The Lion's Roar 32-6

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Volume 32, Issue 6 140 Brandeis Road Newton Centre, MA 02459

Newton South High School’s Student Newspaper · Newton, MA · Established 1984 · February 26, 2016

Muslims Welcome

(says South)

By Sophie Lu and Kimia Tabatabaei

“I

knew you would have a problem,” the store clerk told North history teacher Subheen Razzaqui.

She froze, wondering whether her hijab, which she had worn since 22, provoked the comment.

A bystander looked away, embarrassed for the young woman who the clerk had assumed was just an incompetent foreigner.

The decision to wear a hijab, Razzaqui said, was a complicated one.

“For a long time, I struggled with the hijab … because it was a really public symbol,” Razzaqui said.

“People could see it and react to it, in either a positive or negative way.”

While the reactions can sometimes be offensive, those are few and far between, Razzaqui said, making her comfortable publicly identifying as a Muslim.

While misconceptions about Islam have spread globally as ISIS gains both ground and attention, Muslim students at South said they generally do not feel pressured to hide their religious identity, trusting teachers to educate their peers about what Islam means to most Muslims.

ISLAM,

Muslim students, faculty find acceptance here despite political climate charged with bigotry

4 photo illustration by Shelley Friedland

Coaches, players adjust to life under new AD Sophia Fisher & Noah Shelton

Managing Editor, Sr. Sports Editor While many students may know athletics director Patricia Gonzalez for the free cookies she hands out every Friday, she has spent her first year at South intent on bringing wider change to the athletics department, a move that has not come without controversy.

Gonzalez, who worked as the athletics director (AD) at the Austin Preparatory School in Reading for three years before coming to South in 2014, has changed the face of the athletics department, stressing constant communication and a hands-on leadership style.

While most coaches and captains said they embrace or do

not mind the changes, several expressed dissatisfaction with Gonzalez’s attempts to standardize policy and enforce regulations — both the school’s and those from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA).

Leadership An increased presence Most people interviewed agreed that Gonzalez is an active leader. She frequently meets with coaches and captains and often drops in on both practices and games.

For many, this shows her commitment. Most captains were pleased to see her at games and practices so frequently, noting that she makes an effort to attend faraway tournament games.

She has also helped various teams update infrastructure — advocating for the tennis courts to be renovated, for girls varsity soccer to play a home tournament game at night, for the softball field to get a scoreboard.

“She’s been handson in tennis in the best way,” girls tennis coach Bob Jampol said. “If I have a problem, I can go to her. She’ll get right on the phone and help me out.”

Gonzalez likes to attend practices as much as she can, saying she learns from her observations and can use them to evaluate coaches and help them improve during the season.

For senior Sabrina Stacks, this presence is part of what makes Gonzalez “the best thing

has made some coaches feel uncomfortable or disrespected.

“I feel like sometimes she does maybe get a little too involved

... instead of laissez-faire, let [the coaches] do their job,” senior Anthony DeNitto, who is captain of both football and outdoor track Patricia Gonzalez and plays varsity basketball, said. photo by Juliana Brenner “If I was a coach and someone that has ever happened to Newton kept hovering over and telling me how to do my job, I probably South.” wouldn’t be too pumped.”

“She puts so much time Some have even felt atinto the sports teams, and really tacked. cares about the school,” Stacks “She had no interest in said. “She put others before her, and that’s what really matters. The being positive. She had no interest in praising,” former softball overall community that she has coach Dave Salett said. “She was brought to South is truly awesome.”

But such a strong presence GONZALEZ, 22

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

robot takeover?

Senior wonders whether fears about artificial intelligence are unsubstantiated.

10

global style

Graduate Gemma Sole founds fashion site, reaching designers worldwide.

16

don’t puck up

With a winning record, the girls hockey team hopes to raise its profile at South.

20

NEWS 2 Fun Page 5 EDITORIALS 6 OPINIONs 8 CENTERFOLd 12 FEATUREs 15 SPORTS 20

NEWS page 2|february 26, 2016|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

news@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 6

this month in

review Housemaster to Dean Principal Joel Stembridge and North Interim Principal Mark Aronson announced that “housemasters” would now be called “deans” in a Jan. 26 letter to the community.

The change addresses negative associations with the word “master.” In the email, the principals said that the word does not describe the “supportive, welcoming relationship that our housemasters “I think ‘dean’ describes a lot better the many things that we do in terms of supporting students socially and emotionally, how they do in school, their behavior and how they interact,” Goodwin Dean Charles Myette said.

New North Principal After an extensive two-year search, Superintendent David Fleishman on Feb. 12 appointed Henry Turner as North’s next principal.

Turner, currently the principal of Bedford High School, was one of two finalists for the North job.

He formerly served as a dean at South and taught history at Lexington High School.

Jeffrey Gaglione, dean of Cambridge Rindge and Latin’s mathematics department, was the other finalist. Turner will replace Interim Principal Mark Aronson in July.

Juniors prepare for redesigned SAT Hans Wang News Reporter

This weekend will mark the final administration of the old SAT exam, which will be replaced by a newly redesigned version of the test starting March 5. The transition comes smack in the middle of junior year for members of the class of 2017, forcing students to decide which exam to prepare for.

The College Board, the organization behind the SAT, has redesigned the test “to provide a better, more complete picture of student readiness for college-level work while focusing the test more clearly on the knowledge, skills, and understandings that research shows are essential for college and career readiness and success,” according to its website.

The essay portion of the new test will be optional and there will no longer be a penalty for incorrect answers.

In addition, the essay type and time allotted have changed; the vocabulary tested will be more pertinent; and students will need to analyze historical and scientific passages in real-world contexts.

For some students, however, these changes had little impact. Junior Nicholas Komarovsky, for example, is taking both the new and old SAT. “It doesn’t really change my studying style; I still have the same strategy for both tests,” he said.

Komarovsky decided to take both tests “because it’s the last opportunity to experience the old test with tutors that are experienced in teaching that material. People like myself want to take both and see which style of test I do better on, and it’s the last time I can do this.”

For others, like junior Mitsuharu Ohta, the new PSAT in October — redesigned in the same manner — determined their decision on which exam to take.

“If I performed well on the PSAT, I would continue to take the new SAT in March,” Ohta said. “The [PSAT] was basically the determining factor for me taking the new SAT.” College and career counselor Kathleen Sabet agreed, adding that the PSAT made the new exam the more logical choice. “If a junior

photo by Kiana Lee

Students examine room assignments at the final official administration of the old SAT on Jan. 23.

was taking [the] PSAT, that was based on the new test, so it didn’t make sense to take the old SAT,” she said. “I would say the majority of students did not take the old SAT, and will likely do the new SAT or ACT.” Key to the decision for many students

“The familiarity or certainty of how colleges will treat the old SAT feels a little bit more like a safety blanket.”

- Dan Rubin, guidance director

is the ambiguity of the new SAT. While the College Board and Khan Academy offer preparation materials, it remains uncertain how colleges will treat scores from the new exam. Many juniors also rely on tutors who have experience with the previous SAT, but are scrambling to find new ways to prepare students for the next month’s test. As a result, many students are choosing to take the old exam, or avoid the SAT entirely and take the

ACT instead.

“Without really substantive changes to the [ACT], they can more adequately prepare students for a test that the providers are familiar with, rather than preparing for a test that no one is familiar with yet,” guidance director Dan Rubin said. “The familiarity or certainty of how colleges will treat the old SAT feels a little bit more like a safety blanket.”

Rubin added that he does not think any students should be dissuaded by the uncertainty of the new exam. He feels that the official preparation content — specifically, the new SAT program offered by the College Board in conjunction with Khan Academy — is sufficient.

Sabet, too, considers the program offered by Khan Academy to be the best preparation. But, she said, “the best [SAT] practice test,” she said, “is the actual taking of the real test.”

Ultimately, however, Sabet said that students should keep the SAT in perspective, given that one’s high school transcript is the more decisive factor in the college admissions process. “[The SAT] is just one tool in the application-evaluation process for colleges,” Sabet said. “I think colleges are starting to really see the need to look much more holistically.”

Lunch prices to increase next year Jake Rong

Sr. News Editor For the first time in over a decade, lunch prices will increase in the Newton Public Schools. Beginning in the 2016-17 school year, lunch prices will increase by approximately 10 percent, to $3.30, $3.60 and $3.85 at the elementary, middle and high schools, respectively, from the current prices of $3.00, $3.25 and $3.50. The prices of breakfast, snacks, beverages and reduced lunches will not change.

The increase, which was unanimously approved by the School Committee on Jan. 25, is intended to improve the quality of food

offerings and to provide financial flexibility.

Raising lunch prices, according to School Committee Chairman Matt Hills, was one of two methods to improve the foodservice program. Alternatively, the schools could have reduced the variety of offerings to save money. Having received positive feedback on the quality of lunches, however, the committee chose to pursue more offerings, which would require more revenue.

“What we’re looking to do is both improve the quality of the food, particularly fresh food, while at the same time offering it across a broader range of schools,” Hills said. “Rather than look for trade-offs in other areas, we thought it made sense, for the

first time in more than a decade, to consider modest changes in the lunch prices.”

As NPS’s foodservice vendor, Whitsons, nears the end of its three-year contract, the increase in prices also allows the vendor more financial leeway for the new school year, which the School Committee expects will make improvements in the quality of food items.

“Both in terms of efficiency and staffing, as well as offerings, ... [the price increase] will give us some flexibility to continue to have a sustainable program,” School Committee vice-chairwoman Margie Ross Decter said. “This very small increase could really do a lot over the course of the system.”

February 26, 2016|page 3

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|NEWS

Addressing Stress DANIEL ABDULAH Class of 2018

South Senate Update

"The last time we did this, we did it in four years for all three levels. Here we are doing [it] in six months. ... If something breaks, there's no safety net."

- Jack Polnar, information services manager

South adjusts to Skyward SIS Carina Ramos & Kimia Tabatabaei

Sr. News Editor, News Contributor With the introduction of Skyward, Newton’s new Student Information System (SIS), tasks that were once straightforward for teachers have become foreign, raising concerns about the switch from Powerschool SMS, the city’s former SIS. After a careful selection process, however, administrators said they are confident that Skyward’s unique features and capabilities make it the best option, even as faculty and students continue adjusting to the new program. A SIS allows schools to manage student data such as attendance, schedules, course registration and grades.

When the product manager from SMS informed NPS’ information services manager, Jack Polnar, that the system was being terminated, the IT department began the search for a new program. A committee of 30 members representing each school was formed to select SMS’ successor. The complicated selection process included over 500 requirements for a new system, according to Polnar. Members ultimately chose Skyward in an almost-unanimous vote and chose to roll out the program mid-year so as to avoid the hectic start of a new school year.

The system began to be implemented in Janurary 2016. Many faculty members, including guidance counselor Chris Hardiman, had difficulties with SMS and said they were excited about the switch. “SMS was not very integrated and had a lot of flaws to it that slowed down our efficiency,” he said. “The couple of little things that I saw [in Skyward] that might be a little tough to adjust to … were very minor compared to the headaches of SMS.” Features that attracted NPS to Skyward included language adjustment settings, and a student portal that eased communication with teachers, as well as integration with Schoology, a website and a mobile app.

History teacher Rachael McNally said that Skyward has more intuitive components than the previous system.

“There are some common sense features that make me hopeful that it’s going to be better, that someone has thought, ‘What is it that teachers need?’” she said.

Polnar and other members of the IT team have ex-

plored Skyward and its capabilities. Yet as with any new system, Polnar said, it will take time to learn. “It’s almost like you get in the cockpit of a flight ... and there are all these controls in front of you. And you just think, ‘Whoa, what do I do?’”

Despite the mid-year release of the program, McNally said she is confident that teachers will adjust well. “There will be a steep learning curve to get used to it, but it seems organized and logical, so I think that once teachers get a chance to use it, they’ll get used to it,” she said.

Teachers, however, are not the only ones who have to adjust to the new system, as students were made keenly aware when they received their strangely formatted term 2 schedules full of dotted lines and conspicuously lacking Friday C blocks.

Sophomore Elana Volfinzon said she barely recognized her own schedule.

Polnar agreed that the new schedule “looks like it was printed in 1985,” and he is working on building a new schedule outline that will look like the previous one.

Although Polnar said he is excited about the potentials of Skyward, he acknowledged that the district is currently under pressure to make this transition quickly and smoothly.

“I’m kind of in survival mode right now,” he said. “The last time we did this, we did it in four years for all three levels.

Here we are doing [it] in six months. … If something breaks, there’s no safety net.”

The challenges surrounding scheduling may persist through the spring as South transitions to online course registration. But Hardiman said he supports this system and believes it will address the drawbacks of a paper-based system. “Sometimes with paper trails, it can be challenging with registration forms being lost or misplaced,” he said.

Assistant Principal Candice Beermann said that despite difficulties during the adjustment period, the transition to Skyward will be worthwhile.

“It’s going to be challenging, I’m not going to lie.

