Verde Volume 18 Issue 5 by Verde Magazine

V. FROM TRACK TO SHACK The story of Palyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most infamous conman pg. 33

may 2017

VERDE MAGAZINE May 2017 Volume 18 Issue 5

Editors-in-Chief Emma Cockerell Julie Cornfield Saurin Holdheim Managing Editors Stephanie Lee Michelle Li Features Editor Frances Zhuang Culture Editor Daniel Logan Perspectives Editor Tamar Sarig News Editors Ashley Hitchings Ashley Wang Launch Editors Allison Cheng Riya Sinha Art Directors Aishah Maas Vivian Nguyen Annie Zhou Photo Director James Poe Digital Archivist Riya Matta

Design Editor Thomas Chapman Digital Editor Eoin O’Kramer Business Managers Amira Garewal Angela Liu Engagement Manager Asia Gardias Staff Writers Olivia Brown Megan Chai Irene Choi Josh Code Alia Cuadros-Contreras Madhumita Gupta Noga Hurwitz Danielle Macuil Tara Madhav Alicia Mies Deepali Sastry Gabriel Sánchez Laura Sieh Stephanie Yu Adviser Paul Kandell

Publication Policy Verde, a feature magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Magazine Journalism class, is a designated open forum for student expression and discussion of issues of concern to its readership. Verde is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost. Letters to the Editors The staff welcomes letters to the editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity. Send all letters to veics-1617@gmail.com or to 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301. Verde can also be contacted through social media, preferably Facebook. All Verde stories are posted online at verdemagazine. com. Advertising The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with Verde, please contact the Verde business managers Amira Garewal and Angela Liu through our adviser at 650-329-3837 for more information. Printing & Distribution Verde is printed five times a year in October, November, February, April and May, by Folger Graphics in Hayward, California. The Paly PTSA mails Verde to every student’s home. All Verde work is at verdemagazine.com.

verdemagazine.com

In this issue LEANNE MIRON pg. 42

Staff writers Stephanie Yu and Gabe Sanchez introduce readers to a violinist who faces unique challenges

Inside

6 Editorials 8 Launch 12 News

Features 16 20 23 25 28 31

Castilleja Development Surveillance Sanctuary Cities Inpatient Hospitals Native Americans The Murder of Jane Lathrop Stanford

Profiles 33 39 40 42 44 46 49

Hogue Gone Rogue Uber Driven Leanne Miron Leslie Lamport Custodians Peace Through Wrestling Syrian Nationals

Culture 51 52 54 56 58 59 60 61 62 Photo by Emma Cockerell

ON THE COVER

pg.33

In 1985, James Hogue was posing as a student at Palo Alto High School. Today, he’s serving a six-year prison sentence. This issue’s cover story serves to illuminate the details of Hogue’s history as a conman and is pieced together with help from sources ranging from his dearest childhood friend to the policeman who caught him just this February. On the cover, art director Vivian Nguyen and Design Editor Thomas Chapman colorize this image from the Peninsula Times Tribune.

APRIL 2017

Perfect Route Through PA Senior Section DAMN. Review Netflix Originals Eatsa Review Best Lemonade Buycott Home-made Popsicles DIY Slime

Perspectives

63 Spending Conscientiously 64 Speech and Debate 66 Bashar al-Assad 68 AP Language Flaws 69 Grass Isn’t Greener 7 0 Gabe Gets Serious Facebook: /verdemagazine Instagram: @verdemag Issuu.com: /verdemagazine

THE SENIOR SECTION

Photo by Ashley Hitchings

Photo by Josh Code

pg. 60

SANCTUARY CITIES

pg. 34

PALY CUSTODIANS pg. 41

Staff writers Ashley Hitchings and Michelle Li get to know the school’s charismatic custodial staff

SPENDING CONSCIENTIOUSLY pg. 63

How to use your money to take a stand

PEACE THROUGH WRESTLING pg. 46

Paly senior Sara Aguilar finds strength through competition

Photo by Emma Cockerell

Photo by Frances Zhuang

FROM THE EDITORS

Our lives and the law Jay Huntsman: the mysterious student who took the Palo Alto High School track team by storm, effortlessly asserting his athletic prowess. Alexi Santana: an orphaned farm boy with sharp intellect who attended Princeton University for two years. Both aliases that James Hogue created speak to a knack for evading the law, which brings us to our theme for this issue: the law, those who skirt it and those whose lives are inexplicably shaped by it. Hogue, who briefly graced Paly’s campus for two weeks in 1985 and whose story is featured this issue’s cover story, “James Hogue Gone Rogue” (pg. 33), routinely turned a blind eye to the law, constructing false identities that still perplex his acquaintances. The law affects the lives of others in a starkly different way, as reported in “Sanctuary Cities” (pg 22), by staff writers Frances Zhuang and Ashley Hitchings. The feature examines a Mexican immigrant, Grace, who is directly affected by current

developments in legislature regarding immigration. “Big Brother is Watching” (pg 20) also examines the laws that govern society and our school environment, and the control of information that they allow for. Together, these stories demonstrate that our experiences greatly differ based on our standings with the law — whether or not we choose to follow them, and what laws are imposed upon us. To accompany this heavy reading of more serious stories, we’ve got some great summer treat recommendations, ranging from Michelle Li and Stephanie Yu’s review of various lemonades to Allison Cheng’s article on DIY popsicles. As new editors-in-chief, we hope to continue Verde’s tradition of journalistic excellence — of telling the untold stories and revealing beauty in the seemingly mundane. All the while abiding by the law, of course! —Emma, Julie & Saurin

EDITORIALS

Transparency needed on sexual assault issues

Art by EOIN O’KRAMER

In response to a KTVU story that brought to light allegations of sexual assault by a Palo Alto High School student, both Paly and the district have received backlash from community members concerned about campus safety and rape culture. The district was notified of the second alleged instance in March, according to the KTVU story, meaning that the school did not publish any statements about the student for two months, holding back all details of the incidents until the KTVU report sparked public outcry. Verde believes the administration should publicly address sexual assault cases as soon as reports create a pattern of sexual violence or when a perpetrator is convicted. It was disappointing that a news organization had to prompt a public controversy before the district spoke up about the recent cases of sexual assault. The choice to not address the public until the outbreak of controversy feels symptomatic of the larger campus culture, in which it is acceptable for problems of sexual assault to remain hidden from the public. “You cannot say you are against sexual assault and then prevent dialogue aimed at educating or informing people,” Keith Ferrell, a Paly parent, said in an email to the Class of 2017 parent network. “Encouraging and opening up the dialogue is one way to take some of that power back [from the predator].” Frank LoMonte, a lawyer from the Student Press Legal Center, agrees with Ferrell. Though the school is not required to publish more information, no law prevents them from doing so.

“A school can say a lot about the factual situation without giving way the student’s identity,” says LoMonte. “They can say ‘Here are the precautions we’re taking to make sure this doesn’t happen again,’ and they can say ‘There was a sexual assault in such-andsuch location on campus,’ and none of that violates [federal privacy laws].” A potential solution to the recent upheaval lies in the Clery Act, a federal statute requiring colleges to keep a public log of all crimes on campus. We further recommend that the school district implement a similar publicly accessible database for reports of sexual assaults with details about whether the offender was convicted and the nature of the conviction, as well as when the assault occurred, all of which could be done without infringing upon student privacy. This would ameliorate parents’ safety concerns and allow for more transparency from the district. While the database could not publish identifying information, this first step could prompt parents and students to discuss the importance of consent and what to do in the case of a sexual assault. While rape culture remains pervasive on our campus, we as individuals must also take responsibility for our actions and respect our own right to say “no.” We should also support sexual assault survivors by referring them to trusted adults and refrain from speculation. Lastly, the Palo Alto community must come together to combat rape culture through education, discussion and empathy.

Sex-ed needs revision Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN

Netflix original POORLY PORTRAYS suicide

In the first episode of the recently released Netflix series, “13 Reasons Why,” a classmate of Hannah Baker’s, a high school student who had taken her own life, publicly asserts that students should simply “move on” after a week since Baker’s suicide. Some students scoff at his insensitivity. Some quietly nod their heads in tacit agreement. The teacher then reminds the class of how sad the situation is, reprimands the outspoken student and continues class. As students of Palo Alto High School, we know that this scene paints an inconsiderate and unrealistic picture of a school’s environment after a student takes his or her own life, due to our own experience as a district that had a suicide epidemic in the school year of 2014 to 2015. We were allowed a short time to heal, but were ultimately encouraged to express our feelings openly, talk to adults if we needed to and move forward, despite the fact that some of us may not have wanted to. There was no outspoken student who demanded we get on with our lives. There was no compliant teacher who unnecessarily reminded everyone of such tragedy. There was no “lights, camera, action.” Verde believes that we need to start the conversation about mental health and suicide, in the context of this show, and work to inform people who may not have the same knowledge as we do. While we do not encourage banning people from watching the TV show, we do encourage effective and meaningful conversations. Ask others about their thoughts on some of the show’s graphic scenes and major plot points, and offer your ideas. “13 Reasons Why” has racked up over 3.5 million social volume impressions in the first week of its release, giving it the big-

gest social presence out of any of Netflix’s original series and films, according to Refinery29. While the series may aim to send a message about empathy and bullying, it provides a dangerously glamorized view of suicide, and blatantly disregards many basic guidelines that mass media should follow to avoid “copycat suicide.” Several aspects of this show are blatantly untrue and misrepresent the issue of suicide. Clay, the main character, has to listen to the 13 tapes left behind by Hannah. As she explains the people “responsible” for her death, Clay treats the tapes as a kind of murder mystery, and tries to hold certain people more responsible for her death than others. In this way, the show turns suicide into entertainment, nothing more than a plot device. He determines the person he thinks inflicted the most harm on Hannah, and punishes him. The show also pushes this idea of “revenge suicide,” the dangerous idea that, even after death, people can punish others and still inflict harm. Not only does this promote the message that suicide is completely linear and simple, it fails to cover that the leading cause of suicide for teens is due to psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, there is absolutely no mental health support or suicide prevention hotlines provided anywhere in the show, and while warnings appear before a few episodes, they do not cover just how graphic and triggering some scenes and episodes may be, especially for those who may be vulnerable to suicidal thoughts and other mental health issues. Verde would like to communicate that any person who is feeling depressed, troubled, or suicidal can call 1-800-273-8244 to speak with a crisis conselor. If the threat is immediate, call 911.

In a petition that has gathered more than a thousand signatures, an anonymous parent describes in forceful language the boundaries that many believe are being crossed by the Palo Alto Unified School District’s new curriculum on sexual education for 7th graders. Parents rail against situations offered in the Health Connected curriculum that discuss underage drinking, explicit sexual acts, masturbation, non-heterosexual sex and adult situations concerning initiation of sex. The condemnations that have rung out from parents have coalesced into a movement to create a curriculum that is more age-appropriate. According to Trinity Klein, Paly English teacher and parent of a PAUSD middle schooler and elementary schooler, “One of the scenarios that was excerpted for the petition was two girls having sex, and some families who might be less comfortable or accepting might find it uncomfortable, but I just see it as keeping it real.” Our publication supports the idea of revising Health Connected’s curriculum to include fewer, less graphic scenes concerning underage sexual intercourse. Instead, more scenarios involving discussions of consent should be implemented. That being said, we support the same diversity in scenarios that is currently included in the curriculum, and would like to see more hypotheticals that show what a respectful relationship looks like, with more open discussions around how to deal with difficult issues. Furthermore, we ardently oppose any efforts to stifle proper sex education. Verde respects the importance of having a thorough sex education curriculum that adequately prepares middle schoolers for the intricacies of the high school experience. We want more open, frank and direct discussions around what it means to be a healthy and flourishing teenager.

“

Reporting by NOGA HURWITZ

ASB ANSWERS What can we expect from ASB next year? I see ASB reaching out to more groups on Paly’s campus and expanding our focuses onto more events than just the ones that we already have and love like Spirit Week. I want to see more spirit events throughout the year and see the grades come together.”

- Michaela Fogarty, ASB Vice President Elect

“

SUMMER BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS 1

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

We’ll Always Have Paris by Ray Bradbury

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Now that the television adaptation of this dystopian classic has premiered on Hulu with rave reviews, there’s no better time to read the original version. Part satire and part grave warning, “The Handmaid’s Tale” takes place in the fictional Republic of Gilead, a Christian theocracy that has replaced the United States. Though it is by no means a breezy, mindless beach read, it is a vital one, particularly for anyone who’s looked at authoritarian governments in distant places and assumed that such a thing could never happen where we are.

Short story collections are perfect for summer reading, and this one packages Bradbury’s beautiful writing and storytelling into 22 individual tales that are easy to read through quickly (think anywhere from five to 20 pages per story) and then to mull over for days. Expect a mix of macabre humor, science fiction, and offbeat mini-memoirs. There is something for everybody, and enough variety to keep each story fresh and unexpected.

Like the show, the book — which deals with the struggles of its protagonist as he listens to a set of tapes left by a classmate who committed suicide — has its fair share of flaws, and the subject matter is heavy for a summer vacation book. Still, if you want a book that explores teen suicide from an unorthodox and profoundly human perspective, and if you’d like to come to your own conclusions about the controversy behind it, “Thirteen Reasons Why” is worth reading. Text by TAMAR SARIG

VERBATIM: What are your study tips for finals?

"I would recommend going to a space that’s creative, yet encourages focus with a couple of friends. For me, that was Philz Coffee for the last two finals."

"I make sure [to know] if I need to study early or not, and for every unit, I take down a few concepts I miss on the test so I can study that.”

"Don’t do work in a bed. You’ll fall asleep.” — ALICE ZHANG and JERRY HONG, seniors

— VIVIAN FENG, sophomore

— MATTHEW NEMETH, junior

Reporting by ALLISON CHENG

Summer Adventure Flowchart Quiz Don’t have any summer plans? Worried that by the end of summer you won’t have anything cool to share on the first day of school? Look no further — Verde’s got you covered. In this summer-edition flowchart quiz, find out the perfect summer adventure based on your interests. Text and art by EOIN O’KRAMER

Stay inside

Technological or Traditional?

Traditional

Tech n

ologi

cal

Hide away in your room or go outside?

Go outside

Expositions or Expedititions?

ns Expositio Exp

edit

ions

Pick up a book that’s a genre you wouldn’t usually read. Try your hand at Internet coding based puzzles, or code your own game. Visit cultural locations like the MoMA or smaller historical sites. Hikes can be local too! Hike and have a picnic in places around the Bay.

CASUAL SUMMER FASHION

Text by STEPHANIE LEE Photos by STEPHANIE LEE and THOMAS CHAPMAN

Summer is flying toward us, but the temperature seems to be stuck in the 70s. It’s a bit of an awkward time of to decide what to wear right now, because it’s a debate over whether to stay warm or dive right into the new season’s fashions. Fret not! Verde’s Stephanie Lee and Thomas Chapman are back again with outfits that will keep you looking fresh.

black choker striped t- shirt

gray tank top

palm tree shorts

denim jacket

black leggings

Quality energy saving cookingware used by professionals

- Water boils 30 - 50% faster than in a normal pot. - Decrease in cooking time --> food retains more nutrients. - Decreases emissions released into the air --> healthier indoor environment. - Saves energy --> helps preserve the environment. - Get your quality cooking ware at turbopot.com

(650) 906-3036 • granvillefit@gmail.com • www.granvillefit.com/

RUN TO STIMULATE THE MIND

M - F @ 6, 7, 8:30 a.m. on Cubberley Track, 4000 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto

GET FIT WITH G:FIT

★ All outdoors! ★ For all ages & fitness levels ★ Lifelong wellness habits ★ Quality instruction ★ Team-building M, W: circuit training T, Th: weights/dumbbells F: #hippocampusloop FREE CLASS EVERY TUESDAY @ Athleta in Town and Country 855 El Camino Real, Palo Alto

verdemagazine.com

The Peery Family Center, Palo Alto High School’s new athletic complex, is set to open to the public on July 21. The center features state-of-the-art technology that integrates cutting-edge advancements, according to Rishi Tupe, a project engineer working on the project. The 92,000-squarefoot building includes two separate gyms, a media room, dance studio, wrestling room, weight room, remodeled locker rooms and trainer’s room.

A PEER INSIDE

A firsthand look into the new athletic center Design by ASHLEY HITCHINGS Photos and text by ALLISON CHENG and MEGAN CHAI

MAY 2017

news Parents protest new sex-ed curriculum

SPEAKING UP Senior Magdalena Renteria voices her concerns to the Palo Alto Board of Education regarding the student who allegedly committed sexual assault. Photo by Frances Zhuang.

District responds to assault allegations

OMMUNITY MEMBERS ARE looking forward to the results of a formal investigation into the district's handling of sexual assault allegations related to a male Palo Alto High School student. The investigation, approved after a May 16 emergency board meeting, is to be led by law firm Cozen O'Connor and came after frustration erupted about a lack of district transparency regarding the three assault allegations. Verification of the allegations has been deflected, as federal law prevents the school district from disclosing much about the investigation and disciplinary actions taken, according to district spokesman Jorge Quintana. Some students say they want to hold the administration accountable for not taking sufficient action and being more transparent. “It’s really sad to not hear anything from them,” says Palo Alto High School senior Magdalena Renteria in an emergency school board meeting on May 16, referring to Paly staff. “I am walking around other students who could have been a victim of what he is doing.” Other students believe the administration should not be blamed. “I think that a lot of people have been criticizing [Paly Principal] Kim Diorio despite the fact that the [law] is the reason that much of the information has been withheld,” says junior Kesi Sound. Like Renteria, junior Edan Sneh also says students should have been aware of the acts of assault. Sneh, however, is more reserved about immediately criticizing administration. “A lot of the information isn’t out yet and I think that people shouldn’t just jump to conclusions,” Sneh says. As of May 16, the assailant will not complete the school year at Paly, according to his attorney in a statement to the Daily News. v by DANIEL LOGAN

EWLY IMPLEMENTED sex-education curriculum in Palo Alto middle schools has stirred up controversy among parents. Health Connected provides the curriculum, Teen Talk, which addresses the changes required by the California Healthy Youth Act which was passed in January 2016 and mandates public schools teach a more inclusive and comprehensive form of sex-education. Some of the new topics include sexual identity, pregnancy options, sexual assault and consent. However, the changes have prompted complaints from parents who believe the curriculum is inappropriate, too casual, and encouraging of bad behavior. “For some kids who have taken the course, it has caused anxiety, stress or [has been] upsetting,” says Jingjing Xu, parent of a sixth grader in Palo Alto Unified School District. Laura Prentiss, a social worker and parent, supports the curriculum’s additional information on consent and different sexualities and advocates for it at an even earlier age. “More education is better and it actually prevents the behaviors,” Prentiss said. “[It is important to] look at more than the biology.” While Xu says the curriculum is not age-appropriate, her main concern is the lack of transparency. “We urge the school to form a committee ... [of ] teachers, parents and students and to make the whole procedure transparent and show scientific evidence for why and how we have this [curriculum],” Xu said. “If we end up with the same, we’ll fully support it, but it’s important to make it accessible and transparent.” v by REBECCA YAO

verdemagazine.com

Arts director no longer to be consolidated

Library to undergo remodeling NEW AND IMPROVED The library renovations aim to provide students with increased accessibilty through a more modern design, which features more multipurpose spaces and dividers. Picture courtesy of Deems Lewis McKinley Architecture.

HE PALO ALTO Unified School District Board of Education decided on May 3 against its plan of consolidating the Art and Music Director positions. In an effort to reduce costs, the school board drafted a proposal for recommended cuts on April 18. Not rehiring an elementary-level Arts Director after the current one retires and merging the art director and music coordinator roles was estimated to save around $186,000. However, the proposal sparked discontent, especially amongst members of the PAUSD art community. “I was not pleased with the initial proposal,” senior Ibby Day says. “I think the arts, both visual and performing, are certainly less valued than STEM … in PAUSD.” After students and faculty spoke up against the proposal, the school board decided against it, opting to maintain separate positions for Arts Director and Music Coordinator. “I'm so grateful for Paly arts,” says sophomore David Foster. “We have to keep them strong. We cannot push the ridiculously large task of managing all art and music to one person.” v by ASIA GARDIAS and DEEPALI SASTRY

CHEDULED TO CLOSE for remodeling later this year, the Palo Alto High School Library will implement changes meant to create a more student-centered environment for collaboration. According to librarian Rachel Kellerman, she and Principal Kim Diorio are hoping to replace the old-fashioned look that characterizes the current library with a very different, more modern aesthetic. “We’re going for contemporary cozy,” Kellerman says. According to Kellerman, the library is a teaching, study, creation and relaxation space. To ensure that all of these functions are achieved, she intends to increase accessibility and student space by 20 percent. An abundance of soft seating and high cafe tables will be located near the entrance of the library while open, high density stacks of lesser-known books will be stored near the back. Transparent collaboration rooms will also be available as a space for students to be louder, while study rooms that epitomize tranquility will be built solely for quiet student use. Multipurpose rooms will double as teaching spaces and collaboration rooms for students, who can use a large whiteboard divider to create separate spaces for club meetings. Finally, the library will no longer serve as a “passthrough” for students traveling across campus. Instead, hallways will be installed adjacent to the library and function as a gallery section displaying student art along the walls. “The idea is that it’s a place for students, celebrating student work,” Kellerman says. v by STEPHANIE YU

City of Palo Alto to host upcoming Code:ART festival

CAVE OF WONDERS To be featured in Lytton Plaza, the Caustic Chasm uses ever-changing, cell-like modules that reflect and diffract light. Photo courtesy of Elise Demarzo.

