The pair of messages were among a flurry of texts Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School students sent to their parents last month during an hours-long lockdown for a reported bomb threat. While police later deemed it not credible, the incident — including scenes of SWAT members weaving through the school — left some students in fear.
“Complex City” was shown at B-CC in May. With classes out for the summer, the exhibit will soon be on display at American University and later will be part of next year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, said David Lopilato, who along with another teacher, Angela Young, guided students on the project.Lopilato’s classes have chronicled the pressures that come with being a teenager for years.
One exhibit, “Escape the Toxicity” was a series of three rooms that show the stressors of being a teenager. In one, On a recent tour of the project, Elana Bilbao, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, opened up a padlocked door to a seconddimly lit, but instead of newspaper headlines, therephrases like “situationships” and “FOMO” are written on the room’s paper walls in neon paint. Bilbao explained that these phrases are representative of the negative aspects of teen culture.then peeled back the black paper to reveal a hole leading to a third space.