Issue 5

Volume 118 Issue 5

The Record Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903

record.horacemann.org October 9th, 2020

Positive COVID-19 tests force UD and MD online Claire Goldberg & Ayesha Sen Staff Writers The Upper Division (UD) and Middle Division (MD) will run virtually until October 19 due to four COVID-19 cases in the community, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly wrote to parents and guardians in an email on Monday night. The news followed an unexpected three day weekend after the first COVID-19 case in the Physical Education (PE) Department on Friday. School was canceled on Monday to conduct contract tracing, and Kelly announced the move to online later that night.

Three of the four positive cases were Middle and Upper Division PE teachers or coaches, Kelly wrote. The fourth was a member of the College Counseling Department. The next two weeks will be used as a quarantine period for the members of the community identified as close contacts through the school’s contact tracing, he wrote. “These additional cases of positive COVID-19 do have overlap with students and employees at a level that makes me uncomfortable moving forward with inperson instruction.”

The first positive test of the school year was identified in the community last Saturday. After testing at an outside facility, a member of the MD and UD PE department notified the school that they had tested positive, School Nurse DeAnna Cooper said. However, all of the 244 members of the community tested at the school on Friday tested negative, she said. This COVID-19-positive coach was likely asymptomatic all week, Kelly said at the town hall for parents on Sunday night.

This faculty member initially thought that they had contracted the virus from a family wedding the weekend earlier with 35 attendees, Kelly said.

However, new information indicates that it is more likely that the faculty member got sick from his son, a sophomore in high school who also tested positive, Kelly wrote in an email. The faculty member was notified Friday afternoon that a wedding attendee had tested positive for COVID-19, and the faculty member tested positive that same night.

After identifying the positive case in the community, the school decided to close on Monday

to use the additional time for contact tracing, Cooper said. “The school is working with the [New York City] Department of Health to determine the infectious period for each positive case to determine the close contacts during the infectious period.”

A close contact is defined as anyone who was within six feet of the infectious person for longer than 10 minutes, regardless of masks, or an individual who was in an enclosed space with the infectious person for longer than an hour, Cooper said. The identified close contacts will be notified by the school to quarantine for 14 days and to monitor for symptoms of COVID-19.

So far, only one student, Ari Salsberg (12), has been identified as a close contact of the initial positive case. Salsberg met with the coach in their office on Thursday for about 20 minutes to discuss what the team’s practice would look like with social distancing guidelines. The meeting was masked and Salsberg sat distanced from the coach, he said.

“I really didn’t think anything of it because there was no indication that the individual had COVID because they showed no symptoms, so it felt safe because of the masks.”

When he received the school’s email stating that a coach had tested positive after attending a wedding, Salsberg began to quarantine within his own home out of precaution. “I had a pretty good indication of who the individual was because the coach I had met with told me about a wedding, so I immediately self isolated from my family.”

Salsberg’s hunch was confirmed on Sunday morning, when the school notified him that he had been identified as a close contact, he said.

That morning, Salsberg took a COVID-19 test, which came back negative. Salsberg still plans to quarantine for the full 14 day period and will be tested again before returning to school.

Over the course of the weekend, the school was notified that three other faculty members had tested positive at outside testing facilities, Kelly wrote.

All of the positive coaches’ sports teams received an email stating that one of their coaches had tested positive over the weekend. However, students on the team were not identified as close contacts.

All members of the Girls Varsity Cross Country

Rachel Zhu/Art Director

team received a similar email, identifying them as people who had come in contact with a COVID-19positive coach. However, the girls on the team were not identified as close contacts because their indoor practice on Friday ran for less than an hour.

The positive case involving a college counselor is likely unrelated to the cases in the PE Department, Cooper said. All students of the COVID-19-positive college counselor were reassigned to a new college counselor within the week.

Momo Campbell (12), a student assigned to the COVID-19-positive college counselor, was not identified as a close contact, despite having a meeting last Tuesday, he said. Campbell is in the process of receiving weekly treatments for pediatric cancer and he said that he cannot enter the hospital until he tests negative.

While the MD and UD will be online for the next two weeks, the Lower Division (LD) and Nursery Division (ND) will remain in person, Kelly said.

Jane Greyf P’22 P’32 said that she is willing to send her first grader to school because of the importance of in-person instruction. “None of this is ever perfect, but to me this is just another one of those smartly calculated risks by Dr. Kelly, which keeps at least some portion of the kids in school.”

Greyf is also glad that LD students can still have

in-person instruction so that parents do not have to worry about helping their child do school online, she said. As a result, Greyf can continue to work at her office rather than working from home.

On Wednesday, the ND reported their first COVID-19 case involving a PreKindergarten faculty member, Kelly wrote in an email. However, the ND uses a pod system where students only interact with the other members of their pod, so contact tracing was very straightforward, Kelly wrote. As a result, all of the close contacts of the COVID-positive teacher, including all of the students and employees who interacted with their pod, have been directed to quarantine for fourteen days and submit a negative COVID-19 PCR test results before they return to school, he wrote. The ND will remain open to in-person instruction, he wrote.

Despite the outbreak of cases, Cooper thinks that it is likely that the UD and MD will return to school on October 19, she said. “If we are vigilant in watching for symptoms and take social distancing, mask wearing, and hand hygiene seriously, there is a good chance school will reopen without issue,” she said. “It is really up to the community.”

Speaker series shares knowledge about migration Purvi Jonnalagadda Staff Writer

On Tuesday, professors Ana Raquel Minian and A. Naomi Paik addressed misconceptions of immigration by providing historical context to the US-Mexico border as part of the Upper Division (UD) History series: “How did we get here?: Exploring the History of Migrants, Migration, and Building the Wall.”

History teachers Dr. Emily Straus and Melissa Morales hosted the second installment of the series and the hour long discussion was also moderated by Ericka Familia (12) and Sogona Cisse (12).

Familia wanted to co-host this event because, as the daughter of immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic, the themes hit close to home, she said.

Familia hoped the viewers would contemplate the speakers’ words, she said. “Just remembering that they [the speakers] are professionals in their fields,” she said. “The only way to really learn from an event like this is to really keep an open mind and try to critically think about everything they are saying and actually consider it rather than just rejecting it.”

