Feb22PantherPress

THE PANTHER PRESS
The Voice of Career High School

February 2022 New Haven, CT careerpantherpress.weebly.com

Remembering Makayla Bass

Madison McKnight

June November
6th, 2003 8th, 2021

(Contributed Photo/Amy Kelley)
Caring. Funny. Compassionate. Loving. These words don’t begin to encompass all the beautiful
things about Career High School senior Makayla Bass, who passed away on November 8th, 2021.

Story continued on page 3

1

When you lose someone you love, It becomes hard to trust yourself.
Your life becomes strange, All you can depend on now is that
The ground beneath you gets fragile, Sorrow will remain faithful to itself.
Your thoughts make your eyes unsure; More than you, it knows its way
And some dead echo drags your voice down And will find the right time
Where words have no confidence. To pull and pull the rope of grief
Your heart has grown heavy with loss; Until that coiled hill of tears
And though this loss has wounded others too, Has reduced to its last drop.
No one knows what has been taken from you Gradually, you will learn acquaintance
When the silence of absence deepens. With the invisible form of your departed;
Flickers of guilt kindle regret And, when the work of grief is done,
For all that was left unsaid or undone. The wound of loss will heal
There are days when you wake up happy; And you will have learned
Again inside the fullness of life, To wean your eyes
Until the moment breaks From that gap in the air
And you are thrown back And be able to enter the hearth
Onto the black tide of loss. In your soul where your loved one
Days when you have your heart back, Has awaited your return
You are able to function well All the time.
Until in the middle of work or encounter, “For Grief” by John O’Donohue, from To Bless the
Suddenly with no warning, Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (Doubleday,
You are ambushed by grief. 2008).

The Panther Press: The Voice of Career High School

The Panther Press is a team of students dedicated to getting the truth out to the public. We are determined to
give the people of Hill Regional Career High School a respectful voice.

2021 - 2022 Staff Writers

Sayed Ardhi İlknur Kupuc Reynid Rios

Makayla Bass Eniyah Lawrence Jazlyn Rivera

Jesmarie Colón Perez Alonzo McClain Maria Rodriguez Garza

Gabrielle Douglas Madison McKnight Angel Santos

Abdulrahman Elrefaei Bianca Menelas Sian Smellie

Kamiyah Emery Sarah Murray Kayla Smith

Tatiana Gonzalez Idres Nasruddin Amelia Stefanovics

Enelly Hernandez Quimi Mayeshley Pedraza- Daneiris Tirado-Pizarro

Yamilett Hernandez Vazquez Keionna Wallace

Trinity Higgins Emilia Pinilla Arellano Terrence White

Faculty Advisor: Rose Mur phy

Visit us online at careerpantherpress.weebly.com. Contact us at [email protected]

2

Remembering Makayla Bass, Continued

Madison McKnight
Makayla loved all things pink! She loved taking pictures and adored being around her family, espe-
cially her new nephew. Makayla was a cashier at Taco Bell and was looking forward to graduating
soon.
Makayla always had a smile on her face. Everyone she encountered agrees— Makayla was the most
joyful person you could ever meet. “She was one of the best,” said Mr. Cotto, Makayla’s advisory
teacher for the past 4 years. “She was funny, she was respectful, and always had a good attitude, even
if she was having a bad day.”
Makayla never let bad days hold her back; she was always dedicated to her goals. “When it was time
to get work done, she did,” remembers Jalah Avery, Makayla’s cousin. Makayla's dedication would
inspire others. “She made me feel like I had a purpose here,” said Avery. “I wanted to be a role model
in her life so that she can be the best she can be.”
Though losing Makayla is unbearable, being sad is not the way Makayla would have wanted her fami-
ly and friends to be. Makayla was never sad; she was always joyful. Career senior Amani Maldonado,
one of Makayla’s closest friends, said that she tries to reminisce on the laughter and good times rather
than the sorrow. “I try not to think about it as much, so I just look at our pictures and videos,” said
Maldonado. Even after everything Makayla was going through with her health, she never let that
change the way she treated people, and how she impacted everyone she knew.
Makayla motivated everyone she came in contact with. She “was one of those students that would al-
ways kind of make you say that you want to come in, even on those days when you might be tired,”
said Cotto. Makayla would always bring the energy to the room. “She brought so much light to my
life, she was always the crazy energy I needed to be lifted up,” said Avery.
Makayla's legacy will live on through her family and friends. “We were more than cousins,” said
Avery. “I was whatever she needed me to be in the moment— best friend, sister, cousin.”
For me, I will always remember Makayla as my beloved niece and friend. Many people didn’t know
Makayla was my niece until now, though to me, she was more than a niece; she was someone I knew I
could count on, someone who would always try to lift me up in any situation.
Makayla was someone who brought so much joy and comfort to my life. I remember I only chose to
attend Career because I knew Makayla was going to be there and would make sure I was ok— and she
did. It's funny how we didn’t have any of the same classes together, but she still managed to see me
and make me laugh. All we did was laugh together, especially if we didn’t see each other for a long
time. Even at family events, we would always put a smile on each other's face. As soon as we locked
eyes, we would laugh— sometimes not knowing what we were laughing at. That's just the relationship
we had.
Writing this was way more than just an assignment for class; it was a way I could show my apprecia-
tion for my niece and friend, Makayla Nicole Bass. Makayla will always be with me in my heart.

3

COVID-19 Guidelines Implemented During
Lunch

Yamilett Hernandez
Due to the return of in-person learning, lunch safety guidelines have been put in place to prevent the spread of
COVID-19— including its new variants. Career has done all the necessary things, such as placing plastic di-
viders in the majority of the round tables in the lunchroom and encouraging social distancing. All tables are
separated, with every other seat marked with a “Do Not Sit Here Please” sticker on top. Career has also pro-
vided 3 extra lunch tables in the lobby to facilitate more distancing of students during lunch. However, alt-
hough the school has supplied all the necessary supplies, most students do not seem to follow these guidelines
during lunches— nor does the faculty enforce the use of the safety materials to their fullest extent.
The lunch table set-up is designed to only allow students to sit in every other seat; still, the distance is not 3
feet apart when students decide to sit right next to each other. Because of this, it has made it difficult for stu-
dents to abide by the CDC’s guidelines discouraging close contacts, especially when those guidelines aren’t
enforced by the school or lunch faculty.
The CDC guidelines for close contacts state that a close contact is “someone who was less than 6 feet away
from an infected person (laboratory-confirmed or a clinical diagnosis) for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or
more over a 24-hour period.” But due to the return of in-person learning and the lack of spaces in schools to
distance students 6 feet apart, the CDC revised their guidelines to recommend schools maintain at least 3 feet
of physical distance between students within classrooms to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to
maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, it is especially important to layer multiple prevention strategies
such as opening windows and doors and wearing masks.
Career freshman Juliana Dalmacio said that she is aware of the stickers on the seats that say “Do Not Sit
Here,” but that she does not follow them. Other students don’t even notice the stickers. Sophomore Taiden
Gonzales said that he was not aware of the stickers— then, pausing to think, responded, “wait…yes,” that he
had noticed them before. Students take a big role in increasing or decreasing the spread of COVID, but with-
out the enforcement of rules by the staff, some students themselves have no discipline to follow the guide-
lines. Because the guidelines aren’t enforced, many students have developed the mindset that “if the school
doesn't care, why should I?”
No argument is made that to eat lunch you need to remove your mask, which of course is understandable. But
because lunch is considered a “free time period,” many students hanging around without eating also do not
wear their masks. Career security guard and cafeteria staffer Rick Miani says that the number of students with-
out masks in the cafeteria is staggering. He encourages students who are socializing and not eating “every day”
to fix their masks. “I can’t even count how many [times],” said Miani. “A lot.” Career assistant principal Ste-
phen Ciarcia agreed, saying that he has reminded students to wear their masks “More than [he] can remem-
ber.”
Ciarcia encouraged students to stay safe and use common-sense rules to remain healthy. “Try to continue to
recognize the social guidelines and do what you can to keep yourself healthy, hands washed and safe dis-
tance,” said Ciarcia. Miani added, “Just tell [students], if they don’t want to get sick, the best thing to do is
wear their mask.”
Ciarcia pointed out that caring for each other is the most crucial detail during these tough times. “Obviously
we have different opinions… but you know, we all want to go to school and be safe.”

4

Career Students Thirst For Better

Jazlyn Rivera

Hill Regional Career students are finally getting water! On February
8th, students said goodbye to buying water bottles or drinking out of
jugs at lunch. The long-awaited bottle filling stations, which were
promised to students over 6 months ago, were installed at Ca-
reer. The school has decided to add these water filler stations on the
first floor near the main staircase and on the third floor next to the
elevators.

Justin Harmon, Communications Director for New Haven Public
Schools, acknowledged the frustration that many students have felt
while waiting for safe and reliable water access to be provided. “We
are grateful to the community for the patience they have shown, giv-
en the inconvenience,” said Harmon.

A worker installs a new water station Matthew Wilcox, Vice President of the Board of Education and Vice
February 8th. (Photo/Jazlyn Rivera) Chair of the Food Service Task Group, has a message for students
waiting for drinking water in their school. “I am sorry for the delay
getting the water refilling stations installed in the school,” said Wil-
cox. “We need to do better, and there are people working hard to try
and make it better.”

In the new COVID-19 era, water fountains have been covered in plastic and not able to be used by students—
or anyone, for that matter. Students have been so desperate as to buy water bottles from cafeteria or gym staff,
some even buying from other students. A survey of 36 Career students from all grades found that over 47% of
students have had to buy bottled water while in school. Some paid as much as $2 a bottle, while most students
reported paying $1 for their water bottles. This isn’t to say that Career wasn’t providing free water to its stu-
dents; a large jug of water was left out for students to get water during their lunch waves. But most students
say they stay away from it. In an anonymous survey, one student said, “I don't drink water from that jug be-
cause I don't know how clean or dirty it might be.”

Ms. Streater, the lead cook at Hill Regional Career, says that these jugs are cleaned and the water changed eve-
ry night. She also says that selling water and juices to students at Career isn’t a new occurrence. “We’ve been
selling waters and juices since I’ve been here, 9 years,” said Streater. Each day, around “50 to 60 dollars” was
made from water bottle sales. All of which, Ms. Streater stated, went to the Board of Education. Mr. True, Ca-
reer’s principal, was not available to comment on this.

Since returning to the building in April of 2021, this will be the first time students have access to drinking
fountains throughout the day. For Career students, the lack of readily available water was frustrating. Career
senior Rohan Bangera said that a lack of water had affected him academically, saying, “It makes me lose fo-
cus.” Bangera also described how lightheaded he became from the lack of water.

Career senior Josiah Rondon said, “Being thirsty does take a toll on me because without having the benefit of a
water fountain like we used to definitely distracts by wasting time throughout the day,” a truth that many stu-
dents relate to. Walking down to the cafeteria to buy a water bottle could take up to 10 minutes out of a class.
Students would have to walk far distances just to have water that, in years past, would have been readily avail-
able to them on each floor.

