the griffin
Our mission: to enlighten and to entertain
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Dulaney High School Timonium, Maryland
Volume 55, Issue 5
March 18, 2016
Critics: county plan falls short
APP-TASTIC
Debate over building’s future amps up
T see page 5 # TO KNOW
photo by sarah feustle
$198
Above: Yara Cheikh, a parent and one of the founders of the Friends of Dulaney organization, speaks at the feasibility study hearing March 3. She addressed the crowd, asking them to send their questions and complaints regarding impending renovations to county executive Kevin Kamenetz.
amount raised by the National English Honor Society limerick sale. Proceeds benefit the English department.
Left: Custodian Derek Williams removes a ceiling tile drenched by a valve break outside room 109 during period 2A March 9. Later, he hung a bucket under the leaky pipe to collect water.
IN THIS HOUSE
christine condon, editor-in-chief hey’re posting on Facebook. They’re collecting signatures, sending emails and making phone calls. They favor completely rebuilding the school over renovating. “I’ve reached out to the Governor’s office,” Friends of Dulaney member and schools advocate Jennifer Tarr said. “We’d like Hogan to tour the school with us,” she said, adding that supporters should focus on future overcrowding, unacknowledged facility issues and safety concerns in their letters to county and state officials. She has encouraged supporters to contact Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, County Councilman Wade Kach, Governor Larry Hogan and the Baltimore Sun to lobby for a new school building. The March 3 town hall here marked just one chapter in the back-and-forth between county officials and stakehold-
ers, who disagree on not just whether to renovate or rebuild, but on a dollar amount if renovation does occur. In a March 15 phone interview with Griffin reporters, Superintendent Dallas Dance said finances will likely limit a full rebuild. “The best way if resources are unlimited would always be to rebuild. However, in the current environment, resources are not unlimited – if we’re talking about not raising taxes,” he said. The release of the Feb. 19 feasibility report actually launched the debate. After the report’s inaccuracies were discovered, Friends of Dulaney and others protested. Although the report was corrected, 150 people appeared in the auditorium for the March 3 town hall meeting. Of the roughly 20 who spoke out, the majority argued for rebuilding see FEASIBILITY, page 2
Despite 21st-century goals, tech vexes photo from min kang
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see page 7 # TO KNOW
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number of students in Saturday school March 5 to complete work required for graduation via the APEX online program HIM AGAIN
see page 9
INDEX 2-3 news 4-5 opinion 6-7 sports 8-12 features
“I was writing my essays on the Common Application site. I had about six 200-word essays completed. I went to click the save button but it wouldn’t refresh. The Wi-Fi had been cut off for some unknown reason. I lost all my essay work and had to go home and start again. I was furious,” senior Megan Rafferty said. Biology teacher Robert Bushman can relate. “How often does the Wi-Fi down? It hasn’t been nearly as bad this year as last year,” he said. But he added, “If I use five times in a week, maybe one day you have issues.” The county’s proposed building fixes acknowledges the unreliable WiFi but doesn’t propose any updates. During the town hall meeting on the proposed school renovation, BCPS Chief Administrative and Operations Officer Kevin Smith was asked what the county will provide in the way of fixes for spotty Wi-Fi and network outages. “We don’t have all of the specifics now, because some of the network problems may not necessarily be completely covered in what we have, but the scope should capture a lot of what you’re talking about,” Smith said at the March 3 meeting. The school day began March 15 with a network outage that inconvenienced teachers and students alike. The Griffin 1A class—on deadline for this edition – was unable to access designed
tirzah khan and emma walz, associate editors unior Calli Coles has given up on using her MacBook Pro with BCPS One. Last summer, she caved and bought a Dell. “Turn-ins don’t work,” she said. “They don’t work at all. I don’t know why. I think BCPS is trying to fix that because if you look like every month or so it’ll say that they’re having reconstruction on the website.” While the county school system’s STAT program stresses the need to – as the BCPS website states – “transform county schools into a 21st century technology learning environment,” a Griffin pen and paper survey of students in all grade levels shows growing frustration with school technology. Among the survey’s findings: 53 percent of students say they have encountered problems on school computers frequently. Four years ago, that number was 31 percent. Tech interns see it firsthand. “Those who said they don’t have issues obviously don’t use the school computers very much,” senior and tech intern John Sutley said. Junior Alix Williams is no stranger to this frustration. “I had to log on, but there was no Internet so I had to retry logging on three times `and plug it into a cord to make it work,” she said describing trouble weeks ago. “That’s happened several times.” While the survey didn’t ask about Wi-Fi per se, anecdotally, students and teachers share evidence of spotty Wi-Fi connections.
see TECH, page 2
This anonymous pen-and-paper survey of 289 students was conducted in Standard, Honors and Gifted and Talented or Advanced Placement English classes for each grade level. Students were asked 17 multiple choice questions.
FYI: Senior prom tickets go on sale March 21 outside classic cafeteria
One Love Workshop
March 23 - 24 All junior and senior English classes
Sequel’s Art Fest
April 14 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. auditorium lobby
Find us at http://dulaneygriffin.org
Relay for Life April 16 5 p.m. -10 p.m. gym
NHS Blood Drive April 17 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. classic cafeteria
Battle of the Classes April 22 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. gym
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the griffin
news
Critics: county plans fall short repair to the building, overcrowding and field work,” she said. Student athletes have established an online perather than renovation. The renovations, which are slated to begin in tition for a new building and revamped athletic spring 2017 and end in summer 2019, will cost facilities, Student Athletic Leadership Board coabout $32 million, and include air conditioning president and senior Emma O’Grady said. “We have 305 signatures already, and it’s just for the entire building, plumbing and classroom improvements, according to the study (see box another way to annoy those county executives,” O’Grady said. on page two for more). Since the meeting, two letters to the editor Friends of Dulaney member Yara Cheikh was have appeared in the Baltimore Sun advocating vocal at the town hall meeting. “It’s Dulaney’s turn,” she said. “A new school. for rebuilding. Amid the discussion, 80 to 100 million dollars facility issues here conin the long run. A buildtinue. A March 9 pipe leak ing that will last 60 years. prompted custodian DerNot Band-Aids.” rick Williams to remove Tarr penned a letter to a soaked ceiling tile, and Kamenetz March 7 and place a bucket underreceived a response from neath. BCPS Special Assistant Chief Administrative for Education & Health and Operations Officer and Human Service OrKevin Smith, Assistant rester Shaw, who labeled Superintendant of High rebuilding “fiscally imSchools Nardos King, possible,” adding that Executive Director of the property tax hikes would Office of Physical Facilibe used to fund this conties Pete Dixit, Board of struction. Dance said that the This unscientific spot survey was conducted during all Education members and county, historically, sells lunches March 9. 498 students were asked the question principal Sam Wynkoop led the March 3 meeting. capital bonds to finance above. There, Smith addressed construction projects. “In the last quarter of a century, the county has the crowd from just in front of the pit, on the aunot raised either income or property tax to pay ditorium floor, rather than from the podium onoff bonds at all,” Dance said. “We’ve been able stage. The meeting lasted just under 90 minutes. “The first year will be planning. During that to work with our existing resources to do that.” Cheikh expressed optimism that the group time we will develop a design team which will work closely with the folks in physical facilities would achieve its goal. “I am hopeful that the county executive will and the actual architects,” Smith said. “After commit the additional $25-30 million over the that happens then we’ll reconvene and have annext three years, because he understands that it other community meeting.” Student athletes shared concerns that the would be foolish to spend close to $50 million on Dulaney and not address a comprehensive shortcomings of the athletic facilities here were FEASIBILITY, continued from page 1
Dance: new grading style to be phased in over time
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christine condon, editor-in-chief astery grading – the system that permits students to redo assignments as needed – won’t arrive next school year after all. “It’s going to take probably about a good three to five years before this is really ingrained to where it’s across the system,” superintendant Dallas Dance said during a March 15 phone interview with Griffin reporters. “But I think students will start seeing next year some probably small changes.” But precisely what changes will impact students here next year are altogether unknown, at least until mid-May, Dance said. Earlier this year, administrators and teachers were informed that the system would launch here next year. In response, teachers and students here shared mixed opinions. Some feared that the system would take too much time, while others lauded it for its ability to cater to the needs of individual students. Studies and preparations are underway though, Dance said. “No decision has been made at all,” he said. “What I’ve asked of our academic folks is to meet with principals to have some book studies that go on throughout our system.” Teachers here have been assigned to read “Grading Smarter Not Harder” by Myron Dueck in advance of grading changes.
largely ignored. Among them was O’Grady. “There are 1,100 student athletes here, the largest student athlete population in Baltimore County. I would understand if you neglected the athletic department if we didn’t have the success back it up with, but we do,” she told the crowd. Kara Bolonda, parent of student athletes, concurred. “I drove by Carver tonight and cried. There is money. There are facilities out there. It’s our turn,” she said. Ann Pezzulla, a parent of past, present and future students here, shared worries that renovations here would mimic those of Ridgely Middle School, where construction projects ran over the budget and left the building without air conditioning. During the meeting, senior Jozef Orsich offered Smith a glass of the slightly brown water. Afterward, Orsich said another attendee’s question inspired him to act. “One lady asked at the end of her question: ‘would you be willing to drink water from these fountains?’ and he never answered. So I just had an idea,” he said. “I walked up to him and said ‘Hey man, you look thirsty. Drink up, pal’.”
