Column: Starving for hope
By Andrea Plascencia, Lewisville High School - TX
January 24, 2020
The oatmeal cream pie on the kitchen counter was a luxury I refused to indulge in, couldn’t indulge in. One bite and suddenly there was 170 calories down my throat. One bite and it would change everything I had worked for. One bite and I would lose it. The oatmeal cream pie would continue...
Integration of memes and politics
By Anvitha Reddy, Coppell High School
January 24, 2020
In an increasingly social-media oriented world, memes, ranging from TikTok to Twitter, can often blur what’s fact and what’s fiction. On Jan. 3, President Donald Trump launched an attack which killed Iranian general Qasem Solemani. Solemani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American s...
Your H&M outfit has some unintended consequences
By Caroline Gans, St. Stephen's Episcopal School
January 24, 2020
I am the second-highest contributor to pollution in the world. I employ more than 60 million workers, most of whom are women and children. I decide what you wear, where you shop, and how much you spend. What am I? Answer: I am fast fashion. And I am quietly changing the planet. In the age ...
White by Default
By Katie Golden, North Allegheny Senior High School
January 24, 2020
Think about your favorite books. Picture the main characters. How many of those characters are anything other than white? While things are improving across the board for representation in media, some of the most popular fantasy series, such as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Percy Jackson, ...
We’re Rubbish at Recycling
By Jonah Carleton, Rhinebeck High School
January 23, 2020
Recycling is simple, or so we’ve been taught. Just throw your paper, plastic, and metal in the blue bins and forget about it. If you’re really an overachiever you might even unscrew the lid from your water bottle before giving it a toss. This current system, single-stream, is effortless. But this co...
OPINION: Expelling students isn’t acting in the Christian spirit
By EP Presnell, duPont Manual High School
January 23, 2020
If you haven’t been on social media or seen the countless news articles surrounding the former Whitefield Academy student Kayla Kenney’s expulsion over a photo of her celebrating her birthday wearing a rainbow sweater with a rainbow cake, it’s a viral story that has reached national headlines in...
Editorial: Carlmont is not free to go phone-free
By Editorial Staff, Carlmont High School
January 23, 2020
"Please take out your cell phones." As the minute bell echoed through the halls of Carlmont High School on the first day back to school, teachers were already asking students to have their devices on-hand. Why? To download two apps deemed necessary to academic success: Campus Student, better known...
Fight for facts over World War III Memes
By Martha Sanchez, St. Paul Academy and Summit School
January 23, 2020
With President Trump’s recent decision to kill Iranian leader and military director Qasem Soleimani came a social media panic. The killing caused two days of nervous tensions with the U.S. unsure of how Iran would choose to retaliate. Millions of young citizens took to social media to worry about an i...
Insider trading; South’s neglect of technical careers
By Tannen Holt, Minneapolis South High School
January 22, 2020
There is a wide variety of viable post secondary options. Whether you want to further your education or head right into the workforce, no productive option is necessarily a bad option. Among these options are pursuing trades, whether by learning through vocational school or apprenticeships, there is...
One Person, One Vote
By Anthony Mondelli, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School - KY
January 21, 2020
About a month ago I turned 18, and with that came the new responsibility of being able to vote. It’s arguably the greatest right of being an American citizen, but unfortunately, the way our constitution structures elections effectively makes my vote null and void in a presidential election. ...
Not Quite The Golden Age
By Betul Tuncer, North Allegheny Senior High School
January 21, 2020
Living in America, one can’t help but notice the lack of representation -- or outright misrepresentation -- of minorities in the film and television industry. Despite the fact that America is known for being a “melting pot of cultures” and a place that accepts everyone, we still lack diversity...
Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by educating yourself
By Kathryn McAuliffe, Parkway West High School
January 21, 2020
On this day celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., you’ll no doubt find your social media streams flooded with his unmatched diction cast on pretty backgrounds, his words reduced to a mere Instagram story, Facebook post or tweet that will be forgotten in a day. Martin Luther King Jr. is rightfully...
Learning One’s Native Language is not a Lost Cause
By Charlotte Cao and Jordan Lee
January 21, 2020
An immigrant family gathers for dinner and begins to reflect on their day, the familiar sounds of their native language ringing across the dining table. A child tugs on their mother’s arm and asks, “I don’t understand. What did they say?” Language attrition is a widespread linguistic phenomenon...
