“I didn’t have a second period or a language class,” Bogaard says. “Garfield [turned] two French II classes into one French III class, so some people were left without a language. I tried to sign up for running start but their class was full.”

Bogaard’s two language credits are just enough for Garfield’s graduation requirement, but won’t look good on college applications.

Overcrowded schools and cut classes are just some of the ways Washington’s public school students have been affected by the state’s cuts to education in recent years — and the projected $1.4 billion cut in the next two years didn’t calm anyone down.

On Nov. 28, Governor Christine Gregoire held a special session to discuss potential cuts to the new budget. Beginning with the walkout on Nov. 30, Garfield students have been active in protesting these cuts.

Garfield history teacher Jesse Hagopian attended this special session, joining hundreds of other teachers and protesters” with the intent of voicing his opinion: no more cuts to education.

“The state [has] already cut $2.7 billion from the state’s education budget over the past three years,” says Hagopian. “We have seen our coworkers laid off, teacher salaries cut, schools closed, classrooms swell in numbers, student transportation eliminated, counselors cut, and course offerings disappear.”

Hagopian says these cuts are violating the state’s “paramount duty,” as stated in its constitution, to make “ample provision for the education of all children” residing in Washington State.

At the special session on Nov. 28, Hagopian was arrested for disorderly conduct.

“But I think they got the wrong guy,” says Hagopian. “It was the state legislature whose reckless behavior has limited the futures of the students of Washington State.”

The arrest of Hagopian incited frustration among Garfield students who, later that night, created a Facebook group titled Free Mr. Hagopian! The initial point of this group was to get Hagopian out of jail.

After Hagopian posted bail that night, the group changed its focus to planning a Garfield student walkout on Wednesday, Nov. 30, to unify student voices and bring attention to the issues Hagopian was protesting in Olympia.

“The arrest of Mr. Hagopian caused many Garfield students to examine what he was protesting and drew our attention to the proposed budget cuts to public education,” said senior Maya Troll, who contributed to the organization of the walkout.

“When [the students] took action to fight for their own futures, it was beyond inspiring,” Hagopian says.

Through mass social media networks, the walkout group grew quickly — reaching 1000 members just 24 hours after it was created.

Students walk out

On Wednesday, Nov. 30, hundreds of Garfield students gathered on Alder Street for the walkout, chatting excitedly with their friends and hoisting signs that read, “education is a right,” and, “fund our futures.” With every minute that passed, the group grew larger and the air more tense.

The massive crowd began marching down Jefferson at 12:30. Every car’s honk provoked a round of screaming from the students.

“No more cuts to education; we are the future of our nation,” students chanted in unison.

Accompanied by several police officers on bicycles, the group continued down to Seattle City Hall, its final destination where students were greeted warmly by Mayor McGinn and other supportive onlookers.

Lukewarm reception

Many opponents of the walkout took issue with the intentions of the students participating.

“I think a lot of people originally got on board with the walkout, myself included, almost solely for the purpose of not having to attend fifth period [on] Wednesday,” junior Evan Barley-Greenfield says.

However, Barley-Greenfield commends the walkout leaders for providing information to participants beforehand educating students about the reason behind the walkout.

“I was able to learn more about the problems we and future students will face in our educations because of the lack of necessary funding,” he says. “I began to understand that this issue was actually important and bigger than just an excuse to skip class.”

Senior Mohamed Adan argues that if students only wanted to skip class, they could do that any other time.

“The willingness of so many bulldogs to march in the cold and up and down steep hills all the way to City Hall shows that [the walkout] was a movement by mature, passionate students who care for their future,” says Adan.

Garfield English teacher Mark Lovre says that even if there were students participating merely to miss fifth period or be with their friends, it’s the numbers that matter.

“To the outside eye, nobody can tell,” Lovre says. “Who cares?”

Garfield administrators generally supported the walkout’s cause.

“[The students] are fighting for their future… [and] exercising [their] right [to the freedom of speech] and by all means [they] should do that,” says Mr. Howard.

The movement spreads

The Nov. 30 protest was covered by The Huffington Post, The Seattle Times, The Stranger and Seattle Weekly and mentioned in an interview with Hagopian on Countdown with Keith Obermann.

The Garfield message inspired other high schoolers. Tacoma student August Wimberger helped organize a similar walkout at Stadium High School on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

“I saw some pictures [of the Garfield walkout] on my news feed from some friends I had on Facebook and it completely influenced me,” says Wimberger. “I wouldn’t have done it without the Garfield one first so it was a chain reaction.”

Wimberger said the Stadium walkout, “went pretty well.”

“We had over one hundred kids [protesting] and the administration was surprisingly helpful,” he says. “They told all the staff to not try to stop kids from walking out and that if students brought in notes from their parents, their absences would be excused.”

The Tacoma School District has also felt the pain of cuts to education in the past years.

“We’ve had health classes with eighty kids in our gym; kids couldn’t get into the science classes they wanted because [those classes] were overcrowded and [the students] had to take extremely basic lab science [courses]; and some of our language classes have been cut as well,” Wimberger says.

Stadium and Garfield aren’t the only schools who have taken a special interest over the budget cuts and the special session.

Junior Obadiah Terry says that after the walkout, the group of Garfield leaders quickly grew to include students from Nathan Hale, Ingraham, Ballard and Roosevelt as they showed interest and offered their support.

He says the more students involved, the more noise will be made, and the more likely it will be that the legislators hear the students’ message.

The body of student leaders has evolved into a group called SWaC — Students of Washington for Change.

Said spokesperson Maya Troll, “SWaC’s main goals are to make sure the voice of students is heard well before the emergency legislative session ends and [to encourage] youth [to] continue to play an active role in safeguarding their right to education.”

