Alex RasgonAssociate Entertainment Editor

On Sept. 22, Patricia Bruegger’s Law 1 class welcomed guest speaker Rick Walk-er to talk of the flaws in America’s legal system. Walker claimed that he was a victim of this system when he was falsely convicted of murder 15 years ago.

Walker came to Gunn hoping to pass on one message to students. “I wanted to teach students not to judge people prema-turely,” Walker said. “Our country has a saying, ‘Innocent until proven guilty’, and it is the one principle that keeps our justice system fair. I was tried in the media, but I don’t want that to happen to anyone else. If students only walked away with that, then it was a great day to be me.”

Bruegger was excited to have Walker come speak and give such an opportunity for her students. “I wanted to hear his

story, and I didn’t want to judge him before I heard his story,” Bruegger said.

Junior Chris Quinn thought Walker’s presentation was interesting. “ He let us see the other side of prison that you don’t get to see on TV,” Quinn said.

Wa l k e r wa s convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend. Walker’s co-defendant had his fingerprints at the crime scene, but made a deal with the prosecution to testify against Walker. Although Walker’s alibi was supported by tes-timony, the jury sentenced him to 25 years of prison.

For the next 12 years, Walker was transferred through some of California’s toughest and most violent prisons.

In 1999, corporate lawyer Alison Tuch-er began to investigate Walker’s case, and found Walker was innocent in 2003.

Monday, October 9, 2006Volume 43

Issue 2 780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306

http://gunn.pausd.org/oracle

NON-PROFIT ORGU.S. Postage

P A I DPermit #44

Palo Alto, Calif.

Henry M. Gunn High School780 Arastradero RoadPalo Alto, CA 94306

Palo Alto Unified School DistrictSuperstitious? Find out the origins of Halloween superstitions and traditions PAGES 8-9

Musical talents at GunnThe Oracle highlights the folk music, opera and orchestra on campus PAGE 7

Action week aims to raise awareness

Fi KaziReporter

Action Week is a new addition to the school calendar designed to stimulate social awareness and focus on upcoming elections as well as other international, political and social problems.

Junior Leah Rosengaus is in charge of the activities, which will be held during the week of Oct. 23, and plans to achieve her goal by having an assembly, holding mock elections and using the support of various clubs. “I noticed how a lot of students are uninformed about issues,” she said. “My main goal was to raise awareness.”

Many students agree with Rosengaus. “[Students] are aware of issues on the surface,” junior Brian Hand said. “They’re not aware of the stuff in depth. It’s going to make people think about politics.”

Present at the assembly will be Steve Westly, current State Con-troller of California. His job includes the tasks of Chief Financial Officer and chairing the Board of Equalization. Rosengaus plans to use Westly’s knowledge and influence to inspire people to get involved and inspire them to educate themselves. “The vast major-ity of students just don’t know what’s going on,” Rosengaus said. “My goal is to have every single student know which issues are on the ballot, to care about who is running and to do what they can to help the world.”

Rosengaus plans to have students vote for the mock elections in their social studies classes. On the ballot will be a variety of top-ics. “There will be candidates and bills to vote on that either affect students or would be of interest to them,” Rosengaus said.

There is a general consensus among students when it comes to the impact Action Week will make on the student community. They believe that Action Week will help inspire students to participate in political events. “There are people out there who would be willing to help if they knew how to do it,” senior James Baldwin-Brown said. “The majority of students have an idea but they don’t do much about it.”

Clubs are also going to be an active part of Action Week. Rosen-gaus wants clubs to come forward with ideas and issues they feel passionately about and bring those into the spotlight to educate. Stands for several of Gunn’s community service and humanitarian clubs will be present to publicize issues they care about.

Action Week will give students the opportunity to get involved in world issues. “The whole point of Action Week is get students to start thinking not just at the Gunn level, but at the county, state, national, and global level,” Rosengaus said.

Junior Alana Alfrey works on her class’ float. This year, Homecoming changes will give classes extra time to stuff floats.

Nina NielepkoBusiness Manager

Gunn will receive over $100,000 in state fund-ing over the course of the school year. The money comes as a result of the state budget plan for the 2006-2007 school year.

The new budget plan, according to a Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) update, provides for a 5.92 percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for continuing as well as new categorical programs.

The grant can be used to fund school programs. “The grant provides Gunn with $56 per student,” Principal Noreen Likins said. “This means we get over $103,264.”

However, there are restrictions as to how the money can be used. “There is a process set up,” Likins said. “Anything we want to spend the money

State funding leads to new budget plan

Guest speaker talks of flaws in American legal system

Students participate in Patricia Bruegger’s Law 1 as guest speaker Rick Walker talks of legal system.

Photo courtesy of Patricia Bruegger

BUDGET—p. 2

Homecoming changes create new challenges

Stéphanie Keller-Busque

Thomas Bao & Alex LeeCenterfold & News Editors

Student Executive Council (SEC) mem-bers are ready to kick off an improved

and much anticipated Homecoming week. From new games and activities to the “sports-manship” points category, the revamped competition hopes to inspire students to have a spirited Homecoming week.

Each year, the SEC and Student Activities Di-rector Lisa Hall review Homecoming games and decide whether or not to replace them. “We had some games that seemed fun on paper but did not work during the event,” Hall said. Changes to the games included a new relay pool game, 10-line pass and Tug-of War with new rules.

“We hope that the new games will be more fun than some of the old ones from last year,” junior Publicity Commissioner Freddy Chen said. “If the games are more interesting, then more people will want to participate.”

SEC has also changed the Jar Wars activity, a competition between classes to raise money for charities. “We changed Jar Wars so that it’s worth more to help promote the community service aspect of Homecoming,” Hall said.

Other changes include additional time for float stuffing and an earlier time for the Homecoming

CHANGES—p. 2

—Compiled by Gea Kang, Boris Burkov and Yana Galperin

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) School Board met behind closed doors Tuesday evening to address the issues the PAUSD Management Team—which consists of principals, assistant principals, deans and coordinators—raised concerning Superinten-dent Mary Frances Callan’s leadership. The public may not access specific information on closed sessions.

Tuesday’s meeting was the culmination of events triggered by the Sept. 6 submission of a confidential one-page memo entitled “PAUSD Management Team Priorities” by the Management Team to Callan. Drafted by a small group within the Management Team, the memo—which was later leaked to the press—noted that “[there is a lack of trust and productive communication” between the Management Team and the superintendent. It went on to state that the Management Team was “investigating the need to organize a formal association or union.”

On Sept. 25, the Management Team agreed to form an association and move away from the memo’s harsh tone. “There are definitely people who agree with the tone of the letter, and there are definitely people who don’t,” Assistant Principal Kim Cowell said.

At a meeting later that week, there was a movement to make a press release to reflect the Management Team’s earlier consensus to soften its tone. In the end, no document was released.

The next school board meeting is scheduled for tomorrow eve-ning.

Board meeting produces no result

News2 The Oracle

At the start of this school year, the price of a meal at the Chart-wells café went up from $3 to $3.50.

This decision has had an effect on many students, who were sur-prised by the new pricing. Sophomore Kevin Zhu feels the increase in prices is unfair to students. “I like the old price better, because we’re still getting the same food,” Zhu said.

For students who rarely eat Gunn lunches to begin with, the new price is an even greater deterrent. “Now, it’s not even a consider-ation,” said senior Kamran Munshi. “Why pay $3.50 when I can get a 99 cent value meal eating out?”

The Gunn administration had nothing to do with the new pric-ing, and doesn’t benefit from the money coming in either. “We don’t get a cent,” Principal Noreen Likins said. According to Likins, Chartwells is actually losing money on the lunches and is trying to lower its losses, $400,000 a year at Gunn alone.

Chartwells café raises lunch prices

Pope to speak at stress assembliesThis year, Gunn will be taking several measures to help its stu-

dents deal with stress, including hosting a guest speaker—Denise Clark Pope.

Pope, a professor at Stanford University’s School of Education, has worked closely with many parents and students over the years and has written Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students.

Three years ago, Stressed-Out Students (SOS), a Stanford Uni-versity conference, invited Gunn to participate as part of a private survey and ultimately become affiliated with future Stanford anti-stress programs. “Now, our focus is homework,” economics teacher and SOS member Dawna Linsdell said. “We’re examining its role and purpose and coming up with strategies to help kids with it.”

Pope will speak at two assemblies this year: Wednesday, Oct.. 25 (7 to 9 p.m.—$5 admission) for parents, and Tuesday, Nov. 14, for students.

Although the Student Handbook has always had an honor code, it was always loosely enforced, rarely read and hardly mentioned. Starting with this year, however, the administration has revamped the honor code and is placing far greater emphasis on its impor-tance.

The Honor Code is being emphasized because of a recent spike in cheating and amoral behavior that Principal Noreen Likins attributed to the ease with which students can cheat. The Honor Code was instituted to stop unscrupulous students from making the environment unfair for their peers. Particular violations of the honor code are cheating, disrespecting others, giving or receiving help in a manner that is not allowed, working together when not allowed to do so, plagiarizing, sharing test information with students who have not taken the test yet, ignoring another’s violation of the honor code and using electronic devices when they are prohibited.

Penalties for violation include parent conferences, failed as-signments and talks with the student. Multiple violations result in lowering the student’s overall grade in the class or the failing of the student outright, as well as possibly suspending the culprit.

Gunn implements Honor Code

Pink Ribbon Club enters Race for a Cure

Libby CraigAssociate Sports Editor

Thirteen members of Gunn’s Pink Ribbon Club were among the thousands of participants running or walking in the San Francisco Ko-men Race for the Cure on Sept. 24.

The Pink Ribbon Club actively supports the Susan G. Komen Foun-dation, an organization that raises funds for breast cancer awareness and research in the Bay Area. However, this is the first year they participated in the annual Race for the Cure as a group.

“I think that everyone felt pretty proud because we actually actively participated on this walk for breast cancer, whereas usually we just raise money and donate it,” club co-president senior Jennifer Lien said.

With the help of family, friends and even Gunn teachers, the par-ticipating members worked to raise money. “We raised about $550 dol-lars from donations which all went towards the race,” club co-president senior Katie Yip said.

The 5k race started at 8 a.m. at the Ferry building in San Francisco

(SF), where participants performed a “cha-cha” warm up and then em-barked on a course which stretched along the Embarcadero.

Many encouraging volunteers worked in booths on the sidelines of the race handing out little things like granola bars, pink mirrors and scarves. There were also drummers at the midway point of the race to rally the runners.

The event attracted a large, diverse group of participants. “There were about 5,000 walkers or runners in the race not including the volun-teers, so the turnout was pretty

big,” Lien said. “There were people in wheelchairs, people with pets, young children and a lot more men than I had expected.”

Taking part in the race was a positive accomplishment for the Pink Ribbon Club. “Being able to see so [breast cancer survivors] in pink shirts walking and running together really brings the whole experience clearly in focus,” Yip said.