A Transition to Tolerance
By Chloe Mawyer, North Allegheny Senior High School
January 21, 2020
In my old West Virginian hometown, it wasn’t uncommon to see Trump flags flying on the tailgates of trucks. Growing up in a deep red state, I was accustomed to most people assuming a similar political identity. Although many of my new friends in Pennsylvania presume that political divides must be everywhere,...
Amazon’s Mistreatment of Workers Must End
By Shawkin Kabir, WESTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL - Austin
January 21, 2020
Starting from the first development of modern technology, there have constantly been new products created to make the essential aspects of our lives easier. Gift buying or purchasing a treat for yourself is a staple of many people’s lives and has become an even faster process because of an intensifying...
Not “Just Hair”: Central Catholic High School Hair Policy
By Dani Benavides, North Allegheny Intermediate High School
January 21, 2020
Maybe you’ve been recently sent or have seen the Change.org petition link to a trending story in our area. Nearby, Central Catholic High School has seen conflicting opinions as to what the student body is to abide by. JD Younger, a sophomore at CCHS, made the petition in hopes of lifting the ban of braids, locks, and twists implemented in the school’s policies. It has since gone viral, having almost 12,000 signatures, and ma...
It’s never too late to vaccinate
By Jillian Moore, Coppell High School
January 17, 2020
“They have turned our children into the largest human experiment in history — all of history,” Del Bigtree, CEO of anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, says as supporters of the anti-vaccination movement nod their heads in agreement during a New York rally. Mumps, rubella, pertussis (whooping cough), poliomyelitis (polio) and measles represent a small sampling of the many diseases with the potential to be prev...
Reece: Parchman, a prison in peril
By Davan Reece, The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
January 17, 2020
Nestled between the fields and crops that decorate the Mississippi Delta rests an infamous house of horror that has become a blemish on Mississippi and America’s prison-industrial complex as a whole. Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm, is the state’s only maximum-security...
Puerto Rico: A Small, but Strong Island (OPINION)
By Adriana James-Rodil, Academy of the Holy Names
January 17, 2020
Beginning on Dec. 28, 2019, with a M 4.7 earthquake, the residents of Puerto Rico have felt multiple earthquakes and aftershocks for the past several weeks. While in Puerto Rico visiting family in December and early January, I too felt a small, sudden, and quick shake in the town of Utuado. However,...
Just Another Gen Z Thing
By Anjana Suresh, North Allegheny Senior High School
January 17, 2020
The start of a new year, especially the beginning of a new decade, is often associated with feelings of hope, promise, and the chance to begin anew. But not everyone is in such a good mood this time around. Just a few days into 2020, I opened my phone to a CNN article notification reading, “Your mental health in 2020: divisive politics, work s...
Cheating Is An Epidemic In Schools Across The US
By Srilekha Cherukuvada, WESTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL - Austin
January 17, 2020
Cheating has always been an epidemic in schools across the United States. Unfortunately, because it is hidden beneath the wraps and people refuse to acknowledge it, the stigma around cheating has never changed. In recent years, cheating has dramatically increased, making it near impossible to combat....
Opinion: Missouri voters should remember GOP gerrymandering
By Alex Rozar, Lafayette High School
January 17, 2020
Thomas Hofeller worked from the shadows for nearly five decades. His job: manipulating Congressional districts in several states, including Missouri, to give the Republican Party an edge at the federal and state level. “Redistricting is like an election in reverse,” he once boasted at a conference for state legislators. “Usually the voters get to pick ...
An “Astro”nomically bad decision
By Joe Flynn, Delaware Valley Regional High School
January 16, 2020
Recently the Astros were accused of using cameras and a trash can to "bang" signals to the batters concerning upcoming pitches. The MLB commissioner, Robert Manfred, investigated the accusations and found enough evidence to prove that the Astros cheated. The penalties were harsh, but in my opinion,...
Varsity Athletes Have Proven Themselves Enough
By Mandy Sisul, La Salle Catholic Preparatory High School
January 16, 2020
Extreme fatigue. Overuse injuries. Constant soreness. Feeling overwhelmed. Playing a sport in high school while trying to balance school work and a social life is incredibly challenging. For varsity athletes, they are asked to dedicate six days per week and the majority of their free time in...