MAY 2017

S PART OF the upcoming Code:ART festival on June 1-3, the City of Palo Alto will transform public spaces downtown with installations of innovative art interventions. According to Public Art Program Director Elise Demarzo, the concept of Code:ART originated from the City’s outreach efforts. “As part of the outreach to commuters and downtown businesses, we heard over and over about how commuters felt isolated from the city,” Demarzo says.

The installations will include unique and interactive light displays, musical installations and architectural constructions, blending art and technology to engage commuters and community members. “While we love murals, we wanted to use these blank canvases as an opportunity to engage the brain ... that lives, works and plays here to share their ideas on how to activate these spaces in a way that is better suited to Palo Alto,” Demarzo says. v by MEGAN CHAI

news

PAUSD to change mental health service provider

N TUESDAY, PALO Alto High School was set to propose a change in mental health service providers to the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education for the 2017-2018 school year. Adolescent Counseling Services, Paly’s current student health and counseling service provider, has opted out of continuing their partnership with the school. In efforts to replace ACS, Paly has given a list of service requirements which includes requests for “wellness and balance” and “evidence-based school counseling models” to health providers. Three providers responded to the proposal, with the district committee selecting Counseling and Support Services for Youth, an organization that already works with Palo Alto elementary schools,

as its recommendation for the district. CASSY will cost around $470,000, an increase from the $230,000 for ACS, according to the PAUSD School-Based Counseling Proposal Review Committee. The review committee mentions that switching to CASSY will be a wiser decision both in terms of budget and consistency throughout elementary, middle, and high school mental health services. “The provider the committee recommends (CASSY) uses a school-based counseling model and its staff are licensed mental health providers,” says Jeorge Quintana, the PAUSD Communications and Community Engagement Officer. v by ANGELA LIU

Caltrain grade separation to be considered for implementation

BACK ON TRACK Commuters wait to climb aboard the train. Projects like grade train separation have been proposed to improve their transportation. Photo by William Dougall.

ALO ALTO IS once again exploring Caltrain grade separation as part of possible major construction and landscape alterations. Grade separation, the physical separation between railroad tracks and roadways, would eliminate potential accidents and improve traffic circulation, according to Caltrain. Given the federal government’s recent decision to withhold $647 million for the electrification of trains, the previous plan of the City Council Rail Committee, grade separation has become the new topic of interest. According to Tom DuBois, chairman of the City Council Rail Committee, while this project will not be directly im-

plemented any time soon, the committee says it plans to involve Palo Alto residents for every step of the process. “It’s very expensive," DuBois said. "Some options may involve changing some of the roads. What we need to do is really analyze it and figure out the tradeoffs.” On May 20, the city held a community meeting to gauge interest and discuss the logistics of grade separation. “We expect there to be many meetings in this process to start over the next couple of years,” DuBois said. “What we need to do is really analyze it and figure out the trade offs.” v by RIYA SINHA

Libraries to host "finals grand slams"

EVERAL PALO ALTO libraries will host Finals Cram Slams during finals week for high school students to provide a space for studying and destressing. Palo Alto High School librarians will extend library hours until 8 p.m. on May 23, 24, 25 and 30. Teachers will be available at the study sessions to assist students and dinner will be provided in the Student Center. “I admire the librarians’ dedication to stay so late into the night so Paly students can use the library,” says sophomore Julie Meng. “Also, free dinner!” The Mitchell Park Library and Community Center will also coordinate to provide finals study spaces for students. From 3-9 p.m. on May 24 and 25, the Mitchell Park Library will provide snacks, have therapy dogs in the library and offer games such as air hockey and ping-pong in the Teen Center. “Our wonderful teachers deserve praise as well for staying late to help out," says Paly librarian Rachel Kellerman. "We always receive good feedback from students and usually have well over 100 students each day participating.” v by OLIVIA BROWN

verdemagazine.com

Spat over expansion THE NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS OF CASTILLEJA’S CONTROVERSIAL CONSTRUCTION Text by ALIA CUADROS-CONTRERAS, MEGAN CHAI and TARA MADHAV

Art by Megan Chai

LL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND and war. invasive redevelopment that increases traffic Or, love and construction. — the opposite of what Castilleja claims the Inside a wood-paneled conference construction project will achieve. room on the second floor of the CastilleContradictions are rampant through ja School’s administration building, architect Rob- what Castilleja and the PNQL claim transert Steinberg flips through Powerpoint slides of pired in their interactions with the other. Castilleja construction plans. Serene watercol- From the number of construction plans proor depictions of modern bike pavilions and vided to the residents to the impetus behind smooth entrances to a new underground taking down a redwood tree on Castilleja parking garage flash by. campus, tensions run deep between the two These plans will allow Castilleja to sides. At the forefront of a growth -versus-resgradually increase enrollment from idents debate that has hung over Palo Alto for the current 438 students to 540 the past few years, Castilleja and the residents students through several major are at odds. construction projects. Castilleja’s efforts, however, have trig- Origins of the debate gered an adverse reaction from When Castilleja approached the city residents living adjacent to council with an admission of over-enrollthe school. ment at 450 students and a request for a Toward the end of new conditional use permit that would allow the presentation, Cas- them to expand enrollment in 2012, it had tilleja Head of School several intentions in mind. Nanci Kauffman “Our feeling was, we should be optisarcastically remarks mizing this campus,” Kauffman says. “And in response to neigh- to me, optimizing is educating as many girls borhood protests, “Chil- as we can without negatively impacting the dren going to school! Can you neighborhood.” imagine?” When Kauffman and fellow adminisTwo weeks later trators revealed that and a few blocks away, they had over-ena group of neighborhood Optimizing is educatrolled and were residents who live adjacent hoping to expand to ing as many girls as we to Castilleja gather and pour accommodate more over the latest architectural can without negatively students, the reaction plans around a solid marble from various neighimpacting the neightable. The air smells heavily borhood residents borhood.” of pancakes, residents lean was strongly adverse. — NANCI KAUFFMAN, principal of the back against deep couches, In particular, the resCastilleja school and indignant voices reveridents were angered berate throughout the house. at what they saw Called the Protect Neighborhood Quality of as an intentional increase in the number of Life group, these residents want to protect their students enrolled and Castilleja’s subsequent neighborhood from what they believe will be an efforts to accommodate that violation.

“

MAY 2017

features Gesturing to a Powerpoint presenta- pansion plan] is not pleasing 100 percent of tion he had copiously put together, Nel- the people, they [Castilleja] certainly have son Ng, a member of PNQL, describes made a tremendous effort.” how the number of enrolled students However, the PNQL says that they gradually increased to 438, with Castille- have only seen two plans — one on June ja admitting an additional one to 15 girls 30, 2016 and the other on April 29, 2017. every year since 2002. According to Ng, “They [Castilleja] were touting [it] as this increase in enrollment violates the if the school had put neighborhood input CUP with which Castilleja is currently into this [the plan],” Reed says. operating, which was established in 2000 More contradictions arise throughout with the stipulation that they would not the history of this interaction. For example, grow beyond 415 students. last year, Castilleja decided to cut down a “That [2012] was a hard time for redwood tree, which the Palo Alto City arus, and I’d get up in front of the student borist diagnosed as diseased and as a danger body and I’d say to them, ‘Look, Castille- to the student body. PNQL questioned the ja is not a good neighbor,” Kauffman says. motives for this action, as the redwood tree “We over-enrolled, and we shouldn’t have was in the direct path of Castilleja’s prodone that. So we’re applying for a new posed parking garage entrance. Believing permit.’” that Castilleja’s motives were tainted, the The neighborhood group saw this PNQL hired their own arborist to invesover-enrollment as an intentional viola- tigate the tree. The residents’ subsequenttion with hidden economic motives and ly stated that the tree did not need to be great profits for Casremoved. While the tilleja. was eventually If you’re adding stu- tree “If you’re adding taken down, the resstudents every year, dents every year, idents claim that the that seems pretty intree did not actually that seems pretty tentional to me,” says suffer from any disAndie Reed, a mem- intentional to me.” ease. — ANDIE REED, member of Protect ber of PNQL. “It [the tree] Neighborhood Quality of Life With the perwasn’t in any danmission of the city, ger of falling down,” Castilleja was allowed to freeze their en- Reed says. rollment at 438 students in 2015. The viSuch an incident only added to the olation of the original CUP, however, has lack of trust of between the two parties, and led to trust issues between the two sides. served as fuel to the fire. “They have a history of not abiding by what they’re supposed to do,” Reed Effects of the falling out says. The conflict between the residents and With subsequent plans to increase the school has elicited negative reactions even further on campus and residents’ from both sides regarding the contradicobjections to plans that would violate the tions in their experiences of the conflict. original CUP, the stage was set for a con- As the conflict continues, PNQL signs deflict between the two sides over the future nouncing Castilleja construction continue of the school. to multiply across Palo Alto front lawns, and Castilleja continues to push forward Conflicts and contradiction with their construction plans, with each A feeling of mistrust towards Cas- side believing that they are right. tilleja is prevalent throughout the PNQL Kauffman touches on the effects that group. For one, Castilleja says it has cre- PNQL and their signs have had on the ated five construction layouts and accom- school environment and Castilleja’s stumodated the concerns of the residents at dents in light of other problems the comeach creation of a new plan, a claim which munity faces. directly contradicts that of the residents. “I will say that the younger girls don’t Steinberg stated that he “has never quite understand, but the older girls, they worked with a plan that has tried harder wonder,” Kauffman says. “It’s like, we’ve [to accommodate residents]. If it [the ex- had an election, immigration problems,

“

Castilleja’s plans for construction

o increase enrollment as well as to mitigate traffic, Castilleja has proposed a construction plan that will occur in three phases. Castilleja’s aim is to incrementally increase the enrollment cap after each stage of its three-phase redevelopment of the campus. Phase 1: Castilleja will build an underground parking garage, allowing the school to redirect daily drop-off and pick-up traffic from Bryant, through the underground garage, onto Emerson, and then Embarcadero. The school believes this will help reduce the daily morning traffic in the surrounding neighborhood, alleviating the neighbors’ concerns about Castilleja’s increased enrollment. Phase 2: After the completion of the underground garage, Castilleja will replace its current classroom buildings with a single, two-story building. While rebuilding the classrooms, students will temporarily be moved to portables on the field. Phase 3: The last stage of the redevelopment will lower the center of the campus to decrease noise and reroute truck deliveries and waste pick-ups through the recessed circle.

For more information on Castilleja School’s development plans, visit bit.ly/2pMK7mv

verdemagazine.com

human rights violations. There are so many more than 250 “Stop Castilleja Expansion” issues that we’re all confronted with and signs that line Embarcadero Road. Howevvery concerned about…,” Kauffman says. er, Reed paints a different picture of Cas“It’s hard for them to understand how this tilleja’s and the PNQL’s publicity attempts. can be so important to the neighbors who “They [Castilleja] are much more adlive near the school.” ept at PR [public relations] than we are, On the other side, Reed says that the and how to spin it,” Reed says. members of PNQL fully respect Castilleja and their mission — they are concerned Moving forward with the school’s actions regarding the As the dialogue between Castilleja and planned construction. For the neighbors, the PNQL continues, there is hope for a the Castilleja expansion is a crucial issue for more collaborative discussion. the Palo Alto community which will have “We don’t want to make this a divisive as much of an impact as seemingly “great- moment in Palo Alto,” Kauffman says. “For er” national issues like us, we’re just going to immigration. keep moving forward We want to be able “We want to be with our application.” to coexist with Casable to coexist with Kauffman goes Castilleja, but Castilleja tilleja, but Castilleja on to add that she behas to be able to coexist lieves the conflict with with us,” Ng says. “So has to be able to the neighbors will imfar, we feel like they’re prove once Castilleja coexist with us.” trying to push their begins to focus on — NELSON NG, member of Protect agenda without thinkpublicity and informNeighborhood Quality of Life ing about the neighbors ing city residents of quality of life.” their plans, as a main goal of the school is Attempts to spread publicity about the to conserve the neighborhood quality of life project have also had an impact. As of late during and after construction. April, Kauffman says that Castilleja was “I don’t want to be depicted in any just starting to get the word out about their way as being against the neighbors,” Kauffconstruction plans. man says. “I think most of them are misin“We’ll be having to make more of an formed.” effort to get the word out,” Kauffman says. For the residents, until the plans ex“Some of our families are really upset with clude so-called invasive features like an unus that we hadn’t done it sooner.” derground parking garage, it will PNQL has already made several public be difficult to come to a statements with their petition and the consensus.

“

Kimberley Wong, a member of the PNQL, believes there needs to be more consideration for what the neighborhood can actually handle, not just what Castilleja wants to do. “The neighborhood is not changing,” Wong says. “We can’t accommodate more. We need to look at what the school and the surrounding neighborhood can accommodate. We need to be part of that conversation.” No matter the conclusion of this debate, it’s clear that the result of Castilleja versus PNQL will have lasting ramifications for the Palo Alto growth-versus-residents debate. Whether the city chooses to grant Castilleja a new CUP or is swayed by the indignant cries of the residents, they will set a precedent for the future that determines whether our city will continue to expand or preserve its existing neighborhoods in the years to come. For now, Kauffman and the neighborhood residents are focused on the city’s upcoming decision on Castilleja’s CUP.Standing in the hallway outside the Castilleja conference room, Kauffman stares pensively at the wall of Castilleja graduating class pictures. Through her eyes, we see her ideal future — a class of 540 graduating girls smiling in neat rows, another 125 girls being educated at Castilleja. As she escorts us out of Castilleja’s main office, she gazes out at the black and red signs professing “Stop Castilleja Expansion” and “Protect Neighborhood Quality of Life” which line the street. She is back in the present. v

Art by Aishah Maas

features

verdemagazine.com

IS BIG BROTHER WATCHING? A LOOK AT SURVEILLANCE IN SILICON VALLEY Art by EOIN O’KRAMER

Text by ANGELA LIU and EOIN O’KRAMER

ONSIDERING THAT SILIC- on Valley is deemed a pillar of technological strength, it should be expected that this model of technological integration would translate to a well-grounded, secure surveillance system, especially in the field of education. However, many students and professionals have voiced concerns about the Valley’s surveillance policies and programs, especially in the Palo Alto Unified School District, which has implemented many district-wide monitoring tools built into browsers and school devices such as the recently distributed Chromebooks. According to the district, their security methods serve to disrupt student access to websites deemed inappropriate for educational use to in order to better create a learning environment. However, these programs have also have been able to track complete student activity on forums such as social media, almost without any form of restriction. The Tracks of PAUSD Unassuming and in fine print, the words, “no expectation of privacy” are carefully nestled in the pages of Palo Alto High School’s technology agreement handbook. A critical and often overlooked facet of the district’s student technology policy, the message sends a quiet warning to all its users. According to PAUSD security manager Ignacio Padilla, this policy gives the right to the district to collect and review all activity on the school-issued Chromebooks: social media, online chat room com-

munications, emails sent and received, to more severe offenses like accessing sites that were visited, and softwares pornographic material all falls under the downloaded. policy. “We have searched student acMany students, like sophomore Ori counts,” Padilla says. “Searches are typ- Katz, don’t see eye-to-eye with the district ically triggered if we have received a re- regarding the ethics of such thorough quest from teachers surveillance. or administrators. “I think it’s a pretTeachers should What we are specifity obvious invasion of cally looking for dif- monitor and come privacy,” Katz says. “I fers case by case.” understand that they around once in a The Paly hand[the school] want to book’s lack of while to make sure make sure that kids are specificity in the their students are on topic and they aren’t identification of going on websites they perpetrators is what being productive, shouldn’t be on, but the allows PAUSD full school shouldn’t have and if they’re not, jurisdiction over all access to stuff that dedegrees of technol- it’s their own loss.” tailed.” — ORI KATZ, sophomore ogy misuse. These As a solution, Katz searches can be caradvises against surveilried out at any time considered suitable lance at the district-level. without notice to the student. “When there’s worktime in class Under what the handbook classifies teachers should monitor and come as activity having “no educational value around once in a while to make sure and to [being] potentially harmful to their students are being productive and students,” everything from trivial mis- if they’re not, it’s their own loss,” Katz conduct, such as playing online games, says. “It’s not a solution to just go and look at exactly what the kids are doing.” However, the stretch of PAUSD’s online surveillance reaches beyond the scope of chromebooks and to a much broader audience across Palo Alto schools: enter Student Wireless, the primary internet server designated for student use. Student Wireless has the ability to geolocate students’ whereabouts when connected to the wifi, a common but widely unknown capability of

“

MAY 2017

features wireless networking systems, according to Padilla. “[The district] tracks what device was connected to a certain point to see when the event happened and who was on that server at the time,” Paly Internet Technology worker Neeraj Chand says. According to Chand, this technology was used to catch someone posting on behalf of principal Kim Diorio, as well as to track stolen property.

first and only web filtering company to introduce the notion of a take home policy which allowed schools to set a more relaxed policy away from campus.” Madhusudan explains that Securly monitors students’ social networking posts, surveying for negativity including self-harm and bullying. “As a result, the 99 percent of kids who use these media for positive outcomes do so unimpeded. While those amongst your community who might be Securly: The future of school moni- in need of help get timely intervention toring programs? from an adult,” Madhusudan says. Among the many Web-based security Derek Moore, PAUSD’s chief techprograms PAUSD has implemented over nology officer, says that the prothe years, not many have sparked con- gram was initially put in troversy within the district at the same place in the district in relevel as Securly, a Silicon Valley startup sponse to parent feedback founded in 2012 whose program was im- during information nights plemented into the district in 2017. as many parents worried that Securly aims to create a safe and co- the school issued Chromebooks hesive learning environment for students made available to sophomores by acting as a cloud-based extension on and juniors were acting less as educathe Chrome browser, which tracks stu- tional tools and more as distractions for dent activity whilst on the browser, and students. reports any potentially harmful online Securly’s built in “parent dashboard” behavior, according to Securly’s informa- also allows parents to check in on all of tional website. What sets Securly apart their child’s online activity under certain from conventional web monitoring tools circumstances. used in educational facilities is that a reg“Parents do not have visibility ular tool would outright block non-edu- into browsing traffic for their chilcational websites such as those alluding dren while at school, only when the to social media, while students are using Securly instead takes 99% of kids who use the device off cama more liberal appus“ Moore says. these media for posproach. Katz also states Instead of block- itive outcomes do so that one of the primaing social media alry reasons for student together, Securly in- unimpeded. While opposition against Sestead offers a flagging those amongst your curly is the fact that algorithm for social few are fully aware of community who media posts which can the policies. determine with rela- might be in need of “I didn’t know. tive accuracy whether Not enough people the content contains help get timely inknow about the fact anything suggestive tervention from an that kids are being of ‘harmful’ activiwatched and monties such as potential adult.” itored,” Katz says. — BHARATH MADHUSUDAN, suicides, according to “Kids are not being Securly Co-Founder Bharath Madhusudan, told what’s being done. one of the co-founders The chromebooks are of Securly. just a way for parents and teachers to “Most schools block Facebook and find out exactly what kids are doing on Twitter for students,” Madhusudan says. the laptops.” “As a first step towards nudging schools While the parent tracking feature away from this practice, Securly was the Securly offers may be restricted, its exis-

tence serves as a silent warning for those who assume they can browse without regulation and oversight. Regardless of this fact, some students still remain wary of potential parental and district involvement in the students’ online affairs. “It’s an invasion of privacy,” Katz says. “Even if they have your well-being in interest and they have good intentions for you, it’s still an invasion of privacy especially because a lot of the kids being monitored don’t know they’re being monitored.” v

