May 9: the day Calculus students have dreaded for the past month. Wednesday May 9: the AP Calculus Exam.

So while students have been hastily cramming for this test, the government has different plans in store for San Mateo’s calculus teacher, Mr. Rainaldi. Called in for jury duty the week before AP exams, Mr. Rainaldi has been away from school since Wednesday, unable to quell last-minute fears and answer last-minute questions from his students. Instead of assisting the ‘leaders of tomorrow,’ he’s bound by law to be listening to civil or criminal cases during the most important time of the year for high school students.

And this is how much America values its education.

“I participate in Day of Silence for a myriad of reasons, but the biggest one is to protest that LGBT people lack a voice in society. The goal is to draw attention to that fact. We would love for everyone to participate!” said junior Victoria Xiao.

This is meant to be a serious activity, but as Vicki said, “There’s always a few jokers that just use this as a chance to get out of their class work, and that’s not really what the movement is about. I’d rather that the day be comprised of people who truly believe in LGBT rights, instead of people who halfheartedly participate or participate for other reasons.”

“I do encourage others to participate if they believe in these goals. Also I would love for the entire student body to stand behind this cause as well. The point is to, in essence, “speak” for those who can’t,” said junior Rebecca Tien.

“I participate in day of silence to understand the challenge of being underrepresented. The goal is to show the gay, lesbian, transgender, and questioning community at our school that they have my support and love, and the more people who participate, the more loudly that message is heard!” said senior Eleni Jacobson. “I don’t blindly encourage everyone to participate; this day can be really challenging and emotionally draining.”

Join GSA for more events supporting LGBT rights. GSA meets every Thursday at lunch in A143.

Students all around the country were given the opportunity to walk in the shoes of famous civil rights activists this past spring break. A few students from San Mateo High School, Michael Adachi, Domenic Ininguez, and  Jasmine Rivera, went on the Sojourn and traveled to the South, where they heard stories of the hardships of those who were discriminated against and how they decided to take fate into their own hands by fighting without violence for the rights they deserved.

Mr. Steinberg, a former history teacher from Capuchino High School, created the Sojourn to the past in 1999. It began as a program to inform junior and senior high school students about the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s and to inspire them to be more engaged in their own society, specifically in the field of social justice. The trip also aimed to help students realize that they can fight for what they believe in without using violence.

On this inspirational trip the students heard speakers like John Lewis, a United States congressman, Simeon Wright, Emmett Till’s cousin, and Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the students in the Little Rock Nine. These speakers, along with many others, made the things read in history books become much more than stories; the events in history were turned into the real life experiences of women and men who were discriminated against but refused to stay silent.

This ten-day trip began in Atlanta, Georgia. From there the students, led by trip chaperones traveled to Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham, Alabama; Hattiesburg and Jackson, Mississippi; Little Rock, Missouri; and last by not least, Memphis, Tennessee. Led by Mr. Steinberg, the students went to historical locations such as the Edmund Pettus Bridge, at which the Bloody Sunday march occurred on March 7, 1965, and Central High School in Little Rock, at which nine African American students weren’t permitted to enter due to the color of their skin.

“There was so many memorable things about that trip, but if I had to choose, I would say that visiting the exact place where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated was the most memorable part of the trip,” said Michael Adachi, a junior who attended the trip.

Through this program students learned about fellow Americans who refused to back down and accept things for the way they were. People who participated in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s risked being imprisoned or even killed for speaking against the very government that was supposed to protect them.

Students, who are interested in learning more about the civil rights movement and bringing a world without racism forward, can visit sojournproject.com.