2020-11-20

WEST SI DE STO RY IOWA CITY WEST HIGH SCHOOL

2901 MELROSE AVE.

IOWA CITY, IA 52246

IN

WSSPAPER.COM

VOLUME 53 ISSUE 2

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

DIGENOUS ICCSD

WSS investigates the challenges Indigenous people face in Iowa City and the representation of their culture in the ICCSD curriculum.

PHOTO FEATURE vw

ZOE MCLASKEY Autumn is a time where I fall into connections with my family members. Playing in the vibrant colored leaves with my little brother, who has the best facial expressions, was a moment of joy that will be unforgettable. Take the time to play in some leaves under the sun this month, and enjoy the moment.

NEWS

Election News Briefs

FEATURE

COVID In Our Community Cheating Culture Zoomed Out

PROFILES

One Article At A Time The Virtual Reality

COVER

Indigenous in ICCSD

ENTERTAINMENT 3 Fun Fall Recipes

SPORTS

A Second Family New Name Same Game

OPINION What’s At Stake The Radish Counting The Cases

04 06 12 18 24 26 30

Dear readers,

Why does it get dark at 5 p.m.? Why is the cafeteria’s orange chicken so good? And why, oh why, is it so dang hard to focus on my Zoom calls? One of these quandaries will be answered in this issue; turn to page 8 to learn how “Zoom fatigue” plagues those enrolled in the online learning model.

Speaking of lacking focus, it’s been hard to think about anything other than our current political climate. In case you haven’t been constantly refreshing election results on your phone, head to page 4 to see what you may have missed.

The importance of social distancing has been highlighted as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Iowa and throughout the country. On page 6, read about students and staff who have experienced the virus firsthand and how it affected their view of the pandemic.

As Thanksgiving approaches, we must reflect on our country’s deep-rooted history of genocide and ignorance towards Indigenous peoples. Our cover story, beginning on page 18, explores how Indigenous individuals see themselves reflected within our community and the ICCSD curriculum.

If the mess that is 2020 has left a sour taste in your mouth, indulge your sweet tooth with three comforting recipes on page 24.

Wishing you all the best!

MARTA LEIRA

CONTENTS

PRINT STAFF LIST Owen Aanestad* Online Sports Editor Fareeha Ahmad* Profiles Editor Reporter Ruba Ahmed* Reporter Caroline Barker* Photo Editor Photographer Sara Baroncini* Photographer Misha Canin* Managing & Business Editor Reporter Alex Carlon* Online Editor-in-chief Reporter Caroline Chandler* Assistant Sports Editor Reporter Maya Chu Reporter Artist & Designer Tess DeGrazia Photographer Heidi Du Reporter Sila Duran Artist & Designer Bess Frerichs* Managing & Feature Editor Reporter Kailey Gee* News Editor Reporter & Designer

Sachiko Goto Camille Gretter* Zoey Guo Grace Huang Kevy Huynh Eva Jordan Krisha Kapoor Hanah Kitamoto* Soomin Koh Youjoo Lee* Marta Leira* Amy Liao* Caroline Mascardo* Zoe McLaskey Alice Meng*

Artist & Designer Photographer Artist & Designer Artist & Designer Photographer Designer Reporter Reporter Sports Editor Reporter Reporter Feature Editor Artist & Designer Print Editor-in-chief Reporter Design Editor Artist & Designer Copy Editor Reporter Photographer Copy Editor Reporter

Willow Oleson Nao Oya Audrey Parrish Ella Rosenthal* Katherine Shoppa Alyssa Skala* Maddy Smith* Amelia Stevens Rachel Swack Rosemary Timmer-Hackert Gwen Watson* Sofia Wells-Lu Sara Whittaker Sydney Wildes* Isaac Young* Helen Zhang Xiaoyi Zhu

Photographer Photographer Reporter Entertainment Editor Artist & Designer Reporter Photographer Photographer Reporter Designer Reporter Photographer Photographer Adviser Photographer Opinion Editor Reporter Reporter Artist & Designer

*Editorial Board member

ELECTION

BY HEIDI DU

DESIGN BY YOUJOO LEE

BRIEFS

In the months leading up to the presidential election, news feeds and daily life have been nothing but a political frenzy. Here’s a rundown of seven major political events from the past few months.

SEPT. 29 - FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE The first presidential debate was held Sept. 29 in Cleveland, Ohio. President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden discussed topics ranging from COVID-19, BLM protests, climate change and the economy to Supreme Court nominations and the election’s integrity. There were frequent interruptions and personal attacks as moderator Chris Wallace attempted to keep the debate on-topic.

OCT. 1 - TRUMP TESTS POSITIVE President Trump announced late Oct. 1 that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19. Trump was admitted to the hospital the next day reporting symptoms of fatigue, a mild cough and a fever. He was released from the hospital Oct. 5. Trump attributed his quick recovery to swift treatment and the use of several antiviral medicines. After refusing the offer to hold the second presidential debate virtually, Trump tested negative for the virus Oct. 12.

OCT. 7 - VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence had their first and only debate Oct. 7 behind glass dividers at the University of Utah.

The contenders clashed over topics including foreign policy with China, COVID-19 management and racial justice.

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NEWS NOV. 20 2020

OCT. 22 - FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE President Trump and former Vice President Biden had their final debate at Belmont University in Tennessee. New debate rules put in place included muting each candidate’s microphone during their opponent’s two-minute speeches. This resulted in fewer interruptions and more ontopic conversations than the first debate. Topics included COVID-19 management, healthcare options, immigration, race relations, foreign policy and each candidate’s international monetary affairs.

OCT. 27 - FROM RBG TO ACB Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at 87 years old Sept. 18 in Washington D.C. President Trump nominated former Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the position.

The Senate confirmed her as an Associate Justice for the Supreme Court Oct. 27 in a 52-48 vote. Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both Republican, voted in favor of her confirmation. The political alignment of the Court is now 6-3, conservative-leaning.

NOV. 3 - U.S. CONGRESSIONAL RESULTS Republican Senator Joni Ernst defeated Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield with 51.8% of the vote Nov. 3, keeping her seat in the Senate. In Iowa’s second congressional district, where Johnson County is located, a recount is underway in a tight race between Republican Marianette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Rita Hart. As of Nov. 10, no winner has been declared.

NOV. 7 - PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS President-elect Joe Biden flipped the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, leading him to victory with 290 electoral votes to President Trump’s 214. The race wasn’t called by major news companies until Nov. 7.

Out of Iowa’s 99 counties, Johnson County was one of five that went to Biden, who won 70.8% of the popular vote. Still, Iowa’s six electoral college votes went to Trump after he won 53.1% of the popular vote. According to Time Magazine, the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan for alleged vote-counting fraud.

NEWS NOV. 20, 2020

05

COVID UNITY

Community members who recovered from COVID-19 share their experiences with the virus and what they have learned from it.

BY FAREEHA AHMAD & HELEN ZHANG PHOTOS BY MADDY SMITH & COURTESY OF JESSICA MEHEGAN DESIGN BY AMY LIAO

SARA ALAYA ‘22

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FEATURE NOV. 20, 2020

JESSICA MEHEGAN, SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER

E

ven in the midst of a pandemic, the local effects of COVID-19 may seem distant to some. According to the district’s COVID-19 Dashboard, a total of 393 students and 96 staff members currently have or have had presumed or confirmed positive cases throughout the school year as of press time Nov. 9.

The school is taking precautions to ensure the safety of its students and to repress the growth of these numbers, including offering both hybrid and online schooling models. In order to keep the school itself safe, students enrolled in the hybrid model alternate days at West so that there are less than 400 students in the building at once.

Other precautionary measures include teachers sanitizing desks in between class periods, tape markings encouraging individuals walking in different directions to stay on opposite sides of the hallways and stopping the use of shared items such as computers and keypads. If a student or staff member contracts COVID-19, they are required to quarantine themselves for a minimum of two weeks.

According to Chelsey Lenz, a nurse at West, students who attend school in person and display COVID-19 symptoms are required to provide a picture of a negative test result proving they don’t have the virus. If they don’t wish to get tested, they are required to self-isolate at home.

Nurses call in every day to check on students who are marked absent due to illness, including those enrolled in the online learning program.

Students, including those who are on the hybrid plan, are still required to go to Zoom meetings when they are at home as long as they are well enough to attend.

“We do recommend that students be [in] communication with their teachers about how they are feeling and their participation throughout [class] so that accommodations can be made if needed,” Lenz said.

Lenz also works closely with the Johnson County Public Health Department in order to contact trace the virus. In other words, she identifies students who have been exposed through close contact with those who tested positive for COVID-19. To do this, Lenz calls the families of students who have the virus and identifies who they have been in contact with by looking at seating charts, busing and extracurricular activities. She then notifies students who have been exposed and tells them to stay home.

While these precautions can help mitigate the spread of the virus, students can still contract it outside of school. Twins Sara and Yusef Alaya ’22 contracted the virus over the summer. Sara works a part-time job and believes she became unwell while working shifts there. Because of their close contact with each other, Yusef contracted the virus from Sara.

“I was super, super surprised. I didn’t expect it at all because it was out of nowhere,” Sara said. “I just woke up one day [and] had a fever.”

“It was pretty surprising, but I felt weird. It

didn’t feel scary, but it just felt weird,” Yusef said.

The pair isolated themselves even before they received positive results confirming their illness. Yusef and Sara quarantined downstairs away from their parents to keep the virus from spreading. Their mom left food on the staircase, and in the meantime, the twins wiped down surfaces and kept themselves entertained with videogames and TV. However, these safety measures interfered with their daily routines even after they recovered. Sara missed part of the cross country season, which hindered her growth in the sport.

“In the end, it did permanently damage the success of my season,” Sara said. “I had to work super hard to get back into shape.”

Yusef could no longer work at his job while he was quarantining, and it became difficult for him to adjust back into his previous schedule after he recovered.

“Going back from just sitting in my room all day to going to work and doing stuff, it felt weird,” Yusef said.

Although symptoms were mild for the twins for the majority of their recovery, they still believe it is important to be especially cautious during this time.

“Sara wears her mask all the time at work and stuff like that,” Yusef said. “[But] she ended up getting it, so I think it’s a lot easier to get [COVID-19] than you think.”

Another student who missed sports practices due to the virus is Isabel Rivera ’24. Isabel did not contract COVID-19 herself, but her father, Diego Rivera, did. Around four days after Diego tested positive, he was hospitalized for one day due to a long-lasting fever to see if he had a blood infection and to check the functionality of his organs.

“The first day really affected us because it really hit us like, ‘Oh wow, this could change a lot of stuff,’” Isabel said. “It changed all of our lives for a while because we were really worried about him.”

