The Union - Milpitas High School - November 2022

Homecoming dance reaches record-breaking attendance

By Ruby Bui

The Homecoming dance, which took place at the gym on Oct. 15, 2022, sold a record-breaking 1,504 tickets compared to last year’s 922, with sales ending sev en days earlier than expected, bank technician Jim Hollenback said in an email statement.

The skyrocket in student atten dance at the annual dance raised the question of why substantially more students were drawn to the event this year than in the past, according to Associated Student Body (ASB) president Victoria Ly.

Unlike last year’s outdoor Homecoming dance, this year’s dance offered numerous other features and activities, including two photo booths, free snacks, archery, and karaoke, ASB sec retary and Homecoming dance lead Tiffany Lieu said. The newly implemented activities promoted inclusivity, catering to not only

extroverted students but also shyer ones, she added.

“A lot of this builds on past danc es and homecomings. During my freshman year, there were free snacks and that’s where we drew that idea from,” Lieu said. “We talked to the same people we talk ed to last year for prom. So, it’s building on previous experiences to try to make the best dance pos sible.”

The free snacks and water pro vided at the Homecoming dance made students feel cared for in case of dehydration and hunger, junior Nicolas Mock said.

“Last year was mainly the dance aspect, but this year, if you have different interests or you don’t like dancing, there were other ways you could have had fun with your friends,” Ly said.

According to Mock, the avail ability of song requests wasn’t made as clear as it should have been. Organizers could have pre

vented the miscommunication by announcing that the DJ was open to song requests, he added.

“This year was more chaotic be cause nearly everyone was jump ing on each other during every song,” Mock said. “I think last year was a little better.”

According to Lieu, pricing and affordability may have had an im pact on ticket sales as well. This year, tickets were offered at a dis counted price to students of all grades, she said. However, prices were lower for freshman students during the ASB blowout sale and for students who qualified for free or reduced lunch throughout both weeks of regular ticket sell ing, she added.

“We recognize that it can be harder for them to buy tickets at MHS on specific days or times,” Lieu stated in an email. “For all students, we also made an effort to keep ticket prices lower than

MUSD green-lights teacher pay increase

By Adrian Pamintuan

MUSD certificated employees will receive a 9% salary increase after the Board of Education unanimously passed a settlement negotiated with the Milpitas Teachers Association (MTA), ac cording to the disclosure agree ment presented by Jonathan Brunson, the Assistant Superin tendent of Human Relations. The compensation package was pre sented during an Oct. 25 School Board meeting, which included, among other provisions, a Health and Welfare cap increase and a one-time bonus of $2,000 for new hires achieving permanent working status, according to the agreement.

Negotiations happen once a year, with pay increases for teach ers being a common occurrence, according to MHS representative in the MTA, Brett Webber. How ever, Webber said the 9% figure was out of the ordinary.

“I think the size of the pay rate – 9% – is unheard of. It surprised a lot of teachers. Two years ago we got 4%, and then last year we got 5%, so four (or) five is the ex

pectation. Nine? People are very happy,” Webber said.

The pay increase for teachers originated from California pos sessing more money to allocate to public school districts, Webber explained.

According to calmatters.org, California “produced a discre tionary surplus of almost $49 bil lion,” and a portion of that money must be spent on public educa tion by law.

Because the negotiation was successful, teachers will feel an impact, Webber said.

“It is a sign of respect that we got this pay raise,” Webber said.

“New teachers are very excited because they started with a sal ary that they agreed to, but all of a sudden, that salary jumped by 9% … so the response has, over whelmingly, been positive,” Web ber said.

MTA President Diana Orlando praised the cooperation between the teachers union and the school district.

“Although we don’t always see eye to eye, we find a way to come to the middle, and that’s why we have a win-win situation,” Or

lando said. “What I think I’m most proud of, is that our begin ning teachers will now be about $75,000 to $78,000, and if they have a master’s, they’ll be even closer to $80,000,” Orlando said.

The negotiation was a bitter sweet moment for Orlando, she concluded.

“It’s a bargaining session. Did we get everything we want? No. Did we find it a fair offer? We set tled, so yes, we did,” Orlando said.

English teacher Audrey Yang said she was happy to get the 9% raise.

“I’m super appreciative of the union for, you know, fighting for that,” Yang said. She hesitated to call the raise, “the best thing ever because it’s very competitive and difficult to live in the Bay Area. I hope people can start seeing these kinds of pay raises as the norm ... for what it’s going to take for teachers to stay in the South Bay,” Yang said.

Yang’s fellow teachers had posi tive feelings towards the teachers union for advocating their needs, and that the profession touches

COVID-19 cases fluctuate, masks remain ‘strongly recommended’

By Tiffany Lieu

COVID-19 cases have fluctuat ed at MHS this school year, with a peak of 36 cases from Sept. 17 to Sept. 23, according to Assistant Principal Jennifer Hutchison. Although numbers spike around large events, the number of cases has decreased overall since the beginning of the school year and since the previous school year, she said.

Following Santa Clara County Public Health guidelines, wear ing face masks on campus is strongly recommended but not required, Hutchison said. Addi tionally, using state funding, the school distributed COVID-19 testing kits to students every two to three weeks and provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to teachers, she added.

“If students needed test kits,

they simply come to the office for them,” Hutchison said. “We also have staff members that are trained to administer COVID test kits.”

When a COVID-19 case is re ported, the rooms that the in fected individual was in are dis infected on the same day when possible, and the school sends information to those in social iso lation, Hutchinson said.

“When a COVID case is brought to our attention, we notify the family and the students of their isolation timelines based on San ta Clara County Public Health Department’s requirements, along with a lot of other details for that isolation timeline,” Hutchi son said.

While close-contact emails were sent out earlier in the year, the school has since discontinued

Iyer attends White House hunger conference

By Zaynah Turabi

Junior Satvika Iyer was invited to the White House to speak on behalf of the Friends of the Earth organization on issues such as sustaining food production and minimizing waste during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept. 28, 2022, Iyer said.

During the conference, Iyer participated in a roundtable con versation on solutions for incen tivizing healthy food choices and improving local access, she said. Others present at the roundtable included U.S. congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon from Penny sylvannia’s 5th district, execu tives from the United States De partment of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Admin istration (FDA), and the founder of the company Kids Eat In Color, she said.

“Seeing room for improvement

in an institution and knowing I could make a difference for the better through my previous ex periences gave me the confidence to pursue and combat the issues (of food insecurity) head on,” Iyer said.

The conference was largely suc cessful, Iyer said. The conference was linked with the FDA organiz ing new healthy food guidelines and a National Strategy that had $8 billion of funding along with it, she said.

“I feel extremely motivated to continue my advocacy across the state, and I hope to expand my efforts to education and climate literacy as a whole,” Iyer said.

The White House requested youth speakers from Friends of the Earth, a non-governmen tal organization that Iyer had worked with for two years, she said. Friends of the Earth’s senior

STUDENT VOICE OF MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL

Students gather in front of the large gym to dance, talk, and hang out at the record-breaking Homecoming.

Tiffany Lieu | THE UNION

Satvika Iyer | THE UNION

Iyer delivers her speech on incentivizing healthy food choices at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept.

Open lunch provides liberty, responsibility

For a thirty-minute period, there are several activities of fered during our lunch, which allow space for students to en gage with the MHS community in various entertaining and ed ucational ways. However, one thing that students are strictly prohibited from doing is leav ing campus. While this is a firm policy at MHS, the closed cam pus policy is more harmful than helpful to students, as it limits student freedom.

As per state regulation, MHS has a free lunch pol icy. While the free lunches are available to all, the increased crowd at the few lunch lines caused many students to avoid getting lunch from school. Addi tionally, the vending machines at MHS are unreliable and tend to run out. Because of these situations, students should have the option of leaving campus to get lunch.

sponsibility that students have, which is an imperative skill to be taught in school, even in directly. Allowing students to leave campus makes them re sponsible for using the time ef ficiently. Giving students adult responsibilities prepares them for the real world, which is a beneficial practice.

While an open-campus lunch policy could raise questions for security, MHS is already capable of handling student safety for such situations. The school currently has several security guards around cam pus who patrol exits, with guards posted at the student park ing lot during lunch.

ZAYNAH TURABI

Allowing students to leave campus would permit them to get lunches from nearby busi nesses, which is beneficial for many reasons. For example, while the school offers vege tarian and vegan options, some students find that getting lunch from other places is convenient, as they would be able to choose foods that are suited to their diets and tastes. Additionally, an open lunch increases the re

Additionally, MHS enforces strict tardy and absence policies that hold students ac countable to return to school after lunch. Off-campus lunch could be limited to upperclassmen to re duce the number of students leaving campus. This would be enforced by checking student IDs when leaving and entering campus, so only upperclassmen could leave and outsiders would not enter. The student life expe rience is evolving, and restric tive policies should be amended to keep up with these changes. An open-lunch would benefit students in several ways, and it is about time that MHS looks into allowing one.

CON

Safety first: On-campus lunch ensures security

Lunch has been prepared and provided by school staff for many years, and many changes have been made to the lunch sys tem to accommodate students. Regardless , some students are tired of school-provided lunch es or their own lunches from home, and believe they deserve more freedom in managing their own schedules. However, if MHS allows students to leave during lunch, administrators and security will face problems, like more tardies, cuts, and a lack of safety on campus.

Allowing students to leave campus during lunch will in crease students missing class, a problem many schools struggle with. An article in The New York Times titled “More Pandemic Fallout: The Chronically Absent Student” stated that absence is “linked to weak er academic per formance and can predict if a student is more likely to drop out before finishing high school.” Even if they don’t miss full periods, students have a higher chance of being tardy, which can impact their grades if they miss important lessons.

to lawsuits; they are likely to be liable for accidents that may oc cur. Schools have a “statutory duty” to protect the health and safety of students during the school day under California’s Education Code.

Additionally, the danger of intruders on campus would in crease. According to School Safety Solution, “a growing number of high-profile school shootings in the US over the past decade” have caused more public schools to take student safety into consideration. With a steady rise in reported school intruders, schools need to con sider the potential consequences of allow ing students to leave during lunch. Allowing students to leave with out requiring any iden tification will increase the possibility of people that don’t attend MHS entering campus.

ANGELINA BARNES

Safety will become a promi nent issue if there is no record of which students leave during lunch. School officials and ad ministrators are accountable for the students and their safety during school hours. Officials won’t be able to account for stu dents if an emergency occurs and the student needs to be con tacted. This opens the school up

For instance, a t high schools in Agoura, Cal ifornia, upperclassmen are allowed to leave during lunch. However, this leads to a new is sue; how will security and staff be able to differentiate between upperclassmen and the rest of the students? This would re quire school officials to monitor each student that leaves and en ters campus, and this takes time that administrators don’t have.

Despite the push for more freedom, students should not be allowed to leave school grounds in the middle of a school day. In stead, students should take ad vantage of on-campus lunch to talk to their friends and partici pate in clubs and other activities that can be found on campus.

Integrated math takes students in circles, lacks point

“When are we ever go ing to use this?” A bizarre question to ask, but indeed one that is so near and dear to the hearts of many stu dents across the globe. Math in the U.S. typically uses a curriculum that consists of a Traditional or Integrated approach. Both approaches are two different approaches to the Common Core State Standards which are princi ples students should know by the end of each grade, as stated by the Public Policy Institute of California.

At MHS, the math depart ment now uses the Integrat ed Pathway after a schoolwide curriculum switch in 2015 to comply with the new (revised) state standards, Assistant Principal Amanda Gross said in an email inter view. Despite this switch, I believe both pathways are not effective and students should not be taught using either one. The reason is simple: mathematics follow

ing the state standards explains many trivial concepts with diehard complexity. It is no sur prise that “more than a decade after the 2010 release of the Common Core state standards in English and Mathematics, no convincing ev idence exists that the standards had a … positive impact on student achieve ment,” according to The Brookings Insti tution. In regards to the Integrated Path way, a similar case can be made as the exact same standards are implemented; the only difference is organization. Moreover, the Integrated Pathway promotes memoriza tion rather than problem-solv ing, as the same old methods are practiced in spite of a new curriculum. Students are being taught through an archaic fash ion with an emphasis on mem orization rather than inquiry.

Many math teachers use the “fill-in” style notes which is not allowing students to fully devel op as many critical thinking skills.

ALBERT FUNG

One solution is to take inspiration from New Hamp shire’s Phillips Ex eter Academy, which is a custom curricu lum grounded in the Harkness method. This method in volves a format that forces students to learn by a means of discussion accord ing to the Nation al Association of Independent schools. In return, students are taking a proactive role in their education and discovering new concepts as a whole.

Hence, for the sake of pre serving both the ingenuity of our past and our present, more should be done to ensure stu dents are learning the critical math skills for the betterment of their future.

Relax, recoup, recover: Don’t come to school sick

We’ve all done it. Whether it be due to parental pressure to maintain perfect atten dance or not wanting to miss work, going to school while feeling sick is something that many students have done at least once. With COVID-19 integrating its way into our everyday lives, people’s con cern for the severity of the common flu has decreased significantly. Many students with flu-like-symptoms go to school without batting an eye because they tested negative for COVID-19, facilitating the spread of the flu.

Recently, Patrick Henry High school in San Diego re ported that over a thousand students were out due to flulike symptoms, according to Columbia Broadcasting System. Much of the student population caught the flu af ter the school’s homecoming dance. While the students did not have COVID-19, they still carried easily transmit table illnesses, leading to a large learning loss. The high school has a student popula

tion of around 2,600, which is close to MHS’s student popula tion of around 3,000 students.

With a student population as big as ours, any sickness can spread easily. With the recent focus on COVID, people have stopped focusing on the recurring issue of flu season and the common flu in general. Thus, many students think going to school sick is okay as long as they do not have COVID.

While staying at home sounds like a solution, every stu dent knows what happens when they miss a couple of days of school: making up tests and quizzes, missing dead lines, and turning in late assign ments. Getting the flu can cause you to miss around five to seven days of school, which is a lot of work to make up. However, by resting at home instead of go ing to school and causing more damage to your body, you can allow yourself to recover faster.

Both proper rest during the day and sleep at night are essential in fighting off illnesses as they both provide your body with more antibodies and chemicals to strengthen your immune sys tem and fight the virus, accord ing to “Why Rest is Important When You Have the Flu” by primamedicine.com. When you stay at home and rest, your body can use these chemicals to fight off the virus instead of using its energy in your day-to-day classes.

Students should stay home if they are feeling sick. It is common courtesy to students and staff members to stay at home and rest rather than enduring the extra stress of illness. While going to school when sick may allow you to stay on top of your work, it is still a selfish decision that not only puts your own health at risk, but also the health well-being of your classmates and teachers.

Underprivileged students require greater support

“Milpitas High School em powers all students to succeed in and contribute to the global community.” That is the mis sion that our school has set for itself and proudly displays on its website. As living in the Bay Area becomes more expensive, MHS has done the bare mini mum to support its students. The Bay Area is known for be ing wildly expensive to live in. There is a growing difference in earnings that creates a sep aration between families who rarely worry about their financ es and those who battle mount ing financial pressure and live paycheck to paycheck. These differences are the cause of re cent changes in MHS.

At the start of the pandemic, the district offered kids free food. Seven days’ worth of breakfast and lunch was dis tributed to any child under 18. This program was a California government initiative done be cause many people were losing their jobs due to the economic effects of COVID, and more and more people in the Milpitas community were forced to look

for cheaper options for groceries. The government relief helped alle viate problems that families were still having and allowed them to budget for other essentials. This free food program is still in effect as of the publication of this news paper. The “State Meal Mandate” was definitely a step in the right direc tion to help underprivi leged students.

During the pandem ic, MHS distributed Chromebooks and in stalled two-hundred hotspots for students so they could have access to the internet and their coursework at all times. It was a helping hand to lower-income students that live in the rural ar eas of the School District. It was a good program, but MHS can do much more.