Both speakers are published and awarded authors. History teacher Dr. Steven Fabian recommended Paik for the speaker series, and Straus suggested Minian, history teacher Barry Bienstock said.

Minian is part of the history department at Stanford University, where they teach classes on Latinx history, immigration, and histories of incarceration and detention. Paik teaches Asian American studies and Gender and Women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

To start the discussion, Minian addressed a common misunderstanding surrounding Mexican migration: Americans believe that Latin Americans, specifically Mexicans, have always wanted to immigrate to the United States, they said. However, for a large portion of the history of Mexican migration, Mexicans did not actually want to come to the United States, Minian said.

Both Paik and Minian explained that we cannot solve existing crises surrounding immigration if we do not understand the history— understanding the past problems of undocumented

migration can help lead to better solutions.

Both speakers partially credited the increase in migration to an increase in border security. It became almost impossible for Mexican men to cross to the US and return to Mexico, Minan said. Paik added that as long as immigrants have been targeted by the United States and other government officials, there have been migrants resisting that targeting. This history shows us that every time we try to lock down the border, it has the opposite effect of what it’s supposed to do, she said.

Courtesey of Professor Paik

Courtesey of Professor Minian

NEW RHETORIC Professors Minian and Paik lectured.

In terms of how the United States currently deals with immigration, Paik said that President Trump’s attempts at fortifying the country’s southern border have been ineffective, as he has poured gasoline on fires that were already raging, she said. The Trump administration’s immigration policy has given people the false impression that he has tackled these problems when in reality, he has worsened them, she said. Border fortification had the exact opposite effect of what it intended to do, increasing the number of migrants who remained in the United States, and a wall along the southern border will have a similar result, Minian said.

Paik also emphasized the importance of not wallowing in leftist pessimism, she Paik. Engaging with pessimism is disempowering for movements and does the work of the right

and the state without them having to do anything. “Why would we concede before we even get into the fight,” Paik said.

To explain how high school students can help resolve the current migration crisis, both speakers underscored the need for change in the high school curriculum. As of now, most students and even adults are unaware of the history surrounding immigration reform, because most of what students learn in schools, and through other sources like the media is “fan fiction,” rather than actual U.S. history, Paik said. Both believe that the curriculum students are taught must be amended in order to encompass the entire picture of immigration.

Bienstock hopes that by introducing topics that do not receive as much classroom attention, the speaker series will help the community more comfortably discuss issues revolving race and ethnicity both as a community and as Americans.

Rebecca Rosenzweig (12), who attended the discussion Tuesday night, said that the speakers were both very intelligent and that their takes were valuable. “I think all UD students should be encouraged to attend since if only those already interested or educated on the topic attend, those who might benefit the most from the lessons would miss out,” she said.

Tuesday’s event introduced discussions regarding immigration reform while making attendees more aware of the topic. “I think it is good that viewers will be left with questions,” Familia said. Familia also hoped that after the speaker series, people thought about issues that do not necessarily pertain to them and question other people’s experiences more regularly than they otherwise do, she said.

Morales said that Minian and Paik both did a great job of demonstrating the ways in which practices and policies on immigration have a direct connection to current conversations.

“It is our hope that Professors Minian and Paik were able to deepen that understanding by allowing our community to think more deeply about the policies, practices, and ideologies that inform the conversation,” she said.

2

THE RECORD OPINIONS OCTOBER 9TH, 2020

The power of words

The impact of Trump’s language

Natalie Sweet Columnist Last week, when Trump fell ill with COVID-19, I couldn’t help but notice a shift in his language when addressing his diagnosis. Normally, I am used to hearing his racist rhetoric, as he refers to COVID-19 as the “Kung Flu” or the “China virus,” even on the presidential debate stage. Instead, he tweeted that he and the First Lady had “tested positive for COVID-19,” categorizing the virus in scientific terms, a rare occurrence in his speeches about the pandemic.

If Trump claims that calling COVID-19 “Kung Flu” or the “China virus” is not offensive, then why did he choose to use COVID-19 when informing the public that he tested positive for the virus? The reality is that he knows that his language surrounding the pandemic is harmful — it implies that only Chinese people can contract and spread the virus, rekindling anti-Chinese sentiment that is woven into this country’s roots. The stigma that Chinese people are “unclean” has existed since before Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and Trump continues to foster these stereotypes through fear mongering today.

Not only has this resulted in hundreds of acts of violence against Asian-Americans since the pandemic reached the United States, but it has separated Chinese people from other Americans, creating an image of a united, white America fighting against “foreigners.”

This is not a stand-alone example of Trump using language to perpetuate racism, fear, or violence around a specific group of people. In 2015, he made his

largest campaign promises to “build a wall” between the US and Mexico to stop the flow of “dangerous illegal immigrants” into the United States. Most left-leaning politicians opt for the use of the word “undocumented” instead of “illegal,” which carries a more accurate status description of migrants and does not alienate them from the rest of the citizens in the US as the word “illegal” does. Trump’s classification of these migrants as drug dealers, rapists, and above all, “illegals,” perversely perpetuates a dangerous narrative against immigrants that builds unjustified hatred against people seeking safety in the US. As we have learned in this week’s webinar from the UD History Series, immigration is not an issue that can be boiled down to the current status of migrants’ legality in the US. Trump refuses to accept this complexity and instead opts for hateful and false rhetoric that strengthens the racist — underlying or not — perceptions his base holds. By labeling COVID-19 as the “China virus,” undocumented immigrants as “illegals,” and protestors for the Black Lives Matter movement as “thugs,” Trump fosters prejudice against already marginalized groups, thus dividing this country and ultimately igniting violence.

I believe that Horace Mann equips us to fight against these stigmas by teaching us to both be conscious of our own language and build narratives with purpose. We go to a school that mandates that all students must take four years of English over the course of high school. While that might be a sore spot for students who are passionate about science and mathematics and those who write English class off as a “waste of time,” I find this requirement essential to our development as students and leaders. In a world where our country’s elected officials recklessly use the power of language to oppress others, let’s be cognizant of our words and use them as a tool for solidarity and positive change.

