Martin Luther King Jr. was an active leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. He believed that everyonez whether it be African-American, Caucasian, Asian, or Hispanic; deserved to have equal rights. Some rights that King fought for include the right to vote, the right to a good education, the right to all public places, and the right to make an honest living.

After the arrest of Rosa Parks, a woman who refused to get off a bus and thus violated the segregation law, Dr. King and his friends organized protests against bus segregation.

“I admire Dr. King for facing an issue that he knew would bring a lot of criticism and hate,” senior Edwin Lao said.

Many people rallied as they refused to ride buses until passengers were completely integrated. This eventually led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a boycott in which Blacks refused to ride on buses until segregation laws change. Many marches resulted after the Montgomery Bus Boycott and they all had the same purpose: equality and change.

The idea of this day is to celebrate the birth, the life, and the dream of King. Furthermore, it is a day of remembrance of the injustices Dr. King strongly fought against. Many students view this day as “a day without school” but it should be viewed as a day to celebrate and honor Dr. King.

“I’m honoring him by putting up my American flag,” senior Freshta Pirzada said.

Without his pivotal role, the nation would not be as culturally inviting as it is today.

The assembly was filled with various games and entertaining activities such as “Toss the Wreath” and “Shave Santa’s Beard”. In “Toss the Wreath,” three students had to spin around three times and toss a wreath, that was attached to a long candy cane designed rod, into the goal, which was a spacious square area.

“The game wasn’t that challenging cause I got two wreaths in but our class didn’t win because my partners, Jasper Lee and Daniel Chan, kept missing their throws badly,” freshmen Adriel Sarpolio said.

In Pass the Candy Cane, the seniors and freshmen teamed up against the sophomores and juniors. To win the game, students had to pass a candy cane from the front of the line to the end of the line by passing it with candy cane between their mouths. Other games include the “Ski Course,” “Scavenger Hunt” and “Shave Santa’s Beard.”

“The “Ski Course” was pretty easy for us but the other classes seemed to have a lot of trouble,” freshmen Jake Gordon said.

In addition to games, awards were passed out to students who won the PTSA Reflections contest. Furthermore, fall sport athletes were giving a moment of applause as athletes stood up when their sport was announced. In addition, actors from the fall play, “The Night of the Living Dead” gave the crowd a sneak peak of what the play was about by performing their signature dance.

Video taken by Janel Quoc and Ninon Becquart.

Video editing by Janel Quoc and Ninon Becquart.

Music from thesixtyone.com, and is “Holiday Greetings” by Still Time.

In November or December for eight days each, Jews celebrate Hanukkah. During the eight days, they light a menorah, a special candleholder, to remember an ancient miracle when a day’s worth of oil burned continuously for eight days in a temple. On Hanukkah, many Jews eat latkes, special potato pancakes, sing songs, and spin a top, called a dreidel, to win yummy prizes such as chocolate coins, nuts, or raisins.

Many young girls in Sweden dress up as “Lucia brides” in flowing white gowns with red sashes and a wreath of lit candles on their heads on Dec. 13 to honor St. Lucia, a third-century saint. While singing, the “Lucia brides” wake up their family members by bringing them coffee and twisted saffron buns called “Lucia cats.”

On Jan. 23, 2012, people from Chinese and Taiwanese descent will dress in new clothes to celebrate Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year. It normally consists of a parade led by a silk dragon, the Chinese symbol of strength, and people can carry lanterns and join the parade. Next year will be the year of the Dragon, and in Chinese culture, the dragon hibernates most of the year, so firecrackers are thrown to keep the dragons “awake.”

“I can’t wait to see what the year of the dragon will bring,” junior Aileen Liang said.

Furthermore, children receive red envelopes from their relatives for they symbolize good luck and ward off evil spirits.

“Getting red envelopes is my favorite part of Chinese New Year,” senior Gloria Liao said.

It is natural to assume that a fire alarm is a drill, but of the three evacuations we’ve conducted, only one was an actual fire drill. The evacuation on Friday was not a drill. Like the other unplanned evacuations, it was set off by particulate matter that got into the fire detector of a classroom. This is usually related to cooking, and we haven’t actually had any fires this year. Many people aren’t aware of this, but California’s Education Code only requires that high schools have two fire drills per year at a minimum, a much smaller number than the requirement for elementary and middle schools, which is one per month. These drills are usually set up to coincide with school assemblies so that they’re more convenient. The principal, the superintendent and a few other school officials should have access to records of the fire evacuations conducted throughout the year. (Code of Regulations, Title 5, 550)

There is also a California high school requirement of one earthquake drill per semester. As we have already had an earthquake drill this year we can expect not to have another until second semester. There is also one fire drill planned for next semester, but there may be more than that due to detectors being triggered by accident. There may be more lock-downs, as they aren’t dictated by the state but by school districts, in cooperation with local law enforcement. (Education Code 35294)

Opinions on school drills vary. Some people think that they’re beneficial; for example, senior Vivian Pham said that “they’re good because a lot of freshmen don’t know where to go.” Others, however, find that the drills seem unnecessary. “They interrupt class time. If there’s a fire we know what to do already,” said junior Shubhreen Kaur. Perhaps it would be a good idea to find a way to make the detectors less sensitive so that there are fewer unplanned evacuations, but in this situation it may be better safe than sorry. If there is a real fire, we can be sure to know about it in time to evacuate.

According to Mr. Miller and Officer Berlin there are multiple drills planned for the near future, so students should be prepared to shut down or evacuate their classrooms.

To see the document that was referenced in this article, go here.

“It makes me want to use cash now rather than my debit card,” says senior Jake Nichols. “I feel scared about spending my money with my debit card. I can’t really trust any kind of card-swiping pay system for a while now.”

As of now, banks are having to reimburse their clients’ losses with bank-owned money. No reports of identity theft were reported by customers who had used a regular check-out lane. The Secret Service is now involved in this investigation into who is responsible for this massive case of fraudulent activity. They are calling the scamming devices “extremely sophisticated”. Senior Jonathan Hui was surprised by this and exclaimed, “Cash!” as a way to fix this problem. Save Mart Supermarkets operates the Lucky chains and advises anyone using a debit or credit card to examine any card-reading machine carefully for any unusual nuances before proceeding to input private information.