The County Chronicle

The online newspaper of Loudoun County High School

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Hybrid learning delayed, students disappointed

Olivia DeWan | staff writer

Sophomore Melina Wightman works diligently in her online class of physical education. Like most other students, she’s working from home.

Since March, most students in Loudoun County have been attending school through the distance learning model. Students were set to go back to hybrid learning on January 21, but due to the number of rising cases as of mid-December, hybrid is no longer an option.

“I was upset,” sophomore Sydney Schafer said. “Though this time I was kind of expecting it.”

On December 10, the Virginia Department of Health announced that the amount of COVID cases had exceeded the metrics established by the School Board. The metics stated that as long as COVID cases stayed below a certain number, students whose families elected to do so could participate in hybrid learning. Under this plan, most students would attend classes in person two days per week while continuing with asynchronous learning on Mondays and attending classes in a concurrent learning model from home on the other two days of the week.

With the latest metrics, the Loudoun County community returned to one hundred percent distance learning on December 15.

“I was really looking forward to seeing people,” sophomore Kiley Byers said. “I’m an in-person learner so hopefully being back soon will help me to understand my harder level classes.”

Many students had the same mindset.

“The closure really sucked because I wanted to see my friends,” said sophomore Melinna Wightman.

The students have been participating in distance learning for several months and have been social distancing for longer.

The time away from friends and teachers has started to take its toll, and many students were looking forward to going back to school.

“I was looking forward to having some normality back even though it will still be different,” said sophomore student Amelia Spadaccini.

Schafer agrees. “I was looking forward to getting out of the house, really just a change of scenery. I wanted to see my teachers and friends in person even with all the restrictions.”

Though students were upset, they understood why distance learning resumed.

“I wasn’t bothered by the closure,” sophomore Jose Lopez said. “The school board made a good decision that will protect students and their families.”

Many questions are still unanswered. Will the students ever go back?

“I honestly don’t know if we will,” Byers said. “They say we’re going to go back but then something changes. They keep pushing our return back, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they canceled it all together.”

Students are trying to stay positive.

“I hope a vaccine comes out, but I’m trying my best not to get my hopes too high,” Schafer said. “Though if a vaccine does come out will people take it? Would teachers? I have many friends that would like online (distance learning) better.”

Since the interview, two COVID vaccines have been approved, with the first doses going to healthcare workers and the elderly. The vaccine has been approved only for those sixteen years of age or older. The COVID vaccine can help protect you by creating an antibody response in your body without you actually having COVID. The vaccine can prevent you from getting COVID, or if you do end up with it, help you from becoming seriously ill.

Regardless of this new medical advancement, many students still feel they would be safer partaking in distance learning instead of hybrid.

“I wouldn’t go back now,” Spadaccini said. “Now that there’s more cases it’s more likely someone will have COVID and just lie about not having symptoms.”

Byers disagrees.

“As long as we take the necessary precautions I think I’ll be fine.”

Through a time of uncertainty and constant change, students have stuck it out and will continue to do so.

“In the end I think we will go back,” Spadaccini said. “But it’ll be after we graduate because it seems like we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”

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School Board decides Coronavirus metrics for return to online learning, sparks discussion on viability of decided metrics

Liberty Harrison | staff writer

November 17, seven days before LCPS’s Thanksgiving break, an emergency school board meeting ruled in a 6 – 3 decision that all hybrid students would be moved to 100 percent distance learning if two separate metrics were both passed for five consecutive business days.

The first metric is passed when the number of new cases per 100,000 residents exceeds 200 during a 14 day period.

The second metric is passed when the positivity rate of coronavirus tests reaches 10 percent. This means that out of all people tested if 10 percent of tests come back positive the metric would be passed.

This image features an image of the LCPS COVID Case Data webpage, containing information on the two metrics decided to indicate return to 100% distance learning by the Loudoun County school board, as of November 17.

As of December 15 the metrics stood at 573.9 cases within the last 14 days and 11.7 percent of test positive within the last 14 days. This means that the metrics have been passed for five consecutive days and children already in hybrid learning were returned to 100 percent distance learning. There is no confirmed effect on plans for introduction of new students to in person learning in January.