There are many more students who responded anonymously to a survey put out about drinking water at Career;
most wishing for free water, especially in the time of COVID-19. One student even wrote, “Water is a basic
human right. You shouldn't have to pay for it.” They will be getting their wishes granted— so here’s to getting
a nice cool drink of water from the new refill stations on the 1st and 3rd floor.

5

Amidst Omicron, COVID-19 Concerns Rise

Gabrielle Douglas
By now, COVID-19 is nothing new. After first being reported in China in December 2019, COVID-19 began
to seriously affect US schools in March 2020. For many New Haven students, this is their first year in a high
school building. Though decisions to reopen were left up to the local level in the 2020-2021 school year, that
was not the case this year. Connecticut schools had to be reopened; the only thing they were instructed to do is
be prepared.
Without the choice of being back, there have been concerns. Over time, there have been moments where
COVID-19 cases have decreased, giving students and teachers some peace of mind. Now, with the newly-
discovered Omicron variant, that peace is gone. The highly contagious Omicron variant hit Career around De-
cember, sending students to recover over break. When this variant began to spread, Career saw fewer students
and teachers due to its effects, as well as the increased concerns about catching COVID. As transmission rates
have decreased, more people are now back in the building; however, the question still remains: how safe is
everyone feeling to be back here?
Career senior class president Areile Jowers said that she does not feel comfortable being in the school. Mean-
while, freshman Genesis McCoy stated, “I feel safe, but some people without their masks are disturbing me.”
Another student, senior Ny’Jai McNeil, stated that a way to make her feel more safe in school would be to
“enforce the mask.”
These same students were never contacted about being near a student who had COVID, even though they each
knew students who had COVID. Instead, they were contacted directly by the student, not by the school. This
has been one of the largest concerns amongst everyone; no one knows who has COVID-19, and no one knows
if they need to be quarantining themselves.
Students voiced that though they have been living with the pandemic for two years, some students were still
not following safety guidelines. “The fact that [Omicron] is so contagious and mask protocols aren't enforced,
there's no organization and there's no repercussions for those who aren't following the protocols like safe dis-
tancing” is distressing, Jowers said. Even though there is a loudspeaker announcement every day reminding
students to respect their peers and teachers by making sure that their mask is pulled up, many students still are
not doing that— and they do not get any form of punishment.
With so many students questioning their safety, would students prefer virtual learning? “If we had to do
[virtual] again, I would feel fine. I'm halfway through senior year,” said Jowers. McNeil said that virtual learn-
ing “was okay. It wasn't the best, but I would do it again— just not for the whole school year.”
Students haven't been the only ones to voice worries over their safety. Teachers also have let their concerns be
known. Business teacher Sarah Kane said she “felt uneasy coming back into the building because of everyone
not following the rules.”
Taking into account the safety concerns surrounding this pandemic, it is everyone’s responsibility to make this
building a safer place and help give each other some comfort. Make sure your mask is being worn properly—
meaning that your nose and mouth are both covered. Masks need to be worn properly even when you're walk-
ing, talking, and any time when you are not eating. Continue practicing safe distancing, and if for any reason
you feel symptoms, please stay home.
As rules continue to change, confusion is on the rise. For example, the mask mandate— which some thought
would be ending, as it is in other districts— will be continuing in New Haven Public Schools. As the situation
continues to evolve, there is worry about COVID-19 on every level in the building— so please, let's help keep
everyone safe.

6

COVID-19 Impacts Community Service

Trinity Higgins
Community service: we’ve all heard it’s required, but what are the specifics? If you’re looking into
applying for the New Haven Promise scholarship, their requirement is 40 hours at a verified New Ha-
ven nonprofit. You must be a New Haven resident, maintain a 3.0 GPA, and have a 90% attendance
record. If you’re not pursuing New Haven Promise, you need 20 hours of community service.
Completing community service hours became much more difficult as COVID-19 began to affect chari-
ties, hospitals, and volunteer organizations. However, students at Career have found ways to continue
to volunteer and serve their community, even through the chaos of the pandemic.
Career senior Keyron Haynes’ experiences volunteering at the Downtown Evening Soup kitchen were
an eye-opener. Haynes described his experience as pushing him to grow in ways he never knew he
could. Volunteering “really changed my mentality,” said Haynes. “Due to COVID, I was restricted on
a lot of things. I was hesitant to confront people, because I’d have no idea how to volunteer in the first
place, and I have social anxiety, so I was hesitant to ask people how to do certain things. I started talk-
ing to my guidance counselor and she started giving me options of where I could go and who I should
talk to… it really helped me plan my future.”
Unfortunately, not all volunteering experiences went smoothly. The pandemic meant that safety was a
worry. Career senior Saliyah Short was volunteering at a food bank when “someone there had caught
COVID, and they emailed us and told us that we needed to get tested around that time.” Short also had
to follow safety protocols. “Normally when you do community service, you don’t need masks or social
distancing, or any of that.” Despite those changes, Short stated that the benefits of doing community
service outweighed the negatives. “You meet new people, you get to bond with people that you’ve
never met before. There are other people from different schools such as Co-op, so I would highly rec-
ommend it. It's good for the community and I actually enjoyed it, so I would definitely do it.”
COVID-19 has changed the ways students are able to volunteer at organizations. For example, the
Ronald McDonald House Of Connecticut is a non-profit organization that provides housing and ser-
vices for families of children receiving medical care. Since COVID-19, meetings that would normally
take place in person have been switched to virtual. Events to bake goods for the families are not possi-
ble. The only volunteers that should be at the Ronald McDonald House are there to drop off care bas-
kets or seasonal gifts. This protocol was put into place because the families and children there are at
increased risk of catching COVID-19, which would interfere with their current illnesses and treat-
ments.
Other places, such as LEAP— a program that allows students to mentor younger children— are able
to have their volunteers work in person. LEAP requires that their volunteers get vaccinated, since they
are looking after children. This poses an issue to some volunteers, who aren’t comfortable with getting
the vaccine due to a lack of knowledge about it or just simply not feeling comfortable with it. Though
LEAP continues to meet in person, some of their activities, such as field trips, are restricted because of
COVID-19.
Career senior Ahlyssa Bray volunteers as a childcare worker. Bray was also impacted by new policy
changes in her volunteer position at a daycare center. “COVID made me wear masks and have less
connection with the kids,” said Bray.
COVID-19 forced these seniors to adapt to not only safety protocols at the places they volunteered, but
also how they were able to interact with those they were helping within their communities. However,
they were still able to effect positive changes in their communities.

7

Support for LGBTQ Students at Career

Alonzo McClain
The LGBTQ community has long been systemically disadvantaged, and many members of that community
face numerous hardships. Hill Regional Career High School is host to a diverse community made up of stu-
dents identifying with various intersectional identities. So how do members of the LGBTQ community feel
about the environment at Career?
First, let’s take a look at some statistics across all of Connecticut. According to GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and
Straight Education Network), an organization dedicated to the safety of LGBTQ communities at schools, only
15 percent of schools in Connecticut had a plan in place to support transgender or nonbinary students (for ex-
ample, outlining nondiscriminatory procedures about bathrooms, dress codes, and names). Most Connecticut
students reported nondiscriminatory administrators— 65%, to be exact. On the other hand, Connecticut stu-
dents heard anti-LGBTQ remarks very often. 91% of LGBTQ students in Connecticut heard the word “gay”
used as a derogatory term, and 73% heard other or worse remarks.
As for how rampant these issues are at Career, opinions are divided. Some students feel that things for LGBTQ
students aren’t bad, while the other feels like there are still solutions and improvements to be desired. Assata
Johnson, a Career senior and LGBTQ ally, stated that she “didn’t see the blatant homophobia” that seems al-
most commonplace in most other schools. On the other hand, a Career student directly part of the LGBTQ
community who wished to remain anonymous said that they frequently heard slurs used at Career. “While the
slurs aren’t directed at me, they make me feel uncomfortable,” said the student. The student mostly heard
“gay” used as a derogatory term, and occasionally even heard people call each other the f slur.
As for their opinions on how staff supported the LGBTQ community, these students mostly agreed. Johnson
stated that she found staff members to be more supportive than at a lot of other schools and places in the Unit-
ed States, and that she felt like most staff were very supportive and nice. On the other hand, the anonymous
student agreed that most staff are very supportive and kind, but specified that there are a select few who don’t
support the LGBTQ community in any way. “Most teachers are very accepting,” said the student, “yet there
are a very select few that I feel don’t [accept]. They don’t explicitly say it, but you can tell they don’t.”
The one thing both fully agreed on, however, is that Career could use its assets to better educate people on the
struggles of the LGBTQ community and make the school a safer place. Johnson suggested better usage of the
Gay Straight Alliance, saying that it could be better advertised, while the anonymous student suggested teach-
ing about LGBTQ mental and physical health through courses in the health track. This is especially important
as more members of the LGBTQ community tend to suffer from anxiety and depression.
There is some recent progress in the school district, however. The New Haven Public Schools Board of Educa-
tion passed a new policy in November protecting the rights of transgender students in all of their schools, in-
cluding new policies related to bathrooms and dress codes. This was much-needed good news for the entire
New Haven trans student population. Johnson offered a statement to the Board of Ed in support of the policy
which read, “I believe in privacy and protection for all… [Trans students] aren’t others, they are students.”
While the answer to ensuring a supportive environment at Career for LGBTQ students, Career’s goal is always
to create a safe environment. Students can support by donating to GLSEN, supporting and visiting our GSA
when it is available for enrichment, and by simply respecting the identities of your fellow peers.

8

School Lunch: Is It Enough Time?

Daneiris Tirado-Pizarro

For students, school lunch has long been a very con-
troversial topic in schools. It is important that students
get the right amount of time to eat. Unfortunately,
many students across Connecticut do not have enough
time to eat lunch, which can cause many problems
during their day.

Many high schools give approximately 20-30 minutes
for students to eat. Branford High School has only 22
minutes for each lunch wave, which is even shorter
than other high schools such as Co-op, Career, and
Cross, which each have 30 minutes. Many people
might think that’s enough time, but there are other
factors at play. Students have to walk to the cafeteria
(Photo/Daneiris Tirado-Pizarro) and wait in line for lunch, and by the time they get to

sit down, they might not have much time to actually eat. This time available to eat is known as seat time. It is
important that students get enough seat time to eat.

According to the CDC guidelines on school nutrition, “the distinction between adequate seat time and the
length of the meal period is overall important because many activities can shorten time to eat, including the
restroom, handwashing, walking to where the meal is served, and waiting in line.” Career High School junior
Ashley Bailon says that she struggles to find enough time to eat. “I usually go straight to lunch, but by the time
I get there and by the time we get to the lunch line, it cuts down the time [to eat] a lot.” Career High School
sophomore Natalie Garcia, agrees, saying, “I think [lunch] is a bit short, because usually I don’t have enough
time to finish my lunch. We get to lunch, but then there’s a long line to wait in.” Many Career students feel
strongly about not having enough seat time to eat.

