves.

I could have totally been on the heavyweight team, but I made the decision for myself [to race lightweight] because at the end of the day, I wanted to win races,” Reis said.

This year Reis had to adjust from being encouraged to lose weight to being encouraged to gain weight, as part of her transition from lightweight to heavyweight.

“Compared to last year, I’m almost 20 pounds heavier. I’m lifting more weights than I did last year, my times on [rowing] tests are a lot faster because I have more body and muscle mass,” Reis said.

While Reis learned how to diet and lose weight in a healthy way as a lightweight rower, she believes there were other girls who lost the weight in an unhealthy way, feeling the internal pressure to make progress quickly.

“I wouldn’t say that anything that I ever did was unhealthy. Everyone has their

I would have dreams about eating food. I would also have dreams about hurting myself intentionally, so that I could just go to the hospital and eat whatever I wanted because I wouldn’t have to row anymore.

personal story and I know of people who probably did things that they shouldn’t have done. They would never admit it and our coaches never knew,” Reis said.

“That’s something that they decided to do and they put that pressure on themselves.”

Norstad felt that the stress and intensity around maintaining weight as a lightweight rower was too extreme for him to continue to race with that team, and he believes he made the right decision to quit when he did.

“It would’ve been awesome for me to get a medal. But, looking back at it, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed the three months before that. I would’ve hated those months. I don’t think it’s worth it. Just wasting months of your life in absolute hell for one day of happiness,” Norstad said.

While the high expectations and pressures of being a lightweight were intense, Mondassian didn’t feel alone in the process and continued with the reassuring notion that his friends were going through the same struggles.

“You’re in it together. No one’s really alone. You can talk to the other guys. We were all miserable together, but at least we were together,” Mandossian said.

Despite the intense dieting and pressures that some lightweight rowers feel, going through the experience together allowed a sense of camaraderie and teamwork to form.

“It was a really cool group of guys and it was a really fun boat dynamic.

My sophomore year I was definitely a lot closer to weight, so it was easier for me.

And then my junior year I decided to be in the [lightweight] boat because I thought it was a more fun boat to be in,” Pomichter said.

According to Norstad, over any other experience, the close friendships that he formed over the months of lightweight rowing are what stuck with him the most.

The teamwork and bonded relationships that Norstad reminisces about during his time on the lightweight team is part of what makes rowing so unique. Stepping into the boathouse on that Saturday morning, it was easy to see what the sport is truly about: a strong sense of camaraderie.

It’s not just practice a few times a week, or even an important race, but a lifestyle that each of the rowers share.

However, in the midst of the intense training, dieting, and dedication that can be necessary, it is often difficult to remain positive. While rowing is beautiful to watch, the struggle of the sport can extend far beyond the regatta for several athletes, into sometimes dangerous realms. bark@redwoodbark.org

TRACKING HIS WEIGHT, Norstad found that he lost more than 12 pounds over the course of 11 days in order to prepare for a race.

March 16, 2018 bark Page 12 • Feature Redwood staff speaks out, becomes part of #MeToo movement

By Verenice Palczynski In the wake of the national #MeToo movement, Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) female staff members have spoken up, sharing their stories as victims of sexual misconduct. Jessica Crabtree (a teacher at Redwood High School), Eva Rieder (a teacher at Tamalpais High School), Amei Papitto (a former teacher at Redwood High School) and two anonymous sources within the TUHSD have shared their stories, either through public board meetings or personal testimonies, of being harrassed and then disregarded by administrators.

Jessica Crabtree was the first to come forward publicly.

At a board meeting on Jan. 23, she spoke of how her past case of sexual assault was poorly handled by current administration when she resurfaced it.

According to Jessica Crabtree, she came to Sondheim and the Redwood athletic director, Jessica Peisch, three years ago about being sexually assaulted in 1985, when she was a student at Redwood. She said she spoke out to ensure the male faculty member who assaulted her in 1985 would not have any presence (in person or recognition) on Redwood’s campus. Jessica Crabtree stated that administration was notified about the assault one year before this man’s name was planned to be inducted into the Redwood Athletic Hall of Fame. The alleged assailant’s name has been requested to be withheld by Jessica Crabtree.

Photo by Verenice Palczynski According to Jessica Crabtree, once she found this man was going to be inducted, she went to the Teachers’ ATTENDING A BOARD meeting on Feb. 27, from left to right, TUHSD teachers Rebecca Kittredge, Eva Reider and Amei Papitto have spoken out regarding the administration’s handling of sexual harassment allegations.

Union, who brought the issue to the district.

It was not until the family of a second victim came forward soon after about the same alleged offender that or anything like that, but I think that there are times that administrator who was in my vicinity at that time. Then the man stepped down from the Redwood Athletic Hall of perhaps we have been a little slow as a society to address I told all of the administrators because I was so unnerved about what happened. Nothing. No traction,” source X Fame nominees, according to Jessica Crabtree. these concerns,” Christensen said.

“At the time that [I came forward], it was told to me Rieder’s experience is not an isolated issue. Other said.

According to source X, the students who were that all of this was just an accident, that my principal had female staff members at Redwood said they have also forgotten, that my athletic director that experienced sexual harassment from interviewed by administration about the incident denied I notified forgot,” Jessica Crabtree said male students and have felt silenced by their alleged actions and have faced no punishment.

Similarly, a second anonymous female staff member at the board meeting on Jan. 23. “Since administration, according to Reider. that time I’ve come to realize that it During Papitto’s time as a Spanish “Y” who was also harassed by male students went to was an issue of not believing, it was an teacher at Redwood High School, she administrators and the only punishment students received issue of dismissal in the same way we stated that she was sexually harassed was light interrogation, removal from class for one day see on the national front. My story is by students. Papitto was a teacher at and a message home, according to source Y. “I was lecturing in class and a student rose his hand just the first story. It’s the first story of Redwood High School from 2015many women that work in our district 2016. She stated in an email on Mar. 6 and said something wildly inappropriate to me directly, that are being ignored.” that the reason she was given for being with the audience of the whole class, and it was of a sexual After Jessica Crabtree’s threefired was that she had poor relationships nature,” source Y said.

Source Y went to administration to inform them of minute speech at the meeting, the board with her students. thanked her without commentary.

“These incidents [of sexual what had happened and said she walked away feeling Rieder, a Tamalpais High School harrassment], like others that I don’t discredited and unsupported.

“After my meeting with administration after school, I math and English teacher, publicly have time to elaborate on, were not revealed her experience of sexual Jessica Crabtree, acted on when I reported them. Other did not feel believed. I think that the opinion that we as harassment at the TUHSD board mathematics teacher times I didn’t feel confident based on teachers are mature, capable adults can kind of lead to an meeting on Feb. 6, where she spoke past experiences with administrative attitude of ‘boys will be boys.’ In reality I think it is much about how she has been harassed support to even attempt to report bigger than that,” source Y said.

While the female staff that have come forward feel several times by male students in the them,” Papitto said at the Feb. 27 board as though the male student offenders have walked away forms of rumors, inappropriate phone calls and touching. meeting.

“My numerous inquiries since the initiatives proposed At that same board meeting, William Crabtree, a without much punishment, Principal David Sondheim said by former admin and [Human Resources] have either Government, Street Law, Economics and Computer he believes the administration and district are applying briefly [been dealt with] in a haphazard way or were Graphics teacher at Redwood High School and Jessica serious and appropriate punishments.

“If we are talking sexual harassment and sexual assault dropped entirely. At this time, many incidents I’ve Crabtree’s husband, stated that he believes Sondheim described remain unresolved,” Reider said. should be removed from his position due to the poor cases in particular, we take them extremely seriously and we will provide punishment to the maximum that we can According to Lars Christensen, the TUHSD’s Human handling of these sexual harassment cases.

Resources Director, the first step when female staff come Sondheim declined to comment on William Crabtree’s so that [the student] knows how seriously we take it and it sends a message to others as well,” Sondheim said. forward with complaints of this nature is to listen. statement.

Sondheim expressed that punishment is handled case “I don’t think that we have been dismissive or uncaring In an interview with KTVU Fox 2 news, Superintendent David Yoshihara remarked that the sexual harassment by case and declined to give examples of the types of by male students towards female staff is what he calls punishments given.

In addition to the current TUHSD Title IX Coordinator, “knucklehead behavior.”

“A comment that was made in the press I believe to Wes Cedros, the district recently hired a second Title IX be truly shameful. Dr. Yoshihara, I believe you need to Coordinator, Tara Taupier, who specializes in cases of apologize for the ‘knucklehead behavior’ comment that gender and sex-based discrimination and harassment, to was made in the press to every employee within the school look into some of these harassment cases.

Sondheim said that he looks forward to hearing the district. It’s not right, it belittles the experience that they had,” William Crabtree said at the TUHSD board meeting coordinators’ suggestions as to how they can improve the process and policies surrounding these issues. on Feb. 27.

The women affected said they feel that there should be Yoshihara did not comment on this during the board meeting. However, in a personal interview after this board no delay in bringing change.

“Where are the rules that students should follow about meeting, he stated that teenagers make bad choices, but not sexually harassing adults on campus? Policy can that the district treats harassment seriously.

“I certainly want to share and state that we always come later. We want all staff members to be safe in their try and treat any kind of instances of harassment very classrooms, to do what they were hired and trained to do. I seriously. If anyone was offended I do apologize, that was don’t think that’s asking too much,” source X said.

Jessica Crabtree, Reider, source X, source Y and not my intent,” Yoshihara said.

Two anonymous sources have also come forward Papitto have expressed feeling unheard by their superiors.

“I had an incident on [Feb. 5] happen and I didn’t even through personal testimonies about their experience with face those students when I heard them say something about sexual harassment and how administration dealt with it.

“I was not believed. I was definitely not believed,” said me because there is nothing backing me. What would anonymous female staff member “X” when recounting someone do about it? I don’t trust my administration that how her sexual harassment case was received by the they are going to support me,” source X said.

The investigation in these sexual harassment issues Redwood administration.

According to Christensen, the district is working hard is ongoing. Sondheim declined to comment on his to review the policies in place and change them as needed involvement in the investigative process.

Photo by Verenice Palczynski to handle these issues more efficiently.

SPEAKING AT THE Jan. 23 TUHSD board meeting, “I reported [the harassment] first thing in the morning Jessica Crabtree spoke about past sexual harassment. and it was not investigated. I went to the campus vpalczynski@redwoodbark.org

My story is just the first story. It’s the first story of many women that work in our district that are being ignored.

www.redwoodbark.org

Page 13 • Feature

Redw od After Dark

bark

from beginning Tap Dance for Adults in Redwood’s multipurpose room to Estate COMMUNITY EDUCATION Planning 101 in room 135.

