SPRING MAGAZINE 2019
ISSUE 9
CREATED BY THE URBAN LEGEND
Table of
CONTENTS
06 16 09 20 12 22 Reproductive rights endangered at the Mexico-US border
Charting the policies of eight candidates seeking the Democratic nomination
The history of Van Ness Avenue
Urban France trip 2019
People of the White Privldige Confrence
Opinion: your “museum’ selfie is not art
42 30 52 32 58 38
Agreement reached after Oakland teacher strike, but is it enough?
Male athletes at Urban discuss sexual harrassment
There’s something about True Crime
Urban breaks the mold with new multidisciplinary classes
Senior Soulmate quiz
Investigating Shen Yun’s religious connections
LETTER FROM THE
EDITORS
Dear Urban, Five years ago, the Urban Legend printed its first magazine The eti. We’re excited to share the ninth edition with you. e ve made an effort to create content that will interest the rban community. ur stories touch on a wide range of topics everything from reproductive health at the . .- exico border to the rgentine ants crawling around rban. e ve also aimed to deliver the classics like the senior soulmate uiz, senior regrets, and, yes, the long-awaited Kian crossword. ur staff is excited to share their hard work with you. These articles weren t easy. rom strange interviews to unanswered emails our staff persevered and put in extra work during lunches and early morning meetings. any members of our staff created their own layouts and designs for the first time and learned the perils of n esign. e re proud of their patience.
s a group of young ournalists, we are committed to being a vehicle for student voices and creativity. or this issue, our writers have chosen stories that they are invested in and care about sharing with you. e hope you take the time to look through the stories and appreciate the hard work of your peers. s we ve been working on the final issue we will be a part of, we ve re ected on the wonderful and challenging aspects of this space at rban. or both of us, it has been an important environment for growth, community, and exploration, for which we have a lot of gratitude. e hope that the newspaper will continue to bring students the oy and excitement that it has brought us. We are so excited to present this issue and hope that you learn something new and en oy our work
Love, ily aniel and ola Editors-in-Chief
c llister
THE YETI IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY... Editors-in-Chief: Lily Daniel ola c llister
ally Cobb Clementine aniel Ellie Lerner ella ezak Kyra Nagle Wes Peters ydney iemer an yan
anaging ditor li Gordon Web Editor: Kian Nassre Design Editor: ena Bianchi
OUR FACULTY
Visuals Editor: Phoebe Grandi
OUR EDITORS
atie- ose Breslin
dvisor
arah evin ournalism undamentals Teacher
News Editor: Kian Nassre eatures ditor oki lin rts Culture ditor Tallula icciardi pinions ditor li Gordon ports ditor Tikloh Bruno-Basaing Caboose ditor oe usk
THE URBAN LEGEND
OUR WRITERS
STAFF
OUR LEADERS
While the media often laces stories of the Mexico-United States border with violence, starvation, and complete desperation, it fails to acknowledge the many women in need of reproductive healthcare, contraception and legal support after crossing the border. Miscarriages due to violence at the border, limited access to prenatal care and withheld information regarding contraception and abortion are the realities many young women face upon arriving in the U.S. Various religious and secular organizations work with these women to ensure their rights, provide legal assistance and give information about their option.
One such organization, called ane s ue Process, runs ffice of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters in Texas. These shelters link refugees and new arrivals to women’s healthcare resources in addition to offering other legal services. ane s Due Process also helps young women with the judicial bypass process for abortion. The judicial bypass process is the process minors must go through when they don’t have parental consent for an abortion. In Texas, the current judicial bypass law requires proof that the minor is either mature enough and has enough information to decide to have an abortion or that it is in the minor’s best interest to not tell their parents about their decision. If the court can prove that either of these statements applies to the minor, the minor will receive legal
approval to have an abortion without parental consent. To learn how Jane’s Due Process provides women with information about their rights, the Urban Legend spoke with Eleanor Grano, the Community Outreach and Youth Coordinator at Jane’s Due Process. Grano explained that Border Patrol often takes phones and batteries from women detained at the border, which limits their access to information about their healthcare and medical rights. While women detained at the border don’t all necessarily have access to any health clinics, Grano pointed out that in a state-funded clinic they “won’t tell you your rights unless you ask.” This allows state-funded organizations to avoid informing women about abortion as an option in the case of an unwanted pregnancy. These organizations also don’t have to connect women with a clinic if
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ENDANGERED AT THE MEXICOUNITED STATES BORDER WRITTEN BY LILY DANIEL, EDITOR IN CHIEF DESIGNED BY KIAN NASSRE, WEB EDITOR
they chose to have an abortion. Grano explained that Jane’s Due Process has actually placed many targeted Instagram ads in various countries on the other side of the border in order to inform young women of their rights. The organization has also taken advantage of social media to provide birth control and contraception to more young women in Texas through the creation of a phone app. The app allows young women to text the organization and communicate about getting free and geographically accessible birth control. Grano also emphasized the difference between services offered to minors in federally-funded clinics versus state-funded clinics. On a federal level, you do not need parental permission to get birth control, and federally funded clinics provide free and accessible birth control to anyone regardless of their citizenship status. State clinics in Texas, on the other hand, require parental permission for young people to receive birth control. Often, federally funded clinics are located few and far between which is a further complication for young people who may be limited geo-
graphically especially if they have no means of transportation to clinics. Grano described some of the limitations to healthcare for young women at the border. She stated that clinics often use “anti-choice language” that only talks about being in support of or against abortion as opposed to being in support of or against choice. She added that there are a lot of religious organizations that work with people crossing the border and that they can limit access to information and services for contraception and abortion. “It’s about ensuring that people have all of their rights even if those rights don t fit with your personal political beliefs,” said Grano. Scott Lloyd, the former director of ORR, is an example of a politician who crosses the line between church and state. “He tends to not only have his religious beliefs but he tries to implement them in government, which is a violation of [the separation of] church and state,” Grano said. Before working as the director of ORR, Lloyd was a legal representative for pro-life organizations seeking to maintain Christian values in their legal work, such as the Knights of Columbus charity. In addition to the many difficulties of working with young people seeking contraception and abortions, working with new arrivals presents additional
complications involving language and previous experiences. “Sometimes we’re bilingual but we may not know the best way to talk about abortion or contraception,” said Grano. Additionally, fear of police action or deportation can discourage mixed-status families from seeking out medical care. According to Grano, these families will often not sign up for public programs or enroll their children in Medicaid out of fear of their citizenship status being discovered. Despite the work of organizations like Jane’s Due Process, access to information, rights and care remains limited. “Currently, there are only 96 Title X clinics in the state of Texas,” said Grano. “But it’s important for people to know that these clinics are available.” Title X clinics provide vital family planning and related healthcare resources for those who
“It’s about ensuring that people have all of their rights even if those rights don’t fit with your personal political beliefs” - Eleanor Grano are low-income, uninsured or unable to access Medicaid. In the future, Grano expressed that Jane’s Due Process should not be alone in its work at the border. Grano finished, There are pregnant women that are miscarrying. There are women shackled while giving birth. If they [the Trump Administration] really care about life, they would care about the women in these detention centers and the harm they’re doing to them and their children.”
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STUDENT ART
EVE MEEHAN ‘20
PAGE 8
ns
Written and Designed by Phoebe Grandi
The History of Van Ness Avenue
from autoshowrooms to movie theaters PAGE 9
On February 17, 2019, the AMC Van Ness Theater on Van Ness Avenue and O’Farrell Street closed for good. Every time I drove past the movie theater for the next two weeks, was immediately filled with nostalgia. I remembered the stale smell of the walls as I waited to get my tickets to see “Wall-E” on a rainy day in 2008. Exactly 10 years later, my friend and I saw actor Tom ardy filming the movie “Venom” on that exact block and then proceeded to see the movie in the AMC Van Ness theater. These unique and local experiences created on Van Ness and O’Farrell made it my favorite movie theater growing up. So what was I supposed to do when it closed? Go to a movie theater as commercialized and bland as the downtown Metreon? My love of the Van Ness movie theater speaks to something larger than a simple opposition to monotonous downtown theaters. What gave the AMC Van Ness Theater and the building that housed it (called the Don Lee Cadillac Building) their famous character was the grand design of the interior.
While frequently marveled at, the importance of that building, the history of the street, and its impacts on current-day San Francisco are more than often neglected. I felt the need to pay my respects to the Van Ness movie theater by learning more about its history. However, after beginning my research, I soon realized that the Don Lee Cadillac
Building was only a small part of the exceptional, and forgotten, history of Van Ness Avenue. Driven by my determination to learn about this history, I reached out to architectural historian William Kostura. Kostura, at the request of the San Francisco City Planning Historic Preservation Department in 2010, drafted a survey of 112 buildings along Van
Ness Avenue that could qualify for official historic preservation by the city of San Francisco. His survey concluded that only about two-thirds of the considered buildings, including the Don Lee Cadillac Building, ualified for historic preservation. In an interview with The Urban Legend, Kostura started by saying that the interior of the Don Lee Cadillac Building was not unique. In the 1920s, dozens of similarly styled buildings lined Van Ness Avenue. These large and lavish spaces were built to serve as auto-showrooms where customers could both marvel at the cars and the architecture of the building. A few years later, Van Ness Avenue, which by then was adorned with everything from auto-showrooms to auto-repair shops and parking lots, was rightfully named “Auto Row” by locals, tourists, and auto businesses. Auto Row encompassed about 22 blocks of Van Ness Avenue and contained the only major concentration of auto-related buildings in San Francisco. But, what would prompt the au-
to-industry to move to Van Ness Avenue? In short, it was good timing. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, downtown an rancisco was destroyed and the City was in need of an “acting” downtown while the real downtown was rebuilt. Van Ness Avenue was the perfect place. Before 1906, Van Ness was a mostly residential area with a few commercial clusters. During the infamous earth uake and fire, all of Van Ness Avenue south of Filbert Street was dynamited to create a fire-break, conse uently destroying the Van Ness Avenue of the 19th Century. As a result, the former downtown businesses all moved to and built on top of the remains of Van Ness. In around 1908, however, downtown was successfully rebuilt and all of the businesses migrated back, leaving Van Ness and its buildings vacant. These available commercial locations drew the attentions of many auto dealers, who were previously clustered around the smaller buildings on Golden Gate Avenue. Various auto-brands began to use the old business buildings as auto-shops.
The popularity of Van Ness Avenue during the early twentieth century was astounding; between the years of 1909 and 1929, about 90% of the nearly 300 auto-shops in San Francisco were built on the street. Each General Motors (GM) brand had its own showroom decorated to the same lavish extent as the interior of the Don Lee Cadillac Building. Even
Charles S. Howard, owner of the famous 1930s racehorse Seabiscuit (Kostura compared the horse’s fame at the time to that of LeBron James), owned multiple Buick showrooms on Van Ness. But during the 1970s and 80s, many of the U.S. auto-brands Van Ness housed went out of business as the international auto industry started to gain momentum, forcing
almost all of the surviving brands to leave Van Ness street in search of a new “Auto Row”. As a result, many remaining auto-shops and showrooms were torn down or repurposed. Evidently, AMC Theatres recycled the Don Lee Cadillac Building in 1998 in order to accommodate the movie theater. The well-preserved interior of the Van Ness Movie Theater, I believe, was a subtle nod to the street’s grand history and gave the theater its memorable character. However, in the past decade, Kostura noted, modern versions of auto-shops, specifically auto-showrooms, have slowly reemerged on Van Ness Avenue. For example, Tesla now owns an auto-showroom in what used to be a Chevrolet dealership and the old Packard showroom is now owned and used by British Motors. While I will always slightly resent AMC for closing my favorite movie theater, I am grateful that it gave me the opportunity to engage with part of San Francisco’s forgotten history, even if it was for only an hour and a half movie.