Despite his hospitalization, Diego ended up with only mild symptoms, such as a cough and loss of taste. He quarantined in his bedroom for 11 days, avoiding contact with his family and missing 17 days of work. Isabel also had to quarantine at home, missing the end of her cross country season. Diego has recovered enough to be able to return to work but has been experiencing headaches as a lingering effect.

According to him, many people experience effects like these after recovering from the virus, but he is hopeful that they will eventually go away.

Diego and Isabel’s experience with COVID-19 has led them to take it more seriously.

“We really thought about what if my dad could get worse,” Isabel said. “It really hit me that we need to be safe because you never know when someone could pass away.”

Before getting it himself, Diego saw the virus as something that would be difficult to contract but now thinks differently.

“ SAR A WEARS H E R MASK ALL TH E TI M E ... IT’S A LOT EASI E R TO G ET [COVI D-19] THAN YOU TH I N K .”

YUSEF ALAYA ‘22

ISABEL RIVERA ’24

“ IT R EALLY H IT M E THAT WE N E E D TO BE SAFE BECAUSE YOU N EVE R KNOW WH E N SOM EON E COU LD PASS AWAY.”

393 96 4

“I just realized that it can happen, and that it is real,” he said. “It was definitely an eye-opener for me.”

Social studies teacher Jessica Mehegan caught the virus from her mother after a weekly family dinner. Mehegan’s mother is participating in a research study at the University of Iowa and gets tested for the virus twice a week. Despite their best efforts to stay safe, Mehegan started to experience symptoms, such as a fever, stiff neck and congestion, and tested positive for COVID-19 the week her mother also tested positive.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Mehegan said. “[But] I was scared because I didn’t want to spread it to my kids or husband or father-in-law.”

Along with her other symptoms, Mehegan suffered from the complete loss of taste and smell.

“That’s something that’s never happened to me before,” Mehegan said. “I couldn’t tell the difference between coffee and water.”

In order to keep her family safe, Mehegan wore a mask around them and had her husband manage all the meals. Additionally, she ate her food at separate times and tried to stay away from her family as much as possible. Although Mehegan was the only one who contracted the virus, her whole family had to quarantine together, and her husband was not able to go to work during that time period. Despite these challenges, Mehegan didn’t experience severe symptoms and was still able to teach online classes.

“I was lucky to have mild symptoms, but the virus itself is highly contagious and deadly. I worry about the fact that I could have spread it to my father-in-law, who is 79, if I wasn’t careful,” Mehegan said.

Lenz has seen the severities of the virus firsthand and encourages everyone to stay safe and work together to get through the pandemic.

“I want you all to be able to fully participate in extracurriculars, hang out with your friends and have everyone back on campus, but to get there, we all have to do our part,” Lenz said.

“Support each other and don’t perpetuate the stigma that is often associated with a positive result. Encourage your friends and teammates to be honest about reporting symptoms and results and maintain open lines of communication with your school nurse and teachers.”

total COVID-19 student cases since 8/15/20 total COVID-19 staff cases since 8/15/20

students currently positive staff currently positive

extracurricular program closures

classroom closures

121 25 16

Data compiled on 11/9/2020 Source: ICCSD COVID-19 Dashboard

FEATURE

NOV. 20 , 2020

07

CHEA

ting

Students and educators reflect on how different learning structures result in academic dishonesty and what methods teachers use to combat cheating.

CUL TURE

BY RUBA AHMED & KRISHA KAPOOR

T

hrough a screen we might feel an inch away from others, but in reality, we are miles apart. With turned-off cameras hiding forbidden resources, the absence of eyes directly watching a student’s every move during a test can result in an increased temptation to cheat.

It is hard to ensure academic integrity in a largely online world. Even more difficult can be defining what constitutes cheating. Dr. Gregg Shoultz, director of PK-12 online learning for the ICCSD, describes cheating as, “passing someone else’s work off as your own.” From plagiarism of work found online to messaging friends for answers, most methods involve the use of electronic devices students carry with them everywhere.

However, it is not always the students’ inten-

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FEATURE NOV. 20, 2020

ART & DESIGN BY GRACE HUANG

tions to purposefully follow a path of academic dishonesty. With Canvas, for instance, the distinction between assignments and assessments has become blurred, leaving some students confused about the boundaries of resource usage.

Teachers’ expectations of how students will act in combination with ethical concerns have obscured what counts as cheating. Online student Shivy Mannengi ’23 acknowledges how complicated this moral line can be.

“I guess there’s a question of ethics because they’ll tell us not to [cheat],” Mannengi said. “I think most students find themselves [cheating] anyways because it just turns into making sure they get a good grade.”

Although cheating was present even before school moved online, it has risen with the increase in remote assessments. According to The Washington Post, the online proctoring service ProctorU saw a rise in cheating from less than 1%

to above 8% from April to June of 2020 during the start of remote testing due to COVID-19.

This has raised the question of whether the difficulty level of tests changes depending on where they are administered. Hybrid student Lydia Cui ’22 compares her experiences taking online and in-person tests.

“In-person tests are easier for me because even though you can cheat on an online test, it’s just easier to write down all my work, and then it’s a lot easier for teachers to give partial credit, which I personally like,” Cui said.

Some classes continue to use the traditional paper-pencil testing format while others have opted for virtual methods despite being in an in-person classroom. For hybrid student Razan Babikir ’22, this change did not go unnoticed.

“Personally ... I’m way more comfortable using pencil and paper, but a lot of teachers ... try to limit that,” Babikir said. With 55.3% of West

students enrolled in the hybrid learning model, many wonder whether online students have an unfair advantage during tests due to easier access to cheating resources.

To combat this, teachers have searched for ways to provide relatively equal assessments to accommodate for the different testing environments while continuing to challenge students.

Science teacher Michelle Wikner decided to create modified tests for her online students.

However, she believes there are still disparities in this system. Hybrid students are not permitted to use notes during the test and are constantly supervised, while online students have no eyes watching what they do. In an attempt to equalize the assessments, Wikner created open note but time-constricted exams for her remote students.

She originally predicted that her online students would perform better because of cheating, but found that her hybrid students ended up performing better.

“They did really, really well, and they got done faster than [online students]…,” Wikner said.

Spanish teacher Amy Seidel doesn’t believe the main issue is whether students are being tested equally. Rather, she worries that online students aren’t receiving an equal amount of opportunity and guidance.

“The real struggle is connecting with online students when they are struggling with their assessments,” Seidel said.

“

I WANT STU DE NTS TO LEAR N FROM TH E I R ASSESSM E NTS AN D R EALLY SHOW WHAT TH EY KNOW, EVE N I F IT M EAN S IT TAKES TH E M SEVE R AL ATTE M PTS.” -AMY SEI DEL, SPAN ISH TEACH ER

To compensate for this, Seidel has changed her mindset on student evaluation.

“I am really looking at assessments in a different light this year. I am allowing open notes and retakes. I want students to learn from their assessments and really show what they know, even if it means it takes them several attempts,” Seidel said.

Consequently, when teachers have trouble providing this guidance, students often turn to cheating. Although finding shortcuts may offer immediate relief, some teachers are worried that cheating will prevent students from actually learning the material.

“Students are really cheating themselves...in finding someone else to do their work rather than constructing the knowledge that the assignment requires,” Shoultz said.

The biggest concern for AP teachers, whose purpose is to prepare students to take AP exams in the spring, is that students are simply submitting work at the expense of understanding the material.

“I want students to learn things, and I’m afraid that people aren’t learning things very well because they’re relying too much on other sources.” Wikner said.

Whether in-person or online, there are several reasons a student may choose to be academically dishonest. Teachers predict that pressure, laziness and frustration over assignments are all reasons that students may turn to cheating.

Prior to the pandemic and subsequent change of the schooling situation, students already found themselves facing pressure to succeed in West’s competitive environment.

“Classes are moving so fast; the combination of understanding the material and completing all assignments… all of it adds up and it just takes so much time,” Mannengi said. “It’s like the students almost have to [cheat].”

Moreover, Babikir feels less accountable when taking a test online, which decreases her motivation and pressure to perform well.

“When I’m taking [a test] online, I’m like ‘Oh god, I hate this tab. It’s been open for the last 15 minutes or something. I can’t figure this question out. I’m just going to write something.

Whatever. It’s just a computer,’” Babikir said.

For Babikir, the ultimate reason for cheating comes down to procrastination.

“I was always a procrastinator,” Babikir said, “but this year, I think I took it to a whole new level.”

After a long day of in-person school, Babikir has very little motivation left to start working on homework right away. In the end, she feels procrastination can cause students to look for answers outside of their own knowledge.

Despite cheating being almost inevitable in an online setting, teachers still make an effort to prevent it. Resources such as lockdown browsers and websites that check for plagiarism are provided to teachers. However, Wikner chooses to opt out of imposing such restrictions because

“

WE HOPE

BY G IVI NG STU DE NTS M EAN I NG FU L AN D AUTH E NTIC TASKS, TH EY WI LL NOT BE AS I NCLI N E D TO LOOK FOR SHORTCUTS.” -GREGG SHOU LTZ, DI RECTO R OF PK-12 ON LI N E LEARN I NG

she believes it is part of the student’s responsibility to make the best choices for themselves.

“At some point it’s going to be quicker if you just learn it and get it done,” Wikner said.

In contrast, Seidel believes students may use notes during online tests so long as it helps them learn the material.

“I hope that [the students] see the task as more manageable and practice the skills we have learned and reviewed rather than trying to do something that is out of their comfort zone completely,” Seidel said.

Shoultz agrees that the most effective method of preventing cheating and promoting learning is to adapt to the current learning situations.

“We hope by giving students meaningful and authentic tasks, they will not be as inclined to look for shortcuts,” Shoultz said.

FEATURE NOV. 20, 2020

09

ZOOMED OUT

As online learning continues, students are starting to experience the symptoms of “Zoom fatigue,” a phenomenon new to many in the age of video calls and COVID-19.

BY ALICE MENG

I

t’s seventh period, but somehow you’re still sprawled in bed. Your head is throbbing and your back aches. A voice drones on from your laptop on the other side of the room. If it wasn’t for the fear that your teacher might call on you, you’d be fast asleep. This is the new reality for many online students experiencing “Zoom fatigue.”

In the first trimester, 44.7% of students enrolled in the online learning program. Those students have attended synchronous classes over Zoom for half of the school day and completed work asynchronously for the remaining portion.

However, the hours spent on Zoom have added up, leaving students feeling drained.

Online student Ida Behnami ’21 has been having trouble staying engaged during Zoom classes.

“When I have my camera off, which is really tempting to do, sometimes I’ll just go off and do my own thing, or I’ll go on my phone,” Behnami said. “It’s kind of hard. The audio will disconnect from the teachers, or they’ll get kicked out [of the Zoom meeting], and so then there’ll be a disruption in the class, and then it just makes me not focus for the rest of class.”

