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Washington International School

3100 Macomb St. NW Washington, D.C. 20008

June 2022

www.wisdateline.org

ANDREA BRUDNIAK-BERROCAL/INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

Artwork from top right to bottom left by sophomore Cornelia Manzi, junior William Williamson, freshman Martin Alvarez-Minervini, freshman Estrella Aparicio and junior Kathy Lee.

spotlight: WIS 2022 Art Show ‘It’s not safe’: WIS students reflect on recent shooting at Burke By MAIA NEHME, 2023 The fifth period bell rang. WIS upper schoolers poured out of classrooms, chatting excitedly about their Friday afternoon plans. Colorful posters were plastered on every wall, reminding students that the long-awaited Spring Fling would be held that very evening, on April 22. At 3:18 p.m., less than half an hour later, a gunman opened fire on the Edmund Burke School, located just a few blocks away from the Tregaron campus. The shooting left four people wounded, according to The Washington Post. At around 3:30 p.m., WIS Security Officer Eric Day received an urgent call from Director of Facilities Dale Temple, requesting that the security team place the school on lockdown. “We had to get everybody into the Mansion and make sure everyone got picked up,” Day said. “We didn’t really have much information, [other than the fact that] there was a shooter on the loose who hadn’t been arrested.” When the shooting began, junior Ariana Sabathier was driving home. Once she arrived at her house, her phone had been flooded with panicked messages from the Class of 2023 grade group chat. “I was really worried because my mom was on a walk with my dog,” she said. “We live a five minute walk from where it happened and we go there a lot with my dog… A shooting in general is horrible, but when it happens so

inside look

Why we need more teen dramas like ‘Euphoria’ The epitome of representation

close to home, it’s shocking.” Junior Ruthie Barrosse was walking home from school when she noticed countless police cars and ambulances driving down Connecticut Avenue. “When I was a block from my house, I noticed that all the police cars were congregating at the intersection of my street,” she said. “I took a detour through a back alley, and I found half of my block standing out on the sidewalk, trying to work through what had happened.” Juniors Kathy Lee and William Williamson were driving on Connecticut after school when they got stuck in standstill traffic. “While we’re in the center of traffic, we see these ladies on the side of the street and they’re crying,” Lee said. “They start telling us, ‘There was a shooting at Burke. We don’t know what’s going on. Get out of here; it’s not safe.’” That afternoon, Sabathier, Barrosse and Lee struggled to find accurate information on the shooting. Sabathier recalls hearing accounts from friends which turned out to be incorrect. “I heard that [the shooter] got out of a car on the street and just shot at kids on the street,” she said. In reality, the gunman was located in his fifth-floor apartment building during the entire shooting, according to the Washington Post. Utilizing it as a “sniper’s nest,” he fired 239 rounds at the glass bridge connecting Burke’s middle and high

school buildings. Lee and Williamson checked an app called Citizen where neighbors update each other on local crime. Similar to Sabathier, Lee remembers reading misinformation on the app which claimed that the shooter was hiding behind a car. Barrosse watched local news stations to stay informed. “It was super stressful. I was watching the news for hours, trying to figure out what happened,” she said. “Because if they didn’t catch him… he was a block from my house. He was five blocks from our school.” That evening, there were two WIS events scheduled: one was a social mixer for the Class of 2023’s parents, and the other was the Upper School Spring Fling. The parent event was located at Tregaron, while Spring Fling took place at a venue outside of school. All three students attended Spring Fling, but their parents did not attend the social mixer. “I think that the parents who attended show [us] how normalized [gun violence] is at this point,” Lee said. “There’s a lot of different reactions to this type of violence. There’s the people who are not completely desensitized to it, who are scared and nervous. But there’s also the feeling that this is happening so often, so [some people think], ‘Damn, that sucks. I still have to go do my things, though.’” Sabathier notes that WIS’s open campus poses an additional security threat.

arts page 3

Michaela Audette and Andrew Sopher D.C. attorney general race tie the knot at offers a tough choice Tregaron in April

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Prom Spread: A Night on the Riviera wislife page 4

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Audopher: A whimsical wedding

“It’s so easy for someone with bad intentions to come into the school,” she said. “I see people just walking around campus and it gets in my head a lot.” Day feels that the security team staves off these threats by keeping track of those who are on campus. “[If there is] anybody wandering around, I have to find out exactly what they’re doing,” he said. “They have to come check in, and I have to make sure that their ID matches what they write on the form. I know what time they come in and what time they leave.” However, the students feel this system is not rigorous enough, pointing out the times they’ve noticed strangers walking around campus. “People walk their dogs and they’ll walk up the stairs right into the [AAA building] parking lot,” Barrosse said. The students reflected on the many mass shootings over the past several years, which include the Burke shooting and more recently, a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. They expressed their frustration over the lack of substantial government policy changes to prevent gun violence. “In this case, we were lucky enough that no one died,” Lee said. “But that’s not the case for so many other people. And at this point, the gun [violence] in this country honestly seems like a choice. It’s preventable. This is one of the only countries that it’s happening in [on such a large scale].”

INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

wisnews JUNE 2022

ISU Cabinet: Plans for next school year

ELEKTRA GEA-SERETI & ISABELLA DUCHOVNY/INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

Top left to bottom right: Co-presidents Joost Almekinders and Bianca Pattison (2023), Spirit Coordinators Kiri Diaz-Asper and Madeline Robbins (2023), Secretary Elena Valente (2023) and Treasurer Emilio Pineda (2024).

By REBECCA MATUSCHEK, 2025 As students walked up the stairs from the gym where the recent International Student Union (ISU) elections had been held, they frantically whispered, “Who are you going to vote for?” and “This is who I picked.” The 2022 ISU cabinet election took place during an assembly on Thursday, April 21 in the gym. The voting form opened right after assembly at 12:40 p.m., and the winners were announced that same day at 4 p.m.