Although the school schedules were made to accommodate everyone, including teachers and staff, students
still feel like they do not have enough time to eat. According to the CDC guidelines, it is recommended that
schools should “ensure that students have at least 20 minutes once they are seated to enjoy their meal.” This is
the distinction about seat time that is so important, and the reason that many think that having a 30-minute
lunch time is unfortunately not adequate. There are 610 students and 3 lunch waves at Career High School.
That’s approximately 200 students in each lunch wave who have to stand in line, get their food, and find a seat.
COVID-19 makes this even more challenging and cuts down more time from students' lunch times as they at-
tempt to social distance and find a seat.

It is true that some lunch waves have more students than others. On a recent A day, I decided I would time my-
self going into lunch and waiting in line. It took me 5 minutes to get to lunch and 8 minutes to wait in line--
and that’s because this lunch wave has fewer kids. Other lunch waves have more students, and consequently,
longer lines.

There are students whose only form of nutrition is coming from the school. They rely on school meals to get
through the day, so providing students with time to eat is crucial. According to the Harvard School of Public
Health, “students with less than 20 minutes to eat lunch consumed 13% less of their entrees, 12% less of their
vegetables, and 10% less of their milk.” This shows that when students are not given time to eat, they can’t
hope to gain all they need to give them energy that keeps them going throughout the day. Career High School
junior Emilia Pinilla said that the lack of time to eat “makes my energy go down, because I can’t finish eating
my food.” Career High School junior Gloria Ramirez agrees, saying, “I feel like I can’t concentrate without
having food in my system.”

It is clear that prioritizing students' lunch time makes sense, because this issue impacts students in many ways.
At a bare minimum, students need what the CDC has recommended: their full 20 minutes of seat time.

9

Slavic Holidays in the New Haven
Community

Amelia Stefanovics

(Photo/Amelia Stefanovics)

New Haven is a uniquely multicultural municipality that prides itself on its rich diversity. Here and in other
neighboring cities, there are large communities of people of Slavic descent who often celebrate traditions that
pass generations and stretch across oceans. In New Haven, there are many holidays that are celebrated to keep
these long-standing traditions going.
Who are Slavs?
The Slavs are a large Ethno-Linguistic group, which means that they share ethnic and language roots, and are
native to Eurasia. Some examples of Slavs are Russians, Ukrainians, Czechs, and Poles.
While many holidays are centered around the Orthodox Church and its calendar, others stretch back to paegan
roots. Still others commemorate recent historical events. For example, Ivana Kupala is a Karelian holiday that
is celebrated to mark the start of spring on the shortest night of the year. Most Russians and Ukrainians, how-
ever, follow the traditional Maslenitza (butter holiday) holiday, which traces back to paegan roots. During
Maslenitza, a straw scarecrow-witch symbolizing winter is burned to scare away the season to let spring come.
Many paegan celebrations are still ingrained in Slavic culture. It is an old part of culture to show and celebrate
the passing of seasons and old beliefs about the old Sun and Moon gods. “In New Haven, most Paegan holi-
days are ignored,” says Natalya Danchenko, WorldCLASS Russian Instructor. “The Church becomes a strong
community that facilitates its own holidays. Much of their [fundraising] efforts go to charities to their home
countries.”
The Different Calendars
As many Slavic people adhere historically to the Orthodox Church, there are slight time differences between
the holidays. The calendar that most people in the United States are accustomed to is called the Gregorian cal-
endar, proposed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, and is 365.25 days long. Before that time, the whole world
used the Julian calendar, by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. Julius Caesar miscalculated the movement of the sun by
11 minutes, making it out of sync with the seasons. The Orthodox Church still uses this calendar, though, and
many religious Slavic holidays are dated with the Julian Calendar rather than with the more familiar Gregorian
calendar.

10

Some holidays, however, are marks of more recent historical significance. Most of these mark independence or
achievements of countrymen. In Russia, Cosmonaut Day (Astronaut Day) is celebrated on the 12th of April to
signify the launch of the first man in space. In the Czech Republic, the 28th of October is Independent Czecho-
slovak Statehood Day, symbolizing the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary in 1918 after
WW1.These holidays are not often celebrated in New Haven; however, Danchenko notes, “Older people from
the Hamden area get together and celebrate specific holidays of historic significance.”
Holidays and the USSR
Before 1991, Russia, Ukraine, and many other republics were part of a much larger country called the USSR,
which stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union, for short). This country emerged from a
revolution in 1921 after overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a communist regime. During this time
from 1921-1991, many holidays were created to remember historical events, such as Victory Day on May 9th,
when Germany was defeated in WW2 1945, and October Revolution Day, observed on November 7th.
“Greater New Haven has had many celebrations within each specific Slavic community,” Danchenko states.
However, New Haven’s Slavic celebrations are not limited to those within the Slavic community. “Others who
are interested in buying traditional food or watching folk dances are welcome to participate.” Many Slavic
communities have concerts in which children and adults recite poems and put on plays such as the Nutcracker.
“The festivals celebrated by all Slavic communities are bright and entertaining, beautiful, and a strengthening
bond in cultural connection,” says Danchenko.

Vaping at Career: A Dangerous Trend

İlknur Kupuc
Vapes, also known by the name e-cigarettes, are electronic devices that have nicotine and flavor in them.
They are turned into vapor and inhaled. Some e-cigarettes look like regular cigarettes, USB flash drives, pens,
and other ordinary items. Larger devices such as tank systems, or “mods,” do not look like other tobacco
products.
Vape use is on the rise, but it is not safe for teenagers or children because it contains nicotine, an addictive
chemical. According to experts, vaping can sometimes lead to serious issues, such as lung damage. Nicotine
can damage the developing brain. In addition, vape use may increase the chance that someone begins smok-
ing in the future.
Results from the Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey conducted by the Food and Drug Administration
say that “2 Million U.S. middle school and high school students are vape users.” These numbers are increas-
ing day by day, and teens are now even vaping in schools. This high rate of use is despite the fact that vapes
and e-cigarettes are banned from school campuses to the same extent as other tobacco products, such as ciga-
rettes.
At Career, students vaping is an unfortunate problem. Even if students go through metal detectors and securi-
ty guards search their bags, students still hide vapes and use vapes in the bathrooms. Although there is no
vape use in the classroom yet, many students say that they witness vape users in the bathroom. Many Career
students are not happy with this situation, while some of them do not care. Career senior Lima Rahimi said,
“Every time that I go to the bathroom, I notice that people are vaping. They are not vaping next to me, but I
can see them, so I’m feeling uncomfortable.” Another Career senior, Rania Naji, said “Sometimes I see [vape
users], but I just ignore them.” However, Naji said, “We are not telling the staff when we see the users.”
Even though it is common, vaping at school is punishable. Security officer Gwendolyn Ponteau said, “We can
reduce students' vaping by telling them the danger of vaping. But if we see them [vaping], they can be sus-
pended.”

11

Colorism Within the Hispanic Community

Tatiana M Gonzalez
According to NCCJ, The National Conference for Community and Justice, “Colorism is a practice of prejudice
or discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. This
practice is a product of racism in the United States, in that it upholds the white standards of beauty and bene-
fits white people in the institutions of oppression.” In the Hispanic community, colorism is a huge problem.
Those who are lighter often prejudice darker-skinned Hispanics as “wild” or “low-class.” They don't believe
that darker-skinned Hispanics can succeed in this world filled with opportunities. Some areas don't accept
those who are darker-skinned because of prejudices against their backgrounds or other false beliefs about their
character. Whether they realize it or not, colorism is a prejudice that lots of lighter-skinned people carry
around with them like a purse that they can't let go of.
In reality, Hispanics come in all kinds of colors: white skin, light skin, brown skin, and dark skin. Despite this,
a lot of people don't accept Hispanics if they have a darker complexion. This causes harm, discrimination, and
difficulty in accepting your identity; people are either not light enough to be called “American” or not dark
enough to be a part of the Hispanic community. People whose skin tone falls somewhere in the middle are
caught; others see them as someone that shouldn't even be a real part of any color.
As a Hispanic, we all want to feel welcome, regardless of how light or dark we may be. A lot of Hispanics
come from their home countries to the U.S to try and make a better place for themselves and their children.
For people with lighter skin to not accept that they have gone thorough a rough time to become as successful
as they are is discriminatory.
The U.S is a land of opportunity. However, it is important to acknowledge that lighter-skinned people have a
better chance at those opportunities. We should all have an equal opportunity at life; our time is wasted trying
to impress those who don't pay attention to who we really are, but instead pay attention to our skin tone.
Instead of valuing our human qualities, colorism pays attention to the color of our skin. Hispanics who have
brown skin are beautiful; however, due to the white supremacy of colorism, they are stereotyped as predators.
Accusing darker-skinned Hispanics as “rap****” or “spi***” isn't a way to win someone's respect. When
you're falsely accusing someone of color, that shows that you're the one that lacks respect. Hispanics come to
America to show their interests and life skills; if a lighter-skinned person is being discriminatory, then they are
the ones who are wild, who don't have respect or love for the newcomers who deserve to feel welcomed
here.
Within the Hispanic community, there are many ways that discrimination and prejudice have surfaced for the
darker-skinned people. Hamden High School junior Scott Jusino explained his experience with being discrimi-
nated against in a public place. “Once, when I was in a store with my friend, we were looking around… When
we went back in the line with my friend’s brother, the person behind him was an old white man. He looked at
me and called me— you know, the racial slur for African-Americans, and just gave me dirty looks the entire
time,” said Jusino. Because of his skin color, Jusino was demeaned and targeted using a racial slur, violating
who he is as a person and a proud Hispanic.
There needs to be a change in this world, and in this community. Hispanics need to be recognized more than
just stereotyped as dark or light. New Haven resident Vanessa Gonzalez said that “nowadays, there's not much
communication. It's just all anger. We as human beings should be treated equally. Black, Hispanic— we have
color, we all have color, we should all come together and come to an agreement, and definitely we need to
speak out and spend some time together. I think that that would help us to recognize we’ve been through simi-
lar things, so we really are the same, we’re similar, we're together.”
Those who are of a darker complexion deserve a chance to show who they are. Whether they left a home coun-
try or were born in America, it isn't right to brush aside how Hispanics feel about their skin color and their
identities. Hispanics of all colors are part of this community and deserve to be treated fairly.

