Tag: Charlottesville High School

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Coronavirus News

Class dismissed: School closings intensify equity issues

Jack Jouett teacher Heather Dow sits in her car outside the middle school to utilize the public WiFi. Dow lives in Greene County, and does not have a fast enough internet connection to take Zoom calls for work. PC: Zack Wajsgras

With Virginia’s K-12 schools shuttered for the remainder of the academic year, our city and county districts have moved into uncharted territory: figuring out not only how to teach thousands of students outside of the classroom, but also making distance learning accessible and equitable for all.

The districts say they are still developing formal distance learning programs, which will be rolled out after spring break, on April 13. In the meantime, some teachers in both the city and county have provided students with optional online modules and activities, reviewing previously taught material. Educators have also been using video conference services like Zoom and Google Hangouts to bring kids together.

Accessing these resources, however, is more difficult for some than others. Up to 30 percent of Albemarle County Public Schools students don’t have adequate access to the internet at home. And while Charlottesville City Schools do not have division-wide data on students’ internet access, its most recent CHS student survey indicated that 6 percent of households have no internet.

To bridge this digital divide, ACPS has boosted the WiFi signal at all of its schools, as well the Yancey School Community Center, allowing anyone to get onto the internet from parking lots. Several hundred cars have already been spotted taking advantage of this crucial resource, according to ACPS spokesman Phil Giaramita.

ACPS has also leased part of its broadband spectrum to Shentel, enabling the company to expand internet to more rural, underserved households in the area. With the lease revenue, it’s ordered about 100 Kajeet Smart Spots, which are “devices you can install in your house that will access the network of local carriers in your area,” explains Giaramita. Once they’re delivered, “we’re going to start distributing those to teachers [and students] who don’t have internet access at home,” and will order more as needed.

In the city, CCS recommends that students who have inadequate internet access connect to an AT&T or Xfinity hot spot, as both companies have recently opened up all of their U.S. hot spots to non-customers. The district is also distributing hot spots to students who are unable to use those publicly available.

Both city and county school districts are giving laptops to students in grades two and up who need them. ACPS also plans to distribute iPads to kindergarteners through second graders.

At CCS, learning guides are available online for pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students with suggested activities that do not require access to the internet.

Despite these efforts, CHS senior Jack Dreesen-Higginbotham remains concerned about the city’s transition to distance learning. “I know they’ve been working on trying to set up hot spots for students, but I don’t know if it will be accessible to everybody. And [still], not everyone has a school-provided laptop,” he says. “My brother, who is in sixth grade, wasn’t provided one, so he’s had to use mine to do his work.”

However, Dreesen-Higginbotham’s CHS teachers, who currently use Zoom, are doing a “very good job at instructing their classes and organizing lessons, so that they can be inclusive to everybody,” he says.

After spring break, both CCS and ACPS will provide more formal online—and offline—academic instruction and enrichment for each grade level.

“We’re looking at finding specific solutions for individual families, whether online, offline, or a combination,” says CCS spokeswoman Beth Cheuk.

“Offline could simply mean working with kids by telephone, by regular mail. We’ve asked teachers to be creative, so that there isn’t any student who is disadvantaged by their access to technology,” adds Giaramita.

While students will learn new material through distance learning, there will be no grading (or SOLs). Instead, teachers will provide feedback on a regular basis.

To former CHS teacher Margaret Thornton, now a Ph.D. candidate in educational leadership at UVA, this is an opportunity for local schools to explore different types of evaluation systems.

“I hope that we can make lemonade out of these lemons, and re-evaluate a lot of our policies—grading is certainly one of them,” she says.

“We’ve [also] known for a long time that our standardized testing system has created a lot of inequality,” Thornton adds. “We can be rethinking assessments at this time, and how we can make it more formative and more useful in instruction.”

Both school divisions want to ensure that as many students as possible graduate or are promoted to the next grade level. Per guidance from the Virginia Department of Education, students who were on track to pass before schools closed will do so. But on April 6, ACPS announced that if distance learning is not “the best fit” for a student, they will have the option to complete the school year by attending classes in July, or (excluding seniors) during the next school year.

While ACPS’ lesson plans will not go into effect until April 13, Giaramita says one of its distance-learning initiatives has already been implemented: Check and Connect. Students will now be contacted at least once a week by a teacher, counselor, administrator, or principal to talk about their distance learning experience, what assistance they need, and what their internet access is like. So that no student is left out, this contact can take place by phone, email, video call, or even snail mail.

CCS has also asked teachers to connect with each of their students to identify which ones need additional support, regarding WiFi or other issues.

Such practices may be particularly beneficial to those who do not have parents at home to help and support them throughout the day.

“So many service workers are being considered essential, and are doing essential work. But that means often that their kids are going to be home alone without adult interaction,” Thornton says. “The relationships between teachers and students are [going to be] key.”

Other teachers, parents, and community members have expressed similar concerns for students with limited access to adult instruction and interaction, such as those from refugee or ESOL families. And with a significant amount of students without adequate internet access, some fear students won’t be prepared for the next school year.

