California wildfires taint the skies
Daisy Calderon, Photo Editor
September 25, 2020
Your vision grows hazy as clouds of smoke surround your home. The sky, though normally a soft blue is tainted with hues of red and orange, both combining in an intricate dance around each other. If one didn’t know better, then this could easily be misinterpreted as a scene on the planet of Tato...
Remembering Nicholas Mark Fahn
Shoshana Medved, Ombudsman
September 25, 2020
Nicholas Mark Fahn, Oak Park High School Class of 2012 alumni, died on August 20, 2020. An athlete, student and coach, Fahn was recognized for his contagious smiles and his compassion, according to his former counselor Julie Ross. “Nick would make you laugh,” Ross wrote to the Talon. “He always...
Profile: New physics and engineering teacher, Austin Lippincott
Charlotte Nicks, Senior Staff Writer
September 25, 2020
Austin Lippincott began teaching physics and engineering at Oak Park High School during the 2020-21 school year, after earning a physics degree from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and a teaching credential through Western Governors University. “I chose to come to Oa...
Diversity and Equity Task Force created by OPUSD
September 25, 2020
The Diversity and Equity Task Force was formed by Oak Park Unified School District in January 2020, and is led by Holly Baxter, Counselor on Special Assignment, Safety and Equity. The task force includes district leadership, site and parent representatives, student representatives and school board members, with ...
Searching for civility
Hunter Keaster, Opinion Editor
September 23, 2020
“Be polite.” It's something we’ve all heard in our colorful kindergarten classrooms, yet it’s something clearly missing from the social fabric of America. It seems as though political tensions in the U.S. are at an all time high. From a recent spike in homicides to over 30 million people ...
Possible addition of new English classes
Amanda Dermott, Online Editor
September 11, 2020
With more headway toward equity and acceptance for all, Oak Park High School is considering adding two new English classes inspired by the ongoing social movements. English teacher Jennifer Hankins is in the midst of composing her proposal for “Voices for Change,” a class (whose name may be a...
English curriculum highlights authors of color
Charlotte Nicks, Senior Staff Writer
September 11, 2020
A national push for increased inclusion of figures of color in public school curriculum has become local. The campus may be quiet, but that doesn’t mean the student body isn’t bustling with activity. In the wake of nationwide protests, many students and faculty have become involved, or intensifi...
Distance learning will solve our testing crisis
Charlotte Nicks, Senior Staff Writer
September 11, 2020
What makes a good test? It seems obvious, but a test must actually measure what it was intended to measure. This is called test “validity,” according to Professional Testing , and is key to the design of useful exams. But many traditional tests, especially multiple-choice exams, have low validity if the intention is to actua...
Back-to-School night takes a technological turn
Daisy Calderon, Photo Editor
September 10, 2020
Unable to host Back-to-School Night on campus this year, faculty and staff members worked to create custom videos of their classes that introduced parents to the course and its expectations. These videos were linked to a master document and made accessible to parents and students. On August 27, Prin...
‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’: A new Aang-le for modern television
Mina Jung and Lucy Anne Heine-Van Fossen
September 10, 2020
Just finished “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and feel empty? Yeah, us too. This hollow feeling you’re experiencing is most likely because ATLA is the best TV show of all time. “Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked...
Goodbye
May 6, 2020
When we signed on to be the 2019-20 editors-in-chief last year, we did not know about the year we were going to have, and we would not want to trade the experience for anything else. Let’s start at the beginning of the year. We got a text about two weeks before school started that our adviser, Mrs....
Elementary and middle school students, offered the opportunity to partake in Friday virtual enrichment classes through the Oak Park Education Foundation for ten weeks, began...
The cross country team has begun a new chapter: a class designed solely for their team as a new way of communication and bounding. The class is taught by head cross country...
If not for the faint murmur of a car’s engine, the sounds of Oak Park would have whisked me into another era entirely. The chirping of crickets trickled into my ears; the...
Your vision grows hazy as clouds of smoke surround your home. The sky, though normally a soft blue is tainted with hues of red and orange, both combining in an intricate...