12

Working in a Pandemic: Teenagers’
Experiences

Angel Santos
Most people start working during their teenage years; however, due to the COVID-19 crisis, this practice has
been more difficult for today's youth. Today, workers must practice safety precautions in order to prevent the
spread of the coronavirus. Unsurprisingly, the stress of working and attending school during a national health
crisis can be overwhelming for teenagers balancing these responsibilities.
In this day and age, teenagers who work must worry about not only contracting the virus at school, but at their
job as well. This is a bigger problem now than ever, since some people are asymptomatic but contagious—
even with the vaccine. On top of that, mask mandates are being lifted across the United States. This includes
Connecticut, which will lift its mask orders for students on the 28th of February; on this date, control for mask
mandates will be handed to the school districts instead of the state.
Working during the pandemic can especially be stressful for students who have to help pay the bills at hom.
While some students are working to have enough money to spend time with friends going out to eat or to the
movies, other students have it harder than others and work in order to help their guardians with rent or bills.
Other students depend on their income for their own necessities, like transportation and food, and need a job.
For these students, working during the pandemic is especially stressful.
Ashly Chinchilla balances waitressing at Texas Roadhouse with her responsibilities as a senior at Hill Region-
al Career Magnet High School. Chinchilla’s working experience has been difficult. Chinchilla states, “It's hard
keeping up with hours at work and my schoolwork up to date” and that “work can have a great toll on school.”
Chinchilla’s situation demonstrates the difficulty of balancing work and school for some student workers.
Even though work can sometimes be an unpleasant experience for teens, not every student has a rough time
with work. Joshuwa Papalotzi Sanchez, a senior at Career, works in an auto shop. Sanchez states that for him,
his work doesn't really interfere with his schoolwork since his employers are more understanding of teenagers
working in a pandemic. However, Sanchez also states that “some classes give too much work, and I fall behind
sometimes.”
Juan Boone, another senior at Career who works as a junior counselor at the LEAP children’s program, states
that he “started working during the brink of COVID, and it was easy adapting since I wasn't used to anything
different before that… That's all I was introduced to.” This is important to note, because it shows that for stu-
dents who started work during a pandemic, they were forced to immediately get used to the unfamiliar safety
protocols in their very first jobs. Boone’s employers were also understanding to teens who started working
during this crisis.
While maintaining a job may be stressful for some students during these times, losing a job can definitely be
stressful. Research shows that the coronavirus pandemic can be a lead cause of unemployment in teens. Ac-
cording to a study by the Pew Research Center, “About 1.9 million 16- to 19-year-olds lost their jobs between
February and April 2020.” This demonstrates the damage caused by the virus on many levels.
We are going through one of the biggest catastrophic events in human history, and times have changed. While
some students find it difficult balancing school life and grades, others have managed to comfortably incorpo-
rate working into their routines. Not everyone shares the same obstacles, and it is important to be understand-
ing and supportive of that; no matter what, student workers deserve safe working environments and hours that
allow them to continue their education.

13

Students Benefit from Later School Starting
Times

Enelly Hernandez

We all know it: the majority of us high
school students are not getting enough
sleep. Struggling to wake up, falling asleep
in class, or being unable to concentrate
are common, everyday experiences for
high school teenagers.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (Photo/Mikael Häggström, Creative Commons License)
states that not getting enough sleep is com-
monly associated with physical health is-
sues including obesity, drinking alcohol, the
use of drugs, and lack of academic perfor-
mance as well as depression. Inadequate
sleep is also associated with a variety of se-
rious mental health issues: an increased risk
of self-harm, suicidal thoughts and suicide
attempts. The American Academy of Sleep
Medicine recommends that teenagers 13-18
years old should sleep 8-10 hours each
night. Sleeping the amount of hours recom-
mended correlates with better outcomes in at-
tention, behavior, learning, and quality of life.

Despite the clear benefits of sleep, many teenagers are chronically exhausted. Back in 2007, the national Youth
Risk Behavior Survey researched how many students are getting sufficient sleep; the study showed that only
31% of students are getting enough sleep, and that number continues to remain steady today. One cause of
sleep deprivation for teenagers is early school starting times.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average starting time for high schools in Con-
necticut is 7:39AM, earlier than the national average starting time of 8:03AM. The American Academy of Pe-
diatrics recommends starting school at 8:30AM.

One potential solution to the problem of exhausted students is educating parents, school professionals, and the
general public on the importance of adequate sleep for teenagers. With more education, professionals might be
motivated to delay the starting time of school by a minimum of 30 minutes.

Career junior Ashley Bailon admits that she does not get enough sleep and says she feels “tired” before school
starts. She also claims that she would feel more awake and “concentrate better” if school started later. She tries
to get an adequate amount of sleep, but struggles to do so. In teenagers’ bodies, the sleep hormone melatonin
doesn't begin being produced until around 11PM, which is why many teenagers don’t feel tired until late at
night. This is also why simply falling asleep early isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Another Career senior, Itzaida Rivera, reports that she tries to sleep 8 hours a night, but unfortunately feels
“miserable, tired, and unmotivated” in the morning. Rivera wakes up at 4:30AM, much earlier than most other
students, to catch a bus to school— a ride that normally takes around an hour. She has researched starting
school later and believes that 9AM would be a reasonable time to start.

14

Starting school at a later time would not only positively affect students, but staff as well. Career science teach-
er Terence McTague says that he feels “tired” and “slightly depressed” in the mornings and agrees that “the
current start time for school is too early for both teachers and students.” McTague believes that starting school
later would positively affect students. “I think that student attendance would be better [with a later start time].
We’d have less students that are tardy and less students who are absent,” says McTague. “I think student
grades would improve because students are going to be more well-rested and less tired during the day, so
they’ll be better learners.” As a teacher, McTague personally would love to start school later, stating that his
experience with teaching first period is “pretty tough.” Many students are late— some so late that they just
miss the entire class period. Those students would benefit the most from starting school later.
Families, teachers, and students should unite: altering the school starting time is beneficial for the health of
students. Both students and staff would be positively affected by this change, which would allow for more stu-
dents being present, healthy, alert, and ready to learn.

Remote vs. In-Person Learning

Reynid Rios
Though in-person learning and online learning each have their benefits, many Career students seem glad to be
back in the school building this year. Students report struggling during remote learning, finding it difficult to
turn in assignments. On the whole, there have been positive experiences with in-person learning as opposed to
remote learning.
Marasaely Cedeno, a junior from Wilbur Cross High School, said that in-person learning is far better than re-
mote. “Teachers give us less homework and it doesn’t add up to more and more,” while remote learning work
seemed to accumulate faster, said Cedeno. Another student, sophomore Alanis Rios from Cooperative Arts
High School, said that she appreciates that “teachers' flexibility, and due dates are manageable.”
There were also a lot of challenges and disadvantages in remote learning. Students were having technical diffi-
culties and being distracted. Rios said, “During remote learning I had problems with wifi and staying on task.”
For many students, it is hard to make time for both work and school. This changed during remote learning,
when many students were working more hours, but sometimes spending less time on schoolwork. Emily
Bonilla, a junior from Wilbur Cross, said, “I face challenges like working and doing school in-person, but
while in remote learning, I had time to do both.”
Of course, the main disadvantage to returning to in-person school is the risk of contracting COVID-19. When
it comes to getting sick while attending in-person learning, students quarantine or isolate for 5-10 days, mean-
ing that they can’t come to school until they have no symptoms of COVID-19. Work tends to pile up when stu-
dents are in school to do the required assignments. Rios experienced this herself, saying, “I have gotten sick
and could not attend school. This was difficult because all the work eventually piled up and created more stress
upon myself.” When students were remote learning, they were less likely to catch COVID-19; if they did con-
tract the virus, they were able to keep up with their work online, since classes and assignments were all done
through Google Classroom.
What many people like most about in-person learning is that the education is more engaging and interesting.
There are more hands-on activities being performed by students. Rios stated that in person, “things have gotten
better.” She saw herself that “the amount of books I have read in class and the hands-on activities” increased.
Lastly, the social interactions in-person learning brings to students is a benefit. Since students haven’t been in
school due to COVID-19, in-person learning can help bring students’ social skills back and increase communi-
cation.
The state of Connecticut has said that remote learning is no longer an option for ordinary public schools; this
means that, for the time being, in-person learning is likely to continue.

15

The Changing History of Afghanistan

Idres Nasruddin
Many people may have seen news about Afghanistan, but do you know how the Afghan-American conflict
started? How does the past reflect the events that are taking place in Afghanistan right now? Who are the Tali-
ban? It’s a complex topic, but it’s important to begin to understand details about the events that are taking
place in Afghanistan right now.
Afghanistan is a landlocked country located in central Asia. With a population of 35 million people, most of its
population is tribal, and there are many different ethnic groups in the country. The major groups are Pashtons,
Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turks, and Hazaras. Most of the tribal leaders want more power and influence over the coun-
try, but the Pashtuns have been the dominant group since the 1600s. Many empires have originated from this
country— Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Hotaks, Durranis, and more— and many empires have tried to invade this
country throughout history.
The British tried to take over Afghanistan 3 times, failing all three times. Then, the Soviet Union invaded the
country in hopes of making it communist in 1979, but they also failed. The Americans helped the Mujahideen
(Afghan freedom fighters) with weapons and ammunition to fight off the Soviets during the Cold War. After
defeating the Soviets, those same Mujahideen started fighting among each other and the country was in the
flames of a civil war for almost a decade. Then, from southern Afghanistan, a group emerged who called them-
selves Taliban (Students of Islam). They were able to overpower all the former Mujahideen, and made a strong
centralized government in Afghanistan.
The Taliban ruled over Afghanistan for a few years, but then Osama bin Laden (a Saudi billionaire and Al
Qaeda leader) took refuge in Afghanistan. From Afghanistan, he planned and executed the 9/11 attack on the
Twin Towers and Washington DC. George W. Bush (the American president at the time) demanded the Tali-
ban hand in Osama Bin Laden, or they would face an invasion.
Mullah Omar (the Taliban leader at the time) rejected the Americans and ignored this warning. He ignored the
Americans because of his Pashton status, which meant that he followed a tribal code known as the
"Pashtunwali." One of the rules in the code is that a Pashtun must protect their guests at all costs, even his life.
Mullah Omar considered bin Laden a guest, and thus had to protect him. This refusal to comply caused the
Americans to invade Afghanistan, and make the Taliban government collapse.
A new democratic government was installed, and most of the Taliban moved to isolated mountain regions.
They fought a guerrilla war against both the Americans and the new democratic government for over 20 years,
until getting back into power in 2021.
The Taliban fought the Americans and the Afghan government for over 20 years. Then, the Americans decided
to leave Afghanistan in 2021. The former Afghan government started losing territory to the Taliban rapidly.
This was due to a variety of complex factors: corrupt leadership, lack of structure in the military, soldiers not
wanting to fight and shed blood for no reason, and dissolution of the government in Kabul. For these reasons,
many generals and commanders decided to stop fighting, and left the government to the Taliban. But during
the peace talks before all of this, the Taliban promised that they would not use force to take over the govern-
ment, and instead share the government with the former government. But as the final American troops were
leaving, the former government collapsed, and all leaders fled to join other countries. According to the Tali-
ban, they were forced to take over, because without a police and security force, all of the country would expe-
rience chaos and theft. But the American government and the U.N. said that the Taliban didn’t stand on their
word, and took the country by force. This caused the U.S to freeze some 10 billion dollar bank assets of the
Afghan Bank.