“It is really hard to live in the county and not have reliable [internet] access. We don’t even have cellular service so we can’t utilize a hot spot,” says Jessiah Mansfield, who has a senior at Western Albemarle High School. “If we need something important, we have to go to Charlottesville to download it. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this issue, but it will impact our children.”

However, others remain hopeful that teachers will be able to help their students make it through the rest of the semester.

“As the crisis continues and escalates, so does anxiety for all. Learning should be suggested. Remember we are at home trying to work not working from home. Connecting with my students is just as important for them as it is for me,” says Libby Nicholson, a fourth-grade teacher at Broadus Wood Elementary School. “We are in this together! We got this!”

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News

No service: Looking to curb distraction, some schools ban phones in class

Students at the Renaissance School are required to leave their cell phones in boxes in the front office for the bulk of the school day. PC: Courtesy of Renaissance School

By Alexis Gravely

All of the nearly 50 students at the Renaissance School have their own mailbox in the front office. But as the teens walk into the Charlottesville private school every day, they’re not dropping papers into them—they’re dropping their cell phones.

The students can check their phones between classes and have them at lunch. But when it’s time for them to focus on academics, the devices are away and not a distraction. It’s become a part of the school’s culture, says Sara Johnson, head of school at Renaissance.

“We want them to have freedom, but in the classroom, the learning process is the priority,” Johnson says.

As cell phone ownership among teens and pre-teens increases, school officials have had to wrestle with how students use their phones during the day. According to Common Sense Media, over half of 11-year-olds own cell phones and over 80 percent of 14-year-olds do. Yet, research shows that cell phones can do more to hinder students than help them. 

That was the conclusion that a group of sixth graders at Henley Middle School drew last winter. The students were tasked with reviewing Albemarle County Public Schools’ technology policy and making recommendations to Principal Beth Costa about how it could be changed or improved. 

Originally, ACPS middle schoolers were only allowed to use their cell phones at lunch. Soon, more students were having them at more times of the day, and teachers noticed them becoming distractions during class.

“A lot of the kids were saying we need to limit our own use,” Costa says. “It was an overwhelming response to what they had learned through this project.”

By August, their recommendation became a reality when ACPS rolled out a new policy that banned all middle school students from carrying cell phones during the school day. Teachers and school staff are also adhering to the rules. 

“We want schools to always be healthy, welcoming, and supportive for all students,” an email to families said. “That’s why, after considerable reflection, we have decided that effective Wednesday, August 21 (the first day of school), our students no longer will be permitted to carry personal cell phones with them during any part of the school day.”

Now, a little over two months into the school year, Costa says the new policy has largely been successful. 

“We aren’t having any issues from our students or the community,” Costa says. “We’ve had fewer than five instances where a kid has had their phone out.”

Costa says parents’ support of the policy has helped create a smoother transition. Prior to the rule change, Costa contacted families to let them know they were considering it. She says she received over 275 responses, which overwhelmingly supported what the county is calling “Away for the Day.”

Lisa Medders, the parent of a seventh grader who attends Sutherland Middle School, says that although her son doesn’t have a cell phone, she appreciates the policy because of its consistency across all middle school grades and all Albemarle County middle schools.

“I was thrilled that the new policy was changing to ‘Away for the Day’ for all grades because I have heard several parents and teachers comment on the distraction that cell phones have caused in the classroom,” Medders says.

Phones are still allowed at both city and county public high schools. Charlottesville High School Principal Eric Irizarry says he doesn’t see phones as a school-wide issue and would prefer not to have a blanket, zero-tolerance policy. 

“With students, it’s trying to teach them where problems arise with cell phone use,” Irizarry says. “We try to come at it from a constructive and a teachable moment perspective because the reality is, they’re not going away.”

At Buford Middle School, Principal Jesse Turner says students are allowed to have phones in the classroom but are only supposed to use them for instructional purposes. They are also able to use them during lunch and other “loosely-structured times.”

“I understand from the viewpoint of a parent, the need to want to contact your child immediately,” Turner says. However, he says he’s noticed that the phones can be a disruption, even if they stay in students’ pockets. He also says that when conflicts arise, cell phones are often involved.

“I personally would like to see us be able to go to a system where phones are not allowed at all,” Turner says. “Because it’s not policy, I try to communicate to children that I’m going to trust them.”

School leaders at Buford have established consequences for misuse. Turner adds that if schools are going to allow phones, they will continue to need assistance from parents and guardians to ensure students are adhering to the guidelines.

Alexis Gravely is a student teacher at an Albemarle County elementary school.

Categories
Arts

Being there: Ebony Groove revives a highlight of C’ville’s musical past

Fans of go-go will get their kicks on Saturday night when Ebony Groove delivers it old-school style at the Jefferson. “There are some things that we just didn’t, and don’t, want to bend on,” says vocalist and saxophonist Ivan Orr. Photo courtesy Ebony Groove

When Ebony Groove posted some old photos to its Facebook page in 2009, the comments came quickly.

“Can we get a reunion please?!”

“OMG what memories.”

“Damn, now this brings back the real good ole days, cats!”

“How about a reunion concert?”