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People of the White Privilege Conference By Wes Peters, Staff Writer The White Privilege Conference (WPC) is an annual event that fights back against white supremacy and toxic masculinity. t was founded in and has continued annually for years, teaching thousands about racism and white nationalism. This year the conference was held in Cedar apids, owa from arch to arch and included members of the rban community. The goal of the conference was to bring people from around the country together to learn about and combat racism. day at the conference consisted of keynote presentations, workshops, and caucuses affinity groups . The keynote presenters included everyone from e uity consultants to leaders of multi-million dollar organizations. They presented on the science of racism, the statistics behind racism, and personal expe-
riences with racism. The workshops were run by teachers, activists, and many others. ach workshop consisted of a group of people talking about the topic and one person guiding the discussion. ne of the workshops went to featured a panel of activists that included Peggy c ntosh, uthor of hite Privilege npacking the nvisible napsack and r. ddie oore r., the founder of the conference. learned about things ranging from advice for young voters to guidance on talking about racism with family members. nother workshop attended was about sundown
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towns. undown towns are cities or neighborhoods that are completely white and were extremely prevalent during the early to mids in the . . The workshop was run by im oewen, a sociologist, historian, and author. n this workshop, learned what a sundown town was, how to recognize one, and their harmful effects on society. went to a lot of other workshops, and each taught me new things about racism, toxic masculinity, and white supremacy and how we can combat them in our everyday lives. This year, rban sent six teachers and four students to the PC. The teachers that went were Charlotte orsley, Clarke eatherspoon, indsey Collins, aina ast, teven peier, and ohn arren. The students were Tess Cogen , elia ilipow , ally Cobb , and me es Peters . The purpose of sending rban students and teachers to the PC was to discuss racism in our lives and bring our new knowledge back to rban. eatherspoon believes that if we want to have a strong understanding of structural ine uality, and what that looks and feels like, going to the idwest and talking to a group of people about the way that structural racism and discrimination function is really important, he said. The mix of people at the conference was extraordinary and included teachers and activists from around the country. interviewed three people from different parts of the country at the PC to find out their background and learn their opinion on the conference. choose to speak with these people after heard them say something during a workshop that resonated with me. interviewed ate laire, the irector of tudent ife at the Berkeley chool in Berkeley, California, Betty ndrews, the President of the owa- ebraska ational ssociation for the dvancement of Colored People tate rea Conferences of Branches, and Tom ees, the ssociate irector of iversity, uity, and nclusion at the elaware alley riends chool in Philadelphia. y goal in interviewing these people was simply to understand their reason for being at the conference and why they think it is important. also wanted to find out new things about the conference, and understand other people s perspectives of the PC.
Kate Klaire
Tom Lees
m here with the Berkeley chool. This particular conference experience with eather ackman has been about recognizing that m the person she referred to as the white liberal on the shore, waving out at the people in the boat, who are doing the real work. The most important part to me is that we as white people are doing this work together as individuals. f m working on myself to build my awareness around dismantling white supremacy and recognizing that in myself, then can also be helpful in supporting others to that as well. This is only my second year at the conference but feel like will come for forever more. m in such a loving space to do the most difficult work and find that there s nothing like it. There s nothing like PC in terms of having to do the work that is the most foundational of any work that needs to be done. o it s completely transformational.
m an ssociate iversity irector at elaware alley riends chool. t s outside Philadelphia, P . The PC reinforces the commitment to diversity, and it gives new strategies. ve been doing this work since , and don t intend to stop. The PC gives me new ideas and reinforces things that already knew. This is my third year at the PC but ve been doing diversity work with students since .
Director of Student Life at the Berkeley School
Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Delaware Valley Friends School
What I Learned ver the course of interviewing these three people, learned the significance of the conference and how powerful its message is. People come from around the country to learn about white privilege and try to change their own biases and opinions.
Betty Andrews President of Iowa-Nebraska NAACP
m here on my own but m the president of the owa- ebraska CP. work a lot in policy, and work a lot in making sure people have e uitable experiences and dealing with those intrinsic, deep systems that prevent people from having those experiences. came to make sure that am keeping those skills sharp and to understand and listen. really like some of the workshops. think it s interesting to hear people from various parts of the country talk about what they feel is relevant. also like taking that in but also testing and challenging that. think it s very important if something is asserted to challenge it. worked for the PC for about three years, but that was in its infancy. rom then, coming to see what it s grown into, and seeing the energy that s in the room, and how dynamic it s become is incredible. That energy is motivational.
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Dress to impress; rules and reasoning behind the Urban dress code Written and Designed by Kyra Nagle, Staff Writer
? Wi ne
cor ke
3)Low cut
arr i
tank
ng s
?
?
Which of these violate the Urban dress code ? ?
?
4) Cropped
irt
h pless s 2) Stra
shirt
ANSWERS: #1 and #3. Read to find out why!
1)
Picture this: you are a junior in high school at the Urban School of San Francisco. You wake up in the morning and throw on some clothes before running out the door to get to school on time. You go to your first-period class, and no one says anything about what you’re wearing. ou go to a couple more classes, and still, no one comments. ou get ready to take the bus home, and an email pops up on your phone. This email says that you have violated the dress code, and one of the rban teachers has reported it. You don’t know who it was, and there is no way to find out. or years, people around the world have been arguing about school dress codes. hat are the benefits Do they tend to discriminate against girls ow do you dress when the media portrays “perfect” women wearing clothes that would not be acceptable in a school setting The
ix years ago, the student body presidents at the time sent a survey to the entire Urban student body about the dress code, and the results showed that over 50 percent of students wanted a dress code. Worsley said that the survey revealed that “most students did not want the pressure to try wearing more and more risky clothes just to see if they could get away with it.” The idea behind the dress code has always been freedom of expression, and then back it up to make it work for everybody.” But what exactly is Urban’s dress code The student handbook states ress at rban is casual, and students are encouraged to select their own style of attire. owever, students are expected to use good judgment and dress appropriately for a school setting. If you are not sure what is meant by “dress appropriately for a school setting, here are the
cerns about it because at the time it seemed too much against the dress code, she said. orsley then met with a group of students to discuss what is okay for school, as opposed to at home with your family or friends, and they decided to address it directly. long with spaghetti straps, bra straps were also a concern. “If you are wearing a shirt and the bra straps are showing in the back, for example, it s really not a big deal, our dress code is designed to say “Urban students you know what we are talking about said, orsley. This year’s survey showed that only three out of people who have been dress coded were male. These students were dress coded for wearing shirts that represented alcoholic products which directly interferes with the Urban dress code. While the Urban dress code emphasizes equal application for every-
majority of high schools in the Bay rea have a dress code, though many students do not know the specifics of their high school’s rules. rom the findings of an anonymous survey about the Urban dress code sent to all Urban students this year, out of students reported that they had been dress coded and of those believe that is was unfair. Students hear from Charlotte orsley, ead of tudent ife at rban, when there has been a violation. hen a teacher sees a violation, they fill out a form explaining the violation, and orsley notifies the student in question through email. Some students believe this is a good way to enforce the rules to help them avoid feeling uncomfortable around that teacher in the future. n the other hand, one student explained in the survey that this process makes them “really uncomfortable to think about a teacher going through all of these steps and having to think about what I am wearing enough to report it. t feels invasive, they said.
guidelines we use: kirts, dresses, and shorts should show nothing immodest while the wearer is standing, sitting or bending over. nderwear, or body parts usually covered by underwear, should not show excessively. Students may not wear tank tops cut low beneath the arms unless there is a full shirt underneath; same for “tube tops” as well as seethrough tops. tudents may not wear clothes that show emblems or slogans that are profane or that represent drugs, alcohol or tobacco products or show the image of a gun. hoes must be worn at all times.
one, some students responded to the survey this year saying that the dress code is different for every girl based on her body type. ne student said, “The dress code is incredibly unfair towards young girls who have big boobs. s a small breasted person, can wear almost anything want, which other ‘bustier’ girls cannot and are targeted by the dress code.” Another anonymous Urban student said, The restrictions on women [in the dress code] also connects to the sexist idea in our culture that women who wear clothing that shows off their bodies are somehow responsible for men objectifying them.” Women are socially permitted a wider variety of more revealing clothes than men, but it also means that men are able to wear almost everything in their ‘normal’ clothing repertoire while women have to think much more about what they wear.”
“[Urban deans] discuss their dress code with other high schools around the city as well as get input from students, orsley said. he said that they have adjusted the dress code a few times based on what was “in style” at that time. “I remember a time in the 90s when students started to wear spaghetti straps and myself and the faculty had some con-
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g t i s ’ o h W
s e t a d di n a c t h n g o i i e t f a o in s m e i o c n i l o p tic a e r h c t o g m n i r e t D r Edito a e b e h h W t C , g assre n N i n k a Ki see d by e n g i s nd en a t t i r W
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De
? e b na
n o g
2020 is not too far away
M
any current Urban students will be able to vote in the 2020 primaries. Some of these students may be familiar with the major candidates seeking the Democratic nomination but may not know where they all stand on the key issues that have defined the Democratic party since 2016.
S
some policies that are almost universally supported by the Democratic party, like gun control and abortion, for example, while there are others that are not universally beloved, such as abolishing the filibuster or tuition-free college.
F
or individuals who merely want to understand what distinguishes this plethora of candidates, offer a policy guide of eight major candidates.
A Few Notes
T
he filibuster is the term for the vote requirement to pass most legislation in the Senate. Even though it is intended to create compromise, eliminating it is a prerequisite for most progressive legislation.
S
ome candidates don’t have clear stances on specific issues or have said they opposed a policy only to say something ip- oppy like might be open to it. These vague stances are lumped into the unknown catagory.
I
have only selected candidates who have announced at the time of my writing and, I chose these eight based on polling.
T
he Democratic nomination is the only focus of this infographic since incumbent presidents haven’t lost a primary since the early 1900s.
Where do these eight 2020 Pete Buttigieg
Cory Booker
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kamala Harris
Medicare for All Tuition Free College Legalize Marijuana $15 Minimum Wage Green New Deal Abolish the Fillibuster
Campaign Slogan
Recent Elected Office
It’s time for a new generation of American leadership.
Together, America, we will rise
Brave Wins
Mayor of South NJ Senator NY Senator Bend, Indiana Mayor of Newark NY House of Rep.
For the People CA Senator CA AG
candidates stand on the issue? Amy Klobuchar
Beto O’Rourke
Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren
Support
Unknown
Oppose
Amy for America MN Senator MN County AG
Beto for America
Not me. Us.
Persist
TX House of Rep. El Paso City Council
VT Senator VT House of Rep.
MA Senator
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n my first full day in rance, headed off to the local farmers market with my host family. f you re thinking of the farmers market in downtown an rancisco, think again this one was distinctly rench with fresh baguettes, owers, and music. y favorite part of the outing was exploring the fromagerie filled with French cheeses.
The next day we visited our correspondents school, t. nne s. went to an English class, an economics class, and an Italian class, where I even picked up some words. e were welcomed by a presentation and three ags pictured below one from Brest, one from the . ., and one from California. e learned about the Baccalauréat, an academic French test that all rench students take.
On Friday we headed to the school of “Gastronomes à Recouvrance” to bake macaroons. irst, we made the cookies in our chosen avors passionfruit, raspberry, pistachio, and chocolate-caramel. fter making the cookies, we made fillings to match. Lastly, we used pastry bags to pipe filling into the cookie sandwiches before we plopped the delicious treats into our mouths.
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On Monday, the Urban students and our French correspondents headed to the charming village of Quimper. We learned about how the architecture in Quimper is uniquely gothic. We marveled at the local church (pictured above) and stopped for coffee in a local shop. ext, we all packed into a tiny crêperie for a classic French lunch. I enjoyed a cheese and egg crêpe, then a utella cr pe for dessert.
Urban France Trip 2019 Written and Designed by Zella Lezak, Staff Writer
All Photos Taken By Zella Lezak and Julia Clark
The following day we headed off to ormandie to commemorate the fallen soldiers of WWII. We went to the Musée du Débarquement to learn about the war and how a harbor was built in ormandie so that supplies could be brought in. ext, we went to the merican cemetery to pay tribute to the soldiers. I thought a lot about my grandfather who always loved watching WWII documentaries.
On the following Monday, it was time to say goodbye to our French correspondents before heading off to ont aint ichel. ont aint ichel is an island located in ormandie with intricate churches and old-fashioned shops. We climbed to the top of the Abbey steps to see views of the sea all around.
n our first day in Paris, we went to the Catacombs, an underground passage holding the remains of more than six million deceased people picture above . ur next visit was to the world-renowned Louvre museum, home to the stunning Mona Lisa. After the Louvre we went to Galeries Lafayette, a French department store where I got a beautiful blue button-down.
