Exploring the meaning of racism

October 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment


This is the second of eight write-ups from freshman students at Manual Arts High School. Some participated in weeks-long projects about animal abuse, drugs, gangs, prostitution and racism. Part of their projects included surveys they created for their communities. After they gathered information, all of the groups presented their findings at a school presentation. Two days later, each group wrote about their experiences during an Intersections: The South Los Angeles Report mentoring and writing workshop.

Racism

By: Anahi Acevado, Daniel Aguilar, Ana Gonzales, Dillon Rivas and Darwin Vicente

We chose racism because it is very interesting to us. It is an issue and problem we wanted to discuss and look up. We studied and searched websites, articles and documents. We found and discovered many things.

Our group learned that racism is very familiar to people and it exists in our community. We surveyed many classes and students, and we interviewed five people, including an English teacher, a physical education teacher, a coordinator and an assistant dean.

Everyone we interviewed felt the same way we did. We all feel that racism is a problem that needs to be dealt with. This problem will not change or stop if we do not work together to make a difference. We think that if everyone works together and resolves their issues, we will succeed.

Our group also thinks racism most likely comes from pure ignorance. Ignorance is the cause of racism because people who are racist do not realize that racism just brings more problems and violence in our community and world.

Racism can negatively affect you and everyone around it. It can start problems and create violence. Race itself can stop you from getting or keeping a job. We believe you should earn your job based on your hard work, experience and loyalty, rather than your race. Most importantly, race can keep you from having a nice, soothing and joyful life, but that is not okay.

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Researching animal abuse at Manual Arts High School

October 21, 2010 By 1 Comment


This is the first of eight write-ups from freshman students at Manual Arts High School. Some participated in weeks-long projects about animal abuse, drugs, gangs, prostitution and racism. Part of their projects included surveys they created for their communities. After they gathered information, all of the groups presented their findings at a school presentation. Two days later, each group wrote about their experiences during an Intersections mentoring and writing workshop.

Animal Abuse

By: Carlos Amaya, Marisol Cruz, Robert Escobedo, Oscar Rivera and Andrea Sosa

We chose to research animal abuse because we care that animals cannot stand up for themselves, unless a person speaks for them. We also chose to research this topic to help people see how badly others treat animals and that everyone needs to help stop animal abuse. It is necessary for factories to stop using hormones, mistreating animals and overfeeding them. We want to create harsher laws against the use of hormones in animals we eat. Dog fighting, and other forms of animal abuse, should also stop.

We believe that when animals are abused, it is similar to abusing a family member. That is what one teacher at Manual Arts High School said when we interviewed her and asked, “How would you feel if you saw an animal being abused?”

Our group also surveyed 238 students, went to 13 classrooms and interviewed five others. We asked, “Have you ever seen a dog or cockfight?” One person said yes, that he also bet on the fight. He said it was worth his money. It is important to have more economic resources in our community, just so people will stop trying to make money off of breeding and fighting animals.

We also asked, “Have you ever abused an animal?” One of the members of our group chose that question because he knows some people who abuse their animals. When we heard that, we felt mad because some people just act as if killing animals and hurting one another is fun or normal. More than half of the people we interviewed have witnessed animal abuse. We discovered that most people are against animal abuse, but there are also some who said they would not help the fight against it.

Overall, this topic was important to us because we see that people take advantage of animals for their own gain. Cruelty to animals is the infliction of harm or suffering for a purpose other than self defense.

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More than just school work: community service hours

October 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment


By Chantel Carter, Fremont High School

As we all know, most high schools require students to complete hours of community service in order to graduate. This enables you to become an involved citizen in your neighborhood. Also, when the time comes to apply for college, community service always looks good on the application and gives you an advantage over students that haven’t taken the time to contribute to their community.

