Photo Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/MCT
Stillwater, who is with the music tribe and has been at the Occupy LA camp for four weeks, cries out as Occupy LA supporters congregate around the south steps of Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles, California, on Monday, November 28, 2011. Despite orders to vacate on Sunday at midnight residents continue to occupy the site after a face off with LAPD in the pre-dawn hours. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
December 7, 2011
Ninon Becquart
It seems as if the past few months have been all about Occupy, Occupy, and Occupy. Journalism has given me the opportunity to see this movement firsthand- I myself have had the opportunity to go with a classmate and interview people at Occupy Sacramento, Occupy Fremont, and teachers who have gone to Occupy Oakland. After watching Inside Job in AP Government and watching the French news, I’m glad that Americans are speaking out. It feels as if for too long we’ve been afraid of our own government, which was mentioned in Inside Job. This feeling was only reinforced when I watched a story on the French news two nights ago about Detroit. The city is in great debt and announced that it would stop taking care of certain districts, mainly in east Detroit, and instead let those areas deteriorate. When the anchor of the news show spoke to the reporter, they brought up something that I had never really realized- that no one seemed really angry about this. They seemed shocked that the American people were not speaking out and displaying anger towards a city that had chosen to cut people out, including one woman interviewed who had lived in Detroit for her entire life and had paid taxes to the city. They were also very shocked by the fact that Jefferson District, one of the districts that the story focused on, announced its debt and wouldn’t be saved by the national government. It made me feel like something wrong is going on here, because just an ocean away people could depend on their government and on a safety net.
I don’t know what is going to come in the following months or years, but I’m glad that because of journalism- both journalism that I’ve done myself and journalism from others that I’ve watched-I’ve gotten to take part in this moment in history. Journalism has gotten me more interested in the news and in the stories that people have.
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June 8, 2011
June 13, 2011
Sarah Pham
I’m pleased to say that I will be ending my high school career on a good note. This year has probably been the toughest for me emotionally. With the loss of the election, dealing with a new role in leadership, graduation, college and everything else I have no idea how I got myself through it all. The end of the journey does not matter but what it takes to get there. I feel that I have dealt with my year with enough grace to show more maturity than I would’ve a couple years back. Some people choose to end high school with a bad attitude; they’re overzealous to leave and enter the so called “real world”. Wanting to escape from the drama and hassle of high school is one thing but wanting to leave solely for those reasons would be idiotic. Leaving high school should have a greater purpose such as wanting to leave to move onto a higher education and enrichment of the the young mind. As I graduate high school I am excited to leave and move onto a University where I’ll be surrounded by people with common goals as myself.
June 9, 2011
Richard Nguyen
With school coming to a close this year, there are many seniors this year that I have bonded with and now all them are going to be gone in a flash. They’ve helped me out with my articles, talked about life in general, and most of gave me a sense of self in Journalism. Instead of hanging out with my usual friends, they’ve expanded my horizon of what it means to be a friend. Now, other than seniors leaving there is also finals TOMORROW. The stress is pretty high, I am literally living on the edge for many of my classes, getting a C on the final could spell doom for my GPA. These finals could determine if I go to a good college or a horrible college. Why is it that our lives can and will be decided by only 3 days? Why do we have to take a Final after the AP TESTING is over? But I digress, we must as a whole be ready for anything in life. I wish all of the seniors luck next year in college and luck to myself in hopes of getting into a decent college. What is life without goals? What is life without succeeding in these goals? Is there a reason to live with no goals? Well, hopefully life is just part of the cycle of the world and we as humans embrace it.
