Teachers receive pink slips

D
on’t miss the FilpinoAmerican club’s second
annual cultural assembly,
Brownout, during Mods 6-8 today
in the auditorium. Students will
perform traditional and nontraditional dances and songs and skits,
including “Filipinos Gone Wild,”
a spoof of the popular racy video
series. Come early and snag a seat
before they’re gone.
Whatʼs
News
Pages
1-8
■ Students may face hate
crime-related felony charges
■ Middle school locks down
after receiving bomb threat
Arts & Ideas
Page
Sharing secrets
■ Planning to
■ The guilty share their
eat out this summer? Find out
where to expand
your culinary horizons
Pages 12-13
Page
By Avi Baskin and Nicole Hui
NE ENGLISH TEACHER and
one foreign language teacher
received final pink slips this May
from the school district and have little
chance of returning to Lowell next year.
Teachers received final pink slips based
first on seniority, followed by a lottery that
randomly chose among teachers with the
same amounts of seniority. English teacher
Amanda Stupi, who received a final pink
slip, said she is disappointed to have to
leave. “I’ve enjoyed being at Lowell for the
last year and a half, and it is frustrating that
I have no control over the lay-off process,”
Stupi said.
Teachers who received pink slips will be
put on the district’s recall list, which means
they may be rehired if any openings are left
after 224 consolidated teachers, who have
not been laid off from the district but who
do not have positions at their school sites,
receive positions.
“I’m in a position where I have to wait
and see what happens,” Stupi said. Foreign
language department head Dorothy Ong
said she would not release information
See LAYOFFS on Page 6
Page
COURTESY OF BRYAN RITTER
Beginning dance students sophomore Julie Gramlich and freshman Cyan Curtis rehearse an 80s retro
dance piece on May 19 in preparation for their piece in the spring dance concert, Out of the Shadows.
Five faculty members plan to retire this year
By Tiffani Toy
IVE FACULTY MEMBERS will retire at
the end of the semester.
Counselor Joan Catelli, assistant principal
Gloria Bogdanoff, math teacher Stephen Merlo
and English teachers Jean Kalil and Robert Davis
have all announced that they plan to retire at the
end of the spring semester.
“I have mixed feelings,” Catelli said. “I have been
at Lowell for 30 years. I just think it’s time, and I
need more leisure time.”
Counselor Harlan Edelman said that the counseling program will miss Catelli greatly. “Her retirement will have a very dramatic effect,” Edelman
said. “She is extremely knowledgeable about every
aspect of counseling, and we rely on her expertise
F
on a daily basis. She knows about scholarships,
the University of California system and summer
programs. She takes the responsibility for dozens of
tasks throughout the year, especially those related to
summer programs and scholarships.”
Edelman said that Catelli is irreplaceable. “She’s
been a guide and a role model to counselors, teachers
and students,” he said. “She’s an excellent listener
and has a powerful sense of fairness.”
Freshman Takeshi Kaji, one of Catelli’s charges,
praised her work. “She helped me with my classes
when they all got deleted,” he said.
Freshman Taryn Wong, another one of Catelli’s
students, will also miss her. “She’s easy to talk to,”
Wong said.
Kalil shared Catelli’s feelings about retiring. “It’s
Pages
9
11
22-23
13-20
Page
21
■ Cat in the Hat:
friendly feline
or communist
dictator?
Opinion
Pages
22-23
■ Crossfire: Should the school
limit students’ AP classes?
By Derrick Lomax
HE STATE teachers’ union
held a demonstration against
the governor’s education policies on Wednesday in Sacramento.
Northern California teachers, including 10 Lowell teachers, met at the
state’s capital in an attempt to pressure
legislators to challenge Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s plans to implement
merit-based pay for teachers, increase
requirements for gaining tenure and cut
funding for schools.
Social studies teacher and teachers’ union political director Ken Tray
recruited and organized teachers for
the protest. “My goal is to have as many
teachers participating as possible,” Tray
said. “They are trying to attack education at the union level, but hopefully
there will be strength in numbers.”
Although the protest was held
too late for press time, teachers were
hopeful about the outcome earlier this
week. “We want what we are legally
due according to state law,” said social
teacher Sandra Shure, who planned to
attend. “I hope this protest brings about
T
■ Most valuable players
named for the spring sports
Columns
a difficult decision because I enjoy my career, but I
would like to do more traveling,” Kalil said.
English department head Elizabeth Rogers said
that the English department is losing a very valuable resource. “She’s an outstanding teacher who
has been here longer than I have,” Rogers said.
“I’m sorry to lose her, but I wish her a fulfilling and
wonderful retirement. We are very fortunate to have
her teach here as long as she has.”
Freshman Anna Szeto admires Kalil’s teaching
greatly. “She’s a hard teacher, but a good one,”
Szeto said. “Even though I have only had her for one
semester, her teachings have significantly affected
me.” Rogers said that the English department will
also miss Davis.
See RETIREMENT on Page 6
Teachers’ union protests
governor’s policies
Kick out the jams
■ Youth struggle to
overcome eating disorders
Sports
Page 28
O
■ An African-derived form of
dance is gaining popularity
on campus as well as in the
media
Health
secrets on the Internet
without exposing their
identities
Teachers Get into the groove
receive
pink slips
■ Students
explore all aspects
of theatrical
production in
youth theatre
group
Spotlight
Backpage
Arts & Ideas
LOWELL HIGH SCHOOL, RED EDITION, VOL. 203 NO. 4, MAY 27, 2005, www.thelowell.org
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In the news
Ethnic eats
JAKE WATTERS
Sophomore Vincent Ng performs “All Around the World” at Mod
8 on May 20, during the annual Kermesse cultural festival.
these changes.” Teachers are protesting
because they say that Schwarzenegger
has not delivered the amount of money
he promised for schools.
The governor “hasn’t been keeping his promises,” said math teacher
Karl Hoffman, who attended a May 11
teachers’ union-sponsored rally. “The
things he pledged in his campaign have
not come to pass.”
Hoffman added that he mainly
opposes the governor’s reluctance to
enforce Proposition 98, which guarantees a minimum funding level for
K-12 education.United Educators of
San Francisco president Dennis Kelly
said that it is important to organize
events to raise public awareness of the
statewide educational crisis.
“Ultimately, the purpose of such
rallies is to influence our fellow citizens
and present them with a face of teachers
that the governor is trying to pervert,”
Kelly said. Kelly and members of the
state teachers’ union first began to raise
awareness on May 11, the second annual Day of the Teacher.
See PROTEST on Page 6
2 NEWS
May 27, 2005
NEWSBRIEFS
Boy attacked, recuperating
An eighth-grader is currently recovering after he was
assaulted in South San Francisco on his way home from
school on April 22.
Marco Chu of Woodside International School was
taking the bus home that Friday night after a school field
trip to Stinson Beach and dinner with his classmates. He
was assaulted about a block away from his home in South
San Francisco, according to Woodside International
headmaster John Edwards. Chu was found that night
lying on the ground with severe head injuries.
Although doctors at San Francisco General Hospital
said they expected Chu to be in rehabilitation for months,
he was taken out of intensive care on May 6 and scheduled to be released from the hospital soon. Edwards
said he and Chu’s classmates “weren’t expecting him
back at school until September,” but are hoping he’ll be
returning sooner. “He’s made a remarkable recovery,”
Edwards said.
“There are zero leads to who did it,” he said. Edwards
added that all of Chu’s possessions were with him when
he was found, which made police doubt that it was a
robbery.
Chu was born in Hong Kong and has been living in
the United States with relatives and attending Woodside
International since February 2003. He is an F1 Visa student, a foreign student who comes to the United States
to study for a period of four to five years.
— Sandra Siu
AP exam process improved
The annual Advanced Placement exams, which took
place May 2-13, went more smoothly this year, according
to an AP test coordinator.
“We reformulated how we processed students going
into the gymnasium, which was the biggest glitch (from
before),” said counselor Bob Jow, who coordinated AP
testing.
The new science wing helped accommodate the
increased amount of AP testing this year. “We used the
language lab, the science rooms and the math rooms,”
Jow said. He added that the additional rooms this year
were essential because the number of students taking
the tests rose.
The two weeks of testing took months to plan, according to Jow. “We begin planning in October,” Jow
said. “We started getting information out, identifying
students who apply for fee reductions and getting lists
together.”
This planning includes training the paid proctors.
“The proctors are retired teachers or former Lowell
students,” Jow said.
Jow added that the cooperation of students who
were not taking AP exams was vital. “They’re willing
to move from one classroom to another so we can use
that classroom,” Jow said.
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp lent a helping
hand to the AP proctors, as well, Jow said.
Senior Sam Slesinger said that some testing locations
worked better than others. His AP English Language
exam “felt a lot less stressful,” because it was in a smaller
classroom, he said. However, for the larger tests in the
gym, “the whole atmosphere was pretty scary.”
— John Mansfield
F O R T H E C O M P L E T E V E R S I O N S OF STORIES, PLEASE VISIT
The Lowell on the Web
www.thelowell.org
Lowell High School
Long-time coach officially replaced
By Tony Dear
HE SCHOOL’S new
cross-country coach
held a meeting on May
17 in order to set team goals and
get to know team members.
Physical education teacher
and new cross-country coach
Michael Prutz held the meeting with the cross-country
members after a previous one
left members frustrated.
“I know that things have not
gotten off to a great start,” Prutz
said when the meeting began,
“and I’m more than happy to
meet with you individually
about issues.”
Prutz made no mention of
runners’ complaints about his
replacement of coach Andy
Leong; instead, he spoke about
the next season and team goals,
emphasizing the need for staying fit over the summer.
Prutz sent a post-meeting
e-mail to the team, stating, “I
look forward to meeting each
of you individually so that I can
assist you in establishing your
individual goals for the summer
and next year.”
Finally, at the meeting itself,
Prutz tried to dispel a rumor
that has been prevalent among
the runners. “I’m not looking
forward to cutting anybody off
the team,” he said.
Some attendees thought
that the meeting was unhelpful. “Nobody was listening to
what he said,” freshman runner
Aidan Loeser said. “He had no
control of the situation.”
Sophomore runner Jeena
Arnold called Prutz “really de-
T
manding” and “business-like.”
However, others thought
that the meeting went well. Cocaptain junior Mike Novak said
that Prutz was very firm. “The
meeting was about the next
season under his leadership,”
he said. “It seems that he will
be capable.”
After confirming last month
that Prutz will replace Leong
next semester, the administration held a previous meeting on
May 6 with Leong and several
alumni and cross-country team
members.
Leong said that he didn’t
want team members to quit
over this issue. “I want you to
give Mr. Prutz a chance and
fulfill your destiny as runners,”
he said at the meeting.
Runners asked assistant
principal Peter Van Court and
athletic director John Donohue,
who also attended the May 6
meeting, various questions to
clarify issues. Many questioned
the mechanics of the teachers’
contract with the district, which
guarantees that a “qualified and
willing” teacher has priority
for a position over a walk-on
coach.
Prutz, who said that he has
coached diving in Arizona and
Michigan and trained runners
here in San Francisco, had priority over Leong, according to
the contract.
Class of 2000 alumnus and
former cross-country runner
Patrick Ma questioned the
manner with which Prutz asked
for the position. “It seems to me
that it’s very disrespectful in the
way he’s taking over Andy’s job,”
he said. “Prutz has not done
anything to familiarize himself
with the team.”
Other runners also expressed skepticism about Prutz,
whom they said they have never
seen observe a cross-country
meet or practice.
Prutz, however, said that he
has been to meets and observed
runners, and Donohue called
him “more than respectful” in
the manner that he is approaching the position.
Prutz said that he understands the runners’ feelings.
“I’ve had coaching changes in
my career before; you’ve got to
accept that — it’s part of life,” he
said. “I’m just looking to make
it go forward; it’s important that
we all move on. Andy’s done
a great job. He’ll still be here
and I look forward to working
with him.”
Cheer it on!
JACK ZHOU
Students look on as freshman Latiece Brown shows off
her school spirit and cheerleading abilities at the cheer team
tryouts after school on May 20 in the cafeteria.
Students vandalize neighborhood and school
By Larry Yee
WO STUDENTS FACE five felony charges, three misdemeanor
charges, suspension and possible
expulsion after defacing a middle school,
several cars and a small church nearby with
racist graffiti.
The two Lowell students joined two
students from Archbishop Riordan High
School and one student from Sacred Heart
Cathedral Preparatory to graffiti A.P. Giannini Middle School, several cars parked
around the school and an Asian-American
church several blocks away on March 5,
after gathering across the street from the
school to play poker, according to one of
the graffiti vandals, a minor who requested
anonymity.
The two Lowell students face possible expulsion from the district, so they
may need to enroll in a private school or
T
in another public district, according to
the anonymous vandal. They face up to
$100,000 in fines and have already paid
$250 each to cover the paint used to clean
the graffiti. They may not be able to drive
for a year and a half and may also face up
to two weeks in juvenile hall.
After climbing a fence to get into A.P.
Giannini around 9 p.m., the group spraypainted racial slurs and swastikas along
the walls facing the school courtyard, on
bathroom doors, on windows below a
walkway and on the ledge of a walkway.
One student urinated on the walls. Four
of the five students climbed onto the roof
to spray-paint vulgar comments toward an
A.P. Giannini teacher. The other vandal,
a former A.P. Giannini student, spraypainted vulgar comments directed toward
two other teachers and the principal of A.P.
Giannini. Three of the students also defaced
a church nearby with racial slurs.
“We didn’t mean for it to be a hate
crime,” the anonymous student said. “We
just knew that swastikas would piss people
off more than a simple f— you.”
Although A.P. Giannini ran its own
investigation, the San Francisco Police Department’s hate crime unit became involved
because of the crimes racial dimension.
“The suspects have been identified,” special hate crime unit officer Sally Dehaven
said. “They will be cited. It’s been investigated thoroughly.” The officer refused to
comment further.
The charges against all five students
include disruption of justice, public property defacement and hate crime-related
charges. They also face misdemeanors such
as trespassing. The owners of the defaced
cars could also press charges, according to
the vandal.
4 NEWS
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
En-corps performance Alumnus to take over
fencing coach position
By Diana Guan
HE HEAD COACH of the fencing team
is giving up her position to become an
assistant coach and a one-on-one trainer
next season.
Coach Kathryn Krusen will give her position
to Class of ’98 alumnus Scott Cunningham, who
fenced on the team for four years and assisted
Krusen for a few years after graduating.
“I’m much more interested in assisting the new
coach,” Krusen said. “I’m not the most organized
person, and I’m not exactly the most demanding
either, so I want someone else to do it for me. I love
the program here, and I love the freedom at Lowell.
They trust me, and they trust the kids, but it was
starting to get stressful and burdensome.”
Krusen added that she is lenient with her team
because she believes in self-motivation. “I don’t
have the ability to push these kids as much as I’d
like to,” Krusen said. “I hope Scott will be more
demanding in terms of attendance and physical
fitness. I feel that he’s more fit for the job because
he’s much more of a drill sergeant, whereas I can’t
stand whining.”
Krusen said she hopes Cunningham will
encourage more preseason conditioning and
activity.
“That’s where I think Scott will be the most
effective as a coach: forcing the kids to challenge
themselves physically, something I’ve never been
able to do,” Krusen said.
T
ANNA FRYJOFF-HUNG
JROTC Drum Corps members join senior letter, Urban step, varsity song and cheer
to perform the finale at the Color Wars Rally on May 13 on the football field.
Many members of the team said that they are
upset that Krusen will not return as head coach,
but are nonetheless optimistic about Cunningham’s
role on the team.
“I really like Kathy,” junior Jessica Mozes said.
“It’s unfortunate because I was looking forward to
having her as coach for my senior year, but I get
how she feels. I think Scott will be the slave-driving
coach that this team needs.”
Junior Michael Hsu said he also understood
Krusen’s need to give up her position.
“She’s had to work very hard to manage her
time between coaching us and her other jobs, so I
sympathize with her,” he said.
Cunningham said that his major goal is to increase practices to “maintain a good, strong, flexible
team.” He added that this would require more access to the dance studio, where the team currently
practices after school twice a week.
However, he said that there would be no other
major changes. “I think I want to maintain Kathy’s
coaching strategy,” he said. “She’s lenient and not
too rigid in fencing style.”
Krusen said she was pleased with the team’s
performance this season. “We won all of our boys’
matches, and 50 percent of our girls’ matches,” she
said. “We also had people in the finals at All-City
with great results, and we had fencers at state finals
as well. I was hoping for more than one trophy
this year — I’m greedy with those, but, hey, next
year.”
Achievement scores improve at under-performing schools
By Sabine Scherer
ECENT REPORTS indicate that two
traditionally underachieving district high
schools are starting to improve.
Parents, teachers and students credit Balboa
and Mission high schools’ success to new programs installed under federal legislation.
Balboa High School’s recent improvement
was largely influenced by the Secondary School
Redesign Initiative, according to the 2004-2005
School Accountability Report Card compiled
by Balboa’s principal Patricia Gray. The SSRI
focuses its work on “the redesign of the most
underperforming schools,” according to the
district website (www.portal.sfusd.edu).
New programs at Balboa are yielding pleasing
results, according to the SARC. The percentage of ninth graders achieving at least basic
comprehension of English and Language Arts
on the California Standards Test is 55 percent,
a 15-percent improvement from last year. Over
30-percent of ninth graders tested with at least
a basic understanding of math, a 12-percent
improvement from last year. The SARC also
reveals that 99 percent of the students at Balboa
participated in the standardized tests administered this year, a 10-percent improvement from
the 2000 school year.
Inspirational teaching is the driving force
in Balboa’s recent improvement, according to
Balboa freshman Lewis Geist. “Balboa’s teachers
R
are the best ever,” he said. “They are young, so
they can more easily relate to the student body.”
Geist also praised his teachers for going to
great lengths to help their students. “They want
each and every child to succeed,” he said.
In the SSRI program, four elements are essential to a school’s academic success, according
to the district website. Personalization, academic
rigor, opportunities to apply learning and access
to powerful teaching are the key ingredients to
educational achievement, according to the Redesign Initiative.
Balboa’s Small Learning Community program addresses the personalization factor of the
SSRI’s four recommended elements. The SARC
describes the SLC program as “a group of teachers
working together to coordinate standards-based
curriculum, student support and other services.”
Every SLC includes a team of teachers that provides students in their learning communities
with support and guidance, according to the
California Department of Education website
(www.cde.ca.gov).
Juniors and seniors at Balboa participate in
Career and College Awareness themed learning
communities, which provide training for various
professions, according to Gray. Balboa’s career
preparatory communities focus on fields ranging from law to visual and performing arts. The
school also offers a program called the International Pathway, which traditionally accommo-
dates bilingual students, according to Gray.
website.
Another aspect contributing to Balboa’s
Although Balboa has boosted its API signifisuccess is the school-wide initiatives program, cantly in the past several years, it still falls hunwhich includes a web-based data analysis sys- dreds of points short of reaching the goal score
tem that helps the administration identify what set by the state. Last year, Balboa earned an API
students are struggling with, according to Gray. score of 496 out of 1,000, a 33-point improveCalifornia standards-based tests are sporadically ment from the year before.
However, the school
administered in order to
occasionally update the
still falls 304 points
database.
short of the state’s 800Balboa’s teachers
Despite improved
point target score.
are the best ever.
standardized testing
Balboa is not the only
scores and new program
school
that is progressThey are young, so
options, Balboa still ranks
ing toward the state’s
low in district reports.
they can more easily API target goal. MisThe Academic Perforsion High School has an
relate to the student API score of 472 for the
mance Index, an annual
2002-2003 school year, a
analysis of academic perbody.”
formance and growth in
45-point improvement
schools conducted by the
LEWIS GEIST, from the previous year.
California Department
Mission’s improveBalboa High School freshman
of Education, ranked
ment is a result of the
Balboa one out of 10, the lowest placing possible, new small school program, according to the
according to the SARC report.
SARC report compiled by Mission’s principal,
A school’s API score is composed by examin- Kevin Truitt.
ing the percentage of students that performed
In 2002, Mission joined the SSRI, according
average and above average on various standard- to the SARC. The SSRI plans to address sigized tests and exit exams, including the California nificant problems such as student achievement,
Standards Test, the Standardized Testing and attendance, dropout rates, graduation rates and
Reporting program and the California High college attendance rates.
School Exit Examination, according to the CDE
Truitt was unavailable for comment.
B
“
Elections proceed despite complaints
By Sabine Scherer and Helene Servillon
IVE STUDENTS filed grievances during spring
student government elections, complaining of
problems ranging from campaign ethics to scarcity
of election supplies.
One grievance expressed dissatisfaction with the location of some petitions for ’08 vice president, according to
outgoing SBC elections commissioner Stanley Tan. The
grievance stated that some petitions were displayed in
“dirty” windows on the catwalk, while others occupied
more desirable spots.
Uniform procedure calls for grievances to follow meticulous guidelines in order to merit investigations, Tan
said. “Grievances have to be very specific,” he explained.
“The grievance must be filed on the day of the event.”
Some grievances produced more concern than others. Students accused friends of SBC presidential hopeful
junior Jose Molina of pressuring students to vote for him,
according to Tan.
Although no actions were taken in response to the
complaints filed against Molina, warnings were issued,
according to Tan. “We couldn’t disqualify him because he
was unaware of what he was charged with,” he said. “But
we warned him that if his friends continued their actions,
F
we did have the power to disqualify him.”
Complaints were not made solely regarding campaign
ethics and petition displays. On the catwalk, student voters
were concerned to find that pencils provided to voters did
not have erasers, according to freshman Aja Estares. “If you
make a mistake while you are voting, you can’t change it,”
she said. “It just doesn’t seem fair.”
The lack of erasers can be traced back to the school’s
budget problems, according to Tan. “We use golf pencils for
the elections because they are cheap,” he explained.
Many students, including sophomore Hannah Edelsburg, said that popularity was a key factor in some election
outcomes.
However, according to future ’07 class historian Priscilla
Plasai, success involved much more than popularity. “I was
very enthusiastic during my speeches,” she said. “ I wanted
to let people know that I would take the job seriously.”