Club advisor Deborah Sanderson thinks fondly of the club members. “The girls have never disappointed me,” she said.

Pink Ribbon Club members pose after participating in the 2006 Susan G. Komen Foundation’s Race for a Cure.

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Lien

SEC creates solution for multiple Homecoming problems

dance. The Homecoming float parade will now take place at night instead of the afternoon, allowing an ad-ditional Friday afternoon for float stuffing. The dance will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. to comply with new state driving laws.

“Teens who have had their license for less than a year have to be off the road by 11 pm,” Hall said. “It was decided that for all school events to end earlier to comply with the new law.”

The night rally will continue to be held in the gym, but to do so the SEC plans to charge an entrance fee. Adults and students pay $5 and $2, respectively, to watch the event. The SEC hopes that this will help limit the amount of people attending the rally. “Due to the popularity of the night rally event, we have exceeded the capacity of the gym beyond safe levels,” Hall said. “The SEC voted to keep the rally in the gym for this year and to sell tickets for a low fee to both keep track of the number attending and to ensure we do not pack the gym beyond a safe level.”

Other options include setting up a screen in the Spangenberg. “We are currently looking into simul-casting the event that evening and the Media Center will be coming out to do a site survey to see if it is possible,” Hall said. “If they can set us up we hope to have the rally simulcast in Spangenberg Theater, but at this point the only option for viewing the night rally is by purchasing a ticket before we sell out.”

The main change to Homecoming, however, is the addition of the “sportsmanship” rule. Every team starts with a set number of points and these are deducted throughout homecoming week for poor sportsmanship. The sportsmanship points were added after previous tension between classes. “Given the problems we had last year with the different classes adding this was a good idea,” Hall said. “We need to remind the stu-dent body that we are all one school and not separate classes.”

Most students agree with Hall. “We need something in the rules to encourage people to work together instead of fighting each other,” sophomore Wesley Koo said.

10-Line Pass

(Quad)

Stuff-A-Bench

(Quad)

Jamba Chug

(Quad)

Scavenger Hunt

(Quad)

Pie the

Homecoming

Court (Quad)

Sumo Wrestling/

Yell Competition

(Gym)

Pool Game

(Pool)

Wednesday Thursday Friday

HC Queen and

King voting

(Bat Cave)

TuesdayMonday

Brunch

LunchObstacle Course

(Football Field)

Tug-of-War

(Football Field)

Gunn students support effort to cure breast cancer

n CHANGES, from page 1

on, the Site Council has to approve. It then goes on to the Board of Education for further approval.”

Likins has worked with the Instructional Supervi-sors and determined that about half of the money will be used for technology. The site council has already approved this, but first it needs to go to the Board of Education for approval in the fall. A portion of the remaining money will be used for staff development, and the remainder will be spent throughout the next two to three years.

The state is also giving PAUSD roughly $67 to $80 per student annually. With this money, Likins plans to hire another counselor, bringing the student to coun-selor ratio at Gunn from 361 to one to 300 to one.

The idea has been well received. “It’s hard for coun-selors to have more time during individual meetings with students, as well as meet with them more often,” Assistant Principal Kim Cowell said.

Other staff members agree. “It’s not so much that students are unprepared for college, but they could be more aware while here [at Gunn] as to what is in their best interest,” Social Studies Instructional Supervisor John Fredrich said. “Meeting with a counselor more often could help students give this more thought.”

Other areas of the school will also benefit from the increase of funds. The school plans to use some of the one-time money Gunn will receive to purchase equip-ment, materials and instruments for the art, music and

Administration plans ways to spend extra state fundingn BUDGET, from page 1

Monday, October 9, 20063News

Thomas Bao & Alex LeeCenterfold & News Editors

While most schools have frequent military recruiting visits, Gunn

allows only a maximum of two per year, hampering their ability to recruit stu-dents. “We get more people to join from other high schools because they allow us to come more times,” U.S. Military Sergeant Jason Taylor said. “If it were up to the faculty, they would allow us a few times more per year.”

Assistant Principal Kimberly Cowell disagrees. “I’m sure they have heard from parents who philosophically oppose the military,” Cowell said. “We are in a war right now and parents fear their children being shipped off. However, there are also parents who are very supportive of the military. It’s not the parents, it’s an equity issue.”

Cowell believes that the military is an-other post-high school option that should be weighed in just as much as colleges and other options. “We want students to see the mili-tary as one possible career option,” Cowell said. “We don’t want to put extra pressure on students to join the military by allowing for more visits, just as we don’t want to put extra pressure on students to go to a certain college by allowing that college to come more than two times per year.”

However, unlike colleges, the military is a part of the federal government, which provides a large amount of public school funds. “A college doesn’t provide monetary assistance to this school,” U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Alex Marshall said. “The federal

government, on the other hand, does. For this particular reason, we are permitted to ‘canvass’ for potential applicants. This is made possible by the ‘No Child Left Behind Act.’”

What it really boils down to is personal choice. “I think it is the responsibility of students to make that choice, not the school,” Cowell said. “My feeling is that the military is an important option for students to know about.”

However, some people fear that military recruiters may not paint an accurate picture of actual military life and that this may influ-ence students in the wrong direction.

Junior Gaurav Shirole, who has spoken to military recruiters, has a mixed perspective. “When I asked a pointed question about how ‘scary’ life was and whether it was worth the risk, they were totally honest,” Shirole said. “But they seemed to over-glorify some of the stuff.”

Regardless of the negative aspects, the military does have its advantages. The military offers varying degrees of financial assistance based on military commitment without significantly interfering with col-lege classes.

“While you’re in the reserve you can still go to college, and still be part of the Marine Corps Reserve,” Marshall said. “It’s not faster than if you did it out of the military but it does let you do both things at the same time. It’s very cost effective. We help you pay for part of your tuition. Whether you’re in the reserve or you’re a civilian, it will take you the same time to get a degree.”

While the military may not be for ev-eryone, it is an important viable option that provides an alternative to one’s goals.

Military provides alternate path-way for success

Fi KaziReporter

For those students who have indeed been in-spired by art and are interested in pursu-

ing it in further, both Rhode Island School of Design and Parsons College are excellent options.

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

RISD is a private art school located in Providence, Rhode Island. Students who wish to explore art in detail and focus on their artistic talents should apply here. An extremely selective and

highly competitive school, RISD’s strongest areas are in design and illustration. It also offers strong net-working sources and cross registration with Brown. However, Brown runs on a semester schedule and RISD runs on a semester schedule. RISD also has an international exchange program in place.

Parsons CollegeParsons, a private school in New York, is ap-

propriate for those interested in fashion design. Parsons works with Columbia University’s Business School. Students at Parsons take part in many events, including fashion shows and museum exhibits. High School students can attend the Parsons Pre-College Academy, which offers classes ranging from drawing to interior design.

Sasha GuttentagAssociate Centerfold

Editor

In an aggressive educational area like Palo Alto, com-

munity colleges are frequently overlooked However, beneath all the competition for prestigious universities lie some fantastic community colleges with lots of potential to provide solid educa-tions for many young people.

Foothill CollegeMost well known is Foothill Col-

lege, with a main college located in Los Altos Hills, and a second cam-pus located on Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. Foothill offers a variety

of courses ranging f rom Cu r rent Event Analy-sis to Java for Program-ming. It also of-fer s com mon classes for differ-ent levels of mathematics, science, English, physical fitness and social studies. International students have found a niche in Foothill as well.

West Valley CollegeWest Valley is another college

that excels in educating young individuals. Just like Foothill, this college offers a gamut of courses and has more athletic teams includ-ing cross-country and diving.

Boris BurkovReporter

For students who want to get an enlightening liberal arts

or science education in a small, intimate environment, liberal arts colleges are a great choice. Mixing small class sizes and the ability to have a social life with outstanding academic reputa-tions, these colleges are a perfect match for many students.

SwarthmoreAt Swarthmore College in Penn-

sylvania, you get an Ivy League education without the competitive-ness and total devotion to working. Though quite selective—only a quarter of students who apply are

admitted—the low admission rate is a product of its relatively small size of 1,466 students rather than a cutthroat environment.

Wesleyan

At Wesleyan University in Con-necticut, the diversity of education and students is critical. Larger than other liberal arts colleges, it still accentuates academic excellence with cooperation instead of competition. Wesleyan offers a huge diversity of studies, including rarer topics such as East Asian Studies. The student to teach-er ratio is nine to one, so students maintain the intimate relationships with professors. Ac-ceptance rate is around 28 percent.

The Oracle’s guide to al-ternative

College Fair

Where: Gunn Gym

When: Oct. 16, 6:30 to 9 P.M

options

College FairWhen: Oct. 16, 6:30 to 9 p.m.

Where: Gunn Gym

Graphics by Lucy Li

Forum4 The Oracle

Ending cutting on ArastraderoKudos, first of all, to the Gunn

High School administration for tak-ing the first step in solving the morn-ing traffic problem. The project has produced noticeable results. How-ever, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

I was not aware of how much more valuable other Gunn students and their parents’ times were than my own. Why else would they drive in the left hand (and significantly faster) lane until the last moment at which they cut me off and swerve into the passing lane?

Cutting in line was deemed unfair in kindergarten. I see no reason for high school students and their parents to ignore the age-old “no cuts, no buts, no coconuts” rule. In kindergarten I was able to enforce this rule myself because of my body, which, at the time, was horrendously overgrown compared to my classmates’.

My cowboy policing can no lon-ger enforce traffic line “violations.” Therefore I would like to suggest the following (first temporary, then permanent) solutions:

Firstly, if somebody cuts you off in the traffic line, scream! That’s right, scream. Roll down your win-dow, flip some birds, yell profanities, and honk your horn. Make sure you let the arrogant self-righteous law-breaker who just cut you off that they are guilty of mistreatment. Not only mistreatment of you, but of everyone behind you, as well.

Then, appeal to the city to have a solid white line painted on Arastradero from the entrance of Gunn high school to Hubbartt Drive and station police officers on foot every morning. This makes cutting in line a moving violation and a ticket-able offense. Hit these pomp-ous parents where it hurts.

—Senior Stephan Campbell

As delegates of the people, members of the Student Executive Council

(SEC) retain the privilege of operating as the voice of Gunn’s 1,852 students in correspondence with the administrative team and to the Palo Alto Unified School District School Board.

Besides representing the view of students, the SEC acts as the ruling body over student activities. Yet, the performances of the SEC in previous years have elicited much criti-cism. Although students praise the SEC for working hard to plan events such as Home-coming, which requires hours of preparation and facilitation, concerns regarding other aspects of the SEC’s work have pervaded Gunn’s student population.

The lack of communication between SEC members and other students is a common complaint of many students. Although highly visible during events such as Homecoming and Prom, the SEC holds little presence throughout the remainder of the school cycle. Admittedly, Homecoming and Prom play distinct roles in a student’s recollection of a school year, but they do not constitute the entire school experience. Just as government cannot operate hidden from public eye on all days but national holidays, the SEC cannot perform its duties only during designated school-spirit events. The SEC acts as the go-between for students and administration, but without knowledge of the students’ beliefs, how can it ensure that its actions are in the best interest of the people it is supposed to represent?

