Local Santa Clara Elite Dance Team takes on Broadway
By Melina Kritikopoulos, Santa Clara High School
November 19, 2019
This summer, the 15-member Santa Clara Elite Dance Team brought their talents to the Big Apple, performing a dance showcase in the New Amsterdam Theatre on Friday, July 26. The SC Elite Dance Team performed five numbers on the Broadway stage. Two songs featured all 15 members, two included smaller...
Creating Cash Cult
By Megan Glasgow, Kirkwood High School
November 19, 2019
Dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a T-shirt, John Allen, senior, looks like he could fit right into a high school crowd. But blending in is next to impossible for him, as shown by his precise style. His cuffed jeans have butterflies on them and his tee contrasts with spiders and skulls. The sweater tied...
The butterfly effect: Giving hope to the world one shirt at a time
By Mary Sebbas and Analyce Craft
November 18, 2019
Render is a word that sparks thoughts of compassion and giving. It’s a simple but powerful idea. Noblesville High School students Carter Dubson, Briton Condellone, and Conner Meinerding created a t-shirt company named RenderHope that takes this word to heart. In May of 2019, the three partners decided...
Finding the Light: Students find ways to cope with mental health issues
By Anna Owsley and Ben Wieland
November 18, 2019
Mill Valley, along with the rest of the nation, faces a mental health crisis of massive proportions. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in six children between six and 17 experience a mental health disorder every year. Within the school, the situation is even more dire: 39 percent...
Girl-On-Girl Hate
By Alison Kenaston and Victoria Weckmann
November 18, 2019
According to Psychology Today, a study which examined why women may be hypercritical of each other, found that they may be more sensitive to social exclusion than men. Therefore, their first response to feeling threatened with exclusion can be excluding another. In the past, Portia Klefstad ‘20...
Five years separate Willner “twins”
By Anna Fedorova, Henry W. Grady High School
November 18, 2019
Junior Elliot Willner’s “twin” is a solid foot shorter than him and five years younger. Willner and his 11-year-old brother Miles were conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) at the same time. Willner’s father had testicular cancer at the time. Because of his condition, IVF was the only...
Is it Taboo to You?
By Osaivbie Uhunmwuangho, Lake Ridge
November 18, 2019
As the technology continues to progress and continually become more advanced, culture is able to be easily spread. Some aspects of cultures may be seen as taboo to the people who are uninformed about it, while the people who practice the culture see it as fitting for their belief system. Día de los...
Bound In A Body
By Megan Percy, Faith Jacoby, Natalie Walsh, Anna Carroll, and Lanie Sanders
November 18, 2019
Forced To Fit (In) The ideal body is plastered all over social media, ruining the self esteem of young individuals Faith Jacoby, Staff Reporter She pushes through the group of students crowding the door as the bell rings. Her laces are caught under her shoes as she hurries to the ...
Knights before nine
By Anna McClellan, McCallum High School
November 18, 2019
6 a.m. It’s six in the morning, and the McCallum cross country team is just beginning to warm up for their practice that day. Some people call them crazy, getting up so early, but as Coach Susan Ashton puts it, “Most everybody that wants to come to cross country has some sort of love for running...
Robotics and Soccer: how two students qualified for the world championship
By Jacob Stanton, Parkway West High School
November 18, 2019
Hearts pounding, seniors Jason Yang and Ben Goff step up to compete during the National Robotics Competition in California. However, this was not just any robotics competition–it was a sports competition. Each team built their own team of robots that were specifically programmed to play soccer. Two hou...
Junior launches Atlanta-based autographing company
By Kamryn Harty and George Lefkowicz
November 18, 2019
Celebrities sign and junior Ariel Simons sells. Simons started his autographing business, “Atl Graphs,” his freshman year. Inspired by the prospect of making money and meeting celebrities, he set out to build his own autographing empire. “I’ve come a super long way because a few years ago,...
Navaro Nehring features his puppets in “A Christmas Carol”
By Reese Hill and Shoshie Hemley
November 18, 2019
Navaro Nehring was six years old when he was given his first marionette puppet. The sophomore behind the puppets in this year’s winter play, “A Christmas Carol,” has had a fascination with the craft his whole life. When he was a child, his father would put on puppet shows for him in the basement...
Lets Talk Business
By Cecile Bendera, Iowa City High School
November 18, 2019
City High’s Own Barber The red and white carpets, the black wood-framed mirrors in place on the clean white walls of the room, and the bright orange-red chairs on the edge of the space—all this detailed decoration comes from the mind of Maisha Sila in order to make a basic room look like a ...
Voiceless
By Kailey Gee and Jenna Wang
November 18, 2019
Inappropriate touching. Unwanted sexting. Catcalling down the hallways. All of the above have happened right here at West High. Almost five years ago, WSS wrote a cover story titled ‘No Excuse’ about the culture of sexual harassment in West High at the time. Through detailed accounts of catcalling,...
The impact of being called a ‘try-hard’
By Jackie Bucaro, Benilde-St. Margaret's School
November 18, 2019
Commonly heard in classes, in hallways, and on teams around BSM, ‘try-hard’ seems to be the latest insult. Of 167 students surveyed, 83.3% have been called a try-hard or something similar. Although most students use the phrase as a joke between friends, teachers and coaches worry about its dangerous...