Future junior class vice president Elisa Lo stressed the
importance of understanding what people in her class
want. “Really getting to know people is the best strategy,”
she said.
Despite the five grievances, the elections satisfied the
majority of the student body, according to Edelsberg. “A
lot of qualified people won,” she said.
calendar
May 27- June 1
Brownbag Theater, senior directorial
May 29
“At Last”: Senior prom
debuts, Mods 14-15, 16-17, Rm. 110
8 p.m. - 12 a.m, City Hall rotunda
May 30
Memorial Day: No school
June 3
Senior picnic
All day, Saratoga Springs
“Aloha Oe”: SBC last dance
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
June 6
Graduation Rehearsal
Senior luncheon
June 9
Graduation
7 p.m. - 9:30 p.m, Masonic
Auditiorium
June 10
Last day of school
Senior last dance
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
NEWS
Christian club sits out He works hard for the money
on annual day of prayer
By Jessica Qu
CAMPUS Christian club did not
participate in a national day of
prayer for the first time in recent
history because members did not receive
information about it on time.
“We will probably participate in the day
of prayer next year, though,” Agape president
sophomore John He said.
He called the day important for people
of faith.
“It reminds us that we have brothers
and sisters across the nation who share the
same beliefs and are willing to pray for our
country,” He said.
He said that he believes prayer has always been an important part of the society,
regardless of the state of affairs.
“The world has never been a perfect
place,” He said.
The First Baptist Church in San Francisco held a large-scale prayer meeting on
the national day of prayer on May 5, which
kicked off the global day of prayer that ran
through May 15, according to He.
Church members around the city gathered there to pray for the country and
A
nation’s leaders.
The national day of prayer became an
annual event by an act of the United States
Congress in 1952 that was signed into law
by president Harry S. Truman.
The national day of prayer is led by a
full-time staff and a network of thousands
of volunteers.
Many Christians also observe the global
day of prayer, a worldwide celebration of
prayer beginning on May 5 and culminating
ten days later on May 15.
The day of prayer’s mission is to unite
Christians around the world, seek God’s
revival and intercede on behalf of the world,
according to He.
The theme of this year’s national day of
prayer was “to communicate to every family the need for personal repentance and
prayer,” He said.
During the weeks of May 5 to May 15,
local volunteers and coordinators held
a variety of activities, including prayer
breakfasts, Bible-reading marathons, prayer
concerts, rallies, church prayer vigils, student
flagpole gatherings and observances held in
sports stadiums.
ALANNA WONG
Alumni Association Scholarship Committee chairperson Wendy Drefke Shinbori presents senior
Thomas Yeh with a scholarship from the Lowell Alumni Scholarship Fund at the scholarship awards
ceremony on May 19. Several other seniors also received college scholarships.
Threats alarm students, parents
By Vicki Mac
CHOOL administrators locked
down a middle school campus
after police received a call
warning of a potential school shooting on April 19. On Friday of the
same week, the school received a
bomb threat.
An anonymous caller told police
that someone was headed to Benjamin Franklin Middle School to
shoot a teacher, according to special
assistant to the superintendent Lorna
Ho. “The report was someone was
going to ‘shoot’ a teacher — whether
that was with a real gun or BB gun I
could not say,” Ho said. “All entrances
were locked except for the main one,
so that police could monitor who was
coming and going.”
A few days later, a bomb threat
prompted a sweep and evacuation of
the building. “Per standard SFUSD
procedures the school was evacuated
and inspected by SFPD, but no bomb
was found and the school received
clearance from SFPD to return students to class,” district spokesperson
Melissa Mooney said.
Both threats were false.
Ho responded to students and
S
parents’ concerns about the school’s
safety, stating that the district “takes
all bomb threats seriously and follows
procedures each time to insure safety
regardless if we suspect it may be a
hoax or not.”
Ho added that schools often
receive threats in the spring during
standardized testing days and on
particularly warm days. The entire
district was administering STAR tests
that week.
Though violence is commonplace
at some schools, Lowell has for the
most part avoided it.
“In twenty years, we may have
received about three bomb threat
calls; they’re not common at all here,”
assistant principal Gloria Bogdanoff
said. “All the calls were pranks.”
When the school receives a bomb
threat, the administration immediately contacts on-site police, according to Bogdanoff.
“If a suspicious device is found,
the San Francisco bomb squad is
called,” school resource officer John
Scully said. “They conduct a police
sweep with trained bomb dogs that
sniff for explosives. If I don’t find
anything suspicious, it’s up to the
5
principal whether to evacuate the
school.”
Bogdanoff said that the school
never dismisses calls entirely. “After
Columbine and 9/11, things are taken
much more seriously,” she said.
The trend of increased bomb
threats was most clear in the aftermath of the Columbine shooting on
April 20, 1999, when U.S. schools
received at least 5,000 bomb threats
in the immediate six months, according to the National School Safety
Center.
Every school has a crisis team
comprised of teachers, administration and students that responds at
once to earthquakes, fires and shooting and bomb threats, according to
vice principal Peter Van Court. For
this reason, schools regularly conduct
fire, earthquake and duck-and-cover
drills.
California Penal Code 148.1
deems making a false bomb threat
a felony. Juvenile penalties for bomb
threats include expulsion from school,
probation and enrollment in youth
guidance centers in addition to facing
criminal charges and civil damages if
anyone is hurt in the incident.
University president
advises college hopefuls
By Michelle Lambert
UNIVERSIT Y president
spoke with students and faculty members about college
choices and admission policies on
May 18.
University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann advised students
not to delay their dreams. “Take risks;
now is the time to explore your interests,” Gutmann said. “If you really
know your passion and you follow it,
you will be more successful.”
Counseling department head and
assistant principal Gloria Bogdanoff
cautioned students to temper their
enthusiasm about applying to colleges
like Penn. “What (Gutmann) was doing is good marketing,” Bogdanoff
said. “Some of what she said is true.
All Ivy Leagues want a big applicant
pool, not just Penn … but they do look
at GPAs and SAT scores.”
Gutmann said students should look
for a school “that makes you think”
and not worry about cost when choosing a college.
“We are committed to ensuring
A
that everyone who is accepted to Penn
can afford it,” Gutmann said.
Gutmann said that she wanted
to encourage more students to apply
to Penn. This year, 16 students from
Lowell applied, two were accepted and
two are on the wait list, according to
Bogdanoff.
Although Gutmann said students
should apply to universities in other
parts of the country to broaden their
horizons, she frequently mentioned
her school, pointing out that Penn has
many distinguished alumni worldwide. “Everywhere I go, I see leaders,”
Gutmann said. “We’re looking for
leaders.”
However, she emphasized that she
does not think students should sacrifice too much for schoolwork and that
students should “be more normal.”
“I didn’t do some of the stuff you
do, and I’m still successful,” Gutmann
said. “Don’t take nine APs … Enjoy
yourself while you’re this age.”
Students like junior Hallie Forman
responded positively to the presentation. “It was interesting,” she said.
6 NEWS
May 27, 2005
Lowell High School
Slashing through murky waters
COURTESY OF WILLIAM WOO
Out of the dragon’s lair. Dragon Boat rowers seniors Angela Tam and Howard Tong, sophomores Michael Kim and Jeffrey Lee and
senior Charlie Dharmasukrit head back to shore after winning the Division A title of the all-day California Dragon Boat Association
Youth Championships on April 17 at Lake Merced. The team also finished with wins in Division C and the girls’ categories.
PTSA, Alumni association
fundraise to save positions
From LAYOFFS on Page 1
regarding who received the final pink slip in her
department because it is a confidential personnel issue.
Based on preliminary allocations under the
Weighted Student Formula budgeting process,
the school initially had 6.9 unfunded teaching
positions for next year.
However, the Alumni Association and
the Parent Teacher Student Association have
fundraised $437,000, enough to keep the 6.9
positions, according to principal Paul Cheng.
“Raising funds through the Lowell Fund was
important for the school to be able to keep all
of its positions,” Cheng said.
Nine teachers were given preliminary pink
slip notices, or consolidation notices, but can
continue teaching here because of the PTSA
and Alumni funds.
The remaining 1.4 teaching positions, a result
of the loss of the two teachers who received final
pink slips, will be filled by current part-time
teachers here or by consolidated teachers from
other schools, according to Cheng.
Consolidated teachers will be invited to
choose from available positions on June 4 and
that they are not obligated to interview for these
positions, according to a bulletin that teachers’
union president Dennis Kelly sent to union
members.
This year, the district laid off a total of 112.8
teaching positions, according to Cheng. All
laid-off teachers were first-year probationary
teachers. At the April 12 school board meeting,
the district projected that budget cuts could be
up to $22 million for the ’05-’06 school year.
State budget cuts have been the major cause
of teacher layoffs, as less funding is available
for education. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
reneged on a promise to pay back $2 billion
that he borrowed from funding guaranteed to
schools under Proposition 98, according to social studies teacher and teachers union political
director Ken Tray.
More information on how to donate to the
Lowell Fund is available at the main office.
Gov. upsets
educators
with policies
From POLICIES on Page 1
The entire union agrees that the governor specifically
did not remain faithful with his Proposition 98 promises,
according to Kelly.
In response to the union’s claims, Schwarzenegger
said that he never promised to pay back the $2 billion
he pulled from education in order to cut taxes in 2003,
according to a May 18 article in The San Jose Mercury
News.
“We did not make promises to give (the money) back
this year because I couldn’t guarantee it,” he said.
Kelly said that the teachers’ union is aware of the
governor’s authority in changing the budget and added
that education is still in critical need of the money, as
California ranks 44th among the states in money spent
on education.
“The starving of public education is a national disgrace,” Kelly said. “If the governor continues to put off
returning our money, the union plans to protest again.”
Teachers agree that the current state of education is
worthy of protest.
“Currently, I don’t see a more worthy cause,” social
studies teacher Adam Michels said. “Education should be
the government’s main concern and top priority.”
Five teachers plan to retire
at the end of the semester
From RETIREMENT on Page 1
Davis said he plans to have a busy retirement. “I plan to work on my golf game and
my garden,” Davis said. “I may also start a
manicure business.”
Merlo also said that he is looking forward
to his retirement. He plans to see a movie a
week, work in his garden, make new friends,
see old friends and enjoy leisurely breakfasts
while reading the paper.
Math department head Tom Chambers
called Merlo “a good teacher and a good
friend,” an experienced teacher who will be
hard to replace.
Senior Conor Casey said that Merlo has
had a significant impact on students. “Merlo
is a fortune to have in the math department,”
Casey said. “He’s a good guy.”
Bogdanoff announced at the beginning
of this semester that she would be retiring
as well.
Former counselor Barbara Prato, who retired from Lowell in 1998, said that Bogdanoff
has done a great deal for the school. “She’s the
heart of the department,” Prato said.
Counselor May Choi felt that Bogdanoff ’s
retirement is well-deserved. “Ms. Bogdanoff
has given her heart and soul to Lowell High
School, its students and its community,” she
said. “She is our school’s protector and guardian angel. There is no one else like her.”
Counselor Susan DeVries had similar
thoughts about Bogdanoff. “She protects us
and brings us together,” DeVries said. “No
one could fill her shoes.”
No bonuses or “golden handshakes,” the
financial incentive to retire the district often
gives to older employees, influenced the decisions of these faculty members to retire early.
The district rescinded the “golden handshake”
offer this year due to lack of teachers’ interest
in the offer.
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
NEWS
7
Youth-focused festival
publicizes UN goals
should have brought more youth in.”
By Griffin Tyree
Although roughly 20 youth showed up as
OLUNTEERS, ARTISTS and international aid groups gathered at a May 14 volunteers, participation from non-previously
event at Civic Center Plaza that focused associated youth was lacking, and most of the
on youth involvement in a United Nations-led outside participants in Y Fest were adults, acglobal movement to improve the standards of cording to Kersey. Nevertheless, seeing youth
living of developing nations.
“standing up and talking about issues that need
The purpose of the event, Y Fest, is to “involve to get solved” was inspiring, said Menlo High
young people in achieving the United Nations’ School junior Jake Heimark, a representative of
Millennium Development Goals,” according to the youth-run organization Free the Children.
Beth Lindley, an official for International Center
“It’s awesome,” he said. Kids “get inspired
on Child Labor and Education who attended the to become activists.” Heimark added that the
event. Eight makeshift pillars that lined the grass typical youth volunteers working in the Free
of Civic Center Plaza displayed the eight Millen- the Children “really care about children around
nium Development Goals.
the world.”
The Millennium Development Goals are
De Anza freshman and Y Fest volunteer
aimed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, Naeima Din stressed the importance of youth
achieve universal primary education, promote involvement in global issues. Youth volunteers
gender equality and empower women, reduce are “very educated about how much America
child mortality, improve
has and how much it
maternal health, ensure encan give to the world,”
vironmental sustainability,
It’s really important she said.
develop a global partnerTawnia Queen, who
for youth to come
ship for development and
works in conjunction
combat HIV/AIDS, malaria
with the Hesperian
out and voice
and other diseases, accordFoundation, also coming to the United Nations’
mented on the imporopinions.”
Millennium Development
tance of Y Fest targeting
Goal website (www.un.org/
CONSTANCE MOURNING, youth.
millenniumgoals).
“I think youth have
Youth Commission member
All 191 member states
an oppor tunit y of
in the United Nations have
becoming apathetic,
pledged to meet the Millennium Development angry or active,” Queen said, stressing the imGoals by the year 2015.
portance of “creating venues for young people
Y Fest also featured a pillar on which par- to enter into a society that works for change,
ticipants could write responses to four different that’s idealistic and actually does something for
prompts, such as “What are you going to do people.”
to combat global poverty after today?” and “If
Youth Philanthropy Worldwide sponsored Y
you had the attention of the entire world for 30 Fest, which featured volunteer-led booths from
seconds, what would you say?”
organizations. Among these organizations were
Student body president-elect junior Con- Amnesty International, Equal Access, Global
stance Mourning helped man a booth for the Exchange, Global Fund for Women, Hesperian
San Francisco Youth Commission, a group that Foundation, International Center on Child Larepresents youth at City Hall.
bor, Education International Development Ex“I think it’s really important for youth to change, Music for America, Relief International
come out and voice opinions,” she said. “It shows and To Love Children.
Y Fest also featured live music from such
that youth care about the issues. Hopefully (Lowell) will have a lot of events for next year … to groups as Backlight, the Gnomes, LVEO and
increase awareness of worldwide issues.”
several Youth Movement Records artists, includTurnout at Y Fest, however, was not as high as ing New Telepathic Friends.
expected, according to Kara Kersey, a performer
The 2005 Youth Speaks Slam champions Cowith Youth Movement Recording Artists.
rine Pelia and Dyanna Loeb recited their poetry,
“I think this festival could have been a little and Dalabil and the Visual Consciousness gave
more productive,” she said. “I think (Y Fest) an art presentation.
V
I
“
JAKE WATTERS
Math teacher Francisco Rosales belts out the tunes of the Cuban band Buena Vista Social
Club with his band, The Social Gringos, at Mod 12 on May 20 during Kermesse.
Kermesse a success for
school’s language classes
By Maggie Silver
HE ANNUAL Kermesse festival last
Friday drew many student attendees,
who helped raise funds for the world
language department.
“It absolutely was a success,” French teacher
Nila Minai said. “All the lines in the front of the
food booths were huge, and all the entertainment was good.”
A variety of classes and cultural clubs participated in the festival, which featured food,
games, performances and a silent auction.
“That’s one thing that makes this festival
unique; it’s full of different cultures which
everyone can experience,” world language
department head Dorothy Ong said.
Clubs sold food ranging from Burmese
pancakes to lumpia to Spam musubi.
The money raised from Kermesse funds
materials for the world language department
and new equipment for the world language
lab.
“It is crucial to keep the lab in good order,”
Ong said.
T
A variety of performances provided entertainment throughout the day. The Chinese
Cultural Arts, Polynesian and Hula clubs
performed dances.
Advanced Choir, science teacher Scott
Dickerman and the bands Before Common
Era, Acid Fast Rods and The Social Gringos
entertained students with musical performances.
Attendees also took part in a silent auction,
bidding on a variety of donated items and gift
certificates to various restaurants, and played
games, winning prizes such as goldfish.
“It’s a pretty awesome festival; the whole
community comes together to participate,”
freshman Kia Kolderup-Lane said.
The only downside was that the food went
so quickly, according to junior Stacy Chong.
“After I was done performing, I went to
buy my tickets and came back to buy food,
but there was no more left,” she said. “All the
food was gone by Mod 10.”
Kermesse has been a yearly event since the
1970s, according to Ong.
8
8 CAMPUS
May 27, 2005
Lowell High School
Fil-Am club plans for Heavenly harmonies
morning Brownout
By Helene Servillon
UMPIA, PANCIT and adobo! These
may be the first things that come to
students’ minds when they think of
the Fil-Am club, but making mouth-watering food for Winterfaire and Kermesse is
not the only thing that club members are
busy with — they are also committed to
community involvement and spreading
Filipino culture.
The Fil-Am club spent the past weeks
busily preparing skits, songs and dances for
its second annual Filipino cultural assembly, titled Brownout,
happening today during Mods
6-8 in the auditorium.
After six months of preparing and fundraising, club
members were given a notice
to reschedule only two weeks
before a planned May 6 evening
performance, according to club
member junior Melissa Abuan.
“The night-time show was canceled
because the administration didn’t want
to give us an unfair advantage over other
clubs having after-school performances,
after the Building with Books club’s fash-
clubs
L
ion show fundraiser was denied,” club
president senior Antonio Caminong said.
Club members had advertised Brownout throughout the city. “A lot of students
from different schools want to watch the
performance, but they can’t come during
the day because of school, so we wanted to
have a night show,” Abuan said.
The cause of the rescheduling is overuse
of the auditorium — many activities, such
as the spring dance and choir concerts, are
also scheduled for this month, according
to club sponsor Ray Cordoba.
Caminong, however, is trying to make
sure that an afterschool performance will
happen. “We’ve been talking to various
organizations about our situation, and
they understand our plight,” Caminong
said. “The club has been looking to perform at City College of San Francisco, San
Francisco State, Mission Cultural Center
or Bravo Theatre in the Mission. But the
prices to rent them are very high, and this
whole situation just discourages us.”
Fil-Am members meet every Tuesday
from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 260 to
discuss school events and community
activities they can get involved in.
COURTESY OF WILLIAM WOO
Emote! Chamber choir members seniors Chris Gee and Wayne Chen, junior Denver Wade and seniors
Jasmine Lee, Claire Yuan and Maria Altany (left to right) serenade the crowd during the choir concert at
7:30 p.m. on May 13 in the Carol Channing Theater.
Trip to corpses dead to students
curriculum
A
Science teacher Christopher Newhouse’s physiology classes learned
about the processes when they visited
The Universe Within on May 18.
They saw displays that included
various parts of the human body,
from the smallest bones to entire
cadavers. The exhibit also focused on
different body systems.
The Universe Within also gives
students a glimpse of how disease
can affect the body with displays of
a smoker’s lung and a brain that had
suffered a stroke.
Newhouse hoped students could
learn from the experience of “looking at the human body, studying
anatomy and (being) able to see
tissues,” he said. “We’re studying human anatomy in this class, and all I
have are plastic models. This was an
opportunity to see the body organs
in their place.”
Newhouse found the exhibit
limited, however. “The plastination
processes made everything look
plastic, like models,” he said. “There
wasn’t much variety either; dramatic
pieces were absent, and some of the
information was sparse.”
He was, nonetheless, impressed
by a display of the cardiovascular
system. “You could see all the veins
and arteries clearly,” he said.
Like Newhouse, many students
also found “The Universe Within”
disappointing. “I expected it to be
more real,” senior Lisa Zhou said. “I
saw the inside of bodies cut in half,
but it looked really fake.”
But freshman Chasel Lee, who
attended the exhibit on his own,
thought that it was a valuable learning experience.
“You learn which part goes where,
and what it actually looks like instead
of seeing pictures, drawings or diagrams,” Lee said.
By Michael Lazarus
HILE anonymous vandals
are tagging obscene symbols on and around the
district, leaving only empty spray paint
cans in their wake, one tagger is finding
a more productive outlet for his art.
The tagger, sophomore Mark Wooding, is receiving recognition and a little
extra cash by using his artistic skills to
decorate his peers’ shoes.
“I love them,” said sophomore Tyler
MacDonald, referring to the pair of
shoes Wooding tagged for him. “I like
the fact that he uses San Francisco as
his inspiration. He’s really gifted.”
Using sharpies and spray paint,
Wooding tags a variety of designs on
clients’ shoes — from local area code
415 to tribal designs . Although the $40
price tag for each creation may seem
steep, Wooding has had no problem
W
finding customers; in fact, there is a
waiting list — a wait that freshman
Chris Colbert said is “worth it.”
Wooding said that he got his start
three months ago when
boredom inspired him to
draw on his own shoes.
“People found out that I
designed on shoes and asked
me to do theirs, and things
just escalated,” Wooding explained. He
has already made over $240 customizing shoes and plans to take art courses
during the summer at the Academy of
Art University.
Customers are not the only people
to notice Wooding’s talents. “A guy
offered to buy all of my art and put it
in a gallery,” Wooding said. “I was so
overwhelmed that I just declined.”
In addition, he was recently featured
in an April 15 article in the Chronicle.
arts
By Tony Dear and Jessica Lee
CADAVER clutches a clothes
hanger draped with an outfit
made of human skin. Another cadaver with a baseball glove
prepares to throw a baseball. A third
one reads the science section of the
New York Times.
This haunting sight is just one
of many gloomy scenes
in The Universe Within,
an exhibit at the Nob Hill
Masonic Center Exhibition Hall featuring human
bodies and body parts
preserved through a process called plastination.
Plastination involves the
replacement of body fluids
with plastic that hardens
to preserve tissues and organs and prevents rotting,
according to exhibit staff
member Steve Philips.