The SEC is also one of the few ma-jor school organizations that does not present convenient opportunities for communication online. While methods to contact members of other school orga-nizations are highly publicized on their websites, an e-mail link for reaching SEC members remains conspicuously absent from the SEC website, which is linked from the Student Activities Center website. At the SEC website, students can only view the most basic information, such as the names of the SEC officers, but no other student-re-lated information.

Although SEC members have taken the initiative to open some forms of communica-

tion with their peers, like past meet the SEC days, the effect of their actions remains mini-mal. Few members of the school are aware of the presence of the SEC e-mail address and

rarely leave messages in the SEC boxes. The process for communication between the SEC and students requires much time and effort, especially on the part of the student.

However, as the 2006-2007 school year has just begun, it is also fairly probable that the new SEC will redeem the neglect inflict-ed on the student body by its predecessors.

While the current SEC has been sufficiently entrenched with Homecoming preparations and been unable to properly publicize its initiatives, many members of the current SEC

have voiced their commitment to the student body. Some suggestions to ad-dress the communication rift between the SEC and the student body include broadcasting the SEC’s actions meth-ods such as weekly posts on InClass about its agenda or messages through the Early Morning Update. Other improvements include providing of-ficer contact information on the SEC website, such as an e-mail or AOL Instant Messenger screen name, for

student convenience.Although previous years have not re-

flected well on the SEC, this year’s council may very well break the trend. By taking proactive measures to increase communica-tion between the SEC and the student boy, SEC will be able to fulfill its responsibilities to the Gunn student body.

The Opinion ofThe Oracle

SEC in need of drastic reformsMembers should increase communication with fellow students

As TV ratings become more and more important for a show’s survival, many are taking ex-treme measures to stay on air. A prime example of this is CBS’s hit reality show, “Survivor.”

When “Survivor”’s ratings hit an all-time low last season, television executives scrambled to think up new ways to keep the show alive. They came up with one of the most radical twists in television history by dividing the survivor camps into four racially separate and competing teams: Asians, African Americans, Cau-casians and Hispanics.

This new twist has brought un-needed criticism by many ethnic organizations complaining that it might create racial stereotypes and divide television viewers. However, the odds of this happen-ing are slim, as reality television is rarely regarded as real—reality shows like “The Amazing Race” have had contestants admit to be-ing told how to act by the show’s producers. Also the common sense of the average television viewer exceeds the expectations of such ethnic organizations.

Of course, “Survivor” protocol ensures that after a few episodes, the castaways must switch over to different tribes, which is the net-work executives’ back door to any possible criticism it may receive. After only two or so episodes, there was no racial separation, leaving critics in the dust, and the network executives to get away while being one stop ahead. However, the fact the show at least

started to add something creative is enough to spark other networks to action. Already we are seeing new and original shows, such as “The Nine,” that are creative and that viewers respond to. It will also open the minds of the writers for “Survivor,” so that they may come up with even more creative twists that cater to the audiences most basic needs: excitement and originality.

Whether or not the viewers re-spond to this twist will determine the future of the show, and it will open new options in current TV shows, keeping television inter-esting and unique. The purpose of television is to entertain. Thus, the purpose of “Survivor” is not to racially discriminate, but to give the people at home some-thing new to watch, which I, for one, have sorely missed. With hundreds of channels, one would think that there would be some-thing worthwhile and original

being aired; however, we see the same formula used over and over again with network executives trying to play it safe. Fox alone cancelled dozens of shows in the small time period between 2002 and 2004, proving that the old formulas are no longer working and that the television industry must adapt to our ever-changing society.

One drawback of “Survivor”’s latest twist is that many shows will most certainly imitate it, and it will lose its originality quickly. It will be entertaining for a short while though, and like all televi-sion, the studio executives will think of something new for us to feast our eyes on. But for now, let’s keep an open mind.

—Rasgon, a junior, is an as-sociate Entertainment editor.

Racial camps of ‘Survivor’ not discriminatoryNew twist faces unnecessary criticism from ethnic organizations

Alex Rasgon

Corrections:

n In “New theater teacher graces cam-pus” (p. 11), the new Theater Production Director’s name Ej Taylor was misstated as E.T. Minor, who is actually a senior. n The error was made in the third quarter, not “error” as stated in “Football under new lights” (p. 16).

The Oracle regrets past errors and invites readers to correct any in the future by contacting a staff member of by sending an e-mail to gunnoracle@yahoo.com.

September issueVol. 43, issue 1

Lucy Li & Dezmon Hunter

Write us with your thoughts on

The Oracle’s cover-age or any other issues you care about. We’d love to hear from you. E-mail us at gunnoracle@yahoo.com.

LETTERS TOTHE EDITOR!

We want you!

Monday, October 9, 20065Forum

The wold is a dangerous place, especially for children. Sexual predators lurk in the dark recesses of the Internet. Despite federal, state and local at-tempts to curb the activities of these child m ole s t e r s , t h e y s t i l l manage to entice young c h i l d r e n into illicit r ela t ion-ships. Of-ten, they m a n a g e to kidnap o r e v e n kill the unfortunate victim. There is an easy solution to this prob-lem—parents could simply give their children a cellphone with a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) tracking system built in. They would then be able to monitor their children’s movements, al-lowing them to keep an eye on their children’s activities and thus keeping the child safe.

As long as parents are still responsible for their children, they must behave and conform with standards that their parents set. Maybe you haven’t stopped to consider this, but parents are completely accountable for their children. I’m not talking just talking about keeping their child safe, or something as simple as that—if a child commits a crime, gets into an accident or damages property, it is the parent who is held accountable.

One of the major arguments that critics make is invasion of privacy—GPS phones “prevent kids from doing what they want to do, when they want to do it.” That simply is not true. Sprint, a major cellphone producer, has tried to build in measures to stop parents from being too aggres-

sive in their snooping: Kids must authorize tracking by entering a password on their own phones, and the phone will also buzz or beep every time its location is checked. The trackees can always know exactly how they are being followed and can react accord-ingly.

Although having moms or dads know where their children are at all times might seem to strain parent-child relation-ships, it merely forces the child to think be-fore he acts. Children

who know that they can be tracked will prob-ably think twice be-fore doing something wrong.

K e e p -i n g a n electronic e y e o n ch i ld ren should not even be an issue. Par-ents have a moral ob-ligation to their chil-dren—it is their respon-sibi l ity to keep t h e i r children s a fe . I f GPS track-ing helps them achieve that goal, then they cannot afford to waste their children’s lives in a meaningless debate.

With the proliferation of computer technology, ev-

erything is literally a click away. With a click of a button, parents can track their child’s car or view their private e-mails, instant messages and visited web sites, often without the child’s knowl-edge or consent. These tracking devices and computer programs are becoming increasingly ac-

cessible to parents. Howev-

er, this inva-sion

o f

pr i-vacy is not a suit-able substitute for proper parenting.

For many parents, these new techno-logical devices are a godsend, allow-ing them to watch t hei r ch i ld ren from a distance. However, this in itself is a prob-lem that parents feel they can be proper parents without actu-ally spending time with their children.

I n f a c t , a c c o r d i n g to s t ud ies by the Pew R e s e a r c h Center, a nonpa r t i-san “fact tank,” par-ents who heav i ly monitor

kids with s o f t w a r e

a nd f i l t e r s are less likely to

spend time with their children. Will spyware and

GPS tracking devices help to build a sense of trust among parents and

their children, or help children do their homework or provide emotional support? No. This new technology is merely adding to the already increasing problem of busy parents and neglected children.

No matter how many monitor-ing devices parents possess, there is no way to prevent children from circumventing this technology. Teens are resourceful, and

it isn’t hard to find free software and online tutorials de-signed for “tricking” these devices. This new technology is a mere continu-ance of the age-old struggle for control between parents and children. But unlike before, these new monitoring devices can be exploited to

give parents a false sense of security.

Modern child psychology ad-vocates developing a relationship of trust between parents and kids. However, usage of this technol-ogy clearly contradicts this notion. Rather than teaching their children integrity and trusting them to act upon it, parents are attempting to control their kids to a ridiculous degree.

Humans learn through mistakes and sometimes there can be no worse repercussion than the pang of guilt accompanying a misdeed unpunished. But with this new technology, children are incapable of experiencing this and learning from their mistakes. Without these life lessons, what will happen to these children when they are free to make their own decisions?

These devices are also a blatant invasion of privacy. Just as adults are not allowed to spy on their neighbors, parents should not be allowed to spy on their children. Such actions create a prison, not a home.

With tracking devices and spy-ware readily available, parents are gaining a false sense of security that not only discourages them from spending time with their children, but also hinders child development. No child is perfect and everybody makes mistakes, but no technology is perfect, either. There is simply no substitute for the time and care it takes to be a proper parent.

Editorial Board

The Oracle

Staff

Editor-in-ChiefGea Kang

Senior ManagingLauren Krensky, Dan Li

NewsStéphanie Keller-Busque,

Alex Lee,Vivien Tsao (associate)

ForumCaroline Hodge, Shiv Kachru, Andrea Yung

(associate)

FeaturesNathaniel Eisen, Michelle

Fang, Jonathan Gu (associate)

CenterfoldThomas Bao, Sasha

Guttentag (associate)

EntertainmentAna Kostioukova, Stephen

Salazar, Alex Rasgon (associate)

SportsEric Johnston, Adrienne

Nguyen, Libby Craig (associate)

PhotographyJennifer Lim,

Christopher Wu

GraphicsJulius Tarng

TechnicalAlex Lee, Dan Li

BusinessNina Nielepko

CirculationMeilin Luh, Alex Tom

ReportersBoris Burkov,Yana Galperin,

Dezmon Hunter, Fi Kazi, Moses Lai

Graphics ArtistsDezmon Hunter,

Lucy Li, Brian Phan

PhotographerBrian Phan

Adviser Kristy Garcia

780 Arastradero Rd Palo Alto, CA 94306

(650) 354-8238 http://charlotte.pausd.org/oracle

The Oracle is published by and for the students of Henry M. Gunn Senior High School. The unsigned editorials that appear in this publication represent the majority opinion of the editorial staff and The Oracle's commitment to promoting students' rights. The Oracle strongly encourages and prints signed Letters to the Editor. Please include your name, grade and contact information should you choose to write one. Letters may be edited to meet space requirements and the writer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the content. Letters to the editor and ideas for coverage may be sent to gunnoracle@yahoo.com. These letters and ideas need not be from current students. The Oracle publishes 10 issues annually. Subscriptions are $40/year.

Alex Lee

PRO CONConstantly monitoring children forces them to think before they act and make wise decisions.

Watching kids’ every move strains parent-child relations and induces a false sense of security

—Lee, a junior, is a News editor.—Bao, a junior, is a Centerfold

editor.