16

This chain reaction is causing the risk of an economic collapse in Afghanistan, and causing people to starve,
because people cannot borrow money from the banks to do business or buy goods. It also became very difficult
for Afghans living in foreign countries to send money to their families in Afghanistan. Hewad Tanha, an Af-
ghan refugee living in New Haven, is a sophomore at Hillhouse High School. Tanha stated that he believes all
the sanctions should be lifted, because ordinary Afghans need to survive and make a living. While many peo-
ple agree with Tanha’s viewpoint, other people have opposing ideas. Faisal Al-Harbi, a Saudi senior at Career
High School, stated that “No, the UN shouldn’t recognize the Taliban regime because they are a threat to
world peace.” But, Al-Harbi went on to say, “I think this conflict could have ended a long time ago if many
countries didn’t fight this unnecessary war. People should recognize the Taliban just so that starvation can
end.” Many people want the starvation and economic troubles to end, but not everyone trusts the Taliban as a
legitimate government. This is causing a lot of controversy.
Storai Chatak, an Afghan refugee who goes to Gateway Community College and is a New Haven resident, be-
lieves that “These countries, including the U.S, are very wrong for sanctioning Afghanistan, because the peo-
ple are the only ones that are suffering the consequences. They can’t get jobs, open businesses, and get educat-
ed. Nobody in my family back home has jobs, the ones that have businesses are having little to no sales. They
depend on us [in the US] to support them.”
Some Afghans, like Tanha, don’t have a problem with the new government, because they are more worried
about their country improving, rather than regimes changing. Tanha stated in his family’s experience, “there
are no safety issues, all of my family is at peace and there are zero killings and crimes. The only problems that
they are facing are money and food insecurity.” On the other hand, a lot of Afghans also don’t like the new
government and are fearful of them. The Taliban are known to ban music, cultural traditions, and dances. The
Taliban are also known to ban women from getting education, and from working. They are also known to im-
pose an extreme version of Islam on everyone. Still other Afghans are hopeful that the new Taliban will have
seen the world through social media, and will be more open-minded than before. Regardless of their hopes and
fears for the new regime, the main issues for most ordinary Afghans are serious and immediate: the weakening
economy, lack of healthcare, and the shortage of food.

This map shows the devel-
opment of the civil war in
Afghanistan and the four
major militias fighting for
control of the country.
(PhotosNederlandse
Leeuw, Nicolas Eynaud,
Creative Commons Li-
cense)

17

Little-Known Black Heroes Deserve ]
Recognition, Celebration

Keionna Wallace

There are many amazing figures who contribute to Black histo-
ry in America. We learn about many of them and are reminded
of the most well-known ones in history throughout our school
years— Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa
Parks. Career students learn about Black history and have prior
knowledge of these figures, but who else deserves to be cele-
brated and known?

Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey, Mrs. Ukah’s Career civics teacher Bob Osborne stated that Malcolm X is a
choice of a little-known figure in Black history lesser-known hero who fought for Black people to gain em-
(Photo/New York Public Library, Creative powerment and have the right to vote. “Malcolm deserves
Commons License) more credit for his decision on the civil rights movement. The
Voting Rights Act should've been passed in the 1900’s because
it's under the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments.” Osborne also
said that people don’t know or understand Malcolm X as they
should. “Malcolm X is a little-known hero,” said Osborne. “He
is viewed as an angry Black man, but Malcolm is just misun-
derstood. A person who made a huge change, like Malcolm
did, is powerful.” Osborne stated that more people should
know about Malcolm X’s accomplishments. “Malcolm should
be celebrated because Malcolm’s personal life is very inspira-
tional and will help motivate many people.”

9th grader Nasir Woods argues that Jackie Robinson doesn't earn as much credit as he deserves for
his fight for Black people’s rights and activism sports. Woods voiced that “Jackie Robinson wasn't
just a great baseball player. Something that helped him was his outspoken activism for the civil rights
movement.” Woods additionally added that “a way that we can celebrate Jackie Robinson at Career
High School is to give him more credit for his actions by mentioning his name more.”
11th grader Quimoni Roberson was able to come up with another lesser-known hero in Black history.
Roberson chose Booker T. Washington, who urged the Black people in his time to look beyond dis-
crimination towards education and advancement and focus on other blessings and positivity. Rob-
erson said, “Booker T. Washington was an educator, author, and the most influential Black leader of
his time.” Roberson added, “Booker T. Washington was a powerful and peaceful man. He should be
celebrated because in his day he earned the respect of many people because of his hard work and en-
couragement.”
Julius Brown, also an 11th grader, decided on Sojourner Truth, a woman who was enslaved at birth.
Later, she escaped with her child, who was only an infant. Brown said that Truth was the “first Black
woman to win a lawsuit against a white man, and that was very powerful.” Brown admired Truth for
being an “outspoken advocate for civil and women’s rights, her hard work showed and she received
an invitation to meet the president at the time, who was Abraham Lincoln.” Brown believes that
“Sojourner should be celebrated with the rest of the Black women in history, because she is also as
important and powerful.”

18

Chemistry teacher Funmilayo Ukah selected a Jamaican activist named Marcus Garvey as a Black he-
ro who should be celebrated. Ukah stated that “Marcus started many organizations for the Black com-
munity. Marcus was voted the president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and became
a Black activist, and he fought for the rights of Black people.” Ukah feels that Career can celebrate
Garvey by putting a photo of him up in the hallways next to other Black activists.
There are many more Black heroes who made huge contributions to Black history, but are little
known. Celebrate, share, and discuss their stories so that their names still live on and they can be re-
membered.

How Viruses Mutate: Where’s COVID
Now?

Kayla Smith
Everyone hears the word “coronavirus” 20 times a day, but only some have an idea of what viruses
really are or how they continue to spread amongst the population.
In reality, viruses are pathogenic organisms that are not capable of duplication without being within a host.
What does that mean? In simple terms, that’s just saying that a virus is a small pathogen-- in fact, it’s only
visible with an electron microscope. In order to replicate and create more viruses, these pathogenic organisms
need a host; unfortunately for us, humans are the perfect candidates. Rosalba Addario Zajac, Career’s Allied
Health Science instructor, said “we [humans] have everything they need” to survive.
Since every host has a different immune system structure, viruses must evade not only the host’s immune sys-
tem, but also any vaccines in order to infect and duplicate. When a new virus comes about, this is due to the
fact that during duplication, this virus strain experienced some sort of genetic mutation or modification
among the strain’s structure, which results in the creation of an entirely new virus. As a virus duplicates, it
has an opportunity to mutate to ensure its survival. Some mutations make it easier for a virus to spread itself
amongst the population. So, how does this involve COVID-19?
COVID-19 is the acronym used to represent the highly contagious virus known as SARS-CoV-2. According
to Addario Zajac, the high infection rate of COVID-19 makes it easier for the virus to mutate. “When a virus
like COVID-19 is as highly contagious as it is, it’s going to spread,” said Addario Zajac. As viruses duplicate,
they have the potential to change, and “that’s when mutations happen,” said Addario Zajac. With humans be-
ing the perfect hosts for many different reasons, the virus spreads from one person to another. We are all so-
cial beings and have interactions with others, and the virus is passed on to other hosts.
Once you have all of these mutations occurring and the virus spreading quickly, these different mutations can
become variants. “When the variant develops a new way to biologically infuse itself and has different capa-
bilities to do that, then that’s where it becomes a strain,” says Addario Zajac, explaining the cause behind the
recent variants originating from COVID-19.
With all of the current variants of COVID-19 and percentage rates of both vaccinated and unvaccinated peo-
ple fluctuating, this virus does not seem to be slowing down any time soon. Addario Zajac agrees, saying, “ If
we’re providing the perfect host for this virus, then I think we’re going to be looking at COVID-19 for a long
time.” Marlene Pratt, one of Career’s science teachers, agrees. Unfortunately, says Pratt, “A lot of people are
going to lose their lives before they find the cure for it.”
In order to stay safe and protected against this virus continue to wear your masks, disinfect your surfaces, and
get vaccinated if possible. By getting vaccinated, you lower your risk of getting COVID-19, and if you do
catch this virus, you will have a better chance of having minimal symptoms compared to someone who is un-
vaccinated. The vaccine aids your immune system to be better prepared to fight stronger and harder against
any strain of the virus that enters your body, leaving you more protected from this highly contagious virus.

19

Sexual Harassment in Schools Must End

Eniyah Lawrence
Sexual harassment and assaults are big issues in our society. While some people can be confused about where
to draw the line between compliments and harassment, it’s important for everyone, even children, to be able to
tell the difference and get help when they need it. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Com-
mission, “Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical
harassment in such nature.”
Unfortunately, many people are familiar with sexual harassment. By the age of 10 years old, many girls at Hill
Regional Career High School reported that they had been sexually harassed in some way. When they are
young, many children do not know how to confide in parents or adults; instead, their mindset is focused on try-
ing not to get into trouble. When a predator manipulates a child at such a young age, the child tends to think
harassment or abuse is their fault, or they blame themselves for not saying anything until later. Kids' mindsets
think they need to protect their abuser so no one gets in trouble. Keeping quiet is a normal response, but it can
lead to later trauma rather than beginning the healing process.
According to research done by the American Association of University Women, 87% of students who reported
being sexually harassed experienced negative effects later. Some of these negative effects could include poor
sleep, worrying, depression, eating disorders, PTSD, or substance abuse.
The same study found that it wasn’t only female students who were subjected to sexual harassment. 40% of
male students in grades 7-12 reported experiencing some kind of sexual harassment. This leads to other prob-
lems. Some boys or men feel some kind of shame, humiliation, guilt, anger, or fear after being sexually har-
assed. While women are more likely to be survivors of sexual violence and harassment, the story around sexu-
al violence is to think of boys and men as perpetrators and women as victims. This creates a stereotype about
male invulnerability. This stereotype built the world that makes it hard for boys and men to admit they need
help.
It takes a lot of courage to stand up against sexual harassment— whether it’s happening to you or to others.
This came to attention recently, when students at New Haven’s Amistad High School staged a walkout and
protest against the sexual harassment they say that they experienced at the school. Students protested on No-
vember 24, 2021 after a report was made that a staff member allegedly was touching girls in inappropriate
ways. Additionally, students were protesting sexual harassment by other students that went unpunished. Dur-
ing school hours, many students gathered outside the school and began a peaceful protest. One Career student,
whose sister attends Amistad and participated in the protest, said that he supports the student activism at
Amistad. “I would have made posters and gathered everyone that agreed outside in front of the school and
started protesting [as well],” said the Career student.
For teachers, they will often not witness sexual harassment directly; this is why it is important for teachers to
be good listeners and observers. Though they may not witness something, they can be a person to go to if a
student needs to reach out for help in a difficult situation. That is why it is always good for teachers to have a
good bond with their students to have the balance of support and professionalism. Students can get reassurance
and help from their teachers.
At the same time, students need to be aware that all school workers, including teachers, are mandated reporters
by law. This means that if a student tells a teacher that someone is harming them, the teacher is legally obligat-
ed to report it to ensure that the student is safe.
Bob Osborne, a Career social studies teacher, stated, “as a teacher you have to report [harassment]... which all
comes down to trust.” When they report harassment, students might have that voice in the back of their mind
wondering if the person will take action over their situation. Osborne stated that telling someone is the way
that you can make sure you get help and the situation is addressed. “It is important to talk to someone until you
feel free from the situation,” said Osborne.

20

Administration tries their best to keep a safe environment in schools, and there are many people to go to if you
feel like you’d like to discuss or report something. Students at Career High School can go to their administra-
tor, a counselor, the social workers (Ms. Westefeld and Ms. Silva), or any staff member. All of these people
can be someone to go to for support to handle difficult situations. Speak to someone immediately if you are
having an experience that makes you uncomfortable, and know that there are plenty of people waiting to sup-
port you.