A reflection on homophobia at Horace Mann

Allison DeRose ‘19 As a bisexual female, I have never been apologetic about my identity.

I have always been loud and confidently myself. Unfortunately, I found being myself could get me into trouble at Horace Mann.

I will never forget the day a male student in my grade approached me in the library. “Have you ever gone down on a girl?” Those were the first words he spoke to me. Speechless, I glanced up at him. I am always ready with a joke or a light-hearted comeback, but he managed to leave me at a loss for words. I looked at this classmate in disbelief. He spoke again, “Have you ever made out with [female queer friend]?”

I did not respond immediately and he asked his question again.

Once he realized I was not going to give him the answers he wanted, he laughed and walked away. It was funny for him. I felt disgusted, unsafe, and uncomfortable.

I was terrified to tell anyone about the encounter. I assumed he would get away with it. It wasn’t that I didn’t have teachers to confide in; I had plenty. However, many of the faculty members saw him as a “good kid.” I thought the school would probably make me sit in an office, forcing an apology out of him. And after that? He and his friends would probably shoot me dirty looks in the hallways.

They would probably call me a

homophobic slur over a text group chat. I was scared of what would happen to me. How would the rest of the school see me? When I told another classmate what happened, he looked at me and simply stated, “That’s just the way [boy’s name] is.

Getting him in trouble his senior year could really negatively impact his college acceptances.”

I never felt comfortable around either of them again.

Although I acknowledge that the culture of Horace Mann is slowly changing and improving, too often during my time at Horace Mann, I felt that the voices of femaleidentifying persons, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color were suppressed. This culture was inescapable for me. In looking back at this moment, I regret putting his reputation before my own comfort. I regret never speaking up or reaching out to a faculty member. If I had heard of more people speaking up about behaviors like this, I would’ve felt more comfortable speaking out about my own experiences.

In college, I have found ways to avoid this discriminatory treatment as much as possible. It is easier to stay away from those who make you uncomfortable in a university of 7,000 undergraduate students.

At Horace Mann, I interacted with everyone in my grade. I felt pressure to be polite to all my classmates, even the ones that treated me as lesser. This is not to say I haven’t experienced discriminatory treatment outside of Horace Mann or in college. My relationship with my freshman roommate degraded pretty quickly after I put a pride sticker on the wall in our room.

I came back one night to hear her tell her parents on the phone that she “no longer felt safe in her own dorm room.”

My negative experiences at

Horace Mann did not ruin the education I received or negate my enjoyment of my time at the school. I will always be grateful for my amazing teachers. I will always appreciate the lasting friendships I formed. But I will never forget the disgusting comments I endured.

Those moments from my high school experience illuminate the many levels of failure on the part of the Horace Mann community. They demonstrate the lack of acceptance within the community to educate students about sexual harassment.

The school allowed a culture to persist in which I believed speaking out would present with more harm than good.

I think the main sentiment within the Horace Mann community tends to be one of tolerance rather than acceptance and mutual respect, specifically in regards to the LGBTQ+ community. Though people will ‘tolerate’ or ‘put up with’ LGBTQ+ students, I never felt that I was treated as an equal.

The comments I received about my sexuality and my relationships were not of the same nature as those of ‘common high school culture.’

It is not a culture unique to Horace Mann, but it is one that needs to change.

Gabrielle Fischberg/Art Director

EDITORIAL

Lauren Kim/Art Director

For the first time, the school recognized the former Columbus Day Weekend as Fall Weekend this year.

The holiday’s original title, named after the colonizer infamous for subjecting Amerindians to violence, rape, and slavery, has been fraught with debate for decades. Last year, the Washington DC Council voted to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Many other states followed suit, and the Los Angeles public school system even disposed of the day altogether to eradicate the recognition Columbus does not deserve.

The new title, Fall Weekend, however, does not do justice to the indigenous peoples whom Columbus oppressed. The fact is, there is a better replacement for the name Columbus Day and that is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. For the school to ignore this widespread renaming and instead call the day Fall Weekend — a title with little significance — seems like an intentional decision that ignores the suffering of Native Americans.

At Horace Mann, we put quite a lot of thought into the names that define our institution, from HM Online 2.0 to Homecoming@Home and HM in Motion. If we are willing to put the time and effort into naming trivial school initiatives, we should be willing to put far more thought into this meaningful discussion.

We must follow suit with the great care and pride we take in our institution and honor Fall Weekend with the name it deserves: Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Volume 118 Editorial Board Managing Editor Talia Winiarsky News Sam Chiang Yesh Nikam Marina Kazarian

Features Henry Owens Emily Shi Vivien Sweet

Opinions Maurice Campbell Avi Kapadia Natalie Sweet

A&E Izzy Abbott Abby Beckler Oliver Steinman

Editor-in-Chief Julia Goldberg Lions’ Den Yotam Hahn Alison Isko Josh Underberg

Middle Division Adrian Arnaboldi Bradley Bennett Jack Crovitz

Staff Staff Writers Devin Allard-Neptune, Chloe Choi, Emma Colacino, Yin Fei, Lucas Glickman, Claire Goldberg, Liliana Greyf, Lauren Ho, Hanna Hornfeld, Oliver Lewis, Rowan Mally, Walker McCarthy, Morgan Smith, Arushi Talwar, Katya Tolunsky, Nathan Zelizer, Max Chasin, Alex Lautin, Jillian Lee, Hannah Katzke, Vidhatrie Keetha, Louise Kim, Clio Rao, Ayesha Sen, Emily Salzhauer, Emily Sun Staff Photographers Kelly Troop, Sophie Gordon, Amanda Wein, Emma Colacino, AJ Walker, Lucas Glickman, Lauren Ho Staff Artists Eliza Becker, Felix Brenner, Riva Vig

Issues Editor Adam Frommer Design Lowell Finster John Mauro Sarah Sun

Art Annabelle Chan Gabby Fischberg Lauren Kim Rachel Zhu

Photography Jackson Feigin Julia Isko Maxwell Shopkorn

Faculty Adviser David Berenson

Editorial Policy About Founded in 1903, The Record is Horace Mann School’s award-winning weekly student newspaper. We publish approximately 30 times during the academic year, offering news, features, opinions, arts, Middle Division and sports coverage relevant to the school community. The Record serves as a public forum to provide the community with information, entertainment, and an outlet for various viewpoints. As a student publication, the contents of The Record are the views and work of the students and do not necessarily represent those of the faculty or administration of the Horace Mann School. Horace Mann School is not responsible for the accuracy and contents of The Record and is not liable for any claims based on the contents or views expressed therein.