“You know I will be there if there’s a reunion!!!!”

The band had put up throwback photos from its go-go group beginnings in the late 1980s, photos of band members posing together in loose-fitting faded jeans and high tops (and, in one case, coordinating bold-striped shorts-and-T-shirt ensembles).

Nearly a decade after that post, and more than two decades after the band’s “last show” at Outback Lodge, Ebony Groove gave the fans what they wanted: A reunion show, the day after Thanksgiving 2018, at IX Art Park. Not surprisingly, the show sold out.

After starting in 1987 as an offshoot of Charlottesville High School’s pep band (itself an offshoot of the CHS marching band), Ebony Groove went from playing basketball games to school dances, local parties, and eventually opening for national and regional touring acts at Trax nightclub. “People have a lot of ownership in what we were able to accomplish,” says vocalist and saxophonist Ivan Orr, particularly for black Charlottesvillians. “They’ve always thought of us as ‘their band,’ since we were an outgrowth of school.”

On Saturday night, Ebony Groove will get them going again, this time opening for 100- Proof GoGo Band at the Jefferson Theater.

For the unfamiliar, go-go music is a subgenre of funk unique to the Washington, D.C. area. It developed in the mid 1960s and ‘70s, with large bands comprised of musicians steeped not just in funk, but in Latin, soul, hard bop, and jazz.

In the late 1980s, go-go seemed poised for a breakthrough. Island Records founder Chris Blackwell (who worked with Toots and the Maytals and Bob Marley, and is often credited with bringing reggae to international audiences) took interest in the genre and signed some go-go bands to his label. And the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s 1988 comedy School Daze, featuring D.C. go-go band Experience Unlimited, peaked at number 14 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart. But the genre never took off beyond the Washington, D.C. area, and Orr has a theory as to why: “It’s hard to capture in a three-minute and 30-second song, what the feeling is… It’s a music that you have to experience live. You can get a feel, but it’s nothing like being there.”

Many of the crowd-pleasing aspects of the genre, like call-and-response refrains and “roll call” (band members calling out friends when they sneak in late, for example), don’t have the same effect outside of the live show.

Real to reel: Taping culture, in which fans tape live sets from the floor, or sound engineers capture a performance on the board, is most often associated with jam bands like the Grateful Dead. But it’s just as important to go-go music, explains Ivan Orr, Ebony Groove founding member and saxophonist/vocalist, in large part because it’s difficult to capture the feel of go-go music in a recording studio. Orr remembers the first time he realized the value of these tapes: all-female go-go band Pleasure played Trax in the early 1990s, and at the end of the show, the sound engineer auctioned off the tape he recorded from the board. One opportune fan got the tape, and the band got another hundred bucks.

Recently, go-go has started to focus more on percussion and vocals and less on horn, guitar, and bass, but Ebony Groove has consciously avoided that tendency, says Orr. “[We have] a respect for musicality, and there are some things that we just didn’t, and don’t, want to bend on.”

Ebony Groove’s membership is somewhat flexible, as the band invites guest musicians to sit in with them depending on the show, and who’s available to rehearse. But at the core of the group is Orr; vocalist and trumpeter Jesse “Jay” Turner; percussionists Raymond Brooks, Curtis Kenney, and Kyle Reaves; congas player Larry Johnson; keyboardist Chris Redd; bassist and keyboardist Keith Carter; and guitarist Tom Butler.

Not only are they all seasoned musicians who have been playing together and apart for more than three decades, they’re all rather accomplished in the community outside of the band, says Turner. They’re fathers and husbands, business owners, educators (Turner is principal of Buford Middle School and Orr teaches music at Albemarle High School), barbers (Johnson), police officers (Kenney), and more.

Recent shows have been very nostalgic, says Orr, bringing audience members back to their youth, dancing to music their friends and classmates and neighbors made. The band’s added some contemporary songs into its set (get ready to hear some Adele), and since many of band members compose music for other projects, they’re contemplating writing some E.G. originals, says Orr.

But nostalgia’s not the only reason for Ebony Groove’s reunion. The band wants to bring something positive to the city, to Charlottesville’s black communities in particular, says Turner. “Charlottesville has been through a lot since August 2017…and we felt we had something to offer to bring some healing to our community and to certain individuals in our community,” sort of how funk icon James Brown used music to soothe unrest in Boston, and later Washington, D.C., in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in April 1968, he says.

“It’s really gratifying, and makes us feel good,” to have started and continued something that black Charlottesvilleians have been proud of for so many years, says Turner. “We’re just excited to be in a position to still do this. Music has a way of bringing communities together.”

It’s also a way of keeping culture alive. Charlottesville has a “very, very rich” musical lineage, says Orr, one that Ebony Groove has benefitted from and contributed to, and it’s brought black music into venues that don’t host black music often enough. “And we want to keep that going.”

Fans of go-go will get their kicks on Saturday night when Ebony Groove delivers it old-school style at the Jefferson Theater.

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News

Vape escape: Raising the vaping age hasn’t deterred teens

One Charlottesville High School senior estimates about 25 percent of his classmates vape. Photo: Myles Clark

Bathrooms. Locker rooms. Cars. Check any of these places on a typical school day, and you’re likely to find students taking part in the latest teen trend: vaping.