Inter-school meetings over the last few weekends have led to the planning of other events involving raising awareness around budget cuts.

Ballard and Nathan-Hale High Schools have hosted letter-writing events to state legislators in opposition of budget cuts.

Garfield held an after-school teach-in on Monday, where students wrote letters to legislators and speakers discussed solutions to some of the education funding and budget deficit issues.

Some of these solutions included looking at our state’s tax system.

During this special legislative session, one of the things Governor Gregoire has proposed is a temporary half-cent increase in sales tax that would expire in July 2015 and raise approximately $1.5 billion.

Looking forward

A second student walkout was held Wednesday by members of SWaC in collaboration with students at UW, Seattle University and various community colleges. The hundreds of protesters marched from Red Square in the U-District to University Heights center, where the office of Washington Speaker of the House, Frank Chopp, is located.

Though less Garfield students attended, preliminary reports put the number of total attendees at more than last month’s event.

The protest received national media coverage.

SWaC members say this isn’t the end of student efforts to fight education cuts.

“We are already organizing to take our message to Olympia,” says Mohamed Adan. “The [special] session only lasts for thirty days, so we have to move fast if we want our voices heard.”

“We have to show up in full force to send a clear message to the elected officials in Olympia,” he says. “Slashing funding to educate the next generation of Americans is not the solution to our problems, but just a way to create even greater problems in the future.”

“Being seventeen years old is the worst age, politically speaking,” said Garfield senior Zach Ward.  At this point, high schoolers are the most involved in politics, but have the least true voting power.

With true Bulldog spirit, however, several Garfield students, organizations, and alumni are overcoming the barriers against high school students and discovering their own way to become involved in politics.

“Too often it gets to this debate between different opposing adult forces and the voice that’s lost is the actual students saying ‘hey, I can’t get textbooks’” says Toby Crittenden, a ‘00 Garfield graduate who now works with the Washington Bus to get students involved in politics.

The Washington Bus is an organization that works to get young people out to vote and involved in politics, including high schoolers, college students, and others in their twenties.  They support youth-driven politics by helping register voters, working on campaigns for young candidates, and promoting awareness.

The Bus’s emphasis on youth leadership is driven by the people in charge.  According to Crittenden, the staff at the Bus has more people below 30 than those above 30.  This unusual demographic allows the Bus to make politics more accessible to high schoolers, and give them support and motivation to get involved.

As new educational measures center on Seattle Public Schools, and in particular Garfield, adults are making more and more changes to policy that primarily affect students.

The School Board elections are directly related to all public school students.  The decisions made by the School Board affect the types of curriculum in schools, student’s rights, determine the educational budget, and many others.  The results of the School Board’s decisions are felt by high schoolers sitting in class everyday, but not by adults, who only hear about classroom and school-based issues if their children come home and complain.

“People throw these big concepts around, where it’s really felt almost always the most is in young people,” says Crittenden.  Adults don’t experience the impacts of their votes daily, so students have taken the initiative to make their own voices heard.

“I think voting is the single best way to be political, but it’s far, far, far from the only way to be political.… Voting is the output, but what are all the imputs?” says Crittenden.

In order to give students political voices, Garfield graduates Lucas Smith, Jesse Seidman, Alex Jonlin, Caleb Raible-Clark, Lucas Smith and Tal Levy created Senate Bill 5621 while they were students at Garfield.  The bill, sponsored by Senator Scott White, would lower the voting age in school-related elections to 14.  This proposal was an attempt to get the political voice high schoolers are denied, but it was not passed by the Washington State Senate.  In 2005, another bill to lower the voting age, this time to 16, was rejected.

As adult voters and legislators continue to deny students the right to vote, Garfield students have found other ways to make their opinions known and prepare themselves to be educated and inspired voters once they turn 18.

“Everything is political in life.  There are some places where that’s glossed over, and there are some places where that’s more apparent, and I think that becomes very apparent at Garfield” said Crittenden.

Garfield is home to many organizations and individuals who have become politically active before they can vote.

The Junior Statesmen of America, a national organization with many chapters at high schools all over the country, focuses on discussing issues around the world so students are more politically aware and informed about recent events.

JSA, as well as the activism at Garfield, “definitely helped me get more into it (politics) and helped me get more involved” said Haley McFarland, a Garfield senior who is the secretary of JSA.

“I got involved with JSA because I did not know much about how our country was run and the politics and the social and economic issues of our day, and I wanted to know more” said Sam Kennard, a Garfield senior and the treasurer of JSA.  One of JSA’s strengths as an organization is their informative nature, and that it’s not a prerequisite to know anything about the topics discussed.

Each week, Garfield JSA members have discussions on various subjects from human augmentation to the death of Osama Bin Laden.  They also participate in state-wide conventions, organize debates in which students can debate both sides of prominent issues, and host sessions with local adults who are involved in politics, such as School Board candidate Sharon Peaslee.  Although Peaslee did not win election to the School Board over incumbent Peter Maier, students involved in JSA were able to meet a candidate and formulate an informed opinion in this School Board race.

The leaders of JSA are also working to organize a debate between Garfield teaher Hersh Mandleman and a local Tea Party candidate, according to Kennard.  This debate will provide a example for JSA members on debate techniques for conventions.  However, it will also be an informative session about Seattle and Washington State issues that relate to all students and local community members.

“I’ve really enjoyed going to JSA and being able to hear people who have political views that are very different from the ones I have, and it’s not just ‘Oh, they’re idiots, we’re right,’ there’s some fact in a lot of different political beliefs” said Ward.