Thomas Bao

Lucy Li

Despite what you might think, your parents love

you. They need to be informed about your activities because they do, after all, care about you. Technology has finally given parents the tools they need to protect their children. Clearly, parents should not only be entitled to use this new technology, but they should be encouraged to use it.

Forum6 The Oracle

Deteriorating exclusivity, privacy unfair to original users

Facebook is heading for di-saster. The online social

network originally exclusive to college students with a .edu e-mail address has come under criticism from users outraged at every change that made Face-book less exclusive and less safe for its members.

The original users bashed Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Face-book, when he opened the site to high school students last September. The anger passed, but resurged last month when Zuckerberg released the News Feed, which displays members’ every action to their friends. Zuckerberg lost even more members when he proceeded with his plans to open Facebook to the public, a change delayed due to the News Feed backlash. This unprec-edented reduction in exclusivity means users will be susceptible not only to parental monitoring, but also sexual predators.

From the entrepreneur’s stand-point, this act is an excellent mon-ey-making opportunity, but from the users’ point of view, it is a hor-rendous mistake. Making Facebook available to everybody goes against the one reason there are over nine million registered members: the site’s exclusivity.

In fact, the exclusivity is why many chose Facebook over MySpace.com, a more popular so-cial network open to anyone. Unlike

MySpace.com, Facebook used to be open to only certain members. Unlike MySpace.com, Facebook allows only your friends to view your profile. Unlike MySpace.com, Facebook has kept students safe from sexual predators.

Opening Facebook to the public has greatly jeopardized users’ pri-vacy. Users have formed a plethora of groups and petitions on Face-book itself in rebellion against the act. One of the most popular groups (with 8,000 members and count-ing), appropriately named “Don’t Let My Parents onto Facebook!” reveals many students’ chief com-plaint about the change: they do not want their parents on Facebook monitoring their every move. Of course, as Zuckerberg and his crew

repeatedly state, there are privacy features, but to many users, Face-book is like a secret club they are in with their friends. Letting parents into the club, no matter how much they can or cannot see about their children is—there is no other word for it—uncool.

Another group, which makes a stronger statement, is named “All good things must end: I’m delet-ing my facebook if facebook goes public” (sic). At its height, the group drew over 6,000 members. Now that Facebook has gone public, only 58 members remain in the group (at the time of publication). Although it is a bit extreme, the group has made a statement by facilitating a mass deletion of accounts.

All that said, the number one

reason for the outburst against this change is the fear that Facebook will become like MySpace and attract sexual predators. Many stu-dents agree—Facebook was a much safer place than it is now.

While many users will keep their Facebook accounts active despite the decreased exclusivity of the site, this change will affect the way members use Facebook. Users should be prepared for an influx of friend requests from people they have never met and wall posts from strangers they have never talked to. Stay tuned; Facebook might make the six o’clock news—“Second MySpace provides flocking ground for sexual miscreants.”

—Tarng, a senior, is the Graph-ics editor.

Julius Tarng

Facebook morphs into another MySpace

Eliminating early admission will change nothing about prestigious universities’ appli-cant pools.”

For those hoping to apply early to Harvard next year, such an option will not exist. Begin-ning in fall 2007, Harvard will no longer accept early applicants in an effort to downplay the pressure inflicted by college admissions process and to give low-income applicants who do not have the resources to learn about “early action” processes and need to browse through financial aid packages an equal shot at admission. More changes are needed, however, if Harvard and other prestigious universities hope to attract more low-income applicants. Furthermore, eliminating the early admissions policy will hurt students who already know their first-choice school and want to avoid the stress of regular admissions.

Eliminating early admission will change nothing about prestigious universities’ applicant pools. Even though they might not know about early admissions, low-income applicants still apply during the regular application period—and

if they really are qualified, even when compared with the rest of the normal applicants, they will no doubt be admitted.

There are two main types of early admis-sion policies. The first is “early decision,” in which students can apply early to only one school and are bound by contract to attend if admitted. The second method is “early action,” in which students can apply early to one school—there are exceptions to this rule—but can choose whether or not they want to enter the school if they are admitted. Stanford and Yale employ this policy; Harvard previously did.

For “early action,” though, because a student is not required to enter the school once he is admitted, he is still able to choose between financial aid offered by other schools when applying according to regular deadlines—if a student from a low-income fam-ily still chooses to enter after being admitted early, though, then he himself made the choice to miss possible opportunities for potentially better scholarships from other schools they do not apply to regularly. Not only that, but if it is an issue of admission, if low-income student were to meet all requirements and outshine

other applicants, he should be granted admis-sion through regardless of his economic status or when he applies.

In addition, if a student is admitted through “early action,” then he will not be stressed about

his admission status for four months after he turns in his application. With a relaxed attitude, the student can then focus better on learning and preparing for college instead of nervously flipping through the mail every day and being distracted from his academic career.

Soon after Harvard an-nounced its decision to elimi-nate its “early action” policy, Princeton University followed

suit and announced its plan to drop its “early decision” program. It is very possible that other universities will drop their early admissions policies as well.

This trend of ending early admission pro-grams will do nothing to help universities eco-nomically diversify their classrooms. Instead, students will be hurt by the new polices, which will inflict unnecessary stress on them while they wait for admission results.

—Yung, a junior, is the associate Forum editor.

Early admissions at universities deserve to stay

Andrea Yung

Eliminating policies will not attract wider applicant pool or decrease stress

www.facebook.com

As a junior, I am extreme-ly busy and do not always have time to complete all my assignments. Consequently, I have reverted to using an online site my teacher sug-gested to get notes for my AP U.S. History class instead of reading the textbook and taking notes myself. Is there anything wrong with doing this?

—Anonymous

When your teacher sug-gested an online site to his students, he undoubtedly intended for them to use the site as a supplement to the textbook. However, it is ethi-cal for you to use this site as your sole source of notes, as long as you do not plagiarize them and turn them in as your own.

The preamble to the Gunn Honor Code, put into place early this year, states, “[The code] is designed to prevent some students from taking unfair advantage of their peers.” Clearly, you are not violating this policy, as your decision to learn the mate-rial alternatively will not affect the grades your peers receive.

While you are not harm-ing your peers by neglecting to read the textbook, you are cheating yourself. First of all, you will undoubtedly miss nuances that are only retriev-able by reading the textbook. More importantly, as tempt-ing as it be may be to rely on streamlined notes instead of slogging through a textbook, you are robbing yourself of the opportunity to learn how to extract information from dense material, one of the purposes of an AP class.

Taking the shortcut may save you time now, but you will be at a disadvantage if you take a similar course in college where there may not be such resources available. Furthermore, you are cheat-ing yourself of the chance to improve your essay-writing skills that naturally develop as a result of exposure to high-quality writing.

On a broader note, why not replace all your readings with simplified, summarized versions of the text? Spark Notes and Cliffs Notes are available for most English For AP classes, review guides are available that highlight pertinent information. While these resources are valuable supplements, they are best used not in place of but in ad-dition to required readings.

Send your queries and comments to campusquan-daries@gmail.com.

—Hodge, a junior, is a Forum editor.

Alex RasgonAssociate Entertainment Editor

With their violins, cellos and other string instruments in tow, The Gunn Orchestra prepares for its first concert on Oct. 19. Even more interesting than the music that the orchestra plays is how they prepare for their perfor-mances.

Every day during F period, the orchestra practices, starting with scales, and working their way up to the songs, many of which they have never played before (in which case they are “sight reading”). “The sight reading pieces range from all styles of music, and every year, they get harder, but we play them better,” senior Katherine He said. None of this would be possible without Director Sandra Lewis.

Lewis has been teaching in the music department at Gunn for five years, and has helped bring the orchestra to the top of the California Association for Music Education (CMEA), making it one of the best school orchestras in the state. The musicians have been invited to play at Carnegie Hall in New York City, but were not able to accept.

“I believe that when I teach, I need to give them enough of a challenge to keep them playing, but not too much of a challenge to slow them down,” Lewis said. The increase in challenge has won the orchestra the highest honors for five consecutive years from the CMEA. “Every year we play more challenging pieces, with more ease, which shows that our orchestra is getting better every year, with new members adding diversity, and with returning members using years of experience to tackle these new songs in their own way,” Lewis said.

This year, with over 80 members, the orchestra is the largest in Gunn’s history, as well as one of the largest in the county. “There’s more noise than in a smaller orches-tra, so you have to pay more attention to stay together,” freshman Varun Nagarajan said.

One of the orchestra’s greatest strengths is its members’ dedication to playing music. “It gives me an opportunity to play during school and a way to de-stress. Orchestra is like a family,” He said.

The orchestra exemplifies the old saying, “From di-versity comes strength,” with each musician bringing his own playing style into the mix while collaborating with over 80 other members to create the sound of gorgeous music. “My orchestra’s biggest strength is their ability to take direction and their commitment to the music,” Lewis said. “All of my players try to put their own touch into their music, and this year they will outperform even their own expectations.”

Monday, October 9, 20067Features

Stéphanie Keller-BusqueNews Editor

When it comes to folk music, juniors Dorothy Wood and Neva Hauser know what they are talking about. The twosome form The NEDO Band and have performed and recorded their music over the past years.

Wood and Hauser’s band began when Wood combined her talents and started to write songs. “When I started playing guitar three years ago, I saw you get more into the music zone if you’re singing,” Wood said. “It’s really weird. I never appreciated music very much when I was younger. In ninth grade I started putting some of my poetry to my guitar and it just flowed.”

Since then, Wood has been writing songs about her life and passions. She decided to ask Hauser, who has been playing the double bass for eight years, if she was interested in practicing some songs with her. “Dorothy

asked me if I wanted to play some songs that she wrote,” Hauser said. “So we tried it out and continued because it was so fun.”

Hauser and Wood formed The NEDO Band, a title that came from a combination of their first names. Junior Alexandra Codina said she likes the character of the music. “It’s an eclectic mix of folk style music,” Codina said. “It’s not something you hear a lot.”

Wood and Hauser have already produced one CD, “Notice Eternity, Deny Observa-tion,” and hope to finish their second one, “Psychedelic Aptitudes of a Sarcastic Revo-lution,” in a few months. “We recorded with a couple of different people,” Hauser said. “My mom is a drummer, so she has a lot of musi-cal connections who helped us. We ended up taking the recording that was more amateur because it sounded more natural.”

The NEDO Band’s first big performance was at the Art in the Redwoods Festival in Gualala on the northern coast of California

this past summer. “What we did was we sent a CD of a few of our songs and they wanted us to come play,’’ Wood said. “On the first day we were background music for people appreciating the art that was on display, and on the second day we were on the main stage, the amphitheater, in the middle of the redwood forest.”

Hauser thinks that out of all of their performances, the one in Gualala has been the most enjoyable. “That has been our big-gest performance but we’ve played in coffee shops, too, “ Hauser said. “We go to the Open Mic Nights as well.”