According to the BCPS Executive Summary, renovation would...
• Begin in spring 2017 and end in summer 2019 • Have an expected cost of $32 million • Provide new heating, ventilating, air conditioning and exhaust systems • Replace domestic water system (including hot water, cold water and venting) • Replace 19-year-old roof • Update technology, art and nutrition classrooms, as well as the guidance and health suites • Upgrade and replace security systems to meet current BCPS standards • Modify restrooms, classroom entrances and stair railings to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act standards • Fill in the library’s pit • Enclose exterior breezeway
Despite goals, tech vexes TECH, continued from page 1
pages and story drafts. Internet access remained intact. Download speeds in room 303 reached an average of about 9.3 MBps. The Washington Post reports an average national download speed of 18.2 MBps. The literary magazine staff also had to adapt to the outage. “We’ve lucked out because all three of the designers have access to Photoshop at home, so we’ve copied everything to flash drives,” Sequel Magazine art editor Jackie Andrews said during the network outage. BCPS filters also frustrate students and staff here, the survey found. Three-fourths of students agree that Gmail or Google Drive would be useful here, and even more want access to YouTube. Computer science teacher Amanda Lattimore didn’t mince words. “We don’t support Google products. This hurts teachers too. I think it’s atrocious that students don’t have email access at school,” she said. S.T.A.T. teacher Kim Culbertson, whose job includes helping teachers infuse technology meaningfully into their lessons, was surprised by a survey finding on students’ chief use of cell phones during class time. “The fact that 89 percent of students stated that the most useful website to them in the classroom would be YouTube suggests to me that we have a large population of visual learners that prefer video and other multimedia ways of instruction,” she said. Other significant findings? The survey found nearly
three-fourths of students said they use their phones more frequently than any other technology, and nearly 70 cent of students spend more than three hours a day on their smartphones. Associate editors Randhika Aturaliya and Meher Hans, and staff writers Holly Sutley, Hanna Bewley, Dorrie Gaeng, Ellie Jackson, Drew Persinger and Matt Walters contributed to this report. FOR EVEN MORE RESULTS OF THE TECH SURVEY, SEE OUR WEBSITE:
WWW.DULANEYGRIFFIN.ORG
march 18, 2016
NEWS LINE ROBOTICS TRIUMPHS Robotics club will send a team to the World Championship April 20 to 23. Team 1727F, including senior Adam Meltzer, freshmen Rene DeBrabander, Beulah Lee, Denis Pozharskiy and Amanda Purvis earned the Excellence Award at the Maryland State VEX Robotics Championship March 12, qualifying them to participate in the World Championship in Louisville, Ky.
TEAM OFF TO DEBATE Five debate pairs, three speech duos and two original oratory competitors are headed to the national qualifier tournament March 19 at Catonsville High School. Among those attending are debater and junior Meera Rothman and speakers juniors Julie Chotivatanapong, Yasmeena Fakhouri, Vaania Shah and Rhandika Aturaliya, who all attended national qualifiers last year. Debate teams will address the topic: should the United States withdraw its military presence from Okinawa, Japan? Speech teams will perform oratories on a variety of subjects.
STAFF PROMOTED Staffing has changed in the office. Former secretary Carol Hallinan will now serve as bookkeeper, and former bookkeeper Bonnie Hippler will assume the post of administrative secretary. These changes were incited by the retirement of long-time administrative secretary Carol Ann Leyh in December.
CUSTODIAN FETED Chief custodian Eric Broaddus has won the MVP Award from the Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Operations earlier this month at a ceremony. In an email to faculty and staff, he thanked his colleagues for helping him to maintain a clean environment here. “I could not have made it this far without the respect and assistance from my custodial crew who help me through all this hardship,” he said.
ENGLISH SNAGS WIN Senior English students placed eighth nationally and freshmen English students placed ninth out of 631 teams in the most recent Wordwright Challenge. Freshmen Meredith Cossoff, Tanya Sabirzhanova and Olivia Sammons, junior Jake Giannino and senior Sunny Kim achieved outstanding results in the competition. which assesses students’ abilities to read, analyze and respond to questions about prose and poetry passages. The competition is the third of four to occur here this year.
REPORTERS WIN Seven Griffin writers placed or won their local Optimist Club’s essay competition. Sophomores Emily Levitt and Kevin Zorbach, juniors Missy Dee, Amanda Musolf, Meera Rothman and seniors Emma O’Grady and Sahana Raju won with their takes on the prompt: is leading by example a fiction or reality? Find us at http://dulaneygriffin.org.
march 18, 2016
3 news
the griffin
Tiered diploma option draws mixed reactions T sumin woo, managing editor he Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test, according to senior Maddie Wilson, unnecessarily complicates the path to graduation. “It was kind of irrelevant, it didn’t really have much significance,” Wilson said of the test. “So the fact that you would base the diploma system off of that seems a little silly.” A February Baltimore Sun article reported that the state school board is discussing a possible implementation of a two-tier diploma system based on passing the PARCC test. Every student who completes requirements for graduation would receive a diploma, but those who pass the PARCC test will have a distinction on their certificates. Reactions to the potential change, which would first affect incoming freshmen, have been mixed. “I think a lot of people are unsure of what the PARCC tests actually are, so to base the diploma system off of that is weird,” Wilson said. About 60 percent of the state’s sophomores who took the English PARCC test last year failed to meet or exceed expectations, according to the Maryland State Department of Education. The Baltimore Sun reported that education officials believe last year’s test was not taken seriously because the results did not count toward graduation. Math teacher Brocha Siff agrees. “It’s a good test, but it’s a challenging test,” Siff said. “Once we hold students accountable for their scores, they’ll increase.” Proponents of the tiered diploma system cite
the New York school system’s three diplomas: the local, Regents and Advanced Regents. According to the New York City Department of Education, all students who meet graduation requirements receive a diploma, but those who pass certain tests receive the Regents or Advanced Regents distinction. “The distinction simply indicates slightly more rigorous criterion for those who pass a battery of tests,” special education and English teacher Barbara Valle said. “A student who has met minimal competency in certain areas deserves to be distinguished from those who have simply ‘put in their time.’” English department chairman Jason Bowman said he understands the theory of an incentive for better test performance, but does not see it as a necessity. “You already have students differentiated in terms of this person took these college prep courses and these AP classes,” Bowman said. “I think it’s giving exclusivity to something that doesn’t really need exclusivity.” According to NPR, 82 percent of students nationally graduated high school last year. With four out of every five students obtaining a diploma, Wilson doesn’t see the document’s worth anymore. “If you want to look at a student’s accomplishments, then you look at their transcript,” Wilson said. “I don’t think anyone holds importance to the actual diploma, and I think more people are focused on what’s on their resume or transcript.” The state school board has until May to come to a decision.
Debating screen limits maya lapinski, managing editor unching over a keyboard for nearly six hours daily for seven weeks left senior Michelle Wu injured. Wu wore a wrist brace for two months after participating in a computer coding program, during which she started to experience soreness in her hand. “It’ll just start throbbing. It’s sort of like a needle,” Wu said. “I think it’s just overuse.” Wu’s condition is just one side effect of extensive computer use, along with blurred vision, headaches and back pain. With recent initiatives to integrate technology into schools, concerns about “Computer Vision Syndrome” have prompted attempts at legislative reform. Cindy Eckard, mother of children attending Maryland public schools, is spearheading support for a bill introduced to the House of Delegates Feb. 18. House Bill 1524 proposes to “support and facilitate education in computer health and safety,” according to sponsors Angela Angel and Steven Arentz. The effort to limit screen time is gaining traction locally, too. Students such as freshman Kyle Knotts are experiencing the detriments of extended screen exposure. “I got glasses from staring at screens all day. Staring at something like that, your eyes are drying out, plus you’re having all this light shoot at you,” he said. S.T.A.T. teacher Kim Culbertson acknowledges that teachers and administrators need to consider the side effects when deciding to use technology during class. “Is the technology being used to increase productivity, or is it simply for entertainment?” she said.
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“I think it’s giving exclusivity to something that doesn’t really need exclusivity.”
photos by jordan nicolette, cristina lopez and sarah feustle
Top to bottom: senior Maddie Wilson, math teacher Brocha Siff and special education and English teacher Barbara Valle.
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Visit www.ccbcmd.edu/earlycollege for more information or call 443.840.CCBC (2222).
