Verde Volume 24 Issue 2

VERDE MAGAZINE

November 2022 Volume 24 Issue 2

Editors-in-Chief

Meena Narayanaswami

Jonas Pao Yash Shetty

Melody Xu

Managing Editors

ON THE COVER

A group of student onlookers are pictured on the Palo Alto High School bleachers at its Nov. 11 league football game against Stevenson School, almost 2 months after an incident at Paly’s football game against Gunn High School that sparked debate about sportsmanship and reputation. This photo was taken by Managing Editor Andrew Xue, who, for this issue’s cover story, asked 20 Paly community members whether they would trust a crowd of students.

Publication policy

Verde Magazine, a news and features magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Magazine Journalism class, is a designated open forum for student expression and discussion of issues of concern to its readership. Verde is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost.

Letters to the editors

The staff welcomes letters to the editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity. Send all letters to verde.eics@gmail.com or 50 Embarcadero Rd Palo Alto, CA 94301.

Advertising

The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts pro viding they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with Verde, please contact business managers Felicia Buchholz and Anna Van Riesen at verdebusiness5@gmail.com.

Printing & distribution

Verde is printed five times a year in September, November, Febru ary, April and May by Folger Graphics in Hayward, California. The Paly Parent Teacher Student Association mails Verde to every stu dent’s home. All Verde work is available at verdemagazine.com

Launch Editor Allegra West

Design Editor Esther Xu

Ajin Jeong Andrew Xue

Features Editors

Alexis Chiu Miya Whiteley

Profiles Editor Nadav Sternheim

Culture Editors Bella Daly Annum Hashmi

Perspectives Editor Andy Robinson News Editor Gopala Varadarajan

Sports Editor Nadav Sternheim

Digital Director Ashmita Rajmohan

Copy Editors

Alexis Chiu Bella Daly

Business Managers

Felicia Buchholz Anna Van Riesen

Social Media Managers

Austin Eng Anna Ghereghlou

Art Director

Palina Kuzmina

Staff Writers

Ashray Gupta Asha Kulkarni Nadia Soberg Adviser Paul Kandell

FROM THE EDITORS

DEFINING PALY

One day in the future, when we sit back and conjure up old memories of this semester of high school, many of us may think of a single defining moment: the rush of Palo Alto High School students to our hometown rival’s bleachers at the Sept. 9 football game — and the fallout from administrators that followed.

Whether you ran into the Gunn bleachers with dozens of your peers or spent that Friday night elsewhere, the odds are that the event seeped into your school life, either in the form of a dramatic lunchtime discussion with friends or seeing the schoolwide School ogy posts.

In the days and weeks that followed the football game, many questions were raised by the Palo Alto community about what kind of people Paly students are. Are they rowdy or spirited? Did their actions reflect a lack of responsibility or were they just teens being teens? What is their reputation within the greater Palo Alto com munity?

In his video broadcast to the school, Principal Brent Kline said that the rush tarnished that reputation.

“We need to work together to end this inappropriate and dis ruptive tradition of behavior and help you understand the impact of this negative behavior on our community and particularly our school,” Kline said in the video.

Our verdict? It’s not necessarily black and white. In our cov er story, Managing Editor Andrew Xue went around Palo Alto to ask community members one question: “Would you trust a Paly crowd?” We hope the 20 responses add different perspectives to the dialogue about what the Paly community values.

But, of course, the issue doesn’t stop at this feature.

As we consider who Paly is — both as a whole and as individu als — Asian American artist Ruth Asawa’s exhibit showcasing a sea of clay masks makes us wonder how our personal identity changes when we join a larger group. Each mask was cast from a unique person’s face, but when displayed together, do viewers appreciate the intricacy of each one or just see them as pieces of a whole?

Social Media Manager Austin Eng and staff writer Asha Kulkarni explored the exhibit and the essential lessons about the diversity of individuals and communities that Asawa and her art can teach us, in “Changing the face of art.”

“Hidden hero,” by Features Editor Alexis Chiu, will introduce you to Veronica Rodriguez — the person who has printed near ly every handout we have received from our teachers during our time at Paly. Rodriquez’s behind-the-scenes role is not recognized enough and Chiu’s profile reminds us that the Paly community is much more than just the student body.

In the perspectives section, Kulkarni and Perspectives Editor Andy Robinson dig into the changing nature of politics. Kulkarni challenges the widespread narratives surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris in “Reframing Kamala Harris,” and Robinson offers a way for the Democratic party to define its values and goals in a new political climate.

Our adviser, Paul Kandell, often references a quote on the wall of our MAC105 classroom: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” We hope that this issue will do just that. After all, that’s our job as student journalists.

MEENA, JONAS, YASH, MELODY

RAINY CAMPUS pg. 45

GLASS MUGS pg. 30

RUTH ASAWA pg. 32

the verdicts

Standardize grading between teachers of same course

VERDE URGES PALO Alto

High School’s faculty to further align course curricula. While we acknowledge and commend the ongoing efforts to encourage coordination between teachers, reducing discrepancies in content, pace and grading within each course are critical to ensuring that students receive the same rigor as their peers and are not being held to different standards.

The English Department began work ing on course alignment around 10 years ago by designing and refining its curricu lum in teams, according to English instructional leader Shirley Tokheim.

“The teams agree on teaching similar skills, a similar number of books and pa pers, pacing and similar course guides and grading practices,” Tokheim said. “It’s an ongoing evolution, of course, because we also want to be flexible in bringing in new ideas and practices.”

Like the English Department, the Sci ence Department also tries to keep some level of flexibility so that teachers can teach to their own styles, while ensuring that the material and assessments stay the same across similar courses.

“Generally, for the Science Depart ment, because we each teach two subjects, we usually rotate,” AP Chemistry teacher Samuel Howles-Banerji said. “So one week I’ll meet with [regular and honors] Chem

teachers and then the next week, with AP Chem teachers so that we can maintain that alignment.”

While we strongly believe that teach ers should be allowed room for creativity in their teaching style and lesson plans, we also believe it is important that students enrolled in the same courses should learn and be assessed on the same skills regard less of what teacher they have. The ongoing staff meetings and department efforts are a step in the right direction, but we feel that course alignment has not gone far enough.

Currently, differences between assignments, both in content and difficulty, as well as different grading standards are frus trating and discouraging for many students who feel they are putting in much more time and effort than their peers enrolled in the same courses with different teachers.

“My writing skills are getting better and I feel like I’m thinking smarter, and I’m doing all the right things, but it’s not ben eficial because my grade is worse than the other students [with different teachers],” junior Eric Sun said. Because transcripts and grades do not reflect different teaching styles or assignments that may have gone into final grades, we believe that assessments must be standardized across classes as much as pos sible.

“The goal is that one person who has a

Chem or Chem H grade on their transcript means the same as someone else who has the same course grade on their transcript,” Howles-Banerji said.

Creativity within teaching is import ant; however, we believe that different teaching styles and philosophies should not mean students enrolled in the same classes are assessed differently for the same course. Standardization would mean that teachers can teach their classes the way that they be lieve works best for them on a day-to-day basis and at the same time, students can expect that they will not have a completely different academic experience depending on which teacher they have.

“Giving teachers the freedom to teach class how they want is important be cause they are a lot more experienced and trained, but it is also important to hold teachers accountable to make sure grading is constant across the classes,” junior Evelyn Zhang said.

We urge all departments to continue their work in aligning course curriculums in teams so that teacher freedom and course alignment can be balanced. We hope that courses can be aligned so that a random draw of one teacher over another doesn’t determine the difficulty of the class, but in stead the work-rate and quality of the stu dent can decide it.

The Verdicts editorial section expresses the collective opinion of the Verde Magazine staff.

Art by MEENA NARAYANASWAMI

ASB ANSWERS

WITH SENIOR SENATOR MIA ROSE TUIFUA

What are you looking forward to doing in the Associated Student Body?

“I am looking forward to helping Wellness and Diversity commissioner with running the cultural committee. I think it is very important to have a committee where the ethnic clubs at Paly have a platform to showcase their clubs and cultures more. I also think that the committee unifies all cultures at Paly, as our goal is to find ways to incorporate underrepresented cul tures in our school more. The cultural committee will be hosting a multi-cul tural day in the second semester. At this event, all ethnic clubs wishing to join will be able to showcase their cul tures with a booth.”

IN THE OFFICE OF JOURNALISM

We went into the office of journalism Adviser Brian Wil son. Here’s what we found:

What impact do you want to leave on ASB?

“The impact I want to leave in ASB is that no one should ever be afraid to speak up for what you think is right. Even if we are voting on a matter and majority of the class votes a certain way, stay true to what you think is right. Also, many students part of the general stu dent body believes that we do ‘nothing’ in ASB. I just want ASB members and future members to remember all the hard work we put in for this school and to keep your head up high. It doesn’t matter that people don’t see us working hard in the classroom, we know what we do and we always present the best events for the student body.”

ADVISER BRIAN WILSON

A signed football given to Mr. Wil son in 2003 after coaching a suc cessful high school powderpuff foot ball team of ju niors.

A gavel representing a token of appreciation from the Journalism Education Association of Northern California for his service as president of the organi zation.

An Iron Man poster given to him by a friend. He received this around 10 years ago when working at a summer work shop at Michigan State University.

UPCOMING EVENTS

SPOT THE FAKE TIE

VERBATIM: WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR WINTER BREAK?

“I’m going on a team trip and just staying at home. It [the trip] is for basketball. We are going to a tournament in Aptos for like three days or so.”

— ITZEL TORRES, senior

“I’m traveling to Thailand for two weeks, from beginning to end of winter break.” — CLAIRE CHO, sophomore

“I’ll probably do some volunteering activ ities, like some community service things. There was a Red Cross thing. I don’t know if it’s in Palo Alto but it’s pretty near so I’ll prob ably do that.” — ABHI DESHPANDE, sophomore

Text and design by ALLEGRA WEST

Photos by ALLEGRA WEST

Quad to fully open one year from now

THE PALO ALTO HIGH School Quad will be under construction until December 2023 for the Tow er Building renovation.

“We’ll wait for everything to be done [to re-do the grass] just in case there’s some thing that happens that gets in the way,” Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson said.

New buildings to be all-electric

STARTING JAN. 1, Santa Clara County will require buildings to in stall all-electric appliances and heat ing systems, as well as infrastructure for charging electric vehicles. This program emerged under a new county ordinance, known as “Reach Codes,” that permits local energy amend ments to be adopted by cities and counties in California.

by ANNA GHEREGHLOU

The purpose of the construction is to add electrical lines and plumbing to and from the Tower Building. Fencing sur rounding the construction on half of the Quad was removed on Nov. 14. Some students are disappointed at the lack of full Quad accessibility.