Tagger brings design,
color to students’ shoes
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
AWARDS
9
The Lowell congratulates 2004-05 winners
National Merit Finalists
Ando, Timothy
Chan, Grace
Chen, Joyce
Cheng, Matthew Chu, Hillary
Commins, Nick
Jih, Diana
Larsen, Rose
Lei, Ke Rui
Lew, Michelle
Liu, Judy
Liu, Valerie
Luo, Janet
Magary, Karin
Meshman, Michelle
Ng, Craig
Pan, Peter
Ramirez, Jose
Tran, May S.
Wong, Catherine Wu, Hanbing
Yeh, Thomas
National Hispanic Scholars
Altany, Maria
Chin, Daniel P.
Gonzalez, Tania L. Ramirez, Jose
Vasquez, Carlos D.
Honorable Mention Scholar:
Swain-Campos, Stacey
Garcia, Jillian S.
Rosenberg, Nina R.
Achievement Program Outstanding Participants:
Dickey, Landon S. Ugo, Igwe C.
National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
Gold Key, Adv. Architecture:
Ryan Lee
Photography :
Howard Tong
Alexander Wong
Architectural Foundation of San Francisco’s Annual
High School Design Competition
Overall Design Superiority:
First
Ryan Lee
Second
Johnson Young
Third
Belinda Li
Model Category: First
Max Gara
Second
Dennis Lee
Third
Anesta Iwan
CA State Discover Card Award
Third
Hon. Mention
Sanyee Yu
First
Visual Arts:
Second
Third
Photography: First
Second
Hon. Mention
Musical Composition: First
Second
Jessica Lew
Nishta Mishra
Ashley Abigail Yu
Valerie Liu
Laura Kung
Natalie E. Leong
Anna Fryjoff-Hung
Hiu Hin Wong
Arin Vaillancourt
Tracy Chan
Nancy Dinh
English Speaking Union Shakespeare Monologue
Fifth
Jillian Garcia
Ohlone Theatre Festival
Maxi Musical: First
Guys and Dolls
Men’s Contemporary Humorous Monologue:
Third
Julian Handel
Classical Humorous Scene: Second
Lily Drexler
Sean Finerty
Andy Rothschild
Film :
Third
Nina Rosenberg
Costume Design: Second
Vanessa Yee
Sweepstakes Trophy:
Lowell Theatre Tech
Tech Ninjas
Tech Olympics: Second
Third Ms. Liquid Nails and Makita Girls
CMEA
Unanimous Superior Symphonic Band
Louisville Slugger Pre-Season High School
All-American Team
Charlie Cutler
Northern California Spirit Championships
First
J.V. Song
Jessica Qu
Koshland Award Lily Won Celia Laluz
Ka Ho Kong
National Council of Teachers of English Essay Award
Daniela Amodei Aleksandr Dergun
Junior Statesmen of America Convention
Moderate Party Chairperson
Tommy York
Best Speaker
Tommy York
Sam Kornfield
Outstanding Achievement
Valerie Liu
Golden Gate Region Mayor
Tommy York
SFUSD High School Poet Laureate Rita Volkovinskaya
PTSA Reflections Contest
Literature:
First
Second
Marieke Thomas
Tanisha Gooch
Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament
Fourth
Forensic Society
National Semifinalist Award:
Jeffrey Kwong
Thomas Yeh
Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Program
California 2005 Youth Volunteers
Jeffrey Kwong
Prudential Spirit of Community Award
Jonas Chin
American Invitational Mathematics Exam
Qualifying:
Janet Luo
Eugene Kur
Shiwei Song
Hannah Leung
Nelson Wong
John Ly
Alfred Li
Columbia Scholastic Press Association
The Lowell
Gold Crown
Best of Show: Fifth
The Lowell
Write-off :
Excellent
Laura Wong
Hon. Mention
Caitlin Kelly-Sneed
Feature:
Editorial:
Hon. Mention
Connie Chung
AATG German National Test
Regular Category: First
Senior Category: First
Kenneth Chong
Nick Commins
AATI National Italian Contest
First
Fourth Year:
Second
Third Year:
Third
Second Year:
First Year:
Hon. Mention
Rebecca Whittington
Alexander Mount
Jaclyn Wong
Daniel Lam
Japanese Speech Contest
Second
Pamela Liang
Northern California 30th Annual Mandarin
Speech Contest
First
Lena Ren
Vicky Zhong
Jennifer Hom
Second
Eileen Chu
Frank Bi
Third
Brian Chiu
Hon. Mention Winnie Tse
Serena Zhu
Escribo en Espanol – XIII Spanish Literacy Contest
First
Jennifer Wei Lim
Second
Michelle E. Lew
Enforex Scholarship:
Jennifer Wei Lim
10 ARTS AND IDEAS
May 27, 2005
Lowell High School
Taking center stage
ANYA KAMENSKAYA
Class of ‘03 alumnus Benjamin Piiru uses his feelings about being accused of causing the Rape of Nanking to write and direct a play. Actors performed his work in the show, Disorient, which was
featured at the Herbst Theater on Saturday, August 8, 2004. Class of ‘03 alumna Lauren Yee founded the YFAT program to give teens a chance to explore their Asian-American backgrounds.
Program gives a new perspective on Asian culture
YFAT gives teens the
opportunity to express
their experiences as Asian
Americans through
directing, writing, acting
academics.”
Yee said that she wasn’t very active in the
school theater program because she did not “fit
the mold of a typical audition-and-perform high
school actor.”
Nor was she exclusively interested in the
acting part of productions. “I love all aspects of
the theatrical experience — the costumes, the
publicity, the writing — and so it was natural
By Erica Edwards
that YFAT became what it is today, a vehicle for
N A LIGHTED stage an Asian actress
all of those interests,” she said.
stands tall and stiff, mocking the imYee’s dream of creating a program that would
age of a robotic doll.
“When people think of dolls, they think of draw students to all aspects of production has
Barbie and her shiny blonde hair,” she said. “She been successful, participants say.
Junior Crystal Wong said that YFAT has exis the original one. We’re just sidekicks, mutated
copies, adding some ethnic color to the Barbie tended her knowledge of the theater world. “My
experience with YFAT definitely helped me with
clique.”
The doll paces along her shelf, hopelessly other sectors of theater,” she said. “Some write
looking off into the distance as a girl buys a ste- one-acts, dialogues and monologues, and some
do the behind-the-scene activities.”
reotypically blonde doll instead of her.
As assistant outreach diThe actress, who imbues
rector, Wong helps promote
her character with a sense of
the shows. “We try to get all
bitter humor, is a participant in
It is easy to
age groups to come,” Wong
Youth for Asian Theater, a nonmake broad
said. “It’s not just for high
profit theater program. Curschool students; it’s family
rently organizing its summer
generalizations
entertainment.”
repertoire of acts and creating
The productions have
a drama group for members
about Asian
been so successful that some
already in college, YFAT aims
Americans
of the plays have traveled to
to dramatize Asian-American
venues. “The YFAT
cultural issues.
because we form national
members literally originate
An excerpt from Disorient,
YFAT’s last performance, the
a racial category roles in plays that go on to
be produced by other profesdoll skit is an original piece
that is easily
sional theaters in places like
written by Class of ’03 alumna
Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston,
Brianna Lee and performed by
distinguishable
New York and San Diego,”
members of YFAT last August
Yee said.
at the Herbst Theater.
by sight.”
Yee said that writing plays
YFAT will hit the stage
again this summer, allowing
LAUREN YEE, has always been her favormore high school students
YFAT founder ite part of the experience.
“When I write a scene or a
to experience all aspects of
play, it means that I am litertheater production.
Class of ’03 alumna Lauren Yee founded ally creating new work from the very beginning,
YFAT because she wanted to open a creative and it makes our work much more relevant and
outlet for students to explore theatrical acting personal,” she said.
City College freshman and Class of 03’ alumand production.
“I noticed that youth, especially those in nus Benjamin Piiru, who joined the group last
the Asian-American community, didn’t have a year, said writing plays for YFAT serves as an
substantial number of opportunities to engage “excellent emotional outlet.”
Piiru said he draws from his personal experiin theater outside of school,” Yee said.
“With the district focusing mainly on aca- ences to write his plays.
“When I was a sophomore at Lowell, a Chidemic requirements, students don’t have that
much freedom to take classes outside of the core nese student said that I was responsible for the
O
I
“
rape of his country because I am Japanese,” he can from that,” she said.
Such risk-taking means that not all of YFAT’s
said. “Instead of beating him up or starting a fight,
I internalized those feelings, and wrote them productions are entirely successful.
“We tell actors not to worry if the audience
down and told the audience what I thought about
the situation. I am not the one who bombed Pearl doesn’t get it because that’s just their percepHarbor; I am not the one that raped Nanking. tion,” Yee said. “Yet at the same time, the point
of theater and the beauty of theater is that shared
That was someone else.”
While the group is called “Youth for Asian connection between the audience and the acTheater,” the actors and members are not tors.”
In addition
all Asian — alto producing
though the subshows such
ject matter genas Disorient,
erally is. “Most
Y FAT m e m of the issues in
bers attended a
our shows have
workshop over
to do with the
winter break
Asian culture,
called “Moonthe clash of
lighting,” in
American and
which the proAsian values,”
gram members
Wong said. Disworked with
orient included
high school stuskits about the
dents to write
ways of Asian
and produce
parents — their
several tenstrict and someCOURTE
minute plays,
times stifling
SY OF W
WW.YFA
T.WEBH
according to
values — and
OP.ORG
Piiru.
some skits about
“Everything
misconceptions
was acted out within 24 hours,” he said. “It was
of the Asian culture.
Yee said that past productions have explored like a crash course to see how a production is
many Asian-American parents’ desire for their put together.”
Currently YFAT is organizing a program
children to get good grades so that they will
succeed in life, earn a stable income and avoid for an older age group, those who have already
stepped foot into the college world but wish to
poverty.
“Although this trait is often associated with continue with theater, according to Wong.
Piiru said he participates in this new program
Asian culture, it has more to do with socio-economic status, immigration status and philosophy because it allows him to continue his friendships
regarding education than with ethnicity,” Yee and his drama hobby even though he has aged
said. “However, it is easy to make broad gen- out of YFAT.
YFAT members like Piiru and Wong particueralizations about Asian Americans because we
form a racial category that is easily distinguish- larly cherish the bonds that working with such a
group can create. Such bonds spark the creative
able by sight.”
YFAT aims to clarify such racial misconcep- process, according to Wong.
“We plan sleepovers and meetings and usually
tions. “What we seek to do is dig beneath those
often one-dimensional cultural perceptions, see groups of three or four start the writing process,”
how they came to be and how they compare to she said.
Piiru said YFAT is searching for a smaller
the multi-faceted Asian-American identity that
venue for this year’s summer showcase. “Instead
exists today,” Yee said.
Yee said the members of YFAT continue to of just one show at a large theater, we are hoptake on new theatrical challenges. “They’re not ing to have a smaller venue, but more showings;
afraid to come in, try something different, be a maybe a weekend show,” Piiru said. “We just want
part of the creative process and learn what they to reach out to more people.”
For more infomation about upcoming shows and other YFAT events, check out www.yfat.webhop.org
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
SPOTLIGHT
Black tradition gains popularity
“S
W
“
30,000 people.”
In addition to audience participation,
step teams are judged on style, substance,
originality and staying true to the African
tradition, according to Dennis.
“Since Africans did not use CDs and
tapes, we limit music to only two minutes per
performance,” he said. “This gives
the teams a chance to
show thier skills.”
Around 300
teams sign up
for GreekFest,
but on ly one
team per Greek organization is able to step at
the festival. The teams then
compete for a grand prize of
$50,000.
The tradition of stepping
dates back hundreds of years.
Stepping here at Lowell, however, began with
the formation of Senior Letter and gained
momentum with the arrival of Urban Step.
New generations
Juniors Michelle Emelife, Courtney Ball
and Allyson Cobb formed the Urban Step
team last year because they wanted to create a
team that incorporated hip-hop and stepping
into its choreography.
She said she joined Urban Step as opposed to Senior Letter because of the history of stepping.
“Both teams here at Lowell step,”
she said. “But with Urban Step there’s
a sense of tradition. You have to know
the history in order to be in tune with
the craft.”
The team’s unique approach attracted members like junior Sara
Maya de Guzman, who joined Urban
Step because it seemed like it would
be fun.
Though stepping is largely a
black phenomenon and Urban
Step is largely composed of black
students, de Guzman said that
being Filipino isn’t an issue.
“I don’t see it as awkward at
all,” she said,
With the stepping phenomenon continuing to gain popularity, one concern Dennis and
others have is authenticity.
“We try to stay in touch with
the tradition,” he said. “We
want to make sure that when
people step, they do it right.”
Emelife agreed.
“Tradition is important,”
she said. “Even though it is
okay to modernize, we try
to stay true to the original
ways.”
— Karen Wishnia
also contributed
to this story.
ILLUSTRATION BY AUSTIN NGO, STEP IMAGES BY ANNA FRYJOF-HUNG
long time.”
By Mellina Stoney
Brown stressed the important role step
TEPPERS READY?”
The Alpha Kappa Alpha soror- shows have in keeping the art alive.
“People who may have not known about
ity president joins her team in
formation as they prepare to entertain the stepping come out (to the shows) and are in
1,000-plus people attending their step show for a treat,” Brown said.”
Although sorority and fraternity presiat UC-Berkeley.
dents organize most step shows, teams also
“You know!”
The team members, wearing sashes compete against each other in step competitions. GreekFest
and gloves covered
( w w w. g r e e k f e s t .
in pink and green,
their team’s colors,
We start with some com), the nation’s
leading source of
respond energetiTemptations for
cally.
information about
“All right. Then
black Greek life,
the old school,
break it on down.”
puts on annual step
Cheers echo
then we speed it up competitions for
throughout the
historically black
with some Lil’ John colleges’ fraterniauditorium as the
ladies stomp, dance
ties and sororities,
for the younger
and sing. After their
according to its
amazing routine
website.
members.”
ends, the excited
Established in
crowd leaps to their
1998
by the NationTIARA ETHERIGE,
feet, cheering as
al Greek Network,
sorority president
the fellas take the
Inc., GreekFest has
stage.
been sponsoring
All over the country, colleges are hosting step shows ever since.
step shows such as this one, events in which
“It is just a great time out,” Greekfest
black sororities and fraternities, or “Greek” director Stan Dennis said. “Teams compete,
organizations, showcase their stepping skills. people watch and everyone enjoys themRecently, the stepping scene has grown, selves.”
branching out from colleges to popular meMaking these competitions fun and excitdia — and even to right here at school.
ing requires a lot of work and preparation,
Stepping is a rhythmic movement of according to Brown.
hands and feet that originated in Africa
“What we basically do is find a rhythm,
thousands of years ago as a form of com- something the audience will like,” Brown
munication, according to Skavalyea Wyatt, said. “It’s a difficult task that requires evwho writes articles on fraternity and sorority eryone to participate, but the end result is
life for Black Greek. Stepping attained main- something special.”
stream recognition in the 1950s, when black
Tiara Etherige, president of the Alpha
acapella groups like the Temptations were chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority
popular and members of black fraternities at Howard University, agreed.
“When we first develop a step, it can seem
imitated their steps.
intimidating,” she said. “But we get through
it. The best part of the step is the audience.”
Media Invasion
Audience participation can be the key to
Now, the average person does not have
to visit a college to get a taste of the step- success in a competition, steppers say.
ping phenomenon — all that is required
“One of the things I worry about is
is a television. Companies such as Verizon whether or not the audience is going to feel
Wireless and Sunny D have been using step us,” Etherige said. “Part of our score is based
on the audience. If they know a song that we
teams in their ads.
The most recent Oscar Meyer commercial use in our routine and they sing along, we
remixes the product’s famous song, “My bo- could get major (competition) points.”
logna has a first name,” with three girls clapping their hands and stomping their feet.
Formula for success
Stepping made its jump onto the big
One way to get the crowd involved is to
screen in 2002 with the movie Drumline, mix genres, according to Etherige.
starring Nick Cannon. In the movie, Can“We have different types of people in the
non’s love interest is part of a Sigma sorority, audience,” she said. “So what we do is mix it
and her step performance is an important up. We start with some Temptations for the
scene in the movie.
old school, then we speed it up with some Lil’
Some worry that this newfound popular- John for the younger members.”
ity could overshadow stepping’s long history,
The next event the National Greek Netaccording to Karolus Brown, assistant direc- work will be sponsoring will be on June 25
tor of black community services at Stanford at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh, New
University.
York, according to the website.
“It is almost as if the world has just
“We’re excited about this upcoming
discovered stepping,” Brown said. “But the show,” GreekFest director Stan Dennis said.
thing is, stepping has been around a very “I’m expecting a great turnout of about
11
12 REVIEWS
May 27, 2005
Lowell High School
Tree hides
meat-eater’s
delights
By Avi Baskin
RESH MEAT, warm pita and mouthwatering dips have customers coming
back to Bursa Kebab in the heart of West
Portal.
As I walked into the dimly lit restaurant, I
immediately noticed soothing Mediterranean
music and the distinct smell of the sizzling
meat platters that a waiter was carrying to a
lucky couple.
Delectable beef flavored with lemon juice
and olive oil is a significant part of almost every
meal. The shawarma meat the restaurant uses is
marinated in a secret combination of Turkish
spices created by the chefs at Bursa Kebab.
The menu featured appetizers from a falafel
platter ($3.99) to a combination plate ($11.99),
a dish containing a variety of spreads and salads
including hummus (puréed chick peas with
lemon and garlic) and baba ghanoush (spicy
puréed eggplant).
I loaded pita bread with a couple pieces of
falafel, a mountain of vegetables and topped it
off with a spoonful of hummus, taking a large
bite before it broke and fresh tomatoes burst
out. If you’re looking for classic and delicious
Mediterranean food, I recommend getting the
falafel appetizer.
After an especially tangy bite of hummus, I
looked up to notice the modern interior of the
restaurant, which included a small bar seating
up to four people near the back. The dark lights
on the ceiling gave the entire restaurant a comfortable, cozy feel.
Before I was finished admiring the design,
a waiter served me the bursa iskendar kebab
($14.99), the restaurant’s signature meal. My
mouth watered as I looked at the bite-sized
pieces of tender sizzling beef topped with butter,
yogurt and tomato sauce.
The shawarma platter ($12.99) is also a good
choice, a beef dish complemented with fresh
tomatoes and lettuce, along with onions.
If you manage to finish the main course,
baklava ($2.99), topped with sweet honey and
crunchy nuts, is always a perfect way to finish
off a meal.
The restaurant is hidden by a tree, so it might
be hard to spot, but it’s still worth looking for
if you’re in the mood for scrumptious Turkish
food.
F
LAURA FONG
Konnichiwa. Kyoto Sushi’s friendly employees attend to customers during the hours of 11a.m. to 11p.m., excluding dinner-only Sundays.
Kyoto Sushi satisfies parties of any size
By Laura Fong
RIOR TO JUNIOR PROM, sixteen
friends and I bustled into Kyoto Sushi on Van Ness and Sutter streets.
Although the “Happy Hour” sign and draft
beer advertisements in the window made the
experience a little less than romantic, I thought
it was a perfect match for our group — not just
one block from prom, but also inexpensive.
And with a friendly waitress and a spacious
back room, our worries of feeding a large
group on a Saturday night diminished.
Although the restaurant may not have a
charming atmosphere, the food was consistently tasty and fresh, sending us to prom
satisfied and ready to party.
The sushi menu offered an overwhelming
array of choices: salmon sushi, halibut sushi,
tuna sushi, tempura sushi, egg sushi and eel
sushi … the list goes on. Kyoto Sushi also offers other Japanese food — teriyaki, tempura,
noodles and donburi (rice bowl).
For the indecisive customer having a hard
time choosing from the large menu, “Bento
boxes” make dining easier. For $10, diners
P
choose three items from a list including salmon teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, California sushi,
gyoza (Japanese potstickers), katsu (battered
chicken) or sashimi (raw tuna and halibut).
The bento box itself is an adorable tray of
compartments that contains diners’ selections.
It also comes with miso soup (bean curd broth)
and a salad covered in their trademark salad
dressing, which is slightly tangy and sweet.
Sushi lovers and experimenters have the
option of ordering individual sushi pieces or
rolls, ranging from $9-$11. Among my favorites are the “rainbow roll” (fresh salmon, tuna
and halibut) and the “dragon roll” (shrimp
tempura wrapped with eel, avocado and a
special sauce).
I savored each scrumptious mouthful of
the eight pieces of each roll. The dragon roll
in particular nicely balanced sweet and salty
flavors and smooth and crispy textures in one
multi-layered piece.
Some of my friends, skeptical of the raw
fish, went for the tempura (battered and deep
fried shrimp and/or assorted vegetables). At
Kyoto Sushi, the tempura can sometimes be a
little heavy on the batter, but it’s always fresh
and tasty. Tempura can be dipped in a light
soy sauce and eaten before its crispiness is lost.
With vegetable tempura, I enjoy guessing what
each vegetable is, as well as swapping someone
else’s yam for my cauliflower.
Diners who miss the vegetable tempura
should try the tempura ice cream. Only some
Japanese restaurants offer this delicious dessert. Underneath a sweet and crispy crust lies
a spoonful of warm cake and cold green tea ice
cream. Imagine melting to the toasty warmth
of the crust and then cooling down to the
frosty chill of green tea ice cream — very high
up on my yummy scale.
Kyoto Sushi is conveniently located two
blocks from the AMC 1000 Van Ness movie
theatre and is generally open from 11 a.m. to
11 p.m., except Sundays, when only dinner
is served. On weekends many people go to
Kyoto Sushi after seeing a movie, but rarely
is it over-crowded. Parking is available in the
1000 Van Ness garage or other garages in the
area. Or just hop the Van Ness bus and get
some tasty sushi.
Pakistani restaurant offers high-quality food at low prices
By Beatriz Datangel
ALKING INTO Shalimar restaurant,
a customer will immediately notice
the smells of smoky grilled tandoori
chicken and spicy curries and the sound of
friendly, animated conversations.
This busy Pakistani restaurant is great for
students; it offers a different kind of cuisine at
cheap prices and a fantastic level of quality.
