Whereas previously eating lunch off-campus was seen as a safe alternative to bringing food or eating from the cafeteria, these incidents and the resulting actions by the school’s administration have led some students to think twice.

“I have noticed that underclassmen, juniors and sophomores especially, have taken more precautions,” Dhruv Ray ‘25 said. “Be it where they are going [to eat] or just generally leaving campus, they’ve taken precautions. I’ve especially seen a surge of people pre-ordering their food.”

In an effort to heighten protection for the student population following these incidents, the school administration placed the campus into a secure protocol wherein classes continue as usual but movement into and out of the school is restricted, with any visitors being turned away.

“I like [the secure protocols],” Arjun Kurane ‘26 said. “I’m able to [focus] a little more in class because I feel safe and I don’t feel like [anything dangerous] could happen [in the school]. I feel safe and that carries over to my ability to focus in class.”

Last month, two of these protocols happened within a week of each other — an unusual event, considering previous years have had no more than two of these incidents total. Following these consecutive protocols, many students are now more cautious when leaving campus to eat and have found themselves more aware of the safety of the area surrounding the school. However, some students were not concerned by these incidents.

“[My lunch behavior] has not changed at all,” Ray said. “That’s probably because I’m a senior. I don’t have much concern for [lunch safety] at the moment.”

Following the protocols, Principal Erin Campbell sent messages to the students and their families, alerting them of the situation and what the school policies for remediating the situation. On Thursday, Feb. 27, the school was placed into a secure protocol due to the Austin Police Department (APD) activity around the campus. The protocol started at 12:36 p.m. and lasted until 1:14 p.m. After the protocol was lifted, Ms. Campbell sent an email clarifying the situation. Four days later, on Monday, March 3, a possible gunman in The Lantern Apartments surrounding the school led to another secure protocol that was implemented at 11:30 a.m. and lifted at 12:38 p.m. Following this incident, Ms. Campbell sent another correspondence detailing why the school was placed into a secure protocol. Because these emails provided limited insight into the incidents, many community members were unsatisfied by the information provided, finding that they created more questions than answers.

“Sometimes, it’s a little annoying when we have to stop class,” Harrison Malinger ‘25 said. “But I appreciate it and understand why we do it. [The area around the school] is definitely having more incidents.”

Lately, outside threats have not been the only safety concern. Since the end of March, seniors have been participating in a popular high school game called Assassin. In this game, each student is given a target and must get them out by shooting them with a water gun by a certain deadline, or else they are disqualified. Due to this deadline requirement, some students have taken desperate measures to eliminate their targets to avoid disqualification. As a result, unsafe incidents have occurred in students’ neighborhoods, and Ms. Campbell sent an email on Tuesday, March 25 warning about the dangers of the game.

“Absolutely [the game is a safety concern],” Ray said. “There have been crashes, incidents where parents are not happy, and some incidents where cops have been called. I think trying to keep school out [of the game] is very important.”

Players themselves have voiced numerous concerns about the organization of the game. Some have noted that most of these incidents occurred as a result of a lack of communication between the players and the moderators, while some have claimed rumored preferential treatment of certain players when dealing with controversial incidents, such as dubious eliminations.

“If you look at the [rules] that the organizer [of Assassin] provided for us, it is very brief,” Ray said. “It is only one page long and honestly, it does not provide enough details for [the player] or [their parents]. It would definitely be beneficial to provide more details for clarity.”

Despite increasing safety concerns and danger to students, many students still feel confident in the school’s administration and their ability to protect them. Strong police response, strict secure protocols, and detailed communication have allowed students to study with peace of mind.

“I feel safe at school,” Kurane said. “Seeing the police officers respond to [the incidents] and how quickly they were able to [control] the situation was really cool and made me feel safe. The best part was the emails that Ms. Campbell sent to our parents, giving them that peace of mind.”

Like most everyone on the team, McBrearty had an early love for basketball. It was clear that the sport would be a big part of his life; from handling a basketball as an infant to playing for fun with friends, McBrearty couldn’t wait for the day he could take his skills to a more organized court.

“I’ve always had that kind of love for basketball since I was kid,” McBrearty said. “There’s a video of me when I was about nine months old; I picked up a basketball and tried dribbling it, [basketball] has always been my passion.”

When the day finally came to prove his worth in a club basketball team, he jumped on the opportunity as a starting shooting guard. This opportunity was not the spark, but rather a kindling for the interest Indy already had. Continuing to climb, Indy sought to better his game.

