News

By Phoebe Seigel 

For the first time in almost five years, Lincoln hosted a Black Student Union assembly in honor of Black History Month. The assembly opened to a drum performance as students filtered into the auditorium and found their seats. The performance featured student speakers, dances, poems by prominent Black poets, and trivia on Black history. 

LaBoris Perry is a new teacher here at Lincoln and one of the advisors for the BSU along with Stephanie Rivers, the school’s attendance clerk. He claims that the BSU hasn’t been active in a while, and says they brought back the assembly to give a voice to the students in his club. 

“We noticed that our students felt like they weren’t being seen or heard in our school environment. And so after talking with our African American parent advisory group committee, the APAC group, some ideas that we came up with [were that] previous students that were at Lincoln [said] they had these events where they could celebrate themselves, and they would have different culture events, and different clubs would be involved. And [one of the parents] mentioned that during Black History Month, there used to be a really big celebration a few years ago when her daughter was in school, but apparently that hasn’t been the case for a while. And so from that, we thought that it would be fitting for the students to be able to have those same experiences, so that they can feel seen and heard as well.”

Ensuring that students feel seen and heard is one of the main focuses of BSU. Student Loyal Layne emphasizes that being heard and having your opinions listened to is one of the things she really enjoys about being in BSU. 

“I like how it’s a place for Black students to come together and share what we think about things happening in Lincoln and just things in general,” she says. 

Layne says she joined BSU in her freshman year, and then re-joined last spring in order to get participation that would allow her to go on a trip over spring break. Layne helped put together the assembly, and emphasized that while the process was fun, it was not without difficulties. 

“It was a lot of people figuring out what they wanted to do and if they even wanted to participate in the assembly in general,” she says. 

Further complications with the assembly came as a result of the strike– by the time the strike was over and the re-scheduling of the assembly was finished, Black History Month had already passed. 

“[The assembly was put off because of] the strike, and then timing with the school calendar, because we have Unity assembly coming up, and we have student shows that are coming up. And so I think with everything going on, it was hard to come back to school and just automatically jump right into being able to [plan for the assembly] when we had a lot of things we had to tighten up [to] finish everything,” says Perry. Despite scheduling issues and interruptions, the school-wide assembly managed to become something everyone involved with it felt proud of. 

In the coming years, Perry looks forward to expanding the club and offering more opportunities for students in BSU. 

“I think this year we had a really good year being able to come back, but next year, me and Ms. Rivers want it to be even better, right? Definitely getting our students to be more hands on, more involved, more involved with ASB and planning different events at school in general. But also being able to take field trips and [get] out of the building too, and really just make BSU an even bigger organization and club here at Lincoln.” 

For Perry, expansion of the club,\ and the club as a whole is important for more reasons than just assemblies and leadership experiences. 

“Having a BSU at Lincoln is important, because when you look at the school statistics, we are a school of about 2,100 students. Out of those 2,100 students, about 170, give or take a few, are African American, which means about 4.3% of our student body is Black or African American students. And that might even leave out a few students who may be multiracial, or who may decline to state [their race] for getting into school, or for whatever reasons there could be. And so, in a space like that [...] we always see our students here, but they don’t really have anybody to be able to represent, as one of the students talked about in their speech at the assembly. That [lack of] representation is really hard for them. And so, with our students, I feel like they really just need that space so they feel seen,” says Perry.

“When you’re able to go to school, like I tell all my students, and you’re able to be involved in more than just learning, school becomes a place that you enjoy, it becomes more of a community. And so being able to have a space to talk about some of the issues or some of the things that students are dealing with here at Lincoln, I think it’s super important. But not only is it having a space to talk about those issues, but also having places of leadership, where we’re able to teach them to be able to carry out business and be able to plan meetings and have an agenda and hold office. All of these things are very important.”

By Phoebe Seigel 

Though the UESF Teacher’s strike ended last month, the repercussions of the strike continue to affect students and faculty at SFUSD schools. One such repercussion is the looming threat of district-wide layoffs. According to the San Francisco Standard, Superintendent Dr. Maria Su asked for approval on layoff notices for 42 district employees. The layoffs could theoretically be the result of a few problems– namely the district’s continuing financial struggles, falling student enrollment, and money lost during the teachers strike. 