June 8, 2011
Ira Horecka
Yes, school is over in less than a week but we students must endure and cram for finals till the ring of the glorious bell at 11:55 a.m. on Tuesday, June14. Summer is approaching and it is very tempting to just kick back, relax, and forget about all the troubles the oncoming finals pose on you. I have an advise for those who are deciding to turn in their towels. Study hard so you will leave school with no regrets or worries. Finish school with a feeling of pure satisfaction. Finish with the feeling that you have given your best effort. Finish this school year with a euphoric ‘BANG’. Don’t relax now; relax in a week when you have finally finished your school year. The last thing you want is the feeling of whether you passed or didn’t pass a class due to your laziness and lack of preparation beforehand. To those who are planning to study and have been studying, full speed ahead. Take the beaches of education, boys and girls, and show them what you are truly made of. This is my last blog and this is the last sincere message I want to give to the soon-to-graduate students, here, at Washington High School.
June 8, 2011
Osika Tripathi
There’s a fluttering in my body, not just my stomach or my heart, the butterflies travel from my fingers–where they cause my hands to shake in nervousness or excitement–to my toes. I need to take a deep breath when I just think about it: the school year is ending, I am graduating, thisis the last year, no more highschool. These are all the things running through my head and finally I realize that I may not be ready. I came to realization as people keep on asking me, “Are you ready for college?” I just want to yell out a hard NO but I manage myself from going psycho at school.
But even though I’m not ready yet, I am confindent that I can figure things as they come and I think this will just make things more exciting. Anyway, who is really ready for future, ready for what the world has to throw at us? No one that is. We, as humans, are always looking at the past, remisniscing about the good times and we always forget to look forward, or is it that we can’t?
But apart from that graduation has me pumped and as I am traveling this summer, and after that is college, I have many things to look forward to. While I am nervous, I can’t deny that I am excited too. So with this, good luck and good bye everyone. Let’s meet again!
January 25, 2011
Avnish C. Patel
Artist Profile on Mario Rappa, class of 2011. He is currently starring in Starstruck Theatre’s Annie as cabinet-member Harold Ickes.
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July 20, 2009
Anterpreet Kaur and Nicole Doan
The Fremont board of education excluded Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina from the AP English curriculum by a vote of 3-2 at a June 10 meeting. The semi-autobiographical book is about a girl who is beaten, molested and raped by her step-father.
“AP English students may be intellectually ready for college level studies; but emotionally, I think they are still too young to handle certain issues,” board member Ivy Wu said in an e-mail.
Board member Bryan Gebhardt’s view contrasted that of Wu.
“It is a superbly written book, and a fantastic example to all students of what great writing is,” he said in an e-mail. “Dorothy Allison did an excellent job of capturing the shame, confusion, and guilt an abuse victim feels. It is important for everyone to understand this, as unfortunately abuse is much more common than we would like in this world.”
Also a member of the Secondary Schools Textbook Adoption Committee, he, along with other supporting committee members, recommended the book only to English 12 AP students.
“In general I believe students can handle much more than we realize, especially with a trained professional teacher facilitating the discussion,” Gebhardt said.
Initially, AP English teacher Teri Hu believed the mere title of the book shaped the board’s decision. Her own son and daughter read the book at the ages of 14 and 12, respectively.
“I would never give my students anything I wouldn’t give my own children,” she said.
Hu submitted the book for approval by first reading the book, filling out a specific form and finding two other supporters, who were also required to preview the book. The English curriculum committee, consisting of secondary school department chairs and an administrator, examine the book and form. The Secondary Schools Textbook Adoption Committee, whose members are teachers, administrators, parents, and Gebhardt, then met to approve the book. The district’s board of education is the final determining factor in the book’s endorsement.
“To my knowledge, nothing that’s passed the previous two levels has ever been rejected here. I was genuinely surprised when I found out it was voted down,” Hu said in an e-mail.
If students are interested in reading Bastard out of Carolina, they will have to stop by the library to pick up a copy. After all, the Young Adult Library Association has it on its “outstanding books for the college bound” list.
“As parents and educators, it’s condescending and ignorant to prevent [students] from reading about difficult subjects,” Hu said. “The more enlightened and responsible approach is to guide them through the reading, giving them a chance to ask questions and discuss it openly with adult supervision. That is how we teach. That is how we prepare young people to enter a complicated adult world where they have to make informed decisions on difficult topics.”