On our last day, we headed to the prominent cathedral otre ame. Then, we en oyed an authentic rench lunch and explored some rench bouti ues. My personal favorite was Pierre Hèrmes, a charming rench chocolate shop. To finish off our amazing trip we headed over to the iffel Tower at night to see it lit up, accompanied by spectacular views of Paris.
Opinion: Your ‘museum’ selfie is not art By Ellie Lerner, Staff Writer
This March, I payed $25 to visit the Museum of 3D Illusions, San Francisco’s latest Instagram-worthy art pop-up. Visitors crowded around elaborate murals in a low ceiling warehouse across from Fisherman’s Wharf, posing and holding out their phones at different angles to snap selfies. nce the image was captured on a phone, the wall mural transformed into a three-dimensional picture with the visitor as the central subject. Signs throughout the museum advised visitors on the perfect angle to hold one’s phone and encouraged sharing the images on Instagram and Facebook. As I walked through the warehouse space, I noticed frantic visitors trying to capture the perfect image, tilting their heads just so, sucking in their cheeks and opening their eyes wide. When comparing my experience at the Museum of 3D Illusions and a recent visit to the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, I realized that, while the Museum of 3D Illusions requires the viewers’ participation by making them the subject of the art, it is not the
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kind of participation that traditional museums demand. Rather than re ect critically on our culture or emotionally engage with the art, visitors at these Instagram museums are encouraged to focus on their own appearance on their phones and create a selfie worthy of sharing. pened in ebruary, the useum of 3D Illusions joined the fast-growing and ever-changing number of Instagram-worthy museums around San Francisco. Spaces like the Museum of Ice Cream, the Color Factory, Candytopia and 29Rooms—which all claim to be popup museums—are some of the recent San Francisco art spaces that have attracted thousands of visitors in the past year. Unlike these other “photograph friendly” museums, the full effect of the exhibits at the useum of 3D Illusions can only be seen through a smartphone lens. Perhaps since the 3D illusions are only visible in a photograph, I found that simply posing in front of the murals did not feel like the “immersive adventure” advertised
on their website. The disconnect between my experience inside the museum and my photos of the museum helped articulate my discomfort with labeling this as a trip to a real art museum: my photos were a way for me to prove that I had an experience when, in reality, the experience itself was taking photos to prove that I was having an experience. As Belle Davis ‘19 explained after visiting the San Francisco Color Factory, which received more than 170,000 visitors during its ninemonth run, “[the photographs] were like getting a certificate for something that you didn’t do since the reality of what you’re doing in there is less real than the evidence that you take out of it.” These new “interactive museums” are more backdrops than art, specifically tailored to garner likes on social media rather than the introspective re ection that true art inspires. Rowan Kruger ‘21 said that after visiting Candytopia this past year, she “...felt like the major point of going to the exhibits was to take the right picture of myself.”
Legitimate museums, like the an rancisco and de Young Museum of Fine Arts, are places that make us think critically and examine something outside of our own worlds. In contrast, the art that one takes away from visiting one of these new art pop-ups is the photographs of oneself with the backdrop of the exhibit. As Marissa G. Muller described in an article in W Fashion Magazine, these museums “cater to our collective narcissism to great effect. Museum goers pay not only the steep price of admission, but also buy overpriced plastic and plush momentos. From rainbow umbrellas at the Color Factory to bright unicorn stuffies at the useum of Ice Cream, many of San Francisco’s most popular “interactive museums” have corporate sponsorships and according to many accounts, advertisements are pervasive throughout the exhibits. For example, “in some of the rooms [at the Color Factory], the colors that they were espousing were represented through the products of different companies which you could then purchase,” Davis said. Unlike what one would normally think of as a museum, these museums are profit focused. n an interview with MarketWatch Maryellis Bunn, the founder of the Museum
of Ice Cream, said “we’re not only creating a new business, but really a billion-dollar industry—it’s an entirely new industry.” Although some may argue that these interactive museums allow people who would not normally enjoy a traditional museum to appreciate art, the very labeling of these places as museums is a misnomer. In contrast to the Merriam ebster definition of a museum as “an institution devoted to the procurement, care, study, and display of objects of lasting interest or value,” these art pop-ups do not display art that is of greater interest than the time it takes to scroll through someone’s new Instagram posts. As Davis explains, “museums are supposed to be repositories of knowledge and of culture, and I don’t think there’s really culture in these places.” Unlike Davis, I think these “museums” are places of culture, just not a kind of culture that enriches us. Instead of challenging one’s perceptions, visitors of these for-profit, interactive museums
are buying a memory of an experience of fun that they never had. The purpose of these “museums” is to project an idealized image of ourselves into the world, an image of a beautiful and fun-loving self that is bought rather than experienced. These museums re ect and encourage the narcissistic, image-obsessed culture that we live in, reducing an artistic experience to one which commodifies art. s we snap and share the image of an experience we never really had, we turn ourselves into the true product that these museums are selling. People can enjoy being covered in plastic sprinkles and obsess over the perfect pose for their next Instagram post in a bright yellow ball pit, but it is simply wrong to label this as an artistic experience or an experience in a real museum.
Photo of Paget Chung ‘22 and Anna Masto ‘22 in the Muesuem of Ice Cream on Jan.20.19. Photo by Zadie Winthrop ‘22
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WORD SEARCH: SPRING COLORS J P A K E M E P M W B H N M B
B A S Z E Y E M J O N Z L F I
L M P K K E N Y E F P W P U U
G X A N X Y C F R R M B F I S
H L R L I I A G U D A W F M M
R V A Q A S B M U G O L E E J
A Q G W D C Y B Z T R W D I A
V B U O X E H T E T J A A J H
P I S T A C H I O U J Z J U J
I G R I O B X E T A C S F S A
L B K I N W S T S E R O F O E
Y V Q K D T Y D L C Z I X U T
W Z C Z A I H N N U Q J S H I
B J A W J Z A E W T F I U Z E
GAMES PAGE
C G Z D ABSINTHE C ASPARAGUS H EMERALD V FOREST N JADE D I MALACHITE H PISTACHIO E VIRIDIAN L Q X
Written and designed by Kian Nassre, Web Editor
CROSSWORD: EUROTRIP EPIDEMIC
Anagramania: Vernal Variety
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02. Christine of “Phantom of the Opera” 03. Religious song 04. Negative contraction 05. Enormous 06. “MASH” star Alan 07. European city 08. Divinity sch. 09. “Much ___ about nothing” 10. “Baloney!” (2 words) 11. Fogg of Verne 15. Ornament on drapes 17. Slew, multitude, etc. 18. “And so on” 19. Injures, damages, etc. 20. Zodiac in September 21. Required to drink or drive 23. “Maybe not even that” (3 words) 26. “____ what you sow” 2 Entry e a to la hool 30. 22.5 degrees from North 31. Paramedic 33. Bro’s sibling 35. French cap 37. _____ and crafts 38. Reverse alphabet (3 words) 39. Long river 43. 6 pointers in NFL
STUDENT ART
BELLE DAVIS ‘19
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Letter from the (web) editor The Urban Legend is a news source, and like all news sources in the 21st century, we are continually evolving in the age of the internet. The world has become accustomed to getting information on demand; hence periodic printing publications are no longer the most convenient format for all types of news. At the Urban Legend, we have acknowledged this changing landscape by upsizing our online publication at www.urbanlegendnews. org so that the Urban community can see our brand new content whenever they want to. So please, go online and see what’s happening in and around Urban.
Kian Nassre ‘19, Web Editor of the Urban Legend Scan these QR codes with your phone to see the stories behind these photos. On newer phones, the camera can scan them for you without an app.
e m a F f o l l a H g n i k a t e t o the N
Written and Designed by Clementine Daniel, Staff Writer In every Urban classroom, there’s at least one student whose notes could be framed in gold and placed on the wall of a museum. rom review sheets for a math final to notes from a history class, notes are some of the most important aspects of learning at any school—particularly at Urban, where students are expected to be independent and diligent learners. Here are some images of Urban’s elite notetakers’ best work along with some of their advice for achieving cohesive and organized notes. Despite the clear talent these notetakers possess, not everyone needs to take such detailed notes to be a good student—these are simply some tips and tricks for you to consider!
Jack Kampmann ‘20
Photos of Jack Kampmann’s notebook taken by Jack Kampmann.
One of my favorite things I do for note taking is making small keys of information for diagrams, whether that be color coding, symbols etc. This helps jog your memory when you refer back to your work!” “I try to summarize each concept brie y by adding its definition but also writing in a solution to demonstrate how the concepts can be applied.
Lizzy Hayashi ‘20 try to use different colors to make certain things stand out, and also to keep me focused on taking notes. I also don’t try and write down everything the teacher says in my notes, because that’s overwhelming. I write what I think is important and go back to the board notes if I think I’m missing something.
PAGE 28 Photos of Lizzy Hayashi’s notebook taken by Lizzy Hayashi.
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Sassy Mosley-Wise Photos of Sassy Mosley-Wise’s notebook taken by Sassy Mosley-Wise.
I use college ruled paper because the line spacing is thinner, and I also star the most important concepts to look back at later.
Kikani Libada ‘21 If you want to try making a personal planner or just want to try this system out, go for it! It doesn’t need to look pretty, because it’s there to help you with things, not to just look nice.
Photos of Kikani Libada’s notebook taken by Kikani Libada.
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Male athletes at Urban discuss sexual harassment
Written by Tallula Ricciardi Arts and Culture Editor In February, male identifying athletes gathered in Urban’s St. Agnes gym with former NFL player Mark Herzlich and wife Danielle Herzlich to discuss respect towards women, and, more specifically, how to support survivors of sexual assault. The meeting was organized by Urban’s Young Men’s Group (YMG) and Clarke Weatherspoon, Urban’s Dean of Equity and Inclusion. The goal of the meeting was to spread the word across the Urban community about how to be allies to survivors of sexual abuse, harassment, and assault. Tavi e eon , one of the co-leaders of YMG and a member of the lacrosse team, said that “it was just important to get boys out to [meetings]—a lot of the forums during Month of Understanding were [populated by] self-identifying young women. It was
De Leon’s statements, saying the goal was to “get male athletes to the meeting to have that experience and hear that message.” The meeting, which was restricted to self-identifying males, was intentionally limited to boys to ensure an open space to share. McAllister said that it was valuable that it was restricted to boys] because when women are included, it feels like more of an attack on men, on their masculinity, their values. That’s when people get defensive. ust having boys there
Designed by Kian Nassre Web Editor was helpful for getting the message across.” Conor obbins , a track runner, expanded upon De Leon’s statement, and said that “Mark was very well spoken think there was definitely power in talking about it man-to-man.” George,* an Urban track run-
good to have something that was just a calling for the boys we advertised it as near mandatory.” Gus c llister , another co-leader of YMG, echoed
I think there was definitely power in talking about it man-to-man. - Conor Robbins ‘19 Illustration by Kian Nassre, Web editor
ner who asked to remain anonymous, had alternate views on the meeting. “The intended outcome was for the boys to understand what it means to be an ally and to teach other people how to not sexually assault people as well as be an ally to people who have been assaulted and harassed. owever,] I think that was kind of missed because people came in with this preconceived idea that people at Urban understand not to sexually assault, but I don’t think that’s true because I know that assault
still happens at Urban. I think the discussion should have been more targeted at telling boys not to sexually harass or assault because there are still people [at Urban] who need to learn that.” George* added, “I think there is not that much sexism but I know that assault still happens at Urban—I know people and I know stories. I think the conversation was a little too passive Ben iller , the third co-leader of YMG, said that “[the point of the meeting was to] bring awareness to a culture that is often cultivated around sports teams and groups of men, which often supports rape culture—a culture that is the objectification and sexualization of women, where there is a dangerous
group mentality towards women.” He added that “by making it for only self-identifying men, it made it stand out more. As opposed to something that was brought to the school, it was something that was brought to the men at Urban, which think gave it more importance.” The YMG leaders agreed that the meeting was in uential. e eon said that it definitely affected a lot of the students there. I think some language has changed just in how I talk to my friends. A lot of the things I talk about in my daily life actually relate to what Mark was talking about [regarding sexual harassment , and ust having that on my mind has definitely changed [my mentality].” espite the changes they ve noticed, they added that they felt that sexual harassment had never been particularly common at Urban. Miller said, “I don’t think there was a huge existing culture that cultivates that. To start off with, people here are generally a little more aware and more thoughtful, just because it’s Urban, so I wouldn’t say that it was something that was super prevalent before, so it s kind of hard to tell.” McAllister agreed, and said “I don’t think our team to begin with exhibits a lot of sexist or toxic be-
“I think the discussion should have been more targeted at telling boys not to sexually harass or assault because there are still people [at Urban] who need to learn that.” - George*
havior. t s a decent group of guys who keep each other in check.” Though the YMG leaders agree that assault had not been much of a problem before in the Urban
community, their opinions are limited to their own perspectives. Despite the predominantly positive response to the meeting, some students took issue with the approach of the meeting in general.
