The first two alarms were set off by some kind of smoke — potentially from foods like popcorn that have activated the sensors in the past — while the cause of the third alarm remains unknown. According to Assistant Principal of Safety Dr. Mycal Hixon, the new fire panel — which was installed over the summer to provide a safety upgrade to the previous out-of-date system — is being investigated as the potential cause.

“We’re trying to work with the fire department to see if this is either a faulty alarm, a box that’s going off or if there was an actual pull,” he said. “Unlike the other days, we weren’t able to identify smoke (on Thursday), so we’re really trying to figure it out.”

These interruptions, even with the adjusted bell schedule accommodations on Thursday, impacted both student agenda and instruction time. According to history teacher Laurel Howard, she’s had to adapt to the incident in order to ensure her periods learn the same amount of content at the same time.

“(The fire alarms are) impacting my class periods in different ways,” she said. “If I’m trying to keep my classes on track with each other and one has a 20-minute evacuation, then I have to make adjustments so (the delayed class) doesn’t fall too far behind.”

Although a definitive reason for the three alarms this week is still under investigation, administration is considering whether they may be due to a potential smoking problem on campus. Hixon explained that possible administration responses may include increased student resources, increased campus security and utilizing camera footage.

“We want to make sure that we can accurately identify what the problem is so we can accurately work together collaboratively to come up with solutions,” he said. “If it’s going off because somebody’s intentionally smoking in the bathroom, that’s one thing. If there’s somebody actually doing something, we want to find what support we can provide them to help them understand that (it) is not okay.”

For English teacher Diane Ichikawa, the ambiguity of the faulty fire alarms’ has added to the confusion that undermines the trustworthiness of the campus’s safety systems.

“Because we get so many (fire alarms) that end up being either false or people perceive them to be false, they don’t take an actual emergency (seriously),” she said. “It’s kind of a ‘boy-cried-wolf’ situation.”

In response to the lack of information available, Hixon highlighted the administration’s efforts to rectify these issues.

“We will work with the company that installed the fire alarms to ensure we are trained on everything it does and why,” he wrote in an email. “We will also be more alert to our surroundings, making sure that if we see something, we say something so that we can safely get things taken care of. We will also be getting an updated security camera system.”

However, despite the disturbances these fire alarms have caused, Science Instructional Lead Dr. Heather Mellows emphasized the importance of taking evacuation seriously.

“(Evacuating) is still important because we don’t know which alarms are real,” Mellows said. “And as a science teacher, I know that sometimes the fire alarm is because of what happens in my room, and I need it to be real when that happens.”

Currently, the evacuation drill scheduled for Thursday, August 29 will continue as planned.

“I am sure students have done a great job, but just in case, there are still a few things that we need to work on and (the drill) gives us that opportunity to do it,” Hixon said.

—Written by Kaylee Cheng, Anne Dong, Sylvie Nguyen and Ya-An Xue. Additional reporting by Gwen Domine.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Vin Bhat

Students leave Gunn following the shelter-in-place mandate.

At 1:58 p.m. today, a message on the intercom instructed students to begin sheltering in place. This mandate lasted for one hour and 48 minutes, eventually lifted by an intercom announcement at 3:46 p.m. 

According to the City of Palo Alto Police Calls for Service map, 1:51 p.m. calls reported a man with a gun and a 1:53 p.m. call reported a bomb threat, both near Georgia Avenue and Miranda Avenue. The City of Palo Alto has now confirmed that these calls were hoaxes — the first two, at 1:51 p.m., stated they had seen a teen boy carrying a rifle and two pipe bombs walking toward Gunn, and that a man in his twenties wearing body armor and carrying a rifle was approaching the school. The 1:53 p.m. call came from a man who said he was approaching Gunn with a bomb. 

This initial shelter-in-place announcement was reiterated at 2:01 p.m., emphasizing that the situation was not a drill. Two more announcements at 2:31 p.m. and 3:06 p.m. reminded students to keep sheltering.

At 2:15 p.m., Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton posted a Schoology update detailing that there was an unconfirmed threat on campus, and that the Palo Alto Police Department was present and partnering with admin to provide more updates. 

A PAPD thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted at 2:35 p.m. said that school officials had also instructed students to shelter in place at Fletcher Middle School as a precautionary measure. Police also confirmed that all students and staff on Gunn’s campus were safe.

