Other students described experiences ranging from being targets of racial profiling to being mistreated by school administrators.

The annual American Civil Liberties Union convention took place at the Vera Project on March 22 and it included many student experiences with authority of all sorts. ACLU members gave lectures to a diverse audience made up of students from as far away as Lacey, WA. Most students were concerned about their rights around law enforcement officers and dealing with police.

Seven Garfield students attended the event including senior Jack Noland. “I really enjoyed how we got to hear points of view from all sorts of different people. I thought it was a really interesting mix of people who came to the convention,” he says.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington focuses on efforts that, according to host The Sranger news editor Dominic Holden “give all people the same opportunities” and allow “people to do what they want with their bodies as long as it doesn’t harm others.”

The ACLU worked last election season to promote Initiative 502, legalizing recreational use of marijuana for those over 21 and Referendum 74, which legalized gay marriage in Washington State. Students are attracted to these contemporary actions of the organization.

“The ACLU is the organization at the forefront of fighting for Civil Liberties in America. I think its successful and easy for kids to get involved with the ACLU,” says Noland.

Despite their recent work behind some Democratic initiatives, the ACLU doesn’t take a progressive stance on all issues. “In some ways we are one of the most conservative organizations because we only work to fulfil rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” says Holden. The ACLU has taken controversial stands defending the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church, and the Supreme Court Citizens United ruling.

The convention consisted of a keynote address, a question and answer with an attorney, group discussions and a concluding video on drug prosecution. The ACLU believes that the war on drugs not only violates people’s right to do what they want as long as it doesn’t harm others, but unfairly discriminates against minorities, especially through the cocaine vs. crack-cocaine sentencing penalties; crack-cocaine possessors get 100 times harsher punishment than cocaine possessors.

Powder cocaine tends to be used by white citizens while most of crack-cocaine’s users are African American and the only difference between crack cocaine and powder cocaine is baking powder and water. “The [movie about crack cocaine] was my favorite part [of the convention] because it affected me the most as people were discriminating toward my ethnic group,” says sophomore attendee Jordan Rodol.

Although most students are not old enough to vote, ACLU members say students can benefit from the conference and topics discussed.

“[At the conference,] I learned more about student rights on the Internet which is something that interested me and something that was pretty topical given our current age,” says Noland.

“Knowing your rights can help in the classroom and make [students] more prepared for the future,” says junior Kenady Swan.

Noland encourages all those who are interested in civil liberties to join the ACLU. “You have the ability to go and do some really cool things and be involved with an organization that has done a lot of good for America throughout history. I think its a worthwhile effort for a young person in America, because it is important for everyone to have equality and equal access to opportunity.”

Holden says even a little knowledge can go a long way in defending yourself.

“Know your rights so they won’t be violated.”

She largely accredits this change to the club’s campaigns for tolerance, including the Freshmen Forums and Day of Silence.

“When ‘014 were freshmen, I remember for the first couple months of school you could walk through the halls and hear “fag” being tossed around every other sentence,”  she recalls.

“[But] after [GSA] did the Freshman Forums, it got a whole lot better.”

Garfield’s GSA has been putting on Freshman Forums in 9th grade Language Arts classes for the last 15 years in order to draw students’ attention to issues around homosexuality and gender identity.

The forums are completely student organized and led by members of GSA.

“We show a video that introduces them to the concepts we’re talking about, then we lead them in a discussion,” says Long.

“We ask the freshmen to identify and discuss stereotypes and what they’ve noticed at Garfield that they think could be improved.”

This year, GSA is changing the curriculum of the forums to be more engaging for students and bring more attention to the help and support that is available for them.

“We’ve added more, and hopefully more interesting, questions and placed more focus on resources in and outside of Garfield [available to all students],” says Long.

“We really want to emphasize that while GSA’s main focus is LGBTQ students, we’re invested in making Garfield a safe and welcoming place for everyone.”

The forums will take place on the April 10 and 11 block periods.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback in past years from teachers, but we don’t get to hear too much from the students,” says Long.

She says that though there are some students who act immaturely and don’t take the discussions seriously, the forums seem to be a good experience for the students who participate.