“[The point was to] bring awareness to a culture that is often cultivated around sports teams and groups of men which often supports rape culture— a culture that is the objectification and sexualization of women where there is a dangerous group mentality towards women.” - Ben Miller ‘19
ome boys now have an air that it s fine, and that they re better than some places, because the problem’s not here. But I think the problem still exists here,” George* added. “It was weird to put it in the context of [just] boys playing sports, because there are a lot of boys who don’t play sports who also need that information.” As leaders of YMG, De eon, c llister, and iller have set goals for the affinity space that expand upon the topics discussed with Herzlich. De Leon says that “in G, we ve been focusing on your own feelings and how you interact with those around you, and a lot of that has been friendship based. I think moving that self-awareness to educating allies is the next big step in terms of the legacy I want G to leave. c llister agreed, saying, “I think just keep up the discussion of what it means to be an ally, and keep practicing that.”
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m u l t i
RETHINKING POVERTY GLOBAL MIGRATION Amy Argenal
Global Migration examines current trends in the movement of people around the world. The goal of this course is to humanize the immigration debate and offer a deeper context of push and pull factors in the movement of people. Through case studies and by engaging with local community organizations in the Bay Area working on migration issues, students will achieve a deeper and more nuanced understanding of global migration trends, social issues impacting migration, and the practical efforts of local organizations that work on migration issues.
Dan Matz Mary Murphy
UAS Rethinking Poverty looks critically through varied lenses such as film, ethnography, literature, and economics at how different constituencies have tried to recognize, define and understand poverty. We will explore the origins of the modern concept of poverty and the ideology of development. The academic realm offers a variety of answers to some key questions: Who defines scarcity? What counts as deprivation? Where does inequality come from? We will also apply a critical lens to our own investigation: Can poverty be defined from the remove of a classroom? What assumptions do we bring to this study? What can we actually do?
CALIFORNIA STUDIES Richard Lautze
California Studies is a two-period senior environmental studies course that focuses on a specific California resource each year (water, agriculture, energy, forestry, or transportation). During the course, students consider how the resource at hand affects our everyday issues of economics, ecology, sociology, political science and social justice. Rooted in experiential learning, the class leaves campus most days to meet with experts in the field and to experience issues first hand through hiking, biking and kayaking. The class culminates with an 11 day camping trip during which students are fully immersed in the subject.
disciplinary
CLIMATE CHANGE Panayiota Theodosopoulos Climate Change offers a deep dive into one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. This course explores the dynamics of global climate and climate science and considers predictions of how our planet will look in the future. Three main themes will lead to student-generated projects: the impacts on populations and public health, the design of sustainable human societies on the planet, and the history, politics and social justice of climate change.
V O I C E S
I N C A R C E O R F A T I O N
Courtney Rein
THEATER OF SOCIAL CHANGE John Warren
UAS Theater, Social Change, and Community links performance to larger societal issues and explores how theater is used to reflect and impact communities. Students will study fictional protest plays, interview-based documentary theater, first-person spoken word, and drama techniques used in therapeutic and correctional contexts, and then apply these models to creating original theatrical work.
Voices of Incarceration aims to turn the light of our shared attention on the more than 70 million Americans who bear the marks of the criminal justice system. We will focus on the words and work of those who have encountered the system themselves. Through their stories and ideas, we’ll work to understand the policies, beliefs, and systems that converged to make America the most carceral nation in the world.
MATH OF DEMOCRACY Laura Hawkins Rebecca Shapiro Mathematics of Democracy explores how mathematics can illuminate the ways in which our society pursues the goals of democracy. We begin by uncovering the stated and unstated purposes of the U.S. system of government, and then fuse civics and mathematics to investigate how we pursue those purposes and how mathematics can illuminate our democracy’s contradictions. In particular, students will analyze gerrymandering and voting rights of minority populations. Finally, we will explore alternatives to our system. This class incorporates both reading and mathematical problem-solving.
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Beyond discipline: Urban breaks the mold with new multidisciplinary classes
Written by Eli Gordon and Lola McAllister
Designed by Lena Bianchi
“We’d go down the road and find out where it went.” - Richard Lautze Cal Studies: the pioneer of Urban’s multidisciplinary classes he rea i he ra es o rath i the s a r h a art Reutinger, both teachers at the Urban School of San Francisco, decided that they should get out of the classroom and visit the places described in the book. his tri esi e to se the Urban classroom with the real world—morphed into the annual
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But why now? Why, after years of only having classes that each fit i to a si e discipline did Urban suddenly create so many classes outside this mold? For science teacher Mary Murphy, who co-taught Rethinking Poverty with history teacher Dan Matz this winter, the answer may lie in a changing political climate. “I’m curious about the political moment that we’re in, about people wanting to engage in issues of inequality more directly,” she said. Many of Urban’s new multidisciplinary classes focus on big issues of our time that are rooted in the study of inequality—from migration to climate change to poverty to incarceration. According to Lautze, a multidisciplinary approach allows students to ot o fi the root ca se o ro lems, but solutions as well: “How did we get to this situation? What caused it? a e fi it hese thi s are ha e ing and…they aren’t unidimensional and that’s where the multidisciplinary approach makes tremendous sense,” he said.
Cal Studies class, which could be aptly escri e as r a s first ti isciplinary class. Richard Lautze, who has taught Cal Studies for 33 years, said that it is a e erie tia c ass here e e ose st e ts to the co e it o the s ste s that the i e i he c ass draws on a broad range of disciplines and is organized around a central, California-related theme, and has included topics such as forestry, energy, agriculture, and, most recently, water. Lautze inherited a culture of curiosity both on the part of students and teachers, something that has been central to Cal Studies since its inception. Dan Murphy, who used
to lead the class, told Lautze that in Cal Studies’ early years, “we’d see a road and we didn’t know where it went, so we’d o o the roa a fi o t here it e t hat as the hi oso h ri ht ro the e i i o sta t e oratio a discovery remain important to the course and are apparent even in the way that the Cal Studies class travels. “We ride bikes,” Lautze said, “so that you can realize that o ca e ear i a the ti e here s no off time for learning.” For many years, Cal Studies occupied the sole spot in Urban’s multidisci i ar o eri s t i the school year, two new multidisciplinary classes offered Urban students and teachers the chance to break the boundaries of a tra itio a c assroo his ear o r more new courses join their ranks in Urban’s growing multidisciplinary offerings. In order to learn more about this novel academic realm, we sat down with every current and future teacher of a multidisciplinary class at Urban as well as a handful of students who have taken these classes.
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But until now, Urban hardly had any room for this approach. According to Geoff Ruth, Dean of Academics at Urban, “one of the… weaknesses of our [single-discipline] classes is that there’s little cross-departmental collaboration,” he said. Departments that are siloed off from each other have little room for discussing the nuances of the big chale es o the t re he iss es e re oi to ace i the e t ears as a civilization, as a country, as a city don’t fit i to eat o es th sai he re inherently across disciplines.” Beyond these cultural and structural motivations for creating multidisciplinary classes, teachers are e cite a o t the o ort it to o e-
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yond the boundaries of a normal class and dig into new material. “In a trimester school,” Murphy said, “it can feel like you’re teaching the same thing over and over. I’ve taught the biology currichere ti es t s so ice to et out of that, to get out of your comfort zone, [and] to do something new.”
“It’s asking you to come from two sides.” -John Warren What Urban’s multid isciplinary classes actually look like
Although these classes share the common trait of multidisciplinarity, there is no model governing the structure of how each class will look. In fact, o o k o s e act hat a c ass i look like before it has been taught. his a i it ca ca se iss es ith st e ts e ectatio s hi e ost st dents know what they’re getting in an Urban English class,” English Department Chair Courtney Rein said, “they a ot k o e act hat the re going to get in a multidisciplinary c ass here s the cha e e o st e ts ro ecti their o e ectatio s o to a new kind of class.” eachers o these co rses ha e ra e with a complicated but crucial question: what it looks like on a day-to-day, classto-class level for a course to incorporate multiple disciplines. “When we were talking about [Math of Democracy] really early, the question was ‘is it a math day?’ or ‘Is it a history day?’” history Department Chair Rebecca Shapiro said, “and we didn’t want either of those to ever be true.” Instead of touching on each discipline separately, the idea, Shapiro said, was to use “math as a way to answer these humanistic questions.” Matz and Murphy came to a similar conclusion while developing Rethinking Poverty: “We decided that it wouldn’t
be truly collaborative if there was a history day then a science day,” Matz said. Instead of dividing disciplines between days, theater teacher John Warren hopes that heater o ocia ha e i a o students to use their knowledge of one of the disciplines in the class to arrive at deeper understanding. “It’s asking you to come from two sides,” Warren said. “It’s asking folks who might be steeped in theater...to think about the sort of impacts it can have beyond entertainment...and it’s asking people who have a real interest in social justice...to be thinking about the way that arts can play a role in furthering that work.” What does it mean, then, for an assessment to evaluate students’ understanding of the intersection of disciplines? Shapiro and math teacher Laura Hawkins decided to “use different kinds of tools to assess different buckets of understanding, but that ultimately the big [assessments] have to use both, so that you have to employ understanding o the athe atics to e ai a socia issue or a political issue,” Shapiro said. his she e ai e is a so a a to make math meaningful to kids who might not necessarily love it in its own right.” A fusion of disciplines, however, requires that students have some
familiarity with the individual subjects the se es o arre ti isci inarity in a class “speaks to the fact that there’s a prerequisite, that you’re doing some kind of work that is in some way advanced,” he said. In practice, this means that students are e ecte to se the ski s the ha e learned in single-discipline classes and apply them, sometimes without the same kind of structure. “I think that it requires a lot of trust from the teacher and the student that you’ll take the knowledge you’ve learned from your single discipline classes,” said Miki Ale a er ho took o a i ratio i the a or the fi a ro ect i that class, “one of the options was to write a rigorous history essay, and there’s no oversight on that. You just have to know how to do it,” he said. he at re o a ti isci i ar c ass means that “you always have to be focusing on the two disciplines, rather than just honing in on one,” said Laila kra sta ho took ethi ki Poverty this winter. But the emphasis on intersections may be one of multidisciplinary classes’ greatest strengths. “[It] helped me analyze the issues in a much ore co e a er she a e
“The desire was to be a teacher but also be a learner” - Mary Murphy The changing role of students and teachers in the classroom
For many teachers, the exploration of a multidisciplinary topic not only presented the opportunity to redefine the role of subject in the classroom but also to change the role of the teacher. Stepping into new academic territory requires almost as much learning as it does teaching. For Murphy and Matz, teaching outside of their expertise gave them the opportunity to redefine the role of the teacher in the classroom and engage in learning alongside their students. “I think the desire was to be a teacher but also be a learner,” Murphy said, “so that [while] teaching the class we would be in it with the students in a way that maybe we aren’t when we’re the expert in the room.” Rein sees teachers stretching themselves as learners in this way as an embodiment of Urban’s core value of “igniting a lifelong passion for learning.” “There’s always the vulnerability of taking a risk...of working outside the discipline that maybe you’re really…steeped in,” she said. One of the values of this risk-taking, she said, “is that [students] are watching that teacher exercise that muscle of life-long
learning and curiosity.” When asked how she felt about stepping out of her expertise to teach Math of Democracy next year, math teacher Laura Hawkins said, “it’s scary.” To Rein, stepping out of one’s expertise is a natural step toward the future of teaching. “Teachers are less and less holders of wisdom, repositories of the answers,” she said. “Really, our job as educators now is to help students tap into how to learn, not what to learn.” But this new role as facilitator presents a unique challenge for Rein. “I feel really responsible for the experiences and stories of the people that I’ll be bringing into the class,” Rein said. “It makes me really nervous.” But this new role as facilitator presents a unique challenge for Rein. “I feel really responsible for the experiences and stories of the people that I’ll be bringing into the class,” Rein said. “It makes me really nervous.”