“

verdemagazine.com

A Safe Haven for All? BAY AREA IMMIGRANTS SEARCH FOR A HOME Text by ASHLEY HITCHINGS and FRANCES ZHUANG

ENDEZVOUSING IN THE library would be safer, we decided. Safer than her apartment, where two out-of-place teenagers knocking on her door in the middle of the day might attract unwanted attention, unanswerable questions and a visit from a customs official the next day. Nestled between bookshelves and tabletops meant to provide some semblance of privacy, the back corner of a library is where we meet Grace, an undocumented immigrant whose name has been changed to protect her identity. Although we were nervous about the meeting, it was clear that Grace was far more trepidant than we were. As we lusted after a story, Grace mustered up the courage to trust us with hers. The question then was, how far did we have to step out of our world to understand hers? The pilgrimage When she crossed the Mexican border, she was only 16. A victim of sexual assault

in her workplace, Grace escaped one hostile environment only to enter another. Young, naive, and afraid but resolute, Grace took whatever measures were necessary to bring her to the United States. “They took advantage of my innocence,” she says, recalling how even those helping her cross the border were also assailants who would often violate the people seeking their assistance. Her journey and hardships would not cease once she entered the States. Even after 24 years, her background continues to haunt her. Being subject to blackmail from employers who refuse to pay her and threaten to reveal her immigration status, receiving intimidation from strangers as she drives down the street, fearing that at any moment immigration officers will pound on her door and separate her from her children — these are the terrors that rouse her from her slumber and keep her up at night. “Every day I wake up at five in the morning ... because I can’t go back to sleep,” she says, her voice thickening as she tries to suppress tears. “We don’t know if we’ll

Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN wake up another day in this country or we’ll wake up the next day back in Mexico.” When we ask about her family, her tears inadvertently begin to flow. “[When] I came to this country … that is when I gave up my possibilities and instead I took all the effort and put it into my children,” Grace says. As we speak with Grace, we don’t see a criminal, nor a freeloader here to bank off welfare, nor a “bad hombre,” as the President Donald Trump formerly labeled undocumented immigrants. We see a survivor of assault and bad circumstances that never stopped plaguing her. A woman who wears her fatigue and resilience in the bags under her eyes and on the wrinkles on her still-young forehead. A mother who gave up her life so her children might have a chance at one. One of 2 million undocumented immigrants in California and 180,000 in Santa Clara County, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, Grace is not alone in her plight.

features Trumped-up immigration tion is very detrimental to a student’s ability Following Trump’s inauguration in to learn, according to Ravenswood SuperJanuary, the new administration has re- intendent Dr. Gloria Hernandez-Goff. leased a slew of mandates and executive “You can be sitting there but your orders cracking down on immigration with mind isn’t able to focus,” she says. “I’m not renewed vigor. sure how much the students can actually Increased deportations have not been absorb and process with so much going on the only result. Hate crimes have increased in their lives and with their families.” 20 percent, due in part to the recent elecOrganized by the district, support tion cycle and a nationwide programs for the community trend of xenophobia, achave also experienced cording to a report by sharp decreases in atthe Center for the tendance following Study of Hate Trump’s orders. Discrimination and and Extremism. “We have a differences existed “They [imfood program migrants] are so and the first week before. The current often a target of after the execuadministration just political rhetoric tive order came that obscures out, we had half brought a face to what immigraof the number of what [it] looks like.” tion law does people that norto communities,” mally come,” Her— GRACE, undocumented says Matthew Sellnandez-Goff says. immigrant ers, a law student at For many RaStanford University who venswood students, that’s specializes in issues of imthe only good meal they’ll have all migration. “When politicians like day. Out of fear, they go hungry. the president paint immigrants with such a While we spend our lunch money in broad brush, some of the sentiments that it Town and Country, most Ravenswood stokes damage relations for people who are students have no lunch money at all, let here whether they’re here lawfully or not.” alone lunch that’s not provided by the Grace recalls how one day as she was school. While our stomachs are filled with driving down the street and passed a car go- overpriced snacks, theirs are filled only ing in the opposite direction, the driver made with worry. In response, Ravenswood has a finger gun and pretended to shoot her. declared itself a haven and worked in tan“The discrimination and differences existed before the current administration,” Grace says. “[It] just brought a face to what discrimination looks like … [and] people who are very open with their sentiments have come out of hiding.”

“

Learning to cope “Imagine going to school and worrying that you might get deported or that the identifying information you hand over … would put you at risk of being deported from the only country you’ve ever known as home,” Sellers says. “That’s an impact that I don’t think we can underestimate.” In East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood School District, where many students are undocumented and more than half of the students are homeless or live in vulnerable housing, the resulting atmosphere is especially pernicious. The omnipresent threat of deporta-

dem with the City of East Palo Alto to aid residents with services, support and info sessions teaching residents about their legal rights and reassure them that local police officers are there to protect, not deport. “They already have a lot of challenges here with ... everybody working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, and then this [the executive orders] on top of that creates a lot of stress,” says Hernandez-Goff. “So that’s what I wanted to do — provide some reassurance and let people know that their children’s safety and well-being was our number one concern. When push comes to shove ... we’re not just going to serve up information on a silver platter at the drop of an authoritarian piece of paper.” Education: the great equalizer Despite, or perhaps because of, her own lack of an academic background, Grace tells us she believes education is especially key for children of undocumented immigrants. This mindset — that education is a commodity rather than a chore — may explain why second-generation immigrants are bigger economic contributors than their parents and even native-born workers, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences. “As an immigrant, it’s much more difficult to have access to resources,” Grace says. “That worries me — that I don’t have access to some resources that I can use to benefit my children because they come

TOGETHER Grace holds hands with her children, who reach out to console her as she retells her harrowing experiences. Though her sons are citizens, she worries about being separated from them and about the challenges that they may face coming from a partially undocumented family. Photo by Frances Zhuang.

verdemagazine.com

from a family of mixed immigrant status.” “We as immigrants have an obligaEven with the turmoil plaguing her, tion to this country and we have ways Grace constantly supports her children by that we contribute to the country,” Grace bringing them to and from school, assist- says. “That in itself should bind cities ing them with homework and frequently into protecting residents regardless of having conversations with them about the whether they are undocumented or not.” importance of education. Since the beginning, America has “Despite the language barrier … I am been a nation founded on immigrants, and still someone who’s very passionate about continues to be to this day. Removing all education and will not just advocate for my undocumented immigrants from the U.S. own children but the children who need would reduce the country’s gross domestic someone to advocate for them so that they product by over $1 trillion, according to too can prosper,” she says. the American Action Forum. Bouncing from one meeting to the For the sake of securing a better future next, Grace is part of a parent group fight- for her children, Grace embarked upon on ing to better education in her community a treacherous journey. Regardless of counthat succeeded in bringing a high-achieving try of origin or immigration status, ulticharter school to the area. mately, everyone in this country is chasing “For myself and the families I know the same dream. The difference? of a similar status, a lot of our The country we were born, contributions go into the decided completely by way we form our famchance. ilies that contribute As Grace opens We need to equip and work hard and up about her past, our children so they are here to succeed,” she shows us her she says. sincerity, her dilican ... challenge the Grace’s pride in gence and her grit rhetoric that we are her children is evthat have enabled ident in the shine her to undergo uncriminals when in of her eyes and the imaginable difficulreality we are not.” straightening of her ties, achieve incredi— GRACE, undocumented back. Despite her famble triumphs and push immigrant ily’s difficulties and her to change her surroundown lack of higher educaings for the better. tion, Grace’s eldest now attends But she’s just one woman. One a prestigious university and her young- of millions of undocumented immigrants er kids are on the path to college as well. who left their countries of origin to give “We need to equip our children so their all to their new home. One of millions they can adequately represent us in the fu- of undocumented immigrants who face the ture and begin to challenge rhetoric that we risk of deportation, detention, violence and are criminals when in reality we are not,” being separated from their families every she says. “It’s about building families and day, horrors that most Paly students have children who are the future and will con- never been forced to confront in their lives. tribute to the community as a whole.” For America to relearn the value of immigrants and mend fractured ties, for us to An exercise in empathy move beyond the differences that divide us, Ever since she entered this country, we must all make an effort to communicate Grace has been the target of animosity, an- with, empathize with and show compassion tagonism and anti-immigrant sentiment. to those who are different from us. Her undocumented status is an affliction “The Civil Rights Movement was not that she cannot shake, as there are no routes won only by people of color,” says Hernanshe can take to become a citizen without dez-Goff. “The gains came because people risking deportation. Like many other im- from mainstream society, affluent people, migrants, perhaps like some of our parents, celebrities ... educated people … [and] peoour teachers, neighbors and friends, she ple from all walks of mainstream America came here seeking a better life while being came together and joined in. That’s what’s willing to work to earn it. going to make this happen.” v

“

MAY 2017

Bay Area buffer: localities begin to take a stand

ome to more than 180,000 undocumented immigrants, Santa Clara County has the state’s third highest undocumented immigrant population, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Although this term is nebulous and ill-defined, according to Matthew Sellers, a Stanford law student who specializes in immigration, so-called “sanctuary” designations generally refuse to comply with federal ICE officers unless mandated to by documents such as warrants or subpoenas. In response, Trump has threatened to slash federal funding from these safe havens, a threat which has not been taken lightly. “The executive order … just says that cities that fail to comply with a certain federal law will be ineligible to receive federal grant money,” Sellers says. “From that perspective, the order is extremely damaging, because the uncertainty it creates about those funding sources. It’s a lot of really critical social safety programs at risk.” On April 25, a San Francisco judge temporarily blocked Trump’s attempt to withhold funding from sanctuary cities, citing an overreach of presidential powers. Nevertheless, many local cities which receive up to billions in federal funding each year have chosen not to take on the “sanctuary” label, despite taking the actions of one. Among them is Palo Alto, which has passed resolutions pledging to protect its undocumented residents and not cooperate with ICE unless legally required. “We’re not a community that’s just going to give people up because somebody has said so,” says City Council Member Lydia Kou. “We need everybody here, doing what they do, to keep the community thriving and vibrant.” Even so, the city decided against calling itself a “sanctuary.” “It’s a lot of money at stake for some cities,” Sellers says. “The federal government’s grant-making programs really do account for a large proportion of many city, state and school district budgets and putting those in issue could be a real problem for them.” Palo Alto Unified School District which gets most of its funding locally, however, passed a resolution on Jan. 10 declaring itself a sanctuary for undocumented students. “The intention was to make an explicit statement to all of our students that we are behind you, we support you, we want you here, we know you should be here and we’ll do everything we can to make sure you continue to get an education here,” says school board member Jennifer DiBrienza.

features Editor’s note: Resources for any person who is feeling depressed, troubled or suicidal are listed at the bottom of this article.

Text by RIYA MATTA and REBECCA YAO Additional Reporting by JOSH CODE and TARA MADHAV Art by ANNIE ZHOU

The InPatient Issue BATTLING TO BRING TEEN HOSPITAL BEDS TO THE AREA

A.M. — LISA HAO WOKE UP, BRUSHED her teeth, got dressed, ate breakfast and went to school just like she did every other day of her senior year in 2015. 10 a.m. — a police officer who was present for a fire alarm had overheard her friends expressing their concerns about her well-being, and ordered her to be placed under a 5150, an involuntary psychiatric hold. She was whisked away in an ambulance to an emergency outpatient center in San Mateo County to be evaluated and placed in a hospital. 10 p.m. — They couldn’t find a hospital bed for her, because she was seventeen and living in a county without adolescent-designated beds. She had been under emergency custody for 12 hours before being transported to Fremont Hospital in Contra Costa County, where she spent the remainder of the week as part of a teen inpatient hospital program, which provides intensive treatment within a secure environment for a variety of circumstances and which requires wards for patient housing The time that Hao, a former Gunn student, spent waiting to be transferred to a hospital illustrated how students facing emotional crisis often received inadequate support due to a lack of accessible hospital beds designated specifically for adolescents.

Indeed, following a series of local suicides that occurred in 2013 and 2014, it became increasingly apparent that hospital beds for teens in the Bay Area were ironically absent in an area where mental health issues are disproportionately prevalent. After years of working towards solutions, Santa Clara County signed an agreement in February with the San José Behavioral Hospital. The ward has opened in August of 2016, but the agreement will provide specifically for patients with commercial insurance in wards designated solely for adolescents needing psychiatric services. The need County Supervisor Joe Simitian, overseer of District five of Santa Clara County which encompasses the greater Palo Alto area, has been working towards bringing more teen beds to the area for about two and a half years. “It came to my attention that there really wasn’t a place, a secure facility in SCC that provided acute care for teens who were at risk of doing harm to themselves or possibly others,” Simitian says. According to the California Hospital Association, as of November 2016, only 13 counties out of the 58 in California had acute care psychiatric beds

verdemagazine.com

for adolescents. Until recently, the cy Psychiatric Care in San José, a facility Santa Clara County was not one of the that, at the time, did not provide inpatient counties with dedicated teen beds. beds for adolescents, but did provide 24“The concern is that on any given day hour care. there probably are 20 young people in SCC “I think the place itself was fine, but who need a secure care facility, a bed, in a the process needs to be improved,” James secure environment,” Simitian says. “That says. “I think there are certain ways to doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you real- speed up the process, like making sure there ize that typically stays in this situation are are enough doctors. I wasn’t even there for a about a week for every one of those kids full day; I can’t imagine people that have to — you’re talking times 50 weeks — [then be there for days.” there are] literally several hundred if not Jess, another Paly student, had to wait thousands of families who have this need.” several hours for a teen bed to become While the county does have 166 beds available before being checked into a hosset aside for adults, and an additional 40 pital for her depression. beds for general “You don’t get psychiatric care, It’s a good first step, but immediate care, San José Behavioral there’s a long proHospital is the first it’s only a first step, and cess, and you’re in the county with we still need to do more.” waiting to be transa ward designated ferred, and you — JOE SIMITIAN, county supervisor solely for adolescould be transcents age 11 to 17, ferred to multiple and is the first hospital to provide care cov- different places because they don’t always ered by commercial insurance. know how many people are coming in at all “Until recently that meant that here times,” she says. in the county we were sending kids as far Although the problem is being adaway as Sacramento, Sonoma, San Francis- dressed now, several factors have affected co, Fremont over in Contra Costa coun- the ability of the county to provide such ty,” Simitian says. “Even if somebody had beds. commercial insurance, the most convenient “As painful as it is to say it, money is place was Mills Peninsula Hospital up in part of the problem,” Simitian says. “This central San Mateo County.” is expensive care to provide, and if you’re Hao was one of the patients who went trying to persuade a particular hospital or out of county to receive inpatient care. From the time she left for evaluation to the time she was checked in at Fremont Hospital, she had spent almost 14 hours in transit. Hao says she found the quality of patient care at Fremont Hospital to be subpar, unhelpful and unconducive to her recovery. In her opinion, the lack of beds and resources result in a system that aims to release patients as quickly as possible, rather than provide quality care and support. “The goal is just to get discharged even though you’re supposed to be recovering,” Hao says. “Above all there just needs to be more funding and resources.” James, a former Paly student whose name, like all others in this story, has been changed to protect his identity, was also taken into a hospital. James was checked into the county’s Emergen-

“

MAY 2017

medical organization to provide this service, the first question they’re going to ask is ‘How are we going to pay for it?’” In addition, the need to provide inpatient services for adults has meant that adolescent needs have been undervalued in comparison. “It’s certainly less than ideal when you’re pitting adult health needs against teenage mental health needs,” Simitian says. “That’s not good for anybody.” The big picture Although Simitian has been pushing to partner with hospitals in the county, the beds are only a small part of the ongoing discussions needed to improve the way that the county deals with mental health. “I understand that the beds are part of a larger continuum of care, and have been working on that piece of it as well,” Simitian says. Steven Adelsheim, a clinical professor at Stanford who works in early detection and prevention of teen mental health crises, has been working toward improving the front end of the continuum — care and prevention of mental illness. “I think we do need inpatient hospital beds, but I also think that we need the front end of the continuum at least as much, and we don’t really have that very well,” Adelsheim says. “I’ve been concerned for most of my career about the lack of parenting of the service in relation to physical

features health services, and the lack of equity in terms of being able to access the needs that there have been for other physical health conditions.” According to the American Psychiatric Association, 50 percent of mental illnesses arise before the age of 14, and 75 percent by the age of 24. Often teens and their parents are not able to self-diagnose themselves and therfore are unable to get the initial support they need. “As a result, by the time they access services, very often their issue has progressed to a very serious point of where they require a much higher level of support and services, or even crisis intervention or inpatient stays,” Adelsheim says. Moving forward The agreement made with the San José Behavioral Health Hospital would allow patients with commercial insurance to have access to 17 adolescent beds in the county; the ward opened in August of 2016, but the deal with the county was only signed early this year. “I think that [it] is a significant step forward,” Simitian says. “But, it’s still not terribly convenient to a lot of the families that I represent in northern Santa Clara County; it’s in south San José, it’s still a long haul, particularly for families who are trying to see their kids at the end of the day, rush hour traffic, all of that.”

Adelsheim and a team of other psychiatrists have been working with the county and the district to provide support earlier on. “I think there’s been really good work at Paly focusing on breaking down the stigma through [Paly clubs] Let’s Bring Change to Mind and Sources of Strength,” Adelsheim says. “[These programs] are important in terms of helping young people feel more comfortable getting early mental health care, they’re important in terms of helping young people recognize early warning signs, and they are important in terms of helping young people know what to do when their friend’s distressed, and to get them the sort of services.” Simitian acknowledges that there is still a lot to be done. “It’s a good first step, but it’s only a first step, and we still need to do more,” he says. “I am particularly anxious that we do more in a location that’s going to be convenient for families in central and northern Santa Clara County.” Their stories “Do I have to go?” Gunn High School senior Lisa Hao remembers pleading to a psychiatrist. “Is there any way I could not go?” “I’m sorry,” she recalls a psychiatrist telling her in an unsympathetic monotone. “But this decision was made before

you got here.” Moments later, Hao was taken against her will to a transitional center, before an ambulance transported her to Fremont Hospital. “You guys didn’t even wait to see how I was actually doing,” Hao recalls thinking as a police officer whisked her away to the hospital where she would stay for the next three days. “I knew I was supposed to be getting help,” Hao says, “But I didn’t know what that would be or that I would stay there for three days.” Hao knew almost immediately that she did not belong at the hospital. “The only thing that helped me was that I hated it so much I knew I never wanted to go back which helped me take steps in the right direction.” Hao says. After a concerned friend reported him to a Paly administrator the winter of his junior year, James was taken to the facility and made to wait hours to see a psychiatrist. During this time, James was forced to witness adults violently screaming at police officers and begging for drugs. At the hospital, it seemed to James as if all the doctors were not giving their full attention to each patient, and the lack of communication from staff left many scared patients in the dark. “There is a lot of waiting around for people and uncertainty of what’s going to happen,” James says. Much like Hao, James feels that the biggest takeaways from this experience were his internal realizations, rather than the actual medical care that he received. “I think my reaction was, ‘This isn’t me, I don’t belong here and I didn’t belong with this people,’” James says. “But then I was also like, ‘You may not want to belong with these people, but you are here for a reason and you’re here to get help and this is the beginning of not demeaning yourself as a person but of using this experience as a wake-up call to realize how blessed you are.” v

If you are worried about yourself or a friend, contact the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800273-8255. If the threat is immediate call 911.

verdemagazine.com

We Still Exist

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENTS ON CULTURE AND CHANGE Text by ASIA GARDIAS and AMIRA GAREWAL

WE ARE HERE Masa Perez, a Paly sophomore, shares her experience as Native American student. “I think a lot of people are taught that we’re such a minority that we might not even exist — they talk about us like we’re extinct,” Perez says. Photo by Amira Garewal.

