A car suddenly comes out of the underground Crowne Plaza garage, almost hitting Sarah Lu-Liang, a senior at Gunn High School, who is on her daily bike ride home on the El Camino Real sidewalk. Lu-Liang is unable to see the car as it exits the garage so quickly, and the car is unable to see Lu-Liang because of the other vehicles.  Lucky for Lu-Liang and many cyclists like her, the California Department of Transportation is currently spearheading a project to implement protected bike lanes along the entire 600 miles of El Camino Real by fall of 2025.  For Lu-Liang, who has had many clo ..read more

When Eimi Okano, a former educator and Palo Alto High School alum, was paging through a school history textbook one day, she noticed that there were barely any stories or pictures of non-white people.  “We looked at all the text that had been adopted by the State Board of Education and that’s where we found out that there were no people of color in there,” Okano said, sitting in the backyard of her Palo Alto home on Feb. 10. “One of the things that happened in our time also was there was very little inclusion of Japanese American experiences. …What they did include, like when they mention ..read more

When I was hiking in Yosemite I was super disappointed to see litter like food wrappers along the hiking trails,”  junior Clara Hoffman, a member of the EcoCycle club, talks about how the presence of litter at her favorite national park affected her trip.  “Litter is a common thing to find wherever I hike and it’s really sad to see in outdoor spaces,” Hoffman said. Palo Alto High School’s EcoCycle Club offers a community where students are able to participate in promoting zero-waste practices. By organizing fundraisers, activities, and outreach to other organizations, the club hopes ..read more

In the expansive world of teens, there are three things that we deem top priority — school, friends, and how many people liked our Instagram posts. As we live carefree in society, we own a mindset that nothing can go wrong in our bubble of naivety. Following the mentality that teen years are a time to experiment, youth underestimate the too-often effects of that experimentation — overdose and addiction. However, that bubble of naivety is rudely burst as in a 2024 US report, an average of 22 teens in the United States die each week from drug overdoses.  This alarming statistic only skims t ..read more

With knives, cutting boards, and seasoning sauces hanging from every shelf, the student co-founders of Palo Alto Pantry stand in the middle of Saint Michael’s Alley kitchen, a local Palo Alto restaurant, preparing fresh ingredients for their meals. With baby blue latex gloves boxes and shelves filled with fresh food, Milo Sabina, Oliver Chancellor, and Christian Saleh work to prepare hot meals every Monday for Bay Area residents who struggle with food and home insecurity in the Bay Area.  “We saw the change that needed to happen,” Chancellor said Started by three juniors in Paly’s Social ..read more

Riding into the asphalt parking lot of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park on El Camino Real reveals a novel identity of its community and respective residents. Dogs bark for the attention of the unfamiliar and yet don’t seem particularly pleased about our arrival. An abundance of color sweeps down all three of the complex’s streets, as the striking height of overgrown greenery reaches out to the burning sun from the small outdoor pots they’re contained in.  And looking further down the street, the low whirring of the excavator outside acts as a reminder of the impending change coming to this sm ..read more

Our mayors have the ability to instill both your values and theirs, working to emphasize city opinions and create a safer community for all. And we should encourage them to do so. But when you put into perspective the effort that is required to improve and maintain our collective community, it makes you wonder why our mayors are given 12 months to serve our city. Currently, the City of Palo Alto has an elected city council paired with a rotating mayor system. This system gives each council member an opportunity to hold office for a one-year mayoral term.  It’s not enough time to achieve t ..read more

California lawmakers are looking to introduce legislation prohibiting social media platforms from sending addictive feeds to minors and sending notifications overnight and during the school day. The nationwide move to create social media safety laws was sparked by a senate hearing earlier this year with the CEOs of several social media platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Discord on social media safety due to the increase in cyberbullying, mental health issues, and exploitation surrounding these platforms. “There should definitely be age restrictions such as 13-plus, which can definitely help to ..read more

In 2017, a child reportedly destroyed over $1,000 worth of makeup in a Georgia Sephora, a retailer of personal care and beauty products. The same has been happening again and again lately, according to countless videos of 10-year-olds abusing products like toys, disrespecting employees, and opening brand-new packaging. Posts on Sephora’s Beauty Insider Community web page, a forum for questions and advice for consumers, have claimed that this phenomenon has mostly been seen with Drunk Elephant, a skincare brand that has gained attention through social media. Dermatologist Brooke Jeffy, founder ..read more

When Palo Alto High School hosted a freshman assembly on Jan. 10 to posthumously commemorate the life of author Mallory Smith, her relatives present at the event were met with Paly students Airdropping offensive memes to the presentation screen under anonymous device names. The hateful content of these messages prompted one student to stand up from the crowd and denounce the assembly attendants’ behavior. She was met with vitriol of her own — the student was Airdropped the hateful message: “Shut up, trans b—.” Talk of the event among students dissipated shortly after the incident, becoming lit ..read more