“I’m going to miss things like Quad

side lands [student-band concerts] because they’re usually held there [on the Quad],” senior Brooke Threlkeld said. “I’m defi nitely going to be sad that the Quad isn’t going to be fully open because it’s such a community space for people.”

by MIYA WHITELEY

Miss California visits campus, offers advice

GIVING GUIDANCE

is visiting classrooms

state to promote the value of emotional intelligence. Among elementary schoolers, the majority of Liang’s audience, she said she hopes to help them to find motivation in themselves. “We often look to other people for inspiration but we often forget to find that within ourselves,” Liang said. “That’s why people often struggle with anxiety, stress and all of that, so I’m really encouraging people to focus on their emotions.”

Shetty

COMMENCING CONSTRUCTION — Workers dig up the fenced-off Palo Alto High School Quad, which students won’t fully enjoy until winter 2023. “That strip [the Quad] is going to be like that for a while until the whole project is done,” Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson said. Photo: Miya Whiteley

— Miss California 2022 Catherine Liang speaks with Verde Magazine staff writer Felicia Buchholz after visiting Verde on Oct. 26. Liang said she

across the

Photo: Yash

City proposes Churchill underpass

THE CITY OF PALO ALTO is re viewing plans for a pedestrian and bicycle underpass to make trans portation on Churchill Avenue safer.

Multiple designs are being considered; the city’s preferred plan is to build an un derpass for cars at Churchill Avenue and another underpass at either Kellogg Ave nue or Seale Avenue for cyclists and pedes trians. Construction on the underpasses is projected to be complete by 2030, and the

Churchill Avenue crossing will be closed for extended periods of time according to City of Palo Alto volunteer Arnout Boel ens.

“While 2030 seems very far away, and you might not even be at Paly anymore by that time, we are asking you to think about the future students of the school,” Boelens said.

by ANNA GHEREGHLOU and GOPALA VARADARAJAN

All classrooms to get heating and AC

THE PALO ALTO Unified School District School Board will install heating, ventila tion and air conditioning systems, or HVAC, in every PAUSD campus ac cording to the Oct. 11 meeting.

PAUSD’s Director of Facility and Construction Eric Holm said that the current plan will replace all old gas heaters at elementary and middle schools with electric heat and AC, and will be completed across all schools in the summer of 2026 with a forecasted budget of over $34 mil lion.

TRANSFORMING TRANSPORTATION — The proposed underpass will give students a safer and easier way of getting to school. “If the Churchill railroad crossing will be closed to pedestrians and bicyclists, many students will see a change in their route to school,” City of Palo Alto vol unteer Arnout Boelens said. “This might be for the better or for the worst for different people depending on where a new underpass will be built.” Graphics courtesy of City of Palo Alto

School adds college planning platform

THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE Guidance Initiative is partnering with the Palo Alto Unified School District to implement a new college and career planning platform in spring 2023.

According to Kathie Laurence, direc tor of academic initiatives for PAUSD, the platform uses CaliforniaColleges.edu, a free state-run website.

“It has seamless integration with com munity colleges, CSUs and UCs,” Lau rence said.

Laurence hopes to have the platform live by February, and the Class of 2024 will be the first to participate. Students in grades nine through 12 will have access to services such as career education, A-G course tracking, automatic transcript veri fication, academic planning and help with applications for federal student aid.

Sandra Cernobori, a college adviser at Palo Alto High School, anticipates that

CaliforniaColleges.edu will be more ben eficial to students and families outside of college and career planning.

“It’ll be a lot more obvious and trans parent that you’re on track for meeting CSU and UC eligibility even before you get to me,” Cernobori said.

CaliforniaColleges.edu is designed to supplement Naviance, the current col lege and career planning system used by PAUSD, according to Laurence.

For junior Sophia Lee, having both Naviance and Californiacolleges.edu in place would be an ideal, streamlined pro cess for applying to UC, CSUs and com munity colleges

“I used Naviance for college visits at Paly,” Lee said. “And I would support that [the new college and career planning plat form].”

by ASHA KULKARNI

According to Board of Educa tion Vice President Jennifer DiBrien za, PAUSD’s Board Bond Advisory Committee, which consists of board members, teachers, staff and parents, first recommended that all PAUSD sites be outfitted with HVAC in Feb ruary 2021.

“Plans were paused during the pandemic because of all of the vari ous needs,” DiBrienza said.

As winter brings steadily drop ping temperatures, students have ex pressed their frustration with the lack of infrastructure.

“We have [late hours] and … it gets really cold and difficult to work,” Palo Alto High School senior Dalia Antebi said. “I would like it if HVAC worked in all classrooms equitably.”

However, according to Holm, the distribution of existing HVAC systems disproportionately neglects younger students.

“Almost every elementary school and most classrooms at the mid dle schools [don’t have functional HVAC],” Holm said. “Most high school classrooms [do], with the ex ception of a few remaining rooms.”

by ANNA VAN RIESEN

Edited and designed by GOPALA VARADARAJAN

sports

ATHLETES ANSWER

Seniors, what are your expectations and goals for the upcoming winter season?

“Our goals were set after the heartbreak last year. Everyone that’s returning knows how badly we want it [Central Coast Section Champion] after the way we went down last year.”

— ZACHARY COOPER, boys soccer

“My main goal is to get everyone to bond and cohesively mesh as a team, so on the field we’re not disconnected.”

— PAYTON ANDERSON, girls soccer

“I’m expecting wins in the duals and I also have high hopes for me and my fellow wrestlers to get to states and CCS.”

— JOSHUA WILDE, boys wrestling

“I’m excited for the tournaments, hopefully we’ll see some hard work pay off. Most of the varsity has been training since the end of last season.”

— HAILEY OSHITA, girls wrestling

“We’re a really young team this year, and we have very few seniors, so hopefully the seniors can take a big step and lead a lot of our underclassmen.”

— JACKSON MARTIN, boys basketball

“We went Open [Division] last year so we’ll see if we can do that again. [I want] to have a fun year and good experiences with the whole team.”

— KAELLA PETERS, girls basketball

WATER WARRIORS — Palo Alto High School senior and varsity boys water polo captain Ivan Izjerman fires a shot during the team’s 10-8 win over Los Gatos. Ijzer man fires a shot during the Palo Alto High School boys varsity team’s 10-8 win over Los Gatos. Ijzerman’s two goals and senior goalkeeper Ian Johnson’s two penalty saves helped propel the Vikings to the senior night victory. “On the [second penal ty stop], I was mostly thinking about what celebration I should do after I block it,” Johnson said.

Text and photos by NADAV STERNHEIM

THE TINSLEY

TRANSFORMATION

CHANGES TO TRANSFER PROGRAM TAKE EFFECT

Text by ASHMITA RAJMOHAN and NADIA SOBERG

IN 1976, A GROUP OF PARENTS filed a lawsuit against nine Bay Area school districts, including Palo Alto Unified, alleging that the districts were unconstitutionally segregated as a result of ongoing redlining and gentrification.

After months of deliberation and me diations, the case was settled in March 1986 with the mandated creation of the Volun tary Transfer Program, or Tinsley Program, named after Margaret Tinsley, one of the leading parent plaintiffs in the case.

Today, there are approximately 650 transfer students attending six Bay Area dis tricts including PAUSD, according to Amy Love, who currently oversees the program.

While the program has been successful in bringing East Palo Alto students into dis tricts with fewer minority students, many VTP participants describe feeling isolated at Palo Alto schools. Palo Alto High School junior Elizabeth Alva-Salazar said that the isolation was the worst for her in elemen

tary school because there were fewer other Hispanic students at her school.

“Growing up, I’ve usually only been one of the only Hispanics in the class rooms,” Alva-Salazar said. “If I’m lucky, there’s only a handful of Hispanics in each classroom, but in elementary school, there weren’t that many at all.”

Junior Evelyn Estrada-Perez had sim ilar experiences at Duveneck Elementary School, where she started as a kindergart ner.

“Growing up going to schools in Palo Alto made me feel very isolated, despite the Tinsley program being designed to reduce racial isolation,” Estrada-Perez said. “There were not enough minorities or people that came from the same background as me, es pecially in elementary school, so I felt pret ty alone.”

Another challenge faced by VTP stu dents has been lengthy bus rides to get to and from school.

Depending on where in East Palo Alto they live, students can spend up to two hours on the bus each way. To address the transportation issues, in 2019, PAUSD Superintendent Don Austin consolidated VTP students to fewer elementary schools located closer to East Palo Alto.

The move was met with mixed reac tions, with some VTP parents objecting to having their families uprooted from their school communities. Schools including Juana Briones Elementary School and Lu cille M. Nixon Elementary School would no longer host VTP students, to reduce bus times. Palo Alto School Board member Jen nifer DiBrienza said she remembers parents being concerned that their students would be separated from their friend groups as a result of the change to the program.

“One of the concerns [from parents]

was, ‘Hey, my kid has a friend group, you’re not going to make them leave, right?’” DiBrienza said.

The board chose to address this issue by allowing families who wanted their stu dents to remain at a farther school to do so, DiBrienza said, while also funneling all new students into a fewer number of schools.

“I remember that we did make some accommodations, like okay for the next year or two, we’ll make it a slow transition,” DiBrienza said. “Anyone coming [into the program] new will go to a closer school. We’ll encourage everyone to go to a closer school, but if you really want to keep going, you’ll just be on the bus for a lot longer.”

While DiBrienza remembers the de cision being mainly motivated by reduc ing bus times for VTP students, district officials also hoped that this change would

help reduce racial isolation for students.

“I remember hearing that conversa tion and I just know that the driver [of the decision] was the buses, but I think [racial isolation] was also a consideration when thinking about it,” DiBrienza said.

While Estrada-Perez sees the benefits of this change and thinks it will help to re duce racial isolation, she has mixed feelings about it.

“I feel like if the program was designed to have students from other cities go into the Palo Alto district, then it should be all the schools, not just a few,” she said. v

Editor’s note: Verde is interested in reporting more about this change. Please email verdemagazine1@gmail.com if you or anyone you know who would be willing to speak to us about it.

FRIENDS FOREVER — Palo Alto High School juniors Evelyn Estrada-Perez, Martha Estrada-Perez and Elizabeth Alva-Salazar have been part of the Tinsley program since elementary school and are some of the few students from East Palo Alto who attend Palo Alto schools. “It’s different because when you have people that are the same as you, they understand you more,” Alva-Salazar said. Photo: Nadia Soberg

WOULD YOU TRUST A PALY CROWD?