We also know that the last thing that we want to do on our vacation, in the cold and dreary California winter, is community service. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take being lazy in bed over being an “involved citizen” any day. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we can wish for this requirement to go away, it won’t. So we’ve got suck it up, wipe the sleep out of our eyes, and get it out of the way. And with four years to complete these hours, there is really no excuse not to complete your service.

Can’t think of where to do your community service?

A misconception that a lot of students have is that community service means that you have to go out and pick up trash on the side of the freeway. That’s not always the case. The truth is, there are many places you can do community service that are right in your face. You can do community service anywhere, like a school, church, or a local business.

If you don’t want to do community service in your neighborhood, there’s always the possibility of traveling. If you go to another state with your family, see if there’s anyway that you can get a few hours done on your vacation. If you can’t leave the state, you can do something small like go to another city, or even another part of Los Angeles! Just know that there are opportunities everywhere to do your service, and who knows? You might just find something that you really enjoy, and those 160 hours will just fly by.

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Sushi Virgins

October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment


By Crystal Gutierrez and Guadalupe Ortega, Fremont High School

As we walked into our journalism class Mr. Hwang was taking out sushi and some other weird-looking food from grocery bags and neatly setting them up on a desk. When he finished he stood in front of class and asked for everyone to please sit down. To our surprise Arturo, a classmate, was handing out chopsticks to the class.
We immediately knew we were going to have a sushi feast but most of us had no clue what so ever how to use chop sticks or what we were about to taste.

“Don’t worry I’m about to teach you guys how to properly use them,” Mr. Hwang said. Everyone felt relived and started unwrapping their sticks. I however broke my sticks–known to be bad luck– and my friend Chelsea, stabbed her food with her chopsticks—a gesture believed to invite ghosts.

The correct way to use your chopsticks is to wedge one in between your thumb and index finger and then place the other about an inch parallel to the other chopstick.

What I expected was nothing to what I tasted. I expected this weird raw tasting fish with gooey substances, but as I bit into the sushi I was surprised by its wonderful taste. I was eating dry seaweed with sticky white rice and other healthy veggies. Chelsea didn’t like it she said it tasted like, “salty, yet sugary fish”, but what I tasted was yummy non-fish tasting spongy sweet rice. Our sushi, unlike most, had no raw fish in it.

To top off our meal we had Mochi, a spongy rice cake filled with sweet red beans in the center. It was very sweet but I didn’t really like it. The Mochi tasted very different to other desserts that I’m used to such as chocolate cake or ice cream but everybody in the class seemed to like it.

Trying something new to eat helped me discover a new culture. Eating sushi was like going to Japan for my first time.

Photos by Guadalupe Ortega

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Senioritis 101

October 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment


By Destany Charles, Hamilton High School

Do you think your suffering from the “itis?” The senioritis?
Like any other ‘itis,’ it happens in phases. I started experiencing senioritis during the summer. I went from phase to phase with no grace or preparation at all. I want all you seniors to know that if you have started experiencing the ‘itis’you are not alone.

Phase 1:Excitement, “OMG! I’m a freaking senior!!!!”
You’re excited about this new chapter in life your going into a new year that you think is going to be better then all the rest. You plan to go to all the football games home and away. You’re going to have a little fun, possibly ditch one or two classes. You’re going to make the most of final year, at least that’s what you think right now.

Phase 2:Stress, “OMG, I’m a freaking senior.”
You start pulling out your hair and grinding your teeth because of the impending 12th grade year. You start receiving mail from different schools and you may start hyperventilating. You are now entering the second phase of senioritis and there is no cure.

Phase 3: Acceptance, “OMG I’m a freaking senior”
You have accepted your fate. You are officially a senior and you are ready to face the trials of senior year. You are experiencing some excitement over things to come in the year like prom and senior week, etc. Colleges have stopped sending you mail, and are waiting to receive your application. So you are still a little antsy about which colleges your going to get into, this feeling will pass.

