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.Ìę

According to the , 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 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.Ìę

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.Ìę

A , 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 ±ÚßËÓ°Ôș 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.Ìę

Police 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.Ìę

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

“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.Ìę

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 ±ÚßËÓ°Ôș 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.Ìę

Around 1:30 p.m., water spouts on building walls turned on, and toilets around campus were flushed. According to ±ÚßËÓ°Ôș 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.Ìę

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.Ìę

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

“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.Ìę

Moving forward, construction will continue as planned. According to ±ÚßËÓ°Ôș Operations Supervisor Brett Larson, preventative action is not necessary.Ìę

“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

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.Ìę

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.Ìę

“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.Ìę

“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.Ìę

“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.Ìę

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 .Ìę

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

“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.

According to the Palo Alto Police Department, the initial incident occurred between Gunn students and the Wilcox basketball team. Several Gunn parents and school staff intervened, which caused an altercation among parents. One Wilcox parent was arrested.

Tuesday’s game — held in Titan Gym beginning at 7 p.m. — was close, with Gunn clinching an 82-81 victory in overtime. According to several student spectators, tensions had been running high prior to the end of the match, although there were no physical confrontations.

A little after 9 p.m., however, a Gunn student descending from the bleachers and a Wilcox player on the court approached one another, with the Wilcox player’s teammates assembling behind him. Spectators, along with Assistant Athletic Director Kevin Johnson, pushed the two parties apart, with Athletic Director Curt Johansen escorting the Gunn student off of the court to avoid further escalation.

A few minutes afterward, a Wilcox parent shoved Gunn boys basketball head coach Brandynn Williams and a Gunn parent. Video footage shows a different Wilcox parent trying to end the altercation while repeatedly yelling “calm down” before pushing a Gunn parent — who had been filming the fight on the court — to the ground.Ìę

As things became physical, the athletic directors called 911. According to boys varsity basketball team member Dylan Lu, Gunn players were told to go to the locker room, where they remained until the police arrived.Ìę

“I was really scared,” he said. “We were all locked in the locker room — we locked the doors. The coach was like, ‘No one go out, no one walk home, just stay here until the police come.’”

As spectators began to exit, the fight moved to the Titan Gym lobby. Video recordings show the Wilcox parent who had shoved Williams throwing air punches before grabbing Johnson. The crowd dispersed after the police’s arrival.

According to PAPD, one Wilcox parent was later arrested for battery and subsequently released on a criminal citation. Officers are sending a report to the District Attorney’s office to review charges for another adult.Ìę

The following morning, on Feb. 14, Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton notified parents and students that the Gunn administration was working with the Wilcox High School administration, as well as Santa Clara Valley Athletic League officials and local law enforcement, to investigate the incident. She added that there are no confirmed reports of physical altercations between students.

While such events may be anomalous at Gunn, Stratton notes that they’re part of a larger pattern of post-pandemic spectator misbehavior. In August 2023, because of fan violence. The year before, in September 2022, administrators canceled a Gunn vs. Paly football game due to student spectator misconduct.Ìę

Given this trend, Stratton hopes to partner more consistently with administrators from opposing teams to curb concerning behavior, as well as hire additional security for athletic events that may draw bigger crowds.

“Proactive preventative action will include increasing our vigilance when monitoring spectators — in order to redirect unacceptable fan behavior early and often,” she wrote in an email.Ìę

In light of the violence during the players’ senior night, Stratton will be holding a luncheon with the boys varsity basketball team next Wednesday to celebrate their accomplishments.Ìę

“That was their senior night, and it should have been — the whole evening should have been — nothing but fun and a great memory,” she said.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

—Additional reporting by Chris Lee.

The decision comes as a preventative measure after the Palo Alto city council’s Oct. 16 meeting, at which several “Zoom bombers” made antisemitic comments. The board hopes to use the time gained by the three meetings’ suspension to have an ad hoc committee generate safeguards for preventing occurrences of disruptive speech.