At 2:48 p.m., staff members received an email from Stratton stating that students would be released from school at 3:50 p.m. and would be permitted to transport themselves home or be picked up by a parent. All after-school events, including athletics, were canceled. Parents received the same information via ParentSquare at 2:54 p.m., and students were notified via Schoology soon after.

At 3:09 p.m., PAPD noted in the same X thread that they had “uncovered no evidence to corroborate that any actual threat exists,” but that they would continue the shelter-in-place while investigating. Half an hour later, they announced the end of their search.

Police were still present on campus as students were dismissed. According to an officer who wished to remain anonymous due to the pending investigation, the lockdown and search went according to police and PAUSD protocol. However, there is still an open, criminal investigation. According to a 4:46 p.m. Schoology post from Stratton, a police presence will remain on campus throughout the week, and there will be additional staff members available at the Wellness Center. 

Police confirmed that Orinda’s Miramonte High School, located just east of Oakland, was also in lockdown as of 3 p.m., but police at Gunn stated that there was no known connection between the two incidents.

According to Gunn Safety Committee member Vin Bhat, Gunn’s safety committee will be convening after school on April 23, and the districtwide committee will be meeting on Wednesday, April 24. Gunn administrators said they could not comment until Tuesday, April 23.

According to Senior Construction Project Manager Mohammed Sedqi, workers were connecting the overflow for bioswales, or runoff channels, with a storm drain when they hit the main water line. To fix the leak, workers had to first drain out the water in the pipes and then put a patch over the break. After the pipes were “purged” of air bubbles, the line was functional again. 

Junior Hannah Kim realized the water supply had been shut off following a trip to the restroom during her Advanced Placement Statistics class. 

“Me and my friend went to the bathroom and we realized that some of the water in the toilets looked a little unclear, so we tried flushing them and they didn’t flush,” she said. 

By 12 p.m., three portable toilets had been placed near Spangenberg Theater and water bottles had been placed in the lunch lines in front of the Student Activities Center. According to PAUSD Director of Facilities and Construction Eric Holm, district officials picked up hand sinks from Fletcher Middle School and water from Costco for students to use. Thirty more portable toilets were ordered, but only arrived once the water had been turned on again. 

Around 1:30 p.m., water spouts on building walls turned on, and toilets around campus were flushed. According to PAUSD Maintenance Supervisor Ken Culp, this preliminary reopening of the water supply “purged” the emptied water lines of air, preventing the formation of air bubbles when students and staff finally used the facilities. Following this “purge,” the water lines were fully operational, and an announcement at 1:37 p.m. notified students that the water was back on. 

The restoration process took a little over two hours in total, occurring much more rapidly than in September 2021, when the main water line was hit during parking-lot construction. Holm noted that this project’s contractors, Sausal Corporation, were more prepared to deal with the situation than Redgwick Corporation, the contractor used for the parking-lot project: In 2021, students were sent home from school early while the construction team attempted to address the issue. 

Nevertheless, students — including sophomore Rayla Chen — found the line break frustrating. 

“I just walked into the building bathroom during second period, and then all of a sudden, it said ‘out of order,’ and I didn’t know where else to go to go use the bathroom or fill up my water bottle, so that was a bit of a hassle,” she said. 

Moving forward, construction will continue as planned. According to PAUSD Operations Supervisor Brett Larson, preventative action is not necessary. 

“This is unforeseen, and that happens from time to time, and you can’t control the unforeseen,” he said.

—Written by Amann Mahajan. Additional reporting by Kaylee Cheng

According to Merriam-Webster, to boycott is to “engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (a person, a store, an organization, etc.) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions.” This form of peaceful protest originates from the Ireland Land War of the 1880s, when Irish tenant farmers protested against English landlord Charles Stewart Parnell’s unfair treatment and high rent prices. Over time, however, it has evolved to become one of the most powerful protest strategies for local, national and global issues. Especially in a digital age in which protests are widely advertised, students need to be more aware of the potential impacts of boycotting and avoid performative or ineffective protests.

Differences between company and consumer values have made boycotts against consumer goods companies prevalent today. This manner of protest is successful because it leverages both economic and social influence against an organization. By inflicting reductions in revenue, boycotts force businesses to reconsider company policies to mitigate further financial damage. However, not all of these boycotts impact a company’s sales revenue, since people may publicly denounce an institution but still purchase its products out of habit. Take the recent boycott efforts with Amazon, for instance. The company has been accused of tax avoidance, poor working conditions and unethical labor practices, and as a result of the “vote with your dollar” philosophy, many people have encouraged boycotting Amazon goods. But due to the near-monopoly Amazon has on the online marketplace and society’s dependence on their unparalleled fast delivery, reliability and variety, its stocks and overall market value faced little impact from this movement.