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“The head and the heart.” - Dan Matz The intersection of personal and academic
eca se their co te t ea s ith i e e erie ces the c rric a o ethi ki o ert a o a igration aim to give opportunities for both an intellectual “head” response and a more emotional “heart” res o se hat as efi ite art o the esi k o i that it i ht e har or ki s to i e i too big of a headspace for too long,” Murphy said. “Some of the papers gave room for more of an emotional approach and a lot of kids took advantage of that.” e a er otice si i ar o ort ities or erso a re ectio o a i ratio i t sh a a ro reco i i ho these he o e a i tersect ith o r erso a arrati es o r i es a o r e erie ces i a ot o ro th a erso a e a atio i that c ass e a er sai Skramstad appreciated the dynamic between the academic and the personal: “It was cool to have the elements of the head and the heart and to have to constantly balance those two at the same time. It made me feel more grounded in my learning.”
“I think of the service learning program as a tool kit.” - Amy Argenal Space for service in multidisciplinary classes In a Curriculum Committee meeting in December, each teacher proposing a new multidisciplinary class gave a short presentation to the group. A common thread united many of them; almost every teacher who presented said that they were considering incorporating service in the class in some form. However o o e e c ass o ere e t ear act a fi s a ser ice cre it Voices of Incarceration. he i tersectio et ee tidisciplinary classes and service can be blurry. Classes oriented around single issues, which are often lived e erie ces to ch o iss es o ri ilege, identity, and justice. But just because a class talks about issues traditionally discussed in a ser ice co te t oes ot ea it ca co t or ser ice cre it here s actually a curriculum for service learning, which people don’t really get,” th sai he thi k it s st isiting a service site and doing service.” While they include a smaller emphasis on action than a standard service class, three multidisciplinary classes offer credit in the service learning department: Global Migration, Voices of Incarceration, and Cal Studies. In Service Learning Department Chair Amy Argenal’s view, each of these classes has the poten-
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tial to prepare students for action in response to the injustice it touches on: Global Migration will prepare students “to engage in immigrants’ rights work,” and Voices of Incarceration will give students “a much better toolkit to…advocate for a more just criminal justice system.” Cal Studies opens opportunities for students “to engage in issues of water… and issues around water rights and water activism,” she said. he isti ctio et ee a serice cre it fi i ti isciplinary class and a non-service-credit fi i ti isci i ar c ass is air a i o s o r e a a of the multidisciplinary classes offer st e ts the o ort it to refi e the same skills as they would in a traditional service class. “I think of the service learning program as a tool kit,” she said. “I like to think of the multidisciplinary program as offering that similar toolkit but on a specific iss e Rethinking Poverty builds this too kit t oes t fi a ser ice credit as it has no component of action. Matz said that he and Murphy “both like to think that the class prepares people to act. Even though we don’t act in that way in the course, it’s a prelude to action,” he said. However, it can be jarring for
some students to study real-world problems without taking the time to combat these problems themselves. Skramstad said that “I would have wanted more dialogue with local ora i atio s that a ress o ert o kra sta the e erie ce o ei i the reeho se hich is ike the nicest classroom at the school, felt weird—being in that room thinking about poverty when there are people on Haight Street that are in poverty a o t ha e access to s ficie t resources,” she said. Going forward, many teachers of multidisciplinary classes said that they are considering adding a service component, or at least more direct connection with the community, once they get the class running on its own. “If [service] comes out in an organic way through student interest, then we should pursue it,” sai scie ce teacher a a iota heodosopoulos, who will be teaching i ate ha e e t ear Even if the action in response to the issues of justice that these classes touch on doesn’t take place during the twelve-week term, “I have the faith that it will come,” Argenal said.
“Our whole system is designed for discipline-specific things.” - Geoff Ruth Space for multidisciplinary classes in the schedule here s this sort o e ac that makes disciplines easier to deal with” -- Geoff Ruth Multidisciplinary classes’ space in the schedule Urban students are hopefully familiar with Urban’s graduation requirements: four years of English, three years of math, two years of science, etc. What they might not know, however, is that these requirements are tied to the entrance requirements for UC colleges. Each department is assigned a letter from A-F, and each student must graduate with a certain number of classes corresponding to each letter. With this strong emphasis on department, it is easy to see the chale es o fitti ti isci i ar classes into Urban’s curriculum. “Our whole system is designed for isci i e s ecific thi s ike s colleges, our graduation requiree ts th sai here s this sort of legacy that makes disciplines easier to deal with.” o e er or c asses that o ot fit i to a s ecific isci i e the s s-
tem has a seventh letter: G. According to the University of California website, high school courses that fall into this category must “be academically challenging… involve substantial reading and writing…show serious attention to analytic thinking and research skills… [and] be interdisciplinary in nature,” among other criteria. Rethinking Poverty, Climate ha e a ath o e ocrac fit into this category, while the rest of the multidisciplinary classes technica fit i to a cate or act some Urban classes that are listed in s ecific e art e ts s ch as o parative Religion (part of the history department) and Entomology (part of the science department) are considered by the UC system as falling under category G. Additionally, some classes that do not technically have the multidisciplinary designation at Urban “are multidisciplinary in nature,” according to Ruth. Classes like Infectious Disease and Statistics and Probability touch on themes from other disciplines yet still only count for credit
in science and math, respectively. he s ste o cre it is ar itrar and “the fuzziness comes from being an independent school, and doing what we want to do and calling it what we want to call it,” Shapiro said. While credit is important to students trying to meet graduation requirements and colleges trying to interpret transcripts, Rein believes that it is not so important to teachers. “I thi k o fi i ost o the teachers’ minds that we’re really interested in the content and we’re really interested in student learning.” she sai he cre it iece is ore o istical than meaningful, to me at least.” In her view, multidisciplinary classes—separated from the craziness of credit—provide a further way for students to pursue their passions. “What we’re trying to do is increase st e t choice a i crease e i i ity on the institutional part so that students can do what they really want to do and study what they love,” she said.
“Let’s destroy departments” - Courtney Rein The future of multidisciplinary classes at Urban
Many of our interviewees consider a multidisciplinary approach the future of Urban educatio a erha s a e catio thi k it s ho est the t re e a er sai eca se what jobs are there that are single discipline? Where people’s passions lie are at the intersections of things.” Rein agreed. “Let’s destroy departments,” she said, “if we’re going to grow, I think that might be a real way of the future.” In terms of the future of multidisciplinary classes at Urban, as of now there are more questions than there are answers. “Honestly,” Ruth said, “when I talk to people [about multidisciplinary classes] my answer to a lot of questions is I don’t know, which is cool because that ea s it s terra i co ita the re o e e e estio s that e ee to fi re o t hich thi k is rea e citi
Posters, traditional Chinese dancing, and a political prisoner Investigating Shen Yun’s religious connections Written by Zoe Lusk, caboose editor You’ve seen the ads. For most San Franciscans, the words “Shen Yun” summon images of the inescapable pastel posters. This year’s advertisements, which feature a serene woman leaping with arms outstretched set against a glaring lavender background, seem to be on every bus, train, telephone pole, and storefront. But what really is
Huang explained that Falun Gong “[teaches] people to follow the principle of truth-finding, compassion, and forbearance to be a better person.” The members practice a series of rituals that are meant to improve the condition of both the mind and body. “For the mind part, [practitioners] follow specific Truthfulness-Compas-
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sion-Tolerance principles. For the body part, there are standing and sitting exercises with meditation,” Huang said “The practice was introduced to the public in China in 1992, [and] after several years there were around 100 million people in China who [participated]...including government officials,” Huang said. The Chinese government places the esti-
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\ ////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\ ///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\ \\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\/// /\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\ /\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\// /\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/ of being religious propaganda for Falun Gong. While the extent of Shen Yun’s religious affiliation is disputed, those who simply see the posters on public transportation may miss a key piece of Shen Yun’s history: the Shen Yun touring group grew out of the dancers’ shared religion of Falun Gong, otherwise known as Falun Dafa. Falun Gong is a Chinese religious spiritual practice. I tried to talk to somebody from Shen Yun to learn more about the link between it and Falun Gong. Only after reaching out to multiple Shen Yun sources with no response was I able to contact a local representative for Falun Gong, Berkeley-based David Huang, who offered to host a group phone call with a few fellow practitioners.
/\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\//// \\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/ \\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\/ / /\/\\\\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\ ///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\ /\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\///\/\ mate at closer to 70 million. At this point, Falun Gong seminars were held in Chinese embassies across the world. The spiritual religion was one of many qigong or tai chi, groups registered with and approved by the government. But in 1996, the organization requested autonomy from the Communist party’s influence. “And then the party leader…starts the persecution of Falun Gong,” Huang said. Critical articles began to appear in
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China’s state-run media, and practitioners were surveilled and harassed by the state police. Falun Gong was then outlawed in China. The government also used alleged self-immolation (suicide by lighting oneself on fire) incident in Tiananmen Square to disparage the practice, but independent journalists were never able to confirm that
\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ \\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\ ///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\\//\/\/\/ \///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/// \/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\ /\/\\///\/\\///\/\\ \/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\ the victims practiced Falun Gong, despite what state-run media reported. During my phone call with Huang, he insisted
geting Shen Yun. The Chinese embassy website warns that “the so-called ‘Shen Yun’ performance is a tool of the cult [Falun Gong] and [is] anti-China propaganda,” and angrily chastises Shen Yun for including anti-Communist sentiments in its show. During one portion of the performance, for example, a simulated tsunami with Chairman Mao’s face on it destroys an entire city. At another point, the dancers create a politically charged scene that shows Red Guards brutally beating meditating Falun Gong practitioners, according to Nicholas Hune-Brown of the Guardian who saw the show. Though the show does include some blatant anti-government messages, Huang maintains that Falun Gong is not officially linked with Shen Yun. “I wouldn’t call Shen Yun a Falun Gong Perform-
/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/ \//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\////\///\/ \/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\ \/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/ \\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\/ /\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\/ /////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/ that I speak with former political prisoner Ming, whose name has been changed to preserve his anonymity. “The only reason I was imprisoned was because of my spiritual beliefs,” Ming said. Alto-
/\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\ ///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\ /\/\\///\/\\///\/\\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\ \\\///\\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/\\///\/\\ \\\///\///\/\\////\///\/\/\/\/\//\/\///////\\\\/\/\/\/\\\\\\\\\\\\///\\/\/\ \\\////\/\/\\\/\\/\/\////\//////\\\//\/\//\\\\\\////\\\\\\/\/\\\\\///\///\/ gether, Ming was illegally imprisoned for 12 years and said that his only offense was his practice of Falun Gong. While imprisoned, he was brutally tortured. According to Ming, his story is not uncommon. “If you practice Falun Gong, they force your wife to divorce you, they destroy you mentally, physically, …and financially,” he said. The Chinese government strives to combat Falun Gong’s influence outside of China by tar-
ing Arts just because most of the artists practice Falun Gong,” said Huang. “It’s really a separate organization, and I don’t think they have any money left…to give to Falun Gong if they have to hire so many people to dance.” According to public tax records, Shen Yun generated a revenue of $22.5 million in 2016, the most recent year for which records are available. Throughout our phone call, I noticed that Huang would attempt to redirect the conversation when asked about Shen Yun. Huang isn’t the only practitioner that minimizes Falun Gong’s connection to the performance group; in fact, there is a widespread effort within the group to intentionally do so. In one speech, Li Hongzhi, the spiritual leader and founder of Falun Gong, encouraged his followers to downplay Falun Gong’s connection to Shen Yun. “You needn’t insist on telling people that Shen Yun has ties to Falun Gong and make a big fanfare out of it,” he told them.