ISU representatives all have very important roles in student life life, including funding clubs, organizing school dances and proposing school policies, according to the ISU Constitution. The president’s job is to overlook and organize the problems that students are directly facing at WIS and find solutions for them with the help of the other ISU cabinets members. Bianca Pattison and Joost Almekinders were elected as co-presidents and are both currently juniors. They ran as a team because they are very good friends and com-

municate well. They have a unique perspective because of Almekinders’ previous ISU role as grade representative and Pattison’s perspective as a student that has not been a part of ISU before. They want to be as transparent as possible and would do this by using suggestions from grade representatives. “Throughout our time at WIS, we have built an outreach around WIS through various outlets,” Pattison said. “[For example], the arts and sports. I think having an understanding of what those areas need and what those areas are lacking is important.” They have many ideas for next year, such as a monthly newsletter that would include a breakdown of ISU’s budget and notes from ISU meetings. They chose to do this because, in the past, there hasn’t been communication when it comes to the budgets, leading to confusion. Almekinders also said that he wants to unblock YouTube for students so that they can find the information that they need for certain classes. Pattison and Almekinders both emphasized approachability and that if anyone has an issue, they should feel free to talk to them. The secretary’s job is to organize ISU meetings and ensure that the purpose of each meeting is met. Junior Elena Valente, the new secretary, promises to do this. Her plans for next year are to clearly communicate with the student body easily and apply students’ suggestions to ISU. “I really value everyone’s opinion, and I believe that the secretary holds a certain responsibility to facilitate communication between ISU and the student body,” Valente said. She noted that there has been a divide between the student body and ISU. “I will definitely listen to everyone’s ideas, either an [ISU member] or not because I believe that the most valuable input comes from the students who have never stepped a foot into an ISU meeting,”

Valente said. Valente is prepared to take on the challenge of her new role. In regards to communication between ISU and the student body, Valente wants to use the WIS ISU Instagram account more often to share dates of ISU meetings and polls about which issues to bring up. During meetings, she plans to take notes and keep track of all the issues to be shared with the student body. She emphasizes that suggestions and complaints are encouraged and gladly received. The Treasurer has to keep track of ISU’s budget and use it responsibly for different school activities. Sophomore Emilio Pineda was elected Treasurer and explained he was interested in this position because he enjoys math and is very organized. Like many ISU cabinet members, Pineda’s plan for next year is to be completely transparent with the student body. His first idea is creating a report of ISU’s finances so that communication for funding is easy and runs smoothly. He also believes he can add a new perspective to this role since he’s participated in student politics and cabinets before at his former school. “I’m very excited to see what representing this student body is like,” Pineda said. The Spirit Coordinators’ job is to plan fun school-spirited activities and to make sure that the student population is informed about them. Juniors Madeline Robbins and Kiri Diaz-Asper won this position and have been close friends for a while. Diaz-Asper is on the soccer team and has ideas on how to represent both the boys’ and girls’ sports teams equally, while Robbins is interested in theatre and has plans to find solutions for low student turnout. In addition to being organized and driven, they will make sure to be productive in finding solutions. “[Robbins] and I are both very opinionated people, in a good way, of course. [We] are very creative and dedicated,” Diaz-Asper said.

opinion

How WIS’s Covid response went from a 7 to a 4By ELEKTRA GEA-SERETI, 2024 If you woke up with a churning sense of dread on Monday, April 25, you’re not alone. The day before, my mother had told me at least six kids had tested positive in Upper School just days after the long-awaited Spring Fling had happened on Friday, April 22. When I walked downstairs and unlocked my phone, a stream of messages from my friends flooded my screen. Someone in our friend group had tested positive for COVID-19. While a COVID case doesn’t inspire the same panic that it did two years ago, texts like that still fill us with a certain amount of anxiety. We now know much more about COVID than we once did, but much remains obscure. Symptoms range from occasional coughing to barely being able to move. Students who test positive miss out on school and remain in isolation, all while life is finally heading back to normal. Realizing that the Spring Dance had probably been the vector for the virus, I thought about how exposed its attendees had been. Almost nobody wore masks, no testing was required and non-WIS students were allowed to attend as long as they showed proof of vaccination, which doesn’t ensure solid protection against the new COVID sub-variants. It’s not just the variants that are concerning. It’s also the fact that vaccinations may not even protect you from them. A 2021 article from The Lancet explains how

breakthrough cases have been emerging at an increasing rate. In one study of fully vaccinated individuals, the 88% effectiveness in the first month turned into a 47% effectiveness by the fifth. With the Delta variant, effectiveness started at 93% and declined to 53% after four months. With non-Delta variants, effectiveness started at 97% and declined to 67% after four to five months. Since WIS has had a vaccine mandate since September 2021, each student who tested positive had previously been vaccinated. The lack of safety measures at Spring Fling helped fuel an almost “super-spreader” event that happened at an unfortunate time for many students. 10th graders were about to have their New York trip, initially planned for May 2, while the seniors began IB exams as early as Thursday, April 28. On April 27, over 30% of 10th and 11th graders were sick and over 25% of the entire Upper School had COVID, according to the WIS COVID website. Measures should have been implemented even before the spring dance, as cases had been increasing in D.C. for months. According to the CDC, on April 20, the 7-day moving average of daily new cases increased by 35.3%, from 31,495 to 42,605. With cases rising, more measures were needed to limit the potential spread of COVID-19. At this point, the national strategy seems to involve getting on with life while learning to deal with COVID-19. But that shouldn’t mean disregarding every single regulation designed to minimize the