On the other hand, companies with many competitors are most impacted by boycotts, since customers can buy substitute goods more easily. Take beer brand Bud Light: According to the Associated Press, following the April 2023 controversy regarding transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, its year-over-year sales declined 25% to 30% for several months.

Boycotts may also be ineffective if the participants aren’t the company’s target consumer. For example, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ boycotting fast-food chain KFC has had little to no financial impact to the chain since PETA is not the main consumer demographic that restaurants like KFC cater to.

Nevertheless, boycotts can wield significant damage through negative media attention and reputational damages. In the digital age, social media figures with large platforms have the power to persuade millions of people. According to LendingTree, an online marketplace nonprofit, a poll that was sent out to company consumers in 2022 reported that friends and family influence 47% of boycott decisions, politicians impact 20%, and celebrities or influencers impact 19%. 34% of Generation Z boycotters said celebrities or influencers impacted their decision to participate in a boycott. One example of this media-driven phenomenon is the boycott on Starbucks: In the early stages of the Israel-Hamas war, Starbucks Workers United, unaffiliated with the official Starbucks corporation, posted the message, “Solidarity with Palestine” on their Twitter account. Unwilling to be associated with the workers union’s stance, Starbucks released a clarifying statement and filed a lawsuit against the workers for trademark infringement of the Starbucks logo. Even though Starbucks has stated that it doesn’t directly fund the State of Israel, many people believe this boycott is a way for people to align themselves with Palestine, support an anti-violence ideology and uphold a union’s ability to express themselves politically. According to The Economic Times, Starbucks has seen a loss of $11 billion due to the recent boycotts.

Generally, successful boycotts are those that generate the most social media attention because it spurs larger collective action and allows for activists to garner more support globally. In recent years, for example, collective criticism surrounding the unethical labor practices and negative environmental impacts of Shein — a large fast-fashion clothing company — has led many to stop purchasing from the vendor. Eventually, Shein even released a statement of investigation into unsafe work conditions in some of their supplier facilities. According to data analysis company Statista, Shein saw a sales growth decrease of 2.8% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to a 341.9% increase in the first quarter of 2021. According to media analytics company Commetric, 25% of boycotts receiving national media attention won concessions from the target company.

Even though boycotts through media advocacy can be effective, they should not be relied upon as the sole tool for advocacy. As polarization increases and media becomes more saturated with campaigns, the boycotts’ effect can become diluted and less effective. Instead, this method should be used in moderation and in conjunction with other forms of protest. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, for example, went beyond boycotts to economically pressure institutions that practiced segregation: mass demonstrations such as the Selma to Montgomery march, legal struggles like Brown v. Board of Education, grassroot organizations that mobilized local leaders and individuals, media campaigns, and coalition-building with groups from diverse backgrounds to garner support. It is not any of these events in singularity that passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the power and conviction of millions of people who persisted in their beliefs.

Ultimately, a boycott alone, however effective, will not define a social movement or result in substantial, legislative change — even if it achieves considerable media attraction. It is important to remember, especially in a world that increasingly prioritizes speed and efficiency, that affecting true change is difficult: It requires tremendous effort, time, patience and faith in one’s beliefs despite setbacks, and most importantly, a willingness to fight.

World Terakoya Program, based in Tokyo, was founded by Stanford post-graduate student Masaki Nakamura in 2022. This year’s exchange was the second one they have organized. 

Japanese teacher Matt Hall invited all students in his Japanese classes to host exchange students at their homes, but prioritized his Japanese 3 and AP Japanese classes due to students’ higher proficiency with Japanese and the time commitment of hosting. In the end, 10 Gunn families who volunteered to be hosts were connected with exchange students’ families in Japan.

 “It’s a tough ask,” Hall said. “You’re asking for a week of the family’s time and all of this week at school. (They have to) bring a Japanese homestay with them to everywhere, every class. And if they’ve got a sports team meeting after school practice, they’ve got to bring them to that. So it’s a lot of work because everybody’s busy.” 