Global leaders fail to embody leadership qualities
By Lea George, The American School in London
January 16, 2020
Defining leadership is one of the most important topics that high schoolers have to learn. We face countless applications for summer programs, colleges and other organizations which ask why we believe we embody the values of leadership. We perform leadership activities at school to promote bonding...
Ivy leagues are overhyped
By Emma Johnson, Blue Valley Northwest High School
January 16, 2020
Ivy League fever has swept the nation with these schools reaching a record number of applications and the lowest acceptance rates in their histories. This leaves people to go to extremes to get in. For one family, that was paying $1.2 million in order to make their daughter a fake athletic profile so...
No News is Not Good News
By Jonathan Ross, North Allegheny Senior High School
January 15, 2020
As clocks anxiously ticked toward midnight across the eastern seaboard of the United States, optimistically ushering in a new decade, Washington D.C.’s Newseum closed its doors for the final time. The museum, a beacon for the history and perpetuation of free speech, was sold--the Freedom Forum, the...
Opinion: We need more than climate strikes
By Atharva Weling, Wayland High School
January 14, 2020
September 2019 was a record-breaking month in more than one way. Global temperatures were the highest ever recorded during the month of September since the federal government began collecting data 140 years ago, at nearly a full degree Celsius higher than the average for the 20th century. It's a blatan...
Moving to the center has led to the failure of the Democratic Party.
By Marco Rivero, Metea Valley High School
January 14, 2020
The representative of California’s 12th District and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi historically led the Democratic-majority House of Representatives and formally impeached President Donald Trump. In her speech prior to the House vote on impeaching President Trump, Pelosi stated that “It is a...
Stop forcing kids into AP
By Pathfinder Editorial Board, Parkway West High School
January 14, 2020
Last semester, my AP English Language and Composition class was instructed to complete a survey regarding access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses. After a slew of leading questions expressing the perceived benefits of the AP program, the survey asked about the effectiveness of various persuasion techniques,...
Claire’s Corner: Don’t say never mind
By Claire Clements, Coppell High School
January 14, 2020
Have you ever been left out of an inside joke? You’re with a group of friends, and they’re all laughing about some joke that you do not understand. It hurts, right? Or maybe it is not super hurtful, but annoying. But imagine instead of an inside joke, it’s just a regular joke anyone can understand,...
Opinion: We need to address the privacy concerns about personal DNA testing
By Rebekah Yahner, Foothill Technology High School
January 13, 2020
What’s not to love about personal DNA ancestry testing through companies like 23andMe. All you have to do is spit in a little vial, sign away the rights to your genetic privacy, then ship off your DNA to who knows where and anxiously await the results! All jokes aside, we need to have a serious...
Banning guns is not a panacea
By Julia Kay Smith, McCallum High School
January 13, 2020
As a high school student in the United States, I know it’s out of the question to strip citizens of their Second Amendment right to own firearms. Prying military style assault rifles from the cold and clammy claws of the far right crypt that is President Donald Trump’s administration has become a...
A Plea for Authenticity
By Kristen Kinzler, North Allegheny Senior High School
January 13, 2020
I am not one of Harry Styles’s 25.7 million Instagram followers. I don’t ever plan to be, not because I hold a personal vendetta against One Direction, but simply because I have no interest. However, almost every time Harry Styles posts, a majority of the girls I follow share the picture on their...
Column: Turning hate to love
By Anna Velazquez, Lewisville High School - TX
January 10, 2020
“You’re not my daughter.” Those words ring in my head over and over again, each time with an extra sting to them. My hands shake and I feel a sharp pain in my heart as tears cloud my vision. I try my best to hold them back but the emotions are overwhelming and I can’t. Anger. Sadnes...
Americanized: “Banana”
By Sally Cho, North Allegheny Intermediate High School
January 10, 2020
A “banana” is a term used for Asian people who are considered to have abandoned their Asian cultural identity to adopt a Western cultural identity. When I was 7, my parents and I left our home country of South Korea and travelled 6,000 miles to the U.S. The prospect of starting a new life i...
Stepping Up: Community Needs to Help Fill Gap Created By New SNAP Rules
By Mary Loeb, La Salle Catholic Preparatory High School
January 9, 2020
Over the past year, the Trump Administration proposed three rules that would tighten restrictions for those who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and ultimately cut millions from receiving food stamps from the government. Now, even after accumulating more than 140,000...