Text and design by ANDREW XUE

THE SCOREBOARD READ 41-0 as murmurs of confusion swept through the crowd. The football game came to a sudden halt. There were still five minutes left on the clock, so what happened?

On Sept. 9, Palo Alto High School and its local rival — Henry M. Gunn High School — faced off in a football game for the first time in 12 years. Energy and excitement swept through the Paly crowd and in the last 12 minutes of the game, Paly students ran over to the Gunn bleachers, shouting celebratory chants like “Sko Vikes!”

No violence between Gunn and Paly students was reported. However, the game ended early as a result of Paly students’ “un sportsmanlike” behavior and administrators’ safety concerns, ac cording to Paly Principal Brent Kline.

In the following week’s morning broadcast, Kline announced school-wide consequences for the disruptive actions that unfolded at the football game including cutbacks to the upcoming Spirit Week events and further consequences if unsportsman like behav ior continued.

In addition, the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League sanctioned Paly as a result of student conduct at the game banning students from the next few sporting events.

The events of the Paly-Gunn football game were just one of many incidents that have created a negative image of Paly students within the Palo Alto community. Other historic events and tradi tions including “egg wars” and streaking have also tarnished Paly students’ reputation.

Paly’s unsanctioned “egg wars” is an outside of school event where seniors and juniors throw eggs at each other on private and public property throughout Palo Alto, often causing damage. In 2009, the school paid $3,200 for clean-up and repair for Gunn after “egg wars” took place on its campus, according to a 2019 Verde article.

The same article also discussed streaking, another controver sial Paly act where students ran naked in public areas. This tradi tion has not continued since 2016 when Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson enforced suspensions for all who participated.

These actions provide a very different perspective of Paly than its well-known academic achievements. This year, Paly was ranked the 34th best high school in California and its students placed in the 98th percentile overall for the Smarter Balanced assessment, according to US News.

Kline said that Paly is now defined instead by the inappro priate and unsportsman-like behavior of its fans, which must be countered by implementing new student expectations.

In light of Paly students’ recent behavior at the Gunn-Paly football game and long standing reputation for intense school spir it and rowdy traditions, Verde asked Palo Alto community mem bers one simple question: “Would you trust a Paly crowd?” v

SHROUDED SPIRIT — Palo Alto High School senior Isabelle Jacobi and her friends actively listen during Timothy Alexander’s motiva tional speech following the Gunn-Paly football game incident. “I liked that we got a more personal talk where he focused on what everyone should keep in mind during senior year and what to value in these last couple months,” Jacobi said. Photo: Cayden Gu

Brent Kline

Palo Alto High School Principal

“I would 100% trust a Paly crowd right now. After the foot ball game, I saw a change happen before my eyes. I saw more people helping each other, more people being friendly with each other, more people encouraging each other, more peo ple being the right kind of person, and more people listening to those people. It feels like there was an understanding that that’s [the football game] not who we are, and in the last few football games, it’s like a whole other group of people. It’s the same people just channeling their energy and their spirit in the most appropriate way. We’re all trying to reach the same conclusion and to understand and to make tomorrow a better day.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Timothy Alexander

Palo Alto High School Guest Speaker

“Yes, I would trust the Paly crowd because they’ve all been through something. We’re always taught if you do the crime, you gotta pay the time, and the Paly crowd decided to go forth, which they didn’t know was gonna be a crime and ended up doing the time. Things had to be refocsed and re centered, but I believe it showed them that they can get to gether and make their own decisions and the right decisions. Regardless of what we have, or regardless of what we have access to, these are still high school students and not adults. They’re going to make mistakes, but we just hope they don’t make this mistake again. At the end of the day, I still have that love for the school.”

Photo: Jonathen Chen

53.1%

of students surveyed reported they would trust a Paly crowd

Data presented is from an opt-in survey by Verde Magazine of 132 Palo Alto High School students and was collected from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4 through a digital form pub lished on Schoology pages and Verde social media. Responses were anonymous and all questions were optional.

James Hamilton

Evie Kramer

Palo Alto High School Guidance Counselor

“Yes, I would. I think by and large, our kids are great. I have great experiences with them. I enjoy working with them. I know there have been incidents like the football game, but I think those things normally happen. That doesn’t reflect who they are as a people and I think they’ve responded very well to the situation. I think we have good kids and I trust them to do what’s right.”

Juno

Kim Gunn High School

Senior Class President

“Yes, Paly has a lot of people I trust and don’t trust, but that’s just about everyone. I don’t have the most perfect picture of Paly students, but I’m also on Gunn’s SEC and I know I don’t perfectly represent Gunn’s students, so I trust Paly students.”

Lili Wakenshaw

Palo Alto High School Junior

“Accidents do happen but I don’t think it’s really correlated to the Paly crowd. We are high school students and stuff is gonna go down. This is the age where we are developing our brains and taking risks, that’s how we learn. So I feel like all the stuff that’s going on is not really representative of Paly a school. Rather, it’s representative of high school students as a group.”

Palo Alto High School ASB Spirit Comissioner

“I know we don’t have the best reputation, but I think that as a campus, we are typically very respectful individuals. I think that when we came together, especially after the Gunn-Paly football game, we’ve learned that that type of behavior is not acceptable and in the future, I would trust Paly students to act responsibly. Additionally, I think that as the football sea son has continued on, and we’ve gone back to having students in the stands, you’ve seen that we can be respectful and I think that shows good growth.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Roxanne Lanzot

Palo Alto High School Teacher

“I think my perspective is informed by the fact that I have worked with lots of different schools and I’m from New York which can be absolutely crazy. My perspective may be quite different than a person who’s lived their entire life in Palo Alto because they’ve only ever seen PAUSD schools. In my experience, it [Paly and its students] feels safe and it feels almost always positive.”

Mayerly

Short

Palo Alto High School Campus Supervisor

“No, I wouldn’t, because some students, not all, don’t even pay for games and are disrespectful to people who are trying to just follow the rules.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Photo: Andrew Xue

Photo: Andrew Xue

Photo: Andrew Xue

Photo: Juno Kim

Jennifer Crane

Palo Alto High School Atheletic Director

Charlie Jurney

Palo Alto High School Senior

“I don’t think a random sample of Paly students could be completely trusted because here, there’s a lot of corner cut ting and there’s definitely cheating of all kind. For me, their honesty is put into question, but generally I feel like we’re a pretty good school.” Photo: Andrew Xue

Photo: Andrew Xue

“Yes, absolutely. We have a great student body full of respon sible, polite, good spirited kids and I think that they’ve done a really good job this fall season at showing that. I think the Paly-Gunn football game gave us an opportunity to look at the systems we have in place for athletic events, and to remind students of the expectations for good sportsmanship and how to behave at those events. Students stepped up to that call and I appreciate that they did.”

Jason Auzenne

Palo Alto High School Parent

“It depends upon the situation but overall I’d say yes, because I think that they come from responsible parents. I know kids get out of hand but they’re logical and can understand the consequences of their actions. The Gunn-Paly football game didn’t influence my trust for the Paly crowd because kids are gonna be kids. This is high school sports and kids should get a little more leeway for the game; admin was really strict about a lot of minor stuff.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Michelle Steingart

Palo Alto High School Assistant Principal

“Yes, I would trust the Paly crowd as they have shown to be incredibly respectful and positive for the games that I’ve been with them.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Paul Wang

Green Middle School

8th Grader

“It’s not the overall student body that should be trusted or not trusted, but individual students who should be judged.”

Photo: Paul Wang

Ink Jamil

Palo Alto High School

Freshman

“It depends on the size of the crowd but it also depends greatly on the type of people that are in that crowd, because I feel like people would generally get peer pressured to do silly things sometimes. I recently started high school and it [the Gunn-Paly football game] feels like a normal thing that would happen occasionally. It’s a bunch of high school stu dents in a football game, what can you expect? However, the Paly aspect influences my trust because kids here are very privileged and we do have to accept that they’re going to be less focused on obeying the rules because they don’t get in trouble that much.” Photo: Ink Jamil

Jeff

Lamb Central Coast Section Coordinator

Luis Camacho

Kirk’s Steakburger Worker

“No, I wouldn’t completely trust any high school crowd be cause you’re high school students and high school students will want to act in a certain way. There could be differences between schools, but teenagers are teenagers, and they like to push limits. That’s part of growing up.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Kathie McGinn

“It’s probably like a 50 - 50. A lot of kids that come in here, they’re nice and they comply with what we say. But on the other hand, we’ve been having kids that make spitballs and they leave them on the walls, under the tables and on the ta bles. They get mad because we tell them the water cups aren’t for other drinks and they’ll spill the drinks on the table and leave stuff like that.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Peers Park Resident

“I totally trust a Paly crowd. I think they are stand up young people and they have a great community of teachers and administrators and of course, their parents. There’s always a bad apple in every group, but generally I’d say 99% I would trust them. I had been involved in the PTA at Pally for a number of years and I’ve worked at Paly on a part time basis and my experiences were very positive.”

Tristan Jud Peet’s Coffee Barista

Photo: Andrew Xue

Marcy

Mckee

“It’s hard to tell. I don’t know anything about their personal lives or how they’re brought up, but from the privilege in this area, my trust for them becomes questionable. Students who come in for Peet’s are pretty chill; it’s mostly the adults that are annoying. I would say my overall experience with them [Paly students] is positive.” Photo:

Andrew Xue

Lun Yuen

Peers Park Resident

“I am glad they skipped the egg wars. because my answer might have been different. It [egg wars] happens with a rath er big mob around my house and it’s damaged my cars and it scared the bejesus out of everybody in the house. I think overall, however, I trust high school students. There’s lim itations, but I would trust them to be doing things that are reasonable for teenagers.”

Photo: Andrew Xue

Peers Park Resident

“In general, I think most kids are pretty responsible. The football game is a different story because there will be a bunch of students who start doing things because they see other people doing so as well. However, if you ask them if they would do that before the game, they would probably say no.” Photo: Jonas Pao

WE MEAN BUSINESS — Palo Alto High School students cheer for their respective classes as representatives of each grade play games in order to win points for their class. “Some guys can get really competitive out of school spirit, especially in rivalries, but when stuff happens, they’ve all had pretty good sportsmanship,” said Paly Alumni Zach Mann. Photo: Annelise Balentine

Text and photo by ALEXIS CHIU

WHAT’S WITH THE DISTRICT CONTINUES WITH SCHOOL SAFETY PROJECT

NEW CLOCKS?

HAVE YOU NOTICED that every analog clock in school has been replaced with a new digital one? These new digital clocks not only tell the time, but are part of an intricate new communication system.

New digital clocks were installed starting in early October in every room across the Palo Alto Unified School District as part of a $3.9 million initiative called the Campus Safety Refresh Project.