This decision had the majority of support with 6 out of 9 members of the school board voting in favor of it. According to a Loudoun Now article, many supporters are in favor of the motion because it allows parents to easily track metrics. This ability would help the school board be clearer about how they are deciding switches to online and hybrid, and may allow parents the ability to prepare for a switch to distance learning from watching the metrics.

Parents are able to see daily updated metrics, monitored by the Virginia Department of Health, on the LCPS COVID Case Data webpage.

There were also dissenters to the motion, who found the metrics used and the plan overall to be unsatisfactory.

Some think the chosen metrics should be completely changed .

John Beatty, the school board member representing Catoctin district, wrote in an email dated November 20, about why he opposed the decided upon metrics and what, in his opinion, would have been better: “They affected the whole district, rather than each school or grade level individually. We need to consider in school Covid cases and transmissions, and we need to do so on a school by school basis.”

Others believe that they should be changed in smaller ways, or supplemented.

“The two metrics are helpful, but wholly inadequate. The most important metric is in-school transmission rate. If we have no transmission in schools, then that likely means the environment in schools is actually safer than outside the school. The CDC agrees with this,” wrote Jeff Morse, school board member representing Dulles district, in an email dated November 20.

School board members have also had dissenting opinions on the plan based on the metrics.

“This plan provides no flexibility, either shutting down or opening back up. We might want to scale back hybrid, or if we are 100 distance learning, we might want to scale it up. And it might take a few days to phase the hybrid students back into the classrooms. The current policy means students could be out of school one day, in the next, and out the next!  We need to fix that,” Morse wrote.

“Taking students out of in-person instruction is very disruptive – that’s why I had supported an alternative to pause bringing new groups of students into school if our numbers get high, but to not automatically take everyone out of hybrid without having a conversation about it first,” wrote Ian Seratokin, school board member representing Blue Ridge district, in an email dated November 20.

“I firmly believe  that we should have enabled the school board to continue to make decisions allowing some high risk/high need students to continue in hybrid while others may have their hybrid scaled back or deleted,” Morse wrote.

The majority of support is behind the use of metrics as the school board decided, even with some finding the metrics used, or subsequent plan, unsatisfactory.

Parents and students can keep updated on where the metrics stand with this link: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/key-measures/pandemic-metrics/school-metrics/

Supporters of the motion including Beth Barts (Leesburg), Harris Mahedavi (Ashburn), and Leslee King (Broad Run District) were contacted for comment but did not reply.

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Teachers adjust to distance learning

Olivia Zavadil | Managing Editor

Math teacher Peggy Carnes celebrates Halloween virtually with her students. Teachers such as Carnes have had to find unique ways this year to keep students engaged during online classes.

This year has posed many unique challenges to our community, including the transition from in-person to fully distance learning. Students have had to figure out how to combat not only the lack of social interaction that in person school would normally provide, but how to successfully integrate into online learning.

The decision to send Loudoun County students fully online this year came after much debate and community backlash to the previously proposed two-day hybrid schedule.

While much of the response to the new system has centered around students and their adjustment, another vital group is often overlooked: teachers.

“Distance learning is not an ideal situation, but teachers are making it work with a lot of help from students who are also giving it their best,” said English teacher Arlene Lewis. Lewis, like many other teachers, has been forced to adapt to new ways of teaching and new styles of connecting with students.

Lewis nods to the fact that one of the biggest adjustments to online teaching is the difficulty of forming personal connections and bonding with her students.

“I miss the real interaction with students, and because so many students keep their cameras off, I honestly wouldn’t know some of my students if I saw them in my neighborhood,” Lewis said.

Similarly, science teacher Terri Moulds finds it difficult to read students when teaching virtually. “It’s so much easier in school,” she said. “You can see facial expressions, you can see confused students, you can see hands coming up, you have engagement. Those first couple weeks of school were hard because I just missed it so much.”

In terms of the schooling software used by the county, the technological adjustment has been no walk in the park either, according to many teachers.

“I did not anticipate that I would spend so much of my time troubleshooting technology,” Lewis said. “I am frustrated, as are students and parents, that the technology doesn’t always work the way it is supposed to on any given day. Teachers, including me, have been ‘kicked out’ in the middle of a Google Meet. The transition to online learning is difficult enough without that!”.

