During a conference regarding a fatal plane crash in Washington D.C. on Jan. 30, President Donald Trump claimed that the collision was due to the diversity, equity and inclusivity hires at the Federal...

For millions of Americans, from students to constituents, the previously-noble pursuit of knowledge has been reduced to a pursuit FROM knowledge. On multiple fronts, American society is scrambling over...

Thomas Jefferson once said, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Jefferson’s words still ring true 一 today, as press freedom in the...

**Disclaimer: Some of the interviews featured in this article have been conducted anonymously to protect the safety and privacy of students and parents. Inside cramped hagwon classrooms, kindergarten...

Most mornings driving to school, I crave background noise filled by the news, but stories that normally spark interest leave me with dread as I listen to the most recent air strike, economic decline...

Every morning, the pledge of Allegiance echoes through the classrooms of Pleasant Valley High School. Students rise from their seats, hand on chest, and declare their “allegiance to the flag.”  The...

When discussing Trump-2.0, too often we don’t put the fundamentals of American democracy first. Donald Trump himself, devoid of any coherent ideology and bereft of any clear end-goal beside the most...

Just when we think we’ve succeeded, it all comes roaring back. On Feb. 19, an Orange County infant returned from South Korea with measles. Days later, an unvaccinated child in Texas died from measles—the...

My personal favorite aspect of Star Trek (besides watching with my father) was the Vulcan people, a fictional extraterrestrial species. Each time one was in a scene, their characteristic strict adherence...

Throughout human history, there has always been racism, and there will never be a time without it. We like to believe that it is not as large of a problem as it is even though 52.5% of the reported hate...

In the first weeks of his second term, President Donald Trump has already issued sweeping executive orders that strike at pillars of national public health. Changes like deleted data, disappearing webpages...

Currently, Hayes is undergoing many changes due to recently passed legislation, including the enacted Senate Bill 104 that limits where students may use the restroom to their assigned sex at birth. Subsequently,...

Last summer, the Granger Pines Facebook group exploded with excitement. The park playground was filled with enthusiastic chatter. The big news? A Domino’s Pizza was opening in front of the neighborhood. The...

We are witnessing a crisis—not just of literacy, but in our societal capacity to simply think for ourselves. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the percentage of U.S....

I remember it as if I had just experienced it all over again, 30 seconds ago. It was my first day as a freshman, and I wasn’t sure if I’d have to dress out. I was walking to the Green Wall to grab...

If you frequently travel along National Road, you may have noticed a group of protestors lining the street, holding signs that read “Defund Fascism”, “Support Trans Youth”, “Fight 4 Democracy”,...

Even though both groups are classified as Black, Black American and African cultures have very prominent differences. However, in the U.S., African culture has often been overlooked and lumped into Black...

It’s that time of year again; fourth-grade teachers are queuing up the BrainPOP video about Martin Luther King Jr., corporations that own slave mining operations in the Congo are tweeting about how they’re...

Micah Beckwith has emerged as the newly inaugurated Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, an extremely controversial figure in both state and national politics. He will now be featured at the Cass County Republican's...

“Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors.” Although the experience of reading can be described in numerous ways, Dr. Rudine Bishop's analogy perfectly captures the essence. Bishop, an Ohio State...

*Disclaimer: This article discusses sensitive topics, including self-harm—reader discretion is advised.* “My chest feels so stuffy. I feel like I’m going to fall somewhere. I don’t even know...

When Americans think about the role of a journalist, they often imagine a human robot producing stories at their desk for hours or having an intrusive reporter shoving a microphone into someone’s face....

I am proud to be able to speak Flemish. It’s my mother’s native tongue, one she’s immensely proud of. I’ve been taught the language my whole life and grew to love it. Yet, in my everyday life,...

The president’s bodyguards cover the mouth of an angry STEM graduate and drag him out of student hall. This action encapsulates the government’s response to student unrest over its research & development...

The 2025 Texas legislative session put school vouchers on the table yet again, with Senate Bill 2 being passed on Feb. 5. In writing, the bill provides $10,000 annually per child or $11,500 per disabled...