spread. There are still people that are immunocompromised and there are students with parents or grandparents for whom COVID poses a legitimate health risk. While we want to return to normalcy, we have to keep in mind that there are still people who can’t afford to become infected. At this point in the pandemic, widely-available COVID mitigation strategies exist. For example, while at-home tests were once practically impossible to obtain, libraries on street corners now give them away for free, including the Cleveland Park Library just a few steps from WIS’s Tregaron campus. There are plenty more locations where one can easily acquire tests. While antigen tests aren’t as sensitive as a PCR, if your antigen test comes back negative but you do have COVID, your viral load is likely still low enough that you are not yet highly transmissible, according to UMass. Restrictions for Spring Fling should have included showing a negative test. Since cases were spiking, masking at the dance, or in the week after, would also have been a good idea. Though we don’t particularly enjoy wearing masks, the upward surge of cases in the region should have been a hint that the Spring Fling would be a relatively high exposure event. Reinstating masks could have prevented the surge and spread that occurred. While WIS is sticking to D.C. Health recommendations, the school also has the privilege of being a private school and be-

ing able to make choices based on its community. With reports of multiple cases in multiple grades, the school could have easily re-enforced a temporary mask mandate until the wave had passed. When the outbreak began, WIS amended the sophomore New York trip and required a negative antigen test by Monday, May 2. Additionally, the school changed rooms on the trip so that students who were recently sick would be in one room together and not with others. Masking was also enforced for those who were recently ill. But, by implementing these measures, WIS was ignoring CDC and D.C. Health guidelines that state that a person who has tested positive should not be traveling for 10 days after their positive test, even if they have tested negative by antigen. The new variant is highly contagious, and with a lack of masks and mask mandate, it isn’t hard to transmit. Although risks are lower for teenagers, they still exist, including hospitalization, intensive care and a ventilator, according to the CDC. Though I was wearing a mask at school, I didn’t wear a mask to the dance, and I deeply regret it. I know that if a mask had been mandatory, the quiet uncertainty in my mind would have been silenced, and I and many others may not have tested positive. A mask and a simple antigen test would’ve been the best way to go. The best way to move forward is to exercise basic prevention methods, such as readily available at-home tests for big events.

INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

arts JUNE 2022

opinion

COURTESY OF PINTEREST

Why we need more teen dramas like ‘Euphoria’ By SOPHIA JONES, 2024 The release of “Euphoria’s” massively popular second season earlier this year has evoked a lot of talk amongst today’s teens and young adults. From controversy over its many plot holes to collective hate for Cassie Howard, its grasp on all social media platforms has been wildly impressive. As a devout watcher since its first release in 2019, I’ve been engaged in many “Euphoria” discussions that consider the many aspects of this series. One conclusion I’ve come to is: we need more of it. “Euphoria” follows the story of a highschool drug addict, Rue Bennett, and many of her peers. Viewers are introduced to many characters throughout the show, all connected through drama or shared struggles. Some of these characters include: Cassie Howard, a beautiful girl who struggles with insecurities and dependence on men thanks to her absent father. Nate Jacobs, the immensely complicated star quarterback who lives on the cusp of sociopathy. Jules Vaughn, the new girl in town and a transgender woman navigating her relationship with femininity. Fezco, a dropout drug dealer and a great example of a good person forced to do bad things because of the hand they’ve been dealt. These are just a few of the intricate characters “Euphoria” explores. Whether it’s the captivating cinematography, amazing performances from its actors, its innovative soundtrack by Labrinth or its unpredictable plotline, “Euphoria” has never ceased to impress me. While popular series such as Glee, Gossip Girl, Teen Wolf and others will remain

classics, “Euphoria” shows every aspect of teenage struggles in their totality. The series has been an astonishing breakthrough in teen dramas due to its portrayal of 21st-century teenage issues. Many teen drama series and movies have provided great representations of teenagers with drug dependency, but “Euphoria” went the extra mile in its honesty about the rough journey. Rue, played by Zendaya, is “Euphoria’s” main protagonist and a drug addict. Season one starts off with Rue’s release from rehabilitation and her subsequent messy navigation of sobriety. From her literal highs and lows, “Euphoria” opens a whole new perspective to the world of addiction as told by its director, Sam Levinson, a former drug addict himself. Throughout the airing of “Euphoria” episodes, there were many sentiments offered on social media platforms that “Euphoria” glamorizes underage drug abuse. One major example of this criticism came from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) program. “‘Euphoria’ chooses to misguidedly glorify and erroneously depict high school student drug use, addiction, anonymous sex, violence and other destructive behaviors as common and widespread in today’s world,” D.A.R.E wrote in a statement. D.A.R.E’s statement that dangerous behavior is normalized within “Euphoria” isn’t entirely wrong. “Euphoria” does convey the notion that high-risk situations are common in high school. Critics claim that by doing so, “Euphoria” offers the false narrative to high schoolers that these actions are normal for their age. But,

as a high schooler myself, I’d argue that high schoolers are able to recognize that many of the events within “Euphoria” are in fact not normal. Even if that message doesn’t reach its audience, the show clearly communicates that these situations are dangerous. For example, Jules’ encounter with Cal Jacobs (Nate Jacobs’ father, who is significantly older than Jules) through an anonymous dating app depicts the risk of the situation patently. The scene takes place in a daunting motel and is filmed with dark, menacing color tones. The ambience presented is ominous, and Jules is not portrayed as having enjoyed the perilous meeting where she is forced down by Cal and recorded despite not having given consent to do so. Season two goes even further to illustrate the harsh consequences of drugs. Demonstrating the toll drug dependency took not only on Rue herself, but on her relationship with family and friends, was intense and raw. Episode five of season two was especially real. Within the sixty minutes, Rue has one of her worst withdrawal episodes. She goes on a rampant search for drugs and ends up verbally and physically hurting many of those close to her. The performances of actors Zendaya, Leslie Bennett and Storm Reid in this episode left me in shock. As someone with an uncle who has struggled with alcoholism for over two decades, seeing Rue’s relentless dependency and the effect it had on her mother and little sister was scarily authentic. As the season progressed, I began to understand my uncle and his struggles; his world, which I’d never been able to grasp, opened up to me through Rue.