The new Garfield club by senior Tamara Boyle and sophomore Mohammed Jagana, Youth in Government, creates a mock-Congress and helps students better understand the political system.  In this program, students write up state-related bills and present them to their peers.  In the spring, they take these bills to Olympia and participate in a four-day mock-legislature where each student acts a part of the state government.

Youth in Government “is actually what got me interested in [politics]” said Boyle.  “Being involved in that really made me say ‘Oh, I should do other things’.”  As a result of her involvement in Youth in Governement, Boyle also got involved in student government and interned on Patty Murray’s Senate campaign.

Sophomore Lalah Muth was inspired by a teacher from Youth in Government in eighth grade who would come into her classes and help her class write and debate bills in order to better understand the political process.

“I thought ‘well that was really cool’… and I thought it was kind of fun… and when I got there it was even more fun” said Muth.  “It’s kinda like college.  You’re practicing for something to be better at something else.… If you ever wanted [to create a bill] you would know what to do.”

Debate groups and mock-government groups such as JSA, Youth in Government, and other groups such as Mock-Trial and Debate Club all help high schoolers with the inter-personal skills, political awareness, and government understanding that will help create savvy voters.  Some other Garfield students have gotten involved in today’s politics, instead of waiting for their eighteenth birthday.

Garfield juniors Jasmine Burr and Kian Vesteinsson are both on the advisory board of Seattle Young People’s Project, another youth empowered organization that advocates social justice for youth and engineers projects such as Queer Youth Space Seattle, works towards education reform, created a youth art collective, and fought the old WASL achievement test.  The organization is mostly run by Seattleites in their twenties, and the Board is made up of students under 17.

“People say ‘Oh yeah, it looks good on your college application,’ and I’m like okay, that’s great’ but I don’t want to just do it because it looks good on a college app, I want to do it because I like it, and for this specific program it wasn’t just about empowering youth, it was about getting them more into politics” said Burr.  “At Seattle Young People’s Project, you get the truth about things, and you get more into the community.”

“When I hear the word politics, I don’t really want to talk about it, mainly because it’s just so much.… I used to not care, and now I actually do care, I’m like, well, what is this law going to do for my community, what is it going to do for me, how is it going to benefit me, how is it going to affect my community.… I’m more aware of things going on in my community and around the world, which is really great” continued Burr.

Garfield’s ACLU club is also working with local state chapters of the national organization to promote student rights and civil liberties in Washington State.  Garfield seniors Maya Troll, Anna Jacobsen and Sierra Kaplan-Nelson have all “revitalized” the Garfield ACLU chapter, and are working to spread awareness about student rights in school, fighting against the death penalty, and fighting for the legalization of marijuana.

Their main focus is on student’s rights, especially at Garfield.  Troll, Jacobsen, and Kaplan-Nelson, along with junior Jack Noland are working to spread awareness about the privacy rights that students have, as well as fighting for rights that students should have, according to the leaders.  Their focus is on the random searches the Garfield administration conducts.

ACLU also focuses on informing students of their political system and the various civil issues, and is “dynamic and doing things,” such as working with New Approach Washington, a organization focused on legalizing and then regulating marijuana.  They also work on letter writing campaigns, gather signatures for initiatives, and organize assemblies to promote awareness about issues the ACLU takes a stand on.

“Speaking out …isn’t necessarily a political interest, but a civil duty” said Jacobsen.  Garfield students have taken her statement to the next level, and tied together their own political interests in voting, and been able to vote vicariously by creating change in their communities and influencing the opinions of many others and encouraging adults to vote.

“Unless we say it, no one else is going to say it for us” said Crittenden.

To Get Involved…

JSA — Meets Tuesday at lunch in Mr. Madelman’s room

ACLU — Meets Friday at lunch in the Library

Youth in Government — Talk to Tamara Boyle or Mr. Martin

Washington Bus — www.washingtonbus.org

Seattle Young People’s Project - www.sypp.org

In the words of co-president Michael Rosenberger, “coding is often thought of as a very solitary experience, involving dark basements and piles of mountain dew cans.” Though this may  be somewhat true, programming club exists to show everyone the other, more social side of computer coding that isn’t necessarily reserved for nerds.

“I’m a member because I love having a place to design, implement and discuss computer programs with friends,” Rosenberger explains.

Rosenberger is one of many students who meet after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays in room 115 to work together on programming projects and teach each other about computer science in general. Anyone with interest is strongly encouraged to participate.

“We are happy to teach anyone, regardless of programming experience,” insists Rosenberger. “Anyone can program if they have the dedication to do so.”

Currently, the group is working on developing a three-dimensional vector-based particle simulator with support for chemical interactions between particles, which will have applications as an engine for both video games and scientific research. All I can say is damn, no wonder Garfield kids are considered some of the smartest in the city.

Meets every day at lunch and after school, room 115a

ACLU Club

Garfield senior Maya Troll is president of the school’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter, a nationwide organization committed to protecting the freedoms of individuals in our country.

“Its been a major force in history; for example, ACLU was involved with Brown vs. Board of Education,” Troll says. “ACLU issues today include drug policy, criminal justice, race and gender equality, gay rights, immigrant rights, and really anything that infringes on our constitutional rights.”

According to Troll, the club was surprisingly inactive when she joined last year.

“Since [then], the club has grown and everyone is more committed,” says junior Jack Noland. ACLU’s big goal for the year is working on abolishing the death penalty in the state of Washington. Noland says, “I like the connection to local and national issues and the feeling of changing something I feel is injust.”

Meets Fridays at lunch, library

Lucid Dreaming Club

Though inception may be impossible, lucid dreaming is not. A group of Garfield students have been testing these muddy waters through sharing their own personal experiences at lucid dreaming club. Lucid dreaming is when a person in a dream state becomes aware of the fact they are dreaming and begins to control what they see and experience.