MAY 2017

N A CLASSROOM AT OHLONE Elementary School, the teacher stood in front of the class and asked students about what Native Americans liked — what types of food did they enjoy and what did they like to do? From the back of the room, one Native American student, sister to Paly student Masa Perez, raised her hand with excitement. When called on, she blurted out "pizza and soccer", as that was what she liked. In response, the teacher kicked her out of the classroom for being immature, and the child sat on the bench confused. She was Native American, and she enjoyed eating pizza and playing soccer, so where had she gone wrong? Perez, one of the few Native Americans at Palo Alto High School, thinks back to her sister’s story of the hurtful exchange which occurred in second grade. All too often, Perez says she notices a sense of ignorance towards Native culture. In reality, it was not the child who had done wrong — the interactions were a result of incorrect stereotypes about the Native people of this country said Perez. “Most adults and most of the people here are taught that we are something of the past, so they think of us as something of the past,” Perez says. “But we’re here. That’s what people need to realize.” During an elementary school simulation of the Gold Rush, Perez says she decided to dress up in Native attire and was met with hostility by her peers, who threw sticks and rocks at her. “Of course it was just a simulation and we were just little kids, but that really stuck with me,” Perez says. “I was just really just surprised — to be so much into a simulation that you actually throw sticks and rocks at another human being. So I can only imagine how it was when my ancestors were living.” A unique transition: reservation to the Silicon Valley Ty Wilcox is a Paly senior and member of the Navajo tribe. Before moving to Palo Alto, Wilcox lived on a Native American reservation in Arizona. With the nearest city over two hours away, Wilcox spent much of his early childhood in the woods with his grandparents, immersed in what he describes as the “Navajo way.” “Don’t disrespect anything that Mother Nature has created,” Wilcox says in ref-

features

erence to the ideology that has shaped a the population. In a totally new environ“I think you have a mixed bag,” Cloud strong part of his identity. ment, Wilcox found comfort in joining says. “Some [Native Americans] like the Growing up, Wilcox listened to stories the Paly football team, a place where he current administration and others cannot from family members about the horrific finally felt at home again. stand it. I for one cannot stand this adminconditions they experienced as the CathoHe played competitively on the team istration. There is not heart and there is no lic Church attempted to erase their Native until 2016, when he had his third con- sense of loyalty.” culture during the 1960s. cussion and said he could no longer risk “They [white people] were trying to the consequences. Although he plans to A veteran's opinion wash away all our religion, all our stories, go back to visit the reservation, he intends A man with a white, rectangular beard wash away our language,” Wilcox says. “The to go to college in the Bay Area. and a hat reading ‘‘Native American Vetchurches would go to the reservation, and eran’’ strokes a buffalo skin hanging on a take kids away from their families to take The issues of 2017 line by wooden clamps. While drummers them to boarding schools. At the boarding “I’ve lost a family friend — he play a steady rhythm in the background, he schools they raped them, beat them, torhanged himself,” Wilcox says. “I didn’t re- explains the buffalo’s significance in Native tured them and didn’t feed them.” ally know him. He was always gone when American culture, going into detail about Due to the immense we did go around there but how every part was used. Today, Enrique amount of oppression from what I heard he was go- Rudino stands proud as the chairman of My native that Native Americans ing through a lot of hardship.” the Fresno American Indian Health Projhave been subjected to Two significant problems ect, department commander for AmVets, culture is the throughout the United that the community currently and most importantly, a Native American. reason I can States' history, Wilcox faces are a high teen suicide Growing up, Rudino says he had a diffeels strongly that local rate and an unsure future with ficult childhood, often helping his mothbe so open schools need to teach the Trump Administration. er pick cotton while his father would get and so calm more about this discrim“Teen suicide rates have drunk. Later in life he developed an addicination in order to crebeen up for the past four years tion to methamphetamine but was able to at the same ate a more informed and and nobody knows why,” says eventually overcome his illness, focusing time.” knowledgeable public. Vernon Medicine Cloud, a his life on something new. — MASA PEREZ, In particular, he emmedical professional who “Native American culture saved my sophomore phasizes the need for more works with Native Americans, life,” Rudino says. “I wanted to make education about the oppression of Natives “It is increasing at an alarming rate.” a change so I embraced a culture. I am in the last century. Aggressive attempts to build the Apache.” “The kids who made it through [the Dakota Access pipeline by the Trump According to Native American stuboarding schools] and went back to the administration have made Native Amer- dents and leaders in the community, reservation were so traumatized that all the icans unsure of what future policies may pride is something Native Americans could do was just drink to try not to think bring. will never lose. However, the new federal about what had happened to them as kids,” Wilcox says. “That plagued other generations, because the kids whose parents were in the boarding schools witnessed drug and alcohol abuse, so that’s what they know. It’s been passed down to generation after generation.” Issues of substance abuse as well as poverty, are widespread across Native reservations. Government programs have not made significant progress towards improving the problem. “They need to set up programs to get the kids involved in what the kids are actually interested in,” Wilcox says. On the reservation, Wilcox spent years playing basketball, a sport popular with Native kids and an outlet that relieved stress. After moving to Palo Alto, Wilcox’s life shifted from being surrounded with Natives like him to finding himself in a school BLESSED Holding incense and the wing of a bird, a shaman blesses a Vietnam Veteran during the where Natives make up only a minority of Indian American Festival Photo in San Bautista, CA. Photo by Asia Gardias.

“

verdemagazine.com

administration, a lack of awareness and problems inside of the community trouble the Native Americans of California.

BUFFALO BONES Rudino stands in front of a buffalo skin held up on a line by wooden clamps. He explains how the every single part of the buffalo was once used by Native Americans. Photo by Asia Gardias.

MAY 2017

Holding on to traditions “My parents started to put me in the regalia [traditional clothing] and got me dancing around the age of four, and I think that’s built who I am today and got me so much more in touch with who I am spiritually and who I’d like to be,” Perez says. “I think that my Native culture is something that I hold very close to my heart and it’s the reason I can be so open and so calm at the same time.” Although Native Americans live throughout the Bay Area, Wilcox sees a lack of education about Natives in the local curriculum and flawed attitudes. He says that increasing this education is crucial to gain a better understanding of the Native community whose significant history is fading fast. “There’s no way to learn about it unless you teach yourself — so teach yourself about the native population,” he says. “We still exist and we aren’t the stereotypes that you hear about.” v

THE DEATH OF JANE LATHROP STANFORD EXPLORING THE MYSTERIOUS POISONING Text by OLIVIA BROWN and IRENE CHOI Art by Vivian Nguyen

S OF LATE, THE LEGACY of David Starr Jordan has been dragged through the mud. His unpleasant history as a eugenicist has been brought up frequently during board meetings, leading to debates over renaming Jordan Middle School. There is a chance, however, that an even darker title of Jordan’s has eluded the

public eye — murderer. As the first president of Stanford University, Jordan had plenty of opportunities to create a favorable friendship with the university’s co-founder, Jane Lathrop Stanford. However, near the end of Stanford’s life, their relationship soured because they began disagreeing on the running of the university. For years, the public believed that Stanford passed away from natural causes; only in the 1980s did Robert W.P. Cutler, an emeritus professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, bring up the possibility that Jordan plotted Stanford’s death. This theory is explained in his book “The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford.” In light of the revived dialog about Jordan, Verde reviewed Cutler’s evidence, as well as the article “The Case of Julius Goebel” by W.B. Carnochan, to investigate Stanford’s untimely death. We’ve laid out the evidence for readers to decide if Jordan

really conspired in the murder of the co-founder of one of the world famous academic institution. How it went down The bulk of Jane Stanford’s story was gathered from the testimony of Bertha Berner, Stanford’s maid of nine years. The transcription of her interview was printed in The Pacific Commercial Advertiser on March 7, 1905. According to Berner, on Jan. 14, 1905, Stanford was resting in her Nob Hill mansion when she noticed that the mineral water she was drinking tasted unusually bitter. Immediately aware that something was amiss, she made herself throw up, and sent the water to a pharmacist. This pharmacist would later find that the water was poisoned with a fatal dose of strychnine, which, according to the Center of Disease Control, is a lethal drug that causes severe, painful muscle spasms before they eventually give out, leaving the victim unable to breath. Stanford decided to move out of her mansion in order to escape the threat, and traveled to the Moana Hotel in Hawaii. On the night of Feb. 28, 1905, Berner was preparing a drink of bicarbonate soda for Stanford because she’d complained of an upset stomach. At 11:15 p.m., Stanford told Berner to call for a physician, saying she’d been poisoned. Unfortunately, the physician was too late and Stanford passed away. Gathered from Doctor Francis

verdemagazine.com

Howard Humphris, a physician who was Assessing the case present at Stanford’s death, “Her jaws The evidence implicating Jordan as clamped shut, her thighs opened widely, the murderer is extremely compelling. her feet twisted inwards, her fingers and For one, Carnochan found that Stanford thumbs clenched into tight fists, and her had Julius Goebel, her close friend and head drew back. Finally, her respiration head of the German department, keep ceased.” tabs on Jordan and report back to her According to Cutler, seven doctors, how he was running the university at one toxicologist, and the coroner’s jury regular intervals. of Hawaii would confirm that Stanford The letter was quite damning, partichad been poisoned to death; however, ularly to a few departments that Stanford when Jordan and his friend Timwas already biased against and to othy Hopkins flew to HaJordan himself. waii they hired their The rift between own physician, Stanford and Jordan Ernest Coniston seemed to come to Jordan’s theories Wa t e r h o u s e , a climax in late were immediatewho declared 1904; in a letter that Stanford to her friend ly eaten up by the had died from and member press, and the mura heart attack of the advisory after overeatboard Horace der of Jane Lathrop ing during Davis, StanStanford was pushed dinner. ford mentioned When news releasing Jordan away and forgotten. of Stanford’s from his position death first emerged, at the university. many publications Just a few months printed the Hawaiian later, Stanford was poiphysicians’ and chemists’ conclusion that soned to death, and Jordan managed to Stanford was poisoned; however, Jordan fire Goebel from Stanford. On June 1, seemed resolute that Stanford had died 1905, The San Francisco Call reported from natural causes. that though the charges against Goebel As stated in The San Francisco Call weren’t released to the public, it was wellon March 22, 1905, “The president was known that Goebel did not get along emphatic in reiterating his opinion there with the other professors in his departwas no question that Mrs. Stanford died ment. from natural causes.” In addition, Cutler later discussed Ultimately, the “natural-causes” how Jordan sullied the names and repuconclusion was generally accepted by the tations of the physicians and toxicologist press and the public, and Stanford’s mys- in Hawaii so the public would further terious death was widely forgotten about doubt their credibility. until the 1980s. Furthermore, Cutler says that the Many concocted alternative conspir- physician that Jordan and Hopkins hired acy theories as to what happened to Stan- was paid $7,000 by Jordan to write a ford; Cutler summarized a few of them, four page report on Stanford’s death. with the first being that some Hawaiian Within days of receiving his payment doctors and the sheriff fabricated evi- from Jordan, Waterhouse sailed to Ceydence of Stanford’s “murder” to get mon- lon, in present day Sri Lanka. While it is ey from the Stanford estate through fees. possible that the controversies surroundAnother one of the far-fetched the- ing the physicians all occurred due to ories claims that Stanford’s servants chance, it seems more likely that they all framed her secretary so she would not were related to Jordan in some way. get anything from the estate. However, If indeed Jordan took part in Stanthese outlandish theories were pushed ford’s morbid death, perhaps that would away and forgotten, at least for the next provide further reason to reduce his lastcentury. ing legacy on Palo Alto. v

“

MAY 2017

JAMES HOGUE GONE ROGUE THE LIFE OF AN INFAMOUS IMPOSTER AND HIS TIME AT PALY Text by ALICIA MIES and THOMAS CHAPMAN Art by ANGELA LIU

If James Franco is our most famous celebrity alum, and Jeremy Lin is our most famous sports star, surely James Hogue is our most famous con-man.

OTORIOUS IMPOSTER JAMES HOGUE WAS NOT ARRESTED IN a car chase or in a police shoot out. Nor was he part of a drug cartel, a Ponzi Scheme or a smuggling ring. Instead, he was caught in a public library taking a break from living in his makeshift shack on the steep slopes of a Colorado ski slope, where he lived alone for at least a year, according to Aspen police Detective Jeff Fein. But Fein was impressed with the shack made out of two-by-fours, one-by-fours, plywood, small windows and a sloped roof. The walls were well-camouflaged with forest-green and brown spray paint, making it almost impossible to spot, and the large swathes of scrub oak surrounding it were nearly impenetrable. Before we continue with Hogueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s story, know that the outrageousness of his living situation is not out of character. Hogue, infamous for posing as a student at Palo Alto High School in 1985 and Princeton University from 1986 to 1988, is a complex person. To write this story, we talked to his childhood friends in Kansas and those he deceived at both schools, and found that there is no consistent opinion of Hogue. Some claim heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a malicious imposter, while others assert that he deserved to "succeed" to the extent that he had. We merely ask that you strap in and judge the strange life of James Hogue for yourself.

In February, Fein's introduction to Hogue came in a confused call from an open space ranger about a hidden shack on Aspen mountain, Fein trekked to Hogue’s shack and knocked on his “door.” Upon hearing the knock, Hogue squeezed out of the small side window and took off into the woods, cleaning out the shack the next day, Fein told us. Two months later, Fein received another call, this time about Hogue living in a “hole in the ground” on the mountain. A ski company employee later saw him in a private parking space moving large Eddie Bauer duffle bags into his vehicle and using a stolen parking pass. Fein ran the plate and determined the owner was Hogue, a 57-year-old Mission, Kansas native who had a couple of warrants out for his arrest. “I started to do a little digging, put out his information to the papers, and, as a result of that, he was identified as being in the

library the next day,” Fein says. ing the image of the downtrodden orphan With a simple Google search, Fein who, despite his hardships, was naturally also uncovered Hogue’s past of self-inven- talented. tion and identity theft as reported by pubAlthough his story has been forgotlications like The New Yorker and New ten by many Paly students and teachers, York Times. Fein found that a 26-year-old Hogue’s recent arrest prompted us to take a Hogue posed as a Palo Alto High School se- deeper look at the life of Paly’s most famous nior under the name Jay Huntsman for two con-man and his twistedly American cycle weeks in 1985. He later created the perso- of deceptive self-creation. na of Alexi Santana, an orphaned farm boy with brilliant intellect and a talent for long A stop at Paly distance running. As Santana, Hogue atIn 1985, Hogue approached Stanford tended Princeton University for two years University cross-country coach Brooks from 1986 to 1988; he was discovered by Johnson as 16-year-old Jay Mitchell Renee Pacheco, a Paly graduate and Yale Huntsman, an orphan who had lived on University student who recognized Hogue a commune in Nevada before his parents at an Ivy League track meet. died in an automobile accident. Hogue “I became fascinated with this sto- asked if he could join the team; Johnson, ry,” Fein says. “Anyone who has their own amused by "Huntsman’s" ambition, directWikipedia page is of ined him to Paly. terest to me.” “I think it was Fein and his col- He looked young. He the same day that I leagues later discov- said that he was an heard from the athered that Hogue was director at Paly orphan. He was intelli- letic stealing and selling that there was a kid sportswear and arrest- gent. He seemed to dewho had checked in ed him in Nov. 2016. mand our sympathies. at the district office to In late March, he was try and get connectWhy question him? sentenced to Colorado ed,” says Paul Jones, state prison for six years There’s no reason to.” Hogue’s cross-counon charges of felony try coach at Paly who — JESSE MOSS, Paly alum and theft and felony possesretired last year. creator of documentary "Con-Man" sion of burglary tools, According to according to the Aspen Times. However, Jones, Hogue was provisionally accepted Hogue’s story stuck with Fein, much like it to the Palo Alto Unified School District does for anyone who hears about his many with little trouble and routed to Paly where identity transformations. he unofficially joined Jones’ cross-country Fein found that Hogue was a man of team. brevity, only responding to the detective’s Hogue, although shy and reserved, fit questions in a few short words. He didn’t in well with the team. His teammates were seem malicious, but he did paint himself moved by his story and were even more as a victim of the government and of so- amazed by his fast race times during praccial hierarchy and class structures. His long tice. history of deception was masked by a pale, He also excelled in his short time in aged and relatively small-framed body, and, the classroom. Esther Wojcicki, Paly jourmore than anything, he loved to run, so nalism teacher, taught Hogue in her senior much so that he was often times willing to English class. She remembers that he usurisk everything to compete. ally came into class late, but was very atBorn in blue-collar Mission, Kansas tentive and asked good questions. Howevto working-class parents, Hogue invented er, Wojcicki thought that he looked older and reinvented himself from scratch, creat- than his peers.

“

STANFORD INVITATIONAL James Hogue, a 26-year-old who posed as a senior for two weeks at Paly in 1985, ran in the Stanford Invitational, a cross-country meet for high school students. As an unofficial member of Paly’s cross-country team, he was allowed to run in the meet if he flipped his uniform and didn’t cross the finish line (the negatives of this picture were later inverted to show the inside of the uniform). Following Hogue’s phenomenal performance at the event, a local reporter discovered Hogue’s real identity after finding the birth certificate of the person that Hogue impersonated. Photo courtesy of Ernest Lee.

cover

"As a teacher, it was rude for me to even think that [he was older,]" Wojcicki says. "Even though he was very thin, you could see the shadow of his beard." Despite his apparent intellect in the classroom, Wojcicki recalls him rarely having interactions with other students. "He seemed really smart, but he had no groups that he associated with," Wojcicki says. Hogue exposed Hogue’s alias quickly began to unravel when he attended the Stanford Cross-Country Invitational on Oct. 7, 1985. Although he was not officially approved by the Paly athletic department, Jones and Johnson allowed Hogue to run at the event as long as he guaranteed that he wouldn’t cross the finish line. With his Paly uniform flipped inside out, Hogue was strides away from victory when he veered off, according to Jones. His performance at the meet attracted the attention of local media, particularly Jason Cole, a young reporter at the now-defunct Peninsula Times Tribune. After doing some research, Cole discovered that Jay Huntsman, the alleged self-educated orphan, was actually the identity of an infant who had died two days after birth at Stanford Hospital. He confirmed the stolen identity with the real Huntsman’s parents, and exposed Hogue in the Tribune. “Once he [Hogue] realized that he was going to get caught, he bolted,” Jones says. Even after over 30 years, there’s a tone of disappointment within Jones’ voice. “They [his teammates] all liked him. They were pretty upset that he pulled their chain when he left. It wasn’t like they hated him from then on. They were just really disappointed that he wasn’t what he said he was and that they had been bamboozled.” After Hogue left, both administration and students were left with unanswered questions. Arne Lim, a Paly math teacher who was in his second year of teaching during Hogue’s stint at Paly, was particularly baffled by his motives. “We’re still scratching our heads every so often to say, you know, ‘Why in the world would someone do this?’” Lim says. “Honestly, from my perspective, it was just strange. It was something that I didn’t think could happen again, although obviously he’s been quite the imposter.”

SHACK #1 AND #2 James Hogue lived in his hand-built shack (ABOVE) for at least a year, according to Aspen police detective Jeff Fein. After Fein and his colleagues knocked on the door of Hogue’s shack, he jumped out the side window and ran into the woods. Two months later, Fein received a call about Hogue living in a “hole in the ground” (LEFT). Photo courtesy of Aspen Police Dept.

Hogue’s easy entry into the school district forced the administration to take another look at safety procedures and athletic rules. According to Jones, a year after Hogue ran in the Stanford Invitational, the Central Coast Section created a much stricter rule against athletes competing in games and meets before being cleared by a school district.

successful to some extent to get away with it for a while. Was it harmless? Some would say yes, some would say no, because again it brings up a heightened awareness about safety, as well as a question about what is this person’s true motive. I don’t know. I laugh. I smile about it. I have friends who think about it also and just go ‘Yeah, that was really weird,’ but we just pass it off.”