Many of the Japanese exchange students came to the U.S. to research one topic of their choice through creating various surveys and questionnaires. For example, junior Mitsuki Hamasaki, who attends Osaka Business Frontier High School, was most interested in entrepreneurship. Beyond gauging Gunn students’ interest in business and learning more about the U.S. economy, Hamaski also wanted to use this opportunity to improve his English.

“When they’re teaching English in Japan, they mainly teach reading and writing, but they don’t really teach speaking and listening that much,” Hamasaki said in a conversation translated from Japanese by his host, senior Yahya Mirza. “So (I) can do perfectly well on an English test, but when it comes to an actual conversation, it’s a lot more difficult.”

Hall shares this goal of mutual language integration for his students. 

“My goals were twofold: one certainly was for my students to help the Japanese guests,” Hall said. “It’s up to us to be good ambassadors of our culture, and anthropologists of their culture. The secondary goal is of course for my students to also get some practice with our Japanese. There really is a back-and-forth and give-and-take because my kids are learning a lot from them too.”

Host junior Nikki DeVincentis finds it rewarding to both help his exchange student learn more about Japanese culture, as well as practice Japanese in a more casual context.

“I’d say my favorite experience so far is probably just learning the colloquial language,” he said. “I can always learn more grammar patterns and learn more vocab, but (what I’ve learned from this experience) isn’t exactly something that can be taught, like all the slang and casual language. It’s just been really exciting to be able to converse with them in a natural tone, different from the Japanese that I’ve been taught in class.”

Exchange student sophomore Minori Ohishi, who is interested in studying animal welfare, expresses gratitude for her host’s — and Gunn’s — welcoming attitude. 

“I can’t speak English well and I am only here for a week, but everyone accepted me warmly, talked and ate with me as a member of their family or their friend,” Ohishi said. “I (just) want to say thank you.”

Ohishi found the Palo Alto community’s inclusivity pleasantly surprising.

“I’m surprised the most at the warmth of people,” she said. “People from many different countries live here, and everyone accepts each other without denying everyone else. I think this is a wonderful thing.”

 Those involved in the exchange — students and staff alike — have appreciated the Gunn community’s flexibility and openness. According to Hall, teachers from every department have been cooperative with the extra students and Japanese staff members coming in to observe their classes.

“People talk a lot about teachers being very solo or very, ‘I just want to teach my classes and nobody bother me,’ but that’s certainly not been the case,” Hall said. “I’ve received tremendous support from the overall staff and their willingness to show what they’re all about. And these Japanese staff members, they’ve never seen Americans teach, (but) they’re seeing the best of the best here at Gunn.”

Exchange students are seeking survey responses from Gunn students. Below are surveys created by junior Mitsuki Hamasaki and sophomore Minori Ohishi.

Mitsuki Hamasaki: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1W0DjObGJsEmSDGJkLCIbEpvdJLJNTgEL3CRqNlvGlHk/viewform?edit_requested=true 

Minori Ohishi: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/d/e/1FAIpQLSfnCOzAS8Fef0u2DX2xE27ZJ-lkyI-Lef9WL9Y_zGL1dlE4_Q/formResponse

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three women and one in four men report experiencing severe physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. While most identifiable causes stem from drastic changes in life circumstances and generational abuse, empirical evidence points to other factors that can increase the likelihood of a dangerous home environment — including sporting events.

One report of such violence took place during the 2023 Tubi Super Bowl commercial. The advertisement begins with the game commentators giving a play-by-play of the field, seemingly marking the end of the commercial break. Then suddenly, a menu bar rises up on the screen, and an option is “clicked” as the screen jumps to the streaming service Tubi. Afterwards, on Reddit, a woman shared that her boyfriend became furious at her, believing she “clicked” on Tubi and caused him to miss a portion of the game. He then punched a hole in the drywall.

After the post garnered other women’s attention, many came forward with their experiences, including dozens of bartenders and waitresses who were yelled at and hurt by drunk patrons at their establishments. In fact, alcohol — according to Advanced Placement Psychology teacher Warren Collier — is the most significant situational force to be examined when considering a spike in domestic abuse on game days.

“Usually, people are drinking lots of alcohol, either at the games or at home watching it, and alcohol is going to make people make very dumb choices,” he said. “And that can lead to things like violence.”

Besides increasing the frequency and severity of the violence inflicted, alcohol harms victims in another way by masking violent behavior. Even though alcohol is a factor, it is never the underlying cause for violent urges, according to the Alcohol Rehab Guide. Many law-enforcement officers, perpetrators and even survivors, however, don’t see it that way. They diminish the crime by painting the narrative of an alcohol-fueled single-trigger accident. This misconception effectively sidelines victims’ experiences and absolves perpetrators of responsibility, concealing the disturbing pattern of violence and allowing it to continue.