Two of the district’s public relations personnel, Laura Dudnick and Katrina Kincade, admit that the looming threat of potential layoffs can be extremely difficult on students and staff. However, they emphasize the fact that the potential layoffs are just that– potential, claiming the district does not want to lay off any of their “valued educators.” Dudnick also states that sending out notices of potential terminations happens every year as the district reviews the budget. 

“Layoffs are always the last resort,” Dudnick says, hoping that they can be avoided by having people leave the district voluntarily to cut down on spending. 

Dudnick also emphasizes that the layoff notices are not a direct result of the strike. Though the district did lose money during the strike (I’m still trying to figure out how much exactly), the root cause of the issue is declining enrollment in the district overall. National birth rates are dropping, contributing to the issue, but ] San Francisco also has an abnormally high rate of students enrolled in private schools over public schools. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, around 30% of school age children are enrolled in private schools, a number much higher than the state average of 8% and the national average of around 9%. According to an article from KQED, the large number of children attending private schools is due in part to the city’s growing wealth gap, concerns about the quality of a public education, and the wave of white flight in the late 20th century, which led to fewer kids in the district overall. Though the trend of high private school enrollment will likely continue, falling public school enrollment is not the only factor contributing to the sheer amount of potential layoffs. 

Over the past few years, SFUSD has been facing an undeniably difficult financial situation. Beginning in 2022, when the district employed the EMPower payroll system, educators were given  incorrect check amounts and in some cases no pay at all. Since then, the district has stopped using EMPower but has spent around $30 million in doing so. Currently, according to Kincade and Dudnick, SFUSD has been operating in a deficit.

“What we've been doing as a school district for the past few years is spending more than we take in,” says Dudnick. 

Part of the problem, say Dudnick and Kincade, is that the way California public schools are funded is wracked with issues. Currently, schools get funded by the state based on attendance, so when a student is absent, that causes the district to lose money, leading to the district trying to cut down on spending where they can, including sending out preliminary layoff notices, among other measures.

According to Dudnick, some cuts were made to the central school office. She also says, “We did reduce some of the programs that we’ve had in schools, and we’ve had to adjust how we staff our schools.” She emphasizes that the district aims to “keep impacts as far from students as possible.” 

SFUSD’s budget crisis has been worsened by the strike, which cost the district around $7 to $10 million, according to preliminary estimates. 

Charles Lin alleges that the district had also tried to save money by reducing the number of periods at some middle schools. 

“And the plan, this was their original plan, was that they were going to cut, I believe, a lot of middle schools from seven periods to six periods. And then what would happen is a lot of the teachers might get consolidated and then pushed to other schools. But that was a very unpopular stance. I think it got a lot of pushback, and so the district actually reversed.” Now, he says, they are likely to only consolidate one school– Academy high school, near School of the Arts, or SOTA. 

Though the strike ended weeks ago, and the new contract has been ratified, tensions between the district and the union remain somewhat high. 

“The big thing that we’re trying to discuss right now is what do the four to five days [that were missed due to the strike] look like? And what the district’s saying right now is, ‘Hey, we don’t know.’ We actually do not know if they're going to give up. We don’t know if we’ll [have to make up] these four or five days,” says Lin. 

“However they have taken it off our paychecks, but there’s a whole thing about where they tried to put it [the cuts to paychecks]. They decided to put it on this month’s check, and so there’s a lot of confusion. And so we [the union] literally had to send a cease and desist letter to them.”

The current contract is a two year contract, meaning that the district and the union will be launched back into negotiations fairly soon. Lin hopes that the next time negotiations happen it will go better than it did this time, as the strike demonstrated the sheer support that the teachers have. 

Lin also claims that UESF’s strike was part of a plan from the California Teachers Association, the CTA, to have multiple districts strike in order to garner more financial support from the state.  

