Embedded Files
Another Step Towards Progress
Another Step Towards Progress
Lorena Espinoza | December 5, 2021 | News
We live in a society where places can be exclusively associated with certain groups of people, as is the case with restrooms assigned to a specific gender. However, this isn’t the case anymore at BOYCP.
Teachers and students were notified about BOYCP’s new, gender-neutral bathroom signage in November. This is a major step in making the school a safe place for students; this decision means that individuals who feel comfortable in any restrooms are now welcome in those spaces. All restrooms on the second and third floor that are north of each set of water fountains will have menstrual hygiene disposal and units of menstrual hygiene products. The south bathrooms at each group of fountains will have urinals. On the first floor, the restroom on the west (cafeteria) side will also have menstrual hygiene disposal and units of menstrual hygiene products. On the east (north office) side, the restroom will have urinals.
Students have shared their feelings and thoughts regarding this change. A junior student, who wished to remain anonymous, shared her thoughts regarding this change, “People could be sexist at school and probably judge a non-binary person when they don't have pronouns.” They also shared how they fear students may face bullying for expressing their true identity. Freshman Shifra Elias stated, “I do hope that there’s more input from those who don’t fall within either [binary gender identity]. As someone of the female gender, I see no problems with the bathrooms so far.” Senior Jason Cisneros also spoke on the subject, mentioning, “As someone who has experienced bullying and not feeling accepted within their environment, it's warming to see that the school, staff, teachers, and other people care about the feelings and emotions of the students within the building.”
Moreover, it is important to highlight that teachers also feel proud that the school is making progress towards making students feel accepted. Mr. Potter, a social science teacher at BOYCP, mentioned, “Students have told me they are happy with the change and want to make sure it is done in a way that increases the respect and acceptance of their preferences.” The Acceptance Club’s sponsors, Mr. Morrow and Ms. Cole, also expressed that there’s still work to be done as a community to ensure everyone’s safety and well being. As Mr. Morrow said, “…This feels like a larger scale type of progress, but we all must do our part to ensure safety for every student in our day-to-day routines.” Ms. Cole added, “I want to encourage both teachers and students to be brave and speak up when they hear inappropriate or hateful comments.”
BOYCP is a safe place where everyone should feel safe and accepted. If you or anyone is experiencing any type of bullying or harassment, please report it to an adult. We must not tolerate hate.
Support in the School Community
Support in the School Community
Stephanie Hernandez | November 23, 2021 | News
You are not alone. Back of the Yards has welcomed Mr. Brasher into our community as a social worker whose role he said is to “support students’ mental health, social/emotional development, and help resolve student crises.”
With just three months into the school year, many students have encountered many events that have created mixed emotions. To guide you through this feeling, there is a stress management club in the north office after school on Mondays and Thursdays that you can attend. There's also a new team named BOYCP CARE, which is for students that need emotional support. More student support group programs are in the making like Rainbow, which is “for students experiencing grief from a loss through death, divorce/separation, hospitalization, deportation, incarceration, or deployment” and SPARKS “for students dealing with personal trauma.” The office is located in room 122. These meetings will be confidential and private, and they can go at your pace; the priority is student well-being and comfortability.
Mr. Brasher’s goal is “to get integrated into the school community…Please do not be afraid to ask for help,” he says, “If you have any ideas about how to help this school community, let me know! I am all ears. You know your school community better than anyone, and your voice will be heard.” The pandemic has changed our lives. No student is alone, and Mr. Brasher acknowledges that by saying, ¨It is very normal to have difficulty returning to our regular(ish) lives after all that has gone on over the course of this pandemic. I know that I am a stranger to most of you, and it can feel a bit weird to talk about heavy stuff with someone you don’t really know or trust yet, but please make that first step to reach out!”
There is a student self-referral form available for scheduling an appointment with Mr. Brasher, and you can email/gchat him at arbrasher@cps.edu. Your feelings are valid, and always remember that a hard beginning always has a good ending.
