The PosTscriPT October 29, 2014 The Park School of BalTimore | 2425 old courT road, BalTimore, md 21208 Volume 72.1 Issue No.2 Policing the Brown & White Saturday Juniors avoid controversy in annual celebration festivities by Gillian Branam ‘16 unlike in previous years when erasable marker covered windows, lockers, and postponed Brown and White Day 2014, an event benches. planned by juniors to kick off homecom- However, all the anxiety about this by Ethan Harrison ´18 ing weekend, was not very different from year’s Brown and White Day being a After months of planning a large-scale those of past years. For the Oc- wild party full of inappropriate songs and event for 1,000 people, the Parents’ As- to- ber 10 celebration, slights towards other grades was in vain. sociation had to postpone Saturday in the the junior class de- “It was great. The juniors really came Park because of inclement weather. De- cided on cops and together,” said Julie Rogers, science spite this, activities were still plentiful on robbers as a theme. teacher and co-adviser to the class of the weekend of October 11; they included “It was a pretty close 2016. “The planning process was a little the turf field dedication and homecoming. vote between cops and robbers bit rocky in the beginning, but deadlines With heavy rain in the forecast, the and under the sea,” member of the are very motivational forces, so as it got school made the decision to postpone on Brown and White day committee Cole closer to the deadline the kids got more Thursday October 9, the deadline for noti- Simon ’16 said. and more organized,” she said. fying the 100 vendors and volunteers that After last year’s music “We definitely tried to get a lot of di- the event would be canceled. fiasco, a controversy involving verse opinions,” member of the Brown “O-Go, the company hired to set up the inappropriate song lyrics, this and White day committee Kelsey Curtis carnival rides, would have started packing year’s junior class carefully ’16 said. “[Planning] was definitely a their trucks up and setting up on Thurs- planned their celebration so little harder [than expected]. Getting the day night,” Parents’Association president as to avoid offense. While grade motivated was really tough.” Betsy Berner said. In addition, they would some of the rules were pretty Though changes to Brown and White not have been able to operate the rides in basic, such as no weapons Day were minimal, the Class of 2016 bad weather conditions. and no brutality, some still managed to pull off cops and rob- The PA emphasized the fact that Sat- students and faculty still bers, a controversial theme to begin with, urday in the Park was not canceled but worried that the ju- without offending anyone. “I think the postponed, and is in the process of finding niors would repeat kids did what they were asked to do, and a new date in spring that will not interfere the mistakes of past were just creative, and stayed within the with other activities previously scheduled. years. The juniors were boundaries of what they had,” Rogers “It was unfortunate, but it will be just as photo by H. Block ’15 also not allowed to write on any surfaces, said. good in the spring,” Upper School student body president Adam Lessing ‘15 said. “It was still a weekend of celebrations, Wellness seminars replace AODS but pluck out the carnival,” parent pro- gram coordinator Ellen Small said. by Abel Sapirstein ‘17 during G or X blocks. The change was broken into groups of 15 students each The turf field dedication still created prompted by a desire to talk about overall that would rotate among a variety of pre- the opportunity for the community to get For the first time in 15 years there will wellness—not just substance abuse—all pared seminars. These seminars would together. The event, during which the be no Alcohol and Other Drugs Seminar year long, according to Middle/Upper take place during class meetings. “In years field was dedicated to Coach Lucky Mal- (AODS); instead, members of the class of School counselor Krista Dhruv. “The past, class meetings had a lot of time, lonee ’62 and former director of women’s 2018 will have a series of speakers come only two classes that we taught were sex without much substance,” said Angela athletics Barb Purkey, included members and discuss a broad scope of health topics. and drugs,” Dhruv said. “It really seems Balcita, Upper School English teacher and of the larger community such as Baltimore This differs from years past, in which that we were perpetrating the high school adviser to the class of 2018. “Now I feel County Executive Kevin Kamenetz. ninth graders were required to take AODS stereotype.” like when we meet as a class we have an Aside from the excitement surround- Additionally, “it seemed like the time agenda and things to get done.” ing the dedication and first game on the was a big hurdle,” Dhruv said, “because According to Dhruv, a mix of faculty new field, homecoming also celebrated it took away time that had already been and students chose topics. Last year, a sur- Park’s traditions. “We are about a month consumed by clubs and other activities. vey was sent out to the currentninth grade, into school and students are beginning to The argument for a change was just too asking about topics they felt the school worry about work,” Lessing said. “Home- strong to dispute.” talked about enough and what needed fur- coming is a great way to be with your At the end of last school year, a com- ther discussion. The Wellness Task Force friends in a stress-free environment.” mittee met to find a solution to this prob- also gathered data from teachers and stu- Even with the rain and the delay of the lem. Along with Dhruv, the committee dents. A list of topics was presented to a carnival, the weekend was a success. “The included then Upper School Dean of Stu- set of internal and external professionals postponement of the carnival did not di- dents Traci Wright, chair of the science and roles were delegated. minish the weekend,” Berner said. department and Upper School scheduler So far the response has been largely Bob Carter, Upper School science teacher positive. “It didn’t seem like a waste of Elliot Huntsman, and Director of Athletics time,” Leah Genth ’18 said. “It seemed Robin Lowe. like it provided a good jumping off point The committee decided on several for further questions.” goals for the new freshman seminars. Despite the initial positive feedback, Their primary goal was that by the end of according to Dhruv, at the end of this year the year, ninth graders should have experi- the program will be re-evaluated to ensure photo by M. Weiskopf ‘15 ence with a breadth of health topics and that this has had a positive change on the photo by H. Block ‘15 Krista Dhruv, who has taught a semi- should be conscious that health is always community. Balcita has confidence in the nar on alcohol and other drugs for on the radar. The task force decided on program. “I think that it is going to be use- Bad weather forced postponement over a decade, has helped broaden a new format and time for the freshman ful to them as they go through ninth grade of Saturday in the Park, which would the scope to overall wellness. seminars. The ninth grade class would be and the Upper School,” she said. have coincided with Homecoming. Editorial The PosTscriPT, ocTober 29, 2014 2 Fantasy future We’ve come up with a fun little the pressure of having an actual clue game here at Postscript called “De- as to what life will really hold doesn’t scribe Your Life.” The rules of the feel as heavy. game are that an editor of Postscript But, who knows? How can we re- describes to the rest of the staff their ally say, at 17 years old, what the rest ideal future in three minutes or less. of our lives will hold? And if we think There are absolutely no boundaries as we know, how can we be sure? And to what is or is not possible. why do we have to know right now Editor-in-chief Melanie Weiskopf anyway? ‘15 chose to pursue chemistry in col- There is a lot of pressure, particu- lege, and then go on to travel the world larly on seniors, to have a plan. What with Beyoncé. do you plan to major in? Which extra- Arts and Culture editor Nikki curricular activities are you planning Haririan ‘15 described her life as an to be involved in? Which field do you editor-in-chief of her own magazine, plan on going into? If it doesn’t work which launches her into a successful out, do you have a plan B? career that eventually lands her the At a recent assembly, Westheimer role as a Guest Judge on Project Run- Prize recipient Maggie Wulf ‘15 made way. a great point when describing what Features editor Grace Croley ‘15 she learned from her trip walking the opted to go to an Ivy League School El Camino trail in Spain this summer: and then marry Nicki Minaj, whereas “The world we know at Park is really, Features editor Matthew Singer ‘15 really small.” cartoon by Nikita Shtarkman ’16 chose a life as a multi-millionaire She’s right.