“Dublin was just on strike, [so was] Twin Rivers. And [I think that] Sacramento was on strike, Richmond was on strike again. And, again, there’s a strategy by our state organization, CTA, to generate enough issues for the districts and force the districts to say, ‘Hey, we actually need more money, we cannot pay these things, teachers want these things. So, we’re gonna come to the state, and then ask for more money.’ And so, again, if the district’s going to do that, say ‘hey, we want more money,’ we’re happy to be like, ‘hey we would like that, we want the district to get more money.’ Because when the district gets more of that money, their job is to make sure all that money that they got from the state comes to us, and doesn’t stay with the district,” says Lin. 

By Michael Lai

For many years, Lincoln has only ever hosted Fall and Spring festivals. These festivals allowed for any clubs, programs, or teams to fundraise money for their group. But this year, for the first time, Winterfest has been added to the schedule. 

This year’s Winterfest took place on February 27th on the black tops. With dozens of clubs lined up selling snacks like boba, spam musubi, cookies, muffins, and more. More than 250 students, including teachers, came to check out the unique and new event for this school.

Ethan Yup, the co-founder of Animal Shelter Club, states, “Winterfest helped us fund our bigger projects, which is to go out and purchase animal resources like food, toys, and pee pads, [and] to donate them to local shelters.”

Although Winterfest did not earn the club as much money as their GoFundMe, they still made a generous amount, “which is still a big help for animals in shelters,” he says.

JROTC, a large program in the Lincoln community, has been struggling with budgeting ever since they were forced to shut down their store. With no effective way to fundraise enough money to support future events, cadets now pay for themselves to attend events, such as the annual Brigade Ball and JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge.

Apphia Wong, the finance officer of the battalion, took charge of selling ramen noodles with garnish on top, selling each __ for seven dollars. 

“It has been harder to fundraise at school after the store shut down. We aren't making as much money as we used to, so we’re looking for new opportunities to fundraise,” she says.

Brenton Chen, an assistant of Apphia, adds, “We’re still trying to accommodate for the loss of the store by partaking in events like Winterfest!”

On the surface, Winterfest seemed like just an event for students to purchase student-made snacks for lunch, but it is not. It is for clubs to fundraise money for themselves; it has helped further boost funding for some clubs and even helped others get back on their feet.

By Sophie Ng

Nails, screws, and apples; these items make for an unlikely trio, but for four Lincoln students who dub themselves “The Keepers,” the metal instruments and red fruits incite a unique project out in the cafeteria courtyard.

The vision came to fruition in late January; The Keepers chose apples for their accessibility and intended for them to represent the ALHS community. The apples were gathered from the cafeteria and pierced into one of the trees periodically, slowly forming a spiral shape around the trunk. Over the course of the project, the tree gathered several miscellaneous objects, some from outside parties, like Pokemon cards and a tip jar. The Keepers, who requested to remain anonymous, chronicled the development of the tree on their Instagram page, @414_appletreeevents. 

The Keepers began the project in hopes of beautifying the area and bringing the school community together. Keeper Two, a freshman at Lincoln, was motivated to “bring smiles and joy to the people suffering in school” through their work.

Junior Elise Dunn believes the Keepers succeeded. “It shows there’s this little [inside] joke between the school,” she says. 

Many community members have taken a liking to the apple tree. Dunn, who proclaims herself as a huge fan, states, “I think it was pretty revolutionary [...] I was pretty stoked when they followed me back on Instagram.”

However, The Keepers’ vision was cut short five weeks in—Green Academy teacher Valerie Ziegler and the Youth vs. Apocalypse club removed all the objects hung up on the tree, replaced with a few paragraphs detailing the harm such endeavors could cause. 

“Food waste is REAL. When you put apples on this tree, you are wasting food that HUNGRY Mustangs could eat. Please instead put your uneaten food in the share bin!” one paragraph warned. 

Ziegler notes, “The apples were rotting and attracting mice. Lincoln has a serious mouse issue.” 

The project also posed environmental harm. Ziegler also shares, “A few teachers reached out asking why the tree was being killed. The janitor also had concern as to why a tree was being damaged.”

Despite the destruction of their installment, The Keepers teased a comeback on their Instagram story. 

“This is not the end,” they wrote over a black background. 

Fans of the apple tree shared their woes and anguish at the removal of the project. Senior Alannah Tang had been photographing the apple tree as one of the many wonders around ALHS to send to her Russian friend. 