But how else can MHS help? The George W. Bush Institute lists “ac cess to reliable transportation” as another key factor in hurting low-income students’ involve ment in their schools. Even with student-discounted prices, the

bus fare is $2.50 daily. In a fourweek month, that equates to $50 solely to commute to and from school. With gas prices still rela tively high, students are more and more compelled to take the bus to school, but the school bus lines are not a really viable op tion. The two school buses in the morning fit no more than 30 people comfortably, so the buses only help a small population. If the school wants to take on the issue of helping students itself, instead of wait ing for another insti tution to do it, it can start by lowering bus prices and increasing bus availability.

We should recognize students who show great perseverance, devotion, and will to improve their lives and those around them despite their economic circum stances. For instance, MHS could create an award for students who have proved they embody the Tro jan spirit MHS is supposed to rep resent.

ERICK JOHNSON

SIDHANT BURELA

Teachers remain dedicated through hardship

With countless new challeng es in recent years compounding the already demanding nature of teaching, it has become in creasingly difficult for many teachers to continue in the pro fession. According to Associate Principal Skyler Draeger, amid a shortage of teachers, MHS has had to fill vacancies with individuals still working on at taining their teaching creden tial. These shortages align with teachers’ attitudes nationwide, as a 2022 Gallup poll found that K-12 teachers have the high est national burnout rate due to comparatively low wages, tensions in school communi ties, and disruptions that came with the COVID-19 pandemic. Through all of these hardships, teachers at MHS have contin ued to remain dedicated to the success and well-being of their students.

During breaks and after school, it is not uncommon for numerous teachers to open their classrooms to students. Many provide tutoring and extra help, spending hours of their own time to ensure students under stand class material. Extra sup port like this has become even more vital after distance learn ing, when students were found to have learned less in their class es, according to the National

Public Radio article, “6 Things We’ve Learned About How the Pandemic Disrupted Learning.”

Fortunately, there is evidence to suggest this effort has paid off, as most Advanced Place ment exam scores increased between 2021 and 2022. While some teachers receive pay for after-school activities such as coaching or school-organized tutoring, teachers are not paid for time spent personally help ing students after school hours. A duty to their students drives them to continue their teaching after the school day ends.

Besides tutoring, teachers also spend their time support ing students’ interests outside the classroom as club advisors. From offering their classrooms to store supplies to oversee ing meetings, teachers make it possible for students to gather and pursue their passions. MHS boasts more than 80 clubs and organizations, covering topics from culture to computer sci ence, and every single one re quires a teacher to sign on as an advisor. Without teachers willing to extend their time, it would be significantly harder for students to find their place on campus.

More broadly, teachers on campus continually seek to rec ognize and uplift their students

as individuals. While seniors are applying to colleges, many teachers do the painstaking work of reading students’ col lege application essays or craft ing personalized recommenda tion letters.

Beyond that, teachers find various ways to connect person ally with each student in class rooms full of dozens of people. By initiating conversations about students’ lives, sharing advice and stories about vari ous struggles, or even person ally funding snacks for their classes, these teachers display genuine care for their students. On their own time outside the classroom, some teachers also choose to watch students’ performances or sports. It is uplifting to see that so many teachers are willing to weather the stresses of teaching out of a love for their students.

It is undeniable that teaching is an essential job, but it is too often undervalued. Teachers are often not paid or appreciat ed enough for the many respon sibilities they undertake every day. They need to be support ed, now and always, because, perhaps more than any other profession, teachers hold an immense power to shape future generations and the trajectory of the world.

EDITORIAL: The Opinion of The Union

Lunch lines require consistent management

The food lines at our school are some of the most unpleasant places on campus—wait times, overcrowding, and most irri tating of all, line cutting. One would think the process to get lunch was simple, however line cutting is an issue that most students experience. Does get ting lunch have to feel like a game of survival? We believe MHS must take a firm stance on line cutting to promote the inclusive environment we nor mally take pride in.

On one hand, students are aware of the fact that line cut ting occurs, but are powerless in enacting a large-scale rem edy. In an online survey con ducted by The Union, 85% of the 233 students who respond ed felt that there were problems regarding wait times, over crowding, and cutting. Of those students, 39.8% said that line cutting was the top issue. As a consequence, students have to come up with their own mea sures at a public cost. A com mon way students cut is by hav

ing friends save a place in line, which causes longer wait times for everyone behind them. Nor malizing such behavior encour ages previously moral-abiding students to take shortcuts.

Teachers who are on break or lunch duty may not always be able to catch cutting students. However, that’s where the school administration should step in to bolster measures they give their teacher monitors, such as training or communi cation techniques to use during scenarios where students may be uncooperative. A good ex ample of breaking these habits occurred last school year, when teachers used whistles to call out students cutting and moved them to the end. Not only did this reward those using the lines appropriately, but also es tablished efficient line flow.

This year, however, adminis tration is using a hands-off ap proach. Considering how wide spread the issue was last year, it’s worth noting that nowhere in this year’s Parent/Student

Handbook is line etiquette men tioned. During the handbook presentations at the start of the year, discussions on how to treat the campus would’ve been a helpful reminder for lunch line manners, despite how com monsensical they may seem. While teachers are already rotated to supervise the main cafeteria and satellite kitch ens during brunch, personnel should be placed to oversee the same areas during lunchtime; an expansion effort that leads to a more uniform standard of monitoring. Regardless, the current policy is the epitome of inconsistent enforcement.

Out-of-control lunch lines don’t have to be the norm, nor should we accept them as so. It’s only right for the school to treat this situation as the headache that it is for those who simply want lunch without the hassle of sacrificing recreational time. With greater enforcement, we would be a step closer to fulfill ing the campus we all deserve and know is within our reach.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Fencing plans pose problems

An article in the September 2022 Union mentioned that MUSD is planning to put fenc ing around the MHS campus to increase safety. Judging by the mention of reducing access points, I think this proposal is mainly concerned with possi bly-dangerous people entering the school during school time as opposed to just regulating cars further.

Much of the front-of-school area is completely connected to the Escuela Parkway sidewalk, so I’m curious how fencing to restrict access points would be done in that area, especially with a lot of people traveling to and from the SJECCD extension and leaving/entering “campus”

at different times depending on their previous or next class. I’m also curious about how fencing would work with regards to the visitor parking lot.

The article says that the school plans to reduce access points to the school (presumably so it can patrol all of them) while keeping the school’s open feel. I wonder how this would materialize it self and how it would deal with actual visitors (who are headed to the office to get a permit) or, if fences are not completely tem porary, with after school CLOG activities and people who come in to dog-walk on weekends.

I wonder how effective fencing is in keeping out people with possibly bad intentions. I won der how much more effective it would be than just having more

signage about not entering MHS given that fences could be jumped by anyone who wants to go in enough (unless they’re the scary immovable ones by the PE complex), which would probably include most people who would “pose a threat to the school.”

I understand that this is planned by experts who prob ably know more about MHS and fencing than most of us combined, probably already addressed these concerns and would streamline the fencing as much as possible, but I hope that there’s at least a public comment session, or something similar, so our school’s practices don’t get unknowingly crushed.

Shrey Chaudhary Class of 2023

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STAFF

Riya Vyas • E ditor in -C hi E f

Anannya Bhuskat • News Editor

Stephen Huang • Asst. News Editor

Satvika Iyer • Op-Ed Editor

Deeksha Venkateswaran • Asst. Op-Ed Editor

Tiffany Lieu • Features Editor

Savan Bollu • Asst. Features Editor

Sidhant Burela • Sports Editor

Erick Johnson • A sst. Sports Editor

Zaynah Turabi • Lifestyle Editor

Albert Fung • Asst. Lifestyle Editor

David Rendon • Entertainment Editor

Varun Ravuri • Asst. Entertainment Editor

Sanvi Durbha • Spread Editor

Ruby Bui • Asst. Spread Editor

Angelina Barnes • Copy Editor

Sanvi Parvatikar • Web Editor

Adrian Pamintuan • Photo Editor

Kevin Ting • Business/Ad Manager

Sanjit Roy Journalism Advisor

The views in The Union are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of the school, students, administration, or Milpitas Unified School District.

The Union is published by the Journalism class of Milpitas High School.

Students navigate multiracial identity

By Deeksha Venkateswaran

Biracial people living in Amer ica and in our community expe rience a unique lifestyle, from facing assumptions, to navigating parents of different races, and re acting to how the media portrays their experiences.

Jada Roper, a senior who cur rently attends Milpitas Middle College High School, is African American and white. Most of her childhood as a biracial person was normal, she said.

“There were some things that people thought were okay to do. People would touch my hair,” Roper said.

One common misconception is that she is half Black and half white, which is not true, Roper said. She said that, when people assume you are multiracial, they usually believe you are half of two races. This gave people a sense of entitlement when it came to ex cluding her from being one full race, she added.

“No one looks at you as though you’re full Black in the Black community, but from everywhere else you are,” Roper said.

“People will approach you be cause of your skin color rather than just their attraction to you,” Roper said. Her mixed race is of ten fetishized in relationships, she explained. She said she is not completely sure why someone is attracted to her, and she ques tions, “is it because they are at tracted to me, or is it because they are attracted to the fact that I’m mixed?”

Moreover, biracial people tend to identify with the race they physically look like, Roper said.

“I’m more connected to my

Black side, because I don’t look white,” Roper said. At the end of the day, I’m going to be seen as a Black person. I’m going to expe rience the struggles that a Black person has. So that’s my culture, that’s what I identify with.”

Senior Elle Leabres, who is Chi nese, Filipino, Dutch, and Indo nesian, said he doesn’t look very “Asian” and identifies more with his white side. Furthermore, he believes the media sheds light on different perspectives of the bira cial experience, he said.

“I think media shows biracial people in very different lights, depending on the person because each experience is different,” Leabres said.

Roper, however, said that the media’s representation of biracial people is dramatized, using the Netflix show “Ginny and Geor gia” as an example.

“I think TV shows love to make it like this huge battle between white and black, and it’s really not that serious.” Roper said. The media portrays biracial woman as overly attractive and alluring, which as a whole is no the best for people, she said.

Freshman Jennifer Rokita, Chinese and white, said that she has never felt out of place as a bi racial person.

“I don’t think anyone really cares,” Rokita said. She does not resonate or identify more with ei ther of her races and overall feels accepted in her community, she added.

“I think there is a lot of differ ent a lot of diversity here. And I feel like everyone is included, no matter their race, gender, back ground, sexuality, etc.” Leabres said about MHS.

Martinez sings her way to noteworthy achievements

By David Rendon

What started as messing around on a piano in her room has grown into a genuine career for senior Savannah Martinez, also known by her stage name Savaiah. She released her first single, “Complicated,” on Feb. 26, 2021, on Spotify and Apple Mu sic. More recently, she released another single, “Im The One,” on Oct. 8, on both platforms.

For many students, music is a way to pass the time; they simply pop in earbuds and listen mind lessly to a playlist while going about their day. But for Martinez, music is a way to speak, she said.

“Music is where I feel most at home,” Martinez said. “I guess that’s my way of connecting with other people. I feel like music is such a universal language that you don’t even have to speak the same language to feel some thing.”

Martinez got her start in music at an early age, she said. She began by singing for her school choir in kindergarten, where she discov ered her love for performing, she said. She would do anything to get in front of a crowd, but it wasn’t until high school that she started to make her own music and found her sound, she said.

“Everything I put into my mu sic, I would like to consider it soulful, because everything’s coming from the heart, even all the instruments,” Martinez said when to describe her music. “So I would just say funky, soulful, R&B. But, R&B might not be the

only thing; sometimes I think of other stuff like ‘Oh, what if I want to be a little indie?’”

Martinez recently opened for singer Jessica Domingo in San Francisco, she said. The show was held in San Francisco as a part of the Before The Fame Festival. The crowd was great, and it was an overall beautiful time, Marti nez added.

“I recently got back footage from the show, and it made me realize how fun that experience was,” Martinez said. “I can’t wait to do more with that. The fact that people want to work with me and are interested in me — it’s showing that I’m doing some thing right.”

Daniela Huitron, a senior at In dependence High School, Marti nez’s drummer and close friend, called Martinez’s journey as an artist inspiring. Seeing Marti nez’s growth and success helps motivate her and makes her look forward to her future, Huitron said. She also said seeing her friend in concert was amazing.

“She is really confident with herself and really genuine with everyone,” Huitron said. “Some artists always have to act a cer tain way and not really be them selves. … She’s always trying to make everyone feel in a safe place and just being herself. And I think that’s why everyone likes her, because she’s really genuine and doesn’t have to put up an act.”

Martinez said a lot of her influ ence comes from retro sounds, like Stevie Wonder’s music. But she also cites modern-day R&B

singers like Kehlani and Frank Ocean as inspiration. Her father, who passed away when she was young, also inspired her, and part of her sees her music career as finishing what her father started. She looks forward to the growth that is to come for her, she said.

“It’s really crazy how we’re growing because, before, we wouldn’t really get that many gigs,” Huitron said. “Now we’re getting acknowledged by produc ers that produce for SZA or Rico Nasty, and it’s just amazing how we’re getting way more opportu nities now.”

Social Studies teacher Rylie Zea is a fan of Martinez’s music. Zea was introduced to her music when Martinez asked if it could be played in her classroom during lunch, she said.

“I was very pleasantly sur prised,” Zea said. “This was like a fully produced song. And we get halfway into it, and I’m fully just working, and I realized I didn’t even remember it was her song. I was like, ‘This just feels like a playlist I would put on,’ which was pretty awesome. I remember it finishing, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God. When does this come out?’”

Martinez is not worried about whether she hits it big or not be cause she knows no matter what, she’ll find a place for herself in the industry, she said.

“I’m really grateful that my family supports me,” Martinez said. “Because it is risky. You nev er know what’s going to happen, but I fully believe in myself.”

Evolution of Trojan experience: Alumni turned teachers reflect on memories, school culture

By Stephen Huang

High school is a time when many of us discover our identi ties and meet some of our closest friends; where we go through bi ological changes and experience cementing personal growth. But is the high school experience the same for everyone? Some of our teachers went to MHS too and talked about the differences and similarities they see across gen erations at MHS.

Physical education teacher James Carter graduated from MHS in 2002. When he was in high school, morning announce ments were held on television rather than the intercom, and the L building was essentially non-existent, he said. The most noticeable distinction between his graduating class and the cur rent generation of MHS students is school spirit since more people went to sporting events and par ticipated in spirit weeks, he ex plained.

“I would equate our school now to a commuter university like San José State. People come, they take their classes, and they go home,” Carter said. “Now, you do have pockets of kids here and there that do have school spirit and do support. I’m not going to say that nobody does it. But in the grand scheme of things, people are a lot more involved in themselves at home, versus their community at school.”

Carter, who also played on the varsity football team, said that

MHS had a longstanding rivalry against Los Gatos High School, with altercations often breaking out due to Los Gatos’ disdainful view towards Milpitas. This ri valry helped build a competitive atmosphere for both athletes and sports fans, he added.

“Friday night games were a tradition,” Carter said. “People would pack the stadiums to get a chance to see action on the foot ball field and the stands, espe cially when going against rival schools. There would be rocks and stuff thrown at the glass windows of our buses, and fights against people who were stealing backpacks.”

Carter said he studied business management at San José State University after graduating from MHS. He then worked at Google as an accounts payable specialist and in the San Jose Parks Recre ation Department for a few years before becoming a coach and teacher, he added. However, he said he never expected to work at MHS.

“Things kind of just fell into place. Being a teacher and being a coach is not something that I actually wanted to do in college,” Carter said. “I first started coach ing here because they needed a coach, and since I was already coaching in that sport some where else, I was like, ‘You know, I went to school there. I’ll come and do it.’ … I did it out of neces sity to help out the kids. I was go ing to work at a different middle school somewhere else but due

to certain circumstances, I came back here.”