A Gatsby story In the early 2000s, Paly English teachers Trinity Klein, Mike McNulty, and others taught The New Yorker’s published piece about Hogue in tandem with “The Great Gatsby” in American literature. Jesse Moss, the creator of “Con-Man,” a documentary about Hogue’s life, who attended Paly with Hogue, also made the connection between Hogue and Jay Gatsby, the iconic protagonist who attained wealth and status through self-invention. “I think fundamentally the film [“Con-Man”] was also about social class and America,” Moss says. “That sounds kind of clinical, but it was a kind of an X-ray of class in America. I love that he, like Gatsby, was able to transcend his low birth to attain this high position, but he was, like Gatsby, brought low. I think that makes it an extraordinary American story.” However, the lesson disappeared years ago, and memories of Hogue’s strange stop at Paly have somewhat faded. “When I think about it now, I laugh,” Lim says. “I laugh at the fact that someone would want to do that; that someone was

Moss’ thoughts As a student attending Paly while Hogue was there, Moss questioned why any 26-year-old would pass themselves off as an orphaned teen. But, rather than feeling betrayed, Moss was simply curious — a curiosity that later led him to make “ConMan.” “More importantly I think that we are trusting — that’s human nature. I think we [the Paly community] wanted to believe his story and we had no reason to doubt him,” Moss says. “He looked young. He said that he was an orphan. He was intelligent. He seemed to demand our sympathies. Why question him? There’s no reason to. That accounts for his success in part, that he was able to present himself and present his story in ways that we believed.” While creating “Con-Man,” Moss tracked down and interviewed Hogue while he was living in Colorado. But, in some ways, Moss was disappointed. Hogue wasn’t the charming and cocky criminal that he had imagined; in reality, he told us that Hogue was withdrawn and constitutionally incapable of being analytical, self-

verdemagazine.com

aware or emotionally expressive. “In fact, I found that the people who knew him told his story better than he did,” Moss says. “In a way that makes sense, because he was a kind of construction or projection of their collective, desires, fantasies, wishes. But that didn’t change the fact that he was kind of disappointing in some ways, but human, right? He was ultimately human and that’s what’s interesting.” Kansas origins When Keith Mark heard that we’re writing a story on his childhood friend James Hogue (or Jim, as his friends in Kansas call him), he jokingly — and we only later appreciated the irony of this — asked if we’re “actually student reporters, or just 26-year-olds pretending to be student reporters.” Mark’s path in life seems to be the antithesis of Hogue’s. The founder of his own law firm and the co-host of a talk show with professional wrestler Shawn Michaels, Mark lives a high-profile life in the small city of Mission, Kansas. Mission is blue-collar and working-class — a place where fathers — including Mark and Hogue’s — worked on railroads and their high school cross-country team prayed before meets. It was in the small Southern town of Mission where Hogue and Mark became friends. In fact, Mark was probably Hogue’s only close friend. They met in middle school when they ran cross-country together. “He was one of the smartest kids that I’ve ever known,” Mark says. “[A] very good, polite kid. Never in any trouble. Trained all the time. Had a tremendous gift to run. Literally the best runner — could’ve been Olympic class. He had big time talent is what he had. But, when we were in high school, he was very much an individualist

and he did not like to be told what to do.” in track, Hogue initially refused to run Hogue’s maverick spirit led him to re- the mile, but Hoblemann insisted, signing ject their high school track and cross-coun- Hogue up for the event. He was winning try coach, Wayne Hoblemann. A man who three and three-quarters laps into the race believed in his Christian faith wholeheart- when, instead of achieving another state tiedly and a coach for youth of all races from tle, he just stepped off the track. low to middle class families, Hoblemann “That was Jim’s way,” Mark says, “Jim recalls Hogue’s senior year, when he refused was the guy that would win the meet by to run for cross-country. a longshot and then while the other kids “The principal called me and said, were finishing up, he would go to his dad’s ‘Why isn’t Jim Hogue car and put on a full running?’ because he suit with the jacket and I got a kick out of was one of the best the tie and the slacks. runners in the state. the fact that he had When they were handI said, ‘He doesn’t duped Princeton Uni- ing out the medals, the like my workouts. He other kids would be versity out of tens of doesn’t think I know standing there in their what I’m doing.’ Prin- thousands of dollars. I sweats, just finished cipal said, ‘As long as running, drinking think it’s pointed that he wins, let him do their Gatorade and Jim his own workouts!’” a kid from where Jim would show up wearing Hoblemann says with and I come from — a sports jacket and a tie a hearty laugh. But, he he would get the Kansas City, Kansas — and deeply regrets his decifirst place medal.” sion to let Hogue train had the savvy to pull Hogue was known on his own. As the one over on all those for these strange quirks. leader of the Christian Hoblemann recalls how League of Athletes, rich people.” Hogue once attended a — KEITH MARK, James Hogue’s Hoblemann has seen high school miles away childhood friend the importance of from his house, instead having direct involveof his intended high ment in adolescent’s lives. school, until his school's administration “Some people’s lives are turned around found out. Hogue, Mark and Mike Shore, because of that [youth groups], but I didn’t another one of their friends and a fellow do that for him,” Hoblemann says. “I guess runner, used to sneak into golf courses and I regret just putting up with him. Maybe, play after hours. he would’ve gone out in the world and done “Well, as far as friendships go with Jim, what I would’ve liked to seem him do.” you weren’t friends unless Jim wanted to Despite Hogue’s lack of cooperation be friends,” Shore reflects. “One thing that with Hoblemann, he ran phenomenally his struck me that’s odd about Jim is, he would senior year, so well that he could have been wear bells on his shoes while he ran. It would recruited anywhere (He eventually ran at drive you nuts, and there’s no doubt in my the University of Wyoming from 1977 to mind that he did that on purpose to basically 1978.) After winning the state two mile get into other people’s heads. And it did.”

“

TEAM YEARBOOK James Hogue, as Alexi Santana, pictured in his track and field team yearbook during his sophomore year at Princeton University. He was later recognized by Renee Pacheco, a Paly graduate. Photo courtesy of Ernest Lee.

cover The lightning incident Something in Hogue changed when, the summer after Hogue’s first year at the University of Wyoming, Hogue and Mark worked for a professor catching butterflies and moths in Rocky National Park in Fort Collins, Colorado. While trekking the jagged rocks and taking in the picturesque views of the Rocky Mountains, the duo were caught in a lighting storm. Hogue, usually fearless and strong, was visibly shaken, according to Mark. “I think Jim thought he was invincible. What happened that day, even if he won’t admit it, is that he realized he was a mortal just like the rest of us," Mark says resignedly. "We all have that potential: good and evil, right and wrong. It wasn’t acceptable to me that Jim Hogue chose the wrong path because he wanted to do the wrong thing. That was unacceptable to my brain and I used the event at Rocky National Park as a crutch and excuse for me. I don’t know if it was the chicken or the egg, but I knew that the event happened and that he was never the same after that.” After the "lightning incident," Mark and Hogue had a falling out, and stopped talking. Despite this, Mark adamantly says that Hogue was a big influence and inspiration for him. “Jim said ‘Look you may be the smartest guy in your field, and you know eight of them,” Mark says. “‘If you run into someone who knows anything about your topic, don’t talk, just listen because they might know the one or two things that you don’t know. Even if they know one or two things, if it’s the one or two you don’t know, then you’ve gained.’” Like Mark, Moss insists that Hogue was someone with tremendous talent and great potential, but just misled. But, instead of pity, Moss often wonders about Hogue’s path in life had he not been caught by Renee Pacheco. “Would he have graduated from Princeton and would he be working? A scientist, working on Wall Street, a family man. I don’t know. Probably,” Moss says. “But the structures that supported him, that sustained him, that allowed him to soar at great heights at Princeton — they were taken away. Without that he just had nothing to fall back on. His life has been a downward spiral since then. I don’t think he belongs in prison.” v

PRINCETON PARTY James Hogue (pictured left) and Ernest Lee (pictured right, middle) attend a party for Princeton track athletes during spring break in 1988. Hogue is pictured in a sombrero, which happens to be Ernest's — he got it from a Chevy's on California Avenue. Photo courtesy of Ernest Lee.

Ernest Lee & Hogue at Princeton

rnest Lee, 31-year-old James Hogue’s cross-country teammate when he was at Princeton as the created identity of 19-year-old Alexi Santana, recalls a time when Hogue named all the mascots and school colors of obscure high schools in Kansas City, close to where Hogue grew up. His teammate, who was also from Kansas City, would confirm Hogue’s list, and the team would gasp in awe. “He [his teammate] would say, ‘How do you know all that stuff?’ and he [Hogue] would just shrug his shoulders and say, ‘Oh, I drove through town once,’ to add to his aura that he was this genius that could pick anything up,” Lee says. Lee, a graduate of Gunn High School and track coach at Gunn for 18 years, describes Hogue as a “weird guy" who didn’t socialize with the Princeton team. Hogue could name the streets and buildings of Lee’s hometown of Palo Alto from, what Lee thought, just from one drive through. But his peers thought his quirks were because he was slightly older, Lee said. (Santana told Lee that he deferred his application to Princeton a year to take care of his dying mother in Switzerland; in reality, Hogue was finishing a jail sentence in Ohio). When Hogue was caught by Renee Pacheco, a Paly graduate who recognized him at a Ivy League track meet, all of his peers, including Lee, were shocked. “I never thought of it as he took an opportunity away from someone else because he was an add on,” Lee says. “You kind of felt, team-wise, he was our No. 2 guy and you didn’t feel betrayed but you felt mostly embarrassed that he was part of the team. Wow, he fooled all of us.” However, for Lee, there seems to be something more sinister to Hogue's crimes. "In some ways, a lot of people cheer him on like "Yeah, you fooled the stuck up Ivy League school," Lee says. "But [when] he continued to do other stuff like fraud and petty crime, it's not a practical joke anymore." Not long after the Daily Princetonian printed a dramatic headline about Hogue — which ironically overshadowed headlines about the start of the Gulf War — Lee and his Princeton peers stopped talking about Hogue’s infilitration into campus. “For a lot of us, we didn’t really have the time to dwell in it anymore," Lee says. "You have your own stuff to do. The way that I actually went through that, I don’t appreciate how really weird it is from the other people who read about it. I think, especially for my teammates, it was just another cool college story and everyone has cool college stories right? This was ours.”

verdemagazine.com

MAY 2017

profiles

Uber Driven

Text by ALLISON CHENG Additional reporting by AMIRA GAREWAL

A KENYAN IMMIGRANT’S ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

RESSED IN A TEXTURED white shirt and black joggers, Joseph Ean Waitiki rolls down the window of his Uber-certified car, leaning across the center console to greet us. Ten minutes earlier, he was hesitant to be interviewed about his journey to becoming a driver for Uber, slightly puzzled by our unexpected request to ask him about his experiences. However, he calls back a few minutes later, eager to share his story, which began in 2006 when he immigrated from Kenya to the United States. Waitiki moved to the Bay Area, a place he describes as having “the money [and] the people.” Sighing deeply in between sentences, Waitiki rushes through the story of his immigration to America. “It’s different," Waitiki says. "When you move to the United States from Africa, everything is big and grand and mesmerizing. It’s confusing. And mayonnaise, what’s mayonnaise?” he adds with a laugh. “It’s different,” he repeats again, as he begins to tell the story of his initial goal to continue his education in America. “I came here to go to school; however, I could not translate my grades, so I had to go ahead and go to community college,” he says. Waitiki’s brief explanations of his intentions to attend school are quickly replaced by motivational mantras by which he lives and that emphasize the significance of following one’s passions. “You think everything is going to be structured, but no, you have to plant a seed,” he says. “A seed of what you love to do, your passions, and that’s what you go after.” Ultimately, Waitiki's journey to the United States allowed him to fulfill his lifelong passion of spreading Art by Eoin O' Kramer

EMPOWERED ENTREPRENEUR Joseph Ean Waitiki, who immigrated to the United States from Africa in 2006, uses his part-time job as an Uber driver to provide extra income for his start-up business, Trifecta SF. Photo by Amira Garewal.

music to the local community through his Uber driving as an alternate occupation. startup company Trifecta SF, an event-plan- “You can have a lot of free time to pursue ning organization that hosts new artists and dreams that you have,” he says. In Waitiki’s case, “dreams” refers to musicians, showcases local talent and suptaking his passion of music into “the next ports charitable events. “We are making it a mission of Tri- chapter of [his] life,” he says. Since his immigration from fecta to be able to connect Africa, his interest San Francisco to Africa,” You have to plant a in music has taken Waitiki says. seed. A seed of what him from being His part-time job a DJ to starting a as an Uber driver serves you love to do, your business — all that as an additional source while developing of income that also pro- passions, and that's new skills he hopes vides him with free time what you go after.” to pass on to future to support his endeavors — JOSEPH EAN WAITIKI, Uber driver generations. in entrepreneurship and “In the next business. “Working a nine-to-five job does not chapter of my life, I want to give this opallow me to spend as much time [because] portunity [of pursuing music] to the next my time is compromised,” Waitiki says. “It generation because I know how to do it as [becoming an Uber driver] freed up an up-and-coming artist in this industry,” my time to focus on my passion.” Waitiki says. Waitiki’s final words of wisdom for asHe highly recommends that other peo- piring entrepreneurs and students reinforce ple, especially those his life motto that passion and interest are who currently crucial for success in any business. “Do work mini- what you love,” he says, pausing in between mumwage each word. “Every day, do something little jobs, investigate towards a bigger picture.” v

verdemagazine.com

Text by STEPHANIE YU and GABRIEL SÁNCHEZ

A Misunderstood Malady A TEEN’S BATTLE WITH EHLERS-DANLOS SYNDROME

HE PHOTO TAKEN A YEAR ago of Leanne Miron at her violin performance with the Peninsula Youth Orchestra showed her at her best — she’d dazzled the audience with a spectacular rendition of the third movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and her form-fitting, strapless crimson gown drew much attention as well. But the significance of the dress extended beyond its beauty — its floor-length nature concealed her feet, which were bare for better balance. And then there was the stool positioned behind her, which had not served a purpose in the performance, but was there in case Miron needed to sit down — a preparatory measure for the solo violinist who had blacked out during her dress rehearsal. The performance marked the end — or what she hopes to be a temporary pause — of the former Palo Alto High School student’s violin career, which was cut short due to grievous health concerns. A difficult diagnosis Currently senior at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital School at Stanford, Miron has a severe case of the hypermobile type of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a rare, inherited category of disorders that affects the joints, skin, and connective tissue, as well as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and mast cell activation syndrome. From the age of 11, when she first exhibited symptoms, Miron has suffered in every aspect of her life due to EDS, POTS and MCAS. “I lost the function of my legs,” Miron says of her condition in April 2014. “I lost muscle, sensation in my stomach, except for severe nausea that was persistent. … I had all four limbs that weren’t working.” After she re-coordinated her muscles in an intense pain rehab program during the summer of 2014, Miron reached a point where she was able to exhibit the image of being “normal,” despite the fact that all the underlying issues remained and interfered

MAY 2017

A PERFORMANCE TO REMEMBER Miron stands before a crowd during her last performance with the Pensisula Orchestra, after her condition forced her to take a hiatus from playing the violin. Photo by Jeff Bartee.

with her daily life — she was able to practice violin, but intense pain in her arm limited her from practicing for more than five minutes at a time. Because the symptoms of her condition were not always self-evident in interactions with others, Miron was often misunderstood or dismissed by peers, teachers and even doctors. “[Doctors said] ‘There’s no way this could be happening. You’re making this up,’” Miron says. “They thought my parents were either doing something to poison me, or make me think that things were going wrong. I saw a neurologist who said … I could walk on my toes across the room with no pain and no issue, when I tried to stand up and collapsed.” Miron recalls a conversation with her P.E. teacher, to whom she had tried to ex plain her health condition.

“The P.E. teacher told me I couldn’t be in the class, because I couldn’t participate,” Miron says. “I was trying to tell him this is a chronic issue; it’s not going to go away. And he told me, with that attitude, it was never going to go away.” A passion inhibited In spite of the pain and exhaustion, Miron refused to give up violin. In 2013, she began working with her teachers to practice more effectively. “I couldn’t spend four hours a day practicing,” Miron says. “I had to learn how to practice differently. I would [tell myself ], ‘For five minutes, I’m going to work on this section, and here’s how...to break it down.’” The restructured mindset increased the quality of practice and drew admiration from her peers, who were impressed with

profiles her self-control and driven nature. Despite these changes, Miron was not reaping the benefits of her hard work. “It was really frustrating,” Miron says. “I was practicing really well, but because it was so sparse, I was falling behind where I wanted to be.” A victory in her orchestra’s concerto competition allowed her moderate gratification for her hard work and an opportunity to perform solo; however, Miron blacked out during her dress rehearsal and was unable to finish. Fortunately, Miron performed successfully when the time came and greatly enjoyed the experience. “I was barefoot in order to balance better,” Miron says. “Especially then, I was having a hard time standing. I had a tall stool behind me for the performance, in case I needed to sit down. I’m really happy I didn’t need it.” The solo performance, however, marked the temporary end of her musical journey. Chronic dislocations in her shoulder and hip joints eventually put violin out of the question.

regular doctors and juggling a minimum of ten appointments each week. “I have chronic pain, which I’m always going to have,” Miron says. “I have acute pain from dislocations and subluxations. I have neurological issues that may or may not go away as I get older. The biggest thing I’m working on is acceptance.” This acceptance derives from reconciling herself with her unique identity. Miron knows that her distinctive trials are inevitable, and is focused on equipping herself to confront them physically and emotionally. “I have a lot of limitations, and it takes

longer for me to do things,” Miron says. “I’m probably not going to graduate college in four years, which I’m okay with. I’m not going to be music major, which I really wanted to be.” Despite all the negative consequences that have arisen from her battle with EDS, Miron strives to adopt a more optimistic outlook on her situation and future. “I’m much more driven to learn,” Miron says. “I’m going to school not because I have to, but because I want to be at school. What I’ve gained most is being really self-motivated and driven.” v

More than just man’s best friend Although her inability to play violin has taken an emotional toll, Miron draws comfort from the companionship of her service dog, Moo, who has been a source of happiness in the midst of her challenges. “My [service] dog is amazing,” Miron says. “She’s totally turned my life around in terms of feeling capable, and she helps me so much. I feel like I’m capable of something because I take care of her; she relies on me.” Moo’s presence alone serves as an indication of her health condition to those who may not be aware, and it also provides an opportunity to spread awareness for illnesses and disabilities that are not self-evident. “I love when I get asked by kids; they’re genuinely curious,” Miron says. “A lot of times I’ll explain…‘Have you ever seen a blind person with a dog? The dog acts like their eyes. My dog acts as my arms and my back, because she carries and picks things up for me. With people caring and asking, it gives me more hope.” Fighting for a future Despite her growing hope, Miron still grapples with the reality of her situation, which includes working with a team of 20+

MORE THAN A DOG Miron cradles her service dog on a bench at Paly. “I feel like I’m capable of something because I take care of her; she relies on me,” Miron says. Photo by Emma Cockerell.

verdemagazine.com

Text by DANIEL LOGAN, NOGA HURWITZ, and MADHUMITA GUPTA Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN and EOIN O’KRAMER

Leslie Lamport

THE LOCAL CHANGING COMPUTER SCIENCE

OMBINING TWO ACAdemic fields can be met with great resistance, but when the combination of mathematics and computer programming solved a problem that has stumped experts for years, Leslie Lamport, a Palo Alto resident and computor scientist, spurred a whole new form of programming and won the Turing Award in 2013. The Turing award is an international recognition given annually to an individual who has pioneered a new field of thought in the realm of computing. The award comes with financial incentive as well, with $1 million awarded to recipients, though the prize money is far less significant than the prestige. Previous recipients have developed cornerstones that we now consider integral to our understanding of computer science, such as contributions to artificial intelligence and the development of programming languages. Lamport received the award for “Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System,” a paper that he authored in 1978 which extends computer science into new fields. Lamport is straightforward, but somewhat modest about his accomplishments. “Jim Grey, another Turing award recipient, commented that some people found [the paper] trivial and others found it brilliant,” Lamport says. “I can’t much argue with the first view and feel disinclined to argue with the latter.” The paper was a highly simplistic view at a new field in computer science, and allowed for more in-depth views to extend on his work. Lamport defined a way of ordering events in a distributed system so that one event precedes another if and only if the first event can affect the second. In an online lecture series, Lamport says says in reference to the award: “My

most important contributions were not solutions, but recognizing important problems that had been obscured by details.” The Turing Award is named after Alan Turing, who contributed greatly to a team that used primitive computer technology to crack Enigma, the Nazi communications code used in World War II. Turing is also an icon and hero in the gay community for being homosexual in an intolerant England. Lamport says that more time should be spent learning lessons from Turing’s work as opposed to speculating about his sexuality. “There was a TV series about Turing as the main subject was Turing’s homosexuality instead of the contributions that he made to the field and the mark that he left on the world,” says Lamport. Despite this, Lamport has no doubt that Turing’s work is one of the greatest, if not the greatest innovation in the history of computer science. “When you look at a Turing machine, it seems very simple, but it was a brilliant new way of viewing computation," he says. "So, in a similar but much less significant way, what I did was really simple, but on the other hand a completely new way of looking at something.”