The difficulty comes in remaining in a dream state after one realizes that is where they are. As it sounds quite difficult, I was not surprised when I asked if all the club members could lucid dream and was met with the response, “Well…we want to.”

The high level of control and exertion required to lucid dream means it might as well be as possible as inception.

“If you can occupy your mind with something else, like spinning in a circle, you can stay asleep,” says junior Martina Hildredth.

The weekly meetings have brought together this group of students. “The greatest part is the people,” says junior Isabelle Marshall.

“It is fun,” was sophomore Camille Soloman’s deep insight into the club’s character.

Meets Tuesdays at lunch, choir room

Drama Club

Each year, students can see their peers perform in five different shows, full of talent, drama and plenty of laughter. Four times a year, Drama Club puts on “Dramatic Paws,” a show composed of one-act, student directed plays. Anyone can be in DP, and even students with no acting experience are encouraged to audition. In addition to this, Drama Club puts on an annual winter show, with auditions for this years show, Agatha Christie’s The Mouse Trap, on October 31st and November 2nd.

Meets Fridays, monthly

Amnesty International

Seniors Jasmine Ramezanzadeh and Rachel DeCordoba are beginning their second year as co-presidents of Garfield’s Amnesty International chapter. The global organization works to end human rights violations all over the world, such as the holding of political prisoners, (widespread existence) of poverty, and violence against certain populations because of race, gender, or affiliation, etc.

“The biggest events [that we participate in] are letter write-a-thons and protests; there was recently one over the Troy Davis case,” says DeCordoba. “We work on educating students around certain issues because many high-schoolers don’t think about these things usually.”

DeCordoba and Ramezanzadeh both first got involved their freshman year, when the club was a decent size but fairly inactive. Since then, the club has expanded greatly and shifted its focus.

“We are trying to concentrate more on raising awareness than raising money,” says Ramezanzadeh.

Junior Sadya Ahmed says, “What keeps me going back to Amnesty is there are so many interesting issues that are discussed that I want to help with. One of my goals is to come up with ideas that our club can do to change the law in Saudi Arabia of women not being allowed to drive.”

Meets Tuesdays at lunch, room 236

Robotics Club

Big things are brewing in room 115a after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This year, Robotics Club is working on constructing a robot that can stack crates together and fill them with racquetballs — one of the challenges for this year’s annual FIRST Tech Challenge competition.

“The competition is great because there are just a ton of people there and the robot contests are really exciting,” says sophomore member Mack Beveridge. This year the team is hoping to make it to state for the second year in a row. But to senior George Matter, the real fun in robotics club isn’t in winning medals.

“I am a part of Robotics Team because I don’t get a chance to design and build things in the same way elsewhere (except perhaps computer programming, but that’s not at all tangible the way a robot is),” says Matter. “[I like] that feeling when you hold a robot in your hands and can say ‘I built this out of nothing more than some spare parts and an idea’.”

Meets Wednesdays/Thursdays after school, room 115A

18 minutes and 26 seconds later, the 56 passengers aboard United flight 175 plummeted to their death, destroying the south world trade center tower, leaving hundreds more civilians dead. It was 9/11 2001, and America was under attack.

Though she was not actually in New York at the time, Garfield student Olivia Dack will forever be affected by the tragedy of 9/11. Dack lost her father who was at a business meeting in the world trade center that Tuesday morning.

“I knew my dad worked in the buildings and once I heard it, something kind of dropped in my gut,” Dack says. “It was really surreal when I look back on it now.”

Unlike other children who have lost a parent, Dack was forced to deal with the public nature of her father’s death. “On the news, I heard that some people had escaped and I always had hope that he would come back. It took me a year or two to understand that he was gone. I was just severely confused,” says Dack.

Though most of us cannot fully comprehend what Dack experienced, we can all learn from the events of 9/11. “I don’t expect pity, just the ability to relate almost, even if the other person can’t. I have always wanted the person who I’m talking to, to ask me questions, or simply talk; it makes me feel less alienated and more open,” says Dack.

Other students are linked to 9/11 in a less tragic way. Garfield senior Kayla Kerr was hoping to celebrate her 7th birthday on 9/11, before America was attacked.

“I remember I woke up to my mom crying and I couldn’t figure out why, because it was my birthday. I didn’t really know what was going on since I was so young.”

Though Kerr’s 7th birthday is ten years behind her now, she still feels the effects each year.

“It was more of a memorial than a celebration for years after the attacks. It’s almost bittersweet when your birthday is a day for remembrance of nearly 3,000 victims.”

*****

Garfield history teacher Hersh Mandelman was routinely listening to the Tuesday morning news when he first heard of the attack. “I was shocked,” he states simply. He immediately called his brother and sister in law, both of whom lived in the New York area. They were safe, however, and his friends who worked in the tower had not arrived at their office yet.

Jonathan Stever, another Garfield teacher, recalls his memories of 9/11. Like Mandelman, Stever’s first reaction was total shock. “After I got over the shock I was saddened and a little angry by the reality of what happened,” says Stever.

“I tried to help students understand what had happened. Many students understood what was going on, many others were confused and somewhat disconnected.”

Garfield math teacher Jeffrey Nomura was on his way to school when he learned of the first plane crash. “I felt on that day that any problems I may have had were nothing compared to what the people in New York City were going through,” says Nomura.

Susan Derse, principal of Garfield at the time,  took a moment of silence to honor those who had died in the attacks, and classes resumed shortly after. Though the North tower collapsed while students sat in their first period seats, most were too distanced to really understand the importance.