Outside of performing, Wood says that writing music has brought her much plea-sure. “We have a good time making up songs,” she said. “I don’t want to consider music as a career. Music is just my way of being.” Hauser has different aspirations. “I think it would be pretty cool to be a profes-sional musician,” she said.

The NEDO Band plays folk music for fun, not fortune

Yana Galperin Reporter

You may have discovered that a Milky Way bar was among the “bribes” you took on club day. If so, the Opera Club, started by juniors Stephanie Hoffman and Alexandra Codina, wanted you as a member. The club was founded last year, and its members have attended operas such as “The Crucible” and “La Boheme”—a luxury many high school students could never dream of affording. “Alexandra and I created the club because we both really like opera,” Hoffman said. “But it’s hard to go see because it’s so expensive.” Hoffman and Codina work with theaters to get student discounts and free tickets. In return, the club helps spread the word to students and encourages more young people to take an interest in the opera. “We promote operas by attending them and convincing people to come with us,” Hoffman said. Club advisor Angela Dellaporta sings the club’s praises. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to see the beautiful productions that are performed in this area,” she said.

The club will meet in L-15 every other Tuesday, starting October 26. Members discuss opera plots and their significance in order for members to understand what they have or will be seeing.

Prior to the founding of the Opera Club, few current members knew much about the opera. “Before we established our club, a lot of people in our club had never seen or had truly heard an opera,” Hoffman said. Now, upcoming attractions include classics such as “The Barber of Seville” on Oct. 28 in San Francisco (tickets are $7—contact Alexandra Codina: tanjerinerosez@sbcglobal.net). The sign-up deadline is Oct. 27, but, “the sooner the better,” according to Hoffman.

Orchestra’s large size helps it garner awards

Photo courtesy of Dorothy Wood

Juniors Dorothy Wood and Neva Hauser strum their instruments. The two have played in festivals, open mics and coffee shops.

Lucy Li

Superstitions, Old traditions Oh My!

—Andrea Yung

—Compiled by Shiv Kachru and Alex Lee

—209 students surveyed

Centerfold8 The Oracle

The crash of a mirror as it shat-ters onto the floor is frequently fol-lowed by the exclamation “Seven years of bad luck!” This supersti-tion has haunted people of all ages across the globe for over 2,000 years.

The superstition started with the Romans who believed that the reflections seen in mirrors repre-sented that person’s soul. When a mirror broke, they thought it was a sign of misfortune because it meant that the soul was leaving the body, and for this reason the person who broke the mirror wascondemned to seven years of bad

luck. The duration of this curse comes from the Roman belief that every man’s or woman’s body was physically rejuvenated every seven years, after which he or she be-came a new person.

To counteract the spell’s bad luck, wait seven hours (one for each year of bad luck) before picking up the shattered pieces and proceed to go bury them in the ground under the moonlight. If you choose to disregard these precautions, don’t be surprised if you are unlucky for the next seven years.

Before developing their unlucky reputa-tions black cats were a symbol of luck and rebirth.

In Egypt, the black cat was thought to be a symbol of the goddess Bast—the supposed di-vine mother and protectress of the lands—and those who dared to kill cats were punished severely. Likewise, in Britain and Europe, hav-ing a black cat cross your path was actually considered good luck.

The change came with the rise of Christi-anity. The relationship between a witch and her cat was likely established during pre-Christian Europe, when witches were consid-ered part of a pagan (rustic) religion and not yet associated with evil forces. During the Middle Ages, it was the church that portrayed witches as unholy and worshippers of Satan. The church disseminated this belief, leading

many to think that cats, witches’ familiars, crossing their paths were actually witches in disguise. This idea spread to America during the witch hunts, where entire populations thought witches to be a sign of bad luck; as a result, the black cats associated with them became labeled as well.

At the same time, Europeans, with the sup-port of the church, began associating black cats (independent of the witches) with darker beings as well. Being nocturnal animals, they were also believed to be witches’ servants. Combined with their slick movements and bright eyes, the people thought they pos-sessed evil powers. Oftentimes, when one who had coincidentally been near a black cat at a time became ill, the blame was thrown onto the black cat.

i f you’re like most people, you occasionally participate in super-stitious thinking or behavior, often without even realizing you’re doing it. When was the last time you knocked on wood, walked within the lines, avoided a black cat, or read your daily horoscope? These are all examples of superstitions.

More than half of Americans admit-ted to being at least a little supersti-tious, according to a recent Gallup poll. Additionally, beliefs in witches, ghosts and haunted house—all popular Halloween symbols—have increased over the past decade. But just what is the psychology behind our magical thinking, and is it hurting or helping us?

To understand superstitions, we must start by defining them. After all, not all rituals or beliefs are su-perstitions. For example, if an athlete develops a ritual before a game, it may help to calm and focus him or her like repeating a mantra. This is not an example of superstitious be-havior. On the other hand, if you think

tapping the ball a certain number of times makes you win the game, you are in fact thinking superstitiously.

Wanting more control or certainty is the driving force behind most su-perstitions. We tend to look for some kind of a rule or explanation for why things happen. Job interviews, test-ing and other situations where we want things to go well—regardless of our own preparation or perfor-mance— spur superstitious thoughts. No matter how confident or prepared you are for an event things can still be beyond your control. Superstitions provide people with the sense that they’ve done one more thing to try to ensure the outcome will be what they are looking for.

A sense of security and confidence is perhaps the greatest benefit we get emotionally from superstitious thinking or behavior—like carrying an object or wearing an item of clothing that you deem to be lucky. There is a positive placebo effect—if you think something will help you, it may do just that. Humans place a tremen-dous amount of power in belief. When your performance is a key factor in

an outcome, superstitious thinking might give you an extra boost.

It’s not news that expectations can be extremely powerful and sugges-tive. Studies regularly point to pla-cebo effects (both positive and nega-tive) which are entirely caused by the power of expectations or preconcep-tions. Yet superstitions can also play a negative role in our lives, especially when combined with a bad habit such as gambling. If you’re a compulsive gambler who believes that you can get lucky, then that belief may con-tribute to your problem.

Intelligence seems to have little to do with whether or not we subscribe to superstitions. At Harvard —where one would assume there are a lot of intelligent people—students fre-quently rub the foot of the John Har-vard statue for good luck. In a sense, a superstition, like other rituals, can become part of a campus, community or culture, and can help bring people together.

Most of the superstitions people engage in are perfectly fine, and are not pathological. That’s good news, and it’s just in time for Halloween.

Look but don’t drop

Black cats misjudged

—Stéphanie Keller-Busque

54% of Gunn students are going trick or treating in costume

35% of Gunn students are not going trick or treating

11% of Gunn students think that breaking a mirror is super scary

Other superstitions believed at Gunn: opening umbrellas indoors, walking by graveyards and jinxes.

Superstitions, Old traditions Oh My!

– Compiled by Andrea Yung– Compiled by Andrea Yung– Compiled by Andrea Yung

—209 students surveyed

Friday the 13th of any month has always been considered to be a day of bad luck. Both the Greeks and Spaniards also share the same belief that Tuesday the 13th is a day of bad omens.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia, the ir-rational fear of the number 13, is widespread throughout many cul-tures in the world.

The superstition is believed to have a religious origin back from the 13 disciples at The Last Sup-per of Jesus, who was crucified on Good Friday. Coincidentally, in 1307, King Philip IV of France tortured and killed hundreds of the Knights Tem-plar, the Christian order of monks

and soldiers, on Friday the 13th.Although unlikely, there has been

research and evidence that may sug-gest this day is ill-fated. Many psy-chology and research centers have noted that higher levels of stress and anxiety have led to the high numbers of accidents on Friday the 13th.

According to the British Medical Journal, the chance of being hos-pitalized on this day may increase up to 52 percent. Those believing in superstitions and who are easily stressed will have much higher risks involved in some sort of accident or unfortunate incident this coming Friday, so watch out!

Centerfold Monday, October 9, 20069

Freaky Friday

Halloween’s history

graphic and layout by julius tarng

—Stephen Salazar

54% of Gunn students are going trick or treating in costume

35% of Gunn students are not going trick or treating

11% of Gunn students think that breaking a mirror is super scary

—Adriennve Ngyuen

Other superstitions believed at Gunn: opening umbrellas indoors, walking by graveyards and jinxes.

Halloween is a dream come true for many youths, due to the abundance of candy, costumes, parties and jack-o’-lanterns. These things are all a major part of Halloween, which includes many

traditions that are often practiced without much thought to why. As enjoyable and sometimes

juvenile as these traditions may seem, there is a much deeper and historical root to activities

that fill Halloween. The name “Halloween” came from the

phrase “Hallow’s Eve.” The root meaning for the word “Hallows” means saints, therefore

“Hallow’s Eve” is the day before “All Saints Day.” This holiday was founded by Pope Boni-face IV to replace the original Roman pagan holiday “Ferelia.” This holiday was the previous day of celebration for pagans to worship there respective patrons and idols.

Though the modern celebration of Hallow-een is influenced by religious background, it also adopts influences from Pre-Christian eras as well. The Druidic holiday known as “Samhain” (sow wen) was essentially a “Feast of the Dead.” It

was celebrated during the end of harvesting crops and preparing for winter.

The origin of Trick-or-Treating is derived mostly from a ninth century European tradition known to

take place on Nov. 2. The tradition would involve Christians traveling from village to village begging for

“soul cakes.” In return for the cake, the Christians would pray for the well being of the deceased and liv-

ing relatives of whomever gave them the cake. The carving of a jack-o’-lantern also has a European

background. Instead of a pumpkin, a hollowed turnip was used to emit the candle light.

With the conception of a jack-o’-lantern, or trick-or-treating, it’s sometimes hard to

believe that these practices originated from a very serious background. Reli-gion, work and family are major com-ponents of these traditions, and the value of these influences should not be undermined during Halloween or any other holiday with a deep and historical background.

Sometimes the origins of a popular tradition or holiday like Halloween can seem vague or irrelevant to people’s modern understanding

Features10 The Oracle

While most high school stu-dents are practicing parallel park-ing, junior Jacob Savage is practic-ing landing at Palo Alto Municipal Airport.

Despite the stress of school, Savage goes to the airport almost every weekend, and he enjoys spending entire weekends hanging out around the runway. “It’s a lot more fun in the airways instead of the highways,” Savage said. “On a highway, all you get to do is go in a straight line. However, in the air, you don’t have to stick to a specific route, and there aren’t cops flying around to enforce the rules. I feel that driving is a chore, but flying is a privilege.”

Despite the increased repon-sabilities of flying, age require-ments for flying are similiar to those for driving. Savage woke up early on his sixteenth birthday to take his driving test but failed it. Later that day he went to the airport to pass his flying test. “I passed that, and I was a lot happier that I passed it, too,” Savage said.

“I love flying because it gives you freedom,” he said. “It also gives you a whole new perspective on things. Looking down at Palo Alto from an altitude of 3,000 feet is really exciting. I can point out Stanford University and Gunn. Sometimes I can get lucky and I can find my house.”