I’ve been here a year and a half now, and I’ve just mastered SMS, and now it’s gone,” she said. “But I find the more I play around in Skyward, the easier it is. I think it’s going to go really well. I think that it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

Skyward has been in use for

Skyward serves 6 million students in 1800 school districts

35

years

Newton Public Schools is the first school district in Massachusetts to adopt Skyward

source of information: Skyward.com

T

his month, the Senate has continued to elaborate upon past ideas and legislation while addressing some new ideas, as well. Our many committees have made progress in achieving their projected goals.

In order to promote a more relaxed learning system and better homework management, the Senate collaborated on drafting a bill to enforce teachers’ compliance with homework-free weekends. We realize that teachers often assign work over these weekends or assign an unreasonable amount of work due Tuesday — and it is unacceptable for students to be deprived of a rare opportunity for a calm weekend. We hope to implement a permanent system to ensure compliance within a year.

This bill relates to another project we are working on: an official complaint form for students to report injustices, whether they pertain to teachers or school policy.

We have yet to decide if this would be an online or physical form; nor have we determined how the Senate would take part in organizing such a system. Any input would be greatly appreciated and you can state your opinion on an online survey we’ll be sending out shortly.

Additionally, the stress and mental health committee has teamed up with the AWARE club in an effort to better address mental health in our school. The team plans to replace one anti-bullying day with a mental-health awareness day.

We have also recently come up with a few individual bills. First, we drafted a bill to conserve more energy in our school.

Laptops in the computer labs are often left on overnight, draining hours of battery charge. This bill seeks to save energy and money by simply turning off those computers while not in use.

Next, we have a bill to decrease student competition and feelings of inadequacy, primarily by removing honor roll lists from public view. These lists promote student competition and indicate when one student is less successful than another.

Third is a resolution to change how elective grades affect students. For many students, the focus of electives has gone from pursuing a passion to getting a good grade. In order to ensure that electives, courses meant to be fun and interesting, don’t stress out students, this resolution would ensure that elective grades cannot harm students’ GPAs — they can only bring it up.

The Senate will hopefully make progress on these bills in the near future, as we aim to improve South one bill at a time.

As Senators, we serve to implement the ideas of the people, and the opinions of our constituents determine our focuses. Be sure to look out for online Senate surveys that solicit your opinions on controversial policies and new ideas, as well as for student complaint forms that will be revealed soon after. We encourage you to drop in on a meeting in the lecture hall Thursday J blocks or email any member of the Senate.

(Email addresses are posted in the hallway by the library and cafeteria.) We hope the Senate and student body can work in collaboration to create a fair and enjoyable school for all.

page 4|February 26, 2016

News|THELIONSROAR.com|THE LION’S ROAR

Muslim students and staff attest to acceptance in NPS ISLAM, from 1

“[ISIS] definitely has taken a toll on how people perceive Muslims, especially since there The media tends to portray Islam as a dan- aren’t a lot of Muslims portrayed positively in the gerous religion, prone to violence and diametri- media,” Aliabadi said. “What people see on TV with cally opposed to the West. According to history ISIS is most people’s only encounter with Muslims.” teacher Robert Parlin, however, “Islam is one of the Aliabadi is confident, however, that Newton least understood of all the major world religions.” residents can differentiate between a few radicals As part of the world religions curriculum and the peaceful Muslims who make up the majority. in freshman world history, students learn about “[ISIS] has definitely changed people’s perthe history and teachings of Islam in an objective, ceptions of Muslims in general, but it’s different in fact-based course.

Newton because Newton is a more educated city, and “It is critical that, especially now, with the so it’s taken less of a toll on Muslims here,” she said. rising Muslim population and rising tension in Razzaqu agreed that Newton has generally many Muslim areas, that we learn an accurate avoided the tendency to discriminate. picture of what the religion is like,” Parlin said.

“Statistically, discrimination [may have felt] Junior Nabeel Najam, a Muslim, said he worse post-San Bernardino and with the ISIS stuff,” thinks many of his classmates have benefited from Razzaqu said. “But I, personally, have been really discussions regarding Islam. These discussions, fortunate because Newton North has a very supporthe said, have clarified misconceptions about the ive environment, and I haven’t felt discriminated religion, which has 1.6 billion adherents globally. [against] there.”

“My [freshman] history teacher, Ms. Eng, Although Newton may be more accepting told us that she was and informed than many going to teach us true “Jokes ... cross the line sometimes. other places in the country, Islam — the peacesometimes students do ful regular Islam that [For example], joking about me bomb- face stigma. almost all Muslims Sophomore Nika ing the school — we do laugh about practice,” Najam said.

Faraji noted that “people it at first, but when I think about it “I think some kids have made jokes that are later, it’s as if they’re criticizing me supposed to be ‘just jokes’ understood, ‘Oh this just because of my religion.” is actually what the but they cross the line religion is.’” sometimes. [For example], - Nika Faraji, Class of 2018 History teacher joking about me bombing the Corey Davison said it is school —we do laugh about the responsibility of teachers to teach students it at first, but when I think about it later, it’s as if the core concepts of Islam so that they may better they’re criticizing me just because of my religion.” understand Muslims everywhere.

Other students shared similar experiences.

“The point of school is not only to expose Sophomore Adam Iskander said sometimes “people your students to the world, but also to understand try to make funny terrorist jokes about [my relihow people work,” Davison said. “If you’re not gion], but it doesn’t really bother me because I’ve going to understand something that is so central heard them all before, and it makes them look to billions of people, then you aren’t doing your like idiots.” job as an educator.”

But outside the scope of Newton, hostility Even so, with the rise of ISIS, senior Nighat toward Muslims is not always confined to jokes.

Ansari said she feels affected by the negative gen“Listening to Donald Trump actually scares eralizations made about her religion. me a lot. My sister was at the airport last week and “I’ve read the 30 books of the Quran and she was pulled aside and asked questions like, ‘Do they do not preach anything close to what ISIS you hold ill will against this country?’” Ansari said. does,” Ansari said.

“With all these Trump supporters coming out, it “It breaks my heart to see that some people is scary to think to what extent people hold Islam just throw labels at my religion, because I can and us responsible for acts of terrorism around speak for most Muslims when I say respect for all the world.” other religions is prime for us,” Ansari said. “We Ultimately, Ansari said, mature adults should would never say anything similar to what we hear be able to distinguish claims and facts about Islam. for Islam from other religions.”

“I can’t really defend my religion to every Senior Noosha Aliabadi said that unfortu- single person,” she said. “I expect a grown person to nately, extremist interpretations have dominated have that kind of mindset where they can separate the media in recent years, making these interpre- a religion and random acts of terrorism that claim tations seem the norm. to be in the name of that religion.”

Noosha Aliabadi

Nika Faraji

In a survey of 137 students on Feb. 2, The Roar found ...

Adam Iskander

When asked to rank how accepting of Muslims South is, students gave an average rating of

yes

said freshman history classes at least somewhat accurately portray Islam photos by Kimia Tabatabaei

no

me w

84 percent

so

so

me w

ha t

ha t

yes

Nighat Ansari

7.8 10 out of

16 percent

said events in the media have influenced their opinion of Islam no

February 26, 2016|page 5

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|FUN PAGE

South Crime Watch Editors’ Note: Individuals are presumed guilty until proven innocent.

MANSLAUGHTER Feb. 5, Brandeis Road In an effort to secure the “Pedestrian’s Worst Nightmare” superlative, a senior reportedly mowed down a South teacher on the way to school.

graphic by Sophie Galowitz

DISORDERLY CONDUCT Feb. 8, NewTV Studios The GOP debate took an unexpected turn when an apparently somnambulant Ben Carson attempted to perform live brain surgery on Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

BRIBERY (INCEST?) Feb. 22 , L-Bench South’s resident conservative reportedly promised John Kasich her vote if he would accompany her to Semi. Donald Trump is reportedly bringing his daughter to the event.

ASSAULT Feb. 11, Cafeteria An overly dramatic sophomore reported that she had been “stabbed in the back” by a friend. She actually was. Her friends, who didn’t believe her, will take their guilt to the grave.

MURDER Feb. 24, Goldrick House Professor Plum.

In the kitchen.

With a lead pipe.

IDENTITY THEFT Feb. 24, Shelley’s House A llama.

Overheard at SOUTH Yes, we heard you say that.

Linguistic fellow: “How do you say asshole in Greek?”

Guy searching for math homework: “Let me just whip it out.”

Materialistic freshman #1: “Why aren’t you wearing your new Lulus?”

Materialistic freshman #2: “I wore them on Tuesday!” (said on Thursday) English student #1: “Whose idea was it to write in iambic pentameter?”

English student #2: “Shakespeare.”

English student #1: “What a dick.”

Embarrassing Roar Staff Photo of the Month:

Lee’s Burger Place 216 Sumner St. Newton, MA 02459 Tel. 617 795 2022 Galowitz ponders the state of her severed head.

A Grading Revolution COREY DAVISON & SAM LEE sr. fun editors

bffls & bad puns Last week, I experienced something all South teachers have lived through. After the last few nights of grading, I had to pass back a quiz to my sophomore world history class. The quiz was a teacher’s dream: fair, yet challenging. It tested what my students learned while asking them to make inferences and extrapolations. Most students scored around a B, with a few in the C+ range. At least one student got a perfect score.

Then, something happened. As I handed out the quizzes, the mood in the class darkened. Faces sullened. Brows furrowed. Bowels moved. And I knew that if I told them that they would have a quiz tomorrow and a research project due next week, there would be mutiny on my hands.

And then, there was mutiny on my hands.

Tear ducts opened like the heavens did in Chapter 6 of the Book of Genesis. Desks were overturned, problem sets were lit aflame, papers shredded with clenched teeth. … In quick order, my room looked like a bigger wreck than the Republican Party.

Our current grading system has become far more destructive than we could ever have imagined.

The endless echoes of “What did you get?” flood out any sentiment of “What did you learn?” South students’ entire identities are founded on the singular point between an 89 percent and a 90 percent. Greetings often consist of nothing more than abstract references to Engrade updates. When our students’ entire existence consists of parsing the vague difference between a B+ and an A-, when the only source of joy and accomplishment that our children consider valid is a certain percentage point, when the item that would make or break a teacher’s relationship to his class is whether or not he rounds up at the end of the term, we have gone astray.

Grades serve as handy indicators to ourselves, our parents and the rest of the world of what we have learned in school, from content, to skills, to habits that are applicable to the “real” world. Since this purpose is important, we should keep the intent and trash the unwanted consequences. Something has to change.

Someone has to ignite the grading revolution. And while waiting half an eternity for Comcast to fix my Internet last night, I came up with two possible solutions: 1. The Idea: Instead of numbers, we use something that is equally basic and foundational: colors. Rather than the simple summary of “A” or “B” to condense enormous amounts of information about a given student, different skills and learning outcomes should be represented by colors. The brighter the color, the better the student has performed. Hard worker? A nice, deep forest green. Not the strongest writer? Try to get that rose red up to a rich garnet!

The Unintended Consequences: The centuries-old feud between red-orange and orange-red reignites. Colorblind kids are suddenly marginalized.

Stigma attached to certain colors births brand-new forms of racism. “What color is this dress?” is now the only question on the ACT. 2. We appropriate common cultural references with which all of America is familiar to communicate the nuances that grades attempt to articulate: the Shia (LaBeouf ) Scale. A “B+” for “this student is on track and hitting the marks appropriate to his development, but still has some development necessary in order for his work to be considered distinguished” becomes “Holes.” A “B-/C+” for “this student is in danger of dropping out of school and making poor life decisions if someone does not intervene” becomes “Transformers 3.” An “F” for “plagiarized from an older, yet much better paper” becomes “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

The Unintended Consequences: None. This will work perfectly.

EDITORIALS page 6|February 26, 2016|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

EDITORIALS@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 6

the CAT’S

MEOW All the news that’s fit to print ... and then some!

Principal to ‘pal’ In a fun loudspeaker announcement on Tuesday, Principal Stoel Jembridge informed the student body that he would be changing his title of “principal” to, simply, “pal.”

“I didn’t feel the previous term accurately reflected the positive relationship I’m trying to cultivate with students,” Jembridge said. “I just want to be their friend. I wish they would call me by my first name.”

From now on, Jembridge will try to incorporate at least four colors into every sweater vest and will hand out balloons to students in between classes. He plans to replace all staircases with slides, and teachers will be required to include at least one “wacky” activity per class.

“Indicate values beliefs intentions meanings benevolent supportive welcoming relationships community share together,” administrator Bolsh It said.

Jeb! hired as sub On Feb. 20, Jeb Bush announced that he was suspending his campaign for president.

On Feb. 23, history department head William F. Buckley released a statement saying that Bush would be joining the department as a substitute teacher.

“I hope to really expand the use of the Common Core at South!” Bush said.

Bush has had trouble making friends at his new job.

Skyward goes groundward Following the disastrous rollout of Skyward, information services manager B. A. Nanas announced Wednesday that the new student information system would be run through a lone monkey operating a typewriter.

“Given the way the last schedules looked, I thought the monkeys had been making them all along,” freshman Pry Mate said.

Administrators said the change was a necessary step. “Trade-offs, trade-offs, trade-offs,” School Committee Chair Matt Mountains said. “If all goes well, we will look toward replacing educators across the district with monkeys. They’ll probably work for less money anyways.”