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Coloring Page
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If you walk down the hallway at the Urban School, you’ll see rows of dark blue lockers just like any other high school, but one thing might stand out: there are almost no locks. At Freshman Orientation, each student is given a locker number, code, and combination lock. These locks, however, often just sit inside the lockers, unused and untouched. The lack of lock usage at Urban is likely due to a combination of few possessions that need to be stored and the general sense of trust around the school. The location of a student’s locker plays a large role in the frequency of its usage. Students with lockers that are on the second oor near the tudent Center access them regularly, however, if their locker is on the fourth oor of the Page t. building or in the alkind Center, it s used much less due to its inaccessibility. Many students forget about their lockers or their combination code after the first week of Freshman year, or simply have no need for using them. The low usage of lockers around Urban can also partly be attributed to the fact that Urban isn’t big on textbooks. If you are in a language class, it’s likely that you’ll have a textbook or two, but otherwise, the majority of Urban classes don’t require huge, heavy textbooks like other schools. Students who come from farther away, such as outside of the city, might use their lockers to store books when they don’t need to bring them home to do homework, yet the majority of Urban students can be seen carrying their books in their backpacks from class to class. Most of all, the lack of locks at Urban highlights the school’s underlying environment of mutual trust. People feel they can put things of importance in their unlocked locker and not have them taken,” said Riley Maddox, the 9th and 10th-grade dean. “That’s an expression of the trust that we have in each other.” Reneé Theodore 19’ said, “I never think of going into other people’s lockers, so I just assumed that no one would think of going into mine.” The Urban School prides itself on being home to a community of “trust, honesty, and mutual respect,”
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according to Urban’s mission statement. It’s a place in which students can leave their computers sitting open and unattended in the hallway or their phone in an empty classroom for hours and return to have it untouched. Lost wallets or jewelry are returned to the front desk where people can retrieve their valuables without fearing that someone else might have taken them. This environment of trust around the school carries through to its lockers. “Urban’s trend of not locking their lockers is an expression of what a tight community we still are, even now that we’re a school of 420 students,” said Maddox. Some students recognize the community of trust that the lack of locks represents, while others remain behind the side that simply doesn’t need lockers at all. Grace Nesmith ‘22 commented, “lockers haven’t been a big aspect of Urban to me.” She rarely uses her locker at all, and when comparing Urban to her middle school, said that “I like Urban a lot more because I didn’t like having to go to my locker after each class.” Some lockers are communal, shared among friends due to their prime location or accessibility. A few students have converted their lockers into “tea lockers” stocked with various kinds of tea bags and honey open for anyone to take. Students can go to these lockers and retrieve tea supplies, and then fill their cup or mug with hot water from the tudent Center. love that as a clever use of a storage space that’s shared and respected,” said Maddox. Theodore started a tea locker in her locker near the Gumption Theater at the beginning of her Sophomore year. She bought disposable cups and tea bags, instant coffee, hot chocolate, and added anything else people wanted to contribute. “I did it because I knew that if I really appreciated getting tea during the day, other people would too,” Theodore said. addox concluded, ow s rban different from other high schools? We are a high school, we’ve got lockers, we’re like those traditional places, and, the low level of locking might suggest that we’re kind of special.”
Unlocking Locker Culture at Urban Clementine Daniel, Staff Writer
AGreement reached after Oakland teacher strike, but is it enough? Written and Designed by Sydney Riemer, Staff Writer On Feb. 22, 2018, West Virginia teachers began a strike that would last 14 days and inspire a nationwide wave of teacher strikes in Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Carolina and California that would continue into 2019. Oakland teachers walked out of school on Feb. 20, 2019 and began a seven-day strike that would be resolved with the promise of, most notably, 11% pay raises for teachers over the course of four years and a slight decrease in class sizes. The strike followed an 18-month negotiation between school officials and the teacher union for, among other things, higher pay—at least enough for teachers to be able to afford to live in the increasingly expensive Bay Area. With this and other goals in mind, the Oakland community came together to support the teachers over the course of the seven-day strike. Shona Armstrong, a parent of three students at Oakland public schools, was active in the strikes and said in an interview with the Urban Legend, “It felt super inspiring because it felt like the whole community was on strike, not just the teachers.” The strike ended when the teachers voted to make a deal with the school district, which agreed to hire more school counselors, psychologists, and special education teachers as well as provide school nurses with bonuses and pay raises in an effort to attract and keep nurses at schools, according to an article in Vox. hile beneficial for many, some akland teachers were unhappy with aspects of the resolution. According to Joshua Nardie, a teacher at Fremont High School in Oakland who teaches construction in a career and technical education program, teachers were hoping to obtain “smaller classes, better student supports, better [teacher] pay, and to end school closures.” Though the school district made many steps towards these demands, the resolution to the strike was tentative, as class sizes were decreased by only one to two students, and the district refused to cancel its plans to close around two dozen of the 86 Oakland Unified chool istrict schools in the next years, in an attempt to fix the budget crisis. “The public education system is fundamental-
ly broken in California, and the gains made can hopefully begin to address the drastic budgetary shortfalls facing educators and students,” Nardie said. Still, while the changes made in the strike’s resolution were useful in the short term, Nardie added that “11% over four years does not even keep up with in ation, so the teacher retention crisis will persist.” hile ardie is not completely satisfied with the outcome, he recognized that “the district has
“The public education system is fundamentally broken in California...” suffered from decades of mismanagement and cuts from the state, so the current leadership cannot be blamed for everything.”. However,” Nardie said, “school board campaigns are funded significantly by billionaires bent on ‘reforming’ education in ways that undermine unions and public schools. I do not think they have evil intentions, but the effects are dismal. Nardine is referring to the rise of charter schools at the expense of public education funding. Tamar Breines, an 8th grade student at Claremont Middle School, a public school in Oakland, said that, “I think it is really good that the strike happened, because the teachers are just trying to get what they deserve, but at the same time doesn’t have that much money and the teachers were asking for [11% raises], so it was a lot to ask for because doesn t have much funding to put towards the raises.” t s true aside from the fact that has been accused of misspending their money, California schools receive incredibly little funding from the state compared to those of other states. In fact, according to a fact-finding report by the akland Education Association, California ranks in the bottom quartile nationally in terms of per-pupil funding. ccording to the website, California ranked in the top five states for per-student
spending prior to the 1970s. In 1978, however, Proposition 13 was put in place, which limited the collection of property taxes a primary means of public education funding . ithin a year, California dropped to 44th in the country in terms of per-student funding. In the 2018-19 school year, California schools received a total of . billion in funding from the state, 32% from local sources, including property taxes, and 9% from the federal government, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. While the almost 100 billion dollars in funding may seem like a lot, this money gets distributed between the roughly 1,000 school districts within the state of California, leaving an estimated . million dollars to fund the schools. Given the deficiency in funding, it is no wonder that Oakland teachers are underpaid and that low teacher pay was a main subject of the recent strike. According to the website “Compass,” a living wage for a single adult living in Alameda County is , much greater than the starting salary of , that akland teachers receive, according to New York Magazine. In the Bay Area, where the cost of living is at least 49% greater than the national average, this is often not enough to afford necessities. s an often direct result of this low pay, the Oakland Teacher Union stated that one in five teachers leave the district each year. Often, when strikes such as this
one occur, groups are pitted against each other. In an interview with the Urban Legend, Sara Stone, Superintendent of 19 Oakland public schools and an Urban alum, explained her role during the strike as someone who is often depicted as being
“... at the end of the day my heart is with the teachers...” against the teachers. “You [were] not allowed to go on strike [and are required] to cross the picket line if you are not actually part of the union,” she said. uring the strike , we made sure that schools were safe and that we had adults there to support the kids. I did everything from working with kids to sitting and helping principals plan what they were going to do.” Yet Stone expressed that she and others are often treated as the villains in situations such as this one. In an interview with the Urban Legend, she said, “I’m in an odd position because I fully support the need to pay teachers what they deserve and create better conditions for the work that they do so that the kids can get the highest quality of education. The kind of education that you get at Urban is what all of our kids should have. When you are in a position like mine,” she said, “when you are seen as the bad guy, it’s challenging because at the end of the day my heart is with the teachers. I was a teacher, I believe in teachers and this is all in service of creating an experience for kids that is successful and positive.”
Illustration by Loki Olin, Features Editor
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Every time I turn on the TV, find myself looking at an ad for another reality TV show that didn’t exist the day before. With over 750 unscripted television series on prime time television, it makes it difficult for any T viewer to look past them altogether. Many hobbies, activities, and professions have been turned into reality shows such as cooking in “MasterChef”, modeling in “America’s Next Top Model”, fashion designing in “Project Runway” and there are even shows based on finding love,
Microphone created by Lena Bianchi Me Gusta Tu Cover logo provided by Aurora Perez
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like the “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette”.
Got Talent TV model has been recreated in 184 countries.
s attempted to find out which types of shows were the most popular or favored by viewers, the overall number of talent shows is far greater than any other, especially dancing and singing competitions.
With seemingly so many opportunities for singers across the world, I wanted to know more about the actual experience of competing, not just what the camera shows, but how the actual performers prepare.
I grew up knowing only of “American Idol”, a reality singing TV show competition that started in 2002 and produced famous singers including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Phillip Phillips, and 13 others. “The X Factor”, “The Voice”, “The Four”, The ing- ff , The Masked Singer”, and an increasingly large number of shows based on singing have grown exponentially. While “American Idol” originated in the United States, as the name implies, the amount of global attention received by these shows sparked spinoffs in multiple countries. Some may be familiar with America’s Got Talent, but the
I had never personally met a participant on a reality TV show in my direct community, but reached out to someone whom I had heard had competed before. In the Spring of 2018, I was given the opportunity, through The Urban School of San Francisco, to participate in an exchange program, alongside 15 other students, with students attending IES Seneca, a school in Córdoba, Spain. One of the students I met was named Aurora Perez who had performed on stage and thought of music as a possible career. She is currently competing in a singing talent competition called Me Gusta Tu Cover, where over the course of three months 12 elected singers receive vocal training as they progressively compete and pass through rounds by singing covers of chosen songs. I had the opportunity to discuss Perez’s experience with competing on this show and what it means to do so on social media—a very public platform:
Spanish reality TV sh Written and designed by Lena Bianchi
Me Gusta Tu Cover is a TV contest that I went in to do because I did several selection castings. This contest consists of carrying out a test every week. We sing all kinds of musical genres like pop, amenco, reggaeton, and rock.
“
contestants get along very well, we have created a family and when the program is over we will continue to be together. Normally, all week we spend rehearsing, at all hours, because we have very little time between one test and another. There are many things to study: the lyrics, the melody, the intonation, the dance, the staging, and even the costumes. Then it takes a long time.
I wanted to be part of this to learn and be able to train professionally in the world of music. t s been different than expected because I didn’t know it was going to be this incredible. Previously I have done concerts and uploaded videos singing to Instagram, but nothing as professional as being on a TV show. Music is my passion since I was a baby. I would like to dedicate myself to it, even though the musical world is uite difficult. Today I keep learning and growing, I go to classes to improve as a singer and as a musician and play several instruments. The program has taught me that nothing is easy, that you have to fight for what one wants. You don’t have to leave, just have patience and constancy.
Me Gusta Tu Cover has been one of the best experiences of my life. I think these programs are very good because they help the singers that are starting, like me. It teaches us to see the world of entertainment and television. You have to work hard and when you get to do your job well, it is very gratifying. I recommend and encourage everyone to introduce themselves to castings and television programs. They are very interesting and fun new experiences that make you learn and grow. You also meet a lot of people and that’s really cool. Share with others your desire to make music and do what you love.