“I started playing Town and Country basketball in around second or third grade,” McBrearty said. “I never stopped after that. I started playing in more serious clubs starting my eighth grade year and continued playing in clubs until this past summer.”

Graduating from middle school basketball, McBrearty set his sights on the varsity basketball team. Continuing as a shooting guard, he carried his skills from his time in clubs to his freshman year, starting on the freshman A team. Eventually moving into the JV team in his sophomore year, he helped the team reach 3rd in the district, again as a shooting guard (and, occasionally, as a small forward). Finally, in his junior year, he moved on to varsity and has been starting on the team ever since.

“My club team unlocked a lot for [my playing at Westwood],” McBrearty said. “My freshman year I stuck to mostly shooting three pointers but my club coach got me to drive to the rim more and become a more versatile player. The usual path for a Westwood basketball player is that you spend your first year on the freshman team and work your way up the ranks.”

In his final year of Westwood basketball, McBrearty was able to differentiate himself, rising to be a captain along with his teammate Thomas Burke ‘25. Through their hard work and persistence, their coach recognized their importance to the team and elevated them to be captains.

“I’ve always prided myself on being a hard worker,” McBrearty said. “I’d be the first person [on the court] from my sophomore year to senior year. I was fortunate enough to have a dad who works at Westwood, so I have the access to open the gym.”

Since the basketball captains are picked by their coaches, the future captains are a bit of an open secret amongst the team. As a result, the prospective captains can focus on their game and their synergy with teammates instead of striving to be elected.

“It was kind of [guaranteed] that me and Thomas were going to be captains this year,” McBrearty said. “It was honestly a great feeling. I felt that my team respected me and I respected my team and that we have a great relationship.”

Becoming one of the captains was only the first step in this journey for McBrearty, though, as actually executing his responsibilities as captain was the most important role. To do this, he has to not only make sure the team is close-knit off the court, but that they’re working optimally together on the court.

“[Helping my teammates perform well together] is my job to an extent,” McBrearty said. “I help keep this team bonded together. We’re very close off the court, but on the court, in the heat of the moment, [the team] gets very intense and starts talking trash, [so] sometimes I have to hold them back and calm them down a little bit.”

McBrearty is not only one of the varsity captains though, as he is involved in other extracurricular activities like Westwood’s chapter of the Peer Assisted Leadership (PALS) program, a program where high schoolers go to elementary and middle schools to mentor the students.. He has been able to balance these commitments quite well, with him being able to make a large impact in both organizations.

“I actually think that being a basketball captain has complimented my other extracurriculars,” McBrearty said. “Being in PALS, you’re a mentor. So, as a caption, I feel like those two go hand in hand. I get to teach kids, and being a captain doesn’t demand too much of my time because there’s some obligations you have to do but it’s amazing to have all these extracurriculars.”

Though balancing similar extracurriculars was not too challenging, managing his role as a captain with rigorous school work proved more difficult.

“High school is demanding,” McBrearty said. “But we’re student-athletes, so you gotta put your academics first. You have to knock your homework out [first], and then you can put all your focus on basketball. You just gotta make sure you stay on top of your academics, because if you don’t pass, you can’t play.”

After graduating from Westwood, McBrearty intends to pursue a management role on the Texas A&M basketball team, meaning his love for basketball can continue far into his collegiate career.

“I will never stop playing basketball,” McBrearty said. “I will almost certainly play intramural [basketball] at A&M if I have time, and I’m always going to keep playing basketball because that’s my passion.”

Throughout his time playing basketball for clubs and school teams, along with his time mentoring and teaching young kids, McBrearty has made sure to stick to a strict motto: Don’t work hard for others to see, work hard to improve yourself.

Worst 5 numbers

1. Thirteen

Thirteen is perhaps the most superstitious number, especially in cultures that traditionally use the Lunar Calendar. In a lunar year, there are 12 “perfect” months and all the leftover days are put into a 13th, shorter (and oftentimes unlucky) month. For this reason, many buildings in east Asia (where lunar calendars are, historically, the most prevalent) skip the 13th floor. Furthermore, 13 is the quantity traditionally called a “baker’s dozen” (an expression I do not particularly like, as it’s rare that I ever have to reference a quantity of specifically 13). But despite all these unique qualities and superstitious importance, it is not a good number. It’s not divisible by anything (by virtue of it being a prime), something that makes calculations with it particularly difficult. Perhaps this number doesn’t sit right with me because it’s one of the two “-teens” that uses their cardinal number in their name (the other one being fifteen), or perhaps because the combination of 1 and 3 make an asymmetrical mess. In all, I do not like 13 and never use it for anything due to its superstitious background. 