Mandelman was teaching a European History class where students wrote in a daily journal. “I told my students to write in their notebooks that their lives would never be the same again,” recalls Mandelman.  “Today the world has changed.”

*****

However, many students do not understand that change. Despite living through the event, most Garfield students were too young to comprehend it. Having just turned 6 at the time, I don’t even remember where I was that day.

So I created a survey.  I wanted to know how many students knew the basic premise of 9/11. When asked where the planes crashed, only one in eight students named the twin towers, the pentagon, and Pennsylvania, and only one in four had a rough idea of how many people died. With answers ranging from 200 to 500,000, it’s clear that many of us are uninformed.

“My students at that time, they didn’t get it yet. They didn’t get the importance, and most still don’t,” says Mandelman.

9/11 was the Pearl Harbor of our generation, and yet because it was so recent, many curricula do not cover it yet. The generation behind us will study it in their 7th grade history class, and the generation before us was old enough to understand it at the time. And thus the current high school generation is left in the middle, old enough to remember, but too young to understand.

*****

This was not what Rebecca Black had in mind when she sang “Gotta get down on Friday.”

In this age of modern technology, Alan, a Garfield junior, learns about parties mere hours before they start.  His connection to these gatherings is often distant, and whether it’s the ex-boyfriend of a friend’s sister, or the cousin of a mutual acquaintance, Alan has often never met the actual inhabitant of the house.

Jeremy*, a junior at another local high school, has been in the position of “actual inhabitant” once before, and for Jeremy, once was enough.  Having had little experience organizing parties or opening his house to strangers, Jeremy decided to take advantage of the fact that his parents would be out of town by having a bunch of people over.  He saw it as “a fun way to get to know kids from other schools, and maybe some upperclassmen from my own school.”

During the week leading up to the party, however, he began to realize the potential hazards of such an event.  Word of the party got out days in advance as opposed hours, and Jeremy began to hear horror stories about uncontrollable numbers of kids, thefts, and property damage.  Succumbing to the peer pressure to hold the party, Jeremy did his best to mitigate the hazards he faced by locking valuables and fragile objects in his car and taking other precautionary measures.  “I thought for some reason that I could keep it smaller and under control.  I was wrong.”

Alan tells me that he never goes to parties intending to steal. “The opportunity just comes.  I’m never like looking for stuff.” In most cases opportunity manifests itself in the form of an iPod sitting unattended on a shelf or a cellphone on a table.  There is no motive, no malicious drive, just a spontaneous way to add thrill and excitement to his night.  Alan sets the scene like this: “I’m probably walking around, chilling with a couple friends, talking about stuff.  When you’re on some substances definitely, and you’re just off the mode.” All of a sudden, something catches his eye as it sits unprotected on a table and he thinks “hey, there’s some stuff right there – how ‘bout this?”

Other times the theft is the result of a chain reaction.  “Most of the time if somebody takes some stuff, that leads to another taking some stuff, you know, and then a bunch of people are taking stuff,” says Alan.

On the night of his party, Jeremy definitely suffered from the chain reaction effect.  “I became more and more panicked as the night went on,” says Jeremy of the increasing chaos that was taking place in his house.  “I gradually realized that there were just way too many people in my house to keep under control.”  Whether he knew it or not, things were starting to disappear, and a circling police car in the neighborhood did little to improve his situation

Existing law creates a number of barriers that prevent police from intervening in parties held at private residences.  Though complaints from neighbors and noise often make it easy for police to locate parties, it is usually difficult for them to enter without the express permission of the home owner or a 911 hang-up from inside the house.  Often just the presence of police in the vicinity is enough to scatter guests, but in Jeremy’s case it was not.  “The onus is kind of left on the individual,” says Seattle Police Department spokesman Mark Jamieson on why police have trouble preventing thefts before they occur.

In hindsight Jeremy reflects, “I probably should have called [911] myself late in the party; it was one of the few options I had left.”
When Alan wakes up in the morning, he remembers that he has a new iPod, and that it isn’t his.  To be sure, Alan already had an iPod, and he has neither the need nor the desire for another one.

Over the course of the following days, Alan’s stuck.  He feels bad about taking the stuff but has no way to return it.  “It’s hard to give stuff back because there’s all that guilt and you’re scared of the consequences.  Even if you want to [give it back] it’s easier just to hold on to it – or get rid of it.”
Most of the time the loot gets resold, though Alan is earnest when he says that the money that a used iPod can fetch isn’t a factor in his decision whether or not to take it.  If he’s unable to resell the goods, Alan says that sometimes they just get misplaced, “left in a car or something.”

Seattle Police spokesman Jamieson suspects that most of the theft that occurs at parties goes unreported to the police, especially when it occurs on a smaller scale.  Jeremy ultimately chose not to pursue those who took his stuff.  A few days after the party, a police officer came to take inventory of what had been stolen, but he admitted that there was little that the police could do to investigate further.  However, some homeowners go to great lengths to recoup their losses.  For this reason, Alan’s biggest concern is having parents try to track him down.  His fears are not unwarranted.  Following a recent party in Bellevue, parents hired a private investigator to track down those who had stolen their possessions.  After removing students from Garfield classrooms, the private investigator used intimidation and hearsay to question students about thefts that had occurred.

Despite the risks involved, one theme came up again and again in my conversations with Alan: fun.  Contrary to common assumption, theft for Alan is neither mean-spirited nor premeditated.  The fact remains though that stealing is a crime that hurts real people like Jeremy.  Beyond the damage to his house and the monetary loss of the thefts, Jeremy describes the loss of his parents’ trust as one of the hardest consequences of the episode.  “I felt pretty awful when my parents got home and I had to tell them what happened – they completely lost faith in me.”