“There have been a couple kids who had to be removed from the classroom and that’s always disappointing, but there are also kids who at the end say, ‘Yeah, I feel like I’d be more accepting if my friend was gay now.’”

Sophomore Vivian Lappenbusch recalls the forum in her 9th grade class last year having gone well.

“I thought that it was an overall good experience,” she says.

“I was in a class where I know a lot of the kids were already supportive of gay rights, so the conversation was really slow going at first and there tended to be a lot of awkward pauses. By the end, we ended up talking a lot, though.”

Mr. Kahn, a Garfield Language Arts teacher, says the forums in his classes were great. He mostly attributes this success to having a diverse group of students in his two regular Language Arts classes.

“Those students were really engaged,” he says.

“There was a diversity of opinions, but they were expressed in a respectful manner, they weren’t arguing. The facilitators did a good job of laying down the norms of the conversation and showing it was okay to have different opinions.”

Another Garfield sophomore, Janak Preston, had a much different experience during the forum in his class.

“There were a lot of awkward silences. I think that’s because it was something that was not voluntary and so most people didn’t really want to talk about it,” he says.

Sophomore Lila Brandt suggests holding the forums after school to help address this issue and assure that no class time is lost.

“I think it’s good that we have forums like that at lunch or after school so that people who are interested can go,” says Brandt.

“Interrupting a class for it seems like a really ineffective use of class time and for the people that aren’t interested, it can be really uncomfortable.”

Long says that the forums have always been held during class to guarantee that many students will participate — it’s not a matter of what you’re interested in, but providing everyone at Garfield with the knowledge and tools needed to be respectful world citizens.

Amongst the high schools in Seattle’s generally liberal climate, Garfield has a reputation for being open and accepting.

Kahn points out that most of the intolerance that is present at Garfield is somewhat hidden.

“Garfield is an outlier as far as being accepting. Given that, there’s still a fair amount of homophobia, misogyny, all the –isms we see in society. A lot of it occurs on the down low. There’s that tendency to be PC in public,” says Kahn.

“Perhaps you’re brought up in a religious family and are taught that [homosexuality] is a sin, but when you get to class you don’t feel comfortable saying that. I always welcome people who are willing to be honest.”

Kahn says that the forums last year helped create an opportunity for his students to talk freely about their beliefs.

“In one of my classes we had somebody who said in kind of an offhand way, ‘I’m bisexual.’ That caused a little bit of a gasp, you know, I think some students were surprised. But it allowed a space for honesty and that was pretty special.”

Preston agrees that prejudice is not blatant at Garfield.

“The Garfield community seems to me to be pretty accepting, at least to people’s faces,” he says.

“I have heard people make jokes about others’ sexual orientation behind their back.”

Preston says it’s good that the forums provide time to bring up these issues and help advance people’s understandings of them.

“I think it’s definitely important to have a space for people to discuss and ask questions about being gay, and to have first-hand discussions with gay people about their experience in the school.”

Lappenbusch also agrees the forums are a great chance for people to discuss issues around homosexuality that might not otherwise be brought up.

“I think overall the forums help a lot, just because there aren’t a lot of opportunities to bring up normally taboo subjects like homosexuality and it ends up seeming like [intolerance] is not a big problem, which it is,” she says.

GSA is working to increase these types of opportunities for students and create a more accepting environment at Garfield overall.

“I’d say that Garfield is probably better about LGBTQ issues than other Seattle high schools, but we have a long way to go,” says Long.

She says that this year GSA hopes to expand the pool of students that they reach out to.

“There are some segments of the student body that GSA is able to reach way more easily. We’re hoping to coordinate with CORE and the Black Student Union later in the year and get some discussions going with new demographics.”

Another event GSA is hosting this month is the Day of Silence, a national holiday that commemorates and represents those who have been forced into silence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

On the Day of Silence, all Garfield students are encouraged to wear black and take a vow of silence for the entire day. This year, it will take place on Thursday, April 11.

Hannah Ditty, one of the GSA members planning Garfield’s Day of Silence, says that this year they are also organizing a “Night of Noise” for the following day, Friday, April 12.