While Savage has been fasci-nated by flight since an early age, he did not start flying until two years ago. His father, Sam Savage, was certified to fly gliders, and when Savage was old enough to fly gliders, he received certification as well. The similarities between

a glider and engine powered plane led him to receive a Visual Flying Rules (VFR) license. “I was really nervous before my first solo flight,” Savage said. “I thought it would be my last, but once I started flying, I got too busy to be nervous any-more and I just flew the plane.”

Flying airplanes requires more training than driving. A knowledge of weather, aerodynamics, naviga-

tion and the controls is crucial in the air. Few people find the time to get a pilot’s license, but at the same time those who have one find enjoyment during every takeoff. “I enjoy it so much, and I never stop learning and getting better,” Savage said.

The array of responsibilities put on a pilot is a lot for a 16-year-old, but Savage’s parents are not

nervous when he flies. “I trust him in the air, but I can’t always trust him when he isn’t,” Daryl, his mother said.

Savage’s dad always encour-aged him to fly. “Since he started flying he has become a lot more responsible and disciplined,” he said. In the future, Savage hopes to join the Air Force as a pilot or fly commercially.

Eric JohnstonSports Editor

Every row, column and 3x3 region must each be filled with the numbers one through nine without any repeats.

Sud

oku

Student conquers sky at sixteenAs other teenagers drive cars, Jacob Savage pilots airplane as hobby

Harvest Moon attracts runners

Moses LaiReporter

On Oct. 6, many students par-ticipated in the annual Palo Alto Moonlight Run. Each runner is charged $20 for the 5K walk and $25 for either the 5K or 10K run, which starts from the City of Palo Alto Baylands Athletic Center. The walk begins at 7:30 p.m, the 10K run starts at 8:15 p.m. and the 5K run 30 minutes later. The top three finishers from each division will receive a prize.

The Moonlight Run was founded 22 years ago by Tom Osborne, who thought it would be nice for people to run under the Harvest Moon. It keeps run-ners engaged by providing a glimpse into some beautiful and rarely seen parts of Palo Alto.

“The course goes around and offers a good view of the lights across the bay,” senior Brecon Welton said. “You can’t really see much but that adds a very exciting element to it.”

The proceeds go to the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund which usually raises $250,000 every year. The Holiday Fund will then distribute the money among local charities and orga-nizations. Any donation made to the Holiday Fund will be matched by local foundations. Some of last year’s 36 recipients included Adolescent Counsel-ing Service, YMCA and Youth Community Service.

The run is one of the big-gest events of the year. “We have over 150 volunteers,” Palo Alto’s Promotion Director, Amy Renalds said.

Photos courtesy of Jacob Savage

Above: Junior Jacob Savage concentrates on his path as he flies over the Bay Area.Left: Savage poses in front of a glider. He first trained with gliders be-fore flying in airplanes.

Puzzle courtesy of Sudoku.com

Caroline Hodge & Nathaniel Eisen

Forum & Features Editors

Junior Helen Guo’s classes include Chemistry H, Alg2/Trig H, Spanish 2, Classic Mythology, AP U.S. History, Fiber Arts and Study Skills. On Saturdays, she volunteers at a Chinese library and plays badminton with her friends at the YMCA. The only thing that sets Guo apart from any other Gunn student is that she wears a hearing aid in each ear and is accompanied by a note-taking aid to five of her classes.

Guo is part of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) program at Gunn, which accommodates 11 students who have a range of hearing abilities. The program is a facet of the Jackson Hearing Center

Program, which provides oral/aural (focusing on speech-reading rather than sign languag) education for hearing-impaired students from preschool through high school. Students come from five different counties to participate.

According to Sharon Yost, the coordinator and teacher of core cur-riculum, the main goal of the pro-gram is to “help students who are hard of hearing learn to function in a hearing world.” The program as-sists students in learning to speech-read, produce intelligible speech and develop language fluency.

Most students in the program take mainstream classes, although they have the option of taking Eng-lish, Social Studies, Algebra and Study Skills within the program. Aides accompany most students to their mainstream classes to help

them with note taking and comprehension.

While hearing-im-paired students can communicate, it isn’t always easy. Most of the students in the pro-gram have deafness that cannot be corrected permanently because it involves nerve damage, making communica-tion a challenge.

Until recently, the

only device available to improve communication was a hearing aid. A new device called a cochlear im-plant, which is typically implanted at some time between infancy and adolescence works much better, but costs up to $10,000.

Despite their disabilities, stu-dents in the program engage in a range of extracurricular activities. Sophomore Michael Rowland attends an after school program called Project Insight, where he learns sign language and assists blind students. Junior Chelsea Flamm is part of the Motion All Stars, a competitive cheerleading team in Santa Clara. Sophomore Michelle Shean has a talent for graphic design and drawing cartoon animals.

Students in the program feel somewhat isolated from their hear-ing peers at Gunn. “I feel like [mainstream students] are afraid of what their friends think if they talk to us,” Flamm said. Freshman Aub-rie Lee wishes mainstream students were less discriminatory towards students with hearing disabilities. “I think everybody should just keep an open mind,” she said.

Sarah Dowlin, a note-taking aide, observes that some students in the program still feel embarrassed in their mainstream classes. “They don’t like to participate,” she said.

“Some don’t like to do anything that they’re not required to because they don’t want to draw attention to themselves.”

Some students also feel singled out by teachers. “Sometimes [the teachers] will repeat everything just to you in front of the whole class,” Flamm said.

However, the students appreci-ate teachers’ efforts to help them overcome their obstacles. “They give you the accommodations that you need,” Guo said.

Yost herself advocates con-stantly for her students, particularly in the social realm. “One concern that I have always had has been finding a means to ensure that our students become socially as well as academically integrated,” she said. In an attempt to help stu-dents in the program integrate into the mainstream, Yost formed the Birthday Bash Club last year, which recognized teachers on their birth-days. The first meeting consisted of about 18 mainstreamed students and 11 DHH students. However, at the next meeting, while all the DHH students returned, only one mainstream student showed up.

Yost guessed that one factor in the steep decline in attendance might have been mainstream stu-dents’ uncertainty about their abil-ity to have a conversation with a

hearing-impaired student. “I think for hearing students, there’s ap-prehension about initiating social contact,” she said. “That probably derives from their worry that they might not be able to communicate successfully,” she said. “It’s not that there is intentional exclusion.”

While students in the program are well academically integrated, they remain fairly isolated from their hearing peers. Yost wishes she could change this. “I know that there are many Gunn students out there who I think would enjoy knowing these guys,” Yost said.

Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing program bridges gaps for Gunn students

Monday, October 9, 2006 11Features

Airbands hype hits canpus high

Hearing-impaired strive for normal lives

Jennifer LimDHH program coordinator and teacher Sharon Yost helps sophomore Michael Rowland with classwork.

Dezmon HunterReporter

Top: Freshmen discuss their next move. Above: Sophomores throw their hands in the air. Below: Seniors form a caterpillar.

Christopher Wu

Photos by Brian Phan

DHH student Helen Guo smiles as she turns the pages of her math book.

Jennifer Lim

EntErtainmEnt12The Oracle

toptenmost embarassing moments at Gunn10. Breaking another thermometer in science class.9. Receiving a B on an AB Calculus test.8. Farting loudly in a quiet classroom.7. Being reprimanded by Mr. Jacoubowsky and his mega-

phone for “freaking” at a dance.6. Walking into F period late wielding a Big Mac and a

large helping of fries. 5. Tripping in front of freshmen and dropping papers all

over the place.4. Having a teacher answer your cell phone for you.3. Having your pants stolen as you change out of your

P.E. clothes.2. Getting rejected by a potential Homecoming date (no

pressure).1. Calling a teacher mom or dad.

—Jonathan Gu

Michelle Fangfeatures editor

The twentieth annual Bridge School Benefit Concert will take place at the Shoreline Amphitheatre on Saturday, Oct. 21 and Sunday, Oct. 22. The concert will feature a lineup of old and new artists such as Neil Young, Foo Fighters, Dave Mathews Band, Pearl Jam and Death Cab. The Bridge School Benefit Concert was created to raise money for Bridge School, an educational program targeted toward helping children with acute speech and physical impairments. The concert will also help spread awareness

of disabled children and reach out toward individu-als who can contribute to the educational program. “It was a great experience to watch all the famous music artists interacting with the disabled children,” junior Kim Saloner said.

The primary goal of Bridge School is to ensure that children with speech and physical dis-abilities can still fully participate in their local communities. Bridge School started in 1986. The educational program, has grown to receive international recognition for its beneficial events like the upcoming con-cert. The concert has been held annually each year since 1986 and has featured famous artists and bands such as Billy Idol, Metallica, Marilyn Manson and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Many Gunn students enjoyed the concert in past years. “The Bridge School concert is a very refreshing concert that exists for a good cause,” sophomore Molly Barns said.

Many Gunn students go to the charity concert to enjoy both the per-formance and the atmosphere. The concert takes place in the Shoreline Amphitheatre with the stage set at the bottom of a prodigious hill where concertgoers stake out their sorts with blankets, sleeping bags and chairs. “We enjoyed the whole atmosphere at the concert,” junior Aja Mathews said. “The music sounds even better on grass.”

Tickets are available on Ticketmaster and at Tower Records stores.

Bridge School concert for charitable cause

Libby CraigAssociate Sports Editor

Palo Alto High School alum-nus Tony Vallone has been an

avid filmmaker ever since he was featured in Gunn’s Gunndance Film Festival in 2002.

As a freshman at UCLA, Val-lone started writing a short 20-page screenplay about changes he had seen in his high school friends since leaving for college. Now, two years later, with the help of two other young Palo Alto natives—Director Brad Leong and Producer Daniel Engelhardt—Vallone’s screenplay has morphed into the anticipated independent film “Palo Alto”.

“Palo Alto” follows four Paly graduates on their first visit back from college during Thanksgiving break. On their last night home, the boys discover that their small hometown, Palo Alto, may not be as uneventful, barren or uninterest-ing as they had once thought and realize how quickly their lives are changing.

Vallone’s personal high school and college memories helped spark the idea for the movie’s plot. “The inspiration for the film was from my own an experience returning home from college and visiting my high school friends,” Vallone said. “I noticed that in a short while a lot of them had started to change and how it almost snuck up on some people.”

Raised in Palo Alto, Vallone thought it would be a good place to set the movie due to budget con-straints and the atmosphere of the town. “I knew from the beginning we’d end up filming in Palo Alto

anyway because it is cheaper than L.A.,” Vallone said. “The charac-ters are all people you might meet in Palo Alto, but other than that the town isn’t part of the story lines. As a setting it is brilliant, though, because the streets and the homes convey a certain tone that is very important for the film.”

