She hadn’t come out publicly to everyone that her sexual orientation wasn’t straight, and she hadn’t really discussed her sexual orientation with anyone. Yet, many people had an opinion about her, and everyone had something to say about her.

Sixteen year-old junior and president of the Gay-Straight Alliance Makaylah Hall, or as her friends, teachers, and most everyone know her better as Jake, was convinced that no one deserved what she had been dealing with for the past couple of years in her teenage life.
She had to deal with the social ridicule from people, the name calling, and the looks. But it wasn’t only happening to her. It was happening to people around her, people she knew, and people she didn’t know.

“I don’t want anyone to deal with that type of social hate like I did. It’s not fair to anyone,” Hall expressed.

She wanted to give students a place and an environment to go to where they would feel safe and accepted. Somewhere that no one would be judging them, or criticizing them. She wasn’t sure that she could get the courage however. To start a club, be the president, and run the meetings. But she knew she had to do something about what was going on.

“I’d been wanting to start the club since last year but I expected someone else with more guts to start it. Then before I knew it, the year was over and there was still no club,” she admitted.
Then she quickly came to the realization that if no one did something to get it started, it would never happen. She told herself that she couldn’t just keep waiting for someone else to do it. She herself would have to do something about it if she ever wanted it to happen.

“This year I told myself, ‘I’m starting this club, no matter what.’”

The purpose and the goal of most Gay-Straight Alliances, if not all, is to make their school community a safe and welcoming environment to all students, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. This was Hall’s goal and purpose as well.

She had made up her mind, made a final decision, and all that was left to do was make it happen. She in turn, took immediate action.

In a classroom filled with eleventh grade students, she courageously walked around, in search for signatures. Not just signatures with a first and last name, and no significance. These signatures signified the support of Gay-Straight Alliance to be started and formed, here at Gregori.

She went around to people with a packet of papers and a pen in her hands, nicely asking if they would simply sign the packet on the student signature section. Some people gave her the disapproving look, or the look that she was crazy for even bothering to ask them. No matter what the response she got from someone, she pressed forward and continued to finish collecting signatures.

She collected signatures, started to find potential officers, and started filling out the paperwork. All that was left to do was find an advisor.

This is where math teacher Mr. Soderlund came into the picture.

After searching for an advisor for a couple of weeks and turning up empty handed, she then turned to Mr. Soderlund. Right before class, she stopped by him to ask him about being the advisor for the club. When she asked, he didn’t want to give her an immediate response so he took a day to think about it.

Once she began telling him about the social hate and public displays of disrespect towards other kids that have chosen homosexuality as their sexual orientation, it didn’t sit right with him.

“Just because someone doesn’t agree with another person’s lifestyle, it doesn’t mean they deserve to be called hurtful names or treated with any less respect,” Mr. Soderlund stated.
Soderlund agreed, after talking with Hall, to give the members of the Gay-Straight Alliance a place to meet and a place to feel safe.

Hall’s hopes and intentions for this club are to continue it for years to come and to hopefully join different groups of kids, with different sexual orientations, gay, straight, bisexual, etc, to see each other as human beings and to accept one another’s lifestyles without even a second thought.

“I just want the whole school to know that there is at least one place to go, where there’s complete acceptance and no judgment.”

“The fact that we won was really exciting to them,” Abshire said.

“It’s great to see them feel that sense of excitement and ownership.”
Athletes competed in competitions ranging from long throws to hockey and were given a score based on their performance. The three events were staged at Beyer, Enochs, and the forementioned Johansen high schools. And although it’s the athletes’ hard work that paved the way for their victory, Abshire said they couldn’t have done it without the help of the Peer Assisted Learning (PALs), run by fellow special education teacher Jill Burford.

“We had the benefit of having the PALs program, so each of our students is supported by a same or similar aged peer,” Abshire said.

“They were able to walk them through, support them if they were nervous going through one of the obstacle courses, and just really be a friend to them at the event.”
This is the first year that the PALs program has been with Gregori and Burford says that she’s already seeing an impact on campus.

“I think more and more students are becoming aware of the students around them with disabilities,” Burford said. “And I love the fact that these PALs are making the students feel a part of something, because they should.”

Abshire said the whole experience has had a huge positive effect on the way her kids act in the classroom and beyond.
Principal Jeff Albritton recognized the athletes during lunch on December 6. Albritton congratulated each athlete by name and they watched from next to him as Joe the Jaguar stood center stage and hefted the mighty trophy above his head.

“It was exciting for me to see them being recognized as high schoolers,” Abshire said. “People aren’t treating them like babies, they’re acknowledging them and being true friends to them.”
The experience has had a positive effect not just on the way others view them, but the way they view themselves.

“They feel a sense of ownership and knowing that they are responsible for their work,” Abshire said. “How hard they work is how they will benefit from it. So if they work really hard, they could have the opportunity to do great and be recognized by their principal and school, which was a big deal for them.”

“I started becoming aware of fixies about four years ago,” Cantwell said. “They’ve been around longer in bigger urban areas like San Francisco. It started in urban areas like San Francisco, New York, and a little bit in L.A. and it spread to other urban areas like Modesto.”

Cantwell said it started in urban areas because of the expanding bike messenger industry.

“The bike messenger industry is huge in bigger towns,” Cantwell said.

“like San Francisco and especially New York and Chicago because it’s faster to take a bike and go four city blocks than to get in a car and drive the same distance because you have to go through stoplights and deal with traffic.”

The usefulness around Modesto, he says, is attributed to control.

“You have a lot more control over your bike in crowded situations,” Cantwell said. “Downtown Modesto, or downtown San Francisco or downtown anywhere, when you’re weaving in and out of traffic it gives you more control. You can come to a complete stop without having to put your foot down. While most bikes you would have to, on a fixie you don’t.”

Fixie rider and sophomore Timothy Gallagher says he thinks the popularity has something to do with the creativity involved with making and owning a fixie.

“You can really make your fixie your own,” Gallagher said. “You can put what cogs you want on it, you can color it how you want, really make it yours.”

There are many upsides to getting a fixie, but one downside is the learning curve, said Cantwell.

“What happens on a fixed gear bike is as long as the tire moves, your feet move,” Cantwell said. “So that first time you want to coast, you can’t coast, your feet are always moving. That’s how you speed up, slow down, and stop, is by stopping your feet.”

While the learning curve might turn some people off to fixies, fixie owner and sophomore Frank Dittrich says the uniqueness is the draw for him.

“I like fixies because they’re unique,” Dittrich said. “They’re not like a mountain bike, they’re not like a road bike, they’re their own thing.”

The uniqueness is sparking several groups to get together and ride fixies.

“There’s a whole club in Modesto and to me it’s a positive thing,” Cantwell said. “You get kids anywhere from 16 to 24 and they’re doing something positive, which is riding bicycles.”