“A lot of the criticism that we got around the Day of Silence was that it was too passive. People are really quiet and people wear black every day anyway so it doesn’t stand out,” says Ditty.

“The day after is supposed to be celebrating pride and support and being loud and vocal about it to show there is a positive community in Garfield for those students who need it. It’s the day everyone wears rainbow.”

Ditty says that showing this acceptance is important even if you’re straight.

“I’m not gay so I’ve never personally felt any attacks. [But] I have a lot of friends and family who are queer and we need to support them.”

The AP Environmental Science program at Garfield follows a project-based curriculuwm developed by students at the University of Washington, in which students assume real-world roles in order to understand concepts more deeply.

However, teachers are starting to move away from the UW curriculum.

“We want to increase the rigor of the curriculum through less roleplaying,” says APES teacher and science Head of Department Heather Snookal. “More time exploring the science of these problems on a deeper level [would] allow the students…to understand the problems with more complexity.”

While Snookal and fellow APES teacher Rachel Finley appreciate the aspects of the course that promote real-world application, they acknowledge the general sense of frustration amongst students.

Snookal and Finley have already begun to steer the class towards a project-based course that instead consists of smaller projects, less group work, and a greater focus on preparation for the AP exam.

Students have noticed the difference.

“They know what they’re doing,” says senior Maddie Canty-Gill. “It’s better now that they’re adapting the curriculum for us.”

Junior Ben Nogawa has observed a confident, more relaxed Ms. Finley since the shift in curriculum, attributing it to “the freedom they now have to design the curriculum to suit their students and help them on the AP exam.” Come May, Garfield students will be ready to reap the benefits of the new direction APES has taken.

“We chose the Tesla [for the raffle] because it is an exciting new car,” says PTSA president Phil Sherburne, who believed it would draw interest from the general public.

Coming in at 265 miles per charge, the Tesla Sedan has the greatest electrical range on the market and defies the somewhat questionable design standards of other electric models.

With the goal of selling 1,650 tickets, Garfield parents took to the streets, honing in on the South Lake Union area. They have sold over 1,100 tickets in that neighborhood alone.

“There has been a lot of excitement throughout the region about [the Tesla], and it has brought Garfield and its needs to the attention of people who normally don’t think about it,” says Sherburne.

The PTSA reserved the Tesla months ago and will purchase it after the drawing, registering it under the winner’s name.

Funds from the raffle will make up about a third of the PTSA budget, which funds programs such as the Read-Write and The High School and Beyond Center. The center seeks to “provide more information about college choices,  help students with applications, and make information on student aid available,” says Sherburne.

The PTSA also intends to provide counseling for students who aren’t college-bound or are uncertain about college, and help them to find a path best suited for their futures.

Prospects for reaching the PTSA’s goal are looking good.

“We found that there are a lot of people out there with a connection to Garfield…who still care,” says Sherburne after selling tickets. “It has been quite rewarding.”

This man is Earl Bergquist, and the class is Projects in Computer Science, one of three computer science courses Bergquist teaches.

In his two years at Garfield, Bergquist has earned much regard from his students.

“He’s the best,” says senior Eamon Gaffney, a student in Projects. In addition to Projects, Bergquist also teaches AP Computer Science and Exploring Computer Science, an intro-level class.

In addition to his highly-respected teaching skills,  Bergquist is also known for his elaborate costumes.

On halloween this year, he came to school wearing a custom made Lord of the Rings costume of a ringwraith carrying a caged hobbit.

“It keeps me well balanced,” Bergquist says of his artistic hobby. “You can’t just do everything technical all the time; you need a creative outlet.”

Bergquist’s passion for computer science and engineering has been with him from a young age, and has lasted through college, high-profile industry positions, and charitable work.

“As a kid, I did the standard engineer thing: taking things apart,” Bergquist says. He recalls that when his first calculator–“a T.I., of course”–wore out, he took it apart and was mystified by its electrical components.

“When I looked in the back there was this little black square on there, but there weren’t enough wires connecting to the keyboard,” says Bergquist. “There were more buttons on the front than there were wires, and I wondered ‘how in the world do they do that?’”

In his first year at Washington University in St. Louis, where he majored in both electrical engineering and computer science, Bergquist took an electrical engineering course that answered his question.

“The professor actually showed us how the wiring on a calculator worked,” says Bergquist. “And then I was hooked. I was like ‘this is the coolest thing,’ and it just went from there.”

Bergquist was hired straight out of college by Hewlett Packard, where he worked for several years before moving to Seattle in the late eighties.

He began volunteering for The Chicken Soup Brigade, a charity that provides food to people with HIV/AIDS, and was hired at a fortuitous time for the organization.

“We got our donor list from 3,500 to 35,000 in a year and a half, using volunteers and computers,” says Bergquist. “That growth made them able to be financially self-sufficient, and not dependent on federal money.”

After several years with the Chicken Soup Brigade, Bergquist decided it was again time to move on, this time to an up-and-coming company: Amazon.

“I had sold a bunch of my Star Wars collection on eBay to use as a down payment on the house that I bought,” recalls Bergquist. “A friend had just started the auction site on Amazon, and they needed someone to test it. I became one of the first testers at Amazon.”

Quickly climbing the corporate ladder, Bergquist elevated his position to that of a project manager, responsible for a team that developed features for the Amazon auction site and the British company Marks and Spencer.

“One of my first projects was the used and new link that now accounts for at least a quarter, if not a third, of all sales on Amazon,” says Bergquist, without a trace of self-importance. “That was one that I was on the ground floor of — part of a team, though, not that that was me. And that was cool.”

As a manager, Bergquist struggled to find local people to fill the openings on his team.

“It was disappointing that I frequently had to go out of state and even out of country to hire people,” says Bergquist. “I realized we weren’t really providing enough education for students to get them interested in computer science.”

Several of Bergquist’s family members were teachers, and teaching had always been in the back of his mind. After several years at Amazon, he developed an “escape plan,” saving enough money to get his teaching certificate and tide him over while he looked for jobs. Fortunately, he did not have to look long.

“Literally a week after I finished my certification, I interviewed with Garfield and got the job here,” says Bergquist.

“I thought I was going to have a year off,” Bergquist says, “but there’s nothing like diving right in. It’s been great.”

Drawing parallels to his time at Amazon, Bergquist says “Frequently it’s the same number of hours, but at the end of the week to realize that I’m helping students discover things about computer science and about themselves is much more satisfying than realizing that the stockholders are going to get more money.”

Many Garfield teachers vowed not to administer the tri-annual test for 9th graders, citing the myriad of problems they saw. “You can’t really show progress, plus the kids don’t take it seriously,” says Garfield Language Arts teacher Adam Gish. The MAP was purchased by ex-Seattle Schools superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, who was on the board of directors of the company that sells the MAP, NWEA, when the sale took place. Goodloe-Johnson did not disclose this information and a Washington state audit of the sale labeled it as a serious ethics violation.

After Garfield teachers refused to give the test, Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, Jose Banda ordered Garfield administrators to pull kids out of class to take the test. However according to academic dean and testing coordinator Kris McBride, only 97 freshmen at Garfield took the test.

“After seeing the number of kids that opted out and the spirit with which the students who took the test took it in, the data [from the test] seems to be almost useless,” says Gish.

The protest has been supported by thousands nationwide. “[The protest] seemed to pop a festering boil that appears to be not all just Seattle, not at all just America, [but] kind of a worldwide awakening about the discussion of the negative effects of testing,” says Gish.

The public has shown plenty of interest in the protest. The Facebook page “Solidarity with Garfield High School testing boycott” has over 6,000 likes.

The protest even attracted a nod from the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the nation, with 3.2 million members, when their president, Dennis Van Roekel, called the boycott  “a defining moment within the education profession” in a NEA blog post.

A website has been created for the public to stand in solidarity with Garfield’s teachers protest: scrapthemap.wordpress.com. The site has already attracted support from many teachers across the region and nation, including Professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige and her son Matt Damon.

However, some in the community believe there are better alternatives than an-all-out boycott. Melinda Mann, a Garfield parent who has been involved in public education reform efforts says the protest was unfortunate. “The teachers did not work directly with the school district and I didn’t think it was unfair to involve the students in that debate. It was inappropriate to turn [the teachers’ frustration] into a school-wide protest because the test can be useful in identifying kids who need help.”