“It’s pretty common around my crowd,” says one Charlottesville High School senior, who estimates about 25 percent of his classmates vape. “Kids will duck out of class every once in a while [to go vape.]”

Teen vaping, declared an “epidemic” by the U.S. surgeon general last December, has been a growing source of concern for parents and public health officials for a couple years, leading Virginia to join several other states and more than 400 municipalities in raising the age to buy tobacco and vape products to 21. A mysterious new vaping-related illness has only increased the alarm. But has the new law had any effect?

At St. Anne’s-Belfield, the law has made it “a little more difficult” for students to vape, says one senior. “But it’s not like students are going to stop or have stopped because of that.”

“Everyone knows who the people are that you get all the vaping supplies from, who’s going to buy [them],” he says. “It’s just generally kind of accepted.”

Since the law went into effect in July, students have used fake IDs and their “connections with retail locations” to purchase vaping products, says the CHS senior.

According to a 2018 Monitoring the Future survey, more than 37 percent of high school seniors, 33 percent of sophomores, and 18 percent of eighth graders reported vaping within the past year—a dramatic increase from 2017. Experts say many teens vape because they’re not aware of its dangers.

Sally Goodquist, Virginia Department of Health’s Tobacco Control Coordinator for the Northwest Region, finds that many teens believe e-cigarettes just contain water vapor.

“Young people are only educated on cigarettes,” says Goodquist. “They see vaping … as a safe alternative to smoking.”

Even after learning about the dangers of nicotine, some St. Anne’s students simply switched over to using vapes containing THC, a chemical commonly found in marijuana, believing that it was healthier than nicotine, says the St. Anne’s senior.

And at CHS, says the senior at the school, most students think there is little chance vaping will harm them.

Virginia’s new law “typically carries a punishment by a civil penalty or fine,” for those who are caught vaping under age, according to a statement from the Charlottesville Police Department. But it hasn’t led to more teen vapers being charged.

“We have not requested enhanced enforcement, and I’m not aware that we have seen any increase in the number of charges [since July],” says Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania.

But the recent outbreak of vaping-related illness—and a ban on flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine pods that’s been proposed in response—could be a bigger deterrent for teens.

Since August 24, 535 cases of vaping-related lung illness have been identified across the country, and seven people have died.

In the Virginia Department of Health’s northwest region, which encompasses Charlottesville, there have been three confirmed cases and one probable case.

Many have blamed “kid-friendly” flavors of nicotine products for the growth of teen vaping, and in response to the latest health scare, the Trump administration announced September 11 that it would ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine pods, excluding tobacco flavors.

“Nobody wants to use a tobacco Juul. Getting rid of those [flavors] will take away the appeal because now it’s just as gross as smoking a cigarette,” says the senior at St. Anne’s, who stopped vaping after he learned about the vaping-related illness.

It is also possible the ban could backfire.

“People don’t really care what [the vape] tastes like,” says the senior at CHS.

If there is a ban on most flavors, some teens may turn to the online black market, use tobacco-flavored vapes, or even switch to smoking regular cigarettes.

“I know people that have already switched to [cigarettes] because of the stories about vaping,” added the CHS senior.

It’s unclear when—or if—a nationwide ban on flavored e-cigarettes will be enforced. For now, the CDC has advised people to avoid using e-cigarettes and never buy them on the street. It has also warned against modifying e-cigarettes or adding any substances to them that aren’t intended by the manufacturer.

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News

Racist threat reverberates: Schools closed, teens arrested, students protest

More than 100 students and community allies joined the Charlottesville High School Black Student Union in its walkout for racial justice on Monday, March 25. eze amos

As thousands were celebrating literature at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, a less-exalted missive from the nether regions of the internet, threatening “ethnic cleansing” at Charlottesville High, closed all city schools last Thursday and Friday. It also prompted CHS’ Black Student Union to lead a walkout for racial justice on Monday.

More than 100 students and community allies gathered at McIntire Park, where they marched past the skate park and up to the guard rails abutting the U.S. 250 Bypass.

“When black lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back,” they chanted, waving protest signs toward the oncoming traffic, and cheering when drivers honked in solidarity.

Black Student Union president Zyahna Bryant read a list of 10 demands for the school system, including hiring more black teachers for core classes. “We have one black teacher that teaches an AP class at CHS,” she said.

The group also wants the school to give more weight to African American history, and for school resource officers to have racial bias and cultural sensitivity training.

Senior Althea Laughon-Worrell said CHS administration tried to keep students in school. ”It wasn’t until they saw that we had an outpouring of community support that they seemed to accept that it was happening,” she said. “We can’t personally ensure that our demands are met, but we plan to keep putting pressure on the city and the school board to deal with the issues we have identified.”

Students lined the 250 Bypass on Monday, holding signs spelling out their demands for change. eze amos

Bryant had posted a screenshot of the threat, from the message board 4chan, on Thursday, and said racism in city schools isn’t new. There will be no reconciliation without structural change and the redistribution of resources for black and brown students, she added.