Two decades before Carter’s class, Milpitas had a similar crosstown rivalry with Samuel Ayers High School, which is on the site of Calaveras Hills High School, according to the varsity football coach and math teacher Kelly King. However, the games were much more civil and could not be held at MHS, he said.

“Because there were no lights on the football field and too many people attended the football games, we had to host at the San José City College stadium,” King said. “They packed 6,000 people there pretty much every game –standing room only.”

After attending Ayers for three years, King had to transfer to MHS because the school shut down; he walked the stage with the first graduating class of the newly established MHS Trojans in 1981, he said. Before then, MHS was known as the baby blue and red Patriots, he explained.

Despite being rivals, the two schools were able to peaceful ly merge as one, King said. “The transition (to MHS) actually went really well,” King said. “Many people, like me, grew up on the North side of town, so we already had connections with people go ing to there already. When the two schools came together, it was as if nothing had changed except for the size of the campus itself.”

King said his initial career in terest was electrical engineering. He received his associate degree

in math and science at San José City College and went on to play collegiate football at California State University Hayward, now known as CSU East Bay, where he studied math and computer science, he said. However, he was unable to finish his Master of Business Administration degree because he started teaching at MHS already, he added.

“The superintendent wanted me to become a teacher and take over the football program,” King said. “He said, ‘Can you give me a five-year commitment?’ I said, ‘Okay,’ so I gave him five years … I’ve been the head coach since 1990.”

English teacher and varsity softball coach Deanna Queru bin has been a part of MUSD her whole life, attending elementary school at Spangler, middle school at Russell, and graduating from MHS in 2009, she said. The most significant generational differ ence she sees is the increase in student workload and pressure on the students to attend a pres tigious college, she said.

“I feel like kids now are so fix ated on AP tests and SATs all the time,” Querubin said. “Back when I was in high school if you took an AP class everyone would be like, ‘Wow you’re so smart!’, but now you have kids who are taking four AP classes, which I think is insane.”

She also noted that a sense of community was widespread throughout her class. “Everyone knew each other and got along ...

You could walk to any part of the school and join someone from a way different friend group and just start hanging out with them,” Querubin said. “One of the things that really brought our class to gether our senior year was when one of our close friends passed away. It was a devastating time for everyone ... It’s still something we think about to this day; we still remember him and all the good times we had with him.”

After high school, Querubin went on to play softball for San Francisco State University, where she received a degree in sociolo gy; she then went to Santa Clara University to complete her Mas ter’s degree and teaching creden tials, she said. Querubin initially pursued a career as a lawyer, but ultimately followed her heart to become a teacher, she added. Her decision was greatly influenced by her former teacher, Michael Cummins’ ability to connect with his students; she also wanted to defeat the stereotype of Filipino women working as nurses, she explained.

“Growing up there were no Fili pino teachers at the high school … I take pride in the fact that I am a Filipina in the English Depart ment,” Querubin said. “But the reason why I chose to teach at MHS is because I am wholeheart edly grateful for all the opportu nities, all the great people, and all the great teachers I had. I love this community, and I always told myself that I could never teach anywhere else.”

Courtesy of Savannah Martinez

A venue in San Diego paid all expenses for student Savannah Martinez to fly out and perform at an event.

Courtesy of The Washington Post

Students Roper, Leabres, and Rokita shared experiences with race.

Bridging the pandemic learning gap in elementary schools

By Savan Bollu

In August 2022, 18 students at Robert Randall Elementary School entered second-grade teacher Daisy Gonzalez’s class room after over two years of learning disrupted by the pan demic, Gonzalez said. The most urgent issue was that her students were underperforming—five of them could not recognize the al phabet, and almost all of them could not add two-digit numbers, a skill they were expected to mas ter by the end of first grade, she said.

“Right now, I’m really strug gling with (teaching) reading, writing, and math because we have to fill in so many holes and gaps that they didn’t get to fill in first grade or in kindergarten be cause of the pandemic,” Gonzalez said.

She explained that students struggled to pay attention during distance learning, and social ly-disadvantaged students of ten had trouble logging into her class despite district-provided Chromebooks and hotspots.

Chris Norwood, Vice President of the Milpitas Unified School District Board, agreed that chronic absenteeism was a large issue because of unstable home lives and disproportionate trau ma from the pandemic, especial ly among special needs students, English-learner students, Latino students, and African American students.

The learning gap caused by these obstacles revealed itself in lower scores on the California

Assessment of Student Perfor mance and Progress (CAASPP) than pre-pandemic levels for certain subgroups, according to MUSD score reports. In fact, the pandemic affected students of all demographics nationwide, as the National Assessment of Educa tional Progress for fourth-grad ers showed a decline in math scores in 41 states and a decline in reading scores in 30 states.

To minimize the learning gap in her classroom, Gonzalez sep arates her students into math ematics and reading groups by skill level, and works with each group individually at school, she said. The teachers at Randall of fer intervention for students per forming below grade level, with at least an hour of tutoring after school, three to four times per week, she added.

Students at Randall have benefitted from teacher-led after-school tutoring, espe cially with supplementary, dis trict-funded programs like the Kids’ Club, Young Men’s Chris tian Association (YMCA) for homework help, and the Folk lórico dance group that teaches dance and builds social skills, Gonzalez said. However, teachers still face an overwhelming work load to get students back on track, and high schoolers can help by volunteering, she said.

“Most of the time, I’m staying until 5 or 6 p.m., and sometimes even more,” Gonzalez said. “I have to do so many different dif ferentiations. I have to differenti ate for this student. Let me go do this activity with them or let me

go print this worksheet to meet their needs. The lessons that I create have to be well-differen tiated, and that differentiation takes time and work to be able to provide students with something that’s going to progress them.”

Beyond academic support, Gonzalez also said her students need help with social-emotional learning, especially when they get frustrated being unable to complete second-grade material.

This social-emotional guidance is just as important as academic support, Norwood said. The ide al tutoring program for a high schooler to start or get involved with would have both mentoring and tutoring at schools “where there’s chronic absenteeism more than not: Weller, Burnett, Randall, Rose,” he said. Students in second through tenth grade are in most need of support, he add ed. As someone who has tutored before, Norwood said he has seen firsthand the positive impact that these types of tutoring programs can have on students.

“The best tutors are tellers, they’re listeners, and they come alongside the learner to under stand their learning style, and to deliver,” he said.

Aiming to support these learn ers, junior Mallika Ghante be came a board member and tutor for the MHS Prepworks Club, which disbanded last year but had participation from over 70 tutors, she said. Prepworks had an untargeted approach to find ing tutees, so many tutors ended up teaching new material to al ready advanced students, and the

club failed to reach the under privileged and below-grade-level students that needed academic help but could not afford profes sional tutoring, she added.

Over the summer, Ghante char tered the MHS Tutoring Acade my (MHSTA) with the mission of reaching those high-needs students. To find tutees, the club contacted elementary school principals requesting that they specifically send the form to highneeds students, Ghante said. She added that the tutee sign-up form asks students to list why they need tutoring. So far, MHSTA has 15 high-needs tutees.

Considering that Prepworks had over 70 tutors last year and MHS has a 20-hour service re quirement, there are likely a lot of high schoolers interested in volunteering as tutors, Ghante said. They should consider volun teering for programs like MHS TA that identify and address the

community’s needs, she said.

Gonzalez agrees that high school tutors and tutoring pro grams should target these highneeds students to prevent the learning gap from spiraling into an achievement gap beyond col lege. However, she has not heard of any tutoring programs run by MHS students so far, she said. Such tutoring programs could better reach high-needs students if they directly reached out to and partnered with teachers, she add ed.

“Imagine yourself being in the shoes of somebody that’s below grade level—maybe you’re that type of student that was below grade level, and a teacher or your school really supported you and helped you out like we’re trying to do with our students,” Gonzalez said, addressing high school stu dents. “Think about it that way. Maybe you can help out with this cause too.”

Former teacher Dinh adapts to role as assistant principal

By Albert Fung

Henstchke recounts life before teaching

By Anannya Bhuskat

After traveling throughout Eu rope, Asia, and North America, and experiencing many cultures and interacting with various peoples, MHS alumnus Sheldon Hentschke has found his way back to his home town, Milpitas, as a English student-teacher un der English teacher Ginger Roy.

After graduating from high school, he attended San José State University, but had always wanted to leave the Bay Area and explore what was outside, Hentschke said. Thus, he ob tained a working holiday visa and moved to Ireland for two years, where he worked as a teacher, he added.

“I had a lot of really cool co-workers and a lot of really cool students,” Hentschke said. “It was generally a really good time of my life. Eventually, my Visa ex pired, and I had to leave. I bought a motorcycle … and took it from Dublin, across Europe — through Turkey and to Central Asia.” The whole journey “was about 11,000 miles and took a little over two months to do,” he said.

Once reaching Asia during hir ing season, Hentschke taught En glish in Vietnam for about three months, and then later moved to Vancouver Island, in the province of British Columbia, around the time COVID-19 started, he said.

“I was in a new city during COVID, didn’t know anyone, and had a job that was really awful,” Hentschke said. “Once I came back, I was in Philadelphia for a while, working for some immi gration lawyers.”

Despite having a good job in Philadelphia, Hentschke said he missed working with diverse and interesting people in the classroom and wanted to return to teaching. Thus, Hentschke moved back to Milpitas and start ed working as a student-teacher for Roy, he said. His parents pre viously worked at MHS, he added, so he was connected to it in more ways than one.

“I am familiar with the culture here,” Hentschke said. “I know that it’s a good school. I knew I wanted to come back somewhere where I trusted people. I know I can trust Mrs. Roy to be a good mentor as I go through the stu dent teaching program. It is fun ny being back, but comfortable as well.”

Although he thinks MHS is a good place to stay, Hentschke said he eventually wants to go back to Ireland in the long-term, and get an English and Language Arts teaching job in international schools, where the curriculum is based on an international frame work, and is usually different than that of the nation’s school. He is still restless and eager to travel and explore the world more before settling down, he said.

When asked to describe him and his teaching, Rhea Karanw al, one of Hentschke’s and Roy’s AP Literature students said “Mr. Hentschke is an incredible teach er. He tries his best to make the learning environment the best for all his students and takes into account what his students think as well. He is flexible, while also having a great passion for litera ture.”

At the beginning of the school year, several new staff members began working on campus, ac cording to an email sent out to guidance counselor Crystal Bel tran and student Osborn Wang. However one face stood out in particular — Assistant Principal Andrew Dinh — whom many stu dents may recognize as their mid dle school English teacher.

Coming in with 12 years of ex perience in education, and nine of them spent teaching at Thomas Russell Middle School, this will be his first year working at MHS, Dinh said. He explained that he wanted to take on a new challenge in an effort to grow more as a per son.

”Something you always want to do is always to be challenged,” Dinh said. “You always want to learn new things. You always want to try new things. That’s what makes life great,” he said. “It’s how you become a new per son, better than you were before.”

With his new role, Dinh’s initial attitude towards working as an administrator has not changed, Dinh said. He still believes it is a challenge at heart, he added.

“I’d like to think that the chal lenge is what I thought it would be.” Dinh said. “It’s very much like you’re juggling 18 plates at

once.”

As with any career change, Dinh has experienced many changes in his work duties compared to his past role as a teacher, he said. However, he notes that many of the skills he applies in his day-today work are very similar.

“In some ways, it’s very much an extension of teaching.” Dinh said. “It’s very much people skills. It’s very much being organized. It’s very much community-focused. You’re part of the community, and now you’re the leader of the community.”

However, Dinh’s day-to-day du ties are much more than “people skills.” Dinh is involved with stu dent attendance and discipline, and is also currently managing both the English and English Lan guage Development departments, providing assistance to any staff members as needed, Dinh said. His schedule also regularly in cludes meeting with parents and giving teacher evaluations on a rolling basis, he said. Despite facing challenges with taking on so many new roles, Dinh has received much positive support from the school community.

“Everyone has been very wel coming,” Dinh said. “I’m very fortunate to be at a school site where people have this kind of thing open to me to share how the school is run, the culture of the

school, all the little operations and processes in place.”

According to a Social Science teacher at Russell who worked with Dinh, Stephanie Woodhams, he is hardworking and a great mentor to his students.

Outside of his work life, Dinh enjoys playing Dungeon and Dragons with his friends, playing video games, spending time with his dogs, and exercising, he said. In fact, he created a club during his time at Thomas Russell to play video games with students.

“He created the Smash Bros Club, where students could go af ter school (to) play or watch oth ers play Super Smash Bros and, believe me, it was well-attended and often heated,” Woodhams said.

Junior Ela Aquino said that some of her favorite memories of the Smash Bros club included building more connections with people who shared similar inter ests with her. Other students also found the club to be enjoyable, she said.

“I remember several TVs and Nintendo Switches being set up, and there were also regularly hosted tournaments that were a lot of fun,” Aquino said. “Even if you weren’t into Super Smash Bros, anybody who was into video games, in general, was welcome,” she added.

Courtesy of Daisy Gonzalez

Robert Randall Elementary School teacher Gonzalez works with stu dents in a guided reading group to build fluency and comprehension.

Courtesy of Andrew Dinh

Assistant Principal Dinh, who previously taught at Thomas Russell Middle School, poses with his niece.

Courtesy of Eagle Rider

Henstchke previously traveled across Europe to Asia on a motorcycle.

Musician, traveler, teacher Brian Knitter discusses passions

By Riya Vyas

The first thing that might catch your eye walking into E05 is the art on the walls — renaissance paintings and historical posters cover nearly every inch, giving the classroom warmth and intrigue. Like his meticulously organized bright blue desks that provide a fun and striking contrast to the warm-toned decorations, social studies teacher Brian Knitter’s past and present careers couldn’t be more different.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. But when my wife and I got married, we decided one of us should be a teacher because one of us should make money,”

Knitter said. “So my wife became a teacher, and I became an engi neer.”

For 25 years, Knitter worked as a semiconductor engineer and manager after getting his bach elor’s degree in industrial engi neering, he said. However, he de cided to go back to school and get his master’s degree in art history, which came much closer to what he teaches in the classroom.

“The older I got, the more his tory made sense to me,” Knitter said. “I travel all over the place, and travel and history just go hand in hand.”

Knitter started traveling as a child because his father was in the Navy, he said. Five years of his

Squats, rows, curls: Students explain why exercising works out for them

By Angelina Barnes

Whether it’s grunting heavy-lifters, active runners, or health-conscious dieters, to day’s gym-goers all go to the gym with the intention of improv ing some aspect of their overall lifestyle. Many students at MHS have found newfound passions through working out regular ly, whether it be lifting weights, benching, or simply exercising and toning their bodies.

Senior Aarush Arora has been working out regularly for over a year and goes to the gym approx imately four days a week. Accord ing to Arora, he has a workout schedule that he follows depend ing on the type of muscle group he wants to focus on.

“I go push, pull, and legs, usu ally in that order. On push days, I focus on my chest, shoulders, and triceps, and on pull days I fo cus on back and bicep workouts,” Arora said.

He decided to change his eating habits after he began going to the gym regularly in order to main tain a healthier lifestyle and see progress from his workouts, Aro ra said.

“If I’m trying to become more lean, this involves losing weight, so I’ll decrease the calories I in take, which involves a calorie deficit. On the other hand, if I’m trying to (gain) weight, I increase my intake,” Arora said.

He noticed a significant de crease in his overall weight after he began consistently working out, Arora said.

“Back when I started, I used to weigh a lot more … and it’s always going up and down depending on what I have to do for wrestling, but aside from that I’ve seen a lot of muscle growth,” Arora said.

Senior Armaan Bhardwaj has been working out using similar techniques since his freshman year of high school, and he has also seen a drastic change in his physical appearance, he said.