The project, approved in July 2021, aims to in tegrate security camera, clock and speaker systems and desk phones to work together for better security in the entire district in the event of a lockdown, according to PAUSD Chief Technology Officer Derek Moore.

“Having all those pieces tied together to alert people, the messages can be pre-re corded so that it is not somebody thinking of ‘What do I need to say’ in the all call [announcement] overhead paging,” Moore told Verde.

This new system will help in the event of an active shooter, Moore said, especially now that Palo Alto High School’s security cameras were updated and centralized to one system in June, where they had previously been on three separate systems.

“This [clock speaker] system can dim any noise in the room,” Supt. Don Austin told Verde. “So if you’re using a projector or a TV screen, and it has volume on it, [and] we’re trying to make an announcement, it

will cut that volume down so that you can hear the announcements.”

The project is projected for comple tion at the end of this calendar year, Moore said, and along with that comes additional training for employees and students.

“If we don’t practice these things, it doesn’t really matter what technology is involved,” Moore said. “The human process of what to do in the event of an incident is what needs to be prac ticed.”

Paly hasn’t conduct ed a lockdown drill since before the pandemic, Austin said, but with this new technology, new protocols will have to be practiced.

“We’re gonna be able to test all of that technology but we’re not gonna do the tra ditional active shooter training where we’re going to rattle doors and have people hide,” Austin said.

The clocks, with Atlas IEP IP speak ers, are all interconnected through wifi and have the capabilities of broadcasting bells on a predetermined schedule but also can make announcements to specif ic classrooms in real time from the administration office.

The third component, which Moore said should come by the end of the calendar year, are classroom desk phones connected through

a network. These will replace the old call buttons and phones currently in each class room.

“[In the past] if a teacher dialed in that there was an issue from their phone, the police department wouldn’t have known what room that call came from,” Austin said. “They would’ve only seen it as a ge neric number from the school. And now, we can pinpoint to classrooms. So our ac curacy and ability to communicate is much better.”

With new technology being imple mented across the entire district, the cost is high. According to Austin, the project’s overall $3.9 million budgeted cost came from the district’s $500 million bond, a sum of money that is tax money approved by voters that can be used for improve ments — in this case, technology.

“It [$3.9 million] is a very small per centage in the grand scheme of things, al though it’s a big number,” Austin said.

Moore said the $3.9 million has been invested into a valuable piece of district se curity technology.

“Through the use of drills and kind of training, you get used to hearing these and know ing what to do in the event that an unfortunate incident does happen,” Moore said. “It’s kind of the thinking of putting all those pieces together into an integrated system opposed to using human beings as the connector and relying on some connection pieces in the event of an incident.” v

“ This [clock speak er] system can dim any noise in the room.”

—Supt. DON AUSTIN

“ It [$3.9 million] is a very small percentage in the grand scheme of things, although it’s a big number.”

— Supt. DON AUSTIN

Text by BELLA DALY and ANNA GHEREGHLOU

CAN I

DRINK THE H20?

EXPLORING EAST PALO ALTO’S WATER CRISIS

YELLOW WATER RUNS out of bathroom and kitch en faucets in households and public facilities in certain neighborhoods of East Palo Alto. This is the reality that some East Palo Altans have been facing for years, accord ing to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

To combat this issue, 74% of East Palo Alto residents have taken action by buying bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes, according to a survey released by East Palo Alto nonprofit Nuestra Casa which surveyed 715 resi dents.

Verde went door-to-door in East Palo Alto and found a number of resi dents who have experienced the water issues highlighted by the Nuestra Casa survey. Palo Alto High School freshman and East Palo Alto resident Jose Pinto has experienced issues with his water over the past two years, although less so since his family moved.

“From time to time, there’d be some really dirty water [where

Pinto used to live],” Pinto said. “You couldn’t even wash your hands with it. You could literally see the color’s nasty.”

His family took steps to address the problem.

“We used to use a filter for our sink,” Pinto said. “In some areas in East Palo Alto there is still really bad [water].”

According to the Palo Alto Daily Post, East Palo Alto residents get water from the city or two privately-owned companies: Palo Alto Park Mutual Water Company and the O’Connor Tract Coop erative.

The two companies get their water from wells, while the city receives its water from the Hetch Hetchy system like var ious Bay Area cities including Palo Alto.

“The city water is Hetch Hetchy, so aside from old infrastruc ture, it should be fine,” Palo Alto Daily Post reporter Emily Mibach said in an interview with Verde.

Mibach, who has been reporting on San Mateo County for five or six years, heard about the issue in a Nuestra Casa press re

Photos by ESTHER XU

“From time to time, there’d be some really dirty water. You couldn’t even wash your hands with it.”

— JOSE PINTO, freshman

lease, and found that many residents she interviewed do not feel safe drinking the water.

“I’d kind of heard sometimes residents in EPA turn their tap on and it’s brown,” Mibach said. “But sometimes that happens when water companies flush the water lines and people aren’t noti fied so they don’t know that it’s a temporary thing.”

Mibach said that she thinks it’s more difficult to address a problem when a company is privately owned.

“If the city does something bad, residents can show up and yell at City Council about it,” Mibach said. “It’s a little harder to do when it’s a private company.”

The East Palo Alto City Council met on Oct. 4 to work to address the water quality and take action related to the 2022 Water System Master Plan.

“The water controlled by EPA is old pipes,” Mibach said. “The city has been working on a plan to replace some of those old pipes.”

City Councilman Carlos Romero, lives in the Palo Alto Mu tual Water Company’s distribution area and spoke about how bad his water is, according to the same city council meeting. He men tioned that sometimes his water is brown. Even as a member of the city government, he does not know why he’s experiencing this

issue. Romero was not available to comment on the issue.

“I think it [problems with water] adds to some of the stigma about EPA being less than [Palo Alto], but it also points out the years and years of neglect that the city has received from San Mateo County, from its neighbors,” Mibach said.

As part of the Oct. 4 meeting, the city approved plans to re place old iron pipes that the city’s water runs through, including replacements on University Avenue and Weeks Street.

Although this is a major step in helping address the issue, the problem goes beyond old pipes and is rooted in the longstanding disparities that exist between East Palo Alto and Palo Alto.

Pinto reflects on his experiences with his water.

“And having to waste our money [on plumbing services] just to get something … that should have been clean a while ago,” Pin to said. “It’s a waste of money to get a resource we need.” v

DANGEROUS DRINKING This sign hangs on the mirrors of the East Palo Alto Library bathroom cautioning visitors against drinking the water. “I went to the library, their water’s super dirty,” freshman and East Palo Alto resident Jose Pinto said.

WACKY WATER — East Palo Alto residents, for instance at the East Palo Alto Library, have been dealing with poor water quality. “You couldn’t even wash your hands with it [the water]. You could see the color’s nasty,” freshman and East Palo Alto resident Jose Pinto said.

COSTS OF QATAR

WORLD CUP HOST CREATES DILEMMA FOR FANS

EIGHT LONG YEARS have passed since the United States Men’s National Team last played in a World Cup soccer game. Since then, many American fans have ea gerly waited to watch their country re-enter the sport’s biggest stage during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

But this time, their support will come at a cost.

In 2010, international soccer govern ing body FIFA chose Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, sparking protests from fans, players, teams and TV personalities.

Qatar’s hot summer temperatures re sulted in the World Cup being moved to the winter.

Many fans were disappointed with the logistical issues that arose from the change,

but people were most upset with Qatar’s track record of human rights abuses to wards migrant workers — especially those tasked with building the seven brand-new stadiums.

Palo Alto High School Foreign Policy teacher and boy’s freshman-sophomore soc cer coach John Bungarden said that FIFA has turned a blind eye to Qatar’s human rights controversies.

“They [Qatar] mistreat guest workers badly,” Bungarden said. “[They are given] a job sometimes under brutal conditions. Sometimes [there are] issues of pay and whether people are treated fairly.”

Over 6,500 workers from various South Asian countries have died in Qatar since it won the World Cup hosting bid, the Guardian reported.

Additionally, British-based humanrights organization Amnesty International has reported on issues such as unpaid wag es, unexplained deaths and forced labor for migrant workers in Qatar.

This isn’t the first time a World Cup host country has come under fire, or the first time protests against corruption in FIFA have risen.

“It’s terrible,” Bungarden said. “The world at large doesn’t care, and God knows FIFA doesn’t care. This is an organization that has been, over the years, profoundly corrupted.”

The controversy surrounding FIFA and Qatar has created a dilemma for many fans.

Otto Kiss Meyerfreund, a Brazilian Paly student, is a lifelong fan of the Brazil

World Cup Hosts: Past, Present and Future

A. Brazil — 2014

2014 World Cup host Brazil was met with its fair share of crit icism, with dissenters citing the billions of dollars spent by the already economically struggling country and expensive infra structure projects such as a $300 million stadium that would later be virtually abandoned.

C. Qatar — 2022

Aside from the ethical considerations of hosting a World Cup in Qatar, a drawback of this World Cup is that packing the tournament amid other competitions, such as the English Premier League and the Champions League, has led to an increase in player injuries.

national team and is part of a unique category of fans.

While Kiss Meyerfreund is aware of Qatar’s human rights issues, he said that he is choosing to travel to watch the tourna ment in-person because it has been a long time dream of his.

“What’s happened has already happened,” Kiss Meyerfreund said. “People going or not going isn’t going to change that.”

Nevertheless, Kiss Meyerfreund said that he would choose to go to a World Cup in a less controversial host country if possible.

“I would rather go to a World Cup in a country that has some tradition with the sport, and hasn’t had such a big scandal with the World Cup with corruption and people

B. Russia — 2018

After Russia won its World Cup bid, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated suspected corruption in FIFA. According to the New York Times, “More than half the people involved in the votes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups… have been accused of wrongdoing, though not necessarily criminally charged.”

D. U.S., Mexico and Canada — 2026

Probably the least controversial World Cup hosts since 2010 host South Africa, the U.S., Mexico and Canada will co-host the 2026 event. Sixteen cities will host matches, consisting of 11 American cities, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Mexico City, Van couver and Toronto.

dying, than to have gone to the World Cup in Qatar,” Kiss Meyerfreund said.

Senior and varsity soccer player Asher Friedman is working on a research project for his Advanced Authentic Research class investigating corruption in FIFA.

Friedman said that fans prioritize their enjoyment of the sport over underlying ethical considerations, especially during events as significant as the World Cup.

“The reason why the problem isn’t re ally solved is because as long as people are continuing to give FIFA money by watch ing the games, … FIFA will continue bene fiting,” Friedman said.

Even with the knowledge that watch ing the World Cup supports FIFA, Fried man will still watch the World Cup.

