Weekly News Archive

March 14 (’04) – March 20 (’04)

Brother’s Keeper

In the last two issues of the Jacket, columnist Gabe Crane wrote about what he felt could be nothing other than a racial injustice, the same kind that Berkeley prides itself on eliminating. He said that, in the two recent deaths in the school—Nic Rotolo and Miguel Caicedo—and their subsequent periods of mourning, there has been a strong and inexcusable dichotomy between the impact of their relative reactions, in the school and surrounding community. In other words, two tragic deaths, two high schoolers, two different degrees of importance. Nic Rotolo received a huge outpouring of grief, Miguel Caicedo not so much.

In the most recent issue, Crane reconsidered, having apparently been deluged in feedback; he wrote that, ” . . . in fact the reactions to the two tragedies were similar in scale and scope, just for two very different communities.” Of course, this reveals problems of its own—but—

Let’s look deeper still.

Maybe there’s truth to this, but you know what? There are other truths too. I am indebted to Ann McDonald-Cacho for pointing out what, in that sought-after ideal world, should have never needed a reminder. Miguel and Nic were not the only students to pass away this year, not even the first.

Tosh Caulfield, a 17-year-old student and as much a Berkeley Higher as anyone, died last November from the degenerative genetic disorder that had placed him in special ed. The Jacket ran a piece when it happened (link goes to the online archives; scroll to the second page for the article), and I’m sure some people noticed, but the entire event went under the radar except maybe a few oh-what-a-shame comments from people who didn’t know Tosh, and it was completely forgotten in the blink of an eye.

If we’re going to look for imbalance and injustice, we don’t need to look far. What were the aftermaths of the two recent deaths, and how did they compare? Okay. But compare either or both to Tosh’s passing, and you’ve got an entirely new and sincerely disturbing view.

Was it because, as a special education student, less of the student body knew him? Was it because his death was the result of an illness rather than a traumatic accident?

Does it matter?

Long story short is that the teachers have voted, and the aforementioned attendance policy has been approved, though deferred until next year. To recap, the policy is as follows: Any student absent five times in any given class will have his grade lowered by one “letter grade” at the end of the semester (A becomes B, B- becomes C-, etc.). More accurately, the teacher is obliged to perform this reduction. Additionally, three tardies will be equal to one absence. Anything excused will not be factored into this; it only applies for unexcused truancy.

Again, this will not take effect until next year.

The relevance of this is that it institutionalizes a standard punitive measure to answer absences and tardies, something that, until now, was entirely the business of individual teachers. A teacher could make your grade heavily dependent on attendance, or ignore it completely, but there was nothing school-wide that made absence inherently significant. In other words, if your teacher didn’t care and you didn’t miss anything, skipping a class would literally mean nothing, except receiving the annoying automated phone call from the attendance office, which they aren’t doing anymore anyway. Oh, and the school would lose money.

Other things were addressed in the same staff meeting that approved this. For one, Slemp has requested that the school start following its casual hall pass regulations—namely, that any student allowed to leave class be given a hall pass, and also that nobody be excused for any reason during the first and last 10 minutes of class. The goal of all this is to let the hall monitors and security staff justly consider any student in the halls without a pass to be cutting, causing trouble, or not, in fact, a student. Again, this relies on the cooperation of the teachers, which has not been earth-moving in the past, but we’ll see.

The IES proposal was voted on as well, and while the details are complex, the upshot is that Slemp’s plan was approved, the alternative student plan rejected. Best place to go for the breakdown is the most recent issue of the Jacket, which went over the matter from all angles.

— Brandon