Even the most experienced teachers have struggled with the transition, and are constantly searching for ways to bring elements of the classroom into online learning.

“I try to do little things in my class, start geeky conversations about Marvel characters, ask questions about books students are reading, tell lame jokes,” said math teacher Karen Carr. “But the interaction is definitely missed.”

“This is my twenty-second year of teaching, and it is nothing like what I have experienced before,” Carr said. “From having to learn a ton of new technology to readjusting my lessons, to trying to find ways to interact with students. It is definitely different.”.

“I was not really surprised that we wound up online to start school,” said Lewis.  “I couldn’t see how they were ever going to coordinate hybrid learning even though I know that other school districts are doing it.”

There is some hope for the teachers and students that have been missing that interpersonal interaction. Starting in late October, Loudoun County Public Schools began sending back select groups of  English language learners, special ed students, and select elementary students. Secondary students are expected to return for the second semester, though with the pandemic as a still-developing situation, nothing is certain.

“The first few weeks were difficult,” says Moulds, “ it’s a trade off, but you know, we have to protect the community and I think that’s important.”

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Decades in the Making: A History of the Loudoun County Raiders

Emily Banner | staff writer

As the Loudoun County School Board voted this summer to change the school’s mascot, many students and community members remained unaware of the controversy which surrounded the original mascot.

The oldest school in the county, LCHS looked to the Civil War when choosing its original mascot.

An early design of the Raider mascot in the 1956 yearbook. He was drawn by the Art Staff, whose job it was to add these cartoons throughout the yearbook. Photo courtesy of Tonya Dagstani.

Colonel John S. Mosby was a Confederate leader during the Civil War. He was the leader of the 43rd battalion, a band of cavalry (and also artillery) known as Mosby’s Raiders (or sometimes Mosby’s Rangers or Guerillas). Mosby rode a blooded sorrel, who was the fastest horse in the army, according to the Dec 30, 1864 edition of the New York Herald.

Mosby’s Raiders were well known for their quick strikes on Union forces and their impressive ability to evade capture. “All of Mosby’s men have their regular boarding houses among the farmers,” says the same article. This meant they could disperse quickly from a raid to their separate partisan homes and to be called back together later for the next plan.

Loudoun County High School opened its doors for the first time on September 14, 1954, as an all-white high school. As mascot, the students selected John Mosby’s Raiders.

Another early Raider design, from the 1957 yearbook. This edition of the yearbook featured many scenes of foxhunting.
Photo courtesy of Tonya Dagstani.

The Raider mascot went through many different renditions over the years, settling finally on a mounted raider carrying a flag. At first, he held the Confederate flag.

In the 1978-1979 school year, Gene Ashton chopped the confederate flags off the school sign on the front lawn after

Blue Oliver, his adopted black son and a senior at the school, was removed from the basketball team from an unfairly enforced attendance rule. After a sit-in on February 1, 1979, and much discussion at the school, a new flag was created and replaced the confederate flag held by a mounted Raider.

Earlier this year, County alumni A.J. Jelonek and Deirdre Dillon started a petition to change the mascot. Jelonek says in his blog about LCHS that “Today, I take a stand and say no longer. I do not want to celebrate and glorify the Raiders anymore. It is time for a new Loudoun County High School mascot. I call for this in honor of Gene Ashton and Blue Oliver.”

The petition gained 2,372 supporters and the School Board decided unanimously to change the mascot.

The petition, posted on June 19, 2020, which called for the mascot change. The school board later voted unanimously to follow the student body’s wishes.

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SCA preserves school spirit in the time of COVID-19

Michaela Scott | Editor-in-chief

In the age of COVID-19, schools across the nation are struggling to bring together their student body and preserve the pride within each class in high school. However, Loudoun County High School’s Student Council Association is working day after day to connect the community, despite the distance between each individual.

SCA is an ambitious group of leaders at LCHS, and takes the form of a student authority government, with each member being elected in the springtime to serve for the following year. This assembly of class officials is the foundation of the majority of school events and has the duties of annually putting together a variety of school-oriented activities, such as homecoming week, powderpuff games, tailgates, spirit days, pep rallies, and fundraisers.