The impact of Alan Turing's work revolutionized our understanding of computer science. Lamport’s work allowed for new experimentation among programmers in ways that had never before been possible. Between the glamorous products of CEOs and ambitious entrepreneurs who live here in the Silicon Valley, it is easy to forget the groundbreaking foundations that residents here for generations have been developing. Lamport is one of these gems and has truly made possible a great expansion into existing and future coding and programming methods. v

verdemagazine.com

Keepers of the Campus THE UNTOLD STORIES OF UNSUNG HEROES Text by ASHLEY HITCHINGS and MICHELLE LI

OUNGING IN A MOMENT of leisure, the Palo Alto High School custodians vy for space with the mountains of miscellaneous appliances that clutter the custodial office. Sunlight and laughter light up the garage-turned-office-turned-storage-space and its contents — mini fridges, vintage microwaves, power tools and random knickknacks that cover almost every visible surface. The shriek of a walkie talkie jolts them from their idling and sends them bustling out the door and aboard their battered, Paly-green Textron E-Z-GO flatbed golf cart. We ask if we can catch a ride and they gesture for us to hop on before turning the keys in the ignition and taking off towards the Media Arts Center, where they’ve been called to set up for a staff meeting. We drive past throngs of students whose faces are painted with relief and fatigue as they begin their daily pilgrimage home. As their school day comes to an end, the work of Paly’s custodians is only beginning.

MAY 2017

The American dreamer It’s almost 6 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, hours after most students have already left campus, when we begin our escapade. Silence permeates throughout the campus in the absence of its chatty adolescent population. Only the occasional Rubbermaid carts, equipped with brooms, brushes, spray cans, dustpans and a yellow vinyl bag, give indication that anyone is nearby. It is as we meander past the English building that we notice one such contraption and meet Cuong Giang, the man operating it. Giang says he was born in South Vietnam and spent the first half of his life there, running a small business until the end of the Vietnam War. After the fighting had quelled, Giang and his family immigrated to the United States in 2001 to get away from the Communist government. He spent his next five years working at 99 Ranch Market, a Chinese supermarket chain with several locations in the Bay Area, before being introduced to his current job by a friend. Even though his job is taxing and re-

quires heavy labor, Giang is still grateful to work where he works and do what he does. “We have a higher pay,” Giang says. “We have break, vacation, any benefit we got it all.” Like many immigrants who came to the U.S. in search of a better life, Giang sought, and says he has found, the American Dream. “It’s very different because in Vietnam, the pay for one month is just enough for food,” Giang says. “Right here, [with] the pay for one month you can pay anything, you can get anything. The loan, the mortgage, the food and whatever you want, you just buy it.” In his 60 plus years, Giang has experienced war, discrimination and moving to a foreign country halfway across the world, despite not having a full grip on the language. However, throughout our brief conversation with him, Giang doesn’t dwell on the negative for more than a moment. His sunny outlook shines through in his frequent smiles, animated gestures, and constant affirmations about how fortunate he is. “It’s good, for sure,” Giang says. “It’s the American life.”

LEFT Serafin Barron, Wesley Slack, Tap Phou and Rowel Gregorio sit in their Textron EZ-GO after setting up for a staff meeting in the MAC. BOTTOM CENTER Regina Buckner takes a brief break during a long day of work. TOP RIGHT Cuong Giang smiles wistfully after recounting memories of his life in Vietnam. BOTTOM RIGHT Arvin Alumte lets out a bashful smile as he recounts his dreams for the future. Photos by Ashley Hitchings.

music runs through her veins. Though her grandchildren are still young, ranging from a 1 year old to 8 years old, she hopes they will eventually develop the same love for music she possesses. “I sing with [my granddaughter and we harmonize together,” Buckner says. “She’s only eight but she knows how to harmonize now, so it’s pretty good. I’m saving [my] bass guitar for the oldest boy, so hopefully he’ll be able to pick it up.”

Proud grandma The bell rings and we ride the wave of home-bound students before veering off at the junction between the robotics lab and the portables, heading towards the unassuming, usually-locked door that opens to reveal the custodial office. Regina Buckner is the only one there when we arrive. She’s among the first faces on campus in the morning and has been working at Paly for eight years. She’s also the only woman in the department. Raised in the Bay Area as a pastor’s daughter, Buckner says she grew up in church, splitting her time between Palo Alto and San Mateo, where her father preached at an Apostolic church. When her mother fell sick, she moved back to the Bay Area from Texas and eventually took on her current job. “The best part of my job is waking up early in the morning,” Buckner quips, before letting out an almost inadvertent laugh. She continues more seriously, saying, “It’s great working here at Paly. You know, everybody is nice, including the students,

Working Towards an Education As Paly custodian Arvin Alumete cleans and closes up the athletic center at the end of the day, Paly athletes seeking various physical needs pause to greet him as they enter and exit the tiny building. “All the kids over here are really nice,” Alumete says. “Over here, a lot of guys say ‘Hey what’s up man.’ The players, trainers, coaches are so nice over here … It’s always the best thing for me.” A custodian of three years at Paly, Alumete’s story began in the Philippines where he was born and spent the majority of his life. It wasn’t until 2012 that Alumete moved over to the United States when his parents petitioned him and his sister over to their new home. His journey over, however, would lead to personal sacrifices. “I was supposed to study, but I told to my sister that she can study first and that I can find a job,” Alumete says. In the meantime, Alumete is saving up for the future and to help pay for his mother to receive citizenship. As one of the youngest members of the custodial department, Alumete’s custodial job marks the beginning of his career. With his whole life ahead of him, Alumete is hopeful for the future and what it will bring. As he divulges his eventual aspirations, his eyes shine and he lets out bashful smile. “In the future, I want to be an automotive worker at the ... college at Newark,” he says. “I want to fix some cars.” Speaking from his personal experiences, Alumete strongly emphasizes the importance of education, especially given the tradeoffs he’s had to make and the difficulties he’s had to face. “Just focus on your studies and say thanks,” Alumete says. v

everybody says ‘Hi’. That’s what I look forward to every day: a smile and saying hello to everyone.” “The worst part of my day?” Buckner says. “I don’t think I have a worst part of my day here. Not here. Not yet.” Though Buckner is a woman of few words, she gradually opens up, letting us in on her amiable humor and frequently breaking into warm, hearty laughter. She’s also a grandmother of four, though she doesn’t look it, with seldom a grey hair in her neatly slicked-back bun nor wrinkles behind her black cat-eye glasses. Whenever she has vacation time, she uses it to visit her grandchildren where they live in Stockton. “I have … two grandboys and two granddaughters,” Buckner says, her eyes softening as her voice turns warm and affectionate. “[They’re] wonderful. They are the highlight of my life.” A singer and a musician, Buckner’s penchant for music can be heard in the melodic lilt of her voice, every sentence lyrical and smooth. Formerly part of a family choir,

verdemagazine.com

MAY 2017

profiles

Photo by James Poe

Peace through Wrestling CHAMPION COMES OUT ON TOP IN BATTLE WITH DYSTHYMIA Text by MEGAN CHAI and ASHLEY WANG

N THE DAY BEFORE A wrestling tournament, Sara Aguilar eats two Quaker Chocolate Crunch Rice Cakes and 10 almonds, though she sometimes caves in and eats another two rice cakes with peanut butter in between. She also takes sips of water: at least a bottle and a half, but never over two. What Aguilar, a Palo Alto High School senior, is going through, is the process of weight-cutting. In addition to brutally restricting her calorie intake to a nearly negligible value while concurrently dehydrating herself dry, she also runs in layers of sticky sweatpants and hoodies with the heater on blast to sweat away the lingering fluids in her body system. Repeating this tried-andtrue system for a week drops Aguilar at least a full tens digit, or however much she needs to reach 164 pounds. That’s her weight class: the number on the scale she needs to be under, or else face disqualification. For Aguilar, this process isn’t hard. She’s used to it, being a threetime Central Coast Section medalist, twotime CCS champion, the first-ever female wrestler from Paly to place at states and an All-American, a title she earned after her latest feat of placing second at nationals. She’s even pinned down guys before, and has achieved an extraordinary streak of 19 consecutive wins in a row. Titles and accomplishments are practically synonymous with Aguilar’s name in the wrestling com-

munity, and her talent lives up to her rep- with her, she adds, but it wasn’t until midutation. dle school that she was referred to a psychiAt competitions, Aguilar holds herself atrist. In seventh grade, she was diagnosed with a rare calm. She chats with her team- with dysthymia, a continuous, chronic mates, nibbles on food and finds some- form of depression. Caused by a chemical where silent to walk around while she waits imbalance in her brain, Aguilar’s disorder for her name to be was a source of called. overwhelming anLike LeBron Some people don’t get ger, panic attacks James with his chalk and despair. She it and say it’s nothing. dust or Calvin Johndidn’t want to son with his yoga But they don’t get that do anything, she warm-up, Aguilar also wasn’t functioning things accumulate.” has her own pregame and she was failing — SARA AGUILAR, senior ritual. Believing there middle school. to be a mental component in every sport, “I was just so tired of it. I felt alone,” she begins every tournament by first repeat- Aguilar says. Tears well up in her eyes and ing shortened Bible verses she has written she blinks them away. “I felt empty. I had a down in her wrestling journal. super low self-esteem. I hated myself. I felt “I tell myself I am creative, that I have like I had nowhere to go. It was just a huge, wisdom,” Aguilar says, smiling. John 3:16 dark, empty space. Some people don’t get it is her favorite verse. “I like to open up my and say it’s nothing. But they don’t get that lungs and sprint. Just a lot of motion. Then things accumulate.” I take a deep breath and, like a dragon, A month after being diagnosed, Aguiblow everything out. And I’m ready to go.” lar attempted to take her own life. The next As natural as Aguilar’s pro-athlete com- day, an ambulance escorted her to a psychiposure seems, the kind of self-command atric hospital. She stayed there for three of she possesses hasn’t always come to her so the most traumatic days of her life. effortlessly. She actually describes feeling a “The little part of me that was still bit off for as long as she could remember. there felt like it was being ripped away when I was [at the hospital],” Aguilar says. Battling with isolation “I had no identity or purpose.” In elementary school, Aguilar says she When she went back to class, no one didn’t talk to anyone. Both she and her asked her what had happened. Because teachers knew there was something wrong Aguilar lived in Redwood City while at

“

verdemagazine.com

tending school in Palo Alto, her closest friends felt more like distant acquaintances than anything else. There was no one she could talk to, so she didn’t say anything.

Both Wang and Aguilar describe the team a second family, where everyone depends on one another to grow as athletes. As she herself received little support in the past, it was a surprise to Aguilar that she was actually helping her teammates. “There are people that tell me that they look up to me,” she says. “It’s nice to know I have the ability to inspire others. It feels good.”

Searching for strength Throughout middle school, Aguilar’s P.E. teacher had been hounding her to join the wrestling team after seeing her intensity when competing. Despite having always declined in the past, she felt that her time at the hospital merited some type of change. Finding balance So when the winter wrestling season came Despite feeling like her anger has along in her eighth grade, she tried it out cooled since her younger days, Aguilar says for the first time. Aguilar blushingly admits she still cries sometimes. As her psychiatrist to being completely out of shape and untold her, chronic depression isn’t a condiable to keep up at times, yet she ended up tion that will ever go away. Aguilar instead falling in love anyway. describes it as a situational thing, where her “It was a 180 mindset change,” she sensitivity to the emotions of others causes says. “It helped me get out of my comfort her to absorb anxiety during stressful times zone. I was scared of failing. But in wres- of the year. Worrying over her future and tling, you fail all the time.” what she could have done better in the past Now a senior in high school, Aguilar is also a trigger. has been wrestling for a five years. During “I realize now that I have a super huge the season, she’s on support group,” the mat for two hours Aguilar says. “But I was scared of failing. I’m always thinking five to six days a week But in wrestling, you and lifts weights in the if I’m really stable gym on her own time. enough to be apart fail all the time.” One of her teamof society.” — SARA AGUILAR, senior mates, sophomore Aguilar will be Andrew Wang, even recalls her staying after attending Menlo College as part of the practice most days to work extensively on Class of 2021 and a member of the colleher technique. giate wrestling team. The 2020 Olympics “She puts extra time into practices and are in her horizons, as well as World Chamlearns how to do really beautifully coordi- pionships. nated moves,” Wang says. “Without [wrestling], I wouldn’t even Off season, Aguilar goes through go to college,” she says. “It [has] just opened wrestling motions and visualizes herself up a lot of pathways and opportunities for in competition before going to bed every me.” night. Her life revolves so entirely around For now, Aguilar is taking it day by the sport that she even has dreams about day. There are a lot of possibilities for her wrestling. out there, as well as a lot of titles she’s eyePerhaps providing more than just an ing, but she’s still trying to manage her outlet for her pent-up aggression, wrestling emotions before getting too far ahead of also connected Aguilar with a sense of com- herself. Aguilar is looking for solidity, and munity. Chosen as the co-captain of the she knows taking breaks once in awhile is Paly team in her junior year, she learned necessary. This, of course, includes treating how to lead and set an example for others. herself after hard-fought competitions. Some wrestlers even view her more as a “I usually have a burger and a shake. mentor than simply another teammate. It’s the best thing,” Aguilar says. She laughs “She was someone you could really and her face lights up. “It’s so good.” v look up to,” Wang says. “I just felt really proud because this was a person that I’ve Any person who is feeling depressed, troubled practiced and sparred with and seeing her or suicidal can call 1-800-273-8255 to speak excel and go to these great competitions with a crisis counselor. If the threat is immeand new heights lifted my spirits.” diate, call 911.

“

MAY 2017

PERFECTING THE MOVES Practicing off-season in the Paly wrestling room, Sara Aguilar drills with her teammate junior Bryan Tsang. In addition to informal sessions after school, Aguilar also attends bi-weekly practices with the Menlo College wrestling team. Photos by Emma Cockerell.

profiles

Text by TAMAR SARIG and RIYA SINHA

Between two worlds

A SYRIAN’S NEW LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES used to be, although so many people didn’t like it,” Yacoub says. “Given the alternative, I think that’s what most of us want right now.”

HAPPY TO BE HERE Pediatrician Mais Yacoub, a Syrian national who has lived in the United States for the past six years, smiles outside of a café in Mountain View. Though she originally planned to return to Syria after completing her residency, she decided to remain in the United States after the outbreak of civil war. Photo by Riya Sinha.

“

HAVE A LOT OF MEMORIES in Syria. I think my favorite [thing was] going to the old city in Damascus … where you can walk around by yourself yet never be alone, because there are so many people no matter what time you’re walking,” Mais Yacoub reminisces while sipping her coffee on the corner of a strip mall on a sunny afternoon in Mountain View. Yacoub, like millions of other Syrians living in the United States, has been watching her home country devolve into civil war from a distance, waiting for some

form of hope as the life she once knew is reduced to rubble. Yacoub, who left Syria for the United States in 2011 to pursue a pediatric residency, came alone, but her story is shared by millions of Syrians who have had to uproot their entire lives in search of safety. While the Syrian conflict continues to be analyzed in Western media, the perspective of regular Syrian people like Yacoub often goes overlooked. “We just want the violence to be over with and want life to come back to what it

Life before the war Though Yacoub could easily pass for a California native at first glance, small details give her away as a recent immigrant. There’s her Syrian accent, for one, and the way she stumbles over phrases like “between a rock and a hard place.” When she speaks about her family’s life in Syria, she does not say “they” but “we.” Yacoub grew up in a tiny village on the coast of Syria, where she attended a single school until she turned 18. “Life in Syria was good,” Yacoub says, “at least until the war started. Growing up in the village, where everyone knew everyone, life was a lot simpler ... [People] cared about each other a lot.” After graduating from high school, Yacoub left her small village for medical school in Damascus. This transition from a small town to Syria’s bustling capital, she says, dramatically changed her worldview. “[Medical] school was an eye-opener for me,” Yacoub says. “I started to ... become friends with more people that are different from me, and open my eyes to how many different things were in Syria.” Though she left Syria shortly before the civil war, Yacoub says that it was difficult to predict the scale of the conflict that would soon engulf the entire nation. “What started as a peaceful demonstration [against the government] that included people from... all aspects of society … [grew to include] groups that were more religion-based, more extremist,” Yacoub says. Syria to stateside When Yacoub left for the U.S., she did not intend to be away for long. “When I first came here,” Yacoub says, “my goal was ... to do a pediatrics residency

verdemagazine.com

... and go back to Syria.” Yacoub was motivated by her career goals, not by fear of the growing unrest in her country, when she moved to the New York-New Jersey area to take her clinical skills test, a necessary step in becoming a doctor that was not available to her in Syria. After completing her residency in Arizona, she settled in Palo Alto. With a laugh, Yacoub recalls the culture shock that greeted her upon her arrival in the United States. “Life here is a lot more complex [than it is in Syria],” Yaocub says. “You guys are more high-tech — I had to learn a lot to be able to manage here.” Though tensions surrounding immigration from majority-Muslim countries have made Yacoub’s very presence in the United States a controversial political issue, she says that she has not experienced any discrimination due to her nationality. “I think I owe that to working at Stanford, which has a zero tolerance policy,” Yacoub says. But despite her positive experience, Yacoub has not been isolated from the growing hostility. President Trump’s executive orders suspending and then limiting immigration from Syria, in particular, have deeply affected her perception of the United States. “I … had this dream of America being the place for people from all over the world,” Yacoub says. “I thought that I’m coming to a place where the majority of society will have a little bit more empathy toward refugees … no matter what your politics are, there is a humanitarian part in people that should never be affected.” Half a world away Though Yacoub has been spared the violence of the past several years, she is tied inseparably to the conflict: most of her family still lives in the small village she left behind. Because coastal Syria, where her family lives, has remained largely supportive of Bashar al-Assad’s government, she says, the region is not as dangerous as others. “We are lucky,” Yacoub says. “What we’re experiencing in my area is just the economic backlash of the war … [None would] compare this to what has happened to a lot of people I know, where ... they lost their family members, [or] were forced to leave the country... [on] two or three hours’ notice.”

MAY 2017

Still, fear and uncertainty pervade her family’s daily life. Yacoub stays in contact with her parents as much as she can, though long hours at Stanford hospital and a nine-hour time difference make communication difficult. “They try not to tell me sad things,” Yacoub says. “It’s always scary, because my sisters work in Damascus, so there are the random bombings ... it’s always worrisome.” Still, despite the constant danger and turmoil in Syria, Yacoub says her family is unlikely to leave. Her parents do not speak English, and leaving their extended family for a foreign country seems a fate worse than anything that may await them in Syria. “My father would always say, ‘I would never leave. I would rather die in my house than leave,’” Yacoub says. An uncertain future As the civil war in Syria drags on and the death toll mounts, Yacoub’s dream of returning to Syria with her medical degree seems farther and farther away. “Right now ... I am too scared to go back,” Yacoub says. “I was at the site of one bombing in Damascus ... seeing all the chaos, just for one day, was the most frightening day of my life. So I [can’t] imagine having to go there and live that every day.” When asked what she thinks lies ahead for her country, Yacoub hesitates. The conflict, she says, is unlikely to end anytime soon, and the sheer number of players on

the ground makes Syria’s future yet more uncertain. “People are not the same,” Yacoub says. “I don’t think people are going to be able to forget what [happened] and move on, just be friendly to each other again.” Still, she holds out hope for her country to find peace and return to some semblance of normalcy. Above all, Yacoub wants to someday be able to recognize Syria as the welcoming place she once knew. “I just want the country to be the same way it used to be,” Yacoub says, “where any person ... was able to travel anywhere in Syria and not be asked, ‘What’s your name? What religion? Where do you come from?’ and be treated based on this information.” She recalls the apartment building where she lived in Damascus, where residents would cook meals for their neighbors and spend time together. This type of friendly interaction, she says, “doesn’t happen these days. People are scared; people are not talking to their neighbors anymore.” Turning back to the United States, Yacoub urges her countrymen to have compassion for Syrian refugees. “Nobody … would want to leave their country and come to a place where they will be treated as ... fourth- or fifth-degree citizens,” Yacoub says. “[Focus on] ... not making it a regular thing to look at dead people every day and say ... ‘It’s not my issue,’” she says. “It is really sad to see countries saying, ‘We’re not taking any more refugees.’ Where do you want these people to go?” v

IN ANOTHER LIFE Yacoub’s family laughs together in Yacoub’s old home in Daher Safra, Syria. Photo courtesy of Mais Yacoub.

culture

Le Tour de Palo Alto

Text by OLIVIA BROWN and JOSH CODE Photos by JAMES POE

A RELAXING BIKE ROUTE THROUGH OUR TOWN

1. The Stanford Oval The Stanford oval at the end of Palm Drive is the place to relax, play a game of frisbee, or take an outdoor nap. The tranquility of this grassy expanse makes it an ideal summer destination for all ages.