Tuesday nights at 5:45 p.m., David McCune admires the opportunities that Tickton pushes the tables in the corner Community Education allows for adults. of Redwood’s library out of the way and “This is one of the few programs where puts his music sheets down on the table. the community that may not have kids can His first pupil, a retired lawyer who has utilize our facilities… Some of our Spanish reignited her passion for music, arrives. programs we have people sign up for the Soon, a retired journalist sets his things same class every semester,” McCune said. down as well. As the three of them unhook “They just enjoy the community and the their cases and begin to assemble their friendship and bond they’ve created with flutes, Tickton spews words of wisdom the instructor and other students.” about adult life and music with impeccable According to McCune, the community speed. The same cozy environment where education program has been around for students utilize printers, cram for tests approximately 45 years, starting with the during lunch and socialize before school is Drake Pirate Basketball Camp. transformed into a haven for flute players Though these classes seem to be hidden for the next three hours. from the view of the community, they are Tickton is a teacher with the Community easily accessible through the Academics Education program in the TUHSD district. tab on the Redwood website. In addition to The program, which remains unknown their availability, they are met with plenty to many students and members of the of support from current students. community, operates at Redwood, Drake These programs and growing ENGAGING IN HARMONY, students from Redwood’s choir class come from all and Tam throughout the school week, community are exquisite models for the around the district to sing. on Saturdays and during the summer. highest enjoyment of education. a little bit more,” Martone said.

CHOIR Community education encompasses a “It’s cool if you come into Redwood It also offers them a desirable sense of Susie Martone adjusts her fingers range of evening classes, summer camps High School at night.You’ve got the ESL and swim programs, according to Director Adult Ed program down one row, you’ll go against her piano and looks into the sea community, according to junior Skylar Vos of Community Programs in the TUHSD by another room and there’s a flute playing, of students in front of her, encountering and sophomore Jack O’Neill.

“It’s much more of a community and district Chris McCune. During the school, and you go by another room and there’s overwhelming amounts of energy. Laughter a family.

We have a break time so you can on one side of the room almost drowns out night classes at Redwood offer no grades people speaking Italian, you go down by or credit, only the satisfaction of gaining the theater and there’s theater rehearsal a jubilant and theatrical rendition of “In get to know people as well as before and the End” by Linkin Park coming from the after,” Vos said. “You get the sense that knowledge. The classes offer a wide range, going on,” McCune said. other. Suddenly, the voices of 35 students everybody wants to be here,” O’Neill said.

Though Martone and her students blend into one, becoming a soft rendition enjoy the large chunk of time they are of a beautiful choir melody.

Only developed last year, Redwood’s alloted on Thursday nights, having an Choir class takes place from 5:30 p.m. to experience outside of school hours also has 8:30 p.m. weekly on Thursday nights and its setbacks according to Martone.

“I think one of the drawbacks is not is led by instructor Susie Martone. The class is an educational outlet for students seeing everybody as frequently. When from not only Redwood, but all around the you practice something everyday it becomes more ingrained. I spend a lot of TUHSD. The class began as a Community time reviewing stuff we learned the week Education class, according to Martone. before,” Martone said.

Martone also described the typical Chorus, which at first glance seems more like a friendly gathering, now provides experience of a three-hour class, eventually students with class credit and fulfills their declaring it somewhat of a “microcosm” of fine arts requirement, though it doesn’t a full-length school day.

Martone believes the environment seem like many students are there for this outside of school allows students to purpose.

Having a longer and less frequent class disconnect from technology and build has allowed Martone and her choir to meaningful relationships.

“It’s important to have real time, immerse themselves in their work weekly, personal interactions and connections according to Martone.

“You can get a lot done. You can with people. Singing in harmony together PLAYING THE FLUTE, David Tickton attentively leads Community Education break off into smaller groups and work on is an obvious way to get some of that classes for flute players in Redwood’s library on Tuesday nights. your part. During the day, if you have 45 connection,” Martone said. minutes or an hour it feels like it went so fast. You can delve into your different parts ARTIST’S VOICE Redwood,” Bartone said.

With unique guest artists from all Having three hours to complete a around the Bay Area, Artist’s Voice has project allows students to deeply invest in offered Redwood’s art students ways to their work and finish projects within one further their love of art outside of the night rather than a week of 50-minute class school hours for about 15 years. In the past, periods, according to Bartone. the class ran on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to “Students can work through all of the 9 p.m. and served 20 to 25 students each phases of a project, just like it happens in year, according to teacher Lauren Bartone. the professional world. Students take their “The motivation for the class was work more seriously in that environment, to create a class that would help expose and it’s easier for a teacher to take them students to a greater variety of guest artists, more seriously,” Bartone said. and a lot of guest artists aren’t available to Students like senior Lucas Marchi who come in during the day. It was modeled took Artist’s Voice last year found the class after more of a college level course,” to provide a new learning experience.

Bartone said.

“It’s a different dynamic with other Though the class was not offered this students, with your peers, to sit in a class year, Bartone said plans to continue the with them for three hours at night. You class next year and in the future are strong. interact with them differently,” Marchi The weekly class has been home to said. a wide variety of students, some who Bartone believes that there are many are looking to further their interest in art benefits to exploring new educational without having to fit it into a traditional experiences. school day and some who take Artist’s “I think Redwood students feel really Voice in addition to classes at Redwood, trapped. A lot of them have many interests, according to Bartone. not just in one area and there’s so many “The people that come are people that exciting classes and courses to choose are really motivated and excited about from I think students often feel they have playing around with new art supplies and to make huge sacrifices. Having classes meeting new artists. The guest artists that that aren’t necessarily in the 8 a.m. to 3 we bring are really exciting and interesting; p.m. school day gives students options, they come from all over the Bay Area a different way to engage with ideas,” and we choose them carefully each year Bartone said.

Photo courtesy of Ulla Wilcox because of what new ideas we feel like will GATHERING UNDER THEIR artwork, students from Artist’s Voice dedicated really invigorate the art community here at esweet@redwoodbark.org themselves to art for three hours on Wednesday nights during the last school year.

Story and photos by Emily Sweet

bark

Page 14 • Sports

March 16, 2018

Girls’ volleyball takes to sand to compete in beach league

By Sachi Nahas Redwood’s newly established girls’ beach volleyball team (Redwood Sand) gathered together at Piper Park Sun. March 4 to play in their first tournament against Branson, Convent and University High School. Comprised of a core group of regular season Redwood volleyball players (freshman to varsity levels), the new team is the only beach team in the Tam Union High School District and along with Branson, one of two from Marin.

Although the team doesn’t count as an official “Redwood sport,” since they don’t compete against other Tam District schools, they are able to play in the High School Sand League which states that all players on the team must be from, and represent one school from around the Bay Area.

Once word spread about the beach volleyball team, there were quite a few participants from Redwood’s indoor team who were interested in playing on the beach.

There were no required tryouts, just the commitment from devoted players from the start of the season in February to the end in May. “We needed a certain amount of players, but actually went beyond that minimum amount the coaches asked us for. We currently have 16 pairs of girls from freshman,

Photo by Sachi Nahas

TOSSING THE VOLLEYBALL into the air, freshman Ryan Bludau winds up to serve over the net.

sophomore and junior grades ready to play,” said Chris Glave, head coach.

Glave has grown up playing volleyball his whole life and helped coach the Redwood girls’ junior varsity team this year. According to Glave, coaches at Branson and Golden Gate Beach Volleyball Club were looking to get another high school involved in the High School Sand League.

“We needed a certain amount of players, but actually went beyond that minimum amount the coaches asked us for. We currently have 16 pairs of girls from freshman, sophomore and junior grades ready to play,” Glave said.

In one match there are six girls playing or in other words, three groups of pairs. Only the top three seeds count for results of a complete match. At Piper Park, the girls came in second place to Branson, with a team final score of 6-3.

“There are always going to be tough matches, so it is exciting to see how the girls do. But teaching them the game, helping everyone get better as individuals and also as partners of the team, are my anticipations for the start of the season,” Glave said.

Agreeing with Glave, freshman Grace Mathews viewed the first tournament as a practice tournament, a time for the team to come and support each other playing and also get a feel for the sport and their competitors.

The team just started practicing last month so many of the girls on the team are still getting used to playing on a sand court and competing against just one partner pair.

Junior Britney Klein plays setter position in indoor volleyball, meaning that during games her job is to primarily set the ball. Now that she is playing in beach, she not only has to play setter but also passer and hitter.

Each individual player is overall a lot more accountable and involved with every play.

“Although I’ve been playing indoor volleyball for years, I thought beach would be a new experience for me to try out. I didn’t have time for club team anymore, but I still wanted another activity to keep me working out and beach definitely keeps me moving,” Klein said.

Although the girls play in pairs, the team tries to maintain the team dynamic of the sport. Unlike club beach volleyball, the Redwood team is in a high school league, so they do not divide the girls up based on age or grade, they play as one big team regardless. In this case, the girls are playing with many teammates they have never met or played with before.

“Practices are the biggest place to have people moving around. The girls are always with someone new, they can’t just be with their best friend and they can’t just be with the same person that they think they are going to win

Photo by Sachi Nahas

PREPARING TO RECEIVE the opponent’s serve, junior Ella Spaethling squats in her ready position. with all the time. We move everybody around, so they create support for each other no matter the ability of each individual,” Glave said.

According to Glave, the pairs are chosen based on who complements each other on the court. He matches all their strengths and weakness together. The teams must win two out of three sets in order to win the match, so he puts players together to set the team up for success.

First time beach player, sophomore Annika Maher, has been playing both competitive travel and Redwood varsity indoor volleyball.

“The competitive dynamic is different in beach. We are representing one big team, but also split into pairs, so I try and cheer people on and build connection and support for everyone because I know if they are confident and improving we all have a better chance of winning as a team,” Maher said.

Beach volleyball is still up and coming in Northern California and most of Redwood’s competitors reside in the South Bay, East Bay and San Francisco. The team has a match on March 30 at Piper Park and their second tournament on April 22 (location to be determined).

snahas@redwoodbark.org

Despite a late start Jensen finds success on the softball field

By Hannah Halford Senior Catherine Jensen didn’t begin her softball career as a pitcher until her freshman year. Even with this late start, in November of 2017, Catherine’s talent and hard work secured her a spot on a Division I college softball team at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

“I’d say my biggest strength is probably my drive and willingness to work hard.

Even though I started so late, I was able to play at a high level when I got at the recruiting side of softball,” Catherine said.

Initially in Jensen’s freshman year, she was encouraged by her high school coach to become a pitcher. That season, as a pitcher, she wasn’t yet aware of her talents. It wasn’t until her sophomore year when a pitching coach at the University of California, Berkeley told Jensen that she had natural talent and a future in softball.

This was a wake up call for Catherine.

She saw her talent as an opportunity and decided to work even harder, so she began to train extensively. Jensen has two to three pitching lessons per week and also practices five times a week throughout the entire year.

Catherine loves the power that she holds as a pitcher, being able to dictate the game based on the decisions her and the catcher make.

“I like being involved in every play. I have control of every play and have control of every pitch. It’s just so different than every other position, because you get to know the outcome of every play before everyone else,” Catherine said.