“Our operation normally consists of many events we bring to County, and even just small projects that contribute to uniting the classes, like our PEER projects,” said junior Kenly Howerter, SCA news anchor and member of the communication team.

The student council has had to make significant adjustments to suit this year’s differences and changes. This alteration has eliminated numerous plans and typical schools events, yet they are figuring out brand new ways to bring back the excitement of schoolwide participation. The assembly’s goal is to normalize this year as much as possible and keep the high energy.

“SCA’s objective during this unprecedented time of distance learning is to engage students as much as possible and boost school spirit virtually,” said junior Charlotte Penberthy, spirit committee member. As of now, LCHS cannot do powderpuff, sports, and multiple in-school projects, like decorating the halls. Although, recently SCA is implementing weekly challenges students can participate in and earn class points; spirit days are also being incorporated each week and class points are tracked publicly throughout Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.

With virtual communication, challenges are bound to occur in the process of adaptation and SCA has endured multiple setbacks within the start of the year. The team has expressed the difficulty getting the student body opinions to the faculty because of the online barrier. The chaos of separation has also been a contributing factor; SCA, as a club, only meeting at the end of the week to plan certain events and projects has led to less accommodations with connecting distancely.

“We are trying our best to make sure our student body feels as comfortable as possible with this new normal, especially the freshman,” said SCA news anchor junior Nathan Gribbin said. “We want them to know what they are doing and feel welcome because being brought into an environment where they can have a real human interaction isn’t an option at the moment.”

Despite the obstacles the student government faces, the staff has already accomplished several projects and enterprises, like the newly painted class rocks, informative morning announcements, High School 101, and organization of the school mascot, Each activity is a form of normalization to the 20-21 school year.

“High school 101 was different this year because of the virtual aspect, however it maintained a welcoming atmosphere to the upcoming class of 2024,” said Howerter. “Painting the school rocks was also a major accomplishment because each class could collectively decide what their rock would say and it’s a great way to help unite each grade.”

The SCA encourages students to suggest ideas for the school as a whole. Students can reach out to any member to put this into action; they are open to any recommendation and are hoping to hear from each other to uplift and strengthen the school community.

“We’re all taking things one step at a time, bringing new opportunities to the table, and we all hope we’ll be back in school soon to further function at full capacity,” said Gribbin. “Keep your pride full of hope, and your head high because we are all focusing on the bright future our school family anticipates on in the upcoming months.”

The 2021, 2022, and 2023 class rocks make an appearance outside the athletic wing at LCHS. SCA’s rock painting project during quarantine invites students into the new school year.

 

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Seniors personalize the parking lot

Maggie Sheridan | Editor-in Chief

Though many students look forward to a parking lot full of splashes of color and design, Loudoun County seniors have not been able to paint their parking spots for several years. This year, that will finally change.

Principal Michelle Luttrell made the ultimate decision after she presented her ideas to LCPS for approval. The SCA executive board and Senior Delegate were the ones that were in charge of pulling this together. These members include seniors Sam Welstead, Stella Celentano, Caleb Rexroad, Fiona Flaherty, Jackson Chinn, Safa Saad, Erika Maliska, Sean Rombach, and Caroline Zanetti.

Math teacher and SCA sponsor Matthew Prince created a proposal with AP US History teacher, Psychology teacher, and fellow SCA sponsor Nancy Thomas. “We were told to wait to see how some of the other schools pulled the event off during COVID. After we observed and communicated with the other school administrations and SCA, we revised our plan,” said Prince.

Prince explained that the process was a complete team effort and many people worked together in order to make it happen. “Ms. Thomas and I were talking just after we had come up with the proposal for the SCA to review and thought it would be really awesome if we could make this whole thing digital,” said Prince. They then presented that idea to the group.

One member of the SCA who was very hopeful for this was senior Stella Celentano. “When we were campaigning for SCA, it’s something everyone really wanted to do this year and I am really excited we’re able to do it even though we’re currently doing online school,” said Celentano.

Seniors were charged twenty dollars in order to participate, which will go towards painting over the spots with black paint next year. This will take place near the end of next year. The school couldn’t charge the normal amount for spots since students are currently unable to use them.

Celentano was surprised by how open Luttrell was and glad that Prince and Thomas were also on board to help. “They were all a big part of planning and letting us do it. Mr. Prince and Ms. Thomas seemed very eager to help,” said Celentano.