“I want to support the sport and the

players, and I enjoy it [the World Cup],” Friedman said. “It certainly is a dilemma, but it’s not going to stop me from watching it.”

Despite the controversy and corrup tion surrounding the tournament, Fried man said that there are possible solutions to FIFA’s problems.

“Finding another way to make sure they’re held accountable for what they do will be an easy way to fix it,” Friedman said. “I think they can clean up their act in the near future.” v

Editor’s note: The author of this article is on the Boy’s Varsity Soccer Team with Asher Friedman, who is featured above. However, the interview was conducted before the team roster was announced.

MENTAL HEALTH:

A WORK IN PROGRESS

ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE WELLNESS SUPPORT

Editors’ note: This story contains content about mental health and suicide which may be sensitive for certain audiences. If you or someone you know is having a mental health crisis, call or text the Suicide & Cri sis Lifeline at 988 to receive help.

ACROSS THE NATION, nearly 20% of high school students report serious thoughts about suicide, according to the Na tional Alliance on Mental Illness. In San ta Clara County, however, the numbers are higher — a staggering 33.5% of students reported experiencing chronic sadness and hopelessness in the 2017–2018 California Healthy Kids Survey.

Palo Alto has had a history of men tal health concerns. During the 2014–15 school year, the Palo Alto Unified School District saw the deaths of four high school students. Five years earlier,

in the span of just a few years made the local suicide rate four times the national average in 2015.

Since then, the district has made nu merous changes to its wellness services in an attempt to address these alarming mental health concerns.

“In the past five years, we have placed a heavy focus on mental health,” Yolanda Conaway, the district’s assistant superintendent of equity and student af fairs, stated in an email to Verde. “The PAUSD Promise [outlining the district’s goals] was developed in 2019 calling out mental health and wellness as a priority. In the 2021–22 school year, mental health was elevated as one of the district’s top five priority areas.”

Conaway said she believes that PAUSD has made significant progress in its well ness approach by im plementing more school-based mental health support.

“Unlike many districts, we have wellness centers at all secondary sites,” Conaway said. “We have moved away from reliance on external mental health professionals and are hiring and training

dents in PAUSD and surrounding dis tricts have led to the increased percentage of students with chronic sadness, accord ing to Conaway.

“The district is very aware that students are reporting stress and anxiety related to school and school demands,” Conaway said. “School teams have begun to take a deeper look at homework and grading practices as a factor in reports of stress and anxiety.”

School board representative and Palo Alto High School senior Johannah Seah said she agrees that these expectations not only put students in a constant state of stress, but lead students to prioritize school work over seeking help.

“The largest challenge is the academic pressure and pressure to succeed, which also goes hand in hand with mental health stig ma and the idea that struggling equates to failure or weakness,” Seah said. “The pressure also prevents a lot of students from being able to access the Wellness Center and mental health resources.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic,

“ The largest challenge is the academic pressure and pressure to succeed.”

— JOHANNAH SEAH, school board representative

opinion. However, the limited access to wellness professionals over the past school year was problematic for many students needing counseling.

“Paly specifically experienced a shortage in therapists last year, which made it difficult for students to meet or find a therapist that worked for them,” Seah said. “I hope the district continues to fund therapist access on campus for all secondary schools.”

Nevertheless, the local teen suicide rate has dropped considerably since its peak in 2014. In 2019, the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services De partment reported that Santa Clara County had the lowest teen suicide rate of any county in California at 15 suicides per 200,000 people.

PAUSD has been working to improve its wellness services by encourag ing students to approach school counsel ors and reduce mental health stigma.

“One of the things I notice the most

services, the district plans to promote staff mental health support by increasing funding, hiring more personnel and improving data collection systems, among other goals.

“We have been also focusing atten tion on staff mental health supports but I believe we need to continue to work on this issue,” Board of Education Vice President Jennifer DiBrienza said. “The pandemic was unbelievably difficult for our teachers and staff and these are not easy jobs to begin with. We need to make sure our staff has the support they need to feel good and bring their best selves to the work.”

Palo Alto has made tremendous progress since the tragedies of the last decades, according to Conaway. The recent improvements in wellness services have helped better student wellbeing, with much still to improve.

“I am happy to see steps being tak en and improvements being made over

Data presented is from an opt-in survey by Verde Magazine of 132 Palo Alto High School students and was collected from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4 through a digital form published on Schoolo gy pages and Verde social media. Responses were anonymous and all questions were optional.

44.3% have used school mental health and wellness resources

TEACHING TOGETHER — From left to right: Palo Alto High school teachers Kathi Bowers, Debbie Whitson and Natalie Docktor stand together holding their glass mugs. “The students are always so interesting,” Whitson said. “It’s such a variety that we have here where it’s kind of inspiring to see. It’s always kind of exciting to see who the next batch of students is going to be.”

Photo: Esther Xu

HONORING OUR LONGEST-SERVING FACULTY

EVERY JUNE, THE GRADUATING CLASS LEAVES campus, scattering across the world to pursue their own journeys. In the fall, 500 new students replace them.

Amid this continuous cycle of incoming freshmen and graduating seniors, the Palo Alto High School population is ever-changing — but some presences on campus have remained constant for decades.

After 10 years of service and every five years after that, the Palo

Alto Unified School District gifts teachers with a mug to recognize their contributions. While teachers who have worked in the district for 10 to 30 years are given porcelain mugs, teachers with 35 years of service are awarded a special glass mug.

We spoke with three of the longest-serving Paly teachers on campus and the only currently employed recipients of the 35-year glass mug — Kathi Bowers, Natalie Docktor and Debbie Whitson — about their time at Paly. v

SUBJECT: MATHEMATICS

Your favorite memory at Paly?

“About 6:30 in the morning they [Paly graduates] started arriving [at the hospi tal]. …There must have been 40 kids … in this tiny room, maybe 35 kids outside the door. The nurses thought it was the greatest thing, and they’re passing this baby, my lit tle newborn all around.”

What has changed the most at Paly?

“There seemed to be a lot more activities on campus. People still went to Town and Country, but Town and Country also wasn’t the way it is now. There were three places where kids got food and they would get their food and come back here.”

What’s kept you at Paly for so long?

“As far as Paly is concerned, I still think it’s the best place to work on the peninsula. … Interestingly enough, if I had to pick what’s changed the least in the last 35 years, it would be the kids … they look like their parents and act like their parents.”

SUBJECT: ECONOMICS

What’s kept you at Paly for so long?

“I enjoy it [teaching]. … [Every year, I] feel like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna do it a little better, a little differently. I’m gonna meet more stu dents.’ It’s always fun when students come back and they’re like, ‘Oh, this helped me so much’ or ‘I remember your room being a really safe place.’”

Did you plan on being a teacher?

“It never occurred to me that I was going to be a high school teacher. In fact, my first job I worked in a venture capital firm … I took this funny part time job at Pinewood School … And I was like, I love this, so then I went back and got my teaching cre dential.”

What has changed the most at Paly?

“Of course, technology has changed. You know, in a way, it’s changed a lot of things. But on the other hand, we get used to it so quickly. It’s kind of the same thing. I’m still dealing with high school students and they’re still dealing with me as a teacher.”

SUBJECT: MATHEMATICS

What has changed the most at Paly?

“When I started teaching Paly had 1100 students. We were very small. It was fun. It was great. We only had like nine math teachers … But we’ve grown, you know, we’ve gone to over double … it feels less homey a little bit. So it’s evolved in that re spect, but it’s still a fabulous place to be.”

Your favorite memory at Paly?

“Some of my favorite times were way back in the beginning. I took the whole math de partment sailing. My dad has a boat, [and] I grew up sailing. And so that was really fun. Taking the whole math department out there … [is] a good memory.”

Did you plan on being a teacher?

“I studied math not knowing I was going to be a teacher … But then I started taking classes in San Diego through the education department … I loved being in the class room and doing lectures on the board. That inspired me to go to grad school.”

Changing

the face of art

EXHIBIT HONORS LEGACY OF EDUCATION

Text by AUSTIN ENG and ASHA KULKARNI

DOWN THE MARBLE corridor of Stanford Univer sity’s Cantor Arts Center, one exhibit captivates the eyes of many: “The Faces of Ruth Asawa.” Clay masks of 233 unique faces line the exhib it’s wall, natural light accentuating every de tail. Asawa’s mask rests on the top right corner, as if watching over the crowd.

As part of its re cent Asian American Art Initiative, the Can tor is displaying the clay face masks cast by the late Japanese American artist to honor her work and her contribution to art education, especially in Northern California.

Asawa is most known for her wire sculptures that experiment with color, form, transparency and shadow.

“The faces on a wall is another side

of Asawa that people don’t usually associ ate with her work,” Aiko Cuneo, Asawa’s daughter and an art educator, said. “And everyone young and old can identify with the group of faces.”

Collaboration was essential to Asawa early on, from work ing on her family’s farm, learning from Disney cartoonists in a Japanese intern ment camp to work ing with prestigious European artists at Black Mountain College.

While raising six children, Asawa con tinued to complete her art, often working early in the morning when the rest of her family was asleep. Asawa’s son, ceramic art ist Paul Lanier, describes the house he grew up in as a “hub of activity.”

“When people would come over to the house, she would say, ‘Wow, you have such

“ The faces on the wall is another side of Asawa that people don’t usually associate with her art.”

— AIKO CUNEO, Asawa’s daughter

ASAWA AND HER ART (FAR LEFT)

Asawa sits with her wire sculptures at the Oakland Museum of California in 2002.

“The path she took as an artist shows her quiet determination,” Aiko Cuneo, Asawa’s daughter, said. Photo: Laurence Cuneo. Pho to and Artwork © 2022 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of David Zwirner

WALL OF FACES (MIDDLE) — The colors of the masks in the exhibit do not correspond to the subject’s races. Paul Lanier, Asawa’s son and ceramicist, helped cast many of the masks. “When we cast a face, it’s not just capturing a completely unique human be ing, but also a moment in time when they’re that age,” Lanier said. Photo: Austin Eng

ARTISTIC ASHES (RIGHT) — Displayed with the masks are ceramic vessels made by Paul Lanier, Asawa’s son. The clay in the vessels contains the ashes of Asawa, her husband, Albert Lanier, and Paul Lanier’s brother, Adam. “I’m happy how it came out but I never want to do that again,” Lanier said. Photo: Austin Eng

an interesting face! Can I cast your face?’” Lanier said.

Asawa’s guests would lie on a table, covered with a sheet, while Asawa applied plaster to their faces. She would layer Vaseline onto her subjects’ skin and eyebrows first so the plaster wouldn’t stick. The pro cess took 20–30 minutes.