Throughout all of Catherine’s training, she acknowledges that she wouldn’t be this successful without the largest influence

and motivator in her life: her father, Kurt Jensen.

“He’s also been my biggest inspiration because of how hard he’s worked. He built his own company, and I think going through that you can kind of compare that to building yourself. He just knows me really well and has been one of my biggest supporters,” Catherine said.

Catherine described the relationship that she has with her father as “pitchercatcher,” in the sense that he pushes her, but no matter what, he will always be there for her.

“He always says we aren’t friends until you’re out of my house. He’s definitely the person who is pushing me,” Catherine said.

As both a father and role model, Kurt explained how important it has been for

him to ensure that Catherine plays for herself, not him.

“My job as her father is to push her, but to push her in a good way so that I’m not letting her think that it’s my dream. So that’s a fine line. I think she’s done a good job of checking in and making sure that it’s still something that she wants to do rather than something that I hope she does,” Kurt said.

Kurt believes Catherine has maintained a steady balance between juggling her softball career, education and social life in high school. Kurt’s advice to her in the future would be to continue the strong work ethic she has solidified going into college.

“If you work really really hard there’s no promises but you certainly put yourself in a better position to succeed,” Kurt said.

Photo by Hannah Halford

THROWING THE SOFTBALL toward the catcher, senior Catherine Jensen aims to strike out her opponent from Tamalpais High School at the plate.

Aside from the impact that Catherine’s father has had on her career thus far, Catherine’s teammates have also impacted her long-lasting commitment and enjoyment of the sport overall. The genuine friendships that Catherine has made on both her travel team, a serious club softball team that travels for tournaments during the offseason for Redwood softball, and the Redwood varsity team has made the sport much more enjoyable for her.

Catherine’s best friend and teammate, senior Annie Connors, described the great bond that they have while they’re playing on the field together. “[I’m] playing with one of my best friends and one of the best teammates because she really leads the team with her confidence and her kindness towards everyone. She helps out everyone with the most respect that I’ve seen in a player,” Connors said.

A challenge that Catherine foresees in the not-so distant future is the age difference and competition level that she will have to face being on a college team.

“I think one thing that will be very challenging is competing with girls that are up to 21 and 22 years old. I think competing for a spot is probably going to be the hardest thing, especially as a freshman,” Catherine said.

As Catherine prepares for her upcoming softball career at the University of Dayton, she has felt pressure to perform well.

“I’m more nervous than scared. I think the only reason I’m scared is just because I’ve worked so hard for it and I want to be successful once I get there,” Catherine said. hhalford@redwoodbark.org

Page 15 • Sports

www.redwoodbark.org

bark

Tactics and a close-knit bond take girls’ varsity basketball to the top

By Natalia Lazor

The last time the Redwood girls’ varsity basketball team took the MCAL pennant was in 1987, according to coach Diane Peterson. Just over 30 years later, the girls grabbed the pennant once more.

According to Peterson, the team was elated to have won an MCAL pennant and end the season with an overall record of 26-5. Though they lost their second game in the North Coast Section, they were eligible to apply for the Norcal and were granted admission into the competition, making Redwood history. In their game NorCal game against Whitney, the Giants lost, wrapping up their season.

According to Maxpreps, senior Zoe Stachowski averages 13.2 points per game and this year’s rising freshman, Kylie Horstmeyer averages 9.9 points per game.

Peterson has been coaching the Redwood Giants for nine years and counting. With nearly a decade of coaching experience under her belt, Peterson can attest to how this particular group works so well together.

“Every year, the teams really get along, but this is really a family. We always strive to have families, but sometimes teams are stronger than others, and I would say this is definitely one of the strongest,” Peterson said.

Senior guard Sophie McWhorter has been on varsity for all four years of high school. Recalling what is was like to join as a freshman on a team of mostly upperclassman, McWhorter didn’t experience the same comradery that she now strives to extend to the new members of the current team.

“The difference between the grades normally is our problem, but this year everybody welcomed the freshmen and the new people onto the team,” McWhorter said.

Senior forward Julia Giusti has the same mindset as McWhorter in the way they view their team.

Photo by Natalia Lazor

SHOWCASING THEIR MCAL pennant, seniors Zoe Stachowski (left), Julia Giusti (middle) and Sophie McWhorter (right) stand in the locker room during the last season of their high school basketball career.

“We got a couple of new players to to have their foot on the gas at practices three years, said she and her teammates the team and we knew that the only way even if it was the day before a game, which work to lead by example. that they would be able to do their best is typically most teams would say is their “In years past, a lot of our team captains if we supported them, and so we tried to light day in practice. Sometimes it would were like a third or fourth coach, so they have that mentality throughout the whole be our hardest [practice] because going were super into it and on the coaches side, into the game the next day, [the opposing so it was less of a community,” Stachowski season,” Giusti said.

Stachowski commented on progression team is] playing at a level that we need to said. of Peterson’s coaching techniques and the be at to succeed,” Peterson said.

The new community created this year Only once this season did they suffer contributed to an unprecedented number positive response from the team.

“Since everyone is on the same page, a loss against Newark Memorial, which of wins. With unrivaled drive and an there is less attitude towards the coach occurred during the NCS Playoffs. undeniable connection, the Redwood girls’ According to Peterson, she actually varsity team will leave their mark on the and the other girls, leaving the team more time to really expand on their skills,” sees more learning potential in a loss over a school. win due to the fact that there is much more Stachowski said.

According to Peterson working to takeaway.

Another contributing factor to the together comes easily to the girls on this success of the team is a fresh set of leaders. team.

“As far as practices go, they needed Stachowski, who has been on varsity for nlazor@redwoodbark.org

Boys’ varsity soccer secures MCAL pennant against Marin Catholic

By Julia Scharf A crimson sea of Redwood students crowd around the fence at Marin Catholic, anxiously holding their breath.

The boys’ varsity soccer team has just scored all five of their penalty kicks in the penalty shootout against the Wildcats on Feb. 10 during the MCAL championship game. A Marin Catholic player slowly makes his way to the box and looks at Redwood senior Carson Gilley, who is guarding the goal.

The shooter winds up to kick, strikes the ball and Gilley makes a diving save across the goal. The Redwood fans scale the fence, stampeding the field to celebrate with their team. Redwood has just become the MCAL champion for the first time in over three years since the team defeated Tamalpais High School in the fall of 2014.

Varsity coach Dave Siracusa had been confident since the start of the season that his team was capable and deserving of winning the MCAL title this year.

“From our record it looked like we ran away with the league, but it wasn’t like that. Every game was a dog fight. Our goal was MCAL and section [NCS], so we got halfway there,” Siracusa said, referring to his team’s loss

to Richmond High School in the semi-finals of the NCS playoffs on Feb. 21.

According to Aaron Schten, a senior and four-year varsity player, a contributing factor to his team-’s MCAL victory this season was the league’s lower caliber of talent in comparison to his freshman year in which the team achieved their 2014 victory.

“My freshman year, I think MCALS was at the highest level that it’s been in my four years. Every team was super good and we were the best that we have been in my four years,” Schten said.

Sophomore Stan Gaither, a first-year varsity player, characterized the overall season as successful directly following his team’s heartbreaking defeat in the game against Richmond.

“We’ve had an awesome season and it sucks that it had to end right here. We had great senior leaders who took us far, and a big sophomore class that gave us a boost of energy,” Gaither said.

Siracusa echoed Gaither’s sentiment about the quality of the senior leadership this year. He credits them with much of the team’s success this season.

“Eamon Rogan and Brian Diaz were fantastic captains.

Photo courtesy of Stella Campodonico

CELEBRATING THEIR BIG victory over Marin Catholic, players from the boys’ varsity soccer team proudly hold up their 2018 MCAL championship pennant.

They both lead by example, and the rest of the seniors were great too. Some of them didn’t play that much, but they were at practice all the time, really giving it their all,” Siracusa said.

He applauds his team’s unwavering commitment and attendance.

“This is ski week, and we had 23 of 25 people at practice, which is pretty cool,” said Siracusa.

The team chemistry this season was strong and contributed to their success on the field. With nine seniors and nine sophomores, there was a strong influence of both young and old that kept the team balanced, according to Gaither.

Siracusa noted the positive environment that the team had created this season, but also credited their success to their sheer talent.

“Every team has a different personality and this personality made me want to come to practice,” Siracusa said. “But if you want to know why we’re successful, it’s because they are highly skilled and super competitive, and they all want to get better.”

Despite a few clerical errors that resulted in the team forfeiting three of their early games, they only tasted true defeat twice: one loss against Terra Linda in league play and a second loss against Richmond in NCS. Following that game, the team entered and won a bid to go compete in the NorCal state tournament, but lost in their first game against Bella Vista High School when they played in Sacramento.

“We were great from the outset,” Siracusa said. “We were really good and we just held it. I think what they improved at was their focus and their desire to win.”

Schten said that the fun, relaxed and committed team environment not only made the boys successful from a bystander’s perspective, but also led the team to have an overall enjoyable experience this fall.

“We had a team that wanted to compete for each other, and play for each other and play with each other,” Schten said. “Going out to practice should be fun because you’re hanging out with your friends and it makes people want to come out.” jscharf@redwoodbark.org

March 16, 2018 bark Page 16 • Sports History teacher fields foundation for baseball program

By Matthew Mulcahy In the hallway of a San Francisco apartment complex, a two-year-old boy grasps the handle of a plastic baseball bat while standing parallel to a rubber hitting tee. His eyes concentrate on the center of a white wiffle ball while the bat coils back with the torque of his hips, twisting in preparation to achieve the sole action on his mind: to deliver a mighty hit.

“There are pictures of me in our San Francisco apartment when I was about two years old, hitting,” said history teacher and freshman baseball coach Taber Watson.

“My father talked down on a lot of other sports. Baseball was his favorite.”

Taber has surrounded his life with the game of baseball since the apartment days. His father, Dan Watson, was a big inspiration for his son’s fascination with the game.

Taber continued playing his favorite sport throughout his youth, including for Redwood’s varsity baseball team in high school. His favorite baseball memory at Redwood was pitching in and winning the MCAL championship during his senior year in 2010.

“I remember the dog pile at the end of the game. I was on the bottom of it which is why I remember it,” Taber said. “It was a really cool moment because Redwood [baseball] had been bad for such a long time. We came back and we beat Drake in the championship game which was cool because I actually went to White Hill for middle school, so they were all my friends who I beat which was fun.”

Taber continued his baseball career at the collegiate level, playing for College of Marin for a year following his graduation from Redwood. From there, he continued to play three more years at Chapman University in Orange,

Photo by Matthew Mulcahy

LISTENING TO A player, coach Dan Watson learns the athlete’s understanding of the situation.

California as a closing pitcher. Taber was awarded a Division III West Coast All-Region award for his pitching performances throughout his senior year at Chapman.

“I did very well and to actually be recognized on a national level was a pretty cool experience,” Taber said. “We were never really good when I was there, so unfortunately it’s an individual award I have to talk about.”