Students express creativity and start on the painting of a spot in front of the athletic entrance. A wide variety of colors pop against the black asphalt. Take a spin through the lot to see more of these works of art. Photo courtesy of Matthew Prince.

Students are required to buy their own paints as well as any other supplies. They get four hours to paint each day. Painting will officially start Saturday the twenty-fourth and will be that Saturday and Sunday as well as the following Saturday and Sunday.

This new decision has improved the lives of several seniors. Senior Caroline Curtin said, “We are all super excited to hear about this news. I think the school felt badly that we wouldn’t have a normal senior year, so they wanted to give us something to look forward to.”

Although this has brightened many moods, it has also made others upset. “There are some people who didn’t get parking spaces due to the limited number available, who are disappointed they won’t be able to take part in this special event,” said Curtin.

Painting spots is also a way for the seniors to show off their creativity and be unique. “I decided it would be a very Caroline thing to make mine a picture of Remy from ‘Ratatouille’,” said Curtin.

“My friends are doing different quotes from shows. One friend is doing a quote from the show ‘The Office’ and my other friend is doing a quote from the show ‘Arrested Development.’ I also have friends who are actually drawing something pretty,” said Celentano.

Everyone involved with the planning is looking forward to seeing the finished products. They are also glad to have influenced positive change that benefits the seniors at school.

“It took a lot of collaboration and many outside hours contacting other schools and laying out the design for the event. It was great to be a part of because as a problem came up someone would step up with a solution and it was great to see everyone working together towards a common goal,” said Prince.

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What is happening to all of the Raider markings at school?

Alexis Shugars | Staff Writer

Raider mascot

The Raider marking on the auxiliary gym door remains from the school’s former mascot. Capt

With the change of our mascot before this school year, from Raiders to Captains, LCHS is forced to change most of the markings in school that have to do with Raiders.

LCPS is funding these changes per the School Board’s decisions. For athletics alone, It will cost $500,000 to change everything from Raiders to Captains. “We had to do a cost analysis on replacing items in each department,” said Athletic Director Kathleen (Kate) Cassidy.  “Based on those numbers various funding was given to the different departments.”

“With a school that was built in 1954 you can imagine the number of items needing to be changed,” Cassidy said. “I have lost count. I know we have 108 clocks in the building that will need to be changed out.” Although many Raider items will be switched out, others will remain.

All of the championship pictures located in the athletic wing will stay on the walls. Murals left on the walls by former Senior students will be left for now, and LCHS will wait to see where the conversation goes with Loudoun County Public Schools.

The administration decided to phase in the changes based on highest need. The first priority is athletics, and the second is the school store. Most schools only get around $10,000 to start up their school store. “We really pushed back and fought hard to get three times that amount for our school, because we have a great marketing program and the school store is really thriving,” said Principal Michelle Luttrell.

Currently, all markings in the school still remain Raiders. “We are going to keep the things we have in place because if we don’t get the stuff replaced, if the money’s not there and you guys start to come back on campus, we need to have things for you guys to use,” said Luttrell.

“I didn’t feel it was appropriate to under the cover of night, clear the entire campus of all things that say Raiders,” said Luttrell. She emphasized that this is a process worthy of conversation among students. “You can’t just erase history,” she added.

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Students intrude on Google Meets, disrupt classes with vulgarities

Liberty Harrison | staff writer

As online school progresses new problems arise, and with them new solutions.

One of these problems, experienced with the use of Google Meets, is live class bombings, hackings, or interruptions, which primarily took place during the first weeks of the school year. This phenomenon happens either when a student gets into a class they aren’t a member of or decides to disrupt their own class. These disruptions include a wide variety of activities, some of which include presenting images or videos against school policies and without teacher permission, playing audio, often at high volume, that go against school policy and without teacher permission, and the students themselves using vulgarities, or slurs against minorities.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon has happened multiple times at LCHS, with many students experiencing these interruptions.

Sophomore Carlos Escobar experienced an incident he estimates to have lasted between one and two minutes. “There was a random person that came into the classroom saying something around the lines of ‘what’s up guys’,” he said. “However, a few seconds later music was being blasted through the speakers making it impossible to hear anything.”