The Maroon Transitions for More Sustainability
The Maroon Transitions for More Sustainability
Lorena Espinoza | November 10, 2021 | News
On behalf of The Maroon, we appreciate every single one of you who has supported us in any way. As we all know, the world is changing, and we must adapt to it. As a collective group, The Maroon determined that it would be best to transition to a digital platform to complement our physical issues. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get copies anymore, it just means you will be seeing less of them. We will be releasing our issues digitally with the hopes of creating our website that would allow people to subscribe and get notified when new issues have been released (more information coming soon). Don’t worry though, we’ll print out a limited number of issues for people who would prefer a physical copy. These physical copies will be in places such as the cafeteria, front desk, and even the coffee shop.
Clearly, COVID-19 has affected everybody in some way. Busy schedules including grades, school work, and college applications have made our staff, which has a large number of seniors, increasingly busy. Some members have also expressed that they have felt disrespected when people take an issue just to throw it away without even bothering to look at it.
Nonetheless, digital work is something that is not new to us, as it was our only alternative while being in remote learning. Creating our website and going digitally would also allow us to produce issues faster and even send single articles out for breaking news or time-sensitive information, as our monthly release schedule has occasionally caused an inability to cover certain events. This method would help relieve stress for many of our staff, especially for our upperclassmen.
In addition, many of our staff expressed fear of losing our traditions as a newspaper club. We hope that transitioning digitally helps us create more traditions and create new features that you wouldn’t get with a physical copy.
Once again, thank you for infinite support, and we hope to soon see you in our new digital space!
Photo courtesy of Mateo Curiel
Back Stairwell Conundrum
Back Stairwell Conundrum
Eduardo Liera | November 10, 2021 | News
Every single passing period, students use the middle and front staircases to travel between classes, but not the back staircases. This causes a safety issue, as many students are cramped next to each other and students who might be in a rush to get a class on another floor can get hurt. Plus, with everybody cramped next to each other, this causes the staircase commute to be very slow. This begs the question: can something be done to remedy the situation? There is, in fact, a solution, but it is very complex.
The back staircases seem like the logical answer, but there is a catch to their use. They can only be used during the lunch periods of each specific grade, that being 3rd through 6th. During the rest of the periods, their access is restricted by security personnel near the entrance, who notify students that they have to use the other staircases. This infuriates students, as some have classes at the end of the hall; this situation forces them to take a route longer than that which they would otherwise have.
In order to get to the bottom of this issue, The Maroon interviewed BOYCP principal Dr. Brekke, who stated, “A couple of reasons why we didn’t use that back stairwell and the first was: we didn’t have enough supervision...What we found was that it was easy for some of our students to exit the building before dismissal time.” Dr. Brekke mentioned a few incidents that occurred during BOYCP's first years open, mentioning “We had a couple of students who were on the stairwell, somebody was back there knocking on the glass doors, and our students let them in—and they were actually looking for the library…and then we found two people roaming in our main hallway looking for the library, so that was another security issue.” Nowadays, these types of situations seem unlikely due to the increased security for the back stairwell.
When asked about a plan for stairwell usage during the passing period, she said that a plan can be sorted out so students can use it, but that it will be up to the students that they are using it properly and not out of sorts, which might run the risk of a student getting hurt. This prioritizes safety as well as the opinion of students. Dr. Brekke expressed that, though we may not need to reach the point of a petition, she is open to hearing the voices of the students who don’t want to use the stairwell for different reasons and those who do want it to be open while preventing any injuries or incidents.
A Clear View Once Again
A Clear View Once Again
Karen Campos | November 23, 2021 | News
While using the middle stairwell, many new students and staff have noticed several plywood sheets covering up part of the walls. Students who have been at the school before COVID-19 would know that these boarded-up plywood sheets were once clear rectangular windows. So, what happened to the window? How long has it been this way? What will it take for the window to be fixed? In an interview with BOYCP’s assistant principal, Ms. Walker, The Maroon was able to receive some answers.
Regarding the matter, Ms. Walker responded, “The windows were broken out in the spring. Due to the CPS procurement process, there was a delay in securing a vendor to have the windows installed.” Unfortunately, CPS has become infamous for delays of all sorts in the past, which is no surprise here for the windows in BOYCP.