Afterward, clay was pressed into the mold and fired in the kiln, resulting in incredible definition and variation in the masks.

“When we cast a face, it’s not just cap turing a completely unique human being, but also a moment in time when they’re that age,” Lanier said.

According to Cuneo, when Asawa would cast the face of one of her students, a large group of students and teachers would surround her to observe.

“Even though it was one child having his face cast, the community got to watch and be a part of the process,” Cuneo said. “She liked the idea of involving the com munity in arts projects, giving all those

who contributed a sense of pride and own ership.”

Asawa believed that all students should have the same experience learning art that she did.

In 1968, she co-founded a program to improve art education at her kids’ elementa ry school, focusing on projects with inexpen sive materials, such as egg cartons, yarn scraps and flour.

“She really want ed art to be considered part of the child’s educa tion,” Cuneo said. “We had it just by virtue of being her children and seeing it around us. But a lot of kids didn’t have that.”

who were interned during World War II. Her work has also gained recognition across the U.S. and abroad. In 2020, the U.S. Postal Service released postage stamps bearing Asawa’s wire sculptures, and in 2021, she had her first show in Europe.

“I’m totally amazed at how her story and work have found new audienc es,” Cuneo said. “The path she took as an artist shows her quiet determination.”

AIKO CUNEO, Asawa’s daughter

The collabo ration that fueled Asawa’s art is evident when visiting the “Faces of Ruth Asawa” exhibit.

Today, Asawa’s influence can be seen in Northern California, including the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, a public arts high school she co-founded in San Francisco and a San Jose memorial to Japanese Americans

“She shared her knowledge by teach ing others that they could find joy in the experience of making art, whether they were alone making the art or together as a community,” Cuneo said. “The arts bring community together.” v

“ She shared her knowl edge by teaching others that they could find joy in the experience of making art.”

—

RagingGrannies

GETTING TO KNOW LOCAL ELDERLY ACTIVISTS

FIGHT,

The upbeat battle cry sung to the tune of “Row Row Row Your Boat” came from a group of older women dressed in floral aprons and extravagant sun hats during a Roe v. Wade reversal protest in front of the Redwood City Public Library

on Oct. 22. The Raging Grannies, recognizable for their exagger ated grandmotherly clothing, are often seen on the streets “promoting peace, justice, social and economic equality through song and humor,” according to its website. The Raging Grannies Action League, its Bay Area chapter, was formed in 2001. We talked to three local Grannies about their personal road maps of activism. v

Ruth Robertson

Ruth Robertson joined the Raging Grannies Action League shortly after it was formed and has been a member for more than 20 years. She currently serves as co-convener of the group, leading protests and organizing meetings. Robertson said she appreciates the attention that the recognizable Raging Grannies image gets them.

“We like the image because it gives us a chance to speak when people don’t often listen to us as older women,” Robertson said.

Robertson first started participating in activism during the McCarthy era. At the time, many were afraid to speak on any left-leaning ideas due to being labeled as communist.

“My parents were furloughed government employees worried about losing their job, so they hunkered down and got real quiet real fast,” Robertson said.

Robertson said despite her parents originally discouraging her from protesting, she still spent much of her time as a high school student marching against the Vietnam War. Robertson’s experience in social activism is a common thread among Grannies. Many have campaigned over decades for a variety of issues including repro ductive rights.

“This [abortion access] was something we fought for in our generation and won,” Robertson said. “So to see them so quick ly and easily dismantled is disheartening to say the least.”

Robertson hopes to pass on the wisdom she has learned from lifelong experiences to younger generations of activists. “We can see that we’re helping the next generation make sure that those social equality ideas carry through through protests,” Robertson said. “We very much be lieve that feet on the streets is what’s needed.”

FIGHT, FIGHT with us, fight for what is right, join the Grannies in our quest for reproductive rights!”

Text by FELICIA BUCHHOLZ and MIYA WHITELEY

Photos by MIYA WHITELEY

Consuelo Beck-Sague

Consuelo Beck-Sague joined the Raging Grannies Action League after witnessing them protesting on the streets.

“We [Beck-Sague and her husband, who attends events in support] saw you and we wanted in,” Beck-Sague said when addressing Robertson.

Prior to involvement with the Raging Grannies, much of Beck-Sague’s work was dedicated to running a clinic with her hus band in the Dominican Republic.

The clinic treated people of all ages, but one of the main focuses was lowering the mother-to-child transmission rates of HIV.

“We help with the scale-up of antiretroviral thera py for children,” Beck-Sague said.

She also helped the government make policies that would eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmissions.

“There’s this idea that if the mom has HIV then the baby is automatically going to catch the virus, but that’s not the case,” said Santiago Beck, Beck-Sague’s son. “You can actually implement policies that sort of eliminate that transmission.”

Beck-Sague and her husband travel back to the Do minican Republic regularly.

“My mom was in a foreign country and was able to develop a record [of government policies],” Beck said. “That’s amazing.”

Ines Hill

Ines Hill immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina when she was 22 for college and later on became a substance abuse rehabilitation counselor for the county of Santa Clara.

Hill said she had never thought of herself as an activist until recently.

“I was busy working, was married, all those things,” Hill said.

Hill joined the Peninsula Peace & Justice Center with her husband and she met the Raging Grannies for the first time through the organization.

After her husband died, she stopped attending the PPJC be cause she felt there was no need for her there anymore, so she became a Raging Granny.

She has loved it ever since, feeling included and passionate about the current issues and local problems they hold demonstrations over.

“We represent what I believe in,” Hill said.

Even though issues like abortion no longer affect Hill herself, she feels the need to support the young women whom they do affect majorly.

Through the Raging Grannies, Hill hopes to be heard.

She speaks with Telemundo, an American Spanish-lan guage terrestrial television network when they are at their protests, or other Spanish newspapers when the opportunity arises.

“And plus, I like the ladies,” Hill said. “It’s fun.”

Text by ALEXIS CHIU

hidden hero

STAFFER WHO KEEPS THE SCHOOL RUNNING

Wh HHHR. CLICK. PLONK. Behind the “STAFF ONLY” signs in a room deep within Palo Alto High School’s 400 building, two massive units churn out pieces of printed paper.

At the helm, punching in instructions is one of the school’s rather unknown em ployees: Veronica Rodriguez, who has sin gle-handedly printed and distributed work sheets, notes and tests for teachers for the past 18 years.

Teachers often give Rodriguez recog nition when she drops off copies to their classrooms. Still, many students are un aware of the importance of her job to their education.

“Sometimes teachers say ‘thank you to Ms. Rodriguez’ and they [the students] give me a clap,” Rodriguez said.

Although her job has been vital in previous years as most things have been on paper, since the pandemic kept students at home and doing schoolwork digitally, there has been a shift away from traditional paper and toward more digitized work.

While Rodriguez acknowledges this, she said she feels that there will always be a value in paper.

“I understand during the pandemic, they [students] were doing a lot of work on line,” Rodriguez said. “It’s understandable, but on paper, it’s always important because some students do better if they have [their work on] paper. … Everybody thinks dif ferently.”

She feels like a part of the overall work ing system of the school, she says. Even though she may not get as much recog nition as others, she strives to make other

—

copies into the printer as Palo Alto High School’s ‘copy room lady.’ “I like to make sure that any print requests I have are ready by the time teachers need it,” Rodriguez said. “That way, it makes it easy for teachers to teach the students.”

in

CAREFUL COPIES

Veronica Rodriguez puts

instructions to print

Photo illustration: Alexis Chiu

TONG SUI NEW DESSERT STORE SELLS COCONUT PUDDINGS

CHEERFUL MINT GREEN and white, the accent of light wood and upbeat music make up the atmosphere of downtown dessert shop Tong Sui.

The store, which opened in October on Bryant Street, isn’t “just another boba shop” downtown, General Manager Kevin Ng said. Rather, the establishment defies expectations by specializing in coconut pudding of nearly 30 different varieties.

“When we first started out, it [our specialty] was not boba,” Ng said. “It [boba] was here to attract more customers.”

According to Ng, the owner of Tong Sui, founder Debby Wang, was inspired by dessert-making traditions in Hong Kong and her background working in a Michelin Star kitchen. Looking for a healthier des sert brand, she founded Tong Sui in the Bay Area with a focus on healthy ingredients.

Tong Sui does not use artificial syrups or preservatives, instead using organic and fresh produce, Ng said.

Its signature coconut mix is made us ing fresh coconut water and organic milk, and gelatin-free recipes.

Beyond its newest location in Palo Alto, Tong Sui is a chain with existing shops in Redwood City, Sunnyvale and San Mateo.

“I

Popular items at the shop include the Mango Mochi Coconut and Earl Gray puddings along with seasonal items for Halloween and other occasions that have become popular.

Verde reviewed four of Tong Sui’s sig natures and top sellers, including two coco nut puddings and two drinks. v

Text and photos by ANDY ROBINSON and MELODY XU

PUDDING PERFECTIONIST — General Manager Kevin Ng poses for a portrait in the new downtown Palo Alto location of coconut pudding store Tong Sui. “A lot of first timers that came and tried us and then return all the time,” Ng said.

think eventually, they [customers] are more into the fitness and into the healthy lifestyle.”

The ever-so-sweet black and grey black sesame paired well with the viscous and sturdy white coconut base, almost similar to the texture of a hard-boiled egg. This coconut pud ding was topped with two walnuts. We were impressed and think this snack is worth a try.

Peach & Plum Cheezo ($8.95)

Made with fresh plum and white peach, this is another of Tong Sui’s most popular drinks, according to Ng. We could see why — the fruit tasted fresh and sweet, and was combined with cloudy pink gel and topped with white cream. The entire drink came together into a unique, flowery and tropical mix that was our favorite product of the bunch.

This pudding features a relatively muted — yet sweet and refreshing — mango flavor that mixes into the smooth white coconut base. This sim ple yet delightful item is perfect for anyone looking to try one of Tong Sui’s signature food items for the first time, Ng said.

Coconut Ice Bomb ($7.95)

The Coconut Ice Bomb is Tong Sui’s “specialty drink,” Ng said. We think it is perfect for any coconut fans, though not so much for people who are less enthusiastic about the tropical fruit. The drink was topped with coconut meat and had chewy crystal boba at the bottom. We were pleasantly sur prised with how fresh and sharp this refreshing drink tasted.

Black Sesame Coconut Pudding ($9.95)

Mango Mochi Coconut Pudding ($7.95)

TONG SUI TREATS — Four unique and tasty Tong Sui signatures await customers at this one-of-a-kind store.

DAY FOR DIWALI

VIBRANT COLORS, BEAUTIFUL CLOTHING and enchanting dancers invite wandering eyes to the Diwali festivities on the cafeteria stage of Ellen Fletcher Mid dle School.

