On July 6, 1925, the historic town of Mayfield —�� along with California Avenue — into Palo Alto, and the region later became known as Palo Alto’s “second downtown.” Downtown Palo Alto encompasses iconic locations such as the retro Palo Alto Creamery Fountain & Grill — formerly known as the Peninsula Creamery — the Museum of American Heritage Williams House and the Hewlett-Packard House and Garage, where tech giant HP was founded in 1939.��

South Palo Alto

South Palo Alto is home to residential areas and community centers, ranging from Eichler homes built in the 1960s to libraries such as the College Terrace Library and the Mitchell Park Library. Other key locations include the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center and Cubberley Community Center — formerly Cubberley High School, until it was closed in 1979 and later became a shared facility for �������ϲ���Ļ���� and various organizations and schools. Over the recent years, the south Palo Alto area has been attracting new residents due to its family-friendly, accessible community spaces.��

Points East/Baylands Area

In 1921, the City of Palo Alto purchased the John Fletcher Byxbee Recreation area (also known as the Baylands Nature Preserve), named after Stanford alumnus and Palo Alto city engineer Fletcher Byxbee. After the purchase, the 40 acres of the marshland was set to become a recreational area until the 1960s, for a park instead. Over the years, the City has added the Nature Interpretive Center, Mundy Marsh, Renzel Wetlands and Byxbee Park Hills. Today, the preserve is a space for recreation, providing activities such as interpretive programs, water sports and golf. An area of undisturbed marshland remains.��

Stanford Area

In memory of their deceased son, Leland Stanford Jr., Leland and Jane Stanford founded in 1885. Their 8,180-acre vineyard and farmland was transformed into the Stanford area, which overlaps the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe territory, and now includes the campus, Sand Hill Road, a portion of El Camino Real, Town & Country Village, Stanford Shopping Center and El Palo Alto Park. After her son’s and husband’s deaths, Jane Stanford continued to support the growth and development of the university area.��

University Avenue

Named by Palo Alto co-founder Timothy Hopkins in 1889, University Avenue extends directly to Stanford University’s Palm Drive. Several landmark buildings remain, — an architectural treasure known for its iconic marquee and lavish vintage furnishings. Over the years, businesses have been continuously established on University Avenue, and it continues to be an emblem of Palo Alto and its culture.

Lucie Stern Community Center area

Levi Strauss’ widowed wife and heiress Lucie Stern, also known as Palo Alto’s fairy godmother, established and financed community-center building projects nestled in the area north of Old Palo Alto in the corner between the intersection of Embarcadero Road and Middlefield Road. These include the Lucie Stern Community Center, Children’s Theater, Children’s Library and Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo. Other locations in the area include the Palo Alto Art Center — originally the City Hall — Christmas Tree Lane on Fulton Street, Duveneck Elementary School and the Rinconada Pool. The community-center area offers a place for families and friends to enjoy both educational and extracurricular activities.

What is the Wellness Center?

Located in P-231, the Wellness Center allows students to seek professional mental health services, destress with friends, engage in activities designed for relaxation and have a quick snack.��

Around 300 students visit the center each day for therapy appointments, quick breaks, eating lunch and relaxing, according Wellness Coordinator Michelle Ramos. Students can drop in at any time between 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, including class time. The center is also open to those enrolled in summer school. When the Wellness Center is closed, students are directed to Allcove in Palo Alto, which is a separate wellness center.��

If a student needs to connect with a therapist, they can either have a drop-in session or refer themselves to their counselor or Ramos for ongoing therapy sessions.��

For drop-in sessions, students are prompted to fill out a short form on an iPad by the entrance so that the wellness team is aware of their needs. They are connected to a therapist right away if�� one is available.��

Students have up to three drop-in sessions without officially notifying anyone. Counselors may be notified in case of academic concerns or stressors, and parents may also be notified unless they are a barrier to mental health. However, according to Ramos, about 97% of students who believe that their parents are against therapy find their parents to be supportive. All content during therapy sessions always remains confidential with a few exceptions.��

The Wellness Center’s staff is comprised of Ramos, Wellness Outreach Specialist Rosie Castillo who focuses on promoting the center and mental health, Mental Health and Wellness Associate Dani Warren, Mental Health and Wellness Therapist Paul Hickey and �������ϲ���Ļ���� Mental Health and Wellness Therapist Brittney Tabel who provide counseling services to Gunn students.