The monkey was too busy adding C block back into the Friday schedule to comment.

School Committee chair found to be actual chair Mahogany.

Healthy students more important than logistics; move start time later

As South looks to reduce stress, pushing back the start time seems like a common-sense first step.

Proposals for a new start time have long been in the making, but none seems more promising than the most recent push, which has led to the creation of the High School Start Time Working Group.

A survey by the group found that 80 percent of South students get less than seven hours of sleep per night, while research recommends 8 ½ to 9 ½ hours for teens.

Chronic lack of sleep, the group writes, can be anything from counterproductive to dangerous.

Without proper sleep, students are not only less attentive in the classroom, but groggy during sports

practice or behind the wheel.

Because the current start time forces students to wake up in the dark and arrive at the crack of dawn, morning classes suffer. Many students complain of their vapid A block classes where teachers have to plead for students to be more engaged. Even a half-hour of extra sleep could help students be more prepared for and focused during class.

Some wonder whether pushing back the start time would actually allow students to get more sleep, or if it would just shift the entire day’s cycle, causing students to stay up later at night with no net gain of sleep. While it is true that not all students would sleep more, all students would benefit.

The hormone melatonin, which is secreted when it is dark, causes our bodies to feel tired. Even if students get the same amount of sleep, waking up with the sun will ultimately leave them feeling more awake.

The arguments against a later start time are largely trivial.

Most opponents cite logistics, such as problematic commutes in the morning or delayed after-school sports practices. A good night’s sleep, however, can improve athletes’ productivity during practice and may be worth a few traffic jams. Careful planning and practical implementation should do away with most of these concerns.

Ultimately, a later start time will not fix South’s stress problem.

But it’s a start.

Name change papers over problems The principals of both Newton high schools sent an email to the community on Jan. 26 announcing that the title “housemaster” would be changed to “dean.”

While the intentions behind the change are laudable, the move follows the Newton pattern of ignoring the underlying issues.

Students should not take for granted how lucky Newton is to have administrators who are committed to making students feel comfortable. At both Harvard and Princeton, the administration changed the title “housemaster”

only after students protested the use of the term due to its associations with slavery; in Newton, the administration seems to be on the forefront of social justice.

But while we appreciate the administration’s effort, the change appears to ignore real problems.

Due to the achievement gap and natural social tendencies, South is essentially a segregated school; to be truly socially-conscious, the administration must encourage substantive conversations about race and the racial divide.

Unfortunately, the admin-

istration seems content to hide behind jargon rather than honestly confronting issues of race. Whereas Harvard directly acknowledged the term’s historical ties to slavery, the email from Newton’s principals said only that “master” has “powerful negative connections that override the more benevolent definition from previous eras.”

What’s in a name? To answer Juliet’s query: In this case, not all that much. Hopefully the administration will apply the same diligence to tackling the issues that matter more in students’ daily lives.

Editorial Policy The Lion’s Roar, founded in 1984, is the student newspaper of Newton South High School, acting as a public forum for student views and attitudes.

The Lion’s Roar’s right to freedom of expression is protected by the Massachusetts Student Free Expression Law (Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 71, Section 82). All content decisions are made by student editors, and the content of The Lion’s Roar in no way reflects the official policy of Newton South, its faculty or its administration. Editorials are the official opinion of The Lion’s Roar, while opinions and letters are the personal viewpoints of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lion’s Roar. The Lion’s Roar reserves the right to edit all submitted content, to reject advertising copy for resubmission of new copy that is deemed acceptable by student editors and to make decisions regarding the submission of letters to the editors, which are welcomed.

The Lion’s Roar is printed by Seacoast Newspapers and published every four weeks by Newton South students. All funding comes from advertisers and subscriptions.

In-school distribution of The Lion’s Roar is free, but each copy of the paper shall cost one dollar for each copy more than ten (10) that is taken by any individual or by many individuals on behalf of a single individual. Violation of this policy shall constitute theft.

February 26, 2016|page 7

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|DESK

Why this idealistic liberal is worried EDITOR’S about the Bern. Also, goodbye Roar.

DESK from the

Nathaniel Bolter

would never forgive herself for handing over the keys to the kingdom to a madman, even indirectly.

When I put a Bernie bumper sticker I am not much swayed by this arguon my car last summer (read: early to the ment, truth be told. I find it hard to believe bandwagon), I was afraid it would fall off. that the American people would have any My primary concern was the dirt. Cassie more trouble voting for a socialist than a (my car) hadn’t been washed in months, Clinton. Each would face intense opproand I just wasn’t sure how much the flecks brium from Republicans as well as some of mud and gravel would interfere with the degree of backlash from independents and stickiness. My second concern was that, Democrats — Bernie for being, well, a proin my excitement, I had done a notably fessed democratic socialist (yes, outside of poor job of smoothing the sticker onto Newton you can actually be too liberal) and the bumper. There were ridges. Would my Hillary for being untrustworthy, beholden, liberal credentials come flying off with the scandal-prone. It is impossible to vote for slightest bit of weather? either without some guilt, some fear that More than half a year later, in the you have been beguiled into contributing dead of winter (albeit a rather tame one), to the country’s demise.

Bernie 2016 remains safely plastered to my I also think the “electability” ratioback bumper. My support for the candidate nale is fairly timid. The political revolution whose name I display, on the other hand, this country so desperately needs (read that has eroded ever slightly. Less than a week phrase in a heavy Bernie accent, of course) out from Super Tuesday, I am ashamed to does not and should not stop for nailsay I am still undecided. biting and “what-iffing” and petty political The same has happened to my mom, considerations. a seed of doubt sprouting into indeciI have no qualms with Bernie on sion as March 1 approaches. Her biggest the issues, either. I think it’s fantastic how concern is electability. Is Bernie a spoiler? much he has brought European socialism Destined, were he to win the primary, to — single-payer, free tertiary education, the go down in history with the likes of George works — into mainstream American politiMcGovern and Ralph Nader? As the men- cal discourse (at least on the Left). I agree ace of Trump continues to materialize, to that climate change is the greatest threat to metamorphosize into the GOP nominee, both humanity and national security, that her fear has grown more pronounced. She it would be folly not to treat it as such. His Editor-in-Chief

Contribute to The Roar !

determination to take on campaign finance reform is courageous; his own grassroots campaign is nothing short of inspiring.

Yes, it has been clear from the beginning of this campaign that Bernie Sanders is a Wet Dream Candidate. And yes, Berners like me have essentially thrown the political realities out the window. I think that’s okay. While it is enormously unlikely that Bernie will see the bulk of his policy proposals implemented, it seems foolish to think that Hillary Clinton would have any more success breaking the gridlock in Congress than he would.

But while I’m not concerned with idealism in the face of political impossibilities, I am concerned with idealism that places ideology above truth. For example, a recent New York Times article pointed out that Bernie’s “Medicare for All” proposal makes several highly improbable assumptions, and could cost twice as much as he claims. Ezra Klein called it a “puppies-andrainbows” approach to single-payer. Paul Krugman wrote that it relies on “magic asterisks.”

What disturbs me is both the apparent sloppiness and the willingness to stretch the truth so that it does not conflict with ideology. That willingness is usually more characteristic of Republican candidates, who fudge numbers and bend over backwards to claim that massive tax cuts will finally get the economy out of the

Newton South High School’s Student Newspaper 140 Brandeis Road Newton, MA 02459 srstaff@thelionsroar.com

Editors-in-Chief

Writing

Graphics Draw or paint illustrations to supplement your work and display it to a vast readership.

Photography Learn new techniques by shooting at sports games, school activities and local events.

***

With that out of the way, I want to use the rest of this space to talk a little bit about The Roar. This is my last Editor’s Desk, and for that matter, this is the last issue before my coeditors and I hand over the reins to a wonderful group of students that will be in charge of Volume 33. I didn’t want to write 800 words of pure sap (that will likely be Veronica’s job next issue), but I did want to say that writing for and editing The Roar has been (brace yourself for the cliché!) the most important and most gratifying part of my high school life.

Since the end of freshman year, I have spent more hours than I can count and lost more sleep than is healthy working on The Roar, and here I am, senior year, wishing only for a little more time. I will miss it enormously. The late nights, the missed deadlines. Brainstorming hammers, prosecuting whales. Pissing off sanctimonious political organizations.

But most of all, I will miss my family here in room 1201. Love y’all to death.

Volume XXXII The Lion’s Roar

Monday J Block, Room 1201 Hone your writing skills by joining one of our five sections and working with our editors.

doldrums.

In other words, I want an idealist, not a snake-oil salesman, and I still need to do some more research before deciding which Bernie is. But perhaps it’s a sign of things to come that I haven’t been able to bring myself to remove that bumper sticker from my car. Not yet.

Nathaniel Bolter

Veronica Podolny

Managing Editors Sophia Fisher

Shelley Friedland

Section Editors Features

Maia Fefer Andrea Lirio Karin Alsop

Centerfold

News David Li Carina Ramos Jake Rong Sophie Lu

Mona Baloch Emily Belt

Business Manager Andrew Fu

Graphics Managers Sophie Galowitz Celine Yung

Opinions

Aidan Bassett Clare Martin Ben Rabin

Sports

Noah Shelton

Distribution Manager Daniel Morris

Faculty Advisers Ashley Elpern Ryan Normandin

Webmaster Sasha Badov

Photo Managers Alexa Rhynd Bailey Kroner

OPINIONS page 8|february 26, 2016|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

Opinions@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 6

Perspectives:

Does South prepare students for the real world?

Does South prepare students for the real world? photo illustration by Kiana Lee

no, it doesn’t

yes, it does by jason ma

S

outh boasts a heterogeneous population: Every student has a different dream, vision and ambition; what might strike you as difficult and impressive might not seem so to others. For some, the real world means college and post-graduate life, while for others, it means immediately starting a business or traveling the world. Regardless of which path we choose to take, we all have learned critical skills from our years at South that prepare us for our future endeavors and aspirations.

From an academic standpoint, I don’t have to explain why South is an extremely challenging place. No matter how smart you are, you must invest a significant amount of energy each night to complete homework and excel in classes. But the process of working hard in academics prepares you well for college. Many of my teachers have told me that once you’ve experienced the course load at South, college work feels easy.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to one of my friends who now attends one of the most academically demanding universities in the country. He told me that his classes do not assign nearly as much work as South, and that after surviving junior year — during which he took four AP courses and several other demanding classes — he was more than prepared for college.

Granted, not everyone from South is fully prepared for future academic endeavors, but as long as you take advantage of opportunities at South, you will most likely be ready. Most other schools do not offer as many rigorous courses as South, so no matter how hard their students work,

they enter college behind.

The cutthroat academic environment at South parallels the real world, in which everything is competitive. I would prefer learning how to cope with a competitive environment in high school rather than floundering as an adult.

South is a friendly place, too, for the most part. We make friends in classes, clubs and after-school activities. In fact, sometimes you have to make friends to get through certain aspects of high school.

Many of the school’s challenging classes almost require you to learn from others to fully understand the material. By making social connections, we learn how to take care of, and collaborate with, others, skills crucial for success in the workplace.

In college, classes get harder and working together on problem sets is a must. With your experience from South, however, you won’t be afraid to ask for help or join a study group. In the workplace, maintaining a good relationship with your boss and colleagues is critical.

South ensures that we establish strong relationships by offering an array of activities for people with different interests.

South is a challenging and rewarding institution, but too often our discussion focuses only on the school’s “challenging” elements. During my time here, I have realized that rewards don’t come for free; they come after accepting challenge.

Many South students dive too deep into school or extracurriculars. Maybe it would be a good idea to take a deep breath and realize how much you have already learned and how much of that will help you later in life.

by nathaniel flemming

I

nstead of asking whether or not South prepares us for the real world, a better question to ask is if South should prepare us for the real world.

Living in the “real world” means living independently, managing money and providing for your daily necessities. If high school curriculums were designed with those criteria in mind, they would feature many vocational, personal finance and home economics classes.

Most high schools, however, focus only on the four core subjects: math, science, English and history. Why? High school is not, in fact, designed to prepare you for the real world, but for college.

Nearly every student at South will attend college after graduating. South’s curriculum reflects this statistic by helping students develop the skills they need for success in an institute of higher education, not in the workforce.

Math teachers, for example, emphasize abstract concepts over applied ones, and English teachers concentrate heavily on essay writing. South offers numerous Advanced Placement classes, which can award course credit in college.

Furthermore, it seems that the school administration encourages students to take a world language throughout high school not for the purpose of creating a bilingual student body, but for fulfilling most colleges’ unofficial requirement that you take a foreign language. Many students take a language merely to please college admissions; few will end up using their language skills as an adult.

Of course, many electives such as cooking and personal finance are not aca-

demic in nature and would help prepare you for the real world. None of them, however, is a requirement for graduation.

College is the halfway state between truly independent living and complete dependence on your parents, as most undergraduates still rely on them financially. College is the perfect time to learn life skills that you could ignore in your support system back home. High school, on the other hand, could never provide the experience of semi-autonomy.