However, although the movie is set in his own hometown, it does not directly portray Vallone in his teen-age years. “The story is not really autobiographical except for some of the little anecdotes and dialogue,” Vallone said. “And no, we didn’t film a scene at Happy Donuts at 2 a.m, although I really thought we should have written one in.”

The cast is composed of diverse actors, ranging from Ben Savage of “Boy Meets World” and Autumn Reeser of “The O.C.” to lesser known, up-and-coming perform-ers such as Aaron Ashemore and Rosalee Ward. Much of the cast and crew stayed in a rental house on Cowper Street near downtown Palo Alto during the two-month filming period.

Palo Alto teenagers played the part of extras in the film. “The process was pretty fun,” Paly sophomore Jeremy Kim said. “Each scene takes a lot of time and we had to re-do a bunch of shots about seven to 15 times each. My friends and I also got to do a small scene with Ben Savage.”

Another unique aspect of the movie is that the crew is composed mostly of high school students be-tween the ages of 15 and 18. “They come from high schools with very advanced film programs and are extremely talented,” Vallone said. “You’d never believe they were

that young.”Additionally, Vallone hopes that

the cast and crew combined, who are mostly just at the brink of their careers, will add to the youthful feel of the film. “No one as young as us that I can think of has pursued this ambitious of a project,” Vallone said. “I would not complain if our film got attention just for being the product of young filmmakers because honestly everyone involved deserves that attention.”

“Palo Alto” is currently near-ing the end of the editing process, and the filmmakers are rushing to make the submission deadline of the Sundance Film Festival which will take place mid-January. They are hoping that their film will be viewed by the movers and shakers that flock to the world famous fes-tival. The film is aimed to premiere in Palo Alto between the months of January and March 2007 in a small theater, such as The Aquarius downtown or perhaps even Gunn’s own Spangenberg Theater.

Many students await the film’s debut with enthusiasm. “I’ll defi-nitely see the movie,” junior Molly Kawahata said. “I’m curious to see how Palo Alto is portrayed.”

Sophomore Cosmo Sung agrees. “It’s going to be weird watching a movie filmed in my own town, but I want to see it because I make short videos for fun, and it’s cool that these writers started out the same way,” Sung said.

With its young cast and crew and familiar setting, “Palo Alto” will appeal to many Gunn students.

Moreover, the coming of age story should speak universally to adults and youth alike, regardless of where they live.

Paly alumnus films movie in hometown Movie inspired by real life events

Jennifer Lim

It was a great experience to watch all the famous music artists interacting with the disabled children.”

—Junior Kim Saloner

Monday, October 9, 200613EntErtainmEnt

Wong Fu film productions travel to Monta Vista Vivien Tsao

Associate News Editor

“Oh my gosh! I got a picture of his back! I almost got a shot of his head!” Such comments and more filled the air as UCSD Class of 2006 graduates Philip Wang, Wesley Chan and Ted Fu, who together constitute Wong Fu Productions, welcomed students and adults alike to a viewing of their new only-seen-on-tour movie, “A Moment with You,” on Sept. 22 in the Monta Vista High School auditorium.

Former Media majors at UCSD, Wang, Chan and Fu began Wong Fu Productions in June 2003 after a music video Wang made with a few friends garnered much online attention—it receives thousands of hits daily—from all over the United

States and other countries such as Taiwan, Canada, Great Britain and even South Africa. Today, the team has produced a plethora of short films, music videos and the like, although “Yellow Fever,” a short, comedic film that delves into the question of race in relationships remains most popular. However, most of the current effort has been utilized in promoting Wong Fu Pro-duction’s newest movie, “A Moment with You,” through a trans-United States and Canada tour.

The first feature-length movie created by Wong Fu Productions, “A Moment with You” chronicles the lives of two college students, Arthur and Dustin, as they struggle to make sense of their romantic re-lationships. “We young people tend to be very dramatic about relation-ships,” Wang said. “We just wanted

to tell people to don’t be sad, and if you count your blessings, you’ll see that things aren’t so bad.”

Created as a senior project, the under-$2000 film tested the team’s perseverance in creativity and film-ing skills. “This movie is kind of different from our former work,” Wang said. “It’s more serious to watch and just explores the real-ity of relationships unlike typical Hollywood movies that can’t really relate to anyone.”

Although the Wong Fu Produc-tion members enjoyed the chal-lenges the filming provided, time was in short supply throughout the entire process. “If we weren’t in class, we were working on this film,” Chan said. “Actually, we didn’t go to class.” However, all of Wong Fu Productions’ hard work seems to have paid off so far.

Enthusiastic applause from the sold-out Monta Vista audience (roughly a crowd of 200 ) greeted Wong Fu Productions after the showing and allayed the production team’s initial concerns. “Monta Vista was our first high school showing, so we were really worried about audience response,” Fu said. Wong Fu Productions premiered at the Google headquarters in Moun-tain View, and as part of their “A Moment with You” tour, will travel to the East Coast and Canada later this year. They have also entered the movie in a number of film festivals and have so far received confirmation from the 2006 San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Unfortunately for fans, the movie will not be released online as many film festivals place strict rules on distribution before the

competition. For those willing to wait, however, Wong Fu Produc-tions will be selling DVDs next spring after the conclusion of the tour and film festivals.

To those who fear that Wong Fu Productions’ creations will end with the graduation of Wang, Chan and Fu, the team has some news to pass on. “Although we won’t be producing something this big for a while, we do have some movies and shorts planned,” Fu said. Those who missed the Monta Vista showing of “A Moment with You” can still watch the movie be-fore Wong Fu Productions proceed on their tour to other parts of the United States. Although dates have not yet been confirmed, the team will present their production at two other northern California stops: San Jose State and UC Berkeley.

Peninsula Creamery• Location: 900 High St, Palo Alto, CA

(or at Stanford Shopping Center next to Bloomingdales)

• Menu: Diner style• Price Range: $8-$15• Atmosphere/Service: Fast service,

casual atmosphere• Tips: Employees are very friendly,

jukebox available.

Sumo Sushi• Location: 355 State Street

Los Altos, CA 94022• Menu: Traditional Japanese

food, “meal plans,” teriyaki, sushi boats

• Price Range: $7-$13 • Atmosphere/Service: formal,

not too crowded, fast service• Tips: Fast service.

Buca di Beppo• Location: 643 Emerson Street Palo

Alto, CA 94301• Menu: Italian food, large appetizers• Price Range: Appetizers: $6-$12. Entrees:

$9-$20 (per person)• Atmosphere/Service: Noisy, crowded,

fun atmosphere, not too casual but not too formal

• Tips: Food is meant to be shared, make reservations.

Pizza Chicago• Location: 4115 El Camino Real

Palo Alto, CA 94306• Menu: Pizza, large drinks (free

refills)• Price Range: About $15 for a

medium pizza• Atmosphere/Service: Homey

atmosphere, pretty fast service• Tips: Convenient Location

—Compiled by Sasha Guttentag

Gra

phic

s by

Bria

n Ph

anA refreshing take on H omecoming dining

Photos by Christopher Wu

SportS14 The Oracle

Titan teachers share athletic passions

Daisy RenazcoSports have always been a fundamental

part of math teacher Daisy Renazco’s life. “Over the years, I’ve played three sports: soccer, softball and lacrosse,” she said. “Soccer has always been my one and true love, though.”

Renazco has played soccer since she was five years old and continues to play over the summer on an adult soccer league in San Jose. “I think sports have really kept me mentally focused on my health and on the importance of being a team player,” Renazco said. “It’s always been a self-motivating experience.”

Coaching has also been a key part of Renazco’s participation in sports. “I coached

lacrosse for two years, soccer at a few places and I also coached Gunn soccer for two years,” she said. This is the first year that she has not coached soccer at Gunn.

Renazco likes being active because it keeps her fit. She is currently training for her first half marathon. “I was always running for my own fitness,” she said. “I figured, ‘Why not?’ because it would help me train for something and keep me motivated.” Whether it be for soccer, lacrosse or softball, the most important aspect for Renazco about being an athlete is to work as a team. “The biggest thing for any sport is the strength of the team bond because you should go out and play for others and not just for yourself,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Dawna LinsdellMath teacher Daisy Renazco dashes toward the opponent’s goal. She has played soccer all her life, including four years at St. Mary’s College.

Boys’ water polo falls to PalyTitans disappointed with 13-6 loss to archrival

—Stéphanie Keller-Busque

Brian Phan

Photo courtesy of Daisy Renazco

Gunn started off strong but lost momentum in the second half of the Sept. 27 water polo game against Paly.

The first quarter started off with Paly making the first goal, but se-nior Will Agramonte quickly tied the score. Afterwards, Agramonte was double-teamed and senior Chris Preston was pressed for the whole game. Paly scored one more goal as half time ended with a close score of 6-4.

In the third quarter Paly scored two goals ending the quarter with a score of 8-4. Hoping for an offen-sive push, sophomore goalie Aaron

Johnson was placed in an offensive position. Gunn had a difficult time keeping out goals afterwards. Nevertheless, immediately into the fourth quarter Gunn scored due to a penalty.

Paly rapidly widened the gap again with four consecutive goals. Both teams scored one more point near the end of the game, ending with a score of 13-6.

In the end, Agramonte made three goals, while Preston, sopho-more Jason Chu, and junior Andrew Post each made one. “We also had a difficult time making goals because of their goalie who is the best in the league.” Agramonte said.

From the start, Head Coach Mark Hernandez had known that

the game would be very competi-tive but he thinks they should have done better. “I was disappointed,” Hernandez said. “Both the coaches and players made a lot of mistakes. The scores were not indicative of our effort. I think we could have done better.”

The players were also disap-pointed. “We were not playing well because we depended too much on individuals while Paly had great team play,” Agramonte said. The team lost many of its start-ing players due to the graduation of Eric Stewart, Kyle Gertridge, Matt Johnson and Brandon Johnson.

The team plans to focus on gain-ing a tough mentality and respond-ing better in game situations.

Moses LaiReporter

Dawna LinsdellAside from teaching economics and be-

ing a coordinator for the Western Associa-tion of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and staff development, Dawna Linsdell keeps active.

Linsdell, an avid triathlon participant, initially got involved in the sport through the non-profit organization “Team in Training,” which raises money for children diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma. Not only does the organization provide coaching, but it also encourages the athletes to raise money. Linsdell has raised thousands of dollars by participating.

Linsdell does not stick to a strict train-ing schedule and instead prepares by doing

anything she can outside of the house. “I choose to go for the swim, for the bike, for the run, for the strength training or what-ever it is, even if I don’t want to that day,” Linsdell said.

One of her biggest accomplishments is competing in and finishing the Ironman Australia, after which she could not refrain from smiling. “You can see every single tooth in my finisher’s photo because I was smiling so big,” she said.

It seems difficult for one to balance work and triathlons, but Linsdell has it all figured out. “It requires planning, organization and lots of discipline,” Linsdell said. “It also means making hard choices sometimes.”

—Sasha Guttentag

Social studies teacher Dawna Linsdell smiles as she finishes her race. She has participated in numerous triathlons including the Ironman Australia.