“In the past, when students of color have brought forth racial concerns, there has been no real change,” Bryant said on Thursday. “This is the time to act and show black and brown students that they matter with lasting changes and reform. Now is not the time to pass another empty resolution. It is time to back the words up with action.”

Around noon Friday, March 22, Charlottesville police announced they had arrested and charged a 17-year-old male with a Class 6 felony for threatening to commit serious bodily harm on school property, and harassment by computer, a misdemeanor.

At a press conference, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters and community members that the culprit identifies as Portuguese, was in Albemarle County at the time of the arrest, and is not a Charlottesville High School student. She said state laws prohibit police from publicly identifying the minor, unless he were to be tried as an adult.

Local, state, and federal partners located the suspect’s IP address with the help of internet service providers, according to Brackney. She did not divulge whether he had any weapons.

“We want the community and the world to know that hate is not welcome in Charlottesville,” Brackney said. “And in Charlottesville and around the globe, we stand firmly in stating: There are not very fine people on both sides of this issue.”

Similarly, Mayor Nikuyah Walker said at the press conference that she hopes the way the threat was handled will lessen fear associated with future threats, and that Charlottesville is “leading the fight for justice globally.”

Also on March 22, Albemarle police reported the arrest of an Albemarle High teen for posting on social media a threat to shoot up the school. Police say that is unrelated to the Charlottesville High threat to kill black and Hispanic students.

City schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins said the decision to close schools a second day and keep 4,300 students home was to make sure everyone in the community, including students and staff, feel safe returning to school.

The racial terrorism was a painful reminder to a community already traumatized from the August 2017 invasion of white supremacists.

UVA media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan tweeted on Friday, “Today, as Charlottesville teachers and students sit home for a second day trying not to let fear overtake them, I’m reminded of those who told me after August 12, 2017, that white supremacists were not a threat to this country. If you think that, be glad you have that luxury.”

Charlottesville School Board Chair Jennifer McKeever said, “It’s unfortunate and frankly it’s really frustrating that we live in this world where people can make these threats and feel comfortable making these threats.”

Courtney Maupin’s daughter is a freshman at CHS. “It’s scary to know there are people out there who don’t like you for the color of your skin,” she said. “I had to explain to my two younger children who didn’t understand why they weren’t in school.”

Like most parents, Kristin Clarens, a local anti-racist activist and mom of three, said she’s glad the city made safety a priority.

“I’m grateful for the efforts that people are making to keep our kids safe on every level, but I also think we should be more forceful in calling this act of white supremacy and terrorism out for what it is,” she said. “I’m heartbroken that we live in a climate where this is allowed to get to this level.”

McKeever, too, was heartened by the outpouring of community support in the face of a situation that is “not something you want to have to explain to our children.”—with additional reporting by Lisa Provence

An earlier version of this story appeared online.

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News

Arrest made in online threat against Charlottesville High School minorities

Charlottesville schools are closed for a second day while police investigate an anonymous online threat made for an ethnic cleansing at Charlottesville High School. Staff photo

By Samantha Baars and Lisa Provence

As thousands are celebrating literature at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, a less-exalted missive from the nether regions of the internet, threatening ethnic cleansing at Charlottesville High, has closed all city schools for a second day Friday.

Around noon Friday, Charlottesville police announced they had arrested and charged a 17-year-old male with a Class 6 felony for threatening to commit serious bodily harm to people on school property, and harassment by computer, a misdemeanor.

At a following press conference, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters and community members that the person they arrested identifies as Portuguese, was in Albemarle County at the time of the arrest, and is not a Charlottesville High School student. She said state laws prohibit police from publicly identifying the minor, unless he were to be tried as an adult.

Local, state, and federal partners located the suspect’s IP address with the help of internet providers, according to Brackney. She did not divulge whether he had any weapons.

Chief Brackney addresses media and community members.

“We want the community and the world to know that hate is not welcome in Charlottesville,” Brackney said at the press conference. “There are not very fine people on both sides of this issue.”

Charlottesville Superintendent Rosa Atkins also spoke, and said she found it “particularly troubling” that the person who made the threat is not enrolled in the city school system. School will resume as normal next week, and counselors will be available as usual.

“We will give [students] a warm welcome Monday morning,” Atkins said.

Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she hopes the way the threat was handled will lessen any fear of future threats, that Charlottesville is “leading the fight for justice globally,” and that “the world is aware that this will not be welcomed [here.]”

Thursday, Albemarle police arrested an Albemarle High teen for posting on social media a threat to shoot up the school. Police say that is unrelated to the Charlottesville High threat to kill black and Hispanic students.

Atkins says the decision to close city schools a second day and keep 4,300 students home is to make sure everyone in the community, including students and staff, feel safe returning to school.

The racial terrorism is a painful reminder to a community already traumatized from the August 2017 invasion of white supremacists.

UVA media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan tweeted, “Today, as Charlottesville teachers and students sit home for a second day trying not to let fear overtake them, I’m reminded of those who told me after August 12, 2017, that white supremacists were not a threat to this country. If you think that, be glad you have that luxury.”