That’s why such uncensored representation is so important. When the unseen and misunderstood are given a real portrayal of their battles, it has the power to change their relationships and own lives. “Euphoria” doesn’t shy away from presenting other very real issues today’s teenagers face, such as trauma, absent fathers, mental health struggles, manipulative relationships and toxic masculinity. Depicting these issues that aren’t often discussed within other teen dramas is vital to those they are representing. For one, it starts discussions about these experiences and brings more awareness to them. Secondly, someone who is exposed to these issues might feel less alone knowing others have experienced them too. Seeing these issues on screen might even inspire teens to open up about their experiences to their parents, friends or others. The harsh depictions of sex, drug use and violence throughout the series can be uncomfortable to watch, but if they weren’t, “Euphoria” writers wouldn’t accomplish the show’s aims. Showing the raw reality of these issues is exactly how representation should be done. Watchers who have never touched the surface of these worlds delve straight into them, opening a completely new perspective. Young adults and teenagers are deserving of series such as “Euphoria;” dramas that stray from unrealistic, sappy narratives that rarely discuss actual struggles that teenagers experience in today’s world. “Euphoria” has become the blueprint, and now it’s time for other teen dramas to start providing genuine representation.

sports

Freshman Tyra Holst breaks multiple track records By MARCO PAGIOLACROITORU, 2025 During the spring 2022 PVAC Track and Field season, WIS freshman Tyra Holst broke several long-standing records. “[Holst] broke two different records this season,” US Math Coordinator and Track and Field Coach Gary Piligian said. “She broke the 100-meter hurdles [record] three times… and the other one was the triple jump [an event where the runner takes two jumps before a final jump off one foot].” Holst is a new student who came to WIS after winter break. Shortly after her arrival from Sweden, she started to participate in the WIS Track team and performed exceptionally well. Back in Sweden, she was also a member of a Track team. “I started track when I was five and I’ve done track all year around

since then,” Holst said. “For the last couple “It’s a little hard to compare [running of years, I did it around four times a week, times in Sweden versus here] because in and each practice was around [one and a Sweden we run 80 meters instead of 100 half] hours.” meters,” she said. “The record that I broke The Track team for the 100-meter hurdles, that she used to particShe broke her own record this is the first time that ipate in was very differagain in the PVAC champion- I ran that distance, so I ent from WIS’s team. “In can’t really compare.” ship where she ran a 17.96. Sweden, there are club Piligian elaborated And she placed first in the on Holst’s specific resports. You don’t do PVAC championship. school sports. So in my cord-breaking times for club, we didn’t have this the 100-meter hurdles. GARY PILIGIAN kind of ‘record’ system,” “The previous record she said. “All the other was 19 seconds flat. And girls I competed against were on a totally she first ran in 18.59, on a meet on April different level. It’s insane how good they 14 at Episcopal High School,” he said. “She were, as they practiced a lot more than me. broke her own record two weeks later at It’s different coming here because here I’m Holton Arms. She ran a 18.32. And then among the best, which I wasn’t really in she broke her own record again in the Sweden.” PVAC championship where she ran a 17.96. Additionally, the running distances And she placed first in the PVAC champiwere different. onship.”

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Piligian also mentioned the other record Holst broke: the triple jump. “[It] happened on her final jump in the triple jump in the PVAC championships,” he said. “The previous record was 31.7 [feet] and she jumped 32.3, and she came in second in the triple jump in the PVAC tournament.” Both of these record-breaking runs have great significance to the Track team, as the previous record holders had their respective titles for several years. The date of the previous record for the 100-meter hurdles was wiped out, but Holst believes that it was from around 2004. Moreover, Piligian stated that the previous triple jump record dated back to 2006. Holst reminisced on breaking the 100-meter hurdles record for the first time. “I was like, ‘18.59. Oh my god! I broke the record!’ I got really happy,” Holst said.

INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

wislife JUNE 2022

WIS Prom 2022: A Night on the Riviera

COURTESY OF BEKA TATHAM

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COURTESY OF SOPHIE HAWKINS

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COURTESY OF ELLA BOWN, ZIONE YEBOAH-AMANKWAH & VICKY BAUER

COURTESY OF PALLAVI KUMAR

INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

dcnews

JUNE 2022

Humanize: A photo story By DERIN KIRTMAN, 2025

For the first time in her life, freshman Andrea Brudniak-Berrocal was excited to hear the sound of her alarm at 5 a.m. After cooking up a couple of waffles and gulping down a warm chai latte, Brudniak-Berrocal met with me in her alley before dawn. We walked from her house all the way to Dupont Circle, where Saint Margaret’s Episcopal Church is located. There, an organization called Charlie’s Place serves breakfast to the local homeless people. For more than 30 years, this organization has been helping D.C.’s homeless community. Brudniak-Berrocal and I had volunteered there before, but that day I accompanied her to work on this project. Her goal in the project is to tell a story in someone’s face and expression, highlighting individual uniqueness through multiple portrait-style photos of homeless people. It is also to raise awareness for the local D.C. homeless community, showing that they are humans too. It is too often that we just walk by homeless people, ignoring them and forgetting that they have lives as well. The first step in conducting the project was meeting with Reggie Cox, an ex-homeless person who turned his life around to eventually become the leader of Charlie’s Place. Cox told Brudniak-Berrocal that she could do her project there, but finding participants would be hard. After Brudniak-Berrocal said that she spoke fluent Spanish, he gave her some advice. “A lot of times it’s about how comfortable they feel with you,” Cox said. “So since you speak Spanish, that gives you a great advantage with our Hispanic members.” This ended up being the reason why the majority of her subjects were Hispanic. After getting confirmation from Cox, all Brudniak-Berrocal had to do was get her camera and ask people to pose. She described why she conducted this project. “A portrait is more than just an image,” Brudniak-Berrocal said. “It tells someone’s story, transporting the viewer into the subject’s world. It captures more than words can write. It’s visual, captivating and real.”