The windows were broken earlier in April of this year, having been shot multiple times by a still-unnamed individual. In a report by ABC-7 at the time, Chicago police stated that “They had received several reports of people shooting at windows of the school for the past few days, but this afternoon there were staff members in the school. No one was injured.” Students may recall after-school programs and sports being canceled for the day for everyone to be safe during this incident. The person responsible for this was taken into custody, and it was found that the individual had a BB gun in their possession. Their reason for shooting at the school’s window was apparently personal matter, which was not revealed in the ABC-7 report.
As for when the windows will be fixed, Ms. Walker stated, “The new windows [would] be installed on Thursday [the 18th] and Friday [the 19th].” New students and staff members will be able to experience a view that showcases more of the outside. After several months, it is a relief and joy for the rectangular windows to finally return to their former glory in the middle stairwell.
Photo courtesy of Diana Mena-Fuentes
Students Fighting for Change
Students Fighting for Change
Diana Mena-Fuentes and Stephanie Hernandez
November 10, 2021 | News
After being exposed to the community’s injustices, some of our Bobcats decided to help make a change. Engagement in our school community is crucial to resolving root causes to the issues the Back of the Yards neighborhood is exposed to. Some Bobcats got involved in a canvassing in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on Friday, October 8th. The purpose of the canvassing was to let the community know about the budget plan Mayor Lori Lightfoot has to invest $2 billion in COVID relief funds to banks and police, however, the Chicago Budget Coalition created the canvassing to get community members to voice their opinions on where the money should actually go to.
It all started when Betsy Calvillo, senior at BOYCP, reached out to Rocio Garcia, membership director for United Working Families, an organization that fights for resources for black and brown working families across Chicago. This new experience of canvassing, going door to door in the neighborhood to talk to people, has allowed BOYCP students to be exposed to what type of change the community members want to see. Betsy believes that students should start to find ways in how we can engage ourselves in political projects for our community, for we are the future and we are those individuals that will help make a change. “We all have a voice and they should all be heard!¨ This is only the start of Betsy's vision for the community. This opportunity motivated her to think about future projects, and she says, “It would be awesome to become a member of UWF and continue to plan awesome projects.¨
Betsy gathered some BOYCP students like Oasis Tapia and Isai Ortega who had the chance to let us know a little bit more about the experience. For both Oasis and Isai, this was their first time canvassing. Oasis said, “It was an interesting experience. A lot of families didn’t want to open the door or talk to us overall, so the first couple of minutes was difficult to just talk to others.¨ Isai also encourages “students to join engagements to experience different perspectives and understand what is important in one's community.”
Photo courtesy of Tony Ng
Senior Tony Ng Competes in California
Senior Tony Ng Competes in California
Fatima Muniz | November 10, 2021 | News
In today's world, we all deal with the stress of living our reality and the way that we cope is completely different to others. Many use music. Many of us love playing video games whether it is on our phone, Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or in a professional gaming system, like our senior, Tony Ng.
Tony is a gamer, but not just any gamer: he is a gamer by heart. Tony is such a talented gamer that he has gotten multiple opportunities to compete at the next level. He now travels to different places like California to play his favorite video games. Going down memory lane, he mentioned that what got him started doing esports is that “it helped me escape from reality during hard times,” he mentioned. Tony also said that he is a very passionate and exceptional gamer, and that at a very young age learned that he could make a living out of playing video games.
Furthermore, he explained that esports are virtually the same thing as a regular sport. You have to have the same team mindset in order to work with others to succeed, while also focusing on your role within the team. Tony mentions that everyone contributes to the competitions, which may be very long, so they should try “to make it as far as you can.” He expressed to The Maroon that he enjoys esport competitions and explained that everyone in this atmosphere is very competitive and always trying their best, because at the end “the better team always wins, despite how good players can be.” Playing and going to tournaments has also gained him sponsors, providing him with merchandise, gaming materials like headphones, and even monetary compensation for participating in this sport.
To conclude, Tony Ng shared that he encourages others to do esports, and he gave a few words of advice: “If you want to make it and be able to compete among other great players, you have to be mentally prepared, whether it’s not being frustrated quickly and being able to work long hours.”
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