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the griffin
4 opinion
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Taking issue with GMO op-ed Dear Editors, I am concerned and disappointed in the recent Griffin article about GMOs. I recognize that the article was in the opinion section, but it expressed unfounded and unsupported ideas that are causing problems throughout the world. European countries and the United States have problems with those who resist the use of GMOs, since they’re an important part of the crops that feed the world’s population. The type of non-fact-based fear-mongering that is seen in this article is the cause of the problem. 90 percent of the United State’s staple crops such as corn, barley and wheat are genetically modified. GMOs undergo the same testing as all foods you eat, in addition to almost 2,000 government and independent studies. Every respected scientific organization in the world has declared GMOs safe to eat. The World Health Organization reviewed more than 1,700 studies and found not a single piece of evidence of negative effects from GMOs. You then go on to draw a connection between the introduction of GMOs and the rise of chronic disease and autism. This argument holds as much weight as the idea that vaccines cause autism. Correlation does not imply causation. The rise in chronic disease can be linked to increased average age, increased sugar intake and decreased exercise. I recognize that the article is in the opinion section, but I think you have a responsibility to ensure the things you publish are based in fact. Or at least if you are going to publish factually false articles, you must supply an opposing viewpoint. Editors’ Response:
- Collin Stiers, junior
The op-ed article on page four of the February edition, “G.M.O.s call for regulation” included research posted on the Internet by a biased source. While the opinions expressed in signed op-ed selections do not reflect those of our staff as a whole, we regret that we did not detect the problem as we copy edited the paper on deadline. We apologize for the error.
march 18, 2016
It’s another word for equality
“Y
reece spann, staff writer ou’re running like a girl!” my trainer complained. This comment wouldn’t have fazed me as a young girl, but now, as a feminist, it infuriated me. “What do you mean by that?” I asked him. “We’re girls, so aren’t we supposed to be running like girls? If you’re implying that by running slowly she’s running like a girl, then that’s just ignorant and sexist.” His laugh quickly turned into an awkward frown when he realized that I wasn’t joking. It’s not just an expression to say someone is “running like a girl.” It’s a demoralizing statement portraying the oppression that continues to affect countless women today. This is why we need feminism. Feminism, by definition, is the doctrine advocating social, political and other rights of women equal to those of men. I, for one, see this word in a positive light and am proud to call myself a feminist. I’m a feminist because I believe in gender equality. I’m a feminist because comments like “you’re running like a girl” when im-
plying that you’re running slowly are unacceptable. Those who don’t see feminism the same way I do often misconstrue the concept. In an interview published by Time magazine in May of 2014, actress Shailene Woodley revealed that she denies the “F” word. Time asked her if
“Comments like ‘you’re running like a girl’ when implying that you’re running slowly are unacceptable.” she considered herself a feminist and she responded saying “No, I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance.”
Isn’t gender equality the same thing as balance? Clearly she, among many others, does not understand what the word “feminism” means. True feminists want to support both men and women, while trying to eliminate gender roles because of the numerous times women have been treated lesser than men. Jennifer Lawrence is an example of a woman who receives less pay than her male costars and spoke out about this problem in an essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter. “I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’ At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled,’” she wrote in her essay. It has become unequivocally clear that the world is in dire need of feminism. Until the United States elects a female president, until gender roles are no longer relevant, until women aren’t expected to be “lady-like” and men aren’t told to “man up,” gender inequality will not come to an end.
What tours here really look like
Renovate over rebuild Dear Editors, Recently, there has been much clamoring to get an entirely new school building and completely dismiss any proposed repairs. The rhetoric has been loud and stubborn, propagated mainly by the Friends of Dulaney and achieving so much attention that there was a column supporting those plans in the Baltimore Sun March 10. The Friends of Dulaney purport the brown water in the fountains to be hazardous, when the reality is that the only harm done is our having to walk another sixty or so feet to the new building. They report the lack of air conditioning to be a serious problem, even though half of the building is already equipped and heat is only a complaint for a few short summer weeks. Yes, there are places in the school where heat is an issue, such as the auditorium, but this one room is hardly enough to warrant a full rebuild. The efforts of the Friends of Dulaney have prompted Baltimore County Public Schools to send engineers out to conduct studies on the problems that plague the building. This is a waste of money -- don’t pay people to tell us what we already know, instead conduct studies on whether our problems have solutions. We need legitimate renovations rather than an entirely new building. The efforts of Friends of Dulaney make the building out to be uninhabitable and almost dangerous but that simply is not true. We do not need a new building yet and must remember that it’s the teachers that make the school, not the building. -Colin Miller, senior
the griffin Dulaney High School, 255 E. Padonia Rd. Timonium, MD 21093 dulaneygriffin@bcps.org (410) 887-7633 Student population: 1,804 Staff population: 123 The Griffin prints 1,500 to 2,000 copies of each edition. These are distributed during homeroom on the fourth Friday of October, November, December, February, March, April and May. Extras may be found in the library or room 115. A Columbia Scholastic Press Association member The Griffin’s mission is to enlighten and entertain. March 18, 2016 Volume 55, Issue 5 http://dulaneygriffin.org
“And up ahead you’ll see our vintage plumbing and signature brown water....”
art by sarah ruehle
EDITORIAL:
It’s time to consider rebuilding over renovating
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enovations, even hundreds of millions of dollars worth, can only do so much for a 52-yearold building with a projected life span of 60 years. Before risking time and money on a project that may be rendered futile within the decade, we propose contemplating a more permanent solution: rebuilding. Thinking practically, the time to rebuild is now. Interest rates are at record lows, reducing the cost of borrowing for construction. It’s worth calculating and comparing the cost of maintaining an older, decrepit building with limited renovations to the cost of building a fully functional new one. Given that three other schools are
also asking Baltimore County Public Schools for renovations amid budget tightening, rebuilding seems a sensible possibility for the long-term. After all, short-term renovations will require constant, costly maintenance. Signs of this building’s aging abound, some more alarming than others. Just ask sophomore and Griffin reporter Emlyn Langlieb, who was stranded with a friend on the old-wing elevator for 10 minutes during fourth period March 9. They emerged unharmed after school once the elevator dropped from midway between the first and second floors, Langlieb said. Save for ceiling and lighting updates in 2004, nothing here has been
editors-in-chief christine condon, sarah feustle, stephanie rountree managing editors maya lapinski, sumin woo deputy editors grace knotts, meera rothman adviser maria hiaasen news editor julie chotivatanapong opinion editor randhika aturaliya sports editors patrick fitzgerald, kristin meek features editors doria diacogiannis, jordan nicolette web editors cameron bernhardt, jason mcclellan multimedia editor alex tuerk photography editor cristina lopez project editors hannah bauer, sahana raju, holly sutley
Find us at http://dulaneygriffin.org.
changed since renovations in 1999, when the new wing arrived, according to the updated feasibility study. In our view, further piecemeal enhancements won’t do. To those who suggest there’s no way ours and three other county schools could be rebuilt without a property tax hike, we say this: it’s been decades since there has been a property tax increase here. What’s more, a new school built to handle rising enrollments might just bolster property values, thereby increasing tax receipts. So thank you to those fighting to be heard on rebuilding. We urge BCPS to listen and look into your proposal.
The Griffin welcomes story ideas, commentaries and letters to the editor. These may be brought to room 115, placed in Maria Hiaasen’s mailbox in the office or emailed to dulaneygriffin@ bcps.org. All submissions are subject to editing and must be signed. The Griffin Editorial Board makes all final decisions regarding content. The staff editorial reflects the thoughts of the Griffin staff, but all other opinon pieces reflect individuals’ views, not the paper’s. Interested in advertising in The Griffin or purchasing any photos seen in this issue? Use the same contact information.
5 opinion
the griffin
march 18, 2016
Restrictions need changing “L
cameron bernhardt, web editor ightspeed Systems — Content Blocked” Again. Those fateful words light up the screen, halting access to a new lead for a class project or an interesting article. Baltimore County Public Schools’ filtering policies have become increasingly strict as technology’s role in class has grown, and the past few years have seen BCPS rapidly accelerate its crusade against free Internet access in its schools. What started as a simple block against mature content quickly morphed into a way for schools to control what they perceive to be distractions for students. The trend has developed into a method to force students to use tools schools deem most useful — or perhaps, most in compliance with contracts drawn up with little student input — eschewing well-known and oft-used tools like Google Drive. While the filter does catch content not suitable for school, it more frequently restricts students from accessing resources that would enhance their edu-
cation, often with vague justification based on the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) passed by Congress in 2000 and intended to protect children from harmful activity on the Internet. But BCPS uses this justification even in cases where it doesn’t actually apply.