COURTESY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON TODAY

From left to right: Candidates Brian Schwalb, Bruce Spiva and Ryan Jones.

By ZACHARY S. PAN, 2023 ANDREA BRUDNIAK-BERROCAL/INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

Discovery was very friendly and talkative, especially about journalism, since he used to be a reporter. He agreed to be a part of the project, and when Brudniak-Berrocal pulled out her camera, subconsciously, he dropped the smile and replaced it with a more serious, musing face.

Joshua was in a hurry, but when asked, he didn’t turn down the opportunity to participate in the project.

The following are her photos.

Thrive D.C. • • •

Mission to end and prevent homelessness in D.C. Served 4,000 people in the last 12 months Visit thrivedc.org

Coalition For The Homeless •

• •

José was initially very quiet and taken aback, but once he noted that Brudniak-Berrocal spoke Spanish, he showed an explosion of goodwill. They began chatting, and quickly José agreed to be a part of the project. As he was posing he began laughing. He told us that it felt refreshing to have this attention on him.

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Their mission is to use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds and build communities Visit dccentralkitchen.org

If you live in D.C., you may have noticed the political yard signs proliferating at every intersection and front yard. Lately, a disproportionate number of signs appear to be centered on D.C.’s attorney general race, which pits several prominent lawyers against each other. The candidates include attorneys Brian Schwalb, Bruce Spiva and Ryan Jones. The attorney general election is highly important because the D.C. attorney general is tasked with prosecuting civil and criminal cases on behalf of the district. Indeed, past D.C. attorney general cases include a $750,000 lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and a $31 million case against pharmaceutical companies. Considering the fact that the race has received little attention, Dateline has briefly profiled each attorney general candidate in order to inform both students and teachers eligible to vote in D.C.’s June 21 election. Brian Schwalb: The Front Runner Brian Schwalb is the partner-in-charge of Venable’s D.C. office and formerly served as a prosecutor for the Department of Justice tax division. Schwalb graduated from Harvard Law School and has worked with nonprofits such as the Abramson Foundation to secure college scholarships for D.C. residents. Schwalb’s stated priorities include enhancing public safety, safeguarding the environment, ensuring businesses play by the rules and fighting for D.C. statehood. Schwalb has been endorsed by the Washington Post and current Attorney General Karl Racine. Bruce Spiva: The Rival Bruce Spiva is the former head of Perkins Coi’s D.C. law office. He graduated from Harvard Law School and served as editor of the Harvard Law Review. Spiva notably filed legal briefs on behalf of Black Lives Matter protestors who were tear gassed at Lafayette Square. Spiva’s stated priorities include fighting for fair wages, advocating for housing justice, protecting consumers and fighting for civil rights and D.C. statehood. Spiva recently received criticism for preventing current Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie from running for attorney general. Spiva is also the only candidate not receiving public financing, which has allowed him to contribute $300,000 to his election bid. Ryan Jones: The Underdog

D.C. Central Kitchen •

D.C. attorney general race offers a tough choice

Even though Sean was very loud with his friends, he was shy around us. He asked if he could put on his beanie to show his love for the color purple. Brudniak-Berrocal approved.

Ryan Jones is an attorney who formerly served as a judicial fellow for the city of Philadelphia. Jones graduated from George Washington University Law School and has represented a variety of private clients. Jones’s stated priorities include protecting D.C. residents, promoting equity, improving D.C.’s judicial system, ensuring public safety and fighting for D.C. statehood. Jones has been a lower profile candidate then both Schwalb and Spiva.

INTERNATIONAL DATELINE

features

JUNE 2022

‘Audopher’: A whimsical WIS wedding By ZOE HÄLLSTRÖM, 2024 Middle and Upper School Mathematics Teacher Andrew Sopher and Middle School Learning Specialist Michaela Audette tied the knot on April 2, 2022 at WIS’s Tregaron Campus, where they met. “Obviously we both have a connection here, and this is where we met, so it didn’t feel weird to get married at WIS,” Audette said. Yet, the main reason the couple chose the location was because it fit their criteria: a historic venue with outdoor space for their young guests. “It really was a much safer space than somewhere downtown, where if they walked out the door, they’d be on a busy street,” Sopher said. “None of [our younger guests] are city children, so it would not have been as safe as having them on a nice open campus.” The couple’s caterers transformed the Mansion with dressed tables and chairs, flowers and rose gold, purple and navy decorations. “While we knew it was a school, I would argue that most of the guests would not have thought of it as a school,” Sopher said. “It very much turned into a nice wedding venue.” However, Sopher was concerned that WIS students would somehow find out about the wedding and show up. “The worst part is it’s the 21st century, so if one person showed up, thanks to Snapchat, everybody would have been on campus within like a half-hour,” Sopher said. “I would have cried.” Since the wedding was during spring break, Sopher had to lie to his students when they asked about his plans. “I just gave them a variety of reasons or things I would be doing and this, that and the other and made no mention of it,” he said. Furthermore, Sopher thought that some of the preparations for the wedding that took place before the break would tip people off, like asking the seniors to take down their hammocks outside of the Se-

COURTESY OF PAPERBIRD PHOTOGRAPHY

Audette (left) and Sopher (right) clink glasses in the Tregaron Conservancy on their wedding day, April 2, 2022.

nior Lounge (Slounge). “I was afraid maybe they would say like, ‘Oh, what’s this for?’, and then somebody would be like, ‘Oh, it’s for a wedding,’ and then that would have given it away,” he said. Luckily, no students showed up at the wedding. Due to the pandemic, the couple invited 25 immediate family members. Audette’s father walked her down the aisle and her godfather officiated the wedding. There was not a wedding party because of the size of the guest list. “If [Audette’s] sister and my sisters were bridesmaids, and my brothers-in-laws were groomsmen, there would be just our parents and eight small children [in the audience],” Sopher said. Before the guests arrived, Audette got her hair and makeup done and then got dressed in Mansion room 204. “205 is the ‘Borat’ classroom, 204 is the wedding classroom,” Sopher said, while Audette laughed.