Editorials All editorial decisions regarding content, grammar, and layout are made by the senior editorial board. The unsigned editorial represents the opinion of the majority of the board.

Opinions Opinion columns represent the viewpoint of the author and not of The Record or the school. We encourage students, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents to submit opinions by emailing record@horacemann.org.

Letters Letters to the editor often respond to editorials, articles, and opinions pieces, allowing The Record to uphold its commitment to open discourse within the school community. They too represent the opinion of the author and not of The Record or the school.

To be considered for publication in the next issue, letters should

be submitted by mail (The Record, 231 West 246th Street, Bronx, NY 10471) or email (record@horacemann.org) before 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. All submissions must be signed.

Contact For all tips, comments, queries, story suggestions, complaints and corrections, please contact us by email at record@ horacemann.org.

3

HORACE MANN FEATURES OCTOBER 9TH, 2020

The HM Promise: Do students actually care?

Hanna Hornfeld, Tuhin Ghosh, and Jade Ciriello Staff and Contributing Writers

Amidst the recent transition to HM Online 2.0, Jiyon Chatterjee (10) compared making decisions about socializing outside of school to standing in the rain under an umbrella. The person assumes they no longer need the umbrella as it has been keeping them dry, closes the umbrella, and is immediately drenched in water. Similarly, the city is reopening because people adhered to the guidelines, leading people to feel less fearful and follow fewer rules, which may cause the number of cases to go back up, he said.

With school and the city reopening, members of the community are learning how to balance their desire to socialize closely with the need to keep each other safe. According to an anonymous Record poll conducted this week, 17.5% of the 217 students who completed the poll have not engaged in nonmandatory social situations since the start of the school year, 10.1% have engaged in non-mandatory situations without adhering to any distancing or mask-wearing guidelines, and the rest have followed some safety guidelines while socializing.

Before school started in September, every family signed the HM Promise, a set of guidelines for on and off-campus behavior that members of the community are expected to follow in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at school. These guidelines include mask wearing, social distancing, and complying with potential quarantines.

According to the HM Promise, “Any heightened protective measures we take are only as effective as the behaviors we practice both inside and outside of School.”

On September 21, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly sent an email to the student body in response to concerns surrounding social media posts depicting behavior that violated the HM Promise.

Members of the community had shared pictures of themselves traveling outside of the tri-state area and participating in group situations without adhering to social distancing and mask-wearing rules.

In his email, Kelly encouraged students to limit their time in social settings outside of school and emphasized the importance of wearing masks to avoid spreading the virus around campus. “So much of our ability to remain open and in-person as a community of learners depends on everyone practicing good hygiene and wearing a mask when outside the home, and especially in the presence of others in a group setting,” Kelly wrote.

When Alexei Le (11) heard about members of the community straying from the guidelines, he felt disappointed and ashamed because they represent the school. “What’s the point of even wearing a mask at school if you’re just going to ignore it outside?” he said. “It’s something that you have to do all the time in order to stay safe.”

Although Kelly’s email served as a reminder to be safe while socializing, it isn’t possible to control people’s actions outside of school, Willa Davis (10) said. Although frequent email reminders would not be completely pointless, as they might guilt some people into being more careful, many of those who are currently ignoring the rules would continue to do so, Davis said.

Making decisions about how to socialize can be difficult because people have to choose between the essential human need for meaningful social interaction and protecting those around them, psychologist Dr. Ian Pervil said. Studies have found that physical closeness and touch are a critical part of development, so fighting that instinct to comply with distancing guidelines can be a challenge, he said.

Spending time with friends out of school is important because social interaction is a necessary part of teenage development, Eden Plepler (12) said. “It just doesn’t seem fair to be robbed of that component of high school,” she said. “We lost so many months of being able to see people, so having those

connections is crucial to people’s overall wellbeing.”

With all the stress of high school and life in general, Gabe Jaffe (9) spends time with friends to unwind and have fun. The absence of that outlet during the months of quarantine was harmful for many peoples’ mental health, so people are now trying to spend more time with their friends to make up for it, he said. Jaffe has played soccer and basketball with his friends about once a week— outdoors and with masks.

Mekhala Mantravadi (11), who has not seen her friends outside of school, said that while social interaction is important to emotional wellbeing, socializing in-person out of school is not fundamentally necessary. If students are extremely careful to wear masks at all times and remain six feet apart, they can see each other in person, but constantly keeping those rules in mind can be difficult. To err on the side of caution, students can FaceTime or watch movies together instead, she said. “Do you really have to go out with your friends?” she said. “Ask yourself that question. Is it absolutely necessary?”

Because social interaction is so important to mental health, if students can trust that one or a few of their friends aren’t likely to be infected, they should spend time with them, Plepler said. Plepler’s boyfriend attends the Dalton School, which is currently fully online. She feels safe spending time with him because she has been his only contact outside of his family and because their families are in “the same bubble,” she said.

As long as people create such a “bubble” for themselves—a select group of friends who will only spend time with each other—Plepler sees little harm in socializing with others closely, she said.

Plepler has seen some of her close friends socially

All art by Riva Vig/Staff Artist

Davis, who has seen similar posts, worries that a small number of careless students could affect the larger school community. Now that school is temporarily online, more students may want to spend time with each other, she said. This may cause enough students to get sick that campus will have to remain closed for longer than originally intended, she said.

Choosing not to adhere to the safety guidelines is “reckless,” Gordon said. “I don’t think they’re thinking about the fact that if they did catch it, they could spread it so fast without knowing,” she said. “You could give [COVID-19] to someone’s grandma or your friend’s cousin’s mom just because you didn’t wear a mask.”

Are students socializing safely when outside of school?