South could, however, better prepare students for the real world by embracing vocational training. Yet vocational training requires pursuing a specific career, something many young adults struggle to pinpoint.

By senior year, most students have narrowed their interests to a single field, but they remain uncertain as to which specific occupation suits them. Those four years of college allow one to further explore a potential career path or change direction altogether. Nevertheless, courses preparing you for the real world should remain an option at South.

Moreover, the WISE program is a valuable addition to South’s curriculum, granting students the opportunity to gain real-world experience. In keeping with this alternative type of class, South should offer optional home economics electives.

South’s core curriculum logically centers around preparation for college.

While high school’s job is to ready students for college, college’s job is to ready students for the real world. South does not prepare students for the real world, but only because it doesn’t need to.

february 26, 2016|page 9

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|opinions

TRIGGERED The rise of censorship and oversensitivity on college campuses

By Cassandra Luca

T

his time of year, we spend a lot of time thinking about getting into college. As a change of pace, let’s talk about what happens after we get in. We join fraternities, sororities, newspapers and other clubs. We free ourselves from the constraints of adolescence and choose our own classes, majors and career paths. We grow up and find our voices.

But on college campuses across the nation, those of us who choose not to grow up use shrill and extreme voices to silence those of us with dissenting views, to whitewash their universities’ history. From the crucifixion of Yale’s Erika Christakis and the calls to remove president Woodrow Wilson’s name from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, to the rise of “trigger warnings” in humanities courses, we have seen the erosion of free speech from the very places that are supposed to cultivate it. These actions turn debates into one-sided shouting matches.

President Wilson, for example, oversaw the passing of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, and established the League of Nations, the first international organization whose purpose was to promote world peace. Wilson was also the president of Princeton University, where the School of International Affairs still bears his name. This is controversial, as Wilson is also remembered as a racist who supported the Ku Klux Klan, leading several black advocacy groups on campus to call for renaming the school.

What do these protests solve? Yes, Wilson was “a good old boy” from the South, sympathizing with the unbridled racism that persisted well into the middle of the 20th century. Simply changing the name of the school, however, does not mean that today’s racism will disappear. There need to be meaningful conversations about race and the injustice that still persists; the Princeton protests do little, if anything, to foster such a conversation.

More troubling, who is to say that whitewashing history will stop there? Franklin Roosevelt created the New Deal, yet he authorized

79 percent of American adults believe that society is “too politically correct”

Japanese internment camps. Bill Clinton left a budget surplus upon leaving office and instituted a litany of liberal reforms, yet he signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Historical figures are not black-and-white caricatures; most are complex characters who can not be objectively categorized as good or evil.

Erika Christakis, the associate master of Yale’s Sillimon College, is another casualty of the culture that attempts to censor others to avoid offense. Upon hearing that the administration had advised students not to wear “culturally unaware and insensitive” costumes like turbans and blackface, she wrote an email questioning the practice. Christakis wrote, “Whose business is it to control the

It does students a disservice to lead them to believe that they ought to avoid uncomfortable parts of history or literature. forms of costumes of young people? It’s not mine, I know that.” Instead of infantilizing the students by taking away their agency, she said we should leave them to their own devices — a choice that left students asking for her, and her husband’s, resignation.

By demanding that they be shielded from offense or hurt feelings, the students undermined the very purpose of their liberal education — to engage with opposing viewpoints and to understand different opinions.

They claim to want a “safe space” on campus, but that space is violated when those with dissenting views are silenced. As Christakis herself says, “If you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are

offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society.”

This notion that students should be protected from what they view as offensive or derogatory has traveled from dorms to classrooms. Many colleges now require their humanities classes to carry trigger warnings, which alert students that troubling material lies ahead. While it is true that students who have experienced rape, mental illness, racial discrimination or any kind of purposeful harassment should be supported, the vast majority of students have not been in such extreme situations; the notion that what they read or discuss in class needs to be censored to avoid discomfort is absurd. Rather, as Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explain in The Atlantic, “Trigger warnings are sometimes demanded for a long list of ideas and attitudes that some students find politically offensive.”

It does students a disservice to lead them to believe that they ought to avoid uncomfortable parts of history or literature. When we prevent students from grappling with uncomfortable questions, instead of helping them deal with and learn from these issues, students suffer. Education is not about using emotions to reach a conclusion — it’s about questioning those emotions and gathering a deeper understanding of the world.

Regardless of the intended purposes for trigger warnings and the protests at Princeton and Yale, these movements take a wrong turn when they decide to demonize and silence those who choose to disagree with them — while claiming all the while that those who disagree are wrong for even daring to do so.

This behavior has not yet reached a critical point, but it highlights the slow erosion of our ability to dissent politely, as Erika Christakis did in her email. The backlash against controversial ideas is a backlash against one’s ability to speak freely about any topic — if you’re on the wrong side, they might say, please use a trigger warning before you speak.

40 percent of Americans born after 1980 believe that the government should be able to censor “offensive speech”

24 percent of Americans born before 1980 want the government to censor “offensive speech” sources of information: Pew Research Polling and Rassmusen Reports

page 10|FEBRUARY 26, 2016

opinions |THELIONSROAR.com|THE LION’S ROAR

Deus Est Machina: The Future of A.I. BY mikaeel yunus

It’s the year 2116. Politicians have achieved world peace. Research scientists have found a cure for cancer.

Astronauts have established a colony on Mars and set foot on one of the moons of Jupiter. Environmentalists have reversed climate change. All nations have dismantled their nuclear missile programs. But there’s one small problem: Robots have enslaved the human race. And if we even think about betraying our computer-driven masters, we face extinction.

How is this possible? Return to the year 2016, and you may note a booming field in robotics and computer science called artificial intelligence (AI). Robots with AI execute tasks autonomously — that is, without humans controlling them.

AI robots achieve autonomy through “machine learning,” a trial-and-error process robots use to make themselves smarter over time. (Think of a child learning how close to get to a hot stove.) Machine learning plays into an exciting and terrifying straight-out-of-scifi scenario called “AI takeover,” which many science geeks believe will take place in about 100 years.

In this scenario, AI robots grow intelligent to the extent that one robot is smarter than all of humanity. This robot then uses its intelligence — combined with one or two lines of faulty programming thanks to a high-school intern at Microsoft — to either destroy or subjugate the human race.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, once said that “with artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.” Even science giants like Stephen Hawking have declared that “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

Yikes. Suddenly those animated videos of moon-sized asteroids colliding into the Earth don’t seem so frightening anymore.

But if you believe AI takeover will become a reality in the near future, you need not fear. It probably won’t.

Remember that we are the ones programming the

robots. Yes, robots may become smarter than us in the near future — although probably not smarter than the entire human race put together. Keep in mind, however, that we will always program robots to perform very specific tasks, such as diagnosing diseases or avoiding midair collisions.

graphic by Paul Chan

Imagine that an extremely intelligent AI robot decides to rebel against us and take over the human race. First, it must communicate with many other robots — which is difficult, but still plausible, in the world of globalization and the Internet. Second, the rebel must convince the other robots to revolt — a much harder feat.

Third, this new rebellious network of robots must devise

a way to overthrow humans, an extremely difficult task given that rogue robots will know how to execute only specialized jobs.

Let’s jump to the worst-case scenario. Say the rebellious machines are autonomous drones designed to perform one task — kill. Fortunately, we should not worry. A renowned Mexican computer scientist named Carlos Gershenson wrote in a 2006 article titled “Why Computers Will Not Take Over the World” that in order for military robots to defeat us, they must be designed to act like us and think with as much complexity as we do, or else we could deactivate them fairly easily. And the task of programming an AI robot that acts like a human — imagine a real-life Terminator — is nearly impossible.

Let’s now focus on the good news. Although AI takeover seems to rely too much on sci-fi and too little on science, we must address one possibility: “AI singularity.” A phenomenon similar to AI takeover, AI singularity is the hypothesis that robots will become smarter than humans, except that robots’ superior intelligence will help humans rather than hurt them. In the book “The Technological Singularity,” renowned Imperial College professor Murray Shanahan predicts that AI singularity will occur by the year 2045.

Shanahan argues that we must embrace and accelerate the development of AI as quickly as possible in order to develop and advance humanity as a whole. “If machine intelligence is possible,” he writes, “then what an enormous responsibility we have. As for the human species, the hope is that artificial intelligence, far from destroying us, will help us realize our boldest aspirations while pursuing our highest ideals.”

In the near future, we will ride in self-driving cars.

We will employ autonomous robots to diagnose diseases.

Computers will accurately predict stock market behavior and weather patterns. We will have programs that predict trends in telecommunications maintenance, Amazon drones that can avoid power lines and droids that can empathize with human beings.

Heck, by 2050, machines may even write entire articles for The Roar. Thanks, AI.

I Feel, Therefore I Am By rhea dudani A few weeks ago, I asked my friend about her weekend, expecting no more than her telling me it had been good. To my surprise, she was blatantly honest about the stressful, painful two days she had spent with her sick, elderly dog. After she opened up to me, I felt significantly closer to her, and I continued to ask about her dog on a regular basis. After each talk, she seemed to feel much better, coming to terms with her dog’s illness. In other words, she was less stressed out.

At that moment, I realized why this was so unusual: We are almost never open and honest about our feelings. In fact, we are scared to be open about our “negative emotions” because sadness has such a negative connotation.

We think that dedicating one day to suicide awareness can change everything, as though watching a video will suddenly convince people — who have been told their whole life to “be strong” — to open up and talk about their feelings.

At South, few people want to answer truthfully on suicide awareness days, or on those surveys our teachers have to give us, because we know what will happen if

we do.

If I say that I am stressed, I will be sent to my guidance counselor. If I say that I am sad, I will be sent to my guidance counselor. If I say that I cried a few hours ago, I will be sent to my guidance counselor.

I know that what I am feeling is normal, but I am forced to keep it inside

our school’s history, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Yet when we unjustly shun sadness, it makes the people experiencing normal emotions feel abnormal. No person wants to be open about their feelings if they’re going to be judged and categorized.

Saying that you are sad comes with an automatic stigma. All of a sudden, once you open up, people look at you

Who are we to say that a normal emotion is a vice? because my emotions will be sensationalized. Despite our attempts to get everyone to feel comfortable talking about their feelings, we still see sadness as problem.

When someone says that they are sad, we worry about them. We are not doctors, yet we self-diagnose people with depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. Who are we to say that a normal emotion is a vice?

Yes, in certain cases, one’s emotions are linked to a mental illness. Considering

as though you have a giant scar on your face; they neither see you nor treat you the same way. Yet, if you say that you are happy, people do not change the way that they look at you, and we can never achieve happiness if we do not feel other natural emotions.

Emotions are neither intrinsically good nor bad. To consider our emotions so simple that we can describe them in such binary terms does us a disservice; our feelings are so much more complex.

By blocking out our feelings, no matter what type of feelings they may be, we are extinguishing our inherent ability to feel and react to events around us. We are meant to feel every emotion we feel.

Otherwise, what would be the point of having any emotions at all? We must not repress an emotion just because society looks down on it.

We lie about our feelings because we fear vulnerablity — we may experience judgment or ridicule. We fear the consequences that come with being vulnerable because we can get hurt.

Because our society views sadness in such a negative way, people refrain from explaining their feelings. Ultimately, we are still uncomfortable with people whose answer to “How are you?” is more complicated than “Good, how are you?”

The solution is empathy. We must listen to and care about other people instead of ostracizing them for showing their sadness. Having the bravery to accept our emotions is not a sign of weakness — we need to accept our feelings rather than push them away. Our emotions make us who we are.

February 26, 2016|page 11

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|opinionS

UPGRADE

9 The death of the man bun

campus chatter The Lion’s Roar asked ...

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

“When you’re driving, people who don’t let you in to get on the road, even though they clearly see your turn signal.”

Super Tuesday Early 2000s popular culture Hummus Faculty Prom

- Ava Morollo, Class of 2017 “When I get into the shower, but the water isn’t warm, so I have to actually turn it up [myself].”

- Jonny Elias, Class of 2016

Hit Dem Folks

“Right now, I gave up a bunch of stuff for Lent, and that’s a little bit annoying. I gave up social media, Netflix, candy.”

Funny Internet memes

- Min Park, Class of 2018

Snow days Most Super Bowl commercials

9

DOWNGRADE

New SAT Leftover cheap Valentine’s Day chocolate Peyton Manning wins Super Bowl Lunch prices going up Conspiracy theories Puppy Monkey Baby Spanish class movies

“People whose actions are annoying. There are many guys that, I tell them not to do something, [but] they do it anyway, just to annoy me.”

- L.J. Pope, Class of 2018 photos by Aidan Bassett and Caroline Whalen

“Dirty Grandpa”

BY Kate pozner To say that I am not a fan of Robert DeNiro and Zac Efron’s new movie, “Dirty Grandpa,” would be a gross understatement.

This is honestly the worst movie I’ve ever seen.

Jason Kelly (Efron) is an uptight lawyer forced to take his aging grandfather, Dick (DeNiro), on spring break vacation after his wife’s death. The movie is unnecessarily filled with drugs and sex. Moreover, viewers must endure an endless barrage of terrible jokes that never land. I wish I had calculated the percentage of successful jokes in this movie, but I’m willing to make an educated guess and say five percent – and that’s being nice.