Phase 4: Indifference, “Omg I don’t give a fuck that I’m a freaking senior.”
You don’t care anymore. It doesn’t matter if you get a C in A.P. Chem, or that you didn’t join any clubs, school is almost over. Life goes on it doesn’t matter that Stacy and Lisa are pissed at Samantha for stealing Jodie’s boyfriend. This phase is when you are simply over the drama of high school. And if you have reached this phase you’re in luck you, have gotten through your senioritis with flying colors. Now lets just make it through graduation.
The order in which these symptoms take place may vary according to your experience in high school. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms contact your counselor immediately.

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Just dance: Cali jerk

October 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment


By QueJonne Smith, Frederick Douglass Academy High School

There’s a new trend that has skyrocketed in the last few summers: dancing. There has been a host of new dances since the summer of 2009: (different variations of) The Jerk, The Reject, the Spongebob, The Pindrop, the Drop Kick, The Dougie, the D-Town boogie, and a range of other dances that keeps the teenage and juniors crowd interested and engrossed in the growing fashion.

Let me teach you how to jerk.

The Jerk: There are many different ways that people have taken the jerk and made it their own. They have taken the original jerk, where you bend your knees and begin to pop up and down in a jerking motion, and put their own spin on it. They have put different hand motions, flips, head movements, and dropping to the floor and coming back up in order to make the dance better in appearance.

The Reject/ Spongebob: The Reject is the new dance that resembles the backwards “Running Man” has been added to a variety of footwork and drops that make the dance better. The Spongebob is best described as the sideways reject that can be combined with the reject, jerk, and other dances to make the combination appealing to their audience.

The Pin Drop: This dance requires the dancer to place his/her foot behind the knee of the other leg and fall onto that foot in order to pivot and spin around in order to stand back up. This dance can lead into any of these other dances.

The Drop Kick: This dance can be accompanied by a host of footwork that can make the dance a part of another combination.

Combining it all is like a freestyle that you can put together on the dance floor.

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Cheerleading: a real sport

October 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment


imageBy Erdavria Simpson, Hamilton High School

Cheerleaders always feel that they don’t get recognition, always bringing school spirit to games and school events and still get talked down. From administration in schools to students talking about how they are boring. Some of this might be very constructive but most of it hurts since we are still not seen as a sport.

Cheer takes so much out of so many people. No time for the beach-I have cheer practice, no money in my pocket—I have cheer payments, no money in my mom’s pocket—she just paid for cheer camp. “Hey babe can I see you today?” –from boyfriend, a cheerleader’s answer: “I’m sore and sleepy. Catch me tomorrow.”

Even as I write this I’m in pain sore in a chair because of a stunt accident.

We tried a set it up stunt, which included the flyer, me, jumping over her back spot. No one caught me and I landed hard on my left foot and tore a few ligaments in my ankle. So I’m out for a while, but it’s okay because that’s what happens in cheer.

We work hard, practice rough, and always give 100% to everything we do– from stunts to tumbling dance and cheer; we have to be assertive and diligent. I know all of this from experience, I’ve been cheering for the past four years of my high school career at Hamilton High and each year we have been improving constantly.

Yet throughout those years the criticism of the team has been intense. It’s bad enough cheerleaders already have negative stereotypes of which we recognize and try to change. Television has done absolutely nothing to help change them; our effort in school has been completely undermined. Administration blames cheerleaders for lack of school spirit and instead they compare their high school days to ours, when everything has changed since then.

Students just don’t care about school. This generation looks at school for fun and not for education, they would rather chill with their friends than attend or support a pep rally. By trying out to become a cheerleader and effect change it is clear that we understand the lack of school spirit in our high schools.

Students tend to degrade cheer efforts just by spreading false rumors, or constantly complaining about how we are not awesome or don’t do enough “poppin’ cheers.” Our football players say that we don’t support them enough, but while they are on the field we are on the track. If they are playing and it starts to rain we are cheering in the rain.