Meanwhile, Sopher anxiously made sure that all of the preparations were ready for the wedding. “I was by far the more stressed one on the day,” he said. Next, the couple had their pictures taken around campus and the conservancy, and then the ceremony took place near the Slounge. “It was about six minutes,” Audette said. “We just stuck to the basics [and] got married.” During the ceremony, Sopher was sweating profusely and Audette quietly asked him if he was okay. Still, everybody heard her and laughed. Looking back at the wedding, that was one of Audette’s favorite moments. Then, there was a cocktail hour in the Goodman Room and its terrace with passed hors d’oeuvres: steak bruschetta, crab cakes, cilantro-lime shrimp and stuffed mushrooms. This was followed by dinner in Davies Hall in which the guests got the

WIS parent provides insight on cartel era in Medellín and Netflix hit series ‘Narcos’ By DERIN KIRTMAN, 2025 As the sun shines down on Medellín, Colombia, the locals enjoy yet another day of beautiful weather in the ‘city of eternal spring.’ There are many sounds in the air like the clinking of beer bottles and endless chatter coming from bars, the laughter of small children running around in the park and the boom of reggaetón music playing non-stop at every corner. This is what Medellín is like today. However, it is not perceived that way by many foreigners due to its dark past, which was riddled with violence and a huge drug war, led by drug lord and narcoterrorist Pablo Escobar. Escobar’s infamy grew from the megahit Netflix show, “Narcos”. Bernardo Alvarez, a WIS parent who lived in Medellín, has avoided the series because it would be too painful for him to watch it. “I’ve had this aversion to watching any of [“Narcos” or similar series] because we lived through it, it was my home city... kind of like if that was happening in Washington, D.C. when you guys were growing up,” he said. The extreme violence shown in “Narcos” is just the start of what really happened in the depths of Medellín. “Colombia was so bad. There were bombs going off, it was literally a warzone,” Alvarez said. He described that during his childhood in Medellín, he encountered a lot of standard crime. One night, after coming home from a restaurant, his whole house was robbed. However, in addition to the normal crime found in large metropolitan areas,

Alvarez had some terrible things happen to you would see two cities constantly in the him and his family. “Two of my uncles were news,” Alvarez said. “One was Bagdad, bekidnapped, and asked for ransom,” he said. cause there was a war in Iraq and the sec“One of them was kidnapped by the Esco- ond one was Medellín.” bar cartel. He was held captive for 31 days.” Narcos demonstrated the levels of corThat alone was an especially terrifying ruption there were in Colombia. “There experience because family, like cousins and was so much corruption that it was imposuncles, are highly valued in Latin American sible to stop [Escobar],” Alvarez said.“Corculture, according to Alruption went all the way varez. up to the president.” “There was so much corThis wasn’t the only Every single cop in confrontation Alvarez Escobar’s province of Meruption that it was imposhad with kidnapping. He dellín was paid off. Escosible to stop [Escobar]... almost got kidnapped bar controlled a lot of the Corruption went all the way himself. “Out of nomedia, and if a journalist up to the president.” where, in front of us a stood up against him, they big black SUV pulls [up], and their family members BERNARDO ALVAREZ would be threatened, if blocking the road while another one blocks the not killed. way behind us,” he said. “The driver of the “Narcos”follows two agents from the car immediately, with one hand, shoved me American Drug Enforcement Administrainto the floor to hide me.” tion (DEA) hired to take down Escobar. After that, the driver put the car in re- Throughout the show, these agents are alverse, going as fast as 50 miles per hour the ways coming to the rescue. To some extent, wrong way down a highway. that is true. “Somehow he got us to an exit, took Alvarez explained that those two DEA me to my dad’s office and stuck me in a agents did help in dismantling the Mebig safe for about two hours until my dad dellín cartel, but on the other hand, “there came,” Alvarez said. “The next day I was on were times where the DEA helped a lot and a flight back to Miami. They tried to kidnap times where it hurt a lot.” me.” The involvement of the US governAlvarez also mentioned that if you ment is always portrayed as positive on the lined up 15 of his friends, all would have show. In reality, this was not the case. similar stories. It was traumatizing expe“We [Americans] are very quick to rience after traumatizing experience, and point fingers, and say, ‘Oh yeah, Pablo Esslowly it became the norm in Medellín. cobar, that’s the Colombians’ fault,’ but The streets were scattered with dead bod- the truth is there were hundreds of corrupt ies and the city was known to be the most DEA agents,” he said. dangerous one on the planet. “When I was growing up, in the news, Read more at wisdateline.org