sarah feustle, editor-in-chief hen I tell people that I’m going into journalism, I’m often met with a warning that it’s a dying field. People see print publications disappearing from newsstands and think another industry, rendered obsolete by time and technology, is about to kick the bucket. But that really couldn’t be further from the truth. Journalism certainly doesn’t look the same as it did a few decades ago, or even a few years – it’s been rapidly adapting to the digital age. If anything, news has become even more pervasive: it’s sprinkled throughout social media and on entertainment sites like BuzzFeed. A 2014 article published by the Newspaper Association of America notes that the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets has led to an explosion in mobile readership. Newspapers and magazines have taken advantage of this shift to portable media through apps, multimedia stories, podcasts and all manner of social media accounts, which let news outlets engage with readers around the clock. Society has all but abandoned anything that isn’t digital, and the journalism industry has followed suit. The Griffin itself will one day, in the not-too-distant future, switch to an exclusively online presence. Web editor senior Cameron Bernhardt has built an
iPhone app for the newspaper this year with senior Yiyi Kuang, which is available on the App Store and Google Play. Some county schools can’t afford a printed newspaper and have switched. Catonsville High’s newspaper, the Comet, sends out a monthly news blast with links to their latest online articles. Online journalism is more dynamic. Breaking news is posted the moment it
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cause an extreme lack of focus, it also inhibits social intelligence. A UCLA study found that fifth graders who went without screen time for one week were significantly better at reading human emotions than those who had regular access to screens. In elementary school,
art by jarrin jacobs
One example is Stack Overflow, a programming question-and-answer site and the 57th most popular website in the world according to Alexa, an Amazon web analytics service. Stack Overflow has been blocked sporadically for its supposed violation of CIPA, when in fact Stack Overflow’s parent company
takes explicit steps to comply with the law on its sites, all of which are blocked by BCPS. The same is true for code-hosting site GitHub. Both of these sites pose little immediate danger to students and are in fact invaluable — and at times indispensable — resources for computer science students. And both have been blocked using reasoning that is, for all intents and purposes, simply false. The county even blocks the website companion of the paper you’re reading right now when accessed from computers not owned by the school. Apparently even your friendly neighborhood school newspaper is guilty of being, in the words of CIPA, “harmful to minors.” All in all, BCPS needs to reconsider its policies on web filtering to make them more consistent and reasonable. In fact, CIPA explicitly states that school districts must take public input on their filtering plan from the community. The only way for BCPS to come up with a reasonable filtering policy is for it to revisit the criteria it uses to decide which sites to block with the help of people who actually use the county’s networks.
Journalism leading, not lagging W “Society has all but abandoned anything that isn’t digital, and the journalism industry has followed suit.” happens. Readers can engage with content like videos. Graphic designers can bring color and eye-catching design to stories. And frankly, running a website is significantly cheaper than printing and distributing a daily (or in our case, monthly) newspaper: Business Insider reported in 2009 that the New York
Times spends roughly $644 million on printing and delivering newspapers every year. We’ve buffeted ourselves in the face of rising newsprint prices with a healthy advertiser base and our own fundraisers. But you’ll notice that a lot of news and entertainment websites – from CNN to Vogue – don’t charge readers a dime to read articles, unlike their print counterparts. A 2012 Guardian article explains a generic breakdown of costs and revenues for an online newspaper, the two sources of revenue being advertising and online subscriptions. An online publication generally isn’t a lucrative business by any means, but it works, and it’s what a lot of people want. And since the Internet is such an endlessly huge place, that makes room for tons of specialized websites – from local news to sports to satire. There’s a website or app for everyone, and social media platforms like Twitter infuse a daily dose of journalism into your otherwise uninformative phone time. So before you try to argue that journalism is irrelevant or newspapers will soon cease to exist in this digital age, just sign onto Twitter or scroll through BuzzFeed and you’ll find the industry alive and well.
Elementary school tech backsteps hannah milan, staff writer iniature zombies drool over screens, headphones blocking out everything but their virtual world. This isn’t some horror scene; it’s a first grade class at Carroll Manor Elementary, where I intern. Rather than the student-teacher contact experience I’d expected, I’ve learned to babysit technology-addicted beasts. Because of my involvement in the new tech-based classroom sweeping through the county, I’ve developed a loathing for the system. I’d approximate that 60 percent of class time is spent on laptops installed at the start of the year. Most of this overwhelming proportion is devoted to Dreambox, a Common Core aligned mathematical adapting program which individualizes the learning experience and allows teachers to monitor their students’ progress. It resembles a game so students are “excited to learn,” but the data from my students shows they’re becoming more distracted and, as a result, taking longer to learn. Not only does increased screen time
with their surrounding environment. This screen time seeps into their breaks as well. A quick game of “Simon Says” to regain focus turns into watching a funny video. We’ve forfeited hard work for convenience. Instead of making progress, we’re going backwards. There’s a clear lack of focus more extreme than I’ve ever witnessed. Even writing their names on papers can take five minutes. Six-year-olds are going to have a hard time sitting still during class, but the inattention I’ve observed is alarming. In the future, these kids won’t get YouTube “brain breaks.” They’ll have to sit in lectures quietly while professors instruct. Given the current state of edudeveloping social learning skills is key cation, these students won’t be able to to growing a successful student. When satisfy this expectation. screen time increases, face-to-face time If we’re to improve education, spenddecreases. ing billions on laptops isn’t the way to On their website, BCPS argues that do it. Money should go towards hiring technology improves student growth teachers who can prepare and inspire and enhances the learning experience. students. Money should be spent on I’d disagree with this nine times out of giving students hands-on, realistic ex10. Although these students are able to periences that prime them for the fuoperate programs, they’re losing touch ture. Find us at http://dulaneygriffin.org.
“We’ve forfeited hard work for convenience.”
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A modest tech-posal
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stephanie rountree, editor-in-chief t is a melancholy object for those who traverse this great county, when they see the schools, from Hereford to Dulaney, crowded with PC enslaved children, victims of anemic Wi-Fi. These schools, instead of being able to create a culture of deliberate excellence, are forced to consecrate all of their time towards mewling at the foot of the sacrosanct Lighthouse to plead technology for their poor students. I believe it’s agreed by all parties that the astounding number of children held in the bosom of these nearly-Luddite institutions is rather unfortunate. We’re sending these students into this tech-driven world unequipped with the knowledge needed to thrive. Anyone who can come up with a feasible and cost-effective way of making these pitiful sods useful members of Team BCPS should have statues in their likeness placed on the grounds of each school to which students pledge their allegiance. Fear no more— the preserver of BCPS has arrived. After analyzing current technology for its affordability, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve been wasting too much time on trying to give its constituents technology. We can’t afford to fit each student with laptops, let alone those hideous carrying bags. We saw Los Angeles fail miserably in a similar endeavor years earlier. Why try to follow in their footsteps?
“Who needs proper hygiene when you can store 8GB worth of essays in your hand?” I shall now introduce my plan, which I hope won’t be met with too much objection. If we’re going to go tech, we must go all in. Our resources would be better spent by making students the technology through biohacking, in which participants aim to improve their bodies by embedding cybernetic devices. This up-and-coming practice has the potential to pay off ten-fold: through simple alterations, we’ll turn our plebian students into gods amongst the mere mortals of other counties. With a trouble-free procedure, we can insert a USB drive into the finger of each scholar. Teachers can bid the days of malfunctioning Wi-Fi and broken printers goodbye. We won’t be able to wash our hands, but who needs proper hygiene when you can store 8GB worth of essays in your hand? Certain biohacks have proven health benefits. In a 2015 “Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience” analysis of 13 studies, it was found that brain performance improved after undergoing 20 minutes of electroshock. At only $150 a piece, we could ensure that Team BCPS stays on the road to excellence by sending 20 volts to the cranium — the recommended maximum is 18.5, but we can handle it — accompanied by the melody of Dr. Dance encouraging students to study. Soon enough, we’ll forget about those clunky laptops, probably because the shocks will have erased the past five years from memory. I can’t think of a single objection that could be raised against my offer. Few might be opposed to having 9.5 fingers or getting shocked into believing they’re Cher, but such effects are necessary to catapult BCPS into the digital age. For this reason, I won’t hear talk of ending the Lighthouse School Era and providing laptops to students in need to level the playing field. I’ll refuse to listen to suggestions of updating schools’ archaic technology or of growing the student as a whole rather than emphasizing STEM education. I certainly won’t answer to the proposal of BCPS actually listening to the needs of its constituents and spending money accordingly. Until someone has a sliver of hope that any of these schemes would ever come into fruition, discussion of such plans is pointless.