Another reaction came from UVA law professor Benjamin Spencer, who tweeted, “America: This is life as a black family in America. My children cannot go to school for a second day in a row because some rando person has threatened to murder all the “n*ggers” and “w*tbacks” at C’ville High School. #Charlottesville #ThisIsAmerica”

City School Board Chair Jennifer McKeever says, “It’s unfortunate and frankly it’s really frustrating that we live in this world where people can make these threats and feel comfortable making these threats.”

CHS senior and activist Zyahna Bryant, president of the Black Student Union, posted a screenshot of the threat from the message board 4chan, and says racism in city schools isn’t new. There will be no reconciliation without structural change and the redistribution of resources for black and brown students, she adds.

“In the past, when students of color have brought forth racial concerns, there has been no real change,” says Bryant. “The is the time to act and show black and brown students that they matter with lasting changes and reform. Now is not the time to pass another empty resolution. It is time to back the words up with action.”

Courtney Maupin’s daughter is a freshman at CHS. “It’s scary to know there are people out there who don’t like you for the color of your skin,” she says. “I had to explain to my two younger children who didn’t understand why they weren’t in school yesterday.”

When she heard Thursday schools would be closed again, “I cried last night because it’s heartbreaking,” says Maupin.

Kristin Clarens, a local anti-racist activist and mom of three, is one of several community members who says she’s working to dismantle white supremacy at a local, national, and international level. In the immediacy of the school closings, they’re making sure food insecure students who rely on school lunch are still getting fed.

Two of her children go to Burnley Moran Elementary, the city’s largest elementary school, where kids from two public housing projects—Westhaven and one near Riverview Park—are bused in everyday. Clarens, who’s watching four extra kids today, says these students can be particularly vulnerable, and their parents can’t always find childcare or transportation when school is cancelled abruptly.

During yesterday’s closing, she and other parents hosted an open invitation lunch at Westhaven, and they’re planning to have another one today from 12-2pm. It will be paid for by the Burnley Moran PTO, which is accepting donations of money and nonperishable food that can be delivered to the Westhaven Recreation Center during the community lunch hours.

Like most parents, Clarens says she’s glad the city made safety a priority.

“I’m grateful for the efforts that people are making to keep our kids safe on every level, but I also think we should be more forceful in calling this act of white supremacy and terrorism out for what it is,” she says. “I’m heartbroken that we live in a climate where this is allowed to get to this level.”

McKeever, too, is heartened by the outpouring of community support in the face of a situation that is “not something you want to have to explain to our children.”

Updated Friday, March 22 at 11:53am with the Charlottesville Police Department announcement that they’d made an arrest.

Updated Friday, March 22 at 1:50pm with information from the press conference.

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News

Guns & PE: Firearm safety comes to high school health class

Kristen Martin, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, says securing all firearms, unloaded and away from ammunition, is the most important safety tip. Photo by Eze Amos

Charlottesville’s physical education teachers are already tasked with teaching a range of heavy topics in health class, from the dangers of opioid addiction to how to avoid unhealthy relationships. Now, gun safety will be added to the list.

Fifteen of the city school division’s PE teachers traded a day in the gym last week for a day in the classroom, where they joined volunteers from the local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The group shared a training it developed called “Be SMART,” and asked the educators to take the information back to their school communities. Meanwhile, the school division will be working on adapting the curriculum for 10th graders at CHS, who will be the first in the area to learn it in a classroom.

“In America, we do have an issue with gun violence,” says Kristen Martin, a Moms Demand Action volunteer. She presented a range of security methods parents can use, including free gun locks handed out by many police departments upon request, and expensive safes that a gun owner can open only with his handprint.

Securing all firearms, unloaded and away from ammunition, is “the single most important thing we can do,” to protect against accidents, suicides, and kids toting their parents’ guns to school to commit mass shootings, she adds.

Moms Demand Action is now working with Jessica Brantley, the city school division’s health and physical education instructional coordinator, who will implement the gun safety course at CHS.

“They’re almost adults, so soon they’ll possibly be able to own a firearm and be responsible for its use,” says Brantley. “They will then have to understand the risk of having it in a home where there are other people.”

And it’s important for students to be trained on proper gun use, she adds. “If they are going to use them, it’s just like driving a car—you don’t just get in and drive.”

The gym teacher of 16 years says she thinks students will be shocked by some of the statistics presented by Moms Demand Action.

Every year, nearly 300 children under age 18 unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else—often fatally. American kids are 11 times more likely to die from gun violence than those in other developed countries. And 1.7 million children in the U.S. live in homes with guns that are both loaded and unlocked.

Priya Mahadevan, the leader of Charlottesville’s Moms Demand Action chapter, says they initiated the training because educators are crucial to the conversation of gun violence and school safety.

“We are proud of this inroad we’ve made and we hope that this will be the first of many in our school districts,” she says.