Enrichment Wednesdays Bring Benefits

Bianca Menelas
For many years, Career students have asked for a study hall; this year, their requests were granted. Starting on
October 27th 2021, students were given the choice to go to an enrichment period each Wednesday. On Mon-
days during advisory, teachers check in with students and ask them where they would like to go for enrichment.
Students have over 30 clubs to choose from, and also have the choice to go to a teacher whose class they need
help in. On a typical enrichment Wednesday, students go to their first period classes for 55 minutes rather than
86, and then on to second period for the same amount of time. From second period, students go to advisory for
an extended 50 minutes. After advisory, students proceed to whatever enrichment they choose for 60 minutes.
Enrichment is a time that students can use for what they need, whether that is catching up with work and clas-
ses or using it as a time to socialize, participate in clubs, and make new friends.
Senior Minahil Shah stated that “for enrichment, I go to study halls to do my work and catch up on things I
missed if I was out.” Like Shah, many students like to use enrichment as a time to do their work. Since they are
able to go to other teachers and get help from them, this can make it easier for them to actually understand the
work they are doing. It is also easier because they are able to work with other students who are working on the
same thing as them.
Many students stated that enrichment has also helped them socially in addition to academically. Junior Jarelys
Miranda stated that enrichment “enrichment has helped me socially, because I talk to people I wouldn't normal-
ly talk to.” Shah agreed, saying that enrichment “helped socially because I met a bunch of new people that I
never knew, and I have a lot more freshman, sophomore and junior friends.”
Many social opportunities come from the club offerings during enrichment. With over 30 clubs to choose from,
Career has options such as DECA, Book Club, GIRLS Club, Art Club, National Honor Society, Sports Club,
Yearbook Committee, and Computer Programming. A research study from Bentley University stated that there
are many benefits from student clubs. Some of those benefits are that students are more likely to develop soft
skills, or “people skills,” which are crucial to students learning to effectively interact with each other. The study
also stated that through clubs, “students learn to engage with diverse groups of people.” Being around diverse
groups of people gets students ready for the real world, and gets them used to what it's actually going to be like
interacting with different groups of people.
These skills are especially important this year. Over the past two years, students have experienced being home
all the time, isolating or being quarantined. It's important now that students are back in school that they are able
to have a chance to regain their social skills. Enrichment is the perfect place for students to interact because
they are around people their age who most likely felt and went through the same things during COVID-19.
Clubs during enrichment are great ways for students to gain leadership skills and learn how to work in teams
with people.
Overall, it’s safe to say that enrichment at Career is appreciated by the students. So, Career students: don't take
it for granted! Join a club, go to a teacher if you need extra help, or use it as a time to make new friends, but do
not use it as a time to slack off. There are too many important benefits to throw this time away.

21

When the Soap Runs Out
Sarah Murray
Throughout the day, many Career students encoun-
ter the unfortunate circumstance of having no soap
in the bathroom. Though we’ve been told since
childhood that proper handwashing is an important
step to your daily routine, soap at Career is often
hard to find. Students in school are using the bath-
room without being able to wash their hands
properly because of the lack of soap.

Left: The second floor girls bathroom has a dispenser, but no soap. In some bathrooms, there is no soap in the dispens-
Right: The third floor girls bathroom has no soap dispensers at all. ers; in others, there are simply no dispensers to be
(Photos/Sarah Murray) found. This is especially troubling in a school,
where there are many high-contact surfaces and ob-
jects that require handwashing throughout the day.
With COVID-19, there is an increase in the aware-
ness of the importance of handwashing— but how
can guidelines be followed without any soap?

There is a consensus among students that bathrooms are not clean, which is only made worse by a lack of
soap. Career junior Laila Mohammed says, “Honestly [the lack of soap] is very off-putting, that's very unsani-
tary and a lot of people use the bathroom.” Career junior Jaidyn Emery agrees, saying, “It’s disgusting, espe-
cially with COVID.” The unsanitary conditions of the bathrooms may deter students from even wanting to use
the bathroom in school. Career sophomore Alexa Elias says, “I want to use the bathroom, but there’s nothing
to wash your hands with after.” Holding back from using the bathroom is not good for your bladder, and can
cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) if often made a pattern.

A lack of soap isn’t just gross— from a medical perspective, it is dangerous. The CDC promotes hand wash-
ing in school, stating, “One of the most important steps to keep school staff and students healthy is cleaning
hands at key times with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.” One of the many key times to wash hands is
after using the bathroom. The CDC informs that “Hand hygiene can result in less gastrointestinal and respira-
tory illness and fewer missed school days.” This would help students stay healthy and keep better attendance
and be able to stay on top of school work by not getting sick as often.

Career science teacher Dr. Wendy Decter states that what many people might not realize is that “the actual
chemical nature of the soap interacts with the chemical nature of the virus or bacteria to destroy the outermost
membrane. Then, the virus or bacteria breaks up, so clean water [on its own] often won’t do that.” This means
that water alone can not break through the germs to properly clean your hands. You need, as Decter said, a
chemical breakdown. Speaking from her own experience as a physician, Decter has seen firsthand the im-
portance of keeping a hygienic environment. “I’m sure everybody on television has seen scenes where sur-
geons are scrubbing up for surgery,” says Decter. “There’s a very specific way to wash and rinse and a time
for that and there’s a reason for that— so that germs are not transferred to their patients during surgery.”

Though hand sanitizer is readily available at Career, this is not a replacement for soap and water. The CDC
states that “Hand sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs, including some germs that cause diarrhea. Al-
ways wash hands with soap and water after using the toilet, after handling trash, and when hands are visibly
dirty.”

There are 610 students in Career high school. To maintain a safe environment for each student, hand washing
needs to be something that is accessible. Students and teachers should not need to pay out of their pockets to
bring soap to school. The school should follow an example to prevent germs from spreading to students and
staff. For a school that promotes medical education and careers, this should be a top priority.

22

Anxiety and Depression in the Time of
COVID-19: How Teens are Affected

Emilia Pinilla
Mental health is real, and it’s affecting the younger population now
more than ever. It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has played a
role in the mental health and well-being of teenagers. After all, nobody
was prepared for the damage this deadly disease was going to bring—
least of all young people already going through the difficulties of adoles-
cence.
Anxiety and depression are often linked, making them the two most
common conditions affecting teens during the pandemic. According to
the CDC, 3 in 4 children ages 3-17 with depression also have anxiety
(73.8%). The statistics of people with anxiety and depression have in- (Photo/j4p4n , Creative Commons)
creased tremendously post-pandemic. The common symptoms of anxiety
include trouble concentrating, sleep problems, irritability, changes in eating habits, and constant worrying. The
common symptoms for depression include feeling hopeless or empty, loss of interest in usual activities, family,
and/or friends, low self-esteem, and irritable or annoyed moods.
Jarelys Miranda, a junior attending Career High School, has experience with some of the symptoms above.
“During the pandemic, I gained a lot of weight,” said Miranda. “I was eating a lot, and my sleeping schedule
was very bad.” Because of being under quarantine, many people developed changes in their sleeping and eat-
ing habits, as well as changes in their physical activity. A recent poll done at the University of Michigan sur-
veyed 977 parents and found that 3 in 4 said that COVID-19 restrictions had affected their teen’s connections
to their friends. “I became very distant from friends, and that made me a little depressed,” said Miranda. An-
other junior at Career High School, who wished to remain anonymous, also mentioned, “I only saw my friends
every couple months, and that made me feel lonely.” Social distancing played a major role in the well-being of
adolescents; not just with family members, but friends as well.
With mental illness already on the rise before the pandemic, COVID-19 added new stressors for students—
two of the biggest stressors being virtual learning and social distancing. Adrianna Henderson, a former Career
student, mentioned that online learning was very difficult for her. “I lost motivation in my school work,” said
Henderson. “I was going through a lot at home, and online school made it worse,” said Henderson. According
to U.S Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, prior to the pandemic, 1 in 5 children ages 3-17 in the U.S had a men-
tal, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder. The University of Calgary’s meta-base study has found
that prior to COVID, approximately 13% of teens had anxiety and depressive symptoms. Post-pandemic, these
numbers have doubled to 25.2%.
For teenagers already suffering with mental health issues, the impact of the pandemic worsened their mental
health. This was the case for Miranda, who mentioned, “My mental health was already affected from before
[the pandemic]. In 2019, I lost my grandpa… it was just a lot, and my mental health worsened during quaran-
tine.” For many of those who weren’t experiencing a mental health condition, like Henderson, COVID-19
changed that. “The pandemic affected my social skills. I was scared to go out, and became very sad very
quickly,” said Henderson.
For those who are feeling the mental impact of the pandemic, what can be done? The Mayo Clinic suggests
these self-strategies for individuals dealing with stress, anxiety and depression: get enough sleep, participate in
regular physical activity, eat healthily, limit screen time, and relax and recharge.
At Career High School, students are provided with resources to help improve their mental health. An individu-
al may request to speak to Ms. Diana Westfield or Ms. Maria Silva, both social workers who can provide ser-
vices. It’s essential to remember that mental health plays a huge role in your overall well-being, especially for
teens. Never be afraid to seek help or rely on someone for mental health assistance.

23

In New Haven, Youth Organizers Make
Change

Sayed Ardhi
Every American has seen the examples of protest and activism in their history textbooks: the Montgomery bus
boycotts, the march to Selma, the March on Washington. However, what people often overlook are the youth
movements that have changed the world alongside these better-known demonstrations: the 2000 high school
and college students who were arrested as Freedom Riders, the 450,000 Black and brown students protesting
with demands to integrate New York City high schools, the revolutionary young people part of the Black Pan-
ther Party, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) enacting civil disobedience are only a
few examples of the power of youth activism. Through the analysis of every major social change within Amer-
ica, it becomes clear that young people are always at the forefront of change— both throughout history and
today.
Today, youth activists are still demanding change in various issues: racial, educational, and climate justice, to
name a few. Students for Educational Justice (SEJ) and New Haven Climate Movement (NHCM) are some of
the key organizations that enact change in New Haven. SEJ’s work in helping pass Connecticut Public Act-
1912 helped African American and Latinx history to be taught in Connecticut schools. NHCM is a fairly new
but rapidly growing organization that addresses the imminent climate crisis through youth advocacy.
However, organizing is not simple—in fact, there are often more challenges than successes. SEJ’s recent cam-
paign, Students over SROs, demanded that the New Haven Board of Education divest from the New Haven
Police Department, remove school resource officers (SROs), and increase social workers in schools. After re-
searching and collecting feedback, they found that many students do not feel that SROs are a negative issue; as
a result, SEJ is in the process of recentering their campaign around mental health and advocating for more so-
cial workers. Vy Tran, the lead organizer at SEJ, said, “Obviously, you can say over and over again that struc-
turally police are bad, but if there are 2 Black SROs that students are comfortable talking to, then who are we
to say that's wrong? On the flip side, everyone is talking about mental health. Mental health, depression rates,
suicide rates, anxiety rates are all going up through Zoom school and the pandemic. So we are actually trying
to pivot the campaign and decenter policing and recenter mental wellness.” SEJ is currently exploring what
trauma-informed therapy and restorative justice practices look like in schools to continue fighting for mental
health for students.
This reworking of goals as new discoveries are made is not unique to SEJ; it is one that many organizers face.
Oftentimes, a system that perpetuates oppression-- such as the police system— can also have individuals that
benefit a community. In this case, students feel comfortable going to the Black or brown SROs within schools
because there is a lack of other avenues to get support. This reliance in itself highlights another systematic is-
sue: the disproportionate arrest rates of Black and brown students, and the fact that there aren’t enough Black
or brown teachers or counselors, making students resort to police officers, who are untrained in counseling. It
illustrates how systems are not cut and dry, black and white, but rather a complex relationship of multifaceted
problems.
While community organizers, in many cases, share similar goals, the nonprofit sector in our capitalistic system
can force nonprofits to prioritize financial gains rather than their true goals. Nonprofits must devote vast
amounts of time and resources to try to get grants and funding for their work and are sometimes even pitted
against one another in competition for funds. In New Haven, for instance, Tran mentions that “It’s kind of a
mess here because the orgs are just not in sync at all and the orgs here are just not in conversation. It’s difficult
because organizing is pretty new in Connecticut, whereas in Oakland and Houston and New York, it's very
established— organizing has been happening since before it was called community organizing.”