Emotional “spillovers” also contribute to these incidents. According to Collier, immense emotional
arousal from one situation can “spill over” into other intense emotions after the fact.

“So let’s say I’m really excited that our team won, and I’ll stay happy about it,” he said. “But if my team loses, now I’m upset. And I have lots of physical arousal, like my heart is beating fast and I’m really excited. So now that excited feeling turns into anger and rage, and if I watch the game at home with friends or family, then unfortunately, the target of that rage might be other people.”

Indeed, wins and losses, when different from game predictions, determine the size of fluctuation in
domestic violence. According to a study from University of California economics professors David Card and Gordon Dahl, which drew on data from NFL games and the National Incident-Based Reporting System, “upset losses” — unexpected home-team losses — led to a 10% average increase in the number of police reports of at-home male-on-female intimate partner violence.

On the other hand, there was found to be no difference in violence when the home team lost after a prediction of a close game or when the home team had an unexpected win. This evidence serves as an important indicator in crime patterning because it suggests a crucial asymmetry in the reaction of unanticipated losses and gains – an unwelcome result of the volatile mix of alcohol, hegemonic masculinity and televised sports.

This pattern of domestic abuse, however, is not exclusive to NFL games. U.S. researchers at Lancaster University in England studied family violence rates during the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cups, discovering that domestic-violence reports rose by 38% when the English national soccer team lost and 26% even when they won. There was also a 11% rise the day after an England match, regardless of the outcome, suggesting the spillover effect.

Even though Palo Alto hasn’t charted a trend between major sporting events and domestic violence reports, according to Palo Alto Police Department Captain Zach Perron, domestic violence itself is still prevalent.

“Domestic violence, unfortunately, is not an uncommon crime in Palo Alto,” Perron wrote in an email. “It’s important to note, though, (that documented) reports and calls reflect only incidents when police are notified. Unfortunately, it is likely that a lot of domestic violence goes unreported to police.”

Moreover, fan behavior continues to be a local concern: In August 2023, two Bay Area high school games ended due to fan violence, and on Feb. 13, Gunn’s basketball senior night ended in an altercation between adult spectators.

Given the pervasiveness of family violence, resources have been designed for victims, such as domestic-violence shelters in Sunnyvale that allow up to a 30-day stay and 15-day extension for emergency shelters. Perron also urges victims to contact the police station or visit the PAPD website.

Ultimately, though, domestic abuse is not fundamentally inspired by external factors such as alcohol or the vehemently passionate environment of sporting events, but rather a need for a perpetrator to regain a sense of control over their partner. To give these situations the attention they deserve, there must be a continual willingness to support victims of this circumstance in order to end the normalization of family violence.

Source: Self-selected survey sent out to Gunn students by The Oracle from Feb. 25 to March 4 with 116 responses

Gallery • 8 Photos

Chloe Wu

On Friday, Feb. 23, students skipped SELF and Study Hall to participate in a walkout, gathering on the football field to discuss student mental health in the aftermath of Tuesday’s student death. 

During the meeting, student organizers freshman Aya Gurevich and sophomore Milcah Morrison directed students to sit at the center of the field, where they proceeded to speak about Gunn and district wellness measures. Students were then invited to come up and speak about their own thoughts and frustrations. Toward the end of the meeting, Principal Wendy Stratton brought three boxes of pizza for the participants, part of a Parent Teacher Student Association gift for all Gunn students.

Attendees learned about the event through social media. According to Gurevich, Morrison proposed coordinating a walkout after seeing his Instagram story suggesting that students “boycott SELF.” As the word spread, students were encouraged to show up in green, a color symbolizing mental health awareness. 

“It’s just kind of to get teachers and staff and the administration to notice that what they’re doing isn’t working, and kids aren’t happy with it,” Gurevich told The Oracle. “At 15 years old, I experienced, in my school, somebody died. That’s something that shouldn’t happen.”

Although the event was promoted as a boycott, Morrison cautioned against using such labeling: The event’s goal wasn’t to condemn the school, but rather to foster discourse. 

“You can’t blame staff, you can’t blame the Board,” she told The Oracle. “You can’t blame the people that are just here from their nine to five … I’m sure it’s great that we have activities out there to help people, but we really need to sit down and just talk about it.”