Get SMART

While the firearm safety protocol of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is mostly geared toward parents, Charlottesville City Schools will adapt it to cater to 10th graders. Here are some tips for parents:

  • Secure all guns in your home and vehicles.
  • Model responsible behavior around guns.
  • Ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes.
  • Recognize the risks of teen suicide.
  • Tell your peers to be SMART.
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Arts

All are welcome: Theatre CHS repurposes immigrants’ poetry, prose for unprecedented play

“Dreaming America: A Devised Theater Performance” will take place at Charlottesville High School Black Box Theater for one night only on Tuesday, September 18 at 7pm as part of Welcoming Week. A panel discussion with poetry book editor Seth Michelson will follow. While free, the event will offer donation opportunities to benefit the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. Photo by Mohammad Alsheikha

By Caroline Hockenbury

Freedom is ringing, but that’s because youth are belting about it on stage, deconstructing it on Twitter, and demanding it—at full-tilt—at student-led protests. The next generation’s cries for justice buzz in every ear.

Charlottesville High School theater students are merging their voices with teens across the country who, simply put, expect more from America. With a one-night-only performance the night of Tuesday, September 18, Theatre CHS will propel the otherwise choked voices of Latinx teen immigrants by reimagining the poems collected in Dreaming America: Voices of Undocumented Youth in Maximum-Security Detention for the stage.

Dreaming America, penned by adolescents confined to isolation cells in a Staunton maximum-security detention center, is a book of bilingual poetry oscillating between imagination and anguish. Using the unaltered text as a skeleton for a script, Theatre CHS students thoughtfully wove speech snippets, musical riffs, and movement between the ribs of the poems, first produced in weekly writing workshops with Washington and Lee University Professor Seth Michelson at the detention center.

Co-directors and CHS seniors Mila Cesaretti and Evelyn McKenney selected most of the cast from the Theatre CHS program, but to fill the remaining roles, they resorted to sending email blasts and pinging peers on social media platforms. They snatched up sophomore Mohammad Alsheikha via Instagram direct message (or “DM,” as they say).

Alsheikha, who fled his home country of Syria in 2014 and immigrated to the U.S., hears snags of his own experience in the lines spilled on stage. One of the show’s sequences features a gut-wrenching monologue about a teen parting from her dog, cutely dubbed “the dude” (the revery is quickly suffocated by sound effects of police dogs’ snarls); Alsheikha recalls fighting off stray dogs during a three-day desert stay at the Syria-Jordan border. As for later lines underscoring the senseless loss of children? “There was this day when I was fourteen [when] I went to my job, and there was a jet [that] attacked people,” Alsheikha says. “I saw girls and boys and men and women on the floor dying.”

The set is hauntingly bare, barring a few benches, black boxes, a single desk, and blue tape gridding the floor. “I see beautiful things, but I can’t touch them,” one actor moans. “When I think of my future, I think of leaving this place,” another aches. Lights hang overhead, looming like lamps in an interrogation room, their eerie hum completing the space’s transformation from simple stage to detention center.

In presenting these poems to the public, Cesaretti and McKenney hope to spark conversations that might otherwise be swallowed up by the comfortable chaos of daily American life. “By sitting and being indifferent toward this problem or reading the news and not deeply caring, then you, in a sense, are a part of the problem,” says McKenney.

Cesaretti adds that reframing your perspective may be as simple as switching up the crowd you sit with at lunch or engaging daily with community members with backgrounds different than your own.

In a city—and state—strengthened by the presence of countless immigrants, McKenney argues it is critical for us to familiarize ourselves with “what’s going on in our own backyard.”

Delivering words written by incarcerated children proves an emotionally taxing endeavor for these student actors. Instead of getting bogged down by despair, though, the cast opts to focus on the change-inspiring intent of the play instead. “When we think about…what we have the potential of doing with a show like this, then…that glimmer of hope [prevails],” says McKenney.

The opening musical moment, an intimate conversation between one guitar and two lilting voices, inverts the lyrics of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” to pose a pressing question: “Is this land made for you and me?” The cast and crew of this homegrown performance are ushering in hope for a new day, when the response to this question will be an unmistakable, resounding “Sí.”

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Arts

Sahara Clemons steps out in SSG’s Backroom

“Bleached” (above), is a reaction to Clemons’ experience when visiting a birthing center in Uganda, inspiring a deeper exploration of identity for the artist. The emerging artist will participate in SSG’s “Teeny Tiny Trifecta” show in September, and was recently awarded an Incubator Studio residency at McGuffey Art Center for 2018-2019. Courtesy of the artist

Like most teenagers, Sahara Clemons is figuring out who she is.

She describes herself as “quirky” and “introverted,” a bit shy and quiet. She wears bright lipstick and expresses herself via clothing. She likes to read, travel and look at art. And she’s a Charlottesville High School rising senior who only recently started thinking of herself as an artist.

Clemons can’t remember a time when she wasn’t drawing or sketching, and was often told that she had talent, but she wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. “Talent can motivate you, but it’s hard to distinguish” between enjoyment and talent, especially when you’re young, says Clemons.

She developed a distinct visual voice through both pop art pen-and-ink self-portraits and fashion design—Clemons has participated in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Teen Stylin’ program more than once and won “most creative construction” accolades. She has always created for herself, as a means of self-reflection, but about a year ago, she noticed that people weren’t just looking at her work—they were reacting to it, connecting with it. That’s when she felt like she could call herself an artist.