This approach has triggered debate over free speech and democratic participation. At the meeting, Gunn School Board Representative Chris Lee (who is also a managing editor of The Oracle) noted that removing Zoom commenting for upcoming meetings may hamper student accessibility at a crucial time. The next few meetings have issues especially relevant to students, including the math curriculum (a highly contentious topic since this spring), sustainability at middle schools and ethnic studies on their agendas. “I understand that my situation is very unique, and that not everybody has a chance to participate in person, both for our usual Tuesday meetings, and especially these special ones,” Lee said. “I’m concerned that this action may hinder student voice.”

School-board member Shana Segal, who voted against the resolution, noted that the suspension of Zoom commenting would set a dangerous precedent. “I’m concerned that eliminating Zoom comments may pose a slippery slope in that it may be perceived as having a chilling effect on the same freedom of speech,” she said. “Are we giving the Zoom bombers yet greater power by taking away our community members’ ability to participate in school-board meetings remotely?”

The board also discussed alternate solutions sent in an email by California Sen. Josh Becker, including adopting a resolution condemning hate speech and opening and closing public comment with a statement of values. Board member Shaunak Dharap and Board President Jennifer DiBrienza said the suggestions will not necessarily prevent events like those on Oct. 16, in which several of the comments containing hate speech either began through addressing agendized items and veered into antisemitism or were overtly made with intent to harm.

Board members also noted that addressing the hate speech as it happens is particularly difficult, as much of what the speakers on Oct. 16 said was permitted under the First Amendment since it did not constitute a threat or incitement of violence. If comments such as these are made in Open Forum, during which anyone can discuss any issue, board members would be unable to stop them.Ìę

In light of that protection, Dharap emphasized the board’s power to minimize disruption, not necessarily curb specific types of speech. “This cannot be about limiting the type of speech,” he said. “This has to be about maintaining order and the ability for us to do the business of the district without disruptions and the ability of us to permit relevant public comment.”

Although Dharap and Board Vice President Jesse Ladomirak voted in favor of the resolution, they said that come December, they are unlikely to vote to continue the suspension.Ìę

Several nearby cities, including Redwood City, Union City and Milpitas, have also adopted similar policies following recent Zoom bombings, according to .

Students hoping to share their perspectives at upcoming meetings can come in person, send an email to the board ahead of time or with their thoughts. The is scheduled for next Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Math Instructional Lead David Deggeller began the meeting with a brief overview of mathematics options after AP Calculus BC at Gunn: AP Statistics, Applied Math Honors, Advanced Authentic Research and computer science electives are offered, as well as classes such as multivariable calculus and linear algebra available through local community colleges. These community college courses, however, do not count toward students’ GPAs.

The presentation was followed by an activity in which students wrote down their “hopes and dreams” for multivariable calculus on sticky notes and pasted the sticky notes on posters labeled “Statements” and “Questions.” After students grouped similar concerns together, administrators and teachers read out sticky notes that captured larger student sentiments.Ìę

“I hope that multivariable calculus will be offered as a course at Gunn,” one sticky note read. “If offered at Gunn, I hope it’s a weighted class.”

“Why is advanced math perceived as negatively affecting student mental health?” another read. “Is there any data that admins are basing this conclusion off of?”

Some sticky notes revealed possible misconceptions about multivariable calculus offerings: One noted, “Every single district around us offers it.” Although some districts, such as the Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District, offer the in-person, weighted class within a regular schedule that some students are looking for, other Santa Clara County school districts, such as the Fremont Union High School District, do not.

Students also argued against including multivariable calculus as an offering at Gunn on their sticky notes. Junior Sophie Guibas, who accelerated ahead a year in math and is currently enrolled in AP Calculus BC, is strongly opposed to the addition of the class to Gunn course lists. “If you add multivariable calculus to Gunn now, that’s going to be the ending point and now everyone’s going to be expected to skip,” she said. “I feel like it’s just totally unnecessary, and you can always take multivariable calculus outside of school.”