Teachers who have opted to teach from home have noticed this lack of engagement from stu-

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FEATURE NOV. 20, 2020

dents. Math teacher Julie Kennebeck has struggled to connect with her students and understand their needs in a virtual setting. Since only a couple of her students turn their cameras on during class, she finds it difficult to adjust her teaching pace as needed.

“It would be great to have more of the cameras on when I’m talking to them, just so I can make the eye contact and get the nods and have that reassurance … as a math teacher, I want to know that we’re getting the nods and the clicking, and if I’m not, that guides what I talk about next. I don’t get that on [Zoom],” Kennebeck said.

Kennebeck has been trying to encourage student participation by utilizing breakout rooms and the chat feature on Zoom but is still not receiving as much feedback compared to in-person classes. Online social studies teacher Alexei Lalagos has also been facing a disconnect with his students and is missing the typical classroom dynamic he had enjoyed before. According to Lalagos, during in-person classes, he could facilitate an interactive environment and create collaborative group projects. With online classes, however, Lalagos finds it difficult to emulate the energy levels of previous years.

“It’s a lot different when you’re just staring at 20 black boxes. Maybe they’ll talk to you, maybe they won’t,” Lalagos said. “As we try to chat directly to students or say their name, or ‘Are you

there, are you there?’ We don’t know if they’re making a sandwich or having internet troubles or whatever. It’s sort of defeating, and I don’t know what’s going on behind there.”

According to Christopher Anders, a counseling psychology doctoral student at the University of Iowa, virtual communication can contribute to confusion and disconnect between students and teachers. He attributes this to the fact that crucial nonverbal communication cues are often missed online.

“You’re only getting like 10% of someone [on Zoom]. If someone gets overwhelmed or stressed, they might be bouncing their leg, they might be crossing their arms and sort of closing off. You lose a lot of those important [cues] from the shoulders down … so you lose a lot of that information,” Anders said. “All the normal nonverbals that we have are just gone, which might

“E VERY T HING K IND OF F EEL S T HE S AME, AND YOU’RE LOOK ING AT A SCREEN F OR F OUR HOURS S T R AIGH T.” - AIDAN OHL ‘22

cause us to engage in a lot of extra effort in order to actually be paying attention and focusing in.”

He believes this leads to a disruption in the natural rhythm of conversations and can cause anxiety among speakers. With an unfamiliar platform of communication, Anders notes navigating a new set of social norms can be mentally taxing. The inability to recognize social cues and responses after speaking over Zoom can cause uncertainty and discomfort.

“That leaves us often guessing as to how [we are] being received by others, especially when you’re in the middle of a Zoom class or something and everyone’s mics are muted,” Anders said. “Can you imagine in a normal everyday conversation in a group saying something and then everyone just sits there silently staring at you?”

As online students learn virtually, screen time has skyrocketed, and many no longer get physical activity throughout the day. Aidan Ohl ’22 takes seven classes online and has had to take more time reviewing material outside of class than normal, leading to even more time spent on his computer.

“I think really just having to stare at one place while staying in one place, it’s a combination of a psychological thing of not moving, not going between different classes. Everything kind of feels the same, and you’re looking at a screen for four hours straight,” Ohl said.

As a result, some online students and teachers have been experiencing physical symptoms like eye strain and back pain. Along with muscle fatigue and poorer eyesight, Kennebeck has been

suffering from neck pain and had to get a larger computer monitor to encourage better posture.

A sedentary lifestyle and excessive screen time have also made it difficult for Behnami to stay motivated and focused during class.

“I have started to get migraines … so I have to take an aspirin or something every time before class and then it’s hard to focus, but then I don’t want to turn off my camera or my computer because I have to listen to what the teacher says,” Behnami said. “It’s just kind of finding that balance between ‘Do I want to watch the computer and have a worse headache?’ or ‘Do I just want to kind of quit?’”

Anders believes another factor contributing to fatigue is technological distractions and overexertion. Endless possibilities for multitasking online and many faces displayed at once in gallery view can be mentally overwhelming.

“There’s so much stimulus that’s constantly coming in all day ... that we don’t have a break from,” Anders said. “That in itself can be exhausting because it forces us to pay attention for a really long time and try to hyperextend our focus.”

Lalagos has been struggling with focusing on only one task while teaching and ensuring he is accessible to all his students during class through many different forms of communication.

“I have my computer here, I’ve got windows open on here, Zoom has a chat feature that your students are interacting with there … there’s all of these constant things coming all the time, and it’s really tiring to deal with all of that,” Lalagos said.

With online students and teachers working from home, some have been finding it challenging to maintain a work-life balance. According to Anders, the lack of a separation between a workspace and relaxation place creates a constant reminder of stress and work deadlines.

“We just don’t have much of a break from it and where we can take those breaks ends up being the same place … We’re constantly plugged in or constantly in the space that we’re working, [and] that stress doesn’t necessarily go away,” Anders said.

As a result of this never-ending fatigue, some students have reported low motivation levels.

Behnami has been finding she doesn’t put as much effort into learning and schoolwork and believes feeling disconnected with her teachers and classmates has further contributed to her lack of motivation. “[Zoom] just doesn’t connect us in the way that we’re used to … It often leaves us feeling more lonely and disconnected … and so it ends up being less rewarding,” Anders said. “There’s also the reason for why we’re doing this and why we’re here ... Zoom might even be a reminder that we are sort of stuck in this world and a little bit helpless or out of control on that.”

HOW TO COMBAT ZOOM FATIGUE Set boundaries for yourself During passing time in between classes, take a quick walk around or stretch. Avoid using your phone or laptop to give your eyes and brain a break.

Change your environment after the school day Dedicate a space solely for relaxation. Change into different clothes. Pull a Mr. Rogers and trick your brain into having a separate work and life environment, even if you’re in the same room.

Don’t work in bed Work in a place where you can stay focused and get in a productive mindset.

Give yourself breaks without screen time Pick up a new hobby, read a good book, or learn a new recipe.

FEATURE ART & DESIGN BY XIAOYI ZHU

NOV. 20, 2020

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D is c ove ri ng he r ng p a ss io n fo r w ri ti a t a yo un g a g e, a im s Ath en a Wu ‘2 4 ut h to em p ow er yo m th ro ug h jo ur na lis e in ng a nd c re a te c ha o ne he r c o m m un it y e. a rt ic le a t a ti m

BY SO O M IN KO H

YO UJO O LEE ART & DE SIG N BY

T

he world of writing always intrigued Athena Wu ’24. From crafting intricate lines of poetry to illustrating magical worlds through the genre of fantasy, Wu has always been entranced by literature. It was at the end of her fifth grade year, however, when her passion for writing and vision to better represent her peers came to fruition when she launched the Rocket Times, Van Allen Elementary’s student-run newspaper.

“I felt frustrated that people looked down upon elementary school kids and thought we couldn’t do many things, so I wanted to change that. I

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PROFILES NOV. 20, 2020

wanted to prove that elementary school kids could do things,” Wu said.

Wu gathered a group of her classmates with the hope of creating an outlet where she could further develop her writing skills and create lasting change in her school’s community. Despite beginning with just four members, Wu was determined to pursue this vision.

“I wanted this newspaper to bring more life to the school because it felt like elementary school students did not know of our school events to look forward to,” Wu said. “I thought that maybe with a newspaper, we would be able to bring light to these events and have more communication between the younger grades and older grades.”

Wu began by touring the West High newsroom and reading through stacks of previous WSS publications. Inspired by the bustling energy and environment of the WSS, Wu used her fifth grade classroom as her own newsroom where she held weekly meetings with her peers.

“We would start our club meetings with an icebreaker, then mostly discuss ideas that we had and could improve upon. We then started to draft articles and copy and paste them to the online platform that we used,” Wu said.

Weeks after their initial meeting, the first issue of the Rocket Times was published on Smore with the help of a group of WSS staffers. From articles about handmade slime and fidget spinners to Mother’s Day celebrations, the first pub-

lication of the student-run club was read by students, teachers and parents alike.

“We wrote about things that normal elementary students would be interested in. We also wrote about school events,” Wu said. “We printed six physical copies, but most read our issue on Smore. The reaction was great, and many told us they enjoyed it.”

George Liu ’19, a former WSS staffer and mentor to the Van Allen students, was particularly impressed by their motivation and determination. After volunteering to help set up the newspaper and publish the first issue, he was excited to see the Rocket Times’s success.

“It was very much a pleasure to work with the kids; they were all highly motivated to learn about the field of journalism and how they can use it to engage and influence their school community,” Liu said. “It was refreshing to see this level of interest at their age.”

Wu’s fifth grade teacher, Bridget Laroche, also realized that her students had more than enough initiative and passion to achieve great things.

The Rocket Times offered a space for students not only to write but to interact with other students outside the classroom.

“The newspaper club gave students an opportunity to be involved in a different sort of club than what was previously offered. We found that many students really did want to be involved in something,” Laroche said. “Some students joined because they loved to write, but many joined for the social aspect.”

As time passed, more students began to show interest as curiosity about the newspaper and its upcoming issues escalated. The group of four slowly transformed into a club of over 20 students.

“I was kind of surprised that my idea had worked, but once it did, I hoped that the club would get even bigger. I wanted people to want to read it and for classmates to actually enjoy writing,” Wu said.

Behind every issue of the Rocket Times was weeks of preparation. Staffers of the newspaper came together weekly to discuss current events, upcoming school assemblies and popular trends amongst students. They also encouraged other students to submit short stories, poetry or other pieces of writing to the student-run newspaper.

Ridley Hazeltine ’24, a founding member of the Rocket Times, believes the club gave her a peek into the field of journalism and a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to create lasting memories with her peers.

“The atmosphere [of the club] was wonderful, as all the members were so supportive, and we had some really inspiring discussions,” Hazeltine said. “I think the best part was being able to pursue an opportunity that a lot of other kids may not have, starting a club and really making the most out of it, as well as getting experience as a journalist.”

As several more editions were published, the attention of parents and teachers, as well as the

opportunities it offered for elementary students, made the Rocket Times a success.

“It was great to think that even as a shy kid, I could get out and change something, no matter how small. That was the confidence boost that made it worthwhile to keep up with the newspaper,” Wu said.

After graduating from Van Allen and passing the Rocket Times down to future generations, Wu continues to pursue journalism and is currently taking Foundations of Journalism to further her career in writing.

“Back then, journalism seemed like a way that I could show that kids can do something and also use something that I’m strong at, which is writing,” she said. “I’m glad I started the Rocket Times because I could prove that kids can do big things if they put their mind to it.”

IT WAS G R EAT TO TH I N K THAT EVE N AS A SHY KI D, I COU LD G ET OUT AN D CHANG E SOM ETH I NG, NO MATTE R HOW SMALL .”

- ATH ENA WU ‘24

PHOTOS COU RTESY OF ATHE NA WU

Athe na Wu ‘24 walk s the grou nds of the elem enta ry scho ol she prev iousl y atte nded .