“I feel deep grief that I can no longer [share] the beauty of American artistry to my international friend,” she says.

Other fans of the tree took to social media to express themselves. One commenter wrote, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

The Keepers voice gratitude for the support. “We thank the fans for their love and concern. We want [them] to know that we appreciate [their] appreciation,” says Keeper One, a Lincoln junior.

The Keepers do not have plans on restoring the original apple tree but have something similar planned. 

“We don't want to cause any damage to the tree anymore,” says Keeper Three, a Lincoln junior. 

ALHS students unaffiliated with The Keepers have taken creative liberties over the old apple tree, and have placed leaves where the apples once hung. Despite this disruption, The Keepers tease two upcoming projects; one slated for April 14th, which includes a new tree, and a potential separate installation that is still in the early stages of planning. 

“The only thing you can look forward to [...] is that [the tree] will still stand,” says Keeper One.

By Quincy Fulton

Nancy Pelosi, resident of San Francisco’s chair in Congress for 38 years, has announced her retirement. She will be leaving behind a long legacy of groundbreaking leadership, including being chosen as the first female Speaker of the House in the House of Representatives. This position is third in line to the presidency if both the president and vice president die, and as such holds tremendous influence over the entire body of Congress. Now, the question is, who will replace her?

The primary election for the succeeding Representative will be held on June 2nd, the first election most high school seniors can participate in.

Three candidates are visible frontrunners for the 11th District of California seat: Connie Chan, current SF District 1 supervisor; Saikat Chakrabarti, former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; and Scott Wiener, current California Senator. All are progressive Democrats by national standards, but fight to differ themselves in their individual backgrounds and stances on the issues which they outlined in separate town halls. 

Chan is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and has a detailed career in San Francisco politics, tracing back to roles in the Parks and Recreation department and the Free City College Oversight Committee. Her main political priorities are empowering the working class through affordable housing, healthcare, and unions’ rights, as well as lowering the cost of living in San Francisco.

Chakrabarti is the son of impoverished Indian immigrants, who then rose to fortune through a career in SF tech, which he describes as “simply being in the right place at the right time” He later moved to a career in politics behind the scenes. He describes his congressional goals as being in three big buckets: making life affordable and better for citizens, taking on Republicans and establishment Democrats, and converting AI from a monopolistic industry into a public utility, alongside making it more environmentally friendly.

Wiener is a former attorney and SF supervisor and the current, openly gay senator of California since 2016. He emphasizes his long career full of tangible bills and laws as proof he gets things done, as he describes himself as the only candidate who has experience. His main goals are making San Francisco affordable, increasing accessibility to healthcare, saving transit, and creating a safe and equitable environment for the LGBTQ+ community.

On specific-to-San-Francisco issues, all three candidates discussed and proposed options to save MUNI and BART, with Chan preferring to first fund day-to-day operating costs instead of focusing on upgrades and long-term maintenance, which would avowedly take more planning.

She also supports the program Free MUNI for All as a district supervisor, and, if elected to Congress, said, “I would hope to get this program the votes it needs to pass.”

Chakrabarti agrees on the need for a permanent source of federal operating funds, proposing carving out some of the current federal highway programs to forever fund Bay Area transit. He believes that once this expenditure is carved out, long-term planning for the future of the system is fiscally possible. 

Wiener also agrees that MUNI needs funding, and he called himself “The most vocal voice for transit,” although he didn’t propose any solution for the current budget crisis. There were petitioners outside asking for signatures to ‘save transit,’ seemingly connected to either the organization who arranged the event, Indivisible, or Wiener’s campaign.

On the topic of ICE and DHS agents, if elected, Chan vows to withhold funding for ICE, affirm birthright citizenship, and invest in easier pathways to citizenship. 

Meanwhile, Chakrabarti verbalized how he believes it is important to capitalize on a moment to make change. He spoke often of the necessity of a movement.

 On Alex Pretti’s death by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Chakrabarti said, “We must use the [public] attention that comes with tragedies and atrocities to fight.”

He also stated, “Constituents should [talk] to me [if they are harassed by ICE],” because he believes that Representatives should be the first line of communication between citizens and the government representing them. 