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6 sports
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VARSITY
Size helps him sizzle on court
sam harsel and matt ellis, staff writers t 6 feet 3 inches, junior tennis player Peter Hong isn’t hard to find on the court, but it’s his attitude that sets him apart. “He’s a team player and gets along well with all of the players on the team,” coach Sharon Spangenberg said. “He’s always energetic and cheering on his teammates no matter the situation.” photo by hannah gouger Following a successful first year PETER HONG on the second-seeded doubles team last year, Hong is poised to become a member of the first-seeded doubles team this season. ATHLETES HE FOLLOWS “Peter’s a fun and de1. STEPHEN CURRY: @stephencurry30 termined player who I is the Golden State Warriors point guard who’s been putting on a show this year believe has full potential,” junior and capagainst other teams. tain Daniel Sun said. 2.LEBRON JAMES: @kingjames is conHis height has provsidered one of the best players in the en key to the team’s league today. success. “I believe the best 3. KOBE BRYANT: @kobebryant is a 20 year veteran who’s still putting up good part of my game is numbers and has never given up. when I am at the net,” Hong said. “Teams try to lob it over me, but I can get to it and smack it down for an easy point.” Hong’s stature came in especially handy during last year’s regionals match. “After the serve it was hit right to me and I smashed it to win the game,” Hong said. Hong hopes that he can further develop his backhand in order to be a more complete player. “When we play doubles in practice, I stay on the left side of the court so that I am only hitting backhands,” he said. The tennis team is striving to be more energetic this year, and Hong is determined to spur the change. “I feel like I help the team with my energy and positive attitude,” Hong said.
Renovation plans ha
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Staff writer Hyunsung Ko contributed to this report.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Carter carries on tradition kevin zorbach, staff writer or sophomore and junior varsity lacrosse player Nick Carter, the sport’s in his blood. His older brother, alumnus Cameron Carter, is a starting attackman for the Air Force Academy lacrosse team. “I really enjoy watching my brother play for Air Force and I’m very impressed by the team’s photo by hannah gouger skill, especially due to their NICK CARTER young age,” Carter said. Nick Carter, a 5-feet-8-inch attacker, is strongly influenced by his brother’s successes in lacrosse. “He is a good influence because he is really small but still successful and coaches in the past ATHLETES HE FOLLOWS had benched him for 1. IRIQUOIS NATION LACROSSE that but he kept workFAMILY LYLE, MILES, AND TY THOMPSON- I enjoy watching @ThompsonBro- ing hard,” he said. Nick Carter, who is sLax play with the Iriquois Nationals team. also a striker for the 2. JOEY SANKEY- @jsankey11 is a former junior varsity socUNC lacrosse player and current pro player cer team, prepared and he’s really talented despite only being physically and techni5’6”. cally for the coming 3. LIONEL MESSI- @leomessi is an insane lacrosse season. “I attended BFS athlete and I find his life really interesting. morning workouts and practiced a lot of stick work in my backyard,” Carter said of his training regimen. According to sophomore and teammate Emilio Pavoni, Carter’s hard work shows, noting his skills on the field. “Nick’s a really talented player. He has great stick work and can utilize no-look and behind the back passes.” Pavoni said. The JV coaches are optimistic about Carter’s presence on the young offensive squad. “He will be a go-to guy on a very young offense and will lead the way for a unit that is majority freshmen. Nick has come back smarter, more confident and is poised to have a monster season,” co-head coach Rob Miller said.
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going the distance Tradition of excellence merits facility updates
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kristin meek, sports editor s athletic director Richard Reed puts it, “It is what it is.” Two years ago this month, Reed – then the new athletic director – shared plans for three phases of improvements to our athletic fields. Phase one, projected to cost $2.1 million, included turf fields for the stadium, the football practice fields and the baseball diamond. Construction was probable to start as soon as June 2014 once initial funding and county approval was acquired, and The Dulaney Foundation was then established to attain pledges from alumni, parents and businesses alike to fund the estimated project, costing a total of $11 million. According to our March 2014 story, the possibility of having turf by the fall of 2014 seemed real. Now, according to Reed, the hope for turf has been almost completely quashed. With news of
school-wide renovations on the horizon, Reed said the athletic department needs to focus on lobbying with the Friends of Dulaney and parents for a brand new school to be built. “Schools got turf without any advocation, and we’re sitting here working our tails off to get a new school and turf field. It’s just very frustrating,” Reed said. At the moment, these renovations only detail plans to remodel the current building. The feasibility study makes no mention of athletic facilities or fields. But Reed’s “ultimate goal” includes a turf field that will hopefully come from the county budget. Reed said The Dulaney Foundation had raised thousands of dollars, but pledged donors are now frustrated that the money they paid on their taxes has paid for county-funded turf at neighboring high schools, like Towson and Carver. Additionally, Reed said that if plans for a brand new school win approval, the school fields would be taken over by construction equipment. Ultimately, the new school would be built in our current stadium’s location while students continued to attend class during its completion. If turf were in place in the stadium, then the county wouldn’t be able to place that new school on our fields, and with all of the effort required to detail new plans for another building, I’m just not certain the county will ever make that move.
lions notebook:
This information was gathered March 15
Varsity baseball: Although last year’s seniors will be missed, head coach Ryan Wolfsheimer feels positive about the team’s prospects. “This is the best group I’ve had in eight years,” he said. The team will face Hereford at home in their season opener March 21. Boys varsity lacrosse: The boys remain optimistic following a 3-3 tied scrimmage against South River March 15. The team only returns 12 players from last year’s varsity roster, which lost in last year’s 4A state semifinal to Winston Churchill. Despite the team’s youth, their sights are still set winning a state championship. “They’re willing to learn and work extremely hard,” senior captain Jake Bellinger said. They will play at Westminster in their first regular season game March 22. Girls varsity lacrosse: Despite a 16-15 loss to St. Paul’s School for Girls March 12, the team has high hopes. This year’s roster boasts seven DI commits, many of whom played integral roles on last year’s team. “We have to continue pushing each other to our limits,” senior captain Emma O’Grady said. Their first test will be March 21 against Oakdale High School.
Varsity outdoor track: The boys hope to continue their banner year after claiming county and regional titles during the indoor season, led by a large groupd of seniors. “If you keep the standards high, people will typically rise to the occasion,” coach Chad Boyle said. Without 2015 county champion sprinter Kita Robinson, the girls team will have a hole to fill, but most of their distance athletes return. The team will start the season at the Baltimore County Relay Championships March 23. Varsity softball: Led by senior captains Emma Bevard and Maura McGinn, the team will retain its core players from last season, after only losing three seniors. “We’re able to help coach each other,” Bevard said. The squad will open their season at Winters Mill High School March 21. Varsity tennis: The team looks to continue their legacy as they strive for their fifth straight county championship and third consecutive regional championship. Last year they finished 8-1, only losing to Hereford, who they’ll face in their first home match March 21. Success over competitive teams boils down to mental preparation, junior captain Daniel Sun said. “We have to make sure we don’t assume they are better than us because they really aren’t.”
photo by haneyah carter-johnson
Lions fall 13-2 to Greyhounds in scrimmage
SENIOR CAPTAIN AND DEFENSMAN JAVON SMITH (7) guards Gilman Greyhounds midfielder Hunter Flaks (29) during their March 10 scrimmage at the Roland Park private school. The Lions lost by an 11-point gap, but according to senior captain Jake Bellinger, the team views the defeat as a learning experience.“We definitely got a pretty good feel of our personnel and everyone’s strengths. We have a lot of work to do on the fluidity of our offense and work on our clearing and riding.” The Lions will face the Oakdale High Bears in Frederick County March 21.
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march 18, 2016
alt turf indefinitely
graphics from reed
Above and left: Digitally-rendered designs from the original proposal for the sports complex, meant to be phase two of the complete renovation of the athletic facilities suggested by Reed during his first year. According to the blueprint drawn up by architecture firm Gaudreau, Inc., the complex would house two locker rooms, two meeting rooms with bathrooms, a storage room and two tunnels leading to the field. In all, constructing the structure would have cost $11 million.
Even without turf becoming a reality, at least one positive takeaway emerged from the situation. “We’ve taken a lot of hits in the last three years, but the only good news is, through the entire process, we’ve got a loud voice,” Reed said. When parents and students vocalized their opinions at the community meeting March 3 (See “Critics: county plan falls short,” pages one and two), senior Emma O’Grady, co-president of the Student Athletic Leadership Board, spoke out on behalf of the school’s sports program. “I would understand if they neglected athletics if we didn’t have the success to back it up with, but we do,” O’Grady said. She added that she also read off all of the state, regional and county titles we have at the meeting, and was joined by approximately 10 to 15 other student athletes. I tend to side with the athletes who expressed similar sentiments when they learned that the turf plans had been halted. We wanted to add our names and championships to the storied tradition our athletics program has, but we, especially seniors, also wanted to graduate knowing that change was on the way for the next wave of athletes. “At least [before the halt] we had the satisfaction of knowing generations to come were going to get it and were a part of that process,” senior field hockey attacker Sydney Parker said. Still, Reed said he hopes that the outcome is worth all of the worry. “There’s only one way to do it, and that’s to do it right”, Reed said. “That’s our motto in athletics too. If you’re going to go, go. If you’re going to do it, do it. You can’t really do it part time. It’s a process.” I couldn’t agree more.
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Vying for top seed stephanie rountree, editor-inchief and jacob strauch, staff writer he made varsity as a freshman. As a sophomore, she’s a contender for the top seed. Even if she gets the number 2 spot, varsity tennis’s Jessica Ye commands attention. “She’s one of our best,” coach Sharon Spangenberg said. photo by hannah gouger “She has a nice serve, beautiful JESSICA YE strokes. She’s able to change up her shots.” “Intense. Flawless,” freshman teammate Cindy Shou described her. Ye, who has been playing tennis for four years, plays year round to increase the stamina required for her style. “She knows where to aim the ball and knows how to effectively run you around to wear you down,” Shou said. “In the end, it usuATHLETES SHE FOLLOWS ally works.” What’s more, Shou 1. RAFAEL NADAL:@RafaelNadal tracked said, Ye, who prefers every ball down and never gave up on a singles to doubles — point especially against aggressive competi- 2. ROGER FEDERER: I like @RogerFederer because he can control his temper, tors — never seems never seems stressed and has cool trick to get tired. shots. “She runs for every ball and has effec- 3. MICHAEL PHELPS: I like @m_phelps00 tive footwork,” Shou because winning eight gold medals takes said. “She plans a lot of commitment. ahead what she is going to do so she never hesitates.” Ye shares her skills with others, Shou said. She also helped Shou work on serving during practice recently, but she pushes to improve her own game. “If I’m having a good day, my backhand’s pretty consistent, and I can usually depend on it,” Ye said. “My backhand was natural, but everything else I need to practice.” She also prepares for all kinds of conditions. “I’ve been working on my kick serve because it’s the most consistent, so if it’s windy you can get it in anyway.”
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Staff writers Matt Ellis and Patrick Dochat and contributed to this report.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Lone goalie guides team dorrie gaeng and reece spann, staff writers lumped up grass is torn beneath her feet. At the last second she steps right, saving the ball from striking the net. The referee whistles for halftime, but she isn’t coming out of this game. Or any game, for that matter. As the girls junior varsity team’s only goalie, sophomore photo by hannah gouger Jules Dotterweich has become JULES DOTTERWEICH invaluable to a squad intent on avenging last year’s disappointing county championship loss to Hereford. The pressure’s on and the stakes are high, but Dotterweich’s teammates know she can take the heat. “She‘s the definition of commitment,” sophomore defender Erin Hill said. “Knowing she’s in goal is comforting because I know she’ll make great saves and smart plays.” JV coach Kate BryATHLETES SHE FOLLOWS ant agrees, describing her as a dedicat1. CARLI LLOYD: @CarliLloyd’s talent ed, aggressive leader and leadership on the team helped them for a team dominatwin the World Cup last year. ed by freshmen. “When she’s in the 2.TOBIN HEATH: @TobinHeath is so goal she’s probably selfless and works hard on the field. the loudest person 3. RAY LEWIS: @raylewis had an outI hear on the field standing career and led the Ravens. He’s which is good to so inspirational. have as a goalie and she’s there to lead and help the defense,” Bryant said. Stationed between the pipes, Dotterweich can examine how different components contribute to the team’s success. The team’s fairly young, but Dotterweich believes that with a few changes, a county championship is within reach. “We need to work on plays and being able to execute them when we are on attack,” Dotterweich said. “And when we are on defense, we need to clear the ball out and not let the other teams shoot.”
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photo from reed
VARSITY LACROSSE CAPTAINS seniors Paul Junkin, Jake Bellinger, Javon Smith, Emma O’Grady and junior Kaitlyn Dabkowsi (left to right ) jog outside of Under Armour’s Tide Point headquarters in Baltimore during their Feb. 29 visit.
Lions debut new look with Under Armour
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“The great thing about this is a Dulaney general line for evdaniel krugman, deputy sports editor ery team. All the coaches listed what their needs were and we ay goodbye to the Nike Swoosh. Starting this spring, the athletic program is taking on fine-tuned it to this,” Reed said. Visibly, the change has only been seen in the athletics proa distinctly different head-to-toe look with their new gram. But Reed, with the help Under Armour sponsorship. of the Student Athlete LeaderThe transition, which began ship Board and principal Sam with the lacrosse teams, will Wynkoop, has a much larger move the school from Nike vision of what Under Armour to Under Armour sports can do for the school as a whole. apparel by the fall of 2016. Reed said Under Armour’s The public change began offour pillars of unity and sucficially with the boys and cess will help incorporate the girls varsity lacrosse captains parnership throughout the diftraveling to Under Armour’s ferent realms of the school. Tide Point headquarters in “The cool things are visible in Baltimore Feb 29. athletics but the foundation is “We started off with a meetwhat really will set our school ing with the coaches, had a apart from everyone else and little tour of the facility and we have to think long range. their headquarters and they We cannot think short term.” took us to the room to release Students and athletes will the gear for lacrosse,” senior photo from reed and varsity lacrosse captain SENIORS JAKE BELLINGER, Emma O’Grady, Paul Junkin, junior Kaitlyn also have a close relationship Javon Smith said. He added Dabkowski, senior Javon Smith and senior Annie Sachs (left to right) with the Under Armour comthey also tried on additional don prototypes of their lacrosse uniforms, which Under Armour pany and facilities in the coming years, including connectraining gear and trained at modeled after those worn by University of Maryland teams. tions in their fitness center. the neighboring facility. “50 years of Dulaney excellence has gotten us to this point. Outside of lacrosse, practice and sprit gear for all sports were released by Reed on March 5 over Twitter. Reed said If it wasn’t for the last 50 years, we would not even be in a the gear is available on a new online store at forty percent off position to have a conversation with Under Armour,” Reed said. “If not us, then who?” regular retail price. Find us at http://dulaneygriffin.org
Associate editor Tirzah Khan and staff writers Hyunsung Ko, Hayden Cohee and Annabel Park contributed to this report.
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the griffin
Season four, ‘House of Cards’ delivers F REVIEWS:
alex tuerk, multimedia editor rank Underwood, I thought we’d lost you. Between the half-baked geopolitics, breaks from character and blatant product placement in season three—no, I’m not going to buy a Samsung tablet or a Lexus—the show seemed to veer from what made the first two seasons great. But going into season four, I wanted bloody politics with the Underwood dynasty of Frank and Claire at their prime of the presidency. Give me the scheming of the first two seasons without the telenovela of the third. Season four certainly delivered. For one, showrunner Beau Willimon packed a punch for his last season on the show’s team, weaving together multiple political plotlines with punctuated twists and character development that doesn’t bog down the show. The season never pauses for a dull moment as the next chapter of the Underwoods’ reign takes shape, with the past and present combining to wrap up plotlines concerning the imprisoned journalist Lucas Goodwin, resigned president Garrett Walker and disgraced capitalist Raymond Tusk—all flagstones of the Underwoods’ climb.
photo reproduced with permission of netflix
Meanwhile, new characters like Texas Democrat Leeann Harvey push the plot forward. The show doesn’t try to copy the success of the first season, but instead delves into modern topics, like domestic surveillance and the Islamic State. It’s new and old, nostalgic and trailblazing.
A pet peeve I have about any story is predictability, and one of the things I loved most about House of Cards was never knowing what Frank had up his sleeve. The trepidation of watching his plans unfold, congressmen shift allegiances and closed-door deals come to fruition was energizing as I slowly realized what I had missed and just how genius Frank’s maneuvers were. Frank and Claire are resurrected from their previous ennui. She a determined woman with her eyes fixed on holding office and he a sitting president with elections looming over his head, the duo reform the terrifying combo that put a man in the White House via murder, sex and intrigue. This season has all this and more, delivering gritty solutions to every crisis thrown at the Underwoods even as meaningful resolutions are brought to loose ends from the past seasons. No more moral crises, no more speculation and anxiety—as Frank himself puts it this season, “we make the terror.” OVERALL RATING:
‘Full House’ reboot doesn’t live up to original
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sophie bates, associate editor he first season met my expectations, which weren’t high to begin with. Netflix released “Fuller House,” a spin-off of the beloved “Full House,” Feb. 26. The 13-episode season worried me—it would be difficult to make good show out of the successful original. The show was exactly what I anticipated—a cheesy sitcom that tries way too hard to make fans reminisce about the quirky characters and sayings from the first series. Let’s just note that Stephanie Tanner still says “how rude!” after 30 years. From the get-go, the first episode tugged at my heart strings with a full reunion of the original cast, except for Michelle. This episode, titled “Our Very First Show, Again” was evocative to the first episode of season one of “Full House,” which introduced all the characters, and ended with an acapella performance of the Flinstones theme song. Every episode seemed to have some aspect of the old show within it. While it was appreciated, the lines and stories got predictable and old. Basically, it’s just a genderswapped adaptation of the original.
photo reproduced with permission of netflix
Instead of three men, three women take the care of running a family after the death of a husband. The widow, of course, is Candace Cameron Bure’s character DJ Fuller, with her sons, Jackson, Maxwell and Tommy. Her sister, Stephanie Tanner, played by Jodie Sweetin, and cherished best friend, Kimmy Gibler agree to help DJ manage a house full of boys after the loss of her husband. Of course, they live in the same house as before. Kimmy’s daughter Ramona, played by Soni Bringas, moves in with
them as well and takes oldest son Jackson’s bedroom, forcing him to share a room with middle son Maxwell. No surprises here—Jackson tries to run away. Remember when DJ was told she had to share a room with Stephanie and she tried to move out? Don’t worry, Steve, heartthrob and DJ’s teenage lover, wasn’t the husband she lost. He remains in the show completely in love with DJ and competes for her heart with one of her coworkers, played by John Brotherton. The show remained quirky and playful, but felt tired. After watching “Full House” reruns for years, I know the stories, I know the characters and I know the catchphrases. My thoughts after the first episode were “dang, Bob Saget got way too old for this.” I understand the reasons behind a spin-off, after the major success of the original. But the cast has outgrown the series. When Stephanie Tanner gives life talks to her niece, instead of Uncle Jesse, it isn’t as heartfelt anymore. In fact, it’s rather disappointing. OVERALL RATING:
Despite tech’s ubiquity, print still rules here
Librarian Angela Sofinowski said that online access to textbooks could be helpful to students and cheaper to provide. Students like Langlieb also appreciate practicality of an e-book. “I lose books a lot and always forget when they’re due, so e-books are really convenient,” she said. “And it’s extra helpful when I go away on vacation. I can’t manage maya lapinski, managing editor ophomore Britt Farley sees an often- a stack that’s bigger than I am.” Despite these advantages, a majority of ignored upside to e-readers. “You can’t get paper cuts,” she said. students here still prefer hard copies of But e-books still lack in popularity. When textbooks, like senior Katie Condon. “I get distracted with online textbooks beit comes to textbooks and leisure reading, cause I immediately go people here prefer books to other websites,” she that aren’t on a device. said. Our tech survey reportSofinowski, who is reced that 69 percent of stuommended by the coundents prefer to use paper ty to ensure that 20 perbooks. cent of library purchases “I like the feel of are e-books, has noticed holding the pages and that many tend to gravithe sense of accomplishtate toward traditional ment that comes with bepaper books. ing able to turn the final “You all want to use page of a book,” senior your phone and comAnushka Gerald said. puters computers for evMany students find erything else, but when physical books more it comes to a book, I’m comfortable to read This information was collected from our seeing more of your age from. “I prefer the feel of real tech survey. See pages one and two for group wanting the actual book,” Sofinowski said. books and weird things more results. like the smell of a new book and the feel of the page, and I also Staff writers Patrick Dochat, Brynn Handley find paper books easier to navigate,” junior and Jessican Yan contributed to this report. Marjorie Bowerman said. But reading from e-books can be physically painful. “It triggers migraines in a lot of people, like me,” junior Belle Harmeson said. But e-books are not without their merits. Some students, like senior Marin Langlieb, find that e-books suit unconventional reading habits. “I read a lot when I eat. That’s one of the times when having an e-book is really handy—if I spill something, which I usually do, I photos by hannah gouger can just wipe it off,” she said.
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Left: Junior Belle Harmeson. Right: Senior Marin Langlieb.
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9 features
an artist among us:
‘Perfect’ Cogsworth takes stage four years after debut vesi mineva, staff writer, meera rothman, deputy editor and grace schneider, staff writer t’s no wonder senior Bryan Kihara is playing Cogsworth for the second time. “He is the perfect Cogsworth because he has the perfect balance of snooty OCD-ness and heart-of-gold silliness. He is also just a dream to work with,” drama teacher Tami Moon said. Junior Alex Stocksdale, who plays Lumière, said his interactions with Kihara on stage are hilarious. “We’re foils, so I try to get him to be more extroverted and he’s all uptight and tightly wound so he pulls me back, but I try to get him to open up and be more outgoing,” Stocksdale said. Kihara played Cogsworth in his eighth-grade school musical at Cockeysville Middle School, and he’ll play it here in the spring production of “Beauty and the Beast.” As a high school senior, he has been able to add depth to his rendition, he said. “There’s a scene where I take Belle on a tour through the castle,” Kihara said. “Now I know what I’m talking about when I say the ‘late-Baroque’ period, whereas in eighth grade I would just say the lines, people would laugh and I would wonder why it was funny.” Kihara’s character goals also differ now KIHARA UP CLOSE from his eighth-grade • Originally from Nairobi, Keperformance. nya and speaks fluent Swahili “The hardest thing • Plans to double major in muin eighth grade was sic education and neurobiology how to present Cognext year sworth as mature, • This is his first production here because I didn’t have that then,” Kihara said. “Now, what’s challenging is trying to get that British accent out. Even when I speak normal English, my African accent comes out and slaps me in the face.” Kihara, who has travelled internationally with the Maryland State Boychoir, said singing in the musical is completely different than singing in choir. “You have to learn how to keep the breath and tone
What was your biggest technological fail?
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Humans of Dulaney, which is based on the Humans of New York photo blog, exhibits the diversity of the student body with unique stories from the lives of random individuals.
Above: Senior Bryan Kihara rehearses a scene with senior Henrique Carvalho March 9. “Cogsworth is just really funny and witty with his words, which is just what I do,” Kihara said.
photo by sarah feustle
photo by mejia
A Project Lead the Way student and robotics team competitor for five years, freshman Hari Mekala told staff writer Alexis Mejia that he spends his weekends tinkering with robotics projects or helping his dad, a video game designer, with his work. But that doesn’t mean he’s immune from technological mishaps.
Right: Kihara played Cogsworth in Cockeysville Middle’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” when he was in eighth grade. photo from kihara
while moving. Each word has to be enunciated so the audience can understand what you’re saying. I do a lot of vocal warm-ups and vowel warm-ups,” Kihara said. Despite any challenges, Kihara’s levity and positive spirit have brought him far. “I love that he’s not afraid to be silly,” Moon said. “One time, it must have been eight at night, and I saw heads bopping around and I walked in and Henrique and Bryan were literally just dancing and singing. They’re so joyful.”
AM: What was the biggest technological fail you’ve ever experienced? HM: I forgot to turn on my robot. AM: What do you mean you forgot to turn it on? In what context? HM: So there’s a competition for VEX Robotics and I was in one of them. And we had a fail where we were at competition and we forgot to put our battery into the robot. And my captain forgot to turn on the robot and he said it turned it on, but totally forgot the battery and we lost the whole competition just because of that. AM: They didn’t let you fix it and put the battery in? HM: No, you can’t tamper between the matches. FOR THE VIDEO OF HARI MEKALA’S ANSWER, SEE OUR WEBSITE.
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the griffin
10 features
post: alex kallaur Freshman Alex Kallaur—Chick-fil-a lover and Netflix devotee—has learned from her team’s experience at this month’s state robotics championship. She met with photo editor Cristina Lopez. READING: I don’t really have a lot of time to read but I love “Harry Potter” so I just like re-read that over and over again. But for new books, I just read “The Book Thief” which is really good, and Marcus Zusak’s other book which is “I Am the Messenger,” and those are both really good. WATCHING: For TV shows, on Netflix I’m watching “The Office” right now, that’s good. I’m on season six right now. And currently I’m a huge Marvel fan, so I’m watching “Agents of Shield”, it just started on March 8. And “Modern Family”—and “Sherlock” too—is good. I actually just watched “Star Wars,” the fourth and fifth one for like the first time ever and it was pretty good. I just saw “Zoolander 2” and it was one of those movies that was so terrible that it was actually kind of hilarious. LISTENING: I’m listening to Panic at the Disco “Death of a Bachelor,” that album is really good, and that’s my favorite right now. I also love “Sometime Last Night” by R5. I just saw
them in tour in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago and that was really good. I listen to music a lot, like too much. FOLLOWING: Well, I keep up with sports I guess, I’m really excited for baseball season. I’m a Yankees fan. My parents are from New York so I didn’t really have a choice. EATING: I just like Chick-fil-a, it’s up there. And the worst thing is on Sunday when you realize it’s closed. I’ve had it a lot of times recently because I have softball practice all the time so it’s just like Chickfil-a
photo by stephanie rountree
all the time which is fine with me. I just get chicken nuggets and a ton of Chick-fil-a sauce. And waffle fries, obviously.
march 18, 2016
scenes
dulaney
CHANGING: I just started taking piano at Peabody and softball season is starting now so my schedule’s getting super hectic. I also play for a travel team and so we’ve been practicing all winter too. ROBOTING: We had had some problems after the last couple competitions with our robot, and we made a bunch of improvements right before the State Championships, and we had a ton of issues. Overall, I don’t think we were that ready to compete. We just realized you can’t wait until the last minute to fix everything and we should have known about that, that we should have rebuilt the robot sooner instead of later, but it was a pretty good experience and we learned a lot for next year. Going to state championships is always an experience because it’s such a high level of competition and it’s really inspiring to see that. F Team won the Excellence Award, which means they were the best robot at the competition, so that was pretty impressive and pretty exciting for the club. After the World Championships at the end of April, they’re going to announce the game for next year. This year the game was to shoot these foam balls into a net on the end of the field. Now I’m just really excited for the new game to start and for us to start working again. My dad is the tech ed teacher at Ridgely Middle School. I didn’t really want to do robotics at all, but then I didn’t really have a choice, but it’s pretty great. When I was in elementary school, he would pick me up after school and we’d go to watch the robotics meetings.