“I would definitely say I’ve seen

progress. I was looking at a pic ture that my sister found, and it was me from (my) freshman year.

I feel like my arms have definite ly grown a lot bigger, and overall I just look better,” Bhardwaj said.

Senior Madilyn Sing harath-Kim uses a rotation for her day-to-day workouts, attend ing the gym around five days a week.

“I do a lot of compound lift ing workouts. Usually, I base my workouts on benching, squatting, and deadlifting,” Kim said.

Kim also stated that she had to change her food intake and the amount of carbs she was eating in order to improve in working out and lifting weights.

“I started eating more and my appetite grew from there,” Kim said. “Now, I focus on how much protein I eat in a day, as well as the amount of carbs I take in so I can eventually lift heavier weights,” she said.

Kim mentioned that she has experienced a large amount of growth since she began working out.

“I can lift a lot more, and also you can see a lot more muscle de velopment compared to before,” Kim said.

Although working on physique is important and a beneficial aspect of going to the gym reg ularly, the gym can also be used as a space for releasing tension, Bhardwaj said.

“It’s been a mental release be cause after a long day, after a lot of work and a lot of stuff that need ed to get done, you can just go to the gym (and) sweat it all out,” Bhardwaj said.

He also encourages those that are interested in getting a mem bership or working out in gener al to pursue a new routine that involves regularly attending the gym.

“It’s definitely benefited me be cause it makes me feel like I have a very good source to release my stress. So emotionally, it has ben efited me a lot,” Bhardwaj said.

childhood were spent overseas, where he got to tour Asia.

“I just kind of got that bug,” Knitter said. “So when I could finally start affording to travel again, after I got out of college, I did.”

Knitter has traveled all over Eu rope and Asia, including Switzer land, Turkey, Vietnam, and Thai land, he said. He enjoys eating the food and learning about the peo ple in different countries. Just as he is pleased by the routine of his daily life, he likes observing ordi nary life in the countries he visits.

“My favorite day in Europe is trash day,” Knitter said. “I’ll get up at six in the morning and just watch people work and how they

do things in their own countries.”

When he’s not teaching or trav eling, Brian Knitter works as a professional musician in the bands Thünderhüg and Age of Reason, the latter of which has been around for thirty years, he said. He mainly plays the bass guitar, along with acoustic and electric guitar and drums, he said.

“We usually play rock ‘n’ roll for 30- to 60-year-olds, like ‘70s, ‘80s music,” he said. “But I like the more technical stuff, which is progressive rock.”

Knitter lives with his wife, Bar bara Knitter, who teaches the Quest class at Thomas Russell Middle School, he said.

Barbara Knitter described her husband as a “renaissance man” because he’s good at a variety of things, including art, history, math, science, music, and cook ing.

“When I was teaching fourth grade, he actually came into my classroom to teach art,” Barbara Knitter said. “He really always knew how to relate with stu dents.”

The couple met because he was her Sunday school teacher, and they got married in 1988, Barbara Knitter said. They have two kids: Jeffrey Knitter, who attends col lege and works in a repair shop in Australia, and Courtney, who is working on getting a doctor’s de gree from the University of Cali fornia, Irvine.

“Outside of school, he’s actual ly kind of shy,” Barbara Knitter said. “As a teacher, he’s out there and he has to interact with the students, so they probably don’t

believe it.”

According to Rachael Gunn, vocalist for Thünderhüg and a dance teacher, who’s known Bri an Knitter for around 20 years, Brian Knitter is a good type of perfectionist.

“He demands for himself that things be very high quality, if not flawless,” she said. “But he doesn’t put those expectations on others. He accepts others as they are.”

Both Gunn and Barbara Knit ter stressed Brian Knitter’s great memory and ear for music.

“Tell him something once he will be able to recall it forever,” Gunn said. “He can hear a song or play a song once, and then six months later, we pull that song back up. And he’s got it note for note.”

When asked what motivates him in times of hardship, Brian Knitter explained that he is resil ient and has faith in God.

“My dad’s a pastor, among other things. He was a Navy chaplain, and I am definitely a churchgo er. That’s a big part of me and my wife’s life,” he said. “But I also just don’t let things get me down. I think a lot of positivity goes a long way.”

Brian Knitter added that he en joys the routine of everyday life — coming to school, teaching differ ent subjects, and going home. His main piece of advice to students is to do what makes them happy.

“Everybody will chase after the money, but in the end, happiness wins. If you do something you love, the money will come,” he said. “You’ll live longer, you’ll be happier. Life’s too short for a bad boss or a bad job.”

added.

“Seeing the struggles that stu dents have been through, and how they overcome (them) and how their parents parent them … has made me reflect on my role as a father,” Nakamoto said. “It’s opened my eyes a ton. When I see students that are really thriving and succeeding … I take note of those things as well. I want noth ing but the best for all (of) my stu dents, and a lot of the same things that I tell my kids at home are the things that I tell my students here,” he said.

Ever since Nakamoto’s sons came into his life, it has redefined the role he plays in the world, Na kamoto said.

Nakamoto finds path as counselor, guides students through challenges

By Adrian Pamintuan

Walking into counselor Cory Nakamoto’s office, one immedi ately notices the pictures of his family on his desk and the nu merous posters around the room. Students walk in and out of the of fice throughout the year, whether it’s for discussing something aca demic or personal.

Nakamoto has worked in edu cation for 17 years, two at a Berke ley High School, four at a Millbrae High School, and 11 with MHS since 2011, he said. Although he has spent a large part of his ca reer around students, he said that wasn’t always the plan.

“I did my undergrad at Chi co State in psychology, but then I graduated, and … I actually thought I was going to become a firefighter … and realized at the end, I did not actually want to work in that field for the rest of my life,” Nakamoto said.

The experience of bouncing around interests is largely a tes tament to how experimental figuring out careers or lifestyles can be, and so it’s important for students to not stress over that process, Nakamoto said.

“You kind of get to define inde pendence … the choices you make, the people you meet, the things that you do — it teaches you a lot

about yourself. You have to trust in the process that these things work themselves out over time,” Nakamoto said.

He did not always see himself doing counseling, but reflected back on his own experience when thinking about his role now, Na kamoto said.

“I did not always know I wanted to do counseling. I think that this was always in the back of my head as a possibility,” Nakamoto said. “I had a high school counselor that met with me once, and asked just a couple of questions, sent me on my way, so I got zero help,” Na kamoto shared.

What largely reaffirms his pur pose to the city of Milpitas and its school community is the stu dent population, Nakamoto said. He notes that something about the city is prideful, so much so that it has kept him here in spite of working at other high schools across the Bay Area, he added.

“I’m in the exact same position, every single minute of every day, but (the) stories and the situa tions that come through my door keep this job very fresh and new,” Nakamoto shared.

Working with students with a variety of different issues, view points, and questions has ulti mately had an effect on how he parents his two sons, Nakamoto

“It’s the most rewarding thing to me. So a lot of my time goes to spending time with my boys and my family … Whether it’s driv ing them to and from sporting events, or just hanging out in our backyard,” Nakamoto said.

Senior Kaden Nguyen, who has Nakamoto as his counselor, said that his counselor meetings often last through whole class periods, and added how important Naka moto is to his personal life. They discuss a range of issues, such as college applications, paths to wards success, and problems at home, said Nguyen. After seeing his personal improvement from counseling, Nguyen said that the broader student body should try building a relationship with their own counselors.

“It’s really worth it because you leave these counseling appoint ments with a very optimistic standpoint … And just (for) people who haven’t really built that con nection with their counselors, do that as soon as possible,” Nguyen said.

Julie Cler, guidance counselor at MHS, reflected on what Na kamoto is like within the “tightknit team of counselors”; that he shares the same goal as other counselors on campus, which is to support the student body, add ed Cler.

“He really cares about the kids … I think his main goal is to make sure that you guys as students are able to manage high school and reach your potential,” Cler said.

Courtesy of Brian Knitter

Social studies teacher Knitter is a professional bass guitarist for the bands Thünderhüg and Age of Reason.

Courtesy of Cory Nakamoto

Counselor Cory Nakamoto with his wife and children at the beach.

Teachers offer opinions on school patriotism

By Erick Johnson

Not everyone agrees on what patriotism means, or if there is even a need for it. Staff mem bers from distinct backgrounds and with different upbringings shared their various viewpoints on the ways American values and patriotism should be handled on our campus. The differences in their opinions begins with their different interpretations of what being patriotic even means in it self.

Patriotism does not mean that you support the government, what it does, or has done English teacher Brian McGarry said. Being patriotic does not mean “blind acceptance” of any form of authority or set of ideals, he said.

“Patriotism, I think, is more about believing in the ideals and the goals that we have set out as a country and celebrating them,” McGarry said. “Patriotism to me is about celebrating the aspira tions of what we’re trying to ac complish as a democracy.”

AP American Government and Politics teacher Michael Cum mins defined patriotism as love for your country. There is nothing wrong with the school instilling patriotism in its students, he said.

“We should model patriotic val ues; we should encourage patri

otic values,” Cummins said. “All countries do this, by the way. We call this political socialization, teaching your kids what they should know about the country. This is what countries do. They try to teach their young about what is good about the country that they live in. And I think that that’s still a good idea,” he said.

Students should never be forced to be patriotic, but instead, patri otism should be encouraged and modeled, McGarry said.

“We as teachers are here to guide the students through a lot of processes,” McGarry said. “We shouldn’t be imposing our values upon them, but teaching them more about what we aspire to. I think patriotism should be en couraged and taught.”

America has committed atroc ities in the past, including the cruel treatment of Native Ameri cans and African Americans and World War II internment camps for the Japanese, Cummins said. Despite these actions, Cummins still believes that the good things the United States has done far outweigh the negatives, he said. You can support Black Lives Mat ter and still stand for the pledge, he added.

“All the stuff that we’ve done as a country, all of the racism which exists everywhere, all of the po

lice brutality — that’s a human condition, not an American con dition,” Cummins said.

Naval Junior Reserves Offi cers’ Training Corps (NJRTOC) teacher and military veteran Margie Jackson said that she does not believe students understand that their freedoms are the result of sacrifices like hers. Some vet erans have even given their lives for these freedoms, she said. Stu dents simply need to learn more about the country and its history in order to fully appreciate it, she added.

“I would like for students to know what it means to be patri otic. And then they decide what they want to do,” Jackson said. “Because I think a lot of times, we don’t know things, and we may have one opinion about it. And then once we learn about it, we may feel a little differently.”

Spanish teacher Kimberly Mar ion shared that the word “patrio tism” has to do with country and land. She said that it was import ant to know the etymology of a word, otherwise, it can be easi lyused to mislead or manipulate people.

American values include ”the worship of money, greed, oppres sion of other non-white nations. What else can I say? Racism, white supremacy. Is enforcing these values going to help relieve inequity? In our school, is it going to help?” Marion said.

Marion said it was important to think about the things we are being taught about our country, to avoid blindly following ideas we have been manipulated into believing.

To force students “to stand up and listen to a pledge that may have no meaning, or may be dia metrically opposed to a person’s circumstance, their value sys tems — I don’t see the purpose in that,” Marion said. “It’s tanta mount to what Germany did, in the day of Hitler, to try to control people’s thoughts and try to get them to think a certain way.”

Lack of ‘Fem’ in ‘STEM’: Disproportionately low number of female students in physics, economics, engineering

By Savan Bollu

When junior Angie Wang walked into her third-period AP Physics 1 class on the first day of school, she was one of four girls in a class of 25 students, she said.

According to schoolwide statis tics provided by MHS staff sec retary and data analyst Stacey Ryan, AP Physics 1 is one of the classes at MHS with the largest disparity in female enrollment: out of 75 students, 84% are boys and 16% are girls.

Wang noticed that AP Physics teacher Kathleen Downum had arranged for the four girls in the class to sit together, she said.

According to Downum, the seating arrangement has helped girls feel more comfortable, and she even gets requests to con tinue it as she plans new seating charts.

“Some of the girls will write, ‘I really appreciated having a group of girls. I’d really like to stay that way,’” Downum said. “That tells me that there is still something going on there about the comfort level and the interaction that is helping some students.”

“It might have been more diffi cult if there was a feeling of isola tion with just me and a whole ta ble of boys,” Wang said. “It made it more comfortable and easier to find someone to talk with.”

Girls have historically been discouraged from pursuing sci ence, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) be cause of a lack of role models and the perceived struggle of balanc ing a STEM career with the tradi tional household responsibilities

of a woman, science teacher and Science Olympiad advisor Letta Meyer said. Meyer experienced this discrimination in her high school physics class, she said.

“I was one of two girls in my class and our teacher would lit erally ignore us,” Meyer said. De spite the girls having the highest grades in the class, the teacher would act as if they were incapa ble and did not belong there, she added.

Meyer has not noticed such overt discrimination against girls in the STEM classroom nowa days, but sometimes notices her male students dominating group discussions and attempts to pre vent it, she said.

“A lot of times, our society says that the girl is not supposed to take charge,” Meyer said. “So the guys come in and take charge and just steamroll over. They don’t stop to ask, ‘What do you think? How do you think this should be?’”

Junior Brendan Tam, an AP Physics 1 student, feels that girls in his physics class are perceived and treated the same way as boys and given a “fair chance,” he said. He admires the girls for taking physics despite the significant gender gap, he added.

MHS statistics show that there is a disparity of girls in certain STEM fields like engineering, with the worst gap being in phys ics, but point to something very different in life science classes such as Anatomy and Physiology: there are more girls enrolled than boys.

The National Science Board found a similar trend in 2006:

81% of female scientists studied psychology, social sciences, and life sciences. Elaine Howard Eck lund, Autrey Professor of Sociol ogy at Rice University, analyzed the cultural causes of this dis parity in an article called “Why Scientists Think There Are More Women in Biology Than Physics.” She found that both female biolo gists and physicists perceive the discrimination against women in physics as worse than the dis crimination in biology. She also found that people connect the life sciences to emotion and em pathy, qualities that are stereo typically associated with women, and physics with logic and math, topics stereotypically associated with men.

However, physics can be just as people-oriented and “caring” as the life sciences, Downum said. For example, scientists use physics to design infrastructure that filters drinking water and machines to reduce the strain of manual labor, both of which have saved lives, she said.

Meyer is researching the STEM gender gap for her Ph.D., and in her investigation, she found that the Science Olympiad organiza tion’s team-oriented approach, which encourages bonding and co-ed collaboration, has helped build confidence in girls, she said.

Wang, who is a Science Olym piad team member, agreed that Science Olympiad has helped her feel more comfortable in STEM.

“Seeing multiple captains being girls really makes me feel like I can be the same way,” Wang said.

Having such female role models is crucial to minimizing the gen

Special education department offers diverse range of support for students

By Kevin Ting

MHS has around 200 students that qualify for special education, and these students attend classes at every level, according to spe cial education department lead Kathleen Willinsky.

“The kids are in so many differ ent classes,” Willinsky said. “You wouldn’t even know if they’re in your class or not.”

Although general education teachers are not required to re ceive any formal training on spe cial education students, they do receive information regarding the student’s accommodations, according to Assistant Principal Jonathan Mach.

Teachers will receive a docu ment called the “Individual Ed ucation Plan (IEP) at a Glance,” a document that details the stu dent’s services and accommoda tions, Willinsky said.

“Teachers can provide extra time on a test, or (students) can take the tests in the resource room,” said Willinsky. “The stu dents just need a little bit more help to equal the playing field,” she said.

Another issue that may arise for teachers is cases of students that may qualify for special education but are not registered, Assistant Principal Jennifer Hutchison said.

To address this, teachers can notify the special education de partment if they believe a student may qualify for such needs, Wil linsky said. From there, the stu dent can receive extra help or, in some cases, even be evaluated to qualify for special education, she elaborated.

The Individuals with Disabil ities Education Act (IDEA) re quires public schools to provide disabled children with adequate care without any charge, accord

ing to the California Department of Education.

