The Roundtable Volume 14, Issue 2

The student-run publication of Stuart Hall High School | 1715 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

Volume 14, Issue 2 | Tueday, September 17, 2019

Community preps for Homecoming Spirit days, dance, football game to take place this week

C

Sartaj Rajpal

Staff

onvent & Stuart Hall’s annual Spirit Week culminates with the Homecoming Dance on Sept. 20 and a football game the following day.

“We’re preparing for our game against Upper Lake [High School], and I think we’re ready because our offense looks great and we know our plays,” junior Jake Falconer ’21 said. “We are really learning how to play with each other and want to make this year’s Homecoming a fun experience.”

Football players say this game has special significance because it’s the most heavily attended game of the year.

“We’ve been building up to this game since before school started,” junior Eamonn Kenny said.

“This is our chance to prove to the school and the community that we are representing our students in the best way possible.”

The Homecoming dance is the first semi-formal school dance of the year.

“This is the second get-together of the year after the carnival, and it provides another opportunity where the freshmen can really see what a Convent & Stuart Hall dance is like,” Vincent Behnke, Student Council Operations Officer, said. “The way we’re integrating it with Spirit Week re-

ally builds a sense of community with our different sports teams and grade levels, and it really shows how tightly knit we are as a school.”

Student Council members say they have changed aspects of Spirit Week to make it more interactive.

“This year we wanted to start off the Homecoming Week with a bang, so we decided to revamp the pep rally tradition,” Student Council President Maxi Tellini said. “We're putting together a mixtape of fall sports highlights that we hope will really cultivate the type of hype and school spirit we are looking for.”

Team members say their bond is one of the most important parts of the game and is vital to being prepared to play.

“Our team chemistry needs to stay strong because in order for a team to maintain the mentality needed to play football, and we need to build the family aspect even more than we already have,” cornerback and tight end Vasco Travis said.

Players say they’re hoping for a large turnout at the Homecoming game.

“I want to see everyone from our school in the crowd at the football game,” Falconer said.

“Seeing the whole school there energizes the team and helps us play at our highest level.”

Nik Chupkin | The Roundtable

Junior Owen O’Dell runs out with the football team during the Pep Rally on Sept. 13. The event started Spirit Week, which will feature two games, a dance and special dress days.

Electronic equipment now available for use Digital Media Library opens in Spark Studio

T

Nik Chupkin

Staff

he Department of Tech and Innovation launched a comprehensive Digital Media Library in late August.

“The library is simply about 100 items we have either purchased or collected for students and faculty to be able to check out and use,” Howard Levin, Director of Educational Innovation and Information Services, said.

Based in the Spark Studio, the library also has cameras, microphones, lighting equipment, stands, headsets, lightning port converters and other peripheral devices.

“The Digital Media Library is a tool to support students as producers,” Levin said. “It is one tool to help dramatically increase the quality and the breadth and the depth of what is possible for students to use to create really professional work.”

About half of the equipment

is already circulating throughout the community, though Levin says he is not ready for a deluge of people to start using the library.

“A lot of the equipment in there we’ve never actually touched ourselves,” Levin said. “We’re listing the very expensive stuff as restricted. It’s only going to be checked out to the people whom I have the confidence will be able to treat it well and learn it and figure it out.”

Members of the Department of Tech and Innovation stress their mission to provide materials students of all ages need to advance their production skills.

“We’ve got third graders, fourth graders checking stuff out, so it’s exciting,” Educational Innovation Coordinator Krista Inchausti said. “The vision is to give our students the tools they need to become producers and makers, makers of their own projects, makers of their own images, makers of their own

meaning.”

Although the library is accessible to all, some students said they never heard about it.

“I wish that I had known about this beforehand because many of my filmed projects and audio recordings could have had better quality,” junior Jaylen Chu said.

“Microphones could be good for recording an audio essay for language class and video cameras could be useful for recording science experiments,” Chu said.

Levin says he wants to expand the library’s usability by allowing students to take the lead.

“A lot of what’s going on — specifically among the adults — is that they’re afraid to touch any of this stuff because they don’t know how to use it,” Levin said. “I’m trying to put together some teams of students to make demo videos of some of the equipment.”

Levin says he hopes the Digital Media Library will inspire students to embody their role as

Nik Chupkin | The Roundtable

Liam Carey, Computer Science and Digital Design instructor, shows junior Eon Kounalakis a Sony camera from the Digital Media Library. In preparation for the school year, the Department of Tech and Innovation set up AssetTiger, a program that facilitates keeping track of the equipment and sends notification emails to users.

producers.

“The vision is that we start to see truly professional work being done, and not just for class projects, but also to help nurture

creativity and creative passions,” Levin said. We want to use the Digital Media Library to help spark even more of what I call real world work.”