Over the past school year, the Wellness Center has organized various activities, ranging from decorating sugar cookies and painting to bringing animals on campus. These events not only help students hang out and unwind, but also destigmatize mental health struggles.

“People tend to internalize (their emotions) because they believe that no one else understands what it is like or no one else is feeling that way,” Castillo said.��

According to Castillo, destigmatizing mental health issues will make students more willing to reach out for help.��

“We wouldn’t shame anyone for going to the doctor for getting an annual breast exam for breast cancer,” she said. “Why would we want people to feel ashamed that they have to seek support for therapy?”��

Student response to the Wellness Center

Results from the Panorama Survey from fall of 2023 show that 56% of respondents have often felt sad and 31% respondents often felt worried, increasing from fall of 2022 by 12% and 6% respectively .��

��For junior Mia Saad, who visits the center once a week, the Wellness Center is a safe space.

“I go whenever there are drop-ins to take a break or for food,” she said. “Talking to people is nice, especially therapists, and it is also just a quiet place to relax. They (therapists) help you clear your mind and help you look at other thought processes. If you have issues, then you can think and scroll down on your own thoughts, but they can help you think from a different perspective.”

However, some students believed that the Wellness Center lacked visibility, making students feel unsure of utilizing the center for their mental health needs. One such student is sophomore Milcah Morrison, who upon coming to Gunn, recalled the Wellness Center being only briefly mentioned during the freshmen orientation.

“It wasn’t enough information for me to be like, ‘Oh, I can go there. That’s a safe place,’” she said. “If we invest more into wellness and mental health, I think that people will definitely start to consider going there in general.”

Although the center originally had a 15-minute time limit placed as an agreement by stakeholders when the center was first established, the mandate was lifted after a student’s death. It is planned to�� remain lifted for the rest of the school year and transition back in the fall of the 2024-25 school year.��

“We knew that some students were in grief or just upset, and we wanted to make sure that they didn’t feel rushed to go back to class,” Ramos said.��

With varying usage of the center, Freshman Tim Landt prefers to use the center for a quiet study space and finds these rules beneficial for self-control.��

“The no-electronics rule helps me stay on task without being distracted on my phone,” he said.��

According to freshman Isabella Cruz, many teachers have been supportive toward students visiting the Wellness Center during class to take a break. Students can ask their teachers to write them a pass during class or ask a wellness staff member to notify their teacher through email.����

“(Teachers) are always saying, ‘Feel free to go to the Wellness Center whenever you need to,’” she said.

Growth and future development of the Wellness Center

Moving forward, the Wellness team wishes to continue to promote student mental health and well-being, with an emphasis on normalizing mental illnesses and reducing stigma around the discussion of mental health.��

“As students go through their high school career, maybe the juniors and seniors are finally opening up to us since we are familiar with them,” Ramos said. “But then, (the issue is), as the next group comes in, we have to kind of start all over.”

The wellness team has also been working closely with the Parent Teacher Student Association to set goals for the upcoming years and plan mental health education workshops.��

“We also want to have parents share their concerns with us, since not all students come to us,” Ramos said. “But if we can impart some guidance and tools to parents, maybe they can take it home for their students.”��

Since the death of a student, the wellness team has made efforts to become more visible and promote their resources. Recently, the team has made an Instagram account, @gunnwellnesscenter, with information on how to sign in for a drop-in session and how to make the most out of the Wellness Center space. The team has also set up tables in the senior quad during lunch with activities promoting mental health and designed a logo for the wellness team.��

“We want shirts with our logo sign so that everybody knows, ‘Oh, this is the wellness team and these are the people that we are going to talk to when we are in distress or upset,’” Ramos said.