“There are Ballard parents on both sides of the issue,” says Ballard High school librarian, Debora Arthur.

Although the current session of testing has ended, a district representative, over the phone, said the MAP test will be administered again in the Spring and no changes will be implemented before the end of the year.

The protest is in limbo while teachers across the district decide what action to take. “I think we’re all waiting to see what happens with the task force that is looking at the MAP test.” says Arthur.

Garfield senior Joel Thompson, the only student representative on the task force comprised of many teachers and principals, says the task force is considering sweeping reform for standardized tests. “The next generation assessments are a lot more nuanced than multiple choice. They test essays or critical thinking more than any specific knowledge and hopefully we can take the district in that direction.”

Gish says that as long as MAP testing is administered, the boycott will go on. “As far as I know, at Garfield, our position has not changed.”

According to the district, the task force will make a recommendation concerning the MAP to Superintendent Banda at the end of May.

Thomson says that the public should persist in seeing changes to standardized tests go through. “It’s possible that the district/Banda set up the task force entirely just to make it seemed like they cared about the issue and that they don’t plan on making any changes no matter what we recommend. That’s why it’s important that students and parents stay involved on the issue and advocate strongly for the task force’s decision.”

There is a consensus between parents and teachers that standardized tests have a place in the public education system.

“[The district should] work with teachers and make sure they know how to use it and explain to kids how its being used. Data is really important and it tells a story and it should be a tool that teachers should want to have and want to use,” says Mann. “Tests can be useful in helping to identify if the teachers methods are working and if they’re getting through to the kids.”

Gish agrees, saying “I don’t think anybody would argue against assessment, but [what matters is] how we do it and whether what we are doing is really helping anybody involved.”

Most importantly, Mann says everyone involved needs to keep the effect they are having on children in mind. “I would hope that the teachers, the parents and the administration would keep in mind that we all have the same goal in helping students achieve when these protests come up.”

“[Selling food] is the only way I can fundraise,” says Nguyen.

Unfortunately, Nguyen is now at a loss.

Bringing baked goods to class to share with other students has been banned by the administration due to allergic reactions. “We had four incidents in the last couple months [where] someone had to have an EPI pen,” says principal Ted Howard.

According to Howard, the ban was brought up last year after students started having allergic reactions to food in the classroom. This year after a student had four attacks in two weeks due to food in the classroom, the administration decided that baked goods from home would no longer be allowed classrooms.

“I have given three EPI pens this year, but they’ve been to three different students,” says school nurse Chris Cordell.

To many students and parents, it seems high school students should be able to avoid foods that they are allergic to and manage their own allergies. “I think that teenagers should be able to deal with their own allergies and be responsible enough to know what’s in the food they’re eating,” says sophomore Sarah Carlson.

Howard says the nurse thought the reactions were caused by the food being in the air of the classroom. “All three students [who have reacted] have ingested [the food],” says Cordell. “Most of the kids that are here have to actually ingest [the food].”

When asked to clarify the discrepancies in between his and Cordell’s information, Howard admitted he was not present at the briefing during which the rule was formed.  According to Howard, Cordell’s information is correct.

While homemade food is no longer allowed in classrooms, any sealed food is. “As long as it’s pre-packaged you can bring it in,” says Howard. “If you read [the label] and you became ill, you’re on your own.”

According to Mr. Howard, another reason behind the bake sale ban is to protect the school against litigation. “If someone does get harmed or something happens, we can at least say we addressed it.”

Another intention of the ban is to give teachers the authority to make students take food out of their classrooms. “Teachers felt like they didn’t have any authority and power to tell someone they couldn’t bring something in,” says Howard.

Some students around the school believe that the ban was put in place because baked goods containing marijuana were being sold at school. “[The bake sale ban started] because people were selling weed in their dang brownies,” says sophomore Lilia Deering. “We never talked about [marijuana],” says Howard. “[The ban] is more about the information we got back from the nurse.”