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option of a glazed salmon or a chimichurri skirt steak, accompanied by rosemary roasted red potatoes, grilled seasonal vegetables, bread baskets and a salad. For dessert, the guests ate cupcakes from the D.C. bakery, Baked and Wired, and the couple shared a small vanilla and raspberry cake. “We cut it together, really romantic, you know,” Sopher said sarcastically. Then, the couple and their guest played trivia about the years that the couple was born, who out of the couple is more likely to do a certain thing and guess how many Hershey Kisses were in a jar. “I think I won,” Sopher said. After that, the evening shifted to ‘children’s time’ because they needed to get some energy out. The kids played on the field, and Sopher joined them for basketball. The couple also set up firepit s’mores and two piñatas. When most of the guests were gone, the photographer took pictures of the couple holding sparklers. This was Sopher’s favorite part of the wedding. “I feel like that was the first time that [Audette] and I could actually relax and just kind of be ourselves and be goofy,” Sopher said. Similarly, Audette enjoyed taking pictures before the guest arrived, as they were more intimate. “I liked the quieter moments,” she said. The couple made it home at 9:30 p.m. Sopher jokingly said that it made him feel old but Audette argues that it was an exceedingly tiring day. “It was a lot of being on and thinking about a million details,” she said. The couple plans to have their honeymoon in July in Mexico. “We’re looking forward to it,” Sopher said. Please don’t crash their honeymoon because it will make Sopher cry.

international dateline June 2022 Editorial Board

Managing Editors Rose Boehm Beka Tatham Publications Editor Abigail Bown MS Dateline Student Adviser Maia Nehme Marketing Managers Rani Kumar Natalie Sanchez Print Design Abigail Bown Naomi Breuer Faculty Adviser Alexandra Wilding

WIS News Naomi Breuer Global News Alek Danielyan Camila Levey Sports Philip He Rauf Hurcan Opinion Elise Naftulin Federico Opertti Features Zoe Hällström Arts Isabella Duchovny Food Julia Dell’Ariccia

International Dateline is a publication of the student body and therefore has a responsibility to reflect student, school and community affairs. It will strive to inform, entertain and inspire its readers in a broad, objective and accurate manner.

Dateline also provides an open forum for the opinions of the student body, Dateline staff, the faculty, the school administration and people in the community. Dateline staff editorials reflect the opinion of Dateline’s editorial board. Over 50% of the editorial board must support the opinion. Editorials do not reflect the opinions of individual writers. Submit a letter to the editor: Go to wisdateline.org or scan the QR code on page 1. “Submit a letter to the editor” will appear in the top right corner of the screen. Letters must be under 250 words and can address any issue concerning Dateline.

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JUNE 2022

Two stories from post WWII: Germany and Kenya Berlin, Germany: The story of Christine Breuer

Nyeri, Kenya: The story of Naomi Wambugu Naomi Wambugu was born in the town of Nyeri, Kenya in 1954, nine years after the end of the Second World War. A British colony since 1920, Kenya fought on the Allied side during World War II. In 1944, Kenya became the first East African territory to have an African on its Legislative Council. Even as this representation increased, the people still wanted political equality. So, the Kenya African Union (KAU) was formed, led by Jomo Kenyatta. The KAU aimed to gain mass African support, however, a group called the Mau Mau believed the KAU was not producing actual results. They took a more violent approach and caused the colonial government to declare a state of emergency from 1952 to 1960. This was called the Mau Mau movement. Because of it, the colonial government relocated thousands of Kenyans, specifically the Kikuyu people. The leaders directing this revolt were imprisoned, including Kenyatta, and eventually the group was banned. Even after the movement, the Kikuyu were placed into large villages in efforts to consolidate land. People in Nairobi were moved to rural detention camps. In 1960, when African political groups were legal again, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) was formed, which wanted a strong centralized government. A month later, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) was formed, which wanted a decentralized government. A temporary alliance and a coalition government was formed between the two parties. In May 1963, a constitution was enacted that gave Kenya self-government.

COURTESY OF NAOMI WAMBUGU

Elizabeth Nyaruai Macharia, the first female police officer in Kenya and Naomi Wambugu’s mother.

By NAOMI BREUER, 2024 My grandmother, Christine Breuer, was born on Dec. 10, 1942, in Potsdam, Germany, in the middle of World War II. She lived in a house with her parents and older half-sister in a town outside Berlin, Kleinmachnow. Her grandmother’s house in Potsdam was bombed towards the end of the war, leading her to move in with the family. She says she had a normal childhood after the war. But during the war, there were many hardships her family faced. “Before the war was over, there were always attacks,” Breuer said. “The sirens went off. It came at night, and I was taken out of bed, and somehow against my will, dressed, and [we] had to go to a bunker… It was half underground, and there I would scream, ‘I want to get out! Out! Out!’” Later in the war, Breuer and her family would just go to the coal cellar in the middle of the house, where it was the stablest. “Above Kenus were yatta these became attacks. the first You prime miniswould ter and Kenya hear became fully inthese dependent on Dec. 12, 1963. It became a republic a year later, with Kenyatta as the first president. Wambugu described the horrors that the British had carried out when they took Kenya. “They took the best lands for growing crops. Local leaders were imprisoned and many died,” she said. However, she mentioned the benefits of colonization too. “We cannot just say the colonization was just bad, because [it] had a silver lining,” she said. “With them, they brought good ideas and they brought facilities like schools, hospitals and different types of food.” These facilities still exist in Kenya. Kenya was made up of many tribes which were divided during the colonization. Her family was a part of the Kikuyu tribe. “When the colonizers came during that time, they told us that we were different,” she said. “We are about 42 different tribes in Kenya, and each tribe was given a different area. So [they] separated us. That separated the social joy that we used to have. It didn’t affect me personally, but I’m sure it affected my parents.” During World War II, her grandfather fought in the war for the British. He went to Burma, India and Israel, leaving behind his young family in Kenya. Her mother, Elizabeth Nyaruai Macharia, was a policewoman during the heat of the Mau Mau uprising. She became Kenya’s first black policewoman in 1951. In 1956, the colonial government discovered that she was a Mau Mau Freedom Fighter spy, which was considered a crime. She left her police post in 1961 and fled to Ethiopia in exile, where she worked for the Red Cross until Kenya’s independence. She then worked as a nursery school teacher and eventually became a wheat farmer when she purchased land in Mweiga Nyeri. After independence, there was a general sense of joy throughout the country. Wambugu remembers how life shifted afterwards. “When I was in school, most of the ministers were white people,” Naomi said. “But gradually, they kept on leaving and