The team also wants to work more closely with other departments, including the admin and the counseling team, to communicate about students’ concerns and ways to implement more help.��

The wellness team has seen growth in the number of students in the center, with over 1500 visits in the past two months. Castillo shares that she has come across more people addressing mental health issues and helping their peers.��

“We have more occurrences of people coming up to the Wellness Center and being like, ‘Hey, I don’t know this person but they posted this on social media and I’m concerned about them. It seems kind of serious,’ or even (helping) their friends (by saying), ‘Hey, my friend sent this text message yesterday and I’m worried about them. Could you please check in on them?’” she said. “I feel like this represents how you guys are just so insightful, aware and have really good instincts when to seek out support for your friends. As a student population, you guys are so resilient, and I think it speaks out about what you guys are involved in and push through.”��

To reach out to the wellness team, email gunnwellnessteam@pausd.org or fill out .

Gallery • 4 Photos

Vin Bhat

Students leave Gunn following the shelter-in-place mandate.

At 1:58 p.m. today, a message on the intercom instructed students to begin sheltering in place. This mandate lasted for one hour and 48 minutes, eventually lifted by an intercom announcement at 3:46 p.m.��

According to the , 1:51 p.m. calls reported a man with a gun and a 1:53 p.m. call reported a bomb threat, both near Georgia Avenue and Miranda Avenue. The City of Palo Alto has now that these calls were hoaxes — the first two, at 1:51 p.m., stated they had seen a teen boy carrying a rifle and two pipe bombs walking toward Gunn, and that a man in his twenties wearing body armor and carrying a rifle was approaching the school. The 1:53 p.m. call came from a man who said he was approaching Gunn with a bomb.��

This initial shelter-in-place announcement was reiterated at 2:01 p.m., emphasizing that the situation was not a drill. Two more announcements at 2:31 p.m. and 3:06 p.m. reminded students to keep sheltering.

At 2:15 p.m., Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton posted a Schoology update detailing that there was an unconfirmed threat on campus, and that the Palo Alto Police Department was present and partnering with admin to provide more updates.��

A , formerly known as Twitter, posted at 2:35 p.m. said that school officials had also instructed students to shelter in place at Fletcher Middle School as a precautionary measure. Police also confirmed that all students and staff on Gunn’s campus were safe.

At 2:48 p.m., staff members received an email from Stratton stating that students would be released from school at 3:50 p.m. and would be permitted to transport themselves home or be picked up by a parent. All after-school events, including athletics, were canceled. Parents received the same information via ParentSquare at 2:54 p.m., and students were notified via Schoology soon after.

At 3:09 p.m., PAPD noted in the same X thread that they had “uncovered no evidence to corroborate that any actual threat exists,” but that they would continue the shelter-in-place while investigating. Half an hour later, they announced the end of their search.

Police were still present on campus as students were dismissed. According to an officer who wished to remain anonymous due to the pending investigation, the lockdown and search went according to police and �������ϲ���Ļ���� protocol. However, there is still an open, criminal investigation. According to a 4:46 p.m. Schoology post from Stratton, a police presence will remain on campus throughout the week, and there will be additional staff members available at the Wellness Center.��

Police that Orinda’s Miramonte High School, located just east of Oakland, was also in lockdown as of 3 p.m., but police at Gunn stated that there was no known connection between the two incidents.

According to Gunn Safety Committee member Vin Bhat, Gunn’s safety committee will be convening after school on April 23, and the districtwide committee will be meeting on Wednesday, April 24. Gunn administrators said they could not comment until Tuesday, April 23.

Gunn’s jazz bands include two courses — Jazz Band and Jazz Ensemble Honors — taught by Gunn Jazz Director Shawn McGinn and Gunn Band Director Todd Summers.

According to McGinn, the festival was an important opportunity for his students to grow musically and experience the city in which jazz music originated.��

“The festival is a chance to perform for an audience,” he said. “In that audience, there are professional players and teachers who give you feedback on your performance to help make you a better group. New Orleans is very important to the history of jazz music in particular because the original types of jazz came together in New Orleans.”

Percussionist sophomore Brandon Seow was excited when he learned that he had the opportunity to go to New Orleans.

“My initial reaction was coming to terms with the fact that we were actually going to New Orleans,” Seow said. “The place has such a mystical vibe to it, so actually being able to go to the area where jazz started was insane.”