After graduating from Chapman in 2014, Taber began helping varsity baseball coach Mike Firenzi with preseason preparations. The program did not have a freshman baseball coach for the year and Firenzi offered Taber the position.

“I used to leave work at one,” Taber said. “I’d eat lunch and [then] I’d be down on that field mowing, fixing the field, and preparing for practice everyday. I would be there for about five to six hours per day.”

Now entering his fourth year as head coach for the freshman baseball team, Watson boasts an impressive coaching record, having led two out of three of his teams to an MCAL title win. The culture of the program has transformed his winning mindset into a reality.

“We set out to win every year,” Taber said. “That is the expectation here in the program. I’m two for three on MCAL championships. We finished second two years ago.

But the expectation here is to win which is drawing people to Redwood baseball right now. We play to win.”

Former Redwood teammate and University of California San Diego baseball alum Corbin Wirta is beginning his third year as the freshman baseball team’s assistant coach. During his time coaching at Redwood, the team’s players have been required to sign a Code of Conduct contract. The contract outlines behavioral expectations for the players during practices and games, including their responsibilities to help set up and clean up the field before and after practices and show respect to coaches, umpires and teammates. Wirta stated that the goal of the contract is to prepare the younger players for the standards set at Redwood baseball’s junior varsity and varsity levels. “[The freshman players] are going to be the culture of Redwood baseball as they go through the program,” Wirta said. “We are getting them prepared to play on the varsity team versus when we see other schools, it is sort of lackadaisical on the freshman side and then they get to the varsity team and the players are not prepared for it.”

The coaches call upon their experiences playing college baseball to guide the players to perform at a very competitive level in high school. They also aim to familiarize the kids with an environment that prepares them to play at the collegiate level.

“Taber and I both played college baseball so we

Photo by Matthew Mulcahy

ADVISING A PLAYER, coaches Taber Watson and Corbin Wirta communicate about the game. know what coaches are looking for and expect from their players,” Wirta said. “We devise our practices to make sure these expectations are with the players in games and practices in the future. Just constant preparation for the next level. A consistently high level of baseball.”

Over his years as an assistant coach for the freshman team, Dan has valued the opportunity to help push the players to perform to the best of their abilities. Dan aims to make connections with each of the team’s players. This helps him make strides to push each individual to their next level of performance.

“Each player is a different individual,” Dan said.

There are 18 kids here so I have 18 standards in my mind [regarding] what I think they are capable of and where I think they could be. We try is to elevate them to that standard and get them to buy into [the team]. I’m having a lot of fun.”

Dan accredits Taber and Wirta’s college baseball careers for providing them with experience that has proven valuable for helping their freshman teams and individual players excel on the field.

“They’ve played at high levels,” Dan said. “We defer to each other and there is healthy amount of mutual respect for one another.”

The coaches are prioritizing their time to cultivate a winning environment within the baseball program.

“The standard is very high and we are continually working to uphold that standard,” Dan said. mmulcahy@redwoodbark.org

Track and field jumps into new season with pole vaulting

By Jack Parsons

It’s finally that time of the year when the track and field team gears up hopeful for another strong season of competing in the same events that they have excelled in in the past. However, the team has added something new to the itinerary. The 2018 track and field team will face a significant shift in the upcoming season, as pole vaulting has been re-added as a competing event.

Despite the fact that other schools in the district, including Tamalpais (Tam) and Drake, have had pole vaulting for several years, this will be the first year pole vaulting is incorporated back into Redwood’s track program since its termination in 2014.

According to varsity track athlete junior Nicole Strub, who added pole vaulting as her fourth event, Redwood has not adopted pole vaulting earlier due to a lack of a coach.

This season, however, Jim Kiles, an experienced pole vaulting coach from Tam, agreed to come to practice on Thursdays and Fridays to assist in developing Redwood’s pole vaulting program. Kiles has coached pole vaulting for over a decade and also trained his son, who now pole vaults for Princeton University in New Jersey.

“We were all really excited when we heard that pole vaulting was coming to Redwood because we wondered why we didn’t have it before. Also, we used pole vaulting as our slogan to come join the team,” Strub said.

So far, four girls and seven boys have chosen to participate in pole vaulting. Pole vaulting requires technique and upper body strength in addition to the sheer athleticism and cardiovascular fitness needed by other track events such as sprints, according to Kiles.

Photo by Jack Parsons

PROPELLING HIMSELF INTO the air, junior Brian O’Donnell practices planting his pole while coach Jim Kyles looks over him.

Katie Baker, a senior who decided to and all of a sudden they’re jumping high,” and have lots of potential to bring strong try pole vaulting, confirmed that it is very Kiles said. competition. demanding.

“Redwood has a really strong program Kiles explained that the most important “The first day, we had a bunch of people element in being good at pole vaulting is for getting people in shape. The first thing I go out and try for it, but they realized that running fast. noticed with the kids who came out to pole it actually is pretty hard and takes a lot “To jump high, you need to be able to vault was they were really fit, and that’s of skill. Every day, we have less and less handle a big pole, and to be able to do that, a great start. I think we will do just fine” people,” Baker said. you need to be fast. Being good at pole Kiles said.

According to Kiles, most high school vaulting almost has a direct correlation to pole vaulters begin their jumping career in speed,” Kiles said. high school.

Although this is the first year that “You have to look for the right athlete, the event was brought back to Redwood, and we have some of those here. You first there are a number of athletes on the track teach them to crawl, then walk, then run team that possess the necessary attributes jparsons@redwoodbark.org

Page 17 • Sports

www.redwoodbark.org

Sports Spotlight: Kurakin proves that effort trumps talent

By Jacob Klionsky As a seven-year-old growing up in Khabarovsk, Russia, all Ivan Kurakin wanted to do was swim like his older brother. Every opportunity he had, Kurakin found a way to swim and to work on his craft. Eleven years later, Kurakin continues to push his body to its limits.

A member of both North Bay Aquatics and the Redwood swim team, Kurakin has at least one practice every day of the week.

This practice regimen includes morning workouts from 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. three days a week, as well as six two-hour swim practices a week. Although practices are rigorous, Kurakin persists through every workout, powered by his love of swimming and competition.

Competing at Kurakin’s level requires more than physical strength, and Kurakin has developed race strategies throughout his career which supplement his natural abilities.

“The 500 [meter race] is around four minutes and you are faced off next to some guy and you are forced to compete,”

Kurakin said. “I like to come back strong in the back part of the race, but that means you fall behind at the start. I just know that in the last 100 I really need to put my legs into it and catch him.”

In his high school career, Kurakin’s work and dedication have translated into impressive results. According to collegeswimming.com, a site that ranks all high school swimmers, Kurakin is rated as the 26th-best recruit in California in the class of 2018, and this November he committed to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) to swim under David Marsh, who coaches the U.S. national team in addition to UCSD’s team.

Kurakin also holds Redwood records in the 200-meter and 500-meter freestyle race with times of 1:39 minutes and 4:27 minutes, respectively. He was also a member of Redwood’s recording-holding 200 Medley Relay in 2017 and 400 Free Relay in 2016.

Above all else, over the past four years Redwood swim coach Fred Ferroggiaro has been most amazed with Kurakin’s unparalleled work ethic.

Photo by Jacob Klionsky

PREPARING TO JUMP off a starting block, senior Ivan Kurakin gets ready to take off for a lap.

bark

Photo by Jacob Klionsky

WEARING HIS NORTH Bay Aquatics swim cap, Kurakin practices his breaststroke in the Redwood pool. He competes for both the North Bay and Redwood teams.

Although Kurakin’s physical talent is “You have to find a way to be both not exceptionally superior to his peers, aggressive and cool. You have to get Kurakin’s dedication to swimming is what pumped for your races, but you’re also has truly made the difference, according to kind of alone,” Kurakin said. “Sometimes, Ferroggiaro. at major meets like Nationals, I have to “Because of his intelligence, swim two to three times a day and by the willingness to learn, stick to last day I’m really tired, but I have the plan and ability to not be to stay aggressive, be pumped distracted, he is arguably the up and be able to focus in on best swimmer to ever come myself.” through Redwood High Next year, when Kurakin School,” Ferroggiaro said. competes at a Division 1 level Because of the sport’s at UCSD, he will need to adjust individual nature, Kurakin to a higher level of competition, believes that success often according to Ferroggiaro. But, comes from within. Both he believes that when Kurakin gets mental and physical preparation is pushed out of his comfort zone, it will only the responsibility of the individual, motivate him to work even harder. according to Kurakin, and he holds himself If all goes as planned, Kurakin hopes accountable for his successes and his that he can swim well after his collegiate failures. years.

“You have to focus on yourself. I focus “It is definitely a goal of mine to swim on myself a lot. I have had races where I through and beyond college,” Kurakin don’t focus on myself and I don’t do as said. “You don’t get paid much swimming, well,” Kurakin said. but hopefully that changes soon.”

Part of Kurakin’s success in the pool can be attributed to a composed yet determined mindset. jklionsky@redwoodbark.org

Transfer student brings Aruban flair to the baseball field

By Melissa Block Circling his arms around his shoulders, stretching his calves out against the fence and swinging his hips from side to side, senior shortstop Dionathan (Dio) Cornet prepares for his first American high school varsity baseball game.

There is a low buzz in the bleachers as the fans anticipate the start of the game. To the left of them, in the dugout, the players huddle together. Although it is normal for players to get nervous before a game, pre-game stress is not Cornet’s only challenge; he is a virtual stranger to the United States and is still adapting to a new country.

Cornet moved to the United States from Aruba, an island off of Venezuela, in late August. He is still learning to adjust to American culture and communicate with his peers. The language difference has proved to be an especially significant barrier.

When Cornet first arrived, he moved in with his uncle, but said that he finds it difficult not having a lot of his family with him. Cornet’s uncle is currently in the Dominican Republic for work, so for the past few months Cornet has been staying with different host families.

Photo courtesy of Jordan Warren

STANDING IN HIS stance, senior Dionathan Cornet readies himself for the incoming pitch.

“It’s hard here because I am alone. I don’t have my mom or my friends. I am living with a host family. So, I don’t have the people I always deal with everyday. But, I’m getting accustomed to it,” Cornet said.

Senior first baseman Luke Zlatunich explained that Cornet’s teammates have made his transition significantly easier.

“Our team has become his family because we see him everyday, so we are willing to talk to him,” Zlatunich said.

According to Zlatunich, Cornet’s easygoing personality has improved their team dynamic.

“He’s super relaxed on the field which is really nice.

You can just watch him and he’s messing around most of the time. It’s good for our team though because we play a lot better when we are relaxed,” Zlatunich said.

Cornet began playing baseball at the age of four, ever since watching Sammy Sosa, a former all-star right fielder from the Dominican Republic play.

“Every day I would go to the field and play around the street with the boys in Aruba. Then we’d go to school, and after school four or five guys would go out and play until night time,” Cornet said.

