Homestead High School's student newspaper

The Epitaph
Homestead High School's student newspaper

The Epitaph
Homestead High School's student newspaper

The Epitaph
DELAY IN CONSTRUCTION: progress has slowed due to changes and lack of staff.

A building construction delays

By Leila Salam • February 15, 2022

A building construction is now set to finish later than its original timeline of May as a result of COVID-19 regulations and additional changes after inspections. However, the move-in dates have not changed....

LEARNING SHOULD CONTINUE: Due to increased absences, teachers should upload lessons to Schoology while continuing teaching in class.

COVID absences must not disrupt lesson plans

By Naomi Baron • January 24, 2022

Missing a day of school, or even simply a single class, can cause a student — especially in a fast-paced AP course — to fall drastically behind while their classmates continue on with the class’s...

Students in AP Physics 1 perform a lab to learn about collisions and momentum.

Labs and COVID-19: the impact on student learning

By Naomi Baron and Olivia Shen • December 14, 2021

During the shift to online learning, COVID-19 forced science teachers to shift gears and alter the way that they teach science. Many facets of education were heavily impacted, science included, chemistry...

VACCINE SPARKS DISAGREEMENT: The COVID-19 Vaccine has been a source of much debate and speculation since it’s first distributions a year ago in December of 2020.

California becomes the first state to mandate vaccines for K-12 students

By Nicole Pimenta Innecco • December 7, 2021

In times where the very prospect of staying in school is a luxury, California takes another step towards keeping students in classrooms with the announcement of the first-in-the-nation vaccine mandate...

COLLEGES REQUIRE VACCINE: more and more colleges are requiring the covid vaccine for in person students

It’s fair that colleges require covid vaccines in order to come in person

By Raymond Ranbhise • June 3, 2021

With the ongoing pandemic, over 100 colleges across the country are requiring students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine before arriving on campus in the fall, sparking much debate.  More and more universities...

“THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL”: Women’s experiences: results of our sexist society.

Feminist’s disclosure: the personal is political

By Leila Salam • May 11, 2021

"The personal is political,” a slogan coined by feminist Carol Hanisch, was an influential symbol of  second wave feminism in the 1960s and has continued to influence feminist theorizing today, according...

After months of waiting, the COVID-19 vaccine has finally been authorized by the FDA and is being distributed across the country. 71% of Americans say they will "definitely or probably" get a Covid-19 vaccine and 39% said they would "wait and see" how initial vaccination goes before getting a vaccine themselves according to a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The release of the vaccine might placate many for the current moment, but it won’t make everything go back to normal. Currently, the most advanced vaccines use three different approaches: viral vectors — using a harmless virus which is altered to contain part of COVID-19’s genetic code — RNA, which contains a synthetic version of part of COVID-19’s genetic code and protein subunit, which uses pieces of the COVID-19 virus, according to CDC. The release of the COVID-19 vaccine is great news as once the majority of the public have taken the vaccine, the spread of COVID-19 will potentially reduce, according to BBC News. It will shorten the time needed for the country to go back to normal. However, I am skeptical about the workings of the vaccine and this is part of my concern when trying to decide if I will take the vaccine. As COVID-19 continues to spread across the United States, misunderstanding of herd immunity has started to show up. Herd immunity is achieved when large percentages of a population become immune to a disease. Herd immunity against COVID-19 will be achieved by protecting people through vaccination, not by exposing them to the pathogen that causes the disease for developing immunity. In terms of COVID-19, the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity is estimated to be between 70% and 90%, according to David G. Hill, a member of the Lung Association's National Board of Directors. Although vaccines have helped the world get rid of deadly diseases such as fever and smallpox, the process always takes time and there are no guarantees ensuring the results of the COVID-19 vaccine will be positive. At this point, being vaccinated doesn't mean the full development of the immune system and one can still be exposed in crowded areas with no prevention, such as masks. The current coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective and has no serious side effects from the first set of complete results of a late-stage vaccine trial, according to Pfizer. This means out of 100 people, there would still be five people where the vaccine doesn't work. The vaccine should definitely be taken once the distribution has started, but just because the vaccine is here doesn't mean we shouldn't maintain precautionary measures. I hope the vaccines will eventually help bring the spreading of COVID-19 under control, but before that, the usage of masks in public areas and social distancing should be continued.

COVID-19 vaccine won’t take us to the past

By Jack Xu • March 19, 2021

After months of waiting, the COVID-19 vaccine has finally been authorized by the FDA and is being distributed across the country.  71% of Americans say they will "definitely or probably" get the vaccine...

A Year With COVID-19

A Year With COVID-19

By Karuna Chandran, Madhavi Karthik, Lia Klebanov, Macy Li, Shreya Partha, Leila Salam, Ritaja Subrahmanya, and Saanvi Thakur • March 13, 2021

Click here to see the full story! One year ago today, HHS students received an email stating that schools were going to be closed for the next three weeks. Thoughts of having an unexpected...

HHS students were surveyed about their thoughts on the COVID-19 Vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccine brings schools one step closer to re-opening

By Amber Birrell • February 8, 2021

With the new development of a vaccine, many questions arise as to what this means for students. California is currently in the first tier of vaccine distribution. It is expected by the summer of 2021,...

Place a hold on grab bags to discover new favorites!

Library opens for on-campus pickup

By Miya Liu • October 23, 2020

To encourage students to read during virtual learning, Verna Grant, the new library media teacher, and Shannon Vakili, the library media specialist, have created a system to pick up library books from...

From a therapist's perspective: power of mental health

From a therapist’s perspective: power of mental health

By Seoyoung Hwang, Macy Li, Raymond Ranbhise, and Saanvi Thakur • October 7, 2020

As seen in the graph above, since reopening, the amount of new COVID-19 cases has increased rapidly.

Reopening economy doing more harm than good

By Amber Birrell • July 5, 2020

California, along with many other states, has begun to slowly reopen and ease lockdown restrictions.  While this does sound relieving, there has not been a significant decline in the amount of COVID-19...

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