And then there are the few who make cheer worthwhile, besides the connections you make with other girls and getting cheer sisters, and seeing work effort get paid off in the end with great dances and cheers. You make new friends, get to know and understand your school with a deeper connection by seeing how you could change it and make it better.

So I’m still a cheerleader and always enjoy cheering, dancing, and encouraging a crowd or team with and without recognition—recognition just helps.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

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OPINION: Where your electronic waste goes

February 22, 2010 By 2 Comments


imageBy Mariela Martinez

Do you have broken computers, cell phones, cables or electronics at home taking up space? Don’t know what to do with them all?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, out of 26.9 million units of disposed televisions, only 6.3 million units are recycled; out of 157.3 million units of computer products only 48.3 million are recycled; and out of 126.3 million units of cell phones trashed, only 14 million units are recycled. All these items are called e-waste, and it’s toxic to throw it away with your regular garbage.

Some of us throw these items away even when they’re not broken because we want the latest and the greatest. But what you don’t know is that every time you get rid of your old electronics you’re not actually getting rid of anything. Instead, you are contributing to a major e-waste problem in the world.

We live in a consumer culture that constantly consumes more and more goods made out of raw materials that collect a lot of toxins in their manufacturing.

Every time you throw away a cell phone, computer, or television, you throw away valuable resources that can be recycled to create more cell phones, computers, etc.

Most of the materials that our electronics are made out of can be recycled, such as glass, precious metals and plastics. Much of it is still in usable condition.

Toxins in these products like lead, mercury, and cadmium can leach out of landfills to cause havoc both to our health and our environment; they are so dangerous that governments have established laws to prevent them from ending up in landfills.

What’s even more astonishing is that many companies that don’t want to deal with the large amounts of e-waste simply send it to third world countries like China, India and various parts of Africa. There, the poor and corrupt governments put the e-waste into large open dumps where it contaminates local water supplies and eventually harms the local villagers when companies pay them to take the dangerous waste. You weren’t thinking about that when you traded the old cell phone for the newest model, were you?

The most important thing is to reuse your electronics instead of throwing them away. Don’t get rid of your old cell phone just because you chipped it a little.

Keep your products for as long as possible and don’t fall for those advertising gimmicks that tell you how much you really need the new Blackberry or iPhone.

This is about something bigger than any of us; this is about a world community that is suffering because of our consumerism.

Consumerism has become a serious problem. We simply buy and throw away and buy some more without thinking where our waste ends up. Ask yourself, how will it affect the environment and the people in the world?

The truth is that all that waste ends up in landfills. We destroy forests to make room for more landfills and dumps when maybe we should be looking for more ways to reuse and recycle those things we label “trash.”

Go online and figure out where your local e-waste processing center is, or call the company you bought the product from and see if they recycle the product.

You can usually mail your product to these places. This small effort really makes a difference, especially when you commit to using products that are made of recycled material.

Don’t contribute to this problem.

Mariela Martinez is a reporter for Fremont High School’s Magnet Chronicles.

Photo credit: Creative Commons

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Fremont is on track to no tickets

February 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment


imageBy Susana Valencia

Next year students will no longer need to have tickets in order to eat at the school cafeteria. All students will be able to eat lunch for free.

“If a school achieves 80 percent of families that qualify for free lunches or 85 percent of free and reduced lunch based on income,” students are entitled to eat for free, said Title I Coordinator Mr. Labat.

This process is called Provision 2. “It is an option in the federal School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program for schools to reduce paperwork and simplify the logistics of operating school meals,” according to the Food Research and Action Center’s website.

Although there will be no tickets, students will still have to complete meal applications for the following year, said Mr. Labat. This is done to make sure that Fremont maintains the 80 percent or higher of free or reduced tickets and students can continue to eat for free.

Magnet freshman Sonia Valencia said, “It’s a good change because we won’t need to keep worrying about bringing our tickets every day.”