Sophomore Jason Chu has control of the ball during the Sept. 27 match against the Vi-kings. However, due to tough defense on Gunn’s key players, Palo Alto took the win.

Adrienne NguyenSports Editor

This year, the cross country team will leave for five days to participate in one of its first out-of-state invitationals in New York. From Oct. 11 to 15, 24 members of the team will attend the Manhat-tan High School Cross Country Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.

Head Coach Ernie Lee and as-sistant coach Matt Tompkins will be accompanying the team. Out of the 101 runners, the leading 24 ath-letes were chosen to leave for Man-hattan. “Returning varsity runners automatically received spots on the trip,” Lee said. “For the remaining 12 spots, we ran a time trial during the second week of school.”

The event hosts high school teams from all over the nation, especially those within New York and the Northeast. Although Gunn will be the only participating school

from the Bay Area, other schools from California include Centennial High School in Bakersfield and Clovis High School.

Being unfamiliar with the op-ponent and the course has not in-timidated the participating athletes. “The race is just another meet for me, and I’m not anticipating much,” senior Daniela Mehech said. “We want to enjoy ourselves and do the best we can.”

Junior Arlie Krigel agrees. “We approach our races positively,” Krigel said. “These races are more of a recreational activity. This race is no different from the other meets we’ve attended.”

The training for the trip has not changed dramatically. “Most of the top kids have been running consistently since the beginning of the summer,” Lee said.

Two-hour practices are held daily with occasional weekend practices. “Our training has slowly been increased to farther distances

in shorter time intervals,” junior Greg Freehling said.

This will not be the first out-of-state competition for some runners. Since Lee began coaching the team in 1994, he and the team have trav-eled out of state to Kualoa Ranch, Hawaii, and Portland, Oregon, in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

Van Cortlandt Park is one of the most well known cross country facilities in the nation. Situated in the outskirts of New York City, it hosts a multitude of cross country meets for national and statewide high school meets and universities such as NYU and Fordham.

Lee wants the team to attend more meets the rest of the season. “If runners should qualify for the State Meet, they will be traveling to Fresno at the end of the season,” Lee said.

Afterwards, the team will go to Los Angeles for a post-season meet at the Footlocker Western Regional.

Monday, October 9, 200615SportS

Student livens fans at sports gamesFelch fulfills dreams of announcing athletic events

Cross country team goes out of state to competeRunners prepare to race this week at the Manhattan Invitational in New York

Cross country runners stretch after practice in the rain. The top 24 athletes are traveling to New York this Wednesday.

Adrienne Nguyen

Caroline HodgeForum Editor

Senior Trevor Felch has known since he was a child that he wanted to be a sports announcer. Beginning at age six, he would sit in front of the TV and imitate the profession-als as they announced a game.

Now he is well on his way to achieving his goal. Felch, the first student in Gunn’s history to an-nounce at school sporting events, has announced Gunn football and basketball games for the past four years.

Felch’s career as an announcer began in the eighth grade when he auditioned for the KJLS video announcements at JLS Middle School. “There were two reasons I started getting into it,” Felch said. “One was that I started realizing I wasn’t going to be a Major League

baseball player. The second was that sports commentary melded sports and performance into one. As an announcer, you have to know a lot about sports and know a lot about entertainment.”

At JLS, Felch met Mel Froli, the co-coordinator of the KJLS program and a former announcer for Stanford volleyball, gymnastics, basketball and baseball. Froli took an interest in Felch soon after he found out about his aspirations.

Froli introduced Felch to Rich Scherer, the assistant Gunn athletic director at the time, who agreed to let Felch announce at the JV home football games. After two games, Scherer asked him to announce the varsity games.

That winter, Felch began an-nouncing at Gunn boys’ basketball games. He continued his career when he entered Gunn as a fresh-

man and has been announcing ever since. Froli explained that Felch is highly dedicated to his work. “Some of the things he does are very impressive for a high school guy,” Froli said.

Froli also highlighted Felch’s resourcefulness. “The thing that amazes me most about Trevor is that he acts quickly on his feet,” he said. “He can handle most every-thing unforeseen that comes up be it a problem with the sound system, crowd control, missing rosters or neighbors’ complaints. Trevor does not become flustered.”

After four years of practice, Felch still feels that his perfor-mance is far from perfect. “You improve each and every time,” he said.

With Froli’s help, Felch has developed relationships with a few professionals in the industry. Froli

introduced him to Ted Robinson, who currently announces Stanford football, NBC Olympics and ten-nis.

Felch has visited Robinson numerous times at his press box at the Stanford stadium. Robinson, like Froli, thinks highly of Felch’s broadcasting abilities. “He has a natural understanding of what communication over radio or TV is about,” Robinson said.

Felch interned last summer at AT&T Park with Dave Flemming, an announcer for the San Francisco Giants. Felch observed Flemming for the first two games and recorded his own play-by-play account dur-ing the third game.

Felch explained how the experi-ence helped to advance his profes-sional development. “I now know how to better pace myself, how to tell information without going over-

board with statistics and stories, how to better prepare myself before each game,” Felch said.

The next step in Felch’s career will be college, where he plans to pursue broadcasting as an extra-curricular activity. “I’m not going to pursue it in an academic way,” he said. “I’m not going to major in Communications, because this is not the type of thing you can learn in a classroom.”

Felch has ambitious career aspi-rations. “Eventually I want to an-nounce at Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium,” he said.

Robinson is confident that Felch will have no trouble achieving his goals. “He is going to be far ahead of all his peers because he has been so dedicated about pursuing this during his high school years,” he said. “I have no doubt that Trevor is going to be quite successful.”

Christopher Wu Photos courtesy of Trevor Felch

SportS16 The Oracle

Gunn graduate Maile Krauss has played volleyball for six years. As a sophomore at Gunn, she was already receiving letters from colleges trying to interest her in playing for their school, and by her junior year the recruiting process started in full swing.

During the fall of her senior year,

Krauss went on official visits to five different colleges. “The school pays to fly you to their campus, they feed you, house you, show you around and you get to stay in dorms with the team,” Krauss said. “Official visits take place during volleyball season, making it hard because of school volleyball, but I signed on early commitment in November.”

Krauss chose to go to American University in Washington, D.C., a Division I school. “I decided on American because of the combination of location, academics and athletic reputation,” Krauss said. “They make the NCAA tournament every year which is a big honor.”

According to Krauss, there was a big transition to make from high school volleyball to collegiate level. During pre-season, Krauss attended practice for nine hours every day for three weeks. “College volleyball is very time consuming and physically and mentally demanding,” Krauss

said. “Practices are longer, hard-er and a lot more intense.”

Balancing schoolwork and sports may also be a challenge that athletes face in college. “My class schedule was designed around my practice schedule making it hard to get into certain classes,” Krauss said. “Luckily, as an athlete you have priority registration so it puts you ahead of everyone else, but you miss half of your classes a week due to travel so its easy to get behind.” Athletes are required to have eight hours of study hall per week and often meet with an Athletic Aca-demic Advisor.

Despite the hard work, Krauss is dedicated and happy with playing volleyball in college. “Playing col-lege volleyball, especially Division I, is a huge time commitment and like anything, there are tradeoffs you must make,” Krauss said.

As college application deadlines near, students are beginning to think about which colleges they plan to go to. For most Gunn students, choos-ing which colleges to apply to is simple; students usually want to go to colleges that have been highly ranked for their academics. Students interested in sports, however, choos-ing which college to apply to is a far different task.

Students interested in playing sports for college teams have an entirely separate recruitment process that includes a written profile and a videotape of highlights.

Senior varsity volleyball player Samantha Rohman, who played school and club volleyball since her freshman year, has had experience with the recruitment process.

“Junior year is when you put together a video of skills sessions and highlights and mail that with a letter about your GPA, personal-ity and academic strong points,” Rohman said. “Eventually you enter

a correspondence with the coaches until it gets to a point where the coach wants you to play with them and you want to play for that school and you mail that school a letter of intent to play.”

This extra work pays off, as many schools offer scholarships for student athletes. “Ivy League schools don’t offer any athletic scholarships but Division I and Division II schools offer a certain number of athletic scholarships per sport. Division III schools don’t offer any scholarships,” cross country and track assistant coach Matt Tompkins said. “The difference between Division I and Division II schools is that Division I schools offer heftier scholarships than division II.”

For any student-athletes inter-ested in being recruited, Rohman offered this bit of advice. “You have to be diligent and you have to be proactive,” Rohman said.

Fellow varsity volleyball player junior Tiffany Stone agrees. Al-

though only a junior, Stone has already begun to pre-pare for the difficult pro-cess. “For your profile, you introduce yourselves, your positions, club teams you’ve played, and video clip high-lights of you playing,” Stone said. “Coaches are a really big involvement in this, and you want your coach to help you make your profiles.”

Colleges also offer options for students who are not dedi-cated to sports, but are still interested in playing. Intramural teams are informal, and matches are conducted with members of the same school.

“I like playing badminton, but I don’t really want to get on a college team,” varsity badminton player junior Kevin Yao said. “It takes too much time, and requires serious commitment.”

For a student-athlete, the idea of playing a sport at a collegiate level requires the athlete to seriously ponder his or her priorities. For some, it is simply a choice or interest to continue with a sport after high school, but for others, there is almost no choice.

Urban and inner city high school athletes, among others, may see college athletics as their only opportunity to have a fulfilling future. Col-lege recruiting motivates students to pursue a constructive activity outside of school, and may be the best experience in the world for some. Recruitment for college sports is a necessary tool not only for coaches, but also to give athletes the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Some might object to the immediate attention and request for commitment from colleges or think scouts and coaches are being too hasty with their recruitment decision. Yet, this at-tention is not meant to pressure the athlete but enlighten them of their potential and offer the opportunity to take their interest in athlet-ics to a whole different level. Also, it is still completely the athlete’s decision whether they are making themselves open for recruitment or not.

The other side of the spectrum of college recruitment has athletes that want to be re-cruited but may not have the adequate talent and ability to play at a collegiate level. For these athletes, it can be very disappointing to not receive the attention that other athletes in a sport enjoy, but there is not a lost op-portunity if that individual wants to play a sport in college. Hundreds of athletes every year are walk-ons on numerous Division IA, IAA, II and III teams across the na-tion. A high school athlete has a plethora of opportunities to play a sport in college, even if recruitment is not an option.

The gifted high school athletes of our community, and across the country, should appreciate what college scouts are trying to do for them. Recruitment should not add fear or pressure to the morale of an individual, but rather a sense of optimism and motivation in their given field.

Maile Krauss

–Libby Craig

–Thomas Bao and Alex Lee

Stephen Salazar

—Salazar, a junior, is an Entertainment editor.

Many options open to athletes College recruitment

a useful resource

29% of students intend to play a sport in college.39% of students will not participate in athletics.32% of students are undecided on college sports.

—241 students surveyed