Shalimar, which opened in 1995, has two
branches: one on Polk and California Streets,
the other on Jones and O’Farrell streets.
I visited the Polk Street location, where customers order their food at a counter, set their
own tables and retrieve their own drinks. This
reminded me of home, where my mom prepares
my favorite food and I set the table.
But the food’s spices and flavors transported
me to an unfamiliar place, a busy, aromatic
Pakistani kitchen, where the smells of barbeque
and coriander fill the nose, and high flames from
the grill add a slight sense of danger.
Food from the tandoor is hearty and spicy
— come with an empty stomach. As a vegetarian,
I only ate a vegetable curry and naan but still left
feeling satisfied.
My mom and brother ordered tandoori beef
and chicken curry. According to my brother, the
fresh herbs and spices in the generous serving
of tandoori boti (beef) bring an unusual taste
to the tender bites. My mother enjoyed the
beef, too, and the spices did not overwhelm her
sensitive palate.
The next dish they tried was the murgh korma
shahi, chicken curry. This favorite at Shalimar,
regarded as “The King of Curries,” looked like
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nothing more than several pieces of chicken
covered in a tomato-based curry sauce on a
plastic saucer.
But the plain presentation was deceptive.
“The sauce is spicy and tasty,” my brother said.
“It’s pretty good, and it alleviates the blandness of
the naan.” The simmered blend of saffron, yogurt
and other selected spices struck a chord with
my brother, and he, along with other patrons,
enjoyed each bite with a smile.
The dish that caught my eye was the vegetable
of the day, one of the specials at Shalimar, which
contains fresh seasonal vegetables cooked with
a variety of spices. The special when I visited
was okra; it was absolutely mind-boggling how
they transformed this common vegetable with
such an extraordinary combination of flavors,
including onions, cloves, black pepper, cumin
and coriander.
Naan, unleavened bread baked in a clay
oven, a tandoor, was the best complement to
these dishes.
Shalimar offers several kinds of naan, otherwise known as shan-e-tandoori on the menu,
from plain naan to whole-wheat naan stuffed
with spicy cooked potatoes.
The plain breads did not interfere with the
essence of the food and captured all the flavors
and sauce — something plain old rice can’t do.
The price of $1.00 made the bread even easier
to eat.
The stuffed naan, aloo paratha delhvi ($2.00),
felt like a meal in itself. Each bite revealed spicy
heartiness hidden between layers of hot, buttery bread.
The meal ended with a tasty and soothing
desert, banarsi kheer, a rice custard with sweet
spices blended with a variety of nuts — a perfect
end to a flavorful and spicy meal. Its complementing spices like cardamom, cinnamon and
cloves, along with the cooling effects of the custard, calmed the other raging flavors and made
my entire day brighter.
We enjoyed all these dishes. My mother
gave the tandoori beef and chicken
curry an 8 out of 10, the okra
9 out of 10 and the desert
10 out of 10.
“The dishes,
although spicy,
were great,” my
m ot h e r s a i d ,
adding that the
cooling dessert
balanced out the
variety of spices
and flavors of all
the dishes.
My brother also
liked the food and
rated the dishes in the
range between 7 and 10. “I
liked everything, but I’m not
a big fan of vegetables and I felt
they could have done more with the
appearance,” he said.
With a menu for those who are watching their weight, a vegetarian menu and a few
dishes for the daring, like brain masala, a dish
containing lamb’s brain, Shalimar caters to any
person.
And with the prices ranging from $4-5 a
dish, Shalimar will fill peoples’ stomachs without
emptying their
wallets.
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
REVIEWS
Ethiopian joint has folks eating with their hands
By Jake Watters
N THE WAY to eat dinner with my
family in celebration of my aunt’s 40th
birthday, I stopped briefly to talk to a
blind, homeless man. He explained to me why
Fillmore was such a fresh street: Fillmore connects with Harrison and Harrison goes to the
ocean, so you get these ocean breezes all along
the Fillmore. He also explained that there are
trees on Fillmore and that no trucks drive along
the street.
While there are trees on Fillmore, the rest
of his statements are false. However, Fillmore
is definitely a fresh street, home to the Fillmore
Jazz Festival and John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom
Room. Nestled in between its jazz and blues
clubs and fast food restaurants is Rassella’s, a
jazz club which also happens to specialize in
the cuisine of ancient Abyssinia, also known
as Ethiopia.If you like jazz, Ethiopian food and
eating with your hands, then Rassella’s is the
place for you.
I walked out of the late-afternoon warmth of
Fillmore into the cool shaded foyer of Rassella’s
and sat on a couch, listening to the jazz band
that was playing. After my chronically tardy
family arrived, we ordered the “sampler delight”
because it gave us, well, samples of pretty much
everything on the relatively small dinner menu.
We also ordered the only appetizer available on
the menu, sambusas, which are little crispy fried
dumplings filled with a choice of either spiced
ground beef or lentils wrapped in a thin papery
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shell. The sampler was about $14 per person
($28 for what Rassela’s calls a two-person meal),
but three people would probably have difficulty
eating the entire sampler.
While this $14 tab may intimidate the more
frugal teenager, rest assured it’s worth your hardor not-so-hard-earned allowance. In addition to
the delicious food, Rassella’s provides customers
with live music, an enjoyable atmosphere and
courteous staff.
At the beginning of our meal, we listened to
the quintet Love Motel, whose mediocrity was
masked by two stand-out musicians from the
School of the Arts. A second group played faster
and with more consistency.
The inside of the restaurant is painted with
clean lines and soft colors and the walls are
adorned with paintings. This décor, coupled with
a fireplace, creates a calming atmosphere. There
is also a television hanging above the bar, if you
want to watch the Giants game.
The food itself was warm, soft and delicious.
The sambusas were delicately crispy, the lentil
innards perfectly spiced, a plethora of different
flavors melding together like brushstrokes in
a painting. After the appetizers, our waitress
quickly delivered two large platters piled high
with injera bread and heaps of stew-like entrees.
You start off with several pieces of the flat,
brown, dense, spongy and slightly sour bread,
which also doubles and triples as a fork and
spoon. You tear off a piece of injera and then pick
up some food with this scrap of bread.
JAKE WATTERS
And all that jazz. Rassela’s offers exquisite Ethiopian cuisine and live entertainment.
The sampler comes with three different kinds
of legume dishes (with a vast array of different
flavors), a forgettable steamed vegetable dish, a
mound of lamb in a mildly spicy and sweet sauce
(yebeg alecha) and one chicken entrée (doro wat,
which was served in a slightly spicy red sauce
flavored with ginger, garlic and other things).
The general consensus at the table was that the
lamb entree was the tastiest. We gorged ourselves
Simple Vietnamese spot gives customers
choice of cheap, yet tasteful dishes
By Sandra Siu
HE TENDERLOIN DISTRICT is home to several culturally unique eateries, and Pho Hoa on Jones Street is
no exception. Pho Hoa looks very much like your typical
Vietnamese restaurant: red-lacquered metal chairs, wood-paneled walls and a generally simple interior design. But Pho Hoa,
which has been around since the 1970s, serves perfected dishes
that are anything but ordinary.
The basic menu consists of appetizers such as cha gio (egg
rolls) and goi cuon (pork and shrimp salad rolls), pho (rice
noodle soup), rice pho plates and drinks such as nuoc dua (fresh
coconut) and suong sa hot luu (jello in light syrup). The pho is
decently priced, from $5.50 to $6.59 a bowl, depending on size
and ingredients. Rice plates range from $5.70 to $6.50.
The food arrived within just 10 minutes of ordering, neckand-neck in pace with fast-food places like In-N-Out Burger.
But Pho Hoa’s family friendly atmosphere and the cuisine by
far outdo a Double-Double and fries.The egg rolls, eaten with
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lettuce and mint leaves, weren’t overly heavy and oily, but rather
refreshingly crunchy. The lightness of the rolls and abundance
of vegetable fillings made it a perfect appetizer.
Many chefs consider the broth to be the essence of pho. Pho
Hoa’s broth stands out, with more spices and depth than that of
other Vietnamese restaurants because their cooks take longer
to prepare it. The broth brings out the taste of the noodles as
well as the flavor of the beef, tying the course together. The beef
flank in the pho was delightfully tender and seemed to melt in
my mouth. As in other Vietnamese restaurants, the pho came
with mint leaves, fresh bean sprouts and lime, which cool down
the broth and add a fresh kick to the soup.
One of the things I enjoyed most about Pho Hoa is how
long their food lasted. The leftovers I took home and kept in
the fridge overnight tasted just as great straight out of the microwave as they did fresh from the restaurant kitchen.
So don’t be afraid if you can’t finish everything; order to your
stomach’s desire and save the rest for tomorrow.
Platefuls of love. Among La Méditerraneé’s
many highly praised and varied meals is this
combination plate, which includes a cheese
dumpling, chicken cicilia, a meat tart and Grecian
spinach and feta pie. La Méditerraneé has
locations in Noe Valley, on Fillmore Street and on
College Avenue in Berkeley, California.
EM
ILY
LEU
NG
upon the slightly sweet and spicy entrees; an
hour later, scraps of injera and globs of lentil
and vegetable matter made visible bulges in the
stomachs of diners at our table.
The blind homeless man had a point about
the Fillmore being fresh. While this location
gives everything in the area certain aura of cool,
Rassella’s would be a fresh joint even if it was
located in Sunnyvale.
Middle Eastern
cuisine provides
variety, comfort
By Marissa Dente
HEN YOU FIRST walk into La Méditerranée,
a cozy hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Fillmore
Street, you are immediately greeted by the pleasing
aroma of fresh herbs and seasoned grilled meats. The menu
features many exotic foods to choose from, such as chicken
cilicia (an egg-roll shaped appetizer with cinnamon-scented,
lightly sweetened chicken), baba ghanoush (an eggplant dip)
and baklava (a crispy layered pastry made with phyllo dough,
nuts, butter and sugar), all favorites that draw a crowd devoted
to Middle Eastern and Armenian fare.
La Méditerranée is usually packed on Friday, Saturday
and Sunday nights, which is not surprising, since their food
is marvelous and reasonably priced.
One of the restaurant’s many regulars, I always order the
Middle Eastern plate, a sampler that includes chicken cilicia,
Grecian spinach and feta pie, a levant sandwich and the choice
of lule (lamb) kebab or chicken pomegranate over rice. The
plate also includes sides of cheese, fruit and hummus (ground
garbanzo beans seasoned with garlic and lemon juice).
This specialty entrée and all others come with your choice
of soup or salad. For vegetarians, La Méditerranée offers a
vegetarian Middle Eastern plate, an arrangement of Grecian
spinach feta pie, cheese karni (dumplings), a levant sandwich
and a dolma (olive leaf stuffed with rice).
If you are going out with a large group and crave variety,
the Mediterranean Meza is the perfect choice. This dish is a
combination of ten of La Méditerranée’s house specialties and
appetizers, from lule kebab to baba ghanoush, costing $13.50
per person. The restaurant also offers a vegetarian version.
Overall, my favorite part of any meal is dessert, and La
Méditerranée does not disappoint. The dessert menu includes
datil amadra (warm dates and nuts rolled in fillo dough), baklava, cheesecake, chocolate mousse and even crème brulée, a
deliciously creamy French dessert with a caramelized sugar
crust on top. Recently, La Méditerranée has also been serving
Moroccan mint tea, a sweet delight.
The service at La Méditerranée is excellent, with well-informed and friendly servers who always seem to have smiles
on their faces as they move about the restaurant. Once when
I was sick, the waiter advised against my mom’s order of the
Moroccan mint tea for me because he said that the drink was
pumped with sugar and would make me even more miserable. I felt very cared for and appreciated his concern for
my health.
Attracting people from all walks of life, La Méditerranée
has a warm feel; you feel like you’re in a sepia-colored film
as you eat, with copper tables and dimmed lighting creating
a relaxing ambiance. The bar boasts an old-fashioned cappuccino machine and a Coca-Cola clock, and the artwork
includes tin castings of fish, portraits of famous pieces such
as Michelangelo’s “David” and candid pictures of employees
and friends near the cash register.
La Méditerranée also has another location in the Castro on
Noe at Market that is much larger than the one on Fillmore
— but just as consistent in its merit and appeal.
W
■ Girls’ soccer team finishes
season with Transbay triumph
Lowell High School
May 27, 2005
Page 15
■ Fencing takes a hit at AllState competition
Baseball
win streak
dies hard
By Gaston Guibert
HE LAST TIME the Lowell varsity
baseball team lost a league game, Bill
Clinton had just finished his final State
of the Union address. In the speech, Clinton
said, “We should be filled with awe and joy
at what lies over the horizon.” Unknowingly,
Clinton had made a prophecy with local significance: Lowell varsity baseball went on to win
an AAA record 70-consecutive regular season
league games. Sadly, this historic five-year win
streak came to an end on April 27th.
Players from this year’s team can appreciate what they were a part of. “Playing with
a streak like that, you don’t want to think
about it at first, but after awhile, it became
something really special that I will treasure
for the rest of my life,” senior third baseman
Dan Nemiroff said.
Some of the most memorable moments
of those years took place during the playoffs,
where it’s “win or go home.”
During a semifinal 19-3 dismantling of
Lincoln in ’03, Class of ’03 starting pitcher
Alex Sowyrda stepped up to the plate in the
second inning, which would turn out to be the
most tiring of his life. Sowyrda hit a shot down
the third base line, where it kept rolling long
after it had soared over the left fielder’s head
because Lowell’s home field, Big Rec, has no
fences. Sowyrda sprinted around the bases for
an apparent home run. However, the ball was
then ruled foul by the home plate umpire, and
the gassed senior was forced to return to the
plate to continue his at-bat.
Later in the at-bat, Sowyrda hit another
bomb to left, this one clearly fair, and wheezed
his way around the bases for a second time.
Later in the inning, it was as if his teammates
had played a cruel joke on him: The Lowell
hitters continued racking up the hits, and
eight batters later, an exhausted and sweaty
Sowyrda was brought up to the plate yet
again. This time, he crushed a shot over the
See BASEBALL STREAK on Page 21
T
MAYRA LOPEZ
Sophomore catcher Sati Houston tosses the ball to senior pitcher Kimberly Ma to tag out a Washington runner at first during the softball
championship game at Lang Field on May 12. The Cardinals lost 12-2 to the Eagles after a spectacular near-perfect season.
Cardinal softball falls in championship
By Megan Dickey
ETERMINEDLY DIVING, sliding and
pounding their way into the championship game, the Cardinals nonetheless finished off their highly successful softball
season with a 12-2 loss to Washington on May
12 at Lang Field.
Both teams entered the championship tied
for first place in the league, with a regular season
record of 19 wins and one loss.
After winning the playoff game against the
Mustangs 16-4 on May 10, the Cardinals expected the best from the championship game. “We’re
kind of nervous but confident at the same time,”
sophomore right fielder Erica Tran said before
the game. “We just have to stay focused.”
The Cardinals started off with an early lead
on the Eagles after freshman second baseman
Jasmine Libatique scored on sophomore left
D
fielder Courtney Dair’s pop fly double up the
middle in the top of the second inning. In
the bottom of the inning, however, the Eagles
bunted their way into loading the bases and
scored off of a line drive to left field and a single
to shortstop, racking up four runs.
Most of the Eagles’ runs were caused by the
Cardinals’ shaky defensive skills. Missed ground
balls and other small errors resulted in the game
ending shortly after the top of the sixth inning
because of the 10-run slaughter rule, which
requires a game to be called if a team is ahead
by 10 runs.
“I think our nerves on defense really showed
and mistakes were made,” coach Sascha Ray said.
“That was where our biggest downfall was.”
The Eagles’ experience advantage over the
Cardinals was another factor. This was the first
championship game this group of Cardinals
has played.
“Washington has a lot of juniors and seniors;
they’ve been to this game the last couple of
years, and they knew what to expect,” Ray said.
“They knew all of the elements that surrounded
the game.”
This season’s roster had a majority of
sophomores and freshmen, making it harder to
compete with older teams such as the Eagles, but
the Cardinals have gained valuable experience
for next year.
In the games prior to the championships,
the young Cardinals seemed to be flying high.
With a strong and powerful offensive lineup, the
team was able to pull away with an 11-8 victory
against Lincoln on May 3.
This win against the Mustangs served as a
comeback after the Cardinals’ first season
See SOFTBALL LOSS on Page 21
Eagles smother volleyball in playoff defeat, ending title run
celebrated with enthusiasm, which
By Michelle Lee
YEING THE WASHINGTON kept the game at a tense and competispike, junior setter Gregory Gee tive level.
quickly dove and reached for
The third set was the game’s clithe ball, hoping to save it from touch- max, boosting the Cardinals’ morale
ing the gym floor. Despite his efforts, and giving them a spark of hope. The
the ball hit the ground
team stalked onto the
and ended the May 9
court determined to
playoff game with a dismake the Eagles fight
for their points. Junior
appointing 3-1 loss.
The Cardinals started
middles Evan Lim and
Garrett Tjoe both made
the game a bit tentatively
because of a previous
stunning kills to cement
regular-season loss to
a 25-22 victory.
the Eagles, according
But the sudden burst
to sophomore offside
of energy and vigor in
the third set faded fast in
Christopher Shinn.
NATHAN CHANG
Their shaky game
the fourth as the CardiBoys’ volleyball MVP
resulted in numerous atnals lost the final set 17tack errors in the first set,
25, and the game 3-1.
damning their score and guaranteeing
The Cardinals’ loss could not be
blamed on skill, but rather on being
the Eagles an easy 11-25 victory.
However, as the game progressed, “too tentative” and not possessing
the Cardinals coalesced and started mental preparation, as a result of presplaying more like a winning team. sure to keep up the “Lowell Legacy”
They made a close comeback in the and continue the three-year title-winsecond set and lost by only three ning streak, Shinn said.
points, 22-25.
“We focused too much on not
Throughout the game, whenever making mistakes instead of on just
an Eagle or a Cardinal scored a point playing,” Shinn said. “It made us do
with a spike or a kill, the player’s team worse, since a majority of the points
members both on and off the court we lost were due to our own errors and
E
not their good plays.”
Despite the disappointing outcome
of this year’s season, the Cardinals look
forward to next year.
“This young team
has grown a lot this
whole season,” coach
Michael Brogonia
said. “I expect great
things from them in
the future.”
of players, both on and off the court,
which helped build team chemistry.
Chang in turn praised his team
members. “Volleyball is a team sport,”
Chang said. “We win as a team and
lose as team.”
-
MVP
Junior outside hitter Nathan Chang,
this year’s MVP, not
only pushed himself,
but also motivated
and encouraged the
team despite injuries,
including multiple
sprained ankles.
“He had to cope
with injury after injury, but he set a great
ex a m p l e ,” s oph o more outside hitter
Frank Yang said. Yang
praised Chang’s great
leadership skills and
his encouragement
-
MICHELLE LEE
Sophomore outside hitter Frank Yang, far right, jumps to fire off a shot as two Eagle
players rise and block during the May 9 playoff game. The team lost the match 1-3.
16 SPORTS
May 27, 2004
Lowell High School
JROTC teams place at the 91st Drill Competition
By Jessica Qu
HE SCHOOL’S JROTC teams
finished first overall in the
annual spring 91st Drill Competition against teams from Lincoln,
Mission, Balboa, Washington and
Galileo at Presidio last Saturday.
T
JROTC placed first in the drill
platoon competition and boys’ drill
competition and third in the girls’ drill
competition.
“We did a really good job,” senior
drill platoon commander and battalion
executive officer Mary Ly said. “We
truly deserve the title.”
Ly said that the team faced increased competition over the years.
“But we’ve managed to keep up,” Ly
said.
The drill platoon consists of a total
of twenty-four members including two
JESSICA QU
Senior Lita Wu, leads the perfectly uniform girls’ drill team through the tough spring competition on May 14.
Badminton snatches title
By John Mansfield
“Top player” senior Joanne Wu had an orLTHOUGH THE BADMINTON team chestra event to attend, according to Seldon.
won the AAA championship game
Wu was “actually disqualified because she
against Balboa, 3-2, on May 6, they did was unable to make it to her second match, and
not place as well in the All-City tournament the other coaches were unwilling to reschedule
on May 12, only earning prizes in the doubles the missed match,” Choy said.
category.
Despite the setbacks, the Cardinals fought
Washington High School hosted the three- intensely throughtout the series of games, acday tournament, where the Cardinals displayed cording to Choy.
their great skills in front of a large crowd.
“The championship matches were excellent,
Coach Chrissy Hosoda proudly watched her as was the quality of the badminton,” Choy
badminton team face off against
said.
other teams, battling butterflies
Most Valuable Player
and striving for excellence.
“There were definite nerves
The Lowell nominates senior
involved in the matches,” Hosoda
Joanne Wu for MVP because of
said.
her stellar performance throughThough they did not take any
out the season, as well as her support of her teammates.
prizes in the singles category, the
Hosoda called Wu the most
Cardinals won second and third
inspirational all-around.
place in the doubles sets and, according to Choy, may have won
“She came to practice, cheered
first and second place had the
JOANNE WU on everyone and helped the alterBadminton MVP nates,” Hosoda said.
doubles matches been set up difAlthough Hosoda highly comferently.
“Unfortunately, our first and second doubles plimented Wu’s sportsmanship, Wu was very
teams played each other in the semi-finals rather surprised at the nomination.
“I guess I cheered (the team) on, helped them
than the finals, and one had to get knocked out,”
practice and drill,” Wu said. “Everyone on the
Choy said.
Other unfortunate predicaments affected the team who came to practice often and did their
best deserves the award.”
team’s performance.
A
alternates, divided into four squads,
each led by a veteran squad leader.
Judged on sharpness, unity, alignment
and cadence.
“The amount of dedication and
hard work we put in led us to achieve
our success” drill platoon member
sophomore Roger Lin said.
The boys’ drill team win was also
hard-earned. The team encountered
many challenges this year, one of
which included the team’s lack of experience: only two seniors, compared
to five the year before, according to
boys’ drill team commander senior
William Tian.