3. Steve Jobs’ House It would be impossible to leave Steve Jobs out of the broad brush strokes of Palo Alto’s history. Jobs’ tudor-style house still sits on the shaded corner of Waverley Street and Santa Rita Avenue in Old Palo Alto.

Ad d

Go to verdemagazine.com/route for a more in-depth route with an extra online-exclusive destination to complete your trip.

xp y.

2 Arb ore tu

m aS t.

ea l

Palm D

oR in

m Ca

4. Philz Coffee The large selection of quality coffee blends makes the Philz brand a massive hit across the entire Bay Area. Stop by Philz on Middlefield Road and enjoy their signature mint mojito — it is the perfect way to end your bike tour of Palo Alto.

iso nA ve .

2. HP Garage Known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, this shed at 367 Addison Ave. is an essential stop on your route. Stanford graduates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began manufacturing electronics here in the 1930’s.

Or eg on E

HE WEATHER IS GETTING WARMER IN SILICON VALLEY. IT’S NEVER A BAD DAY TO HEAD OUTSIDE for a relaxing bike ride. If you are seeking a meandering route with several engaging stops, then Verde’s summer bike route is for you. From historic landmarks to popular leisure spots, the places on this route will make for a fun half-day adventure. Bring a friend or two and saddle in for Verde’s Tour de Palo Alto. v

W av erl

St.

. ve eA d r Ve ma o L

verdemagazine.com

the senior section

What’s your best memory from Paly? “In freshman year when there were two streakers on the first day of school and then I got interviewed about it and they got my name wrong on television,”

“I feel like Spirit Week every year is probably the best week of the year. It’s a really fun way to bond with the grade,”

— Hayden Libbey

— Alissa Bernstein

TOP LEFT Robbie Nixon and Christian Rider sit in the library during first prep. Photo by Josh Code. TOP MIDDLE Angus Stayte does homework during his prep. Photo by Josh Code. TOP RIGHT Ryan Mendoza and Yahli Malchin study for a test together. Photo by Josh Code. BOTTOM LEFT Alissa Bernstein talks about her time at Paly and advice for incoming freshmen. Photo by Josh Code. BOTTOM MIDDLE Alice Zhang enjoys her prep period. Photo by Josh Code BOTTOM RIGHT Eelis Copeland is an exchange student from Finland. Photo by Josh Code. SECOND PAGE, MIDDLE from left to right, Declan Flanders, Hayden Libbey, Taylor Duncan and Sid Sharma smile for the camera. Photo by Josh Code. SECOND PAGE, BOTTOM Elin Stakeberg and Paloma Ruiz came to Paly from Sweden and Spain. Photo by James Poe.

What do you wish you had learned earlier? “Memories don’t last forever. Capture the fun moments in life via camera,”

— Trevor Woon

“That the staff are extremely devoted and they’re willing to talk about anything and everything,”

— Hayden Libbey

“Time management,”

— Alice Zhang

MAY 2017

“Should’ve done crew,”

— Robbie Nixon

“There are free snacks in the Wellness Center,”

— Paloma Ruiz

“Computer science,”

— Tommy Smale

“Grades matter,”

— Ryan Mendoza

“I wish I had learned to find a good balance between schoolwork and social life because the first few years of high school I didn't really have a social life. You can’t do well in school if you aren’t emotionally as stable as you can be,”

— Alissa Bernstein

“Not to spend all of my money at Town and Country,”

— Declan Flanders

culture Text by JOSH CODE, DANI MACUIL and LAURA SIEH

OUR SPIRIT WEEKS, EIGHT WEEKS OF FINALS, INFINITE TARDies, a bundle of absences, a few too many streakers and one final goodbye. Some students have been here from the start, while others arrived at Paly in the years following. Some were lost to private schools — or worse, Gunn. Our class has been unified through four years of good and bad times, a lot of construction and an endurance of AP testing, lake Paly and false fire alarms. We now look towards uncharted waters as our four years at Palo Alto High School draw to a bittersweet close. Verde went around campus to give a few seniors the chance to reflect on their time at Paly and deliver some last words of wisdom. Here is what they said. v

Describe Paly in three words. “Open, supportive, fun,”

— Taylor Duncan

“Reese the bikecop,”

— Declan Flanders

“Accepting, green, foreign,”

— Eelis Copeland

“Energetic as hell,”

— Moa Stakeberg

“Outgoing, engaging, accepting,”

— Alissa Bernstein

“Spirited, inclusive, Prophecy,”

— Elin Stakeberg

“It’s pretty dope,”

— Christian Rider

“Resilient, adaptive and intelligent,”

— Trevor Woon

“Charming, tough, and smart,”

— Tommy Smale

“Vibrant, open, logical,”

— Hayden Libbey

“Community, stressful, cultivating,”

— Alice Zhang

What advice would you give to incoming freshmen? “It’s all going to work no matter where you end up at,”

— Angus Stayte

“Don’t Juul,”

— Eelis Copeland

“Take it easy,”

— Christian Rider

“Appreciate your sleep. Ask your teachers when you need help,”

— Alice Zhang

Where do you go for lunch and why? “Town and Country because I can’t be bothered to bring food everyday to school,”

— Moa Stakeberg

“Anywhere but Town and Country,”

— Sid Sharma

— Declan Flanders

“Chipotle, because I like Chipotle,”

“Now I try to go to somewhere on Cal[ifornia] Ave or a fast food place because Town and Country decreased my bank balance account by literally $1500,”

— Christian Rider

“When I’m busy I just bring my own lunch,”

— Angus Stayte

“Take advantage of the freedom that you are given,”

— Hayden Libbey

‘DAMN.’ REVIEW RAPPER’S NEW ALBUM IS STRONG, BUT SPOTTY Text by ALICIA MIES Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN

FTER KENDRICK LAMAR released his third full-length studio album “To Pimp a Butterfly” in 2015, it seemed as though rap had found a new messiah. Hip-hop’s new king and savior, Lamar instilled hope in those sick of repetitive trap beats and hungry for classic, jazz and funk infused rap. Now, only two years later, Lamar has aimed to prove that his spot atop the ruthless rap hierarchy is safe. “Damn,” his fourth album, is about his relationship with God, coping with fame and his role as a black man in a Trump-era America. However, despite the potential the opening track, “Blood,” had in helping create a tight and conceptual rap record, Lamar fails to create a cohesive concept or theme for “Damn,” like he masterfully had in previous albums. Despite many brilliant musical moments and vulnerable and honest lyricism, “Damn” is spotty, both musically and conceptually, compared to Lamar’s past efforts. “Damn” begins with “Blood,” in which Lamar tells the haunting tale of being shot by a blind woman after he tries to help her. The fable is then followed up by a clip of FOX News reporters criticizing his lyrics about police brutality from his monumental third album “To Pimp a Butterfly.” The combination of Lamar’s story and comments from famed Republican news personalities like

Kimberly Guilfoyle and Geraldo Rivera is a goosebump-inducing start to the album, and foreshadows Lamar’s discussion of his influence on mass media and society’s view of black men in general. In songs like “DNA” and “Humble,” Lamar boasts with booming bass, modern trap beats and empowering lyrics like “I got power, poison, pain and joy inside my DNA/I got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my DNA.” In contrast, Lamar shows a more forthcoming and open side on “Damn’s” emotionally potent tracks like “Feel” and “Fear.” Notably, on “Fear,” he cleverly compares his fears as a 17-year-old living in the center of neighborhood and police violence to his fears as a famed rapper: “At 27 years old, m y

biggest fear was bein’ judged.” Despite the brilliance of both sides of “Damn’s” spectrum, the moods of the tracks don’t mix well. In past Lamar albums, it seemed like every beat served a higher purpose. Even the dejected and brash side of Lamar worked hand-in-hand — on “Good Kid,” for example, Lamar delivers the catchy “Poetic Justice” and the reserved “Real,” but connects both to writing and one’s identity, a beautiful link in the context of the whole record. But, again, these two conflicting sides of Lamar don’t coalesce on “Damn.” Regardless of this conceptual inconsistency, Lamar plays with the idea of sins on some of the album’s strongest songs like “Pride” and “Lust.” “Pride” is a slow jam, reminiscent of Lamar’s more jazz and funk influenced “Butterfly” days, and “Lust” sounds lackadaisical, yet still interesting due to some puncturing kick drum. Despite the strong executions of these songs, perhaps tackling such huge concepts like pride and loyalty is the album’s very problem — to masterfully communicate all your thoughts about “Love” or “God” lyrically and musically while creating a concept album (nearly alone as well; the album only had three featurings) is a near impossible task. “Damn” also hosts some of Lamar’s weakest tracks of his career. “Yah” musically drones on with no

R T T ES DUC

: S K AC

TH R O W

L FEE

real hook or melody, and while some of his lyrics target FOX News’ portrayal of black culture, Lamar brings up an ill-fitting point about people of color, as the children of Israel, being punished for supposed iniquities. “Element” and “XXX,” featuring rock band U2, don’t stand out either, as Lamar utilizes the same droning beats and lethargic rapping as he had in “Yah.” On the album’s last track, “Duckworth,” Lamar does what he does best: rap about the intersection of his experiences in Compton and his life today. “Duckworth,” Lamar’s real last name, is incredibly dynamic, funky and punchy. On it, Lamar imagines his life if his father and his future producer had not met in a KFC 20 years before Lamar signed with his record label: “Whoever thought the greatest rapper would be from coincidence?/Because if Anthony killed Ducky/Top Dawg could be servin’ life/While I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight.” Moments like “Duckworth” remind us how brilliant Lamar really is. He’s a risk-taker and grabs reins of the story that he wants to tell — few fans or critics doubt that. But despite his accomplishments and virtues, Lamar seems confused and at war with himself on several moments on his newest release; this disorder doesn’t translate into an especially impactful album. v

DE. I R P E. L B HUM R FEA

verdemagazine.com

g n i w vie

Text by DEEPALI SASTRY Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN

O R X I G I L I N F A T L E S N A

TWO SHOWS TO BINGE-WATCH THIS SUMMER merican media company Netflix has evolved from shipping requested DVDs straight to the door to distributing content on its online streaming service. The media-streaming service’s first original content series was House of Cards, released in 2013. In 2016, Netflix released about 126 original TV series and movies total. To help fill the surplus of time summer brings, Verde set out to find the lesser-known Netflix originals — one sci-fi and one drama — produced by the company’s very own studio. v

BLACK MIRROR

2016

TV-MA

3 SEASONS

SCI-FI

The implication of Charles Booker’s “Black Mirror” seems to parallel the series’ logo of the smiley face amid shattered glass: there is often a dark side to what’s appealing. The series gets its title from the ubiquity of modern-day devices, describing the screens of everything from smartphones to televisions and how we are so attached to them. Netflix bought the rights to the show, which had already aired two seasons on England’s Channel 4, and the third season was released under the company’s banner in 2015. Black Mirror is a series of independent episodes, each specific to a unique dystopia in which technology wreaks havoc. The series explores the dangers of getting too caught up in technology’s advancements with a new cast every episode, enhancing the creativity of the satirical writing.

FUTURISTIC In the first episode of third season titled “Nosedive,”Lanie, portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard, lives an alternate reality in which people can rate others on their phones which results in the protagonist’s obsession with getting the highest rating out of five stars.

THE GET DOWN 2016

DJ Curtis, stage name “Shaolin Fantastic,” is an aspiring DJ who teams up with protagonist Zeke to rise up in the world of disco. Curtis is played by Shemaik Moore.

MAY 2017

TV-MA

PARTS 1 & 2

DRAMA

Each episode of drama “The Get Down” starts with glaring lights and an audience reaching towards the man on stage. At his concert in 1996, now-famous Mr. Books recalls his life as a teen in the Bronx in the 70s through a series of raps. The series begins with young Mr. Books, then called Zeke Figuero, played by Justice Smith, who meets Curtis, or Shaolin Fantastic, a graffiti artist who longs to be a professional DJ. The two collaborate along with friends to spread their music and rise up from the rubble of the New York streets. Through its captivating soundtrack and writing, the show manages to capture the adventure in pursuing dreams and the abject poverty at the time in the Bronx.

verdemagazine.com

Eatsa

FUTURISTIC CUBES Food is dispensed by the chefs into automized cubbies that deliver the dishes to the customer. There is no communication between staff and client.

Text by ASIA GARDIAS and RIYA SINHA Photos by ASIA GARDIAS

THE VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT OF THE FUTURE

HE CUBBY HOLE TILES OPEN, making a loud buzzing sound and spitting out piping hot food ordered just minutes ago. The dish that emerges has been completely customized by the customer, ordered from a touchscreen menu with a plethora of cuisines and flavors. The whole process of the automization is a secret — workers sign a confidentiality agreement and when the cubby door opens, the back side is covered by another flap, revealing naught about the kitchen. The future of dining is here in the form of Eatsa, an eatery located in the heart of Silicon Valley which mechanizes the entire dining process. “We’re getting automation involved,” says store development manager Roe Palce. “That is something to look forward to in the future and that’s why I joined Eatsa.” v Falafel and Harissa Bite ($2.59) Seasoned to perfection, the falafel and harissa bite was the ideal way to start the meal. The appetizing green color, spongy texture and flavorful seasoning makes the falafel seem as though it came straight from a Mediterranean street vendor. The undertones of roasted peppers and the sour aftertaste of the harissa perfectly complements the falafel. As indicated by its name, the ‘bite,’ consisting of just three small falafel, leaves everyone wanting more.

Custom Bowl ($7.34) The best part of the restaurant is the flexibility with creating custom bowls. Eatsa provides a variety of selections for types of grain, crunchies, warm toppers and sauces. The custom bowl we created included ancient grain pilaf, marinated tofu, roasted squash, crispy wonton strips and teriyaki. Each ingredient was well spiced and complemented the rest of the dish. The grains provided a good body to the meal. The crispy wonton strips acted to balance the dish. The squash brought a change in texture to counter the other ingredients, however, was partially overcooked.

FALAFEL FUN The sour, colorful dip complements the perfectly seasoned falafel.

CUSTOM BOWLS Choosing any flavor or cuisine you want always one to get creative.

MAY 2017

Berry Chia Parfait ($2.95) While the berry filling in the middle tasted fresh and tangy, the rest of the parfait had a weird texture. The flavor of the parfait was similar to greek yogurt. It was hard to consume after the jam, which was layered on top, was all eaten. While the berry filling was strong, there was not enough to to portion thorughout the parfait.

TIED TOGETHER The vegan parfait has a sweet, tangy jam on top which tied the two flavors together.

Text by MICHELLE LI and STEPHANIE YU Photos by EMMA COCKERELL

SIPPING WITH A SMILE Palo Alto High School junior Alexa Morales enjoys her meal and drink at Lemonade with her friends after a minimum day.

BEST Lemonade on the Block

SEARCHING FOR THIS SUMMER’S ULTIMATE DRINK

UMMER IS APPROACHING RAPIDLY AND MANY ARE LOOKING FOR THE QUINTESSENTIAL THIRSTquenching drink. Created in different flavors, colors and sizes, lemonade is a classic refreshment for those craving an icy drink in the hot weather. Verde located two stores on the same block that sell lemon-flavored drinks – Lemonade and T4 – and reviewed them. Ultimately, Lemonade took home Verde’s title of “Best Lemonade on the Block” because of its large variety of flavors, refreshing taste and aesthetically pleasing appearance. v

LEMONADE

Blood orange ($3.50) The blood orange lemonade successfully defended its reputation as the most popular drink at Lemonade. The flushed coral hues that permeated the drink were pleasing to the eye, and the taste was a pleasant harmony of lemon and orange. Although it lacked acidity, this drink graced our tastebuds with a mildly sweet taste and a lingering undertone of orange which provided a sweet, memorable experience.

Lemon Bomb Green Tea ($3.25) This drink was a subdued, transparent shade of yellow with a wedge of lemon bobbing at the surface. The honey, lemon and green tea fused together to produce a soothing refreshment, which was unfortunately eclipsed to an extent by an excess of sugar. If Verde were to try the drink again, we would order it at 80 percent sugar to highlight the other more subtle flavors concealed behind the sweetness.

Classic Lemonade ($3.50) This old fashioned flavor failed to deliver. The excessively concentrated, saccharine taste wrestled for dominance over the clashing acidity of the lemon, and all of the artificiality left a dry, sickly sweet aftertaste. The quality of this drink could have been somewhat salvaged had there been less sugar. After only a few sips, the overwhelming sweetness compelled us to set the drink down.

Lemon Smoothie ($3.95) A unique consistency, the lemon smoothie’s texture lacked the quality of being smooth and instead resembled a crunchy, thick, iced slushy. To our disappointment, the ice was carelessly crushed, with large chunks refusing to flow up the straw with the aloe. An earnest attempt to create an unusual spin on a lemon drink ultimately left us wondering why it was created in the first place.

Text by IRENE CHOI and ALIA CUADROS-CONTRERAS

Ethical Spending

HOW “BUYCOTT” SUPPORTS WISE PURCHASES TRYING THE APP OUT English teacher Alanna Williamson uses “Think Dirty,” an app which warns people about toxic makeup products. She also uses Project Just, a website similar to Buycott which shows which companies practice unethical actions. Photo by James Poe.

“

LOBAL WARMING WILL destroy our planet!” “Women should be treated and paid like men!” “End toxic child labor

practices!” Inundated by a constant barrage of heated social media posts and political-slogan-printed T-shirts, people often forget the most important part of believing in something — supporting the cause with actions. Created in 2010, the app Buycott aims to help people do just that. The app allows users to first select organizations and campaigns they support. Later, when users are out shopping, they simply need to open the app and use its barcode scanner to check if a product contradicts their beliefs. From teachers to students, many in the increasingly politically inclined city of Palo Alto have found apps like Buycott to be quite useful. “I think we often consume blindly,” says Palo Alto High School English teacher Alanna Williamson, who has been using

MAY 2017

apps similar to Buycott for the last two years. “If you’re buying something that you completely disagree with, then why would you continue buying that thing? And maybe you don’t know. Or sometimes I think we know but we’re really uncomfortable with having to make a change, so I think apps like this make that easier.” With an easy, accessible way to check your spending, our modern generation has it much easier than those before us. Whether they oppose child labor or support LGBTQ+ rights, our populace now has methods of supporting these beliefs through their purchases. So put your money where your mouth is, as they say. Our Review The layout of the app is quite user-friendly; the main page features the recent actions of other randomly-generated members, trending campaigns and popular products. Some of the trending campaigns include boycotts of Trump products, boy-

cotts of income inequality and campaigns supporting fair trade. Upon clicking on a specific campaign, users are taken to a page with a description of the movement and a list of the companies that create products which support said campaign. The main problem with the app lies in its reliance on the usership of a product. When scanning new or more obscure merchandise, the app often has no information on the company behind the product and its practices. This can be frustrating for those trying to stick closely to ethical purchasing practices, but is understandable, as it is impossible to keep track of all the companies in the United States, especially those that have just popped up. Overall, this app is a useful tool for those trying to practice ethical spending. Though its reliance on the popularity of a product does hinder its usefulness, it is a good starting point for those who want to begin aligning their actions with their words. v

culture

What’s Poppin’?

Text and photos by ALLISON CHENG Art by AISHAH MAAS and ANGELA LIU

EASY-TO-MAKE TREATS TO ENJOY THIS SUMMER

NCREASINGLY WARM WEATHER CALLS FOR DELICIOUS FROZEN TREATS, INCLUDING ICE CREAM AND popsicles. While many local grocery stores carry an expansive variety of these summer bites, they are more expensive and less customizable than the aesthetically-pleasing DIY frozen popsicles that fill Instagram feeds and Pinterest boards. Because home-grown popsicles do not automatically contain any added sugars, they are comparatively healthy compared to those sold in stores. The flavors of these popsicles are also easily customizable and the recipes can be modified to include juices and fruits of your choosing. Enjoy! v

Fruit Salad Ice Pops Source: Martha Stewart

The Fruit Salad Ice Pops feature white grape juice as a subtly-sweet base flavor for an assortment of fruit. The fruit provides an icy texture, while also adding sweet and tart elements throughout the popsicle. Initially a golden-yellow color, the white grape juice emerges from the freezer as a clear, icy solid that holds the multicolored fruit pieces in place. The juice’s sweet undertones contrast the tanginess of fresh fruit, and also contribute to the clean presentation of the popsicle as the transparency allows the fruit to be seen through the grape juice. Tip: Place a larger-sized fruit piece (for example: a kiwi or strawberry slice) at the bottom of the cup to make it easier to place a popsicle stick and keep it upright.