It wasn’t until he grew older and went on a travel tournament to Puerto Rico that Cornet realized his passion for the sport and his eagerness to continue.

“A scout came to me and said he liked seeing me play and that was a motivation for me to continue. When I was 13 or 14, I played for fun. But, when he told me that, I really took it to another level, I took it seriously. I kept working and it motivated me to get better,” Cornet said.

Because of Cornet’s self motivation to improve, he’s become a more competitive player on the field.

“He is competitive like most of us, but in a different way. He is really competitive with himself, he expects himself to be really good,” Zlatunich said.

Zlatunich also explained that Cornet has worked to understand the different coaching style here.

“Our baseball coaching philosophy is also a lot different than what he’s used to, so he has to adapt to that as well. [He also has to] adapt to the stricter rules that our coaches put on him and our team,” Zlatunich said.

Redwood’s varsity coach for the past four years, Mike Firenzi, sees the potential in Cornet as well, and has also noticed how welcoming his players are towards Cornet.

“He seems to be a well-liked guy. Everyone on the team

likes him. His transition is going better than I expected, [moving] from another country. He seems to be fitting in just fine,” Firenzi said.

Firenzi also explained that Cornet is the first exchange student he has coached, so it’s a new experience for him as well.

According to Firenzi, it’s still the beginning of the season, so there’s a lot of potential for Cornet’s senior year of baseball. Additionally, the coaches have not finalized the line up, but as of right now Cornet has been playing a lot of shortstop, third base and some outfield.

Cornet is willing to put in the extra effort in order to improve his baseball skills despite the long hours and competitiveness present on the varsity team.

“I have to put more work into [baseball] than I would put into baseball in Aruba. But, it’s worth it because I love it,” Cornet said.

mblock@redwoodbark.org

Photo courtesy of Jordan Warren

SETTING UP BEFORE the pitch, Cornet prepares to recieve a ground ball.

Page 18

Foreign Cinema restaurant offers eccentric eats

review

A red carpet lines the floor of a dimly lit hallway, oldfashioned movie posters lining the walls. If it weren’t for the hostess waiting at the end of the corridor, it would be easily forgotten that this is a restaurant. Outside, a movie projects on a wall of a patio shrouded in a rosy hue from the string lights hanging overhead. Tables are covered with artistically-displayed food as couples and groups of friends chatter away, occasionally looking up to revel in the relaxing atmosphere in which they are dining.

With this ambiance, it is no wonder that Foreign Cinema is a remarkably popular restaurant. Foreign Cinema is most distinct from other restaurants in the Bay Area due to its unique choice to project movies for customers to view.

Although the movie adds a charming feeling to the overall experience of dining at Foreign Cinema, calling it a source of entertainment is a bit of an exaggeration, as the film is very much in the background. The movie that was playing while I was there was “Rushmore,” and although I dined for about an hour and a half, I can definitively say

that I didn’t learn anything about the plot, and it didn’t seem as if that was the intention either. The sound from the film could be heard if I strained my ears, but for most of the meal, the dialogue was instead a soft buzz against the louder chatter present in the restaurant.

Although the environment is incredibly original and enjoyable, it cannot be appreciated without spending a significant amount of money. With the cheapest entree being $23, Foreign Cinema is definitely not the place to casually dine with friends. That being said, the warm atmosphere and delicious food make it worth the money for a family dinner or special occasion.

I started off my meal with a $15 dollar appetizer of grilled ciabatta bread with house-made ‘nduja, watermelon radish, capers and orange oil. Had I known that ‘nduja was a spreadable salami before ordering the dish, I may have opted for a different appetizer, but I’m glad that in ignorance I chose to order the dish. This toast can’t be described as anything other than an explosion of flavor, with the intensely smokey and salty flavor of the ‘nduja combined with a sweetness from the orange oil and watermelon radish. Needless to say, it was an overwhelming amount of flavors, which was immensely enjoyable for the first few bites, but I couldn’t handle more than a single piece of it. Because the dish came with four pieces, this is the type of appetizer to share between two, if not more, people.

The main dish, on the other hand, I could eat as every meal for the rest of my life. The curry-sesame seed fried chicken with chickpea salad was yet again a combination of flavors that somehow worked magically to create a

COMBINING A CHOCOLATE cake with a mint mousse and candied orange, this dessert is a cool delectable.

PLAYING MOVIES ON the patio while locals dine, Foreign Cinema creates an ambient atmosphere.

By Caroline Cummings

mouth-watering meal. The curry added a spice to the fried chicken that surprisingly paired incredibly well, adding significant flavor to a dish that traditionally is relatively bland. The mushroom risotto was another delicious entree that offered a variety of textures, with added hazelnuts giving a crunch to the otherwise incredibly creamy rice dish. However, the delectibility of these dishes was definitely reflected in the prices, at $26 and $23 respectively.

Although the main courses are filling, dessert is not something to be skipped, and you could not go wrong with the flourless chocolate cake with frozen mint mousse and candied orange. The mint was a cool and refreshing contrast to the rich chocolate cake, and although I was tentative to try the candied oranges, they added a nice sweetness and texture to the complex dish. At $12, this dessert was one of the cheaper dishes on the menu, although this was undoubtedly shown in the small serving size.

Besides the high prices, my biggest complaint would have to be the service. Even on a Monday night, the restaurant was crowded, and this showed both in the attentiveness of the waiter and in the painfully long amount of time it took for the food to arrive.

Foreign Cinema offers a dynamic dining experience unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. Despite the undeniably high prices, the restaurant provides a night out worthy of a splurge for special occasions, and is sure to please both movie-lovers and non-movie lovers alike. ccummings@redwoodbark.org

PAIRING FRIED CHICKEN with a chickpea salad, this Foreign Cinema entree is surprisingly delicious.

Netflix documentary depicts rural life honestly

By Anne Pritikin “The Trader” is strikingly simple, a paired-down portrait of life. Directed

by Tamta Gabrichidze, the 23-minute documentary begins without introduction or background and follows a Georgian (the European country, not the American state) trader whose currency is potatoes and whose wares range from secondhand clothing to graters to toilet paper.

While the trader is the closest character to a protagonist, he is not the center of the documentary. With minimal conversation between subjects and no commentary, the majority of the documentary’s details remain unknown, such as the village locations and the identities of interviewees.

The trader himself is no exception.

The audience never learns his name or background. Instead, the trader acts as a window through which to witness the lives of his customers: potato farmers, town children and village seniors. Rather than identifying the characters by names, the film focuses on their daily interactions and activities, expanding its portrait of human existence. The anonymity of the characters ensures they are not limited by specific identities, imbuing the film with universal relevance that purveys its potency.

The entirety of the documentary captures two days of the trader’s work as he travels from one nameless village to another. The days blend seamlessly together as the places he visits appear to be one and the same, revealing an experience of the altered pace of life that seems to pervade the Georgian countryside. As potatoes are synonymous with money, harvests, worn hands and wrinkled faces are the tell-tale signs of the passage of time.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

SHOWING LIFE IN the European country Georgia, the trader and a group of men examine wares in the back of his van.

At the same time, however, while children brochure breathtaking. Rather, the beauty are seen jumping next to a haystack or of “The Trader” and its cinematography is playing with a kitten, there don’t appear to in its frank depiction of reality. It’s honest be any teenagers, only children and adults, and unembellished, like the conversations as if that period of youth is a myth, whisked between the trader and his customers or away by the wind that rustles the potato the dirt under the nails of the farmers. fields.

The longest visual shots are perhaps the The genius of “The Trader” is how much most memorable. A young boy on a short it tells with so little. And perhaps this is why swing, his feet touch the ground, he stares it won the Short Film Jury Award at the into the camera. An old man on a bench, Sundance Film Festival. Limited dialogue a worn white building with teal window and still, long shots of stark potato fields trimming behind him, a close-up as he capture life without distractions of excess smokes. or luxury, where the singular purpose is Life in these rural areas is defined work and work is constant. by subsistence. These villages are not in The cinematography is arresting, but not an impoverished country; the frolicking in a classical sense. The artfully composed children are in clean, white and blue school shots of fields and towns are not travel- uniforms. However, these villages are

also not places of thriving economies and overabundance; two boys’ eyes dart around the trader’s minibus of goods like a record skipping as they take stock of the various objects with a famished gaze.

It is Gabrichidze’s bareboned portrait of these lives that makes viewers think without trying too hard. Instead of feeding the audience an agenda or attempting to convey a subject’s reality with statistics or voice over, Gabrichidze’s minimalist storytelling is compelling and thought-provoking without the clutter, leaving analysis open to interpretation.

Gabrichidze depicts these towns in neither a patronizing nor sympathetic light, unlike many documentarians who imply a personal agenda within their narrative.

The subject of the documentary is reminiscent of Van Gogh’s masterpiece “The Potato Eaters.” Van Gogh wanted to convey that the potato eaters ‘have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish...that they have thus honestly earned their food.’ Both the film and the painting select an unglamorous subject that would otherwise escape audiences’ attention, including the dirt, grit and other details that render the subjects authentically.

Like Van Gogh, Gabrichidze portrays an uncommon and unexpected subject with simple earnestness. In a world consumed by abundance, the lasting value of “The Trader” will be its unadorned depiction of the fundamentals of human existence in a foreign country.

apritikin@redwoodbark.org

Page 19 • Review

www.redwoodbark.org

Space Station Museum deviates from traditional route with interactive, free exhibits

By Vincent Leo When picturing a museum in the Bay Area, one tends to visualize an expansive and expensive gallery filled with compositions by critically acclaimed artists. They are generally housed in San Francisco where one needs to drive across the bridge and tend to the commodities of an astronomical admission fee, parking and lunch. The Space Station Museum, located in Novato, diverges from this typical path by providing visitors with a lens into space exploration through interactive exhibits, artifacts, models and photographs, all free of cost.

Tucked into the corner of the Pacheco Plaza shopping center, the museum utilizes two small rooms of retail space to display its artifacts. Even before I entered the main room, I could already sense the museum’s cozy and jovial vibe. A life-size astronaut stands on a pedestal outside, welcoming visitors into the exhibit.

Mounted on the windows, a couple of stars shine brightly next to a poster of an astronaut waving in outer space.

Walking through the door, volunteer workers greeted me with friendly expressions and readily offered me a

Photo by Vincent Leo

DISPLAYING WHEN MEN first walked on the moon, this is one of the many models of the Space Station Museum in Novato.

tour of the museum. Various hands-on activities were spread out in the exhibit, which ranged from a touchable control panel to weights that demonstrated how objects are much lighter on the moon. Smaller artifacts filled multiple shelves and model rockets were set on tables.

Covering the walls, signed paintings and photographs filled every available space while plastic models dangled from the ceiling.

Although many of the interactive artifacts intrigued me, the small collection located in the center of the main room captivated me the most. Unlike the majority of museums where the artifacts are encased in glass barriers, this exhibit encourages visitors to touch and interact with nearly all of the items, allowing me to unleash my inner child. From adjusting the murky, tinted sun visor on an Apollo space suit helmet to rubbing my fingers through the timeworn fabric of gloves worn by a Soviet cosmonaut, I was astounded by every small detail each item possessed.