While Jeremy vows never to host again, history teaches us that there will always be another party.  Where unattended iPods abound, opportunity will continue to present itself Alan or others.

*name has been changed to protect identity

1. Gucci Skrilla: J. Markowitz, D. Nelson, G. Evans, G. Russell
Previously an underrated team, this year, Markowitz’s outside shooting, Nelson’s driving ability, and Evans’ inside presence have earned them the #1 seed. Russell can provide moral support from the side.

2. diVarsity: C. Honican, Daeshon. Hall, C. Bui, J. Gibson
Look for big things when varsity standout DaeDae Hall and last year’s Cinderella story Chandler Honican work together.

3. L.O.E.: D. Newton, M. Myres, G. Williams
Despite Juanie’s extensive experience in the tournament, he won’t get far unless he can get some support from his fellow Loyalty-ians.

4. “I just got schooled by my teacher”: Mr. Berkenwald, Mr. Hagopian, Mr. O’Neill, Mr. Collier
With the championship-winning staff team from last year dissolved, This team will have the hopes of the entire Garfield faculty resting on their educational shoulders.

5. Soccer Sloos: J. White, A. Kovar, B. Feldman, S. Renehan, L. Gemperline
This team has plenty of athleticism, but very little actual basketball experience. They might win a game or two, but their soccer abilities won’t do much against people who actually play basketball.

6. Clutch: K. Chen, E. Dorland, B. Jimmerson
This team is made up of athletes who all play Garfield varsity sports other than basketball. If they can get comfortable with a different type of balls in their hands, they should do reasonably well.

7. Street CHAL(J)ers: A. Cole, L. McFeely, J. Renner, H. Droege, C. Browne
Rhyming the word ‘chal’ with the word ‘ball’ yet again, and again forgetting that the letter ‘J’ is never silent in the English language, this team could potentially upset a favored team or two if they can learn how to spell.

8. Fris Bros: E. Barley-Greenfield, P. Finney, J. Coughlin, C. Eckert
I don’t really know what they’re name means. Coughlin is tall, and apparently Finney is pretty athletic, but I don’t think any of them can dunk, and unless one of them poisons every single higher seed, this team probably won’t advance far.

9. The 206ers: H. Aalfs, M. Evans, A. Loud, C. Foucault, T. Fenbert
Yet another team full of decently athletic sophomore boys with questionable basketball skills. None of them are particularly tall, and unless some of them have some surprise ball skills, they’ll have to wait another year or two before they get to run with the big dogs.

10. Nord Horde: J. Dunnington, P. Minor, Z. Ward, N. Johnston
This time has size and debatable athleticism, which might just be the only things that can save them from a first-round loss. They’re also all blonde, which will likely hamper their ability to think coherently.

11. Belieberzzz: R. Keyser, A. Kilgore, C. Palmer, K. Trettenero, S. Hoffman
This team has possibly the worst name in the tournament. And while a couple of the girls might actually be able to play basketball, they’ll have a tough time going up against anybody with size and experience (or just passable taste in music)

12. QA Dynasty: N. Franko, P. Franko, L. Evans, M. Evans, W. Luna
This team consists of two pairs of brothers and then Will Luna, and doesn’t seem to have much going for them other than that they live in Queen Anne. Unless they have a secret weapon up their sleeve, don’t look for more than one win from this team

13. Team ####s On The Table: A. Moshcatel, M. Kee, G. Glover, W. Godbe
This team has one of the more colorful names in the tournament, which out of necessity we are not allowed to print. Ask them about it if you want. They also probably won’t win more than a game.

14. The Biggest Mess: E. Baker, H. Collins, J. Lin, B. Dearing
This team could well be the worst team in the tournament. Led by Jenny “What’s a Rebound?” Lin, they probably won’t make a single basket.

There was good reason for it too. His campaign revolutionized social networking the same way that John F. Kennedy had pioneered the use of television almost fifty years before. At the time of his election, Obama had more YouTube views, Facebook supporters, and online campaign traffic than presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, and John McCain combined.

Two months later, Obama broke another barrier. By appearing on Jay Leno, he became the first American president to appear on a talk show while holding office. After subsequent appearances on daytime women’s talk show The View and comedic program The Daily Show, there has been criticism that Obama hopes to perpetuate the celebrity status he enjoyed as a nominee. Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell responded by saying that “there should be a little bit of dignity to the presidency.”

But the president is hardly the only politician hoping to garner fame in the media. With only cursory knowledge of the outdoors, former governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin now has her own reality show about the wilderness of Alaska.

America has never before seen a time when the role of the personality and the politician have looked so identical. Since the first campaign speech charisma has been a factor in politics, with movie stars such as Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger using their popularity at the polls. But only with the internet’s rising domination of American media does this concept reach a peak.

Our democratic system wasn’t intended to work with Wi-Fi and Cable TV. With everyone having their own “fifteen seconds of fame,” sustaining a relevant, positive image has become more difficult than ever, and yet it remains the most essential element of any politician’s career.

“Social Media enables politicians to establish a direct relationship with potential voters and constituents,” says New York University political researcher Danielle Bailey. “What social networking will do is allow traditional advertising to be amplified and spread, increasing the impact of the message.”

In 2007 and 2008, The O’Reilly Factor was the most-watched cable news show in America. O’Reilly claims that he is an anarchist, and believes that “There are no right-wing critics.” The BBC reported that Fox News saw its profits double during the Iraq War, with a 300% increase in viewer ship at the conflict’s height.

It’s easy to say that Fox News lies, cheats, and perpetuates a hypocrisy in its reporting, but there is no denying the influence of the channel. Popular radio personality and talk show host Glenn Beck’s program at 5 p.m. and O’Reilly’s at 8 consistently receive higher Nielsen television ratings than the programs in the same time slots on MSNBC and CNN combined.