PROFILES NOV. 20, 2020

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As the first trimester comes to an end, West High teachers share their experiences with online schooling and how they’ve adjusted to its challenges.

BY AUDREY PARRISH & KATHERINE SHOPPA

CHEMISTRY CHALLENGES

W

ith the typical practice of doing handson labs in chemistry being taken away, science teacher Megan Bildner is facing many challenges while adjusting to teaching online. Half of her day is now spent teaching live classes, and the other on various Zoom meetings and responding to emails. This caused her to make many small changes to her teaching style, from the setup of Canvas and other programs to the amount of work she assigns..

“You name it, it’s probably been adjusted,” Bildner said.

Although these changes have been made relatively easily according to Bildner, she feels that the most difficult part of online learning is missing out on getting to know her students as individuals.

“While there are many types of interactions we can have online, those quick, organic day-to-day check-ins and random conversations in between classes are so enjoyable,” Bildner said. “I feel that those moments bring a sense of camaraderie between myself, students and between peers too. I miss that.”

Along with this year’s missing sense of community, there are additional challenges that are unique to online science classes. Since it is no longer possible for students to do physical labs together, teachers have switched to using new platforms such as PIVOT, a website that allows students to complete virtual labs. Despite the challenges of switching to these platforms, Bildner has learned some valuable skills as a result of the new technologies she’s used.

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BAND BLUES “This experience forced me out of my comfort zone a bit and challenged me to get creative in how I was going to deliver my class content,” she said.

Bildner was both excited and nervous to start the school year, seeing it as a great opportunity to collaborate with more people across the district but also anticipating its many challenges.

“I expected that it would be a lot of work and a bit overwhelming at times,” Bildner said. “[But] it has been an overall positive experience, and I have learned a lot of new skills that I can transfer to my in-person classes someday too.”

Bildner believes there is a lot more responsibility being put on students in the online learning model. She feels that even though the situation may not be ideal, this learning experience is a blessing in disguise.

“I truly believe students are learning very important time management and interpersonal communication skills that I didn’t develop until well into college,” Bildner said. “I think, while possibly tricky and overwhelming now, these skills will have a positive impact in the future.”

PROFILES NOV. 20, 2020

ART AND DESIGN BY RACHEL SWACK

“Doing full-time online couldn’t be any more different,” said online band director Rich Medd.

Instead of the usual noises of a band playing together during class, Medd now only hears his students play when one accidentally unmutes during rehearsal. Teaching virtually, he has come to realize how crucial social interaction is to band.

“When you’re in an ensemble, you hear everybody else, you work together with everybody else, you have to compromise,” Medd said.

“There’s the whole social aspect of band, and so now you’ve kind of taken all of those types of things away.”

Another challenge Medd is facing is figuring out how to best teach students when he is not interacting with them as much as he would in person.

“The best that we can do is figure out a way that students can still play, even though they can’t hear each other, and I can’t hear the students play,” Medd said. “And that’s just odd.”

Medd has been using different music technology apps such as GarageBand to put together

recordings for his students to listen to and play along with. He realized that his main goal was to ensure students were able to practice and play their instruments even while attending rehearsals over Zoom.

“I just wanted students to play, and from what I can tell, I think students are,” he said.

However, without every student being able to turn on their cameras in class, it’s difficult to tell how much playing is being done.

Medd realizes that not every single student is able to have their cameras turned on for class but still finds it challenging not to see his students’ faces.

“There is a regular slew of students that have cameras on, and I can see that they’re playing, and that makes it a lot more interactive for me,” Medd said. “If I just see their name in a black box with a little red microphone turned off, sometimes I just feel like I am talking to the wall.”

Despite all of the challenges that come with online learning and teaching, Medd is still trying to keep spirits high and make band a fun experience for everyone. With the recording software he is using, Medd is stringing together a video of students playing “Tribute to Troy” and “Fight Song,” just like they would play when marching at football games in the past.

Medd says that one of the benefits of teaching band online is that he has gotten the chance to individually talk with his students.

“I’ve never invited students to come in and just talk with them for ten minutes and find out what they’re into and what they want to work on,” Medd said. “We had the opportunity to do that which we wouldn’t normally have.”

“WE SI NG ON AN D CONTI N U E TO LEAR N FROM OU R CHALLENGES.” - LU I G I E N R I Q U EZ , CH O I R D I R EC TO R

CAUTIOUS CHOIR From wearing large, white, cone shaped masks while singing to having students on Zoom meetings trying to sing from their own homes, choir teacher Luigi Enriquez has had to find many new ways to keep music in students’ lives.

“Choir is about community building through singing and getting those experiences of hearing a chord lock in tune, sharing words of affirmation to each other or holding hands when we sing,” Enriquez said. “We don’t get to have that experience when I’m dealing with two classes at once and when we can’t really sing through a video chat.”

While he has tried to compensate as much as possible, Enriquez knows that learning choir online is difficult for many depending on their home environment.

“It is so different from what we normally do,” he said. “Singing requires a space where you can freely make sounds. In school we have the choir room for that, but each student has a different home situation, so making a loud sound might not be the best for someone.”

Although dealing with technological problems that come with Zoom has been strenuous, teaching hybrid has also created some challenges. In addition to wearing masks, students being split

“ SOM ETI M ES I J UST FEEL LI KE I AM TALKI NG TO TH E WALL.” - R I CH M E D D, BA N D D I R EC TO R

up into hybrid A, hybrid B and online groups has caused a disruption to the typical choir experience.

“It is already stressful enough to sing in front of others and have your voice on display, but it is much more difficult for singers to move their jaw or face when singing in their masks,” Enriquez said. “I’ve also had to think of ways to make singing in a smaller group and singing online more accessible and engaging.”

In Enriquez’s efforts to keep choir an interactive class, he has found ways to keep his hybrid and online groups connected by using Zoom for polls and activities. Enriquez is also organizing a virtual concert by editing students’ singing recordings into a video.

With all the new adjustments to holding choir online, there have been days for Enriquez that have not gone as planned. After long or hard days, Enriquez says his students motivate him the most.

“I appreciate the little words of thanks that they say at the end of class or the small comments of ‘It’s okay, Mr. E, you’re trying your best’ in the Zoom chats,” Enriquez said. “If a lesson doesn’t go right or a technology thing goes awry, I always try to find the light-heartedness in it all, and usually someone will make a comment in the chat or in person that will make the class laugh, and then I will also laugh, and then we all laugh, and then five minutes later, the bell rings.”

Going into the school year, Enriquez knew it would be a challenging time, but regardless of the struggles, the choirs are still singing and continuing to grow through this experience.

“I think most people like patterns and when everything has been turned upside down, what do you do?” he said. “We have never done this type of teaching and learning before, so we sing on and continue to learn from our challenges.”

When Enriquez looks back on the beginning of the school year, he wishes he could give himself this one piece of advice: “Bro, can you just relax, please?”

At the end of the day, he is confident that some good will come out of this experience. “[We’ve learned] that relationships matter.

That connection matters. We start to focus on what is really significant for our young people and how we can best help them on their educational journeys. I have focused more on who is in my classroom and have learned these small intricacies that engage good conversations and relationship building,” he said. “As much as we are distant from each other, for me, I think this has been some of the most meaningful teaching I’ve done in my young career.”

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IN

DIGENOUS ICCSD

With Thanksgiving day right around the corner, Indigenous voices share how they feel their culture is represented in the ICCSD and Iowa City community.

BY KAILEY GEE, HANAH KITAMOTO & ROSEMARY TIMMER-HACKERT DESIGN BY ELLA ROSENTHAL

F

or centuries, Indigenous peoples in America have been ignored or silenced, from having land stolen to their culture continuously appropriated. The state of Iowa was named after an Indigenous tribe Bah Koh-Je, whom the Europeans called the Ioway. For the small community of Indigenous students in the ICCSD, this is just one example of their culture being misrepresented.

INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE

C

laudé Clark ’22 is part of the Mayan tribe, which originated in Central America.

According to the Iowa Department of Education, he’s part of the 0.003% of students in the district that identified as Indigenous in 2019.

Because of this, Clark feels it can be difficult for Indigenous students to make friends with similar experiences or to form a community.

“Growing up, it was really lonely. First, I lived in a white town, so that didn't help. Now that I moved to Iowa City, it's a lot better. I have some friends who are Latino, but that's different from being Indigenous. It is a different culture,” Clark said. “I still am looking for my place to click in,

and it feels like I haven't really clicked into a place yet where I can truly call home.”

Clark was adopted by a white family and lived in Illinois for much of his childhood before moving to the ICCSD. While he believes that his race didn’t have an effect on how other people treated him, it did affect his perception of himself.

“I would get a lot of compliments about my skin … but I guess for me it was difficult to accept because I didn’t want that. I just want[ed] to look like everybody else because no one … around me looked like me,” Clark said.

Without knowing anyone from his culture or of Indigenous descent, Clark has had to learn about his culture by himself using resources he finds on the internet.

Growing up with Indigenous parents, Loren Wolf ’23 has had a different experience. He stays connected to his Indigenous roots by practicing the cultures of the tribes he descended from. To do this, he is learning the Navajo language from his mother’s side of the family and takes part in many traditions of the Meskwaki at the reservation in Tama, Iowa, where his father lives.

“My dad started putting me in something

called a powwow, which is basically just honoring the relatives by doing specific dances ... I used to do those a lot [before the pandemic],” Wolf said.

According to Clark, being able to partake in these kinds of experiences can be important and empowering for people of Indigenous descent.

“The Meskwaki nation is [called] the Sac and Fox tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa … They have their own reservation, and they have their own community,” Clark said. “I really want to go down there and … experience what it’s like to be Native American, even if they’re not exactly my tribe.”

While Clark values cultural experiences, he thinks it is important that representation comes with the right intentions. He believes there is a fine line between cultural appreciation and appropriation, with one commonly appropriated term being “two-spirit.”

The term signifies a member of a tribe who identifies as neither a man nor a woman and has many unique roles in the group. However, some non-Indigenous members of the LGBTQ+ community have begun using the term to describe

themselves.

“It kind of makes me upset whenever someone says, ‘Oh, I'm a two-spirit’ … when they’re non-Indigenous. I don't get mad at them, it just makes me sad that they think this is okay. Some part of their brain thought, ‘This is okay to call myself this, to take this from the different tribes, different cultures, and put it on me when I don't know anything about what that word actually means,’” Clark said.

Clark attributes the cultural appropriation and microaggressions he has seen to a lack of knowledge about Indigenous peoples and their cultures.

“Eventually, people will have respect for us, but [currently] a lot of people are just ignorant,” Clark said. “They just don’t know. They aren’t taught.”

A common cause of confusion is what terms should be used to refer to Indigenous peoples.