Diwali takes place every autumn between October and No vember, falling this year on Oct. 22.

The celebration allows many, like Palo Alto resident Skreekanth Menon, a rare chance to embrace their cultural heritage in the midst of friends and family.

“It is nice to have a vibrant Indian subcommunity in Palo Alto,” Menon said. “We are slowly reengaging with the Indian

community. It was also a chance for my mother, who lives with us, to get out of the house and see a Desi crowd, something she misses having relocated from India a few years ago.”

The activities were hosted by the Indian Community Center at local middle schools like Fletcher.

Community members and performers, like Palo Alto High School student Divij Motwani, took the stage to celebrate the hol iday.

“I’m part of a small band that participates in ICC events,” Motwani said. “I just enjoyed the amount of people there. Every one is there to cheer you on and just have a good time.” v

Text and photos by YASH SHETTY

Art by PALINA KUZMINA

Text by FELICIA BUCHHOLZ and ALLEGRA WEST

M“EET ME AT MIDNIGHT,” Taylor Swift sings in the captivating opening line of her newly released album, “Midnights,” which dropped at midnight on Oct. 20. The pop star is known for her constant ly evolving albums — including “Lover,” “Reputation” and “Red”

Lavender Haze

The first track, “Lavender Haze,” is believed to address fans who want Swift to marry her current boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn. Swift responds to these desires with want ing to stay in her “lavender haze” — a comforting veil of ambiguity. This song is a perfect opening to her album be cause it encapsulates the overall theme as mysterious and dreamy, the ups and downs of her past and present rela tionships.

— “Midnights” is no exception. In the album, Swift documents “13 sleepless nights,” and a special “3 a.m. edition” with seven more tracks.

We reviewed some of our favorite tracks from her “Midnights” album. Scan the codes below to listen to each song. v

Maroon

Swift is well known for two things: incorporating her love life into songs and using symbols like colors to depict various emotions. Following the same calm theme of soft beats and sweet buildups, this song differentiates itself from others by talking about the two meanings “maroon” has to Swift. To her, the color red represents passion. Her lyrics talk about both extreme ends of passion, whether it be love or hate.

Karma

Swift brings back “Reputation”-style beats in this track. Swift combines electronic dance music and pop to create a dark themed vibe. The tone of this song is upbeat, but cold. Almost venomous, Swift serenades with vengeance and ag gression. Swift fan and Palo Alto High School freshman Alice Sheffer shared her opinion on the song “Karma.” “It really exemplified the best aspects of her career ... it was also really a good listen anywhere, anytime,” Sheffer said.

Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana Del Ray)

For any Swift fans who love her album “Folklore,” “Snow on the Beach” has a very similar tone: melodic and poetic. Lana Del Rey is featured in this song, complement ing Swift’s light vocals with a breathy component of her own. “I like how the beats are very simple,” senior Drew Nagesh said. “It just lets her [Lana Del Rey] use her soft voice and you can just really appreciate the vocals … espe cially on ‘Snow on the Beach.’”

You’re On Your Own, Kid

Swift speaks from the point of view of a teenage girl who yearns for the love of her boy best friend. The story takes place in a small town, where this girl is unhappy — she dreams of getting out. Yet she stays, because of this boy, who will never appreciate her the way she does him. The beat of this song is more upbeat than others in this album to keep the girl in the story and the listeners of this song high-spirited.

Dear Reader

To the people who pulled an all-nighter for the “3 a.m. edition” of the album, this last song was a reward to all listeners. After a full album that sings about heart-break and yearning for other people, this song talks to the listen er. Swift addresses her audience, and sings about having to put oneself first, especially when life gets hard. The melod ic theme of this song starts with a couple of very soft piano chords, adding on to the calmness of a quiet, late night.

Rainy campus

RAIN IS A SCARCE SIGHTING ON PALO Alto High School’s campus. While some students take out raincoats, boots and umbrellas, others just pull their hoods over their heads to stay dry. This semester, the campus saw four rainy days in the first two weeks of November — the first ounces of rainfall since March.

“Since it doesn’t rain often here, I found it really beau tiful minus the fact that we all got somewhat drenched,” senior Trianne Hontiveros said. “It was definitely a change of scenery to see the Quad empty while students had their lunches either indoors or huddled outside of the classrooms. The rain was short-lived but it made the day quite cozy.” We explored corners of Paly’s campus on those rare rainy days and captured what went on outside, from puddles and dripping buildings to students hiding under roofs to stay dry. v

Text and photos by AJIN JEONG

PRODUCTIVITY

STUDENTS USE APPS TO HELP FOCUS AND PLAN

ALAUNDRY LIST OF ITEMS

— ranging from a collection of finished books to an exam cal endar — neatly populates on Palo Alto High School senior Evie Barclay’s computer screen.

Barclay is among the 56.9% of Paly students that have incorporated productivity apps into their daily lives and schedules, according to an opt-in survey by Verde Magazine of 132 Palo Alto High School stu dents.

One such app is Forest, a popular pro ductivity tool designed to help users focus for a fee of $1.99 by allow ing them to plant dig ital trees that are killed upon exiting the app.

According to its website, Forest also partners with Trees for the Future, which is an organization that plants real trees in sub-Saharan Africa.

Users can help plant real trees with “coins” that are generated from successfully

growing digital trees in the app.

Senior Jia Hiremath said that the app helps her stay off of her phone while study ing in fear of “killing” the digital tree. For est also allows the users to add friends and grow a group tree together when they all are in the same study session.

“Now I have five people on For est,” Hiremath said. “I can [grow] group trees with them if we are studying together to get more trees and points and don’t want to look at our phones.”

While Forest’s main goal is to help with focus, Notion is an application that can help students with organization.

The free, highly personalizable work space application has garnered over 30 million users since its release in June 2018.

part in them.

“I know that there’s definitely a specif ic type of community online that uses apps like these and are focused on prioritizing studying and doing things like bullet jour naling, planning,” Hiremath said. “They use apps like Notion and Forest to stay focused, but I don’t think that I have real ly been a part of com munities like that. I mostly have used the app with my friends and to keep myself on track.”

Students like junior Kylie Yen find themselves drawn to this app because of these benefits.

“I use it [Notion] so that I can stay on top of my homework,” Yen said. “I try to use it to remember my assignments because I usually forget.”

Although many Notion templates are available online — such as ones with book logs, themes and complicated mood track ers — Yen feels that sometimes a basic lay out maximizes the functionality and keeps her focused.

BARCLAY, senior

With many tem plates ranging from product planning to note-taking, accord ing to their website, Notion is where “your daily work and knowledge live side by side — so you never lose context.”

People online create and share special ized Notion templates for others to use but Hiremath, however, said she doesn’t take

“Mine’s pretty simple,” Yen said. “I just have my to-do list with all my assignments and then I delete them when I’m done with them.”

Although some students use Notion simply for a to-do list, it is also capable of being used creatively with options to cre ate timelines, embedded links and shared

At the end of the day I think there can be a balance between productivity and being present.”

— EVIE BARCLAY, senior

can be a

, it can be a creative

let and it can serve as many

PROCRASTINATION

workspaces.

This, however, must be a restrained ef fort to stop the application from becoming a procrastination tactic itself.

“I think there’s a balance,” Barclay said. “Notion is a tool, it can be a distraction, it can be a creative outlet and it can serve as many things. If I’m using it for schoolwork, I try to use it as strictly as a tool as possible.”

Along with Notion, Barclay uses Goo gle Calendar to plan out her schedule by blocking off time to complete tasks and planning out events.

“I use Google Calendar to block time visually,” Barclay said. “When I think about the day I have ahead, I think about the box es of time that I’ve allotted for any specific task or event, like an afternoon dentist ap pointment or Saturday night study block.”

Even though there are many different calendar applications available, Barclay, and many other students, chooses Google Cal endar over them because of its user-friend liness.

“I find Google Calendar to be the sim plest, most universal and most user-friend ly application,” Barclay said. “It’s easy to access on any device and I can even make different calendars for different Gmail ad dresses if I need to.”

Although it’s possible to schedule one’s life down to the minute using Google Cal endar, Barclay feels that this is unnecessary for a productive life. Barclay finds that planning out every moment of her life takes away from living in the moment so she likes to leave in an air of spontaneity in her life.

“Google Calendar can be helpful to remember to sit down and commit to that scheduled event,” Barclay said. “However, I don’t follow my calendar to a ‘T.’ Life happens and schedules can fail to account for other things that need to get done. At the end of the day I think there can be a balance between productivity and being present.” v

Text by ASHA KULKARNI

Reframing

OUR VICE PRESIDENT IS MORE THAN A SYMBOL

IN 2003, MY PARENTS WERE walking in San Francisco when they were approached by a politician on the street. Introducing herself as Kamala Harris, she told my parents that if elected as the city’s district attorney, she would be the first Indian American woman in California to hold the position.

It’s easy to imagine Harris now: smil ing, her hand outstretched, Converse sneakers peeking out from the hem of her pantsuit. But 17 years ago, my parents —

and the rest of the country — had no idea that Harris would embark on a career of “firsts.” She would win her election for dis trict attorney, become California’s attorney general, U.S. senator and eventually vice president.

From the beginning, Harris straddled multiple cultures and identities, including Asian American and African American, and “top cop” and “progressive prosecutor.” But she continues to grapple with a problem that has followed her since her prosecutor days and unraveled her presidential cam paign: the struggle to define herself.

Only, is it a problem with her or is it a problem with us? We say she’s unprepared and uncertain, but as she promotes solu tions for the child welfare system and nego tiates with Poland amid the war in Ukraine, Harris seems to know herself just fine.

Two years into her vice presidential term, it’s time that we do, too.

A few years ago, I watched a substi tute teacher sigh in relief when reaching an “American” name on the roll call sheet after stumbling through dozens of ethnic names.

“Finally,” she said. “A regular name.”

I stared at the floor, the sound of “AYsha” still grating to my ears. In that mo ment, I felt like an inconvenience.

So in 2020, when Fox news host Tucker Carlson became angry after a guest on his show corrected his repeated mispro nunciation of Kamala Harris’ name, it felt like a personal attack.

“So it begins,” Carlson said. “You’re not allowed to criticize ‘Kuh-mah-luh’ Har ris or ‘Cam-uh-luh,’ or whatever.”

Wrong. Public disrespect towards Har ris has been the norm, not the exception.

After then-presidential candidate Joe Biden selected Harris as his running mate, attacks on her included “monster,” “communist” and “power-hungry buffoon,” courtesy of Carlson and former president Donald Trump. Comments came from the other side of the aisle, too. Former Dem

Kamala Harris

ocratic senator Chris Dodd accused Har ris of having no remorse for “ambushing” Biden during the first presidential debate.