“
Behind the scenes is all very cool. All
To learn more about Me Gusta Tu Cover, visit www.megustatucover.com and watch each artist’s singing videos
V show contestant shares her experience
Argentine Ants at Urban WRITTEN BY TIKLOH BRUNO-BASAING, SPORTS EDITOR DESIGNED BY TIKLOH BRUNO-BASAING Over the past few months, skinny black trails of ants have appeared around our school—in our trash cans, lockers, and dining spaces. These ants are a result of the wet and rainy weather this winter, which forces ants to come indoors to get away from the outside moisture in search of shelter and food. Combat, a pest solution website, explains how the ants are initially motivated to seek shelter indoors: “Most ant species live in shallow, underground nests. When the skies open up, and the rain comes pouring down, these nests ood in a matter of minutes.” Even the smallest amount of water will cause an entire colony to start invading our buildings. Once they have located food and are “On their way into your house, they leave a scent trail that allows them to return to the nest after the sun comes out and dries up all the rain,” noted Combat. These ants are easily noticed when they are out and about indoors, so Urban’s facilities team has been on their -game in their efforts to combat these pests. avid Coffman, irector of Facilities, described his team by saying, “We keep the school running. e ensure safety first, cleanliness, mechanics are running so people are comfortable, and just
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make sure it all keeps humming.” uring his time at rban, Coffman has had a lot of experience dealing with what he has identified as rgentine ants, a specific species native to South America. While some ant species crave protein-filled foods, others—including the Argentine—drive for sweet and sugary food, explained Coffman. Coffman has found creative strate-
“We keep the school running e ens re s et first e n iness e h ni s re r nning so eo e re o ort e nd st es s re it ee s h ing
id o
n
gies to combat these ants when they appear. To fight them we try not to use chemicals as much as possible. One of the things we learned is Windex is really effective, he said. The ammonia in the Windex actually gets rid of that trail so they can t find their way back to the colony, and they don’t know what to do.” Not only are the ants an eyesore as they crawl across the white walls and trash bags, but they are an inconve-
nience to school dwellers living their lives at Urban. Mookie Corpuz ‘19 explained a recent run-in she had with the ants: “I had bought some Samoa Girl Scout cookies from school, but I couldn’t eat them, because when I went to get them from my locker, they were filled with ants. This winter, new efforts were implemented to combat the ants, which can still be seen around school.
h d o ght so e o ir o t oo ies ro s hoo t o dn’t e t the e se hen ent to get the ro o er the ere fi ed ith nts oo ie or
their own. To prevent the infestation of ants in our school, the students and school’s inhabitants need to take charge to stop attracting them indoors to make sure our school is for people and not pests. Coffman suggests, “If you want to help with the ant problem during the wintertime especially, keep your food locked in airtight containers or the refrigerator, don’t leave things out, and just try to be proactive; that would help us a lot.”
The little red squares stuck against the walls are ant bait which is used to take out ant populations on a larger scale. Coffman explained that “What the ants will do is they will pick it up and bring it back to the colony like they usually do with food and the poison in it will
spread amongst the other ants, and the idea is to kill off the colony.” The facilities team can’t deal with the ant problem alone, and the ants certainly won’t go away on
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STUDENT ART
ARI GORDON ‘20
ZION WILLIAMSON And the Case for Paying College Athletes An Opinion
Written and Designed by Loki Olin, Features Editor
“No one is bigger than the game.” The age-old adage serves as a reminder of humility for aspiring basketball players around the world, and the saying holds true for most athletes. However, an exception has arisen in the form of Zion Williamson, Duke University’s superstar freshman and the 2019 Naismith Player of the Year. Williamson certainly seems bigger than the game; at six-foot-seven and 285 pounds, Williamson makes a mockery of the term small forward. Williamson’s feats of athleticism have made him a staple on Sportscenter’s top ten plays since he was in high school, and his highlight reels have amassed tens of millions of views on the internet. Williamson has demonstrated the myriad of ways that Division I college sports are no longer simply activities. Rather, they are a business, and Zion Williamson is the NCAA’s best-selling product.
During Duke basketball games, national television cameras may pan over hundreds of fans clad in identical copies of a blue jersey with a white “1” embroidered on the chest. The jersey, of course, is
“We hired a cameraman, a camera... to record everything he does.” Mark Wolff, CBS
a Zion Williamson jersey, and it is available for purchase on Duke University’s website. Like other Division I athletes, Williamson
sees himself everywhere, but has yet to receive a penny in exchange for the profit he has produced for the NCAA. Each year, sports generate $11 billion of revenue for colleges throughout the United States, and Duke University alone amasses over $78 million from its athletic teams. In theory, this revenue is distributed toward scholarships and academic development. In reality, however, a large portion is allocated to the coaches and administrators’ exorbitant salaries. Mike Krzyzewski, Duke’s basketball coach, receives an annual salary of $8.9 million—more than one-tenth of the college’s total athletic revenue. Krzyzewski has earned his reputation as one of basketball’s greatest minds, but at the end of the day, Duke’s success—along with any other Division I schools—stems from its players,
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and those players deserve a fair portion of the millions that they produce. Currently, student-athletes are rewarded for their contributions to the school with athletic scholarships. These scholarships often eliminate the cost of tuition, allowing athletes to enroll at the school free of charge. Though it is often argued that the opportunity to study at an elite institution is adequate compensation for athletes, most are never able to enjoy a full college education. Forbes Magazine reported that on average, athletes at Division I schools devote 43.3 hours to sports each week, exceeding the average American work week by over three hours. Orin Starn, a professor at Duke University, published an editorial in which he described how the daily demands of Division I athletes prevent them from engaging academically. Starn wrote that Duke athletes “collectively miss classes by the thousands due to
athletic competition….they are delightful, hard-working kids, but they don’t have time to do much more than pass.” According to the NCAA, Division I athletes must maintain a GPA of 2.3 or greater in order to participate in sports. However, the allure of athletic success has led certain colleges to disregard the academic benchmark. In 2010, ESPN revealed that the University of North Carolina had been creating fake classes for student-athletes and awarding them impressive grades in order for the athletes to maintain their eligibility. By fabricating student-athletes’ academic experiences, schools have undermined the supposed value of learning that is used to justify the scholarship system. By ensuring that their athletes remain eligible, colleges are able to benefit from the various opportunities for profit that sports provide. The marketability of college sports has been recognized by colleges and brands alike, and corporate giants like Nike and Adidas are long-standing producers of collegiate apparel. Multi-million dollar contracts such as Nike’s $169 million contract with the University of Michigan have become commonplace. Corporate endorsement deals provide a massive avenue for colleges to benefit from the athletic success and cultural relevance of their players. However, the NCAA prohibits individual athletes from signing individual endorsement deals with corporations. Even though athletes are excluded from these relationships, individual players exhibit incred-
ible in uence on how brands are perceived by the general public. ike witnessed this in uence firsthand during Duke’s game on Feb. 20 against the University of North Carolina. Less than a minute into the game, illiamson suffered a freak injury; according to former President Barack Obama, who was seated courtside, “his shoe broke.” Indeed, Williamson’s Nike sneakers had ripped at the seams, causing him to lose balance and suffer a mild knee strain. The millions of fans following Williamson’s every move propelled the topic of his exploding sneaker to viral popularity, and the event was covered by publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. In the day following the mishap, Nike’s publicly traded stock dropped by nearly 2%. The marketability of athletes like Williamson could provide a platform for player payment that would not encroach on the spirit of college sports. Instead of allotting colleges’ funds to player contracts, the payment of college athletes could stem from endorsement deals, merchandise, and licensing royalties. Dubbed the “Olympic model” by Joe Nocera of The New York Times, this strategy would allow athletes to sign endorsement contracts with brands, profit off merchandise sales, and control the use of their likenesses in television and video games. The Olympic model would allow the general landscape of college sports to remain unchanged while allowing athletes to benefit from their own in uence on brands and in the media. One element of college sports that the Olympic model would not address, however, is the massive impact of sports on schools’ academic reputations. Athletic success often directly correlates
to increased application rates, a phenomenon dubbed “the Flutie ffect. n , illanova niversity defeated the University of North Carolina with a last-second three-pointer to claim the men’s basketball National championship. According to Forbes Magazine, illanova s undergraduate applications then surged to over 21,000—an increase of 21% from the prior year. By increasing the applicant pool, sports allow institutions to become more academically competitive and to form classes with higher caliber students. The impact of sports extends into the academic realm, allowing certain colleges to entirely reshape their academic reputation. Beyond academics, athlete in uence significantly affects the profitability of ticket sales and television viewership for colleges. On Feb. 20, tickets to see Zion Williamson and Duke face off against the University of North Carolina could be purchased for no less than $2,674—nearly as expensive as those purchased by attendees of this year’s Super Bowl. For context, tickets to Duke basketball games in 2016 cost an average of $198, according to news source 24/7 Wall Street. The nationally televised game was viewed by millions, and broadcasting companies have realized that much of this critical attention stems from Williamson himself. In an interview with News Observer, CBS producer ark olff said, because of Zion [Williamson] we have added a camera dedicated to him the whole time he is on the oor. e hired a cameraman, a camera, a digital tape machine to record everything
he does.” Williamson has shown that viewers are not watching college sports just for the schools, but for the players themselves. Between reputational advance-
ment, endorsement contracts, ticket sales, and television viewership, there are countless platforms for schools to profit off the success of their athletes. As a result of athletes’ direct profitability for their own schools, an alternative to the Olympic model of payment could involve a free market with colleges providing payment for athletes.
As discussed by many proponents of athlete payment, the NCAA could create a cap-regulated free market to mimic the system used by the NBA. Under this model, colleges would be allowed to allocate a certain portion of their endowment to signing athletes. The free market would naturally lead to merit-based earnings for the most
promising athletes, akin to the way that free agency is conducted in professional sports. NCAA regulations imposed on salaries would prevent college sports from devolving into a bidding war between the wealthiest schools, addressing a common concern held by opponents to student-athlete payment. Regardless of whether the payment of college athletes is regulated by the Olympic model or a free market system, the spirit of college sports can be preserved. Paying college athletes isn’t about changing the nature of college sports; it’s about acknowledging and rewarding the players who allowed college sports to blossom into what they are today. At the end of the day, any model of payment is a good one if it is able to provide student-athletes with fair compensation for their contributions to a multi-billion dollar industry. However, the NCAA is apparently unwilling to compromise, and therein lies the fundamental challenge: dedicated adults are making incredible contributions to the success of this business, and their only reward is a constantly interrupted education and the bittersweet satisfaction of seeing their name on the back of their fans’ jerseys.
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There’ Something bout true rime
Written and designed by Sally Cobb, Staff Writer
nder the Crime genre on et ix, there is a plethora of entertainment provided by shows, movies, and docuseries about the world s wildest true crime tales. fter fishing through the endless online aisles of crime story after crime story, observed a strong focus on one category of crime in particular serial killing. also stumbled upon a statistic from BC ews reporting that about . million people watched the season finale of aking a urderer within a month of the entire series being released on ec. , . These findings made me wonder why are people so obsessed with watching the stories of the world s greatest serial murders and murderers octors and psychologists have hypothesized about why humans are intrigued by the gory details of murder and the psychologically insane, but there is not one single answer. ome potential reasons explaining why people binge watch true crime range from seeking understanding of a killer s mind to looking into their own violent impulses. n hopes of gaining insight to why some people love watching series like aking a urderer and the Ted Bundy Tapes so much, spoke with a few members of the rban community. assy osley , an avid viewer of the true crime genre, explained her intrigue saying, m really interested in how the human brain works it s ust interesting to think about other people s logic and what makes sense to them when they re in the act of killing someone and that type of brain wiring.
erial killers are so extreme in their brutality and so seemingly unnatural in their behavior that society is riveted by them. cott . Bonn
osley is not alone in this reasoning. n an article published on Psychology Today, Professeur cott . Bonn, author of hy e ove erial illers The Curious ppeal of the orld s ost avage urderers , wrote, erial killers are so extreme in their brutality and so seemingly unnatural in their behavior that society is riveted by them. any people are morbidly drawn to the violence of serial killers, because they cannot comprehend their actions, but feel compelled to. This intrigue with what we cannot understand is also why ustine easy en oys watching T and movies about serial murder. n an interview with the rban egend, easy said, think it s interesting to see the actions of not-everyday-people and to look at how people s minds are different and to see how that plays out in the world. easy also noted that the way some of these killers can blend into society is terrifying. n his article, Professeur Bonn explains that the ability of killers, like Ted Bundy, to blend into society contributes to people s obsession with true crime, while also feeding their fears. The fact that many serial killers can blend into society so effectively is genuinely horrifying to many people, because it means that most anyone, even a loved one, could be a serial killer, said Bonn. asked easy if there had ever been a time when something she watched was a bit too scary for her the type of scary that stops you from opening your closet or sleeping with your lights off.
easy said yes, referring to a movie called mber lert , which is about some friends who follow a car that had been posted on an mber lert. easy described her fear when watching this, saying, got scared of that because of how... real it was and think seeing what happens is different than ust hearing about the details. osley would agree with Bonn s theory and easy s reason for her fear. n osley s interview with the rban egend, she explained the difference between her fear when watching horror movies, like The Con uring , versus true crime. fter watching fictional horror movies, osley said, can still go to sleep at night and be fine and open my closet door. owever, after watching true crime she is a little bit more shaken up and will probably sit there for a minute or watch something really funny afterwards. osley later discussed her fear after watching a movie about effrey ahmer, y riend ahmer , saying, things around school shootings and people in their high school class getting ignored freak me out because m in high school m very lucky to have such a great support system but ahmer was isolated and ignored for a long time. osley explained how spooky this particular story is because ahmer s killer mentality and sickness developed during the critical growth years she is currently living through.
