Strictly singular operators on the Baernstein and Schreier spaces

Abstract: Every composition of two strictly singular operators is compact on the Baernstein space $B_p$ for $1 < p < \infty$ and on the $p$-convexified Schreier space $S_{p}$ for $1 \leq p < \infty$. Furthermore, every subsymmetric basic sequence in $B_p$ (respectively, $S_p$) is equivalent to the unit vector basis for $\ell_p$ (respectively, $c_0$), and the Banach spaces $B_p$ and $S_p$ contain block basic sequences whose closed span is not complemented.