noises, which didn’t disturb me. I got a wood beam and always hit nails. I still do that. I am very good at hitting nails to hang up pictures,” she told me with a laugh. Bombings were frequent during the war. The house next to Breuer’s was destroyed and never rebuilt because the people who lived there were said to have been taken to a concentration camp by Nazis after making negative remarks about Hitler. Around the Berlin area was a famine, so one couldn’t just buy food at the supermarket. Since Breuer was a small child, her family was allowed a little more food. Her grandmother would also slaughter chickens in the garden for food. After the war, her mother would travel alone, something rare for a woman at the time, to essentially beg for food. She also traded cigarettes in the black market in exchange for ingredients. “Around the time she was supposed to come home, I remember that I would stand by the window and look in the direction she was supposed to come from and see if she would now come. It always went well, and she always brought some food,” Breuer said, knowing that many things could have gone wrong. In 1949, when Breuer started school, she had to walk past a house where Russian soldiers were lodging, and she was always terrified. She gained a fear for Russians from all the negative stories she heard from the adults around her, which still lingers with her today. Her father had many Jewish friends who moved to the US because of the Holocaust. Some friends sent them care packages with cigarettes, clothes, cacao, coffee and fats. “These packages always had a specific smell,” Breuer said. “They had an American smell to me. America was always, because of this, the good ones.” She said this really hit her later in life too, when her son moved to the US. “America was the land of unlimited possibilities to me, and [at his wedding] I was there myself. It was unbelievable,” she said. goWhen Germany ing. was divided into That is four regions, someKleinmachthing that now was happened put into the almost imRussian mediately.” zone. At During first, the colotravel nial time the was alschools were segregated into African schools, white schools and Indian schools. Residential areas were also segregated. “I was lucky to be a beneficiary of that time,” Wambugu explained. “So I went to a good school because the white people, the colonizers [were] going.” During primary school, she went to a Christian school, and then for high school she was able to go to an Indian school. At the Indian school, most of her teachers were Indian, and because of the change, some African teachers were also now working at the school. “We were the first people who are allowed now to mingle with either the colonizers or the Indians,” Wambugu said. Later in life, Wambugu became a Kiswahili and math teacher for students up to age 14. She taught mainly African students. She also taught the scouts and girl guides, with whom she went camping and on trips with, including to Britain.

COURTESY OF CHRISTINE BREUER

View of the Berlin Wall from West Berlin.

lowed through a checkpoint into the American side, which was very close by. Breuer was often sent over to buy chocolate for her father. Because of the fear that the borders would close, and since Breuer’s father worked with western companies as a self-employed fashion designer and graphic artist, the family moved to West Berlin, only a kilometer away, but a completely different place. “It was a huge effort. One had to write down [lists of] everything that one owned,” she said. However, many of the companies her father worked with were located in Wiesbaden, in West Germany. The family decided to move again in around 1957 to Mainz, a neighboring city of Wiesbaden, where Breuer still lives today. In 1963, the Berlin Wall was built. Germany was separated into East and West Germany. East German life was completely different. Everything people could have was limited, and travel was restricted. Breuer once visited her friend in East Berlin, and at a control point, all of her belongings were examined. “They looked in my bag. I had a letter in there from my, not yet husband, he was my boyfriend at the time,” she recounted. “And they just read the letter! It outraged me completely, but what can you do? You’re surrendered. You have to just accept it. So, you always had a very, very uncomfortable feeling, over those borders.” Throughout her visit there were many examinations and restrictions. “It is uncomfortable,” she exclaimed. “You always had the feeling of, ‘Have I broken any [rules]?’ ‘What are they doing here?’ It was not good.” The wall finally came down in 1989. Breuer watched it on TV that evening. “The people went [and] crossed over and over. They held each other in their arms. They cried from joy. They couldn’t believe it. And I also couldn’t believe it,” she said. What stayed with Breuer the most was that war is a terrible thing, and she hopes everyone learns this lesson too. “War is the most pointless thing there is. One has to talk. To shoot yourself dead or shoot other people dead is the worst thing there is,” she said.

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JUNE 2022

FASHION REVIEW

Gold, prints and pink: Best looks from prom night By BIANCA PATTISON, 2023

BEST drESS

COURTESY OF EVE HAWKINS

The undisputed best dress of the night was worn by senior Eve Hawkins. Her beautiful floor-length gold dress stunned alongside her white rose corsage.

BEST drESSED COUPLE

COURTESY OF MILA MARTIN

The best dressed couple of Prom 2022 were the beautiful Mila Martin and Yannick Tanyi. The color coordination was exquisite and the details within both outfits set them apart.

BEST COLOR

COURTESY OF NINA YOUNG

This trio of juniors (Eleanor Hawkins, Nina Young, Madeline Robbins) were the picture of pink in these lovely dresses. But the question remains, who wore it best?

Highlights from WIS Feuds Podcast WIS Feuds

Vace vs. Fresh Med

“We all know that the Mediterranean diet is the best diet.”

“I’m not a big lasagna guy.” “Well, that’s just you. Everyone else is.”

COURTESY OF ANDREA BRUDNIAK-BERROCAL

Dateline’s new WIS Feuds podcast hosts Derin Kirtman and Andrea Brudniak-Berrocal (left to right).

“[Vace is] consistent, but it doesn’t give me the wow factor.”

“If you had a restaurant named ‘Empty,’ would you go there?”

“When Fresh Med doesn’t hit, it doesn’t hit.”

“They put [a] perfect sauce to cheese ratio-” “-No, it needs more cheese.”