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Redwood Bark

Redwood Bark

Redwood Bark

Students consider various cultural perspectives in Professor Eddie Madril’s Ethnic Studies class. (Image courtesy )
TUHSD approves new ethnic studies course despite curriculum concerns
Michael SetonMarch 28, 2024

A new ethnic studies course will be introduced in the 2024-25 school year after a recent four to one vote by the Tamalpais Union High School...

Boldly standing out, an outdated air system contrasts the nature of Redwoods campus.
The Impact of the potential ‘NO’ on Measure A
Emily Hitchcock, Web Designer • March 28, 2024

As the clock ticks down to see if Measure A will pass, its current ‘Yes’ count is at 53.8 percent, with 55 needed to pass. An estimated 50...

The great divide of special education: the 504 plan
The great divide of special education: the 504 plan
Nina HowardMarch 28, 2024

As of 2018, up to one in four students at elite colleges were considered legally disabled due to mental health issues, learning differences or...

Chief’s Farewell – Olivia Dominguez

The first story I ever wrote as an honorary Barkie earned me a one-way ticket to the Principal’s office. I had uncovered the phenomenon of students snorting adderall at the Back to

School dance and let me just say, people were not happy. While the major issue with the administration was an editor’s use of an unfortunate headline for the piece, I felt the full wrath of admin and, most important, the concerned parents of Marin. “What have I started?” I remember thinking to myself. The magnitude of the upheaval from my piece made me realize just how much impact one story could have. It was then when I truly understood that journalism is a writer’s most powerful tool.

It is hard for me to be engaged in rote learning like math and science because both subjects leave no room for interpretation. In “Dead Poets Society,” Redwood alum Robin Williams said, “The human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering―these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love―these are what we stay alive for.” Writing and addressing important issues is my passion. My junior year I took AP Language and Composition and every day I would watch the class debate, whether it be the meaning of Lars Eighner’s “Dumpster Diving” or the ethics of Snowden’s whistleblowing. The room would turn into a lively fishbowl of diverse viewpoints and theories that students spread to one another and to even the teachers. It is this recurrence of new perspective that I live off.

Journalist Henry Grunwald said, “Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” In Marin we live in what seems to be a perfect little bubble and I believe that as journalists it is our duty to pop it once in awhile. This is a skill at which Barkies excel. Back in 2010 we exposed the Marin police for arresting teenagers at nearly double the rate of adults, and this year we publicized that students from Marin City had to endure an extra half mile walk to school compared to their Tiburon counterparts. As journalists we have the ability to craft our words to create change in not only Redwood, but the greater community.

During my years in Bark I have learned that everyone and everything has a story―it is just a matter of finding it.

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