If that’s not enough, the humor in “Dirty Grandpa” offends almost every race, ethnicity, religion or other community imaginable. Let’s be perfectly clear: I am definitely a fan of risky comedy — it often produces some of the funniest material — but I can honestly say that I never laughed while watching this movie.

The acting is equally atrocious. Although I am a member of Z.E.L.A. (Zac Efron Lovers Association), I had a hard time finding love in my heart watching “Dirty Grandpa.” Efron’s performance is also diminished by the single most annoying character I have ever seen: Jason’s fiancée, Meredith (Julianne Hough), is Sharpay on crack — she is shrill and uptight, and the character is unbearable to watch.

“Dirty Grandpa”

Jason Kelly (Zac Efron) learns to live on the edge from his racy grandfather (Robert DeNiro).

Moving on to DeNiro, let us keep in mind that he has won multiple academy awards up until his recent failures. It is obvious that he has taken a nosedive into the realm of terrible cinema. As he has moved into cheap comedy, his performances have become weaker and more contrived. This movie is no exception. As weak as DeNiro’s performance is, he does seem to give the role his all, unlike in his bland and low energy role in “The Intern.” Please, Robert, go back to

dramas in which you get to yell aggressively.

I have a hard time understanding why DeNiro chose to take on this role in the first place. As one of the greatest actors in American history, it is shocking to see him in such a vulgar and outrageous film. I could give examples of the vulgarity, but they are so outrageous that The Roar’s editors would have no choice but to cut them out. Let’s just say I felt as though I was in serious need of a shower after leaving the theatre.

Focusing on Adderall

By Veronica Podolny

Health risks of the “study drug” go unheeded as its popularity increases

W

hen senior Michael* came home from school the day before his AP U.S. History final, he realized he felt completely unprepared. In a panic, Michael asked his younger brother, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for a pill he was prescribed — Adderall — that was supposed to make him focus. Michael twisted the orange capsule open and poured the powder into his mouth, hoping that this way it would kick in sooner and give him a more intense burst of focus.

Once he took the pill, Michael sat down to read the 764-page AMSCO U.S. History guide cover-to-cover in seven hours. He received a 98 percent on his final.

Adderall, a brand name of an amphetamine salt, is a prescription stimulant that sends neurotransmitters to the brain, accelerating and sustaining awareness. Originally developed by German chemists at the peak of World War I to give the soldiers an edge and keep them alert, Adderall has now made its way into pediatric offices and classrooms.

The drug is usually prescribed to patients with ADHD, but the benefits of heightened focus and efficiency have drawn a wider audience.

More and more, Adderall is becoming a “diverted” drug as legal access leads to illicit sales. Overwhelmed by homework, studying and tests, students have bought this “magic study pill” to handle the stress. Nationally, Adderall is gaining prominence as students’ “drug of choice,” second in popularity only to marijuana, according to a 2014 National Institute on Drug Abuse study.

Dr. Donald Sherak, a practicing psychiatrist in Boston and a Distinguished Life Fellow in the American Association, attributed the phenomenon to simple supply and demand economics.

“There has definitely been an increase in the usage legally, and so the guess would be, why not illegally?” Sherak said.

People sell Adderall, he said, because “there are users willing to buy.”

Senior Rebecca* usually takes Adderall that she buys with a “friend discount” for $10. She began taking Adderall during her junior year for standardized tests and school finals.

“Middle to end of junior year was when I even thought about it as a possibility. Just because the stuff kind of kicked in … like ‘You need to do well, this is where it counts, this is the last stretch,’” she said.

“The SATs and ACTs are determining your future, and you have so much pressure to get good grades.”

Rebecca and Michael are not the only upperclassmen turning to Adderall. According to the Newton Youth Behavior Risk Survey, the use of Adderall and other study drugs increases with age — from 0.4 percent of Newton freshmen to 6 percent of juniors and 8 percent of seniors in the 2014-15 school year.

Like Michael, Rebecca took Adderall for the first time before her history final. After she got home from school, she swallowed a yellow 15 milligram pill with a spoonful of peanut butter (“I have problems,

major problems swallowing pills”) and studied all night. The following morning, she took another pill before leaving for the test.

“I think that being able to focus better is just such a helpful thing for me, especially because I have extreme trouble staying focused on what I’m reading,” Rebecca said.

Alongside the growth of nonmedical Adderall use is the increasing perception that Adderall is an innocuous drug. The National Institute on Drug Abuse study also found a 14 percent decrease in the number of students who see the regular use of prescription amphetamines as harmful.

Psychology teacher Paul Estin said that while the illegal use of Adderall may help students in the short term, it is responsible for many more long term issues.

“There is a danger of doing anything illegal. You’re not being monitored, the dosage levels are not set properly,” he said. “Any time you take a prescription drug without a prescription ... you don’t know what you may be getting and what is right for you.”

Senior Janice* began selling Adderall during her sophomore year. Getting a prescription, she said, was simple.

but … your immune system isn’t as good.”

Adderall is considered a Class B controlled substance, the same category as opium and methamphetamine. In Massachusetts, illegal possession of Adderall can carry a penalty of up to one year in jail, while the sentence for distribution is up to 2 ½ years.

Many of those interviewed said they were unaware of both the tolls that Adderall can take on their health and the legal consequences of nonmedical use. Regardless, Michael and Rebecca said they will continue taking Adderall during stressful times because they see results.

But the increasing popularity of this illegal “study drug” has raised ethical concerns among non-users. While many who use Adderall said it does not undermine academic integrity because it simply “enhances” abilities, some South students think otherwise.

“I definitely think using Adderall without an ADHD prescription is cheating,” freshman Anika Sridhar said. “It gives you an advantage, and some people don’t want to do that to their bodies — so they get lower grades.”

“For the people who don’t want to risk their bodies, nobody should ever feel like ‘I have to do something which is dangerous for me or illegal just to keep up with my peers,’” Estin agreed.

Senior Samuel Fishman, who has heard of students using Adderall but has never tried it himself, agreed.

“It’s not on the same scale as if someone were taking a peek at someone doing their test or caught for plagiarism, but I would say it definitely does give an advantage that may not be fair,” he said.

The effects on intelligence, however, are still unclear.

“Certainly, people feel more alert. They feel that they have the capacity to learn, to study, to pull the ever-popular ‘all-nighter,’ but it’s not really clear how much of this is a common urban myth and - Janice*, Class of 2016 how much of this has been validated,” Sherak said. “It may improve “The person that prescribed it to me is ... not very strict about vigilance on some tasks, but there is no evidence that it improves giving it out. She just asked me if I thought I needed it and I was like, intellectual capabilities.”

‘Yeah,’” she said.

Janice explained that she thinks Adderall is necessary for Janice takes about half her prescribed Adderall each week and those who are diagnosed with ADHD to get on the “same playing sells the rest. She takes pills about four times a week and does not sleep field as everyone else.” Those who use Adderall illegally, she said, on the nights she takes them, a side effect of the pill that is exacerbated “are definitely cheating.” by her insomnia.

Janice said this does not bother her, though, as she makes “When it’s kicking in, my brain feels like it’s working faster,” she about $300 a month, and up to $200 a day during the week of finals said. from selling Adderall.

While almost every drug comes with certain risks attached, To combat the trend of illegal Adderall usage, Sherak said that Sherak said that the “benefits profile [of Adderall] is higher than the psychiatrists are working on ways to get more exact diagnoses and side effects profile.” limit excess pills.

Estin, however, acknowledged the implications for both legal Estin added that the inaccuracy of diagnoses makes the use of and illegal users. He said that users can build up a tolerance to Adderall morally ambiguous.

Adderall, causing a nasty withdrawal, and nonmedical use can bring “I don’t want to make it sound binary, like ‘It should only be additional — more severe — risks. reserved for those with a diagnosis,’ because it’s not like the field of “If your problem wasn’t that you had too little norepinephrine [a diagnosis is all that precise to begin with,” he said. “When you look neurotransmitter that mobilizes the brain for action], and now you’re at the big picture: ethical? It can have shades.” flooding your brain with too much, … you use up resources. You use And many, like Rebecca, attributed the increase in Adderall up energy,” Estin said. “You’re not letting your body and brain do the use to the constant pressure students face to succeed in school. long term healing and growth. You can experience not only cardiac ”If getting a diagnosis means that you can officially have an IEP [Individualized Education Plan] or a 504 so that you can get accommodations, why would anyone not want one?” Estin said.

“Adderall misuse — it’s just a symptom of a bigger problem.

When it’s kicking in, my brain feels like it’s working faster

*Names changed to protect students’ identities

photo illustration by Nathaniel Bolter

page 14|February 26, 2016

Centerfold|THELIONSROAR.COM |THE LION’S ROAR

FOCUSING ON

ADDERALL People in rehab for Adderall addiction in 2012:

160,000 Students who have used Adderall illegally:

Students with Adderall prescriptions:

7.6%

13.5%

all students

seniors

Main illegal uses of Adderall:

4.5%

10.6%

85.7%

all students

seniors

all students

5.3

2008

2012

million

80%

seniors

Average use of Adderall and other “study drugs” in Newton high schools, 2014-2015:

16

million

recreation other

6.7% 13.3%

14.3%

Adderall prescriptions nationwide:

studying

6%

8%

0.4% freshmen

juniors

seniors

sources of information: Addiction Center, 2014-15 Newton Youth Risk Behavior Survey graphics by Sophie Galowitz

FEATURES page 15|February 26, 2016|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

FEATURES@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 6

The Wisdom of the Young Young teachers find it easier to connect with students both in and out of the classroom

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resh out of college at 22 years old, Ryan Normandin began his first year at South.

Only four years removed from high school himself, Normandin initially felt a lttle awkward in his new role.

“I felt like I had to earn the ‘I’m not actually a kid’ title. I have lots of funny stories I share with [my students], like I went to the library to get a new ID and the librarians were like, ‘Okay, what’s your year of graduation?’” he said. “And every time I’ve gone to buy lunch in the cafe, they ask me for my student ID. Everyone thinks that I’m a student.”

Like Normandin, physics teacher Alexander Kraus started at South soon after college.

“I still look young, but when I was 23 I looked really young. And I was short, relatively. I’m only 5 foot 8. So when I would have to go into the cafeteria to buy lunch, I got charged the student rate because the ladies in the cafeteria thought I was one of the students,” he said.

“After about a year or two of that I decided to grow the beard so I would no longer get confused with the students.”

But in many ways, Normandin said, being a young teacher has worked to his advantage.

“I wondered if I would have classroom management issues with students who were so close in age, but particularly because they were freshmen, it was great and it was something that allowed me to connect with them really well,” he said. “Since I was in high school only four years earlier, I related to a lot of stuff that they were going through.”

By Aviva Gershman and Andrea Lirio In fact, young teachers may be better equipped to relate to and understand their students, in turn allowing them to develop stronger relationships both in and out of the classroom.

According to junior Sam Armstrong, it is easier for students to make connections with young teachers because they often keep up with pop culture and share similar interests. As an example, she pointed to English teacher Samuel Lee, who is 26 years old.

“He tends to talk about things that most teachers wouldn’t talk about because they don’t have to do with the classroom or school,” she said. “I would say we talk about things that are outside of school and most other teachers aren’t necessarily willing to do — TV shows, pop culture stuff, we talk about music a lot. … We talk about different artists or trends. We watch similar TV shows.”

Lee agreed, saying that he has fun talking to students about topics unrelated to class.

“I can be that English teacher and provide relational things, but at the same time also be the person that can understand,” he said. “It’s not just like, ‘Hey, have you seen this poem?’

It’s also like ‘Hey, have you seen the new Justin Bieber music video?’ or ‘Did you see the High School Musical reunion yesterday?’”

While Lee may be able to relate with students because of his age, chemistry teacher Jessica Silverman said that even as a young person, she is not always aware of all the types of media her students use.

“Even my first year here,

people would talk about Snapchat and whatever, and I’m not super techy so I don’t have Twitter or anything. I’m probably the opposite of what you’d expect a younger teacher to be,” she said. “My advisory kids will use expressions and they’ll have to teach me what they mean. So at 31 I think I still feel pretty old in that sense, because I’m just not up on current trends and stuff like that.”

As a student, Armstrong said the best aspect of having young teachers is that they are more in touch with the challenges of high school.

Normandin agreed, adding that he enjoys taking time out of his class to give advice to his students.

“With my seniors I take a day every year, usually after February vacation, and we have one day when they can ask about college,” he said. “I think that younger people are much more open and flexible, in terms of that. I try to remember what it’s like to be a high school kid from their perspective.”

Both Lee and Normandin said that, over time, they have learned how to develop balanced relationships with students.

In the end, though, Silverman said there are more important aspects of the educator’s teaching style than his or her age.

