With Election Day just weeks away, major powers are in flux, but this year’s national focus has fallen on judge Brett Kavanaugh, the newly-confirmed conservative Supreme Court justice accused of sexually assault.

In the past year of the #MeToo movement, sexual assault accusations have rocked the nation — but few hearings have gained as much notoriety as this one. So, what distinguishes Kavanaugh?

U-High history teacher Cindy Jurisson looks to the past for answers.

“History does repeat itself. We see similar things happening in early American history,” Dr. Jurisson said, adding that current events enrich history curricula rather than distract from them. “Whenever we’re approaching current events in class, we’re always trying to connect the past to the present.”

Celia Garb, a senior in Ms. Jurisson’s AT U.S. History course, has kept up with Kavanaugh since his appointment in July. Celia said there are class discussions of the Kavanaugh hearing, but hasn’t heard them elsewhere.

“On the day of the hearing, everyone came into class, and they were so excited to finally be able to talk about it, since we had not had the opportunity to share opinions,” Celia said about Dr. Jurisson’s class on Sept. 26 . “[Dr. Jurisson] said ‘We’re just going to put our curriculum on pause. This is history in the making,’ and I really appreciated that.”

Celia said she feels that current events enhance the scope of educational history.

“There is a lot of mention of the Constitution in this hearing and how it can be applied, so I think she was really smart to start talking about it,” Celia said.

Since today’s news encompasses a broad range of educational topics, Dr. Jurisson often tries to foster outside-of-class discussion.

“People think the worst thing is to have disagreement and controversy, but the worst thing is to have none,” she said.

As faculty sponsor of Feminist Club, she has hosted multiple forums to address issues that may not come up elsewhere. On Oct. 3, Harris Law School Professor Emily Buss Doss spoke to the club about Kavanaugh, a learning opportunity that Celia said gave her a lot of new insight.

Dr. Jurisson said she has a goal  to give others the information they need to have an opinion and a voice.

“I want to teach people that you should speak up and speak your mind, be respectful toward other people and their opinions, and listen,” Dr. Jurisson said.

Celia agrees, feeling that class discussion was a key contributor in developing her stance.

“I think it’s a really good skill to develop in high school,” she said. “I don’t think everything has to be a political discussion, but I think just knowing what’s going on around you and having a voice is really important.”

The operations department is working with landscape architecture firm Site Design Group to redesign outdoor spaces on the Lab Schools Historic Campus. Kenwood Mall, Jackman Field, the Secret Garden and Blaine Courtyard will be redesigned.

Operations Director Joe Wachowski said Kenwood Mall and Blaine Courtyard will both be major focuses of the redesign since they are heavily used by all grade levels.

According to Mr. Wachowski the southern half of Kenwood Mall will remain as it is now, but the northern half will be upgraded.

An committee that includes Student Council members, middle school students, faculty, staff and the Parents’ Association is advising the consultants. Mr. Wachowski said one of the main strengths of the committee is its variety of Lab groups, allowing for the inclusion of views of everyone affected by this project.

Site Design participated in the Jackman Field grand opening Sept. 15. Stations were set up to gather community input for outdoor spaces, and members of the Lab community indicated what they wanted for “places to play, places to learn, and places to be in nature,” as well as their opinion on another outdoor classroom.

Site Design consultant Cassandra Rice said her team is summarizing the results of the event and using that information to develop concepts for Lab’s different outdoor areas.

Ms. Rice said they will present a few ideas to the committee, and from that derive a final design.

Once a design is completed there will be efforts to raise funds to get the project started and break ground.

Mr. Wachowski expects the project will begin construction during the spring or early summer of 2019.

He said, “We are really chomping at the bit to get this going.”