Based on the responses of 179 UD students who reported hanging out outside of school.

68%

Avoiding physical contact

58%

Six feet distance at most times

56%

Wearing a mask at all times

51%

Staying entirely outdoors None of the listed practices

10%

distanced, knowing that they have been honest with each other about their other contacts. Now that school is online, Plepler is no longer in the city and can’t socialize as often, she said.

Nora Balidemaj (12) does not always social distance when she is out with her friends, but she does not spend time with anyone who she does not believe to be generally taking the right precautions.

“It’s more of a personal judgement for me,” she said. When it comes to strangers in public spaces, Balidemaj takes every precaution possible to reduce the risk of transmission.

Most weekends, Sophie Gordon (11) has spent time with friends — usually with one friend at a time, and never in a group larger than four.

Although they stay outdoors most of the time, Gordon has gone out to eat with her friends, which makes it difficult to maintain a full six feet of distance at all times, she said. Once, Gordon had a friend over at her house without a mask, but she felt safe because they had both recently tested negative for COVID-19 and because she knew her friend was being very careful otherwise.

Gordon draws a distinction between having fun safely and putting oneself and everybody else at risk. She has seen social media posts of students spending time together in large groups of ten to twenty people, all without masks, especially on the lawn in Central Park. Although this worries her a little bit, Gordon believes that those students are spending time only with each other out of school, which is less dangerous than attending events where they aren’t sure where others have been. “If you’re going to be unsafe, at least be unsafe around people who you know are being careful otherwise,” she said.

When off campus, students and their families need to be aware of the extremely serious consequences of a potential outbreak at school— students could spread the virus to others’ families, neighborhoods, or larger communities, Mantravadi said.

“Right now, your friends can wait, because life is on the line,” she said. “It’s putting personal needs over community needs. Even if you might not display symptoms immediately or get seriously ill, you can spread it to people, and that’s even worse.

You’re a travelling virus.”

Not wearing a mask around friends is less dangerous than doing the same around complete strangers, because people generally have an idea of where their friends have been, Zach Montbach (9) said. Still, it isn’t possible to know everything about someone else’s potential exposure, so students should always wear masks around other people, he said.

Plepler has found that most people are sensitive to each other’s comfort zones when spending time with each other and are careful not to overstep boundaries, especially when it comes to those worried about at-risk family members. “Everyone has to do what’s safe but also what feels right for their family,” she said.

However, what people are comfortable with is not necessarily reflective of what is safe, Gordon said. Many students haven’t been careful because, as young people, they aren’t afraid of getting seriously sick. “Everyone knows people are getting sick and dying, but no one thinks it affects them personally until it does,” she said.

The reason why many people have become more comfortable spending time with each other

partly lies within the fact that they have become desensitized to the dangers of the virus, Pervil said. “When we’re in a constant state of fear about something, our alarm level tends to decrease over time,” he said. “So people who were more careful in the beginning may take it less seriously as time passes.”

Between online school and the rising infection rates in certain areas of the city, Jaffe said that students might start being more careful about their behavior and that their parents might be more reluctant to allow them to go out. However, Jaffe still feels safe spending time with his friends, as long as they stay outdoors and distanced, he said.

Mantravadi believes that email reminders about the HM Promise or even the closure of school on Monday due to a coach testing positive will not change the way people have been acting. “The entire pandemic has been a wake up call, and people are still ignoring it,” she said. “If 200,000 people dying is not a wake up call, then what is? The sheer selfishness and refusal to change is so strong that it would be very difficult to change that in people, but as young people and students, we have that ability to change.”

Head of Upper Division Dr. Jessica Levenstein wrote in an email that between the HM Promise and repeated communication between Kelly and parents, the school has been clear that the community needs to avoid risky behavior when off campus.

Balidemaj said that the message in Kelly’s emails is slightly unrealistic. “[Meeting people] shouldn’t be advertised on social media and in our friend groups as much as it is, but I think it’s a little overblown,” she said.

Simply trusting that every single person is being safe is not enough, especially when it comes to a life-threatening virus, Gordon said. Even extreme measures such as threats of expulsion or suspension would not ensure honesty from everybody, she said.

“They would just stop posting on social media, but there’s no way of knowing who’s been hanging out in big groups and who hasn’t,” she said. “No matter how many kids you catch, there are going to be ten more that you don’t.”

As a result, Gordon believes that it is inevitable that at least one student will catch the virus and spread it to others if school reopens. Although learning in person is more enjoyable, the only way to prevent a school-wide breakout is to permanently move to HM Online 2.0 before students start testing positive, she said.

If students want to learn in person as long as possible, they have to be careful outside of school, Kelly wrote.

“It’s not only about the adults’ collective desire to see all of you on campus and in classrooms, it’s about our desire to see the HM community do its share in protecting others from possible exposure to COVID-19,” Kelly wrote. “All in, it’s about doing the right thing, and doing the right thing isn’t always easy.”

4

THE RECORD ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT OCTOBER 9TH, 2020

DIRE

Courtesy of Alison Kolinski

ROAD TO SEL

Courtesy of Denise DiRenzo

Arushi talwar Staff Writer

KOLINSKI A LIFE’S PURPOSE

Hannah Katzke Staff Writer From the big Broadway stage to the television screen, Theatre, Dance & Film Studies Department Chair Alison Kolinski is no stranger to a large audience.

When Kolinski was three years old, her mom began teaching her to dance, she said. By the time Kolinski was seven, she already knew that she was passionate about dancing, so she joined a ballet academy near her home. Every night after school, Kolinski would go to the studio to practice. She always knew she wanted to dance, she said.

Kolinski danced through college, she said. After college, Kolinski decided to go to California where she landed a role in Hooray for Hollywood, a review of great movie musicals and songs. This show took Kolinski across the world to Spain, France, and Baghdad. “Each time I said ‘what do I want to do next?’ [the answer] was ‘I want to check out New York,’” she said.

When Kolinski arrived in New York, she auditioned to be a member of the original cast of the musical 42nd Street, received callback after callback, and landed the role, she said. “A lot of people are in New York for years and years before they get their first Broadway show, and my timing was perfect,” she said. While performing on 42nd street, Kolinski met dance teacher Denise DiRenzo.