The problem with this new system of personality-driven media in America is that news Channels, at their best, are driven by ratings. At their worst, politically savvy hosts actually use their programs to perpetuate calculated, biased political agendas.

On The Colbert Report, a comedic show that explores recent news and issues, host Stephen Colbert often mentions the political power of his “Colbert Bump.” What began as a joke has become a reality. After appearing on the Colbert Report, an author’s sales on Amazon.com can expect to increase by an average of ten-fold. Economists at the University of Maryland found that Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of Obama warranted him over a million votes.

“The problem I have with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is that it’s always ‘look how crazy this is,’ and ‘look how ridiculous this is,’ but they don’t ask us to look at these problems together,” says Eric Alterman, journalism professor and writer for The Nation.

Glenn Beck has almost 350,000 followers on Twitter, and Stephen Colbert has over two million. Neither claim to be a real reporter or journalist, but the influence they have on popular opinion is tangible.

While Beck and Colbert received very similar ratings in January, their demographics were quite different. Beck’s demographic mainly consisted of very conservatively minded citizens who are 65+. The average age of Colbert’s audience is less than 40 years old.

If television programs are primarily watched by like-minded citizens, their main purpose is to reinforce values rather than to plant them. But ads have a much more receptive audience.

“Political advertisements have become increasingly negative,” says Fiona Chew, Professor of Communications at Syracuse University. “Research shows that political ads reinforce partisans’ positions and recency of exposure leads to higher retention of messages.”

On the internet, we talk to each other more as much as we do at school, but the idea of safety has become an afterthought. As more and more of communications between peers go online, the talk and the comments becomes less and less like actual interaction. People say or do things online that they would never have the courage to face to face.

Tyler Clementi was a promising musician and 18-year-old student at Rutgers University when a fellow student uploaded a video of him having relations with another man onto the internet for all member of the dorm to see. Tyler responded by making a post of Facebook saying “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”

The reason behind his suicide was common; he was driven to death by bullying. The hatred and insults that cause cases like Tyler’s are known as Cyberbullying. It is visible in texts, emails, or any other interaction involving the internet or electronic means. Cyberbullying is different than bullying in that there is no escape from the taunting, with the use of personal communication, the harassment can be 24/7. As Cyberbullying becomes more evident, it’s unclear whether it’s just an extension of bullying, or something different.

In November, Garfield Club S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violence Everywhere) and C.O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality, the leader of Cultural Relations retreats) hosted a discussion-based meeting on the subject on bullying. Students voiced their views on what is and is not bullying. The topic slowly moved towards the grade hierarchy at our school.

For long it’s been known that seniors are at the top and freshmen the bottom, but this attitude was explored. Some students argued that this treatment was part of growing up and was something that is a rite of passage along with respecting one’s elders. Other disagreed, claiming that the only elders they respected were those that respected them.

Even seniors questioned the hierarchy and its merits; bulling was not something that had to be endured, it had to be stopped. The topic of froshing or hazing did not surface with the topic of bulling, only the treatment of our peers, specifically underclassmen. It would be safe to assume that few thought froshing was akin to bullying.

That night, S.A.V.E. hosted a meeting with Principal Ted Howard, Officer Radford, family counselor Harry Brown, and Stefanie M. Thomas, a victim advocate for Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force for the Seattle Police Department. The meeting started out with Stefanie Thomas talking about the current misuse of social networking sites by teens, with startling facts. She says 25% of kids have been victim to cyberbullying. The number could be higher, however, because this includes only those victims that have reported the crime.

When a cyberbullying case is turned over to the police, the precinct gets to decide whether to handle it or not. At Garfield, it’s up to Officer Benny. If they choose not to handle it, they pass it to the ICAC Task Force, which will deal with it and file it under their definition. ICAC may then pass it on to the King County Prosecutor, which could send it to the Juvenile Court. However, at this stage it may not be filed as the actual RCW of “Cyberstalking” and will not reach that level of discipline. The violation is a gross misdemeanor, so the consequences can range from community service to serious juvenile, so the consequences can range from community service to serious juvenile penalties. If one is 18, it can lead to up to a year in jail.

While the meeting started with this topic, the conversation slowly shifted to froshing and hazing, with Office Radford insisting that by the new Purple and White day they would have a police presence to combat it. It became clear what the adults though; froshing was the equivalent of bullying. Some member of S.A.V.E., even the freshmen in the group argued against this. Froshing was not bullying, but an initiation that could be fun, if not taken it too far. By the end of the meeting there was a suggested agreement: to avoid any terrible abuse and to change the accepted treatment, cooperation must come from the students. It must be a school-wide change in attitude, and the only way the students would change would be from hearing each other, not the adults.

The idea of bullying as a rite of passage is one that has slowly begun to change. Harry Brown, the counselor at the S.A.V.E. meeting, thinks that “it’s become a health issue.” Brown attended a conference downtown held by the International Bullying Prevention Association (IBPA).

“People are seeing the long term effect, the incredible number of people who are bullied or bullies that end up in prison, the impact it has on other kids learning,” says Brown.

In a Norwegian study by prominent bullying expert Dan Olweus, sixty percent of boys who were bullied in middle school had a criminal conviction by age 24. Olweus created the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. It has been translated into fifteen languages and implemented into thousands of schools. Celia Arriaga is the Seattle School District’s Olweus certified trainer.

Patti Agatston, a board member for the IBPA, relates bullying to any other type of abuse. “We wouldn’t tell a child to just ‘suck it up’ if they are being beaten or emotionally abused by an adult, why should we say that when it is a peer?”

