THE WILDCAT TRIBUNE VOLUME VII ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 21 2019 INDEX SAN RAMON NEWS | 2 SOCIAL JUSTICE PROJECTS OPINIONS | 5 HOUSING THE IMPACT OF PROTESTS FEATURES | 6 CRISIS BUILDS TEACHER AFFORDABLE HOUSING INVESTIGATION ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | 9 BARRIERS FOR OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN IN BOLLYWOOD SPORTS |12 DVHS FALL SPORTS SENIOR NIGHT TEACHERS @wildcat.tribune @wildcattribune @dvhstribune https://thewildcattribune.com ILLUSTRATION BY ELAINE PARK 2 NEWS & FEATURES NOVEMBER 21 2019 SOCIAL JUSTICE STUDENT PROJECTS CAPTURE ATTENTION AROUND CAMPUS BY DANIEL SHEN, SHEYDA think Juuling is as bad,” Cha said. but I don’t get the point of the mask.’ … I think considerate, others said they made their points LADJEVARDI, JADE WANG & One last project chose to focus on sexual assault, people got a little confused … but the red tape on the way they wanted to. MEHEK KANDRU a pressing issue for young women. Kim Shum, Lei- the mask symbolizes the people of Kashmir being Indeed, Basu and Konatapalli acknowledged Co-Editor-in-Chief, Photography la Amiri, Katie Moore, Sami Frias and Sam Mass’s silenced to bloodshed torture.” the letter’s point regarding their school shoot- display on victim shaming displayed a variety of The vaping project also shocked some students ing poster. Nevertheless, they believed that it Editor & Staff Writers attire — from a crop top to a hoodie — on a cloth- and teachers. wouldn’t cause real damage to students. ing rack located outside of the 1000 building. It “We did get feedback from a teacher when we “When I was walking out of fourth period … Last month, more than a dozen Social Justice featured a red Solo cup, common questions asked were putting up the poster, since she didn’t realize projects were displayed around Dougherty Valley to victims such as “What were you drinking?” and how many cigarettes were actually put into … one High School, drawing attention to their portray- various quotes from them. pod,” Cha said. “I think it surprised everyone that als of current issues such as school shootings and Frias said that aside from the CNN website, oth- one pod equals 20 cigarettes or 30.” sexual assault. Despite being criticized by some er projects around the country on victim shaming Though many praised the projects for their so- for glorifying their subject matters, the projects also motivated her group’s project. cial consciousness, others were less enthusiastic. received mostly positive feedback for the aware- “Some signs are called ‘What are you wearing?’ In an anonymous letter to DVHS administration, ness and dialogue they nurtured. or ‘What was she wearing? and it’s just clothes four students expressed concerns about the proj- In the Social Justice class — which counts for displayed [where] people write their stories … We ects’ effects on the student body. English 12 credit — Dougherty Valley seniors just wanted to take that, obviously, on a smaller One of their key criticisms was that the projects learn about wealth inequality, opportunity and scale, make it our own and kind of explore,” Frias failed at their goal of raising recognition, harming social privilege through the lens of a traditional elaborated. students’ sense of security at school more than English class by reading, writing and analyzing they empowered them. texts. For these specific projects, teachers Mr. Tim “If the creators of these displays are trying to Brown, Mrs. Rebecca Uscian and Mrs. Hanna create a safe school culture by ‘raising awareness,’ Love encouraged students to dig beyond relevant this is not the way to accomplish it,” the letter texts for relevant topics. read. “Those with PTSD or who are triggered by “They’re not only looking at different sources mentions of these subjects walk past these dis- of information … but then they’re looking to do Hoping to initiate serious discussions about plays on practically every corner of the campus, gun violence, seniors Leah Wang, Anoushka some analysis and integrate some of the research causing panic attacks, flashbacks and general dis- they find,” Brown described. Basu, Anikait Konatalapalli, Malavika Diva- comfort or discontent.” kar and Hadas Tankel’s Social Justice drew These projects were inspired by a CNN article ti- Sympathetic to their claims, the students be- a school shooting sign with bullet holes and tled “What would make you care about Aleppo?”, hind the victim shaming awareness project ex- blood spatters for their Social Justice poster. which used different media to convince readers to plained how their project’s interpreted meaning //HADAS TANKEL care about an issue — specifically, the Syrian Civil could differ from its intended meaning. War. “The way [some people] took it, they thought I heard some people making these comments “The website … shows you all these pictures of we were saying, ‘Oh, only girls that wear minimal about it. Some of them were, like, ‘Oh, that’s a people in Syria, and