Equally fascinating, a life-sized replica of the Mercury Capsule was located in the corner of the second room. At first glance, I thought that the vessel was a smaller part of a larger rocket or used only for simulations, due to its extremely condensed size. However, a museum volunteer informed me that astronaut John Glenn had fit inside the real capsule, with the help of a few other astronauts.

The fact that one person traveled to space and back in the tiny, cramped spacecraft is astonishing and puts the whole space program into perspective—demonstrating where the U.S. started with the program and how much progress has been made.

Additionally, the historical and educational value of the museum exceeded all my expectations. Whether it be a brand new Russian-made spacesuit worn by all astronauts who journey to the International Space Station or a 6,000-year-old meteorite, every item was full of historical significance. The fact that the public is able to access the resources in this museum for free truly surprises me, and the difference in this unique model clearly shows. Being able to go to this museum and interact with an artifact that precedes generations of our ancestors definitely promotes a valuable and worthwhile experience.

bark

Space Station Museum co-founder and president Ken Winans has pledged to help educate the younger generation about the history of space exploration.

In regards to the complimentary admission, he has committed to sharing his personal collection o f U.S., Russian and Soviet artifacts with the public.

“I’m a big believer in giving back to the community.

If we all did that, if we all gave back, our society would be a much better place. And also, space is a positive. Who doesn’t like space?” Winans said.

Winans said using his collection for a greater cause has been the most rewarding aspect in his creation of the museum “Collecting is a lot of fun, but I’ve had a lot more fun sharing the collection with the public and young people and [people] of all different backgrounds,” Winans said.

Additionally, Winans said he feels strongly about developing youth volunteers and believes that they are an integral part of society and the museum team. Redwood senior and Space Station Museum volunteer Payton Glenn recently started working at the museum and has been able to express and expand his interest.

“To me, the museum is a place where I can use all this knowledge that I have self-acquired about space exploration and space programs. I have always been passionate about it, interested in it—now I have a place where I can share what I know and then through the questions I get asked, and through discussions with guests, I learn things myself,” Glenn said.

The Space Station Museum is free to the public and is open Saturdays and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Taking a couple hours out of your weekend to visit this exceptional resource, containing an abundance of stimulating artifacts and memorabilia, is definitely an out-of-this-world experience. vleo@redwoodbark.org

‘Black Panther’ movie and album creates an experience unlike any Marvel movie yet

By Jack Green Ever since the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2010 with Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man,” the franchise has become known for revolutionizing the way that superhero movies are made, creating an era of superhero films that will likely remain timeless. Although some movies in this universe, such as “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Iron Man 2,” fell far below the bar, Marvel remains a heavy hitter in the superhero field, pumping out yearly movies that only seem to be getting better. “Black Panther” takes the bar set by its predecessors and doesn’t simply cross it, or even jump over it. Rather, this film shatters the bar and brings it up to a height that nobody ever thought possible through its characters, music, and cinematography.

In the film, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns to his home country of Wakanda to take his recently deceased father’s place on the throne and become the next Black Panther, the defender of Wakanda, with a suit made of the super metal vibranium. However, Eric Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), a retired Black-Ops soldier, comes to Wakanda to challenge T’Challa for the throne.

This is not the first superhero film with a primarily Black cast. What sets “Black Panther” apart is that it portrays the future for Black culture in a positively powerful light: called “Afrofuturism,” it focuses on intertwining the future and technology with African and Black culture, depicting a future that is both technologically advanced and still proudly and unapologetically represents Black culture.

What sets the plot of “Black Panther” apart from its predecessor superhero

films is the fact that, instead of forcing Killmonger into a box of pure evil and malice, director Ryan Coogler shows that there is validity to Killmonger’s perspective.

Killmonger grew up in a bad part of Oakland, and wants Wakanda to release their supply of the supermetal vibranium to the world so that Black people will have the ability to boost their status in society.

He also wants to avenge his father, who was trying to accomplish the same. This tears viewers between the choice of protecting the sanctity of Wakanda and sympathizing with the man just wants to free his race from a never ending cycle of poverty.

This element of uncertainty is what forces “Black Panther” out of the category of entertainment or just a flashy flick into an epic. It is a story that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking, keeping the

audience glued to the screen and constantly reflecting on their own morals as the characters battle for power.

The plot is reinforced by stunning visuals as well. From the intricate costume design of the Black Panther suits, to flyovers of the futuristic city of Wakanda imbedded in a lush green jungle, to a smoky underground casino in Asia with bills fluttering through the air in slow motion, each scene is composed like an individual work of art, leaving the viewer remembering not only the action, but how breathtaking the scene was as well.

“Black Panther The Album” was released prior to the film, and similarly to how the film blasted expectations, hiphop powerhouse Kendrick Lamar leads a diverse 14-track album with names such as SZA, The Weeknd, 2 Chainz, ScHoolboy

Q, Khalid, Vince Staples, Travis Scott and many other hip-hop and R&B giants. “X”

by ScHoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, and Saudi delivers a moody bass and haunting pluck accompanied by a catchy hook from Lamar. All of the tracks on the album are tied together with contributions to the bridge or chorus by Kendrick Lamar. Even though each track may not be similar to the one before it, Lamar’s omnipresence ties the album together.

The one disappointing part of this seemingly perfect album-movie combination was the lack of integration between the two. With Kendrick’s voice echoing at the beginning of “Paramedic!”

by SOB X BRE, I expected the songs to be integrated into the movie, emphasizing the dark and aggressive atmosphere that the preview had shown. However, almost none of the tracks were featured in the film, and some of the ones that were had only the instrumentals or only a couple of seconds included. Instead, they opted for the same overused, dramatic orchestral scores that every Marvel movie seems to recycle. While the soundtrack was beautiful, it draws the question of why they opted not to use the wildly successful album that was tied in with the film.

This movie and soundtrack has brought Afrofuturism screaming into the mainstream, and is not only being received positively by the Black community but by the rest of the world as well. Whether it be through Michael B. Jordan replacing a retainer that an 18-year-old girl bit through during his shirtless scene or all of the “Wakanda forever” memes that followed, this movie has just made history.

Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios

FIGHTING TO BE the king of Wakanda, T’Chlla (Chadwick Boseman) is challenged

by Eric Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) for the throne.

jgreen@redwoodbark.org

bark

Page 20 • Review

March 16, 2018

You have Gott ’s to try this

By Jordan Overmyer

As the doors of the surf-themed restaurant Wipeout closed in 2014, the signature red Volkswagen T1 Bus and the blue and white surfboard scrawled with the name were taken down, leaving a space in the Bon Air Center. For over three years, the unoccupied spot has left most locals wondering what would emerge to fill this location.

But it was worth the wait as Gott’s Roadside restaurant opened on March 1. This popular burger joint has gained a positive reputation for themselves at their locations in places such as Napa, Palo Alto and San Francisco. After 11 months of construction, the Bon Air space now has large glass doors that draw customers into the register counter alongside the magnified menu, making it the largest Gott’s Roadside location out of seven.

Upon entering, the energy of the restaurant’s bustling scene can immediately be felt. After ordering, customers pass a narrow long kitchen outlined in glass leading to a large open dining area. The interior features a modern look paired with Gott’s Roadside’s signature design, consisting of white walls, light cedar colored booths and tables with silver and red chairs. Gott’s Roadside also has outdoor seating wrapping the side of the restaurant and small patio out back.

The restaurant also has a separate bar on the far side that serves wine and beer.

Gott’s Roadside’s combination of food choices, seating space and an upbeat atmosphere makes it a comfortable place to dine. Groups of teenagers enjoying an after-school snack, couples savoring a glass of wine at the bar, families with younger children eating dinner, elderly couples digging into soft-serve and young adults working away on their computers

at the community tables all indicate that Gott’s is a place perfect for anyone.

This self-seating restaurant has a large array of items from which to choose. The menu features 12 different kinds of burgers and classic American favorites, including fish & chips, chicken tenders and hot dogs, as well as less traditional options such as ahi poke tacos, Vietnamese chicken salads and crispy teriyaki chicken sandwiches.

Ann Pepi, Gott’s Brand Manager, said that this restaurant has received a lot of enthusiasm from locals in anticipation for its opening, and there are several aspects of this location that differentiate it from the other Gott’s Roadsides.

“The mural of Mt. Tamalpais done

by New Bohemia Signs in San Francisco and the 30-foot long pine table made by Evan Shively are unique to our Marin location. This is our third location to have soft serve, making that offering pretty special,” Pepi said.

As I walked up to the glowing letters of “Gott’s Roadside” at 8 p.m. on a Saturday, I spotted the line out the door, stretching to the curbside. There is no doubt that Gott’s Roadside has distinguished themselves from their other locations and generated high anticipation for this new location.

Besides the great location, the cookies and cream milkshake stood out and made a lasting impression, as its creamy and thick consistency mixed with pieces of oreos kept me sipping throughout my entire meal. The milkshake was dense and icy, allowing the sweet vanilla taste to melt in my mouth, leaving a sugary aftertaste.

The ahi poke tacos was the item I was most looking forward to, but

Photo by Jordan Overmyer

OFFERING A VARIETY of dishes, Gott’s Roadside, which opened on March 1, has already become a popular eatery among the Marin community. unfortunately it was not as memorable as and attentive service makes Gott’s a go-to I would have hoped. The lightly-salted, joint on the weekends. This high energy toasted hard tortilla shell was filled with restaurant creates a lively atmosphere that Hawaiian-style poke, avocado, cabbage, has already drawn in locals, resulting in a green onions and a spicy mayo sauce. The popular restaurant for people of all ages. spice from the mayo sauce and flavors from “We want to make people happy the tortilla shell and cabbage overtook the and bring them together with familiar, milder taste of the poke, leaving me slightly comforting food made with quality underwhelmed, especially since the price ingredient,” Pepi said. “In regards to long was $14.99 for three small tacos. term goals, as with all our restaurants, we For garlic lovers, the garlic fries are hope to become a gathering spot for the highly recommended. The thin cut, yet community.” not super crispy fries were mixed with a parsley butter that made them greasy to eat, but had an initial strong garlic flavor when I first bit into them.

Not only is the food delicious, but the combination of its location, modern design jordan.overmyer@redwoodbark.org

Bark Beats

By Lily Baldwin

Tyga - Kyoto

Photo courtesy of Last Kings Records

Rapper Tyga’s latest release, an album titled “Kyoto”, does little in terms of entertainment for anyone who considers themselves a fan of rap or hip-hop music.