Handling of bullies is something that is also undergoing change. Stan Davis, author of the book Where Everyone Belongs: Practical Strategies to Reduce Bullying, believes that ignoring the bully or telling the bully how you feel are the wrong steps to resolution. Davis helped produce a survey, the Youth Voice Project, researching peer mistreatment. From the study, 42% of bullied students reported it, and in 34% of the cases things got better, while in 29% things got worse.

Davis’ work insists that teachers respect young people’s autonomy and accept the fact that if they try to make young people change no good will come of it. Young people should feel that they belong, and learn the cause and effect of their actions.

Yet next to all of these bustling storefronts is a sight that has become all too familiar in this current economic climate. A row of several businesses stands closed for good, several “For Lease” signs the only clue that the now lifeless facades were ever once occupied.

However, among the abandoned windows and signs is one tenant who is as active as ever. Although the curtains to the windows are drawn, a bright red lettering above the door proclaims “U.S. Navy Recruiting”.

This lone open storefront in a tide that is decisively turned against it is indicative of the nation as a whole – publicly released military figures show that any 1 percent increase in civilian unemployment yields a 0.6 percent increase in recruiting.

A Princeton University study shows that “Voluntary military enlistment during wartime” depends on three factors: “college aspirations, lower socioeconomic status, and living in an area with a high military presence.” Garfield parent and prominent anti-war activist Kathy Barker says that it’s her duty to influence the latter. For the past five years, Barker has led the campaign to counter the presence of military recruiters in Seattle Public Schools.

“I got involved through anti-war work during the time that the [Iraq] war was starting. That’s when I became aware of No Child Left Behind,” she tells me.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was one of the earliest Congressional acts supported by George W. Bush. In addition to a subtle endorsement of public school prayer and an education reform plan based on standardized test scores, the bill requires that military recruiters be given the same level of access to student information as institutes of higher education, specifically names, addresses, and phone numbers.

“From both an anti-war perspective and as a parent, I found that horrendous, that they would mandate that we had to have military recruiters in schools getting access to kids.”

Although she had a child attending Garfield when she started her work (Zoe Barker-Aderem is a 2009 graduate), Barker’s campaign focused on other schools.

“There was a coalition at the time,” Barker tells me, “teachers and activists who wanted to let students know that they had the right to opt-out. That was all it was, just letting people know that they have the right not to give their name to the military” (The NCLB mandate on recruiters also includes a right to request that information not be released to military recruiters).

At first, the coalition did nothing but hand out papers; Barker and her compatriots stood (off of school grounds) and handed students the very same opt-out forms that now come in the start-of-school packets. Eventually, the group, along with several school PTSAs (including Garfield’s) worked out a compromise with Seattle Public Schools to redefine official military recruiter policy.

Seattle Schools’ official stance is fairly strict towards military recruiters on school grounds. Policy states that recruiters must stay in uniform, must identify their branch of service and the visit’s intention, and are held to strict expectations. Garfield rules allow counter-recruiters (including Kathy Barker) to be present at all recruiter meetings, as long as they do not “interfere or confront the recruiters”. The guidelines for principals state that although SPS is required under threat of loss of federal funding to give recruiters certain admissions, “equal access does not require more access.”

Yet at Garfield’s 2010–2011 homecoming assembly, three army representatives stood in the audience. After the dougie-ing and introductions finished, they walked up and called down Pierre Wright. Wright had recently been an integral player in Garfield’s 35–28 victory over Roosevelt, where he had rushed for 261 yards and passed for 104—an achievement that’s difficult even in Madden.

The three men in full uniform, along with a representative of the Seattle Seahawks, presented Wright with the “U.S. Army Player of the Week” award. According to the award’s official website, the $250 prize is awarded to the ASB of a player who displays “Army Strong” traits of “loyalty, duty, respect… honor… and personal courage.”

Though the presentation was fairly respectful, and focused mainly on Wright’s impressive achievements, the army connection felt forced. Says Junior Grant Bronsdon, “I thought it was great that Pierre was recognized, and I didn’t feel that the Army presence was a big deal — although it was a little overblown and unnecessary when they started talking about the army’s ‘core values’.”

“I was really honored to receive the award.” Wright says. “It made me want to work even harder to follow my dream.”

Garfield Principal Ted Howard explains his reasoning behind approving the presentation: “Any time a parent calls me saying that their kid’s being honored, it doesn’t really matter which organization…I would lean toward the side of ‘this kid is being honored, why take that honor away from the kid?’ And that’s the question you have to weigh between the sides: is that message going to get lost in [the Army connection]?”

Kathy Barker maintains the position that such an award is a form of recruiting just as influential as direct informational meetings. Recruiters are held to two Career Center visits per year, but community outreach events such as the U.S. Army POTW award are not subject to that limit. “This is what recruiting is,” Barker asserts.

“The Recruiter Handbook”, published by the United States Army Recruiting Command and freely available on the internet, outlines many “tools, tips, techniques, and insight” intended to help recruiters “provide a continuous supply of quality volunteers”. Among the most repeated aspects of the manual is the importance of involvement in the community. The manual implores recruiters to “participate in public events such as high school sports functions, community fundraisers, or Army-sponsored events” and says “this type of involvement will demonstrate your willingness to be a viable part of the community.”

In addition to lauding the effectiveness of being a visible member of the community, the “Handbook” also suggests finding and addressing “student influencers” by informing them about the benefits the Army can provide. It states, “Students such as class officers, newspaper and yearbook editors, and athletes can help build interest in the Army in the student body” (Italics are my own).

Yet for all of the recruiting tactics Kathy Barker fights against, there are some people who made their military decision earlier than high school.