Sophomore Laysha Ricci experienced a different type of interruption.

The interruption took place during the middle of class. “The teacher had stopped talking,” Ricci said. “One guy turned on their mic. He just started to make random noises which in the moment were funny, but soon became annoying.” Ricci’s teacher asked the student to stop talking, but someone else joined in instead, according to Ricci.

The “Broken Window Syndrome” is applicable to this situation – one student in class creating a disruption can trigger another student to join in.

Some students may also be inspired by internet celebrities to engage in ‘bombing’ Google Meets.

Google Meet screen

A hypothetical example shows that teachers can now allow or deny entry by uninvited Google accounts into a class session. As users of Google Meets’ beta version, Loudoun County Public Schools helps provide feedback and experience improvements, such as the improved controls, in the meeting tool over time. has improved user controls in their beta version.o

“In reality, this is more of a laughing joke, due to the fact that big internet stars have done this before, where the students give out the code for these meets and then you see the event unfold,” Escobar said.

According to the New York Times, videos and live streams of harassment in Zoom meetings, a platform similar to Google Meets, are appearing in rising numbers on sites like YouTube and Twitch. One popular YouTuber streamed himself bombing these meets for 6 hours, and a video about crashing college classes gained over 4.2 million views.

Another facet of this problem is that students from all over the county can get into LCHS Google Meets.

“These two guys didn’t go to LCHS, I actually knew them because I used to go to their school,” Ricci said.

However, the LCHS administration has protocols in place to deal with this situation.

“We have been in touch with administrators from across the county to communicate a disruption from students outside of our school,” said Katie Post, assistant principal. “We can easily find what school they attend and then we send videos to the administration so they can take the appropriate steps. Other schools have done the same for us as well if an LCHS student has caused a disruption in their classes.”

Ricci’s experience at the start of the year also shows that the learning curve for teachers caused by the use of new technology and programs can exacerbate the issue.

“The teacher soon became annoyed and tried to block them,” Ricci said. “In his attempts to do so, he blocked an actual student who didn’t do anything, by accident.”

Other teachers take a different approach to solving the issue, especially for shorter interruptions.

“She just addressed that we need to be more courteous and have more respect for the classroom environment,” Escobar said on how his teacher responded to the situation.

These Google Meet interruptions can last any amount of time, but sometimes the effect of the disruption can last longer than the actual event.

“The class was disturbed for probably, I think, maybe fifteen minutes because they just added comments and made noises,” Ricci said. “I feel like this just affected how the whole rest of class went since the kid who got kicked out was very confused and the teacher wasn’t very happy about the outbursts.”

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Librarian finds history and connection in County’s archives

Emily Banner, staff writer

 

1957 yearbook

The 1957 yearbook featured the theme of foxhunting throughout. It was being used as a metaphor for the school, related to the fact that Middleburg is horse country. Photo courtesy of Tonya Dagstani

Librarian Tonya Dagstani recently made an interesting discovery. “I came across boxes of these really cool articles from the history of Loudoun County High School since 1954,” she said.

“It smells like an antique store because it’s so old,” Dagstani said about one of the volumes.

While students aren’t at school, the librarians are taking the opportunity to clean up the library. One thing found within a scrapbook was a card with the code of conduct for the Quill and Scroll, an honors society for journalism students. “They’ve got all these programs, and a lot of them are hand-done,” Dagstani said.

The scrapbook is also full of old photos of the banquet and induction ceremonies, carefully labeled.

old newspaper article

A page from the 1963 Loudoun Raider about the fashion board. The page also mentions the school football team.
Courtesy of Tonya Dagstani.

What triggered her interest in this was a 1963 edition of The Loudoun Raider, which included an article about the school fashion board. The members would attend “…a weekly modelling class in which they will learn to practice poise and good grooming, and to model various types of clothing,” the article reads.

Dagstani found many parallels between the past and the events occur

ring in the world now. “They’re addressing a lot of the same things that we’re facing now, they talk about social justice and in some of the articles they’re talking about a polio drive,” she said. “A lot of the things that we’re facing now, we kind of feel like this is all brand new, but generations before us have dealt with similar issues and it’s interesting to see those takes on things.”

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