In the first five months of 2022, Har ris received over 4,200 tweets containing death threats or the use of the n-word, ac cording to CBS.

Harris stands at the intersection be tween sexism and rac ism, and the higher she climbs, the more criticism she seems to receive. Harris can and should be criti cized for her politi cal decisions, not her South Asian name or ambition. But there is a complication: Harris’ identity and politics are linked.

After Harris informed Biden she want ed to take the lead on voting rights, the president tasked her with pushing a voting rights bill through the Senate. Twice, the bill failed to overcome Republican opposi tion. Should Harris take the blame?

Some point to the lack of connections Harris has on Capitol Hill, comparing her to Biden, who culti vated bipartisan rela tionships in his over 30 years in the Sen ate. Barack Obama utilized Biden’s con nections during his presidency, frequently having his vice president negotiate with Congress when the president couldn’t close the deal.

But Harris inhabits a world very dif ferent from the one Biden encountered 50 years ago; she can’t be part of the “old boys” group that her boss still thinks so fondly of (Chris Dodd, who criticized Harris’ ambi tion, was his “single best friend.”). Let’s face it: An environment where your colleagues

are cordial and take you seriously does not exist for all politicians.

We can’t compare Biden’s nostalgic daydreams to Harris’ struggles to mobilize her party because her situation is different from every vice president before her.

After Harris was elected, she was “ready to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of Shirley Chisholm and myself and so many women of col or,” Democratic repre sentative Barbara Lee said.

These senti ments were ones that I shared in 2020, but after watching Harris navigate two years in her position, I real ized that her status as a symbol is a dou ble-edged sword. Because she is touted by her supporters as a voice for women and minorities, she faces both inflated expecta tions and limits in the way she is perceived.

When I told someone I was writing a perspective about Harris, the first question they asked was, “Are you Black? Or just In dian?”

They didn’t ask for my opinion on Harris’ politics, personality or future. They asked about race, as if that was all that could be said about her.

“I’m just Indian,” I said.

I wish I had said this: Harris is more than her race; she is more than the filler for a quota, more than an accessory to Biden’s agenda.

As informed citizens, our job is to push Harris to make the changes we know she is capable of making: negotiating with world leaders, continuing to address the root causes of migration, keeping up the fight for voting rights, supporting the president

but pushing back when necessary.

Harris must deal with the aftermath of the November midterm elections, where Republicans are expected to gain control of the House. And in 2024, the chances are high that Harris will be on the ballot either as Biden’s vice president or if Biden decides not to run again, his successor.

With the increased pressure and stakes Harris faces, it is more important than ever to look at her actions critically. We must hold Harris accountable for her decisions, while also recognizing the limits of her power and the obstacles she faces as a wom an of color.

Harris cannot be defined by the same standards as her predecessors. To be the first means to be alone. v

Data presented is from an opt-in survey by Verde Mag azine of 132 Palo Alto High School students and was collected from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4 through a digital form published on Schoology pages and Verde social media. Re sponses were anonymous and all questions were optional.

Art by CHARLOTTE ANTHONY

Harris seems to know herself just fine. Two years into her vice presidential term, it’s time that we do, too.

Harris cannot be defined by the same standards as her predecessors. To be the first is to be alone.

86.4% of Paly students say yes.

Is representation important in politics?

TRIALS OF TAIKO

REKINDLING LOVE FOR CULTURAL INSTRUMENT

“

OH, YOU PLAY THE drums?

What kind of drums?” In the eight years I have been playing Taiko, I still receive this ques tion when the topic of musical instruments comes up. No matter how many times peo ple ask me that same mundane question, I never quite know whether to take the extra 30 sec onds to explain the art of Japanese Taiko drumming or simply say that I play on a drum set at home. But either way I always just wish I had kept quiet.

Every Sunday, for as long as I can re member, my mom has taken me to the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple. I recall being mes merized by Taiko festival drummers who performed at the annual summer festival and scurrying up to the giant drums after the performances, excitedly peering over

However, playing Taiko began to seem increasingly dull as the people around me who played in the band or orchestra didn’t view it as a “real” instrument. My peers grew increasingly suspicious as I made ex cuses that “I had Japanese school” on Sun days, because taking a foreign language was far more accept able to my private school classmates than playing a cultural musical instrument. Start ing in sixth grade, I picked up violin

to fulfill my middle school’s music require ment –– allowing it to take over most of my time –– a byproduct of which was a further disconnect from Taiko.

My bachi, the heavier wooden drum sticks, were no longer held with the mo tivation to play. In addition, an alarming

rediscover my love for Taiko. This discov ery was driven by the new pool of students in middle and high school who exposed me to classmates who also participated in cultural extracurriculars — for instance, Bharatanatyam, the oldest classical form of dance that originated in India. Seeing others enjoy their unconventional activities allowed me to feel confident in expressing my cultural identity as well as accepting it within myself.

With this acceptance came a change in my mindset toward Taiko. Instead of seeing its unique qualities as negative, I realized that playing Taiko was a way to connect with people who share a similar cultural background. This realization motivated me to pursue Taiko more seriously. I am currently part of San Jose Taiko’s Junior Taiko Performing Ensemble, a group that performs around the Bay Area at various events and festivals.

Though I originally had to explain what Taiko was in conversation, the main stream attention that Taiko has received recently has changed the nature of their people’s reactions. Now when I tell people I play Taiko, I hear “That’s so cool!” or the cli ché, “Wow, that’s going to look so good on your college applications,” as if I was being forced to do it instead in my own interests. Taiko is not something to just put on my college ap plications, but a passion and a part of myself I was forced to sup

Despite this, I am extremely grateful that a part of my cultural identity can be expressed with less negative backlash than before. From my personal experiences with Taiko, I believe that instead of quick ly forming rash assumptions –– whether it be about activities, food or customs –– fully understanding cultures can ensure a more welcoming community for all. v

Taking a foreign language was far more acceptable than a cultural instrument.

democratic

the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, as of Nov. 14.

DEMOCRACY

DEMOCRATS DEFIED the odds on Nov. 8. No doubt, the party appeared to be in trouble in the days leading up to this year’s midterm elections — but when elec tion day rolled around, Democrats did the impossible by winning key battleground races in the Senate and House, in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. American voters, turning out in the millions, appear to have (largely) rejected election deniers, conspiracy theorists and soulless celebrities. But unfortunately, these individuals across America have nevertheless gained millions of followers on social media, successfully radicalizing millions.

Even here in Palo Alto, we are not im mune to this online-fueled extremism and division. Ingrid Campos, the controversial candidate for school board, has expressed her distaste for the discussion of LGBTQ

No doubt, the unrelenting anxiety and anger that has rocked the nation since 2016 continues to roil through the Amer ican political land scape. Since then, the Democratic Party has functioned largely as a resistance party to the extremism of Donald Trump and his Republican al lies, a strategy that is quickly becoming ineffective. Polls re peatedly indicate that voters, particularly young voters, are fed up with the two party system, believing that the American system needs transfor mational change in order to maintain our democracy.

But the electoral process remains unre sponsive to their needs. Yes, the Democrat ic Party has asserted a strong challenge to Republicans in the 2022 midterms against extraordinary odds. But, the Democratic

block legislation from going to a simple majority vote. Without 52 Senate seats, the number (in theory) required to abolish the filibuster, along with control of the House, which after the 2022 midterms it appears the Democrats have lost, the Democrats will never be able to implement anything beyond rudimentary reforms.

But the Demo cratic Party is almost entirely an urban and suburban coalition, making it extraordi narily difficult to ever win 52 Senate seats, the House and the presidency all at once. If Democrats want to win big, I believe they need to center themselves on combating corruption, cro nyism and economic injustice in addition to their already-effective technique of re jecting extremism.

New leadership

The first thing the Democrats need are new leaders with new ideas. Democrats must support term limits, forcing an im mediate mandatory retirement of members who have served longer than 12 years in the Senate and 10 years in the House. A decade is plenty of time to be a successful legislator.

Frankly, I am weary of the current trio of central governing figures, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi giv en the fact that all are over the age of 70. None of them have grown up in a world of global interconnectedness, rising eco nomic inequality, social media and other technologies, and by their age alone I believe are ill-equipped to understand today’s challenges, not only because of their age, but the mindset of compromise with the other side (even when the other side can not do the same) that their age has given them. And despite Biden’s advantages, he is unlikely to be an effective president at age 86, the age he would be at the end of his second term should he choose to run. Anna

BLUEPRINT FOR A BETTER

The Democratic Party must reckon with how to ... deliver on a comprehensive agenda that deals with the root causes of poverty, cli mate disaster and social instability.

divergence

Eshoo, our current congresswoman, will be 80 years old in a month. Hopefully in fu ture elections our district can elect a more youthful member of Congress.

Countering corruption

Furthermore, these new leaders must embrace an agenda that attacks corruption at all levels of government. Republicans and Democrats alike take millions of dol lars from the pharmaceutical industry, the defense industry and the oil industry (Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, anyone?). Eshoo has taken millions from the pharma ceutical industry despite (and unfortunately because of) her position as chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Health in the House. Understanding and internalizing these facts is as startling as it is disheartening, and has unfortunately decreased my faith in elec toral politics.

To combat this cynicism, Democrats should proudly reject corporate PAC (po litical action committee) money and stand up to these corporations. Yes, national pol itics is an extraordinarily expensive ven ture, and to disseminate campaign ads and other media, big national campaigns need to spend sums in the millions of dollars. But by showing voters that the Democrats are the party rejecting corruption and will therefore listen more to the individual vot ers donating to their campaigns, they can increase their voter confidence that they will act in the best interests of voters. While I was not eligible to vote in the 2022 mid terms, in 2024 I intend on voting for can didates who take campaign finance reform as seriously as I do.

Rural resonance

With an anti-corruption message and a new generation of leadership that looks at to day’s challenges with a greater degree of lived experience, the Democrats must speak to the issues rural voters are con cerned about, and not just the urban-suburban coalition they are comfortable targeting.

But appealing to rural voters is not just something the Democrats should do — it is something they must do. Unfortunately, as stated above, the Democrats cannot do a thing about climate change or transform ing our healthcare system without a willing Congress, and winning a large majority can only occur through victories across rural America, a region overrepresented in Congress.

ing rural voters through authentic, charis matic and pragmatic candidates is possible.

Time for action

Biden may have won decisively in 2020, but his election has only temporarily prevented the rise of an extremist version of right wing populism, one which could eventually translate into fascism unless Democrats can win 52 seats soon. I’m not

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