then there’s videos and sta- clothing and girls that are drunk get raped’ … We bit extreme,’” Basu said. “At the same time, there tistics, and ... the idea [is] like, ‘Would you care tried to say anyone can … but those are [the] peo- weren’t any specific accounts of anyone actually now?’” Uscian said. “The idea behind the project ple that get blamed the most,” Shum said. having a strong reaction, like … [having] to avoid was using that as a format [to] make the students Notably, the letter’s authors believed that many this part of the building because it might trigger of Dougherty Valley care about something you of their peers shared their views. them. I feel like they kind of blew things out of pro- care about.” “It was all of us and also people that I had talk- portion.” The result was a myriad of projects, each focus- ed to,” one author said. “As people who are really Konatapalli said that even if it meant negative ing on issues that Social Justice students felt pas- Seniors Kim Shum, Leila Amiri, Katie Moore, involved in walkouts — for the Parkland shooting feedback, her group would still have taken the ex- sionate about. Sami Frias and Sam Mass featured a variety two years ago — that stuff hit really hard.” treme approach in order to spread awareness. She Suraj Malhotra, Shakthi Subramaniam, Zoya of attire, including a crop top and a hood- The letter specifically pointed out four specific called for students to judge only after evaluating Abidi and Haidar Jafry selected the conflict in ie, on a clothing rack for their Social Justice projects for “triggering” students. the poster’s real message. Kashmir, a region between Pakistan and India project on victim shaming. //SHEYDA LADJEVARDI Addressing an exhibit with “statistics on how “I would hope that the school takes a little more that has been disputed by the two nations for the members of the LGBTQ+ community are more time to decide on whether they’re angry at a post- past 50 years. The project displayed a mask with Ultimately, many projects covered delicate sub- likely to be murdered, harassed and discriminat- er for how they feel on it, or how they fear other the Pakistani flag on one eye, the Indian flag on jects that had to be dealt with carefully. Because of ed against,” the letter said that “LGBTQ+ mem- people would react … A lot of the negative reac- the other, blood smeared across it and red tape this concern, DVHS administration — represent- bers at this school already feel threatened enough tion that we did receive was other people speak- covering its mouth. ed by assistant principal Ms. Sarah-Acosta Landry … and openly displaying how they might die does ing for what they believed would happen and not Subramaniam explained that aside from cre- — played a role in producing these projects. In ad- not help.” what is happening,” Konatapalli said. ating awareness and discussion, the project spe- dition to acting as a “sounding board” for project Then, criticizing a chalk message in the quad The creators of the victim shaming awareness cifically showed how “more important than how approval, Landry also engaged with students to that read something to the effect of, “one out of project also responded to the letter’s claims per- proud you are of your country … all these people … help them achieve the projects’ intended purpos- every 5 women are sexually assaulted,” the letter taining to their project. Though they understood are getting hurt in the fighting.” es. She considered factors as detailed as where the wrote: “The display has five circles, in which stu- the writers’ argument, they believed it misinter- Though students are more exposed to the dis- projects would be displayed. dents can stand in to ‘see’ if they will be raped. This preted their project’s message, particularly given course around school shootings than the Kashmir “Landry was interested in helping the kids get is absolutely ludicrous, as it is having young wom- that they had covered their project with explan- conflict, Leah Wang, Anoushka Basu, Anikait Ko- their message across. She gave a lot of really good en stand in a circle which appears to decide if you atory text cards. natalapalli, Malavika Divakar and Hadas Tankel advice on ‘How do you make this unique?’ and will be sexually assaulted or not.” One read, “Rape victims are still being interro- believed that gun violence is still not discussed ‘How do you make this more powerful?’” Uscian After discussing the victim shaming awareness gated about what they were wearing at the time enough. Their poster, which was displayed out- said. project, the letter lastly and most prominently of assault, despite the fact that the length of a side the administration office, featured a school Landry felt that as an educator and adminis- condemned the school shooting poster, particu- woman’s skirt should never be seen as a measure crossing sign with bloodstains, bullet holes and trator, she needed to inspire students to “make a larly for the violent imagery it employed.