In many ways, the perspectives shared echoed those at the Aug. 22 school board meeting, at which 25 students spoke out about math issues. However, Principal Wendy Stratton noted that the purpose of this meeting was to bring forward more voices than those that had already been heard. “That’s why we used this (sticky-note) structure, not to stymie voice, but to actually bring forward (new voices),” she said.Ìę

The meeting closed with a reminder that students’ feedback would be solicited and their questions answered via a “Question and Answers” document sent out after the meeting. According to Deggeller, it is unlikely that a similar meeting will happen in the future. If changes are to be made to the high schools’ math offerings, they would be through the Math Steering Committee, composed of district administrators, site administrators and instructional leads. “I would guess (that) if any changes were made, it would go through that body, but there’s lots of other forces in the district,” he said.Ìę

Paly is expected to have a similar meeting on Monday, Sept. 18.

Gallery • 1 Photos

Photo courtesy of Brandon Seow

A Taser alarm: It may sound slightly odd, but it’s what sophomore Brandon Seow spent six weeks of his summer on.

Following a weeklong family vacation to French Polynesia, Seow took two engineering classes in hopes of creating a portfolio before applying to the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science, or COSMOS, next summer. It was in his first class, a six-week course on engineering fundamentals at West Valley College, that he and his groupmates decided to create an alarm that stunned its user prior to going off.

The proposal was initially a joke, according to Seow. “It was right in the beginning (of the course) when we were supposed to shout out ideas to the group,” he said. “One of my peers shouted out ‘Taser alarm,’ which sounded funny at first, but somehow the teacher accepted it.”

During the class, Seow and his groupmates created a design, ordered the necessary parts — including electrode patches and wires to hook to phones — and then assembled the contraption. Though Seow’s work mainly involved writing code, he also aided with the physical engineering.

With limited supplies and an unavailable teammate, alongside a slew of bugs typical of an engineering project, Seow’s group faced its fair share of troubles. “We waited for a while longer than we should have to start building (the alarm) in real life — putting the parts together — because we had to do a lot of prior research,” he said. “Our project was one of the harder ones out of all the groups’.”

Still, the team was able to troubleshoot and ended up finishing on time. Beyond engineering skills, Seow also gained friendships from the course. “It’s fun because I get to meet students of all ages,” he said. “I have friends there who are in college, past college and going to be a junior (in high school) next year. So being able to talk with them and relate to them is nice.”

Overall, Seow appreciated the versatility of the class, which always kept him interested: From circuit building to coding Arduino, there was always something new to learn. “Every day is just a little different,” he said.

Rishay Jain: Astrophysics internship

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Photo courtesy of Rishay Jain

Senior Rishay Jain’s work touched the stars at his Lockheed Martin internship this summer, where he studied solar flares: explosions of electromagnetic radiation or plasma from the sun that can travel up to 3,000 kilometers a second. “If, by chance, this plume of material hits the Earth, and is able to penetrate Earth’s protective magnetic field, we could be severely impacted,” he wrote in an interview follow-up note. “Astronauts would be in extreme danger, air force/military operations could be interrupted, and civilians could experience power and communications blackouts.”

Through working in the Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center, Jain is developing an application that helps scientists track solar flares and their evolution. His tool analyzes photos of the sun’s surface to detect where, when and how often flares occur, with the goal of predicting them more accurately.

Jain’s application builds on the work of previous Gunn interns at Lockheed Martin. They, like him, were part of the decadeslong joint program that sends a few rising seniors from Gunn to intern at the company during their junior-to-senior-year summer. “While I’ve learned a lot of new concepts for my projects at Lockheed, I have to apply nearly everything I’ve learned in the rigorous math, science and engineering courses I’ve taken at Gunn, using everything from vector math from Analysis to electromagnetic waves from chemistry and physics, and even computer-vision/-programming techniques from GRT (Gunn Robotics Team),” Jain wrote.

At networking events, Jain has been able to learn from the people who work at Lockheed. During the 10-year-anniversary celebration of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a NASA sun imager, he heard about the project’s challenges and highlights firsthand. “There’s more than just engineering,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that go into these projects, and there’s a lot of collaboration and teamwork spirit.”