Practicing for an average of 18
hours per week, the team worked
relentlessly on its six-minute drill,
perfecting every possible move.
“This year was really different,”
boys’ drill team member junior Julley
Yang said. “I helped to create the drill
along with the veterans and became
very familiar with the drill.”
Yang said she feels proud of the win.
“It was a great feeling, winning the bell
(trophy) once again,” Yang said.
Plagued by a dramatic decrease
of members, the girls’ drill team also
encountered difficulties.
Despite their valiant efforts, they
could not win back the long-desired
first-place title.
The team only had 11 members
this year, down from 17 last year, according to drill team member junior
Joann Escobin.
However, the smaller team size allows everyone to receive more individual attention, according to drill team
member freshman Jenna Mariano.
The six-minute drill incorporated
singing, stomping, arm movement
and formation. Judged on unity, appearance, execution, crowd appeal
and originality, the girls took third
place; Balboa and Galileo took first
and second, respectively.
The girls are not letting this get
them down, however.
“It was perfection,” drill team veteran junior Stephanie Yee said.
Mariano added, “We tried our
hardest and we did our best.”
Senior Daniel Le commended the
squads’ efforts. “Everyone did a great
job,” Le said.
Golf legacy lives on
“He’s come a long way,” he said. “He wasn’t
By Beatriz Datangel
HE LONG CHAMPIONSHIP game even on the radar before the season.”
Jang agreed. “The Horse (a team nickname
on May 17 ended as sophomore Micheal Digneo took the last putt for the for Digneo) has come along really well,” he
said. “He really brings a good spirit and a
boys’ golf team.
After sinking the putt and picking up the ball, great attitude.”
he and his teammates smiled and embraced
each other, enjoying the feeling of victory over Most Valuable Players
Co-captains junior Enada Jang and setheir rival, Washington.
The Cardinals defeated the Eagles by nior Drake Ong are the The Lowell’s choice
15 strokes at Lincoln golf course, bringing for MVPs for the season. Silverstein said he
couldn’t have asked for
home the 25th championship for coach Lee
better leaders.
Silverstein.
“They’re absolutely
Junior Enada Jang’s
great,” he said. “They
aggressive swing earned
help refine their teamhim the game’s lowest.
mates’ skills, helping
He and fellow team
them out at the driving
captain senior Drake
range, and keeping them
Ong have led the team
ENADA JANG & DRAKE ONG, on the straight and narBoys’ golf MVPs row during matches and
to a brilliant undefeated
practices.”
season, as well as league
Ong said he felt sad about leaving his team.
and regional championships this year.
The slim win over the Eagles, who shot “This was more than a team — it was a fam423, “was like any other game, a fight,” Jang ily,” he said. “I grew with my brothers and was
said. “We felt good about the game, but we just well-coached by a great ‘father.’”
didn’t do so well on some holes.”
Jang is looking forward to continuing this
Silverstein praised Digneo’s hard work year. “We’re going to have a great core of players
during the year.
next season,” Jang said.
T
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
SPORTS
Gymnasts show superior skills all season
By Connie Chung
UNIOR ELLEN HO stands on the edge of
the floor mat. Her music drifts out of the
speakers, and the audience murmurs in
surprise. They hear the theme song to Pirates
of the Caribbean as Ho starts her routine with a
series of front handspring step-outs. Knowing
the gymnastics season is fast approaching its end,
Ho and her fellow gymnasts give their all on the
mat, performing self-choreographed routines to
popular themes and other catchy tunes.
Floor routines may not be the only event the
team competed in, but it was certainly the team’s
strongest event at the Central Coast Section
meet last Friday, the last event of the gymnastics
season, which resulted in a fifth-place ranking
for varsity. JV finished their season earlier with
a finals win on May 6.
The varsity team racked up 163.84 points total
at CCS, with junior Jessica Wong, sophomore
Elizabeth Sheets and freshman Kristina Dinh
competing all around in every event, earning
high points in floor routines.
“We were shaky in the beginning,” junior Janice Huynh said. “But we adjusted to everything,
and in the end, we pulled through on the floor.”
Wong earned a 9.05 on her floor routine,
Huynh an 8.95 and Sheets an 8.625. These scores
were each individual’s best scores of the meet, as
J
well as the team’s.
“I think we did very well,” coach Jerilyn Jank
said. “We held strong even with the extra competition after finals.”
In order to qualify for CCS, varsity placed
fourth against seven other high schools at the
North Varsity League Finals in San Bruno on
May 14, earning a score of 163.75.
A typographical error, which changed the
qualifying score for CCS from the traditional
155 points to 160, led to a challenge never dealt
with in the past, according to Jank. “I was a little
nervous,” she said.
On May 6, the last meet of the regular season,
JV took first place at the finals against San Mateo
and Burlingame high schools, a perfect end to
an undefeated season. “We beat second place by
about ten points,” sophomore Jennifer Ho said. “It
was really good considering our first few meets,
(when) we only won by one point.” Sophomore
Noey Neumark added, “We did really well on
vault — our highest score was 9.6, which was
great. Almost everyone got higher than a 9.0.”
The top three places went to senior Cheryl
Lau, junior Diane Gallo and sophomore Julie
Gramlich, respectively.
According to Jennifer Ho, Gramlich and Lau
placed in each event, and the first three JV girls
who place first at finals will move up to varsity
17
next year.
one of her scores in every single meet. Jessica’s
The team’s varsity-only meet against Palo been a really strong competitor this year.”
Alto’s Gunn High School on May 11 led to anAt finals, Wong contributed to the top scores
other win for the team. “I was surprised,” Hyunh in three events, with a 9.0, 8.65 and 8.65 in bars,
said, explaining that only five freshman girls vault and floor, respectively.
“I improved from last year,” Wong said. To
came from Gunn, and that she doesn’t know if
they could have won if Gunn’s entire varsity team get to her level, Wong practiced during the sumhad been there.
mer at American, a separate gymnastics club. “I
This season ended
learned some new skills,”
strong for both JV and
she said.
varsity, and with only one
Along with points,
varsity member graduatWong was a big contributor
ing, there is a lot of hope
to the team’s spirit. “She’s a
for the next year.
real rallying force during
“We’re proud of the
the meets,” Jank said. “She’s
girls for what they did,”
been really encouraging.”
Jank said.
CHERYL LAU & JESSICA WONG, Most Valuable Player
Jank was honored on
Gymnastics MVPs (JV)
April 28 with the CCS
The highest JV scorer
Honor Coach Award in the
of the year, senior Cheryl
gymnastics category. The
award goes to a coach for his or her contribution Lau, who took first place all-around at finals,
to their sport at the interscholastic level, accord- is also this year’s JV MVP. “It was a really great
way for her to go out,” Jank said. “She’s a steady
ing to the CCS website (www.cifccs.org).
competitor, particularly on the beam. We used
all her scores at the finals.”
Most Valuable Player (varsity)
Lau credits her score to “having fun” and
The Lowell’s pick for this year’s varsity MVP
is junior Jessica Wong. “She’s competed in every enjoying herself during the meets. “All the hard
meet, all around,” Jank said. “We use every single work was worth it,” she said.
V. baseball falls short in disappointing playoff game
By Mayra Lopez
O ONE ENVISIONED the
scenario of the varsity baseball team losing its championship title. But on May 7, that is exactly
what happened, with the Cardinals
losing in the playoffs against Lincoln
— forsaking their championship title
for the first time in four years.
It was the third time the Cardinals faced the Mustangs this season.
They lost the first time 4-3 on April
27, but prevailed the next day with a
5-4 win.
Although their final meeting ended
with a disappointing 10-5 loss, the
Cardinals fought every step of the
way.
“The score was not a representation
of how well the team played,” senior
Jonas Chin said. “Both teams went out
each inning and battled it out.”
In the bottom of the second inning,
Lincoln scored the first run and took
the lead.
The Cardinals struck back in the
top of the third and tied the game.
Chin nailed the ball into center field,
making the fielders stumble. This
allowed senior third baseman Dan
Nemiroff to score the team’s first run.
The Cardinals then took the lead in
N
the top of the fifth when Chin scorched to steal second.
Lincoln then sent up freshman
another amazing hit to center, bewildering the fielders yet again. His shot Sean Rogers, who hit the ball toward
permitted Nemiroff and senior catcher second and gained first base when
Charlie Cutler to score, edging the junior Thomas Nakamura dropped
the ball. Mustang senior Rich Ha
Cardinals ahead, 3-2.
The team was then trampled in a then slammed a hit into right field
never-ending bottom of the fifth in- where Mullaney again missed the
ning. Lincoln hit the ball
ball, allowing Rogers to
into right field where setake third. With men on
first and third, Lincoln
nior Chris Mullaney was
senior Ray Biagini got
unable to hold the batter
a hit, bringing the score
to a single. A Lincoln batter next ripped a double
to 6-3.
to center, scoring one run
The team then made
two further substituand advancing another
to third.
tions: Junior Jake Blanc
Hoping to end the
took the mound, and
inning, coach John Donajunior Joe Cutler went
hue made the first of nuto right field for MulCHARLIE CUTLER,
merous position changes
laney.
V . baseball MVP
and substitutions.
After getting the last
Sophomore first basetwo outs, Blanc was
man Elan Lavie switched with Chin, finally able to close the inning with
who was pitching. This change was the score 8-3.
futile, as the next Mustang batter
In the top of the sixth, the Cardinals
homered, giving the Mustangs the attempted to redeem themselves, getlead, 5-3.
ting men on second and third followNext came sophomore pitcher Gas- ing a double by Nakamura. Junior Nick
ton Guibert, who was finally able to Andrus then had a base hit, scoring
give the Cardinals their first out when another runner. The boys then loaded
Lincoln senior Steve Rogers attempted the bases when senior Raymond Wong
walked.
Fearful of a potential crushing
grand slam by senior Charlie Cutler,
Lincoln decided to concede a run and
intentionally walk Cutler, making the
score 8-5.
Following the walk, Lincoln got an
out at first and followed with another
when Nakamura attempted to steal
home.
With two outs, Chin slammed a
hit and slid to first, injuring his thigh.
This called for yet another substitution. Senior Sam Slesinger was put in
for Chin but was then called out for
not reaching second on the next hit,
ending the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth Slesinger
was put in to pitch, but quickly taken
out when Donahue sent catcher Cutler in to pitch, first baseman Andrus
to catch and freshman infielder Max
Newman to play first.
Although Cutler amazed many
with his shockingly fast pitches, he
couldn’t stop Lincoln from scoring
two more runs.
The game finally ended in the top
of the seventh inning with a score of
10-5.
Chin nonetheless praised the team’s
effort. “Our guys went out there and
gave it 110 percent in every play and
every pitch,” Chin said. “We put out
all our plays.”
Andrus called the game a disappointing end to a productive season.
“There was a lot of promise in that
team,” he said.
Although the Cardinals did not win
the championships, their productive
season gave them 23 wins and ten
losses, a better overall record than
Lincoln’s.
Most Valuable Player
One thing the team remains undeniably proud of is senior catcher
Charlie Cutler, The Lowell’s pick for
MVP.
“He’s definitely the heart and soul
of the team,” Nemiroff said, “He’s been
a hell of a guy in everything: time, effort and hits.”
Cutler has played on the varsity
team since his freshman year. With
a season batting average of .614 and
a total of 59 RBIs, Cutler — who has
even been looked at by Major League
scouts — will play college ball at UC
Berkeley next year.
Cutler’s career at Lowell was undeniably the greatest in recent sports
memory.
18 SPORTS
May 27, 2005
Lowell High School
All-City championships within reach for track
By Griffin Tyree
N MAY 18, the Cardinals trudged through tough
weather and tough competition to finish the last track meet of the
season before All-City, which will be
held tomorrow.
Junior runner Anna Li said that
the meet was “bittersweet because
this is the last meet for some of the
team this year. It’s also sweet because
we’re doing well against some of the
best competition in the city… We’re
trying our best as usual. I’m feeling
hopeful and excited for the team
for All- City… and everyone should
come support us.”
Players are optimistic about their
chances and their progress up to this
point.
“I think we’re going to win this
year,” junior runner Gus Feliciano
said.
“We’ve dominated this sport,” senior runner Aiko Weverka said.
Junior runner Yulong Chen
agreed. “We’re doing fine; everyone
is hitting the times they should be,”
he said.
However, track team members are
aware that they need to give it their
all. “We have pretty stiff competition
out there,” Chen said.
Cardinal distance runners face a
significant threat from junior Dawit
Melak, a mile runner from ISA High
O
ANNA FRYJOFF-HUNG
Senior Peter Cruz, this year’s most valuable player, sprints to the finish.
School, according to sophomore run- the team has “come a long way,” Ma
said. “We’ve been here since Januner Jeena Arnold.
“We have to beat Dawit,” freshman ary. We’ve been working hard, and
results show.”
runner Walker Weir said.
Competition is also heavy for the
All-City Finals will be held at
field team. Senior Mission thrower Kezar stadium tomorrow. State trials
Cherish Demins poses the greatest will be held in Sacramento on June 3
potential obstacle for the girls’ divi- and state finals will be held in Sacrasion, according to senior pole-vaulter mento on June 4.
Hillary Yip and junior thrower
Tiffany Chang. All- City “will be Most Valuable Players
harder… because she’s the closest
Junior runner Anna Li is the MVP
to my score,” Chang
for girls’ varsity. She is
said, who is the higha highly accomplished
est-scoring girl on the
runner with a lot of poLowell track team.
tential for success, acAs of the track meet
cording to track coach
at Kezar on May 12, the
Andy Leong. She has
Cardinals are ahead in
the top time in three
the ratings and standistance events and two
dards by four points.
sprint events.
Washington and LinAnna “has potencoln are tied for second
tial to be one of the best
with scores of 21, and
runners in California,”
ANNA LI,
Track MVP
Galileo is third with a
Leong said.
score of 17.
Senior sprinter Peter
The Cardinals are entering All- Cruz is the boys’ varsity MVP. He is
City in good shape to defend this also an accomplished runner with
first-place position.
the opportunity to shine at All-City
“Everyone seems one-hundred tomorrow. He has top times in five
percent,” freshman runner Bismarck events.
Navarro said. “A lot of people are
“It took (Peter) a while to come
working hard at practice. I’m ex- around, but he’s rounding into
pecting Lowell to do pretty (well) at shape and I think he’s going to do
some good things at All-City,” LeAll- City.”
Junior thrower Donald Ma said ong said.
JV baseball ends with disappointing AAA loss
By Karen Wishnia
S THE MEMBERS of the JV baseball
team took the field against Lincoln at the
championships on April 20, they faced
a team that had destroyed them 13-5 last year
in the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Cardinals,
this year history repeated itself: The Mustangs
prevailed, defeating the Cardinals 9-8 and earning the AAA title.
The Mustangs started with a bang, racking up
runs in both the first and second innings to make
the score 2-0. The Cardinals did not score until
the fourth, when doubles by freshman first baseman Nick Rosenheim and freshman shortstop
Mike Lazarus helped the team score five times
and gain the lead, 5-3.
In the top of the seventh, the Cardinals still
seemed to have the upper hand, leading the
A
game 6-3. However, the Mustangs regained to score twice more, they were unable to score a
their lead.
third time. The game ended with a disappointing
After the Cardinals committed two errors, strikeout with a runner poised on second, hoping
coach Jeff David removed freshman pitcher to score the tying run.
Evan Brydon from the game and
The game “was a total heart
brought in sophomore Matt Ng. Ng
breaker,” David said. “We played
did not fare any better: He walked
with so much heart.”
three batters, gave up three singles
The loss did not reflect the
and hit a batter, allowing Lincoln
Cardinals’ success against the
to obliterate the Cardinal lead and
Mustangs in the regular season, in
score six runs, giving the Mustangs
which they beat Lincoln twice.
a 9-6 lead.
The loss “was tough, but it’s
But it was the bottom of the
tough to beat a team that’s quality
seventh that allowed the Cardinals
three times in a row,” David said,
to show their strengths and weakadding that Lowell and Lincoln
nesses. Although sophomore catchwere evenly matched.
MATT NG,
er Louis Buchbinder’s triple and
Nonetheless, David is proud of
JV baseball MVP the Cardinals’ winning record.
two walks allowed the Cardinals
Most Valuable Player
Based on its 11-3-1 record and its numbertwo place in the league, there’s no denying that
the JV baseball team was comprised of talented
individuals who worked well together. However,
one member stood out in particular: sophomore
co-captain shortstop and pitcher Matt Ng. As well
as leading the team in stolen bases with 13, Ng
had the second-highest number of RBIs with 17
and the third-highest batting average of .432. He
is also one of the Cardinals’ top pitchers.
David spoke highly of Ng’s skills and leadership.
“He was the player who was a key motivator
for everyone on the team,” David said. “He led by
both everything he said and everything he did.
From the first day of practice he was the one who
wanted to work harder.”
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
Tennis wins 15th AAA title in a row
By Alanna Wong
HE CARDINALS rolled
through the AAA like an
overwhelming wave of destruction, sweeping across the
league, destroying almost everything in their path.
The Cardinals won their 15thstraight AAA team title on May 10,
defeating the Mustangs 5-2. They
swept the singles bracket with huge
wins by sophomore Max Sidorov
and seniors Alex Dergun, Ilya
Gendelman and Kenzo HirakawaWong. The doubles bracket didn’t
fare as well, with only numberthree doubles partners seniors
Herman Yu and Ronald Chan
producing a victory.
Number-two doubles partners
senior Benny Wu and junior Alex
Nguyen faced the same opponents
whom they played on May 6 for
third place in the doubles tournament. In the second set, with the
Mustangs closing in on victory,
Wu and Nguyen came back from
deuce twice, only to fall in the
end, 6-7, (2), 3-6. The tiebreaker
to decide the first set ended 6-2 in
Lincoln’s favor.
The individual AAA tournament lasted from May 2-6, bringing the Cardinals both heartbreak
and triumph.
Hirakawa-Wong set a new
T
AAA record by becoming the
first ever to win four singles titles
in the over 90-year history of the
AAA tournament. First-seeded
Hirakawa-Wong defeated second-seeded Gendelman 6-0, 6-0.
Gendelman berated himself after
several points, once instructing
himself to “stop playing like it’s
baseball,” seeming to grow increasingly frustrated with his own game
as the match continued. In the final
game, after a few ties at deuce,
Gendelman hit the ball high but
Hirakawa-Wong made a monster
slam that ended the game and the
match.
The doubles tournament was
not as easily decided. Fourthseeded pair Wu and Nguyen barely
defeated their opponents, 6-3, 3-6,
7-5, for the third-place medal. The
final triumphant shot of the game
came as Wu made a nice drop
shot and a Lincoln opponent overlobbed the ball way out.
Unfortunately, the triumph of
the AAA tournament would not
be repeated. The Cardinals lost
in the first round of the Northern
California Tournament on Friday,
May 20 to Pleasant Valley 4-3.
Coach Terence Doherty explained that the team played a
tougher opponent than usual in the
first round. Traditionally, the win-
ner of the AAA plays the runner up came increasingly clear: The team
of the northern section, while the depends on their seniors. Of the
winner of the Oakland league plays 15 members of the varsity squad,
the winner of the northern section. only two are not seniors, Nguyen
This year, Lowell, the AAA cham- and Sidorov.
Doherty has taken note. “I’m
pions, played the winner of the
northern section. “We were pretty trying to give the JV players goals
evenly matched,” Doherty said. “It to accomplish during the summer
with regards to their training,” he
could have gone either way.”
At the end of five matches, said. “We graduated a lot of seniors
the Cardinals had won two and last year, too. Every year new playPleasant Valley had won three, ers move into leadership roles.”
according to Doherty. The Cardinals needed to win the final two Most Valuable Player
Senior number-one singles
matches — Gendelman at number
two singles and Peterlin and Lieu player Kenzo Hirakawa-Wong
i s t h i s y e a r’s
at number one
MVP for the
doubles.
fourth year in
Peterlin and
a row. With his
Lieu’s match went
historic fourth
to three sets and
AAA singles win
then to a tiebreaker. “There were
and charismatic
a lot of momenleadership by extum shifts in this
ample, Hirakawa-Wong is an
game,” Doherty
essential part of
said. He added
that Peterlin and KENZO HIRAKAWA-WONG, this AAA chamTennis MVP
pion team.
Lieu were “up 5-0
“Kenzo has
in the third set but
couldn’t finish.” Peterlin and Lieu been the best player in the city for
ended up losing the tiebreaker 1- the past four years,” Doherty said.
Hirakawa-Wong said: “There’s
6, ending with a final score of 4-6,
a lot of great guys on the team. It’s
6-0, 6-7 (1).
As the players received their not just one person alone. We need
AAA team medals, one trend be- everyone.”
SPORTS
19
ASL tryouts
focus on
spirit, skills
By Sabine Scherer
HE ABILITY to boost a crowd’s energy
is only one important trait for a future
song member, according to senior
varsity song co-captain Michelle Lee, one of
the senior song members holding tryouts for
next year’s squad in the gym today at 3:45 p.m.
“Good stage presence is really important,” she
said. “It’s not just performing, it’s competing.”
Song girls must also be flexible and creative,
according to senior varsity song co-captain
Lauren Resuello. At tryouts, girls must hold a
split for five seconds and demonstrate one of
the game cheers taught during clinics. Hopefuls
must perform the Cardinal dance, a routine
arranged by the judges at tryouts. The final
test is to choreograph and perform an original
dance routine.
During tryouts, judges will be looking for
athletes who can adapt to different dance styles,
according to varsity song senior co-captain
Yana Mayevskaya.
New song hopefuls attended three weeks of
clinics focused on game cheers, the Cardinal
dance and team building to prepare for the
tryouts, according to Resuello.
Cheer and senior letter already held auditions for next year’s squads, after holding
three-day-a-week clinics focused on teaching
the basics.
T
Girls’ soccer sweeps Skyline in Transbay Series, wins AAA title
By Gaston Guibert
HE VARSITY GIRLS’ soccer team represented their city in style the past week,
sweeping the Oakland section champion
Skyline in the annual best-of-three Transbay
Championship in two games.