The Roundtable | September 17, 2019

Community commemorates 9/11 55 Military 72 Police 343 Firefighters Former first responders, military personnel honor fallen heroes Many Convent & Stuart Hall faculty and staff, like Downs, he events of 9/11 that includ- say they feared the attack on the ed four intentional plane Twin Towers was not an end to crashes and the death of 2977 the nightmare. Their fears were individuals not only impacted the validated when two more planes people of New York, crashed at the Pentagon Pennsylvania and Washand near Shanksville, ington DC but also indiPennsylvania. viduals serving for their “I was late to work,” city or country on the Cynthia Ovares, who West Coast. was in the U.S. Navy at “When it became apthe time and is currently parent that it was a tera Spanish teacher, said. rorist attack, I told my “I saw everyone hudDowns dled around a TV. Evkids they were staying home,” Philip Downs, former po- eryone was watching it happen. lice inspector and current history It was very emotional, and there teacher, said. “Living in Marin, was a lot of uncertainty.” they would have to cross the 9/11 brought about a surge Golden Gate bridge — a symbolic in the surveillance of civilians in target for terrorists.” public places in an attempt to pre-

T

Owen Akel & Will Burns

Staff

vent terrorist attacks of the same The U.S. deployed troops into scale from happening again in the Afghanistan Oct. 7 with the intent United States. of dismantling Osama Bin-Lad“Honestly, it was an incredibly en’s terrorist network. Nearly 10 quiet day,” the president's exec- years later, on May 1, 2011, SEAL utive assistant Kathleen Zepeda Team Six killed Bin-Laden in said about working as a Pakistan.

“When 9/11 hapSan Francisco firefighter during 9/11. “It was so sad, pened, everything just so sad.” turned upside down,” Along with those who Ovares said about dedied because of the plane ployment schedules in the Navy. “I finally crashes, 72 law enforcedeployed, everything ment officers as well as 343 was indefinite and firemen died bringing the Ovares unstable. I think, total death count to 3,392.

“A lot of people got deployed ultimately, that's probably why I almost right away,” Ovares said decided to leave.”

Ovares joined the Navy in about the Navy’s reaction to 9/11.

“There was a lot of instability and 1999, right after graduating high uncertainty in terms of what your school and during her four years, she served as an aviation machinfate was.”

ist mate and eventually a second class petty officer.

“Specifically with 9/11, we did have extensive training after that regarding response time and terrorism and what they called critical incidents.” Downs said.

Downs was a member of the San Francisco Police Department for 30 years throughout which he was a first responder to both the Loma Prieta Earthquake and a mass shooting at 101 California Street that killed eight people July 1, 1993.

“Freedom is not free,” Downs said. “It is important to remember 9/11 because it reminds us of the people who have died for, fought for, and continue to fight for our right to freedom against America’s many adversaries.”

Owen's Opinion

We need to find strength in unity again

By Owen Murray

A

fter the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks in 2001, Americans united with patriotism and support for each other.

Today, 18 years and six days later, the United States continues to grow more politically divided.

To end this polarization, it is imperative that Americans, especially those born after the attacks, learn about post-9/11 unity, reflect on it, and replicate it.

Last Wednesday, former President Obama tweeted that he remembered a “spirit of unity and togetherness” after 9/11 that is absent amid today’s political climate. Obama couldn’t be more right about that — not only is America divided right now, but it is polarized and completely politicized.

The polarization is evident in cities like Boston, New York, and Portland, Oregon, where

radical political groups have started physical brawls because of policy disagreement in the past years.

The night of the attacks, both Democratic and Republican senators stood closely together on the steps of the Capitol and sang “God Bless America” in solidarity. President George Bush then remarked, “America is united.”

The simple bipartisan support for Americans dealing with the tragedies fostered a sense of unity and pride that touched millions of Americans. According to multiple soldiers interviewed by the Seattle Times, that pride inspired them to enlist. The Marines experienced an obvious increase in the number of enlistments in the following years.

In cities across the country, Americans of all races, reli-

gions, and sexual orientations mourned those who died. The Bay Area held public and religious services for victims in the following weeks. It didn’t matter what race, religion, or political party you were a part of — all that mattered was that we were Americans, and that our common principles were under attack.

Even results from surveys taken after 9/11 elucidate the unity that touched America. A Gallup poll taken in 2002 asked people how they felt to be an American. Ninety percent of both Democrats and Republicans surveyed responded with “very proud.” In 2017, the same survey was conducted, but 92 percent of Republicans and only 67 percentage of Democrats said they were “very proud” to be Americans.

Our unity after 2001 had

nothing to do with politics and everything to do with patriotism. Americans shared a love for freedom, a contempt for the attacks that threatened our country, and most importantly, pride in being American.

There are over 70 million voters who aren’t old enough to remember the unity that followed 2001, and maybe that’s why today’s political climate is so turbulent, especially among young people. Nonetheless, those who don’t remember it should ask their parents, teachers and grandparents what it was like to be an American then. Doing so would not only teach you about unity, but also about how patriotism can be used to find common ground with other Americans who may not see eye to eye with you.

The Roundtable Stuart Hall High School

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Staff Owen Murray Sartaj Rajpal Nik Chupkin Owen Akel Will Burns Henry Murray Tracy Anne Sena, CJE | Adviser Reviews and personal columns are the opinions of the individual author and are not necessarily those of Stuart Hall High School or Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco.

Corrections and letters may be addressed to the editors at roundtable@sacredsf.org