“There are 13 primary disabil ities that will qualify students into special education, such as autism and specific learning dis abilities,” Mach said.

MUSD structures its special education system by dividing students into three distinct cat egories: Resource Specialist Pro gram (RSP), Special Day Class (SDC), and Community Based Instruction (CBI), according to Mach.

“Students that are in the Re source Program are generally in special education less than 50% of the time of the day,” Willinsky said.

These students take general education classes and also have additional classes such as study skills and career planning, Mach said.

“The (SDC) students are 50% or more of the time in special educa tion classes,” Willinsky said.

Oftentimes, the only general education classes the STC stu dents take are electives, and the rest of their classes are in special education, she added.

CBI applies specifically to stu dents who also need instruction on certain skills they need to be able to live independently, such as getting dressed in the morning or paying for items they purchased, Willinsky said.

“The students are receiving a lot of support so that they can be a functioning part of society one day,” she said.

According to Willinsky, CBI students also go on weekly field trips on Fridays; they learn how to use the bus system and bus routes, as well as other forms of public transportation.

“They’re all smart. They just need extra support to get to that endpoint,” Willinsky said.

der gap, Meyer said. MHS is tak ing a step in the right direction because many of its STEM teach ers, especially for AP classes, are women, she said. Other factors in the gender gap are girls’ interest in STEM, self-efficacy, perfor mance, and competence, many of which need to be built at an early age, she added.

“Most high school students have already decided whether they hate science or not, and so, at least staying open to science for a while” is important, Meyer said.

However, the single-gender approach of separating girls and boys that some have opted for is not sustainable in the real world, where girls need to know how to collaborate with boys, she said.

Downum believes that seating girls together, at least in her in troductory physics classes, is an

important starting point to build “solid support” for the girls and develop their interest in physics, she said. If they choose to pursue physics, they will have a long ca reer ahead of them to collaborate with boys, but to get there, she has to start them off in an environ ment they feel comfortable in, she added. Even if they are intimidat ed by the gender gap, girls should at least give themselves a chance to explore STEM, she said.

“You want to get the best society result; you want the best physi cists,” Downum said. “It would be horrible if you’re shunting them (girls) over into something they can’t do as well, and you fail to get the brilliant stuff out. And on the personal scale, I’m just hoping that people can get to make the choices that make them the most fulfilled.”

The U.S. flag is raised during the national anthem at a football game.

MHS student population is 54.2% male and 45.8% female; classes with this ratio are considered balanced. Data courtesy of Stacey Ryan.

Erick Johnson | THE UNION

Savan Bollu | THE UNION

Mental health initiatives include new center, counselors

By Satvika Iyer

Social-emotional learning (SEL) has be come a focus at MHS with homeroom on Wednesdays dedicated to fostering prop er social-emotional wellbeing among stu dents. ASB’s Instagram occasionally posts SEL-related tips, and lunchtime events to raise awareness. Counselors are available for one-on-one talks from school-related to personal matters. However, do these re sources effectively address the intricacies of mental health?

Mental health is a personal issue that can benefit greatly from support, so the school works with students to elevate the student support program and meet their needs, MUSD Program Manager of Men tal Health, Sandra Quintana said. A mix of the nationwide trend of understaffing and COVID’s impact on the field have made it hard to provide students with the support that they require.

“Everyone’s encouraged to have their first contact be the guidance counselor to connect with the three school psycholo gists and the four mental health counsel ors, who work with students around indi vidual counseling.” Quintana said.

Quintana credits School-Linked Ser vices coordinator Nicole Steward for gathering information on the direction of student support services at MHS.

“My job is to find any barrier to a stu dents’ education like housing, food, med ical, immigration, mental health, and find resources in the city, county, state or fed eral resources that can remove those bar riers so students can focus on their educa tion,” Steward said.

However, many students don’t know where to find help, senior Abira Rehman said. She visits her counselor regularly,

but her mental health is still fluctuating.

Self-elected programs like counseling or small group listening sessions would be more effective than crass ASB awareness events, Rehman added.

The mental health team is committed to the integration of SEL and provid ing resources to the entire student body through their professionals, and these re sources are beyond the surface-level SEL options, Quintana said. One of their up coming projects is the Wellness Center in the library, she said.

Storm McNerney and Mireya Coronado, both Wellness Center liaisons and em ployees for the Santa Clara County Office of Education, are leading the project. Mc Nerney, a beneficiary of the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act, wasn’t able to access her protections under the act when she needed them in high school.

“Our goal is to make students feel so supported and aware of all the resources around them that they always know where to go when they need help, even if the Cen ter happens to be closed at any time” she said.

Student input is key to the success of the center, Coronado said. “For our group counseling, we’ll only talk about what wants to be talked about and that choice for the students makes it a lot more self-selected and a safe space.” Coronado said.

Another resource Quintana stressed is CareSolace.org, a free concierge service that uses an algorithm that uses user in put about insurance and special restric tions to connect them to a therapist. As mental health care takes a more holistic and self-advocacy reliant approach, insti tutions are adapting from the one size fits all nature of support, Quintana said.

Eat, sleep, repeat: Self-care tips

By Ruby Bui

Mental health problems are an issue among all age groups, and many people struggle to effectively cope with a wors ening mental state. However, there are various methods to care for one’s men tal health.

Self-care is a basic necessity for an in dividual but is often the first to be dis carded as a waste of time. While com pleting work is essential, taking breaks and finding time for oneself should not be dismissed. The same trend is found with eating patterns. Nutritious meals provide fuel for the human body throughout the day and putting off meals to finish homework and study is harm ful to a student’s well-being. Without proper nutrients and a set eating sched ule, long-term health problems may manifest, according to “Why Your Ran dom Eating Schedule Is Risky for Your Health” by health writer Maria Masters. Irregular eating patterns may eventual ly lead to obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes, Masters wrote. Fur thermore, poor physical health tends to lead to poor mental health, according to “Physical Health and Mental Health” by the Mental Health Foundation.

Taking care of the human body overall is vital to a person’s physical and mental health. People with sleep deprivation display drops in moods throughout the day, meaning positive moods and plen

tiful hours of sleep are closely linked, according to “Mood and Sleep” by Bet terHealth. In addition to nurturing your body, exercise is an effective way to help you feel confident and refreshed. There are many forms of exercise, whether that be going to the gym, doing yoga, or playing sports. Reading a book, watch ing your favorite movie, and practicing arts and crafts are other ways to relieve stress and maintain strong physical and mental health.

Talking about how you feel is also im portant to your betterment, which is why having a trusted person to confide in can be helpful. However, if talking to someone causes you discomfort, journ aling and writing in a diary daily are al ternate options that are just as effective for releasing bottled feelings.

Maintaining positive mental health is necessary for an individual’s person al growth and performance. Having a positive state of mind especially bene fits students, considering how stress ful school can be. According to “Why Good Mental Health Is Important for Study” by health, well-being, and in jury consultant Meagan Miskin, “High levels of mental health are associated with increased learning, creativity, and productivity.” Thus, practicing ways to take care of mental health is beneficial, not only for a person’s overall emotional and social well-being but also for their academic performance as well.

Satvika Iyer | THE UNION

Storm McNerney (left) and Mireya Coronado (right) present plans for the Wellness Center to teachers.

Teachers challenge burnout with balance

By Annanya Bhuskat

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers’ mental well-being is becoming increasingly important. With the wide spread learning loss and a lack of student motivation due to the pandemic, teachers around the country have expressed feeling “burnt out” and in need of a better worklife balance, according to the National Ed ucation Association.

In order to combat burnout, managing a good work-life balance is important, math teacher Ivy Nguyen said. The biggest con tributors to her workload have been pick ing up multiple periods of an Advanced Placement (AP) class as well as learning to manage the extra time commitment out side of school, Nguyen said.

“I’ve just learned that it’s not the end of the world for me or the kids if some work that I need to do or grading by me is slight ly delayed for just the betterment of my own health,” Nguyen added.

Last year, teacher burnout felt real due to the shortage of substitute teachers, as many teachers had to spend their prepa ration periods supervising other classes, Nguyen added.

Music teacher Emily Moore said the specific event that causes more stress or burnout than any other is Music in the Parks. “It is a ton of work and it’s five straight weeks in a row, but it raises mon ey for the music programs, which is the

reason I do it,” she said.

Moore added that online teaching was a lot more work than expected, especially for subjects that do not translate well vir tually, she said. However, coming back in person from online learning allowed her to develop clarity on her priorities, Moore said.

“I used to have a very generous late work policy,” Moore said. “It ended up making a lot more work for me because I would get students who would do everything right before the grading period ended. So I’ve now made it a little tighter,” Moore said.

First-year teacher Ana Hahs, who teach es English IV and English Language De velopment (ELD), said though the work load can be a lot, the pressure she feels is what she expected at the beginning of her career.

“You’re still trying to figure out your classes; you don’t have anything prepped from previous years. And so it’s very easy to burnout when that happens,” Hahs said.

One of the biggest factors that impacts motivation is knowing that the staff is ap preciated and supported by the adminis tration at school, Hahs said.

All teachers should “learn the power of saying ‘no.’ You may feel like you need to do all these extra things to show that you’re worthy of your place here, but all you really need to do is show up for your students and take care of yourself,” Nguy en said.

Student voice: Personal mental health experience

By Jasroop Klair

I was told to write a narrative about my mental health, but narratives usually have a beginning, a middle, and an end. My brain doesn’t work that way. The neg ative thoughts are constant and tumultu ous and they don’t go away. Some days it’s just barely noticeable, and some days it is the only thing in my brain. Healing isn’t linear, so it’s extremely difficult to figure out where I am and assess if I’m even do ing better. Self-reflection and self assess ment are essential, yet can be suffocating. Self-awareness can quickly turn into an obsession with self-image. Recognizing something is wrong is difficult. I had no idea there was something wrong until my doctor handed me a little pill bottle la beled “Paxil.”

I guess the way I would explain it to someone would be that your brain is covered in fog. All your memories and emotions are hazy, and you can’t really remember what you’re supposed to be doing. Or feeling. There is this tar stuck on your skin and it has leaked its way into your body, so much that you think you yourself are made of tar. You can no lon ger differentiate yourself from the tar, and you’re not sure if the thoughts you’re hav ing are really your own, or if they’re just

covered in tar.

Okay, the tar metaphor is over. The point is, it can be really bad but it doesn’t have to be that way. Of course there’s no cure or way to be happy instantly, but there are things that I’ve found help me deal with it, even if it is just momentarily. Keeping things bottled up will definitely worsen it, yet sharing isn’t easy either. It used to annoy me when people would tell me to share because most times I would just get into awkward conversations and people wouldn’t know how to comfort me. So I would say that if you don’t have someone close to you whom you can share with, share with yourself via writing. As elementary as writing down your emo tions may sound, I’ve found it helps a lot. Whenever it gets really bad, I journal my thoughts. The writing will be inarticulate and maybe vile, but it gets everything out of my system. When I’m in a clearer head space I look back and read it, sometimes feeling embarrassed or even disgusted with the things I wrote. However, that helps me realize that the tar isn’t really me. And the thoughts produced by it are not me. (I lied about the tar metaphor be ing over).

We often suffer more in our imagination than in our reality. Happiness is fleeting, yet so is despair. Everything passes.

Self-diagnosing offers solace, presents problems

By Sanvi Durbha

Social media has played a large role in the gradual destigmatization of mental health issues, but it has also led to an in flux in self-diagnosing among teens, which may be beneficial, but has its drawbacks, according to “A Challenge with Social Me dia: Self-Diagnosing Mental Health” by Meaghan Warner.

For people who don’t have access to proper healthcare, social media can be a useful tool for awareness of different disorders and how to address their symp toms. According to “Why Many Women With Autism and ADHD Aren’t Diagnosed Until Adulthood – and What to do if You Think You’re One of Them” by assistant professor in Neurodevelopmental Con ditions at Durham University Alokanan da Rudra, many women are turned away from professional diagnosis because of misogyny and stigma surrounding wom en’s mental health. In turn, these women look to self diagnosing with the help of so cial media and the internet. Self-diagnos ing is an accessible method of diagnosis that can at least steer someone in the right direction on their mental health journey. Many people also turn to self-diagnosing to answer questions about what they’re experiencing and find solace in a commu nity of people online that relate to their experiences.

However, it is necessary to consider the downsides of self-diagnosing as well. While it may seem like doctors just tick off boxes on a checklist of symptoms, di agnosing is a little more personalized than that according to mental health counselor Micheline Maalouf in “Self-Diagnosis in a

Digital World” by Lindsey Phillips. Indi viduals are affected by mental disorders differently and symptoms manifest them selves uniquely from person to person, she said. Certain symptoms displayed by someone with a mental illness on social media may be easy to resonate with, but those same symptoms could be a result of a different illness or not signify illness at all.

“We probably all have traits from dif ferent personality disorders, but it takes certain criteria to have an official diagno sis, which people don’t often understand,” Tristan Collazo, a resident in counseling, said in the article by Phillips. They may experience a trait or symptom from a spe cific personality disorder, “but that does not mean they have that disorder,” he said.

Another downside to self-diagnosing that stems from social media is the fre quency with which misinformation cir culates, especially around online com munities according to Phillips. It’s easy for young people searching for answers to latch onto the first disorder that seems to fit what they are going through, especially when this information comes from fellow teenagers on online platforms.

The first step to take when encountering worrying symptoms is to contact a health professional and then conduct thorough research from credited sources written by doctors and other medical specialists, according to Dr. Ravina Bhanot in “Does self-diagnosis work and what are the dan gers?” by Emily Bashforth. While looking to online platforms in times of worry may be comforting, it’s important to remem ber that social media shouldn’t be one’s only source of information.

Ruby Bui | THE UNION

Junior Ruby Bui browses TikTok and stumbles across a video regarding Bipolar Disorder symptoms.

Got no milk? Scoop on dairy free ice creams

By Satvika Iyer

Nothing feels better than curl ing up with a bowl of ice cream, but there’s no downer to the mo mentary bliss like the stomach ache that comes afterwards. Due to the widespread environmen tal impact of dairy, animal rights movements, increasing popu larity of plant based diets, or just stomach aches, the dairy industry and consequently ice cream, are evolving to meet a new demand.

Mint Chocochunk: 5/5

Milk substitute: Coconut milk and sorbet

Baskins Robbins offers both affordability — $4 for a scoop — and thoughtful service. The Mint Chocochunk has a base of mint chocolate chip paired with a gooey fudge swirl and bits of solid choc olate for added flavor and texture. The coconut milk was impercepti ble under the decadent chocolate fudge and refreshing mint. The texture was smoother than regu lar ice cream, almost gelato-like. Overall, each spoon was flavorful yet light, and it left me wanting another scoop.

Daiquiri Ice: 4/5

Milk substitute: Sorbet

Daiuiri Ice is a simpler dairyfree alternative since it is a sorbet. The sample itself was enough to make me pucker from the lime, while the aftertaste of rum was so strong that I had to check that the sorbet was indeed alcohol-free. It had no hint of the grit of ice crys tals, the smooth texture a hall

mark of a well-made sorbet.

Mango Pineapple Coconut Rating: 4/5

Milk substitute: Sorbet

Sugar Mama’s Desserts is a quaint local caterer in Milpitas Square. Known for their fresh plant-based options and unique flavors, I had high expectations going into the store for their dairy free line. I tried the mango pine apple coconut sorbet, which was the only vegan flavor available and was informed that the veg an ice cream options switch out almost weekly, while the rest of the inventory is seasonal. The sorbet itself tasted like a pure mango concentrate, leaving the pineapple and coconut a feeble af terthought. While the sorbet was a tried and true classic, and I felt like I was biting into a fresh al phonso, I was left wanting some of the more unique flavors the store is known for. If your heart is set on trying eccentric and familiar fla vors, then this is the place for you.