Last Friday, the Cardinals took the first game
of the series in convincing fashion, crushing the
Titans on their home field 6-1.
The Cardinals stormed through the section
playoffs, decimating O’Connell 5-0 in the semifinal on May 5 and steamrolling Washington by
an identical 5-0 score in the May 7 championship
game. They then marched into Oakland for game
one of the Transbay series, unsure of what they
were about to encounter.
Within the first minute of the game, junior
midfielder Jessica Abad had split two defenders
to score the first goal. The Cardinals never looked
T
back, as junior midfielder Francesca Wedemeyer for the entire first half.
and senior striker Elizabeth Adams went on to
The second half, however, was a different
score two goals each and sophomore outside story. The score remained tied for much of the
midfielder Jennifer Hayashi added a goal of her second half.
own. When all was said and done, the Titans were
With three minutes left in the contest, sopholeft embarrassed at their own field.
more midfielder Erica Wheeler-Dubin found
On Monday, May 23, an entirely different Adams in the box, and Adams came through,
Skyline squad surfaced
scoring what would turn
at Boxer Stadium in
out to be the game-winBalboa Park. The visning goal, making the
iting Titans, on the
final score 2-1.
brink of elimination,
M o s t Va l u a b l e
saw their season flash
Players
before their eyes and
came out firing. SkyThe Lowell has picked
line’s unexpected intenseniors Lauren Longley
and Elizabeth Adams
sity sent the Cardinals
into shock, as the team ELIZABETH ADAMS & LAUREN LONGLEY, as co-MVPs for the ’05
Soccer co-MVPs season. Both players led
seemed off their game
in games and in practices, inspiring their teammates to work harder, enjoy the game, and play
as a team.
Adams led a talented offense, finding her
teammates for goals, as well as scoring herself.
She supplied an energy on the field unrivaled by
anyone else. “She’s a very powerful force on the
field; she has a lot of knowledge of the game and
isn’t afraid to share with her teammates,” said
sophomore defender Angie Wedemeyer.
Longley anchored an impenetrable defense
that didn’t allow a single goal in league all season.
The responsibility of a sweeper is to keep one’s
composure under fire and sacrifice oneself to stop
the ball. Longley executed both in her perfect
season. She constantly kept her fellow defenders
alert and led by example.
“She’s the rock,” sophomore goalie Katie
Wheeler-Dubin said.
20 SPORTS
May 27, 2005
Lowell High School
Experienced MVPs power swimming to title
By Andy Choe
and this year’s MVP for the girls’ squad, senior
SSISTANT COACH Jeff Yang was not Lorraine Albert, went above and beyond the
surprised that the swim team brought call of duty.
home a ninth-straight AAA win.
“Lorraine brings something special to every
“I had a lot of expectations this season, see- practice,” Yang said. “It’s the hard work, dedicaing that the team showed dedication and energy she brings to
the pool that makes every other
tion and the will to win from the
swimmer on the team want to
beginning,” Yang said. “I’m really
push themselves.”
glad I was able to experience this
One notable highlight of Almoment of victory with such a
bert’s outstanding season was her
well-rounded, hardworking bunch
victories in the girls’ 100-yard
of students.”
backstroke and the 100-yard freeYang gave particular credit to
style at AAA All-City.
the experienced swimmers on
“As an experienced swimmer, I
the team, who brought out “the
felt responsible this year to step up
true strength of our young swimLORRAINE ALBERT, not only as a better swimmer, but
mers.”
Girls’
swimming MVP as a leader,” Albert said.
One of the veteran swimmers
A
Yang found it difficult to pick a lone MVP have done a great job this year and knew their
for the guys’ squad because of the many talents roles on the team,” Yang said. “We definitely have
and leadership qualities of team members. The to thank them for their dedication, leadership and
Lowell has thus chosen seniors Brandon Chow the many contributions and sacrifices that they
and Rex Chien as two of
have made for our young
the most important facteam.”
tors in the team’s success
Chien and Chow,
this season.
who won in individual
“Every race we can
races as well as relays,
always expect Rex and
complimented the team’s
Brandon to give it their
collaborative effort for
all,” head coach Art Octhe season’s success.
tavio said.
“I wish the season
Yang also credits this
could be extended to a
dynamic duo for stepcouple of more months,”
ping up to lead the young
Chow said. “This season
BRANDON CHOW & REX CHEIN,
team.
was definitely a fun and
Boys’ swimming MVPs special one.”
“Rex and Brandon
Fencers end season in disappointment at All-State
By Jack Zhou
UNIOR SANJAY Sugarek brooded
in silence over the Cardinals’ poor
showing at the AAA All-State
Championships on April 30 in the
gymnasium.
At the meet, Southern California
teams such as those from Chaminade
Preparatory and Loyola High School
waged fierce battle against the combined forces of the city’s public and
private schools.
“It was very nice this year with San
Francisco fencers making a statement,”
coach Kathy Krusen said. “The Southern California fencers didn’t have too
easy of a time this year.”
Overall, however, the team did
not measure up to standards set by
a stunning victory last year. On the
men’s side, seniors Michael Pearce,
Leonard Harpster, Sugarek and junior
Michael Hsu placed 3rd, 5th, 10th and
18th, respectively. Junior Sarina Tu and
J
senior Elizabeth Nguyen placed 10th Juson, who placed second overall. The
and 11th, respectively, as the sole rep- same applied to Sugarek, who placed
3-1 in the pools and was fencing brilresentatives of the women’s team.
“I thought we would do better,” liantly until he lost on penalties for
blocking the target, dropping the head
Krusen said. “We all had a bad day.”
and crossing over. Up to
How true that statethat point, Sugarek was
ment rings. After doleading 13-6.
ing fantastically in the
“I’m not going to
preliminary pools for
make any excuses beseeding, the Cardinals
faltered in the eliminacause I fenced well,” Sugtion brackets. No greatarek said. “I improved a
lot over the season.”
er example exists than
The women’s side did
Harpster, who cruised
not fare much better,
to a 4-0 record before
with both Cardinals fallgoing into the brackets,
MICHAEL PEARCE, ing in the second round.
but lost in a devastating 15-14 la belle
Fencing MVP The fencers held a positive view on the season
match (the traditional
name of a bout tied at bout point) to as a whole, however.
“I was very happy with the season,
Wallenberg’s Gary Chen, who had won
the All-City Championship two weeks especially with the women’s team,”
before. Pearce also fell in a close bout, which went 2-2, Pearce said. “I saw a
losing 15-13 against Loyola’s Mitch lot of development. I think this was the
greatest increase in ability in all of my
years.”
With more preparation and training over the summer, hopes are high
for a better showing next year.
“We have a strong men’s side next
year, with a solid top three in Sanjay, Michael Hsu and (sophomore)
Alex Lobascio,” Pearce said. “And
the women’s side is only graduating
Elizabeth.”
Krusen concurred.
“I say this every year, but I’m looking forward to a solid season next time
around,” she said.
Most Valuable Player
His name screams sharpness, precision and all things fencing.
The Lowell’s MVP pick for the 2005
fencing season is none other than
senior captain Michael Pearce, who
led the men’s team to an undefeated
regular season and took third place
in All-State.
Pearce, a nationally top-ranked
fencer, has won this award for the
past two years and accepts the third
with a smile.
“I’m very honored to be named
MVP because it was a great breakout
year for a lot of the other fencers,”
Pearce said.
Pearce’s teammates also compliment him on his craft.
“Pearce was a good captain,” Sugarek said. “I think he’s definitely a
good fencer, and he buckled down and
became a leader when he had to.”
Pearce will attend Yale University
in the fall and is sure to have an impact on their team as well. No doubt,
Pearce’s fierce skills on the fencing piste
and other walks of life will pay off.
However, he sees his future in fencing
as limited.
“You can’t live off fencing,” Pearce
said. “But it’s been great here.”
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
SPORTS
21
Streak ends, but good memories of success remain
From WIN STREAK on Page 15
centerfielder’s head and again raced
around the bases for the third time
and a run.
During the ’00-’05 streak years, the
team took home four city championships and two Transbay championships.
In the year 2000, the Cardinals defeated Washington in the first section
championship played at SBC Park.
Washington tied the game in the final
inning of regulation to send it into
extras against Class of ’01 starter Nick
DeCampli. In the ninth inning, Class
of ’00 third baseman John Steimnitz
won the game for the team when he
crushed a ball all the way to the 404foot marker wall to score Class of ’00
right-fielder Antwan Capla. In the
final game of the series, played at the
Oakland Coliseum, Steimnitz crushed
a foul ball well over the wall in left
field for possibly the longest strike in
Transbay history.
The 70 regular-season victories
that comprised the winning streak
yielded some impressive stats, feats
and players:
• Game records are only available
from the ’03 season on, but during that
portion of the streak, the Cardinals
outscored their opponents 594-39,
making the average score of a game
approximately 15-1.
• During the ’02 season, Class of ’04
pitcher Emil Deandreis strung together
37 consecutive scoreless innings.
• Class of ’04 pitcher Fred Watson
had a perfect ’04 season, going 11-0
on the mound.
• The team scored a state-record
411 runs in the ’04 season.
• Senior Charlie Cutler set a state
record for RBIs in a season in ’04,
with 71.
• The Cardinals had three league
MVPs, three pitchers of the year and
24 All-City team members during the
streak (not counting the ’01 season,
when All-City records couldn’t be
found).
• Seven players went on to play
baseball after graduating : DeCampli
is at San Francisco State University,
Class of ’01 Dan Cowan signed with
the Oakland A’s but failed a routine
physical, Capla played junior college
baseball in Oklahoma, Class of ’02
Will Sugarman is at Vassar University, Sowyrda pitches for City College
of San Francisco, Watson will play at
City College of San Francisco next
year and Deandreis plays at University of Hawaii at Hilo.
• Two players in this year’s senior
class will after graduation: shortstop
Conor Casey will play for Swarthmore College and Cutler has signed
at Cal.
JAKE WATTERS
Conventional wisdom says a The Cardinals celebrated coach John Donohue’s 500th win on March 16.
streak like the one that ended in 2005
is generational, but next year looks
Gene Lee, Jack Lazarus and Thomas said. “We’re preparing to bring us back
good with all-stars like freshman Max Nakamura returning. “Next year’s to the promised land.” Let the games
Newman and juniors Nick Andrus, team is working very hard,” Newman begin.
Despite strong showing, softball loses championship
From SOFTBALL LOSS on Page 15
left field, which soared over the left fielder’s head
loss on May 2 to Washington. Fortunately, the and resulted in an RBI triple. By the end of the
strong Cardinal defense was able to keep the score inning, the Cardinals had added three new runs
down to 2-0 in the loss to the Eagles, their tough- to the scoreboard, making the score 5-0.
est competition in the league.
The Mustangs finally scored in
“Whenever we play (Washingthe bottom of the fifth inning. It was
ton), it’s a really good game,” Dair
in the sixth and longest inning when
said. “It’s usually only within two
things started to fall apart for the
runs or so.”
Cardinals as Ma allowed four batters
After the May 2 loss to the Eato be walked home. By the end of the
gles, the Cardinals started strong
sixth, the Mustangs finished with
against Lincoln on May 3.
one run past the Cardinals, 9-8.
The Cardinals had inflicted
“It was scary when we had that
serious damage by the end of a
big inning,” Dair said. “It’s hard
long first half of the fifth inning,
coming off a big fight. We played
scoring several times. A definite
Wash the day before and lost, so it
KIMBERLY MA, kind of broke our concentration a
highlight of the game was senior
Softball MVP
pitcher Kimberly Ma’s rocket hit to
little bit.”
It had been a smooth game before the sixth
inning, and the Cardinals refused to go down. In
the top of the seventh inning, their final chance to
score, sophomore catcher Sati Houston smashed
a pitch out to left field that resulted in a double
and two RBIs. Ma was able to strike out the last
batter and end the game 11-8.
Despite the Cardinals’ subsequent loss in the
championship game, they still had a great season. “As a whole, I think this was one of the best
softball seasons I’ve ever had,” Houston said. “We
ruined Wash’s undefeated record (on April 25),
so I’m proud of our season, but I think we just
could’ve done better at championships.”
The Cardinals will be more experienced and
fully recharged for a brand new season. “I’m still
proud of them,” Ray said. “We’ll be ready to play
harder and we’ve all learned from our mistakes
that we made. The girls did an outstanding job
and I was really happy with the whole season.”
Most Valuable Player
The most valuable player for the 2005 varsity
softball season is senior pitcher Kimberly Ma.
After taking private pitching lessons on Saturdays
for about a year and a half, according to Ray, Ma
is highly deserving of the title.
“Last year she wasn’t ready, but this year she
really stepped it up,” Ray said. “She had been
working really hard all year, and it showed and
paid off.”
After the championship game, Ma was pleased
with the team’s overall performance. “I’m happy
with how things ended up ,” Ma said. “I think I
did a lot better than last year — my mental game
improved a lot.”
22 HEALTH
May 27, 2005
Pressure to measu
* Names have been changed to preserve privacy
YOUNG GIRL sits down to eat one
yogurt for dinner, gazing longingly at
the supermodels in her magazine. After
dinner comes one hour of homework, but the
rest of the night is dedicated to sit-ups, crunches
and hours on the treadmill in order to work off
all that she ate that day.
“Believe it or not, this is how I once used
to live my life,” City College sophomore Paige
Wong* said.
Wong is only one of the many women in the
United States affected by eating disorders. Adolescent and young adult women, perfectionists
and people with rigid and conventional
personality traits are at risk for an eating
disorder, according to Pat Cable, a staff
member of the Harvard University Eating Disorder Center. Ironically, athletes,
whom most associate with healthy behavior, are also in danger of developing
unhealthy eating habits.
Athletes who are particularly anxious and critical of their own performances are especially at risk for eating
disorders. The stress and perfectionism
common in high-level athletics can
increase this chance.
Senior Jennifer Florin, who has been
dancing for several years, was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa during her
sophomore year. “Being a dancer and
being around people who are always
showing off their bodies always made
me feel self-conscious about my own
body,” Florin said. “Dance is a huge
factor in why many dancers become
anorexic.”
Florin said that dancing was not the sole cause
of her anorexia, however. “It really does not matter whether or not you are feeling pressure from a
sport because if you are emotionally healthy, then
ideally you should be able to deal with the stereotypes,” said Florin, who pointed to bouts with
depression and struggles to deal with the pressure
of high school as other issues she faced.
Adrienne Belliveau, a 21-year old tri-athlete
and swimmer who once suffered from anorexia
and bulimia, said she could understand how athletes might be at a higher risk for eating disorders.
“If someone is having emotional problems, it’s
easy to start focusing on your body and weight
because you are already focusing on it with the
sport,” Belliveau said, noting that athletes may
indulge in compulsive exercising to purge themselves after eating.
Dancers like Florin and swimmers like Belliveau are not the only athletes at risk for eating
disorders. “In general, sports in which being thin
gives you an advantage, like running, or in which
you are judged on appearance, like figure skating
and gymnastics, are the ones that seem to be as-
By Maggie Silver & Heather Hammel
A
Lowell High School
s
a
t
t
c
h
l
e
e
tes
ff
re up a
Although females are
sociated
the ones usually assumed to
with eating
have eating disorders, eating disorders in young
disorders,” said David Shlundt,
an associate professor in the Department of Psy- men are also sometimes unintentionally encouraged when athletes are taught that “winning is
chology at Vanderbilt University.
Kathryn Krieger, a competitive runner, suf- the most important thing,” according to the Kids
fered from an eating disorder for about eight Health website (www.kidshealth.org).
Most high schools coaches try not to put unfair
years. Unlike many other girls, who suffer from
disorders in their teenage years, Krieger began pressure on athletes, however. Track coach Andy
to show symptoms when she was 20, after she Leong said that he and many other high school
transferred to the University of Georgia for her coaches have agreed to never advise an athlete
to lose weight.
third year of college.
“We think it is wrong for college coaches to
“I was running for a Division I college, and
weigh
in (their athletes) and give them that admy coach was telling me, ‘Oh, just a couple more
vice,” he said. However, Leong added that runners
(pounds) and you’ll be faster,’” she said.
are still influenced by the
While Krieger was alstereotypically thin runready one of the state’s
ner,
even without pressure
top runners and hardly
I
was
running
for
a
from
coaches.
needed to lose weight, her
Jank
noted that becoach’s advice still got to
Division I college,
coming thinner can even
her. On top of restricting
and my coach was
hinder an athlete. “People
her food intake, Krieger
with eating disorders do
took laxatives, even though
telling
me.
‘Oh,
not have the energy levels
she knew she was harming
you need; they aren’t as
herself.
just a couple more
strong or as good,” Jank
Krieger noted that other
(pounds),
and
you’ll
said. “It’s not about losing
women on her running
weight — it’s about tonteam took her coach’s adbe faster.’”
ing, and you have to be
vice to heart. Only one girl
strong.”
did not have an eating disKathryn Krieger,
Schlundt agreed.
order, according to Krieger.
former eating disorder patient “Many restrict their intake
However, the women never
of food, which harms their
talked about it, and Krieger
performance
or
their
recovery,
” he said.
kept her disorder secret from her family.
Even if athletes have not actually reached the
Krieger acknowledged that she “made very
poor decisions” when she was in college. Since point of being diagnosed with an eating disorder,
then, she has almost completely recovered they are depriving their body of the energy they
need and do not live up to their “maximum ability
through one-on-one therapy.
While athletics definitely contributed to as athletes because they are not properly feeding
Krieger’s eating disorder, many point to other their bodies,” he explained.
However, not all coaches are as sensitive to
factors as the main cause of eating disorders.
Eating disorders have more to do with the the issue of eating disorders as Leong and other
media than with sports, according to P.E. depart- high school coaches are. “Coaches do terrible
ment head Jerilyn Jank. “I think it’s hard to find things like set weight goals and publicly humilitrue images of women in magazines or books,” ate athletes for gaining weight or for not meeting
weight goals,” Schlundt said. “They can also creshe said.
ate
an environment which is hostile to someone
This lack of “true” images may be influencing
not only young women, but also athletic judges. whose shape and size does not fit their idea of
Gymnastics and figure skating judges are increas- what is ideal.”
Such problems may be in part because 99
ingly awarding medals to the thinner athletes,
percent
of all high school and college coaches
according to the Eating Disorders Online website
have
never
had a formal course or proper train(www.eatingdisorders.org). This could create the
ing
in
nutrition
or physiology, according to Louis
perception that athletes need to lose weight in
Grivetti,
a
professor
in nutrition at UC-Davis.
order to excel in their sports.
Not all gymnastics coaches have faced this Coaches “offer advice based upon hearsay and
problem, however. “I’ve heard of one case in the unorthodox books that talk about diet,” Grivetti
last twenty years,” said Toni Gliemli, head coach of said. A coach’s first responsibility should be to
men’s gymnastics at Stanford University. Glielmi help athletes suffering from eating disorders
explained that gymnasts just starting out may find a psychologist or a psychiatrist, according
think they need to be a “perfect” weight, but as to Schlundt.
“Beyond that, they can just be understandthey move on to more intermediate levels they
ing,” he said.
develop better and more healthy ideas.
I
“
Wellness Center counsels students with eating disorders
* Names have been changed to preserve
privacy
EOPLE WHO have not had an
eating disorder cannot possibly
fathom the incredible pain
those who have had one go through.
“It’s an incredibly personal
and painful experience, and
when you are in it, you are
in a state of hell,” said senior
Jennifer Florin, who was
diagnosed with anorexia
nervosa in her sophomore
year.
Support groups can make
a difference in the lives of
people dealing with eating
disorders. Florin said that
the campus Wellness Center
offered her great support through her
personal hell.
The Wellness Center, which receives many referrals for eating disor-
By Maggie Silver
P
ders from concerned parents, friends
or even counselors who notice weight
changes, is one of many groups that
work with students to support them
as they struggle to understand the
roots of their problem and to progress
toward recovery.
The Wellness Center also supports
friends of eating disorder sufferers
as they struggle to be of assistance.
“It’s more acceptable to say ‘I’m worried about you’ then actually telling
someone with an eating disorder
that they have a problem,” Wellness
Coordinator Alicia Rozum said. “We
try working with the friend to try and
talk to the friend they are concerned
about, giving them ways they can
bring it up.”
Trying to discuss such a matter
can be a difficult task. “Anorexia is a
very, very private matter,” Florin said.
“I spent a lot of time inside myself.
And when I say I shut out my family and even my very best friends, I
mean it.”
Health professionals must also
address the roots of the problem. The
causes of eating disorders vary, according to Rozum. “In my personal
experience it has been that they feel a
lack of control in their lives and want
to establish control, but it is different
for every person,” Rozum said.
Many people believe that the
media is particularly to blame for
eating disorders. “A lot of times I’ll
notice random things about a girl, like
how thin she is, and compare myself
to her,” stated Penny James*, who
struggles with eating disorders. “I try
not to concentrate on summer issues
of magazines because that’s when they
have all the bikini models in them.”
Underlying social or psychological
reasons also come into play. “A lot of
people who are going through things
with their family develop eating disorders,” said Adrienne Belliveau, who
developed an eating disorder at age 16,
after a traumatic experience triggered
her anorexia and bulimia. “Eating
disorders are coping methods for
dealing with what you can’t handle,”
Belliveau said.
Many young girls start diets that
can trigger eating disorders, according to Pat Cable, a staff member at
the Harvard University Eating Disorder Center. Others may tread the
fine line between dieting and having
an eating disorder, never actually
developing a full-blown disorder. “I
don’t think I would consider myself
as having a serious eating
disorder as of now,”
James said. “Every once in a while
I’ll go through times that I’ll diet and
restrict myself, but I’ve gotten a lot
better at controlling that and ignoring
the urge to think ‘Oh I’m so fat and I
can’t eat.’”
Signs of anorexia may include
fainting, weakness, exhaustion, dizziness, missed periods, cold hands
and feet and a constant compulsion
to exercise. Emotional symptoms such
as depression, mood swings and a
decrease in self-esteem are also highly
possible. A student who suspects that
a friend is struggling with an eating
disorder can contact the Wellness
Center in T-14, the school nurse in
Rm. 129 or one of the
counselors in Rm. 101.