Teacher Helps Revive the Role of Fire Lookouts
By Warren Unzueta, San Juan Hills High School
November 15, 2019
As wildfires continue to encroach on densely populated Southern California communities, the need for solutions to help limit the damage of the seemingly endless fire season is dire. But history teacher, Bill Kaiser, is doing his part to ensure that the long-standing tradition of fire lookouts carrie...
2 band members find time for cheer and football
By Grace Hampton and Pratiksha Timsina
November 15, 2019
As soon as the buzzer sounded, starting the halftime of Friday night football games, junior Sydney Smarsh had to throw down her pom poms and hurry to meet the band where a student waited with her flute. Smarsh then joined the band, in her cheer uniform, to perform the halftime show for the entire stadium. Senior...
Dialect coach helps actors find their voice
By William Kraft and Julian Duda
November 15, 2019
Annually, Director Colleen Stahnke rallies together a group of students to put on the RBHS fall play. This year, due to the tricky British accents used in the script, Juliet Boyd volunteered as a dialect coach for the aspiring young actors in the production of Peter and the Starcatcher. Peter and t...
Competing For a Cause
By Rachel Vrazel, Francis Howell Central High School
November 15, 2019
On a crisp September afternoon, siblings Payton Matz and Lucas Matz walk into their seventh hour Pre-Calculus class and take their seats, anxiously waiting for the bell to ring so their teacher, Mrs. Trisha Morrow, will come in from the hall to start class. However, what the siblings share isn’t merely...
Meeting people outweighs paycheck
By Samantha Powers, McCallum High School
November 15, 2019
High school students need money, whether it’s to pay for something as small as gas or as big as college tuition. For working McCallum students, however, their jobs are about more than just a paycheck. Four students have found a way to make work fun by finding a job that is unique and presents exciting...
CT Students For a Dream Hosts Undocumented Students’ Financial Aid Night at DHS
By Viktoria Wulff-Andersen, Danbury High School
November 15, 2019
The quiet ambience of the DHS library was broken as it filled with the warm, familial sounds of Spanish, Portuguese, and English on Oct. 30th at 6:30 p.m. Students and their families gathered together in one room for the Undocumented Students’ Financial Aid Night, hosted by CT Students For a Dream,...
Kid’s Castle upcoming demolition sparks community emotion
By Mia Constantin, Harrisonburg High School
November 15, 2019
The sound of children screaming with laughter grew louder as I neared Kid’s Castle. The late afternoon sun cast a golden sheet of light on the wooden turrets as the playground neared its busiest hour of the day, 6:00 in the evening. Although it was a hot day, the playground wasn’t packed, with a...
Students Dislike Instagram’s Latest Move
By Blaze Myers, Boyertown Area Senior High
November 15, 2019
Last Friday, the Instagram chief Adam Mosseri announced that some American posts will have their likes "hidden" - though several other countries have already seen this implemented. The social media app seeks to relieve the pressurized environment of Instagram by removing the ability for one to see...
With Halloween around the corner, practicing Wiccans, Pagan debunk stereotypes around their religions
By Emily Carlisle and Tessa Collinson
November 14, 2019
Many people associate the word “Wicca” with witchcraft and characteristics such as “evil” or “Satanic,” while others see Wiccan practices as similar to those of cults. Few people picture a 16-year-old girl walking down the street, registering a goddess in the world around her as she says s...
A Little Every Day: With Inktober in full swing, students, teacher reflect on influences of online challenges on art, life
By Sophia Hawkins, Carmel High School
November 14, 2019
Each year since 2009, artists all over the world pick up their pens every day in October to draw. They may be following a prompt or they may simply be drawing whatever comes to mind, but all are part of the international Inktober challenge. In 2009, Jake Parker, Utah-based illustrator, writer and teacher...
Art interactive paints smiles on students’ faces
By Meghan Onessimo, Londonderry High School
November 14, 2019
Take a peek inside room 401 during F period, and you’ll hear talking and laughing. You’ll see kids gluing, painting and cutting paper to create art projects. You’ll notice students helping other students as they create their latest masterpiece. The mood is fun in room 401, and the creativity...
PIT Crew hosts first ever accessible Homecoming Dance
By Aurora Jimenez Castro, Lake Brantley High School
November 14, 2019
Neon lights, top 40 hits, crows of teenagers and dark closed quarters. These elements are what make school dances, such as homecoming, memorable. However, for a faction of students, this environment is entirely inaccessible. The music is too loud, the crowds too rowdy, the strobe lights frightening....
A class for every student
By McKenna Hodges, Pittsburg High School
November 14, 2019
Before class starts, freshman Logan Johnson and senior Jorden Johnson start off their day by playing football together with a group of friends. Running to both sides of the gym, Logan and Jorden laugh as they try to see who can catch the ball first. “It shocks me how the other boys involve him because...
“Hey Guys”
By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown, Iowa City High School
November 14, 2019
“Oh hey guys,” a friend says as they enter a room. Murmurs of “hi,” “hey,” and “what’s up?” can be heard in response. However, no one objects to the use of the word “guys.” This word, along with various other traditionally masculine words, are starting to be called into question...
43 lives in 10 years: The impact of fostering
By Hannah Kennedy, Homestead High School in Mequon, Wisconsin
November 13, 2019
According to the United States Child Welfare System, in 2017 there were approximately over 440,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is known as a temporary service provided by States for children who cannot live with their families. Certain situations call for the child to be placed with...