After performing on 42nd Street for a year, Kolinski left to perform in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, but after the show closed, Kolinski found her way back to 42nd Street. After leaving the show again, she started working on a new Broadway show called Scandal.

Unfortunately, the show never made it to the stage due to the passing of the director, Michael Bennett. And once again, Kolinski eventually made her way back to performing on 42nd Street, she

said. Kolinski performed in 42nd Street for a total of three years, and was there for both the opening and closing of the show.

In between shows, Kolinski performed in a dance scene in the original version of the movie Annie, she said. The scene in the mansion took three whole weeks to shoot because when the maids danced through Warbucks’ house, they had to reset the stage every time. She also starred in numerous commercials, her favorite of which was for Crystal Light because she was a spokesperson for the brand, she said. Kolinski also traveled around the world, starring in many industrial shows for big brands such as Pepsi and Cadillac.

For Kolinski, one of the most exciting moments of her career was the thrill that came with her opening night performances, even though they didn’t always go exactly as planned, she said. She also loves seeing herself in commercials and films on screen.

Kolinski spent 12 years performing on Broadway, and loved each of the shows she was a part of, she said.

Together, Kolinski and DiRenzo starred in off-Broadway productions including Peter Pan in Raleigh, North Carolina.

During these shows, they became great friends, Kolinski said.

Over the last 40 years they have toured Broadway and performed with one another, DiRenzo said. “I would say she was the kindest person I had ever met.”

Kolinski’s greatest joy in performing is that the happiness she feels as she dances radiates to the audience, she said. “I gave my heart and soul to the audience,” she said.

But with Broadway came many challenges. Kolinski, for several days prior to auditions, always felt nervous, she said. “You are constantly putting yourself on the line, and making yourself available and it is nerve wracking,” she said. Kolinski dealt with her nerves by trying to always give 110% for the audience.

When she was on stage, Kolinski felt like she had transformed into somebody else, she said. “The minute I started dancing, the butterflies went away, and I was present in the moment.”

In 1990, with her family, Kolinski decided to move to Riverdale, she said.

During that time, the school’s theatre company was putting on a performance of the show 42nd Street when they heard a member of the show’s original cast lived close by, Kolinski said.

Kolinski helped choreograph for the school’s production of 42nd Street, and four years later, she decided to become a full-time teacher.

As the Theater Dance, & Film Studies Department kept growing at the school, Kolinski contacted DiRenzo to see if she was available to start teaching dance at the school, and DiRenzo has been at the school ever since, she said.

Over the decades since they first met, DiRenzo has seen Kolinski’s choreography evolve, she said. “Her choreography was always good, but it’s got better and better and better over the years,” she said. It has grown and become more and more complex and layered.“I have seen it really grow beautifully,” she said.

Kolinski always felt that she belonged on stage. “I love dancing so much: it was my gift to give,” Kolinski said.

As a child, dance teacher Denise DiRenzo was shy and introverted — but found her comfort and passion on stage. “It was like a split personality,” she said.

“I didn’t have friends, and I was the kid who ate alone at the lunch table all the way through my school career. Oddly enough, performing in front of thousands of people was easy, even the simplest social interaction

when terrified me.”

When she was younger, DiRenzo knew she wanted to be on Broadway. Her parents knew she loved theater, and as a family, they would travel to New York from Philadelphia during the summer. There, they would see one Broadway show every year.

“I just fell in love with Broadway,” DiRenzo said. “As a kid, there was no doubt in my mind that this was what my career would be.”

DiRenzo started dancing competitively when she was 15.

During her first year, she won a dance contest, Junior Miss Dance Tri-State Area, where she had the opportunity to go on television. After an audition, DiRenzo became a regular on the show, performing every week for three years, filming Thursdays and airing on Sundays. “Winning that contest at 15 was a huge threshold, where all of a sudden I was performing and starting to get paid for some performances,” she said.

“It was a very exciting time for me, both personally and professionally.”

At 18, DiRenzo moved to Nashville, where she was cast in an entertainment park and took part in Music Hall America, a television show at the Grand Ole Opry, the most famous country music stage in America. “My greatest memory was working with Ray Charles,” she said. “Both his musicality and his professionalism were outstanding.”

When she was 20, DiRenzo drove to Atlanta to audition for the musical A Chorus Line, which was hosting a nationwide search. When she was cast as Diana Morales, DiRenzo felt she had truly made it. She was flown into Los Angeles to be in the first LA company of A Chorus Line and also performed the national, international, and broadway company.

“It felt like a dream,” she said. In this production, DiRenzo was exposed to actors at the top of their field. Specifically, she enjoyed working with Michael Bennett, the director who was “tremendously intimidating and awe-inspiring at the same time.”

A Chorus Line was not the only Broadway show DiRenzo performed in. She was also in the original cast of 42nd Street and Sophisticated Ladies, she said. It was at the auditions for 42nd Street where Theatre, Dance, & Film Studies Department Chair Alison Kolinski first met DiRenzo. Kolinski’s first impression of DiRenzo was that of a confident, adorable, and

Teach Courtesy of Alison Kolinski

5

HORACE MANN ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT OCTOBER 9TH, 2020

ENZO

LF CONFIDENCE

e o d r n t . , o h h y t , n

n , e . , r

. s o r g 5 g . d

n , s s d

r e e e e

o e s e

o t r t t d

fabulous tap dancer.

Kolinski and DiRenzo worked together on numerous shows, both on and off-Broadway, including 42nd Street, Cinderella, Show Boat, and I Love New York. “With each show we collaborated on, we became closer friends,” Kolinski said. “We had a lot of laughs, and great experiences working together and traveling.”

At 30, DiRenzo left Broadway after opportunities opened up at regional theatres. At a theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of her most exciting experiences in theatre was playing Peter Pan in Peter Pan the musical. “It was such a rush to be hoisted up while I was singing and I will never forget the feeling,” she said.

During this two and a half year span, DiRenzo’s longest role was in the musical Cats, which she joined a year after it opened. “I would say a quarter of my time on stage was total improv as a cat,” DiRenzo said. “You could create your own character and it could be a little different every day.”