“ think there s something compelling about things that you can t uite understand or imagine or conceptualize. ebecca hapiro hile there are many true crime fans at rban, not everyone finds this genre as fascinating. ebecca hapiro, istory Teacher and istory epartment Chair, is one of these people. lthough hapiro doesn t find herself glued to gory crime stories, in her interview, she mentioned her obsession with the Titanic when she was younger. really wanted to understand that disaster. nd think there s something compelling about things that you can t uite understand or imagine or conceptualize, said hapiro. osley and easy s obsession comes from the killers seemingly ma or psychological distance from the rest of society and hapiro believes it can stem from curiosity, however, aern reyling, chool Counselor, holds a different perspective. n her interview, she speculated that some people s intrigue with true crime might be more about themselves than the actual killer. think that s in the merican psyche that idea that you can t stop yourself once you get into a bad habit there s that fear of like if really let go, am really going to become an animal think watching true crime prays on people s fears as human beings. reyling also touched on a phenomenon that . . arsden, ssistant Professor of uman ervices and Psychology at Beacon College, discussed with the uffington Post. arsden said that watching true crime allows the viewer to dive into the darker side of humanity, but from the safety of the couch. This idea of ust dipping your toe into the unnatural, unhuman pond of serial killing without actually going through with any action is one that reyling believes to be part of the intrigue of watching true crime about serial murder There are so many things that are a part of the human condition, the whole animalistic side of the human being, which involves killing or violence and could see it as both a way to engage with those energies without acting them out a way of kind of acknowledging that realm of the human condition and doing it vicariously through film.
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Teachers share their first kiss stories Written and designed by Zoe Lusk, caboose editor
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that teachers were once our age. They too had awkward kisses, embarrassing moments, and first parties. ve collected a few teachers first kiss stories
Greg
onfils
ctually, this is more of a story about me not taking the opportunity to have my first kiss. hadn t had my first kiss, and then was invited to a party in the th grade. t was my best friend who was throwing the party and it was on a weekend night. o go to the party and it s ust three boys and three girls, and my friend s mom made us ice cream sodas, and we all went back to the back patio. e had a sizable yard, and we had an empty bottle, so we started playing spin the bottle. o you know what spin the bottle is ell, didn t. d heard of spin the bottle, knew that it had something to do with bringing girls and boys together, but had no idea past that. o it spins, and it points to me and this girl. nd didn t know what to do. o she takes my hand and we go walking behind a hedge. ust kept walking. nd we came out from behind and hadn t kissed her nd it was kind of awkward and didn t know why. nd we sat down again... e spin it a few more times, and it came to me and this girl again. he ust wouldn t do it. gain, felt embarrassed, but didn t know why was embarrassed. fter a few more spins figured out what was going on because [the rest of the kids] were behind that hedge for a long time. e ust walked o, actually, probably had my first kiss eventually during spin the bottle . But missed the first few opportunities. don t know why was that naive about spin the bottle.
kiss until three days before my sixteenth birthday. t was at GBT family camp, and it was a little embarrassing. f course, my first kiss was with a boy at a ueer family camp, and we snuck into the woods and made out. nd it was gross. But when he decided that maybe it wasn t a good idea and wanted to stop, was really heartbroken and incensed, even though kind of agreed. did not like that he was the one to call it. was absolutely heartbroken and very dramatic there was a lot of crying. hen got back from the summer and came for my sophomore year at rban, enrolled in Peer d theater because was in Peer esource and had to take it. e were talking in class about
“There were braces involved. Not mine.� our summers, and told them about this song when came back from summer camp. t was about this kiss t was this really cheesy song about my kiss and how didn t regret it even if it ended badly. ended up performing the song in Peer- d theater as part of the finale of the show. t s so embarrassing looking back on it. The kiss felt romantic because there was sun coming through the trees, a river owing, the setting was really romantic. But the actual kiss was kind of gross. There were braces involved. ot mine.
u with friends in high school. Photo taken by classmate.
Charisse Breslin performing a song in high school.
atie- ose Breslin was a bit of a late bloomer, so
didn t have my first
u
Growing up, had a pretty steady diet of teen romance movies like he s ll That, Ten Things ate bout ou, and the isney princess movies were also really big. had a lot of romantic notions. also didn t date anyone through elementary or middle school,
me, but we re almost at the end of the loop so maybe this date will be over and can and never move on with my awkward teenage chased anyone life. e get to the last room, and the down to kiss them or was kissed. There was a uarium in Georgia is really huge, this boy that liked who was like super bright and colorful, but the last room isn t this cheery stereotypialso my first boyfriend in high cal place with music playing, it s uieter school. e asked me out and taught me to drive in his old-school ubaru. and the lighting is darker. o one was in e had even gone to a high school dance there but us, and there s this giant fish together and not kissed. nd was finally tank with these tropical fish that s well lit like, think we re ready to have our first kiss and the rest of the room is dark. And we maybe. nd it was in my room after school kissed in front of that fish tank.
when we were supposed to be working on homework and knew my parents weren t gonna be home and was like, this is the time. e kind of looked at each other and inched forward, and it was like whoa, we re gonna kiss. nd remember when we kissed, ust kind of thought, because sometimes have associations with colors or smells or memory, that kissing him felt like eating cucumber slices, and was like, hm, this is interesting, and it s kind of like cold and wet and fine. ou know, it s fine. e kissed, and didn t feel all of the fireworks and all of the things, and it wasn t in the rain and wasn t caught by surprise, all these ways had seen it play out, with a huge emotional crescendo. nd it was like, me having all these big ideas and then cue to me eating cucumber slices and being like, it s not bad, but it s not great either. t was ust kind of cold and alright.
Chase retwell y first kiss was when was years old when was a sophomore in high school. t was awkward because my boyfriend at the time and didn t have our drivers licenses yet, so my parents had to drop us off. think it was the second or third date. e went to the Georgia Aquarium and it’s sort of in a loop. nd we re walking, being awkward, being high schoolers. m pretty sure we were talking about science homework. was like okay, cool, he doesn t like
rin Gibb ell, my first kiss happened in high school. ctually, it was my freshman year, it was my first time working on a show as a technician. nd then went to the cast party with everybody and my crush at the time was also there. didn t know that they also had a crush on me. So it was one of those situations where everyone was hanging out, having a great time, and then we are able to have some one-on-one time where we were able to get away and ust like chat and hang out. nd then that s when the first kiss happened and it was kind of nice. And then it was awkward after that because we got caught by the parents who were throwing the party because we were ust in the backyard. nd then, grew up in a very Christian area, so it was one of those moments where they were like, ou re not allowed to do this, what are you doing o in all embarrassing fashion, it was a shutdown of the entire party. o it was like my first kiss shut down the entire first cast party ever went to. But you know, it was still great.
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New papal edict attempts to address long history of sexual abuse in Catholic Church Written and Designed by Ian Ryan, Staff Writer
On March 29, the Papacy in Vatican released a new papal edict against the sexual abuse happening in its own churches, making it mandatory for Vatican City officials or its diplomats around the globe to immediately report allegations of sexual abuse to authorities or face possible jail time. While many have likely not thought about the issue of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church since the release of the 2016 Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight”, which detailed the story of the thorough investigative work that Boston Globe reporters did to bring this issue to light, the papal edict is an important distinctive step finally being taken by the church. To understand its significance, we must acknowledge the sexual abuse that has gone on within the Catholic Church for a very long time. Only in the last 40 years has it truly come to the attention of the public. While the Boston Globe investigative work truly brought the issue to a global audience, the first widely publicized case of a clergyman being caught for sexual abuse was that of Rev. Gilbert J. Gauthe in 1983. Gauthe worked in a variety of churches in the Los
Angeles area from up to 1983, in which time he was said to have abused up to 100 children. Allegations against him first surfaced then, and within two years he was convicted of abusing up to 39 young children. Even with this conviction, and a variety of civil suits and settlements against him, Gauthe served less than 10 years in prison, although he was sentenced to 20 years. According to the Houston Chronicle, the judge who intervened on his behalf “was from Gauthe’s hometown, and Gauthe’s grandfather had helped the judge’s widowed mother many years previously.” Because of the judge’s intervention, Gauthe was able to continue his work as a priest in Texas, where he was then accused of further sexual abuse of children. As Melanie Sakoda, the leader of the Bay Area branch of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said in an interview with the Urban Legend, “The Gauthe case was the first highly-publicized case where the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was truly revealed to the
public… in many ways this case set the groundwork, or the base for the Spotlight work that came after.”
Gauthe’s highly publicized case was the first example of the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church finally shown to the public, although it was only a sliver of a much larger issue. It also laid the framework for the Boston Globe reporters portrayed in Spotlight to reveal the issue to the public. These journalists investigated the Catholic Church in depth and discovered evidence of clergymen taking advantage of children and superiors in the organization completely covering them up. They released their findings in what came to be known as the “Spotlight Reports” on June 7, 2002. They found a vast amount of information on the sexual abuse that the Reverend John G. Geoghan carried out for years and the way that the archdiocese shuffled him around for years from parish to parish. They then released multiple articles profiling the rampant sexual
abuse they found in Boston, and the various and incredible lengths that the church went to in an effort to cover up the issue. By May 12, 2002, the scandal was in the public’s attention, with many condemning the church for their actions; by December 1, 2002, the Archdiocese of Boston filed for bankruptcy in the face of these sexual abuse claims. By the time
“What allows this abuse to continue in the church is the behavior of the bishops and the higher ups in the church, who continue to foster this abuse by attempting to cover it up and not reveal it to the public.” the Globe had finished their investigative work, they had released over 600 stories detailing the wrongdoings of the archdiocese. While many might have assumed that this would lead to the sexual abuse in the church would be correctly combated and diminished, giving its victims and the government a platform to force the church to address this issue, that has not necessar-
ily been the case. Not only has the issue of sexual abuse in the church failed to improve, but as more information of the abuse has come to light, the errors in the way that the Catholic Church has dealt with its various priests have only become more evident. The first example of these is with the Pennsylvania Diocese Victims Report. This was “a two-year grand jury investigation into widespread sexual abuse of children in Pennsylvania and the systemic cover up by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican”, as their own website puts it. This grand jury report uncovered a mountain of evidence of continued sexual abuse and cover ups within the Catholic Church of only Pennsylvania, with hundreds of cases of repeated actions by the Catholic Church to repress the truth about what was happening. Not only was the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report incredibly damning of the the Catholic Church, but it also was an incredibly publicized example of the endemic problem in the Catholic Church, and the reason it still prevails to this day. As Melanie Sakoda described it, “What al-
lows this abuse to continue in the church is the behavior of the bishops and the higher ups in the church, who continue to foster this abuse by attempting to cover it up and not reveal it to the public.” In other words, what allows this abuse to continue in the church is how the bishops and more elder clergymen actively diminish the problem. However, this problem is not only happening in the United States. In Australia, on March 6, former cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in prison for sexually abusing two boys back in 1997. This case is another publicized example of the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church being shown to the world, as this case has become an international issue, and this has pushed the church to make a stand. While the papal edict may look like a very promising step against the issue, it is already illegal to not report sexual abuse when it happens, and churches have been getting away with it for years. Sakoda believes that what we need more than this is an institutional change within the Catholic Church, and this may be the first step. “There has to be a culture change within the Church, where they prioritize the rights of those most vulnerable,” she said. “This will only happen if we cause it to, by supporting victims and continuing to protest the way that the Catholic Church has dealt with their cases.”
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SENIOR SOULMATE QUIZ Written and Designed by Zella Lezak, Staff Writer
Belle
Gus
RenĂŠe
Rose & Hilary
Maya
Conor
Mookie
Aisha
Una & Leo
Sarah
Tikloh
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STUDENT ART
Tavi De Leon ‘19 PAGE 60
Coloring Page
PAGE 61
Leo Hidy and Simon Chang-Huang
Tara Kamali
Robbie Goldblatt
Ryan Barnett and Ryu Tada
PAGE 63 Class of 2019 at Urban’s Annual Picnic
THE URBAN SCHOOL OF san francisco 1563 page st san francisco, ca 92117
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