IN THIS ISSUE...
TIME FOR ACTION
Students request changes to Holocaust curriculum.
3
COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
Learning to live with college admissions decisions.
7
Panther
SPORTS TEAMS SMASH RECORDS
12
Several Haven teams and athletes qualify for high level competitions.
Press Striving and thriving YAC student leaders organize Black History Month Assembly
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n February 22, 2022, the Young Activists Coalition lifted their voices together during their Black History Month assembly. The assembly, which was held in the gym after being rescheduled, featured poetry, musical and dance performances, and a video compiled by YAC members. The assembly celebrated black culture through dances and music, as well as sharing the perspectives of Strath Haven’s black community. The assembly was enlivening, educational, and student-run. YAC leaders spent two months planning the event and making the video shown during the assembly. SPEAKING UP Sophomores Anika Goswami and Carolyn Eskenazi join GSA Presidents Zoe Feinberg and Sylvan Juniors Collin Woodland, Prey-Harbaugh to deliver a presentation on gender neutral bathrooms to the Wallingford Swarthmore School Board Nailah Sweeting, and Asanne Wade on Monday, March 1 2022. | Photo courtesy Kai Lincke presented an informational outlook on the black community, the “deprioritization of Black Americans” in their presentation titled “We Strive, We Haven GSA pushes to unlock unisex bathrooms Thrive”. Following the presentation, the Cece Olszewski, ’22 students of all gender identities and sexes.” dance team, which consisted of juniors Arts and Entertainment Editor In addition to these statements, an insightful Dyvne Lee, Aïssata Koné, Michaela testimony was given by Carolyn Eskenazi (he/him, Santisi, Amelia Andrews-Sullivan, and ow many gender-neutral bathrooms can be found ‘24), who is non-binary. Nailah Sweeting, performed choreoin the high school as of today? One? Two? As it “In the beginning of the school year, I asked graphed dances inspired by Ghanan, turns out, there are five. But as of February 25, only about having the option to use a gender-neutral bath- South African, Nigerian, Congolese, three of those five are reliably unlocked and accesroom,” Eskenazi said. “I was told after a couple days and Gabonian cultures. sible for student use. Before the 25, it was impossible that I could use the bathroom in the nurse’s office. “We chose songs based on how for students to predict whether these bathrooms would Ever since then, I’ve been using the nurse’s office influential the artists were during their be locked on any given day. In addition to the barrier when I need to use the restroom. This means that I time,” Lee said. “Push it”, “Rhythm of locks, nearly all of these restrooms are located at am spending ten minutes [of class time] just to go to Within Us”, as well as songs by Bea considerable distance from most classrooms in the the bathroom.” yoncé were among some of the songs building, forcing non-binary and transgender students Eskenazi also noted that he “felt that I needed chosen. to miss valuable instruction time in order to access to extensively reason why I needed to use a single The assembly also highlighted them. stall bathroom. And while that may not put me in a the creative talents of Strath Haven Four student representatives from the Genderdangerous situation, because I am pretty much out to students, featuring a musical duet Sexuality Alliance spoke at the WSSD school board anyone in my life, it poses exclusionary restrictions performed by Sweeting and Robinsonmeeting on February 28 to address this issue. Zoe to those who are not out.” Leary of “Strange Fruit”, by Billie Feinberg (‘22), Carolyn Eskenazi (‘24), Sylvan PreyStrath Haven does have a policy in place to Holiday, and a rendition of “Dinosaurs Harbaugh (‘23), and Anika Goswami (‘24) brought combat these issues. It’s called “Gender Expansive & in the Hood” by Danez Smith, rethe issue to the attention of both the school board Transgender Students - Ensuring Equity and Noncited by Koné. The last component of and the Strath Haven community, proposing both discrimination.” This policy states that gender nonshort-term and long-term solutions which were wellconforming students “shall have access to a restroom received. that corresponds to their gender identity.” The policy The student representatives read anonymous also states that administrators should “make every efstatements from non-binary and transgender Haven fort to provide students with reasonable access to an students who expressed their own experiences of alternative restroom,” such as a single-stall restroom. discomfort in using the school’s binary bathrooms. “Does the nurse’s office qualify as that? “As a student of Strath Haven High School, I Sure,” Eskenazi said in an interview. “But I still felt Dance team members address the feel that I should have a right to explore my identity,” like I had to out myself, and that could be very unaudience before their performance. one student wrote, “[But] I feel pressured into being safe for some students.” continued on page 4 >> Photo courtesy Kai Lincke a female at a school that claims to be a safe haven for continued on page 3 >
Unlocking the door to equality
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