After DiRenzo married and had children, she was offered several teaching jobs, one at the school. “When the job at Horace Mann came, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect in my life,” she said. “I learned that I really love teaching and I really love working with children.”

Dalia Pustilnik (11) had DiRenzo as an advisor in seventh and eighth grade and has worked with her through the Horace Mann Theatre Company (HMTC). Pustilnik admires the dedication and determination DiRenzo brings to her work.

“She definitely pushes us to our limits, in a good way, making sure we’re giving our performances our all,” she said.

Pustilnik is participating in this year’s dance-heavy musical, A Chorus Line, directed by DiRenzo. Rehearsals are starting earlier than usual to get a head start on practice, which is a true testament to DiRenzo’s motivated character, she said.

DiRenzo’s role of Diana Morales in A Chorus Line, whom she has played many times, is very special to her. “Witnessing one of our talented Courtesy of Denise DiRenzo HM students inhabiting the role, with their own flair, will be particularly thrilling for me,” she said.

Performing on Broadway gave DiRenzo selfconfidence, she said.

“Through performing, and eventually directing and c h o r e o g r ap h i n g , social situations became easier and a lot of my insecurities began to drop away.”

Courtesy of Broadway.com

KEELS ENTERING CENTER STAGE

Helen Fajemirokun Staff Writer “Opening night on Broadway is sort of like your birthday and Christmas and Hanukkah and every other celebration rolled into one,” Music and theater arts teacher Carmen Keels said. “It’s magic like nothing else you have seen before.”

Keels’ first experience on stage was at the age of four in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. By the time she reached middle school, she had performed for her community’s children’s opera and joined her school band. Throughout high school, she took frequent piano and voice lessons while pursuing her passion for acting.

Keels eventually moved to an arts oriented high school where she fit in perfectly among students who had the same artistic focuses as she did, she said.

When selecting what to pursue in college, Keels and her voice teacher agreed that she should major in musical theatre — her passion. After beginning a musical theatre major at the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music, she finished her undergraduate education at the CUNY Baccalaureate Program before deciding to move to New York in August of 2004. She had built up her resume as a professional actor by working with regional theater companies in Columbus so she felt that she could be taken seriously in auditions, she said. “[I] felt like it was time.”

Keels also spent time in Florida during and after college, where she split her time working at the Show Palace Dinner Theater and auditioning for shows, many of which were large-scale productions, she said. Keels was starting to grasp show-business and the mechanics of putting a show together as she gained more acting experience in and out of college, she said. “It was fun and I was young; it was a good experience,” she said.

Though Keels was working hard, she still felt like she was missing one key element to success: an equity card, she said. An equity card is an indicator of membership in the Actors Equity Association, a type of union that ensures fair wages and rights for actors. Without a card, Keels could not go out for auditions or roles that were reserved for card-holders, she said.

This changed, however, when a production at her theater in Florida needed a replacement for a cast member who had dropped out, she said. Keels was asked to fill the role and immediately took it, she said. While the role

did not mean much for her since she was already acting professionally at that point, she was excited for the world of jobs that would open up for her with the equity card, she said. The production took place in the spring, which is an essential time for up-and-coming actors because it is when many auditions take place. Consequently, Keels was able to negotiate into her contract an equity card in return for her participation in the show.

When she went back to New York in May of 2006 after finishing the show in Florida, she auditioned for a new Broadway show called In My Life, she said. After almost three months and four callbacks, Keels was standing on the subway platform waiting for the 1 train when she got the call, she said. She immediately burst into tears and called her grandmother. “Everyone’s seen the subway criers, but I had no shame...I had gotten the part!” she said.

“With new shows you never know what it’s gonna look like,” Keels said. “[In my Life] should have closed on opening night, in all honesty, it was a poorly written show.” But the show ran for over two months with large if not full audiences for the majority of performances. Since it was a new show, the cast and production members were granted creative agency with regard to the sets, acting styles, and music, she said. “[They] kind of tested anything and everything out,” Keels said. “It was some of the hardest work and most fun I have ever had in my life.”

After her first Broadway run in In My Life, Keels returned to regional theaters and performed in some of her favorite shows, she said. She eventually made the decision to gradually stop performing as often because she wanted to focus on her family and begin teaching at the school.

Even though many actors find success without an agent to represent them, Keels wishes she had secured one while she was still acting professionally. She thinks this was partly because she did not discuss the matter of representation in theater more with her fellow POC actors, she said. “Type is a real thing [in casting],” she said. “I think that I would have gotten some very specific advice from my friends of color.”

Keels is proud of the fact that she was able to fulfill her dream of being an actor and performing on broadway, she said. Keels misses performing, but loves being able to center her life around her family and being a member of the school community.

hers on Broadway

Lions’ Den Record Sports

6

OCTOBER 9TH, 2020

Zoë Swift (12) commits to volleyball at Wesleyan Clio Rao Staff Writer “I liked to think I was good, but I look back on game footage that my parents taped and laugh at myself,” Zoë Swift (12) said of her middle school volleyball skills. Since starting her volleyball career in sixth grade, Swift has grown tremendously as a player and has been recruited to play volleyball at Wesleyan University next year, she said.

The recruitment process was tedious and lengthy, as it contained many steps. Though the majority of the recruitment process occurs in high school, Swift started the process in middle school. “I started reaching out to coaches in eighth grade to start building relationships,” Swift said.

The recruitment process picked up sophomore year, when coaches started coming to club volleyball tournaments and students started visiting colleges. Athletes continue the recruitment process until the summer before senior year, when an academic preread takes place, Swift said.

“That’s when you start to narrow down your search to four to five schools, you give the coaches your academic info, your extracurriculars, teacher recs, and anything you can think of that’s related to your academic life,” she said. After that step, athletes either find out from admissions that they’ve been recruited or that the school is no longer interested, Swift said.

Swift was drawn to Wesleyan for many reasons, one of which is that it is perfectly balanced in terms of academics and athletics, Swift said. “It’s a NESCAC, which means that the academics are always going to come first.”

Swift was also interested in Wesleyan because of its racial diversity. She didn’t realize until she was applying to colleges

that this was something she needed to thrive and find her place in the community, Swift said.