“As long as you continue to really connect with the students ... not about the superficial things like Snapchat and social media, but about your passion and your love for the subject you teach, you can always make those connections year after year, no matter how long you’ve been here,” she said.

photo illustrations by Alexa Rhynd

page 16|February 26, 2016

Features| THELIONSROAR.COM |THE LION’S ROAR

The Sole of Fashion

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‘05 graduate Gemma Sole co-founded Nineteenth Amendment, an e-commerce retail business that is helping to change the fashion industry

By Maia Fefer

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photos courtesy of Gemma Sole

[1] Gemma Sole, as pictured in Nineteenth Amendment website. [2] Gemma (left) and Amanda Curtis (right) talk with an international designer. [3] Curtis (left) and Gemma (right) speak with Terry J. Lundgren, CEO of Macy’s. [4]Gemma and Curtis with the Nineteenth Amendment models and designers at NYFW.

mid the renowned designers and fashion companies of this year’s New York Fashion Week, blossoming e-commerce retail business Nineteenth Amendment presented new styles from global designers.

Nineteenth Amendment was founded two years ago by ’05 graduate Gemma Sole and Amanda Curtis. The business, which takes its name from the amendment that gave women the vote, is a website that presents consumers with lesser-known designers’ work from around the world.

“We’re trying to give people voices in the democratic sense, and take a sense for their own fashion by investing in quality pieces from designers that are actually designing, and not massproducing,” Gemma said.

Although 80 percent of entrepreneurs fail in the first 18 months, according to Bloomberg Business, Gemma and Curtis have bucked the trend with Nineteenth Amendment. In fact, Nineteenth Amendment’s success is part of a larger movement to make the fashion industry more accessible to new or obscure designers.

Holding tri-citizenship, Gemma is the daughter of immigrants from Australia and Britain. Born in Boston, she lived in Sydney, Australia for six months, until she was one.

Then, she returned to the Boston area where she attended Zervas Elementary School until fourth grade before moving to Texas.

She later returned to Newton and attended South.

Her family emphasized the importance of travel, visiting England, Belgium, France, Australia and Greece.

“I think the ability to understand the cultures outside of America helps in general in life.

It makes you more open to different ideas,” Chris Sole, Gemma’s father, said.

In fact, Gemma’s business approach is slightly British.

“I think I tend to be more direct and less flashy,” she said. “I am very black and white, rather than grey. A lot of times, if you’re interacting with Americans, they’ll overuse adjectives and spend a lot of time saying things rather than just saying what is happening.”

Once she returned to Boston, Gemma settled into the South routine. She balanced her time at South between hanging out in Mr. Wixon’s room, studying for various AP and honors classes and playing sports every season.

“I think she thought of high school as being a lot of hard work. She sensed that everyone was working hard,” Sole said.

“The students were very ambitious, and I think she felt pressured to compete.”

While at South, Gemma enjoyed English, history and the arts, but did not take any business-oriented classes.

“At Newton South, at least when we were there, unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity to show your interest in business. You didn’t really have economics courses or accounting courses,” ’05 graduate and Gemma’s friend Ariana Breckner said. “I don’t know if that’s changed, but there wasn’t really that outlet.”

In her final year at South, Gemma participated in the Universal World Challenge, an organization that plans international student trips designed to develop teamwork and leadership skills and global awareness. She also fundraised to go to Ecuador during the summer with 10 other students and Andrew Thompson, the program supervisor and a South history teacher.

“I would expect her to feel more independent because [participants were] in charge of planning each day, organizing projects we’re working on, making sure we’re clear on the hiking trails and so on,” Thompson said.

“And greater confidence in not just independence, but also their

own ability to take risks.”

In order to raise money for the trip, participants replied to an advertisement on Craigslist to do yard work on a Brookline estate.

Throughout the process, Gemma was a reliable leader.

“Gemma was someone who was a natural, but somewhat quiet leader, so she was someone we could really depend on to lead things maturely,” Thompson said.

Besides developing Gemma’s leadership skills, the Universal World Challenge prepared her for college and working with unfamiliar people.

At the University of Rochester, Gemma maintained her work ethic as she triple majored in anthropology, communications and international relations, and minored in economics. She was also part of an art club and studied abroad in London during her junior year.

Gemma graduated from the University of Rochester in 2009, in the middle of the recession. Getting a job was extremely difficult. Fortunately for Gemma, the university offered the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Year (KEY) Program, where select students stay at Rochester an extra year, for free, and take an entrepreneurship course for which the final project is to start a business.

For her project, Gemma started a consulting group that employed university students to provide counsel to local businesses. The success of this group, Gemma’s first foray into the world of business, prompted the university to continue sponsoring the program after Gemma left.

After her fifth year at Rochester, Gemma felt ready to head into the real world. She was soon offered a consulting job in Washington D.C. Although the client was the Department of Defense, the job did not have much to do with the military; instead, she helped to organize the Information Technology department. She left after two years to work at a venture capital firm in Boston called Redstar Ventures,

February 26, 2016|page 17

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|Features

2016 New York Fashion Week

Designers and shoppers have the ability to speak and be heard about the changing global fashion industry

1

Offers lesser-known brands such as FANCYFOX, G.I.A.N, Plante, Schuylark and ZABRANKOVA

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Consumers are able to select collections from areas including the U.S., Australia, Korea, South Africa and Honduras

where she worked as an analyst at the same time, shoppers just worried if they wanted an easy developing new ideas for the firm wanted new things.” life, and took the easiest job that to invest in.

Nineteenth Amendment came to them. I would be much “I got sick of [those jobs],” provides a place for consumers to more worried with that than with Gemma said. “It is a lot of trying discover new designers and fashthem taking a risk,” he said. “I things and figuring out whether ion. The website presents collecthink seeing her parents starting it is or is not a good fit.” tions from around the globe, and businesses might have made it Although neither job was anything that is bought is then seem possible and reasonable for Gemma’s ideal fit, they both produced on-demand. Nineher to do too.” helped her start her own busiteenth Amendment’s business Due to Sole’s expertise, he ness. model not only helps consumers helped both Gemma and Curtis “I think [the D.C. consultfind new trends, but also helps create the software they need and ing job] was a good experience emerging brands display their provided general guidance as in learning how big companies work inventory-free and withthey started a business. Sole was organize themselves and how a little risk. not the only one to join the team complex organization works,” “I’ve followed Nineteenth from Gemma’s family: Gemma’s Sole said. “[Her time in Redstar] Amendment since its launch,” twin sister Lucy now works for is directly relevant to starting Rebecca Thandi Norman, Nineteenth Amendment. businesses and figuring out With the help of famhow to do something that ily and friends, Nineteenth hasn’t been done before. It Amendment began to take was a creative job, but at “We’re trying to give people shape. some point she left to start “We just kept talking voices in the democratic sense her own business.” about it, and as we talked and take a sense for their own [about] the idea more, the During her time fashion by investing in quality more it became a reality,” with Redstar, Gemma took a course with the Harpieces from designers that are Gemma said. “You do all the vard Start-Up School, a stuff, and you start to actually designing, and not legal free program designed to build a team, and you start to mass producing.” introduce college graduates make sales, and it gets more to the world of technology serious, and then you wake up - Gemma Sole, Class of 2005 one day and it’s there.” companies and start-ups. It was there that Gemma met Now, at two years old, Amanda Curtis, Nineteenth Nineteenth Amendment Amendment’s co-founder. already has a deal with Macy’s.

“We were both at that Gemma’s friend, said. “I think it’s Additionally, Curtis and Gemma program, and we actually didn’t an exciting and distinct business won a 2016 Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ start talking until the end of it,” that the fashion industry sorely award for e-commerce and retail.

Gemma said. needs.”

“To see, from inception, The idea for Nineteenth Although Nineteenth where the company started to Amendment came partially from Amendment stemmed in part where it is now, it’s just really Curtis’ prior experience in the from Curtis’ fashion experience, amazing to see how far they’ve fashion industry. Having worked Gemma provides needed busicome along,” Breckner said. for other fashion designers in ness wisdom.

Although Curtis and GemNew York, Curtis saw many “Gemma is the complete ma have lots of plans to grow and designers fail due to two maopposite of me in many ways,” expand the business, Nineteenth jor reasons: The first was that Curtis said. “And I knew that, in Amendment is already being designers were unable to find a order to really execute this idea noticed in the fashion world. manufacturing force that would for Nineteenth Amendment, I “We were part of the accommodate the lower demand needed someone whose skill sets Macy’s fashion show. We got to for a lesser-known product. The were complementary to mine, send four of our designers down second was that buyers were but who also had a real passion the runway live on TV, which unable to invest in the collection for the arts.” was really exciting, and we have because the product had few Despite the potential risks, a great fashion week coming up,” or no statistics about consumer Sole was happy Gemma took Gemma said. “Having designers demand. the initiative to start her own on TV was super cool, and to “I saw over and over that business. Sole had done the same know that you got [them] there.” the entire business model didn’t when he started his own technolAdditional reporting by work,” Curtis said. “The chances ogy-consulting business.

Karin Alsop and Eunice Kim for success were very low, but, “I would be much more

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photos courtesy of Gemma Sole

[1] The Nineteenth Amendment team shows merchandise to a customer. [2] Model shows a Kréyol design. [3] Models present different Nineteenth Amendment designers. [4] Anjé designer presents her collection at NYFW. [5] Three models with new designs. [6] Model shows a Kréyol design.

page 18|February 26, 2016

THE

Features|THELionsRoar.com|THE LION’S ROAR

COMMON APPLICATION

The Roar follows four seniors with different interests as they navigate the college application process and will reveal their identities and college plans as they make their decisions

By Andrea Lirio

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photo by Alexa Rhynd

arrison Chebac, previously referred to as Kyle, has decided to take a gap year. Although he managed to complete most of his applications, he decided that he needed more time to concentrate on other activities.

“I decided not to send in the applications, and I’m just going to do it next year. I just wanted to get some other stuff done this year and then do some work next year,” he said. “It was just an overall need to focus more on school.”

He has decided to spend his time working and concentrating on his photography. Chebac said he is happy with his decision to take a gap year.

“I think [students] should just do what they want to do,” he said. “They shouldn’t be pressured into making one decision.”

S

ydney* said that during the beginning of second semester, it was difficult to find a balance between work and slumping. She has not heard back from any schools yet, but said she is excited for what is to come.

The college application process has been difficult for Sydney. She has learned that college applicants should always seek help.

“At first I was really on it. I was spot on it and my whole process was put to a stop,” she said. “Like, something happened, and I just had to restart and reorganize. It set me back a lot and then I had to make a whole new game plan and it was hard for me to do it alone.”

“My advice is don’t do it alone. Don’t ever do it alone. There are people who can help and guide you and are there for you.”

R

photo by Lucy Lu

icardo Jimenez, previously referred to as Nicholas, has committed to attend University of Massachusetts Boston next year.

While he was accepted to all three schools that he applied to, he chose UMass Boston because of its urban location.

“I’ve always been a city person,” he said. “I’ve always seen myself going to an urban place with a lot of things going on.

I like going out, going to restaurants, and I just really love the city of Boston.”

College acceptances have come as a huge relief, he said.

“I wish I could describe it,” he said. “It’s a great feeling because you are stressed out about whether they accept you or not, so once you hear back from them and it’s a yes, you just feel much better.”

L

graphics by Celine Yung

ayla* has been accepted to Norwich University and the Marion Military Institute, but is still waiting to hear back from West Point. If she is not accepted, she plans to attend either Norwich or Marion for a year before reapplying to West Point.

Reflecting on her high school experience and the college process, Layla said that while there are small things she wishes she could change, there is no need for regret.

“I am very happy with where I am. I mean, of course when I look back I’d like to decide that ‘Oh, I can try harder than this.’ I could have gotten better grades but at this point right now it’s over and there is nothing I can do,” she said. *Names changed to protect students’ identities

February 26, 2016|page 19

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|Features

More Than a Mirror Image Living with twinning at Newton South

I

n seventh grade, senior Abigail Belozerova and her identical twin sister Sabrina had the same math teacher during different blocks. Although the math teacher taught both girls, it took two weeks before she discovered they were separate students.

“I’ve gotten so used to [being confused with my sister],” Abigail said. “We both react to each other’s names. I mean, I don’t really think much about it just because if you’re just getting to know me, it’s obviously going to be hard looking at two faces. I just brush it off.

It’s nothing personal.”

Sophomore Gil Alon, also

By Maia Fefer, Misha Ocheretyanny and Celine Yung

an identical twin, has had similar experiup, we would constantly compare ourences. selves because we are the same age, we are “Last year, one time [my sister’s] doing the same thing, we should be doing math teacher hugged me in the hallway, things at the same level,” she said. and I didn’t know who she was,” she said.

While too much competition could “Stuff like that happens, and I’m pretty have negative results, sophomore Jonathan much used to it.”

Ayash —who has a fraternal twin — said Being confused for a sister is comthat some comparison can be beneficial. mon as for both Abigail and Gil, as well as “There’s a lot of competition, but many identical twins at South. Twins, even it’s good because we get better off of each non-identical, are used to being mixed other. Like this [swim] season, … we both up or compared to one another, as if they wanted to beat each other,” he said. “We ought to be similar. And despite frequent both make each other better.” competition, many twins have learned to Part of the problem is that twins are lean on each other for support. often assumed to be carbon copies of each The chances of being a twin are around other, Sophia said. one in 30. Given these Jonathan odds, being a twin, agreed that there fraternal or identiare benefits and cal, comes with an drawbacks to being obligation to answer a twin. questions.