Strawberry with Almond Brittle and Candied Strawber ries: 3/5

Milk substitute: Coconut milk

Trader Joe’s is admittedly my happy place, so here’s a disclaim er for my existing bias. The fran chise has a serious case of fall fe ver, but I was surprised to find no dairy free counterpart to most of their autumnal desserts. Regard less, the standard but vast selec tion of plant-based ice creams did not disappoint. I tried a pint of strawberry with almond brit

tle and candied strawberries. The sickeningly sweet strawberry last ed for about 30 seconds before a full-throttled offense of cardboard from the packaging hit my taste buds. This is a common trend I found in most oat milk ice creams. Oat milk as a base is absorbent and an inherent sweetener, so the mix-ins determine the entire ex perience. For the strawberry ice cream, the artificial flavoring and chunks of strawberry and almond dictated the final product. The ice cream texture was one of best thus far, but the taste was not en joyable after two spoonfuls.

Vegan Cookies and Cream Va nilla Bean Bon Bon: 5/5

Milk substitute: Oat milk Next, I tried the cookies and cream vanilla bean bon bons. The dessert cased a soft coco nut-milk-based ice cream scooped over a layer of rich cookie with an ambrosial dark chocolate coating. A slow motion shot of anyone bit ing into this dessert belongs in a commercial—it’s just that good.

The new age of ice cream is fast approaching, and with it, new fa vorite guilty pleasures. Taste test ing your way through ice creams is admit.

The new age of ice cream is fast approaching, and with it, new fa vorite guilty pleasures. Beyond tasty desserts, the choices we make, down to our food, can have an immense impact on the planet. So plow your way through some delectable dairy free ice creams this weekend, for you and the planet!

That’s so fetch! 2000s fashion takeover

By Sanvi Durbha

You might feel as if you’ve been transported to the 2000s re cently as more and more people sport low rise jeans, wired head phones, and cargo pants. This phenomenon of the resurgence of decades-old fashion trends is also known as the 20 year cycle, according to Thread.com. In this cycle, styles and trends from two decades ago are revitalized and in corporated into current fashion. Nowadays, many teenagers prefer to draw from various subcultures such as Y2K, skater, and even the Japanese “gyaru” which is Japan’s spin on the classic Y2K look.

Y2K originates from the name of a widespread fear that computers might fail to record dates properly during the months approaching the year 2000, according to “Y2K bug” from National Geographic. It is arguably the face of the 2000s style resurgence and has been used to describe a style of clothing that consists of velvet tracksuits, shades of pink, Juicy Couture, and, of course, low rise jeans. The assimilation of this style can be seen in everything from high to fast fashion with pieces like Miu Miu’s SS22 low rise mini skirt set gaining popularity all over social media to the popular online store SHEIN carrying bejeweled flared jeans and velvet tracksuits. It isn’t a stranger to MHS either, with more and more students around campus donning this iconic style.

adopted by non-skaters and the fashion industry as a whole. The modernization of classic items can be seen through platform Converse shoes, band t-shirts, and cargo pants around MHS.

Senior Isaac Farria described his style as a combination of 2000s skater style, inspiration from social media like Pinterest, and his own added flare. “I would say I lean more towards the skat er vibe even though I don’t skate anymore because I enjoy the bag gy clothing,” Faria said.

For those wanting to integrate the 2000s into their daily ward robe, thrift stores are the place to go. Whether you’re looking to incorporate Y2K, skater, or any other style into your closet, stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Moon Zoom,which special izes in vintage clothing, are good sources for finding original pieces from that era.

Thanksgiving dishes in various cuisines provide gourd-geous flavors to gobble up

By Angelina Barnes

For many, Thanksgiving is one of the best times of the year: fam ilies gather together, share deli cious dishes, and spend time with one another. It may bring images of a glistening stuffed turkey and gravy poured over mashed pota toes to mind, but with the United States being home to immigrants, it is no surprise that many fami lies prefer fixing foods native to their own countries and cultures.

Italian cooking is known world wide for its use of pasta and savory sauces, both of which are incorpo rated into Thanksgiving dishes. A popular choice for people all across the world is lasagna, a dish that even picky eaters can enjoy. Ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarel la cheeses, along with ground beef and sausage are found in many Italian dishes, and they all play a key role in what makes these dish es so enjoyable. Not only are these ingredients extremely versatile, but they also provide a healthy and filling meal to guests.

Latin dishes are also a popular choice for many. Pumpkin em pañadas, a perfect blend of Amer ican tradition with Mexican roots, are made in place of pumpkin pie. Many families enjoy incorporat ing chile into their turkey rubs, adding ingredients like cilantro and lime before marinating the turkey overnight.

Asian cuisine is also known to incorporate a large variety of spices and oils. Pork ribs can be braised and soaked in vinegar in place of the traditional American turkey. Crispy chicken wings driz zled with soy and sesame sauces are also popular. Vegetarian op tions include kabocha squash and roasted cauliflower, both of which can be turned into side dishes. Noodles are an essential part of many main dishes, such as garlic noodles served with napa cabbage or red curry paste.

Despite the many different cultural dishes and foods from around the world, many still ap preciate the traditional Ameri can foods that this season brings

to the table. Several dishes even vary from state to state; Arizona and New Mexico residents prefer to make more rice-based dishes, while those that live in the South ern states tend to fall back on sides such as creamy mushroom gravy or macaroni and cheese. Similarly, desserts tend to vary across the United States, with key lime pie being a Florida favorite while Kentucky favors derby pie, made with chocolate and walnuts. Indigenous families also enjoy their fair share of Thanksgiving dishes, although they might be different compared to the tradi tional dishes one might suspect, with ingredients like squash, wild rice, and turnips more commonly used. Indigenous dishes also opt for seafood, such as roasted trout and baked salmon, and bison meat rather than the traditional meats offered at most American dinners.

Regardless of what foods one enjoys, Thanksgiving is the time to gather together with family and friends to enjoy traditional favor ites or add a new dish to the mix.

“I mix a lot of modern trends like streetwear with low rise jeans, … bedazzled tops and a lot of velvet material,” senior Yadhira Gomez said about her style. 2000s style is unique, fun, and something she feels comfortable in, she said.

Another popular style that’s see ing a revival is skate fashion and street style, which are recognized by their effortlessly cool, com fortable, and oversized fit. These styles first came about in the ‘80s as practical clothing for skaters that allowed them to perform tricks without the restrictions of tight clothing, but beginning in the ‘90s, skate style was slowly

Although 2000s fashion is cur rently trending, it may not stick around for long due to the rise of microtrends on social media. Platforms such as TikTok and In stagram have begun to wear out trends quickly since people get bored of seeing the same thing for too long. As a result, 2000s style may only have a year or two left in fashion before it gets replaced by the 2010s. In fact, 2010s trends have already begun to resurface with peplum tops getting their own modern twist, and charac ters like Elena Gilbert from “The Vampire Diaries” and Bella Swan from the “Twilight” saga becom ing style inspirations.

Regardless of which trends come and go, cultivating a per sonal style is a good way to draw from various styles, avoid falling prey to microtrends, and staying confident.

Junior Kimmie Deroze incor porates 2000s fashion into her personal style which she said has allowed her to express herself. “I wear a lot of jewelry and colorful stuff and it makes me feel confi dent. If you want to try a different style, just go for it. Just express yourself,” Deroze said.

Courtesy of Kimmie Derose

Satvika Iyer | THE UNION

Baskin Robbin’s dairy-free Mint Chocochunk uses a coconut milk substitute to get its creamy, smooth texture.

Deroze exemplifies 2000s fashion with low-rise jeans and graphic tank.

‘Derry Girls’ fuses joy, heartbreak, hilarity in enjoyable final season

RATING: 4 out of 5

By Riya Vyas

Set in the politically tumultuous Northern Ireland of the 1990s, the third and final season of “Derry Girls” provides a humorous and heart-wrenching exploration of the intricacies of adolescence, set against the backdrop of the coun try’s fight for independence.

The show follows five teenagers who attend a Catholic high school as they navigate friendships, ro mance, and emerging adult hood — consistent themes include the five attempting to gain more freedom from their families and avoid the school’s deadpan headmistress, Sister Mi chael (Siobhán McSweeney). The third season takes darker turns than previous seasons, peppering warm-lit scenes of mundane life with gritty footage of Bloody Sun day — when British soldiers shot 26 civilians at a civil rights pro test — and killing off a minor char acter. Though the rapid shifts in tone, which often occur without the characters’ acknowledgment of major historical events, can cause intense whiplash, they are

effective because they are realis tic. People go on living their daily lives, worrying about crushes and high school reunions, even as the world around them comes crash ing down.

The season’s emphasis on hu man emotion and personal expe rience drew me in and kept me in vested. The stakes of each episode — will they manage to escape from police custody? Will they make it to the Fatboy Slim concert? — were made astronomical ly high through the actors’ genuine portrayals of the joy and distress of adolescent life, when each new struggle appears to foreshadow an other Armageddon. Mundane sto rylines contrast with outlandish stakes, creating an enjoyable and humuorous irony reminiscent of the best sitcoms.

That is not to say that the show or the characters shy away from political topics: the finale includes Grandpa Joe (Ian McElhinney) providing a layman’s explana tion of the Good Friday Agree ment, which declared a ceasefire between Ireland and the United Kingdom. We see the characters for the last time as they leave the voting booth, all having voted in

favor of the referendum, while a newscaster’s voice announces the results of the vote (over 70% in fa vor) over swelling music. Despite my complete ignorance of Irish history and the referendum prior to writing this review, the ending nearly brought me to tears. Notwithstanding its discussion of several somber topics, the sea son continues to be defined by its steadfast comedy. Whether it’s the absurdity of Orla (Louisa Har land) and Erin’s (Saoirse-Mon ica Jackson) 18th birthday par ty being combined with young childrens’ first communions, or their mother Mary’s (Tara Lynne O’Neill) treacherous decades-old secret being an illicit tattoo, jokes remain the beating heart of the show. The tension build-ups are hilarious, especially with the show’s generous use of slow-mo tion sequences, and punchlines never fail to elicit laughs. Over all, “Derry Girls” season three presents an educational, eclectic, and endlessly entertaining com bination of internal and external battles, woven with juxtaposition between humor and solemnity. Viewers looking for a few hours of funny, emotional entertainment should undoubtedly give it a try.

‘Midnights’ captures emotions of late nights, leaves out stories

3.5 out of 5

RATING:

By Tiffany Lieu

Taylor Swift’s newest album, “Midnights,” tells the story of “13 sleepless nights” through out her life, according to Swift’s social media. Released on Oct. 21, 2022 at midnight EST, the album features a distinctly modern sound. Additionally, to the surprise of fans, Swift released “Midnights (3am Edi tion)” — a version of the album with seven additional songs that did not fit with the final 13 — just three hours later. Aside from “Taylor’s Version” re-re leases of her albums “Fear less” and “Red,” “Midnights” is Swift’s tenth studio album and her first since 2020.

Swift’s command of her craft. Many songs on “Midnights” again cement her as the pow erful storyteller she revealed herself to be in her albums “Folklore” and “Evermore.” The song “Maroon” describes a story of long-lost love with vivid imagery in lines such as: “The rust that grew between telephones”. “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” heavy with nostal gia, paints a detailed picture of longing and isolation in a small town. However, other songs felt lacking lyrically in compar ison. For instance, “Midnight Rain,” still a personal favorite from the album, never seems to fully delve into the narrative it creates. Swift’s songwriting remains admirable, but does not quite reach the level of some of her best works.

BTS’ Jin’s ‘The Astronaut’ shoots for moon, misses

By Savan Bollu

Fans of superstar K-pop group BTS were devastated when South Korean record label Big Hit Mu sic announced in October that the members would take a break to complete their 18 months of re quired military service in South Korea and reconvene in 2025.

As a goodbye-for-now to fans, Jin, who Big Hit said would be the first BTS member to enlist, released a solo single on Oct. 28 called “The Astronaut,” co-writ ten with Coldplay. The song is a beautiful gesture of Jin’s love for BTS’ devoted fandom, also known as ARMY, but falls short musical ly.

At a Coldplay concert in Oc tober in Argentina, lead vocalist Chris Martin explained that Jin had called him in April to ask for a favor. “I have to leave the band in December for two years,” Martin said, summarizing Jin’s words. “I have to join the army in Korea be cause that’s the rule. I need a song that says goodbye to everybody for a little while.”

The idea of a goodbye song in spired “The Astronaut.” In a blend of Korean and English, Jin sings about how ARMY gives him pur

pose and builds to the chorus: “When I’m with you/ There’s no one else/ I get heaven to myself.”

He ends with an “I love you.”

The theme of love for his fans makes the song original and dif ferent from romance songs with similar lyrics. However, for a song that is supposed to mark a pivotal moment in BTS’ history, it does not meet expectations with its cliché and repetitive lyrics. Also, collaboration with Coldplay would have been fine in any other situation, but for an emotional goodbye song to capture the bittersweet and intimate parting between Jin and ARMY, he should have written this song on his own or with the other BTS members. Jin has already proven his songwriting prowess in songs like “Moon,” one of my personal favorite BTS songs, so his ver sion of “The Astronaut” without Coldplay would have undoubtedly been successful.

As a positive, the uplifting back ground music paired with Jin’s beautiful vocals and high notes and Coldplay’s harmonization is stunning. Unfortunately, every thing about the song’s style, from its slow melody to its character istic drum beat, screams “Cold play.” Besides the vocals and a few

lyrics, the song contains nothing unique to Jin.

On the other hand, the music video for “The Astronaut” has a lot of beautiful, hidden symbols. In the video, Jin is an alien that crash-lands on Earth, forms a special connection with a young girl, and ultimately decides to re main on the planet. One touching interpretation is that the girl Jin befriends represents ARMY, and when he teaches her how to ride a bike without his help, Jin is saying that the fandom is strong enough to perse vere past the members’ up coming absences. When Jin chooses to stay with the girl, he reassures ARMY that he and BTS will reunite with them in the future.

In this way, the song was em powering and a much-needed parting gift. Fans reacted with tear-filled support at the Coldplay concert, where Jin debuted his live performance of “The Astro naut.” He was met with a stadium of fans wearing purple, BTS’ sig nature color, and waving support ive signs like “ARMY will wait for you.”

Ultimately, the most compelling part of “The Astronaut” is not the song itself, but the artist and in tent behind it.

The album is an unexpect ed break from the indie folk sound of her previous sister albums “Folklore” and “Ever more.” The contrast between the records provides a reflec tion of the past few years: many people stuck at home during the pandemic searched for es capism in cottagecore during the peak of the pandemic, but are now being drawn back into fast-paced modern life. Throughout the album, Swift and producer Jack Antonoff experiment with synth tones, reverb, and effects that warp her voice into a lower pitch, con tributing to the contem porary sound. The result of these differences is mixed, with some songs that utilize these elements in intriguing ways, and others that feel more empty.

“Midnights” is also highly reminiscent of Swift’s pre-pan demic music, with upbeat choruses and rhythms. Songs like “Karma” channel the themes of revenge found on “Reputation,” while the song “Lavender Haze” calls back to the swooping melodies in the song “Lover.” Songs off of the extended “Midnights (3am Edition)” even have similari ties to Swift’s earliest releases; instrumentals on “The Great War” seem influenced by the country music of Swift’s self-ti tled debut. Different eras con verge on the album, displaying

Although much of the album does fall into Swift’s tradition al pop mold, the tracks still span a large range of themes and emotions. Incorporating different styles, she provides her take on the warmth of re lationships, past regrets, and self-loathing — feelings that certainly encapsulate many of our midnight thoughts. How ever, without context, the con nection back to Swift’s theme of 13 nights throughout her life is not entirely clear. With the introduction of the album concept prior to the album release, I was given the impres sion that each song would give clear insight into the story of each of those moments. In stead, many of the songs felt focused on a general feeling and lacked the crucial intima cy and vulnerability that char acterize late nights.