This varies around the world, according to Jacki Thompson Rand, a professor of history and Native American and Indigenous studies at the University of Iowa. Indigenous peoples are referred to as Aborigine in Australia and as the First Nations in Canada. In America, however, there is no universally accepted term for Indigenous peoples.

“It's a little bit different for everyone but it's mostly like keep away from slurs, even if they don't sound like slurs to you … A good way to just be safe would be to call them Indigenous or ask what tribe they’re from,” Clark said. “I think it'd be fine to just ask them, ‘Okay, do you prefer to be called Indian or whatever?’ … It is better someone asked than for us to be offended.”

CURRENT CURRICULUM

D

uring their four years at West, students are required to take at least three years of social studies classes, including one year of American history. Clark, who has moved multiple times in his life, believes none of his schools covered Indigenous peoples’ history indepth and feels his community is overlooked in the curriculum. “[Indigenous history is] not really talked about at all, besides U.S. history and the Seven Years

“

I HAVEN’T REALLY CLICKED INTO A PL ACE YET WHERE I CAN TRULY CALL HOME.

”

-CLAUDÉ CLARK ’22

War and stuff like that,” Clark said.

In the ICCSD, fifth grade is the designated year students learn about early U.S. history at the elementary school level. Alexandra Patrick-Ferree ’27 is a sixth grader at Alexander Elementary. In her experience so far, there has also been little information on the history or cultures of Indigenous people.

“Indigenous people is a pretty big subject, and considering how big it is, I know pretty much almost nothing about it,” Patrick-Ferree said. “We did not generally learn about tribes because we were busy learning about the states.”

According to Brady Shutt, the ICCSD social studies curriculum coordinator, this is because the social studies curriculum at the elementary school level follows a unique structure.

“In the beginning, it’s this sort of family, neighborhood, community [structure] if you think about it as a circle that spreads wider and wider as students learn,” Shutt said. “But it’s not a lot of civics lessons and things like that, so it isn’t like they’re studying history the way you might think about it as a high school student.”

While past students may have celebrated Columbus Day, this year, Patrick-Ferree and her classmates researched Indigenous history in celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. However, these changes haven’t spread to high schools, where neither Clark nor Wolf talked about the holiday in any of their classes.

“A lot of people, especially Americans, are very … hesitant and reluctant to change,” Clark said.

“I don’t really expect much progress.”

According to Wolf, even when Indigenous history is taught, it can easily be one-sided.

“I kind of feel like in history … [Indigenous people were] treated as a conflict and just as an obstacle that [European explorers] had to go through,” Wolf said. “In the Native American tribe[s’] perspective, it makes more sense because then it’s just people trespassing. They don’t exactly know if they’re a threat or not. Through their perspective it’s really just, ‘Do we let these random people go through our land?’”

Sara Schupanitz, a fifth-grade teacher at Borlaug Elementary, also recognizes that it’s important to be mindful of the perspective from which history is being taught.

“I don’t think we give enough spotlight to the

non-white perspective of history. I think the white history is told and that we really need to take a critical look at the other … cultures that are involved in that,” Schupanitz said. “I think we need to take another look at that lens, ‘What are we teaching?’ and ‘What impact is that having on their mindsets moving forward?’”

Tyson Smith, the head of the social studies department at West, agrees there are still improvements to be made regarding Indigenous representation in the curriculum. “[I do think Indigenous culture is represented in the ICCSD curriculum] but probably not as much as it should be,” Smith said. “As a society and personally as a teacher, we’ve learned a lot about the importance of having cultures represented in the curriculum.”

Schupanitz and her fellow fifth-grade teachers throughout the district are responsible for being many students’ first introduction to these aspects of American history. In her experience, teachers have found many ways to introduce their students to other perspectives relevant to the topic of colonization. She does this by beginning the unit with the book “Encounter,” a story of Columbus’s interactions with Native Americans that is narrated by an Indigenous person.

“A lot of times, kids [do] not understand how bad Columbus was … so that kind of blows their minds when we talk about it,” Schupanitz said. “[One of my colleagues] puts Christopher Columbus on trial … [and the students] have to call in character witnesses and things, so they have

to think about the different perspectives of colonization.”

Representation isn’t only a focus for those teaching history. Wolf ’s eighth-grade English teacher introduced him to a book called “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, a story told from the perspective of an Indigenous teenage boy living on a reservation in Washington state.

“It was nice to hear a first person narrative of the misadventures of someone who I would’ve been in the shoes of if I didn’t move to Iowa … It provides a perspective of what a life of an Indian high schooler is like,” Wolf said.

Tom Lindsey, an English teacher at West, uses the novel “There There” by Tommy Orange, a Cheyenne and Arapho author, to help his students examine the American dream through the perspectives of marginalized groups. The book follows a cast of Indigenous characters living in Oakland, California and showcases what it’s like to be an Indigenous person residing in urban areas of the U.S. “A major part of this unit stems from Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ and focuses on how literature and forms of expression are used to shed light on the invisible aspects of mainstream culture. ‘There There’ provides students with a springboard to unpack Native culture and what role Indigenous people play in shaping our contemporary culture through the amplification of Tommy Orange’s powerful literary voice,” Lindsey said.

THE 2020-2021 ICCSD CURRICULUM REVIEW CYCLE Grouped subjects continously shift through the eight year cycle of curriculum review - half of which is implementation, monitoring and revision.

Source: ICCSD Curriculum Website

8

7 6

5

”

-LOREN WOLF ’23

Year 1 (Collect data): Guidance & Career Education Year 2 (Conduct review): PE & Secondary Social Studies Year 3 (Select Materials): Music, Art, Elementary Social Studies Year 4-8 (Implement & Monitor): Year 4: Elementary (3-6) Secondary Language Arts Year 5: Elementary (K-2) Language Arts Year 6: Library, World Languages Year 7: Gifted Education, Science Year 8: ELL, Health, Math

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THE YEARS

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IT WAS JUST TREATED AS A CONFLICT ... THAT [EUROPEAN EXPLORERS] HAD TO GO THROUGH.

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1

2

3

A

MAKING CHANGES

t the district level, the ICCSD is working to remedy these gaps in the curriculum. Shutt has assembled a team of staff members to begin the curriculum review process. “[About every] 10 years, the curriculum coordinators help to do a curriculum review process that looks at and involves the self-study of the curricular program. [This is made possible] with a team of people that then evaluate data, look for strengths and limitations of the program and then develop a plan of action for the following eight to 10 years,” Shutt said.

The team of curriculum coordinators is composing a survey to send out to students, parents, guardians, staff and community members. This survey will be sent out to the public by the end of 2020. Shutt has made it a goal to improve the standard curriculum to be more representative.

“One of my hopes for the curriculum review process is that we continue our work to make sure that students see themselves represented in our curriculum and that we teach in a culturally responsive and efficient manner and that we continue to have [a] curriculum that represents the amazing diversity of the Iowa City Schools and Johnson County,” Shutt said.

In order to meet these goals, this year the ICCSD is not teaching the chapter about slavery in the fifth-grade curriculum.

“We aren't teaching chapter eight in our social studies [class] right now … Most textbooks are written from a white narrative, and it's told with a different lens than what we need to look through ... So we need to rethink what that looks like in the classroom. How do we express what slavery is to the students and really paint a picture of what happened and how there really wasn't a choice for them?” Schupanitz said.

While Clark believes there are some problems with the current curriculum, he wishes people would take the initiative to learn more about Indigenous culture and history themselves.

“I had to learn all this stuff on my own, and I do wish schools did talk about it, but it shouldn’t be solely the school's purpose,” Clark said. “It should be other people wanting to actually learn about [the] culture around us and wanting to have respect.”

One opportunity individuals have to educate themselves is through the Native American and Indigenous studies course offered at the Univer-

Scan this QR code for additional resources to learn more about Indigenous history and organizations.

sity of Iowa. The program was established in the mid-90s through the efforts of professors who taught in the related fields of American Indian law, anthropology and English.

The Native American Student Association, Native American Council and Native American and Indigenous studies department are working at the University of Iowa in an attempt to counter the erasure of Indigenous peoples by offering courses and public programs, such as their annual powwow. ​Kelly Clougher, president of the Native American Council, believes it is important to publicize Indigenous culture.

“Our main goals remain the same: recruit and retain Native American students, faculty and staff. We also want to continue building awareness of Native culture on campus and in the community ... to let people know we are here, our culture is beautiful and vibrant and we matter,” Clougher said.

Although Rand recognizes these efforts are being made, she believes more representation in the program is needed.

“Additional Indigenous faculty and staff at the University are a necessary step in raising awareness of Indigenous history and culture,” Rand said. “Because our numbers are so small, we cannot make meaningful change in terms of

representation. We also need allies to work with in addressing underrepresentation.”

To combat the lack of representation in the ICCSD curriculum, Clark wants to create a session to discuss Indigenous peoples’ cultures for the West High celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The event began in 2018 as a response to the previous year's climate survey in which minority students reported feeling underrepresented. The MLK Day celebration was designed so students could learn about different cultures and ideas.

“Not fully knowing who you are is really rough for people and [not knowing] where you came from [and] what your culture is,” Clark said. “I also want to just bring it to the surface and have more conversations about it because we don't have enough conversations about stuff like this.”

Similar to Rand, Clark believes that Indigenous representation should be more common.

“Our voices are not being heard. There are many other voices being shouted over ours,” Clark said. “There are a lot of people and a lot of places that are really trying to get Indigenous peoples’ voices heard, and they are doing a really great job, but I feel like they need more love.”

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With the cold weather upon us, you might find yourself spending more time indoors than you know what to do with. Here are three fun and delicious recipes you can make to pass the time.

COMPILED BY MISHA CANIN PHOTOS BY CAROLINE BARKER ART & DESIGN BY SILA DURAN

This flavorful carrot loaf is simple to make and perfect to enjoy on a chilly fall day.

H

eat oven to 350 F. Oil a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and line it with a strip of oiled parchment paper that hangs over the two long sides. Add the brown sugar and eggs to a large bowl and whisk vigorously for about 2 minutes or until pale in color.

Add the oil, cinnamon, cardamom and salt.

Whisk until smooth, slowly incorporating the flour, baking powder and baking soda until everything is well-combined. Fold in the grated carrots, switching to a rubber spatula if necessary. Scrape the batter, which will be very thick, into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any big air bubbles.

Bake about 50 to 60 minutes, or until golden. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Set the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Lift the cake out of the pan using the parchment paper and cool completely on a wire rack.

When the cake has cooled completely, it’s time to make the glaze. Finely zest the lemon into a medium bowl. Juice, and set aside lemon juice. Add the confectioners’ sugar and finely grated carrot (if using for glaze) to the bowl with the zest, along with 4 teaspoons of the lemon juice. Whisk vigorously until smooth. Add more lemon juice as needed to make a thick but pourable glaze. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake and let it set for a few minutes before slicing.