May 27, 2005
HEALTH
Websites o
ffe
r su
“I
pport, dangerous adv
ic
Jane Robertson*, who suffers from ED-NOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified), a disorder
that combines the symptoms of various eating disorders, is a member of the website BlueDragonfly.
“It’s the best!” Robertson said of BlueDragonfly
in an e-mail interview. “The girls there are so kind,
and they never want to encourage people that don’t
have eating disorders to get one.”
BlueDragonfly’s message boards are
beneficial for a person
with
16-year-old Siobhan, a member of the ed_rejection community (http://www.livejournal.com/
community/ed_rejection/), as well as several communities for bigger, beautiful girls, said she feels
confident, even as a bigger girl in a society that
treasures thinness. She wrote in an e-mail interview
that, after struggling with body image and throwing
up in order to lose weight, she now realizes “that you
don’t have to be skinny to be gorgeous.” She no longer
understands “why any one would put themselves
through all that sickness just to ‘look good’ when
really, they look like a skeleton,” she said.
Many posters on ed_rejection agree with her,
questioning why skin and bones is considered
beautiful, including “damndirtypirate,” who says
she is 5’4 and 140 pounds. “I’d rather see a girl
who’s a little chunky than someone who’s got bones
sticking out in every direction,” she posted.
Ed_rejection’s icon flashes pictures of
various junk foods — burgers, fries, pizza and
more.
Getting help
Perhaps the biggest critique of pro-ED sites is that
they tend to turn users away from the outside world.
People with eating disorders often need outside help
and support, according to Simpson, who said she is
a strong advocate for intervention. But outside help
— or what site users may call “interference” — is
typically not welcomed when someone has an eating disorder, which is part of what makes these
sites so popular, according to Simpson. “Eating
disorders can progress far beyond what can be
imagined,” she said. In the earlier stages of an
eating disorder, a lot of support from friends
and family can speed recovery. “In the earlier
stages there is not the same stigma,” she said.
Robertson agreed that stigmatization of girls
with eating disorders is a problem. American society
is not understanding, she said, adding that those with
ED-NOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified)
in particular “get overlooked most of the time.”
She said BlueDragonfly’s message boards helped
her because they provided understanding people for
her to talk to.
“These boards are more helpful than harmful
to the millions of women who suffer from these
diseases silently and alone,” Robertson said. “They
are a haven for all of us.”
But Simpson said she feels that these girls do not
turn to the Internet to get help to recover; instead of
teaching teenagers to deal with food and their bodies
in a healthy way, pro-eating disorder websites “teach
teenagers how to be successful at eating disorders.”
Dr. Marcella Raimondo, a recovered anorexic and
doctor with About-Face, an organization that promotes positive body image and self-esteem, agreed.
“One of the main features of my eating disorder was
my denial that anything was wrong,” she said. “These
sites can kind of enforce this dangerous thinking.”
Raimondo said that eating disorders have become alarmingly accepted in today’s society
— as long as they result in thinness.
“Almost part of being a woman is
hating your body,” she said.
D
Fighting eating disorders
e
T h e c h o c o l at e glazed donuts on the background of the site are a sharp contrast
to images on any pro-eating disorder website.
Several of the site’s users describe negative feelings toward people with eating disorders, including
“nessaru05,” who posted an entry describing the
way she treats her former friend who now has a
eating disorder: She and her friends attach pictures
of Mary-Kate onto the girl’s car.
Other posters express antipathy towards the proana/mia sites. A user who calls herself “__kassie”
posts, “I hate … not being able to do anything
about it.”
KELLY-SNEE
Getting thin
an
eating
disorder, according to Robertson, who says her
online friends may have saved her life. When she
was 17, Robertson considered taking Ipecac, a drug
normally administered to induce vomiting. But the
members of the BlueDragonfly community told her
not to, as Ipecac can be lethal.
Other girls who post on pro-eating disorder
websites admit to using Ipecac, however. “For me
it’s not about the purging that the Ipecac brings on
because I could easily do that myself,” a girl who
calls herself “pinkprincess64” writes. “It’s about the
pain and having to suffer through it. That’s what I’m
addicted to.” She is not alone in her use of the drug.
Every site that sells Ipecac has a backorder until June,
“pinkprincess64” states.
Besides looking for and providing advice on
weight-loss techniques, many users turn to proED websites for “thinspiration.” The site Sticks
and Stones, Love (http://www.livejournal.com/
community/1willbethin) is plastered with headshots
of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Since Mary-Kate’s
well-publicized bout with an eating disorder, she has
become a role model for many young anorexics and
bulimics. What is different about Sticks and Stones,
Love though, is the lack of body photos. Many other
sites, like the get_thinMK blog (http://www.xanga.
com/home.aspx?user=get_thinMK), include pictures
of half-naked young women, meant to inspire girls
in their quest for “perfect bodies.”
On the Sticks and Stones, Love site, users post
weight statistics, ask for help with losing weight fast
and complain about friends’ attitudes towards their
eating habits.
Many posters reject their friends’ interference,
including “facingmyreality,” who states, “if they can’t
support me ... why can’t they just leave me alone.”
While pro-ED websites are growing in popularity,
opposing sites are trying to combat society’s obsession with thinness and weight loss.
BY CAITLIN
By Heather Hammel
* Names have been changed
to preserve privacy
F YOU ARE ANOREXIC, then
you do not need tips on how to not eat,”
the mission statement for the BlueDragonfly website (www.bluedragonfly.org) declares. “You
do not need to be told how to stop eating. You do
not need to be motivated. You look in the mirror.
Problem solved.”
BlueDragonfly is just one of many sites aimed
at helping girls with eating disorders. In this case,
“helping” means providing diet tips and inspiration
to maintain the eating disorder — not support for
recovery.
Teenagers with eating disorders are
increasingly congregating online, finding
other like-minded people to support and
fuel their disorder, while keeping their
illness secret from real-life friends and
family.
Surfing past the mission statement on
BlueDragonfly, visitors discover a scattering of quotes, including the following lines:
“How strong I am, how well I can resist
— each time achieving another small victory of the will: one carrot instead of two,
half a cracker, no more peas.” The site also
includes this quote: “Preach not to others
what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and
be silent,” as well as the following pledge: “I pledge
my allegiance to the goal of the eating disordered
underground … enduring (anorexia) invisible, with
thinness and emptiness.”
While pro-eating disorder sites such as this one
create an online community for people with eating
disorders, most of the posters still try to keep their
eating disorder a secret from friends and family.
Therefore, many girls find a public identity — albeit
an anonymous one — through their eating disorder
for the first time on these sites, according to Dr.
Elizabeth Simpson, a psychiatric social worker.
The sites encourage them to feel equal or even
superior to girls who don’t have eating disorders,
as well as to forge connections with others who are
turning to food restrictions as a way to control their
lives, Simpson explained. “They have something to
feel good about,” she said.
Anorexia nervosa, nicknamed “ana” on many
pro-ED sites, includes restricting amounts as well as
types of foods, according to Bridget Gramkowski, a
pediatric nurse practitioner student at UCSF with
specialty training in adolescent health issues.
Bulimia, referred to as “mia” on many of the sites,
means the person is engaging in “binge eating episodes … accompanied by feelings of guilt and lack of
control,” according to Angela Guarda and Alain Joffe
in the book Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics:
A Handbook for Primary Care.
GRAPHIC
The Lowell
23
24 COLUMNS
Hong Kong is
very different
from China
By Nicole Hui
WAS EATING dinner at a local Chinese restaurant with a group of friends. One of them
said, “I will most likely go back to China this
summer.” The guy next to him asked, “Do you
mean China China or Hong Kong, China?”
Hearing that, I immediately shouted, “Hong
Kong is not China!” All the people at the restaurant
turned around and looked at me.
Many people tell me to get over my issue about
Hong Kong not being China because we are all
Chinese people if we trace our origins. Yes, I agree:
People living in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau
are all ethnically Chinese. However, in terms of
national identity, these places are very different.
People living in Taiwan are Taiwanese. It is the
same for Chechnya; the people living in that region
of Russia are
Chechens, not
Russians.
People in
Hong Kong
and China
are culturally,
economically
and politically
different.
Culturally,
Hong Kong
is a fusion of
Eastern and
Western cultures. Ninety-eight percent of the
population is Chinese, but the people view themselves differently from other Chinese. In China,
people feel the need to belong and conform to
a unit. Habits and customs vary from region to
region, but the Cantonese language and traditions
that shape Hong Kong are usually looked down on
in China, where Mandarin is the official language
and people write in a simplified form of Chinese
characters.
Life in these two places is also different. The
standard of living in Hong Kong, a free society
based on the rule of law with excellent transportation and telecommunication systems, surpasses
that of China. The majority of the population in
Hong Kong is more educated and every child is
guaranteed a basic education from kindergarten
to thirteenth grade, with the option of attending
one of eight internationally well-known universities. In China, only those who can afford it get to
attend school.
Corporate culture also differs in these two
places. In China, people are practical in business
but dislike dependency on foreigners. In Hong
Kong, many business people have been educated
in Western schools and are more open to foreigners, as well as familiar with a more American
business style.
Hong Kong is a free-market economy while
China is a command economy. The United States
Heritage Foundation ranked Hong Kong as the
world’s freest economy for the seventh year in a
row in 2000. Currently, China, moving gradually
toward capitalism, is among the world’s biggest
trading nations and has an immense market, but
the government owns all the wealth. In addition,
the sons and daughters of Chinese leader Deng
Xiao Ping own the nation’s five major industries.
Politically, Hong Kong is much more democratic than China. Although China is gradually
moving towards democracy, the Communist Party
is still in power. In Hong Kong, before the chief
executive makes a decision, he must consult the
legislature and gain approval. Hong Kong is also
a semi-autonomous region under a “one country,
two systems” government.
Freedom of speech still remains a major
problem in China, where the government exerts
immense influence over the media and indirectly
dictates what the teachers should teach to their
students. In Hong Kong the people are entitled to
voice their opinions and thoughts, and the media
is given the right to inform the public of what is
happening in the city.
People should acknowledge the differences
between Hong Kong and China and not assume
that people from the same region who share the
same ethnic background are culturally, politically
and economically similar.
I
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
Flirting 101: A must for freshmen
By Joyce Chen
NCE UPON A TIME, a freshman girl
liked a sophomore boy very much
and decided to ask him to Winterball.
The play-by-play: She saunters up to him in
the arcade, batting her eyelashes. She asks. He
twitches. Looks into the depths of his graphing
calculator for inspiration. “I have to walk my
dog,” he tells her.
This story is true, and this story is tragic:
tragic for the crushed freshman girl, tragic
for the socially inept sophomore boy and
tragic for the school system that allowed it
to happen.
Of the full gamut of human emotions,
attraction is one of the most dangerous and
difficult to express.
Animals have it easy: Male peacocks
spread out their feathers, wild
pandas sing and ba-
O
boons expose their swollen red bottoms.
Unfortunately, we have only words and
glances to aid us in our quest for our soulmates.
It’s no secret that Lowell students, while abundant in intelligence, sorely
lack wooing skills.
What Lowell needs is a
mandatory one-semester
course teaching the basics
of courtship, a class in
which students enter as
timid little freshmen and
emerge as (wo)men.
We could even give
it a sophisticated name, like “Intra-Gender
Conversation, Coquetry and Other Forms
of Intercourse.”
Some may argue that a mandatory
non-academic course has no place
at Lowell.
But I can easily think of several non-academic requirements,
such as the swim test and drivers’ education.
The dangers of the ocean
are nothing compared to the
treacherous social waters of
a senior prom.
And there’s
no point in
driving a car if
you don’t have
s o m e o n e to
share the backseat with.
I am far
from an expert. (Note: I
do not preach,
I do not cond e s ce n d . I
am not some
slinky Dragon
L a dy f e m m e
fatale ensnaring
hapless males with
a casual swish of my
whip. We are all here
to learn.)
But I believe the course curriculum should
contain the following basic four tenets of
flirtation:
1) Maintain eye contact, even if your crush
has the best rack on this
side of the Mississippi.
Chest-staring is undoubtedly one of the biggest
mood-killers known to
woman.
2) Grades are not sexy
and never will be. Please
do not try to impress
others with your swollen
GPAs and test scores. I am not a college admissions director; if you tell me about your five
APs, I will not ovulate.
3) Context is everything. First, consider
your target, for lack of a better word; different people react to different approaches. If
your crush is a sweet, shy, sensitive beauty, it’s
probably best if you don’t regale her with your
repertoire of Helen Keller jokes.
Second, think of the bystanders: Flirting
should at least elicit an “awww” from others in
the room. At best, it should be so intolerably
hot that others will want to rip off their clothes
and worship your sexiness.
4) Finally, some advice for the girls, since
most of the tips seem gravitated towards the
male side of the equation: Banter is a plus.
Good flirting should be subtle — a teasing
perfumey fragrance, as opposed to an overwhelming stench. Think Jane Austen, not
Jenna Jameson. In this course, students should
be evaluated on a pass-fail basis, as in real life.
Flirting either works or it doesn’t — there’s no
such thing as a “B+” in the art of romance.
Since Lowell students are notoriously
competitive, a pass-fail system would discourage one-upmanship and also spread the love
around, so to speak.
Flirtation may seem frivolous, but to a lovestruck teenager, it is as critical as eating and
breathing. This course must be implemented
with all swiftness, before Lowell spawns
another class of misanthropic, lonely mouthbreathers.
Frugal behavior enriches girl’s lifestyle
By Laura Wong
AKING from my Sunday slumber drowsy
and disoriented, I
make my way down the stairs
to the kitchen, to begin my favorite ritual of
rummaging
through the
newspaper to
find the week’s
coupons and
Target advertisement. As
odd as it may
sound, learning of a sale
on a six-pack
of sports socks
brings a smile to my face. For
some time now, my most notorious quality has been my ability
to pinch pennies. Searching for
sales is my game, and frugal is
my name.
Growing up cheap
— dare I even say
it — usually
comes with
the ter-
W
bags. We never use something
once and throw it away, especially
when that item could be saved for
a practical use later on. Nor does
my family believe in the disposal
of once-used jars or food containers. I am sure many others share
in this ritual: washing and then
saving the sturdy plastic container
and lid that once contained your
Costco salad. I am not ashamed;
when it comes time to find a food
container that is “give-awayable,”
we penny-pinchers will turn to
them first.
When buying folders at the
beginning of each school year,
I purchase the chintzy 15-cent
paper ones and tape the sides
with clear packaging tape in order
to preserve lifespan. This yearly
ritual may seem ridiculous to my
fellow classmates, but I am the one
who laughs when I see their folders busting holes and tears before
the first grading period is over.
The roots of my frugality surprisingly do not stem from a lack of
family income, but rather from a
simple philosophy. I do not believe in pricey expenditures, such
as fancy meals or
designer labels.
I am perfectly
content with
an inexpensive
meal, as long
as it fills my
stomach and
doesn’t skimp
in quality.
Similarly, I
am just as satified with a pair
ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMMA LAM
ritory of being raised in a Chinese
or Asian family. When I was young,
I watched my grandmother shove
stacks of leftover unused napkins
in her jacket pocket when we left
fast food restaurants. She said that
we might as
well take
them home
because they
would just
end up in
the garbage
anyway. As
embarrassed
as I was of her
actions then,
I now find
myself doing
similar things. You never know
when you might need a napkin
— or for that matter, a pack of
ketchup or an extra plastic fork.
My family’s thrifty behavior
extends beyond the occasional
extra stack of napkins to a longterm accumulation of bags. In
my kitchen, we have an assortment of fruit, plastic, paper
and designer shopping bags
— literally bags and bags of
of $35 pair of jeans as I would be
with a pair of $250 Diesel jeans.
Designer labels are nice, but in
the end of the day, I feel much less
guilty over my tendency to stain
clothing when I buy the inexpensive outfits.
But does my thrifty behavior
fall under the category of “a penny
saved is a penny earned” or under
the “penny saved, pound foolish”
column?
Many of my friends find it difficult to understand my mentality,
asI just can’t get myself to fork
out $10 for a movie ticket unless
I am pretty sure it is going to be
worth my while. I try to keep my
opinions to myself; I don’t want to
prevent others from doing what
they enjoy.
But sometimes my body language speaks for itself. My accidental roll of the eyes or lack of
enthusiasm can make my friends
feel guilty for wanting to have a
good time. During times like these
I feel my frugalness is a personality fault. But by helping to keep
my friends’ spending habits to the
minimum, I am helping to instill
the life-long value of frugality.
Cheap trills can offer just as
much pleasure as expensive outings, such as the 99-cent ice cream
cone at Rite Aid, as opposed to
the $3 single scoop at Ben and
Jerry’s.
In the end, finding a good
bargain is my definition of satisfaction. Despite what others may
think, the way I see it, frugal is
good for my wallet and good for
my soul.
May 27, 2005
The Lowell
COLUMNS
Student confesses
her all-time secret
Traditional children’s literature
masks violent political intrigue
By Caitlin Kelly-Sneed
OMING OUT” is a difficult thing to do. Over
the years, I have watched
many of my friends come out in different ways: as a gay man, as an incurable
Degrassi addict and as a Dungeons
and Dragons freak. Although it may
be questionable to put “coming out” as
gay in the same category as admitting
embarrassing passions, sharing anything personal is nonetheless always
emotionally risky.
My friends’ bravery to come clean
about their secrets has inspired me
to follow suit, so here it is: I am a
horseback rider and have been for
nine years.
I train seriously for competition
and spend hours almost every day at
the barn riding, grooming, mucking
out my paddock and doing repairs
around my stall.
I have kept this a secret because
many people stereotype riders, have
misconceptions about riding and don’t
want to change
their preconceived
ideas.
Some associate
horseback riding
with the rich elite,
considering it a
symbol of greed
and opulence. It’s
understandable.
Horseback riding
is very expensive,
but riding isn’t
about g lamour
and status, and only a small group of
people own horses because they think
it elevates them socially. These people
are the most hurtful and dangerous
community of people to riders like
me because they perpetuate negative
stereotypes. Counter to these stereotypes, the majority of horse owners
are normal people. For example, the
person who keeps her horse next to
mine is neither a doctor nor a lawyer;
she’s a secretary.
Another unfair stereotype that
people constantly associate with
horseback riding is animal abuse and
disrespect to animals. Many people do
abuse horses, something I cannot understand. Sometimes people see horses
merely as a business. Sometimes they
don’t believe that the animals have
feelings, and sometimes people are
just plain cruel.
Most riders I know try hard to
combat the horse abusers. Many own
By Jake Watters
S A YOUNG LAD I was always enthralled by the
work of Theodor Seuss Geisel.
However, upon reviewing one
of his more popular works, The Cat
in the Hat, I have found that Seuss,
contrary to popular belief, was not
merely an entertainer, but an advocate
for violent revolution.
For those of you unfamiliar with
the works of the late Dr. Seuss, in his
classic The Cat in the Hat, two siblings
sit listlessly in their abode watching the
rain when a feline wearing a striped
chapeau barges into their place of
residence. This feline regales the bored youngsters with
promises of fun, “such funny fun.”
The feline then proceeds to balance many things on
his head and tail — including a cake, several books, a toy
fishing vessel and a small aquatic animal. The feline, then
losing his balance, drops these items, making a dreadful
mess. The feline (or cat, as I will refer to him from now
on) is scolded by the small marine animal.
Next, in an effort to show the young children a good
time, he releases two scourges upon their house. These
scourges are referred to as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Things
1 and 2 wreak further havoc upon the house until the
children have had enough and put an end to their
rampage. Seeing that he is no longer wanted, the
cat leaves their home after cleaning up the mess
that he made.
It is obvious that the siblings represent the population of a nation such as late-Tsarist Russia, a nation that
has fallen on hard times (illustrated by the unwanted
precipitation falling outside the window). The cat comes
promising greener pastures, if you will, and with the
approval of the population, proceeds to make his
“improvements.” When the population
sees the failure of his balancing act
— a metaphor for governments
attempting to improve more
than they can — and sees him as
the charlatan that he truly is, he
needs to restructure his plan.
He employs Things 1 and 2
in order to frighten and bully the
citizenry into “having fun,” or
complying with him. This time,
however, the citizens are not
fooled. With some encouragement from the fish, representative of academics such as those
who protested in Tiananmen
Square, they see what Things
1 and 2 are subjecting their
nation to. The citizens rise up to
expel these unsavory characters,
and the story ends happily.
Seuss does not feature negotiations or compromise between the
children and the cat because he
is telling the adolescents of the
world that the only way to make
a difference is to take matters into
“C
A
their own hands. Rather than just passively ignoring
Thing 1 and Thing 2 in a Thoreau-esque manner, Seuss’
characters, acting according to the
precepts of Marx and Mao, physically
throw the unwanted rulers out of the
house, and return the nation to a
near-paradise, or at least a household
devoid of strife.
Children’s books are generally taken at face value while literary analysis
is generally reserved for novels written
by dead Englishmen. But the subversive nature of Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the
Hat, Yertle the Turtle and Hop on Pop
deserves just as much attention and
analysis as any Orwell, Shakespeare or Chaucer.
The effects of this literature on your impressionable
minds have yet to be measured. Even though I went
through my blatant “communist phase” in middle school,
I apparently had become a supporter of Marxist revolution many years earlier when my little red book was The
Cat in the Hat.
If we don’t understand the true meaning of children’s
literature, we will find ourselves overpowered and enslaved
by hordes of children wielding pop-guns
and copies of Oh, the Thinks You
Can Think!, a tome that blatantly advocates the death
of Whitey. Just read it.
You’ll see.
AUSTIN
NGO
and find foster homes for off-the-track
thoroughbreds, often abandoned
when they cannot run fast enough.
Others buy Mustangs and other horses
in danger of being sent to the slaughterhouse.
Animal abusers certainly don’t
represent the sport. Riding is about an
almost spiritual connection between
horse and rider; it’s about teamwork,
and above all, trust.