Beyond storytelling, Swift has the impeccable ability to create music that grows on the listener. At first listen, “Mid nights” may feel like an under whelming set of pop songs with generic lyrics. And while not all of the tracks on this album are showstopping, they can all still be fun to listen to. Like many of Swift’s greatest hits, the songs of “Midnights” may one day become favorites to belt out at karaoke, or the soundtracks to our late nights.

Jin and Chris Martin perform “The Astronaut” at the Coldplay concert in Argentina, surrounded by cheering fans.

COURTESY OF BIG HIT MUSIC

Taylor Swift lays on a couch in her “Midnights” album promotion photo.

COURTESY OF BETH GARRABRANT

‘Amsterdam’: Big budget, little substance

RATING: 3 out of 5

By Zaynah Turabi

“Amsterdam,” released on Oct. 7, 2022, and directed by David O. Russell follows doc tor Bert Berendsen (Chris tian Bale), nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), and lawyer Harold Woodsman (John Da vid Washington) in a come dic murder mystery set in the 1930s. The film follows the trio’s past, from when they met fighting in World War I and their subsequent bonding in Amsterdam to their present lives in New York City. The ma jority of the film revolves around their attempt to uncover the convoluted mystery behind the murder they witness and are later sus pected for. The plot is based on the 1933 Business Plot, which was a supposed political con spiracy to overthrow President Roosevelt.

the high budget and addition al $70 million spent on glob al marketing, “Amsterdam” made a mere $6 million when it opened domestically, and is predicted to have upwards of a hundred-million dollar loss in profits, according to The Hol lywood Reporter.

The largest drawback of the movie was the writing, in terms of both story and script.

ing. The inconsistent voice over narration felt unneces sary and ended the film with a cheesy moral that came off as superficial and misplaced. But in the end, the visuals didn’t disappoint, and it was clear that more effort was put into the visual production than any other aspect of the film, even if the style wasn’t novel.

MOVIE REVIEW

The premise of this film was interesting enough, and with the $80 million budget and star-studded cast, t seemed to be a solid Oscar contender. However, with the poor criti cal reception and controversy surrounding Russell’s sexual assault allegations, the film failed to draw an audience and became a box office flop on its opening weekend. Despite

The plot is slow, unoriginal, and peppered with predictable twists. The attempt to com bine an elaborate murder mystery with a wacky, comedic tone was exe cuted poorly and ended up hurting the overall plot, leaving it feeling too muddled and inconstant. The dialogue was sim ilarly drawn out, with every conversation feeling too bor ing or confusing. Though fun ny at certain moments, the dry humor often led to characters sounding almost nonsensical when bantering. Additionally, the two-hour run time was too long for the story, which could allow the audience to easily become uninterested after the first hour.

The production was visually impressive, with realistic sets and well-executed costuming. The cinematography was ad equate, save for the recurring extreme closeup shots that proved to be slightly distract

Though the script lacked intrigue, the cast was able to salvage the film with acting. Considering how little they had to work with, the actors performed the characters well enough to keep the audience engaged. It was easy to root for the more eccentric characters like Berendsen and Voze be cause they were played with enough charisma to mask the fact that their dialogue was ter ribly uninteresting. Ultimate ly, the entirety of the experi ence boiled down to watching conventionally attractive actors in vintage costumes do absolutely nothing, which begs the question of whether the film was made to provoke audiences or to offer mindless entertainment.

The failure of the movie lies clearly in its budgeting, see ing as the filmmakers decided that an all-star cast was more important than skilled writ ers were. While “Amsterdam” is not a bad movie, it will defi nitely be forgotten quickly.

‘Blonde’ disappoints, fails to showcase Monroe’s true legacy

RATING: 1 out of 5

By Sanvi Parvatikar

“Blonde,” a biopic on Mari lyn Monroe or ‘Norma Jeane Baker’ directed by Andrew Dominik and based on the book “Blonde” by Joyce Car ol Oates, came out on Sept. 16, 2022, with a budget of $22 million. In the film, we see a grossly miscon strued Monroe (Ana de Armas) go through several tragedies, from her child hood abuse to her marital abuse. Dominik creates the image of a helpless victim, and for those 2 hours and 46 minutes, the audience can only helplessly watch as Monroe is constantly exploited.

rape.

‘The School for Good and Evil’ more good than evil

By David Rendon

“The School for Good and Evil,” released on Netflix Oct. 19, follows Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (So fia Wylie) as they are intro duced to a world where the fairy tales from their childhood turn out to be real. Based on the popular book series by the same name, the film introduc es a world where heroes and villains must go to the School for Good and Evil before their stories are told.

“The School for Good and Evil” is silly and it knows it; it’s a movie meant for a good time. While the story is noth ing groundbreaking as another young adult story where out casts find themselves shoved into a magical world and have to find a way to fit in, it still manages to charm its audi ence. The film relishes in all its campy glory, with fight scenes straight out of a Disney Chan nel original movie. The story pulls out all the stops by engag ing in every trope in the genre, from an unwilling protagonist to true love’s kiss.

The cast of the film is sur prisingly star-studded, tout ing names like Michelle Yeoh, Laurence Fishburne, Charlize Theron, and Kerry Washing ton in relatively minor roles.

However, Wylie, as Agatha, un doubtedly steals the show by carrying a majority of the sto ry’s emotional beats and playing a loveable protag onist who has to accept her place in a world she never wanted to be a part of.

absolutely stunning back grounds, like the schools gran diose grand hall and its grim classrooms.

MOVIE REVIEW

Where the film really shines is in its visuals. While the directing style is nothing noteworthy, being in distinguishable from any oth er Netflix movie, the costum ing and scenery are beyond impressive. Each character has multiple costumes, and all of them are well-designed and stunning to look at. “The School for Good and Evil” ful ly embraces the genre whole heartedly and make sure to show off its fairy tale trappings, from extravagant ballgowns to grimy, villainous looks. The film is primarily set in a castle, but its indoor setting doesn’t stop it from being a visual spectacle, as each scene boasts

The biggest weakness “The School for Good and Evil” has is its story and the message it is trying to tell. The film tries to convey that people can’t be categorized as good or evil because they are more complicated than that, but it spends shock ingly little time actually critiquing the systems that keep this harmful mindset in place, like the school. The film tends to have so much going on at any given moment that it often muddles its own message, never giving viewers a moment to think about the intended message. On top of its 147-minute run time, the film often feels like it wanted to be too many differ ent things — a social commen tary, a fairy tale, a coming-ofage story, and a satire — all at once and ultimately ended up putting too much on its plate.

But, if you’re looking for a film to kill some time and to give a good laugh with friends, “The School for Good and Evil” is the perfect watch.

The movie is nothing short of continuous trauma, and the image of Marilyn Mon roe as a defenseless damsel. The audience is given an ugly view of a rape scene featuring John F. Kennedy, and secret service agents drugging her. Monroe was closely linked to the Kennedy family, especial ly the president, but the affair was mostly speculation, with James Spada, her masseuse, even claiming that he was told “it happened once, that week end, and that was that.” In ad dition to a horrific rape scene, Dominik goes on to portray an anti-abortion stance through the plotline in which Monroe gets three nonconsensual abor tions, something which pro-lif ers have always been claiming as a reason to ban abortion. It was very disturbing to watch. The film even goes as far as to show a creepy CGI in which a fetus starts asking Monroe why she killed it, with a child’s voiceover to match. This can only be described as distaste ful in light of the overturning of Roe v Wade, and disrespects the miscarriages the actual ac tress had to face.

There are many false events that primarily portray Mon roe in a negative light, starting with the opening sequence of the film in which she gets raped by a studio executive, whisper ing a mantra herself to dissoci ate. I was only left shocked and disturbed at how easily they tarnished her image. Not only was it disrespectful to imply that Monroe could only rise to fame through these means, it was highly ironic since Mon roe herself had co-written an article called “Wolves I Have Known,” in which she men tioned an event involving a casting couch and a director that had harassed her. How ever, there was no mention of

Throughout the movie, there is a constant theme in which Dominik tries to expose the dark side of Hollywood while overshadowing Monroe’s ac tual accomplishments. It’s incredibly sad how we were robbed of the witty woman who owned 400 books, and of the independent business woman who created the Marilyn Monroe corpo rations. There is no men tion of any female friends, such as Ella Fitzgerald, or Amy Greene, as the film mostly centers on her re lationships with her lovers. In stead of an ambitious woman, we see a “little girl” dressed in the wardrobe of a Hollywood superstar. Marilyn Monroe is much more than the constant ly repeated image of the pas sive victim.

In spite of de Armas’ acting, the film reinforces the sexist idea of men claiming owner ship of Monroe. Whether it is her leering fans from the famous “Dress Scene” or her husband, Joe Dimaggio (Bobby Canavale) trying to control her acting career, Monroe has no autonomy. The film critiques and succeeds in the reduction of her to a sex symbol. In a way, the director simply reinforces the status quo and continues to perpetuate it under the guise of exposing the dark sides of vintage Hollywood.

“Blonde” seems to suggest that the only time Monroe was happy was in fictitious rela tionships with Charlie Chaplin Jr. and Edward G. Robinson, nicknamed Cass and Eddy. While Monroe had dated both men, both affairs were sepa rate, and unlike the film she never announced any pregnan cies during that time. These in accuracies, especially regard ing important aspects of her life, are what continue to make the movie feel so alien.

Overall, “Blonde” is a pre tentious, unnecessarily sexual, and disrespectful fanfiction of Marilyn Monroe’s life. There are many false events that primarily portray Monroe in a negative light and the film does not fully grasp her inner thoughts and perspective on life. It is a caricature of her life, straight out of a male fantasy with the only positive being beautiful cinematography. The main character cannot accu rately be described as either Marilyn Monroe nor Norma Jeane Baker. Monroe once said, “Please don’t make me a joke,” and this movie has gone above and beyond to portray her as just that.

Agatha (Sophia Wylie) and Sofie (Sophie Anne Caruso) leave the magical world to go back home at the end.

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

“Blonde” paints Marilyn Monroe as a defenseless damsel in distress. COURTESY OF NETFLIX

MOVIE REVIEW

Boys’ cheerleading breaks barriers, stigma

By Sanvi Durbha

While girls took the football field by storm during powerpuff football, boys from all four grade levels cheered them on for the season, which spanned Septem ber and October.

In previous years, powerpuff consisted of only the players and audience, but this year boys cheerleading was incorporated into the biweekly games as well.

“It was an idea that was brought up last year, but it wasn’t that suc cessful because of lack of inter est,” co-lead of the team, junior Katie Leng said.

A cheerleading team for each grade level was originally planned, but a lack of participation led to one combined team of around 15 people, according to Leng.

“I feel like people think that it’s

not masculine to cheer, and a lot of people didn’t join because of that reason,” senior Sahil Raj said.

Despite these preconceived no tions, members of the team and the cheerleaders who led them worked hard to make sure every one involved took cheerleading seriously and didn’t play into ste reotypes about the sport, Leng said.

“I feel like a lot of other schools, when they do this event, the moves they do are supposed to be funny and girly, and I really tried to avoid that and make it what cheerleading actually is so we ac tually did stunts,” Leng said.

For the students who partici pated in cheerleading, not only was it an opportunity to cheer on their fellow classmates on the field, but it was also a learning ex perience that allowed them to see

cheerleading in a new light, junior Davin Jeng said.

“I know a lot of people, they were like, ‘It’s not that hard; it’s not that impressive,’” Jeng said. “But actu ally doing it, it’s really tiring and sometimes nerve wracking, hav ing people watch you do dances and cheers,” he said. “You have to make sure you’re on beat, but overall it was really fun and a good experience.”

With the success of boys cheer leading this year, Leng wants to see it continue in the future, but improve upon it by having more participation and hopefully re ducing the stigma around cheer leading, she said.

“At the end of the day, you’re just cheering for your classmates and girls playing football which is already a step in the right direc tion,” Raj said.

King wins Honor Coach award

By Kevin Ting

Varsity football coach Kelly King won the Central Coast Sec tion (CCS) Honor Coach of the Year award after coaching the team for over three decades, mak ing it his second time winning the award, according to information provided by Athletics Director Joanna Butcher. According to the California Interscholastic Federa tion, King was recognized with the award for his involvement in com munity programs and his leader ship under pandemic guidelines.

Although King appreciates win ning the award, it is far from his current focus, he said.

“Someday, I guess I’ll just sit down and look at all the things I’ve done, but it’s not today, and I’m more worried about what we’re going to do today,” King said.

After playing football in high school and college, King decided to return to coaching after one of his former coaches asked him to, King said.

King admits that his coaching program isn’t easy, but to him, hard work is the most crucial as pect of the team, and even in life in general, King said.

While King can be strict at times, he only does so to empower the team, varsity player Malachi Jackson said.

“It’s like anything in life — you

want to get something in life, you’re going to have to put in for it,” King said.

“I believe he’s a great person and a great coach. He treats us with respect,” Jackson said. “If there comes a time when he is yelling at us, it is because he truly sees potential in us, and hates that we aren’t using it.”

Varsity player Demien J. Young improved as a player under King’s guidance, he said.

“He has a lot of passion for foot ball; he takes it seriously,” Young said. “He always makes sure you know what you are doing and that you are doing it right.”

King brought two state champi onships to MHS just a few years ago, but a lot of the success is due to his players, King said.

“I didn’t throw a touchdown pass the whole year,” King said. “So it was a great effort by those young men that were there.”

While King does take pride in the successes of his players, he takes more pride in how their character develops and how they give back to the community, he said.

“Well, I’m pleased when my kids have some sort of impact or a little bit of impact on their communi ty,” King said. “A lot of our guys go into police work, we’ve had fire fighters, and even the mayor of Milpitas played for me,” King said.

Football fumbles at Homecoming game

By Erick Johnson

The boys’ varsity football team lost to Mountain View High School by a score of 43-23 at the Homecoming game on Oct. 14.

The Mountain View Spartans started off by scoring a touchdown on the first drive of the game. The score gap grew slowly but surely as the night went on, with Moun tain View sustaining their lead.

“Our weakness is our pass ing,” Offensive Lineman Fab rizio Rangel said. “Sometimes the ball is out of range, and I am supposed to jump out and grab it. Speed is also another factor.”

The MHS team is still looking to improve. After a loss, Rangel add

ed that the team thinks about next week’s game because the future is more important than the past.

“Improve on containing the outside because they’re re ally fast on that – that’s real ly where they got most of the points and yardage,” said Rangel. “Our strengths are our catch ing and our defense,” he added.

Wide Receiver Tyberius Egore rua returned a kickoff for a touchdown early in the game. He was injured in the game but re turned later and scored a touch down on an 83-yard punt return.

Quarterback Zae Mims was injured in the fourth quar ter, causing the game to halt as medical staff attended to him.

He was taken off the field on a cart and the game resumed.

“(Zae) is back on the team,” Rangel said. “He played a couple of plays last game, but he didn’t start the whole game. I’m pretty sure he’s going to play more and more throughout the season.”

The varsity team had 2 wins and 8 losses this season, and they are the only team in the De Anza league not to quali fy for any playoff division, ac cording to MaxPreps statistics.

“Giving it your all,” Rangel said about what his coach has taught him this season. “Don’t be scared to do anything. We don’t have that much time left in high school so just give it your all.”

Courtesy of Trojan Athletics

Courtesy of Katie Leng

MHS Football takes final place in De Anza Football League Standings with two wins.

Senior wide reciever Isaiah Deluna (center) tries to catch the football at the Homecoming match against Mountain View.