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ENTERTAINMENT NOV. 20, 2020

CAKE:

3/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for greasing pan 1 cup packed brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 ½ packed cups peeled and grated carrots

GLAZE:

1 lemon 1 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon finely gra ted carrot (optional)

Source: NYT Cooking

Scan the QR code for 3 bonus recipes!

HERE

These tasty cookies are perfect for the holiday season.

Both yummy and gorgeous, they are sure to be a hit.

COOKIES

1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup sugar 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup whole milk 1 large egg 2 tablespoons orange juice 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 2 ½ cups chopped fresh or frozen cranberries 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

FROSTING

1/3 cup butter 2 cups confectioners’ sugar 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 2 to 4 tablespoons hot water

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Source: Taste of Home

n a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add milk, egg and orange juice and mix well. Separately, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the cranberries and nuts. Scoop dough onto greased baking sheets 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 F until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool before frosting.

To make the frosting, heat the butter in a saucepan over low heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes before transferring to a small bowl. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat in the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until frosting reaches desired consistency. Frost the cookies and enjoy!

Gingerbread isn’t only fun to decorate; it’s also delicious to eat. Here’s a yummy recipe to incorporate gingerbread into your fall baking.

INGREDIENTS

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reheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and line a standard 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with unbleached parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl place the buttermilk, butter, eggs, molasses and honey, and whisk until combined. In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and granulated sugar, and whisk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, and mix until just combined. Be careful not to overmix. The batter will be thick but soft.

Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and spread into an even layer.

Bake for about 35 minutes. Then, reduce the oven temperature to 325 F and continue baking for about 15 to 20 minutes until the loaf springs back when pressed lightly and a toothpick, when inserted, comes out clean. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Slice into pieces and serve.

1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperatu re 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melt ed and cooled 3 eggs at room temperature, beaten 4 tablespoons molasses (honey or othe r molasses substitutes can be used) 3 tablespoons honey 2 cups all-purpose gluten free flour 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if you r blend already contains it) 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Source: Gluten Free on a Shoestring

ENTERTAINMENT NOV. 20, 2020

25

JORDA

A SECOND

FAMILY For team manager Jordan Caperon ’23, football means both responsibility and friendship.

SPORTS NOV. 20, 2020

JORDAN

26

BY MAYA CHU PHOTOS BY CAMILLE GRETTER DESIGN BY XIAOYI ZHU

T

he bright floodlights and cheering crowds of Friday night football games are always met with excitement from many. For one student, however, these games mean more than just entertainment and school pride. In a normal season, team manager Jordan Caperon ’23 sits right on the sidelines, holding football tees and keeping close track of every play. To the players, Caperon is not only a helpful resource but the ultimate motivator.

Prior to the pandemic, his friendly personality and bright smile could be observed atop a wheelchair as he cruised down the hallways, greeting friends with fist bumps along the way.

Even now, his positive attitude shines through across computer screens and health precautions.

“Jordan lightens the mood. Both players and coaches feed off of his positivity and eternal optimism. He also is not afraid to call someone out if they are underperforming or give a word of encouragement if they are having a bad day,” said head sophomore coach Barry Westemeyer.

Caperon has spina bifida, a birth defect that occurs when the spine doesn’t form properly. He had his first surgery in Mexico, where he lived until he was 6 years old. Since then, he has undergone four operations, with the most recent being last year, to lengthen the straightening rods in his back. His longest hospital stay was five weeks, during which he watched football to pass time and keep his spirits high.

“I did watch some football videos, and that’s what I do anytime I stay at the hospital. Whenever I’m down or feeling a little frustrated about something, it gives me some energy and it cheers me up,” Caperon said.

However Caperon’s interest in football is not confined to the walls of his hospital room. He continued to watch the NFL, and through constant consumption of the sport, gained knowledge of how it works.

“Every day [was] about football and watching games, and so that gave me a little bit of an idea of what football’s all about,” Caperon said.

Although Caperon says his condition doesn’t significantly affect his school situation, it does add a great risk factor to playing sports. Despite this, he is still determined to be a part of the athletics program.

“Nothing will stop me from doing stuff that I can do,” he said.

His love for football remains whether he is on or off the field, so when varsity assistant coach Paul Breitbach suggested he take on the position of team manager, Caperon eagerly accepted.

Caperon’s job consists of holding tees for the kicker, helping with uniforms and equipment, getting game balls ready for officials, giving players suggestions on things such as footwork and blocking and making sure everything runs smoothly.

“Jordan is always a key part of our motivation for games,” said sophomore football player Ryan Goodman. “He always made sure everyone knew practice plans through Hudl and gave

speeches before the games.”

Aside from his responsibilities, Caperon says being involved with the team is like having a second family.

“My coaches and my football team are ... like my brothers,” Caperon said. “I love going out there and helping them with everything.”

Caperon’s friendship with the players has grown closer over time — joking around with his fun-loving teammates is a frequent occurrence.

“My players mess around during timeouts and just laugh at random stuff we say, and it’s important to me because that tells me that they care about me and that I’m such an important person to the football squad,” Caperon said.

As close friends, Caperon and his teammates not only have fun together but help each other through tough times.

“When we’re struggling through something, or I had a rough practice … I might go to him,” said Ryne Vander Leest ’23, Caperon’s teammate and friend. “When he’s not able to go to practice or he has a question, he can come to me … so I think that just kind of works both ways there.”

Caperon’s relationship with his teammates is also one of mutual inspiration.

“When you meet Jordan and see how passionate he is about the team, and he can’t play on the field, it pushes you to give it your all and play for him,” Goodman said.

Head sophomore coach Ty Haren recounts a special moment the team shared with Caperon before a game.

“We [got] ready to go through our pregame speech and Jordan [came] up and [said] ‘I got this,’ and [went] into the locker room. We heard him give a pretty spirited pregame speech and the team was fired up,” Haren said. “If you know Jordan well, every moment is memorable.”

According to Haren, Caperon is a key piece of

“ MY COACH ES AN D MY FOOTBALL TEAM ARE ... LI KE MY BROTH ERS, I LOVE GOI NG OUT TH ERE AN D H ELPI NG TH EM WITH EVERYTH I NG.” - J O RDAN CAPERON ‘23 the puzzle for the team.

“We feel like we’re whole when he’s there,” Haren said. “He is a big part of our team even through COVID, and we feel his presence when he is there with us.”

However, like many things this year, Caperon’s attendance at practices and games has been curtailed by the pandemic out of concerns of contracting the virus. He’s been staying in touch via Hudl, an app used by sports teams for performance analysis and coordination, but says it’s hard not seeing his team every day and engaging in conversations about not only football but the ups and downs of life.

“He’s just been texting a lot of us … asking how the season’s going and just giving us more motivation to get through it and work harder, and it’s just been awesome,” Vander Leest said.

Supporting the team is vital to Caperon’s position, but his favorite part of the job is the joy of winning. He has had many fond memories as manager, with his favorite being the Trojans’ first win over Liberty High Aug. 28.

“It was the first game of the season, and to be honest, I didn’t think we were going to win,” he said. “That was actually one of the happiest mo-

ments I’ve had.”

When Caperon sees the players out on the field securing a win, he feels proud knowing his teammates are working hard and implementing his suggestions.

“They’re showing me what their skills are and what they can do as football players,” he said.

“They’re also showing me [that] in the future, they want to become professional football players.”

However, not every game can be won. When the team loses, Caperon takes initiative and pushes them to improve.

“When we lose, I feel disappointed and kind of mad,” Caperon said. “They know they have work to get done, and one thing I do to help them improve afterward is just give them advice, and I tell them to practice the plays at home.”

Regardless of the game’s outcome, according to Breitbach, Caperon is ultimately the team’s strongest motivator and closest friend.

“Jordan loves football, and he brings great energy, passion and dedication,” Breitbach said.

“He motivates all of us to do our best.”

SPORTS NOV. 20, 2020

27

NEW NAME SAME GAME Following decades of state championships for girls sports teams under the Women of Troy nickname, all West High sports teams will now share the same name regardless of gender: the Trojans.

BY CAROLINE CHANDLER PHOTOS BY OWEN AANESTAD & ALYSSA SKALA DESIGN BY ZOEY GUO

28

SPORTS NOV. 20, 2020

E

xhilarating wins and devastating losses are engraved in the culture of sports, and West High is no stranger to these experiences.

For years, Trojan athletes have dominated in numerous spheres of athletics with girls sports teams competing under the nickname Women of Troy and the boys as Trojans. Going forward, they will all compete under a common name. In an email from Athletic Director Craig Huegel Oct. 17, the media was informed that West High would be retiring the Women of Troy nickname.

All teams will now be referred to as the Iowa City West Trojans.

Since the founding of West in 1968, sports teams have been referred to as the Trojans, with the Women of Troy nickname coming along later. In recent meetings with the coaching staff, the name change had been brought up. The first reason was to avoid gender stereotypes regardless of the sport.

Phoebe Burt ’21 sees the name switch as a symbol of change.

“The name change to me is just a sign that times are moving forward,” Burt said. “I’m excited to see the new name and my fellow female athletes wearing it with pride and kicking butt in their sports seasons.”

Burt participates in football and track and field. Prior to the change, she played under the name Trojans during the fall sports season and Women of Troy throughout the spring sports season. Although Burt recognizes the reason for the change, she wishes athletes were able to have a voice in the decision.

“I have always liked the Women of Troy name, so I’m sad to see it go away, but I understand why they are doing it,” Burt said. “I do wish the

“ I ’ M EXCITE D TO SE E TH E N EW NAM E AN D MY FE LLOW FE MALE ATH LETES WEAR I NG IT WITH PR I DE AN D KICKI NG BUTT I N TH E I R SPORTS SEASON S.” - PHOEBE BU RT ‘21

school would have at least sent out a poll or something about the name change.”

Although athletes will no longer compete under the Women of Troy nickname, Burt believes its emotional aspect won’t fade away.

“The Women of Troy nickname always brings me back to track season and the memories from past seasons,” Burt said. “That always makes me smile.”

While sophomore Hana Abou Alaiwa doesn’t participate in athletics at West, she is an avid fan of the girls volleyball team. For Abou Alaiwa, the Women of Troy nickname has a special meaning.

“It seemed very powerful and courageous, and it fit the girls who played sports very well,” Abou Alaiwa said. “The name change lost that special meaning it had.”

Emma Ingersoll-Weng ’22 sees the Women of Troy nickname as a symbol of her basketball team’s persistent mentality.

“To me, the name means keep fighting and don’t give up no matter what people say,” Ingersoll-Weng said. “It’s not over until the [game] clock hits zero.”

However, Ingersoll-Weng is excited for the upcoming season, regardless of what name she’s playing under.