Of her many volleyball accomplishments, numerous wins and playing for a club team included, Swift is proudest of the work that she put into her recruitment process. “I did the college process over the course of two years with 20 different schools,” she said. “I’m really proud of myself for putting in the work and achieving the goals I had for myself.”

While playing high school volleyball, Swift wanted to improve as an athlete, form connections with coaches and colleges, and be a team leader, she said. Swift said that she felt as though she worked hard and achieved these goals during high school.

“Zoë has great leadership abilities,” Varsity Volleyball Coach Jason Torres said. “She leads the team by example with her play and demeanor.”

“Her greatest asset is the ability to play well with her size,” he said. “Many people can play the position as Middle Hitter on a team, but very few can excel like Zoë. She uses her talent to dominate matches often.

Although Swift, who has served as captain of the Girls Varsity Volleyball team for the past three years, has primarily competed through the school’s teams, she has also played for the club team NYC Juniors 18 National team, since sophomore year. Swift spends around nine hours a week participating in activities for her club team, whether it’s team practices or strength and conditioning, she said.

The central goal of the club team is different than that of the school’s team, Swift said. “A lot of the girls want to be committed to college, if they’re not already,” she said.

Swift is one of four girls on her club team that is currently committed to a school. “We all take the sport very seriously,”

Swift said. “I sometimes have to switch my mindset between school and club practices and remind myself of what I want to accomplish in each.”

Swift’s coaches have many hopes for her collegiate career, Torres said. “I’m happy she is going to a great volleyball program here in the Northeast,” he said. “I’d like to see her play right away as a freshman, and the coaching staff hopes to see her play in person during her collegiate career.”

Courtesy of Zoë Swift

SERVE Swift jumps to hit the ball.

Recruited Athletes Hunter Kim (12) commits to swim at Princeton Lauren Ho and AJ Walker Staff and Contributing Writers After belly-flopping into the pool during his first swim meet at age eight, Hunter Kim (12) has grown to become one of the top ranked swimmers in the country at age 18. Late this past summer, he announced his commitment to Princeton University for swimming after fielding offers from several colleges.

Kim began competitive swimming when he was around seven years old, he said. Before Kim moved to Westchester County when he was 10, he used to live in upstate New York where he swam for a team called Monroe Woodbury, he said. Once he moved to Westchester, he joined the Westchester Aquatic Club for four years before switching to the Badger Swim Club. At Badger, he is coached by John Collins, who has trained several world champions and has been named “Coach of the Year” by the American Swimming Coaches Association, Kim Courtesy of Hunter Kim

SPLASH Kim dives into the deep end.

said.

“When I began swimming, I never thought that I would [swim] to get into college, but I just really enjoyed it,” Kim said. However, after ranking third in the country in the 100 meter breaststroke when he was 10, he began to realize what he could accomplish in the sport, he said.

One of Kim’s teammates on Badger Swim Club, Justin DiSanto, met Kim when he was 10, he said. “When he joined our team, he took off tremendously, worked very hard, got fast really quickly, and he really hasn’t stopped since then,” DiSanto said. “As a teammate, he’s a great person to swim around because he pushes everyone, but we’re still able to have fun and joke around at practice.”

“Hunter is ultra competitive with a lot of perseverance,” his teammate Matthew Fenlon said.

“He’s just somebody who you want on your team because he’s always very supportive and will point out things that you can improve.”

Fenlon always knew that Kim had the potential to be recruited since they began swimming against each other at age 12, he said. “We’ve been training partners for the last four years, and I’ve always known that he has the talent and work ethic to make it to the next level,” he said.

Collins said that swimming at Kim’s level is extremely difficult because he isn’t just competing against swimmers from his town or even his state, but rather against some of the best swimmers in the country. Kim has a commitment to improving and understands how hard he needs to train in order to be competitive against people around the country who are doing the exact same thing, Collins said.

Although Kim has already committed to Princeton, his high school swim career isn’t over yet.

Kim has been trying to qualify for next year’s Olympic Trials in the butterfly and individual medley (IM) events, Collins said. The IM requires swimmers to use all four strokes during the event, a true test of versatility, he said.

Kim missed the cutoff for Olympic Trials in the 200 meter IM, 400 meter IM, and 200 meter butterfly by just 0.6, 0.9, and 2.0 seconds, respectively, he said. “This year, I have a good shot at qualifying for all three events,” he said.

Before the pandemic, Kim attended one meet every month, including higher-level ones such as Summer Juniors and Summer Nationals. “At some high-level meets, before finals, they’ll have the top eight kids in a room before they walk out to the starting blocks, and the energy within that room is just something you can never experience anywhere else,” Kim said At these high-level meets, there are usually college recruiters scouting for new prospects, Kim said. USA Swimming recently changed their process to allow coaches to talk to swimmers much earlier than before, beginning as early

as June 15 after one’s sophomore year, he said.

On June 15, Kim had already been contacted by coaches from the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Princeton, University of Virginia, and University of Michigan, among many other colleges.

Collins knew Kim had the potential to be recruited when he saw the talent and times Kim brought, he said. The trusting relationship between a coach and an athlete was a large part of helping Kim get recruited, Collins said. Kim had confidence in the choices Collins made for him to prepare for races, Collins said.

“Although Kim is not as physically imposing as many of his competitors, his major development in the last few years has been with his mindset,” Collins said. “He has become much more confident with racing, which, coupled with his work ethic, has made him a very dangerous opponent.”

“Confidence in racing is something you naturally develop through success, however small and insignificant those successes are, and every time you feel good about a race it naturally seeps into your ego and boosts your confidence,” Kim said.

Kim didn’t expect coaches to reach out to him so early, but after several coaches contacted him, he decided to visit his final four list of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia at the beginning of his junior year, he said.

“During the official visit to Princeton, they take you on campus for 48 hours and allow you to practice with the team, which is really important to me because you get to experience the energy that the team has,” Kim said. “My club team is pretty quiet and kind of competitive, but at Princeton the team is really positive and cheering each other on.”

After visiting Princeton, Kim knew that the combination of academic rigor and strength of the swim team was the right fit for him, he said.