Wiener expressed, “The era of impunity needs to end…No more ski masks, no more pardons in the Supreme Court…As a lawyer, I was trained to revere [the Supreme Court], but now, I disagree.”

While the trio of candidates often share similar sentiments on internal reform and actions against MAGA, there are some topics they disagree on. 

In his individual town hall, Chakrabarti asserted that in Congress he would slash the military budget and try to fight the US’s historically violent foreign policy, including bombing countries to do our bidding. The 40-year-old mentioned the actions he abhors most recently are our administration’s delivering of military supplies to Israel as they commit a genocide in Palestine, as well as US forces blockading food and aid from going to Palestine. 

Yet, Wiener, a prominent Jewish figure, in a prior flash debate with the other two candidates, refused to state at all whether or not he believed that Israel was committing genocide in Palestine. Both Chan and Chakrabarti answered, ‘Yes.’ Wiener later released a statement that the actions Israel is taking in Gaza are immoral and he disagrees with them, but his inability to take a stand against these inhumane actions in a public setting concerned many voters.

Also, Wiener’s own town hall was interrupted by a single protester screaming profanities, calling Wiener genocidal, and weakly attempting to throw a cocktail sandwich at the senator. 

After the dissenter was escorted outside by security, Wiener said, with a monotone voice, “It’s democracy, people can have opinions.” 

Then, hours later in the forum, the moderator directly questioned Wiener on his stance on the foreign affair, to which the 55-year-old replied, “Israel has a right to defend itself, but they went beyond in their badly, deeply harming of Palestinians. I want to see [Israel and Palestine] in peace. I have [in the past] called it a genocide and taken heat in my own community for doing so.” 

Domestically, Chakrabarti stressed the importance of breaking up the stronghold of establishment Democrats in Washington, D.C., which he cited as being as great of a threat to the future of democracy as MAGA Republicans. He spoke confidently and unhesitatingly about the necessity of rocking the boat and, mentioning fellow candidate Wiener, said some Democrats don’t have the strength to do this, relying solely on complacency to rise up in power. 

“Democrats only offer small reforms and softer landings for hardships, not the movement that we truly need,” Chakrabarti proclaimed to the audience. Wiener, on the other hand, said in his forum, “Democrats have let people down, but Democrats have done some really good things, and really good things have come out of them,” as police sirens echoed outside during the protestor’s arrest. 

Chakrabarti did not mention Chan by name, but stated emphatically that it would be him and Wiener in the top two; Senator Wiener’s visibility is Chakrabarti’s greatest threat. This was met with rounds of echoing applause. 

On Wiener specifically, the former tech millionaire describes the senator as being great on LGBTQ+ issues, but believes that to truly create change for the minority group you need to challenge and threaten the current barricade of Republicans in Washington. 

Wiener, openly gay and living in the Castro, described his upbringing in New Jersey during the crisis of the AIDs epidemic. He connected this to the current hopeless nature of the Trump administration’s scapegoating of the trans community, which he described as being similar to the beginning of the Holocaust. 

Tearing up, in his first display of emotion in the forum, Wiener said, “We must authorize trans state of refuge laws, and we must create a fully comprehensive civil rights law that overrides any sort of narrative that red states try to push.”

Chan, endorsed by the SFUSD teacher’s union, on potential actions to safeguard LGBTQ+ youth from Trump’s attacks, expressed that she would make it a priority to discount or make free healthcare and gender affirming care and focus on safe and equitable school environments. 

“Free gender and reproductive care give youth healthcare independence,” Chan emphasized. Also relating to San Francisco youth, Chan, a mother, smiled as she thought about the prospect of expanding her current program of free summer camps to 9 to 12th graders, saying she would consider it. The 47-year-old however regarded it as more important to make City College and prep courses cheaper and more accessible for such adolescents. 

All three candidates are prepared to represent San Francisco on a political big stage and give back to the community, but the race seems close for who will actually be awarded the chance to do so. This primary election will be held on June 2nd, via vote-by-mail ballots or in-person voting centers, for all 18 and over. It will whittle down the candidates into top two to be in the running for the November election.