“I think most of my teammates and I didn’t know about the name change; we were mainly just excited about having a season this year,” she said. “We are all fine with the name change; I always thought it was a bit odd calling us the Women of Troy instead of just the Trojans like the boys team.”

For Kathy Bresnahan, a former teacher and the Women of Troy volleyball coach from 1987 to 1999 and again from 2005 to 2013, the Women of Troy nickname holds many special memories.

One sentimental coaching memory came from the 2011 volleyball season, when the team was still mourning the loss of Caroline Found, their star setter.

“That was a life-changing journey for our team.

I still feel a tremendous sense of loss and sadness over Caroline’s death,” Bresnahan said. “I had admiration for [the team’s] strength and determination.”

The team’s perseverance throughout the emotional 2011 season made Bresnahan proud to coach under the Women of Troy nickname.

“I always felt pride to be associated with West High. It is a school that represents inclusion, greatness and tremendous athletic, academic and musical programs,” she said. “[It is] truly one of the finest schools in the nation.”

Amidst efforts to become more inclusive, the shift from the Women of Troy nickname to the Trojans has been in the works for several years.

“This has been something that has been in the planning stages since I’ve arrived here,” Huegel said. “We wanted to make sure that media out-

“ I TH I N K ANYON E WHO G ETS I NVOLVE D WITH ATH LETICS G ETS I NVOLVE D FOR TH E M E MOR I ES, TH E VALU ES AN D TH E SUCCESS THAT TH EY G ET TO EXPE R I E NCE .”

-CRAIG H U EGEL, ATH LETIC DI RECTO R lets and our state organizations referred to us as the Trojans.”

With the name change being a topic of discussion in coaching staff meetings, there wasn’t a specific timeline to the change.

“It’s something we’ve mentioned in meetings before, but I didn’t necessarily give them a direct timeline of what that was going to happen. I felt like with the start of a new athletic and academic school year, this was probably the time to do it,” Huegel said. “We decided in an external sense that we would retire the Women of Troy [nickname]. We’re the Trojans, whether that’s our girls basketball team [or the] football team.”

Although the nickname shift has surprised a few, Huegel notes the change has been well-received by many.

“I think there was maybe some shock amongst some members of our coaching staff. I think with everything else going on this year, when you put this into the grand scheme of this, it’s not earth-shattering,” Huegel said. “I just want our athletes to be known as Trojans for the great things that they do.”

Since the Women of Troy nickname represents fond memories for some athletes, Huegel hopes that former and current Trojans focus more on their experiences rather than the name they played under.

“I’ve had, in just my five years here, some really amazing opportunities. But those are things that I hope they remember, maybe not so much that we were called the Women of Troy,” Huegel said.

“I think anyone who gets involved with athletics gets involved for the memories, the values and the success that they get to experience.”

SPORTS NOV. 20, 2020

29

WHAT’S AT STAKE

2020

Even though the 2020 election is over, vicious political partisanship is rampant throughout the country, coming at the expense of many marginalized groups’ rights.

BY CAROLINE MASCARDO

2

020 is the year politics became a spectator sport with detrimental consequences.

While this never-ending match between Democratic and Republican competitors plays out, many can only watch from afar, hoping that this time their rights are not the ones at stake.

Although there has always been a divide between Democrats and Republicans, President Trump’s partisan mindset and prejudice-fueled first term have carried this separation to an impasse. As people living in America, we are forced to watch this deadlocked sports match of blue versus red, cringing at playground-like fights of politicians in Washington. Politics are no longer about policy change and progress; they have become a matter of party affiliation and loyalty.

Like a championship sports match, we root for our team and boo against the other.

The problem is, a golden first-place sports trophy is not what is in jeopardy here; it is the rights of countless marginalized communities.

The past four years have been ones of excessive political partisanship, slowly crescendoing to the 2020 presidential election. The polarization of the Democratic and Republican parties over President Trump’s first term has put fundamental human rights on the line, something that cannot go unseen.

30

OPINION NOV. 20, 2020

While the oppression that marginalized groups face has always existed, the COVID-19 pandemic has made these disparities disturbingly more apparent. According to the CDC, people of color are significantly more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 and less likely to be insured than their white counterparts, putting them at a severe disadvantage if a family member falls ill.

The pandemic has exacerbated problems in an already unequal system, but polarized Washington D.C. has made little progress in addressing this issue.

Over the summer, the Black Lives Matter movement was widely condemned as violent

by President Trump, and the rest of the GOP followed closely behind. Although BLM is technically a non-partisan social movement, the president’s suppression of protesters’ voices has worsened the rift between left and right. It is to the point where advocating for fundamental human rights has become overly politicized and associated with Democratic values. In a country divided by political affiliation, many marginalized groups found solace in the election of former Vice President Joe Biden. In the past four years, President Trump created an environment of conflict, chaos and distrust for these communities, whereas Biden is hope for eventual justice.

With the last four years bringing right-wing extremism and President Trump’s often hateful

views to the country’s attention, the rivalry between blue and red is stretched to an unprecedented extreme. As a result, we frequently make presumptions about others based on their political affiliation, often assuming they hold identical beliefs to their party’s representative. Additionally, certain character traits have become associated with political parties. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center study on partisan stereotypes, Republicans were more likely to describe Democrats as “lazy” and “immoral” while priding themselves on their hard-working attitude and moral compass. Similarly, Democrats were more likely to say Republicans were more “closed-minded” while declaring their party’s so-called open-mindedness.

The problem with these stereotypes is that they do not account for the nuances in political beliefs from person to person. However, the increasing separation of political parties over Trump’s term has created an environment where being Republican immediately places you in the “Trump” section while being a Democrat puts you in the “Biden” section. Building on consensus is impossible with such hostility between these parties. Eventually, the cheering between blue and red teams becomes so loud that the true goal of the game is forgotten. Politics are no longer about resolving conflict and facilitating change; they are about defeating the other team.

So, what was at stake in this election? Well, a

POLARIZED PARTIES COMMON STEREOTYPES REPUBLICANS ”Unintelligent” ”Close-minded”

ROE v. WADE 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S. Ruled that a pregnant person’s right to terminate their pregnancy was protected under the14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Source: BBC

DEMOCRATS

OBERGEFELL v. HODGES

”Lazy” ”Immoral”

2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S.

Both parties were more likely to see themselves as more “honest” and “intelligent.”

Ruled that couples seeking same-sex marriage is asking for “equal dignity in the eye of the law,” which is a right guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

Source: Pew Research Center

lot. This destructive divide between parties is what made the 2020 election so dangerously important in protecting fundamental human rights and equality. The recent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court solidifies a 6-3 conservative grasp over decisions, putting landmark cases like Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges at risk of being overturned. Access to birth control and safe abortion procedures under Roe v. Wade is no longer guaranteed, marriage equality under Obergefell v. Hodges is in danger and the Affordable Care Act, created under the Obama administration, is at risk of repeal. For individuals whose lives are touched by these issues, ACB’s appointment may mean the destruction of their rights.

The Trump administration’s disregard for CDC guidelines and rejection of science has only hindered the country’s recovery from the pandemic. Even after a COVID-19 diagnosis and the start of the third wave of cases, little has been done by Trump to address the issue at hand.

Unemployment rates not seen since the Great Depression have suddenly returned, drastically affecting more people of color than whites, according to the CDC. Since March, the country has only sunk further and further into a quicksand pit of decline, but no successful long-term efforts have been implemented to strengthen the economy or ensure well-being for all. Even if Biden has a solid plan, the hole Trump has dug

over the past year in his COVID-19 response will limit the rate of improvement. It may be several years until the country returns to what it once was pre-pandemic, if at all. Trump’s often biased, self-centered actions have swayed

“ON E’S POLITICAL AFFI LIATION SHOU LD N EVE R HAVE PR IOR ITY OVE R OTH E RS’ R IG HTS.” the views of his Republican colleagues, stagnating progress and compromise in policy change.

One’s political affiliation should never have priority over others’ rights, but this sentiment has gone ignored.

Imagining a world free of rampant political polarization is difficult, especially in 2020. However, there have been periods of bipartisanship throughout American history, marked by nota-

Source: The New York Times

ble cooperation and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. These times ultimately ended, though, because of insatiable desires for power by politicians and their parties. Candidates that fully support their party and its initiatives are more likely to be put on the ballot on election day than those that deviate from their party’s platform. Throughout Trump’s presidency, racism and nationalism have become trademarks of the Republican party, putting innumerable lives at risk. People should not have to worry about their rights being revoked during election season, but that is what made the 2020 election so pivotal. The boundaries differentiating political affiliation have shifted so that civil rights and equality lie on the left while bigotry and hatred are to the right. While reconciliation and compromise between Democrats and Republicans must be prioritized, the first step is to ensure marginalized communities’ rights are protected.

If 2020 is the year politics became a spectator sport, we can only root for blue. President Trump’s actions have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and put millions of others at risk. If we have hope for the future, it cannot be with him at the forefront of it all.

ART & DESIGN BY SACHIKO GOTO OPINION NOV. 20, 2020

31

THE RADISH

CAUTION: CONTENTS ARE EXTREMELY SATIRICAL.

BY ISAAC YOUNG

ART & DESIGN BY AMY LIAO

A New Era of Twitch Streamers

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his week, the ICCSD announced that beginning second trimester, teachers will be encouraged to transition online classes from Zoom to Twitch. Administrators are hopeful that the switch to Twitch, a streaming service used by gamers, will not only help the district save money but make a little bit extra.

“By using Twitch we will no longer have to pay for Zoom, and we can make money off of subs and donos, which sounds like a PogChamp to me,” said Superintendent Matt Degner.

The district plans to encourage students to subscribe to their teachers, which costs at least $5 per subscription. Higher tier subscriptions are also available for $10 and $25. They hope students will purchase “bits” and use them to support teachers’ streams as well. Bits can be purchased through Twitch at an extra price of $1.40 per every 100 bits. They can then be spent to send emotes, animated images, to the chat or to cheer for their teacher, which will show up on-screen. The goal is to encourage more interaction from students through emotes.

“We are planning to let teachers keep any income from bits they receive to incentivize interaction from students,” Degner said. “We will also let them keep any money made off of sub-

scriptions to subsidize their lacking wages.”

If a student makes a monetary donation to the stream, a notification will pop up on the screen and teachers will be able to read it aloud. Monetary donations can be made without purchasing bits through digital means. The district will require teachers to hand over money made in this way.

Despite the excitement from administrators, some have expressed concern about this new method of teaching.

“I’m scared I won’t be able to pass Calculus BC with Mr. Kirpes without spending money,” one worried student said. “He said he will only take free questions on Fridays, otherwise we have to fork over some cash.”

Although students do not have to subscribe or pay to tune into class, their messages are unlikely to be seen if they do not. Without paying up, teachers will not be alerted to messages from students, and their questions may be lost in the chat amongst hundreds of others. Students will also not be able to use emotes without purchasing bits.