Students said that the fact that Fremont will not require tickets to eat next year will benefit the whole student body.

Magnet freshman Adaly Armendari said, “People that don’t have tickets and have to pay for their lunches will benefit.” However, she also expressed concern for overcrowding. “People could get all crowded and there might not be food for everyone.”

Susana Valencia is a reporter of Fremont High School’s Magnet Chronicles.

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Fremont teachers react to restructuring plan

February 21, 2010 By 1 Comment


imageBy Gisela Alvarez

Frustrated teachers and administrators clashed on January 26 during an informational meeting over the plan regarding the restructuring of Fremont High School.

A copy of the draft was handed out during the optional staff meeting. The draft included commitments that teachers, parents and students would have to adhere to, suggestions for a better teaching structure, and a timeline for the progression of the restructuring schedule.

“The plan is what you as a community decides upon,” said Local District Seven Superintendent, Dr. McKenna, after the heated discussion over the draft.

Prior to the district meeting, some staff congregated and discussed their view of the upcoming changes. Some teachers voiced their objection to the plan, calling it “vague” and saying that it does not outline their involvement in the restructuring process if they do reapply. Teachers defended their performance by pointing to the increase in Fremont’s test scores during the past few years. During the meeting, teachers also emphasized that parents and students would have to be informed and deeply involved in order to create a plan that is beneficial for all members of the Fremont community.

Magnet math teacher, Mr. Vaca, said, “It’s not the teacher’s problem, it’s everyone’s problem, and we all have to step up. And if the community voice isn’t heard then outsiders will keep dictating what our future holds.”

Another staff concern involved the panels chosen to interview the reapplying staff. Fremont Principal Mr. Balderas said that he will choose the members of the panels and each one will include members of the surrounding community, parents, students and alumni. However, the panels’ reports and opinions will only be taken into consideration, making the power they hold strictly advisory.

“For the first time we’re going to have some parents say, ‘I want this teacher to teach my child,’” Mr. Balderas said. “We’ve never had that.”

Teachers have created a petition stating that they will not reapply unless their demands and concerns are met. Some staff members have also begun to plan informational meetings in order to inform parents and students of the effects of the restructuring process and their decision to not reapply.

“In general, parents don’t know what’s going on,” Mr. Vaca said. “Our first item is to be able to get the info out to encourage and empower our community to create a vision for Fremont.”

Mr. Balderas said if the majority of Fremont teachers do not reapply, then new teachers may be brought in to replace the open positions from outside teaching programs such as Teach For America. The petitioning teachers argue that they also want change, but in a different manner. Many said that bringing in new teachers to replace those that leave would be rash because teaching programs such as Teach For America would only require the teacher to stay two years, causing constant change in the teaching staff.

“We want to make sure that the teachers stay here because they want to,” said A-track science teacher Mr. Jauregui. “What’s the point of having teachers teaching the students if they don’t want to be here? It’s not going to work out.”

Possible plans for Fremont include dismantling the lowest performing small learning communities and merging them with other SLCs. A uniform policy and gender-based classes are also being considered.

During the district meeting, Pathways counselor Ms. Cesare said in response to the drastic changes, “How can you come in here and have a plan? You don’t have any idea what we have here and you’re destroying what works.”

Mr. Balderas pointed out that Fremont is not the only school to be going through a dramatic change. Fremont’s feeder middle schools, Bethune, Drew, and Edison, will host only 7th and 8th grades next year, while elementary schools will host K-6th grade.

The final decision ultimately belongs to Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent, Mr. Cortines. However, he and Dr. McKenna have declared themselves simply overseers of the process, saying the power lies with Mr. Balderas.

“Imagine if they told us what to do. I’d quit too,” said Mr. Balderas. “But I choose to stay here. I’m not leaving until I am done.”

Gisela Alvarez is a reporter for Fremont High School’s Magnet Chronicles.

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