Clemons’ exploration of her identity as a black woman is a central theme in her collection of paint-and-textile works of abstract portraiture on view in the Backroom at Second Street Gallery—how she sees herself, how she imagines others see her and how she can’t help but incorporate the world’s perception of her into her inner self.

Selections from Sahara Clemons’ collection of new work are on view in Second Street Gallery’s Backroom through July 27.

At the top of a long, vertical piece, Clemons’ face is drawn in pop-art style, with thick, expressive black lines outlining her features, hair, arms and hands, all rendered in yellow against a deep cobalt. The viewer has caught her mid-dance pose, and below Clemons’ face is a pattern comprised of four pairs of feet, all on tiptoe, in yellow and black, dancing across a striped plane. In each black shadow cast by the feet is a dancing figure.

This particular piece represents Clemons’ love of dance, an aspect of herself she generally keeps under wraps. Not that she doesn’t want people to know, but because she likes to surprise people by dancing when the moment is right. By publicly declaring her sub-secret love for dance in a slightly abstract way, she says she is able to “reiterate my means of feeling different, but also feeling somewhat empowered by keeping it in.”

The pattern is reminiscent of Dutch wax fabric (also called ankara), which Clemons first saw during a trip to Uganda where she connected with the bold, unique fabrics in a way she didn’t connect with other things in the country. The fabric has a long history, but in brief, the Dutch adopted a centuries-old Indonesian wax resist-dyeing technique and brought it, along with the bright, batik-style patterns, to Dutch colonies in southern and western Africa in the 19th century. Ever since, the brightly colored bold patterns have been widely associated with West African garb.

One of Clemons’ favorite artists, Yinka Shonibare, uses Dutch wax fabric in his sculptural works to comment on “expansionism and colonialism…and how the world was tapered with that kind of imperialistic mindset,” Clemons explains.

She says the fabrics have allowed her to reflect upon her identity “as a black person, feeling like I was taking something that was part of myself and putting it out there [in a way] I hadn’t done so before.”

Another piece in the collection, “Bleached,” is inspired by the same trip to Uganda, where Clemons and her mother, Eboni Bugg, stayed in a birth center. In the piece, a light brown figure appears to either consume, or be consumed by, white liquid bleach, while a smaller, darker brown figure looks on; they’re cradled by bright green pieces of a Dutch wax fabric pattern.

At the birth center, one woman had much lighter skin than the other women and children there, including her own child, Clemons says. She later learned that this woman bleached her skin “probably for years and months” in order to lighten it.

Clemons felt extraordinary sadness at the idea that this woman was reacting to pressure to look a certain way, and she also “felt some sort of guilt” in her own (naturally) light skin: “I felt like I was perpetuating something for her,” says Clemons, adding that she intends the piece to “show the generational trauma” that can persist among black women when the idea that light skin is more beautiful than dark skin permeates a society. And she wonders how it has affected her perception of, and the perception of her within, black culture.

In creating these pieces, Clemons has come to understand how many things converge to form her identity. “As I became more developed and more aware of things that would be reflective upon me as a black person, my character, my self-expression, it sometimes became easier to walk life more freely, and it became harder, too.” Such is the paradox of self-awareness.

But Clemons continues to search, (she’s still in high school!), and that’s the function of art, after all, she says. It’s “a language to find something in others, find something in yourself, that you didn’t see before.”

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News

Bird watch: Intoxicated cedar waxwings slam into CHS

It’s been a bad year for intoxicated cedar waxwings crashing into CHS windows. Photo Walker Catlett

You can tell it’s spring when the birds return—and start crashing into the windows at Charlottesville High while drunk on Japanese pagoda tree berries.

Avid birder Walker Catlett, 17, a junior at CHS, saw cedar waxwings flying into windows, and so far has documented at least eight dead and others stunned from soaring into the glass.

Pagoda berry casualties. Photo Jacob Floyd

“I think they could have died because they were intoxicated by the pagoda berries,” he says. The berries ferment, and the birds “can get alcohol poisoning.”

He believes once they’re loaded on berries in the school’s courtyard, the birds bang into the reflective windows.

As he did at the new Brooks Family YMCA last fall when he found injured and dead birds outside its large windows, Catlett alerted the school’s administration.

Says CHS Principal Eric Irizarry,“It’s a great example of a student applying his knowledge and interest to solve a real-world problem.”

The school notified its facilities and maintenance staff, trimmed the berries on the courtyard bushes and applied poster paper to the windows as a temporary fix. And city facilities staffers have volunteered to remove nandina bushes (a flowering plant also called “heavenly bamboo”) around the school before next year’s berry season, says Irizarry.

The administration met with Catlett April 27 to brainstorm interim ideas to get through the migration season, which has resulted in more strikes than the school has seen before. “I believe the school is planning on putting tempera paint on the windows,” he says.

But now, a new problem: A northern cardinal fell victim to the allure of bright shiny surfaces at the Y May 1 and a northern waterthrush collided into CHS May 4.