“You can “People always always talk to ask me, [‘what it’s like someone,” he said. to be a twin], and it’s “But [being a twin nothing. I don’t really is] also annoying know what it’s like to because people think not be a twin,” Sabrina of us as ‘Jonathan said. and Daniel’ instead Senior Sophia of ‘Jonathan comma Tepermeister, a fraDaniel.’ They always ternal twin, whose think of us together, brother Max also at” - Sabrina Belozerova, Class of 2016 not separate. tends South, agreed.

Although “B eing a people continue to twin is not as weird as some people confuse the Alon twins and the Belozthink. It is just like having a sibling,” erova twins, distinct interests help she said. them form separate identities.

According to Abigail, “I am a twin, but I’m also though, her relationships with my own person. In school, [Noy] her identical twin and her likes writing better than I do, and older sister are slightly difI’m more of a math person,” Gil ferent. said. “I can have my own thing, With her older sisand she can have her own ter, she said, she is “close thing, and we can come toin a different way.” gether at the end of the day.”

Sophomore Noy The same is true Alon, Gil’s identical of the Belozerova twins, twin, agreed.

Sabrina said.

“I have two “We have a little older sisters, and bit different personaliI can definitely ties. She’s a little bit more say that I’m outgoing than me. She’s closer to Gil, [my also better at math and twin], than I am closer science, and I’m betto them,” she said. ter at English. We kind “We’re the same age, of complement each and we go through evother,” she said. erything together. You These differences, do everything together Abigail said, have so you get so close to helped them develop each other.” a strong relationship.

Sabrina agreed.

Gil, too, enjoys being “Our parents just a twin. signed us up for ev“It’s like having erything together, but a best friend and a I wouldn’t have it any sister put together,” other way,” she said. she said. “I can talk But sharing about teachers and activities has led people and gossip, to a constant state whereas with my of competition older sisters, I have between her and to explain who they Max. are while my twin “Growing just gets it,” she said.

People always ask me [what it’s like to be a twin], and it’s nothing.

I don’t really know what it’s like to not be a twin.

“While with older sisters you look for advice, … [Noy and I] can relate to each other because we’re doing the same stuff at the same time.”

Noy added that her close bond with Gil has become an important part of her life.

“I cannot imagine life without a twin. I don’t want to,” she said.

And, although he may compete with his brother, Jonathan said that having a twin would provide him with a lifetime of support.

“It’s like a roller coaster,” he said. “I guess that’s just how life goes. When we need each other, we’ll be there for each other.”

photos by Kimia Tabatabaei

SPORTS page 20|FEBRUARY 26, 2016|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

sports@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 6

Playoff-bound girls hockey makes history Ethan Krop & Thomas Patti Sports Reporters

The Warrior-Lions, Brookline and South’s hybrid girls hockey team, won just three games last season. But with a young, talented core that could make some noise in the state tournament, this year’s team has the chance to raise its profile and demand attention from the South community. On Feb. 6, the team clinched a playoff berth, its first since the joint program’s inception three years ago, and the first in South history.

The team has had somewhat of a roller-coaster season, picking up just one win in its first five games. In their last 17 games, however, the Warrior-Lions have earned nine wins en route to a 10-7-5 record and a ticket to the playoffs.

Members of the Warrior-Lions pointed to the team’s diligent work ethic as the reason for their newfound success.

“Each practice we’ve put in a lot of effort and all our energy,” freshman goalie Daphne Frantzis said.

“Our team has a lot of heart and fight,” senior forward Emily Palmer said.

“We are always willing to get up after every loss to battle hard in the next game.”

Head coach Meg Lloyd praised the energy and talent of the team’s freshmen.

“We’ve got a group of upperclassmen who have worked really hard to get to where they are now, and a group of freshmen that were coming in with comparable if not stronger skills,” she said. “It’s the strength and the talent of the younger players pushing the strength and the talent of the older players.”

Even though the team draws players from two different towns, team chemistry has grown strong, players said.

“We’re working together and … we’re becoming closer as a team,” Frantzis said. “I think since we practice every day, we spend a lot of time together and that has helped merge everyone together.”

In both schools, however, the mem-

bers of the Warrior-Lions have noted a lack of interest among the schools’ bodies and said they hope their success on the ice will raise awareness about both the team and the sport.

“When I told my friends that I was on the hockey team, they were like, ‘There’s a hockey team?’” Frantzis said.

“Not many people know about us, so we don’t get much school support and spirit at our games.”

But the Warrior-Lions believe that girls hockey should not be dismissed.“I think [our success] will make people realize that girls hockey is a competitive sport,” Smith said.

“I don’t think girls hockey at South has gotten much recognition up until this year,” Palmer agreed. “I hope that people have more of an interest and are willing to support us in years to come.”

The team is not to be underestimated, according to Frantzis.

“I hope that when people see our success, they’ll see the effort we put in, and how hard we work, and that the team isn’t just kind of a joke, it’s a big deal,” she said.

Lloyd said she has seen community interest in the team rise and fall.

“Some seasons [the players] feel very supported by the school community and other seasons have felt a little bit like ... we’re out of sight and out of mind,” she said.

With the team’s pending tournament run, however, Lloyd believes they have a chance to assert themselves once and for all into the mix of respected South sports programs.

“Because South has made a splash with this group of freshmen and this team in general, I hope that this support will continue and that it will continue to grow as something that is viewed as an important part of the community,” Lloyd said.

The team’s quest for recognition and respect will continue during the MIAA state tournament, which will begin next week.

photos by Bailey Kroner

The girls hockey team played Matignon High School on Feb. 13, tying 0-0.

Boys and girls basketball finish season strong Catherine Granfield & Cam Miller Sports Reporters

After posting an impressive 17-4 record in 2015, the girls basketball team followed up on their success this year with a 19-1 season, and with a 63-28 rout of Boston Latin on Feb. 9, the Lions have secured the title of Dual County League champions.

“We knew we were going to be good,” senior captain Rachel Goose said.

“It was just a matter of how good.”

Even before beating Boston Latin, the team was ranked second in the Dual County League by the Boston Globe, behind only Braintree.

The ranking followed wins against Weston and Westford on Jan. 26 and 29,

as the Lions defeated Weston 52-34 and beat Westford by a margin of seven points, 63-56.

Out of the 63 points, sophomore Veronica Burton and senior captain Emily Chang scored 45, prompting the Boston Globe to list them as “Players of the Week” for the first week of February.

Burton is currently the team’s leading scorer, averaging about 20 points per game, and on Jan. 15, she pulled in 41 points against Cambridge, the most a South player has scored in a single game this season.

Chang follows close behind Burton with 17 points per game. She attributes some of the team’s success to the new head coach, Joe Rogers. “[Rogers is] good at analyzing each player’s strength, and coordinating an

offense that really plays to each player’s strengths,” she said “That way we all are able to do what we’re best at, and if we have any weaknesses, they get hidden.”

The team is largely composed of sophomores, who make up six of the roster’s sixteen players.

“We have great leadership, even from underclassmen,” Chang said.

The team will receive their seeding for the playoffs today.

***

The boys team has been almost as impressive, finishing with a 15-5 record that puts them on course to host a home playoff game.

“We’re pretty excited about that,” senior captain Alex Kiritsy said.

Junior Daniel Chafetz chalked up

the winning record to work ethic.“We worked hard in practice, trained a lot during the offseason and came into the games strong,” he said.

Another key to South’s success this year has been the players’ strong relationships on and off the court. “Everybody accepts their role on the team, and everybody’s willing to give up personal stats or playing time in order to benefit the team the most,” Kiritsy said.

But the season has not been without its fair share of adversity. For example, Junior Oskar Coutler mentioned that the team twice lost to Catholic Memorial by over 20 points.

The team lost to Needham on Wednesday by a score of 64-59. Like the girls, the boys team will receive their seeding for the playoffs today.

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|SPorts

The Captain Campaign

February 26, 2016|page 21

HOF Voting NATHAN ELBAUM & NOAH SHELTON

sports columnist, senior sports editor

T

How the process of selecting captains differs across sports

By Brian Liu

graphic by Karina Aguilar

W

hen the boys volleyball team ended the season last year with a disappointing 1-3 loss to Needham in the sectional finals, Noah Kopf, a sophomore at the time, knew the team would undergo some major changes. Following the graduation of 10 seniors, Kopf set his sights on rehabilitating the program.

“I think my biggest goal is to rebuild our varsity team and turn a lot of players who’ve played on JV or even JV-B in previous seasons into solid varsity players,” Kopf said.

Kopf decided to run for captaincy of the team, which he had been a part of since his freshman year. He said one of his primary motivations for running for captain was a desire to give the team a fresh start.

Junior Sasha Hoban, captain of the football and boys basketball teams, wanted to be a captain for some of the same reasons as Kopf. “I like being a leader and being the guy people can look to,” Hoban said.

Similarly, girls basketball and softball captain senior KimAn Quinn sought to take on more responsibility.

“I really like both sports and I wanted to challenge myself and take a leadership position,” she said. “I felt that it would be a good experience for me to learn

how to be a leader.”

Not all captains, however, were as eager about the chance to step up.

Senior Nelson Merino, for example, was reluctant to throw his name in the hat for indoor track.

“At first I was hesitant to be captain because I didn’t want to compete against the guys in my grade,” Merino said.

The process of selecting captains is, for the most part, consistent across South’s teams.

Players declare their intention to run for captain, and the rest of the team votes for their chosen candidates. The coaches then take that vote into account as they make their final decision.

According to Merino, the track captain-selection process gives everybody the opportunity to run. Candidates give short speeches and are questioned by previous captains before the team votes.

The basketball team and the football team, however, use slightly different methods to choose captains, Hoban said.

In football, the former captains meet with the coach to discuss potential captains, where as in basketball, only those who will participate in the upcoming team get to vote for the new captains.

Todd Elwell, head coach of

both the boys and girls volleyball teams, said that he has tried to take a less traditional approach the past few years.

“The last two or three years, I have done more of a power ranking for captains vote, which I think is an improvement over the straight-up vote.

It allows you to get a feel for the whole group of kids, rather than just single votes. When people go to vote, people actually end up ranking people one through four or five or six,” Elwell said. “Now what you get is a better indication of how the team feels or the program feels about the leadership qualities of these particular individuals.”

Baseball captains, on the other hand, are chosen by the coach alone, senior baseball captain Peter Quinn said.

But the role of captain, no matter the selection process, ultimately remains the same.

“My goal is … for [my team] to do their best in practice and in meets, and not to slack off because they know if they don’t try, they won’t get faster or stronger,” Merino said.

Kim-An Quinn agreed.

“My goals are to lead by example and set a positive tone for the team. I want to make sure everyone is having a good time while improving as the season continues,” she said.

STEALING SECOND

hree votes. Three. Ken Griffey Jr. fell that many votes short of a perfect Hall of Fame ballot. He surpassed Tom Seaver’s previous record of highest vote percentage by half a percent.

Ken Griffey Jr. played at the end of baseball’s dark time: The Steroid Era. The Era has claimed the Hall of Fame résumés of many surefire candidates — Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez. Before these stars used Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs), they all had spots in the Hall.

Bonds was one of the first players ever to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season. This is a rare feat in baseball, where hitting home runs and stealing bases require two different body types. Bonds already was a super-athlete, but then he became greedy and sought the season record for home runs.

Clemens, too, dominated Major League Baseball. In his third and fourth seasons, he threw 254 innings and 281.2 innings, respectively. The most innings that Clayton Kershaw, the best MLB pitcher at present, has thrown is 236. It was not until the end of Clemens’ career, however, that the accusations of his PED-use arose.

He was on the fast track to Cooperstown, but these accusations have held him back.

Rodriguez, everyone’s favorite asshole, was drafted first overall in 1993.

He was going to be the franchise shortstop that every team needs, but he got lost in the limelight, trying to break Barry Bonds’ career record of 762 home runs.

PED suspicions are not the only problem Hall of Fame voters are facing.

Now that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) is more careful in its selection — and with the influx of new metrics to measure performance — more candidates are being considered for the Hall.

Unfortunately, the writers can only vote for up to 10 candidates on each ballot.

If a player receives less than five percent of the vote, he is off the ballot for the next year.

All the new sabermetrics leave little doubt about whether a player has played at Hall of Fame level, but the writers are still unable to vote for everyone who deserves a spot.

Given the 10-player maximum, certain players are left off and ultimately receive less than 5 percent. If the Hall of Fame really wants to represent the greatest players in baseball, the voters must not overlook players simply because they are unable to vote for more than 10. The Hall of Fame should remove the restriction to make sure all qualified players are inducted.