24

New Haven has dedicated and passionate individuals who are involved in the work of community organizing;
however, the relative newness of organizing contributes to inexperience, and organizers are learning as they
go. This is not a totally negative thing; though organizations are new, says Tran, “At the same time, there are
so many orgs here that are youth-centered. As much as the orgs mess up, the people I've met in this work are
really, really kind and mean really well, and something we have all acknowledged is we are all messing up
while learning.”
Another challenge of youth-led organizing in New Haven occurs when multiple community partnerships—
many of which are new— struggle to form relationships and visions of how they will eventually work togeth-
er. Adrian Huq, a co-founder of the NHCM Youth Action Team, says, “We do try to create community part-
ners, but [cooperation] is definitely something we can continue to work on and build upon. We have had part-
nerships with groups like Green at Yale and Sunrise New Haven, and we definitely try to engage them to sup-
port our work-- and we support their work.”
Through forces like adultism— bias against youth— and the general hesitancy that adults have of young lead-
ership, there are often adults who invade youth organizing spaces. This calls for actively centering young peo-
ple and their voices at all levels of decision-making rather than prioritizing adult perspectives. Tran says that
this is a challenge. “I think it's hard because SEJ doesn’t do it [center young people] perfectly, and I don’t
think anyone does. Even youth organizers disagree with what it looks like.” There is no single solution to cre-
ating a strong youth-centered organization; even Tran admits that she stumbles at times in placing youth voices
at the forefront. “I’m constantly just asking students” for their input, said Tran.
SEJ has young people sitting on their Board of Directors, as well as on the leadership team. NHCM also is
heavily youth-led, with young people leading almost every initiative and campaign. Huq says that youth are
involved in all aspects of the organization, “running the committees, youth running the social media, youth
running the climate rallies. We do have a few adults in the electric feature committee, but other than that, it is
definitely predominantly college- and high school-aged students. We always encourage them to take leader-
ship positions in the committees and NHCM overall.”
If you are interested in exploring youth organizing, both SEJ and NHCM are always looking for new members
and volunteers. SEJ meets every Thursday at 4 PM. The NHCM general committee meetings are on Friday
afternoons, Climate Education Committee meetings are on Thursday evenings, and the Electric Feature Com-
mittee meets about once a month. If you are interested in getting involved with climate and educational justice,
you can get in contact with both organizations at students4edjustice.org or newhavenclimatemovement.org,
respectively.

Want to see your name in print? Do you want to gain experience in
journalism? Want to boost your resume?

Write for the Panther Press!

We need writers to help cover sports at Career, submit opinion articles, and anything else you can think of.
Email [email protected] to get started
OR

speak with your counselor about signing up for Journalism/SCSU JRN101, a dual-enrollment class for
college credit, during your junior or senior year!

25

Applying Early: What’s the Deal?

Jesmarie Colón
Senior year: a time of big decisions. For many seniors, this is the time to apply to college. Waiting to hear back
from colleges can be very stressful. Some colleges might take very long to get back to you, while some might
get back to you very quickly.
When seniors decide to apply for colleges using the regular timeline— also known as applying regular deci-
sion— the applications are usually due by January or February of senior year. Applying regular decision is
definitely not a bad thing to do. However, students who apply regular decision get their acceptances back later,
and don’t have the advantage of looking at different colleges’ financial packages with enough time to make
their decision on which college they want to attend.
Many people might not know that there are ways to hear decisions from colleges early. Two ways to get early
results from college early are early action and early decision.
Early action and early decision might sound identical, but they are two totally different ways of applying to
your desired colleges, each with their own set of advantages and drawbacks.
When applying using early decision, a student is 100% committed to the college of their choice if they get ac-
cepted. Early decision applications are usually due by November 15, which is very early in senior year. If a
student gets accepted to their college after applying using early decision, there is no going back. The student
must withdraw any regular or early action applications that they have submitted.
On the other hand, early action plans are non-binding. When students apply to colleges using early action, they
receive an early response to their application, but do not have to commit to the college until the normal date of
May 1st. Like the early decision deadline, the due date for early action is usually by November 15th.
Applying to colleges using early action can be very beneficial for students in different ways. One of these ben-
efits is getting financial packages early enough to look at them with enough time to make the right decision
about the college that is the best fit, academically and financially. At Hill Regional Career High School, a vari-
ety of students took advantage of early action to apply to colleges.
Career senior Akila Ayinla decided to apply early action and start her college process early. “I would recom-
mend upcoming seniors to apply for early action,” said Ayinla. She explained the benefits that she got out of
doing early action. “I have time to focus and apply for different scholarships,” said Ayinla. “I had the time to
look at the financial packages from the different schools that I did get accepted to.”
Not everything about early action is easy for the students. “I got deferred to regular decision after not turning
in my stuff on time,” said Ayinla. It is very important that when students are applying early action that they
have everything turned in by the due date that the colleges ask for— otherwise, their application is incomplete.
A complete application package varies from college to college; for example, some will only ask for the Com-
mon Application essay, while others will ask for certain writing supplements. Some of these supplements are
essays, some short paragraphs, and some just ask other questions that do not appear in the Common App.
School counselor Allison Griswold seems to agree with Ayinla. “I would recommend doing early action,” said
Griswold, but emphasized that early action can be a lot of work for students right at the beginning of the
school year. “It was a lot for them to do, it was a lot of essays for them to write and things like that… If they
can do some of the stuff ahead of time over the summer, that would make them feel less stressed out.” Doing
early action requires a lot of time in the beginning of your senior year. It is a great idea to start college prepara-
tions even before the start of senior year. Juniors at Career who are looking forward to applying early action
or early decision can reach out to their school counselor for more help.

26

Applying early action or early decision is an exciting but challenging way to start your senior year and college
journey. Though it’s definitely not an easy thing to do, the peace of getting everything done earlier and the re-
assurance of hearing back from colleges early in the year can make for a less stressful senior year. Make sure
to turn in all application materials on time, do your best, and wish for a good outcome. Good luck, rising sen-
iors!

Parking Meter Signs: Helping or Hurting?
Abdulrahman Elrefaei
You may have seen the signs on parking meters and trash cans down-
town: New Haven has an anti-panhandling program called “Give
Change to Make Change.” This program says that it strives to make a
change through donating money that is collected in parking meters, but
then says to not give any change to panhandlers that ask for money.
“It’s ok to say no to panhandling and yes to giving,” say the signs.
“Giving money in the street is not going to end hunger and homeless-
ness.”

Career senior Keyron Haynes stated, “I think signs like these could pro-
vide more of a negative effect than positive, due to the fact that it can
cause confusion since the context and the information that [the sign] is
trying to convey is not clear.” The sign says that change will be donated
to charities, but where that change is going is not clear.

(Photo/Abdulrahman Elrefaei Though parking meters are all over New Haven, the only areas where
these special parking meters are placed are in the Downtown area. Odd-
ly, there are only a handful of these parking meters that are claiming to
make a change and also encouraging people not to donate to panhan-
dlers. There are a lot of other systemic issues that are causing homeless-
ness that a little bit of change won’t be able to fix. Some big causes are
the lack of access to affordable housing in New Haven, Yale’s tax-
exempt status resulting in less revenue for the city, and Yale buying
many properties.

Career senior Elisa Cruz feels that the signs do not serve the New Haven community. Cruz stated, “I'm almost
wary of the signs. It oversimplifies helping our community members by simply saying just give change and it
will alter their lives exponentially. But, we don’t look at other systemic issues that contribute to poverty, such
as sustainable housing or providing education.” Cruz also felt that the intent of the signs was more to deter
people from giving money to people in need rather than to promote donations to charity. “The sign itself also
seems to gloss over that the funds do go to help our community, as the ‘Say no to panhandling’ is the largest
text… but the other part about it going to help community members is in a smaller font,” said Cruz. “It almost
feels like it is an afterthought to help our community— like stopping panhandling is more important.”

Career junior Ayush Patel agrees with Cruz. “These signs are sending a message to send money to other places
that were made to end hunger and homelessness instead of the actual people. I think the message being sent to
the community is that donating money to an individual won’t solve the issue, but sending it to charities or or-
ganizations that specialize in that will be the best solution to fight poverty.”

Additionally, having only a couple of parking meters and trash cans with these signs centered around the
Downtown area gives the impression that this donation program is not totally for the benefit of New Haven,
but instead for the benefit of Yale— with the real goal of trying to decrease the amount of people who are ex-
periencing homelessness in “their” area.

Bijan Notghi, Traffic Engineer at the City of New Haven, did not respond to a request for comment.

27

Healthcare Workers Experience Challenges
During COVID-19

Kamiyah Emery

According to the Kaiser Family
Foundation, there were over
200,000 healthcare workers in
Connecticut in May of 2020. The
COVID-19 pandemic has drasti-
cally affected each of these
healthcare workers, whether it was
from stress or just the difficulty of
treating COVID-19 itself. As
healthcare workers shifted into
this new chapter that they will
soon have to permanently adapt
to, they all shared an intense level
of difficulty, but each healthcare
worker had their own personal
experience.

Saint Vincent’s Hospital’s Loretta
Murphy, a nurse practitioner of 42
years, said “I had been watching
the wave of the pandemic ap- A healthcare worker at San Salvatore Hospital in Persaro, Italy decompresses after a 12-
proach the USA early in 2020.” hour shift (Photo/Alberto Giuliani, Creative Commons License)

She was very cautious of the ad-
vent of COVID-19. Murphy's caution did increase her level of readiness for the pandemic, but the possibilities
of what COVID would soon become was something she or other healthcare workers couldn't possibly have
prepared for.

Not only were healthcare workers fearful about encountering the pandemic at work, but also about the possibil-
ity of bringing the virus home to their loved ones. Saint Francis Hospital surgical technician Anita McLean
said, “It was difficult working through the pandemic because I was very anxious about receiving COVID or
bringing it home to my daughters and husband.”