“It’s something different, but I think it will be good for all of us,” teacher and streamer ICCSDBastionMain said.

Election Intervention

S

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ENTERTAINMENT NOV. 20, 2020

tartling news surfaced earlier this month about the senior class presidential and vice-presidential elections. According to lead investigators, City High and Liberty High attempted to interfere with the West High vote for their own mysterious interests.

“We are currently gathering more information, but we can pretty confidently say there was some level of interference,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray stated.

Students and even teachers from the other ICCSD high schools plastered slanderous campaigns all over social media against front runner candidates. The posts alleged that they had cheated on tests, refused to wash their hands when leaving the restroom and even encouraged administrators to shorten lunch periods.

“I hold the highest levels of academic integri-

ty and always wash my hands,” recently elected student body president Yulong Shao ’21 said in a press release. “I don’t even think we can change the length of lunch.”

In addition to smear campaigns run against certain candidates, City and Liberty-run accounts came out in clear support for Donnie Opsteige ’21 as president and Mikey Pennies ’21 as vice president. It is unknown why rival schools supported these candidates.

“I hope this doesn’t mean the end of student democracy,” Wray said.

Despite the best efforts of the Little Hawks and the Bolts, Opsteige and Pennies suffered a brutal defeat. Shao and Lucy Westemeyer ’21 won the election and will serve as senior class president and vice president respectively.

Where to Vote?

T

his year’s election was one for the books, especially because of the places Americans were forced to vote. In many instances, voters had to travel, put forth a great effort and even risk their own lives to cast a ballot. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explained the decision in a press conference a week before Election Day. “We just want to make sure the Americans who are voting are the ones who really want to vote,” McConnell said.

To accommodate the GOP’s request, many states set up polling stations in remarkable locations. In Alaska, the most widely used polling place was at the peak of Denali, the highest summit in the U.S. It is rumored that at least nine people, around half the registered voters in Alaska, have gone missing while trying to climb the mountain. Other polling locations included a station deep in the sewers of Atlanta, a small island in the middle of Lake Michigan, a bus that drove along I-80 with no stops in Iowa and a supposed alien research facility in Nevada.

In New Jersey, voters reported having to pay a toll to a troll who would then let them cross his bridge to the polling station in Fort Lee. “I walked up to the bridge and there was this guy, real stocky and kind of tall,” said one voter.

“He asked me if I had any gold coins and told me I couldn’t cross unless I paid his troll toll.”

Democrats have been calling for some form of

punishment for this behavior. They cite the actions of Republicans as voter suppression.

“This is simply unacceptable,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “We need to make it clear that voters are free to vote, or we risk ruining our democratic process. No voter, and I mean no voter, should have to pay a troll toll.”

There were some unfortunate mishaps along the way for Republicans in their plan to win the election.

“We accidentally forgot to change the polling stations in areas with only ‘Democratic voters’ like we did with our other schemes,” McConnell said. “It almost cost us Texas.”

According to McConnell, the reason the blue wave almost wiped out Texas was because of one of these slip-ups. Polling stations in Texas were guarded by longhorn cattle who were supposed to scare away “weak-minded liberals,” but instead, the bulls were attracted to the red colors of Republican paraphernalia, especially the infamous “Make America Great Again” hats. Several conservative voters were chased down and nearly maimed making red voter turnout lower than usual.

“I hope this election will teach them a lesson,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Just let the people vote. No troll tolls, no mountain climbing, no fighting off bulls, just voting at accessible polling locations.”

Mean Moderator

F

ollowing this year’s raucous debates, the Commission on National Debates has decided that they need to make some drastic changes. They are hoping to hire moderators that are more intimidating than your average newscaster. This year’s candidates were unwilling to give their opponent a moment to speak, often interrupting one another. Although both candidates spewed interjections, President Donald Trump, who ran for reelection, engaged in far more out-of-turn speaking.

“What is Joe going to do? He can’t stop me from speaking, I’m the greatest debater there has ever been. I talk to my many friends and they say, ‘Donald, you’re a great debater,’ and I must say, I happen to agree,” Trump said. “I do the best debating of any U.S. president ever, with maybe the exception of Lincoln. Maybe.”

Since Trump obviously did not fear any retaliation from Biden, one would have hoped the moderator would intervene.

“He’s got to help me out, man,” President-Elect Joe Biden said. “I’ve got to stay professional. I need the moderator to yell at this clown.”

This suggestion from Biden was taken very seriously, and the CND plans to implement improvements starting next election cycle. They

hope to recruit “intimidating” moderators to ensure candidates are far less likely to interrupt each other.

So far, a large field of moderators is being recruited for preliminary interviews. Among them are former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and former MMA fighter and current WWE wrestler Ronda Rousey. Batman is also being strongly considered. The commission had looked into using Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as moderators, but they feared it may put them too close to the US political process.

CND co-chairman Frank Fahrenkopf stated that they are still weighing their options and will look into more potential moderators in the next four years.

“We are very excited and hopeful that presidential candidates will be scared to speak out of turn,” Fahrenkopf said. “We might even let the moderators get a little physical, who knows?”

ENTERTAINMENT NOV. 20, 2020

33

COUNTING THE CASES As positivity rates throughout the state soar, the WSS Editorial Board weighs in on the ICCSD’s lack of effective communication with students regarding new COVID-19 cases.

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hroughout the first trimester of the 20202021 school year, ICCSD students have received limited information regarding COVID-19 updates. Although the pandemic has occupied the news since March, many students, both online and hybrid, remain unaware of the COVID-19 status at their respective schools.

The district contacts teachers and parents with occasional updates via email; however, information regarding the virus is not directly reaching the student body. The ICCSD has not been transparent enough with COVID-19 data at the school level, leaving many students anxious and unable to make informed decisions about their learning model and overall well-being.

A primary role of the ICCSD is to inform families about updates in the community relevant to the schools. Administrators in the district contact students about important news, whether it be about weekly school updates, upcoming college visits or even a gas leak at school. What makes the COVID-19 pandemic any different?

During the transition to online schooling in the spring and throughout the summer, student guardians were the only individuals to receive district updates, meaning students could only receive information and attend ICCSD webinars when forwarded district emails by those who received them. Due to the district’s lack of transparency, there is a heavy reliance on parents and teachers to share crucial information.

Since 55% of students in the district are attending in-person classes, they must be conscious of the presence of COVID-19 at their respective schools. This information could also encourage students to follow social distancing guidelines more vigilantly outside of school. Even students that are not in the building may be anxious due to the lack of communication since the pandemic affects the entire community, not just those in the hybrid model. Additionally, students from both learning models participate in school sports, and without the necessary information, they may be putting themselves at higher risk for contracting the virus than initially imagined.

Students should be aware of the risks that come with attending school during a pandem-

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EDITORIAL NOV. 20, 2020

ic, but the ICCSD’s lack of circulation regarding COVID-19 updates limits this understanding.

Although deciding how they learn is ultimately a personal decision of comfort and practicality, students and their families should be conscious of all the factors and risks that go into choosing between the two learning models. If the district expects junior high and high school students to make their own decisions when it comes to class schedules and completing assignments, then these students are also old enough to receive district COVID-19 updates. With the change in trimesters, some students have opted to switch from one learning model to another. However,

Has the ICCSD been transparent enough with students about COVID-19 cases in schools?

26

0

The editorial board voted “no.” there was not enough information provided by the district for students to make the most informed decision possible. To combat this, the ICCSD must make this information more readily available to the student body and the community-at-large.

While resources like the ICCSD COVID-19 Dashboard provide useful insight into virus news, they are only valuable if everyone knows they exist. All students and their families should be made aware of where they can find district updates and COVID-19 data so they can make more informed decisions in terms of their schooling. The ICCSD may accomplish this by sending weekly email updates to students, notifying the entire school (not just parents and teachers) when someone tests positive and more widely publiciz-

ing resources like the COVID-19 Dashboard.

However, increasing transparency surrounding COVID-19 in schools may heighten fear and discomfort in students, so this information must encourage awareness without directly increasing COVID-19 anxieties. Above all, individuals’ privacy must be prioritized when new data is provided to the community by following pre-established HIPAA guidelines.

When reflecting on the last trimester, the ICCSD has not been transparent enough when it comes to communicating COVID-19 updates with students. The district must increase and improve communication with students regarding the virus and other school and district news moving forward. If junior high and high school students are old enough to make other school-related decisions for themselves, they are also old enough to know the status of COVID-19 in their school community for the sake of their health.

By making COVID-19 information more accessible and transparent, students can make more informed decisions for themselves, especially when it comes to following social distancing guidelines and deciding how they pursue their education for the rest of the school year.

PHOTO BY CAROLINE BARKER ART & DESIGN BY SACHIKO GOTO

GWEN WATSON There’s a lot we’ve missed out on this year, but it’s important to focus on the traditions we were able to experience. One of those traditions is pumpkin picking. Although changes have been made to accommodate social distancing, for many students, picking pumpkins and apples at Wilson’s Orchard is a yearly occurrence that marks the beginning of fall.

PHOTO FEATURE

FOR(TUNE) TELLER

Answer seven seemingly random questions, and WSS will predict how your second trimester will go. Stay tuned because we’ve created a playlist that will match your mood.

BY MARTA LEIRA ART & DESIGN BY EVA JORDAN

How many missing assignments do you have right now?

A. None (liar)

What is your favorite WHS cafeteria food?

A. I bring my own lunch

How do you feel about snow in the fall?

B. Cheesy garlic bread

B. 1-3

C. Orange Chicken D. Pizza

C. 4-6 D. 7+

A. Love it

B. Despise it C. Perfectly neutral D. It’s alright until it turns to sludge

What is your Zoom background?

What email closer do you use?

A. Camera on;

no special effects

B. Thanks,

C. Camera on with a

virtual background

D. I’ve stopped going to Zoom class

MOSTLY A’S:

A STUDIOUS TRIMESTER IS IN YOUR FUTURE. SCAN FOR SOME CALM SONGS TO HELP YOU FOCUS.

A. Clyde

A. Best,

B. Camera off

C. Cheers, D. No closer

MOSTLY B’S:

THERE MIGHT BE SOME UPS AND DOWNS, BUT IN THE END IT’LL ALL WORK OUT. SCAN FOR SOME MELANCHOLY MELODIES TO MATCH YOUR MOOD.

SCAN HERE IF YOU DON’T HAVE SPOTIFY!

Choose a name for this turtle:

MOSTLY C’S:

GET READY FOR THREE UPBEAT MONTHS. SCAN FOR SOME BOPS.

B. Jean C. Norman D. Mouse MOSTLY D’S

BEWARE- YOUR EDGY BOI PHASE MAY PEAK AT WINTER SOLSTICE. SCAN FOR SOME ROCK BALLADS TO MATCH YOUR ANGST.