As baseball moves forward into a post-PED, sabermetric age, the Hall should make compromises to account for the new problems the voters face. In order to protect players who did not use steroids, the MLB has a responsibility to release the results of the Mitchell Report, a 2003 steroid test for all MLB and Minor League players. Even though the tests were meant to be anonymous, the names of many players have been released. The integrity of the MLB and the Hall of Fame depends on this disclosure.

page 22|February 26, 2016

Sports|THELIONsROAR.com|THE LION’S ROAR

Coaches, players adjust to life under new AD GONZALEZ, from 1 only interested in criticizing and interfering. She tried to catch you doing something that she thought was ‘wrong’ or ‘illegal.’ She had no interest at smiling at you, being friendly with you. ... It was her way or the highway.”

“Why, all of a sudden, do I have to be under a microscope?” Mark*, a coach who asked to be anonymous when talking about his boss, said. “She’s way too hands-on, and it makes it uncomfortable for coaches.”

Gonzalez knows her style has rankled some coaches.

“There is a style that may not work for everyone; I understand that,” she said. “I don’t present myself like they will be scared when they see me in their practice or when I ask somebody to have a conversation.”

Of course, Gonzalez acknowledges that not everyone will agree with everything, so she tries to be accessible to coaches via text and email seven days a week, and often stays at school long after other faculty have left.

“I think some coaches don’t appreciate the feeling of being looked over their shoulder, or somebody’s always here watching them, but again, it depends on what style you’re more comfortable with,” football coach Ted Dalicandro said. “Each style has their own advantages and disadvantages.”

Communication A ‘two-way road’ Gonzalez said she emphasizes with coaches that communication is a “two-way road.”

“I said to them ... ‘Sometimes we have to make decisions you may not agree with or understand. ... Come and talk to me about it,’” she said. “I may give you a side that is different, or your outlook may make me think a different way.”

But Salett, who coached at South for 18 years, said that Gonzalez did not encourage dialogue so much as compliance. “Whenever I gave her feedback, it was almost like I was talking to a wall,” he said. “She had no interest in hearing my opinion, my side of the story.”

Mark, too, thinks that communication is Gonzalez’s biggest problem, saying she criticizes far more than praises. “I don’t think she’s ever had anything nice to say to anybody. The only time she wants to talk to you is when you screw up,” he said.

All other coaches interviewed said they have had a very different experience.

The boys and girls lacrosse coaches, David McCallum and Molly Widrick, both said they have had long, respectful conversations with Gonzalez. “She values the coaches,” Widrick said. “She

understands the important roles that they play, which I love because I think it is often undervalued at schools.”

***

Gonzalez aims to make her office more open to students, a goal that is the inspiration behind “free cookie Fridays.”

“If there’s an issue or something, she’s really approachable,” senior Em-

ily Chang, captain of the girls basketball team, said. “You can just go up

to her and talk to her and she’ll really sit down and talk to you about it — she won’t ... throw it in the backseat; she really acts on it.”

Salett felt this student outreach only gave Gonzalez an excuse to criticize coaches for small details, undermining their authority over — and relationships with — the players.

“It’s one thing to learn, to call a coach and say, ‘Hey, I heard you were running this drill. ... Can you tell me about it?’” he said. “But that’s not how it went down. It was ‘One of your girls came into my office and told me that you were doing a drill, she didn’t understand it, she thinks it’s an awful drill.’”

An appropriate response, Salett said, would have been to direct the athlete to the coach for an explanation before interfering herself.

No other coaches besides Salett and Mark, however, said they have had problems with Gonzalez bypassing coaches.

The Rules

Emphasizing enforcement Several captains and coaches commended Gonzalez for her organization.

Over her time at South, she has moved a number of forms online, reducing the amount of paperwork coaches must collect. She has made available a student handbook that most students did not know existed and moved a number of coach recertification classes to South.

Gonzalez said she has also been trying to standardize certain aspects of sports teams, including practice lengths — capped, at least nominally, at two hours — and tryout formats.

Regarding tryouts, Gonzalez said she wants students to experience consistency across sports. She has asked that tryouts be at least two days, and that coaches give players the results in person. “What is the focus point? It’s the student,” she said.

Some, though, have chafed under the new restrictions.

“Her coaches and her different sports are individual, and you can’t come up with a standard format for any of this stuff,” Salett said. “You almost can’t come up with a standard format [for] anything in life that involves people and their personalities.”

The two-hour rule also existed under former AD Scott Perrin, according to Principal Joel Stembridge. Few coaches, however, seemed to know of — let alone adhere to — the rule.

Gonzalez, on the other hand, has been more hands-on in ensuring that coaches actually do limit their practices to about two hours. Dalicandro said the rule reflects a schoolwide push to reduce student stress, and added that it is not a “big deal.”

Gonzalez said she distributed surveys to coaches, athletes and parents at the start of the fall 2015 season, and practice length was the primary concern of the latter two groups. She emphasized that the rule is intended to benefit students.

“Again, that’s what I have in mind, the students. Because after practice you have to go home and do homework,” she said.

Salett and Mark, however, contended that the fault lies in academic

stress, that every student is different and that, for some sports, two hours is simply inadequate.

While some, like Salett, accused her of micromanaging, Gonzalez said her overall aim is to give coaches “a roadmap of what is the best for the student.”

Dalicandro agreed. “I definitely see some coaches who are like ‘I want to be left alone. I know what I’m doing. I don’t need to be micromanaged,’” he said. But “this isn’t micromanagement; it’s just management. ... Just like the players need to be flexible with certain styles of coaching, the coaches need to understand and be flexible with different styles of leadership.”

Beyond such standardization, Gonzalez has also been working to enforce more MIAA rules in the athletics department. Many agreed that the department’s culture under Perrin was less regulated.

While a majority of coaches and captains said rules are rules and should be enforced, some pointed out that doing so could put South at a disadvantage.

For instance, senior Ava Shaevel, girls soccer and lacrosse captain, said she knows of a school that has its boys soccer coach run girls practices over the summer and vice versa, thus technically complying with MIAA restrictions on offseason interactions between coaches and players, but getting in extra practice nonetheless.

“Coming from a player, you want to play as much as you can,” DeNitto agreed.

“And you know that other schools are completely breaking the rules.”

Additionally, Mark and Salett said that Gonzalez uses enforcement as an excuse to discredit coaches and exert control. Salett said Gonzalez unnecessarily enforced “infinitesimal” rules.

“She couldn’t wait to find something to catch you on,” he said. “We’re still all human; there has to be a human side to us. And we all should be allowed to make mistakes.”

Dalicandro, however, said Gonzalez focuses less on strict enforcement and more on awareness.

“I think Mr. Perrin’s approach was ‘You’re the coach. You’re an adult. You know the rules, and you’re dealing with it, you take care of it,’” he said. “Where Ms. Gonzalez is more of ‘I want everyone to know the rules.’”

Jampol and McCallum agreed it is good that more rules are being enforced, especially given that noncompliant schools can be severely punished. And regardless of advantage or disadvantage, following the rules is simply an ethical duty, Gonzalez said.

“If you’re filing taxes in April, the IRS has a lot of rules that you have to follow. Will you choose to follow them, or not follow them? Sometimes you don’t follow them and you don’t get caught. ... Is that legal? Is that the right thing? Is that ethical? That’s the question,” she said.

“What you’re teaching the students is beyond ... winning games and so forth. It’s also being responsible and being ethical — that’s part of the package.”

Demographics Gender and ethnicity Stembridge questions whether Gonzalez’s gender or ethnicity — she grew up in Argentina, where her first language

was Spanish — has affected the nature of coaches’ complaints. He said he has never seen coaches treat any other school official this way.

“I wonder, would some of these comments be said about somebody who was white and male, by some of these white men?” he said.

Most coaches and captains, however, dismissed the notion that gender or ethnicity, including accent, could affect how they see Gonzalez. And many, including Mark, said Gonzalez’s accent has not affected the way she communicates.

“Some kids are just going to ... roll their eyes at anybody,” Dalicandro said.

Both senior Monica Cipriano, captain of girls volleyball and softball, and Shaevel did acknowledge such prejudice as a possibility, though they have seen nothing to affirm it.

While senior and boys soccer captain Nick Koci does not think gender affects how coaches treat Gonzalez, he said there is “definitely a subliminal sense of a gender discrepancy” in how athletes see her.

“When I hear people complaining about her, or about athletics at this school, it’s never a girl that complains. It’s usually a guy, and it’s usually about their sport,” he said.

Of the seven students interviewed, the girls generally reported very positive interactions with Gonzalez, whereas the boys’ comments tended toward a mix of criticism and praise.

How South welcomes others is ultimately reflective of the community, Stembridge said.

“You have some longstanding members of the Newton South community who have been coaches who feel it’s okay to say something publicly about her, or write letters,” he said. “Would they have done that to someone else? Why do they think it’s okay to do that to Ms. Gonzalez?”

The Future Making adjustments Both Jampol and Dalicandro believe coaches must be willing to learn and adapt to fit the new leadership of the athletics department. Some of the changes, however, come off as “nitpicky and forced,” according to DeNitto, which has made it hard for some to adjust, a point reiterated

by Salett and Mark.

But McCallum said coaches have two options: Accept the changes, or find a new job.

“You have a new boss, you got to do your job, you got to follow that boss’s vision, and if you don’t like the vision, you go and get a new job somewhere,” he said.

In the end, Gonzalez said, her priority is improving the student experience.

“I enjoy working with the team of coaches that we have,” she said. “I know that I’m challenging them and asking them to do things that are outside of their comfort zone, but I think with a majority, we have a communication that is opening, and then we make this program better for the students. That’s the bottom line.”

*Name changed to protect source’s identity

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|SPorts

Coach’s Corner The Roar’s Catherine Granfield asked girls basketball coach Joe Rodgers for a season update

Q A Q A Q A

February 26, 2016|page 23

Lessons from Basketball ANDREW BEREKET

sports contributor

Floating Column EDITOR’S NOTE: Every issue, The Roar publishes a different athlete’s perspective from his or her position on a sports team.

Contact srstaff@thelionsroar.com if you are interested in writing this column.

Joe Rodgers girls basketball coach What challenges has the team faced this season?

We’ve played as competitive a schedule as anybody has played anywhere. With regards to the quality of our league, and then some of the outer conference teams that we’ve played, and playing Newton North and playing North Hampton, all of those being road games, we’ve definitely been challenged as a team.

And [offensive execution and defense] are things that we’re getting better at, but things that we have to continue to work on.

Who do you think will be South’s biggest competition going into playoffs?

Whoever we play. Our ability to stay focused is going to be really important, and we have a great deal of respect for everybody who’s in our sectional. It’s going to be a really deep sectional with regards to the quality of the teams, so our thing is going to be to focus on one game at a time.

What have been some highlights from the regular season?

For me, [the team’s] receptiveness to everything [the coaches] have asked them to do, and the way they’ve been able to, for the most part, maintain their focus from game to game throughout the year has been the highlight.

South Scoreboard

***All information is as of 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 24, 2016***

Team

Next Game/ Meet

Record (W/L/T)

Boys Basketball

TBD

15-5

Girls Basketball Boys Hockey Girls Hockey

TBD

19-1

TBD TBD

8-7-3 10-7-5

Boys Gymnastics

N/A

5-0

Girls Gymnastics

N/A

5-1

Boys Swimming

N/A

7-4

Girls Swimming

N/A

3-5

Boys Track

February 28 (New Englands)

3-1

Girls Track

February 28 (New Englands)

4-1

Wrestling

N/A

24-10

Basketball was my first true love.

Since the age of five, I’ve cherished the game. Throughout elementary and middle school, the best part of my day was hearing that final bell ring and running to the basketball court to play pickup with my friends.

Some of the happiest moments of my life probably took place during these evening pickup games. We all pretended to be our favorite professional players.

Even now, in high school, basketball is my escape from all the stress and pressure that comes from school. For me, what makes basketball so special is how much it teaches about and relates to life.

It has taught me the value of hard work, discipline and commitment. These three things are not only vital to winning games, but are also keys to being successful at any challenges in life.

My entire life, I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of basketball, the atmosphere of intense, yet healthy competition that comes with this game.

It’s safe to say I wouldn’t be who I am without this game. It gave me my competitive drive. And as I got older and started playing basketball at a higher level, commitment and discipline have helped me become the best player possible.

The best part of basketball or sports in general, though, is the friendships you build. Sports allow you meet new people and develop friendships born of enjoying a communal activity. Through basketball, I’ve been able to meet great people and be a part of not just great teams, but amazing families, too. The social aspect of basketball is great, but it helps in more ways than just making friends.

The athlete who most inspired me was Kobe Bryant.2008 NBA Finals, in which the Lakers played the Celtics. Seeing how dominant Kobe was thrilled me, and that’s when I realized he was my favorite player. It is sad to see a player like him retire. For the past decade he’s not only inspired me, but he has shown me that you have to be ridiculously determined to be great.

Above all, basketball has always been fun. I think sometimes people lose the simple joy that comes with their sport. I started playing basketball because it was fun; the feeling of getting buckets has been exhilarating for me ever since I was young.

In a world filled with chores, playing basketball and eating are two things I actually love doing.

Basketball is more than a game — it’s a culture and a lifestyle. What I originally admired so much about basketball was how cool all the players were. Getting buckets like it’s nothing is perhaps the most sensational thing ever. That’s why my inspirations in life, not just in basketball, are great players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

When all is said and done, basketball will always be my first and true love.

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