Jain will continue to add more features to his application to analyze different types of data over the next eight months of his internship. “There are real-world impacts to the kind of work that happens over there,” he said.

Beverly Lamis: Circus camp counselor and lifeguard

Gallery • 1 Photos

Photos courtesy of Beverly Lamis

Junior Beverly Lamis juggled the demands of two jobs and walked the tightrope of responsibility this past summer. A counselor at 888 Monkeys Circus Camp and a lifeguard at Greenmeadow Pool and Community Center, Lamis both taught and supervised children, learning new skills along the way.

Lamis and her twin brother, Jack Lamis, made a last-minute decision to become counselors at the camp after hearing about the opportunity from stage tech teacher Jennifer Ellington, who is also one of the directors of the camp. At the camp, the twins taught circus arts — trapeze, juggling, acrobatics, stilts and more — to kids aged 5 to 14.

As a counselor, Lamis ran stations that students rotated through, each focusing on a different skill. “We’re teaching the kids how to do it and pushing them further than what they think they can do,” she said. “For the (skills that require balance), it’s a lot of just spotting the kids because they’re pretty young.”

At performances, Lamis got to see her teaching and the students’ hard work pay off. “By the end of the week, most kids are able to do whichever (skills) they really tried hard at,” she said. “Usually, at the end of the week, we show all of the skills that they learned to the parents.”

The stories her boss told and the specialists the camp brought in gave Lamis a newfound understanding of circus life. “It’s been a surreal experience,” she said. “My boss, he’s part of the circus, so it’s opened my eyes to a whole different volume of life living (as) part of the circus and having to be on the go all the time.”

Apart from her full-day job as a camp counselor, Lamis set aside time to complete summer homework in preparation for classes, go to the gym and work at the Greenmeadow Community Center, where she watched over swimmers as a lifeguard and did maintenance work around the pool and bathrooms.

Despite younger students’ temper tantrums and unruliness, Lamis loved working with them. “It’s really fun to teach them how to do something and then watch them succeed and build on it,” she said. “They always just love to show you the littlest things, and it’s so fulfilling seeing the joy on their faces after they’ll get one trick, and they’ll start to get it over and over again.”

This two-story building is an academic (and to some extent, social) hub. You’ll find most English and math classes here — English on the bottom story, math on the top — as well as the two departments’ respective offices. The building’s gray steps offer a great place to stop and chat with a friend, or sit and soak in the sunshine.

Spangenberg Theater

This oft-misspelled theater is the site of most Gunn performances, from band concerts to plays. It’s also where many a Study Hall assembly is held, and where Gunn’s annual TEDx conference takes place. If you’re in any of Gunn’s music programs, it’s a spot to take note of, as it has several adjoining rooms where student musicians rehearse.

Wellness Center

Located on the upper story of the P-building, the Wellness Center is an accessible, quiet space that’s perfect for any student who might need a quick break. Beyond providing counseling and mental health resources, the center allows students to take breathers on soft sofas and chairs. As a bonus, it also offers snacks and drinks.

Student Activity Center

If you have any queries about student activities, from clubs to Student Executive Council events, the Student Activities Office is the place to bring them. You’ll be able to purchase parking permits, Gunn apparel and tickets to Gunn dances here (though you can also buy some of these items on the Titan Webstore if you’re feeling lazy).

Main Office

Temporarily located in the E-building, the main office is where you’ll go to find administrators, from our four assistant principals to Principal Wendy Stratton. Secretaries Carole Main, Janet Owen and Alli Wong will be able to point you to whomever you need. This is where you’ll check in about attendance, if needed.

Library

From comics to classics, the library has pretty much any text you’ll require. It includes private study rooms and comfortable chairs where you can read, chat or work. Librarians Daljeet Gill and Megan Garcia are always ready to help you out, and if you ask nicely, they might even let you into a (not-so-) secret back room with newspapers dating back to the 1940s.