According to Stratton, conversations with the crisis response team — including counselors and therapists — made it evident that students needed an outlet, and the walkout seemed like a peaceful way for them to express their emotions. 

“We know that we need a community response, and we don’t want to inhibit students who have a need right now — especially coming into the weekend on a Friday — to connect and work through whatever they’re going through,” she said. “So my feeling — and our feeling — was to give them space to do that.” 

After Morrison and Gurevich spoke, the attendees were invited to come up and share their perspectives. Those present expressed wide-ranging frustrations — critiquing Gunn’s academic culture alongside Wellness Center guidelines and SELF lessons — and shared their experiences, both in speeches to the rest of the group and in interviews with The Oracle.

“SELF is more of a Band-Aid solution,” freshman Dante Chung told The Oracle. “It’s generalized mental health care, and that’s not what mental health care support is supposed to be about.” 

While SELF Coordinator Kathryn Catalano anticipates that the SELF program will continue to adapt based on feedback, she added that mental-health guidance and resources may not be within the program’s purview: It was established in 2017 to address California’s social-emotional learning standards.

“It’s important to note that the SELF program, it focuses on social emotional skills,” she said. “While there is, of course, a lot of overlap between that and having strong mental health resources and things of that nature, that’s not what the SELF program was established for.”

Other students, including sophomore Noam Morris, addressed Gunn’s academic culture, telling The Oracle that offhand comments — such as saying “I’m going to kill myself” after getting a bad grade on a test — trivialize mental health struggles.

“I think we as a community really need to come together and start working towards giving those topics the respect they deserve, talking about them in a more healthy way,” he said.

Some speakers requested a day to memorialize the student who died. While current district policy doesn’t ban memorials, it does prioritize protecting vulnerable students. “Suicide contagion can be instigated with the death of an individual, even if the death is not due to suicide,” the policy reads. “Therefore, schools must respond to all school community deaths in a thoughtful and similar manner that maximizes safety and carefully considers the impact of memorialization on participants and the broader community.”

To bolster student voice, Stratton called several students to her office this morning — ASB President senior Nathan Levy; SEC Special Events Commissioner senior Ruth Jaquette; School Board Representative senior Chris Lee (who is also a managing editor for The Oracle); SEC Wellness Commissioner senior Daniel van Schewick; Reach Out, Care, Know Club President junior Beverly Lamis; and ROCK board member junior Grace Missett — to arrange a Listening Session Event. The event will take place during an extended lunch on Tuesday, Feb. 27, in the Acorn Lounge, next to the library. 

During the session, students will have an opportunity to share thoughts, concerns and suggestions in the wake of the student death. Students can submit input, concerns and questions that they want administrators to address to this form. 

The goal of administrators and students alike, however, is to provide robust support systems during this time. 

“Be there for your friends first and foremost — that is what matters,” junior Gene Chumakov, who attended the walkout, told The Oracle. “Because this isn’t just an issue of admin not doing enough. This is an issue of students not caring for each other, and having such a lack of faith in the resources and the therapists that we’ve been provided.”

The Oracle has since conducted investigations into wellness measures at Gunn in a continuation of its 2019 “In Pursuit of Wellness” series. Part I, an investigation into SELF, can be found here.

If you are worried about yourself or a friend, contact the National Suicide Prevention lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Wellness Center, suicidepreventionlifeline.org, a therapist, a doctor or a school counselor. If the threat is immediate, call 911.

District Communications Coordinator George Pinckney told NBC Bay Area that the spaghetti had contained moldy, burnt bell peppers. According to Pinckney, a new oven in the central kitchen — where all elementary school meals are prepared — alongside temperature increases from malfunctioning refrigerator fans caused the problem.

Since then, PAUSD has worked to prevent further meal spoilage. According to Pinckney, the district has been measuring the temperatures of all foods and closely monitoring expiration dates to mitigate future incidents.

“We will definitely continue to improve our protocols and make sure that our kitchens are safe and the food we serve is also safe,” Pinckney said.

The district’s spoiled-food situation, alongside its adjustments to post-pandemic regulations and mandated nutritional guidelines, raises questions about whether its current food programs fully serve its students.