Coach King wins second CCS Honor Coach award in his 37 years of coaching. Boys’ cheerleading gets ready to cheer for the first powerpuff football match of the season, juniors v. seniors, on Sep. 20

Erick Johnson | THE UNION

Niche athletes gallop to finish line, shred new paths, smash expectations

By Stephen Huang

High school sports are the cat alyst for many professional ath letes’ careers. Athletes can accel erate their potential to the next level by joining the varsity and junior varsity programs provided by schools, but as all-encompass ing as our Trojans athletics roster is, there are certain sports that are unable to take part in this oppor tunity. According to the Medium, these sports are categorized as “niche,” meaning they are re stricted to specific demographic interests and accessibility to geo graphic locations, and do not cap tivate the general audience. Three niche sport athletes share how they were able to professionally develop their unique games out side of MHS’ athletic programs.

Snow can be an instant red flag for those who struggle with cold temperatures, but junior Stac ey Chi embraces it. Chi started skiing in the second grade when her uncle brought her along with her cousins for lessons, but after growing bored of its basic “pizza” and “french fry” techniques, she switched to snowboarding lessons and instantly became allured to its complexity, she said.

“My mom was like, ‘Oh, maybe you should try something more challenging.’ And so I went to snowboarding lessons instead,” Chi said. “There was a lot of falling and bruises at first, but I was even tually able to balance my board.”

Now, Chi effortlessly shreds the slopes at Palisades Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe every winter and can do a variety of snowboard tricks in the halfpipe and off rails and ramps, such as nollies and 360s, she explained. These tricks not only give her thrills, but they also provide solitude and tranquility in times of discomfort, she added.

“Last time I went snowboard ing, it was during my finals week, which was pretty stressful, but looking back on it now, it gave me a lot of motivation to work in school before going up to the hills,” Chi said. “I really do en joy snowboarding. I feel like it’s a way for me to set everything aside and just focus on the moment … it

makes me really happy.”

In a much milder climate, Senior Olivia Chu practices horse back riding with her hazelnut-brown Westphalian horse named Grif fin at Five Star Equestrian, she said. She competes in a particular branch of horseback riding called “show hunter,” she added.

Originating from the European tradition of horseback hunting, show hunter consists of the horse and its rider navigating through a specific course with hurdles to jump over, Chu said. The judges then evaluate the speed and accu racy of each jump, the appearance of the horse and the rider, and the overall elegance of the per formance, she said. To meet the criteria, it is important for her to regularly train with Griffin, she explained.

“Relationships with horses are certainly different from those of domestic pets,” Chu said. “Cats and dogs are more like your friends. But horses, since you’re riding them and you’re showing

them off, it’s more like you are working together in a partner ship.”

Griffin’s show name — the label used by official show horses — is Parasido, Chu said. He was passed down to her from her brother, who leased the horse before her, she added. Chu’s brother, Nicho las, is also a horseback rider, and although she is glad to be follow ing in his footsteps, she stresses about the cost of competing in shows and maintaining Griffin, she said.

“(Horseriding) is very hard to sustain,” Chu explained. “There’s your lease fee, … your housing fee, … your farrier’s fee to clean hooves. … There’s also show fees. I feel like it’s kind of pay to win be cause the more money you have, the better horse you can get.”

Squash may just seem like an ingredient in Griffin’s diet, but to junior Riya Navani, it is the sport that molded her to the tenacious person she is today. According to the Squash Revolution website,

“Squash is a racket and ball sport played by two or four players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow, rubber ball.”

Navani is one of the 10 squash professionals who play for Team USA. She represents the United States by traveling to tourna ments around the world, includ ing Birmingham (UK), Paris, and Amsterdam, she said. She is cur rently ranked number one in the Team USA junior girls U17 brack et, she added.

“My favorite memory of squash came from the 2022 Dutch Open final,” Navani said. “I had to stay an extra day to play in the tourna ment. I was there all alone, which was really tough because having my team behind my back is a lot easier. But after I won, all the emotions and feelings I held onto in that high pressure environ ment just released. It was the first time I cried after winning a match … I saw videos of my team watch ing the match on stream at the airport and seeing them cheer for

me was probably the most special moment I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

Navani said she started squash at the age of seven after being in spired by her brother, who played professionally in college. Now, she is in the recruitment process to compete at the intercollegiate level but is unable to disclose the school, she said. Although she does not plan to devote her entire life to the sport, she will forever hold a strong affection for it, she added.

“Playing a sport has definite ly changed my life,” Navani said. “That’s one thing I don’t empha size enough. I wouldn’t be half the person I am today without finding such a deep passion for squash.”

“On one hand, I am grateful for my athletic abilities, but on the other, squash has taught me so much off (the) court,” Navani add ed. “Going on this other journey where you have a separate life of constant travel and school makes me more appreciative of both.”

Girls’ varsity volleyball serves up spectacular performance, sets new records

By Satvika Iyer

Varsity volleyball went 8-5 this season, a feat that has not occurred since 2006. On the team’s senior night, the girls beat Homestead 3-2, putting

them in a position to qualify for the 2022 CIF Central Coast Selection (CCS). The Lady Tro jans charged to CCS and ended their record breaking season falling to Wilcox in the quarter finals 1-3 and third of the seven

teams in the El Camino League according to MaxPreps.com.

The secret to the outstanding season was the combination of clear goals and team bonding, varsity volleyball coach Ma rissa Canez said. “They were

collectively like a team, like sisters, like a family,” coach Canez said. “I think that had a lot to do with their success.”

Since it is her second year coaching varsity, Canez trust ed her decisions more because experience taking a club team to nationals over the summer taught her to emphasize the team’s drive and communication this volleyball season, she said. From as early as tryouts, Canez prioritized looking for players whose attitudes would mesh well together, because, beyond skill level, work ethic is what determines a team, she added.

“Compared to my other seasons here, I feel like we had more fun off the court and that translat ed on the court,” team captain Jade Crum said. After taking on the role of team captain for the first time, Crum’s responsi bility was easier than she imag ined because the team always kept the season lighthearted, and that contributed greatly to their performance, Crum said.

During tournaments, team parents would organize potlucks and stand on the court before the game for high fives, a new tra dition that Canez said was one of her season highlights. Even after the season, Canez’s room remains the team’s unofficial meeting place, a testament to the lasting connection, she added.

The team dynamic notably strengthened with the addition

of two powerhouse freshmen, Sara Svihovec and Julia Grig orescu, Canez said. The two served as a strength and learn ing point for the team, she added.

“The effect they have on the team is incredible,” Canez said. “They brought out everyone’s sense of fun and their inner kid, even mine,” she said. Getting the girls up to speed on the pro gram was daunting, but it only took one team talk to bring the athletes up to speed, Canez said.

Grigorescu led the team with 127 kills and 142 digs, and Svi hovec followed with 97 kills and led the team with 26 aces, according to MaxPreps.com.

“I didn’t expect to make so many new friends,” Grigo rescu said. “I’ve bonded with my club teammates, but this team was different,” she added.

This season, Svihovec learned to stay focused and concentrate because her teammates ingrained it in her, she said. Both Grigores cu and Svihovec are awaiting the next season and have goals to beat Wilcox, the current league champions, as well as keep up the same team energy, Svihovec said.

“A lot of history was made this season,” Canez said. For next year, Canez is looking forward to progressing past third in the league and moving past the second round of CCS, she said.

“Those are some lofty goals, but I know this team can do it!” Canez said.

Courtesy of Olivia Chu (left), Stacey Chi (center) , and Riya Navani (right)

Chu (left) rides her Westphalian horse, Griffin, at Five Star Equestrian; Chi (center) chills while snowboarding; Navani (right) volleys squash ball.

Varsity volleyball huddles up to strategize with Coach Canez and Jeff Lamb during their first CCS match against Cupertino.

Courtesy of Marissa Canez

Homecoming reaches olympic heights in ticket sales

last year while offering more ac tivities at the dance.”

Aside from the activities and pricing, COVID-19 precautions caused uncertainty and restric tions in planning last year’s event, giving less room for cre ativity, Lieu said. The 2021-2022 school year was the return to in-person learning from the pan demic, making safety measures more strict, she added.

“It was the first year coming back from COVID. We had to have the dance outside, which we’d never done before, but now we kind of have that basis. We know what is allowed on tennis

courts, how the DJ and the dance floor are going to work,” Lieu said. “(This year) was more smooth. ... We were able to go inside the gym this year, which I believe we weren’t allowed to do last year.”

Attending high school events was a first-time experience for many students last school year as they returned from online learn ing, according to Kathy Nguyen, ASB junior class commissioner.

“Last year, no one really knew what was going on, especially freshmen and sophomores. The sophomores, it was kind of their freshman year too,” Nguyen said.

“I think this year, everyone has a better idea of what’s going on and what to look forward to, so

they’re more excited about it.”

However, there were still some downsides such as longer wait times in lines, especially since this was only the second year coming back from sheltering in place, ASB junior class president Davin Jeng said.

“There were so many peo ple with few workers that could check everyone in, which made it so slow. We don’t want to waste people’s time waiting in line, so, hopefully, for next year’s Home coming, or future events in gen eral, we can find ways to speed up check-ins,” Jeng said.

There is always room for im provement when planning annu al events, Lieu said.

Disciplinary changes bring back detentions, tardies decrease

By David Rendon

After the 2021-2022 school year, in which there were only five detentions, MHS has issued 279 detentions as of Nov. 3, As sistant Principal Jonathan Mach said. Part of the reason there were so few detentions last year was due to concerns of spreading COVID-19, he added.

COVID-19 disrupted the pro cedures put into place, leading to restarting and the decision to take detentions away last school year, Associate Principal Skyler Draeger said. Students were tak ing advantage of a perceived lack of consequences, thus detentions were brought back to establish boundaries, he added.

“There is a certain group of stu dents that will push a boundary until they come up with a conse quence,” Draeger explained. “And so we found that when we real ized, ‘Oh, these detentions aren’t serving a great purpose right?’ We pulled them away completely last year.”

By Nov. 3 last year , there were 12,973 tardies, while this year has had 10,755, Mach said. While it cannot be determined if this decrease in tardies is due to de tention, he is hoping that it is lessening it as people do not like detentions, he said.

“What that (lack of detention) did is a whole group of students that really hadn’t had that many tardies in the past, were like, ‘Oh, there’s no rules,’” Draeger said. “So they all of a sudden amp their tardies up, and we realize ‘Oh, okay, so we need a little … bound ary to stop that group.’”

The 2022-2023 Handbook lists detentions as a level two conse quence, seeking to address be haviors such as persistent tardies, harassment, and engagement in

obscene acts. Administrators know that consequences do not always stop behaviors, but some level of consequence is needed, Draeger said.

“It’s less about punishment … and more about righting a wrong,” Draeger said. “What we’re aim ing for here is consistent policy so that we do set boundaries. We want to make sure students know where they are. There are conse quences to those boundaries. … But we don’t want those conse quences to become meaningless.”

Assistant Principal Jennifer Hutchison noted that there are two types of detentions held: teacher detentions and deten tions. Teacher detention, a level one consequence, is no longer than 15 minutes and does not require parents to be notified, Hutchinson said.

English teacher Ryan Payne, who has been holding detention during October, said he typical ly has around 25 students in the room. “Students are supposed to be doing schoolwork … They get in at 3:45. You keep them in here for an hour, and then they go home.”

Payne did not receive many di rections from the school on how to run detention, he said. He no ticed that the detentions at MHS are more crowded than the de tentions at other schools. The schools he had taught at usually had five or six students, though this could be due to MHS’s size, he said.

“Things feel more under con trol; things feel a little calmer, a little happier,” Draeger said. “That doesn’t mean that ev erything is perfect. We are in a high school campus, and those things take time and we’re a large school. … I feel like overall the at mosphere ... has been an improve ment this year.”

COVID-19 cases oscillate, precautions recommended

By Tiffany Lieu

sending these messages out to families, Hutchison said.

“There were complaints from families saying that they were being inundated from all the dif ferent school sites, and at this point, they just assume that their students are exposed,” Hutchison said. “We were doing it based on recommendations, not require ments, from the county.”

However, close-contact testing is still “strongly recommended,” with Covid Clinic testing sta tions on campus which are open weekdays to students, staff, and community members, Hutchison said. While testing has been com pulsory for individuals such as student-athletes in the past, it is no longer a standard procedure, she added.

“The best prevention is regular testing, and test kits are much more readily available than they were last year,” Hutchison said.

“We ask for you to test as often as necessary, so we don’t have a need to necessarily be testing individ uals once a week to prove whether they’re carrying it or not.”

It has become easier to man age the obstacles that come with COVID-19 after having a year to adjust back to in-person learn ing, Director of Bands Moises Fa gundes said. He believes that the school has been effectively dis tributing COVID-19 test kits this school year, Fagundes added.

“They have been doing a lot more take-home tests,” Fagundes said. “Obviously, we’ll probably be seeing more spikes when we do those COVID tests, but it is a good way to track positive cases and

keep everyone safe.”

Junior Allyza Semana, who contracted the coronavirus during this school year, said that it was more difficult to keep up with schoolwork while in self-iso lation. She was required to report her initial positive COVID-19 test to the school, and was required to test for COVID-19 again be fore returning to school, she said. However, she decided to stay at home for an extra two days to en sure that she had recovered fully, she explained. She added that she believes more people should wear masks to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“I really do hope, as we are coming up to these holidays, that people do keep in mind we are still dealing with COVID to make good decisions and be safe,” Hutchison said.

Iyer stands against starvation, demands diverse food options

FROM PAGE 1

program manager Chloe Water man reached out to her, Iyer said. She was interviewed President Biden’s White House Office and Agricultural Committee, and she answered questions about her work fighting local food insecuri ty and promoting vegan lunches in the school district, she added. Iyer was ultimately offered the spot, and her trip to Washington D.C. was sponsored by Feeding America, she said.

Getting to interview “felt like an accomplishment already — that I was being considered. I had an opportunity to showcase the work I’ve been doing, and it didn’t feel like this was the end goal. It sort of felt like it was the next

step,” Iyer said.

Iyer’s work began two years prior, when she was concerned with the school’s management of lunches due to the limited veg etarian and vegan options for students with dietary restric tions, she said. She worked with MHS alumni Sarahjeet Dosanjh, Friends of the Earth, the non profit Factory Farming Aware ness Coalition, and the MHS En vironmental Society to add vegan items to the lunch menu, she said.

When speaking about work ing to comply with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards when bring ing vegan options to MHS, “It felt like we were working against the (USDA) because they had so many guidelines in place for how

something should be presented,” Iyer said

Because of this work, Iyer was able to apply for the Friends of the Earth Youth Steering Committee to lobby a bill called the Healthy Future Students on Earth Act by speaking with congressmen and representatives, she said. This act has been introduced to the House of Representatives and is yet to progress, she said. It would begin the Healthy Meals for Healthy Kids pilot program, which al lows for $370 million in funding for school cafeterias and lunch menus, she said.

“We have the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that’s enough for no one in America to go hungry,” Iyer said. “Our entire way of life needs reform.”

Teacher salaries increase

FROM PAGE 1

everyone’s lives, Yang said.

“I almost wish that our union wouldn’t have to fight that hard, (that) these individual teachers wouldn’t have to come together ... to put in that much effort for the profession to be respected,” Yang stated.

Math teacher, Mimi Nguyen, said that she and her colleagues were appreciative of the increase, noting its rarity.

“I was pretty excited. I tried to calculate how much that would mean for me, like how much I

would be making a year … I think this was the first time we’ve heard 9%, so that’s why we were really thrilled about it,” Nguyen said.

The Bay Area is still a region of high prices, which continues to affect Nguyen’s personal life, she said.

“Everything has gotten so ex pensive recently. … It would be so hard to afford an apartment on my own in the Bay. For me, I’m always more fortunate than someone else, you know? Who wouldn’t want more, right? But also at the same time, I’m happy with what I have,” Nguyen said.

Eye on Campus: Rainfall floods parking lot

Sanvi Durbha | THE UNION