Increased Voter Turnout: Why We Should Lower the Voting Age
By Keira McDonald, Lakeland Regional High School
January 8, 2020
Our current political system is failing my generation: and the way things are going, it is damning my future. The idea of changing the voting age is not new, nor is it radical. This is because the voting-rights circle is continually expanding in order to combat restrictions based on race, gender,...
Bugay: Three lessons I learned from the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference
By LeAnne Bugay, Bellevue West Senior High School
January 8, 2020
Six months ago, nervous, alone, and sweaty, I boarded a plane to represent the state of Nebraska at the 2019 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference in Washington D.C. The annual conference is a week-long, all expenses-paid trip that teaches one rising senior from every state and the District...
“What College You Go to Doesn’t Matter”
By Grace Ellis, Rhinebeck High School
January 7, 2020
“And which colleges have you applied to?” For the next two minutes I talk around the question. I mumble and tug at a loose thread in my sweater. I laugh nervously and throw out a few vague descriptors: east coast, small to medium, liberal arts. Perhaps sensing my unease, our dog trainer turns...
Letter to the editor: York must silence America’s most hurtful word
By Black Student Union, York Community High School
January 7, 2020
Some may recall a survey on thisisyork.org in January 2019 regarding the use of the N-Word. This survey was quickly taken down due to its offensive nature and failure to obtain the voice of York’s African American population in the creation of the survey. York’s Black Student Union, a club...
Unlevel Playing Field
By Magdalena Laughrey, North Allegheny Senior High School
January 7, 2020
When I was in elementary school, I remember always dreaming of the day I would play a sport in high school. Back then, high school athletes seemed like mini-celebrities whom I could not wait to become. They had it all: cool black and gold uniforms proudly brandishing the NA logo, shiny new equipment,...
Would You Rather Do it or See it?
By Ruchi Sankolli, Cedar Park High School
January 7, 2020
In their later years of school, students learn to dissect animals in their biology classes in order to get a closer look at how the body systems of different beings are structured and how they function. For example, when the students are dissecting a heart, they can feel the valves and see the difference...
Not All Asians Look the Same
By Emme Perencevich, Iowa City High School
January 7, 2020
Facial recognition is a vital factor of human interaction. However, there’s one variable that can cause this function to falter. Most commonly referred to as “the cross-race effect” or “own-race bias,” cross-racial identification is when one tends to be less able to recognize individuals of...
Staff Editorial: Dating in High School is Hard. Being Queer Makes it Harder
By Shoshie Hemley, Iowa City High School
January 7, 2020
High school is one of the most important times of our lives. It’s where we truly mature and find who we are. It is a turning point between child and adult. One of the most significant milestones in this process of coming of age is falling in love. High school is where most people have their first relationship—but...
Disney: The most magical…monopoly?
By Elizabeth Niemiec, Patchogue-Medford High School
January 6, 2020
When one thinks of the Walt Disney Company, images of Cinderella’s castle, Mickey Mouse, and feelings of overwhelming nostalgia may wash over you. People like being happy, and Disney makes people happy. Millions flock to movie theaters every time a new (or perhaps, more recently: remake) Disney movie...
My experience getting through a loss during the holidays
By Victoria Gasca, Coronado High School - El Paso
January 6, 2020
"Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Happy New Year!" the television blared from another room. Ever since I was a small child, I could not wait until the day when I could finally make it to midnight without falling asleep. Last year was a different story. When the countdown rang throughout the otherwise...
The Riches of Religion
By Shoshie Hemley, Iowa City High School
January 6, 2020
A few weeks ago, I was brought to a superchurch against my will. I was staying with the family friend of a family friend in Chicago. Before we had left that morning, I was told I was going to have “a life-changing experience.” I had no idea what it was, but once we were out the door on our way to...
Staff Editorial: Managing Microaggressions
By Shoshie Hemley, Iowa City High School
January 6, 2020
“‘She’s feisty. I like them when they’re feisty,’” City High English teacher Jennifer Brinkmeyer heard as she walked away from a student she was supervising for testing after she asked him to be on task. Along with experiencing other microaggressions, Brinkmeyer is used to having male students...
Equal Rights Amendment ratification fundamental to democracy
By Sophie Casey '20, Staples High School
January 6, 2020
I first learned of the Equal Rights Amendment as a relic of history. In the room of my sophomore American history class, I committed to memory not only the sequence of presidents and a timeline of war, but also our country’s inability to ensure equality on the basis of sex. The Equal Rights Amendment...