Free Meals

To ease families’ burdens after the COVID-19 lockdown, on July 9, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom included the Universal Meals Program as part of Assembly Bill 130. The program requires all public schools to provide students with two free meals each school day, without consideration of their financial background or eligibility for federally funded free or reduced-price meals. According to PAUSD Student Nutrition Director Alva Spence, the district currently offers free breakfast and lunch to students.

The bill also authorizes the California Department of Education to reimburse schools for the cost of the meals. PAUSD logs expenses for monthly reimbursements from the federal government, and the state government covers remaining costs.

Currently, the contract between PAUSD and Sodexo USA, a consulting and food-services company, has PAUSD paying $1.37 and $1.89 for breakfast and lunch supplies per meal, respectively. PAUSD has contracted with Sodexo for over a decade to help maintain adherence to local and federal food laws and ensure that students receive the correct portion sizes and nutritional components, per the California Department of Education’s guidelines.

Sodexo provides training for PAUSD’s 39 Student Nutrition Services employees, who learn knife-handling skills, from-scratch cooking and procedures for providing new vegetarian options. All meals are reheated or cooked in PAUSD facilities, according to Gunn Kitchen Lead Melanie Gomez.

Dietary Concerns

The PAUSD food program has followed the Biden Administration’s guidelines on added sodium and sugar levels in meals. Still, many parents and students remain displeased with the current quality, quantity and portion sizes of school-provided meals.

Sophomore Jules Nagayama noticed a decline in quality since the switch from paid brunch and lunch at the middle schools to free meals at Gunn.

“I liked lunch a lot better when it was before COVID, and we still had to pay,” Nagayama said. “The quality and portions were way better — you could even get two lunches if you wanted to. Now, I don’t feel like the food is enough for me.”

However, according to Assistant Principal of Wellness Courtney Carlomagno, PAUSD is restricted by the state program’s guidelines for caloric values per meal: School breakfast must remain within 450 to 600 calories and lunches between 750 and 800 calories.

The number of meal choices has also dropped post-COVID. According to Carlomagno, there are currently only three lunch options per day, down from four or five before the pandemic.

“We were able to charge for lunches (pre-pandemic), which meant we had a surplus of money, and that meant we were able to put that back into the food we were serving,” she said. “We were able to offer more options.”

Despite the decrease in overall entree options, Spence stated that the number of vegetarian options has remained constant since pre-pandemic times. Under the current program, students with dietary restrictions can struggle to find suitable lunch options. Sophomore Hannah Baum, an athlete and vegan, has always chosen to not eat school lunch, both pre- and post-pandemic times, and instead chooses to bring her own lunch every day.

“I don’t think they give enough food, and the food they do give isn’t necessarily healthy and also vegan,” Baum said. “(I’ve seen) vegetarian options, but they’re all like cheese and crackers, so I don’t think that’ll give me enough food.”

Creating Solutions

In response to these concerns, PAUSD has enabled students with dietary needs to submit requests on the Gunn website for special meals, according to Carlomagno.

“Not all of them are approved, but it’s definitely a way to put it in and have the district review it,” she said.

PAUSD is also working with Sodexo to add more food options in the 2024 spring semester, including chana masala over rice, vegetarian chili with cornbread, smoothies, parfaits with granola, General Tso’s chicken and tofu, teriyaki burgers, and quinoa salads.

In addition to expanded options, Spence anticipates fresher meals in the coming months: The district has bought three more trucks to minimize delivery times, and construction on the new kitchen facilities in the A- and B-buildings is expected to be completed in fall 2024, resulting in warmer, fresher meals.

To provide more locally grown food, PAUSD is partnering with Ag Link, an organization that helps PAUSD access organic produce from farms in Merced, Fresno, Salinas, Stanislaus, Butte, Yuma and Kern.

Students have also taken initiative to address the inconveniences of the government-implemented program. According to Principal Wendy Stratton, a student helped facilitate the addition of vending machines to campus. Located near the K-building, Main Office and Bow Gym, these vending machines provide additional options to students seeking food on campus, such as chips and beverages. Their items have undergone a review process — certain items, such as soda and candy, cannot be served.

Community members can provide feedback on the Gunn food program at the monthly menu advisory meetings, usually held on Thursdays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. via Google Meet.

Parent Kanda Ishihara noted the connection between subpar lunches and the overall culture of food waste on campus.

“They should do a better job of making (lunch) healthier and tastier, because otherwise the kids don’t even eat it — they throw it away and it’s a big waste of money,” Ishihara said. “It’s convenient, it’s a great resource, but it’s just such a waste.”