Throughout the album, beginning with the opening track “Temperature,” it’s difficult to find a tone in his voice that isn’t painfully autotuned. If it weren’t for the intense bass and occasional well-placed instrumentals to distract from Tyga’s shrill vocals, this album would be nearly impossible to listen to without having to give yourself a break. One impressive aspect was the feature vocal of Kyndall, a singer and actress whose serene voice held together the entirety of the track “Leather in the Rain.” Throughout the album, each track lacks substance as well as talent. I consider myself somewhat of a fan of rap and R&B music, but in my opinion Tyga’s production resembles that of a 16-year-old Soundcloud “rapper” who offers links to all of their attempted projects in their Instagram bios. The track “Boss Up” grasps at catchy lyrics, saying more than a few times, “I pull up, hop out,” words once used by Kendrick Lamar in the song “ELEMENT.” In a pathetic attempt to bring the spotlight back to his career after Tyga’s notorious relationship with Kylie Jenner, the rapper completely misses the mark with his pseudo-confident, almost comically strained tracks. To be honest, listening to the track “U Cry,” I couldn’t help but picture Squidward Tentacles singing “4 Ply” by Boys Who Cry in that one episode of Spongebob; it’s that poorly written and ridiculously performed.

MGMT - Little Dark Age

Photo courtesy of Columbia Records

The indie rock band MGMT has shifted its genre to focus towards synth-pop with its latest release of the album “Little Dark Age”. An underrated album that went fairly unnoticed, this setlist includes sounds reminiscent of the David Bowie era accompanied by brutally honest and mocking lyrics. The band has been known in the past for its famously outlandish use of electronic instruments, and the practice was clearly continued with this new release, which sounds like it could be the background music during a melancholy prom in the midwest circa 1985. While occasionally funny and sometimes profane, such as the lyrics in “When You Die” (“Go f*** yourself/ You heard me right/Don’t call me nice again”), the set also contains whimsical songs that touch on friendship, fame and trials within oneself in such tracks as “James” and “When You’re Small.” These seem to somewhat balance out the outrageousness that plays a key role in the album through calming and whimsical themes such as friendship, fame and trials within oneself. Unlike the boisterous cacophonies MGMT has released in the past, “Little Dark Age” manages to keep a sense of stability and consistency in production and sound throughout its tracklist. It’s quite easy to put this album on, maybe for a drive into the city, and not worry about what’s up next in the queue. You know whatever track that follows will be something straight out of one of your mom’s mixtapes that her high school boyfriend made her, back in the days of synths and Walkmans, and you’re probably going to like it.

Vance Joy - A Nation of Two

Photo courtesy of Liberation Music

In Vance Joy’s newest indie folk album, “A Nation of Two,” the artist evokes feelings of nostalgia from listeners through airy tracks reminiscent of his 2014 hit “Riptide.”

Joy’s sharp vocals contrast with the soft guitar featured throughout the album, an unmistakable trademark of his music. Romantic lyrics combined with the mellow, uplifting chords conjure up thoughts of the bright spring days ahead in songs like “Saturday Sun.” In the past, Joy has almost exclusively focused his sound on ukulele strums (which, of course, he includes in this new album as well), but in “A Nation of Two,” the singer-songwriter makes use of brass instruments as well as his tried-and-true layers of acoustic guitar. Joy tends to wear his heart on his sleeve in his music, and it’s easy to tell throughout this new album that love continues to be an ongoing theme in his music.

His romantic imagery depicts idealistic relationships as sweet as the sounds he sings. The track “Bonnie and Clyde” hits a local note with a mention of Monterey Bay, striking a familiar chord with Bay Area residents and making the song (which focuses on telling your loved ones how you feel before you die) just a little less depressing. As one who doesn’t consider themselves a fan of Vance Joy, I found this album a little cheesy in its lovey-dovey lyrics. However, I have to admit, even if you find Joy’s lyrics and ukulele chords a little too juvenile, there’s no doubt “A Nation of Two” will tug at your heart strings. lbaldwin@redwoodbark.org

lifestyles

Page 21

Junior Nathaniel Kuffner wanders the world for the Winter Olympics

By Sam Warren Most families enjoy the Winter Olympics snuggled up on their couch with the television displaying the action happening on the other side of the planet—Olympians pushing themselves to their limit, trying to earn coveted medals for their country’s honor.

However, this scenario is not the case for junior Nathaniel Kuffner and his family. Every four years, the Kuffner family, spearheaded by ambitious father Charlie, travel to the corners of the globe to experience the winter games up close and in person.

If it had not been for his father’s American nationality, Nathaniel’s Olympic journeys may have never happened.

Charlie Kuffner, Nathaniel’s father, was forcefully stopped by a duo of Yugoslavian police officers on his train to the 1984 games in Sarajevo, which almost halted his first ever Olympic experience and Nathaniel’s from even beginning.

“I was on the train coming into Yugoslavia when we crossed the border and two border officers walked into the cab. They walked up to me and asked me for money to get into the country, and I didn’t have any because I spent it all on the train tickets. They shook me down and almost threw me off the train, but then they saw my American Express [credit] card and let me go because I was American,” Charlie said.

Despite his troubles, Charlie made it to Sarajevo safely and was awestruck with the Winter Olympics. One event in the 1984 Olympiad caused him to make a commitment for the rest of his life.

“When I got [to the games], I was lucky enough to see Bill Johnson win the gold medal for Men’s Downhill Skiing.

That experience was so exhilarating that I told myself then and there I would go every year from then on, and I’ve never looked back since,” Charlie said.

Starting with the 1984 Sarajevo games, Charlie has traveled to ten consecutive Olympiads, and has brought his family along with him on his journeys. As a family, the Kuffners—Charlie, Nathaniel, Nathaniel’s mother Barbara and his older brother Riley— have made the quadrennial pilgrimage to the Winter Games every time the competition occurs. According to Nathaniel, they don’t attend the summer competition as well because going to every Olympics would make the experience lose its luster.

“Going every two years would lower how much of an impact the Olympics have. It’d become more of a commonality instead of a making a journey every four years, which makes it such a breathtaking experience,” Nathaniel said.

Nathaniel also believes that the winter events are much more interesting and invigorating than their summer counterparts.

“The whole aspect of the danger of the sports really makes the events so much more exciting. On the half pipe,

Photo courtesy of Nathaniel Kuffner

TRAVELING TO PYEONGCHANG, junior Nathaniel Kuffner stands beside the Olympic Hockey rink during a match at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

these athletes are going 18 feet up in the air and risking cracking their head open or paralyzing themselves and in the downhill skiing, skiers are bombing 75 miles an hour down the hill, faster than cars on freeways. It’s just so much more exciting than some dudes running around a track,” Nathaniel said.

Since the Olympics change location every year, the Kuffner tradition has taken them across the globe. Since 2002, their travels have brought them to Salt Lake City, Utah; Torino, Italy; Vancouver, Canada; Sochi, Russia; and most recently, Pyeongchang, South Korea. Out of all the Olympiads, Nathaniel enjoyed his experience most at

Photo courtesy of Nathanial Kuffner

RACING FOR THE goal, Team USA was one of 12 mens’ hockey teams competing in the 2018 winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

the 2018 Pyeongchang games because of the South Korean culture and hospitality.

“Korea is an awesome place and the people are very accepting and interested in American culture. My brother and I were walking around the streets of Korea in our USA Hockey jerseys and we were stopped multiple times by natives to take photos with them,” Nathaniel said.

Nathaniel also loved the 2018 games because of the meshing of cultures he observed. While at the short-track speed skating events, he caught a glimpse of what it was like to be from the most polarizing country in the world by observing the North Korean cheerleaders that Kim Jong Un sent to Pyeongchang to root on the Korean athletes.

“Everything they did was like clockwork, from putting on their jackets and zipping them up all at the same time to leading cheers in unison. It was really cool but also freaky to watch,” Nathaniel said.

While in Pyeongchang, the Kuffners were able to attend three nights of short-track speed skating, five hockey games, the men’s team ski jump final, the men’s aerial skiing final and the men’s skiing halfpipe final.

Although Nathaniel said he loves the adrenaline of some of the more extreme events, hockey is both his favorite sport and his favorite Olympic event to attend.

“NHL games are fun to go to, but it’s a much more casual experience. Olympic hockey games are so much more intense because there’s so much riding on each game. The players love playing for their country and the games carry so much more importance because they are playing for their homeland and for their nation’s honor,” Nathaniel said.

Each member of the family takes away more than just an exciting sports adventure. Nathaniel’s mother, Barbara, believes that going to the Olympics is a beneficial experience for her kids because it gives them perspectives about their privilege.

“It’s great for the boys to travel the world and learn about cultures. We live in a bubble here in Marin and going to these countries gives them perspective on what life is really like outside of the U.S., but it’s also great for them to see every nation coming together and staying peaceful for two weeks, which is a rarity in today’s society,” Barbara said.

According to Nathaniel, the games are important today because of the community aspect of the competition.

“Both the fans and athletes interact with each other in a very positive manner. Everyone gets to mix and mingle with others from other countries that they might not be able to because of politics,” Nathaniel said. “For once, everyone is just in a single place with a common goal, and that’s to win and have fun.” swarren@redwoodbark.org

March 16, 2018 bark Page 22 • Lifestyles Seniors lay groundwork for environmental classroom

By Maxim Kawashima Over the last two years, Redwood administration in conjunction with AP Environmental Science (APES) and Sustainable Agriculture teacher Joe Stewart have considered implementing environmentally friendly classrooms into Redwood’s architectural layout. Stewart acts as the teacher advisor for the environmental classroom initiative, an idea his APES students wanted to further pursue last year.

However, Stewart said that only in the last school year did this idea come to fruition with a collective push from the administration and school board. When Stewart introduced the classroom proposal to his APES class at the end of the 2016-2017 school year, senior Max von Franqué and recent graduates Nathan Green and Holden Bailey decided to join the initiative.

According to von Franqué, the initiative is as it sounds: a classroom built and operated with environmental techniques.

“This classroom won’t be like any other classroom before it, so we want to have an emphasis on sustainable design in building the project and in the maintenance of the classroom. An example of this is that the building will be prefabricated off-site which will reduce costs, time and materials—kind of like legos by putting them all together,” von Franqué said.

The advantages of the prefabricated structure assist the quickness at which the classroom can be built and can decrease the environmental disturbance at Redwood during construction, according to Stewart.

“They’ll bring in parts of the building onto campus so that actual building on site happens much more quickly because it’s been prefabricated. It also ends up being less wasteful and there is less local environmental impact.

They’re building at a special site where they do all their building so there’s less waste as the materials are more uniform to their specifications,” Stewart said.

Growing up in Tam Valley, von Franqué has been able to cultivate his interest in the environment. As a result of his closeness to nature, he’s been inspired to take part in an array of different environmentally-centered activities. For example, at Tam Valley Elementary School he started the school’s first compost program.

Despite a busy after-school rowing schedule, von Franqué finds time to uphold his interest in the environment. Over the summer, von Franqué worked for the Marin Sanitary Service, practicing route analytics and route optimization. His job involved recording truck routes and upload them to a new computer software system.

In addition, he interned at EarthScope Media, an environmentally-centered internship journalism group.