Once the backbone of public discourse and community engagement, print journalism now teeters on the brink of extinction. With dwindling circulation, declining ad revenue, and a generation of news consumers...

I woke up to countless messages from my friends in the U.S. complaining about the ongoing TikTok ban Jan. 19. The previous night, users in the U.S. opened TikTok expecting to be greeted with yet another...

Trigger warning for topics of sexual assault. In discussions about military trauma, an oversimplified, distinct division is often made between combat trauma and sexual trauma, with the former usually...

“Breaking News: L.A. goes up in flames.” “Pray for L.A.” “Donate to the GoFundMe.” With every swipe, posts like these fill up social media feeds. Whether a natural disaster such...

As lightsticks flicker through Seoul’s packed city squares, casting a warm glow over throngs of protesters demanding accountability from South Korea’s president, echoes of the upheaval resonate...

A student scrolls through Instagram to take a break from schoolwork, absorbing a carefully curated feed of reels without a second thought. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, Messenger...

After clicking the upload button on her latest TikTok, sophomore Aeshna Chatterji was greeted by an influx of comments. While scrolling through them, a couple of them caught her eye, reading, “You’re...

In the past 10 years, the world’s approach to media has taken a series of drastic and unexpected changes. With the combination of social media, misinformation, and now the emergence of Artificial Intelligence...

Dear society, How often do you ignore the pain of the human condition? How do you continuously fail the people who are in the most need? How much will you watch us bleed and weep until deciding it’s...

My entire life flipped upside-down Jan. 7, 2025, when record-setting winds spread two wildfires over 37,000 acres of Los Angeles and destroyed my childhood home. This devastation not only impacted me and...

In times of crisis and frustration, Westridge has historically rallied together to provide a space to mourn and take action. Most recently, when Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to Donald...

Endangered Species. That is how journalist Scott Simon referred to high school newspapers in a 2013 NPR article, citing social media as the end of student journalism. Over a decade later, however, after...

Editor-in-Training Gabriella Castro is a two-year member of the Wildcat Chronicle who sometimes writes opinion pieces. The views expressed in this piece are her own. Educators are observing a concerning...

I first saw the fire at 6:22 p.m. from my back patio. By 7 p.m., I had evacuated to a friend’s house in South Pasadena. As the San Gabriel Mountains—the background of my life—blazed away, my family...

In an effort to meet the growing demand for teachers, the Missouri State Board of Education  proposed an amendment on Tuesday, Dec. 3, to change the minimum required GPA for teachers from 3.0 to 2.5 in...

On June 21, 2023, the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act was introduced to Congress by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. It unanimously passed through the House of Representatives,...

Former President Jimmy Carter died on December 29, 2024. One of the most common refrains from his supporters, before his death and after, is that a man as moral as he was could never have stayed in the...

To be honest, I’m sick of hearing a peer tell me, “I’m starting a club,” or, “If you join my club, I’ll give you a leadership position,” or, “My friend and I are starting a nonprofit-volunteer...

On Mondays last year our journalism class went to the library for “Media Literacy Mondays.” Library media specialist Angela Maxwell showed us clips from TikTok, Twitter and Instagram and asked us...

As you sit down with your family and turn on the television, you witness the passing of the torch of the United States presidency. You anticipate the tide to shift, and new orders to be signed. However,...

On Nov. 23, as Christian Brothers College junior Colin Brown and his father drove home from a hockey game on Interstate 55, a stray bullet hit and killed Brown. Brown’s tragic death sent shockwaves of...

Today, my teacher was looking at the stickers on my computer. She stared at the one that takes up the most space: a butterfly colored yellow, black, purple, and white—the non-binary flag colors—with...

The Annual People of Color Conference, or PoCC, was held this December in Denver by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), which includes about 1,700 private schools across the U.S. According...

This story contains an alternate format that can only be viewed on the original site. View this story on The Southerner. It was originally published on January 17, 2025.

By September 2028, NYS high school classes, excluding physical education, will be capped at 25 students as a result of New York State's class size law. This legislation was sponsored by our state senator,...