In the past, Key Club has relied heavily on selling baked goods to raise money for the club. “We do a lot of our funding by selling food at school because it’s our widest market for fundraising,” says Key Club’s fundraising chair Jennifer Wong. “If we need emergency fundraising last minute, we do sell baked goods at school, so now we don’t have that kind of source of income.” Without the option of selling baked goods, students and clubs will lose one of the most successful ways to fundraise.

The ban will remain in place for the rest of this year, but this may change next year. “We will look at the data at the end of the year; if we have that incline keep coming forward, then we may have to look at something more restrictive,” says Howard.

At Garfield, Milliken was a very involved student, participating in the honors program and being elected both homecoming king and student-body vice president.

After graduating, Milliken continued his involvement in the Garfield community, and was called “a beacon of positivity” on the fundraising site created in his honor.

On January 3rd, Bellevue Police apprehended suspect Ja’amari Alexander Jones, 19, in a traffic stop when they ran the license plate of the car Jones was driving, and identified it as stolen.

Jones is known for his role in the murder of Ed McMichael, better known as “Tuba Man,” an incident for which he was tried as a minor and sentenced to only 36 weeks in juvenile detention.

Milliken’s family is accepting donations in his memory at: http://www.youcaring.com/memorial-fundraiser/in-memory-of-deshawn-d-mill-Milliken.

Race to the Top is a $4.3 billion contest created by the U.S. Department of Education to promote public school reform, and despite this local success, Washington as a whole has not performed well in the Race to the Top contest, finishing 32nd in the most recent round.

The seven King County schools were selected from a nationwide pool of 371 and are all part of the Road Map Project, which seeks to improve student achievement and raise graduation rates through low-income support programs and an increased focus on math and computing.

According to Seattle Schools Superintendent Jose Banda, much of the money will be spent and “building on services we already have,” in particular those related to early learning and SAT and PSAT test prep.

To help students prepare for these tests, several additional full-length practice tests will be offered each year along with free tutoring. As to the winning schools’ inventive approach to reform, Banda says “that’s the way it should be.”

Superintendent Jose Banda responded  to the boycott by declaring teachers would give the test by February 22nd, or face a two-week unpaid suspension.

Teachers met with Banda last Friday, and will meet again this week to discuss, but no resolution has been reached so far.

Reasoning for the teacher boycott:

• The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), the company that sells the MAP, along with Seattle Schools staff, have declared the MAP is not valid at a high school level and the margin of error is greater than the average improvement.

• The test does not test on the Common Core, the curriculum used by Garfield and other district schools.

• Freshmen who take the test lose huge amounts of class time while the library and computer labs, monopolized by the MAP, are closed to other students.

• The MAP was bought while Maria Goodloe-Johnson was the superintendent and on the board of the NWEA, creating a conflict of interest.

• Students do not take the test seriously, which causes achievement scores to drop even if they are learning in the classroom.

• Results from the MAP test are used for teacher evaluations and personnel decisions, yet the results are not accurate and not necessarily indicative of teacher effectiveness.

• The MAP test causes students to “feel stupid” and does harm to non-English speakers, Special Education students, minority and low-income students, and other students with Individual Education Plans.

Garfield students have also begun a protest against the MAP test after Superintendent Banda threatened the teachers with the unpaid suspension.

Currently, the protest focuses on encouraging freshmen to opt-out of the test by emailing Garfield testing coordinator Kris McBride at krmcbride@seattleschools.org. 

The test is not required for graduation nor does it affect grades, so opting out will have no negative impacts on Garfield freshmen.

Students want to be included in discussions later this year about the future of the MAP test and want the district to remove the threat of teacher suspensions.

Students have created a Facebook group, Protest the MAP test to coordinate efforts and keep students up to date on MAP testing and protest news.

Reasoning for the student protest:

• The MAP test is a flawed test that does not accurately reflect student progress, and therefore cannot be used by teachers to improve our education.

• Removing teachers from classrooms during suspensions is counterproductive and and is a detriment to education.

• School resources, including the library and computer labs, that should be available to all students, are closed during testing days.

• The $480,000 spent on the MAP test yearly could be used more effectively in the classroom on textbooks, lab supplies, and other materials.

See the Messenger’s stance on the MAP test protest on pg. 7