IHS’s Code Red Robotics Attends Two Regional Competitions
By JENNIFER ZHAO
This year’s build season for Code Red saw a lot of challenges due to the unique game design that was “Charged Up,” but students overcame problems to design, program, and manufacture “Tyrannosaurus Red.” The build season also saw the return of the club’s annual Open House, hosted for the first time since the pandemic, which attracted over two hundred members of the community. T-Red features a wheel-based end effector with a four-bar linkage arm attached to a tilted chain driven elevator and weighs ninety-five pounds. Code Red attended two regional competitions at Finger Lakes Regional and Tech Valley Regional, winning the Innovation in Control Award at Tech Valley and competing in playoffs as the eighth seed alliance captain.
G-Building Bathroom Construction Completes
By MUKUND GAUR
Construction in G-Building recently finished, ending with the construction of two new bathrooms on two floors. Together, they have four stalls, each one enclosed from floor to ceiling—a change from the previous bathroom stalls, which had a traditional stall door that covered only part of the door opening. The opening of the new bathrooms had resulted in some confusion for students, as the ones on the lower floor were denoted as mens’ and womens’ restrooms with paper signs, but the bathrooms on the upper floor were denoted as “Bathrooms for All People.” Some students theorized that the paper signs for the lower bathrooms were placed there by other students, but the IHS administration had in fact placed them there in an attempt to compromise between having some gender-neutral bathrooms and some gendered bathrooms. As of the Friday before April Break, the paper signs on the lower bathrooms were no longer present, having been presumably taken down by students or staff, while the sign saying “Bathrooms for All People” was still in place on the upper bathrooms.
“Parents Defending Education” Sues Ithaca City School District Over Black Lives Matter Event
By MUKUND GAUR
“Parents Defending Education,” a self-proclaimed parental rights group, filed a complaint to the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in New York against Ithaca City School District, claiming that ICSD engaged in racial segregation by hosting affinity groups for students of color. The Vice President of the organization stated, “Ithaca Senior High School intentionally segregated students from activities associated with BLM Week of Action solely based on the color of their skin.” ICSD had, ahead of the event, informed parents that the goal of the Black Lives Matter event was to “embrace differences, examine biases, and advocate for justice.” Activities at IHS beyond the affinity groups included displays in hallways that connected to subjects including Black joy and the Black Lives Matter movement. It is unclear why the Virginia-based organization targeted ICSD, in particular.
IHS Dev Team Takes on Cornell Competitions
By GENEUSTACE WICAKSONO
This year, IHS’s Dev Team participated in two competitions: The WICC (Women in Computing at Cornell) contest which took place on March 4, and the Cornell High School programming contest which took place on April 1. Both competitions, according to students who participated, were very fun experiences. One of IHS’s groups won the best effort award at the first competition. At the second competition, many members were absent, due to a conflict with the Tech Valley FRC regional. The contest organizers prohibited “hybrid” participation where one group member is in person while another is virtual. Despite the conflict, those who were able to attend enjoyed it, with one saying that it was a “super cool experience to do problems that required algorithms students learn as college seniors.” The winners were from New York City’s Stuyvesant High School.