Currently, he volunteers at Muir Woods as an interpreter, where he helps tell tourists which trails to go on and respond to medical emergencies.

At the start of the current school year, due to Green and Bailey graduating, there was a vacancy for another student representative which senior Loren Greene volunteered to fill. Greene, who is friends with von Franqué, heard von Franqué discussing the new environmentally friendly classroom initiative and decided to fill the vacant role as an architecture representative, in which Green and Bailey formerly represented. von Franqué said that while there are costs to building the structure, the rooms will be needed to offset the rising student population, as the newly built portables are only temporary.

“We need more space. The computer labs are being changed to classrooms and teachers are sharing classrooms,” von Franqué said. “The issue is when people say they’re temporary, you don’t always know. Take for instance the ceramics and band buildings, those are

Photo by Maxim Kawashima

INITIATING THE NEW environmentally-friendly classrooms, student representative seniors Max von Franqué and Loren Greene are involved in the project to create a more sustainable campus. portables and yet they still are on campus many years after. how the building works,” von Franqué said.

In the first semester of the 2017-2018 school year, So that’s the advantage of a free standing building—we’re probably going to keep whatever we build,” von Franqué both Greene and von Franqué traveled with Vice Principal Saum Zargar, Principal David Sondheim, District Architect said.

According to von Franqué, using geometry to find David O’Connors and Stewart to other schools that had the angle that the sun will hit the classroom for heating implemented similar classroom designs.

Although their favorite was the Project Frog-made and cooling at certain times of the day is his favorite classroom according to von Franqué. Project Frog is a environmental technique for the initiative. local firm that designs buildings “We can use geometry to calculate where the sun is shining and depending in a prefabricated eco-friendly process. Project Frog offered on where that is then place windows free advice about the engineering strategically. So in the mornings in and costs to von Franqué and the winter, the classroom heats up and in graduated students. the afternoons it will cool off. Then According to von Franqué, in the summer the classroom will stay the most feasible location for the cool. We can tell students, ‘Hey, this classroom was going to be next is how we used geometry in math, to the small gym, adjacent to the combined with earth sciences in bike racks.

Integrated Science to calculate how we Before construction begins, put these windows,” von Franqué said. the location must be checked von Franqué said he hopes the various to ensure the foundation will environmental techniques will deal not sink into the underlying with the extra costs while serving as a Max von Franqué, marsh. The final location will be beneficial teaching tool. confirmed after measurements for “An example is solar. Solar could senior building depth are calculated. power the building and another The next big step, according example is a living roof to make it better insulated. These are examples of features that we to von Franqué and Stewart, will be initiating the bidding want to use for sustainability, but it’s also to make it a process for the construction of the classroom. Although due to projected district budget deficits, any plans for the teaching tool,” von Franqué said.

While the classrooms will be using environmental implementation of the classrooms have been pushed back, tools for teaching students, the classrooms are designed according to principal David Sondheim.

Despite this setback, von Franqué is hopeful for to inform the public as well. The classrooms will be created interactively for anyone passing by to serve as Redwood’s push towards a more environmental front an informative tool about how the building functions through programs like composting in the meantime. environmentally.

“We want to make it a community building, a demo.

So somebody over the weekend can walk by the classroom and there will be placards or screens where they can learn mkawashima@redwoodbark.org

Illustration by Max von Franqué, Nathan Green, and Holden Bailey

DESIGNED BY MAX von Franqué with Project Frog program, images of the environmentally friendly classrooms display their potential design.

We want to have an emphasis on sustainable design in building the project and in the maintenance of the classroom.

Page 23 • Lifestyles

www.redwoodbark.org

bark

Gluten: is it kneaded?

By Amanda Morse and Sachi Nahas

Gluten-free influences

While browsing the grocery store aisles, it has become more common to see gluten-free pasta, cookies, bread, pancakes, muffins and more. Gluten-free diets have become popular among people of all ages in our community, either by choice or for medical reasons.

As described by The Celiac Disease Foundation, gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, rye, barley and triticale, a cross between wheat and rye.

Gluten is present in many different foods, from crackers and cakes to sauces and gravies.

The motivations for being gluten-free differ, as some people simply want to feel healthier while others have a natural intolerance to gluten. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes damage to the small intestine over time due to the overconsumption of gluten, which commonly goes undiagnosed. Some of the symptoms include abdominal pain, fatigue and behavioral issues, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. Since these effects can be subtle, many people don’t feel it is necessary to get tested, leading to potential health issues in the future.

Aside from gluten intolerances, the gluten-free trend attracts many followers due to the misconception that the diet leads to weight loss. According to registered dietarian for Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Marina Chaparro, eating gluten-free isn’t recommended when trying to lose weight; in fact, it could lead to weight gain. These diets have increased in popularity among Millennials through the influence of books, magazines and celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Kourtney Kardashian and Jessica Alba, who broadcast their love for gluten free lifestyle. The assumption that the gluten-free lifestyle is “healthier” can be misleading, as going gluten-free restricts a person from eating carbs such as cookies, bread and pizza. Yet, glutenfree options can contain as much or more sugars and fats than gluten.

Why gluten-free?

Certain diseases such as Celiac and thyroid disease prevent a person from eating anything containing gluten.

According to Celiac.org, Celiac disease can be very hard to diagnose, since the effects fluctuate depending on the individual. On the other hand, thyroid disease is the reason for an underactive or overactive thyroid. Although the main cause of the disease is still unknown, many doctors, researchers and patients have recognized a strong correlation between Thyroid disease and gluten. Between 4.1 percent of women living with a type of thyroid disease also are diagnosed with Celiac disease, according to GlutenFreeLiving.com.

Since there is no treatment for either disease, not consuming gluten is the only “treatment” which limits the symptoms of Celiac and thyroid diseases. Although she has been gluten-free since eighth grade, junior Sabina Bacino still remembers the constant stomach irritation, aches and pain she felt from consuming foods containing gluten.

“Around three years ago, I started to realize a lot of things with my body and health weren’t feeling right. I had muscle fatigue, my stomach constantly hurt, and I had bad

Photo by Sachi Nahas

EATING A GLUTEN-FREE bar, junior Sabina Bacino was diagnosed with Thyroid Disease in eighth grade, which prevents her from consuming gluten.

Photo by Amanda Morse

PREPARING TO PUT the baked goods in the display case, Dion Brennan decorates his gluten-free pastries in Flour Chylde Bakery.

migraines every single day,” Bacino said.

The Price of a gluten-free life After suffering from these symptoms, Bacino Although there are many unique food alternatives, visited the doctor and was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s the price of a gluten-free diet may be hard to digest. The Auotomothimia Thyroid disease, ultimately leading to expense of gluten-free products are actually the numberthe removal of gluten from her diet. The sudden lifestyle one stressor for Celiac patients, according to National change was challenging for Bacino because foods Foundation for Celiac Awareness. According to a study containing gluten were a large part of her previous diet. done by US National Library of Medicine, on average “I had craved things like bread and pasta and at first I gluten-free products were 242 percent more expensive than was unaware that there were so many gluten-free options,” regular products. It may seem ridiculous for the price of a Bacino said. “But after a while, the cravings went away loaf of bread to triple because it doesn’t contain gluten, but and I found a lot of places that had a lot of good gluten- the ingredients and maintenance behind making glutenfree alternatives to normal food that would normally have free bread is far more complicated. gluten.”

Located in the heart of downtown Novato, Flour Chylde When people think of gluten Bakery has attracted many glutenintolerance, they tend to think of free customers with its gourmet diseases such as Celiac, but that baked goods. The owners, Catherine is just one manifestation of gluten and Dion Brennan, were initially sensitivity. According to Mind motivated to create the business due Body Green, as estimated 1 in 20 to the reactions of their customers at Americans have what is called nonthe original farmers markets.

Celiac gluten sensitivity. Gluten “We would send [gluten-free sensitivity can develop at any age goods] out to a farmers market and I and can cause symptoms similar to had people come up to the booth and those of Celiac. say ‘I’m a cancer survivor and this is Similar to the symptoms Bacino the only food I can eat.’ They were suffered, junior Hannah Reidy telling me all these wonderful stories experienced immense amounts about how my food was helping of stomach pain due to her gluten Carmen Monroe-Watts, benefit them everyday to get through junior intolerance. some sort of human tragedy. That’s “My stomach hurt a lot whenever what probably inspired me to [open a I ate gluten. I had continuous pain gluten-free bakery],” Catherine said. which made it hard to stand and In order to make foods that please walk,” Reidy said. their customers, alternative ingredients such as teff, chia, After suffering two to three weeks of flu-like symptoms amaranth and others are used as a substitute for gluten, due to the overconsumption of gluten, Reidy visited her according to Brennan. doctor. Afterwards, she was recommended to avoid foods containing gluten as they were the source of her constant Is going gluten-free really all that? stomach pains. Ever since 2016, Reidy has maintained her Although eliminating gluten from one’s diet can gluten-free diet. help reduce the intake of starches and carbs, gluten-free Junior Carmen Monroe-Watts has experienced a alternatives can be just as unhealthy or even more so if one smooth transition away from foods containing gluten over consumes an excessive amount daily. the past two and a half years. She initially experienced “When people tell me that gluten-free is a healthier skin reactions (eczema) when she ate gluten, forcing her to alternative, ‘to what?’ is what I would ask them,” Catherine remove gluten from her diet. She believes Marin’s typical said. “Is it a healthier alternative to wheat bread? I would environment of healthy eating was a positive factor that say ‘no.’ That’s probably not true because gluten-free supported this change. bread requires a lot more starch to it to keep it together, “Living in Marin has definitely helped me eat the food since it’s missing the gluten. It usually requires a gum, I want to while still upholding my gluten-free diet. I can then on top of it requires milk product and sometimes basically find anything that people eat day to day at any eggs. So your bread is actually maybe not healthier than local grocery store in Marin,” Monroe-Watts said. traditional bread.”

In Marin, many restaurants and bakeries provide A majority of customers who choose to consume and special gluten-free options for consumers, or produce only buy gluten-free foods are gluten-free by choice, but this gluten-free foods. Additionally, many supermarkets have doesn’t always help to maintain a healthy diet. an aisle dedicated to “gluten-free” foods, where items such “I tried to avoid carbs in my diet, but since I play sports as pasta, crackers, muffins and sauces can be found. there are going to be times when I need to make a sandwich.

On the other hand, in other regions of the country, it is As an athlete, I need carbs in my diet and cutting them out more difficult to follow the practices of this unique diet. completely would definitely impact my ability to perform.

“Since my family is from the South, when I travel You can still be healthy while being gluten intolerant, just to the South on vacations, it’s much more difficult to everything in moderation,” Monroe-Watts said. eat gluten-free. It’s not as of big of a thing to be gluten intolerant in Georgia. People are still confused what gluten is. It’s definitely more difficult when I travel since Marin is so involved in a way,” Monroe-Watts said. bark@redwoodbark.org

Living in Marin has definitely helped me eat the food I want to while still upholding my gluten-free diet.