Besides performing for hundreds of audience members, Gunn’s jazz bands were able to tour parts of the city. To McGinn, the most exciting part of the trip was experiencing the daily culture of New Orleans.

��“You’ll hear performers playing in all the large cities in the U.S., but none playing jazz music on every corner throughout like in New Orleans,” he said. “It’s very special in that way. You walk down the street and there is live music surrounding you. That’s the kind of world that I want to live (in).”

According to Seow, each day in New Orleans was packed with performances and activities.

“For me, it was an early start every single day, so it was exhausting, but in a good way,” he said. “Some of the highlights, besides being able to explore a beautiful city with my friends, included playing at Loyola University, as well as attending two concerts in Preservation Hall, a very historically rich place, where we were able to listen to and watch some of the best jazz musicians in New Orleans.”

While alto saxophonist sophomore Margaret Beery agrees that touring the city was rewarding, she also appreciated building stronger connections with bandmates.

“My favorite moments outside of performing were ones spent with my friends, whether that was hanging out at the hotel, eating meals or talking on the bus,” she said. “Generally, just getting to know my bandmates better as people.”

Still, there were some setbacks on the travel back. According to Beery, the flight plan back to California was changed due to bad weather. The bands ultimately flew from Louisiana to Orlando, Florida, and then to Las Vegas for an overnight stay before flying home the morning of March 4, a day later than planned.��

“It wasn’t very fun in the moment, but I think those little hardships that we had together bonded our group really well,” McGinn said.

According to McGinn, the most important part of the experience was gaining a new perspective both on music and the world.

“(Immersing) yourself in a culture of music that is different than your own is super important to do, because when you engage in the other you get a new perspective,” he said. “Once you understand more than just your little bubble, you see how another way to live might feel.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the jazz bands’ travel delays. The jazz bands’ flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Orlando, Florida, was delayed due to incumbent weather. The bands then flew to Las Vegas, Nevada, taking two more flights to Orange County and Oakland. Their bags, however, remained in Las Vegas and were shipped to SFO before being delivered to Gunn on March 5.��

Gunn’s Chamber Orchestra is a 26-person audition-based honors orchestra taught by Sandra Lewis and Tiffany Ou-Ponticelli.

According to Ou-Ponticelli, the Orchestra Cup attracts hundreds of high school orchestras each year —��this year, competitors came from California, South Carolina and Texas, among other states. Orchestras come both to compete and to learn from experts: All adjudicators are string professors at universities or musicians in professional ensembles, and they give competitors constructive comments. This year, Gunn’s Chamber Orchestra also received a clinic with NYU professor Stephanie Baer.��

Beyond winning the Orchestra Cup, Gunn’s Chamber Orchestra won other awards and accolades in the competition, including “Most Original Selection” as well as “Best High Strings Soloist” (violinist junior Ian Cheung) and “Best Low Strings Soloist” (cellist sophomore Brandon Kang). Ou-Ponticelli believes that hard work and dedication were the driving factors behind the group’s success.

“When we plan for a trip like this, we start to plan from the beginning of the year, so some of the repertoire we had learned early in the fall so that it would have time to mature,” Ou-Ponticelli said. “(Sandra) Lewis and I were super proud of their performance and how the students came together musically to present each piece where each one was very different from the previous one, and we did a great job displaying what each composer would have wanted.”

Violinist junior Seongju Kim echoed Ou-Ponticelli’s thoughts.

“We spent a lot of time rehearsing the pieces as well as choreographing, and also Zoomed with one of the composers,” Kim said. “Even though we were competing against other schools, we still got to meet other students and talk with them.”

Although the main objective of the trip was to compete at the festival, the orchestra students also toured different parts of New York City, including Central Park, Top of the Rock and the Statue of Liberty. To Ou-Ponticelli, Kim and Kang, this exploration was one of the best parts of the entire experience.

“(There) was definitely very good food,” Kang said. “We watched ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Lion King,’ and they were truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And also, after the competition we went on a cruise with the other competitors. It was really nice to meet people from different parts of the world.”