2. Four

Four is a particularly weak number, because it struggles to follow in two’s wake as the second even number. Despite being the first perfect square, it’s still unequivocally boring. It’s not really any fault of four that it is overshadowed by the sheer greatness that is two, but this circumstance makes it pale in comparison. It’s not only the lackluster nature of four that is its downfall though, it’s also its lack of real significance. Four is the age one year after most begin forming memories, so it doesn’t represent any real threshold. Furthermore, when one tries to make the case of four’s significance by citing the amount of weeks in a lunar month, this is ineffective and largely false. This is because, only one month even has four weeks (February) and that’s only 75% of the months! While 4 has potential since it’s 2 squared, this is its only redeeming quality. These negatives are what place it soundly in second-to-last place.

3. One Hundred and Eleven

111 is a cheat and a lie. A scab on the nearly perfect record of eleven, it tricks many multiplication-table-learning elementary schoolers every year. It uses the beauty of 11 to construct its facade, a quasi-square of eleven. Many look at 111 and presume it to be 11 squared, but they are sorely mistaken – 121 is 11 squared. It’s also the most important “angel number”, but this in and of itself is again deceit (because I don’t care for angel numbers). Recognizing the same numbers often is simply the manifestation of human pattern recognition, but instead it’s twisted into spiritual jibber-jabber that equates coincidence to the divine. I am not a fan of conmen, and thus I am not a fan of the number 111, which earns it third-to-last place.

4. One

While this may be a controversial pick, I believe it’s sound. The number one is so low on this list because it lacks mystery. It’s quite literally the most simple you can get, as is evidenced in its ease of writing in many scripts, such as in Mandarin Chinese, Roman numerals, and the Arabic numerals that we know and love. While being simple and unassuming isn’t totally bad, as is showcased by our beloved number two, taking this to an extreme is what leads to one’s downfall. In my opinion, one shouldn’t even be considered a number, it is more like the essence of a number. When one tries to mathematically operate on numbers using the number one, they are left with dull results. Multiplying by, dividing by, or even raising something to the power of one just leads you right back to where you were – the original numbers. It’s this uselessness that leads me to place the number one so low on this list, despite its prominence.

5. Zero

Zero is so pessimistic. It detracts away from everything. When you multiply any number by zero, it just brings it down to zero. When you raise any number to the power of zero, it makes the number one (a number I’ve already outlined my hatred for). Zero is also a bandwagon digit, since it came a few thousand years after the other digits. In Chinese for example, the character for zero (零) is notably more complex than other numbers like three (三) because it was invented after the invention of the Chinese character system! I don’t like how zero attempts to piggyback off the success of the other digits, and that’s why it’s placed as the fifth-to-last number of them all.

Top 5 Numbers

5. Eleven

Eleven is a curious case for me, as it suffers from the same negatives that plague thirteen. But, despite its disadvantage in the rankings, 11 makes up for it in its mathematical and symbolic significance. When multiplied with any of the 9 digits, it repeats the number twice (ex: 11 times 2 is 22), a characteristic that makes dividing small multiples of 11 super quick and satisfying. Furthermore, eleven has strong temporal significance, because it is the optimal time to go to sleep for many and also the age where children start to make their transition into teenagehood. It also is the first number to cross the ten threshold, making it a powerful base on which to make idioms about pushing limits (e.g. turning something “up to eleven”). It’s this mathematical satisfaction that is inherent with this numerical palindrome and its significance in everyday life that secures it the fifth spot on this ranking. 

4. Nine

Nine is both mathematically interesting and culturally significant. Much like 11, multiplying a digit by 9 results in the digit times 10 minus the digit, which is pretty fire in my humble opinion. This also made it extremely useful in elementary school. Nine is also the square of three, a number which I particularly enjoy. But the real beauty of the number 9 lies in its prominence within English idioms. For example, much like cranking something “up to 11” denotes the exceeding of limits, “going the whole 9 yards” is all about the pushing of limits to 10. The number 9 makes me happy, or rather, “on cloud 9.” For this reason, it is the fourth best number.

3. Three

Three is an interesting number, as while it may not outwardly exude any significance, a deeper look reveals anything but. It’s the closest integer to the two most mathematically significant constants, pi (3.1415…) and e (2.7183…), and is the square root of nine, a number I particularly enjoy. It’s also an extremely significant number in many religions, as it represents the Holy Trinity in Christianity and other trinitarian religions. The number 3 is also the crux of a phrase I live by: “third time’s a charm.” For these reasons, three is the third best number.

2. Seven

Seven is an unexpected, but satisfying number. It is a factor of very unexpected numbers (like 105 and, rather surprisingly, 999,999). Its significance in religion and spirituality is huge. In Christianity, the number seven is found in Noah’s seven laws and with the seven archangels. It’s also significant in the world, denoting the seven continents and the seven wonders of the world. Though these factors add to my love for seven, its mathematical surprises really seals the deal.

1. Two

Oh two, where do I begin? Two is the most important number in my opinion, in the world of mathematics and computer science (and the world in general). It’s the base of base 2 (as the name suggests) and forms the foundation for all programming. Furthermore, it’s the mother of all even numbers, numbers that prove very useful and easy to use when doing quick arithmetic. Its design is also simple but absurdly alluring, with the top hook being juxtaposed with its flat base. It also is the power that forms all squares and the denominator of the power that forms all square roots (½). This is why I have crowned two the king of all numbers, the summit of an infinitely tall mountain. Two, you are officially the best number.

With the conclusion of many spring sports’ seasons, Badminton Club reclaims the small gym to offer weekly badminton matches for club members and interested students alike. Kicking off their first meeting of the semester, the club met Thursday, Feb. 27 after school. Due to scheduling conflicts and other sports using the small gym area, meetings were suspended at the end of the first semester, and were unable to return permanently. But, with wrestling dying down and other sports going into their off-seasons, the club has been eager to continue their weekly meetings.

While President Amrutha Bolisetty ‘25 has been affiliated with the Badminton Club since her sophomore year, she has played badminton for almost her entire life. So, after hearing about open officer positions, she seized the opportunity to express her passion with her academic peers, and hasn’t looked back.

“My dad and I have been playing badminton since I was six,” Bolisetty said. “So, I learned from him. I came across [Badminton Club] in sophomore year, and it was awesome. I joined, and when officer positions were open, I applied because it has just been a passion for me for such a long time.”

Starting off the year with the vice president role, Bolisetty was promoted to the president position after the former president moved out of town. This transition opened up new opportunities for her to enact her goals for the club.

“I was pretty scared honestly [of becoming president],” Bolisetty said. “I wasn’t fully sure what [the president] did behind the scenes, but I think [my presidency] is going pretty well.”

The club consistently pulls in an attendance of upwards of 40 students, especially due to high numbers of non-members attending the meetings. But, through careful organization and some basic rules, every player is able to get a fair amount of play time.

Club sponsor Mr. Mark McGoldrick has been with the club since its inception two years ago. Despite agreeing to start and oversee the club after a misunderstanding, his involvement in the club has allowed its frequent meetings and growing playerbase.

“I had a student named Nethen Joseph, who graduated two years ago,” Mr. McGoldrick said. “He came to me and wanted to start a badminton club. Originally, I thought he said it was a batman club, and I thought that maybe it would be interesting. He seemed like a nice enough guy and I decided to sponsor [the club].”

The club has gone through three presidents in all of its history, and throughout these transitions of power, the members note that it has managed to run well and plan smooth experiences for its members.

“I think [the club] is running efficiently,” Mr. McGoldrick said. “It’s well organized and [always] has been throughout the various officers that have been in charge of the club.”

But, behind the scenes, being able to handle a large number of playing members isn’t the only key aspect of the club’s logistical planning process. Due to the communal nature of the equipment used, the rackets and nets can be worn out and birdies can be broken or lost. As a result, one of the priorities of this year’s officer team has been to generate a cash inflow to be able to sustain and replace the existing equipment. They succeeded in this through hosting a fundraiser at P. Terry’s. The benefits from this fundraiser allowed players to be able to use brand-new rackets, birdies, and nets, which were unveiled at this first meeting of the semester.

“I think our club is going good,” Bolisetty said. “I’m so happy about our fundraiser. We will have more people come eventually and I’m really excited for having new officers too because a new team means new perspectives and new ideas.”