Sweet Peach Iced Tea Popsicles Source: Paper & Stitch

The Sweet Peach Iced Tea Popsicles combine the mildly-sweet flavor of frozen peach iced tea with a few slices of fresh peach to enhance the flavor. The tea provided a pleasant contrast to the tangy, bright flavors of the fruit, adding a muted, floral component to the icy treat. The peach flavor of the tea clearly took the stage in the popsicles, and the fresh fruit acted as a visually-appealing garnish. However, the large size of the peaches made it difficult to eat around them, providing for some bites of only fruit and others of only frozen iced tea.

verdemagazine.com

Text by ANGELA LIU

Slime for Dummies

A SIMPLE ALL-PURPOSE RECIPE FOR YOUR SLIME what you will need

1 cup warm water

10oz clear PVA glue

QUISHY, STRETCHY AND CLOGGING UP YOUR Instagram feed, this non-Newtonian fluid simply demands to be poked. The only problem lies in the thousands of slime recipes circulating the internet calling for glue, water, foaming hand soap, contact lense solution, shaving cream, lotion, body wash and borax. Luckily, Verde has gone through and reviewed many recipes and compiled the ideal slime recipe with just three ingredients â&#x20AC;&#x201D; so if you find yourself breaking down during finals, take 20 minutes to sit down and get slimey. v

directions

1. Place all glue into a large bowl

1 tbs borax

large mixing bowl

2. Slowly mix any food coloring into the glue to avoid excess air bubbles 3. In a separate bowl, combine warm water and borax, stirring until the borax is completely dissolved 4. Add borax solution into the glue, one tablespoon at a time while stirring the glue until it begins to clump

measuring cup

spoon

5. Knead slime with hands, periodically adding more borax until slime is no longer sticky to the touch. Slime should be opaque 6. Place slime in an airtight container and allow it to sit for 3 to 5 days to allow the air bubbles to dissolve

airtight container

your hands

7. Once slime is transparent, add in any optional adornments such as foam beads, glitter, or clay 8. Enjoy your slime!

MAY 2017

Art by ANGELA LIU and ALLISON CHENG

perspectives

Think Before You Buy HOW BOYCOTTING CAN CHANGE THE WORLD How to Boycott: 1. Research! Before boycotting, be sure to fact check. Your accusations must be rooted in truth for a successful boycott. 2. Rally the

troops

Boycotting alone won’t make much of a dent in a company’s fiscal standings. Reach out to friends, post on Facebook, stand outside of a store: spread your message. 3. Make the ask Before expending your energy on boycotting a product, reach out to the manufacturer and explain your concerns — they may even change their ways. If they don’t, it provides you with a foundation on which to boycott: you asked, they didn’t comply. 4. Make your

voice heard

If people stop purchasing a product, its manufacturer may reach the conclusion that people have simply become disinterested. State your grievances so that the company can adjust its practices.

remember the day my dad got his first iPhone. He got one even though he disagreed with Apple’s production strategies and even though he thought that they were just another part of a mass consumer trend inspired by technology. One of the first apps he downloaded was “Buycott,” an application that allows you to scan the barcode of products at stores and tells you about the ethicality of their manufacturers. In an effort to rid our house of all products a-la-Koch brothers, my dad dragged me to Safeway, where we trudged down aisle 3, scanning the barcode on everything from paper plates to toilet paper. It was here that I first truly understood the power of the boycott, although by no means is the concept new. For generations, people have been boycotting companies to eradicate some form of social injustice. The power of the dollar is unfathomable — companies will make big changes when faced with the risk of a fiscal loss. All it takes is a little bit of research and a little extra effort to purchase products that are produced compassionately. Next time you you are out shopping, consider the consequences of your expenditures. In 1955, Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man instigated a years -long bus boycott

Text and Design by NOGA HURWITZ

in Montgomery, Alabama. Black people, who comprised three quarters of the Montgomery bus system’s consumer base, demanded desegregation — and eventually they got it. The bus system was losing too much money to not comply with their demands, even though integration was an incredibly unpopular decision among white people. In the early 1970s, black workers at the Polaroid camera factory in Massachusetts launched the divestment movement against apartheid in South Africa. The company was providing the camera systems for the South African government to produce photographs for the passbooks for black citizens, and the workers didn’t want to contribute to such oppression. The movement spread around the world like wildfire, and

eventually, Polaroid withdrew from South Africa. Fast forward to now: 2017. Marches, editorials and protests have swept the country as impassioned individuals strive to improve their communities. However, I implore you to take your pursuit of justice one step further. If a company’s practices fundamentally contradict your values, stop buying from the organization. Rally your friends to join your cause and let the organization know why you are boycotting its product. Like members of the Civil Rights movement and the small Polaroid factory in Massachusetts, you, too, can use your dollar to make a difference. v

Editor’s note: see our review of Buycott on pg. 63

Learning how to Speak HOW SPEECH TAUGHT ME TO STAND UP AND SPEAK UP Text by STEPHANIE LEE

Y VERY FIRST DEBATE tournament did not go well. Picture this: a smallish, Asian girl with piercing, smoldering eyes, hair slung back, white cork heels clicking as she gracefully glides across the classroom linoleum floor to a wooden podium and delivers a dazzling argument that leaves her opponent speechless and judge amazed. That goddess-like, terrifying sex symbol was what freshman me aspired to be. Now picture this: a smallish, Asian girl with childishly unplucked eyebrows, mascara smudged around her eyes like a racoon and her blazer collar flipped up. She’s trying not to cry from nervousness as she takes a sip of the tea her father made for her that morning but then accidentally spilling it down her blazer. Yep. That’s what I actually looked like. And that was the day I figured out I wasn’t exactly cut out for debate. Looking back at it, I’m a bit surprised at myself. I was the kid in middle school who hated school presentations. I had a particularly bad incident in eighth grade where I spent the 20 minutes before my presentation shaking in my own pool of cold sweat. If you had told me then that in high school, I would be the captain of my speech team, I would’ve laughed. Back then, my comfort zone extended about a foot beyond me. Simply talking to other people was a breach of my little

Art by Vivian Nguyen

MAY 2017

comfort bubble. I would observe and listen to other people talk, but I would not jump into the conversation. Usually it was because I was scared I would say something that would make everyone hate me — something that was quite possible, considering the fact that I’m more conservative than the average Palo Altan. So when I joined speech and debate and attended a tournament, I didn’t just take a step out of my comfort zone: I built a rocket ship and blasted out of it. And after I found out that bitterly arguing with bitter people about Kantian ethics and other philosophical approaches wasn’t my forté, I tried out interpretive speech, or competitive acting. So instead of shaking in a pool of cold sweat before I stumbled up to speak in front of a room of people, I got to shake and cry in front of an audience while speaking — and win awards for it! Although the most important thing speech and debate taught me was how to speak up, it’s also shown me how much my family means to me. I’ll be frank about this: I never realized what superheroes both my parents were until I saw how much they do for me just so I could compete in speech. My dad is willing wake to up early on a Saturday to drive a nerd like me to speech tournaments at other schools all over the Bay. He’ll make me warm breakfast and tea to ensure I’m nourished for a day of crying at people. When my dad judges at tournaments, he’ll pour his entire heart out into the activity. Both my parents are always there to pick me up from my tournaments and comfort me if I’m feeling bitter about my performance. And most importantly, they laugh at all the jokes I’ve written for my speech — even the ones that are so bad they’ll make onions cry. It’s hard to imagine sometimes that an after-school program would have such a big impact on my life and teach me so much about myself and the care my parents put into making sure I can keep doing what I love. Perhaps most importantly, it’s taught me how good it is to take a flying leap out of my comfort zone — something that’s left me speechless on many accounts. v

WANT TO ADVERTISE WITH VERDE?

visit Verde thanks its sponsors: The Nguyens The Lis The Chengs The Srivastavas The Yaos

The Sastrys The Logans The Chens The Saxenas The Lius

verdemagazine.com

Text by RIYA MATTA

The Trouble with Bashar

NEXT STEPS IN SYRIA AFTER YEARS OF CIVIL WAR

MAGINE GOING TO BED ONE NIGHT, ONLY TO wake up a few hours later to sounds of explosions and gunfire. Imagine leaving your house (or what is left of it) after the sun has risen, only to find your whole neighborhood in ruins. The streets where, perhaps just yesterday, you played or studied or hung out with your friends, have been razed to the ground. Imagine walking through the rubble and finding out that several of your friends, classmates, teachers, or family members are dead or missing. For many of us, we are fortunate enough to be unable to even imagine such atrocity. Yet, for millions of Syrians, this hellish nightmare is reality. The cause of this nightmare — the monster under the bed, if you will — is Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Since his regime’s security forces shot dead hundreds of protesters at demonstrations across Syria in March 2011, he has committed atrocity after atrocity against the citizens of the very country he was entrusted to lead and defend. The list of war crimes and human rights violations of which the United Nations has accused the Assad regime of is long and ever growing. The murder of children, doctors, nurses, hospital patients, and entire families in their homes, the arbitrary arrest and torture of innocent people, heavy and indiscriminate shelling of civilian populated areas, enforced disappearances, and alleged possession of chemical weapons sit at the top of the list. Assad’s tumultuous, 16-year

rule has proved to be a total failure. With the cycle of ever-increasing protests met by regime violence resulting in more and more funerals across the country, there can be no denying that something needs to change. Why Trump has it wrong If this is the case, you may be wondering, then why is President Donald Trump’s action in Syria so controversial? First and foremost, when Trump gave the order to lob dozens of missiles at the Syrian military base from which a deadly chemical attack was launched against Syrian civilians earlier that week, he did not have the official support of Congress, nor did he have any concrete proof that the Assad regime was responsible for the chemical attack. Not only did he violate the US Constitution, Presidential War Powers Act, and the 2001 Authorization of Military Force (AUMF) resolution, he violated international law and articles 1, 2, 33, and 39 of the UN charter. While many consider war crimes to be the ultimate violation of international law, according to the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials, “To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself

Art by AISHAH MAAS

Art by EOIN O’KRAMER

perspectives the accumulated evil of the whole.” Thus, in less than 100 days in office, Trump has already violated international law. In addition to the blatant illegality of Trump’s actions, cruise missiles, while useful tools of war, will not produce the political outcomes that he hopes for. They did not work in 1998 when Bill Clinton used them against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and they will not work now. Cruise missiles do not give the United States any leverage, they will not help remove Assad from power, and any subsequent strikes of this nature will do little more than the destruction of a Syrian air base. Going forward In all likelihood, the departure of the regime’s figurehead and the fall of the Alawite dynasty rule that has spanned nearly half a century would collapse the whole government and cost Syria any last bit of stability; it is certain that the country is in no way equipped to hold democratic elections at this time. While the Free Syrian Army may have seemed like a viable option at the beginning of the war, that is no longer the case. Child recruitment, radical acts of violence, an organization so scattered that it can almost be considered anarchy, and heavy dependence on known terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda make rebel rule far too dangerous. The Obama administration’s approach toward Assad focused largely on the idea of a controlled transition of power. This means that it wanted the removal of Assad, but rather than escalate US involvement in the conflict by toppling one of the only forces in Syria with organized military power, it aimed to remove Assad himself from power while keeping government institutions intact in order to provide a semblance of stability. According to Paly history teacher Jack Bungarden, “toppling the [Assad] regime at this time is would not be ideal. We’ve done that, recently, in

that region and it has not worked.” Similar to Bungarden, I believe that further turmoil that would ensue if the entire government were to topple. However, due to the brutality of Assad’s regime, the best solution is to pursue discrete military force to disrupt Assad’s ability to plan attacks. Additionally, we need to increase support to moderate Syrian opposition groups by providing weapons, training, and special forces assistance. While this is not an immediate solution or one that will yield drastic changes in a short amount of time, it is a realistic, manageable approach and will not require the escalation of US involvement in Syria. v

Art by EOIN O’KRAMER

Art and text by EOIN O’KRAMER

Examining the Exam

DO LANGUAGE AP TESTS STILL STAND STRONG?

VERY MAY, STUDENTS AROund the country looking to test their proficiency in a language gather across the nation to undergo a series of rigorous tests, conscious that all of the learning and hard work that it took to get them into that position will soon be represented by a mere number. The above is a reference to the College Board’s Language and Culture Advanced Placement tests, known for their value, among other things, in the college admission process. One controversial topic that has been tied to the Language AP tests since their creation has been whether they should function differently for native speakers, or more specifically, for individuals who take the test without having taken the corresponding class beforehand. The College Board classifies these individuals as “self study-ers,” and in terms of the language AP tests they usually have some background in the language, which they are required to declare on the answer sheets by answering “yes” to either having lived for longer than a month in a country where the language is spoken, or to hearing the language frequently at home. I classify as a “self study-er” on the AP French and German Language exams, as I lived in Switzerland (a country in which both French and German are spoken) for almost twelve years. According to the College Board’s website and score reportings, declaring outside experience is extraneous in terms a student’s overall grade on the AP test. However, the scores of individuals who answered “yes” to either of the questions mentioned above were filtered out of the “standard” score group, which the College Board defines as students who “generally receive most of their foreign language training in U.S. schools,” in the 2014 College Board grade distribution report. This standard score is often used in unofficial AP practice textbooks such as

MAY 2017

the most up-to-date version of Barron’s AP French preparation book. The scores of those with outside experience not being held as “standard” reflects one of the main principles of the Language AP tests — they weren’t meant for native speakers. “The students who don’t take the AP class but do take the AP test aren’t what they had in mind,” says Kevin Duffy, a Spanish teacher at Palo Alto High School and former grader for the AP Language tests. “You can still do that, but that’s not the way they designed the test.” Despite AP exams not being created with native speakers in mind, according to a grade report by the College Board in 2014, over 80 percent of those who took the Chinese AP declared outside experience. This demonstrates a difference in test taker demographics from that which the AP exam creators had in mind, and perhaps a new change in the testing system may be warranted. One suggestion often brought up as a solution for this oddity in the AP Language test-taking demographics is the creation of two separate tests —o ne for native speakers and one for non-native speakers. Although the College Board’s AP Language Literature exams and corresponding classes already exist as the fifth year of instruction in a language, the tests are notoriously difficult for native speakers and even more so for non-native speakers. Perhaps as a solution, a test could be made specifically for native speakers. It wouldn’t explicitly be harder, but could have an evaluation of the test-taker’s accent built into the speaking portion of the exams. This proposal certainly isn’t without flaws,

and it would likely result in many complications. “The stipulations as to who can take what test would be way too fuzzy” says sophomore Andrew Shih, who took the AP Chinese test without taking the class prior, “Should there be a test at the beginning of the school year to assess your level of AP Chinese, even though you are already in the AP class?” As a solution, I propose making the choice to take the AP native speakers or non-native-speakers test optional, with neither carrying more weight in terms of college acceptance. However, taking the native option could become a requirement for the Seal of Biliteracy, an award offered by PAUSD and other districts, which already has specific test-taking requirements in both English and a second language. Regardless of whether a test similar to my proposal is implemented into the AP testing system, the efforts of the College Board to better the AP tests over time are certainly laudable. v

perspectives

The grass isn’t greener THE FALSENESS OF THE “BUBBLE” CONCEPT Text by TARA MADHAV Art by AISHAH MAAS

Y FIFTH-GRADE BEST FRIEND and I were leaning against the railings of a portable in the back of our elementary school. We were eating some snack or the other, and within the comfortable confines of our inane conversation I told her, “Your life seems so easy.” She took another bite and looked at me. “Yeah, I guess so. Its pretty nice.” The past spring, my father had left and divorce papers had been served. In the beginning of my parents’ seven years of divorce proceedings, life was better, but suddenly more removed from the norm. The chaos of my father’s behavior was cut out of my life, but all of a sudden, life was no longer in the balance society prescribes. My friend, who lived in a large house with her two younger siblings and happily married parents, seemed to have it all. Seven years later, I’m a lot more enlightened. I’m more than grateful for the emotional weight my parents’ divorce lifted from my family’s life, and I look back on the first nine tumultuous years of my life with hesitation. But the nine years since have also created periodic feelings of isolation as I considered whether or not life could have been better if I did grow up as a person with the life of my supposedly better off friends. My perceptions were a mistake. As I came face to face with the complex reality every person lives in, I expanded my worldview exponentially.

Here’s the lesson I want to impart to you, dear reader: The idea that Palo Alto is in a bubble, that somehow we are overly privileged by virtue of our zip codes, is true to a certain extent. But the reality is this: Look into the complex reality of anyone around you and you’ll find that the grass is pretty evenly brown on either side. Many of the organizations at Palo Alto High School — in particular the student publications — often base their actions off of the concept that you should escape the illusions of beautiful Palo Alto and pop that metaphorical bubble through said escape. What most people don’t realize is that while Palo Altans might be at something of an advantage because we have more resources, opportunities to succeed and comfortable lifestyles, that doesn’t mean we escape the failings of human nature and the dysfunction of broken families. No life is perfect, and we shouldn’t demean the experiences of others by claiming we live in a self-imposed bubble. As I leave Palo Alto to attend college, I implore people to reach past the idea of the bubble, and to realize this, the struggles people face are universal. Sure, Palo Alto teens are privileged in many respects — but that doesn’t mean that our lives are perfect, and the second we realize that we can create a strong support structure for every person in this community. We can burst the bubble of believing in the bubble. v

verdemagazine.com

Gabe Gets Serious

Text by GABRIEL SÁNCHEZ

Happiness in high school

SCHOOL BOARD NEEDS TO PRIORITIZE MENTAL HEALTH Art by Vivian Nguyen

HAT IS THE GREATEST ISSUE FACING finished. Something must be done to reduce student stress and help the Palo Alto Unified School District? Is it the to mitigate the affect of the over-acheiving culture of Paly. weighted Grade Point Average debate? Maybe This mental health epidemic is especially concerning when the it’s the renaming of Jordan and Terman middle school board makes decisions like the one to implement weighted schools? Or is it the controversy surrounding the middle school GPAs, a decision which incentivizes students to take more rigorous sex education curriculum? If you based your decision on what the courses with the promise of a slightly improved standing in the colschool board has been talking about lately, these would all be rea- lege rat race. If the school board is truly concerned with the well-besonable responses. But I remember just over two years ago, when ing of students, then it has to make decisions that prioritize mental the last student suicide cluster took place in Palo Alto, and that health over the pressures of disgruntled parents who just want to is not an issue that can be fixed in two years. The PAUSD Board make sure that their precious babies get into Harvard. School board of Eduation is not doing enough to reform our school system to members must remember that they are in a unique situation: the develop an environment that is conpeople that their decisions affect are ducive to students' mental health. not those who elected them. It would be one thing if this The school board cannot look The school board must not lose cluster were an isolated incident, but focus. Reform must continue until suicide has been a problem in our dis- to other groups to fix their own we begin to see statistical information trict since 2009, when the first cluster showing a decrease in teen suicide rates occurred. Suicide is not an issue that problems, even if it is difficult in Palo Alto. The first step towards should ever be relevant in a school fixing this issue has to be the reaffirenvironment, and the fact that there or politically inconvenient to mation of PAUSD's partnership with have been two clusters within five Adolescent Counseling Services, which years of each other is deplorable. It is address them head-on. is set to be replaced by Counseling and an issue so bad that it caught national Support Services for Youth at the end attention when The Atlantic published an article about the clusters. of the school year. It is also necessary for the school board to reverse There has even been an epidemiological study by the Center for its implementation of weighted GPAs. Disease Control and Prevention providing incredibly useful statisThe school board cannot depend on other groups like Sources tics and information regarding the epidemic. Statistics that show of Strength, an organization that looks to build resilience among that teen suicide rates in Palo Alto are more than four times the high school students in the United States and Canada, to fix the average for Santa Clara county, and yet the school board still seems problems our schools face, even if it is difficult or politically inconmore focused on whether we should rename our middle schools. venient to address them head-on. It is too easy for people to talk This is not to say that nothing is being done by the school about reform right after a crisis and then immediately forget when board. The introduction of Wellness Centers at both Gunn High another issue comes to light. And that’s not to say that other issues School and Paly is a step in the right direction. While the Wellness don’t deserve attention from the school board. But there should Centers help unify the health services available to high schoolers, it always be a “next thing” that the school board is doing to help imwill take much more to fix what is a systemic issue — there has to prove student health, because there is nothing more important for be real, permenant change before the school board's efforts will be a school than the well-being of its students. v

MAY 2017

verdemagazine.com

Palo Alto Unified School District Palo Alto High School 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301

Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Palo Alto, California Permit #44

verdemagazine.com