Anyone who has met my horse
knows that he is not the most trusting
guy, but he trusts me. This mutual understanding with horses is something
that I directly credit with keeping me
sane through all of my trials.
When I finally get to the barn, I
know that I can ride and just forget
about whatever happened that day.
Sometimes, when I get to the barn,
I’m so stressed out that I don’t feel
like I will be fair to Lex. On those days,
instead of riding, we may just take a
walk together and relax.
Riding has been a constant through
all of my hard
times. When a
friend of mine
from the stable
and her young
son died in a car
crash on the way
to the barn, I felt
like there was no
sane explanation
for their deaths.
After the funeral, I went straight
to the barn, needing the kind of support that nothing
else could give me. I let Bubba, the
horse that I was riding then, run free
in the arena. I just cried and cried as
I watched him running free, thinking
about the friends I had lost. When I
got on Bubba that day, I knew that he
understood me and that we were and
always would be a team, joined by an
unexplainable emotional bond. When
I got off, I was at peace.
My feelings about riding haven’t
changed. Lex and I trust each other
completely. When we do well, we do
well together because I’m listening to
his signals and he is listening to mine.
When we fall, we fall together.
People will always have their misconceptions. Some may make judgments about me regardless of how
much I explain what horseback riding
means to me and most other riders.
Whatever — I’m going riding today. Lex and I will forget them.
25
Senior fears memory will fade with the Class of ’05
By Galina Yudovich
HEN I SAT DOWN to write my final
piece for The Lowell, I was stuck. I
thought about graduating and all that
leaving Lowell will bring. I thought about leaving my friends and missing the beach, and then
I thought about freshman year, when we still
walked to Stonestown and complained about
mandatory resource mods and could buy pizza
bagels off the catwalk but couldn’t find the newly
moved Ts. By spring of that year, the sun had
begun to shine more and more, and all I could
think about was sweet, sweet summer.
But on May 17, 2002, I came to school and
amid my end-of-the-year countdown, heard that
junior Thomas Hoo had committed suicide the
day before. Although I only knew him through
various degrees of separation, his death shook
me. After principal Paul Cheng made the announcement during registry, all 2,600 students
walked to class in silence. People were crying
throughout the hallways and the faculty was
shocked and clumsy in dealing with confused
kids. Nobody knew how to act or react; laughing
seemed off limits, even to those of us who didn’t
know him.
Thomas Hoo was not an outcast kid who
W
sat in the corner of your math class. He was a
hardworking athlete and student, with a girlfriend
and his fair share of friends. He was wrestling
captain and a prominent candidate for football
captain the following year. All this from a 5’3,”
106-pound boy who “only knew how to give
100 percent,” according to
former football coach Jason
Krolikowski.
On June 8, the last class to
experience this tragedy will
sit in a sea of burgundy in the
Masonic Auditorium, waiting to graduate. When we
leave, most students at Lowell won’t know who Thomas
Hoo was or understand the
effect his death had on the
entire school community.
Out of respect for him and
his family, however, and at the risk of sounding
cliché, we cannot let his memory die.
Hoo did what many Lowell students and teenagers across the country think of doing at least
once. It is very easy to see nothing past SATs,
APs and GPAs, and many Lowell students see
these numbers on their transcripts as a measure
of their worth. They put pressure on themselves
that adds to the pressure they face from parents
and as a result of college-admission statistics,
sacrificing their health and social lives for history tests and English projects. But I’m willing
to bet that at age 50, you’ll be too busy thinking
about your ulcer to remember
whether or not you finished
that chemistry lab write-up
on that six-cups-of-coffee
Tuesday night junior year.
Many claimed that Hoo’s
downfall was his constant
need to be the best — the
best wrestler, the best football player, the best student.
His death put things, if only
momentarily, into perspective. The school handed out
yellow and blue ribbons
commemorating Thomas that colored the tiny
bit left of my freshman year.
I wore mine on my backpack and explained
to numerous strangers and out-of-school friends
that the yellow was for suicide prevention (before
it became “support our troops”) and the blue was
Thomas Hoo’s favorite color. I lost the ribbon
sometime late in my sophomore year and hadn’t
really talked about the suicide until I told some
of my journalism peers that I was writing my last
column about Thomas Hoo. Those who weren’t
from the Class of ’05 responded with puzzled
looks and asked who he was.
While I’m relieved that my class is the last
to have dealt with such a tragedy, and I naively
hope no other class will ever have to deal with
something like this in the future, it is slightly
shocking that the name “Thomas Hoo” has no
affect on three-fourths of the student body. This
could be dangerous.
Three-fourths of the student body did not
experience the devastation that one life’s end
brought. They did not walk through silent halls
or see dumbstruck faculty or attend the crowded
memorial service. Chances are, they didn’t participate in the moment of silence at the 2003
graduation.
Hoo’s suicide will forever remain a significant
episode in my high school career. I will always
remember Thomas Hoo when I look back on
my Lowell days, and I will wonder if Lowell
remembers.
I hope Thomas Hoo’s memory doesn’t graduate with the class of 2005. It doesn’t seem fair.
26 OPINION
May 27, 2005
EDITORIALS
Classes unfair for first-time
Chinese language students
W
HEN JUNIOR Michael Novak was
a first-semester freshman, he undertook Chinese 1 partly because
be hoped to be able to communicate with
his Taiwanese godfather. But upon entering the classroom for the first time, he felt
sorely disadvantaged because he was the
only student with “zero experience,” he said.
Throughout the semester, Novak studied for
two hours every night and attended tutoring sessions for two mods every school day.
“I did everything I possibly could — I made
flashcards, wrote characters over and over
again and tried a lot of other things,” he
said. The only thing his painstaking effort
got him, was a C+.
“I’m very talkative, but Chinese 1 was
one of the few classes I was afraid to talk
in,” Novak said. After barely passing Chinese 1 and feeling discouraged in Chinese
2, Novak reluctantly quit and enrolled
himself in Spanish 1.
Most students like Novak who do not
speak Chinese but attempt beginning
Chinese are not successful in the class.
Standards are far too high for students
without any previous instruction in Chinese, creating a system that favors students
with a background in the language and
excludes those with no exposure.
“It’s difficult for people who’ve never
learned the language before to be in a
class where everyone knows the language
already,” said freshman Ashley Smiley, who
had no prior experience in the language
and failed Chinese 1.
Sophomore Matthew Taylor, who is
half Chinese but has had no exposure to
the language, said he failed Chinese 1
because he struggled with memorizing
the characters and stroke order. Taylor’s
problems were exacerbated by the composition of the class. “It was really hard
because everyone had a background in
Chinese and everyone was way ahead of
me,” he said.
The school could solve this problem by
offering separate classes to those with a
Chinese language background and those
who are learning the language for the first
time. This would allow students learning
the language for the first time to proceed
at an easier, more reasonable pace without
holding back those with experience in the
language. Fewer students would fall behind and more would be able to continue
on to Chinese 2.
Chinese is an important language in
today’s society, as 20 percent of the world’s
population speaks the language, according
to economics and AP U.S. History teacher
Adam Michels. “When I went to school,
people wanted to learn Spanish and French,
but now it’s replaced with Chinese,” he
said. Students will “want to learn it if they
want to conduct business abroad,” Michels
added. “It’s going to be important to the
economy.”
SBC elections need reform
I
T HAPPENED OVERNIGHT: Posters filled
the hallways and candidates invaded
registries with candy, stickers and slogans. The 2005 elections had begun.
With elections now over, it is time to
reflect on what effect this process has had
on the candidates and the student body.
Student government is an important
part of a high school, and elected officers
do make a difference. Success shouldn’t
come down to who has the best posters,
the catchiest slogan or the cheapest tricks,
but to who is most qualified for the job.
So, what’s the answer? Simple election
reforms would improve the process.
First, candidates should have pre-assigned display spots, assigned randomly by
a lottery. This would stop arguments over
highly visible spots for posters.
Second, the school should publish an
official election book with statements
from each candidate outlining his or her
qualifications and ideas. This would help
voters decide who is serious and who is
running just for fun. Students could read
it over, instead of trying to piece information together from 20-second campaign
presentations.
Brief interviews over Radio Lowell would
give students a chance to hear candidates
in all registries at the same time.
Another problem with the elections is
the integrity of the candidates. Do this
many people care enough about the
school to sacrifice their social lives for it?
Doubtful. Do this many people care about
getting into a good college? Without a
doubt. Do this many people care about
getting first pick during self-scheduling?
Quite possibly.
It’s hard to vote for students when you
suspect that one reason for running is a
desire to choose the best and most popular
teachers. In order to prevent such doubts,
the school should eliminate the first-pick
privilege for SBC members.
We need to fix the current system in
order to ensure that the most qualified and
altruistic students fill important government positions.
Students must respect
three-mod long assemblies
O
N APRIL 14, Sylvia Guerrero came
to school to speak at an assembly
in the Carol Channing Auditorium.
The mother of Gwen Araujo, a transgender
teen who was murdered on Oct. 3, 2002,
Guerrero goes from school to school hoping to teach students to be more accepting
of differences. She considers her daughter
a martyr whose death is meaningless unless
it can touch students’ hearts.
Unfortunately, a large number of students got up and hurried toward the exit
while she was talking about the horrors
of her daughter’s death. Just what would
it take to melt those students’ icy hearts?
The assembly did not run overtime, but the
mod was over, so these students left — regardless of what was going on onstage.
A few select students had permission
to leave, and were seated in the back to
minimize disruption, according to social
studies teacher and Gay-Straight Alliance
sponsor Barbara Blinick. But these were
not the only students who left, and many
others quickly deemed it appropriate to
follow the crowd.
Although this was not the first instance
of students prematurely leaving an assembly, it should be the last. The school needs
to ensure that this sort of blatant disrespect
never happens again.
In the future, students attending an
assembly should have a permission slip
signed by all teachers who could be affected so that they don’t feel compelled
to leave early. A better commitment from
both students and teachers could ensure
that this doesn’t happen again.
It may not be entirely the students’ fault
— perhaps teachers need to look at the
broader picture and not punish students
who are late because of an assembly.
On the other hand, when a student is
listening to a speaker talk about the murder of her daughter — or any speaker for
that matter — is “not being late to class”
really enough reason to leave? Perhaps
students should be willing to miss 5 or 10
minutes of a class — or even a test — to
avoid being so rude and disruptive.
Lowell High School
The
Texas
state
legislature has
recently
passed a bill
restricting “overtly
sexually suggestive”
cheerleading performances. As their state
senate deliberates this pressing issue, the
legislature comes up with new ways to
morally cleanse the state.
Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick
is now Moby Whale, a book in which
Ishmael certainly does not
come home to find a
naked man in his hotel
bed or narrate an
entire chapter
on whale
penises.
Tight ends are
now ballgrabbers. Wait
— Ball getters.
No, pigskin
chasers... Well,
they’re still
working on it.
The big bang theory is now the “Just Say
No” theory.
ZACK CLARK
LETTERS
TO THE
EDITORS
Teacher objects
to administrators
evaluating teachers
Because the issue of merit pay for teachers is being
proposed by the governor, I
feel that the process of evaluating teachers should be
dealt with. I’m not interested
in this issue as it relates to
me personally. However, I’d
like to make some points.
The people who are evaluating teachers, making budgetary and other fundamental decisions about the direction of
education are not themselves
educators. What do the governor and other politicians know
about our schools? What do
the administrators know about
classroom teaching? Would
you have an English teacher
evaluate a physics experiment?
During recent evaluations,
one of our English teachers
was teaching a work by James
Joyce. I have worked closely
with this teacher for 20 years
and know her to be consistently
outstanding. Another teacher
was teaching the use of euphemism in the novel Night (the
Nazi use of terms like “special
treatment” in relation to Jews).
The evaluator had to look up
the term “euphemism.” And
what does this same administrator know about the works
of Joyce, or for that matter,
about the teaching of English?
Personally I’d like to know how
many years of classroom teaching our administrators have.
My guess is — not many! Yet,
under the current system, they
are responsible for evaluating
teachers with 20 or 30 years of
day-to-day work with students.
There are reasonable alternatives. The faculties at
each school could select a few
outstanding and respected
teachers who would be part of
a pool. Teachers from this pool
would then evaluate teachers at other schools (even in
other districts) — teachers
they do not know. Furthermore, evaluations should be
done at random and without
warning to the teacher being
observed. For one thing, such
a system would relieve administrators of a duty they are
often unqualified to perform.
— Robert Davis,
retiring English teacher
Student contests
accusation that Shield
and Scroll is elitist
I am a proud member of
Shield and Scroll and after
reading Mr. York’s opinion
piece on the elitism of Shield
and Scroll, I wanted to clarify
Lowell
The
Red Staff
Editors-in-chief
Anna Huang • Melisa Olmos
Joyce Chen • Caitlin Kelly-Sneed
News Anna Huang, Michelle Louie, Marianna
Tishchenko, Laura Wong, Fiona Wozniak
Sports Courtney Ball, Kory Hui, Laura Fong,
Andrew Lee, Jennifer Lee, Michelle Lee, Emily
Leung, Alanna Wong
Opinion Joyce Chen, Connie Chung, Jake
Watters
Arts and Ideas Melisa Olmos
Health Caitlin Kelly-Sneed
Spotlight Mellina Stoney
Columns Erica Edwards, Sabina Hatipovic
Backpage Amanda Cheung
Photo Editor Jake Watters
Reporters Avi Baskin, Conor Casey, Andy
Choe, Zack Clark, Beatriz Datangel, Tony Dear,
Marissa Dente, Megan Dickey, Erica Edwards,
Gaston Guibert, F. Brady Gillerlain, Diana Guan,
Heather Hammel, Ivana He, Nicole Hui, Michelle
Lambert, Michael Lazarus,Jessica Lee, Derrick
Lomax, Mayra Lopez, Vicki Mac, Vanessa Mai,
Michaela Maloney, John Mansfield, Jessica Qu,
Sabine Scherer, Helene Servillon, Maggie Silver,
Sandra Siu, Carmen Sze, Tiffani Toy, Griffin
Tyree, Karen Wishnia, Linda Wolfe, Larry Yee,
Ashley Yu, Galina Yudovich, Jack Zhou
Photographers Anna Fryjoff-Hung, Bella
Weinstein, Michelle Wilens, Jack Zhou
Illustrators Zack Clark, Anya Kamenskaya,
a few things.
Although it is unfortunate
that Mr. York believes there
is favoritism in our election
system, members are never
allowed to see the candidates’
names. They only see a list of
activities, the GPA, and a ratio
of honors/AP to total classes
taken. Although our election
process might seem to favor
people with high GPAs and
lots of AP classes, the reality
is that we all started with an
equal chance to obtain the GPA
and select the challenge of our
academics at Lowell.
I frown upon people who
say that the whole point of
Shield and Scroll is to get first
pick. S&S members are not
receiving first pick as a reward
but rather as a way to make
sure that self-scheduling goes
as smoothly as possible. When
the administration took first
pick away, S&S members were
forced to leave their posts
frequently, causing mass disarray.
Mr. York also fails to emphasize the importance of
Shield and Scroll to the Lowell
community.
It is because of Shield and
Scroll that Lowell is able to save
thousands of dollars in labor
annually. Is there any other
organization at Lowell that can
claim that?
— Charlie Dharmasukrit
Shield and Scroll president
Emma Lam, Christina Limcaco, Austin Ngo,
Michael Sung
Technical support Anthony Batiste,
Sam Bowman
Accounting Connie Chung
Advertising Angela Chen, Ivana He, Fion
Lau, Nicole Lee, Lincoln Lo, Shiwei Song
The Lowell on the Web
Web editors
Anthony Batiste • Sam Bowman
F. Brady Gillerlain
Web assistants Harvey Chan, Tim
Denterlein, Tania Gonzalez, Michelle
Lambert
Webmaster Sam Bowman
Advisers
Jennifer Moffitt & Katharine Swan
Published every four weeks by the journalism classes of Lowell
High School, Room S108, 1101 Eucalyptus Drive, San Francisco, CA 94132 Phone: (415) 759-2854 or (415) 759-2730
Ext. 3718 Internet: kswan005@yahoo.com; http://www.thelowell.org. All contents copyright Lowell High School journalism
classes. All rights reserved.
The Lowell and The Lowell on the Web strive to inform the
public and to use their opinion sections as open forums for
debate. All unsigned editorials are the opinions of the staff.
The Lowell welcomes comments on school-related issues from
students, faculty and community members. Names will be
withheld upon request. We reserve the right to edit letters
before publication.
2005 CSPA Gold Crown
2003 CSPA Gold Crown
2002 NSPA Pacemaker
2001 NSPA Pacemaker
2001 NSPA Hall of Fame
2000 CSPA Gold Crown
1999 CSPA Gold Crown
1997 CSPA Silver Crown
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By Joyce Chen and Emily Leung
Internet confessionals reveal unspoken secrets
K
EEPING SECRETS is so overrated.
Just ask Frank Warren, founder
and maintainer of PostSecret
(www.postsecret.blogspot.com), a
community art project that invites
people to anonymously share postcards with secrets written on one side.
Decoration and creativity are encouraged, and the best entries make it on
the site, which publishes new submissions every Sunday. He tries to post
a representative sample of the cards
received, citing his desire to “touch on
all the different emotions that I feel
when I receive them.” The confessions,
all intensely personal, range from the
bawdy (“I had gay sex at church camp
— three times”) to the plaintive (“I miss
feeling close to God”) to the shocking
(“Everyone who knew me before 9/11
thinks I’m dead”).
In an age of lurid curiosity and rapidly decreasing privacy, anonymous
confessional websites like PostSecret
are flourishing, allowing participants to
relieve their guilty consciences — and
entertain readers — without risking
discovery.
PostSecret “started as an art project
in November 2004,” Warren said. “I first
sent out 3,000 postcards inviting people
to share a secret with me, something
that was true and something that
they’ve never shared with anybody
else, and to do it anonymously.”
Other confessional sites take different approaches. On PostSecret, Warren
acts as a medium between entries and
publication — sifting through roughly
12 postcards per day — whereas on
other sites, such as The Confession
Project (www.confessionproject.com)
and Group Hug (www.grouphug.us),
users directly upload their secrets.
Stylistic differences also set the sites
apart. In contrast to PostSecret’s emphasis on entries’ colorful visuals, Not
Proud (www.NotProud.com) features
simple black text on a white background and organizes confessions into
eight categories — the seven deadly
sins, plus one miscellaneous section.
Not Proud founders Scott Huot and
G.W. Brazier called the site a “blank
slate where the emotions are created
by the confessions, not the design,”
adding that the spartan layout “creates trust, which is an important factor
when you’re asking people for their
deepest secrets.”
Other sites have interactive features
that allow visitors to respond to posted
secrets. For example, registered users
on e-admit.com can receive comments
and even solicit opinions through polls.
(A 29-year-old from Australia who masturbates to the sound of his next-door
neighbor asks, “Am I a pervert?”)
Therapy on the web
Despite differences in design and
execution, the websites all extol the
therapeutic benefits of confession.
PostSecret “gives a peek into a
side of human nature that is always
concealed,” Warren said, adding that
when choosing entries, he tries to “look
past the surface to where some healing
might be happening.”
Not Proud presents itself as a haven
for users for free sharing of secrets
without fear of judgment. The website
states: “Not Proud may have been indirectly influenced by the confessional
but prescribes to no formalized notions
of what is right and what is wrong. We
wanted to create a venue for people
regardless of their religious beliefs or
lack thereof.”
Chris Lee, who manages The Confes-
sion Project, estimated that 70 percent
of the site users are teenagers, many
of whom admit to rampant insecurity,
bouts of violence (“Sometimes I just feel
like taking up an AK-47 and shooting
people”) and sexual deviance (“I have
an armpit fetish”), garnering comments
for the most salacious entries.
“I’m not sure what exact therapeutic
effects it provides, but we do get thankyou e-mails,” Lee said. However, “it is
not our intention for it to be therapeutic; it’s just a cool idea.”
Posting anonymously has “the same
effect as an unsent letter,” said Ruth
Colman, 18, who reads confessional
sites once a week. “You get it off your
chest without actually incriminating
yourself.”
However, Nurse Maryann Rainey
advocates a different method of relieving guilty consciences, emphasizing the
benefits of face-to-face interaction as
a means for therapy.
“I could see the appeal of (these
sites), and if you’re treating it as a
novelty, that’s fine,” she said. However,
“there’s a terrific value in having a
trusted adult that you can talk to.”
Finding thrills in confessions
Still, confessional sites attract a large
number of regular readers, such as
Rachelle Brydon, 15, who visits Group
Hug once a week and posts once every
month or two.
“The appeal is mostly that the confessions are funny, but then you get the
guilty pleasure that your life is better
than someone else’s,” Brydon said.
Colman agreed. “It’s a self-esteem
booster … it makes you realize that
people are so much worse and more
twisted than you are,” she said.
Reading confessions is ultimately
more than a guilty pleasure. The nameless entries, devoid of identifiers like
nationality and age, illustrate the universality of shame across cultures.
“It’s interesting to see what people
are thinking all around the world
— maybe at that exact moment,” Colman said.
Keeping secret identities
Warren keeps the identities of his
shame-filled posters secret in order to
ensure that those people retain their
privacy. “Anonymity is an important
part of the project … I try and show a
lot of integrity towards the way I treat
their secrets,” he said.
After browsing through reams of
entries chronicling cringe-inducing cruelty and voluntary incest, a reader may
wonder: Are the confessions true?
“I think some confessions are credible, but probably only around 50 percent,” Brydon said.
Although the credibility of online
confessions is far from guaranteed,
entries undergo vigorous scrutiny.
Webmasters discard roughly two-thirds
of the confessions, adhering to several
rules: no contact information, no blatant lies, no bragging.
“Each entry usually takes about
five seconds to approve or deny,” Lee
said.
For those who want to indulge in
other people’s secrets offline, two
sites have published compilations of
the most titillating entries. The books
Not Proud: A Smorgasbord of Shame
and Stoned, Naked, and Looking in My
Neighbor’s Window: The Best Confessions from Grouphug.us are available
online and in stores to induce that
feeling of shamelessly cracking open
a juicy personal diary.