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photos by stephanie rountree
SENIOR AFFAN HUSSAIN explains the advantages of video games over books and movies during his TEDx talk March 4. Among the games he cited were the role-playing game “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” and exploration-focused “No Man’s Sky.” SENIOR AMY VUONG adds detail to the coil work on her pot during the Feb. 23 joint meeting of the National Art Honor Society and Art Club. Vuong was one of 40 at the meeting hosted to make bowls for Empty Bowls, an agency serving the homeless. The annual event sells homemade ceramics, raising hundreds of dollars for the charity. According to NAHS sponsor Kate Martiyan, the event was a huge success, and teachers have asked her to hold another session.
march 18, 2016
the griffin
11 features
photo by jessica yan
photo from griffin archives
1963 GRAPHIC ARTS STUDENTS operate a printing press to produce tickets for a dance. The class used the SENIOR KAT HANSON illustrates a pair of eyes in Adobe Photoshop during her period 3A Digital Arts Studio class. Hanson and other students use an Intuos Wacom tablet to transfer pen strokes to the “production control” process to assign each student an individual job in the process. computer.
Graphic art evolves for digital age P
This recurring feature examines past and present here. ersonal computers were but a distant vision in Dulaney’s second year. Tasks now done with just a few clicks — cranking out homework, finding sources for a research paper, checking grades — had to be done by hand, with books, something called a card catalog and no Internet. But the 1963 graphic arts class, as reported by the Griffin’s November edition of the same year, came up with a plan. Production control, as it was called, was an assembly-line-type process designed to combine all graphic design steps into one fluid process. Responsible for producing dance tickets, office memos and athletic schedules, the graphic arts class aimed for optimal efficiency. It took a team of 14 people to produce printed items, which began as rough sketches and were eventually hand-set into type. Among the chores in the production control system were completing a production sheet that dictated type and photo sizes, creating sample copy, making proofs, imposing and locking up type and copy editing. If the four graphic arts students of 53 years ago could have fast-forwarded to the present, they would have thought Kate Martiyan’s period 3A Digital Arts Studio
class was performing magic. At work in room 314, students grab Intuos Wacom tablets and perch before PCs. They convert hand drawings on tablets into digital ones appearing on their computer screens. Adapting to it can be tricky, according to Digital Arts Studio student Kat Hanson, a senior. “There is a little bit of disconnect to it, but eventually you get used to it,” she said. Students can redraw mistakes that would be irreversible on paper. Yet, there are disadvantages. “You’re limited to what you know,” Hanson said. “It’s really hard to work through and figure out how to do things.” Intricate projects can take from five to 10 hours, Hanson said. Each student in the class is working on a concentration of 12 pieces, all centralized around an idea. Hanson’s addresses the sexualization of young girls. Despite the colorful student creations lining lockers outside the class, technical problems happen. “Sometimes the computers do not work, and BCPS has blocked a lot of the websites that we use for photography resources,” Martiyan said.
BACKSTORY
FOR MORE OF KAT HANSON’S AND HER CLASSMATES’ ARTWORK, SEE OUR WEBSITE: WWW.DULANEYGRIFFIN.ORG
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march 18, 2016
the griffin
12 features
Face Swap filter enthralls Snapchatters jason fontelieu, staff writer, amanda musolf, associate editor and jordan nicolette, features editor enior Julia Lemel doesn’t mince words. “Face-swap is the best thing to ever happen to me,” she said. It began when Face Swap Live topped the app store as the number one paid app in mid-December, and still holds its number one spot. Since this 99 cent app coined the idea, many others have tried to emulate it with free remakes, but none have been as successful as Snapchat. The popular social media app released their face-swap filter Feb. 26, and the idea picked up steam. According to Business Insider, nearly 200 million people use Snapchat already—it’s the second most used social media here, according to our tech survey—allowing the face-swap frenzy to spread to a larger audience. The idea is simple. The phone’s front facing camera detects two different faces and switches them. As fans know, the fun starts when subjects make grimaces or stick out their tongues, which show up on the face of the other subject. But what constitutes a face? Just about everything from electrical plugs to household pets can be scrambled. “The weirdest ones I’ve seen are where people switch them with inanimate objects. Some people swapped with their ‘Pride and Prejudice’ books,” senior Emma Hardisky said. Hardisky saw someone else face-swapping with the Siren logo featured on the photos from nicolette, witkowski, zhang and hardisky Starbucks cup and decided to replicate it Clockwise from top left: Senior Jordan Nicolette swaps faces with the woman on the cover of his copy of herself one day before homeroom. “Pride and Prejudice.” Junior Emily Witkowski switched faces with science teacher George Mathew. “My face just looked super weird, and it Junior Jason Zhang swapped with history teacher John Wagner. Senior Emma Hardisky traded faces made me uncomfortable,” Hardisky said in with the woman depicted in the Starbucks logo. reaction to the swap.
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Even teachers began to latch onto the idea. Advanced Placement United States History teacher John Wagner was victim to students’ swaps. One of those students was junior Jason Zhang. “Mr. Wagner looked like a little Asian baby, and that was pretty funny,” Zhang said. Staff writer Vinny Arciaga contributed to this report. FOR MORE FACE SWAPS, SEE OUR WEBSITE.
What social media platforms do you use?
graphic by tori vandervest
This information was collected from our tech survey. See pages one and two for more results.
Hands-on collaborating in portable bio lab SOPHOMORES JAYLA HALL AND AKIRA PULLEN test a blood sample of sickle cell anemia in the Maryland BioLab during its annual appearance here March 4. Students put blood in gelatin and observed how far the blood permeated in the sample. If the blood reached the bottom of the sample, the patient was healthy, and if it only reached the halfway point, the patient had the disease, Hall said. The blood in Hall’s and Pullen’s sample proved to be free of sickle cell, Hall said, adding that she was fascinated with sickle cell because her favorite singer, T-Boz of TLC, has the disease. The lab’s goal is to provide students with hands-on experience with laboratory work, according to their website. It was here Feb. 29 through March 4, providing all biology students the opporunity to complete one-hour labs. The lab will appear at seven others schools in the county, according to science chairman Steve Shaw.
Difficult at first, hoverboard ultimately impresses photo by hannah gouger
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doria diacogiannis, associate editor iding my cousin’s hoverboard in my grandparents’ 1950s style basement felt like I was in “Back To The Future” Part II. I’m no skateboarder, but I was excited to ride the Powerboard by Hoverboard. So there it was, the gadget that we have all seen celebrities flaunting. Before I knew it, my cousin was releasing my arms and letting me try it out on my own. As soon as he let go, I started moving backward in circles. It was exhilarating, even though I was going in the wrong direction. But when I tried to push forward with my feet, my cousin had to save me from losing balance and tipping over. It took me a while to figure out how to properly maneuver the hoverboard with ease, but I didn’t want to stop riding. Once I called it quits for the night, my cousin stepped on and swiftly and effortlessly performed several complicated moves. Watching him ride got me back photo from diacogiannis DORIA DIACOGIANNIS takes a spin on her cousin’s hover- on the thing for another go-around. Powerboard ranges in price from $300 board.
to over $1,000, weighs 30 pounds and is sturdy enough to support up to 220 pounds. It has a maximum speed of nearly 5 mph and is built for smooth acceleration and turning. To make movement easy and safe, the foot panel is wide
HOVERBOARDS IN A NUTSHELL • Cheap lithium ion batteries are
causing explosions and fires
• Hoverboards were sold every 12
seconds on Cyber Monday • Amazon is offering full refunds to people who bought hoverboards from them • Hoverboards are illegal to ride on New York City streets • More than 30 colleges have banned hoverboards on campus Sources: Wired, The Washington Post, USA Today and NBC and has anti-slip matting. One of the best features is that it takes under an hour to charge, but lasts up to six hours of use.
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Though some people say hoverboards can be dangerous, I actually felt pretty comfortable and safe riding this one around, with occasional exceptions of losing my balance. It was generally a smooth ride and once I figured out how to maintain balance pushing forward, I felt like I was in control of my movement. But riding a hoverboard is definitely harder than it appears. Junior Leah Mexis rode her friend’s hoverboard and found it difficult to maintain her balance. “I started spinning around in circles and I didn’t know how to stop, so I eventually just jumped off,” she said. “And when I got off, the board was still going crazy just spinning around in circles.” Senior Quentin Braswell also learned to ride a hoverboard and recently tried to teach one of his friends in the parking lot. “He was trying to go forward and then all of a sudden he started turning and he didn’t know how to stop turning or get off, so he tried to just step off and when he did the hover board clipped his leg a little bit,” Braswell said.