Rates of concern were very high, and the conflict of putting work or family first was an unbearable tension.
Murphy said that as she watched the pandemic approach, “I prepared myself that this could be the year I would
die. I spent the first hours of my birthday on March 27, 2020 with a box of tissues, debating if I should resign
and live, or go to work and at least try to help others who were fighting for their lives.” Not having any reas-
surance that COVID-19 wouldn’t impact their health or the health of others around them made working for
healthcare providers more difficult. “It was very scary,” said Yale-New Haven Hospital sleep technician Sam-
mie Moore. She summed up her experience of working through the pandemic as “unknown and fragile.”

Due to the pandemic, new protocols and procedures formed at hospitals around Connecticut. Personal protec-
tive equipment, or PPE, was required at all times “You always had to wear a N95 mask and double clothing.
Cleaning was essential,” said McLean. While precautions were being taken, situations continued to worsen. A
shortage of PPE meant that hospital workers had to improvise. Murphy said, “We had to reuse N95 face masks
until they fell apart, and store them in paper bags for our next shift instead of throwing them away after each
use.”

28

Beyond difficulties with supplies and PPE, the pandemic required healthcare workers to combat horrifying sit-
uations and the unknown. Murphy said that behind closed doors, “patients were fighting for their lives. Many,
especially before the vaccines, were near death for weeks on end. We didn't know how to care for them be-
cause this was a new disease. There was no research to guide us. We didn't know what worked, and we didn't
know what made people worse… Our first 2 COVID patients were ages 20 and 21, and had both come home
to Connecticut from spring break in 2 different areas in Florida. Both were in ICU [Intensive Care Unit], criti-
cally ill. The 20-year-old died after about a month on life support, eventually dying of multi-organ system fail-
ure. The 21-year-old suffered 2 cardiac arrests, but survived. He was in the hospital for 4 months.”
At Saint Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport, the staff played music in an attempt to stay positive. “They started
playing ‘Here Comes the Sun’ over the loudspeaker when a COVID patient was being discharged,” said Mur-
phy. “It was nice. It gave us some solace that we were seeing some patients discharged alive, and it gave us a
little boost to keep going.” This beginning of a tradition became a coping mechanism for the staff at Saint Vin-
cent's Hospital. It helped them focus on the positives instead of the constant negatives.
Moore also found positives, despite the negative outcomes of COVID-19. She said that after witnessing the
effects of the pandemic, she “gained humbleness by becoming aware of how fragile human life is, and by
learning more about myself.” Amidst all the troubles and tribulations that the healthcare workers experienced,
the best possible moments came in the form of successes for patients. “The best outcome was seeing people
being discharged after severe illness,” said Murphy.
As of December 2020, COVID-19 vaccines were available in the US. Unfortunately, some people refused this
vaccine, due to a lack of knowledge of what the vaccine could actually do. However, Murphy says that the
vaccines and boosters have “eased the severity of illness and the possibility of death in many patients.” Those
who didn't get vaccinated have created frustration for healthcare workers. “Patients now who have refused to
get the vaccine and then develop severe life-threatening illness made a choice to take their chances with the
virus. This has led to some anger in health care providers because the disease is allowed to continue to spread
and mutate in the community,” said Murphy. “There is mounting frustration when people aren’t helping them-
selves and helping society get out of this terrible situation.”
Support the healthcare workers in your community who have risked their lives during the pandemic, and re-
main safe. For a list of vaccination and testing sites near you, go to covid19.newhavenct.gov.

EPA Regulations Impact Motorsports

Terrence White
The EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) is banning street cars from being converted into
race cars. Banning street cars from becoming race cars will not only affect the car brands that sell their street
cars, but the racing teams themselves will suffer. With the ban on the use of street cars, racing teams will have
to get rid of their $300,000 converted race cars in a very short amount of time and build their own chassis from
scratch. Developing new plans and builds will be costly. Race cars use street car chassis because car manufac-
turer brands donate cars to teams in exchange for sponsorships. As a result, racing teams for the most part
don't have to pay for their chassis, which can otherwise cost from 10,000 to 70,000 dollars.
The BMW M Motorsport team has a very pricey lineup of race cars, starting off with their 2022 BMW M4
GT3 coming in at a price of $530,000. The chassis that was used for this model was a brand new 2022 BMW
M4, starting at $73,000. The BMW racing team has an advantage because they are the ones who manufacture
the chassis, so this doesn’t dramatically impact them financially. The problem lies in the fact that if the EPA
bans street cars from becoming race cars, then that would mean that all the $530,000 race cars would have to
be decommissioned and be deemed useless. Then, the team would be stuck with expensive cars they can't do
anything with. Additionally, the BMW team would have to build new race cars with entirely different and cus-
tom-made chassis, which could potentially cost them years of time and hundreds of millions of dollars to
achieve. This situation is similar for every brand; new race cars would have to be made for every sponsored
racing team.

Story continued on page 30

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EPA Regulations, Continued

Terrence White

Continued from page 29
Why is the EPA involved in motorsports?
The EPA strives to protect people and the
environment from health risks. Motorsport
regulations can be introduced for the benefit
of the environment. For example, the EPA
bans aftermarket engine car parts for anyone
to purchase. Banning aftermarket engine
modifications affects the environment more
than most people actually realize. Faster en-
gines consume more fuel and oil, so when
people modify their engines so their cars run
faster, the increased exhaust affects the earth
a lot. Race cars, especially, are environmental
Smog hangs over Los Angeles (Photo/Gary Danvers Collection, Creative problems. They take in a lot of fuel and burn
Commons License) it in an incredible amount of time. A single

F1 car burns through 242 pounds of fuel
every race— and there's a minimum of 20 F1 cars on a track. That's 4,840 pounds of fuel being used every
single F1 race. Just last year for the F1 season of 2021, there were a total of 23 races. All together, that's ap-
proximately 111,320 pounds of fuel every year. There are over 20 different types of gas-powered motorsport
categories. If Formula 1 every year burned through 111,320 pounds of fuel in only 1 out of the 20 plus motor-
sport categories, then it's clear to see why the EPA is deciding to limit the amount of environmental damage
being done from modified street cars and race cars.

Meanwhile, across the border in Canada, environmental regulations around racing look very different. Cana-
da’s most populated province is Ontario, with 14,223,942 people as of 2021. In comparison, America’s most
populated State is California, with 39,613,493 people as of 2022. This information is important because Can-
ada doesn’t have nearly as many car-related restrictions. One possible reason for this could be because of the
lower population in Canada. In Canada, for a car to be considered street legal, it must have working signal
lights, headlights, and brake lights. It also must have mirrors, a fully working exhaust system, an adequate
braking system, bumpers (if applicable), a speedometer, and lastly a horn, according to the Calgary Police
Service. In America, there are many more regulations.

For an American car to be street legal, it will require a circular steering wheel, a horn, a hood, bumpers and
fenders, a windshield, windshield wipers, seatbelts, functional lights, functional brakes, mirrors, a license
plate, reflectors, an emission controlled exhaust system, tires, and ground clearance, according to Direct Auto
Insurance.

In 2019, Canada’s GhG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions were reported to be about 1 million tonnes (metric tons),
according to the Climate and Environment News website. Meanwhile, in 2019 America’s GhG emissions
were reported to be 6.558 million tonnes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The difference
there is astronomical. These high numbers play a very large role in why the EPA is trying to find things to cut
back on the United States’ GhG emissions.

The question of whether the EPA should or should not ban street cars from becoming race cars and banning
engine performance modifications is a very hard question to answer. Many people have loved motorsports
since 1895, when the first motor races began. F1 alone had an attendance total of 2.4 million fans in 2021. It’s
clear by looking at the numbers of F1’s fan base that a lot of people in the world love vehicles, especially
when they go fast— very fast. But in a world threatened by climate change, what will the future of the sport
look like?

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COVID Around The World

Maria Rodriguez

According to data collected by Johns
Hopkins University, worldwide there
have been 418 million COVID-19
cases and 5.85 million deaths caused
by COVID-19. By total cases, the
United States, India, Brazil, France,
and the United Kingdom are the top
five countries that have been most
impacted by the pandemic. Unfortu-
nately, the impact is seen both close
to home and across the globe.
Whether it’s through close contact
with someone positive, mandatory
wearing of masks in public places,
quarantine, country lockdown(s),
COVID-19 tests, or vaccines, every-
one has been affected by this pan-
demic. For people with family mem-
bers in other countries, they have
seen firsthand how this crisis is han-
dled differently throughout the
world. World map of total confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people (Photos/Our
World in Data, Creative Commons License)

Funmilayo Ukah, a Career High School chemistry teacher, has family members who live in the largest city in
Nigeria called Lagos. Ukah stated, “my family’s experience with the pandemic is great because they wear
their masks all the time and avoid unnecessary social gatherings.” Currently in Nigeria, there have been
254,000 COVID-19 cases and there have been 3,141 deaths. COVID-19 cases started to go down weeks after
the holiday season. Ukah’s family feels that the Nigerian government is handling the spread of the virus and
treatment of infected citizens very well.

Nitda Chanthinith, a Career High School junior, has family members mostly in Thailand. In Thailand, Chan-
thinith stated, “they do not have a big restriction on mask mandates and curfews, it’s more of a choice to
choose between wearing masks and following mandates.” Chanthinith’s family members luckily live in a city
that has very few cases and feels that the government is handling the pandemic in a straightforward manner.
Unfortunately, Chanthinith had an uncle who passed away. Chanthinith stated that he had a “series of other
health conditions.” But that does not stop Chanthinith's family from following the government's COVID-19
mandates in order to stay healthy and safe.

In the United States, everyone ages 5+ is now eligible to get the COVID vaccine. If you have received your
second dose 5 months ago, you are now eligible to receive your booster shot. You can schedule an appoint-
ment at vaccines.gov, text your ZIP code to the CDC at 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find vaccination
locations near you.

31

Career Clues

Across Down
3. Career graduate, actor, and playwright Douglas Lyons' play 1. I can't lie— he used to be principal at Betsy Ross.
opened on ________ last year. 2. A course for seniors to explore their passions and devel-
4. Seniors filling out this form will be eligible for money for college op leadership skills
8. Award-winning author who spoke to Career students 5. The Career girls basketball team defeated this team this
10. "Mr. _____, I forgot my password...again." season!
11. Street where Career is located 6. These tests are coming in May!
12. Organization that helps students work towards their goals in the 7. Type of class that can earn students college credits (Hint:
business field Not AP)
14. Music classes at Career include an option to learn this instrument 9. Students meet with their ______ teachers every day.
16. If you're signed up here, you can make an appointment for any 13. Some students take classes at this community college.
physical or mental healthcare you may need. 15. A language requirement that is unique to Career
21. Period where students can find a study hall or join a club 17. Tells the best (?) jokes at Career
22. Career's mascot 18. Teachers update _______; students get stressed.
23. Mrs. ______ runs the library at Career. 19. Seniors are all looking forward to _______ in June!
24. A strong GPA, excellent leadership skills, and community service 20. How many years of math you need at Career
could lead to membership in the _______________. 26. Organization that helps students work towards their
25. The class responsible for creating The Panther Press goals in the healthcare field
27. Get 40 of these done to be eligible for the New Haven Promise.
28. Before its current name, Career was called _____ High School.

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