Nevertheless, the students encountered some obstacles. Kim mentioned instances of unfriendly encounters in New York City.��

“Some of us were approached by strangers who tried to get our money, but thankfully we handled it well and were safe,” Kim said.

Despite setbacks like these, Ou-Ponticelli believed the trip went well overall.

“The true reality is, our trip was awesome,” Ou-Ponticelli said. “We did have a one-hour delay on the flight, but our students were great and extremely well behaved. It’s also always a little bit nerve-wracking to travel with our instruments, and the important part was we were able to bring all six cellos with no damage.”

World Terakoya Program, based in Tokyo, was founded by Stanford post-graduate student Masaki Nakamura in 2022. This year’s exchange was the second one they have organized.��

Japanese teacher Matt Hall invited all students in his Japanese classes to host exchange students at their homes, but prioritized his Japanese 3 and AP Japanese classes due to students’ higher proficiency with Japanese and the time commitment of hosting. In the end, 10 Gunn families who volunteered to be hosts were connected with exchange students’ families in Japan.

��“It’s a tough ask,” Hall said. “You’re asking for a week of the family’s time and all of this week at school. (They have to) bring a Japanese homestay with them to everywhere, every class. And if they’ve got a sports team meeting after school practice, they’ve got to bring them to that. So it’s a lot of work because everybody’s busy.”��

Many of the Japanese exchange students came to the U.S. to research one topic of their choice through creating various surveys and questionnaires. For example, junior Mitsuki Hamasaki, who attends Osaka Business Frontier High School, was most interested in entrepreneurship. Beyond gauging Gunn students’ interest in business and learning more about the U.S. economy, Hamaski also wanted to use this opportunity to improve his English.

“When they’re teaching English in Japan, they mainly teach reading and writing, but they don’t really teach speaking and listening that much,” Hamasaki said in a conversation translated from Japanese by his host, senior Yahya Mirza. “So (I) can do perfectly well on an English test, but when it comes to an actual conversation, it’s a lot more difficult.”

Hall shares this goal of mutual language integration for his students.��

“My goals were twofold: one certainly was for my students to help the Japanese guests,” Hall said. “It’s up to us to be good ambassadors of our culture, and anthropologists of their culture. The secondary goal is of course for my students to also get some practice with our Japanese. There really is a back-and-forth and give-and-take because my kids are learning a lot from them too.”

Host junior Nikki DeVincentis finds it rewarding to both help his exchange student learn more about Japanese culture, as well as practice Japanese in a more casual context.

“I’d say my favorite experience so far is probably just learning the colloquial language,” he said. “I can always learn more grammar patterns and learn more vocab, but (what I’ve learned from this experience) isn’t exactly something that can be taught, like all the slang and casual language. It’s just been really exciting to be able to converse with them in a natural tone, different from the Japanese that I’ve been taught in class.”

Exchange student sophomore Minori Ohishi, who is interested in studying animal welfare, expresses gratitude for her host’s — and Gunn’s —��welcoming attitude.��

“I can’t speak English well and I am only here for a week, but everyone accepted me warmly, talked and ate with me as a member of their family or their friend,” Ohishi said. “I (just) want to say thank you.”

Ohishi found the Palo Alto community’s inclusivity pleasantly surprising.

“I’m surprised the most at the warmth of people,” she said. “People from many different countries live here, and everyone accepts each other without denying everyone else. I think this is a wonderful thing.”

��Those involved in the exchange —��students and staff alike —��have appreciated the Gunn community’s flexibility and openness. According to Hall, teachers from every department have been cooperative with the extra students and Japanese staff members coming in to observe their classes.

“People talk a lot about teachers being very solo or very, ‘I just want to teach my classes and nobody bother me,’ but that’s certainly not been the case,” Hall said. “I’ve received tremendous support from the overall staff and their willingness to show what they’re all about. And these Japanese staff members, they’ve never seen Americans teach, (but) they’re seeing the best of the best here at Gunn.”

Exchange students are seeking survey responses from Gunn students. Below are surveys created by junior Mitsuki Hamasaki and sophomore Minori Ohishi.

Mitsuki Hamasaki: ��

Minori Ohishi: